Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Role-playing in Canada

We Canadian gamers understand that the gaming world considers the Great White North to be a fairly dull place. Few tabletop rpgs bother to include much information on Canada in their real-world game settings, so those few exceptions that do are all that much more appreciated by us. With that in mind, I would like to acknowledge the publishers who have published game settings with a Canadian touch.

Of course, top of the list has to be Palladium. More than any other game designer, Kevin Siembieda has been very good to his Canadian fans. Rifts Canada and Free Quebec are two of the most obvious examples, but he has also included Canada in many prominent roles in his Rifts game, including the Calgary Rift, Iron Heart and Lazlo.


Less well-known, I suppose, is the White Wolf publication Montreal by Night for Vampire: The Masquerade. I never played the game, as I am totally disinterested in Gothic horror. However, I appreciate the effort on the part of White Wolf, especially since I lived in Montreal for quite a few years and truly love the city (and the hockey team).

Recently, I have noticed a game called API Worldwide by Third Eye Games. The API stands for "Apocalypse Prevention, Inc.", so that should give you some idea about the nature of the game. The first sourcebook released was API Worldwide: Canada, so thanks to Third Eye Games. I might even check out the game some time for no other reason than that.


So, does anyone else know of any rpgs in which a little love was sent north?

-Rognar-

4 comments:

Obiri said...

Kevin Siembieda is from Michigan iirc and so knows Canada better then he knows most of the world (as you can if you've read most of his dreadful world book - so cliched).
I don't really worry about it too much. Most Americans assume that Canada is a vast snowy wasteland. We're all too cold to do cool stuff.

Aaron E. Steele said...

I knew about Free Quebec the rest are completely unfamiliar to me.

Neat stuff, who would think Canada would be interesting enough to create RPG materials based on it?

The only other reference I can think of at the moment is to the Canadian Finger (no, not that one...) referencing a piece of space mapped by Canada in the Traveller 2300 universe.

oakfed said...

Dream Pod 9's Tribe 8 RPG was based in the ruins of Montreal (Vimary) and Ottawa (Capal) - that's got to count.

Rognar said...

I had a feeling there might be something from Dream Pod 9 since it is a Quebec-based company. But I've never really had an opportunity to look at their products. Heavy Gear and Gear Krieg do look kind of cool, but like I said, never really looked at them.