Looks like it really is aces.

It seems like evertime I do an image search on google, I get at least one slightly Not Safe For Work totally WTF? result. I was looking for a cover pic for Clash Bowley's In Harm's Way: Aces in Spades when I found that pic. Clash was kind enough to comp me a review copy, which I got in the mail yesterday. I'm about a quarter of the way through this game and I am totally digging on it. World War One flying aces is one of the few purely historical genres that interest me for rpg gaming. Well, maybe not purely historical. Like Westerns, I'm more interested in the slightly larger-than-life mythology that has grown up around the era. That's sort of a middle ground between hardcore historical simulation and the kind of game where suddenly zombies appear for no particular reason. Not that I have a hate-on for things like Crimson Skies or Deadlands, mind you. I just don't require a lot of superscience or magic in a game that already has the awesomeness of Doc Holliday or the Red Baron.

Anyway, I haven't finished reading the book, so I can't offer a review at this time. But I like what I see so far. The game mechanics I've read are all straightforward stuff. I have yet to see a fiddly bit that looks like it would trip me up. And the emphasis on competition between players for promotion and decoration looks like a hoot. I could totally see getting together some of the more competitive roleplayers in town for a playtest, just to see them go at each others' throats while simultaneously fighting off the aeroplane squadrons of the great Hun menace. It takes a certain special something for game to immediately get me thinking about what kind of group to get together to play it.

Anyway, big thanks to Clash for the free game. I look forward to reviewing this puppy and hopefully playing it, too.