Space Time?

While the GOZR Kickstarter is still going, of course I'm working on entirely other stuff. Namely, my space game.

Working title is ZSF, Zoa Space Fantasy. This is the setting from Supercalla and Cozmic Metal Heads, but instead of going with Troika! (much love) I'm going to make it another original game system. I'm having fun making original games, might as well ride that high.

This time I don't plan to hand letter the thing. It'll probably be a more traditionally laid out book. But the visual inspirations are 70s era art albums and art books... so the plan is for every page to be art. Lots of full page pieces, lots of small pieces. Not so much density of text per page. Something like 50/50 art book/RPG guide.

This cartoon world has lived in my head and in a couple of RPG books for years. It'll be fun to put it into yet another form, one that I can claim entirely as my own. I've been noodling and doodling this for the last week or so. Kind of excited about it. Kind of the same sort of feeling I had when I started working on GOZR.

Of course this could all change. I am a slave to my whims, after all. I might drift away from this. Hell, I really do need to get back to my OSR book and FINISH IT. But we'll see.

Let's talk about mechanics.

How do you decide what kind of mechanics a game needs? I don't know. But I have an idea about how to start.

First, what is the game about? In this case it's space opera with a strong 70s heavy metal aesthetic. What might characters in such a game be doing? Flying in space ships, fighting weird monsters, dealing with space wizards, making deals with demons, and contending with strange robots. In fact, the words "weird", "strange", and "cosmic" seem to pop up a lot when I think about this thing.

So I am starting with a list of actions. PCs in ZSF will:

Shoot (load, aim, fire, reload, and duck)

Talk (charisma, persuasion, negotiation, etc.)

Operate (machines, robots, computers, etc.)

Fight (punch, kick, tackle, bash, etc.)

Explore (perception, instinct, toughness, etc.)

Drive (ships, cars, bikes, etc.)

I think that covers the important bases. I wanted it to spell out something badass. "STOFED" is as close as I came.

What I like about this is that it strongly implies the game theme. It's a game "about" flying through space and doing action shit.

The primary mechanic (I really dislike the term "core mechanic" for some reason) is, for now, to roll d20 and add your modifiers vs. the GM's* roll. High roll wins.

So the whole hit point thing...

I have wrestled with this. I actually like hit points and damage as a mechanic (I used it in GOZR). But since I'm making an original game system, I might as well think about trying something different.

Right now I'm messing around with a mechanic from the least likely place of all... my stupid little game Lizards vs. Wizards. In that game, when you get hurt you simply roll a d100 vs. your survival trait. If you fail, you are a dead lizard. No hit point tracking at all. So I thinks to myself... why not? This is a space game, which means it is also, in some ways, a western. That is, when you get shot by a laser pistol you should probably almost certainly DIE.

Of course I don't want ZSF to be as slapstick and cartoonish as LvW. There's a trick to it. Yes, it is going to be a game where you can get shot and die with one die roll. But a Luck mechanic is also in place. Not luck points, as I usually like to do. More of a limitless luck roll. The trade off is that failing the luck roll causes instant bad luck for all the PCs.

Anyway... more on all that later.

*Ok, I'm actually planning to call the GM "Spacelord". Because fuck why not? It's a SPACE GAME. And nobody cares anyway.

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.

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).

Decommissioned Warbot

Here's #46 on the Backgrounds Table for Hellion Cross. This guy has seen its better days but maybe it's got some spark left in its metal bones.

46. Decommissioned Warbot (AWOL)

In your heyday you were a first-class robot warrior with a really big canon. You used to level buildings. But too many drops into hot messes has left you battered, broken, and beset with bugs. They took your canon first, then they slated you for spare parts storage. That just didn’t sit right with your over-stressed AI... so you opted out of the program. With your fist. What will you do when the Law finally catches up with you? 

Possessions:
-Long distance scanner 
-Welding torch finger 
-Short distance boosters (for flying) 
-Detachable limbs 
-Pick one weapon: PL22, 11 gauge shotgun, revolver, RIG 207
-Robot body (armor 2) 

Advanced Skills:
4 Pistol 
4 Rifle 
2 Strength 
2 Fly 

Special: 
In times of stress, the GM may call for a Luck test. If you blow it then something inside you blows, at least for a short time. Your body has been scavenged. Roll 1d6 to find out how. 

1	Missing hand.
2	Missing arm.
3	Missing part of head.
4	Power module incomplete; 1d6 hour recharge time
5	Rust prevention gone; avoid water.
6	Hard skin stripped to 1 armor.

Zoa Space Fantasy Design Notes #1

EDIT: The book is complete. The title is Supercalla. Go check it out! Now back to the older post...

I'm in the early stages of creating a Troika!-based sci-fantasy RPG. The working title has always been Zoa Space Fantasy, but that is subject to change. An alternate title I have on the table is Hellion Cross, which is the name of a specific sunrealm within the larger setting of the Coz.

Here are a couple of design choices I'm currently wrestling with.

1. Should this be a Troika! setting or a standalone RPG based on Troika!? My inclination is to make it standalone. My only reason for entertaining the idea of making it a setting is that it would be slightly easier to pull that off. Of course this game has precious few rules so really we're not talking about a huge amount of work to make it a standalone book. The benefit of going that direction is also that I can incorporate "house rules" directly into the actual rules.

2. I had this notion that the Backgrounds would either be in 3 sets of 36 or 6 sets of 36. I feel like 6 sets is a little overkill. It would be fun to create that many, but maybe that would make choosing a Background a little harder. Rolling for it would be as easier either way.

3. How much of the setting is implied by the Backgrounds vs. explicitly described in other sections? What I love about Troika! is that the Backgrounds do in fact give you a sketch of a setting and that's really all you need in order to get a game going. From there it can go anywhere. So here the conceit of the world-builder comes into conflict with the game's very simple aesthetic. The more I enforce the crunchy details of this world the less room you have as a player to be playful and creative. I have always gravitated to things that give me more room to play and be creative, so why would I want to create something that hinders people?

What I'm leaning toward right now is to have the vast majority of the setting suggested within the Backgrounds and maybe give the broad setting an Isle of Dread-style treatment... brief little paragraphs describing the major concepts and places - information that would fit on a couple of pages at most.

Ultimately I'd like to make this a fairly visual book, saddle-stitched and in the realm of 48-64 pages. Probably in color, like a 70s comic art album. A thing that inspires role-playing more than directing it.