'Barbarism is the natural state of mankind,' the borderer said, still staring somberly at the Cimmerian. 'Civilization is unnatural. It is a whim of circumstance. And barbarism must always ultimately triumph.'

-Robert E. Howard
Beyond The Black River

Corrupt Cliffs

Corrupt Cliffs
Get your FREE Narrative Terrain Deck today!

Wednesday, January 3, 2024

Sci-Fi Dungeon Sticks

Welcome back to the blog! 2024 is here and I'm done school, for now at least, leaving me more time to focus on gaming and my online presence! Near the end of 2023 the RPG Alliance held their annual convention, and I ran a couple of games: Vaesen online and Mothership in person. I had a great time running both and got to play some fun games.
Getting the game set-up at the convention.

Running Mothership in person prompted me to dig out my Ultimate Dungeon Terrain (check out how I built it!) and sci-fi scatter terrain so I could set up a few rooms on the fly if the players encountered the creatures lurking in the darkness of the derelict spacecraft. While I love the giant dungeon set-ups (both sci-fi and fantasy) I find them largely impractical, especially when it comes to traveling to and from a convention. Another aspect of many large dungeon set-ups I dislike are full-height walls. I find they make it hard for the players to see their miniatures and in the end, while looking cool, they just get in the way.
The sci-fi UDT with scatter terrain.

Of course, one solution is the 2.5d dungeon tile giving a hint of a wall without actually being a wall. This does not work that well with UDT-type setups. The solution to this is to use modular low or half-height walls, such as "Dungeon Sticks". Given the options I have stated so far it should come as no surprise that this is the method I employ. Digging out sci-fi terrain I haven't used since before the pandemic reminded me of a project I had worked on for an ALIEN game I ran: Sci-Fi dungeon sticks. Looking around I saw a few ideas (Check out this collection on Thingiverse) for this but I didn't love any of them, so I did what any self-respecting terrain-making GM would do, I designed my own solution.
Some new freshly printed scatter terrain for the game.

When I started this project I had a few ideas in mind. I wanted to leverage the 3d printer (Elegoo Mars), I wanted cool walls and I didn't want to print full-length walls to save on resin.

My solution was to print small end pieces that I could slot foam core into. I would then do some simple textures on the foam core and paint them up all the same. This ended up having two main advantages. The first was using less resin, and the second was to allow the walls to come apart for storage and transportation. Since I had the original STLs stored on an old computer I didn't have access to I had to redesign the STL, and at the same time, I created one that would accept straws as wall piping.

One of the 3d models for half-height walls.

I've made the basic stl files I used available on thingiverse if you are interested in trying these yourself.

One of the piping walls in action!

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Friday, September 15, 2023

ORBITAL DECAY: Mothershp 1e

An original one shot with Mothership 1e, to be run at the RPG Alliance Convention in November 2023.  



The Known Galaxy


SECC AMBITION






Monday, November 21, 2022

Year Zero Engine: Twilight 2000: Success rates.


I am almost certain there is some magical statistical way to figure this out, but although I have some knowledge of stats, I don't have that much.  I do however have enough knowledge to write a simple script to generate a LOT of random numbers.  So that is what I did.  


The script rolled each die 100,000 times and assigned success based on a roll of 6+ on either die.

==========D6==============

d6 & d0

Success Rate: 16%

d6 & d6

Success Rate: 30%

d6 & d8

Success Rate: 47%

d6 & d10

Success Rate: 58%

d6 & d12

Success Rate: 65%

==========D8==============

d8 & d0

Success Rate: 37%

d8 & d6

Success Rate: 47%

d8 & d8

Success Rate: 61%

d8 & d10

Success Rate: 68%

d8 & d12

Success Rate: 73%

==========D10==============

d10 & d0

Success Rate: 49%

d10 & d6

Success Rate: 58%

d10 & d8

Success Rate: 68%

d10 & d10

Success Rate: 75%

d10 & d12

Success Rate: 79%

==========D12==============

d12 & d0

Success Rate: 57%

d12 & d6

Success Rate: 65%

d12 & d8

Success Rate: 73%

d12 & d10

Success Rate: 79%

d12 & d12

Success Rate: 82%

If you liked this article then don't forget to subscribe to get the next exciting installment on pulp gaming both Sci-Fi and Fantasy!

If you have questions or comments don't forget to hit me up on TwitterFacebookYoutube or Instagram!
Make sure you don't miss a single post and subscribe by e-mail today! 

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Until next time!  Don't forget to KEEP IT WEIRD!

Tuesday, October 25, 2022

Dragonbane: Quickstart


Join us as a group of adventures seeking a great treasure within the ancient Riddermound!

Will you play a wolfkin, a halfling or, an elf... MAYBE a duck!?  Choose from 1 of 5 pre-generated characters (first come first serve!) and join me on roll20 to experience the next edition of this RPG!

Quickstart adventure using pre-gens for the 2022 RPG Alliance convention

Check back for more info!

Saturday, October 1, 2022

The Hunt: RPG Alliance 2022

 


As the longship made its way up the narrow channel, darkness began to descend around the battle-weary crew.  The Vanir knew it was time to take the ship to shore and make camp, for the river was treacherous at night.  In a few moments, the ship was secured, tied securely to a large tree, and the men had set to making camp.

Before the total darkness of night, a small band of the Vanir set off to find some game for the fire.  Into the dusk, these warriors went searching for rabbits or perhaps even a deer.  After the hunt, the group made their way back to the camp looking forward to a warm fire and a belly full of mead.  As they made their way back to the tents, all was silent.  There was no laughter. There was no light cast by a warming fire...

You will be that small group of Vanir set off to hunt, returning to a silent camp...

System: ICRPG Master Edition
Setting: The Hyborian Age, Nordheim.
Location: RPG ALLIANCE: DICKENS PUB!

Convention Link: https://tabletop.events/conventions/rpg-alliance-nov-19-20-2022/schedule/4


ICRPG is a rules-light, quick-to-learn and play d20-based system.  We will spend the first 10-15 minutes generating a unique Vanir warrior for you, and then you and your hunters will start deep in the forest tracking a deer, allowing you to get your heads around the mechanics before you return to your kin.

Never played ICRPG, NO PROBLEM.
Never played an RPG? NO PROBLEM.


Monday, August 29, 2022

Conan 2d20 : On The Grid

Conan 2d20 on the Grid

Introduction

Without a doubt I have spent a good amount of time discussing zones and ways to get them to work easily within the context of a miniatures based game of Conan 2d20. It is no secret I am a fan of the zone idea, liking how it places the game somewhere between theatre of the mind and the tactical battlemap. The closest I have come to this alternate set of rules was back in August, 2018 with this idea around rulers for zone combat. Rulers can work well, and lots of people are proponents of them, still they do add another bit to have to deal with and locate when a move occurs.

There can be times during a battle where the zone idea can be a little confusing, players may not know exactly where they are in relation to the enemy and might feel like things are on the unfair side. If the GM handles things less than diplomatically it can make the table less fun to play at. I had this occur recently at my table, and so I was keen to find ways to fix it. Since I had been playing a lot of 5e, the grid jumped out as a possibility. At present the following rules have been tested once in game play and they worked well enough. We have not yet tested area effect, but we discussed it after the game, and my players thought it might be on the large side, so that might be something to keep in mind.


Conan on the Grid: The Rules, v0.5

The abstract nature of zones fits a nice niche between theatre of the mind and the tactical grid-based combat of many games. Despite this, the grid aspect of many games is enjoyable and can make combat more tactical for some people. I have played both types of games and find that they both have their place. One of the benefits of grids over zones is knowing exactly where your character is. Having a miniature on a zone-based map can, at times, lead to confusion. Conan as written is a zone-based game. Within a turn, a player may make a standard action, a minor action, and many free actions. All three of these have a movement type associated with them, but a player can only use one of the movement types in a given turn.

Movement

Using a base of 30’, stolen from 5e, all players in Conan will move this base level. The adjust action, in my mind, exists to allow characters to interact with items in the same zone due to the positional abstraction inherent in zones. With this system removing positional abstraction, it also removes the adjust move action. A minor action is a move represented by a move at 30’ (or the character’s base movement) (Move) A standard action is a move represented by a move up to 60’ (or 2x the character’s base movement), this increases the difficulty of all skill tests this round by 1 (this does not affect the defend reaction) (Sprint)

Splitting Movement

A minor action allows you to move up to your base movement, usually 30’. If you move part of that distance and then complete a standard action, you can continue to use the remainder of your movement, however, all movement rules still apply. Ie if you move into combat, leaving combat will trigger a retaliate action, unless withdraw action is used, as a free action.

Optional Fast Movement

Every 2 points of focus in Move (for NPCs) or Acrobatics (for PCs) grant an additional 5’ of movement. A character with an acrobatics of 4 could move up to 40’ as an adjust action, 40’ as a regular move, and 40’ to 80’ as a sprint action.

Difficult Terrain

Difficult terrain will count as double movement for each square it occupies, ie a 5’ square of difficult terrain costs 10’ of movement to move through it. Players can make athletics/acrobatics checks to avoid this penalty.

Range

Ranges will also be based on the same concepts of a basic move being 30’
  • Close range, ie within a zone, is closer than 30’
  • Medium Range ie the next zone over is 30’-60’
  • Long Range, ie 2 zones, is 60’-90’
  • Extreme Range, ie more than 2 zones, is 90’+
Shooting outside of your effective range class increases the difficulty by 1 for each class. Ie A close range shooting to medium range is +1 difficulty and +2 difficulty to long range.

Ranges for Mobs/Squads

When determining the range for mobs measure the range from the middle of the mob. If the mob is straddling two range bands, choose the further range.

The Diagonal

The easiest way to handle diagonals is to simply allow them as a 5’ move.

Melee Combat

In order to engage in melee, combat miniatures must be in adjacent squares, this can be adjacent orthogonally or diagonally, this is known as base-to-base contact.

Withdraw

This is a standard move action, a character can move up to their base move when using this as their standard action. If the side withdrawing outnumbers their opponents this can be completed as a free action.

Protect Reaction

To use the protect reaction, the character using it must be adjacent to who they are attempting to defend.

Retaliate Reaction

This is triggered when a PC or NPC moves out of base-to-base contact without using a withdraw action.

Mobs and Squads

As members of the mob/squad are eliminated the back ranks will move to fill the front ranks. The mob or squad cannot leave base-to-base contact with their attacker as a result of the loss of members. Each member of the squad occupies 5’.

Interpose

In order for a mob to interpose themselves, they must be in base-to-base contact with the target of the original attack.

Flanking (optional)

If two or more opponents are attacking with at least 5’ between them, they can each re-roll one of their melee dice for free, the second roll stands.

Areas of Effect

Weapons that normally affect an entire zone now affect a 30’x30’ square. Complications on the roll cause it to drift in a random direction (1d8) 1d6*5’

Friday, February 18, 2022

Forbidden Lands: Character Creation


I wanted to put together a character creation walkthrough to help people build their Forbidden Lands Characters.  The process is pretty straightforward, but as with all things, there are always questions about how things are actually done.  In general the process involves 12 steps, but I am going to add a step 0.

Step 0: Get an idea of your character

It is always helpful to have an idea of the kind of character you want to play.  A muscular barbarian with a long sword?  A swift forest scout? A wrinkly old wizard with a grey beard? 

Of course there are times going the random route and having a character appear in your mind is fun as well.  The basic Forbidden Lands book doesn't have a life path system, but the Legends and Adventurers book does allow for a random life path creation system.


Step 1: Who are your people, pick your Kin.

Pretty basic decision here, have a look through the book and choose your race.  Elf? Wolfkin? Human?

Each of the carious Kin will have a few things to take note of.

  • Key Attribute
  • Kin Talent
  • Typical Professions
  • Typical Names

Step 2: What do you do, pick your profession:

Your kin has some typical professions that are the most common for your people, but you can pick any you want.  Choose one that best fits your character concept.  Like Kin your profession will give you a few things to take note of.
  • Key Attributes
  • Skills
  • Typical Nicknames
Your profession is also going to give you some more information about your character.  Three of them will influence your role play of the character and the people they interact with.  These are dealt with later in the character creation process in more detail.  You are free to make up your own, or choose from the samples.
  • Pride - Step 7 of character creation
  • Dark Secret - Step 8 of character creation
  • Relationships - Step 9 of character creation
The final thing your profession will give you is your basic gear, starting gold and resources

Step 3:  How long have you been around, how old are you.

You can pick one of three categories here, the actual number is less important.  Although there is a table that can give you an idea of this.
  •  Young
  • Adult
  • Old
Age will determine how many starting attribute and skill points you begin with.

Step 4: How strong and smart are you, what are your attributes.

You have four attributes to assign points to.  Each attribute must have at least a score of 2 in it.  The maximum you can place into a score is 4.  

If you have an attribute defined as a key attribute from your kin or profession it can be elevated to a 5.  

If you are of adult age and have 14 attribute points, you place 2 points into each of the 4 attributes leaving you with 6 points to elevate your scores.  

Step 5: What do you know how to do, what are your skills.

Like attributes your age determines how many skill points you have.  Unlike attributes these all start at 0.  You can still make attempts to use them, you just gain no extra dice.  

Any of the skills listed under your profession can have up to 3 points assigned, while the others can have a maximum of 1 point placed into them.

Step 6: Why are you a beautiful and unique snowflake, choose your talents.

You start with a number of talents.
  • Kin Talent
  • A profession talent of your choice (detailed in the Talents section)
  • A number of general talents, which is again dictated by your age.
Talents all have 3 ranks of ability in them, and you normally start with a rank of 1 in any talent you posses.  You can however choose to give up a general talent to gain a rank 2 in another.  This includes professional talents.  You can use one of your general talents to achieve rank 2 in a magic talent, for example.

Step 7: PRIDE!

You have had a look at this, and perhaps chosen what your pride is, this section in the rules details how it is used mechanically

Step 8: What lies in your closet, the dark secret.

Again this is looked at previously, this section simply details how it works within the game

Step 9: Who are you to me, who am I to the, relationships matter.

Simply a quick short sentence about how you feel about the other members of the party to help guide interactions and role play

Step 10: It is a harsh world and you are a tool using kin, get your gear!

You had some gear listed under your profession, you start with that.  If presented with a choice you are required to choose basic items.  Nothing rare, nothing magical.

You are assumed to have a knapsack and waterkin.

You can use your starting coins to buy additional gear before the game starts.

Step 11: What do you look like, choose your appearance.

Pretty straightforward here.  Choose how you look. 

Step 12: What do they call you, choose your name?

Pick a name.  There are samples provided for each kin, and nicknames for each profession.  Choose one of these or make up your own. 

Final thoughts.

With that you should have a character ready to go.  I haven't dug deeply into talents, as each talent and its abilities gained with ranks are individual, but with the main book and this you should be able to create a basic character fairly easily.

If you liked this article then don't forget to subscribe to get the next exciting installment on pulp gaming both Sci-Fi and Fantasy!

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Make sure you don't miss a single post and subscribe by e-mail today! 

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Until next time!  Don't forget to KEEP IT WEIRD!