Introduction

Welcome to my new blog, which is dedicated to the What's Old Is New role-playing systems by EN Publishing. The reason why I have decided to start this new blog instead of adding the new content to my other blog, Vampifan's World of the Undead is twofold. Firstly, the Undead will not be appearing very often, if at all, on this blog. The focus on this blog is firmly on the RPG systems collectively known as What's Old Is New or WOIN for short. Whilst the Undead do feature in their games, I doubt if they'll be appearing enough in my games to justify making this project a part of my other blog. Secondly, because WOIN is such a new system, very few people will have heard of it, but those who have, especially those who play it, speak very favourably of it. For those who are not interested in WOIN (probably most of my other blog's followers) I didn't want to bore them with stuff they most likely have no interest in. So, it's probably best to keep this content separate from my other blog.

WOIN currently consists of three RPG systems - N.E.W. was the first to be published and that deals with sci-fi gaming. This is the game that I will be concentrating the most on. Next up, and only recently published, is O.L.D. and this deals with fantasy gaming. This will most likely get the least coverage here, not because I don't like fantasy gaming (I do) but simply because I prefer the other settings more. Currently in production at the time of writing is N.O.W., which concentrates on gaming in the contemporary period. Once that is published the three core systems for WOIN will be in place. However, there is more. Of all the WOIN products, the one that has me the most excited is the upcoming Judge Dredd and the Worlds of 2000 AD role-playing books. EN Publishing recently acquired the rights to produce RPG books for all of the stories that have appeared in the weekly anthology comic, 2000 AD. Unsurprisingly, the first supplement will be for Judge Dredd, the most famous of all the characters from 2000 AD. I am a massive fan of Dredd and I've been collecting the 2000 AD comic from its first issue over 40 years ago. EN Publishing have big plans for this franchise and once they publish the first supplement I will be featuring it very prominently on this blog.
Seeing the announcement that EN Publishing were going to produce RPGs based on the stories from 2000 AD is the main reason I became interested in WOIN. It was purely out of curiosity that I decided to buy N.E.W. As soon as I read it, I was hooked! No RPG system is perfect, but this one comes as close to perfection as any I have seen and has now surpassed GURPS as my all time favourite RPG, which believe me, is no mean feat.

I'm not expecting many followers for this blog, and, quite honestly, that doesn't bother me in the slightest. But if you are interested in what I post here, then welcome aboard and I hope you stick around and enjoy the ride.
So what can you expect to see on this blog? In short, pretty much the same sort of content as is found on my other blog - so therefore, reviews of figures from my collection, reviews of WOIN related products and of course, batreps... lots of batreps! I am planning on running what will be an epic Space Opera style campaign, featuring the all female crew of the scout ship, The Ace of Spades, captained by Kimberley Jane Wells. Incidentally, the background illustration that I chose for this blog shows Kimberley (you can also see it below). I found it on the Internet and as soon as I saw it, I thought, "hey, that's Kimberley!" However, I had to make a few adjustments to her hair so that it matched Kimberley's hairstyle. I should point out that The Ace of Spades Campaign, as it will be called, will be unlike any other campaign I have ran or published before. I have already produced a huge amount of work for it, making it as highly detailed and as informative as I can. This will be a new approach for me but it is one that I am incredibly enthusiastic about and I hope you enjoy reading it as much I will in writing it.
Initially, I'll mainly be concentrating on the N.E.W. RPG systems, since I most familiar with it.  In addition to my The Ace of Spades Campaign, I have plans for some one off scenarios featuring The Bug Hunters as well as a batrep between the Cybermen and the Daleks, as an alternative to using the official Warlord Games Exterminate! rules. More Doctor Who related batreps may well follow.

Kimberley Jane Wells - captain of The Ace of Spades scout ship.

Here are a few frequently asked questions about the WOIN systems.

1. What are the inspirations for each game?  N.E.W. is inspired by Star Trek, Star Wars, Battlestar Galactica, Firefly, Babylon 5, the Alien franchise, and other science fiction shows and movies, along with the harder science fiction of Asimov, Niven, and Clarke.  N.O.W. is all about movies like the 007 franchise, Rambo, Commando, Die Hard, Lethal Weapon, Mad Max, Indiana Jones, and TV shows like The A-Team, Knight Rider, Charlie's Angels, Buffy, and The Six-Million Dollar Man, with a healthy sprinkling of John Woo and Bruce Lee.  O.L.D. ranges from gritty medieval fantasy of Glen Cook, the works of David Eddings and David Gemmell, Robert E. Howard, Ursula Le Guin, Joe Abercrombie, Patrick Rothfuss, and, of course, JRR Tolkien.  The combat system had some inspiration from the 2012 X-COM video game, along with various tactical skirmish tabletop games over the years, and the magic system is inspired by Elements of Magic by Ryan Nock.
2. What's the feel of the system? WOIN has a fairly flat advancement progression, which means that while characters become more competent and more skilled, they never end up with piles of health and able to survive 200' falls or wade through armies of orcs.  It's a bit grittier than that, with combat tending towards the tactical, magic tending towards the subtle, and magic items being quite uncommon.
3. Is there a core setting?  No. The WOIN system is very toolkit oriented.  While it will be supported with settings and adventures, the idea is that the core setting is the one you create using the extensive world building guidelines in each book.

All of this was sweet music to my ears and I knew this was the RPG system for me. It covers pretty much everything I love about role-playing and best of all, characters are grounded in reality without becoming combat gods through experience points gained. In my next post I'll do an in-depth review of N.E.W. and explain why I rate it so highly.