May 27th Update-

We have had two gaming sessions with the Secondary Characters of Darius and Mela Mela and their discoveries on the Riverland Peninsula.
--They've even headed to Kelzsyn's Bluff to help stamp out the waterborne disease affecting some in the area.
---It has been fun working with the 'neglected' characters. :)

I am doing my best to finish at least a pre-Production copy of the Vrun Players' Module for a small run for the North Texas RPG Con, starting the 3rd of June.
--Various teas are aiding me in my sleep-deprived efforts to finish in time.
---I think the .pdf release will have to wait until I return from the Con.

I may skip the Thursday night Pathfinder game I play in, but, I may be so burnt-out by then I'll want the break...

Have fun, folks.
--I'll report in before then.

Update 9th, May-

We've had two games since the last and they were both high-powered romps through dimensions and time stuff leading up to the Battle With Aelbaan in Orbit episode, perhaps due in a few sessions.

I am writing everyday in the hopes of finishing the .pdfs I have planned for a sales release toward the end of the month.

The North Texas RPG Con is coming up soon, and I received a call regarding my Tee-shirt preference, so that made it 'feel' more real and soon.

I am trying to keep up to date with your blogs. :)

[Milieu] Lhoma: Wish You Were Here...-

The worker is harvesting the ubiquitous blue marsh grain as a domesticated entomalian Xhund slowly ambles through the marsh toward the camera at sunset.

[Gaming] Is Combat Necessary in Loot & Scoot Games?-

Canageek's POST regarding his ... dissatisfaction with RPG combat coupled with his desire to run a dungeon crawl reminded me of the old LODE RUNNER and TROLLS & TRIBULATIONS side-scroller computer games, and how they required a more 'lateral' mentality to advancing one's desired looting goal, primarily by avoiding the opponents, or trapping them in pits, or behind blocks, etc.

I truly wish more gamers would tackle adventures in this fashion.

Thoughts, o' sage gamers?

[Playtest Campaign] Yes, we have no bananas (&) [Another Update]-

It appears that there will be no game tomorrow.
--Finals and such for players.

While I have been quiet for a few weeks, I have read a few of the many blogs I am sub'd to, and I'm generally aware of the goings-on of Bloglandia.
--I am simply too busy writing to do much of anything else.

I dreamt of charts & tables last night, and so I have busied myself with things to aid both Player and Referee in running characters: motivations, personality, names, etc.
--Each Ethnicity Module will receive a good amount of detail, and each of them is structured differently to provide a different play-experience. This became necessary once I looked at the configurations of the tables and saw more than slightly incongruous possibilities despite tortured modifiers and different die-roll-ranges.

I hope to have .pdfs for sale of the Vrun and Dokirin Character, as well as the Combat Modules before the end of May, adding another two or three Modules each month until the entirety of the Players' Manual is compiled, roughly August/September.
--At that point, the Referee's Manual should be under-way in earnest (including articles/essays written by others). I am still envisaging the third book, but I think it will combine Critters and Loot with a few other bits that seem appropriate.

My various 'out-of-town' playtest groups will receive these files prior to their 'going live', as it were.

Hang in there, folks. :)

[Playtest Campaign] Brief (&) [Update]-

:: We played. Stuff happened. Didn't happen. Happened differently. and again.
--Player frustration at lack of direction prompted me to introduce a passive guide. I'll have to ramp it up, apparently.
:: Changes on the page have overtaken the incidence of changes in-play, and I am hoping the store-politic-clique stuff calms down soon, so that we can take the game into the 'End Game' phase of property management and task delegation to new and starting characters (generated from the new procedure). I think the situation is too far advanced to be saved, which is a pity. We may not all share a common respect and admiration for each other, but we were all raised to be courteous and civil.


:: Busy writing the revision...
:: Overall reduction in power-level (toned down the Ability Modifiers table, etc.)
:: Playtesting the extremes has helped determine the desired fine-tuned averages. Sometimes, I think the Playtest-nature has conflicted with 'playing it' for its own game-sake. --I have an offer or four for final playtest groups, and hope to complete enough of it for the NTRPGCon player handout.
:: Pandora has been playing a nice mix of stuff so far today.

[Playtest Campaign] 9th, April-

:: Elemental stirrings as a powerful Earth-aligned person sought and won permission of the Governors to raise a temple out around a tiny island off their northern coast. It is decided to host Water, Air, and Fire temples, as well. Tybylt met Lord Shadow for a second time, and received a favour of the entity.

:: Mela, and Darius (now a recipient of Earth-based versions of his Aberrations) head off to the Marnharnnan continent, and the Riverland peninsula, to tend to those suffering what they were informed was a water-borne illness.

:: Tybylt, Ashta (called 'Xholte' by the native islanders of the region), eight native spiritualist, six mixed FCS sharpshooters, and rogue WICE grenadiers (decked-out in Environment Suits) travel to the Shlzm bastion on some undisclosed. Her adherents chant the name, generating psychic energy to boost (her/the ship's) powers.

:: A lot of 'flavour' regarding the nature and scale of the combat, but also confirmation that multiple realities are operating in parallel synchrony, including the old Pathfinder cast of characters. Next session will involve their outside of craft, individual tasks and (likely) combat.

:: I had the PCs receive (1d6+1d4) Locus Points.

:: The demons are Mutant, Cybernetic, Demonic creatures with a decidedly H. R Geiger aesthetic to them. So far they haven't encountered any real noteworthy opponents while in the Sphere.

:: The boon that was granted so as to have Tybylt's Shadow-powers and Ashta's Aelbaan-Psychic powers combined, and embodied in one male and one female child. He has the Shadow of Aether power, which grants limited effect upon the Void powers the enemy are using.
The female is to have Aether-fortified Shadow effects, causing the normally 2D shadows take on a full 3D reality as they are 'filled' with Aether. Again, this will allow the ability to affect the Void magicks with the variety of both Tyb's magick and Ashta's and the Sphere's Psychic abilities.