#RPGaDay2019 Week 3

#RPGaDay2019 Week 3

Well this week’s entries are taking longer than expected. Some of these are really stonewalling me. The past two weeks just rolled off my frontal lobe as I thumb tapped them into my Samsung’s memo pad. Alrighty, let’s do this.

15. Door- Do you loot the room or kick down the door? I kick down the door! As a creative person in any hobby, the hardest thing to do is kick down that door that blocks you from your passion. It could be a metaphorical door like writer’s block, or it could be an actual physical barrier like not having the income to purchase the necessary tools to be creative. I would say that motivation is my biggest, most heavy door to accomplishing my goals as a creative person. I like to jump from drawing to writing to painting minis to playing guitar to terrain building and the list goes on. Without motivation my stamina drops to a lethargic level and I move on to something new or back to an old standby. For me that old standby is writing. I like to write, but without a deadline that has consequences, my motivation wanes quickly. Another type of door could be the one that keeps you from going pro. Breaking into the industry as its most often called. I can’t provide any advice or insight to that one as I haven’t figured it out myself.

16. Dream- I’ve often wanted to include a dream sequence in a campaign but it sounds too cliché to me. Most of the time I hear about other GM’s doing it, they say they don’t tell the players until it ends. That’s all fine and dandy but I feel like there should be subtle clues dropped to the players to indicate they are dreaming. This way they might figure it out ahead of time and might just attempt to perform daring feats because there are no perceived consequences. It’s fine, I’ll just wake up like nothing happened. Or will you? I propose that there should be some sort of consequence. Maybe the thief who dropped his dagger during combat wakes up and misplaced his prized dagger. Perhaps a character that died in the dream has recurring nightmares and takes a level of fatigue for the next month. It’s all too easy just to say nothing happened. I guess I’m a dick GM for thinking this way. Oh well, c’est la vie.

17. One- One is the loneliest number that you’ll ever do. Two can be as bad as one. It’s the loneliest number since the number one… I was just reading a post about a guy running one campaign for over 40 years. Yes, that’s just one campaign. I can’t imagine the stamina and motivation it would take to run a campaign for 40 years. To be honest, that sounds dumb to me. Why would I limit myself to one game for 40 years? I gave up D&D 5e after 3 years because it limits what I want to do with characters and because those rules lawyers can go fuck themselves. I switched to Savage Worlds due to the variety of settings it has to offer and the fact that characters can take multiple actions.

18. Plenty- Back in the days when I was gaming at my Friendly Local Game Store, I would do my best to provide plenty of handouts for the players to keep. These would usually consist of paper folders full of setting info, gazetteers, and anything I thought the players should have. I highly believed that this alone might get some of them involved in the setting but as time went on, I’ve come to the realization that players don’t want to be bothered with reading. I’m guilty of this sometimes as well but that is primarily limited to one shots or convention type games. I still believe that throwing plenty of handouts to the players makes for a better game, especially if some of them are personalized to specific characters. You can usually tell which players at the table appreciate these gestures because they will thank you after the session. Even if they don’t, I can tell by their excitement. It makes you feel good inside as a GM when you see how excited they get and your excitement builds off of it.

19. Scary- What are the best methods to make your games a little scarier? I’ve been thinking about this one for some time because I was hoping to include a little Cthulhu style horror into a DCC Lankhmar game I want to run (after Con on the Cob). I started looking at how other Cthulhu style games implemented insanity and I think I’ve found one that I can steal. Eldritch Tales: Lovecraftian White Box Role-Playing looks like a pretty good sanity system to use with DCC. That will help me and the players judge how insane the character is but how do I make the game feel scary? I think the best method to use is one that I need to work on to be a better GM. You need to be very descriptive. My typical description goes like this: The cave like room is 20 ft. x 30 ft. with vaulted ceilings that have stalactites. The walls have vein like structures throughout. A better method might be: As you enter the cavern the stagnant air tastes like putrid decaying flesh. Looking around, there are purplish red stains littering the walls. You could swear the walls are throbbing slightly, almost in rhythm with your own heartbeat. Hanging from the ceiling are ivory stalactites with a clear jelly like substance slowly dripping. You stare in amazement as it seems to take forever for the ooze’s surface tension to break and smack the floor with an obscenely loud PLOP!

20. Noble- We’re all familiar with using nobility in our games. Sometimes they are pompous asses and sometimes they are very helpful. They can even be a source of information or income to the characters. What about false nobles? That’s an interesting thought. As a GM I think I might try using an imposter pretending to be a noble. They would need forged documents and a source of wealth in order to fool everybody. Maybe they could have just cast magic on everyone to make them think they are noble. That would be some powerful illusionary magic for sure. Would the characters even ever come into contact with this false noble? I suppose they would otherwise this is just a pedantic waste of time. Eventually the characters will need to find out what is going on. To not do so would be boring and the characters might even feel like they owe the NPC some sort of loyalty by this time. This could be an interesting plot hook to keep on the back burner.

21. Vast- My favorite RPG system is Savage Worlds and while it’s far from perfect, it is extremely vast in the number of different settings. It ranges from undead cowboys to Wiseguys in Vegas and everything in between. If you can’t find the setting you’re looking for, then I’d say you probably haven’t looked hard enough. The system is easy enough that you can make your own setting if need be. Lots of people have published free content under the Savage Worlds Fan Logo including myself so look some more and ask around if you can’t find what you’re looking for. Chances are that someone else has already made it.


P.S. If you've been living under a rock like Patrick Star and haven't heard yet, The Wild Die Podcast continually produces great episodes for all the Savage Worlds fans. Their last episode was a very interesting topic on publishing content under the SWAG (Savage Worlds Adventurers Guild) program on DriveThruRPG. Definitely worth a listen if you have any aspirations of writing game content.

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Seven Worlds Test Drive Review

For those of you that may not have heard, Seven Worlds is a new Savage Worlds setting coming to Kickstarter soon. It is written by Luis Enrique Torres and published by Intellistories. You can get the Seven Worlds Test Drive at DriveThruRPG here. The Wild Die Podcast did an interview episode with Luis but as of this writing it is a Patreon supporter only episode. Here is a link to their Patreon page if you would like to pledge your support to listen to the episode. I believe it will be released to the public when the Kickstarter campaign goes live so you may want to wait.

Right off the bat my first question is, what sets this science fiction RPG apart from all the rest? First of all it has the Atomic Rockets Seal of Approval. What is that you ask? It is a highly sought after approval by Sci-fi writers, game designers, and programmers. It's basically just an acknowledgement that the fiction written is based upon real science and therefore more closely related to hard Sci-fi.

My first impression of this document is it looks really good. The layout by Thomas Shook is clean and simple, I like it. The first page after the cover is the map of the known universe. The map is usually the first thing I look for in Sci-fi settings. This 2-dimensional map looks fantastic and has 7 colonized planets. Hmm, I wonder where they got the name from? You can also go to their webpage at www.sevenworldsrpg.com and get yourself a 3-dimensional map. I tried the Instant Reality InstantPlayer but it seemed pretty glitchy to me. I have yet to try the Cortona 3d Viewer.

There are 6 pages of setting background information (I like to call it the fluff). After looking for the map, I then go looking for the fluff. This is where I get a good sense of how the rest of the book will be written. The game starts out in the year 2217, exactly 200 years after the Circle Foundation is created. There are two major organizations, The Circle and The Brotherhood. The Circle, founded by Donovan in 2017, is focused on space exploration, expansion, and protecting humanity from the dangers therein. The Psion Brotherhood, founded by Michaels, is dedicated to protecting and educating people with psionic abilities. These two founders, Donovan and Michaels, were high school friends who had a falling out over a girl named Melissa.

In 2021 Helium-3 fusion reactors are invented and the search for a stable supply of this fuel leads the human race to mine it from the gas planet Saturn in the 2050's. Around this time Donovan passes away and his longtime partner Melissa gives his personal notebooks which include theoretical formulas to what would become the basis for an Interstellar Engine. In 2089 the first test of this engine is successful with a 6 light year jump. Two years later an alien race makes itself known to humanity. The N'ahili race arrived, attracted by the interstellar jump to Barnard's Star, and shared coordinates of jump membranes to several new stars within 12 light years of Earth (Sol).

Humans have now colonized two new worlds and are eager for more expansion. The N'ahili come to the rescue and provide more star coordinates. Now the known universe has expanded to 22 light years from Sol and two more planets are settled. This second set of planets are nearly identical to that of Earth making them important to humanity's survival. In 2133 an unknown comet was discovered on a direct path to Earth. The planetary defenses are able to break up the comet into smaller pieces but it is too late. The effects of an impact induced nuclear winter will last until around 2150. Evacuees are transported to the planets of Concordia and Bay Jing making them equivalent to Earth in both population and importance. By 2165 the N'ahili surprise us again with new coordinates which increase the human presence to 30 light years from Sol.

This new expansion of human kind brings on the settlement of 2 new planets of which one is important. It is important because Concordia and Bay Jing both settle on the planet of Nouvelle Vie. Conflicts between these two colonies leads to the first war humans have in space. During the war, the Circle is instrumental in stopping war crimes mostly by the use of the Stellar Communications Network. Widespread news updates keep the warring planets honest, or at least as honest as possible during war. The Brotherhood also plays an important role in the war by helping to prevent atrocities through the use of "suggestion" and mind-reading without direct mind-control. By 2181 the war is over but the government of Bay Jing is secretly manipulating the population into blaming the Brotherhood which leads to the Psion Riots of 2188.

This brings us to the present day of 2217. Earth has now returned to its former glory and is seen as an equal among Concordia and Bay Jing. Nouvelle Vie is still being torn apart by home grown terrorists waging guerrilla war. The last colonized planet of Logan's End has become the ultimate frontier world with exotic jungles and tourist attractions. Recently, strange energy signatures have been detected in space around an asteroid belt in the far reaches of Nouvelle Vie. Ships are disappearing and stories are circulating about suspicious activity.

Included in the Test Drive are new setting rules, skills, hindrances, edges, psionics, a new derived stat, space ship combat, four pre-generated characters, and an adventure designed for four players. This Test Drive doesn't go into creating characters or covering all the new stats. It is meant to provide you with the necessary information to play the included characters and adventure. Mental Toughness is the new derived stat which is equal to two plus half of your Spirit. This is a measure of how tough your mind is against Psionic attacks.

The two new setting rules are Microgravity and Zero-G and Assistants. Microgravity and Zero-G reduce the character's pace by half and cause a -2 physical action penalty. A roll of a 1 on the trait die regardless of the Wild die causes the character to slip and tumble in around in three dimensions (treat the character as Shaken recover with Agility). Weapons that are not rated for Zero-G use cause the user to become Shaken as before on an attack roll of 1 or 2. There is a -2 penalty for using non Zero-G weapons as well. In Seven Worlds most characters own an Assistant. This virtual assistant appears in your Augmented Reality (AR) glasses, lenses, or on display screens. There are numerous functions the assistant can help the hero's with. During combat the assistant can be activated with the use of a bennie and perform a smarts trick, test of will, generate an advantage/disadvantage, or use a special action. If the assistants roll succeeds with a raise the player gets the bennie back.

There are 7 pages dedicated to space combat in Seven Worlds. Right away that should tell you something. In my opinion this is where Seven Worlds falls short. In a system that's supposed to Fast! Furious! Fun! space combat feels way too crunchy for Savage Worlds. This almost seems like a mini's game within a roleplaying game where distance and facing are important. They do a good job of explaining how to do it and provide examples but it's just now my cup of tea.

That was a highly condensed version of fluff in the Seven Worlds Test Drive document. If any of that sounds interesting to you then I encourage you to read it for yourself. I really hope the final setting includes more fluff. I enjoyed Luis' writing and look forward to reading the full setting once it is published.

Overall 9 out of 10 Lotus Masters recommend Seven Worlds.

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