So, in the spirit of getting back into the swing of things with this blog, I'm going to start chronicling my rules musings, my world building techniques, my campaign world's history and recaps of my groups misadventures. I'm already getting excited about this.
So, after watching various anime and movies, playing some video games and generally trying to remember what creating a campaign is like, I decided I wanted to try some house rules to FURTHER add to the sense of Heroism that D&D already gives, I proposed this to my very confused friend:
D&D Battle Music Roulette.
I'm a fan of adding background music to role playing games. It helps set the mood and atmosphere of a scene, can get the players fired up at the right time, or help with a particular plot twist. However, music can be a crutch or a distraction, so I recommend it's use only if you're prepared to deal with it.
Now, since players all like their characters (why wouldn't they?), I added an extra step to character creation for my campaign: Pick out your character's personal battle theme. This will hopefully help the players figure out their character a bit more, as they try to figure out what music really sums up Grothgar the Barbarian's melancholy fueled rage.
I'll add the tracks to the music I compiled for D&D, and when we enter battle, I hit play on the battle music playlist. Here's where the roulette part comes in.
Wow, that's ridiculous, right? Well, it gets better! As a reward for good role playing, the DM I currently plays with hands out little tokens that can be redeemed for an +d6 on a d20 roll. I figured I'd do something similar, only the token can also be used to have your theme music start playing.
What do you think? Does this add an element of extra drama to the D&D table, or has Dr. Cid lost his damn mind? Let me know in the comment section and I'll see you in the future, dear companions.
Welcome, dear Companions, to 20-Sided Tardis, where our opinions are bigger on the Inside!
First off, we're back! And talking about all things geeky that strike our fancy. From Sci-Fi, to Comic Books. Video Games to Tabletop RPGs and beyond. It's an adventure in blog form. So very exciting.
And today's topic: PC Romance in D&D.
Now, I wanna get this out of the way: I am a hopeless, die hard romantic. I'm one of those True Love kinda suckers that tear up at weddings and thinks that "The Princess Bride" is the greatest story ever told.
You know what I'm talking about. The two PCs (usually the Actors of the party) will have their characters hook up in game. It makes sense, they're the only two characters of same race, or they share a deity, or they're at least compatible enough that it'd be easy to ship the couple. And before you even realize it, the whole quest to the defeat the evil dark lord Kiva from using the 10 Haesae Keys to summon the dread demon Dekaedo has taken a backseat to lovers quarrels and mushy romance.
How do you stop these things, while still enjoying the benefits to the narrative that the romance provides? Well, we at the Tardis are here to help:
1) Make sure that the romance doesn't dominate the plot. This should be an almost no brainer, but when there's 6 players at the table, no matter how invested everyone is in each others characters, having 2 players hogging the spotlight sucks. Make sure that everyone gets an equal share, and keep the plot running. Kiva is not going to wait for the heroes to get through their first couple fight before unleashing his darkness over the land.
2) Make sure that the romance isn't going to split the party uncomfortably. I'm currently neck-deep in PC on PC romance in a D&D Campaign and due to the way that all the characters are, we have the potential to split the party right down the middle. My character, his romantic partner and brother in arms vs. the party's wizard (and resident jerkass), the party's fractured sorcerer , and the centaur who is constantly searching for approval. The fact that my character's love interest is the party's de facto leader doesn't help matters. There may be a split coming, and part of it may stem from the disparate party make-up and the fact that they can't seem to get along. Either way, party cohesion is a big challenge facing DMs, and romance is something that can complicate that if not handled properly.
3) Challenging the Romance is Okay. Occasionally. Throwing in NPCs to act as love interests to a couple in their proto-phase is okay. Having bad guys capturing one of the two halves of a couple is awesome (especially for the resulting rescue). Introducing a dilemma that you KNOW the couple is divided on is stupidly cool as it gives the players a chance to role-play their characters as individuals instead of them becoming defined as "one half of the Paladin/Cleric combo."
However, if you do nothing but continually challenge you fall into the trap of making the relationship become more important to the plot, and you end up frustrating the two players. Moderation is a good thing.
4)Make sure everyone is okay with the idea of a romance sub-plot. Now, while the Actors of the party are going to be cool with it (and depending on the gaming group's make-up may end up with people pairing off), make sure that everyone is okay with it. After all, some people play D&D for monster fighting and kingdom saving. Watching the Fighter and the Ranger make googly eyes at each other between combat encounters might not be their idea of a good time. Plus, it's always a good thing to check with your players for feedback from time to time.
In closing, romance is awesome, and adds alot to a D&D campaign. However, it has some dangerous pit-falls too. The key to avoiding them is communicating with your players. We'll see you back here in 7 for more D&D related thoughts.
Welcome dear companions back to Game Thesis, where we're gonna try to develop a Co-operative Super-Hero Adventure Board Game.
I suppose that we need to look at Super-Heroes themselves before we start this bad-boy. What follows is blatantly jacked from Wikipedia's article on the subject:
"A superhero (sometimes rendered super-hero or super hero) is a type of stock character possessing "extraordinary or superhuman powers" and dedicated to protecting the public. Since the debut of the prototypical superhero Superman in 1938, stories of superheroes—ranging from brief episodic adventures to continuing years-long sagas—have dominated American comic books and crossed over into other media. The word itself dates to at least 1917.[1] A female superhero is sometimes called a superheroine (also rendered super-heroine or super heroine). "Super-heroes" is a trademark co-owned by DC Comics and Marvel Comics.[2] Superheroes are authentically American, spawning from The Great Depression era.
By most definitions, characters do not strictly require actual superhuman powers to be deemed superheroes,[3] although terms such as costumed crime fighters are sometimes used to refer to those such as Batman and Green Arrow without such powers who share other common superhero traits. Such characters were generally referred to as "mystery men" in the so-called Golden Age of Comic Books to distinguish them from characters with super-powers.
Normally, superheroes use their powers to police day-to-day crime while also combating threats against humanity by supervillains, who as their name implies are criminals of "unprecedented powers" in the same way that superheroes are crime fighters with "unprecedented powers," though just as with superheroes they do not necessarily need genuine superpowers. Generally, at least one of these supervillains will be the superhero's archenemy, though several popular and long-running series, such as Batman, Superman, and Spider-Man, each have a rogues gallery of archenemies. Superheroes sometimes will combat irregular threats that also match their powers, such as aliens, magical entities, godlike or demonlike creatures, and so forth."
Okay, so we know what super-heroes are, and we plan to try to utilize a variety of aspects in the game to make it feel like a super-hero game.
One of the discussions we've had here in the Tardis is one of tone. There's a variety of tones that the game could take (and some of them may be future expansions): Silver Age, Golden Age, Street Level Heroes, IN SPAAAAAAAACE, The 90s, Teen Heroes, Team Super-heroes, etc.
And what we've settled on is an attempt to make the system open-ended enough to accomodate a variety of styles. In the base set, I'm going to focus primarily on the Teen Super-Heroes from the shared comic book universe I and some of my college buddies were working on (a remnant of my CCG). Even within this frame work, adding a few characters from the other styles adds some diversity and gives a hint that this'll be covered at a later date.
The first player characters bring some themes (both in game tone and what kind of character they are)with them:
Alex "Shifter" Kinkaid/Justice: Street Level Hero, Teen Hero, Detective Work, Gadgets
Chloe Franklin/Ultra Girl: College Age, High Powered, Team
Courtney Taylor/Tiger Knight: Alien, Teen Hero, Romance, Coming of Age, Legacy, Team Gwen MacDermont/Firefly: Teen Hero, Party Girl, Ranged Combat, Team
Jordan Jones/Knock: College Age, Street Level Hero, Gadgets, Romance, Team
Karmala (No Secret Identity): Fish Out of Water, Adult, Warrior Woman, High Powered, Mystic
Matthew Cole/Photon: Loner, Ranged Combat, Detective Work, Always on the Move, Hunted
Tom Turner/Claymore: Teen Hero, Team, Leader, Legacy
Z'Tryn Nar/Star Knight: Alien, High Powered, Space Cop, Ranged Combat, Fish out of Water
Now, overall the tone of the game will be four color heroics, but not skewed in the heroes favor. The villain will be played by a seperate player, and they need as much a chance to win as the team of heroes.
Looking at this, since the majority of the characters are from a teenaged team of heroes calling themselves the Peacemakers, some of the major themes of the base game will be of Teamwork, Legacy, and the Trials of Being a Teen-aged Superhero.
Join me in seven days as we go into how the game will work, and a discussion on the villains.
Hey Gang, Dr. Cid here. I just wanted to apologize for the complete lack of updates on this blog. School got kinda hectic, combined with finally getting back into my house from Snow-mageddon...it's just been a rough month.
Also, I'm trying to figure out exactly what this blog is actually about. I mean, at the moment, we're a little all over the place, and I seriously think that we at 20 Sided Tardis need to sit down and figure out what we're about and what we're doing.
So, until we do, we're gonna be out for a bit. But don't worry, to paraphrase my favorite actor-turned-politician:
So, thanks to Snowmaggedon, I'm trapped at my In-Laws house, meaning that one of the few things of mine I have access to is my gaming books. So,if you're getting sick of these Game Thesis posts, well...to quote Delita Hyrial, "Blame yourself or blame God."
So, I'm an unabashed D&D player, and I'm totally one of those "4th Edition got more things right than it got wrong" players. And really most of my gaming problems I've had at the table the last few months have been incompatible play-styles and me trying to fit in with a group mid-adventure. Which sucks. Anyways, back to the topic, I like 4th Edition. But, one of the problems I'm having with 4th Edition is the lack of the lightly armored, agile swordsman.
I know what you're thinking even before you type in the comments section, "but Doctor, there's Ranger and Rogue and Swordmage, and..."
And you're absolutely right. But what if I want to play a lightly armored agile defender with a single sword between him and defeat? Someone who stands for his allies as a protector? And ISN'T arcanely powered? Someone who's as good as he is from talent and training and and not because he talks to spirits or can alter the fabric of reality. What class do I play then? Hmm? Anyone?
That's what I thought. And the fact is, this is a fantasy archtype that I can't believe isn't yet represented in 4th edition. I mean, look at the Lord of the Rings movies, which for this generation of gamers is some of the most inspiring images of fantasy.
What class is Aragorn? He doesn't rely heavily on his bow, nor does he have a pet or fight with two weapons. I guess Ranger is out. His armor (or lack thereof) limits he choices of what class he could be. And as for how he fights, he's probably a defender or leader. So, as far as I can tell from the movies and what classes are available...Aragorn, son of Arathorn, Ranger of the North and High King of the Reunited Kingdom of Men...is a Bard.
Oy. Or how about Richard Cipher from Legend of the Seeker? (*Author Note: I haven't read the Sword of Truth books, nor have I seen the second season of the show. I am basing my observations on the first season of the TV show. I'm aware that this might not paint the most accurate picture of Richard. And for that I apologize.)
So, in the show, despite Richard's magic sword, he's a skilled warrior and wears no armor (maybe Leather if the DM let's him call it that), using his sword for his defense. He also protects the other people he battles with and is clearly a defender.
So, what is this all building to, you ask? Well, I'm going to ask you, the loyal readers of this blog to help me on this one.
Should I begin to build a dedicated class to represent these mobile defenders, or perhaps build this as an alternate class feature for the supremely awesome Fighter class?
I guess being late is my theme at this point, huh?
Let me just say that I hate snow. Being in the Greater Pittsburgh area Ive been seriously snowed in these past few days and I spent most of yesterday digging out and getting sured up in case another round of snow made its way in.
Anyway, on to the actual article. In my very first (god awful) post I made a list of my favorite Trade Paperbacks, and in that spirit of thinking you care what my opinions are I give you the first of a series of recommendations: Books You Should be Reading.
Today's offering: Incredible Hercules.As if you couldn't tell by the name this title spun out of Incredible Hulk in the aftermath (Aftersmash? Really Marvel?) of the crossover World War Hulk. In fact Herc even took over the numbering of the Green Goliaths series after Hulks failed invasion.
What happened with the Hulk? The less said of that the better (until next week *winkwinknudgenudge*).
The news series follows Hercules and new Character Amadeus Cho: The 7th Smartest Person in the World, a fact he is none too humble about.
The stories are classic superhero fare, and that's a good thing. So many comics, comic creators and indeed fans are desperate to separate themselves from superheroes as too juvenile or simplistic, but author Greg Pak embraces that simplicity and uses it to tell an amazing set of stories.
Drawing heavily on mythology, the Marvel version of it at least, our duo dynamic face a plethora mythic foes from Ares (HOT DAMN I'M EVIL!) to the Dark Elves or Norse myth. They even take a nice little swipe at the legendarily bad Amazons Attack with a much better Amazon war of there own.
The greatest achievement of this book, though, is when its looked at as a greater whole. The seemingly scattered story lines are all working together into an amazing tale about the growth of our two radically different heroes and the nature of heroism in a new age of myths. Comic heroes as myths of the modern age is nothing new, and Herc doesn't break any real new ground with it, but it uses this theory as a way to tie all its tales together give its readers an amazing read.
On top of that, its funny. Perhaps it has something to do with embracing classic Superheroing as much as it does, but Incredible Hercules never takes itself too seriously. The lead pair contrast each other, brains v brawn, in such amusing ways throughout the book that the only things funnier than their interactions are the fights scenes.
Incredible Hercules has been collected in four Trades so far: Against the World, Sacred Invasion (Featuring its 2nd and 3rd story lines), Dark Reign and Incredible Thorcules (:P).
With the current Assault on New Olympus storyline bringing everything to a head this is as good a time as any to pick up the book be it in the form of trades or back issues. Whether its because of its wonderful characters, great action or sense of humor, Incredible Hercules is one of the best books for anyone who loves comics or wants to love comics.(Of course even in Hercs big story Wolverine MUST be up front)
Welcome to the 20 Sided Tardis, where our opinions are bigger on the inside. Dr.Cid here and while its time for another Game Thesis segment, I'm going to take a break in order to post my thoughts and design ideas for a Kamen Rider RPG. Sorry,but this is going to be a long post. Hopefully the smattering of images and videos will help.
First, a little background on Kamen Rider. What follows is BLANTANTLY jacked from TvTropes.org 's entry on Kamen Rider:
A franchise of tokusatsu series created by Shotaro Ishinomori (who also created Cyborg 009) and produced by the Toei Company. A sister show to Super Sentai. Typically has a smaller main cast than Sentai (the title of each series refers to a single main Rider instead of Super Sentai's Five Man Band), but not always. Some series feature huge numbers of Riders, with the most extreme example being Kamen Rider Ryuki and its 15 Riders (although Kamen Rider Hibiki has a lot more if you count all the Riders seen briefly, or even just briefly mentioned).
Often involves insect-themed armour (concept largely ditched for the Heisei Riders, in which only a minority is insect-themed). And motorcycles. Tragically short on Combining Mecha. (although Kamen Rider Faiz did feature some nice, if non-humongous, mecha, and Kamen Rider Den-O had train cars...)
More recently, the first 10 or so riders have been revived in a manga series: Kamen Rider SPIRITS. As Bad Ass as they originally were, they become even more so.
The Kamen Rider franchise is generally divided into two distinct "eras" by fans, using the Japanese names for the time period in which they were made. The Showa Era consists of:
* Kamen Rider (1971-1973) * Kamen Rider V3 (1973-1974) * Kamen Rider X (1974) * Kamen Rider Amazon (1974-75) * Kamen Rider Stronger (1975) * Kamen Rider Skyrider (1979-80; AKA New Kamen Rider; originally called simply Kamen Rider, it was intended as a Continuity Reboot, but the idea was abandoned) * Kamen Rider Super-1 (1980-1981) * Birth of the 10th! Kamen Riders All Together!! (1984 TV special; Starring Kamen Rider ZX) * Kamen Rider Black (1987-1988) * Kamen Rider Black RX (1988-1989)
In the 1990s, a trio of movies was made; though produced after the end of the Showa period (1989), American fans typically place them with the Showa series because of Ishinomori's involvement:
* Shin: Kamen Rider Prologue (1992 direct-to-video movie) * Kamen Rider ZO (1993) * Kamen Rider J (1994)
Every series created after the death of creator Shotaro Ishinomori is referred to as the Heisei Era:
* Kamen Rider Kuuga (2000-2001) * Kamen Rider Agito (2001-2002) * Kamen Rider Ryuki (2002-2003) * Kamen Rider Faiz (555) (2003-2004) * Kamen Rider Blade (2004-2005) * Kamen Rider Hibiki (2005-2006) * Kamen Rider Kabuto (2006-2007) * Kamen Rider Den-O (2007-2008) * Kamen Rider Kiva (2008-2009) * Kamen Rider Decade (DCD) (2009) * Kamen Rider Double (W) (2009-)
The first two series were retooled for a Darker And Edgier movie reboot franchise, currently consisting of two films: Kamen Rider The First (2005) and Kamen Rider The Next (2007). The first movie was an action-romance and was received relatively well. The second movie, which traded the romance for horror, was not so well received.
2009 also had Kamen Rider G, a TV special that was an Affectionate Parody of all things Kamen Rider, starring veterans from the show and members of the idol group SMAP. G also served as a teaser for Decade, with Tsukasa and the other nine Heisei Riders showing up to give G a pep talk during the final battle.
One series (Black RX) was brought over to the US, Power Rangers-style, as Masked Rider (1995-1996).
It tanked. Another series (Ryuki) has been similarly adapted as Kamen Rider Dragon Knight (2009). While the new adaptation was much closer to the spirit of the original, it didn't fare much better in the ratings.
There's a PS2 game called Kamen Rider Climax Heroes, which is basically a fighting game featuring all of the Heisei-era Protagonists, and Kamen Rider Climax Heroes W, which is pretty much the same as the original Climax Heroes, except it features Double and it's on the Wii instead of the PS2. In the West, the Climax Heroes W engine was Remade For The Export as a Dragon Knight game.
There also exist an arcade game, Kamen Rider Ganbaride, that work by collecting cards and scanning them into the machine.
So, being the giant Tokusatsu fans and RPG nerds that we are, some friends are working on a Kamen Rider RPG, and now I'm adding my thoughts (since I know at least one of them follows this blog).
Do, first off, the game NEEDS to be point-buy. I cannot stress enough how much I enjoy the seemingly endless amounts of customization that Point-Buy systems provide (despite my favorite gaming system [Star Wars Saga Edition] not using it).
Secondly, since both the Rider and the Rider System (hereafter referred to as the character and the Henshin Driver) are two seperate entities that can easily be parted and the Henshin Driver can be used by anyone in some cases (see Kamen Rider Kiva video below), then they need to have seperate point pools and need to almost be built as two seperate characters.
Now, since examples are the easiest way to put forth some of this information, I'll do a theoretical build of Kamen Rider Gale (wind based powers). So, lets say that I've statted up Tobyashi Hiro already, so I only need to focus on Gale.
First thing I want to purchase is 3 alternate forms, knowing that I'll pick up the 4 form later in the campaign. Ideally these alternate forms can then be tweaked as needed.
Gale's alternate forms are F2, F3, and F4 (classification of Tornados on the Fujita Scale), and F2 is faster than his F1 form, but lacks some of the punch, F2 is more defense heavy, and finally F4 is the full on slow but powerful form. Ideally when I get the points later on to pick up F5, he'll be powerful at everything (as Kamen Riders typically get a Final Form that's better all around).
So, each form has to draw from it's own pool to tweak things here and there. So, we need the Henshin Driver to be able to have enough points at the Start to be able to purchase an alternate form (since even the weapon forms can come later than the start of the show).
Also needed is the iconic ability of all Kamen Riders, the Rider Kick (yes,there's a handful of Riders who don't have a Rider Kick, but they're the minority). Now, we need a mechanic so that you can't just spam the Rider Kick every round until your opponent blows up.
Thankfully, D&D has something that we can borrow for just such an occasion.
For those of you who don't know, in D&D 4th Edition,there's a mechanic called "bloodied" which really just means "this d00d is at half their HP!" Now, having a restriction on performing the Rider Kick on a bloodied opponent is a good way to keep the cinematic "Kick,BOOM!" element of the show.
Of course, given that there're exceptions,I don't know if that's necessarily the best option...hmm. I'll come back to that.
Stats should be easy to do. Let's try to limit it to 6 stats, because its a nice round number and been the industry standard for about 30 years. Clearly it's a concept that's working.
So, we should have: Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Perception and Willpower. Yeah, I know that these aren't ground breaking Stats, so let's just move on.
So, given that in universe you can only remained transformed for a certain period of time, and that a strong enough hit can knock you out of your transformed state, here's how to settle that.
You have an affinity rating with your Henshin Driver. As you increase your abilities, your affinity with the Driver will increase. Each round, you roll percentile dice. If you roll more than your Affinity rating, you slide down a step on the Henshin Timer. The Affinity can never get higher than 90%, and you probably should have an affinity for each alternate form you have. That way you can get knocked out of F4,but only revert to your base form for example.
In addition, there should be a Damage Threshold. Let's say it's your Str+Con Scores times 2. (i.e. Str 4+Con 6 x2= 20) and if a single attack deals more damage than that it slides you down the Henshin Timer. And should a single attack deal more damage than TWICE your Threshold,it knocks you out of your transformed state entirely.
Actually, going back to the Rider Kick, you can use the Henshin Timer as a limiting Mechanic. Each time you use said Kick, you slide down the Henshin Timer. I may be on to something here.
Combat needs to be fast, and the game needs to focus on story and character development, because while yeah, there's guys in bug armor kicking guys in rubber suits until they explode, the story is what really keeps bringing people back to Kamen Rider.
Wow, sorry this was so long. See you next Monday, Dear Companions. In the meantime...HENSHIN!
