|
Risus Monkey
Bad Language! No Biscuit! Archives |
Tuesday, January 31, 2006 I haven't posted anything in almost a week. Sure, I've got a good parenting-related excuse. My wife's out of town and the boy's been the focus of most of my attention. But what little attention remained for personal stuff all went towards my latest little geek obsession: "conlang". This is not my first love affair with constructed languages. I've always had a soft spot for them, perhaps ever since I first read The Lord of the Rings and learned how to spell my name in dwarven runes. As I grew older, I saw fantasy languages in Dragon Magazine articles and sci-fi languages in Traveller supplements. I created languages and writing systems for several of my game worlds and even made a half-hearted effort to learn Esperanto for a GURPS Riverworld game of mine. More recently, much of the inspiration for Dragonspire came from this absolutely wonderful constructed language site. I was totally motivated to give the languages of Dragonspire this sort of treatment. Alas, I've fallen short of my goal, but mostly because creating languages is very time-consuming and I'm trying to focus on stuff that will actually be of use in games. That brings me to my latest obsession. I've been trying to make a computer program to generate fantasy languages from the ground up. The idea would be that the program would generate the phonology, orthography, morphology, and basic grammar rules for the language, as well as the parameters for a word generator that could be used to build the lexicon. Theoretically, this would save me a bunch of time and add much flavor to future fantasy worlds that I create. I've made several stops and starts, but I realized that I'm not going make any more progress on this until I have a serious block of time away from my work and family and other real-life responsibilities.
Wednesday, January 25, 2006 In this post, I sketched out what an abstract wealth system might look like in Risus. Here are the specifics of the system that I'll be using in Dragonspire... Wealth Rules
A successful Target Number roll to purchase something indicates that the character has sufficient resources to make the purchase without significant loss of wealth. On a failure, assuming the character decides to go through with the purchase, the character's new wealth modifier is reduced by the margin of failure. A character does not have the option to purchase if the Target Number is higher than the maximum possible roll, discounting Boxcars & Breakthroughs. When characters add treasure to their wealth, they must roll to "purchase" the treasure at its approximate value. On a failure, the margin is added to the character's wealth modifier. If the character succeeds, their wealth level is not affected. Treasure should be divided into shares before rolls are made. Assistance from other characters is treated as gifts. The gift amount should be "purchased" by the gift giver. The receiver of the assistance should roll to see if it helps their wealth modifier as if they added a treasure of similar value. Here are the target numbers for wealth rolls (in Dragonspire currency):
Sunday, January 22, 2006 While I intend to write original adventures for the bulk of my Dragonspire game, the introductory adventure was adapted from The Legend of Jub-Jub Lake, by David Bezio (for Savage Worlds). This is important because some elements of that adventure (the town of Jub, the Fishtail goblins, the Black Leviathan) have been incorporated into world's continuity. I want to credit my sources as much as possible (beyond the inevitable lifting of random ideas for little things). I also want to credit the art that I'm using. I do not want to infringe on any one's copyrights, so I'd prefer to use public-domain art as much as possible. However, some characters or concepts are best illustrated using found images. My campaign sites are primarily for my players and I'd like for them to see exactly what I see when it comes to certain characters or locations. So when I use such images, I'll try to credit the artist and/or source if I have that information. I will also crop or reduce them in size so that folks will have to go to the original source for the full quality version. In that regard, I'd like to point out Håken Ackegård. He had been kind enough to give permission for people to use his art for non-commercial purposes. I've used one of his pieces for Soolee Choe, and I'll probably use more of his art in the future. Please, visit his site. He does excellent work.
Friday, January 20, 2006 Technical problems plagued last night's Dragonspire session (our fourth). It was the second time in a row that we had problems using Skype, the voice-over-IP conferencing system that we were using. In the previous session, one of our players had a microphone that cut out. In last night's session, Skype appeared to be the root cause of several crashes, one of them on my end (which is darn inconvenient when your hosting the game). Perhaps it was our configurations that were causing the problems, but I'm just about ready to give up on using voice. It's a shame, since voice worked so well in session #3, despite the microphone problems. Thinking positive, ScreenMonkey seemed to work well enough (after some possible browser difficulties for one of our players). Once we gave up on voice, last night's session went very smoothly. My only complaint is that it's hard to get a sense that the players are getting the messages in a timely manner. Sometimes I'd make a post and wait a while for a response from one of the players.
Monday, January 16, 2006 There has been quite a lot of activity on Risus Talk about Firefly, Anjin's superb Risus write-up, and the connection of it all to classic Traveller. I figured that I should weigh in at some point. First, let me just say that I loved Firefly. I didn't much care for it when it had its original run on FOX, mostly because I didn't catch the pilot and couldn't get hooked on the characters. But once I got the DVD... hello! It's a cryin' shame that FOX had to go and cancel this show. For me, it displayed all the wit and attention to character that permeated Joss Whedon's previous shows, Buffy and Angel. And I loved how personal the show felt. Serenity (the ship, not the movie) felt warm and inviting... a ship on which I wouldn't mind spending a few weeks journeying between the planets and moons of the 'Verse. And I loved the multicultural feel. For me, the cultural elements made it seem like a realistic representation of the future. Technology... not so much (I believe if we achieve the technology required to get to the stars then Tech is going to be a hell of a lot more advanced then this). But the show wasn't about the technology. The level of technology was exactly where it needed to be for the stories that were being told. And the characters... wow, I was seriously attached to each and every one of them. Watching Firefly made me want to try sci-fi gaming. I've always been a bit wary of far-flung space campaigns. The freedom of movement always scared me and I was intimidated by all the (supposed) preparation that I would need to do. But watching Firefly made me want to give it a go at some point. And a Firefly-style game would resemble the standard campaign from the old Traveller RPG, a game that brings back fond memories, even though I've never actually played it. Anjin's Risus Firefly site is an excellent example of a Risus spin on an existing fictional world. He's got just enough information to get a Firefly campaign off the ground. He also has some wonderful Risus-isms, including example characters, example clichés, and (best of all) stick figures! And since Firefly reminds me of Traveller, it's appropriate to talk about Christopher Thrash's Travelling Light. This was one of the very first fan pages that I encountered when I first discovered Risus. It's very well done, and I appreciate the simple elegance of the design.
Friday, January 13, 2006 Dragonspire, my new fantasy campaign setting, is now ready for public viewing. It isn't exactly finished, mostly because I'll be adding content throughout the duration of the campaign. The rules are pretty much cooked, however, which is why I'm making the setting available to the Risus community. A little bit of background on the history of the setting... Sometime last year, I was bitten by the fantasy world-building bug. It had been a long time since I had run a "traditional" fantasy and I was trying to imagine how I would go about doing it. My preference is typically for modern or almost-modern fantasy settings with very cinematic action. I wanted to take the elements of these types of games that I love and insert them into this new fantasy world. That led to a desire for a fantasy world that felt culturally modern with many modern comforts like democracy, good medical care, respect for science, and proper sanitation. I wanted it to be a world that I wouldn't mind visiting for an extended period of time. At the same time, I did want to capture the old nostalgia of Dungeons & Dragons. I'm specifically remembering the old-school art and dungeon-crawling clichés. Most importantly, I wanted dragons. Indeed, I decided that dragons would be the central focus of the game. I have fond memories of Dragonlance, and the remembered image of the cover of the Dragons of Light module inspired me to create a town founded around an old dragon-shaped temple. I wanted the campaign to have an intimate feel, where the characters have a consistent and comfortable home base. I also needed the town to be near very different climate regions to provide a good variety of adventure types. That is why the town of Dragonspire exists at the intersection of three mountain ranges. In this fantasy world, the climate regions in each direction quickly diverge due to wind patterns and dramatic changes of altitude. Finally, I wanted the campaign to have an overriding theme that related to it's pseudo-modern society. I decided on a conflict between past and future; and change vs. tradition. The current civilization represents modernity and egalitarian democracy. The ancient civilization that preceded this was a brutal, slave-holding empire. The twist is that the republic is starting to stagnate and the most forward-looking elements of the society are the ones who look back to the old empire for inspiration. Magic is the source of conflict, and it will represent a force in this campaign similar to the rapidly advancing technology of our own world.
Tuesday, January 10, 2006 In preparing for my Dragonspire campaign, I have been struggling with the problem of wealth and treasure. The campaign is explicitly modeled after an old-school fantasy role-playing game with the initials "D" and "D". That means that phat loot is going to have to play a part. The most straight-forward option is to use money. I could allow the characters to make TN rolls to determine starting wealth. Clichés that imply more wealth would have lower Target Numbers to achieve greater levels of wealth. From that point on, the characters would use coinage to buy stuff. Characters with jobs might be able to make TN rolls for more funds after a period of down-time. My problem with this approach is that it seems to be too nitty-gritty for Risus. If items cost money, then characters will be obligated to keep track of their funds. This approach conflicts with the notion that some characters (i.e. Artificers) have undefined possessions. And by requiring that level of book-keeping from the players, I would also need to take on a greater level of book-keeping in listing prices for goods and determining the exact contents of a treasure hoard. And what good is having a price list for a zillion different weapons when, in Risus, there is barely any difference between them anyway? The alternative approach is to use an abstract wealth system, similar to those of the D20 Modern or Storyteller systems. Any time a character makes a purchase, they roll against one of their clichés. The implied wealth level of the cliché, matched with how easy it would be for that wealth level to purchase the item in question, determines the Target Number. If the character makes the roll, then they can purchase the object with no significant impact on their resources. But there are complications... When a character fails the TN roll to purchase something, it just means that they can't purchase the item easily. By depleting their resources, they might be able to afford the item. I would model this by allowing the character to purchase the item and apply the margin of failure towards all future purchases until they acquire additional resources. Obviously, some items would be too expensive. If the TN is larger than the highest roll the character could make (disallowing Boxcars & Breakthroughs), then the item is simply out of reach. Also, I would set the TN for purchases after taking into account how many units of a given item it is that they'd like to purchase (buying a sword might be easy... outfitting an army with swords is not). The Team rules don't really work under this system, since wealth increases are not linear. Instead, all contributors should roll to purchase the item, with the highest roll being used. Then there is the matter of loot. Found treasure needs to be assigned a positive wealth modifier. This modifier would immediately cancel penalties due to straining one's resources and could actually result in a positive modifier to future rolls. The size of this wealth modifier would have to depend on the relative wealth of the character in question. One way to determine the modifier would be to have the character roll to "purchase" their share of the treasure. If they succeed, the treasure doesn't impact their funds significantly. If they fail, the margin of failure becomes the positive wealth bonus. It seems a little weird, but failure is good in this kind of roll. What about characters sharing their wealth? Well, after loot has been divided, the sharing of wealth should be handled by could be handled by having the recipient of one character's largess treat the amount of the gift as found loot (see above). The donor would have to purchase the gift normally. This is all theory. We'll see how it works in practice.
Sunday, January 8, 2006 One of my goals for this site has been to highlight the work of other members of the Risus community. I'm a little ashamed that it has taken me more than a month to get to Larry Bullock's outstanding Unearthed Risus page. What's not to love about this site? Besides being very well-designed, it is loaded with tons of cool Risus stuff. His Risus GM Guide is an outstanding resource and his Character Gallery makes for a very fun read. I love his Something Familiar campaign setting, mostly because I totally imagine how insanely fun it would be to play. And being a software engineer by trade, I love that he's made a java character generator. It's totally unnecessary, but also totally cool.
Thursday, January 5, 2006 Thus far, I have been perfectly happy with the standard way of handling character advancement in Risus. But for Dragonspire, my players have expressed reservations about using random dice rolls to increase their clichés. They want something more deterministic, perhaps using experience points to purchase character improvement. I also see the appeal of this, since it will allow me to control the pace of character advancement over (what I hope is) a long term campaign. Here is what I propose... Characters will be awarded a certain number of experience points per session. These experience points can be used to purchase any of the following character improvements: Raising a Cliché: Provided the improvement is justified, the character may purchase the next level of one of their clichés. The cost in experience points is equal to the number of dice of the new level multiplied by 6. Thus, to raise a cliché from (3) to (4) would cost 24 points. Raising a cliché from (1d8) to (2d8) would cost 12 points. Raising a cliché from [4] to [5] would cost 30 points. Getting Funkier: If Funky Dice are appropriate for a given cliché then a character may upgrade the die-type for that cliché by one step, assuming there is an in-game explanation for the increase in power. The cost of this is equal to the level of the cliché multiplied by the number of sides of the new die-type. Gaining a New Cliché: If a character has developed in ways that are not reflected in their existing clichés then the first die of a new cliché may be purchased. The cost of this cliché is equal to the size of the die (usually 6), multiplied by 2 if the cliché is Double-Pumped. Gaining or Improving Lucky Shots & Questing Dice: Use the rules for raising or gaining clichés, with every 3 Lucky Shots (or 5 Questing Dice) being equal to one regular die cliché. Thus, buying the character's first 3 Lucky Shots costs 6 points. Gaining the character's second 5 Questing Dice costs 12 points. Sidekicks & Shieldmates: Assuming in makes sense in the context of the game, points may be spent to advance Sidekicks or Shieldmates as if they were regular characters. New Sidekicks or Shieldmates may be acquired as well. Note that Sidekicks and Shieldmates do not get the 1:3 discount that they receive during character creation.
Tuesday, January 3, 2006 Since I'm currently working on a fantasy campaign for Risus, I thought I'd give a shout out to S. John Ross' Uresius: The Grave of Anything. For me, this is the standard-bearer among Risus fantasy sites, and not just because it was written by the father of Risus himself. I love the way it is presented (and you may have noticed that Silverlode 1908 blatantly emulates this style... minus the cool art). The stock list of clichés (almost mandatory for any Risus setting) is also probably the best I've seen for a fantasy game. Uresius: The Grave of Anything is actually an adaptation of S. John's Uresia: The Grave of Heaven, originally for BESM. I've never actually played BESM, but I certainly love the Uresia material that's up at The Blue Lamp Road. I'm also eagerly awaiting the All-Systems Library Edition.
Sunday, January 1, 2006 Risus Monkey has been up and running for just about a month now and I look forward adding more content in the coming year. First up, I've got a new setting in the works called Dragonspire. It's about as close to traditional fantasy as I'm likely to get before I move on to other genres. I'm also looking forward to completing my Silverlode 1908 mini-campaign with the final two episodes. After that, I've got a follow-up multi-genre campaign that I've been dying to run for ages. I'd also like to make a New Year's resolution to keep on posting regularly throughout 2006. Even though I probably only have a handful of readers, I'd like to grow the site into something that is a genuinely useful and interesting to all members of the Risus community. To that end, I've got a stack of topics I'd like to discuss: house rules, advice for playing the game, more settings, adventures, more clichés, more Hooks, more NPCs, Bonus Gear, conversion rules, and thoughts on using Risus as a resource when using other rules systems.
Created: 9 February 2006 / Last modified: 9 February 2006 |
