Small but vicious dog.

2009-09-04T16:18:00.000-07:00

Just watched Ghost for the first time. Not anything like repeatedly being shown that awful pottery scene had lead me to believe. My thoughts:

No one told me it was funny.
Why isn't Whoopi Goldberg doing anything now?
Patrick Swayze can act...apparently.
Again...no one told me it was funny.
Ending was too sickly for my tastes.

Anyway, as The Dame says, thats it possums.

Elemental - Great rap, or greatest rap?

2009-08-30T06:47:00.000-07:00

So...i heard this at a mates house when on the piss for some reason or other...and, it's fucking ace. Never been a fan of rap (appart from the comedy stylings of Sir Mixalot and MC Hammer) at all, being more a metal kind of guy, but i must say that Elemental's Victorian-steam-punk-rap has turned me somewhat. I mean who doesn't like songs about monkey's in monocles?

I'm thinking of having him as background music in a Victoriana game i'm planning on running. But i fear it would just be a distraction.

Anyway, check out his EP Penny Dreadful of if you can find his album Rebel Without Applause
all the better. Personally i'm most fond of the EP but there you go.

Watch this:

Elemental - Cup Of Brown Joy from Moog on Vimeo.

Final Destination 3

2009-08-30T06:44:00.000-07:00

Just watched it. Shit. Don't bother.

<--That is my Final Destination 3 Face.

DEAD MEAT

2009-08-29T16:39:00.001-07:00

So after Dark Heresy i thought i'd put this up as i'm planning on running this next Friday (the 4th) so i thought i'd have a quick look (quick being the operative word) at this four page wonder.

DEAD MEAT is a quick play, fast and furious, zombie centric RPG by Jared Sorenson. It's very rules lite, having only three stats, those being (lifted from the .pdf):

ZIP is how fast you think, act, and react when confronted with the horrors of the Living Dead!
-You roll ZIP whenever you need to run from a zombie, or dodge a zombie trying to get some skin.

WHOMP is how much of a can of whupass you can open on a Zombie!
-You roll WHOMP when you want to kick some undead ass. And if you want to break stuff or lift heavy things I guess.

GUTS is how brave you are, and how much tasty insides you have for the Ghouls!
-You roll GUTS when you might breakdown or freeze in fear, or when you're injured to resist the Zombie Plague.

You build your character...or more than likely characters sonsidering how deadly the game can be... by distributing 7 points between these three stats.

I've decided to distribute my points as so:

James Shaw, car mechanic and soon to be slayer of the undead.

ZIP: 2
WHOMP: 3
GUTS: 2

Gear: Tyre iron

so....actually thats it....done.

If i thought anyone cared i'd put next fridays AP up on here and RPGnet...but nobody will read it so i don't think i'll bother.

Dark Heresy

2009-08-29T15:13:00.000-07:00

So, after spotting that the thread on RPGnet has just popped it's head up again i decided to throw the oar back in and make a character. Anyway children todays book is Dark Heresy. Black Industries/Fantasy Flight Games game of investagative horror in the 41st Millenium. Also, awesome.

The character creation system, is rather unsurprisingly, very similar to the WHFRP system detailed in an earlier post so i won't bother going through all the gumpf again because i can't be arsed to be honest.

Anyway, just like the WHFRP characters i created i'm going to go the random rolls route again and it was surprisingly quick, helped by the fact that i know the book layout (and what a book it is btw).

Right so the first thing we do is roll for our home world. This decision will affect exactly what type of character we can play and also gives me the following traits:

Blessed Ignorance (-5 penalty to Forbidden Lore tests)
Hagiography (The Common Lore skills; Imperium, Imperial Creed and War are treated as Basic Skills)
Liturgical Familiarity (Literacy and Language (High Gothic) are treated as Basic Skills)
Superior Origins (+3 Willpower)

I rolled a 79 which gives me...Imperial World. This being the most common type all career options are open.

The next thing to do was to sort out our stats. Being born on an imperial world my stats were all equal to 20 + 2D10...so dice were rolled and:


WS   31(26)
BS   32
S    31
T    34
Int  35
Per  32
WP   29
Fel  34

Like WHFRP you get a chance to re-roll one of your stats, i chose WS just to even them out a bit (the first roll is in parenthesis).

Next you roll on a table to find out you career path.

I rolled a 33 which is Assassin. Cool.

This career gives me some starting skills and talents, aswell as some gear. They'll be detailed later.

Next up its woulds and fate points...and more tables:

Wounds (D5+8) = 12
Fate Points = 3
Oh, and Monthly Income for my assassin (120 + 3D10) = 135 Imperial Credits

Starting characters also get a 400xp boost to give you a few extra skills and talents, i chose the suggested quick play Skill and Talent Package:

Weapon Skill Advance Simple (+5) 100
Inquiry 100
Hightened Senses 100
Sound Constitution (+5 T) 100

Lastly, there's the Build Your Character section, i chose to ignore this almost entirely. Firstly, it's not that important and secondly because even if i were rolling this up for a game, i would prefer to do this bit myself.

The one bit of this section i didn't ignore was a table intitled Imperial Divinations which are a sort of horoscope/birthsign thing. I rolled i 90 which is:

"A wise man learns from the death of others" Increase intelligence by +3

So, thats our character made. Lets look at how he looks:



+++Starting transmission+++
+++Acquiring Protocols+++

++++++

+++Gene script accepted, Thankyou Inquisitor.+++

Name: Codename Damocles...

Sex: Male

Age: Unknown

WS  S   T   Ag  Int Per WP  Fel
36  32  35  35  35  32  32  34

Wounds: 12

Fate Points: 3

Starting Skills

Speak Language (low gothic), Awareness, Dodge, Inquiry, 

Starting Talents 

Melee Weapon Training (Primative), Ambidextrous, Thrown Weapon Training, 
Basic Weapon Training (SP), Pistol Training (SP), Heightened Senses

Traits

Blessed Ignorance, Hagiography,Liturgical Familiarity,Superior Origins

Starting Gear

Hunting Rifle and 16 rounds, Sword, Knife, 10 Throwing Knives, 
3 doses of Stimm, Charm (corpse hair), Black Bodygolve
(Common Quality Clothing)

Starting Rank

Sell Steel 


+++“Every man is a spark in the darkness. by the time he is noticed +++ 
he is gone forever. "

+++End Transmission+++

Sorry this was so dry. I'm a bit frazzled at the moment, and i've spent the last year writing Lab reports.

A challenger appears!

2009-03-24T15:48:00.000-07:00

So, first post in..*looks*...ages. Not on any previous thread either...hmmm. Right, anyway, i'm back and stuff, and with a new challenge i will most likely fail miserably at. That challenge being the "Not to buy any new models or stuff for six months and to paint the piles of crap i have to paint still...challenge...for kid's...scratch the last part". Anyway, the plan is this, in a probably vain attempt to put a dent in the huge piles of metal and plastic miniatures i've been collecting over the past 15 years.

The reasons for this are three-fold:

Reason the First: Current economic situation. I'm moving into a new house soon which will cost considerably more than my current place. So i can't really afford to do my useual fortnightly splurges at the local GW.

Reason the Second: I'm really fed up at how much i have spent over the years on armies that i've never touched once the models were purchased (O&G and Warriors of Chaos, i'm looking at you....go stand in the corner)

Reaon the Third: Tied in to the the first reason given..but i didn't feel like putting two money whinges one after the other. I'm a poor student (Currently studying for a combined MEng in Mechanical Engineering)and the job market is poor in my area (actually its been poor since Thatcher took a turbo dump on the North in the early eighties, but...moving on). So i need to curb my spending anyway.

So, those are my reasons for setting myself this task. This would not be a propper challenge without rules so:

- No models to be personally purchased from 01/04/2009 until 30/09/2009 unless they meet the below criteria:

- The models were bought with the proceeds of the sale of other models.
- The models were bought as a gift by a third party (unlikely my as my
birthday is the 30th of March.
- The models are Space Hulk....which is out in September...and i'm just
not that strong.

- Brushes and paints are not subject to this ruling. Neither are Codecies/Army Books (a boy can oggle can't he?)

I was originally going to give myself some kind of Joker/Veto/Get out of Jail Free card system. But i thought it defeated the pupose of the challenge...but i do so want some sweet, sweet Infinity Starter Sets. Any offers?

Anyway, that's it for now. I'll update on the 1st of April with rough plans for next month.

T'ra

Paul

WHFRP - Night's Dark Masters

2007-07-31T04:30:00.000-07:00

Another WHFRP one. This time a Vampire Character from Night's Dark Masters. I know its not a new system or owt but...they look fun to make :) Anyway, the book davises against using thee as PC's and then provides advance schemes for them so....i think i'll make one.

Like the skaven before it, first thing you do is roll for your race, this time on a d100. The options are, Blood dragon, Lahmian, Necrarch, Strigoi, Von Carstein and independant. I rolled an 89 so i get Independant as my race. This gives me a set of skills, talents and traits, as always:

Independant Skills: Charm, Concealment, Disguise, Evaluate, Gossip, Intimidate, Scale Sheer Surface, Shadowing, Silent Move

Talents:

As an indipendant, i don't get any fancey talents.....:( so i have to roll on the random talent table in the main rule-book. I get:

78 = Sturdy
44 = Mimic

Now onto traits these are normally reserved for monsters and include effects such as causing fear etc. You also get to chose some nifty bloodline powers just like those in the vampire counts army book. I chose:

Blood Burst
Host
and get Frightening as standard.

He's not a very attracktive chap old Vlad the Bad, Blood Burst means that his body is covered in sores under which tarry, old, nutrient free blood lies...these naturally burst when he is attcked and Host makes him a walking worm farm...no wonder he's frightening.

Now i really should have rolled my stats earlier. As with all WHFRP stuff its a pre-defined number + 2d10

so:

WS 40 + 10
BS 40 + 09
S 40 + 08
T 40 + 18
Ag 40 + 08
Int 30 + 11
WP 50 + 14
Fel 30 + 11

Wounds : 18

Now onto His Career, there's only one choice, Thrall:

Main Profile

          WS    BS    S    T   Ag   Int   WP    Fel
Starting  50    49    48   58  48   41    64    41
Advance   +10   -     +20  +15 +20  +10   +10   +10  
Current   50    49    48   58  48   41    64    41


Secondary Profile

          A     W     SB   TB   M   Mag   IP    FP 
Starting  1     18    4    5    6    0    0     0
Advance   -     +5    -    -    -    -    -     -
Current   1     18    4    5    6    0    0     0

The independant get no talents and no new Skills ...the bum 'ed.

So one last thing to do. Roll for my vampires curse:

I get a 49 so "No relection" it is, which considering the state of the poor chap, is probably a merciful blessing.

And thats him done, good luck sucking the blood of virgins mate, they'll need to be Helen Keller like to let you near them.....or just the kind of tart yu get in Carlisle on a friday night.

WHFRP - Children of the Horned Rat

2007-07-30T15:36:00.000-07:00

Well. Number 4 for tonight, and though i have already done a WHFRP character i thought i'd do a Skaven one, and then possibly a Chaos one and then maybe a Vampire as they are all suitably different from the standard Elf, Human, Halfling Dwarf types offered in the core book.

Characters are made just like in the core book though this time there is a roll for race. Roll a d10 if a 1 is rolled you may chose your race out of Common, Mighty (Black Skaven) or Chosen (Grey Seers) :

I rolled a 7 so common it is. Each starting race, like the others, comes with its own set of skills and talents. I get:

Racial Features (Common):

Skills: Common Knowledge (Skaven), Perception, Speak (Queekish), Swim

Talents: Night Vision

Now i roll to see what my startin clan is, tis will define the character further and also sets out what basic trappings i ould hav in addition to hose offered by my stating career. Aswell as addin more skills and talents:

I get:

Talents: Animal Training and Command

Trappings: Hand Weapon, Leather Jack, and 1d10/5 Warpstone Tokens.

Now, onto my characteristics. These are a predefined number + 2d10, thus:

WS = 20 + 11
BS = 20 + 11
S = 20 + 6 (Boosted to 11 as a gift from the Horned Rat)
T = 25 + 12
Ag = 25 + 18
Int = 20 + 6
WP = 15 + 10
FEL = 10 + 14

Next are wounds and fate points:

Wounds: roll d10 consult table i get a 2 so i get 8 wounds
Fate points: as above....i would need to get an 8-8 just to gt afate point...i get a 1 :( bottoms.

So its on to the table of rolling up your career-ness. This table includes both Skaven and standard Careers...i rolled an 19 on a d100 and so get to be......a clanrat hurrah! a Skavn career(i was going to fudge this anyway if it weren't :P)

Right onto the construction of my profile:

Main Profile

          WS    BS    S    T   Ag   Int   WP    Fel
Starting  31    31    31   37  43   26    25    24
Advance   +5    +5    -    -   +5   -     +5    -    
Current   31    31    31   37  43   26    25    24


Secondary Profile

          A     W     SB   TB   M   Mag   IP    FP 
Starting  1     8     3    3    4    0    0     0
Advance   -    +2     -    -    -    -    -     -
Current   1     8     3    3    4    0    0     0

So, now add the skills and talents from the Clanrat career (in bold) to the ones already gained we now have:

Skills: Common Knowledge (Skaven), Perception, Speak (Queekish), Swim, Concealment, Outdoor Survival, Scale Sheer Surface, Silent Move (+10)

Talents: Night Vision, Animal Training and Command (from the clan Moulder affiliation), Specialist Weapons Group (Sling), Tunnel Rat

Trappings: Hand Weapon, Leather Jack, and 1d10/5 Warpstone Tokens from the clan Moulder affiliation, plus Light armour (leather jack and skullcap) Hand weapon (he needs two apparently) sling, and shield.

So thats him done.....Sikkrit wishes-wishes you would come to the underhive so he can know you good-good.....

nWoD

2007-07-30T13:52:00.001-07:00

So, you know what? I actually enjoyed making this boy, nWoD characters are nice and quick to make and i haven't made or played one in ages (and i'd really like to play this one). Good show eh? Onward:

So, character concept eh? I chose "Lost Soul" an ex-university professor who delved too deep and, driven to the brink of madness, is now wandering the streets of London.

First thing you do is spend points on attributes. These are grouped into Mental, Physical and Social. And your points are spent in a 5/4/3 split i chose to spend 5 on Intelligence, 4 Physical and 3 on Social. You get one point in each attribute automatically. Here how it pans out :


           Mental              Physical         Social
Power      Intelligence 3      Strength 2       Presence 2
Finesse    Wits 3              Dexterity 3      Manipulation 3
Resistance Resolve 2           Stamina 3        Composure 1

Quite well rounded i think. Now onto skill these follow the same split as before this time its 11/7/4 as my mental attributes got the highest last time so do my skills in the mental field:

Mental (11)

Medecine 3 (well, he is a doctor)
Science 3 (as above)
Investigation 2 (all that work on his Phd must have helped)
Academics 3 (eh....duh?)

Physical (7)

Athletics 2 (ex-track champ.)
Brawl 1 (life's tough on the streets)
Drive 1 (self explanitory)
Stealth 2 (life on the streets makes you good at staying out of sight, especially if you know whats after you)
Survival 2 (see brawl)

Social (4)

Streetwise 3 (see above)
Empathy 1 (a sympathetic soul this one)

So now its time for my derived attributes:

Defense (lowest of wits or Dex) : 3
Health (Stamina + Size) : 7
Initiative (Dex + Comp) : 4
Morality : 7
Size : 5
Speed (Str + Dex + 5) : 9
Willpower (Resolve + Composure) : 3

Vice : Hope
Virtue : Pride

Now to round our character off with some merits, i have 7 points to spend:

Mental Merits:

Encyclopedic Knowledge (4)

Physical Merits:

Fresh Start (1)
Iron onstitution (1)

Social Merits :

Barfly (1)

Well thats it for David Bently. Good luck on he streets mate.....beware of what goes bump in the dark.

Dungeons & Dragons 3.5

2007-07-30T13:09:00.000-07:00

So another extremely vanilla character....but i'm just putting off the Game of Thrones character i need to make. So you know about D&D right? good. 'ere we go:

Name : Althalus of Athkatla
Lvl 1 Rogue
Race : Human
Alignment : Chaotic Good
Deity : Kord

So roll 3D6 x 6 yada yada yada....you know this shit i'm just going to get on with it....stupid challenge :P

I get :

STR 10 (+0)
DEX 16 (+3)
CON 14 (+2)
INT 15 (+2)
WIS 14 (+2)
CHA 8 (-1)

(Why can't i roll like that when i need too, low CHA isn't a worry, my characters are always aloof arseholes like myself anyway)

HP : 8
AC : 16
Initiative : 3

Saving throws

Fortitude : 2
Reflex : 5
Will : 2

Skills

Balance ; 7
Climb : 4
Disable Device : 6
Escape Artist : 7
Hide : 9
Intimiate : 4
Listen : 6
Move Silently : 7
Open Lock : 9
Search : 6
Spot : 6

Feats

Precise Shot
Stealthy

Special Abilities

Sneak Attack (+1D6)
Trap Finding

There we go, the basics of a 3.5 Character, 10 minutes to make, boring as sin and vanilla as fuck but.....y'know...i really want to kill things and take their stuff now. LIke REALLY.

Exalted

2007-07-30T12:22:00.000-07:00

So, i've been a bit tardy with this one. Nevermind its on to the first of my Exalted characters (i'm going to do some from the fatsplats too).

For those that don't know, the basic premise of the game is that the player characters are chosen by a higher being (such as the Unconquered Sun, Luna, the Neverborn, Autochthon, the Five Maidens, or the Five Elemental Dragons) and imbued with the powers of a demigod (thus, "exalted," or "raised high."). Mythic fantasy super heroes if you will.

I'm using 1st Ed.....because i feel like it.

Here we go:

Win-un of the 2nd Stone (Suitably silly name)

Concept: Assassin
Nature : Leader
Caste : Night

Like all WW games you create characters by filling in dots on the character sheet, here's my Attributes (all out of 5):

Strength : 3
Dexterity : 4
Stamina : 4
Charisma : 4
Manipulation : 4
Appearance : 3 (all my characters are decidedly avarage looking, waste ofpoints if you ask me)
Perception : 4
Intelligence : 4
Wits : 3

So there is the basic structure, now onto Abilities:

Dawn
Archery : 4
Melee : 4

Night
Athletics :4
Awareness : 3
Dodge : 5
Stealth : 5

Zenith
Endurance : 2
Survival : 1

Twilight
Occult : 1

So thats my abilities...another stealthy thief/rogue type. I should probably start playing something else.....

Advantages

Backgrounds

Influence : 3
Manse(Gem of Adamant Skin) : 4
Resources : 3
Artifact : 1

Charms


Name                           Cost
Wise Arrow                      1
Ox-Body Technique               0
Lightning Speed                 1
Graceful Crane Stance           3
Spider Foot Style               2
Easily-overlooked Syle          3
Reed In The Wind                1
Shadow Over Water               2
Excellent Strike                1
Leaping Tigre Attack           3m1w

His willpower is : 8

Virtues

Compassion : 1
Temperance : 2
onviction : 3
Valour : 3

Essence : 2

Anima

Win-un of the 2nd Stone's Anima is a shadowy wolf prowling by his feet.

So there we go, one more down, and i must say it was somewhat of a chore, but i have always found that with exalted, they sometimes seem to take forever. Hopefully i'll get an nWoD character up tonight and they tend to be somewhat faster to make.

Victoriana

2007-07-24T04:53:00.000-07:00

Well, another day, another PC. This time Fuzion powered steampunk game from Heresy Games, Victoriana. I'd never heard of this game before, and on checking out RPG.net, neither had many others. Though released in '93 the game seems to have found only a small amount of success after its 2002 reprint, or atleast thats only when people seem to have heard of it.

I picked this game up on a whim while looking for SLA industries stuff on eBay and thought, "steampunk....good.....dwarves.....good.....beastmen? That's novel....£10! sold!" To be honest, i wasn't ever inspired by it once it came through the letter box, the whole thing is a little messy and at times amateurish (especially the spelling mistakes, they can't even spell Edinburgh right on the world map, which by the way is useless anyway). So, for the last few years its sat languishing on various shelves. But when this challenge came along i thought "Perfect, maybe I'll actually read it". So, onwards to character creation:

Right, I'm going to be frank, this was bit of a pain in the arse. You know those books where you spend all your time flicking back and forth? yeah? this is one of them. Nightmare. Very frustrating. Added to the fact that i have never used the Fuzion system before and you have a recipe for me stomping about the house and shouting at the book.

Anyway, enough of my inanimate object abuse:

The first thing you do is chose your social class and race. Class in this game effects how many characteristic points you have to spend. The game does seem geared toward you playing lower class reactionaries, so there is a bit of a balance issue here. Race wise its fairly standard fayre : Dwarves, Elves (elderen), Gnomes, Halflings,Beastmen, Ogres and Humans. Though there a other races mentioned in the GM section aswell as some race smaller than either Gnome or Halfling that is shown on the two pages concerning races, but there is no text telling you what it is.

I chose:

Race: Human
Class: Lower

So as a member of the lower classes i have 36 points to spend on my attributes, as opposed to 24 for Upper class characters. Interestingly anything over 6 is considered
super human, especially in a human, yet with 36 points to spend its impossible not to go over 6 in at least one of your stats. Seems a tad silly to me...

Stats:

DEX : 7
BODY: 8
INT : 6
PRE : 4
RES : 6
Luck: 5

So, that was easy, appart from searching around to find out how many points i actually had to spend, which turned out to be listed about 6 pages back in a little table, thanks Heresy.

Now we move on to skills, this shows how free form PC generation is in Victoriana, and how a solid back story is useful in creation. I had decided that my character is Male, in his early 40's. A one time cabin boy, he has spent his whole life in the navy, becoming a Marine (soldier) at the age of 15 and being dishonorably discharged last year for assaulting a superior officer. He now lives on the barge he uses to haul small amounts of cargo up and down the Thames and is heavily involved with the Bolsheviks and Unions he would, as a soldier in His Majesties Navy, have vehemently opposed.

So, first we choose a childhood experience:

I chose Cabin Boy

Then a past career (apparently you can't have a current career?):

Which is Soldier

With these come five skills:

Dodge
Rifle Marksmanship
Sword Play
Small Boat Pilot
Brawl

On which i have 30 points to spend. Now as i can't have any at this stage with a rank over 6. They ALL get to be rank 6 (30/5=6). Another silly mechanic.

Now that the basic PC is built. Get some option points to spend. Twenty five to be exact and finding out that number had me grinding my teeth too, but the less said about that the better.

I can spend my option points on:

Skills (boosting them above 6)
Talents
Perks and privileges
Contacts and Favours
And Property and Assets

I can also, if I choose, gain some back by introducing a Complication, no surprise there, not exactly new mechanic is it?

Oh and they all have different costs.

Well, here's how i spent them:

Property and Assets
Barge (2)
Irregular income(1)

Talents
Direction sense(3)
Combat Sense (3)
Light Sleeper (3)

Perks and Privileges
Union Member (3)
Blackguard (3)

Contacts
Revolutionary (2)

Which leaves me five left over. But what the hay, lets give him a disadvantage (Alcoholism) which gives me 5 more points to spent, which I'll keep with the rest and turn into shiny £'s at the beginning of the game.

So now would normally be time to buy equipment with my total cash of : £16 but we're not doing that, and thank god. As its all in old money, and i don't know how that works.

EDIT: Iforgot to name him...i call him 'Stinky' Pete Henderson. Good luck fighting oppression and all that...

Pestigors - New Monster for WHFRP

2007-07-23T16:45:00.000-07:00

Pestigor

Pestigor are Beastmen who have given their souls over to the worship of Nugle, their appeance is like that of a horribly diseased and mutated beastman, their bellies are distented and swollen, their bodies mass of patchy fur and gaping sores. Figting a Pestigor is a truely horrifying experiance, and even if you do survive thre is the very present risk of disease...

Main Profile


WS  BS   S   T  Ag  Int WP  Fel
45% 25% 40% 55% 37% 25% 35% 27%

Secondary Profile

A  W SB TB M Mag IP FP
1 18  4  5 5  0  0  0

Skills:Command, Concealment*, Dodge Blow, Follow Trail, intimidate +10%, Outdoor Survival, Perception, Shadowing, Silent Move, Speak language (Dark Tongue)

* Due to the Pestigors great stench, he is at -10% on concealment tests to those down wind or within 20ft.

Talents: Menacing, Frghtening, Rover, Speciaist Weapon Group (Two Handed), Strike Mighty Blow.

Specialist Rules:

-Chaos Mutations: Animalistic legs, Bestial Appearances and large horns. There is a 60% Chance of a further mutation. Roll on table 2-1: Expanded Chaos mutations to generate, and modify profile as appropriate.

-Plague: Opponents that survive combat with a Pestigor is stil at risk of death. Any character that suffered 1 or more wounds from a pestigor must make an (Easy +10%) Toughness Test within an hour of combat or come down with a Disease of the GM's choice.

-Horrid Stench: The Pestigor emits a foul and corpulrent odour. Melee opponents of the Pestigor suffer -10% to their weapon skill.

Armour: Medium armour : Tough and resiliant hide.

Armour Points: 2

Weapons: Great Weapon, Horns (SB Damage)

Trappings: GM's Descretion

**Notes:** So far his has not be play tested against a group, but is fairly killable by characters even in their first careers.

Disease: I would go for something that involves a great deal of Bodily fluids being expulsed, like The Flux, and avoid Neiglish Rot, as it is a killer. But thats up to you.

Cthulu : Dark Ages

2007-07-23T12:45:00.000-07:00

Well, here we are, at number 3. Not much can be said about Chaosium's Cthulu series and its BRP system that hasn't already been said, so i'm not going to bother. If you care that much , Google it.

Over the last few years, Cthulu, to me atleast, seems to have become somewhat stale. Its lost its edge of creepyness and its ability to shock and scare....i mean what's scary about a plushy Cthulu? ut one game i never heard much about was Dark Ages, so spotting it sitting on the shelf of my local Ottakers i decided it must be bought. That was 3 years ago and i've only just cracked it open. So what better way to familiarise myself (not like BRP needs much familiarisation, but this is a completely stand alone book) than to make a character.

So, i bring you:

Aerlbert the young, of Skarlsberg

I envision him as a young, niave warrior about to be shaken to his core by the horrors of the Cthulu Mythos.

Sex : Male
Age : 18

Generating Base Characteristics

For those in the dark, in BRP you are given 100 points to spend across your Base characteristics minimum for SIZ and INT are 8, and for all others it is 3.

So:

STR 13
DEX 16
CON 12
APP 14
INT 11
POW 06
SIZ 12
EDU 11

From these you can gain your Dextity, Idea, Know, Luck and Charisma Rolls by x the relevent stat by 5, thusly :

Dexterity 80%
Idea 55%
Know 55%
Luck 30%
Charisma 70%

Damage Bonus : +1D4

Cthulu Mythos : 99

Hit Points : 12 (CON + SIZ)/2

Sanity : 30 (POW X 5)

Now you Multiply the PC's EDU by 20 (220) ad spend these beween the Occupation Skills as so:

Grapple : 55
Natural World : 40
Own Kingdom: 50
Ride: 45
Status: 25
Track: 50

Now you multiplt the INT score by 10 to gain personal interest points (110) that can be spent on any other skills except Cthulu Mysthos. I spent mine as follows :

Dodge (DEX X 2) : 52
Jump (25) : 45
Library Use (EDU X 2) : 22
Other Kingdoms (20) : 11
Swim (25) : 45
Hide (20) : 55



Weapons

Weapon     Skill  Damage Range #Attack
Fist(50)     -      1D3    -      1
Kick(25)     -      1D4    -      1
Head Butt(10)-      1D6    -      1
Grapple     55     spec    -      1
Long Sword  60      1D8    L      1
Javelin     55      1D6   25      1

So there you go, One Dark Ages Cthulu investigator, ready to go insane in the first scene.

SLA Industries

2007-07-23T10:37:00.000-07:00

SLA Industries is, to be honest, a very viable contestant for "Best Game Evar!!11!!!(TM)". Probably my favourite interperatation of Cyber-Punk and a game that is severely underated and , as far as i know, still, after its 2000 re-print, completely unsupported. But still, one must soldier on musn't one?

For hose that don't know SLA Industries is a roleplaying game first published in 1993 by Nightfall Games in Glasgow. The game combines concepts inspired by a range of song lyrics, aesthetics and ideas from the Industrial music scene, cyberpunk fiction, Anime (most notably, to my mind atleast, Akira), and the growing cultural obsession with the media (such as 24 hour news services) in order to create an ultra-dystopian far-flung future in which the 99.9% of the known universe is either directly owned by, or indirectly controlled by, the eponymous SLA Industries corporation. It is also noted as having a distinctive flavour due to the influences of the Glasgow / Scottish upbringing of the writers, as opposed to the more pure Americana influences of other games written around this period.All of which combines to make a game composed of pure fucking win (yes the expletive is neccessary, its just that cool).

Some setting info....(lifted from wikipedia)

The SLA (pron. "Slay") Industries corporation itself was run by a weakly godlike creature called "Mr. Slayer", whose upper management team included a number of other creatures like himself, such as "Intruder", "Senti" and "Preceptor Teeth". The corporation was headquartered on "Mort City", a densely populated city-sprawl larger than Eurasia and surrounded by the urban ruins of the "Cannibal Sectors", all located on a vast planet (also called "Mort") that had been stripped of its natural resources to the point that the ecology had been utterly destroyed. SLA Industries controlled an undefined but vast number of planets in pursuit of Mr Slayer's mysterious grand plan, the "World of Progress". Much of the setting was surreally disturbing, and tended to provoke as many questions as it answered.

Players took the role of freelance employees of SLA Industries living in Mort City, taking care of odd jobs assigned to them by the corporation. These jobs usually involved keeping the peace -- everything from hunting down serial killers, clearing out monsters from the sewers under the city and foiling terrorists to bodyguarding celebrities, quashing riots, assassinating irritating civilians and generally making sure the public toed the line. Appearance and style were emphasized in the game world as much as combat ability, because everything was televised, and a character's television ratings were often more important to her career than her abilities. Later expansions to the game also let players play as celebrity gladiators called Contract Killers. As a roleplaying experience, the game tended to be predisposed towards splatterpunk horror, noir, dark satire, and/or gunbunny high action. However the byzantine political nature of the setting along with detailed environment allowed for more thriller and politics based campaigns should the players wish it.

Anyway i hope this give you some idead of the inherent aceness of the game. Onward to character creation:

Character concept.

I jotted this down as: Human, Stealthy, Paranoid, Mentalist Imagine Jason Bourne mixed with that sniper from saving private ryan, doing blade runner. In action he is quite one dimensional, only really being good at one thing, but he does it really well.

Stats and such-like

In SLA you are given 300 points to spend across charactercreation including Characteristics, Skills and Advantages/Disadvantages.

Characteristics

Human base characteristics are 5 across the board an it costs 5 points to raise them by one and by th same value, if i wished to decrease a stat by one from the baseline of 5 i would gain 5 points so my stats of:

STR 8 (+15)
DEX 10 (+25)
DIA 10 (+25)
CONC 5 (+0)
CHA 5 (+0)
COOL 4 (-5)

Would cost (15+25+25-5) 60Pts.

Also derived from these are:

PHYS 9 (STR+DEX/2)
KNOW 8 (DIA+CONC)

There is also a Flux score, but a the character is human, it is, and will remain, 0.

After this is completed, it is onwards, with my remaining 240Pts. to skills. These are devided into Groups based upon the main stats above, and thats how i'll list th one's i've purchased.

Skills re paid for in a one point per rank cumulative system, this means to buy rank 3 in a skill, the player must buy Rank 1 + Rank 2 + Rank 3 = 6Pts. As shown below:


Skill Rank 1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
Base Cost  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9  10
Cum. Cost  1  3  6 10 15 21 28 36 45  55

As noted before, this guy is a bit of a one trick pony. Hence the high amount of Dex based skills.

STR Skills

Blade-1-H Rank 4

DEX Skills

Martial arts Rank 5
Forgery, Manual Rank 5
Slight Rank 5
Sneaking Rank 9
Hide Rank 8
Pistol Rank 7
Drive Motorcycle Rank 6

(Ok so he's a bit overdone, but thats th way i like to play them, its almost Min/Maxing....but not quite)

PHYS Skills

Climb Rank 5
Acrobatics Rank 5

DIA Skills

Computer use Rank 4
Tracking Rank 4
Torture Rank 5
Lock Picking Rank 4
Intinidation Rank 5

KNOW Skills

Literacy Rank 3

Secondary Skills

Video Games Rank 1
Artistic Ability Rank 3

As you can see i've sorta stuck as close as possible to the old Jason Bourne idea, he's ok in a fight, but better at avoiding them....but he's shit with anything that isn't pistol. But they have to have a major flaw somewhere i suppose.

Advantages/Disadvantages

This is where i get the chance to flesh out his paranoid schitzo psychology. Tough being all assassiny and such has improved his Vision to Rank 3 I have reduced his Speech Rank -1 not only to compensate, i see him as someone who has great difficulty interracting with others. He also sufferst from Illness:Migrains Rank -4 which has ledto his Drug Addiction Rank -3 (Most notably to pain killers) which has, even with the Uni's he's pulled in from some of the more damgerous BPN's he's been involved with, left him with Debt Rank -3 Which has meant tht he best Housing he can afford is a shitty (Rank -6) Bedsit in pper Downtown, whilst most other operatives are living it up near the spire. His general demeanour, and strangeness have let him with a Bad Reputaion Rank -3 even in down town.

Its not all bad though he does have his beloved SLA motorbike (heavy) (Vehicle Rank Rank 6) and his pet Goldfish George (Dependant Rank 1 (pet))

So, thats all the 300 points spent, at this point i chose a training package (training packages are the feild in which the operative specialises, i chose the Kick Murder Squad who do SLA's dirty, under-hand assassineering. This gave me bonus ranks to:

Hide (DEX)
Sneaking (DEX)
Martial Arts (DEX)
Climb (PHYS)
Acrobtics (PHYS)
Unarmed Combat (STR)

These bonus ranks have already been added to the above. Next thing to do is buy equipment nd armour and such, and we'll be done.

Like the others doing this challenge, i'm not going to bother buying equipment. So, here, lifted straight from th SLA core book is what all player charactrs start with:

Headset communicator, Klippo Lighter, Pen, FEN 603 (see hrdware) and two clips of ammunition, a Blue Print News file case, an S.C.L (Security Cleance level) Card, a Finance card or Finance chip, a Package card and Badge, a Departmental Authorisation card, two ts of clothes, one set of footwear, an operative organizer, a SLA Badge, a Weapons Maintenance kit, minor personal effects and a packet of contraceptives.

That is in addition to the 1500 credits that you are given to spend.

So all that is left to do is name him, Dave Halbrooke, Human, Scout, SCL 10a. And wish him good luck on his next big BPN. Watch out for the pigs matey. :)

WHFRP

2007-07-22T17:39:00.001-07:00

I've GM'd this game alot since is re-release, so it is a bit of a novelty to actually make a PC ( i trust my players enough that they can make them on their own, so i'm generally not involved in the process) as i tend just to use my big list of generic NPC's for...well....NPC's. Anyway, unlike some of the others i'm not going to present you with a flashy .pdf file as my scanner's broken, so you're going to get it here, in all it's HTML glory (though this may be rectified in the future).....anyway,I've decided to roll this up completely randomely, something i've never done before! Anyway enough rambling here we go!:

I don't think much needs to be said about this game as most know enough about, if only for some because of the fanboys like myself that seem to populate RPG.net, so i'll just jump straight in to character creation.

Basic Stats

I decided to roll this character up completely randomely so, though its not part of character creation, i decided to roll for instead of picking my race....which turned out to be human anyway so...anyway. I then rolled for my career which came up a soldier, whose advance scheme i added to the sheet as well as all his skills and talents, when i was given a choice of skill/talent i chose the one that made him more of a marksman type. Hence 'Sharp shooter' etc. . Anyway, time for his stats (oh it is a he btw, i don't play as women, there's something slightly wrong about it).For a human all Main Stats. are 20+2D10% and they came out as you can see.

There really isn't much else to WHFRP character creation, Roll stats, roll career,Roll background info (as seen in the first 2 tables)then write it all down on the sheet,all you need to play this game or create a character are 2 D10's. You get a set of trappings to go with your career. In this case a firearm, armour and uniform, aswell as shot and powder enough for ten shots. Added to this you get your generic:

Common clothing consisting of a sirt, breeches,and worn boots, a tattered cloak, a dagger tucked into boot or belt, a sling bag or backpack containing a blanket, a wooden tankard, a wooden cutlery seta hand weapon (axe, club, sword etc.) and a purse holding 2D10 Gold Crowns (gc).

I suppose i coud add a story for my buddy Eckhardt here, but at the moment i really can't be bothered....maybe later.

CHARACTER
Name: Eckhardt
Race: Human
Current Career: Soldier

PERSONAL DETAILS
Age: 28
Gender: Male
Eye Colour: Dark Brown
Weight: 135lb
Height: 5' 8"
Hair Colour: Brown
Birthplace: Market Town, Wissenland
Distinguishing Marks: Distinctive Marks


CHARACTER PROFILE

Main
         WS BS  S  T Ag Int WP Fel 
Starting 32 31 36 38 29  31 26 38
Advance +10+10* - - +10   - +5 -
Current  32 36 36 38 29  31 26 38


Secondary
         A W  SB TB M Mag IP FP
Starting 1 12 3  3  5  0  0  2
Advance +1 +2 -  -  -  -  -  -
Current  1 12 3  3  5  0  0  2

COMBAT MOVEMENT
Move/Disengage: 10
Charge Attack: 20
Run: 30


WEAPONS
Name    Enc. Group  Damage Range Reload Qualities
Firearm 30 Gun Powder 4    24/48 2 Full Impact, Unreliable
Sword   50 Ordinary  SB 
Daggar  10 Ordinary  SB-3 
Shield  50 Ordinary  SB-2                Defensive, Special



ARMOUR
Armour Type    Enc. Areas Covered AP

Full   Leather 80        All       1



SKILLS
Basic Skills(Characteristic) Related Talents
Gamble(Int)                  Super Numerate
Gossip(Fel)                  Etiquette, Streetwise
Intimidate(S)                Menacing
Perception(Int)              See. Page 94
Ride(Ag)                     Trick Riding


Advanced Skills(Characteristic)

Common Knowledge(The Empire)
Heal(Int)                    Surgery
Dodge Blow(Ag)


TALENTS

Talent             Description
Very Strong        +5% to S characteristic
Excellent Vision   +10% to all sight based Perception tests
Disarm             See Page 97
Sharpshooter       +20% when aiming
Rapid Reload       One 1/2 Action off of reload times
Mighty Shots       +1 Damage with Missile Weapons



TRAPPINGS
Item     Enc. Description
Uniform   -   Uniform of the Elector of Wissenland's Army
Sling Bag -   Contains: Blanket, Wooden Tankard, Cutlery and Purse contaning 13GC
10 Shots  -

Well there we go, that was a pain in the arse, nevermind, stupid scanner. I drew a character portrait in the little box and everything :( The asterix on the Main profile represents the "Free advance" you get at character creation, as our man is quite Missile weapon orientated i decided to put this into BS.
So thats the first one down...not sure what to do next....definately not typing the bastard out again, thats for sure........Next one will be:

SLA Industries!

Create a PC challenge!

2007-07-22T17:31:00.000-07:00

So along with some others on This thread at RPG.net. I've decided to create a Player character for every system i own (all 13 of them...i tend to stick to what i like).

There are, i suppose, some very loose rules :

If character generation is random, i'll follow he dice. I f some measure of flexibility and choice is in evidence i will endeavour to make a sorcerer theif combo...type thing.

I've decided to start with Warhammer Fantasy Role Play...mainly beacuse is sitting right next to me. Then i think i'll go for GURPS Discworld (so....GURPS then) mainly because its been sitting there for ever without being read so maybe i hould pick it up.

Anyway. Tally ho!