Back to the "Roots"

As much as a blog that's only a few months old can have roots, I'm trying to get back to them. Since the beginning, I've kinda drifted away from reviews. I'll try to have another couple reviews within the next week or so, most likely for my more recent purchases (none of which are new products).

Swords & Wizardry WhiteBox WIP

Now that I've (finally) finished up the writing part of On the Shoulders of Giants, I've begun work on another project (well really two). One project I'm working on is a class for Starfinder to get me familiar with the system and another is a WhiteBox hack that brings a lot of the Weird West to a desolate, post-apocalyptic future with mecha-samurai and (ray)gun-slinging, roach-riding "cowboys". Anyway, hopefully I'll be able to show you more of that soon, but I'm still waiting on a couple things before launching the OtSoG Kickstarter. Inspirations for the WhiteBox hack include Dune, Kill Bill, Mad Max, and Into the Badlands.

UPDATE: The new WIP name for it is Dust, Rust, and Lasers.

WorldRP Reborn: WIP Project

I'm currently working with a programmer friend of mine on a nation-scale "computer game". Computer game has air-quotes because it is really more of a tabletop RPG that has a digital map and commands. Currently still in the very early stages of creating an alpha version.

Dyson Alehouse Published

Xeno File issue 2, the issue I worked on for Amora Game, is now published on OBS/Paizo/etc.!
I wrote the Dyson Alehouse section, AKA the Douglas Adams-esque floating space tavern.

2018 Free RPG Day Project: OSR Fanzine

I'm now officially working on a fanzine to be made/possibly distributed for/through Impressions' Free RPG Day. If anyone has any writing/artwork that they are willing to donate, that would be amazing! Unfortunately, as it is a fanzine, I can't afford to pay anyone, and may need to run a Kickstarter to afford some aspects of printing, but I will only publish what you send me in the 'zine and will credit anyone whose work is in the 'zine.

Note: The KS, if there is one, will be to pay for lenticular printing (AKA the 3D effect you see on some stickers and things) and will have to have a goal of ~3,000 dollars.

The current WIP title of this project is the Exham Priory Periodical.

OSR RPG Idea: Bloodied and Battered

For a couple weeks, I've been working on a tabletop RPG inspired by Lamentations of the Flame Princess, the Black Hack, and Dungeon Crawl Classics, that is, not a retroclone so much as inspired by old style games. I would like to know if the following blend of mechanics seems like a good idea to anyone.

• Six basic attributes plus Luck
• Two main class dependent scores: Combat Proficiency Score (BAB/to-hit) and Magic Proficiency Score (sort of similar to caster level). Both of them are capped at 10.
• Level-less spells (Kinda similar to VaM) where you will roll a d20 and add your Magic Proficiency Score to get a result on a d30 table
• Standardized experience totals to level up among all classes. So, just like 3e, a wizard needs the same exp. as a fighter to level up.
• Very low hit points (level 1: 3 hit points and level 20 is normally 15 hit points)
• Anyone can learn spells, but learning them comes with a cost
• Percentile based skills, where the actual %s are determined similar to the Fate skill pyramid, except for a ladder instead of a pyramid
• Abilities each improve/harm one or two skills (+/-20%), but Luck affects all skills (but with less effects than the actual relevant ability) (+/-10%)

Sorry for all of the word vomit, but I would like some comments about any of these concepts that seem particularly good or particularly bad as I'm trying to get a functioning draft out before the end of the month. I do have more details than this on the system in my notebook/brain, but the aforementioned things are more of the important parts. If it's relevant, classes are the:

• Warlock
• Man-of-Arms
• Sorceror
• Druid
• Cultist
• Assassin
• Hunter
• Champion
• Marksman
• and Pugilist

The current WIP name is Bloodied and Battered and it's supposed to be a rules light dark fantasy-esque game.

Magical Spaceship Adventures Concept/Status Update

I'm still thinking about my 200 word RPG from a while back, Magical Spaceship Adventures, and about making it into a full PbtA hack. I would have to crowdfund the production though... I also may want to run a mini-crowdfunding campaign for On the Shoulders of Giants to commission additional artwork from Scrap Princess. The goal for that would only be ~100 dollars or so and the product would get released regardless though. However, I am working on yet another project with Amora Game at the moment, and am also working on a submission/pitch to Pyramid, the GURPS magazine. Plus, I worked a little bit on Mike Myler's Operation: Nazi Smasher for Hypercorps 2099, writing a couple descriptions. Do note that crowdfunding isn't my first avenue for a project, I just will need a little extra artwork for On the Shoulders of Giants and any major project I do (Magical Spaceship Adventures, an OSR RPG I'm working on, etc. etc.) would need to be crowdfunded or passed off onto another publisher because I don't exactly have a massive budget (or much of a budget at all...).

On 'OSR-Neutral'

While the OSR is full of more systems than you can shake a bloody, battered stick at, there are things that can be used with most any OSR system. Magic items, monsters, and therefore adventures can all be used in practically any system regardless of their origin. However, these same items will not transfer nearly as smoothly to non-OSR systems (Fate, 5e, PF, etc.) due to several factors. Because of this, I "propose" the term OSR-neutral to mean anything that can be used with any system based on TSR-era D&D. Note that while I do think Traveler, Tunnels and Trolls, and similar games can be considered old school, and their retroclones therefore OSR material, the bulk of OSR material is based on D&D. A good example of OSR-neutral would be me running Monolith from Beyond Space and Time, a LotFP module, with Swords and Wizardry Whitebox.

Also note that I don't mean genre hacks'. such as the Rad Hack or Operation Whitebox, material could be used readily in Lamentations or Labyrinth Lord. That obviously wouldn't work without due consideration due to the different intent involved in the creation, at least in my opinion.