I ended up recording several episodes and uploaded them for scheduled release. For now it's twice-weekly Mondays & Fridays at 11:00am CST.
Still looking for other games to play and record but so far CK2 is letting me find a good groove.
Monday, January 13, 2020
Crusader Kings II - Duck Empire randomized kingdoms 02
Still looking for other games to play and record but so far CK2 is letting me find a good groove.
Saturday, January 11, 2020
Dungeon World RPG Homebrew: The Urdroid
As opposed to the Warlock's inspiration from other media, the initial concept behind the Urdroid stemmed entirely from the original setting of my campaign. I had an early discussion with my players about the differences between the Demiurgic tribes of androids and the intelligent machine races unavailable for player characters. I ended up summarizing the distinction:
-Demiurge encompassed groups of synthetic people that are both physiologically equivalent to human requirements as well as psychologically and sociologically compatible. Other machine races do not share these qualifications.
From there, I concluded that in order for an intelligent machine to be both distinct from Humans & Demiurge and still be playable, it would have to be an example of one with physical requirements that are comparable to living people (but not equivalent), and be psychologically and sociologically equivalent (but not necessarily compatible).
In short, a playable mechanical creature should have different ways for needing to restore hit points and staying fit/rested as well as different rules to represent their motivations. Otherwise it's just "a human that looks like a robot".
That goal brought me to the Urdroid: an ancient type of self-sufficient machine that adhered to strict rules of thought and behavior, which brought its goals parallel enough to living people to exist along side them, and directly with them in situations of peril or shared threats to survival.
My first priority was plotting their repair and recharge abilities to the point a player character was free from 'organic needs'. This gave the class a hardy and defensive feel. After that, I wanted them to have a unique sense of morality and mysticism that would come into frequent play.
That that end, I have for now heavily borrowed from the Compendium's Monk player class, particularly by using a separate set of options (here dubbed 'Ethos') instead of simple end-of-session motivations. A few of these have been tweaked more than others, and I'll likely replace Ethos of Shadow once I come up with a more setting-appropriate option. but for now it'll suffice for playtesting.
-Demiurge encompassed groups of synthetic people that are both physiologically equivalent to human requirements as well as psychologically and sociologically compatible. Other machine races do not share these qualifications.
From there, I concluded that in order for an intelligent machine to be both distinct from Humans & Demiurge and still be playable, it would have to be an example of one with physical requirements that are comparable to living people (but not equivalent), and be psychologically and sociologically equivalent (but not necessarily compatible).
In short, a playable mechanical creature should have different ways for needing to restore hit points and staying fit/rested as well as different rules to represent their motivations. Otherwise it's just "a human that looks like a robot".
That goal brought me to the Urdroid: an ancient type of self-sufficient machine that adhered to strict rules of thought and behavior, which brought its goals parallel enough to living people to exist along side them, and directly with them in situations of peril or shared threats to survival.
That that end, I have for now heavily borrowed from the Compendium's Monk player class, particularly by using a separate set of options (here dubbed 'Ethos') instead of simple end-of-session motivations. A few of these have been tweaked more than others, and I'll likely replace Ethos of Shadow once I come up with a more setting-appropriate option. but for now it'll suffice for playtesting.
Friday, January 10, 2020
Dungeon World RPG Homebrew: The Warlock
Once my Dungeon world campaign started it meant I needed to focus a good chunk of my free time on further developing the setting, writing more monsters down with solid rules, and planning future adventures using plot hooks and antagonists.
Which of course meant I went ahead and came up with six more character classes. The first of these is the Umbral Witch-inspired gun user, the Warlock
The concept struck me while thinking about Bayonetta in the shower (which doesn't happen nearly as often as one would think?). I realized that her preternatural acrobatics & ranged combat bestowed by supernatural patrons would be totally on-brand for this hellish future setting.
And once my wife said it was the first of all my custom classes that caught her attention I knew I had to make it my campaign's 19th class option.
The initial placeholder name of the Class was simply Bayonetta's title of Umbral Witch. Later name ideas included The Dream-Scryer, The Thaumaturge, and simply The Wytch. Warlock seemed the least obtuse and more indicative of the source of her powers.
Bayonetta has a lot going for her, so I knew going in that this class would need several broad abilities pinned down to a few signature moves. She would demand a natural affinity for using guns and multiple weapons, thus letting her use them all with her Dexterity stat and ignore slow reload times enabled the player to focus on more dynamic decisions. The Spiritual Energy move allowed for powerful extra actions without bogging down their turn using complicated math or multiple rolls per turn, and to avoid spamming it I tied the moves to a hold resource, which was further obtained by fulfilling challenging demands by their patron tech-spirit. The other move I felt was needed to provide the class with utility and not just hit-hit-bang-bang skills was the passive immunity to illusions. This ensured some level of agency over otherworldly potential enemies/allies.
Luckily I could leave some of remaining more over-the-top powers for advanced moves as she leveled up. Her essentials felt summarized in these four starting moves
This was the first Class playbook I worked on from scratch. The initial 'Umbral Witch' concept was laid out on a blank Class template (from John Shea's superb design) and drafted using purely narrative descriptions of what their abilities should accomplish. Though I ended up borrowing definitions from equivalent moves once again from Compendium classes (namely the Monk and the Warlock), all four starting moves had some kind of function.
My wife played it exactly once for a group playtest, but by the time I made further revisions for the campaign proper she concluded tabletop RPGs just weren't fast-paced or enough for her. It'll have to wait for someone else to take up the mantle and let the witch-hunts continue, so stay tuned.
Which of course meant I went ahead and came up with six more character classes. The first of these is the Umbral Witch-inspired gun user, the Warlock
The concept struck me while thinking about Bayonetta in the shower (which doesn't happen nearly as often as one would think?). I realized that her preternatural acrobatics & ranged combat bestowed by supernatural patrons would be totally on-brand for this hellish future setting.
And once my wife said it was the first of all my custom classes that caught her attention I knew I had to make it my campaign's 19th class option.
The initial placeholder name of the Class was simply Bayonetta's title of Umbral Witch. Later name ideas included The Dream-Scryer, The Thaumaturge, and simply The Wytch. Warlock seemed the least obtuse and more indicative of the source of her powers.
Luckily I could leave some of remaining more over-the-top powers for advanced moves as she leveled up. Her essentials felt summarized in these four starting moves
This was the first Class playbook I worked on from scratch. The initial 'Umbral Witch' concept was laid out on a blank Class template (from John Shea's superb design) and drafted using purely narrative descriptions of what their abilities should accomplish. Though I ended up borrowing definitions from equivalent moves once again from Compendium classes (namely the Monk and the Warlock), all four starting moves had some kind of function.
My wife played it exactly once for a group playtest, but by the time I made further revisions for the campaign proper she concluded tabletop RPGs just weren't fast-paced or enough for her. It'll have to wait for someone else to take up the mantle and let the witch-hunts continue, so stay tuned.
Duck Empire 01 - Crusader Kings II fully randomized Animal Kingdoms
Bad news is I slipped on the ice and fell right on my pelvis today, good news is I might spend the extra time sitting to record a bunch of videos?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=phAEjOGhElA&t=3s
Stay tuned for the next installment Monday afternoon.
Sunday, January 5, 2020
Duck Empire introduction - Crusader Kings II fully randomized Animal Kingdoms
I made a YouTube Let's Play video: Presenting my current Crusader Kings 2 randomized campaign due to request from several friends
Other than renaming my dynasty and the primary realm name of Calisota, I only changed a couple of Kingdom/Duchy names for the sake of readability or my own amusement; all the Howards, Donalds, Daffys and the Dog Pope were generated by the game.
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