Saturday, April 30, 2022

Red Door Wereboar Slaver for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition

 




The Red Door is led by the Alpha, an mysterious arcanist of considerable power and dark genius. Those that are willing to join the Red Door must participate in a ritual that alters their gifts, making it harder to pass on their nature if applicable. The Alpha tells his pack mates that each of them are blessed and not cursed and that the Red Door are family who accept them for who they truly are. Further, he instructs them to guard any ability they possess to create other shapeshifters, saving it for the truly worthy. 

Tuesday, April 26, 2022

Destined: Flash Mob

I've been waiting for Destined from The Design Mechanism for the Mythras system for awhile and was very excited when it released last week. It has exceed my already high expectations and I hope to get to do something with it soon. I was able to make Flash Mob in about 30 minutes but did use the Quick Character Method included in the book. Destined is a complete RPG in one book and does not need Mythras, however I cannot recommend The Design Mechanism enough. Their work is exceptional and prolific, something I feel that Chaosium still hasn't figured out how to do. Additionally, they offer a simple licensing situation which is very attractive especially compared to Chaosium's Basic Role Play SRD.

Flash Mob for Destined and Mythras

POWER LEVEL: Epic
ORIGIN: Experimentation

STR:      13

CON:     15

SIZE:     10 

DEX:     14   

INT:       15

POW:     12      

CHA:      11

ACTION POINTS:              3

DAMAGE MODIFIER:     +0

HEALING RATE:                3

INITIATIVE BONUS:        14

LUCK POINTS:                    2

POWER POINTS:                12    

MOVEMENT RATE:            6m


1d20              Location       AP/HP

1-3                Right Leg        2/9

4-6                Left Leg          2/9

7-9                Abdomen        4/10

8-12              Chest               4/11

13-15            Right Arm       4/8

16-18.           Left Arm         4/8

19-20.           Head               6/9


Skills

Athletics 63%, Brawn 43%, Combat Style (ECHELON Training) 33%, Computers 40%, Conceal 36%, Deceit 26%, Drive 36%, Endurance 70%, Evade 48%, First Aid 29%, Influence 32%, Insight 47%, Medicine 72%, Perception 37%, Research 47%, Science 90%, Stealth 29%, Streetwise 23%, Unarmed 68%, Willpower 64%


Passions

All you have is family 53%

Make a better world 67%

Map the polyverse 47%


Powers

Duplication

   Boosts: Additional Duplicate, Army of One, Human Target

   Parallel Lives

Durability

Enhanced Strength


Combat Style & Weapons

Unarmed

ECHELON Training


Weapon        Size/Force     Reach      Damage         AP/HP    

Unarmed             L                 S          1d3+1d8        As for Arm         



Doctor Jon Martin Cooper Jr. is the oldest son of Jon Martin Cooper Sr. and Dr. Lena Cooper.  His parents met while going to college at Texas State University in Houston.  After graduating, they married and moved to San Diego, California with Lena becoming a biochemist at Future Perfect and Jon Sr. becoming an guidance counselor at Sizemore High School.

Jon Jr. or JJ's science and math scores were off the chart and after graduating high school at 15, he was offered a full scholarship from Future Perfect in exchange for a 3 year contract upon graduation.

JJ, only 19 when he gained his PhD in Biotechnology, took a position on a Future Perfect team in Abilene, TX led by his Mom's best friend, Dr. Jill Chandler.  Jill's team was working on several solutions to help veteran's that had lost limbs and they were given access to material from Project Apogee which lead to the creation of the first Minuteman, the speedster who helped pacify Iraq in a matter of hours during the first Gulf War. Unknown to JJ one of his co-workers botched opening the container housing the extraterrestrial Isotope X that was used to create Minuteman and the whole team was exposed to it.

JJ woke up 22 days later to find that he, Jill, and Dr. Ajax Zang were the only survivors of the breach. Within hours after waking he was interviewed by the the U.S. Defense Department and the United Nation's anti-metahuman task force, ECHELON, with both organizations seeking to put him through a barrage of tests to determine if he was a metahuman.

He chose to work with ECHELON as they also had an interest in his biotechnology background in their quest to trace illegal derivatives of Isotope X such as Summit and Apotheosis. On the second day of testing they discovered that he could create duplicates of himself and he eventually chose the codename Flash Mob. He has inquired about Dr. Chandlers and Zang's fate but has been told that information is classified at this time.

For ECHELON he is part of King Savage's INDIGO team with Headstrong, Jumpjet, and Operator.

Wednesday, April 13, 2022

Liber Des Exanima: Shiver for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition

Art by Damon Hellandbrand


Septimus Odrik, the necromancer lord of Haverhill and the author of the Liber Des Exanima, a treatise on undeath containing nearly twenty rituals for the creation of different types of undead, found the inspiration for the shiver from the a tale told to him by Evanetta La Lurna, the Blue Bard of Bal'Tur. La Lurna's story share the fate of the Seven Dragoon, a famous adventuring party led by Captain Zeea Throkmorton, that was ambushed by a tribe of yetis on the Bornee Tundra. Odrik's ritual requires 3 yeti brains, the hand of an arcanist, and the skin of a chameleon. 

 




 

Sunday, April 10, 2022

Turning 10


Ten years ago today I launched this blog. Man, ten years. I was 39, might have weighed less, might have had more hair and hadn't started playing RPGs with any of my current group, people who have become my best friends.

It's funny how life works. I always wanted my gaming group to be my best friends and when I let that expectation go I finally found it. Isn't that always the way?

That also means I've been playing a version of DnD 5E for ten years. I keep wondering if the 50th Anniversary version will have a public playtest? Sure hope so.

I know I post less than I used to but I don't think I can imagine my life without this blog. While I'm taking a break from the OSR I'll be supporting 5E and I might work out some ideas I've had for a Percentile system, something I've been working on for, well, decades. It takes most of its inspiration from R. Talsorian's Castle Falkenstein and Chaosium's Basic Role Playing. Its hard to have better DNA than those two systems.

If you are reading this and thinking, "I wish I could make a blog", then DO IT! If I can do it then anyone can. Our hobby is better with more voices and it would be better with your voice too.

Oh, I also just surpassed 2.5 million views. Can you believe that? I can't and I've done it, which means anyone can do it.

Thanks for reading this and I hope we have at least ten more years together.

Thursday, April 7, 2022

OSR: Big Fish, Small Ponds, & Big Brother



I've been thinking of taking a break from the OSR for a while and this week confirmed for me that I need too.

First, let me say there are ton of great people in the OSR and I'd say 99% of them are awesome, but as always its that last 1%.

I have encountered Right-Wing jerks in the OSR so I know they are out there. I've met them and I avoid them.

Earlier this week I was browsing an OSR group and saw a cool Post about a person's campaign that was full of gonzo multi-genre goodness. My highest complement to that Poster is that it made me want to play in their game.

Then I looked at the Comments and the first one pointed out how the author of a supplement briefly mentioned in the Post was problematic in their political views. It had screen grabs of said author's posts. Yes. Posts. Plural. The Poster had taken more than one screen grab of this person's Posts.

Where do you find the time to do that?

Isn't that problematic?

I've been online for a long, long time and I've never taken a screen grab for that reason.

It made me feel even worse about the surveillance state that is the U.S.A in the 21st Century. Other nerds, geeks, gamers, whoever are keeping tabs on people in their circles. To vet them, I guess?

And worse, to me, this author's views needed to be addressed immediately, no matter how lightly this Post intersected with the problematic author, so that everyone could be warned. 

"Before you give this person money know that they believe X!"

Are you really enjoying Role Playing, DnD, and the OSR if you have to keep files of other people in the OSR with proof of their beliefs?

Stupidly, I continued to browse that Group and the next Post asked what people were doing for activism within the OSR. Look, this century has been pretty shitty overall and we need activism, I know that in my bones and in my real life and in my day job I'm involved in activism. We support LGBTQ+ charities, we support Mental Health charities, and  I know Americans of Color don't have my Privilege and I try to use it to help them and I believe in it.

But sometimes I just want to escape to the OSR and it made me feel like Big Brother DM is watching. Always, watching.

The truth is I just need a break from the OSR, but I think one of the problems the OSR has is much more about money and livelihood and a lot less about having the wrong views. The people recording your actions in the OSR have learned they can make or break a creator/publisher and they might just enjoy using that knowledge.

It seems whenever we get a Big Fish in the Small Pond that is the OSR there is a storm and often that person gets cancelled. With screen grabs. 

But my perspective on the Small Pond that is the OSR is that it has a lot of money flowing into it. A. Lot. Enough to make the 5E designers draw upon it.

I'm a vanity publisher and I make enough a month to keep me in a couple of Kickstarters and some action figures from products I made years ago. I'm a very, very, very Small Fish and I have supplements that are Gold on DriveThruRPG. I think a lot of people would be surprised how much money some of the luminaries of the OSR must have made over the years. And part of me wonders if that isn't reason that the Small Pond goes after the Big Fish? 

I guess my point is that surveilling the members of the OSR even in the name of inclusion and progress could make you as much of a dick as a Right-Wing dick. And maybe that surveillance gives some members of the Small Pond an edge in controlling who succeeds and who fails at selling products online?

To me being a dick is a lot like porn (no pun intended), you know one when you see one and where you are on the Left and the Right doesn't matter. You are just a dick.


Wednesday, April 6, 2022

Liber Des Exanima: The Boneheaver for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition

 






Septimus Odrik, the necromancer lord of Haverhill and the author of the Infernemans, a treatise on undeath containing nearly twenty rituals for the creation of different types of undead, used a cousin named Deeter as inspiration for the Boneheaver. Apparently, Deeter, lord of the Barony of Afterfall would eat until he vomited in a golden bucket held by his servants so that he could continue to eat most of each day. Odrik observed this one Winterlight personally and he even referenced it after becoming a lich. The ritual requires a living ogre, the stomach of a chimera, as well as the arms and lungs of a gravedigger. 

Friday, April 1, 2022

Liber Des Exanima: The Hush for Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition




Septimus Odrik, the necromancer lord of Haverhill and the author of the Infernemans, a treatise on undeath containing nearly twenty rituals for the creation of different types of undead, viewed the creation of the Hush as his magnum opus. The ritual requires at least five children with innate magical ability to be sacrificed to Orcus over a period of several day and requires the tongue of a magic-user as the culmination of the foul rite. Rumor has it that Odrik's personal manse has five packs of the hush patrolling its grounds.

 

Monster Monday: Ork City's Chupacabra for Shadowdark

Welcome to Ork City! In the middle of Ork City's Hatt Island is the Park, a wild and dangerous forest filled with all manner of nightmar...