Robinhoo Is Here: the Early Bus To Qalidar

I sat down last night to read Peryton's (R. Christina Lea/Robin) pre-release of Qalidar: The Resistance. I can't tell you how much fun I have reading works in their not-too-rough states. Printed pages with early formatting and illustrations included, bound together in an older folder. Even having to read it with glasses because of the ink-saver was on when it printed up doesn't diminish this enjoyment. This was even more the special treat because Pery has been keeping this work close to the chest.

I paid pretty close attention to the rules section because I appreciate how others write up pretty basic concepts when it comes to our hobby. It can be a very boring and rather daunting task, so I wanted to be able to add a comment or two showing that someone besides the hordes of rules-lawyers and munchkins in future sit-down sessions had paid attention at one point in time. It's like a dude cooking for his love interest, happens once in a while.

It was also nice to see that she kept it down to six attributes. Though I try to have a certain amount of symmetry between the main die used in the game and the PC attributes, I have to admit I like six stats in a game.  The number is like the 6-sided die in my mind, a mixture of pre-D&D familiarity and geometrically common.  She uses Strength, Constitution, Agility, Intelligence, Perception, and Power. Despite the system being D20, Pery moves away from crazy Gygaxisms that I noticed in the Peryton RPG. Power being both the willpower and the strength of personality (charm) of the character. There is an attribute for Perception, and it isn't based on a stat called Wisdom. Finding a use for that stat has been a sisyphean task for the D&D-heads for almost 50 years. The rationale used for perception rolls being based off a character's wisdom have been as long and convoluted as them trying to think of how Wisdom in the context of a role-playing game is useful in the first place. This little bit of "outside the red box" thinking was nice to see.

The following play mechanics were, as I stated above, D20 based so mostly my eyes glazed over as I pined for the time I could read about creatures and the setting itself. But I was able to follow along with the core concepts. The Robinhoo Knacks are still there as Scooby-snacks for the PeryRPG player. I liked the combat system that doesn't need miniatures. That is unless the GM and players really want them.

It is still a character-class RPG, which I like better than a classless game (Sorry Andre). Maybe it's the role-playing writer in me, but I find working from a pre-molded character type is a nice starting point for me as a role-player.  In alphabetical order there is  the Ascendant, the Fixer, the Karcist,  the Mystic, the Scrapper, and the Sharp. The Scrapper and the Sharp aren't too hard to explain, a "warrior" and a "marksman" familiar to most role-players. The Ascendant is like a cyborg or chemically-enhanced person. The Fixer is something in the order of a gum and hair-clip engineer/inventor. The Karcist is a techno-magus or maybe better put as a quantum-metaphysicist. I am not going to go into the Mystic here, because I think it has to be read to be truly appreciated-- needless to say, I think Pery did a keen job on this one's description.

These types start to get at how Pery is handling the very hard task of doing trans-dimensional settings in role-playing games. Early settings like this one were essentially weapon manuals with some rules for "psionics" and then the author pointed the potential GM towards the doorway to his own imagination. And then the every frequent RPGs based on this or that TV series or movie, which gets dated rather quickly and its merchandise quick dust-collectors awaiting that special buyer on E-Bay.

Though I like to say, loudly and in public as often as I can, where some trademark creatures of my own games have slipped into Pery's games, I am playing. When two fantasist writers get married this sort of germination happens as well as the sharing of germs. A couple of my critter ideas of mine have indeed crept into this work. She has taken the concepts, as well as the paid-for yet unused artwork, and reworked them into something that  works for her work. Ironically, only one that I came up with directly for Qalidar made its way there. And that one was more of a parody of typical Dr. Who villains in the later series than anything else. Still when you see sewer monkeys and variations of Pyramid-heads, my heart swells with pride.

One of the Pics from the original

Finally getting to the setting, I became fascinated by the new Qalidar setting. Now the gorgon sisters play a prominent role as well as the thirteen moon zodiac. These points growing from the Medusa's Path of the Spiral in the original Qalidar write up. Still working my head around the Outside and Stormport, as a GM. The addition of the Synarchy is new, and I am hoping for a few more developments if insidious in their manner and approach. Peryton even went as far to put up an introduction scenario in the back. But she left out my favorite part of the adventure, as part of the playtest group we all shared a much beloved and cherished Aunt Betty.

Well this isn't the finished product. I wonder if a Kickstarter is needed to get Aunt Betty where she belongs?

Wobble: Planets of the Apes

Mahnkee-

Bipedal simians like ourselves but with apes-like features. They come from a universe where furry bipeds evolved into what humans became in our own. They seem to be very comfortable with technology of the 20th - 21st century just like us. They also speak the same languages as we do. The history and nations referenced in conversations with this species though are completely unknown to us. "Racial" tensions arise between the more distinctive forms of them (the Rillas, the Chimps, and the Tangs), but like us they are moving beyond them towards a highly functioning global community.

Wobble: MY Pyramid-Heads

The Pyramid-Heads-

As close as anybody wants to get.

Genetically-engineered warriors that were up for sale as cannon fodder to the highest bidder, or bidders. It was not uncommon for pyramid-heads to wage war upon upon other pyramid-heads for the interests of others. The injustice fell short of their notice. In their make-up coding they are not all that bright. But, like all living things, the survivors did learn. So things changed.

It was this learning that enabled the luckiest and toughest of them to grow wise enough to rebel against their designers and retailers. The leaders of the rebellions seized the cloning machines and the designs for themselves. They also went about making their former makers and buyers as close to being extinct as possible. Genocide is a word so casually thrown about these days, but Pyramid-heads use it with a trans-dimensional meaning that surpasses our usage.

These rebellious leaders would split into different clans, sometimes nations. Most tend to offer their services as mercenary forces. As individuals, pyramid-heads are not noted for their empathy towards others. They have a reputation for brutality if not downright cruelty.

Pyramid-heads were designed for adaptability and working in varying physical environments so there is a long list of area-specific mutations. But as they are cloned they are from one basic design. This has not doomed them as an inter-dimensional species. They seem to be thriving. Though not designed originally for brilliance or genius, nothing but cannon fire is holding them back. Various factions of note have more than capable leaders. More than a few have become marauder pirates of various dimensions, to varying degrees of success.

Stepping Up But Not On the TACK

Well the first game system for TACK is out. Crawlspace 13 was released on the first mostly for the folks planning on playing in horror events at GenCon and Carnage this year. I am trying not to think any more settings at this time for the Action Card system, because I have to get some my dice based games out before GenCon. But Wobble and Powder-Punk may very well end up with their own deck of cards, figuratively folks, one day.

Response has been awesome and I thank everyone buying a copy so far. I might be able to afford a new set of work boots for my day job before GenCon without working OT. Mind you, my uniforms wouldn't be so ratty and threadbare if I weren't paying for Crawlspace 13 all spring already.

There are various bits and pieces coming together that may just lead to a series of horror scenarios in the upcoming year. I have mostly complete notes for "The Monolith's Keeper" and "Cigarette" from the Dark Gathering last May. David Crowell's "Beer Run" should be on the stove. And of course Mike Larsen has had a couple ideas sketched out and waiting since 2010, maybe before. "The New Girl Is Such A Witch" is a Larsen title that comes to mind.

Do me a favor friends, hold me to getting out these scenarios. To speak for myself, this game system is going to be the foundation for some awesome horror tales to come. I am freed of a lot of self-imposed preconceptions of how to write for the horror genre in role-playing. I can change tone with the session, and play to group of repeat players. I am dying to see where the meta-campaign goes.

The Wobbling Ship

Actually it should be the Wobbleship, and it was first called the Wobble Machine. It's been more about the folks and not the vessel. It started out with the introductory scenario for WHAP!, a set of rules written mostly to make rules for adventures being written by Mike Larsen for my game, SPACERS(TM), which was not designed to used for "steam-punk high adventure" as he called it. I couldn't get WHAP down to one specific time period of technology, and I couldn't get straight steam punk because it'd require being overly specific in the rules. I just wasn't feeling that. So I went with a broad timeline of actual history, at least according to wikipedia, and play sessions would pop up from then and when they would.

I, as a player, got to go from 19th Century New York to far eastern Russia in Mike's steam punk games. I explored the Congo between the World Wars. Ken St Andre popped in with dinosaurs popping up in the middle of a dime Western. Then in 2012, Robin, would have the Wobble Machine, from "The Wobble Machine" scenario, show up and take me as a player to her Qalidar, which is beyond space and time, I think, with "Any Port In a Storm." The dimension traveling vehicle had grown from its bus-sized interior into a full barque complete with its original pyramid-headed crew, but much trippier in their own design as well.

It is from here, where Wobble comes from. "Wobble" is going to be my space and time traveling role-playing pieces. It is where my players' characters will bump into strange and alien worlds. Not in a rocket ship or walking around with a sword and shield. Well, thinking about it, even if they are in space or are carrying medieval equipment. Other folk's space and time traveling works will be bumped into as well. I want to explore the games of Qalidar: Resistance and The Time Shredders. There will also be plenty of my own pretty abundant, if prosaic, creations as well.

Parts of the backgrounds will be posted here. Stay tuned.

Going T.A.C.K.Y.

Over at my other blog I wrote about when I lost my pre-generated characters for my midnight games of Call of Cthulhu at GenCon last summer. Well, the improvising that I did to get the players to develop characters in about 25 minutes did a couple of things for me. It helped me boil down the parts of the BRP system that I liked, and inspired me to turn more than a bit of it on it's head. It also gave me some deeper insight into how the genre of horror works for me as a GM.

It's been a Winter and Spring of renewed discovery for me. While I have been still working on T&T scenarios for my Kopfy's Swamp of Doom, and gathering others work not just for an upcoming issue of Elder Tunnels, my true efforts have been elsewhere. This has been for a few reasons. With the soon-to-be-released Deluxe T&T just around the corner, it kind of makes working hard on new 7plus scenarios seem pointless. I've liked every edition better than the last one when it comes to that system, so I am not ready to join the "retro-guard" of game writers writing for that special publishing release from yester-year just yet. At the table-top itself, I find my d6 games that aren't T&T get better responses than when I use a d10 percentile system, so this has developed into something. And thanks to some play-by-post sessions over the years, I have a pretty nifty playing-card based rule system worked out.

In case you haven't noticed, I write rule systems to help me from having to look up rules. So combining T&T and BRP concepts. I've developed TROTT. No longer "Tom's Rip-Off of T&T" (TAG) but now Tom's Really Outstanding Table-Topping. The rule are being adopted it to my Spacers game. This is being worked on as we speak and I am hoping to have it completed sometime in August. In the final phase of production is Glow, a rules set for a post-apocalyptic setting that I have running on-line over the last 18 months or so for groups here and there. This project should be out in early July.

At the end of May, the Dark Gathering took place. Our little, well largest ever actually, gaming Hoot, focuses on horror. As you all know, everyone at a Hoot is a potential GM, though once you get over a handful of attendees, not everyone gets to GM something but that's something for a different time. So I had to step up my game as a GM. The puzzle of how to get players to invest in their Characters that do carry on from one scenario to the next without becoming superheroes or good monsters, was what I set my mind to. And using humor and surreality in its writing I re-envisioned Crawlspace, into what is now Crawlspace 13.

The results on the table was some of the best horror sessions I have seen. The players who love horror scenarios liked it enough to shower praise on it and more importantly play in more sessions and run their own. I also had to avoid a lot of paperwork for the players because they are used to one-shot pre-generated characters and quick mechanic resolution over too much detail. so with that in mind, I formalized a system of using playing cards instead of numbers. This is now Tom's Action Card Kit, or T.A.C.K.. Adventures in TACK are called "Yarns," so I've gone T.A.C.K.Y.  more than once this last season. This system is days away from final release.

Part of the discovery of the last many months has been rediscovering Robin's, err Peryton's Qalidar and stumbling upon Brandon G. Osario's The Time Shredders. There is something refreshing and fun for me with time/dimension traveling role-playing. But I am a scenario writer more than a player, so I intend on writing for both of these systems. Of course, I have to come up with my own creatures and major personas so I'll be posting them here, as I won't be going out of my way to develop my own system for this genre, err sub-genre.

Well, that's the explanation for the re-purposing of the Many-Headed Troll. Now back to work for me.

The War Cry

One of the more recurring discussions this last weekend in Toledo, at BASHCon 2013, between experienced T&T players and the newcomers, was the high Charisma of various monstrous Kin in the rules. While I and others, both G'noll and Jherri, kept explaining that the Charisma stat isn't really just how attractive or likeable a Character is to everyone marveling at a Living Skeleton or a Minotaur's high modifiers, an idea occurred to me as to how to illustrate it. The battle cry, or the war cry, is definitely a part of physical, sometimes non-physical conflict. So I thought of a way of using it in Our Game's combat.

In between the Missile phase and the Hand-to-Hand phase of combat, those charging at each other can raise a cry trying to demoralize their opponents. War cries do not help with Magic attacks or Missile shots. They flat out spoil Ambushes. But when it comes to up close and personal fight, it scare away a number of smallish, unimportant NPCs. When the NPCs are worked out, or even when its Character versus Character, each side must roll against the CH or the person/creature that they are fronting to not lose their Luck rating in their Combat Adds.

Just idea. But it was the combat Talent, that I ever allowed that added something to the narrative since I have been playing with them since the release of 7th edition.