Category: RPGS

Creature Seed: Testudops.

Blame this.  Particularly if you are a researcher from the 23rd Century AD wondering which fool gave those bioengineers the original horrible idea.  Sorry, Future Dudes, I just write roleplaying game material.

Testudops – Google Docs

Testudops

There have been many bioengeered, transgenetic Monstrosities of Science banned by the Seventh Geneva Convention of 2095: but Testudops are perhaps unique in the fact that the driving impetus to get them banned so quickly was because the concept was in such bad taste. Oh, they would have been banned anyway.  But this particular Monstrosity gof fast-tracked. Continue reading Creature Seed: Testudops.

Beetle-Americans. [GURPS 4e]

…I dunno why either, man. I just don’t.

Beetle-Americans [25] – Google Docs

Beetle-Americans [25]

Attribute Modifiers: HT +1 [10]

Advantages: Damage Resistance 1 [5], Extra Arms 2 [No Physical Attack, -50%] [10], Flight [Winged, -10%] [30]

Perks: Cultural Familiarity [Human] [1], Honest Face [1]

Disadvantages: Vulnerable (Impaling, x2) [-30]

Quirks Attentive [-1], Broad-minded [-1], Congenial [-1] Distinctive Features [sentient ladybug] [-1]

Racial Skills: Flight [HT/A] [2]

Continue reading Beetle-Americans. [GURPS 4e]

Creature Seed: Origami Rhinos.

Origami Rhinos – Google Docs

 

Origami Rhinos

 

Origami Rhinos are not called that because they’re made of paper: it’s because they can fold space around themselves to the point where one can fit into a standard school locker. The visible effect is that the Origami Rhino becomes distortedly compressed in width.  The species also does something funky (to use the technical term) with their mass and weight while in this state; they seem to have some control over both.  Needless to say, these traits are all decidedly psionic in nature.  Origami Rhinos are a blaze of white ‘light’ to anybody with any psionic detection ability at all, including the untrained and those with merely latent powers.  This species is not subtle, even for one that is after all a variant of mundane rhinoceroses.

 

So, why was this particular species touched by the Power of the Atom?  The earliest reports suggested “To get away from poachers.”  Then the reports became “To hunt down poachers.”  Now it’s apparently “To establish mostly no-go areas for humans in Central and Southern Africa.” They’re not taking over entire countries or even provinces, but there’s more than one town that’s been fairly ruthlessly encouraged to move out and let the Origami Rhinos have the territory.

Continue reading Creature Seed: Origami Rhinos.

Item Seed: The Vita-Inversion Assembly Chamber.

Vita-Inversion Assembly Chamber – Google Docs

 

The Vita-Inversion Assembly Chamber

 

This device exists in the worlds where the Mad Scientists of the Victorian Era thrived, crowded out all the non-Mad scientists (non-Mad engineers, too), and went on to be the backbone of scientific and technological progress in the Interstellar Era. And, hoo, boy, was there progress. It’s amazing what you can accomplish if there’s no little voice inside anybody’s head that says “Is this wise?” It certainly makes peer review a more… dynamic experience. And quite exciting, at least from outside of the blast radius.

Continue reading Item Seed: The Vita-Inversion Assembly Chamber.

Have I mentioned the various LEGO Quest Builder projects?

Basically, a person named ‘Ymarilego’ came up with the idea of doing fantasy RPG LEGO sets (‘Quest Builder’) and submitted the idea to LEGO.  They have a crowdsourcing system in place to review this stuff; 10K people said that they loved the idea (I’d buy it*), so LEGO will be reviewing it to maybe make it (no guarantees, but it looks like it’d make money). So now Ymarilego has come up with a bunch of other Quest Builder locations and terrains. Check ’em out, and vote if you like the idea.  I have.

Moe Lane

*For my kids, of course.

Organization Seed: V.U.L.T.U.R.E.

VULTURE – Google Docs

 

V.U.L.T.U.R.E.

 

V.U.L.T.U.R.E.  They are the very Platonic archetype of a superhero world’s international villainous paramilitary organization, with one glaring exception.  Everything from their green and black uniforms (complete with masks obscuring their features) to their endless array of custom-built, themed weapons, armor and vehicles — plus their deliberately obscured origins and numerous secret bases — screams “Cower before the might of Vulture-One, people of Earth!”  Or it would, if V.U.L.T.U.R.E. ever showed any sign of trying to take over the world.  Or, indeed, any sign of organized villainy at all.

 

Oh, to be sure, V.U.L.T.U.R.E. is a criminal organization in several countries: the kind of countries where ‘criminal’ can be a badge of honor. Elsewhere, they come across as an extremely bizarre and melodramatic charitable NGO, devoted to disaster relief and infrastructure repair in the most over-the-top, four-color way possible.  Is there a drought? Fire the Precipitation Mega-Stabilizer Ray, my Vulture Nestlings!  Dam just collapsed?  Watch the Earth itself tremble as we unleash the power of the Vulture’s Interlocking Claws! Need a road network?  The Screaming Hammer orbital laser network will make short work of any presumptuous hill that dares to defy our greatness!

Continue reading Organization Seed: V.U.L.T.U.R.E.

That moment when you realize…

…that the RPG supplement whose used-book price you’re looking at ruefully is actually a second edition of a previous supplement, under a different name. And that the picture on the cover looks awfully familiar. And then you go look on your shelves, and lo! There it is.

Yes. THAT moment. That f*cking moment.

[UPDATE] For clarity: I didn’t spend money on this.  Just an hour and a half of frustrating shopping time.

John George Vandenberg [Esoterrorists]

John George Vandenberg [Esoterrorists] – Google Docs

 

John George Vandenberg [Esoterrorists]

Musical Plumber

 

Born May 15, 1960, Fort Wayne, Indiana. Bachelors in Music, Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia.  Masters and DMA, New England Conservatory of Music, Boston.  As ‘George the Goof,’ three-time Grammy winner, five gold records, seven platinum, Academy Award for Best Musical Song (“Why Didn’t You Tell Me You Were Elvis?,” Singing To Ourselves), 1995.  Married Sandra Brennan (country singer, poet), 1996: two children (Abigail, born 1999; James, born 2003).

Continue reading John George Vandenberg [Esoterrorists]