Saw the latest Star Trek movie tonight and must say that it is a very fine film. Benedict Cumberbatch makes an excellent villain (and I don’t want to spoil it for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet, so I won’t say who). Lots of shooting and action (like most of the Star Trek movies). Special effects are amazing (par for the course, these days). And plenty of nods to the original series (a tribble and a reference to nurse Chapel, among others).
One thing I’ve like about the reboots is that the ships have a hard, industrial look (especially the engineering sections), rather than being sleek TV sets. I really liked the warp core reactor in this movie; instead of a glowing glass tube, it really looks like a massive piece of industrial equipment that just pumps out energy and lethal radiation. Very nice touch.
So, if you liked the first reboot, you should like Into Darkness, too. I’d pay full price for this one (if I had to ).
Skills are percentile based. Roll d100 equal to or under the appropriate skill rating. The only modifier is for ‘hardcore’ (i.e. difficult) actions, which are at 1/2 rating (rounded down).
A skill’s base rating is determined by adding together two related ability scores. For example, the Shooting skill uses Dexterity and Perception. If a character’s Dexterity is 11 and Perception is 13, then base Shooting is 24.
Every player can also select one ‘pip’ skill (well, pure humans get 2 pip skills, and certain mutations may allow a character to pick additional pip skills as well). Once a pip skill is chosen, it can’t be changed. Simply add 30 points to the pip skill’s base rating. In the example above, if Shooting were chosen as the character’s pip skill, then the rating would be 54. In addition, each skill grants a special ‘pip’ bonus, available only to characters taking them as pip skills.
My guiding philosophy is simpler is better, so I’m going with a smaller list of broad skills rather than a kitchen-sink list of narrowly defined skills. I think this’ll lend more flexibility and versatility to the game. So with that in mind, here’s a tentative list of skills:
Shooting (Dex + Per) = All ranged/missile attacks. Pip: +1 damage to all ranged/missile attacks
Fighting (Str + Dex) = All melee/hand-to-hand attacks; Fighting can also be a stand-in for dodging (i.e. Reflex type saves). Pip: +1 damage to all melee/unarmed attacks.
Psychic (Per + Will) = Used to resist psychic mutations; perhaps also a stand-in as a general social skill. Pip: Character gets a free psychic ability; only mutants can take this as a pip skill.
Tech (Dex + Int) = Using and repairing technological devices. Pip: Character gains +1 Maximum Item Complexity.
Scavenging (Int + Per) = Finding salvageable technology, and stands-in as a general searching and awareness skill. Pip: Character starts with 10 additional pieces of salvage.
Survival (Con + Will) = Knowledge of land navigation, tracking, wasteland hazards and finding water, food and shelter in the wastelands. Pip: +5 hit points.
Stealth (Dex + Will) = Sneaking, hiding and general thieving skill. Pip: ? (not sure yet)
Resilience (Str + Con) = Resistance to physical hazards, such as radiation, disease, toxins, and a general athletics skill (swimming, climbing, etc.). Pip: Movement bonus maybe? Not sure on this one yet, either.
Well, you get the idea. I may add one or two additional skills. When adding new skills, the skill rating should be based on the scores of two different abilities, rather than multiplying a single ability by 2. This gives a less swingy distribution.
As there are no character levels in Relics & Ruins, skills improve by use. Specifically, by failing skill checks, on the theory that we learn more from our mistakes than we do from our successes. Only problem is, in the world of Relics & Ruins, failure may kill you. :) Every time a skill attempt is made during an adventure, or for an action with meaningful consequences for failure, if the skill check fails the skill’s base rating improves by 1 point. It’s important that GM’s don’t allow players to ‘grind’ up skills during down-time when they don’t face meaningful consequences for failure – no risk, no reward, period.
I think I’ll cover mutations next, but that may take a while to put together. Cheers.
Neverwinter is Cryptic’s new free-to-play MMO based on the Neverwinter D&D franchise. Open beta began about a week ago, so anyone can download the game and give it a go (it’s about a 3.5 Gigs).
The game is loosely modeled on 4th Edition D&D, but heavily MMO-ized. It’s an action-oriented game, having more in common with, say, Diablo, than World of Warcraft. The beta launched with 7 standard D&D races and 5 basic classes, though they promise to gradually release more races and classes over time.
For classes, you’ve got your basic fighters, clerics, rogues and wizards. However, Neverwinter classes are structured more like 4E class builds, rather than as customizable templates. For example, the magic-user class is called a ‘control wizard’ and specializes in crowd control. This implies that in the future they’ll release different wizard ‘build’ classes, perhaps one that specializes in nuking. This idea is further reflected in the two fighter classes, one using two-handed weapons and the other using sword-n-board. Over time there will probably be many variations of ‘build’ classes, several for each core class. Rumor is, one of the next classes to be released will be a Ranger Archer class. Max level is 60.
Every class gets its own set of ‘powers,’ broken down into the 4E model of At-Will, Encounter and Daily. You can equip up to two At-Will powers (activated using left/right mouse buttons), 3 Encounter powers (activated using Q, E and R buttons) and 2 Daily powers (activated by hitting 1 or 2). Each class has several of each power to choose from, so you can swap them to suit your needs and/or play-style. At-Wills can be used anytime, just by clicking your mouse buttons; Encounter powers operated on a standard MMO cool-down timer (usually 10-20 seconds); and the Daily power can be activated once you’ve built up enough Action Points. Different classes build up Action Points in different ways, but it usually involves violence of some sort.
Another thing about the classes, they are extremely gear restricted. For example, Great Weapon Fighters can only use two-handed swords. There are no two-handed axes or two-handed polearms. And you can’t equip a GWF with a longsword or a dagger. I know that in other games this kind of limitation would have bothered the hell out of me, but with NWO I was so engrossed in the action I hardly even noticed it. And for what it’s worth, the game is very generous with the loot drops, so it’s generally not difficult to equip your character.
As you progress in levels you earn points to buy new powers, or to enhance existing powers. You also earn ‘feat’ points, which work more or less like standard MMO talent trees. Every 10 levels you can boost your ability scores.
Along the way you can pick up companions, which work very similar to companions from Star Wars: The Old Republic. However, as the companions are sort of generic and interchangeable, they don’t have any personality and no back-story of their own (unlike SWTOR companions). You can get companions to heal you, or tank for you. You can get pet companions (even a honey badger!) or even use IOUN stones as companions. Companions level as you play and they have a few equipping options, though not nearly to the same extent as your PC.
NWO also has a crafting system they call ‘Professions,’ which is basically getting hirelings to do menial work for you while you go out and have fun killing stuff (and taking their loot). Professions are leveled by having your hirelings work a profession and, as you progress, you gain the ability to perform more (and better) tasks. Eventually you can have up to 9 profession tasks going at once. In my experience, professions seem to take a great deal of time to advance. Even at level 3 some of my profession tasks take 4+ hours to complete. There are ways to reduce the time required (including a ‘buy out’ option) but so far I haven’t acquired any means of doing so.
In terms of content, there are plenty of single player quests to keep you going. The game is divided into level-appropriate zones (fairly standard fair in MMO design now). Each zone has enough quests that you can solo to progress to the next area. But in addition, most zones have 5-player skirmishes and dungeons you can qeue up for. There’s also PvP and many areas have periodic contests that are open to everyone in the zone.
And that brings me to what is probably the most revolutionary aspect of NWO: The Foundry. Paying homage to the origins of Neverwinter Nights, the game provides an option for players to create their own adventures and release them to the rest of the community. Unfortunately, I don’t have much experience with the Foundry yet, as I’ve been having so much fun with the rest of the game, but it’s high on my list of things to do next in the game. Also, Foundry adventures can be rated by players, so you can weed out the lame ones.
Fair warning, NWO makes its money from micro-transactions, and they hit that aspect of the game up pretty hard. Zen is Cryptic’s special currency for buying special items, like mounts, companions (the aforementioned honey badger, for instance), apparel, respec tokens, additional character slots and more. However, from what I’ve seen so far, it is entirely possibly to play the game just fine without ever spending a dime, if that’s what you want (though I’m seriously thinking about picking up that honey badger Honey badgers are bad-assed!). There’s even a mechanism for selling astral diamonds (the game’s primary currency) for Zen, though I gather it’d take a LOT of astral diamonds to get a decent amount of Zen.
I’ve encountered a few bugs so far, but nothing game breaking. And the game could do with more variety in gear itemization (like, why can’t the Great Weapon Fighter use two-handed axes/polearms in addition to two-handed swords?) However, this ‘beta’ game seems far more complete to me than many ‘finished’ MMOs I’ve played recently (looking at you, Defiance). There’s plenty to do with a solid ‘actiony’ combat system.
If you’re a fan of MMO’s, you should check it out. However, if you’re looking for a more authentic D&D experience, this probably isn’t the game for you (D&D Online may be what you’re looking for, though).
Simply roll 3d6 for each primary ability, in order. Naturally, GM’s could house-rule other, more forgiving, methods of generating ability scores, but they won’t be part of the ‘official’ rules.
So, the six primary abilities:
Strength – Modifies melee damage, and how much stuff you can carry.
Constitution – Determines hit points.
Dexterity – Mainly used for skills; optionally, modifies initiative rolls.
Intelligence – Modifies a character’s Maximum Item Complexity; also modifies logic reaction rolls.
Perception – Mainly used for skills; optionally, modifies surprise rolls.
Willpower – Determines hit points; modifies social reaction rolls.
As you can see, Perception is substituted for Wisdom, and Willpower for Charisma, from the standard D&D abilities. They just seemed a better fit to me for a post-apocalyptic game.
Score Modifier
1-6 -1
7-14 0
15+ +1
Derived Abilities
Armor – Characters have base armor 0, unless they have a mutation that gives them some form of natural armor. Armor is acquired by junk rigging pieces of salvage (more on this later). Armor reduces the amount of damage taken from physical attacks.
Hit Points (HP) = Constitution score + Willpower score; characters reduced to 0 (or fewer) HP typically die, though should they manage to survive the experience their hit points permanently increase by 1.
Encumbrance – R&R uses what is in effect an ‘inventory slot’ system. Characters have a number of encumbrance slots equal to their Strength score. This limit assumes the use of backpacks, satchels, bags, pouches and the like. Each slot holds one item, though several smaller, similar, items can be grouped into a slot (for example, a bunch of grenades).
The first three encumbrance slots are referred to as ‘Ready Slots’ (denoted with an ‘R’). These are items you keep close at hand and can be drawn immediately, without having to take time search for them. You’ll want to keep weapons, emergency medical supplies and other items that you might need to access quickly in your ready slots.
Encumbrance slots are hard limited, and for two reasons: 1) PC resource management and 2) to encourage players to use junk-rigging to combine their salvage into more complex items. Naturally, players can hire porters or acquire pack-animals, wagons, vehicles to haul more junk around. But that will cost them salvage, slow them down and make big targets for raiders.
Maximum Item Complexity (MIC) - Max Item Complexity is used in junk rigging to limit the number of pieces of salvage that can be combined into a single item. All characters have a base MIC of 2, modified by their Intelligence. Pure Humans gain +1 MIC, and characters that take Tech as a ‘pip’ skill gain an additional +1 MIC. MIC will max out at around 5.
A few years ago I wrote a post-apocalyptic RPG called Relics & Ruins. It was my first attempt at an ‘old school’ type game, based on Microlite74/Microlite20. On the Microlite20 site it had close to 400 downloads, though I have no evidence that anyone ever actually played the game. Ah well.
As I am in need of blog fodder, I decided to write v2 of the game as an ongoing project, though it will end up being quite different from the M74 version. And even though the game will be significantly different, I’m recycling the Relics & Ruins title because 1) I’ve always liked it and 2) I suck at coming up with decent names for stuff.
So here’s what I know about it so far:
The game will nominally be based on Swords & Wizardry Whitebox, though the final output will vary significantly
It’ll still be post-apocalypse, on the gonzo side
It’ll be percentile, skill-oriented; no classes or levels
It’ll be a fairly lethal game by design (one reason I didn’t want to incorporate character levels)
Things may change as I come up with new (hopefully better) ideas.
R&R – ‘Races’
So, to kick this off I’ll start with the ‘races’ (for lack of a better term). Note that some concepts presented herein will be clarified and expanded upon in later posts. Sorry for that, but it’s the nature of the project.
Pure Human
A pure, un-mutated survivor of the apocalypse, probably living in a sealed bunker or vault (until recently, that is).
Pure humans are better educated; they start with 2 ‘pip’ skills
Humans have a better grasp of ancient technology; +1 to maximum item complexity (note, this builds on a previous post about junk-rigging for post-apocalypse games)
Humans are often idealized, and ancient machines were (usually) designed to interact positively with humans; therefore, they receive +1 to social and logic (machine) reaction rolls
Mutant
It wouldn’t be the apocalypse without mutants, and it wouldn’t be any fun if you couldn’t play a mutant. For the purposes of Relics & Ruins, I’m assuming mutant humanoids, though if the GM wants anthropomorphic mutant animals or plants, feel free to pump up the gonzo.
Roll four random mutations; they could be good or bad (the tables will be weighted about 75% in favor of beneficial mutations and 25-ish% defects)
Currently I’m leaning towards less gonzo-style mutations (no laser eyebeams), but may create an optional ‘gonzo’ mutation table.
Cyborgs
Cyborgs are relics of Ancient wars, or perhaps created by insane A.I. or a mad scientist hiding out in a bunker somewhere. They’re essentially half-human/half-machine, with many vital organs replaced by mechanical parts (though not the heart or brain). These cyborgs look hard, with obvious mechanical implants, not sleek and sexy like something out of Shadowrun.
Cyborgs require half the food, water and sleep as normal humans, though they do require nominal amounts of power for their machine parts
Anything that affects a machine (like EMP) has 1/2 effect on a cyborg (so, for example, cyborgs take 1/2 damage from EMP weapons)
Cyborgs can restore hit points either from normal healing or from mechanical repair
At the player’s option, some (or all) of their starting salvage may be incorporated into the character’s body as cybernetic components; these items cannot be lost, dropped or stolen and are always considered ‘readied’
Robots
Robots are a work in progress. I’ll likely do a separate post for robots later when/if I get something I like. However, I will say that R&R robots are clunky, like something out of Fallout or Star Wars droids, rather than near-human androids or replicants.
Next up are primary and secondary abilities. Cheers!
Pretty good movie. Better than Iron Man 2, but not quite as good as the first Iron Man. Ben Kingsley was quite entertaining as the ‘Mandarin.’
Though I saw it at a matinee, I wouldn’t have been sorry to pay full price to see Iron Man 3. If you’re a fan of the franchise, or super-hero movies in general, you won’t be disappointed.
Titus of Discord records the first Flumph incursion into Imperial Space some 300 years prior. The Empire enacted its ‘first contact’ protocols by sending elements of the 117th Frontier Fleet to wipe them out. While the fleet action was ultimately successful, the first incursion was soon followed by a second, larger group. Again, the Flumphs were wiped out, and again shortly thereafter a third incursion occurred, larger yet than the first two.
From Paizo.com
Deciding enough was enough, the Empire assembled an expedition, sending it into Unknown Space, to the alien’s presumed origination point. Their aim was to find the alien’s homeworld and ‘deal with it,’ permanently. Of course, as everyone knows, the expedition was never heard from again. Nor was the relief flotilla sent a decade later to discover the initial expedition’s fate.
By this time someone in the Empire finally noticed that the strange aliens almost always inhabited gas giants. If it weren’t for the valuable aetheric crystals growing deep within the gas giant’s core, the Empire wouldn’t pay any mind to such useless and desolate planets.
So, a kind of unspoken quid pro quo was reached. While Flumphs are still officially classified as a hostile invasive species, all military operations against them were halted. At the same time, private merchants were encouraged to approach the aliens to trade for the crystals, a far more efficient arrangement than the hazardous mining operations previously mounted by the Empire. Technically, trading with aliens is a crime punishable by slow disintegration, but the Empire looks the other way where Flumphs are concerned, so long as the Empire gets its cut of the crystal trade.
For their part, the Flumphs go about their alien business as if the Empire doesn’t even exist, interacting only with the crystal-traders that come calling. While they aggressively defend themselves against attackers (Imperial battle losses during the Flumph Incursions are still a closely guarded state secret), they otherwise ignore the Empire. They don’t even seem to bear any grudge for the many millions of Flumphs wiped out during the Incursions.
And so the Flumphs have achieved what no other advanced alien species has achieved before: a status of (near) equality with that of the Empire. It is estimated that Flumphs now inhabit hundreds, possibly thousands, of gas giants within the borders of Imperial Space, a veritable ‘empire’ within the Empire. They are sometimes referred to as the ‘Great Flumph Empire,’ though you wouldn’t want to say something like that within earshot of an Imperial agent.
Oblivion is one of those movies with a twist. It’s one of those movies that revolves around the twist. The movie is the twist. So in that respect, Oblivion does a decent job of delivering. It doesn’t come completely out of left field (like Sixth Sense or the Usual Suspects), but there was still enough there to surprise me a bit. That said, now that I know what the twist is, I’ll probably never watch Oblivion again, as I already know what the movie is about.
The visuals, on the other hand, will blow you away. They did a really good job portraying man-made ruins amidst a devastated Earth. Skyscrapers turned into canyons, the Empire State Building buried up to the observation deck, rusting ships and submarines laying on a dried up sea-floor. Great imagery for a post-apocalypse role-playing game.
Just don’t think about the plot too much, because it has enough holes to sink a ship. I don’t want to get into too much detail for fear of giving away the twist, but the more I think about it the more little things I find that don’t really stack up.
If you’re a big fan of sci-fi movies, Oblivion is probably worth the price of a matinee. Otherwise, wait for Netflix. Cheers.
Just wanted to point out a new online tool Dwarven Forge has released as part of their Game Tiles Kickstarter project. It’s a mapping tool using the various pieces that come from the Kickstarter. But there’s no reason you couldn’t use it as a quick-and-dirty map-maker for any game, even if you have no plans to use their game tiles. It’s fairly versatile considering its simplicity, allowing for even diagonal corridors. Unfortunately, it’s limited to just 2-sets worth of tiles, but hopefully that shortcoming will be addressed in future updates.
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