FATE

Cool role-playing game tools that work on Ubuntu

By The Illustrator | 2011/08/06 12:07 Posted in FATE, Role-Playing Games | Comments (0)

These cool tools are all free, and all work seamlessly with Ubuntu*. I’m talking about stuff that helps in running table-top games here, not on-line RPG stuff. I was very impressed by how professional and smooth these are, and they are all free to download from the author’s RPG tool download website. I’m mostly using the dice roller, which I use while I’m creating role-playing game content, such as for Extreme Future – the role-playing game of adventure in the far future.

The dice roller can be given settings, and these settings can be saved for use over and over again, and with the alternative FATE 2 rolling system used in Extreme Future where large numbers of D6 are flying through the air, it’s great to be able to simply type in the number of dice you need, and then hit the button for D6 and get an instant readout of the results of the roll, broken down by dice.

There are buttons to roll d2, d3, d4, d6, d8, d10, d12, d20 and d100. In the illustration you can see the results after I rolled 7 d6, all nicely totaled up without me having to do any mathematics at all. All the tools work on Ubuntu, Mac, and even Windows, and are slick and professional and it’s well worth a visit to the site for anyone involved in table-top role playing.

* by right clicking the .jar file and selecting ‘open with OpenJDK’ (as long as you have your Java set up OK – oh and remember to change the file so it can be executed, under the permissions tab in file properties)

Dragons Illustration for Fantasy Role-Playing Game

By The Illustrator | 2011/06/26 21:32 Posted in FATE, GIMP, Graphics Tablet, Illustration, Role-Playing Games | Comments (0)

Dragons come to town

The word on Illustration Friday this week is Midsummer Night, and it reminded me of an illustration I included in ‘Realms’ – a fantasy role-playing game using a simplified version of FATE 2. The idea behind the illustration is that a band of traveling entertainers comes to town, flown in by dragon.

The traveling entertainers are a cross between a circus, a theatre and a magic show. As the theatre is run by a mage powerful enough to have dragons as pack animals, the magic is, of course, the best part of the show.

In a role-playing game the dragon theatre could be a source of news, and the mage running things could be a powerful patron to a group of player characters.

Realms is available from RPGDriveThru, a really big store full of games to download, and producing illustrations for the game system is one of the great pleasures of game design. as you can see from the cover of the core rule book, dragons are a favourite in my illustrations, and they are relatively common in the monster infested world of Realms. Coming to town on magical midsummer night they are a source of wonder, but encountered by the player characters as they delve into a deserted forest glade and wake the majestic and short tempered beast, they are a little more worrisome.

So check out Realms for dragons and a bunch of other fantasy monsters!

Superhero role-playing game set in a sci-fi future

By The Illustrator | 2011/06/20 18:51 Posted in FATE, GIMP, Graphics Tablet, Illustration, MyPaint, Role-Playing Games | Comments (0)

Who Needs a Spacesuit?

To Infinity and Beyond

I’m writing a new role-playing game. It’s going to be a game that tries to capture that special genre of superheroes who fight for truth and justice in a far-future sci-fi universe. I already have a role-playing game that simulates the type of far-future space opera setting where anything can happem. It’s called Extreme Future (and it’s available from the biggest RPG site out there RPGDriveThru).

I don’t just want to make a supplement to Extreme Future though. I have done supplements for the Extreme Future RPG before, such as the Fuwalda Spaceship Handbook. I want to do a whole future superhero themed game, so that I can build the whole game around a detailed superhero creation process. The game will be compatible with Extreme Future, and also with the fantasy RPG Realms too, and the most difficult part of all is that I want to include an entire episode of a superhero comic.

I’ve never really done sequential art before, but I’ve read a lot of comic books, especially from the sci-fi future hero genre, and I’ve always wanted to have a go. I’m going to be aiming for a style with the art that’s more Mike Mignola, and McMahon than the usual Eclipse style art you see in indie comics, and I’m hoping it will give the finished role-playing game a lot of character.

It’s going to be a challenging project, and as soon as it’s done it’ll be going on my RPG Publisher’s Page at RPGDriveThru, oh and of course their comic’s site too.

Ramming in Spaceship combat in sci-fi role-playing games

By The Illustrator | 2011/06/17 12:52 Posted in FATE, GIMP, Graphics Tablet, Illustration, Role-Playing Games | Comments (0)

Ramming Speed, Captain!

Starship combat is an important element in the Extreme Future RPG, and I’ve been thinking about ramming rules lately. Initially I was just thinking about including the rules in the finished role-playing game core rules to cover all the eventualities. I thought it ramming would probably be used in actual play, just as a tactic of last resort, against extremely powerful spaceships and other foes that could not be harmed in any other way. But then I started to think again… It turns out that ramming is a tactic often used in naval battles, so why not with space navies as well. Ramming has been used from antiquity right up to almost the present day, with numerous incidents of ramming being recorded throughout WWII.

The speeds involved in ramming attacks by starships in space would be unimaginably faster than those of a dreadnought on the high sees trying to ram a submarine however. There would have to be some element that made these encounters more like that between a boat and less like modern jet fighters, where ramming is suicidal and pretty much never occurs.

The answer is shields. If energy shields can deflect a few tons of mass being hurled at the target by a battery of gauss cannons, then perhaps it can cushion a ramming attack enough to result in a breached hull, but not instant destruction for either of the two starship combatants. That’s the theory that ended up convincing me, and that’s why ramming is a tactic that can be decisive in spaceship combat in Extreme Future.

Of course once you have breached the hull of your target, your job isn’t over. Boarding parties, power armour and droids have to be sent in if you want to stand a chance of taking your prize.

Updated Extreme Future my sci-fi spaceship role-playing game

By The Illustrator | 2011/06/16 16:57 Posted in FATE | Comments (0)

I’ve been working on a spaceship supplement for my role-playing game, and as I went, the tactical space elements of the game have expanded. Here’s the link to the game: http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=91353&affiliate_id=333168 I’m using a blog client for my android phone, so I’ll be very interested to see if that link is active.

Rats, I just checked, and the link isn’t active. That’s a shame because they have this cool feature at RPGdrivethrough, where you get a little preview of the game in a flash demo, with pages that turn.

I’ll see if I can get the link working some other way. http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=91353&affiliate_id=333168 hmm, not easy.

Yessss!!! Cracked it. I copied and pasted the html for an image link from a previous post I created using the WordPress interface. I’m quite impressed with this blog clieny app for android – Postbot is its name.

Now I can blather on about role-playing games wherever I am.

Extreme Future is based on the nice cinematic FATE system, and I’ve used that basis to write the role-playing game I’ve always wanted to play. I’ve also filled the book full of my role-playing game illustrations.

It’s a simple system, but surprisingly subtle and sophisticated. If you can describe the spaceship you want to fly, or the person you want to be in the game, then the rules allow you to design the stats for it, and these can be as complex as desired, but can also be quite simple, for less important characters and equipment. And the space combat rules just got better.

There is a preview at the DriveThruRPG site, where you can click the corners to flip through the book, so go take a look. The Starbright – Extreme Future – tabletop sci-fi role-playing game page. Happy role playing, sci-fi gamers!

New fantasy tabletop role-playing game

By The Illustrator | 2011/05/31 19:19 Posted in FATE, Role-Playing Games | Comments (0)

I’ve added my latest game to RPGDrivethre It’s a huge and rich fantasy setting.

It’s called ‘Realms’ and it has lots of advice for building realistic fantasy environments, and populating them with people, monsters and magic.
Realms has a realistic approach to sword combat and armour, and lots of other weapons too, without getting bogged down in too much detail. This leaves more space for fun stuff like magic, monsters and adventure.
There are lots of examples of magic items, fearsome monsters, the effects of the environment, realistic city life, and the likelihood of finding shelter in the wilderness.
And at the centre of the system is the character. Everything is built around them, to make the character, and the gaming experience as in depth, character centred and fun as possible.

Looks like rain.

It’s been on the site for a couple of days now, but I’m constantly tweaking it. My latest addition was this little pencil sketch of a dwarven adventurer just emerging from his mountain base, or perhaps having second thoughts about descending into the dungeon in order to try and gain treasure and glory while at the mercy of a demented gamemaster. The brave little player character is armed with a war hammer, which is a mean-looking half hammer, half pick axe, half spear thing that was all the rage in medieval times.

Starbright Illustrations (blog)