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Messages - Cthuluzord

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91
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Red Markets Alpha Playtest
« on: January 31, 2014, 06:31:36 PM »
Please note that what follows is a VERY rough draft and subject to extensive change before publication. Red Markets is the intellectual property of Hebanon Games and Caleb Stokes.

Ubiq and LifeLines

Austin Palbicke grew up in a rural Texas trailer with no internet and less opportunity. He didn't see his first functioning Wifi connections until he switched high schools at 16, but he was instantly hooked. By the time he grew into a multi-billionaire through his software start-ups, he had already planned the Ubiq system in his head. "Nobody, no matter how poor," he said at the launch, "has to be cut-off anymore." If we Takers could still believe in anything, we'd inscribe that under a stained glass window in the church built for the poor dead bastard.

Ubiq utilizes thousands of high altitude weather balloons composed of prototype synthetic fabrics, each carrying a solar-powered, self-sustaining satellite transmitter and server. Solar winds shift the balloon cloud at all points around the globe, an ever-shifting pattern of coverage that is unbreakable for more than a few minutes at a time. The signal was meant to be everywhere, and everything could be managed from the Ubiq compound built in the Colorado mountains: an entirely green tech start-up city powered by an experimental geo-thermal reactor that cost more to build than the GDP of most developed nations. It was in beta when the Crash started, and as Ubiq programmers transmitted desperate pleas for help over the snarls of their cannibalistic coworkers outside, it looked like it was never going to get beyond the testing phase.

But then, after weeks with the power out, after starving in pitch-black basements under the government orders, the signal came back on. What few laptops could be charged suddenly had email. Cellphones, long since abandoned, had reception. All survivors needed was a hand crank or a solar panel...

One of the programmers had survived and, somehow, gotten Ubiq online. She called herself Gnat. Her forum was the LifeLines. She whispered the truth in all our ears.

Ubiq had been keeping an eye on everything while the rest of us huddled inside. The government blackout, the destruction of the United States, was just a stall tactic. They were marshaling forces, pulling back to beyond the Mississippi in preparation for the establishment of the safe zones. Gnat had found their traffic since they worm piggybacking signals using backdoors the NSA had wormed into the Ubiq signal, and all of us got to see their plans.

Fall back. Order everyone to stay inside at all costs. Use the entirety of the armed forces to secure the Mississippi and cordon off infected Eastern cities. And wait. Wait until the infected died and their puppeteer-ed corpses got dry, brittle, and slow. Wait for torpor and rigor to set in...then clear them out of the Eastern states using every round in the armory and every soldier that had ever enlisted. Launch a full-scale assault to take back the country, but only half of it. The West was to be cut off like a gangrenous limb.

Gnat posted their emails, then told us to run.

The rush on the bridges over the Mississippi was insanity. People thronged. Fresh outbreaks occurred. The Blight’s body count paled in comparison to those desperate fools that tried to swim across the river. Realizing the dam would break, the government backpedaled and set up checkpoints, stripping and checking all comers for infection. They'd never meant to abandon us, they claimed. This was all part of a plan. They called it the Recession.

But even when all the power was out, before they knew Gnat had their number, they never wrote down their plans to nuke the Eastern Canadian cities. Pre-preemptive genocide, they called it later. When the sun rose in the North in the middle of the night, then again, and again, those of us still waiting at the bridges knew that they were done making concessions. The bridges were blown and mined a few hours later; the border shut down. The West was closed off by a mighty river and a 200 mile long manned wall spanning from its mouth to the Great Lakes. And there was no one left in the North to become infected.

The country was divided: those of us safe in the Recession...and those of us written off as the Loss.

92
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Red Markets Alpha Playtest
« on: January 31, 2014, 06:30:43 PM »
Please note that what follows is a VERY rough draft and subject to extensive change before publication. Red Markets is the intellectual property of Hebanon Games and Caleb Stokes

The Crash

So that’s what we know about the Blight so far: five years and a mountain range of corpses later.

Back when it started, the only thing certain was that people were eating each other. And we knew what that reminded us of.

Honestly, the zombie movies killed as many of us as they saved. It’s a hell of trip to scroll through the old news archives and watch the transition. In the first week, the article titles were enthusiastic click-bait, almost gleeful to report acts of “supposed” cannibalism. But then they devolve to skeptical disbelief, earnest pleading, and, finally, dire and clinical evacuation orders.

The films initially caused overconfidence. In the early days, certain fools treated  the outbreaks like sport, confidently leaving their homes with nothing but a hunting rifle and getting run down by the sprinting, screaming, and insane Vectors. The slowness wasn't there yet; not enough time had passed to enter torpor. It took days for the infection to kill its host, and another after that for the rigor to set in. We thought they'd never slow down in those first weeks, that they would run the whole race down. We were almost right.

And we couldn't figure out how it had come from every direction at once. The only explanation was a God-ordered apocalypse (it still might be). None of us considered Latency. None of us considered that a few people might be Immune, or that the infection might not take hold with every exposure. After all, what self-respecting pandemic advertises the second it hits a host? Better to let some run, go home, give their family sloppy kisses, and then eat the neighbors. We know this now, a few years and a lot of dead relatives too late. The few statistics gathered in the fallback in the Recession suggest that humans killed more Latent and Immune than the monsters did. A bite meant a bullet back then, regardless. In many places, it still does.

The movies were responsible for the insane paranoia and overreaction: the terror of a cultural nightmare suddenly realized. Entire towns were wiped out without a single confirmed report of infection. Hoarding and looting started almost immediately when there was still plenty left. It wasn't like now, where morality is for dead men and legends, and the rest of us are trapped in the math of the Loss. People thought being a survivor meant being an asshole, just because that’s what Romero had taught them.

But we knew to aim for the head, though. We knew that quarantine would lead to hard choices, ruthless betrayals necessary for the survival of a species. We knew that a virus that behaves like a fungus, and a bacteria, and a parasite, AND an animal was too far beyond our scope to cure, and we didn't waste time trying. We knew what we were seeing by the second day of news reports, and we aimed for the head. That’s probably the only reason anyone is left alive.

At least the movies provided some advice, which is more than could be said for every other form of existent media. Early panic led to the suppression of the news outlets, outright censorship and government lies meant to “protect us” from ourselves. Thus came our ironic term for the zombies: Casualties, the bloodless alternative to the word we were all thinking. “LA took Casualties” or “St. Louis lists Casualties” or your hometown “…now had Casualties to report.” And by report, they meant scream helplessly into a webcam as they were eaten alive.

I think it was Zisek who said that we can all imagine the end of the world, but nobody can imagine an end to capitalism. Turns out he was dead on. Before long, our leaders were using the term “need to know” more for profit than protection, trying to get rich from the war before ensuring it could be won. They told to all get underground. Hole-up. The cavalry was on its way.

But then LifeLines came online and the Gnat set us straight. We learned that the new reality was just more of the old. Death remained a constant...but so did Taxes.

93
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: Red Markets Alpha Playtest
« on: January 31, 2014, 06:29:21 PM »
Please note that what follows is a VERY rough draft and subject to extensive change before publication. Red Markets is the intellectual property of Hebanon Games and Caleb Stokes

The Blight

Here’s everything we know about it, or have been allowed to know:

0: Classification:

We don’t know what it is. It behaves like a virus or bacteria for large portions of its life cycle, but develops complex physical structures given a long enough timeline, suggesting some sort of asexually reproducing parasite. But, unlike anything else in the animal kingdom, the damn thing seems to violate the Conservation of Energy, producing kinetic force even in cases where the infected hasn’t ingested protein or any other food source. It’s either the most remarkably efficient organism ever – converting energy from photosynthesis, heat absorption, and a number of other sources simultaneously – or a manmade substance engineered and yet to be understood. People are throwing around the word nanotechnology a lot lately…

Then there are the Aberrant, which, if they actually exist, imply everything from alien fungus to supernatural plague to new stage of human evolution.

Like I said, WE DON’T KNOW. Or, as an even more unsettling possibility, someone knows and doesn’t want to tell.

1: Infection:

Infection occurs from direct contact with infected fluids: spit, blood, saliva, sexual fluids, or pure Blight (that black stuff they bleed). Not every bite or exposure is enough; five years of hindsight have produced documented cases of exposure without infection, which were later proven not to be Latency or Immunity when a second exposure produced full-transformation.

Immunity complicates things immensely, as we know it exists but have no idea why. Certain individuals can’t be infected no matter how many exposures occur. Science has determined that it has something to do with bone marrow, and they’ve determined that a processed form designed for direct injection can cause Blight in the midst of initial viral amplification to go dormant (thus developing the drug Supressin K-7864). Other than that, the Immune share no known commonality: they have no common sex, upbringing, diet, race, age, blood type, or ancestry. Medical science is racing to find the magic factor…usually by cutting it out of the poor bastards with document Immunity. A lot of doctors regret the thousands of potential golden guinea pigs shot for harmless wounds (cold bites, as they are called) during the initial outbreak.

The injection of Supressin K-7864 directly after a hot bite can prevent the development of symptoms, though the Latent condition has also been recorded as occurring inexplicably and spontaneously. Latents are infection carriers, able to spread the Blight by all the same means of a Casualty, but they retain their mental faculties and life. The Blight amplifies in the system without attacking the brain, entering a dormant state. The only sign of Latency is persistent necrosis around the bite area, caused during the transition from active Blight to its dormant/reproductive state. A single kiss from a Latent loved one has been the cause of many an outbreak, and their blood remains another valuable resource in researching the Blight. Worse, the continual reproduction of the Blight even in its dormant states means that, after the death of a Latent, the virus goes live within seconds.

This creates a Vector, which is the fate of 98% of the population after receiving a hot bite.

2. Vectors

Upon infection, the Blight cells (or whatever they are) amplify in the bloodstream at a speed unprecedented in the history of viruses, bacteria, or fungi. Some documented cases report as many as a couple of days passing before full transformation, but many transform within a matter of minutes. The process is so fast that many victims, torn apart by other Vectors, are eventually reanimated into Casualties even after death; hot Blight needs only a partial journey through the circulatory system before reanimation becomes inevitable.

In cases where the body is infected but escapes violent death, the cells of the victim serve as fuel for the Blight as it attacks and converts blood vessels first. This leads to the hemorrhaging and bloody vomit typical of the freshly infected.

Once distributed throughout the circulatory system, the primary activity occurs in the brain. Dilation of pupils become irregular and is followed by a sense of euphoria, then confusion, muscle tremors, and slurred speech. The hormonal dump follows – a pituitary explosion of stress chemicals – and leads to the first violent tendencies. Predatory instincts develop around the time all higher brain functions begin to completely break down. This causes the unfortunate, psychologically scarring “apologies” victims commonly report as being screamed by some Vectors when they first begin to infect, kill, and eat loved ones.

Vectors are extremely fast and very infectious. They bleed from every orifice and wound, and their fluids are in the midst of a frenzy of Blight reproduction that can carry over to victims easily. All governors of physical exertion are destroyed in the corruption of the brain, meaning that even physically weak individuals can move with uncharacteristic speed and ignore mortal trauma for disturbing amounts of time.

The Vectors remain dependant upon the brain stem to function. As with all Casualties, a headshot is the only way to ensure immobility.

3. Death

Due to combination internal hemorrhaging, trauma, overexertion, exposure, dehydration, and starvation, all Vectors qualify for medical definitions of death within a matter of hours or days after transformation. The actual time of death is difficult to pinpoint since the corpse remains animate. Signs include slowed hemorrhaging, stiffness due to rigor, gastrointestinal bloating, and a pallid skin tone.

In all but the most robust individuals, transition from Vector to Casualty involves a period of torpor where the corpse appears inanimate and still. Twitching may occur, but the overwhelming predatory instinct that define Blight infection relax for a number of hours as the victim enters the so-called “puppet” stage.

4. Casualties
 
According to pre-Recession science, dead things cannot move. The dead have no way to metabolize energy into electrical impulses to trigger muscle twitch. Technically, that logic holds even though the dead walk and kill the living.

The Blight uses it’s torpor to focus on metabolizing dead flesh, either consumed during the Vector phase or from the victim’s own tissues, into “strands.” These black, fibrous monofilaments duplicate throughout the body rampantly, occasionally even bursting from the flesh in the form of black spines or bulbous tumors. The purpose, near as we can tell, is to form a redundant nervous and musculature system on the wasted anatomy of the human’s. These strands originate in the stomach, quickly metabolizing consumed proteins and the victims own intestines (thus the gaunt look typical of most Casualties). A separate clutch develops in the cortex, mirroring human neurophysiology almost exactly.

When the strands have infiltrated all muscle tissues, they begin to excrete a viscous, liquefied form of the Blight known colloquially as “juice.” This substance has remarkable preservative properties unseen in other organic compounds and serves to pickle the dead flesh rotting around it. While not a perfect chemical, the black juice preserves the tissues of the dead victims for many years beyond the human norm and makes consuming the dead flesh toxic to all carrion eaters, even those not directly susceptible to Blight infection.

When the torpor ends, the Blight has essentially become a multiple-cellular parasite, sending nerve impulses down its strands to trigger unsophisticated muscle twitch reactions in the host. It’s suggested that the drive to consume flesh arises from the metabolic need to fuel these electrical impulses, but if this is the case, the Blight has the most remarkably efficient metabolism imaginable, approaching a 1-to-1 transfer ratio. Other theories posit that starving Casualties supplement their energy needs through some sort of photosynthesis located in the breeches of Blight strands, or that the creature operates off a form of heat absorption.

Regardless, the durable strands “puppet” the corpse around, now typically referred to as a Casualty, and repeat the behavior of a Vector, albeit slower and less coordinated. The strands are so redundant and resistant to damage that only total body destruction can render the body immobile. Thankfully, the impulses that drive the creature forward are routed through the central location of the brain, meaning that destruction of the brain stem or separation of the head will render the body inert.

5. The Aberrant

The existence of Aberrant types is widely debated in the medical community. No active specimens have ever been recovered, but supposed witnesses account this to the remarkable danger posed by these creatures. Accounts vary wildly and smack of urban legend, but enough reports occur simultaneously in geographically distinct areas to suggest at least some validity to the claims.

If the Aberrant do exist, they suggest that the Blight is entering a new evolutionary stage or has some even more complex stage of its lifecycle. As the existence of run-of-the-mill Casualties is problematic enough and reported sightings are rarely reputable, the scientific community has done very little work trying to categorize this supposed final stage.

94
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Red Markets Alpha Playtest
« on: January 31, 2014, 06:27:34 PM »
Okay, I'm at the point where I've written more than enough rules for Red Markets to break, change, and discard. Doing anything more would be building on uncertain foundations. Here's what I've got written up so far.

Drafted
•   Basic Mechanics
•   Terminology (my personal zombie nomenclature)
•   Tools (tags for gear and rules for spending charges)
•   Gear list
•   Casualties (rules for fighting zombies)
•   Combat
•   Humanity (Sanity system, basically)
•   Negotiations (the social combat mechanic to determine prices)
•   Outfit Sheet (character sheet for the company owned by the PCs)
•   Reputation (how your outfit is perceived, and how it helps or harms you)
•   Character Backgrounds (think in terms of classes or races in traditional RPGs)
•   Character sheet
•   Truncated Setting Description (see below)

I'm going to wait and see how all of that (about 25K words worth) holds up before going on to write the other stuff that will need to be beta-tested

Not Yet Drafted

•   Short fiction
•   Style-guide (will need it for the drafting process, and it will let me farm out portions as freelancing if the KS does well, finished the project faster)
•   Expanded Setting Description (this will be IC voice from metaplot characters, describing the Recession safe zones, Enclaves, The Loss, International setting, and continental US)
•   Competition (cultists, military, rival outfits, and other human enemies)
•   Aberrant (special zombies not to be trifled with...think zombie animals or Zombie jesus for Land of the Dead, plus other monsters as designed by Caleb)
•   Enclave Rules (running contracts out of a community settlement instead of a self-contained base)
•   Interlude Rules (a story telling mechanic akin to a road movie, used while travelling to jobs. There’s something similar to what I’m shooting for in the Savage Worlds Ultimate Edition)
•   Travel Rules and Random Encounters (d100 random roll tables!!! Mwhahahaha!!!)
•   Vehicle Rules (AUTODUEL!!!)
•   Mass Combat Rules
•   Contacts (Networking and reputation economy stuff)
•   Markets (not everyone is capitalist anymore: how do you transfer the rules to barter, controlled, or socialist economies?)
•   Character Advancement
•   Character Generation

Now, it might seem a little odd not to have those last two finished before the Alpha starts, but let me explain my thinking: since the game is about economics, achieving a balance early in the game is key. If players get powerful later through smart decisions and saving Bounty (the in-game currency), there are many options the GM has to make the game more challenging. But if they are too powerful or too weak from the start, the game won't work. I need to find a base number of starting character points and bounty to give level-one's, so to speak. Only after I have that baseline can I codify a process for creating a unique character concept as a player-facing choice.

Furthermore, people are going to think up character concepts I've never dreamed of before. If I can build as many of those into the system from the start and balance them with the game's and setting's economy, Red Markets is going to be more fun to play.

So I'm posting a description of the setting in this thread so people can pitch character concepts that might fit in with the world of Red Markets. I really encourage the RPPR crew to describe what they want to play here, but pitching is open to everyone. I'll try to build each character, then give that described character to the player that pitched it, or draw it at random for another playtest. There are going to be a lot of one-shots before we try the more extended play; the more varied individual characters we have to choose from, the better.

INSTRUCTIONS: read the setting descriptions (next few post), then write up as detailed a character concept as you care to in this thread. Since you don't really know about the mechanics, keep the description narrative. What does the character do well? Why are they a Taker? What happened to trap them out in the Loss? What is their retirement plan? How did they come to meet their crew? Who are their dependents? Do they live in an Enclave, the Recession, or back at the base?

I'll build the character and we'll throw it into a one-shot when we start alpha testing in a month or so. I really look forward to seeing what everyone comes up with, and I hope to get this out of the way so I can give a beta to everyone's home group soon.

Thanks!

UPDATE:

Red Markets is ready to play. We are six sessions into the macro playtest, and I've got 115 pages of rules ready to go. Things are going well with the RPPR crew, and I’m psyched to run some games for fans. It looks like GenCon scheduling is solidifying, so here’s what I’m thinking:

I’m doing panel talks at 11am and 1pm Thursday, Friday, and Saturday at GenCon (please come!). I need to keep evenings free for the RPPR meet-up, the Posthuman Freelancer meeting, traditional Glancy game, and the off-chance I could convince some experienced designers to try it out. That means Red Markets playtests will start about 2:30 pm and end around 6:30 pm. That will give me time to leave the Crown Plaza, make it to an open play-space coordinated through GroupMe (I feel shitty selling tickets to an unfinished game, and tables might all be taken when we arrive somewhere), and run the game before shuttling off to wherever I need to be that evening. I could also run games Wednesday night (depending on when we get in), or after the RPPR meet up (depending on my GenCon endurance roll).

So Red Markets playtests will be unofficial games, played where space is available, from 2:30-6:30 Thurs-Sat. If you are attending the con and want a spot, let me know. I will offer space as available.

Meanwhile, in the future...

If you want to rules to playtest with your own group, I've been filing away every request. I know who you are if you've already told me. I have the “Playing Red Markets” rules done (well, ready to edit, at least), but I’m writing the GM section as we continue recording the RPPR campaign. Additionally, there are no scenarios written outside of my chicken-scratch notebooks. The full workings of a beta playtest won’t be done until I get the school-year wrapped up, but it will certainly be done before GenCon. So if you’re one of those noble souls and want to try the game with some rando’s at the con, you’ll have the ability to do so. Ross might also be running some after-hours Red Markets adventure, to make sure I’m selling a game and not me as a GM.

Fair warning for those looking to playtest at home: I am asking for some dedication. I don’t have time to parse the rules down into the condensed nuggets offered as betas by big studios, and I don’t want to delay the start of the KS any longer by trying to do so. Running the game will basically require reading 2/3rds of the book in a draft format, having your group make characters or copy pregens, and giving one or two example scenarios a shot. It’ll be a big packet for a playtest, bigger so if you’re group is beautiful enough to try one of the campaign modes.

That said, we've got a bitching character sheet done, along with a bunch of helpful handouts, cheat-sheets, manipulatives, and hard-won advice. I also want to see about distributing a preview AP to playtesters, so they can at least hear the game as I envision it as they parse the text. You should all be able to have fun with at least a session or two before something breaks, and I’m eager to get finished so I can hear everyone’s experiences. More on the closed RPPR forum beta as it develops.
Alright, that’s all. Let me know in the thread if you want A) to play at GenCon or B) copy of a future beta and haven’t messaged me yet.

Thanks!

95
Not to distract from this great games conversation, but there's a new episode of RPPR GDW up.

http://slangdesign.com/rppr/2014/01/game-designer-workshop/game-designer-workshop-episode-3-game-mechanics/

The bleeding out mechanics seem interesting. It's rare for a game to get stuff like that right and still be fun. It seems you're on the same track.

As far as the Slingstone idea goes, you have my blessing. I will say that, if it were me, I'd look into using the GUMSHOE OGL. Night's Black Agent does mismatched combat really well (Vampires are basically superheroes), and already has good mechanics for investigation and social engineering. I'd reskin those for a supers game and focus my energies on the setting.

96
Based on seeing nothing at all of the product  :o I think that both tissue layers AND hit locations might be too much to keep track of. Complex damage is good for the reasons you say, but if calculating damage lengthens the amount of time in the combat for the next actual blow to land, it's going to feel like it's taking away from the experience...ESPECIALLY since damage brings negative consequences that some players don't tend to like at all, regardless of narrative.

Complex damage is good, but I'd just make sure it doesn't slow down combat more than it has to. WT is my favorite hit locations system in that regard.

97
General Chaos / Re: GenCon 2014 and the 5th RPPR Fan Meet-up
« on: January 19, 2014, 01:57:01 PM »
I can't really afford the IGDN rates, and we DEFINITELY can't afford a booth all to ourselves, but the ArcDream guys have been nice enough to offer me a spot on their table, which I'm pretty sure is how Ross is selling too.

98
General Chaos / Re: GenCon 2014 and the 5th RPPR Fan Meet-up
« on: January 19, 2014, 11:03:39 AM »
My attendance still depends on whether I can find a teaching job or not (GenCon really sucks at scheduling around schools and has for years), but I've submitted a bunch of events anyway. Opportunities look pretty bleak on the employment front, so in all likelihood I'll have the free time to attend.

So far I'm going to be running Bryson Springs and The Fall Without End in CoC and ToC, respectively. I'll also be running a Better Angels game called Think of the Children (it's the evolved version of the Spared and Spoiled game recently posted). Finally, in anticipation of Red Markets, I'm going to be doing a panel with Rob Boyle and Ross about using economic theory in games called "Money is the Root of all Fun."

We might be doing a RPPR's Game Designer's Workshop panel as well. I've just got to get some ad copy and scheduling hammered out with Ross Payton's China-loving ass first :-)

Any other suggestions for panels, other than me screaming BUY MY BOOK at every passerby in the hallways.

99
@Jace

I think you can monkey with Fate enough to get it to do anything, especially after playing the wetting of BaseRaiders in WT and switching over to the BaseRaiders system later.

I am learning first hand how horrible it can be to try and design a rules system from scratch, but at the same time I get the impression that in the industry there is this new idea that since FATE exists there is no need to design new systems; just write your book as a FATE product. I hope that isn't the case for long (and some old timers that were there for the first days of GURPS tell me it wont last). I have nothing against FATE, but even a less popular new system contributes to the discussion of design. I think, even if Red Markets is a failure, I will have learned much more about RPGs in general for having tried to design new mechanics for it rather than adapting it to something.

So that's my two cents.

100
David's whole thing was a crow theme. It will become VERY apparent as the game goes on. No one stuck to their schtick harder.

101
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: RPPR Game Designer's Podcast
« on: January 14, 2014, 09:14:52 PM »
My plan is to alpha playtest with RPPR, write as much of the book (setting material, rules, gear table, etc) as I can afterwards, plan the kickstarter, launch it, then ship the draft out as a beta-playtest to backers of a certain tier

Hopefully, I'll have enough of an idea about how the final product will turn out by then to get layout and art rolling while backers test. Once I get some feedback, I'll make changes, send a second draft to a professional editor, and then try to get things ready for print.

So kinda like FateCore, only with WAYYYYYyyyyy less money :-)

102
Role Playing Public Radio Podcast / Re: RPPR Game Designer's Podcast
« on: January 14, 2014, 05:52:36 PM »
Cool! I'll keep those builds in mind!

The alpha is nearing completion, but I don't think I'm going to start the playtest with character generation rules. I want to get a feel of the mechanic and balance before I codify a system for building characters. What I'll probably do is write a short description of the basic setting here and let people in the playtest pitch me character concepts. Then I'll try to build it for them. If they're too powerful or weak kittens, we'll try and get it working so I have a point to aim for when i do character creation rules

But when I put it up, I'd like everybody to pitch stuff! It'll give me more ideas and challenge me to make a char gen system where people can make those concepts.

103
I thought I'd get our little repository of knowledge going. Here's a link to my latest blog post. I talk about the "joys" of POD publication.

http://hebanon.blogspot.com/2014/01/learning-to-pod.html

104
This is awesome! Keep us all posted on how things are going.

BTW, Ross and I recorded an episode in November. That should be posted sometime when he is in China.

105
RPGs / Re: Pastoral Manor in Call of Cthulhu? and other Crazon Things!
« on: January 09, 2014, 03:11:44 PM »
Dude! That is awesome! Could I repost this on my blog?

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