Moved!

I can now be found over on my WordPress site JotJotIota. Come on over for posts about my latest actual play, ideas for games, as well as more on my Old Crown fantasy setting.

UPDATE!

Things to know:

My campaign setting for the FATE roleplaying game, the Old Crown, will be published through Occult Moon sometime in the new year.

I'm currently working my way through the thing, rewriting a bunch as I go. I'm about to finish the third chapter, and then I have five and change to finish.

I'm currently (f)unemployed, so I'm managing to get through it OK. I've pulled the third chapter together in about two weeks, which isn't amazing, but with an ongoing hunt for jobs too that's not so bad.
Plus cleaning the house. Lots of that going on now.

I've got the History and Races chapters down, with Organisations ready to go in short order. Next, Gods.
I've got a few tweaks to the default skill list done, added in reputation with the organisations in a way that I think works, and fiddled a debt mechanic too. Those need some more testing, but I've run one session so far with my group that went well enough. More to come there!

After that, I'm tightening up the Magick system and flavour (look, it's spelt with a K!), and then the Geography is less rules-y so I should be able to get through it a bit quicker.
I'm still debating how to handle the example locations, but I'm thinking a quick rundown similar to Occult Moon's Toys from the Sandbox series.

Bad Guys, GM ideas and polishing my intro are last on the list.

I started playing with tumblr but didn't really jump into it. If anyone has any useful hints and tips, please send them my way!

I'm going to try and throw some more blogs up too. I've got some ideas kicking around that I want to vent before I forget them, and they're nothing to do with what I'm working on right now.

TTFN!

Condensing my blogs

OK, I'm trying to be determined to be good and actually get back into the habit of blogging again.

Of course, having a regular connection to the internet would help, as would Blogger not crashing my phone when I try and write something.
But I've been feeling ill and sorry for myself today, despite it being bright sunshine out here by the seaside, so I feel I should do something vaguely productive with myself.

And it means I can put off packing, because I'm moving into a new place next week.

So, here's the current state of play:
I'm thinking of collapsing down my blogs to just this feed. Kingsmead Chronicler was fine as a starting point for my setting creation, and sharing with the world about it, but I feel like I could throw up the posts here just as easily.
And factoring in the scope of the setting now, the push away from the town to the bigger population centres and neighbouring/competing nations, I feel I could probably ditch the focus on Kingsmead itself.
Things in the setting that are done:
RACES - done.
GODS - done, or at least at the point where there's only minor fiddling. Relationships between the Ascended could do with a little fleshing, and a couple of them need a tweak or two.
GEOGRAPHY - done for the most part. Needs some bits adding to a couple of areas, and then dropping details across from my custom wiki to the written document. I need to add in some stuff about crime and punishment here, and maybe some of the hobbies and stuff - cockfighting, falconry, drakery. That sort of thing.
EXAMPLE AREAS - needs a bunch of work, and I keep putting it off in favour of cooler bits and pieces. Terrible of me I know, but a large chunk of this is in a wiki document and just needs porting and tidying - notable NPCs, adventure and character hooks, all that jazz.
FACTIONS - the various players, guilds, foreign agents and so forth are done, but need some more details adding. Again, a lot of this is written but not in the one place.
BESTIARY - needs a lot of things adding, but I have an idea of what's going in and what needs fixing.
MAGIC - done, and I'm very happy with how it turned out.
FICTION - a few snippets need writing, and I've managed to start one for the Ascended, fleshing out the Beggar's arrival at godhood. Needs work, but I have the thing planned out.

I also need to work out what I'm doing with rules conversions. I know I can do a conversion for FATE Core by fitting the magic rules to the setting. If I want to write a conversion for other fantasy games (and here I'm thinking D&D and Pathfinder etc.) then things get a bit more hairy, but still manageable.
I need to sit down and have a read through of the AGE rules, but I think they'd work OK from what I've seen (and how it was handled with the Midgard setting from Kobold Press).

I have a feeling I'll be throwing up little snippets from what I've got so far, see what people think of it, whet the whistle and all that.

Other news:

I've finally installed Ubuntu and I'm having a play around with that. Need to actually sit down and see how it works, so far I've done very little with it at all, but it is a joy to use just for speed. I didn't realise how slow Windows had gotten.

I need to set aside part of my time just to writing, since I seem to have fallen into the habit of doing something every few weekends. This must be fixed!

I want to get this done because I have a few other things stewing in my subconscious that I want to get written down. I have a very tentative idea so far titled PolyAlbion. We'll see where that goes, and how well I avoid a Captain Britain rip-off!

And that's that.

Incidentally, what's going on with my blog traffic suddenly spiking whilst I'm not doing anything? Really strange!

Missing, presumed fine

I've been inspired to get back to publicly writing today. I imagine that the passing of Jack Vance had something to do with that.

Contrary to popular belief, I haven't in fact dropped off the planet. I instead disappeared into darkest, wildest Ireland.
I haven't had easy internet access, but I have managed to keep myself vaguely sane with writing. Once I finish it to my satisfaction, I've a short story to throw up here about downloaded and clone consciousnesses (very transhuman-y image sure).
I've been powering on with my fantasy setting too, so some snippets from that should make an appearance too.
As it stands, image mostly bound to my smartphone at the moment. If I can, I'll write a proper post up here soon.

What else I've been doing:
I'm very much enjoying reading through the new FATE core rules, so they shall get a little discussion.
Reading Ian Mortimer's guides for time travellers. They've definitely helped me think about new parts of my setting that I hadn't detailed.
Enjoying the sunshine.

More to come soon!

Missing due to emigration

I've been out of the loop for a while. Terrible I know, but I was a bit busy emigrating to Ireland.
I'm still technically without internet, but I can obviously borrow it occasionally. So, what's going on with me recently?

It looks like someone out there keeps checking back on this page every few days. That, or my posts are being read at random. I'm fine with either.

I've been looking again at my 1001 Nights-inspired setting again. It was made for a FATE game, and no doubt I'll have a fiddle with it with the new version of FATE Core, but I think I'm going to have a look at how to fit it to other systems too. D&D is probably pretty likely.

I had a couple of ideas for a setting where the Moon has conquered and slain the Sun itself, so that the world exists in a constant night. Everything else is sort of normal, because magic.
More on that soon. There's also some miles-high towers of precious stone too. I need to work that out properly really.

I've been reading through Burning Wheel. I really like the system, although I'm now at the stage where I think it's getting more complicated. But I can see a good few games that I would love to run or play in that system.

My biggest problem at the moment is going to be finding players and games. According to any sources I can find, there just aren't any hereabouts. The local game shop closed down December 2011, there just doesn't seem to be demand for anything like it.
I have a couple of people I might be able to persuade into it, apparently. However, I've not actually met either of them. The next closest person that would definitely be interested lives roughly an hour away.
Ah well.

What happened in November?

OK, I've been dark for a month, so about time I picked this up again really.

I've been a little preoccupied with other things: a job in a nightclub, my godfather's civil ceremony, a whole heap of trimming my life down a bit and finding the stuff I need to do and when. Etc etc.

My fantasy setting is still shaping up. I haven't touched it in a little while. Maybe that year's end goal was far too lofty, but I intend to get it done ASAP.
I managed to play for an evening in it, and added a bit to the setting overview that I'm happy with. It was only a few hours, and not the most outlandish game, but it helped.

That game was also powered by my NaGaDeMon rules, which were so good I may actually write up how to play the setting using them.
No combat though, so would still have to give that a quick test run.

I should probably describe the NaGaDeMon rules.
Players pick 3 traits - usually these are racial or a role or a motivation or an affiliation.
Players pick skills - I used a pyramid made of 10 points, 1 level 3 skill, 2 level 2 skills and 3 level 1 skills. Dice rolls are a number of d6s equal to the skill level. Success on 4, 5 and 6.
Everyone starts a session with 1 bonus point, and can earn more via good roleplay or pulling off something against the odds (rolling lots of successes or multiple 6s, still not clarified). Bonus points can be spent to ignore a dice roll and barely scrape by in succeeding, or to make dice succeed on a 3+. You can only drop difficulties if a character trait would help - the quick playtest had a plant person dropping the difficulty on a botany roll.
Without a skill, roll 1d6, success only on a 6, bonus points can't be used/earned.

Standard health of 10hp, race tends to be the modifier - Lizardfolk scales act as a natural armour, lowering damage dealt, Wildfolk healed faster. Giantkin will likely have more hp but are a bigger and easier to damage, so I suppose 12hp would be fair.

Bonus points not spent count as extra experience points at the end of a session.

And the beauty of that system is it can be transferred pretty easily to other settings.

What else have I got on my mind?
I'm still thinking about the Legend of the 5 Rings game I have in my head, the characters at a wedding, the little intrigues I could enact on people. How exactly it would work out I'm not sure, but if I get a chance to run it I'll report back.

I've been getting my hands on some history books and stuff recently, for purposes of reference. I have a feeling a lot more ideas will start to bubble over in the next few months, if I actually manage to get them read!

Hopefully going back to some regular updates soon.

Forming an idea for L5R

In the last week and a bit, I've been messing with some ideas for a Legend of the 5 Rings game.

My old 1st edition Unicorn character managed to pick up an ancient Crab katana whilst adventuring in the Shadowlands. For whatever reason, he promised the Hida daimyo it would pass on to the Crab upon his death. Basically, I'm changing the wording of what he said, all those years ago.
"It will pass on to my grandson upon my death. Whether he is Unicorn or Crab is yet to be seen. But I am unwed."

So yes, the plan is to run some kind of wedding scenario. So far, it looks like I'll be putting it either in Shiro Ide, since it's the big Unicorn diplomatic concern, or Shiro Koatsuki no Higashi (Face of the East Castle), which is basically the same thing but for Crab lands.
I have a feeling I might throw it into Crab lands, if only for what I have planned.

So there's an inter-clan wedding. And since it's the Unicorn and the Crab, I might be able to manage an excuse for some kind of hunt in the nearby mountains and forests. And maybe a ghost story or something as extra flavour.
There's also the question of the other sword in the set, which was forged for the Phoenix clan, and that's where it's ended up currently. Plenty of room for some more political manoeuvring and stuff.

The big issue I'll be facing is converting all the things into 4th edition, and making sure the rules aren't that much different. I have a good hunch as to how to add some neat twists in, and some unexpected surprises.
Luckily, a lot of the NPCs are already made and sitting happily in my head - there's the two Crab samurai who adventured into the Shadowlands too, the Phoenix clan rival, and I got bored one day and bluebooked some downtime involving the rest of the Unicorn family.

If I actually manage to run this, and I really hope I do, then there'll be play reports I'm sure. Maybe I'll write them out as short stories again.
Though last time I tried that, I made the first 5 minutes of a game into 2000 words pretty easily. So maybe I shouldn't.

If I don't run it, it'll have to stay as fiction I think. We'll see how this works.

The ongoing projects list

I've had a hard time coming up with a decent update here for the past few days. I've decided to blame it on the fact I've been eating radishes, which I haven't touched in years.

I've also been pretty busy working at my fantasy setting, which I'm hoping will get published through Occult Moon before the end of the year. But that's a pipe dream at the moment. I'd say the end is in sight, but I know full well how far away it is too.

My d12 system is currently on hold. I need to get some better healing rules in place. It's currently quite brutal, but I know it could use some work, mostly for natural, non-magical healing.
I think that will get sorted next, but it still more playtesting. Feel free to use the rules as I've given them, and tell me what you think so far. Tell me what you needed to mess with, and why.
My fantasy setting will be the default setting I'm using to playtest, although I've got a couple of ideas for alternates to check: a sci-fi game about gas miners on Neptune, a wild west idea centred on a town called Copper, Arizona, and a go at the Malazan Empire, if I can manage it.

The second issue of the Lookouts comics is out, and Penny Arcade are running something on the Thornwatch, which also looks very exciting. I've toyed with ideas of making a game like this for a while too, and I'm excited to see how the boardgame goes.

Ok, that was plenty of link dumping, what else can I talk about?

I've asked a few questions on Google+ recently about Legend of the 5 Rings, specifically 4th edition and how it compares to the version I've played - 1st.
I've got a few ideas for a game I would run that I'll likely throw up here soon. Based off a Unicorn character that I ran maybe 5 years ago, the story would involve his impending wedding, and all the pomp and circumstance that surrounds such an event. There will be more than a few obstacles, and hopefully some fun surprises too.

That's all for now, more in a couple of days, or tomorrow if I need a break from the writing!

More city shenanigans

I've been thinking a bit the past couple of days about a game where the players take over a city.

Partly inspired by the Malazan books by Steven Erikson and Ian C. Esslemont, and partly inspired by the Kingmaker adventure path for Pathfinder, and maybe even a little bit by Ptolus (from what I can remember of it). Even a bit from the PC game Republic, if anyone played it.
I want to sit the players down, and say 'you're going to take over a city.'
The characters are drinking and playing cards and being merry in the backroom of a tavern in the middle of this sprawling mess of a city, full of corruption and waste, a hive of scum and villainy and whatever. They have decided, after many years, that they just can't take any more, and are out to conquer the city.

I might get them to give me a bit of a brief for the city itself, but I've got my own ideas too. And then see what kind of characters they make. Maybe they're all guards, and they want to take the place back from crime. Maybe they're all war veterans, and they're going to stage a coup. Maybe they're all criminals, and want to run a new cartel.
Whatever happens, they'll need to secure a base of operations, work up some grass roots support, and maybe infiltrate the higher echelons too. And then of course there's rivals, other threats from other power players who want to keep the status quo, and maybe threats from without too.

No clue what kind of rules I'd run. I imagine that a good setup would have a relationship map and a few hooks onto locations that the players can interact with, so I might rip an entire section out of the Smallville RPG for that (is it in other Cortex products too? I've only seen Serenity and BSG).

Maybe the City of a Thousand Temples would be a good setting for the game? I'll keep working on this. Feels like it might be a winner for actual play.

City of a Thousand Temples

I saw this post on Reddit, and my mind starting whirring.

What would life be like in a city with hundreds upon hundreds of different temples? Would they all worship the same god in a myriad different ways? Would they all worship a group of gods, but with as many variations again?
How would culture be shaped by this? Would people be more cosmopolitan? Would street fights break out over an imagined sleight, because your god called my god a name, according to some other third party?

I'm going to keep pondering on this. Seems like a lot of ideas could spawn from here.

Chapter I: The True Accounts and Adventuries of Grozny de Gronzi, Kingmaker.

Chapter I

I shall begin, against my personal custom, at the beginning rather than the end. The story begins better much later on, but I know that some of you prefer it this way.

So.

I was born and grew up in a small village of the Forest of Gronzi. Its name is unimportant to you, but it should be known that I, like everyone else in this village, was gnomish.
This would be an extravagant detail to many of you. After all, to look at me, you would at once see me for what I am. But I tell you it here so that you better understand my life. I grew up around people of normal size, whilst passing visitors appeared huge and gawkish to me. I was told that outside the forest, the people were all of this size, and it was we who were the strange ones. I wouldn't believe them for years.

As you mark time, I was thirty years old when I said goodbye to my mother and father, my family and friends, and set out to make my fortune.
I had a strong voice, and my father had carved me a lovely wooden flute when I was young. I had played it incessantly of course. I had little else in the world, but upon my departure my mother presented me with the finest clothes we could afford. I had hoped that my luck and my talent for music, as well as the cantrips I had learned in my childhood, would be enough to see me grace the noble courts of the menfolk. The traveeling traders had said that I would be a natural fit, and that they were always keen for a showman such as myself.

That was nearly true. They were always keen for a show. I hadn't quite learned the subtleties of the courts, and sadly it took me far too long to realise that my personal skills of storytelling and song weren't to everyone's appreciation.

Where I grew up, to make light of your neighbours foibles was to lessen their impact. It was what made us thrive as a community. If Old Man Poosk got a little handsy with the maidens when he'd been drinking, that didn't matter. He knew that everyone knew, and we knew he knew. He knew when to stop, is what I'm saying.
Maybe I never learned where to stop.

I headed northwards, and soon found myself attached to the court of a nobleman, a minor lord of House Orlovsky. He liked to hear me sing songs of the Fae in their own language. When he asked me to sing a song in his own tongue, I surprised him with one about his neighbours in the next county, drawn from a rumour I had heard about the young Lady Medvyed. Whilst he chuckled briefly, his wife's stern glare caught us both, and I knew I had as grievous an error as I could.
Lady Medvyed being caught with a stableboy and her pants down was perhaps a story to bold to broach to the elder sister of said Lady.

I made my excuses, and fled as fast as I could. A few more gold pieces to my name, a nice set of clothes to perform in.
And then I took over a decade to learn a simple lesson, something which perhaps I could have learned much more quickly, had I paid better attention.
The Lord you are performing for always has a sister married off to someone else nearby. The Lady you're performing for is invariably the daughter of the Lord and Lady with the interesting goings-on at parties.
I travelled all about, but slowly south and away from the webs of courtly intrigue.
It took me another few years to realise that, whilst the nobles in the south were fewer, and less powerful, and less tied in to the rumours of the north, they were still keener to patronise the artists who didn't make light of the people that they wanted to be.

And so I found myself out of favour as far as I could easily travel, and ended up taking my songs and stories to the taverns. I managed to make a living, for what commoner doesn't love the lewdest tales of his lord?
Eventually, even these tales had earned the ire of the local mayors and magistrates, perhaps brought down from above them.

Needless to say, I ended up in Restov, just when they were calling for brave persons to head into the untamed wilds to the south. I didn't have a great amount of choice in the matter. I was wanted as far away as possible.

And so I went.

About time for an update...

OK, I've been a bit preoccupied with a business plan for a gaming store, and some other stuff in the real world, but now I think it's time for an actual update!

Following David Hill's recommendation, I've had a read of the Smallville RPG, but trying to ignore the setting. I've only had a brief skim of it so far, need to read in depth, but WOW. This is a step up from the Cortex system I read years ago in the Serenity RPG. Next, I need to take a look at Leverage.

I was trying to pay attention to a character creation session for Eclipse Phase on Sunday, but I started a job on Saturday Night and was kind of out of it from that still.
But the setting! Exactly what I want to see from a sci-fi setting about the future of humanity, or transhumanity. AIs, uplifts, aliens, some very real unknown terrors, hypercorporations replacing nation states. Just fantastic. The setting's horror twists are cool too, and definitely entice me in.

I keep telling myself I'll write something exciting for a post soon, but it hasn't really come to fruition just yet. I was hoping for something on my School of Magick and Wisardry, but apparently I couldn't get the players just yet. Roll on Indie+ for that.

I did start a game of Vampire: the Masquerade via Google Hangout. We've somehow managed to draft in Mark Rein-Hagen, the guy that wrote Vampire. I would link to the On Air hangout on Youtube, but my brand new headset makes me into a heavy breathing moron for a good portion of it. I'll link to it when the next episode is up.

I've set myself the goal of another post before the weekend. In that I'm going to write something substantial. That is my quest. Now I just have to hope the bridgekeeper doesn't ask me my favourite colour...

Ser Coranth School for the Furtherance of Knowledge and Wisardry

Following my idea the other day, here's what I've piled together so far.
First of all, apologies to Patrick Rothfuss for some of the more blatant plagiarism homage. It is well meaning, I'm sure you'll understand. As I'm working this, it's becoming a little less Rothfuss - there's a Goblin warren beneath the school, so it's going a bit J.K. Rowling. I'm still working on the Houses (because obviously there should be Houses AND Colleges).
Next up, adapting some FATE rules for this. Thinking Dresden Files RPG would be reasonably easy, substituting a few skills here and there, and casting more or less intact.

What I will say is, every character has some form of personal aid or focus to their magic. Whether it's a wands, a ring, a glass orb, or a pentacle necklace. Without the focus, magic isn't possible (without some kind of ability/stunt). These focuses needn't be unique, but are of great sentimental value to the practitioner.

It should also be noted that the school caters for a full panoply of students, and so there are students who have no magickal aptitude whatsoever, for whom the classes in linguistics, tactics and history prepare them for diplomatic careers, or for whom mathematics and engineering leads to architecture.

Ser Coranth School for the Furtherance of Knowledge and Wisardry

Ser Coranth was a noble born slightly over a thousand years ago, and used a portion of his large fortune to establish a great school, that the world as a whole might benefit. He built it at the borders of his own country, as well as those of two others.
Over time, the school has grown to the size of a small town, surrounded by quarters of servants and merchants and innkeepers, whilst at the same time growing itself in the pursuit of new, forgotten, and esoteric knowledge. Its name refers to the long held belief that Magickal aptitude is founded upon deep wisdom.

The school boasts a handful of colleges, almost as many faculties, an overall population in the thousands, and sits upon land bequeathed it by all the surrounding nations, prior to their entry into the Commonwealth.
These comprise the area upon which the school is built, some forested area that disappears over the northern borders

Tuition at the school is set annually, following exams and a personal interview with the Chancellor’s Council. New students forego the exams and take extended interviews.
Tuition usually tops out at fifty Guilders a year, but is influenced by perceived ability of the student and a knowledge of how much a student can afford to pay (a great many nobles send their children to the school after all).

Beneath the Chancellor and the Deans of the Faculties sit the various Masters of a particular subject. It is they who teach the various classes.
Also of note are the Provosts of the various colleges, the Wardens (the enforcers of the various Rules, Laws and Codified Statutes of the School), as well as the servant class that has grown up around the school.

Example ranks/persons:
Chancellor
Dean of the Faculty of History
Dean of the Faculty of Magick
Dean of the Faculty of Natural Philosophy
Dean of the Faculty of Medicine
Dean of the Faculty of Languages

Provost of Bannermouth College
Provost of Coranth College
Provost of Carrefour College
Provost of Polettus College

Master of Early Imperial Literature
Master of Late Imperial Tactics
Master of Mathematics
Master of Pre-causal Effect
Master of True Names

Head Warden
Wardens of the School

Head Groundskeeper
Head Steward
Bursar

Some locations within the school and surrounding area:
Chambers - Home to the Masters
Grand Hearth - a large hall adjacent to Chambers, used for functions
Commons - a group of several buildings of bunkhouses and small dining halls
The Quint - a five-sided open square in the centre of the School
Towers - the tall towers of the school can be seen from miles around
The Undercroft - a storage area/cellar
The Overcroft - located directly above the Undercroft, also for storage
Flagstones Market - the largest market in the school
Goblin Market - a market for finding interesting magical gewgaws, ingredients and formulas
Gardens - a botanical garden
The Rookery - A stack of nests dating back hundreds of generations, on the roofs of Commons
Limns - Where new manuscripts are transcribed and illuminated
Twixt - A frequently used alleyway running between the Towers
Ministry - The Ministry of the Assembly. The Assembly maintains a presence to keep a watchful eye on things, headed by the Minister

Ideas of classes:
Alchemistry
Advanced Enchantment
Abjuration and Wards (Early Imperial through Modern Commonwealth)
Basic Retrotheometry
Basic Potioncrafting
Comparative Anthropology
Geometry of Magick
Introduction to Medical Applications of Herbs
Languages of the Goblin People
Legal Statutes on Augury and the Ethics of Precognition
Parazoology
Pattern Resonance
Pottery
Precognitive Dissonance Theory

Schools of thought

I've talked before about my desire to run a game centred around a school of magic, but I spent a long bus journey today thinking more on the subject, so here's what I have so far.

Taking careful aim with the FATE rules, adapting them slightly from Dresden Files (for now), and borrowing heavily from various fictional styles of magic (taken from Patrick Rothfuss, DnD, Harry Potter and Pratchett), I think I've got some ideas down.

The school of magic should be a bit of a sprawl, like in Rothfuss' Kingkiller Chronicle. It's basically a small town, what with the various inns, taverns and stores sprawled around it. Hogsmead in Harry Potter combined with Diagon Alley would also give a good idea of what I'm aiming at.

The school should have an odd name for itself, giving the students an education in 'Magick and Wisardry'.

Different parts of the school should stand out, but also be unique. The part called Towers would have high towers, the Undercroft is under the school, the Quint is what happens to a Quad when you give it five sides.

For kicks, there should be a mind-boggling bureaucracy to the place. The Chancellor is the head of the school, and the Deans are in charge of various faculties. But the Provosts are in charge of the various colleges. I'm debating adding Houses to the mix too.

The teachers are referred to as Masters, and live in Chambers. The students live in various places, from the various college holdings to a communal bunkhouse for first years to any of the various inns and taverns about the place.

One of the good parts of university is all the societies you can join. There has to be an Explorers Society, dedicated to finding all the hidden spots of the place ("Have you seen the Chancellor's Secret Garden? It's hidden on the Roof of Chambers. Good apples, but it's a devil to get to. I had to climb all the way up from Downbelow, somewhere near Scrapes. And I nearly got caught twice by those chancers from Bradley college.")

The Explorers Society should also be invite only, and hard to get into.

The various kinds of magic on show include Naming, Sympathy, Inscription/Enchanting (Sygaldry?) and Potion-making. But it's a school of 'Wisardy', so maybe classes in Theology and Comparative Philosophy and History too.

I'm going to keep working away at it for now, and see where it'll get me.

Ghosts

One of my favourite ideas for D&D 3.5 was having the adventurers interact with ghosts.

The Ghostwalk book spawned a short series of adventures within a campaign, where the players find themselves waking up in a ghostworld filled with extinct animals and peoples, and trying to escape back to their lives.

I'd love to try that again with a new game. Have the players do a few short sessions then suddenly come up against a nasty big bad guy. With a swing of his sword, he fells each of them.
But then they wake up in the world inside the sword.

Partly inspired by the sword Dragnipur in the Malazan Book of the Fallen (which I've written about before), and partly by a Daedric quest in Skyrim, the characters would have to advance within the sword, find a way to break out, and then avenge themselves and any friends they might make whilst imprisoned.

Furthering the Stone

A few weeks ago, I mentioned an idea I'd had based upon a stone age setting. I've turned it over some in my mind, and here's a quick idea for how I'd run it.

Take the Legend of the 5 Rings rules. I'm mostly familiar with first edition, so the lack of samurai kata and stuff makes some sense, plus a simple split between warrior and magic user makes things much easier.

The five elemental attributes still fit nicely, though I might rename Void to Spirit.

Skills would function the same, but not broken down by 'unclean' skills. A warrior would work with any animal he hunts, a shaman would speak to the different spirits, know herbalism and poisons (probably), and so forth.

The different spells would still be usable. Making weapons out of elements is easy enough, causing various elemental motions is easy too. And of course, the basics of sensing, communing and summoning elements works fine.

I'd have to modify some damage from weapons I'm sure. I could easily make a stone axe a 3k2 weapon, which is made especially deadly since I don't think there's much in the way of armour to be had. Plenty of other weapons would be usable too, but at a _k1 level.

Seems pretty straight forward. I'll have a go at how it converts to D&D at some point too.

Thoughts on the latest D&D Next Playtest packet

Well, last week the new played package dropped (and then dropped again with some extra options).

My thoughts so far: it looks good. It has a flavour of the older editions rather than 4E, but still seems like a progression from that system.
I'll still have to wait and see how it looks come 2014 when the full rules arrive, but I've already got some ideas churning.

I had an old D&D 3.5 campaign that followed some colonists crossing an ocean. I may adapt it and see how the new rules work in that setting.
Of course, that setting involved an entirely human society encountering demihumans for the first time in several centuries.
The core concept of a recent rebellion against a council of liches is still sound. I'll just see how people take to it. There's obviously a tendency for people to be a bit blasé about darker magic, but at the same time still have very little trust in people that can use it.

FLGS

Well after yesterday's assorted collection of links to previous posts, I thought today I'd try and actually write something more solid.

I've been talking for a while about the prospect of opening a gaming store. I'm in the early stages of a business plan at the moment, and it looks reasonably sound.
There are plenty of cities in the UK with a similar population but with a great many more gaming stores than we have here.
From general feedback from people I know, and a handful I didn't before an enterprise course, there's at least some demand for a store that works differently from the local ones.
My mystery shopper work has turned up the words 'cluttered' and 'unfriendly' a couple of times, so trying to beat that problem will probably net me some customers.

My biggest problem at the outset is start-up costs. I'm even looking into cooperatives and whether I could somehow crowdsource as options, which I know is more than a little bit of an odd way to go about it. But such is the state of my savings at the moment.

I've been able to talk to a few people already in the retail side of the industry, and not just in my local area. It's been a big help, but I know for a fact that the monopolies on stock providers will mean spending more than I'd like.
The convenience of renting a property with bills inclusive is also going to hinder me I think. Hmmm.

Assorted thoughts

A handful of observations and ramblings. Sorry it's not more concise.

Following on from Greywulf's internal conversation that ended up with a Nutshell d20 system, I started having my own in my head. Along the lines of "is there anything I'd add?"
I think the advantage/disadvantage mechanic from the DnDNext playtest would fit pretty well. Gives the mechanic another outing for play.
I could very easily see myself using that for a slimmed down d20 Modern game. Maybe the modern Inquisition idea I had a while ago would work.

My Romanesque setting seed Republic is still stewing. I have a feeling I might have to end up watching Rome and Spartacus before I sit down and write much more on it. As it is, the bare bones are there.
It might be worth making use of it as an example for a DiceBenedict sample setting. So far I only have the Old Crown fantasy thing going, and that needs a chunk of work to get past being an overgrown DnD clone.

I've finished reading A Wise Man's Fear. A very good book, and showed a lot more of Rothfuss's world off to the reader. I can still see the setting working with FATE rules. I may have to give it a go at some point, and hope no one plays Harry Potter with it too much.
I tried to go on to reading the fifth Malazan Book of the Fallen novel Midnight Tides, but wasn't particularly in the mood for it. A Malazan adaptation will have to wait a few more months at this rate.

I've had a bit more of a think on the Lookouts idea. I think it has some definite potential, and I'll be looking at something with a 2d6 mechanic, like in Traveller.

Overall, with all these little ideas ticking away, I'm starting to get some itchy fingers for actually doing some roleplaying. It seems like it's been a while, and I'm in need of a fix. I'll have to sort something out soon. But first I need to crack on with the business plan for an FLGS.

Quick poll: would you shop in a place called [Insert Name Here]?

Solar diversions

Those you you that follow me over on Google+ may have seen a post about the Hakunin Arcology in orbit above Neptune, or some murmurings about sci-fi bouncing around my mind.
With that in mind, I may as well tell you that I'm throwing together some ideas for a sci-fi setting for my in-development rules system, currently labouring under the name DiceBenedict.

I imagine any talk about it will be similar to what I'm doing over on my fantasy setting blog, Kingsmead Chronicler. Trying to be rules-neutral, expanding some examples of how I have the setting flowing in my head, so that anyone could jump in if they wanted to and expand their own little venture.

So what is this setting called? I've got no idea. I've currently holding it in a documents folder marked 'Sol', but I want to expand it a bit more than that.

What is happening? Well, the idea is to showcase a few examples, but a general gist is that humanity has spread out from Earth, and now its coming to terms with being a transplanetary race.
They've also brought along a few friends for the ride, in the last century creating sentient life from amongst the cacophony of it on Earth. Reptids, Felins and Ursans all add to the mix, though I haven't decided if tey class as citizens yet.

Then the standard fare of cybernetics or bionetics, asteroid mining and space trading, piracy and civil disobedience will likely come into it. Dare you cause a riot at the Phobos Penal colony? What if they send in a squad of Ursan peacekeepers, eight feet tall and built to punch the head from your neck?

I know it's another project beavering away in me, but I figure having a few things lined up for DiceBenedict ASAP is useful in the long run.