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.

From the Dark Heart of Tartarus I Stab At Thee

So today had the unique experience of wading through my house after my eldest left a candle burning before she escaped to school. I walked through water-soaked, smoke and soot filled rooms as the fire marshal explained how he determined the source of the fire. It was strangely surrealistic and I was too tired from previous skulduggery to work up enough emotion to be angry.

Several calls to the insurance company and, after taking a long shower, I finally sit down to put this missive in. And yet in this new, smoke-free environment, I can still smell the smoke and soot that had penetrated my clothing. I spent an hour, maybe an hour and a half, in the house after the fire. The fire was contained to my daughter's room and the adjoining bathroom, but the soot prevailed everywhere. I grabbed a few items from the far end of the house and when I looked down at my hands, they were black with soot. By the end of the evening, my wife's eyes were stinging, her throat was closing due to the ash in the air, and we both were favoring aching heads.

So the next time your players decide to plane hop down to the lower hells, I would highly suggest to impart a penalty for traveling through such an inhospitable environment. Make it cumulative for the length they spend there and be sure to make their time in the ash and soot as annoyingly memorable as possible.

Escape from New York

In my efforts to recapture the Post Apoclyptic (PA) genre of my youth, I'm going back and watching old movies that inspired me. This weekend I watched the 1981 movie: John Carpenter's Escape from New York. I included Carpenter's name because he made some of my favorite movies of that time.

In the future, crime is out of control and New York City is a maximum security prison. Grabbing a bargaining chip right out of the air, convicts bring down the President's plane in bad old Gotham. Gruff Snake Plissken, a one-eyed lone warrior new to prison life, is coerced into bringing the President, and his cargo, out of this land of undesirables.
-- Written by Anthony Pereyra, IMDB

Escape from New York is not a true apocalyptic future, but the city is a good rendition of what may happen in a lawless city. The city was ruled by the "Duke" of New York and can easily transposed to a slaver type hierarchy. I fount the use of titles interesting as I did not think what people might call themselves in the apocalyptic future. In The Postman, the main antagonist was know as "the general", but it did not strike me as important as someone calling themselves "the duke".

The underground dwelling "crazies" that came out at the end of the month to find food was another nugget, and I had planned to have a race of nocturnal humans that shunned light, but were not necessarily cannibalistic, which is the general imprission I felt. One of the ideas that my wife offered for a post apocalyptic character class was a 'squaker' to represent the story teller of the apocolyptia future.

I do not want to go into the movie on how out dated the movie was. While searching for the cover image, I learned that there was a remake of the movie in the works. One last note that caught my eye in the movie was the graffiti "FTW" in the movie. I noticed this a couple of times and immediately thought of "For The Win". Being a 1981 movie, it is unlikely that anyone would know this term would be a common phrase in the future and it is highly more likely to be some set decorator's initials.

I am interested in what people think story tellers in a apocalyptic future would be called.

Being Proactively Creative (or Creatively Proactive)

While I blather on with what I did about this and how I plan to accomplish that, I have found that I don't have enough time to do anything, much less keep up on a blog. I have not made it to bed bedfore midnight this week and I have to be up by 5 am for work. I must admit that I am quite tired.

So I decided to focus this article on what I am doing on the production side of the coin. Knowing some game producers, I follow one on facebook that provided this nice little article, Creativity Is More Practice Than Magic. It basically encourages you to proactively seek out ways to hone your creative skills, I was a little disappointed it didn't provide any tips, but I have an idea of what I want to look for in this next week.

I also follow behance's sight 99% which deals with ideation and following through with actions. I found thier article How To Set Smart Daily Goals enlightening and I tried implementing their 90 minutes to focus on a task. I plan on writing out some goals over the next week.

I would like to also give a shout out to Brennan of Galileo Games who took the time to answer my questions on producing a role-playing game. They currently have a Science Fiction game on Kickestarter called Bulldogs! that looks cool. If you like RPGs, I highly recomend checking out these indie game producers.

Defiler's Curse Now Available!

From the Earthdawn website.

Avarrin Quickhand and Therese Rothgard are experienced adepts enjoying a rest in Kratas. But the dangerous City of Thieves has other ideas.

A chance encounter with a young windling begins a hazardous journey across the wilderness of Barsaive, in search of a long-forgotten kaer. But what these two adepts discover upon reaching their destination may change their lives forever.

With help from the elf Wizard, Vion; Raddash the troll Nethermancer; and even Garlthik One-Eye and his infamous gang, only these powerful adepts can confront the ancient evil that dwells within Kaer Thardinn.

But at what cost...?


RedBrick LLC is pleased to announce that Defiler's Curse, written by Donovan Winch, is now available as paperback and deluxe hardcover. An eBook edition will follow shortly.