I really enjoy the Castle Ravenloft boardgame. It is a really great way to boil 4ed down into an hour of play. Almost right away I wanted two things: more character options, and campaign play. I’m working on that campaign play bit, but this morning I tried my hand out on creating some new character classes and I want to share them with you. read more »
I was fairly disappointed that the Aarakocra didn’t get a player race write-up for the new edition of Dark Sun so I went ahead and started making my own. Below is my 100% not play tested idea. Explanations of why I picked certain traits included.
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I did a precursory scan (read: “I googled it”) and did not find any gritty, simulationist rules of dehydration or starvation. I’m looking for something that is not too complicated to keep track of on the side, but realistic enough to motivate the players to pay attention.
Burning Brightly is a game about playing angels and demons. It is a completely home brew system (although it takes plenty of influence from games that have come before.) In this game players take on the role of spiritually empowered beings that have the means to directly alter creation. read more »
Burning Brightly is a game about playing angels and demons. It is a completely home brew system (although it takes plenty of influence from games that have come before.) In this game players take on the role of spiritually empowered beings that have the means to directly alter creation. One of the goals of this game was to introduce a simple system in which a player could dream up any sort of effect or miracle and there would be a mechanic to enact it with minimal effort. read more »
This is a set of mechanics to represent personality and its change over time in terms of some abstract game mechanics. As it is presented it will function with all editions of D&D, but could easily be modified to fit just about any RPG system. This system is not meant to replace role playing. The idea is to provide a context to define a character’s personality to other players, as well as a way to have a character’s personality have some effect on other mechanical elements in a game. This system is largely inspired by the traits and passions from the Pendragon system. read more »
On occasion I get the urge to sit down and mash together favorite bits of rules from different systems. This article covers a mash-up that starts with 2ed D&D and adds in some Hackmaster Basic, Savage Worlds, and 3.5ed/4ed. The actual rules doc is presented in PDF format and a direct link can be found at the bottom of this article. The article itself serves partly as a summary of the rules changes, and partly as a designer diary into my thinking behind the changes. The PDF is a first draft and is just a dump of information–there isn’t much formatting or pretty layout. It was written with the idea that the reader is at least familiar with the 2ed rules set. Since your tastes will likely vary anyways, you might just want to use this as a jumping-off point for adding some of your own radical rules ideas. read more »
I recently donated $20 to Haiti at RPGNow and got the free $1500 PDF bundle. In that bundle was “3:16, Carnage Amonst the Stars“. It is a game about trigger-happy human marines venturing out into the galaxy and killing every life form they come across. I haven’t played it yet, but it is a tight little rules system that seems tremendously fun for some low-prep gaming. Of particular note is the simple combat system that still manages to produce rather colorful results. In fact, the whole game is simple–simple enough that younger kids could play it. Of course, the genocide of the entire galaxy seems a bit of a heavy subject for children. Even if you toned down the violence, I think the underlying theme and statements might go a bit over their heads.
I have seen some attempts at firearms for 4ed (and some good ones, at that,) but they all tend to focus on the black powder variety. That is just fine for running games about pirates, steam-punk, or other period pieces. What if you want to represent modern technology? Here is the goal of this rules attempt:
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The Shotgun Diaries is a zombie survival RPG by John Wick (RPGNow link.) It is a minimalist presentation, with only 18 pages and absolutely no art. It was originally written as a birthday present to one of John’s friends, and only recently was made available as a commercial product.
