Brief Update-

To remain productive even while taking a break from the Adventure Locales, I have been working on a Skirmish/Tactical wargaming rules outline, based on the rules utilised by folks described in one of the Adventure Locales.
I've sent off what I had at the time to Jeff Berry (who seems to have made good progress back to health --thanks), and have expanded it since then, and seen glimpses of later era variants.
The most different aspect to it is the diceless mechanics that instead use a narrow, but robust version of my Colour Logic system with tokens drawn from a container, just as is used in-setting.

The AL is coming along nicely, and the data-headings, and rumours nicely fill-out the locations.

[RPG] Ancient Wonders Procedure-

(c) 2009 Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights Reserved

Ancient Wonders, Technical Skills, and Aberrations-

What once were the commonplace tools of living and leisure for the Ancients are now considered archaeological treasures and great boons.

While both Intelligence and Wisdom must certainly play a role in determining the type of item, and diagnosing its condition, with a strong argument that high Dexterity may illuminate additional features on most purely-mechanical devices, surely experience itself is a great teacher? So far we have something like this:

• Base Percentage Chance (BPC) based upon the item's Utility (01% -- 100+%, with higher being better). Simpler, or more 'user-friendly' items are easier to activate in their intended manner than similarly complex items with lower Utility.
• +/- 5% per Modifier on Exp, Wis, Int, and Dex
• Condition modifies the Threshold: Irreperable +100, Badly Damaged +75, Minor Damage -0, Superficial Damage -05, Display Item -10, New In Box -25, NIB still in Crate -50
• Remove Traps to Disarm/Make-Safe, Diagnose Condition, and effect Repair
• Open Locks to Diagnose and Clear Correctable Malfunctions/Reset
• Technologians have the correct skill set to perform these procedures, and receive a flat +20% bonus in addition to their rolls
  
• Certain Aberrations provide specific bonuses at various stages in the Identification/Diagnosis/Repair process
  

The Referee then rolls the dice and determines whether the character has discovered how to operate the item, provided it were working properly, and had whatever power needed.

Clearly, a series of steps are necessary to take an artefact and bring it back to operational level. To speed things along, I've come up with this procedure:

1. Spend an amount of coin on diagnosis and any possible repair at a cost equal to the item's XP value. A rush job will cost at least double (1d4+1x), and subtracts 25 from the item's Utility until the first six times it is used, decreasing by 6% each time until only 1% has degraded until the minor repair is performed.
2. Spend the XP for the Armour/Weapon Proficiency or Open Locks +%s necessary to operate the item in the field
3. Pay 1/2 the XP value of the item (if discovered, it may be a 'free cost')
   

That's it. Now the figure has legally purchased full operational usage of an Ancient wonder.

Stuff-

I didn't intend this.
Honestly, I'm not a masochist.

As I was editing the 16 Adventure Locations and their Leaders, I realised that each of them needed at least a few Rumours, if not an Encounter Chart.
Yeah, so, no, I'm not as close to being finished with the writing as I had intended, but yes, I think it will be a better product for the inclusion of those features.

* I've also fiddled with the Tunnels & Trolls snap-conversions (from ARGUS to T&T), and it looks like a nice mix between the very minimalist MR rating and a D&Dism. If anything, I think the T&T critters are laterally improved (Saving Roll bonuses) if not the overall number of dice they are rolling.

--In brief

• Each Fight Die is 5 Monster Rating
• AB is the creature's Combat Adds (and if one adds the CT value, Missile Adds)
• # Attacks is the minimum number of d6 the creature rolls
• modified Resolve is Spell-casting POW
• modified CT is the creature's LK score

Defence and Armour perform the same function, although Defence could be added to Defence and Stunt SR totals (dodging the Giant), while the Armour listing could be replaced with the Armour values in T&T, or used as is.

Other rules-set modifications (again to ARGUS, without affecting the host-system) are coming to mind, and as I write them up, I'll have an eye toward posting them alongside with the free Beta .pdf when it becomes available for your perusal and hoped-for testing.

[Business][RPG] Business Declaration & Conversion Essentials-

(c) Copyright 2009 Kyrinn S. Eis All Rights Reserved.

I am taking this opportunity to announce my desire and intent to operate as Alternate Reality Games (ARG), and launching the ARGUS game engine at the same time.

ARGUS, Alternate Reality Games Universal System is geared to operate seamlessly with any Classic RPG, offering on the fly conversion guidelines for a variety of systems and character generation methods. The in-house term attached to this sort of product is, an 'overlay'.

ARGUS, although it contains its own reference framework, is written so as to allow near transparent use with games as varied as Tunnels & Trolls and Metamorphosis Alpha. It accomplishes this by using generic terminology in the tradition of the old Mayfair products, but in the same way, ARGUS can operate as a stand alone RPG.


In order to facilitate quick-conversion, I have chosen the three creature headings most different from the 0th-Edition and Basic games of yore, and their modern equivalents:

Defence-

• In DAC (Descending Armour Class) games, subtract the Defence value from 9 to arrive at the figure's DAC.

• In AAC (Ascending Armour Class) games, add Defence to 10 to determine the figure's AAC.

The Armour rating after a Defence score may be ignored, or may instead be treated as a sort of Weapon versus Armour modifier:

• 1d4: +4 AC versus Light Weapons/Attacks (1d4 or less [1d6-1])
• 1d6: +3 AC versus Medium Weapons/Attacks (1d6 or less [1d6])
• 1d8: +2 AC versus Heavy Weapons/Attacks (1d8 or less [1d6+1])
  

The progression would be continued if higher die-types are encountered.


Resolve-

Operates as Morale and can operate as Monster Reaction value.
The listed Resolve score, divided by 2, and 1d6 added to that, is the creature's Morale score.
The number generated can act as the creature's Reaction value, if deemed appropriate by the Referee/GM.


Critical Test (CT)-

Treat it as a Single Number Saving Throw by subtracting the score from 20, and rolling equal to or greater than that on d20, as per a normal 'Save'.

[RPG] Cover Update-

Kindly note the updated cover sketch.

Thank you,

[Wargaming] Solo Game Design-

This post started out as a reply to one of David Larkins' The Mini Corner blog entries.

At one point I just walked away from the gamers I was 'stuck with' given my location, and broke out my minis and began designing a condition-modified solo game system in which I had no control over events or the opposition, all determined at random (within said conditional framework akin to Victory Games' Ambush!).

I would sit at the kitchen table and get bombed and then move my handful of minis around the terrain as the dice determined at manner of terrible near-future and sci-fi CQB situations. It was a rare victory for my Necromunda Escher gang figures, and each time I sent out a veteran of previous games, I felt the sense of dread at what would befall her.

My SO would come in and smile at my set-up and my pained expression as the girls were pinned down or wounded out in the open.

So, it is possible to be a soloist and be in a steady relationship ('stable' certainly didn't apply in that case).

Bruck-up, soldier! ;)

I devoured Victory Games' AMBUSH!, SHELL SHOCK!, LEATHERNECK! games, and had become such a great enthusiast of Kabal Gaming Systems' M.I.S.S.I.O.N., that it may be argued that it was inevitable that I would devise a sort of Artificial Intelligence gaming engine to keep myself entirely off balance while plotting my protagonist(s) incursions or exfiltrations on the gaming surface.
In its most stable incarnation, I used 2d12 to randomly determine the Condition of the enemy in whatever area my figures (sometimes only a dot on a sheet of paper as I plotted its/their continuous course) had entered, and dealt with the consequences as they arose using a dirt-simple d6 resolution system.
My favourite maps were those included in the Victory Games' games and modules, and I still use them to this day on the rare occasion I feel my RPG sessions require player visual aids.

In one scenario, my elite squad of drop-troop misfits (including a conscript with Psychic Invisibility) were sent into an enemy research camp to steal an experimental hovertank. Two of them died when their Fall-Limiter gear failed to function: One impacted, another snapped her neck, hung up in the forest. Although shaken (a Condition), the surviving members slowly, slow infiltrated the camp's lightly guarded outer perimeter into the abandoned hamlet, and then broke up into to elements to make the best use of time.
The commander of the mission, his honour guard Sgt, and the colour guard Corporal dealt with the bulk of the guards, while the other element (including the conscript) stealthily entered the hanger bay wherein the hovertank was located.
In the subsequent Rounds, the foreign conscript advanced one sub-measure of the hanger hex each step, as he moved directly toward the two guards who were playing cards. Just as he moved to within striking distance, one of the guards saw through the psionic screen and noticed the guy, but missed him and unintentionally struck one of the other infiltrators, mortally wounding him. The psychic and the other member were then engaged in a very loud CQB that alerted the rest of the camp, one guard at a time until the klaxon was sounded.

With no one left to pilot the craft, the two activated it and slowly crash-drifted through the quonset hut, unable to effectively steer it while the rest of the team ran through a hail of gunfire to jump on. Three wounded, one would soon die.
The movement was slightly faster than the guards could muster until the hovertank slid down an embankment and picked up enough velocity to barely outdistance a pursuing 'jeep'. The action moved off map, and I picked up the next game a day or two later.

Everything, from mission gear loads and ammunition had all been accounted for; jams, friendly-fire, everything.
I was exhausted.

I was thrilled.

Unfortunately, the next game proved a loss, but two of the original squad managed to 'DD' out of hostile territory after the conscript gave his life to detonate the hovertank to set the enemy's plans back a few months, if not more.
---

So, any of you ever run solo scenarios?

[Playtest Campaign] Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight-

We started around 5PM (as opposed to 3), and were down the one player for most of the game, excepting the one hour he was present. I reminded them of what had occurred two weeks ago, and I was reminded of a fact I had forgotten.

The PCs (both parties) banded together and attempted to evade a force moving parallel to them through the misty-rained filled, dirty and soot and cinder-covered streets of Qerzyk. A brief stop in a squatter's enclave provided them with a water-refresh opportunity, and a lead-lined box in which to place the communication device Tybalt has used a few times, and is the object for which the Hierophantic Church agents desire.
Contact was re-established with the Kherstic League (their patron organisation) who warned them of the danger of wandering into the Church's scouts, but informed them that two groups of the League were triangulating onto their coordinates.

In the subsequent battle with Church-hired mercenaries armed with Coilstocks (coil-spring operated quarrel launchers actuated by a side-mounted cocking tab), and led by a Church Wizard, the PCs held a defensive position and used it to great advantage (having a black-bear equivalent in the doorway paired up with Ashta the Western Isles Hjighlands lass ('barbarian') seemed to have done the trick). Delver ('Dell-Ver'), the Western Isles lesser noble, and his female battle companion, Ceaneq (?) the quasi-Buddhist-merchant Cleric (?!) deftly dispatched two foes in two Rounds while the Wizard fired MMs at Ashta and the bear, 'Kitty'.
Ashta charged from the doorway, failed to defeat the Shield spell he was protected by, and was wide-open for the rest of the Round. The subsequent Round, she eviscerated the lout, upon which he uttered, "...impossible...' and crumpled to the bloody cobbles, at which point something small exploded out of the crown of his skull and flew off into the dark skies.
With the mercenaries no longer employed, they ceased hostilities and were not cut down by the PCs.

A moment later the Kherstic League group prematurely dispatched one merc with a quarrel in the throat, but aided the wounded once the fog of battle had cleared. The League Overseer, Daen, Jedi'd the merc captain to simply walk away.
The PCs and Kitty, and Mela Mela's riding bird all were escorted into the posh side of town. The PCs were bathed and refreshed and shown to an upstairs study in a palacial mansion, the actual building's footprint being roughly 240 acres.
There, the PCs extracted a rat-being they had captured in the sewers and began to question it in the presence of Overseer Daen. The thing, rather insane for the experience of having been turned into a humanoid, cackled in his little ratty voice, gibbering on about the Elders sitting upon their thrones, deep-deep in the earth. Then another voice began speaking through the creature as a bright light began to shine forth from the increasingly hot little creature's skull.
Daen recognised their rapidly-approaching doom, and uttered a Void spell of high enough energy-level so as to inflict aging effects upon her in consequence, a white shock shot through her luxuriant raven hair and a tremble showing in her hands at the exertion.

The rest of the session consisted of them discussing how best to spend their hefty recompense for the safe return of the comm unit, as well as selling (some of) their Mummy Spice*.
No clear plan had been formed by the time we called it a night.

It seems my concerns regarding the player are perhaps unfounded.


* "In addition to black pepper, cinnamon, ginger,
and saron, such spices as galangal, zedoary, long
pepper, and \grains of paradise" (malagueta pepper
from West Africa) were commonly used in medieval
cookery, along with sugar, which only later became
the commodity that we know today. These, along
with many others, including even ground mummy,
were used as medicinal drugs, while expensive aro-
matic resins and animal products such as ambergris,
castoreum, musk, and civet were used as fragrances,
both for aesthetic and for medical reasons." -- Paul H. Freedman. Out of the East: Spices and the Medieval Imagination. New Haven: Yale University
Press, 2008. x + 275 pp. ISBN 978-0-300-11199-6; $30.00 (cloth), ISBN 978-0-300-11199-6.