Here's hoping everyone had a great New Year's Eve, and that your 2016 is off to a rousing (or restful, as needs be) start! I went with a fairly eclectic set of Picks this week, giving some love to a number of off-the-beaten-path rules sets and/or settings. Though it's true that I - like most of you - tend to pick a single set of rules, or maybe a couple (in my case, it's Savage Worlds and Prowlers & Paragons) to focus most of my gaming attention upon, I've definitely come back around full circle. These days, I also like to experiment with new systems and new ideas. I want to know what they can teach me, both about game design and about storytelling. Besides, changing things up can really keep your sense of wonder about this hobby fresh!
Lore of the Clans
First off, I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas or otherwise celebrated the holidays as most desired!
Now, the Road Back to Darkness goes ever on, especially with this latest update of Classic World of Darkness information to the V20 iteration of the rules.
My sire always told me, “There’s no instruction manual for being dead, strákur.” I believed her, because she was older and smarter than me, and we value knowledge if nothing else. Many sires spill a lot of poison into the ears of their childer, telling them the One True Way to be a vampire. Some vampires don’t even bother, kicking their errant progeny to the streets and letting them figure it out for themselves. A few smother their instruction in religious imperatives, philosophical tenets, or mystical confluences. But not one of them has a pamphlet with clear, easy instructions once you’ve become Damned.
Of course they lie. All vampires lie. But the best lies are those that are told between two truths, yes? Here are thirteen such truths, childe. They may line up with other things you know, or they might not. Sometimes the narrators present tantalizing rumors and conspiracies, while others digress into areas not often considered by many. Some of what they say have no facts to back them up, but not everything is a lie, either.
Let us find instruction from amidst the lies, together.
Lore of the Clans is a single volume revisiting all thirteen Clans for Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition, providing story hooks, character concepts, history, and Clan-specific rules.
This Book Includes:
Somnium Void
If you’ve been at all curious about the Unbelievably Simple Roleplaying system, here’s a rather powerful way to explore it. Somnium Void is a fairly in-depth space opera setting with an interesting centerpiece. Both the core rules and the setting fall under the Pay What You Want paradigm, allowing you to express as much or as little appreciate and support as you choose.
One hundred billion citizens of the galaxy all saw it. The vision flashed before them for mere seconds, but what they saw stuck with them ever since. A black ship over a white moon. This seemingly innocuous image became burnt onto the brain of every man, woman and child across the galaxy. The event became known as the Somnium. Life would never be the same again.
Welcome to Somnium Void, a space opera campaign setting for Unbelievably Simple Roleplaying (USR). This pay what you want book contains rules and ideas for running a space opera game in a fun setting inspired by Star Wars, Star Trek and Firefly.
What Does a Game of Somnium Void Look Like?
A panicked human diplomat staggers down a dark street in Primum, a poison dart stuck in her side. She collapses on the road as a shadowy member of the Pale Kings melts into the darkness.
A Shade doctor wraps bandages around the bloody stump of a soldier on board a warship that is being bombarded by Novorian Skyweavers.
A Cthoni Somnium Guardian sinks her blade into the neck of a Sketh Warmaster as it releases its final death howl.
A Wulfen smuggler is boarded by Magnan security, knowing that they will find the contraband hidden away in the ship.
Somnium Void is a game of adventure and heroism in the far future. Players will travel to different worlds like the ashen Hollow and the cyberpunk planet of Zero, making allies, enemies and credits. All the while the great powers that be are locked into a paranoid struggle that will likely pull the players into a story of intrigue and war. Whether you want to play a game that’s all about exploring new worlds and fighting aliens or whether you would prefer to get involved in politics and strategy, Somnium Void can be played in different ways. There is no one true way to play. Players can take on the role of smugglers, diplomats, assassins, Somnium Guardians, technopriests and more – the only limit is the imagination.
Features
Perilous Deeps
And here is some love for the Dungeon World/Apocalypse World Engine fans here at year’s end. A chart-climber, and for good reason, as Perilous Deeps not only provides some perfect examples of how to craft a delve for AWE gaming, but it’s also a spot-on “Let’s game tonight, right now!” rescue package.
How do you write a dungeon for Dungeon World? In this 72-page, fully-illustrated collection you will find six different approaches, inspired in part by the dungeon creation guidelines in The Perilous Wilds.
These “deeps” include:
Demon Hunters
Happy New Year, Everyone!
Sorry for missing yesterday – it was a very full day `round these parts. To make up for it, there’s a Bonus Pick to follow this one – which is another run at the hilarious and exciting setting that is Demon Hunters (this time in a Kickstarted FATE iteration).
Vampires infesting the mayoral office. Lycanthropes prowling the suburbs. Another kraken making its way upstate along the river. Crazed cultists masquerading as door-to-door religious nuts. Every one of them edging the world one more step toward the next demonic apocalypse.
In your line of work, that’s called Tuesday.
You are an agent of the Brotherhood of the Celestial Torch, hand-picked to serve as Earth’s first and last line of defense against the servants of Darkness. Oh sure, there are others in the Brotherhood who seem more hand-picked than you were, and yes, you probably only work out of a small office somewhere in Michigan or Wyoming or South Dakota, but when it comes to dealing out the damage to the infernal instruments of Hell taking over that shopping mall or the Craz-E-Mart, the buck stops with you.
Lock and load, baby.
This book—packed with tabletop roleplaying rules based on the Fate RPG system—has everything you need for playing Demon Hunters and creating badass adventures so they can strut their stuff. Produced as a result of a highly successful Kickstarter project, it’s got random charts, monster stats, examples, illustrations, page numbers, and a ton of fancy words. But best of all, it’s got you and your imagination to kick off one hell of a good time.
Dice not included.
Demon Hunters and Demon Hunters: Dead Camper Lake are cult-hit films by Dead Gentlemen Productions, creators of The Gamers and its sequel, The Gamers: Dorkness Rising.
Fantasy 6×6 Tiles
And, as promised, today’s Bonus Pick, DramaScape’s hugely versatile downloadable figure-scale terrain maps. Usable for real tables and virtual ones, this set is under that amazing Pay What You Want scheme that let’s you grab the lot for what you feel it’s worth (and what you can afford).
Just a wine cellar? Sure. But I have heard the screams at night. There is more to that cellar than at first glance.”—The Butler
Fantasy Tiles includes six unique modular 6” x 6“ tiles with two doors that can be used to make a small dungeon in fantasy games.
Fantasy Tiles is intended for use in fantasy, horror, or medieval historical era games.
Adventure hook for use with this map:
What Lies Beneath: Attending a party at a rich noble’s mansion, the group enjoys a fully catered dinner, plenty of wine and ale, and entertainment. In a lull in the festivities or a trip to the bathroom, the butler tries to speak with one of the Player Characters in private. The butler wants them to investigate the wine cellar below. He says he hears screams at night when grabbing wine or ale from the cellar.
It’s up to the Player Character to tell the group and investigate or ignore the butler’s request.
As the party continues, more and more people start falling asleep as they consume more and more of the food and drink. Even the group starts to feel tired and sleepy. With each new slumbering guest, it becomes harder to slip away from the party.
Eventually even the group succumbs to unconsciousness…
~~~~~
And here we are, entering 2016. As for myself, it's a very surreal number, as I sit here listening to 80s songs and still refusing to consider them "classics" or "adult contemporary." Nonetheless, it's true that we're all getting a bit older (I turn 50 in a couple of days, as a matter of fact), but I remain elated in my continuing love for the roleplaying game hobby.
Heck, we got in a session of Carinn's "The Crew" campaign yesterday, before New Year's Eve festivities (which included Ticket to Ride, Star Realms, and Are You a Werewolf?, because gamers will game). Tonight, we're gathering for another round of some kind of gaming at some friends' house. Tomorrow, a joint birthday celebration (at which I can only imagine there will be yet more games), and then I am running my Modern Gods game, Storm Wardens: The Lighthouse on Sunday.
Yeah, I may be getting older, but those dice roll on. Hope it's the same for all of you this year, as...
The Adventure Continues!
~SPF
Lore of the Clans
First off, I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas or otherwise celebrated the holidays as most desired!
Now, the Road Back to Darkness goes ever on, especially with this latest update of Classic World of Darkness information to the V20 iteration of the rules.
My sire always told me, “There’s no instruction manual for being dead, strákur.” I believed her, because she was older and smarter than me, and we value knowledge if nothing else. Many sires spill a lot of poison into the ears of their childer, telling them the One True Way to be a vampire. Some vampires don’t even bother, kicking their errant progeny to the streets and letting them figure it out for themselves. A few smother their instruction in religious imperatives, philosophical tenets, or mystical confluences. But not one of them has a pamphlet with clear, easy instructions once you’ve become Damned.
Of course they lie. All vampires lie. But the best lies are those that are told between two truths, yes? Here are thirteen such truths, childe. They may line up with other things you know, or they might not. Sometimes the narrators present tantalizing rumors and conspiracies, while others digress into areas not often considered by many. Some of what they say have no facts to back them up, but not everything is a lie, either.
Let us find instruction from amidst the lies, together.
Lore of the Clans is a single volume revisiting all thirteen Clans for Vampire: The Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition, providing story hooks, character concepts, history, and Clan-specific rules.
This Book Includes:
- The history, lore, and nightly practices of all thirteen Clans, told from the perspective of the Kindred themselves.
- New combo Disciplines, powers, Merits, Flaws, and other rules specific to each Clan.
- Revising and updating more classic Vampire: The Masquerade material to V20.
Somnium Void
If you’ve been at all curious about the Unbelievably Simple Roleplaying system, here’s a rather powerful way to explore it. Somnium Void is a fairly in-depth space opera setting with an interesting centerpiece. Both the core rules and the setting fall under the Pay What You Want paradigm, allowing you to express as much or as little appreciate and support as you choose.
One hundred billion citizens of the galaxy all saw it. The vision flashed before them for mere seconds, but what they saw stuck with them ever since. A black ship over a white moon. This seemingly innocuous image became burnt onto the brain of every man, woman and child across the galaxy. The event became known as the Somnium. Life would never be the same again.
Welcome to Somnium Void, a space opera campaign setting for Unbelievably Simple Roleplaying (USR). This pay what you want book contains rules and ideas for running a space opera game in a fun setting inspired by Star Wars, Star Trek and Firefly.
What Does a Game of Somnium Void Look Like?
A panicked human diplomat staggers down a dark street in Primum, a poison dart stuck in her side. She collapses on the road as a shadowy member of the Pale Kings melts into the darkness.
A Shade doctor wraps bandages around the bloody stump of a soldier on board a warship that is being bombarded by Novorian Skyweavers.
A Cthoni Somnium Guardian sinks her blade into the neck of a Sketh Warmaster as it releases its final death howl.
A Wulfen smuggler is boarded by Magnan security, knowing that they will find the contraband hidden away in the ship.
Somnium Void is a game of adventure and heroism in the far future. Players will travel to different worlds like the ashen Hollow and the cyberpunk planet of Zero, making allies, enemies and credits. All the while the great powers that be are locked into a paranoid struggle that will likely pull the players into a story of intrigue and war. Whether you want to play a game that’s all about exploring new worlds and fighting aliens or whether you would prefer to get involved in politics and strategy, Somnium Void can be played in different ways. There is no one true way to play. Players can take on the role of smugglers, diplomats, assassins, Somnium Guardians, technopriests and more – the only limit is the imagination.
Features
- 10 character archetypes created especially for space opera fun
- 7 races, including some weird and wonderful aliens
- Rules for spaceship combat
- 3 star systems, 15 planets
- A list of allies and villains
- Lots of useful random tables for generating your adventures
Perilous Deeps
And here is some love for the Dungeon World/Apocalypse World Engine fans here at year’s end. A chart-climber, and for good reason, as Perilous Deeps not only provides some perfect examples of how to craft a delve for AWE gaming, but it’s also a spot-on “Let’s game tonight, right now!” rescue package.
How do you write a dungeon for Dungeon World? In this 72-page, fully-illustrated collection you will find six different approaches, inspired in part by the dungeon creation guidelines in The Perilous Wilds.
These “deeps” include:
- A citadel of glass, shimmering above the dunes in “Uncertain Reflections,” by Joe Banner
- The burial place of a great elven hero in “Brightrock Barrow,” by Jeremy Strandberg
- The earthly fane of unearthly parasites, in “Those Who Make Vows,” by Johnstone Metzger
- The folly of a prideful Cyclopean sorcerer, in “The Pit of Vanzwink,” by Jason Lutes
- A house of many doors that open into worlds beyond, in “Eesha’s Gulf,” by Dungeon World co-author Adam Koebel
- A subterranean pyramid, riddled with unspeakable horrors in “Raising Hell Under the Holy Mountain,” by Claytonian
Demon Hunters
Happy New Year, Everyone!
Sorry for missing yesterday – it was a very full day `round these parts. To make up for it, there’s a Bonus Pick to follow this one – which is another run at the hilarious and exciting setting that is Demon Hunters (this time in a Kickstarted FATE iteration).
Vampires infesting the mayoral office. Lycanthropes prowling the suburbs. Another kraken making its way upstate along the river. Crazed cultists masquerading as door-to-door religious nuts. Every one of them edging the world one more step toward the next demonic apocalypse.
In your line of work, that’s called Tuesday.
You are an agent of the Brotherhood of the Celestial Torch, hand-picked to serve as Earth’s first and last line of defense against the servants of Darkness. Oh sure, there are others in the Brotherhood who seem more hand-picked than you were, and yes, you probably only work out of a small office somewhere in Michigan or Wyoming or South Dakota, but when it comes to dealing out the damage to the infernal instruments of Hell taking over that shopping mall or the Craz-E-Mart, the buck stops with you.
Lock and load, baby.
This book—packed with tabletop roleplaying rules based on the Fate RPG system—has everything you need for playing Demon Hunters and creating badass adventures so they can strut their stuff. Produced as a result of a highly successful Kickstarter project, it’s got random charts, monster stats, examples, illustrations, page numbers, and a ton of fancy words. But best of all, it’s got you and your imagination to kick off one hell of a good time.
Dice not included.
Demon Hunters and Demon Hunters: Dead Camper Lake are cult-hit films by Dead Gentlemen Productions, creators of The Gamers and its sequel, The Gamers: Dorkness Rising.
Fantasy 6×6 Tiles
And, as promised, today’s Bonus Pick, DramaScape’s hugely versatile downloadable figure-scale terrain maps. Usable for real tables and virtual ones, this set is under that amazing Pay What You Want scheme that let’s you grab the lot for what you feel it’s worth (and what you can afford).
Just a wine cellar? Sure. But I have heard the screams at night. There is more to that cellar than at first glance.”—The Butler
Fantasy Tiles includes six unique modular 6” x 6“ tiles with two doors that can be used to make a small dungeon in fantasy games.
Fantasy Tiles is intended for use in fantasy, horror, or medieval historical era games.
Adventure hook for use with this map:
What Lies Beneath: Attending a party at a rich noble’s mansion, the group enjoys a fully catered dinner, plenty of wine and ale, and entertainment. In a lull in the festivities or a trip to the bathroom, the butler tries to speak with one of the Player Characters in private. The butler wants them to investigate the wine cellar below. He says he hears screams at night when grabbing wine or ale from the cellar.
It’s up to the Player Character to tell the group and investigate or ignore the butler’s request.
As the party continues, more and more people start falling asleep as they consume more and more of the food and drink. Even the group starts to feel tired and sleepy. With each new slumbering guest, it becomes harder to slip away from the party.
Eventually even the group succumbs to unconsciousness…
~~~~~
And here we are, entering 2016. As for myself, it's a very surreal number, as I sit here listening to 80s songs and still refusing to consider them "classics" or "adult contemporary." Nonetheless, it's true that we're all getting a bit older (I turn 50 in a couple of days, as a matter of fact), but I remain elated in my continuing love for the roleplaying game hobby.
Heck, we got in a session of Carinn's "The Crew" campaign yesterday, before New Year's Eve festivities (which included Ticket to Ride, Star Realms, and Are You a Werewolf?, because gamers will game). Tonight, we're gathering for another round of some kind of gaming at some friends' house. Tomorrow, a joint birthday celebration (at which I can only imagine there will be yet more games), and then I am running my Modern Gods game, Storm Wardens: The Lighthouse on Sunday.
Yeah, I may be getting older, but those dice roll on. Hope it's the same for all of you this year, as...
The Adventure Continues!
~SPF
