I've just finished reading Ex Machina and very nice it is too. Tri-stat implementation seems good (although I need to do some char-gen and combat to get a feel for the system).

Settings are interesting;

Heaven over Mountain is a biotech closed world orbital beanstalk game. Nicely written but didn't float my boat too much.

Underworld is a dark dystopian future American Empire game that reminds me of a number of B Movie SF films in the late 80s and early 90s. The idea is that the US has large work complexes in occupied territories where civil rights have been removed. Lots of potential. I loved the idea that the corporation which sells neural interface chips also sell surplus cycle time on them for processing exercises.

IOSHI is a very different setting - value is based on skills and talents which are developed by people in a virtual state ('Sparta'). There are dark edges to this which could be interesting, but I couldn't think of an 'in' to run this.

Daedalus is a beauty of a setting. Imagine a world where the government decided to implement a universal ID by implementation of a future development of RFID chips. This is implanted and trackable. Later generations of the chip can administer drugs and further keep people happy. Society is tweaked and increasingly controlled in the ongoing fight against terrorism, and the people in it slowly see it as more and more of a utopia. Emotional responses are moderated to drive society towards someone else's ideal of 2.4 kids and a job for life...

What if one day you woke up in this Utopia to find your chip didn't work anymore and you were an outsider.? Surgery to fix it doesn't work, you loose your citizenship rights, and can only hold a menial job because you have no valid ID that is trusted properly? You become an outsider. What if you find out the truth?

'Hammer of the Scots' and 'Crusader Rex' arrived on Friday. I've not had a chance to play them yet, but the components are very good quality, the rules clear and the map-boards look superb.

I've only tried a basic set-up and followed the rules through to see how they both work, but I think the games are going to be really good fun, and teach me a lot about the geography of Scotland and the Middle East, albeit 700 to 800 years ago!

Ever since it came out, I've been a big fan of the a|state RPG by Contested Ground Studios. It is a unique game, which reminds me very much of (amongst other things) China Mieville's excellent 'Perdido Street Station'. The system is very like the Chaosium BRP engine, but very rules light. I knocked together a quick reference sheet for the combat rules using OmniGraffle, and sent the PDF to Malc at CGS so they can put it on the website. To my surprise they said that they'd like to use it in their forthcoming GM Screen! So I agreed.

Anyway, if you want to see what all the fuss about a|state is, go to their website and download the free PDF file of the 'lite' rules. In reality, it's all you need to try a game out. Fantastic stuff.

A couple of weeks ago, I finally succumbed to temptation that had been building over the last year and ordered some of Columbia Games blockgames. I'm eagerly waiting for Hammer of the Scots and Crusader Rex to arrive from across the Atlantic. After they arrive, there's only the challenge of sorting someone to play them with. I hope they don't languish like the copy of Serennisma that I got last year, another one that I really want to play.

As I've got older, I've found myself drawn back towards wargames and boardgames. As these were the route that I originally found myself getting involved with roleplaying games and miniatures games (such as Full Thrust and Warhammer), I suppose that it isn't surprising. I'm going to use this section to post on games other than Traveller that I enjoy.