And then one day you find, ten years have got behind you

Wow. I wish I had something more original to say than "the time has gone by so fast," etc., but that's kind of the extent of my thoughts on the topic.

No, I haven't been arrested or had a kid. (My girlfriend's not likely to get me pregnant.) 

Obviously I haven't been as active in the online RPG "community," such as it is. Nor have I gotten to run or play any tabletop stuff for a while; I did get to play the Kithain version of my Gnome character Roywyn in an online game for a few months, though.

The Earthworld version of Pock - an archivist
named Robin Rawlings. Art by Spacey.

 

That's not to say that I've been idle, even where RPGs are concerned. I actually published my own rules-lite game, and two setting books for it - one a short and sweet elegy of Christian monastic vampires, the other a fantasy heartbreaker several years in the making. But none of these are currently available online - just in zine form. I kind of like it that way - there have been sales, so presumably a few people like my stuff, but I haven't heard from them because they have no way to contact me. Just like the bad old days of pay phones and backwards jeans.

A number of my old mutuals have since deleted their blogs, sometimes with an explanation beforehand, sometimes not. But I of all people know how precious a treasure is privacy.

Anyone still hanging around, please leave a comment. I'd love to hear from you, especially with how isolated everyone seems to be lately.

~ Fuzzy 

House Rule: Farfallans (Half-Bothans) for Star Wars d20 Saga

Who's still thinking about Star Wars? I am, and having recently picked up a well-loved copy of the Saga Edition Core Rulebook, I'm thinking I'll probably run it instead of d20 Revised. (Half skill ranks... ugh...) Luckily my fixation on fauns (faunxation?) can be quickly remedied by the fact that this little-seen species shows up in the works formerly known as the Expanded Universe; this is my take on making them playable. Enjoy!

House Rules: Ghouls & Super Mutants for Savage Worlds

Today I realized that I hadn't typed up my builds of ghouls and super mutants (from the Fallout series) for Savage Worlds Deluxe. Since the original index card I wrote it on is currently missing in action, I'll do my best to recreate them here.

Heraldry of Anareth

Just putting some basic images of the shields in my fantasy setting here. All images are from drawshield.net.

EarthBound Endings

So, one of the things that happened during the course of the pandemic is that I sat down and seriously played all three games in Shigesato Itoi's MOTHER series: EarthBound Beginnings (aka EarthBound Zero), EarthBound, and the fan translation of Mother 3. And holy heck, are they good.

Because I'm autistic (no literally, I got diagnosed), I can't help but think about what could have happened between EarthBound and Mother 3 for the world to get the way it is. I mean, the latter game gives an overview eventually, but what exactly led to the events that the White Ship was fleeing?

Then a conversation with my old boss brought up an interesting detail: he thinks that the Dr. Andonuts that shows up in Mother 3 is not the same one in EarthBound, but a grown-up Jeff who just happens to look a lot like his father. (Makes sense; people tell me I have my mom's eyes.)

So, my hyperfixation on certain details of the game world led to the following ideas. I might actually use this as the basis for a short campaign, probably run using a relatively low-powered modern ruleset. Obviously, spoilers are ahead for all three games in the series, but I'll try to keep them minimal. My advice: play them in order, and take it especially easy on EBB's shortcomings - it's old!

House Rule: Vampyres as Player Characters

What have TSR's efforts to make every possible variant spelling a different monster wrought? Well, in this case it wrought a species of predatory blood-drinkers who are not undead. Here's my cobbled-together rules for letting them run amok as player characters. Happy hunting!

House Rules: Satyrs and Trolls for Savage Worlds Deluxe

Been a while... again... Sadly our gaming situation hasn't improved, although if the pandemic ever ends that might (might) change. In the meantime, I wanted to at least put something out there that other people can use. Here are my builds for the Satyr and Troll (aka Ogre) species in Savage Worlds; they're meant for the Deluxe edition (and built using those rules), but probably will work fine in the new Adventurer's Edition as well.

It's all Faun and games until someone gets drunk...