Saturday, October 29, 2011

Quick CiH update

A supplement for Cathedral in Hell. Lets you keep track of what your character has. There is also a much larger Operator form, which helps keep track of all the important going ons in the Cathedral.
Cathedral in Hell Forms

Friday, October 28, 2011

Update on New Stuff

Cathedral in Hell is proceeding well, I should be running initial test runs on AIM as early as this weekend, anyone who has time this weekend, let me know, I need at least 4 players, and I want 5.

Cosmos is being integrated into the 3rd TG Crossover as a universal magic system. This news is only relevant to people who are currently participating in that.

For videogames, I've decided to abandon the Java game project, and instead develop games in Flash. I'd love art of any kind for it, and I'll be posting stuff here once I pick which of my ideas to make into a videogame. Also, any reccomendations for platform as far as making Codename: Game a videogame? It looks dead as a TG, but I'm ready to convert it into a text based format, though that will lose some of the more interesting choices.

New news: Unnamed Horror Game. Brand new idea. One player is "The Evil" and the others are "Survivors". The Evil attempts to kill the Survivors while avoiding revealing himself. The Survivors attempt to figure out what The Evil is, and then how to kill it. I'm not 100% sure that The Evil should be a player (instead of a game operator) but it's a lot more fun in theory that way. Especially if I can design it in such a way that a game operator isn't needed (cards and/or a board might help)
Here's the current work in progress document: Horror Doc Feel free to comment if you have any ideas for it, I've barely watched any horror movies myself, so I'm mostly relying on tropes here.

Wednesday, October 26, 2011

New Stuff

First post in a while because I've been up to my ears in concepts for a solid week and a half now, but boy do I have some new ideas to show for it.
First off, Cathedral in Hell. A game with a lot of similarities to Heist! though with a darker tone. This one's already got a lot of progress done, so feel free to dive in and look at the raw data, it's all open content for players and operators.
CiH: Rules
CiH: Information
Second, Cosmos. This one has a lot less progress done on it, and is going to be a traditional talk game. I know those haven't had a lot of progress lately, but I'm gonna keep trying. It's back to the rule-of-cool days, in terms of progression and powers, and has a really unique and deep magic system, that will take a long time to explore fully.
Third, more Scenarios and Settings for Heist! I haven't seen a lot (read any) community content, but I'm going to keep putting out new stuff for a while at least, in the hope of sparking some interest. I also definitely want feedback on why you aren't making stuff, but I'm used to not getting any replies to these.
Fourth, URPG, ready to go. URPG 3e had a rough test run last time, since I didn't get to test the balance online, but I've finished the NPCs for levels 1-7 now, and created a simple program to help me run URPG over AIM, compeitively and cooperatively, which should give more chances to play the game.
Fifth, videogames. I'm making them, currently one project in Unity and one in Java. They're both a long way off, but if anyone is interested in helping with either, I'd be happy to hear it.
That's all for now, though I'll probably remember some more tomorrow. If you have any interest in any of this, I'm only going to know if you comment or contact me directly.

Monday, October 17, 2011

Heist! is a hit!

Heist! is extremely successful, and I'm going to be working overtime to deliver lots of new content for it. I also invite everybody to contribute their own work! You can create your own Scenarios (step-by-step instructions coming soon) and I'm developing a number of alternate settings to run different kinds of games using the Heist! engine.
If you are interested but don't know where to start, comment here or contact me.
If you've made a Scenario, post the link to it here: Scenarios
If you are interested in adding to or creating a new Setting or Setting Template, contact me.
As a reminder, the main doc is Here and links to everything else.
PS: If you have ideas for new or modified Twists, Classes, or Motives for standard, comment below. If you have ideas regarding the mechanics for Standard, contact me.

Thursday, October 13, 2011

Heist! is done.

Still plenty of room to add variants, and anyone can add new Scenarios. But the basic mechanics are done.

Tuesday, October 11, 2011

Ne Plus Ultra

Ne Plus Ultra is an experimental story/game where the players will control various figures in the history of an alternate earth where superheroes and supervillains exist.
I'll be updating global information here on the blog.

Saturday, October 8, 2011

All the Docs for URPG 3e

Here is a quick compilation of the links for URPG 3e. Most of these are incomplete at this point.
Player Information
Styles
Class List
History List
Resources
Elements
Making a Character

Heist! Potential Mechanics

Some general notes from Heist! Doc the game isn't ready to go yet, but it's getting there. I'm still taking suggestions for settings, mechanics, and especially inspiration.
Mexican Standoff: At any time, you can point your gun at someone, they may then point their gun at anyone (including you) and then the next person can do the same, until a gun is pointed at someone and they choose to not change who they're pointing their gun at.
If you have your gun pointed at someone, and they do anything, you can immediately shoot them. This is always an Aimed Shot.
Torso Shot: 5/6 chance to kill the target, unless they are wearing a bulletproof vest. They get 1 more turn.
Head Shot: 3/6 chance to kill the target, unless they're wearing a riot helmet. +1 Style if it hits.
Aim: Spend your turn to draw a bead on the target.
Aimed Shot: 6/6 chance the hit the target in the head, the torso, or any limb. Must Aim first.

Friday, October 7, 2011

Heist!

Heist! is going to be a Paranoia-style (competitive/cooperative, hijinks,team roles, low cost of death) game set in the genre of Reservoir Dogs (and Tarantino movies in general.) It'll be a lite-RPG format, with the goal being that creating a new character at max level takes no more than five minutes. The key mechanics are going to be:
Score: You have a score tally that carries over from character to character, and it can be improved by fulfilling various secret and non-secret objectives. (not sure yet, can be spent for cool toys on new characters?)
Problem Solving: If you die, you're out until the team calls an Expert. If you run into a situation where you need an Expert, and no one is dead... problem solving :-D
Universal System: Ideally, these rules will be general enough to run in non-heist, though equally silly, settings, such as a wacky zombie apocalypse, or even a dystopian future (eg Paranoia)

Thursday, October 6, 2011

New Mechanic in progress for URPG 3e

Styles are a brand new mechanic for 3e, and add a whole new layer of customization, you get one per point in Aptitude you have, and I'm thinking you can improve one (all of them?) each time you level up.
Basically, these are your 'specialties' while classes define your broad capabilities, these will give you new ways to use your equipment, Spirit, and any spare Perks and Skills you can buy (especially useful if you're putting your levels into Histories.)
For the average player, this mostly means new cool tricks to do with their weapons, but for a player with high Adaptability, this'll give them a ton of options that they should be able to use in any situation. It'll also give classes that normally don't have many combat options (Inventor, Strategist) some new options for participating in combat.
I'm also toying with the idea that Styles can be improved/acquired by 'Training' a new mechanic that I'm considering adding to long-form plots, where the story is essentially a 'race' to beat the bad guys before they complete their plan. Training would be a way to turn a 'lead' into enough power to win more challenging battles.
Questions and comments always welcome.

Saturday, October 1, 2011

Huge Change for URPG 3e

I'm changing Allies to Adaptability. And now the hybrid 'Life' stat that used to measure Resources+Allies is the 'Cunning' stat, which covers Resourcefulness+Adaptability. I'm planning to drop most of the concepts associated with Allies (such as Ally slots, and calling in Allies) entirely, or at least largely detach them from the stat. This also means I'll likely be rewriting several classes, most importantly Tactician and Strategist (since they're already complete) but also Wizard(not too much) Hero(may require a total change) Diplomat (probably a total change) and Captain (Probably to something more similar to Scoundrel, speaking of which, Scoundrel will probably also be changing, now that Genius =/= Adapting)
If you have any questions/comments/suggestions, I'd be glad to hear them, since this is going to be a big change to one of the core mechanics, making even more of a difference than Spirit or Coda.
Also, if you want to see the work in progress, here is 3e character list. The characters who's names start with "3e" are the ones I've finished updating. Please ask about anything you don't understand, as that'll give me a good idea of what to put in the updated rulebook.
P.S. I forgot to mention what Adaptability is good for! It'll mostly be about finding opportunities. So sort of a combination of luck, observation, and charisma. You will still get allies(in a sense) because when you enter a situation, Adaptability is gonna let you run into more helpful people, etc. I haven't worked it out mechanically, since I'm still brainstorming, but I figure it'll probably be something like letting the party sum their Adaptability points, and use them to pick what sort of advantages they want. idk, it's still very rough.