Covert Ops RPG

On referral from you the readers I ordered Covert Ops RPG from DwD Studios, which as it turns out is such a cool game that I plan to pick up Barebones Fantasy next. I just got my copy this weekend so no in depth review yet, but its an elegant and easy percentile/D10-based system for running modern and near future covert ops/espionage adventures. The hard cover edition from rpgnow is loaded with all you need to play, but I picked up a print module and also ordered both the initiative cards and condition cards for the game. The production quality of Covert Ops as well as the interesting design have me keen to play....it's very quick to get fully functional PCs up and running, and I think my Wednesday group will be interested in trying this sucker out.

DwD also has an "Equipment Pack," consisting of a box with GM screen and "bones" counters on their main site, which I plan to pick up ASAP. Nice!

Eyeballing Runequest 6 for the next alt-night Fantasy Campaign

Source!

Magic World has been on hold for a few weeks due to thw whole D&D 5E thing sucking up everyone's game time, but I am getting a serious itch to return to the split game nights, in which we rotate campaigns with D&D one week and "something else" the next. My plans currently are as follows: introduce the Wednesday night crowd to The Void, and expose the Saturday night crew to Runequest 6. The Saturday group has already got a decent Magic World campaign under their belts, but I think they are ready to graduate to the Big Boy of the BRP family of games now. This will open them up to the full range of exotic magic in Runequest, as well as the more tactical/maneuver based combat system which is where RQ6 has a definite leg up on MW.

Apparently Design Mechanism has been busy when I wasn't paying attention, because there's a short "Ships & Shield Walls" supplement out as well as a campaign setting book. I've ordered a copy of the former in print through frpgames, and the latter may be nabbed in the future, if only for the fun of reading it.

For many GMs, the question of "what campaign to run" is a matter of what resource you want to read, or whatever setting you devise in conjunction with your campaign. For me it boils down to which one one of my existing worlds I would like to exploit for my RQ6 campaign. Right now I'm using Enzada for my Wednesday D&D setting, Chirak for my Saturday D&D setting, and was using my newly created world of Pergerron for Magic World. Pergerron, being customized for MW already might be a very easy fit for RQ6, and could in fact benefit from the additional magic systems. However, if I were to run it, then I would have to explain why we were using RQ6 and not just continuing with the MW characters where they left off. So.....

There's my old venerable setting for Lingusia. The World of Lingusia has received so much weird attention from me in the last few years that it's timeline and setting details are all over the place now. I used it most recently for my 13th Age games, but decided that ultimately 13th Age is a little too epic and super-heroic for a world that was originally grounded in a mixture of AD&D 1st edition, T&T 5th edition and Runequest 2. So now, with my latest "update" to that setting I'm thinking maybe Runequest 6 would be a fine choice.

D&D 5E would be, too....but I don't want to just run D&D into infinity anymore. I was to keep it mixed up  a bit.

What I think I'll do going forward is devise the new setting (a revisionist timeline of Lingusia set in the year 2,090 AW for those actually familiar with the setting) with RQ6 as the focus. Make RQ6 the de facto engine for Lingusia going forward, essentially. Given how much I've used time traveling campaigns to revise the setting, this may be more than a little appropriate....and the grittier RQ6 mechanics will be more than sufficient to handle the Age of Strife era I am working on for the next iteration of the world.

So....goal now: try to develop this setting and campaign with RQ6 in mind, and sprinkle blog with liberal doses of both!

Feng Shui 2: Action Move RPG Kickstarter

This one I'd love to back if I wasn't so risk-averse to Kickstarters. It's already blazing along with a huge level of success ($101 K over the modest $8K goal with 22 days to go as of 9/25), and I am sure it will be available at retail, where I prefer to throw money to support (because honestly if the FLGS went away I'd have to host my games somewhere else, and I hate the thought of having to figure out where that "somewhere else" would be....)

Anyway, Feng Shui is one of my all time favorite games from the nineties that I once again never got to play enough of, though I did manage to run a few short campaigns and play on occasion. It's an Atlas Game and frankly they will produce something that'll literally knock your socks off.



Feng Shui 2 fills a much needed void in the RPG market, and I can't wait to play this one 2D12 months after its proposed release date of August 2015.

Five Moons RPG Kickstarter

Sean K. Reynolds is designing a new role playing game called Five Moons and throwing it on Kickstarter. Five Moons RPG is aimed at a sort of "RPG influenced by Sean's years working with card games, tabletop and computer gaming." From some samples it looks like it may also be influenced by Sean's work on the Pathfinder Beginner Box. Given what a fine introductory set the Beginner Box was, it sounds to me like Five Moons aims to capitalize on the interest that set created as an alternative to the core Pathfinder rules.



Anyway.....I don't know if I'll back it, but I'll definitely be interested in the final product. Producing yet another iteration of D&D in the current market is a brazen strategy, but it could pay off if the final result offers a good, targeted style of play that is focused on what people really want right now...and it somehow distinguishes itself enough from the competition (D&D 5E) to be relevant.

Here's a sample of a monster page posted at EnWorld:

Based on the sample above it looks like the goal is: streamlined mechanics from the 3.5 era, and no bounded accuracy anywhere.

When 5E was in playtest mode I kept thinking bounded accuracy would be it's biggest Achilles Heel. Now i think bounded accuracy is its greatest secret weapon. So....we'll just have to see when Five Moons comes out how it holds up.

Character Generation in The Void Core

 Characters in the Void Core rules tend to come from one of three Warden Professions: the enforcer, investigator and researcher. There’s also a freeform character generation option available. We’ll go ahead and stick to standard character generation this time around; wardens are the peacekeepers and law-enforcement officials of the Void universe, and are the core rule defaults for a reason: when something weird happens, they are the first line of defense to get called in to investigate. It’s the ready-made convenient way to justify players investigating mythos incursions into the solar system without running out of too many dead relatives (a tried and true classic hook in 1920’s style Call of Cthulhu).

To start my character off I’m going to think about a bookish sort of fellow, possibly a Warden Researcher because this is a Cthulhu universe after all, and guns probably never did anything except make monsters angry anyway, right? We’ll call him Arnold Hawthorne because why not, and it sounds like a good mythos investigator’s name.

Step one is to figure out the birthplace of Arnold Hawthorne. There are 16 key planets and moons that contain meaningful habitats represented here. For fun I’ll pick the Saturnian moon of Tethys, where Odysseys colony is located. Colonists of Tehys are water miners, working along the famous Ithaca Chasm in a very “frontier town” sort of environment. Aside from givingArnold his native language at rank 5 (presumably English) he also gets E-Suit 1, Freefall 1, and Trade: Product 1 as skills.

Since Tethys is so “out there” on the fringe of the frontier, this tells me Hawthorne’s interest in science and academia was something that he nurtured against the grain of the local prospectors. He probably grew up around lots of frontiersmen who had good mechanical skills and the requisite familiarity with physics and space necessary to stay alive in a crunch, but his real interests lay in higher order physics, perhaps, or a more compelling intellectual calling that went well beyond ice mining.

Stage two is to choose a primary specialty. We’ve already established that we’re going to go with researcher over the combat-focused enforcer and info-gathering investigators, so Hawthorne will be focused on the R&D side of the operation. With that decided, stage three is to determine two secondary specialties based on the primary. For a researcher, these secondary specialties include artist, engineer, physician, and social butterfly. Okay…..I’m going to have to conclude that engineer and physician may be the best choices for Hawthorne, whom I do not see as being very artistic or social, so maladjusted and introverted, as a proper mythos investigator should be.

Stats for the game are assigned with an additional 5 points to customize. The freeform version gives you the full point pool to work with, but we’re going by template so I take the base stats and add 5. For a researcher it indicates that awareness and cleverness are most useful. I take those 5 points and boost both of the core stats, as well as perseverance.

Hawthorne’s stats will look like this based on the preceding choices:

Awareness 5, Cleverness 5, Demeanor 2, Grace 2, Perseverence 4, Physique 2.

I’m going to be focusing heavily on Hawthorne’s mental acumen here, as I am sure you can tell. For skills, he gets 30 points to distribute among his primary skill set. Skills are a 1:1 cost ratio until you reach rank 3, after which it costs 2 skill points to get rank 4 and 3 points to then get rank 5. Here’s what I purchase for Hawthorne, including points gained from his home turf:

Warden Researcher: Computers 2, Cryptozoology 4, Defense 3, E-Suit 1, Freefall 2, Guns: handguns 2, Investigate 3, Law 1, Notice 4, Research 4,  Science: Space 3

Not bad, but I am left wanting. Good news is, I can take 20 more points and divide 10 each among my two secondary templates. I pick the following:

Engineer: Electrical 3, Engineer: Life Support 2, Engineer: Basic Drive 2, Mechanic 3

Physician: Bureaucracy 1, Medicine: Physical 1, Medicine: Psychological 5

In doing this I now see that Hawthorne’s interest was in human psychology….something perhaps which has eluded him due to his own lack of social grace and skill. That said, it was impossible for him not to pick up a hefty volume of lore on space sciences and ship functions, a side effect of necessary basic survival skills on the frontier worlds and moons.

With skills out of the way, next is Qualities. You get five points to spend on qualities, which are like advantages. You can also take a disadvantage, which gives you at least 1 point to spend on further qualities. Unlike skills these all have set costs. For Hawthorne, I look at the following as good choices:

Advantages: Common Sense (2), Eidetic Memory (3), Sixth Sense (3)

Disadvantages: Nightmares (3)

Common sense seems like a no-brainer; it means the GM makes a secret cleverness check when you’re about to do something foolhardy. Growing up in the frontier of Tethys could make for a compelling argument that you learn to double-check everything you do, second guess all your actions, since you’re always one bad idea away from explosive decompression.

Aside from common sense, eidetic memory is a great trait…photographic recall is useful for a researcher and also an annoying ability for those who would sometimes prefer not to remember everything they’ve ever seen or experienced. Lastly, I pick Nightmares as a disadvantage to afford sixth sense, which means more GM-controlled secret tests to see if Hawthorne also picks up a sense of imminent danger. Hawthorne is not a beautiful biological early warning detector. All he had to give up in exchange for these perks was terrible sleep from persistent nightmares that are (possibly unknown to him) a byproduct of the incursion of entities from beyond the solar system….mechanically it means each morning he needs to make a perseverance test, and on a failure he drags around at -1die to all tests for the day. I can see a Hawthorne that may be reliant on stimulants and medications which knock him out entirely to survive through a night with uninterrupted sleep.

You also get to pick a talent. Talents are “feats” in a way, giving an edge to your warden in his daily adventures. From the appropriate researcher talents I pick:

Talent: One Foot in the Grave

With this talent, Hawthorne, probably due to the nightmares, knows that something is out there and it will inevitably get him. Mechanically, when he suffers a Horror Effect he can shift it up or down one result on the table. This can actually be useful….if, for example the default effect he suffers is “Freeze” Hawthorne can actually choose to “shriek like a little kid” or “faint dead away.” Screaming could get help to arrive…and fainting is never a bad idea when you are facing the mythos, as they are notoriously disinterestd in unconscious creatures. So it’s a weird talent….it adds a little agency into just how grizzly Hawthorne’s end might be.

Finally we get to stage four of character generation. We get two quirks, which much like GURPS quirks are things that are interesting but not necessarily special. From the example quirks provided I pick the following for Hawthorne:

Quirks: Clean Spotlessly, Obscure 20^th century psychiatric quotes

Hawthorne is an immaculately clean fellow and his environment shows it; he doesn’t like clutter or dirt. Likewise, his obsession with psychology has led him to delve deep into obscure factoids about the early rise of psychiatry in the 20^th century….friends and acquaintances are used to him making one-off comments about Freud and Jung in otherwise polite conversation.

Characters under the default character generation are presumed to be experienced professionals, and fall around age 28 to 35. I’ll put Mr. Hawthorne at Age 34, the tail end of the age range.

On gear, The Void uses a wealth code system. Default characters (without special advantages) have a personal wealth of 2 and sponsored wealth of 1. The wealth 2 raiting is “middle class.” If you want to purchase something and it’s under your wealth rating….then no problem, it’s yours. If you want to purchase something at or over your wealth rating, then a skill check determines if you can, in the form of a purchase test. The difficulty you beat determines whether you deplete your funds, by how much, and whether you can keep spending. It’s an abstract mechanic that can keep the focus away from the game’s  economics, though if your players are like mine they like counting every credit they earn, so YMMV on this one.

For Hawthorne, however, his wealth level is enough to buy a ACC-44 holdout pistol if he needs it along with a flak jacket. His goal is not to get into that kind of trouble, however, so our main interest is in useful research tools. It is at this point that I realize that while a lot of discussion is provided on tech, only weapons and armor get specific stats with wealth codes, so I will just assume Hawthorne has the stuff he needs to get the job done and make it all up.

And so we now have a complete adventurer in The Void using the core rules:

Arnold Hawthorne

Human male of Tethys, Warden Researcher Age 34

Attributes: Awareness 5, Cleverness 5, Demeanor 2, Grace 2, Perseverence 4, Physique 2.

Background Skills: English 5, E-Suite 1, Freefall 2, Trade: Product 1

Warden Researcher: Computers 2, Cryptozoology 4, Defense 3, Guns: handguns 2, Investigate 3, Law 1, Notice 4, Research 4,  Science: Space 3

Engineer: Electrical 3, Engineer: Life Support 2, Engineer: Basic Drive 2, Mechanic 3

Physician: Bureaucracy 1, Medicine: Physical 1, Medicine: Psychological 5

Advantages: Common Sense (2), Eidetic Memory (3), Sixth Sense (3)

Disadvantages: Nightmares (3)

Talent: One Foot in the Grave

Quirks: Clean Spotlessly, Obscure 19^th-20^th century psychiatric quotes

Equipment: portable computer, ACC-44 Holdout pistol, flak jacket, suitable dress and garb, security locked briefcase, portable psycho-analysis kit (Freud Systems limited field AI unit)

Next: Hawthorne vs. a mi go!!!! Or maybe a look at the lifepath generation system in the Expanded Characters Book.

13 True Ways printing error, news at 13

My physical copies of the 13 True Ways, Book of loot and Shadows of Eldolan all showed up at the same time today from Pelgrane Press. Joy! It is like Xmas in the 13th Age come early. But then I opened up my 13 True Ways book and found that roughly half the pages were stuck together starting along the top spine down, a couple dozen pages severely....almost all had to rip to come apart. Not good!

I've sent off an email to Pelgrane's customer support and will let you know how the process goes.

That said.....although I empathize with those who consider themselves digital media only these days (hell I consider myself digital only for paperbacks and normal books now) I gotta say, these are some gorgeous looking books, wouldn't trade them up for PDF only, period.

Now, if I can just get a 13 True Ways that isn't terminally sticky.....

Batman...or Bat God? The Batman as a Mayan Deity Figure

This art project is all about merging the Batman motif with the traditional iconography of Mayan myth, specifically the iconography of Camazotz, the Death Bat of Quiche Mayan folklore (and earlier) and one of the key Xibalban demons of the Popol Vuh.

The Mexican Museum of Design with artist Kimbal is posting amazing pics....I have to say, I definitely approve of this look:

Methinks a carefully crafted Elseworlds tale could spring from this design....

Icons of the Realms Minis

I finally picked up ten boxes of the Icons of the Realms minis sets, and if you've been on the fence about whether these are worth your time, here's some opinions from a "mid level" minis collector....someone who doesn't expect to devote a princely sum to securing a complete set, but does want a nice range of interesting minis to use at the game table when the time comes for it. Although I'd prefer to never use minis, many of my players like them and it can be useful at times. So....some comments:

First, the paint job in the Icons of the Realms starter set wasn't nearly as nice as the actual regular boosters. The six iconic heroes were fine, but the effort clearly went into the regular boosters.

There are 44 unique minis, and a range of exotic rares, including clear plastic "invisible" figures. Each box includes four figures, one of which will be a large figure. In my boxes I managed to get a pretty decent range of figures, and a couple rares. I snagged one invisible figure (invisible Drizzt) which my cohort at the gaming table (who IS a "gotta have it all" minis collector) did not have.

Because these sets include 4 figures per pack it is much harder than in the old days to get large numbers of the commons....so the idea of amassing large numbers of orcs, goblins, kobolds and others for which lots of commons are handy is simply not feasible from buying the boosters, or at least not as easy and definitely more costly.

The paint jobs on the figures are very nice. The sets often include separate stands, clear tubes for the flying figures, and these require a bit of perseverence to properly mount. Glue might be handy to have.

I felt like I got a decent range of figures out of ten boxes. Of the ten boxes, two had errors: one came with five figures (nice) but one was missing a clear stand tube, so the wyvern it came with was grounded.

Will I get more? Maybe. Hard to say, honestly....after a discount from the FLGS I still spent close to $150 on the ten boxes which worked out to about $3-4 per figure. You might be better suited to perusing Ebay if you just want to collect singles, and if you want hordes of certain commons. I might pick up a couple more boxes at random just to see what I get, but I have to say, I think they should put more medium and large figures in these boxes, and stay are from the very large figures, maybe reserve those for special non-collectible sets. Six to eight normal figures feels like a more useful investment for my game table, sort of how the older sets (i.e. Harbinger) did it. But...this is Wizkids doing it under license for WotC, and Wizkids knows what they are doing, I suppose. They might have the volume:value formula down right for their primary audience, and honestly, I'm a bit cheap when it comes to buying minis.

For the paint jobs and range of figures over ten boxes I give this a solid A. for the dollar value and the likelihood you can get a complete set without spending a lot of money? Definitely a C-.

More Monster Manual Madness

Reading this when I can is compelling. The new PHB was exciting, but much of it was a process of skipping through the new rules to get to the meat of each class or set of mechanics to get play rolling. Good and utilitarian. The new Monster Manual, however, commands your attention and really makes you want to read it. This is a very good thing. It's not the only book to do this in 2014, either...the 13th Age Bestiary is very much the same sort of tome, one where the reading of the book is sufficient to send your head swimming with neat ideas for future games.

Overall, this book is shaping up to be the best MM since the 2nd edition Monstrous Manual. It's that good.

The Monster Manual - just killed all the other Monster Manuals and took their stuff

I secured my copy this late evening and while I haven't had time to read it cover to cover yet, I wanted to make a few observations for those interested:

1. This is the most gorgeous Monster Manual to date. Those early reviews out there saying it's a good looking book? They are not kidding. Even the most ardent haters of the 5E style will sound lame and ineffectual if they try to argue that the 5E Monster Manual doesn't look good.

2. It has about 421 individual stat blocks, spread out over 352 pages, and covers pretty much "all the core." You may not necessarily see something surprising jump out at you (this is a book of the tried and true) but the artistic depictions and actual details of some old favorites may take you by surprise.

3. The succubus (and incubus) is now a vile race of the lower planes that plays all sides...demon, devil, whatever. Also, the incubus is distinctly more sexualized than the succubus.....

4. The spiffed up looks of the demons and devils are great, but I am especially impressed at the black-armored Erinyes, and the spined devil is freaky.

5. Where are the mohrg? Were they not iconic enough? I know they got gutted into viscera thingies in 4E, but I've loved mohrg as major foes since their 3.0 appearance. Murderous serial killer undead with drippy touchy intestine-tentacles better show up in a future book, please.

6. No nymph?

7. Downside to the book so far: it includes a nice selection of sample NPC encounter stat blocks (similar to what was released in the free mini-MM) but the advice to customize them for the core races is to use the PHB's racial details. A concise "template" of each race in the MM would have been welcome.

8. No monsters-as-playable-races options in the MM. I think they're saving that for the DMG.

9. The mind flayer illustration is seriously bad ass.

10. Revenants exist in 5E! They have a monster entry, which gives me hope they will get some space as an alternate race in the DMG or a future tome.

Two months to go before the DMG....oh, the wait will be excruciating!