Infocyde's RPG Blog

A mysterious rider appears in a forest and encounters a humanoid monster attempting to slay him. He defeats the monster and discovers a mystical cabin in the woods. Inside, an old woman listens to his tale, allows him to rest, feeds him, and then gives him a sword to aid in his quest. We learn the rider is a knight, obliged to kill any magical being preying on humanity, seeking vengeance for the slaying of his family by such a being. Continuing his journey, the rider reaches a keep after spending a night at a farm, where he is kindly received. It's revealed that he was once a farmer himself. At the keep, plagued by a night dragon, he stays overnight, awaiting an audience with the local lord. He demonstrates magical tricks to the keep's soldiers, hinting at his extraordinary nature. Learning that the soldiers are preparing to attack the dragon, he dissuades them, warning of their likely demise. In the morning, hearing of the lord's plan to muster an army against the dragon, ...

 OK, initiative bogs things down.  My system below is too complicated as is, but it is a starting point to revisit later. The just: Everyone has an initiative number that is calculated.  Then weapon and situational mods are added. Base initiative is your Dex mod. Medium armor subtracts 1 Heavy armor subtracts 2 Fighter types add 1 per 4 levels Rogue types as 1 per 5 levels Scholar types add 1 per 10 levels There would be some feats that add to the above. If you are surprised a big minus for the first round would apply. Anyway, you come up with a number.  That doesn't change.  Monsters and foes have a number.  That doesn't change.  You do in the order of highest to lowest.

 I've seen a lot of 1 page or 4 page RPGs out there.  Some of them are pretty neat.  Most of them I would not consider complete RPGs.  Why?  I started thinking about that.  What makes a complete RPG anyway?  Here are some bullet points to be flushed out later. Complete mechanics: Character creation, character advancement, and action resolution rules. Equipment List Spell List (if applicable) Vehicle/Animal rules,Travel, Encumbrance, Food mechanics. Fiend / Antagonist Folio Samples of how to use all of the above That is about it.  Note the first bullet point is the core game.  How do I do x?  How do I know if I can do x?    I'll flush this out later.  But those I think are the core.

Looking for a free OSR game with a Greek Mythos theme? Look no further than MAZES and MINOTAURS.  Three core books plus a companion, all free pdfs. http://mazesandminotaurs.free.fr/revised.html

Not with a bang but with a whimper. So a group of friends and my wife and I have had a gaming going for about four years now. We started off playing a custom made OSR D&D game designed by my friend Joe called Mythos Archanum.  We did that for about six months but Joe ended up moving.  The we jumped around playing various Savage Worlds setting for about six months.  Then my friend Rob took over and lead us on a D&D 5th Edition game that went 18 levels and ran for over a year and a half.  These last six months we have been kind of jumping around but we ended up playing a pretty fun Fate Core game lead by my friend Caleb set in an alternative earth where the Nazi's were defeated in WWII but not before opening up all sorts of occultic gates and ruining much of the world. Tonight was going to be one of our last games.  The last month has been hard as my wife moved for a job and I'm in the process of packing and trying to move to be with her.  So I've...

I'm playing the Last Unicorn version of Star Trek Next Generation. Up front I'm not really a Star Trek Next Generation fan. I'm not anti the series, when I felt like vegging in front of the tube I would watch it. That being said, a friend busted out Last Unicorn's version of the Next Generation Star Trek RPG and we have have about four sessions playing. I actually have had a lot of fun. We play, well, in a way that is a little closer to the 60ies series than Next Gen, but the rules don't really care. We have battled Romulans in the Neutral Zone, been punished doing "team building" exercises on the Holo Deck with our captain's rival operating the simulation and throwing us lot's of curves, failed the prime directive by choosing a life over non-intervention, gone on away missions that went south, and found out that setting a type three phaser to max is a really, really bad idea, generally speaking. The books are expensive, but if you can find...

Four Characters- Sirul Forsal - A former slave turned sailor Auslock - A thief and an artificer Crongor - A barbarian gladiator who is now the city executioner Sargon - A noble stygian sorcerer Backdrop All in the city of wicked and corrupt city Artu-Khan that is suffering from a horrible plague outbreak.  Sirus's boat becomes infected, and his captain starts burning crew members both infected and not so Surus leaves his ship and heads towards the Golden Arse Inn to look for another captain to sail with. Auslock's employer, Sargon's brother, died of the plague and he is looking for both another employer and a way out of the city.  Sargon knows of Auslock, and seeks him help to see if he can help him escape the city as well.  Sargon's patrion, a rich noble woman, thinks Sargon can save her from the plague and will not allow him to leave her side.  She sends two guards with Sargon and Asulock as they seek healing herbs as a ruse to get away from the rich nob...

I, like most role playing geeks, got my start with role playing games using Dungeons and Dragons.  Before I ever played I used to as a kid walk into hobby and toy stores and wonder, "How do these games work?"  I remember looking at a Ral Partha minutes set box and looking at the artwork and thinking "Do you go to these worlds, how is that possible?". My father caught my interest and bought me a Dungeons and Dragons red box basic set.  I was fascinated and set out to read the rules.  Mind you at this point in life I had only ever read maybe one novel of any length and the rules were a bit much for me.  I loved the artwork and managed on my own to role up a few player characters, but with no one to play with I shelved the book for a couple of months and didn't think more about it. Then my friend Dale and his brother Kyle came over one night while our parents did their monthly bridge game.  Dale had figured out the rules enough to play and had his brother ...

The quick: I'm going to cut down my physical pen and paper RPG collection down to what can fit in a box and give people that follow this blog or me on google+ first dibs on thing. The Long:  So my wife and I are talking about our future.  She just lost her job, and my job is portable somewhat, so there is nothing tying us to currently where we live.  We love the medium sized town we live in, but there just seems to be a lot of indicators popping up that say that we are being moved in a cosmic sort of sense. So I've decided to go minimal.  More and more things that I use less and less will go digital (even though I'm not fully comfortable with "the cloud (for a variety of infrastructure and political reasons). If I want to be a digital nomad though I need to slim down my physical holdings of books, DVD's, RPGs, computer games in CD format, etc... So big collections of RPG's have come and gone in my life.  Over the past few years I've started collecting...

This is about our third session. - Synth character which is basically a tank - Freak melee character with high parry and toughness but can't do a lot of damage - Super Science "Exxon Velveeta" character with holographic disguise devise - Psionic character with an area mind blast, mind confusing area blast In the first few adventures we liberated a town from slavers.  The slavers were lead by a "Mr. Fix It" that we decided to go after. The party gets word that a large group of slavers are headed to the liberated town, much to many to take on in a fair fight.  They are a few days away.  The have one advanced vehicle of the ancients which we finally determine is some sort of military truck. Party decided to do some hit and run ambushes on the slavers as they approach.  The first day we help fortify the town, the head off. We setup an ambush area with a tree setup to fall on the truck.  We decide to more forward beyond that position for a hit and...

So last year I made an adventure concept called "Bad Santa" that was well received.  I promised to continue to stat up the various suggested adversaries for Mutant Future, but I didn't get to it.  But here is the adventure concept, Bad Santa for your enjoyment http://infocyderpg.blogspot.com/2013/12/mutant-future-christmas-themed-adventure.html

So I was running an X-Files / Bureau 13 / Fringe type Savage Worlds game and I decided to add a few more powers to beef up priest types in my game.  Here is what I've come up with so far- Savage Priestly Powers Guide My group isn't active right now (we are running some other campaigns with different groups) so I haven't had anyone play test this yet.  Your suggestions on how to improve this guide are greatly appreciated!

I've moved a lot since college.  For me to stay in one place for longer than three years is rare, with my average time in one spot lower than that.  All the while I've been dragging along a few boxes of RPGs.  Since I've been back in Arizona I started collecting them, so I'm up to about four boxes now. Well, it looks like it might be moving time again.  Lately I've been adopting more of a minimalist life style though in many ways that is a tough sell to my wife.  She is slowly giving in.  And in the process I've decided to work on shedding my RPG collection down to just one box.  So far these are the candidates for selling / giving away. Role Master Standard System: 10 books.  This one is painful, but in reality I doubt that I will ever get anyone one to play this with me.  Also it is a system that requires a bit of prep time which I have little of.  Thus RMSS will probably go away. Mongoose Conan: 5 books. I can see the possibili...

I don't like the Savage World's shotgun rules.  Here is my solution Max Targets Hit: Regular Shotgun: Short 1-3, Medium or Greater,  D6 Sawed Off Shotguns / Scatter Guns: D6

I found this on the net.  Pretty good summary of how police use informants and conduct surveillance. http://www.drtomoconnor.com/3220/3220lect02c.htm

For now I'll title the game we are playing Bureau of Weights and Measures as Bureau 14 might be a little to close to Bureau 13, but basically I'm running an X=Files / Fringe / Bureau 13 type of campaign using Savage Worlds.  You can read what happened last adventure by clicking [ HERE ]. The Characters Adriana McArdle - The Bureau's main technical person.  Currently only full time employee at the branch.  Adriana's specialty is hacking and using the internet / social media for research.  She is hopelessly addicted to Facebook / Twitter / Instagram which could pose problems in the future.   Father Murphy - Murphy is a Catholic priest who has a bit of a drinking problem.  He is also an experienced exorcist and has experience fighting the forces of darkness.  Murphy doesn't work directly for the bureau, but their is some understanding by his diocese that Murphy is involved in important work, so his long absences are tolerated.    Special ...

We played a Savage World's Version of Bureau 13 Called Bureau 14. Characters- Agent Adriana McArdle: Rookie Agent, Addicted to Social Media, Runs the Office Father Joseph Murphy: Catholic Exorcist, Cheep Beer Drinker Father Murphy swings by gas station near office to pick up some beer before meeting Adriana.  Gas station attendant very skeptical that office is a "Bureau of Weights and Measures Office", suspects much more. Murphy finds Agent McArdle playing video games instead of answering her bureau phone. He answers, it is the boss man, telling them another agency has asked a favor.  Military found "something" in Afghanistan. Brought it back to Fort Benning, GA (near by army base).  The Army and this unnamed agency don't what whatever it is, so boss man ask Murphy and McArdle to take transport object from base to DC Bureau. Two rent a car, drive to base.  Escorted by officer to guarded hanger. Hanger is empty except for a small desk with a satchel...

Here is a very simple chart for throwing a curve to the monsters / foes in DnD that your party will face. Roll D4 - 1 for number of changes for each group of monsters/foes encountered. Then roll a D12 on the chart below for each change. 1) Increased HD (1-2) 2) Attack more damaging (one die up) 3) New Magical ability (per spell of HD - 3, min level 1 mage or cleric power) 4) Additional Feat or feat like power 5) Increased (better AC) 6) Additional Attack 7) Increased number of appearing 8) Unlikely ally monster(s) of 1-2 less 3-4 equal or 5-6 greater strength 9) Alignment / motivation change (sometimes beneficial) 10) Reinforcements near by 11) Treasure type increased by one letter (or equivalent) 12) Monsters / Foe more cunning that usual (ambush, traps, delays)

I've noticed in a lot of OSR retro clones the Cleric class often isn't included.  I wonder why?  To me the Cleric is an integral part of the D&D experience...the backup fighter, the medic, the party chaplan, and the undead turner...why the hate / disclusion?

So, I've got LOTS of RPG's in digital format.  Most of the time though when I actually play games I like to have physical components on hand as it is hard to scroll through PDFs sometimes.  Yet physical versions of RPG's take up space, which for not I have plenty of, but in looking towards another move in a few months I've begun to ponder slimming down my Physical collection. Most of the games that I have physical copies of I have physical copies of either because I hoped to one day play them or because they are rare.  Some I do but most sit on the shelf collecting dust.  So it pains me but here is what I'm thinking has to go... All D20 Modern Books All D20 OGL Books RoleMaster Standard System and all the expansions I have (this one hurts) Shadowrun 4rth Edition  Conan Mongoose and all the setting books (this one hurts too) Warhammer Fantasy 2nd Edition (this hurts) The various one off "heart breaker" RPGs that I have but will never play The...