Loot And Encumbrance
Posted: August 31, 2010 Filed under: Adventures, Campaigns, Copper Coins!, D&D, Fluff/Inspiration, Homebrew, Houserules, Legacy D&D, Other Systems, RPG 3 Comments »In the process of writing an RPG that at its core wants to support dungeon-looting play more than is usual, the idea of encumbrance plays an important part. In older editions of D&D, the particulars of how you are going to get loads of loot out of a dungeon are important. Encumbrance systems are there to essentially limit the amount of crap you can make off with in one go. As a party, if you were expecting to collect a lot of junk then you needed to prepare for the eventuality by hiring minions or buying pack animals, or you had to settle for not being able to make off with a thousand pounds of gold.
A lot of modern gamers, myself included, don’t really have the patience to deal with this completely. I like the idea of encumbrance – it forces a meaningful decision. If you are in a large enough dungeon, then at a certain point you either stop collecting loot, or you toss some and grab stuff preferentially for its value or utility, or you have to leave with the stuff you have, and return later for the rest of the stuff. Each of these decisions can provide a wealth of roleplaying and challenge opportunities depending on the locale.
Recettear: On Sale Sept. 10th!
Posted: August 31, 2010 Filed under: News, Other Hobby, Products, RPG, Video Games 1 Comment »I’m breaking my usual routine of not doing little news posts for other people’s news, but that’s because this is important. A while back I reviewed an entertaining and fresh PC game called “Recettear: An Item Shop’s Tale,” created by japanese developer Easy Game Station and translated by an excellent new group called Carpe Fulgur. Today they announced that the game would go on sale on STEAM on Sept 10th, as well as Gamer’s Gate. I know I’m definitely getting this, the only question is WILL YOU? (Say yes.) You can follow Andrew Dice on twitter for continuing news on his game-related endeavors. If you have no idea what Recettear is, read the review, check out the demo, and have fun. Like I said in my review, it’s a fun new take on RPG/soft-sim games, it is engrossing, it is cute, it is accessible yet challenging and it is fun for the whole family.
Common Culture In Adel: Customs
Posted: August 30, 2010 Filed under: Fluff/Inspiration, RPG, Spirits Of Eden Leave a comment »Greetings: In Adel, the most common greeting is “Namaste” and/or a bow of the head and joining together of the palms of both hands, with the fingers up. The person being greeted can bow in kind, but if he or she wants to show displeasure, then he or she will not bow in turn, and that displeasure will be quickly noted. This gesture is an expression of the shared blessings of the spirits between two religious folk – so since everyone is religious, everyone does it.
Age: Children are believed to come of age when allowed to wield arms and do battle in the military: before the age of 14 or 15 years, recruits to the army are used as trumpeteers, and are considered “children.” Children are typically considered to be under the supervision of a parent or guardian until they are 17 or even 20, however. Regardless, at 14 or 15 they are considered mature enough for romance and war. “Old Age” is typically 55 or older, when most Adelians “retire.”
Nationality: Most Adelians are very proud to be from their Nation. They worship their National Spirit, a creature that resides in the Nation’s capital and has some useful functions (in Andaliel, for example, the National Spirit has the election results before anyone else does, as she hears all votes cast no matter how far). They respect and admire their leaders, even if they disagree with them – but particularly for members of the Elite, they aren’t above trying to scheme against them. Most Adelians are accepting of foreigners and will deign to joke about each other’s governments, but any real offenses may end in a brawl between them.
Copper Coins! The RPG
Posted: August 26, 2010 Filed under: Copper Coins!, Homebrew, News, Other Systems, RPG 6 Comments »For the past year or so I’ve bemoaned that I didn’t have the time or the drive to write a fantasy RPG. Everyone who writes RPGs seems to write their own fantasy RPG sometime in their lives – it’s that thing you know will never be successful or groundbreaking, but god damn it, you know that every other fantasy RPG got everything so wrong and you can do better. Or in my case, you just really like thinking about many different dice being thrown around. In the days leading up to the Great Math Crisis of 2010 (August 25 never forget) I actually got a lot done a thing I dubbed “Copper Coins!” the RPG or CCRPG for short–
It’s the best name I could come up with okay?
D&D 4e Vidya Gaem
Posted: August 23, 2010 Filed under: D&D, D&D 4e, News, RPG 1 Comment »I don’t normally do these short little posts for other people’s news items, but I wanted to point out this interview about the new Neverwinter Nights. I want to point it out because it sounds pretty awesome. Rather than an MMO or traditional solo RPG video game using 4e’s rechargeable powers and balanced class rules, it is a cooperative video game online tabletop experience thing that will employ those attributes, hopefully bringing the tabletop and video game worlds ever closer. Players will connect to a server to play games of NWN 4e together, and while Solo play is supported, it will also be more challenging (much like in D&D 4e). I’m picturing Fantasy Grounds but with gameplay and hopefully a robust character model editor. This could be good enough to help WOTC overcome the whole game table fiasco people still cite. The talk of user generated content is really good, even if the opening game content so far sounds kinda weak (I’m not altogether enthused with the city of Neverwinter). I’ll have to wait until the final implementation to see whether or not this is as completely frickin’ awesome as it is in my head (because let’s face it – in my head most anything seems completely frickin’ awesome).
Review: Warrior, Rogue and Mage
Posted: August 23, 2010 Filed under: Legacy D&D, Other Systems, Products, RPG 6 Comments »
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