tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7028958280403371812012-01-29T22:00:07.954+08:00A view of gaming away from the front lines.Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.comBlogger3851100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-5794922456594357972012-01-29T19:31:00.000+08:002012-01-29T21:05:36.162+08:00

And here's another review of an RPG sourcebook -- Laundry Files: Agent's Handbook, a sourcebook to The Laundry RPG. Let's get this out of the way first: Steganography is the art and science of writing hidden messages; Stenography is the process of writing in shorthand. While it could be argued that very very few write in shorthand these days and would constitute a hidden message, it is an

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-12277951989149818272012-01-28T17:01:00.000+08:002012-01-28T17:02:13.381+08:00

Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame is a wonderful pulp romp set in the Tang Dynasty. As the impending coronation of the Empress Wu Zetian draws near, the mysterious death of a key official charged with completing the 1000 foot statue of Buddha makes the release of the imprisoned Detective Dee a necessity for the would-be Empress. His mission: to uncover those responsible for the

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-55636842673243213482012-01-27T21:09:00.000+08:002012-01-27T21:09:32.094+08:00

<!--[if gte mso 9]> 800x600 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]> Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 <![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]>

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-34010933540975726352012-01-26T22:47:00.001+08:002012-01-26T22:48:12.987+08:00

Here are three links to cool reference sites for these venerable Science Fiction series: Star Wars Deckplans B5Tech ST-Intelligence Enjoy! What? No, no one's preparing for any sort of SF campaign with lost technology from star systems with very different tech levels and specializations. What makes you say that?

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-52594232120032419142012-01-25T03:57:00.000+08:002012-01-25T03:57:13.044+08:00

As a result of my earlier post on The Design Mechanism, RuneQuest, and the $1 sourcebook sale, I visited the Moon Design site. Now I'm looking for my HeroQuest PDF, and contemplating picking up both the Sartar: Kingdom of Heroes and the upcoming Pavis: Gateway to Adventure books from them.

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-74110290657096981422012-01-23T20:00:00.000+08:002012-01-23T21:12:56.347+08:00

Zak S of Playing D&D With Pornstars asked some questions for GMs. Here are my answers. 1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be? As a GM, it was a complete ship and crew for an exploration vessel in the Fading Suns RPG. I had a ready set of NPCs they could interact with as they were shuttled between planets. 2. When was the last time you GMed?

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-53442696385022249242012-01-22T11:49:00.000+08:002012-01-22T11:53:53.061+08:00

This is not about Legend, but about Runequest. But I'll talk briefly about Legend first. As you may know, Legend is Mongoose's current open ruleset that is pretty much their current take on the original Runequest rules (they had two prior takes on it in the past), but separated from the Runequest name and setting. Perhaps due to its $1 price, it has remained at the top of the RPGNow bestseller

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-61625718816200169002012-01-21T23:31:00.001+08:002012-01-21T23:31:15.647+08:00

Here's the thing. I obviously read a bunch of RPG material, and I occasionally pick up nice shiny things and read them as part of my gamer explorations. I picked up the Mystic Empyrean RPG Corebook and gave it a read. Despite the fact that I've never really playtested this thing, after reading it -- I can say it's really not my thing.And yet, it's a good book. It does a lot of things well. It

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-86682904605519873022012-01-21T09:26:00.002+08:002012-01-22T16:24:01.137+08:00

As an expansion to my past posts on the Kingdom of the Wheel, I extended the core idea into something I call the Wheel Kingdoms. Essentially, this posits the idea of multiple iterations of the Kingdom of the Wheel, each one circumscribing a set kingdom with its own sovereign, its own set of cities along the circumference of influence, its own set of Saeculum (a term for both the rules of

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-4156243831983418222012-01-20T23:25:00.000+08:002012-01-20T23:42:14.500+08:00

I want to read Legend. So okay, I'm going read it. But I am also interested in using Hero (probably 5th or 6th), doing a combination of Fantasy Hero and Pulp Hero for Weird Adventures stats. Enigmundia's Wheel Kingdoms call to me and my fascination with the D&D related systems. And in the wings: Fading Suns.

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-71087897261428843852012-01-18T22:29:00.000+08:002012-01-18T22:29:20.923+08:00

Even a king of the coreward kingdomsmay favor the length of the staff tosymbolize his power and prestige. Again, I want to challenge the subvert the typical view of the wizened mage by tweaking the culture of spellcasters in one area: wands, rods, and staves. It doesn't have to be wood. A wizard's implement of magical dominion of the natural world may be made of metal or some other material.

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-12283733516355828352012-01-16T21:30:00.000+08:002012-01-16T21:30:02.561+08:00

Good only until Feb 12, 2012, DriveThruRPG and RPGNow have a discount code that gives you 20% off several items. One of them: the Leverage RPG! This uses the same Cortex system that the other Margaret Weis products seem to use -- well, sort of. As I understand it they customize it slightly for each RPG to reflect the flavor of the property they're trying to emulate. Still, the Leverage TV

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-53219877255071435002012-01-15T14:58:00.000+08:002012-01-15T14:58:15.400+08:00

On Creating Characters, Game Balance and Min/Maxing The D&D experience The main reason I bought modules for D&D and AD&D was because I couldn't figure out encounter balance. I didn't even have a phrase for it when I was trying to play back in grade school. I didn't even think that monster hit dice was roughly equivalent to the levels of the party, and was perturbed by how many 1/2 HD

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-30884828299567885322012-01-13T22:00:00.000+08:002012-01-13T22:00:14.069+08:00

Here's my short review for the neo-classic adventure module The Cursed Chateau: I'm only familiar with one of the stated inspirations for The Cursed Chateau -- the classic D&D Module X2 Chateau D'Amberville (Castle Amber), and as such that framed a lot of my expectations for the adventure. In general, I liked the setup of the map and the anticipated flow of adventurers through the Chateau

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-62745665277386558992012-01-12T22:11:00.002+08:002012-01-13T14:34:35.081+08:00

I always had this in the back of my mind when I ran the Fading Suns campaign: the conceit of the Living Steel RPG. In this classic RPG powered by a variant of the Phoenix Command system, players had a chance to play characters from a faction of an idealistic space nation that had fallen to the Imperial power -- characters that had been placed in suspended animation and revived to save humanity

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-81651449022616517512012-01-11T07:56:00.001+08:002012-01-11T07:56:46.310+08:00

After the 5th Edition news came out, I saw something unusual -- people started talking about non-4E systems.There were several comments that Pathfinder was identified as one of the causes for D&D 4E being viewed as a misstep, and might be worth checking out. Father Dave made an observation in his ruminations of Pathfinder that 3E onwards might have been emblematic of a generational style of

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-54293758460473157772012-01-10T07:57:00.002+08:002012-01-10T07:57:34.497+08:00

Well, I saw two posts -- one of them was the inimitable Tim Brannan's post on it with almost every link on the subject so far -- and I must say I find it fascinating. Just the other day I was telling some officemates about the various D&D editions, while simultaneously explaining to one that Computer RPGs are different from Tabletop RPGs (which used to be the only RPGs), and mentioning rumors

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-36963834132767433532012-01-08T20:25:00.002+08:002012-01-08T22:43:14.557+08:00

My last post in this series saw several Adventures Dark & Deep character classes being evaluated and assigned common roles in my Enigmundia: Zan Lasario setting. More Character Classes Fighter The quintessential warrior who lives to fight and fights to live. Fighters do not possess many skills, but have the broadest ability to use weapons of all sorts, and advance in fighting skill at the

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-63226173218662921232012-01-08T00:52:00.000+08:002012-01-08T00:52:15.962+08:00

Animated GIF! Ooooh. On RPGNow and DriveThruRPG there's a sale currently ongoing. Twenty plus RPGs on sale at $12 apiece. Now may be the time to grab that RPG you've been wanting to get if only it were just a wee bit cheaper. Here are just a few of the items of interest (to me, anyway): Arcanis: the Roleplaying Game PDF - intriguing for the Roman armor on the cover and the mysterious copy

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-25132180681641907662012-01-07T07:46:00.000+08:002012-01-07T12:17:40.615+08:00

What happened in the past year for some Game Publishers of note? And what lies in store in the future? Here's an initial roundup of several publishers I keep track of: Pelgrane Press According to their December post, Pelgrane enjoyed a good year in 2011 - more sales, more review, more rewards, and more people playing their games (which, as an armchair gamer, I understand as not necessarily

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-17020907610007725402012-01-05T22:47:00.000+08:002012-01-09T06:47:59.742+08:00

Nexus flies to deliver his judgement to an unsuspecting mass murderer. Nexus -- a comic by Mike Baron and Steve Rude -- is one of my pegs for a superheroic science fiction setting. I love the core story of an executioner of mass murderers who is (initially) driven to kill out of self-defense; a real twist on the original inspiration of the character -- Space Ghost. Judah battling a Gucci

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-11343580565851996422012-01-05T10:16:00.001+08:002012-01-05T10:16:39.241+08:00

According to the Margaret Weis Productions website, pre-orders for the upcoming Marvel Super-Heroes RPG titled Marvel Heroic Roleplaying are currently being accepted. Marvel Heroic Roleplaying will use the Cortex Plus system -- the system that they've used for Smallville, though it's assumed that the character creation system will be modified somewhat -- and will be tied into some kind of

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-29364905887687126842012-01-04T09:05:00.001+08:002012-01-04T16:45:01.486+08:00

First Encounters To be honest, I didn't hate saving throws at first. D&D was the only RPG I'd ever played, so I figured that saving throws were how you handled certain things. Sadly, it was the vagueness of what those "certain things" were what initially gave me trouble. Unless it was explicitly stated in the rulebook, I didn't call for saving throws. And because of that it was hard for me to

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-64194176315164271042012-01-02T22:00:00.000+08:002012-01-03T10:10:02.942+08:00

Image taken from the Hill of Crosses in Lithuania In my past posts on Enigmundia, particularly the Zan Lazario mini-setting, I've been thinking about how to deal with the Catholic / Christian religion. Once again, I'll be borrowing from the Hinirang body of stories and expanding on the Pio Familia (Holy Family) religion and the most popular branch of that religion, the Tres Hermanas (three

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-60090636354615031232012-01-01T22:00:00.000+08:002012-01-01T22:00:08.610+08:00

Adventures Dark & Deep, an RPG written by Joseph Bloch and carefully playtested by a community of gamers at the ADD message boards, has been of interest to me for the past year.The conceit of this set of rules (which claims not to be a retro-clone) is that it is a "what-if" type of ruleset (placing it in the Alterclone or Neoclone arena), positing that the rules contain within might be what the

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-41162438158528275632012-01-01T10:26:00.001+08:002012-01-01T10:40:38.250+08:00

Just so I don't suffer blogpost amnesia, I write this more for myself than for you guys. Of course, I'm going to continue doing RPG reviews broken up into: new products old products I'm going to return to Enigmundia focusing on two areas: Zan Lazario - primarily a take on Mystara that's inspired by the Spanish colonization of the Philippines Kingdom of Wheels - a more high fantasy take on

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-30883062268418106802011-12-31T17:20:00.003+08:002011-12-31T17:20:39.853+08:00

Here's my latest review: Having never played any of the flavors of Runequest, ever, it's hard for me to critique this core rulebook's rules (though I am a fan of the parent ruleset and was intrigued at the 1st set of Mongoose Runequest ruleset -- but that's another story). However, as a sourcebook and a spark of inspiration I can offer my opinions.First off, the setting is one that I thought

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-41779437704818103862011-12-30T10:00:00.001+08:002011-12-30T10:00:41.097+08:00

So I'm looking at the various Retro/Neo/Alterclones out there for several reasons: (1) holidays are stressful; (2) need moderate complexity ruleset for one Enigmundia subsetting; (3) need light ruleset for the various OSR setting offerings out there (Carcosa, Weird Adventures, Blackmarsh, Vornheim, etc.). It's fun looking through the ones I have and seeing which one fits my needs. Of course,

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-6106860759377628672011-12-30T00:48:00.002+08:002011-12-30T00:48:25.618+08:00

The year 2011 was another learning experience in terms of writing a series of articles. Mainly I learned that I need to set aside time to read and write for some of the series that I had planned -- not all entries are easy to do, and that's what killed some of my attempts. Still, in 2012 I'd like to continue doing reviews. Perhaps not all new products, some older ones -- even those that are not

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-17124770252103838582011-12-28T20:13:00.004+08:002011-12-28T22:24:04.981+08:00

Damn, what a densely-packed sourcebook. And I couldn't even cite a specific entry that I liked for fear of spoiling player enjoyment by revealing what I liked (twists and surprises galore). Anyway, here's my review as it appeared on RPGNow.com. Weird Adventures is a sourcebook for a game setting that is a mixture of traditional fantasy elements and a mad infusion of weird pulp fiction (

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-84261992418378186792011-12-26T22:17:00.001+08:002011-12-26T22:17:12.577+08:00

I was curious and discovered that I had, in fact, written some reviews before.There are three "piecemeal system reviews" that I did in January of this year that talk about elements of game systems that I remember. Here they are: Sanity in Chaosium's Call of Cthulhu Damage in Fuzion Skills in Top Secret / S.I. Also, I have the initial post that I made, showing that I had intended to cover a few

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-19868881343339510172011-12-25T22:52:00.000+08:002011-12-25T22:52:03.436+08:00

Fantasy Heartbreakers and militant OSR purists aside, the indie OSR movement has -- in concert with other industry-wide learnings and trends, of course -- produced a lot of quality material. Few are perfect, and of course different people will have varying opinions on the products, but there are best practices that are added to the body of OSR work grows.Because of the exercise of RPG product

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-65324102199300038142011-12-24T21:15:00.000+08:002011-12-24T21:15:04.449+08:00

I was traipsing through the websites of the various companies whose RPGs have caught my eye and saw this: A Buckaroo Banzai RPG on the Adamant Entertainment website! It'll be out in April of 2012, with an interesting blurb: Adamant Entertainment, in association with the Banzai Institute for Biomedical Engineering and Strategic Information, has entered into a license agreement by which Adamant

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-17601514263834521092011-12-22T10:10:00.001+08:002011-12-26T22:17:44.736+08:00

Here's my latest review: an adventure for a system I've never played. However, it is an interesting enough adventure as an introduction to a game system and start of a campaign. In a nutshell, The RetConQuest is a solid adventure that seems -- structurally -- more appropriate as an introductory adventure rather than as a stand-alone adventure in an ongoing campaign. The core conceit of '

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-62228208625945656632011-12-22T09:03:00.001+08:002011-12-22T16:50:51.278+08:00

Well, technically it's a new Redbrick website. I think a lot of my links to the old blog posts will go dead soon, which is sad. Although I'll be happy when the New Fading Suns ruleset comes out though!

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-22416692748703511842011-12-21T18:51:00.001+08:002011-12-22T10:02:07.183+08:00

Just because I'm in a stressed mood and have a lot of work ahead of me, I decided to do a little quiz (not that hard really) based on the various movies that you can technically run in the Code: Black setting with some minor tweaks to the rationale, and in some cases not at all. And for fun, I've arranged the pics into a safe for work (I think) arrangement of pics that seems to follow the

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-90100214830334690472011-12-19T21:09:00.003+08:002011-12-26T22:17:44.758+08:00

Something with the title Isle of the Unknown conjures up an island far from the outposts of civilization, shrouded in mystery, brimming with strangeness and wonders. In this case, only the first aspect is untrue since the island in question is 35,00 square miles in size, broken up into 330 land hexes (each 86 square miles), and each hex is keyed with a central point of interest which includes

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-84212280621093488732011-12-16T22:13:00.002+08:002011-12-16T22:13:31.199+08:00

Hey, I saw this new product on RPGNow.com. It seems... strangely familiar.

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-45751387694090278512011-12-16T16:48:00.002+08:002011-12-26T22:17:44.753+08:00

After that spectacular sale on all the Lamentations of the Flame Princess imprint mentioned earlier in my blog, guess what I get to review first as a DriveThruRPG / RPGNow reviewer? One of the newest offerings (at least on RPGNow / DriveThruRPG) from the Lamentations of the Flame Princess imprint: Carcosa. Here's the review I gave: This PDF edition of Carcosa is apparently a compilation and

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-19344242203267696772011-12-16T08:34:00.000+08:002011-12-26T22:17:44.743+08:00

I'm about to start reviewing some products for the DriveThruRPG and RPGNow sites, and it's made me think about methodology. How does one give a fair review? First off, I'd have to have a quick disclaimer that my review is based on a mere reading, rather than an actual playtest of the material. I think this is important, because -- and I think most would agree -- reading a good RPG rulebook or

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-74099037384561429542011-12-14T13:17:00.001+08:002011-12-22T10:00:38.580+08:00

To my mind, there are three major elements of the Code: Black setting. They are (a) Good and Evil; (b) The Brotherhood; and (c) Earth is a flawed prison. Good and Evil Potentially the most difficult or most understandable element is the existence of absolute good (hereafter referred to as Good) in the universe, as well as absolute evil (hereafter referred to as Evil). The setting states that

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-2146721362978070552011-12-11T21:32:00.001+08:002011-12-22T10:00:52.257+08:00

Code: Black is an RPG that acts as a Kitchen Sink Setting for your supernatural / preternatural / weird sh*t campaigns. That's a very broad amount of genre ground to cover, but the overall premise of the setting allows for a campaign that can tackle straightforward "monster showdowns" ala From Dusk Till Dawn and Tales from the Crypt: Demon Knight; spooky atmospheric hauntings ala The Eye,

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-25184807361233234652011-12-08T08:38:00.001+08:002011-12-08T08:45:51.558+08:00

What the what? Yes, you read that right -- the word 'orc' does appear in that title.One of the thing I miss about being in a FLGS is the ability to browse for strange and unusual games that I would never buy -- but am sorely tempted to out of curiosity. After typing in random letters into the new RPGNow search bar, this game was recommended. After a quick spit-take, I read up on it. It's

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-57920530055395694012011-12-07T21:20:00.001+08:002011-12-07T21:26:57.789+08:00

As mentioned early, shards have two names. But how are these revealed? In two ways: (1) by sharding one, thus committing yourself to bearing that shard for a given amount of time; (2) having a warder shard, which allows you to ask the names from the shards themselves. If you discovered that a given set (most discovered caches of shards are sets of 7) with the following names, what would you

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-91634857638856265382011-12-04T22:52:00.001+08:002011-12-04T22:52:19.790+08:00

Well, well, well. It seems that a whole bunch of OSR works are on sale at RPGNow.com. First up is Vornheim by Zak S., which is on my list because I've always been curious about the internal organization and layout of the material. It's been marked down from $9.00 to $1.35. Next on the list is Raggi's Tower of the Stargazer, down from $3.25 to $1.35. Hey, his Weird New World, Hammers of the

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-77523923119170747422011-12-02T18:26:00.001+08:002011-12-02T18:26:34.823+08:00

I wanted to look at 4th Edition Champions, and take a look at the different types of players and explore how: (1) they may have found satisfaction in other pre-RPG hobbies (2) their needs were met by RPGs (3) they may have been lured away by other post-RPG hobbies The following list is taken from the classic HERO Big Blue Book (4th Edition), but is expanded upon and grouped differently.

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-45236191764910120412011-12-01T17:33:00.001+08:002011-12-01T18:28:27.010+08:00

The Bone Collector shard, after becoming Accomplished,underwent a slight change in nomenclature. Where oncethere was a brutal scourge of the undead now stood a learnedsage of the necromantic arts -- and other secrets. I've been trying to figure out how best to explain shards, but there's a lot of stuff that may overwhelm. So in classic OSR tradition, I'll treat them like the artifacts or

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-17705868925180509572011-11-30T23:30:00.000+08:002011-12-01T08:25:44.438+08:00

Before I continue on the Philippine Bestiary series, I'd be remiss in my HERO duties if I didn't mention Michael Surbrook's two-book masterpiece: Asian Bestiary parts 01 & 02. You might think that it's system specific, but the HERO system has a way of breaking down abilities and stats in a very detailed manner, so it's actually great as a sourcebook not just for Philippine monsters but for

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-33476272097304132242011-11-30T17:45:00.000+08:002011-11-30T17:46:12.167+08:00

I believe that the inspiration for Saints in the Isle Imperium comes not solely from the Catholic / Christian tradition (though they do have halos) but also from a broader view from other religions and cultures. Wikipedia notes the following characteristics of designated saints across religions: exemplary model; extraordinary teacher; wonder worker or source of benevolent power; intercessor;

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-10238469799030838442011-11-30T09:49:00.001+08:002011-11-30T10:08:54.204+08:00

The Pugot as depicted by sculptor Ian Balba, and shown on the website of that excellent Filipino Urban fantasy/horrorcomics series Trese, whose website is here. Pugot means beheaded or headless, and when you have creature named pugot, you can imagine what we're looking at here. Now while there are certainly parallels to the Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow fame, there several things to

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-58579334709502814022011-11-29T21:33:00.001+08:002011-11-30T18:55:39.167+08:00

Well, that's interesting. I just finished posting a brief walkthrough of the Lightspeed setting by Christian Conkle earlier this month and lo and behold: Lightspeed books for Traveller. This seems to be a conversion job -- because it mentions that to get the most out of it you should pick up the original Lightspeed books and, of course, Mongoose's Traveller books. But in theory you can use

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-29686930051283144592011-11-29T16:03:00.001+08:002011-11-29T16:07:39.395+08:00

After seeing the shocking post from this blog I went to the HERO Games website. This is the text of the Nov 28, 2011 posting on the site: Hero Games has been around for 30 years with ups and downs. The economy's been pretty rough lately, as has the gaming market. With declining sales and fewer releases, Hero has reached the point where it's no longer possible to maintain a full time staff of

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-83734662583951510072011-11-27T23:30:00.000+08:002011-11-27T23:30:00.975+08:00

Looks like I earned the Crystal Star clasp shown here on the cover. Sadly, all those creatures in the background are still hunting me. Warnings and Implications The young wizard is named Banedon, who thanks me and shares news about the Magician's Guild of Toran to the north. A traitor betrayed them as well, and Banedon -- along with two companions who were separated from him during an ambush

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-92068012290918799232011-11-27T14:50:00.001+08:002011-11-27T14:55:19.229+08:00

And here's the last of this shard art sequence until I can go back and take more pictures. We have Speculum Magus, the Mirror Mage on the left -- a shard that we never really got to use. We do speculate that the abilities had the ability to reflect attacks, to create illusions, and perhaps to replicate abilities of opponents (at higher levels).The Rhythmic Warrior seems to have been

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-257059873038922102011-11-27T09:57:00.001+08:002011-11-27T10:05:00.877+08:00

This is the next batch of shards done for the Isle: Imperium game. There is the shard from the Emerald Legion known as the Black Dragon Third Hell Talon -- part of the family of Black Dragon shards which tend to belong to a family or clan and are passed down through generations. Like all shards in its line, it has ridiculous prerequisites and requirements, and -- like most shards from its

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-84509260175997268492011-11-27T01:06:00.001+08:002011-11-27T01:14:07.358+08:00

Found some shard art done by a fellow player. This is the Sapphire Helios Guard Warder, and the Saint of Eaves. Saints had a strange set of abilities -- they came across like rogues, but with special powers and skill sets when dealing with something falling under the purview of their assumed name. They also had abilities associated with their halos. Warders usually had some ability to

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-49911516043229890012011-11-26T09:00:00.001+08:002011-11-26T13:21:04.491+08:00

Lone Wolf [ CS 15, Endurance 24+4 ] I decide to take the northeast route! It is a bit out of the way, but if I can find a horse or a cart and use it to travel by road rather than by arduous wilderland routes, I can get to the capital faster. Plus it has the advantage of better camouflage opportunities while still close to the Kai monestary. My path allows me to sight both flying Kraan and their

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-84467974435173034352011-11-25T23:31:00.001+08:002011-11-25T23:40:22.722+08:00

From KQED, this got my GM setting thoughts flowing: This extraordinary time-lapse video filmed by the BBC for their "Frozen Planet" series shows how cold, sinking brine forms a deadly "brinicle" when it comes into contact with warmer waters below the surface.   Given the concept of "higher" or "purer" planes of existence mixing in strange ways, this is a nice example of how it works in

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-34582595847379566132011-11-25T18:20:00.001+08:002011-11-30T10:10:10.427+08:00

I'm looking at putting together a bestiary with some lesser known (?) Philippine monsters. Which is hard, because a lot of the monster abilities and descriptions overlap, and some terms (like aswang) are used interchangeably with more specific terms. There are some things I've not really heard of before, and those are the ones I'm after right now. Take a look at the Sigbin, at least according

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-46806701611208753402011-11-24T17:51:00.001+08:002011-11-26T08:59:58.279+08:00

Okay, so I rolled up my character: Lone Wolf [ CS 15, Endurance 24 ] is setting off on the adventure Flight from the Dark! My selection for Kai Disciplines: Healing -- for that all important +1 Endurance every numbered section Sixth Sense -- just because Mind Shield -- I don't like being Mind Blasted Animal Kinship -- talking to the animals can help in intelligence gathering Camouflage --

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-29149462540318007352011-11-24T07:50:00.001+08:002011-11-24T07:52:46.859+08:00

It was tough finishing the first Kitchen Sink Expeditions set, because a combination of a feverish child and sudden complications at work on top of some sideline projects ate into my time. Thankfully my child is now fever free (though having difficulty understanding that fireworks displays don't happen every day), allowing me to focus on burgeoning work problems and slipping deadlines. My next

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-88869338666525108352011-11-22T08:21:00.001+08:002011-11-22T22:12:23.504+08:00

In this brief exploration of the Lightspeed RPG, I've taken a look at the broad strokes of the setting, picked at the major elements, and showed some of the little cameos and campaign options available to players and GMs. So to wrap things up, I decided to list some campaign premises (a.k.a. the more popular term now, campaign frameworks) that can be run in the setting. Default Campaigns The

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-898950065641969792011-11-19T23:11:00.001+08:002011-11-19T23:22:11.529+08:00

Think Space Wars vs. Space Trek. That's the ticket, yeah... As I mentioned in Part I, there were several iterations of Lightspeed that came out before the current version. In those versions, there were some expansions and supplements that eventually got folded into the final Core Book of Lightspeed you see today. Some stayed in, some didn't make it, but all can give you a feel for the original

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-72803962413965081772011-11-14T23:30:00.000+08:002011-11-19T22:12:09.397+08:00

In Part I, we explored the background of Lightspeed and the broad strokes of the setting. In this Part, I hope to tackle the major elements of the setting, and show how they can be used as the homages that they are. The Interstellar Federation This is clearly the Star Trek Federation equivalent, but its origins lie in an alliance of colonies that threw off the yoke of Old Earth Empire

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-50278306443964359742011-11-12T12:43:00.001+08:002011-11-12T12:49:19.423+08:00

Looking for a Science Fiction setting that is a mix of Star Wars, Star Trek, and other SF properties with a little Anime thrown into the mix? Look no further than the Lightspeed RPG by Christian Conkle. BackgroundI first encountered Lightspeed back in the days when Fuzion was a still a thriving RPG system, and the first iterations of the game and setting were available for free on the internet.

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-33433206245495238882011-11-10T22:33:00.001+08:002011-11-10T22:56:11.881+08:00

I'm going to try to do a regular series of posts (again), that require mostly reading and critique instead of coming up with stuff. The series will be called Kitchen Sink Expeditions, and has nothing to do with Kitchen Sink press or any other entity or organization with the phrase Kitchen Sink in it. Anyway, having already mentioned several RPGs and settings that I've noted are kitchen sink

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-61750658742203031162011-11-09T22:10:00.000+08:002011-11-10T08:22:59.755+08:00

In my early gaming career, I didn't get to play or GM much. And so I relied on the Fighting Fantasy books and the Lone Wolf series of Gamebooks! I'm carefully archiving the copies available at Project Aon, for laptop play. However, I did read from the blog that there's a Lone Wolf board game in the works. Here's a quick look at the figurines: Gary Chalk (original illustrator of the books

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-31893350679263579932011-11-07T20:42:00.002+08:002011-11-07T20:51:00.074+08:00

With shows like The Walking Dead and movies like Shaun of the Dead, and the upcoming World War Z flick sure to fan the flames of zombie mania, an indie film concerning the same subject matter may seem like a rehash of the same subject matter. However, this movie -- Di Ingon 'Nato -- seems to suggest otherwise. Based on the trailer above (subtitled for people like me who don't speak

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-74725617160617696012011-11-05T09:41:00.002+08:002011-11-05T09:41:25.456+08:00

This post by Pelgrane Press indicates that an RPG is in development called Owl Hoot Trail. It seems to be a Western RPG, but with an old school feel. As stated in the post, there are several character classes that have some correlation to the classic D&D character classes: the Lawman comes across as paladin-ish the Scout seems ranger-y the Scoundrel is theif-ish the Gunslinger and the Ruffian

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-29786844786925915602011-11-04T22:41:00.000+08:002011-11-04T22:41:15.660+08:00

Pointyman2000 has an ongoing series of posts on Fading Suns. He's currently studying the rules and setting, and has some interesting insights. I'd like to see what he thinks about my old campaign given his sudden jump in knowledge of the game.

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-36926091324549929572011-11-03T20:25:00.000+08:002011-11-03T21:26:37.924+08:00

Following up my last post, here's a list of some of the games I'd be interested in running: Fading Suns No surprise there, I've posted a lot on the attraction of this kitchen sink setting. It also allows me a fair amount of latitude in terms of the types of game sessions I can run, and gives me any number of excuses to take away high technology away from the players when I need to have the

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-66844254132857248142011-11-02T17:04:00.000+08:002011-11-02T17:08:50.488+08:00

I've been thinking about this a lot recently, spurred on by the many demands on my time and resources. My current gaming preferences are broken up into two major categories: reading, GMing, and playing. Lexx, for example, was a read or play setting. But I'd never run a game in the setting -- I'd be worried about getting the feel of the setting and the tone of the stories right. I'd probably

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-44511189195533087802011-11-01T08:03:00.001+08:002011-11-01T08:21:33.498+08:00

In my misspent youth, I used to play Arduin with a gaming group that also introduced me to the Hero System via Champions. One of the characters that I chose to play was a rotund Saint in the classic -- ahem, D&D-inspired -- RPG known as Arduin. Playing a saint is a bit difficult because the character class never uses weapons, never dons armor, and never fights. Rather than being easier

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-25670120409248170282011-10-29T23:00:00.000+08:002011-10-29T23:00:01.564+08:00

It occurs to me that I had forgotten one of the possible options for the simplification of dice rolls: True20. I'll admit to having a small collection of True20 games, was getting familiar with it, am somewhat interested in some of them and strongly interested in major spliter-offs like Mutants and Masterminds/DC Adventures. It's just rolling a single D20 for the resolution rolls and effect

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-88967525440680944192011-10-29T11:48:00.004+08:002011-10-29T11:48:56.112+08:00

There was a time that I ran a short-lived D&D campaign using 3rd Edition rules set in the Forgotten Realms, and I dispensed with XP for monsters, treasure, encounters, traps and so on. I basically said that characters would level up by one level for every three sessions they played (based primarily on the fact that I had only so many scenarios and a tight schedule to actually run games). The

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-5318151920644961112011-10-28T20:12:00.000+08:002011-10-28T20:36:02.466+08:00

Fractured Shards are very dangerous to bear. In the midst of preparations for the second mission, the party is betrayed by the corrupted Fractured Mage, which takes control of its mount, DUMAS, in order to kill the other members of the party except for ALECTO and CATALINA. These two are fortunately able to resurrect the others—in particular, through the assistance of Ossis Potior, MANTIUS,

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-27184343327694070712011-10-26T23:30:00.000+08:002011-10-26T23:30:01.233+08:00

I was looking at the old manual for Ultima III (which was my first computer RPG), and I saw the following table: Interesting things going on here. First off, the Bobbit is clearly a LOTR hobbit or D&D halfling. Next, the Fuzzy race isn't obfuscated -- it's the Fuzzies from H. Beam Piper's series of novels concerning that race of furry bipeds. If you look at the Dennis Loubet pictures,

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-47430872153178664702011-10-25T07:55:00.000+08:002011-10-25T19:30:49.594+08:00

In Fading Suns, the Church's belief is based on the vision of the Prophet Zebulon, his teachings, and his activities while he was alive. Because the religion that grew out of his words and deeds is so massive, it's sometimes difficult to give it proper weight in the context of game sessions. One of the things I cling to is the list of the initial disciples of the Prophet. While there is no

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-70893249385005859052011-10-23T17:57:00.001+08:002011-10-23T17:57:33.445+08:00

This fantastic image can be seen in greater detail here. In the Underground, that strange maze of caverns and passageways that link between the Hollow World and the Spires of the Kingdom of the Wheel, there is rumored to be a library of skulls. Perhaps it is in the Empire of the Ossiarchs, where Liches rule over skeletal armies. Or perhaps it is in the lost lair of the Bone Savants -- the

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-54749879153875981432011-10-23T00:29:00.001+08:002011-10-23T00:29:04.845+08:00

Maybe we'll also look at reducing the dice used to just the d6s? I'm thinking of running RPG sessions that take up very little table space. There's a coffeeshop at the ground floor of our building that has relatively small tables, but most places that we want to game at need a fairly large-sized table to be able to comfortably fit: maps and figurines character sheets rulebooks dice and

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-86381774870130884782011-10-22T00:01:00.003+08:002011-10-22T00:01:42.034+08:00

Mystara has a hollow world, and according to canon, it was created and is sustained as some sort of dynamic stasis world for civilizations and creatures that were going to become extinct or be lost. For Enigmundia, especially the Kingdom of the Wheel aspect of the setting, this can be conflated into a prison / menagerie of multiple gaming worlds within Mystara that are folded and interlocked

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-1098471750869630822011-10-21T13:07:00.000+08:002011-10-21T13:07:15.730+08:00

I've been thinking about what elements might be present in the Megadungeons of the Kingdom of the Wheel. After all, even if they were warped by Chaos Magic, there should be some expectation of more orderly remnants or elements of the original structure somewhere. What might these be? Corridors and Stairwells If it was meant to be a fully functional underground facilities, there would be

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-36360870197345283932011-10-20T09:50:00.003+08:002011-10-20T09:50:44.146+08:00

Perhaps more so than the Dragonlance series of modules, Vampire: The Masquerade and the entire World of Darkness family of RPGs and splatbooks garner a generous heaping of scorn from the OSR crowd for departures from sandbox gaming into the storyline approach. Still, it does hold a special place in my heart for a series of RPGs that I was into at the time that took the idea of an immersive

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-26973238313520292592011-10-17T21:09:00.002+08:002011-10-17T21:09:25.339+08:00

When I first got the 'States (which is what we Filipinos sometimes use to refer to the U.S. of A), one of my first exposures to conventions was not a gaming convention. It was Origins in L.A., and my cousins, who had moved there before we had, were my guides and fellow explorers of this strange new experience. It was fantastic -- my first honest-to-goodness exposure to wall-to-wall geekdom. So

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-35882756360514944952011-10-13T01:49:00.000+08:002011-10-13T01:49:28.075+08:00

Inspired by the first Hari Ragat actual play report (good job GM Dariel and Players), which does tackle a boar hunt as part of its very lengthy text, I wanted to post this picture, also from the art done by Gener Pedrina. One of the bad things about hunting in the jungle in the rain: things can sneak up on you due to the visual cover (trees and vines and shrubbery) and the noise (rain, rain on

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-6717492883581865702011-10-11T19:03:00.001+08:002011-10-11T19:16:59.267+08:00

In the Philippines, there are two seasons -- tag-araw (sunny) and tag-ulan (rainy) -- and it's interesting that I almost never run games when it's raining. I used to, back when I ran Cyberpunk and it was almost a given that the setting was an acid-rain soaked city. But a rainy jungle is almost non-existent in my repertoire. Perhaps when I run Fading Suns or Enigmundia I shall have a rainy

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-73720438161924269502011-10-09T00:42:00.000+08:002011-10-09T00:42:02.818+08:00

In comparison with the more abstract combat of classic D&D, Fantasy Hero (based on its rules lineage of Champions and the Hero System) is much more tactically complex. But it also does give more tactical options in combat, options that would be eerily familiar to D&D 3E aficionados. What I do like about the current (Hero 6th Edition) version is that there's a clear dedication to giving a taste

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-39512386914963319392011-10-05T21:32:00.003+08:002011-10-05T22:27:20.130+08:00

Saw these pics associated with Encantadia 2 (though there's a vague feeling of photoshopping). Since I did some earlier posts on Encantadia, so I figured: why not?

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-87949707742425272922011-10-04T10:04:00.001+08:002011-10-04T10:04:44.790+08:00

Earthdawn may seem like Yet Another Fantasy RPG (YAFRPG), but it has many similarities to Fading Suns that make it a delight to draw upon for a campaign premise and other possible elements. First and foremost, it's a post-apocalyptic fantasy setting -- the cycles of cosmology shifted, making it possible for a period of time to other-dimensional horrors inspired by Cthulhoid and Weird Fantasy

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-62301639673248673722011-10-03T09:51:00.003+08:002011-10-03T09:51:34.478+08:00

There's a phrase in Tagalog (Filipino): ningas-kugon. It refers to a grass that, when burned, flares brightly for a short time, then dies out. It's often used to refer to people or initiatives that start off strong, but then loses steam quickly and fizzles out. That's how I feel I've been with some of my post series, so I'm trying to go back to them and finish them off. First up on my list: the

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-14055269684777588362011-10-02T09:57:00.001+08:002011-10-03T09:39:31.093+08:00

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-20076163862560037942011-10-02T01:02:00.002+08:002011-10-02T01:11:59.148+08:00

I can't wait for Season 2. I wonder if it'll have only 7 eps too. I'm floored, absolutely floored by this series. It's not really something I'd want to run as a game, but it certainly sheds some light on the type of stories that can go on behind the scenes of a household. Power struggles, politics, good manners, principles, proper behavior, and misunderstandings -- and their consequences.

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-34572990614157644892011-09-27T20:24:00.002+08:002011-09-27T20:25:57.398+08:00

Then again, taverns have some allure -- such as information on where the best eyeshadow may be purchased in town.(Thanks to Xhuul for the pic) "You all meet in a bar." A trite-and-true (ahem) method of getting the party together, particularly if you don't really want to waste any time and just get on with the adventure. However, if you want to change things just a bit, here are some

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-83154323203651238012011-09-27T01:12:00.002+08:002011-09-27T02:54:00.244+08:00

Here's the first part of the initial draft of the Troupe Style Play Charter for our Fading Suns group: GAMEMASTER GUIDELINES The primary philosophical approach for multiple gamemasters in a single Fading Suns campaign is similar to those held by the editors and writers of shared world anthologies like Thieves World and Wildcards: each gamemaster represents a different point of view of the

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-77327854917852988152011-09-25T09:53:00.001+08:002011-09-25T18:44:29.041+08:00

In the dim corners of memory, I remember first encountering the mention of Troupe Style play reading posts on message boards about using it in the game Over The Edge. There were references to the RPG were the term was first (?) mentioned -- Ars Magica -- which I did not have access to. Now, I'm returning to the concept because a small band of Fading Suns players and GMs are trying to set up a

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-33977790680349977392011-09-23T00:03:00.000+08:002011-09-23T00:03:08.833+08:00

I've never really played in actual classic D&D modules. Much of what I played in during my time in Beresford were homebrew settings and dungeons; my familiarity with the D&D and AD&D modules is primarily due to me collecting them and reading them! Which modules did I want to play in? Interestingly enough, the first module I wanted to play in -- not for the dungeon but for the home base -- was

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-85919441534183725602011-09-20T23:15:00.001+08:002011-09-20T23:21:34.817+08:00

Classic depiction of a Hawkwood from the Fading Suns rulebooks. The first batch of characters in GM Bobby's Fading Suns campaign is nobility heavy. Most notable -- due to the number of times that the other characters used his name -- was Baron Kendrake Hawkwood. Relatively inactive in the beginning of the game, but often talked about and used as a source of convenient authority throughout the

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-64546880437977127852011-09-18T22:15:00.001+08:002011-09-18T22:16:27.365+08:00

It was cool to game again with GM Bobby and a lot of other folks I used to game with back when Fading Suns was a major portion of my gaming life. GM Bobby brought us to an interesting corner of the Fading Suns universe -- Sutek. Supposedly the first solar system that the jumpgates took humanity to, it has held some interesting allure for him on a meta level. His first campaign also started

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-12835753167247434712011-09-13T22:11:00.001+08:002011-09-13T22:11:28.707+08:00

Issue #0 of the new Kirby: Genesis series to bedone by the team of Busiek and Ross. Been thinking about how to structure a series of 5 posts on creating a superhero campaign. I know that I normally go through a series of steps, but would they break down into five? Before we get into that, there are certain assumptions that I'd make: (1) I'd have to tell my players the type of superhero

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-702895828040337181.post-81766082386470134442011-09-08T08:14:00.002+08:002011-09-08T08:14:48.692+08:00

I'm deep into Jim Butcher's first book of the Codex Alera pentalogy: The Furies of Calderon. Now, I'm a fan of Jim Butcher's other series work involving Harry Dresden, and there are certainly echoes of the strengths of those books as well: interesting primary and secondary characters, clever interpretations in the nuances of magic, interesting dialogue exchanges, and multi-sided confrontations

Alexander Osiashttps://profiles.google.com/104840424042410120134noreply@blogger.com2