Erick Wujcik in Detroit Area

[Erick Wujcik]

Yo!

My plans have been finalized, and I will definitely be running a batch of games at the Palladium Books Open House, coming up the first weekend in May.

In addition to a set of Palladium systems scenarios (it looks like After the Bomb, Mystic China, Rifts China and Palladium Fantasy), I'll also be doing a session of my old Entropy Science Fiction RPG. It's also possible that I may do some other gaming during the week I'm in Michigan (April 28th through May 6th), so post here if you're in the area and are interested.

Thanks!

Erick

[RPGPundit]

Those lucky bastards.

BTW, can you tell us more about Entropy? What's it about?

RPGPundit

[Erick Wujcik]

BTW, can you tell us more about Entropy? What's it about?

In the dim and misty part, sometime around 1978, my good buddy Rene' Vega and I came up with a science fiction role-playing game, based on our joint view of technological progress, future history, and what we thought was important in an RPG.

To give you an idea of what an antique it is, the year that humans encountered an interstellar spacecraft, controlled by two different alien races, was 1984. Back then it seemed safely 'futuristic' enough!

While never published, it was run by a handful of dedicated game masters, the past and future history were worked out, and I commissioned Keven Long to do some really cool art (Kevin Long went on to work for Palladium Books, contributing much to both the Robotech RPG and the Rifts RPG, and these days is an Art Director at Ravensoft).

By sketching out 4,000+ years into the future, we created a system where there were lots and lots of choices for settings in various periods. In Entropy the human dominated realms were each iterations of the Amagalmated Republics, from the late 21st Century 1st A.R., all the way out to the rebuilding-from-the-ashes 14th A.R. The 1st and 2nd were still based on slower-than-light travel, until the 3rd A.R.'s Warp Drive (also the Rystian War). The 8th A.R. was the Age of MegaTech, the 10th A.R. was the Age of the Nova Humans (genetic engineering run amok), and so forth.

Rene' ran the first Entropy Campaign, where I ran something we call the 'Prime Player' (the idea was that the Game Master would run one-on-one, and do a shakedown of the campaign before exposing it to the group; still a good idea!). As came to be tradition in Entropy circles, the players were always given sufficient dangerous technology to exterminate themselves (artifacts from the 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th A.R. could be found, each more powerful than the last).

As it sprawled into hopeless complexity the prospects for actually publishing Entropy diminished. It just seemed too demanding on the Game Master.

Still, every so often, I like to take it out for a little test drive... which is what I'll be doing next weekend.

Erick

p.s.: By the way, Entropy was not my first RPG design. That would have been  the RockHaze RPG, something I designed and ran a year or two earlier.

[Erick Wujcik]

...I will definitely be running a batch of games at the Palladium Books Open House, coming up the first weekend in May.

I ended up running five (5) games, one of which was particularly awesome... the one for the new After the Bomb.

It was great from beginning to end, and I was particularly tickled since the players spent a fair amount of time interacting with a computer A.I. based on one of my favorite characters from the old Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, Doc Feral.

Next up, I'll be running some of my more experimental stuff in the San Francisco Bay Area, starting this weekend, May 11th.

Erick

[JohnnyWannabe]

Heh! That brings back memories. Way back in '80/'81, another Eric had a sci-fi homebrew called Entropy. It was some sort of AD&D derivative. It may even have had elements of the Dragon Riders of Pern in it. I can't remember a great deal about it, but I did have a good time playing in the few sessions he ran.