Inspired by the many calls by Brexiteers over the last few days to be optimistic about our future outside of the EU (which I’m not). I thought once more I’d test the waters with those in our gaming group for interest in the following two non-D&D RPGs.

I love playing D&D. I’m enjoying being a DM. However I’d love to try one or two of the other RPGs that I own.

The reason I went with these two and didn’t include the Genesys system with either the Android setting (which I really really want to play) or it’s Terrinoth setting, is that Genesys requires special dice. I have a couple of sets, but a set or two wouldn’t hurt. What I have should be enough to get started. However if those wanting to play wanted to bring their own dice they couldn’t without forking out for a set. The reason this is a problem is that these FFG special dice are more expensive than a set of dice for D&D. Unless you are buying one of those WotC fancy dice sets. So I wanted to avoid that sort of expense for potential players. Plus with the recent redundancies at FFG that impacted the RPG area of the company (along with other departments), the future of the Genesys system is looking a bit uncertain. Which isn’t a problem using the rules etc. However when a system relies on custom dice things become a little bit trickier to play once these are no longer available.

The nice thing about the Judge Dredd and Worlds of 2000 A.D. and Paranoia is that they are both d6 systems. No special dice required. D6 dice are ridiculously cheap to buy. If I remember correctly £1 of the realm will get you six from my FLGS.

Add in they only other stuff they need is pen and paper, the out lay for people interested in playing is extremely low.

I also think that there is a nice contrast between the two RPGs chosen, despite them both being sci-fi themed. Paranoia is competitive, back stabbing, light hearted. Whilst Judge Dredd is your more traditional co-operative working together RPG.

For both I would use readily available official scenarios.

In the past I’ve said how much I like how the introductory mission
[YOUR SECURITY CLEARANCE IS NOT HIGH ENOUGH FOR THE TITLE OF THIS ADVENTURE] from the Mission Book is written. It really does take the new GM by the hand and talk them through their first game of Paranoia. It’s so good you don’t actually need to have read the rules to use it! So for a taster session this is an ideal adventure to run for a GM and player. The only decision really to make is whether the players use pre-con characters or generate them on the day. Personally I think that generating the characters is all part of the Paranoia experience, and sets the tone for the rest of the game.

For Judge Dredd there is the State of the Empire scenario that is in the rule book, which allows players to play it as perps, civilians or judges. Whilst the Quick Start version of the scenario is limited to judges only. I also have the official scenario Monkey Business that the publisher uses at conventions etc to demo the game. My inclination at the moment is to use this scenario with the pre-con characters from the State of the Empire, so running as players playing judges. Monkey Business is designed to be run in a single session, approximately a couple of hours. So ideal for my needs.

The big unknown is how many will actually show any interest and respond to the post. Let alone actually want to turn up and play. I’ve bemoaned about this in the past. It can be very very frustrating.

But we will see.