Encyclopedia Magica: The Acorn of Wo Mai

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.

System Wank: A Wealth of Options

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.

Reverb #2: Why?!?

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?

Social combat mechanics

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?

Encyclopedia Magica: Accelerator

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.

The Problem with Demons

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?

Encyclopedia Magica: A Project

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...

Reverb #1: So it began

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?

Gamma-rized Redux

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.

Followed by a new age: a Dragon Age!

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

A new edition, a new start...

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.