Archive for April 2014
The Savage World of Lisa Frank
Back on the post "New Look and New Game Planning" I showed what our journal was, up to that point. Since then it has only expanded with more twists turns and villainous actions, conducted by my players, to make the world that much more against them, in the long run of things. One thing we tried to avoid, while playing The Quite Yea,r was naming things. I enforced this because I felt that attaching a name might limit creativity. In this post, I am going to reveal to my readers and players the names of the locations they invented, plus a bit about what they have created. Again, I will link my Google Drive with my Journal notes. This time, I have not cleaned up my notes, so please don't mind the grammar and spelling issues.
Setting Info
Key:
What we called it in The Quite Year (name on map/in game) - Influence for names and culture
The City (Magador) - Roman
Magador is the major city on the map. It is home to the Eight-Fold Cult, that worships the divine representation of the gods on earth (the rainbow that appears often over the city thanks to a naturally forming prism in the mountains). The Cult worships eight different gods, who are viewed as neutral and mostly detached from mortal affairs, meaning constructs like good/evil/law/chaos are below them, as an invention of mankind. So, their worshipers can take many forms, but always seem to bring their faith in line with their actions, rather than letting the faith and teachings guide their actions. The cult teaches strength and fear.
Some time, in early spring, a young girl ran off ,with many of the city's youth and began a witch coven. This news was startling. Since the time before Chaos' death, no one had been able to cast magic. The church investigated, for some time, before finally being forced into action, when the children sabotaged the school in Magador and stole away the remaining children, from the city. Since then, the Eight-Fold Cult has created an inquisition, to hunt down these witches and purge the land of their evil magics. The inquisition was founded originally to save the children, but since the death of St. Cassius they have changed to eradication of all magics. This is further complicated by the fact that the High Priest Pater has recently began to perform miracles, leading to a divide in the church.
Also, Since St. Cassius passed, the city has become a city state under the rule of the church. They have also begun pushing borders and becoming aggressive to heretics of their faith, adopting a convert or die approach to outsiders. This has lead to a division among the people of Magador, but those that do not agree with the church openly seem to disappear regularly, so many remain silent. Neighbors are turned against neighbors, as it has become unsafe to trust anyone with anti-church opinions, even if they do share your beliefs. Many have been captured and tortured into giving the names of other "heretics." To cover their actions, the church does not acknowledge any of this, and instead offer the protection of the church to any who welcome their teachings. Some people have become fanatical, and have even invited in an extremely large talking moose into the cult. This moose is chaos touched to be larger and talk, he is also extremely devout, to such an extent that he has become a zealot for the church.
The city is formed from the remains of an older ruined city, that has frozen over. Little work has been done, to excavate, but one of the children, Nero, found an underground crypt full of dead children neatly laid out. Since then he has not spoken, and more recently he has gone missing entirely. Ghosts walk the streets of Magador, according to the children, though no adult until Pater has been able to see them. Pater claims that they are the spirits of the savage Yeti's, that wonder the snow fields and wield occult magics. The city has had many run-ins with these creatures, who have even attempted to destroy the city with an avalanche. Since then, a group of guards got together, to form the Elite Yeti Hunters. They use wolves to track them and wipe the land clean of their presence. The church believes that the yeti's are actually humans, that have consumed the flesh of chaos tainted humans. This act of cannibalism has transformed them into monsters and caused the church to be somewhat fearful of the Tainted.
The Fishing Village (Griloz) - English/Anglo
A simple fishing village where nothing special really happens. Their neighbors to the north, in Magador, have been exceptionally nice to them, bringing trade and their faith. Magador has also built the Ever Reaching Route, a road for trade between the two cities. Griloz does have run-ins with the yeti's but not nearly as much as Magador. No one knows really why. The people mainly know peace and prosperity. Many of the citizens have actually moved north, to aid Magador in its efforts.
The people of Griloz tend to be driven by superstitions and see omens in everything. They believe that these traditions keep them safe. It has also kept them from sailing into the deep waters of the ocean. They mainly stick to the waters of Shimmering Basin, a lake formed in a crater near the village, and the Soundless Channel, the river that leads to the ocean.
Ruins in the Mountians (Unnamed) - Japanese
This is where the witch cult has taken up residence. Here they make their final stand against Magador. The people of Magador do not know why they act the way they do but they know that the children in the ziggurat are hostile to Magador, and by decree of the Eight-fold Cult they must be destroyed for their actions. Strange pygmies have been found native, to this secluded mountain range, and many have began worshiping the witches.
Whaling City (Sandgil) - Viking
Established near the Forbidden Expanse, Sandgil is a prosperous port. They specialize in hunting narwhal and fishing. They are far enough away from Magador, that they have not received an invitation of trade formally from the city. Its people are hearty folk, with ice water in their veins. They believe in nothing except what they can be shown. The have no time for "magics," only for work,family and tradition. They live in the harshest lands and their winter is the longest. Their people are prognostic and seem to always be preparing for the future. Their faith is different than that of the Eight-fold. They are ancestor worshipers, offering gifts and prayer to their ancestors, even accrediting good fortune to their ancestors.
The Wasting Sickness
Dwarves have been driven from the depths of the earth, by the death of Chaos. His blood and fluids were adsorbed, by the earth twisting and misshaping their kingdoms and the creatures of the underdark. The other creatures that inhabit the world, under the world, have gotten out of control and forced them to the surface. Dwarves who have been in contact with Chaos' blood have developed a wasting sickness. It is believed that the dwarves are the only ones who can contract the disease, but humans can carry the disease unknowingly. (The disease is passed like AIDS)
Because of this, dwarves have become more cautious of human contact, fearing that simple touch from a human or affected dwarf could cause the transmission of the disease. The disease, in it's earliest stages, make his hair start thinning. As time progresses, his condition worsens. His skin loosens and sags, his hair and teeth fallout, and lastly he begins coughing blood. Eventually, the dwarf dies from the condition, it has no known cure, and any attempt to cure it have been met with difficulty, as it changes rapidly and develops ways around cures. It is seen as a death sentence, and dwarfs often excommunicate those who carry it.
Tag :
Savage Worlds,
Down for maintenance sort of....
Tag :
General,
Heroes, Villains and Swords and Sorcery
Sword and sorcery, at its core, is pulp, meaning the heroes are big damn heroes and the villains are big damn villains. The rest are mooks, as we have started calling them. The genre has themes that are prevalent in it that makes the stories so much fun. The themes should be looked at for an understanding, of what kind of characters will fit best in this world.
While Robert E Howard is the most known example of the genre, his works are not the end all be all to the genre. There are other authors and movies that have contributed to the genre. Just like most GM's, I have recently begun the genre immersion part of my campaign building. Reading, Google-ing, and watching movies that relate close to the genre. Plus, since I want it a bit darker, I have also looked at some of the base elements of horror, in fantasy settings. Here is my short list of movies, thus far, that have helped me put together some ideas. A mood lighting if you will:
In the Name of the King: A Dungeon Siege Tale
In the Name of the King: Two Worlds
Conan the Barbarian (2011)
Conan the Barbarian
Conan the Destroyer
The Beastmaster
Solomon Kane
Fire and Ice
Willow
Dawn of the Dragon Slayer
Midnight Chronicles
Krull
Deathstalker (1, 2, 3)
Dragonslayer (1981)
Legend
Themes
- Good versus Evil - Its black and white when dealing with evil, but not so much when dealing with good.
- Heroes are not likely - at first you are a pig farmer in a terrible countryside until...
- Heroes tend to keep it personal - ...Vong Guul Dark Sorcerer of Tir Nok and worshiper of the evil snake god shows up and kills your family. Now you will hunt him to the ends of the earth and once you kill him, peace falls over the land for a limited time.
- Villains are big - Vong Guul was just a peon, the big threat shows himself and forcibly married your wife who thought you was dead. Next adventure please (sequels)
- Counter Society - Society is bad m'kay. People of simple cultures tend to be better people. Cities make thieves and empires make villains.
- There are exceptions - Sometime cities can produce a true hero after some altering event that causes him to question his country's motives.
- Men are heroes women are scantily clad and sometimes heroes - Pretty straight forward there. Female heroes in S&S can be especially neat as they are often unexpected by male dominated culture and if seen in a supporting role they are almost always critical to the hero's success.
- Heroes travel alone - Except they don't. Sure the story focuses on Cragnar of the Wildlands. But Cragnar is assisted by his best buddy (a ridiculously greedy thief), a "skilled" warrior (playfully mocked by Cragnar but a very skilled fighter in the classical sense), and usually some sort of extra that covers the healing arts and some random stuff. S&S sometimes feels like you can't play it up with a party at a table but really watch the movie and look for those support characters, they may not kill as much but they are always memorable.
- Gods don't care - this is mainly because most of the original writers in the genre were atheists, but it can be refreshing to see. In games faith tends to be constant or at least in the background heavily and usually on the side of good, in S&S it'd different. They look at how too much faith leads to zealots and persecution. Faiths that are active are seen as evil, or too good to be true in some cases. Again unless its a barbaric ancient faith or druidism, that's the stuff of hero support characters.
- Life never gets better - you do not get knighted, you get vast amounts of riches you waste on booze and good times. And if life does "get better" like becoming king it just sucks in a different way. Warrior kings almost always begrudge their position and feel limited by the structure of government that says the hero can not enter the field of combat.
- Magic is scary and rare - Pretty straight forward here too, it is often used as a tool of villains. Most heroes use brains and brawn.
- Prophecies! - It was foretold of your coming eons ago by a mad blind woman who would ritually burn herself for visions. And guess what happens, they are so vague they always conveniently come true. If you want a great example watch the In the Name of the King movies. If you don't, watch them anyways, both are pretty good.
- Heroes usually don't have jobs - lets face it most of them don't, or if they did before adventuring it's back to the humble beginnings thing again. They generally don't forge their own weapons or have trade skills like so many D&D characters. They have adventurer skills and some negotiation skills to try to pawn the golden idol they found in that temple for a new ax.
- Weapons and armor are disposable - Throw your sword at that beast you can always get another.
- Heroes have a reason to be heroes, even if that does not always make them "good guys" - Straight forward, nothing new here anti-heroes welcome so long as you can get along with your crew. no lone wolves.
Villains
Lets start with villains. They are going to be GM category only. In the past, I have been pretty open to people playing character loyal to the evil forces, at the start of the game. My problem with this is they never seem to break away, so I am not letting that happen this time. If, in character, you have a damn good reason to cross your friends to help evil that's one thing, but I do not want you to then start playing a kindhearted savage turned civilized man in 2 sessions, that now wants to make his people convert to his new faith in society or die. If you do I will attempt to make the party do my dirty work for me. If that fails, I will send heroes after you, until I have taught you the error of your ways. To quote my threat from Star Wars, if it gets out of control, flying space rancors with force powers.
Heroes/PC's
Pay attention to the themes of S&S. This is pulp play it up a bit, I will be letting bennies flow for heroism and brazen acts of courage (sometimes called stupidity). I have themed bennies to only be used to give an ally a bonus to encourage teamwork. Use them and narrate how you will help even if it a shout of encouragement. For example, I spend a bennie to let Murdock roll soak and the flavor is my character telling his to duck just in the nick of time. To keep the pulp theme, I will play up combat scenes and add environmental things to play with, but if I didn't say there was a tankard of ale, ask me. Maybe there is one, this game is going to be more about the fun of story telling with fast hard combat rather than rules brokering. That's part of the reason I went with Savage Worlds.
My favorite characters from this table came from Legend of the Five Rings and I think that's because they made more well rounded characters with the 20 Questions presented in the book. So I provide these questions for my players to answer in a Google doc for me. I encourage this for GM's and players alike as it defines somethings about who your character is beyond numbers and as always because I think more personal, answer in character.
20 Questions for Asamon: The New Age
- Who are you? What lands do you hail from stranger?
- Who are your parents? Brothers and sisters?
- Why should I hire you? What skills have you?
- How will I recognize you when we meet? Do you have any peculiar mannerisms?
- Why do you travel these lands? What is your quest?
- Whom do you call brother/sister?
- What is your greatest strength and your greatest weakness?
- What do you think of civilized people? And of the tribesmen?
- What of your own place of birth, what do you think of them?
- What do you know of love?
- What of your family? Any children?
- Do you have any prejudices?
- What kind of companions do you travel with? Or rather what do you look for in companions who travel with you?
- What is your favorite and least favorite things?
- What is your greatest ambition? Would you give it up for another?
- What faith do you find comfort in?
- What is your worst fear?
- How do you feel about magic?
- Who were you before Chaos descended? Where were you when it happened? What have you been doing since?
- How will you die?
Tag :
Savage Worlds,
Savage Odyssey
So this week has been pretty busy, I have a new schedule at work that has allowed me some more free time to pick up this blog again and gotten in some much needed reading. So let's start there:
Last week I talked about Gnome Stew's Odyssey book that goes into the theory craft behind campaign design. Great read if you haven't read it I do recommend it mainly for a seasoned GM. The book assumes you know a little bit about what your doing and that you are doing most of this stuff already at a subconscious level. So why read it you might ask well the book kind of answers that, if you understand why you do something it becomes easier to do and do well.
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Thats it for now, if you like the feel of this again try the book out, next week hopefully I can push through Summer in the Quite Year and get some more info out there for this game, also more details on the disease and heroic concepts I would want to see.
Last week I talked about Gnome Stew's Odyssey book that goes into the theory craft behind campaign design. Great read if you haven't read it I do recommend it mainly for a seasoned GM. The book assumes you know a little bit about what your doing and that you are doing most of this stuff already at a subconscious level. So why read it you might ask well the book kind of answers that, if you understand why you do something it becomes easier to do and do well.
My group and I took the week off for PAX East, unfortunately I no longer live in Boston and the funds weren't there this year so instead I went back to campaign planning. I also read another book by Gnome Stew called Never Unprepared: The Complete Game Master's Guide to Session Prep, another really good read though admittedly this one was a little bit more limited on the information I found useful. The book is well written and it goes into great detail of how you should go about prepping for a session (and a bit into campaign), but most of it feels a bit more like it is geared to someone with less GM experience. Plus it doesn't help that I tend to be an improvisational GM (something I am not particularly proud of all the time). And lastly I read one final book that I will talk about in great detail later because it was by far the best one of the bunch for me, really I dont want some of my players who read this blog to go reading it as it might take away some of the fun things I learned.
Savage Odyssey
To prove my point about the organic nature behind the ideas discussed in the Odyssey book I am going to focus my blog post around the frame work provide by the book.
Campaign Concept:
GM: Me(Surprise....)
Players: Those listed in the last post, though things may change as they always seem to, but this time I am going to limit my table to 6 players.
Campaign/ One shots: Campaign, bigger and better than before
System: Savage Worlds Deluxe Edition
Setting: A world of my player's design, in the aftermath of an Elder God being released by the same player group but not the same PC's. The setting was originally for D&D 3.0 then converted to 3.5 then to Pathfinder RPG and now finally to Savage Worlds. The world is different than the last time they played I want it to have a familiar yet alien feel.
Central Story: Survival and rebuilding while discovering a new world.
Role the PC's will take: Unlikely heroes, sword and sorcery type heroes who while heroes do not gain much from their adventures in wealth fame or power.
The Pitch:
This is Asamon, after Chaos was released. He destroyed and reshaped much of the known world before the last group of PC's killed him. This lead to unknown consequences Chaos' body broke-down back into the blood like fluid and was absorbed into the earth. Since then things have not been the same, wild storms of magic, strange new monsters lurk in the dark and climate changes around the world. Technology has taken a skew. Steel has become much harder to produce and most steel items have been secured (taken) by the Legion of Steel. Most relics and magic items no longer work. Magic in general has become rare, it is believed that the New Gods have something to do with the decline of magic. Since the fall of Chaos social rule and small settlements became the norm, it is considered rude to question someone about who they were before the fall of Chaos. It is a chance to be reborn. It is also a time of loss many people are missing or presumed to be dead in the year following Chaos' Death. You have gathered with a group like minded people for a better chance at survival. The elder Cassius has taught everyone basic survival skills and lead you to your new home in the village. Here you have your chance to be a new person. Welcome to The New Age.
Rules and Supplements:
Savage Worlds Deluxe
Supplements: Horror Companion, Fantasy Companion, Beasts and Barbarians Golden Edition, Deadlands Reloaded (Ailin' hindrance only)
Supplements Not Allowed: Anything Supers related and anything not specifically mentioned in supplements unless reviewed and approved by the GM/Group.
House Rules: Savage World offers settings rules to help the feel of the game match the concept. So we are using the following Setting Rules
- Situation Rules(SWD 80 as needed) Disease and Interludes will be used regularly
- Born A Hero (SWD 94)
- Fanatics(SWD 94, thematically used)
- Jokers Wild (SWD 94)
- Multiple Languages (SWD 94)
- Savings(B&B 104)
- After the Adventure Events (B&B 104)
- Sanity (Horror 22)
- Backlash Sanity Loss (Horror 20)
- Chronological Phenomena (Horror 20)
- Rituals (Horror 26)
- Wards and Binds (Horror 30)
- Limited Races(presented in SWD): Human, Elf, Dwarf, Touched (race builder with GM/group approval). All other races assume they are dead and/or not playable. World is predominately human will explain more later as to why (the disease basically).
There will be a disease that will be prevalent during the game, will go into that another time though when I have worked out the kinks.
Thats it for now, if you like the feel of this again try the book out, next week hopefully I can push through Summer in the Quite Year and get some more info out there for this game, also more details on the disease and heroic concepts I would want to see.
Tag :
Savage Worlds,
New Look and New Game Planning
New Look
So I have been away a while but the big reason I decided to come back to the blog is because it is a great tool to help me plan my next game. While I usually talk openly to my audience in effect its more like a conversation with myself helping me find out more about my style as a GM. So with picking up the blog again I just recently updated the blog (before littering it all over with different groups for RPG Blogs and players).Here is the highlights reel:Game Reviews: My reviews are pretty lose and based more on how my game plays the game, I try to be neutral about it but I know our play style infects my opinion. The links provided are some of the better game reviews I use before I even pick up a book, I use it more like a guide to help hone in my interest. Both pages have a bit of a different feel to them, but the more in sight you get the better prepared you are.
Tools: These are tools I have used in the past with some great effect. Really this is like a favorites list. I do a lot of online gaming so most of these tools are for that or feed into that kind of play, but they can be used for anything. Roll20 is awesome and even better if you become a member. Just watch video's on youtube about dynamic lighting that alone will sell you.
Other Links: For now this is just RPG Blog Alliance, but I will be adding more to it later. Its just a big catch all.
Social Media: I have a twitter now for the Drop Dice Blog and facebook will take you directly to my personal page. Also on each post I have added social media Icons.
New Game Planning
So since finishing my Remnants RPG's conclusion I have put some thought into something bigger, as a filler I am running a Star Wars game I have had in my back pocket to really build something bigger. I kind of went about it backwards, first looking for a good system thinking this would fix a lot of minor grips I have with other systems. So I began reading and digging in my library of game books, mostly looking at some of the indie games for something new or different but each system seemed a little clunky. I have always been of the mindset that game system fluff (or background/setting info) is just that fluff. It can be vary inspirational but rules is the heart of a game. So I changed my attack strategy and starting looking at more popular systems, ignoring Pathfinder because we have played that system pretty much since the launch with the same group. I am a bit burned out on the system to be honest, until Ultimate Campaign came out that is (game changer in many aspects check it out because it can be used system neutral). Beyond that my players have told me before that they like when I run a structured military/sci-fi game. So Remnants was perfect for that, but what next and what story. Remnants almost wrote itself because I was using something I had learned tooling around in forums on how to be a better GM.I used the game setting and fluffed it up even more, I had a plains princess being protected by ice tribe brothers and a greedy trades many. This was a great game, and it came to me I love anachronistic games - science fiction mixed with fantasy and maybe some weird sience in there because my player like that. So I looked at Numenera the logical move next, great system but I know my players three classes is a bit restrictive especially when my last game had six players attend regularly. So I went back to the system I was going to use before my players convinced me to run Remnants, Savage World's Deluxe Edition.
So back to youtube this time with a system in mind I found the Savage Worlds GM Hangouts moderated by Jerrod Gunning of Sin City Savages. If you have any interest in Savage World I recommend listening to his one shot of Kiss Meets the Phantom for a light hearted Savage World play-through via roll20. Beyond that if you play any system you can still benefit from listening to a good deal of the videos, they are a bit long but it doesn't feel like it they flow very well. If you want a great very serious version of sword and sorcery style play listen to Tower of the Ape from gamerstable.com. Do this after reading the rules though it will help show the flow of a game with the simple rules presented in Savage Worlds, things will start clicking. Plus its a great story.
To behonest the guys at the Savage Worlds GM Hangouts gave me a lot of good reference material that wasn't even coined or created by them. Gnome stew makes a book called Odyssey: The Complete Game Master’s Guide to Campaign Management while it is kind of a text book style read it has so much good info for even seasoned game masters. Another great tool that my players love even more than me is The Quiet Year. We are using a slightly modified version of the rules (minimal changes really) to create the setting for the adventure. Basically I started by telling them this would pick up in a game world we ran for about a year until they released the Elder God Chaos on the plane, now create the world after Chaos. We have made it through spring and the players have had a great time with it and its such a casual game. For reference here is our Journal up to Spring that is. This idea came directly from one of the Hangout and was mentioned by Scott W. I have my players asking to cancel my regular Star Wars game just to continue building but I have put it off because I want everyone there and schedules have been off lately. If you follow the Odyssey way to build a campaign this pretty much covers making the setting and frame work in a way that feels very organic.
So what kind of Savage Worlds Game are you planing? The kind my players want, I have a few stipulations in there but this time my players are building the world actively even before the start. My basic frame work is this:
- I want sword and sorcery feel with bits of horror similar to the Conan comic books.
- Steph wants more of a sandbox feel to the game, to "wing it more"
- Murdock wants to have character development heavy story that has direct influence to the way the world works.
- Jeremy wants to see more city based adventures and some dungeons since we have done a lot of land based games lately.
- Tom wants a massive artifice and the remains of an infrastructure of a great civilization. Something that can hint at the human potential.
- Nate wants more dungeons and climates that we dont normally use, to branch outside of temperate zone climate.
- Brendan wants depth, depth of character and depth of story.
Since going through spring we have also added Weird Science to the mix. More details to come since this is already a pretty long post.
Tag :
General,
Savage Worlds,
Expanded Vision/May the Force Be With You Part 2
Since I have decided to return to writing again, I have also decided to expand on my original concept for this blog instead of simply just looking into finding a prefect game I am going to look at many aspects of gaming and RPG's in general. Exploring more than just black and white rules. More on that later for now a quick review.
As for my last blog before leaving I discussed Star Wars a story line I love and have played many versions of in the past, since then I started a Star Wars Edge of Empire game with some friends. The game system itself is a fairly well built incremental character build system (skill based rather than class based for advancement). We did leave the vision of the game for a more rounded character/game concept so I have no real harsh feelings against the system, but on the flip-side I have no real strong feelings for the system. Instead I will look for the things I have learned form the system. In all actuality I will probably play the system again some time later as more supplements and rule books come out for the system as I did with other Fantasy Flight Games.
The Fantasy Flight RPG Model:
Fantasy Flight has proven themselves to be board game designers with a flair for story driven RPG mechanics. The model they used to design the mechanics of the game is similar in some aspects to their other popular game Warhammer Fantasy, and to a lesser extent the Warhammer 40K series. They design books that focus more on relative power level of play, in Star Wars' case they start with relatively low powered characters looking to make it in a harsh imperially dominated game space. Though given that you play at the edge of the empire (to steal a phrase) you dont even need to include too many imperials or even law beyond that fact that you are breaking it pretty often. More often than not your problems are other fringe members of galactic society. Were we found a problem was one of my players desire to play a force user, while introduced in this book, it is not fully developed and actually led to limiting the character concept with the constrains of the system as officially released to this point .
Yes I know that the rebellion book includes more stuff for force-users and even Jedi, but releasing that book second is a bit well, underwhelming. Star Wars to even the most uneducated person is lightsabers, lets face it. When anyone thinks of Star Wars the first general thoughts go to force-users. Now this isn't really as bad of a issue as it sounds. It will be fixed I know, I can see the thought process because Fantasy Flight has done this before.
Warhamer 40K = Space Marines right? The first book they made was the Inquisition book, Dark Heresy. While fun lets face it if you have read the books the inquisition is kind of similar to playing as investigators in Call of Cthulhu, you will probably die or go crazy and then maybe kill your friends. They introduced Psycher's a very basic element to the Warhammer 40K lore, if you have they game books look at them again using only the Dark Heresy rule-set. They are terrible PC Killing machines, half the time I created a game where the characters would simply show up to investigate a anomaly or a cult and the psycher would go unfettered on his power roll and summon all sorts of nasty chaos spawn after that the game basically boiled down to Friday Night Chaos Beast Fight Club sponsored by the Imperial Pyscher. Every book they put out though refined and redefined what psychers could do, this seemed very annoying because it was like patch notes for a video game, nerf one thing make something else out of control. But just like patches they were evidence of the game designers looking to improve the game. With Only War's release psychers have become more than just plot killing monster they are playable, it just sucks that we had to wait so long for it.
It looks like this is the idea with the force, its so huge that to heavily define it in the first book could ruin the game. Instead they are building the other elements to act as a counter to the force-users to some degree. While I like the approach again its kind of off putting to say, hey no force-users in my game because the rules on them are "weird" (I have a similar problem with magic in some games). So for now we have returned to Saga's edition despite its failings in certain areas but we brought with us some of the great stuff from Edge.
Edge has the Edge on:
Edge of the empire has a neat system in place for obligations that places an in game mechanic and penalty for creating a real character with flaws and a built in system for consequence that the character is aware of. Now there is still good old fashion note taking and NPC revenge against the players but the system places strain on the characters each game (depending on dice rolls) involving their backgrounds. This means if I am out of ideas for the game or had a poor planning session in the week where I just couldn't think of anything I would roll my dice for obligations. Next thing I know I was writing an adventure where the ship my character's buried themselves in debt to the Empire for was destroyed by a mega-fauna stranding them on a planet and forcing them into more debt to just get off planet. This was an amazing game just from flaws. I am going to take that away from the system if nothing else.
Drugs, there has been a lot of drugs in this game. In fact it has been a major source of income for about half of it and lead to playing out some interesting NPCs. The system is designed for scoundrels, mone just happen to be less heroic, nothing wrong with that just a fact. Actually I should amend that statement they are heroic from an Imperial stand point, they are "relatively" upstanding imperial citizens trying to take down the nasty rebellion while starting their own in the shadows. I usually venture away from drug, sex, and rock and roll in my games becuase I like heroics, even when running an evil game I dont really bring it up much. But this game did allow me to break away from my norm and play with something I never really do. this had lead to double crosses, great RP moments where we had to describe what a Trandoshan looks like smiling and how a Hutt hits on someone after proving there are a great business partner.
All in all the game system was enjoyable but not fully developed for our particular campaign idea so we changed. I do plan on trying again sometime with more books but until then we play Saga's and gear up for Savage Worlds, but more on that later.
As for my last blog before leaving I discussed Star Wars a story line I love and have played many versions of in the past, since then I started a Star Wars Edge of Empire game with some friends. The game system itself is a fairly well built incremental character build system (skill based rather than class based for advancement). We did leave the vision of the game for a more rounded character/game concept so I have no real harsh feelings against the system, but on the flip-side I have no real strong feelings for the system. Instead I will look for the things I have learned form the system. In all actuality I will probably play the system again some time later as more supplements and rule books come out for the system as I did with other Fantasy Flight Games.
The Fantasy Flight RPG Model:
Fantasy Flight has proven themselves to be board game designers with a flair for story driven RPG mechanics. The model they used to design the mechanics of the game is similar in some aspects to their other popular game Warhammer Fantasy, and to a lesser extent the Warhammer 40K series. They design books that focus more on relative power level of play, in Star Wars' case they start with relatively low powered characters looking to make it in a harsh imperially dominated game space. Though given that you play at the edge of the empire (to steal a phrase) you dont even need to include too many imperials or even law beyond that fact that you are breaking it pretty often. More often than not your problems are other fringe members of galactic society. Were we found a problem was one of my players desire to play a force user, while introduced in this book, it is not fully developed and actually led to limiting the character concept with the constrains of the system as officially released to this point .
Yes I know that the rebellion book includes more stuff for force-users and even Jedi, but releasing that book second is a bit well, underwhelming. Star Wars to even the most uneducated person is lightsabers, lets face it. When anyone thinks of Star Wars the first general thoughts go to force-users. Now this isn't really as bad of a issue as it sounds. It will be fixed I know, I can see the thought process because Fantasy Flight has done this before.
Warhamer 40K = Space Marines right? The first book they made was the Inquisition book, Dark Heresy. While fun lets face it if you have read the books the inquisition is kind of similar to playing as investigators in Call of Cthulhu, you will probably die or go crazy and then maybe kill your friends. They introduced Psycher's a very basic element to the Warhammer 40K lore, if you have they game books look at them again using only the Dark Heresy rule-set. They are terrible PC Killing machines, half the time I created a game where the characters would simply show up to investigate a anomaly or a cult and the psycher would go unfettered on his power roll and summon all sorts of nasty chaos spawn after that the game basically boiled down to Friday Night Chaos Beast Fight Club sponsored by the Imperial Pyscher. Every book they put out though refined and redefined what psychers could do, this seemed very annoying because it was like patch notes for a video game, nerf one thing make something else out of control. But just like patches they were evidence of the game designers looking to improve the game. With Only War's release psychers have become more than just plot killing monster they are playable, it just sucks that we had to wait so long for it.
It looks like this is the idea with the force, its so huge that to heavily define it in the first book could ruin the game. Instead they are building the other elements to act as a counter to the force-users to some degree. While I like the approach again its kind of off putting to say, hey no force-users in my game because the rules on them are "weird" (I have a similar problem with magic in some games). So for now we have returned to Saga's edition despite its failings in certain areas but we brought with us some of the great stuff from Edge.
Edge has the Edge on:
Edge of the empire has a neat system in place for obligations that places an in game mechanic and penalty for creating a real character with flaws and a built in system for consequence that the character is aware of. Now there is still good old fashion note taking and NPC revenge against the players but the system places strain on the characters each game (depending on dice rolls) involving their backgrounds. This means if I am out of ideas for the game or had a poor planning session in the week where I just couldn't think of anything I would roll my dice for obligations. Next thing I know I was writing an adventure where the ship my character's buried themselves in debt to the Empire for was destroyed by a mega-fauna stranding them on a planet and forcing them into more debt to just get off planet. This was an amazing game just from flaws. I am going to take that away from the system if nothing else.
Drugs, there has been a lot of drugs in this game. In fact it has been a major source of income for about half of it and lead to playing out some interesting NPCs. The system is designed for scoundrels, mone just happen to be less heroic, nothing wrong with that just a fact. Actually I should amend that statement they are heroic from an Imperial stand point, they are "relatively" upstanding imperial citizens trying to take down the nasty rebellion while starting their own in the shadows. I usually venture away from drug, sex, and rock and roll in my games becuase I like heroics, even when running an evil game I dont really bring it up much. But this game did allow me to break away from my norm and play with something I never really do. this had lead to double crosses, great RP moments where we had to describe what a Trandoshan looks like smiling and how a Hutt hits on someone after proving there are a great business partner.
All in all the game system was enjoyable but not fully developed for our particular campaign idea so we changed. I do plan on trying again sometime with more books but until then we play Saga's and gear up for Savage Worlds, but more on that later.
Tag :
Star Wars,
Trying again
So for anyone curious I have been out of it with some changes lately (the last year really). I created this blog to work to find something new or find another system for my group and I. If you are interested in what happened to me look up, I got my AA in Studio Art and this happens to be one of my exhibits. I also got a different job that took up a bunch of my free time until I got my newest schedule, so I am back now. this is going to be a relatively short coming back blog post.
Any ways even if I haven't been posting I have continued my search for the perfect match of games for my group. I did a little background write up about Star Wars, the group since my last write up did run a Star Wars Edge of the Empire by Fantasy Flight Games. The system seemed like a pretty good start but fell short when we added a fringe force-user to the mix. The system was not really designed for this and we shifted back into Saga's for simplicity and are continuing to play that story now.
This time around I am going to focus more on what works for our table, and blog about the creation of my next game. For a system we have decided on Savage Worlds, but more on that in a later post. For now just know I am back to posting and I look forward to talking about the process I am taking to create a new world.
Tag :
General,
