Martin Dye

Date of Birth: 15th of July 1979

Gaming Profile:
The person to blame for my enjoyment of these games is my uncle, who gave me a very old Games Workshop game called Dungeon Quest. It was very simple but soon led to me joining a gaming group that met in the store room over a local toy shop.

Here we played everything from Call of Cthulhu to Aliens, and I’m still roleplaying now with many of the same people I did back then. In the beginning I never ran many games, but I’m now one of the main DM’s for our group, which does sometimes get annoying especially as I’m now back at university and don’t have the time to create many adventures.

Hopefully the hints I have dropped on here will inspire certain people to run things they have been promising to. The two I refer to are in the “quality over quantity” crowd, in that neither run anything very often but what they do is very good.

Top 10 RPG’s:
1) Deadlands: Wasted West
As people may have noticed from the numerous reviews I’ve done for this game, I love this system and its background story. How can anyone not enjoy what in essence is Mad Max 2 & 3 meets H P Lovecraft? It must have gone down well when I ran it last over two years ago too, because I’m still getting abuse for the destruction of one of the player’s vehicles. It isn’t my fault the book says to keep them poor (which fits in with the game’s flavour) and the best suggestion is to trash vehicles. Anyhow after like the tenth time what sort of idiot spends loads on a car, unless it's black with a red stripe? (Long live my A -Team van! – Jon).

2) Dungeons & Dragons
This is a slightly sore point with me. I’m old enough to have lived through the rise of WOTC and its arrival at dominance. At one point it started to really look bleak for the ‘small gaming company’, and then TSR (for the younger ones out there, the company who created the first edition of the first roleplaying game. i.e. Dungeons & Dragons) were bought out by WOTC. At this point I basically vowed never to buy any of their stuff and to make more of an effort to support the smaller companies.

That may still have been the case, if not for various computer RPG’s (Icewind Dale II, Temple of Elemental Evil and Neverwinter Nights) sparking my interest. So while away on a works course one day and faced with a train ride home, I went and bought the Player’s Guide. The rest, as they say, is history and my collection soon spiralled out of all control.

To make matters even worse, I bought the Eberron campaign setting and fell in love. Here you have a setting with everything you could wish for. It had lost continents, scheming villains, magic impersonating engineering, espionage, Halfling barbarians mounted on dinosaurs, no super-characters and some interesting new races to play. To top it all off parts of it even screamed Final Fantasy, which has truly cemented it in as one of my favourite settings.

3) Warhammer
The original was amazing and many of the best features have been carried into the new version. The new version has also trimmed and improved in many areas too, especially magic, which was one place that really let down the first edition. At the moment Jon is taunting us with tales of how he’s going to run a campaign soon. The sooner the better I say.

4) Conspiracy X
A game of Alien menaces and hidden conspires, with the most deadly combat system I own (I’m sure Matt would like to call Cyberpunk to the stand on that one. - Jon). Eden studios did a blinding job on this game, with some very good research and twisting of history in the back story. I still only have the old edition, but then I am of the opinion “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.” As with Deadlands our group still does a lot of finger pointing relating to the games of this I’ve run. Such as, what a good shot Gareth made, when shooting Jon in the head after Jon killed Matt for killing his wife. Classic gaming.

5) Earthdawn
I remember when I first ran a short game of this back when it was released and I think it was the first time I felt I’d done a really good job of being a DM. As soon as we finished the first session everyone wanted to play again and that is a really rewarding feeling. I also like the way the character progression system works, with a happy medium of points to spend on skills and then requirements in a profession to go up a level in class. This is one of the few systems I own that I have experience of on both sides of screen, and it’s great both ways.

6) 7th Sea
What a cool system; swordplay and piracy. I don’t own many books for this as I have only ever played it and each and every time it has been immensely enjoyable. The background is cool with the slight fantasy twist in renaissance Europe, where much is similar but with a small tweak. I look forward to more games of this. (Hint: Phil pull your finger out)

7) Call of Cthulhu
This game is a classic with a system that demands you to be subtle, as one slip up can cost you your life, your sanity, or both. I have been playing this since I first began role playing and have always enjoyed it. In years gone past we have failed in the early stages of the big campaigns, but on retries in the last two years our progress has greatly improved. We’re still failing utterly and letting the world get destroyed but at least we knew it was in trouble.

8) Deadlands: Weird West
Being progenitor to Wasted West is reason enough to get this game into my top ten, but the fact that it’s wicked in itself is something that can’t be ignored.. Cowboys and Indians fighting against evil monsters; what an inspired idea. I remember this being the only game I played while off at University and it was expertly run (apologies to that Marshall as I don’t remember your name, and credit is due to you but that was nearly ten years ago dude.) I still have my Pinkerton just waiting and hoping one of my current group will run it (Hint: Phil recover your books)

9) Vampire
Another game that I remember coming out and another one that I’ve enjoyed from the first moment I played. Over the years I’ve played this game loads and whenever someone suggests running it I’m still happy to join in. I’m still not sure I have forgiven my fellow players for interfering when I ended up working for villain in the last game… a spot of Diabliere to order… just one more round and I would’ve been finished. I own Requiem, but have yet to play and have no desire to run it. The wait goes on.

10) Brave New World
Another game loosely based on Deadlands, but this time you’re Delta’s (mutants) in a world where your kind is persecuted and feared. The background is great, the system is great (nice and simple without eight books of table like Heroes Unlimited) yet I can’t seem to come up with any stories. I have only run it once, which did go down well but I’m still stuck for ideas and till inspiration strikes it’ll sit on the shelf.

Other Games of Note:
Worth a mention, but not in the top ten, we have games with fabulous settings and stories, but systems that are troublesome. Rifts, great apart from MDC/SDC split. Middle Earth, the best background pedigree ever but far too many tables and charts. Aliens, same problem as Middle Earth and assuming you can still find it to buy anywhere.

Then there are the games that I think don’t work. Like Star Trek with its ranks, which raises questions as to why would anything be trusted to lowly ensigns when more experienced officers are around? As an alternative activity or session filler, the card game Munchkin cannot be ignored. Someone in every group should have it, for the rainy days when people are running late. Any game with “Kill the monsters, Steal the treasure, Stab your buddy” blurb has got to be worth it… a motto close to this website and my gaming groups heart.

Other stuff:
I’m currently back at university doing a degree in Forensic Science, which I should have done years ago. I am being reminded of how cool science actually is, especially when you get to learn how to blow stuff up.
Other than roleplaying and real science stuff, I enjoy films, sci-fi and fantasy books, computer games and playing pool (even if it has fallen by the wayside due to everything else at moment.)

Favourite Films:
First two Alien films, both Predator films and AVP, all the Star Wars films, the Lord of The Rings trilogy (even if it is mostly wrong), Pirates of The Caribbean, Willow, Princess’ Bride, Abyss, Train Spotting, Con Air, Face Off.

Favourite Books:
More a case of authors, all of Terry Goodkind, all of Terry Brooks, Raymond E. Fiest, Starship Troopers (written just after World War II but not far from the truth of today), Lord of the Rings, the Sandman graphic novel series, the Preacher graphic novel series, the Hellblazer graphic novel series and the Harry Potter books.