Let's talk about mechanics.

No, not game mechanics, robot mechanics in Encounter Critical or the weird science/fantasy game of your choice. I think every adventure that I have designed for E.C. has had a robot combatant in it. If all the robots in an rpg were exactly alike it would become predictable and boring so I came up with some quirks for my latest robot design.

Imagine, your players unwittingly stumble into a robot workshop. A super, fighter 'bot is being repaired here but it still has a programing issue or two. The helpless human technicians need the broken 'bot too defend them against the player characters. Will their attempt at mechanized self defense work?

Roll d100 once per round to determine movement  of any robot in ill repair:

01 – 25  The 'bot is malfunctioning and moving slowly; no attack.

26 – 50  'Bot is able to manage one clumsy attack this round.

51 – 75  'Bot musters two erratic but very fast attacks this round.

76 -- 00  Programming works fluidly for two consecutive rounds producing fluid attacks.

I have some other ideas but I believe this enough information for now.

Maliszewski Meme and Martin

And you guys thought you were late to the party...
Mr. Maliszewski started the meme of photos of our current RPG reference material. So, here's what I use the most; Labyrinth Lord and Encounter Critical. I keep telling myself that I'm going to use the AD&D DMG but it doesn't get referenced very often. My use of the Encounter Critical rulebook hasn't been up to par this year. Dang real life getting in the way of Role Playing Games!

I did leave one book out of the photo, the Holmes Basic rulebook which I look at more often then the DMG. Of course, Labyrinth Lord is the Basic D&D retroclone which prevents frequent references to the Holmes book.

Who's Martin you ask, George R. R. Martin of course. I've read 700 pages of A Storm of Swords and would like to think Mr. Martin is having some influence on my game and plot design but I can't be certain. Martin's approach to literary plot would seem a bit nontraditional, his use of the protagonist is disposable, literally. His writing is beautiful and flawless but don't become attached to any of the characters or factions in the Song of Fire and Ice series. I still have 300 pages to read in this novel and I am starting to wonder what characters will survive as material for the subsequent books in this series.

Now, back to the ol' drawing board. I promise to provide some gaming material in the next post since I have posted photos of books for the past two days.

What passes for quality reading around here...

Here are two of the latest acquisitions for my library. I discovered 100 Fantasy Short Short Stories through Paperback Swap. Yeah, these are some short, short stories and I question if, at least one of them, qualifies as a story at all. Barry N. Malzberg's The Second Shortest Short Fantasy Ever Ever Published is less than a page long and the last paragraph is:

"The bullet bullet lodged deep deep in his brain he pulled pulled the trigger the bullet lodged lodged deep in his brain brain he he pulled pulled the trigger trigger the bullet"

So this story ends, with no punctuation. That's not what passes as quality reading around here but it was a challenge to type. However, I'm sure I will get lots of enjoyment when I settle down with the rest of the short, short stories.

At the suggestion of James Maliszewski I purchased Patrick Wetmore's Anomalous Subsurface Environment or ASE-1. I looked through the first twenty pages and I love this book! I shared it with the Adventure Capitalist last night and the all seemed to appreciate it too. I told the A.C. guys, "This guy wrote it just like I would and I'm sure I missed some of his inside jokes." If  you like swords & laser guns or mutants & magic you should definitely get a copy of Anomalous Subsurface Environment Vol. 1. 

Krull-bots, an new kind of stormtrooper.

As I've mentioned elsewhere, I reviewed the 1983 Science/Fantasy film Krull this past Sunday. I remember that movie from my youth, I am sure I watched it with my brothers on the good ol' VHS player. At the time, we probably thought that Krull would make a great plot for our D&D games. A plot which we never pursued as I recall.

Thirty years later, I found the movie nearly unwatchable. (I think I was typing something at the time.) There were a few elements which I can see putting into an rpg, be it D&D, Mutant Future or Encounter Critical. Today I'll create some Encounter Critical stats for what I call the Krull-bots.

Krull-bots or KR'83

Robodroid Warriors - Armor: 49% - Damage: by Laser Rifle 1 - 8 - Hit Points: 1 - 12

The KR'83 model 'droid warriors are the standard econo-line pawns of Evil Overlords throughout the Medieval Rim and the known, and unknown galactic systems. Gold can't buy these robot protectors but a days labor of the smallest copper mine can purchase a legion or mindless, electric servo protection  (500 units per legion.) This model is affective against unarmed peasants but is of little use against more experienced warriors or adventurers as one well placed hit renders the KR'83 into a heap of whining servos and frayed electronic circuits. No upgrades are available for this model at this time.

Phasic 5!

Yeah, yeah, I finally finished editing issue 5 of phasic, the Encounter Critical fanzine. This issue actually had five contributors, many thanks to these guys. There are a few scraps remaining, which I forgot to include, that I could use to start issue 6. That may be a project for next year? I've got an unfinished adventure design, or two, I want to work on before I start another issue of phasic.  Of course, if someone else would like to take up the editorially banner and produce a subsequent issue that would dandy too.

I posted the file, a pdf, on Google Drive and left it open for public viewing. It's here: phasic # 5

Dungeons & Dirigibles

 I know this has been done, but leave it to my DIY nature to reinvent the wheel, I think that's much the nature of the OSR, is reinventing the RPG wheel. While reading Frankenstein I began imagining what D&D, I mean original D&D, would be if Appendix N where composed of Shelley's Frankenstein, Stoker's Dracula, the Jules Verne catalogue and 1001 Arabian Nights.

First, the list of classes would be slightly different. There would be the traditional Fighters but they might be renamed Soldiers and magic users would be heavily focused on alchemy . All clerics would be Christian, Masonic, Muslim or Egyptian. (Gotta throw in the Masonic and Egyptology hooks.) Since Frankenstein is based on a scientist that recreates life, there would have to be a class called Professor, Surgeon or Scientist. (I like Surgeon.) There would have to be a rouge, scoundrel or beggar class and a specialist class that all classes could adopt, we'll call it Adventurer. The Adventurer subclass would allow characters to focus on weapon specialization, fine tuning their profession and/or exploration.

The weapons list would be different too, focusing mainly on cutlasses, rapiers, flint lock firearms, torches and pitchforks.

 Since Frankenstein was the source of these ideas I'll focus a bit more on the Surgeon class. In Shelley's tale, Frankenstein's creation was the central problem or obstacle of the plot. Within the scope of an RPG, the nature or personality of the creation, or Flesh Golems, could be variable.  V. Frankenstein struggled with the moral nature and responsibility of his creation and this wouldn't be the case with all, if any, player characters. The player character surgeons could, possibly, create any number of socially functioning Flesh Golems.

Now I'm thinking that this idea, which I'll call Dangers & Dirigibles, is most likely to become a set of rules for Encounter Critical. Which brings me to the obvious point that I'm way past any reasonable deadline for producing Phasic issue 5.  To be continued...

Frankenstein!

That's, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. I thought I'd dip into this classic. I have vague memories of reading it in college, now that I'm revisiting it, I hope no one has to suffer through this monstrosity to get an education these days.

It is just all too wordy for me. While I think the style of Frankenstein is just tedious Victorian romance, I can see the obvious influence on the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne. In fact, the style reminds me of Journey to the Center of the Earth. Both are written as a series of letters which convey the action and plot to the reader. For example:

"This expedition has been the favourite dream of my early years. I have read with ardour the accounts of the various vouyages with have been made in the prospect of arriving at the North Pacific Ocean through the seas which surround the pole. You may remember that a history of all the vouyages made for purposes of discovery composed the whole of our good uncle Thomas's library."

Shelley or Verne, I ask you? And, if it's Shelly, what's the North Pacific Ocean have to do with the tale of Frankenstein?

The influence of Mrs. Shelley's tale on subsequent literature, as well as society, are obvious and my complaints are as miniscule dust particles in the endless measure of the Milky Way. I've read one third of the book. We'll see if my intellectual appetite  can contain the remainder of this verbal flesh golem.