Horror Belongs in the Mind

There are RPGs that have horror rules in them. Such games allow the players to metagame a sense of horror for their characters. These same games suffer from far too many pauses of play while players tally up their fright levels.

The argument about whether or not certain RPG rules promote game play or game pause I will save for another time. So until then, I'd like you the reader to think about ways your group can prevent game pause from happening. I'm assuming of course that a gaming goal of your group is to role-play out scenes in real-time.

What is real-time? Think of it as movie-time. A movie with no pause button. Never do you see characters in an action film pause themselves during combat. You'll also notice that they never pause during all the other scenes either.

Now what to do with this horror mechanic getting in the way of our real-time role-play? Well, what frightens you when watching horror movies? It's not watching the characters in the film fail their fright checks because that's not done in stories.

"Stories?! I thought you were talking about movies?"

Stories are the root of all movies... as well as all role-play sessions. I won't go into it too much here. But let's just assume that a scene your group is role-play in is simply a little mini-story. And that story comes from the narrations of the GM, the NPCs, and even the PCs. This provides all the mental picturing the players need to see a capsuled action scene in their heads. Everyone sees themself as their character in a movie. Probably from a medium-shot angle even.

"So then we look up our amount of fright?"

No. The fright will come on its own time as your mental image fills in described visuals from the GM and his NPCs. Assuming, they are horrific visuals. And your role-play will determine how best your character reacts to such things. If your character reacts by jumping real quick (they're startled), roll to see if that jump is successful (use a negative modifier). Maybe you jumped clear. Maybe you tripped up. Either way, anything else you try to do at that moment will have a negative modifier because you are busy getting out of the way.

The GM quickly describes what happens next, with another horrific visual added. And so on. Within moments, you'll realize that a horror mechanic is not needed at all.

Traveller App(s) for Q4 2015

RPGSUITE.COM e-mailed out their latest newsletter today (you can visit their site to get on their e-mailing list). The newsletter contained links to the various media sites out there, with one of them being YouTube. And that means a video.

The sound track was off by more than a few seconds. But with a few re-winds of the video, it's made clear what RPGSUITE's app does. Just a few parts of it are shown. The app uses a hex grid themed GUI, which I can live with. After all, Traveller utilizes both hex and square grids throughout its fan-made modules, if not in the game's actual rule books.

Because Mongoose Traveller Second Edition has not been released yet, there are some parts of the app which obviously cannot be shown. I've been updating my own apps so that they follow the Second Edition rules. I wish I could show at least one of them in a video. But I'm waiting for the hardcovers to ship (maybe sooner, if PDFs are shipped first). I am pretty excited about the cleaned up rules (and better organized) and the revised die mechanic for resolving skill checks quicker (which means less game pausing, because every little bit of improvement counts over time). It makes Classic Traveller's mechanic look more like an abacus-slash-slide-rule-hybrid of a sort. If there was ever a 6-bit computer, Classic Traveller would be perfect for it.

Mongoose could have taken Traveller into Cortex Plus, Savage Worlds, FATE, or FFG Star Wars territory. I'm glad they chose to just make slight improvements (here and there) of their existing game instead.

Yes, I know. It's been awhile since I did any typing on my blog. What can I say? I'm in a holding pattern.

"Old-School RPG" means...?

I love seeing old dudes with fanny packs arguing with each other about what "old-school RPG" means. The answer is right in front of them. It's at their game tables. It's in their recorded Google+ Hangout sessions. It's probably a huge reason as to why very few women even participate in such games. It's because these same dudes all play their role-playing games like a CLUE board game.

That is what "old-school RPG" means.

RPG: Alternate Quick CharGen for New Mongoose Traveller Players

Adding skills to characters.

SCI-FI: Feudal Technocracies

I'm looking for books on the subject. Sci-fi novels or otherwise.

Some Vue Renders

Played with Hexagon last night. Added more to my labship that was sitting on my drive for a year or more. Used Carrara to procedurally texture it after UV mapping the thing in 3D-Coat.

Rendered in Vue Infinite.



Turned on the ground plane for this shot. Added clouds and atmosphere. The terraformed Mars is my go-to planet for the token spherical object that is always necessary for completed CGI artwork.

Another Tigress render. Trying out the edges in Fotosketcher.

RPG: Fallout 3 Setting Using Mongoose Traveller Mechanic (plus armor this time)

Wearing armor this time.

RPG: More Fallout 3 Setting Using Mongoose Traveller Mechanic

More use of Mongoose Traveller die rolls to resolve combat in the DC Wastelands.

RPG: Fallout 3 Setting Using Mongoose Traveller Mechanic

Using Mongoose Traveller die rolls to resolve combat in the DC Wastelands.