The Games I Own, But Have Never Played - Starsiege

This is another of the Troll Lord products that I wanted to love but really couldn't get into.  In theory, it builds upon the Siege Engine concept as used in Castles & Crusades.  The problem is it strays so far from it's roots, it's really a whole new system.  Alright, that's not the only problem, but it's a start.

Attributes are renamed and redefined from their C&C roots and d20 is rolled to "simplify" character creation instead of 3d6 (3d6 isn't simple enough?).  But hey, they simplify Hit Points to Wound and Stress Tracks.  Each Track is tracked by boxes, and there are also boxes to track critical damage.  You say this isn't simplifying things but making it needlessly more complicated?   You must be wrong:

StarSIEGE: Event Horizon's Wound and Stress tracks are merely simplified Hit Points, with each character getting 4 Hit Points and 3 "negative hit points".

Maybe its just me, but subtracting 5 point of damage from a lazer shot from a HP total of 11 is 6.  Much easier then the "simplified  Hit Points" if you ask me.

Did I mention the font used throughout is ugly as sin?  Well, now I did.

They do provide enough Field Manuals (Players' Booklets) to supply the average gaming group.  Which is nice, but I had to pay for that when I bought the box, even if I don't have a group.

The Trolls need to stick to C&C (Harvesters wasn't bad, I will admit).  Wait, there was that pricing issue with the CKG.  They can't win these days.

What I wanted was a SciFi RPG based upon C&C.  This is not it.

Thank God for Stars Without Number - an Old School rooted SciFi game that doesn't muck things up.  Oh, and it's free.  Woot!

The Games I Own, But Have Never Played - FATE

I really dig FATE. I liked it in SotC, I was excited with what I saw with Starblazer's Adventures, Strands of FATE kicked my imagination into high gear - and I'll probably never play it.

Believe it or not, I'm okay with that. I'm actually afraid that FATE might not play as well as it reads, because it reads very well. Okay, maybe that doesn't make the most sense. The thing is, SotC reads better then any game I could run, and I'm not sure my old gaming group would be able to sink their teeth into the FATE system, as they are big on crunch, which FATE seems to grind under its capital letters.

I won't pack SotC away, as it is a good read unto itself. The rest of my FATE is in PDF, so I have access to it wherever my iPad is. I may not get a chance to play with FATE, but I'll read it. That can't be too bad.

The Games I Own, But Have Never Played - Savage Worlds

There are a crapload of games I own but have never played.  Strangely enough, back in my high school and college years, pretty much every game I bought was played at least once, even if I didn't really understand the system completely.

The Pacesetter line was played, the Fantasy Games Unlimited line was played, Runequest, Traveller, MERP, Rolemaster, Spacemaster, GURPS, Rifts... on and on the list goes.

I think we even ran a session or two of Deadlands (1st Edition), which went over about as well as Boot Hill - everyone had the Star Trek episode with the Tombstone shootout in their heads I think.  Not a good scenario for a western.

All this leads me to Savage Worlds.  Apparently a system loved by many, with a decent number of assorted genre sourcebooks and adventure paths, I just have never been able to wrap my head around it and it's "dice size" for stats concept.  I want to.  The SW Explorer Rules Digest has been in the backseat of my car for years, handy when you have time to kill and need something to read.  Still, I'm left scratching my head.

I can never seem to figure out just how the powers / spells system works, probably because this game isnt well suited for fantasy and that is where I am fairly rooted.  More likely, I'll need to actually play in a session or two before it really "clicks".

Then again, there is just so much other stuff out there that is also good, why should I keep at trying to grock a system that I'll probably never play anyway.  Good thing everything I own for Savage Worlds, with the exception of the core rules, is in PDF.  Not much to pack away ;)