RPG Laboratory -

nube

revayle — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 13:32:59 -0500

how do i use the rpg lab

First Post!!1

iceschade — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 16:23:23 -0500

Hello everyone! I found this site in search of good pen & paper roleplaying games, and it seems that here I'll (maybe) be able to live out that dream I had about writing my own.

Have you ever yeard of Microlite20? The Honey-I-Shrunk-The-D20-System game? I think it's brilliant. However... D20 isn't my style.

I'd like to create a Microlite World of Darkness game. Vampire the Masquerade (or Vampire the Requiem) in a little bite-size and easy to digest morsel.

What are your thoughts? Mainly I want to minimise the stats and necessary rolls to make the game faster to play and more roleplaying- and story-focused, but I don't want to throw away the open-endedness of the WoD universe. I'm in love with the clans, their histories, and the dynamic drama that all the vampires (and werewolves and demons and such) deal with on a daily basis.

Obviously I can't clone WoD, nor do I want to. But I would love to capture its spirit and dark, gritty feel in a smaller system.

Thoughts?

ummm

abm37 — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 20:29:30 -0500

err ya this is my first blog about anything really so ya im gettin a dsi in ah forget it i dun have the patients for a blog know one is really gonna read this right RIGHT ok stupid joke but whatever if lunix lets me use the rpg lab il keep you posted on new games

Cute Paladins

SheikhJahbooty — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:54:51 -0500

Alas the dangers of P2P. Although I have Norton installed, there is only so much it can do. So when my hard drive very nearly stopped responding altogether, I just reformatted it and got on with my life. It's become almost normal at this point. All my important files were backed up or spread out over the three other computers on the network, so it hardly seems like an inconvenience anymore.

So I'm going through my most recent archives and backups and I realize that files I haven't changed but still like, you know, for reference, aren't on them, so I got out my old archives, and I found this really strange file.

It seems that some friends were putting together a fantasy setting, and started a forum for it, and someone had posted that the setting was kind of stock. His exact words were, "I'm not saying that the setting should be a donut shaped world where pixie paladins ride seahorses and fend off the advancing tide of flumphs while the sun never sets, but..."

Well my friends lost interest in the project. I guess it was boring. And I wrote this setting, to "explore the other idea that came out of that forum". Rereading what I wrote I thought it was hillarious and I thought that some of you might play Clinton R. Nixon's Paladin, so you might appreciate it.

Backdrop

A torus shaped world with the sun in the center. It is always day. A horde of flumphs roams across the land making everything cute. I’m calling the world Mallios for now. Its inhabitants are pixies, pookas, humans, dwarves, hobbits, elves, and cute spiky-haired trolls. I suppose there should also be a fair amount of Wind in the Willows or Narnia-style talking animals.

Organization faith and charter

The Fraternity of the Grim Blade believes that cuteness detracts from seriousness and significance. The brothers and sisters of the order fight the onslaught of cuteness with wicked blades. They are heroes to the masses. They travel the land, fighting ridiculousness wherever it hides.

Every knight has a flying stead, usually a pretty bird or a seahorse with bumblebee wings, or a unicorn pegasus. Every brother of the blade must describe his mount, taking special care to describe how pretty it is.

Every knight has a grim blade. Sketch it. Make sure it looks nasty, with lots of sharp edges, serrations and pointy bits.

Most knights are pixies. Pixies have butterfly wings. Make sure when you describe your knight that you take special care to describe how pretty your wings are.

Some knights are pookas. Pookas have a useful animal trait, puppy dog nose, ducky wings, kitten eyes, bunny ears, etc. Make sure you describe what its good for, and how pretty you are because of your animal feature.

Code

Minor sins

Being silly
Encouraging silliness
Rewarding cuteness

Major sins

Sparing a flumph
Not taking something seriously because of its appearance

Unforgivable sins

Using one's own cuteness to gain an advantage (not even to get a date)

Deformities

One special rule for this game is that when you earn a mark for committing a sin, it isn’t a deformity. You must pick a part of your body that is henceforth amazingly cute, like so much so that it distracts NPCs. Say, for example, that you are playing and your paladin needs animus quickly. Say, his nemesis, a troll warlord, Manan, is riding over the horizon on a beautiful dragon. The GM sees you in need and gives you an opportunity to sin. An adorable child runs up screaming about flumphs overrunning his village. Your knight quickly laughs at the kid, pinches him on the cheek and says, “Aw, aren’t you the cutest thing.” That should be worth a good 8 cute anima. In committing this sin, you fail the deformity roll, and gain a deformity. You decide your butt. From henceforth, your butt is super cute. A level 1 deformity people will feel compelled to mention. A level 3 deformity people will feel compelled to interact with (pinching you on the butt). A level 5 deformity will cause a lot of trouble. Start wearing a cloak.

Arms

The Wicked Blade

Power

First off, anima in this game is not divided into light and dark. It is divided into grim and cute. Grim anima is the good stuff. Cute anima is evil. You get it from committing the sins above.

Anima can be used to:

Perform amazing feats of martial prowess

Leave carnage in your wake

Tell when someone is trying to trick you

Dim colors, darken lights, summon fog or smoke

Illuminate, dispel fog or smoke

Scare the bejeezus out of something (It will be particularly entertaining when the PCs use cute anima to scare things)

Magic

sablevarg — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:15:07 -0500

I have a pdf of what I have come up with on magic so far...
This is completely untested so any help or even a suggestion to 86 the whole thing and start over will be appreciated (as long as it's constructive criticism)

Combat

sablevarg — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 16:14:43 -0500

Combat will be an opposed roll of the attacker's successes versus the defender's successes any positive successes adds to the number of die rolled for damage; zero or negative means no damage was done.

Weapons have several factors to them: Reach(R), Weapon Speed(WS), Attack(AT), Defense(DF), and Damage(DAM); many of them also have several special abilities.

Reach: The optimal range for the weapon; the difference between the reaches of the two weapons is an advantage for one of the combatants. If one combatant is successful but the other isn't, then the winner gets the advantage.
Example: A dagger has a reach of 0, a broad sword has a reach of 2; as long as the swordsman keeps successes (parrys count) he keeps the daggerman at a -2d6 penalty on his attack rolls (but not parries); if at any time, the daggerman succedes the penalty is lost; if the daggerman succedes and the swordsman fails, then the swordsman would get the -2d6 penalty.

Initiative: The speed of the weapon; initiative is 1d6+Reflex+Weapon Speed.
Once you act, subtract 10 from the initiative; if the number is still higher than or equal to the lowest first initiative of any of the other initiatives in the combat, than you get a second attack.

Attack: This is the success number for this particular weapon i.e. an attack number of 4 means success on a 4,5,or 6.

Defense: This is the success number for parrying. (same as the attack number.
Note: 1/2 of the Damage number is added in d6 to the parry pool, round up. (a Broadsword has +5 damage, so you get a +3d6 on your parry pool)

Damage: This is the bonus die added to your strength and success margin for rolling damage. (if you have a +3 strength and make 2 successes over your opponent with a Broadsword you would have 10d6 base damage roll)

Specials can be anything from possible armor piercing to bonuses on damage versus knockout.

Here is an example:
Broadsword: R:2, WS:-2, AT:5, DF:5, DAM:+5, Special: +1/2d6 on DAM for every pt of opponent's armor.
So anyone fighting you with a reach of less than 2 may gain penalty die.
Your initiative roll would be 1d6+Reflex-2
You get a success on a 5,or 6 on the die.
You get +3d6 on your parry and a success on a 5,or 6.
You get Strength+5d6 on base damage (8d6 if you have a STR of +3)
The special ability means that if the opponent is wearing chain armor(protection 3) you get a bonus of +2d6 on your damage.
I have added a Weapons and Armor pdf in hopes this will help to see how combat works

Skill Resolution

sablevarg — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:55:39 -0500

I haven't completed all of the adjustments and would really like some input on this section

The number of die you roll are the combination of Aspect and Skill: so if you have an Awareness of +4 and Burglar skill of 6 than you have 10d6. If you have Wisdom of -2 and a Streetwise skill of 1 than you have a -1d6 roll (or no chance of success). A roll of 5 or 6 is a success; a roll of 1 is considered a fumble.
The fumbles don't reduce the successes, but if there are more 1s than 5s and 6s you fumble (even if you succede in your roll; you still have some bad side effect).

Example: You have a total of 7d6 in the Perform skill and use it to sing an ode for money in the local tavern: you roll 1,1,1,1,5,6,6; you succeded in playing a beautiful ode, but then stood to bow, pitched forward into the neighboring table, and spilled everyones drink.

Skills are divided into two types: unopposed and opposed.

Opposed skills are the simplest: both sides roll their skill and whoever has the most successes wins.

Unopposed skills are different, first you determine the complexity: palming a ring off a table would be a simple task and would require only one success; sewing a shirt from cloth would requirethat you keep track of several things and would require two successes; riviting together a plate gauntlet is very complex and would require three successes.
The other consideration of unopposed skills is the dificulty of the task: for simple tasks (repairing a tool handle for example) your successes number would be reduced by one or a 4, 5, & 6 would be a success; a standard task (treating a simple wound for example) would be standard or a 5 & 6 would be a success; a difficult task (palming the ring mentioned above) your success number would be increased by one or only a six would be a success.

Enivormental effects or Edges & Flaws would result in an increase or decrease in the number of die that are rolled.
Sharp Hearing will give you a bonus die on any Awareness checks.

Skills

sablevarg — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 15:10:25 -0500

Skills are what a character needs to do anything, from fighting to negotiating a deal. When you pick a skill, you will pick a specialty within that skill that gains a one-point drop in the success roll (i.e. 4 instead of 5 will result in a success).
The specialties listed below are only a partial list, to get the general idea; you can pick any narrow section of the skill (with GMs approval).

Characters start with 100 points to pick skills; the cost of each level of skill is listed below.

SKILL COSTS
Skill Level: Cost
1st: 3
2nd: 9
3rd: 18
4th: 30
5th: 45
6th: 63
7th: 84
8th: 108
9th: 135
10th: 165

To increase a skill, you subtract the cost of your current level from the next level (to go from 3rd to forth costs 12 xp)

Physical Skills

Blades: (AGL) The ability to use swords properly in combat.
Specialties: one weapon of this type.

Bows: (AGL) The ability to use bows and crossbows properly in combat.
Specialties: one weapon of this type.

Brawling: (RES) The ability to fight unarmed.
Specialties: Punch, kick, eye gouge, knee.

Climbing: (STR) The ability to scale up a vertical surface.
Specialties: Trees, mountaineering, walls.

Close Quarter Weapons: (AGL) The ability to use small melee-style weapons properly in combat.
Specialties: one weapon of this type.

Dodge: (AGL) This is the ability to get out of the way of an attack.
Specialties: A weapon group, type of armor.

Drive (Type): (AGL) This is the ability to drive/pilot a vehicle; examples include: chariot, wagon, car, tank, etc.
Specialties: Tight turns, high speed, maneuvering, combat use.

Flexible Weapons: (AGL) The ability to use weapons with a handle and flexible chain or leather cord properly in combat.
Specialties: one weapon of this type.

Hafted weapons: (STR) The ability to use weapon with a handle properly in combat.
Specialties: one weapon of this type.

Jongleur: (AGL) The ability to perform all the tricks of acrobatics.
Specialties: Juggling, Tightrope Walking, Tumbling, Jumping.

Profession (TYPE): (VARIES) This is a catchall skill for any rare profession not listed here; examples include: Barrister, Butcher, Baker, Candlestick Maker. Just pick the profession and choose a specialty; if there are at least three other large categories in the skill that aren’t covered by your specialty then you have a valid specialty.

Riding (Type): (AGL) The ability to keep your butt on the back of a riding animal.
Specialties: A certain type of animal, speed, tricks.

Sailor: (RES) The ability to operate a boat or work on a ship.
Specialties: Work sails, steer, navigate, row.

Sleight of Hand: (AGL) The ability to palm objects, misdirect the eye, and other things that require adroit digits.
Specialties: Pick Pockets, Palm Object, Misdirect, Prestidigitation.

Smith: (STR) The ability to make things from metal.
Specialties: Armorsmith, Weaponsmith, blacksmith.

Standoff Weapons: (STR) The ability to use long shafted weapons properly in combat.
Specialties: one weapon of this type.

Stealth: (AGL) The ability to move about quietly, also to keep yourself and other things hidden.
Specialties: Woods, urban, camouflage, concealment.

Strength Feat: (STR) The ability to do amazing feats of physical power.
Specialties: Dead lift, Bend metal, Break objects, Crushing Grip

Talent (TYPE): (VARIES) This is a catchall skill, this gives you the opportunity to pick anything that you have thought of (with GM’s permission) and make it a skill; this includes specialties from any of the other skills (to further focus it). Write down the new skill, determine the appropriate base Aspect, and choose a specialty; if there are at least three other large categories in the skill that aren’t covered by your specialty then you have a valid specialty.

Wright: (STR) The ability to make useful, durable things from wood.
Specialties: wainwright, cooper, wheelwright, carpenter.

Mental Skills

Alchemist: (LOG) The ability to make potions, philters, and other types of items; the ultimate goal is the philosopher’s stone.
Specialties: medicines, poisons, powders, potions.

Area Knowledge (Location): (LOG) The knowledge of an area’s geography, and layout.
Specialties: natural features, cities’ layouts, culture, governments.

Artist (Type): (INT) The ability to create something of beauty, in a certain medium. Types include: sculpting, writing, paint/draw, cosmetology, etc.
Specialties: Pottery, stone, metal, wood (for sculpting); poetry, epics, plays (for writing); etc.

Current Affairs: (LOG) The knowledge of what important events are presently occurring in the world.
Specialties: Politics, entertainment, science, wars.

Education: (LOG) This is a basic classical education; it gives you knowledge of philosophers and their works, history, great writers and their works, mathematics, geography, ethics, basic sciences, etc. Note: This doesn’t make you literate, you could have been taught all of it without reading it yourself.
Specialties: One of the various fields.

Escapology: (WIS) This is the ability get out of bonds, escape prison cells, or wriggle free of someone’s grasp.
Specialties: Ropes, chains, pick locks, squeeze through openings.

Healer: (INT) The ability to cure a person or animal from injury or illness.
Specialties: a certain animal, illnesses, wounds, first aid.

Language (CHOOSE): (INT) The ability to speak another language.
Specialties: Certain subjects, a certain dialect, slang.

Law: (LOG) The knowledge of the law, what it covers, and its limitations on various locations.
Specialties: Crime & punishment, property laws, minor violations.

Lore (TYPE): (LOG) This is a catchall knowledge skill, pick a subject and then pick a specialty; if there are at least three other large categories in the skill that aren’t covered by your specialty then you have a valid specialty.

Stewardship: (WIS) The ability to run an organization efficiently, improve and expand it.
Specialties: Manor, small business, park.

Streetwise: (WIS) The knowledge of the criminal side of things.
Specialties: Fence items, black market, bawd.

Survival (Environment): (INT) The ability to live off the land in a certain chosen environment.
Specialties: hunting, fire building, shelter building, foraging.

Tactics: (INT) The ability to employ planning and combat disposition to your advantage.
Specialties: Skirmish, ambush, siege, strategy.

Tournament: (LOG) The knowledge of how to go about being enrolled in, and improving your chance of winning, in a tournament or courtly contest.
Specialties: A certain event, heraldry, sizing up the competition.

Spiritual Skills

Animal Trainer: (WIL) The ability to train an animal for riding, war or tricks.
Specialties: A certain type of animal, riding, combat, perform.

Barter: (CHA) The ability to sell things for a high price, or buy things for a low price.
Specialties: A certain type of goods or services, trade, appraisal.

Burglar: (AWR) The ability to rob a house, business, or castle of its wealth.
Specialties: A type of building, picking locks, searching for valuables.

Courtier: (CHA) The ability to act properly in court, and to function properly in court.
Specialties: Intrigue, gossip, etiquette, codes of behavior.

Detection: (AWR) This is the ability to check an area for clues, determine the thoughts of people involved, observe a situation, and discover what happened in that area.
Specialties: Observation, read people, interrogation, forensics.

Diplomacy: (CHA) The ability to deal with others, to negotiate deals, and create an open discourse between peoples.
“ Diplomacy is the ability to tell someone to ‘go to Hell’ in such a way that makes them look forward to the trip!”
Specialties: Orate, Convince, Conversation, negotiate.

Divinate: (AWR) The ability to see the possible futures, or to see distant locations.
Specialties: Scrying, astrology, a certain type of divination medium (animal entrails, fire, water, etc).

Intimidate: (WIL) The ability to make someone do what you want through fear.
Specialties: Interrogation, brow beat, extortion.

Meditation: (WIL) The ability to achieve a meditative state, to slow down the body functions, and focus the mental faculties.
Specialties: Concentration, feign death, recuperation.

Occult: (AWR) This gives you knowledge of all things supernatural, you still cannot cast magic but you know all about it.
Specialties: Daemonology, magic, necromancy, angels.

Performer: (CHA) The ability to dance, sing, act, and entertain an audience.
Specialties: dancing, singing acting.

Ritual: (WIL) The ability to do the ceremonies of your religion; also assumes knowledge of their meanings and reasons.
Specialties: Marriages, coming of age, funerary rites, exorcisms.

Scout: (AWR) The ability to map out a land, learn the locations of hostiles, and find useable resources. Note: Survival and Area Knowledge would be useful skills to take.
Specialties: Recon, cartography, resources.

Spy: (AWR) This is the ability to infiltrate a location to discover plans, politics, troubles, or anything else that might prove useful against an enemy.
Specialties: Eavesdrop, search, conversation, intrigue, bluff.

Drawbacks

sablevarg — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:54:11 -0500

Again, this is long; but I like variety:

Drawbacks are the detrimental parts of your character, or, optimistically, the parts of your character that you must overcome to achieve greatness. They defer a certain number of points back for edges. You can have as many as seven Drawbacks, but it is suggested that you take no more than three as they can really hobble a character.
Note: drawbacks marked with an asterisk (*) can be bought off after character creation, paying the points as if it were a double cost skill of the level of the drawback value, (i.e. Overweight would be like a double cost 2nd level skill: 18 xp)

Bad Reputation* (2): The populace reviles you, this incurs a three-die penalty to all influence rolls.

Barred* (1): You have somehow gotten yourself barred from some place of importance, examples include: a court of nobility, the library, a store or the market, a spaceport, etc.

Dangerous Reputation* (1): The populace fears you, this incurs a three-die penalty to all influence roll except intimidation rolls, which gain a plus one die.

Destitute (3): You get only 10% of your starting money.

Heavy Sleeper* (1): You cannot be woken up before your full sleep without pain being involved, and even then you incur one penalty die to your Intuition roll to react to a situation.

Hesitant* (1): Each level incurs a penalty die on your agility when determining Initiative.

Homely (1): You incur a penalty die for each level purchased on all interaction rolls.

Illiterate* (1): You cannot read or write, you cannot take the Magus Edge; not a drawback if illiteracy is the norm.

Impaired Sense (1): One of your five senses are impaired, you incur a two die penalty whenever that sense is used in an Awareness roll.

Inept Skill (1): This incurs a penalty die for one skill, and removes the bonus specialty as well.

Inferior Aspect (2): This incurs a permanent minus one to one of your aspects.

Inferior Stat (3): This incurs a permanent minus one to one of your stats.

Inferior Trait (1): This gives a penalty die to a part of an Aspect; such as hand-eye coordination for Agility, Memory for Logic, or Spiritual Awareness for Awareness.

Lost Sense (3): You have completely lost the use of one sense, you cannot make an Awareness roll with that sense.

Missing Arm (2): You have lost your arm somehow, you cannot use two-hand fighting or anything else that uses two arms.

Missing Hand (2): You have lost your hand somehow, this will affect you whenever you need two hands to do something.

Missing Leg (3): You have lost your leg, you cannot run, or even walk without some kind of aid; any skills requiring that you stand or move about incur a two die penalty.

Mute (2): You have lost the ability to speak. (this is a role-play Drawback, you can only verbally convey actions to the other players; you must write any thoughts that you wish to convey to the GM on paper – not speak them).

Obese* (4): You are extremely fat, you must spend four times the amount of Endurance as normal when doing rigorous activities, plus all movement halved.
Note: This can be bought down to Overweight by spending the difference in points between the two. (42 xp).

Obtuse* (1): You take a penalty die to all Awareness rolls.

Overweight* (2): You are slightly fat, you must expend twice the amount of Endurance as normal when doing rigorous activities.

Phobia, Common* (2): Each level incurs a one-die penalty on your Willpower roll to not run from your object of fear.

Phobia, Uncommon* (1): Each level incurs a one-die penalty on your Willpower roll to not run from your object of fear.

Poor (1): You get only 50% of your starting money.

Poorly Skilled (2): You lose 15 points used to buy skills.

Psychiatric Disorder, Mild (2): This is a mental illness that only slightly impairs your functioning; you incur a one-die penalty when this comes into play. Examples include: mild kleptomania, impulsive behaviors, etc.

Psychiatric Disorder, Severe (2): This is a mental illness that greatly impairs your functioning; you incur a one-die penalty when this comes into play. examples include: severe kleptomania, psychotic rage, paranoia etc.

Unlucky (1): Each level of unluck adds one to your total of ones rolled for determining fumbles.
Note: This doesn’t decrease the number of successes, just increases the chance that you’ll fumble (even having a fumble and a success).

Edges

sablevarg — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:51:02 -0500

This is kind of a long entry; but I like Variety:

Edges are extra abilities that further define your character, giving him an ‘edge’ in certain situations. Characters are given 3 pts to purchase edges, additional points can be gained by taking Drawbacks.
The cost of an edge is listed in parenthesis next to the name a description follows. Not all edges are useful in all games, so chose with care. A list of edges follows:
Note: edges marked with an asterisk (*) can be purchased after character creation as if it were a double cost skill of the level of the edge cost, (i.e. Lightsleeper would be like a double cost 2nd level skill: 18 xp)

Access* (1): You have access to some restricted location; examples include: the court of a king, a military base, CIA headquarters, a guildhall, etc.

Acute Sense (1): This grants your character a bonus die to one of their five senses.

Alertness* (1): This gives you a bonus die on any awareness roll for noticing thing that have been tampered with or moved in areas that you have observed before.

Ambidexterity* (1): This gives you the ability to use your off hand as effectively as your main hand.
Attractive (1): This gives you a bonus die for each level purchased when trying to influence someone sexually compatible to you.

Big (2): This makes your character unusually large, you gain a plus one bonus to Strength and Resilience for calculating damage, BD, HP and KO; but you get a penalty die on stealth and dodging rolls.
Note: You cannot take this and Petite as well.

Blind Fighting* (1): Each level removes one of the penalty die you receive for fighting blind.

Certified* (2): You have a certificate that you are trained in a special skill or a license to practice a profession.
Note: You must have the appropriate skill at a +3 (or pay twice the price).

Contact* (1): Each level gives you two useful contacts that you have nurtured; examples include: a powerful sorcerer, a high-level bureaucrat, a hacker, an influential diplomat, etc.
Note: These are not slaves! You only have a way to contact them, you must convince them to help. If you want a big favor, expect to do something in return; the more it endangers the contact the more persuasive you’ll have to be.

Good Reputation* (3): You have a positive image with the populace, this gives you double your Charisma on any influence rolls, a fumble means you’ll have a black mark; to many black marks means the loss of your reputation. (yes, a –2 Charisma means you lose 4 dice on your roll: the price of fame!)

Highly Skilled (1): Each level gives you another 15 point with which to by skills.

Improved Aspect (3): This grants a permanent plus one to one of your aspects, no limit.

Improved Stat (5): This gives you a permanent plus one to one of your stats.

Improved Trait (1): This gives a bonus die to a part of an Aspect; such as hand-eye coordination for Agility, Memory for Logic, or Spiritual Awareness for Awareness.

Lightning Reflexes* (2): Each level gives you a bonus die on your Agility for determining Initiative.

Lightsleeper* (2): Your character gains a normal Awareness roll when asleep, and gets an automatic success on their Intuition roll to react to the situation.

Literate* (1): You can read and write (assumed with the Edge Magus); not necessary if literacy is the norm.

Lithe (2): This make your character exceptionally thin and flexible, this gives you a bonus die on any dodge, stealth, or escape rolls.

Luck (2): Each level gives you one re-roll per game on any failed or inadequate roll.

Magus* (4): This gives you the ability to buy the skill Cast Magic.

Membership* (3): You have a membership to some prestigious organization. However, remember that the eyes of your peers are upon you!

Multiple Opponent Fighting* (2): Each level removes one of the penalty die you gain for fighting multiple opponents.

Natural Talent* (1): This gives your character another specialty or an additional bonus die in the specialty of a skill you know.

Nobility, Higher (4): You are a member of high nobility, mostly role-playing benefits.

Nobility, Lower (2): You are a member of low nobility, mostly role-playing benefits.

Pain Tolerance* (1): This gives you an additional point on your Knockout level.

Petite (1): This makes your character unusually small, you gain a bonus die for any stealth and dodging rolls, but gain minus one penalty Strength and Resilience for calculating BD, HP and KO.
Note: You cannot take this and Big as well.

Sixth Sense* (3): This gives you the ability to make an Awareness roll for any danger coming your way.

Stocky (2): You are incredibly broad-built, you gain a plus one on Strength and Resilience when calculating HP and BD.

Toughness* (2): Each level gives you a plus one on your Hit Points; two levels give you plus one on your Knockout.

Two-weapon Fighting* (1): Each level removes one of the penalty die you receive for using two weapons at once.

Wealthy (2): Each level grants you another roll on your starting money.

Character Stats

sablevarg — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:42:28 -0500

There are three main stats, described below; each stat has three ‘aspects’ that further define them, also described below. The stats are assigned either a +1, 0, or –1. Then an aspect from each group is further adjusted by giving it an additional +1; you can give another aspect in that group a further boost can reduce the either or both of the other two aspects in the group. Therefore, aspects will have a normal range of –2 to +4, with 0 being the average.

Physical: This measures your athletic and martial ability.
Strength (STR): Your physical power, lifting ability, and damage.
Agility (AGL): Your reflexes, balance, and Coordination.
Resilience (RES): Your toughness, stamina, and constitution.

Mental: This measures your mental capacity and overall intellect.
Logic (LOG): Your power of reasoning, and deduction.
Intuition (INT): Your lateral thinking abilities, and inductive reasoning.
Wisdom (WIS): Your practical knowledge, and common sense.

Spiritual: This measures your mystical abilities, and you awareness of the supernatural.
Willpower (WIL): Your discipline, and force of will.
Awareness (AWR): Your perception to changes in your environment, both physical and spiritual.
Charisma (CHR): Your animal magnetism, and influence over others.

Example: The three stats are chosen as follows: Physical +1, Mental -1, and Spiritual 0. Then Agility is given the plus one in Physical, Strength and Resilience are dropped by one and given to Agility as well.
Intuition is given the plus in Mental, and Wisdom is dropped to give to Intuition.
Awareness is given the plus, and Willpower is dropped to give to Charisma.
So the stats are as follows:

Physical: +1
Strength: 0
Agility: +4
Resilience: 0

Mental: -1
Logic: -1
Intuition: +1
Wisdom: -2

Spiritual: 0
Willpower: -1
Awareness: +1
Charisma: +1

Now you have the good basics for a thief, very agile, cunning, and alert with bad willpower (greedy) and no common sense.

Extra Characteristics (Figured)

Hit Points (HP): This is how much damage you can take before you die. It is calculated by adding your Strength and Resilience, divide by two, then add eight: (STR+RES)/2+8.

Knockout (KO): This is how much damage your character can take at once before needing to check for consciousness. It is calculated by adding your Willpower and Resilience, divide by two, then add four: (WIL+RES)/2+4.

Endurance (END): This is how long your character can maintain rigorous activity before needing to rest. It is calculated by adding your twice Resilience to ten, then multiplying the sum by three: (2xRES+10)x3.

Body Defense (BD): This is your ‘natural armor’ versus non-lethal damage. It is equal to your Resilience plus three: (RES+3),
if it’s still a negative number than it’s 0. Any bonuses for size or Toughness are added.

Magic Defense (MD): This is your ‘natural shield’ versus mystical effects. It is equal to your Willpower plus one: (WIL+1); this is expressed as a number of die, like a skill roll.

A Generic Role-playing Game

sablevarg — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 14:32:34 -0500

I am creating this role playing game and am hoping for some help; the system seems kind of 'clunky'. I want to keep the system multiple D6 (to keep it cheap to play) and I want to keep the stats as positive and negative with zero average; anything else is open if it will make the system run smoother. Thanx.

Monsterpocalypse

Relentless96 — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 02:20:50 -0500

Just a quick post, as I have just come home from playing in a tournament of Monsterpocalypse. Has anyone else tried this game? It really is a lot of fun.

The premise? You control a godzilla-sized monster, a number of units, and some buildings. Your goal? To destroy the other monster. It has some unique dice pool mechanics, plus for a simple game it has a lot of depth. Plus, when you can bodyslam your opponent into a skyscraper, it adds to the joy.

Just thought I would spread the word, as I have enjoyed playing this game a lot. Plus it is easy to collect and get into. Do a google search and have a look!

Firearms Skill

alderneyvamp — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 09:36:29 -0500

Firearms: The firearms skill path allows the character greater accuracy with all firearms as well as the opportunity to specialize with different weapons and combat capabilities.

General Specializations

Small Arms: Each rank of this grants a D# with any single handed firearm. Including automatic and semiautomatic small arms.

Long gun: Each rank of this grants a D# with rifles and shotguns. Including automatic and semiautomatic rifles.

Heavy weaponry: Each rank of this grants a D# with emplaced weaponry (such as machine gun emplacements) and shoulder mounted weaponry (such as RPGs)

Lvl 1 D4 Specializations.

Marksman: Increases the total attainable aiming bonus from +3 to +5.

Quick Draw: Allows you to draw and fire (without using any techniques) in the same action.

Rapid Reload: Halves the reload time of your weapon (round down.

Eagle Eye: Reduces all distance penalties by 1.

Lvl 2 D6 Specializations

Far Shot: Multiplies the long range capacity of a firearm by 1.5 (round down)

Fast Focus: Gain +2 bonus for every turn spent aiming.

Controlled Burst: Burst penalties reduced by 1.

Lvl 3 D8 Specializations

Dual Fire: Able to fire two single hand firearms with only a -1 penalty.

Blind Fire: Reduce penalty for firing from cover by 1.

Penetration: Reduce any cover/armour benefits of the target by 1.

Lvl 4 D10 Specializations

Gun and Run: No penalty for firing halfway through your movement.

Arc Burst: Burst angle increased from 90 to 180 (meaning 360 if dual wielding!)

Crippling Shot: Add +1 to all rolls on the Targeted Parts table)

Lvl 5 D12 Specializations

Bullet Parry: You gain a D8 parry defence when wielding small firearms.

Line of Fire: After spending two turns aiming, rather than targeting a single individual, draw a line from yourself to any point, and make an attack roll against each target in turn, until you either miss or fail to do any damage.

Ricochet Shot: Shoot around cover and corners! -1 to the attack roll for every 'bounce' the bullet path has to take, measure distance not from firer to target but for overall path of bullet.

New Optional Battle System

oversoul — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:59:43 -0500

OK I am adding a new option battle system. Why? For simplicity. The idea is to be more like the old video rpgs. The purpose is by limiting movements and what characters are able to do it will take a lot of the pain of running a combat out and speed it up. The trick is to find the line where it is too simple to be engrossing. Belwo is the idea I would love to get some feed back on it.

Simple Battles

Battles and combat to time consuming for you? Is it difficult to get a visualization of the action? As an alternative you can use these rules in place of the normal combat sequence. This is a simple version that removes some of the rules of combat to make things move along quicker and be easier to follow. As such certain rules, items, or other things may not work at all or not work properly.

These rules use the battlemat and miniatures. Place the battlemat and all miniatures in uses in the middle of the chuckers where all can see it and access it easily.

The battlemat is a 4 by 4 grid that serves as an abstract battlefield. Each square of the grid can hold two miniatures. Arrange the miniatures representing the character's of the chuckers on one half of the battlemat and the enemy miniatures on the other half. One miniature from either side must be in the middle two columns and in squares adjacent to each other. Adjacent squares are those sharing a side.

Follow the combat sequence as normal with these exceptions.

-Characters can only move one square at a time.
-Characters cannot move into a square with an enemy character in it.
-Melee actions can only be taken against characters in adjacent squares
-All ranged weapons can reach any square on the board

In order to use a ranged weapon you have to have an unimpeded line of sight to the target. Line of sight is a straight line drawn from the firer to the target. The line can either be drawn through adjacent squares or a diagonal, through corners of the squares but it must be straight. If any other character occupies a square you are drawing line of sight through you cannot fire at your original target. Friendly characters do not impede line of sight.

Characters are not the only things that can occupy a square. Obstacles are any object that either limits the number of characters that can be in a square to 1 or 0. If a square is fully occupied or cannot be occupied, the characters must move around it. Obstacles in a square may count as some sort of cover to the character in it or beyond, at the DM discretion.

For magic and other powers that may rely on a actual area of space for affect consider each square to be about 8 feet by 8 feet

Combat proceeds as with the normal DC rules and ends when no opposing characters are left on the battlemat.

...This is just a combat option. The original rules will still remain primary, I just want to give some more choices to DMs

Dice Chucker v4

oversoul — Thu, 18 Jun 2009 18:54:29 -0500

Thought I would go ahead and create a book for this.

Dice Chucker v4

oversoul — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 07:50:51 -0500

This year marks the 5th anniversary since I began Dice Chucker. I have a few goals in mind. First and foremost write the 4th version. I have some ideas I want to add as well as remove the ever present errors. I also really want to push Dice Chucker out there. Do not get me wrong I love my little wedge of gaming universe but I am more inclined tocreate more when I see interest other than my own. To those ends I need to generate that interest. Gettign v4 done will help but I also need to work on some world stuff as well. I have lots of ideas but getting them down in a tangible format is always hard for me. I am also thinking of getting some reviews done, maybe rpg net and the like, once v4 is finished. I would love to get a small true print run done as well. I am always at a constant debate over this. I want to keep the pdf free and provide a pod for those that want a nifty copy to hold. I would like to use the money from sales of the print run to pay for my website. But who would be a print book when they can download for free? I would if I really, really, really loved the game, but that is a huge commitment.

Any about the rewrite. I have gone through and reread the rules and made notes of any correction that I have found. Next will be to go into the pagemaker file make the actual corrections, and then begin adding in the new stuff in their correct areas. I am als hoping to add some new art into the file. Maybe colorize the character and PD sheets as well.

Chapter 8: Optional Rules

Relentless96 — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 04:11:34 -0500

Basics
Multiplayer Variant
Goons
Miniatures

Michael

Rolepanda — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 15:41:26 -0500

I always wan t to make a free roleplaying game based around knights paladins warriors etc kinda like World of Warcraft

Monsters for Legion

xDungeonMasterx — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 20:51:31 -0500

Hey, lab, I was wondering if you guys could help me out. I need help with monsters and beasties for my RPG, Legion: Hell on Earth. But I need more enemies for my PCs to fight. I mean, I've got demons, but they should really be more like boss-type enemies, the big, bad demons anyways.

But I don't want to fall into the "orc" problem, where all my players ever fight are "grunt"-type demons. I've got werewolves and vampires, and Hell-allied humans, but I certainly need more. Any suggestions would be great.

Duhhh, DuhDuhDuhh

veila — Sat, 30 May 2009 14:06:03 -0500

How fun is WOW (World of warcraft)

mat — Thu, 28 May 2009 16:26:13 -0500

use this bog entry to share how fun is world of warcraft.

Aardvark 09 Projects

Chainsaw Aardvark — Wed, 27 May 2009 12:10:44 -0500

Its been a while since I've produced anything. Far too long has I sat unproductive. Far too long has this site been silent.

Well, that is going to change. I have a bevy of new Dead and Back stories to share. After years of thinking about it, Production of "Gangland Triage" has begun.

I'm also doing a couple of 24 hour games this year. The first page added to this book is going to be one I recently finished.

Enough time has been wasted, lets see what we can accomplish.

Updated Dukes of Proxima

SheikhJahbooty — Tue, 26 May 2009 16:08:44 -0500

The FTL in my Dukes of Proxima setting wasn't funny at all. I've renamed it and changed how it's described to make it cuter. Interesting little tidbit here. Cholo is actually the Aztec word for a mixed breed dog, xolotl (the tl on the end is a gramatical ending that changes based on how the word is used). The word cholo has been used since the early 1600s to describe tough guys of mixed ethnicity. The changed text is excerpted below:

Cholo Drives – Cholo is a contraction of cosmic holography, but it is important to the setting that their FTL drives sound like they were invented by Mexican gangsters. The technobabble explanation of how cholo drives work is that they access the universal brane on which the three dimensional position of every particle in the universe is stored holographically and they change the position attribute of space ships directly, without applying any force, so ships never have any acceleration or velocity. Ships with cholo drives must have their position attribute changed gradually, which resembles normal movement, except that it can take place at faster than light speeds.

This allows GMs to set adventures on abandoned space hulks in deep space, because the PCs will pass that way anyway.

This also prevents clever players from accelerating their ship to a decent fraction of light speed and abandoning ship, allowing it to crash into anything they want to destroy, including whole planets, since the ship is always at rest, simply at a different position.

Gaming at Conventions

SheikhJahbooty — Mon, 25 May 2009 10:19:38 -0500

I've never been a big convention person. But in the past few years I've finally gone to a few. I still haven't been to Dragon Con even though I live in Atlanta, but that's mostly because I've never known why people go to cons and every year something comes up that gets in the way.

So now that I've been to a few cons I have to say, I still don't get it. I thought you went to cons to meet people to game with. But that hasn't been my experience at all. A friend of mine was even the gaming director at Timegate Con this past week and put me on the schedule to run two games, but nobody showed up to play the games that she put on the schedule.

They weren't old, obscure, difficult games. I wasn't trying to get people to play Traveller, The New Era. They were new exciting games. One was Cold City, with the setting from Mark Vallianatos' Joy Division. The other was generic space pirates using PDQ#. As far as I knew these were both games people were excited about. I thought people were really excited about PDQ#.

But other than Munchkin and trivia, the gaming was really dead. I recall I had a hard time finding gamers at Stellarcon the year I went and at that time I was in charge of the gaming sign up sheets. Maybe I should invite my friends to the con to game with me, but then why not just game with my friends at one of our homes?

Maybe the scheduling was off. My space pirate game was at 10 AM. I think I mentioned that it was based on Treasure Island which just meant that it was a quest for treasure in which the players were supposed to spend style dice to create dangers to face to earn more style dice in order to create NPCs who would be their followers when they eventually mutiny and take all the treasure. PCs would not necessarily have to share the treasure if they had enough of their own followers or had converted enough of the other followers in duels of wits. I even had prizes. To the gaming director, "based on Treasure Island" probably meant kid friendly.

By 3 PM I had finally met some kids and we snuck around playing in the part of the hotel that was under renovation, but the gaming room was being used for a trivia contest so when we wanted to play a game we just ducked in there and grabbed Lord of the Fries and played in the hotel lobby.

In the early evening I was supposed to run my Cold City game and you know how that goes. Split 8 points between action, influence, and reason. Tell me 3 good things about your character, and 2 bad things. We're done with character creation so you start getting the creepy disembodied emails from paraplegics unwilling involved in experiments to encode their personalities into the internet. You meet the other agents from other countries who were getting similar emails, and assign trust to each one based on a short introduction, and I pass out cards that have secret agendas written on them. One guy had signed up for that, so we waited to see if other players would show up. I didn't want to drag the kids into the game because the only alternate scenarios I had thought up were teleporter devices attract dimensional shamblers from Lovecraftian horror, or a villain very much like Khan Singh runs a fertility clinic and cloning bank where he grows mutant superbeings in vats. By the time we gave up, I couldn't find the kids to maybe play in the space pirate game, and when I got back, my first guy was in a different game.

At this point I realized in order to have fun I would have to decide my goal was to learn as many good games as possible. So I went to the back of the room and pulled down one game after the other. I played a bunch of different ones. I was going to play Munchkin but couldn't find players, and the Steve Jackson rep spent so much time talking about how much SJ Games paid him for working conventions that the people I was sitting with lost interest.

We played a few rounds of Tsuro, a few rounds of Treehouse, Mwahaha (at least I think that's what it was called), and a game kind of like Yahtzee where you have to gather medieval figures like laborer and noblewoman by rolling certain sets and those figures help you roll better in future rounds so you can eventually get the king card and possibly win. I describe it because I can't remember what it was called for the life of me.

Role playing games that you would think would be perfect for conventions, like Fate 2e or In a Wicked Time, people didn't even mention.

The convention was going on the evening before I showed up, and it was going on the day after I was there and I thought about going back for the last day but I ate so much junk food and saw so many bad movies in the convention suite that I was really sick the next day.

So that's my deal. I have no idea how to get people to play specific games at conventions. If any of you were successful was it because of luck, or because you had been going to that convention for years and knew people who attended and thus had friends there, or because you roped your friends into attending, or what?

online games

sofearinozat — Mon, 18 May 2009 03:46:33 -0500

Well, I have only just started playing on forum based rpgs, and discovered that they can be preety fun. The best one i've come across is preety small; but it has a loyal fan base and is very funny to play.

sofearinozat

Anybody know where the World of Warcraft European servers are located? Someone said they are all in Britain but I am not sure. Would they have some in Germany, some in Finland etc?

I am trying to do a business plan for my own massive multiplayer game and was wonder how they spread out the resources.

WoW Europe Gold

hi

VampyreKing — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:45:30 -0500

me

VampyreKing — Wed, 13 May 2009 13:44:25 -0500

hi im me thats it lol

So, Anyone alive?

NoobHealer — Sun, 10 May 2009 23:11:22 -0500

I've been rather busy with life and as such haven't spent too much time on the site other than a quick look for epic new projects every few weeks.

In these visits, I've noticed that we all seem to have all become pretty distracted with real life. I rarely see many projects anymore.

I just figured I'd stop on by and see if any of the old RPG Lab members still stop in every once in a while?

(I am a resisting a terrible urge to yell MARCO...)

Hi

brandon05129 — Sun, 10 May 2009 09:56:18 -0500

Im Brandon. Im not completely sure why im making a biography.