All posts by Peter

d20 Alternate Mechanics – Combat Sheet

the mindlab

In trying to playtest the d20 combat systems discussed recently I’ve gotten to the point where the alternate rules are sufficiently different from the original rules that it’s difficult to keep track of things on a normal character sheet.

So here’s a sheet to keep track of the new character stats:

d20 Alternate Rules – Character Sheet – Combat Section

This sheet is just for combat-relevant stuff. I figure at some point I’ll come up with one for spells and another one for abilities, skills, and other noncombat stuff. But for now the standard sheets can handle those things pretty well.

Paradigms in Conflict

the mindlab

On why a big rip is gradually forming on my side of the bed:

Dragon: I know, maybe the mattresses they installed in this building were manufactured with the assumption that every year a different person will sleep on them and the wear and tear will even out over the whole surface. But since I’ve slept on it in the same direction four years in a row without an egg-crate* it’s getting too much stress in these particular spots.

She Dragon: Or maybe it’s because every year it collects the hopes and dreams of the varied dreamers who sleep upon it. But your dreams are so vapid and shallow that you’re robbing it of it’s essential mana and it’s become weak.

*– Egg-crate: A piece of corrugated foam rubber used to suppliment the cushioning of firmer sleeping surfaces.

d20 Alternate Mechanics – Injury & Consequences (Redux)

Dragon's Den

A bit over a year ago I posted an idea for some alternate mechanics as a substitution for hit points for games using the d20 system. Rarely do I ever DM though, so the odds of getting these mechanics actually play-tested seemed slim. However on Thursday, this past, I actually ran an adventure in which they were tried out.

The results didn’t seem too bad and, as expected, combat was short and deadly. Overall reaction afterward seemed to border on actual enthusiasm though a number of concerns were voiced and a fair bit of discussion and suggestion quickly followed.

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d20 – Weave a Little Spell (Part I – The Basics)

Dragon's Den

One thing that always bugged me about the magic system in D&D and it’s d20 offspring is the reliance on the same old “spell slots” magic system. Via this system magicians get a certain number of spells per day. The magician fills up the memory slots in his head with spells at the beginning of the day and then casts the spells throughout the day, thus emptying slots which may be filled again after 8 hours of sleep. †

This was a magic system unlike any I had ever read in story or myth at the time†† and the fact that it neither inspired me nor modeled any aspect of the worlds I’d imagined or read about annoyed me to no end.

“Well, why not throw the whole game out the window?” you ask, “There are other RPGs out there with more cohesive magic systems… take Mutants and Masterminds for example, you could use that system to model any sort of power you’d ever want and it’s powers seem intuitively balanced and consistent.”

To this I can only say:

True.

But the nostalgia man. The nostalgia!

Continue reading d20 – Weave a Little Spell (Part I – The Basics) →

An Outlandish Petitioner

the mindlab,

As the revels continue the Freehold gates, their chimeral aspect massive and dwarfing the hall’s celebrants, swing ajar. Their movement though is hesitant, cautious. Not the dramatic slam of pomp and grand entrance, nor the gentle swing they’d grant a welcome but timid visitor. The portal’s timbers seem to question one to the other in silent, wooden speech, “Is this a one to be allowed entry? Truly enough it braves the Silver Ban, but the fall of it’s tread echoes more distantly than that of folk who dwell within, and the rap of it’s knuckles resounds alien upon our planks. Yet it’s intent seems clear…”

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A Post-Content Saga (Part n)

the mindlab

Gaji hurled through the air her limbs twisting and gyring in odd directions like the spokes of a God’s Eye with it’s yarn being unwound, each movement carefully calculated to avoid the tripple-pointed, osmium filled, titanium jacketed slugs which would otherwise have torn through her soft humanish tissues. This body was a good one and she could keep it functional even after losing up to a third of it’s mass in the right places, but certain of her aesthetic tastes tended in different directions than the “brute force prevails” mentality. Basically she hated to mar the bone-white epidermal finish she’d so carefully cultivated lo’ these twenty some odd years of it’s existence.

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Thee

the mindlab 
Behold I am become Quirt Evans!

Casually imperious in the saddle,
Swinging mighty staves to batter down my foes,
Fists clenched, quaking in rightous Quaker rage,
Run amok in bar and bordello,
Hurling cornsilk-haired hussies wrecklessly through the air.

What smart tounged sneak-foot sheriff
Would loan this outlaw new rope?

Or

What forward doe-eyed Friend dare slack
His bad man's thirst for violence
And divine spark enkindle?

R’lyeh’s Next Top Chef

the mindlab

Throughout most of the day yesterday I could feel a tickle in my throat and by the time I went to bed a dull ache had settled over my body. Unable now to sleep I may as well regale you all with my experience this past night.

Fuel for the Fire

Partly due to the interest of a mutual friend and partly to the loathsome yet addictively crack-like nature of the medium, my wife and I have ended up watching several “reality TV” competitions over the last few months, the most recent being “America’s Next Top Chef”. In addition Cartoon Network recently replayed the episode of Futurama where Bender wins the Iron Chef competition by unknowingly using an aqueous solution of LSD as his secret seasoning.

In a totally unrelated vein: Last night I’d been pouring over descriptions of monsters and spells in the old Call of Cthulhu horror RPG to help provide background for an artifact I was thinking of submitting to the Delta Green mailing list.

All of these ingredients mixed together in my fever-addled brain, congealing at around 4:00 a.m. this morning into a viscous stew.

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