Infocyde's RPG Blog

Ok, I understand that a lot of pen and pencil role players are starting to play again after years of abstentia...I am one of them.  There is a push, due to the fact that most of us are older and have many more competing interest than we did when we used to play, to use rules light systems.  I'm cool with that, especially when a core system is rules light but it is modular enough so that those of us who want some extra options can bolt them in.  What I don't like is people creating an 8 page mini-game and calling it a complete rules light system.  I think rules few would be a better term...here is a barely passable minimalist rules system that you can use to start a game with.  I don't think any of these 4 page or 8 page games are complete without house rules and lot's of DM work. My problem isn't with those who make minimalist rule sets and publish them.  My problem is that in the era of self promotion these little 8 page "games" are g...

Initially a band of three adventures, Adriana a human priest of Paylor, Roygers Flint an overly confident Paladin, and the half-orc fighter Hawk set off to investigate rumors of evil stirrings in a nearby town.  When they arrived everything seemed fairly normal.  There were rumors whoever that a long dead cult were once again active.  There was also significant brigand activity in the area.  The adventures sought more information and determined and evil presence was surrounding the equipment store manager's hired help.  Also they found out that a Taylor had in months passed sown some garments for a customer that unbeknownst to the kind woman had the symbol of the ancient cult embedded in the garments. The adventures encountered a group of elves (well two elves and a half elf) in a tavern and struck up a conversation.  The elves turned out to have been drawn to the area for the same reasons the adventures came, and decided (for h...

The group- (all first level).  The below represents three sessions of play. Go Forth - Elvish Female Thief Adriana - Human Female Cleric Lothar - Human Male Mage Dorfin - Dwarf Male Fighter Dungeon - Temple of Elemental Evil So we started off outside of a town.  On our way to the town we had an encounter with bandits that resulted in our first TPK (total party kill).  The DM decided that some other travelers warded off the bandits, bandaged us up, and left.  We healed up for a few days and then headed into town, where we bought some provisions and heard rumors about an abandoned keep where evil once again was stirring.  We also met 3 NPCs in town, which agreed to join us for half of any treasure we might find. Ana - 2nd Level Elven Thief Seth - 2nd Level Druid Kaleb - 2nd Level Fighter On our way to the temple we encountered some giant frogs.  One almost killed the Cleric but after a brief combat we dispatched the frogs.  This was our o...

Origin 1-2 Plague - 3-4 Alien - 5-6 Supernatural - Type 1-2 Flesh eater 3-4 Blood Drinker 5-6 Essence Drinker General Movement 1-2 Shambler 3-4 Normal 5 Fast 6 Super human abilities Level of Awareness 1 Dead, knows only immediate need to feed, line of sight/smell/sense 2 Some awareness, will look at mirror, in windows, move around obstacles 3 Awareness pathfinding, remembers past areas / where feeding locations are, will ambush 4 semi ntelligent - will open doors, windows, hunts in packs, tactics, some fear of destruction 5 Full intelligence - may not be able to speak but can read / symbols, communicate, reason, use simple tools/weapons 6 Full intelligent, extra cunning,use advanced tech, Level of Aggressiveness 1-3. Extremely aggressive, will fight until destroyed 4-5 Aggressive, will fight until driven off, but will return quickly 6   Violent but if not hungry or threatened will not attack Level of Hunger 1-3 Hunger never dies 4-5 Very rarely full 6 Feeds several times a day...

Hi all,    I'm pondering putting together my first G+ hangout for gaming. The time would be 8:30 PM Eastern / 5:30 Pacific on Friday, January 18th.  I'm thinking of using the Barbarians of Lemuria rule set and I'll GM. (Yeah I know this is from Conan and not Lemuria...for our purposes, same difference) Here is a link to the free version of the rules- http://www.1km1kt.net/rpg/barbarians-of-lemuria There are only a few things missing from the free version, like boons and flaws, so feel free to pregen a character if you wish, or I will walk you through creating a character at the first gaming session.  For sorcerers and priest if you make your character in advance let me know so I can work with you on a few basic spells for magi and boons/flaw cast effects for priest. Boons and Flaws and a few other details we will flush out at the beginning of the game session. Note the setting will just be generic swords and sorcery so don't get too hung up on the...

OK, I'll throw my hat in on this. The Top Seven RPG's I've Played and GM'ed. AD&D 1st Edition - My group of friends quickly shed D&D B/X for AD&D 1st Edition.  We played the heck out of it up until second edition came out. AD&D 2nd Edition - When AD&D 2nd Edition came out we quickly abandoned 1st Edition for the 2nd. We had many great campaigns up through high school using AD&D 2nd Edition.   Space Master - The sci-fi variant of Rolemaster (better known as Chart Master) we used Space Master as kind of a base sci-fi system in which to create our own mash up of various genres (A few one offs mimicking the movie Aliens, bounty hunters hunting replicants ala Blade Runner, and a few other semi-post apocalyptic settings). I don't think we ever got the rules right be we loved the plasma repeater weapon charts. Gama Word - We has a few numerous short lived campaigns, which we all enjoyed, but we always seemed to return back to D&D. R...

So I hear there is a one month RPG creation contest out there.  I think just for the fun of it I'll throw my hat in the ring. So let's break the game down into it's primary tasks. Develop Core Mechanic / Game Concept Character Creation Equipment Adversaries World Building Tools And I've got about 4 weeks to do this in. I think I will attempt to make a rules light-heavy / medium-light post apocalyptic RPG based on an RPG that I had created about 20 years ago called 2049. Game Concept of 2049 Aliens observe humanity and decide to use humans as a warrior slave race to fight another alien species.  However, to be effective, humans need to be 1) neutered so they don't pose a threat and 2) genetically enhanced. Aliens threaten humanity with destruction.  Part of humanity secretly cut deal with aliens to survive and agree to serve humanity.  A secret head quarters is built on the dark side of the moon that is known to only a very select few. Aliens...