Monday, January 24, 2011

Reading Ghouls: Fatal Addiction and enjoying it

Ghouls: Fatal Addiction is sourcebook for Vampire: the Masquerade. I haven't read it yet, but doing well and enjoying it. It is really well written. In the beginning there are cool chapters what mix game information and fiction. You could easily sum up what I have read in smaller space, but still what is great about White Wolf World of Darkness books is that they really do give that feel that you aren't only reading rules and game background, but also short stories.

Core rules of Vampire: the Masquerade do give basic information about ghouls but this book gives more insight for them. Also it introduces ghouls as playable characters with different families what are similiar to kindred clans.

One noteworthy thing is the art. Two artist, really awesome artwork with that old World of Darkness/Vampire feel. Not that realistic artwork but really, really pleasant.

This is a book I enjoy reading. Well written, great source material, cool artwork. If you are Vampire: the Masquerade player, I recommend this book for you. This makes ghouls so much more than just vampire's personal and loyal (even dangerously loyal) retainers.

So, buy it, enjoy it. For personal horror ghouls are great playable characters.

Tuesday, January 18, 2011

V:tM/oWoD single die mechanic

Not everyone like World of Darkness' dicepool system, so I present modified single D10 mechanics.

Attribute + Skill Rolls

In oWoD you roll D10's equal to your attribute + skill and count successes from the dice what are under difficulty. Let's change this.

Total your character's Attribute + Skill. Modify difficulty:
Difficulty 4 +2 to attr+skill
Difficulty 5 +1 to attr+skill
Difficulty 6 no changes
Difficulty 7 -1 to attr+skill
Difficulty 8 -2 to attr+skill
Difficulty 9 -3 to attr+skill
Difficulty 10 -4 to attr+skill

If after modified difficulty to attribute + skill value result is 0 or negative, concider it as an "1". If after modification attr+skill is over 10, result "10" is automatic failure and possible botch.

Converting Dice Pool To Single Die:
To Success, Fail, Multiple Successes And Botch

To success roll result must be under attr+skill (after difficulty modifier).
Fail occurs when roll is higher than attr+skill (after difficulty modifier) or automatic failure with result "10".
Multiple successes are equal to die result -3. If you roll exact same as attr+skill (after difficulty modifiers) roll again and add second result's possible multiple successes to previous successes.
To botch roll +5 higher than your attr+skill (after difficulty modifier). If attr+skill (after difficulty modifier) is over 10, roll two again after result "10". If second roll is a failure, roll is botched.

Damage

Basically follow To success, fail, multiple successes and botch rules converting dice pool to single die.
To success in damage roll, roll below weapon damage + possible str bonus. Add +1 for every 2 previous to hit roll successes to weapon damage + possible str bonus as every 2 dots in strength is +1 to damage target number.
Damage equals to die result under the target number. If die roll is above, no damage is dealt.
Soaking damage with stamina: Add +3 to stamina and Roll D10 against stamina value to soak equal number of damage. No modifications are made to stamina or soak roll.

Examples

Vampire character tries to persuade guards to let him in. Use character's Manipulation 3 + Subterfuge 4 to get a target number of 7. Guards are hard to persuade, thus difficulty is 7 so decrease 1 from target number 6. Roll D10 and try to get under 6 to success.
With results 1, 2, 3, 4 player scores 1 success.
With result 5 player scores 2 successes.
With result 6 player scores 3 successes and rolls again for possible extra successes.
With results 7, 8, 9 character fails.
With result 10 roll again. If second roll is failure, roll is botched.

After rolling for attack roll with a knife (damage 3) character gained 3 successes. From successes character gains +1 to damage, 3 damage from knife and 1 from strength (3). Total target number for damage is 5. Roll D10 to determine damage. Rolls 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 equal to it's value of damage, rolls 6, 7 ,8, 9 and 10 deal no damage.
With roll 5 roll again and add possible second rolls damage to previous.

Vampire is shot with a shotgun. Attack roll gained no extra successes and shotguns damage is 8. Roll D10. Results 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8 deal damage equal to die result, 9 and 10 deal no damage. Roll 8 again for possible more damage successes.

Character suffers 6 damage with stamina value of 3 +3 to soak. Player rolls D10 and gets result "2". 2 points of damage are soaked. With results 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 equal number of damage would have been soaked.

Thursday, January 13, 2011

Sankarten Polku - Heroes' Path charactersheet

So, yesterday I started to do prg just for fun, as I was bored. I made also character sheet for it. It's in finnish, but I thought I'd share it still.

I write this first in finnish and then poorly try to attempt to translate it in english. But, here's the character sheet:

Wednesday, January 12, 2011

YDIN - Basic damage and weapon/armor statistics

Different type of attacks deal different damage. These are the core rules for damage.

Exploding Dice

In damage dice are exploding. When rolled highest possible result of a damage die, roll it again and add on previous result to get total damage.

Unarmed Damage

Unarmed combat deals 1D4 damage, additional damage comes from strength as following

STRENGTH DAMAGE BONUS:
  • Strength 1-2 = +0
  • Strength 3-4 = +2
  • Strength 5 = +3
  • Strength 6 = +4
  • Every Strength beyond 6 deals additional +1 damage.
Unarmed attacks don't decrease wound points even if wound is exceeded.

Melee Damage

Melee damage is determined by weapon's damage with strength damage bonus. Different melee weapons have different damage dice depending on their lethality.
Melee weapons come in two different category: piercing/slashing and pludgeoning. Piercing/slashing weapons have a sharp point or blade and bludgeoning are blunt. Only piercing/slashing can pierce character if wound level is exceeded by 2.

Projectile Damage

Projectile weapons are arrows, bolts, thrown daggers and spears, slings etc. Depending on weapon's type it can or cannot pierce.
Strength damage bonus is applied.

Ammo Damage

Ammo damage is dealt by modern guns and is similar to projectile damage. Only piercing needs only to exceed wound once.
Some weapons can be fired more than one time per turn. These are triple, burst or auto.
Triple is a maximum of three individual shots fired on a turn. After each shot accuracy is lost. First shot has no modifiers, second two negative modifiers and third three negative modifiers.
Burst is a three round burst from an automatic gun. Burst suffers two negative modifier, but basic damage is tripled.
Auto is full automatic shot where the clip is emptied. Roll combat task and multiply damage with 10% of clip size rounded up. You can divide this damage on several opponents.

Weapon Statistics

Weapon statistics are as following:

WEAPON NAME
Type: Pludgeoning, piercing/slashing or ammo
Damage: Die/dice used to determine damage and possible bonus
Critical: Multiplier for critical success damage
Rate: How many shots one can take in a single turn. Modes are single, triple or burst.
Range: Effective range of weapon. There are two ranges. Normal and extreme. Distance over normal but below extreme suffers one negative modifier to combat task
Capacity: How many ammo weapon holds and ammo container type
Malfunction: How many catastrophic failures are needed before gun breaks up. Repairing weapon decreases gained malfunction.

Repairing Gun With Malfunction

Dexterity + Mechanics one negative modifier except if character has hobby gunsmith when Dexterity + Gunsmith is used without modifier.
Success decreases two malfunction points.
Critical success completely nullifies malfunction points.
Failure doesn't affect weapon.
Critical failure adds two malfunction points.

Armor

Armor has one value, armor value what determines how much damage is decreased.

Shield

Shields have one value, durability. Shield takes damage instead of character, but when damage is dealt more than shield's durability it is unusable. Durability is tracked like healthpoints.

Every single day I wait for evening to play, but...

I have a nice work. I obviously know what to do and I am alone here. Lot's of time to think about things. And what do I think about to entertain me in a workday? Roleplaying of course!

So, every day I have ideas and urge to play but when evening comes I am too tired. Six months ago I played almost every night, I just had energy for that. Maybe it's winter and darkness, but I am out of stamina when the evening and possible time to play comes.

It's frustrating. Now (at my lunch hour) I am so full of ideas and excitement, that I'd want to play right now. Currently I am waiting for an evening so I am at home and can start to play (like every darn day) but when that time comes, I just want to plug some movie on and go to bed.

Frustrating. Another thing is, that I have all these ideas and inspiration for writing stuff when I am at work, but in the evening I am too tired to write anything down anymore.

I have no idea how six months ago I had stamina to play almost every evening. Maybe it was because it was lighter outside? Cant wait for spring and that sweet recharge from sun.

But now, what would I want to do?

  • Write my YDIN basic rules so I can fully start to develope all the cool stuff I want to
  • Play YDIN while I develope it (playing and later writing down ideas I got from gamemastering)
  • Play Vampire: the Masquerade what I am currently running
  • DM occasionally D&D, it's fun and "relaxing" after serious rpg
  • Finish current V:tM chronicle to try out other games
  • Run CoC 20's adventure I have in my mind
  • More YDIN writing and playing
Somehow it's just easier to play PC or gaming console a while, then go to bed and start a movie. I was thinking, that the energy I use on PC or console games could I use it in roleplaying games? But there's a difference.

Obviously gaming with PC or console is different thing. You just need to sit there and push buttons and be silent and watch the screen. In roleplaying you have to use your grey mass and interact and be creative.

I could though leave the movies and get some nice series to watch before sleeping. That way I don't have to spend 1,5 - 2 hours before sleep, but 20 minutes (if anime ;) ) so I could have more time to be "awake". Maybe I'll do that. Get some anime with kazillion episodes every 20 minutes long so I can have an excuse to rpg the saved time?

...

...

...

Damn, I want to play so bad now!

Quick and simple idea for Grimworld

Lankhemaar, City of High, Dungeons of Forgotten Ages

Reasons might be many for adventurers to ventrue in dungeons below the city of Lankhemaar. Lankhemaar is a city what has grown over generations and generations. When old generations are passed and new kings have come, the city has just been growing. Not by width, but height.

The whole city of Lankhemaar is like a huge mountain the current city with it's current king on top of it all. The city is so high, in few generations it will reach the clouds. Below current citystreets are underground layers, all from previous installments. The deeper you go underground, the further you travel from civilication. The lower the levels are, the more forgotten technology and arts there are amongst strange monsters what dwell there.

Few levels below the current city there are thugs, guilds of prophited black magic, hideouts of master thieves, blackmarkets, outlaws, outcasts, everyone and -thing that doesn't fit for the upper society.

Below these parts there are forgotten dungeons with monsters, treasures, forgotten manuscripts and areas of wild magic in wizards' havens when wizard's been long dead. The deeper you go, more dangers and rewards there are.

Society Around Dungeons

Many find underground levels what are former parts of city their home, as they don't find place where rich and proper people live. Under the street levels of Lankhemaar there are no laws or rules. You can get almost what ever you want there, for a proper price of course, but there is a high risk to loose it all - including your life.
Most of low society, as they are called, just try to survive and live their lifes as good as they can. But not all. Some of them try to make their living stealing or selling goods prophited or hard to obtain. Even some sirs, dukes and earls are rumored to send their agents to buy long forgotten powerful items for a high price.

Thieves are also known to live there. Not petty little pickpockets but rutheless backstabbers and professionals who even can gain access to notable people's homes to steal what they own.

Blackmarketeers sell items what are obtained from lower levels. Some also sell slaves for upper class from the poor living in the dungeons. Also exotic monsters are known to be sold for arenas to use as combatants for the amusement of the upper class or for exotic but dangerous pets to brag about.

Then there are those who travel deep to find what ever is in demand. Ancient scrolls and books, beautiful crafted jewerly, magical items and so on. They usually sell these items for blackmarketeers who proceed to deliver or sell them onwards. They are called graverobbers. They don't rob graves, but dwell deep down the Lankhemaar to obtain what ever valuable or specific item they find.

Mappers are ones who travel usually with a group of graverobbers. They draw maps to sell with high price for those who want to travel deep, but aren't experienced enough to do so. Unfortunaly, usually in mapped areas only less valuable items are left as most precious items are long ago taken.

 Sometimes from higher class wizards or noblemen travel with their own group or anonymously with graverobbers for what ever reason they are after. Sometimes to learn, sometimes to personally ensure they gain a certain item or sometimes just out of boredom for an advenure of their life.

Character

Character has his reasons to go for an expedition ventruing to lower levels of Lankhemaar. Maybe he is poor and wants wealth to support his family, or he owns money for some powerful facet. He might be bored duke's son who wants some action into his life. Or he might be a scholar who wants to find something forgotten to gain power or to claim as his invention.

What ever the reasons are, the journey is dangerous equally. And if you survive, the prize can be rewarding. Some go back, out of greed and some don't know any other way of living than put their life on a stake.

Gigacrawler - This must be the most awesome project ever!

Zac Sabbath, the writer of Playing D&D With Porn Stars blog has most awesome rpg idea and setting ever.

Go take a look:
http://dndwithpornstars.blogspot.com/2011/01/open-call-gigacrawler.html

This is just so awesome, it's beyond description. Humongous infinite scifi-dungeon where anything is possible. This is like cyberpunk mixed with basic D&D dungeoncrawl with hardcore scifi to low fantasy.

So, go and take a look at this monstrosity of roleplaying game design. It is brilliant!

YDIN - Basic combat overview

To Hit Enemies

Determining does attack hit or miss is resolved similarly to any skill task. But when skill task is combat oriented it is called combat task. Defencing skill tasks (dodge, parry etc.) are called defence tasks.

Succesfull combat task indicates that enemy is hit. Failed combat task indicates that attack is missed. Critical success multiplies damage by certain number and catastrophic failure results something bad determined by gamemaster or in some cases by a special chart.

Damaging Enemies

After a succesfull combat task you roll damage based on your weapon. Damage usually is certain die and possibly a bonus to it.
In critical success you roll damage normally and multiply it after rolling as weapon's critical statistic shows.

If you use hit location chart, vital parts (head, heart) deal double damage what is appended after other damage modifiers, ie. critical success.

Damage On Character

Healthpoints tell how much damage character can bear before he is incapacitated. Inflicted damage is decreased from health points. After healthpoints reach zero, character is incapacitated and cannot act before he is revived via firstaid, medicines or similar. When healthpoints are in negative value of more than wound points, character dies.
Healthpoints can be lost also in other manners than just straight combat damage. Diseases, poison, suffering from harsh weather etc. can also decrease healthpoints in time.

Wound points tell characters overall stamina and resilience against higher instance amount of damage. If damage exceeds character's wound points value, one wound point is dealt in addition of lost hitpoints. If damage exceeds wound points twise, two wounds are lost and so on.

Wounds are characters durability against massive damage. When wounds reach zero, character is dead even though he has still healthpoints left.

Avoiding Damage By Defending

Character can defend against damage with defence task. Defence is reaction, so character can defend attack even if it is not his turn loosing his own turn. It is basically delaying initiative, but in reverse.

Dodging is Defence + Dodge defence task. Succesful dodge means that attack missed. Critical success means that you both dodge the attack and get an extra counter action immediately. Failure means you cannot dodge an damage is dealt. Catastrophic failure means you take the damage and opponent gains an extra action immediately against your character.
Bullets cannot be dodged, but critical success in dodge defence task means your character jumps under the gunfire or behind near cover loosing his next action and is prone (prone is explained later).

Parrying is Defence + Parry defence task. There are three forms of parry: Unarmed parry, melee parry and shield parry.
In unarmed parry you can only parry bludgeon or hand-to-hand attacks. Sharp weapons can be parried and damage is dealt dividing on both hands if you use hit location chart. Success means you parry an attack and no damage is dealt except with unarmed parry against sharp weapons.
Critical succes means you disarm your opponent but unarmed against sharp weapons damage is still dealt. Catastrophic failure means you are disarmed or unarmed get critical damage on your hands.
Unarmed parry against hand-to-hand attacks with success no damage is dealt. Critical success means you both parry the attack and gain an extra action immediately. Catastrophic failure means your suffer damage and attacker gains an extra action immediately.

Bullets cannot be parried, but with a shield arrow can at one negative modifier.

Armor

Armor has armor value what is decreased from damage after damage is determined. Different kind of armor have different armor values.

Shields are armor that protect if shield is used to parry or attack hits shield's cover area if hit location chart is used.  Shields have durability points what work similarly to hitpoints. When shield's durability points are at zero, shield is broken and unusable. Shield's armor value affects on shield's durability similar to character's damage.

Also various objects might have shield value. Character can use improvised shield or be behind certain object to get shield from it when attacked through this object.

Piercing

When damage is twise as much as character's wound points, attack pierces character. In melee attacks weapon is stuck and attacker must use one turn to sever the weapon. Severing deals weapons damage, no combat roll is needed and no critical is possible. Hand-to-hand attacks cannot pierce.

When bullet pierces character, it flies through him. Bullet continues it's way through character with damage - character's wounds. If character is wearing an armor covering also his back, decrease armor value before bullet pierces character completely.

Hand-to-hand attacks and pludgeoning weapons cannot pierce.

Prone

If character is prone, he suffers one negative modifier to all his acts (skill tasks, combat tasks and defence tasks) until he uses one turn to recover.

For prone status there might be several reasons, including:
  • Dodging bullet
  • Result of catastrophic failure
  • Explosion
  • Etc.

Tuesday, January 11, 2011

YDIN - Is three skill levels enough?

Was wondering, is three skill levels enough variety for character differences in different know-how?

For you who might read this but is not familiar with YDIN mechanics, here it is in nutshell:

Characters have attributes which range from 1 to 6 one being lowest and six the highest.
Skill levels have currently three levels from 1 to 3 where one is lowest and three highest (of course there are unskilled actions but I don't take them in now).

Skill level determines both bonus to attribute and a die used when character tries to accomplish a task.

Bonuses are the following:
Skill level 1 bonus is 0.
Skill level 2 bonus is +2.
Skill level 3 bonus is +4.

Dice used are the following:
Skill level 1 die used is D6.
Skill level 2 die used is D8.
Skill level 3 die used is D10.

Target number of a task is attribute value + skill level bonus against die determined by skill level. (There is one twist, rolling higher or under what is optional though but I am not going to explain it here again as it is not relevant now).

So, if I added 4th skill level, it means that bonus of it would be +6 and die used would be D12.

It makes perfectly sense, and I was just thinking that are those current three steps in skill levels not enough and if I did add fourth skill level, it would be for master-characters. It would be expensive to buy with experience and not available for starting characters.

I think, I'll write 4th skill level as a possibility for advanced characters and tough antagonists and monsters to use.

Happy New Year 2011 and overview of 2010

Wow, year changed so fast I almost missed it and totally forgot to wish you all great rpg'ing new year and thank you all of last year!

I'd like to thank all who visited here, read my blogs, commented and gave cool hints and tips. Thank you guys and gals!


I am almost 30 now, and somehow it feels that even though years change, everything stays the same. When younger there was ofcourse school and every year you were closer to your goal of education (or getting rid of it) and so on. Today, I don't know, 2011 feels similar to 2009 actually.

Big notable difference is what new products are published. But I have to admit, I don't know what roleplaying games are planned to publish this year. There were some big names last year (Dresden Files, Dragon Age, Warhammer etc.). Let's see what this year brings for us gamers.

I started Vampire: the Masquerade Nosferatu campaign late 2010 and continued it this year. There is still one CoC homebrew campaign waiting from last Halloween to play. Those are what I know I will play. Others will be based on mood and ideas.

2010 was remarkable in my roleplaying history. It was first time when I DM'ed D&D 3rd edition and I liked it. Last year there was also two reasonable long campaigns (around ten and less than twenty campaigns) and one long (over 150 sessions). Wow, did I play almost 200 evenings last year?

For my WoD collection last year was also good. I got sourcebooks for V:tM, corebook and sourcebooks for W:tA, M:tAs and H:tR. In one year I got many oWoD books I have wanted for years! Do I get Wraith and Changeling: the Dreaming this year? Or even Mummy? Let's hope. I also had several other cool rpg books, few to mention: STALKER, My Life With Master, Itran Kaupunki, Jäätuulen Laakso, GURPS sourcebooks, Mutants & Masterminds and others. I got maybe 20-30 rpg books total!

This year what I know I'll do related to roleplaying games:
- use roolipelit.net
- read and maybe contribute in rpg.net forums and read reviews
- lurk rpg bloggers network
- hopefully get new games
- play alot
- try out new games

So, again to you all, happy roleplaying New Year 2011!

Saturday, January 8, 2011

[V:tM] Let there be some color in my game

In every single Vampire: the Masquerade campaign I have ever ST'd there's allways been atleast one Malkavian. I love them. They are absolutely fantastic characters. They might be wise, bat-shit insane, strange, dangerous, just odd, insightful, not Malkavian-ish at all... anything.

I know, that there's allways danger to make this whacky fish-malk character (troll in interwebz language if you will) but even they could be fun for a moment. And if Malkavian is really bat-shit insane, unpredictable, dangerous, doesn't follow rules or Traditions there is no reason why he wouldn't be punished. Or even condemned with traditional punishments.

And Sabbat Malkavians? Huh, you don't even want to talk about them.

So, I have launched V:tM campaign focusing on Nosferatu and Brujah politics in dual-prince (Bru + Nos princes) city. It's good, yes. I didn't want to make city too much all clans represented type, but to focus on few clans.

Last campaign was with same setting, character and NPC's. No single Malkavian then. Yesterday was our fifth sessions, still no Malkavians. But today, I think I'll introduce one.

The last prince died in a bit unclear circumstances (termite destroyed Elysium), so now in this sequel chronicle Camarilla has sent someone to observe the city. And that observer will be Malkavian. Obviously, no one will know his clan.

And the funny part is, that this Malkavian observer of low generation has an assistant with him. The joke is, that those are the same person.

Haven't yet written that NPC. I think I'll first play him this one session before write him down. To work with the character concept in real time before making decisions.

The mighty Three to help gamemaster's plannings

This is really simple, and powerful tool to make great variation with only few simple steps. With this you can create illusion of living world as not everything unimportant (or even important) for campaign is static copies of eachother.

So, get ready for The mighty Three to help gamemaster's plannings

Introduction: Example Of Gym Music Listeners

I'll just start with a bit complex example. Complex because this is actually not that complex, but I just want to show you how it can work basically with anything. So, here's the example, and all the explanation follows after it.

There are three types of music listeners in the gym.
1. They don't need music, so don't particularly listen to it even if it's in the background.
2. They do listen what ever radio station or cd is put on.
3. They want to listen to own music with iPod's or even insist to get their own cd on player.

That's it, three types of people going in to the gym and their music listening habits while working out. So, what does this mean? Let's see.

What Is This?

This is a simple tool to make variety for different things. It might be soldiers and their equipment, orc marauders and their agressivity or city guard and their suspision. The key is, that you can easily pre-make three different variations to use, so players have an illusion that not every static NPC or NPC without key value to adventure is just a cardboard copy of another.
This is simple way to make gameworld feel a bit more alive.

The Mighty Three

Why three? Two is not enough and four is too much to handle and manage, so three is a nice number. And three has also enough variety. When creating these different NPC groups and divide them into sub-groubs with The mighty Three, think those three as:

1. Lower, smaller, below
2. Medium, mediocre
3. Higher, bigger, upper

That's a rule of thumb but it depends how you will use those values on what qualities on a certain NPC group you want to highlight. It's really simple.

Examples Tell It All - Different Archtypes Make Lot's Of Variety And Flesh Out Game World

For example orc marauder groups you would like to make that aggression value. You make just one template for orc marauder group, but have three different groups from that one template! Like this:

1. (Lower, smaller, below) Unaggressive, and will flee and avoid combat as well as possible
2. (Medium, mediocre) They will only attack groups they can outrun with power, obviously bigger and more powerful they leave alone
3. (Higher, bigger, upper) They will attack no matter what, even threatening their own life

So, now you have one template for orc marauders (let's say statistics for leader, two with bow and two with swords and shields) but with The mighty Three system you have three different kind of groups altogether!

Let's take another one. City guard. You have basic template for city guardsman (with possible different weapons) and with The mighty Three system you can make those city guards' behaviour really different, and make them feel more alive!

1. They most likely ignore what happens around them if it's not direct threat against them or city leadership
2. They keep an eye on obviously suspicious persons and might even follow them
3. Highly aware, most likely to intimidate passing people showing verbally power.

See? One city guard statistics, but three different city guard types.

I'll give you another one. This time modern world soldier to be a bit different from fantasy setting. Again, you have template for soldier, so let's make a small difference to their behaviour.

1. Stay's in cover and prefers not to get shot - obviously can barely shoot himself
2. Will shoot, but if is directly shot will most likely find a better cover - doesn't want to get killed
3. Trigger happy who will shoot and takes risks to get better positions for better line of sight

See? Easy.

The Mighty Three For Equipment

You don't have to necessarily use it just for NPC natures, but also equipment. Let's use those same three examples, orc marauders, city guards and modern world soldiers and let's give them variation with three different equipment sets.

Orc marauder equipment
1. Dagger, axe, shield, light armor
2. Sword, spear, medium armor
3. Bow, 20 arrows, short sword, light armor

City guard equipment
1. Sword, shield, spear, medium armor
2. Sword, bow, 20 arrows, medium armor
3. Halberd, shortsword, heavy armor

Modern world soldier
1. Pistol, 2 grenades, assault rifle, combat suit
2. Pistol, 2 grenades, shotgun, combat suit
3. 5 grenades, smg, combat suit

Now you have three different item sets for those NPC's you can use easily. Three is enough but obviously for special, more important, main villain etc.NPC's you might like to make more detailed plans.

Few Thoughts Left

It could be handy to write down all those variations on small notes. Just write heading what type of NPC list is for, then minor heading for what The mighty Three is and then the actual mighty three. You might do several of these The mighty Three headings ofcourse for personality, behaviour, group build, equipment etc.

Here's one example to give a idea what I mean:

Friday, January 7, 2011

Unreal Tournament in D&D

Unreal Tournament, futuristic sports game with guns, shooting and action. But what if there was Unreal Tournament in Dungeons & Dragons?

Unreal Tournament is First-person-shooter what is like futuristic sport with guns. There are different types of matches with different winning conditions but they all rely on more or less on shooting and killing.

You could also describe Unreal Tournament as a modern glariator type game slash sports.

So, Unreal Tournament would be quite possible in realms of D&D, just take those big guns away and use melee weapons, ranged weapons and spells instead. Respawn is handled by wizards with resurrection spells. So, there you have, most dangerous and entertaining sport in Dungeons & Dragons!

Arena

Unreal Tournament arenas are scattered around the realm (of your choise). There are several of them, each of them with different theme in decoration and landscape. Static teleport spells are also used for attendants to move around, as other special spells and devices to make the match more interesting.

Weapons are scattered throughout the arena, and of course more powerful the weapon or item is, more difficult it is to reach. There are also special wands with shooting effects what limited charges as special amulets for temperary powers (ie. amulet of speed, amulet of invulnerability).

Arenas are designed the way, once you enter it, you cannot leave it untill the match is over.

There are several druid controlled birds (usually crows) that fallow the match above and flying in the arena projecting what they see in the mirrors of the seer. These mirrors are used to follow the action and match in arena. Also some wizards use their own chrystal balls and seer's abilities to follow the match.

Competitors

Competitors come from various classes and races. They must pay entering fee, but most popular of them have sponsors which handle the fee for them. In some cases also slaves could be used as combatants, but usually those who take part in Unreal Tournament do it willingfully.

Some special matches might need some specific statistics, like enough winnings to join. Those are usually most interesting events, as only the most skillfull combatants take part in these.

Magic is allowed, if you can use it. Those combatants who prefer melee or ranged weapons are supplied with starting equipment based on arena and event. More powerful and different weapons are found through the arena though.

Annual Unreal Tournament Champion


Every year best Unreal Tournament combatant get's a trophy along with honor and treasures. It is highly pursued, but hard to gain. Combatant must be the leader of statistics with most points. Points are gathered from individual matches. What ever matches rules are, winner of the match gets 10 frags, second 8, third 6 and so on. Every attendant gets atleast one frag for taking part in an event.
Next season all previous season's points are erased and the new season starts from the beginning.

Resurrection

Depending on match type, there are wizards who resurrect dead combatants. Some matches are time limited and most kills wins, when a single individual can be resurrected unlimited times. In last man standing no one is resurrected and the winner is the last one alive.
After every Unreal Tournament match all combatants are revived and magically healed. This is not like ordinary gladiator fights where you fight for your lie, but a sport where dying is only ment to be for points, not permanent death.

Tournament Event Types

There are several matches, with different winning conditions. Points are called frags, what are cumulative in each tournament for total frags for the end of the season, but are count individually on every event to determine single even't winner.

Deathmatch: You get frags from every kill. Time limited in which the winner is the one who gets most frags (kills) in a certain time or who first gets certain amount of frags wins.
Team Deathmatch: Similar to deathmatch, but only team versus team where all frags from a team are count together to meet the winning conditions. Teams are usually red and blue and team members use armor and gear of his team's color. There are Unreal Tournament clans, what fight as teams against others or at the beginning teams are determined randomly from those who join the event.
Caputre The Flag: Also team based event, where both teams have flag of their own color and in their "starting base" a pedestal where enemy flag is ment to deliver for frags. Pedestal is also a teleport, what teleports enemy flag back to it's place to be obtained again. If flag bearer is killed, flag must be touched by own team member to teleport it back to it's starting place.
This can be also time limited or frag limited match.
Domination: In the arena there are usually three control points, what must be occupied and protected with the team. More points a team dominates simulateously, faster the frags are gained. Time limited or frag limited.
Last Man Standing: In this match no resurrections are used. Winner of the round is the one last alive gaining one frag for the match. First to get enough frags is the winner of the event.
Assault: In the arena there is a base. Another team is defending it and another attacing. In time limit there are various different quests to do designed in the arena. These are worth of most of the frags. Also killings are count to frags. After a round roles are switched but frags stay. Team which collects most frags doing quests and killing other team's members wins this event.

Wednesday, January 5, 2011

Missing some of my old rpg's

Today I don't usually sell rpg's. Well, I did sell some of my nWoD books, but I didn't like them and I replaced them with equivalent from oWoD line (ie. sold H:tV, got H:tR. Sold M:tAw, got M:tAs).

But I have sold some rpg's what I now regret. I do collect games. I am not compulsive buyer, but if I see a good second hand deal, I most likely take it even though I know I wouldn't ever play that game. Some of the games I have sold before and I miss, are:

2300 AD (Tie Tähtiin 2300 AD in finnish

I liked 2300 AD alot. Finnish version had some serious game crippling typing errors, so some parts of the game remained puzzle how the rules worked. Still, it was fun game. I liked the world and had several really awesome adventures in it.
I also had several sourcebooks for the game, what were pretty cool.

I don't remember who to I sold this game or why, but darn it was a big mistake. I don't know would I play 2300 AD if I had it. Most likely not, but still I'd like to own it and read it again to see what was so great about it back then when I was 12 to 15 years old.

GURPS

I did play GURPS 3rd edition (my wild quess). Alot. Today I am not that exited about it anymore. The rules are a bit too complex for me but the sourcebooks are great. I have bought few sourcebooks for GURPS even if I don't own the game anymore. Some of them are just that good.
I do miss more my GURPS sourcebooks than core book, even though every rpg collection should have some version of GURPS. I think that GURPS is common knowledge about roleplaying games and gaming.

CYBERPUNK 2020 FINNISH

Today, rare. I have tried to hunt finnish version with great translation with no result. Why, oh why did I sell it? Cuberpunk is awesome kick-ass game and setting (well, it was when I was 14-15) and the finnish version today is extra rare to get anywhere. It looks cool and has attitude. I want it back.
I would be good with english version also. I only got CPv3 at the moment, and it sucks so much that it's beyond describing. It sucks that bad, I have never ever even read it. That's alot of sucking.

SHADOWRUN

Yet another legendary game with cyberpunk and fantasy as setting. Where is it? Where is my finnish copy of SW? Only Slaanesh knows. Shadowrun is not that interesting that I would buy it right away though, but if I got a nice deal with some sourcebooks, why not. Yeah, core book with few sourcebooks would look nice on my shelf.

There are few other games I have had but then for some unknown idiotic reason have got rid of, but these three (well, four if you count Shadowrun in) are the ones I'd like to get back. I don't know would I play them today anymore, but heck, those are some of the games I played when younger and they have special memories attatched to my rpg hobby.

Maybe some day I'll get them back.

Do you have some games you've enjoyed in the past but for some reason don't own them anymore? What games, and why did you sell or get rid of them?