When I was in primary school, I did not want to play some game about animals, cartoons and fairy tales. That's what I am into now.
I wanted games that reminded me of all those movies I had no chance to watch like Star Wars, Conan, Dragon Slayer or Dune. I was into Masters of the Universe and Batman and Spider-Man. I was into toy guns and playing "all adults turned evil and the kids must kill them" with Playmobil and Lego.
Actually the transit from playing with action figures to RPGs was very organic. We basically did the same things, just with character sheets, where we needed toys before.
But most important: I think that any set of freestyle rules like Risus or indie games would have been much more difficult for me to grasp than classic old school RPGs. (Actually - being from Europe - I played The Dark Eye.)
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Friday, December 26, 2008
Savage Worlds Character Sheet without Dice Symbols
Here you find an external link to a Savage Worlds Character Sheet without Dice Symbols. Some people are annoyed by the dice symbols and here they find a great alternative.
Friday, December 19, 2008
Deadwood as D&D campaign
I am watching Deadwood, the HBO western TV show at the moment. In my opinion the set up would work amazingly well for an old school D&D campaign.
Actually it would not be too different from a Keep in the Borderlands with a lot of corruption. To make it more interesting, when the players arrive it should be still a really small place, but with every time they return from an exploration, more people and shops should exist. So they could feel very fast as the old guys...
And obviously there would be a reward for every orc head the bring back to the inn keeper...
Main enemies would be humans, elves and orcs and I would try to make orcs and elves as interchangeable as possible (both are Indians err, sorry, natives...). Humans are the bastards living in the village. I would not call it a shades of grey setting. Actually nearly everyone except the PCs is a bastard.
Actually it would not be too different from a Keep in the Borderlands with a lot of corruption. To make it more interesting, when the players arrive it should be still a really small place, but with every time they return from an exploration, more people and shops should exist. So they could feel very fast as the old guys...
And obviously there would be a reward for every orc head the bring back to the inn keeper...
Main enemies would be humans, elves and orcs and I would try to make orcs and elves as interchangeable as possible (both are Indians err, sorry, natives...). Humans are the bastards living in the village. I would not call it a shades of grey setting. Actually nearly everyone except the PCs is a bastard.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
800-85 - Feminine Robot Man
Race: Robot Man (Construct; Machine; Outsider; Psionic Immunity; Recharge)
Rank: Novice XP: 0
Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Climbing d4, Fighting d4, Guts d4, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Piloting d4, Repair d6, Shooting d4, Stealth d4,
Charisma: -2; Pace: 5+d6; Parry: ?; Toughness: ?
Hindrances: Code of Honor; Outsider (to Robot Man as well), Death Wish (minor - find statue from dreams)
Edges: Arcane Background (Weird Science); Gadgeteer
Gear: 500$
Languages: English, Streamer, [+3 more]
Description: 800-85 had an ordinary live as lowly worker on the Mechanos. But then he started dreaming. He is not sure if it is a malfunction, as he decided not to tell any other robot man about it, but this statue of a humanoid woman in a cave returns every night in his sleep. 800-85 left Mechanos to look for her in space.
And because he admires her, he is wearing this ancient Greek drama mask over his face and got a new breast plate with - exactly - breasts. Because others told him it would be more authentic he also adjusted his voice to sound more female.
Designer Notes: Silly. My favorite robot character Marvel's Yocasta plus the fact that there are no female robot men (robot women???) made me come up with this idea. I did not even know that 80085 in 1ee7 speak had already a meaning, but finding it out via Google did not stop me either...
Rank: Novice XP: 0
Attributes: Agility d4, Smarts d8, Spirit d6, Strength d6, Vigor d6
Skills: Climbing d4, Fighting d4, Guts d4, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Piloting d4, Repair d6, Shooting d4, Stealth d4,
Charisma: -2; Pace: 5+d6; Parry: ?; Toughness: ?
Hindrances: Code of Honor; Outsider (to Robot Man as well), Death Wish (minor - find statue from dreams)
Edges: Arcane Background (Weird Science); Gadgeteer
Gear: 500$
Languages: English, Streamer, [+3 more]
Description: 800-85 had an ordinary live as lowly worker on the Mechanos. But then he started dreaming. He is not sure if it is a malfunction, as he decided not to tell any other robot man about it, but this statue of a humanoid woman in a cave returns every night in his sleep. 800-85 left Mechanos to look for her in space.
And because he admires her, he is wearing this ancient Greek drama mask over his face and got a new breast plate with - exactly - breasts. Because others told him it would be more authentic he also adjusted his voice to sound more female.
Designer Notes: Silly. My favorite robot character Marvel's Yocasta plus the fact that there are no female robot men (robot women???) made me come up with this idea. I did not even know that 80085 in 1ee7 speak had already a meaning, but finding it out via Google did not stop me either...
Monday, December 15, 2008
What player am I?
Find here your RPG play style according to Law!
Awesome Welles - Melancholic Action Hero (Slipstream)
Race: Earthling (additional Edge)
Rank: Novice XP: 0
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d4, Strength d8, Vigor d8
Skills: Climbing d4, Fighting d6, Guts d4, Notice d4, Intimidation d4; Persuasion d4, Piloting d4, Shooting d6, Stealth d4, Streetwise d4, Survival d4, Throwing d4, Tracking d4
Charisma: +2; Pace: 6+d6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 7 ; Bennies: 2/session
Hindrances: Heroic; Bad Luck; Vengeful, Quirk (speeches of angst)
Edges: Iron Jaw; Attractive; Ambidextrous; Brawny
Gear: 500$
Languages: English, Streamer, [+2 more]
Description: Awesome Welles is the stereotype of a muscle packed, blond hero, but in underneath the great looks and the winning smile, people that get to know him better will find a courageous man who sees himself and those he values chased by misery after misery. When he does not have to work towards the wellbeing of others, he constantly questions the meaning of live and what it is all good for.
Designer Notes: Here obviously the name came first and I tried to find a character concept that fitted its sound.
Rank: Novice XP: 0
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d4, Spirit d4, Strength d8, Vigor d8
Skills: Climbing d4, Fighting d6, Guts d4, Notice d4, Intimidation d4; Persuasion d4, Piloting d4, Shooting d6, Stealth d4, Streetwise d4, Survival d4, Throwing d4, Tracking d4
Charisma: +2; Pace: 6+d6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 7 ; Bennies: 2/session
Hindrances: Heroic; Bad Luck; Vengeful, Quirk (speeches of angst)
Edges: Iron Jaw; Attractive; Ambidextrous; Brawny
Gear: 500$
Languages: English, Streamer, [+2 more]
Description: Awesome Welles is the stereotype of a muscle packed, blond hero, but in underneath the great looks and the winning smile, people that get to know him better will find a courageous man who sees himself and those he values chased by misery after misery. When he does not have to work towards the wellbeing of others, he constantly questions the meaning of live and what it is all good for.
Designer Notes: Here obviously the name came first and I tried to find a character concept that fitted its sound.
Sunday, December 14, 2008
Rex Plosion - Psi Kid (Slipstream)
Race: Earthling (additional Edge)
Rank: Novice XP: 0
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigor d4
Skills: Climbing d4, Fighting d4, Guts d4, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Psionics d4, Stealth d4, Streetwise d4, Taunt d4, Throwing d4,
Charisma: +2; Pace: 6+d6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 4 ; Bennies: 4/session; Power Points: 15
Hindrances: Heroic; Young; Loyal, Illiterate
Edges: Arcane Background (Psionics); Attractive (cute kid); Beast Master; Power Points
Power: Bolt; Confuse the Mind; Stun
Gear: 500$
Languages: English, Streamer, [+3 more]
Description: Rex Plosion grew up on the tough streets of Nuxopolis as an orphan. His only friend was his alien baby bear companion Tao. When he was cornered by one of Queen Anathraxa's Primal patrols for pickpocketing a noble with a sudden burst of his Psi powers, he had to flee and found himself as blind passenger on a rocket ship.
Tao: stats of a dog/wolf
Designer Notes: With the "Second Series" campaign rule in Slipstream, it finally is a little bit less risky to play a low Vigor character in Savage Worlds. So this kid should be worth a try! If it passes out, there is still the beast companion Tao to be taken care off, so the player does not get bored.
Rank: Novice XP: 0
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d4, Vigor d4
Skills: Climbing d4, Fighting d4, Guts d4, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Psionics d4, Stealth d4, Streetwise d4, Taunt d4, Throwing d4,
Charisma: +2; Pace: 6+d6; Parry: 4; Toughness: 4 ; Bennies: 4/session; Power Points: 15
Hindrances: Heroic; Young; Loyal, Illiterate
Edges: Arcane Background (Psionics); Attractive (cute kid); Beast Master; Power Points
Power: Bolt; Confuse the Mind; Stun
Gear: 500$
Languages: English, Streamer, [+3 more]
Description: Rex Plosion grew up on the tough streets of Nuxopolis as an orphan. His only friend was his alien baby bear companion Tao. When he was cornered by one of Queen Anathraxa's Primal patrols for pickpocketing a noble with a sudden burst of his Psi powers, he had to flee and found himself as blind passenger on a rocket ship.
Tao: stats of a dog/wolf
Designer Notes: With the "Second Series" campaign rule in Slipstream, it finally is a little bit less risky to play a low Vigor character in Savage Worlds. So this kid should be worth a try! If it passes out, there is still the beast companion Tao to be taken care off, so the player does not get bored.
An auction-based character development system
We could give this the fancy name ABCD for Auction-Based Character Development.
The idea behind is that skills and edges/aspect have no cost when you take them, but when you use them.
So the more some aspect of a character is used, the more expensive it get's to raise it higher.
To make the whole thing more interesting, interest in other characters to develop in the same area also boost the development price. Making use of the players willingness to pay for something takes in account a much more intelligent factor than counting only the ammount of uses.
Development should not only happen at the end of every game session or between games, but after every scene.
Beginner characters are mostly blank slates with only one extraordinary trait to define them. Players should assume that they already have more traits, but that we did not see them before. Obviously this does not work to well for a backstory intense immersive play experience. A solution could be that the coming up with the character is already part of play like pitching the series in Primetime Adventures. All the players would go together through the different phases of their characters' lives. This is similar to Spirit of the Century.
You can combine those ideas and you have an RPG rule system set up that could be tested in a board game. A good start would be a simple tree stats system with rock-scissors-paper like mechanics.
The idea behind is that skills and edges/aspect have no cost when you take them, but when you use them.
So the more some aspect of a character is used, the more expensive it get's to raise it higher.
To make the whole thing more interesting, interest in other characters to develop in the same area also boost the development price. Making use of the players willingness to pay for something takes in account a much more intelligent factor than counting only the ammount of uses.
Development should not only happen at the end of every game session or between games, but after every scene.
Beginner characters are mostly blank slates with only one extraordinary trait to define them. Players should assume that they already have more traits, but that we did not see them before. Obviously this does not work to well for a backstory intense immersive play experience. A solution could be that the coming up with the character is already part of play like pitching the series in Primetime Adventures. All the players would go together through the different phases of their characters' lives. This is similar to Spirit of the Century.
You can combine those ideas and you have an RPG rule system set up that could be tested in a board game. A good start would be a simple tree stats system with rock-scissors-paper like mechanics.
Savage Worlds area effects when not using a battle mat
Zornhau - let's call him the German Savage Worlds Evangelist and see if there is a reaction ;) - presented his way of deciding area effect damage when playing without battle map in the tanelorn.net forum.
Small Burst Template – 1d4+1 targets effected
Medium Burst Template – 1d6+1 targets effected
Large Burst Template – 1d12+1 targets effected
Cone – 1d8+1 targets effected
I guess another way that would scale with the size of the fight would be randomize a hit percentage of potential targets. Obviously you would need to cap that with a certain number.
If you wanted it to be slow and unsavage, you could take in account environment, etc. Fighting in open environment would let you hit less people than inside narrow tunnels.
Update:
Clint (of Necessary Evil fame) gave the following numbers in the Pennicle Forum:
SBT = 1d4
MBT = 2d6
LBT = 3d8
Cone = 2d6*
*Difference between a cone and a MBT could be lessening the chance of hitting an ally in the area.
The look a little bit extreme to me honestly.
Small Burst Template – 1d4+1 targets effected
Medium Burst Template – 1d6+1 targets effected
Large Burst Template – 1d12+1 targets effected
Cone – 1d8+1 targets effected
I guess another way that would scale with the size of the fight would be randomize a hit percentage of potential targets. Obviously you would need to cap that with a certain number.
If you wanted it to be slow and unsavage, you could take in account environment, etc. Fighting in open environment would let you hit less people than inside narrow tunnels.
Update:
Clint (of Necessary Evil fame) gave the following numbers in the Pennicle Forum:
SBT = 1d4
MBT = 2d6
LBT = 3d8
Cone = 2d6*
*Difference between a cone and a MBT could be lessening the chance of hitting an ally in the area.
The look a little bit extreme to me honestly.
Friday, December 12, 2008
D&D-4-like Skill Challenges in Savage Worlds
This is a first sketch how you do skill challenges in Savage Worlds. Definitely worth a test run and could be a better way to handle music performances in The Band.
Depending on how complex the task is, a certain amount of successes is needed. My test run decides difficulties on number of participating characters, but that could be too metagamey.
Easy: [number of participating characters] successes
Normal: [number of participating characters x 1.5] successes
Hard: [number of participating characters] x2 successes
Players in general can choose the skill they want to use by themselves. The GM can veto skill use, that is not described well. But why not using your Knowledge(History) skill to get the band mimic the famous performance of the Sex Pistols in Winterland? ;) Obviously repeating the same shtick over time becomes stale.
Each Raise counts as 1 extra success.
When they got 3 failures, the characters finally lost... (Maybe scale that too?)
Depending on how complex the task is, a certain amount of successes is needed. My test run decides difficulties on number of participating characters, but that could be too metagamey.
Easy: [number of participating characters] successes
Normal: [number of participating characters x 1.5] successes
Hard: [number of participating characters] x2 successes
Players in general can choose the skill they want to use by themselves. The GM can veto skill use, that is not described well. But why not using your Knowledge(History) skill to get the band mimic the famous performance of the Sex Pistols in Winterland? ;) Obviously repeating the same shtick over time becomes stale.
Each Raise counts as 1 extra success.
When they got 3 failures, the characters finally lost... (Maybe scale that too?)
Tuesday, December 9, 2008
Der Spielaffe
Sorry, this post has to be partially in German, because the "Der Spielaffe" is a German character. The name means Playape or Playmonkey. He is a simian playboy - the result of an 1934 Nazi experiment!
Hier kommen die Charakterwerte des Spielaffens für verschiedene Spielsysteme rein - Rollenspielsysteme. Der Spielaffe wir auch Playape oder Playmonkey genannt.
Er ist ein mächtiger Spielgorilla, nicht nur ein Spielschimpanse oder gar Spielmakake. Er ist kein Pokemon oder Panfu.
Sein Diener heißt Mario.
Race: Gorilla (additional Edge)
Rank: Novice XP: 0
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d6
Skills: Climbing d6, Driving d4, Fighting d6, Gambling d4, Guts d6, Intimidation d4, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Shooting d4, Stealth d4, Streetwise d6, Survival d4, Throwing d4,
Charisma: -2; Pace: 5+d4; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6
Hindrances: Overconfident; Outsider, Habit (Heavy Smoker)
Gear: 500$
Description: He is a simian playboy - the result of an 1934 Nazi experiment!
Wait until I recreate this character with the Gorilla Race write up, I am going to do!
Hier kommen die Charakterwerte des Spielaffens für verschiedene Spielsysteme rein - Rollenspielsysteme. Der Spielaffe wir auch Playape oder Playmonkey genannt.
Er ist ein mächtiger Spielgorilla, nicht nur ein Spielschimpanse oder gar Spielmakake. Er ist kein Pokemon oder Panfu.
Sein Diener heißt Mario.
Race: Gorilla (additional Edge)
Rank: Novice XP: 0
Attributes: Agility d6, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d6
Skills: Climbing d6, Driving d4, Fighting d6, Gambling d4, Guts d6, Intimidation d4, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Shooting d4, Stealth d4, Streetwise d6, Survival d4, Throwing d4,
Charisma: -2; Pace: 5+d4; Parry: 5; Toughness: 6
Hindrances: Overconfident; Outsider, Habit (Heavy Smoker)
Gear: 500$
Description: He is a simian playboy - the result of an 1934 Nazi experiment!
Wait until I recreate this character with the Gorilla Race write up, I am going to do!
Monday, December 8, 2008
Sunday, December 7, 2008
One Shots I want to run in 2009
D&D4 - Keep on the Shadowfell (mainly the combats)
Spirit of the Century
Sailor Moon RPG
Changeling: The Lost with Primetime Adventures rules
Favorite Player Characters in an interdimensional castle - Kitchensink Crazyness (that would probably also work best with Primetime Adventures)
Coffin Rock - Deadlands Reloaded (mini campaign)
Any super hero game
I am not so much into running campaigns, as I don't have the attention span to keep that up.
Anyways: here are my Setting Ideas. They are less about running and more about writing though.
Spirit of the Century
Sailor Moon RPG
Changeling: The Lost with Primetime Adventures rules
Favorite Player Characters in an interdimensional castle - Kitchensink Crazyness (that would probably also work best with Primetime Adventures)
Coffin Rock - Deadlands Reloaded (mini campaign)
Any super hero game
I am not so much into running campaigns, as I don't have the attention span to keep that up.
Anyways: here are my Setting Ideas. They are less about running and more about writing though.
Tearsworld Tyrsworld Treenenwelt Index
As I am not sure what to use as English title at the moment (although I lean towards the not kewlized Tearsworld at the moment), you can find 2 different names for this campaign setting in the header.
The basic setting info is German at the moment, but will be updated and ported over.
German language Tearsworld Tyrsworld Treenenwelt Wiki - kind of a encyclopedia
Rule system specific ideas can be found all over this blog:
Treenenwelt for Savage Worlds: Human wish powers
The basic setting info is German at the moment, but will be updated and ported over.
German language Tearsworld Tyrsworld Treenenwelt Wiki - kind of a encyclopedia
Rule system specific ideas can be found all over this blog:
Treenenwelt for Savage Worlds: Human wish powers
Friday, December 5, 2008
Monday, December 1, 2008
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