Author Archives: Brent
The Places of Pyre: The Warriors’ District
This is part of my “Pyre” world. The Warriors’ District Common Enemies: Ghosts and Zombies Pyre needed its defenders. These warriors trained in many fighting styles, favoring hand-to-hand combat (since shamans could handle ranged fighting). Their halls contain many holograms endlessly re-enacting their stances and strikes. Children who were not chosen as shamans were also … Continue reading
The Places of Pyre: The Merchant’s District
This is part of my “Pyre” world. The Merchants’ District Common Enemies: Oriforged Constructs, Chewers, and Shockers Pyre was a relatively industrial civilization, so it needed a lot of trade with nearby countries for raw resources. Thus the need for merchants, who were some of the best in the world at the time. This district … Continue reading
The Places of Pyre: The Shaman’s District
This is part of my “Pyre” world. The Shamans’ District Common Enemies: Ghosts, Doms, Oriforged Constructs, and Chewers Of course, the shaman were the holiest of people in Pyre. Older shamans lived in opulent apartments, but most lived relatively ascetic lives. They could mount the best defenses, of course, so their district is now a … Continue reading
How to Run an Online RPG Convention
Indie+, an online RPG convention on Google+, finished today. I was one of the four sponsors who co-ordinated and ran the whole thing: 21 games and 7 panels scheduled for all hours of the week, including integration with YouTube, Google+, and a wiki. A few weeks ago, we put out a call for potential hosts, asking them to add potential games or panels to our wiki. Once the new Event functionality appeared on Google+, we switched … Continue reading
50 Games in 50 Weeks: Shadowrun 4E
I’d heard bad things about Shadowrun, that the world was much more fun than the system. Fortunately, I played 4th Edition, which made complete sense. Character sheets were heavy-laden with skills and stats, but easy to understand. The system features a straightforward core mechanic: assemble a die pool out of your abilities and roll it against a target number. If you roll a lot of 1s, something really bad … Continue reading
The Places of Pyre: The Nobles’ District
This is part of my “Pyre” world. The Nobles’ District Common Enemies: Shockers, Oriforged Constructs, Entrapment Orbs, and Doms This district once housed the nobles who co-ordinated life in Pyre. They went craziest during Twilight. They mounted elaborate death traps that quickly broke down, and stationed—all told—thousands of Constructs to guard their property. As a … Continue reading
The Dangers of Pyre: Shockers
This is part of my “Pyre” world. Shockers are man-sized metal cages with long, serpentine metal legs, which patrol a limited area for intruders. When an intruder is detected, the shocker wraps its tentacle-like legs around its enemy, drawing it towards the cage. Once the enemy is captured, the cage closes and is electrified, and … Continue reading
The Dangers of Pyre: Oriforged Constructs
This is part of my “Pyre” world. A number of ancient sentinels wander the empty streets of Pyre. A common design involves a large humanoid about 10 feet tall, hunched over slightly, with large forearms, and made entirely of orichalcum. A tiger-like creature was another common design. Oriforged Constructs are powerful at melee attacks only, … Continue reading
Let’s Play an Interesting RPG, episode 11: Houses of the Blooded session 1, part 3 of 3
In our 30 June 2012 session, we played Houses of the Blooded, a storytelling game of intrigue and tragedy. The Group: Let’s Play an Interesting RPG About the group (with instructions on joining or watching our games) The group’s character sheets for this game The System: Houses of the Blooded Rules complexity: Light, with lots of fluff Availability: US$45 … Continue reading