Fuck Yeah DragonQuest! Part 1

Today I'm going to create a character for SPI's amazing rpg DragonQuest (2nd ed.) Why? Well, because DQ died a young and truly tragic death and I for one would rather not see it fade from existence. Hopefully, this example of chargen may turn some people on to the game.

So I'm gonna go through it step-by-step and also by-the-book. Since characteristics are arrived at though point-buy, we get to avoid the liberal chargen augmentation typical D&D, i.e. roll 4d6, drop the lowest; place where you want, etc.

Since we're living in the Space Age, I'm gonna use a nifty Excel character sheet that's supposed to do all the math for me. You can find it here. Hopefully it works in Open Office as I don't have MS Office.


5. Character Generation

One of the neat things about DQ chargen is that it's both randomly rolled and point-buy. How is this possible, you ask? Please, let me demonstrate for you. First, roll 2d10 (in DragonQuest, the only die used is a d10, which is expressed in the game as simply "D," so in this case I would use "2D" to describe the roll. This'll come up again later) and consult the handy Point Generation Table (not shown.) The number I roll will provide for me the amount of points I can spend on characteristics and the maximum number I can place in any one of those scores. For example, a roll of 4 gives me 83 points to distribute among the six main characteristics, but with a maximum of 24 in one

Characteristics in DragonQuest range from a minimum of 5 to a normal maximum of 25. Some races (like giants) can surpass that number in certain characteristics.

Okay, my roll is 5+9=14 which gives me...93 points to divide among six attributes with a maximum of 21 in one slot. As per rule 5.2 this also means that I can have two attributes of 20 points and three attributes of 19, should I choose to do so. I don't know quite yet. As I love DQ's magic system, I think I'll pursue that path. But I have twelve colleges of magic to choose from (15 if you include Arcane Wisdom,) so I have some cogitating to do. But first, my scores-

Physical Strength: 11
Manual Dexterity: 13
Agility: 12
Endurance: 20
Magical Aptitude: 21 (I chose this first and maxed it for obvious reasons)
Willpower: 16
Fatigue: 22 (this is a figured characteristic based on Endurance)
Perception: 8 (all characters start with an 8 in Perception.)

I decided I want him to be a robust dude that can live off the land, thus the high Endurance, but he's no John Rambo- he has to rely on his magic skills to cover the areas where he comes up short physically.

6. Birthrights

I see this guy being human, but just for the hell of it I'm going to see if I can successfully roll on percentiles for a different race. Out of the ones available, I'm gonna shoot for Elf, Giant, and Shape-Changer (lycanthrope.) According to the rules, if the roll succeeds, I have to take the race, so whichever one I get first is the one I'm stuck with. Here we go-

Elf (30%)- I rolled a 95. Fail.
Giant (06%)- I rolled a 15. Close, but still fail.
Shape-changer (04%)- a 70. Looks like I'm human after all.

7. Aspects

This tells me what my character's place in the universe is, more or less, and is probably the closest thing to D&D's alignment. It's essentially astrology. Percentiles are used again here and I rolled a 66, which section 7.1 tells me means I'm Autumn Stars aspected. What this means is that during certain days of the year (and certain times of those respective days,) my dude will either be affected or afflicted by the Cosmos. This can suggest all kinds of things about my character (looks, style of dress, personality) or I can ignore that and go with whatever mental image I started with.

8. Heritage

Now we find out which side of the tracks my boy comes from. Everything from "poor trash" to "greater nobility" and a bunch of stuff in between. Another percentile roll and I get 17 which makes nature boy Impoverished Gentlefolk. Works for me.
Now let's find out if he's a bastard. Another percentile roll will tell me if he's a bastard, legit, or a first born child. This will affect his starting money and experience. I rolled a 68, which means he's legitimate- not as much fun as the other two possibilities, but I can live with it. No changes here.

But we're not done here quite yet. Now we find out how many siblings he has, if any, and what his place in line is. A D10 roll of 1, the loneliest number, reveals that he is second in line to the Throne of Mud and Hay. Huzzah!

We're almost done for today. The final step is to find out what his starting money and experience points are. This calls for two percentile rolls. The experience point roll: 92! That starts me off with 200 xp to spend. Nice.

The money roll: 40. That's okay, I guess. This gives me 45 silver pennies. Now, I refer back to the Social Status table (8.1) for my money multiplier- impoverished gentlefolk get a 2x to their starting dosh, so I get 90 sp to blow on gear and sundries. All in all I can't complain.

I think that's enough for now. Next time I'll buy his gear, do his skills, and settle on a college of magic.

Buck Rogers High Adventure Cliffhangers

Recently I grabbed a cherry copy of the Buck Rogers Adventure Game (or High Adventure, not sure which) on Amazon for what seemed like a reasonable $25.

TSR seems to have produced a number of really innovative games that for the most part went underappreciated, unnoticed or simply disliked back in the 90's and this is, I think, one of them. Although it's understandable why there is no love for this game (the Williams Taint again) and it came off to most gamers of the day, myself included, as pretty bizarre considering the failure of the previous Buck Rogers game.

Big Jim, Two-Fisted Tales Style

Back in the 70′s, Mattel turned Big Jim, a lackluster Olympic athlete-themed action figure, into a badass man of adventure by making him the leader of...

XXVc Community on G+

I created one, on that off chance someone besides me out there is interested in discussing this game. Check it out here, if you dare- XXVc: The 25th Century

Captcha!

It's an instant character name generator for sci-fi or fantasy npcs! Who knew? Just keep hitting the reload button until you get something useable. In virtually all cases, I used the word as-is without altering it, save for capitalization. Here's a list that took me all of a minute or so to poop out-

Rinabili
Elbatho
Cheras
Iczens
Pourdem (for a bartender, of course)
Onsceleg
Ayersug

I could go on, but why spoil the fun?





I can't go on.

Lazyass Summer Post

I hate summer. I want to do things even less than I normally do in summertime. However, that doesn't keep my swelling, itching brain from annoying me with ideas and new interests. 

Case in point, Hulks & Horrors.

When I first read about it, I thought it sounded kinda pointless and a little stupid, but after grabbing the free version and giving it a scanover, I change my view on it. Now, all I can picture when I think about that game are those shitty 80's sci-fi horror movies like Galaxy of Terror and Inseminoid. Now that has my attention. Not that slick, oh-so-serious transhuman nonsense of Eclipse Phase or the wanna-be Travellerness of Stars Without Number.

No, Hulks & Horrors makes me wanna crawl through dark, greasy access tunnels that are dripping with alien mucous to track down some mythical high-tech McGuffin. The idea that the galaxy has become an endless graveyard waiting to be robbed by opportunistic scumbags has a great appeal to me. I could go on, but I think I'll let this amazing movie trailer wrap up why H&H took such a hold on me.

"Struggling for survival in the infected remains of a diseased universe." I'd say that sums up Hulks & Horrors rather nicely. Also, FUCK YEAH GREEN SLIME! If you haven't seen it, I highly recommend it. 

Everything else is just the usual shit I've been shoveling here for a while- XXVc; Traveller has reared it's ugly head once again (and, no, I don't mean that trainwreck Traveller5) and, new to the roster, but less new than H&H, Star Frontiers.

So, I got all cylinders firing for some hot, wet summer sci-fi action. Whether or not I can complete even one of these goals remains to be seen.

FUTURE LIFE

I found this interesting article at io9.com about emerging scientific fields and wondered how they might be utilized in sf rpgs. I'm going to relate them, of course, to those rpgs I'm most familiar with, which in this case happen to be classic Traveller and (if you've been paying attention) Buck Rogers XXVc.

Already I'm thinking that a number of these will be relegated to "background science" since they're not the kinds of things that necessarily make for good adventure stories. On the other hand, never say never. Any of these could potentially make for a good adventure seed, I suppose, but that's the point of this article, innit? Gonna have a look at each one and see if we can find a gem or to inside.


Neuroparasitology- Reminds me of an episode, maybe the pilot, of an old UPN series called The Burning Zone about a team of scientists combatting unusual (i.e. made up) viruses. The story I recall had to do with some kind of parasitical virus that "possessed" people to further some sort of world-domination plot. There's definitely an rpg plot or two to squeeze out of neuroparastiology for just about any sci fi game, I would think. Off the top of my head, I can't think of any Traveller adventures that involved behavior modifying parasites, but I do know that XXVc did cover manufactured viruses in one supplement (Earth in the 25th Century,) so manufactured parasites are a no-brainer.

Quantum Biology- I got nuthin'. Quantum shmantum, might as well be magic.

Exo-Meteorology- This is the kind of science that science fiction sort of renders moot. At least the kind that involves colonized worlds. It's strongly implied that this work was already done many years prior, as it facilitated or helped facilitate colonization on other planetary bodies, including asteroids.

Nutrigenomics- Strictly background science, but interesting stuff, nonetheless.

Cliodynamics- Described in the io9 article as "Asimov's psychohistory come to life," this science has already been exploited in a number of arenas, including comics, tv, and rpgs where it is a tool of Traveller's race of master manipulators, the Hivers. In XXVc, psychohistory (I feel I can dispose with the unnecessary "cliodynamics" in favor of Asimov's already established term) could be utilized by the Venusians, but it seems a little involved for RAM's brute force approach to problem solving.

Synthetic Biology- Probably common in modern sci fi games, this doesn't seem like a good fit with any version of Traveller (except maybe for some Ancients-style monkey business.) This is already integral to the genetic engineering-heavy background of XXVc.

Recombinant Memetics- When I was boy, we called it "propaganda" and we liked it! Maybe my Old Fart-ness is showing, but this just seems like a fancy word for Psy-Ops. In any case, using the word "meme" in any serious context is cause for alarm.

Computational Social Science- Described as "the rigorous investigation of social phenomenon and trends over time." *yawn* See Cliodynamics, above.

Cognitive Economics- NEXT!

Organic Electronics- Okay, if I understand this correctly, it's a more refined form of biomechanics. I suppose in science fiction terms it would be a background science that allows for whatever level of bionics you want, right up to pseudo-biological cybernetics. This makes for nice technobabble and not much else, but it's nice to have some new technobabble to throw around, right?

Quantitative Biology- Another nice bit of t-babble that don't mean sweet fuck all in actual game terms.


(Tune in next time when I analyze how io9 isn't as quite cool as they want us to think they are)

The Dustbowl of My Mind

I haven't done much gaming in the past... oh, maybe 20 years or so. I've tried to either run a game or play in one without much luck in either. In particular, my meager, rusty GMing skills have been put to the test with less than stellar results. Case in point, my most recent venture into the world of Buck Rogers.

Long story short, one of my two players was of the type that likes to question the actions of his GM, going so far as to make a rather rude implication that I was out to fuck them over because I chose to keep my die rolls hidden. This happened to be an online game, but whether or not the game is in person, I choose to hide the die rolls. Standard operating procedure in my book.

Anyway, it just took the wind out of my sails and I just didn't want to GM after that. And this just after two sessions. And so, the river went dry, the crops withered away and the homesteaders left for... who knows what? My creative side just basically shut down after that and I haven't even wanted to run a game since then, much less continue writing adventures. Thanks, Kalvin, you asshole.

The other of my two players, the jocular Ettin of Hexen (aka Brandocles, he of Duster Bones fame) has begun an AD&D game starring me (and only me) which has helped get me back into the swing. That and the new Syfy series Defiance (it's a floor wax and a desert topping!) have started a trickle of creative sludge moving. In the case of Defiance, it has given me a much better visual conception of the Earth of XXVc, in addition to giving me some idea of how the different gennie types might co-exist.

So, if I can get through the minor physical issues I've been having of late and actually take a look at my game notes again, I might be able to get back to assailing the 4 or 5 suckers that wind up on my web log with more Buckness. If nothing else, I've been able to actually write something again (the above,) even though it doesn't amount to a hill o' shit.

I'm off, perchance to dream of bio-men and terrines and rocket everythings.


KAREEEEEEEEEEEEMMMMMM!

XXVc Notebook- The Curators: The Adventure Continues

So, the short, simple adventure I'm running is called, unofficially, The Curators as it deals with a group of academics that are attempting to counteract RAMs attempts at rewriting Earth history.

The lineup changed and now features Rad Randy and his fellow mutant and newfound friend Kim, a mutant traveller from the radioactive hell of eastern Europe. The tinker, who at press time still did not have either a name or a proper character sheet, accidentally stepped in front of an oncoming bus and that was that for him.

Rad and Kim made their way down the St. Lawrence river from Montreal, where they received their mission, to the rough and tumble org called Ottawa. Their celcomp in hand, they made their way into the surrounding sprawl to locate a possible untainted source of historical information.

On the way they avoid an encounter with a RAM patrol and their pet saluqi (q.v.) As the session comes to a close, the mongols (Terrans that work for the Han) are closing in quickly on our intrepid heroes.

And that's all for Friday's game.