Effort and Why I Dig It (ICRPG)

ICRPG uses a system called Effort, as in "this task requires more than the flip of the switch so let's see how far you get this round". Damage is effort, each round you see how much closer you've pushed the enemy toward Deadsville. Well Runehammer thought that such an interesting system should get used more often. Now, all complicated tasks have "Hit Points", and you must defeat them using the relevant skill and Effort. Now, the lock on the doorknob isn't going to be attacking you back so "where is the drama" you ask? It's in the form of a TIMER. 

A Timer is usually a d4, but it could be a d6. The GM rolls it and the players then have that many rounds to do the task before SOMETHING HAPPENS. What is it? Only the GM knows for sure and it's enough to make you pee your britches.

You don't have to use a Timer all of the... er... time, either. Suspense has to be a roller-coaster, with ups and downs for contrast. If every moment has suspense, players will become numb to it. Just pull it out every time you want the players to get worried.

Now Effort is rated by a specific die type: d4 for Basic Effort, d6 for Weapons or Tool Effort, d8 for Magic or Super-Tech Effort, d10s are skipped as they are used solely for Loot Tables, and d12s as ULTIMATE EFFORT!

Wait, all weapons deal d6 damage?

Yup.

But That's NOT REALISTIC?

What is? Take D&D for example and the humble spear. In reality, the spear was one of the most common weapons on the battlefield. It was easy to make, cheap, keeps your opponents out of reach, and could be mastered by an unskilled user. But in D&D, those extra attributes aren't calculated. As a result, every player (that I have witnessed) picks a Longsword, a Rapier, or a Two-Handed weapon because they deal the most damage for the character type. Using a spear is a detriment to the character.

Well ICRPG says "It doesn't matter anymore, use what you like". I LOVE this. My players can now use whatever type of weapon that makes them look cool (Rule of Cool) and all I have to do is add a few tags. They can even make up weapons. Putting them in ICRPG is a snap. What's that? You want fold-away short-swords that can unfold into climbing picks like Rayla's in The Dragon Prince?

Okay so that's Shadow Elf Butterfly Swords: d6 Effort; Tags: Alien, Climbing, Concealed, Fast, Light, and Sturdy.

That took me about 30 seconds and I don't have to worry about weapon balance.

So Effort shouldn't be looked at as Damage. It's a measure of progression to a specific goal this round. Hit points are the length of the track and Effort is the speed at which you run it. And the Hit Points say a weapon should complete it's task against an single-heart opponent in two rounds with two solid hits, maybe a little longer. Picking the lock on a one-heart chest is going to take 3 rounds minimum unless you score a crit.

Also, in the Movie-verse, is there a visible difference in damage between Subotai's sword and Conan's? How about the German Machine Guns, versus the American Machine Guns? When there was a difference, it was specifically called out. Guns deal the same damage but when Arnold grabs the Bazooka... The Movie-verse doesn't care that a .45 caliber bullet does more damage than a 9mm. You go bang, they fall down. While debating the merits of weapon details can be fun, it really has no place in fiction. The objects aren't the point of the tale, the characters are. 

Note: Hankerin hates the idea of balance. But there is such a thing as good game balance: The balance of player's options so they don't feel that their decisions in character creation led them to make a boring, useless, or inept character, unless that's what they intended. No one should be penalized for wanting to look cool. 

So in short, if I want to play a wandering Spear Master, in ICRPG I have the same shot in the spotlight as Grunter the Unwashed and his Clobberrock mk Many. In D&D, not so much.

Sci-Fi Minis - The Ugly Truth

I've been mulling how I am going to do Sci-Fi miniatures for a while. Here are the issues I have run into:

1) If I make unique aliens, it will be impossible to find pre-made miniatures for them.

2) If I make my own figure flats for them, I am looking at an AWFUL amount of drawing. I am not overly keen on the idea, even if I make a photoshop file where I can mix and match outfits and hairstyles, etc like City of Heroes.

3) I could base my aliens on the minis I can buy but NO ONE FREAKIN' MAKES THEM ANYMORE!

If you were lucky enough to get a large collection of Star Wars minis when WotC had the license, you are golden. I didn't get into them fast enough. And there is such a desire for them that minis online (if you can find them) are going for some high prices.

There are some sci-fi looking wargame minis but they are also darn expensive and generally every alien is covered in heavy armor. There isn't much chance of getting non-military, free-booter alien figs.

It is still possible to get some human sci-fi figs. In fact, Reaper is extending its Chronoscope line and it has a lot of figures I could use. However, not much in the way of alien life forms (unless I paint up the skins in Orion green and Andorian blue).

That may leave me with adapting D&D/ Pathfinder minis into sci-fi races. I am not certain how well that is going to look.

But if there are any mini-makers out there: YOU HAVE AN UNTAPPED MARKET!

If anyone out there has overcome this issue with some creativity, please share!

And yes, I have considered legos but I think I want something that looks a little less silly.

Repeat After Me... Play It RAW Before You Tinker.

I wasn't overly thrilled with the starship rules in the Sci-Fi Companion as many of you might know. So I set out to build a better starship system. I poured over the Sci-Fi Companion and Daring Tales of the Space Lanes over and over again in an attempt to figure out the math and the means. Keep in mind that I hadn't played either RAW. That was a cardinal sin. When I stepped back from the math, broke out the dice and ran them, a lot of information unfolded. Here's what I learned.

A) When calculating Toughness versus die type, there is no flat ratio. This is because of the potential for acing. The two easily identifiable benchmarks are 2/3s for d6 and 1/2 for d12. Example: a 3d6 weapon is at its sweet spot against a 12 Toughness (3x6 = 18 cut in 2/3s is 12). Whereas a a 3d12 weapon is at its sweet spot against an 18 Toughness (3x12 = 36/2 = 18).

B) Both the SFC and DTotSL work just fine as is. No tinkering needed. But there are some differences that made me choose one over the other. And here they are...

Crafting Ships

Both DTotSL and the SFC have example starships. The need to craft your own is actually quite low. Crafting starships is a mini game of sorts.
I used to play a lot of Mekton and by the time that Mekton Zeta Plus came out, I was arms deep into tweaking and crafting Mecha. My game suffered for it because I was focusing too much on the gear and not on the plot.

DTotSL gives you all the basic ships you need. If you want to make it slightly different, add one of the Modifications listed in the back of Starships of the Galaxy. Less headache. less prep. Point to DTotSL.

Shields

In the SFC, shields act like extra Hit Points. It is at odds with how the rest of the game plays. I get it though. "Shields at 20%, Captain!" It's just not my cup of tea.

In DTotSL, shields use the Powers rules and you have limited uses of them. Also, someone has to run the shields and decide which power to use. It's more interactive for a crew member and it uses rules they should be familiar with. Point to DTotSL.

Summary

I'm going to use Daring Tales of the Space Lanes. I highly recommend it. In fact, if you buy Compendium 1 it comes with it's own world creation rules, the free setting rules are in the book, Random hazards, and four adventures. And it's all written by Paul "Wiggy" Wade-Williams (of Triple Ace Games) & Umberto Pignatelli. Paul wrote the original Sci-Fi Toolkits on which the Sci-Fi Companion is based.

That's not to say that the Sci Fi Comapion isn't good. There is a lot of stuff in there, such as races and alien critters, as well as more refined and balanced race creation. I'm glad I bought it, but I won't be using it for my sci-fi games. It's best that I stick to one setting and the core rulebook at my table so as to avoid confusion.

So from now on, all of my sci-fi work, aliens, worlds, etc., will be in support of Daring Tales of the Space Lanes. I recommend checking out the Free Setting Rules. If that is enough to get you interested, then I suggest buying the DTotSL Compendium 1, DTotSL Extras Pack (which contains Starships of the Galaxy), and Fighter Swarms (Free)!

Slipstream Trifolds Part 2!

Did I say no post this week? You know I couldn't stay away.

It's finally done, the second sheet of Slipstream Trifolds!

I finished out the races, but there wasn't much left to do. The page wasn't filled so I included two Mudmen and two Raptormen per sheet. I also added two big monsters: the Rastagar and the Kriplixx. Stat them up as you see fit.

I admit that doing all that drawing was wearing on me. I had to re-do the Rurite Female because the first drawing was terrible, boring, ugghhh. By the time I got to the big monsters, I was just slapping quick pencil and ink strokes down. They also came out pretty good. It seems I do better with gesture art than I do while taking my time. Maybe I should stretch that out and see if I can come up with an art style from it.

But I ramble.

Next week I'm going back to looking at how I handle starship design. I've reviewed the Vehicle Conversion guide that was put up on Pinnacle's website. I was also looking at the vehicles in the SWDEX and how they were converted. It seems that some designs are wrong (at least as far as wiki is concerned). I also looked at other sources of real world vehicles converted to Savage Worlds rules, such as those found in Thrilling Tales by Adamant Entertainment. It turns out that they didn't follow the SWDEX design either (of course the printing predated the SWDEX).

So while I have been racking my brain to make something consistent with vehicles in the SWDEX, I find that it's not really possible, nor is it necessary. Internal consistency is key. I can create whatever conversion rules I want as long as all of the vehicles in my setting follow the same design rules.

That was a liberating thought.

The First Round of Slipstream Trifolds

Are Here.

Male and female versions of Akwasians, Antelopos, Aridians, Borealians, Charadonos, Crystaloosians, Drell, Equines, Frigim, Lill, and Magrozites.

Starpunk - This will be a tough post.

My mojo-block is at it again. I have the gear and the starships and the arcane background. The time has come for some adventures...and nothing. Creative block.

It's not total block as I have plenty of ideas for D&D-esque adventures, even adventure ideas for Star Wars. Something about Starpunk specifically is blocking me, so it's time for more self-examination/ blog therapy.

As near as I can tell, the problem is that I am working in a vacuum. Established settings already have a life to them. If I want to run an adventure against a crime syndicate in Star Wars, I know that I can grab the Hutts for it and that my players will have a good idea of the environment, the alien mentalities, everything that makes the adventure breathe. The bulk of the work has been done for me in these settings and I don't really have to explain anything.

But in building my own universe, I have to start from scratch. This is complicated by my avoidance of the Planet of Hats Trope. I didn't want to pigeon-hole my aliens into specific stereotypes, but as a result I destroyed any short-hand I could use for myself and my players to establish the feel of the setting. I am discovering that trying to build a setting as huge as infinite worlds with infinite aliens, a type of short-hand might be a necessity I shouldn't have over-looked.

So now I have infinite choices with nothing established for me, and I'm getting mojo-lock. What's worse is I am beginning to question whether or not I have lost my creativity. As an artist, the very idea scares the sh#t out of me. My dogged determination hasn't let me quit but the more I push, the more I'm stuck. I have spent hours of time coming up with nothing.

Fortunately everything I have done in the way of equipment and rules is good and generic enough for a space-fantasy style game. But it is clear that I am going to have to completely rework my setting idea if it's going to be of any use to me. I'm also going to have to get over my desire to stay away from tropes used in other common games if I am going to make this setting accessible to my players.

It's also possible that Sisyphus is clawing at my brain again. I though I would save myself work by creating racial templates, which is true, but what I also did was get rid of any setting flavor that individual races might introduce. One piece of advice I came across on the net was to "build 4-5 major races and let other aliens be background set dressing". In other words, flesh out a handful of core races, and I can add new races as I see fit as set dressings for adventures. If the design is popular, then I can always add said race to the core with a more fully fleshed out background.

Ugh. I thought that creating a homebrew setting would be easy. At least it's giving me stuff to write about.

Building a Universe

I have been frying my brain over the details of my sci-fi setting. Sisyphus had made me his bitch. keep in mind that this setting is a huge universe of planets where the heroes could go anywhere. My mind was abuzz with the history of this galaxy, and what made it unique and what are its people...

Then I took a walk to clear my head.

That's when a credo I used to live by, but had been long-forgotten, bubbled up in my brain-pan.

Question: How much of the game world do I have to prep?
Answer: Only what the character's see.

I shouldn't be busting my butt designing things that are outside the heroes' experiences. Who runs the Stellar Authority? Who cares, the heroes will never meet them. And if they do, it will be revealed in the adventure so I should worry about it then. The players will experience the setting through the adventures I create so there is no point designing the worlds they will never visit. It is enough for them to know that they are out there.

That said, what do I need to build using the Savage Worlds core book to make this setting work?

An Elevator Pitch - The heroes are average-joe scumbags and privateers out to make a quick starbuck and stay out of jail while working for a secret society outside the government that is trying to end corruption and protect civilization from collapsing to darker forces.

Races - I've built templates but the rules for creating alien races is already in the core book.

New Edges and Hindrances - Only if I need something to help capture the feel of Eighties sci-fi. So far all that comes to mind is the ability to mod a starship.

Weapons - Use the same stats for modern weapons, but ignore AP. Assume Blasters can penetrate any armor. Just give the guns spiffy sounding names. For instance the shotgun is now a Disintegrator Gun.

Gear - The current fad is combining, (my phone is a computer, camera, radio, tv, news, and weather device). So roll up all of the ubiquitous tools into a single device.

Starships - Okay this will take some work. This is the heroes primary base of operations and transportation. The rules for this may play a big deal in the setting. Also their are a lot of things in the sci-fi companion that I either don't need or doesn't fit the feel I am looking for. This is where I will be spending most of my work time.

I'll post what roughs I have when they are presentable. Right now my notes are scattered all over the place.

What Sisyphus Can Teach Us

From Wikipedia:

"In Greek mythology Sisyphus... was punished for chronic deceitfulness by being compelled to roll an immense boulder up a hill, only to watch it roll back down, and to repeat this action forever."

So I've been going through the process of creating races for my sci-fi game when I realized just what a Sisyphean task it is to try and populate an entire galaxy with individual alien races. Especially since I have already noted that space fantasy tends toward specific alien tropes. 

So what separates reptilian alien A from reptilian alien B? In games that cover a huge multitude of alien races like Star Wars, the difference comes down to the Planet of Hats trope. For those unfamiliar, it's when we say things like "All Jawas are mechanics", or "All Trandoshans are hunters". It defines an alien race down to a specific stereotype that rarely leaves any room for diversity. But what if I wanted to play a Jawa farmer, or a Trandoshan technician? The rules in many games say I would be better off playing the stereotype because I would be handicapping my character by making him individualistic.

You could argue that cultures have given rise to specific types of specialists (Sparta) but I want my players to have the freedom to create characters that are interesting and varied. I don't want Race to become a substitute for a D&D style class system. Wow, there's a whole lot wrong with that sentence.

The game High Space for Savage Worlds had an interesting way of handling it. They created racial "Templates" that you could just plug in to any trope alien and let the differences between the races be trappings. I'm going to follow that philosophy in my game design because frankly I have neither the time or willpower to make 3 different reptilian races with unique traits, let alone a billion.

So what can Sisyphus teach us about setting? That if you spend all of your time pushing the rock up a hill, you have no time left to play. Unless you really enjoy the never-ending-boulder-roll game.

Wednesday Sci-Fi! - Starpunk Races Part 1

So I thought I'd display some of the reworking I've done to player races for my campaign. Following the trope races I posted earlier, here are the Archemedians (space elves/devils), the Dvargen (space dwarves), and my version of Droids.

Archemidian

Archemedians are tall, lithe humanoids with pointed ears, cranial horns, and skin of varying hues. Their society is founded on barter and contracts which resulted in a race of very shrewd wheelers and dealers. Archemedians always honor their contracts to the letter, but you might want to check the fine print twice before entering into a contract with one.

·   Agile (+2): Elves are graceful and agile. They start with a d6 in Agility instead of a d4.

·   Low Light Vision (+1): Elven eyes amplify light like a cat’s, allowing them to see in the dark. Elves ignores attack penalties for Dim and Dark lighting.

·   Quirk (-1): Always honors a contract.

Dvargen

Dvargen are short, stout, hardy people who come from the high-G world Dvargus. Dvargens are well known for being doing things larger than life as evidenced by their huge monuments, week-long binge parties, and lakes of vomit.

·   High-G Worlder (+2): Dvargen come from a high gravity world, making them stronger than other races in standard gravity. Increase Strength die by one step.

·   Slow (-1): Dvargen have a Pace of 5”.

·   Tough (+2): Dvargen are stout and tough. They start with a d6 Vigor instead of a d4.

·   Zero-G Phobia (-1): Dvargen are accustomed to knowing which way is up and the feel of sturdy ground beneath their feet. They suffer -2 to their trait tests when caught in zero gravity.

Droid

Droids are sentient machines with a variety of appearances. Some appear almost human, some are purely mechanical. They are built as servants to their “masters” and typically fill the rolls of butler/maid, personal assistant, mechanical repair and construction, and in some cases they are “personal companions”. Advances in artificial intelligence have gone so far as to give droids “Genuine Sentient Personalities” making it act just like a typical sentient being. Rest assured that when your droid screams in a panic, it is doing so at 150% efficiency.

·   Asimov Circuits (-2): The droid cannot harm, or by inaction bring harm to sentient beings. This gives him the Pacifist Hindrance (Major).

·   Construct (+3): Droids are immune to poison, disease, and psionic effects that target the mind. Droids cannot heal naturally. To heal a droid requires the Repair skill—which is used like the Healing skill only with no “Golden Hour.”

·   Programming (+2): Droid begin with a free d6 in one skill, representing their original programmed role.

·   Genuine Sentient Personality (-1): To make droids appear more like sentient beings, mental faults were programmed into the cortex functions. Droid characters start with one minor “personality” hindrance from the following list: Big Mouth, Cautious, Death Wish, Delusional, Greedy, Habit, Mean, Phobia, Quirk, or Yellow.

Bonus! - Character Creation Addendum

This addendum concerns Robots. As written, this race is very powerful. Even in the Sci-Fi Companion the beefed the racial cost +8. The Shaken and Wound bonuses are awesome, but don't really fit in with a C-3P0 style droid. So I'm making the following changes to the Construct racial ability.

Construct (+3): Droids are immune to poison, disease, and psionic effects that target the mind. Droids cannot heal naturally. To heal a droid requires the Repair skill—which is used like the Healing skill only with no “Golden Hour.”

I'll bring back the "+2 vs Shaken" and the "ignore Wound modifiers" for NPC Warbots, which will also remove the Asimov Circuit in favor of a Slave Circuit (that forces them to obey their commander's orders, even unto their destruction).

So standard Droids have the following racial abilities:

• Asimov Circuit (-2): Pacifist (Major) hindrance.
• Construct (+3): as noted above.
• Programming (+2): One skill starts at d6.
• Recharge (-2): Once per day or suffer Fatigue.
• Low-Light Vision (+1)

Sci-Fi Wednesday! - Character Creation

Eye candy brought to you by "Flash Gordon Conquers the Universe".

Races

I'm not going to knock the Sci-Fi Companion. It's a very detailed book full of a lot of good information. However, I don't want to cherry pick rules from it and DTotSL. I need to keep this down to the Core Book and one supplement.

DTotSL handles aliens as either starting with a free attribute bump instead of a free edge, or using the rules and races in the SWDEX (perhaps with some name changes). 

So what kind of races will I use? Well let's look at the common trope aliens of 80's sci-fi. You'll probably recognize many of these as the better races to come out of Star Trek.
Humans
Space Elves (Anybody seen my Vulcan?)
Lizard-men (Oh my Gorn!)
The Vermin-Men (I luvs me some Jawas)
Cat-Men (I should say "beast-men" since I don't want to go through the entire animal kingdom and make obvious human-earth animal hybrids)
Squid-Men
The Big Strong Brutes (the Sc-Fi Companion has the Yeti which is brilliant, so I'll have to go a different direction)
The sexy Aliens (Twi'leks meet Orions and have a wet T-shirt contest)
The Bugs
The Greys (or something that would equate to definitely not a human/animal hybrid)
And Robot-men. Players won't be playing combat models unless they purchase upgrades, basically an arcane background where powers represent system upgrades.

Hindrances

Any physical Hindrances cannot be fixed with cybernetics. Doubting Thomas will have to go since the supernatural isn't a big enough part of my setting. Which reminds me of that episode of Buck Rogers where there was a space vampire. That episode hurt my feel-bads.

Edges

Champion, Holy/Unholy Warrior, and Wizard just don't fit the setting. I don't see the need to create any Professional Edges since many of the character tropes can already fit into reskinned edges. Deep space scouts would use a reskinned Woodsmen edge, etc.

Arcane Backgrounds 

I see using three different types of ABs: AB Psionics, AB Cybernetics, and AB Upgrades (Robots).

The Psionics AB would operate the way it is stated in DTotSL. One of the key features I like is that your Psionics skill can't be increased after character creation. It represents your maximum Psi-Potential (like a P12 in Babylon 5). The available powers will be Beast Friend, Blast, Blind, Bolt, Boost/Lower Trait, Burst, Confusion, Detect/Conceal Arcana for free, Dispel (Psionics), Farsight, Fear, Fly, Havoc, Healing, Mind Reading, Pummel, Puppet, Slumber, Stun, Succor, and Telekinesis.

AB Cybernetics and Upgrades would essential operate the same way. Both would be based off of AB Magic and would use power points, but in this case the power points represent their internal battery system that is tapped to energize these upgrades. It would use the Weird Science mishap chart. The available powers will be Armor, Blast, Bolt, Boost Trait (Strength or Agility, self only), Burst, Damage Field, Darksight, Entangle, Environmental Protection, Farsight, Fly, Invisibility, Light, Smite (self only, unarmed damage), Speed, and Wall Walker.

Next week will either be a Planetary One Sheet, or maybe some eye candy.

Sci-Fi Wednesday! - Back to the Sci-Fi Design!

I kind of copped out by using Daring Tales of the Space Lanes. I really should forge my own setting if I'm going to blog about. However in my brain I'm hearing "If it ain't broke..." Daring Tales hit the mark so well for the type of game I want to play that trying to build a new set of rules is pointless.

To make this design post-worthy, I need to design something that doesn't already exist for Savage Worlds (a prospect that is getting harder as time goes on). Now while DTotSL does give me all the rules I need, what it lacks is a defined setting. So if I continue these design posts, I should focus my energies there.

Concept

A bit of a recap but I want to make it clear what I want from this game since sci-fi is a huge subject.

• The setting shouldn't take itself too seriously. Capture the feel of late 70's early 80's TV sci-fi. Great examples are Buck Rogers and the original Battlestar Galactica, as well as the original Star Wars trilogy.
• Aliens should be fun in appearance. It isn't necessary to make aliens so alien that you wouldn't want to date one let alone know which way it's facing.
• All space ships and no star-fighters. Yeah, it goes against the tropes of the shows I listed above but rpg games should be more about teamwork. Plus I want more of an "age of sail" or Flash Gordon feel to space travel. The ships should have crews.
• The heroes are freelancers that work for a guild of troubleshooters that often get hired to solve the problems that the government either can't, won't, or is causing. Missions will vary from finding ancient relics to saving kidnap victims to ending the career of evil governors. All while contending with local law enforcement who hate the heroes for butting into their business, to rival mercenaries, to the high halls of the government itself.
• Keep in mind that the heroes are not well trained, well disciplined soldiers and agents. They are desperate and slightly mad freebooters that have a heart of gold, empty pockets, and an aversion to the Stellar Authority.

Map Zones of the Galaxy

• The Core Worlds: These are the home-worlds and seats of power for those races that control the Stellar Authority. The closer you get to the core, the more paperwork you will need to file and the more restricted general freedoms become. These worlds are clean, well developed, oppressive, and sterile (in both environments and attitudes). The best tech can be found in the core worlds but it isn't always shared with the outer systems.
• The Outer Systems: These worlds are made up of those races that have been annexed by the Stellar Authority. Rules are slightly looser here as the reach of the Stellar Authority begins to show. Freedoms vary depending on the regional governors, and the loose grip of the Stellar Authorities allows these governors to pursue their own agendas.
• The Rim: The Stellar Authority has a much harder time maintaining their grip on the Rim worlds due to the lack of technologies and resources. The Stellar Authority could build up these worlds, increasing their tech and their foothold but it runs the risk of letting those technologies slip into the hands of more rebellious elements. The Stellar Authority prefers to keep the Rim as low-tech as possible to keep them dependent on the Stellar Authority trade and ensuring they will never be strong enough to become a threat. The SA prefers to keep local warlords on their payroll and turn a blind eye to how a world's resources are exploited as long as the SA gets its share. SA warships maintain patrols but the won't get directly involved in a planet's problems until a warlord grows to be a potential threat. 
• The Wild: These planets are un-settled worlds that harbor wild dangers and ancient secrets. Some have become the refuge of criminals or those seeking to escape the SA. While beyond the typical reach of the SA, SA scout ships can be found keeping an eye on the Wild for external threats to their empire.

Now that we have a concept, it's time to look at what sort of optional rules I might want to use in this setting.

Key Factions

• The Stellar Authority: Basically the government. It is a bloated, self-centered bureaucracy made up of many core world races but ruled by a race known as the the Executives, who prize order and efficiency over all things. While the SA has brought order to the Core and Outer Worlds, it comes at the cost of personal freedoms. And despite the Executives promises of efficiency, corruption within their ranks threatens the enforced peace they have created.
• The Criminal Syndicates: Capitalizing on the growing dissatisfaction within the empire, criminal clans have risen to bring illicit pleasures and stolen goods to the populace. Some Executives have even joined the ranks of these clans, seeing better promotional opportunities as well as a more efficient method of governance (provided murder doesn't make you squeamish). The Syndicates run their operations from the Rim but frequently smuggle and occasionally pirate closer to the Core.

Optional Rules

I will use the following optional rules from the core book.

• Critical Failures: I want some good humor in this action-y, pulp adventure game. In fact, I typically use this rule in any game. For me, it's good to let the heroes fail to keep the game interesting.
• Joker's Wild: Again, it's just a fun rule.

I considered using the Multiple Languages rule but it gets fiddly trying to role-play it. All Stellar Authority races will be able to understand Galactic Trade so actually learning another races native language should be uncommon and a big deal.

So now that the concept is locked down in my head, it's time to start looking at character creation. See you next week.

Bonus!

Why not share some of my generation's music?

One of my favorite "one-hit wonders" of the eighties.

Adventure Monday! - Planet Pelligan

This is one I was working on a while ago. Since it is a planet of mystery, it doesn't have any specific adventure hooks but it does have rumors. You can decide for yourself what is really going on here. Here you go... Planet Pelligan!

 

Sci-Fi Campaign Update

The campaign setting is finally starting to gel for me.

First up - Humans. I'm keeping the idea that humans are a species that has no homeworld. We should up in the empire on sub-light generation ships. What happened to Earth? Ask ten different humans and you'll get twelve different tales. The fact is that nobody remembers the truth anymore (but it could make for a cool plot point). So humans are considered shiftless gypsies by the empire at large (as opposed to being dominant or ubiquitous as they are in other settings).

Empire? Yup. I decided to make the setting one vast Empire, the Draghosian Empire. Is it an evil empire? Maybe. I leave that very open until I figure out what my players want to do in the setting. If they are just flying a Tramp Freighter, then their exposure to the Empire may just be strict laws and the occasional corrupt Governor. If they want to fight a rebellion, that's cool too. It won't be easy though, Draghosians are on top for a reason. I modified the Drake from the SWDEX to make the Draghosians. That's right, this empire is ruled by Dragonmen, and no you can't play one.

The Draghosians also feature into that book I wrote, so I'm doing a bit of recycling. And as a confession, they were inspired by one of the graphics in Slipstream. So the idea of a galactic Empire run by large Dragonmen appealed to me a lot. I don't remember which Savage Worlds Podcast mentioned it but one of the commentators said "In order to make a Savage Setting, you almost need to combine three genres", so I'm going with: Fantasy, Science Fiction, and Western. Yes it's been done but I'm going to dial up the fantasy a bit in places.

Races - I'm using the ones available in the Sci-Fi Companion as well as any new template races I come up with.

Rules in Play - Critical Failure, Joker's Wild, and Multiple Languages.

Gear- On review, my Sci-Fi gear list may have been to powerful. I'm going the Sci-Fi companion with perhaps some additions from my list if anything is missing. I'll also probably add the Wrist Computer rules from DTotSL.

Spaceships- I'm torn between Sci Fi Companion and DTotSL as to which handles better/ easier. It will take more thought.

Plot Point Campaign - I don't have one yet but now that I have the beginnings of a setting I like, I plan to do multiple campaigns (maybe 4-5 Savage Tales long each). I will of course post them as I come up with them.

Bonus Thursday - Rethinking My Aliens.

I've been perusing the Sci-Fi Companion again for my campaign and I realized I had made a couple of mistakes.

First, I assumed they provided races instead of Race Templates. It's one thing I was struggling with when it comes to the enormity of populating a universe - eventually you'll be making similar aliens.

And on that note, the Misorona that I made are somewhat similar (too similar except for their AB) to the Serrans in the book.

So I am going to focus on alien race templates and use those templates for whatever race falls into that category (with the exceptions of truly unique edges to that race). In fact I understand that is how High Space handles things but that's a setting I haven't purchased. With that said, there is one template I know they missed and I'll try to art it out for a Free Stuff Friday soon.

BTW My girlfriend as decided to start up a blog called Some Assembly Inspired (linked in my Fav Blogs, of course). She is chronicling the DIY stuff we are doing to the house. Last weekend was spent painting the master bedroom (me painting mostly). So if I miss updates, it's because she has cast Puppet on me or Bigby's Honey-Do List.

Adventure Monday! - Planet Obsolam

So here I am rolling out a planet for use in your sci-fi adventures: Planet Obsolam, the Robot's Graveyard.

Included with the planetary description are five adventure hooks, more fleshed out than the typical, generic Adventure Mondays list. I'm shooting for five hooks per planet.

Enjoy and Game On!

GM Wednesday! - Uninspired

Confession: I have been fighting GM Block for 5 years now, and it's still going.

I have been getting by with playing in other people's games, running Pathfinder Society adventures on occasion, and trying to start a Pathfinder game (since that's all my gaming group is willing to play). My games last maybe one or two sessions before I find myself bored.

I am Uninspired.

Why? It might be my recent divorce, that time I spent a year and a half on unemployment after being laid off, the fact that my usual gaming group doesn't want to play anything but D20 derivatives, or I'm just completely burned out. I don't know.

Well now I'm moved to a new city, which means I have the option to start a new game group at a new FLGS. I just can't get myself motivated to build a campaign.

I want to run sci-fi. I suppose this is part of the problem. It's such a vast genre that it's difficult to pin down what I really want, as well as what's going to keep me interested. I want Star Wars but not Star Wars. I want space-pulp but I want something that feels more unique than "Here's a galaxy full of aliens and here's your cargo ship. Enjoy." I want an open playground but I also need focus.

(Pardon the verbal diarrhea but this blog is very much a therapy for my soul. This is stream-of-consciousness writing so I'll be asking questions and maybe coming up with answers as well.)

So I've been doing some busy work, hoping to jump-start my creativity. All of which I have posted here for Free Stuff Fridays, but it is still just dancing around the issue of my lack of game.

Here are some of the ideas I have going.
Aliens- yes
FTL - yes
Blasters - yes
Feel - very Star Wars-y minus the Jedi order

Humans are sort of a minority. We arrived in the systems on generation arks. Earth has passed into legend as well as the reasons we left. We are now the gypsies of the sector with no home world and at the mercy of alien empires.

Hmm, the last bit struck a chord.

It's hard (for me) to just build alien races in a vacuum without feeling like I'm just slapping tropes together. But maybe what my setting needs is a bit of class-struggle.

So let's say there are 3-5 Major empirical races. They own the big swathes of the sector and might be involved with a little covert action against each other. Should any of these empires be likable? My gut says no. Each should be oppressive in their own way. I'm feeling that I should lift a theme from Firefly, where the heroes are struggling to maintain their freedom in a universe that demands they choose sides. I think players will like that.

So now we've got the humans, the ultimate symbol of freedom and low-class existence, being homeless gypsies and all. But they can't fly alone, otherwise I would just be playing Firefly. Nope, humans need some pals to fly around with who also long for freedom. Who better than those other, lesser species that have been conquered by the five empires?

Wow! I just got more done creatively in this blog post than I have in 5 years. Not only do I have a setting that isn't just Star Wars with the serial numbers filed off, I have a Theme: Freedom. And now that I have that theme, I know what kind of adventure hooks I can throw at my players. I know that the greatest threat to them is being forced to "toe-the-line".

I now only have to design 5 mega governments rather than one for each innumerable world the heroes land on (which is good because if they travel enough things are going to get repetitive). But I still have room to introduce new alien species as subordinates to their respective empire. And they're societies will be based around their oppressors, but with a little local flavor added to it.

Now I just need a name for this setting. Any suggestions?

Free Stuff Fridays! - Alien Race Guide - Meet the Misorona

Last week I gave you an alien one-sheet about the Kesh. Today it's the druids of the stars, The Misorona.

These guys took a while to write up as they not only have their own Arcane Background, but they needed some specialized equipment since they shun lifeless technology.

If you have any ideas for a race, give me a comment and I will see if I can't add it into the Galactic Tour.

Free Stuff Fridays! - Alien Race Guide - Meet the Kesh

So, Free Stuff Fridays takes up the most of my time per post. As such, I am bound to falter on the weekly thing, especially since my idea tank is running low. In fact my current mind state will be addressed in the next GM Wednesday post. 

Today's post is certainly last minute. I have forgone the typical paper craft standee upload today in favor of Alien One Sheets as a celebration of the Sci-Fi Companion and the hopefully soon to be released "Last Parsec" by Pinnacle Entertainment.

So lets meet The Kesh...

This was not just a weekly update, but an experiment with digital coloration. I admit I am a terrible inker and colorer, but I like to think I am getting better.

By the Way, if you are looking for "Truly Alien" aliens for your game, you might be disappointed. I prefer the Star Warsy type aliens of pulp to the "talking jellyfish" of harder sci-fi. I am trying to design aliens that are more than a simple rubber forehead away from humans, but near-human aliens are also a part of the trope and they will be making an appearance.