Monday, August 16, 2021

#RPGaDAY2021 - Day 16: MOVE

 


So this is the first day I move over from the daily video format to the blog-posts. I'm sorry, I just haven't got the time to record and edit videos - doesn't mean I won't do them eventually, they may just be a little late. To keep up with the daily posts, I thought I'd have a go at doing them here where it's a little quicker and easier... and then I saw the prompts for today.

MOVE: I remember, I started trying to record a video for this one and I couldn't think of what to discuss. So I stopped recording and gave up, and now I'm still back in the same boat.

I guess I could use this as an opportunity to talk about my favourite movement mechanics - the chase rules from Victory Games' James Bond 007 RPG

I mean, I talk about the game a lot on here as you know, but that game was bloody fantastic. (Typically, just as I'm typing this, the late, great Chris Cornell has just started up on the music channel on TV singing the absolutely fantastic 'You Know My Name' from my favourite Bond movie of all time - Casino Royale). 

Anyway, the chase rules (much like most of the rules in the James Bond RPG) are great and really capture the feel of the books and the films. It's all about how risky you want to get, and whether the opponent can match your risk - but if you set the stakes too high, you could crash and it could all come to an end pretty quickly.

In fact, this whole post could quickly evolve into becoming a TRIBUTE to how good that game is. And it wouldn't be the first time I have when it comes to the Bond RPG.

However, continuing the TRIBUTE to it, we can look at one of the coolest ideas for a supplement you could imagine for the James Bond RPG, and that is Villains. After all, what is a good Bond book or movie without a spectacular VILLAIN to act as the dangerous threat that Bond (or your hapless agents) has to face and stop?

The Villains supplement, much like 80% of the supplements for Bond, was another glorious boxed set that presented seven new nemesis... nemeses... nemesises... Villains, along with the structure of any organisations that they controlled, any henchpersons in their employ, and just what they are scheming. It also included an adventure that introduced SMERSH.

Awesome.

Of course, this is all a great addition to any James Bond game, because, while the core boxed set and core rulebook provided all of the stats for many of the major villains and characters from the movies, the one FIEND they couldn't include was Ernst Stavro Blofeld. This was due to the weird copyright and legal battles that plagued the Bond movies for years as the ownership of Blofeld and SPECTRE was put into dispute. It was only during the Daniel Craig era that these problems were put to rest and Blofeld could return.

Of course, with Modiphius announcing a SPECTRE boardgame coming very soon, I'm very intrigued and will be watching their future announcements very closely. I've been itching to get my hands on a new Bond RPG for decades (and been wanting to write one for just as long). 

That's it for today's #RPGaDAY post for #RPGaDAY2021.

Until tomorrow, stay safe and stay multiclassy!!

 

1 comment:

Ricardo said...

That's alright, Dave. However you feel most comfortable contributing!
Buuut, if you feel like going back to making videos for any other day, I'll be there to watch them.

Anyways, you do seem to enjoy the James Bond RPG quite a bit! :D
I wonder if there's a video out there of people playing it so I could get a glimpse of how most of that works in practice.
The chase rules, as you describe them, sound very much like a betting game or gambling. Which is, of course, very Bond-like. Is the whole game like that? Because it sounds very interesting. And I'm very much into mechanics and dynamics in RPGs.