Let’s Play an Interesting RPG, episode 11: Houses of the Blooded session 1, part 3 of 3

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Brent

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

The System: Houses of the Blooded

The Players

  • Brent P. Newhall, GM (@BrentNewhall, this site)
  • Brian Kelsay (@ripcrd)
  • Joe England
  • Larry Moore
  • Michael R.
  • Stacy Dellorfano
  • Thomas Caruso

Video (part 3 of 3)

[podcast format=”video”]http://rpg.brentnewhall.com/media/LetsPlay-0011-part3.m4v[/podcast]

Categories: Let's Play an Interesting RPG | 4 Comments

Let’s Play an Interesting RPG, episode 11: Houses of the Blooded session 1, part 2 of 3

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Brent

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

The System: Houses of the Blooded

The Players

  • Brent P. Newhall, GM (@BrentNewhall, this site)
  • Brian Kelsay (@ripcrd)
  • Joe England
  • Larry Moore
  • Michael R.
  • Stacy Dellorfano
  • Thomas Caruso

Video (part 2 of 3)

[podcast format=”video”]http://rpg.brentnewhall.com/media/LetsPlay-0011-part2.m4v[/podcast]

Continue to part 3

Categories: Let's Play an Interesting RPG | 1 Comment

Let’s Play an Interesting RPG, episode 11: Houses of the Blooded session 1

Posted on July 1, 2012 by Brent

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

The System: Houses of the Blooded

The Players

  • Brent P. Newhall, GM (@BrentNewhall, this site)
  • Brian Kelsay (@ripcrd)
  • Joe England
  • Larry Moore
  • Michael R.
  • Stacy Dellorfano
  • Thomas Caruso

Video (part 1 of 3)

[podcast format=”video”]http://rpg.brentnewhall.com/media/LetsPlay-0011-part1.m4v[/podcast]

Audio Only (entire episode)

[podcast]http://rpg.brentnewhall.com/media/LetsPlay-0011.mp3[/podcast]

Continue to part 2

Categories: Let's Play an Interesting RPG | 1 Comment

The Dangers of Pyre: Entrapment Orbs

Posted on June 28, 2012 by Brent

This is part of my “Pyre” world.

An Entrapment Orb is a black sphere about half a yard wide, with a thin red line running laterally around its center. These Orbs are made from a strange substance that looks like either brushed metal or highly polished stone.

The orbs wander the ruins of Pyre randomly. When they near anyone that they deem a danger, they unleash bolts of lightning that spread throughout the ground up to 6 yards away. Any living creature standing on the lightning-infused ground takes some damage and is held immobile where they stand. An exceptionally strong individual may be able to muster enough strength to manage a ranged attack while held immobile.

Worse, while the lightning dissipates within seconds, all immobilized creatures remain immobilized until the Orb is destroyed or chooses to move on.

Categories: Pyre | Tags: | Leave a comment

The Dangers of Pyre: Doms

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Brent

This is part of my “Pyre” world.

A Dom is a hovering white pillar, about 4 feet tall and 1 foot wide, hovering about a foot off the ground. They were once blessed with a certain amount of intelligence in controlling and co-ordinating other constructs, but these abilities have warped over the millenia.

Doms rarely move, and will not attack individuals who walk by. However, if a Dom detects a nearby Pyrrean construct in combat, the Dom will aid the construct in battle.

A Dom’s primary attack is to cause flame to sprout out of nowhere at the feet of an enemy, engulfing him or her in fire. If one of the Dom’s allies falls in battle, the Dom can immediately perform the same attack against the enemy that killed it.

Moreover, any construct near a Dom is empowered by the Dom, their fists and chains glowing with a clean light and dealing extra damage.

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Let’s Play an Interesting RPG, episode 10: Savage Mars session 2, part 2 of 2

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Brent

In our 16 June 2012 session, we played Savage Mars, an adaptation of Savage Worlds for the world of John Carter.

The Group: Let’s Play an Interesting RPG

The System: Savage Worlds

  • Rules complexity: Light
  • Availability: US$10 PDF
  • Setting: MARS

The Players

  • Brent P. Newhall, GM (@BrentNewhall, this site)
  • Brian Kelsay (@ripcrd)
  • Sophie Lagace
  • Edmund Metheny

Video (part 2 of 2)

[podcast format=”video”]http://rpg.brentnewhall.com/media/LetsPlay-0010-part2.m4v[/podcast]

Categories: Let's Play an Interesting RPG | 1 Comment

Let’s Play an Interesting RPG, episode 10: Savage Mars session 2

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Brent

In our 16 June 2012 session, we played Savage Mars, an adaptation of Savage Worlds for the world of John Carter.

The Group: Let’s Play an Interesting RPG

The System: Savage Worlds

  • Rules complexity: Light
  • Availability: US$10 PDF
  • Setting: MARS

The Players

  • Brent P. Newhall, GM (@BrentNewhall, this site)
  • Brian Kelsay (@ripcrd)
  • Sophie Lagace
  • Edmund Metheny

Video (part 1 of 2)

[podcast format=”video”]http://rpg.brentnewhall.com/media/LetsPlay-0010-part1.m4v[/podcast]

Audio Only (entire episode)

[podcast]http://rpg.brentnewhall.com/media/LetsPlay-0010.mp3[/podcast]

Continue to part 2

Categories: Let's Play an Interesting RPG | Leave a comment

The Dangers of Pyre: Chewers

Posted on June 21, 2012 by Brent

This is part of my “Pyre” world.

A Chewer is a true horror. It resembles a 4-yard-tall floating iron coffin. Atop it sits a large armored casing, within which a malevolent red pupil glows in the midst of utter blackness.

When a chewer gets near a creature, the chewer’s torso springs open to reveal an inner chamber full of spikes and blades, some of them spinning and moving. Two chains, terminated with hooks, fly out of the chamber and embed themselves in its target. The chains then drag the (usually screaming) target into its chamber, which closes. Shortly thereafter, a torrent of blood and meat pours out of a hole at the bottom of the chewer.

A chewer cannot attack while any creature is inside it.

Chewers are highly vulnerable to a ranged attack that hits the chewer’s eye, and are very vulnerable during the moments in which their inner chamber is open.

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A Troublesome RPG

Posted on June 20, 2012 by Brent

How do you encourage players to make interesting story choices?

Imagine a mechanic that encourages delayed gratification, that frequently poses this question: Should I get what I want now, or ensure I’ll get what I want later?

We can accomplish this with a simple in-game economy of tokens to represent this delayed gratification: coupons that players can earn and trade in for success.

Let’s include a simple randomizer: the six-sided die. This implies some weighted odds for success.

So, let’s imagine a few rules:

  1. Describe your character as specifically as possible. You do not need to stat your character, but you’ll want to be clear to the other players.
  2. Any time you want to accomplish something difficult, roll a six-sided die.
    1. You can make the roll Easy or Hard.
      1. On an Easy roll, you get what you want if you roll a 2 or higher.
      2. On a Hard roll, you get a Plot Point and you get what you want if you roll 5 or 6.
  3. If playing with a GM, the GM can declare a task Troublesome for you. If playing without a GM, the group can declare a task Troublesome. This usually happens when a character attempts a task particularly unfit for that character (a weak character attempting to arm-wrestle a hulk).
    1. A Troublesome task requires a roll of 3-6 (Easy) or 6 (Hard).
  4. You can trade in a Plot Point to bypass a die roll and automatically get what you want.

Thoughts?

(And I hereby release this under a CC-BY-3.0 license, so expand and play with it as you wish. I’ll continue to ruminate on this and post as I get more ideas.)

Categories: Role-playing | 1 Comment

The Dangers of Pyre: Builders

Posted on June 18, 2012 by Brent

This is part of my “Pyre” world.

Builders

These four-story-tall floating vehicles were used mostly for construction. They look like a huge legless metal body, their torsos comprised of several enclosed compartments for hauling materials, plus two arms ending with pincers, and a control cockpit in the head.

Builders can be controlled by anyone who’s had the appropriate ritual applied to them.

Desperate defenders of Pyre attempted to use Builders to crush its attackers during Twilight, and many Builder wrecks lay scattered around the city. Some of them may still work.

Categories: Pyre | Tags: | Leave a comment