Sunday, February 22, 2009

D&D and RPG Fantasy Art Index Part 1

I will start here a series of posts, that sort all the amazing images and pictures that you can find on the website of Wizards of the Coast. WotC has a huge library of art from Dungeons & Dragons books, be it 3.0, 3.5 or 4th Edition. The problem is that the images are only sorted by D&D publication, not by topic.

With my list, it should be easier to find what you need. I hope they the 3rd edition art up much longer as it can be useful for any fantasy campaign. Even if you play Savage Worlds, Earthdawn, GURPS, Castles&Crusades (C&C), Pathfinder, Rolemaster or HARP the art is perfect.

Inn Scene, Elves, Gnomes, Greyscale: The Complete Scoundrel Image 1
Dwarfes, Group, Wizard, Fighter, Mohawk, Greyscale: The Complete Scoundrel Image 2
Collage, Female, Rogue, Scream, Armor, Bard, Scream, Greyscale: The Complete Scoundrel Image 3
City, Group, Half-Orc, Monk, Bard, Color: The Complete Scoundrel Image 7

In the long run it would make more sense to create a website, where you can sort by tag etc. Also a wikilike option to have other people help tagging would be great. The Ultimate RPG Art Index so to speak.

Friday, February 20, 2009

Savage Worlds Skill Reduction: Tracking

Tracking should cease being a skill on it's own and instead be part of Survival for wilderness, Streetwise in cities and Investigation for research.
This seems at least to be a convincing setting rule.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Red Tube - Biological Experiment (Necessary Evil)

Red Tube was not created in an act of love. Instead she was conceived inside a lab.
Her human body was grown around a number of alien technology tubes that were found at a UFO crash site in the Antarctica.
The red tubes are about 1,5 meters long. They are hollow and seem to filter certain subatomic particles.

It seems those tubes float in solar winds nobody else can feel and Red Tube's body is lifted by those solar winds.

When she was only 4 years old, the Antarctic lab was raided by the villain organization NERDS THAT HURT - short NTH. One of those villains - named Postal - adopted Red Tube. She spent the rest of her childhood in a secret mountain lair, surrounded by the most nerdy super villain team imaginable. Actually it was a pretty nice environment, but because of the tubes she was never able to leave the hide out, as this would have given too much attention. The only contact she had with other kids was over the intetnet.
When she turned 18, she was finally allowed to join the NTH action team. Soon after she proved she is actually able to hide the tubes under normal clothes. But as long as she does that, her powers are not working.

Powers: Force Control, incl. Heavy Weapon, Flight, Deflection

Saturday, February 7, 2009

Hunter Instincts (Savage Worlds Edge)

The characters Tracking and Survival skills are not connected to Smarts, but to Spirit and can therefore only cost one point per die type to raise until they exceed the character's Spirit stat.

Savage Worlds Spirit Tricks

Redesigning the Savage Worlds Skill System?

After Solomon Kane introduced Strength Tricks, it would make sense to add Spirit Tricks as well. That way you could get rid of Intimidation, a skill that seems not really to be something learned anyways (with the same argument Guts is often removed).
Consequently you could also get rid of Taunt.

Both skills for the test of will mechanic would become trappings for Tricks instead. This actually makes a lot of sense. If you look at the Pirates RPG you will see that many of the examples for Smart tricks (except for the "Look over there!" cliché) don't really fit Smarts anyways.
This means you can choose, if you want to get -2 for the next action of the opponent or +2 for the next action against him. Following the advice for tricks in Whispers from the Pit, I would also allow other characters to use the +2 bonus, if the Trick using player wants. This way non combat characters are even more useful in combat.
I would also make it official that a as a third option you can move the tricked opponent 1' with a success.
You have to choose before doing the trick if you want the +2, -2 or 1'. A raise always adds a shaken condition.

Carl Osdracen - Swordmage (Fantasy)

Race: Human (additional Edge)
Rank: Novice XP: 0
Attributes: Agility d8, Smarts d6, Spirit d6, Strength d8, Vigor d6
Skills: Climbing d4, Fighting d8, Intimidate d4, Lockpicking d4, Notice d4, Persuasion d4, Riding d4, Spellcasting d6, Stealth d4, Streetwise d4, Survival d4, Swimming d4
Pace: 6; Parry: 6; Toughness: 7 (5 w/o armor)
Hindrances: Arrogant; Loyal (minor), Enemy (minor)
Edges: Arcane Knowledge (Magic)
Gear: short sword (Str+d6), chain hauberk (+2)
Powers: Bolt, Burst, Smite

Description: Carl is a promising hero as well versed with the sword as with the mind - despite suffering from amnesia and not remembering his childhood. His amazing talents have left the former best student of his academy behind in jealousy - as an enemy. One of his few weaknesses is the fact that he is a man of action, not reading things up at libraries. But Carl also knows he is the best and feels the need to prove it.

Designer Notes: This character was originally created to for 1 on 1 play. His name is inspired by an old gaming pal of mine, his powers and backstory by this guy's characters.
I assume a fantasy setting without Guts skill as the Wizards & Warriors pdf from Pinnacle does.

Tuesday, February 3, 2009

My second time Role Playing

When: 1988
My Age: 10
The game: The Dark Eye, first edition
I played: The GM. I owned this new fantasy game, I wanted for years, and a cheat book for video games with all the 8bit dungeon maps you can imagine in it. I had also created new character races before ever playing the game. There were those insect people from DinoRiders you could play and ghosts from Zelda (could walk through walls). I ran the players through the first dungeon from the first Zelda, as mapped out in the cheat book.
Highlights: One of the 2 player characters found a boomerang. That's all I remember. But he liked the game, told his older brother and so we started playing regularly. (I also remember we were playing on the floor of my room.) They were all killed by demons in the following adventure, an official one called "Ship of the Lost Souls" ("Schiff der Verlorenen Seelen").
I also remember my little brother played a dwarf with a red cap, but without beard. :)