Game Design Hoots 1

I love old school D&D, but I don't want to tie all my work to it. The setting implied or described in Black Pudding is important to me and I want it to have its own original RPG at some point. Of course the Black Pudding Play Book will always be around, but I'm probably going to do another game at some point for the world of Pan-Gea > Yria.

Here's a system I'm mucking around with right now. It's from 1998 or so, before I even got online. It's very basic, which is what appeals to me. I ran it many times back then and it was mostly GM rulings because there was almost no rules written down for it other than this:

Spend 20 points on any kind of traits you like. Roll 1d20 + Trait vs. a target number or an opposing roll. Each adventure you earn 1-3 points and you can spend them to add or improve Traits.

In recent times I've developed the idea further to give it more tooth and grit. I like it.

Of course it's also very possible that the game will use GOZR rules. Right now I'm torn between these two darlings of mine. Story of my life.

But both feature rolling 1d20 + mods vs. a target number so you can call me a basic bitch all you want. It's fine. I own that shit.

ROC Talk

I'm in a comics mood.

I was in a comics mood this time last year and I knocked out a 25 pager with Hellion Cross. I printed 50 copies of that book with an egregious error on the center spread... I had drawn the center pages without considering the correct margins. I had to manipulate the positions of captions to make it work and in doing so I duplicated one caption and deleted another. No idea how.

Fast forward to today... I'm finally going to launch ROC: Random Order Comics... a "regular" comic book title I where I can just stuff all my comics work. When I get something finished, I can just add it to the next issue. When I hit the 28-32 page count, I can do a cover and pull the trigger on it.

I'm not worrying about what kind of content goes in each issue or how I'm going to publish them. They are standard American comic book format and I'm keeping it Rated R or under. I'll probably stick to black and white for now. Those are my only rules. There may be fantasy comics, goofy strips about politics or memories, or whatever I feel like drawing.

Here's a few pages from the first issue. I'll post more about it later. This issue is complete other than a cover.

Random Order Comics Revisited

Way way back in 2002 I did a whole series of comic strips called Random Order Comics. I did them in this big ass 11x14 hardback sketchbook, which I only filled by about 20%. So I dragged it back out recently and started drawing new strips. For giggles.

 

ROC Art Journal

Now available for immediate purchase: ROC Art Journal!

64 pages, A5, saddle-stitch, color cover, bw interior, signed and numbered, limited run of 100 copies.

Includes an original sketch.

$20 USA, $30 International.

Go to jvwest.art to get yours today.

Idea: ROC Art Journal

I've been working on a sketchbook/artbook series. Nothing fancy, just a print-on-demand floppy comic sized thing. Working title is ROC Art Journal and this is the first cover. My idea was to do these as 32 page books that collect my art and comics, willy-nilly, by whatever fancy I feel at the time I slap it together. A permanent testament to things I've created that can live on in print. I went with 32 pages because that's kind of the classic comic size and because I have a TON of material to fill many of them and that means I get to draw cool covers.

Not sure when I'll release these to the wild. Or exactly how. Leaning toward Ka-Blam POD. I could attempt a Kickstarter and mail them myself but god dammit that's a lot of work and I'm not good at it.

 

ROC RPG

In my recent deep dive into storage I revisited an old game I designed in the mid-90s. It's called ROC RPG, which stands for Random Order Creations Roleplaying Game. I didn't get too creative with the title as it was just a simple system for me to use - not to publish.

I ran this system on numerous occasions between 1995 and 1999. I can't recall how many times, nor all the contexts. It was not robust in the technical sense. It was just a skeleton of a game, but it was enough for me to use in pursuit of the fine art of "wing that mother".

The game was this:

You get 20 points. You write down whatever skills, abilities, and special things you want and distribute your points between them. These are called traits. When you take action, you roll 1d20 + the points for your relevant trait. The GM would have a target number in mind or written down that you had to beat. At the end of an adventure you would earn maybe 1-3 points that you could use for more skills or to improve old ones.

That was the entirety of the game. I think the way I handled combat, wounds, and death was wing-that-mother. If it felt like you should be killed, you'd roll 1d20 + trait to avoid death.

Over time I added some crunch. Not much. I added Path (class) and Ability Level (level). So I think the way this worked was if you did a thing related to your Path you'd add your Ability Level to d20 rolls. Otherwise you would just use your traits. Still no hit point or death system to speak of.

This character sheet is for a slightly more robust version of the game.