Event pre-reg for Gateway started this morning, and my swashbuckling FATE game was full by noon. Bwuh? Well, "full" in Strategicon-even-pre-reg-speak actually means "half-full" -- the other three slots are left open for people to sign up on the day -- but still, good to see. Off hand, I can think of four or five people who would've jumped on it right away, so maybe it's not that surprising.
Here's the blurb:
Flashing blades! Courtly intrigue! Puffy shirts! Come swing on a chandelier or two in this swashbuckling romp through 17th-century France. Familiarity with the FATE system -- the engine that powers Spirit of the Century and Starblazer Adventures -- not required. So if you dig Dumas, savvy Sabatini, or relish Rostand, grab your rapier and get your derring-do derring-done. Have at thee!
(I'm also running a 4th-edition D&D game Saturday morning, but that's not really the kind of thing we talk about here.)
If you're in the LA area and want to check it out, by all means come on down. Even if the swashbuckling thing ends up having a line of people waiting at a red velvet rope, there are tons of other great games being run -- seriously, there's everything from RPGA D&D games to Houses of the Blooded to Toon -- plus a pretty sweet dealer room and lots of other non-RPG stuff. If you've just come from GenCon, it might seem a bit tame in comparison, but you'll still have a good time.
In other news, Legends of Anglerre is coming right along. After finishing the skills and stunts chapter (whew!), I was pretty much given free rein to work on just about anything that struck my fancy. So far that's resulted in new rules for Gambling conflicts, a method for turning a group of PCs into a single "group character" (along with rules to handle "group character" conflicts), and the thing I'm working on now, which started as a sort of abstracted-space random dungeon generator (an homage to one of my favorite bits of the old 1st edition AD&D DMG) but has morphed into a random location, terrain, zone, aspect, motivation, and antagonist generator. Still, I love me some random tables! Starblazer's full of 'em, so why not LOA?
The other LOA task hanging over me right now is writing up the demo I ran at Gamex. I've never had to write an adventure in a way that made sense to anyone but myself -- i.e., something more than sparse notes -- so it's a bit daunting right now. But I'll have it done in a week or so. I'll probably end up using my random stuff generator, to be honest.
Fate for every genre (eventually)!
Showing posts with label starblazer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label starblazer. Show all posts
Saturday, August 22, 2009
Thursday, July 30, 2009
Lost in Anglerre
Sorry for the radio silence -- currently, I'm up to my eyes in the skills and stunts chapter of Legends of Anglerre. It's going well so far. Right now I'm codifying some guidelines on how to write your own stunts that are a little more detailed than what I'd posted here (and what I use myself). Comic-Con's inconvenient arrival right in the middle of skills-and-stunts month slowed things up a bit, but it looks like I'm on track to deliver this baby by the end of the month.
And then it's on to preparing for Gateway by cramming my head as full of swashbuckling goodness as I can in August. Thank you, Marvel Comics. And SLG, for that matter.
And then it's on to preparing for Gateway by cramming my head as full of swashbuckling goodness as I can in August. Thank you, Marvel Comics. And SLG, for that matter.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Swashbuckling: Skills
This is a short post, but I want to get this skill list out there so I can stop renaming everything back to SotC standard in future posts.
Whenever I start thinking about a new genre conversion, taking a close look at the skill list is one of the first things I do. I like to see what I can cut and what I can combine; rarely, I end up adding something. Regardless, I'm likely to do a lot of renaming. I find it goes a long way toward communicating the feel of the genre in question. For example, in "Spirit of the Sword," I could've left Science as Science, but renaming it to Physik gives it a totally different vibe in my mind.
Anyway, with that in mind, here's a skill list for "Spirit of the 17th Century."
For example, there's nothing wrong with Weapons and Fists, per se, but Arms and Fisticuffs just feels so much more right to me. Ditto Chicanery. Chicanery! Is there another RPG out there with a skill called Chicanery?
(I've also renamed consequences for this one: Trifling, Middling, and Grievous. "Well-placed, sir! You have struck me a Grievous Arm Cut Off, indeed!")
Anyway, a few things got combined, so maybe I ought to explain those.
Drive becomes Horsemanship, and deals with both riding horses and driving wagons/carriages/etc. Even though horse-drawn modes of transport are more central to this genre than to, say, fantasy, I still can't see having an entire skill just for carriages. In the source material, those who are good at riding horses are also capable when it comes to controlling a team of them. So Survival loses its horse-riding trapping and is completely about, y'know, survival.
Leadership and Intimidation combine, Voltron-like, to form Presence. Again, in the source material, force of personality is a big thing. Those who are intimidating are generally so because of their charisma. Anyone who wants to be decently intimidating without having any real ability to lead can supplement that with a boon (+1 Presence when intimidating) and an aspect or two, since it's likely to be a situational thing.
Likewise with Might and Endurance. Brawn is all that physical toughness in one skill.
Science kills Engineering and takes its stuff. I just don't think there should be a separation between these here. It's the Age of Enlightenment and/or Reason.
Contacting becomes Connections, which seems minor, I'll admit, but I think it contributes to the more social elements of the genre. It's not about being able to gather information; it's about being well-connected. Connections is the defensive skill in social conflicts, which I'll talk more about later.
And that's all the justification I feel I need to do for you people.
Oh, one last thing: Gamex. Gamex went well. I ran two "Legends of Anglerre" demo games, which were enjoyed by all (or seemed to be), and got some good feedback to boot. Most of the mechanical comments were actually about Starblazer and the differences between it and SotC. I've never met anyone -- in person, in real life -- who actually plays Starblazer, though several of us own the PDF, nor do I think I know anyone anymore who plays SotC as written, so for those in my groups who were already familiar with SotC/FATE, getting used to the way Starblazer does things was an additional obstacle, but hardly one we couldn't overcome.
Whenever I start thinking about a new genre conversion, taking a close look at the skill list is one of the first things I do. I like to see what I can cut and what I can combine; rarely, I end up adding something. Regardless, I'm likely to do a lot of renaming. I find it goes a long way toward communicating the feel of the genre in question. For example, in "Spirit of the Sword," I could've left Science as Science, but renaming it to Physik gives it a totally different vibe in my mind.
Anyway, with that in mind, here's a skill list for "Spirit of the 17th Century."
| Skill (New) | SotC Equivalent |
|---|---|
| Alertness | Alertness |
| Arms | Weapons |
| Art | Art |
| Brawn | Might, Endurance |
| Burglary | Burglary |
| Chicanery | Deceit |
| Connections | Contacting |
| Empathy | Empathy |
| Esprit | Resolve |
| Firearms | Guns |
| Fisticuffs | Fists |
| Gambling | Gambling |
| Horsemanship | Drive, Survival's riding trapping |
| Legerdemain | Sleight of Hand |
| Occult | Mysteries |
| Perception | Investigation |
| Physique | Athletics, Endurance |
| Presence | Leadership, Intimidation |
| Rapport | Rapport |
| Resources | Resources |
| Scholarship | Academics |
| Science | Science, Engineering |
| Seamanship | Pilot |
| Stealth | Stealth |
| Survival | Survival, sans riding |
For example, there's nothing wrong with Weapons and Fists, per se, but Arms and Fisticuffs just feels so much more right to me. Ditto Chicanery. Chicanery! Is there another RPG out there with a skill called Chicanery?
(I've also renamed consequences for this one: Trifling, Middling, and Grievous. "Well-placed, sir! You have struck me a Grievous Arm Cut Off, indeed!")
Anyway, a few things got combined, so maybe I ought to explain those.
Drive becomes Horsemanship, and deals with both riding horses and driving wagons/carriages/etc. Even though horse-drawn modes of transport are more central to this genre than to, say, fantasy, I still can't see having an entire skill just for carriages. In the source material, those who are good at riding horses are also capable when it comes to controlling a team of them. So Survival loses its horse-riding trapping and is completely about, y'know, survival.
Leadership and Intimidation combine, Voltron-like, to form Presence. Again, in the source material, force of personality is a big thing. Those who are intimidating are generally so because of their charisma. Anyone who wants to be decently intimidating without having any real ability to lead can supplement that with a boon (+1 Presence when intimidating) and an aspect or two, since it's likely to be a situational thing.
Likewise with Might and Endurance. Brawn is all that physical toughness in one skill.
Science kills Engineering and takes its stuff. I just don't think there should be a separation between these here. It's the Age of Enlightenment and/or Reason.
Contacting becomes Connections, which seems minor, I'll admit, but I think it contributes to the more social elements of the genre. It's not about being able to gather information; it's about being well-connected. Connections is the defensive skill in social conflicts, which I'll talk more about later.
And that's all the justification I feel I need to do for you people.
Oh, one last thing: Gamex. Gamex went well. I ran two "Legends of Anglerre" demo games, which were enjoyed by all (or seemed to be), and got some good feedback to boot. Most of the mechanical comments were actually about Starblazer and the differences between it and SotC. I've never met anyone -- in person, in real life -- who actually plays Starblazer, though several of us own the PDF, nor do I think I know anyone anymore who plays SotC as written, so for those in my groups who were already familiar with SotC/FATE, getting used to the way Starblazer does things was an additional obstacle, but hardly one we couldn't overcome.
Saturday, May 23, 2009
Gamex 2009 Is... Wow, Right Now
Normally, I mention these things far(-ish) in advance, but what with one thing and another.... Anyway, Gamex 2009 is this weekend, right now, as we speak, at the Sheraton Gateway near LAX. It's a pretty nice hotel (nicer than our usual venue, the Radisson -- but that isn't saying much), with tons of room for what's turning out to be a relatively light slate of RPG events. I'm running demos of Legends of Anglerre this afternoon at 2:00 and tonight at 8:00. It'll be the first time any of what we've been working on will be shown to the public. Excitement!
Other games of note: Monsters and Other Childish Things run by San Diego's own Chris Czerniak (part of our monthly "Spirit of the Sword" playtest group), Morgan Ellis's "Spirit of the Red Planet" SotC-Barsoom hack tonight and tomorrow afternoon, a playtest of Josh Roby's nifty-looking Agora, and about eight thousand sessions of Geist: The Sin-Eaters, White Wolf's new WoD game. Plus a bunch of other stuff and plenty of crap to buy. If you're in the area this weekend, come on down.
Other games of note: Monsters and Other Childish Things run by San Diego's own Chris Czerniak (part of our monthly "Spirit of the Sword" playtest group), Morgan Ellis's "Spirit of the Red Planet" SotC-Barsoom hack tonight and tomorrow afternoon, a playtest of Josh Roby's nifty-looking Agora, and about eight thousand sessions of Geist: The Sin-Eaters, White Wolf's new WoD game. Plus a bunch of other stuff and plenty of crap to buy. If you're in the area this weekend, come on down.
Monday, March 2, 2009
News Flash
I have some pretty nifty news I've been holding onto for a couple weeks, but I figure that, since we just had our first conference call yesterday on the matter, I can share it now.
It looks like I'll be writing some material for the forthcoming fantasy supplement to Cubicle 7's Starblazer Adventures. I'm pretty psyched about it, even though, at this point, I don't know exactly what I'll be writing. But whatever -- I'm digging what's planned so far, and whatever it is I'm sure I'll have fun with it.
Another American guy working on it (I specify "American" because Cubicle 7's a British company with relatively few American staff, it seems) is Tom Miskey, who wrote the excellent "Spirits of Steam & Sorcery," a SotC treatment of the classic Castle Falkenstein (which R. Talsorian, apparently, is bringing back). If you're a member of the FATE Yahoo Group, you can check out the PDF here.
More news as it develops!
It looks like I'll be writing some material for the forthcoming fantasy supplement to Cubicle 7's Starblazer Adventures. I'm pretty psyched about it, even though, at this point, I don't know exactly what I'll be writing. But whatever -- I'm digging what's planned so far, and whatever it is I'm sure I'll have fun with it.
Another American guy working on it (I specify "American" because Cubicle 7's a British company with relatively few American staff, it seems) is Tom Miskey, who wrote the excellent "Spirits of Steam & Sorcery," a SotC treatment of the classic Castle Falkenstein (which R. Talsorian, apparently, is bringing back). If you're a member of the FATE Yahoo Group, you can check out the PDF here.
More news as it develops!
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