Why I'd love a Phantasy Star PnP RPG setting...

It would be amazing to have a pen and paper RPG setting, where you can take your robe wearing wizard in his new, futuristic land cruiser to a drive in restaurant at the foot of a volcano somewhere in a jungle, after fighting giant mantises, because burgers heal wounds.

Or in German:

Ich fände es toll, ein Pen-and-Paper-Setting zu haben, wo man mit seinem Roben tragenden Magier im gerade teuer erworbenen neuen, spacigen Landcruiser nach dem Kampf gegen Riesengottesanbeterinnen schnell ins Drive In mitten im Dschungel am Fuss eines Vulkans fahren kann, um Burger zur Heilung zu kaufen.

Actually I can achieve most of this with Synnibarr anyways. Except that Synnibarr is more high power.

Edge: Full Practitioner of the Art (Savage Synnibarr)

This is for superhero Savage Worlds campaigns that use the rules from Necessary Evil, etc.

It is a variation of Super Sorcery for character that only have a limited spell list.

Practitioner select 6 spells. They cast them using the Spellcasting skill. If they fail the skill roll, they will only be able to use that spell once more that day. If a 1 comes up on the Spellcasting die (not taking into account the Wild Die), this was the last possiblity to cast it at all for that day.
Snake eyes lead to the Magic Misshape table.

After 6 hours of rest spells lost for a day are recovered.

Savage Synnibarr: Ninja

Agility: d8
Smarts: d6
Strength: d6
Spirit: d6
Vigor: d8

Charisma: 0
Pace: 6+d6
Parry: 6 +4= 10 (also 8 to hit from distance!)
Toughness: 6

Skills:
Fighting d8
Shooting d6
Throwing d4
Notice d4 (Awareness!, Danger Sense)
Persuation d4
Swimming d4
Stealth d8
Tracking d6
Lockpicking d12+1 (Super Skill) [Device: Toolkit]
Knowledge (Poison) d4

Edges: Power Points (Extra)
-

Hindrances:
2 Major
2 Minor

Powers:
Attack, Melee (2x3+1) [Nerve Pinch, Dim Mak] +3d6 damage
Paralysis (2): [Nerve Pinch] : Vigor Roll or 3 rounds paralyzed
Telepathy (1): Only Other Ninjas
Awareness + Danger Sense (3+5) : no malus for dark, etc; -4 on attacks against Ninja; Smarts to detect ambush
Wall Walker (1)

[][][][][]

Equipment:
Toolkit
Katana
Bow
Shuriken

Savage Synnibarr: Shaman

Agility: d6
Smarts: d8
Strength: d6
Spirit: d6
Vigor: d6

Charisma: 0
Pace: 6+d6
Parry:
Toughness:

Skills:
Fighting d6
Climbing d4
Notice d6
Swimming d4
Survival d8
Tracking d8
Healing d8
Spellsinging d8


Edges:
Power Points (Extra)
Woodsman

Hindrances:
Heroic
Curious
Loyal
All Thumbs

Powers:

Flight (2)

Full Practioner of the Art (includes Detect Spelltrap) (36PP)

Telekinesis (8) [Spirit Force] d12+2 Strength (1000 pounds)Ensnare, +Ranged+Stronger (8) [Mystic Cage]  On a raise escape is not possibleParalysis, Ranged (2+4)[Lotus Bolt] Vigor Roll or Paralyzed for 3 roundsIntangability (5) [Transform in Spirit] Only Alch,PSI,EaP,Mag hurtsInterface (2+1=3) [See the past]Immunity Magic (1x4=4) Only Alch,PSI,EaP,Mag [Cloak of the Shaman], needs activation

Savage Synnibarr: Aquarian

Ag. d8

Sm. d6

St. d12+3 (1 ton)

Sp. d6

Vig. d8

Charisma -2 (mean)
Parry

Toughness 6+2=8 (superpower)

Skills:
Swimming d4
Fighting d10
Knowledge (Aqua) d4
Shooting d6
Persuasion d6
Investigation d6
Survival d4
Tracking d4


Hindrances:
Mean
Overconfident
Heroic
Quirk (Fishmouth)
Weakness (minor): Heat +4 damage

Superpowers (Cost):

Aquatic (2) +3 people

Stun (1) Steal Oxygen (centred on character only, medium burst template)

Animal Control (1) only aquatic swarms or up to medium aquatic creatures

Awareness (1) Sonar: aquatic only

Mind Control (3): Poison Spines, up to 2 targets (restrict people)

Superstrength (6)

Leaping (2): 4"/8" (8 m high, 16 m wide)

Toughness (3)

Tricancellation (4-3): only against 2 powers developed so far; 1/day

Equipment: Trident

Savage Synnibarr: Shadow Master

Agility: d8
Smarts: d6
Strength: d6
Spirit: d8
Vigor: d6

Charisma: 0
Pace: 6+d6
Parry:
Toughness:

Skills:
Fighting d6
Shooting d6
Climbing d4
Notice d4
Persuation d4
Swimming d4
Pilot
Healing


Edges: Power Points (Extra)
((Astral Projection))

Hindrances:
??Psisha Adreemus / Psisheen??


Powers:


Heal (2) [Heal and Regrowth]
Elemental Control (1) affects 5kg
Teleport (3x2) [Tesseract]
Ranged Attack (3) [PSI Bolt] 2d6 damage
Awareness (2) (Activated) [Sense Life Form]
=14

[Create Solid Illusion] Lair (1+1); Illusion (2x5+1) = 13 (15 Minutes Prep, 2/day: -10),  = 4
(64x64x64m)

0 hitpoints does not mean instant death in old school

The Labyrinth Lord Flailsnail Google+ Hangout game I took part last week uses the following interesting rule for permanent injuries and mutilation instead of instant death.

Check the table for going down to 0 hitpoints in Trollsmyth's blog!

In the meantime I found a deadlier table on Trollsmyth's blog: Deadlier death and dismemberment table.

Power Sources in Synnibarr

If you want to use Synnibarr with another rule system, it still is necessary to have a list of all the power sources, because it is often about blocking some of them, be it Weremen or Tricancellation or Tunnel.

Physical
Alchemy
Energy
Magic (includes Mage Warrior, Shaman or Ravashem spells)
Psionics
Earthpower
Chi
Mutation
Technology (Electrics and higher tech, but not combustion engines or "chemical reactions". Low tech like that does not count as power.)
Vederant Nalaberong ("language of the universe", supermagic, P. 196)
God Power

Savage Synnibarr

So we created the first characters for a Savage Worlds Synnibarr adventure tonight. It is going to be hard to create the super powered spellslinging Synnibarr characters in the lower powered Savage Worlds, but we I guess we figured out a way by combining the superpower rules from Necessary Evil with more traditional Arcane Backgrounds.

The two characters we created are an Aquarian and Shaman and I spent some time on setting them up as starting super heroes, but I turns out to be quite tricky.

New Race: The Liefeldians

The Liefeldians are aliens that came to Earth and created humanoid bodies for themselves to interact with the locals. But their understanding of the human physique is not very well developed and so they end up creating very over the top bodies for themselves that also regularly shift in unnatural ways when moving. It is easy to recognize that their joints for example are not working like those of normal humans, but are just simulacra. Sometimes it seems their whole concept and presentation of body is just directed towards one single beholder at a time - that they can't keep human form from more than one angle.

While there is something undoubtly uncanny about them, their grotesquely oversexualised bodies also attract normal humans in some way. Therefore they neither gain nor lose compared to normal humans in the looks department. Dumb humans...

Here can find more examples of the Liefeldian look. Compare them also to the New Men aliens in John M. Harrison's novel "Light".

Savage Worlds Racial Edge: Archetype: With their focus on body shape they can spend one additional point on Attributes, instead of getting a free edge like humans.

Random tables for contemporary gonzo settings

Roll a d4 for boring, a d6 for adventure, a d8 for action, a d12 for supernatural (make them aliens for scifi feel) and a d20 for batshit insane. You can raise the stakes with each encounter. Start with a d4 and move it up for each achievement of the player characters! Or use the random die table in the end for mostly standard, but a few strange results.

encounters (1 in 6 chance of kinship)
0 scientists
1 cops
2 junkies or bums
3 celebrity (actor, singer, politician, scientist, writer, model)
4 demonstration
5 street gang
6 disaster (earthquake, flood, huge hole in ground, fire, virus, swarms)
7 (bank) robbers or terrorists
8 (serial) killer
9 beasts or werewolves
10 experiments or vampires
11 zombies
12 fae
13 evil children
14 smallish UFO or magic tower
15 doppelgangers
16 armed nazis
17 dinosaurs or magicians
18 dimension hole
19 giant creature á la Godzilla, King Kong or plain old giant or dragon
20 huge spaceship or god

(Use this for names: Random authentic US names)


Next City Block (you can draw a square on a map, increase die size each roll, if you want)
1 residental (urban or suburb)
2 shops / restaurants / bars
3 offices
4 park /water
5 square / parking lot
6 slum
7 motorway
8 government
9 museum
10 monument
11 church / temple
12 factory
13 harbour / sea
14 prison
15 military
16 airport
17 mountain
18 abyss
19 lava
20 tentacles

Buildings
1 shed
2 slum housing
3 flat
4 family home
5 sub urban home
6 council housing
7 trailer
8 mansion
9 dorm or elderly home
10 fast food shack or diner
11 shop
12 skyscraper
13 power plant
14 stadion
15 university
16 circus
17 zoo
18 mall
19 graveyard
20 park

If you want a more detailed random table for buildings, just use the foursquare categories as random table.

motivations
1 power
2 love / passion
3 wealth
4 pride
5 outside expectiations
6 credibilty
7 helping others
8 the challenge
9 consequences
10 lust
11 hunger
12 mind control
13 addicton / survival
14 evil
15 complete crazyness
16 nihilsm
17 love & peace & drugs
18 suicide
19 absorbation
20 boredom

rumors (those can be crazier than the truth obviously)
[encounters] are in [building] to [fight/start pact] with [encounters] for [motivations]. Nobody can guess how [encounters] will impact the situation.

support (1 in 6 chance of betrayal)
1 family
2 colleagues
3 new love
4 professionals that want money
5 subculture
6 celebrity (actor, singer, politician)
7 class
8 foreigners
9 secret organization
10 bloodline
11 foreigners
12 animals
13 ghosts
14 robots
15 oracle / enigma
16 sentient nature/ city
17 AI internet system
18 aliens
19 angels
20 gods

weather
1 sunny
2 foggy
3 rainy
4 overcast
5 heatwave
6 snow and ice
7 hurricane
8 dangerous smog
9 radioactive
10 eternal night
11 time freezes
12 grey goo

Random die size
1 d4
2 d6
3 d8
4 d10
5 d12
6 d20