Books 93-94

[subplotkudzu]

93) Thunderball: as promised, I gave Ian Fleming one more try, and this one was better - it wasn't against American mobsters, so the espionage worked a little better. Plus I liked the facts that a) Bond spent a chunk of the book second guessing his instincts and not reporting up the chain for fear of looking like an idiot and b) that he was often utter exhausted from his activities. Both made him feel more human.

I have a strong urge to run a James Bond game, not just because I have several of Victory Games well done modules that haven't seen use in decades, but also because the opening single of the new Michael Buble album makes "Cry Me a River" sound like a JB movie title track and because I now have not one but two good names for Femme Fatale's in the Bond idiom. If I do pitch one I will likely give the player a choice between being a team of equals or a hero and backup - the former is more common in gaming, but I'm sure i could extrapolate parts of the Buffy rulebook to make the latter work. I might also ratchet up some of the scenarios to give things a bit more of a "Nick Fury, Agent of SHIELD" sense, but I'm not sure if that would break the Bond idiom too much, or just enough to make the campaign distinct. 

94) Methuselah's Children: I was surprised by how little of the book's content matched the back cover text (which was all about the protagonists being forced to wander the starts; in actuality they don't leave Earth until about the final 3rd of the book and, in so doing, visit a total of 2 other planets). I have little issue with the content, which was classic Heinlein, just the ad copy. At least the image on the cover could be extrapolated to attach to concepts in the book, which puts it ahead of a lot of books produced around its publication date.

Comments

James Bond

[smalley-smoot.livejournal.com]

Not that long ago, just before I started using Savage Worlds, I was still using the James Bond 007 RPG to run Man From U.N.C.L.E. games at GenCon. I assume the modules were made for that game system. It was a pretty good system. I think it was my first GenCon that West End Games demoed the game for release that fall. West End Games suggested that the system was for smaller groups (I would guess 4 or 5 at most?). I have had the urge to revisit the rules lately. Maybe I will check them out again. Although, it would be tough to pull me away from Savage Worlds.

Re: James Bond

[brianrogers.livejournal.com]

It is a solid system, and I know from past experience that it handles 1 player + GM very well, and works best for between 1 and 3 PCs. For all that the character creation and experience systems are more persnickety than I care to deal with these days.

The modules were very good, taking the basic concepts of the movies and twisting them just enough to feel like the film while making it so having seen the film was not a tactical advantage. The one for Goldfinger is actually a better plot than the movie.

(nitpick: it was published by Victory Games, not West End.)

Re: James Bond

[smalley-smoot.livejournal.com]

(nitpick: it was published by Victory Games, not West End.)

You are right and I should have remembered that since I recently saw the Victory Games ad in the 1983 GenCon program.

[drcpunk.livejournal.com]

Ah, back cover blurbs. The one for Jumping Off the Planet (recommended -- won the Golden Duck and the Spectrum) had a blurb that was simultaneously a spoiler and inaccurate. The first of the Deverry books, Daggerspell, I think, had a blurb with spoilers about stuff that did not appear until the last ten pages.

I recommend skipping blurbs until after reading the book.