Sunday, March 19, 2017

Rabbits & Rangers RPG

While working on the new R&R document I keep noticing little errors and omissions from the first book. For example, I just realized I mention Hawks having the ability to see 80' in the dark but I failed to actually list them with Night Vision. Hah.

I don't actually have any idea how far a hawk can see in the dark in reality. I just know they are good at it. But that's a repeating theme I keep running into when doing research on animals for this game. A lot of animals have a reputation for a certain skill but finding hard data on just how good they are is not always easy. Swimming is a great example. I actually encountered instances where the same animal was described as being a good swimmer in one text but in another text it was said to NOT be a good swimmer.

So all of these descriptions are my best effort at distilling an animal's talents down to simple OSR style modifiers that must be weighed against other critters to make sense. I mean, everyone knows how agile cats are... but have you watched fossas climb trees? Makes me want to wear a "team fossa" tee shirt.

Oh... I guess that also means I'm working on a new R&R. Not sure if I posted about that yet. This is a standalone RPG. I started with basic OSR and I'm building from there. But more on that later.

Sunday, March 12, 2017

Update on Life and Thoughts on Rabbits & Rangers

Since my last post I've been struggling with family health issues. My mom is sick. She has liver disease and diabetes and lots of complications as a result. She's doing "ok" right now, but it's always tentative and I'm in fear of the worst. So I've been a bit flighty and only sporadically productive.

I did manage to start my Dead Wizards campaign, though it was in the middle of all this personal stuff and I haven't given it the tender care it really deserves.


What I have been thinking about lately, in the creative realm, is Rabbits & Rangers. Specifically a standalone RPG. I'm quite proud of the book I created in 2016, but I've always wanted this to be a game of its own. Here's what I know right now.

• It's going to be OSR. Possibly a clone of B/X, with animalized changes.

• It'll have 100 animals instead of 50. The babirusa and pronghorn have already joined the ranks, along with a handful of others (horse, lemur, etc.).

• I hope to publish some modules/adventures for the game as well. I have a big fat list of ideas, many of which are parodies of existing modules. Last year when I playtested the rules I ran Sheep on the Borderland and Castle of Count Drake-Yulla... so those need to be written up and published for sure.

• The possibility of a Kickstarter is on the table. But right now it's only a distant notion, not the actual plan. I include this as an option in my planning because I'd like to see a nice physical book I can provide that would be a step above print-on-demand. We'll see how things shake out first.

I have no timeline for this. There's far too much work to do before I get there. It might be a summer thing or it might be a 2018 thing. I don't know yet. But it's probably going to be a thing.