Platonic Solid

In the past I've used index cards for FATE 3.x based games to help everyone keep known aspects straight. Write the aspect on a card and put it out onto the table. Anything that keeps the GM and players from repeating themselves is a good thing. With Chronica Feudalis the blanket term Aspect is not precise enough so I made cards for Aspects, Injuries, Conditions, and Tools. Each card has a number of ranked checkboxes for indicating rank/severity. The photos are from our first game using the cards.

Introduction: Off and on (mostly off) for the last year I've been working on a FATE based mecha (Macross) game. Each attempt mostly ended in frustration mostly because I didn't have a clear vision. Instead of continuing to flounder I decided to put together a formal requirements and evaluation document. This is a live Google Docs document so as it evolves the changes will be published to the Platonic Solid blog. Comments and suggestions are very much welcomed. Requirements: Provide bonus for transforming/changing modes. Provide differentiation between mecha modes i.e. Jet, Battroid, Valkyrie. Support fluid combat in the game space. (freewheeling action) Support massive missile clouds with light keeping. Support evading/fighting way out of massive missile clouds. Provide support for mooks in combat. Support scaling between personal/mecha/ship levels. Explicitly support tactical dogfighting. None of the systems will support this. Instead of a nitty-gritty tactical system I a...

Last night I ran a mini test session where Jip the gnome goblin slayer and his human friend Siggurd are tracked down a party of goblins that were led by a goblin shaman. We approached magic the way we did when playing Middle Earth with Spirit of the Century but with some CF specific tweaking. A magic user's potential casting pool: Skill: (Command or Perform depending on the spell) Tool: (i.e. Magic staff) Aspect: (i.e. Dark Arts D8) Casting a spell costs a point of Ardor and includes invoking the Aspect: Dark Arts D8. Casting was handled much like maneuvers and inflicting conditions. Spells are also able to create tools on the fly. A single success creates a D6 tool, double D8 tool, triple D10 pool just like conditions. As Siggurd's arrows were killing goblins, on the fly the shaman created a magical camouflage cloak D6 that would be crucial for his eventual escape. All the while Jip was sneaking on a flanking maneuver hoping to get close enough to launch an attac...

I ran a short session of White Box Swords & Wizardry the other night and was caught by surprise. The oldest and best serving hireling, the map maker was killed during an attack that seemed to be out of the blue. Now the party is wondering how to approach his family about it because they feel terrible. Three or four sessions ago after a bad wilderness encounter the party made their way back to the map maker's house to recover. Once there, while the PCs were strategizing a new approach to the ruins on the hill the map maker himself was out working his connections to plug the gaps in the party's skill set. Now he's gone. I'm caught by surprise because "the game" is even better than I had remembered it.

Last night I received the the ready for print Chronica Feudalis PDF from its author, Jeremy Keller. Immediately I was struck by the cover. The first thing that caught my eye was the worn leather look. My eyes then snapped to the mounted knight set off by the red tint of the background. I'd buy it. The interior art and layout are on par with the cover. The chapter head artwork is by Miguel Santos and the spot illustrations are by the author. There's a peek at the artwork over at the Chronica Feudalis web site .

Last night I ran the most excellent Mouse Guard hack called Realm Guard and it was incredible. There was only one player so she was running both a recruit and the recruit's mentor. There was also a captain character that both of us played when required. So much ground was covered and so much story told in such a short amount of time (about 2.5 hours) that it was stunning. Here's the ground that we covered: Recruit Gayle is on a simple mission to deliver a sealed letter to a hermit who is known for his eclectic wisdom. It was part of her endeavor to prove herself to the guard. A pathfinder roll is unexpectedly failed so a twist is introduced. A bandit ambushes the recruit within sight of the hermit's abode and demands her cloak. As well as some loot the bandit is out for blood while the recruit simply wants to drive him off. With the stakes set we enter into a conflict. The recruit successfully drives off the bandit (losing only 1 die from her disposition) and immed...