Making bones about Nagash

The 'leak' is here for the new official miniature for Nagash, the necromancer in the Warhammer setting. It looks like a sleek, comfortably variable plastic kit, nipped and tucked neatly using CAD.

The previous one gets a lot of stick and seems widely regarded, online at least, as one of the worst ever Citadel miniatures. There's mention in this thread of the idea the skull was badly sculpted on purpose. If true, not badly enough for me. I've always been quite fond of the model, and I'd argue the skull's the key feature.

So this is an alternative perspective, a reappraisal for posterity, or possibly Midhammer.

From the Osteolix to the Inner Clumps

Underworld Lore #4 is coming this week, which means the Arcane Dwellings table needed to be done faster than expected, so I did the last nine myself, to be sure there are 30 ready to go.

If you want to add any, like Red Orc did with the Threshold of Eternity on Monday, go right ahead, and Greg can push that many of mine off the list.

At Offalmongers' Folly

I'm going to finish the Arcane Dwellings table at Gorgonmilk entry by entry. This is the first. If you want to jump in, no need even to ask: post here.

Here it is then, weird and maybe a little gross. If it's a mealtime, you might want to stop right now.

Noircana - a new spell sextet

Time for more noircana. Most of the discussion on this project is going on over at JD's blog, The Disoriented Ranger, and there's a brief intro here.

This time it's a modular set of six new spells for the toolkit we've been developing, for various worlds and various game systems, not least the simple tactical roleplaying ruleset here.

They're for working with magical energy, including creating sources of power and magic items, as well as manipulating magical signatures. This builds on my last contribution and should also tie in with the work JD is doing on wider landscapes and world histories.

In what seems to be the most useful order to introduce them, the six spells are Conjure Reservoir, Channel Power, Beget Source, Bind Spell, Reinscription and Filter Signature.

Noircana - magical signatures

This is a first contribution to the noircana project I posted about yesterday, a possible campaign toolkit that JD, Garrisonjames and I are talking about below this post at The Disoriented Ranger.

This system covers magical signatures for users of magic and sources of power in a landscape, for a sandboxy, oracular-dicey campaign.

                                                                                                                              

Key elements are size, signature, generation and strength, for casters and sources.

Noircana - a campaign toolkit?

Imagine a world where magic bleeds out raw, and infuses all within. Where arcane is mundane and lines between living and dead thin. A civilisation of sorcerers all the way up, from the newborn to gods that pass unseen, a landscape gone mad, and now MAD - with Mutual Assured Destruction.

Conventions, contracts and pacts abound, but out where the rules don't apply there's radicalism and exponential growth. Ever more subtle forms of power and means to exercise it. Mysteries in mysteries, but faint trails back to puppeteers for any who dare look, and know how - or can learn.

A world where wealth is redefined and anything really will be possible. If it isn't already...

This is one possible take on a project JD and I have been talking about here at his blog, The Disoriented Ranger. It's essentially a themed toolkit for tactical roleplaying*, but could also go beyond, into other game types too: imagine a wargame where units are unnecessary and battles fought with arcane power only, but orders of magnitude greater.

It started with JD's subsystem for personal magic weapons and my mind still on Read Magic. One of the major ideas we've been discussing is the near-universal magic item, formed naturally, and the concept of a magical signature unique to a particular source, and linked with that the idea of casters having a magical fingerprint and leaving it behind.

Not a noircrawl so much as a noircana to deepen a campaign, building on lesser-used spells like Detect Magic and maybe leading to whole new sets like those in Space-Age Sorcery. It plays to dark classics, but also more recent reference points like The Matrix and the so-called singularity. Hereticwerks and others already work with material like it.

A defence of Read Magic, and battlefield power gain

This is for D&D, and any game with magic, psionics etc., including wargames like 40K.

A defence of Read Magic

The prompt is the discussion here at Like Being Read To From Dictionaries on the point of the Read Magic spell, and possibly a lack of clarity in the rules. I think Nagora gets it.

What's Read Magic? Put simply, in OD&D etc. just looking at magical script - at the text of a spell on a scroll say - isn't enough for a spellcaster to read it, and, if it's a spell, to learn it: it needs to be deciphered first, i.e. translated from the system and even the scrawl of the writer, a little like understanding a prescription maybe. There's a spell for that - Read Magic - but it means forgoing another potentially more useful spell to learn it.*

Casting on weird frequencies

This caught me napping: out from under the transplanar radar throbs Space-Age Sorcery - a free pdf resource.

It's a collaboration between Hereticwerks and Needles at Swords & Stitchery, with me along for the ride. The pdf has over 100 'spells', weird ones blurring the line people keep seeing between sci-fi and fantasy, with whole sacs of horror thrown in. There's a quick note on the tone here.

You should be able to plug them all fairly easily into your old school tactical roleplaying game, but if you don't have one of those yet, you could use the simple ruleset here.

Go download one, and show your appreciation to Hereticwerks and Needles if you like it.

Update: Just uploaded is Version 1.5, with enough tweaked to make it worth switching.

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Ten wizard's towers

Greg Gorgonmilk's last post reminded me just how unwizardly wizard towers can be. For now, warming up for a possible community project, here's a table with some ideas. They might not be easy to model as wargames terrain, but for tactical roleplaying they're fine.

The wizard's tower is... (1d10)

1. anchored along sunbeams in a shaft of unusually vivid light and accessible only by means of a reconfigured spell for illumination adjusted to the given wavelength.
2. zipped up in a dimensional hollow; the hollow and/or the owner may be a braner.
3. strung taut up into the heavens, space elevator-like; the wizard may import/export offworld and/or keep a personal space fleet, or be luring someone else's from afar.
4. inside an exceptionally dense orbital introid (a large mass orbiting within a world's atmosphere), accessible using convection currents, maybe Mary Poppins-style.
5. tightly woven from thick silver cord and suspended somewhere on an astral plane.
6. built upside down into the ground, the foundations showing flush with the surface.
7. compressed into a pointed hat (I thought Jason had done this, but I can't find it..).
8. one fractal scale further down, easily mistaken for the wizard's intricately carven staff - just as the wizard in turn is easily mistaken for a woodworm while inside it.
9. the original inspiration for the old British police box; often imitated, never bettered.
10. sewn of the outer skins of gas giants, bobbing like a cork on a lost sea of stars.

There's a chance ambition got the better of the wizard and it's unfinished. If so, roll here.

Old school tactical roleplaying - a simple core ruleset

It may be the best time since the mid-1980s to start playing in the expansive style of the early tactical RPGs, and a new golden age for production and play.

That said, there are still barriers to entry. The range of rulesets, supplements and ideas emerging from the OSR and beyond can be overwhelming, and references to past work and debates on fine points can be confusing and may be discouraging potential players.

This post is an attempt to offer a simple starting point. Purists may dislike it, but it may help the interested potential player grasp the whole and grow the hobby. It's not a full system, more a distillation of themes and a generalisation for the early leaps. I'm using a similar approach with a drop-in campaign at a local game store and it's helping no end.

All we really need to know to get playing is how to create characters, how to explore, how to perform actions and how to resolve encounters, so that's what this will cover.

Using your braners (1) - World-changing weaponry

I want to show more of the scope in the braner concept, so this is the first in a series on possible applications for gaming and in wider fiction. It's propluristemic content, meaning it's designed for use in no particular game system or setting, for adaptation as preferred.

I recommend reading the last post first, and maybe this one, to find out what a braner is.

The idea is that part of a transdimensional structure - whether a lode of a weird material, or a daemon, or something else - is coaxed, driven or worked into a device of some kind.

The two here are melee or projectile weapons, and the entity is assumed to be the edge of the blade, or the surface making contact. This also suggests the sheath or equivalent is worked to contain the effect, or a variation on the weaver aspect is used to activate it.

Each one has a few possible names, to reflect the variety of worlds that could develop it.

Vault's Call, Sibilance, The Exsanctor etc.

This weapon cleaves solid matter cleanly, as if liquid, apparently destroying all material along the path. In fact, each particle is drawn over a dimensional boundary (cf. whisker).

The weapon may cut through a barrier of any nature except transdimensional. In combat a hit ignores all armour and fields with this same exception. The hit is always treated as critical or does critical or maximum damage, and will otherwise cause immediate death.

If left unsheathed, the transdimensional part will pass through matter on which it rests or which it strikes, and it will continuously draw in particles from a surrounding atmosphere or reservoir until this is exhausted - to which myriad dead worlds and voids may testify.

The constant whisper of this flow may be heard, and the space beyond may be sensed.

Wail o' the Weft, Shreave, The Disenverter etc.

This weapon warps the current reality, removing or remaking existing matter and infusing it with strange forms from unknown sources beyond dimensional boundaries (cf. winder).

In combat a hit ignores all armour and fields except those of a transdimensional nature and is treated as if coated with a permanently debilitatingly poison, while the maximum damage result causes immediate death. Each hit results in a single mutation over time.

In each situation in which the weapon is unsheathed, that location or route is corrupted and may bleed; any entity later touching this point or line is treated as if hit. Where this weapon proliferates, the world may quickly become unrecognisable, even uninhabitable.

When in motion the weapon emits a shriek and ripples may be felt in the fabric of reality.

Hopefully this does make the possible uses clearer, or helps point a way. The last post has more context, and once you can visualise what's going on, the ideas should flow...

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Build-your-own braner

Last week I posted a weird new monster, alien or supernatural being that references M-theory - the noö-braner. If you missed it, the basic braner is essentially a trans-Euclidean lifeform able to slip more or less freely across various dimensions.

It could be the basis of a Lovecraftian horror, or an alternative to a warp entity for 40K, or a very different tactical challenge for adventurers and armies, the kind of thing you might find in Call of Cthulhu, sword and sorcery or a wargame like this, maybe a demiurge...

The original post has a few more suggestions too, thanks to John Till and garrisonjames.

I want to generalise the concept through a simple tool, so below is a table for six general braner aspects for mixing and matching. The noö-braner is now a 'waker-weaver-wisher'.

A random approach to making your own could be rolling 1d6 for the number of aspects it has and 1d6 on the table for each, treating duplicates as greater intensity in that aspect.

      Braner aspects (1d6)

1. Waker - The osmotic or conductive structure of this braner allows the absorption, mingling or transfer of material among those regions currently located adjacent to it, enabling the formation of a reservoir or conduit for transdimensional interaction.
2. Weaver - Highly elongated or filamentary, this braner binds manifolds, perhaps forming a basis for a reality by bracing its fundamental particles, macrostructures or universal shell; its loss, transformation or relocation may lead to local collapse.
3. Whiler - Whether hibernating, pupating or paralysed, perhaps lying in wait, this braner is more or less inactive, representing a temporary hindrance to travel via the region and gifting its current transdimensional location a misleading stability.
4. Whisker - This braner hooks, envelops or dislodges elements of nearby regions, stretching or carrying them out across a dimensional horizon, perhaps shifting, telescoping or inverting the local form; they may be returned, irrevocably altered.
5. Winder - The tension, mass or construction of this braner warps the coils of the dimensions it spans or crosses, thereby spontaneously reordering, separating or fusing these dimensions and sparking sudden shifts in reality for the inhabitants.
6. Wisher - Possessed of a morphic structure - perhaps plasmatic, gelatinous or nanitic - or capable of transdimensional lensing, this braner is able to generate, modify or mimic any or all of the elements of a region, including the inhabitants.

They're building blocks only of course, for you to decide the wider nature and the detail of the manifestations. For general mechanics, assuming they'd apply, you could look at the ideas in the first post. For less usual contexts, the possible new genres might be a good start, especially body noir, glossed world, retro time travel and sword and reinette.
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Noö-braner

This post at False Machine reminded me of noisms' recent suggestion that "Creating a truly new monster is difficult, and perhaps impossible". I thought I might have a go at it.

A noö-braner is a trans-Euclidean being able to bleed freely across any and all dimensions in pursuit of hylozoa. It tracks likely targets from dimensions largely beyond their own, initially inserting only quanta to scan, later perhaps more complex observational and manipulative tendrils from multiple points. Having identified a potential node, a noö-braner strikes from within, either endowing an awareness which extends via the noö-braner and all existing nodes, or altering awareness if a similar being has already entered.

It's a lifeform Mr Lovecraft might recognise, or possibly a distant cousin of GW's Umbra.

It doesn't seem to need stats, and could be best used to bring elements of a landscape to life, to modify mental and spiritual attributes, or psychic or magical ability, or to allow lifeforms to draw on deeper resources. Individuals and units with a heightened sense or advanced sensors could be allowed a check to observe those tendrils before the strike.

For wargaming, you could look at the 'compromised' idea from the GM substitute deck.

For tactical roleplaying, a noö-braner has no real lair, its treasure is the awareness - but could be the recognition of the awareness - and lots of rumours are already out there...

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New genres A-Z - from archeopunk to zombie derival

Here then are all of the entries for the A to Z Blogging Challenge 2012, 26 posts with the theme of possible new genres for fiction, maybe in gaming but also beyond it. Some are deadly serious, others may just be silly, but as so often, it depends on you - the person.

The underpinning was this debate, on themes that have been running through a lot of the posting at the Expanse, and the discussion has spun out across the months. The latest instalment could be this recent back-and-forth. Feel free to join in, anywhere and -when.

Casting off a Vancian magic

JB at B/X Blackrazor has been carrying on the debate about the magic-user's role and power in early D&D and similar old school tactical RPGs. The two key aspects are generally spell access and rate of use so here's a suggestion for each.

First access. The suggestion here is having spell levels exchangeable at a given rate, which could be one-for-one, i.e. two first level spells are worth a second level, a first and second are a third etc. The magic-user can pool spell slots to memorise more spells of a lower level or fewer of a higher.

Second is rate of use, arguably the least intuitive element of the Vancian approach. The suggestion in this case is that spells are not lost if cast, but cause harm to the user, a more Bujillian and Lone Wolfish approach. The MU can use each spell multiple times a day. However, each use costs, say, a number of HP equal to 1D[spell level], i.e. a first level spell 1 HP, a second 1D2, a third 1D3 etc., adapted to suit spell progression. With no Zocchi dice, and for a D9 or D11, roll the die for a level higher and reroll a maximum.

If this seems too easy on the party, or you want more drama, a simple, non-tabled side effect could be a blast of energy over an incremental radius, e.g. HP x 5', so a loss of 4 HP means anyone at 20' from the MU takes 1 HP damage, at 15' 2 HP, at 10' 3 HP etc.

Using the first suggestion could shake up the usual campaign pacing, and maybe even the setting as the world-changing spells became available far earlier. With the second, MUs could be more involved and even sacrifice themselves to a higher purpose. It could also encourage riskier play, keeping a party pushing where they might now withdraw.

Update: There are some thoughts on fighters here.

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Magical madness, misfires and beer

There's a new community table up over at Gorgonmilk, for spellcaster madness. I kept forgetting, but I've remembered for long enough today to put some entries up. There are still 18 slots left if you have some ideas of your own and it could well get made a pdf.

Initially I though the table was for magical misfires, so here's one of those to use if you can. If you want to get a list going, feel free to drop any weird ideas in the comments.

• Existential laceration: The caster rends one or more layers of reality with the path or area of effect of the spell. The regions in question are now riven with sheets or tendrils of a number of alternate existences. The caster and anyone touched by a region must save vs. death with a negative modifier equal to the level of the spell or have 1D3 existences each pierce a random major body part. Roll 1D6 for each such body part. It is: 1) permanently fixed in place; 2) cut cleanly if moved; 3) infused from within the existence, with the consequences dependent on the existence's nature; 4) massively distorted, perhaps extended or looped in on itself infinitely; 5) wondrously transmuted to an otherworldly nature; 6) lost into the existence permanently, but still an essential part of its owner, who now perceives the space beyond.

The beer table could also have a few slots left if you have an idea for a fictional brew, and here's a video with the great Frank Zappa to lend a hand. More of his thinking here.

Update: Gorgonmilk has moved here and the beer table is now here, and almost done.

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Review - Rogue Space

With HoP focusing more on RPGs recently, and Von's new series, I thought I'd review a good starter game for sci-fi wargamers interested in setting up a roleplaying campaign.

The game is Rogue Space RPG by Fenway5. It's rules-light even by the standards of old school games, which makes it easy to pick up and keeps the focus more on the action and less on the detail of the mechanics. The basic rules and all the supplements so far are free, and each fits onto a sheet of A4 and folds into a booklet, which means you can keep everything in a miniatures case and play in the spaces around battles.

The downloads are here, found through the image at the top of the blog's right sidebar.

So how does it work? To my mind very well. The simple rules framework allows players to try pretty much anything they might want if they can imagine it, and in that sense the evocative name is a solid foundation, conjuring up all kinds of images of pulp sci-fi and space opera shenanigans, kickstarting the imagination even before the rules are read.

You'll need to know coming in that there are few limits with a system like this, but a bit of work may be needed, even if only through preparation or on-the-spot improvisation.

Review - Minority Report

What an interesting film this is. I deliberately catch up with big movies and books years after release so it was the first time I'd seen it. I think a delay helps balance the gadgets and gimmicks better with the more subtle themes, and this seems like a film to benefit.

On the whole I enjoyed it. In terms of inspiration it's got lots to take away. The concept and accumulation of detail are impressive, exactly as we'd expect, although for me it's not as profound as it seems to want us to think it is and there's plenty that doesn't work, is too loose, oddly tired or silly, and all the obvious laughs felt somehow out of place.

It does still manage to surprise though, on many levels, and there's a feeling of a natural development despite the railroading, with plenty of observations to make and layers to peel back. I'm still thinking about the construction, the relationships of the characters, the painful ambiguity, especially of the ending, and the very human, honest approach.

Appropriately, given the water theme, it's the immersion in the world that really grabbed me, though more the subjective world or worlds of the central figures than what I saw as a rather uneven near future setting. It also has one of the best shots I can remember in a blockbuster, downstairs at the hotel, 10 to 15 perfectly realised seconds of cinema.

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Scenario - Flash flood

This is an example of how the vector counters from yesterday could be used in a more complex way, to suggest movement of water across a landscape. Here it's a battlefield for a possible wargaming scenario, but it could make a roleplaying encounter too.

Gameons and a unified theory of gaming

It's been stimulating few days, even weeks, and today reflected that. I've been working on an increasingly holistic resolution system, holistic in the sense of Beedo's recent post on tiers in a game. I've also pondered Tim's malgic, the Terminal Space spells of NetherWerks and Needles, and Gotthammer's destructible buildings for FireZone.

It has me wondering what the basic practical and even fundamental unit of gaming is or could be. I'm imagining if you mixed up all the various game systems, what you might see in the overlap is a universal game 'space' formed of particles. These particles would be the smallest elements dealt with in any game. For fun, let's call them gameons.

A human say might be composed of various gameons down to the level of individual fingers, in that injury in a given game may see the loss of one or more digits, as in say Necromunda. The gameons would have a kind of pseudo-spin so that those forming the human body generally would be affected by particular other particles, those that are solid, sharp, hot etc. They could be made lycanthropic and gain a vulnerability to silver.

These gameons would also have bonds with each other reflecting the musculoskeletal system say, or the violent dissociation Shawn mentioned yesterday. Although few if any game systems deal with this directly, some may allow particular limb movements, hacks or slashes for example, and others do assume amputation, as with those fingers.

What game systems are effectively doing is gathering up these hypothetical gameons or gameon interactions and forming them into rules, for magic, vehicle hulls, reactions in certain circumstances. I think part of what we speak of as elegance in rulesets is a recognition that the cuts have been made in the right places, or consistently.

What interests me is taking the gameon as a reflection of the broad concepts in gaming, all the potential we know and maybe don't, and producing a system corresponding to it.

Would anyone want to play a game at gameon level? Could it even be done?
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