Mash-up RPG

warrior1OK, its time to build the PBP I mentioned here. I plan on doing two of these actually. The second, HAGIS: The Mythos Files, will essentially be The X-files meets Call of Cthulhu. I’ll table it for a bit since its a bit more complicated…plus my wife will be involved. She’s not a gamer as of yet, but has expressed an interest in such a game…in fact, I’m not sure if we’ll do that one as a PBP…It might need to be live. The first will be HAGIS: Atlantean Adventures (Aega Mythea?) and will be  set in the Atlantean world (High Swords & Sorcery a la Bard Games Atlantean Trilogy…with my own spin of course).

OK, Here’s the mix:

The Atlantean Trilogy (Bard Games’ The Arcanum, The Lexicon, and The Bestiary…the last two of those were also published as a combined volume called Atlantis: The Lost World). This will serve as the core setting. It is essentially our own Earth or proto-Earth before the Oceans drank Atlantis. It contains all the real-world cultures all mashed up anachronistically. This is my favorite setting of all time.

FUDGE/FATE – I like the aspects provision or Fate (kind of like the Spiritual Attributes of TRoS). We will be making free and frequent use of  metagame elements. In fact, I plan on the players having much more information than their characters do. It will be expected that player and character knowledge will be kept in different buckets…I’m going to think about how much interchange between these two will be permitted/encouraged. I also am looking at the 5by4 Magic system on Steffan O’Sullivan’s page….or maybe the Magical Medly system…hmm, need to think on this.

Castles & Crusades – I really love this game. I’m still not crazy about the Vanican Fire’n’Forget style magic, but its really not that hard to write that out. The point here is that I’m going to be using class-like structures, call them archetypes, whatever. Pretty much pick a class from any source D&D, C&C, The Arcanum, etc. and I’ll adapt it to our Mashup.

the HAGIS TriDie system – as previously discussed, roll three d20’s and use the median result (unless we have some meta-game funk going on and then either the hi or lo result is used….).

True20 – I’m looking at their positive/negative tags and their magic system.

No Kung-Fu is better than swords crap.  So monks and martial artists are pretty much out for this dance.

As I look at this, I realize that my Mash is a mess. That’s OK though; it was only intended as a brainstorming session. I will work on tightening this up and throwing some of it out….I only need *one* magic system for this. I can always try another one later.

~AoB

Robin Laws Player Types

On Jeff’s Game Blog, I found this post that highlights a quiz based on Robin’s Laws of Good Game Mastering. This book is an excellent resource that I highly recommend. Within its 32 pages, Mr. Laws describes several types of gamers and what elements of the game satisfy them. Robin's Laws to Good Game Mastering

The quiz was built by “CharlesRyan” on QuizFarm: What RPG Player (Not Character) Type Are You? It takes a stab at identifying player types/preferences. I took it with the following result:

 

You scored as Storyteller. The Storyteller is in it for the plot: the sense of mystery and the fun of participating in a narrative that has the satisfying arc of a good book or movie. He enjoys interacting with well-defined NPCs, even preferring antagonists who have genuine motivations and personality to mere monsters. To the Storyteller, the greatest reward of the game is participating in a compelling story with interesting and unpredictable plot threads, in which his actions and those of his fellow characters determine the resolution.With apologies to Robin Laws.

Storyteller
 
80%
Tactician
 
75%
Power Gamer
 
70%
Character Player
 
50%
Weekend Warrior
 
50%
Specialist
 
25%
Casual Gamer
 
15%

What RPG Player (Not Character) Type Are You?
created with QuizFarm.com

For me, I think it is pretty accurate as although I tend to focus on a good story, I also appreciate solid tactical (tactician) and strategic (power gamer) play. I envision that this quiz could serve as a valuable tool for many gaming groups and plan on asking my group to take it. Not that there are likely to be any surprises (we’ve been gaming together for a long time now), but one can never be sure. Anyway, we’re all about the fun….and this quiz (and subsequent discussion) could be just that.

~Adaen of Bridgewater, High Adventure Games

The Atlantean Sword…

The Fabled City of Atlantis….


This here is the sword of my fathers whose might welled from Atlantis. It hath served well in their hands and in mine own and awaits to be again called to battle…

~From the Chronicles of Eairis, Warrior-Bard of Avalonia

Gaming Star Wars and Other Stories of Incredible Odds…

This is your father's lightsaber...I was reading “The Lost Level” by Andy, another WordPress blog that focuses primarily on Gaming related topics and noticed the following bit on Star Wars Games: Lost Level-Star Wars Game

Well, I read Andy’s post and the original Steve Darlington paper from “Places to Go, People to Be”: Andy’s Link and it reminded me of some of the reasons for Aega Mythea and HAGIS.

Both of these links make good reads. If you’re following my blog, they may help make more sense of things. More fundamentally, one of the most helpful reads would be System Does Matter from the FORGE (the Indy game design site).

~Adaen of Bridgewater

Naming the Aega Mythea Game Engine: HAGIS – It’s not just for breakfast anymore

HAGIS – It’s not just for breakfast anymore

 I have decided to name the game engine upon which I am building Aega Mythea. The name I came up with is the High Adventure Game Integrated System TM (HAGIS). We here at HAG are endeavoring to put the first serving of HAGIS on the game table by the end of 2007 in the form of a completed Aega Mythea manuscript. Watch this space for more updates as they become available….or better yet subscribe.

 
~Adaen of Bridgewater, http://www.highadventuregames.com