Infocyde's RPG Blog

You didn't think this blog was going to be exclusively about pen and pencil RPG's did ya?  I still harbor delusions in life about making online games some day, so I like to keep my finger in the pot. Tobold's Blog had an interesting read on the two types of subscription models used for online RPG's, Free to Play and Subscription [ Link ] The skinny: Go free to play...get 'em in, get 'em hooked, get 'em road blocked every so often, and then get a few bucks from 'em to get just enough to get around that road block.  Have compulsory buys everywhere...but leave a little hope that someone can still be successful in the game w/o dropping any cash in...the carrot on the stick.

The poster on facebook is running the above type of campaign, and wanted some ideas on how to include Kaiju (giant monsters like Godzilla) in the campaign and how characters could best be empowered to deal with Kaiju.  I didn't answer the question per-se, but came up with a plot seed that I thought might be of some use to some so I'm sharing it.  Due to time constraints I'm just going to copy/paste my responses for now...have fun! Nuke them while they are in the undersea caves and most vulnerable...but be warned, sometimes there are unintended consequences. Just look what happened with the White Rose Yakuza op to take out Rodan that happened off the Coast of Fukushima on 2011/03/11...you can never be too careful. Consult with nuclear and geological experts first, and not just the local hacks down at Chozan University!! Always!!!! Worst is Rodan got away too...and now the [whatever organization the characters secretly work for] is going to have to do the job themselv...

I've never used this software, but it looks interesting. http://pcgen.org/2013/12/23/pcgen-6-02-00-released/ PCGen looks like it mostly supports D20 type games, but is modifiable.  It looks like PCGen is just starting to add in character generation for non D20.

Bad Santa: An Adventure Concept for your Mutant Future or Post Apocalyptic Game So I *might* be running a game session tonight, I'm kind of the back up guy.  We will have possibly three GM's present, and I'm probably 3rd in line.  But as one looks like will be a no show and the other is new, I figure I better have at least a concept of an adventure setup.  So for a quick and dirty set of ideas I used the Beast & Barbarians Golden Edition adventure idea generator to generate some broad concepts for an adventure, and then applied them to a Mutant Future setting.  I also wanted to have the adventure Christmas/Holiday themed.  So here goes. Back Story The party is friends with a mutant settlement that relies on a semi-working robotical farm for food.  Some kind of robotical unit snuck into the village and stole the nuclear power cell from one of the main CPU that controls the farm.  A scout from the village tracked the bot's path into the ru...

Steve ran a campaign in the D20 supplement known as " The End ".  It is the Biblical apocalypse with a twist.  "The meek shall inherit the earth" means that some people will be left behind after the tribulation and the sheep and the goats are separated to their eternal destinies.  Those left behind are the "meek" and have to deal with an earth transitioning from the past to something new...and the apocalypse elements are still present...supernatural beings, animals that have lost their fear of man, and a rapidly changing landscape.  Human survivors are few and not always friendly. Here is just a recap of what has happened so far. Our party meets at at the remnants of a local gun store and plunders it Our party sends a few people to scout out a local supermarket that is mostly looted. Some food is found but an unfortunate altercation happens and two people who may have been just looting like we were for survival end up being killed by a member of our...

Option Three: Using Base Stats for Saving Throws Inspiration :  N/A Reason :  Simplification Rule Description: Rather than have separate states for saving throws, saving throws are now just roll under an appropriate state.  Charm type spells would be either Wisdom or Intelligence.  Paralyses would be Strength or Constitution.  Wands and Staffs would be Dex (getting out of the way).  Etc... Monsters/Foes would use their hit dice + 10 as their base saves. Variants Variant 3A: The level of the spell would be added to the saving die roll (bad). Variant 3B : The difference between the level or hit dice of the caster minus the level or hit dice of character's level would be added to the saving die roll.   NPCs/Monsters would start with a 10 or under roll, adjust needed save with level vs hit dice. Example . A 7th level wizard attacks a 10 Hit Dice dragon with a Fireball spell.  The Dragon has a monster base save of 10 + 10 for it's hit dice ...

I'm not that big on magic in RPG's.  I do like Swords and Sorcery RPG's that tend to look at magic as something sinister, something alien. In these settings magic seduces it's users with promises of power and then ends up spitting them out as corrupt minions.  That is about the only concept of magic that appeals to me some reason.  Other than that you can pretty much keep your wizards except as adversaries that need a good bashing. So what RPG's do you play that don't have magic besides swords and sorcery type games that aren't, well, boring? Lot's actually, but mainly futuristic ones. I've always liked post apocalyptic RPG's.  Strait Sci-Fi far-future games with interstellar travel I enjoy but they tend to be hard to play...not impossible but harder.  The post apocalyptic settings tend to be easier to manage for me but still unpredictable for players.  Post-apocalyptic games (or P-A games) are easy for fantasy players to transition over to as ...