Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Species for Monstrous6: The Michigan "I Voted" Wolf

So, anything important happening today?

/s

While we chew our nails and worry about what tomorrow brings, I thought it'd be fun to do a little dry run of writing out a species for the house RPG system I'm developing bit by bit, currently referred to as Monstrous6.  And to keep things on-theme with the events of the day, I'll look at a species that needs to be put into a game: the Michigan "I Voted" wolf...

From The Daily Beast

Some context for anyone outside the States or otherwise just not up to date on your patriotic anthro wolf sticker news:  The state of Michigan held a contest for kids to design new stickers to be given out at polling places as citizens vote, to replace the standard old "I Voted + a flag" design.  (Well, in Georgia, we eventually got a peach on ours...but that's nothing compared to what Michigan is doing...)  There were (I think) nine winners in total whose designs are being handed out to voters in Michigan.  The one that seemed to get the most attention, however, was this gem by Jane Hynous of Brownell Middle School in Grosse Pointe, MI (yep, that Grosse Pointe).

For obvious reasons.  This wolf is awesome.  I would not be shocked if we were to later find out that it was actually drawn by Rob Liefeld, who then handed it off to his niece Jane to be a ringer entry in the kids' contest.  I even ordered a couple for me and Laura (copies, I'm pretty sure, as it seems like folks are actually paying pretty good money for the real deal).

So, I'm gonna make this guy/gal into a species for roleplaying.  Just something simple, though...the species setup I imagine using for my house system going forward, modeled after the way it was handled in Star Wars D6:

A tribute to the wolf by Katelyn Windels on Instagram

American Wolffolk


Attribute Points: 11
Min/Max:
Strength 2-6
Dexterity 1-6
Knowledge 1-4
Presence 1-5

Skill Distribution: 4/3/2

Special Skills: Tracking (scent) +4

Abilities: Darkvision

The American Wolffolk are a rarely seen cryptid species once found throughout the United States, but now having a much more limited range due to human encroachment.  They are now most visible in the current "swing state" of Michigan.  Despite the arguably negative impact of American "progress" on their species, the Wolffolk are often fiercely patriotic.  For example, they get really stoked when they get a chance to vote.

It is believed that this strong sense of national pride is due in large part to the love they have for their pack.  The ability to directly influence the decisions of their group is sacred to many Wolffolk.  Many have expressed concern at the systematic chipping away of rights that could ultimately lead to their disenfranchisement, but they are determined to get out the vote today to ensure that doesn't happen.

Saturday, November 2, 2024

Geeky SKAturday: RxPxOxS (Fishbone)

Fishbone was one of the most popular American bands playing ska back in the 80s.  They're certainly legends of the genre, although they are probably known more for their eclecticism and unique high-energy blend of funk, metal, soul, punk, reggae, and on and on and on.

They unexpectedly released a new song on Thursday.  It is political and timely.

Let me be clear, because I know not everyone is going to like it...I truly want civility in political discourse.  I have cult members in my family and don't want to dehumanize anyone.  I believe in peace, probably to a fault as judged by most people...as in I believe there is power in peace, and in the cases where there are clearly more powerful forces at work, those are our chances as humans to give peace power.  BUT (I know you knew one was coming) I do occasionally need folks around me to be blunt enough to remind me that there's a lot going on in America right now that should not be normalized, and that there are ultimately convictions that matter.  In a world where I have been threatened and called a "liberal piece of shit" by a guy standing in my own backyard, I'm obligated to still try and recognize when things are...well, not okay.

Stay safe, everybody.

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Alright, let's lighten things up by giving the Rudie a sound from Fishbone.  How about the one that might be rudest of all of their rude stuff?

Skankin' to the Beat

1st-level Sound
Casting time: 1 bonus action
Range: 60 feet
Duration: 3 rounds

This sound gives all friendly creatures within range who dig the rhythm a boost to everything they attempt for the next 3 rounds.  When rolling for any skill check, magic check, attack, or save, they roll an extra 1D6 and add the result to the total.  Crits/bomb-outs/automatic successes or failures still count as usual.

(Too powerful?  Eh...good ;)

Thursday, October 31, 2024

The Real Monstrous Matters: Oliphaunts in India

So this is pretty cool.  A pair of papers recently dropped giving a detailed analysis of a huge elephant skull that was found in India way back in 2000 (alongside a bunch of human tools).  And no, it isn't an Oliphaunt (or Mûmak)...but it is pretty darn big.

One of the papers focuses on the morphology and phylogeny of the skull (and thus the animal), placing it in the genus Palaeoloxodon, which has some of the largest elephants that ever walked the planet.  (There's a really good summary of this paper over at Discover Wildlife.)  It appears that this individual is a second example of a species previously named Palaeoloxodon turkmenicus, which in the range of 4 meters/13 feet at the shoulder (and around 10 tons) was certainly...well, mammoth:

P. turkmenicus and a human silhouette.  Image by Chen Yu; swiped from Discover Wildlife.

It's worth mentioning, though, that there's another species in the genus, Palaeoloxodon namadicus, that some estimates would place as the largest land animal ever at over 5 meters/17 feet, and up to 22 tons in weight!  Here's a nice little video on that one:



(The other paper, meanwhile, has more information on human interaction with the elephant, based upon marks on the bones and tools found nearby.  Both articles point to an age in the range of 300,000 to 400,000 years, which will never stop blowing my mind.)

Of course, even a 22-ton behemoth doesn't measure up to what we saw in Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings films:

From here

I'm not familiar enough with Tolkien's original works to know if that's the size we should expect based upon the books themselves, but man are they fantastic animals.  (What is it Sam tells Frodo?  "No one at home will believe this...")  They've got to be at least...what, 40 feet tall?  So if we assume, at the high end of Palaeoloxodon, a beast that's 17 feet tall and 22 tons...something roughly the same shape but about 2.35 times the height would probably give us an animal weighing about 13 times as much.  So...around 286 tons?  Did I do that right?  Impressive!  (The Mûmak, not my work...)

And the coolest part is that they're using them as war machines.  I'm sure there have been plenty of takes on Oliphaunts in RPGs over the years, but I think I'll just stat one out for Monstrous Matters purposes on the premise that it's a REALLY big elephant.  It looks like the flagship proboscidean has about 8 or 9 hit dice in a typical d20-based system.  Do I really want to make a Mûmak a monster with like 80 HD, or as I would play it in Monstrous Matters gaming, a Strength value of around 80?  (Rhetorical question...)

Considering the D6-based system I've been playing with, it probably makes the most sense to pull ideas from Mini Six (which includes elephant stats and some nice, simple scaling rules) and WEG's Star Wars Miniatures Battles (which has a nice way of handling creatures by not worrying so much about what humans consider intelligence, and instead giving them an Orneriness Code that's used to test how difficult they are to work with).

From here

Oliphaunt


Scale: +4
Handling Difficulty (trained): 7

20 HP, 11 Defense

Strength 4
Dexterity 1
Knowledge 1
Presence 1

Attacks: 2x Tusk (1D6+4 damage) or Trample (2D6+4 damage plus target is knocked prone)


EDIT:  And I realized I posted this without mentioning the most basic of courtesies...a Happy Halloween to everyone!

Saturday, October 26, 2024

Geeky SKAturday: Garden of Love (Don Drummond and the Skatalites)

From The Guardian

Jamaican trombonist Don Drummond is truly one of the giants of ska history.  He was a founding member of the legendary Skatalites...probably the most influential ska band ever...and his gift with melody meant he also wrote a number of their most celebrated songs.

Unfortunately, the last few years of his life were marked by tragedy, but in the time he was with us, Drummond gave us beautiful tunes that will last as forever as tunes can last.

There's a comic series about Drummond's life called Trombone Man: Ska's Fallen Genius that is currently in progress.  Written by Adam Reeves, with art by Constantinos Pissourios, and based on a book by Heather Augustyn, it looks really promising.  You can get the first issue free by going here and follow the Kickstarter for issue #2 here.

From the project's Facebook page

Finally, I'm sure this sound will be at least a little familiar to some of you...

Garden of Love

3rd-level Sound
Casting time: 1 action/8 hours
Range: 150 feet
Duration: Intantaneous effect/1 year

This sound channels the caster's inner love into the growth of plants within a specific area. There are two ways to cast the sound, granting either immediate or long-term benefits.

If you cast this sound using 1 action, choose a point within range. All normal plants in a 100-foot radius centered on that point become thick and overgrown. Movement through the area costs four times its usual value.

You can exclude one or more areas of any size within the sound's area from being affected.

If you cast this sound over 8 hours, you enrich the land. All plants in a half-mile radius centered on a point within range become enriched for 1 year. The plants yield twice the normal amount of food when harvested.

Tuesday, October 22, 2024

Ezra Brady, the Ranger (because sometimes it's just fun to look at characters)

I would imagine that many of us love RPGs, at least in part, because of the strangely pleasing feeling of having a character summarized on a character sheet.  I don't really even know how to describe it.  There's a certain power to having all these words and numbers mashed together, representing everything needed to put that character through some trials and generate real stories.

It doesn't even have to actually happen.  I've gotten a ton of enjoyment just from reading over species and classes in publications like Dragon and Fight On! and thinking about the characters I COULD make with them.  I am sometimes frustrated by the fact that we don't have unlimited time to enjoy all the cool stuff this world offers, but for some reason, this world of unlimited possibilities of who I could be is reassuring.

The presentation of complete characters, usable in new stories and potentially carrying the legacy of stories they've already experienced, is also one of the things that attracted me to blogging about RPGs.  Others, of course, do it much better and more consistently than I do.  Justin at Halls of the Nephilim, for instance, shares a ton of evocative character and monster builds on his blog.  I don't know how he knocks out those seemingly complete characters in more complex systems like 5E (yep, I called it complex); I would get so bogged down in minutiae that it would cease being fun pretty quickly, but I love looking over the details he puts into characters that start to tell a story before the story even starts. 

And Tim at The Other Side...he's pretty much made an art out of giving us characters for a variety of games, often reusing themes and personalities (like his iconic witch Larina Nix) to fill out a multiverse that can be enjoyed outside of specific game sessions.  (And yes, I do still "mourn" the loss of regular retellings of the story of Tim Knight's Acrobatic Flea on his blog Hero Press, but I'm sure the Flea is living on in many, many corners of the multiverse!)

So, where am I going with this?  Eh...nowhere, really.  I just really like looking at characters sometimes and wanted an excuse to post this guy...Ezra Brady.  He was my character in a 3.5 game about...checks notes...THIRTEEN years ago...?  (Oh man I'm getting old.)  Named after two Linneman dogs, he would eventually multiclass in (if I recall correctly) a third-party or homebrewed Pathfinder class called the Beastmaster, picking up an animal companion of his own.  I'm pretty sure it was a wolf and had a produce-based name in honor of my girl Celery.

Anyway...thanks, John A., for letting Ezra run around your world of Dragnaria!  Here's how he started, and down below, I'll stat him out as I would for a starting character using my current system of choice.  (Note:  I was sort of obsessed with the idea of portal fantasy at the time, so I was very glad John the DM was willing to let me run with the backstory I wrote...)

In hindsight, I wonder if using a mini with a red beard was a bit of a Mary Sue move...

Ezra Brady

Human Ranger 1

Str 10  Con 9 (-1)  Dex 16 (+3)  Int 13 (+1)  Wis 11  Cha 8 (-1)

SAVES  Fort +1  Rflx +5  Will +0

AC 15  FF 12  Touch 13

HP 9

Deity: a god/God  Alignment: NG  Init: -3  Move: 30 ft

ABILITIES  Favored Enemy: Orc; Track; Wild Empathy

FEATS  Weapon Focus (Longbow); Toughness x2; Point Blank Shot

FLAWS  Noncombatant; Unreactive

COMPOSITE LONGBOW +5 (+6 <=30 ft), dmg 1d8, piercing, crit x3, rng 110 ft, wt 3#

LONGSWORD -1, dmg 1d6, slashing, crit 19-20 x2, wt 4#

LANGUAGES  Native tongue (English), Common

SKILLS  Climb 4 (+4), Handle Animal 4 (+3), Heal 4 (+4), Ride 4 (+7), Survival 4 (+4), Swim 4 (+4), Craft (Bowmaking) 4 (+5), Knowledge (Nature) 4 (+5)

GEAR/MONEY  Composite Longbow (100 gp, 3#), Arrows (20) (1 gp, 3#), Longsword (15 gp, 4#), Leather Armor (10 gp, 15#), 114 gp

Ezra Brady led a pretty normal life in “our” world, although it was a life filled with secure adventure. Ezra earned a modest living working at REI, filling his free time with outdoor activities like hiking and spelunking. One day, on an expedition in a cave in central Illinois, Ezra’s gear failed him, and he went hurdling earthward through a cold pool on the cave’s floor. Surprisingly, he wasn’t injured at all, but when he emerged through the water’s surface, he realized the cavern around him had changed greatly. Climbing to dry land and slowly coming to his senses, Ezra heard noise around him. He wouldn’t know what they were at the time, but there were orcs at work.

The orcs captured Ezra, stealing all of his earthly belongings. Through guile and sheer effort, Ezra escaped from his captors and found friendship with an elven hermit living in the mountainous surroundings. This mentor taught him to hunt, to survive in the wilderness around him, and to fight back against the single minded orcs. After several months of tutelage, which included extensive training in the land’s native tongue, Ezra ventured eastward in hopes of finding a way back home. He eventually found himself in a village that seemed to be marked by strange happenings of late; hoping that this might be connected to his awkward appearance in this world, Ezra decided to see what he could learn in the charming but frightening hamlet.

----------

It's really just an old plastic D&D mini that I colored (just the cloak) with a black sharpie.  It probably wasn't the best idea to do a quick 'n dirty re-base so that he now looks like he's standing in chocolate mousse...

Ezra Brady

Species: Human
Home: Earth
Current Location: Dragnaria

10 HP, 14 Defense (leather armor)

Strength 2
Dexterity 5
Knowledge 3
Presence 2

Skills: Bows +4, Tracking +3, Animal Empathy +2, Medicine +1

Languages: English, Common

Goal: To get back home!

Quote: "I have a feeling I'm not in Illinois anymore..."


Saturday, October 19, 2024

Geeky SKAturday: Cupid (Amy Winehouse...among others...!)

Hey, it's still SKAturday!

It may not be proper to note Amy Winehouse in the title up there (vs. the other artists that have taken on this classic), but it's her cover that inspired this post by being in regular rotation for me lately.   (If you've never checked it out, Amy's ska stuff is really good...)

Here's her take:


"Cupid" was written and originally released as an R&B song by Sam Cooke in 1961...


The song has seen a number of outstanding cover versions over the years, some of which sit happily enough in a Rudie's wheelhouse to earn it a place in the canon of ska.  Johnny Nash, the American singer-songwriter who perhaps most famously gave the world the song "I Can See Clearly Now," released a rocksteady version in 1969:


American ska mainstays the Slackers covered it on their collection Lost and Found and regularly played it live for quite a while...


And the version that introduced me to the tune was performed by the Usuals, a Florida ska band that released it on a really cool red, heart-shaped record back in 1998 (which also included the incredible song "Hey Boy," and was very kindly given to me long ago by my buddy Jake):


So...let's make it a sound for a Rudie!

I figure a Charm spell plus a love connection should probably be tougher than Charming a Person but easier than Charming a Monster...so maybe 3rd level?  Then, we can add in an element of a Philter of Love...removing the "if a gender you're usually attracted to" clause because really, if we're going to the level of creepy where we're forcing amorous feelings on a character, why would we put a gender restriction on it?

Cupid

3rd-level Sound
Range: 30 feet
Duration: 1 hour
Save: Wisdom

You call for Cupid's arrow to be targeted at a creature you can see within range.  If it fails the saving throw, it is charmed by another being of your choice for the duration of the spell and will regard that being as its true love while charmed.  When the spell wears off, the creature will remember the events of the previous hour and, if sufficiently intelligent, know that it was emotionally manipulated.

Thursday, October 17, 2024

A Goblinoid Family Tree

(Or really a phylogenetic tree.  I just liked the sound of family tree more in the title.)

So, in reading a post by James over at Grognardia, about Dragon articles on fantasy languages, I started to wonder if sometimes I just don't fly my geek flag high enough.  As in...maybe I'm not appropriately minmaxing the fun I could get out of the RPG hobby by not allowing myself to just go nuts like I want to as a nerdy scientist who also loves games about elves and goblins.

James posted a tree of language families, originally appearing in Dragon #66, that shows the development of the Middle Elfin tongue into a variety of fae languages.  And it's awesome.  I love that sort of stuff, so why don't I do more of it?  I wonder sometimes if I remain so focused on having an "anything goes" attitude about the world(s) I game in (like the setting for the Monstrous Matters campaign) that I miss out on creating things that would genuinely make me smile, even if I don't completely buy into all of the specifics.

With that in mind, I'm going to consider this a worthwhile way to spend a few minutes.  Here's a phylogenetic tree of a few goblinoid species, along with a few creatures from that galaxy far, far away that I suspect might be closely related.  (If you have access to genetic data, please let me know; this is just based on physical characteristics.)

Images from the Forgotten Realms Wiki, Wookieepedia, and Scryfall


I feel like this just opens up a whole world of stories for how these species became distributed as they are.  Maybe I'll follow up there.  (If you'd like to see some of my related ramblings, please check out the stuff I've written about the Fantaspora Hypothesis and #WookieesAreBugbears.)

Thanks for looking!  Now, for a character (cribbed from RPGGamer.org):

Image from Wookieepedia

Wicket

Full name:  Wicket Wystri Warrick

Species: Ewok
Home: Endor

15 HP, 12 Defense (small size)
Strength 3
Dexterity 3
Knowledge 2
Presence 4

Skills: Survival +4, Thrown Weapons +3, Languages +2, Climb +1

Goals: Helping and protecting his friends

Quote: "Goodbye.  Good-bye."

Monday, October 14, 2024

Cobra and the Democrats, at it again

Oh.  Man.  Come on, America.  And now that I probably have enough words in these first few sentences that I've moved beyond the little blurb that might pop up in the few feeds this blog is in...y'know, so I don't shock with my language or anything...holy shit, what is going on?!

I kind of can't believe that my enjoyment of the intentionally ridiculous schemes employed by the international terrorist organization known as Cobra must now be tempered by the fact that Americans are being manipulated into believing that actual Cobra tactics are being used on us by...our own government, I guess...?  Coastal elites?  Scientists?  Just a bunch of Democrats?  Who tf knows.

Anyway, if you don't know what I'm rambling about...I guess there are evil folks controlling the weather.  And they sent those recent hurricanes to us...causing legitimate disasters...in order to target conservative voters.  And mine lithium.  Or...something else evil.  I'd say you can't make this stuff up, but apparently you really can, and it might just become the batshitcrazy antics of a cartoon weapons dealer who wears a metal mask, or it could become a real belief of the American public.  One or the other, because why not?

Destro and the Weather Dominator; from Joepedia

So yeah, scientists and relief workers are getting threats for doing their jobs.  Meanwhile, misinformation and pointless shit-stirring have a real impact on people's lives in a world where all guns don't shoot red and blue lasers, and everyone doesn't get to eject right before their plane explodes.

Maybe I should just be happy that I've always been more of a Joe comics guy than a Joe cartoon guy.

----------

Anyway, if you happen to see this and would like to send any financial help to those affected by the recent US weather disasters...and believe me, I understand that there are really effed up things all over the world, amongst which you must divide your shareable money...here are some orgs that we feel good about supporting.  (Please note that this list is very much focused on western North Carolina and includes some organizations focused on nonhuman animals, because that's where Laura and I used to live -- and have friends who have been greatly impacted -- and because we're crazy animal people.  However, help is still needed in Florida -- and probably elsewhere -- as well, and I simply believe all beings are worth helping in these situations.  So, please don't hate.)

BeLoved Asheville

World Central Kitchen

Brother Wolf Animal Rescue

Asheville Humane Society

Animal Haven of Asheville

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Hrm.  Now because I'm still a nerd, here's the real designer of the Weather Dominator...

From Joepedia

Destro

Full name:  James McCullen Destro XXIV

Weapons Manufacturer; Owner, M.A.R.S. Industries

15 HP, 12 Defense (light body armor, steel mask)
Strength 3
Dexterity 2
Knowledge 4
Presence 3

Skills: Engineering +4, Business +3, Intimidation +2, Firearms +1

Goals: Winning; profit; family honor; protection of the Baroness (like she really needs protecting)

Quote: "They shall learn the price of their arrogance!"

Saturday, October 12, 2024

Geeky SKAturday: Moon Hop (Derrick Morgan)

In preparing my magnum opus, I'm trying to nail down a simple yet flavorful way to handle spellcasting.  My approach for now (in addition to looking at how it's handled in games like Mini Six and FIE, I SAY!) is just to develop ideas I've had for the 5E Rudie class I wrote about a while back.  If I can make it work for the spell-like Sounds of a Rudie, I'm pretty sure I can make it work for the stuff a wizard or cleric would cast.

So here's more low-hanging fruit, reskinned and rephrased from that SRD we all know so well.  The song is Derrick Morgan's 1969 classic "Moon Hop," which celebrated the moon landing (is that obvious? apologies if so).  It might be a bit more well known to many through the variant performed by Symarip, which apparently became a hit in the UK in like 1980 on the heels of 2tone's popularity.  And of course, the place I heard it first (and which I would imagine is the way many people learned of the song) was the Specials' incorporation of it into their sets during the height of their popularity.  (I heard recordings; I didn't see those sets.)  All three of these versions are below...

The disclaimers:  (1) Yeah, it really isn't a ska song (other than maybe the Specials' version), but it is certainly in the very-closely-related early reggae style.  (This is often called skinhead reggae, of course...I just avoid that term sometimes, depending upon the audience, since the term skinhead has taken on a very different and very problematic meaning for many people.)  And (2) I know an accusation came out toward Derrick Morgan about a year ago that is also pretty terrible.  Obviously this doesn't impact the quality of his music from 55 years ago, but for some reason I feel like it has to be said, and for what it's worth, I haven't seen any resolution to the issue that makes me believe it has to be true.

Wow...okay, that was way too long...here's the Sound and the songs...!

Moon Hop

1st-level Sound
Range: Touch
Duration: 1 minute

One creature's jump height and distance are tripled for the duration of the sound.



The original:


Symarip's version:


The Specials' take:

Thursday, October 10, 2024

The first/new look of Monstrous Matters

I'm too stoked about this piece of art to sit on it anymore!  Just had to share...

One of my innumerable ongoing nerd projects is to finally put together the bits and pieces I've gathered to play a campaign based upon the paranormal research and protection organization known as Monstrous Matters, whose members investigate the intrusion of extraplanar creatures upon our world.  It's sort of my take on Ghostbusters meets D&D...maybe my own version of a fantasy heartbreaker...and I'm hoping to have a rules-lite yet suitably evocative document to share with the world by...well, I guess I should just say the end of the year at this point, since I move so slowly on everything hobby-related.

I knew that the incomparable Kelvin Green would have some excellent ideas for representing this type of adventure in a single picture, so I hit him up for it, and he did not disappoint.  Quite the opposite, actually...I kind of can't believe how much I enjoy looking over the details he put into this piece!  Without further ado, here is the first official image for Monstrous Matters, the organization:

I'm probably gonna have to make some version of this into a header for the blog eventually.  Until then, I'll keep fighting through my gamer ADHD* to chip away at the game, while undoubtedly getting distracted by a variety of similarly inconsequential projects along the way...!

(Thanks Kelvin!!)


* FWIW, I'm not ashamed to mention that I have received this actual diagnosis...not "gamer ADHD," that would be weird...but regular old ADHD.  I say this not to brag (ha!) but to make sure it doesn't look like I'm taking a legitimate hindrance on others' lives and turning it into a joke.  For some reason, people seem really comfortable making jokes about having some of these alphabet soup disorders -- ADHD, OCD, PTSD, probably more -- and while I threw in a flippant mention of one of them, I figured:  Why not pull the mood down a bit by making something into a more serious issue than it has to be?  But hey, that's probably just the OCD at work, eh?

Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Comparing task resolution difficulties across RPG systems (D6 + d20 + more)

I'm hoping someone out there might find it useful to see the side-by-side comparison of skill resolution target numbers/difficulty classes for a small variety of RPGs that are of interest to me right now.

If you just want to see the tables, you can skip on ahead to the figures so you don't get bored by my introductory rambling.  If you want more detail, possibly along with a small word salad, read on.  Either way, please let me know if you see any errors on these charts.

So...when I was beginning my deep dive into RPGs around 20 years ago, I was really intrigued by mechanical systems that lent themselves to covering modes of gaming outside of just crunchy campaign play, like miniatures, card games, or even just more casual roleplaying.  The D6 System from West End Games (WEG) really caught my eye, especially once I realized that it was implemented in such diverse forms as Ghostbusters (its genesis), Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game (perhaps its best-known form), DC Universe (altered to handle superpowers), and Star Wars Miniatures Battles and Live-Action Adventures.

These last two might have been the most intriguing, as they shifted the typical WEG D6 mechanics from a dice pool to [D6 + Attribute + Skill].  And somehow, using pretty much the same values as the standard WEG Star Wars RPG, that shift seemed to work in play.  It almost felt like I didn't know at the time that this kind of adjustment was even allowed in RPGs. :)

As I've looked around lately for a system that I might be able to use for a variety of gaming projects, I found myself looking really hard at Ghostbusters...and liking what I saw, a lot.  Also remembering a message board post where someone pointed out the similarity between the target numbers of the D6 System and one of the major iterations of d20 (I think it was already 5E at the time), I decided to take a look at how some of these systems stacked up in terms of difficulty classes for skill rolls.  Here are the systems included:

1.  Ghostbusters -- The point of the exercise and maybe the greatest RPG ever written

2.  Spooktacular -- A retro-clone of Ghostbusters with an associated OGL-friendly SRD (Sixtacular)

3.  FIE, I SAY! -- A traditional fantasy take on the Ghostbusters core rules, from Tim Snider; clearly constructed with love, humor, and an eye toward old school cachet

4.  The D6 System -- A generic toolkit for RPG system construction, published by WEG in 1996 and often called "the Cookbook" by fans

5.  Mini Six -- The clever and concise universal D6 ruleset released by AntiPaladin Games under the OGL

6.  Star Wars: The Roleplaying Game, Second Edition -- The WEG one, not the WotC one...although the numbers are probably pretty similar considering...

7-8.  Dungeons & Dragons 3.5 and 5E SRDs -- Probably the two most-referenced RPG System Reference Documents

9-10.  Mörk Borg and Shadowdark -- Some darlings of the old school RPG crowd over the past few years (well-deserved reputations, I believe); both d20-based, with toned-down expectations for stat bonuses

11.  Star Wars: Live-Action Adventures -- A system for LARPing in that galaxy far, far away; uses essentially the same stats as the tabletop game but relies on a single D6 for task resolution (same scale as the WEG Star Wars minis game)

12-14.  Live-Action Adventures, +4 and +4/adjusted -- Having found 1D6 resolution to give a narrower range of results than I would like (relative to the possible spread of attributes and skills in the system), I'm looking at using 2D6 instead; +4 accounts for the added die, and the "adjusted" values shift the typically 2-point difficulty bands for 1D6 rolls to 3-point or 4-point bands (shifting "Moderate" downward in order to move toward a standard of 10 as the target number when attacking an average, unarmed human)

Here's the full table:



Here's a quick reference on how closely Ghostbusters and the WEG Star Wars RPG actually line up with target numbers in the d20 System (which would come along around the turn of the millennium and dominate roleplaying for years):



And finally, here are the tracks for FIE, I SAY! and Shadowdark, along with the table that I'm leaning toward as the eventual model for my ongoing Monstrous Matters campaign and its associated endeavors.  I like this scale quite a bit, and it's interesting to me that a dice-pool approach (FIE!) might match up so closely with both 1D20 (Shadowdark) and 2D6 resolution mechanics in terms of skill difficulties.



Thanks for checking these out, and please let me know if you have any thoughts on improving or adjusting these!

Monday, September 30, 2024

Lin-Manuel Miranda's Warriors is coming soon!

[Insert "come out to play" joke here.]

I just found out last week that the insanely talented Lin-Manuel Miranda of Hamilton fame (along with In the Heights and the soundtracks for Moana, Vivo, and Encanto) has a concept album coming out next month (the one that starts tomorrow) based on The Warriors.  I'm pretty stoked.

Check it out HERE

As I mentioned recently, I've become a bit of a Playbill collector over the past few years, and my love of the transcendent musical Hamilton definitely played a role in that development.  And The Warriors...so, I found it relatively late in life, interestingly through learning about its potential influence on beat 'em up video games - specifically Double Dragon and Renegade - that I really liked as a kid.  But now, if you catch me on the right day, I'll probably tell you it's one of my favorite movies ever.  It's just so freaking...I don't know, stylish?  Beautiful?  Slick?  Cool?  I feel like a lot of folks of a certain age and outlook just have to admit, whether or not we think it holds up as quality cinema, that it's just badass.

It looks like Miranda is taking some interesting creative approaches - like casting women for all of the Warriors (plus replacing the Lizzies with some dudes called the Bizzies) and anthropomorphizing the boroughs of NYC by giving them distinct voices (maybe...I'm just guessing based on the cast list).  And the cast itself has some legends.

If you're interested in learning more about this most fortuitous combination of things I really dig, you can check out the album's website HERE.  I assume there will eventually be a stage musical, but either way, this looks awesome.

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And for a nerd touch, here's the film's closest-thing-to-a-hero Swan statted out as I've been putting numbers to characters lately...


Image from HERE

Swan

Warlord, the Warriors

15 HP, 11 Defense

Strength 3
Dexterity 3
Knowledge 2
Presence 4

Skills: Brawling +4, Courage +3, Streetwise +2, Knife +1

Goals: Survive; defend the Warriors

Quote: "When we get there, you stick close by, okay?"

Monday, September 23, 2024

The Monstrous Matters Campaign, Part 2: So this is how goblin genocide starts.

A little while back, Father Josh threw me another tabletop bone by playing as the sole PC (with a supervisory role over the other protagonist) in Session 2 of the Monstrous Matters campaign.  (For my Session 1 ramblings, check out the post HERE.)

The high points of this session:

    1.  The first pieces were planted to tie into what might turn out to be a meta-narrative that makes its way through multiple adventures.  I say "might" because I'm committed to not railroading this thing...BUT I can have the overarching story in the back of my mind that MAY become obvious to the game's player(s) over time.

    2.  We returned to a more "standard" dice pool resolution mechanic for the D6-based system we're playing with.  I see this being The Way going forward, but I've honestly never determined what I find to be the optimal approach to the Wild Die/Ghost Die in these games, so I'll probably still play with that over the coming sessions.

    3.  The importance of player motivations with respect to the goals of the game itself came to the forefront, as one of the characters shifted into murder-hobo mode in a game that is, ostensibly, very much not about murder hobos.  The thing is, it really worked narratively, so it's drawing our attention to the value of determining the PCs' ethical views of creatures that have made their way to our world via connections to magical fantasy realms.  I'm sure there's also some political commentary that could be dropped into this exploration, but I'm going to do all I can to avoid that because (1) it seems cheap and exploitative, and (2) this is very much meant to be escapist entertainment.

So, here we go...

To begin the session, the team (Fingers Watson and Bobby Flech) move down the staircase from Level 1 to Level 2.

From the free and excellent Dyson's Delve mega-ish-dungeon...check out this level HERE.

Moving east, they peer into a room with six goblins; none notice them outside the cracked door. Five of the goblins are dressed in tattered rags, while one is in much nicer attire (including some fancy brass-ish goggles). He seems to be in the middle of a chemistry experiment. (When questioned, he says that he is “just trying to make it explode.”) He looks something like this:


On his wrist, there is a striking signet:


When asked, the goblin says that the signet is the symbol of his guild, the Izzet.

It doesn’t take long now for Watson’s long-harbored hatred of planar outsiders to show itself. He first tricks a few of them into falling into a carefully deployed portable hole. As they attempt to recover, he kills one with a dagger thrown into its eye. He then pulls out his sidearm and shoots four more dead. Finally, the chemist – by now the dozing victim of a scroll of Sleep – is strangled by Flech at Watson’s direction.

The protagonists have now shut themselves in the goblin den. There are other dungeon inhabitants outside, alerted by the noise and trying to get in. It doesn’t look great for the Monstrous Matters pair. There is a wildcard here, though: Fingers would happily kill every last one of them...

Tuesday, September 17, 2024

Hadestown, Wall-Building, and the Gotham by Gaslight Effect

In my continuing efforts to become a liberal coastal elite, fully out of touch with my working-class roots [that's mostly sarcasm, in case it needs to be said], I've become a pretty big fan of Broadway musicals.  I've long enjoyed musicals [and (1) have even been playing around with writing one for like 20 years, and (2) think that an RPG that plays out like a musical might be the most amazing game I can imagine].  So, now that Laura and I live close enough to hop over for a day in NYC, we take whatever opportunities we can (and can afford) to see the best that musical theater has to offer.  (West End theatergoers, I'll entertain your arguments.)

Our current Broadway favorite obsession is Hadestown.  This musical has an interesting origin, as it started out in smaller theaters in New England, then was turned into a concept album by its creator, Anaïs Mitchell, in 2010.

Starting in 2016, the musical made its way to an off-Broadway theater, then to Edmonton, to London, and finally to the big stage of Broadway (although it uses a fairly small stage, to be honest), winning the Tony Award for Best Musical in 2019.  It's inspiring, as a would-be creator of a variety of media, to see that an idea was able to progress this way.  And in all seriousness, it is a freaking work of genius.

Hadestown tells the story of Orpheus and Eurydice, set in what seems like a Depression-era New Orleans juke joint (as Hermes tells us, "Don't ask where, brother, don't ask when"), plus this setting's associated underworld, called Hadestown.  I could gush about pretty much every aspect of this production, but I'll try to keep it brief by saying that it is a complete work of art, with meanings that I'll probably be working through in my head until the day I take my own trip across the Styx.  It is also beautiful.  The underworld's dieselpunk aura is especially striking:

This is actually a shot from a Korean production, rather than Broadway, but the dark deco feel is still there.  Image from HERE.

The end result of this mashup of mythology and Americana is a near-perfect story that always leaves me wanting more, to the point that I start to imagine what other works of classical mythology would fit nicely into this cultural milieu.  I eventually recognize that overplaying the details and themes that make Hadestown so transcendent will probably just lead to a bunch of stuff that doesn't feel nearly as special anymore.  That little drive is always there, though -- whether it's due to my comic-filled childhood or my love of gaming, I inevitably want to expand the "Hadestown Universe" just to get more of it.  (That's a tendency I've chosen to call the Gotham by Gaslight effect.)

We took in the production for the second time last Wednesday...and while there are a number of excellent songs in the show, there was one that was just taken to another level that day.  Having watched the American presidential debate the night before, and listened to the anti-immigrant nonsense espoused therein*, I was struck by the remarkable fact that Mitchell wrote the song "Why We Build the Wall" way back in 2006.  Many viewers assume the show is just a statement on modern American politics...but it's really just a show about the nature of humanity and of being human, and this song just happens to hit a lot harder because of the world we live in now.

If you have a couple of minutes, I really, really recommend giving this tune a listen.  Here's a lyric video featuring the original Broadway cast (leading right into the last few lines of the first act).  Laura and I were a bit late to the game, so while we actually missed the runs of the original main cast members, we have not been left wanting.  Hades is currently portrayed by Phillip Boykin, whose performances have been jaw-dropping, to say the least.  (The last time we saw it, in the split second between the end of the number and the rise of applause, you could hear a guy a couple rows behind us just say, "My god...")

Now, to make sure I'm keeping this blog suitably ridiculous, I think I'll close this out by taking a look at Hades as a character in a Ghostbusters-type game.  So here goes...

Hades

Image from HERE

If we're using the "Ghostology" section of the old Ghostbusters RPG's Operations Manual, Hades would fall into the category of Really Bad News, which includes "demons, powerful gods, and the like."  This essentially puts him into a category where he doesn't need stats, because the PCs aren't going to be able to do much to affect him anyway...that is, unless they can find that one unique way to defeat him.  For the Hades of Hadestown, there are some key weaknesses that can be seized upon: (1) his greed and love of power, and (2) his genuine love for his wife Persephone.  Anything the players can do to impact Hades will have to feed off of the insecurity that comes from these two qualities of the character.

However...he should be a little more fun to play than that.  So, here are a few tidbits stolen/adapted from an OGL 5e take on Hades:

Spell-like Abilities (all at will): hellish rebuke (3rd level), mold earth, thaumaturgy, fear, phantasmal killer, wall of stone, gate

Soul Syphon: Hades inhales souls in a 60 ft. cone. Each creature in the affected area takes 13D damage unless they pass a Strength check with a difficulty of 21, which cuts the damage in half (rounded up).

Bass-Baritone: Hades' voice is really, really low.  Just do your best.

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* Yep, I know immigration is a complex issue (as they all are), and there is a discussion to be had on the proper approach to reform that accounts for both American safety and human dignity.  BUT...that bullshit last Tuesday?  That was nonsense.

Wednesday, September 11, 2024

Just about a day to go for Michael T. Desing's Stalwart '85 Kickstarter!

Mini-ethical dilemma today: I honestly feel a bit strange posting anything too...eh, hopeful and...I dunno, frivolous...on 9/11.  But y'know, if I wait till tomorrow, the clock will be almost at zero on this.  And I do want to share it...and you can't really deny the American connection here.  Today is a day to celebrate heroes!


So...just reminding you to make sure to get in now if you want to be a part of Dr. Michael T. Desing's Stalwart '85 Kickstarter!  Mike (may I call you Mike?) has covered a lot of the creation process over at his excellent blog and publishing HQ, The Splintered RealmStalwart '85 looks to be a love letter to 1980s superhero comics, but in a way that imagines a third major publisher (largely using public domain characters) rather than generating a pastiche of '80s stories (which, obviously, I'm also fond of).

The Core Rules are already on DriveThru as a PWYW, so you can check out the basics before buying into it.  The mechanics definitely look solid, although I'm really in it more for the worldbuilding.  The art is familiar but unique.  And Mike, frankly, seems like a good dude.

It's already funded and into stretch goals.  Check it out HERE if you'd like to join me in getting in on the superheroic action!

Friday, September 6, 2024

5 tips for running the Ghostbusters RPG (AKA another lazy post!)

Inspired by Adam Dickstein's killer Chapter 2 writeup of his awesome Ghostbusters + Tokyo Ghost Research idea in action over at his Barking Alien blog (seriously, check it out), I really wanted to get another Ghostbusters RPG post out into the world. BUT...I have to focus on real life a little too much today. Aha...BUT(!!!)...I did finally write up a little list of things I've learned along the way as I've run the classic West End Games RPG myself. I said I might get around to it, and then I finally did so in...another Reddit thread.

So here we go. Written to a first-time Ghostmaster, and with pretty minimal editing here (like I said, another lazy post!). Maybe someone will find it helpful...? [This is where I shrug, but I'm not sure if I should put an emoji or just write *shrug* or what...]


5 Tips for Running the Ghostbusters RPG


1.  The more you set things in locations you're familiar with or can easily imagine, the easier it will be to improvise over the course of the adventure.  (I guess this really applies to any RPG...)

2.  Have a list of potential complications to turn to if nothing comes to you after the roll of a ghost on the Ghost Die. I have had a session before with so many ghosts rolled that by the end I was just like, "Okay, you miss hitting the demon and...uh...you fall down. Yes, you step on a well-placed banana peel!" (This may or may not be a precise example, but it ultimately helped me realize that you can put ridiculous stuff on a complication/fumble list, and it somehow seems to hold more weight among players if you randomly generate it from a list rather than just making it up in the moment. [NOTE: That's probably just my own assumptions showing through.] Although...I'm sure there's an effective GMing style that involves ridiculous ad hoc complication creation as well!)

3.  If you have the time, you can try prepping (to whatever extent you plan to do so) like three adventures, then have multiple calls come into Ghostbusters HQ in rapid succession. It gives a sense of agency to the players from the start. You'll just want to make sure they don't try to split up to cover all three at the same time, which would be pretty cumbersome. (Ghostbusters as a game lends itself to possibly humorous notes to players along the lines of: "Each of these calls seems really dangerous. You can just tell that you're going to need to take the full crew to whichever one you choose, for the sake of either Ghostbuster safety or Ghostmaster sanity...I'll let you know which in a little while.")

Obviously there's a good chance the players won't get through all of the adventures in one session, but then you're already prepped for a future game AND you have some security in case someone comes up with something that makes you think, "Yeah...that IS really smart and could potentially solve this case in about five minutes' time..."

4.  I've had good luck with the adventures written for the game Paranormal Investigators & Exterminators (P.I.E.), a Mini Six variant from Genius Loci games that works as a GB retro-clone. (Specifically, I've used versions of the adventures "Humble Pie" from the original P.I.E. release, "Take Me Out to the Ballgame" from the Good-bye American P.I.E. supplement, and "Chocolate P.I.E." from its own individual module, all in the "three calls" setup above.)

(You can click HERE to head to the company's DriveThru page...)

5.  I'm sure this will vary by group, but I've always found it fun to zero in on a fairly specific time in the past to set things. Sharing some of the details of the world in general that you'll find with just a google search or two can help give the game a retro feel, which I think is often part of the appeal of playing as Ghostbusters. This can conflict with #1 a little bit -- you can set things in a location you're very familiar with, but you may not have much of an idea of what that place was like in, say, 1986 (not that it necessarily matters unless you have a player who will recognize and care about any inaccuracies) -- BUT a little touch like a certain song or sporting event playing on the radio is an easy way to add a little atmosphere.

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With the Monstrous Matters campaign in progress, I'm really interested in seeing everyone's approaches to the art of running a Ghostbusters-style paranormal RPG, so please hit me up with your own tricks and insights if you get the chance, here or elsewhere!

Thursday, August 29, 2024

Mini Six vs. OpenD6 (vs. TinyD6, kinda)

Okay, a very low-effort post today...!

There was a recent Reddit thread on universal RPG systems, so I had to chime in and spread the love for the D6 System, my current mechanical obsession.  Another poster asked if I could explain the difference in OpenD6 and Mini Six (as well as TinyD6), and I ended up writing a bit more than I imagined I would.  Then I realized that there's a chance other people might google something like "OpenD6 vs. Mini Six," and that it might be helpful to have that same response as a blog post, especially for anyone who avoids Reddit threads when they search.


So, eliminating my opening and closing caveats and apologies, here's my from-memory take on the differences:

TinyD6 is the one I know the least about and have never played. As far as I know, it is its own system using one or more (I really don't know which) d6s and is pretty rules-lite. It seems to have a following of its own, and content in a variety of genres, so it is probably a good gateway to "univeral gaming" even though...AFAIK...it is not directly related to the other two.
OpenD6 and Mini Six, on the other hand, are very much connected. OpenD6 is the license/movement/set of games that came about when the owner of West End Games' D6 system (used in Star Wars and DC Universe, with a proto-version in Ghostbusters, among others) released it via the OGL. You can probably find a lot of the old WEG books...or versions of them with IP removed...for free on the net, although it's been a while since I've surveyed that availability. At its heart, the D6 System is more of a toolkit than a specific way to play, and there's even an old book simply called The D6 System (with the subtitle The Customizable Roleplaying Game) that is often called "the cookbook" and has a bunch of options laid out with the idea that you'll choose the ones most appropriate to your game (including stuff like which attributes you'll have for characters). There was a set of three books for Fantasy, Adventure, and Space that had rules specifically tailored to those genres. (Space, for example, was built heavily upon the old Star Wars rules.)
Once OpenD6 became a thing, the Mini Six system was one of the first to use the license. It is a very approachable, fairly stripped-down ruleset that is also available for free and that can be used for just about any genre. At the time it was released, I saw it as the authors (Ray Nolan and Phil Morris of AntiPaladin games) sort of reverse-engineering Ghostbusters (probably my favorite RPG ever) while bringing in some of the options and technology that had been innovated for the D6 System over its lifetime. I definitely recommend checking it out:
Overall, the potentially diverse application of the system was a plus for folks who really like to tweak their games, but some of the drastic differences in how the games end up playing out probably made it tough to gather as much of a unified community as there was for, say, the d20 System. It's typically pretty easy to convert from one "subsystem" to another, but I just don't think that feels as universal as systems that have a unified set of attributes (and skills, and even how to read the results of rolls, in the case of games like DC Universe that used a success/fail-based version called D6 Legend).
The D6 System has recently gotten some love with stuff like the Zorro RPG and a recent Kickstarter for a "D6 2e." I've gravitated to my own houseruled version as a sort of house system for my own games, and so I check out new developments when I think about it and have the time, in case there's something I can bolt onto the form of the game I'm running with.
And then I followed up quickly after to add this:

Also, just wanted to add that the owner of the system IP who released it into the wild was Eric Gibson of Purgatory Publishing. It was a really kind move that definitely helped keep the system alive. There are a few other folks who have been vital to it over the years, but I don't want to start naming them because I'm afraid I'll leave out someone important...!

If you happen upon this while investigating the system(s), please let me know if there's anything more to my opinions that may be helpful in your search!