The Jovial Priest, and a host of other smart people, have been hashing out an Overland Travel System. The gist is that a character would take hp damage over time while stumbling around in the outback, getting coated in leeches, suffering malaria, and stubbing all ten of their toes. He's got seven options on his table. I'll offer and eighth.
Hit Points have always been abstract and non-affecting. A character with 100 hp is just as able as a character with 1 hp. It's just that a player with a character with 1 hp is a lot more frightened to put the character in harm’s way. The RPG Savage Worlds has a mechanism that I have found very useful called the Fatigue Track.
The Fatigue Track has five states: Normal, Fatigued, Exhausted, Incapacitated, and Death. This track is separate from a D&D style hit point system. Each point on the track has an effect on the character.
Normal - Character is peachy keen.
Fatigued - Character is at -1 to all actions (would equate to around a -5 for all actions based on a d20.)
Exhausted - Character is at -1 to all actions (would equate to around a -10 for all actions based on a d20.)
Incapacitated - May be conscious, but is pretty well useless and can't move.
Death - Self-explanatory.
Various 'Hazards' kick a character down the track, including Bumps & Bruises, Cold, Disease & Poison, Drowning, Fire, Heat, Hunger, Radiation, Sleep, and Thirst. Each type of Hazard has it's own specifics and usually requires a Vigor (Constitution) check to avoid. Rest and other types of healing kick a character back up to the top. Grab Savage Worlds for specifics (just $10 bucks.)
I think something like the Fatigue Track and Hazard system would be far more effective at replicating the pains of overland travel that hp reduction. Of course, I haven't worked out the specifics or play-tested, so it's just vague conjecture for now. :)
- Ark
Friday, May 20, 2011
Thursday, May 19, 2011
Wednesday, May 18, 2011
Old School Runs!
The idea was simple - draw a little picture of some adventurers in the 'School House Rock' style, akin to the whole Old School Rocks image I drew a while ago. It's taken me weeks and I've pulled out lots of hair. It makes me envy artists who can spit out cartoons like a faucet - such as Ed Chase.
As I was drawing, inspiration came from Bard, who mentioned that OSR should stand for 'Oh Shit, Run!.' (Though he was cooth enough to asterisk out the nasties.) I thought that was fabulous. While some may not OSR that way, I certainly enjoy that style.
I finally finished it, so here is the picture. Enjoy.
- Ark
As I was drawing, inspiration came from Bard, who mentioned that OSR should stand for 'Oh Shit, Run!.' (Though he was cooth enough to asterisk out the nasties.) I thought that was fabulous. While some may not OSR that way, I certainly enjoy that style.
I finally finished it, so here is the picture. Enjoy.
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| Click to embiggen. |
- Ark
Tuesday, May 17, 2011
Diana Davidsson's Flame Princess Fairies
I enjoyed Raggi's visual retrospective of the Flame Princess. Some really great stuff there. But when kelvingreen mentioned in the comments that he would like to see a colored version of Diana Davidsson's Flame Princess Fairies, my pavlovian coloring conditioning kicked in. Well, okay, he didn't say color, he said colour, which I think means he's from New Jersey.
So yeah, I colored it. Sorry, Diana. I have no idea where you are to ask permission. If you are not amused, just let me know and I'll toss it in the trash. But it's a great piece and I had fun colo-u-ring it.
- Ark
So yeah, I colored it. Sorry, Diana. I have no idea where you are to ask permission. If you are not amused, just let me know and I'll toss it in the trash. But it's a great piece and I had fun colo-u-ring it.
- Ark
Monday, May 16, 2011
House Rulz
I recently bumped into a cartoonist named Ed Chase. He had been working on a comic strip based on a group of role players, and happened to have a couple in his back pocket that he let me see. (When I saw 'bumped into' and 'back pocket,' I mean that all electronically, of course.)
I liked them so much I began harassing Ed continuously about posting them somewhere that others could see them - almost to the point of him filing a lawsuit against me. I figured Blogger would be a good place to start - it's free and has people who play role playing games RIGHT THERE READY TO READ STUFF AT THE DROP OF A HAT. You know who you are.
The comic strip is called House Rulz. His name is Ed. The comic and blog are at http://houserulzcomicstrip.blogspot.com/.
Go say hi and enjoy!
- Ark
Sunday, May 15, 2011
The Wands of Doors
Last night's Labyrinth Lord game was quite fun, in part because of a D&Dified Portal gun that I included in the adventure. I flippantly mentioned such a thing in a post before the Blogopolypse of last week, but didn't really think I could pull it off. I threw caution to the wind, to great results.
For those who don't know, the Portal video games contain a gun that can place either end of a wormhole wherever the player wants (within limits.) This portal generator can be very helpful - or very deadly. A perfect compliment to an old school game, I think.
The implementation in the game is as follows. They find a box:
Inside the box are two ornately carved wands. One has a blue tint, with the word Azrak inscribed on the handle. The other is orange, with the word Burdukali carved on the surface. The wands are activated by pointing them at a properly prepared surface and uttering the control word (conveniently inscribed on the handle.)
The blue wand creates a six foot tall glowing blue oval. The wand itself glows blue when the blue oval is created. The orange wand does the same thing, but in orange. When both a blue and orange oval exists, the center of the two ovals become transparent, and both ovals become linked. When an object goes through the blue portal, they exit the orange portal, and vice-versa.
This system of linked portals continues to exist even when you change the locations of one end. The wielder of the wand can also turn off a portal by simply telling it to close.
One of the more enjoyable features of the portal is conservation of motion, also know as 'Speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out.' To take full advantage of this, long drops allowing a falling body to reach terminal velocity are required. :)
In the adventure, the players found the wands at the beginning of a prison constructed from 'a soon to awaken and escape big bad.' The prison can only be navigated with the Wands of Doors.
The Boy, of course, guessed what the wands were for right off the bat.
The group hasn't gotten very far yet, but they have used the devices in ways I didn't expect them too, including isolating a gargoyle from his buddies, taunting the remaining gargoyles into a lethal trap, and using a high-velocity gargoyle corpse to destroy a large portion of a giant mushroom forest.
I'm very eager - and somewhat frightened - to see what they come up with next.
- Ark
For those who don't know, the Portal video games contain a gun that can place either end of a wormhole wherever the player wants (within limits.) This portal generator can be very helpful - or very deadly. A perfect compliment to an old school game, I think.
The implementation in the game is as follows. They find a box:
Inside the box are two ornately carved wands. One has a blue tint, with the word Azrak inscribed on the handle. The other is orange, with the word Burdukali carved on the surface. The wands are activated by pointing them at a properly prepared surface and uttering the control word (conveniently inscribed on the handle.)
The blue wand creates a six foot tall glowing blue oval. The wand itself glows blue when the blue oval is created. The orange wand does the same thing, but in orange. When both a blue and orange oval exists, the center of the two ovals become transparent, and both ovals become linked. When an object goes through the blue portal, they exit the orange portal, and vice-versa.
This system of linked portals continues to exist even when you change the locations of one end. The wielder of the wand can also turn off a portal by simply telling it to close.
One of the more enjoyable features of the portal is conservation of motion, also know as 'Speedy thing goes in, speedy thing comes out.' To take full advantage of this, long drops allowing a falling body to reach terminal velocity are required. :)
In the adventure, the players found the wands at the beginning of a prison constructed from 'a soon to awaken and escape big bad.' The prison can only be navigated with the Wands of Doors.
The Boy, of course, guessed what the wands were for right off the bat.
The group hasn't gotten very far yet, but they have used the devices in ways I didn't expect them too, including isolating a gargoyle from his buddies, taunting the remaining gargoyles into a lethal trap, and using a high-velocity gargoyle corpse to destroy a large portion of a giant mushroom forest.
I'm very eager - and somewhat frightened - to see what they come up with next.
- Ark
Friday, May 13, 2011
While We're Waiting
While we're waiting to see if Blogger can get it's shit together, here is some found art . . .
- Ark
- Ark
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