Not being able to focus is a pain most days. More so for me when my ADD flares up and I just can not retain a strait line of thought. But I am still thinking and I have notebooks for those odd thoughts. So here is one: how can I make MD:Star Blazers stand out?
I am not really a table top player. I think the breadth of experience I have comes from my kicking my friends tail all across a hex map in BattleTech. So I really do not know what is out there. And really I have no experience with space strategy table top.
But my rules so far lend towards a fast game and I have been keeping the system simple. Plus it is all based on the same roll system as Manifest Destiny. So far people have been telling me that that is a good path. But the question is, how do I break this out from the nice realm into the main stream.
I suppose may be that is just a dream...or I may get it right and whamo, it all works out. Not to sure how it will end up though. Well what ever the case, things will happen as they happen and I can not really do a thing about it.
My son will be in day camp starting next week and so barring him being booted out. I should be able to order my thoughts so that I can start writing more in the role playing game and the table top also. Till Monday...or Sunday if I have a thought and an bored.
Now if only Thunt would update goblins... ;-D
Friday, June 19, 2009
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
When a wall is in the way...
With kids in the background screaming and getting into things...I have hit a wall in writing the core elements of Manifest Destiny. SO, what I am going to do is take a little side trip into the Table Top rules I have in one of my many notebooks.
I will admit, I am a fan of some games...not because they are good mind you. But because they are different and have a perspective that breaks from the usual formula. Games like Navy Field, Naval Ops: Warship Gunner, and Warship Gunner 2. The idea of being able to build your own ship is something I like. I guess that is why I played Eve Online for two years.
Manifest Destiny: Star Blazers is based in the old world before the time of colonization. Taking place in the age of war that engulfed the player empires and nearly destroyed the universe it's self.
The idea behind this game is that the player can manage a single ship or a fleet of space fairing vessels in to combat. I have looked at different sources and have been talking with people in the field of table top strategy titles and have the basis of a simple system for the game. There are of coarse things to work out because the current system is just about 12 hand written pages. Any way, I think I am going to write a little bit and put what is in my notebook into a document.
Fortunately I am not planning this game to be a two hundred page core book. Probably something allot smaller that can plug into an old world campaign setting. But I must go where my brain takes me. :-)
I will admit, I am a fan of some games...not because they are good mind you. But because they are different and have a perspective that breaks from the usual formula. Games like Navy Field, Naval Ops: Warship Gunner, and Warship Gunner 2. The idea of being able to build your own ship is something I like. I guess that is why I played Eve Online for two years.
Manifest Destiny: Star Blazers is based in the old world before the time of colonization. Taking place in the age of war that engulfed the player empires and nearly destroyed the universe it's self.
The idea behind this game is that the player can manage a single ship or a fleet of space fairing vessels in to combat. I have looked at different sources and have been talking with people in the field of table top strategy titles and have the basis of a simple system for the game. There are of coarse things to work out because the current system is just about 12 hand written pages. Any way, I think I am going to write a little bit and put what is in my notebook into a document.
Fortunately I am not planning this game to be a two hundred page core book. Probably something allot smaller that can plug into an old world campaign setting. But I must go where my brain takes me. :-)
Monday, June 15, 2009
Resting your head...
Since my post was so small, I thought I would add some more for today. I spent a good portion of the day writing about inns with in Manifest Destiny. Many of the RPGs I have played always used inns and taverns as just a place to eat, sleep, and talk to a contact. But in this rpg, they are more. After the cataclysm, the inn has become the social hub of those towns that survived.
Inns are larger then many are used to. Able to accommodate hundreds of people at a time. They do not have separate rooms as we understand, instead they are more like a military barracks. Especially since the colonization is being done in a military manner.
The in will be the players home. They will sleep there, they will eat there, they will look for work and get to know the locals there. They may even help the inn keeper or find a good night in the arms of a bar maid there. ;-) The inn is the social center of the MD world...and as such deserves the time I put into their descriptions.
Inns are larger then many are used to. Able to accommodate hundreds of people at a time. They do not have separate rooms as we understand, instead they are more like a military barracks. Especially since the colonization is being done in a military manner.
The in will be the players home. They will sleep there, they will eat there, they will look for work and get to know the locals there. They may even help the inn keeper or find a good night in the arms of a bar maid there. ;-) The inn is the social center of the MD world...and as such deserves the time I put into their descriptions.
Whipping out the Mojo, School of Fire
There are numerous schools of spell casting in this rpg. The first is the school of Fire. Fire is the cleansing flame, destroyer and renewer alike. The school of fire can be used to light a fire, cleans a poison, heal the body, or incinerate an enemy.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
The Cataclysm
The Cataclysm is the defining event of the new world. The culmination of stupid choices, ignorance, extraplanar magics, and a dragon. When it was all said and done, the Cataclysm wiped the new world of more then eighty percent of it's population.
The cataclysm was triggered by the dragon Valinthax as a way to reset the universe and stop it's impending collapse. But in doing so, a rift was opened and fire rained down from the container dimension that all universes exist in. This was necessary to purge the destabilizing energies from the universe, and they had to be replaced with something to maintain the balance.
Basically neutral to any universe, the energy that entered had one unfortunate effect. As it entered the universe it crystallized, having to conform to the physical laws of the reality. These crystals, when they impacted the ground, created an energy field that would suck the souls out of those in proximity to the crystal. What remained were nothing but shambling husks, left to the collective will of the spirits locked in the crystals.
The crystal zombies started to drag those not killed by the crystals to them. One touch would cause the persons soul to be absorbed into the crystal. In a short time, the major cities and many of the larger towns were nothing but cinders and the walking dead. This is the cataclysm, and it freed the new world from the grasp from the old one. It may be hell...but at least people are free to be what they want.
The cataclysm was triggered by the dragon Valinthax as a way to reset the universe and stop it's impending collapse. But in doing so, a rift was opened and fire rained down from the container dimension that all universes exist in. This was necessary to purge the destabilizing energies from the universe, and they had to be replaced with something to maintain the balance.
Basically neutral to any universe, the energy that entered had one unfortunate effect. As it entered the universe it crystallized, having to conform to the physical laws of the reality. These crystals, when they impacted the ground, created an energy field that would suck the souls out of those in proximity to the crystal. What remained were nothing but shambling husks, left to the collective will of the spirits locked in the crystals.
The crystal zombies started to drag those not killed by the crystals to them. One touch would cause the persons soul to be absorbed into the crystal. In a short time, the major cities and many of the larger towns were nothing but cinders and the walking dead. This is the cataclysm, and it freed the new world from the grasp from the old one. It may be hell...but at least people are free to be what they want.
Friday, June 12, 2009
All Quiet on the Neural Front
Well...not much to say today. Due to a financial crunch I did not have the time to write anything in the RPG. This happens from time to time and it is a pain. Things conspire against me it seams. Money gets tight, the car decides it will flick on the engine warning light. My son is graduating tomorrow from Kindergarten and my three year old daughter just wants to be loved all day long.
I am not saying all these are bad things...but they do tend to eat my time and available neural run time till I am left writing this at 12:27am. So hey, I am not REALLY supposed to say this. But if you wana help me out then take a look and click something adish. OR, spread the word of what I am doing. More readers means more clicky things...and I can tell my loving wife I made more off this then 5 cents.
Oh great...and now my DSL is flaking out. Shoot...I am going to sleep. Nite!!
I am not saying all these are bad things...but they do tend to eat my time and available neural run time till I am left writing this at 12:27am. So hey, I am not REALLY supposed to say this. But if you wana help me out then take a look and click something adish. OR, spread the word of what I am doing. More readers means more clicky things...and I can tell my loving wife I made more off this then 5 cents.
Oh great...and now my DSL is flaking out. Shoot...I am going to sleep. Nite!!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
That pesky grind stone again...
Well I am back to writing the story and history elements of the RPG again. There is allot of explanation, at least in my own head, about why things break from tradition. One such area is in the use of mana to create effective weapon enhancements.
In MD I wanted to break away from the usual +4 long sword or uber death and go some where else. Items (armor, weapons, trinkets, more) will be conduits for energy or mana. The player then can place in the item a focus that gives the item powers and effects that are greater then the base item.
So why do this? Well first this is the natural evolution of what other games had started with gem slotting and such. but more then that, it give the player power and options. A player can carry a series of small light foci, expendable or not, and in situations fop them out and put new ones in to alter the effectiveness of the item.
This also allows the player to go shopping for powers. And instead of having to offer useless items that weigh a ton, more useful base items or foci can be offered as rewards. In the end, I think this and the story behind it will help to set this role playing game apart from the rest.
So, back to the writing...there is more to do and more to get out of my head. Any one have a melon baller?
In MD I wanted to break away from the usual +4 long sword or uber death and go some where else. Items (armor, weapons, trinkets, more) will be conduits for energy or mana. The player then can place in the item a focus that gives the item powers and effects that are greater then the base item.
So why do this? Well first this is the natural evolution of what other games had started with gem slotting and such. but more then that, it give the player power and options. A player can carry a series of small light foci, expendable or not, and in situations fop them out and put new ones in to alter the effectiveness of the item.
This also allows the player to go shopping for powers. And instead of having to offer useless items that weigh a ton, more useful base items or foci can be offered as rewards. In the end, I think this and the story behind it will help to set this role playing game apart from the rest.
So, back to the writing...there is more to do and more to get out of my head. Any one have a melon baller?
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