tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-61242224752250680312024-03-18T20:42:41.760-07:00Fragments from the RimA Gaming and Costuming blog that usually revolves around Star Wars, but occasionally drifts to other settings.GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.comBlogger239125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-72466325733296118132019-07-19T07:40:00.000-07:002019-07-19T07:40:52.675-07:00A Giant Leap for all Phil-kind<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Greetings readers!<br />
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If you've been following this page, or have found this page recently, you'll notice that it's been quite some time since I've added anything. My freelance career has been moving forward -- quite successfully, if I may say so. The consequence of that has been that my time to write for this blog has almost entirely evaporated. It's a good thing and a bad thing, as I always enjoyed sharing my thoughts and methods with anyone who was interested in it.<br />
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A few things to update you all on; I'm still writing for Fantasy Flight Games. I've written two adventures for them; "On the Run" and "Mystery of the Burning Gold". Both set in the <i>Android</i> universe, I ran "On the Run" at PAX Unplugged last year and I'll be slapping down "Mystery of the Burning Gold" at GenCon in two weeks. If you'll be in attendance, come on by and say "hi!" Show up early enough and you may be able to jump in and play -- I almost always have at least one no-show from reserved players, so bring some Generic tickets.<br />
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My first published work debuted in <i><a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/1/10/allies-and-adversaries/" target="_blank">Allies and Adversaries</a> </i>where I worked on the "Citizens and Creatures" section. The next book I worked on was <i><a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2019/5/10/gadgets-and-gear/" target="_blank">Gadgets and Gear</a></i>, which is due out sometime in Quarter 3. These projects were the fulfillment of a lifelong dream; seeing my name in a Star Wars RPG book as a contributing writer. Here's hoping more projects like this come my way.<br />
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The biggest news in my RPG writing life is that I started a small game company with several friends of mine in the New England area, Studio 404 Games. While our website has not gone live yet, we are active on various social media. For now, come join our community and discussion <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Studio404Games/" target="_blank">over on Facebook</a>. I'll likely announce it here when our website goes live.<br />
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Studio 404 Games's focus is on providing top-shelf quality settings for table-top adventures. We all have busy lives, and don't always have the time to create rich, vibrant worlds for stories and adventures. Studio 404 Games is here to provide rich worlds and settings that spark creativity in game masters and make players excited to play in those worlds. Our first offering, <i>Starcana</i>, is coming soon.<br />
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What is <i>Starcana</i>? It's a scifi setting with adventure, exploration, intrigue, politics, horror, and tragedy; all with a bit of magic thrown in. We call it a "Science Fantasy" setting, and it will be available in August. More details coming soon.<br />
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That's pretty much it for now, possibly for good. "Fragments From the Rim" has been a wonderful journey to share for the past decade or so, but to be fair it's a borrowed title. It might be time to retire it and evolve my blogging into something else. Something that's more "me". If this change comes to pass, I'll be sure to link it here so you all may come with me.<br />
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Until then, may the dice be with you!<br />
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<br />GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-8364932855659345532018-10-01T18:02:00.000-07:002018-10-01T18:02:05.997-07:0030 Days of Game Design - Day 31<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So my adherence to the "30 days of RPGs" didn't exactly go...well, anywhere. August was a hectic month; to be fair most of the summer was hectic. Thankfully, it was mostly in a good way so I'll take it.</div>
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I've transitioned out of New Hampshire and am now living on the outskirts of quasi-scenic Worcester, MA. I have a new residence, a new roommate, and a cat that has "opinions" (and she would like to share them with you). As I unpack and find space for my life, I start to formulate a plan for the future.</div>
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One reason August was so full was because I was working on <i>another</i> assignment for FFG. Someday, hopefully soon, I'll be able to talk more about that but sadly today is not that day. That assignment, combined with GenCon and unpacking in my new residence took up a lot of my free time lately. But again, things are settling down and I look at the list of things I need to do and want to do. </div>
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<b><i>OMINOUS</i></b><i style="text-align: center;"><b> PING</b></i></div>
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...although that could change at a moment's notice...</div>
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I want to get some work done on <a href="https://gmphils-anomaly.obsidianportal.com/" target="_blank"><i>Anomaly</i></a>. I've had some serious conceptual issues with the setting, and after a conversation with a good, creative buddy of my the other day I might have a better grasp on what I want to do with the setting. It has to do with the hidden plotlines that are occurring in the background, and what makes the setting unique.</div>
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I describe the setting as "Fantasy Space Opera"; it's a setting where various races have populated this area of the galaxy. It's mostly sci-fi, but suddenly magic is discovered. "So it's <i>Shadowrun </i>in Space" was the intentionally sarcastic comment from the previously named buddy, trying to poke me to say why the world is different. His comment hit home, and I knew that I needed to re-align it's focus on what I really wanted to do with the setting.</div>
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I'm sorely tempted to re-do the "30 Days of World Building" that I did for it two years ago. Part of me wants to wipe the table clean and start over, but there are a lot of good ideas in there that just need some refinement. I'm not thrilled with the name "Anomaly". Come to think of it I'm not excited about several names in the setting; Stellar Garden, League of Allied Worlds, and The Dark One. None of them are particularly interesting to me or grasp the weight of what I want to do with them.</div>
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I have a lot of game ideas on my plate, but I think that My Setting (whatever I call it) deserves my attention. I've been trying to get it going and get some momentum on it for over 3 years now. It's high time I start to make it happen. I've got some time coming up where I can focus on the setting and really get some solid writing done for it. I'm determined to let nothing get in my way...</div>
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*<i>finally checks email*</i></div>
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...or <i>that</i> could happen. I guess the reward for a job well done is "more work"... 😅</div>
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We'll see how much I can juggle at once! Hopefully there will be another update to what I'm working on later this week, and how I did.</div>
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Until then, m<span style="text-align: center;">ay the dice be with you!</span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>"I haz opinions!"</i></td></tr>
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GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-4988657759850507192018-10-01T09:58:00.002-07:002018-10-01T09:58:26.293-07:00Cosplay Projects - Fall 2018 Edition<div style="text-align: justify;">
Some folks recall that I'm involved in cosplaying as well as game writing. I've got a couple costumes in various stages of progress...</div>
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<b>First Order Snowtrooper</b> - The project that is now 3 years old. I have armor, and most of the body-suit pieces cut out. The quilted body-suit is the biggest hurdle. I feel that if I can just get that done, the armor pieces would start falling into place. Then again, who knows; it might take more of a concerted effort to get these done (one for me, one for my dad).</div>
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<b>Shoretrooper</b> - Those tan-suited stormtroopers on the beaches of Scarif in <i>Rogue One.</i> I've got a deposit down on a hard suit that should be done sometime in the next couple of months. After that it's sand, paint, fit, and get soft parts made for it. Oh, and the blaster, because their blaster is quite awesome looking...</div>
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<b>Flint</b> - From G.I.Joe, for "<a href="https://www.thefinestcc.com/" target="_blank">The Finest</a>" costuming club. Most of what's left for Flint requires a sewing machine that can handle sewing through layers of nylon strapping. I need to sew on some shotgun shell holders onto the shoulder straps of my tac-harness rig. Oh, and I need to make/acquire shotgun shells. That and a few patches need to be sewn on. I'm eyeing a sewing machine to get that done in the near-ish future.</div>
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<b>Vault Dweller</b> - Vault-suit and Pipboy 3000 are already in hand and fit well. I've got a fantastic, 3-D printed laser rifle kit that I need to sand and put together. I also need to make some armor pieces for it, mostly Combat Armor but I would like the odd leather and "metal" part in there too.</div>
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These, combined with reworking my armor for Gatewalker, my Crossover LARP character, means I've got a full docket of costuming projects to occupy my time.</div>
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I still want to pick up a 3D-printer before the end of the year. I drool over the possibilities of what can be accomplished with such a device. Screw buying props, I'll just print them for a tenth of the cost! But it needs to fit into the budget, which is a little tight currently...</div>
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Next trick; find some time to work on all of these, and my RPG writing projects too. More on that elsewhere...</div>
GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-66078389137744880932018-08-01T08:00:00.000-07:002018-08-01T08:00:08.662-07:00RPG A Day 2018 - Day One<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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So it's been a while since I've written in this blog. Life has been pretty dynamic these past 6 months. I got hired by Fantasy Flight Games as a freelance writer for a yet-to-be-announced product. I packed up my life and sold my home, and have been living in a close friend's basement guest room since April. My transient status and lack of real grounding home led to my creative energies being mostly non-existent, and greatly affected my ability to write, create, and run games. Still, I soldiered on an can state happily that I have found a new apartment, it's awesome beyond what I could have hoped for, and believe that this will lead to many good things to come.<br />
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I also got hired by FFG for another assignment, and am working on that for the bulk of August.<br />
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To keep my gaming writing fresh and my creative mind flowing, I'm going to do this year's <i>RPG A Day</i> challenge, as I did last year. The rules are simple; write about the daily topic. Now since I'm leaving for GenCon today, I'm going to be sporadic with this first week's posts. Normally I'd write them in advance, but recall me mentioning that writing gig from FFG? Likely that will consume most of my downtime onboard the aircraft out and back from GenCon. I've got a deadline, after all...<br />
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Anyway, here's Day One:<br />
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<i>What do you love about RPGs?</i></blockquote>
As a Gamemaster, I love the communal creative process. I love coming up with the bare bones of a story, the general overarching idea of the plotline to a grand campaign, and then getting 4-6 friends together to flesh it out. I love challenging my players and seeing what creative ways they come up with to resolve the challenge. I love the stories that come out of them, that are told years and even decades later.<br />
<br />As a player, I love being something I'm not. I often play races as far from human as I can possibly get. I love putting classes or archetypes together in different combinations to see if I can get them to work and be effective. I love the challenge of assuming the role of someone "not me" for hours or even days at a time, and getting so into the role that they surprise me with how they respond to a situation (often in ways that Phil would not).<br />
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I've enjoyed this hobby for over 25 years, and I'm hopefully going to enjoy it for another 25. Maybe we'll get to sit together at the same table and make some memories.<br />
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See you in Indianapolis, Plano, or an internet galaxy far, far away.<br />
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May the dice be with you.<br />
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<br />GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-67625015461727059722018-02-16T06:17:00.000-08:002019-11-12T05:12:42.828-08:00Fallout Genesys - The Institute<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixlEZ4k8TO7xCyM3SHA6s0Hi8252I4-hwx0hvm1uzhjTyFyH0QcJ3oW8Y4yZnRFKDYvNxA23zrjIDdbUj4Q0Ug8XrikIVZnELnsNLIvi4fQ-rI6DKJR7x-QErb6tVMiMnXnKDdhlZmKSVp/s1600/Institute.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="720" data-original-width="1280" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixlEZ4k8TO7xCyM3SHA6s0Hi8252I4-hwx0hvm1uzhjTyFyH0QcJ3oW8Y4yZnRFKDYvNxA23zrjIDdbUj4Q0Ug8XrikIVZnELnsNLIvi4fQ-rI6DKJR7x-QErb6tVMiMnXnKDdhlZmKSVp/s640/Institute.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Image (c) Bethesda Softworks 2015</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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We're back with another "DLC" update to <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GIdYTsvRpo2eGy_3Am3lwGvIgVJ-wu__/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">my Fallout Theme </a>for the Genesys Role Playing System!<br />
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One of the major protagonists in the Commonwealth is the secretive and scientifically advanced Institute. Built from the ashes of the Commonwealth Institute of Technology, the Institute has been around for hundreds of years, advancing technology well beyond anything thought possible even before the Great War that destroyed much of human civilization. This update includes a general description of the faction, some of their weapons and armor, and a smattering of Adversaries. Also, you'll find rules for playing Generation 3 Synths in the Fallout wastelands, either as a spy for the Institute or as a run-away. If you're on the run, be careful of Coursers from the Synth Retention Bureau, they're on your trail and are among the more dangerous adversaries out in the wastes...</div>
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You can find a copy of the Institute DLC as part of the overall theme document, linked above.</div>
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Now, the DLC has basic stats for playing a Synth, but some players and GMs might be concerned about using those stats, especially if they're trying to keep the fact that the player is a synth secret. The GM might even want the player to be unaware that they're a synth, and play it like the <i>Fallout 4 </i>characters <b>[REDACTED], </b><b>[REDACTED], </b>or even <b>[REDACTED].</b> If you wish to do that, simply use the stats for any of the human archetypes presented in the core rulebook. There's no reason to think that the Institute couldn't make a synthetic human with those qualities instead of those of the traditional Gen 3 synth, and it allows you to surprise the other PCs (or even that character's player) with the fact that they are a synth.</div>
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I seem to be on a roll with these DLC updates for <i>Fallout.</i> I've had some requests for more adversaries, but I think I really want to get one of the beefier and potentially more fun updates rolling; salvaging, scrapping, and crafting. Once I present rules for that, they'll be incorporated into the rules for creating and managing your own settlements in the wastes.</div>
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More juicy bits of web goodness are coming, folks. Until then, go scare a PC by pitting them against a Courser.</div>
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May the dice be with you.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4D_Viha-OZvIpKWh5S4OIYGoMDMb1NC6H497YXr6vcEIxb0lhZr2DP_URTTcwcgAo8S69nFPUiEO4jI7y5y95k5HIvqjbVAwEPb_weKJ63EezZVU-jGZ3182K3s8PyT3Jgh-Pzskck1AY/s1600/Mankind+Redefined.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1063" data-original-width="751" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4D_Viha-OZvIpKWh5S4OIYGoMDMb1NC6H497YXr6vcEIxb0lhZr2DP_URTTcwcgAo8S69nFPUiEO4jI7y5y95k5HIvqjbVAwEPb_weKJ63EezZVU-jGZ3182K3s8PyT3Jgh-Pzskck1AY/s320/Mankind+Redefined.png" width="226" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">Image (c) Bethesda Softworks 2015</i></td></tr>
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GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-51273620082640400602018-02-04T09:00:00.000-08:002019-11-12T05:13:28.157-08:00Fallout Genesys - Talents and Perks<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXDMYHeyjfurd6VjUsSAGsBEbU6lllgh_0lrYhquoFcHdL_ND3793osU9vMMIdydatiJofTnAO77W2JmVohaPcXhlrohD7Ku8wb2O2YyTGDzbFSCIS9QqE65mPveI6nZHpcMJ7dBhnz5Zi/s1600/Fo4_Gunslinger.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="287" data-original-width="357" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXDMYHeyjfurd6VjUsSAGsBEbU6lllgh_0lrYhquoFcHdL_ND3793osU9vMMIdydatiJofTnAO77W2JmVohaPcXhlrohD7Ku8wb2O2YyTGDzbFSCIS9QqE65mPveI6nZHpcMJ7dBhnz5Zi/s320/Fo4_Gunslinger.png" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Image (c) Bethesda Softworks</i></td></tr>
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It's time for another update to my Fallout Theme. Perks have been a staple of Fallout games since the beginning, neat character choices that provide additional bonuses to your character beyond their skill selection. These Perks nearly perfectly align with Talents in the Genesys setting, so it seems like a natural fit to create appropriate Talents from several of these Perks.</div>
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The new talents are now included at the end of the compiled Fallout theme setting document, <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GIdYTsvRpo2eGy_3Am3lwGvIgVJ-wu__/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">available in it's entirety here</a>.</div>
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There are several adversaries I need to work on, and a few missing melee weapons that should be added in to the theme, but I know folks out there are starting to play in this theme, and felt that these Talents would add some neat character choices to those playing in the setting.</div>
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More gaming goodness to follow!</div>
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May the dice be with you.</div>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8qY-X5qExhL1pZu7M8trhTCvVwUd7dhBfkxU8V6tpLdHhx_0rmO9y7nPH0OIfkRdLt5nqzRaRBrpV_lQiCL4is57ICT1DKl6-pQoGv3dNE1JlagnlLfIAvNVo7RPdUQvgrcmsLN3D_goY/s1600/Fallout_4_perk_poster.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1075" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh8qY-X5qExhL1pZu7M8trhTCvVwUd7dhBfkxU8V6tpLdHhx_0rmO9y7nPH0OIfkRdLt5nqzRaRBrpV_lQiCL4is57ICT1DKl6-pQoGv3dNE1JlagnlLfIAvNVo7RPdUQvgrcmsLN3D_goY/s640/Fallout_4_perk_poster.jpg" width="430" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">Image (c) Bethesda Softworks</i></td></tr>
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<br />GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-71538631805458770532018-01-20T09:00:00.000-08:002018-01-20T09:00:00.178-08:00Anomaly - Updated Timelines<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihUX1jdhBxSZ_1tnmDLhZ6so5S0PlW6-EDuGutm9K4l0rpYh20yFs227Ab2Qfk3uclwNnsHwACH8pSQ6lVpWd9T-uXdDAfyxB7jFhYQvyJ2sctGIIxITWLJWTr2RJReyVWtRVEyXuQBkvP/s1600/gate.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="502" data-original-width="1024" height="312" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihUX1jdhBxSZ_1tnmDLhZ6so5S0PlW6-EDuGutm9K4l0rpYh20yFs227Ab2Qfk3uclwNnsHwACH8pSQ6lVpWd9T-uXdDAfyxB7jFhYQvyJ2sctGIIxITWLJWTr2RJReyVWtRVEyXuQBkvP/s640/gate.jpg" width="640" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Image (c) Rockfish Games</i></td></tr>
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I've been suffering from a bit of a writing block of late; well, maybe it's more of a writing slump. I'm juggling two (well, technically three) Star Wars campaigns currently and I'm not happy with the results of my adventure writing. I look at what I get down for session notes and I get hit with a feeling of "this isn't Star Wars enough." There are a lot of things that could be factoring into my creative difficulties; they'll get worked through in time, meanwhile I've got a couple sessions coming up in the next few weeks that deserve my best.</div>
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I'm just not sure they're going to get it.</div>
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So what should I do; keep throwing words at the screen and home that something magical appears? Take a break from Star Wars? Stop gaming all together?</div>
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Hey, let's not talk crazy here; it's writer's block, not cancer (not this time, anyway). </div>
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Still, a break from Star Wars might be in order. I've been running Star Wars campaigns exclusively for the last ten years, at least. Not including a few one-shot endeavors into alternate settings such as Fallout, Harry Potter, and City of Heroes, all of my storytelling has been in the galaxy far, far away, and why not? I'm good at it, it's what I'm most known for, but after a decade of slamming Star Wars stories down on the table week after week and month after month, it may be time to shift gears and do something else for a while. I know I've got a Fallout campaign in me, and it might finally be time to get my <a href="https://gmphils-anomaly.obsidianportal.com/wikis/home-page" target="_blank">Anomaly</a> setting off the ground.</div>
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Prompted by a friend of mine, I've gone back and reread my notes for the setting. Originally called "Trinary", I worked on it in October of 2016 as part of the "<a href="http://fragmentsfromtherim.blogspot.com/2016/08/project-trinary-30-days-of.html" target="_blank">30 Days of World Building</a>" exercise. I was fairly pleased with much of what I wrote, and feel it's a good place to start. Last September I wrote a few updates (which are now listed as Adventure Logs on the ObPortal site). I've been tweaking the historical timeline based on those two posts, as well as updating some of the names. </div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -112:</strong> <b>Drachon </b>warships begin to raid Garden worlds, beginning the <b>Garden Conflicts</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -111: </strong><b>Republic of Kel</b> forces clash with ships from the <b>Granos Territories</b> while pursuing Drachon raiders.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -109:</strong> <b>Allef Domains</b> invades and conquers thee worlds in the <b>N'guli Empire</b>. Armies of the <b>Uranar Reaches</b> engage the forces of the <b>Narasheem Concordat</b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -92:</strong> Mineral deposits discovered in the <b>Giant Nebula</b>, prospectors and corporations rush to stake claims and secure them for their respective empires.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -86:</strong> Giant Nebula prospectors fight corporations over mining claims, escalates into open conflict. Because of cutthroat practices and lawlessness of the region, becomes known as <b>The Blood Nebula</b>.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -84:</strong> Destruction of Tasaran City in the Narasheem Concordat by the Granos; loss of life 120,000.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -82: </strong>Corporations begin physically removing asteroids and stellar debris from the Blood Nebula for mining at facilities within nearby systems. Prospectors begin arming mining ships to prevent or raid these mineral convoys. First <b>Blood Nebula Pirate Gangs </b>appear.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -70:</strong> <b>Battle of Tovar</b>; Republic warships, led by <b>Admiral Karlson Hask</b>, engage the combined forces of the Granos Territories and the Allef Domains. Republic wins the engagement, destroying 2,300 enemy ships while losing 793 of their own. Fallout from the engagement causes the Territories to go to war with the Domains.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -38: </strong>Unarar first deploy <b>Gesalin Gas</b> on the Republic city of Iasalo, killing 84,000 humans.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -37:</strong> Republic of Kel, Narasheem Concordat, and the Granos Territories form a non-aggression treaty and begin to attack the Uranar Reaches.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -22: </strong><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Drachon's </span><b>Infernus Clan</b> raiders destroys the city of Zabross on Kel, killing 65,000 humans and injuring tens of thousands more. Zabross is reduced to rubble.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -21: </strong><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">500 raiders from </span><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Drachon's </span><b>Arctus Clan</b> seize the nesting broods in the N'guli city of Kakarakas and use them as bait to fight the best warriors of the N'guli. They hold out for 16 days. The nesting brood complex is destroyed by the last few surviving Drachon; almost an entire generation of N'guli are lost (320,000 N'guli eggs)</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -19:</strong> In response to the growing threat of the Drachon clans, the Republic, Granos, and Narasheem form the <b>StarCorps</b>; the first multi-national military force with a dedicated purpose of stopping the raids by the Drachon Clans.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -14:</strong> Allef Domains being to suffer significant losses to the N'guli Reaches, losing every world they had conquered over the decades and many of their colony worlds as well.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -12:</strong> Allef homeworld suffers a catastrophic extinction-level-event while being invaded. The Allef used a <b>Gravity Singularity Bomb </b>to destroy the N'guli fleet massing in orbit, but the experimental weapon interacts with the jump field of an incoming N'guli command ship. The resulting singularity annihilates 60% of the planet’s core mass. Allef begins to shake itself apart as it bleeds off it's remaining atmosphere. News of the planet's destruction shakes every Garden nation to their core. Rescue ships from every nation arrive in Allef space to try and save as many lives as they can. Even with the unified assistance, only 0.3% of total Allef population survives, either rescued before the remains of Allef shook itself apart or were off-world at time of event.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -10 (0 AE): </strong>The destruction of the Allef homeworld ends the Garden Conflicts and prompts the nations to begin to negotiate for peace. After months of debate and compromise, the <b>League of Allied Worlds</b> is formed. All nations except the Drachon Clans join the Union. All invitations by the League to the Clans are rebuked.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -9 (1 AE): </strong>Membership in the StarCorps expanded to all League member worlds. StarCorps is now tasked with interstellar peacekeeping as well as their previous role of defense against Drachon raiders.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -8 (2 AE): </strong>After several months without finding new mineral sources, the last of the Blood Nebula mining corporations folds. Mining operations within the Blood Nebula cease. The Blood Nebula pirate gangs begin to raid convoys in nearby systems.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -4 (6 AE): </strong><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">Citizens of the planet </span><b>Danal</b> vote to leave the League, but the motion denied by League Council (and the Republic of Kel). Danal's exclusive source ku'jai (an animal who's excrement is a super-charger for jump drives) makes them too important a world for the League to lose. The denial leads to weeks of riots and eventually armed uprising by the populace against League interests on Danal. <b>Revolutionary War of Danal</b> begins.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -2 (8 AE): </strong><span style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">After two years of brutal warfare, the </span>Revolutionary War of Danal ends with the capture and public execution of the rebel leaders. Danal is now a world under martial law and controlled by a military governor. Collection and distribution of ku'jai excrement is overseen by the League Military.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS -1 (9 AE):</strong> First non-human Prime elected in the League; <b>Aararastavos </b>of the Narasheem Concordat. Primary Aararastavos vows to stabilize the League, end the raids by the Drachon clans, and bring peace to the Stellar Garden. In response, the Drachon clans step up their attacks on N'guli, Republic, and Granos worlds.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><strong style="box-sizing: border-box; line-height: inherit;">CS 0 (10 AE): </strong>Campaign starts</span></div>
</blockquote>
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I'm fairly pleased with this timeline. There are plenty of gaps where I can fill in more information at a later date, but there's enough here to give readers (and players) an idea of what the galactic situation is. I want the League to be new and unstable; there are factions within it that want the League to work, but there are also factions with long, bitter memories that long to finally defeat their hated foes. PCs are likely to be contacted by several factions and empires throughout a campaign, and they get to choose to help them, hinder them, or fight them.<br />
<br />
And then we throw the Bathal Host in on top of that and watch chaos ensue.<br />
<br />
I really need to make a better stellar map, something that's easier to read and defines where all these empires are. I also need to come up with a "player's guide"; something that details all the information players need to make characters that fit into the world. I suppose the PCs could be StarCorps, but that's too limiting for my initial game. Maybe if one or two PCs are StarCorps, that could be fun. They'd be compelled to investigate any alerts for Drakon Raiders in their area. But what about the other PCs; they need a reason to come together. Possibly salvagers, or explorers; there are still uncharted planets out there that need surveying for mining or colonization. An independent crew could make some serious coin if they find another "garden world" where a colony could thrive, or one so filled with mineral rights that they could retire on their own moon.<br />
<br />
Yeah, I think that might be a place to start. Let's see where this goes.<br />
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Game on, people.<br />
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May the dice be with you.<br />
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GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-57818514585274734862018-01-03T12:55:00.001-08:002018-01-03T15:53:53.991-08:00Down and Out in Paragon City<div class="" data-block="true" data-editor="cu9ae" data-offset-key="6f6nq-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #1d2129; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
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<span data-offset-key="6f6nq-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">After several aborted attempts, I'm finally making some headway on my City of Heroes theme for Genesys. For those who have forgotten, I've been working on a CoH theme for a couple months now. At first I was thinking of just using the Magic rules for Super Powers, but that ended up being too limiting. I've settled on a progressive power path or tree for each power in the game. It's going to be a long process, as each hero can have two super power sets (Primary and Secondary) and each Power Set is a 7-step build tree in and of itself. When this theme "launches", I might not be able to have all the "core" power sets done, but I'll at least have enough to play the game. </span><br />
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<span data-offset-key="6f6nq-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">That being said, it's seemingly going well. I'm working on power sets for the 6 heroes who will be the PCs in the module I'm writing for GamernationCon 5. After that I will give it my all to map out the power sets for all archetypes as of "Issue 1" (the version of the game at game launch). The theme will be available to backers of the GNC 5 kickstarter first (which was in October), then made available to the public sometime in late 2018.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Here's a preview for all you Tankers out there...</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: inherit;">Invulnerability (Primary Power Set)</b></div>
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<ul>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><i>Resist Physical Damage</i> - Perform the Resist maneuver, character increases their Soak by 1 until the end of their next turn. If this power is active at the beginning of their turn, the character can maintain this power by spending 1 strain, which extends the effects of this power until the end of their next turn. Psionic damage ignores this increase to Soak.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><i>Increase Strength (x3)</i>: Increase Soak gained from Resist Physical Damage by +1</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><i>Dull Pain</i> - Spend a story point to heal an amount of wounds equal to character’s ranks in Power (a new skill)</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><i>Unyielding</i> - Immune to Knockdown while Resist Physical Damage is in effect. Additionally; may spend 2 Strain as a maneuver to end any Disorient, Immobilize, or Stagger effects currently affecting the character.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><i>Unstoppable</i> - Once per encounter as an Incidental action, character can render themselves immune to Pierce and Breach effects for 2 turns. During this time they also ignore the effects of any Critical Injuries they have.</li>
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<b style="font-family: inherit;">Energy Melee (Secondary Power Set)</b></div>
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<li style="text-align: justify;"><i>Energy Punch</i> - The character gains the following attack: Brawl, Damage +1, Range (Engaged), Crit 4, Disorient 1</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><i>Increase Strength (x2)</i> - Energy Punch damage increased by +1</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><i>Increase Magnitude (x2)</i> - Energy Punch Disorient increased by +1</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><i>Stun</i> - Character may choose to add the Stunning Damage quality to Energy Punch.</li>
<li style="text-align: justify;"><i>Whirling Hands</i> - Spend a maneuver to add Blast to next Energy Punch, with a rating equal to the character’s ranks in Power.</li>
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GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-75350618337269306562017-12-22T19:02:00.000-08:002019-11-12T05:14:00.757-08:00Fallout Genesys - Chems and Radiation Healing Rules Now Available<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizobN_roKoWmiheLjvnnkmKhcvIupDGYlP7jCAxeEmH5PlEnkcrNvKQj6YoCzkx8AF4R8xJCH4X7b_6NSVCwpxslZKTTMzk0Uy8GFYW5KOmC5sZEJ_5kkZY3czpQ7KUYSALkDTJhxMnQFu/s1600/FO4_Chem-I-Care.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizobN_roKoWmiheLjvnnkmKhcvIupDGYlP7jCAxeEmH5PlEnkcrNvKQj6YoCzkx8AF4R8xJCH4X7b_6NSVCwpxslZKTTMzk0Uy8GFYW5KOmC5sZEJ_5kkZY3czpQ7KUYSALkDTJhxMnQFu/s640/FO4_Chem-I-Care.jpg" width="640" /></a></div>
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<br />
Hey Wastelanders! My rules for Radiation Healing and Chems are now available on the D20Radio site!<br />
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<br />
<ul>
<li><a href="http://www.d20radio.com/genesys/fallout/Fallout%20Theme%20-%20Curing%20Radiation.pdf" target="_blank"><b>Healing Radiation</b></a></li>
<li><a href="http://www.d20radio.com/genesys/fallout/Fallout%20Genesys%20-%20Chems.pdf" target="_blank"><b>Fallout Genesys DLC - Chems</b></a></li>
</ul>
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<br />
A full article will be up on the D20 Radio blog in a few days, but for those who follow me here the content is available for you now.<br />
<br />
Enjoy, keep that rad-count down, and watch out for chem addiction!<br />
<br />
And for anyone who needs it, you can find the <a href="https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GIdYTsvRpo2eGy_3Am3lwGvIgVJ-wu__/view?usp=sharing" target="_blank">original Fallout Theme document here</a>!<br />
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May the dice be with you.<br />
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<br />GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-57879216452271994412017-12-21T13:03:00.000-08:002017-12-21T13:03:12.695-08:00Fallout Genesys - Chems, Radiation, and Perks<div style="text-align: justify;">
<span style="font-family: inherit;">I've been working on several projects for Genesys lately (in between the usual insanity of the holiday season). Most of them are for Fallout, but some are for my City of Heroes theme, as well as the Wizarding World module I'll be running at GamernationCon 5 in April. For Fallout, I've done some work on Chems, finally wrote up the rules to heal radiation damage with the Medicine skill, and started to outline some new talents tht are taken from Fallout 4's Perks list.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Chems document is done, sort of. I'm basically considering them a Beta test, as I'm not really certain how some of them are going to play out. The most well-known chems are in the document; Buffout, Jet, Med-X, Mentats, Psycho, and Rad-X. I haven't gone into the extensive list of chems in Fallout 4 quite yet, because I need to see how these basic ones play out in the game. I'm most curious/concerned with Jet...</span></div>
<blockquote class="tr_bq" style="text-align: justify;">
<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Using Jet will grant the character an extra turn at the end of the round. This additional turn does not count as the character's next turn for the purposes of talents and effects. </span></i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm worried this could be game breaking, but it might not be depending on how easy Jet is to obtain. Also there are some pretty heavy side effects to being addicted to chems. Jet in particular has some nasty ones when not affected by Jet</span></div>
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<i><span style="font-family: inherit;">Characters addicted to Jet increase the strain cost of any non-free maneuver by +1 and suffer a setback die to all Agility checks when not under the effects of Jet.</span></i></blockquote>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I'm hoping that the downside and one-shot nature makes chems useful in certain situations, but not game breaking. Feedback will be necessary and updates may occur.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">The Chems document and the Healing Radiation rules are published and ready to go, and should be up on D20Radio.com shortly. In the meantime, I'm looking at making some new talents with names and effects inspired by the Perks list from Fallout 4. Thus far, here's what I'm looking at:</span></div>
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<ul>
<li>Iron Fist - Bonus Brawl Damage (Ranked)</li>
<li>Big Leagues - Bonus Melee Damage (Ranked)</li>
<li>Heavy Gunner - Add Stagger to Gunnery checks</li>
<li>Strong Back - Increase Encumbrance Threshold (Ranked)</li>
<li>Pain Train - Bonus brawling damage while in Power Armor when moving</li>
<li>Demolition Expert - Bonus damage with Blast weapons</li>
<li>Sniper - “Sniper Shot” from Star Wars RPG</li>
<li>Penetrator<span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Maneuver to add Pierce to an attack. (Ranked)</span></li>
<li>Chem Resistant - Upgrade Resilience checks to avoid Addiction once</li>
<li>Rad Resistant - Reduce Radiation damage from all sources by 1 (Ranked)</li>
<li>Medic - Improved use from Stimpacks<span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and </span>RadAway</li>
<li>Gunslinger - Bonus Ranged (Light) damage (Ranked)</li>
<li>Rifleman - Bonus Ranged (Heavy) damage (Ranked)</li>
<li>Commando - Maneuver to remove the increase difficulty from Autofire<span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"> attacks</span></li>
<li>Blitz - Make melee attacks against targets at Short range</li>
<li>Bloody Mess - ????</li>
<li>Better Criticals<span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"> - Bonus to </span>Crit<span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Rolls (Ranked)</span></li>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">I love the idea of Bloody Mess, but I'm having trouble figuring out exactly what it could do in Genesys, other than just "MOAR DAMAGE". It's going to require some additional thought. As far as what else is coming for the Fallout Theme, I have more weapons and equipment coming, along with more adversaries, attachments, rules for establishing settlements, and scrapping/crafting rules. Some of these will be pretty direct adaptations from similar rules in the Star Wars RPG, but there will be some differences. They can't port over directly, and do need some tweaking to fit into the Fallout world.</span></div>
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I figure these tasks should keep me pretty occupied over the winter months. It should hopefully distract me from starting some more Theme adaptations. A Rifts theme is really itching to get some attention, but so is a Battletech theme. A poster on the FFG forums is working on one but it feels too much like he's trying to make the Battletech rules fit into Genesys; which is not a direction I would take with it. If I work on one, my direction will be "how to play Genesys in the Battletech universe"; trying to capture the essence of the setting without it getting too bogged down in complex rule adaptations.</div>
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...and now my brain is working over how I'd do it; I'm hopeless.</div>
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Ah well. Something to toss on the growing pile of stuff to work on later.</div>
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GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-65166312888190977142017-11-30T10:19:00.000-08:002017-11-30T10:19:13.978-08:00Genesys - Fallout Theme<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Fallout-4-PSVR.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="450" data-original-width="800" height="225" src="https://cdn.wccftech.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Fallout-4-PSVR.png" width="400" /></a></div>
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It's November 30th, the official release date for Fantasy Flight Game's newest game, <i>Genesys.</i> I've been raving about this system since it was announced, and am excited and pleased that this date has finally arrived. Not only because it means I'll soon have my hands on a physical copy of this wonderful game, but also because I can finally share my latest evolution of "Edge of the Wasteland", my Fallout hack for <i>Edge of the Empire</i> that I wrote back in 2015.</div>
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Over on the D20 Radio blog is my latest article along with a link to my 20 page Fallout Theme for <i>Genesys.</i> Head on over to <a href="http://www.d20radio.com/main/genesys-fallout-theme/" target="_blank">D20 Radio and check out the article there</a>, and be sure to download a copy of the theme for your personal use.</div>
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I've been working on this document for months, testing it and tweaking it. I'm pretty proud of the final product, and look forward to adding to the material over the next few months. More importantly, I'm interested in hearing back from folks who use the theme and their experiences with it.</div>
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Naturally, I'm eager to throw this down in front of my own gaming group and get more adventures in the wasteland going.</div>
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So here's to <i>Genesys</i> and a big congratulations to Sam Stewart and his team at FFG! Thank you so much for this game and I'm looking forward to running many adventures with this tool-set.</div>
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May the dice be with you.</div>
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<br />GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-69615521625965762412017-09-22T13:19:00.000-07:002017-09-22T13:19:04.695-07:00Paragons of Virtue<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/93/3e/933ec8be-6379-49cb-b695-be643fdc3019/gns01_preview_good.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://images-cdn.fantasyflightgames.com/filer_public/93/3e/933ec8be-6379-49cb-b695-be643fdc3019/gns01_preview_good.jpg" data-original-height="250" data-original-width="590" height="168" width="400" /></a></div>
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Some folks know that I was a playtester for FFG's Genesys RPG system. Heck, it was my Fallout hack for <i>Edge of the Empire </i><a href="https://fragmentsfromtherim.blogspot.com/2016/04/4dogg-because-3dogg-wasnt-awesome-enough.html" target="_blank">at GamerNationCon 2016</a> that helped kickstart the idea in Sam Stewart's brain in the first place. </div>
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Since the playtest, and having access to the Beta Rules and formats for these things, I've updated my <i><a href="https://fragmentsfromtherim.blogspot.com/2017/08/edge-of-wasteland-fallout-hack-for-edge.html" target="_blank">Fallout: Edge of the Wasteland</a></i> rules to conform with the Themes format in Genesys. That theme is 99% ready to go, and will be shared to the masses the moment the book starts falling into the hands of it's fanatical followers. Since Genesys was updated to "at the printers" on FFG's "Upcoming Releases" website, it seems like we might get the book before Christmas. Hopefully January at the latest. When it does drop, my Fallout Theme will be accessible here and on the <a href="http://www.d20radio.com/main/" target="_blank">D20 Radio Blog</a> for everyone's enjoyment.</div>
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With that project just about done, I've been pondering other themes to work on and hopefully have ready for "the gamer nation" when Genesys hits. I'm helping out with a Dresden Files and Wizarding Worlds theme, but I wanted another project for myself as I undergo cancer treatments and recovery. Some of the current frontrunners are G.I. Joe, MASK, Rifts, and Robotech. I'll probably get to those eventually, but there was one theme that has risen above all others and begs to happen sooner than later.</div>
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So, hopefully by the time Genesys drops in December (January?), gamers will be able to adventure not only in the wastelands of the Commonwealth or the Capitol Wastes, but also speed, soar, or swing through the urban canyons of Paragon City, dispatching villains and criminals of all four-colored flavors.</div>
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Yup; my next Genesys Theme is going to be...</div>
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<a href="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/fc/7e/9f/fc7e9fc89a82f3c37912cb5dff11bb2a--superhero-city-superhero-logos.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="588" data-original-width="736" height="254" src="https://i.pinimg.com/736x/fc/7e/9f/fc7e9fc89a82f3c37912cb5dff11bb2a--superhero-city-superhero-logos.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Stay tuned, and may the dice be with you.</div>
GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-55405011259259342662017-09-21T11:12:00.001-07:002017-09-21T11:43:27.036-07:00Review of "The Haunted City"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This August I had the opportunity to go to GenCon 50. Not just to attend, but also to run games for Fantasy Flight Games. It was a wonderful time and an amazing experience; "10/10 would do again" to use the phrase. With one exception, every session I ran was for <a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/6/27/genesys/" target="_blank">Genesys</a>, FFG's new generic rulebook based on their Narrative Dice system. It occurs to me that I never did any sort of post-GenCon commentary or review of the module, the system as presented, and my thoughts on it all.</div>
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The adventure is called "The Haunted City", and was written by one of the many "Tims" of FFG (Tim Cox if I remember correctly). The adventure is set within FFG's Runebound setting of Terrinoth. It involves a murder investigation that ends in Nerekhal, a fortified city with a sordid past of being a nexus of infernal power. There's a possibility of folks to play this module in the future, so for now I won't go into too many details about the plotline so as best not to spoil it.</div>
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First up are the characters; they're a motley bunch of named heroes from Runebound; Alys Raine, Syndrael, Leoric of the Book, Thaiden Mistpeak, Pathfinder Durik, and Ulma Grimstone. Experience-wise, these were some advanced characters; they had 190-210 XP in addition to their starting XP. This gave them a host of skill ranks, a bevy of Talents, and each of them had a Heroic Ability (something that's akin to Signature Abilities for those familiar with the Star Wars RPG, but not quite as powerful). Most of the characters were seemingly really fun to play, I didn't have anyone who came up to me afterwards with comments that their character felt lacking.</div>
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My only real criticism about the characters are that they had a huge amount of abilities and options to choose from. Since the system is still technically in closed Beta, it doesn't allow for anyone to really have any familiarity with the talents presented. I know that only one person ever used Thaiden's "Wraithbane" talent, preferring to use his crossbow in just about all situations. Several players mentioned that they forgot or didn't realize they had certain options, probably due to the wide variety of them. However, I can say that pretty much everyone did find the "intended combos" for each character; Alys is able to absolutely smash eveything with her Warhammer, and then layer on even more damage with her "Justice of the Citadel" talent.</div>
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Each character also has Strengths, Flaws, Desires, and Fears. The idea behind those mechanics are for situations where these qualities would be a benefit, they add Boost Dice to the roll. For situations where they would be a detriment, they add a Setback die to the roll. Since this was a new mechanic and concept even for me, I actually missed having that come into play more often. Also, unlike the Obligation/Duty/Morality mechanics in Star Wars, every character has 4 of these qualities to keep track of. It was a little daunting, and I probably missed several opportunities to influence the game with these abilities. Still, it was handy to have them, and just about every player of Durik was shying away from the truly supernatural threats and challenges in the module.</div>
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As I mentioned before, each character had a Heroic Ability, something new that looks a lot like Signature Abilities in Star Wars. The ability is spelled out with a few descriptors such as Name, Origin, Ability, Upgrades, and Effect. There also seems to be a tracking for Total Ability Points earned, and Ability Points available. Presumably, one will be able to earn Heroic Ability Points and spend them on a variety of effects. I really like Ulma's ability to simply activate (for 2 Story Points) and take an Incidental action to defeat an entire minion group within short range. Every group had her use this to great effect in the module. It basically lasts for 2 rounds, which seems appropriate.</div>
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One of the biggest questions before and after GenCon was how magic was going to work. Is it skill based? Do you buy spells like you do Force Powers in Star Wars? How are spells cast? How are they designed? Is there a list or something? The public got their first glimpse at Spells thanks to Alys and Leoric.<br />
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Spells are, in fact, skill based, with 5 different schools to chose from; Arcane, Divine, Primal, Runes, and Verse. We only got to see Arcane and Divine in play with this module. Alys was limited to one spell per encounter, while Leoric could toss spells all day long <i>as long as his Strain holds out.</i> Casing any spell costs 2 strain, which is a pretty good balance point to help reign in mages. Leoric's signature spell can hammer an opponent for 9 damage at medium range, and crit them for a +30 on the Critical Injury table for only 2 advantage; and he could do that every round. I did have one player nearly knock himself unconscious during one particularly nasty fight thanks to taking a lot of strain, so it works pretty well.</div>
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Each caster has a few spells to play with, with no real insight as to how spells are acquired (yet). The spell outlines the effect, and the difficulty to cast it. With the exception of Leoric's signature spell, each spell has a list of additional effects they can layer on to the spell at the cost of increasing the casting difficulty. Some spells can take additional targets, or increased range. I really like the way the Developers handled this, it makes the bigger flashier spells able to be cast at all levels, but you definitely want to be a skilled (or Intellectual) caster if you're going to increase the difficulty of the spell to 5 purple difficulty dice (a Formidable difficulty).</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMVMkmfoZQ4CSmX0STHTCnjwpzRM6NAI0TOnSaPGnkntKv3SFn5cM_VGc3jAOSGDTT_T9TehAPjN4uufP0FhXQ7w8PfuH_tPTOjv_9hAnFQ0qg9lcn6Z_T2cdn3AHV4Z9LBlmNCK5jTIt1/s1600/IMG_20170818_141659.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1255" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMVMkmfoZQ4CSmX0STHTCnjwpzRM6NAI0TOnSaPGnkntKv3SFn5cM_VGc3jAOSGDTT_T9TehAPjN4uufP0FhXQ7w8PfuH_tPTOjv_9hAnFQ0qg9lcn6Z_T2cdn3AHV4Z9LBlmNCK5jTIt1/s200/IMG_20170818_141659.jpg" width="156" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn5HyyavvhV23PI-myZ_0FZjtZHC7dAOSXuwY-kCKgmmA8A0YtDDBP8w74pM2VYn2aVzjbw17xkQNKMAs2tQ3QxxKBpT-qsg_uGBHXX6VNFc5roi_MVjMW8367EWiiwBjBU1fqPG7zy2IL/s1600/IMG_20170818_141640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1239" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn5HyyavvhV23PI-myZ_0FZjtZHC7dAOSXuwY-kCKgmmA8A0YtDDBP8w74pM2VYn2aVzjbw17xkQNKMAs2tQ3QxxKBpT-qsg_uGBHXX6VNFc5roi_MVjMW8367EWiiwBjBU1fqPG7zy2IL/s200/IMG_20170818_141640.jpg" width="154" /></a></div>
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The last details that were included were updates to how Defense works. It used to be a complex chore to figure out if certain effects or qualities added to defense. In Genesys they simplify it to "granting Defense" or "adding to Defense". Some armor grants Defense, a new base line for other effects to add on top of. Cover also grants Defense, so it doesn't stack with armor. The Defensive weapon quality adds to defense, and there's no limitation on how many sources of Defensive you can benefit from. This meant that Syndrael became a true tank, able to get a Defense of 3 thanks to her Sword (Defensive 1) and her Large Shield (Defensive 2).</div>
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Aside from this, the rules played pretty much the same as Star Wars.</div>
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"The Haunted City" was a fun module to run, full of twists and turns and unique, well thought out characters for the heroes to interact with. It's a somewhat rail-roady adventure, but for a convention module that's supposed to fit into a 4-hour time slot, it's understandable and forgivable. Even so, if you're not careful the players could turn the adventure into a 5 or 6 hour adventure, which is great if FFG releases this for others to play in their own homes.</div>
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Sam Stewart and his team have made a winner here. I'm really looking forward to Genesys hitting the shelves, and finally being able to talk about all the things I can't talk about right now. Until then, we at least have these bits of insight into Genesys to gnaw on.</div>
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May the dice be with you.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvjPeWqTV2zj-Sp9Uz6Pg8W9-sDslnLKnOsjTc3_p66zeNY3RjsglHy_0voXA6RGEe4sfIVJcUnS1iz5AyTXw3jLWUfVbFJJrTSUsYXzLtiLvBUqSj1TSiYEtdfNakM2KRR_DP-GVrakLt/s1600/IMG_20170818_152826400.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="901" data-original-width="1600" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvjPeWqTV2zj-Sp9Uz6Pg8W9-sDslnLKnOsjTc3_p66zeNY3RjsglHy_0voXA6RGEe4sfIVJcUnS1iz5AyTXw3jLWUfVbFJJrTSUsYXzLtiLvBUqSj1TSiYEtdfNakM2KRR_DP-GVrakLt/s400/IMG_20170818_152826400.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Sam Stewart meeting his appreciative public</i></td></tr>
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GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-44068043246785402252017-09-08T11:30:00.001-07:002017-09-08T11:30:38.149-07:00Mapping the Scene #1 - Offworld Transport Facility<div style="text-align: justify;">
Welcome to the first of what will hopefully be a series of articles that talk about gaming maps and diverse uses for them in your games. It's no secret to anyone reading this blog that I'm a huge fan of Christopher West and his <a href="https://maps-of-mastery-store.myshopify.com/" target="_blank">Maps of Mastery</a> store*. Chris has been working in the gaming cartography business for over a decade now, and has produced several beautiful maps for the Star Wars Miniatures game. More recently, he's taken many of those themes, made them more IP-generic (i.e. filed off the Star Wars details), and expanded his catalog of sci-fi (and fantasy) maps. What we have now is an ever growing resource for maps suitable for gaming in a variety of settings.</div>
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Mapping the Scene</h3>
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So what is the point of this series? I really enjoy Chris's maps, and I haven't run a game session in recent memory where I haven't used at least one of his maps. They're diverse in their usefulness, some more than others. My goal is to pick a specific map from the current Maps of Mastery catalog and showcase some neat ideas and scenes that it can be used for. I'll try and go through as many unique ideas as I can from a variety of settings; fantasy, steampunk, historical/weird war, modern, and of course sci-fi (...<a href="https://www.fantasyflightgames.com/en/news/2017/6/27/genesys/" target="_blank">interesting list</a>, huh?) I want to give my readers a resource for using these maps in scenes and encounters for their games, as well as provide a challenge to exercise my own creativity and try to come up with outside-the-box scenarios and stories for these maps.</div>
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Today we're going to start with one of Chris's earliest maps (of Mastery!), the <a href="https://maps-of-mastery-store.myshopify.com/collections/mass-transit-series/products/mass-transit" target="_blank">Offworld Shipping Center</a> from his Mass Transit mapset.</div>
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<a href="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0727/9673/products/shippingcenter72dpi_1024x1024.jpg?v=1419057926" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="518" data-original-width="800" height="414" src="https://cdn.shopify.com/s/files/1/0727/9673/products/shippingcenter72dpi_1024x1024.jpg?v=1419057926" width="640" /></a></div>
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It's a classic, glorious map, with rail cars, cargo bays, control centers, hazards to play with, and even a neat shuttle laid out in the landing bay. The map connects to other maps in the Mass Transit series in a variety of ways, allowing GMs to make truly huge areas for the players to stomp around in.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDseyOMXhETalHflNq4wIij1HBka6czgVpZnXG1CI_Le_nkUZFzD2v4tmujVSUeFOj_0Kkwdb-6FEn9k1gRCQj44FjjTokPbRHwmyeEro863rJ6kvnfNajpR5psPvSMfm0Jgy4W5Em0ZXs/s1600/Empty+hanger+bay.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="436" data-original-width="638" height="136" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDseyOMXhETalHflNq4wIij1HBka6czgVpZnXG1CI_Le_nkUZFzD2v4tmujVSUeFOj_0Kkwdb-6FEn9k1gRCQj44FjjTokPbRHwmyeEro863rJ6kvnfNajpR5psPvSMfm0Jgy4W5Em0ZXs/s200/Empty+hanger+bay.PNG" width="200" /></a>But what can we do with this map, by itself? As far as utility goes, Chris does give many of us access to overlays for his maps, especially .pdf copies of them. We get an overlay to remove the shuttle and make that an empty landing bay, for instance. With some of the other Maps of Master products, we could leave the bay empty or throw in some more barrels and crates, or a different vehicle, or even turn it into another command and control center.</div>
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Speaking of control centers, we've got a nice little cluster of terminals and displays in the center of the map. This is an optimal location to control all aspects of the map's mechanical mechanisms; retractable bridges, security fields, locked doors, cargo cranes, even turbo-lifts could be controlled from these stations. There is a second control station just outside the control center. This leads into the landing bay, so it's optimally used as a security checkpoint that anyone who arrives has to approach before access to the rest of the facility is granted. The orange light on the wall could be used as a weapon or other scanning device, letting the person behind the protected glass know if the person is carrying weapons, or is human, or whatever the device is scanning for. This security station probably has access to locking and unlocking access doors on the map, and maybe control of the fuel depot.</div>
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There are two other wall terminals on the map too, one down by the security gate across the railway, and another in the upper left near the south entrance to the fuel depot. If the GM wants these to actually be used, they could be utilized in a more local means to interface with the main computer for the map (if networking is a thing) or individually to operate the security gate or lock down the fuel depot. The depot has a lift, which those controls just outside the room could control.</div>
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That's the layout, now let's talk about what you can do with this map in any given setting.</div>
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<b>Fantasy:</b> Okay, we probably can't do anything with this map in a fantasy setting...<i>or can we?</i></div>
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This map is actually pretty useful for a city or fortress in a fantasy setting that could allow for such a thing (<i>Eberron</i> comes to mind). We'll say that this is a section of a dwarven fortress, one that is moving valuable minerals from deeper within the mountain to transit points where they will either be smelted (ores) or sorted (gemstones). It works better if we use the empty landing bay to remove the shuttle from the pad, but everything else works fairly well. The control center isn't really computerized as much as it is a series of records and bookkeeping files that outline productivity within the mines or possibly even troop disbursements for shipments elsewhere in the kingdom. Elevators become closets or storage rooms where weapons and supplies are kept. The fuel depot stores water for animals or possibly even alchemical substances to power artificed devices used for transportation. The railway can be used as-is, if there's ever a race in fantasy that would use rail-cars, it's the dwarves (or gnomes, I suppose). The security checkpoint is magically warded, with scrying sensors that detect magic, races, and illusions.</div>
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<b>Game Use: </b>Your PCs may need to infiltrate the fortress or mines by sneaking in the cargo holds, or bluffing their way past the security checkpoint. They might not be looking to get into the fortress any further, maybe they need something from the bookkeeping center, such as maps, schedules, or inventories. Maybe the bookkeeping center is the objective, and there's a magical scrying crystal that someone wants the PCs to steal for some nefarious scheme.</blockquote>
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<b>Steampunk (and Weird War): </b>For this we have <i>Dr. Fornazio's Aeronautical Cargo-dome</i>! Various airships, gyrocoptors, and rotor-planes from shipping companies and privateer fleets utilize the Cargo-dome to transfer goods ans services. Built into the side of the Rockies, the various aircraft arrive at the landing bay where they offload their cargo. Servicemen and specialists who work for Dr. Fornazio secure the cargo in two holds near the landing bay, while the pilots of the craft check in with security. If their ship needs fuel, it can be arranged for at this time. After a brief waiting period in the cargo hold, the goods are moved to a steam-powered train system that carries the cargo into the mountain to be secured in protected vaults.</div>
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<b>Game Use:</b> A Steampunk adventure could include raiding the Cargo-dome in hopes of securing an item from the cargo hold before it can be moved into the more secure mountain vaults. Perhaps the fuel depot is the target, and a hopeful independent freelancer sees the Cargo-dome as a prime target for theft of petroleum (or whatever your world's aircraft are powered by). Maybe the objective is deeper within the mountain, and the PCs need to defeat the evil Dr. Fornazio's Elite Security Magistrates to gain access to the inner vaults and the even more deadly dangers within!</blockquote>
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<b>Modern/Sci-fi: </b>I'm going to try to come up with something different here. This isn't an Offworld Shipping Center; it's a missile loading bay on a warship. Missiles are loaded from a secure hold off the right side of the map along the tram-line. The freight cars are actually missile packs or even giant torpedoes, that are configured before launch in one of two preparation bays (the Cargo Holds). Once the missiles are ready to launch, they are moved along the track to the loading cranes, which can move along ceiling-mounted trams to either of the two launch tubes along the left side of the map. The Control Center is the master loading system and fire control station for this particular launcher. In such a scenario, I'd make the landing bay the storage bay for additional munitions and armaments.</div>
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<b>Game Use:</b> PCs might have to infiltrate this section of the ship to place explosives of their own, or prevent a missile with a bio-weapon from being loaded and fired from this launcher. Either that, or they're on defense, trying to prevent enemy saboteurs from destroying this launcher (and possibly the whole ship).</blockquote>
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So there we have it; the first of my "Mapping the Scene" articles. I hope you find it useful, or at least entertaining. I know it certainly helped me look at this map in a different light, and increases the odds that I'll use it in the future for a variety of games.</div>
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May the dice be with you!</div>
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*- One final note; Chris West is a phenomenal artist, cartographer, and gamer to follow. In addition to his Maps of Mastery storefront, Chris is also on <a href="https://www.patreon.com/mapmaker" target="_blank">Patreon</a>. Currently, anyone who supports him on Patreon is receives a series of exclusive maps on a monthly basis. As of now he's giving us various tiles for a modular-configured Starship (which is 3 months away from being officially finished, but you could always reverse the image on a few tiles and have a complete vessel now). Maybe I'll take a stab at drafting up Star Wars RPG stats for this and a few other vessels Chris has designed and laid out on his various maps.</blockquote>
GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-18167248486874609372017-08-31T14:57:00.001-07:002017-08-31T14:57:42.152-07:00#RPGaDay: Day 30 and 31<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Final post in the series, so let's make it a good one!<br />
<br />
<i>Day 30:What RPG genre mash-up would you most like to see?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
I had this idea a while ago for a mash-up of <i>Fallout </i>and <i>Robotech</i>; the Zentraedi and Invid Invasions happened, but a section of humanity survived by isolating themselves in Vault-Tec vaults. It was a quirky concept I could never get much mileage out of when I tried to actually flesh it out.<br />
<br />
Beyond that, I'm still trying to get my Fantasy/Space Opera game up and running; <i>Anomaly</i>.<br />
<i> </i>It sounds like it will fall into a similar vein as <i>Starfinder</i>, but I'm obviously trying to make it unique and my own. I've got several worlds plotted out, several major events planned, I just have to decide how it all comes together.<br />
<br />
<i>Day 31: What do you anticipate most for gaming in 2018?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
That's a pretty loaded and complex question to answer.<br />
<br />
First, I'm expecting 2018 to be the year my two <a href="https://starwarsrenegades.obsidianportal.com/" target="_blank">Renegades</a> games come together. The two three-man parties will have played out their time, and hopefully decide to fight against the Empire in the Tantra Sector. Hopefully I can get that game going on a regular Bi-Monthly schedule.<br />
<br />
I'm looking forward to getting more time in on my character in my buddy Tim's Star Wars game. I enjoy playing a PC, and want to get some more time at the table as a PC.<br />
<br />
There are conventions that I want to go to; GamerNationCon 2018 is going to be a hoot, because it's going to be Harry Potter themed (or at least magic-themed). GM Chris and I are planning to write modules using FFG's Genesys system; his at Hogwarts, mine at Ilvermony. I almost have to bring a Fallout module down there too, but do I write a new one or create a third module? And do I bring down a Star Wars module to run as well? At that point I might be diluting my time too much, and should probably stick with only 2 modules to run.<br />
<br />
Then there's GenCon 51, where the organizers from FFG have already sent out the "we hope you can join us next year" email. We'll have to see about that one; I'd love to do it, and had a great time running games for them this past year. Mostly about time and airfare.<br />
<br />
There's a gaming con or two in the area that I should probably reach out to and get a presence at. <a href="http://www.totalcon.com/" target="_blank">Total Confusion</a> is coming up in February, at a convention center near where I work. Might be nice to start going to that and developing a larger Gamer Nation in the Northeast...<br />
<br />
Now aside from all that, my big focus for 2018 is going to be freelancing. I've lived with too many regrets, and I'm going to do what I can to stop living that way. One of my bigger regrets is never really taking a chance and a risk at writing for games. I've formed a lot of contacts at various points in the industry, and have friends who are willing to critique my work in the hopes of making it better. I'm going to spend 2018 working on my own writing, my blog, and improving my writing style in hopes that someone is interested in my work.<br />
<br />
2018 is a year I'm hoping for positive change, but it's not going to happen unless I put in the work for it.<br />
<br />
And that's it, I suppose. This has been a fun, if disjointed exercise. These were a fun series of questions to answer, and really made me think back to some classic times in my gaming history.<br />
<br />
Thanks for following along!<br />
<br />
<br />GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-34123238768725177972017-08-31T14:37:00.000-07:002017-08-31T14:37:01.251-07:00#RPGaDay: Day 28 and 29<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
Going to play catch up with these two brief questions.<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Day 28: What film/series is the biggest source of quotes in your group?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
It would be foolish to say anything other than Star Wars; probably because I run a lot of Star Wars and the classic lines have a high re-use value.<br />
<br />
"This deal is getting worse all the time."<br />
"I have a bad feeling about this."<br />
"Impressive! Most impressive..."<br />
"May the Force be with you."<br />
"But I was going to go to Toche Station to pick up some power converters!"<br />
<br />
Classics!<br />
<br />
<i>Day 29: What has been the best-run RPG kickstarter you've backed.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
All of Chris West's Maps of Mastery kickstarters are very well done. I'm amazed at his ability to get a Kickstarter done in a week, have it almost completly fulfilled, and print off all the maps in a couple of days in time for GenCon. It's crazy.<br />
<br />
Aside from that, the <i>Rifts for Savage Worlds</i> kickstarter was very well done, it's fulfillment schedule was spot on, and was handled very professionally. It also turned out to be a really fun game to boot. I couldn't back it anywhere near the level I would have liked to, but I was able to get some digital copies of the books, and they're wonderfully crafted.<br />
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Two more days, two more posts...</div>
<br />GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-68513125288379403142017-08-31T14:25:00.003-07:002017-08-31T14:25:51.168-07:00#RPGaDay: Day 27<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
With recent developments this week I find myself at home with some time on my hands. I've got 5 days of these things to do, so let's bang them out.<br />
<br />
<i>What are your essential tools for good gaming?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
I've got three that immediately leap to mind.<br />
<br />
First, minis. I love minis, and the way I run games (especially Combat) it's highly important to me and the players around my table where folks are at any given moment. I've used simple tokens in the past that had the Character's first initial on it (Which was a real pain when I had a bunch of "A's" in the party...), but as time went on and the variety of minis became more widespread the potential for truly unique and personal minis became possible. The wide variety of minis that came from the Star Wars Miniatures game from Wizards of the Coast gave me pretty much any figure I needed for a PC or major NPC, and if I couldn't get one exactly correct a suitable mini was only an Xacto knife and some Green Stuff away.<br />
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<br />
<a href="https://www.heroforge.com/" target="_blank">Hero Forge </a>took it to the next level with their online design program, thousands of options for parts, and their ever improving line of materials to print 3D minis in. They're pricy if you go for the high detail plastic, but if you need a mini for one character and plan to use if for years, it's a solid investment.<br />
<br />
Next to minis is maps. You've got these things, the next progression is to enhance the look of where the minis are arrayed on the field of battle, and what obstructions or opportunities there are lying around to exploit. I'm a huge fan of Chris West's <a href="https://maps-of-mastery-store.myshopify.com/" target="_blank">Maps of Mastery</a> line of maps. He's made a wide variety of excellent sci-fi maps over the years, along with some fantasy ones that can perform double duty too. In the last 10 years I have yet to run a session of any game where one of Chris's maps hasn't been used.<br />
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Finally, an initiative tracker. Roll20 has their online tracker that works just fine, but for table games I like my <a href="http://www.aleatools.com/Default.asp" target="_blank">Alea Tools</a> Initiative Board that they kickstarted a couple years back. It's really just a foot long metal plank that you can stick their magnetic tokens to, but it's elegant in it's simplicity and works wonderfully.<br />
<br />
It's too bad these haven't been made available to the general public. The did a kickstarter for them a few years back, and haven't made them available on their website. Which is a shame, because folks have asked me where to get one anytime I run a game at a convention.<br />
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<br />GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-77556104139838951142017-08-27T10:01:00.000-07:002017-08-27T10:01:01.616-07:00#RPGaDay: Day 26<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
I missed posting yesterday primarily because I was running an RPG. Good times.<br />
<br />
<i>Which RPG provides the most useful resources?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
I'm going to take this to mean they're talking about game lines that had extra items that can be used in play. I'm going to have to go with the Star Wars RPG from Wizards of the Coast. WotC had this marvelous cross-support for Star Wars. The gaming books usually had a couple good maps in them, either as ground locations or as ship deckplans. Their Miniatures game provided hundreds of minis for a variety of PCs, NPCs, and opponents. Starship Battles gave gamers all the ship minis they could want to plot out dogfights or captial ship slugfests. And all lines gave us a variety of exceptional maps from Christoper West, who has turned it into a career over at <a href="https://maps-of-mastery-store.myshopify.com/" target="_blank">Maps of Mastery</a>.<br />
<br />
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<br />
FFG's Star Wars RPG Beginner Boxed Sets come in a close second, because each box provides useful counters, maps, and a set of dice. Get all four Boxed sets and you'll have plenty of dice to share and plenty of tokens and maps to play with. You can use Imperial Assault minis for characters, and X-Wing minis for space battles, but they're more expensive than WotC's models. For the price of one X-Wing miniature or one pair of Imperial Assault minis, you got 5-7 minis from WotC's packages.<br />
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I'll work on today's in a couple hours. It should still be fresh enough in my mind from yesterday's game to practically write itself.<br />
<br />GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-81246758530112454602017-08-25T08:14:00.000-07:002017-08-25T08:14:17.049-07:00#RPGaDay: Day 25<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<br />
We're in the home stretch, only one more week to go.<br />
<br />
While this hasn't been as involved as my "30 Days of World Building" exercise from last October, this has been a fun daily task to undertake (even if I had to play catch up a couple times). If nothing else, it pads up the amount of content on the blog...<br />
<br />
And now for a total self-serving answer!<br />
<br />
<i>What is the best way to thank your GM?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Oh, a question near and dear to my heart; probably because I GM a hell of a lot more than I play.<br />
<br />
As a GM, I'm going to give you all some insight as to what I appreciate seeing or receiving when I run games.<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Show Up to Play: Obviously there's the literal definition; if we schedule a game, I appreciate it if you actually show up to the session. But beyond that, show up ready to get into game and get into character. I love it when the story can inspire folks to really get into the feel of the game, and into the session. Immersion is a wonderful thing to achieve. Look, I know some times you just want to show up and roll dice, and that it's hard to completely disconnect from life some days, but as long as the effort is there I'll see it and appreciate your efforts to at least share in having a good time.</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
This also means helping to keep the game on-point. I get that we're playing with friends, and I'm as guilty of going on a tangent for the sake of a joke or a story, but the ability to bring it back to the game quickly can be a real savior.</blockquote>
<ul>
<li>Logistical Assistance: There's a lot of work and effort that goes into running games, or at least there's a lot that can go into running games. Some GMs are happy and content to sit down with a prepared module and adventure and simply run that. Other masochists, like myself, want to write a story from scratch, to weave in character backgrounds into the narrative. That takes time, but it also takes material to work with. I appreciate it when my players can create backstories I can work with, and that fit into the story.</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
I do a lot of my campaigns on <a href="https://www.obsidianportal.com/profile/DarthGM" target="_blank">Obsidian Portal</a>, so everything is written into a wiki on the page. I reward my players who add to the game by writing up a summary of the adventure from their perspective. It helps me track what happened in which adventure, and what the story looks like from the player's perspectives. This is helpful because if the PCs missed something I intended them to see, I can take steps to correct it next session.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Finally, yes there's the monetary support. Obsidian Portal is cheap, coming to about $5 per month, but paired with Roll20 that means I'm effectively paying $15 per month to game. I'm on a fairly tight budget these days. Fortunately several of my players happily chip in so I have the tools necessary to run games. </blockquote>
<br />
<ul>
<li>Thank you: This is a big one, appreciation for the work and effort I put into these games. Trying to herd a group of 6-12 PCs is sometimes like herding catnip-stoned feral cats. Writing and gathering the supplies to run the game isn't always easy. Transporting said supplies to a place where I can run a game for 6 people is sometimes a pain. Running the game means trying to juggle running the adventure, combat encounters, adjudicating die rolls creatively and in fun ways, and portraying a dozen unique characters (at least). Nothing makes me smile more than someone afterwards telling me they had a good time. Criticism of any sort is welcome; if something didn't work then I want to know for next time.</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
One of my favorite parts of GenCon was the fact that at every table, someone shook my hand afterwards and said they had a great time, that they thought I was a great GM, and/or that I made their convention. </blockquote>
There are many ways to thank your GM, simple appreciation is perhaps the easiest one.<br />
<br />
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Oooo...tomorrow could be really tough. I'm going to have to think on it...GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-26459588915721851992017-08-24T09:18:00.004-07:002017-08-24T09:18:58.259-07:00#RPGaDay: Day 24 - Alternate Question #1<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The usual question for day 24 was <i>Share a [Pay What You Want] publisher who should be charging more.</i> This is a moot question for me because I honestly don't know any PWYW Publishers, and thought today was going to be a rather boring day. My brother pointed out that there are a list of alternate questions on the original blog for #RPGaDay, and I dove on over there to see what there was to choose from. After parusing the list, I settled on this one...<br />
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<i>How far from human do you enjoy getting the chance to be in an RPG?</i><br />
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Brief Answer: Pretty far<br />
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Longer Answer: One of the reasons I got into RPGs was to be something I wasn't. I enjoy playing the alien races, the odd ball characters. Some of my favorite characters from fiction aren't human, and some of them are very non-human. I enjoy the challenge of trying to be something alien, something that people can't always relate to. I find it to be a welcome challenge. It goes back to wanting to be different, but in a special way.<br />
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One issue has been that I tend to be a gamemaster, not a player. Those rare times I did play?<br />
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<ul>
<li>A T'skrang from <i>Earthdawn</i></li>
<li>A Kel Dor Jedi Knight as my<i> RPGA Living Force </i>character. </li>
<li>An Ithroian Jedi in <i>Star Wars Saga Edition.</i> </li>
<li>A Twi'lek in FFG's <i>Star Wars RPG. </i></li>
<li>A Dog Boy Glitter Boy Pilot in <i>Savage Rifts.</i></li>
</ul>
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I don't say I never play humans, but generally speaking give me a party of humans, and I'll likely be the one looking to play the most alien among them, mechanical stats be damned.<br />
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Looking at tomorrow's question, I foresee that my answer may be a little self serving. Still, it should be fun to write up.<br />
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See you then!GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-49356694364034494612017-08-23T08:09:00.001-07:002017-08-23T08:23:33.237-07:00#RPGaDay: Day 23<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Here we are at Day 23 (Hail Eris). It's a solid question today, one that I took in a direction you might not expect...<br />
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<i>Which RPG has the most jaw-dropping layout?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Answer: Palladium Books. The whole line, at least up until the mid-2000s.<br />
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Those of you who have any of the old Palladium books books prior to 2005 will notice that the layout there in was a bit...odd. I could never put my finger on why it bothered me so much; the layout was incredibly simplistic, artwork was reprinted regularly and in a way that hinted the image was a copy of a copy. I didn't really now why until several years ago when I read a r<a href="https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?74137-What-s-up-with-Palladium-and-BTS&p=1445566#post1445566" target="_blank">ecount and criticism by Bill Coffin</a> on Kevin Siembeda's design practices. Bill's recount is rather colorful and laced with snark, but it did give me insight as to why I was bothered by it all.<br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafafa; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Arial, Tahoma, Calibri, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Once Kevin's ready for layout, he prints out the whole mess and fires up his wax machine because he still puts these damned things together by hand. What's that? Desktop publishing software? Naw, he's faster without it! To his credit, he lays out the book in fairly decent time, but he also illustrates why all Palladium books have a simple two-column format. Kevin isn't going to cut columns to shape or deviate from formula because he might have to reflow a section of the book, and when he does, all those columns have to be standard or else none of it works. Where this really makes you want to bang your head against the tip of an artillery shell is when he lays out 80% of the book, discovers that he'd like to rename an alphabetically ordered item on page 5 and decides that it would be too much work to reflow the rest of the list. You know how every so often in a Palladium book you'll have a series of NPCs or OCCs or something and one of them is grossly out of alphabetical order? That's why. I used to think it was because Kevin couldn't read the alphabet. Now I know it's because he's truly, madly, deeply in love with putting books together in ways that even Monty Burns would decry as old-fashioned.</span></blockquote>
Now, admittedly a few years after this post hit RPG.net, Bill <a href="https://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?311895-A-Public-Apology-to-Kevin-Siembieda" target="_blank">issued a public apology to Kevin</a> and they seemed to have buried the hatchet. But still, if that was what was going on with Palladium back in 2003, it certainly explains a lot of the issues I had with the layout of the various books from that company. This post always stuck with me, and every time I crack own a product from Palladium, even a modern one, I have to wonder if it was laid out by hand on a light table.<br />
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Tomorrow's question is going to be tough...probably because I don't think I've ever used a game from a Pay What You Want publisher.GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-77098759994205046632017-08-22T08:46:00.002-07:002017-08-22T08:46:28.587-07:00#RPGaDay - Day 22<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Now that we're caught back up, let's keep this train a rolling.</div>
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<i>Which RPGs are the easiest for you to run?</i></div>
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Any RPG I'm incredibly familiar with that doesn't force me to reference a massive amount of charts to run. I really enjoy running FFG's <i>Star Wars RPG</i> because generally speaking I only have to look up Critical Injury results when someone scores a critical hit. Otherwise I generally don't have to look up most of the tables. I know by extensive practice what you can do with 3 Advantage, or 2 Threat. I know how much damage a blaster pistol does, or that a Vibro-Axe has the Vicious 3 quality. FFG even makes NPC management easier with their Adversary Deck. I've now got over a hundred adversaries on playing cards that I can dig through and slap onto the table as needed. The game system is so flexible that at a glance I can even add abilities and effects to the base card stats and my PCs are none the wiser. I theoretically COULD just sit down at a table with no prep-time or pre-made adventure and ask my players "okay, what do you do?", and generally speaking I could make up the adventure on-the-fly.</div>
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The harder RPGs to run are those that require a lot of chart-reference. <i>Earthdawn </i>comes to mind, as that game as a "Step" system that determines how many dice you roll. I got a lot of practice with that, but it's a lot harder to remember what you roll for Step 16, or Step 21, or 32. If a lot of bookkeeping is needed to play, that's a lot harder to keep up with while trying to keep the game going. Critters with massive amounts of hit points with a novel-length list of abilities can be very daunting to try and keep track of while you're trying to keep the action dynamic and exciting. You can totally kill your momentum by having to pause for 30 seconds while you figure out what a dragon or a beholder is going to do next.</div>
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I have a hunch tomorrow's question is going to be fun to write, and not in the way many folks are expecting. I anticipate that two or three of my friends will read it and have reactions like "...they <i>WHAT</i>?!"</div>
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Stay tuned!</div>
<br />GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-13252492058234482652017-08-22T06:21:00.001-07:002017-08-22T06:21:15.745-07:00#RPGaDay: Day 19, 20, 21<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Aright; one more trio and then I'm caught up to today...<br />
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<i>19: Which RPG features the best writing?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
Star Wars.<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF5OXV8cADn7_2q_eCPIcTl5xiH3HSBNP1QPxB966HZzS5nK8pjvej-F5ayu-sD3eYonQLng8uSD4ASvbchQ73yJagM2IayCOhFLjYBAsKDCtb3xJBwwGoOYhtq88eysc_CGNetKH-4aLM/s1600/IMG_20170822_090623708_HDR.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="901" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF5OXV8cADn7_2q_eCPIcTl5xiH3HSBNP1QPxB966HZzS5nK8pjvej-F5ayu-sD3eYonQLng8uSD4ASvbchQ73yJagM2IayCOhFLjYBAsKDCtb3xJBwwGoOYhtq88eysc_CGNetKH-4aLM/s320/IMG_20170822_090623708_HDR.jpg" width="180" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Signed by Bill Slavicsek, Sam <br />Stewart, Sterling Hershey,</i><i style="font-size: 12.8px;">and Pablo Hidalgo</i></td></tr>
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Okay, before you all start rolling your eyes, I'm going to clarify that statement; West End Game's original D6 based Star Wars RPG. It had a lot going for it. First of all, as I learned again while watching the "30 Years of Star Wars RPGs" panel at GenCon this year, a lot of what the WEG Star Wars game did was fill in a lot of gaps in the movies from an information standpoint. Until the RPG came along, there were no <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Twi%27lek/Legends" target="_blank">twi'leks</a>, <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Rodian/Legends" target="_blank">rodians</a>, or <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Ithorian/Legends" target="_blank">ithorians</a>. No one knew <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Sienar_Fleet_Systems/Legends" target="_blank">Sienar Fleet Systems</a> made the TIEs, or <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Koensayr_Manufacturing/Legends" target="_blank">Koensayr </a>the Y-Wings, or <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Incom_Corporation/Legends" target="_blank">INCOM </a>the X-Wings and Snowspeeders. The name "<a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Kuat_Drive_Yards/Legends" target="_blank">Kuat Drive Yards</a>" meant nothing, and didn't immediately bring to mind giant 2 kilometer long, triangle shaped warships. The RPG team and the developers on it created terms and ideas that are now used in Star Wars writing today. The gaming books that were written were designed from the standpoint of "we're the only ones making anything Star Wars right now, let's make it good." Sourcebooks such as <i><a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Cracken's_Rebel_Field_Guide" target="_blank">Cracken's Rebel Field Guide</a></i> and the <i><a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Imperial_Sourcebook" target="_blank">Imperial Sourcebook</a></i> are resource goldmines for every game and camapign that came after it. Out of the WEG Star Wars line came original work by folks like <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Pablo_Hidalgo" target="_blank">Pablo Hidalgo</a>, <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Timothy_Zahn" target="_blank">Timothy Zahn</a>, and <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Michael_A._Stackpole" target="_blank">Michael Stackpole</a>.<br />
<br />
Suffice to say that the Star Wars we know today would not have been possible without the work of <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Bill_Slavicsek" target="_blank">Bill Slavicsek</a> and his writing team at West End Games. One of the highlights of my week at GenCon was listening in on his panel and hearing the stories about the early days of Star Wars gaming. Shaking his hand afterwards and giving him an enthusiastic "thank you!" was a bonus.<br />
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<i>20:</i> <i>What is the best source for out of print RPGs.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
If you don't mind them being PDF copies, I have to direct folks to <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/" target="_blank">DriveThru-RPG</a>. They've got quite a few games that have given up the ghost and faded into almost-obscurity. I'm sorely tempted to pick up a pdf copy of <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/25403/Mekton-Zeta?it=1" target="_blank">Mekton Zeta</a> and <a href="http://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/1556/Mekton-Zeta-Plus?it=1" target="_blank">Mekton Zeta Plus</a>, just to have them on my tablet.<br />
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Which reminds me that I should really get a new micro-usb for my tablet. My 32GB one is starting to reach capacity...<br />
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<i>21: Which RPG does the most with the least words?</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
I'm going to have to go with <a href="http://www.onesevendesign.com/laserfeelings/" target="_blank">Lasers and Feelings</a>. You can't get better than a one-page RPG that basically does it all for playing a "Not Quite Star Trek" game.<br />
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Speaking from a traditional published-work perspective, I'll probably look to <i><a href="https://www.peginc.com/product-category/savage-worlds/" target="_blank">Savage Worlds</a></i> and <i><a href="http://www.evilhat.com/home/fae/" target="_blank">FATE Accelerated</a>. </i>These two books are tight, digest-sized RPGs that can handle just about any genre or game as-is. Sure, there are expansion books that flesh out a lot of the details and give players expanded rules, but you really don't <i>need</i> them if you want to play a steampunk game, or a sci-fi game, or a fantasy game. All the rules you need are in those books, and the rest you can build off of them.<br />
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And with that, we're caught up to today. Tune in later this afternoon, when I answer the Day 22 question "Which RPGs are the easiest for you to run"!GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-53672066646008380692017-08-21T07:40:00.003-07:002017-08-21T07:40:58.275-07:00#RPGaDay: Day 16, 17, 18<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Still in the airport in Indianapolis, still trying to get caught up on this exercise. </div>
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<i>Day 16:</i> <i>Which RPG do you enjoy using as is?</i></div>
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No plan survives contact with the enemy, and there is extensive evidence to support that no RPG survives contact with the gaming public. Gamers across the internet are constantly posting changes they've made to make their well-loved games "better". I'm guilty of it too; I've made some self-determined "fixes" to my beloved <i>Star Wars RPG</i>. When recovering strain at the end of encounters, I allow 2 Advantage to heal 1 strain. In space combat, I allow pilots to take a "Snap Roll" reaction to reduce the damage from a successful hit by the pilot's Ranks in the Piloting skill plus the Handling of the vehicle. I had a bevy of house rules for previous editions of the game, and for most games I've run in the past 10 years.</div>
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But the one RPG that I didn't really make any changes to (at least that I can recall) may surprise some of you; <i>Heroes Unlimited.</i> Yup, a Palladium Books game with their broken system and all; I ran a campaign in that system relatively straight out of the rulebook. The rules in <i>HU</i> weren't as broken or over-the-top as RIFTS, so it didn't break down with excessive amounts of attacks and die rolls for combat. My players and I got a good 2 years out of that system and that campaign, and we did it without any changes to the rules presented as written.</div>
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<i>Day 17: Which RPG have you owned the longest but not played?</i></div>
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You know, at first I thought this was going to be a tough question and then I remembered something I inherited from my grandmother when she passed away in 2004. My grandma, known in Sci-Fi circles as "Grandma Trek", would often receive books, magazines, and other periodicals from publishers. One item she received was the universally panned <i>The Adventures of Indiana Jones Role Playing Game</i>. The game is just...awful; so awful that TSR's celebration of the license lapsing and their ability/obligation to burn every remaining copy led to <a href="http://www.dianajonesaward.org/" target="_blank">the creation</a> of the "Diana Jones award for excellence in gaming." </div>
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Every other game I owned that have never thrown down on the table has been given away or sold, so by default the <i>Indiana Jones RPG</i> wins.</div>
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<i>Day 18: Which RPG have you played the most of in your life?</i></div>
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That's a really tough call. It really comes down to what the limit is.</div>
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If we're sticking with one system and one edition, it's probably going to be <i>Dungeons and Dragons 3rd Edition</i> (and I'll include 3.5 Edition in that). I ran many a game and many a campaign for a solid 8-10 years using that system. I don't think I was able to run any specific edition of Star Wars for that long.</div>
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However, if you're opening up the definition to all editions of the game, then it's Star Wars hands down. I attended a panel on Saturday at GenCon that talked about the 30th anniversary of the Star Wars RPG license, and I've been gaming in that system since West End Game's 2nd edition of the rules. That's at least 25 years of gaming in the Star Wars galaxy.</div>
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No wonder I'm such a Star Wars nerd.</div>
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GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6124222475225068031.post-45184148240907281002017-08-21T07:08:00.002-07:002017-08-21T07:08:54.738-07:00#RPGaDay: Day 12, 13, 14<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Currently sitting in the Indianapolis airport, waiting to catch my flight home from GenCon. Since I've got two hours before my flight, I figure now is a good time to finish this off...<br />
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<i>Day 12: Which RPG has the most inspiring interior art?</i><br />
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Unsuprisingly, I'm going to go with the <i>Star Wars RPG</i> from Fantasy Flight Games. Their art design is par none, with each book in their line containing not only beautiful two-page chapter-headers and gorgeous career portraits, but also include a wide array of original art pieces that evoke stories. The young twi'lek girl who finds a holocron in an antique shop, the rebel soldier in a trench looking at the holo of her dead loved one, the aspiring Jedi fighting an Inquisitor on the exterior of a Star Destroyer in an asteroid field; these pieces capture the mystery, the conflict, and the excitement of gaming in the Star Wars galaxy.<br />
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<i>Day 13: Describe a game experience that changed how you play.</i><br />
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This is a tough one. Most of my current gaming style comes from decades of evolution in my Gamemastering style. It's rather difficult for me to look back over that time to try and remember one event that changed how I run games, but I can call back and find something that affected my gaming; conventions.<br />
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My first foray into convention games was at Origins back in 2005 (I think). My brothers and I were into <i>Mechwarrior: Dark Age</i> at from time to time we'd go to Origins to compete in the National Championships. Wizards of the Coast was in the final year of their Living Force campaign, and I wanted to finally get a chance to <i>play </i>in a Star Wars game instead of running them all the time. I remember my Kel Dor Jedi fondly, and I also remember the aggravation of having to deal with "convention gamers"; guys who's RP style was to dick around and act in manners that no actual person would (at least, not without being arrested). I was there to try and get a positive gaming experience from the other side of the GM screen, meanwhile Dicky the Wonder Smuggler from Central Who-gives-a-damn just wanted to be a wise ass for the sake of being a wise ass. Thankfully, the sessions weren't a total wash, and I did have fun in the end, but it definitely made me appreciate the players that I get to play with from my meticulously cultivated player-group at home. Additionally, it reminded me that not everyone in the world games like I do, and when I run convention modules I try and have the patience and composure to let the players enjoy the game in their own way, and to only interject when someone is monopolizing the game for their own enjoyment at the expense of someone else at the table.<br />
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<i>Day 14: Which RPG do you prefer for an open ended campaign?</i><br />
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Any RPG that lacks a finite progression path.<br />
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There's something about a game with a set number of levels to character progression that puts a timer or a cap on a game. D20 system's traditional "20 Character Levels" is a great example. Especially in the sense of <i>Star Wars Saga Edition</i>, D20 characters tended to have their progression mapped out; most of my players would build their entire character paths out from the start of game.<br />
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"<i>Okay, I know I want to take Jedi Knight at 7th level, and I want to have these powers by Level 9, so I need to take Feat X and Y at 6th Level, Talent Q at 5th and R at 8th, and Knowledge: How to be a Bad Ass Jedi when I increase my Intelligence at 8th level..."</i><br />
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That sort of character road-mapping really put a dampener on letting your character naturally grow and evolve. Life is full of events and crossroads where your intended career and lifepath deviates greatly from where you expected to go. I've come to really enjoy games where the system encourages that sort of freedom.<br />
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Additionally, the D20 system also starts to get bloated and a real challenge to run once characters get over level 11 or 12. The threats have to scale up, which usually meant more time spent on npc development as well as management of an excessive number of abilities in each character. More often than not, I'd forget to utilize those abilities simply because my mental bandwidth couldn't handle trying to remember and control six NPCs able to challenge a group of six Level 12 PCs. That encouraged me to end campaigns as they reached that level, before I really got bogged down, which tends to remove the Open-Ended option to those campaigns.<br />
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Three down, six more days to catch up on...GM Philhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10215645682409992194noreply@blogger.com0