Transitory States
Edward:
David S Leyman:
Hisham:
Luke:
James Kight:
king:
Hisham and Sila has been writing stuff down on this weblog since 2005. Sometimes they post photos of family, sometimes they talk about film, books and music, sometimes there is artwork and stuff about tabletop gaming.
In the Jann Tosh / Mon Julpa story arc of the Droids series the heroes encounter a 3-metre tall monster called a durkii in a dungeon pit, not surprising since the durkii was apparently a pet of the evil Tammuz-an vizier Zatec-Cha.
It was large, purple and had an unpleasant demeanour, but had no stats.
I hope this entry rectifies that oversight. At least in D6 terms.
So what's one animal you can think of that's not a maneater, can't overrun the entire world and physically incapable of killing humans on this planet?
I'm thinking... ducks.
So it came to pass I started thinking of a silly RPG sourcebook which will be available for free download named The Apocalyptic Invasion of Flesh-eating Mutant Ducks RPG, which will employ West End Games' D6 game engine which was used for its old Star Wars RPG system.
The best things on the net are free!
Well, not exactly true but roaming the internet I did come across a list of 500 free role playing games. Some are dead links. Some are very lean. Some are PDF, some are HTML and some are Word files. Some are official free products from RPG companies.
I'm going through the entire list on my own t...
Ooo, lookit... the out-of-print Time Lord RPG. Be right back.
My friend Shane Welin is now in a d20 game with a difference. The rules might be powered by the run-of-the-mill d20 Modern / Future engine but I believe this is the first time I know of a campaign set in the world of Battlestar Galactica whose third season will be aired this next month.
His player character stats is listed below, but I'll see about getting stats for Vipers (Mark IIs and Mark VIIs), Raptors and Raiders up here as well.
Anyway, here's Shane's Hal Rogero (still no callsign) in d20:
Here are the stats and capsule for BU-77, the ARC trooper I played with Team Sabredart on IRC. The game was run by Simon Taylor using the old West End Games' D6 system. I had a ball playing this character, as you can see by the actual ad lib quotes which was spoken (or typed in) during course the game sessions.
Too bad we didn't play out the character until the Order 66 massacre. It would have been interesting to see what he would do to Raeree Giin, their Jedi team leader.
He used to have a DC-15A blaster rifle, which for the D6 stats I used the official stats of the BlasTech T-21 light repeating blaster, but it was confiscated when they were all arrested for insubordination.
After Phil "Grimace" Hatfield introduced me to Galaxy Games Online, I've long thought of customising some .ggo files for use with the old West End Games' Star Wars RPG.
Galaxy Games Online is a program that allows you to run and play pen and paper type role playing games over the internet using a chat window and a dice roller. One feature available on the program allows us to create our own .ggo files, which can be customised player character sheets, dice rollers and even a virtual book where we can write down our house rules, all readable from the main program. You can even create your own random name generator, which is easily adaptable to other uses such as random encounters or random locations.
Here for your download are four .ggo files compressed neatly in a zip file.
So, what you have to do is download the .zip file here (right click and Save File As... , Size: 16KB), unzip and put all files in Program Files > Galaxy Games > Galaxy Games Online > samples.
Of course it would help if you had the program installed and were using it to game online.
Rebirth
The Sarcophagi are creatures born of mystery and devoid of past. They have been resurrected from flawed and meaningless lives into a new existence. Memory and history are lost to them; their old lives cast aside like a cocoon that has been outgrown. Once the Sarcophagi were human, but now they are something else. Their compound eyes see the world differently. Their four arms manipulate reality in new ways. A chitinous exoskeleton protects their fragile souls.
The Sarcophagi are insects that walk as men.
The Sarcophagi are explorers. They wander the Silhouette Rouge, seeking to divine its truths. Only by doing so, can they escape this place and progress to whatever destiny awaits them.Menagerie
The Sarcophagi are not alone. Strange, wayward souls haunt the Silhouette Rouge. Known simply as the Others, each of these entities is unique. Some understand the mystery of the Silhouette Rouge, while some are as unknowing as the Sarcophagi.
The Others have been here for a very long time.
Abstract Nova website has been updated with more tidbits on the upcoming Noumenon RPG, where one of the two vignettes I wrote will be published. The book will be released in June, but the month before that a character sheet and a sampler will available for download.
GamingReport.com also has a news report on Noumenon:
There is a place outside of normal existence called the Silhouette Rouge, a place where the conscious and subconscious merge, where the real and unreal are one in the same. The Sarcophagi, creatures lacking memory and identity, are imprisoned within this place. They walk the Silhouette Rouge hoping to divine its secrets for only revelation and enlightenment can grant them release.
Noumenon is a role-playing game of mystery and abstraction. Players assume the roles of the Sarcophagi, strange insect-like creatures trapped within the Silhouette Rouge. During their adventures, players will encounter bizarre entities and explore strange locations. The Silhouette Rouge, Noumenon’s setting, is detailed enough to spark the imagination yet open enough to allow customization. In Noumenon, player cooperation is key. Noumenon uses a domino-based task resolution system that enables player to build upon each other’s successes.
Bizarre, indeed. And intriguing enough for me to wait eagerly for a comp copy of the book to arrive some time next month, or June.
And if I'm really lucky, I'll even be able to run it some time. *sigh*
Check out what Dungeons and Dragons character you are. Are you a...
Fighter? Monk? Rogue? Wizard? Ranger?
Good? Neutral? Evil?
Lawful? Chaotic?
Human? Dwarf? Elf? Halfling?
Click on this link (dead link) to find out, then read on here to find out what Hisham is in D&D.
Never let it be said I ran the Wild Gundark game without having at least one group illustration done for the team. Clockwise from top left, Groo McShae the Duros sensor tech, Similiv Zalimort the Kerestian first mate, Captain Nisa Dyaton the pilot, Aleic Karnsky the gunner, N4-M8 the mercenary and Wayang Kulit the Jawa droid tech specialist. Click below to view the image.
Concluding the saga of the Wild Gundark crew:
Quickly, the person on the other side of the comm told Nisa to meet them in Landing Bay 239 back at Medeus. “We'll be waiting there at noon local time tomorrow.”
Then the Fifth House woman cut off the transmission abruptly.
The confused N4 remarked, “Could someone please explain the situation to me? Who is this 'Duke' and who was that organic who ceased functioning outside the ship just now?”
Ignoring the newcomer droid, the worried Groo asked, “You think that communiqué was really bad for our health?”
A grinning Similiv replied, “Probably, Greenskin... but we wouldn't want our lives to be boring now would we?”
Finally after much contemplation, Nisa grimly said, “OK! We have a meet, but get ready for anything this time. We have about 12 hours till the meet, and I want to be alive for it.”
And now the conclusion:
The world was known as Daver Kuat, third planet from its sun, a standard terrestrial life-bearing world. Unlike its sister world Kuat, which was a great big mess of thousands of ships surrounding it, orbital traffic here was light. On the farthest side of the planet from the sun, there was an island. Upon the island was a mountain. At the side of the mountain, there was a cave, spewing fiery smoke from it. Right outside the cave on flat ground was a YZ-900 light freighter. Six beings within this ship were considering their next move, now that the passenger who promised to pay them for passage had disappeared.
And they seemed to be right smack in the middle of the local politics of the Noble Houses of Kuat, which was known to be pretty deadly.
The last of the series of three Future Player's Companion books is now released: Future Player's Companion: Tomorrow's Evolution. Written by Gary Astleford, Neil Spicer and Rodney "Moridin" Thompson and co-illustrated by Jacob Elijah Walker, the supplement to Wizards of the Coast's d20 Modern and d20 Future has all you need for advanced sci-fi characters from cybernetic enhancement to new gadgets to effects of drugs and medicine in a science fiction setting.
Continuing the saga of the Wild Gundark crew:
And now the continuation of the story based on the Star Wars RPG campaign:
A Star Wars fiction, based on the Chronicles of Wild Gundark RPG campaign.
It all began when the crew of the Wild Gundark was commissioned to deliver twenty tons of bantha milk to the backwater town of Prosperity on the cold tundra of the planet Dellalt. The job went without a hitch, apart from the little tussle with the crew of an Imperial customs corvette (the two-pronged, sleek affair that many tramp freighter captains love to hate) in the Vaxal system. Unfortunately, the result of the little encounter was the spillage of approximately half of the delicious blue milk because of gravity plate failure. Things could have turned out real bad for them, but instead their contact, a imposing and tattooed Herglic named Dapp only paid them fairly in half and left peacefully.
There was only one thing known to them as they left Dellalt: They had taken on a passenger, Tell Sabarin, a stately and noble-looking person, who paid them a huge sum of twenty thousand credits to convey himself and his cargo, a cryogenic bio-containment crate, all the way to his homeworld of Kuat in the Core Worlds.
***
But there were two things unbeknown to them.
One: While they were away from the ship bargaining with Sabarin for the transportation fee in town, a shadowy figure slipped quietly into their ship followed by a shuffling metallic figure. Five minutes later, the shadowy figure slipped out alone and disappeared.
Two: A few minutes later, two more shadowy figures sneaked onto their ship.
And never came back out.
***