A friend of mine, Ed Healy (
ephealy here on LJ), launched a new Podcast on the 4th July. I knowe a number of you run - or listen - to Podcasts so thought I'd tell you about it so you can have a listen.It's called Atomic Array and the first podcast talks to another friend of mine, Richard Iorio (
mind_of_richard on LJ), about his companies (Rogue Games) Colonial Gothic RPG.Whilst I'm pimping friends I'd also like to spotlight the new game from Contested Ground Studios called Hot War. Written by Malcolm Craig (
rpgactionfigure) and illustrated by Paul Bourne (bloody_art_guy) I'm really looking forward to it. I'm also going to take the opportunity to tell all of you RPGers to go and check out Contested Ground's Cold City RPG which I'm a big fan of.It is a year since the Cold War went hot.
And this was not just a nuclear war.
Far more sinister, darker weapons were deployed from the shadows.
Survival and re-building are all that matter now. But human nature and tragic circumstances mean that everyone has their own ambitions.
...a Government desperate to hold on to what remains of the country.
...military forces who wish to expand their power and influence.
...frightened and brutalised refugees who simply want a place to call home.
Into this maelstrom steps the Special Situations Group, a motley band of men and women tasked with the jobs too dirty or dangerous for anyone else.
This is Hot War: A game of friends, enemies, secrets and consequences in the aftermath.
This alternative history/horror game for three or more participants has players dealing with life a year after the apocalypse. You'll confront hidden agendas, sinister factional machinations and see the changes in relations with friends and enemies.
Hot War allows both short term and campaign play, with a system that allows the group to work out exactly the kind of game they want to play amongst the wreckage of 1960s London.
Berlin, 1950: World War 2 has been over for five years...
...but another war carries on in the shadows.
As the Cold War rages in the full glare of the world media, the Underground War is fought in ruined bunkers, dank tunnels, building sites, and bombed out apartment blocks.
But the Reserve Police Agency itself is riven by suspicion, mistrust and political ambition. The four occupying powers of Britain, France, the USA and the USSR all see the need for the RPA, all contribute personnel, all have their own agendas.
In 'Cold City' you take the role of a member of the RPA, those secretive Cold war monster hunters. Characters are defined not just by who they are and what they are like, but by the views of the other characters and the trust that they have in them. For each character is, at the outset, seen as a national stereotype, a cliched representative of their chosen nation. But is this really the case? Do they live up to the stereotype or do they show themselves to be wholly unique individuals? And how does this affect the trust that the other character have in them?
