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Thursday, March 31, 2011

New Logo-




It is a transparent background, that is why the text appears 'so dark'.
--It would be sharper against a white background.

Click it to see.

Tuesday, March 29, 2011

More DnD Luv-

NPC Damage-dealt Table-

20-12 - 1d8 (5)
11-10 - 1d6 (4)
09-01 - 1d4 (3)


Quick NPC-Kill Table-

20-12 - Dead
11-10 - Dies after action of next Round
09-01 - Still Alive

DM adds the PC's Fighting Man Level to the d20 roll


After First Hit NPC Reaction Table-

20-12 - Remains on-task
11-10 - Fighting Withdrawl (-1 to hit/+1 to AC)
09-01 - Drops heavy gear and flees

DM adds the NPC's HD to the d20 roll

Monday, March 28, 2011

Micro Campaign Design Tables-

Roll d20 for the tables below, unless otherwise directed:

TABLE I: The General Place-

20-12 - A Trippy Place (Tesseract, Rubik's Cube, Giant Ball of Lint in intergalactic space, etc.)
11-10 - A multitude of advanced subterranean complexes with occasional 'bolt-holes' leading out into the mysterious unknown.
09-01 - A world, possibly a planet, possibly a Realm (trapezoid with edges one can sail off, etc.)

TABLE II: Life-

20-12 - Vibrant, rich, full of unimaginable diversity of life forms
11-10 - As varied as Earth's heyday of megafauna (Irish Deer, Giant Sloths, Mamoths, etc.)
09-01 - Sparsely populated, or with very little diversity (Axebeaks, Cacti, Joshua Trees, Orcs, and Firenewts, for example)

TABLE III: Distant Past-

20-12 - The Gods Made The World Yesterday, and the Races, Today; Hello!
11-10 - The Ancients Destroyed Themselves in a One Day War, at least 1,000 years ago
09-01 - The past is an uncountable long chain of disasters and empires of super-science and sorcery

TABLE IV: Middlin' Past-

20-12 - A Dark Lord held Sway throughout the Land until Slain by a Hero
11-10 - Petty kingdoms battled for 2d6+3 centuries, plagues killed 1d4-5ths of the population, trade mushroomed afterwards
09-01 - Savage Warlords vie for semi-nomadic fiefdoms from 3d6 centuries ago until now; skip TABLE V, goto VI

TABLE V: Recently-

20-12 - Lesser Minions of a/the Dark Lord are gaining strength and numbers in the (1. North, 2. East, 3. South, 4. West)
11-10 - Trade disputes are currently (1-3.) heading towards war, or (4-6.) just now ending
09-01 - Monstrous armies erupt from the wilds and surge against Humanity

TABLE VI: Number of Big Players-

20-12 - 1d3, each with hundreds of thousands or millions of troops
11-10 - 1d6+2, each with tens or hundreds of thousands of troops, and great navies or war machines
09-01 - 2d12 Tribes, 1d4 Races, and Demonic Noble Houses at war with each other, using the Races as mercenaries

TABLE VII: Newest Stuff-

20-12 - Great Alchemical Wonders (magical war machines, wish magics, etc.)
11-10 - Stainless Steel and Steam Engines
09-01 - Iron and Silk

d20 Combat Advantage Critical Table-

For the D&Ders:

When a PC generates a Critical Hit (by whatever means one does in your game), (have the Player) roll on the following table:

20-11 Double Maximum Damage, Gain a Free Strike, and a Free Move
10-01 +1d4 Damage, and Gain a Free Move

If the DM desires, perhaps modify the d20 roll by Fighting Man Level and/or Hit Dice.

Sunday, March 27, 2011

Which Non-RPG Games Do You Dig?

Back in Jacksonville, the guys I hung about with were designing dice games like, Stomp the Roach, where a handful of d6s were rolled and some results Stomped, and others Hatched new roaches. It was an amusing game, especially while I was under the influence of Hornsby's or Woodchuck Hard Cider.

I'm not known to play many board games, and fewer card games (Aquarius, and Guillotine being two notable exceptions), but I have been taken to task by a minis wargamer that games like AMBUSH! or SHELL SHOCK! are, in fact, board games, and I've played plenty of those.

I'm curious which non-RPGs readers of this blog are fans of, and which features of them are best liked, and why.
--Too much to ask of you folks? I hope not. :)


On a mildly-related topic, I Refereed a friendly BLOCKMEN v. LEGOS scenario last night, with the dice favouring the invaders (after losses) of a base, and an alien saucer as the prize. Simple d6 pools of varying sizes compared to other d6 pools, with the higher roll winning, and the difference taken as hits in an attack action.
--The young player asked if this counted as 'wargaming' and after a moment's thought, I replied, 'yes.', thinking of Wells' Little Wars basic conceit of a War Game.


Have fun. :)

Friday, March 25, 2011

No Game This Week-

No game this week. The host is off to watch a play overseen by his schoolmate.

I think the weekly game is in a state of flux at present, as two members are not comfortable with Domain-scale gaming, and desire a return to low-powered characters.
--If I do oblige them, it will be set in the Latter Autumn era.

More that I can't talk about at present.

Have yourselves a fine gaming weekend, folks.

Monday, March 21, 2011

Gamelords, LTD: Thieves' Guild 2nd Edition (NiB)-


Like others of my era, I was treated to the Gamelords, LTD's adverts for Thieves' Guild in various gaming mags, among them of course, The Dragon.

My friend, Scott Charlton (of PCInc Arcanis fame) owned a copy, as did Mike B. years earlier, so I had some experience with it before purchasing a copy sometime in-between (I may have purchased it from Mike).

Having found this copy, New in Box for what I was willing to pay for it, I ordered -- and it arrived this morning.


The Thieving Book, and the CharGen Rules


The character sheet, and a nifty coupon.

Saturday, March 19, 2011

March 18th Game-

A lot happened in yesterday's/last night's session.

* Captain Qulak managed to convince the GYS forces in orbit around Cold Home not to strip the ships down. He also heard from his first officer of an alien weapons shipment, and ordered Kitsune's assistance in determining their worth. He then entered a Sla-Mu tea ceremony as the council awaited the arrival of the salvage ship that Jake recently joined up with. The occasion was the discussion about purchasing the plans to the Dark Drive they have devised.

* Osyl Molen, in the Vae Realm, is about to break a door that has been magically sealed for over 1k years.

* Kitsune met Princess Nyx, the Patron of Negative Lightning, and was commissioned to send more folks Nyx' way, as she is bored and lonely. To facilitate this, a cache of Thl Lower Planar energy weapons was offered. Kit was in the process of investigating when the merchant's craft was shorn in two by a beam originating from a planet-side defence site. She managed to MacGyver/bodge together a ejection system for Akheron and herself, and it worked. Medics on route were also fired upon, as was her fighter escort which was engaging the site. The area is over or near a lake roughly the size of Superior, and thin ice was involved.

* Tyb, investigating the odd goings-on in the miscibility of the Elemental Planes, heard of a site named, Red Feather Hill, not far out of Aqqomen, that seemed promising. His recent g/f blurted out that he was affiliated with the GYS, and a stranger at the bar departed soon after that; followed by Tyb. The confrontation demonstrated that the stranger was, in fact, a damaged android with partial programming. Tyb called in Ashta to assist with the Red Feather Hill investigation...

* Jake went in search of his new crew-mates (who had been summoned to the Electrum Arrow), but became entangled in the Tyb/Ashta thread.

* Ashta arrived to take the android and Tyb aboard the Pearl while they made their way to the hill. Along the way, Ashta told Pearl to repair 'Smith'. This proved ... complicated when the restored android shot her in the back.

* The android and its companions in possession of the near comatose Jake explain that they had been left on the planet to guard it and that since its star system fell into the pocket universe, 'Cold Home' has been experiencing increasing fluctuations in the core's magnetosphere. These fluctuations, in concert with the Elemental miscibility, threaten to destroy the planet. The android plan was to kill the pair in the hopes of having the duo's nexial energies removed from the equation. It is later explained that the destruction of Orcus' Plague Sword in Tyb's possession, and Ashta's Pearl, would suffice, possibly even flinging Cold Home back into Mundane Space. Tyb decided to stay behind and make certain the sword was destroyed, while Pearl sent Jake and Ashta to her Aetheric fortress prior to Pearl's destruction.

* As Ashta appeared in her rainbow-mirrored redoubt adrift in the eternal twilight of the Aetheric Plane, she heard sounds in the place, with the word, 'Mommy?' uttered by the daughter created in an alternate timeline about 9 months ago.

We held the session there.

Friday, March 18, 2011

Tuesday, March 15, 2011

March 11th Game-

The blackness of the Void and Lower Planes has manifested as the Thl. A warlike species of many sub-species, all invertebrates, varying from jellyfish to insectoids and quasi-reptilians. Their craft scintillated from Void Black to iridescent black as they 'surfaced' into the Mundane to launch energy attacks against the GYS Cruiser Electrum Arrow ('Idabun Iarmun' ~ pronuc. 'Eedahboon Eearmoon') and the three other Cruisers now in orbit around Cold Home. More Yirinn blood-shenanigans when a first use of the Dark Energy weapons system was fielded in attack craft. This action (another high result after burning lots of Blood) propelled the PCs into a post-war situation where the GYS was successful in defeating the Thl, and Captain Qulak stood upon the enemy flagship and received the forced surrender of the alien leader. After most of the officials had left the ceremony aboard the vessel, Qulak and his cadre oversaw the transfer of the Thl to the Blood Guard for ... analysis.

Then a sabotage device grafted onto the Thl leader dropped and was triggered, causing a small explosion of flesh eating goo, and the Aetherboyant craft to 'submerge' back into the Deeper Darkness. Ashta and Delver were both contacted and kindly asked to tender rescue for the Commander (for millions of Credits). They arrived and folks disembarked the sinking ship. Talk included the possibility that the Thl ship could pass through the planet with unforeseen consequences or simply 'glub' beneath the Dark Aether that held it aloft. We held it there, but other stuff had also happened, such as:

* TV shows dealing with the Elemental legacy of Humanity from the Ancients to the Imperials grow in popularity in the mediaweb and after the war is over, Vern's show enters the coveted Top Ten Shows ranking, although the other PCs have thus far have declined participation, citing a lack of desire to re-introduce the Patrons in an age that learned to tame the energies through technology.

* Mela Mela went shopping in the Vae market and scored a nice suit of armour and a magicked sword connected to a high-ranking water spirit. The Winter Court is nearly finished with its Autumnal Purge and the blue-tinted snow-white Vae creatures have opened session with an invitation for Mela Mela to visit the Court. These actions tie-in with Osyl Molen's thread to do Lady Arctise's will and depose her previously favoured champion, a long-lived cyborg dwelling in a craggy mountaintop cave.

* Ashta's relationship with the Earthman, Jake, continues apace and was challenged when Jake accepted a contract to explore the Deeper Dark aboard a salvage ship fitted with an experimental drive, and then responded to the rescue call. Jake and crew were able to return.


Folks seem to find the new, spookier turn, exciting, and it challenges their previous conceptions of 'what-was-what' with Elemental reality.

Wednesday, March 9, 2011

March 4th Game (TL/DR Friendly)- :: Osyl Molen

Osyl Molen, favoured of Lady Arctise, trekked off with her squad of androids into the foothills, looking for the party responsible for the abduction and slaying of a GYS maintainable worker by what appeared to be Kentar and Satrine. Meeting a hunting party (vegetarians hunting predators) on grav sleds, Osyl was diplomatic in her introduction and was permitted to travel with them. This led to a community where Kentar, Satrine, and Humans of various ethnicities lived peacefully on a meadowland plain. Osyl partook of their ample hospitality and then was seen off on her voyage to locate the Throne of Frost. Along the way, she was accosted by two mountain-goat Satrine who were acting as her guides. She was forewarned via her frost blade shortsword and defeated one with a sneak attack that literally eviscerated her foe's heart. The second one had been shown to be reluctant, and put up little fight. Osyl was generous and let him live to guide her to the ancient site atop the lesser peak. She and her guide became better acquainted. Hold.

TL/DR: She did stuff in the mountains with animal people.

Friday, March 4, 2011

Inspiration Comes from the Most Unlikely of Sources-

HARMARYN
'Pioneers of the Dark Lands' / 'Dark Muses' -- Aberrant Humanoid (AH)
Menace Rating: 39 (4d8) | DEF +1 | ARM 1d6 | MOV 30'
Damage: By weapon-type +1/+1, 2d6+1B Strangle, 1d6+1EP Bite

:: Monstrous Women given over to strong delusions, prone to muttering in insane languages, and obsessed with imaginary details, the hearing of which creates a compulsive malaise which overwhelms those within 11 Msnk Radius failing a T# 17 Control CT. The effect is such that the victims are imbued with greater creativity and drive to produce an expression of their inner being. When the duration of (1 Hour per year of the Harmaryn's residency at the same fell spot) is exceeded, the victim must either risk further exposure, or move on to some other task, wandering away from the Harmaryn in confusion.
:: Harmaryn are serpentine from their knees downward, terminating in a 1.6 Msnk muscular tail with which they are well capable of strangulation. Some with scorpionic lower bodies have also been reported, and noted Monstrologist Klaustys Mor suggests that so called Harpies, Sirens, and the Almia and other Monstrous Women are a class of being rather than individual classes.
:: Most Harmaryn give birth to a male child who learns his mother's dark mutterings, and from an early age picks up the die and casts it in auguries of the imagination, writing their own interpretations of The Graet Gaem. When a Harmaryn is killed, she invariable laughs, "But you're wrong Steve, You see, It's only solitaire.", even if decapitated. The young apprentice will carefully devote his life to her revenge, seeking to husband a young Harmaryn of the same Blaag Sphere and perpetuate the work.

:: AP Value: 1st Encounter 4,200; 1/10th, 1/100th, etc. thereafter.

Thursday, March 3, 2011

Weapon of the Ancients-

Weapons of the Ancients-

KVadrXtsaeukd ('Artifice - Specialist - High-power Particle Gun')
* Type: High-energy Fazed Particle Beam
* Effect: Lethal 3d6x15, *Fire/Heat 2d12x2 -- * or other Element/Effect
* Range: 0-100 Yards at Full Effect, 101-300 Yards at Half Effect
* Ammo.: 30 Full-power Discharges
* Weight: 2 Lbs.
* Frequency: Z on Urutsk, R aboard Ancient Spacecraft, etc.

:: By 1255 Human Space was armed with reliable high-energy personal and frontline battle weapons. Each nation or faction had its own particular version of these weapons, varying in details, mechanisms, and design aesthetics, but all roughly equivalent to that presented here.
:: The operation of this pistol produces a quantum flux of affine particles in various Elemental frequencies resulting in a semi-coherent ray fluctuating in the visible spectra and delivering its energy in rolling waves of irregular pulses. Since this is both a multi-elemental flux, as well as a pulsed effect, the ray is likely to affect most substances to some degree, and besides tuning and greater flux bandwidth, this class of weapon remained in use in increasingly slimmer forms for centuries.

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Friday Game-

J.'s Characters:

After last session, it occurred to J. that he would have wanted to light the Black Metal-alloy rose bramble menorah with his elemental fire blood before concluding the speech. I had no problem with that, and it was retcon'd as canon.

Commander Qulak, after delivering the graduation speech (and pumping in 16 DP) and switching universes/timelines, found that he is a captain of an arrowhead-shaped system ship with a crew of 1,800, laden with 3,200 colonists headed for 'Cold Home', as part of the Greater Yirinn Sphere. The GYS is a resurgent Yirinn Empire, and comprised of those Yirinn, Sla Mu, Dokirin, and Khem who did not board Vrun starcraft in the Latter Autumn exodus.

Sir Akheron, is an honorary Blood Guard member, a racial purity and genetic engineering division of the GYS, and his vampiric traits have only become more honed so as to allow him to 'read' people more accurately with his developed infravisual sight and pheromone awareness. His mission is to gather genetic samples of the Kentar and Satrine aliens also found on Cold Home for research into developing Yirinn with specific genegineered traits (quadrupedal frames for cavalry troopers and load-bearing applications, and rocky terrain locomotion, respectively).

Kitsune, is a weapons research scientist serving the GYS, and although not Yirinn, enjoys a comfortable lifestyle to cultivate loyalty. She is currently leading the department involved in Green-Black Coherent Light Dynamics Engineering looking to create cost-effective Black-ray anti-personnel energy weapons for their aerospace version of the A-10 Warthog.


C.'s Characters:

Ashta Shomel, is the most aware, not only of the reality warp, but of her 600+ year old existence, and that she has telemorphed once (she can remember), where her mind was transferred to the target and like a slow telerelocation, the target's body is transformed into the attacker. She is employed by the GYS as both a Diplomat to, and Bounty Hunter of Aelbaan that are causing the GYS difficulties. With her Pearl, she is free to roam as she will, and has tele-harbours in several ships in the colonial fleet. She has just met a Seeder Pilot from Earth, or at least an Earth, from my early fiction, who is also hundreds of years old chronologically speaking.

Mela-Mela, is liaison between the Blood Guard and Science Division of the GYS. Besides this she is still a Vae Princess, and has been chosen by the Winter Court of the Cold Home Vae as their representative in Vae-Human relations. Autumn rebels hold out against the merciless Winter troops, and assassination and power brokering between the declining Autumn Court and the ascending Winter Court grinds on with each day's further journey into the radically elliptical orbit.

Qaya Bynvert, is often called in to deal with biochemical weapons or explosive ordinance issues, as her Smoke Manipulation permits her great cleansing and diffusing capabilities. As a Bynvert (half-Yirinn and half Western Isles Vrun), she has social precedence over non-Yirinn, and such favour was granted that she has been made a member of the GYS equivalent of the USO entertainment and morale division.


A.'s Characters:

Delver Denab, as a renegade Aelbaan, is valued for his ability to understand and attack in abstract and asynchronous ways as the Greater Yirinn Sphere's expansion brings it deeper into the buffer between the Aelbaan Sphere. With his Void Craft, Delver is able to perform missions once thought impossible, whether due to distance/time issues, or penetrating daunting security, and is employed much like Ashta Shomel, but given perhaps greater leaway so as not to incur his ire.

Seaneq Okan (CiCi), is serving on a Sla-Mu spiritual ship, comprised entirely of ethical medical personnel (above and beyond their position in the Sla-Mu priesthood), and is primarily involved in integrating natural medicines with advanced elemental technologies.

Osyl Molen, being of Yirinn descent (although a genetic aberration), has been employed as a Scout and was forced to have her prehensile tail apparent and not hidden (although it is encased in a tail sleeve in her clothing). Lady Arctise has informed her that Osyl is her new chosen favourite, and that the current champion must be deposed for Arctise' plans to be brought to fruition. This is part of a thread pre-dating the departure from the Aerlbaan starship aboard the shuttle. Osyl often travels aboard the Black Pearl with Delver Denab.


M.'s Characters:

Tybylt Valyntayn, is now a scout for the GYS, as his Continental Vrun ancestry (although punctuated with a small percentage of Yirinn and Aelbaan) does not advance him to the highest echelons of Yirinn society and duty-glory. Currently, he is on assignment to scout out Cold Home in advance of the GYS colonisation initiative. As he planned to use the cover story of hailing from the human village of Wessel as he reconnoitred the larger space port of Aqqomen, Tyb was dropped off with a six-wheeled ATV and an equivalent to the .410 ga. double barrel break-pistol. He discovered that all of Wessel appeared to have been rounded up and forcibly relocated, by hooved creatures. An Elemental Glass necklace seemingly left behind to mark a trail showed a woman's smiling face. As one of Cold Home's moons traced nearby overhead, Tyb shadow-slipped a great distance, and found a gulch filled with human bodies well pilfered. After contacting his scout ship, Tyb received orders to head back to Wessel rather than pressing on to Aqqomen, where he encountered three youths who seemed to corroborate the Kentar/Satrine assault hypothesis.
--Tyb collected micro-crystalline debris from energy weapon discharges, asked the kids about the Elements, and then the kids told him of an old man who had a mobile of the elements in his cave. They travelled up to visit in a shuttle, and Tyb encountered the old codger, who took a real shine to the female medtech.

Darius, has been put in charge of a division of the Alien Legion mercenary corps.

Nyqolas Vern, Imperial paragon, is employed as a Vrun Diplomat.