Low Life: Rise of the Lowly

Hello everyone,

for a new Savage Worlds campaign I'm looking for one or two more players to join us for some weird fantasy/science fiction hijinks in the Low Life setting. Drop me a line if interested.

FASA Star Trek campaign

For enthusiasts of old-school FASA role playing games and Star Trek in particular: I'm planning to start a new campaign (launch date set tentatively beginning of March) and more players are welcome! The game will be set about five years after The Original Series, and will follow the adventures of the Galaxy Exploration Command vessel USS Dauntless and its crew as they meet new life and new civilizations and keep Klingons, Romulans, and other not-so-friendly neighbours at bay. The game uses a simple percentile-based skill system and has a fun, Traveller-esque character lifepath creation system. Those interested can sign up at their nearest United Federation of Planets recruitment station or drop me a line!

Fallout campaign

So, another campaign in the city which I have first-hand knowledge of is one in which I'm a player.

The campaign is run by my friend Yves, and is set in the universe of the Fallout computer games. Neither I nor any of the other players have any experience of these games, so we're still getting to know the world and the kind of thing that goes on there. Broadly speaking it's a North American post-apocalyptic setting -- the games take place some centuries after a great nuclear war happened. Technology before the war was fairly advanced, with robots, spaceships, energy weapons and fusion power. So of course now these relics of the old days are highly valuable, and sought after by scavengers who roam the wilderness.

Our group is composed of three main characters: Dexx (my character) who is a street thief from the ruins of Los Angeles, Craig, a "super mutant" who roams the desert, and Rhiannon, an exile from Vault 21 (a nuclear bunker which has remained isolated from the rest of the world).

Our adventures so far have led us across the desert, through several degenerate towns, into giant trash heaps, radioactive ruins and, most recently, an ancient greenhouse full of mutant plants! It's been a lot of fun :)

We're using the Savage Worlds rules for the game, which, I find, have a nice balance between simplicity and flexibility of character options.

Yves writes a blog about the setting and our adventures here.

Burg Con coming soon!

Just a reminder for anyone living in Berlin who might read this: Burg Con is happening next weekend! (June 18th / 19th)

It's the 20th Burg Con, so something of an anniversary. To celebrate they've proposed the theme of old-school RPGs this year. A theme which is close to my heart :)

It'll be my first time there... and also the first time I've ever run a game at a con!

You can get full info about the con here, and a description about the (English-speaking) game I'll be running here.

Entry is only €5 -- a bargain! It should be a lot of fun.

A facebook group!

Just after starting this blog I thought about the possibilities of using facebook to connect English-speaking roleplayers in Berlin. I've not used facebook before, but it seemed like the perfect platform for connecting people.

And, surprise, surprise, through talking to another Berlin-based GM, I discovered that there's already a facebook group in existence! It's small at the moment, but I guess facebook groups probably have a snowballing behaviour. Check it out.

Old-school D&D campaign

The first active campaign I know about is the game I'm running myself.

The game is a D&D campaign in the traditional style -- exploring weird underground locales, battling strange monsters, "liberating" treasure. So far we've focussed mostly on dungeon adventures, but of course adventures in towns or in the wilderness are also possible. In terms of the style of the games, I'd say the balance is in favour of action and adventure. Mundane activities like talking to tavern-keeps or blacksmiths are largely hand-waved, so that during the sessions we can focus on talking to wizards and monsters instead :)

Inspirations for the campaign include: sword & sorcery (Conan, Lankhmar), old-school D&D (Gord the Rogue, Castle Greyhawk, Gygaxian AD&D), science-fantasy (Dune, Spelljammer). The tone is explicitly non-heroic -- these characters are not out to save the world, they're treasure hunters and adventurers out to get rich quick.

We're playing using the Labyrinth Lord rules, which are a clone of 1981 D&D -- simple and flexible, allowing imagination & improvisation to take the forefront!

We play every 2 weeks on a Wednesday evening. New players welcome!

I'm also running a game at the BurgCon 20 RPG convention in Berlin, come and join in!

Introduction

Welcome!

I've created this blog as a central location to gather any information I come across about English-speaking RPG groups in Berlin (Germany).

I live in Berlin, play in a couple of games, and run a regular campaign. We've had difficulty finding other English-speaking role-players, but I'm sure they must be out there somewhere! So with this blog I hope to gradually build up links to other role-playing groups in Berlin, and hopefully create a useful resource for people who are just moving to the city and are looking for a game to join.

I'll talk about the games I currently know of in subsequent posts...