Division Nihil

Reverb #6: My Favorite Character

2012-02-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #6: Describe your all-time favorite character to play. What was it about
him/her/it that you enjoyed so much?

Read more »

Encyclopedia Magica: Amulet of Arachnid Control

2012-02-23T10:00:00.000-05:00

At first blush, this seems like an over-specialized item with little practical application. However, it is important to note that it comes from the Spelljammer campaign setting. The setting prominently features neogi, a villainous race noted for being intelligent, powerfully magical, and arachnids. They, and their enormous spidery ships, are subject to the power of this amulet.

Read more »

Encyclopedia Magica: Amulet of Amiability

2012-02-21T10:00:00.000-05:00

I must say, I am quite happy with the range of items we are getting right off the bat here. Today, we get our first cursed item! Though, quite honestly, I'm pretty sure this one was not thought of as a cursed item by its creator.

Read more »

Reverb #5: Kids at Play

2012-02-20T10:00:00.000-05:00

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #5: Have you ever introduced a child to gaming, or played a game with a
young person? How is gaming with kids different than gaming with adults?

Read more »

How do you spell?

2012-02-17T10:00:00.000-05:00

Magic is a ludicrously tricky topic in RPGs. I've talked about it here before. (Actually, due to some strangeness, I've actually talked about it twice.) I also presented a couple options for my Seven Kingdoms setting, version one and version two, which attempted to mitigate some of the issues I'd brought up previously.

I'm looking at the magic system for my Charovnye d20 game, and I want to make the system evocative but still simple. But, wow, is that difficult.

Read more »

Encyclopedia Magica: Amulet Against Disease

2012-02-16T10:00:00.000-05:00

This is a nifty little item, that is both obvious and traditional. Various charms of protection are one of the most common applications of magic, right up there with luck and fertility. In a world with little in the way of proper medical treatment, an amulet against disease is the closest thing you have to vaccination.

Read more »

Encyclopedia Magica: Amulet Against Crystal Balls and ESP

2012-02-14T10:00:00.000-05:00

To me, this is a standard book item. It comes from the D&D Expert set, which is where I learned to play. Seeing it included here was a little jarring the first time. But, it was in fact not included in this form in AD&D. Of course, most AD&D players are more familiar with its big brother, the amulet of proof against detection and location.

Read more »

Reverb #4: Gamer Shame

2012-02-13T10:03:00.003-05:00

The next installment of our weekly Reverb Gamers questionnaire deals with gamer shame.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #4: Are you a "closet gamer?" Have you ever hidden the fact that you're a
gamer from your co-workers, friends, family, or significant other? Why or why not? How did they react
if they found out?

Read more »

Can I battle innumeracy?

2012-02-10T10:00:00.000-05:00

For my d20 variant (and likely for Seven Kingdoms as well, with significant tweaks) I am working on a gear system. I came up with it a couple years ago, when working on my d20 Rifts conversion. A brief outline is below.

My problem, though, is that it is based on some "advanced" arithmetic. I can do this stuff reflexively, but I was a math major. Apparently, people really freak out when asked to do anything more complex that adding. Do you think this is too hard?

Read more »

Encyclopedia Magica: Amulet of the Abyss

2012-02-09T10:00:00.000-05:00

Get used to seeing "amulet" in the title. This begins a long section of neck baubles. We definitely start with a bang. Because who doesn't want a combination cell phone/multipass to the Abyss?

Read more »

Encyclopedia Magica: Al-Azid's Ghostly Palace

2012-02-07T10:00:00.000-05:00

I love this type of magic item. In the spirit of Daern's Instant Fortress, Leomund's Secure Shelter, and Mordenkainen's Magnificent Mansion, the party is able to carry instant comfy camping wherever they go. The ghostly palace, though, comes with an Arabian flavor, and a nasty twist.

Read more »

Aligning expectations

2012-02-06T15:00:00.000-05:00

I saw the image below (check out the original post on GAS), and I was struck by a bug to do a series of posts on alignment. Specifically, digging into what behaviors I expect out of each of the classic nine D&D alignments. I have to say that of all the breakdown examples of alignment I've seen, this one is really good.

Reverb # 3: What kind of gamer are you?

2012-02-06T10:00:00.000-05:00

I'm doing a weekly series in which I am answering Atlas Games' Reverb Gamers 2012 Master List of questions. You can find #1 here and #2 here.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #3: What kind of gamer are you? Rules Lawyer, Munchkin/Power Gamer,
Lurker, Storyteller/Method Actor, or something else? (Search "types of gamer" for more ideas!) How
does this affect the kinds of games you play? For example, maybe you prefer crunchy rules-heavy
systems to more theatrical rules-light ones.

Read more »

Social chase mechanics

2012-02-03T10:37:00.000-05:00

Last week, I started to dive into some thoughts on creating a social combat mechanic. Combat seemed like a good place to start, because it is an iconic type of conflict. We definitely ran into some problems, though. Combat sees a give and take, with the roles of attacker and defender shifting each round. Social encounters typically have the attacker (we were using the term "bidder") and defender ("mark") determined at the encounter level instead of the action level. Also, combat typically only ends when one side is either dead, or sees death as his only alternative to surrender. Social conflict should have easier thresholds for "tapping out."

There is another classic conflict mechanic that might address these issues. When you have a chase, you have a relatively constant predator and prey. You can also have the chase decided by fatigue, in which one side or the other simply decides it's not worth the fight anymore. That sounds pretty close to what we are looking for as a model.

Read more »

Encyclopedia Magica: Air Spores

2012-02-02T10:00:00.000-05:00

Oh, my! (I know you just read in George Takei's voice.) We have an item that is actually useful. And not just useful, but pretty darn interesting.

And it is an excuse to trot out one of my favorite Latin phrases: Dum spiro, spero.

Read more »

Take 20: Creating a constrained setting

2012-02-01T10:00:00.000-05:00

Over at the excellent They Might Be Gazebos blog, a challenge was thrown down. Create a sandbox setting based solely on twenty monsters. I think this is a pretty awesome idea. I like the idea of constraints spawning creativity. I think a setting with only twenty common monsters would likely hold together somewhat better than one with everybody in the book. And, it would help to strongly reinforce character build decisions like a ranger's favored enemy.

So, here's my list of 20. I'm going with the d20srd list, for simplicity's sake.

Read more »

Encyclopedia Magica: The Acorn of Wo Mai

2012-01-31T10:00:00.000-05:00

This project is actually off to a pretty good start. We have had an item that doesn't make sense, and an item that is highly setting specific. Today, we get another classic entry: an artifact.

Honestly, I've never liked artifacts in D&D. The biggest reason is that they come with random powers. That always felt...wrong. I think I understand the reasoning. You don't want players being able to rattle off the stats of items that should be iconic and mythical. But, in truth, the random powers feel less iconic and mythical than easily quoted stats would be. Still, some of the artifacts have a tremendous amount of flavor to them, and this one is no exception.

Read more »

System Wank: A Wealth of Options

2012-01-30T12:00:00.000-05:00

Over at Kaijuville, Kaiju made a great post comparing a couple of different systems for tracking money in RPGs. (He just posted part 2 as well.) This is a topic near and dear to my heart, because I have been struggling with it for a couple of years.

To expand on his comparison, I'm going to present a couple other systems I like. Spycraft was forced to use something more abstract than just cash, because of how requisitioning gear for missions from your employer would work. Following up on that, the guys over at Crafty Games came up with a different abstract system for FantasyCraft.

Read more »

Reverb #2: Why?!?

2012-01-30T10:00:00.000-05:00

This is the second in the Reverb Gamers questionnaire. The first question and answer was here.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #2: What is it about gaming that you enjoy the most? Why do you game? Is
it the adrenaline rush, the social aspect, or something else?

Read more »

Social combat mechanics

2012-01-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

I am continuing to tinker with game design. I have to come to several conclusions recently. First, I want to do a fantasy heartbreaker, just to get it out of my system. And, specifically, I want to use as a test bed where I can get everything wrong without really regretting it. To that end, I am not using my 7 Kingdoms setting as that fantasy heartbreaker. I really love 7 Kingdoms, and would regret defiling it with a terrible system. Also, I have determined that d20 is really the wrong system for swashbuckling supers, but it is a great system for a heartbreaker.

My new game is set in a world I'm calling Charovnye. It is going to use the d20 system, but one that will bear little resemblance to standard D&D. The setting is your basic late medieval/early Renaissance culture, with a feel that ranges from high fantasy to dark fantasy (but really never low fantasy) depending on where you are and who you interact with. I have an Obsidian Portal page set up, but all the information on there is still very much in flux.

What I want to discuss today is the concept of social combat. I really, really want a system to be present that allows for some level of diplomancy. However, it needs to strongly avoid both the simple binary success/failure of a single roll and the heavy level of mind control that is seen in many current d20 rule sets. How can we do this?

Read more »

Encyclopedia Magica: Accelerator

2012-01-26T15:47:00.000-05:00

Today we deal with one of the artifacts from the wild and woolly space of Spelljammer. As with most things from the Phlogiston, it's weird, not appropriate to most campaigns, and chock full of information that only makes sense if you know the setting.

Read more »

The Problem with Demons

2012-01-25T10:00:00.000-05:00

I ran across a blog post today that was basically a pitch for a new game idea. I am not going to link to it, because part of this post is about why the pitch turned me off so much, and my dislike is not entirely fair.

The part of the pitch that immediately turned me off had to do with an invasion of the world by slavering, evil, sanity-bending demons from beyond time and space. (I'm paraphrasing, not quoting.) And my immediate reaction was, "Been there, done that." Why?

Read more »

Encyclopedia Magica: A Project

2012-01-24T10:00:00.000-05:00

There are a number of things in this world that I love. One of them is awesome magic items. Another is the awesome Monstrous Manual project done by noisms. I have decided to combine these two things.

I have the Encyclopedia Magica. This was one of the swan song projects at the end of the life of AD&D 2e. It purported to collect every magic item from every TSR publication, including sourcebooks, setting books, Dragon articles, and even modules. It is a staggering cornucopia of the amazing, the bizarre, the wondrous, and the downright silly.

The project? Go through the whole thing, all four volumes, and do a post on each item. What it is, ideas on how to use it as a player, ideas on how to use it as a DM, and assorted related wackiness. As a side note, I'd like to eventually get to the point where I can even out the gold piece rating of the items, so that a DM can simply hand her players the books and a budget and let them go crazy. (We did this once for a high-level campaign. One of the players quickly found a bracelet of three wishes valued at 300 gp. We had to abandon that notion.)

We will begin with one of the true classics of any fantasy campaign...

Read more »

Reverb #1: So it began

2012-01-23T10:00:00.000-05:00

You've probably seen other people doing the Atlas Games Reverb Gamers thing. If not, well, follow along anyway. It's basically a list of questions to spark discussion and stuff. I will be doing one a week for the rest of the year, so as not to saturate this blog by just going straight through.

REVERB GAMERS 2012, #1: What was your first roleplaying experience? Who introduced you to it?
How did that introduction shape the gamer you've become?

Read more »

Gamma-rized Redux

2012-01-20T10:00:00.000-05:00

So, there is one RPG that I've been wanting to get for a while: Gamma World. Two things have been standing in my way. First, it isn't available in PDF (and, honestly, wouldn't work in PDF), which makes it awkward. Second, the $40 price tag is just beyond my "pocket money" limit, and I've had other things to spend that kind of money on lately.

This past weekend, I finally had a bit of extra cash (thank you Xmas bonus!) and a trip to the FLGS (Victory Comics, for the record). So I picked it up, and have been reading it. Time for a bit of review.

Read more »

Followed by a new age: a Dragon Age!

2012-01-19T11:14:00.000-05:00

This past weekend, I got to play the Dragon Age RPG for the first time. I thought I'd give it a review.

Read more »

A new edition, a new start...

2012-01-11T13:27:00.000-05:00

If you are reading this, I must assume that you already know that Wizards of the Coast has announced the release of a new edition/iteration of D&D. If you do not, go to The Escapist and get caught up.

Read more »

Adventure Concept - The Ultimate Puzzle

2011-09-28T09:57:00.000-04:00

I was putting together a puzzle/investigative adventure, and it occurred to me that there is one concept that I am pretty sure simply would not work. Does anyone out there think you could convert Da Vinci Code/National Treasure into a workable adventure/campaign?

Read more »

Back on solid ground

2011-09-26T12:00:00.000-04:00

Hullo all! I have returned from my long vacation. I want to thank everyone who checked out my auto-posts, and especially those who commented on them. I got more traffic than I was expecting, considering that I was not around to promote them myself.

I'm going to give a brief recap of my awesome vacation here, but with a twist. I'm going to offer up a few notes on some of the different places we went and things we did that could be inspirations for RPGs.

Read more »

Attack of the Mushroom People

2011-09-23T10:00:00.001-04:00

OK, this post has nothing at all to do with RPGs. But, it is too precious to me not to post here. It also seems a fitting cap to my reign of reposting.

This is my theory of why traffic gets so bad in the rain.

Two words: Mushroom People.
Read more »

The Problem with Magic

2011-09-22T10:00:00.000-04:00

Magic.

The name, almost literally, conjures up certain images for us. Certain assumptions, certain expectations, and certain dreams. Gandalf and Merlin. Ged and Elric. The enemies of Conan and allies of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser. From Harry Potter to Harry Dresden. Even Old Ben Kenobi plays the part well.

And, yet, RPGs seem to consistently fail to capture the mystique and majesty of magic. It is a list of powers, a bit of extra book-keeping, and a pain in the ass to balance. Why is this? Well, it's very easy to lay the blame at the feet of D&D. (And, admittedly, I tend to more often than I care to admit.) After all, they took one specific archetype that is quite deliberately unusual ("Vancian" magic), and then very deliberately devolved it into a system of rules suitable for miniatures combat. It was then re-evolved, if you will, into a system suitable for a true RPG. Mostly.

Read more »

How Fudging Could Have Saved the Day

2011-09-21T10:00:00.002-04:00

In the way of these things, the topic of fudging die rolls has come up on a number of the podcasts and blogs I follow lately. I'm not going to expound on my personal opinion here. Instead, I want to tell about two of my greatest GM failures. It's relevant because both of them came about specifically because I refused to fudge the dice.
Read more »

The End of the World As We Know It

2011-09-20T10:00:00.000-04:00

I want to write/run a multi-genre post-apoc rpg. One of the first things that needs to be decided, obviously, is the "apoc" part. The nature of the end of the world shapes a lot of the future. So, what to do? I have three possibilities I'm considering.
Read more »

Can you handle the dreaded Licensed Setting!?!

2011-09-19T10:00:00.000-04:00

I just listened to Fear The Boot #210 last night. (Ed. note: Obviously, this was written a while ago.) One of the two big topics was using established settings for your RPG, a la Star Wars or Dresden Files. I feel the spontaneous need to respond to this podcast.

Read more »

The Disease is the Cure (version 2)

2011-09-16T10:00:00.003-04:00

(Ed. note: Yes, this is pretty much a repeat post. I did not even notice that in my original blog, as the posts were several months apart. They are slightly different, though, and this one is a bit closer to the post-apoc setting I'm going for.)

So, I've been thinking about my post-apoc fantasy setting. Incidentally, for now, I am calling it Aurelian.

One of the bits is the presence of psionically-gifted humans. Another is the presence of "monsters." After much thinking, I think I can tie many of these elements together fairly neatly.

It all starts with a virus....

Read more »

The Disease is the Cure (version 1)

2011-09-15T10:00:00.001-04:00

I am working on a post-apocalyptic kitchen sink setting (a la Rifts), and I want to justify a lot of the setting elements, but preferably in ways that have not been done before. I was thinking about vampires, and how to make them work. I like the whole concept of "vampirism as a disease" (seen in numerous works, but I first found it Barbara Hambly's excellent "Those Who Hunt the Night"). Then, I happened to read a couple articles (I don't recall why, it was one of those "click on one too many links in Wikipedia" things). The mythology of vampires may have arisen from a particularly virulent outbreak of rabies in Eastern Europe. A lot of the symptoms line up, including aversion to sunlight and strong smells (like, say, garlic). The peasants saw one of their own suddenly exhibit a terrifying and violent alter ego, which later reports would embellish with some nice poetic elements. Then the Church would add a nice layer of demonic presence to, in addition to the idea that the Church is capable of protecting you from such evils.

Interestingly enough, only a few minutes later, I followed a link to a justification of rabies as the source of werewolf myths. Normal guy gets bitten by a strange-acting wolf, then starts lashing out in a bestial rage. But, hey, I'm already thinking about making vampirism a disease, they shouldn't both be diseases. That just looks cheesy.

This starts percolating, and I go see Zombieland this weekend. (Ed. note: This pretty well dates the original post.) Zombies as a disease. Sure, been done to death. But something upstairs clicks, and the mind gnomes present their collage.

Read more »

Campaign Concept - The Natives Are WHAT?!?

2011-09-14T10:00:00.003-04:00

Recently, I have had another setting concept pop into my head. See, I am in a regular monthly D&D group. But, I would never GM 7K, DFRPG, or most any of the other games that excite me for them. First, the group is too big, at around 7 players. Most story-heavy games simply can't handle that kind of spotlight division. Second, the group is very much into casual gaming. They don't want to think too hard, they have trouble staying on task, and they rarely do much actual roleplay. They are just about chucking dice and having moments of awesome. Also, they are pretty solidly welded to playing 3.5 D&D, for now at least. I may try to run a one-shot of Gamma World for them at some point, just to see if they'd go for it.

So, I want to run a game, and running for these guys seems like the most likely outlet in the near future. But, with the restrictions above, most of the games/campaigns I'd want are right out. So, I was digging through my old box of ideas one time while walking the dog, and two ideas popped out, merged, and suggested some potential awesome.

Read more »

Are you now, or have you ever been, Chaotic Evil?

2011-09-13T10:00:00.001-04:00

So, here we are. A gaming blog, tackling that toughest of all topics, alignment. Will I add anything useful to the discussion? I certainly hope so.

Read more »

What IS an RPG, anyway?

2011-09-12T10:00:00.002-04:00

So, I have been toying with a few different systems and settings for RPGs. I was thinking about whether or not I could actually devise a new and improved RPG. I'm sure that there is ground yet to be trod. But, how to find it?

An awful lot of the indie games seem to delight in spewing forth wacky mechanics. I think that, as a community, they are attempting to derive the perfect RPG through some sort of Darwinian process. They create games like you create creatures in Spore, then have the games compete for "survival" (measured in mentions on Forge and RPG.net, as many of them don't actually have sales figures). Key features are then re-incorporated in newer games (though generally with the key terms changed, so that the writer can convince people his work is "original").

I thought that I would rise above this mish-mash, powered by nothing but my own hubris. I will devise the perfect RPG, not through some messy evolutionary process, but with SCIENCE!!! (Please don your protective goggles at this time.) (Ze gogglez! Zey do nothink!!!)

In some seriousness (since I seem to be incapable of all seriousness), what I am looking for initially is some idea of what RPG rules actually do. I know what an RPG is. And I know a couple dozen rules sets. But, if I want to make a contribution that is an actual revolution, and not just a gimmicky new mechanic, I need to have some idea what my goals are. So, what needs do the rules of an RPG need to fill?

Read more »

How fragile we are

2011-09-09T10:00:00.001-04:00

IMO, any post title that has me singing Sting lyrics is a good one.

In working on my new PA setting, I came to a startling conclusion. Our information-based infrastructure is like a gigantic balloon. Press it at any point, and it will give. Remove the pressure, and it will rebound. But pop it, and it cannot be repaired. It can only be rebuilt from scratch.

Read more »

Engaging Autopilot

2011-09-08T10:00:00.003-04:00

I will be going offline for a couple of weeks here. But, I am way too proud of the string of posts I have going here to just go dark for that time. So, instead, I am going to be re-posting some choice bits from the wayback machine. Since I know that very few readers ever go through the archives, I figure it won't bore most of you.

As a note, I haven't worked out how to do automatic posting to Twitter and G+ when a post goes live. So, if you don't follow the blog, subscribe via RSS, or come in from RPGBA, you might want to do one of those. I'd also really appreciate it if you guys would take a second to share each of the posts when you read it, if you find it interesting. Without my vast social network to call on, I'm afraid these posts may not get the love they deserve!

Genre Mashup - Wizards + Wireless

2011-09-07T10:00:00.001-04:00

Fantasy is an extremely broad genre, that is actually applied to anything with magic. Even if that thing has none of the standard themes of fantasy. Like, say, cyberpunk.

The Problem with Death

2011-09-06T10:00:00.002-04:00

There was a spate of posts on the RPGBA blogroll a couple weeks back regarding PC death. Given the number of OSR-oriented blogs on the site, they were heavily in favor of the constant threat of death. I am going to give an opposing point of view.

Long-time readers may note that many of my points were previously discussed when I talked about why "old school" games suck. The comments, especially, dealt with the subject of random death quite a bit.

Read more »

System Wank - Magic

2011-09-05T10:00:00.000-04:00

Oh, this is a tough one. There are a lot of great magic systems out there. And by "magic" I'm going to include any special effects system such as psionics or The Force. Because, ultimately, they are essentially the same thing.

Given the breadth and variety, I'm going to go with one winner and two honorable mentions.

Read more »

The Problem with Elves, Redux

2011-09-02T10:00:00.001-04:00

I experienced a runaway success with my post on The Problem with Elves, thanks to a repost by Greg Christopher over on Google+ and Alias at his blog (in French!). There were a lot of great responses, so I feel that I need to make a follow-up post.

Read more »

7K - Class warfare

2011-09-01T10:00:00.001-04:00

I am a bit conflicted on how exactly to handle races, classes, skills, and other character elements in the rebooted Seven Kingdoms game. On the one hand, given that characters will already be sorted into broad categories based on the type of super power they have, I also want to be able to sort them based on the type of swashbuckler they are. On the other, I want the game system to steer light, so that my natural tendencies will keep it rules-medium.

Should I have classes? And, if so, what kind of structure should they have?

Read more »

Who Is This Guy, Anyway?

2011-08-31T10:00:00.001-04:00

Now that I have been writing here for a while, I have built up an audience of, what, 10 people? Well, it is worth it so far. But, it occurs to me that few if any of you have any idea what my "credentials" are. I have a history in the hobby, that makes me thoroughly qualified to fake my way through these posts.

Read more »

Why LARP Is Not For Me

2011-08-30T10:00:00.001-04:00

I have tried LARP. It is not for me. It is a great medium for other people, and I have several dear friends who love it. But, I just cannot get into it.

There is a trend among tabletop gamers to really look down on LARPers as "weird" and "socially deviant." I find this baffling, given that we are all gamers. Not only do we pretty much look the same to outsiders, most LARPers are also tabletop players. So, this post is not one of those. Instead, it is a look at some of the things that make LARP different from tabletop, and how those things are a turn-off for me.

Read more »

Genre Mashup - War of the Worlds + War of the Ring

2011-08-29T09:57:00.000-04:00

I have gotten very tired in recent years of typical fantasy, most especially epic fantasy. (That is the main reason I avoided Game of Thrones.) And, yet, I cannot shake the awesome appeal of so many fantasy elements. I've been scratching the itch by mashing up fantasy with other genres. Seven Kingdoms is a mashup of fantasy and supers.

Today, I'll talk about mashing up fantasy with an alien invasion. Yes, this was in part inspired by going to see Cowboys vs. Aliens this weekend. But, it also was a setting concept I toyed with many years ago.

Read more »

7K - Setting Primer for the Seven Kingdoms

2011-08-26T10:03:00.000-04:00

I noticed that I do not actually have a good overview of the Seven Kingdoms setting. The one that does exist at the beginning of the blog is outdated and incorrect. I do think that I need a single post that I can point people to for a quick introductory lesson. Here it is:

The Problem with Elves

2011-08-25T10:00:00.003-04:00

(Which is not the same as The Problem with Elvis, just so you know.)

Most fantasy settings have elves. Or, if they don't, they have some other race that is very long-lived and intellectual. For me, such beings have always been a real stumbling block when developing a setting. How can the fallen Empire be a time of misty legends when you have people walking around who were there? Also, how weird is it when you meet up with your new companions at the tavern at first level, only to realize that the elf in the party knew your grandfather when he was a boy? And why is it that someone who spent five times as long on their apprenticeship as you knows pretty much exactly the same things?

7K - Wealth of Nations

2011-08-24T08:58:00.001-04:00

Character gear has been something of a bug for me lately. Back when pretty much every system just gave your character a load of cash and a big price list, I was okay with that being the way things were done. But I have seen some systems lately that approach it very differently. For my Seven Kingdoms game, I want to try something fairly radical.

7K - Another reboot?

2011-08-23T10:00:00.001-04:00

Yeah, I've walked down this road before. I'm becoming less and less happy with sticking to d20 as a system for this campaign. I'm just feeling like the real strengths of the system aren't things I'm looking to leverage, and the drawbacks of the system are definitely cropping up as stumbling blocks.

So, the question of the moment is, should I scrap what I've done and start over with a new system?

Read more »

Feedback requested

2011-08-22T09:06:00.000-04:00

Well, it seems that I need to learn to read the instructions on this thing better. I screwed up the scheduling on a couple posts last week. So, they may or may not be coming later.

I say may not, because I need some feedback here from you loyal readers. I've noticed that I've gotten pretty much zero feedback on my Seven Kingdoms stuff. More importantly, I noticed while trying to get caught up on the RPGBA feed that I tend to skip everyone else's posts regarding "here's my new system/setting!"

I'm thinking that live-blogging the development of an RPG is a lot like Greg Stolze's patron model. If you already have people who are interested in what you have to say, it can really work. If you're still making your bones, people aren't likely to be interested in watching you flail about. That's especially true when, like me, you can't drop a new post on the subject every day. People just aren't likely to remember what else you're doing to see how all the pieces fit together.

So, the feedback I'm looking for is whether or not I should even continue posting Seven Kingdoms stuff. Please don't worry about hurting my feelings. I recognize there's a difference between "I'm not interested in reading about you trying to pull this game together" and "Your game sucks."

I'm still planning on working out the game. When I get it all together, I may be releasing it as a PDF. Of course, part of this is also spawned from the fact that one of the missing posts from last week is that I'm no longer convinced that d20 is the right system, even with the tweaks I'm making. I'm actually considering creating a franken-system out of all the bits I highlight in my "System Wank" series. If I'm going to re-boot the whole system (again), I don't want to drag it out on the blog. Unless you guys want to see me drag it out.

I'll just wrap this up with a blatant begging for comments. Even if you're just saying, "meh, whatever," I'd still like to hear it. Given the number of readers I have, trust me, every vote counts.

Murder by Numbers

2011-08-19T10:45:00.000-04:00

Poison is an ancient tool of the subtler forms of warfare. It is also a key device in literature, from Romeo and Juliet to the Count of Monte Cristo. And yet, it is rarely handled well in RPGs. I talked about it a bit on RPG Circus last ~~night~~ week, and just wanted to expand on it a bit here.

System Wank - Ads and Disads

2011-08-16T10:51:00.000-04:00

Lots of systems out there feature various ways to make your character better, along with various ways to represent flaws. Most of them function essentially the same way. I want to call out the system that completely changed the way I thought about them, and in some ways how I thought about RPGs in general.

FATE, first seen by most of us in Spirit of the Century, approaches the whole issue from a decidedly different angle. Advantages and disadvantages both serve one single purpose: grabbing the spotlight. One way lets you shine by winning, the other by failing. Unifying the mechanics as Aspects is undeniably brilliant.

Read more »

About that time again

2011-08-16T08:29:00.000-04:00

Regular readers may have noticed that I've missed posting the last couple of days. A combination of busy days at work and a series of posts that are stuck in fragment form right now have created a bit of a logjam. Mea culpa, mea culpa. Consider this the obligatory "I swear I'll get back on track and have fewer excuses" post.

7K - Heraldry of the Seven Kingdoms

2011-08-10T10:57:00.000-04:00

Most home brew settings ignore the element of heraldry. The reason for this is simple: Most of us don't have the artistic chops to draw it out. However, the symbology of a nation can be very important, and allow for rapid identification. Having the players suddenly surrounded by "a sea of blue tabards" can let them know that they are either safe, or in very deep trouble, depending on their relationship with the King's Men.

Here are the colors and a few important symbols of the Seven Kingdoms.

Fluff vs Crunch

2011-08-09T14:06:00.000-04:00

It is very common these days to divide RPG material into fluff, text that focuses on the description and story, and crunch, text that focuses on the mechanics and action. When developing the game, it is important to separate the two as cleanly as possible. When actually playing the game, though, the two need to be brought together.

Ennies Awards

2011-08-08T14:51:00.001-04:00

So, on the last episode of RPG Circus, we made a slate of Ennies predictions. Given the results this weekend, I thought I'd do a wrap-up and see how accurate I was. Also, sincere congratulations to all the winners. It was definitely a tough field out there this year.

Out of the 42 awards given, I called 24 correctly. Though, as a note, I gave myself half credit if I picked the right product, but the wrong medal (e.g., I picked it for Gold, but it took Silver). I did not totally wash out of any category, and was perfect on 5 of the 21 categories. All in all, not too shabby.

Read more »

System Wank - Initiative

2011-08-05T13:22:00.000-04:00

Last week, Rob Donoghue posted a summary of a few different types of initiative systems as part of his musings on his new system. Which reminded me of the next mechanic for my System Wank series: the best initiative system I ever used.

(In retrospect, I totally should have ripped off that Best Thing I Ever Ate show from Food Network.)

The 7th Sea game introduced me to a number of really interesting mechanics. An argument can certainly be made that Wick, Wilson, et al., did more to bring indie ideas into a mainstream game than actually creating novel mechanics. (Of course, the same can be said about Da Vinci's exhaustive encyclopedia of inventions, and look where that got him.) But, so far as I know, their initiative system is unique.

Read more »

You say you want a resolution.... part 5

2011-08-04T13:45:00.000-04:00

When taking an action in an RPG, there are five stages: intent, declaration, resolution, effect, and description. We've already covered intent, declaration, resolution, and effect. The action ends when someone, most often the GM, describes what just happened.

Harkening back to the discussion on declaration (and foreshadowing the discussion on fluff vs. crunch), there is a difference between the effect and the description of that effect. Boiling it down, the effect works on the mechanical level, and the description works on the character level. The description is also important to tie the whole action together, much like the summary section at the end of a paper.

Read more »

New and Improved Goblins

2011-08-03T10:17:00.000-04:00

I was listening to a podcast last week (I can't recall which one) and the subject of flying mounts for small creatures came up. I had a sudden flash of inspiration, that I want to capture here. Conveniently enough, it ties in with this month's RPG Blog Carnival topic, which is animals in RPGs.

As a result of Tolkien's influence, we often see goblins riding worgs, or some other kind of large wolf. What if we extended that connection to other types of animals? Goblins riding giant bats or even wyverns? Goblins using trained rats or spiders? There is a lot of potential here, I think.

Read more »

You say you want a resolution.... part 4

2011-08-02T10:01:00.000-04:00

When taking an action in an RPG, there are five stages: intent, declaration, resolution, effect, and description. We've already covered intent, declaration, and resolution. Now we get to the effect.

The effect is usually pretty simple, and predetermined by the system. If you hit with an attack, you deal damage. If you succeed with a perception check, you find something. However, there are some nuances here that both separate one style of gaming from another, and are areas where a good GM can introduce extra layers of awesome.

Read more »

System Wank - Attributes

2011-08-01T11:10:00.000-04:00

The next in my "System Wank" series, in which I highlight mechanics in various games that I've really liked. Today, I want to point out one of the better collections of character attributes I've played with. I point you to: The New World of Darkness!

Read more »

You say you want a resolution.... part 3

2011-07-29T10:39:00.000-04:00

When taking an action in an RPG, there are five stages: intent, declaration, resolution, effect, and description. We've already covered intent and declaration, so today is resolution.

There are a dozen ways to slice and dice types of actions and types of resolutions. If the action is either obviously going to succeed, or failure is not interesting, the resolution should simply be the GM saying, "OK, it works." If there is no way the action can succeed (e.g., the character attempts to leap across a forty foot gap with normal human abilities), the GM is well within his rights to give the player a dirty look and say, "Come on, play seriously." But most of the tasks in an RPG fall in the big grey area between, in which both success and failure can lead to interesting stories, and it is not clear which path our hero will go down.

Read more »

You say you want a resolution.... part 2

2011-07-28T09:00:00.001-04:00

Continued from part 1...

Yesterday we discussed intent. Today, we'll discuss declaration. For those joining us halfway through the woods, this is a series of posts of task resolution, breaking it down into five separate stages: intent, declaration, resolution, effect, and description.

Read more »

You say you want a resolution.... part 1

2011-07-27T10:48:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I talked about dice. Today, I'm going to unpack task resolution in some detail. Specifically, I'm going to look into the nooks and crannies between intent, declaration, resolution, effect, and description. We make a lot of assumptions about how those all fit together, and I think the differences in those assumptions are largely responsible for the differences in our gaming styles.

[Ed. note - The words just kept pouring out of me. I'm breaking this post up into several sections of its own. This first one will deal with intent.]
Read more »

The dice tell me ... nothing!

2011-07-25T13:41:00.000-04:00

So, I have been chatting over in The Rhetorical Gamer's blog the last couple of weeks about dice and task resolution. It became quickly obvious that we view gaming pretty radically differently. So, he asked me to unpack some of my thoughts on this, with some concrete examples. This is probably going to take me a couple of posts.

Today, why the heck do we even have dice in these games, anyway?

Read more »

A bit of introspection

2011-07-22T09:23:00.000-04:00

Wow. I am a wordy bastard, aren't I? I really want to try and do 500-word posts, but I just find it so hard. Especially when I'm doing setting posts, where I want to have a paragraph on each of the Seven Kingdoms. Would you believe that some of these posts have actually been trimmed down? That's how thoroughly sick I am.

I think I'm getting the hang of blogging more frequently now. Blogger is definitely better for me in this regard. I don't think I can really articulate the reasons, but the UI just feels better to me. I'm also actually finishing more blog posts, instead of ending up with a graveyard of a dozen partials.

My traffic numbers aren't great. Much better than my old blog though, and that's entirely due to RPGBA. Probably two-thirds of my traffic comes from there. I'm trying to decide if I want to be "that guy" who spams every post to every social media site he can reach. On the one hand, that seems rude. On the other, it's not like an audience is just going to magically find me.

The numbers that I really want to get up, though, are the number of comments. My most-visited post, the one on Women in Gaming, has zero comments. (Admittedly, my second most visited post is also the one with the most comments, so there is some correlation.) I'm curious as to why I get no comments. Are my topics just not interesting? Is my presentation too closed, in that it doesn't invite discussion? Is my vocabulary off-putting? Do people just get tired of reading before they make it all the way to the comment box?

Of course, I have noticed that many other blogs end up with zero comments. So, it's more a problem with blogs and blog readers than with me. To help combat that, I have been trying to employ the "Mark Meredith Method" of commenting on at least three blog posts every day. It's not that hard, and I've actually gotten some good discussions going. (I've also had another blogger challenge me to a post, or series of posts, on a particular topic, which you'll hopefully see next week.)

Brevity is the soul of wit. My wit is clearly a soulless abomination.

7K - Sexuality in the Seven Kingdoms

2011-07-21T10:14:00.000-04:00

A very interesting, yet typically underdeveloped, aspect of any society is it's attitude towards sex. This attitude flavors so many other situations, and can be the fodder for a wide range of story hooks.

Each of the Seven Kingdoms has a different attitude towards sex and sexuality. This ranges from extremely permissive but debauched to extremely repressive.

System Wank - Core Mechanic of Edge of Midnight

2011-07-20T12:14:00.000-04:00

"System Wank" is going to be a new feature/series here. In a couple of discussions this week, I've found myself discussing particularly elegant or interesting mechanics from various games. So, I'm going to starting calling them out fairly specifically. Maybe one day I can collate all of these posts and make the perfect game.

As a logical place to start, I'm going with "core mechanic." This is a particularly nifty way to roll the dice and get results, taken from Edge of Midnight.

Read more »

7K - Magical Arms and Armor

2011-07-19T14:44:00.000-04:00

My project of commenting on Shared Fantasy has pulled me away from the Seven Kingdoms project. But, a post by WolfSamurai on Google+ has inspired me to do another 7K post.

In the Seven Kingdoms, there are three types of magic items. The most common are essentially "spells in a bottle." These are single-use items that just have a pre-cast spell stored in them. You may recognize these better as the D&D items potions, scrolls, and, on a more powerful level, wands. The least common are items of true power, akin to "artifacts" and "relics" in D&D. In between are items of rare craftsmanship and exotic materials, the work of extremely gifted smiths.

This post is regarding that third category.

Read more »

7K - So, who are these Seven Kingdoms anyway?

2011-07-18T15:43:00.000-04:00

Oh, look, a Seven Kingdoms post! I haven't abandoned this project. I've just set aside the posts while I was working on the Shared Fantasy series. I have a few in the backlog that I'll share over the next several days.

One thing I noticed while going over some of the older posts is that I've actually presented surprisingly little setting information. I should catch everyone up on that. We're going to start with the titular Seven Kingdoms themselves:

Read more »

Shared Fantasy - Conclusion

2011-07-15T12:34:00.000-04:00

So, we have finally come to the end of this journey. This is Chapter 8, where Dr. Fine reiterates all of his points, and presents his conclusions. I was originally assuming that this wouldn't even require a post of its own, but his summary actually produced a number of really good quotes.

Read more »

Shared Fantasy - Chapter 7

2011-07-14T14:50:00.000-04:00

Chapter 7 of Dr. Fine's book is all about the relationship between the player and the character. In other words, oddly enough, it's about playing your roles. Most of the chapter is pretty straightforward, but there are a few rather lengthy passages that are worthy of comment and thought.

As a note, I discussed my reading of Shared Fantasy on RPG Circus last night. You can catch the episode here.

Read more »

Shared Fantasy - Chapter 6

2011-07-13T10:28:00.000-04:00

This is the chapter where Dr. Fine pulls out his sociology chops. It really is the meat of the book, and he does a strong job of making his points.

The essence of this chapter is about how gamers deal with shifting between "in character" and "out of character" perspectives. As Goffman, a sociologist whose work on frame analysis strongly informed this chapter, says: "Fanciful words can speak about make-believe places, but these words can only be spoken in the real world."

Read more »

Shared Fantasy - Chapter 5

2011-07-11T11:24:00.000-04:00

I'm up to Chapter 5 in Shared Fantasy. Just to give you an idea, there are eight chapters all told. This chapter starts to leave behind the "what is this 'gaming' thing?" territory and head into actual sociological issues. So, I have less to say about it, having no background in sociology.

The topic of this chapter is Game Structure. Mostly, it's all about status, leadership, cooperation, and how gamers can be real dicks to each other.

Read more »

My First Time

2011-07-08T10:40:00.001-04:00

"Dear Penthouse, I never thought it would happen to me..."

No, wait, wrong first time. I'm talking about my first time in the GM chair. That was the topic of last night's #RPGchat on Twitter. (It was my first time making #RPGChat, and it was pretty awesome. An hour of highly concentrated discussion.) I told one of the participants that I could one-up him for the melodrama and disaster involved.

So, be duly warned.

Read more »

Concept for a Convention Game

2011-07-07T18:00:00.001-04:00

In reading chapter 5 of Shared Fantasy, he has an interesting anecdote about a con game. The point of the anecdote is demonstrating what happens when intraparty cooperation breaks down. But, I think it could also just be a neat idea.

Short description: The young baroness has been kidnapped by bandits. You have been hired to rescue her. But, are your companions what they appear to be?

Read more »

Shared Fantasy - Chapter 4

2011-07-07T09:00:00.001-04:00

So, we're up to chapter four of Shared Fantasy. This is ostensibly about gaming culture. However, it ends up being two very different topics oddly welded together. First is a discussion of M.A.R. Barker and his famous Empire of the Petal Throne. Second is a discussion of the shared culture that evolves from gaming together for weeks on end. It ends up pairing the two subjects at the end in a vaguely creepy discussion of the intense group that games with Prof. Barker himself.

Read more »

Shared Fantasy - Cheating in RPGs

2011-07-06T10:01:00.000-04:00

As I noted yesterday, there is a significant section in Shared Fantasy regarding the nature of cheating in RPGs. Fine is very quick to point out that cheating in an RPG is not the same thing as cheating in, say, Monopoly or poker. That is because it is a collaborative effort, not a competitive one. It is much more analogous to cheating at a solitaire game. The line between "cheating" and "rules exception" is a fine one (largely dependent on permission from the GM). Also, ultimately, cheating in an RPG is more about "doing it wrong" than it is actually harmful to the game.

Read more »

Shared Fantasy, Chapter 3

2011-07-05T12:03:00.000-04:00

After a bit of a hiatus, I'm back to Shared Fantasy. Chapter 3 is about how gamers come together to create a collective fantasy. As anyone who's ever tried to explain an RPG to a mundane knows, it's a lot easier to demonstrate than discuss. Fine does a pretty good job of breaking down the various issues involved and explaining them.

As a note, Chapter 3 also includes an interesting aside on "cheating" in RPGs. As it includes some really interesting quotes, and is a fairly involved topic, I'm going to break it out into a separate post.

Read more »

Google Plus First Thoughts

2011-07-01T12:59:00.000-04:00

So, I managed to squeak in through one of the tiny holes Google has opened up and got my Google Plus account set up this morning. I haven't done much with it due to that whole "being at work" thing. But, here's a few initial observations:

Read more »

Why "Old School" Games Suck

2011-06-30T14:14:00.000-04:00

"Old School" games suck, and are a blight upon our hobby. They are outdated, wrong-headed, and unfun. And I will prove it.

Read more »

Shared Fantasy - Women in Gaming

2011-06-23T15:29:00.001-04:00

I expect this topic to be a bit controversial, and possibly to involve some serious discussion.

I have been reading Shared Fantasy by Gary Fine. You can check out my previous posts here and here. In the latter half of Chapter 2, he devotes quite a bit of space to the curious lack of women gamers. He offers three explanations as to why that is: characteristics of women; the process of recruitment into the gaming world; and reactions of men to the presence of women players and female characters.

Read more »

Shared Fantasy, Chapter 2

2011-06-21T15:23:00.000-04:00

On Friday, I started a discussion about the book Shared Fantasy. Today, I'm going to talk about Chapter 2, which discusses what gamers are like and where they come from. The final part of Chapter 2 is about women in gaming, which I'm actually going to split off into its own post.

In summary, the average gamer (as of 1979) is a young white male, unmarried, but well educated. He likely has related fandom interests. He probably either has a good job, or is working on building towards a career. He has strong feelings about war, though they may be either pro or con. Finally, he is likely to be non-conformist and possibly judged as deviant.

Read more »

Shared Fantasy, Chapter 1

2011-06-17T12:18:00.000-04:00

So, I have started reading Shared Fantasy by Gary Alan Fine. This is a sociological paper on the culture of gamers. That, in itself, is not really all that interesting. So far, his conclusions and insights have largely matched up to my own experiences in the hobby.

What is fascinating is that this book was published in 1983, and most of the research was done in 1977-1979. As such, it provides a window into the early days of the hobby. If you are a grognard, or just an OSR enthusiast, I strongly recommend giving it a look.

Read more »

7K - Class Debate

2011-06-15T11:04:00.000-04:00

So, classes are once again proving to be a stumbling block for me. I think that's a very good indication that I still don't have a firm handle on how I want this system to work.

What Does the Class Do?

In game mechanics terms, a class is intended to be a collection of related system elements that enable rapid character creation and reinforce genre through strong archetypes. In Seven Kingdoms in particular, I want classes to bring the swashbuckling elements while origins bring the superhero elements.

However, given the radical changes I've made to the combat system, I'm not entirely sure what the class does any more. By making combat based on a skill, I've removed two key system elements that distinguish one class from another. First, there's no Base Attack Bonus. Second, every class now needs to have the same number of skill points, though with a different list of class skills. In addition, I'm not sure that I'm going to be keeping the vitality and stress mechanics, so there's another point of differentiation gone.

What we are left with are bonuses to saves, the list of class skills, and the class abilities. It wouldn't be hard to turn the class abilities into feat trees, and turn the saves into skill or ability checks. And, voila, the class is dismissed.

So What If I Have No Class?

Good question. Do I need classes? Am I just holding onto an artifact of outmoded play?

Well, with no classes, no saving throws, and such a radically different combat system, I can pretty definitively say that I am no longer using the d20 system. On the one hand, I lose the framework of rules I'd been counting on for both ease of design and familiarity. On the other, I am freed up to use whatever mechanics suit my whims.

We also come back to one of the purposes of classes. Without a class, players lose that easy template to both build and define their characters. Of course, they also lose the straitjacket that a class can be. They become free to build their characters to suit whatever concept is in their heads.

That, though, sums up the reason I want to keep classes. Without them, the character is mostly defined by her origin. There's a big difference in connotation between "I'm a Blaster with a lot of Knowledge skills and related feats" and "I'm a Blaster Scholar". The former starts with what kind of superhero you are and builds from there. I would have to trust to the feat selection and player intent to bring the swashbuckling. The latter statement, though, gives equal weight to both genres. In a mash-up, I think that's pretty important.

How Do I Make the Class Stick?

If I want to keep the class system, I need to give it some significant weight. First of all, let's definitely keep save bonuses and class abilities intact. We also will be adding a gear mechanic, so let's give class-based bonuses to that.

One significant way to restore some differentiation to the classes is to set the combat to use BAB again. As I was looking at "skill as attack bonus" I noticed that it wasn't really adding much. A Soldier is likely to max it out, and a Courtier is likely to ignore it. The one real advantage it had was supporting fencing schools and techniques as skill focuses. I think that will be pretty easy to replicate with class abilities and feats.

Of course, having BAB in the system calls out combat as being more important than other sorts of conflict. I really don't want that. To counter-balance it, and call out repartee as being important, I think I should add a class-based bonus for social combat. It would work the same way as BAB, but would also remove the awkward question of the differences between some of the social skills.

Conclusion

Yeah, I think I like that. It makes the classes unique, but doesn't overburden the system. It brings us back closer to the d20 paradigm, which I like. And, it should be relatively easy to give each class the right feel.

Always with the delays

2011-06-15T10:48:00.000-04:00

This is something of the typical "sorry I'm not posting more" post. I've been busy. I've been producing output that isn't blog material. And, you know, I'm a slacker.

There are a couple other reasons, too. Mark Meredith, better known as the Dice Monkey, threw out a challenge on Twitter a while back to comment on at least three blog posts a day. It is an excellent suggestion. I've been trying hard to keep up with that. Of course, that means that I need to keep up with a lot of blog posts. The new RPG Blog Alliance has been helping considerably with that. It especially helps me target blog posts that don't get a lot of traffic. I mean, I love Rob Donoghue's stuff, but he really doesn't need my comment just to let him know he's not howling into the wilderness.

And, I have to say, it's really important for me to get that kind of feedback. I know that I often have lulls in my posting precisely because I don't feel like anyone is reading them anyway. A comment, any comment, helps to alleviate that, and spur me to more posting. The ever-amazing Will Hindmarch made the same point on Twitter just yesterday. So, as the saying sort of goes, be the change you want to see. If I want traffic coming in here, I ought to give other blogs the love.

On another note, I've also been profligately wasting my word count. The aforementioned Mark is currently on something of a hiatus due to a beautiful new baby girl. I penned a couple of blog posts for him, one on An Unusual Source of GM Tips and one on Reward Types. So, go check those out.

And, remember people. Comments are love. (/pity party)

My worst GMing mistakes

2011-06-06T14:46:00.000-04:00

And a new(ish) blog is born!

2011-06-02T13:06:00.000-04:00

Wait, what? I'm coming up fast on 50 posts, and now I do an introductory post?

Read more »

7K - Check yourself before you wreck yourself

2011-06-02T12:19:00.002-04:00

So, my last post was about how you gain skills in the system. You may also want to reference this post, where I gave a preliminary list of what the skills in the system would be.

To finish rounding out the topic, I want to talk about how to make skill checks. It's pretty straightforward, especially if you know d20. But, I do want to add in a couple more advanced types of skill checks.

Read more »

7K - Slick skills

2011-06-02T12:18:00.001-04:00

I really want the skill system to be the core driver of the system. As such, it needs to be flexible, extensible, quick, and easy. I've looked at a number of skill systems, and I at least have some pretty good ideas of what kind of model I want to go with.
Read more »

7K - Strengthen the core

2011-06-02T12:17:00.000-04:00

The first thing you need when developing an RPG, after a grand concept, is a core mechanic. That informs so many other parts of the system. It also is largely responsible for dictating how the RPG will feel in play.
Read more »

7K - Derailed again

2011-06-02T12:16:00.001-04:00

So, I know that it's been a while since I posted any 7 Kingdoms work. I haven't abandoned the project. But, I must admit that the live-blogging has taken something of a back seat. The biggest reason is simply that, as I've worked on the classes, I keep running into things that I don't like. I don't feel like I'm building a game that is in any way elegant, and that bugs me.

Well, part of the point to live-blogging was to get feedback, and give some insight into how this creative process works. It wasn't just a way to publish a free game cheaply. By retreating into my own head to work these problems out, I'm pretty much violating that point. So, I'm going to lay out some thoughts here.
Read more »

7K - A touch of class

2011-06-02T12:14:00.002-04:00

Every superhero has an origin, but he also has training. To represent what kind of training, we are going to use the class system from d20. It's pretty straightforward. When you gain a level, you can take that level in any base class. If you meet the prerequisites for an expert class (nee prestige class), you can take a level in that, too. You will gain stats, skills, and a special ability at every level. (Yes, you gain an ability at every level. There are no "dead" levels.) There are no penalties for multiclassing.

Read more »

7K - Every hero has an Origin

2011-06-02T12:13:00.000-04:00

When we discussed races, I mentioned that race has no mechanical effect on the character. It's all cosmetic. However, the race/class dynamic is pretty core to d20, and it is a good idea to preserve it. In our case, though, we have Origin instead of Race.

Superheroes have origins. That's one of the tropes of the genre. They have some X factor (in some cases, literally) that sets them apart from the rest of the population. In the Seven Kingdoms setting, there are relatively few possible origins, because I want to keep the stories fairly well focused. So, you cannot be a space alien. Also, your list of "powers" is fairly restricted. This is much closer to the use of archetypes seen in systems like Brave New World rather than the build-to-suit of Champions or Mutants & Masterminds.

Every character chooses an Origin at character creation. That Origin will give certain bonuses. Many of these bonuses will revolve around the Power skill, which is always considered a class skill. Some of these abilities require extra effort from the hero, and have a stress cost associated with them. Paying a stress cost reduces your current stress total by that amount, just as if you had suffered stress damage. However, it is not damage, and cannot be reduced or negated in any way. Also, you cannot reduce your stress below 0 with your Power, nor can you spend sanity instead of stress.

Below are thumbnail sketches of each of the Origins. In the future, I will write a full post on each one.

Read more »

7K - Suddenly, derailed!

2011-06-02T12:07:00.002-04:00

*sigh*

So, I've been thinking about combat, and how to make it more swashy. I want to encourage some of the standard tropes, such as witty repartee, engaging terrain, and the sudden reversal of fortunes. Standard d20 combat is not really conducive to these tropes. The hit point system is kind of a grind. The movement rules tend to encourage standing your ground, rather than ranging all over. Engaging in simultaneous physical and social combat really puts a stress on the timing system. And, of course, the emphasis on squares and positioning can turn combat into a board game, making it harder to inject flavorful role-playing.

I had an idea. I think it's a good idea. But, it's a total overhaul of the combat system, which rejiggers a huge chunk of the overall system.

Is it cool enough? Let me sketch it out, and see what you think. Comments are greatly appreciated.

Read more »

7K - We haz mad skillz!

2011-06-02T11:01:00.000-04:00

This isn't the full description of the skill system. Instead, this is a brief overview, for reference while we are discussing other elements of the system.

Read more »