baxil, posts by tag: roleplaying - LiveJournal (original) (raw)
baxil, posts by tag: roleplaying - LiveJournal
[Recent Entries][Archive][Friends][Profile]
My Sites[Tomorrowlands] [The TTU Wiki] [Photos]
View My LJ[By Tag]
Below are the 10 most recent journal entries recorded in the "Baxil" journal:
| October 26th, 2011 | |
|---|---|
| 12:19 am |
Announcement: P&P launch 10/31 exuberantCurrent Music: Rhythm Corps, "Number Song"Tags: roleplaying, transcendent masculinity(3 comments | Leave a comment) |
| September 28th, 2011 | |
| 09:52 pm |
Oh yeah! I have a Livejournal!And I keep forgetting to update it, too! But I'm overdue for an update on:[ goodCurrent Music: Not A Clever Pony, "Lower The Moon"Tags: roleplaying, tales from the table, transcendent masculinity(5 comments | Leave a comment) |
| April 26th, 2011 | |
| 01:17 am |
The weather's even improving my dreamsSo I dreamed last night I'm fighting a hopeless battle against demons in a giant space station. They corner me in a room by myself and, basically, win; I'm at their mercy. They tell me to learn, and perform for them, this ritual of power that will turn them nigh-invulnerable. I try to refuse and make them kill me in a noble self-sacrifice, but they drag in a dear friend of mine who they're holding hostage, and I give up, begging with them that I'll do what they want if they just let him live ...And then I realize that the ritual they need involves summoning a phoenix and killing it for its blood. And my heart leaps, and I'm like, "Holy shit ... PHIL!"You've gotta understand. Phil is an NPC in the (waking-world) epic-tier D&D campaign I'm currently playing in. He's a celestial phoenix. The good gods gave him to us as a gift when we visited Celestia and complained about being forced to clean up after an evil trickster god. (By "clean up after," I mean fixing things like "moving two planets into the same orbit, setting up the impending doom of several billion people".) Phil is also, shall we say, mentally challenged ... but as long as we give him very specific tasks to apply his Massive Godlike Powers to, he can rock crazy cosmic shit with the rest of us.So I start the ritual -- and then summon Derpy McCelestial in place of the standard, wimpy phoenix. Everyone blinks and double-takes, just long enough for me to point him at the evil. Phil flawlessly wipes the room with the demons, because he's just. super. broken. and the threats I'm facing are nowhere near his scale. Then I have him banish the demons from the entire rest of the station.About this time I realize the whole thing is a LARP, and the DM is staring in shock at me because I just did a one-man nuke of every villain in the entire campaign at like level 2. I was meant to lose, in a big dramatic plot moment that would make me culpable for the impending catastrophe and justify the immense powers of the bad guys. Everyone else was meant to see all their friends get slaughtered around them, and become the lucky (or cowardly) survivors that managed to band together into a loose, hopeless resistance whose only option was to flee for distant space.But all the notes for Phil are down on my old character sheet (I guess we were allowed to say we were friends with one NPC from our previous campaign, or something similar). I have all the supporting documentation. It's a clean loophole.I walk out of the room into the newly demon-free station, from a room littered with bad-guy corpses, and all the other players are staring at me like I'm some sort of roleplaying god. Current Music: Zelig, "People Still Play D&D"Current Mood: amusedCurrent Location: ~brainstormTags: dreams, roleplaying, tales from the table(7 comments | Leave a comment) |
| February 11th, 2011 | |
| 05:59 pm |
Deathbird Black: Ronnies Update A winner is me! :D I'll be doing a rewrite this weekend to better organize the material and clarify some rules - and I'll continue working on it as playtesting identifies and irons out the bugs. This was a game I felt good about even before I learned the results. And the Ronnie is going to be a real shot in the arm in terms of available resources and prestige. So I'll state it out loud and commit myself: I want to refine Deathbird Black and take it all the way to publication. Current Location: ~spiralCurrent Mood: jubilantCurrent Music: Sufjan Stevens, "One Last "Whoo-hoo!" For The Pullman"Tags: deathbird black, roleplaying(5 comments | Leave a comment) |
| February 6th, 2011 | |
| 05:26 pm |
DEATHBiRD BLACKSo! I entered the February round of the Ronnies, a 24-hour RPG design competition. I took quite a different tone this time than I did with Egregore. I'll let the blurb speak for itself:You're a hard-boiled man (or woman) in a gritty, corrupt world. Lust, greed, vengeance, jealousy - one of these is the bitter taste in the back of your throat. Some might call it a sin. You call it a mission. And you're not going to let anything stand in your way (except maybe your own flaws).Meanwhile, the city is seething around you. The night is steamy, and ready to boil over at the slightest provocation. And in the shadows, steely eyes glint from above a demonic black beak, silently driving people into ever greater acts of desperation ...Waiting to unleash chaos and hell ... with one mighty CAW.Deathbird Black is a comedy game in the film noir genre. Tongue-in-cheek, dice-flinging, bird-screaming fun. I am still giggling over the fact I got to write the phrase "ritualized catharsis of incomprehensible crosstalk and flying objects".I haven't yet playtested it - that's a tall order in a 24-hour competition - but if you're curious to play it, here's the alpha; let me know how it goes. Otherwise, I'll get some feedback in the Ronnies 2011 forum, and improve it from there. Current Location: ~brainstormCurrent Music: "Razzle Dazzle," Chicago OSTTags: roleplaying(5 comments | Leave a comment) |
| November 24th, 2010 | |
| 07:15 pm |
HeartbeatI'm still alive here, though winter is kinda kicking my ass. We just passed through a week of snow, rain, and hail (in that order), and this morning it was so cold that there was a layer of ice on the inside of my windshield. This is a maddeningly frustrating experience, more so if you never grew up in a state that froze.Broadly, I've been pulling back from socializing, but roleplaying has been a useful lifeline. The RPG I wrote, Egregore, didn't make the finals of Game Chef, but it was a useful exercise on a number of different levels. Egregore needs editing to refocus the game on its purpose - confronting and conquering the dreamworld on an emotional and narrative level - but I'm going to set it aside for a while, because I'd like to play a few of the finalists first. Thanksgiving weekend might be a nice opportunity for that.Meanwhile, my ongoing Fireborn campaign has had enough concentrated moments of awesome that I've started posting the game quotes to  rpg_quotes: Permission to Conquer; Death and Cockroaches. We're heading into what hopefully is the home stretch of the campaign - the PCs just averted World War III, and there are a few power-ups to collect and end-bosses to confront. I'm already starting to think about the next campaign I want to GM, and I'm increasingly of the opinion that I'm going to run a brief arc of Dogs In The Vineyard, as much for its collaborative play as for its narrativist appeal; trying to plot anything on the heels of my current campaign's intricate machinations would be a huge anticlimax, and a big burnout risk.So I need to pick up a copy of the rulebook, which reminds me, I had a few requests to put up a Baxil Winter Holiday Gift Idea List, because I'm a damn hard person to shop for. (This isn't meant as any sort of hint - if you didn't ask me for this, it's not aimed at you.) I don't really need a lot of Stuff, and my luxury items are pretty cerebral, so when it came time to brainstorm it basically popped out as a list of "games I want to play/read/own."( Gift ideas below cut. Contains a lot of awesome indie RPGs and gaming supplements.Collapse ) Tags: misc life updates, roleplaying(6 comments | Leave a comment) |
| October 5th, 2010 | |
| 08:29 pm |
Epic Gaming Tales: The 2-CHA Motivational Speaker(And now for something completely different.)For all the fun I've been having with my Fireborn game, those aren't the only dragons in my gaming life. My friend {m} is running a D&D 3.5e campaign in a world with an uneasy balance between magic and technology. The campaign is broken in all sorts of ways*, but we're having vast amounts of fun. As just one example, my PC, Sascha the White, is a silver-dragon airship engineer. She started out as a socially inept monk, and discovered her true calling when we visited a city devoted to technological discovery. She still regularly runs around and punches things - it comes with the adventuring job - but her happiest moments have come from the simple joy of bending engines to her will.Part of this is her uneasy relationships with people. When you start out with a Charisma of 2** (on a 3-18+ scale), that's sort of inevitable. Machines, she can understand. Humanity, not so much.I decided early on that a charisma that low could only be explained by radical honesty, meant well but executed horribly. This is why, when the party first picked her up, her monastery had not-so-gently requested that she take a pilgrimage across the continent before ever setting foot in the place again. There were also a number of shenanigans during play involving uncomfortable truths and awkward social encounters. And this is even before we get into the latent psychic powers that caused people to inexplicably and unwantedly fall in love with her ... but I digress.So Sascha is passionate about machines. And, inevitably, our party finds an excuse to fund and construct an airship. It's a jerry-rigged flying deathtrap - a sailing-ship hull precariously hanging underneath a million cubic feet of hydrogen gas - but it's ours, and it's a major leap forward in technological capability for the town we're in, and dammit, it's an airship, and that's coolness you can't beat with a stick.The day of that gaming session, it occurs to me: This is a momentous thing. Plans begin to form in my mind. _It's a campaign turning point, and it's got incredible personal meaning for Sascha. This is a golden opportunity for roleplaying._So I decide to mark the occasion by having Sascha give a stirring, heartwarming speech to the crew. And I figure I'll ham it up. Before leaving for game, I root through my attic for a few minutes, coming up with a white shirt, leather duster, an aviator's cap****, a wrench, a strap resembling a bandolier, and some goggles. Alright, I think. _Vaguely airship mechanic-ey. It's not really Sascha, but it's thematic. I guess I can make this work._When I arrive at {m}'s, I bag them up and sneak them into his front bathroom while everyone is settling in at the gaming table. I tell no-one of my plans, and since the table's around the corner from the front door, nobody sees me. And then Fate steps in. Shortly after the start of game, as I am narrating some of Sascha's last-minute airship work, {a} turns to me and says: "You know, before we leave town, you should totally get Sascha looking the part of the mechanic.""Really?" I reply, trying to sound nonchalant. "What are you thinking?""Well, like, some goggles, and one of those old-style hair caps that pilots used to wear, and a cool leather jacket ... and something to hold all her wrenches in, a bandolier or something ..."Somehow I manage to keep a straight face. He hasn't left the table since I arrived. I KNOW he has no clue about my impromptu plans. And yet he rattles off EVERY ONE of my props, _down to the freaking AVIATOR'S CAP._If I, Baxil, am somebody's PC, this is what it looks like when my player crits a Luck check."You know, that would be pretty cool," I say. "Hey {m}, all that stuff's available in town, right? How much would it cost?"We barter a little and I spend about 4 GP. I write down on my character sheet, repeating out loud to make sure everyone hears: "Goggles, aviator's hat, leather jacket, bandolier, good-quality wrench."Final in-game preparations are made for the airship launch. "Alright, guys," {m} says. "Give me some rolls and let's see how she flies.""Before we do," I say, "I really need to go to the bathroom. Can you hang on a minute?"I get changed. I cue up Leftovers from the Dreams of the Strong at 0:54, pause it, and crank my iPhone up to maximum volume.Then Sascha strides around the corner to the gaming table, amid stirring airship-launching music.The room collectively falls off its chair. Once everyone recovers long enough to breathe, this rousing morale booster comes from the lips of the character who is almost literally the least qualified person in the world to give a motivational speech:I suspect that the only thing that prevented immediate mutiny was the fact that most of our crew was Charmed.--* The worst offender being our STR-58 Goliath barbarian. (When all his bonuses are applied. But still. The freakin' Tarrasque is only 46.)** For the nitpickers: "But how does a character even get a Charisma of 2," you ask, "much less a silver dragon, who has a ridiculous racial Charisma bonus?" You see, Sascha started life as a frostblood half-orc*** - the race has a two-point CHA penalty - and later got infected with a magical disease that slowly started turning her into a dragon. At the start of the campaign, I rolled a 4 for Charisma, with the GM looking over my shoulder.*** Hence "the White."**** I really can't explain why I own an aviator's cap. The one you see in the video was inherited at some point from my dad - maybe it's a family heirloom? It's made of sturdy cloth and looks Depression-era to my untrained eye. Current Location: ~spiralCurrent Music: Medeski, Martin and Wood, "Just Like I Pictured It"Tags: multimedia, roleplaying, tales from the table(13 comments | Leave a comment) |
| September 19th, 2010 | |
| 06:11 am |
Racing the deadline on this oneSo that teaser from a few days ago? Here's the game!* I was REALLY hoping to post this, like, two days ago. My sleep schedule has been pretty effed up this week.Egregore** is a game about mages exiled from reality into a world of their own making, trying to discover the secrets of a deserted city before their own phantoms and emotions drive them over the edge.(WARNING: This is a game about self-confrontation with inescapable inner demons. If that might be triggering, please feel free to give it a pass.) --> Download Egregore (final Game Chef 2010 version) (~750kb PDF) <-- (Edited, 2010/09/19 3pm: Goals section complete; only the Scene rules to go.)(Edited, 2010/09/"19" midnight+6 pm: Well, it's complete and in, and hopefully still qualifies on the "when I get up on the morning of the 20th" technicality. Even if not, I still wrote a game in a week! The contest is only for bragging rights anyway, so the fact I did it is the important thing.-- * Egregore is, as I type this and drop to bed for a nap, in a not quite playable state. I need to get the meat of the actual gameplay rules down. Which we can all agree is a pretty shitty thing to leave for last, but in between procrastination and lengthy design hacking, it's mostly pinned.What is finished is all of the game structure, including character generation, mechanics, overall play arc, setting (is the conceit of the game clear enough?) and story (which doubles as mechanics-free sample gameplay). Typesetting is, well, um, at least not a complete embarrassment, which meets the standards for a one-week game quite adequately.At this point I don't expect there to be a great deal of time for productive feedback (it's due Sunday night), but if you happen to flip through it on Sunday, let me know if any of the (existing) rules are unclear, broken, or Way The Hell Too Long Jeez Bax You Could Trim Six Pages Off This Thing. I'll post a complete, revised version once it's written.** Thanks to  tangyabominy for the naming inspiration. :) Current Location: ~/BrainstormCurrent Mood:  deadlinin'Tags: game dev, games, roleplaying, ttu, writing(13 comments | Leave a comment) |
| September 16th, 2010 | |
| 03:39 am |
Exile - PreviewWell, now I've done it.I went and committed to Game Chef 2010 - posted on the forums and declared I'd submit an entry. It's a matter of pride now. I've got to finish writing a short RPG system by Sunday.This is only slightly crazy -- it's sort of the NaNoWriMo of RPG designers, except with a set theme ("Journey") and ingredients ("city", "desert", "edge", "skin"). But it will be good practice. I've been slowly moving forward on my TTU RPG for a while, and designing a simpler game start-to-finish will help me focus on the process and give me a little experience in putting together something that's basically playable.Plus - this one is ending up being a Tomorrowlands game, too. :)I realized the theme ingredients were right in the sweet spot of TTU's flip side known as "The Shadowlands." (You may remember several mentions of that setting in Legend Of Hero.) And so I have been assembling a game about mages exiled from reality -- trying desperately to find and fulfill their purpose in a world assembled completely from their subconscious mind. That world begins manifesting according to the mage's guilt/resentment over the sin that sent them there, and so it's a race against time as reality itself tries to kill them or drive them insane.Once I get a finished draft written (probably tomorrow night), I'll need some test readers, and ideally some playtesters (but I doubt I'll get the time to do more than a cursory job of that). Any volunteers? Until then, I'll leave you all with the story snippet I wrote as flavor fiction for the RPG. :)---------------- The phantasms were brushing past his senses ever more often, now. Half-remembered scents floated on intangible breezes; distant voices buzzed and whispered and roared from around corners; imperceptible forms flitted between the bright but indistinct areas that passed for shadows. Ben could almost mistake the city for alive. But these latest voices troubled him. The mocking laughter of children. It was close - in the alley around the corner. And there was one voice not laughing. A young, tormented voice - all too familiar. He glanced into the empty parking garage, sighed, and abandoned his post. He had a few minutes before Emily returned, and if she ran into trouble, he'd still be in earshot anyway. Rounding the corner, he recognized the scene instantly. Half a dozen sixth graders encircled a younger boy, almost within arm's reach. He'd been that younger boy, once upon a time, a world away. One was holding the boy's lollipop tauntingly overhead. "You want it back?" their ringleader sneered at the frightened kid. "Fight me for it. Or are you too chicken? Ben the hen." "Hey," older Ben interrupted, drawing himself to his full height. The alley went still. Seven pairs of dark eyes lanced into him, and a long-forgotten fear chilled his bones. But he met the gaze of the diminutive bullies. A bunch of pathetic kids. I don't have to be scared of them any more. I could kick their asses with a wave of my hand - He stopped that thought in its tracks. No. That's exactly why I'm here. "You guys must be feeling pretty good, huh?" he asked with forced gentleness. "Taking that lollipop away. Makes you feel strong." He crouched down and locked eyes with the leader. "But you know what makes you even stronger? When you're able to give. Taking means you're ruled by your needs. Giving means that you've conquered them. And once you've conquered yourself, you've beaten the only opponent who ever mattered." "I don't care what you say, mister," the bully retorted. "This is my sucker." "And so are these." Ben reached inside himself for power and outside himself for raw material. Six more lollipops coalesced from darkness into substance in his outstretched hand. It was a risk ... but one he knew he had to take. "Take them," Ben said, and the bully did, suspiciously. "No, really. They're yours. No strings attached." "I know what you're going to say, and I'm still not giving any of MY suckers to that kid," the bully snarled. "You don't have to," Ben said with a smile. "There's more where those came from. I could give him one myself. Even if you take it, I could simply give him another one, and another. I can make more lollipops than you can carry. But all that would do is humiliate you in front of your friends. Is that what you want? Or would you rather show everyone here that you're strong enough to decide who goes home happy?" The bully stared in defiant silence, then dropped young Ben's lollipop on the ground. "I didn't want it anyway. C'mon, guys, let's go." The children shimmered and faded away, mirages in the asphalt desert, and Ben let out a long breath. He had won. And maybe - maybe - - no. He didn't dare to turn around to check. But he didn't have to. He knew she was there. "I hope you weren't expecting to hide the scent of your magic from me," Jenny's voice said. "Mahathallah, archangel of the ancient temple." Ben began the invocation for the ritual of banishing, already knowing it was pointless. "Great Lady of Deception. Mother of the succubi --" "Is that any way to treat a guest you just invited over?" she interrupted, feigning insult. "And after you've just sacrificed some of the last of your magic for the fleeting happiness of a phantom, too. If I didn't know better I'd think you're going as soft in the heart as you are in the head." Ben turned around to Jenny's form, leaning casually against the building, looking the same as the last day he'd seen her. But no - it wasn't Jenny. Another phantasm ... one he couldn't shake. And she was becoming more and more substantial, more her, with every visit. Twisting the knife. "It's not about real and fake any more," he said. "It's about right and wrong." "Is it?" Jenny said, eyes twinkling. "Is that what you're going to tell yourself when you help your friend blow up the city?" Current Location: ~/BrainstormTags: game dev, games, roleplaying, ttu, writing(5 comments | Leave a comment) |
| September 7th, 2010 | |
| 04:14 am |
FirefoxBorn! (aka Browser: The Paginating) Proudly announcing:FIREFOXBORN: THE ROLEPLAYING GAMEFeaturing the following featureful features!FULL-COLOR INTERIOR ILLUSTRATIONS! OBSCURE TECHNICAL HUMOR! A REALLY DERANGED PARODY OF AN RPG SYSTEM THAT MAYBE 12 PEOPLE HAVE PLAYED!  accomplishedCurrent Location: ~/BrainstormTags: best of baxil, fireborn, it's a parody please don't sue, multimedia, roleplaying, struh won niarb ym, writing(18 comments | Leave a comment) |
