Changes Revealed by the Call of Cthulhu 7th Ed Quickstart

I very much dig the changes in 7th edition from a gameplay perspective.  Here's why.

Cthulhu 7th Edition Quickstart

Chaosium has posted a QuickStart for Cthulhu 7th Edition. You can find it on DriveThruRPG and Chaosium's site.

A summary and review are forthcoming.

Building Optimal Pressure Damage

In MMO terminology, there are two types of damage - pressure and spike.  Pressure damage is ongoing damage that is concerning, but not particularly fatal given basic precautions are taken and players don't play sloppily.  Spike damage, on the other hand, requires an attempt at active mitigation.  Spike damage translates to tabletop games fairly easily, but pressure damage doesn't particularly work in a straightforward environment across the board -- especially in Shadowrun.

Dwarven Forge: Caverns Kickstarter OPEN!

Because ermagherd. Ends on the 8th of April. Link here.

Dwarven Forge: Caverns

From Dwarven Forge, the tabletop terrain studio that makes wonderful dungeon designs: A new kickstarter coming later this month, for cavernous tiles, made from similar material ("Dwarvenite") from their last round.

For an introduction:

Guild Ball Kickstarter

Guildball, an alternate fantasy football game in the vein of Blood Bowl (but with slightly less fantasy), has a kickstarter going on now.  It ends March 22nd, and the buy in is at 57 pounds ($95).

Dreadball Expansion: Dreadball Xtreme

Mantic is now running a Kickstarter campaign for a new expansion to Dreadball, Mantic's game of sci-fi tabletop sport, similar to Blood Bowl but with a sci-fi setting.  The expansion is called DreadBall Xtreme, and focuses on off-the-books matches of Dreadball.  The buy-in is $25 if you only need the team and PDF rules, $75 if you need the full set. The campaign ends on the 16th of March.

Employing Horror Despite Technology, pt 2

Following up Monday's post about counteracting the use of cell phones in a modern Horror RPG setting, I'm going to talk about the Internet today.  One of the major threats to supernatural entities is exposure, and the internet is the ultimate in exposure.  Here are some ways to handle it.

Roman Augury

Research for a game I'm pulling together has brought me to an interesting guide to the details of Roman augury, divination, and in particular the reading of birds.  If this sounds up your alley, check it out here.

Card Design Software

While you could always fork over a few grand for Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrater, there's a free program called nanDECK that could very well do the bulk of your layout work.  Did I mention it's free?

The 13th Age

I've been hearing a lot about the 13th Age RPG -- a d20 variant written by ex-WoTC employees that led the charge on 3rd and 4th Edition D&D.  There are three particular innovations that the 13th Age brings to the table:

1. Icon Relationships
2. One Unique Things
3. Escalation Dice

7 Deadly Sins of Worldbuilding

Following the Golden Rules of Worldbuilding, io9 offered up 7 mistakes that writers forget about.  These are perfect for vetting your chosen RPG setting.

More Game Design Advice

More game design suggestions/advice, courtesy of the BoardgameGeek forums, can be found here.

A Memoir

[Note: This is a fictional piece detailing a character background for a game.]

To the poor deputy of Heldren that finds this,

Kickstarter: Red Aegis

On one of my incursions on the web, I stumbled across Red Aegis, which runs similar to a campaign I've been fleshing out for some time.  The concept is fairly simple -- build a world through RPG sessions, and take it through thousands of years in its history until the end of the civilization.  It's available for Pathfinder, and will hopefully expand into Fate, 13th Age, and Dungeon World as the campaign goes on.  It ends on Friday.  Check it out!

Board Game Design Pieces

While exploring a project I've been working on, I found a list of manufacturers for board game parts, cards, and dice on Boardgamegeek.  Two on the list particularly stand out: Rolco, whom I have used before and had great luck ordering very cheap, durable plastic 6mm tanks, and MeepleSource, which has a few board game bits I'm considering using.  The project I'm working on requires crown tokens, which I sadly wasn't able to find on any of the manufacturers listed.  I did, however, find replica dubloon coins on Rolco's site.

The Five Room Dungeon

Pioneered by a gentleman named Johnn, I've decided to have a go at the five room dungeon model. Here's a link to his original thought.  This model particularly appeals to me, as I've been experimenting with short, episodic sessions and modular sessions that aren't quite as plot oriented.  The five room dungeon streamlines this process significantly.

Cults of Cthulhu

Courtesy of Wikipedia, here's a list of all the cults mentioned in canonical Lovecraftian work.
Here's an example of how a cult works in the Arkham Horror game (for a bit of a guide).
Here's an initiation right of the Order of the Golden Dawn.
Here's a list of Masonic initiation rites.

Not that I'm plotting anything related to this for a game or anything.

From the Penny Arcade Report:

Steve Jackson games reskinned Zombie Dice, and now has one of the top selling products by dollar at Walmart.

Shadowrun Random Run Generator

I found a wonderful resource -- a Shadowrun Random Run Generator.   The information's mostly for the 3rd edition of the game, but it's a great tool for quickly planning a run.  You select the type of run you want from a drop down, and the difficulty, and it throws together a printout similar to this:

Run Type: Investigation
Difficulty: 1: Very Easy
Matrix Difficulty: Green-4/9/8/10/8/8
Paydata Points: 3 (90 Mp)
Payout: 400¥ per day
Employer: Other (Dragon/Critters)
Target/Opposition: Other (Contact/Friend of a Friend)
Complications: Transportation (Must use different form)