A city frozen in time

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Nenad

MayDay by Wili

This is an idea for a scene, rather than a setting. It should work in any setting that incorporates some sort of magic, although I would really struggle to add it into anything that is even vaguely hard science.

The scene takes place in a city that is frozen in time for some reason, but the PCs and NPCs are still active. It should provide an interesting, if somewhat surreal backdrop… It could work well for an over the top fight scene, or even a chase, as the participants hide behind frozen smoke, or stand still not to be noticed in a crowd of unmoving people…

Urban View by AndyK

If you want to expand the idea, perhaps time has frozen in the city a very long time ago, and another civilisation has risen in the city, around the elements of the old frozen time. So, people live in buildings, sharing their home with a family who sits frozen around a table mid-conversation. Perhaps an ma standing by the door is used as a coat rack, and there is a washing line strung between a child’s ball hanging in the air, and her mother calling her home.

Save the Future

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Nenad

This is one of those ideas that could be brilliant with the right group, but could just as easily all flat. The central idea is that the characters are sent back in time from a future alien invasion in order to prepare humanity for when the aliens come. The emphasis of the campaign would be on the characters trying to get the planet united, and using their knowledge of the future and technology to prepare humanity to fight off the coming invasion.

Setup

Before the game starts the group should work out a timeline for the setting, with technology developments, as well as social and political events. This will provide them with a lot of foreknowledge when they go back in time.

Playing the Invasion

You can start the game during the alien invasion, possibly even with different characters from the ones that go back in time. It would be a good way of making the stakes clear… And for the last session of the intro, you could have a desperate defence of the particle accelerator as the characters try to finish their transport…

Long Term Planning

The Essence of this campaign lies in the fact that the characters have to think long term. They are trying to shape the entire society of the planet, not a simple task. They do have some advantages, but they are not massively overpowering, so they are going to have to plan ahead. In this campaign, the GM should be responsive to the players, not the other way around, most of the time.

The Butterfly Effect

While the characters will have a very good knowledge of the future (since they will bring historical records with them), over time, as they are active, this will become less and less accurate.

While the players will try to anticipate the results of their actions and changes, the GM should make sure that things don’t always go the way the characters expect.

The Mechanics of Time Travel

Time travel in this campaign is used as a device to get the characters into the past, and I do not really see it playing a big part in the campaign. Players being players, there is always a chance that they will figure out a way to make more use of it.

Whenever somebody travels back in time, a new timeline is formed, completely independent of the original one. What happens to the original timeline, whether it ceases to exist, or still exists in some form is not really relevant, since there is no interaction between the two timelines.

What this means that you cannot really alter your own personal past. If you kill your grandfather, it just means that you are now a murderer, and that there will not be another person like you in the new timeline.

In this setting, while time travel is possible, it is not simple. It requires a large, well designed and calibrated installation, that would take years to build (and that is assuming that adequate financing, land and government permissions are available).

Possible Stories

Most of the stories in the campaign would revolve around the actions of the characters, as they try to set the world right. Here are some ideas.

Convincing Others

If the characters start simply telling people about the coming alien invasion, they are not going to get much support. A demonstration of their advanced technology might sway some, but there is always the risk of the technology simply being confiscated by the government of the country they are in, and the characters getting brought in for questioning. How are they going to get support?

Creating a Conspiracy

It is entirely possible that the characters decide to hide the truth. Perhaps they think that nobody will believe them, or they are afraid of a world-wide panic if people did… Either way, they choose to work underground, hiding their true plans and intentions. Do they establish a cover as a company, or some sort of religious organisation, or something else entirely?

Preventing Disaster

The characters know that some sort of large-scale disaster is coming. Tornado, Tsunami, Earthquake, that type of thing… What are they going to do about it? Will they try to warn people, or prevent it in some way? Or perhaps simply get themselves in position to take advantage of it?

Personal Agendas

Every now and then, it might be good to focus on what the characters do for their personal agendas. If somebody’s mother or wife died of cancer on the original timeline, are they going to try to prevent that, perhaps get her to quit smoking in this one, or try to get her to get diagnosed early enough? Or are they going to spend a lot more time and energy in those areas of research? All of the characters would have lost people they loved in the invasion. Are they going to try to see them? Even though their loved ones will most likely not recognise them.

It is entirely likely that the characters themselves are on this timeline as children. Are the characters going to try to avoid the alternate versions of themselves, or will they try to warn them about the things they might regret later?

Politics

This campaign, by its very nature will delve into politics. The players may want to unify the world to prepare it for the coming threat, but how will they do it, will they try to engineer a single country taking over everything, or will they set themselves up as puppet-masters, allowing the disparate countries to believe that they are not acting in unison? Maybe they will even try to get countries co-operating out of their own interests.

Technology

Another approach that would help is to advance the technology of the world. The characters have a definite headstart. Of course, this will involve a lot of the politics mentioned above, as well as dealing with other companies, nations and entities.

Alternatives

Here are some ideas for spins on the basic campaign outlined above, or ways to spice up the campaign once it has already started.

Other Time travellers

There is always a chance that the characters are not the only time travellers. Perhaps they find out that there are others that have arrived before them, or run into versions of themselves from a future in which their meddling has made things even worse. Or, the aliens send somebody back, since they were so successful, and the invaders want to stop them. This alternative would work well in an already running game.

Alien Infiltrators

In this alternative, the alien fleet has sent advance scouts, which arrived decades or centuries before the main fleet, and infiltrated humanity in order to make sure that they are not ready when the main fleet arrives. This would work well if the players want a direct enemy, and could be used to run a conspiracy investigation campaign, as the characters try to figure out who the infiltrators are.

They might even know some of the infiltrators, from their own time, but what are they going to do about it? Nobody would believe them if they started telling people that the CEO of a major corporation is an alien spy!

Staring Earlier

What if the characters go back in time much further? Ancient Rome maybe, or even into prehistory on the African Savannah. Do they establish themselves as gods, or do they just try to lead their tribe? This also causes a problem for the characters, since they will need some way of ensuring their plans continue even after they are gone. Do they try to establish some sort of lineage or cult to pass on their teaching? This might also work as a generational game, with the players playing different characters through the ages.

Superheroics

For this, you can set the game in a Superhero universe. If superheroes already exist in the world, and are known, the characters would have a much easier time convincing people that the threat is real.

For another take on it, perhaps the characters use their advanced technology to establish themselves as Superheroes in the new timeline?

Dresden Files RPG on Kindle Review

Posted on May 31, 2013 by Nenad

The Dresden Files RPG is published by Evil Hat, and uses their Fate system. The game allows the players to play in the setting of the Dresden Files series of books by Jim Butcher. It is divided into two books: Your Story, and Our World.

Your Story

This is the players handbook in a way, explaining the system, character creation, and the basics of the world. It was written in such a way as to minimise the amount of spoilers for those who have not read the Dresden Files Books.

Our World

Our World is the setting book, and is full of spoilers, so I would not recommend reading it unless you have read the Dresden Files series. It is a very exhaustive overview of the DresdenVerse, and does a good job of explaining the various factions in the setting. It also goes some depth into explaining Chicago, and the various ways you could run a campaign there.

Dresden Files uses the well known FATE system.

FATE Rules

FATE uses Fudge dice, which are dice that have + on two sides, – on another two and the last two left blank. For a roll, the player rolls for of them, totals them up, and adds them to his skill, trying to beat a target difficulty.

Each character also has a pool of FATE points, which can be used in conjuction with Aspects to get rerolls, or to add onto a roll.

Aspects are what makes this system interesting. Anything in Fate can have one or more aspects, for example, a character can have the aspect Tough as Nails, a city can have the aspect All of us are in the gutter, and so on.

An aspect can be used in a variety of ways, enabling the player to add elements to the story, or to gain a bonus when doing something that an aspect could help him with. Using an aspect costs the character a Fate point.

An aspect can also be compelled, which means that it acts as a disadvantage for the character. In this case the character will get a Fate point if they accept the compel.

Character Creation

In the Dresden Files RPG, like in the other FATE Games, character creation is a co-operative endeavour, and it is divided into four phases. In the first phase, the player designs the basic character, with a concept and a trouble aspect. Over the next several phases, the characters are tied together, adding more aspects and ensuring that they all have a shared background.

This being the Dresden Files, some of the characters can be supernatural beings, such as Wizards, Fae and Vampires. The use of aspects helps to keep the powers balanced, so that even default humans can actually influence the game.

Since Magic forms a big part of the Dresden Files setting, there is a fairly involved magic system presented. While it seems complex at first, it does capture the spirit of magic as it is portrayed in the novels. If somebody in the group is playing a wizard, he would have to do a bit of preparation.

The whole game is very good at bringing across the feel of the Dresden Files. I am not sure how useful it would be for somebody who has not read the novels, but I think it does contain enough information to play. If you want to play in another urban fantasy setting, it should be easy enough to use the existing rules to do so.

While the Dresden Files novels are set in Chicago, the RPG includes a good system for city creation, so that the group can design their own city and its supernatural underworld to play in.

Of course, for those who want to play in Chicago and the default setting, the book Our World provides a lot of details about the factions and characters in the setting, as well as several possibilities for using Chicago as a setting for your games.

In the original PDF, they are very well illustrated and laid out, but the kindle versions suffer from some formatting problems, specifically in the side-bars. Either way, they are easy to use at the table.

Overall, the Dresden Files RPG is an excellent version of FATE, well suited to running an Urban Fantasy game. It brings all of the strengths of FATE to the Genre, and allows full and engaging games.

RPG Review: Left Hand Path

Posted on November 22, 2012 by Nenad

I have recently been re-finding my taste for all things White Wolf, possibly due to the Aberrant campaign I am currently in. So, I decided to review Left Hand Path .

Left Hand Path deals with the rebels and outcasts of mage society, those that are isolated from the Pentacle and Seers, often with very good reason. The book is divided into four, dealing with the Heretics, Mad, Scelesti and Reapers.

It starts off by explaining how the pentacle and seers deal with the Apostates, and how to become one, before looking at the individual factions.

The Heretics and Apostates are those that have rejected the teachings of the Pentacle or Seers, but still remain “normal” mages. As such, they seem to be most likely to be used as player characters. There are some good ideas about how to use them as protagonists and antagonists in your stories, as well as several story seeds focusing on them.

The Mad remind me of the Marauders in the old world of darkness, although they do get a very new world of darkness spin on them. They are based on the gothic idea of madness that stems from moral decay, and some of the details about them manage to be disturbing. Ideas are given how to use them in a chronicle, as well as some suggested Mad. I think that they have a lot of potential, but I found the section on them a bit sparse and lacking.

The Scelesti are a bit of a stereotypical villain group, in the fact that they want to end the world as we know it, possibly to replace it with the Abyss. The information in here expands on the Mage rulebook, and presents other factions of the Scelesti, as well as some ideas about their structure, organisation, and practices.

Finally, the Repers are discussed, with a long section on the Tremere, although I find the two new factions intorduced in that section far more interesting, especially the (Legion), which have the right mix of interesting and creepy to be used in most games.

Overall, The Left Hand Path is an excellent resource for any Mage Storyteller, and a very good mine for ideas. It is available for sale from RPGNow.

Book Review: Play Unsafe

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Nenad

I have heard of Play Unsafe by Graham Welmsley when it first came out, but I only got around to reading it in the last couple of days. I really wish I have read this earlier, since I think it would have improved my gaming no end. While the book is very short, it is packed to the brim with information, suggestions and ideas. In the book, Graham draws on some lessons from improv, about how to make the game more enjoyable for everyone at the table. The central ideas are one of trust, doing the obvious and taking risks.

Trust

A gaming group always needs trust around the table, and Playing Unsafe emphasises that fact. Trust enables the players to relax, and to go with the flow of ideas around the table. I have experienced a flowing game, where the whole table gets on the same wavelength, and we just push forward, riffing off each other. Every time that happened, I played with people I trusted.

Doing the Obvious

I found the idea of doing the obvious mindblowing. Something may seem completely obvious to you, but to the other players it will seem like a breath of fresh air. I have spent too much time and effort in the past trying to come up with an elaborate scheme, just to see it fall flat.

Taking Risks

The idea of taking risks is linked with the idea of trust at the table. It means that you are free to do interesting things with your character, and to take the story in unexpected and different directions, while knowing that you will have the support of the rest of the table.

Overall, Play Unsafe is a book that I wish I had gotten when I started roleplaying, It is packed full of ideas and new ways of looking at things that would help in any game.

Play Unsafe is available from RPGNow.

Michtim: Fluffy Adventures Review

Posted on September 13, 2012 by Nenad

At first, I thought that Michtim: Fluffy Adventures was a simple cutesy game, aimed at children, but on reading it, I realised that it has unexpected depths and complexities.

In the game, the players play a Bande of Michtim, intelligent hamster-like creatures (although not rodents, which is explained in an overview of their biology).

There is a firm emphasis on the culture of the Michtim, who seem to live in a very idealised, egalitarian society, and rely on the Veil to keep humans from noticing them.

The game feels a bit like a European Saturday Morning cartoon, complete with an emphasis on conservation. The characters have ratings from 1 to 4 in the various emotions: Joy, Love, Grief, Fear and Anger.

A Michtim normally belongs to one of the three hauses, each one of which places emphasis on a different Michtim virtue (although all are virtues are respected by all hauses)

In addition to that, every Michtim has at least one calling, which can be considered a bit similar to a character class, except that a Michtim can have up to three active at the same time, and can easily switch between them.
When determining the result of an action, the Michtim rolls a number of dice equal to the relevant emotion, and adds the numbers together. If she scores above 7, she gets one success. If she wants more successes, she needs to remove dice from her pool, and gets an additional success for each die she does not roll.

For each die that rolls a 6, the Michtim gets a mood token of the emotion she rolled. The token can either give a +1 to the relevant roll, or can be traded in to provide an extra die on the roll. Each emotion also has opposing ones, so a mood in a particular emotion will act as a penalty on the opposing ones. Also, a Michtim can have a maximum of three mood tokens at a time. The only way to get rid of a mood is by trading it in for a die.
I really like the mood system. It provides good roleplaying opportunities, as the Michtim find themselves in situations where they have to act according to mood, in order to get rid of the mood tokens, either because the penalty is too steep, or simply to start acquiring new ones.

The Michtim can also gain Karma, by following the Michtim virtues. If they sin against the virtues, they will find themselves unable to gain Karma, as well as the punishment from the Michtim society at large.

The Michtim society is very detailed, and the characters are made to feel to be a real part of it. Technology is not detailed at all, and in the beginning I had the impression of a pseudo-medevial level of tech, until I got to the descriptions of the cyberised Michtim. Although not detailed, the Michtim seem to have advanced technology, although with more emphasis on individual workmanship, rather than mass production.

The sample adventure at the end of the book is a bit of a letdown. It is a very good example of the genre that the game is trying to evoke, but feels very linear.

Overall, I was very pleasantly surprised by Michtim: Fluffy Adventures, and the game has a very simple and straightforward system, while providing enough depth and complexity for a very interesting game.

Michtim is available from DrivethruRPG.

Diaspora Review

Posted on July 25, 2012 by Nenad

I have finally had a chance to read through my review copy of Diaspora for the Kindle, and I have to say that I am really impressed.

I have always been a fan of hard science fiction, and Diaspora fits the bill. There is a very light setting, with no faster-than-light travel, although there are slip-points connecting the various system in a cluster.

A big part of the game allows the players to define their own cluster, giving a nicely built structure to do so, allowing them to define the setting for the game.

The system itself is fairly standard FATE, as found in Spirit of the Century and Dresden Files, with some minor variations. The characters are designed to be created cooperatively, and the character design process ensures that they are all well-connected to each other.

There are four detailed combat systems (or mini-games, since each one is actually playable as a wargame on its own). They include personal, platoon, starship and social combat.

The first three are fairly standard, and well executed. I was really surprised by the quality of the social combat chapter, and I honestly feel it is the best implementation of social combat that I have seen in any system, since it uses zones not to model the physical space, but rather levels of intimacy and points of view. Even if you use nothing else in the book, the social combat is worth the price of admission.

The book is then rounded out with an equipment generation chapter, allowing the players to create the various technologies to round out the setting.

Overall, Diaspora is a brilliant game, and perfect for lovers of science fiction and FATE. Diaspora is an excellent hard-science space opera game.

The Kindle edition itself suffers from some problems, and the tables in the book are a bit hard to read on a Kindle, so I would recommend getting the PDF version if you really want the game. Diaspora is available from RPGNow.

RPG Thoughts: Detect Evil

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Nenad

I have never been fond of the user of alignment in RPGs, it always felt unnatural, and an attempt to simplify the complexity of the world.

In D&D, the main argument for the existence of a distinct and defined good and evil in the universe (not just in the rules), are the Detect Evil and Detect Good spells.

So, what if those spells do not really detect good and evil, but rather something else? Here are a couple of possibilities:

The Spells are a Conspiracy

The Spells detect nothing, rather the users use them as a way to convince people that their side is right… This would work in a very dark fantasy game.

The Spells Measure Compliance with a God’s Law

In the case where spells are granted by a deity, the Detect Good/Evil spell measures the extent to which the individual target complies with God’s law. For a benevolent deity, this would mean that it would pretty much function as expected, but depending on the God, results may vary. Perhaps the God has a prohibition against eating fish, so all fishermen detect as evil?

This also explains how whole species in the D&D universe can detect as evil… The Gods just do not like them.

This also means that the followers of different Gods may get different results when casting on the same person.

The Spells Measure how Evil Somebody thinks they are

In this case, somebody could detect as evil when they are just guilty of minor things, while genuine psychopaths slip by…

RPG Idea – Seeking the Heroes

Posted on July 24, 2012 by Nenad

This is a simple idea which has always appealed to me, even despite the fact that I am not a huge fan of Fantasy.

A small village is being besieged by goblins. 16 years ago, a party of adventurers saved the village from another tribe of goblins, and then left.

The characters are the youths of the village, sent out to seek those heroes, so that they may help the village again.

Once they get to the nearby city, after some adventures on the road, they find the heroes, only to discover that they had fallen to various vices, and are busy wasting away.

Will the characters rehabilitate the heroes, or will they become heroes themselves?

Of course, given the timeline, it is entirely possible that some of the characters are actually children of the heroes…

When I originally came up with the idea, I was thinking of using Big Eyes, Small Mouth to run it, but if I do it now, I would rather use Legends of Anglerre.

RPG Idea – Crash Investigators

Posted on July 17, 2012 by Nenad

This is an idea inspired by Michael Crichton’s novel, Airframe.

It involves the characters playing a team of air-crash investigators, who find something strange during their investigations. It would be best suited to a modern or near future setting, although it could work in space opera as well… Even Fantasy, in a setting that features air-travel.

For a system, I would use on that focuses on investigation, Gumshoe would be ideal, although really any system could work.

The are several ways to make the investigations more interesting, or perhaps use them to lead into a deeper story.

In a campaign focusing on air-crash investigators, you could start of with a “simple” crash, with no strange elements, but there are several ways you can take this.

A body of somebody not on the passenger manifest is found on the crash site
Several crashes have something in common, perhaps they all have a passenger with the same name, or happen at the same time of the day.
The crashes are due to a manufacturing defect in the plane model, and the company is trying to cover it up.
A crash is actually somebody’s attempt at covering up a murder
A plane crashes, but there are no records of it anywhere, no flight log, and none of the passengers seem to have any records, and the markings are in an unknown language… Where did it come from?

Just Nenad

My contemplations and Meanderings

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