ZSF Character Sheet Deep History

My space fantasy RPG ZSF is on the front burner again. It is an adventure game set on the Supercalla space highway. I begin playtesting it in a month or so. This is probably the first game I ever designed around a character sheet, which I created before making any game rules. I'd say this isn't a bad way to do it, though I would caution doing it exactly how I am.

I drew tons of these character sheets between 2023 and now and I haven't changed the elements. I'm locked in. These are the elements I used to design the game. I refused to change them. Why?

Because I gave it a shitload of thought and these are the elements I need for this game. The skill list (abilities, attributes) includes the six things that all spacers will do in this game, over and over. Explore, Drive, Fight, Operate, Shoot, and Talk. Everything else can be a Trait.

Anyway, here's the first two sheets I ever did. You can see in the first one that I was not 100% locked in but by the second sheet... I found it.

The first ZSF sheet.

 

This is the second one, on the next page.

To demonstrate how this sheet hasn't changed... here's the most recent one I did.

I think the elements are mostly self-explanatory, but here's a rundown of what they mean.

EDFOST: This dumb acronym stands for Explore, Drive, Fight, Operate, Shoot, and Talk. The Skills of the game. Most of the action rolls are based on one of these. One early feedback from my group was "Edfost sounds stupid"*. Fair enough. But it's how I have enshrined it into my brain.

So I built some lore into the setting. The names Ed Fost, Stef Do, and Fot Sed are the equivalent of John Doe or Jane Doe. Ed Fost himself was apparently a real guy. Some factory working schmuck who got used by the system and now his name and face are the standard for a generic person. I think that's kinda funny.

Never trust anyone who says their name is Ed Fost.

DEF: This is Defense. It reduces damage and comes from armor and shields and stuff.

LP: Life Points, which work exactly like Hit Points.

SP: Space Points, which are like XP that you spend to help change and grow.

Aces: These are luck points that let you absorb damage, improve rolls, and add little narrative flairs.

Name, Form, Background, Gear: These all seem self-explanatory. Form is what you are... like a green bubble headed guy or a robot.

Traits: These are things outside normal Skills. Not just skills and powers, but relationships and stuff. They add to dice rolls.

$: Money. To buy ship stuff, cooler gear, road snacks, etc.

The game is built around these pretty simple concepts. Dice rolls are probably mostly about shooting monsters, hotwiring spaceships, and fast-talking alien leaders.

My current thought is to publish the game in the form of a series of zines. But it is still very early and I might change my mind.

Aquabot

Spent much of today working on Hellion Cross, the new Troika! book. Here's the Aquabot background.

Aquabot

You were a simple mining bot crawling the ocean floors of Oceora until that weird coral started to grow in your head. Ever since then you've had dreams of... fun. Playing cards, driving fast ships, getting into fights. Not the sorts of things a respectable water bot should want to do. Yet here you are in this criminal dive, ready and willing to throw down.

Possessions:

-Deck of Sea Life Cards

-Fusil

-Robot Body (armour 2)

-Can of Oil

Advanced Skills:

1 Rifle

1 Swimming

1 Interface with Tech

2 Mining

2 Gambling

Special: You function underwater as easily as in the air, or in space, or in most other weird environments. You only need to power down and recharge once per week. If presented with a risky proposition, you must spend a Luck point to say no.

The Aquabot

One of the many patrons of the various Hellion Cross seedy dives. For the upcoming Troika! book, Hellion Cross.

Hellion Cross

I might be hitting the critical mass or event horizon on a new Troika! romp kit. Working title is "Hellion Cross", third in the Cozmos series that includes such ancient classics as Supercalla and Cozmic Metal Heads.

For this one I'm presenting a seedy little backroads location called Hellion Cross and the 36 scoundrels, wanderers, barbarians, and wayward robots who might be there. This one is a little less laser-focused on a theme or setting as the Hellion Cross location is only loosely sketched in. Mostly this is about the 36 backgrounds and will include some random tables for running romps through the Coz along the old Supercalla Highway.

I'm working from existing backgrounds that I had on the cutting room floor plus new ones inspired by various pieces of art. The art is mostly coming from existing sketches and little drawings I had lying around that were unused in a publication. Like... if I have a cool looking robot sketch then I'm finishing it up and turning it into a background. Because this shit is fun and honestly I need to make a book because I'm having withdrawal.

Priest of the Upper Ocular Cavity

Priest of the Upper Ocular Cavity

Two middle fingers up and you are favored by the Cavity. But if the devil horns are brought to bear then woe to you and yours, for the Cavity's Eye will be upon you until your dying days.

Possessions:

-Coif of the Mind (blocks mental probings)

-The Ocular Habit (hard, course, armour 1)

-Cavity Staff

-Sack of Vitreous Fluid

Skills:

2 Upper Eye Sees You

1 Spell (Cavity Staff): Know Intentions

2 Spell (Cavity Staff): Obscure Vision

1 Spell (Random)

1 Spell (Random)

1 Spell (Random)

1 Staff

Special:

Alcohol, tea, and the juices of fruits and tubers are prohibited, as are most pleasures of the flesh. Life is hard. Cavity staff spells can only be cast with the cavity staff, naturally.

Dodecker

Lightning Monk

Petty Thief

State of the Union: RPGs

That post title makes it seem like this is going to be a whopper. But honestly I'm just gonna tell you what I'm up to and what I'm thinking about in RPGs.

It's been a mixed bag for a while. My interests have wandered. I'm like the dude in the boyfriend meme. By my side is RPGs, but my neck is craning and I'm totes checking out the curves on comics. Of course there's no reason my two great loves can't be slammed together.

I have noodled several new RPG concepts. Of course I've been working on GOZR for months, off and on. That will eventually come to light but it's such a visual experiment and the details change as I develop the game I just don't feel comfortable sharing too much right now. I think I have about 18 pages "completed". They are hand-lettered and loaded with art and I think it will be at least a very interesting RPG artifact for the discerning collector. And, hopefully, a fun game to play!

Mask Ragers is another idea that's been on my mind. You might have seen me posting a bunch of masked cartoon characters on Insta or FB or wherever fine posts are posted. Not sure what this project will end up being. I conceived it as a quick and dirty RPG that could be done in 24 pages. We'll see.

Suddenly and without warning I think I have my third Troika! book in the works. I did not plan it, I did not even realize it was happening. But Bombemoth - a swamp setting - has been conceived and I already have about 13 of 36 backgrounds written up for the thing. It is definitely part of the Supercalla Cozmos lineage, so it will fit in snuggly with Supercalla and Cozmic Metal Heads.

Clicketh here to hear my thoughts on Troika!.

CMH Cover Art: Sketch, Ink, Color

Three stages of a drawing. I often sketch in black. Sometimes blue or sepia. It actually doesn't matter much to me since I'm drawing digitally. If I was drawing this on paper, I'd sketch lightly in pencil.

Here's a side by side of Supercalla and Cozmic Metal Heads. Now I gotta make this a trilogy, right?

Troika! Review

A nice review of Troika! from the Flintlocks and Witchery blog, with a kind mention of Supercalla!

Supercalla Adventure?

I haven't committed to doing it yet, but I'm thinking about writing a 48 page follow-up to Supercalla called Supercalla: Eastbound, based on the scenario I've been running these last couple of months. And yes, it's totally inspired by, but not very similar to, Smokey and the Bandit.

If I do this, the book would include the adventure along with maybe 6 new backgrounds and a bunch of creatures and items that have appeared in the game sessions, such as space piranha and time-distortion ray guns. Stay tuned to this batchannel for future updates, highway hunters!

Fake-Yulator

For your Supercalla game:

The Astrophalt Turf Hyper Stream (ATHS) works with the cops to keep traffic flowing safely. At least it does when it is functioning properly.

One of the tools of the PACT was to make it mandatory for all road vehicles to have a regulator... a device that regulates speed. With a properly installing regulator you won't be able to drive too fast and cause a nasty accident.

But maybe you don't want the PACT controlling your ride. Maybe you want the freedom of the ATHS atmo in your hair as you and your chopper drift along at speeds far greater than 55 GMPH. If that's the case, you need a fake-yulator.

The fake-yulator is a device that mimics a regulator, issuing the correct digital codes to fool cop radar and ATHS detectors. But it doesn't actually regulate jack.

If you are using a fake-yulator and the cops come sniffing around, roll 1d6. On a roll of 1, the device malfunctions and you are probably busted. On any other roll you're golden. Keep on truckin'.

The fake-yulator is not legal and so you'll have to pay in excess of 500 STDs in a pawn shop or seedy joint. Maybe more. And be aware that some fake-yulators are actually fake. They send a signal to the cops letting them know you're trying to fake 'em out. Since these are nearly indistinguishable from the real ones (they all look like real regulators, remember) you might not know when you get one. But the GM will let you know...

Supercalla PDF is Live

Supercalla is alive! The PDF is now available for your road rage pleasures.

What's in it?

• 36 character backgrounds such as Old Lawdog, Long Distance Runner, Trucker, and Three-Eyed Demon Biker
• Space weapons such as Blas-Tar Boppers, chi destabilizers, and MasSault Atomizers.
• The Law
• Space magic
• Random tables for fun and profit
• A delicious layout by Matt Hildebrand!

So get your motor running! I suggest listening to Judas Priest, perhaps "Breaking the Law" and "Heading Out to the Highway", to get this party started.

NOTE: There is a print option coming.

Supercalla Layout

The new Troika! setting book, Supercalla, is in the layout phase. My friend Matt Hildebrand is putting it to the page as we speak. Here's a sneak peak...

The book should be released into the wild in a couple of weeks or so.

Project Updates, Black Pudding, etc.

A lot of people have asked me about the schedule for Black Pudding #6 and I have replied with pithy or vague comments such as "someday" or "when I'm finished" or "SOON". Here's where I'm at on that and other projects, in order of importance.

Commissions

I always treat my paid work as primary. I am actively working on or slated to start work on art for Barbarians of the Ruined Earth, Fight This Mutant, Leopard Women of Venus, and an upcoming project for which I don't have a name or website to point to (but I do have money in the bank so it's a lock for sure). These projects get first treatment, within the range of their due dates. As this type of work is basically ongoing, I sprinkle my personal stuff between due dates as I can.

Supercalla

This book is on the front burner. It's a Troika! setting that will come in at about 48 pages, saddle
stitched for the print run, in color. The writing is 98% finished (heading into the edit phase, as well as actual play or "playtesting" as they sometimes call it). 90% of the art is completed, though I will probably add more as needed to flesh it out. My goal is to try to get this knocked out and published by end of the year, but that really depends on the layout guy's schedule (the ubiquitous and sorcerous Matt Hildebrand), which I am not sure about. At any rate, my goal is to give Matt all the stuff he needs by end of November.

Black Pudding #6

This one is probably next. And I simply cannot put a date to it. My process for creating the zine has always been to wing that mother. I don't plan these things out. I create pages as inspiration strikes and when I get 24 inspired pages plus covers I roll with it.

I checked the folder for issue 6 and it looks like I have 12 completed pages... halfway there! I also have a cover, which I drew months ago and will probably be the one I go with. I wanted this issue to have several more highly detailed pages so some of the ones I worked on were very time consuming. I hope it is worth the wait.

I am in a Troika! mood lately so it's a little harder to think about B/X stuff. But I don't want to muddle the content of the zine with other game systems. If it had been a mix of old school games from the beginning I'd be OK with it, but the thing has been almost laser-focused on B/X style content. I want to maintain that focus, at least through issue #6. I have no idea what will come next. I don't have any reason to think I'll end the series but it might go on de facto* hiatus as a result of me doing other things for a while. Dunno.

*Is that the correct use of "de facto"? If not, I've been using it wrong my whole damn life.

Rabbits & Rangers

This is always, always, always on my heated backburner. Technically I don't have to ever touch it again because it's already published as a Labyrinth Lord supplement. I can walk away. But I can't walk away because I want to do more with it. Either a standalone game or a follow-up LL supplement. I'm still not sure which. But eventually I'll get it figured out and deliver something cool that will hopefully scratch that itch. And it might be after Black Pudding #6. Maybe.

Holy shit I had about ten typos in this post. I really need to slow down when I write.

Zoot!

Just a space doodle.

Supercalla Cover Art

As I said once or twice, I'm writing a Troika! space fantasy setting. At first it was to be called Zoa, which is kind of a larger broader title. Then I went with Hellion Cross, to focus on one little region. Then I shifted a bit and now it's a space highway called the Supercalla. Hellion Cross, being a large location on the highway, may get its own book later.

Anyhow... here's the cover art! I really loved drawing this one. It's one of those examples of an idea popping into your head fully formed and then falling down on the page without much effort. And I like that.

Armorhawk

For the upcoming Troika! setting, here is background 22...

Armorhawk

Back on the Hawkmoon there is a battle cry: Beak and steel, talons and will! Where there is atmosphere, you soar on feathered wings. Where there is naught, the jetpack will do. The Shrew Parliament are out to kill you and you're out to kill them.

Gear:
-Featherlite armor
-Blaster
-Arm canon (dmg as fusil)
-Jetpack
-Dried mice snacks

Skills:
2 Talons & Beak (dmg as small beast)
3 Fly
2 Pistol
1 Canon
2 Keen Vision 

Special: 
Fly twice as fast and twice as far by doffing armor (takes 1 minute; 5 minutes to don).