[RPG] Discussion of the Nature of the Game & What to Expect-

Today, I hope to write-up a few of my Life Lab random creatures for Friday's game. I know the simultaneous and interlaced 8 die set of tables has worked well enough, but by cranking out a few critters I hope to put a first polish on the thing. The decision to allow the Referee to create their own creatures wasn't solely based on the fact that I don't anticipate writing up two and one-half score monsters to make the book 'complete' any more than I plan on writing my own versions of spells -- you folks have plenty of critters and spells available to run this in your own ways. However, I think that the Life Lab will prove more useful in the long run to the Referee than simply including an initial large list of critters. I try and help others 'empower' their games.
That isn't to say that I won't be producing setting-specific spells and creatures, but rather, that it isn't as high a priority to meet the same standard 50+ monsters and 5+ levels of spells for two caster classes as have the recent Retro Clones and Simulacra.
It is perhaps best to think of UWoM as an Arduinian sort of bolt-on accessory to your existing rules set, although, like Arduin, it will contain my own rules-set as a sort of variants offering to the community -- just like it used to be in the olden days when I was but a youff'.

Likewise, since my vehicle rules use a slight variation on my creature format, it means that I have less work to do when the time comes to write-up the Morrenhom Stryders and what few war wagons exist in the early Autumn era.

Also, unlike the recent bout of games in the Classic/Old/Disco/Punk-era vein, and much more like beloved Empire of the Petal Throne, and Skyrealms of Jorune, it has a very distinct setting to it. While I can understand and appreciate the mentality that setting-less-ness is a hallmark of the Punk-era games (again, Tekumel a conspicuous exception), by the time I really was in full omnivorous RPG swing, there was an increased tendency to include more details of a setting with/within games. I would argue that the Starship Warden and even Gamma Terra were settings, and these are almost as old as the hills, as they say.

Is there a story to the setting? Yes and No. In my fiction, it is all pointing to a specific 'big picture', but I have intentionally not pinned the play of the game in any specific direction, as the setting is literally galactic and multi-dimensional in nature, all there for play-groups to explore and define and create as they please. In essence, I've opened a scrying pool into another reality and left it up to you, the reader, to do with as seems best to your sensibilities.
While I hope to continue to expand the material into the latter Autumn era and into Winter, Spring, and Summer, I very well may never complete that work, and it still wouldn't hamper the game. Although new rules/guidelines for dealing with the changing technology and other assorted things that mark the setting's progression would appear, it will all be modular and capable of being used independently in your established games, regardless of which rules-set(s) you employ.

So, ultimately, I'm neither concerned with UWoM being 'OS' (or whatever), nor it possibly being labelled 'too exotic' as has been the case with both EPT and Jorune.

[RPG] Experience Points by Fight Dice/Special Ability-

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

Determining Experience Points (XP)-

The meaning of an asterisk after the Fight Dice listing indicates a Special Ability, and adds a bonus once per *.

--Example: a creature with a Fight Dice of 2** is worth 105 XP.

For monsters with more than 19 Fight Dice, add 300 XP to the listed XP Value (2,325), and +20 XP per Special Ability for each additional Fight Die.

• FD |XP |Bonus

• 1-1|10 |5
  

• 01 |30 |10

• 02 |75 |15

• 03 |150 |20

• 04 |225 |25

• 05 |300 |30

• 06 |375 |35

• 07 |450 |40

• 08 |525 |45

• 09 |600 |50

• 10 |675 |60

• 11 |825 |70

• 12 |975 |80

• 13 |1,125 |90

• 14 |1,275 |105

• 15 |1,425 |120

• 16 |1,650 |135

• 17 |1,875 |150

• 18 |2,100 |165

• 19 |2,325 |180

Another Public Production Post-It Note-

* Spent part of yesterday creating a very quick, random creature generator table that tackles (so far) eight of the ten headings in my critter-data-block format, but need to finish that and polish it for the beta .pdf.

* The other part was refining the XP/Bonus dole-chart for said creatures based upon Fight Dice and Special Ability. That is complete.

* Today I hope to 'round the edges' of the character Pacing-Level XP chart from it current, 'pre-production' raw-median values from the source data it is derived.

* Also need to put effort into descriptions/notes for interior illos.

Blogday Blues-

So, beyond having this major issue properly nesting a table into a blog post (several attempts), I learn that one of my favourite blogs appears to be closing shop.

Scott's World of Thool posted that he is finished for the foreseeable future.
That sux, but I can understand him possibly being burnt out or busy with the new job.
> pout <

Oh well, Fight On!

[Wargaming][Gaming] RPG History and PreHistory-

If you haven't already read THIS, please consider doing so. I also heavily suggest reading THIS.

All of that makes me want to finish Volume I and jump right into my wargaming rules for Urutsk, but as they are for the latter Autumn era, I'll have to keep my reins tight until the appropriate time.

If only I knew where Karl P. is at and how to reach him, I'd make every effort to get as many games of the Second Tyrrhean War played on the squad-level as possible during that time.

We used tan plastic army men of the vaguely Vietnam-era style for the mainline Khark warriors, and Blockmen [*] figures and cowboys to represent the Resth Clan Confederacy troops defending their fully-staffed and equipped, air-dropped firebases.
Using a reallly nifty rule from Leonard Hung's Cathy Arts of RolePlay (I lament losing my copy of that brilliant game) where Chi allowed for any sort of linear movement at full rate, we had the equivalent of Khark 'ninja' sappers simply hop over the perimiter defences (if they had detected them) and up into the gunners' tower. My d6-only based rules were fast and vicious, and the sappers would almost always kill in hand-to-hand. Once the sentinels and heavy weapons were neutralised, the mainline Kharks would swarm en mass and only lost once or perhaps twice (but that was nearly a total kill on both sides), regardless of who played them. Memories of this weird mustard, olive, and khaky flower-print as being the jungle terrain and utilising the actual shapes and sizes of the print to act as degrees of cover just make me long for those late night, back patio, Hialeah games when I came down from the hell that was Jacksonville.

I had rules for single-shot, musket-era volley-fire, so there is nothing stopping me from releasing those rules either at the end of Vol. I or at the dawn of Vol. II.

We'll see...

[RPG] Peter Mullen Cover Sketch-

=--------> LINK <--------=

[Milieu][RPG] A Sample Location: Fortress Blackwood-

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

6).
Fortress Blackwood-
* Governess Dame Yrsend Iiv [F]: Dame Iiv is a youngish, grizzled and knighted veteran of the Latter Unification Wars, wounded over the course of the campaign. After much difficult argumentation, and with anonymous recommendation from several of the higher ranking officers, Yrsend was granted a commission alongside the title of Brigadier in Residence, and command of the garrison, its 600 Marines, and its 100 Artillerists. She is simultaneously very attractive, perhaps even beautiful, but also savagely scarred diagonally across her long and narrow face. She also walks with a noticeable limp and has a mechanical left hand covered by a white lace, black leather glove.

Blackwood Isle is the location upon which the sprawling fortress is located. ¾ of an XsM beyond the walls on three sides are the eponymous black woods, now dead and gnarled orchard trees that cover hundreds of acres virtually to the rocky shores and scattered with remnants of ruins. On the other half of the island, amid gentle slopes and valleys, are the fortress’ pasture lands tended by yeomanry comprised of retired military personnel and their families. The island’s location in the far north of the Concordance’ territory subjects it to terrible storms with little warning, and many a ship has been sundered on approach to that bleak spot.
Fortress Blackwood is an important part of the Northern Corridor Defence Network for the Western Isles Concordance, and houses artillerists as well as veteran marines. ‘Darkwand’ is Fortress Blackwood’s enormous cannon, capable of firing in excess of 22 XsM (well over the horizon), and delivering a wide variety of payloads in specialised shells. Through the redundant nature of the Network, communications determine the payload, as well as verifying the coordinates upon which the massive gun is to fire. Important in this speedy communication are Psychics who are brought into communion across great distances, and capable of acting in concert as one Overmind for the defence of the blessed isles.
There are an additional 140 support personnel. The yeomanry consist of six families at any given time of year. The interior of the fortress can support more than this number and has stores for one full year’s maintenance regularly stocked and rotated out for fresh reserves. Blackwood Isle is a common way point for ships travelling to Marnharnna, and these often become unintended residents for the duration of long lasting storms that plague the area eight months out of the year. The yeomanry have inns, a tavern, and a bawd-house, reached via underground passages or across the well-maintained and elaborate yard.