The 'werewolf' and the 'wolf-man' were still rampaging through the tavern and healer's outfit.
Roy scanned for their minds in the hopes of launching a vicious psychic attack.
"Where are these freaks?!"
Cogra Spades smiled as he helped the field surgeon up the rickety stairs of the burning and charred tavern. Upstairs one flight was the healer's shelter, still blessed with air conditioning.
It was now a cold 35*.
"HEY! I THINK YOU CAN FIND WHAT YOU NEED UP HERE! OKAY?!"
Roy gestured to keep his voice down.
The kid had killed the 'wolf-man' with a missile launcher from within the tavern below. He'd been blown back out the front door and lost his hearing.
A moment later, both were startled to see Cogra's mecha start, seemingly, by itself, and the two weapons prime for fire.
Cogra dropped down through the open service door and raced to engage his mech's hijacker and save them both.
He clambered up the ladder rungs on various parts of the assembly, and threw open the canopy.
A person-sized spider-thing was piloting the mech, and to his horror, Cogra saw that it targeted the healer's shelter with a long range rocket.
FWOOM!
B=O=O=M=!
Cogra saw the life-sensor indicate a flickering sign.
---
Somewhere in Coralglass Submarine City-
A cyborg stirred just below the waves of unconsciousness, as if he should awake any instant and grasp his current reality.
Rainmaker cloud routines sprinkled the streets with traces of mirror as seen from Roy's hospital room.
"See ya' soon."
Cogra said as he keyed-up 'Rusty' from his remote.
The mech had been inspected and fumigated, and cleared for duty.
"Why is Coralglass City under attack? And who could it be? I'll find the answers, Roy. You'll see."
===
PBAM's first playtest session resulted in the rapid adoption of the die mechanism, and one very excited 10 year old boy.
--Even Roy's player seemed to have fun, and was debating whether to bring him back as the cyborg character he had been discussing before the game.
The die mechanism does interesting things with probabilities, with three things being accomplished with one roll.
--Super-tools, like mech weapons have very high base damages, but on a human-to human scale, things seem to ring truish enough to not display any apparent lopsidedness other than that statistically expected.
---6 and 7 are the highest density results which create fairly powerful Effect-values (damage, etc.), but the elusive success-generating feature is indicating that the effect of the full polyhedral set tends to favour the chances of success only slightly, but such higher-power successes pack quite a wallop.
----This models the source materials and overall design premise very well.
I am splitting my attention between Small Arms and Equipment, and the Referee's section.
Kiddo was hooked as soon as he ogled the AT-43 minis.
--I was glad it didn't have movement grids.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
Wednesday, September 16, 2009
Precis Intermedia Games enters the Red Book Arena-
LINK
This is exciting for me, as I have grown very fond of Brett Bernstein's Genre Diversions 3E and related systems over the past few months.
This is exciting for me, as I have grown very fond of Brett Bernstein's Genre Diversions 3E and related systems over the past few months.
Sunday, September 13, 2009
[Gaming] PBAM...-
My father's death and the two months prior to it, have worn me down a good deal, and I am finding it difficult to resume a normal sleep-cycle, and also feeling a tad bit ill (coldish).
--As such, my ability to focus on the re-arrangement of the Players' Manual is virtually nil at present.
However, I have been reading several other games, far outside of the mainstream, let alone the 'Renaissance', and I have even found time to play one brief starship combat boardgame, which was a lot of fun even despite my having lost.
Yet, I have found it necessary to tinker with game design nonetheless, and am working on a mini-game (not a micro-), the acronymic title of which is PBAM. I will keep this secret until the iteration 1 reveal is ripe.
--It is similar-enough that clever gamers could incorporate or borrow aspects of it, or even integrate it whole cloth with other well-known/-loved games of OSers, although the setting and subject matter is distinctly modern and somewhat foreign, as in OAV-inspired. ;)
This little project is likely to be about 16-24 pages in length, and I hope to distribute it through my LuLu storefront, and possibly Indie Press Revolution or other pdferies for kleingeld, as it were.
--It utilises the standard set of polyhedral dice, but operates more along a Pool mechanic than a d20 or d%-based system.
Okay, I'm off for a nap.
--As such, my ability to focus on the re-arrangement of the Players' Manual is virtually nil at present.
However, I have been reading several other games, far outside of the mainstream, let alone the 'Renaissance', and I have even found time to play one brief starship combat boardgame, which was a lot of fun even despite my having lost.
Yet, I have found it necessary to tinker with game design nonetheless, and am working on a mini-game (not a micro-), the acronymic title of which is PBAM. I will keep this secret until the iteration 1 reveal is ripe.
--It is similar-enough that clever gamers could incorporate or borrow aspects of it, or even integrate it whole cloth with other well-known/-loved games of OSers, although the setting and subject matter is distinctly modern and somewhat foreign, as in OAV-inspired. ;)
This little project is likely to be about 16-24 pages in length, and I hope to distribute it through my LuLu storefront, and possibly Indie Press Revolution or other pdferies for kleingeld, as it were.
--It utilises the standard set of polyhedral dice, but operates more along a Pool mechanic than a d20 or d%-based system.
Okay, I'm off for a nap.
Friday, September 11, 2009
[RPG] Origins of Martial Backgrounds-
When the Ancients, the First Parents, fell from the sky in the War in the Heavens, they brought with them a diverse range of martial traditions dating from millennia before, and millions of worlds amid the infinite Empyrean.
Because of the haphazard manner in which they tumbled to Urutsk from the great heights of the Space Beyond the Sky <Aya 'Eye-Ah'>, the variety of troops and armed units became so dispersed that individuals or detachment-sized remnants of squads and larger groups simply became associated with enclaves of other survivors.
From this jumble of civil servants, constabulary, home guard from dozens of environments, to elite and specialised warfighters, isolated societies cobbled together their individual tables of organisation, training, and deployment as Black Winter set in with its scouring celestial wind of space debris and plasma storms.
In some locales, due to the distribution of more favourable geographic features, limited surface activity was possible over the time-forgotten span of the Scourge. However, the vast majority of the scattered Imperial cantons were forced literally underground and expanded their holdings over the centuries.
It was not long before the tunnelling unearthed and awakened long dormant creatures and monstrous civilisations as recent as their own, also escaped to Urutsk. These wars, The Onyx Battle, never truly ended. It was only the gospel report of the Scourge's cessation that allowed Humanity to flee the Stygian depths for the sunlit world of the surface.
While certain kingdoms and other cultures did meet during that long period, few had the resources to maintain larger communities and had often kept the contact secret from their constituents. Now upon the surface, the enclaves and empires of thirty or more generations removed cousins gradually were reunited.
Naturally, the grand traditions of the Imperium made the re-integration of the disparate colonies more easily possible. Of course, there were those who desired no part of the resurrected behemoth that had created the Cataclysm, and from these 'deserters' came the first intra-Human wars.
But Fate was kind to renew the enmities with the non-Human, and in some cases, also the Allied Peoples (human-like aliens). More often than not, Human enemies were brought past their bickering and resource grabs to unite briefly against their common foes.
Through these various organic mechanisms of transmission and re-implementation, there became a great commonality to Human military endeavours that was retained as various groups spread out to seed the barren planet with animal and plant life from their long-destroyed homeworlds and others once held within the Imperium's grasp.
From the hereditary melange that had defined the Core of the Imperium ('The Sphere of Suns'), as had been recorded in myths of the long vanished past, Humanity became a species of multiple peoples. As the Human pool of bloods split and refined, specialised, and re-introduced other groups, the ethnicities of Urutsk came into being in only a few hundred years. With these divisions, martial procedures changed and were lost to time and replaced with more ideal methodologies and practical measures as suited each group's particular needs.
As the planet grew lush and green, as the rains fed the multitudes with blue and white-tipped marsh grains and fattened game animals, in many cases, the non-human races began to find more ideal conditions above ground, and expanded rapidly -- often out-breeding humans by several generations.
These groups usually fell upon each other as readily as upon Humans, but in some cases, great bands or more subtle confederacies were formed, and these both were a thorn in Humanity's side for much of the Mad Spring.
Because of the haphazard manner in which they tumbled to Urutsk from the great heights of the Space Beyond the Sky <Aya 'Eye-Ah'>, the variety of troops and armed units became so dispersed that individuals or detachment-sized remnants of squads and larger groups simply became associated with enclaves of other survivors.
From this jumble of civil servants, constabulary, home guard from dozens of environments, to elite and specialised warfighters, isolated societies cobbled together their individual tables of organisation, training, and deployment as Black Winter set in with its scouring celestial wind of space debris and plasma storms.
In some locales, due to the distribution of more favourable geographic features, limited surface activity was possible over the time-forgotten span of the Scourge. However, the vast majority of the scattered Imperial cantons were forced literally underground and expanded their holdings over the centuries.
It was not long before the tunnelling unearthed and awakened long dormant creatures and monstrous civilisations as recent as their own, also escaped to Urutsk. These wars, The Onyx Battle
While certain kingdoms and other cultures did meet during that long period, few had the resources to maintain larger communities and had often kept the contact secret from their constituents. Now upon the surface, the enclaves and empires of thirty or more generations removed cousins gradually were reunited.
Naturally, the grand traditions of the Imperium made the re-integration of the disparate colonies more easily possible. Of course, there were those who desired no part of the resurrected behemoth that had created the Cataclysm, and from these 'deserters' came the first intra-Human wars.
But Fate was kind to renew the enmities with the non-Human, and in some cases, also the Allied Peoples (human-like aliens). More often than not, Human enemies were brought past their bickering and resource grabs to unite briefly against their common foes.
Through these various organic mechanisms of transmission and re-implementation, there became a great commonality to Human military endeavours that was retained as various groups spread out to seed the barren planet with animal and plant life from their long-destroyed homeworlds and others once held within the Imperium's grasp.
From the hereditary melange that had defined the Core of the Imperium ('The Sphere of Suns'), as had been recorded in myths of the long vanished past, Humanity became a species of multiple peoples. As the Human pool of bloods split and refined, specialised, and re-introduced other groups, the ethnicities of Urutsk came into being in only a few hundred years. With these divisions, martial procedures changed and were lost to time and replaced with more ideal methodologies and practical measures as suited each group's particular needs.
As the planet grew lush and green, as the rains fed the multitudes with blue and white-tipped marsh grains and fattened game animals, in many cases, the non-human races began to find more ideal conditions above ground, and expanded rapidly -- often out-breeding humans by several generations.
These groups usually fell upon each other as readily as upon Humans, but in some cases, great bands or more subtle confederacies were formed, and these both were a thorn in Humanity's side for much of the Mad Spring.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
In his sleep...-
My father departed the morning of September 9th, 2009.
The Hospice nurse said that it was a peaceful passing, and we observed no evidence to the contrary.
Since my mother and I are women possessed of faith, and because this conclusion to the spiral of his End-stage Renal Failure was known, we are doing well.
--We get that odd shudder when we hear things on the TV that he had a strong reaction to, and as we go through his photos for the memorial, later this month. Sitting at the e-mac we recently purchased him, and realising that he won't be coming back, was a bit surreal, but I have a good feeling that he is in the noblest company of his/my ancestors --nomad warrior-poets, generals, mystics, clock-makers, and educators for generations upon generations.
He was Professor Emeritus, French Language instructor; Photojournalist with many shots with his US film idols of that bygone era; and an early adopter of most technologies, and especially those of a film and video nature. He mastered three languages, was fluent in a half-dozen others, and had travelled through much of the Northern/Western hemisphere both on business and pleasure.
--He had been chosen by the UN to teach in an African nation (no longer extant), but immediately prior to his making landfall, the nation in question became a Communist state, prematurely ending that position.
While no angel, I think that the traits I both inherited and learned from him are singularly wonderful, and after a tumultuous relationship with him for most of my life, we were finally reconciled over the past decade.
I believe we shall meet again, in joy.
The Hospice nurse said that it was a peaceful passing, and we observed no evidence to the contrary.
Since my mother and I are women possessed of faith, and because this conclusion to the spiral of his End-stage Renal Failure was known, we are doing well.
--We get that odd shudder when we hear things on the TV that he had a strong reaction to, and as we go through his photos for the memorial, later this month. Sitting at the e-mac we recently purchased him, and realising that he won't be coming back, was a bit surreal, but I have a good feeling that he is in the noblest company of his/my ancestors --nomad warrior-poets, generals, mystics, clock-makers, and educators for generations upon generations.
He was Professor Emeritus, French Language instructor; Photojournalist with many shots with his US film idols of that bygone era; and an early adopter of most technologies, and especially those of a film and video nature. He mastered three languages, was fluent in a half-dozen others, and had travelled through much of the Northern/Western hemisphere both on business and pleasure.
--He had been chosen by the UN to teach in an African nation (no longer extant), but immediately prior to his making landfall, the nation in question became a Communist state, prematurely ending that position.
While no angel, I think that the traits I both inherited and learned from him are singularly wonderful, and after a tumultuous relationship with him for most of my life, we were finally reconciled over the past decade.
I believe we shall meet again, in joy.
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
[RPG] Wound Levels-
(c) Copyright 2009 Kyrinn S. Eis
Wound Levels, Draft 1-
Wound Level 1- "Bruised"
--d20: +1 Threshold
---d%: +5 to 15%
:: This location has sustained enough force or power to render it numb in some areas, and throbbing with pain in other areas. Use of the faculties associated with it are at the above listed penalties (with combat lending the target a +1 to Defence in this case), until such time as the swelling and tenderness has subsided --usually within 24 Hours, or until otherwise healed, if sooner.
Wound Level 2- "Bloodied"
--d20: +4 Threshold
---d%: +20 to 60%
:: This location's condition is considerably more damaged than merely 'Bruised', and blood-loss is involved if possible based on the nature of the force or power involved, but may be internalised if from some sort of blunt, or intangible source. Use of this location's faculties carries a much stronger penalty, largely making already difficult, or particularly deft or delicate actions that much more unlikely. Healing requires rest and attendance, if only by the wounded individual, especially if one is to avoid infection in Urutsk's humid environment.
Wound Level 3- "Broken"
--d20: +9 Threshold
---d%: +45 to 135%
:: This location has suffered enough damage to break bones, even from non-blunt instruments or sources, and any attempts to use its faculties are penalised to the degree that such actions are almost certain to fail. Healing generally requires outside intervention if the bone(s) are to set properly. Many cases of breaks result in compound fractures, with bones penetrating the victim's flesh, and these have a markedly increased chance of infection due to the exposed marrow. Great care must be given in handling such wounds, and weeks of disuse of the affected location are generally the only means of healing.
Wound Level 4- "Battered"
--Actions no longer possible
---Location is barely attached, and is beyond field surgery
:: This location, as above, has suffered such extensive trauma, that bones are broken. However, in this degree of impairment, the effect is multiplied many times over, with shards and chips of bone loose in the area, which pose a greater health risk to the victim, as these may lodge in muscle tissue, or even be transported via the circulatory system throughout the body or worse-yet, to the brain. There is no natural recovery from such a degree of damage so as to have the victim fit and whole without medical or other superior methods (magical or psionic restoration, aberrant regeneration, etc.). A number of weeks equal to twice the damage points sustained is a minimum amount of recuperation needed under medical supervision if the location is to regain functionality.
Wound Level 5- "Burst"
--see WL4, above
---Location no longer attached to body; requires Superior healing techniques
:: Thoroughly unpleasant to view, and so painful to sustain as to render the victim almost certainly unconscious, unless the event was explosively fast in duration. As this location is no longer attached to the body, it is certainly possible for the victim to have already expired (as in the case of a detached chest, head, or vitals), or soon to be in that state. Only superior intervention can possibly save the location (and thus, possibly the victim). Months of recuperation are necessary, with a minimum equal to twice the damage points sustained.
Wound Levels, Draft 1-
Wound Level 1- "Bruised"
--d20: +1 Threshold
---d%: +5 to 15%
:: This location has sustained enough force or power to render it numb in some areas, and throbbing with pain in other areas. Use of the faculties associated with it are at the above listed penalties (with combat lending the target a +1 to Defence in this case), until such time as the swelling and tenderness has subsided --usually within 24 Hours, or until otherwise healed, if sooner.
Wound Level 2- "Bloodied"
--d20: +4 Threshold
---d%: +20 to 60%
:: This location's condition is considerably more damaged than merely 'Bruised', and blood-loss is involved if possible based on the nature of the force or power involved, but may be internalised if from some sort of blunt, or intangible source. Use of this location's faculties carries a much stronger penalty, largely making already difficult, or particularly deft or delicate actions that much more unlikely. Healing requires rest and attendance, if only by the wounded individual, especially if one is to avoid infection in Urutsk's humid environment.
Wound Level 3- "Broken"
--d20: +9 Threshold
---d%: +45 to 135%
:: This location has suffered enough damage to break bones, even from non-blunt instruments or sources, and any attempts to use its faculties are penalised to the degree that such actions are almost certain to fail. Healing generally requires outside intervention if the bone(s) are to set properly. Many cases of breaks result in compound fractures, with bones penetrating the victim's flesh, and these have a markedly increased chance of infection due to the exposed marrow. Great care must be given in handling such wounds, and weeks of disuse of the affected location are generally the only means of healing.
Wound Level 4- "Battered"
--Actions no longer possible
---Location is barely attached, and is beyond field surgery
:: This location, as above, has suffered such extensive trauma, that bones are broken. However, in this degree of impairment, the effect is multiplied many times over, with shards and chips of bone loose in the area, which pose a greater health risk to the victim, as these may lodge in muscle tissue, or even be transported via the circulatory system throughout the body or worse-yet, to the brain. There is no natural recovery from such a degree of damage so as to have the victim fit and whole without medical or other superior methods (magical or psionic restoration, aberrant regeneration, etc.). A number of weeks equal to twice the damage points sustained is a minimum amount of recuperation needed under medical supervision if the location is to regain functionality.
Wound Level 5- "Burst"
--see WL4, above
---Location no longer attached to body; requires Superior healing techniques
:: Thoroughly unpleasant to view, and so painful to sustain as to render the victim almost certainly unconscious, unless the event was explosively fast in duration. As this location is no longer attached to the body, it is certainly possible for the victim to have already expired (as in the case of a detached chest, head, or vitals), or soon to be in that state. Only superior intervention can possibly save the location (and thus, possibly the victim). Months of recuperation are necessary, with a minimum equal to twice the damage points sustained.
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