Post by robertsconley on Oct 9, 2015 11:15:12 GMT -5
Glad to be on the board.
So what I been up too is doing maps for Judges Guild Wilderlands of High Fantasy Kickstarter and some contract jobs.
For my own projects, I have a bunch of stuff slowly come together. The most important is a standalone RPG based off of Swords & Wizardry.
Basically it genesis is a result of several years of play with the Majestic Wilderlands Supplement and Swords & Wizardry.
Now there are a ton of retro-clones out there so what do I plan to do that is different.
First I believe that RPGs progress through diversity, that reading other people well-written notes of what they did and used in their campaigns is invaluable to becoming a better referee. So my tone throughout the rulebook is that this how I ran my game and why I did what I did so that you can pick out the parts that are valuable for your campaign.
Second, I think we could do some work on the format of RPG rulebooks. That they can be designed better for use before, during, a campaign. Part of this stems from the fact when I run convention games I have the players generate characters. Not just first level, the starting character could range from 1st to 6th depending on the result of a roll for starting XP. So in order to have a enough time to actually run the game, I have to streamline the character generation process. Instead of limiting options, I playing around with different presentations. What won out was a card based system with the cards being letter sized sheets of cardstock. The player picked a class and a race and I handed that player a race card and a class card plus an equipment card. With this setup I was able to get people to generate complete characters with possessions in 15 to 20 minutes.
Third and related to the above, I am writing up my experiments in making adventures and campaigns quick and easy. Again the key difference not content but format. For example in my Monster & Treasure section every monster that can cast memorized spells gets a Typical Spell List. Of course a referee can decide on his own what spells a monster can cast but if you are press for time or just don't particularly care having a premade spell list can be a time saver.
Fourth, I think D&D 5e does a lot of things right. But in the end I like the setup of Swords & Wizardry better. So I selectively incorporating concepts from 5e that I think will streamline the game.
Fifth, Those of you with the Majestic Wilderlands supplement know that I have a skill system. Now I call them abilities rather than skill because their purpose is not to define what a character can do or can't do but what he is better at outside of combat and the supernatural. For example all character classes can pick locks but burglars are the best at it.
Sixth, the content is based off of what I used for the Majestic Wilderlands. But because the Majestic Wilderlands is in many ways a bog standard D&D setting it should be useful to most people running D&D campaigns.
So as I get things done I will be posting links of alpha and beta versions for people to look at and comment on.
So what I been up too is doing maps for Judges Guild Wilderlands of High Fantasy Kickstarter and some contract jobs.
For my own projects, I have a bunch of stuff slowly come together. The most important is a standalone RPG based off of Swords & Wizardry.
Basically it genesis is a result of several years of play with the Majestic Wilderlands Supplement and Swords & Wizardry.
Now there are a ton of retro-clones out there so what do I plan to do that is different.
First I believe that RPGs progress through diversity, that reading other people well-written notes of what they did and used in their campaigns is invaluable to becoming a better referee. So my tone throughout the rulebook is that this how I ran my game and why I did what I did so that you can pick out the parts that are valuable for your campaign.
Second, I think we could do some work on the format of RPG rulebooks. That they can be designed better for use before, during, a campaign. Part of this stems from the fact when I run convention games I have the players generate characters. Not just first level, the starting character could range from 1st to 6th depending on the result of a roll for starting XP. So in order to have a enough time to actually run the game, I have to streamline the character generation process. Instead of limiting options, I playing around with different presentations. What won out was a card based system with the cards being letter sized sheets of cardstock. The player picked a class and a race and I handed that player a race card and a class card plus an equipment card. With this setup I was able to get people to generate complete characters with possessions in 15 to 20 minutes.
Third and related to the above, I am writing up my experiments in making adventures and campaigns quick and easy. Again the key difference not content but format. For example in my Monster & Treasure section every monster that can cast memorized spells gets a Typical Spell List. Of course a referee can decide on his own what spells a monster can cast but if you are press for time or just don't particularly care having a premade spell list can be a time saver.
Fourth, I think D&D 5e does a lot of things right. But in the end I like the setup of Swords & Wizardry better. So I selectively incorporating concepts from 5e that I think will streamline the game.
Fifth, Those of you with the Majestic Wilderlands supplement know that I have a skill system. Now I call them abilities rather than skill because their purpose is not to define what a character can do or can't do but what he is better at outside of combat and the supernatural. For example all character classes can pick locks but burglars are the best at it.
Sixth, the content is based off of what I used for the Majestic Wilderlands. But because the Majestic Wilderlands is in many ways a bog standard D&D setting it should be useful to most people running D&D campaigns.
So as I get things done I will be posting links of alpha and beta versions for people to look at and comment on.