Espeth Update

Hey fellow gamers!

It has been a while since I have posted anything concerning my fantasy world of Espeth.  Of late I have been working on several other projects which has left me scant time for my fantasy escapades.  That changed a few days ago when I began a more concerted effort to expand both the Espeth setting as well as the home-brew system I am writing.

I have decided to make some rather drastic changes to the original setting to make it more dynamic.  The way it stands now it is rather bland so I am hoping to shake that up some.  The first place I am working on is the region known as the Frontier... You may remember its description from an earlier post but here is the beginning (only a few paragraphs mind you) of the new Frontier.

I hope you enjoy it and if you have any input by all means, let me know!

https://www.dropbox.com/s/4f7m7ez0n71p3cp/Frontier%20redo.pdf

Man-Made Mythology RPG Review

Hello all.

Here we go with a new review of a new super-hero RPG...

Man-Made Mythology: A Comic Book RPG is the first offering from Critical Strike Publishing.  Designed off the venerable 3.x engine this game was made to allow the group to combine the flexibility of the OGL with the over-the-top action of the super-hero genre.  Although this idea is not entirely new it is something that this company approaches in a different manner than their colleagues.

The book begins off simply enough with the almost mandatory description of the hobby, a lexicon, and the methods for determining the characters starting Attributes.  It is in Chapter 2 that the company begins to illustrate their take on the comic-book world.  Chapter 2 begins with the racial descriptions and modifiers inherent to each of the four core races of Man-Made Mythology.

The first race presented is, of course, Humans.  After that we come to Reptiods, an alien lizard species that came to Earth millennia ago.  After that come the Synthetics which are mankind’s success at creating artificial life and finally there is the matriarchal race of warrior-women the Valkyries.  There isn’t anything especially noteworthy about the starting racial choices but they fill their roles well and give the Players several options to choose from without over-doing it.

Chapter 3 begins with detailing the procedure to generate the characters Alter-Ego.  Each Alter-Ego lists any sort of requirements that must be fulfilled as well as the Skills, Bonus Feats, and any Resource modifiers that come with that choice.  The options here range from the bookish Academic, to Emergency Services characters, to Soldiers.  The nice thing is that the choices also include things such as a Rural upbringing to flesh out the section.

In Chapter 4 the games Classes are presented.  There are 10 Classes available in the core-rules and these include enough options to make a variety of iconic characters.  This chapter also begins with the Advancement guidelines and the rules for multi-classing.  The individual Classes are presented in the familiar format found in most 3.x games so one who is familiar with them will have no problem understanding them. 

The same holds true for the next two chapters which go into detail about the games Skills and Feats.  Although there are some new ideas presented here there is nothing truly unique to those familiar with the genre or overall 3.x games.  There are some new feats presented, but these are mostly variations of existing ones that amplify the characters power usage and help further define their abilities.

It isn’t until Chapter 12 after the mandatory rules on equipment, combat, magic usage and the like that the games super-powers, known as Mythic Abilities, are explained.  There are 50 powers fleshed out in Man-Made Mythology and each comes with 10-levels of modifiers to that power.  The first mythic ability is Body Armor and while it provides basic protection it can also increase other attributes, mitigate critical hits, and provide damage reduction to the Character as they advance it.  In my opinion there could have been many more powers given here and although the ones that do exist are detailed nicely I just like my supers games to have a-lot of options when it comes to powers.

All in all I give Man-Made Mythology a 3 out of 5 rating.  Is it anything entirely new and spectacular?  No, but I feel it does a better job of emulating the genre than most of its predecessors using the 3.x engine.  I am interested in seeing what other offerings the company provides as time passes as I feel there is are a lot of options available for expansion.  Man-Made Mythology could become a very well rounded game but only time will tell.

Busy Busy

Hey gang!

As the title of this post says things have been busy around here.  Between Real Life issues and a couple of outside projects I am working on things have been crazy.  That is OK though, in many ways being busy is a good thing.  It gives me less time to get frustrated with all my personal projects.

What outside projects you ask?  The first is a full-blown review of the super/comic-book game 'Man-Made Mythology" while the second is doing a beta read-through for another companies game.  Neither of these are paying gigs mind you, but they keep me in the loop and allows me to expand my horizons a bit.  As soon as I am done with the review for Man-Made I will be posting it on here for all to read.

Art wise I have finally started to draw again.  It is going slow of course but hey...progress is always good right?  I have art to do for an upcoming MADS project, concept art for a friends RPG, and of course work for my own projects.  Oh the excitement.

On the personal writing front I have finished the writing work for my next G-Core project I just have to finish the art.  My new Invulnerable project is progressing along very well now and I am excited to see where it goes.

In the next couple of days I plan to do a review of the fantasy game Legend.  I will post that as soon as I can.  It is one system that I enjoy although it is truly a dangerous and bloody game.  It is not at all like the system I am writing and that may be a good thing.

Thanks as always for reading and Keep on Gaming!

Super Tuesday 8

And here we go!

Today I am going to post a write-up for one of my characters for my upcoming Invulnerable project.  The statistics need to be fixed (thanks Joshua) but the basics are there and enough to allow someone to understand what type of person he is.  Currently I have cut down on my projects in order to concentrate on one at a time so that I can finish each one more quickly.  The first to be finished is my Invulnerable project (yet to be named).  Next will be my next G-Core book entitled Rally Cry: After the Fall.  Somewhere in there I will find time to work on my own fantasy system/setting.

Without further ado, here is Capitol

Capitol

David Detweller has carried the mantle of Capitol since the 1950’s, making him one of the oldest extraordinaries still operating to this day.  David was granted his formidable powers by exposure to strange radiation given off by a tiny fragment of a meteor.  His father had instilled within him a deep sense of patriotism and honor and David quickly donned a star-spangled costume in order to protect others.

It was shortly after the formation of Freedom 5 that David was the victim of an ancient spell that bound his life-force to that of the undead terrorist Adam Lazarus.  Lazarus cursed David by making it impossible for him to age thereby forcing him to suffer the pain of watching all those he cared for wither and die from the ravages of time. 

Secret Identity: David James Detweller, government agent and team leader of Freedom 5

 
Awesomeness Level: 5

Origin: Freak Accident 3, Cursed 2

Motivations: Justice, Law

Physical Attributes    Mental Attributes

AGI:     5                      INS:     5

STR:     7                      PER:     6

TGH:    7                      WIL:    7

Powers

Absorb Energy                         3 (18)

Absorb Impact                         3 (18

Improved Absorb Energy          3 (18)

Growth                                     1 (5)

·         Larger 

 

Hyper-Strength                        3 (21) (+24 enhancements)

·         Crushing Blow

·         Powerhouse

·         Straight to the Moon

·         Super Leaping

·         Thunderclap

Hyper-Toughness                     3 (1+2) (14) (+14 enhancements)

(All from Cursed)

·         Immortality

·         Regeneration

·         Unstoppable

Basic Talents

Athletics                      2

Close Combat                3

Dodge                           3

Education                     1

Intimidation                 4

Metahuman Lore           4

Notice                          2

Self-Control                 3

Advanced Talents

Authority                     6

Courageous                   4

Weaknesses

Achilles Heal (Sliver, Cold Iron)
Despairing                    2

Distant                         3

Regretful                     3

Oathbound                   3

Assets

Init                  10

Physical Resources

HLT

LIF                   12

VIG                  31

Mental Resources

DET                  18

REP                  10

Defenses

CDEF                16

RDEF                13

MDEF               22

Details

Sex: Male

Preference: Heterosexual

Height: 6’1”

Weight: 200 lbs.

Eyes: Blue

Hair: Brown

Hair Style: Military style flat-top

Skin Tone: Caucasian

Costume/Clothes: David’s costume bears a stars-and-stripes motif designed to inspire others while reminding them of what they are fighting for.  In those rare occasions when David is not in uniform he wears military fatigues or other comfortable but sturdy clothing.

Personality: David has spent decades battling evil in all its forms and this constant struggle is beginning to weigh on him heavily.  He has become quiet and withdrawn although he still leads the current incarnation of Freedom 5 with dignity.  David worries that he will never see the defeat of Adam Lazarus and will suffer from forced immortality forever.

Goals: To protect the United States and democracy across the world.  David also seeks to locate and somehow slay Adam Lazarus, thereby ending his own immortality.

Obstacles: David is quickly becoming a man out of touch with the times.  His constant battles plus his naturally introverted nature have combined to create an isolated man who doesn’t understand much of what is happening around him.  When outside of battle David spends his time trying to fathom the actions of other extraordinaries.  He has trouble comprehending the sorry nature that the world is spiraling to and fervently hopes to help change the world for the better before his mission is complete.

Central Contradiction: Despite his heroic nature and constant defense of the “American Dream” David is severely out of touch with that ideal.  While he has spent his life protecting others he has done little to experience what it means to be an American.  He has never spent a day on a vacation, rarely slept anywhere other than in a barracks, and has never been in love.

System Basics

Hey gang,

For the last few days I have been working somewhat diligently on my home-brew RPG system.  As I have mentioned several times before is is a frustrating, but enjoyable process.  My goal here today is to post a bit about the basic mechanics and go from there in further posts.

The most basic mechanic of the system is to use a single d20 to determine success or failure.  Whenever the d20 is rolled any sort of pluses or minuses are applied to the result and if the total meets or exceeds the Target Number then the check succeeds.  Things that can modify the d20 roll include attribute modifiers, range, darkness, and a myriad of other things.

There are 5 Primary Attributes; Body, Reflex, Intellect, Intuition, and Presence.  These make up the core of the characters abilities.  There are also a number of Secondary Attributes that determine the more minute things about the character.  Health, Defense (melee, ranged, mental), Initiative, and Power Points are all secondary attributes.

In order to perform a skill check the Player rolls 1d20 and adds their relevant Skill Rank plus their related Attribute Rank.  The basics of this are neither new, nor ground breaking but they are what I like so that gives them some weight, at least to me.

Work on my Invulnerable project is somewhat stalled at the moment.  Nothing bad has happened I am just going through one of my bouts of self-doubt as to what direction to go with the overall setting.  I know, I know, get it together.  I would but I am a bundle of over-thinking and questions :D  In the meantime I am still working on the basic Rally Cry setting and going from there.

Artwork is progressing although as slow as normal, but you all know that is nothing new right?  

Later this week I will be posting some of the classes and skills for my system along with more information about a couple of my other ideas that I have.

Thanks as always and keep on Gaming! 

Fatigue is tiring me out...

Hey all,

So as you can see from the title of this post, and the fact that I have been absent for a while I am still battling my fatigue.  But enough of that, let me get to the gaming goodness.

This post, which may ramble as usual, is based off of a question I have been asking myself for a while now.

When does inspiration go to far?

The reason I am asking this is that while I work on my own homebrew RPG system I have noticed that I am taking a number of cues from my favorite system.  I know that by itself that isn't a problem, but I worry that I may be going to far and instead of using it for inspiration I am trying to emulate it too much.  There are many things I like and dislike about my inspiration and I hope that I am making something my own out of it.

That all being said there are a metric butt-ton of emulators out there for various RPG's.  Look at the plethora of OSR products and the slew of OGL games.  I guess my self doubt is a bit pointless, but the question is still there.  Any thoughts you all may have would be greatly appreciated.

On a related note writing is progressing well on my Invulnerable project.  After many internal debates I have settled things and the initial setting book is done writing wise.  The NPC's need to be finished, then of course artwork and layout but hopefully that sort of stuff won't take to long.  I have decided to release my projects on the Pay What You Want model.  This way I can get my thoughts out there for the masses (hah) and if someone enjoys it enough to pay for it then great, if not, well so be it.

Artwork continues on a number of projects which is good, it keeps me busy.

Ok, I am off to work on more system related goodness.  I am planning to post the basics of the system here on this blog this weekend at the latest.

As always thanks for your time and keep on Gaming!!

Super Tuesday 7

Hey gang!

Here we are again.  Another somewhat exciting delve into my mind and what I consider fun.  I had planned to review this nifty little supers/heaven/hell game I found, but I will be damned if I can find it on either of my computers.  It is kind of odd how that happens to me.  Of course it may have to do with the fact that I have several gigs of supers-related stuff on my computer... Ah well, maybe next time.

Capes or Realism.  Which is better?  I know that with the BIG 2 (Marvel and DC) that there is a huge difference.  DC is more colorful and 'Heroic', full of good deeds, evil-doers and daring do (well before the New 52 at least) while Marvel has been becoming increasingly darker.  I have a soft spot for both types but since my formative reading years took place during the Iron Age that is decidedly my favorite type.

So dark comics are my fave.  Sure, but I still enjoy a good DC story now and then.  Blackest Night was really good, so was the Superman event Our Worlds at War.  I don't know, maybe I am just to much of a pessimist to really enjoy a lot of DC stuff, but I hope to change that.  It also doesn't help that the only local store I shop at barely carries any DC TPB but has a ton of Marvel things.

It may seem odd coming from me, but I think comics, especially my own ideas, are TOO dark.  Sure, there is room for heroics and daring-do, but the world will barely notice.  I mean in one of my idea I wiped out over 1/3 of the world with a plague and then had the big bad of the campaign wipe out most of the East Coast.  Grim to say the least.

And where do fun and exciting characters stand in such darkness.  I like Spider Mans attitude (well Peter Parker not the Doc-Ock crap).  It is good to have a happy-go-lucky quipster in the mix to help keep things light.  I enjoyed him as an Avenger more than solo though for some reason...

In my opinion there needs to be more 'fun' characters running around.  There needs to be more light to offset at least some of the darkness to make it feel as if there is at least a chance the good-guys can really win.  Ah well, I am rambling... This is the kind of thing I could go on about for hours.

And what about women in comics?  I mean why are there so many leather-wearing, whip/rope carrying, bondage-type ladies running around?  Sure, I understand that comics are by, and aimed, mostly at men, but sheesh can it get much worse?  Then again I think my dislike of this has to do with my general attitude towards costumes of late.  I think it has to do with the settings I am working on, where the supers don't wear them.  Sometimes it's better to fly-low and stay under the radar.  A bright red cape with a glowing symbol on it doesn't say stealth to me.

Oi... what was I talking about??

Keep on gaming my friends!!