Screams of Tears (Guitar)
Aetulias song can be harnessed by those of pure will and love for the Fire Beast. The haunting Screams of Tears echo throughout the night and spew forth liquid shadow as Aetulias wrath descends upon the slayers of Ormagoden.
* Engulfment of Tears
This Guitar Solo brings forth Aetulias Tears in a safe, and sober form. The essence of her sorrow mixes with a body of water for a amount of minutes equal to successes made, including the 5 required to play the solo. Teary Water is black and thick, like a cloudy ink cloud in the water. This slimy water causes the ingesters stomach to slowly bubble in the stomach, causing him to throw up violently, dealing poisonous bile damage as bashing during the throwing up (Use a resisting poison roll for the ingester). Every 3 successes increases the thickness of the slime and therefore causes more bashing damage. Swimming through the muck also imposes a -1 penatly for every degree of thickness of the muck. Vampires drinking from the fluid lose Vitae instead of Bashing Damage.
Cost: 1 Willpower
Action: Extended
Dice Pool: Crafts+Song Of Ormagoden
Roll Results
D-Failure: The teary waters are too close to Aetulias true tears and therefore bring the Curse of Aetulia which turns mortals that indulge in it become a Tear Drinker. Their skin becomes a pale blueish color and they have the Autonomous Parts Aspect (Antagonists, P27). Tear Drinkers are suicidal and filled with genocidal rage and tend to say dark things.
Failure: No more tears.
Success: Dark, Swampy Waters continue to rise
E-Success: Consider the resulting muck two degrees thicker then it would be with the normal amount of successes
** Ward of Sorrow
Aetulias eyes descend nearby, watching for creatures of darkness. A eye is summoned and is invisible to all but Demons and the Caster, as well as anything with arcane sight. This Eye acts as a ward and the area around it (two feet per success) suffers a -2 Penalty to rolls concerning swift movement and attacks, also increasing the Defense of Friendly hunters by two. This SOlo requires 10 Successes to work
Cost: 1 Willpower
Action: Extended
Dice Pool: Crafts+Song Of Ormagoden
Roll Results
D-Failure: The effect of the solo is reversed, sapping defense and movement but benefiting the enemy.
Failure: The ward does not appear
Success: The Ward is successfully summoned
E-Success: The penalty and defense bonus is increased by one. (-3 movement to enemies, +3 defense to allies)
*** Down in the Graves
When this 10 Success solo is finished, an area around the Follower begins to sink (Radius=2 feet per success) into the ground slowly. All locations where dead bodies have existed in the sinking hole manifest as black shadows that may be communed with in the thirty minutes they are visable to those touched by Ormagoden. The ground will always sink exactly 15 feet down.
Cost: 1 Willpower
Action: Extended
Dice Pool: Crafts+Song Of Ormagoden
Roll Results
D-Failure: The spirits summoned are extremely hostile and will attack the Follower
Failure: The ground fails to sink
Success: The ground sinks around a radius of 2 feet per success
E-Success: The spirits are extra calmed by Aetulias sweet song and bring the hunters good luck no matter the outcome of the commune with the spirits that dwell there. +1 to roles involving Scream Of Tears solos.
**** Aetulias Rage
This devastating solo wracks the full rage and sorrow of Aetulia upon the target. Usually causing them to clutch their head and cry. The target is forced to make a Wits+Resolve roll (-1 for every 6 successes). Failure means the creature is unable to think straight at all, receiving a -2 penalty to any action not directly associated with mourning Ormagoden such as sitting down and crying. This Solo requires 10 successes
Cost: 1 Willpower
Action: Extended
Dice Pool: Crafts+Song Of Ormagoden
Roll Results
D-Failure: The effect backfires onto the Follower violently.
Failure: The feeling is not created
Success: The solo works as intended
E-Success: The penalty is one more then normal (Ex: A 12 success solo implies a -3 instead of a -2)
***** Vengeance for Ormagoden
Aetulia will bring pain, Sorrow, and pure death on the foes of Ormagoden. This 20 Success solo ends with a amazingly violent whammy bar abuse. This wailing scream forms liquid and mucky tentacles of Tears that impale the target from below and deal one aggravated damage per tentacle (1 tentacle for every four successes) When the solo is complete, creatures with enhanced senses may make a Wits+Survival Roll at a difficulty equal to the amount of tentacles and may avoid them.
Cost: 1 Willpower
Action: Extended
Dice Pool: Crafts+Song Of Ormagoden
Roll Results
D-Failure: Your impaled instead
Failure: No impalement
Success: BRING ON THE IMPALEMENT!
E-Success: One extra tentacle is summoned by this solo
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
Followers of Ormagoden Endowments Part one
Followers of Ormagoden Endowments: Song of Ormagoden
Song of Ormagoden (*-**** Special)
The songs of Ormagoden are complex arts, broken up to the four instruments of Ormagoden and the two paths for each. As such this merit is broken up like the Safehouse merit with dots in each individual Style. Guitar Magic however faces a drawback for its power. When being used in the plain view of Mortals not touched by Ormagodens wisdom, each innocent character (Usually a normal mortal) incurs a -1 to the role that is cumulative. This is Ormagodens will to keep the mystic arts of metal to those truly deserving of its power.
Some of these powers are Solos. The Solo may be started during the characters turn, every turn after rolling to add successes, after enough solo successes are made, the character may finish in order to bring about the solos effect. The maximum amount of successes that may be attracted by lengthening a solo is equal to the amount of successes required x2
Flaming Wails (Guitar)
Once used by the legendary hero Eddie Riggs, the Flaming Wails guitar style is geared towards fierce combat against evil. However these effects tend to be fairly obvious and attract much unwanted attention at times.
* Fiery Lightning
A quick strum of the strings and the will of Ormagoden does wonders. You flat out will lightning to quickly strike a area infront of you and cause immediate Bashing damage that the enemy may use his defense value for.
Cost: None
Action: Instant
Dice Pool: Crafts+Song Of Ormagoden-Foes Defense
Roll Results
D-Failure: The lightning arc's through your guitar and shocks you instead. Half your dice pool, you immediately take that much in lethal damage from electricity exploding upon you
Failure: Your guitar fails to will enough energy to summon lightning
Success: Your guitar shocks the enemy for one Bashing damage for every two successes
E-Success: Your lightning is so great it forces the enemy to immediately drop any metallic object in their hands and take a extra Bashing damage.
**Fires of Ormagoden
Channeling Ormagodens fiery rage you cause a small fountain of flame to erupt under the enemy and burn them. However, this fire is of spectral nature and will only cause a fire on circumstances of a powerful will of Guitar magic
Cost: 1 Willpower
Action: Instant
Dice Pool: Crafts+Song Of Ormagoden
Roll Results
D-Failure: Fire engulfed you for a amount of rounds equal to your dice pool, every two rounds taking one aggravated damage.
Failure: Fire failed to be summoned
Success: Fire bursts up and damages the enemy for one lethal (Or Aggravated against vampires) for every two successes
E-Success: In addition to a lethal or aggravated every two successes, your enemy catches on fire for one round for each die in your pool.
*** Fire Tribute
This solo brings the favor of the Metal Gods, flickers of flame illuminating the area dimly. While in the fires of the Metal Gods, weaponry glows red hot and gains 9-again for one round for each success. Roll once more round, successes adding up untill the character finishes the solo, then the effect takes place
Cost: 1 Willpower
Action: Extended
Dice Pool: Crafts+Song Of Ormagoden
Roll Results
D-Failure: You actually anger the Metal Gods and bring about blue flames that give every freindly character nearby a -2 to dice pools for three rounds.
Failure: The gods are not impressed.
Success: Five successes minimum is required to complete the solo, every success afterwards increases the amount of rounds it takes place
E-Success: The gods are amazed by your dedication, raising the buff to 8-again.
**** Breath of Ormagoden
When this solo is played, the hot magma breath of ormagoden splashes against the target from the ground and does heavy damage. 12 successes are needed in order to complete the solo, the enemies successes taking away from your own in the contested roll, in addition if the enemy ever reduces your successes to zero then your willpower is wasted and the solo is failed. In order to contest the enemy must sacrifice their round to contest the will of the Follower.
Cost: 1 Willpower
Action: Extended and Contested
Dice Pool: Crafts+Song Of Ormagoden
Roll Results
D-Failure: The solo is botched and your willpower is wasted
Failure: No progress during the solo is made
Success: Ormagodens power pours forth into the Solo, contributing to its power. Every 3 successes is a point of Aggravated damage that splashes upwards as molten rock and splashes against the foe
E-Success: The enemy, in addition to damage loses his next two rounds of play.
***** Facemelter
This solo is so earth shakingly amazing that the enemy will have his face melted all the way off if he is not careful. 20 successes are needed in order to complete the solo, the enemies successes taking away from your own in the contested roll, in addition if the enemy ever reduces your successes to zero then your willpower is wasted and the solo is failed.In order to contest the enemy must sacrifice their round to contest the will of the Follower.
Cost: 2 Willpower
Action:Extended and Contested
Dice Pool: Crafts+Song Of Ormagoden
Roll Results
D-Failure: The followers own face slightly begins to melt. Taking Aggravated damage equal to the amount of turns he has been playing the solo.
Failure: No faces melted yet
Success: Progress is made on the solo. This solo deals a point of aggravated damage for every four successes on the solo.
E-Success: In addition to the aggravated damage, the enemy is knocked out from the energy of the follower and is unable to even be woke up for the rest of the scene.
Song of Ormagoden (*-**** Special)
The songs of Ormagoden are complex arts, broken up to the four instruments of Ormagoden and the two paths for each. As such this merit is broken up like the Safehouse merit with dots in each individual Style. Guitar Magic however faces a drawback for its power. When being used in the plain view of Mortals not touched by Ormagodens wisdom, each innocent character (Usually a normal mortal) incurs a -1 to the role that is cumulative. This is Ormagodens will to keep the mystic arts of metal to those truly deserving of its power.
Some of these powers are Solos. The Solo may be started during the characters turn, every turn after rolling to add successes, after enough solo successes are made, the character may finish in order to bring about the solos effect. The maximum amount of successes that may be attracted by lengthening a solo is equal to the amount of successes required x2
Flaming Wails (Guitar)
Once used by the legendary hero Eddie Riggs, the Flaming Wails guitar style is geared towards fierce combat against evil. However these effects tend to be fairly obvious and attract much unwanted attention at times.
* Fiery Lightning
A quick strum of the strings and the will of Ormagoden does wonders. You flat out will lightning to quickly strike a area infront of you and cause immediate Bashing damage that the enemy may use his defense value for.
Cost: None
Action: Instant
Dice Pool: Crafts+Song Of Ormagoden-Foes Defense
Roll Results
D-Failure: The lightning arc's through your guitar and shocks you instead. Half your dice pool, you immediately take that much in lethal damage from electricity exploding upon you
Failure: Your guitar fails to will enough energy to summon lightning
Success: Your guitar shocks the enemy for one Bashing damage for every two successes
E-Success: Your lightning is so great it forces the enemy to immediately drop any metallic object in their hands and take a extra Bashing damage.
**Fires of Ormagoden
Channeling Ormagodens fiery rage you cause a small fountain of flame to erupt under the enemy and burn them. However, this fire is of spectral nature and will only cause a fire on circumstances of a powerful will of Guitar magic
Cost: 1 Willpower
Action: Instant
Dice Pool: Crafts+Song Of Ormagoden
Roll Results
D-Failure: Fire engulfed you for a amount of rounds equal to your dice pool, every two rounds taking one aggravated damage.
Failure: Fire failed to be summoned
Success: Fire bursts up and damages the enemy for one lethal (Or Aggravated against vampires) for every two successes
E-Success: In addition to a lethal or aggravated every two successes, your enemy catches on fire for one round for each die in your pool.
*** Fire Tribute
This solo brings the favor of the Metal Gods, flickers of flame illuminating the area dimly. While in the fires of the Metal Gods, weaponry glows red hot and gains 9-again for one round for each success. Roll once more round, successes adding up untill the character finishes the solo, then the effect takes place
Cost: 1 Willpower
Action: Extended
Dice Pool: Crafts+Song Of Ormagoden
Roll Results
D-Failure: You actually anger the Metal Gods and bring about blue flames that give every freindly character nearby a -2 to dice pools for three rounds.
Failure: The gods are not impressed.
Success: Five successes minimum is required to complete the solo, every success afterwards increases the amount of rounds it takes place
E-Success: The gods are amazed by your dedication, raising the buff to 8-again.
**** Breath of Ormagoden
When this solo is played, the hot magma breath of ormagoden splashes against the target from the ground and does heavy damage. 12 successes are needed in order to complete the solo, the enemies successes taking away from your own in the contested roll, in addition if the enemy ever reduces your successes to zero then your willpower is wasted and the solo is failed. In order to contest the enemy must sacrifice their round to contest the will of the Follower.
Cost: 1 Willpower
Action: Extended and Contested
Dice Pool: Crafts+Song Of Ormagoden
Roll Results
D-Failure: The solo is botched and your willpower is wasted
Failure: No progress during the solo is made
Success: Ormagodens power pours forth into the Solo, contributing to its power. Every 3 successes is a point of Aggravated damage that splashes upwards as molten rock and splashes against the foe
E-Success: The enemy, in addition to damage loses his next two rounds of play.
***** Facemelter
This solo is so earth shakingly amazing that the enemy will have his face melted all the way off if he is not careful. 20 successes are needed in order to complete the solo, the enemies successes taking away from your own in the contested roll, in addition if the enemy ever reduces your successes to zero then your willpower is wasted and the solo is failed.In order to contest the enemy must sacrifice their round to contest the will of the Follower.
Cost: 2 Willpower
Action:Extended and Contested
Dice Pool: Crafts+Song Of Ormagoden
Roll Results
D-Failure: The followers own face slightly begins to melt. Taking Aggravated damage equal to the amount of turns he has been playing the solo.
Failure: No faces melted yet
Success: Progress is made on the solo. This solo deals a point of aggravated damage for every four successes on the solo.
E-Success: In addition to the aggravated damage, the enemy is knocked out from the energy of the follower and is unable to even be woke up for the rest of the scene.
New Hunter: The Vigil Conspiracy. Followers of Ormagoden
The Followers of Ormagoden
Metal, Noise, Blood, and Fire! Tell me what you most desire.
Ancient lore speaks of the beginning of time. All was darkness, the First Ones were a horrible lot, creatures so repulsive they hid in the darkness of the world to avoid seeing how ugly they really were. Living their lives in a utter lie. Then came the Eternal Fire Beast, Ormagoden. A God of Fire, For he was the Cremator of the Skies and Illuminator of Darkness. His body made of white hot metal and his scream piercing thought, ground, and soul as he raged across the skies like a burning comet. The First Ones utterly loathed this God, for the light he brought forced them to see how utterly repulsive they truly were; Dreaming of the day they would kill the Fire Beast and return the land to shadow.
All day the First Ones drank from the tree Madronal, the tree of nourishment. While underground sat Aetulia, who sang all day long to the tree and caused it to create its lovely juices. One day a evil demon captured her so she may only sing to him. Becoming the lands first Demon King. The day of the First Ones arrived. The King used the captured maidens song to lure the mighty Ormagoden to ground where they smothered him with mud. Rather than let himself be put out like a common flame, the mighty Fire Beast let out an earth-shattering scream and exploded like a sun. Millions of pieces of his steel flesh shot into the ground, veining it with ore, pieces of metal, and the flora that would later die with the ancient world. His fire flew up into the sky and became the sun, baking the world and further illuminating the world even to this day. There was so much blood it flooded the world, drowning all the First Ones as it formed the oceans, nourishing the world for the upcoming generations and forever more. His death cry was so loud that it echoes throughout the world to this day. Low creatures felled the god Ormagöden, but his death gave the world the elements from which a new era would rise: Blood, Fire, Noise, and Metal.
According to the Followers of Ormagoden, this is how the world came about. A ancient era of metal, mystery, magic, and creation. Supposedly demons had earlier in existence enslaved mankind. A ancient race of Titans had created music, cars, civilization itself. A web of lies and confusion? Perhaps. The truth? Maybe. It would explain the mystic powers of these men and women of the cult. Some say they may play the bass guitar so well it heals the sick, or play a guitar solo so amazing it melts the faces of lesser men. Acts so absurd anyone bringing such reports are met with time in a asylum.
Regardless of their myths and rumors associated with them, the men and women of Ormagoden are active hunters. The Followers have members all across both coasts in larger amounts, with members in most of the major American cities. The facade is they are bandmembers or otherwise musical in order to honor Ormagoden. Many of them are also proficient in bladed weaponry such as swords or axes that are honed and repaired by unknown methods. They are very enigmatic to the point almost nobody outside knows how they even are coordinated much less how they work their miracles. Some people do believe the idea they do it though music, some people think they will it into existence like a mage, some even more think they are a front group of the Lucifuge. Whether you buy it or not, Followers are amazing at the art they choose whether it be Bass or Guitar.
Warriors of Humanity
Joining the followers is by no means permanent, and their beliefs are by no means pushed on you. However, there is one duty that is bound to you that may never be shaken. As a follower it is your duty to rid Earth of the supernatural, be it demon, vampire, or otherwise. These creatures have disturbed and tampered with the rights of the offspring of the Titans. Vampires are grim mockeries and fallacies of the Titans. Changelings are half breeds, abducted by demonic creatures and swayed from the grace of Ormagoden. Demons however, rub Followers in the worst way possible. Those who summon them easily attract the wrath of Ormagoden. Which is what heavily brought a large animosity between them and the Lucifuge. This hatred naturally stems from the First Ones. When the Titans became the Metal Gods, they left behind humanity, the smaller version of themselves with versions of the first ones as their pets. Eventually they rose up and enslaved them only to later be be banished from the world by a bloodline of heroes.
Around the World
Followers set up no church. However there are common places said to be their hiding place and congregation points. These places are often Concert Venues or Bars, the closest to a church by their standards. This of course makes it nigh impossible to discern a regular metal head from a Follower of Ormagoden. Even more so that they may choose when to will their instrument to bring about effects on the world, allowing them to practice their fret work without blowing their cover. Even more so, there are tales within the order of Followers fooling cocky vampires or demons by not willing their music, and appearing to be simply crazy until the monsters guard is down and they are engulfed in flame or lightning and ultimately banished from this world.
Rockers naturally gravitate towards Rock Venues, and it is not too rare for a group of Followers to form a Band as a cover and even go on tour across the country or even world in order to play concerts and on their off time rid the cities of local monstrosities as they work. Ormagodens scream may be channeled in many ways afterall. The wail of a microphone, the whammy of a guitar, the grooves of a bass, or even the earth shattering quakes of drums.
The Tour of Destruction
A deep tradition withing the Followers of Ormagoden is the rise of Bands and a event known as the Tour of Destruction. In the ancient times this was literally driving along the road until the Band reached Demon infested territory, and the wrested control of it away from them. Afterwards the Band would continue driving. In these modern days, the premise is still there, however do to the requirement of staying relatively low profile they must avoid killing things left and right. Instead the proper manifestation of this event is quite different. The band will tour like a normal band and play shows.
When the Band inevitably runs across obvious hostile supernatural presence, then war is declared right there on the spot. Sometimes, the song being played will suddenly have the singer screaming words like "We go to war" or the band will cover a Man of War song out of the blue. After this declaration is made, the show will end normally. Afterwards, the band will prepare for battle quite litteraly. Tune their guitars, get out their weaponry, and sound the battlecry. There will be a battle of the bands. There will be supernatural blood on the ground while the Followers of Ormagoden avenge their fallen Fire Beast.
After this battle is over, the band packs up and leaves town as planned. This will continue until the Band is either fallen or has successfully played through their entire tour. Then there will be a huge party, the Followers will return to their society and celebrate their kills as vengeance for Ormagoden and Honor to the metal gods.
The Enemy
Their creation myth flat out paints demons as monsters and beings to be destroyed for their attempted enslavement of mankind. Vampires and the other offshoots of humans attract their hatred for deviating from the path of Ormagoden. In short, besides mages; Followers have distinct hatred of the supernatural for transgressions they cause against humanity.
Vampires, Half breed heathens
Humanity is modeled after the Titans, therefore anything directly changing that design is most likely a abomination or shadow attempt at a second Enslavement. Vampires have a special hatred reserved by the Followers. Monstrous, undead creatures pretending to be human and better yet; feeding on them and trying to control them. To them, this already resembles a modern attempt at a second Enslavement and is treated as a declaration of war. The Gods of Metal against the Undead Scourge. The spells of the Followers are useful against them, as they doubt that humanity has the ability to shoot lightning and fire out of musical devices. A grave mistake that has charred and burned many kindred.
However, there are some key details about Follower interactions with vampires. The main way they are discovered is among crowds of fans watching the Bands performance. Unlike regular musicians, Rockers specifically make a point of watching the crowd for obvious supernaturals. Quite often this translate for searching for vampires preying among their crowd. Even if they were not Followers, those are still leeches like the days of old feeding on their fans! Therefore, when they are not chasing stories of demonic summoning; they hunt Vampires that make the mistake of going after their bread and butter.
Changelings, Those who were lost
It is a shame, humans being abducted and made into something arcane and other-worldly. Quite often, the Followers mistake these creatures as demonic. It is sad, as they are therefore treated as demons. Their bodies forming the path of the tour of destruction just like the demons and vampires. However, unlike demons Changelings rarely are discovered due to the innate magic protecting them. Once a blue moon a Rocker will discover or see through the mask protecting a Changeling and confused them as a demon, leading to the eventual hunt of said Changeling.
Demons, Slavers no more
Kill on sight. If humans betray mankind to summon them? Kill on sight. If humans work with them? Kill on sight. Demons are the issue, the problem, and the entire purpose of the Vigil for these individuals, to protect mankind against the forces of demons. There are always rumors within the Followers that if too many demons exist on earth then the Tainted Coil will be birthed once more, something that would bode horribly for the weakened armies of humanity. As a result, any talk of demonic influence that reaches any large pocket of Followers instantly is check into by a Band or traveling group of Followers.
Band Styles
The Followers of Ormagoden divide their society by three styles of music based off of the three Factions during the great Tour of Destruction of olden days. There is slight philosophical meaning behind the forms of music along with the obvious differences between the three styles of music themselves.
Metal Men practice the ancestral music of the Titans and are considered to be the most pure of music and soul. This genre of music involves much headbanging, and is heavy on harmonics in some guitar solos and is heavy on drummers. Experienced Metal Men bands have a skilled Drummer and Bassist for support and very aggressive Singers and Guitar players. Metal Men Guitarists tend to have more fiery guitarwork and powerful symbolic solos. Metal Men Tours will often go sea to sea, sometimes in a zig-zag pattern and are most aware of demonic presence in a area and target such areas specifically for their Tour
Black Sorrow is in honor of the Black Tear Rebellion. The Drinkers of the Black tear were suicidal and fueled by Aetulias sorrow and rage. The Black Sorrow, however took the sorrow of the black metal and made it their own; looking at their situation healthily and screeching their sorrowful and dark tunes leaving a haunting feeling to the venues they play. Black Sorrow Followers follow deep ideals of defensive Bass Playing and Haunting Guitar riffs that demoralize the enemy. Sorrow Tours Prefer to start in the south and quickly go north, usually targeting a specific region like the east or west. Once they arrive in the cold, dark, barren lands on the north they will prosper and play energetic and truly amazing shows in efforts to attract Vampire fans for them to lure to doom.
Flaming Coils Bands shriek and scream heavy metal tales picturing the defeat of the Tainted Coil, the demon empire that once enslaved mankind. Their ideal is to emulate the Industrial Metal of the Coil and turning it into dark songs of liberation and war against the Coil. Flaming Coils Bands feature a more aggressive Bassist and Singer while the Guitarist and Drummer perform defensive solos. The Coils are very niche in their Touring schedule. Often they make it up depending on their location. For instance, a Coils band may be playing in San Francisco, only for them to find out there are demonic cults causing trouble in San Diego. In a result they will postpone their next show in order to make record time and arrive at San Diego.
Status
Gaining Status as a Follower can be fairly easy if you can fill the shoes of a true believer of Ormagoden. Amazing guitar playing and weeding out demons and vampires will earn you the Metal Gods favor and therefore increase your Status in the followers of Ormagoden.
*: You have taken up the Guitar as a Ormagoden Band member. As a result you gain the crafts specialty of the instrument you choose (Microphone, Guitar, Bass, or Drums). You probably have not gone on a Tour yet, but you plan to soon. Your not quite that good at spotting creatures lurking in your shows and have not learned your Music Magic that well yet.
***: You have been around the block a few times, and profited heavily from it. Gain a dot of fame (Musician) Your a musical maestro and popular, your shows sell out almost always sell out. As a resource you also may gain a dot of Resources.
*****: Your a true follower of Ormagoden and have pleased the metal gods on countless occasions. You have been on many Tours of Destruction. Quite often, other bands wish to open for your Band and get included in your Tour. You get two dots of Allies (Ormagoden Tour Band)
All day the First Ones drank from the tree Madronal, the tree of nourishment. While underground sat Aetulia, who sang all day long to the tree and caused it to create its lovely juices. One day a evil demon captured her so she may only sing to him. Becoming the lands first Demon King. The day of the First Ones arrived. The King used the captured maidens song to lure the mighty Ormagoden to ground where they smothered him with mud. Rather than let himself be put out like a common flame, the mighty Fire Beast let out an earth-shattering scream and exploded like a sun. Millions of pieces of his steel flesh shot into the ground, veining it with ore, pieces of metal, and the flora that would later die with the ancient world. His fire flew up into the sky and became the sun, baking the world and further illuminating the world even to this day. There was so much blood it flooded the world, drowning all the First Ones as it formed the oceans, nourishing the world for the upcoming generations and forever more. His death cry was so loud that it echoes throughout the world to this day. Low creatures felled the god Ormagöden, but his death gave the world the elements from which a new era would rise: Blood, Fire, Noise, and Metal.
According to the Followers of Ormagoden, this is how the world came about. A ancient era of metal, mystery, magic, and creation. Supposedly demons had earlier in existence enslaved mankind. A ancient race of Titans had created music, cars, civilization itself. A web of lies and confusion? Perhaps. The truth? Maybe. It would explain the mystic powers of these men and women of the cult. Some say they may play the bass guitar so well it heals the sick, or play a guitar solo so amazing it melts the faces of lesser men. Acts so absurd anyone bringing such reports are met with time in a asylum.
Regardless of their myths and rumors associated with them, the men and women of Ormagoden are active hunters. The Followers have members all across both coasts in larger amounts, with members in most of the major American cities. The facade is they are bandmembers or otherwise musical in order to honor Ormagoden. Many of them are also proficient in bladed weaponry such as swords or axes that are honed and repaired by unknown methods. They are very enigmatic to the point almost nobody outside knows how they even are coordinated much less how they work their miracles. Some people do believe the idea they do it though music, some people think they will it into existence like a mage, some even more think they are a front group of the Lucifuge. Whether you buy it or not, Followers are amazing at the art they choose whether it be Bass or Guitar.
Warriors of Humanity
Joining the followers is by no means permanent, and their beliefs are by no means pushed on you. However, there is one duty that is bound to you that may never be shaken. As a follower it is your duty to rid Earth of the supernatural, be it demon, vampire, or otherwise. These creatures have disturbed and tampered with the rights of the offspring of the Titans. Vampires are grim mockeries and fallacies of the Titans. Changelings are half breeds, abducted by demonic creatures and swayed from the grace of Ormagoden. Demons however, rub Followers in the worst way possible. Those who summon them easily attract the wrath of Ormagoden. Which is what heavily brought a large animosity between them and the Lucifuge. This hatred naturally stems from the First Ones. When the Titans became the Metal Gods, they left behind humanity, the smaller version of themselves with versions of the first ones as their pets. Eventually they rose up and enslaved them only to later be be banished from the world by a bloodline of heroes.
Around the World
Followers set up no church. However there are common places said to be their hiding place and congregation points. These places are often Concert Venues or Bars, the closest to a church by their standards. This of course makes it nigh impossible to discern a regular metal head from a Follower of Ormagoden. Even more so that they may choose when to will their instrument to bring about effects on the world, allowing them to practice their fret work without blowing their cover. Even more so, there are tales within the order of Followers fooling cocky vampires or demons by not willing their music, and appearing to be simply crazy until the monsters guard is down and they are engulfed in flame or lightning and ultimately banished from this world.
Rockers naturally gravitate towards Rock Venues, and it is not too rare for a group of Followers to form a Band as a cover and even go on tour across the country or even world in order to play concerts and on their off time rid the cities of local monstrosities as they work. Ormagodens scream may be channeled in many ways afterall. The wail of a microphone, the whammy of a guitar, the grooves of a bass, or even the earth shattering quakes of drums.
The Tour of Destruction
A deep tradition withing the Followers of Ormagoden is the rise of Bands and a event known as the Tour of Destruction. In the ancient times this was literally driving along the road until the Band reached Demon infested territory, and the wrested control of it away from them. Afterwards the Band would continue driving. In these modern days, the premise is still there, however do to the requirement of staying relatively low profile they must avoid killing things left and right. Instead the proper manifestation of this event is quite different. The band will tour like a normal band and play shows.
When the Band inevitably runs across obvious hostile supernatural presence, then war is declared right there on the spot. Sometimes, the song being played will suddenly have the singer screaming words like "We go to war" or the band will cover a Man of War song out of the blue. After this declaration is made, the show will end normally. Afterwards, the band will prepare for battle quite litteraly. Tune their guitars, get out their weaponry, and sound the battlecry. There will be a battle of the bands. There will be supernatural blood on the ground while the Followers of Ormagoden avenge their fallen Fire Beast.
After this battle is over, the band packs up and leaves town as planned. This will continue until the Band is either fallen or has successfully played through their entire tour. Then there will be a huge party, the Followers will return to their society and celebrate their kills as vengeance for Ormagoden and Honor to the metal gods.
The Enemy
Their creation myth flat out paints demons as monsters and beings to be destroyed for their attempted enslavement of mankind. Vampires and the other offshoots of humans attract their hatred for deviating from the path of Ormagoden. In short, besides mages; Followers have distinct hatred of the supernatural for transgressions they cause against humanity.
Vampires, Half breed heathens
Humanity is modeled after the Titans, therefore anything directly changing that design is most likely a abomination or shadow attempt at a second Enslavement. Vampires have a special hatred reserved by the Followers. Monstrous, undead creatures pretending to be human and better yet; feeding on them and trying to control them. To them, this already resembles a modern attempt at a second Enslavement and is treated as a declaration of war. The Gods of Metal against the Undead Scourge. The spells of the Followers are useful against them, as they doubt that humanity has the ability to shoot lightning and fire out of musical devices. A grave mistake that has charred and burned many kindred.
However, there are some key details about Follower interactions with vampires. The main way they are discovered is among crowds of fans watching the Bands performance. Unlike regular musicians, Rockers specifically make a point of watching the crowd for obvious supernaturals. Quite often this translate for searching for vampires preying among their crowd. Even if they were not Followers, those are still leeches like the days of old feeding on their fans! Therefore, when they are not chasing stories of demonic summoning; they hunt Vampires that make the mistake of going after their bread and butter.
Changelings, Those who were lost
It is a shame, humans being abducted and made into something arcane and other-worldly. Quite often, the Followers mistake these creatures as demonic. It is sad, as they are therefore treated as demons. Their bodies forming the path of the tour of destruction just like the demons and vampires. However, unlike demons Changelings rarely are discovered due to the innate magic protecting them. Once a blue moon a Rocker will discover or see through the mask protecting a Changeling and confused them as a demon, leading to the eventual hunt of said Changeling.
Demons, Slavers no more
Kill on sight. If humans betray mankind to summon them? Kill on sight. If humans work with them? Kill on sight. Demons are the issue, the problem, and the entire purpose of the Vigil for these individuals, to protect mankind against the forces of demons. There are always rumors within the Followers that if too many demons exist on earth then the Tainted Coil will be birthed once more, something that would bode horribly for the weakened armies of humanity. As a result, any talk of demonic influence that reaches any large pocket of Followers instantly is check into by a Band or traveling group of Followers.
Band Styles
The Followers of Ormagoden divide their society by three styles of music based off of the three Factions during the great Tour of Destruction of olden days. There is slight philosophical meaning behind the forms of music along with the obvious differences between the three styles of music themselves.
Metal Men practice the ancestral music of the Titans and are considered to be the most pure of music and soul. This genre of music involves much headbanging, and is heavy on harmonics in some guitar solos and is heavy on drummers. Experienced Metal Men bands have a skilled Drummer and Bassist for support and very aggressive Singers and Guitar players. Metal Men Guitarists tend to have more fiery guitarwork and powerful symbolic solos. Metal Men Tours will often go sea to sea, sometimes in a zig-zag pattern and are most aware of demonic presence in a area and target such areas specifically for their Tour
Black Sorrow is in honor of the Black Tear Rebellion. The Drinkers of the Black tear were suicidal and fueled by Aetulias sorrow and rage. The Black Sorrow, however took the sorrow of the black metal and made it their own; looking at their situation healthily and screeching their sorrowful and dark tunes leaving a haunting feeling to the venues they play. Black Sorrow Followers follow deep ideals of defensive Bass Playing and Haunting Guitar riffs that demoralize the enemy. Sorrow Tours Prefer to start in the south and quickly go north, usually targeting a specific region like the east or west. Once they arrive in the cold, dark, barren lands on the north they will prosper and play energetic and truly amazing shows in efforts to attract Vampire fans for them to lure to doom.
Flaming Coils Bands shriek and scream heavy metal tales picturing the defeat of the Tainted Coil, the demon empire that once enslaved mankind. Their ideal is to emulate the Industrial Metal of the Coil and turning it into dark songs of liberation and war against the Coil. Flaming Coils Bands feature a more aggressive Bassist and Singer while the Guitarist and Drummer perform defensive solos. The Coils are very niche in their Touring schedule. Often they make it up depending on their location. For instance, a Coils band may be playing in San Francisco, only for them to find out there are demonic cults causing trouble in San Diego. In a result they will postpone their next show in order to make record time and arrive at San Diego.
Status
Gaining Status as a Follower can be fairly easy if you can fill the shoes of a true believer of Ormagoden. Amazing guitar playing and weeding out demons and vampires will earn you the Metal Gods favor and therefore increase your Status in the followers of Ormagoden.
*: You have taken up the Guitar as a Ormagoden Band member. As a result you gain the crafts specialty of the instrument you choose (Microphone, Guitar, Bass, or Drums). You probably have not gone on a Tour yet, but you plan to soon. Your not quite that good at spotting creatures lurking in your shows and have not learned your Music Magic that well yet.
***: You have been around the block a few times, and profited heavily from it. Gain a dot of fame (Musician) Your a musical maestro and popular, your shows sell out almost always sell out. As a resource you also may gain a dot of Resources.
*****: Your a true follower of Ormagoden and have pleased the metal gods on countless occasions. You have been on many Tours of Destruction. Quite often, other bands wish to open for your Band and get included in your Tour. You get two dots of Allies (Ormagoden Tour Band)
Monday, December 14, 2009
Down the grapevine
I am always looking for new gadgets to help me run my campaigns. Today I was looking for some and not only found a World of Darkness mass roleplay chat but I also found a neat little tool called Grapevine.
At first it unsettled me how... basic it looked. The icons of the characters look like scavenged (And OWoD) spritework. In fact I had to double check to make sure it was NWoD compatible since it had choices to have Demon and Wraith characters, hinting that the tool is pretty damn old. However when looking over other tools I noticed that none of them actually made it easy for GM's to insert their own merits into the program but supplied a static list. This sucked because some GM's like to homebrew new merits or new books will come out and may have a merit everybody in your group wants.
Grapevine beats this by requiring you to insert all of the sheet elements in yourself from both a list and a "Add custom entity" button allowing you to add specialties, merits, anything you need to the sheet. This is of course time intensive but a blessing I could not find in any other chronicle tool of the six I know of. It even has a space for intensive XP tracking, a lengthy Item library that can be pulled from, a list of rote spells for a mage game, a rumor system, and all sorts of goodies.
Its built mainly for GM's that run large games extremely often. Such as the lads that run the WoD RP chat. Importantly, I had very few crashes when poking around the program. Other chroni9cle tools tend to crash when trying to assign items and equipment. However the only time I suffered a terminal crash was accidentally trying to assign weapons when I had no characters selected.
All in all, Grapevine is a amazing tool set and its very useful if you have time to burn and you want to have a complete WoD tool library at your fingertips, able to assign rumors to play dates and create a full set of items for any use. Its such a find!
At first it unsettled me how... basic it looked. The icons of the characters look like scavenged (And OWoD) spritework. In fact I had to double check to make sure it was NWoD compatible since it had choices to have Demon and Wraith characters, hinting that the tool is pretty damn old. However when looking over other tools I noticed that none of them actually made it easy for GM's to insert their own merits into the program but supplied a static list. This sucked because some GM's like to homebrew new merits or new books will come out and may have a merit everybody in your group wants.
Grapevine beats this by requiring you to insert all of the sheet elements in yourself from both a list and a "Add custom entity" button allowing you to add specialties, merits, anything you need to the sheet. This is of course time intensive but a blessing I could not find in any other chronicle tool of the six I know of. It even has a space for intensive XP tracking, a lengthy Item library that can be pulled from, a list of rote spells for a mage game, a rumor system, and all sorts of goodies.
Its built mainly for GM's that run large games extremely often. Such as the lads that run the WoD RP chat. Importantly, I had very few crashes when poking around the program. Other chroni9cle tools tend to crash when trying to assign items and equipment. However the only time I suffered a terminal crash was accidentally trying to assign weapons when I had no characters selected.
All in all, Grapevine is a amazing tool set and its very useful if you have time to burn and you want to have a complete WoD tool library at your fingertips, able to assign rumors to play dates and create a full set of items for any use. Its such a find!
Friday, December 4, 2009
Who thats Pokethulu!?
When I was growing up I remember shortly getting hit with the poke-craze. I didn't really get too into it, I played Pokemon red and enjoyed it a little bit. But it was after the first movie that I flat out cut it out, it was obviously just turning into a blatant attempt to get my parents to spend more money without putting any skill into their work.
And I was sort of right, more games came out, more movies came out, more lame pokemon were being discovered. Isint there like a thousand of the little bastards around now?
What was more interesting is when Pokemon was twisted by the internet. I am drawing a blank on the name of it at this moment, but there was a adult parody of Pokemon that turned the Pokemon into hot girls in monster cosplay outfits. Oh, and they needed sex daily to survive. Thankfully that sort of thing has stayed as just a basis for fanfics and comics and has not wormed its way into tabletop form yet. One example I saw was a Ant girl that would drag males encountered on their rounds to the hive where every other ant would then dogpile and rape the guy.
Brings me to my focus. Basement dweller sex fantasies aside, theres a better way to bastardize the pokemon ideal without making it about sex. A good example is probably the best crossover ever. Cumberland games took the time to consider what would happen if they slapped Pokemon and the works of H.P. Lovecraft together into one roleplaying game. The result was Pokethulu.
Slightly following in the playful spirit of Toon with the happily simple system much like Ghost busters; Pokethulu is a very entertaining game that implores the GM to set up Episodes inbetween bouts of letting the players roam around capturing and training their Pokethulu. The example scenario I saw was fairly simple and forced a pretty linear path; however it fit the games fairly entertaining ideals.
Players are Cultists (Specifically, under the age of 16, anybody older is susceptible to the powers of the Thulu.) that have gained the wisdom to be able to train and use the Pokethulu. The Thulu themselves are left entirely up to the GM to make them, Several popular pokemon were portrayed as thulu, only maybe one or two of them were actually named and statted. Though its not exactly that hard to come up with a name, just insert a lovecraftian word into the name. Like Jigglypolyp or Hastursaur.
However, the traditional elements like Fire, Water, and the other "Original" ones like Colorless (White) and Dark were of course replaced by non stereotypical elements in favor of Lovecraftian Aspects. The Aspects are Sticky, Icy, Fishy, Decomposing, Fungous, Squamous, Non-Euclidean, and Luminescent. The aspects follow traditional categories of Lovecraftian horrors very well, I like the system they have. Each Thulu has two Aspects and one Aspect they are weak against. A good example is Pikathulu, who is Fungous and Luminescent but weak against Sticky.
The games battle system is fairly easy, lumping dice into four types of attacks that every Thulu has a equivalent of. Injure, Frighten, Dodge and Trap. Cultists have similar attributes that suit the same purpose if they somehow get roped into fighting.
Your players will love playing out their own series of adventures and thwarting the evil plans of Team Eibon on your path through the land becoming the best cultist of them all.
Its a good game, get you one! In fact, click here to get it!
And I was sort of right, more games came out, more movies came out, more lame pokemon were being discovered. Isint there like a thousand of the little bastards around now?
What was more interesting is when Pokemon was twisted by the internet. I am drawing a blank on the name of it at this moment, but there was a adult parody of Pokemon that turned the Pokemon into hot girls in monster cosplay outfits. Oh, and they needed sex daily to survive. Thankfully that sort of thing has stayed as just a basis for fanfics and comics and has not wormed its way into tabletop form yet. One example I saw was a Ant girl that would drag males encountered on their rounds to the hive where every other ant would then dogpile and rape the guy.
Brings me to my focus. Basement dweller sex fantasies aside, theres a better way to bastardize the pokemon ideal without making it about sex. A good example is probably the best crossover ever. Cumberland games took the time to consider what would happen if they slapped Pokemon and the works of H.P. Lovecraft together into one roleplaying game. The result was Pokethulu.
Slightly following in the playful spirit of Toon with the happily simple system much like Ghost busters; Pokethulu is a very entertaining game that implores the GM to set up Episodes inbetween bouts of letting the players roam around capturing and training their Pokethulu. The example scenario I saw was fairly simple and forced a pretty linear path; however it fit the games fairly entertaining ideals.
Players are Cultists (Specifically, under the age of 16, anybody older is susceptible to the powers of the Thulu.) that have gained the wisdom to be able to train and use the Pokethulu. The Thulu themselves are left entirely up to the GM to make them, Several popular pokemon were portrayed as thulu, only maybe one or two of them were actually named and statted. Though its not exactly that hard to come up with a name, just insert a lovecraftian word into the name. Like Jigglypolyp or Hastursaur.
However, the traditional elements like Fire, Water, and the other "Original" ones like Colorless (White) and Dark were of course replaced by non stereotypical elements in favor of Lovecraftian Aspects. The Aspects are Sticky, Icy, Fishy, Decomposing, Fungous, Squamous, Non-Euclidean, and Luminescent. The aspects follow traditional categories of Lovecraftian horrors very well, I like the system they have. Each Thulu has two Aspects and one Aspect they are weak against. A good example is Pikathulu, who is Fungous and Luminescent but weak against Sticky.
The games battle system is fairly easy, lumping dice into four types of attacks that every Thulu has a equivalent of. Injure, Frighten, Dodge and Trap. Cultists have similar attributes that suit the same purpose if they somehow get roped into fighting.
Your players will love playing out their own series of adventures and thwarting the evil plans of Team Eibon on your path through the land becoming the best cultist of them all.
Its a good game, get you one! In fact, click here to get it!
Tuesday, December 1, 2009
Toon!
Elves can go to hell. We are all tired of them and their tree hugging. There I said it. Its to the point where every single game in a world unlike earth contains atleast one semi elven race. Thankfully, there is toon that ends this. And even better; Toon lets you relive every old cartoon you absolutely adored as a child.
Toon is a simple Rpg that benifits hugely from a well placed railroad. The characters are cartoon characters with a large amount of skills and a lack of sense. Characters don;t die, they just fall down and can get back up later. Starting to sound like the Anti DnD yet? I can;t really find the words today to give the game true justice. Just that this is a book that should be in any classic gamers library.
You get points for simply being silly and hilarious while loosesly walking down a GM set railroad meant to get to the end of the "Episode" (Toons name for a session). A example of one is a episode in the book that involves the players taking over a Noodle restaurant in the middle of nowhere, only to find out the neighbor (And competition) is hell bent on stopping your store from being profitable at all costs. The players will get blown up, shoved in noodle machines and ran over by a boulder.
I am not too sure if it is in print anymore, but I am sure you can find a copy somewhere. If your group is in the mood to find something funny and strange, go get toon.
Toon is a simple Rpg that benifits hugely from a well placed railroad. The characters are cartoon characters with a large amount of skills and a lack of sense. Characters don;t die, they just fall down and can get back up later. Starting to sound like the Anti DnD yet? I can;t really find the words today to give the game true justice. Just that this is a book that should be in any classic gamers library.
You get points for simply being silly and hilarious while loosesly walking down a GM set railroad meant to get to the end of the "Episode" (Toons name for a session). A example of one is a episode in the book that involves the players taking over a Noodle restaurant in the middle of nowhere, only to find out the neighbor (And competition) is hell bent on stopping your store from being profitable at all costs. The players will get blown up, shoved in noodle machines and ran over by a boulder.
I am not too sure if it is in print anymore, but I am sure you can find a copy somewhere. If your group is in the mood to find something funny and strange, go get toon.
Shotgun update!
Ugghhh I knew this would happen. A few weeks in and I start forgetting to post. I am going to look through my computer and glance through what I have, expect a few updates later today
Monday, November 23, 2009
Rosie
Bioshock: The Journey
Rosie (Big Daddy Class)
A ancient icon by today's standards, Rosie the Riveter was a cultural icon meant to inspire women to contribute to the American war machine in times of war. This Icon was turned into a grim parody when Dr. Suchong named a type of Big Daddies after it. Named because of the weapon they were designed to wield to great effect, the Rivet Gun, Rosies are more defense oriented much like the Bouncer was designed to get in close and personal. When not defending Little Sisters on their rounds, Rosie's also conduct maintenance on the city itself; carrying tools in order to repair damages when they see it.
In addition to their gun, Rosies are also taught how to fashion explosive mines in order to lob them onto the battlefield in a attempt to keep groups of Splicer Thugs away from their charge. With a bit of fine tuning eventually they can configure their Kit enough to be a real challenge for whoever wants to steal their Sisters Adam.
As with all Big Daddies, The Rosie is contained in a large Diving Suit, with their view port emitting a colored light defining their mood (Yellow for Alert, Red for angry, and Green for a good, at ease mood.) that they may change at will to warn enemies of their transgressions. Unlike bouncers, they are tall and fairly lithe with a large backpack style kit.
Lair: Unlike other Big Daddies, Rosie's left alone for too long without seeing a Little Sister will set up a work shop that will act as their lair. This workshop will be the base of their Repair operation and where they will keep their spare tools. When meeting with a Little Sister, they will abandon the workshop for as long as it takes, leaving turrets and traps to hopefully protect it long enough to last until the Rosie returns. Any room will make due for a Rosie's lair as long as it is abundant in Salvage material and has plenty of space for the Rosie to construct objects to defend and repair Rapture.
Background: Like others of their kind, Rosie's have little or no remembrance of the days before their creation. Only the two goals burned into their minds. Repair and Protect Sisters. Nobody actually knows how to combat the mind control plasmid used on Big Daddies so they may be roaming the halls of rapture forever.
Weakness: On their back is a large canister of oxygen for their treks on the sea floor in order to repair the outside of rapture. Shooting or penetrating this tank will put a hole in it that can be later repaired as a Extended Action by the Rosie for a point of Salvage. When a hole is put inside the tank, O2 will spray out; Dazing the Rosie for a round. Any nearby flames that meet the Oxygen will cause 1D10 -5 lethal damage, with a minimum of one. The rosie requires its Tank in order to breathe underwater.
Salvaging: Discarded metal items such as guns can be converted to one salvage point for each point of resources the item costs by the Rosie as a simple action. They may also choose to strip spare metal plating off of rooms as a Extended action, every two successes leading to a point of Salvage. Every point of Salvage taken from the room in this manner causes a point of durability damage to the room which can later be repaired using Salvage
Favored Attribute: Dexterity or Intelligence
Kit: Rivet Gun, Rosie Mine Recipe
Rosie (Big Daddy Class)
A ancient icon by today's standards, Rosie the Riveter was a cultural icon meant to inspire women to contribute to the American war machine in times of war. This Icon was turned into a grim parody when Dr. Suchong named a type of Big Daddies after it. Named because of the weapon they were designed to wield to great effect, the Rivet Gun, Rosies are more defense oriented much like the Bouncer was designed to get in close and personal. When not defending Little Sisters on their rounds, Rosie's also conduct maintenance on the city itself; carrying tools in order to repair damages when they see it.
In addition to their gun, Rosies are also taught how to fashion explosive mines in order to lob them onto the battlefield in a attempt to keep groups of Splicer Thugs away from their charge. With a bit of fine tuning eventually they can configure their Kit enough to be a real challenge for whoever wants to steal their Sisters Adam.
As with all Big Daddies, The Rosie is contained in a large Diving Suit, with their view port emitting a colored light defining their mood (Yellow for Alert, Red for angry, and Green for a good, at ease mood.) that they may change at will to warn enemies of their transgressions. Unlike bouncers, they are tall and fairly lithe with a large backpack style kit.
Lair: Unlike other Big Daddies, Rosie's left alone for too long without seeing a Little Sister will set up a work shop that will act as their lair. This workshop will be the base of their Repair operation and where they will keep their spare tools. When meeting with a Little Sister, they will abandon the workshop for as long as it takes, leaving turrets and traps to hopefully protect it long enough to last until the Rosie returns. Any room will make due for a Rosie's lair as long as it is abundant in Salvage material and has plenty of space for the Rosie to construct objects to defend and repair Rapture.
Background: Like others of their kind, Rosie's have little or no remembrance of the days before their creation. Only the two goals burned into their minds. Repair and Protect Sisters. Nobody actually knows how to combat the mind control plasmid used on Big Daddies so they may be roaming the halls of rapture forever.
Weakness: On their back is a large canister of oxygen for their treks on the sea floor in order to repair the outside of rapture. Shooting or penetrating this tank will put a hole in it that can be later repaired as a Extended Action by the Rosie for a point of Salvage. When a hole is put inside the tank, O2 will spray out; Dazing the Rosie for a round. Any nearby flames that meet the Oxygen will cause 1D10 -5 lethal damage, with a minimum of one. The rosie requires its Tank in order to breathe underwater.
Salvaging: Discarded metal items such as guns can be converted to one salvage point for each point of resources the item costs by the Rosie as a simple action. They may also choose to strip spare metal plating off of rooms as a Extended action, every two successes leading to a point of Salvage. Every point of Salvage taken from the room in this manner causes a point of durability damage to the room which can later be repaired using Salvage
Favored Attribute: Dexterity or Intelligence
Kit: Rivet Gun, Rosie Mine Recipe
Sunday, November 22, 2009
Big Daddy Template
NWoD Character creation follows a simple series of steps, the sixth one being putting a template on the character. What actually happens depends on the cTemplate. A Vampire Template adds Blood Potency and all the advantages of vampirism. So a Big Daddy Template lists the main changes to the character in becoming a Big Daddy.
[BEGIN]
Personally I think its unimportant to mention the Voice Box and Pheromones in Char creation since it does not have much to do with the character sheet at all. The key thing is the Class, Salvage, Diving Suit, and Honor. These are things that directly affect the sheet.
There are a few rules I have been kicking around that apply directly to Rapture
[BEGIN]
Template:
Big Daddy Class: Big Daddies are given a specific layout upon creation, along with a specific type of plasmid mix that transforms them into that type of big daddy. Classes of Big Daddy are available later in the book and define your weaponry, bonus specialty, and method of gaining Salvage points.
Rosie
Bouncer
Rumbler
Salvage Points: Wandering through the halls, Daddies will collect material they find may aide in repairing or upgrading their weaponry. When coming across metal items like Guns or scrap left from destroyed bots a Big Daddy may collect it and immediately turn it into usable Salvage Points that can be spent at a U-Invent machine and fashioned into whatever they need that is metal such as new weaponry or bullets. Big Daddies can have up to ten Salvage Points at one time.
Honor: Being so far changed from a normal human, Big Daddies simply do not think of actions as right or wrong, just like Splicers. Big Daddies instead has Honor, which replaces the concept of Humanity or Morality.
Honor system
10 Abandoning a Little Sister
9 Attacking First
8 Killing Non Splicers
7 Attacking a Big Daddy unprovoked
6 Killing a Big Daddy
5 Stealing a Little Sister from another Big Daddy
4 Letting a Little Sister get stolen from
3 Letting a Little Sister get hurt
2 Hurting a Little Sister
1 Letting a Little Sister Die
Pheromones: Mr. Bubbles possesses special chemical pheromones that attract Little Sisters to him. On sight a Little Sister will join the Big Daddy and follow him. Little Sisters currently being escorted by another Big Daddy will ignore the other Big Daddy until a fight breaks out between them and one Big Daddy stands victor or forces the other Big Daddy to break contact with the Little Sister.
Diving Suit: The bulky suit of the Big Daddy is a double edged sword. Dexterity Checks are -1 along with any roll requiring you to run or jump. Your size is increased to 7. Speed is -4. Damage taken from Firearms, Explosives, Blunt, and Piercing attacks is considered Bashing. The suit has a Armor rating of 3. Since they are literally fused into their suit, they can never get out of it.
Voice Box: The inner workings of the body that control speech have been permanently tampered with and changed. It is impossible for Big Daddies to make sounds similar to Speech, restricted to long, drawn out and pained sounding low pitch groans and grumbles.
[END]
Personally I think its unimportant to mention the Voice Box and Pheromones in Char creation since it does not have much to do with the character sheet at all. The key thing is the Class, Salvage, Diving Suit, and Honor. These are things that directly affect the sheet.
There are a few rules I have been kicking around that apply directly to Rapture
- No Covenants or Equivalent for Non Human Splicers. They lack the population and sanity to have a true population going.
- Resources are handled differently since nobody in rapture actually makes money anymore. When slaying splicers you will need to actively be looting their pockets and grabbing Resources dots in order to use the Merchant machines around Rapture.
Shotgun of Vamp-rapin' +2
I have several things to discuss today and for the next few days.
Number one on my agenda of topics is a line of gaming aides called Game Mastery. My local game shop had had these packs of cards for as long as I remember. They are cheap and small packs of cards from the first two editions of printing. What the cards are, are Item cards meant to mesh well with any Fantasy or medieval setting. They are not very generic either since they are meant to resemble magic items, so even a simple cloak has a interesting description to it. One card in each pack is also a "Shiny" which adds to its coolness. Optional rule would be making the shiny cards really good items.
They may be simple, but its a great help for GM's that want to organize their items easily and keep a good idea of who has what item and give players a mental image of what they find. I bought three pakcs the other day, and boy what a smart move on my part. I fell in love with them quickly and was amazed to find out there publisher has several cheap $10 sets of these cards that are non randomized. Odd thing is the only gun so far in the sets is in a dragons treasure set of cards.
If you have a credit card and twenty bucks you want to invest in your DnD game to keep Gorgar the Dragonarion Priest/Warrior/Thief/Lich/Mage Honest with what he has on his person, then head over to Paizo games site and grab a few decks of these cards and enjoy how easy they can make fantasy or medieval settings for you. Even then, some of these can be crossed over to other settings as well. The artwork would lend well to a Legend of the five rings campaign.
Article two however is a touchy subject, and that would be the subject of Erorpgs. Erorpg is a shortening of Erotic Role playing game. The few I know of were pains and still are pains to track down. The three easy to find books are Black Tokyo and The Book of Erotic Fantasy which are OGL DnD books. BT is a anime styled game with such fan favorite classes as the flow witch, that shits and cums her panties to buff her allies. The Death womb that has a razor bladed vagina. And the guy that can turn his hands and fingers into a swarm of penis tentacles. Your mostly raping enemies to death in a strange tokyo setting that is... well. It scared a good portion of /tg/. TBOEF is a little more tame, and the art does not suck since they hired models to dress up as naked elf chicks. The material itself is lengthy and quite clumsy when I tried to understand it.
The third of the three is a small BESM knock off called Big Boobs Small Waist. BBSW Is another hentai adaptation that is mainly just a freeform game that focuses on the main reason everybody wants to play it, getting exp for giving fellatio to a room full of school boys (And the two oral virgins give you extra xp!). These three games are worth giving a look if your into collecting such material.
The couple I am having hard times with are called Zettai Reido (Translated=Absolute Slavery) and Rapture Academy. I have yet to find a full PDF of Zettai reido, and even then theres not much use of it; its completely in japanese with no official translation in sight. The game, from what can be understood, takes place in hell where the demons and devils take turns dominating each other and having crazy amounts of sex. I also found a expansion book also in japanese that adds in angels doing pretty much the same.
Rapture Academy is sort of a enigma. I cannot find any actual information on it at all, yet its somewhat of a common discussion topic on 4chan's roleplaying board. The best I have deciphered from loose talk is it takes place in a magic academy setting, and the traps in said setting rape the players, most likely with tentacles. If anybody has a lead on where I can get a copy of Rapture academy or a full version of Zettai Reido I will be very happy.
Which brings me to the main thing I was getting at. My interest is in setting up a wiki or some form of specialized open source page for group collaboration on making erorpgs; this is something I may do in coming weeks if only to see if it actually happens. The weirder and stranger the subject matter the better. While working on my current project I have been musing over a erorpg that focuses on leading a gang or martial arts guild that focuses on capturing territory and raping prisoners. Much like a game from the makers of Robozou only with less "OH MY GOD WHY... WHY!" plastered all over it, and no fucked up incest with the spirit of a male ancient master possessing your sister.
Number one on my agenda of topics is a line of gaming aides called Game Mastery. My local game shop had had these packs of cards for as long as I remember. They are cheap and small packs of cards from the first two editions of printing. What the cards are, are Item cards meant to mesh well with any Fantasy or medieval setting. They are not very generic either since they are meant to resemble magic items, so even a simple cloak has a interesting description to it. One card in each pack is also a "Shiny" which adds to its coolness. Optional rule would be making the shiny cards really good items.
They may be simple, but its a great help for GM's that want to organize their items easily and keep a good idea of who has what item and give players a mental image of what they find. I bought three pakcs the other day, and boy what a smart move on my part. I fell in love with them quickly and was amazed to find out there publisher has several cheap $10 sets of these cards that are non randomized. Odd thing is the only gun so far in the sets is in a dragons treasure set of cards.
If you have a credit card and twenty bucks you want to invest in your DnD game to keep Gorgar the Dragonarion Priest/Warrior/Thief/Lich/Mage Honest with what he has on his person, then head over to Paizo games site and grab a few decks of these cards and enjoy how easy they can make fantasy or medieval settings for you. Even then, some of these can be crossed over to other settings as well. The artwork would lend well to a Legend of the five rings campaign.
Article two however is a touchy subject, and that would be the subject of Erorpgs. Erorpg is a shortening of Erotic Role playing game. The few I know of were pains and still are pains to track down. The three easy to find books are Black Tokyo and The Book of Erotic Fantasy which are OGL DnD books. BT is a anime styled game with such fan favorite classes as the flow witch, that shits and cums her panties to buff her allies. The Death womb that has a razor bladed vagina. And the guy that can turn his hands and fingers into a swarm of penis tentacles. Your mostly raping enemies to death in a strange tokyo setting that is... well. It scared a good portion of /tg/. TBOEF is a little more tame, and the art does not suck since they hired models to dress up as naked elf chicks. The material itself is lengthy and quite clumsy when I tried to understand it.
The third of the three is a small BESM knock off called Big Boobs Small Waist. BBSW Is another hentai adaptation that is mainly just a freeform game that focuses on the main reason everybody wants to play it, getting exp for giving fellatio to a room full of school boys (And the two oral virgins give you extra xp!). These three games are worth giving a look if your into collecting such material.
The couple I am having hard times with are called Zettai Reido (Translated=Absolute Slavery) and Rapture Academy. I have yet to find a full PDF of Zettai reido, and even then theres not much use of it; its completely in japanese with no official translation in sight. The game, from what can be understood, takes place in hell where the demons and devils take turns dominating each other and having crazy amounts of sex. I also found a expansion book also in japanese that adds in angels doing pretty much the same.
Rapture Academy is sort of a enigma. I cannot find any actual information on it at all, yet its somewhat of a common discussion topic on 4chan's roleplaying board. The best I have deciphered from loose talk is it takes place in a magic academy setting, and the traps in said setting rape the players, most likely with tentacles. If anybody has a lead on where I can get a copy of Rapture academy or a full version of Zettai Reido I will be very happy.
Which brings me to the main thing I was getting at. My interest is in setting up a wiki or some form of specialized open source page for group collaboration on making erorpgs; this is something I may do in coming weeks if only to see if it actually happens. The weirder and stranger the subject matter the better. While working on my current project I have been musing over a erorpg that focuses on leading a gang or martial arts guild that focuses on capturing territory and raping prisoners. Much like a game from the makers of Robozou only with less "OH MY GOD WHY... WHY!" plastered all over it, and no fucked up incest with the spirit of a male ancient master possessing your sister.
Wednesday, November 18, 2009
No colors anymore, I want them to be black.
The last few days I have been busy with a friend from out of town, which is why I did not post on tuesday. However unlike most webcomic artists I have no problem with making up for lost updates. Though to be fair its because I don't have to sit there for a hour or two for each update.
Key thing that's slowly been getting done is fleshing out the details in character creation. The basics things can be referenced to the core book, but I am very sure that the steps for character creation will have to be re-written a couple times until it looks good. I want to flesh it out amazingly and put oh so much wondrous detail into the section but the key thing is much of WoD supplement character creation text is just cut and paste until it gets to the supernatural templates due to the steps for creation being much simpler then Old World.
Now; thats not suggesting I am trying to copy White Wolfs style to the point of purposely avoiding improvement. More or less I want to kind of stay true to the style and just have something I can read in a month or two and go "Hey, that looks pretty good.". Coming to the topic of Supernatural templates.
Bid Daddies would certainly be a interesting concept to transform into a playable template. Though it immediately hits on one big thing: Canon. I know, I know. Its not like we are following Canon too well so far anyway, but more or less we are strecthing it. Lets face it though, And answer honestly. When you played Bioshock, didn't you EVER want to use that big freaking Drill? More so in Bioshock two when they give you the Drill! Therefore, I can guess very well that when people play a rpg in that world; That they will want to play as a Big Daddy.
Simplest matter is to include a template but attach plenty of rules for it, including rules for being transformed into one during play as jack did before the fight with Atlas and supply a few choices of Layout for the new Big Daddy (Bouncer, Rosie, or one of the homebrew Big Daddies we are toying with) which will of course effect the weapon access they have and how hardcore they really are. A big drawback to being a Big Daddy is there's a very slim chance you will be able to wield Plasmids. To make up for it your limited weaponry will make OWoD Werewolves say "Wow thats overpowered!" Drills will most likely get 8 again, Rivet Guns will be able to switch ammunition and fire neat super bolts.
Second is the player will now be the tank. Not just the tank but THE tank. Most anything will only do bashing to you and your mis-shapen flesh underneath is not only fire resistant (Very low chance of catching fire) but slowly regenerates. Vocalization becomes well... Impossible. The Big Daddies voice box is forever tampered with and can only make the low, tired groans your familiar with and unable to actually form words. The upside is the Big Daddie can use a little Sister gathered from a Vent in order to gather Adam for the group and to further your own goals.
There is still plenty to flesh out and think of. But I am more familiar with the rule that if it is mentioned as a race there will probably be a player that wants to be that race somewhere along the line. Its how Gripli from AD&D were statted for 3.5 afterall. For instance is the similer rule of design is that is a Monster is ever mentioned a GM will use it atleast once in its existence. Like the cop out for Deadlands not statting Clay (A servant of Death) because they said "If they stat it, they will kill it" in a misguided attempt to not let players play their own story.
That and who doesint want to wield a gigantic Drill of death.
Key thing that's slowly been getting done is fleshing out the details in character creation. The basics things can be referenced to the core book, but I am very sure that the steps for character creation will have to be re-written a couple times until it looks good. I want to flesh it out amazingly and put oh so much wondrous detail into the section but the key thing is much of WoD supplement character creation text is just cut and paste until it gets to the supernatural templates due to the steps for creation being much simpler then Old World.
Now; thats not suggesting I am trying to copy White Wolfs style to the point of purposely avoiding improvement. More or less I want to kind of stay true to the style and just have something I can read in a month or two and go "Hey, that looks pretty good.". Coming to the topic of Supernatural templates.
Bid Daddies would certainly be a interesting concept to transform into a playable template. Though it immediately hits on one big thing: Canon. I know, I know. Its not like we are following Canon too well so far anyway, but more or less we are strecthing it. Lets face it though, And answer honestly. When you played Bioshock, didn't you EVER want to use that big freaking Drill? More so in Bioshock two when they give you the Drill! Therefore, I can guess very well that when people play a rpg in that world; That they will want to play as a Big Daddy.
Simplest matter is to include a template but attach plenty of rules for it, including rules for being transformed into one during play as jack did before the fight with Atlas and supply a few choices of Layout for the new Big Daddy (Bouncer, Rosie, or one of the homebrew Big Daddies we are toying with) which will of course effect the weapon access they have and how hardcore they really are. A big drawback to being a Big Daddy is there's a very slim chance you will be able to wield Plasmids. To make up for it your limited weaponry will make OWoD Werewolves say "Wow thats overpowered!" Drills will most likely get 8 again, Rivet Guns will be able to switch ammunition and fire neat super bolts.
Second is the player will now be the tank. Not just the tank but THE tank. Most anything will only do bashing to you and your mis-shapen flesh underneath is not only fire resistant (Very low chance of catching fire) but slowly regenerates. Vocalization becomes well... Impossible. The Big Daddies voice box is forever tampered with and can only make the low, tired groans your familiar with and unable to actually form words. The upside is the Big Daddie can use a little Sister gathered from a Vent in order to gather Adam for the group and to further your own goals.
There is still plenty to flesh out and think of. But I am more familiar with the rule that if it is mentioned as a race there will probably be a player that wants to be that race somewhere along the line. Its how Gripli from AD&D were statted for 3.5 afterall. For instance is the similer rule of design is that is a Monster is ever mentioned a GM will use it atleast once in its existence. Like the cop out for Deadlands not statting Clay (A servant of Death) because they said "If they stat it, they will kill it" in a misguided attempt to not let players play their own story.
That and who doesint want to wield a gigantic Drill of death.
Friday, November 13, 2009
I put on my robe and wizards hat
"I am Andrew Ryan, and I am here to ask you a question. Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?
'No,' says the man in Washington, 'it belongs to the poor.'
'No,' says the man in the Vatican, 'it belongs to God.'
'No,' says the man in Moscow, 'it belongs to everyone.'
I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose...
Rapture.
A city where the artist would not fear the censor,
where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality,
where the great will not be constrained by the small.
And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city, as well." -Andrew Ryan
These are words I have memorized by heart, and live on as one of the most amazing speeches seen in a video game, next to the infamous words of SHODAN. I mention them because of a project my friends and I have considered seeing to fruition. A few months ago we considered putting together a D20 supplement for Bioshock; Since I have never really bothered with D20 AT ALL... That proved a little difficult for me to stay able to contribute. Without me to contribute anything my friends didn't know where to start either and we eventually got bored of it.
While working the night shift, I am required to stock drinks in the 7-11 cooler; unless the door is open its impossible to be heard, and anybody hearing me anyway usually just smiles and carry's on their business. I found just mumbling and humming to myself helps the time pass so naturally I went through famous words until I finally had myself saying "I am here to ask you a question: Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?" This reminded me of the project we started, so as I thought I continued "NO, says the man in Washington 'It belongs to the poor.'". A major hurdle that stopped us was a D20 friend of ours was convinced we could not roll a big daddy as a damage resistant creature, it had to have complicated armor. "NO, says the man in the Vatican. 'It belongs to god'" We also were attempting to fit characters into classes tailored after play styles, in the end having a medic, a 'bookie' (Plasmid user), a brawler, a shooter, and a engineer. It was a good idea but didn't seem very Bioshock. "NO, says the man in Moscow. 'It belongs to everyone!'" Plasmids were confusing as well, it was hard to explain how it worked in a magic system as they were not spells earned by leveling, but by consumption of Plasmid syringes
"I.... rejected these answers. Instead I chose something different, I chose the impossible, I chose..." That night I talked to Anne, convinced we can try again; I then began to rant about how we know nothing of modding DnD, if only it was something we were well skilled in, like WoD. "Rapture" Suddenly we realized it was kind of silly to consider D20 just because that's what everybody did, thinking it would be easy. World of Darkness by its very nature is held together by hundreds of small rules that make up a large, playable composite; due to how the system works. As was stated in my earlier WoD post, The various races are structured as supplements to the core book (which allows creation of vanilla mortals AKA: Common folk) so naturally its designed for it to be pretty easy to just tack on rules you like and dropkick anything you don't.
Vampires are resistant to damage because of a rule in the vampire book that says "Bullets only do bashing damage to vampires" and "Vampires may use blood points to heal". Sounds to start like if Fluxx was a roleplaying game, doesn't it? In way thats both a blessing and a curse. Its a blessing because ST's can add, use and neglect rules at will without damaging the gameplay experience for the players. The curse is... people will be tempted to play vampires, werewolves, and changelings in this Ayn Rand inspired hellhole we call Rapture.
Is that bad? Well, no. Luckily we realized that off the bat last night. Though it is quite the slap to the face of canon its not exactly impossible. Since Andrew accepted basically anybody who accepted his rules and was shunned by society or otherwise willing to leave the surfac; its not exactly too impossible for vampires, changelings, or mage's to feel being cooped up with thousands of humans oblivious to their nature at the murky depths of the ocean (An no sunlight, for vampires) is leagues better then the surface. Changelings liking the solitude, Mages for being able to express their intellectual needs, and Vampires for their new found ability to not only be a hundred percent safe from sunlight but have plenty of people to feed from as long as they are smart about it.
Werewolves have a less obvious excuse, a gigantic dog in the middle of the sea floor in what could be translated as a hamster cage like design complete with tubes and such is not a good idea. Though who knows, such individuals would probably not be shunned by Ryan if they came out of the proverbial closet to him in favor for being hired as Ryans security force.
Lost styled Changelings would probably adore the prospect, especially those who served under water-styled true fae. Protected by Ryan, able to do essentially anything that betters the quality of life. Its basically a 'get out of hell free' card. At least until the Rapture Civil War erupts.
The key thing is the notion of combat, due to extremely violent nature of Rapture post-RCW; regaining health will be relatively easy. Another key thing is we are not going to change who Jack is. So no Vita Chambers will be around to rez you. The players will take place of survivors or other people who somehow ran into the lighthouse (Who knows, there may be more lighthouses at sea to welcome people to rapture)
We're of course aware Bioshock two is coming; using much of the logic they did with our supplement. Since only a small portion of Rapture was shown in Bioshock 1, maybe 3-5 of the many buildings underwater, we can get away with having plenty of room for original rooms and buildings to be shown. Same with plasmids, there's bound to be plenty not showed in Bioshock. So that gives a opinion to being able to home brew plasmids.
Its impossible to give any thing like a due date, or much more then what we have. Expect updates in coming weeks
'No,' says the man in Washington, 'it belongs to the poor.'
'No,' says the man in the Vatican, 'it belongs to God.'
'No,' says the man in Moscow, 'it belongs to everyone.'
I rejected those answers. Instead, I chose something different. I chose the impossible. I chose...
Rapture.
A city where the artist would not fear the censor,
where the scientist would not be bound by petty morality,
where the great will not be constrained by the small.
And with the sweat of your brow, Rapture can become your city, as well." -Andrew Ryan
These are words I have memorized by heart, and live on as one of the most amazing speeches seen in a video game, next to the infamous words of SHODAN. I mention them because of a project my friends and I have considered seeing to fruition. A few months ago we considered putting together a D20 supplement for Bioshock; Since I have never really bothered with D20 AT ALL... That proved a little difficult for me to stay able to contribute. Without me to contribute anything my friends didn't know where to start either and we eventually got bored of it.
While working the night shift, I am required to stock drinks in the 7-11 cooler; unless the door is open its impossible to be heard, and anybody hearing me anyway usually just smiles and carry's on their business. I found just mumbling and humming to myself helps the time pass so naturally I went through famous words until I finally had myself saying "I am here to ask you a question: Is a man not entitled to the sweat of his brow?" This reminded me of the project we started, so as I thought I continued "NO, says the man in Washington 'It belongs to the poor.'". A major hurdle that stopped us was a D20 friend of ours was convinced we could not roll a big daddy as a damage resistant creature, it had to have complicated armor. "NO, says the man in the Vatican. 'It belongs to god'" We also were attempting to fit characters into classes tailored after play styles, in the end having a medic, a 'bookie' (Plasmid user), a brawler, a shooter, and a engineer. It was a good idea but didn't seem very Bioshock. "NO, says the man in Moscow. 'It belongs to everyone!'" Plasmids were confusing as well, it was hard to explain how it worked in a magic system as they were not spells earned by leveling, but by consumption of Plasmid syringes
"I.... rejected these answers. Instead I chose something different, I chose the impossible, I chose..." That night I talked to Anne, convinced we can try again; I then began to rant about how we know nothing of modding DnD, if only it was something we were well skilled in, like WoD. "Rapture" Suddenly we realized it was kind of silly to consider D20 just because that's what everybody did, thinking it would be easy. World of Darkness by its very nature is held together by hundreds of small rules that make up a large, playable composite; due to how the system works. As was stated in my earlier WoD post, The various races are structured as supplements to the core book (which allows creation of vanilla mortals AKA: Common folk) so naturally its designed for it to be pretty easy to just tack on rules you like and dropkick anything you don't.
Vampires are resistant to damage because of a rule in the vampire book that says "Bullets only do bashing damage to vampires" and "Vampires may use blood points to heal". Sounds to start like if Fluxx was a roleplaying game, doesn't it? In way thats both a blessing and a curse. Its a blessing because ST's can add, use and neglect rules at will without damaging the gameplay experience for the players. The curse is... people will be tempted to play vampires, werewolves, and changelings in this Ayn Rand inspired hellhole we call Rapture.
Is that bad? Well, no. Luckily we realized that off the bat last night. Though it is quite the slap to the face of canon its not exactly impossible. Since Andrew accepted basically anybody who accepted his rules and was shunned by society or otherwise willing to leave the surfac; its not exactly too impossible for vampires, changelings, or mage's to feel being cooped up with thousands of humans oblivious to their nature at the murky depths of the ocean (An no sunlight, for vampires) is leagues better then the surface. Changelings liking the solitude, Mages for being able to express their intellectual needs, and Vampires for their new found ability to not only be a hundred percent safe from sunlight but have plenty of people to feed from as long as they are smart about it.
Werewolves have a less obvious excuse, a gigantic dog in the middle of the sea floor in what could be translated as a hamster cage like design complete with tubes and such is not a good idea. Though who knows, such individuals would probably not be shunned by Ryan if they came out of the proverbial closet to him in favor for being hired as Ryans security force.
Lost styled Changelings would probably adore the prospect, especially those who served under water-styled true fae. Protected by Ryan, able to do essentially anything that betters the quality of life. Its basically a 'get out of hell free' card. At least until the Rapture Civil War erupts.
The key thing is the notion of combat, due to extremely violent nature of Rapture post-RCW; regaining health will be relatively easy. Another key thing is we are not going to change who Jack is. So no Vita Chambers will be around to rez you. The players will take place of survivors or other people who somehow ran into the lighthouse (Who knows, there may be more lighthouses at sea to welcome people to rapture)
We're of course aware Bioshock two is coming; using much of the logic they did with our supplement. Since only a small portion of Rapture was shown in Bioshock 1, maybe 3-5 of the many buildings underwater, we can get away with having plenty of room for original rooms and buildings to be shown. Same with plasmids, there's bound to be plenty not showed in Bioshock. So that gives a opinion to being able to home brew plasmids.
Its impossible to give any thing like a due date, or much more then what we have. Expect updates in coming weeks
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
NWoD and when to refuse to roleplay
Last week I mentioned WoD rather shortly. This is sort of a refresher of the whole story for those not in the know.
In the start, white wolf had modules for DnD out and were part responsible for the Ravenloft setting (And I believe the best module EVER. AD&D Adeventure Module I6: Ravenloft) However, thats a tale for another day.
The World of Darkness setting was a series of books and sub-books. Most popular were Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and Mage: The Ascension. There were seven other books. Orpheus, Changeling: The Dreaming, Hunter: The Reckoning, Demon: The Fallen, Mummy: The Resurrection, Kindred of the east, and Wraith: The Oblivion.
This was the old world. Much akin to the old testament, if you were not one of the supernatural creatures enslaving human kind you were doomed to die a horrible death. OWoD had its benefits, the game highly recommended Storytellers (GM's) to require reasoning behind players raising skills and purchasing merits for their characters. While players could have a rough time; GM's usually had the advantage over the characters when it came to making them follow the story without forcing them too hard to follow it. However, A big dent was all the books had its own built in core book that made up a good half of the book. Combine that with the books rarely being able to mix with eachother and in some cases impossible to mix with eachother. Character creation was also a little confusing without practice. but I put that more to poor wording rather then the game being too confusing.
Though I sound negative about it, OWoD shaped much of the early roleplaying scene, making countless tropes and inside jokes. Though Whitewolf made a sort of strange move on their part. The apocalypse came, completely ending the OWoD lines with fire, brimstone, and the rules for fighting Cain (Rule 1: You lose). Many of the fans of the game were both scared and angered, wondering how they have the balls to tell them their world is dead by canon (Its sort of messed up if you look at it, playing a game with their system only for them to rush into your house and say "OH ha ha, your characters died because we said so")
After six tons of hate mail, Whitewolf created the NWoD. And it wasn't just a rehash. White wolf actually went in and recreated every concept. First key thing, they threw our the civil war in Vampire, they quickly learned it was hard to play vampire WITHOUT getting dragged into the Sabat, Camerilla struggle. They completely revamped Changeling, Hunter, Wraith (Turned into Geist), Mummy (Turned into Promethean), and Demon. Hunters were no longer super powered warriors on a mission from god. Changelings were no longer... whatever they were. Key point is they certainly put thought into it. They even released one core book "WoD Core" that had the complete rules, immediately making all the NWoD books 300 pages lighter. The series all still received their sub books (Clan books, new merits, stuff like that) in addition to generic books with merits and equipment for all the book series.
And it was good. I feel much better about NWoD, its cleaner, and shows the vast experience WW had received from its past ventures. However, now comes the important part I have been leading up to. Of all the "races" in WoD, none were more pissed off about this change then the Changelings. In OWoD they were avatars of dream and nightmare. In NWoD they were a bit different, survivors of the fairy plane of Arcadia. Changelings are humans that were turned into half fairies in the plane of Arcadia, having been kidnapped by the True Fae and forced to serve under them. Eventually they escaped and found their way back to the human world. They have their human "Seeming" which is essentially how others view him, human and normal. However in true reality they are twisted version of themselves, magical fair folk.
Sounds cool right? Well it is. However, this is quite different then how the old changeling players were used to it. Forcing the pockets of Dreaming players to cry their bloody heads off and non officially boycott Lost. Your all welcome to your opinions, but refusing outright to play a game just because its a improvement of what was old?
The key thing here is they are not boycotting THE SYSTEM, they are boycotting the IDEA. And that hits a little more to logic. Just like most guys would not want to play a Hello Kitty rpg because its Hello-Fucking-Kitty. Another example is I have a friend of mine named John, he absolutely refuses to play any form of NWoD because he does not know the system and rules mechanics. Not playing Lost because its a different idea from what you grew up with? Ok, that at least makes sense. Not playing a modern world setting because you don't know how many dice to use? Wtf?
As a player, you should NEVER care about the actual system (With a few exceptions). You should only care about the setting. What differentiates Shadowrun from D20 Modern settings wise? On the surface well... nothing. Thats because they are both Cyberpunk settings with a fairly close idea. Then you add the shiny stuff, Dragons, Cyberware, Astral planes, you name it. Thats when the system modulates the setting into THE setting. Shadowrun isn't just Cyberpunk, its Shadowrun because it has those twists in the story that make it shadowrun.
Paranoia however, is just Paranoia by default. Nobodys even tried to make a knockoff of that yet. (Can't improve perfection...)
In the start, white wolf had modules for DnD out and were part responsible for the Ravenloft setting (And I believe the best module EVER. AD&D Adeventure Module I6: Ravenloft) However, thats a tale for another day.
The World of Darkness setting was a series of books and sub-books. Most popular were Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse, and Mage: The Ascension. There were seven other books. Orpheus, Changeling: The Dreaming, Hunter: The Reckoning, Demon: The Fallen, Mummy: The Resurrection, Kindred of the east, and Wraith: The Oblivion.
This was the old world. Much akin to the old testament, if you were not one of the supernatural creatures enslaving human kind you were doomed to die a horrible death. OWoD had its benefits, the game highly recommended Storytellers (GM's) to require reasoning behind players raising skills and purchasing merits for their characters. While players could have a rough time; GM's usually had the advantage over the characters when it came to making them follow the story without forcing them too hard to follow it. However, A big dent was all the books had its own built in core book that made up a good half of the book. Combine that with the books rarely being able to mix with eachother and in some cases impossible to mix with eachother. Character creation was also a little confusing without practice. but I put that more to poor wording rather then the game being too confusing.
Though I sound negative about it, OWoD shaped much of the early roleplaying scene, making countless tropes and inside jokes. Though Whitewolf made a sort of strange move on their part. The apocalypse came, completely ending the OWoD lines with fire, brimstone, and the rules for fighting Cain (Rule 1: You lose). Many of the fans of the game were both scared and angered, wondering how they have the balls to tell them their world is dead by canon (Its sort of messed up if you look at it, playing a game with their system only for them to rush into your house and say "OH ha ha, your characters died because we said so")
After six tons of hate mail, Whitewolf created the NWoD. And it wasn't just a rehash. White wolf actually went in and recreated every concept. First key thing, they threw our the civil war in Vampire, they quickly learned it was hard to play vampire WITHOUT getting dragged into the Sabat, Camerilla struggle. They completely revamped Changeling, Hunter, Wraith (Turned into Geist), Mummy (Turned into Promethean), and Demon. Hunters were no longer super powered warriors on a mission from god. Changelings were no longer... whatever they were. Key point is they certainly put thought into it. They even released one core book "WoD Core" that had the complete rules, immediately making all the NWoD books 300 pages lighter. The series all still received their sub books (Clan books, new merits, stuff like that) in addition to generic books with merits and equipment for all the book series.
And it was good. I feel much better about NWoD, its cleaner, and shows the vast experience WW had received from its past ventures. However, now comes the important part I have been leading up to. Of all the "races" in WoD, none were more pissed off about this change then the Changelings. In OWoD they were avatars of dream and nightmare. In NWoD they were a bit different, survivors of the fairy plane of Arcadia. Changelings are humans that were turned into half fairies in the plane of Arcadia, having been kidnapped by the True Fae and forced to serve under them. Eventually they escaped and found their way back to the human world. They have their human "Seeming" which is essentially how others view him, human and normal. However in true reality they are twisted version of themselves, magical fair folk.
Sounds cool right? Well it is. However, this is quite different then how the old changeling players were used to it. Forcing the pockets of Dreaming players to cry their bloody heads off and non officially boycott Lost. Your all welcome to your opinions, but refusing outright to play a game just because its a improvement of what was old?
The key thing here is they are not boycotting THE SYSTEM, they are boycotting the IDEA. And that hits a little more to logic. Just like most guys would not want to play a Hello Kitty rpg because its Hello-Fucking-Kitty. Another example is I have a friend of mine named John, he absolutely refuses to play any form of NWoD because he does not know the system and rules mechanics. Not playing Lost because its a different idea from what you grew up with? Ok, that at least makes sense. Not playing a modern world setting because you don't know how many dice to use? Wtf?
As a player, you should NEVER care about the actual system (With a few exceptions). You should only care about the setting. What differentiates Shadowrun from D20 Modern settings wise? On the surface well... nothing. Thats because they are both Cyberpunk settings with a fairly close idea. Then you add the shiny stuff, Dragons, Cyberware, Astral planes, you name it. Thats when the system modulates the setting into THE setting. Shadowrun isn't just Cyberpunk, its Shadowrun because it has those twists in the story that make it shadowrun.
Paranoia however, is just Paranoia by default. Nobodys even tried to make a knockoff of that yet. (Can't improve perfection...)
Monday, November 9, 2009
Shameless Plug
I am fully aware this has nothing to do with the focus of the blog. But I found a entertaining little fantasy game much like Fantasy football or the like. Its called Paintball manager. You get a team of little sim players and throughout the day they play in a ladder training their skills and such. You only need to pop on every once in a awhile to manage funding and alocate training.
If you donate, you can create your own fields for digestion of the masses. Its kind of cool.
If you donate, you can create your own fields for digestion of the masses. Its kind of cool.
Friday, November 6, 2009
How to Host a Dungeon?
Now, in my years of a GM I have to admit I am not a DnD or dungeon guy. I exist in the modern and sci fi realms. Yeah I know right? Its a hard truth that many people think roleplaying and DnD are the same thing. That's a rant for somebody else however. One thing I do love is the idea of building a dungeon and better yet running people through it, or simply any good base building mechanic in a rpg. WoD's recent Nosferatu Clanbook seemed so so to me... until I got to the end where it told you how to make your own underground city!
That takes me to a recently discovered game called How to Host a Dungeon. One thing that immediately caught my eye was the subject, its labeled a solitaire game yet its not exactly that hard to pioneer the maps into playable dungeons for all manner of dungeon delving games. However, I am that guy that likes the play the game to the letter, so the freeform "Go nuts!" rules bugged that little guy on my shoulder screaming "IT SAYS A FINGER LONG TUNNEL ROB, MAKE IT A EXACT FUCKING FINGER LONG!". Now here is a thing that is peculiar, the game has a $5 version and a free version, the exact difference is formatting, images (Which admittedly, can help with some of the poor wording), and a additional Civilization and Villain for use with some of the stages of the game. It is worth it to help the author along, this is a amazing game.
Now heres the kicker, the game flat out tells you to make your own rulings and content. Nothings stopping you from reading the rules for the Demon civilization from the PDF preview. Paying for the game becomes a choice of moral alignment. I kind of respect that, it becomes closer to incentive to donate to get a nicer looking version of the game. And that is good! treat your donaters right!.
Game play goes between four stages. Primordial, which is basically rolling three D10 and figuring out what makes your dungeon Unique like caves, gold veins, mithrel, monsters. All to a gigantic Wyrm that lives in a big cave. Also, for such large and easily labeled creatures it invites you to name them as well. The first time I rolled a Wyrm I named it Gorgar. Because Gorgar will eat you (GORGAR!). Giant rivers, volcanoes, there's little that cannot happen with a roll of the dice. This adds to the charm, actually. The creator went to quite a length to make each play through insanely unique (At first, only reading the rules it will seem like your making carbon copy dungeons. Then you play...)
Then, a ancient civilization appears. be it Dwarves that set up a mining complex, Drow that build their slave cities, Demons on their way to the surface to kill god, or anything of your own design! Sadly the file was deleted but I wrote up my own Alien Civilization that play tested perfectly, I will rewrite it and post it some day if I get requests for it. The key thing about the Civ's is they WILL die off or disappear. You may really want them to survive long, but if they last too long they will quickly mine out the mithrel deposits and most of the gold (If dwarven), have a room in every part of the map (Drow) or well, demons will never last more then 4-5 turns so they are exempt. My Aliens in fact quickly tired of the underground without any creatures to eat, requiring them to flee to the surface in order to find food. After your ancient race has got bored or died a horrible death, the age of monsters begins. Some earlier placed things like Ancient wyrms turn into big bad beasties along with other monster groups appearing along with a castle full of humans popping onto the surface.
The age of monsters is a gigantic bloodbath, where your original complex will be filled with groups of quickly breeding antlings, pissed off trolls, mining gnomes, anything you want to place in it. After one of the many factions gets 6 gold, the age of villainy begins and a big bad makes his nest in the dungeon. Generally when turning the map into a playable adventure; this is the ideal stage to place your game if you want a typical "Kill the evil overlord" game going. Otherwise, If you want a fun dungeon romp to just get treasure, place the game at the very end of the Age of Monsters when conflict is probably placed between 2-3 powerful entities.
In the end HtHaD has a lot of bookkeeping halfway through it, especially time consuming when your doing this on photoshop without a pad. However, the end product can be invaluable when you need a fast, original dungeon to throw at your redshirts (Because we all know the Cave of Fate is only fun the first 20 times you play it.)
http://planet-thirteen.com/Dungeon.aspx
That takes me to a recently discovered game called How to Host a Dungeon. One thing that immediately caught my eye was the subject, its labeled a solitaire game yet its not exactly that hard to pioneer the maps into playable dungeons for all manner of dungeon delving games. However, I am that guy that likes the play the game to the letter, so the freeform "Go nuts!" rules bugged that little guy on my shoulder screaming "IT SAYS A FINGER LONG TUNNEL ROB, MAKE IT A EXACT FUCKING FINGER LONG!". Now here is a thing that is peculiar, the game has a $5 version and a free version, the exact difference is formatting, images (Which admittedly, can help with some of the poor wording), and a additional Civilization and Villain for use with some of the stages of the game. It is worth it to help the author along, this is a amazing game.
Now heres the kicker, the game flat out tells you to make your own rulings and content. Nothings stopping you from reading the rules for the Demon civilization from the PDF preview. Paying for the game becomes a choice of moral alignment. I kind of respect that, it becomes closer to incentive to donate to get a nicer looking version of the game. And that is good! treat your donaters right!.
Game play goes between four stages. Primordial, which is basically rolling three D10 and figuring out what makes your dungeon Unique like caves, gold veins, mithrel, monsters. All to a gigantic Wyrm that lives in a big cave. Also, for such large and easily labeled creatures it invites you to name them as well. The first time I rolled a Wyrm I named it Gorgar. Because Gorgar will eat you (GORGAR!). Giant rivers, volcanoes, there's little that cannot happen with a roll of the dice. This adds to the charm, actually. The creator went to quite a length to make each play through insanely unique (At first, only reading the rules it will seem like your making carbon copy dungeons. Then you play...)
Then, a ancient civilization appears. be it Dwarves that set up a mining complex, Drow that build their slave cities, Demons on their way to the surface to kill god, or anything of your own design! Sadly the file was deleted but I wrote up my own Alien Civilization that play tested perfectly, I will rewrite it and post it some day if I get requests for it. The key thing about the Civ's is they WILL die off or disappear. You may really want them to survive long, but if they last too long they will quickly mine out the mithrel deposits and most of the gold (If dwarven), have a room in every part of the map (Drow) or well, demons will never last more then 4-5 turns so they are exempt. My Aliens in fact quickly tired of the underground without any creatures to eat, requiring them to flee to the surface in order to find food. After your ancient race has got bored or died a horrible death, the age of monsters begins. Some earlier placed things like Ancient wyrms turn into big bad beasties along with other monster groups appearing along with a castle full of humans popping onto the surface.
The age of monsters is a gigantic bloodbath, where your original complex will be filled with groups of quickly breeding antlings, pissed off trolls, mining gnomes, anything you want to place in it. After one of the many factions gets 6 gold, the age of villainy begins and a big bad makes his nest in the dungeon. Generally when turning the map into a playable adventure; this is the ideal stage to place your game if you want a typical "Kill the evil overlord" game going. Otherwise, If you want a fun dungeon romp to just get treasure, place the game at the very end of the Age of Monsters when conflict is probably placed between 2-3 powerful entities.
In the end HtHaD has a lot of bookkeeping halfway through it, especially time consuming when your doing this on photoshop without a pad. However, the end product can be invaluable when you need a fast, original dungeon to throw at your redshirts (Because we all know the Cave of Fate is only fun the first 20 times you play it.)
http://planet-thirteen.com/Dungeon.aspx
Shall we Bang!
For years there has existed in my opinion one of the best card games ever. Magic: The addiction? No. Legend of the five rings? Close, but no. You-Gay-ho? Of course not. In fact, unless you frequent your local games shop like the plague you probably don't even know what it is.
Its called Bang! Its a italian and english game (The cards are Bilingual.) based around a spaghetti western, in fact most of the characters are mostly parodies of historical or popular fictional cowboys and icons. Names such as Willie The Kid or Jessie Jones. On the back of the character cards are five bullets, you have a character card bullets showing to act as your health, sliding your character down to show how much health you currently have.
The game itself plays much like a Wild West version of Werewolf. One player is the Sheriff, who is revealed to all players as the sheriff. Then there are a handful of deputies (Their goal is to protect the sheriff), Outlaws (Killing the sheriff makes them win) and one or two Renegades (They must kill others until they are the last one standing, but they must kill the sheriff LAST, otherwise the Outlaws win by their condition). Combat is simple, many cards have a "BANG!" symbol, cards with it will damage other players health. However, cards with this symbol can be deflected instantly if the targeted player plays a card with the "Missed!" symbol. Adding to this, all the characters have special rules that can go from seemingly useless, but a lifesaver (Increasing the range others must have in order to attack you) to making you 'That guy who must die NOW!' (Requiring two missed! cards to be played to deflect your Bang!s, or letting you play any number of Bang! cards in your turn.)
With the expansions, even more whacky, fun rules are added to the mix, along with even more characters. Then there is what I bought today that made me revisit this bliss. The Bang! Bullet. It contains the core set (Which has 7 role cards and 16 characters), Dodge City (15 more characters, 8 more Role cards. It says its to play with 8 players, but everybody knows it really means "Play with 7 MORE players, go freaking NUTS!"), the two special rule expansions Fistful of Cards and High Noon (Each with a deck of 15 cards, meant to make the game to go faster) along with rare cards (Three exclusive characters, based on the Producer and Distributors CEO's, along with... Santa?)
In short, this game is the ultimate game to play in a huge party when people managed to forget the booze and whores (If your reading this post, its probably going to be any party you go to, don't leave your Bang Bullet at home.). Its also worth mentioning last week it has been revealed that the game will have a electronic version released online in the coming months. Will we be able to find games on it? Who knows.
Its called Bang! Its a italian and english game (The cards are Bilingual.) based around a spaghetti western, in fact most of the characters are mostly parodies of historical or popular fictional cowboys and icons. Names such as Willie The Kid or Jessie Jones. On the back of the character cards are five bullets, you have a character card bullets showing to act as your health, sliding your character down to show how much health you currently have.
The game itself plays much like a Wild West version of Werewolf. One player is the Sheriff, who is revealed to all players as the sheriff. Then there are a handful of deputies (Their goal is to protect the sheriff), Outlaws (Killing the sheriff makes them win) and one or two Renegades (They must kill others until they are the last one standing, but they must kill the sheriff LAST, otherwise the Outlaws win by their condition). Combat is simple, many cards have a "BANG!" symbol, cards with it will damage other players health. However, cards with this symbol can be deflected instantly if the targeted player plays a card with the "Missed!" symbol. Adding to this, all the characters have special rules that can go from seemingly useless, but a lifesaver (Increasing the range others must have in order to attack you) to making you 'That guy who must die NOW!' (Requiring two missed! cards to be played to deflect your Bang!s, or letting you play any number of Bang! cards in your turn.)
With the expansions, even more whacky, fun rules are added to the mix, along with even more characters. Then there is what I bought today that made me revisit this bliss. The Bang! Bullet. It contains the core set (Which has 7 role cards and 16 characters), Dodge City (15 more characters, 8 more Role cards. It says its to play with 8 players, but everybody knows it really means "Play with 7 MORE players, go freaking NUTS!"), the two special rule expansions Fistful of Cards and High Noon (Each with a deck of 15 cards, meant to make the game to go faster) along with rare cards (Three exclusive characters, based on the Producer and Distributors CEO's, along with... Santa?)
In short, this game is the ultimate game to play in a huge party when people managed to forget the booze and whores (If your reading this post, its probably going to be any party you go to, don't leave your Bang Bullet at home.). Its also worth mentioning last week it has been revealed that the game will have a electronic version released online in the coming months. Will we be able to find games on it? Who knows.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
First post lolololololol. A history of the man.
Heya guys. My name is Rob and I am a roleplayer. Unlike others I can't give an impressive time I have played, only a mere five years where many of my peers can say ten, twenty, or more. Some even having played DnD back when it was AD&D.
Some people may know me as Robbos, game creator. For a amount of time I wrote small and unimpressive rulesets for 1km1kt (Free rpg portal). Writing whole systems by myself proved daunting of a task. My free time dwindeled and I procrastinated. My ideas were good, the systems were fine. but I had nobody to kick me in the ass and finish them. Eventually I abandoned that, when I am ready to finally convince myself its worth it and give a good effort I will rise again.
My story is simple. For a couple months I was active on BYOND, without much practice and not much idea of munchkins or what they were. BYOND housed many of them, player killing idiots with unspoken rules they would dare not share. Every character was a typical overpowered demon, vampire, or both. Except me. I played normal people, or relatively normal. My final session was when I tried to turn a beam hitting me into something else, because I didn't feel like making a character for the 22nd time. The result was all the veterans complaining saying it was unblockable, and banned me. Yet I heard another vet say he could of blocked it.
Closing the program I sighed, starting my brief activity writing game rules. My first one was a crude rpg based around the movie battle royale (Later in time finding out a game called Classroom Deathmatch was written; far better and more playable). Looking for a location to host it I found 1km1kt and later its sister sight RPGlaboratory, which became my headquarters for my game writing for a little while. Along this path I kept in touch with my friend Anne, who I had met online during the BYOND days in a different roleplay game. For the next few years we played around and gathered players, never getting more then 2-3 people at once.
In the past year I have become more and more fond of NWoD. Thats New World of Darkness for those unsavvy. The old world was ended by the apocalypse and in a different timeline the New world was made using lessons learned in the past. However this new world boasts a easier character creation system and many of teh game lines are dramaticly different then the last.
Hunter: The Reckoning turned into The Vigil. The hunters that used to be godly superwarriors were 'nerf'ed into vanilla mortals with a couple extra abilities and ways to defend against the supernatural. So far its worked out, being the prey and the predator at once worked fine. I happen to like HtV the best of the new lines, seconded by Vampire: The Requiem. The key thing about VtR is they figured out that the Sabat-Camerilla war was just nto working out, most chronicles were almost solely about that damn war and it lended to almost copy-paste-like games.
But I still lurk amongst you as a player. In my free time I homebrew content (Which will in the future be posted on this blog for fan digestion.). I still fancy myself a rule smith, and will have presents for you every now and then. I will also give my two bits on systems I find and like. new books I want to share. and anything I can. I will also answer questions sent to my email and post the question and answer on the blog. Robbiemackmeed@yahoo.com
I will try and post updates twice a week, Tuesday and Friday.
Some people may know me as Robbos, game creator. For a amount of time I wrote small and unimpressive rulesets for 1km1kt (Free rpg portal). Writing whole systems by myself proved daunting of a task. My free time dwindeled and I procrastinated. My ideas were good, the systems were fine. but I had nobody to kick me in the ass and finish them. Eventually I abandoned that, when I am ready to finally convince myself its worth it and give a good effort I will rise again.
My story is simple. For a couple months I was active on BYOND, without much practice and not much idea of munchkins or what they were. BYOND housed many of them, player killing idiots with unspoken rules they would dare not share. Every character was a typical overpowered demon, vampire, or both. Except me. I played normal people, or relatively normal. My final session was when I tried to turn a beam hitting me into something else, because I didn't feel like making a character for the 22nd time. The result was all the veterans complaining saying it was unblockable, and banned me. Yet I heard another vet say he could of blocked it.
Closing the program I sighed, starting my brief activity writing game rules. My first one was a crude rpg based around the movie battle royale (Later in time finding out a game called Classroom Deathmatch was written; far better and more playable). Looking for a location to host it I found 1km1kt and later its sister sight RPGlaboratory, which became my headquarters for my game writing for a little while. Along this path I kept in touch with my friend Anne, who I had met online during the BYOND days in a different roleplay game. For the next few years we played around and gathered players, never getting more then 2-3 people at once.
In the past year I have become more and more fond of NWoD. Thats New World of Darkness for those unsavvy. The old world was ended by the apocalypse and in a different timeline the New world was made using lessons learned in the past. However this new world boasts a easier character creation system and many of teh game lines are dramaticly different then the last.
Hunter: The Reckoning turned into The Vigil. The hunters that used to be godly superwarriors were 'nerf'ed into vanilla mortals with a couple extra abilities and ways to defend against the supernatural. So far its worked out, being the prey and the predator at once worked fine. I happen to like HtV the best of the new lines, seconded by Vampire: The Requiem. The key thing about VtR is they figured out that the Sabat-Camerilla war was just nto working out, most chronicles were almost solely about that damn war and it lended to almost copy-paste-like games.
But I still lurk amongst you as a player. In my free time I homebrew content (Which will in the future be posted on this blog for fan digestion.). I still fancy myself a rule smith, and will have presents for you every now and then. I will also give my two bits on systems I find and like. new books I want to share. and anything I can. I will also answer questions sent to my email and post the question and answer on the blog. Robbiemackmeed@yahoo.com
I will try and post updates twice a week, Tuesday and Friday.
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