The Weekender XLBS: Agents Of S.H.I.E.L.D & Spellslinging!
September 29, 2013 by dignity
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I’d have to suggest GURPS for the RPG system. I’m not very experienced here so others may have better ideas but GURPS seems to allow for weaknesses as well as strengths, meaning humans can be human (and very vunerable) but supers can also be super.
PS Thanks for getting this up so early. Insomnia is not always a problem.
I think that Delta Green would be a better system due to Delta Green agents work undercover through other U.S. government agencies, recruiting across a wide range including the FBI, ATF, CDC, and DEA.
FATE. I would use FATE. GURPS gets in its own way too often. FATE is nice and streamlined and really appropriate for an action (not always combat) driven game.
This clearly calls for a Duty & Honour hack!
I’m not a big fan of FATE. Then again I’m not much of a fan of rules at all in an rpg.
Nights Black Agents would fit quite well. The game is designed to allow movie/console shooter type super spies to take on vampires and other supernatural bad guys. So it is tailored for the players to be normal humans and the protagonists to be superhuman. It is also very cinematic with big stunts, epic gadgets and over the top martial arts. Take a look here: http://www.pelgranepress.com/?cat=153
Agents of SHIELD was an awesome episode. And hell yes to an RPG? However I totally agree with Lloyd that Marvel is such a visual universe, there HAS to besome kind of imagery. I think being comics I’d prefer character cards than miniatures (of course I’ll buy I ton of minis if they make them)
Agents battling against supers, alongside known heroes, rival agencies(?) and the odd criminal with a Chitauri energy gun. All sounds epic to me.
I loved Avengers Assemble. And Captain America, and Thor, and Iron Man. Only Hulk whiffed out the current Marvel Studios movies. You can probably tell where this is heading. M:AoS was diabolically bad. I cannot believe Joss Whedon’s name was on that heap of sh*t. I can only assume they five minutes to cobble a script together. It’s like someone with no idea how to tell a story or establish characters, saw a few Joss Whedon TV episodes, and threw a TV show together trying to imitate them. One more episode like this and I’m done. It’s the worst TV… Read more »
And to head off the inevitable response. I did not expect this TV show to be like a big budget superhero movie. I know what the show should be, and it did try to be that, it was just awful at doing it.
Love the shows lads well done and thanks. Funny, I was thinking this morning Ive a pain in my arse with all the 40K Ive been playing recently and then you reminded me DreadBall Season 3 should be winging its way to me shortly. I smiled, thanks again. Have a good one.
Great show guys, looking forward to your games day coverage, and as for agents of shield,
I found it a massive disappointment, but that’s just me, It’ll be interesting to see what you guys think.
Suggestion for Hawk Wargames. Produce two packs of paper destroyed buildings that fit inside the undamaged ones. One pack for the starter set, another for the full terrain pack. So rather than a generic wreck marker you get the actual building just destroyed.
For me with a Magic the Gathering side what would be a really good way perhaps of coverage is that there are several aspects that are good to cover… Get people looking at whatever deck they use, talk about the theme of the deck and what the background fluff may be… for example if you have a red spell deck you can go in to looking at characters like Chandra etc? You’d want to try and cover some aspects of the gaming too but basically my suggestion would be have you all starting with a ‘starter’ pack and basically the… Read more »
I would be interested in the fluff of Magic simply because I didn’t know there WAS deep fluff for Magic. I would be really interesting in why people/long time players were ‘burned’ by Magic. I would watch and support a video or two talking about the history of Magic and what soured die-hards against the game. Agents was good and I think it will be solid. Ofcourse I thought that of Firefly too, so what do I know. Not looking forward to GamesDay but I AM looking forward to BoW coverage of GamesDay if that makes sense to folks. I… Read more »
I used to play magic back in the ’90s (somewhere between The Dark and Fallen Empires expansions) and I don’t really remember there ever being any particularly deep fluff around the game. There was a bit of flavour text on some cards but I seem to remember the premise was that the Planeswalkers (?) could come from pretty much any dimensions which meant they had unlimited scope for different expansions. No doubt more fluff has built up since but tbh I’m not really interested in it. I don’t have any bitterness towards the game but the way in which you… Read more »
PS – enjoyed Spellspingers thought. Would watch it again 🙂
There was always great fluff in Magic. It was just never highlighted by WoTC. The only way you would know any of the fluff in the 90s was if you read the magazines and a very few books that were published, but never really promoted. You could theoretically piece together a lot of the Magic fluff from reading all of the cards and putting it together like a jigsaw puzzle, but doing so required an enormous card collection, and was still incomplete. I think Romain’s complaints about Magic are valid, but I don’t remember a time when WoTC handled the… Read more »
Liked the show again. Don’t really know much about Magic and don’t personally intend on gathering it. However, I always enjoy looking at fluff videos game system videos even if I never end up getting them. After all, if I got everything I looked at, i’d be broke and my wife would leave me, making me alone. It’s good to dream. (Of having a-lot of stuff that is). Anyway I digress. On another note, liking all the coverage of late. Genuinely don’t have time to watch it all. Only have Sunday evening to sit down to have a look. So… Read more »
Why not use mutants and masterminds for agents of shield? They even have a DC universe. Het goodthing about the game is you can build wathever kind of character, from a human to superman/Apocalypse. Probably even galactus.
This is my suggestion. Role Playing Public Radio did a nice set of podcasts where they play M&M. Very flexible, but concentrating on super powers.
I’ve heard so much about DZC I can’t wait for the videos. Also the announcement you are eluding to ? fingers crossed it’s the start of a professional working relationship with GW, they could certainly use some good PR.
Regarding Scourge ground troops re-entering dropships, they can do it. From the clarifications: “Page 96 – Scourge ‘one way’ Dropship fluff: The background text referring to Scourge dropships as ‘one way vehicles’ only applies to drops from orbit, and has no bearing on the actual battlefield or game rules. Once atmospheric, Scourge dropships can carry, pick up and transfer troops just as any other race can.” DZC is simply put, the best wargame I have ever played. Hawk Wargames have recently put up a lot of tutorials on youtube, ranging from painting the lovely minis to explaining the rules. Everyone… Read more »
+1
It is a bit confusing, but it’s just fluff saying they don’t retreat back into orbit after they deploy. However they can redeploy on the battlefield using their drop ships.
And you can kind of understand why, the scourge are awesome brain-parasites, the constantly need new bodies to snatch to keep their civilisation strong.
Really looking forward to more DZC coverage! I ended up buying two starter sets on the back of warren’s boundless enthusiasm for the game.
Weighing in here on the RPG system to use for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. I would say, if you just want a nice, streamlined system that won’t get in the way of roleplaying, then use FATE. I love the way it’s highly narrative but you need good players to get the most out of the system since it encourages them to help develop the story alongside the GM. But if you want something more crunchy, with a ton of character options that equate to something tangible and cool when it comes to throw down some dice.. then I’ve got to go… Read more »
Dropzone does sound like a really good game.
For your S.H.I.E.L.D. RPG I don’t think there are any systems that fit exactly so I suggest using GURPS as a basis Just one thing you have to know about GURPS it is not a good idea to use the system as is, it is not a complete roleplaying system per se, it is a tool to make your own. Start out by choosing a set and or just getting together and make your characters together, discussing whether each choice fits within the setting or not It is a lot of work to get started but you can tailor the… Read more »
What magic has narrative now 😛
THE TAU XV107 R’VARNA BATTLESUIT, UK £70.00
http://www.forgeworld.co.uk/News/Games_Day_Preview_One.html
Yummy!
On the drop zone front I have after all my FoWFTW work have FINALLY got around to painting my set….
I cant wait to start playing DZC more and more I have the starter box in order I couldn’t resist 😀
Simple system for this? World of Darkness: Mortal.
The system works well, it’s open to you going crazy with it when you decide to do stuff. You are ‘weak’ when you come up against ‘super’ opponents. I think it’s perfect for it.
BoW Ben
Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D was awesome, but did you see the last ever IT Crowd? Moss’s Board Game youtube show cracked me up! It made me think of something similar, but I can’t quite put my finger on it… 😉
Game Board, maybe the lads should try women’s slacks.
persuade Hawk to produce more polystyrene sets
I’m pretty sure Hawk have more plastic sets on the horizon!
I imagine they’ll release plastic starter sets for all four factions at once.
They certainly recognise that there is a want for it. But I imagine having made two plastic sprues, it will be dependent on the starter sets selling well.
I think warren summed up the whole magic thing pretty well last week i think it was. If your gaming on a restricted budget you have to make your gaming money count, and playing magic to any competitive level can get very expensive very quickly. For me although i love playing it i just can’t justify it.
Got to say since i bought my dropzone stuff a couple of months ago i haven’t played anything else, favorite wargame ever.
Warren sporting the open shirt and man rug, too much for a Sunday morning surely? 😀
I’ve personally found that shooting individually by the model can really really slow down a game. Long ago we tried Renegade Legion: Centurion and it took a couple of hours PER TURN, not because it was particularly complex or difficult but because it took so darn long to decide optimal firing patterns.