TFA: Project Process Update

 I have been discussing the latest play-tests of my current project, Techno-Fantasy Adventure (TFA). Today I want to show off a preliminary sketch of the cover from the talented Jay Piscopo. 

Jay imbues his work with an amazing sense of dynamism, and each piece tells a story. I can't wait to see this in finished and in color. Jay is doing a number of other pieces for the interior as well, so this little book is going to look amazing! 

Thanks for visiting! 

--Scott

Fate Core At My Door!

  My copy of Fate Core just arrived yesterday, both reaffirming my faith in Kickstarter and jump-starting my creative juices.  The question becomes, what to run with it?

With a bit of tweaking, anything seems possible.  Mage comes to mind, or some combo of Mage and Feng Shui, another of my old favorite RPGs.  I'm also tempted to get really daring and do some kind of Dark Sun conversion for that post-apoc fantasy vibe.  Perhaps painting another Bugman Warrior has got me thinking in this direction?  Not sure. 

Now I also await my cool new Fate/Fudge dice to use with the game.  Who doesn't love new dice?

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott 

Monsters & Magic Review Posted!

My review of the  Monsters & Magic RPG is now up on Play Unplugged!

Check it out here!

Thanks for reading!

--Scott

Tabletop Towns Card Terrain Arrives!

A while back I supported the Tabletop Towns kickstarter, and the other day my goodies arrived!

Check them out!

Ok,  so each building is printed on sturdy card that you can fold up and store flat--lovely system!

As I consider running a big Pathfinder RPG campaign, these buildings will come in very handy for those grid-map battles where I want a 3D effect, and I will also use them for miniature wargaming the next chance I get.  Great job and bravo to Tabletop Towns creator Julian G. Hicks! If you want support him and buy this cool card terrain, find him on his Facebook page here, and on eBay here.

Thanks for visiting! 

--Scott

Barebones Fantasy: Some Tinkering

  Ok, after having it for a few days, I can say I am smitten with Barebones Fantasy!  Like many other gamers, when I like a system, I want can't resist the urge to tinker with it. In BBF, the idea of character classes finds expression in Skills. Well, there is no Monk skill, and Monk is probably my favorite character class in traditional D&D-type fantasy.

So with some ideas and guidance from Altered Priest on rpg.net, I decided to try my hand at making my own!  

Here's what I came up with:

Monk

This skill represents a melding of a character’s mental and physical discipline into a coherent and potent style of fighting, moving, and living.
Score: half Wil +10 per Monk level. Cannot be attempted unskilled.
» Pure Body

» Resist Poison
» Heal Self (once per encounter heal 1D BP on a successful check, 2D BP on a critical success)
» Ignore Environmental Effects.
» Armor Prohibition (If the character wears armor of any kind, he loses the special abilities associated with this skill.)

» Pure Mind

» Mental Resistance (Use your WIL check or Monk check to resist charm, illusion, etc.)
» Resist Fear.

» Transcendent Body

» Controlled Fall (ignore damage from falls of height equal to Monk skill or less)
» Swiftness (+1 space to Move per Monk level)
» Deflection (at level 3 and beyond ignore disadvantage against ranged attacks.)
» Iron Fist (your body is a deadly weapon; you count as being armed for purposes of defending yourself in combat, you use your Monk skill to make attacks when fighting unarmed, and your unarmed strikes do 1D+1 damage [increases to 1D+3 at level 3, and 2D at level 6]. At level 4 and higher the monk’s unarmed attacks count as magic weapons.)

» Transcendent Mind

» Impress (wise sayings, awe-inspiring display of prowess)
» Charm Animals
» Intimidate (demoralizing shout, stare down enemy).
» Stunning Strike (Before rolling the dice the character may announce he is attempting this special unarmed strike, using his Monk skill for this attack. If his attack hits it does damage as normal and his target counts as stunned and can make normal resistance checks to remove the condition. Stunning Strike may be used a number of times per Encounter equal to the character's Monk level.)
» Weapons Focus (When a monk is made the player must declare 1 weapon that fit the monk’s style--he may use his Monk skill as the basis for attacks with this chosen weapon.)

Level       Monk Title

1             Student

2             Initiate

3             Disciple

4             Seeker

5             Enlightened One

6             Master

Of course, I need to test this in play, but I am excited to do so, and I think with a few tweaks this will do a nice job of modeling the Monk.

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Barebones Fantasy Delivers The Goods!

  Let's face it, there are a lot of fantasy heartbreakers out there in the RPG industry. Barebones Fantasy is not one of them! This little 84 page, digest-sized gem of a book delivers awesome traditional fantasy RPG action with a few neat twists. It's percentile based, uses only D10s for all resolution, and offers the 4 classic fantasy races as PCs: Elf, Dwarf, Human, Halfling.

The magic system possesses a slick and versatile character that makes it diverse without being complicated. And it's miniature friendly! Bonus!

Anyway, more BBF as I run through some play-tests!

Thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Nobody Asked Me, But...

Being an occasional feature where I discuss a little bit of this and a little bit of that.

• My enthusiasm for the free rule set In the Emperor's Name prompted me to join the Yahoo Group and get involved in shaping the second edition. Craig, the lead writer and developer is incredibly gracious and open to feedback. I think the rules are rounding into nice form, and they were already quite good before any of the recent upgrades!

• My buddy Rico from Play Unplugged got back from Gen Con with a few goodies for me. I now have to read and review the new RPG Part-Time Gods from Third Eye Games. I am about 25 pages in and I am really loving what I am reading. Players run humans imbued with the power of low-powered gods in a modern-day supernatural setting. So you might be the God of Knives--anything that has to do with cutlery is your domain. You could just as easily be the God of the Laundromat. Sounds weird, huh? But it works, and when I began reading it reminded me of that day way back in 1990 when I wandered into Walden Books and picked up that first Vampire the Masquerade softcover rule book. Anyway, look for my review on Play Unplugged later this month.

• I also got a copy of the Kereboros Club (Fate Edition) from Gen Con. My Saturday game group (and hopefully the Sunday morning crew as well) have begun exploring Fate-based games in earnest, so a Victorian Supers setting using Fate is right up my alley. It's a big, thick book of RPG goodness that I will not get to until after Part-Time Gods gets its due. Very excited to delve into it, though.

• I am nearly finished painting a bunch of Skorne stuff for a customer. I like the models, but after painting all of that heavy armor with recessed details, it makes painting simpler models like Kroot and 15mm sci-fi so much more refreshing.

• I really enjoyed the recent Batman Retroactive from Lein Wein and Tom Mandrake. Mr. Mandrake has long been one of my favorite comic book artists, and his stuff has lost none of its power over the years. And it was just nice to read a new comic with thought balloons.

• Batman Dark Knight Rises continues to film here in Pittsburgh, and as I write this, the film crew is outside my door making it snow in August! I love the movies!

That's all for now--thanks for visiting!

--Scott

Someone Call the Guard...Dog!

One of the neat things about the land of Ferelden (in the world of the Dragon Age game) is the culture's reverence for dogs. They breed them in many varieties, and they're a big part of everyday life. I decided my City Guard needed some guard dogs to patrol with them, so I dug out one of my Gripping Beast Irish Wolf Hounds from the old Dark Ages backlog and painted him up.

A quick and easy paint job that will add a lot of character to a crew of city guardsmen!







And here's a shot of him with his "pack":



Thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott

A Student of the Arts Arcane

Checking through my various role-play minis, I realized I have a shortage of younger spell-casters--i.e., non-Gandalf lookalikes.

While at Phantom today I picked up a youngish looking Reaper mage and gave him a quick paint job using some recently inherited Vajello paints. I'll need to find a few more like him to have handy for various RPG encounters.





And here he is pictured with a Reaper Psuedodragon I painted a few years back:



More fantasy minis to come this week!

--Scott

Like A Peasant Scorned...

I've sung the praises of Old Glory's Revolting Peasant Mob packs on this blog before, and I am here to do it again! Today I dug out another great figure from my Revolting Women and Children bag and painted her up with the intent to use her for the Dragon Age RPG, or any other fantasy game I intend to run.





And here is comp shot as she deals with a pushy City Guard Sergeant:



Later this weekend, more single RPG-style minis to show off!

--Scott

Picking a City...

The Dragon Age tabletop RPG from Green Ronin feature a great system and rich background born from the highly successful computer game of the same name. But it's a bit thin on details in some areas. Namely cities. As I get ready to run the game, and set my campaign in Denerim, the largest city, I found myself with no city map.

Not having the time or desire to make my own, my choices were either crib one from an existing book, or buy a generic one. I popped over to RPGNow's web site and after a quick search, I found exactly what I needed! 0one's Blueprints!



I almost immediately bought the Great City, a super product at a great price ($1.65)! This includes a nice sized city map with generic quarters, the ability to print as a standard sized sheet or a poster map, and lots of added details. Building out from the Great City, you can buy detailed packs on each of the quarters that feature maps on the various locations, including popular taverns, places of business, and temples. I also bought the Dock Ward to check out the more detailed ward sections, and this was also a dynamite buy at $1.65. I imagine that I will eventually buy them all.

I'll be doing a more detailed review of these products for Play Unplugged in the coming weeks, but suffice to say that for fantasy games using any system, I heartily recommend them!

Thanks for checking out the blog!

--Scott

Old PC Art III

The latest installment in an irregular feature here on the blog, this time we have the character sheet from one of my latter-day MERP games. Take a look and then I will explain.





Ok, by this time, probably 1986, we had graduated from using straight MERP, to the more advanced Rolemaster, MERP's parent game. Unlike most other RPG groups, we began our gaming careers with the ICE family of games. I did not really seriously play AD&D until college. Anyway, Odo Took, the rather burly hobbit pictured above was one of the many characters I made for myself, then commissioned my friend Matt to draw for me. I likely never got a chance to run Odo in a game, because I was the GM more often than not.

The character sheet is pretty clean, so I suspect that Odo was never truly unleashed upon the unsuspecting populace of Middle Earth. Well, he's now gained a measure of immortality, and perhaps now he can move on to his final rest at the Gray Havens.

--Scott

Old PC Art II

It's time for another installment of Old PC Art! This time around, I've dug out my good friend Matt's color sketch of three vampire characters from our early 1990's Vampire: the Masquerade campaign.



Pictured above are Matt's Brujah Vampire, Vincent Vega (far left), and my friend Shawne's Malkavian, and Bob's Ventrue.

--Scott

Old PC Art

Cleaning out some files in my basement, I came across a cache of old character sheets from various games. I decided to scan a few of them to show off some of the great artwork my players used to do to visualize their characters. Today's offerings come from my GURPS 2nd ed. phase, circa 1995 - 1998. At this time I ran both GURPS Conan (still one of the best game supplements ever) and GURPS Shadowrun (my own homebrew conversion).

This first scan is the back of my friend Matt's sheet from the GURPS SR game; he had a great character named Hack Janson, who was a Rigger (drone and vehicle specialist):





Note the little in-game notes Matt took. Very cool. I should make this dude into a miniature!


Next up we have three images from my GURPS Conan campaign, both from my buddy Shawne's Aesir Pit Fighter character. Note that Shawne is a crazy X-Men fan, and his mind never quite leaves his favorite Merry Mutants!









I have loads more of this stuff, and I will make it an occasional feature here. Sure brings back a lot of good memories!

--Scott

A Horror From the North Woods!

Ever since reading X-Men 139-140, and then Hulk #272 as a kid, I've been fascinated by the idea of the Wendigo, that vile spirit of the Great North Woods who Native Americans whisper can possess a man who engages in the dark act of cannibalism while in the wilderness.

My buddy Bill has had a pulp RPG brewing for some time, and this week he announced its imminent start, but there was a twist! We will be called the Arkham Avengers, a group of lower powered, 1930's supers out to battle supernatural threats. I love the whole idea! So I needed a character concept. The game would have a BPRD feel, for sure. We'll be using the Savage Worlds rules and the Super Powers Companion. I decided I would turn the whole Wendigo thing on its head. What if the poor sap who committed that terrible act of cannibalism in the Great North Woods could somehow get control of his curse?

He could turn a terrible negative into a positive! So while browsing the racks at Phantom of the Attic, I spotted the newly released Yeti Warrior from Reaper. He would be perfect for my character. And for his alter ego, the haunted French Canadian trapper, Greg Laroque? I will use a Pulp Figures Tramp Steamer sailor for his human form.

Last night I whipped out the paint brush and had at it! Here's the results!









We're starting at Seasoned level, so Laroque's monstrous alter ego will possess low-level super-strength, enhanced senses, regeneration, fearlessness, and a few other minor powers.

Bill runs a great game, so I can't wait to get playing!

P.S. For anyone "scoring" at home that is one figure from the backlog, and one new figure. Not bad!

BASH UE Action

I've talked about the BASH RPG before on this blog, but tomorrow I will be getting together with some friends and running a character generation session for a short campaign I intend to run.

I intend to run a mid-powered, quirky supers campaign that borrows some elements from the old Whispering Vault RPG. Players will take the roles of supernatural hunters in the employ of the Lords of Chaos and Order. They'll be tracking down fugitive entities out to do evil across the multiverse. Adventures can and will take place in the past, present, and future. It'll be a bit like Doctor Who, but a lot more violent.

Maybe I'll take some pics of the models the players use for the characters and share them here.

--Scott

D&D 4E Goblin Druid

I got to play some Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition Wednesday night, and I had a blast. I picked up Players Handbook 2 beforehand and made a Goblin Druid. Since the game is set in Eberron, goblins are much more accepted as player characters.

Of course, I had to use the Terronus Goblin Druid miniature for my character. I painted up a new version on a smaller, 20mm slotted base, and added a Star Wars Miniatures Vornskr as his Wild Shape model. In 4th ed. the Druid is no longer sidled with an Animal Companion, but he can take a Wild Shape form that gives him access to cool striking powers.

I really love what 4th ed. has done with this class. He's now a cool close-in fighter when he needs to be, but he can also zap foes and control the combat area with deadly ranged elemental magic.












Also, here's a scale comparison shot with a Reaper chain fighter miniature:



--Scott

Doctor Who RPG: Thumbs Up!

Just picked this up from the FLGS, and I have to say it is magnificent! What a wonderful looking game!

The system looks as elegant as the components. And for you other 1980's era gamers out there, it is a good old fashioned boxed set with dice and everything!

Great job, Cubicle-7! And here's what the game looks like.

Here's an RPG.Net thread that dissects the contents in detail.

I may get to play in a game sometime! The possibilities for character generation are endless!

--Scott

Shadowrun Troll Street Shaman Conversion

I showed this Mage Knight conversion off a while back, pre-blog. So here he is making his debut on the "big-stage". Anyway, he's converted from a Mage Knight Dark Berserker figure. I've got another one which I plan to use for the Earthdawn RPG if I ever run it again.









I don't have a size comparison shot, but he is about the size of a GW Ogryn or Privateer Press Ogre. I sculpted the shirt onto him around the existing belt, altered the belt buckle, and gave him a sidearm from the bits box.

I primed him black and gave him a complete re-paint. I love this mini and it is proof that are many hidden gems in the old Mage Knight line.

--Scott