A Continent of Banalities

Meet Cute You play Love, Doom and Science. You have 3 pts each. For one point you can create a Sweet Coincidence (love), a Brutal Pratfall (doom), or Magnify something (science). At 0 pts your funding is cut. You must make a meet cute happen, fail, or serve as an example. These two? Don't get a say. Fortune's fool. 

1) Remember that you are not alone. There are legions of people out there who suffer as you do. Strike up a conversation with one. 2) Say to yourself “I belong in the space I occupy. I push myself to new accomplisments”. 3) Get a parrot. It echoes your words without the burden of an intellect. 4) Take pleasure in your indistinct reflection in storefront windows as you pass by. Like a real person, you are in motion. You are accomplishing things. You do not obsess. 5) Avoid mirrors. They are likely to make you ruminate upon certain parts of your face. Remember: an imagined flaw is as painful as a real one. 6) Drink coffee. Fetishize it. Say things like “I need my coffee” or “I don’t know what I would do without coffee”. 7) Avoid prolonged contact with dogs (and certain breeds of pig). They pick up on so much. 8) Remember to cycle between over-preparedness and procrastination. You need both to maintain your position. ...

Combat Combat is essentially a series of oppositional Prowess v. Prowess rolls (or Luck, if you must). Prowess is used both offensively and defensively in melee and unarmed combat as well as firefights. Damage Baseline damage is determined by the weapon used. A successful attack that is two steps higher than the defender’s roll does double damage. Escape Disengaging from close combat is a Physique roll on the escapee’s part vs. the other combatant’s Prowess. Common sense should of course be exercised here. If you are trying to flee while being wrestled by nine maggot-men in war-rouge, you’re probably going to fail without outside help. Ganging Up If a group gangs up on a single opponent, the opponent must subtract their number from any Prowess (or Luck) rolls made during combat. Distance Distance is measured in a number of ranges. Here: Close enough to punch (or kiss). Reach: Close enough to fuck up with your baroque French polearm. Far: The re...

The next stage of character creation is rolling up a background.  Roll 1D20 to get your character background I like the random backgrounds from Electric Bastionland and Honey Heist . This is me amusing myself, and hopefully making something interesting in the process.  01: Ascension blacklist You’ve done the ayahuasca, the psychic alchemy, the seven stages of orgone release. You’re READY. When you gotta rise up you’re helium man. Except that there are people out there who won’t let you. A shadowy group using electromagnetic radiation to influence your inner calm. The Prison Warder Consciousness is what some people call it, a fearsome being huddling jealously in a higher plane. Some say it’s agents of the Vatican or Silicon Valley. It doesn’t know who it’s dealing with. Lower your Luck by 2 points, as something is clearly working against your spiritual progress. Pick two spells from the sŭrtse (heart) list. You don’t think of it as magick, of cou...

Because I can I'm working on a(nother) game. The working title is Passing Strange. I'm kinda ripping myself off here, since it is another game about being strange and magical but having no clout or cash. I guess it is a heartbreaker, but I wanted to take a stab at making my own system, simple though it may be. In the end why do we do anything bro?  Character creation I want some combination of randomness and choice. I think randomness is good because it throws you curve balls. It irritates your creativity, and makes you unable to go for the things you always go for. Choice is good because it gives you a measure of ownership and a bit of control.  Roll 1D6 for each stat, then distribute 8 points among them. No stat can start higher than 10 or lower than 2. The Stats: Prowess Covers all the fighting you’re likely to get into. Physique Your fitness, agility and constitution. Running, jumping, climbing trees. I wanted to separate being physically fit from being good ...

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...

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.

I've posted this before, but back then I did not have a blog.  (Mainly traditional fantasy games). 01: Start simple. Don’t feel that you have to live up to something. Make a game that takes place in manageable surroundings, like a dungeon, a space ship or an office building. Start with low-level player characters, especially if your players are new at it too. It's just the beginning. There might be a whole geological stratum of vampires down there.  02: Accept that you’ll get stuff wrong. I have been a GM for ages, and I still get rules wrong. You’re learning. If a specific rule eludes you, make a ruling and move on. You can read up on it later. 03: Run a game you’d want to play. You’re all there to have fun. Start by asking yourself if the game you have planned would interest you as a player. 04: Player characters are wish lists. If your players all make swole warriors, it is a clear indication that they want to be cool in combat. If they make...

One day my Midsomer Murders rpg will be done. On that day the sky will darken. We will dance till our feet are shapeless nubs of pain and exposed nerves. Birds will take to the air, their wings on fire, and they will disappear like sparks in the gathering gloom. It'll be a fucking blast though. You can play a Pagan Reenactment Cuckold or a Battenberg Cake Adjuster.

Tarot art by Chris Burnham

I am starting this blog in order to have somewhere to put my ideas, my nerd stuff, half-baked jokes and thoughts about the day to day. I am starting it because I used to write more than I do these days. I'm starting it because Google Plus is shutting down. I have met a lot of people on Google Plus. I have played tabletop rpgs with them (online and in person), and I have visited them. I am not a terribly social person, and that's putting it mildly. Google Plus has helped me find people I enjoy being around. It shutting down bums me out. A Burnt Ship By John Donne   Out of a fired ship, which by no way But drowning could be rescued from the flame, Some men leap'd forth, and ever as they came Near the foes' ships, did by their shot decay; So all wer...