In the private workspace of Hirgon the Shapeshifter sits a large stone chest which cannot be moved. It came from Somewhere Else, and is held in our universe by forces beyond anyone's understanding. The contents of the chest hunger, but are thankfully sealed by the stone tablet on top. If it were removed or broken they would be free...
Monday, 27 January 2014
Sunday, 26 January 2014
Wizard Matchbooks
You're a wizard. You're really well-established in the magical arts. You can create life from non-living material, fly and shoot lightning out of your eyes. It gets to be that you think: "Hey, I'd rather spend my headspace remembering spells to shatter the boundaries between reality than how to illuminate stuff or detect an invisible something..." So you make wands or a staff and then one day it hits you. What can you carry in your pocket, with a little one-time shot of magic, easy, handy and convenient. A book of matches. Strike one, and your spell's done.
You start making simple stuff and then realise, "Hey, I could do a lot with this..."
You start making simple stuff and then realise, "Hey, I could do a lot with this..."
Tuesday, 14 January 2014
Making Notes Is Not The Same As Being Creative
Well dur - but that's what I have been telling myself for a while. Blah blah no time blah blah work and life and childcare and hardly even reading anything (apart from Of Dice And Men, which I enjoyed) blah blah.
So: in an effort to get more things done and made and hopefully get playing something again, I'm taking my notes and doing something with them. I keep forgetting, every six months or so, that just because I develop an idea one way, does not mean I cannot do something different with it on a different day.
A year ago I was running a campaign Somewhere North (before I switched in spring to Somewhere South, and that is where we stayed). Had the campaign continued the city of Zelman would probably have been reached. Despite the title of this post, here are some notes that I made about the city but hadn't developed (and now hopefully will):
Oh, and happy 2014! (he says on the 14th of January)
So: in an effort to get more things done and made and hopefully get playing something again, I'm taking my notes and doing something with them. I keep forgetting, every six months or so, that just because I develop an idea one way, does not mean I cannot do something different with it on a different day.
A year ago I was running a campaign Somewhere North (before I switched in spring to Somewhere South, and that is where we stayed). Had the campaign continued the city of Zelman would probably have been reached. Despite the title of this post, here are some notes that I made about the city but hadn't developed (and now hopefully will):
- Bars are rare and beer is expensive as a result
- The coffee-klatch as a meeting place is extremely popular, and they're everywhere
- Mould wine is popular (NOTE: get translation in Finnish or something to make it sound cool)
- Skilled traders, trainers and artisans practice the animal-husbandry of mega-fauna
- A creature that is a mammoth with some kind of a twist to it
- The study of optiks and lenses is fashionable among natural scientists/wizards
- Make a rumour table about the Elves (who are mistrusted generally in the north)
- Location: The Unbreachable Maze of Someone. A dungeon/elaborate treasure vault protected by the usual traps, monsters and so forth but where certain sections of the dungeon are also time-stopped or time-slowed. The dungeon reclaims the eventual dead, and that's why there are thousands of re-animated skeletons guarding it, but of course the prize at the centre is worth it...
Oh, and happy 2014! (he says on the 14th of January)
Thursday, 7 November 2013
Games Night: Otherpool, Session 1
Patrick has already done a great job of summarising what happened in last night's game. So really all I want to add are a couple of thoughts about playing Marvel FASERIP and then I thought it might be interesting to share my character's stats.
There are, I think, three things that jump out at me about the system. First of all, the random character generation really works. It might be spread out over a number of pages, and a lot of them are text heavy, but it is nicely directed. There is a good flow to it. I'd be interested to know what influenced some of the weightings with the random tables (particularly in the initial character class). Since this blog was initially set up with at least half an eye on the maths of tabletop RPGs, I'd also be curious to know just how many possible heroes one could roll up - or what the likelihood, say, of a person rolling the stats for Thor or Wolverine is.
Secondly, I found the dice rolling refreshing. Don't get me wrong: especially after this year of so much OSR and retroclone goodness I am a fan of d20s and having a gaggle of various Platonic solids in front of me each with their own place and time. But there was something neat about just using two d10s to get everything. And while the big table on the back of the book looks complex at first, in reality it isn't. It just works. Roll d100, compare the roll (row) with your ability level (column) and the colour in the box tells you how well you succeeded. Maybe look at another little table to tell you whether or not there is anything special. Done. Fast. Great.
Finally: I like the way little things about the system really support it being "comic book-y". Health is recovered, in general, very quickly. The class benefits and disadvantages are simple, but really strongly support the character types that you're trying to be (for example, mutants always increase one power by one rank, but they have to start with popularity of 0). Karma is a great way of steering things, and declaring the minimum spend required to use it works too - no abusing the system.
I've said a lot about the system there, and virtually nothing about the setting. We're planning to play on G+ next week, so assuming Patrick summarises the second session in a style similar to his first (please please please), I'll write something about the setting next week.
But after the jump... Sergeant Shoxx!
There are, I think, three things that jump out at me about the system. First of all, the random character generation really works. It might be spread out over a number of pages, and a lot of them are text heavy, but it is nicely directed. There is a good flow to it. I'd be interested to know what influenced some of the weightings with the random tables (particularly in the initial character class). Since this blog was initially set up with at least half an eye on the maths of tabletop RPGs, I'd also be curious to know just how many possible heroes one could roll up - or what the likelihood, say, of a person rolling the stats for Thor or Wolverine is.
Secondly, I found the dice rolling refreshing. Don't get me wrong: especially after this year of so much OSR and retroclone goodness I am a fan of d20s and having a gaggle of various Platonic solids in front of me each with their own place and time. But there was something neat about just using two d10s to get everything. And while the big table on the back of the book looks complex at first, in reality it isn't. It just works. Roll d100, compare the roll (row) with your ability level (column) and the colour in the box tells you how well you succeeded. Maybe look at another little table to tell you whether or not there is anything special. Done. Fast. Great.
Finally: I like the way little things about the system really support it being "comic book-y". Health is recovered, in general, very quickly. The class benefits and disadvantages are simple, but really strongly support the character types that you're trying to be (for example, mutants always increase one power by one rank, but they have to start with popularity of 0). Karma is a great way of steering things, and declaring the minimum spend required to use it works too - no abusing the system.
I've said a lot about the system there, and virtually nothing about the setting. We're planning to play on G+ next week, so assuming Patrick summarises the second session in a style similar to his first (please please please), I'll write something about the setting next week.
But after the jump... Sergeant Shoxx!
Monday, 4 November 2013
RPG Person Profile
So this is me when it comes to games... (and my first post in a looong time because of fatherhood!)
I'm currently running (at home): Nothing, but up until recently I was running a campaign set in and around the city of Wetham. We were playing using LotFP, had used a few settings, and intend to carry on at some point. I've also ran Dogs in the Vineyard, In A Wicked Age and several standalone games - in particular I love GHOST/ECHO.
Tabletop RPGs I'm currently playing (at home) include: None. This makes me sad. Having a young baby at home makes this tricky for now.
I'm currently running (online): Nothing. Sigh. See above. However, I'm hoping to get the old gang back together sooner or later!
Tabletop RPGs I'm currently playing (online) include: I've only played in one game online so far, but want to play more! I played a couple of sessions of Pendragon of Mars, which was awesome. (noisms ran that)
I would especially like to play/run: Cyberpunk 2020 but hacked away from the basic setting a little. I think the basic rules and mechanics would support loads of games in different genres. I have wanted to run or play Apocalypse World ever since I last played it (almost two years ago now).
...but would also try: Nearly anything OSRish/D&D-y. I'm interested in interesting mechanics that reflect some aspect of the game that is unfolding. And I have a stack of pdfs from various Bundles of Holding and other places that I want to try.
I live in: Liverpool, England - or rather that's the nearest city. I've been fortunate to game with some excellent people who introduced me to tabletop RPGs.
2 or 3 well-known RPG products other people made that I like: Vornheim is a go-to book for me. It's compact, it's hardback, it feels good in your hands and in your backpack. It's damn useful too. And all of this before saying that it looks amazing too. I got one of the final copies from the publisher. Dogs in the Vineyard feels like it came from another world. It presents an interesting setting, with core ideas that could be hacked into a million and one different settings. The Town Creation stuff does something wonderful in helping a GM to establish a series of people and problems in a logical way - so then they can get out of the way while the Dogs do their thing.
2 or 3 novels I like: I Am Legend by the late Richard Matheson. I've re-read this at least once a year for the last fifteen years. In the last few years I've really grown to love the Poirot novels. So far my favourite would be a tie between The ABC Murders and The Murder of Roger Ackroyd.
2 or 3 movies I like: The Richard Donner Superman. Back To The Future. Four Weddings And A Funeral.
Best place to find me on-line: On this blog or on Google+.
I will read almost anything on tabletop RPGs if it's: Interesting. I look over posts about "offending"/"offended" people and who said what and what it means and so on - but it's only titillation. I want to see interesting ideas for games, neat thoughts on where games might go or what kinds of games might be played.
I really do not want to hear about: How something is bad if you've not played it, or no-one you know has played it. OK? Ask questions - even ask questions because you're skeptical about "how X would work" - but don't flat out deny or hate something you or a trusted friend have no experience of.
Free RPG Content I made: Is all over this blog at the moment I guess; tables and ideas and bits and bobs. I'm working on getting some bits and pieces I think are neat into a pdf or something.
You can buy RPG stuff I made: Nowhere right now, but somewhere eventually!
I talk about RPGs on G+ under the name +Nathan Ryder.
Sunday, 1 September 2013
Imminent Fatherhood
There are a million and one things that I want to write about. The last few sessions of the Wetham campaign, thoughts about using dominoes in games, recent purchases, ideas for other sessions, monsters, items and settings.
However, at some point in the next few weeks I am due to become a father!
As a result, over the last few weeks so many things that I have tried to do have seemed to just fall by the wayside...
I'm very excited, and when I have a moment I'll come back and write some more about role-playing games. I have some big plans - I just have to find a way to make them happen...
However, at some point in the next few weeks I am due to become a father!
As a result, over the last few weeks so many things that I have tried to do have seemed to just fall by the wayside...
I'm very excited, and when I have a moment I'll come back and write some more about role-playing games. I have some big plans - I just have to find a way to make them happen...
Monday, 8 July 2013
Generating Pugs
(this is a post written in haste and ignorance and contains thoughts that have not necessarily been taken to any kind of logical conclusion; so who knows if there is anything of value here, or anything that can be taken to a valuable conclusion. Perhaps you will take a chance?)
The other day I was thinking about generating large numbers of Pugs. Pugs are a goblin-y kind of creature that I wrote about when I was DMing the Somewhere North campaign earlier this year. They start as 2/3HD creatures (clerics and chiefs have more 4HD) and are found in various group sizes, from two person scout groups all the way up to 150 strong warbands. And you would not want to look in the old Dwarven Fortresses under the northern hills. Thousands and thousands of them in there.
So. You have two Pugs running from a party. Quickly you roll four d8s and there we go, you can get their HP and know what's what.
But: the Party is ambushed by a Medium group. (dice rolled as I write to illustrate point). They've been lying in wait and are prepared. (6+3d6 leads to 19 Pugs, 6 of them are 3HD, roll for 50% check and one is a 4HD Pug Warlord's Son) So the Medium group is comprised of a 4HD leader, six 3HD Pugs (two of which are Clerics) and twelve 2HD Pugs. That's a lot of dice to roll to stat them up. You can do it, but it seems like a little chore.
Thus: I started thinking, can a reasonable generator be made? Say, roll 2d20 and consult a table that will give Pug numbers, HP values, what they are armed with and so on. Of course, the original conception of the Pug is something that I have put together. There must be a million and one similarly created opponent humanoids.
Here's the interesting thing that was occuring to me as I was sat in Costa: there is something beautifully mathematical about all of this. You create a system to model some kind of objects. It's totally valid to create the objects and move from there too. But in some respects the model is quite complicated in some ways (i.e., if you want to generate a lot of Pugs at once). So can a different model be created (a different means of generating large numbers of opponents) that means fewer dice are rolled, but the result is representative of the larger model?
As I said at the start, none of this is thought through particularly well. I'm just curious.
(and say you had A.N. Other opponent that has 2HD and appears in large groups; if there was a 2d20 table, or something indexed with two d20s or something like it - the result from the d20 rolls in terms of HP would be valid as well potentially, i.e., a group of 2HD zombies might have other features but their HP values could be generated similarly)
(all of this floating around in my head, and partially prompted by Zak S's post about Elegance, which made a connection with the idea of mathematical beauty...)
The other day I was thinking about generating large numbers of Pugs. Pugs are a goblin-y kind of creature that I wrote about when I was DMing the Somewhere North campaign earlier this year. They start as 2/3HD creatures (clerics and chiefs have more 4HD) and are found in various group sizes, from two person scout groups all the way up to 150 strong warbands. And you would not want to look in the old Dwarven Fortresses under the northern hills. Thousands and thousands of them in there.
So. You have two Pugs running from a party. Quickly you roll four d8s and there we go, you can get their HP and know what's what.
But: the Party is ambushed by a Medium group. (dice rolled as I write to illustrate point). They've been lying in wait and are prepared. (6+3d6 leads to 19 Pugs, 6 of them are 3HD, roll for 50% check and one is a 4HD Pug Warlord's Son) So the Medium group is comprised of a 4HD leader, six 3HD Pugs (two of which are Clerics) and twelve 2HD Pugs. That's a lot of dice to roll to stat them up. You can do it, but it seems like a little chore.
Thus: I started thinking, can a reasonable generator be made? Say, roll 2d20 and consult a table that will give Pug numbers, HP values, what they are armed with and so on. Of course, the original conception of the Pug is something that I have put together. There must be a million and one similarly created opponent humanoids.
Here's the interesting thing that was occuring to me as I was sat in Costa: there is something beautifully mathematical about all of this. You create a system to model some kind of objects. It's totally valid to create the objects and move from there too. But in some respects the model is quite complicated in some ways (i.e., if you want to generate a lot of Pugs at once). So can a different model be created (a different means of generating large numbers of opponents) that means fewer dice are rolled, but the result is representative of the larger model?
As I said at the start, none of this is thought through particularly well. I'm just curious.
(and say you had A.N. Other opponent that has 2HD and appears in large groups; if there was a 2d20 table, or something indexed with two d20s or something like it - the result from the d20 rolls in terms of HP would be valid as well potentially, i.e., a group of 2HD zombies might have other features but their HP values could be generated similarly)
(all of this floating around in my head, and partially prompted by Zak S's post about Elegance, which made a connection with the idea of mathematical beauty...)
Thursday, 4 July 2013
Monster: Spellbook Golems
Some tomes in magical and rare libraries are cursed. The unfortunate reader, if not properly prepared, may go blind from reading the title page. A careless peruser may go mad from touching a hellish travelogue. An unwary thief may find that they are trapped within the pages of a magically charged Who's Who.
None of these fates compare to coming face-to-face with a secret library's secret guardian. No, not a Kamikaze Librarian (thought for later: run a game where people can only choose from extraordinary classes created in that style). A golem made of magical texts...
You run your fingers along the wrong shelf. You open a locked cabinet. You don't pay your fine. Any one of these might trigger a cascade of leather bound books of all shapes and sizes, spilling on to the floor and forming into a humanoid shape - or perhaps into a vaguely houndlike body. If it has been activated it is because you are not supposed to be there, or because you have taken something it is bound to protect. A Spellbook Golem will follow you, attack you, attempt to restrain you - but usually it will not try to kill you. The Librarian who finds you afterwards will do that...
None of these fates compare to coming face-to-face with a secret library's secret guardian. No, not a Kamikaze Librarian (thought for later: run a game where people can only choose from extraordinary classes created in that style). A golem made of magical texts...
You run your fingers along the wrong shelf. You open a locked cabinet. You don't pay your fine. Any one of these might trigger a cascade of leather bound books of all shapes and sizes, spilling on to the floor and forming into a humanoid shape - or perhaps into a vaguely houndlike body. If it has been activated it is because you are not supposed to be there, or because you have taken something it is bound to protect. A Spellbook Golem will follow you, attack you, attempt to restrain you - but usually it will not try to kill you. The Librarian who finds you afterwards will do that...
Wednesday, 3 July 2013
Where does the time go?
I like noisms' "generalised lament" about the amount of time that he has to run/play games (and write about them as well) - obviously not the fact of the matter, but the situation resonates with me a lot. I wonder about how things are going to change when I become a dad in a few months time. Will I be able to play in a weekly game? (nevermind run one) At the moment I am barely able to run a LotFP campaign once a week; in principle I am taking part in noisms' excellent Pendragon of Mars campaign, but in reality I'm either away or busy. I've taken part in two sessions.
Ah well! I can sit here and weep for my lack of time or I can start to think, like noisms about the five games I would want to run or play:
Ah well! I can sit here and weep for my lack of time or I can start to think, like noisms about the five games I would want to run or play:
- Chatting after games night yesterday I realised that I would love to play some more Cyberpunk; I really enjoyed the game that we played about eighteen months ago in alternate Soviet Cyberpool.
- Apocalypse World. I'd love to play it, I'd particularly love to run it (I was hoping to run it for my nephew and his friends this summer, but think I will be too short on time).
- I've read a lot about Monsterhearts in the last few months and it really intrigues me... I might have to pick it up soon...
- Avarice Industries is an RPG that I supported on Kickstarter. It's a bit Cyberpunk-y with the twist that the big corporations (one of which the players work for) have technology that creates anything. You can ride a dinosaur to work or have a bag with dimensional pockets. Big Problem: it was due in April 2012, and it's still (as of July 2013) not here. I've had bits and pieces of pdfs but nothing playable... AP stuff that was shared looks really interesting.
- Homebrew Dogs In The Vineyard in modern day setting with zombies. I bloody loved running Dogs, we played about five sessions and it was a joy to prepare for and play. While playing it I was struck with the idea of the Dogs being able to do what they do because they have the final say about what is right and wrong (by virtue of being Followers of the King of Life). I think this kind of theme could transfer well in a zombie game; people acting as they will because there are no courts or authorities to say otherwise. I act, therefore I'm right. Started making some notes about this some time ago and tagged them with "zombies".
Somewhere South: The Plots Thicken
Previously: Patrick and David's characters hired some new staff for their bar, The Grotesque Cudgel, and spotted someone tailing them. Gorble of Corg, who is also blackmailing them, says he needs them for a job, and that he will be in touch. Orchard the magic-user kills a man in the street, but the party evade consequences by turning the dead body into gingerbread and distributing it to people... Later, they magically disguise Rowntree the Elf as a gingerbread man and sneak him into the house of a rich immortal. Destroying the painting that keeps the man eternally young, they then throw him out of a window with a fake suicide note in his hand, and "rescue" a former guest at their inn.
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