(cross posted to facebook)

No, this won't be a continuation of the one I did all those years ago. An entirely new game, one night only (Monday, October 27), so there's no big commitment.

All the PC's will be Californian high school students who go on a camping trip in the fall of 1959. You can make your own character, or I can make one to your preferences (greaser, quarterback, nerd, poodle-skirted pep rallyist, etc.)

Jenn's automatically in, I'm just looking for two to four more players. Comment here or facebook if you want in.

I've been doing those online surveys that advertise on Facebook, and I got some money from them in my Paypal account. Not much, but enough for a small download from e23. So I downloaded GURPS Character assistant. Not a bad little program. You still need a copy of the book to look up what all the advantages and skills do, but it keeps track of all your totals and does all the secondary math for you. I decided to try out the program by making an Autobot.

( Splashdown, an Autobot/Motorcycle/PWC triple changer )
I don't expect these stats to mean much unless you're already familiar with GURPS, but this does make Character Generation easier for GURPS Overproof. If you want to play, and want to get familiar with the system, you can download a pdf of GURPS Lite for free here.

Jenn and I have been upgrading our GURPS collection to 4th edition, which rendered several of my 3rd edition books obsolete. I wasn't sure how much I'd get for them at a used book store, so I asked my older sister in law if her eldest son might be interested, seeing as he turns 13 this friday. They're still fully usable, Jenn and I just want to be all set with 4th ed. for when GURPS Vorkosigan (eventually) comes out. Turns out Kev was quite interested, so I shipped them up on Saturday. The package was 5 kg, but the slowest shipping method was very reasonable, and only three business days to get to Prince George. They arrived yesterday, right on time, and apparently Kev has been pouring through them, and has already tried to get his mom to make up a character. Seems like it didn't take him long at all to catch the GURPLES. Atta boy!

Jenn and I also just bought a bunch of six sided dice, seeing as our tax returns just came in. Most of our tax returns are going on to our Visas actually, but I was surprised by the amount on our returns. They were both about $150 higher than I anticipated. I've found out why: neither of us wrote in the Employment Amount from line 363. Basically, if you earned $1000 or more at a legitimate job in all of 2007, you get an extra $150 in your return, and because I used Telefile, they automatically calculated that amount for us. Kind of a right wing attitude to reward people who are already stable, but combine that with the transit amount, and it looks like the Canadian government is actively supporting my lifestyle, so I shouldn't complain too loudly.

Now I'm going to attempt to infect my friends with the GURPLES. The Star Wars game is going to be taking a hiatus while Neal's away, and Jenn wants to start up Sunday Tea once she's got weekends off again, so I'm thinking Sunday Tea can be followed by a little game called GURPS Overproof! (Overproof meaning 70% action, a reference to my response to a questionnaire Derek made up for a 7th Sea game.) Basically, you make up any character you want (that can happen during tea), or use an existing one, and a random group of ever changing PCs take on a hoard of uglies (zombies, orcs, battle droids, velociraptors...) or a really big ugly (a T-Rex, Cthulhu's niece, a Sentinel Robot...) We'll pull out the battle map, whip up some pawns (probably paper, like what I'm using for Star Wars) and just do some combat. The object of the game is for Jenn and I to become familiar with the system for the purposes of starting an actual campaign of some kind, and also to give us time to read the books which should be arriving any day now, not to mention the ones we already have.

So, after selling my broken Xbox 360 on eBay, I had a nice little sum of money on Paypal. Unfortunately, you can't just transfer Paypal money to your credit card, and transferring it into your bank means putting up your account info, and they charge money for it. So, I went to Warehouse 23 and ordered some GURPS books instead. I also just got my bonus cheque from work, as well as a paycheque from A&W which I wasn't expecting, so I put it all on my Visa so as to order a couple more. Also, I've been downloading free pdf's from E23. Which brings me to my next topic:

Those of you who DM, GM, or ST, take note! There's a free pdf which offers complete rules for the use of Lava in all systems! It's brief, concise, and has all the information you need, as well as easy to use diagrams and charts which you can print off and hand to players for easy dispute resolution! Even if you're just a player, this is an absolute necessity, and it's TOTALLY FREE! Go here to download it!

Last but not least, Jenn and I have been batting around ideas for a fantasy setting. We were talking about dragon kin, and I remembered a bit of an afterword in a Ben Bova book of mine, which led me to an internet search, resulting in this video, and a corresponding article from BBC News.

Douglas Adams: 1
Microsoft: 0

In other news, the Star Wars game will not be happening this wednesday (aug 1), Jenn has to work. I'll just go back to the once-every-four-weeks schedule I had originally planned, making next game wednesday, august 15th.

Just a reminder for my players, if you want to start at second level, do something to flesh out your character by tuesday night and you can start the game with 1000 XP. First session is on for this wednesday, Jenn works untill 5, so be here by 6 if you want to be in on dinner, hopefully the game can start shortly after that.

( In the mean time, here's some NPC's )

I showed Jenn how to play with the Gimp, and here's two images of how she coloured the ship, two of inspiration that I took, and one of hers that I modified. ( Behind the cut of course. )Anyone else want to play? If you have the Gimp I can give you the xcf, otherwise you can play with it here.

I spent some time yesterday evening and about half of today drawing a starship for the Star Wars game coming up. I drew it up in a drafting program and coloured it in a raster program, the best part being that they're both free. My renderings are pretty cartoon-looking, but I'm happy enough with them as a representation of the ship. ( Five large pics behind this cut )

Here's the characters for the Star Wars game! They're not full sheets, I don't want to make those up untill I know which are being played, but the main stats are there. Included is a male and female picture, I prefer for people to play their genders (fortunately, most Star Wars names are gender neutral). Character histories are rough sketches, players are free to add flavour, extra events, plot hooks, and motivations as they see fit. Here's the order in which you get to pick:

1:mallinson 
2:ice_kitten 
3:dr_holmes 
4:plaidalicious 

I now have three players for my Star Wars game, and I just finished making PC's yesterday. There's still room for one or two more if anyone else wants in, but for now three is enough to start. The next step is for the players to select characters, and to determine the order in which characters are selected I've made up a little questionnaire. The order in which the players respond will determine the order in which they get to pick their characters. ( Will the three players please answer the questions behind this cut ) Just post your answers as a comment on this post, and then I'll post the list of characters available for you to choose from. (It would make things easiest for me if you were to just copy and paste the whole questionnaire into your comment and delete all the answers but your own.)

Okay, I'll try it again. This coming Saturday, April 7th, I'll be running TOON Supers at my place. The game can start at seven-ish, but if you want to come over early to watch The Tick or maybe Samurai Jack to put yourself in the mood, or finish your character, or order pizza or tandoori, that would be cool. This isn't a regular commitment game, if it's on then whoever shows up will be in that session.

For those who haven't heard, the premise: A group of super-heroes, in a super-team (The Capricious Cluster!), fight crime in The City. By day, they all work for the same newspaper, but are unaware of each other's super-identities. This game is largely inspired by the 60's Spiderman cartoon and The Tick, and has an equivalent level of seriousness.

( How to Make a Character )All you need to play are two six sided die. Leave a comment, phone, or email me if you have a question.

So the last two times I tried to hold a Toon Supers game, nobody showed up. Would anyone be interested if I gave it one more shot? The only thing is, I haven't been in the mood for it lately, although I might be able to put myself in the mood if I had some interest from the outside. The other option is Star Wars d20, I've got some ideas for a campaign set 250 years before Phantom Menace which I think might be fun, only I'd want to limit it to three players besides Jenn, and use pre-generated characters (don't worry, I always make more characters than players, even the last person to choose gets a choice). I'd only want to play every fourth weekend, so it wouldn't be a big commitment. Would anyone be interested in this?

So, after my last post about Toon Supers, nothing happened. I'll give it another shot on Jan. 27th. Again, anyone who wants to play can, no long term commitment required, whoever shows up for any given game will be the people who are in that session. Just email me or leave a comment if you don't already have a character and want to play. Also, if anyone wants to play the villain, the first person to claim it can have it.

In other news, tofu will make you gay.

Then again, maybe not.

I know this post comes long after Jenn's, but believe it or not we each independantly decided to run an rpg on the same day. Hers is D&D, and we've already had a massive character creation session. Mine will be Toon Supers, which I've already run one session of. I the idea is to run a game portraying a cartoon about a team of superheroes, with a level of seriousness somewhere in between the 1960's Spiderman cartoons and The Tick. Some people already have characters, and I still have all the sheets for them, so no worries there.

I also have four blank character sheets, and scans of them can be found here: page 1 page 2 For those of you who want to make characters, feel free to email me (bumbotATyahooDOTcom) with a concept and we can actually make your character by email, due to the simplicity of the system. There's only a few rules that govern concepts. First, everyone's real name needs to have alliterative or assonant initials (Peter Parker, Bruce Banner, J. Jonah Jameson, etc.), and everyone works for the local paper (doesn't matter in what capacity, mail boy, printing press mechanic, columnist, secretary, whatever). All the characters are familiar with each other as co-workers and as supers, but no-one knows anyone else's secret identity. For example, Peter Parker and Clark Kent would know each other, Spiderman and Superman would know each other, but Peter Parker wouldn't know that Clark Kent was Superman, and Clark Kent wouldn't know Peter Parker was Spiderman. As for how your character got their powers, I'm tearing a page right out of the silver age, which is to say that no explanation is too far fetched, incongruent or unbelievable, as long as it's entertaining.

Anyone can play, the idea is that each session is an episode of the cartoon. Whoever shows up to the session determines what characters are in that episode, so not everyone needs to be there at the same time. Continuity is unimportant, the main idea is to have fun and crack jokes.

I'll be using the Toon system from Steve Jackson Games, which for those of you who aren't familiar with it, is very streamlined and easy to play so that things don't get bogged down. XP is given out in the form of plot points, which can be used either to improve the character or alter the story, much like drama die in 7th Sea. Plot points are given out for the normal reasons at the end of the game, but also any time during the game that you can make me laugh or make a pun (although particularly punny folks like Derek may be hit with a handicap, like having only every third pun count).

That's about it. The game will run every fourth saturday (due to my crazy work schedule and not wanting to give up every free saturday), the first three sessions being Nov. 18, Dec. 16, and Jan. 13. We'll begin about 6:30pm, and if all goes well it should only last an hour, maybe two. If you want to play, just show up, although I'd prefer it if people who don't have characters contacted me about making one beforehand. If you don't have a character made ahead of time, I'll let you play that week's villian instead.

It's kind of funny, the number of TV shows that make me want to start up roleplaying games. It more or less began with the 60's Spiderman cartoons inspiring my Toon Supers game, which only lasted one session. I've been meaning to start it up again, I have NPC's and a couple plots all set to go, I just haven't made the time to schedule a session. Perhaps when The Tick comes out this August I'll find inspiration again.

Samurai Jack and He-Man also inspire me to start GURPS games, the appeal being that absolutely anything can exist in those settings, allowing both the PC's and the storyteller to be wildly imaginative. The problem is that I seem to be alone in my reverence for these shows.

The most recent show to inspire me is Firefly. I would definitely want a copy of GURPS Space to flesh it out. The only thing is that I would want to set that game in the same universe, but a different solar system. One which resembled early Canadian history, instead of American history. This would make a significant change to the setting, of course, considering Canada's lack of both civil war and romanticized outlaws. This just means I'll need to make other analogies. Here's what I envision. ( Read more... )

There are a couple of problems with this game. First, I have nothing for story ideas. The setting I can flesh out easily enough, but it's useless without plots. Second, I already have a game that I never play that's very similar to what I've described: Blue Planet. Last, but possibly foremost, there is no way I cant get people to commit to a regular game (including myself). A drop in game would work, but I have no idea how to set it up in this setting. Also, GURPS Vorkosigan should be coming out sometime this decade, and that's what I really want. That, or to play something, but I can only justify gaming every fourth saturday or so, and most storytellers seem to want to get together weekly.

Ahem. I appear to be whining about a lack of gaming again. Well, all I really wanted was to share my Canadian Firefly idea.

In order to familiarize myself with the GURPS combat system (and justify the expense of the battlemap Jenn and I bought last year), I decided to make some generic fighter type characters who could randomly battle each other in an arena. I made up the minifigs and arena obstacles months ago, but it was just last saturday that I finally finished making up stats for the four medievil characters, and today I finally took some pictures and put them up in a brickshelf gallery (click on the picture for a link). I'm not going to make stats for the four high-tech characters for a bit, because two of them need to have stats for their equiptment first. In the mean time, it should be all ready to play next time Jenn and I host tea. The idea is to make it kind of like Star Wars Epic Duels, and either do single or team combat. It will probably not play as quick untill I have the rules down a little firmer, but that's the point of the exercise. Once I know what I'm doing, I'll be better equipped to run a game. Here's the four available characters (based on 50 points each):

Archer: Fast character, proficient with wrestling and archery.

Dirk: Very fast, not very strong, knife fighter with a compulsion for risky behaviour.

Helmut: Generic sword and shield fighter.

Lumbering Jack: Slow, heavily armoured, strong berserker type.

So, like I said, anyone who wants to play, it will be set to go next time tea is at our place. And if certain "dubious" individuals have negative comments to make about GURPS stemming from barbershop singing, math nerd cheer-boys, don't bother, I've already heard it. ;p

Finally got two images of Lohnn Olda (my Star Wars galactic big game hunter character) that I like. Stayed up way too late to make them, especially drawing on the Lekku (head-tails for non-Star Wars geeks). Now the trouble is deciding. Of course, there's no reason why the character can't have a change of clothes, but the question is which one to print on the character sheet. Any thoughts or criticisms?

( cut for your protection [actually to save geocities bandwidth] )

So yeah... I've been geeking out for the upcoming Star Wars game. I was trying to find character sheets, which was made easier when I found rpgsheets.com. I also found a neat random name generator for Star Wars, which makes random names for different species, check it out here. Jenn was looking around and found a neat character portrait generator called The Hero Machine. Their website links to a demo version, which doesn't have all the options the full version does. The full version costs $20 to download (downloading means to shipping or duty, which I like) and the Canadian dollar is really good right now (relatively, at least) so I thought it was a worthy purchase. They have some samples on their website (the flamer is especially amusing), but here's some samples of what I made ( cut for browsing convenience: )

I'm still playing around to make my Star Wars character's image just right. The problem is that I'm not entirely sure how to play the character, which makes it more difficult to make the portrait (does that make sense? *shrugs*) Also I'm playing a Twilek, but they don't have lekku in the program, so I have to either use pigtails or draw them myself. I'm thinking I'll draw them myself now that I've found the Gimp, an AMAZING freeware alternative to photoshop. Hey, speaking of photoshop, here's a photoshop that's sure to make some of you at least smirk.

Should have posted this earlier. Their is finally a game that is both amusing and expresses my distaste for things like Hercules and The Musketeer. DIANA: WARRIOR PRINCESS! This looks like it may be worth $5 US.