W. Doug Bolden
RPGs
Original RPGs (Untold, Ghostlight), Commentary on Others' RPGs, Personal Campaigns, Characters and Sundry
Ghostlight
Ghostlight 1.2 is now hosted on this site (you just passed the link back there). This was written spring of 1998 and stands as the most complete version of the original system. If you find broken links with it, ignore them. I had to snatch it from my Geocities page (woo, talk about the middle school of the Internet).
Ghostlight 2 Alpha/Smoth is now up and linked. It still needs work, but is now back to where 1.2 was before I stopped working on it. Except, this time it has a lot more potential to be expanded upon.
Untold
I have started updating some designer notes on Untold finally, getting ready to work towards the third edition, and what I hope to be the most succinct and useful.
Runworld
Going along with the aforementioned designer notes on Untold, I have RunWorld designer notes as well.
The old (posted to LJ) world notes for Runworld are stored here: runworldnotes.zip.
Resistance
Risus Based Games
The Heroes of Oblend!. Designed to limit some cliche choices and has some other small mechanics tweaks. Kind of a quick-play game for those not quite used to open-ended decisions, but is also suitable for people just looking for a quirky way of handling some things. Generally fantasy, but includes some brief notes about how to change that around.
Fudge Based Games
Designed for the quick start style game play (or just game play without a heck of a lot of notes): Doug Bolden's "and Bake for 15 Minutes" Fudge.
Using the "15 Minute Fudge", I will be adding a couple of campaigns. The first of which is 2099, a quick and somewhat sarcastic cyberpunk game setting.
Campaigns and Other Notes
Atoll. A cyberpunk style campaign never quite solidified into a system. This are the "design" notes I came u for it. One long page, so keep that in mind. This is largely here for historical reasons.
Sundry
I found an interview between me and the Gaming Outpost dated over 6 years ago (link off-site). I talk about Ghostlight, a project never technically finished, and my first mention of the very first version of Untold. Neat.
Why Doesn't Palladium Like Neutral Characters?
RPGs I Whole Heartedly Recommend
Since I am too lazy to be consistent with my own updates and the like, the following is a list of those RPG systems I have played, or played around with, and quite enjoy. I've kept the list kind of short.
The Four Best Universal Systems (and why)
The simplest Universal System that I know, and heartily recommend, is Risus by S. John Ross. It uses six-sided dice, a very natural character generation, and can be played pretty much at the drop of the hat. And it's a freebie!
The next simplest Universal System, offering a little bit more depth if you play with one of the customizable rules, is Grey Ghost's Fudge. An excellent game all around and capable of a lot of moderatley in-depth stuff. Also a freebie (follow the link).
If you like D&D but 1) want something a bit simpler or 2) want something that is more Universal: go for Green Ronin's True20. Not free, but relatively cheap for the PDFs.
Finally, my recommendation for a URPG (can you see where this is going?) if you want lots of little rule books, fan support, modifiers out the yazoo, and more, would be Steve Jackson's GURPS. Not free, not quite cheap, but of good quality.
Non-Universal Recommends
Ron Edward's Sorcerer is an excellent Indie RPG which takes an interesting look at demons and magic. Not a hard system to learn, and effective as a storytelling device.
Though Guardians of Order is now defunct, if you can find a copy of either Big Eyes, Small Mouth (anime) or Ex Machina (cyperpunk), then do so.
Memento Mori Theatriks has a good number of RPGs of all sorts of flavors and sizes, a good amount of free stuff. Several of the titles have really interesting mechanincs, at least for short games.
Finally, I'll end this with Green Ronin's Mutants and Masterminds. A well balanced Supers game with a very friendly character creation system.
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