tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-45663573732483440312024-03-15T19:11:35.160-06:00Realms of ChirakDoctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.comBlogger2409125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-89996559774989541672024-03-07T10:58:00.002-07:002024-03-07T11:07:23.980-07:00Dreams & Machines - Some First Thoughts<p> This is a very brief post to mull over a couple odd thoughts about <a href="https://www.dreamsandmachines.com/">Dreams & Machines</a>, the new 2D20 powered RPG from Modiphius. I snagged it yesterday, and am still ploughing through it so this is not a review, but this game evoked some immediate comparisons and observations to me. </p><p>First and most interestingly when I read the back cover text I got this "exploring the unknown, Gamma World style" vibe but the books were sealed in plastic wrap so I bought them sight unseen based on this.</p><p>Second, on opening the book I was surprised that the books had a lot less art than I was expecting. Some of the art and the text blurbs are evocative of a kid's observations, and indeed there is some subtext to that effect.....but the game is, unlike its closest obvious influence (Tales from the Loop) not necessarily about rolling up kids in a world of abandoned giant robots. It's about rolling up adults in a world of abandoned giant robots. </p><p>The Tales from the Loop comparison is inescapable. The art is varied in D&M but the best color pieces evoke people (sometimes kids) walking around giant robots. Some of the images look fairly menacing, but mostly its due to the spartan "shadows on shadows at night" style of the artist. The actual text of D&M is a lot more whimsical and youth-friendly; I haven't encountered anything (yet) that would suggest to me you couldn't hand this game to a 12-14 year old and regret it. </p><p>I also felt like there's a slight bit of Numenera evoked in this book, but mostly Tales from the Loop. </p><p>There's a lot of expository text setting up the world, how humans got there, and how and why robots are everywhere. The foes book is not all robots though. All told so far its an interesting read. </p><p>The layout and style of the book is weird, though. It is not nearly as art-heavy or evocative as I thought, and the book barely manages to capture any style of its own; it feels too easy to draw comparisons to other RPGs that already occupy this same niche-within-a-niche genre. It feels to me like maybe an earlier draft of D&M really did focus on kids and robots, and someone midway said, "That's too on the nose, lets make them adults," but a lot of the sample text remained narratively from this kid. </p><p>All that aside, I am still reading and it is quite interesting. A lighter side apocalyptic exploration book is cool enough, and there is ample room in the market for this kind of take. I could not dig the Tales of the Loop "kids on bikes" adventure theme anyway, I spent all my life trying to get away from being a kid, so I am content with D&M focusing on a broader picture. </p><p>I'll post a more proper review soon enough, but wanted to share these initial thoughts!</p><p><br /></p><p>EDIT: Worth mentioning, the book is starkly white pages with line drawings (meant at times to look simple or childish deliberately, I think), and it is so stark and simple that I feel this is the consequence of Modiphius being overly sensitive to the complaints about prior books (especially Star Trek) having white text on black backgrounds. Now it feels somehow....readable but almost plain and undercooked? Not a real critique, just a comment on how the layout feels to me. It still works for its intent.</p><p><br /></p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-32341251155490215462024-03-06T11:23:00.004-07:002024-03-06T11:23:31.729-07:00Long Time No Blog! Deathbat Updates<p> Man I have fallen off the blog wagon this year....even my efforts to do twice a week quickly fell to the wayside. 2024 may be the year I just learn to blog when I feel like it, rather than try to maintain any schedule. It probably doesn't help that I have been generally more relaxed on my RPG focus lately.</p><p>Mainly what I've done so far in the first quarter of this year is: reduce the amount of time I spend in VTT gaming, due to developing a general aversion to wanting to run games in the medium. I just burned out, and I am no longer afraid to admit it. VTT GMing is not as fun for me as live gaming, and I now have managed to get my Wednesday night and every other Saturday game into a live environment which is great. I'm running D&D 5E Wednesdays, and Traveller (MGT2E) on Saturdays. </p><p>I am still playing in some VTTs as a player, though. On off Saturdays a friend of mine started Pathfinder 2E. We are all horrendously rusty at it, and for the first time ever I felt like maybe we were all getting a bit too old for the needless complexity of Pathfinder 2E, but really I am just peeved that they nerfed the PF2E skill system so much.....for god's sake, why does Society and Perception cover everything???? If you aren't going to lean in to skill diversity then just cut them. I really dislike it. I think I may be ready at last to cut the cord on Pathfinder 2E, time away from it has not made it age well (and that includes the revamped edition).</p><p>Aside from that I am in a very infrequent D&D game, I got an invite to another which I am considering, and we may start another online Call of Cthulhu game tomorrow. I'm a player in each, which is fine with me.....I need a prolonged break from GMing in VTT. Maybe I can pick up the mantle again next time we have a major pandemic. I kid! But not really. </p><p>I am, of course, putting all my eggs in one basket....a Kobold Basket, to be precise: Tales of the Valiant is what I am talking about. Nice to know it will be out before the 50th anniversary D&D totall-not-6th-edition, too! I am looking forward to playing this.</p><p>I am also planning to run Dragonbane, which I have grown even more fond of with the new hardcover core rules and Bestiary. This book does for me what I wished Magic World would have done.</p><p>So for 2024, I have very few plans to buy in to new books or expand. I have a collection which is quite robust and --honestly?-- probably needs to shrink. I was in talks with a gentleman las year about handing some of my collection off before I lost track with him, need to see if I can find his email. Indeed if you're reading this and still interested drop me an email!</p><p>Anyway, maybe I can get more on track with posting, but no promises....who knows!</p><p><br /></p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-16500414674065414262024-02-07T08:00:00.005-07:002024-02-07T11:08:00.002-07:00Oman'Hakat - The First World - Introduction<p> In 2019 I devised a new campaign setting that was initially focused on the region of Osinre, a sort of analog for Egypt and north Africa during the late bronze age. I used it for a couple D&D 5E games, but the campaign rapidly evolved into the setting I used for my first Pathfinder 2E and I have stuck with using PF 2E for it ever since. Here at last I'm going to post details on this world I devised so it can rest along with the other campaign settings I have archived on the blog over the years.</p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 28pt; line-height: 107%;">OMAN’HAKAT – The First
World<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 20pt; line-height: 107%;">Part I An Introduction and Overview </span></b></p></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Themes<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Oman’Hakat is a
setting which focuses on a world steeped in old-world, archaic traditions and
mysticism. Although there is evidence of past civilizations, most of the memory
of these older empires is lost to myth and folklore. Oman’Hakat is dominated by
three major lands: The river kingdoms of Osinre, the island kingdoms of Caelde,
and the northeastern Empire of Harkuum. South of Osinre is a wild and untamed
wilderness split between the grassy wilderlands of Adantos and the vast
southern jungle kingdoms of Omsetar. The people of all these lands collectively
refer to the world at large as Oman’Hakat, derived from a common word shared
between the lost empires of old to mean “The First World.”</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">The Ancients</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Thuln and the Giants of
Caelde<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Caelde is nestled on
an island northwest of the Osinre mainland. The people of Caelde believe they
descend from a fabled northern empire which sank beneath the waves during the
last war of the dead gods, called Thuln. The people settled on the isle of
Caelde and have dwelt here for over a thousand years now. Caelde is dotted with
a mixture of ancient ruins believed to have been built by ancient giants, men
who stood 8 feet tall and left behind wordless relics of an enigmatic past, and
younger ruins of the wood elves of the Caelwood (who call themselves the Cael)
which suggest a greater elven civilization at one time. The wood elves claim
they arrived on the island two thousand years ago, and the ruins of the giants
were old even then.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Kadt of Osnire<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Osinre, the
people of this land believe they are descended from the fallen empire of Kadt which
was once nestled in the vast region now called the Kal’Osinre Desert. Kadt
erected vast and impressive ancient monuments and left behind impressive cities
of architectural design impossible by modern understanding, suggesting they
were powerful sorcerers, but it is believed these humans, possibly the first
men, were all slain in the Deluge created by the War of the Dead Gods. The
ruins have been dormant for at least three thousand years, which is the time
most scholars believe the War of the Dead Gods took place.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Lost Khesht, the Black
Lands and the Edge of the World in Harkuum<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In Harkuum, a large
inland empire stretching to the east where it meets the Bowl of the World
Mountains, this ancient land shows dotted remnants of pre-deluge empires of
old, all likely drowned by the Dead Gods in their lost war. In most of the
civilized territories of the Empire these ruins are normally attributed to the
lost empire of Khesht, a quasi-mythical era of history after which the Emperor
himself aspires to reforge a modern empire. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Along the edge of
the Bowl of the World Mountains are immense statues erected to the Titans,
believed to either be the victors in the War of the Dead Gods, or the monsters
created to win that war, now returned to slumber. Amidst all of this lies an
immense stretch of desert comprised of black sand called the Black Lands which
reaches right up to the mountains of the world’s edge. Here lie the tribes of
the minotaurs which protect the land and stand in remembrance of the Titans,
both worshipping and fearing them. The lost ruins of this region are sometimes
called the Belinrai, though that is a modern Harkuumish word which means “the
lost” and likely not from the language of Khesht.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Western Kres-Ma-Tek<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While the ancients
of Khesht seemed to expand across the entire continent in their ancient times,
and may in fact have been several empires or kingdoms united as one culture,
some time after their fall around three thousand years ago there was a second
empire, though situated only along the coastlands of the western provinces
called Kres-Ma-Tek. This empire lasted a little under fifteen hundred years
before falling apart around 1,800 years ago. The reasons are unknown to most,
but some believe they fell to predatory chaos cults, insinuating their way in
to the weave of thought and corrupting the people of Kres-Ma-Tek from within.
The ruins of this old empire are most prominent in Sardonte and Akeros but
extend as far as the coast of Charasca to the south.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;">Maheruun and Mythic
Kamura<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Somewhere to the far
west, beyond the continent of Osinre and the island kingdoms of Caelde is a
semi-legendary land called Maheruun. This land is believed to be a place where
the last of the ancients of Khesht may have traveled to seek refuge, though whether
they survived the ordeal is unknown. Stories in ancient tomes of the era speak
of a time of exodus when entire kingdoms took up roots and traveled west to
escape the wars that would destroy the old gods. For long ages this land has
been defined as Maheruun, somewhere beyond the realm where there be monsters.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 107%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Beyond even Maheruun
is Kamura, a legendary land spoken of in only the most ancient of explorer’s
tales about a place at the edge of the western world, a vast an uninhabitable
coast at the end of the world where an island kingdom forever staves off the encroaching
monsters which seep in from Khashar, the Outer Darkness. <o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-38168756631605077192024-02-05T15:25:00.007-07:002024-02-05T15:50:20.145-07:00Scrutinizing Systems for 2024 - or "What to Play While Waiting for D&D Totally-Not-6E" - Dragonbane, Traveller, Cypher System, Tales of the Valiant and More<p> I guess Wizards of the Coast is A: not selling to Tencent (good), and B: not releasing their books in May, which seems like a good time to do it, but apparently they said they will still be working on them in May so now the holidays seem like a stretch too. This is good news, though! It means we should all be trying other things while cooling our jets on trad D&D experiences so we can be ready for whatever the new thing is going to be.</p><p>For me, it sort of boils down to a handful of games which have my attention, and not all of them are "unlike D&D" since Tales of the Valiant is in the mix, but hey, you know what is coming out in May? Tales of the Valiant, that's what! So yeah, going to be playing some of that for sure.</p><p>I have in my hands Dragonbane Core Rules and Bestiary, the expanded books that will nicely replace or compliment their initial Boxed Starter Set from last year. The Starter Set was a fine product on its own merits, but there is additional content in the new Core Rules for GMs to make it worth checking out, and the Bestiary is a no-brainer whether you stick to the Starter Set or get the Core Rules, it's full of good stuff that is all new content. Dragonbane manages to sit in a hard to achieve sweet spot for me. I like to call this zone the "point at which a game can work to power one or more of my campaign worlds without requiring me to simply ditch said worlds and revise them to match the game's setting and rules expectations." Secondarily, it also fits the category of "alternative fantasy systems which are unique or interesting enough to explore on their own merits, but close enough to D&D in terms of content and accessibility to be an easy sell to players." </p><p>I could go on and on about Dragonbane like this, but it boils down to some simple facts: the game provides a robust system with enough content that you won't find yourself wishing something was in the game that isn't; it offers a setting but does not demand you use it; it provides enough content that you feel like it could substantively replace D&D for a protracted campaign without you feeling like you wish you had access to all the D&D stuff when running or playing. For me, Dragonbane accomplishes all of this, and in the smallest form factor in terms of content for a "robust fantasy RPG" that one could imagine and still fit it in to a single carry bag. </p><p>A lot of other fantasy games out there fail at these requisites I set. Some of my demands are more specific to my tastes; for example I like the Dragonbane skill system (and I also like the D&D skill mechanics, especially once you get back to 3rd edition), but I dislike game systems that eschew skills entirely without good reason. I can forgive an OSR emulator like Swords & Wizardry Complete for this, as skills weren't a thing in the 0E era of D&D, but it means that the S&W experience will forever be limited to merely emulating that style of play, afterwhich there will be no further modifications to the game system. I was modding skill systems in to Tunnels & Trolls and AD&D back in 1982 after experiencing Runequest, so for my experience in a hobby that was at the time a venerable 8 years old I will forever see skills as OSR and necessary to a proper gaming experience. </p><p>Anyway, aside from Dragonbane, which looks to hit the sweet spot in a unique way few other systems have come close to, we have Traveller, which is getting a renaissance of upgraded rulebook editions as well as more content of a general sort of use beyond running Imperium Campaigns. I have a real keen interest in more Traveller soon, tempered only by the fact that I know Mothership will finally be released soon as well, and Mothership is the very genre-specific Traveller counterpart.</p><p>Monte Cook's Cypher System is also about to finally release more books, too. Rust & Redemption is the one I am specifically keen on, their Cypher sourcebook for post-apocalyptic tales. I feel that Cypher System works best when you can have weird settings that cater to improvisation, and I expect their post-apoc genre book will prove to be well worth it. </p><p>I should also mention Pathfinder 2E v2. They have more tomes on the way, including the ever important revision to their Bestiary series, and the Player Core 2 to complete the class range my group is used to dealing with. Although my group understands that the backwards compatibility is 99.5% they still seemed more interested in waiting for the rest of these core books to release so we haven't done anything with Pathfinder 2E yet. I personally am more interested in playing it at the game table; Pathfinder, along with D&D 5E and others, can easily devolve into "Find a battle map, populate with virtual tokens, watch encounter turn in to fight because the players have hammers and see nails all over the map" kind of experiences. I guess what I am trying to say is that VTTs work really well on average when you are focused on a map and minis, and are at times terrible when trying to just enjoy the game for its more exploratory and discovery/role play based elements.<br /></p><p>I have other games, too. Vast Grimm still commands my attention and several new books released for it, making the world of Vast Grimm a more comprehensive and interesting place to explore. Mork Borg continues to fascinate me, and I think a live campaign should be in order; I am intrigued to experience t least one deliberate attempt to play the game for multiple sessions to see how it works for long hauls. Finally, I still have a shelf full of Free League Titles I need to explore in actual play, especially and in particular Alien RPG, Blade Runner RPG, Forbidden Lands and both CY_Borg and Pirate Borg. </p><p>Don't even get me started on the brilliant 5E reimagining of D20 Modern in the form of Everyday Heroes! Ever since I snagged it last October I've been obsessing about what to do with it, and the array of weird cinematic properties they have congealed around the game to provide support is impressive. That I would even contemplate a campaign in the universe of Universal Soldier, Rambo or Escape from New York is a testament to how engaging and interesting the EH team has been with these sourcebooks. It does crack me up, though, that each sourcebook seems to start with a "I never even heard of or watched the movie this book is based on until I was hired to write it," followed by a thoughtful and engaging approach to taking a wildly dated action film from thirty years ago and turning it in to a must-play setting. </p><p>As always, the problem is too many cool games and not nearly enough time! </p><p><br /></p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-46969164086366596552024-01-31T11:57:00.010-07:002024-01-31T12:10:06.762-07:00Eridu: An ancient Sumerian Campaign Premise and Scenario for Mythras, BRP and other Suitable RPGs<p> I originally used this with Mythras a few years ago for a short campaign. One of many things I have not posted to the blog before as far as I can tell! </p><p> When I originally ran this it was before Mythic Babylon had been announced for Mythras. This campaign takes place roughly around 2400-2300 BCE so it can stand on its own, as the Mythic Babylon book handles a more "contemporary" era during the height of Babylonian power, and this mini campaign is about Sumeria during its heady early days of power-jockeying city-states. </p><p> Though I used Mythras at the time (and it works well for such), I would probably just use BRP 5th Edition for it today. As written this is a "notational" overview and I also had a lot of book references at hand. Some especially handy tomes include "Mesopotamia: The Invention of the City" by Leick (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/Mesopotamia-Invention-City-Gwendolyn-Leick/dp/0140265740/ref=asc_df_0140265740/?tag=hyprod-20&linkCode=df0&hvadid=343242926153&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11396402045868368132&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9030454&hvtargid=pla-458753125349&psc=1&mcid=644b015106a53e8599656affd4d08610&tag=&ref=&adgrpid=67797265423&hvpone=&hvptwo=&hvadid=343242926153&hvpos=&hvnetw=g&hvrand=11396402045868368132&hvqmt=&hvdev=c&hvdvcmdl=&hvlocint=&hvlocphy=9030454&hvtargid=pla-458753125349&gclid=CjwKCAiA_OetBhAtEiwAPTeQZ2tH6S_QsBaxgf6bARzvRTW2A1SMOlL21zKL9T366MOFmepdM4lzYRoC1nAQAvD_BwE">Amazon</a>), and "Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia" by Black (<a href="https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0CTM69CC1/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1706727281&sr=8-2">Amazon</a>), a nice categorical reference. One of the more useful online resources I like is located here (<a href="https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub363/">Facts and Details</a>), that site alone is practically a campaign guide unto itself. Many of the details below come from one or more of these sources. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDMCWhyTU0Sxflxo4fRI-zJ0K-eEbuthHiHEBC_biffSqt_vht0GRLEmTlpELa3W2Jy_65CB8UYFF1Xouom_c-dVkgu7vwvyge3BEmU3oQYVKWFiQGp8jIRM1kbVU6RjcExkkJSfmb7sG3XtTLf0xgigt0sogbnfY9MbClbb2zq2AYADfzvb980pTXovlc/s925/sumeria.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="520" data-original-width="925" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDMCWhyTU0Sxflxo4fRI-zJ0K-eEbuthHiHEBC_biffSqt_vht0GRLEmTlpELa3W2Jy_65CB8UYFF1Xouom_c-dVkgu7vwvyge3BEmU3oQYVKWFiQGp8jIRM1kbVU6RjcExkkJSfmb7sG3XtTLf0xgigt0sogbnfY9MbClbb2zq2AYADfzvb980pTXovlc/w400-h225/sumeria.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Eridu Campaign</b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;">We'll start with a discussion on the pantheon of gods and then move on to the regional gazetteer.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Mesopotamian Gods of Note</b></p></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Enki – god of Eridu<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Deity of the rivers and men, giver
of life and protector, civic deity. Eridu is described as a god who walked from
the waters and brought civilization to men. His temple at Eridu, the Abzu, has
rested for thousands of years.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Enlil – God of Magic<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A ghost and demon to some, wizened
sage to others, Enlil is the god who will one day seek to wipe humanity from
the earth. Both wizened and capricious, Enki keeps him at bay. He is the purvue
of sorcerers and maddened shamans in the desert.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Inanna – Goddess of Uruk<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The three-fold goddess of birth,
fertility and death, she manifests as three different images in life from the
whore, the mother and the crone. She is the patron goddess of Uruk where she
has given birth to a pantheon of goddesses and gods who are her children. Her
temple is magnificent.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Nanna – god of Ur<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The goddess of the moon, night
cycles, women’s<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>menstrual cycles, bulls,
male fertility and astronomy also is valued by navigators. Ur, resting on the
mouth of the Euphrates, is home to fishermen and sailor alike who count on his
guidance. He is also associated with change…including lycanthropic change.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Utu – God of the Sun<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Revered everywhere but noted for
his temple as Ashur, Utu is the god of the sun and the deserts, a wizened and
ancient man who is the seat of power of the very universe itself.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Nisaba – Goddess of Writing<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">As the mother of Enlil she is
given special prominence in the lands of the world, but she is also seen as the
goddess of most importance to record keepers and the budding community of
scholars who have become so important to the records of the kings, priests and
their gods.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Assur – god of the northlands<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">This deity is revered in the north
among the nomads and settlers in the region, a rowdy and wild lot known for
their capricious and mercenary ways.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ninkasi – goddess of beer<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The goddess who is patron of
brewing has a profoundly quiet but respected cult among the brewers of the
land.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Nergal – god of war and death, Lord of Kutha<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">With the aspect of fire, war and
death his to command Nergal rules the underworld with his wife Ereshkigal. He
is revered in the remote city of Kutha, which bows before none. Rumor is there
is a direct gate to the underworld in Kutha, the domain of Irkalla.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHCzkMv8_1AWkBqZ8tAiOgSm9FLPcIhUO4nArjxlWmPEZ3tgn71nLm04Cm5FzNDc1f-V1ItJ4BmtiAeWEmIZfz1nGEfnpgtELSBupxJ2eh0x14nlZRcuekiG4qGHK2vUIexD5EzbY3HF___uLVwTKcu1U23E8DuGYJQc2SUXhUI7oB7HLlFHn0vTX9nqBj/s294/anzu.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="172" data-original-width="294" height="234" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHCzkMv8_1AWkBqZ8tAiOgSm9FLPcIhUO4nArjxlWmPEZ3tgn71nLm04Cm5FzNDc1f-V1ItJ4BmtiAeWEmIZfz1nGEfnpgtELSBupxJ2eh0x14nlZRcuekiG4qGHK2vUIexD5EzbY3HF___uLVwTKcu1U23E8DuGYJQc2SUXhUI7oB7HLlFHn0vTX9nqBj/w400-h234/anzu.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Demons of Mesopotamia</b></p></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Anzu <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The bird-demon is a ferocious
beast, a god in its own right, and it seeks to steal the Tablets of Destiny
from Ninlil. The tablets are kept in Enlil’s temple in Uruk.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Lilitu<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The serpentine demon goddess who
harries men and reflect the darker aspects of women. Known to steal babies and
seduce men, sometimes kidnapping or murdering them.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Pazuzu<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Demon king of the wind, bearer of
storms and draught.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Asakku</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Vicious spirit demons which kill
by plaguing the head with fevers.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Asag</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A demon so terrifying it boils the
rivers where it wades. Accompanied by rock demons.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Edimmu</b> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Restless dead, ghostly spirits who
possess the living and make them commit criminal acts if not appeased.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Lamashtu<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A goddess demon with the head of a
lioness, a hairy body, donkey’s teeth and ears and eagle claws. She is served
by the lilitu, and steals children in childbirth.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Kur<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Serpentine dragons which plague
the land.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Lammasu and Shedu<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The animal-spirit protectors of
men and their households, with the bodies of bulls, heads of men and wings of
eagles. They are benevolent spirits and good magi can call upon them.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Rabisu</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Vampiric spirits, these malevolent
demons are sometimes men transformed, or perhaps fallen divinities. The Rabisu
can be repelled with sea salt, or trapped in inverted magic bowls with sacred
inscriptions written within. The Rabisu are violent and very dangerous vampires
otherwise.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Humbaba<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A great giant, after whom other
giants are also named, who guards the celestial guardian of the gods.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><br /></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNQbPYV-IjrBp5Um1czrAcQbv6WvsLv725Qw8QgWAO3KyNUlXA1E_Od3G2peuB4eVnwAS9rdtYTfMHdtpz55JiPMWkrDWEv0624EsU9oKD79m0s2tUgnHj-f5w2OFnAhcfE0XoI0R53qOmOVjFMRrYhBQ0FM6Xme8UOxYWSm-ebVG1Yb-oumaOPhJ5Kowy/s1279/eeridu.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="812" data-original-width="1279" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjNQbPYV-IjrBp5Um1czrAcQbv6WvsLv725Qw8QgWAO3KyNUlXA1E_Od3G2peuB4eVnwAS9rdtYTfMHdtpz55JiPMWkrDWEv0624EsU9oKD79m0s2tUgnHj-f5w2OFnAhcfE0XoI0R53qOmOVjFMRrYhBQ0FM6Xme8UOxYWSm-ebVG1Yb-oumaOPhJ5Kowy/w400-h254/eeridu.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">The Major Cities of Mesopotamia (ca. 2,900
BCE, give or take)</b></p></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Eridu<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Ruled by Alulim, Eridu is the
center of power and the other cities in the region either are perpetually at
war with Eridu or seek to buy it off by tribute. Alulim is said to be tens of
thousands of years old, and possibly given immortality by Enki himself. The
temple Abzu is here, dedicated to Enki. The city is largely content with its
prosperity but a local noble named Alalngar is among those who have been
plotting wasy to overthrow Alulim, after a discovery they believe proves he
sacrifices innocents to extend his life. Eridu is also considered to have the
finest magi and healers in the land.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Kish<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Ruled by Aga, who is at times
friend and enemy to Lugalbanda.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ur</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">A coastal port, ruled by
Mesh-Ana-pada, a wizened sage and priest-king of Nanna.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Uruk</b><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The great city of Innana, and the
home of King Lugalbanda, father of Gilgamesh, who’s decades have shined as the
servant of the goddess Ninsun, who walks as his mortal wife.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Kutha<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Ruled by Naram-Sin, this city is
reverent to the gateway to the dead.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Sippar<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Western and Eastern Sippar are two
united cities on the banks of the Euphrates, ruled by En-men-dur-ana, a
benevolent lord deducated to Utu, the god of the sun.<o:p></o:p></p>
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Other Regions</b></p></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Assur, to the north<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">These nomadic barbarians in the
north are constant trouble for the region.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Elam, beyond the Zagros Mountains<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Beyond Zagros are nomadic tribes
who call themselves the Elam. The Elam are nomads who revere three great kings
in Ansham, Eawn and Shumaski. The largest capital is Susa, along the river
Karun, which pays tribute to Kish. Susa worships Insusinak, the god of the city
(Lord of Oaths, Judge of the Dead, Symbol of the Serpent). Other gods
worshipped included Ismekarab (the infernal goddess of oaths), Lagamal (the
goddess of no mercy, the judge), Humban (god of the sky), Pinigir (goddess of
heaven) and Manzat (The Great Lady).</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: black; color: white; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Ebla is the
western empire and the men of that region are effectively civilized but the
Canaan are barbarian the coastal tribes who worship Dagan. (Yes, that Dagan,
alias Dagon). Whether he's really an early proto-semitic god of grain and
fertility or a vile fish god from the deeps is up for you all to find out.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Dilmun<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Distant trade empire to the east.
Beyond them is Indus, which has no direct contact with Sumer. It may be the home
of the immortal Ut-Napishtim, and is a major source of copper trade. In some
regards, Dilmun supplies Sumer with the metal needed to wage war. Dilmun is
located on an isle deep in the great Abzu Sea.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Egypt (Khemit)<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Ruled by Pharaoh Qa’a, Egypt is a
remote land but hostile to foreigners.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Magan<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">This distant kingdom is located in
the region of contemporary Oman. Little is known of it, but they are a major
supplier of copper.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Meluhha<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">This may be the most distant
kingdom known, and is one name for distant Indus. The closest trade port is
Sutkagen Dor.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Kassu in the Zagros Mountains <o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: white; font-size: medium; line-height: 107%;">The
men of Zagros, the Kassu, who are raiders and dislike the Elam and Sumer of
Ubaid alike, are difficult to deal with. The bandit warlord culture of the
Kassu make travel through the mountains dangerous.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">West of the Two Rivers: Hamoukar of Canaan and Ebla</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The region of the Levant is
prehistoric at this time and influenced by the local nomads and the
Sumer-influenced cities of Hamoukar and Ebla. Hamoukar was known for its
obsidian quarries while Ebla was known for its limestone quarries and
aggressive trade network. Both provided coastal trade routes to the western
sea. Ebla is ruled by Hakume, a shrewd and dour king. Other settlements in the
area include the township of Chagar Bazar, Nagar and Arbid, all along the
Khabur River Basin.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">Hamoukar is also known for its
weird local cult to the “God of a Thousand Eyes,” and is known to produce eye
effigies in his worship. This worship is considered profane by the men of Uruk
and they have sieged and razed the city at least once in historic memory….but
the cult always retuns. Hamoukar is preliterate and does not use any writing
system.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Amartu</b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: 0in;">The nomads of the west are
distinct in their uncouth and simple nature as pastoral herders with limited
grasp of civilization. The Amartu will one day grow strong but in this era they
are a nuisance to the western deserts, raiders who seek to take the riches of
Ubaid for their own.</p>
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; margin-bottom: 0in; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><b style="background-color: black; mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: white;">Player Guide<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Barbarians can come from Assur to the north.
Nomads would come from Elam to the east of the Zagros Mountains (though
civilized Elam dwell in Susa), and the Elam do have their own developing
language with simple writing inspired by the Sumer. You will also find
barbarians in the Zagros Mountains: the Kassu, a rough and simple folk prone to
raiding. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">You could have a civilized foreigner visiting
from Dilmun, as well. Dilmun was East of Elam, along a trade route to Indus.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Languages</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> you can learn (spoken, not written): Sumer,
Assur, Elam, Dilmun, Egyptian, and Kassite</span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Character
Generation:</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Use the 80 point
build.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Cultures</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Barbarian, Nomadic, Civilized and Primitive
are all fine, but there's almost no written language at this time....written
systems are basic counting and markers, and have little recognizable language
structure as we think of it. Cuneiform is in an early developmental stage at
this time....and paper does not exist. Clay tablets and clay balls with beads,
counters and figurines are how information is conveyed. So one "Language
(Cuneiform) skill will suffice to understand all writing known to men in this
region of the world.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Humans can be from Eridu, the capitol city of
the kingdom of Ubaid. If you're from one of the rival city-states at Kish,
Uruk, or Ur you will need to be a responsible profession with a trade
appreciated abroad to justify your presence, or have a decent social
class....wanderers of little means or skill are looked at as thieves and
robbers.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">If you are from Eridu you at least pay lip
service to Enki, the god of the kingdom and benefactor of men. If you are from
Uruk you respect Innana, goddess of life. If from Ur then you revere Nanna, god
of the moon and bulls.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="color: white;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">For
magic:</span></b><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> folk magic is
"sorcery" as men think of it in this age and a magus would know the
art, but common men rarely do....and if you know the art, then you are no
common man. Magi also know of animism. Sorcery is so rare no one can start with
it and only those who figure out dark pacts which teach them the marks of power
have a shot at it. Mysticism is possible to those who pursue it....in this age
when some men claim to be divine in origin, mysticism is possible. Theism is
practiced by the cults of Enki, Innana and the other gods, but like other magic
it is very rare and only a few prominent priests know of any theistic miracles.</span></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: black; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; background: black; color: white; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Also...if you want to play a
barbarian (like all out) but want to be a wanderer type who's visiting Ubaid
(but Not to officially siege a city and take it's stuff), Assur to the north is
a good choice, as is Amartu to the west, or coastal Canaan. Ebla is the western
empire and the men of that region are effectively civilized but the Canaan are
barbarian the coastal tribes who worship Dagan. (Yes, that Dagan, alias Dagon).
Whether he's really an early proto-semitic god of grain and fertility or a vile
fish god from the deeps is up for you all to find out.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">And don't forget the men of Zagros, the Kassu,
who are raiders and dislike the Elam and Sumer of Ubaid alike. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span face=""Arial",sans-serif" style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 9.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><br /></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;"><span style="background-color: black; color: white;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Silver as Coinage: (the below is quoted but I forget the source, might be from this useful site: </span></i></b><span face="Calibri, sans-serif"><span style="font-size: 14.6667px;"><b><i><a href="https://factsanddetails.com/world/cat56/sub363/item1514.html">here</a></i></b></span></span><b><i><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">)</span></i></b></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">In
Mesopotamia, silver became the standard of value sometime between 3100 B.C. and
2500 B.C. along with barley. Silver was used because it was a prized decorative
material, it was portable and the supply of it was relatively constant and
predictable from year to year.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin-bottom: 7.5pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; margin: 0in 0in 7.5pt;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="background-color: black; color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> Sometime
before 2500 B.C. a shekel of silver became the standard currency. Tablets
listed the price of timber and grains in shekels of silver. A shekel was equal
to about one third of an ounce, or little more than three pennies in terms of
weight. One month of labor was worth 1 shekel. A liter of barley sold for
3/100ths of shekel. A slave sold for between 10 and 20 shekels.<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p style="background-color: black;"> </o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Adventures in Ubaid:<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Part I: The Witch and the Heart<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ur-Nisu has a son
who died in battle, and his loss drove him to a greater evil. He hires an
adventurer group to go with Ur-Nisu (or on his behalf) to find the witch and
take his son’s heart back. Then paid to take the heart and his daughter to
Haiadi to see if he can put the heart to rest!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="color: white;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Witch’s Lair:</span></b><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> located in a small
encampment of huts deep in the Red Desert where loyal nomads seek her out for
healing and seances, Emiska is in fact protected by her followers but also by
the lilitu demon which she has struck a pact with. Having his heart, she can also
summon the vampiric rabasu Hamattu and call upon him for protection….wise
heroes will know sea salt, purified, will drive him back.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Emiska will
negotiate with the heroes if they try to reason with her. She will offer the
heart in exchange for a deed: go to the high mountains of Zagros and bring her
a different heart, that of the warlord of the Kassu named Ninhadda. Kill
Ninhadda, bring her his heart, and she will exchange it for Hamattu’s.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">If the heroes try to
take her out, she is protected by the lilitu, which initially manifests as a
spirit seeking to possess….Emiska’s followers willingly supplicate and the
demon will take control, transforming them as it does (use the Lamia stats).
Even if Emiska is slain the lilitu will seek to stay, not wanting to let go of
it’s host, and will seek to kill all witnesses.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Emiska will also
call upon the power of the heart……but even if she does, Hamattu will not come
if it is daylight, or if the adventurers thought to consecrate the hut with sea
salt. If they did not and it is dark, he will arrive but reluctantly….he cannot
face his father if he is there. If not, he will attack with a vengeance, but
will recoil from fire.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="color: white;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Warlord Ninhadda:</span></b><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> if the PCs
cooperate with the witch, that takes them thirty miles in to the western mountains
where a warrior who spurned the witch’s advances works with his small army in a
long series of dug-out caves in the mountains. He plots to siege Hadoukar and
become king of Ebla. A year ago he went to the witch and ask her to speak of
his omen, to learn if he would be king. She said payment was his infidelity,
and that she wanted his seed for a child. He was deeply offended, being loyal
to his single wife Atane, and he rebuffed the witch. Emiska was enraged. She
sent an assassin to poison him but he killed the assassin and sent the body to
her village with the warning that if she tried again he would raze her village
to the ground.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Going to Ninhadda is
a huge risk, actually…he is a tough fighter and well protected. But if the PCs
tell him what they were asked, he will agree to raze the village and give them
the heart. If they try to substitute a heart of someone else, the witch will
know and then curse them before summoning the vampire to hunt them. If the
group somehow does kill Ninhadda, it creates a power vacuum among the Kassu
tribes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Part II: Journey to Susa<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ur-Nisu needs men
willing to take a shipment of goods into the Zagros Mountain Highlands. He
needs the goods taken to Susa, to a merchant prince named Haiadi, and for the
hired men to escort back the payment. Ur-Nisu is too frail to make the journey
which is close to 100 miles distant and requires transport by river boat for
much of it. The journey will take the hired crew from Eridu to the gulf, to the
river passage to Susa…..not difficult, but the possibility of river pirates is
a risk. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Ur-Nisu promises
1,000 silvers to the group in exchange for this service, no questions asked….the
adventurers were previously hired by him to go to the Red Desert and take the
reliquary from the witch Emiska then he will hire them based on loyalty. For
those who did not… He tells them that they are not to listen to his daughter,
that she has had maddened ravings since being exposed to the malignance of a
Asakku demon who came to her in the night when she was serving as a temple
priestess to Inanna.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The goods it turns
out include six clay vases filled with copper ingots, a large layered clay pot
(a cold-storing pot from Meluhha) sealed in wax that contains a blackened,
beating heart. Finally there is Ur-Nisu’s daughter, Ur-Erishti. She is
seventeen and appears to be very unhappy with this journey, or the fact that
(if pried later) she reveals she is to be gifted to Haiadi, and she will tell
the adventurers that she think Haiadi is actually a necromancer who worships
Nergal. She claims her father has saved the heart of his eldest son, Hamattu,
who fell in battle last year during a siege in Ebla. His body was returned, and
her father purchased a substance….a black tar like substance from the Red
Desert sold to him by a witch, to coat on his son’s body. His son is now kept
in a cool subterranean chamber, but her brother’s heart has been taken out and
is to be transported to Haiadi for a ritual to retore him to life.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The stories are all
half true……Hamattu did die, and his body was preserved, but the story her
father told her is not quite the reality. The witch in the Red Desert, named
Emiska, called upon Erishkigal for the power to revive his son, but his son
returned instead as an insatiable vampiric Rabisu. She removed the heart, which
beats blackly, and kept it for her own purposes. Adventurers who aided him in
this task in Part I will know how that all went down.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="color: white;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Pursuit of the Rabisu:</span></b><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> Hamattu is growing
increasingly corrupted, a vampire in truest form, as he descends into madness
and darkness driven by Ereshkigal’s curse. As the crew makes its way on the
river barge each night evidence of the vampire is present, as he shapeshift’s
in to a demonic lion and follows the barge along the waterline, or turn in to
an eagle and follow by air. During the day he can only manifest as an eagle, or
sometimes as a vaguely humanoid shape in the recessed shadows along the river
bank. He unerringly can appear in shadow near the region of his heart no matter
what.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The journey is going
to take about a week upriver to travel 100 miles. So long as the heroes stay on
water the rabisu will remain at bay. If the river raft stops at one of the many
villages along the way, it gives the rabisu a chance to board. Once aboard, he
will seek to slay everyone and then coerce a risen dead to take the heart to a
remote location in the desert for safe-keeping. Each slain foe will rise as a
zombie to aid him.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span style="color: white;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">River Pirates:</span></b><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> during the fifth
and sixth nights river pirates will try to take the ship. Led by a bandit named
Unhaka, they have been told by a rival merchant that a valuable bride and
wealth rests on the boat. Hidden inside the copper ingots of the hold is
silver….lots of it. They will try to board the boat, about 16 men in total,
during the night using river boats to steal aboard. If they capture the boat
(and they will take prisoners for ransom to sort it all out later) then when
they dock that is when the rabisu attacks. Each foe slain by the rabasu will
rise as a zombie to aid him.<o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Arrival at Susa:
assuming the group survives travel (done easily by warding the boat with sea
salt) then arrival at Susa requires bribing guards at the docks with good coin
to allow safe passage in to the city. Here they can find the Black Tower of
Haiadi, located adjacent to a dour temple to Nergal, which allegedly holds a
capstone to one of many passages to the underworld.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Haiadi will perform
a ritual to lift the curse of the heart. Unknown to Haiadi he is doomed from
the get-go…unbeknownst to all, Hamattu had prior to his battle at Ebla a year
before gone to the witch Emiska for magical aid, and she gave him protection from
all weapons in exchange for his seed. He gave this to her, promising to return
and even take care of the child with her…..but he lied, and after sleeping with
the witch he beat her soundly until she miscarried, then went to battle. So it
was that he survived all weapons, unblemishing his skin, until he was doused in
burning oil and died (ergo the blackened heart).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Now his evils have
caught up to him….as Haiadi beseeches the Annunaki of the underworld to restore
him in the name of the evil of the witch, winged demons erupt from the ground
and take the black heart….and the vampire if he is present….dragging them in to
the darkness of Irkalla. As this happens the chamber is filled with terrifying death
spirits….any who star upon them must make a contested POW roll or succumb,
souls ripped away to the afterworld.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">When all is done
Haiaidi….warded against such contingencies….flees in madness to the temple of
Nergal to beg forgiveness. The merchant’s daughter Ur-Erishti has a profound
revelation in her madness and flees to seek out the cult of the infernal
goddess of oaths, Ismekarab, and to renounce her evil family.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="mark" style="margin: 0in;"><span face=""Calibri",sans-serif" style="color: white; font-size: 11pt; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The adventurers are
left with an empty urn, and possibly a lot of silver that Haiadi has
abandonded. When they return to Eridu they find that Ur-Nisu’s house
mysteriously burned down the same night of the ceremony, and his body as not
found.<o:p></o:p></span></p><br /><p></p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-23501413896558857192024-01-27T13:34:00.006-07:002024-01-27T13:42:30.420-07:00The Asus ROG Ally and Handled Gaming in 2024<p> Well! It's been eight months now since I got my Asus ROG Ally and I have had a lot of time to adjust to it, get it adjusted, and find a decent equilibrium. Of the various handhelds I own, this is the only one I tend to use anymore....with a caveat, that being that I spend about 75% of my time on the ROG Ally in docked mode these days. As a consequence, I am actually using the ROG Ally every single day now as a secondary docked desktop PC, and its handheld advantage arises during travel.</p><p>The ROG Ally on release needed some updates in firmware and Asus clearly had a problem with how they set up the heat dispersal to pass close to the Micro SD card location on the Ally. Many owners found an early problem with this, and I actually have simply decided not to use a Micro SD card with it after the thing almost cooked one of my cards. Instead, to expand the memory I picked up a M.2 SSD card and followed the instructions found across many online sources to clone the internal drive onto the new card, then swapped them out. Pro tip: cloning is the best and fastest way to do this, just make sure to find a good set of instructions online, Some vloggers opt to use the recovery feature on the Ally to restore the boot drive, and that is clearly a more laborious and time consuming process. Cloning was a piece of cake. </p><p>So once I expanded the onboard memory to 2 TB I was able to properly load the ROG Ally with whatever I felt like. I then purchased the expanded multiport 60w power supply for the Ally, which served as an excellent second higher wattage power source, but it also includes a USB and HDMI port. I can now "dock" the Ally using this setup, connecting it to a display via HDMI and using the USB port to connect whatever else is needed. </p><p>Here's my current setup:</p><p>Asus ROG Ally, sitting on a handy dock such as the recyclable one that comes with the Ally, with a 2 TB M.2 SSD to replace the original 512 GB card;</p><p>The 60w Dock with extra ports;</p><p>A wired mouse (only because I don't have a free bluetooth mouse right now) plugged in to the power supply;</p><p>A HDMI to mini HDMI cable, plugged into the 60w plugin, using a 16 inch portable 2K 120p screen with a sturdy mount I picked up on Amazon;</p><p>A decent bluetooth mini keyboard from Logi and an extra Xbox Series controller connected to bluetooth.</p><p>So yep, at this point my handled device is now essentially a decent budget gaming desktop that I can also disconnect and carry on the go. I'm actually typing this blog on the ROG Ally as we speak using the MX compact Logi keyboard connected wirelessly to it. When I am at home, I can and have enjoyed a lot of games on the ROG Ally on this setup with no issues, In fact, I primarily have games from my GOG collection and secondarily from Steam. Some of the games are simply better with a keyboard setup, so I have games like Guild Wars 2 as an example that work best this way (though I have worked on a GW2 controller setup in the ROG Armoury overlay). I maintain plenty of games on it that default to and work well with the ROG Ally handheld control scheme for the on the go moments. Since those are far less frequent than the stay-at-home time, this setup is working great for me.</p><p>Here's the interesting thing: this setup could work really well for just about anyone who wants a low-profile desktop with handheld option. It's probably not as cheap as purchasing a decent laptop (and I have a decent laptop) but it's a fun setup for just messing around. I can also use this setup with the Steam Deck exactly as-is, since the 60w power supply/dock works with it as well. I just happen to be a lot less interested in tinkering with the Steam Deck in Linux, and to be honest, most game content on Steam runs a bit better on the Asus ROG Ally on average. </p><p>So what does this mean for the other portables I accrued over the last couple years? It means I have committed to not buying handhelds for at least 2024, that's for sure....but also, to be honest, I just don't need them at all except from a pure gadget/tech hobbyist perspective. Based on my setup today, I think that the ROG Ally works for exactly what I need in this market, and I no longer really need the Steam Deck or the Switch OLED. I can get nothing out of either of these devices that the ROG Ally isn't providing for already (except playing the Switch exclusives, I guess).</p><p>I feel slightly differently about the other two devices: the Backbone One for Apple, and the Switch Lite, both have a singular advantage over the rest, being their small profile and extreme portability still make them much easier to just throw in a bag or my pocket and go. The Backbone One advantage is that it, combined with my iPhone mini 13, is a very low profile gaming experience for odd moments and Apple's Arcade has a decent array of games. The downside is its still best for odd moments only, is still a bit awkward to carry and apply since you have to take a protective case off if you use one, and most of the games I enjoy on the iPhone are games I can play on the ROG Ally more efficiently.</p><p>That leaves the Switch Lite, which is insanely low profile and runs the full game lineup for Switch. This one generally ends up being my "grab and go for odd-moment gaming" because it fits in my pocket easily, and is quick to fire up. The ROG Ally is my "taking a trip" device as well as my "backup mini desktop" experience at home.</p><p>Anyway....long story short, these sorts of devices are numerous and can cater to the sort of special use case you imagine you may have. For me, I now realize I am not a hardcore "play in handheld mode" gamer but I like the ability to do so, and so for me the ROG Ally is the winner as I've been able to customize and kit it out to suit my needs, and I am more comfortable in Windows 11 than Linux. Meanwhile, Switch Lite remains my best "throw in the bag and play in the doctor's waiting room" experience. The rest of the devices are just a symptom of "gadget addiction" I need to work on.</p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-5969136218728835152024-01-25T08:00:00.007-07:002024-01-25T08:00:00.156-07:00Mork Borg Adventure: THE DEATH CRYPT OF GHASTRAL<p> Here's that adventure for Mork Borg I ran last year. It was generated using the adventure generation tables, then I flesh it out a bit. In the Roll20 edition I used some AI generated art assets to illustrate each room.</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT1Dpg2WLU7AKCForGm031iH-K2rmlgSZHuZrPj7zX71e3ezOP6X70hU7HPasQiwhg8WuDPGJb35lTJiQBS36W1XeAuLvzkCytgEdRhCjdTNwuhki0uVwbvKp7u-r0Ej0s9krw9A-sFmpkdSzSx8fgq5ZexgrOZu76T73AK8F2dyRcRkv7bZGcjv77YAOB/s1179/15d90093c2c02e82a196f61d5ab639d0.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="677" data-original-width="1179" height="230" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjT1Dpg2WLU7AKCForGm031iH-K2rmlgSZHuZrPj7zX71e3ezOP6X70hU7HPasQiwhg8WuDPGJb35lTJiQBS36W1XeAuLvzkCytgEdRhCjdTNwuhki0uVwbvKp7u-r0Ej0s9krw9A-sFmpkdSzSx8fgq5ZexgrOZu76T73AK8F2dyRcRkv7bZGcjv77YAOB/w400-h230/15d90093c2c02e82a196f61d5ab639d0.jpg" width="400" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>Mork Borg Adventure: THE DEATH CRYPT OF GHASTRAL<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The scenario begins at the Bergen Crypt Treeline. A pale one name
Savatha has offered you 100 silver to escort her here. Savatha is cold and listless, and prefers to travel at night under the light of the moon. A restless soul named Ghastral has a close tie to Savatha, and she seeks his crypt for communion. The group is to escort her to this location.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While meeting with Ghastral in his crypt, an earthquake
strikes! The obelisk in the center of the crypt cracks, and beyond a hidden
chamber is revealed, exposing ancient rooms of a lost temple. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The crypt is an inactive dungeon, but because a misery was
fulfilled: “Brother shall slay brother, and sister shall poison sister (3:6)”
it has been exposed once more! Make note of the misery, should any of the adventurers be siblings.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Imminent Danger:</b> senses are being distorted! DR10
each new chamber that is entered, to see what “appears”: 1-2 fabulous treasure,
3-4 a monster; 5-6 the doppelganger of the adventurer<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>What Dwells Here Now?</b> A meaty mass of slime, larvae
and spider eggs! It is alive. It grows and pulses; slow groups who are too careful will notice is seems to "grow" after them, eventually filling and sealing the doors they pass through.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Distinctive Feature:</b> the bony remains of the
Basilisk’s spawn litter the complex, like a vast, winding puzzle serpentine remains.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Room 0:</b> entrance to the tomb, collapsed rubble,
shattered obelisk to the Basilisk which oozes the corpulent mass of slime,
larva and spider eggs. If anyone steps in it (DR10 to avoid if rushed) they
risk 1D4 damage from serious bites and acid. The hollow presence of Ghastral
remains long enough to fade away, with a terrible shriek that the Unformed One
has Awakened….searching carefully reveals a random scroll deposited in the
crack of the obelisk. If the group lingers too long, 1D3 goblins show up to
investigate, dropping from holes in the ceiling.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Room 1:</b> Mirrors everywhere! The mirrors show strange
distortions and reflect other lands, some worse and others as if they are the
Eternal Fields. Amidst this, a strange beast prowls through the mirrors,
distorted and strange…<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>The Mirror Monster:</b> it drags one arm behind, covered
in slime, with a dozen bloodshot eyes frantically casting about for victims.
Its bloated body is a mass of bilious organs tied together, covered in weeping
maws. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Morale</i> 10; <i>Damage</i> D4 (bites and scratched);
-D6 <i>armor</i> (regrows wounds); 5 <i>HP</i><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i>Goal</i>: collect your eyes to add to its own so it can
see through the mirror realm to Nechrubel!<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Room 2:</b> sooty walls from floor to floor, it looks as
if an eruption of fire annihilated this chamber. A strange sooty wet trail
leads from the next room into this one, where a mass of water surrounds a
Zodiac Lung (Feretory), lying in the floor.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Room 3:</b> graffiti in terrifying inscriptions covers
the walls of this chamber. The center of the chamber is bifurcated by a vast
chasm with intense rushing water deep below, roaring as loud as the ocean.
Salty sea smell fills the air, and a lone gull flies up from below to land on
the ledge. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The water trail in Room 2 leads to this chamber and ends at
the chasm. Footholds are carved in the chasm and descend to a small grotto
below, where 150 Silver, 20 gold and 1D6 trinkets can be found, along with a
Galgenbeck Deathmask (Heretic) and one scroll. Guarding the hidden alcove is a
Bent hiding in the chamber! His name is Sparrow, and he knows that the raging
river leads to the coast.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">A lone stone bridge crosses the chasm. A single black form
in a cloak resides at the center of the 25 foot span. Wearing the cloak is a
Belze, a bloody skeleton named Pavrak, an ancient lost priest of the temple
destined to protect the bridge. He will let the group pass if they use the
Galgenbeck Mask to tell him how he died….from poison slipped to him by his
rival, Onmater. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Room 4:</b> fire damage to walls show recent destruction,
and in the center of this chamber is a vast altar to Nechrubel. The altar’s
center is a deep pit, from which the endless bones of its spawn appear to have
emerged. Amidst the rubble and debris are human skeletons as well. The Formless
Priests will rise, randomly assembling, within two minutes of the group
entering:<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Formless Priests</b> (D4), Morale 10, Damage D6 (clubs
and rusted metal), Armor none, 4 HP (will drop lifeless if someone falls into
the center pit).<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>FINALE:</b> On defeating the priests, a ghostly
basilisk-form rises from the pit and hovers there. If a sacrifice is made (an
artifact or a living being) the ghostly serpent spews forth a random occult
artifact from its mouth and then disappears. If a member of the party falls in to the pit they must make a DR14 presence check or succumb to the will of the Basilisks. Each day at dawn a new check may be made, to see who is in control that day.</p><p class="MsoNormal">The chamber rocks in a destructive
quake, striking again! The group must make DR10 agility checks to avoid 1D6
damage from falling rubble. When it ends, the pit is sealed, and a crack in the
far wall reveals the ominous night of the Bergen Crypts. A cloudburst of rain greets
the party as they leave. Everyone may roll to see if they improve. <o:p></o:p></p><br /><p></p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-57394195924268797672024-01-23T17:22:00.003-07:002024-01-23T17:24:50.143-07:00Looking at VTTs in 2024<p> I just realized I already blew my commitment to blog twice a week this year in the first month! In my defense work has been a real bear with my time, but still.....oh well!</p><p>I've been looking at various VTTs lately with an eye toward one which is not so onerous and unpleasant to use. I've come to the conclusion that a big chunk of the problem with the VTT environment, at least when using it for gaming, is that the dialogue and conversations are forced into a mono-channel and it is inevitable that people will accidentally walk over one another. The person with the softest voice or the worst microphone will get steam rolled. The person who is quickest to dominate a conversation always has an advantage, one even greater than at a live table. The need to corral and wrangle becomes paramout for the GM.....something I find very tiring these days. It's tough, too, because if several players are all excited and trying to talk, it means they are quite engaged with the scenario and having a good time; but to me as a GM it has now turned into noise that is all incoming at the same volume and nigh impossible to parse out properly, leading to irritation and confusion.</p><p>I know how to handle this sort of thing at a live game table....but VTTs are a different bag of cats. To that end, I've been looking at a few different VTTs to see if any out there are more friendly to the dynamics of everyone sitting in one channel trying to talk, and (spoilers) the truth is not really, its a fundamental component of the state of video conferencing these days. Your only hope is that the players you have are well versed in web etiquette, a skill I think best learned from using web events for work and other more cordial environments.</p><p>That said, I have noticed some interesting things in studying certain VTTs in this quest. Here's my observations so far:</p><p><b>Roll20 has made huge strides</b></p><p>For better or worse, Roll20 is making a concerted effort to improve its platform, and the overall effect is making it (imo) the easiest and quickest way to get a game going with the least overall effort. Some of my favoritism toward Roll20 comes from having used it consistently for 4 years now, but the truth is, when I try another platform and it doesn't offer some fundamental feature that Roll20 has built in, that other platform stands out as inadequate as a result.</p><p><b>PlayRole.com has some problems</b></p><p>I found PlayRole last year and thought it was pretty neat, especially the way it focused on indie RPGs and unlocked tons of stuff I had already purchased from Exalted Funeral for me. Experiments with it proved successful, but when I finally decided to run a full campaign in January some unexpected setbacks hit. They lost the license for their provider service that let participants use audio, video and file sharing. That was possible to work around, though, as players could still log in to use Discord on the side for voice. I didn't have any file sharing issues so not sure what that was about, but I did run into an unexpected problem, which is how PlayRole handles dice rolls. It will show you a dice roll, but provides no context. I thought it might be due to the custom character sheet I was using, but I tried some other official sheets to other games to see how they works, and it was the same every time. As a result, when I called for rolls from multiple players it could get a tad tedious tracking things and parsing it out. The PC format also proved a bit cumbersome with heavy scrolling. We had a good time, but that was despite the UI and not because of it. This is a shame....I was really excited with my use of it last year but the reality shines home once you try the VTT with a more complex system (and admittedly, Mothership is not that complex).</p><p><b>Alchemy is out there</b></p><p>I don't know much about this yet, but I do know if I try anything with it I will experiment with Mork Borg first. It looks really neat, and it does interesting things making the UI add to immersion with fonts and style. However, in messing around with the free Mork Borg it was a bit unclear to me exactly how a game would shake out of the approach Alchemy is using, which is a bit concerning. </p><p><b>Shard Tabletop dominates 5E based gaming</b></p><p>I haven't run a game there yet, but I've spent close to a year as a player in a 5E game using Kobold Press books in Shard Tabletop, and I am seriously impressed with how it handles the experience. It has a couple minor issues (such as no easy way to see your PC sheet in one viewing) but that is made up for by convenient tabs to go where you need to quickly. The player experience is great, but I haven't yet committed to running anything so can't speak on that side of things....yet. I predict that Kobold Press will make this the gaming VTT for Tales of the Valiant, and if so then I will give it a fair shot once that game is out. Meanwhile, the only downside to Shard is that while it can import stuff for use from standard D&D 5E, its a bit opaque to me as to how its done, at least partially because I don't do D&D Beyond, I guess? </p><p><b>Foundry is still out there</b></p><p>I really want to figure Foundry out, but I also really wish Foundry didn't require me to have to "figure it out," and I don't know what to do about that. I've managed to create a campaign on it and populate some zones, but it has weird scaling issues and I then can't really figure out where to go from there....it feels to me like Foundry is a good choice for gamers who are also more technically minded and maybe come from pursuits and careers that lend to the kind of approach this platform demands, such as programming or engineering or something; but I just want something that "works" and I can't quite figure out how to do that with Foundry (or can't find the time investment I need to go through loads of arcane tutorials that may already be out of date, take your pick).</p><p>So yeah....for now, for me at least, Roll20 is still top dog. But I am keen on trying Shard Tabletop down the road when it hopefully gets full Tales of the Valiant support. We'll see! And I am very interested in trying to figure out how Alchemy is supposed to work. I keep popping back in to Foundry, too. Maybe one day it will surprise me with an overall improvement on the user experience. </p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-17555391657189534972024-01-07T01:31:00.006-07:002024-01-07T01:32:51.999-07:00Mothership 1E Ditched Levels (Which is a Shame)<p>I have a rant about Mothership. Here it goes...starting with a regression to Traveller:</p><p>For better or worse, Traveller 2nd Edition and prior editions have a long history of front-loading your character's skill history into the terms you serve before you retire in middle age and decide to go adventuring. Traveller is all about spacemen resolving a midlife crisis through adventure, essentially.</p><p>Mothership 0E, however, was a game about frightened average Joes out on a routine job discovering horrifying alien threats. The average Mothership character is someone generally early in their professional career in Traveller terms, suddenly thrust into a deadly limelight and having to build instincts to survive and learn.</p><p>Mothership 1E, however, got some notion going that levels are too gamey for it and decided to go with a more Travelleresque approach, one in which you can improve skills through learning and cash over time. The problem is its a pretty simplistic and arbitrary approach, and as a result feels just as gamey as levels did, because under this system, as an example, getting good at something like firearms takes 4 years of study--not because anyone in their right mind thinks it really takes that long, but because that's how long an expert skill takes.</p><p>I guess this is a roundabout way of saying that sure, when you choose to analyze a system in a game, it can and will come off as gamey. The question is: does the system serve a good purpose toward the type of game and story you are telling? And the answer is that yes, leveling as a mechanic does serve that purpose, but inconceivably long periods of training time do not. In the former, your characters can semi-organically grow with experience, and you could refine the level process if you so desired to let the improvements reflect the type of experience gained (if you want to drill down enough for that level of granularity). But the other system will arbitrarily restrict the chance of growth in skills and learning to a much smaller percentage of gamers, those who play Mothership like a long-term multiyear campaign with characters who aren't at near constant risk of death and therefore somehow have time to train for 2 to 6 years. I don't know who's running the game like that, sorry.</p><p>What Mothership 1E needs is both systems: a training mechanic (and the save improvement through shore leave mechanic) and a leveling reward system that identifies that<i> the stuff the characters are actually doing at that moment</i> in play is what actually matters to the game and experience, not "set your PC aside for 6 years to do nothing so you can improve." Alas, I don't get involved in development on stuff, I generally trust those in charge to make good choices, but I feel like maybe this was a missed chance to let the devs of Mothership know that whoever told them a slower system of advancement for their fast-passed horror game was a good idea were maybe not speaking for all of us? </p><p>Well, there's a huge 3PP community out there for Mothership, maybe one of them will (or has) hacked the level mechanic back in. I know I'm awarding "skill points" that can go toward skill improvement in my game. No one is ever going to learn the good stuff otherwise, and I am not going to restrict myself to boring, slow games where survival is paramount just to aid them in growth; that's what Traveller is for.</p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-59450412657526420852024-01-03T08:00:00.004-07:002024-01-05T11:28:56.514-07:00Vintage Film Restorations - the Allure of Vinegar Syndrome and Others<p><b>The Rabbit Hole of Collecting Vintage Film Restorations</b></p><p>In 2023 I discovered Vinegar Syndrome at a local ComicCon (the first I had ever been to!) and was exposed to the world of vintage film restoration focused on all of the weird, schlocky, forgotten films of the 90's and earlier. At the time I snagged a nice remaster of Beastmaster (a film I loved back when it came out, even as cheesy as it was compared to Conan the Barbarian) and a nice retro-themed print of Censor, one of my favorite horror movies of the last decade, which focuses on the late 70's and 80's era of "video nasties" in which the story essentially turns in to one--great movie, and its focus is why I think Vinegar Syndrome sponsored a special edition. </p><p>I have since ordered quite a few weird vintage movies from Vinegar Syndrome, and also discovered Arrow Video, Severin Films and of course we have the ubiquitous Criterion Collection where you can find high priced but (for the most part) extremely worth it re-releases on blu-ray and UHD. I've managed to snag several of my favorite japanese films from Criterion, including some of the best of Akira Kurosawa.</p><p>The interesting thing about this corner of physical media collecting is that it's potentially successful only because the current market is trying so hard to shift away from physical media entirely. Streamers want to stream, and "sellers" like Vudu want to sell, even as Sony removes content from purchasers as a reminder that a "buy to watch" option online is never the same as ownership. In the midst of this, specialist retailers who focus on re-releasing videos (Gruv, for example) may find they are the best and only source of physical media over time. </p><p>But this is not quite what Vinegar Syndrome, Arrow Video and Severin are doing. They aren't producing (mostly) mass market appeal films and rereleasing them for people still into physical copies of content. No, what they are doing is finding the weird, obscure, unusual and most importantly "not popular" in any conventional sense and restoring them, sometimes for posterity (to keep the movie from disappearing) and sometimes because the film either has or deserves a cult following, and this is the only way its going to happen is if the film remains available. Sometimes these aren't really good films by any stretch (not even in a so bad its good way), they're just films of note that help catalog the history of film in general. In fact, many of the actual publishers of these films are smaller groups who are then represented on Vinegar Syndrome's site, and the actual content is often incredibly obscure, films which no one likely has ever heard of, often done on zero budget, by film makers who may or may not have gone on to build bigger and better careers. </p><p>The reason I got sucked in to it was initially just the novelty of high quality restorations of some films I loved, but I rapidly descended into a rabbit hole of fascinating and obscure filmes, many foreign, which I had never heard of before. For example: Alexandr Ptushko's films (such as Sampo and the Tale of Tsar Tsaltan) are works I have never even heard of before featuring Finnish and Russian epics from the late fifties of incredible production value for the time. Piotr Szulkin's Apocalypse Tetralogy is a masterpiece in weird cold war era scifi from behind the Iron Curtain. Other remasters are more down to home, representing unusual films such as Through the Fire, a low budget first film that manages to come just short of being a genuinely good spooky detective horror story, or Creature, an obscure Alien knock-off I remember seeing in the 80's on HBO, featuring Klaus Kinski in one of those roles where he chews the scenery with his trademark weirdness. More familiar films can be found as well, such as Road House, From Beyond, and if you go over to Arrow Films you can see bigger films get special re-treatments. Conan the Barbarian and its sequel are getting a very nice UHD collector's set I'm not crazy enough to buy for the price, but it's cool that such a thing can exist.</p><p>Anyway, this is a corner of my interests I have not written about much, but which has consumed a bit of my time. I might consider a regular blog series on this, with a twist. One of the movies I picked up was The Incredible Melting Man (which was much scarier when I was 8 years old, and much less so at 52) and my son and I both concocted a much better plot using this movie as the springboard for a scenario for Call of Cthulhu or Mothership. This could be done with quite a few other movies, and leans in to a scenario technique I experimented with a few years ago when I took the core conceits of Conan the Barbarian and turned it in to a Starfinder campaign. So...I might watch and discuss some of these movies from a gamer's context, identifying what sort of fun ideas and scenario content (and for what games) might be derived from some of these movies. We will see!</p><p><br /></p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-64406434225400865812024-01-01T13:42:00.003-07:002024-01-01T13:42:23.594-07:00Deathbat's Goals and Predictions for 2024<p> Well the new year is here and along with it comes a slew of blogs and vlogs talking about new year predictions, goals and rampant, wild speculation. For my part of this, I am going to lump my post into a list of predictions and goals for myself:</p><p>Goal: run Mothership - easily achieved! I am starting the new campaign next Saturday (sesh zero was last Saturday, obstructed by work).</p><p>Prediction: D&D One will release but D&D Beyond will be in poor shape for an "early access" portal of online graphics-focused gaming - I actually think that we won't be anywhere close to seeing a properly ready product on D&D Beyond in the way most gamers imagine it will need to be. We're going to see a product that only hints at that demo WotC showed us, instead.</p><p>Goal: run Dragonbane - also easily achieved! I will plan to run this, probably on Saturday, after the Mothership campaign.</p><p>Prediction: Tales of the Valiant will arrive and be a big hit, may eat in to Pathfinder's market share but won't steal casuals from D&D. Much as I'd like to imagine it could, I don't see it happening. But I do believe that Kobold Press is well known for putting out good products, and that will garner attention within the more "core" RPGer crowd that may be seeking a D&D alternate. It's target of 5E compatibility will make it an easier sell.</p><p>Goal: run Traveller! Now that the newer release books are all in my hands I have a keen interest in building out a new Traveller campaign, and I might consider using The Great Rift set to do it. Probably a goal for later this year due to my interrupting the flow with Mothership in January.</p><p>Prediction: We will get D&D-like (what we used to call heartbreaker) fatigue in 2024 as numerous other D&D-inspired games finally release in response to the revamped D&D plus the post OGL kerfuffle. Examples include Tales of the Valiant, of course, and the second set of Pathfinder 2E revised book, but Shadowdark is a thing, as is a 2nd edition of 13th Age allegedly supposed to release some day, and there are a fair number of other D&D-based post-OGL products named last year which I recall as being scheduled for release this year.</p><p>Goal: Try to get at least 2 posts out every week this year on the blog. I'll try! It is a good writing exercise, this as always has been less about writing for an audience (yeah, may explain some posts lol) and more about writing for myself to keep my own interest engaged.</p><p>Prediction: We will not see a lot of new IP or gaming properties this year as the market is too knotted around D&D at the moment. Once the new D&D books and whatever happens with D&D Beyond finally drop, we will see a sag in the market for a bit, and possibly some waning interest over time, followed by maybe some more creative endeavours in 2025. This will be my "bold" prediction. Will see if it comes to pass next year.</p><p>Goal: pace myself. I am honestly getting older, so I keep reminding myself, and it can be hard to run two games a week these days while managing a business and family. I need to keep that in mind and not be shy about letting my gamer cohorts know that sometimes Wednesday or Saturday nights are just not good for gaming. Also, whenever possible, I need to foster more local IRL gaming because the VTT experience is just never really going to cut it for me. </p><p>Okay, that's it for my gaming predictions and goals of 2024! I wish I had more of a non-D&D sort for predictions, but it's hard to come up with anything noteworthy. To that end:</p><p>--I could say "Chaosium will give up on Rivers of London" for example, but that's hardly a prediction and more just an observation that they backed a really esoteric IP (for the states, at least) and didn't do enough promotion. </p><p>--Or I could speculate that we'll reach January 1 2025 and still be waiting for the third Esper Genesis book to arrive (I am going to call that one now), but that's mostly just a recognition that something on the business/publishing end of the publisher for that book series has gone very south and that I suspect the real reason that they haven't produced the book is lack of funds. </p><p>--Likewise I could predict that Steve Jackson Games may announce a new edition of GURPS this year but I doubt it; I think the core developers/writers at SJ Games are too old and tired to take up the mantle of a new edition, and GURPS has languished in its own special corner of the cottage industry for so long that no new blood exists to come take up the task. </p><p>--I could also predict 13th Age 2nd Edition won't see release this year, because they probably want to wait until well after D&D's next edition has saturated its way through the audience and generated a new group of expats for a different variant edition, but who really knows, Pelgrane Press publishes to the toot of its own horn. </p><p>--I could also predict that Pathfinder, despite now having better, more organized and comprehensive books out, will flounder in the market due to the perceived buy-in being too high for most gamers, but it will still appeal to the subset of D&Ders who crave a bit more dynamic mechanical flair in their games. We'll see!</p><p>Anyway, Happy New Year! </p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-44480103812876826242023-12-29T12:31:00.003-07:002023-12-29T15:03:21.840-07:00Deathbat's 2023 Best and Worst in Tabletop Gaming (and VTT)<p> I got to try a variety of different new RPGs this year which was nice....I didn't stick to my usual barrel of tried-and-true regular games entirely, and as a result some interesting gems such as Mork Borg and Vaesen rose to the surface. I did a lot of collecting and reading this year, but much of it was focused on indie zine RPGs (see that series I have temporarily been ignoring!) and I managed to get aquainted with an entire subset of the hobby that I consider to be a movement toward hyper-focused, art zine style minimalist RPGs with a goal toward simple but effective rules and exotic, creative settings. This style of RPG is essentially a reproach to the modern obsession with giant books, huge campaigns, lavish color paintings for art and big price tags. I also got heavily in to collecting and reading the many offerings of Swedish gaming giant Free League Publishing, which relies on its own special brand of game system (the Year Zero Engine) to build various RPGs. </p><p>What I didn't do this year was make a clean break from D&D though I did do so, fairly decisively, with Pathfinder 2E around --I want to say March?-- of this year. An inter-player conflict and a generally negative response toward the way Pathfinder 2E plays (using Roll20) from about half the players left me with a really bad taste in my mouth for the whole experience, which was made worse by the fact that I as a GM was really enjoying the system from the GM perspective. I subsequently got to be a player in another game, and while I did enjoy it, I found the excess tedium , of the mechanical gravitas of PF2E less to my liking as a player. Now that the new books are out, I am considering a re-entry, but I am also a bit gunshy.....and I know that choosing Pathfinder again may mean some players simply won't show. </p><p>Anyway, here's my take on the Best and Worst for 2023!</p><p><b>RPG of the Year for 2023: Basic Roleplaying System</b></p><p>The new edition of BRP (5th edition) brings lots of minor tweaks and clarifications and a tighter focus, while still containing all the content of prior editions and the framework for any number of BRP powered genre adventures. It does not incorporate the Call of Cthulhu 7E changes as such, so that's about the only issue one might have with it (if you love the 7E changes, that is), though it does remain compatible and you could easily mesh the two iteratons together with minimal or no effort (as I have already done). So this is my Book of the Year overall!</p><p><b>Best RPG Discovery of 2023: Mork Borg</b></p><p>Sure its been out for a while, but Mork Borg was new to me! Sort of....I think I got the RPG a year or two ago, but found it perplexing as to full intent and set it aside. Following the OGL kerfuffle in January I decided to start exploring other RPGs (and simpler ones following the March meltdown as I call it), and Mork Borg rapidly grew to the #1 place on my list as I was able to finally grokk its deceptive emergent complexity out of a simple mechanical premise, and its elaborate yet deliberately obscure setting. Mork Borg may or may not be an ideal system for long term gaming, but it is most definitely a game you can pick up and play at any time and have fun with (as long as you enjoy brutal, grimdark Swede-punk eschatonic nightmare worlds, that is!)</p><p><b>Worst RPG Trend of 2023: Eternally Delayed Books </b></p><p>There's a BattleZoo Book that was supposed to release months ago (EDIT: literally hours after writing this I got a notice the book "Strange & Unusual" is shipping today, so I guess this one is off the list). There's An Esper Genesis book that's like three years or more past due now. I'm still waiting for the Mothership 1E boxed set and it may not be out until March or later. For my own purposes, I've cut back on backing Kickstarters. By the time the books arrive I am often completely disinterested in the game at that point, having played and finished with it, and the new product is not enough to engender new interest. For various reason 2023 has felt like a tipping point for me: I am done with wondering if or when these products will ever manifest, time to stop pre-ordering or backing these uncertainties once and for all.</p><p>In a sense this issue has been around for many years and is as old as Kickstarter, but with one exception all of the delayed books I am waiting on are pre-orders or an ordinary sort, so I guess for me at least 2023 is the year this issue hammered in to the old noggin that its a bad idea.</p><p><b>Best RPG Style of 2023: The Zine RPG</b></p><p>I've spent a lot of time blogging about it this year, so it is no surprise that I think the new style of RPG fostered over the last few years has finally become its own cottage industry and now holds it place as a special subset of gaming in contrast to more mainstream RPGs. The focus on creativity, artistic exoticism, minimalist design and a very conscious effort to foster ad hoc play styles are all fairly unique to this new style of RPG, and those elements which are not unique still get realized in new and unique ways.</p><p><b>Worst Flub of 2023: Wizards of the Coast's OGL Kerfuffle</b></p><p>I won't belabor the issue, but WotC's attempt to destroy the OGL and force third party publishers into draconian contracts where they get a cut of the take backfired and caused the core supporters and fandom to lose trust in WotC. While the giant can no doubt continue with a broader casual fanbase, it will be interesting to see how this impacts them next year when the next edition of D&D arrives, ready to push people into WotC's online D&D Beyond playspace, located just west of micrtransaction hell, I am sure. What we're seeing here (I think) is the idea that D&D as an RPG may now be transcendent to RPGs as a hobby...the hobby will continue on and find new corners and darlings, while D&D itself becomes more, just, "D&D the hobby" and very occasionally a D&Der might be tempted into seeing what the whole other "tabletop are-pee-gee" hobby is all about. Honestly? It's kind of already like that, but the really interesting things is going to be whether or not the concept space of D&D Beyond and a focus on online microtransaction-based VTT gaming can sustain in a hobby who's key appeal has traditionally been that you can socialize around a table. Maybe, in the end, this just further bifurcates the hobby.</p><p><b>Best VTT Environment of 2023: PlayRole</b></p><p>I have to say that Role20 has done a lot to improve this year, so its a good VTT to play with, but my accidental discovery of <a href="http://PlayRole.com">PlayRole.com</a> was rather profound, and our experimenting with it has proved to me that it is not only a viable place to run games, but preferential to my style of play. We're about to start a full fledged Mothership game tomorrow using PlayRole, so I expect to have a lot more to say about it as we go forward, but my current experiments with OSE, Mork Borg, Dead Mall and UVG has so far been rather satisfactory. </p><p>I'm out of "Worsts" so is one more "Best" to ponder:</p><p><b>Best Revision of 2023: Pathfinder 2E V2<span> </span></b></p><p>Not much to say here, other than the new books (Player Core and GM Core) are considerably better organized and laid out, and I really appreciate that. The color scheme is nicer on the eyes, the focus on a new player experience is better, and the minor changes (Mainly extracting OGL content) are non-invasive for the most part. It is enough to tempt me back to trying Pathinder 2E again even though I've had a string of unfortunate incidents with it leading up to March when I abandoned the system entirely due to disgruntled player issues. </p><p>I'll mention a runner-up: <b>Swords & Wizardry Complete</b> was revised by Mythmere Games (and is also back to publishing it), and the revision is very nice indeed! It's mostly the familiar system, but a bit more exposition and some minor but relevant additions make for an even more complete 0 edition retro experience.</p><p><b>2024 Expectations</b></p><p>So for 2024, what do I foresee? </p><p>I'm focused on trying out more of these cool games I have read and discovered in 2023. I want to try out the Mork Borg spin-offs (CY_Borg, Death in Space, Vast Grimm and Pirate Borg) if opportunity presents itself. I want to use Liminal Horror to run The Bureau module, and Runecairn (or regular Cairn!) look fascinating.</p><p>I am 100% on board for 2024 with a not-too-distant BRP powered supers game, and I want to play a straight up Open Quest 3 game, especially now that Open Quest Dungeons is out. I am ready for ducks and mallards alike, because I still want to run Dragonbane and am disappointed the chance never presented itself in 2023. I would like to try the Alien RPG and Blade Runner RPG as well, but we'll see; I have never been as good at running IP-property-based games as I have more original fare. Most importantly though I plan to run a ton of Mothership and Traveller 2E, and I predict 2024 will be a big year for me when it comes to science fiction RPGs. We'll see!</p><p>I also want to chill out on collecting next year. I did a pretty good job this year, overall, but probably not by volume (I still bought as many books as ever, just many are smaller zine RPG books). I still need to reduce my overall collection, or my descendants will be cursing me in the future with the mess I leave behind. </p><p>I may not get another chance to post before 2024, so see you all in the New Year!</p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-29913214928822823342023-12-26T08:00:00.010-07:002023-12-26T08:00:00.143-07:00Deathbat's 2023 Duds in Computer Gaming<p> You know what...I don't have too much to complain about in 2023 when it comes to bad games. Somehow, despite the fact that it often feels like the current approach to game development is strongly at odds with my own desire for more conventional story-based adventure tales with a semi-linear play experience, I still found plenty of games this year (and from prior years) in the general style of what I like to feel content. But I still do have a few worthy duds of mention! So let's get to it...</p><p><b>The Games as a Service Nightmare Award: Tied between Destiny 2 and Fortnite</b></p><p>As someone who has played way too much of both of these games I am approaching Steam-Reviewer levels of territory by leveling criticism; you know the kind, the "I hate this game, and here is my manifesto why," type of review accompanied by a listing indicating 6,000 hours of game time. I am not that bad, I think, but I've sunk enough time into both to have noticed unfortunate trends here between my two darlings in the GaaS genre....</p><p>Destiny 2's main problem is that they have built and sold their game around its environment, storyline and thematics. They can't sustain a GaaS setup and not compromise on story, so over the last few years they have done lots of stuff that is anti-consumer, including "vaulting" previous campaign content (leaving no way to play prior campaigns), gating single player content behind primary multiplayer-focused season passes, making it impossible to progress through the story without excessive and inane grinding, and while I am not a multiplayer fan I have read plenty about how they are not happy campers, as the Destiny 2 team seems to ignore multiplayer a lot in favor of grindy stuff and more readily monetizable bits.</p><p>On top of all that, Destiny 2 has flubbed their annual releases, and seem to have derailed from the core conceits of their own plot with the new Lightfall expansion this year. Then they got hit with layoffs from Sony and had to push out their next expansion to mid 2024, creating an uncertain gap in their seasonal schedule which is already too rapid and troublesome for normal human gamers with jobs and lives and families to keep up with. Yeah....Destiny 2 has problems.</p><p>On the plus side, I've hardly played any of Destiny 2 at all this year. I logged in to get some story missions done, and those in turn stall when they suddenly require group excursions or grinding (I have had patience for neither), so I really haven't been that in to the game this year. I got the expansion after I found it on a steep discount, but maybe I can resist entirely in 2024.</p><p>Fortnite, meanwhile, is on the surface going quite strong, but I can safely say its getting old around the edges, and their brief return to a classic era 1st season map this year shined a harsh light on how wacky and complex the new game worlds have gotten. Even so, I have found the game less fun as the resurgent interest dragged back many of the crazy build-focused madmen who once dominated the game and made it unfun for all us filthy casuals. Aware of their need to innovate or at least offer a bigger buffet of online content, Epic has added Lego modes, a racing mode and a rhythm game mode to the game, along with Unreal 5 Engine demo content. All of this is fun, and I suspect the Lego mode will have lasting appeal to some younger fans, but for me.....I grow less and less enthusiastic for the game as it begins to feel less like fun and more like an old, bad habit I need to shake off.</p><p>Maybe for 2024 I'll make a new year's resolution: no more GaaS experiences, and delete Fortnite and Destiny 2 from my PC, Playstation and Xbox. Y'know, that sounds like a nice goal here. I can finally stick them in the same box of memories as World of Warcraft and Guild Wars from back in the day.</p><p><b>The Boomer Shooter Hellscape Award for Worst Zooter: Zortch</b></p><p>Here's a protip! If you want to experience the boomer shooter craze all over again, but you are like me in your 50's and no longer have those reflexes of youth with you (or, like me, were never good at them back then anyway), go watch the Youtube channel Civvie 11 and he will provide you with an entertaining way to enjoy these classic and modern retro shooters without wasting your own precious time and energy on them. Just don't get excited by them like Civvie 11 sometimes does and buy one outright, unless you check out a few other sources first! I did that with Zortch and holy crap was I in for a disappointment. YMMV and all, and I didn't play long, just long enough to realize I was gonna hate the entire experience of this game. Now, in contrast I did discover Turbo Overkill thanks to Civvie 11 so not all is lost here! But Zortch? Man, I just don't know what to say.....<a href="https://youtu.be/k7OrfJhf6oM?si=6BiATVEy12Mzf20m">watch his playthrough</a> and make your own decision, but if a demo is available, maybe try that first. Civvie makes the game look way too good for what it actually is.</p><p><b>OopsieSoft Award: Far Cry 6</b></p><p>There are so many Youtubers and reviewers out there analyzing why Far Cry 6 is a terrible game that I hesitate to spend any time myself doing this. Instead, I'll relay my brief experience with the game: It involved a villainous actor murdering a boat of people to make some point to his son, setting an incredibly dark tone. It involved a team of revolutionaries who use stark blue as their secret hideout marker, and it then sent me off to talk to a old drunk with a pet alligator that appeared to be both immune to bullets and much, much better at murder than my dudette was. It was a nightmare of tonal inconsistency and was also largely the same now tired, mundane formula that used to be what made Far Cry cool, except now it is all wrung out and dead. So dead I won't even contemplate trying Avatar because I already have played that game, I am sure of it.</p><p><b>Why Did I do this to Myself Award: Modern Warfare 3</b></p><p>Okay I did get it for 33% off. And I do love the open world Warzone style Zombies mode, which is the first mode in a Call of Duty game I've really enjoyed. Also, the multiplayer modes are tight and have the best "handling" of any Call of Duty game to date. But the campaign....not really the strong point here. Will I even be playing this in a month? Probably not. My son hasn't even touched it. </p><p><b>The Game I Want to Critique But Can't: Lethal Company</b></p><p>This goofy game is fun if you are young and haven't had to work a real job. It's otherwise at best good for a couple sessions of fun with friends who are drunk, I suppose. But I can't say anything too bad about it because my son loves it and even bought me a copy for Xmas, so I guess I'll be playing this one a bit. Will call it "Baby's first GTFO." Yeah. That's the ticket.</p><p>That's it! I had a few games I tried and gave up on, but hard to critique them when I probably played less than an hour before getting a Steam refund. So overall not a bad year when it comes to the gripes.</p><p><br /></p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-34020092287088481282023-12-24T21:45:00.001-07:002023-12-24T21:45:29.345-07:00Deathbat's 2023 Year in Video GamesIt's always a good year when I manage to finish some decent games, and even better if some of them were even new for this year! Without adieu, here is less of a "Death Bat's awards for 2023" list and more of a "These are the games I found most encapsulating of my time" list.<div><br /></div><div>I'm going to be straight up, though: I haven't touched Baldur's Gate 3 yet. There are several reasons for this, not the least of which is I am afraid I'll pick it up and discover it is not as exciting to me as the many, many reviewers and friends around me who have played the game suggest it might be; I'm also a bit gunshy of Larian Studios based on their prior titles, which I found interesting but not enough to dive deep in to; I've always preferred my fantasy gaming at the tabletop, and it takes a lot for me to motivate to play a CRPG. </div><div><br /></div><div>On the plus side, this means not playing BG3 has allowed me to enjoy Starfield (somewhat) without judging it against its better competitor. Instead I have been able to enjoy Starfield on its merits and flaws as a Bethesda game. </div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway, the list!</div><div><br /><div><b><a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/680420/OUTRIDERS/">Best Shooter from the Past I belatedly enjoyed in 2023: Outriders</a></b></div><div><br /></div><div>I spent an inordinate amount of time in Outriders, a game from 2020 which took me a while to motivate myself to play. There is a point in Outriders where the story suddenly gets more interesting, and it is a shame that getting to that point was hidden behind some fairly rigid cover-based shooting experience right out of the Xbox 360 era. When the game finally opened up a bit and revealed some more depth to the plotline I got more in to it; the Outriders universe is about humanity's war-torn survivors coming to a grim world that does not want them there, and then they descend into thirty years of war, creating one of the grimmest crapsack worlds in gaming history. This is an example of a game world I do not want to visit, and it takes some effort to truly enjoy it as a gamer, too. But I did....and I ended up really enjoying it as a result.</div><div><br /></div><div>The game's plot is fairly linear, but I was really in the mood for linearity earlier in the year and I stuck with this one for weeks as I uncovered the grim and incredibly unpleasant universe of this game. I can't say I'd suggest it for the multiplayer (which I am sure is dead) but as a single player linear campaign goes this one ends up paying off fairly well. The expansion campaign was also worthy of a playthrough, and despite some reviewers online I found it sufficiently robust and interesting. The endgame content is decent enough too.</div><div><br /></div><div>Runner up goes to Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3 Remakes, both of which I finished this year. Great remakes! I have not, as is tradition, touched Resident Evil 4 Remake yet, though my son finished it the same day it released. Gotta save that for a future year!</div><div><br /></div><div><b><a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1716740/Starfield/">Best CRPG that is Full of Problems: Starfield</a></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Starfield is not actually bad, it's just an old design approach on an old engine that was renovated mainly for shiny graphics and totally overlooked the possibility of some B studio competition coming along and eating their lunch. Starfield has been fun so far, and I am likely to be playing it in spurts for the next several weeks or even months (I can't binge play games anymore, just not able to do it), and its totally fine. When I am done I will finally get Baldur's Gate 3 so I can marvel at how much better that game is, but thankfully I can enjoy this one now without comparison.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you're wondering, though, I have found this game runs well enough on the Asus ROG Ally, and its been a fine experience on my desktop. The complaints about the menus, while slightly exaggerated for effect, are not wrong; it can be hard to find things sometimes. There are weird mechanics in odd places. Why is my guy running out of oxygen in New Atlantis? It's weird. Why are some planets not worth visiting? Why put empty filler in that has no redeeming value to it? Bad design choices. But....nestled within is a classic Bethesda experience, for better and worse.</div><div><br /></div><div>Runner up goes to Solasta: Crown of the Magister, which I finally started playing, as I figured it would also be another game I'd find less enjoyment in if I don't play it before Baldur's Gate 3. I love how faithful Solasta is to the D&D 5E system, and its a solid turn-based experience. </div><div><br /></div><div>Also, honorable mention to Final Fantasy XVI for trying really hard to be interesting. Now why can't I properly get into FF games anymore? I have only completed FF VII and VIII back in the old PS1 days. </div><div><br /></div><div><b><a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1328350/Turbo_Overkill/">Best Actually Good FPS: Turbo Overkill</a></b></div><div><br /></div><div>Not quite a retro boomer shooter and not quite a modern glamour shooter, Turbo Overkill presents you with a cyborg character who has a chainsaw leg and sliding maneuver to rip enemies apart as well as one of the finest and most overall useful arsenals of weaponry you could ask for in a fast paced FPS like this. By the end of the game you can end up all chainsaws as you chew your way through a plot worthy of the nineties, and all I can say is that I have enjoyed this game a lot more than other recent AAA shooters.</div><div><br /></div><div>Runner up goes to Trepang2 which is am amazing and wild ride, and some people feel it is comparable to the original FEAR Games, which I can see (at least the feel, not the supernatural stuff). Trepang2 is a real pleasure to play. I would have ranked it as the top shooter of 2023 for sure if I hadn't also discovered Turbo Overkill.</div><div><br /></div><div><b><a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1693980/Dead_Space/">Best Adventure or Horror Title: Dead Space</a></b></div><div><b><br /></b></div><div>Obviously Dead Space! The Dead Space reboot is the right kind of remake, and the prospect of new and more Dead Space in the future is a good thing. I also quite enjoyed Callisto Protocol, but playing that and then Dead Space sort of hit home how there's a special kind of magic going on with the original that is hard to beat. Still, both are worthy of a playthrough or two.</div><div><br /></div><div>Runner up is Alan Wake Remastered and Alan Wake 2. A real trip, but make sure you play Alan Wake Remastered first if you haven't. I actually hadn't played Alan Wake before, so needed to tackle that game first. Also, if you have never played Control before that's in the same Remedy Universe, and its really interesting to play these games in their related context. Avoid only if you dislike precocious authors whose written works seem to recalibrate reality!</div><div><br /></div><div><b><a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/1655940/Earths_Shadow/">Best Indie/Small Team Game: Earth's Shadow</a></b></div><div><br /></div><div>I sank more time in to Earth's Shadow than many other titles with bigger teams and greater budgets. Earth's Shadow is an exploratory procedural roguelite that plays like a budget edition of Returnal. Just like Returnal I can't get past the first boss (what I assume is the first boss, anyway....dude in the temple), but I have to say I have really enjoyed my hours with this game. Check it out on Steam if the concept of a Returnal-like roguelike sounds fun to you.</div><div><br /></div><div>Runner up is <a href="https://store.steampowered.com/app/587520/Dungeons_of_Sundaria/">Dungeons of Sundaria</a>, a crazy entry into the "small team with big concepts" roguelikes with procedural design. Make a heroic dungeon delver, join a team or go solo into eight different dungeons. I just got this and while I was initially thinking, "No way this has staying power for me," before I knew it I was compulsively leveling my elven fighter and seeing how deep into the haunted graveyard I could go. The strikes against it are that the gameplay is interesting enough that I wish it was a real game with a storyline and not a roguelite. It reminds me of Hunted: The Demon's Forge and Kingdoms of Amalur, except without much of a plot beyond "go in dungeon, murder the stuff you meet." The skeleton of a better game lurks within Dungeons of Sundaria, but as a mindless dungeon hack'n'slash it's pretty good.</div><div><div><br /></div><div>Some new games did not get played yet so I just can't speak on titles such as Atlas Fallen, Lords of the Fallen, Diablo IV and of course Baldur's Gate 3. Any one of these games could have soaked up way too much time for me, so I have held off on them for that reason. I'm also saving conversation on "games as a service" entries for next time, when we talk about the year's duds.</div><div><br /></div><div>Okay, that's enough for this year's interesting titles. Next up, maybe we'll chat about the duds! I have a few I think are worth mentioning...</div><div><br /></div></div></div>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-31401415405504436382023-12-20T15:21:00.004-07:002023-12-20T15:23:00.556-07:00The 2023 Death Bat Year in Gaming and Looking to 2024<p> What a weird year it has been for me. I spent a lot of this year overworked and with less free time for fun than I would like, but on the plus side I got a bit better at managing what free time I did have. My son, who is now 12, monopolizes a fair amount of that, but he's also very into D&D now and plays in a school group as well as my Wednesday night group....which doesn't play D&D as often anymore, but hey, we're starting a new campaign this week, so there ya' go.</p><p>This year kicked off with Wizards of the Coast annihilating trust in their shepherding of Dungeons & Dragons through the OGL, resulting in numerous spin-off games appearing under a creative commons or new license (ORC) through Paizo, including the revamped Pathfinder 2E v2, and the imminent Tales of the Valiant from Kobold Press. It's a boost for existing products like level Up! A5E RPG, though honestly Morrus and his ENWorld crew are not really the sort to dramatically capitalize on the negative hype aimed at WotC, and they continue to do their own thing. </p><p>I spent a lot of time this year deep diving into the alternative and indie RPG market that I dub "zinerpgs" because most of these seem to have spun out of the zine scene where small publishers and authors (usually one and the same) along with their art-generating college buddies create elaborate, minimalist, starkly artistic and utterly weird entries into the market. I stalled out a bit on that project of reviewing all I had found but need to get back to it. Maybe 2024 will be a slower year for me....sheeya right!</p><p>This year I did manage the following:</p><p>First and best, I got the Wednesday group back to live nightly gaming again. This has been a welcome relief, as I tend to associate facetime on web events with work; it is not fun for me. My Saturday game remains on Roll20 out of necessity, but even then I am thinking about making Roll20 a bi-weekly deal and interposing a live event every other week.</p><p>As a player I got actual action in this year. I played in a campaign of Pathfinder 2E run by a friend; found that being a player in this edition is more frustrating and unfun (imo) than being a GM. Another friend in Seattle has managed to run a lot of Victorian Gaslight Call of Cthulhu for much of this year until unfortunate circumstances led to that group collapsing (temporarily; three of us wish to resume it in January). He has also run a fun bi=weekly D&D 5E game I have played in for the better part of the year using the Kobold Press Southlands campaign.</p><p>I have run live games this year of <b>BRP</b> in a near-future hard SF/Cyberpunk setting, <b>Pathfinder for Savage Worlds</b>, D&D 5E at very high levels (levels 15-20), a couple <b>D&D</b> mini-campaigns on Roll20, an aborted Pathfinder game (what I like to call "the one that made me gun-shy over Pathfinder"), <b>Vaesen</b> (a game I'd describe better as Dark Fantasy and less horror), <b>Call of Cthulhu</b> (both modern day and Cthulhu Dark ages, using the 6th Edition of the Dark Ages rules), <b>Mork Borg</b> (which was a blast but I have not been sure what to do with it next; it is most decidedly a beer & pretzels dark metal RPG), and at the start of the year we had a 1st edition <b>Gamma World</b> holiday campaign wrap up. Fun stuff! I may have blogged less this year, but at least I kept the gaming up. There might have been a game or two I forgot about....OSE maybe? I think I ran that all last year, though.</p><p>Of those games I ran, I came away a bit cool on Vaesen (fun but hard for me to get in to, which is damning if you're the GM), happy that Mork Borg was so fun (but also realizing it is best used sparingly), excited for the Call of Cthulhu games, but also realizing I need to give it a rest a bit so my idea engine can recharge, and for BRP I am now intrigued at the idea of exploring how many oddball genres I can get out of it. I really enjoyed the Savage Worlds Fantasy and Pathfinder adaptations, but I am not 100% sure my group did as when I suggested returning to it they all seemed "m'eh" so I think the joyful simplicity of Savage Worlds may not be as endearing to them as it is to me. As for Pathfinder.....man, I want to, but I've had some issues and bad experiences with running it now and that is proving tough for me to get over. D&D remains viable and my energy to play it is recharged, thankfully, but I plan to ditch it entirely for Tales of the Valiant unless whatever WotC pumps out for new editions next year knocks my socks off. My suspicion is it will be a product aimed to steer me toward their online platform, and that will be a no deal situation. Meanwhile, Kobold Press is more or less continuously making smart and fun books and their grip on Shard Tabletop is where I'll put my online money. I am confident the Kobolds won't forget their analog wood-grain table crowd.</p><p>My biggest issue this year has been wrestling with GM burnout. Playing more helped a bit, but I have never been very good as a player (I know too much how the cheese is made, so it can be tough to feel invested unless the GM is shockingly good at running things). I got pretty tired of D&D for a bit, but I feel more interested now, especially as I did get a chance to explore other games there, and that, if anything, helped hammer home that the grass is not greener on the other side, and what really makes things fun is what I put in to it more than what system I am using. Getting to play D&D 5E for once was a godsend, and my friend Mike runs a mean, tight game in the Southlands, loads of fun.</p><p>For 2024, I hope to run a good long fun D&D 5E game in my Pergerron setting. I think the Roll20 Saturday group would like to do part 2 to an older Pathfinder campaign in Oman'Hakat, and I may be up for that. I have strong plans for a Traveller campaign, maybe before we do D&D or Pathfinder on Saturday, especially now that it seems they finally have some real character sheet support. The 2022-2024 revisions of Traveller have been great books, not really necessary but welcome nonetheless, and I may even use them to continue the campaign concepts I started in the BRP campaign earlier this year. </p><p>Beyond that, I have some hopes of experimenting with Dragonbane, which I almost ran but never quite got to this year, as well as Mutant Year Zero. I'm hopeful that Friday Knight Games finally coughs up the gigantic Kickstarted boxed set of Mothership 1E this year so I can resume running that. Steve Jackson Games is making a big monster book for The Fantasy Trip, too, and I am thinking about what sort of logistics it would take to give TFT a spin. And, of course, Mork Borg and its evil cousins Death in Space, Vast Grimm, Pirate Borg and Cy_Borg call for my attention the next time I have a week with nothing better going on. </p><p>I'll try to do more blogging, too! I have found lots of RPG bloggers on Substack, may forge a new blog over there as well to see how it goes, but I am reluctant to abandon this one as I have so many years behind it now. We'll see, who knows.</p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-15005527966966083332023-12-14T00:18:00.003-07:002023-12-14T00:18:55.311-07:00WotC Layoffs = Good News for Paizo and Kobold Press?<p> The stories circulating about the large scale layoffs at Wizards of the Coast have gotten interesting. I initially thought this was just the usual Xmas layoffs WotC has been more or less known to go through thanks to their corporate Hasbro owners for the last couple decades, but in reading some stuff (<a href="https://www.penny-arcade.com/news/post/2023/12/13/the-archfiend">here</a>, for example, and <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2023/new-round-of-layoffs-at-hasbro-impacts-wizards-of-the-coast-read-ceos-memo-to-staff/">here</a>) it seems like these layoffs are larger and more profound...messier, and more destructive, if you will...right when WotC's D&D team needs stability the most. </p><p>The net result, of course, is it could mean problems for all the product lineup for D&D's 50th anniversary, or at the very least a lessening of vision. At a time when we are all hoping for a decent new iteration of the rules and new prospects for gaming, it's a troubling sign when whole swathes of the creative drivers are suddenly let loose, with no clear objective to this action other than achieving some bottom line short term savings in sight. I am also surprised they are trying to ditch their movie deal with Entertainment One, as I was vaguely under the impression that they had done well enough to merit future installments of at least the D&D movie line. Can't say for sure on Transformers and other films, though; toy line movies, baring Barbie, have not done well for years now. </p><p>As far as the gaming side goes, this does mean potential good news for the current two largest competitors (as I see it) for D&D's cultural cachet: Kobold Press with Tales of the Valiant, which intends to do for D&D 5E what Pathfinder 1E did for D&D 3.5; and of course Paizo's Pathfinder 2E (v2) which is poising itself to be the alternative to the popular system, filling a role as the friendly but more sophisticated alternative. Either way it is good to know that WotC's implosion attempt on the OGL at the beginning of the year liberated both Kobold Press and Paizo, as well as countless other smaller publishers, to move away from a potentially revocable license and into a more sustainable role as providers of a decent fantasy RPG experience.</p><p>I am considering running more Pathfinder 2E, with the new core books now in hand. The revisions are minor, but the rewrite and reorganization is greatly appreciated. The support Pathfinder offers for a more rigorous and tactical game with consequences is something I crave, though I need to work carefully to generate an experience that isn't too punishing to the players. </p><p>Pathfinder though serves as my interim system until Tales of the Valiant takes root. Their lineup of books is proving to be extremely crafty, a well curated D&D-like experience with a 5E compatible ruleset that will let me use whatever I want. If they integrate TotV into the <a href="https://www.shardtabletop.com/">Shard Tabletop</a> experience --and they surely will!--then it will make the system a shoe-in for future online gaming. Check it out if you haven't yet, its a really fine VTT for 5E style play. </p><p>Either way, we shall see how it all goes. Next year will, for better or worse, be yet another year where the top three fantasy offerings are all essentially D&D variants....but luckily we are getting more fun stuff that tries to break or deviate a bit from the D&D mold, such as Dragonbane, Mork Borg and Runecairn. More on all those when I finally find more time to write!</p><p><br /></p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-21854826177507763442023-11-28T18:08:00.003-07:002023-11-28T18:08:21.351-07:00River of heaven, Pathfinder 2E, Basic Roleplaying and Other Stuff <p> No sooner do I find myself thinking I have free time once more than my schedule goes belly up, and before I know it December has arrived. Fear not, the blog is not dead (nor the blogger!), just once more neglected due to the perambulations of time. </p><p>In the last few weeks I've had a few noteworthy items to discuss. Each topic deserves more blog time, but in brief...</p><p><b>Pathfinder 2E version 2 has arrived!</b> I spent some amount of the Thanksgiving weekend diving in to the new Player Core and GM Core books, which together are the first two books of the four book core set. I can say the following on a read through: there are some changes, but it is mostly explanatory/cosmetic. This new iteration of the system is more retrocomptable than, say, D&D 3.5 was with 3.0, perhaps even more so than AD&D 2E was with AD&D 1E. I feel comfortable in using existing PF books with these new ones. What the books do exceedingly well is twofold: they purge whatever Paizo felt was too "OGL" or IP-specific from their game, and they (most importantly of all) do some significant reorganization and a certain amount of rewriting to clean up how they present their rules....this is a much easier presentation of the PF2E system than the first books were, hands down. There are other little tweaks and changes, and some (while noteworthy) still aren't significant in terms of compatibility. Overall.....about what we should have expected.</p><p>I Snagged a copy of <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/281101/River-of-Heaven--Refreshed">River of Heaven</a>, Refreshed. Still reading it, but this is by far the best attempt at a D100 powered science fiction system. It's based on OpenQuest, which of course exists as a nice fantasy alternate to Mythras and BRP/Runequest. I will write more on this soon, hopefully.</p><p>While securing and reading those books, I have been running an ongoing Basic Roleplaying campaign in a scifi/cyberpunk future using the newest edition of BRP. It's gone well! The newest edition of the book is overall not too terribly different from the older BGB (Big Gold Book), but its slight refinements, corrections and revisions have made for a generally improved experience. I have plans for several more genre variants powered by BRP in the works as a result.</p><p>Beyond that....it's been a rough month! Hopefully I'll be returning to some more normal form in my periodic blogging. I have thought a bit about moving to a new, more popular platform such as Substack, may well look in to that. Indeed, I really need to see if substack has an RPG wing over there, because most of what I see at substack appears to mostly be wannabe journalists and topical writers. Maybe substack isn't meant for this kind for more casual fare? Will have to investigate. </p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-85558962607767381852023-11-07T00:50:00.002-07:002023-11-07T00:50:51.339-07:00A Correction! And on Getting Old. <p> A few days back I complained about Onebookshelf ending an agreement with me. I was wrong! So wrong that when I went to re-read the email notice I realized, after thinking about it, that the notice was from Warehouse 23, the online venue for Steve Jackson Games. That honestly makes a lot more sense....I only recall I had anything at their site when I get an occasional notice that they have owed me $7 for the last two years. Their site is not optimized for finding content, and it is easy to never notice anything on their store outside of the most recent products, and SJ Games products in particular. With their recent move to a new sight design this only got worse, so yeah, this totally makes sense.</p><p>So...for those looking for my stuff on Drivethrurpg, looks like I am just getting old and easily confused, that stuff will continue to be there. I have gone ahead and deleted that post, to replace it with this one admitting my brain sometimes misses important details these days. Sigh....!</p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-72671230243494642722023-11-01T17:13:00.003-06:002023-11-01T17:13:24.367-06:00Having fun with Basic Roleplaying<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs3KbqN1Dx7sag8uKfQ6RcoEWITISwIcKBLHKs3flnzDxjnfbmXCss3DEkSDb5kAp8vLEtAV1WWjMoE4fUk4ZMQ5lIhsD_t3B-EPvB1PPO5F8dwjpTmPqoGLYL-RGg6t8GJPl0RbvMPqYp7a9l6cN-449pFvrNyTUWsye2QFGaJtcfmCzb7BdRxOUJlVGa/s834/BRPREV.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="834" data-original-width="640" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs3KbqN1Dx7sag8uKfQ6RcoEWITISwIcKBLHKs3flnzDxjnfbmXCss3DEkSDb5kAp8vLEtAV1WWjMoE4fUk4ZMQ5lIhsD_t3B-EPvB1PPO5F8dwjpTmPqoGLYL-RGg6t8GJPl0RbvMPqYp7a9l6cN-449pFvrNyTUWsye2QFGaJtcfmCzb7BdRxOUJlVGa/s320/BRPREV.jpg" width="246" /></a></div><p>The revised edition of <a href="https://www.chaosium.com/basic-roleplaying-universal-game-engine-hardcover/">Basic Roleplaying</a> is a lovely book, it changes just enough to make it more useful and efficient, while still being the system I've been enjoying for going on 43 years now. I didn't have much to say in this post, but amidst a year of GM burnout, a developed fascination for minimalist zine games, and a lot of work interrupting play, it's been nice to get my hands on the new BRP hardcover and start experimenting with what I can do with it. In every way this book feels just a bit more like what I need to generate some interesting scenarios and campaigns. I'll post some soon, once I've sorted out what I won't use, or end up using (to avoid spoilers for my players). I will say that I have a near-future hard SF campaign ready, as well as that long-awaited ancient Egypt campaign in the works, and some developing ideas on a new Strange Apocalypse style supers campaign.</p><p>That's it! Just a short comment to let everyone know I exist and will be back on track for posting soon, things are returning to normal for me again. </p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-85719830515752241542023-10-05T14:06:00.003-06:002023-10-05T14:06:20.355-06:00Troika! in Softcover<p> Having recently reviewed this I thought it worth mentioning that Troika! has a revised 3rd edition now out <a href="https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/products/troika-softcover-pdf">in softcover here</a>. Although I have some misgivings about it's initiative system and curious was of expressing the implied setting, Troika! is nonetheless a fascinating game I plan to run sooner or later, so am grabbing this latest edition along with Acid Death Fantasy in print so I can put that plan in to action. Check it out!</p><p>This is a busy work month for me! Lots of travel. I will be in a better spot for catching up on my blogging by the end of the month, hopefully, as a I still have many Indie/Zine RPGs to review, including....</p><p>Pirate Borg</p><p>CY_Borg</p><p>Cairn</p><p>Liminal</p><p>and more!!!!</p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-69423663906777110152023-09-26T17:06:00.002-06:002023-09-26T17:06:18.103-06:00Mutant: Mechatron is Back in Print!<p> Not only is <a href="https://freeleaguepublishing.com/en/store/?product_id=666090831920">Mutant: Mechatron</a> back in print at a normal price at Free League Publishing, but a new book in the Mutant: Year Zero series is announced as well titled <a href="https://freeleaguepublishing.com/en/store/?product_id=8773297406275">Mutant; Year Zero - Ad Astra</a>. Mutants in space! </p><p>It is possible that you are in the same camp I am and know why this is a moment for celebration, but if not, then know this tale: Several years ago in the before-times of the pandemic Mutant: Year Zero arrived on the scene with much surprise, and I was fortunate enough to grab it with all the cool bells and whistles back when Modiphius was distributing. Over time Modiphius and Free League parted ways (though recently that has changed again), and Free League books became tough to find, especially if you didn't back the Kickstarter. In short order I missed all three sequels (Genlab Alpha, Elysium and Mechatron). Last year one of the reasons I resumed collecting and then deep-diving into Free League books was due to a happy accident when my wife and I uncovered a trove of a gaming shop in Florida that had more gaming tomes than I had seen in years. Years! Among the many books I snagged there were all the books I was missing for the Mutant Year Zero lineup except one: Mechatron. Heck I even got the card deck....just not the book. </p><p>It turned out it had a really limited print run for the Kickstarter and had never been reprinted. Mechatron was going for $400+ on Ebay auctions for the only three copies available anywhere (and I bet those sellers are wishing they had lowered the price just a bit now). I secured the PDF easily enough, but using the PDF is just not practical for me, I'm an old Gen X gamer, and my embrace of electronic books does not comport well with gaming tomes, it's just a problem with our generational model...we need that book in our hands to make the magic happen, plain and simple. </p><p>So with this new announcement Free League has at last course corrected and is steering the Mutant Year Zero brand back on track. Celebration time! I have ordered my copy, time to wait patiently for it to arrive. </p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjso5SLN8DpqHyC5AY7XvlsgWs9OIw_ZnLYODV8J8OTV-kXiuR7OZTe1wytQuQgmIpDjOQLop0ZTcqMKWXaf0mI8Y38I8sGaiZ-zRvZkSKxZZ3rd_uUoOPFBPMlCXIxH2QKsH97uzPjMGybK7rv7YriowKCNTl0ynZ4jVxTev_V5Vx3liT1s3rUh0xPI62v" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjso5SLN8DpqHyC5AY7XvlsgWs9OIw_ZnLYODV8J8OTV-kXiuR7OZTe1wytQuQgmIpDjOQLop0ZTcqMKWXaf0mI8Y38I8sGaiZ-zRvZkSKxZZ3rd_uUoOPFBPMlCXIxH2QKsH97uzPjMGybK7rv7YriowKCNTl0ynZ4jVxTev_V5Vx3liT1s3rUh0xPI62v" width="240" /></a></div><br /><br /><p></p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-17830164283635913412023-09-18T08:00:00.010-06:002023-09-18T11:52:23.925-06:00The Indie/Zine RPG Review Part XVIII: Electric Bastionland<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEaGBN0bvWKjY_YpJDOj-4iCukE7x2X9cCrxy35FwuMzNlLKj-LydqPmrfFtzc8KnKvhXKNOF-14uEHNOQfMkOAVOvF9gwNsNDrrboMvPfeKKNnq2ftlo6UEmdQlQPxLeXkXX-PYaY2RUAyVdw0gVSS2OUW1tT_REiodHhNJ7_5HKHIZNXJDlnf-5hiBQz/s1000/electricbastionland.png" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEaGBN0bvWKjY_YpJDOj-4iCukE7x2X9cCrxy35FwuMzNlLKj-LydqPmrfFtzc8KnKvhXKNOF-14uEHNOQfMkOAVOvF9gwNsNDrrboMvPfeKKNnq2ftlo6UEmdQlQPxLeXkXX-PYaY2RUAyVdw0gVSS2OUW1tT_REiodHhNJ7_5HKHIZNXJDlnf-5hiBQz/s320/electricbastionland.png" width="320" /></a></div><br /><b>Electric Bastionland - Deeper into the Odd</b><p></p><p><a href="https://chrismcdee.itch.io/electric-bastionland"><b><i>$19 in PDF on itch.io </i></b></a></p><p><a href="https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/products/electric-bastionland"><b><i>$60 in print+PDF on Exalted Funeral</i></b></a></p><p>I actually found Electric Bastionland before I snagged Into the Odd. Chronologically this is a sequel to the latter, with Electric Bastionland taking place roughly a century or so after Into the Odd, moving the technomantic steampunk era of Bastion to the electric age. Despite the book's large size, it's probably only maybe twice the word count of its prequel; the game is heavy on illustrative art, a black-and-white minimalist design that is at once evocative and well-done, without being too abstract. The tonal consistency of the tome is welcome. </p><p><b>The System:</b> It's the same core mechanical design as Into the Odd, which is a system that appears now in quite a few other games. This system is defined over six pages which includes to pages of examples. For a refresher, you roll three stats (strength, dexterity and charisma in this case) on 3D6, then hit protection (HP) on a D6, some cash and equipment in hand, and then a failed career (about which more in a moment). When you roll to succeed (a save), its roll low with modifiers. When you fight, you go right to rolling damage and applying against hit protection. When that is gone, it goes to stats and bad things are immediately likely to happen if you fail a save. Very basic system, the same one in many other zine rpgs (Into the Odd, Liminal Horror, Old Skull Publishing's trilogy of RPGs, etc.)</p><p>The main variation in the character generation is rolling a failed career. This is similar to a profession or background as in other variations on the system, but your choice is based on looking at a chart and comparing your highest stat to your lowest stat....so yeah, players who want to choose what they play are out of luck here without spending a nontrivial time rolling up new stats to get just what they want. (Yeah, I have a player like that lol). In addition to your low and high stats determining failed career, your D6 in cash and your HP roll determine other details.</p><p>The failed careers are just that: something your PC is or did and of course wasn't so good at for various reasons. Each entry provides a visual reference and four distinct items to jot down on your character sheet, one for special equipment, your debt source, and then two variable details based on your starting cash and hit points. It's very important to note that most of the book is failed careers: 220 pages, to be exact! In a sense, much as with Troika! before, Electric Bastionland informs you of a lot of its flavor through this inexact process. Unlike Troika!, EB provides an additional 95 pages of guidance and setting material for the GM (called the conductor here)....so it's not all purely in descriptions. Also, unlike the other game, EB's careers have a greater level of consistency for the setting; in other words, there is most definitely a setting here, and it has its own internal logic to follow.</p><p>Some examples of EB characters for you to consider, noting that these are 100% random, and names are from the suggested choices by career:</p><p>#1 Pearl; Starting Stats: STR 10 DEX 13 CHA 11 HP 4 Cash 2 - Rural Tax Collector. Has a taxman's pistol. What did the tax office provide you with? An ornate baton. What do you hate most about Bastion? Bureaucracy - you have a portable shredder.</p><p>#2 Bushka; STR 10 DEX 9 CHA 8 HP 3 Cash 2 - Professional Gambler, who owns a slug gun and a pack of gum. What's Your Game? - one-car bluff, take a pocket full of tiny mirrors that stick to any surface. What did you win? - Anti-Matter Key, when placed in a keyhole it utterly annihilates the door and itself.</p><p>#3 Risper; STR 14 DEX 14 CHA 6 HP 4 Cash 6 - Urbalist (you're both into herbs and urban stuff, I think), a saber and three doses of hallucinogenic herbs. What do the walls tell you when you're herbed up? You can put some fragments of the wall into your ear to know a trivial fact about a being (if any) that calls this place home. What do the floors tell you when you're herbed up? You spit on the floor to learn the name of the person who thinks they are in charge.</p><p>So yeah....that's a modest sample of what characters can look like in EB. One item I left out is the debt. Each group starts 10K in debt to some group of individual. Each career has a source of this debt, but the determining factor as to who that debt belongs to is based on who the youngest player at the table is. </p><p>There are a lot of interesting failed careers, and seeing any of them will be down to the fickle nature of the dice. The careers strongly suggest that Electric Bastionland is very much a cyberpunk game, just with less cyber (sometimes) and more of that electric part. It's what a steampunk world might one day look like with the onward march of science. Plus...as we shall discuss below, this is the direct sequel to Into the Odd, which means there's a lot more going on in this strange world to inform it, too.</p><p><b>The Setting:</b> Bastion is the future of the same city from Into the Odd, now much advanced and with at least a century (or more) since its predecessor. Where Into the Odd evoked a quaint sense of victorianism and rugged exploration of an unknown world and the underground, the Bastion of EB is a dystopian, sprawling nightmare and the book conveys this by primarily giving tools and instructions on how to design your own city. It covers Bastion, the world outside called the Deep Country, the world below (underground) and then the mystery of the Living Stars. </p><p>Before getting to the setting I should mention that the conductor's section provides a complete set of rules to build a scenario, including a macguffin for the PCs to pursue and a range of ideas on setting up encounters, events, threats and choices for the group to make. It's only a few pages but its some incredibly brilliant stuff, worth reading for anyone who would like to see an elegant process outlined for a GM to use for any system, not just this one.</p><p>Similar to the Conductor section, each region overview provides a range of charts, ideas and concept points to use in building your own take on Bastion, the Deep Country and the Underground. Notably absent from this book is something from Into the Odd, which includes a bewildering array of artifacts you can find; here it is mainly a discussion on setting the treasure for your group with a chart of six examples.</p><p>The Inhabitants of Bastionland comprise entries on the people of Bastion, things called Mockeries (animated stuff given life by the technomancy of the city), Machines, which manage the underground and may or may not be the instigators behind the ever changing city, then the Aliens, which appear to visit with enough frequency not to be seen as extremely unusual, even though they are. Finally there are the Monstrosities, creatures made not born and ultimately too destructive or threatening not to have to resort to lethal force to exterminate. The rules for each group here is primarily providing guidance on making your own unique types of each group, rather than giving you a concrete stat block. </p><p>The last 40 or so pages of the book are the Oddendum, which contain optional rules, a lot of discussion by the designer Chris Mcdowall on how he runs games and feels they should be run, and a number of sections on example content for specific campaign ideas. This is really interesting reading because Chris has some interesting takes on game design and running games. His one page on Big Impact is especially interesting reading, as it argues that allowing PCs to make a save against a risky effect simply diminishes the impact of the effect. I can't argue with this logic; I just ran my Saturday night D&D game and yeah, it's easy to see monsters once known for being tough opponents cave like a house of cards in the 5th edition system due to the fact that saves are mainly an efficient way for PCs to (usually) sidestep consequence. In a nutshell, the Big Impact argument as framed here is that saves get in the way of the interesting stuff, and the interesting stuff is where consequences and decisions come from. So don't have a "save to resist becoming a fish-man" effect...just have the PC turn in to a fish-man. The logic extends to other player-driven actions, as well: its about impact and consequence. I can see some counterpoints to it, but I can deeply empathize with the core conceit, which is that sometimes bad things really should happen, because the results make the game more interesting.</p><p>The Supplements: I don't know of any supplements for it, but EB is part of a subgenre of games powered by the same system, so the cross-compatibility exists. It is by far the most robust of the games within this niche, so consider that. You won't run EB right away, for example; it's going to require a bit of time to sit down and assimilate all this info and design a scenario. There is also a blog out there (<a href="https://www.bastionland.com/">located here</a>) which you may be able to scour for more ideas and content.</p><p><b>Who is this for?</b> Electric Bastionland is an interesting experiment and pushes the indie/zine rpg format into a more mainstream product, at least on the surface. Underneath it is loaded with interesting ideas and useful tools which, even if they don't directly translate to the game or genre you want to use them for, will still inspire you toward thinking about new ways to approach setting and scenario design. I think this game could prove to be fun to play for a lengthy campaign or three with the right group, and a GM who could craft the sometimes specific and other times vague elements of Electric Bastionland into a more concrete setting of their own. It definitely provides plenty of basis for inspiration, and I suspect that playing in the campaign of the author is probably an amazing experience. So yeah....get this if you want to see something that manages to be neat looking, artsy, functional and innovative all at the same time, even if you only use it as a springboard for inspiration in your own preferred setting or ruleset. </p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-11130746070381761102023-09-14T08:00:00.029-06:002023-09-14T08:00:00.137-06:00The Indie/Zine RPG Review Part XVII: Troika! RPG<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicng0P2UG2mHZfK65eHi_pO3Xmy4uSV2pen9KZuyNpDsB1tzG7XguZ5J52-KVFkzrOtEYIgU6mos_EcVwvHAghwOJMPuP9trChlzvRIMV02naudSdNr9VZ0DoGhvJSvAbTQV2GhbXvkStNWa00C7MRTqo1pzmRskCiLqMYbdy4hCUKGd7BWSk256BrNA1h/s1000/troika.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEicng0P2UG2mHZfK65eHi_pO3Xmy4uSV2pen9KZuyNpDsB1tzG7XguZ5J52-KVFkzrOtEYIgU6mos_EcVwvHAghwOJMPuP9trChlzvRIMV02naudSdNr9VZ0DoGhvJSvAbTQV2GhbXvkStNWa00C7MRTqo1pzmRskCiLqMYbdy4hCUKGd7BWSk256BrNA1h/s320/troika.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><b>Troika! RPG (<a href="https://www.melsonia.com/?gclid=CjwKCAjwu4WoBhBkEiwAojNdXh2bn_FVI4mBWPNpNMfF1FEMDSLJUDC_jMgztTz36Gl66RwZi-NyExoCec8QAvD_BwE">Melsonian Arts Council</a>)</b></p><p><a href="https://www.exaltedfuneral.com/search?q=troika">$30 at Exalted Funeral</a></p><p>I've gotten behind in September. Time to catch up!</p><p><b>What it is:</b> Troika! is a reimagining of the Advanced Fighting Fantasy game system (the one made for tabletop multiplayer gaming, rather than the solo game books). It's not only a restatement of that game system's mechanics, but a completely new envisioning of the game world, now represented as a bizarre space-fantasy with what are arguably no limits in terms of its scope of imagination. In reality, there are some limits....unless you are deeply into the "yes, and" level of improv which is so heavily catered to by many of these indie zine rpgs. Troika! is also fueled by an exotic art style that evokes turn-of-the-century (19th century) art conventions in books such as Alice in Wonderland or Wizard of Oz, eschewing any more conventional style of gaming for this fairly unique, surrealist style. </p><p><b>The System: </b>Troika! is at its core AFF and anyone who knows AFF will feel at least somewhat comfortable here. What's interesting about Troika! discussion online is people complaining about the roll under system and other basic elements of the game such as initial random stat generation, which are completely logical elements on an OSR style game system that is not D&D derived, but still very much a traditional style of play....the many critics (including those who "like the system, but...") try to find equitable workarounds for non random stats or roll under vs. contested roll-high mechanics. I am not sure why this is an issue for so many, other than that the Troika! edition of these rules is essentially a very traditional old-school approach wrapped in the sheepskin of an artsy improv RPG aimed at high-concept, imaginative tale-telling as opposed to the original purpose of AFF, which is gritty solo dungeon delves without too much book-keeping.</p><p>What Troika! does strangely is initiative. Without looking back in my copies of AFF I am reasonably sure that the token system of Troika! is not what AFF did. In Troika! you determine initiative by assigning colored tokens (beads, poker chips, cards, dice, whatever) by foes and allies and throw them in a pot. You pull from this pot until you get the "turn ends" token and start over. It's in concept sort of neat, but in reality it's a horrendous pain in the butt, and can lead to odd situations where long pulls from the pot are of tokens only for certain (usually GM) enemies and such. For a game based on one of the original ultralite RPGs, its needlessly cumbersome and potentially weird in an unfun way. I noticed someone released an alternative initiative system based on cards for Troika! on Drivethrurpg, so I suspect I am not the only one who dislikes the initiative system (okay, a large Reddit forum is also dedicated to working around it, too).</p><p>Ninety percent of Troika! is not rules or mechanics at all, though: it's character types, which you can roll randomly for on a D66 to determine your Background. The backgrounds are evocative and interesting reading for the players, but ultimately necessary for the GM because almost all of the implied setting is embedded in these background descriptions; there is no other GM guidance on the world beyond what is inferred here and in the meager sample scenario. Later books such as Acid Death Fantasy take a similar approach and also ditch the core book setting entirely (sort of), meaning that if you are the sort of GM who likes a section that helps you out, Troika! is maybe not the ideal game for you. </p><p>In any case, backgrounds give you an evocative description that alludes to a weird world, some possessions, skills, and a special trait. Some examples of base backgrounds include some very interesting and at times extremely abstract descriptors, best exemplified by quoting from the text. For example:</p><p><i>Cacogen: You are Those-Filthy-Born, spawned
in the hump-backed sky lit only
by great black anti-suns and false
light. Your mother was sailing on
the golden barges or caught in some
more abstract fate when she passed
you, far from the protective malaise
of the million Spheres. You were
receptive to the power and the glory
at a generative time and it shows in
your teratoid form.</i></p><p>And: </p><p><i>Demon Stalker: You stake your reputation upon your
ability to hunt and kill demonic
creatures and those who break bread
with them. Goat men in the wilds or
the Angel cults of the slums, all need
to be driven back off the edge of the
map and onto the shores of chaos.</i></p><p>Also: </p><p><i>The Fellowship of Knidos: Mathmologists honour the clean and
unambiguous truths of mathematics
and coordinate them with their
observations of the multiverse. All
things can be measured and predicted
with the application of the correct
mathmological ratios, those methods
applied to penetrate the ethereal
surface and glimpse the fundamental
numbers below.</i></p><p>And in case it isn't obvious enough that Troika! backgrounds are expansive, here is one more:</p><p><i>Zoanthrop: At some point in your past you decided
you didn’t need it anymore: you found
a Zoanthropologist and paid them
well to remove your troublesome
forebrain and elevate you to the pure
and unburdened beast you are today</i></p><p>Those are all backgrounds for the same world/multiverse of the spheres. There are 36 such backgrounds, ranging from the familiar to the completely ephemeral. Sometimes literally! The backgrounds are generally simultaneously neat and also filled with questions for which few or no answers are forthcoming. So when I say that Troika! is designed around the Imrpov playstyle, this is what I mean! No two games are going to be quite alike, and your enjoyment of the game will be inversely proportionate to the level of contribution you and your players are willing to engage with on the fly.</p><p><b>The Setting: </b>Troika! has an implied setting when you read the backgrounds and sample module. It's a multidimensional world of Ptolemaic nature (perhaps), crystal spheres or something similar, working in a realm which seems to be a city lying adjacent to or amidst many different aligned worlds. Magic is a thing, but steampunk, technomancy and other dalliances may also exist. Physics as the real world knows it may not exist, or maybe it does and no one interprets it right. There are a lot of things to worry about, and in general if its existed in a fantastic tale somewhere, it probably exists in Troika! At least--that's what I got out of it. The sample module is especially vexing to me as it implies a great city, as is alluded to, an takes place in a fabulous hotel filled with weird encounters. It has, to its credit, a dreamlike quality, but maybe not always the good kind of dream; sometimes it feels like the bad dreams induced by food poisoning, too. Who knows! The bestiary is similarly vexing and oddly stated, as are the backgrounds, filled with suggestions of a world envisioned like a dadaist painting, filled with interpretive shapes that could mean everything or nothing. A page or two stating that Troika! is a realm of dream might have been all I needed for this to make more sense to me, but then it might have been a bit more plebian than its hidden goal of randomized exoticism. </p><p>Despite that sense, I think it's an admirable effort in creativity. It's just....so much disorganization in the conceptual space is a burden for many when you're trying to conceive of a coherent plot or setting for an RPG, and from what I have read this ends up true for many, who find it suited at best for short term one-shot game sessions as a result; the inherent incoherence makes it hard to expand beyond surface level experimentation. If you like verisimilitude in your gaming, know that Troika! is in defiant opposition to your will.</p><p><b>Support Material:</b> Troika! has some decent support. I don't have any of it in print, but did grab some in PDF. There are some sourcebooks from Melsonian Arts Council which are (without having dived too deeply) just as eerie and abstract as the core game. I like Acid Death Fantasy, which is a Troka! powered post-apocalyptic setting that provides a more concise initial world overview before diving into myriad backgrounds and creature...enough to hang the mental coat on, if you will. </p><p><b>Who is this For?</b> Well, right off the bat I doubt any traditional Advanced Fighting Fantasy fan will find Troika! to be to their liking, if the main goal is an old-school and well-defined fantasy gaming experience. Troika! will appeal if you want to embrace OSR rules and a highly unstructured but evocative improv play environment. Troika! does not borrow (yet, that I have found) from the extremely focused and utility-driven style of module design seen in OSE, Mothership or other systems so the module content I have seen is a bit oddly traditional, but its still fairly brief in approach so shouldn't pose much issue. I concede that a lot of this book, despite in principle being of a design bent I should really like, left me mildly discomfited, again as if I had awoken from a disturbing dream brought on by food poisoning. It does not, needless to say, motivate me to run it. But...Acid Death Fantasy is really cool, and I think I could be tempted to give that a swing. Just need to house rule out the nightmarish initiative system!</p><p><br /></p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-91458831310317878632023-08-31T15:53:00.005-06:002023-08-31T16:09:16.919-06:00Savage Flayers - Mind Flayers in Savage Worlds and the Warlords of Lingusia Era<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqFd1zPq0kb7dfSc6HnrftSX1EuXKr-bkunguFolRdHbtlwAzHoDAtYFrGm9EsPUJmA59oFNQjFeP_aBBPoRw4qv9un0HCOqm6TD61tiU3lLgRKICXphUPo-RcVafk4L8TniVi-Yr9HS5a-jNJJXnwglFwK-IZ6xJj6WFnEmDbuJHq8lG_7KGQwUOJTPhV/s984/Mind%20Flayer%202.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="984" data-original-width="812" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqFd1zPq0kb7dfSc6HnrftSX1EuXKr-bkunguFolRdHbtlwAzHoDAtYFrGm9EsPUJmA59oFNQjFeP_aBBPoRw4qv9un0HCOqm6TD61tiU3lLgRKICXphUPo-RcVafk4L8TniVi-Yr9HS5a-jNJJXnwglFwK-IZ6xJj6WFnEmDbuJHq8lG_7KGQwUOJTPhV/w330-h400/Mind%20Flayer%202.jpg" width="330" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b>The Hyshkorrid<o:p></o:p></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b><i>A savage denizen of the Underworlds of Lingusia</i></b></p>
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><b>Savage Flayers, a Monstrous
Wild Card For Savage Worlds Adventure Edition Fantasy Companion<o:p></o:p></b></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal">The Hyshkorrid are conquerors of the psionic mindscape,
travelers from distant universes, and telepathic masters of manipulation.
Though few in number, these cephalopodic humanoids dwell in the depths of the
Underworld beneath the shifting Sands of the Hyrkanian Deserts and the
Mountains of Madness (the Slithotendan Mountains). The few scholars to interact
with them say the hyshkorrid are obsessed with the observation of the mad god
Slithotep, though perhaps not in a reverent manner, but they do worship
Thasrik, the insectoid god of control and domination. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Hyshkorrid feast on the brains of sentient beings and use
their potent psionic powers to lay waste to small armies. They are not
physically adept at battle so usually prefer to dominate an opponent first to
make their attack certain. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Attributes</b>: Agility D8, Smarts D12, Spirit D10,
Strength D6, Vigor D6<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Skills:</b> Academics D10, Fighting D8, Intimidation D10,
Occult D8, Psionics D12, Stealth D8 <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Pace</b>: 6, <b>Parry</b>: 6; <b>Toughness:</b> 9 (4 from
psionic deflection)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Edges</b>: Arcane Background (Psionics), Power Points X2
(+10 PP), Extra Powers X3 (6 powers)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Power Points:</b> 20<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Powers:</b> All powers have a psionic/mental trapping; a
typical array of powers include: Blast – Psionic (3 PP base cost), Confusion (1+
PP), Disguise (2 PP), Farsight (2 PP), Invisibility (5 PP), Mind reading (2
PP), Mind Wipe (3 PP), Stun (2 PP), Telekinesis (5 PP)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Gear:</b> robes, masking hood, usually 1D3-1 magic items (potions,
scrolls, rings, wondrous items), one roll on special chart below<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Special Abilities:<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Brain Extraction: </b>STR+D6 damage, 2 AP.<b> </b>Hyshkorrid
are incredibly proficient at extracting a brain from a humanoid skull. If a
target is reduced to incapacitated by this attack then the hyshkorrid will use
its next action as a Finishing Move; the brain is extracted and eaten. An extracted brain immediately restores 1D4 psionic power points.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Psionic Immunity:</b> Hyshkorrid are immune to
mind-affecting powers of psionic or magical nature that impact the mind (such
as mind wipe, confusion, etc.)<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Psionic Armor:</b> Hyshkorrid have perfected the art of
telekinetic deflection and gain +4 for toughness due to this trait. If a
hyshkorrid is somehow caught unawares this bonus cannot be applied. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b>Natural Telepath:</b> The hyshkorrid can only communicate
via telepathy at will within 120 feet. For 1 PP it can extend the range to 1
mile for a minute.<o:p></o:p></p><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>
<div style="border-bottom: solid windowtext 1.0pt; border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-element: para-border-div; padding: 0in 0in 1pt;">
<p class="MsoNormal" style="border: none; mso-border-bottom-alt: solid windowtext .5pt; mso-padding-alt: 0in 0in 1.0pt 0in; padding: 0in;"><b>1D10 Items on the body of a
Savage Flayer:<o:p></o:p></b></p>
</div>
<p class="MsoNormal">1 – A necklace of grown coral wrapped around a tiny crystal
ball showing the image of an eerie cosmic landscape<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">2 – A hideous holy amulet to Thasrik, the scorpion-like god
of domination and control<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">3 – A carefully folder flayed skin of a humanoid species
with a zipper attached to the back<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">4 – A locket which opens up to reveal a windable watch and
the painted image of a blonde woman of Imperial descent; behind the clasp is a
carefully folded note: “To my beloved, whom I shall devour last.”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">5 – A clutch of what look like marbles but are squishy like
eggs, and against a strong light you can see tadpole like beings swimming
within<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">6 – A mimir skull of a kobold imbued with Smarts D8, Common
Knowledge D8 and Academics D12 which can speak on any subject but only in
draconic or aklo languages.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">7 – A belt of threaded shrunken heads, all of gnomes, which
begin to animate and laugh hysterically when touched by anyone who fails a
Spirit check.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">8 – A small, murky globe of swirling coppery color which
speaks strange and hideous chants in aklo when held by an unprotected hand, and
requires a Spirit check at -2 or the bearer experiences sudden terror and must
roll on the Fear table. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">9 – a backpack with a folded-up, small animated skeleton of a
goblin, which functions as a servant that can carry out three word commands<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">10 – a tiara of platinum and diamond that looks worth 1,000
GP but if worn immediately requires a Spirit check at -2 or the wearer’s mind
is overwhelmed by the commanding presence of the god Thasrik; a new save can be
done once per day to break the spell<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjonC2zCmjllSAkaVXliDPW24QoOdOG6Lv_65NXRYqPTkTYKnp0Uaw8HtBFVxCEOwaXgAEzMvNBLaAHaXWSbqOfee6Hv6mUK4UQOUZ-CluV89Yx9yKcm7KBTWHTK6WziymThXCWlzWqEdAtf1Kyl20XmN6h1ZTk_FOHEEqT3dYwg8Co9UycAajYmTC_W34G/s582/mindflayer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="582" data-original-width="550" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjonC2zCmjllSAkaVXliDPW24QoOdOG6Lv_65NXRYqPTkTYKnp0Uaw8HtBFVxCEOwaXgAEzMvNBLaAHaXWSbqOfee6Hv6mUK4UQOUZ-CluV89Yx9yKcm7KBTWHTK6WziymThXCWlzWqEdAtf1Kyl20XmN6h1ZTk_FOHEEqT3dYwg8Co9UycAajYmTC_W34G/w378-h400/mindflayer.jpg" width="378" /></a></div><br /><p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4566357373248344031.post-24285571311032864392023-08-30T11:29:00.003-06:002023-08-30T11:29:20.567-06:00Troika! Sale<p> It's only for 48 hours and I just got the email notice, but Melsonian Arts Council is marking all their PDFs of Troika! RPG off 90%, so if you are in the least bit interested in this system its a good time to check it out. <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/browse/pub/6992/Melsonian-Arts-Council">Link here.</a></p><p>I haven't reviewed it in my Indie/Zine RPG series yet, but really need to. Troika! Is mechanically related to Advanced Fighting Fantasy, but deviates in some strange and interesting ways (and in a really obnoxious way with how it handles initiative determination). If you are a fan of weird fantasy/science mashups, planar adventures, the AFF engine and highly improvisational play based on implied settings, Troika! is probably right up your alley. I'll review it next.</p>Doctor Futurityhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02586371999646337047noreply@blogger.com0