Blackbirds RPG book reveal

I can't seem to share it here, but my buddy Ryan posted on his Instagram an image of a hard copy of his Blackbirds RPG.

From the May update on the Kickstarter, it looks great:

The only thing I wish, like with my own books, was the author's name on the spine. It's not common on RPG books, but it's something I like . . . looking at my bookshelf and seeing the names of my friends who are now published authors.

Still, it's attractive:

Sample Character: Alexander Lascelles Jamison

I like sample characters and examples of play. Growing up as a 9-10 year old trying to learn to play games, these were a window into a world I wanted to be part of.

I still love them. I couldn't wait, upon re-reading Traveller via my first read of The Traveller Book, to get to Alexander Lascelles Jamison.

I wasn't disappointed re-reading him.

Some reactions:

- andi jones pointed this out at a game session along time ago - ALJ is 38, and when we started gaming this was so old. It was hard to imagine even playing somone who was 20. In my 20s, "35" was code for a character who was a long-time old-timey vet. 38? 38?

Doesn't seem that old, now. Stopped seeming that old when I hit 30, actually. It seems like a good age to go solo and really go for it in the Traveller universe.

- What's the average human lifespan in the TU? It lacks a lot of modern technology, being a now-retro version of the future, but it does have some pretty good medical tech. How long do people live? You must retire after 7 terms unless you keep rolling 12s on Reenlistment, which is 46. That implies you have a relatively low lifespan for such good technology.

- I like how much emphasis they put into the number rolls. When the player rolls a 5, +2 DM for intelligence, to get a 7, the minimum to join the Merchants, he "just barely manages" to talk his way onto a merchant ship crew. A 3 (+2 for intelligence = 5) on 5+ survival roll means he experienced danger, but a 9 (+2 = 11) means a quiet 4-year period. The rolls tell the story just as the results do. Something like this is fun, but I'd rather hand-roll (or VTT-roll) up a guy and have the numbers matter.

- I know there is a house rule somewhere for surviving a failing Survival roll instead of being dead (and thus needing a new character.) Anyone know of a published one?

- I never really deeply loved randomly rolling for skills. Don't get me wrong - it's fun as hell, and it keeps everyone from min/maxing around certain weapons and skills . . . but it does seem like you should get to choose some. If I set out at 18 to be a pilot, I could have had a pilot's license by now. I learned a lot I didn't expect to learn, but I also learned things I set out to do. I didn't randomly roll "Japanese" on my language list - I had to make that happen and did a lot of work and spent a good bit of time and money to make it happen. I'd like some of that.

- I need to did up my GURPS Traveller book and look at conversions. It would be a lot of fun to make people roll up Traveller guys and then manually convert them - probably with customization - to GURPS since it's an easier game system to run at this point.

- I'm still a litttle annoyed with the merchants for forcing ALJ into retirement. One more term and one more roll would have paid off that ship!

- Maybe Kevin Murphy could play ALJ in the Traveller movie.



- I have no idea how to pronounce "Lascelles" but I know I'd do so differently than 10-or-11-year old me would have done so.

I really enjoy this game, for as little as I got to run it.

Felltower - Little Notes

Here are a bunch of little notes about Felltower, Stericksburg, and my DF campaign. Some of these you'll already know. Some are absolutely new to this blog.

Where did you get that from?

Felltower unabashedly has bits taken from other places. I make little claim to have created all of this ex nihilio, even when I use "a diety did it!" as an explanation.

- Baron Sterick's name and origin story is cribbed from a story from Doug Cole.

- Felltower came as a name suggested by Doug Cole, too. And then my players went and felled a tower in their first session of the megadungeon. You can't make this up.

- Leaving Stericksburg, you cross the Old Stone Bridge across the polluted Silver River. I made that up . . . as far as I know. But as a kid, then twice as an adult, I read (and really liked) Elfstones of Shannara by Terry Brooks.* In it, I found this passage:

Late that afternoon, they arrived at the legendary Silver River and came upon a company of Dwarf Sappers engaged in the construction of a footbridge at a heavily forested narrows.
- Terry Brooks, Elfstones of Shannara, p. 97 (mass market paperback)

Well, okay then. Dwarf-made bridge across the Silver River. Damn, nothing is unique, is it?

I still think I just thought of this. It's a throwaway reference. But it stopped me when I ran into it when I was reading the book.

- The surface is a map from the Judge's Guild Castles II book.

- The need for a megadungeon owes a great deal to this post, and stories of the really old days. I didn't run a megadungeon back then - we didn't run them back in my day - but here we are.

- The Jester Gate was a very, very early add. One of the first things I wanted to add was a gate like the ones in Greyhawk that led places like Dungeonland.

- Not really a little note, but man, this campaign should have had a dead pool!**




* The only Terry Brooks book I actually like. I think Elfstones is an excellent book. It benefits from having a backstory in Sword of Shannara, which I gather is very, very derivative. I've tried to read later ones but wasn't drawn in. This one is just good, in my opinion. It's worth a read even without the book before and after it in the series. I may have to go back and read Sword at some point, and re-try Song, but maybe not.

** A captain dead pool! Nah, maybe not.

DCC Bundle of Holding

So, for about $50, a bit less really, you can get 50 DCC modules on a Bundle of Holding:

50 Dungeons

The earlier you jump in, the less the total needs to be - but of course, you can always err on the upside and donate some extra funds.

Links & Thoughts for 5/27/2022

Here is some fun for Friday.

- I like house rules posts, and roundups of house rules even more so. Rules I Don’t Use, Replace, or Revise is a good one. I especially like to know what people have tried and then abandoned - that's how rules systems get better, as you cut away what's not working.

- Here is a rules post from Chris Rice, as well.

- And from Kalazz.

- And Cole Jenkins.

- I love me some Gamma World, even if our GM is too busy to play GURPS, nevermind run Gamma World. So here is some musing on a Gamma World campaign.

- I still want to run a Gamma World-DF crossover. But I want to play more AD&D first.

- Commanding armies back in the day, from acoup.

Signature Gear, Weapon Bond, and teleport traps

My players recently stumbled into a teleport trap in Felltower that teleported them, but not any of their gear. How would that affect - and be affected by - equipment traits?

Signature Gear

In Felltower, this means you can eventually get it back. It won't be destroyed - but it might get used. It won't disappear forever - but it might be hard to recover. And so on.

So with a naked teleport trap, your gear exists . . . but I won't make exceptions to get it back to you. Serendipity could potentially make for a coincidental recovery, but it would really depend on the circumstances. Otherwise, just know it is waiting for you.

Weapon Bond and Equipment Bond

This doesn't provide any plot immunity for your weapons. I won't treat an item with Weapon Bond or Equipment Bond any differently than any other piece of equipment. Points in these traits can be wasted if that piece of equipment is destroyed or stolen and unable to be recovered. Purchasing a +1 to a specific weapon or piece of equipment for 1 point is an economical investment compared to 4 points in a skill . . . but it comes with some risk and downsides.

Minis I don't need: Aztecs

Thanks to Chain Links and Concrete for finding more minis I don't need but want:

Aztec Warriors

I really like the look and arms of aztec soldiers. I don't have any need for them - in fact, given a VTT, it's easier to have a picture than a mini. But they'd be so cool to have on the table.