Thursday, October 17, 2013

Tuesday, October 15, 2013

Lords of Pandius: Conversion Test Drive

Well, I've returned to my conversion of Mystaran Immortals to Lords of Olympus and found that my conversion still needs tweaking. Let's take a look at the first pass on the first five Immortals (in alphabetical order):


As you can see, the STR conversion results in Heroic and Mortal Might for Immortals from Immortal Levels 3 to 32! That's wrong, so I have to re-tool that bit.

The others seem to work out, but the Natural AC base seems to be far too stratified, wherein an Immortal with only a -1 difference in AC will automatically grant superiority over others. May have to fix that too.

However, I'm also dissatisfied with the fact that some of these Immortals have very different INT values, some higher than their STR values, going into the 90s ranges; surely that should have an impact on their abilities somewhere?

I think I'll finish all the Mystaran Immortals first, though, before starting to retool again.

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Night's Black Agents: U.N.I.T. Freelancers





Good things of day begin to droop and drowse; While night's black agents to their preys do rouse.
Macbeth, Act III, Scene 2
I was thinking about a Night's Black Agents + Esoterrorists + Mutant City Blues: a different system for a U.N.I.T. meets Torchwood campaign in America. And was looking at old TV shows for additional inspiration.

Instead of working for the government (which the U.S. might take issue to, given that they probably have a slew of anti-alien agencies already), I was thinking of a campaign where a small U.N.I.T. CRASH team is assembled from freelancers, ala Global Frequency meets Masquerade.

For the spooky, conspiracy-laden humans vs. aliens atmosphere, I'd look at shows like:

  • X-files
  • Kolchak
  • Fringe
For the setting, with super-spies, private eyes, talented amateurs, and multi-national agencies:
  • I-Spy
  • The Man from U.N.C.L.E.
  • the Equalizer
  • The A-team
  • MacGyver
  • The Pretender
  • Stingray
  • Strange Luck
  • Charlie's Angels
  • Burn Notice
For banter and ensemble teams:
  • Magnum PI
  • Simon & Simon
  • Remington Steele
  • Moonlighting
  • Ten Speed & Brownshoe
  • Castle
  • Starsky & Hutch
For Science Fiction / Fantasy Weirdness:
  • The Six Million Dollar Man
  • The Bionic Woman
  • The Immortal
  • The Tomorrow People
  • Sapphire & Steel
  • Torchwood
  • Warehouse 13
  • Knight Rider
  • UFO
  • Project UFO
  • Fringe

Friday, October 4, 2013

Tracing the Wheel Kingdoms: Setting Wishlist

In my past posts on the Kingdom of the Wheel & other Wheel Kingdoms, I mentioned how different cities were included in these kingdoms, sometimes with different Saeculum governing the abilities and magic of theses places.

This was really meant to give me a kind of way to tie together some of my favorite D&D settings (and other fantasy settings) in my very own kitchen sink setting.

But what settings would I include? Off the top of my head:

  • Mystara -- of course, as a classic inspiration to many of the worlds and arguably one of the major players in the War for the Wheel Kingdoms.
  • The City from Weird Adventures -- although, perhaps, the true connection to the Wheel Kingdoms would be one of the older cities in the world.
  • Red Tide -- a nice, tightly contained setting that is also a threat that might infect the rest of the realms of the Wheel Kingdoms.
  • Poryphyry: World of the Burn -- a setting that I must convert from its current system eventually, but is very rich with potential for fantasy post-apocalyptic adventuring, and different types of magic.
  • Carcosa -- a walled-off segment of one of the Broken Wheels, but still accessible by occasional intersections of the Grand Orrery.
  • Enigmundia -- a cobbled together setting of my own, based on a fantasy Philippines being colonized by fantasy equivalent of Spain.
  • All the Blackmoors -- each Blackmoor would house a greater key of the Wheel Kingdoms.
  • Megadungeons -- rationale needed for them as ruins or fallen or secret points on the Wheel Kingdoms.
Well, that's it for now. Time to read and think.