Thursday, July 26, 2012

Heroes & Other Worlds Update

My own spin on Metagaming's Melee/Wizard/TFT continues to come right along.  The current beta version (1.7) will stay up for free download until shortly before I get ready to make it available for sale.  Original art is in the works and I am grinding through the edits, treasures, creature descriptions and such.

While TFT was a tactical board game made into an RPG, HOW is more simple RPG using the baisc components of TFT.  All told I think it will come in around 48 to 50 pages.

One programmed adventure is planned "Grim Venture" a riff on the original Death Test hundreds of years later.

Blades& Black Magic will be a Sword & Sorcery style supplement for playing HOW including additional spells, creatures, treasures etc.

I also plan on a having zine to support it with a mix of submissions and my own stuff.  It will be a free PDF download--and I may offer printed copies with exclusive art covers by my wife straight out of my printer.

In my own mind its sort of the basic game I wish Dragons of Underearth had been...and I am kind of driven by this letter:

 

Monday, July 23, 2012

Ultima Forever


I don't like MMO's. I tried Everquest, tried WoW, wanted to love Conan...but I just don't have time to make it worth the monthly investment.  Then I happen to read an article on Touch Arcade...a NEW cross platform (PC/iOs) ULTIMA MMO is coming...and it is FREE!  It will be based on the Ultima IV game concepts and plays like Diablo. Currently sign up for the closed BETA is still open!


Sunday, July 8, 2012

TRANSMISSION RECEIVED

...signal is clear...

Rogue Transmissions 1 is now ready for download!

This is the first zine for my Rogue Space rules lite sci-fi game. It's formatted to print as a booklet, so pick booklet printing as your option when printing the PDF!

SPECIAL THANKS TO:
HERETICWERKS & PORKY'S EXPANSE

It is their contributions that make this first set of transmissions not to be missed!

Don't just read about it, be about it! Contribute to the second Rogue Transmissions by emailing your material to:

Roguespace@frontier.com

 ...transmission ends...

Saturday, July 7, 2012

More PERIL

The Alpha Peril RPG PDF is now available and I added a pair of quick character sheets as well for download.

If you are familiar with classic fantasy games its easy to play in the alpha phase but there is more editing, organization and a few more details to go in.  As is at ALPHA stage though its ready for play.

Friday, July 6, 2012

Into Peril...ALPHA

Well the work of a few weeks has come to fruition with an Alpha Edition of the Peril RPG. It is NOT complete, more of a players handbook sort of thing, but for those emailing and asking WHEN can I get more, well here is your answer...NOW!

The Alpha Edition is formatted to be printed as a booklet so go wild with 7 sheets of paper and print a booklet copy of the Alpha edition now.

This is my first Classic Fantasy game compatible foray into rules and I used bits from (and credited) Akrasia and Al Krombach with sections in the rules.

Go on, put yourself into PERIL!

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

ROGUEMECH


M. Jared Swenson has just added MECH rules for ROGUE SPACE The Dark Frontier!  His Mech rules are now a FREE download for ROGUE SPACE as a pocket mod!  He kept the simplicity and clarity of Rogue Space core rules and added to them in a very ingenious way.  Best of all its so simple it works as a pocket mod! So now you can add MECHS to your exploration, defense, or conquest of The Dark Frontier!

It's MJ's 30th birthday and it looks like we get the gift!  Great work M.Jared and many happy returns!

Sunday, July 1, 2012

Experts in Peril

One of the challenges in making Peril is dealing with thief abilities.  I would agree with some who have said the addition of the thief as a class into D&D fundamentally changed the play of the game.  It isolated certain tasks to one class which previously were an option to any.

Much like my work integrating alignment into the game play mechanics,  I want to make these adventurer skills part of the overall game for every class.

The traditional thief skills (plus some additional ones) are useable by any class will be unified as adventurer skills (pick pocket, hide in shadows, spot hidden, hear noise, climb etc.). Certain abilities a character chooses when advancing can give them a bonus to test of specific skills.

Philosophically, the Wizard and Fighter classes are specialists in their fields, spending time focusing on learning magic or training for combat respectively.  The Expert would have more knowledge of the adventuring skills because it is assumed he used them more to survive over spell or sword.

The difficulty was insuring the Expert did have an advantage over the other two classes in doing these tasks while allowing everyone to do them.  I played with bonuses, percentages and other ideas, but they fell flat for me.  So using the mechanics from alignment solved the issues and insured the advantage will be given to the expert when using these skills:

The Expert class rolls 2d20 and uses the highest die rolled.

The Fighter class rolls 1d20 and uses whatever is rolled.

The Wizard class rolls 2d20 and uses the lowest die rolled.

I think this keeps the system lean and mean while insuring there is a class advantage for the Expert.

More to come...

(FYI the image is a sketch drawing by Warren Spector, submitted as a possible cover image for Ultima Underworld.)