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!
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.
Just putting some basic images of the shields in my fantasy setting here. All images are from drawshield.net.
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!
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!
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.
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| It's all Faun and games until someone gets drunk... |
So for the last few months, I've been doing more revisions to my fantasy setting. One of the things I'm trying to do going forward is make myself less reliant on computers, because RPGs have always been a way for me to step away from the computer, television, smartphone, refrigerator, etc.
One of the things I'm doing is remaking the maps of my setting, plotting them out on standard square graph paper. (I've actually been doing this for over a year now, since I haven't had much else to do aside from work.) Despite my admiration for hexes aesthetically and mathematically, the square is much simpler; plus, it would be extremely easy to transfer to video-game form if that flight of fancy ever takes off.
To that end, the other night I decided to brute-force it by making dozens of squares on Google Drawings, and arranging them in a grid. This is a lot more tedious than, say, Hexographer, but it allows me to work on the maps whether I'm at home or at the library, due to the cloud access. I've finished a topographical map already, but it took me less than five minutes to copy and change it to a political one. Each square is 24 miles to a side; I'll post some pics of my digital and penciled topo maps once I have more time.
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| Pink: Principality of Le'var. Green: Kingdom of Duemerus. Yellow: Principality of Tadea. (Blue is water, orange is lava.) |
In other news, I've been reconsidering a lot of my gaming interests, which coincides with one of my partners gaining interest in running a game. The V5 version of the World of Darkness is pretty well put together, though sadly I missed the opportunity to back the new Mind's Eye Theatre book. And the more I read of Tunnels & Trolls (5th Edition, for those keeping track), the more I like its approach.
