Happy New Years 2007!

Thank you all for coming here to read me again. I hope that it will be another good year, or perhaps even better. I did slack off in a major way toward the end. I thought to make up for it that I would jump right into something useful right now.

Last night I was looking at an old pen and paper RPG called Recon. For those interested it is available from the company that puts it out. They offer on their website a free copy of the earliest edition of the game in PDF format. Here is the link… Palladium's Recon. (If you want, right click and Save Target As and put it to your own bard drive.) It is decidedly different from the rest of Palladium’s games and does not follow the Megaversal Rules, nor does it appear to be the basis of them either.

What is important about this game is something in the rules that I was looking at for the purposes of considering what to do with certain rules in one of the games that I am designing. So, I was in Recon, seeing what they had done with the long-range combat rules, particularly as they apply to modern weapons. Now, for someone familiar with Palladium’s normal system rules the Recon rules are downright complicated. However they touch on things of which I have much interest in. Such things as the difference between trying to hit someone who is running, compared to standing out in the open, compared to someone lying prone shooting at you. Also Recon seems to be only Palladium game to take into consideration day and night, affect of weather on how far you away you can fight effectively, and the affect of terrain obstructing your view.

The Recon way off handling much of that is actually in one chart. On the vertical axis they have the dice modifier, on the horizontal they have the conditions that affect that modifier laid out by distance. Standard fare as far as charts are concerned. Then they add another dimension. They add in two lines that mark what distances are the maximum for light obstructions and heavy obstructions to impair the shooter’s ability. This after a lot of the simplified stuff in other games, that forgo charts entirely, is phenomenal as far as I am concerned. Of course their chart is limited to particular kinds of set ups (for my purposes). The “third layer” charting is something I am definitely going to borrow unless I simplify even further than a chart like so many other modern game designers.

Mood: Excited.
Music: Underground by Moist and Hell No by Bruce Dickinson

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