Thursday, June 12, 2014

After the Mower Living Document

Not so much a game or system as a framework for narrative, inspired by Nimh and Watership Down and Oz and Peter Rabbit and some other things I've been thinking and pondering on, and reading to my kid

A progression from orderly idyllic light hearted exploration downward into dangerous and consecutively more harrowing escapes/problems, culminating with a cataclysm and rebirth. Like Akira but with Mice or something.

Set it human suburbia, with PCs as cute little animals, menaced by one or more predators. As the game/campaign progresses, more playable races 'unlock' depending upon making friends and doing favors, whereas negative actions add to predators list. Faeries and magic as an optional plug-in, and the alternating corrupting and purifying effects of the humans decided upon by group consent. Does it look like a dry summer?  Is there a hurricane?  Is Mr McGregor having a hard time with his wife and so disposed to be cruel, or is he playing too much WoW and awaiting DnD 5e so the garden is unguarded or going to seed?

Rules light, 2d6 best-of for resolutions

Birds, bees, mice, rats, praying mantises, butterflies as PCs

snakes, dogs, foxes, coyotes, etc. for antagonists

Pixies, Nimh Rats, Goblins, Faeries, for the optional plug ins.

Maybe each turn two players nominated to act out human aspects of the story. Truck broke down in the field?  It's an obstacle for the plow so Ms Brisby can move the kids across the way with a rattlesnake in pursuit. Why did the truck break down?  The faeries sabotaged the distributor after Ms Brisby got them a set of keys from McGregor's house so they can doppelgang the new baby...

Anyway, just a placeholder since I can't sleep. What are the effects of the relentless hacking back of the wilderness upon the characters of the characters?

More later.

Saturday, June 7, 2014

New Races for DCC Prompts - I Double Dungeon Crawl Dare You

In a last-ditch effort to procrastinate on my own publishable project, I hereby call you out, reader.  You have a twinklin' of an idea for a playable race?  Fingers too tied up with legerdemain, or possibly you already build dangerous wooden and brass Lamentation Configurations in your spare time?  Engaged in high treason, or listlessly wooing a stunning enchantress from the time in Earth's future right before the Beetle People arise?

Spellvexitus knows the Vancian Operation of Clone Vats - at Skill Level 7, and how to paste an image URL
Well, worry no longer!  We here at The Hapless Henchman can take those unused and abused alpha- and beta-waves and put them into our cogitators on site, giving you real, 3rd dimensional (possibly plus or minus a dimension with a 22 percent alpha) access to your own idea, on paper, and in-game.

Submit in the comments your own feeble whispers of an idea for a NEW PLAYER CHARACTER RACE OR CLASS, and me and my own shoulder imp Spellvexitus can do the hard thinkin' for you!  He's mildly dyslexic, but he knows the Dewey Decimal System inside and out, so he's good for helping in library research when we're jaunting around in the early 1990's before they pulled all the skin-bound codices from the Widener...

As a gesture of goodwill, I offer the first 5.75 people or entities who/that post an idea for a new class or race in the comments here a copy of my very own thing when it comes out.  That would be the DCC Solo Module THE HOUNDS OF HALTHRAG KEEP - shooting for late summer, still.  The first three (3 - an integer) people to post a thing, I'll get them a copy of either Crawljammer #1, or Crawling Under a Broken Moon #1 as a downloadable PDF from RPGNow and we can compare notes.  If you already have it, then good - but maybe we can figure something out.  Don't try to canoodle me, either.  I've got a thousand wyrd spirits imbued in my fridge, just waiting to be set plaintively loose to spite someone/something

BE WARY!  For those who post a thing that exists ALREADY will be harshly dealt with and derided, and Spellvexitus will have first crack at your plainly withered soul when you're done with it, soon.  How will you know? Well, look at the sidebar on your right and it'll show you a way to see what's been elucidated and illuminated before you, you conniving gong-farmer, you...

Take that interwebs!  Spellvexitus, get your Mystical Third Eye and crowquill all revved up!

Don't let me down, you malicious little hobgoblins!  Maybe when I'm done I can make it into a sweet little PDF and give it freely to the cold and unfeeling universe to stave off inevitable heat death.  If more than I can use at the start arrive, then I will do my best to trickle them out as I can - absolutely no promises implied, BTW

Psionic Moon Man - received!

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