Friday, July 24, 2009

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

Castles and Crusades: Double Edge System

A modified FATE aspect system originally put together for Castles & Crusades but could easily be ported to a retro-clone.

Choose 3 Aspects at character creation:
  • Skill (gem cutting, rock climbing)
  • Profession (blacksmith, apothecary)
  • Personal trait (nimble, greedy)

Edge Points:
  • 5 Edge (FATE) points
  • Refresh when CK/GM says so
  • 1 FATE point gained when a character aspect is invoked by the CK/GM

Spend Edge Points to:
  • Re-roll 1d20
  • Invoke character and scene aspects for +2 each
  • Boost any +2 modifier to +1d4
  • Boost any +3 modifier to +1d6
  • Boost any +4 modifier to +1d8
  • Boost any +5 modifier to +1d10

Monday, July 6, 2009

Hackmaster Basic: Timing Tick Tracking With Poker Chips

I ordered Hackmaster Basic the first day the pre-order went up. I had never played the game before but I have Aces & Eights so I was intrigued. After the book arrived I dug in and liked what I saw. I loved the idea of the roundless second by second combat time tracking. I started out doing it all on a sheet of paper and found that I kinda lost track of individuals so I moved on to using index cards which was an unintended hybrid of the poker chip idea.

After switching over to poker chips the game started to fly and players became even more engaged. Timing became evident to everyone around the table. The chips become a sort of action meter and players try to bend time to their will because they can see that the goblin or bandit is going to get to act a second or two before their fighter. I love it.


To give you an idea of what's going on in the picture let me explain. The fellow with the stack topped with red chips has failed his Threshold of Pain check after being shot by a long bow by the fighter with the all white stack of chips in the background. The fellow with the all blue stack of chips in the foreground is waiting for his shot at the fighter or paladin who is just now trying to decide where to cross the stream.

The game was a lot of fun. We finally got to test out the skill system and things went a-okay. We're looking forward to more hacking.

Sunday, July 5, 2009

Churning Away On Mecha

I've been churning away on my Mecha Project. The goal is to evaluate and test the listed systems to see what I can make.

Over the last week I've written up characters/mecha for the following systems:
It doesn't seem like a lot of work but it has been. Deciding how to handle the tri-mode Veritech in each of the systems has been the bulk of the work but I also had to learn how Cartoon Action Hour: Season 2 worked to give the game a fair shake. The good part is that there are a lot of lessons learned from both the process and the documentation that I'm putting together along the way. I plan on posting about each of the systems evaluated to talk a bit about what I've discovered and learned.

The Requirements and Findings doc has been republished with the latest updates.