It’s that time of year. Most everybody does it and take it as time to get back on track and set some goals and make some plans for next year. So I go into a whole long rant in this week’s episode. You can subscribe on most platforms or just stream it here.
But here’s the highlights:
Cool stuff this year goes to Old Skull Publishing (and his great games Sharp Swords & Sinister Spells, Dark Streets & Darker Secrets, Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells). Also Old Essentials from Necrotic Gnome wonderfully organized and easy to use take on BX D&D. Then there’s Goodman Games. DCC Lankhmar. Hell yeah! And Frog God Games. Great Kickstarters like Tegel Manor and small print run Indiegogo campaigns for some neat adventures. And then there’s Skeeter Green and his new entry into publishing.
And then the misses of the year. Oh Ref Book where art thou? I’m not going to spend a lot of complaining. I just don’t care about it any more.
So now on to what I’m planning. First, expect more of the same here at the old blog but probably with more Swords & Wizardry. For Playing It Wrong, also expect more of the same but with more food and humor because blackjack and Hookers are just too expensive.
I’ve got some minor tweaks to do on the Patreon. That should be done before the end of the year.
I plan on doing about one video a month on the Youtube channel. Some reviews/unboxings and maybe a few little crafty/DIY type things.
Discord. Well. I keeping forgetting about that. I’ve tried to set aside a time for that. So instead, I’ll just be a random encounter there. I’ll show up and see what’s going on.
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This is something I’ve done in my other old school games successfully. There aren’t any skills so to speak and most folks go with roll something versus an ability score. But in the past I’ve always what I felt was the best mechanic available. One good stat made a character great at a whole family of things. So I’ve gone to averaging.
It’s no secret that I’m a big fan of the games put out by Old Skull Publishing and I’m working on a nice little review of Dark Streets and Darker Secrets, a campaign for it, and some other little goodies. The point of this is that I’m going to be adding that this to my game.
Like I said, instead of making checks against one stat, make a check against the average of two. I’ve thrown these checks into a few broad categories.
Athletics (Strength and Dexterity) or (Physique and Agility: Climbing, Acrobatics, Jumping and all that stuff.
Craft: (Intelligence and Dexterity) or (Agility and Intellect): This is for doing stuff with your hands. Skinning an animal, hot wiring a car, even first Aid.
Wits: (Intelligence and Wisdom) or (Intellect and Will): This isn’t about knowing stuff rote. It’s about understanding information and being able to parse that information.
And, of course< there are more options but use as you will. And you don't even have to add this to character sheets. It's just make check against and list them. My players already know what I mean.
And it works. It makes more than one stat important to preform an action. So min maxing is not your friend. It's easy. And generally works well with the existing system.
Like any rules hack, your mileage may vary. Remember the most important thing isn't the rules your using but the fun you're having.
I’ve my hard copy for over a week and well the inspirational thoughts are bouncing around inside my head again. Some of you may remember my earlier rants on doing a gonzo space opera game and I did run it for a while with Savage Worlds. But now I’m thinking about how cool it would be to revisit that universe using Solar Blades & Cosmic Spells. More about that much later. There’s way too many things bouncing around inside my head. Instead the bulk of this post is throwing out there a couple of things that really inspired my for the campaign and hopefully might inspire you too.
First and foremost, a favorite of mine is Farscape. Lets’ see you’ve got humor. Crazy weird aliens like crazy. A big wild universe. I won’t go through the whole background, setting and so forth. If you’re reading this then you’ve got Internet access. How ever if you’ve never seen Farscape, give it watch. If you’re short on time, may I suggest watching the pilot episode to get the general idea then follow up (and skip a lot) and watch the three parter, Liars, Guns and Money. They rob a bank. And you’ll probably go down a Farscape wormhole. No pun intended.
The second also aired on the SciFi Channel (when it was called that). And that’s The Lexx. Now The Lexx was much weirder. Heck one of the main characters was an undead poet assassin. NO really. It had a real Heavy Metal mag vibe. Heck, you’ve got villains named the Divine Shadow, a Bio-Vizer, and Gigashadow. Once again it’s a crew of misfits on a really big ship. While it is inspirational, the overall plot can be a bit difficult to follow. Like I said before, I won’t go into the whole universe here.
And to wrap thus up I’ll pull up a couple of old collages. May this inspire you!
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