Jetan

Folding up the gameboard

2012-01-30T08:18:00.000-08:00

Given the fact the I'm not gaming on a regular basis right now, and given Google's new invasion of privacy policy I'm going to bring this blog to an end. I'm not going to do anything drastic like delete it or anything, but there won't be any new posts. I may keep blogging somewhere, just not on Blogger, so check out my sf blog Triplanetary for details. I want to thank all of you who follow this blog for reading my ramblings. I hope I didn't bore you too much. It's been fun. さようなら

Two T&T Dungeons

2012-01-14T11:59:00.000-08:00

Spoiler alert! These aren't original dungeons, they're mapped-out versions of two Tunnels & Trolls solo dungeons, Buffalo Castle and Sword for Hire. If you've ever played a T&T solo you know they don't come with maps. That would be a dead giveaway. You have to map it yourself as you go along. So I cleaned up the maps I made playing through the adventures with the idea that I could later run them as GM'd dungeons with a group of players. I think it's kind of funny that even though I was doing this for my own private use among a small group of people I still took the trouble to add copyright credits to the maps.

Double Barreled

2012-01-06T13:50:00.000-08:00

As a result of the holiday tradition of gift giving I now have access to a working scanner. I also managed to dig up a pile of old game notes that I thought I'd lost, including what looks like a complete dungeon. Time will tell whether or not I scan all of it, but some of it will show up here. Here's a sample of what I have. During a sf campaign one player wanted both a laser rifle and a slug thrower, but wanted to avoid the encumbrance penalties for carrying around two weapons. So he wanted a combined laser/slug thrower rifle. The sketch on the right is his concept of what the weapon would look like. The two to the left are "transitional forms" you might say, of a bulky laser rifle and a provisional design. On the bottom is the final rifle design I came up with for him.

And you'll notice that in the right-hand margin someone has written "John W. Campbell, Anthology Trilogy." That's not my handwriting so it's just as much a mystery to me as it is to you. Presumably it refers to his Astounding Science Fiction anthologies, which shows that we were at least drawing on some good source material.

Indistinguishable from magic

2011-12-22T16:59:00.000-08:00

Adam, Zak S. and Jeff R. have all been musing about magic lately. Sounds fun, so I'll chime in. Probably as a result of playing T&T, I tend to regard magic as a specialized form of psi power. (As you can imagine, I've never been a fan of the way D&D adds a separate (and IMO clunky) system for psionics.) This is more in keeping with Vance's idea of magic, too. I tend to imagine it being more like Norton's Witch World or Bradley's Darkover series, where magic ain't nothin' but psi misspelled.

(3rd edition hardback)

For a straight-up magic system my favorite is still the one from Ken St. Andre & Steve Perrin's Stormbringer. The system revolves around summoning and binding elementals and/or demons. In case you're wondering, the psi angle is that your mind is reaching out to another plane of existence and drawing those creatures to you. The cool thing about the system is that it's simple but very versatile. You do all the usual stupid wizard tricks, like cast a fireball (fire elemental) or make a flying carpet (demon of travel). And it naturally limits magic powers, since demons of combat can be very dangerous. If you pick up a magic sword in this game it could kill you.

In more general terms, I don't see why magic couldn't be done with straight psi powers. You could even use them to explain most superpowers. Super strength is just psychokinesis with no range, fireballs are just a special form of pyrokinesis, x-ray vision is a type of clairvoyance, etc. One thing that really got me thinking this way was Claude J. Pelletier's excellent article "Put Some Magic In It" which used the Mekton II psionic rules as a framework for a magic system. But why bother with separate rules? Why not just use the psionic rules to account for "spells"? There are a few things that standard psionic rules don't cover, like shapeshifting or breathing water, but it's easy to expand the rules to cover that stuff.

And really it just comes down to a matter of semantics.As Jeff R. showed, whether you want your Magic Missile to be a bolt of mind force or a spray of pixie dust is all up to you.

"That's no moon..."

2011-12-16T10:26:00.000-08:00

Marc Miller's Traveller (1977) introduced a system for randomly generating space maps that has been widely imitated. One thing that is sometimes overlooked in these systems is the possibility of exotic interstellar phenomena. That's what makes David Cook's planet generation system for TSR's Star Frontiers (1982) so interesting. It appeared in Ares Magazine Special Edition #2 (1983) and when rolling up a system there was a 1% chance you'd roll on a "Special Feature Table" that covered unusual deep space objects.

Special Feature Table

Die Roll...Feature
01-03.....Alien artifact
04..........Alien lifeform
05-06....Artificial world
07.........Black hole
08-20...Dead star
21-22...Derelict spaceship
23-50...Dust cloud
51........Neutron star
52-71...Protostar
72-80...Rogue planet
81-99...Supernova remnant
00........White hole

Most of those features should be self-explanatory. Dust clouds cover 1D10 cubic light-years and may interfere with communications, as might neutron stars, supernova remnants, et al. Artificial worlds can be anything from a hollow asteroid to a ringworld or Dyson sphere. You get the idea. So the nest time you're rolling up a space map throw in a few special features to spice things up.

The History of FASA Trek

2011-12-08T13:50:00.001-08:00

You probably already know the story of Guy W. McLimore, Greg Poehlein ~~& David F. Tepool's~~ Mekton supplement, Mekton Empire (1990). But there's an equally interesting tale behind their development of FASA's Star Trek RPG. A couple things really stand out to me. One is that they had to do a rush job on the project. That probably explains why the campaign advice was so sparse. Another is that they eventually split with FASA over the company's push to militarize the game. But I'll let McLimore tell the story in his own words.

1st edition cover

Star Trek: the Roleplaying Game

Guy McLimore, Greg Poehlein, and Dave Tepool were privileged to add their small part to the Star Trek legend as the authors of Star Trek: The Role Playing Game for FASA Corporation. As long time Trekfans, the trio is still very proud of the work they did on this project in its early days.

Guy, Greg, and Dave, operating at that time as Fantasimulations Associates, were assigned the Star Trek project by FASA after five other design teams had failed to turn in a manuscript that both FASA and Paramount Pictures would approve. FASA's license option was about to run out, and they needed to get a product into print almost immediately.

"We had only a few weeks to create character creation, character combat, and starship combat systems," remembers Guy. "When we made that deadline, FASA assigned us the entire project." It was to absorb almost all of their design efforts for the next several years. Guy, Greg, and Dave created the first edition of the basic ST:RPG rules, which debuted at a Trek convention in Omaha, Nebraska. The game was an immediate success, and soon became the second best selling RPG in history at the time (although well behind #1 - Advanced Dungeons and Dragons).

The first boxed set included both the role playing rules and a role playing style starship combat system that remains unique among game systems. Instead of a tactical board game, the role playing combat system offered players the chance to sit at "consoles" for the various bridge stations and perform their duties by allocating power to various systems, setting course, activating the shields, and firing weapons.

A series of expansion volumes soon followed, all written by Guy, Greg, and Dave, including The Klingons, The Romulans, and Trader Captains and Merchant Princes, which introduced non-military personnel as player characters for the first time. Most of the early adventure supplements were also written by one or more members of the trio. David created and later revised the Star Trek Tactical Ship Combat Simulator, which was eventually boxed as a separate component of the system and probably outsold even the role playing game because of its fast play mechanic and authenticity.

The main books of the system, including the Basic Game and the Klingons, Romulans, and Trader Captains supplements, entered a second edition, using the Fantasimulations Associates systems and text that was edited by John Wheeler. The second editions proved even more popular than the first.

FASA was already pursuing another success story in the form of Battletech. Future warfare was very popular, and FASA was in the forefront of the new gaming craze.

FASA's desire to stress the combat aspects of Star Trek led to disputes between them and the Fantasimulations Associates designers, who wanted to maintain the less-violent focus of the Star Trek TV series. This led to ST:RPG projects being assigned to other designers, and eventually to a payment dispute which ended the three Fantasimulations Associates designers' association with FASA and the Star Trek property.

The later ST:RPG works became very controversial in fandom because of their focus on military themes. Gene Roddenberry returned to active interest in licensing (during the initial planning of Star Trek: The Next Generation) and was reportedly unhappy with the change of approach to the game materials. A number of proposed FASA projects were turned down when submitted to Paramount for approval. One short-lived sourcebook was actually sent to press and distributed before Paramount had ruled on it. When it was turned down by the licensee, Paramount insisted that FASA withdraw the book from publication.

Eventually FASA's license to produce Star Trek materials was not renewed, and the game went out of print. Copies usually bring high prices from used game dealers. Paramount never again allowed a role playing game license to be sold for any Star Trek property, despite the interest of companies such as TSR, Mayfair Games, and Steve Jackson Games, until January 1998, when a license was granted to Last Unicorn Games.

Klingon Random Name Generator

2011-11-30T06:00:00.000-08:00

I was looking through my RPG stuff to find some of my old notes, but it doesn't seem like much has survived. I think most of it got thrown out one of the times I moved. Bummer. One thing I did find is something I don't even remember doing. It's a Klingon Random Name generator for...I don't know what. I guess I must have wanted names for Klingon NPCs in a Star Trek game, but I can't for the life of me remember the details. Nevertheless, here it is in all its mysterious glory.

Klingon Random Name Generator

I: Given Name:

First Letter (Roll one die): 1-3 = K-, 4-5 = Q-, 6 = M-

Mid. Syllable (Roll one die): 1 = -ar-, 2 = -il-, 3 = -ah-, 4 = -ir-, 5 = -al-, 6 = (Roll on Short-Name chart)

Last Syll. (Roll two dice): 2 = -dar, 3 = -gran, 4 = -mtav, 5 = -rvan, 6 = -gga, 7 = -mato, 8 = -tarc, 9 = -gak, 10 = -gar, 11 = -ssa, 12 = -ramark

Short-Name Chart (Roll one die): 1 = -or, 2 = -ruge, 3 = -ang, 4 = -ex, 5 = -zak, 6 = -altz

II: Honorific (one die): 1 = no honorific, 2 = tai-, 3 = vestai-, 4 = sutai-, 5 = zantai-, 6 = epetai-

(NOTE: The honorific is added as a prefix to the line-name.)

III: Line-name:

First Syll. (Roll two dice): 2 = Sol-, 3 = Jur-, 4 = Sub-, 5 = Hav-, 6 = Pal-, 7 = Ney-, 8 = Tre-, 9 = Jav-, 10 = Hur-, 11 = Lim-, 12 = Uru-

Mid. Syll. (Roll one die): 1 = -ai-, 2 = -ge-, 3 = -us-, 4 = -az-, 5 = -la-, 6 = (No middle syllable)

Last syllable (Roll two dice): 2 = -esh, 3 = -ra, 4 = -iss, 5 = -bh, 6 = -arn, 7 = -th, 8 = -ric, 9 = -sig, 10 = -exa, 11 = -vrk, 12 = -ltz

That's it. Let's see how well it works...

#1: Qang vestai-Palgeth
#2: Qilgga sutai-Neyaziss
#3: Kirmato vestai-Neygeric

Qapla'! Not half bad, although the slight bell-curve on those 2D rolls weights things toward the middle. Good enough for a quick-and-dirty Klingon NPC or two though. But what do I know? tlhIngan Hol vIjatlhbe'!

FASA Trek's prescience

2011-11-23T09:24:00.001-08:00

Guy McLimore, Greg Poehlein, and David Tepool's Star Trek: The Role Playing Game (1982) had a lot of interesting points. While generally staying true to the Star Trek universe, it also emphasized some aspects that were more reminisent of Marc Miller's Traveller (1977). For example, the supplement Trader Captains and Merchant Princes (1983), which let players unleash their inner Harry Mudd. But in the equipment lists of that book was something remarkable, even uncanny. It came disguised as a simple description of a data storage card, or "computer cart."

The text seems to be describing a standard memory tape, but look at the illustration. Look familiar? That's no memory tape, it's a USB flash drive.

But flash drives weren't around until c. 2000 CE, eighteen years after that game was published. This is highly illogical. Is it a clue planted by a time traveler, as in Asimov's The End of Eternity? Did the game designers have precognitive abilities? What's going on here?

Glitches

2011-11-17T07:48:00.001-08:00

The R. Talsorian sourcebook for Cyberpunk based on Walter Jon Williams' book Hardwired (1986) included some interesting variations on the core rules. Most significantly, the netrunning rules were revamped to a more realistic system. CP2020 is a good game, but the treatment of cyberspace is very idiosyncratic, to say the least. Another thing I like is the table of "glitches" for NPCs. These are personality quirks that can give characters a distinctive personality. It's like a quick-and-dirty Life Path. To determine the number of glitches, roll 1D10. 1-5 = 1 glitch, 6-8 = 2 glitches, 9-10 = 3 glitches. Roll 2D10 for each glitch and cross-index on the Glitch Table.

Radiation rules

2011-11-11T09:26:00.001-08:00

I was browsing Joseph Heck's Traveller website and found these rules for radiation poisoning from GDW's Twilight 2000. They are very realistic (i.e., lethal) and will work as written with any game that has a stat range of 1-10. In games that don't have a Constitution stat just use the equivalent; e.g, in Interlock use the Body Type stat, in CORPS or Action! System use Health, etc.

Date: Fri, 29 Sep 1995 12:30:17 -0700 (PDT)
From: John ---- ---------- <-------@uclink.berkeley.edu>
Subject: Rads
Re: Radiation T:2000 rules

Effects of Exposure: Exposure to lower levels of radiation will produce temporary illness, while higher levels can kill. All exposure is cumulative. When a character's accumulated rads reach or surpass 50, he must be checked for radiation illness. Thereafter, each time the character accumulates one or more rads he must be checked for radation illness. however, the character is checked for radiation illness only once per day on each day that he accumulates additional rads.

The Radiation Illness Chart (below) gives the multipliers used to determine the chances of illness and death from exposure to radiation. Use the rad level on the chart that is closest to (without exceeding) his accumulated rad level.

Rads...Slight Illness...Serious Illness...Death
50.............1.0..............nil....................nil
100............0.5............1.0...................nil
300............0.2............0.5..................1.0
400...........Auto..........0.2...................0.5
600...........Auto..........Auto................0.2
800...........Auto..........Auto................Auto

Multiply the character's Constitution by the multiplier to determine his target number (round fractions up). Roll 1D10. If the number rolled is equal to or less than the chance, the character avoids the effect.

Slight Illness: Nausea, vomiting, and headaches. Onset is 1D6 hours after exposure. The character has strength, agility, and intelligence halved for the duration of the illness. Symptoms last one day at lower levels, two days if exposure is greater than 600 rads.

Serious Illness: First suffers slight illness, as above,. Then suffers serious illness and is incapacitated with severe vomiting and diarrhea, spotting on the body caused by bleeding under teh skin, and blood int he stool and vomit. Onset of serious illness is 2D6 days after exposere at levels less than 300 rads, 1D6 at levels above that. Incapacitation lasts 1D6 days, plus one day for every two days spent without bed rest and medical care. The amount of medical care required is the same as for a character with a serious wound to two body parts -- or two additional body parts if the character is already wounded. General illness, approximating the effects of slight illness listed above, will persist for 1D6 weeks.

Death: The character first suffers from slight radiation illness and then from serious radiation illness. During the incapacitation period (and usually within 30 days of exposure) the character dies.

At higher tech levles, presumably an automed could treat slightand serious illness at increasing levels of exposure, and a full medicalfacility could prevent death, and "roll-back" a persons cumulativeexposure. The description in FF&S of the consequences of getting tooclose to a Fusion Drive suggest that bone marrow transplants etc, would benecessary, so presumably the character is till going to be laid up forsome time.

*Apologies to those not interested in radiation, but enough people had expressed an interest that I thought it was worthwhile.
--M

Whether or not you want to use these rules depends on how realistic you want to be. They would be very useful in a hard sf game but would be inappropriate in a planetary romance or superhero game. If you do use them in a super-science game - a space opera setting like Star Trek, for example - you might want to allow medical science to provide a cure, like the original poster suggested. Assuming the doctor has the necessary drugs on hand and makes a successful skill roll she could alleviate the effects of the radiation poisoning. If the science is sufficiently advanced you could even allow treatment that would reduce the number of rads the character has accumulated.

Warp "speed"

2011-11-03T14:51:00.000-07:00

I know Warp 6 is slow, but as Murphy's Rules points out Warp 7 isn't much better.

Count Dracula

2011-10-27T09:41:00.000-07:00

Picture by Gene Colan

Count Dracula is a centuries-old vampire and Transylvanian nobleman who exudes a veneer of aristocratic charm. He claims to be a Székely descended from Attila the Hun. He is deeply proud of his boyar heritage and is nostalgic for the past times of heroism, honor and valor. Although Dracula dons a mask of cordiality, he often flies into fits of rage when his plans for world domination are interfered with.

Count Dracula

Body: 8 Mind: 7 Soul: 9
Health Points: 125 Energy Points: 160 Shock Value: 17
Combat Value: 11 Defense Value: 6

Attributes: Alternate Form (Bat: Body 6, Mind 4, Soul 1, Flight 2 (50 kph), Heightened Senses 1 (Sonar)), Animal Summon/Control (5 Wolves) 2, Attack Combat Mastery 3, Contamination (Vampirism) 5 (12 hr for transformation to complete, 1 Person), Energy Bonus 4, Extra Attacks 2, Heightened Awareness 2 (4 Check Value Bonus), Heightened Senses 2 (Hearing, Smell, Vision), Highly Skilled 1, Mind Control 3 (+2 Check Bonus, -1 to Resistance Check, 1 Person), Mind Shield 3 (3 defensive levels of Mind and Soul, +30 mental armor), Natural Weapons (Fangs) 1, Regeneration 1 (5 Heath Points restored each round), Special Attack (Vampire bite) 4 (20 damage attack, Incapacitating (Body Check Required), Drain Soul (1 soul points drained), Vampiric, Only Restore Lost Levels, Low Penetration, Melee), Special Defense 7 (Ageing 2, Disease 2, Air/Oxygen to Breathe 2, Poison 1), Special Movement 3 (Wall-Crawling, Cat-Like), Super Strength 1 (2 tonnes and +10 damage in close combat and +4 strength check bonus), Tough 2 (+40 health points)

Skills: Climbing 1, Cultural Arts (Transylvanian History) 4, Etiquette 3, Forgery 1, Intimidation (Street) 2, Languages (English, Lip Reading) 2, Stealth (Silent move) 3, Urban Tracking (Underworld) 4, Wilderness Tracking (Forest) 2,

Defects: Achilles Heel (Wooden weapons) -2, Bane (Holy Symbol, 20 pts/round of exposure) -1, Bane (Sunlight, 40 pts/round of exposure) -2, Marked (Red eyes. fangs) -1, Nemesis (Professor Abraham Van Helsing) -2

Character Points: 165 Skill Points: 30

Notes: Made with the SAS Character Generator for use with the free Tri-Stat rules. The write up is based on BESM Hellsing (02-907), BESM 3rd Edition (WW76000) Vampire template, and of course Bram Stoker's 1897 Gothic horror novel Dracula.

The Rule of Five

2011-10-19T12:49:00.000-07:00

I think we've all been in games alongside Power Gamers. You know the ones. They could care less about their character's personality. Their only interest is to turn them into an unstoppable juggernaut. If it weren't for encumbrance rules they'd haul around every conceivable weapon. They also like to load up on any and every magic item they can grab. What's a poor GM to do? The Fantasy Trip had a nice way to deal with the latter problem called The Rule of Five.

The Rule of Five: Wearing Several Magic Items
The Rule of Five states that one person cannot use more than five magical items at a time. However, any one item can contain up to five spells. This means that a person can have up to 25 spells going for him at once -- which ought to be enough.

Of course that won't be enough for the Power Gamer, but they'll just have to lump it. And in practice the average magical item will have far fewer than five spells in it. That could make for some interesting choices for the players as they try to decide between this magic wand and that magic ring. On the other hand, you might also want some special rules to take into account artifacts and other legendary magical items of great power. If someone finds the Ring of Gaxx, which has nine different powers, it might have to count as two items.

You could work any number of variations on this rule. For example, in a more gritty game you could have a Rule of Seven stating that a character can have no more than seven spells - from magic items or elsewhere - going for them at once. That could help keep wizardry from overpowering the game and really annoy the Power Gamers.

Extraordinary Voyages

2011-10-12T07:07:00.000-07:00

Previously I posted about how despite the best efforts of RuneQuest's creators they just couldn't persuade the game's fans to use it for settings other than Glorantha. I even posted the mock-ancient map from RQ3 and then speculated that the landmark called "Chariot of Gods" might be a reference to theories of ancient astronauts. Well, it turns out that map was much more realistic than I imagined, and that there really was an ancient mariner who sighted the "Chariot of Gods." That sailor was named Hanno, and here's what H. G. Wells has to say about him in The Outline of History (1920).

About 520 B.C. a certain Hanno made a voyage that is still one of the most notable in the world. This Hanno - if we may trust the Periplus of Hanno, the Greek translation of his account which still survives - followed the African coast southward from the Straits of Gibraltar as far as the confines of Liberia. He had sixty big ships and his main task was to found or reinforce certain Carthaginian stations upon the Morocco coast. Then he pushed southward. He founded a settlement in the Rio de Oro (on Kerne or Herne Island), and sailed on past the Senegal River. The voyagers passed on for seven days beyond the Gambia, and landed at last upon some island. This they left in a panic, because, although the day was silent with the silence of the tropical forests, night they heard the sound of flutes, drums, and gongs, and the sky was red with the blaze of the bush fires. The coast country for the rest of the voyage was one blaze of fire, from the burning of the bush. Streams of fire ran down the hills into the sea, and at length a blaze arose so loftily that it touched the skies. Three days further brought them to an island containing a lake (?Sherbro Island). In this lake was another island (?Macaulay Island), and on this were wild, hairy men and women, "whom the interpreters called gorilla."

The Carthaginians, having caught some of the females of these "gorillas" - they were probably chimpanzees - turned back and eventually deposited the skins of their captives - who had proved impossibly violent guests to entertain on board ship - in the Temple of Juno.

Hanno's own account mentions a notable landmark.

"Sailing quickly away thence, we passed a country burning with fires and perfumes; and streams of fire supplied from it fell into the sea. The country was impassable on account of the heat. We sailed quickly thence, being much terrified; and passing on for four days, we discovered a country full of fire. In the middle was a lofty fire, larger than the rest, which seemed to touch the stars. When day came, we discovered it to be a large hill, called the Chariot of the Gods."

So that's what the map is referring to. But even if you leave space aliens out of it this kind of extraordinary voyage would make a great basis for a game. It could either be an epic campaign, with players undertaking the whole voyage from beginning to end, or it could be a jumping off point for more episodic adventures. Fabulous ruins, mysterious civilizations, lost Atlantean colonies -- any number of adventures await. It would be like a cross between Conan, Tarzan and the old Wagon Train TV series, only set in ancient Africa.

The Pillars of Hercules

2011-10-07T13:52:00.000-07:00

The state of affairs about 750 B.C.

This is a follow-up post to my earlier suggestion for a game set during the time of the Cimmerian invasions. While in the east the Assyrians and Lydians are fending off the rampaging barbarian hordes, in the west the Phoenicians are extending their sway. This map shows the disposition at the time. The Phoenician colony of Carthage is the dominant city-state in the region. They are so sure of their power that they tend to regard the whole Mediterranean as their own private property, and have been known to seize ships and cargoes. Yet when the Greeks or Etruscans return the favor they're branded "pirates." A loose federation of Etruscan city-states dominates the Italian peninsula. Rome at this time was still ruled by the legendary kings. It was little more than a colony of Alba Longa, only just beginning to assert its independence. The Greeks, both Ionian and Dorian, have a strong presence in the toe and heel of Italy and eastern Sicily. They present a serious challenge to the Phoenician dominance of trade.

Although the Phoenicians counted biremes as part of their navy, and triremes were starting to appear, the most common ship plying the seas was still the pentekonter. Even a century later, at the Battle of Alalia, the Greek fleet would consist entirely of pentekonters, and decades later Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos, would wreak havoc on the Aegean with a navy of 100 pentekonters.

In addition to the usual opportunities for adventure -- treasure rich, monster haunted ruins, etc. --- the prevalence of colonies in this region presents an opportunity for an interesting variation on the standard "D&D endgame." Instead of just getting a stronghold, players reaching a certain level (either literally or figuratively if playing a game like RuneQuest) could set out to found their own city. This could become a campaign in itself, with the party playing out a scenario similar to the one in the later books of The Aeneid.

Cimmerian hordes

2011-09-30T11:55:00.000-07:00

A while ago I suggested that the Hellenistic Era would be a good historical campaign setting for a Conan-style FRPG. But of course Conan was a Cimmerian, and there really were barbarians by that name, but they lived centuries earlier.

Western Asia, 7th century BCE.

It was a time of empires in decline, when Egypt was in turmoil, the mighty Assyrian empire maintained a precarious dominance, and the Phoenicians ruled the Mediterranean waves. It was then that, as Herodotus tells us, "...the Cimmerians, driven from their homes by the nomads of Scythia, entered Asia and captured Sardis, all but the citadel." For decades the barbarian hordes ravaged Anatolia, often seeking only loot. "For the Cimmerian attack upon Ionia...was not a conquest of the cities, but only an inroad for plundering." Before they were vanquished as an effective fighting force by king Alyattes II of Lydia towards the close of the century they had clashed with imperial Assyrian armies, brought Phrygia to its knees, and ravaged the kingdom of Lydia. Who knows what other exploits they had, what solitary adventurers set out form among their ranks and what dangers they faced?

Of course Howard's stories were not historical, and his Cimmerians were not the ones of history. But I think the history of this period is just as exiting and exotic as the imaginary world of Hyboria. It was a time of brave Greek mercenaries, wise Egyptian sorcerers, wily Phoenician merchants, Etruscan pirates, fierce priestesses of Ishtar, and of course rugged Cimmerian barbarians.

However, there are a few historical details that may challenge the average role-player. For example, coinage had not yet been invented. At that time people mainly used weighted bits of metal as currency. It was the Lydians who would mint the first electrum coins, but it would be centuries before the system was widespread. And at the same time the Lydians were also just inventing the inn. I think that facing a world with no inns or coins might reduce the average gamer to a twitching wreck. You could fudge things, and add those conveniences to make things comfortable for the players. Since there's going to be magic and monsters in the game there's no need to be a stickler for historical detail. On the other hand, sometimes it's fun to watch the players twitch. It's your call. In any case, your chariot awaits...

Arduin, Bloody Ardiun

2011-09-22T15:06:00.000-07:00

Different Worlds was Chaosium's house magazine back in the day. Although never as popular as The Dragon or The Space Gamer it was a pretty good zine. One notable feature was the "My Life & Role-Playing" series. As editor Tadashi Ehara explains,

"To provide content for the first issue, I invited all the prominent game designers and role-playing personalities at the time to submit a "My Life & Role-Playing" article. The response exceeded expectations and many heart-felt articles were submitted. The premiere issue of Different Worlds debuted in early 1979 with articles from 13 of these members of the role-playing world. Many others followed in subsequent issues. To my chagrin, Greg Stafford himself has never contributed to the "My Life & Role-Playing" series."

Dave Arneson, Ken St. Andre, Steve Jackson, Marc W. Miller, Paul Jaquays, and others talked about their experience with gaming. They provide a great glimpse into the early days of the hobby. One of the others to contribute was David A. Hargrave, author of the unforgettable Arduin Trilogy. The second issue of the magazine featured an article by him titled "Arduin, Bloody Ardiun" in which he wrote about his eclectic (eccentric?) campaign setting and which included this cool early map of Arduin.

Whether that article was written before or after his infamous spat with Greg Stafford I can't say, but he didn't seem to have a problem with promoting Arduin in the pages of Chaosium's zine.

Chariot of the Gods

2011-09-20T08:38:00.000-07:00

RuneQuest is a game that will always be associated with the fictional world of Glorantha. This is despite the fact that the game's authors have always encouraged players to use it for other settings. In the introduction to the 2nd edition of 1979 they emphasize the novelty at that time of situating a game in a particular world, but also recommend that it be used in other venues.

However, this game is not limited to Glorantha. The experience system, the combat system, most of the magic system, and the training/guild system, and everything but the specific references to the world of Glorantha can be adjusted to fit any time and space with a minimum of hassle. We think you will find this system more realistic, and at the same time more playable, than any system you have seen before.

They even published Questworld, a non-Glorantha setting for the game. It never caught on. When the third edition was released by Avalon Hill some years later they went a step further. The default setting of the game was changed to a fantasy version of Europe, with Glorantha provided as an optional setting. They even included a nice map in the rules.

This is a great map. It has the feel of a pre-modern map. It's a little crude, a little sketchy, but has enough details to be useful for the players. I like this much better than the overly realistic maps in some games. (As much as I admire the world building that went into HârnWorld, the presentation in the form of a modern atlas always struck me as somewhat anachronistic for a pseudo-medieval fantasy setting.) One curious thing about the map is that mountain in east of "Libya" labeled "Chariot of Gods." Just what is that? For me it brings to mind all those stories of ancient astronauts, aliens from other worlds mistaken for gods by earthlings. It's easy to envision a group of PCs mounting a major expedition to explore it, with plenty of adventures on the way and an encounter with strange creatures from the void at the end. Despite intriguing features like this, and further supplements like Eldarad, these non-Glorantha settings never caught on. For most gamers RuneQuest remained synonymous with Glorantha. And so the Chariot of the Gods remains a mystery waiting to be explored.

D&D magic using BRP

2011-09-14T07:03:00.000-07:00

Back when I was using BRP to run FRPGs I was always figuring out ways to adapt material form other games to the Chaosium system. Since it dominates the hobby it was inevitable that this would involve D&D. BRP was similar enough to TSR's juggernaut that it was a fairly straightforward process. Monsters could be thrown right into a game after giving them an Attack % and with just a slight tweaking of the damage they did. Magic swords fit right in by the simple expedient of treating each +1 as a +5%. But when it came to magic things got a little trickier. BRP is a skill based game, and it uses Magic Points to fuel spells. That's a far cry from D&D's Level-based, cast-and-forget system. How do you fit that into a game?

All your base are belong to us.

I hit on this simple expedient. The minimum INT required to learn a spell was the spell's level+11; e.g., a 4th level spell requires an INT 15 to learn. Each spell was treated as a separate skill. The spell-caster's "level" for determining the power of the spell was the skill divided by 5. The Magic Point cost for each spell was equal to the spell level, plus additional Magic Points for extra range, duration, etc. For example, a Wizard with an INT of 13 (or more) knows the second level spell Detect Invisible at 45%. He could cast it as the equivalent of a 9th level D&D wizard with a range of 90', but it would cost him 10 Magic Points (2MP base+8 for extra "levels" of effect). However, a magic user can opt to cast a spell at a lower "level" by pumping fewer Magic Points into it. So our wizard could opt to put only 3MP into the spell for 20' range, etc. A Critical Success means the spell only burns the minimum number of Magic Points but takes effect at maximum level (or less at caster's choice). For example, our wizard knows Fireball at 45% and gets a Critical Success. The spell only consumes 3 Magic Points but does a full 9d6 damage. A Fumble means the spell is a dud. It uses up all the MP put into it but has no effect.

You don't say.

That's all there was to it. Nothing too earthshaking, I admit. It worked OK, although I didn't playtest it extensively. It was only used in a few encounters with NPC's on alternative worlds. Other people have thought of their own versions of this long before I did. I saw and old Pegasus magazine article where someone had come up with a very similar system, although he also added (IIRC) a pool of points called Mana that limited the amount of magic that could be cast in a certain time period. And I can think of plenty of variations. You could have a character pick a class and that class would have a % ranking, starting at 5% ("first level"). This would function as the Level your character has in their "class". So a Druid 30% would be the equivalent of a 6th Level D&D character. Etc. So don't just limit yourself to plundering dungeons. Plunder those other games for rules, monsters and magic, too.

Baron Xaq von Sytok

2011-09-09T18:05:00.000-07:00

I've had that freeware Traveller Character Generator on my desktop for a while and every now and then I'll roll up a character to see what I get. Since Traveller chargen is an almost entirely random procedure, what I end up with is pretty hit or miss. Surprisingly few of the characters have died while being rolled up, but it does happen. More common are characters with some ridiculously low attribute, like the Army vet who had a successful career, acquired several skills and reached the rank of major -- all with an Intelligence of 3! Then there was the Navy man who ended up with an Endurance of 1. I'm all for playing challenging characters, but and invalid is a bit much. Anyway, here's my best result so far.

Baron Xaq von Sytok, Capt. Imperial Navy (ret.) Male Human, Age 34

UPP 96AABC

Skills: Blade (Sword)-1, Computer-1, Engineering-2, Gunnery-1, Jack of All Trades-1, Navigation-1, Pilot-1, Vacc Suit-2

Gear: 25,000 credits and one sword.

With a determination to reach the stars and the top of society, young Xaq entered the Navy and embarked on a stellar career. Although never gaining a command of his own, he became an accomplished ship's engineer, willing to go the extra parsec and suit up to crawl into a hot reaction tube for some emergency repairs. His outstanding service and social graces saw him created an Imperial Baron. He now seeks adventure on the Imperial frontier, where his formidable skills and urbane demeanor are always welcome aboard ship.

Hercules vs. Bat Demon

2011-09-02T11:25:00.000-07:00

I think we've all had encounters like this. I wonder if Hercules will have to get a rabies shot now?

Ugly Americans RPG?

2011-08-27T18:44:00.000-07:00

I really dig the show Ugly Americans. It's is set in an alternative New York city peopled by monsters, wizards, mutants and demons. It's like the typical FRPG populace in an urban setting. Here's a taste.

Ugly Americans

Thursdays 10:30/9:30c

Battle of the Summer Solstice

www.comedycentral.com

New Episodes Oct 6, 10:30pm/9:30c

Department of Integration Field Guide

Follow the Show on Twitter

As I see it, the PC's would all live in the same big city, and all share the same menial job, like taxi driver, security guards or working at a Rat On A Stick franchise. As for the rules set, the obvious choice would be Toon. There's already a fan made Futurama game using Toon floating around out there, so having an Ugly Americans one too is only natural. But another good choice would be Goblinoid Games' Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future. LL has all the monsters, wizards and zombies you need for the game, while MF has the stats for the robots, mutants, etc. A few minor tweaks and your ready for downtown weirdness. With the right players I think it would make for a great, off-beat campaign.

Superhero Costume Generator

2011-07-21T19:06:00.000-07:00

This should account for about 80% of all superhero costumes.

Roll 1D6.

1-3 = Unitard*
4-5 = Zentai suit**
6= Leotard

* Roll 1D6: 1-3, w/Cape; 4-6, w/o Cape

** Roll 1D6: 1-3, Covers upper face; 4-5, Open Faced; 6, Covers Head

Superman (Golden Age)

2011-07-06T10:19:00.000-07:00

Name: Superman (Golden Age)
Genre: Superhero
First Comic Appearance: Action Comics #1 (June 1938)
Group Affiliations: N/A
Occupation: Journalist
Territory: Metropolis
Age: 23
Gender: Male
Height: 190.5 cm
Weight: 102 kg

Description and Character Notes:
Superman, champion of the oppressed, the physical marvel who had sworn to devote his existance to helping those in need!

Body: 17
Mind: 8
Soul: 11
Health Points: 200
Energy Points: 95
Shock Value: 28
Combat Value: 16
Defense Value: 12

Attributes:
Armour 8x3 = 24 ("Impenetrable Skin," 80 damage stopped)
Attack Combat Mastery 4x3 = 12
Combat Technique 2x1 = 2
Lightning Reflexes
Steady Hand
Defense Combat Mastery 2x2 = 4
Features 2x1 = 2
Appearance x2
Heightened Senses 3x1 = 3
Hearing
Vision
X-ray Vision
Highly Skilled 4x1 = 4
Immovable 3x1 = 3 (60 meter knockback reduction)
Jumping 2x1 = 2 (10 times normal distance)
Special Defense 4x1 = 4
Air/Oxygen to Breathe
Poison
Pain x2
Speed 4x6 = 24 (5,000 kph and +8 Initiative)
Super Strength 6x4 = 24 (60 tonnes and +60 damage in close combat and +24 strength check bonus)
Tough 3x2 = 6 (+60 health points)

Defects:
Famous 1x-1 = -1 (Metropolis)
Vulnerability 3x-1 = -3 (Kryptonite, Cannot use Attributes)
Wanted 1x-1 = -1 (Minor Incentive to Hunt)
Achilles Heel 1x-1 = -1 (Kryptonite, Attack form is rare)
Bane 1x-1 = -1 (Kryptonite, 20 pts/round of exposure)
Skeleton in the Closet 2x-1 = -2 (Secret Identity, Faces Arrest)
Nemesis 2x-1 = -2 (The Ultra-Humanite)

Skills:
Acrobatics 1x6+ 1 = 7 (Jumping, Balance)
City Knowledge 1x3 = 3 (Metropolis)
Climbing 1x2 = 2 (Walls)
Disguise 1x3+ 1 = 4 ("Clark Kent," Make-up)
Intimidation 1x3 = 3 (Street)
Performing Arts 1x2 = 2 (Public Speaking)
Powerlifting 1x6+ 2 = 8 (Bulky Objects, Humans, Moving Objects)
Writing 1x1 = 1 (Journalistic)
Unarmed Attack 3x8 = 24 (Veteran)
Unarmed Defense 2x8 = 16 (Expert)

Character Points: 175 Skill Points: 30

Notes: This is Superman early in his career. The city he lived in wasn't named Metropolis yet, but I went ahead and called it that. He also hadn't encountered kryptonite yet, but I assumed he is potentially vulnerable to it.

The character was made using the Silver Age Sentinels Character Generator. The Silver Age Sentinels rules are nearly identical to the free Tri-Stat dX rules.

Spaghetti Bronze Age

2011-07-02T08:41:00.000-07:00

I suppose I didn't make it very clear in my post yesterday that when I talk about a fantasy game set in the Bronze Age, I'm not so much thinking of the actual historical period as those cheesy old sword-and-sandal films.

A lot of them were made on shoestring budgets, so you'd want to add more magic and monsters than most of them feature, but in general that's what I had in mind.

Whether or not you want to have Hercules running around as a major NPC is up to you, but it could make for an interesting encounter.

Bronze Age campaign

2011-07-01T12:27:00.000-07:00

I was looking over that map Jeff Rients posted a while ago and got to thinking about how good it would work for a Bronze Age campaign.

The map lays out a region that is somewhat reminiscent of the Mediterranean, depicting an enclosed sea dotted with islands. The map already shows the location of various city states, so all the GM has to do is determine the nature of the states and the balance of power, etc. Most of the city states on the islands would be ancient Greek analogs, complete with fleets of triremes. You could add some mythological touches, like an Amazon city, etc. I would give the southern city states an ancient North African feel, while the northern ones would be more Celtic. I'd be tempted to change all of those ice hexes to savanna, but you could leave them as they are and put some faux-Vikings there. Mixing and matching historical societies is a staple of fantasy, after all.

"Your pickled herring or your life!"

The map also helpfully lists the location of Magic Items, which as Jeff suggests would be the campaign's dungeons. To fit the Bronze Age theme, I would take a RuneQuest-like approach and make them the ruins of ancient cities. Maybe some are the haunted ruins of a lost Atlantean colony, an abandoned Egyptian outpost, or Cyclopean ruins - literally the ruins of a cyclops city. For example, that one in hex 2122 would be some kind of spooky pyramid complex. Another feature of the map is the various aeries listed. These are intended to be Roc nests, but I would probably change them to griffin nests - or even dragon's dens.

Ka-kaw!

With all of those sea hexes you're going to want some sailing rules. How you handle it depends on how detailed you want to get. The easiest way is to just have players make a skill roll (or the equivalent) whenever they have to deal with a storm or pursuing pirates. But I would even consider incorporating some navel wargames rules into the game. That depends a lot on the players and the "feel" of the game you're trying for.

Most fantasy rules would work for this with only a few cosmetic changes. If you want a game that already matches the setting the obvious choice is Mazes & Minotaurs. But really it's just a matter of taste.

Update: Two more rules options are RuneQuest Bronze Age Sourcebook (RQ3) or Runequest - Age of Ancients SRD (MRQ1).

D6 Martial Arts

2011-06-22T13:36:00.000-07:00

One of the curious things about D6 Adventure is that there are no rules for martial arts. In fact the phrase "martial arts" isn't even mentioned anywhere in the rules. Instead you just have a Brawling skill to cover all types of unarmed combat. To compliment that there is a short menu of Combat Options that you can choose from: All-out, Grab, Lunge, Knockdown, trip, Push, Sweep, and Tackle. I suppose that would work OK. In fact, it kind of reminds me of the way Hero System handles combat. But it's quite a change from earlier editions of D6.

In D6 Star Wars© martial arts were handled in a rudimentary fashion. Your Brawling skill had two specialization options, boxing or martial arts. It didn't really add much to the game besides the name. That changed with the publication of Rules of Engagement: The Rebel Specforce Handbook. That supplement included an optional rule for Custom Martial Arts. For every 1D you improved in your skill you could choose from a long list of special hand-to-hand techniques. With techniques such as Blindfighting, Multiple Strikes, and Nerve Punch characters with the martial arts specialization started to really feel like kung fu fighters.

This system was modified in the DC Universe/D6 Legend rules. There was still a list of Close Combat Maneuvers like Bear Hug, Double Kick, or Haymaker that a character could choose from. But now Martial Arts was a separate skill and your character could specialize in particular maneuvers. In addition to that characters with a high Martial Arts skill gained extra actions. For every 2D in the skill you gained an extra action in addition to your normal action. Now characters with Martial Arts could fight off multiple foes using amazing techniques, just like a kung fu master.

I miss the martial arts rules from those earlier editions. I don't know why they dropped them from D6 Adventure and D6 Space. Luckily the games are similar enough that the rules can be ported to the newer edition without much trouble. It's worth the time it takes to come up with a house rule to let you deliver the Smash of the Six Beetles!

Punknaught!

2011-06-13T15:15:00.000-07:00

This is a weird case of life imitating art. Remember the Punknaught from Chromebook 1? It turns out the Mexican narco cartels are building their own version of the things. At least they don't hover -- yet.

Every riot cop's nightmare!

Outlaw Press

2011-06-10T10:23:00.000-07:00

UPDATE: I really put my foot into it this time! It looks like the leopard hasn't changed its spots, and OP is still up to its sleazy old ways. I apologize for giving them any word of mouth. Thanks to everybody for setting me straight on this one. If anyone reading this wants T&T stuff please go to sites like Flying Buffalo and Tunnels & Trolls and not the crappy outfit I posted about below.

This may only be news to me, but it looks like Outlaw Press is back. As you may know, they got into quite a bit of trouble not to long ago when they were accused of plagiarizing artwork. It looks like they've put that behind them and are back in the swing of things. They have a new website and it's being regularly updated.

They are the main source for T&T material out there, even counting Flying Buffalo (no MSPE, though). Their main claim to fame is their re-prints of vintage T&T rules, like the 4th edition, Monsters! Monsters!, and the legendary 1st edition, the first non-D&D RPG ever published.

They've also taken the system in new directions with Superheroes Power Trip, a set of T&T superhero rules by Ken St. Andre himself, and Gamma-Trollworld, which is the T&T answer to Gamma World. In addition they publish a lot of solo and GM adventures for T&T.

I haven't bought anything from them myself, so I can't comment on their quality or service. One peculiarity is that several of their rules are only available as spiral-bound books. Is that an old-school thing? Anyway, if you like T&T you'll want to check them out. If nothing else, they offer a bunch of free adventures that you can download. What's not to like about that?

D6 Marvel Superheroes

2011-06-03T09:38:00.000-07:00

I was reading through the OGL D6 Legend rules and I realized they aren't a complete rule set. I'd say they includes about 3/4 or so of the DC Universe rules, but there's a lot missing. For example, the power Speed Manipulation is mentioned several times, but it's not described in the powers section. I suppose if you wanted to you could complete the game yourself by adding the missing rules. I doubt either Eric or Nikola would mind. But as it stands now the free D6 Legend rules are not a whole game.

There is a D6 superhero game on the web, though. It's the D6 Marvel Superheroes game. The copy I originally got is by T. Catt. But as far as I can tell the rules are currently only available on the Arcane•Marks game page (at the bottom) in a version by Talon Dunning. I guess it's the same cat.

This is the old cover

Anyway, the game is not based on the Legend rules, but on a slightly modified version of D6 Adventure. The biggest change is that the D6A attributes (which were the same as the Legend ones, BTW) are replaced by the FASERIP attributes from TSR's old Marvel Super Heroes Roleplaying Game. Fate Points work the same, but are now called Karma points like in the old MSH game. There are also new rules for Popularity which are somewhat like the Reputation rules in Mekton Z. The most surprising part is that there isn't a new system for handling super power. Instead the game just uses the Special Abilities form the D6A rules. Players are encouraged to add new abilities, but the stock list works surprisingly well for most super heroes. Two new powers are included, Wall-Crawling (3) and Power Cosmic (15). For characters like Dr. Strange or Jean Grey who have magical or psionic powers you just use the Magic and Psionic rules from D6A. There are two sample characters included, Spider-Man and Wolverine, which gives you an example of how the rules work.

It's a pretty clever use of the stock D6 rules to handle a super hero setting. Using the Legend scale, I'd say it would work good for Power Level 1-2 games. But higher level games featuring powerhouse characters like Thor or Hulk would be harder to run. For example, Spider-Man has a Lifting skill of 10D+2 which means he can lift 1,400 kg. That's impressive, but it's nowhere near the 10 tons he's should be able to lift. Another problem is that the cost of some of the Special Abilities in D6A are a little off. For example, Elasticity, which gives you the powers of Mr. Fantastic, costs only one point per rank. Meanwhile, Ventriloquism, a far less useful ability which just lets you throw your voice, cost three points per rank. So in my opinion the D6A rules might need a little more tweaking to work well for superhero gaming.

Which is not to criticize the author of D6 Marvel Superheroes, who did a great job. The game is an excellent example of how to take rules in an unexpected and fun direction. If you want to run a superhero game using a free set of rules these would be a great choice.

MSPE adventure points

2011-05-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

In my review of MSPE I mentioned that the part I liked least about the game was that you have to keep track of adventure points for each skill separately. That may not bother most gamers, but it's the one thing about the game that I'd change. So if I were to run a MSPE game I'd introduce this house rule.

Adventure Points are gained in the usual fashion for good role-playing, achieving scenario objectives, making saving throws, etc. However, players no longer need to track APs for skills. Instead, when a character goes up a level they receive the new level number in points which may be divided between attributes and skills, with the restriction that a) no more than two points may be allotted to attributes and b) no skill may be raised by more than one point at a time.

For example, a character going from first to second level would get two points. He or she could put both points toward increasing attributes, put both points toward raising two different skills by one point, or use one point to raise an attribute and one to raise a skill. Another example would be a character going from fourth to fifth level. The player could allot at most two points to attributes with three points left over to distribute amongst three different skills.

The reason for restricting attitude increase to two points is to remain consistent with the original rules. However, if I were playing a Doc Savage style pulp game, or a high voltage Hong Kong action movie game, I could easily imagine relaxing that rule and using something more like the original T&T experience rules. The reason for limiting skill increase to one point per skill per level increase is to prevent players from becoming experts in some field overnight. I would also consider limiting the increase to skills that were used during the course of the game.

This system isn't as realistic as the original rule, but it is simpler. I haven't play tested it yet, but I don't see any obvious flaws in it. This is especially true given the unwritten rule that in T&T/MSPE even eighth level characters are rare and powerful. For example, in MSPE Sherlock Holmes is only a 7th level character. So since I don't run a Monty Haul game with 12th level titans running around I think this rule would work fine.

Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes

2011-05-25T14:26:00.000-07:00

Michael A. Stackpole is probably best recognized today as an sf author of such books as I, Jedi (1998) and his Star Wars: X-Wing (1996) trilogy. But he got his start in the RPG hobby, specifically with the T&T based game, Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes. As you might guess from the title, the game focuses on contemporary crime and thriller adventures. As Stackpole says in his introduction, "MSPE is a game of two-fisted adventure: part pulp, part mystery, part John Wayne movie and 100% fun."

Cool box cover!

Character creation begins with players choosing their characters background, nationality, ethnicity, etc. before you start rolling the dice. You roll 3d6 for the standard T&T attributes, Strength, Luck, Intelligence, Dexterity, Constitution, Charisma, and Speed. If all the dice come up the same number you roll a further 2d6 and add it on, giving an attribute range of 5-30. Combat adds, the bonuses you get for having certain attributes over 12, are split into Hand-to-hand adds and Missile weapon adds.

The biggest change to the system is the addition of a skill system. In general skills work by adding the skill level to an Attribute when making a saving throw. They are broken up into groups based on a minimum IQ requirement, ranging from IQ 4 skills like Brawling up to IQ 16 skills like Cryptology. There are also Open Skills with no IQ min., covering Special Interests and Occupation skills. All characters start with a number of skill points equal to their Intelligence and each skill costs one or more skill points to acquire. During initial character generation you can also expend skill points to get a hereditary title or psi powers, either of which are then randomly determined.

Combat will be familiar to any T&T player, although Stackpole recommends splitting up the mêlée into one-on-one fights. The combat round is also restructured to take account of Martial Arts and firearms. Martial Arts are handled in an abstract but very clever fashion that allows a skilled martial artist to take on numerous foes and even disarm gunmen.

Character advancement is handled in familiar T&T fashion using the standard adventure point chart. The main difference is that MSPE characters only gain 2 attribute points after increasing a level. No Marvel superheroes here. In addition, individual skills acquire their own adventure points. That means you have to keep a running total of adventure points for each and every skill you have. That's a lot of book keeping.

There is some GM advice for running mercenary, espionage and detective games. In addition to stats for typical animals and thugs, this section features a detailed section on The Art of Detection which provides a wealth of information for setting up and running mystery scenarios. This is really the heart of the rules and gives the GM invaluable advice about establishing motives, laying out clues, etc., and generally how to run a compelling mystery game.

Other highlights are an extensive equipment list, an excellent recommended reading list, and rules to cover Car Crashes and even Law Enforcement Agencies, which are given attributes like Records, Forensics, Judicial, etc. There's a section called Nightstalkers which gives advice on using the rules to run a pulp-fiction Lost World or horror/science fiction game, which includes stats for dinosaurs and supernatural monsters. Finally there is a selection of sample characters from different time periods, with a few notables like Philip Marlowe and Sherlock Holmes.

These rules are a clever variation on the basic T&T system. The skill system is a welcome addition with lots of options. The stand-out section is The Art of Detection, which is something anyone running a mystery oriented game, whether straight detective or Call of Cthulhu, should read if they get a chance. The combat rules are also changed for the better. Combat skills like Brawling, Pugilism, Self Defense, and Martial Arts each have a different game effect. Martial Arts is the most ingenious, and captures the feel of Kung Fu fighting without getting bogged down in details.

Unfortunately this game does get bogged down by adventure point tracking. I don't like experience points to begin with and having to tally them up for each of maybe a dozen skills your character has is a real headache. The other shortcoming of the rules is that the GM sections on running mercenary and espionage scenarios are very anemic. They are sketchy at best and can't compare to the detailed guidelines for running mystery games.

The rulebook cover is kind of plain.

MSPE are must-have rules for T&T players looking to broaden their scope of play. They do and excellent job of expanding the rules and adapting them to a more realistic, contemporary setting. For anyone who runs games that feature mysteries I can't recommend the essay The Art of Detection highly enough. And even if you just want to find out what happens if your leprechaun rogue gets his hands on an Uzi you'll like this game. MSPE is one of those game that deserved a wider audience than it got. If it sounds like your cup of tea I highly recommend it.

Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes (Flying Buffalo Inc.) $9.95

BRP & Me

2011-05-18T19:23:00.000-07:00

Adam has an interesting post linking to another post arguing that RQ/BRP is better than D&D. I agree in so far as I personally like the BRP system better than D&D's mechanics, but I wouldn't claim one is better than the other. It's like arguing about whether DC is better than Marvel or vice versa. It's really just a matter of taste. But I do prefer BRP. In fact, it's one of my favorite game systems. If you've read this blog before that may come as something of a surprise since aside from the occasional mention of Call of Cthulhu or Elric!/Stormbringer I hardly ever talk about it. That's because I don't play it any more. How can it be one of my favorite systems if I don't play it? I'll explain that later. First, let me spell out why I like it.

One of my favorite things about BRP is the ease of play. You roll your attributes, then pick a few skills to define your character and you're off. What I like even more is that it completely does away with character classes and experience points. Character classes are nothing but a group of skills, either implied or enumerated. With a skill system classes become superfluous. Want to be a thief? Give your character the skills Pick Pockets, Move Quietly, Spot Trap, etc. Want to be a fighter? Pick a bunch of combat skills. Want to be a fighter and a thief? You don't have to mess around with some awkward "multi-class" with a separate experience point table, you just choose the mix of skills that fits that kind of character. In fact, you don't have to mess around with experience point charts at all because there are no experience points. If you're like me and you think keeping track of experience points is about as fun as balancing a check book this will make you happy.

The other great thing about this approach is that you can modify the skill list to suit your fancy. Do you have a fighter who wants to use nunchaku? Just add a nunchaku skill. Does someone want a Fast Draw ability? Just add a skill for it. Do you want magic users to be able to smell magic? You got it, Smell Magic skill. This is a great approach to gaming and it's stood the test of time. The BRP system is so stable it has remained virtually unchanged since it first appeared. So why don't I play it any more?

I used to use BRP for just about every game I ran. It was great because the percentile based system was so intuitive that players would pick it up in a snap. The hardest math was multiplying your base attributes by 3 or 5 to get different saving throw values. But the thing about the percentile system is that the skills are defined too finely. If one character has a Boogie skill of 63% and another has a Boogie skill of 64% that's not a meaningful difference. In fact, to make a real difference you need a much coarser separation on the order of 5-10% or so. So instead of multiplying your attributes by 5 you should be dividing your skills by that much. And once I started thinking along those lines I realized that you didn't need all those different polyhedral dice. Just divide the skills by five and roll that number or less on 3d6. Kind of like GURPS but without the fiddly stuff.

So I moved away from BRP. I still think it's a good system, and it has had an important influence on the hobby, but I doubt I'll be running games with it any time soon.

RPG anarchy

2011-05-13T14:41:00.000-07:00

I like the general attitude of Mark C. MacKinnon's BESM/Tri-Stat games which are very much in line with the T&T tradition of modifying the rules to fit your style of play. However, their emphasis on a storytelling style sometimes gets out of hand. For example, in the Tri-Stat rules there's a section on "Moving Beyond Tri-Stat" (pg. 90) which gives advise on doing without rules.

Remember back to your childhood when you played “House,” “Cops and Robbers,” (and perhaps even “Doctor”) with your friends. There were no Character Points, no rules, no dice, and no character sheets at that time. All that mattered was the role-playing. Capturing the essence of those games you played long ago should be your ultimate goal: just role-playing, and nothing else.

There follows sections on how to "Remove the Skills," "Remove the Attribute Levels," "Remove the Dice and Rules," and even "Remove the Game Master." I don't object to any of that in principle, and it could work quite well given the right group of players. I think that's pretty much how those Murder Mystery dinner parties work. The problem is that the role players I'm used to tend to be power gamers and they would not fit well with that approach. MacKinnon recognized that himself sever pages earlier in the section on "Power Abuse" (pg. 86).

The player characters may have tremendous powers. Perhaps they can literally
move mountains, or change the course of history. Sooner or later, someone will
decide to see just how far he or she can go with their character’s powers.

The solution he suggests is GM veto. But if you've done away with the GM then what? If you've thrown out the rules and a player says "I jump to the moon and pick up the alien death ray I find there," who's going to contradict them?

So while I think it's quite possible to have a fun game with no rules and no GM, I think it takes a very particular group of gamers to make it work. The average munchkin is incompatible with that style of play.

But I admit I'm a bit biased. I'm something of a gearhead and I enjoy games like Mekton Z or Hero System where you design your character or mecha for optimal awesomeness. So maybe my fondness for a design system that can be tweaked is skewing my view. Have you ever run a game with no rules or even no GM? How well did it work?

Tiger & Bunny

2011-05-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd brainstorm a bit on how to run a superhero campaign based on Sunrise's new comedic superhero anime, Tiger & Bunny.

The basic setup is this.

"The series takes place in a fictional re-imagined version of New York City called Sternbild City, where 45 years before, individuals with superpowers called "NEXT" started appearing and some of them became superheroes. Each of city's most famous superheroes work for a sponsor company and their uniforms also contain advertising for real-life companies. Their heroic activity is broadcasted on the popular television show "Hero TV", where they accumulate points by each feat accomplished and the best ranked hero of the season is crowned "King of Heroes"."

Since corporate sponsorship is such a big part of the show, it should be worked into the game, too. One way too do that is to have the character's sponsors be the player's favorite junk food, or favorite brand of sneakers, or whatever. So if you have a gamer who is always drinking Dr. Pepper that could be her sponsor. If another guy always wears Nikes that could be his sponsor. Etc.

To complicate matters further, if you have a regular group of players you could have each one play both a superhero and the corporate rep of another player's sponsor. So not only will players be competing against each other for ratings on Hero TV, they can make life miserable for each other by having their corporate bosses making demands on them. Handled right that could lead to some very entertaining situations.

As for which rules to use, just pick your favorite superhero RPG and go with that. There are plenty of good free rules you could use. There's D6 Legend, the generic, OGL version of WEG's old DC Universe RPG. There's also John M. Stater's Mystery Men! which is based on OD&D, or the 4C System, which is a generic version of TSR's old percentile-based Marvel Super Heroes Roleplaying Game. And then there's Tri-Stat dX, which is the generic version of GoO's short-lived d10-based Silver Age Sentinals. And there are many more.

So grab your dice, pull on your tights and try not to embarrass your sponsor.

Battleglove

2011-04-23T09:57:00.000-07:00

Battlegloves are heavy gauntlets that can be worn by humanoids and cover the entire hand and forearm, articulated with artificial muscle and hydraulics. A Battleglove attacks uses the character's Brawling skill, delivering STR+2D punching damage, and has a STR+3D crushing grip. Battlegloves can also be used as a "reaction skill" to parry brawling and melee combat attacks. It also has three slots allowing it to be equipped with extra weapons.

Battleglove
Model: Talsorian Industries Battleglove
Type: Special
Scale: Character
Skill: Various (Brawling or other, see below)
Cost: 900
Availability: 2, X

Roll one die three times to determine which weapons the battleglove comes equipped with.

1...Pop-up Blaster
2...Micromissile Launcher
3...Flamethrower
4...Grenade Launcher
5...Whip
6...Gas Jet

Pop-up Blaster: Mounts an internal blaster that attacks using the Blaster skill for 4D damage. Ammo: 50 (reloads cost 25); Range:3-7/25/50

Micromissile Launcher: Fires explosive heat-seeking guided miniature missiles. The target must be at least partially exposed for the battleglove to lock-on for the first shot. The missiles will pursue the target, even around corners of up to 90 degrees (will loose tracking on a roll of 5 or less on 2D). Attacks are made using the Missile Weapons skill, ignoring cover and line-of-sight modifiers (after initial lock on). If the attack succeeds the missile explodes (damage: 4D/2D/1D; blast radius: 0/1/2). If the attack misses, the attacker rolls 2D and on a roll of 8 or more the missile corrects its course and a second attack roll can be made. Ammo: 4 (reloads cost 50 ea. missile) Range: 10-50/100/200

Flamethrower: This is a small, high-pressure flame jet that attacks using Missile Weapons skill and may be "swept". The attacker decides a starting point and an ending point and makes a Difficult roll. If successful, anything caught between the two points is ignited. If the roll is missed use the Grenade Deviation Diagram. Damage is 2D the first round, 1D for 2 rounds afterwards. Hard armor protects normally. Soft armor must be at least +1D physical to protect against the flame, and is reduced -2 pips per attack. Ammo: 4 (reloads cost 100) Range: 1 meter

Grenade Launcher: A modified support grenade launcher, stored in a popup mount. Attacks using Missile Weapons skill. Basic grenades come in fragmentation, incendiary, stun, dazzle, sonic, concussion, and gas varieties. Each type has its own area of effect, usually between 2 and 5 meters. For example, a typical concussion grenade is damage: 3D/2D/1D; blast radius: 0/1/2. Ammo 1 (reloading takes one round; reloads cost 30 ea.) Range: 10-35/75/150

Whip: A 2.2 meter long alloy tentacle that can either whip for STR+2 damage, strangle for STR+1D damage per round (target must make a Difficult STR or DEX roll to escape), or act as a short-range grapple. Attacks using Melee Combat skill.

Gas Jet: A pressurized canister of gas (any type) is installed in the glove that attacks using the Missile Weapons skill. Effect depends on the type of gas which can be resisted by a Difficult STR save. Teargas: -1D DEX for 1D rounds; Nausea: vomiting and -2D DEX for 2D rounds; Sleep: unconscious for 2D rounds; Poison: 4D lethal damage. Unsealed armor does not protect against gas. Ammo 6 (reloads cost 275) Range: 2 meters

Traveller inspirational reading

2011-04-12T18:51:00.000-07:00

There's a great post over at The Zhodani Base today recommending some classic sf novels that influenced Traveller. I tried to comment, but the website ate my post. You can't go wrong with any of those books, and you're sure to get some great ideas from them.

There are a couple more novels that relate to CT that I'd recommend. Andre Norton's Plague Ship and Voodoo Planet are part of a series that recounts the adventures of the Free Trader Solar Queen and her crew. No points for guessing how they relate to the game.

And BeRKA mentions the "obsolete" CT computer rules. While they do seem a bit dated today, I think that when they were written they were a clever attempt to add computer management to space wargames. There were other sf combat games that achieved a similar effect with different rules. In Star Fleet Battles you had energy management rules, and later in BattleTech you had heat management rules. In CT it was computer program management. So to me the CT computer rules make much more sense when seen in the context of wargaming conventions where it's taken for granted that there's something, whether energy, heat or programs that the player has to finesse to get the better of their opponent.

D6 Slugthrowers

2011-04-05T17:44:00.000-07:00

I was looking through my copy of D6 Star Wars 2nd Rev. & Exp. and something caught my eye. I don't think I've ever read the rules all the way through. I've played in a D6 game and had fun. ( It wasn't SW, just generic space opera). But I've never GM'd it. Maybe that's why I never read all the rules. I just skimmed the relevant parts. Anyway, I was checking out the entry on Slugthrowers. There's only one gun listed, a pistol, and it's kind of interesting.

Slugthrower
Model: Coruschal WeaponsWorks "Dagger" Combat Pistol
Type: Slugthrower pistol
Skill: Firearms: Slugthrower pistol
Ammo: 16
Cost: 300
Availability: 2, F
Range: 3-10/30/60
Damage: 3D
Game Notes: -1D damage when used on a target with body armor
Capsule: Coruschal WeaponsWorks was a prominent munitions manufacturer until the planet Coruschal fell into civil disarray. Currently, the planet is a decaying urban sprawl, filled with street fighting between warring factions. Coruschal WeaponsWorks' firearms are generally regarded as high quality among those who still use such weapons, though contact with the planet has been cut off by the fighting.

Did they just sneak an adventure seed into a weapon description? I think they did. A planet that's "...a decaying urban sprawl, filled with street fighting between warring factions." That sounds almost cyberpunk. The idea of using the D6 System to run a cyberpunk game sounds kind of cool. And the gun does 3D damage. That's right in line with the damage done by guns in Cyberpunk 2020. So it occurs to me that you could steal just about any slugthrower you wanted from CP202 to use in D6. And you could other weapons too, like a MonoKatana or Nunchaku.

Someone's already thought of this, although they did it in the opposite direction. Over at Mockery's CP page there's a list of D6SW weapons converted to Interlock stats. But I'm interested tossing some of those shootin' irons into D6. The damage is so similar I wouldn't change most of it. (D6 is not for sticklers for realism.) Just a few tweaks here and there. The biggest difference are the d10 weapons. The average roll of 1D10 is 5.5. The average roll of 1D6 is 3.5. So 1d10 is roughly equivalent to 1D6+2. Just add up the dice and convert to a die code. For example, a Barrett-Arasaka 20mm rifle does 4d10, which would convert to 6D+2. Easy. As for melee weapons, just treat the damage they do as a "+" to STR in standard D6 fashion (with the same max. of 6D; and maybe reduce all those nD+3s into nD+2s). So Nunchaku would do STR+3D. Sweet. Now you can have nunchuk skills. "You know, like nunchuk skills, bow hunting skills, computer hacking skills..."

As for the note, "-1D damage when used on a target with body armor" I'd rule that only applies against armor of a higher tech level, like that worn in an interstellar society. For a "cyberpunk" planet (or orbital station, etc.) of a slightly lower tech level I wouldn't apply that to the local armor.

I know all this makes me sound like some kind of gunbunny. That's not what I'm aiming for (pardon the pun). Giving all slugthrower pistols 3D of damage is fine by me. My only point with this post is that if you want a wider variety of slugthrowers and martial arts weapons for some kind of cyberpunk-ish adventure the ones from CP2020 work great in D6. So the next time your party crash lands on a cowboy planet, just throw this little number that I got from Mockery's site at them.

Slugthrower
Model: Colt "Peacemaker" Revolver
Type: .45 Long Colt revolver
Skill: Firearms: Slugthrower pistol
Ammo: 6
Cost: 300
Availability: 2, F
Range: 3-5/18/35
Damage: 2D6+2
Game Notes: -1D damage when used on a target with body armor

Now where's did I leave that MonoKatana?

Lost, Forgotten

2011-03-30T06:00:00.001-07:00

Chaosium's Elric!/Stormbringer 5th had a character generation system that gave players a list of Adventurer Occupations. They could either pick one, or randomly roll on the chart. While most of them were standard fare, like Soldier, Thief, Sailor, etc., one of them was very unusual and evocative.

Lost, Forgotten -- you're a drifter, or a person plagued by dreams and visions, or a young person newly orphaned, or you just woke up an amnesiac. You don't quite know who you are, and you can't remember a time when you knew. You grasp at strange clues and bewildering notions that never quite work, and scheme for riches that never quite appear. Skills: Conceal Object, Fast Talk, Hide, Insight, Listen, Move Quietly, Search, and one other skill as a personal specialty. Optional Spells: Cloak of Cran Liret (1-4), Midnight (1), Witch Sight (3). Extra Money: 15 bronzes.

My players didn't like the random occupation option, and no one ever chose this one, preferring to stick with more obvious picks. Which is too bad, because this "occupation" is so cool.

Traveller lasers

2011-03-23T10:18:00.000-07:00

I've never been big on Traveller even though I don't have any major problems with the game system. Most of the criticisms I have of the rules are nitpicks. But I don't particularly care for the OTU, partly because it's so low-tech. When you roll up a character you just might end up with skills like "cutlass" or "revolver". Those are great for a certain type of setting - like campy space pirates - but it doesn't quite fit my view of the average space opera game. My views on this were shaped by things like larry Niven's Known Space tales where Louis Wu doesn't know how to use an axe, or the TOS episode "Shore Leave" by Theodore Sturgeon where Sulu has to explain what a revolver is.

Skip to to the 10:00 min mark for Sulu's history lesson

So my idea of a space opera setting is one where things like cutlasses and revolvers are antiques, not standard issue. If characters have weapons they'll be things like force blades and lasers. But in OTU the lasers that are available are cumbersome weapons that require a bulky external battery to use.

That's the kind of weapon that would be more at home in the near-future of Cyberpunk 2020 than in a star-spanning interstellar empire where anti-gravity tech is common. As for laser pistols, forget it. They didn't show up until MegaTraveller. I'm not sure why Miller and co. decided to go this direction, but maybe it was to make the game seem more realistic. Or something.

This isn't a major problem. Creating your own campaign setting is part of the fun of gaming. And it's relatively easy to come up with some house rules for laser pistols and such like. But there are a lot of little things like this about the rules that are sticking points for me. Traveller is a game I want to like, but it takes quite a bit of tweaking to get it to where I want it.

Generating Percentages with 2D6

2011-03-17T06:00:00.000-07:00

The Best of the Dragon had a bunch of interesting articles, including one on alternative ways of generating random numbers for games. In "What to Do When the Dog Eats Your Dice," Omar Kwalish listed ideas from the straightforward, like drawing chits, to the bizarre, like plucking chest hairs (WTF?). A couple that I really liked involved ways to generate a wide range of numbers using ordinary six-sided dice.

PERCENTAGES GENERATED WITH TWO STANDARD DICE (D6)

The following table is from FIGHT IN THE SKIES. The column on the left is percentages and numbers needed to get them, while the figures on the right are the actual probabilities. (I.E., if there is a 10% chance of an encounter, a roll of "9" indicates that it occurs. The actual percentage chance of rolling a "9" with two standard dice is 11.1 %.)

05%... 11 5.6%
10% 9 11.1%
15% 6 13.9%
20% 7, 12 19.4%
25% 4, 7 25.0%
30% 7, 8 30.6%
35% 2, 4, 5, 6 36.1%
40% 5, 6, 8 38.9%
45% 6, 7, 8 44.4%
50% 4, 5, 6, 7 50.0%
55% 5, 6, 7, 8 55.6%
60% 3, 5, 6, 7, 8 61.6%
65% 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 63.9
70% 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8 69.4%
75% all except 2, 3, 4, 10... 75.0%
80% all except 2, 4, 10 80.6%
85% all except 3, 11, 12 86.1%
90% all except 9 88.9%
95% all except 11 94.4%

USING SIX-SIDERS FOR HIGHER NUMBERS

One six-sided die can be used to determine any number range divisible by two, three or six. (I.E., for 1-100, first roll determines if it is between 1 and 50, or 51-100, the second 1-25 or 26-50 (assuming first roll indicates 1-50), the third determines in which group of five (discarding rolls of "6"), and the last the actual number.)

Sure, you could do it the easy way and generate these numbers using your fancy-schmancy polyhedral dice, but this way's more fun.

D6 Star Trek

2011-03-09T13:08:00.000-08:00

The D6 System is a natural choice for space opera games, largely because of the popularity of the old D6 Star Wars RPG. Several years ago gamer Craig Griswold came up with some conversions of that game to other sf universes, like Doctor Who and Star Trek. He posted them on his Hyperspace Crossroads site which is now only avalable via the Wayback Machine. The Trek material has character Templates, equipment and some new rules for handling Warp drive and those exploding bridge consoles. It was designed using the D6SW rules, so they would need to be tweaked to work with the free OGL D6 rules which are different in many places. But they're similar enough that these write-ups are still useful. I've always thought that the D6 System is a great match for a ST game and this material is a good place to start. To give you an idea of what's there, here are the stats for the TOS version of the venerable U.S.S. Enterprise.

Starship: U.S.S. Enterprise NCC-1701
Craft: Federation Starship Constitution Class
Type: Exploratory Starship
Scale: Capital
Length: 288.6m, Height: 72.6m, Width: 127.1m
Crew: 430, gunners: (?)
skeleton: 250, +5
Crew Skill: varies
Passengers: 500
Cargo Capacity: ?
Consumables: 3 years
Cost: not available for sale
Warp/Hyperdrive Multiplier: x1 (cruise x3)
Hyperdrive Backup: N/A
Nav Computer: Yes
Maneuverability: 1D+1
Space: 5
Hull: 3D
Shields: 2D+2 (see special shields rules)
Sensors:
Passive: 50 / 1D
Scan: 100 / 2D
Search: 200 / 3D
Focus: 7 / 3D+2

Weapons:

* Phaser Banks: 3
Fire Arc: Forward, Right, Left
Crew: 4
Scale: Capital
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Fire Control: 4D
Space Range: 3-15 / 35 / 75
Atmosphere Range: 300m-1.5 km / 3.5 km / 7.5 km
Damage: 4D (variable settings)

* Photon Torpedo Launchers: 2
Fire Arc: Forward
Crew: 6
Scale: Capital
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Fire Control: 3D+1
Space Range: 2-12 / 30 / 60
Atmosphere Range: 200m-1.2 km / 3 km / 7 km
Damage: 9D

* Tractor Beam Arrays: 1
Fire Arc: Forward
Crew: 3
Scale: Capital
Skill: Capital Ship Gunnery
Fire Control: 2D+1
Space Range: 1-5 / 15 / 30
Atmosphere Range: 100-500m / 1.5km / 3 km
Damage: 4D

Traveller morale

2011-03-02T06:00:00.000-08:00

While the current Mongoose edition of Traveller has a lot to recommend it, one thing they omitted is a morale system. Which is too bad, because CT has one of the best and most straightforward systems for handling morale. Here it is from pg. 33 of my horribly water damaged LBB.

MORALE

A party of adventurers (player or non-player) which sustains casualties in an encounter will ultimately break or rout if it does not achieve victory.

At the point in which 25% of a party are unconscious or killed, the party must begin throwing for morale. Average morale throw is 7+ to stand, or not break. Valiant parties may have a higher throw. DM's are allowed: +1 if the party is a military unit, +1 if a leader (leader expertise) is present, +1 if the leader has any tactical expertise; -2 if the leader is killed (for two combat rounds, and then until a new leader takes control), -2 if casualties exceed 50%.

And that's all there is to it. It's a great set of concise rules that are easy to tweak. For example, I might add a provision covering situations where the characters are outnumbered by 2 to 1 or facing overwhelming odds (a mecha, Godzilla, etc.). This rule never should have been left out of the newer editions, but that's what house rules are for.

Astrópía (2007) trailer

2011-02-23T06:00:00.001-08:00

This looks awesome, even though it was given the awful title Dorks & Damsels for its US release. Has anyone seen this?

Butthole Sergeant

2011-02-18T08:38:00.000-08:00

This is a belated comment on Jeff Rients' post from the other day. He was pondering ways to get parties to employ flunkies more often and he suggested this:

And then there's this last idea I've been kicking around. Call it the Emergency Red Shirt Rule: Once per session a PC can automatically save their own sorry hide by sacrificing one of their retainers. A smart player will come up lots of ways for their retainers to stand between his PC and the reaper man, but with this rule even clueless newbies will be able to use retainers to hedge their bets.

That imediately made me think of a similar ability available to characters in the miniatures skirmish game Shock Force 2, AKA WarEngine. There are several elements to that game that resemble what you would find in an RPG, such as a system of colorful Edges and Flaws that you can use to customize a model. One of the Edges is "Butthole Sergeant."

Butthole Sergeant
+ 5 points; Elite or Character with Control Radius only
If this figure is leading a unit that fails a Rout test, he makes an example of one of his followers to keep the unit from routing. Instead of removing the entire unit, only remove the figure closest to this figure.

This is intended to stop your unit from screaming "Run away!", and fleeing willy nilly after failing a morale check rather than keeping an individual character from getting iced, but the means are the same in that some poor schmuck gets whacked. So this kind of rule could serve the same function in a game assuming you have your players regularly check morale during fights. Besides, who wouldn't want to write "Butthole Sergeant" on their character sheet?

Lone Delver on T&T

2011-02-09T11:26:00.000-08:00

The Lone Delver is doing a series of posts on the Evolution of T&T where he compares and contrasts the various editions. This is very insightful especially for someone like me who never picked up a copy of the 4th edition reprint issued by the apply named Outlaw Press before they got busted for stealing people's art. (I do have a copy of M&M though).

"Time out! I dropped a contact!"

So far he's done Kindered and now Arms, Armor, and Equipment. It's interesting to see the changes and revisions that have been introduced between editions. So far it has tended to reinforce my impression that the 5th edition really ironed out a lot of the wrinkles in the earlier versions, though not all by any means (e.g., using ST to fuel spells). So if you're at all interested in T&T and how it has changed you'll want to check these posts out.

Jaxxon (Fuzion)

2011-02-03T10:42:00.000-08:00

"You can call me Jax for short…which I ain't."

Jaxxon is a quick-witted Lepi smuggler from Coachelle Prime.

Jaxxon (45 CP + 200 SP)

Strength 7
Constitution 7
Intelligence 5
Willpower 7
Agility 11
Move 8

SD 14
Hits 35
Run 16
Sprint 32
Swim 8
Leap 8

Complications:
Outlaw, hunted by Imperials

Skills:

AGL:
Athletics +5
Hand to Hand +7
Piloting: Space Transports +6
Piloting: Starfighter +7
Ranged Combat +8

INT:
Computer Programming +5
Expert: Outer Rim +3
Expert: Astrogation +7
Heavy Weapons: Starship Gunnery +6
Mechanics +6
Perception +6
Systems operation: Shields +6
Tracking +6

WIL:
Concentration +4
Persuasion +6

Talent: Fast Draw

Gear:

Blaster Pistol DC=5, Range: 100m, WA: +4, 10 shots per power cell

"The Rabbit's Foot" (modified WUD-500 Star Yacht)
Superfast Flying Speeds 1600 kph, FTL Drive, Med. Energy Cannon x2 4K ea., Med. Vehicle Armor 100DC, Lt. Force Field 2K, Hull 7 Kills

Based on the write-up at The Rebellion. Created using the Fuzion Jazz rules, except The Rabbit's Foot which is based on the Personal Spaceship in the commercial Fuzion rules.

1PG

2011-02-01T07:16:00.000-08:00

As a follow-up to my last post about 1d6 based games, here's one commercial game I missed. Deep7's 1PG, or 1-page, RPG is a rules-lite game where, as you might guess, all the rules fit on one page. The basic mechanic is a 1d6 roll under, where a roll of one is an automatic sucess and a roll of six is an automatic failure. Despite being so rules-lite it's a very well supported game, with rules covering just about any genre you can imagine, like anime with Exosuit A-OK, space opera with Star Legion, and of course fantasy with Broadsword.

I'm not sure I like the idea of characters automatically failing 16.7% of the time. That seems a little high to me. RuneQuest got into Murphy's Rules for less than that. But maybe there are some other rules that modify that in some of the books. In any case, it's it's a 1d6 game that's going strong.

1d6 based RPGs

2011-01-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

Adam's post about Teenagers from Outer Space got me thinking again about RPGs that only use a single die. If you take the idea of a rules lite game seriously then it seems to me you should go all the way and only use one die. Besides, the 1d6 roll has a long pedigree given that most wargames use a single die to resolve actions. There are actually quite a few 1d6 based RPGs around. Or at least there were. Several of them, like Bad Attitudes and Superteens, seem to have vanished into the Phantom Zone. But the ones that are still around are pretty cool.

Aside from R Tal's games ( the other being Dream Park) the only other commercial 1d6 based game I know about is The Dying Earth RPG. (Or maybe I should say was since it's now out-of-print.) It uses a clever mechanic where instead of rolling more dice you have a pool of points you can expend that allow you to re-roll your die. Very much a story-telling game, but I like the mechanic.

As for free games using just one die there's Zak Arntson's Adventures in Space!! It's a cool little game focused on space opera. The clever bit is that not only do you roll 1d6 for for character actions, you also have the options to roll the die to introduce plot twists to the game. Again very story-telling oriented, but very cool. There are a few others out there, like Simon Washbourne's Have a Go Heroes, but the one that really stands out for me is Michael Wolf's Warrior, Rogue and Mage.

It's a great fantasy RPG that uses an open-ended 1d6 roll allowing for higher throws. Check out Rob Lang's review for a good overview. It's a really well done RPG and the system could work in other genres as well.

Are there any other cool 1d6 based RPGs out there that I should know about?

The Grand Campaign

2011-01-20T08:00:00.000-08:00

I've long dreamed about running a Grand Campaign. Not just an extended campaign involving the GM and players in an epic adventure. By Grand Campaign I mean a huge game setting involving multiple gamers acting as both GMs and players. You would map out the game world, or at least the general outlines, and then each gamer were be given a section of the world for which they would be the GM. For example, if you were playing Traveller, you could take a sector map and assign each player 2-4 subsectors that they would flesh out and run adventures in.

Each gamer would take turns being both a GM for their portion of the map, and running characters in the other player's games. That means you would have several characters coexisting at different places in the game universe. (Obviously this would require the various GMs to take turns running their games, and I don't pretend to know how that would work without conflicts.)

The game would also work on another level. You could play out the strategic conflicts of the various regions as wargaming sessions, using a space combat game or even a strategic 4X game. The results of the wargaming sessions would influence the background events of the roleplaying universe, giving the whole setting an extra level of depth.

For example, Stellar Conquest

Of course actually coordinating and running a Grand Campaign like this would be almost impossible. Maybe if you had a tight-knit gaming group that kept a regular schedule you could attempt it. But considering how hard it is just to run a an extended campaign and get everyone to show up when they're supposed to, it seems like a pipe dream. But it's a fun dream.

Cheating Death

2011-01-06T08:10:00.000-08:00

One of the worst ways for a GM to do in a PC during the course of an adventure is by means of some kind of instant kill. This most often takes the form of a trap, like the ones in the various Grimtooh's Traps books. (I can't think of a time this ever happened to one of my PCs, which is just as well because I probably would have made a scene.) But there are times when PCs face certain death. The ancient tower collapses around their heads, or the starship's hull is breached and they're blown out into space. Assuming script immunity isn't an option, what do you do then?

Some games have a special mechanic. I think it was TSR's Top Secret that gave each PC a (secret) limited number of Fate points that they could use to cheat death. Once your points were gone, well tough luck. CORPS has a similar mechanic with its ASPs, or "Ass Saver Points". So that's one method. Give your PCs a special pool of points the can expend to save their necks when all else fails.

Another method is that the PCs make some sort of very difficult saving throw. For example, in V&V if your character is in a situation they shouldn't be able to survive they can make a saving roll of 1d100 against their current Power to see if they miraculously survive. Mike Stackpole's Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes has something similar with its Megadeath Luck Saving Roll. The idea is that if the PCs want to perform some kind of death defying stunt, and presumable also if the want to cheat death, they have to make an appropriately high Luck saving throw.

Both of these are good systems. I like the idea of tough saving throws more than special points, but either way would work. In any case I think there should be a way for characters to cheat death. Is there another way to handle this that I'm missing? Do you think one way works better than another? Which method do you use in your games?

Filling the sandbox

2010-12-30T07:34:00.000-08:00

When it comes to designing a game setting I've always wondered how much to put in one area. How many dungeons should be a days ride from The Constipated Hobbit Inn? How many ancient alien complexes should be a short jump away from that Class K space station? There seen to be different approaches to question, with some gamers cramming lots of hot-spots into a map, with others spreading them out over a larger area.

The former style is clearly at work in the late Dave Hargrave's legendary (notorious?) Arduin campaign setting. Take a look at this map from one of the grimoires and you'll see that despite being just a small corner of the world it's bursting with dungeons.

In fact, all of the published Arduin dungeons are on that map. They're all within spitting distance of one another. A somewhat similar approach is evident in Jeff Rients' excellent comedic Encounter Critical module, Asteroid 1618. Jeff mapped out the Vanth sub-sector of space Traveller fashion. Along with the planet Vanth it includes Gamma (Gamma World), the spaceship Warden (Metamorphosis Alpha), Orezius (Uresia), Mythika (Mazes & Minotaurs) and more.

Even given that this is something of a tongue-in-cheek game, that's a lot of adventure locales in one small sub-sector.

The other approach is the one taken by the Judge's Guild in their classic Wilderlands of High Fantasy setting. This involved maps covering near-continental swaths of land and the dungeons and adventure modules that were published to tie into it were spread out over vast distances. A similar approach seems to be evident in Christopher B.'s Dark World, where you have a large area mapped out where the dungeons will be spread around.

So which approach do you use? Do you put all the interesting thing within easy reach of each other? Do you disperse them, placing them far apart and setting the stage for epic voyages?

The earliest T& T map

2010-12-19T12:01:00.000-08:00

I'm a little behind the curve on this, but the Troll God has been posting some of his early fantasy maps on his blog.

The earliest Tunnels and Trolls map

Before I ever had an inkling that my life would be bound up with imaginary characters delving imaginary dungeons in imaginary lands, I was trying to write fantasy is a mode that mixed the styles of Robert E. Howard and Lord Dunsany. Fantasy places shoud have great evocative names. If you study this map you will find the city of Khosht, a place of ruins called Khazan-Tharothat, and other names that might sound familiar to T & T players. Wherever you see the little hammer/pickaxe symbols was a stronghold of the Dwarves. The Elves, of course lived in the forests. And Men lived in the cities. I wasn’t gaming yet, but my inner dream cartography was beginning to take shape.

I drew this map after writing my first Howard-esque swords and sorcery story called “Some Legends Should Remain Forgotten".

This is not only an interesting glimpse into Ken's raw imagination but these maps could easily be used as adventure locales in a game. Besides, what gamer worth their salt hasn't scribbled out some fantasy lands of their own? I just wish mine were as interesting as these.

Dune redesign

2010-12-09T13:03:00.000-08:00

Over in the BoardGameGeek fora there's a really cool project underway. Gamer Ilya Baranovsky has started doing an excellent redesign of the graphics of the classic Avalon Hill game Dune.

While I usually prefer boargames that involve hexes and dice, this game is one of the exceptions and this new art makes it even more appealing. I'm really looking forward to the finished project.

Steranko characters

2010-12-01T05:48:00.000-08:00

Courtesy of Golden Age Comic Book Stories here are some amazing space opera characters drawn by the legendary Jim Steranko. Just add stats and go!

The Tower of Druaga

2010-11-24T06:49:00.000-08:00

The Tower of Druaga makes great inspirational viewing for FRPGs. It's about a group of delvers who dare to climb the evil tower of the title and draws on Babylonian mythology. It's based on an arcade game from the 80s and the first episode is a comedic spoof of all the games clichés. After that it settles down to a more serious adventure yarn, but with plenty of comic elements. For example, the party's wizard, Melt, has an assistant, Coopa, who basically acts as a caddy handing him different wands she pulls out of what amounts to a golf bag.You can watch both season one and season two over at ANN.

Royal Armies of the Hyborean Age (1975)

2010-11-17T08:45:00.000-08:00

Royal Armies of the Hyborean Age: A Wargamer's Guide to the Age of Conan is an old-school wargame. It's probably the first commercial wargame based on Robert E. Howard's hero. (The first wargame based on the Conan saga was of course also the first ever fantasy wargame, Tony Bath's Hyboria campaign.) Written by Lin Carter, who at the time was one of the editor's of the expanded Conan stories, and Scott B. Bizar, game designer and founder of Fantasy Games Unlimited, it also features a few illustrations by Roy G. Krenkle. It's a 56 page, staple bound book in Letter sized (8.5" × 11") format detailing rules and army lists. It includes as inserts a card-stock QRS and a paper map of Hyboria.

There are two introductions, one by each author. Carter informs us that he is acting as the authority on the setting, basing it on REH's work but inventing details as they're needed, mainly for things like national emblems, etc. Bizar tells us the the inconsistencies in the original tales made them difficult to quantify, so some elements have been left out. The emphasis is on playability rather than simulation.

These rules were written before standard dice notation came into use so dice are referred to as "an average dice", i.e. 1d6, which is used for combat, and "decimal dice", or d100, which are used for morale and magic. The scale is 1:20, with one model, or "casting" as they call them, representing 20 individuals. Each turn represents roughly one hour, and they recommend that games be limited to twelve turns. To simulate the time it takes for armies to ready themselves for combat, they suggest rolling a six-sided die and subtracting the result from twelve to determine how many turns the game will last.

Units are defined in a general way, as Light Infantry, Medium Cavalry, Heavy Chariots, etc. They have five formations they can assume, Line, Column, Road Column, Charge, and Forced March. The formation a unit takes determines how far it can move. Movement is pre-plotted, and takes place in two phases.

Combat takes place simultaneously. It's modified by situation and involves rolling one six-sided die, which is then multiplied by the number of troops in the unit to determine the percentage of casualties inflicted. For example, a group of twelve Bossonian archers fire on a unit of Picts, rolling a "3". That means they inflict 36 casualties on the enemy. Since each model represents twenty people, the Pict player removes two "castings". Most ancient weapons are covered, but while they include rules for crossbows they strongly recommend against using them.

Units have to roll for morale when they come into contact with enemy units, when they lose a certain proportion of their number, or when magic is used on or near them. Having commanders, heroes or superheroes in a unit will increase its morale. If the unit fails a morale roll it will fall back or may route. Heroes and superheroes (Conan) may be included in a unit, and they count as more than one person for combat purposes. Heroes count as three fighters, superheroes count as five fighters.

Magic is handled well, and involves both spell points and the chance of a backfire, two game mechanics that became staples in later FRPGs. There are ten spells listed, with a couple of special spells available in the appendix. All wizards have The Shield of Air, and Flying Spell, which are they only two that won't backfire. Examples of the spells are The Wall of Fire, Raising the Army of Ghosts, which summons a unit of light troops, and Commanding the Earth Demon, which causes landslides. One interesting detail is that all missile attacks on wizards are -1 "...due to the haze around the wizard that all wizards create prior to any battle." The spells seem well balanced and wouldn't give the army fielding a magic user an overwhelming advantage.

The game includes a point system for building armies, and some guidelines for running a campaign. They suggest artificially limiting army size to 1500 points to keep things manageable. They also don't allow for sieges, arguing that armies wouldn't risk the casualties and that troops would take to the field when faced with a siege. Each move on the strategic map represents one week of game time with a campaign length of 35 turns, so each campaign lasts one year, at the end of which troops retire to their winter quarters. When counters on the map are adjacent players go to the gaming table to fight the battle. They give general suggests that each country should be divided into provinces, but no detailed rules covering that.

The rules end with a few appendices covering the army lists for specific nations. Each nation is described, along with its point value, historical analog, and its banner and color scheme. For example, Koth relies on archers, heavy chariots and Royal Mailed Cavalry, has as a banner a yellow field with a black triangle in the center, and the troops "all favor white and off white shades with yellow as the most common trim color." There's also a break down of each army, listing units, type, class, number of figures, and percentage of the total army.

There's an appendix dealing with magic users, which lists the different groups, like the Wizards of the Black Circle, the Preists of Mitra, et al., and gives some special spells for particular groups. There's also a description of Thoth-Amon who will fight for any nation opposing Aquilonia in return for the Heart of Ahriman. "Should Thoth-Amon succeed in gaining this magical talisman, his power would be virtually unlimited so that a campaign would come to an end if this were to occur..."

This is a well done game that covers all aspects of Hyborian warfare (except navies). The rules hold up well and I could easily imagine running this game today, especially with some of the smaller armies listed. As a sourcebook for the Hyborian Age it provides some useful details, assuming you don't mind the embellishments made by Carter, et al. This version of Hyboria is probably a little closer to Marvel Comics' Conan than it is to REH's, but it's fine for wargaming. I'm not sure how many Hyborian campaigns have been fought over the years using these rules, but I sure hope they kept Thoth-Amon away from that talisman!

Cool Talislanta art

2010-11-11T14:39:00.000-08:00

Here are a few samples of an upcoming Talislanta art book from Khepera Publishing.

Necromancer with bottle-imp

Female Thrall

Warrior before a Kaliya

Kang Warrior mounted on a Strider

Barsoomian Army Lists

2010-11-09T12:03:00.000-08:00

This is me saving some more great gaming stuff from obscurity. In this case it's Alan Saunders' Barsoomian Army Lists for WRG's now free wargame Hordes of the Things. I've edited them a little, removing the details about the models he used and adding the sample Barsoomian armies he had on a separate page. Here's an archive of the original page from The Stronghold for comparison. As a bonus, here's the map from SPI's Barsoom game. Now, "Cry havoc and let slip the calots of war!"

Map of Barsoom by Scott Bizar via ERBzine

Barsoomian Army Lists for Hordes of the Things by Alan Saunders

Edgar Rice Burroughs wrote the eleven books that make up the Martian series between 1912 and 1950. Although the writing is up to his usual standard, the plots are repetitive and the 'science' is laughable, the series is a rollicking good read and also provides scope for a series of 'Hordes of the Things' army lists. Two lists for these books are presented in the original rules book, but they are incomplete and, in my opinion, slightly inaccurate. 'Barsoom' is the name given by Martians to their own world; Earth is called 'Jasoom'. Each of the following lists is designed to give a standard 24AP army and no more than half of the points can be spent on elements costing 3AP or more.

The eleven books in the series are: A Princess of Mars, Gods of Mars, Warlord of Mars, Thuvia, Maid of Mars, Chessmen of Mars, Mastermind of Mars, Fighting Man of Mars, Swords of Mars, Synthetic Men of Mars, Llana of Gathol and John Carter of Mars.

Peter Pig do very nice ready made Green and Red Martian armies in 15mm.

Red Martian, Yellow Martian and Black Pirate
Jed or Jeddak and Retinue Blade General @ 2AP 1
Warriors Blades @ 2AP 4-11
Assassin Sneakers @ 3AP 0-1

Helium and Allies only:
Upgrade Jed or Jeddak to John Carter or similar mighty swordsman
Hero General @ 4AP 1
Lesser Heroes Hero @ 4AP 0-1

Any but Manator and Yellow Martians:
Scout Fliers Fliers @ 2AP 0-2
Fliers Airboats @ 3AP
if Black Pirate 0-4
if others 0-2

Any but Black Pirates and Yellow Martians:
Thoat Riders Riders @ 2AP
if Gathol 0-6
if others 0-2

Only if Yellow Martians:
Apts Beasts @ 2AP 0-1
Solon of Okar Hero @ 4AP 0-1

Only if Jahar:
Phor Tak Magician @ 4AP 0-1
Cannibals Hordes @ 1AP 0-10

This list covers the majority humanoid race on Barsoom, the Red Martians, and covers all of their city states, including Helium, Ptarth, Kaol, Jahar, Dusar and so on. It also includes the less common but still humanoid Yellow Martians of the North Polar regions and the Black Pirates of the South Pole and Rift Valley. Other humanoid races either have their own lists or are not considered numerous enough to field an army. Red Martians and Black Pirates had radium rifles but preferred to fight at close quarters, hence their grading as Blades. Only the Twin Cities of Helium and their allies such as Ptarth, Kaol and Gathol seemed to produce men sufficiently super-human enough to be classed as Heroes. In the case of John Carter the element need not even have a retinue as he seems to have been virtually undefeatable even when on his own! Manator lacked the technology to produce fliers, but the Black Pirates used them extensively in their raids. The Yellow Martians protected their lands from aerial attack by use of a gigantic magnet which prevented use of fliers by them as well. Accordingly, no army opposing Yellow Martians may use fliers. Most Red Martian cities made use of Thoats for patrols and scouting; Gathol was famous for its Thoat herds and is therefore assumed to have more available for military purposes. Apts are fearsome creatures of the North Polar regions and there is some evidence for their domestication. Solon of Okar was an extremely old (even by Barsoomian standards) Yellow Martian rated by John Carter as the finest swordsman he ever faced. The city of Jahar tried to create a huge army to defeat Helium by a forced breeding program. This produced over-population in some areas and resulted in the inhabitants resorting to cannibalism to survive. Phor Tak was a master scientist who developed a number of weapons to aid Jahar against Helium, chief amongst them being a disintegration ray. Rating him as a Magician best reflects his abilities and those of his weapons.

Red Martian (Helium)

List
   Type..........................Troops......................................Cost
1 Hero General @ 4AP...John Carter, Warlord of Mars......4
6 Blades @ 2AP.............Swordsmen of Mars.................12
2 Airboats @ 3AP..........Fliers........................................6
1 Flyer @ 2AP...............Scout Flier................................2
Stronghold: None as yet.

Black Pirates

List
    Troops...........................Type.............................Cost
1 Airboat General @ 3AP...Battleship.........................3
3 Airboats @ 3AP..............Lesser Battleships.............9
2 Flyers @ 2AP.................One-man Flyers................4
4 Blades @ 2AP................Black Pirate Swordsmen...8

Red Martian (Jahar)

List
   Troops.........................Type..................................................Cost
1 Blade General @ 2AP...Tul Axtar with bodyguard.......................2
3 Blades @ 2AP..............Warriors...............................................6
2 Airboats @ 3AP............Large fliers coated in ghastly blue paint...6
1 Flier @ 2AP..................One man fliers......................................2
5 Hordes @ 1AP..............Cannibals of U-Gor...............................5
1 Artillery @ 3AP.............Phor Tak.............................................2

Notes

My fifth Martian army, and my first 'repeat' in terms of race. Jahar is a city state that goes to war with Helium in the seventh book in the series A Fighting Man of Mars. It's ruler, Tul Axtar, has two weapons at his disposal. Firstly he has instituted a forced-breeding program to boost his empire's population and supply of fighting men. This has lead to cannibalism breaking out in some provinces as the population outstrips the food supply. Secondly he has the disintigrator ray invented by Phor Tak fitted to all of his ships. This is represented in the army by giving them a fleet equal in size to that of Helium (assume it is fewer ships but armed with the secret weapon) and by fielding Phor Tak as an artillery element to provide extra firepower. Needless to say in the book his plans come to naught, but on the wargames table? Who knows?

Green Martian
Jeddak on Thoat Knight General @ 2AP 1

Warriors:
Up to 1/2 on foot as Blades @ 2AP
Rest on Thoats as Knights @ 2AP 6-11
Outriders and Scouts Riders @ 2AP 0-2
Calots Beasts @ 2AP 0-1
Warriors with Radium Rifles Shooters @ 2AP 0-4

Only if Thark:
Upgrade Jeddak to Tars Tarkas Hero General @ 4AP 1

This list covers all of the Green Martian nomad hordes that roamed the dead-sea bottoms of Barsoom. Most were hostile not only to other Barsoomian races but to other Green Martian hordes as well. Thark was an exception in that it was allied to Helium due to the friendship between their leader Tars Tarkas and John Carter. Green Martians generally fought mounted but were capable of fighting on foot if need be. Their impetuous desire to close to hand-to-hand combat whilst mounted along with their large size almost requires their classification as Knights. They were capable of shooting their radium rifles with almost legendary skill, but only tended to use them against enemy fliers. Some form of anti-aircraft artillery was also available, but since it was fairly static and used to protect a horde's current base it can be considered to be part of the Stronghold's defences. Calots are the Barsoomian equivalent of the dog, although they have more legs and teeth than an Earth canine and are the size of a Shetland pony! Although they domesticated a mastodon like creature called a Zitidar there is no evidence of Green Martians using them in war.

Green Martian

List
   Type..............................Troops............................Cost
1 Knight General @ 2AP...Jeddak on Thoat..................2
7 Knights @ 2AP..............Thoat-Mounted Warriors.....14
4 Shooters @ 2AP...........Warriors with Radium Rifles...8
Stronghold: None as yet.

Holy Thern
Holy Hekkador Blade General @ 2AP 1
Warriors Blades @ 2AP 6-11
Banths Beasts @ 2AP 0-1
White Apes Warbands @ 2AP 0-1
Plant Men Hordes @ 1AP 0-4

The White Martian Holy Therns made up a priest caste in Barsoomian society until exposed a frauds by John Carter. The vast majority of them lived near the South Pole in the Valley Dor, the Martian ‘Heaven’ where they enslaved other Barsoomians who made the pilgrimage there. The Valley Dor also contained many fearsome creatures which were used to destroy those Barsoomians not enslaved. For the purposes of this list it is assumed that the Therns had some measure of control over these creatures. Banths are the fearsome Barsoomian lion. White Apes are gigantic four-armed hairless gorilla-like creatures. The Plant Men are mindless, mobile, humanoid plant creatures with a taste for human flesh.

Lothar
Tario of Lothar Magician General @ 4AP 1
Illusionary Bowmen Shooters @ 2AP 6-8
Regrade Bowmen as Hordes @ 1AP
(2 such Hordes replace 1 element of Shooters) Up to 3/4
Banths Beasts @ 2AP 2-4

The hidden city of Lothar contained a small population of the almost extinct White Martians. Possessing amazing mental powers the inhabitants created an illusionary army of bowmen to fight their mortal enemies, the Green Martian horde of Torquas. These illusions could kill as long as the viewer believed in their reality. Tario is the Jeddak (or leader ) of Lothar, and the most powerful illusionist. The list allows Lothar to field small numbers of competent bowmen or larger numbers of lesser men or a mixture. Illusionary Banths fought alongside the troops, but a few real ones were mixed in with them as a nasty surprise and to clean up the battlefield afterwards.

Lothar

List
   Troops..............................Type............................................Cost
1 Magician General @ 4AP...Powerful Mentalist with Bodyguard...4
4 Shooters @ 2AP................Illusionary Bowmen........................8
6 Hordes @ 1AP..................Illusionary Bowmen.........................6
3 Beasts @ 2AP....................Banths.........................................6

Notes

This is the fourth of my Barsoomian armies, based on the Orovars encountered by Carthoris in 'Thuvia, Maid of Mars'. Powerful mentalists were able to create illusions of vast armies of bowmen from their distant past. The army is a mix of shooters (to reflect the effectivness of the bowmen) and hordes (to reflect their limitless numbers). The banths were a mixture of real ones and illusions.

Hormad
Jed and Retinue Blade General @ 2AP 1
Hormads in ‘Human’ Bodies Blades @ 2AP 1-3
Hormad Warriors Warband @ 2AP 4-8
Poorly Proportioned Hormads Hordes @ 1AP 4-10
Hormads on Giant Birds Flyers @ 2AP 0-3
Out of Control Growth Vat Behemoth @ 4AP 0-1

Hormad were synthetic humanoids created by the master scientist Ras Thavas in the deserted city of Morbus. Grown from huge vats of undifferentiated organic material they tended to lack symmetry and in many cases intelligence. However they were virtually indestructible; severed limbs would carry on moving, severed heads could still carry on conversations. Only fire could completely destroy a Hormad. They captured humanoid Martians and transferred the brains of the more intelligent Hormads into their bodies. Lacking fliers they traveled on genetically engineered giant birds. A growth vat once went out of control and threatened to engulf not only Morbus but the whole of Barsoom. It is assumed here that a more controlled form of this accident could be used to create a fearsome opponent.

Blaster pistol (Tri-Stat)

2010-11-03T14:20:00.000-07:00

Blaster Pistol Damage: 15 Concealable Skill: Gun Combat (Pistol) Major Gadget

A generic blaster pistol for Tri-Stat.

Vampire (Tri-Stat)

2010-10-29T08:15:00.000-07:00

pic by Wolfenheim

Vampire (110 Character Points)

Body 6, Mind 5, Soul 6

ACV 7, DCV 3
Health Points: 100 Energy Points: 55 Shock Value: 12

Attack Combat Mastery Level 2, Contamination Level 3, Heightened Awareness Level 3, Mind Control Level 2, Natural Weapons (Fangs) Level 1, Regeneration Level 1, Reincarnation Level 2, Special Attack "Vampire Bite" Level 1 (20 Damage, Drain Soul, Vampiric, Melee, Low Penetration), Special Defense Level 3, Tough Level 3, Special Movement (Balance, Cat-like) Level 2, Speed Level 3, Super Strength Level 2, Swarm (Bats or rats) Level 2

Achilles Heel (Wood) 2 BP, Bane (Holy Symbols) 1 BP, Bane (Sunlight) 2 BP, Easily Distracted (By blood) 2 BP

Stealth Level 1, Unarmed Attack Level 2, Unarmed Defense Level 2

A generic vampire for Tri-Stat.

Vampire (Fuzion)

2010-10-28T10:35:00.000-07:00

pic by Snakejohnson

Vampire (50 Points)

Mental 4, Combat 8, Physical 6, Move 5
Hits: 30, Defense: 12, REC: 6

Armor +6 (Vulnerable to wood) 1 PP
Clinging 2 PP
Damage Reduction 50% (Vulnerable to wood) 4 PP
Infrared Vision 1 PP
Killing Attack "Bite" 2DC 3 PP
Life support 6 PP
Regeneration (5 Round, Vulnerable to wood) 4 PP
Transformation (Cumulative) 1d6 "Human into Vampire", No Range (-2), Linked to Bite (+3), Bite Must Do Damage (-2), Activation DV 8 (-2) 2 PP

Skills: Interrogation 3, Seduction 4, Stealth 4, Shadowing 3, Concealment 2, Melee Weapons 4

A generic vampire for Fuzion using the Heroic Abilities Plug-in.

Werewolf (Tri-Stat)

2010-10-27T09:51:00.000-07:00

pic by Snakejohnson

Hunter (92 Points)

Body 5, Mind 4, Soul 4

ACV 4, DCV 2

Health 65, Energy 40, Shock Value 9

Alternate Form Level 7, Heightened Awareness Level 2, Gadgets Level 1 (Hunting Rifle, Canteen, Compass), Tough Level 1

Involuntary Change (Under full moon) 1 BP

Animal Training (Dogs) Level 1, Stealth (Silent Movement) Level 4, Wilderness Survival Level 1, Wilderness Tracking Level 1

Werewolf form

Body 7, Mind 1, Soul 4

ACV 7, DCV 2

Health 135, Energy 25, Shock Value 11

Alternate Form Level 7, Attack Combat Mastery Level 3, Contamination (Bite causes lycanthropy) Level 2, Heightened Awareness Level 4, Heightened Senses (Smell) Level 1, Natural Weapons (Claws, Fangs) Level 2, Regeneration Level 4, Speed Level 2, Super Strength Level 1, Tough Level 4

Awkward Size 1 BP, Easily Distracted (By prey) 2 BP, Physical Impairment (Cannot talk) 1 BP, Unskilled 2 BP, Vulnerability (Silver) 2 BP

A generic werewolf for Tri-Stat d6.

Update: The Alt Form LVL was off by one, so I raised it and adjusted the Character Point tally. And I forgot to included Contamination, so I added it and dropped the skills and Jumping to balance the points.

Werewolf (Fuzion)

2010-10-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

pic by Zero-drk

Werewolf (55 Points)
Mental 2, Combat 6, Physical 5, Move 5
Hits: 25, Defense: 10, REC: 12

Bite DC4
Claws DC6
Morph (Composition, Shape)
Armor +4 (Vulnerable to Silver)
Damage Reduction 50% (Vulnerable to Silver)
Regeneration 1 Round (Vulnerable to Silver)
1d6 Transformation (Cumulative): Human into Lycanthrope, No Range (-2), Linked to Bite (+3), Bite Must Do Damage (-2), Activation DV 8 (-2)
Tracking Scent
Enhanced Perception (Smelling +4, Hearing +4)
Skill: Stealth 5

Human Form (20 Points)
Mental 4, Combat 4, Physical 4, Move 4
Hits: 20, Defense: 8, REC: 4

Skills: Animal Handler 2, Firearms 3, Navigation 3, Survival 3, Tracking 4
Shotgun (12-Gauge buckshot) ROF: 2 Range: 40m Area Effect DC5

A generic werewolf for Fuzion using the Heroic Abilities Plug-in.

Zombie (Fuzion)

2010-10-25T12:20:00.000-07:00

pic by TwinDragon

Zombie (27 Points)

Mental 2, Combat 3, Physical 4, MOV 1

AV 3, DV 3, Hits 20, Defense 8

Bite (2DC Killing Attack) 3 PP
Infrared Vision 1 PP
Life Support 10 PP

A generic shambling zombie for Fuzion written using Instant Fuzion and the Superpowers Plug-In.

Update: I had the cost of the Bite wrong so I corrected it, and put up a different pic.

Zombie (Tri-Stat)

2010-10-25T09:31:00.000-07:00

(pic by SmokeryDots)

Zombie (40 Character Points)

Body 4, Mind 1, Soul 3

ACV 6, DCV 0

Health Points 75, Energy Points 20, Shock Value 7

Attack Combat Mastery Level 4, Contamination (Victims are zombified) Level 4, Natural Weapon (Bite) Level 1, Reincarnation Level 2, Sixth Sense (Living people) Level 1, Special Defense (Does not breathe) Level 2, Tough Level 2

Bane (Holy Symbol) 1 BP, Easily Distracted ("Brains!") 2 BP, Less Capable (Slow) 1 BP, Marked (Undead) 3 BP, Physical Imparement (Cannot talk) 1 BP, Unskilled 2 BP

A generic shambling zombie write-up for Tri-Stat d6.

Torchships & Trolls

2010-10-19T10:05:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about games like X-plorers yesterday and got to imagining what it would be like to run a game like that using Tunnels & Trolls. Obviously the first thing you'd need would be the T&T rules.T&T is a classic, especially the 5th ed., so any gamer worth their salt should have a copy. If you don't you can download the abridged free edition from sites like RPGNow or DriveThruRPG.

Then you'll want Garen Ewing's Trolls in Space weapons list. This is what got me thinking about this in the first place. It covers almost all the sf weapons you could want, like Blaster Rifle, Photon Guns and Light Sabres. It also gives you some reference for prices so you can add other equipment, like space suits and whatnot. But sf games are about more than gear. What about the other aspects of the game?

T&T 5th ed. has four basic Character Types, Warrior, Wizard, Rogue and the rare Warrior Wizard. The Warrior can just be renamed to something like "Trooper" and work just fine in a space opera game. Whether he's a Space Marine or a Space Barbarian is detail for the player and GM to work out. The next two types are a little trickier, and my idea is to split them each into two.

The Wizard would become either an "Esper" or a "Scientist". Espers act just like the regular Wizard type, only they've been trained by the Esper's Guild and the spells are renamed as psi powers. For example, "Knock Knock" would be a minor Telekinesis, "Omnipotent Eye" would be Psychometry, etc. Some spells, like Vorpal Blade, the Wall spells, etc. might not be appropriate for Espers and could be omitted. Instead of magic staffs Espers would have psi crystals. Scientists are a little different. They have the ability to use and build build devices that have the same effect as the spells. For example, a Scientist could jury rig a weapon to do double attack dice for one turn, i.e. he "casts Vorpal Blade on it". He could blast an alien with his ice cannon, or "cast Freeze Please". And so on. For Scientists the STR cost of the spell is how many hours it takes them to fabricate the item.

Rogues are handled in a similar manner. They are "Techies" or "Latent Espers". The Latent Espers are just like the standard Rogues in that they can learn psi powers from an Esper. Techies can use supers science items and can learn to build them from Scientists.

Wizard Warriors are "Esper Knights", and are act just as described in the rules. These are the Lensmen and Jedi.

Aliens are pretty easy to handle. To play an alien character just come up with a customized Peters-McAllister chart. For alien beasties just give then a monster rating, or Alien Rating.

But what about space ships? The easiest way would be to treat them similar to monster and give them a Spaceship Rating. For example, a small scout ship might might have a Spaceship Rating of 200 and a blaster turret that does 21D plus adds, while a Space Pirate cruiser might be SR 1000 and have beam batteries that do 101D plus adds. Ships could even have ablative Deflector Screens that are equal to their starting SR and which don't count toward their adds. I'd probably also give each ship a Speed rating to help figure out if you could outrun that Imperial Patrol.

So there you are. Some quick rules to take let your T&T game blast off.

Random Starting Tech Level

2010-10-12T09:40:00.000-07:00

Inspired by games like Encounter Critical and Terminal Space, here's a Random Starting Tech Level chart for Fuzion characters. I followed the Fuzion Tech Levels (which like most Tech Levels are very Eurocentric) but added some details.

Random Starting Tech Level

Roll 2D6-2

Tech Level.....Historical Era
0....................Neolithic
1....................Iron Age/Medieval
2....................Renaissance
3....................Victorian
4....................Early 20th Century
5....................Late 20th Century
6....................21st Century
7....................Near Future (Solar System Exploration)
8....................Early Interstellar Far Future
9....................Late Interstellar Far Future
10..................Hyper Science (transgalactic empires)

How this influences the character's Life Path is for the GM and players to work out.

C31 Translating Computer

2010-10-10T14:08:00.000-07:00

C31 Translating Computer........12

Translates unknown languages into any selected Terran language. When spoken into it translates your words back via digitized voice. The C31 features a limited AI that has a habit of actively volunteering detailed answers to passing questions about technical matters, and has been known to offer translations of interjections that give the impression of sarcasm. Takes three turns to translate a simple language; six turns to analyze and translate a complex one. Note: on a roll of 1 on 1D6, any previously unknown language is untranslatable. Cost: 1,200 credits

(Inspired by Robert Sheckley's "A Suppliant in Space" (1973); pic via Lebedev Studio)

Free Space Opera RPGs

2010-10-06T16:16:00.000-07:00

Jeff R's post today about DIY skiffy got me thinking about the free space opera RPGs out there. He's mainly interested in the D&Dish ones he mentioned in his post, but there are some others around. Here's the ones that I gravitate toward.

D6 Space

D6 Space is good, free pulp SFRPG. I actually have the hardbound edition of this game that I bought when it first came out. I had some fun playing in a D6 game before, so I was looking forward to the reissue. I imagined it would be just like the tried and true D6 Star Wars, only without all of the copyrighted material. Instead what I got was a game that crashed the Masterbook system right into the once enjoyably simple D6 rules. Ugh! So I put it on the shelf to gather dust. But now that it's been released as a free OGL game, I'm willing to cut it some slack. This game gives you a solid space opera RPG that you can run right out of the box, and when you add D6 Space Ships and D6 Aliens it covers all the bases.

Fuzion

Fuzion is a solid general purpose RPG engine that works great for space opera. Especially the older 4.4.3 rules, which includes different kinds of space suits, scanners, energy pistols, energy sabers, cyber hand blades, etc. It also has some cool dogfighting rules to handle those space furballs. Add the various plug-ins and you've got the whole genre covered. The Mekton plug-in gives you simple rules for building ships and vehicles; Mental Powers covers psionics; the Super Powers plug-in covers just about any weird mutant powers you can think of; and Martial Arts lets your your character have Venusian aikido. The only caveat is that Fuzion is more of a tool-kit than a finished rules set, so you'll need to do a little tweaking and adjusting, but that fits right in with the DIY theme of Jeff's post. For example, I'd reduce the number of characteristics to six or less and rewrite the skill list to add sf skills like sensors, zero-g, etc. And I'd beef up the Energy Sabre, which is too weak. Maybe something like this:

TYPE..........COST...DC...ACCURACY...MIN.STR...NOTES
Energy Saber...7.........6...........+1...............2..........2h

Tri-Stat dx

Tri-Stat is another good choice. It's a pretty simple game system to run, but it would require a little more work than the others to use for space opera. That's because the Tri-Stat dx rules are a generic version of the superhero game Silver Age Sentinels, and so they're focused more on a contemporary setting. But with a little DIY tinkering they would work, and they do include a space opera skill list.

There's a bunch more great free SFRPGS around, and you can find links to them under the "Free RPGs" label just to the right there, but these are the three I'd be most likely to use.

Space Suit

2010-10-05T12:09:00.000-07:00

(pic via JAXA)

Space Suit

Protects the wearer in space or in unbreathable atmospheres. It provides Partial Armor Level 1 (Stops 5 points of damage), Adaptation (Level 3, airlessness, temperature, vacuum). The suit can sustain 40 points damage before being destroyed, but any damage that penetrates armor affects both the suit and its wearer. The combined space suit and life support system weigh a total of 125 kilograms and can support a seven-hour EVA. Minor Gadget.

(Based on the space suit in BESM 2nd ed. rev., pg. 151)

Cone rifle

2010-09-28T14:04:00.000-07:00

(5 Armor, 35 Health Points)

Weapon Damage   Abilities       Disabilities               Skill

Cone Rifle   18     Area Effect   Limited Shots (6) Gun Combat (Auto-Fire)
                              Auto-Fire
                              Spreading

The cone rifle, a standard infantry weapon, fires rocket-propelled, explosive flechettes. These flechettes are cone shaped, allowing them to be stacked into tubes. The explosive cones accelerate after being fired from the rifle, hitting with greater impact at long ranges. Major Gadget.

(From Gordon R. Dickson's Childe Cycle; pic modified from MechWarrior)

Moss the Dungeon Master

2010-09-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

In the new season of The IT Crowd, Moss entertains some visiting corporate bureaucrats buy giving them their first taste of D&D.

Klingon Propaganda Video

2010-09-16T07:36:00.000-07:00

FASA's Star Trek RPG (which sadly I've never had the chance to play) was probably the only Trek RPG to publish supplements tailored specifically for gamers running a Klingon campaign. Modules like A Matter of Priorities, Graduation Exercise, and An Imbalance of Power were adventures for Klingon PCs seeking honor among the stars. I imagine those characters watched a lot of videos like this.

Caster

2010-09-14T06:23:00.000-07:00

Casters, once called "spell guns," are magical weapons which fire shells that have the effects of spells. When the mana started to run out people started putting the spells in cartridges. Each of the 20 different types of cartridge has a diffrent effect. Caster shells are rare and expensive, and few wizards still know how to enchant them.

Caster (for Tri-Stat)

Item of Power 1x3 = 3
    Easy To Lose
    Special Attack "#3 shell" 1x4+ 1 = 5 (60 damage attack)
      Affects Incorporeal
      Concealable
      Hand-Held
      Limited Shots 2x-20 = -40 (3 shots)
      Unreliable
    Alternate Attack "#12 shell" 1x1 = 1 (20 damage attack)
      Incapacitating
      Limited Shots 2x-20 = -40 (3 shots)
      Unreliable

Notes:

I was generous with the number of shots. Usually a character will only have one or two shells of a given type. There are obviously many more types of cartridge available, but they are hard to get and characters should be required to undertake a minor quest to acquire the very rare and powerful ones, like a #4 or #13.

Another way to write this weapon up is to treat the caster as a Major Gadget (or two) and then write up each cartridge as a different Special Attack.

A Warp War Campaign

2010-09-06T09:36:00.000-07:00

I was poking around over at BoardGameGeek and discovered there's a play-by-forum game of Warp War going on. They're using a variant of the rules and playing on a larger map from Stellar Conquest which should provide a little more scope to the game.

There are four factions slugging it out for galactic domination

B.A.S.H. Boskone Aeronautical Space Horde
P.O.T.W. People of The Wind
RHON Rhones
S.M.I.R.S Space Marines in Red Spandex

I'm rooting for the Space Marines in Red Spandex.

And I also discovered that Warp War is still in print. I don't know how this current version compares to the old Metagaming copy I have, but it's good to know it's still available.

Science Police Helmet

2010-09-05T16:11:00.000-07:00

Some game stats for that helmet I posted pics of yesterday. In DC terms this is pre-Crisis, Silver Age stuff. The capabilities are conjectural but seem like what future cops would have.

Science Police Helmet (Major Gadget)

15 points Armor (head only); Police-Band Radio; Global Positioning System; Anti-Glare Visor and Ear Protectors (+6 bonus to checks to avoid the effects of Flare attacks and Flash-Bang Grenades.)

These stats are for the free Tri-Stat dX game, but will also work for BESM. To use it with BESM 2nd ed. change the "+6" to a "-3".

Wild '70's helemt

2010-09-04T07:02:00.000-07:00

When Mike Grell was working on The Legion of Super-Heroes, he gave the Science Police these groovy helmets. I think the flash-back display is optional, but I bet they have a kick-ass set of built-in headphones.

Space Opera eye candy

2010-09-03T06:58:00.000-07:00

By Paul Alexander

Nuclear Winter

2010-08-30T06:38:00.000-07:00

Greg Costikyan loves taking the piss out of his fellow gamers. He skewered the mentality underlying most hack-and-slash gamers with Violence: The Roleplaying Game of Egregious and Repulsive Bloodshed. He also took on the post-holocaust genre with this short gem.

Nuclear Winter

The Realistic After-the-Holocaust Game

Credits
Design: Greg Costikyan
Development: Joe Balkoski, John M. Ford, and Nick Quane

(1.0) The 90-Minute War Table

1-4 You survive the first strike; roll on table 2.0.
5-6 You are killed in the fireball.

(2.0) Fallout Table

1-5 You survive the fallout with only minor radiation sickness; roll on table 3.0.
6 You are killed by the radiation.

(3.0) Collapse of Civilization Table

1-3 You survive the collapse of the food distribution network, the marauding bands, etc.; roll on table 4.0.
4-6 You die at the hands of looters, from starvation, etc.

(4.0) Nuclear Winter Table

1-6 A cloud of dust encircles the globe. Global temperatures drop by several degrees. Most plant life dies because it does not receive enough light. The glaciers advance. All animals larger than the rat become extinct. You die.

(5.0) Optional New Jersey Rule

If you live in New Jersey, add one to all die-rolls.

(6.0) Optional Breathing Rule

Each time you take a breath, mark off one breath box. When all six boxes have been marked off, you are dead.

Designer's Notes

For some reason, after-the-holocaust games seem real popular right now. Why is beyond me; I can think of few more depressing environments in which to live. In addition, most such games are patently ludicrous; a few years after a full-scale nuclear exchange, nothing will be left by the rats and the roaches. However, I might as well cash in on the trend, too.

Coming Soon from Costikyan Publishing Empire

RAT AND ROACH WAR

The sequel to Nuclear Winter

Hordes of the Things!

2010-08-27T10:37:00.000-07:00

Yesterday James M. posted the good news that the mass combat wargame, Hordes of the Things! (2nd ed.) is available as a free download for personal use. HOTT! is a really fun abstract wargame based on Wargames Research Group's popular DBA/DBM ancient & medieval rules. (I think the name comes from the BBC radio series Hordes of the Things that was a parody of LotR.)

Because they're abstract and use several figures mounted on a single base to represent huge hordes of troops, you can have entire armies using just a handful o figures. The abstract nature of the rules also means you can make an army based on just about anything you can dream up, like a Dr. Who army.

The premiere resource for HOTT was The Stronghold website which had a bunch of army lists and stuff, but it seems to have gone 404. (Here's a link to the archived copy). If you do play you might want to use these rule tweaks that come from the mailing list:

HOTT is a very well balanced game. There are no uber-elements that are game winners in all circumstances. General opinion, however, is that if there is an elements that's good value for the points it's the Shooter. Likewise Warbands are regarded as a little underpowered.

There is a substantial minority (and a clear majority of the regular contributors to this list) who are using the following modified rules:

Shooters' move in good/bad going reduced to 200 paces

Warbands' move in good/bad going increased to 300 paces.

This makes a surprising difference to the perceived usefulness of the two elements.

Richard C

And don't worry if you don't have models on hand. You can always play HOTT without miniatures.

Keep on Truckin'...

2010-08-25T07:22:00.000-07:00

DAD-3A Daedalus

BESM2 Call of Cthulhu

2010-08-23T07:34:00.000-07:00

Rescuing some more BESM fan rules from obscurity. In this case it's William H Timmins' rules for playing Call of Cthulhu with the BESM 2 rules (which could easily be tweaked to work with the free Tri-Stat rules).

They are the one's formerly linked to on Blackbird's (of BESM EX supplement fame) BESM links page. They're too long to post here, but just follow the link to find an archived copy of them. I'm pretty sure they were written before the Revised Edition was published and it's surprising how similar the Sanity rules are to the Psyche rules in 2RE. Something else I really like are the Occupation rules.

Designing an occupation is simply a matter of collecting a series of skills so that the skill cost, per level, is divisible by 10. The cost in Character Points is the skill cost divided by 10.

I like the way games like Call of Cthulhu and Mekton Z handle occupations by treating each profession as a group of 5-6 specific skills, so it's nice to see something similar implemented in BESM. Here's the example he gives.

Example, in standard genre:

Antiquarian – Art, Bargain, History, Law, Library Use, Other Language, Spot Hidden, + any one skill as a personal specialty

Visual Arts (any) 3/level

Persuasion (Bargain) 3/level

* I added this, it is not in normal BESM2. Other specializations: fast talk, persuade

Cultural Arts (History) 4/level

Research (any) 4/level

* I added this, too. Specializations: library use, lab work, internet use, statistical analysis

Linguistics (any) 3/level

Standard package costs 2 CP, gets one level of Visual Arts (any), Persuasion (bargain), Cultural Arts (History), Research (any), and two levels of Linguistics (any).

And since skills are optional in 2E you could always just use Occupations as a rough outline of what kinds of things a character would be proficient at.

In any case, there's lots of good advice here for running CoC using BESM rules, or (if you want to make Lovecraft roll in his grave) playing a Demonbane campaign.

Hooker Cop!

2010-08-22T09:13:00.000-07:00

Hooker Cop (40 Character Points)

Body 6 Mind 4 Soul 5

ACV: 6 DCV: 5 Health Points: 35

LVL PTS Attributes:
1      3      Attack Combat Mastery
2      4      Defense Combat Mastery
2      4      Gadgets (Police kit, car)
       -1     Conditional Ownership (Gadgets)
2      2     Highly Skilled
2      2     Organizational Ties (Police Dept.)

LVL PTS Skills:
1      3      City Knowledge (Red light district)
2      4      Driving (Car)
1      3      Intimidation (Street)
1      3      Law (Criminal)
2      4      Seduction (Male)
1      2      Street Sense (Influential Individuals)
2    16      Gun Combat (Pistol)
1      7      Melee Combat (Baton/Club)
1      8      Unarmed Attack (Holds)

PTS Defects:
-2    Not So Tough
-1    Red Tape
-1    Significant Other (Partner)

Forbidden Books

2010-08-20T06:04:00.000-07:00

Form "The Lovecraft Variant" by G. Arthur Rahman and Philip J. Rahman in Sorcerer's Apprentice magazine (Summer, 1980).

Forbidden Books
Bygone occult investigators and mystics have recorded some of the Old One's secrets. Sometimes reading a forbidden book will prepare a character to see the Greater Significance of a discovery. To establish the identity of a book randomly, roll 2d6 on this table.

2 - Prehuman Religions. Uncanny, rich, and dreadful (English)

3 - Unaussprechlichen Kulten. Stunning and terrible (German)

4 - Pnakotic Manuscript. Recorded secrets of a pre-Homo sapiens race (English translations available)

5 - Revelations of Glaaki. Psychic dreams of a mystic (English)

6 - Book of Dzyan. Suggestions of true horror expressed in vague oriental style (ancient Sanskrit)

7 - G'harne Fragments. More pre-human writings, widely considered to be a modern hoax (English)

8 - King in Yellow. A play that presents eldritch horror in the guise of an allegory (French and English translations available)

9 - Les Cultes des Goules. Dread knowledge confused by the vacuous interpretation of a mad nobleman (French)

10 - Vermis Mysteriis. An important revelation of horror (Latin)

11 - Liber Ivonis. Manuscript of a prehistoric wizard, rich and powerful (medieval French)

12 - Necronomicon. Masterwork of arcane knowledge (Latin), a book so frightful an ES-SR [Emotional Stability Saving Roll] is required to read it.

The Lovecraft Varient

2010-08-18T07:06:00.000-07:00

The other day James M. blogged about The Prehistory of Call of Cthulhu and how CoC originally began as a generic Gothic horror RPG. And Ed commented,

More fun facts:

Issue 7 of Sorcerer's Apprentice magazine (Summer 1980) contained an article called "The Lovecraft Variant," which was a Tunnels & Trolls rules hack for playing 1920s Cthulhu Mythos adventures. It was pretty damn cool.

It later evolved into Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes.

So I decided to revisit this little gem and dug out my stack of back issues of Sorcerer's Apprentice magazine that I bought from Flying Buffalo a few years ago.

Written by G. Arthur Rahman and Philip J. Rahman it appeared under the full title "The Lovecraft Variant, or the Lurking Shadow Over Pickman's Unnameable Hound on the Doorstep of the Shunned Witch House of the Terrible Erich Zann." (If you can recognize all the Lovecraft stories alluded to in that humorously verbose title, award yourself five geek points.) The article begins with fulsome praise for Lovecraft, crediting him with the creation of "a new sub-genre in fantasy." And while they acknowledge that Lovecrafty elements can be added to the standard dungeon crawl, they set out to provide rules to play in the Jazz Age milieu in which the stories were originally set.

This article shall endeavor to adapt T&T to the special requirements of Lovecraftian adventure.

An active interest in the Cthulhu Mythos will greatly aid the playing of the Lovecraft Variant. Players who opt to be characters in a horror story must recognize that the Gm is only doing his duty if he gives them a rough time. In this genre, death and madness fall with horrifying frequency.

Unlike most role-playing games, the characters in the Lovecraft Variant are little-motivated by hope of money, fame or self-improvement. They are explorers of the nature of Evil, questers after the frightful secrets behind the world's mysteries. Their reward is knowledge for its own sake; even the most persistent and successful delver may end his career old before his time, with a burden of secrets too dreadful to bear.

They them proceed to the specific game mechanics needed to run the LV. These included a new attribute, Emotional Stability, which "quantifies the character's ability to withstand terror without mental trauma." This prefigures CoC's Sanity attribute, and is one of the things which set these games apart from the sword-and-sorcery genre. In your average FRPG the adventures can confront all manner of demons and beasties and only have to worry about becoming monster chow. In a Lovecrafty game they also have to worry about wigging out.

Other paragraphs cover Equipment (e.g., Cheap revolver 5D6+15), Magic ("A scan of Lovecraftian literature will derive very little magic that is equivalent to the spells of T&T."), and rules for Character Types (Investigators, Scholars, and Dilettantes). Then comes some random charts for Personal Secrets, Fear Reaction, and Forbidden Books (yes, the Necronomicon is there). Then comes a short list of Ancient Gods and Monster Ratings and descriptions for a variety of Minions (Shoggoth, MR 500). The article wraps up with eight Scenario Suggestions.

I never played the LV because by the time I saw it I already had CoC for that kind of game. But thinking about it now, this short article gives you everything you need to do Lovecraft. You don't really need whole new books of rules and supplements (fine as those were). You just need to spend a few hours tweaking your favorite rules (you could do the same thing with D&D, RQ, Traveller, or whatever) to play a horror game. In a way I wish I'd used the LV to run my Mythos games, and maybe at some point I will.

Jeff's vlog

2010-08-17T07:48:00.000-07:00

The always interesting Jeff Rients has started volgging. I swear that almost every time I do a search on some game idea his blog comes up in the results because he's thought of it first.

RPGbomb?

2010-08-16T12:15:00.000-07:00

What the hell happened to the RPGbomb site? I haven't been able to reach it for over a week now. Now when I go to the address I get a generic Apache HTTP Server page.

I even tried opening the page with a different browser, but no luck. I know they overhauled the site a while ago, but it seemed to be working fine. They haven't sent me any emails saying they were changing servers or shutting down. The worst thing is I got an email notice that someone PM'd me over there, and now I'll never know what it was about. And it's a good thing I wasn't part of a PBeM game there. Has anybody heard any news about this? Are they still around, or what?

Damnation Van

2010-08-15T05:24:00.000-07:00

By Syd Mead, who is quoted in Mekton as saying that spaceships fall into one of two categories, techno-form boxes or ninja rocket-ships. Looks like the same principle applies to vans.

[via Jeff Rients]

My Metagming collection

2010-08-13T08:10:00.000-07:00

I've managed to collect quite a few of Metagaming's old MicroGames. They were small, fast playing wargames using hex maps that were published back in the '70's and '80's. And they're a blast to play.

MicroGame #1: Ogre (1977)

Designed by Steve Jackson and inspired by Keith Laumer's Bolo series of sf stories, this game has you using hovercraft and other AFV's to fight a giant cybernetic tank called the OGRE. An easy game with a lot of replay value. With art by Winchell Chung.

MicroGame #3: Melee (1977)

Another by Steve Jackson. Melee is a game of individual combat that includes many fantasy creatures. Uses a simple point-build system to create characters. Along with Wizard (see below) it was the basis of the FRPG The Fantasy Trip and eventually GURPS. A very good game that I blogged about earlier. And probably the only game ever published with a gargoyle wiener on the cover.

MicroGame #4: Warp War (1977)

Designed by Metagaming founder Howard Thompson, this is a starship combat game with a solid diceless game mechanic and a simple strategic element. A fun game that can easily be expanded upon. More art by Winchell Chung.

MicroGame #5: Rivets (1977)

A toungue-in-cheek take on the old "the humans are gone but the robots keep on fighting" cliché. Each player controls various Boppers that can be programed in different ways. I haven't played this one yet, but it looks fun.

MicroGame #6: Wizard (1978)

The follow-up game to Melee (above), this one covers magic users, obviously. Each player controls a spell caster as they face off in an arena. The spells were all combat oriented, natch, but they were expanded in The Fantasy Trip.

MicroHistory #2: Ram Speed (1980)

"RAMSPEED is a fast playing game from the age of mythical heroes, a time when gods roamed the earth and mystery veiled the oceans." How can you not want to play this game? You command individual ancient ships like triremes or penteconters and try to outmaneuver your opponent.

That's it so far. I'd really like to get MicroGame #7: Olympica (1978) too and maybe a few others. I just wish I would get to play them more often.

Mecha Malfunction Table

2010-08-09T05:40:00.000-07:00

This is another chart from the vanished Shigata Ga Nai High site, taken in turn from SJG's Tooniversal Tour Guide. You could update results 15 and 53 to something like, Viewscreen only displays "K-ON!"

Mecha Malfunction Table by Matthew Webber

Based on "The Dreaded ‘Uh Oh, Equipment Failure' Table" in the "Tooniversal Tour Guide" Mektoon section by Rrobert Cross, with some Anime-esque modifications.

Roll on this chart whenever the player rolls a 12. If an attacking character chooses, they can roll on this chart instead of Critical Damage Table.
To roll on this chart, use 2D6, designating one die the "Ones" and another "Tens" and roll like you would roll 2D10 to get a D100 result. (ie, one die rolling a 4, and the other a 3, would yeild a result of 43, or 34.)

11 Random weapon stops working
12 Limb freezes up and won't move
13 Limb falls off
14 Viewscreen only displays in black and white
15 Viewscreen only displays "Fist of the Northstar"
16 Weapon gets hot, can only be fired once every two rounds or it will melt.
21 Mecha is knocked over
22 Sound receptors shut off. All combat rolls are +3
23 Mecha cannot walk, and runs at full tilt when it moves
24 Mecha stops halfway through a tranformation (if transformable, if not, roll again)
25 Powerpack explodes. Mecha takes 15 damage an cannot move
26 Mecha becomes SD
31 Targeting computer malfunctions. +3 to hit
32 Mecha will no longer transform (if tranformable, if not roll again)
33 Power source malfunctions, will lose all power in 1D6 rounds
34 Air conditioner shuts off. +2 to all rolls
35 Air conditioner won't turn off, +1 to all rolls.
36 Limbs only function on a roll of 6 or less. (Roll 2d6 for every movement)
41 Head is damaged, mecha takes double damage. If the pilot is in head, then they take 10 damage.
42 Mecha will keep repeating its last movement until the Pilot can roll a 2.
43 Entire team's viewscreen will show only the shocked faces of their teamates
44 Mecha can only walk backwards
45 Random weapon explodes. Does 10 damage
46 Short circuit in electrical system . Pilot must make body roll every round or suffer 5 damage
51 Pilot is unconscious for 2d6 round.
52 Communications with other pilots are out
53 Viewscreen displays "Brave Fencer Musashi"
54 Mecha can only fire all weapons at once
55 Targeting computer malfunctions, and begin to target other teammates.
56 Mecha changes movement modes randomly
61 Limb explodes. Does 15 damage
62 Weapon falls off
63 Cooling systems malfunction. Mecha will overheat and shutdown in 2D6 rounds
64 All controls go dead for 1 round every 1D rounds
65 Communication system malfunctions and broadcasts all transmissions on an open frequency.
66 roll again, twice

Pike's Enterprise

2010-08-08T06:45:00.000-07:00

This is a follow-up to yesterday's post. Here's a great exterior illustration of Capt. Pike's Enterprise from Neale Davidson's Jaynz Ships of the Fleet.

"Captain Christopher Pike commanded the Enterprise from the early 2250s into the 2260s. His missions included voyages to the Rigel, Vega and Talos systems."

The Vintage Starships site even has the specs for the ship, at least as far as the FASA RPG is concerned.

Ray Guns

2010-08-07T09:18:00.000-07:00

To compliment today's cool post over at EXONAUTS!, here's a picture of a bunch of ray guns I stumble upon over at Fist of Blog.

I also found this pic by Dusty Abell, which makes me want to play an anime Star Trek game more than ever.

Dorkiest Mechs of 3025

2010-08-05T08:15:00.000-07:00

More Battletech lulz. Here's a look back at some of the dorkiest Mechs that was posted a while ago over at Something Awful LLC. Battletech ripped off most of it's best art from Macross (or rather Robotech). The other designs were mostly full of suck.

On the other hand, the Japanese version of Battletech, which featured art by the creators of Macross, Studio Nue, was full of awesome.

Now that's a mech.

Battletech lulz

2010-08-03T13:54:00.000-07:00

Over on the chans, Anon sez...

Real men play 3025. Before there was shit like cell phones and the internet. When you had to write out your own record sheets with a pencil and a calculator or make copies at the library for $.05 a page. Enjoy your clantech targeting computer pulseboat, you munchy pussies.

Strife Path Generator

2010-07-29T06:13:00.000-07:00

This chart comes from a long vanished website called Shigata Ga Nai High that was devoted to BESM 1E. Most first edition stuff is easy to adapt to second or third edition rules, and besides this chart doesn't contain any game specific content anyway. It's a random "Strife Path Generator" for mecha pilots that's very reminiscent of R.Talsorian's Lifepath tables . It's a great way to get some random background details for your mecha jock's life.

(Mecha War by ~yapkr)

Strife Path Generator by Matthew Webber

Taken from "Tooniversal Tour Guide" Mektoon section by Robert Cross.

Perfect for seeing what type of interesting , dramatic or stupid personal problems that every Mecha Pilot character seem to have. Start by rolling 1D6. Go to the starting point with the same number. From there just keep rolling the die until you get an "End" result. You can go through the strife path as often as as you wish.
This chart is originally meant for Mecha pilots, but works with many anime character types.

Starting Point
1. You have an enemy. Go to the Enemy section.
2. You are involved in a love affair. Go to the Romance section.
3. You have a mental problem. Go to the Mental section
4. You have a family problem. Go to the Family section.
5. You have a weird problem. Go to the Weird section.
6. Roll twice. Ignore any further 6 results.

Enemy Section
Your enemy is ...
1. An alien
2. A former friend
3. A relative
4. A criminal mastermind
5. Someone on your side (possibly another PC)
6. A former lover
Now go to the Motive section

Romance Section
The object of your affection is...
1. A teammate
2. A friend
3. An alien
4. A criminal
5. An enemy
6. A relative or lover of a friend.
Now go to the Complications section.

Family Section
the family member is...
1. Your brother
2. Your father
3. Your sister
4. Your mother
5. Your cousin
6. Your in-laws
Now roll on the Family Troubles section.

Mental Section
Sometimes you...
1. Think everyone is out to get you
2. Develop a phobia
3. Suddenly change personalities
4. Become obsessed with someone, or something.
5. Suffer a change in emotions
6. Suddenly become completely insane.
Now go to the When section.

Weird Section
Something strange is going on...
1. You are cursed.
2. You have been contacted by aliens from another planet/dimension
3. You loose an Attribute and gain a new one.
4. Non-living items can talk to you.
5. You have a psychic connection to (Animator's choice)
6. If your Health Points reach 0, something strange happens
End.

Motive Section
Your Enemy hates you because...
1. You defeated him in combat
2. You accidentally killed a member of his family.
3. You stole his lover
4. You sent him to jail
5. You foiled his plans
6. You are what he secretly wants to be.
End.

Family Trouble
the family member is...
1. In trouble with the law
2. Is working for Aliens or a criminal mastermind
3. Is in financial trouble.
4. Has gone crazy
5. Has disappeared
6. Has become the Criminal Mastermind.
End.

The When Section
Your mental problems occur...
1. When you get in/ out of your Mecha.
2. When you go into combat
3. When you see a certain thing
4. When you alone
5. When a certain person is around
6. When you are wounded.
End.

Complications Section
Your love affair is complicated by...
1. He/she doesn't know you exist.
2. His/her family hates you
3. You're completely mismatched.
4. Your family hates him/her
5. You don't know that he/she loves you.
6. You have a rival for his/her affections.
End.

Strange new worlds

2010-07-27T06:31:00.000-07:00

Any good space opera rpg worth it's salt has to have rules for randomly generating star systems. It just goes without saying. This probably goes back to Traveller, which in many ways set the standard for sfrpgs. So nearly every space themed game that followed had charts that let you churn out solar systems like nobody's business. But more than a few of those games were determined to outdo Traveller by making there generation systems scientifically realistic. So realistic that nearly every system you generated was a desert of lifeless rocks. Mr. Lizard commented on this in the course of his exhaustive review of the obscure game Star Rovers.

Much as the entire early wave of fantasy RPGs made some design choices purely because "That's how D&D did it", most space-travel focused science fiction games offered a random star system generation system which was at least vaguely "scientific", because Traveller did, and many decided to trump Traveller by offering "realistic" probabilities for habitable worlds (based on, you know, all the habitable worlds which had been found in 1981), which meant a DM could wear out his dice hand before generating a random system which contained anything other than barren rocks.

I think the worst offender in this regard has probably got to be Spacemaster, which has chart after chart that seldom produced an inhabited system even after hours of rolling. (No, I do not speak from experience. Even I have my limits.) Traveller never made that mistake, and when you rolled up systems for the game you were guaranteed to get inhabited systems. You know, places for adventure? Another game of that era that had the sense to put the adventure first was FASA's Star Trek rpg. They took it for granted that you would be exploring Class M planets, so when you got to a new system the question wasn't if there were habitable planets present, but how many were there. They even condensed the whole generation system into one convenient page.

I'm all in favor of having realistc science in my games, but not when it interferes with the fun. That's especially true of space opera games which are rather unrealistic to begin with. Skewing the system generation system to produce exotic locals for adventure seems to me to be the best direction to go.

Warp Factor six is slow

2010-07-23T06:28:00.000-07:00

I was thinking about what it would be like to use Traveller subsector maps in a Star Trek game. They're a nice, convenient size. It's quick and easy to randomly generate solar systems, etc. And it's in a generous scale of one parsec to the hex. So how long would it take a Constitution class starship traveling at warp factor six to get around the map?

Warp Factor six is 216 times the speed of light. That means it would take roughly 1.7 days to travel one light year. To cross one parsec of 3.26 light years would therefore take you about 5.5 days. So it takes our ship 5.5 days to travel one hex one the map. Since the map is 8x10 hexes that means it would take 44 days to cross the top of the map, and 55 days to go from bottom to top! Our crew could spend a whole year of their five year mission just in this one subsector.

(generated using the Random Subsector Generator)

Now in the TV show the Enterprise went zipping around over much greater distances. That's why the authors of the first edition of the FASA Star Trek rpg didn't bother to include a map. They knew they couldn't handwave it away. But if you want to conduct your adventures on a more reasonable (and manageable) scale, the subsector maps are a good resource. So just generate four or five of these subsector maps and you'll have a sandbox that should support a five year long campaign.

ENnie Awards 2010

2010-07-21T08:50:00.000-07:00

The polls are open for the 2010 ENnie Awards so vote if you want to.

I threw my votes behind the sf titles on the ballot, like Eclipse Phase, Diaspora, Doctor Who, Shadowrun and Rogue Trader. I also gave Hero System 6th edition high marks. I don't play Hero anymore, but I think it's one of the most influential systems in the history of the hobby, plus Steve Long has put out some great stuff for it. What are you going to vote for?

Scripted adventures

2010-07-20T09:14:00.000-07:00

D6 Star Wars was a great game, but I never liked the adventure modules that were published for it. The reason is that they were for the most parts scripted, linear affairs. The GM and players were expected to follow the script with little room for improvisation.

Now, anybody who's ever GMed a game knows that if one thing is guaranteed to happen it's that the players will do something you haven't planned for. Railroading them back into a set of scripted events is just going to discourage their creativity and take something away from the gaming experience. I don't play that way, and neither does anybody I know.

So as a general rule scripted adventures are a bad idea for role playing games. However, there is situation where using scripted adventures is entirely appropriate: linked wargaming scenarios.

Have at you!

In this case the script would cover the narrative events linking the various scenarios, while the outcome of the battles would determine the course the script would take. Think of it like a video game. You punch some buttons to fight some opponents, then you sit back and watch a cut-scene that advances the story and takes you to the next fight where you punch some more buttons. Same thing, only you roll dice and don't use as much electricity.

Say your prayers, pardner!

Ideally you would organize the script and scenarios in a flowchart, so that the events of any given fight determine which chain of events follow. For example, space pirate Capt. Scorpio raids a landing field warehouse where he knows a smash-bot to be stored. If the pirates win the scenario, they'll be able to field the smash-bot in the next encounter; if not, they not only won't have a shiny new robot, they may have the space rangers hot on their heels. In either case, the outcome of the fight decides which way events will go within the general confines of the story.

Stop contradicting me, Duchesse.

So maybe it's time to dust off those old scripted Star Wars adventures and use them for a little inspiration.

[pics via Negromundheim and The Old Gamers’ Den]

05%...	11	5.6%
10%	9	11.1%
15%	6	13.9%
20%	7, 12	19.4%
25%	4, 7	25.0%
30%	7, 8	30.6%
35%	2, 4, 5, 6	36.1%
40%	5, 6, 8	38.9%
45%	6, 7, 8	44.4%
50%	4, 5, 6, 7	50.0%
55%	5, 6, 7, 8	55.6%
60%	3, 5, 6, 7, 8	61.6%
65%	4, 5, 6, 7, 8	63.9
70%	3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8	69.4%
75%	all except 2, 3, 4, 10...	75.0%
80%	all except 2, 4, 10	80.6%
85%	all except 3, 11, 12	86.1%
90%	all except 9	88.9%
95%	all except 11	94.4%