Soooo . . . the guys have playing that new Shadowrun video game and are hungry for some Shadowrun role play. I wasn't real happy with 4th edition. Don't get me wrong - I love love love the Shadowrun universe. But the mechanics were a pain in the ass. Fifth is coming out - and they have some Quick Start Rules up for it, so I said what the heck, I'll run it for them - most have never played before - and we'll see if it is worthy.
I haven't finished reading the QSR yet and I'm already . . . gritting my teeth. Despite a rules overhaul, it still looks like we are tossing around anywhere between ten to twenty six-sided dice bombs for offensive actions AND defense of said actions. Not my favorite part of the game.
To top it off, the intro adventure . . . geez . . . where to begin. Okay, so obviously the guy who wrote the thing and the guy who drew the map for the adventure didn't talk. The map - and it's a map of a fast food restaurant - doesn't match of with the descriptions. Heck, if the map had even a vague resemblance to a fast food joint, that would help. But it doesn't. Why is the food prep area in the middle of the frikkin room like a Benihana? Surely a Shadowrun McDonald's would NEVER want the customers to know what they are actually eating? And the bathrooms are big enough to store school buses in. Arrrghhh!
(Deep breaths, deep breaths. Relax, Ark.)
So, I'm trying to stop myself from going out and dropping 200 bucks on GURPS books and tweak it's knobs until I can run Shadowrun RIGHT. Okay, I don't' have 200 bucks, so that fixes that.
But I'll run the QSR alright, dammit. And we'll see how it goes. Who knows - maybe I'm over-reacting and everyone will love it. :)
- Ark
Friday, August 2, 2013
Thursday, August 1, 2013
Petty Landscapes
Three or four months ago, I had an idea to draw weird landscapes for Gorgonmilk to use, should he need them, as filler inside of the Petty Gods book. Layout can be a bitch, and strange shaped art could only help, right? Well, then I burnt out my hand drawing too much in an unhealthy way, and a strange, artistic malaise/depression set in as I healed.
Well, my hand hurts a heck of a lot less and I gave the old Wacom a twirl tonight. Whatdayya know - I finished one of the Landscapes I had sketched out a while back. Yay me!
Anyway, here it is - Petty Landscape #1 (aka First Date.) Use is as you wish, Gorgonmilk!
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| Click to Embiggen |
Okay, now some ice for the hand . . . :)
- Ark
Thursday, July 25, 2013
Wednesday, July 24, 2013
Antipode System
Below is the star system that The Boy and I worked on during vacation for the Star Wars game:
"Details are sketchy in the galactic databases on the Antipode system. It was a member of the Old Republic, settled by a mix of sentient races. Due to a nearby supernova approximately 1,000 years ago, the hyperlanes connecting Antipode to the rest of the galaxy shifted, causing it to be unreachable. During last days of the Clone Wars, CIS scouts detected a large hyperlane shift and rediscovered Antipode. The last official records indicate that at the close of the Clone Wars, the Antipode system was absorbed into the Galactic Empire as an Imperial Species Preservation Zone with extremely limited civilian access."
This should be interesting, as it will be the core setting of an Edge of the Empire campaign. :)
- Ark
"Details are sketchy in the galactic databases on the Antipode system. It was a member of the Old Republic, settled by a mix of sentient races. Due to a nearby supernova approximately 1,000 years ago, the hyperlanes connecting Antipode to the rest of the galaxy shifted, causing it to be unreachable. During last days of the Clone Wars, CIS scouts detected a large hyperlane shift and rediscovered Antipode. The last official records indicate that at the close of the Clone Wars, the Antipode system was absorbed into the Galactic Empire as an Imperial Species Preservation Zone with extremely limited civilian access."
This should be interesting, as it will be the core setting of an Edge of the Empire campaign. :)
- Ark
Tuesday, July 23, 2013
Star Wars for Kids Only
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| The guys get serious as they plan to steal a freighter. |
My son and two other boys played. Neither of the two other boys had played a role playing game and were a bit apprehensive, but they knew it was Star Wars, so they were willing to give it a go.
I'm amazed how a strange movie I fell in love with 36 years ago can still hold the attention of young and old alike. Rather than overwhelm them with the 450 page rulebook, we played the Star Wars: Edge of the Empire - Beginner Game. I had some issues with the beginner game earlier - but those all melted away as I saw the completely fresh gamers dive right in.
They seemed to really like the pregen character packets - especially after I told them that the character's names and genders were flexible - they could change them how they liked. Well, no one picked the droid doctor - so maybe he has a different target audience.
It fascinates me how quickly people pick up the funky proprietary Star Wars dice. Within a couple of rolls they had it down and were chugging along, determining their successes and advantages with ease. While they took to playing very quickly, they couldn't convince any NPC of anything, blowing their social type rolls catastrophically. So they brute-forced their way along, bashing heads and making a general nuisance of themselves. In other words, they behaved like seasoned RPG veterans.
I had great fun running the game, and to hear "when can we play next?" is just one of those things that money just can't buy. In following games, I'll bring out the big book and let them rework their characters with the advanced rules.
It went really well. Most issues were minor - such as frustrations brought on by failed rolls. The biggest problem with the game came to the fore as one of the boys asked "Can I play a Jedi?" Yeah. There are no Jedi in the Beginner Game. There are no real Jedi in the Edge of Empire game at all, for that matter. There are force sensitives - proto-Jedi perhaps - but they are expensive point-wise and rather ineffective at low levels. Which is the way I like it. But, you know, it's something iconic to Star Wars - especially those who grew up on the prequels - and seems like a gaping hole that will take two years to fill.
I explained the reasoning behind the missing Jedi, and that he could play a Jedi in training if he wanted too. When we concluded the game and I told them about customizing their characters with the advanced rules, I asked the boy if he wanted to make the character a Jedi.
"No," he said, "I think I'd like an assassin better. He wears all black and sneaks around. He needs a jet-pack too. I'm going to go home and draw him. Is that okay?"
"Um, yeah, sure. That's just fine," I smiled. Perfect, actually.
- Ark
Monday, July 22, 2013
World Building While on Vacation
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| First Catch of the Day (and last) |
Much of my idea about what wilderness looked like came from the land around my grandmother's house, which was a mixture of ranch land and wild areas full of pecan trees about 30 miles south of Cross Plains, Texas. Those were Robert E. Howard's stomping grounds, so at least I was in good company. But still, I didn't see a mountain until I was 17 on a trip to El Paso. The meager 23 mile long Franklin Mountain chain inspired an entirely new continent in which to set fantasy rpgs. Later, trips to Cancun and regional Texas lakes helped to form the Sea of Tears campaign, a world I designed made entirely out of small island chains - the peaks of mountains left dry after an aquatic cataclysm.
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| Attempting to Draw Palo Duro |
It wasn't my first time through New Mexico, but it was The Boy's, and it was great fun to watch his expression as the bumps in the land grew bigger and bigger. "Is that a mountain?" "No, not yet." "Is THAT one a mountain?" "Nope." Eventually we got to a point where he didn't have to ask. The stark, empty terrain had me thinking a lot about Cowboys and Indians. Well, until I was jarred awake at the Dhillon Truck Stop in San Jon, New Mexico, a Punjabi buffet serving up chana masala, tarka daal, and a variety of curries. Life is funny like that. I wish I could come up with things half as amusing as that in my games.
First off, it's really, really hard to dig through basalt and granite. Black powder was used before the advent of dynamite to blast through the rock. And it is dark down there. The guide showed the differences in lighting techniques over the ages, and a candle just does not cut it. Yes, they mined by candlelight. I, however, cannot see a very successfully melee against goblins happening that way. And swinging a sword in a 10x10 corridor? Yeah, right. however, surviving an AD&D fireball was probably a lot easier than Gygax lets on - because the miners used to do it every day. They were just all deaf afterwards and, on average, had 15 years to live. :)
While up in the the thin air, the boy and I sat down and worked on a planet for the Star Wars game. It's a football shaped planet, either end having great big mountains. The equator is all pretty much ocean with some islands. The north pole points directly to the system's star, leaving the other pole constantly frozen. He's great at naming things, so we fleshed out the entire solar system and he named everything we could think to name. The planet itself, Antipode, should be a great place for adventure - maybe even as much as Colorado on summer vacation.
- Ark
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