Got a LotFP going with a few friends, but we had a "guest" player come in for a story and now the group kinda wants to snag him - but there's a catch.

The player in question was portraying "The Man from Outer Space."  I'm sure you folks remember the City of the Gods or Expedition to the Barrier Peaks?

Ever wonder if a person from one their crews ever survived instead of being dessicated corpses for adventurers to trip over?

That's him basically - he's the guy whose escape pod/cryogenic tank/whatever didn't malfunction.   

He's the man in a doubly-surreal environment (What?   Magic?   Demons?   Rejects from a LoTR convention?)  - making mostly everyday experiences in LoTFP a bit Weird at least for him.  (Wait till he gets a load of Pembrooktonshire).

He's the Scientifically-minded Technological capable Humanist who gets along great standing between the Quasi-Nihilist Mystic Muttering Magic User and Sanctimonious Vain Cleric.

My groups problem is that we're not quite sure what to make him in terms of a character class - the player himself doesn't have much of a clue either.   

The only thing he's really established as part of the character is that he's really handy with applied technology.   ie: He's at home in a place like the City of the Gods or Warden II.   Well, at home in the non-malfunctioning versions at least.

So my group is going over its collective storehouse of RPG goods looking for a template CC to futz around with - but if anyone here has any ideas about the matter - we're all ears.

The conflict between the natural (Lawful) world and the supernatural (Chaotic) world is eternal. Since its very beginning, Humanity either worshipped the gods of the natural world (Lawful), consorted with Fey and Demons (Chaotic) or shied away from both (Neutral). The Chaotic world seeks to infiltrate and subvert the Lawful world (Changelings - my interpretation of the Elf class - are one example - Fey babies transplanted in place of abducted human babies); the Lawful world fights back; but most people, and many animals, sit on the sidelines in this conflict.

Both the Old and the New Faiths are Lawful. The Old Faith worships a quasi-monotheistic nature/agriculture goddess (of the Maiden-Mother-Crone type); the New Faith worships the Mastersmith, a monotheistic god focused on craftsmanship. The Old Faith has a less aggressive stance towards Chaos, and merely seeks to contain it and to ward against its worst excesses; the New Faith seeks, in theory, to smite Chaos whenever it defiles our reality; in practice, certain types of chaos (such as Changelings and some M-Us) are - barely - tolerated by all but the most fanatical sects. The Lizardmen of the New World (and the nearby Dreaded Islands) have Shamans who are also Lawful.

Most clerics (New Faith), priests (Old Faith) and shamans (Lizardmen Tradition) are level 0 NPCs and DO NOT belong to the Cleric class; for the most part, they lack magical ability, though many have other skills (such as herbalism or medicine) and all enjoy the power of their positions in society; the more devout of them - not all are - may Turn Undead as Level 1 Clerics and even cast spells such as Protection from Chaos as a level 1 Cleric; the most devout may even cast Dispel Chaos as level 5 Clerics; but they lack the other abilities of Clerics, and, usually, have 1 HD and the other stats of level 0 NPCs.

A few clerics, priests and shamans DO belong to the Cleric class; regardless of faith or tradition, they follow exactly the same game rules (though PCs can't be Lizardmen Shamans - only the Lizardman class which I'll detail later on). These are the exception and not the rule - the saints and prophets of the New Faith, the holy women (and men) of the Old Faith, and a few very powerful Lizardmen Shamans. In most cases, especially in the New Faith, the official religious hierarchy dislikes these men and women, in extreme cases branding them heretics. They tend to be adventurers more often than not as they put their gifts to use in the service of the God(ess)/Spirits in the most effective way outside of the church, temple or tribal hut.

Most commoners haven't seen magic in their lifetime, though everyone has heard (very inaccurate) tales of it. The ignorant peasant or his similarly ignorant village priest (or even the educated by politically-motivated city bishop) may call both the Old Faith priestess and the Magic-User sorcerers "Witches"; in extreme cases, when fanatics are involved, they might even burn them at the stake.

Fey are the most common manifestation of Chaos in the Mortal Realm. They dwell relatively "close" to reality, and thus, in many cases, resemble worldly creatures and plants - sometimes even humans - to a degree. Further away from reality lie far more alien things - the creatures summoned by the Summon spell in LotFP. Fey sometimes abduct human babies and replace them with their own - this leads to Human-like Fey being raised by humans (these are the Changelings), and while their standing in society is quite low (most people distrust Fey), they are usually tolerated (usually is the key word here - sometimes a more fanatical sect of the New Faith lynches them).

Low-level Magic-Users usually consort with Fey one way or another. High-level Magic-Users usually learn far more bizarre truths and consort with far more alien beings from Beyond the Veil. Not all Magic Users are servants of the cause of Chaos, but most do dabble in the Chaotic world, and traffick with Chaotic beings - risking their souls in order to gain arcane power.

Of course, the Lawful god(ess)/spirits rarely answer prayers in person, and rarely grant obviously visible powers to their followers. While this doesn't get in the way of most people's faith, some people want to worship gods who bring more immediate results. This is how cults - who usually worship particularly nasty Chaotic beings - attract their followers. Cultist priests usually have much more magic than priests of either faith; they are, however, Magic-Users and not Clerics and learn their powers from their "Gods".

1) As a villain.

2) As a hero who uses only Banishing rituals, which don't require human sacrifices.

3) As an emotionally tortured anti-hero who reluctantly does whatever's necessary, no matter how evil, to keep the Great Old Ones imprisoned.

But I've thought of a way I've never seen mentioned to go about the third option:

Use Imprisoning rituals -- but ONLY with VOLUNTARY sacrifices.

A Sorcerer played this way probably would spend much of his time talking to people, explaining the situation, trying to convince them to voluntarily sacrifice themselves for the benefit of everyone else.

Tell!

Me, I'm 34 now, I lived in the US (Connecticut, Georgia, Florida) before moving to Finland. I started gaming either in December 1983 or 1984, can't remember which it was, with the Mentzer red box. After moving to Atlanta to go to school in 1992, I drifted out of gaming since it just seemed everyone wanted to play Vampire or Magic and I wasn't interested.

In the early 00s I wanted to get back into gaming, but nothing at the local game store caught my interest. So I thought I'd make my own RPG. After most of the writing was done, I got online to find that, well, there were websites and forums dedicated to RPGs. Surprise! This was 2003, I think? Maybe 2004?

When I moved to Finland, I decided I was going to play old school D&D, so I re-bought the books and got a group. Aside from a 4-5 month HERO System game, I've been playing the old D&D versions, or one of the clones, since March/April 2006.

Also since that time, I've toyed around with amateur publishing projects, some to good effect, some which were ill-considered disasters. In July 2009 I decided getting a normal job wasn't for me so I started my own publishing company, hoping that I've learned from my earlier mistakes.

Things are looking pretty good so far.

You?

http://www.frpgames.com/cart.php?m=prod … amp;c=3093

The set I received in my box was "Shimmer Green," did everyone get the same type, or are they all different?

Many of the threats on CARCOSA appear to be extra-terrestrial in nature: Space Aliens, the God of the Primal Void, perhaps the Old Ones. This invites speculation that other stars and planets are quite nearby.

Stars in the Hyades are 'more enriched in heavy elements' than our own sun. What might this mean in game terms?

It mentions that clusters suffer from 'evaporation' or 'dissipation' in which member stars continually drift/are pulled away. I prefer to think that the Carcosan Hyades are actually drawing together, continuously capturing additional stars within its malign embrace.

In such a crowded neighborhood, the 'stars being right' might be a more frequent occurrence. The Hyades also have lots of binaries - maybe CARCOSA has a companion that appears infrequently?

This is a list of stars in the cluster: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_stars_of_Hyades

Which one might be a likely home to CARCOSA?

http://thedoomedworldcarcosa.wordpress. … cosa-pt-1/

But it needs a name. I've decided that no matter what happens it won't be Weird Fantasy Role-Playing 3rd Edition, as that would be crappy to assign a whole new system to an existing "brand." And "Shot & Sorcery" sounds too "RPG Formula" to be a real game name I think, not to mention that magic really isn't going to be a heavy player-side element so it might be misleading to put it so front and center. So...

How about "Tormentor" with the subtitle "The Role-Playing Game of Historical Terror."

(whatever the cover art would be, it would make it clear there is a supernatural element to the whole thing and it's not just a straight historical game).

How's this: Participation in, and completion of, sessions gains rerolls for the next character made. "Die in this adventure, add a reroll, survive, gain two." So having a character survive a few sessions means more control over what the next character is like, but because the rerolls then reset, there's no danger of this resulting in supercharacters.

So if something doesn't present well, it doesn't become part of the game. (establishing design parameters is also part of the project... no "oh that's cool, it's in!" It's got to fit...!)

So... top-level presentation questions...

Books. Has to be books. I don't use PDFs or ebooks myself, so it will be designed as a physical book. (although highly functional PDFs/ebooks will be on the menu if this whole thing gets that far)

I hate one-book games if the information in the book is not meant to be a cohesive 'thing.'

In wish-world, the game would be split up into a bunch of books:

Rules
Character Creation (a coming post explains why this would ideally be its own book)
Magic
Monsters
GM Book
Setting Book
Intro Adventure

(the Tutorial stuff would be online, hopefully interactive)

This split would be done to make sure that when you're referencing a book, you're referencing a book that's specifically about the thing you're referencing. An "all-in-one" GM book, with setting and magic and monsters, means you're handling a book much larger than you need to be for what you're looking up. Ditto for a combined Rules/Character Creation book, when all that character creation stuff (which will probably take up more space than the rules) will just be an obstacle during actual play.

Plus the setting book, magic book, monster book, and perhaps even the character creation book would be modular, and if the game were to be a success some of these could be a series of books. More magic, more monsters, and I think it would be easier to use a number of volumes if the initial one was its own book rather than a section in the GM guide.

(you notice I put the magic stuff as belonging to the GM?)

If (if I'm going to dream, dream big, right?) the thing proves popular, different games in different genres could be released. If the core rules are their own separate book, then I'd just need to do a new character creation book for a sci-fi game instead of redoing the rules AND character creation info.

(or there might need to be so many new rules that a new supplement is necessary anyway and so having the rules separate would be pointless anyway... this is all a work-in-conceptphase, not a work-almost-ready-to-publish, after all).

The problem of course being that 2 books cost a hell of a lot more to produce than 1 book with the combined page count. Ease of use and "my dream presentation" are going to run into practical matters like this. (this is why the Deluxe Edition and the Grindhouse Edition were split up differently)

And while it would be nice to do all these books in hardcover, that's probably going to run into the cost thing as well. hmph.

But it will be a multi-book project, with the books not being so big. They would be combined in a slipcase, not a box, for tax reasons (lesson learned from Cubicle 7's The One Ring). The slipcase will have artwork that produces sort of a 3-D effect (whichever side of the slipcase you look at will show the picture from a different angle...).

She cuts me off.

"Why are you making a new game anyway?"

BY GOD, I HAD ANSWERS!

The arguments:

That's what RPG people do. They tinker and piddle and screw around with stuff. What big-name game designer has ever made one system and then said "Fuck it, that's all!" (and what do I aspire to be, hmm?) People don't tend to just play one game forever exclusively, and people who write for games don't just write for one game forever exclusively.

Some of these creative impulses clash horribly with the design paradigm of LotFP Weird Fantasy, and instead of trying to squeeze everything together, maybe I should let the strengths of one game alone and everything that doesn't suit those strengths go somewhere else.

Examples: The Dancing Queen in Yellow concept really doesn't engage with the OSR base rules or mode of play. Insect Shrine has been in limbo because I consider it "too D&D" as it's written right now - I want everything I do to be DIFFERENT dammit - but can't figure out how to make it "not D&D enough" without gutting its core. Maybe I should just do Insect Shrine as originally planned, it fits wonderfully with how people perceive Weird Fantasy (even if that perception isn't how I run my campaign), and then put The Dancing Queen in Yellow with another project altogether. Less hand-wringing all around, and hopefully better final results.

Yes, the atmosphere of the new game is similar to the game I've already put out, but so what? Game ideas have already had multiple systems in RPGland: World of Darkness had material published for the Storyteller system, GURPS, and d20. Chaosium's take on the Lovecraft mythos has been used with BRP, Gumshoe, and d20. The Marvel universe had FASERIP, SAGA, that stones thing, and now a new game coming out. Dungeons & Dragons has gone through multiple rules changes.

(my wife's eyes glazed over as I presented this part of the argument...)

I think adapting existing ideas to new systems changes the flavor and implementation of those systems - I don't think the Marvel iterations are interchangeable as games, I certainly don't think D&D 1e is the same game as D&D 4e, even if you're using the same setting, like the Forgotten Realms.

I think my new project's explicitly historical focus is enough of a change from Weird Fantasy's "includes demi-humans and the Vancian spell system" way of doing things to stand on its own.

The OSR scene is getting crowded. Before Weird Fantasy there were the more faithful clones, and now there are a lot of more focused and flavored ones coming out with big pushes and publicity and changing things even more. ASS&H, ACKS, DCC... LotFP isn't going to be the freaky outlier of old school games anymore.

And who knows what D&D 5e is going to do to the scene.

Hopefully LotFP Weird Fantasy will still have a place and continue to sell, but businesswise I'm skeptical about all my eggs being in this one basket.

2d6, get a 9 or higher.

That's a 27.78% chance of success. Not impossible by any means, but not very good.

There are no basic stats, no default skills. Anyone can do anything. Roll 2d6, get a 9 or higher. (or if it's a really ridiculous thing that's being attempted, get a 12).

In character creation you gain skills that, in appropriate situations, modify your 2d6 roll.

A high "whiff" factor? Yeah, if you're an average untrained schlub. People really aren't good at things they haven't trained to do.

(what things characters are expected to be good at will be discussed more in character creation)

I imagine the majority of the rulebook being used to explain what happens when certain situations arise and what the die rolls mean in those situations.

The health/damage system will not be a hit point system, but rather a wound level system that, as it turns out, is pretty close to The Shadow of Yesterday's system, which is pretty funny because I haven't looked at that game in 7 years or so and I damn sure never understood the whole Bringing Down the Pain thing when I owned the book (first edition). One of my players, after hearing about the system, pointed out the similarities.

Basically you've got three levels of wounds, build like a pyramid:

o     = 6
oo   = 4-5
ooo = 1-3

When damage is rolled in combat, the result doesn't tell you how much damage you take, but which at which level the damage is taken.

Taking damage at any particular level incurs penalties, and when a level is full, a Toughness roll is required or the character is KOd. If the top level is full, the Toughness roll is against death. If more damage is taken on an already full level, the you start filling in the next level up.

The different levels would heal at different rates.

Larger animals and creatures would add to the second and third tiers but never the top. A 10' tiger would have a wound chart like this:

o         = 10
oooo   = 6-9
ooooo = 1-5

Very hard to kill.

Oh yeah, "Toughness roll." One thing about the system, with no firm attribute or skill lists, is that you can call for any roll you want. If you suddenly to insert something into an adventure that calls for a "Yankee Doodle Dandy!" roll, you can. "What, nobody's got the Yankee Doodle Dandy skill? OK, 2d6, get a 9 or more." If they did have the skill, that modifies the roll.

Of course a default skill list will shake out of the character creation process, but as we'll see, if that works right it will be the easiest thing in the world to introduce new skills and options in character creation.

(things like Toughness or Strength or what have you that are normally attributes in RPGs behave more like skills in this one, sort of like how Warhammer 1e gives such things as skills)

I'm going back and forth on whether a couple of skills will be something that shifts around during play, but other than that... no advancement mechanic. Your character, at creation, is your character. You can improve the character's station, wealth, circumstances, and health, but the skills and abilities of the character don't advance or improve after character creation.

The top vote getter from the readers was, in a blowout, Trippo's entry.

Congrats to the winners, and hopefully we do this again sometime soon.