Sunday, December 25, 2011

I GIVE YOU PRESENTS

    Merry Christmas, everyone! I've decided to get in on the Christmas spirit and release not one but two books, the revised Dungeons the Dragoning core book (Version 1.5) and the first full public release of Book 2: For a Few Subtitles More. I've bookmarked them using Infix PDF Editor, which saved me an assload of time doing it manually.



Dungeons the Dragoning Core Version 1.5:
http://www.mediafire.com/?7a818758q47pruw

Dungeons: The Dragoning: 40,000: 7th Edition: Book 2: For a Few Subtitles More Version 1.2:
http://www.mediafire.com/?jj1dn48xno2rolk

    Get 'em while they're hot and let me know what you think. A lot of small changes were made to each. I daresay it's the best release yet!

Sunday, November 20, 2011

National Novel Writing Month 40,000

IN THE GRIM DARKNESS OF THE ALTERNATE FUTURE, THERE IS ONLY KRIEG. AND ALSO PAX.

We're at 40k total words, in case you couldn't guess.

Saturday, November 19, 2011

National Novel Writing Month Zero-One-Niner

Today's update is late because of dragons.

Story is once again after the break. Tilda ruins everything.

Friday, November 18, 2011

National Novel Writing Month VVVIII

Oh god I can't into roman numerals

Today, we have one wedding and a funeral. Except one of those things is a lie.

Thursday, November 17, 2011

National Novel Writing Month Sweet Seventeen

Another day, another two thousand words or so.

New bits of story after the break. Today, Sharks!

Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Tuesday, November 15, 2011

National Novel Writing Month 15

The month is half over and I'm already at 30k words. Going well so far this year. Typically I get a little behind.

Story after the break.

Sunday, November 13, 2011

National Novel Writing Month XIII

This marks a special occasion! We are now more than halfway to the goal, at over 26k of my 50k goal.

Story after the break!

Friday, November 11, 2011

Wednesday, November 9, 2011

National Novel Writing Month part Niner






I'd just like to note that in doing research for this book, I have found some really amazing interweb sites. I'll probably publish a full bibliography of hilarious sources later, but even the most cursory glance at a google search for orgone, orgonite, deadly orgone radiation, and so forth turns up an entire world of people with fascinating beliefs and rituals.

At least it makes more sense than homeopathy. More story after the break.

Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Sunday, November 6, 2011

NNWM Part Sex

AND NOW, FOR ANOTHER EPISODE OF NATIONAL NOVEL WRITING MONTH.

I seriously need a title for this thing. But at least in this part, we start getting into some of the pseudoscience!

Saturday, November 5, 2011

National Novel Writing Month part V

Here we go again, writing novels even on lazy Saturdays. This brings us to just over 10k words, just slightly more than a fifth of the goal.

In this episode: MORE FIGHTING, MORE EXPLOSIONS, MORE DEATH


Friday, November 4, 2011

NNWM Part Feur

Woo. Day 4. More story. You know the drill.

I'm also in the process of compiling notes and changes for DtD Book 2 and the upcoming 1.5 version. With a team of editors and playtesters, the bugs should be out of both soon enough.

Thursday, November 3, 2011

NNWM Part C

And today, we have the third part of my 2011 novel. In this entry, there is intrigue! Death! Explosions! Everyone likes death and explosions.

Let me know if you love or hate it. It's not going to make me stop either way, but at least I'll know. As before, it's after the break to keep the page from being too cluttered up.

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

National Novel Writing Month part II

The second part of my NaNoWriMo work. As again, read it after the break.

 If anyone else is participating in NaNoWriMo, let me know. Maybe we can swap techniques and tips for getting through the month. My main tip is to make sure you have whisky on hand. Nothing makes words flow better than whisky neat.


Tuesday, November 1, 2011

National Novel Writing Month

Hello, all. Every November, I participate in National Novel Writing Month. Though I have little time for it this year, I'm still going to do my best to make my goal of 2000 words a day. And since I happen to have this nice little blog, I'm going to post my updates here to bother people.

This year, I'm writing a pseudoscience-punk alternate-history story. I don't know that many people have tried to write pseudoscience-punk, but we'll see. It doesn't hit into the punk part of it in this first section. I'm still setting the stage a bit. Let me know what you think in the comments. Currently it's untitled, but as things develop and I reveal more about the story, I'll start asking for ideas on that. I'm awful with titles. And names. But that's besides the point.

Anyway, I'll put the writing in after the break, so as to not clutter this page up too much. I hope you enjoy!

Wednesday, September 14, 2011

Book 2, still plodding along.

Well, I have the vehicle rules all but finished - I still need to get the weapons balanced and maybe add some sidebars or reminders - but they're definitely functional. I've used them to build a car, tank, jet fighter, and a couple of mecha. I was expecting to have to go and change a lot of costs as I went though, but everything came out better than expected! I'm working on the Alignment section now, though, and I thought I'd start putting the rough drafts for that up right now, as it's a bit touchier. I'm going to start today with the four primary Chaos gods, then tomorrow I'll put up the three other Chaos alignments. If you see any problems with the descriptions, don't like the cults, think the morality stuff needs to be changed, let me know and I'll see what I can do to make it better for everyone. :)

Just to clarify before I drop the descriptions - the cults described are just sample cults, many more variations of worship exist for each god, but I felt it'd be good to have a starting point. The morality chart is a list of sins - at Morality X, Y is a sin, etc, so people know when to roll. Same thing as WoD's morality and Paths, really.


KHORNE
    Basic Beliefs
    Khorne is a god of battle, blood, and honor. He asks his followers to kill in his name and to offer up the blood and skulls of their enemies to him. Many of his followers are indiscriminate killers and murderers, but Khorne doesn't care for the blood of the innocent or weak. He wants the blood of the strong, for warriors to fight other warriors in the greatest of all battles. There's no glory or honor unless there is a challenge.

    Cult 1: The Dethkvlt
    Members of the Dethkvlt show their devotion to Khorne through the art of ritual murder. As part of their initiation, they must kill an armed opponent with their bare hands. On the whole, they function as something of a big game hunting club, going after only the most dangerous and exciting prey.
    Most members of the Dethkvlt try to make every fight fair, giving the victims every chance to fight back, evening the odds, and tilting them in their opponent's favor when in doubt. There is no honor or glory in an easy hunt. The more skilled and dangerous the opponent the more exciting the battle at the climax.
    Many in the Dethkvlt have their own personal preferences for prey. Some limit themselves to removing criminals and other dangerous elements, making the Wheel a better place and satisfying their blood lust at the same time. Others might only prey on police officers, women, other killers, or animals.

    Cult 2: Outer Heaven
    Outer Heaven was created as a place for warriors to be free from politics and agendas. It was funded by the deep pockets of an elite group of mercenaries who had been abused and treated as mere tools by governments and people alike. Building a space station outside of the reach of the most important crystal spheres, they ruled over a society where soldiers would be honored.
    Khorne's worship quickly became the primary religion on the station. The majority of soldiers already spilt blood in his name, and others converted. They took on missions and operations of their own accord, and the only rule was that everyone involved in a mission had to fight - no one could use them to further their goals unless they were willing to fight for them too.
    Outer Heaven was destroyed by political forces after only a decade. The people who had been living there scattered to the stars, but they brought the dream of Outer Heaven with them. On many worlds, there are enclaves and outposts that follow the rules set down before - to honor and respect those who fight.

    Khorne's Morality
10    Giving mercy to a fellow warrior.
9    Allowing another to kill an innocent.
8    Traveling with a spellcaster.
7    Showing disrespect for another warrior.
6    Using stealth or trickery to avoid a fight.
5    Breaking your word of honor.
4    Killing an innocent.
3    Allowing a spell to be cast on you.
2    Refusing a challenge of combat.
1    Casting a Spell.

    SPECIAL: Khorne's Champions
    Khorne hates magic. If you have Khorne as your alignment there's a good chance that one or more of your Exalt or racial powers will just be impossible to use. Thankfully, there is another option. If you have an alignment to Khorne and you would gain a rank in a spellcasting school from your Exalt or racial powers, you may instead gain a rank in a sword school.

NURGLE
    Basic Beliefs
    There's life and there's death. They're really two sides of the same coin. A child is born, grows up to be a man, and dies. A building is built, wears out, and is eventually abandoned. The man's body rots and worms and bacteria thrive. The shell of the building becomes a home for stray animals and people. Everything rots, but rot is just another expression of life. It is inevitable and the ultimate fate of all things. But life is beautiful in all its forms, and one should never hesitate to be kind in the brief blossoming that life has.

    Cult 1: Vectors
    One of Nurgle's most obvious realms of influence is that of disease. The cult of Vectors is arranged around that belief. Their founder had been infected with a terrible disease and went on to spread it to countless others on many worlds. She created death and despair on a huge scale with almost no effort at all.
    After her eventual death, she left behind a number of others who followed in her footsteps. Nurgle protected them from the worst ravages of the disease they carried in exchange for their prayers. They're mostly a ruthless bunch, not caring for the countless people that suffer or die in their wake. Those most in favor with Nurgle take a personal approach to it, guiding people to the other side - though those who die at their hands almost never know the person caring for them caused their sickness.

    Cult 2: Hospitaleers
    While it may seem odd at first glance for those who worship a god of disease and death to run a Hospice, there are in fact many clinics and hospices that ultimately have Nurgle as their patron. The Great Lord of Decay protects his followers against most of the symptoms of terrible diseases, caring for them as his own grandchildren.
    For those who are beyond medical help, one of these Hospices is a welcome way to spend the short remainder of their lives. They aren't grim or terrible places, as Nurgle is not a morbid god, and his followers are gregarious and sentimental, making sure to comfort those who are suffering and allow them to enjoy what they have.
    Though outright cures in Nurgle's hospices are extremely rare, it's not uncommon at all for those who have shown great faith or are simply blessed by the kindly hand of Nurgle to have their disease go into remission or to become asymptomatic carriers.

    Nurgle's Morality
10    Refusing to comfort the sick or the dying.
9    Preserving anything - food, the environment, etc.
8    Doing unnecessary work.
7    Making great shows of emotion, positive or negative.
6    Attempting to chance your own fate.
5    Being unkind to those in need.
4    Curing someone of a disease.
3    Preserving a corpse.
2    Bringing another back from the dead.
1    Attempting to change the fate of the Wheel.

SLAANESH
    Basic Beliefs
    The basic tenets of the worship of Slaanesh are simple and easy for the majority of people to follow - enjoy yourself and don't let anything get in the way. That means not listening to advice, not restricting yourself with social mores. Those who worship Slaanesh have a tendency to fall to gluttony and decadence, and those who are spiritually weak stagnate or destroy themselves in trying to achieve perfection of self and experience. While most equate Slaanesh with lowly pursuits like drugs or sex, anything taken to an excess can be worship to her.

    Cult 1: Noise Marines
    One of the most common ways to worship Slaanesh is with music. The cult of Noise Marines exemplifies this. They're all musicians (of a sort), who have transcended the normal limits of music. Most have had surgery to increase the sensitivity of their hearing far beyond the norm, and then listen to music loud enough to make normal eardrums bleed.
    That's the sort of thing that just happens when normal music stops being enough, when the very experience of music starts becoming dull. The Noise Marines hold massive concerts across the Wheel, almost always with free admission, showcasing the greatest acts they can sign. Because the gatherings tend to plunge entire Crystal Spheres into chaos (that is, breaking laws, not literally converting everyone to Chaos - though that's always a risk as well) the concerts are banned on many worlds. That doesn't stop them, of course. Illegal concerts are more exciting anyway.

    Cult 2: The S Academy
    Everyone wants to be good at something. But being good sometimes isn't enough. You have to be the best. The S Academy caters to those who seek to perfect themselves. It is an elite school. Some would say The elite school. Even getting into the school is a challenge, as they accept less than one hundred students per year, out of literally millions of applications.
    The application process itself is by invitation alone. Agents and former students of the Academy search for talent among the Crystal Spheres, occasionally giving someone the contact information they need to begin the process. Those that actually manage to get into the S Academy and graduate find that every door lies open to them, and their only limit is their ambition.
    The S Academy is ultimately a temple to Slaanesh, and they don't hide that fact. But it isn't a place of orgies and drug abuse, it is, in fact, almost completely devoid of distractions. It's a place to pursue perfection in music, martial arts, writing, whatever caught the eye of the agent who recommended the student to the academy. In the end, most students are left with an almost monomaniacal devotion to their single chosen talent, and it grows to consume their lives.

    Slaanesh Morality
10    Refusing a new, but dangerous, experience.
9    Accepting a flawed experience.
8    Doing something you don't enjoy.
7    Doing less than your best at any task.
6    Refusing to do something you enjoy.
5    Denying another a new experience
4    Showing humility.
3    Not attempting to fix or overcome a flaw.
2    Doing less than your best at an important task.
1    Refusing a new, safe, experience.
   

TZEENTCH
    A god of trickery, magic, and plotting and planning, Tzeentch is a chessmaster who treats his followers as pawns in his great game. His followers like to think themselves as more important pieces, queens and kings on their own little chessboards, or even players in their own right. Even those who know they're only being used hope to grow more important and gain control over their lives and the lives of others. Truth be told, with Tzeentch as a backer and guide, they do often achieve status and power they otherwise wouldn't, though the god never does it for their own benefit.

    Cult 1: The Player's Club
    Some men just want to see what happens when you pull some strings. The Player's Club is an elite group where elaborate events are set up and then the members bet on the outcome. Sometimes they bet on races or fights. Or the outcome of wars that they've started. There's no limit to what they'll wager on or with. Some will offer arcane secrets, gold, or entire worlds.
    The most important thing about the Player's Club is that they always carefully set up their little games in advance. They don't find random events, they cause them. They create unrest and wager which country will be the first to strike, then wager which will win the ensuing war. They'll unleash a plague on a city and bet on the number of deaths. Fund a terrorist group and make wagers on their targets.
    That's not to say that the Player's Club is evil. Or that their motives are evil. They're just agents of change, and change is as often good as it is evil. Ultimately their plotting and planning seems to be about alleviating boredom, but there are hints of a grand design to their plans.

    Cult 2: Illuminati
    There's always a conspiracy behind things, and the ones running that conspiracy probably pray to Tzeentch. The Illuminati is an ancient organization of people who like to run the game of politics from behind the scenes. They have their hands in almost everything, meeting in secret temples and speaking only in code that even they only half-understand.
    Now, when they say 'ancient', it's more appropriate to say 'revival'. Most Illuminati cults are in fact less than a century old, often less than a decade, and the members are more playing at being important than anything else. Or so they think. The cults are layers of secrets on secrets. Some actual members of important conspiracies use them as a way to manipulate the little fish in the pond, as they're comparatively easy to herd. Some cults have, somehow, actually managed to become important enough to deserve their trappings of secrecy and mysticism.

10    Failing to spend at least two hours per day planning and plotting.
9    Failing to kill for the sake of knowledge.
8    Putting another's needs before your plans.
7    Clinging to the old and refusing to change.
6    Refusing to take advantage of a situation.
5    Sharing knowledge with another except as part of a broader plan.
4    Improvising when there's a chance to make a plan.
3    Turning down a chance for increased power.
2    Failing to respect those who possess greater wisdom.
1    Failing to pursue arcane knowledge

I apologize for any strange formatting or errors. I'm just c/ping this from my open notepad workspace.

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

I am still alive, so is book 2.

Howdy, folks! I know it's been a while since I posted anything, but that's mostly because there isn't terribly much I can preview right now. Most of what I've been working on is a bit dry or cross-linked with so many other parts of the book that it'd be mostly useless without the rest of the book backing it up (namely classes and feats). Things are still coming along - despite the temptations of Team Fortress 2. I'm just mostly down to the nitty-gritty stuff with a lot of bulk writing to do. Feat descriptions, chapter openings and the like. Turning dev notes into something other people can use (and learning just how much of a system was all in your head and not actually committed to paper yet).

There's also a bit of artistic work to do, which I am not terribly great at. My photoshop skills are not strong. I've been working on improved page backgrounds from the version seen in the ship rules preview. Because it's a fairly large image, I'll link it rather than posting the whole thing.

Book 2 new page background

Now, there is one part of the book I could use a little help from people on. I haven't started listing the new magical items and artifacts yet, and I'd like to know what people want to see. What are your favorite magical items? Why do you like them (so I can be sure to include the parts you actually care about)? Original ideas are great, too.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Book 2 Preview!

Alright. I'm sorry this took so long to get out, but I have compiled the ship building and ship combat rules that I've been toying around with into a PDF for people to try out. It's still somewhat incomplete, but it should be enough to get people started and get some feedback.

Book 2 Preview: Spelljammers

I can't wait to hear feedback! Try building a ship or two and seeing how it all works. If anything looks broken, needs to be added, or is clearly a mistake (besides spelling - god knows I spell like an Int 1 Barbarian), let me know in the comments, in the rizon chat (#dtdchat) or on the forums.

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

Race Preview: Kobold

    Kobold




    Kobolds are one of the races with little stature in Wheel politics. They're insular, xenophobic, and extremely clever. They, like the Dragonborn, are a client race of the old Draconic Empire. Where the Dragonborn were soldiers and favored servants, the Kobolds toiled in obscurity as miners and builders. After the fall of the Empire they were left to their own devices. And they've done very well for themselves, considering their natural ability (or lack thereof).
    The Kobolds have great industrial and mining ability, reproduce quickly, and have cutthroat business sense that makes them a mercantile force to be reckoned with. Also, they have more literal cutthroat tactics as well. With knives.

    Physical Characteristics
    Average Height: 1.0-1.2m
    Average Weight: 15-20kg
    Languages: Trade, Draconic
    Common Personality Traits: Practical, vengeful, spite-filled, impatient, demanding.
    Common Physical Traits: Shorter than short, ratlike tail, clawed fingers, glowing eyes, yapping voice.
    Example Names: Meepo, Ark'er, K'irk, A'thrin, S'sko, P'kard

    Racial Statistics
    Characteristic Bonus: +1 Charisma or +1 Dexterity
    Skill Bonus: +1 Arcana and Stealth
    Power: Power in the Blood: Kobolds are spiteful and strong-willed enough to demand power now that they can't handle. Once per round as a free action, they may spend two Hit Points to gain a resource point which must be immediately spent. However, this does not count against the number of resource points they may spend in a round.
    Size: 2

    Physical Qualities
    Kobolds are extremely small sentients, and not terribly physically adept compared to most species. For many races, being weak and relatively fragile would turn them cowardly or at least nonviolent. Kobolds are not those races. They're scrappy fighters, and downright mean when they get provoked.
    Kobolds resemble tiny Dragonborn, reptilian humanoids standing only barely more than a meter tall with scaled skin and small ivory horns. Their scales tend toward orange and muddy red, though a rare few are bright blue or green. They never have much of a build. Kobolds are always scrawny and thin. Not that many ever really see them at all. Kobolds almost always wear complete suits of armor, and often void suits as well. This is both a practical consideration and symbolic. Kobolds are miners, and while they're used to mine gasses, no one ever gets used to being crushed under ten tons of rock.
    Kobolds are adapted to conditions that would be very harsh for other races. Their lungs and biologies are adapted to toxic gasses and high pressures. While they can adjust to more normal environments if they spend some time decompressing (though they can just tough it out with some vomiting and pain if they really have to just do it).

    Playing a Kobold
    Kobolds are known for their cunning and bloody-mindedness. They are natural survivors and have managed to hang on in places and against odds that should by all rights be almost impossible. They show up in asteroids, carving out communities in the lower decks of spelljammers, deep underground, and even in middle-class suburbs.
    Most other races have mixed views on Kobolds. They tend to mentally divide Kobolds into ones that have integrated themselves into Wheel society and the ones that act like little more than vermin. Kobolds do this too. K'vend'l are the kobolds who have gone to live among the other races. They tend to be heavily involved with the local marketplaces and often command surprising wealth - they don't care about charity or other silly things like that, just profit. The K'sten'mannav, on the other hand, cling more strongly to tradition, would much rather wall themselves off from the rest of the Wheel than live with it, and they'd never be seen outside of a pressure suit and full armor if they had to interact with other races - though they'd much rather use an interpreter or go-between if at all possible.
    Because Kobolds are just so practical, they don't have many of the cultural niceties that would be considered common courtesy in other races. They will ambush their enemies if at all possible and would rather set traps than put themselves in danger at all.

Friday, May 27, 2011

Exaltation Preview: Wraith

Hey, everyone. Sorry about the sparse updates to this. I've been hard at work on a ship system. It's looking pretty good! It's borrowing a lot from Rogue Trader at the moment (feel free to suggest other ship combat systems or ideas if you've used them or like them), but I've actually pulled a few things from Star Trek Online, mostly some of their options for building ships. It should make for some really versatile shipbuilding.

Anyway, today, I have a new preview - the Wraith exalt! I don't have a pretty picture for this one, I'm afraid. If anyone does, leave me a link in the comments and I'll update this post with it!

Wraith: The Unquiet Dead
    Some people acieve great things in life. That's pretty easy stuff compared to getting things done while you're dead. A Wraith is a ghost, but not just any ghost - they're a ghost that can still affect the living world. They build bodies of ectoplasm that seem nearly alive and wear them like skin suits, forms that almost look like they did while alive, reflecting their somewhat spotty memory.
    The time a Wraith can stay manifested is somewhat limited - they don't have an infinite amount of spiritual energy, and they can only regain their ectoplasmic energy while in the Umbra, that shadowy realm of the dead halfway between the real world and the screaming chaos of the Warp. Every Wraith must return to the Umbra from time to time, and can be forced there by the destruction of their shell.
    No one is sure exactly how a Wraith comes to be. Just having unfinished business can't be enough - plenty of people die with work undone and don't come back as a Wraith. However it happens, Wraiths stay around for a long time. They're effectively immortal (since, after all, they're already dead) until someone goes and kills them. A difficult prospect for anyone who can't enter the Umbra.
    A Wraith makes an excellent thief or assassin, as they're able to get into places others simply can't go, do things others can't manage, and simply have nothing to fear any longer from the prospect of death.

Power Stat: Synergy
Resource Stat: Plasm - A Wraith has maximum Plasm equal to their Synergy plus their Resolve. They cannot recover Plasm in the world of the living. In fact, a Wraith will slowly lose Plasm (at the rate of one per day) unless they surround themselves in the ritual and symbolic trappings of death. While in the Umbra, a Wraith recovers two Plasm per hour.

Static Powers
    Dematerialize - A wraith isn't really a living creature as such. Their bodies are vessels made of ectoplasm that mock life for a time. A wraith may spend one Plasm as a half action to become incorporeal (as per the Phasing trait) for a number of rounds up to their Resolve. A wraith may choose to enter the Umbra instead of becoming incorporeal, though they must then spend one Plasm and a half action to return to their physical form (and thus cannot return if they have only one Plasm remaining). They may not become incorporeal while in the Umbra. A Wraith's personal equipment becomes incorporeal and enters the Umbra with him while he uses this power.
    Second Death - A Wraith's physical form is only a created shell. They have the Undead trait. If they would take critical damage, ignore its effects. They instead lose that much Plasm. If their Plasm reaches zero in this or any other way, the shell is destroyed and the Wraith is forced into the Umbra until they can create a new shell, which takes one day. Their personal equipment is left behind, typically dripping with ectoplasm as their body collapses. During this time, they do not recover Plasm. If they would take damage while in this decrepit state, they die (again).
    Deathsight - A Wraith always sees into the Umbra like a pale shroud overlaid over the vitality of the real world. This allows them to see lingering magical auras, get a general idea about the 'feel' of a place, and so forth. They can also see through the eyes of the dead. If they touch a corpse and spend a Plasm, they view the deceased's final moments from their point of view.
    Ghost Dice - When a Wraith spends Plasm for extra dice, make sure to keep those dice separate (using different colored dice is one easy way to handle it). Whenever a Wraith rolls a 1 on these Ghost Dice, something bad happens regardless of the success/failure of the action. Conversely, a 10 means something good happened.
    EXAMPLE: Let's say you were trying to eat a telephone.
    1) You equal or beat the TN, and roll a 10 on a Ghost Die: You eat the telephone and not only is everything fine, but you're left feeling refreshed and charged up, recovering a level of fatuge.
    2) You roll less than the TN, and roll a 10 on a Ghost Die: Your teeth aren't strong enough, but in attempting to eat the phone you accidentially dial a number and end up with a hot date!
    3) You equal or beat the TN, and roll a 1 on the Ghost Die: You successfully swallow the last bite only to realize you've forgotten to turn the phone off! It starts ringing and vibrating inside you.
    4) You roll less than the TN, and roll a 1 on the Ghost Die: You get the phone caught in your mouth and have to go to the hospital for some expensive and embarrassing oral surgery.

Synergy
    1 Whispers - The Wraith can always hear the faint murmurs of the unquiet dead. They may use the Divination spell Augury at will, rolling Synergy + Wisdom instead of the normal Focus Power test.
    2 Poltergeist - By spending a Plasm, you can manipulate objects at a distance for one scene. You effectively have a reach of three meters per dot of Synergy. You cannot control objects well enough to make attacks with this ability. The effective Strength score for moving objects using this power is equal to your Willpower. At Synergy 4, their control is fine enough to make melee attacks out to that range, though they cannot make opportunity attacks using Poltergeist.
    3 Curse - As a half action, the Wraith chooses someone within range of their Poltergeist ability. That person must immediately roll on the Psychic Phenomena chart. If this would result in Perils of the Warp, reroll it unless the Wraith spends 3 Plasm. The Wraith is immune to any effects caused by the result of this Curse (they are not knocked down by Spectral Gale or The Earth Protests, etc.).
    4 Shroud - Gain Armor equal to your Resolve. This doesn't stack with worn armor. If you become incorporeal, this ability provides Aura instead of Armor.
    5 Ectoplasmic Form - A Wraith's body is really little more than solidified ectoplasm. Once per session, they may loose its bonds, turning the ectoplasm back into a liquid. They gain Amorphous. but instead of doubling hit points, they gain number of temporary hit points equal to their current Plasm. They lose these temporary hit points first. At the end of the scene they lose Amorphous and any remaining temporary hit points.

Thursday, May 26, 2011

Race Preview: Thri-Kreen

 Thri-Kreen






    One of the most mysterious races in the Wheel in some ways, the Thri-Kreen are an insect race. Outsiders typically know almost nothing about them - they live in cities that are designed like hives. They have very little use for personal space and a great respect for common areas.
    Most Thri-Kreen live fast and die hard. They naturally have a life span less than half that of most races - it's virtually unknown for them to go past the age of fifty. However, this is because of a natural hyperactive metabolism. They don't sleep, and get the most out of every day of those short years.

    Physical Characteristics
    Average Height: 2.0-2.3m
    Average Weight: 100-120kg
    Languages: Trade, Thri-Kreen
    Common Personality Traits: Restless, Conformist, Inscrutable, Curious, Jumpy
    Common Physical Traits: Sand-Colored Exoskeleton, Long Antennae, Constantly in Motion, Dark Compound Eyes, Short-Lived
    Example Names: Chak-tha, Drik-chkit, Kacht-ta, Kat’chka, Pak’cha, Ptekwe.

    Racial Statistics
    Characteristic Bonus: +1 Dexterity or +1 Wisdom
    Skill Bonus: +1 to Acrobatics and Perception
    Power: Multi-Armed: A Thri-Kreen's smaller pair of arms allow them to take a Ready action as a free action once per round and reload their weapons in half the listed time.
    Size: 4

    Physical Qualities
    Thri-Kreen resemble bipedal praying mantids. Their exoskeletons come in a variety of colors, typically earthtones with occasional grays and blue markings. They have six limbs, with two normal-sized arms and two smaller ones. They have mandibles and compound eyes, joints in places that other races don't, long antennae, and are just generally alien in every way.
    Thri-Kreen are an egg-laying species. They mature quickly after being hatch, passing through a series of forms that would be familiar to any entomologist until they reach adulthood at about five. They live quick lives, though they don't really age like other races. There are very few visual cues to tell a Thri-Kreen's age, even scars vanishing as they molt once a year.
    Most Thri-Kreen have a bit of a sweet-tooth. They prefer foods that are very high in sugar, especially candy and pastries. This helps fuel their overactive metabolisms.
    There are essentially no easy ways to determine the gender of a given Thri-Kreen on sight. Unless you can detect the pheromones they use, in which case it's actually quite simple.

    Playing a Thri-Kreen
    Thri-Kreen excel at adapting to new situations. They tend to see things in simple terms, cutting to the heart of situations and acting instead of waiting. However, this should not be taken to mean they act rashly - they see information gathering and spying as a matter of course. While they might be mysterious to others, they are almost always quite well informed.
    Thri-Kreen prefer to use cutting-edge technology rather than settle for anything less, preferring high performance over reliability even when lives are on the line. Their computing and information technology is among the most advanced in the Wheel, but owing to their species' predatory lineage,
    At a young age, Thri-Kreen are extremely impressionable. They imprint with those that they knew, and usually defer to them. Thri-Kreen society is one fairly common to insects - females imprint their young, the new generation defers to them, and it all ends up being rather dynastic and matriarchal.
    Many Thri-Kreen adopt things from the cultures they're exposed to - not always the most obvious things either. For example, it has become something of a trend among female Thri-Kreen to wear rather elaborate and formal dresses. This has definitely made it easier for other races, who tend to have some trouble telling their genders apart, to identify them as female.
    Because of a Thri-Kreen's short natural life, they often have little regard for personal safety. Of themselves or others. They usually just don't have time for lengthy approval times or experimentation. A few tests, simulations, and educated guesses are good enough for most purposes.

Sunday, May 22, 2011

Dungeons The Dragoning: 40k: 7th Edition: Book II: For A Few Subtitles More

So, I thought I'd post something interesting for people today - the list of stuff that I'm working on for the next book. This is not a complete list. I'm sure more will end up being added. But this should give you some idea of what's going on.

RACES:
    Thri-Kreen
    Kobold
    Kenku
EXALTATIONS:
    Wraith
    Changeling
CLASSES:
    Arcane Knight
    Monk
    Techpriest
    Gunslinger
    Temple Assassin
FEATS/ASSETS:
    More Exaltation Assets for everyone
MAGIC:
    New spells for each school
    Possibly new schools
SWORD SCHOOLS:
    Gun Kata for ranged weapons
        Sniping School
        Gunslinger School
        Etc.
ALIGNMENT:
    New gods!
        Lolth
        The Omnissiah
        Secular Humanism
EQUIPMENT:
    Weapon Creation System
    New Specific Weapons
    New Armor
    New Bionics
ARTIFACTS:
    You better believe there are going to be new artifacts.
VEHICLES:
    P-scale vehicle rules, for using cars, planes, and the like alongside characters.
    S-scale (Ship Scale) rules for spelljammer combat!

If there's anything else you'd like to see that's not on the list (and isn't ponies/meguka - those are going in their own book), yell at me for not including it!

Friday, May 13, 2011

Version 1.4 Release

Download Version 1.4

Version 1.4 has become ready for release. With any luck, the main book is now polished enough that I can work on something else for a bit and get another book underway. I think this version solves nearly all of the problems people have had (well, the problems that weren't about adding content - that'll come later). Let's see if I can get a changelog done. Forgive me if I miss something.

Version 1.3 - 1.4 changelog:

* New fluff for all Exalts.
* Chosen Faith powers reworked a bit. They're a bit more diverse now.
* Paragons given new, awesome powers.
* Some subtle changes to Promethean. Headshots aren't lethal, they can't have Bionic Hearts (they have a pyros generator instead) and only destroying that pyros generator (via shots to the gizzards) are really fatal. They can wear armor.
* Vampire Embrace rules added in.
* Werewolves only heal in alternate forms.
* Classes have had their names and prereqs changed
* Class tracks added in so progressions are still clear.
* Classes sorted by level.
* A few feats added in.
* Daemonhost sin assets changed dramatically.
* Ward changed to Mage Armor
* Wealth Strain changed to a chart instead of a simple fact. Less bad.
* Magic ranged weapons are back.
* Multiple Attacks action is more balanced. Costs a reaction per extra attack. You might actually want to use Swift Attack over Lightning Attack now.
* Massive example of play added.
* Character sheet fixed up a bit.

I wanted to post this last night, but blogger has been acting up.

In other news, I've started a forum for people!

The WWW Forum

It should help people out a lot with posting homebrew stuff, finding games, and making sure I don't miss any ideas.

Monday, May 2, 2011

1.4 partial changelog

Alright. Going to get everyone updated on what I've been doing for 1.4 - Sorry I haven't been updating much these past few weeks. It's actually been hard to find time to write more. So here is a partial changelog regarding what I have already done and what I intend to do:

* Mistakes fixed. The biggest being the attack section where one part still mentioned Dex + Skill.
* More fluff for the Exaltations. Two pages worth each, covering specifics on their tells, what it's like to become one, their society, the way others view them, and tips on roleplaying them.
* Atlantean power stat changed to Gnosis.
* The Chosen are getting their abilities rearranged. They were fairly good before, but their abilities came in exactly two flavors - improving the expenditure of Faith and making them hard to kill. I've still got to get one high-level power nailed down. I've considered undoing a round (a bookkeeping nightmare) and editorial control of a scene (difficult to balance and relies entirely on SM permission), and I'm still not happy.
* Vampires made somewhat less weak against sunlight (1 hp lost instead of 1k1)
* This is the big change here - All classes have been renamed. People were getting confused with Levels, Completing Classes, and the majority of classes being Fighter/Magic User/Rogue 1/2/3/4/5 and so forth. Each class now has its own name rather than a number.
* To go with this, classes no longer have classes as prereqs. They instead have feats and skills (and occasionally Magic ranks or characteristics). This should encourage a bit of cross-fertilization, perhaps.
* Wording on some feats have been tweaked to make them more clear.
* A few spells are getting tweaked. Might replace some of the less useful ones with more interesting effects.
* Changing Wealth Strain to be a rolled table so it doesn't become a viscous cycle of going poor.
* Rules for Magical Bionics made... well, made. There was some confusion since artifacts are hard to destroy, but yes - Magical bionics still suffer the normal critical effects (with the normal bionic rule of 'if it would cause an inappropriate effect, limb is disabled instead'). However, if the limb would be destroyed it's just severed or torn free. It can be reattached, but it takes the normal time for attaching bionics.
* Going to do 'something cool' with Full Auto. Considering just adding feats so people who are high level can get an extra hit or two with FA, ala Swift/Lighting attack. Might also reduce bonus to hit, add a Semi-Auto action with a greater bonus to hit but less damage.
* Added a sample session to the back. Yes, a full sample session.
* Cleaning up the character sheet. Fixed it up a bit already but I need to fix up Armor and have the different locations noted.
* Monsters getting a Level stat to account for the change to attacks.

Saturday, April 23, 2011

Version 1.3 Release

    Well it has been quite some time since I posted - nearly a week in fact. I've been hard at work with, well, frankly, Portal 2. Quite a good game, that. I have also been getting quite a bit of work done in adding more specific racial fluff and doing some spellchecks. And let me tell you, the spellcheck I had to use was pretty awful. I realize it's only really supposed to be a second-pass type of thing (not great when you write everything in notepad), but by god they had no heuristics or common sense in how they did it.
    Anyway, I got 1.3 finished. And when I say finished I mean I wanted to get it released so people could play with some of the changes made and provide feedback on it. There are some things that I wasn't able to finish in time for this - I want to add more fluff for Exalts and change around Artifacts a bit more.

    That's enough rambling from me. Here's the download link:
    http://www.mediafire.com/?ydapb3dt5jbtp2b

    Please, I'd love to hear any questions or comments here and I'll try to answer them.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Anima RPG Review

    I have a large selection of RPG books on hand, some better than others. Today I thought I'd write up a review of one of them. In fact, I'm going to review one of the most beautiful and useless RPG books I have - the Anima RPG.
    A lot of people were probably sold on the art for the game. It has some great art, no lie, and in some ways you can even say it is well-done. Just... not a well-done game. Even a brief flip through the book shows that there is just page after page of tables and text, as dense as a year-old fruitcake.
    There are a couple of ways to approach the book, so let's start with it as a game. There are a huge number of ability scores to keep track of, including basic combat scores, Ki ability, psychic ability, magic, and so forth. It's like they threw everything into one book without trying to make systems work together - and as the guy who wrote Dungeons The Dragoning, that I think they just have a mess is saying something.
    Secondary abilities - which would more properly be called skills - are pretty normal looking, though they do share some of the Dungeons and Dragons style of splitting some things off from each other (Swim and Athleticism are different skills, as are Hide and Stealth).
    Building a character is kind of a mix of point-buy and standard levels. Start with some points, get more as you go up in level to improve your abilities. Really, it's not a bad way of doing things. Classes give costs and distribution of points, which again actually works pretty well. This is honestly the strongest point of the RPG, and it is all fucking downhill from here.
    Immediately after the character creation section is a section about nonhuman characters. It starts by saying it's a game about playing humans and how humans are the most fun to play, and how the GM must approve you playing one of these reincarnated superhumans. Now, if this was in the GMing section in the back you'd just be able to look at it as an option and mostly ignore it. But right after character creation? Everyone is going to want to be a special snowflake.
    After this comes the section on skills and you begin to see the signs of madness. While most of the skills are fairly normal looking entries, some (notably the medicine entry) are either oddly specific or just MATHS.
    Without getting into too much detail - because this book is nothing if not full of details - the book just continues to devolve more and more into tables and charts. There's a combat table that makes THAC0 (which really isn't hard to remember) look like child's play.
    Martial arts are surprisingly similar to the way I handled sword schools in DtD, lists of abilities and effects that you use to point-buy techniques. Magic works on MP, there's a summoning section after that with the Tarot, then a section on psychic powers...
    And none of it seems to flow together. Sure, most characters will only use one of the sections, two for some, but there doesn't seem to be any real thread that connects them - they don't even use the same statistics! It's like all the late-development splatbloat of 3.5 put into one book, with Binders, Psions, and Wizards all competing for space.
    I'll be honest. I haven't really gone over this book in detail. It's a book that resists reading. The layout is beautiful and awful at the same time. Let's start with beautiful. The art is pretty much universally good, and they put a lot in - there are very few places where you can open up the book and not see art. It's also clear that the editor wanted a *very* tight book.
    Unfortunately, it's that tightness that makes it so hard to read. The margins are thin, especially at top and bottom, and there is almost no white space at all. Everything is locked together like a puzzle of pictures and charts, every chapter ends with the last sentence at the bottom of a page, chapters start with only a very thin header right at the top of the page, and all of it leads to a book that is just a solid block of... stuff.
    And that's overall one of the worst things about the book. It could really have done with more fluff, something to break up the pages. The elements used in the book are really quite nice. I really wish I could make a book that looked like that. Some of that, anyway. The way it never seems to end is less than ideal.
    Overall, I'd have to say Anima was a game with a great art editor, and whoever was in charge of development and design of the system just dropped the ball massively. It could have been a great game if they had used more formulas and fewer tables, reserved half of the subsystems for other books, and someone had a print editor on hand to explain the concept of white space.
    At least it's not Eoris.

Saturday, April 16, 2011

Still More Changelog

I'm still in the process of changing things. Let's take a look at what a few days of work has brought us!

* Static Defense formula is now 10 + (3 x Wisdom) + (3 x Dex) - (2 x Size).
* Finally freaking remembered to make the Dark Eldarin racial power a 1/scene ability.
* Halfling Racial power lets them use all Dex all the time for static defense.
* Paragons get various abilities for their power stat now. The basic pressure points thing is their one-dot ability. To whit:
    Swift as the Coursing River - When a Paragon attempts and succeeds a 2-die Stunt or higher, they recover one Action Point.
    All the Force of a Great Typhoon - In battle, a Paragon is constantly pushing themselves to greater heights.  At the start of a Paragon's turn, they recover Pressure Points equal to their Excellence.
    Strength of a Raging Fire - While stunting, a Paragon's dice explode on a roll of 9 or 10 instead of just 10.
    Mysterious as the Dark Side of the Moon - Whenever a Paragon uses a stunt on a test and succeeds, all allies attempting the same test (that is, using the same action) before the Paragon's next turn gain a bonus on their result equal to the number of Pressure Points the Paragon spent on her test.

* Paragon Power Stat renamed to Excellence
* Prometheans can now wear armor. It doesn't stack with their normal armor, just uses the better of the two.
* Vampire, Werewolf, and Daemonhost natural weapons fixed to be easier to use at a glance.
* On that note, a Daemonhost's bite now does damage like a Vampire's.
* Some classes have had a third characteristic added to their upgrade list.
* Wizards lost Enchantment, Gained Conjuration.
* Clerics lost Conjuration, Gained Necromancy.
* Aburation and Conjuration both use Willpower now.
* Cure Moderate wounds tweaked a bit. Now you spend as many resource points as you want and heal for that amount.
* Regeneration requires bed rest instead of resource points.
* Two new item rarities - Ubiquitous and Mythic Rare.
* Shields grant the +2 armor bonus to the body as well as the arm.
* Rules added for Minion Squads to make killing a couple dozen kobolds at once a bit easier.

Thursday, April 14, 2011

Partial Changelog

I'm still hard at work on version 1.3 - Here are a list of some of the changes you can expect for the next book.

* Many spelling fixes
* Static defense now runs off of lower of Wis and Dex
* Gain 2 hit points every time you complete a class
* Halfling racial power allows them to use Dex for static defense even if wisdom is lower
* Gnomes now just start with one free weapon proficiency and one free armor proficiency.
* Atlanteans 'safe' recharge of motes now requires an hour of meditation per point.
* Assassins now have Brawl
* The paragon asset 'legendary trait' can be taken at any time, with the caveat that the Paragon must be in a class that would allow him to advance the chosen characteristic.
* It has been made more specific that taking the Kid hindrance is not the same as taking the Small hindrance - a teenager can be pretty much the same size as an adult, he just doesn't get no respect.
* Abjuration gets a spell that gives Aura
* Unarmed weapons added to the melee weapons list. They add to unarmed damage and use the Brawl skill, as you'd expect.
* Max dex on armor now just applies to Speed, Dodge tests, and 'anything the GM determines applies'. Protip: Swimming is something that will usually make it apply.
* Artifact Ranged Weapons are now artifact ammunition for solid-bullet weapons. They are more powerful than before in that their abilities *stack* with the quality of the weapon.
* Darksteel made less broken, returned to normal cost.
* Wraithbone bullets now count as magical attacks, affected by Aura instead of Armor.
* Added in the missing 'Diseased' condition. It prevents you from recovering HP.
* Full Auto now gives +1k0 damage per raise instead of an extra hit. Not sure it'll stay this way - this was suggested to me and we'll see how it goes. Looks better against armor, worse against peasants.

IN PROGRESS:
* Might make attacks run off of Level instead of Dex, just to break down Dex as a godstat a bit more. It may seem like this will make it hard to hit things, but since Static Defense as a whole will be lower...
* Considering giving paragons more abilities. Could use some ideas.

Monday, April 11, 2011

Looking for a game?

A few people have approached me and mentioned that this blog is pretty much the only stable source of information on the game that people have, and so it's the most logical place to post information to help people find games or post offers to run games. To keep things tidy, and to let you know you can, there's this post right here. Feel free to use the comments to advertise games or post availability for people, or even just arrange things so people can discuss things.

Meanwhile, I'm getting back to work on typos and fixes after a weekend off.

Friday, April 8, 2011

Dungeons The Dragoning 1.2

Thanks to everyone's suggestions and comments, I was able to fix a few problems with the last version of Dungeons the Dragoning. I'd go over things, but there is a lot to list, so let's start with the link to get that out of the way:

Dungeons the Dragoning 1.2

Now, to the changes.

* Things are now in alphabetical order. You would be surprised how long it took to do that.
* Examples have been put in the book for Character Creation, Spell Combos, and Special Attacks.
* A few things (such as the description of Raises and Checks) have been provided earlier in the book.
* Specialties have been changed to just give +1 to the stat or skill when they apply, to make things less confusing.
* Sizes changed to have 4 as human average. Halfings are 2, Elves are 3, Aasimar are 5, and so forth.
* The Aasimar Racial ability starts them with Fearless and Jaded so they never need to spend XP on them.
* Human Racial ability now gives you +100 starting XP.
* Squat Toughness is now less broken, working as a once per scene reduction of hit point loss to 1.
* Atlanteans made less weak. Their mechanics for recharging their resource point have been improved and they can roll twice for all Psychic Phenomena rolls and take either or both results.
* What happens to a promethean with damaged limbs or a destroyed body is spelled out.
* Promethean Alchemy has been replaced with an ability to recharge Pyros after taking E damage.
* Vampires can now use parasols to protect themselves from the sun - the more frills the parasols have, the greater protection they give.
* A Werewolf in Warform is slightly less rape.
* Free Study has been added to the Classes section as an option between class choices.
* Classes in general have been fixed a bit. Some have had skills added.
* Several missing feats have been added.
* Exalt Asset section has been re-done to stop having such a terrible layout.
* Racial Feats now note the race they are for.
* Psychic Phenomena now occurs when keeping exploded dice on an Unfettered test instead of when rolling doubles, thus making it less punishing to high-stat casters but also making the choice of risking Phenomena an actual choice.
* Evocation spells now do real damage instead of wasting your turn.
* Necromancy and Transmutation changed significantly. Wizards now get Necromancy, Clerics get Transmutation.
* Special Attacks that use non-attack actions have been made more clear on what they mean.
* Dots in the Artifact Background limited to 5 total during character creation.
* Mithril Legs made less broken, no longer better than being Super-God.
* Necrodermis weapons no longer impossible to parry or dodge, still immune to prayers and mercy.
* Rolled dice over 10 now convert to Kept dice at a 2:1 ratio instead of 1:1, thus ensuring that future generations will still have kept dice to use.
* Stunting not changed at all. Mentioning it here because no one uses it.
* Healing Surge action added in. God help us all.
* Monster sizes changed to go with the new average size.

One Shot Logs

I thought I'd post up a link to logs of the one-shot I ran last night.  Thanks to Kordy for getting these logs together for me - my IRC logs have been messed up since I upgraded to Firefox 4.

http://pastebin.com/raw.php?i=7D5bNGaD 

As you'll be able to tell from the logs, my players had the advantage of rolling like the hand of Vectron was upon them. I adapted a D&D module to use as the base of the adventure. Anyone who can guess which module gets props! I'm working on finishing up Version 1.2 of the core book even now - it's mostly going to be a crunch update. I'll do more fluff for races and exaltations either in the next version of the book or in their own small splats, whichever works out better. With any luck, I'll have it done before the end of the day.

Wednesday, April 6, 2011

Section 27

    I figured while I work on the latest update I'd give you all something to play with. A while back I got it into my head to design a game that would combine the fun of Magic along with the roleplaying of Dungeons and Dragons. I've always liked the deckbuilding and tactical play of Magic, and there's a certain ability to roleplay with it. Even if you don't literally pretend to be a planeswalker (and I've never met anyone who did), playstyles change to match a deck, the choices of spells give a deck a certain tone, and so on.
    Similarly, Dungeons and Dragons has a large tactical element to it. Even if you aren't using a grid and minis to make it into a kind of multiplayer skirmish game, there is the careful spending of actions and resources like spells and limited-use items and abilities. While I don't think many people play Dungeons and Dragons in a competitive way, it could certainly be done.
    Combining the two should be, in theory, fairly simple, right? But it's not quite true. Magic's core mechanics just don't, for obvious reasons, work well in a game that's designed to have much continuity. There are ways to make it work - if you don't mind having your great and mighty wizard need to rebuild resources every single time they get into a fight. Or you could have them gain their resource base more slowly, which also serves as a leveling mechanic.
    I went through a few revisions on how to do things. I probably poked around with the project I was just calling 'CCGRPG' (Collectible Card Game Role Playing Game) for a couple of months before I got down to it and really got it together. Skills could be treated as resources, with different levels of ability unlocking new cards to play with in your deck.
    Deck size, hit points, hand size, these were all things that could be used as stats. I eventually put together the full game and put one of my own settings into it, a world I created for Dungeons and Dragons way back in the day. I updated it to be a bit more modern and, um, good.
    The setting turned into a kind of cold war fantasy world. The forces of good and evil ended up signing a treaty and forming a world government that's something like the UN - a lot of arguing and complaining, occasional assassination attempts that are denied by everyone, and a mixed military force.
    This military force includes the titular Section 27, which is a kind of special operations group, troubleshooters and spies that are given overarching authority (when people will actually respect it) and sent on missions to save the world or die trying. Depending on the government, it's either the best respected post or a punishment detail. And because of that, the people who can be found serving in Section 27 are a motley crew of criminals and patriots, all of them with extraordinary skill and something to offer.
    In Section 27, you play as one of its brave agents and go out to fight cults, criminals, and people trying to restart the cold war that has driven the world into a winter of distrust. You build a character that has both a character sheet and a deck of cards. There are no dice, and the elements of chance are in the hands of the players. It's a very tactical game, emphasizing playing both with and against the GM.
    Here's a link to the game. I never complied it into a PDF, nor have I ever had a chance to playtest it. Unfortunately, it's a bit hard to play custom card games over the internet.

http://www.mediafire.com/?nozzgty5oom

    I do wish I had been able to playtest it. It's still one of my favorite projects I've worked on. I've also taken a lot of lessons from building it as a game. It's sufficiently different from most other games that I learned a bit about myself and the things I like about games.

Monday, April 4, 2011

So I thought I'd start keeping people updated on what changes I was making to Version 1.2. I've made a lot of changes large and small, so let's get started:

COMPLETED:
* Size values have been reworked. Human average has been set at 4 and other values adjusted to fit. This should make combat a bit faster and more lethal.
* Spelling fixes where they were needed.
* Human and Dwarven racial powers changed. Humans now get 100 more starting XP, Dwarves have been made less OP. Instead of doubled HP, they can reduce hit points lost from any one attack to 1. Still tough, but not overpowered.
* Werewolf shape changing has been fixed up a bit. They have to remove armor before changing shape or else they break the straps and have to get it fixed.
* What happens when a Promethean's body is destroyed is now spelled out. They can also have their lost limbs repaired instead of getting replacements.
* Promethean Alchemy has been replaced with an ability to recharge Pyros whenever they take E damage.
* Daemonhost feeding has been fixed so it specifically converts Resonance into Essence.
* Free Study has become an option between classes. Once you finish the class you're in, you can buy things from classes you left. You can even improve skills and characteristics that aren't on your class list, but it costs double.
* Many feats have been altered. Especially the Marks.
* How non-attack actions work with Special Attacks has been changed. They now mostly apply any attack effects to the next Standard attack you make.
* Some of the artifacts have been rebalanced.

TO DO:
* I'm adding examples for character creation, special attack creation, and magic combo creation.
* Bookmarks. They'll come last, since I need to add them to the finished PDF.
* Adding in a small bit about playing mortals
* Also putting in a bit about XP-buy as an alternate for simple dots during character creation.
* Transmutation and Necromancy being reworked so non-vamps and woofs can use them, but Vamps and Woofs are best.
* Fixing class lists of feats and skills.

Sunday, April 3, 2011

Ideas and Bugfixes

I'm currently working hard on Version 1.2 - and it's coming along well. I've been getting a lot of good feedback on the IRCs and even some good questions from people on various forums. I've got a bit of a backlog of things to change and fix, and even some good ideas for things to add in a splatbook. If you have any suggestions, questions, or things that are obviously typos, feel free to add them as comments on this post. I'm more than happy to listen to anything people have to say.

Saturday, April 2, 2011

The Origins of DtD

    I've been asked a few times about how I came up with the idea for Dungeons The Dragoning. Well, the base idea is something I've joked about before, a tolkeinesque fantasy game done by White Wolf. Considering Mage, Hunter, and Exalted, it's not hard to think they might try their hand at Dungeonpunk stuff. Exalted turned down a few notches and set in a generic fantasy world.
    It wasn't something I really took seriously. I mean, I put some thought into it, but I never really wrote any of it down. The problem with putting Dungeons and Dragons into a White Wolf game is that, well, WoD by default has pretty awful combat. New World of Darkness is a little better, but 3.5 and 4e were really crunch heavy.
    The unfinished ideas went on the back burner. I put together a game that I have yet to even playtest to this day (Section 27) and got involved with the Adeptus Evangelion devteam. I contributed a bit to V2, and I've been helping with the next release.
    I was playing AdEva and our characters got into roleplaying. You can see where this is going. See, the backstory was that after Second Impact, some of the major gaming companies - White Wolf, Wizards of the Coast, and Games Workshop - ended up merging into White Wizard's Workshop. And their product lines merged as well, into Dungeons The Dragoning 40k.
    Our characters started playing DtD, and I started designing the system for it. I got some test documents done, and we planned on doing a kind of special session to roleplay our characters roleplaying. We did a bit, never really going into the rules, and that game eventually ended (probably the best game I was ever in).
    After the game ended, I continued work on DtD. Partly because I'm stubborn and partly as a kind of tribute. I rewrote almost everything from the ground up. What I had in those test documents is quite far from what you see in Version 1.1. And that's pretty much where it all came from.
    We've still never done that special session. I still have hope.

Dungeons The Dragoning 1.1

    So I guess the best way to kick off this blog is with a bit about Dungeons the Dragoning. It's likely that you already know what it is if you're here, but just in case you found your way here blind, Dungeons the Dragoning is a game that is essentially a mashup game that takes elements from quite a few places, mostly Dungeons and Dragons (2E, 3E, and 4E), Exalted, Seventh Sea, World of Darkness, Deadlands, and Dark Heresy. Not necessarily in that order.
    My original goal for DtD was essentially to just make a halfway decent game, enough that it could be used to play a recursive special session for a game (I'll get into that later - it's a long story). As time went on, I ended up putting a lot of work into making it the best game it could be, taking the best parts of many games and adding in my own bits and fluff to fill the gaps. It was a labor of love, and some parts of the rules went through a surprising number of revisions.
    Anyway, let's have a simple overview of the game.

For ten thousand years, the Lady of Pain has silently ruled the city of Sigil, master of the hub of the Portal network despite the petty wars of the gods. The city of Sigil is the largest metropolis in the Astral Sea, untold millions making sacrifices to sustain it and ensure the continued survival of their people in the face of a hostile universe. From hundreds of Crystal Spheres, teeming with the Clueless and monsters, refugees and oppressors alike come to find their place in a larger galaxy, to find treasure fame and fortune amongst the planes. Beset on all sides by foes of such malice it would sear a man's soul to know but a fraction of their blasphemies, only the strongest and most ruthless survive. Foes from within and without seek to overthrow the Lady's rule, throwing themselves on the Throne of Blades in vain efforts to destroy in a moment the eons of her rule. The Great Devourer comes from the Far Realm beyond the Astral Sea, driven to consume all before it and Ork savages surge from their barbaric empires to pillage and slaughter. The vengeful Eldarin cite prophetic visions as they raid and destroy even their own cousins, and an ancient evil arises from tombs sealed at the dawn of creation.

In the grim darkness of the great wheel, there is only war.


    DtD uses the "Roll and Keep" system from 7th Sea and Legend of the Five Rings. Rolls are expressed as XkY, where you roll dice equal to X and keep the best Y of those and add them together. Most rolls are a skill and a characteristic, where you roll dice equal to your dots in the skill and characteristic, then keep dice equal to your characteristic. For example, you might roll Athletics and Dexterity. With Athletics 4 and Dexterity 3, you'd roll 7 dice (4+3) and keep 3 dice. It's a pretty simple system that lends itself to fairly stable results.

    The Skills and Characteristics will look familiar to anyone who knows World of Darkness. The names are changed a bit for the setting, and some skills are different, but it's not terribly out of line. They get rated from 0-5 (6 in some really extraordinary circumstances).

    You've got magic, swordsmanship, and skills. Magic is what you'd expect, casting spells. No spell slots or anything, just roll against the spell's TN to make it happen. If you're exerting your full power there's a chance of getting Perils of the Warp. Swordsmanship is, note, not just using a sword good. It's a system for building special attacks, learning new tricks and upgrades to build them with as you grow in power. Skils are the basic dots in your skills and the core of a character.

    Each character is built with a Race, a Template, and one or more Classes. Races are your character race (Ork, Human, etc). Templates are supernatural additions (Vampire, Atlantean, Daemonhost, etc). Classes determine what you can purchase with XP. You can switch to a new class (or take the next level in an existing class) once you've bought all the manditory upgrades in your current class.

    The setting is a mashup of Planescape and Spelljammer with 40k and a dabbling from everything else.

    Just in case I haven't scared you off yet, here's the download link: http://www.mediafire.com/?bq3bzc2o2n5ness - This goes to Version 1.1, and I'm already working on a new version with some extra proofreading and maybe even bookmarks.

First!!!11!1

Well, I've decided to get off my ass and start up a blog. I'll probably be using this thing to publish previews of Dungeons the Dragoning updates, work on my other RPG projects, and general posts on what I've learned from roleplaying games and the like. I've never tried to keep to a really regular update schedule with things before, so let's see how this goes! Excitement!