Gaining Momentum

Or as I like to say, "Going into Overburn."

Just a quick note. I've recently procured the aid of a couple of friends to assist me with the Overburn RPG. I am hoping with the new infusion of Blood Burners, we can make some headway into The Burn. I would like to take this time to welcome these two to The Burn and I hope their addition bears fruit.

To expound on what I'm doing here I want to set some goals I have for the project. This is inspired by Rob Lang's article on designer notes for the Icar RPG, of which I have bee a long time fan.

As a designer, the author is often asked why Icar was designed in a certain way. This page attempts to outline what decisions were made and how this affects the style of the game. A set of Designer's Notes, you could say.

Lang, Rob. "Designer's Notes." Icar Free Sci Fi RPG - Home. Web. 22 Aug. 2011. .

If you read through the article, you will find a list of goals for creating a high quality RPG. I would like to take a moment to state my on ideas for my game.

1. Produce a High Quality Game.
2. Simplistic in Design
3. Easy to Grasp
4. Unique in Scope
5. Intriguing in Setting
6. Entertaining to Play

I plan to revisit this and see how my idea evolves as the game does. Hopefully the end result will be something that surprises my friends.

Runner's Toolkit for Shadowrun

As I was out and about yesterday, I purchased the Runner's Toolkit for Shadowrun. This fulfills my quarterly support for the local gaming shop. Although I paid 50% more than purchasing it on-line, the thrill of buying something on a spur of the moment could not be denied. Normally, I would not of have bought something like this as most of the items are just re-hashed material from the other books. Here is a list of what comes in the Runner's Toolkit:

• On the Run, one of Shadowrun’s most popular introductory adventures
• Contacts, Adventures and Sprawl Sites, a booklet that gives you the who, the what, and the where to launch runners on new missions
• The Pre-generated Auxiliary Character and Kit System, a modular system that makes character and NPC generation simple while keeping characters highly customizable
• Anatomy of a Shadowrun, a two-column book; one column tells the story of a high-stakes run, while the other details the tests and rules that players involved in the run would encounter, giving gamesters insight into how a Shadowrun game flows
• Six double-sided quick-reference sheets that, with the gamemaster’s screen, greatly reduces the time spent flipping through books to find a particular rule
• A book compiling tables from Arsenal, Street Magic, Augmentation and Unwired—it’s the ultimate shopping list for runners

It was this last book that caught my attention. I have always been agitated on how the powers that be chose to break-up the equipment list. In SR4, not only did you have the annoying task of looking up multiple books, but you had to flip through the book to find a stat you forgot, say the AP rating of your pistol. I think that this booklet here makes the set worth it. But I also got a cool Shadowrun sticker to put on my netbook. This was the icing on the cake.

An Auspicious August

So today starts a new month, and to that end, I endeavore to get back into the swing of things. I am back in my house, inventoring my gaming collection. I still have a lot of boxes and unpacking, but at least now, I can see the torch light glinting off the dragon's hoard at the end of the tunnel. Although my internet connection does not appear to be working (yet), I plan to continue to work on what I can, as time provides. There is alot that I have on my plate this month, so here's an overview.

Overburn - I am currently behind on this. August was suppose to be the month that I worked on Psionics for the game, but I am behind for July. Hopefully I can put the hornes to the grindstone and get back on track.

Omega Rising - an old sci-fi gamesite that I'm trying to get my old content back up on.

Seer's Sight - My general gaming blog. No real work to have to do here, just keep people updated with ideas.

Earthdawn Publishing Trust - Eartdawn site that I need to catch up on a lot of work on.

General Server Administration - I have recently changed servers and I need to move the rest of my files so that I can close down the extra server.

There is probaby more that I need to do and I'll add it to the list as it comes to me.

Follow Us On Facebook

For some reason I find this extremely funny. I find the use of Facebook a diametrical battle within my soul. On one side, I believe the use of Facebook to be akin to selling out to mass appeal and low-end production. The other side believes that one should use any means necessary to reach your target audience. Since I'm not trying to make any money off this, I think my soul will be safe if I use the current cash cow of social marketing.

That said, I have created a Facebook page for the Star Frontiers game. If you like, please feel free to click the link:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Star-Frontiers/217746404907308

The Website is Down (Not really)

Greetings Wastelanders,

I have not had a chance to think of anything interesting to post, due to the recent fire. I have taken a haitus from game mastering and the work on Overburn has been put on the back burner. I have still done a work on the game here and there, but not enough to post an in depth update.

Another member of my group has agreed to start his own D&D 3.5 campaign and I am quite stoked (fire puns may ensue) about the possibilities. I have never liked the orcs in D&D, prefering more fleshed out versions in other games. But, the GMs world proves more interesting than the stock race from D&D, as a result, I am playing a Sharaki. Sharaki in the game world is a race of ork that was a slave race to the illithid and bred with other races to make a smarter orc. They managed to escape the illithid during a rebellion and they are a seperate distinct species of orc in the world. I am also playing a twin brother to another player in the game, so the game should prove interesting.

With Overburn I have made some progress with the species of the game, trying hard not to copy the awesomeness of the Fallout series. I currently have seven different species in the game that I am happy with. Hopefully, I'll be able to post more information on the different species, but they need a little more work.

As always, please feel free to comment.

Taking Initiative of Initiative

Despite everything that has been happening, I have been trying to keep up on my six-month plan for OverBurn. While my notes are a scattered and unrefined, I have to call a success for May. I was able to finish my three goals for that month.

May

• 6 month Plan
• Chapter Outline
• Core mechanics

I wanted to have more of an actual rough draft for the the core mechanic, but I have found that putting my ideas to cohesive words to be more difficult than I thought. To recap, here are my goals for this month.

June

• Archetypes
• Races
• Skills

I am well on my way with this section as I have nine basic archetypes, or classes if you will, and four unique species; I don't know why we call them races.

The mechanic I wanted to discuss in this article is 'Initiative'. Initiative plays a crucial part in combat and there are several types to consider: Fixed rating, roll once per combat, roll every round, count down (rolled or fixed), count up, speed or advantage. The initiative that I am leaning to is a simple d6 roll and you count down from 6, this is different that the count down method, but it gives a pecking order to initiative. Why did I choose this method? because it is quick and easy. It allows for the round to be more dynamic as different people take the lead each round and must contend with unexpected combat shifts. It also keeps initiative quick so that it is not another aspect that bogs down combat.

There are some additional rules that I am adding to make combat more interesting. For one, a character cannot take an action against someone who is die-a-metrically opposed on the die. This means your init and your opponents init can not add up to seven. If you are going on a 6, you cannot attack someone going on a 1; if you are going on a 3, you cannot attack someone going on a 4; etc. I do not think this will be overly detrimental to players, but should add a few interesting situations. I am curious as to peoples opinions of Initiative and what they prefer to use. Also, if you have any questions on the ones I have listed, I will be happy to elaborate.

Equipment: Solar Crank Flashlight

In the post apocalyptic future, light is provided by the sun, moon, and stars. Cities and towns have been thrust back to the dark ages and having decent lighting at night requires some type of open flame. Candle makers are once again in high demand, but every little apocalyptic town may not have someone skilled in the arts of candle making.

Most flashlights are useless since batteries have long since expired. Anything that can provide light without needing to be ignited, would be worth killing for to the right people. While I was out, I came across this flashlight from Goal Zero. It is a LED flashlight with solar cells for recharging. For those times when you do not have the sun to recharge the batteries, there is a a hand crack to recharge the light. I thought this would make a highly prized item in a post apocalyptic world. If you would like to get one yourself, they run 39.95 and you can purchase it at your local Target.