Category: RPGS

Item Seed: The Apocalypse Trunk.

Apocalypse Trunk – Google Docs

The Apocalypse Trunk

 

The Apocalypse Trunk resembles an old-style steamer trunk, albeit one with wheels.  Trying to move it around quickly demonstrates why it has wheels: the trunk is heavy, weighing in at around 350 pounds.  It can technically be opened, but in that particular way that’s reserved for items that people are not really supposed to open unless they’re are specifically-trained technical personnel.  There are numerous data ports installed on the side of the Trunk, and a heavy-duty power cord attached to it, so it doesn’t need to be opened to be used anyway.

 

Anyone who does open it will discover that the inside is packed with the latest word in hard drives.  The total storage capacity of the Apocalypse Trunk is about 75 petabytes, which is insane.  That’s enough for Google’s abortive 25 million book library archive – which is convenient, because that’s what’s precisely on the drives.  Which means that this is already one of the problematical items: stolen merchandise that is priceless in both the positive and negative senses. That library is theoretically worth hundreds of millions if not billions, but there’s nobody out there who it could be fenced to.

Continue reading Item Seed: The Apocalypse Trunk.

Prince Jean [600 pt] [GURPS 4e]

Prince Jean – Google Docs

Prince Jean [600 pt]

 

Appearance: 6 feet tall, regular features. Brown hair/eyes, muscular frame. Real name: Barry Wilson.

 

ST 20 [50] (ST includes +5 from ‘Extra ST’), DX 15 [100], IQ 14 [80], HT 14 [40]

 

Languages: French (Native) [6]; Latin (Accented) [4].

 

Advantages: Appearance (Handsome) [12], Charisma (2) [10], Combat Reflexes [15], Damage Resistance (1) (Flexible; Super) [4*], Danger Sense [15], Daredevil (4) [60], Extra ST (5) (Affects displayed score; Super) [45*], Independent Income (4) [4], Intuition [15], Luck (Ridiculous) [60], Might of the Tiger [49], Regeneration (Regular: 1HP/Hr) [25], Serendipity (1) [15], Status (+3) [10], Trained By A Master [30], Very Fit [15], Voice [10], Wealth (Wealthy) [20]

* = item is owned by another, point value is included in the other item.

Continue reading Prince Jean [600 pt] [GURPS 4e]

Tweet of the Day, The Mage Should Have Been Casting At The Thief edition.

Useless Chaotic Neutral* git.

Still… dang, but I’d like to have that on my wall.  As would half the people reading this, of course. They should do a print.

Moe Lane

*Can’t be Good, obviously: he’d be fighting the dragon otherwise. Can’t be Chaotic Evil, because he’d have thrown a dagger at the mage.  Lawful Evil would understand the concept of “kill dragon, then loot” better than this. True Neutral is for people who can’t make up their minds.  So it’s Neutral Evil or Chaotic Neutral, and robbing a dragon that isn’t dead yet and is maybe about to eat the rest of your party sounds quintessentially CN to me, ayup.

Item Seed: Cryptoid Autopsy! #5.

Cryptoid Autopsy! #5 – Google Docs

 

Cryptoid Autopsy! #5

 

This VHS tape comes in an oversized case, with a cover that could best be described as ‘garish’ and ‘busy:’ ‘Cryptoid Autopsy!’ is, for example, in all-caps, and in a particular color of green usually only seen at EPA Superfund sites.   The packaging gives a copyright date of 1987, from a company that quietly went out of business in 1994.  Extremely diligent research will find a 1989 company catalogue that lists this tape — it’s actually one of eight — but there’s pretty much nothing else available about this series otherwise.

Continue reading Item Seed: Cryptoid Autopsy! #5.

Vorpal Nerf Gun [Esoterrorists].

Vorpal Nerf Gun (VNG) – Google Docs

Vorpal Nerf Gun (VNG)

 

Appearance: a heavily-etched and carved plastic toy resembling a six-round revolver, and shooting foam darts.  The VNG operates perfectly well as a foam dart shooter, but something about the configuration of the gun and the carvings makes it peculiarly suitable for disrupting Outer Dark Entities (ODEs).  In game terms, the VNG acts as a two point pool dedicated to situations involving Special Means of Dispatch for a particular ODE.  Unfortunately, any use of the VNG itself damages the membrane.  Thus, determining the cost/benefit of use versus nonuse is sufficiently tricky that trying to do so in the field is strictly forbidden.

Continue reading Vorpal Nerf Gun [Esoterrorists].

Robin D. Laws doing an AMA on Reddit, for you Redditers.

I got tipped off about this via email: legendary (that should disconcert him) game designer Robin D. Laws is doing one of Reddit’s Ask Me Anything threads.  This is one of the ones that apparently goes on for an entire week, so if you wanted to, ah, ask Robin anything about the seemingly-endless stream of groundbreaking games that he keeps insisting on making, now would be the time.  He’ll be popping in and out of that thread on a regular basis.

Moe Lane

PS: My suspicions that there will be a The Yellow King RPG announcement soon have not been quieted by this event.

Got Your Number on the Wall [Unknown Armies]

Got Your Number on the Wall – Google Docs

Got Your Number on the Wall

[Unknown Armies]
Yes, the song was a spell. In Unknown Armies terms, it was gutter magic that managed to get elevated to some weird cross between it and a no-fooling ritual (and getting to that point was thought to be flat-out impossible).  It largely went out of style when pay phones disappeared from the American landscape, but the few pay phones that do remain tend to be very well protected.

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A look at GURPS Mysteries and its PDF version.

My print-on-demand (POD) copy of GURPS Mysteries came in the mail today; as it happens, I bought the PDF version years ago. But I also rather wanted a physical copy to go with my other GURPS books, so I picked up the POD and decided to compare the two.  If nothing else, it’s a little instructive about how the state of the art has advanced.

  • Similarities: Both versions have clean, easily-read pages.  The interior to the PDF version happened to be in black and white, so there’s no real difference in coloration.  Obviously, the text has remained virtually unchanged.
  • Differences: The pages of the POD are not glossy (the binding seems firm and stable).  The PDF version has marginally sharper text than the POD version.  Images are likewise slightly better-looking in the PDF version.  Obviously, you can search the PDF copy for text; just as obviously, the POD copy still works if the power goes out.

Continue reading A look at GURPS Mysteries and its PDF version.

Is The Yellow King RPG Kickstarter going to drop next week?

I suspect that it might, given that Robin Laws is doing half-taunting Tweets right now:

Continue reading Is The Yellow King RPG Kickstarter going to drop next week?