A Continent of Banalities

In this post I'm trying to answer the questions from Jeff Rient's very useful list:  twenty quick questions for your campaign setting . I left out a few as they were quite D&D-specific. What is the deal with my cleric's religion? The big guys are still here. Maybe yer man is a Muslim, a Lutheran or a Buddhist. Of course there are more exotic types like the Church of Based Loathing whose adherents believe that loathing is the only truth, the Star-Druids who stand out in the rain looking for spacecraft, and the Unity of Perspective who hope to understand the world  by means of optics. Where can we go to buy standard equipment? One of those flea markets down by the overpass. Where can we go to get plate mail custom fitted for this monster I just befriended? A custom-fitted Kevlar vest will cost ya. A donation to the Anti-Scum Solution might help. They used to be riot cops, so they have the gear. Who is the mightiest wizard in the land? Beff Jezos, post-human mir...

"That's the head of Mark Pincus. Guy who made Farmville. Fought like a bastard he did. That over there is, um, the head of Mark Pincus. He keeps comin' back for some reason. That time he had goddamn LASERS." -- The Commodore, Biggest Game Hunter I am working on a game called THE NEW ECONOMY with my co-conspirator Mr. S. It started life as a hack for Chris McDowall's Electric Bastionland , and still exists in that form. It is a scifi game about a world where the capitalism of the present day is gone. You don't have a job or a paycheck. The god-kings of capitalism have left you behind for a post-human eternity of ego boosts. The vestigial middle class huddles in gated communities fearing the day they'll become you.  Out here there's no wage slavery. No commutes. Also no electricity or clean water. There are still people who wanna get paid though. People who wanna have their revenge.  People who want a better world at last.   What do you want?  ...

The equipment section is quite short, but still manages to include grimoires and occult items along with adventuring gear and weapons. Interestingly it also includes Social Advantages like Off The Grid and Recognised Academic (the authorities won’t bust you for carrying a hand of glory or a copy of the Necronomicon Ex Mortis). These advantages can be picked instead of an item off the equipment list. The sower works for mastery by turning the wheel. Or whatever.  Instead of counting gold pieces or dollars the game has a Resource stat. It starts at 1 and usually increases with levels. Choosing certain Social Advantages allows you to increase the stat at character generation. Esoteric Enterprises has saving throws in the way of many OSR games. An inspired choice is to include a Machines save which lets you avoid triping an alarm, spring a trap, or avoid getting caught on CCTV. The game has two types of hit points. Grit represents exhaustion,...

I recently bought an OSR game called Esoteric Enterprises – Adventures in the Occult Underground . Here I'll write a bit about it, as it it hits several of my sweet spots. What I have is the Player Book, and a counterpart for the GM is apparently in the cards. As it is an OSR game, you could certainly use monsters and such from other games with next to no fuss. Unless you are a beginner GM, this book definitely has got you well covered. If you are a neophyte player, the book has a short but quite useful section helping you understand what you are getting yourself into. The game is placed in the present day, albeit with a thriving occult underground. Charm-peddlers, vagrants, thieves and arcane wide boys mingle with sorcerers and unearthly creatures in the dark places under our cities. The player characters are shady individuals navigating this world for profit and power. There's a big dark town, it's a place I've found The character classes are as follows: ...

I finally got that blog roll up and running. If you have a blog, tell me about it. I hope to keep in touch with you all. Still sore about Google Plus.