Archive for the ‘ RPG ’ Category

Conan Provides Me Inspiration

I’ve recently been re-reading the Berkley Publishing Corporation’s authorized editions of Robert E. Howard’s Conan stories published under the titles The Hour of the Dragon, People of the Black Circle, and Red Nails. Howard’s tales have stood the test of time for about four score years, and they remain fertile fields for fantasy RPG inspiration.

While Howard’s vibrant prose holds my attention rapt, I wasn’t so awed that I couldn’t pause every now and then to jot down a noteworthy adjective or colorful phrase. Out of this list grows new the traits for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. Here’s a sample of one each combat, faith, magic, and social traits.

Battle-Born: You were born under and/or into violent circumstances. Perhaps you were born on the field of battle when raiders attacked your village. Perhaps from an early age circumstances forced you kill or be killed. You have learned to face down unfavorable odds and still emerge victorious. You gain a +1 trait bonus to attack rolls in melee combat when you are threatened by more than one foe.

Barbaric Mythology: You grew up among so-called barbarians. Against the night, your people would light bonfires and gather to hear tales of gods and demons, heroes and villains, and intrigues and wars. You gain a +1 trait bonus on any two of Knowledge (history), Knowledge (local), and Knowledge (religion). One of the two chosen skills is always a class skill for you.

Superstitious: You know the world is a dangerous place influenced by unseen forces and malevolent spirits. The unwary and incautious are more likely to fall victim to these malign supernatural powers. Fortunately, you are well-versed in the little rituals and taboos necessary to defend yourself against harm. You gain a +1 trait bonus on saving throws against the spells, spell-like abilities, and supernatural abilities of evil creatures.

Iron Nerves: You don’t scare easily. You don’t rattle easily. Nothing seems to phase you, at least not for long. You gain a +2 trait bonus to Will saves against fear effects. If someone uses Intimidate to demoralize you, you are demoralized for 1 fewer rounds (to a minimum of 1 round).

In other news, Spes Magna Games PDFs are now available at DriveThruRPG. Check the link in the sidebar to the left. Quid Novi? subscribers please note that the ultra double-dog top secret discount code does not currently work at DriveThruRPG. I’ll fix that once I figure out how.

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July 31st, 2010  in Product Development, RPG, Spes Magna News 2 Comments »

The Zombies Are Coming! The Zombies Are Coming!

Take some time to check out Troll in the Corner. They’ve got some intriguing content on their website.

I was first clued in about this company via a Pathfinder book giveaway contest. It’s sort of an Internet honey-do list. Visit here. Like this. Follow that. Complete the instructions, and you get a chance to win nifty Pathfinder stuff, including three hardback books: the bestiary, the core rule book, and the GameMastery Guide. You can read all about this spiffy contest by clicking on this sentence.

If you’re not into contests, I heartily recommend you check out the World of Aruneus patronage project. This looks like some good zombie-smashing fun. Makes me wish I had a full-time job so that I could jump in at least the $10 level.

July 24th, 2010  in Contest, RPG No Comments »

Come into the Store!

If you’ve not checked out the Spes Magna Store, now’s a good a time as any. Our catalog includes these great PDFs:

5 Adventures, 25 Rooms $1.11
Want to run a short adventure? Stuck for ideas? Let 5 Adventures, 25 Rooms break your writer’s block.

5 Adventures, 25 Rooms offers content previously available only to Quid Novi? subscribers. In this 19-page PDF, you’ll find five adventure synopses, one new template, and two new monsters. The adventure synopses assume a fantasy setting, but otherwise strive to be more or less system neutral. These synopses are not complete adventures. Instead, each synopsis is more like an adventure seed. You provide the maps and the game mechanics to make that seed grow into a fully realized scenario.

Throughout the PDF, you’ll find suggestions for adapting the synopses to the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game. The template and monsters are fully compatible with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game.

Fencing & Firearms $3.00
Have you ever watched a movie full of swashbuckling goodness and thought, “This would make a great game?” I know I have, and long before I played RPGs. As a kid, I loved Errol Flynn and Tyrone Powers. Many a Saturday was spent pretending to be Captain Blood, Robin Hood, or Zorro. And let’s not forget the Three Musketeers, Jim Hawkins and Long John Silver, and, yes, even Don Quixote.

The roleplaying aspects of the swashbuckler genre work well-enough with any game system. Tongue-in-cheek humor and traded bon mots don’t require game mechanics. Swashbuckling combat must be fast-paced, highly mobile, and full of flashy attacks. Unfortunately, the world’s most popular roleplaying game’s combat system doesn’t score high marks in these areas.

Fencing & Firearms (F&F) respects the core mechanics of the game but still addresses widely perceived problems with the combat rules. F&F doesn’t change racial traits, class features, or skills. It has as little impact on core rules feats as possible. Our primary goal is that DMs can take this book and drop it into their games with a minimal amount of work. F&F focuses on:

* speeding up play,
* keeping each player involved even when it’s not his turn,
* providing all players with more combat options, and
* making combat maneuvers easier to use.

And this is just the first part of F&F. The second part deals with black powder weapons and how to use them with your game.

Gazae et Monstri: Treasures & Monsters from Greek & Roman Myth $0.99
This 14-page PDF includes 6 magic items and 5 monsters drawn from Greek and Roman myth. Arm your fighter with the cesti of Eryx. Quest for Pandora’s box. Trade blows with the mighty Antaeus, or match wits with the terrifying Python.

In One’s Blood Preview $0.00 (FREE!)
The In One’s Blood Preview includes:

* 3 new sorcerer bloodlines: Ooze, Plant, and Vermin
* 9 new spells, such as cloud of stingers and ooze shape
* 1 new monster: the dreaded behemoth pudding

The for-sale edition of In One’s Blood will include more arcane goodness, adding Aquatic, Divine, Giant, and Psychic bloodlines, more spells, et cetera.

In One’s Blood $1.26
Want more bloodlines for your sorcerers? Want more sorcerer/wizard spells? Then today is your lucky day because In One’s Blood is now available for purchase! This new, 25-page PDF includes includes Aquatic, Divine, Giant, Ooze, Plant, Psychic, and Vermin bloodlines; 15 new spells, including conqueror worms and ooze shape I-III; and 1 new monsters, the behemoth pudding.

Latina Facta & Versatile Performance Redux $0.99
Two PDF products in one! Latina Facta includes 15 new feats based on Latin sayings. Versatile Performance Redux introduces an alternate Versatile Performance class feature for bards that uses terminology related to acting, music, and dance to represent bardic talents.

Making Craft Work $0.99
Do you wish the rules for the Craft skill made sense? Do you wish it were possible to craft equipment and still have time to adventure? Well, your wishes are our commands! Making Craft Work presents a new system for the Craft skill that uses complexity rather than price to determine how long it takes to finish an item. This is an 8-page, black-and-white PDF.

Rewarding Roleplaying $1.50
Want to encourage your players to immerse themselves more in your game? Want your DM to reward roleplaying skills but don’t like the arbitrary nature of trying to determine who roleplayed well? Then this PDF is for you. Rewarding Roleplaying links player-defined roleplaying goals to a robust Action Point system that increases character flexibility and success while reducing in-game reliance of a character’s equipment.

July 18th, 2010  in RPG No Comments »

A Free PDF and a Sale!

In One’s Blood

In a few days, the In One’s Blood Preview will be available for free download from the Spes Magna store at Paizo.com. The In One’s Blood Preview includes:

* 3 new sorcerer bloodlines: ooze, plant, and vermin
* 9 new spells, such as cloud of stingers and ooze shape
* 1 new monster: the dreaded behemoth pudding

Here’s some content to preview the preview:

Cloud of Stingers
School conjuration (creation); Level sorcerer/wizard 6
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (stinger of a monstrous vermin)
Range medium (100 ft. + 10 ft./level)
Effect cloud spreads in 20-ft. radius, 20 ft. high
Duration 1 round/level
Saving Throw Fortitude partial; see text; Spell Resistance no

This spell generates a bank of fog, similar to a fog cloud, except that its vapors are yellowish green and full of magically animated stingers. These stingers inflict 1d6 points of piercing damage per round on any creature that starts its turn within the cloud. Any living creature that takes damage from the cloud suffers 1d4 points of Constitution damage and is nauseated until the start of its next turn; a Fortitude save negates these two effects. Targets immune to poison are immune to the Constitution damage.

The fog obscures all sight, including darkvision, beyond 5 feet. A creature within 5 feet has concealment (attacks have a 20% miss chance). Creatures farther away have total concealment (50% miss chance, and the attacker can’t use sight to locate the target). A moderate wind (11+ mph) disperses the fog in 4 rounds; a strong wind (21+ mph) disperses the fog in 1 round.

Unlike a fog cloud, the cloud of stingers moves away from you at 15 feet per round, rolling along the surface of the ground. Figure out the cloud’s new spread each round based on its new point of origin, which is 15 feet farther away from the point of origin where you cast the spell.

Because the vapors are heavier than air, they sink to the lowest level of the land, even pouring down den or sinkhole openings. It cannot penetrate liquids, nor can it be cast underwater.

Ooze Shape I
School transmutation (polymorph); Level sorcerer/wizard 5
Casting Time 1 standard action
Components V, S, M (a bit of an ooze)
Range personal
Target you
Duration 1 minute/level (D)

When you cast this spell, you assume the form of a Small or Medium ooze-like creature. While in ooze shape, you cannot speak. You cannot cast spells with verbal, material, or focus components. You move at half your base speed (minimum 5 feet).

You are blind but have the blindsight special quality with a range of 30 feet. This grants immunity to gaze attacks, visual effects, illusions, and other attack forms that rely on sight. You are also immune to poison, sleep effects, paralysis, polymorph, and stunning. You are not subject to critical hits or flanking, and you do not take additional damage from precision-based attacks, such as sneak attack. You cannot be tripped.

You gain a slam attack that does 1d6 points of damage (1d4 if Small) plus a like amount of acid damage. You add 1-1/2 times your Strength modifier to damage. Your acid does not damage stone. You gain any two of the following traits:

* climb (at your modified base speed)
* grab
* immune to cold, electricity, or fire (your choice)
* suction

If you take the form of a Small ooze, you gain +2 size bonus to your Constitution. If you take the form of a Medium ooze, you gain a +2 size bonus to both your Strength and Constitution. In either case, you halve your Dexterity.

Fourth of July Sale!

Also, from 2 through 5 July, everything in the Spes Magna store is on sale for 50% of the normal price. The discount code is patria.

Happy Fourth of July!

July 1st, 2010  in RPG No Comments »

Let a Little Love in Your Game

Today’s blog post isn’t by me. It’s by fellow Man-Day Adventurer Eric, who is an invenerate rules tinkerer. Thus, the “I” mentioned below isn’t yours truly. It’s Eric, who thought these rules might be of general interest. So, he emailed me the doc, and I whacked away a bit with my editing stick. So, without further ado….

The In-Game Effects of Love

First some background on why I started down this road. One of our characters, a dwarven warrior by trade, through a set of unusual circumstances fell into the good graces of a certain marilith. This marilith, whose name pains mortal tongues to speak, answers to Shen-Kriltha. The dwarf didn’t seem to mind the scales and took a liking to her in turn. This led me to think, how can I make this strange love affair matter in game terms?

Have you ever asked yourself why characters seldom if ever fall in love in the game? Surely in a world full of heroes, princesses, maidens, and such, there are plenty of eligible, attractive candidates. In my experience, the reason is simple: It would be nothing but a liability. Having a wife back home while you go out adventuring would be like having a neon sign begging some big bad guy to come and kidnap her. How many DMs could resist the urge to use this significant other against your character? [Editorial Aside: I know I couldn’t!]

But what if it didn’t have to be that way? Many movies and books feature protagonists spurred to greater heroism because of their undying love. Having a partner provides encouragement to strive harder and do better. The demonstrable benefits to having a partner to share one’s life with can be simulated for PCs.

Quantifying Dedication

This is the part where we have to sacrifice some realism for playability. The challenge is to take a concept as vague and mystical as love and reduce it to a useable game mechanic. Something will be lost in the translation, but this cannot be helped. A PC with a significant other earns Dedication Points during play based on the following guidelines.

Demonstration of Love: 1 point. For example, a PC could earn 1 DP for leaving the dungeon after slaying the dragon only to rush home and into the loved one’s arms.

Minor Sacrifice for Love: 1-3 points. For example, a PC could spend some of that dragon’s hoard on a ring or necklace. The key thing to remember is that this is rather subjective. Don’t get too carried away on awarding points here, and it’s not about actual gold piece value. The idea is to reward the player’s roleplaying and the PC’s use of a valuable resource in a way that doesn’t really benefit the PC. After all, 300 gp spent on a fancy necklace is 300 gp not spent on a useful potion.

Major Sacrifice for Love: 5 points. Examples would be choosing an extremely suboptimal class for the sake of their love, sitting out from adventuring for a time because of the new baby (meaning the player has to play a standby for a while), and other major demonstrations of love and dedication.

Here’s an important point: Dedication Points never really go away. While certain effects happen due to a PC’s Dedication Point total, you do not subtract the points that caused that effect. As long as the roleplaying dedication is consistent, the points continue to accrue, representing the growth of deeper levels of dedication, commitment, and strength.

Also, the objective of these rules is not to reduce love to a game mechanic that can be calculated and manipulated by the players, but rather to provide some small reward for good roleplaying that phenomenon we call love.

Implementing the Effects

Now that a PC has these points, how does he use them? Well, he doesn’t. Rather, Dedication Point totals are a tool the DM uses to grant a PC a boon he otherwise wouldn’t have. Here’s a summary of suggested love boons:

* 5 Dedication Points can earn a +1 bonus to a single saving throw.
* 10 Dedication Points can earn a +2 bonus to a skill check or a free rank in a new “hobby” skill.
* 15 Dedication Points can earn a bonus feat in new “hobby” area or turn a failed skill check into a successful one.
* 20 Dedication Points can turn a failed saving throw or skill check into a successful one.

The save bonus is intended to be small, just enough to push a PC from failure to success due to that inner spark and drive to see his loved one, to prevent harm from coming to a loved one, et cetera.

The skill bonus might not come into play in a life or death situation. Perhaps the PC gets a small bonus on a Craft check and the necklace they were making isn’t ruined as a result. Or maybe the PC has made so many gift baskets for her hubby that she gains a free rank Craft(basketweaving).

The bonus feat is not intended to be something combat related. Rather, it should be something that ties back to the PC’s romantic interest. Feats such as Negotiator, Great Fortitude, Toughness, or Iron Will might be appropriate. If all else fails, create a custom feat.

The failed saving throw and failed skill check becoming successes are just what they sounds like. Again this represents intense dedication and focus motivated by love.

None of these effects are continuous, or they quickly would get out of hand. Rather the exact timing is up to the DM. As a guideline, I suggest Dedication Point effects occur no more than once per game session per PC.

If all of this seems too complicated, just make a little mark somewhere each time a PC does something for their significant other. Use those little marks as the record of Dedication Points.

A Short Love Story

Suppose the rogue has been really playing up how important his sweetheart Sophie is to him via little comments and small demonstrations. “I take one of the dire lion teeth and cut it out of the beast and use it to carve a little ivory tiger for my honey,” says the rogue’s player. These small things are consistent and represent good roleplaying by the player to show how much his PC loves Sophie.

Later, the rogue is in a dungeon and is ambushed by a carrion crawler. A paralyzing tentacle strikes the rogue, and he fails his save by one point. The DM announces, “As you slump to the ground paralyzed, you think of how this is your last day, how your will die on this dirty dungeon floor, and will never see Sophie again. This thought causes your heart to race even more than it already was and infuses you with new energy as you hold the image of Sophie in your mind’s eye and shake off the paralyzation!”

Imagine the look on the players face when that happens!

June 6th, 2010  in Man-Day Adventures, RPG 2 Comments »
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