Posts

Flavor of Tharstradt 001

The following is a bit of story from my homebrew campaign of Tharstradt. Linus Redmond. A man destined for great things. Destined to be a sorcerer in the time of the Dreadmancers of West Flach and the Fourth Highland Dynasty. Surrounded by politics fueled by magics, Linus had to be, and was, the kind of tactician to use those same magics to make powerful and subtle ritual curses on his political enemies. Nothing illegal of course, at least not that anybody knew about. The laws of West Flach and the Vaubrich Academy are old enough to have dealt with the issues of white, grey, and black magic of course. In the end all magic ends up a bit grey, but in the eyes of the law and of the state what really matters is what kinds of spells are allowed to be used in society. Once Linus reached the peak of his power, scrutiny was much more a tool for him to use rather than something to worry about, but until then he had to be cunning in his plots if he was to succeed. It was 966 and...
Post a Comment
Read more

Flavor of Tharstradt 000

I've been thinking about making quests and supplemental material for Tharstradt, my fantasy campaign run with slightly modified Savage Worlds mechanics. So I thought I'd write some stories and backstory here. It was 990 in Tharstradt. Quite early in the year, frost was still covering much of the plains of East Flach, a southern province isolated by the Nenalta and Saltshimmer rivers from the rest of Tharstradt. Benjamin Worldhorse and Graham Cedenach were on their way to the nearest Great Road station, two more days to go on foot. Ben had pasty white skin, was of middling height and slight build. Graham was an obvious immigrant to East Flach with birch colored skin, standing absurdly tall for anyone in the Flachlands at 6'10". The two of them were carrying tokens granting democratic rights to each of them called Seals of Citizenship. Their town of Gilurhall had pooled resources together and constructed each seal to the exacting specifications codified in the laws of ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Progress is the Desired Outcome

On the Issues Together, we the people must decide on how to build our future. Do we want to build on the progress of our mothers and fathers and the many diverse communities they made up? Or do we really feel like risking our basic human rights and decency for the hope of the ultra-rich giving us just enough of a trickle to survive? We all deserve more, no matter your station in society. The threat of terrorism is real. Most of us alive today remember at least one horrific incident that struck too close to home. The length of these foreign wars has got to show us something about how to keep ourselves safe, and it is that the status quo has got to go. We must not start foreign involvements because the decision makers are motivated by corporate greed. We must be consistent in our global actions in order to ensure our country’s security. We must at least keep ISIS running from us if we remain involved, not putting them in a position to be building a despotic false state. ...
Post a Comment
Read more

Orbits & Mechanics

Image
I worked hard on a space RPG system that I can enjoy. My ultimate conclusion was that I lack the skills at this point to finish the project to my desired specifications, but if you want to check out what I made (and playtested) I'm putting it out there! Click here for the main play manual.
Post a Comment
Read more

A Day in the Life

A Day in the Life By Eric Baggs Only by the end of the day did Indolo use his hands for manual labor, strengthening his body in a recreation of old-time activities. “Deadlifting” they called it back then. It made him tire quickly and he welcomed his bed. The cochlear biosynthetic implant in his right ear softly hummed Indolo to wakefulness promptly when he wished to wake. Precognitive analysis had come a long way since nanoprocessors became ubiquitous. He slipped on his adaptive jumpsuit and chose a design he had put together a few weeks ago. It had a simple blocky aesthetic of orange and teal as accents over dark grey. He hadn’t allocated for the vismat modules that changed the visible location of material, but he thought most of those outfits ended up ugly anyway. It was the middle of the week for Indolo’s work schedule so he was partway through a hobby project of constructing a miniature arcology. The vismat modules really were trifles when compared to upgradi...
Post a Comment
Read more

You Respect Me

Coercing someone disregards their viewpoint. The decision to undergo coercive practices is complex and problematic, but at least know that you are depriving yourself of a perspective with potentially valuable insights by supplanting it with your own. I am going to challenge your posts. I want you to be right. I'm trying to make you right by challenging the points I have the evidence to challenge. If you don't like it, I don't mind speaking to you in private, but I believe in honesty and transparency to the point of willingly overcompensating with single voices in an arena of many (including my own). If you still don't like it, you can ask me to stop and give a short or a long reason for me to consider. I probably won't stop, but it will be valuable information. I also prize a civil discourse, so I try to never make people feel belittled, disenfranchised, or ashamed. I respect you as long as you're in my plane of reality. That's a wide swath. See you late...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Tapestry of Star Trek

Lately I've been watching loads of Star Trek: Enterprise and Star Trek: The Next Generation . It made me really want to play an RPG that allowed people to explore that type of wonder in space. Star Trek's episodic approach is what separates it from being a pure space opera. That's an oversimplification, but helps to frame why I love and enjoy Star Trek. You can estimate the budget of any Star Trek show like The Next Generation or Enterprise by looking at the fake rock walls that exist on every single planet. The starting point of these walls is obviously fabric and paint, but the ending point is an alien world. For anyone who can suspend their disbelief, the optimism of Star Trek makes the kitsch of Star Trek feel just a bit more genuine. I've been working on making a tabletop RPG that is largely inspired by these things. The goal is to convey Star Trek's characteristic optimism and wonder while allowing the players to build characters that they can rely on, bo...
Post a Comment
Read more