A few years back, I’ve had the idea of porting D&D to a sci-fi setting with absolutely no rule modification. It did bring a breath of fresh air to good old 3.X. How did I explain magic, any kind of magic? Nanobots.
The idea recently decided to haunt me again. Just as I was thinking about starting a game of cyber-punk-inspired Anima game à la Final Fantasy 7 and a few months after a lot of Star Ocean playing, I figured I would much prefer it to be a Space Opera, which brought me to the idea of porting game system without a host of house rules.
Do you need to make an alternate system for Nanobot induced super-powers? Nah, you have magic, say that they modify reality by altering molecular structure as the character controls the tiny bastards by brain implants! Do you really need a complete starship combat system? Not if fighter ships are not the norm and ship battles are used more as a background and a skill challenge while fighting off boarding parties. You don’t need to change anything in the numbers for a sword to become a laser sword.
That being said, yes, my next game will be a Space opera with magic, martial arts, psychic powers and summoning of creatures from alternative dimensions. I might steal the world-creation from Traveller or at least be inspired by said most exquisite RPG.
Here’s a post! It’s been to long!
You might remember the iPod Character Creation Technique I’ve presented on both this blog and another that shall, for once, not be freaking named.
Well, that’ll be what this itteration of Inspire Creativity will be about. Here’s a swift reminder of what the technique’s about :
1-Choose a media player filled with as much music as you can find (the more diverse, the better)
2-Set the media player to play a random song from your library
3-Press play
4-Technically, you should have a song by now. And it’s that song that has to inspire your character, whether it’s about what the tune feels like, or just from the lyrics. (more…)
The Inspire Creativity series will require folks to work their creative muscles a bit. For clarity’s sake, these posts will be heavily moderated and anything that goes against the rules posted with every Inspire Creativity post will be deleted.
Anyone who half-knows me will confirm : I love noir.
And not cute, platonic love, either.
I’ve always been a major fan of the hardboiled detectives, the femmes fatales and the quadruple-crossing so commonly found in the genre. Thus, as this week’s “Inspire Creativity”, I present you a little noir story I’ve written, and that I want you folks to continue for me.
The rules are simple : you just have to follow up the last comment bit of story while firmly holding a “Yes, and…” mentality. Everything is allowed as long as you write in the style and mood that has been imposed, and of course, actually continue the story of the first post. Have fun!
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This is one of two posts I’ve submitted on Musings of the Chatty DM, under the pseudonyme Kitsune. If you didn’t enjoy them back then, please feel free to do so now. Thank you, that will be all.
Please note that this essay is incredibly experimental and is to be taken as food for thoughts rather than a serious collection of amazing tips. Except for the John Woo Principle. That’s freaking genius.
“When in Doubt, Blow EVERYTHING up!”
Hello, blogosphere, how I have missed you! It’s Kitsune again, self-styled apprentice of the dark side of RPG blogging, here to steal Chatty’s thunder until I can make my own. Like Thor. Thor’s cool.
Today, we blow stuff up up.
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This is one of two posts I’ve submitted on Musings of the Chatty DM, under the pseudonyme Kitsune. If you didn’t enjoy them back then, please feel free to do so now. Thank you, that will be all.
Even though I don’t get Japanese and somehow manage to guess that Utada Hikaru did not sing about the GM’s condition (if you don’t get what I’m saying, brush up on your J-pop, kids), her title says it all. As Game Masters, our one worst enemy is not that one player who keeps screwing with your plans, but the fabled GM’s Blues.
It’s that time of year, and I’m not talking about Christmas, but that 3 months time-span during which the winter blues hits some of us (probably more then we all think) and kills our well-earned creativity. So, my friends, readers, minions of The Great Chatty DM, I come bearing gifts! Weapons to fight the blues (at least +1, guaranteed).
The problem
When under the blues, most GMs try to open their minds as much as possible with hopes of grabbing a stray idea. They would use anything that they could get their kobold-like little claws on, but end up laying around in creative catatonia (stray ideas, ridiculous grapple bonus, don’t even bother). While searching for a general idea, looking aimlessly for awesome, one grows weary and bored, loses interest and further kills his or her own creativity. It’s the classic “Kill, revive and kill some more” torture, but self-inflicted. Needless to say, it’s not good for your brain.
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