SCIENCEPUNK

The final hack of the year is out!

What a year! Okay, although I've been playing the game designer for 3 year or so, publishing started in late November this year. Even so, if we can all agree is a tough year regardless. Anyway, I'm happy I was able to start this...dream project I had for so long. I don't know where it will take me, but a saying says: "Life is like riding a bike, you'll fall if you stop" Moving on then!

This time steampunk is the theme! This one was supposed to happen from the beginning, along with the samurais, pirates and gunslingers. Inquisitors Monster hunters were a later add, as well as the next one *spoilers*. Like I sad in previous post, the Beeple images are awesome but don't cover a big range of genres...imagine my delight when I came across the following image \o/
That image did two things for me: first it made me excited because i dare say is the nicest cover so far. Secondly it screamed there would be steampunk and biopunk at the game, which I didn't foresee but was welcome.

Initially, I was thinking something in the lines of Steamboy (anime movie) and suddenly it became clear the Leviathan book series (Scott Westerfield, IMHO, is YA gold) would also be a good source. Then I started wondering since there are two 'sciences' now, why not make it four? Maybe another close to reality and other even further from it? Aboard came Electricity and Alchemy. A part from tesla cameos in games and movies, I'm majored in Eletronical Engineering so I got that covered. Alchemy I just went with what I know from Fullmetal Alchemist (IMHO, the best short anime series) 

      

After deciding the four 'scientific approaches", i changed there names to be more fun. Gearers from steam and clank, Buzzer for electricity, Darwinian for bioengineering (total rip off from Leviathan) and Hermesian for alchemy (google Hermes Trimegistus).  The specialties were inspired a LOT from  Piltover and Zaum characters (league of legends 'steampunk' places)

Coming to the equipment section, I realized it would be hard to make a list of many interesting gadgets for 4 different philosophies in a quarter of page. Even if i did, I feel i would still me missing something and the players would have to create something *Spark* What if the game provided some method to create gadgets based on function and the players would flavor it as they like? So I did that. Maybe I'll add some tags at a further update, let's see if its needed.

For character advancement I felt the genre oozes evolution too much to be just skill rise and new gadgets. I added the breakthrough to twist a little the rules for the combination of specialty and approach a plyer chose. Interested in see what will come out of that

For the GM/adventure tables, every time I see a british setting, it remembers me of Sherlock Holmes and how the small mistery at hand is just a pawn in bigger game. That's when I came with the  'small' problem the player are dealing with but it's related to a bigger issue, all a plan from a mastermind.

The gm can reveal the bigger issue as a later part of a one shot or make it a campaign where the players slowly discovers the plot and whos behind it. Unless the GM leans heavily toward improv, I would suggest to roll many small problems first so it can figure it out how everything is connected.

I don't how much the games are improving but I truly feel I'm becoming increasingly more proud of them.

Like always, let's roll one mission!

 The queen has a mission: infiltrate an enemy nation to destroy a massive weapon. They have to hurry, security is tightening up, maybe the weapon will be moved soon.

What the scientists don't know is:

-The weapon is Hermessian, it uses alchemy via drawings...how can they destroy them?

-It's actually part of a plan to create social upheaval, maybe the weapons to be used at government sites only?

-The mastermind behind is Simon, an assassin with refined taste donning a porcelain mask and white robe. Underneath, it uses ancient darwinian gadgets, maybe dragon-like?

-He seems to works alone, protecting himself with a mix o Buzzer and  Gearer traps and defenses.

Hope you enjoy it! Get your copy here!

THE LONGEST NIGHT

 The fourht hack is awaiting in the dark!

I was trying to deliver a hack each week but end of the year combo is a tough one to beat(last job week beofre holidays + yearly home decluterring (marie kondo would be proud)). A little late but I managed somehow. How ironic the hack title 'Night' is the one I spent the most nights awake. 

Originally I was thinking about doing something related to nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition, since it ended at the late 1700s. After further research i decided it was too dark tone to meddle with. I can deal with most horror monsters strike, horrors made by mankind are to gruesome for me sometimes. At least, I gave some reference in the game summary that a religious order 'knew at the time that they had done a terrible job 'searching' for dark influences'. As long as a monty python reference somewhere.

This time, I was thinking about using a certain image form the portfolio (many times mentioned by now). But I came late to use it, and Calvin J'onzz did an amazing job with, you should check it out. Since the first image was taken I picked the another one which still fitted the theme nicely

The first references that came to my mind were the Blade series of movies, the movie Van Helsing, with Hugh Jackman, and the anime Hellsing. Even though the ladder focus almost only in vampires have such a weird range of abilities that it felt as a good base for what I was trying to design. It bluntly inspired some character options as matter of fact.

I wanted to play with the little-beaten-up-but-still-good duality of light and darkness. That's when I came up with the Virtues and Deals.

Deals are almost rip off from the 7th sea sorcery Sanderis, tweeked to make it less rigid in origin of the power.

Virtue's mechanic is a little inspired in the Mystic Empirean traits, where when you follow a certain behaviour you gain access to a certain abilty.

So, while Deals are almost as powerful as you like, the price you must pay may go against your virtue (and probably will if the GM wants to see that conflict, which seems interesting).

Arriving at the enemys part, I decided early on that i wanted different creatures but they would be the best of that kin. Because of that they would have a tittle. Deciding on that title took a long time, my research went from Dante's circles in Hell, to Fullmetal Alchemist homunculus. At the end, I made a list of traits opposing the virtues, created an ability to them then changed tratis to a title that was cooler. A lot of walking in circles here? You bet.

Overall, the characters may be OP since they have access to multiple abilities but since the trigger condition on some of them may contradict, it may have balanced out. Let's see.

Like always, let's roll one mission!

The hunters arrive to a city build around a giant lighthouse, glimming faintly but surely. At the town, 2 factions are disputing the control over the light source.

Rumours say that close by is the Black Diamond Palace, below a frozen lake, a lair to the Vampire Dark Lord. 

The hunters dont know it yet but the vampire is a former hunter who is being aided by mercenaries.

Its title is The Eclipse, which grants the power to create light and shape into objects.

Hope you enjoy it! Click here to get your copy

HOIST THE COLOURS

Another hack arrives the port! Like I said at the previous post, 1800s it's a fairly interesting century. It is estimated that the pirate age ended at the beginning of that century. Since I'm already adding fantastic elements to 18XX, changing a little the years here and there sure won't do much harm. So, it's pirate time!

Like the first two, Muramasa and Outlaw, I searched through Beeple's portoflio for a image I came to this.

Of course the first reference my mind caught up was the Pirates of Caribbean franchise (which I like). The ship doesn't display a pirate flag (and this time I don't think I would be able to alter such good image properly) but people will probably even notice because of tentacles around the vessel.

The kraken made me think about Davy Jones and I didn't want the game to be replay of films. *Spark* What if the pirate were working for Davy Jones? (I will use DJ for now on). Maybe, because navy is taking over control of the sea, DJ started losing power over it's locker. And then I started wondering what should be inside...

I really like the type of fantasy that seems to happen between the pages of a history book, like the blank space between two black lines is also a line itself. The type of fantasy that might have happened but somehow it just got diluted, lost, hidden. Muramasa is really strong on that part, Outlaw a little less so but at least the most 'extreme' stuff are a little far between.

 Going back to what is locked in fantastical being, guardian of the sea. Treasure would make sense to the pirate theme but I wanted something that would be hard to trace. *Spark* Just like jack escaped in the movies, what about powerful entities escaped the locker, making DJ weak in the process? Weak enough so he would need the assistance of strong pirate crew? NICE. That's the game. 

Why would the players accept the task (beside the fact that the adventure looks super cool)? Fiddler's green is known as the seamen paradise, accessible only to those that sailed for at least 50 years or other criteria, there seems to be some. The pirate era is ending and this pirate wont probably make it in time, so that seems like a good offer from DJ.

This time I wanted the magic be really integrated to the characters because the sessions probably would be a little Colossusesque. Thinking about piracy and magic instantly takes to two sources: 7th Sea and One Piece.

For the powers stolen by the escapees, I was  mainly inspired by one piece devil fruit powers, since they are wildy varied and can have some interesting uses for the GM

7th sea has an AWESOME magic system by the simple fact that it has 10 magic systems related to the culture of every 'country' of the core rulebook. I used those as inspiration for the 10 gifts that DJ gives at character creation. Since they can be a lot OP and 7th sea uses a 'level' mechanic to balance that i created the Locker's Debt. Which is basically a mechanic that says 'you can do your magic in almost any scale, BUT the bigger the scale the longer and harsher will be so you can use it again'

The only main part missing now is escapees. Early on I decide to go with half monsters and half enhanced real life pirates. RESEARCH TIME. I guess most of the readers can name at east half dozen mythic sea monsters and famous pirates. The creatures were fantastical in itself but I wanted to make the pirates more magical. I'm really into historical fun facts and it was a really interesting read. Hope You liked them and super encourage you to learn more about the men and women who ruled the sea.

Like always, let's roll one mission!

An escapee seems to have escaped to a region close to the Arei'as Empire, which is located near a river delta.. Sandstorms occurring from time to time. 

The escapee there is a group of sirens, attractive to anyone who sees them, hypnotizing anyone who hear them sing. 

What the players don't know is: they have stolen the power to attract or repel anything. Since it's share among the group each individual has a lesser version and only works strongly when all the group is focused

Also, they're a searching for a powerful relic. Maybe something that could allow then to walk on land?

Hope you enjoy it! Click here to get your copy

DODGING TROPES

  Hello, folks! Like the sun rises in the East and sets in the West, after a japanese hack I ended turning my eyes to a western hack. Although it seems natural sequence, it wasn't planned at first

After Muramasa, I wondered if there was enought time for me to submit a second hack at the 24XX Jam. What you should I use as basis?...Hmmm...What if it's something I can somehow mix the previous one...*Spark* Wasn't there a sentence about samurai, gunslinger and other 'historical rpg classes' coulb be all at a scenario/campaign and still be historically accurate?

Then I came to my first set of data: the samurai and old west era both existed during the 1800s. Perfect! *Spark* Maybe i can do a series of games in this century >.>...

Back to Beeple portfolio I started looking for an image that could go as western setting and I came by this one. It fitted perfectly except there was no cowboy hat at the image, but it was so close to a western that I was able concot a solution

Original version by Beeple

Just like Muramasa had some fantasy flavor to it, I choose to go with weird west, so I could just drop anything between magic and dinossaurs (?!). 

Even so, when I was doing my research, I came across some tropes that I wanted to get apart from (like native american was frequentlty the villain in old 50s movies). Also, to avoid being just the vanilla law officers I opted to make the players outlaws...Which doesn't necessarily implicate they are bad or evil...is just they dont fit in how the law was handle at the in-game world. Hence, named the game Outlaw.

Even with all that in my mind, the fisrt version was still somewhat biased in some sensitive ways that I was totally unaware of. Blesse be the jam hosts, who were kind enough to warn and advice me that the game would be better with some tweaks. I promptly changed it and a note regarding ethnicity. I felt much more comfortable with the final version. So this is a heads-up from a beginner, even when you think you know what you doing, if you're writing about sensitive topics (like how ethnic groups are portrayied in any kund of media), think twice. Some may say that's discouragement to make games around those. I particularly like to think of it as much as challenge to be a better designer as an exercise to put myself in the shoes of another.

Wow, that was a much more serious tone than I intended. *coughs*.

Like I said, I wanted to give the player some magical trinkets too. Wondering which kind to do made remember a movie from the 90s: Lightning Jack, a western outlaw comedy with Paul Hogan and Cuba Gooding Jr. Paul Hogan character is very supertitious and have some charms/amulets that help or protect him. So, in Outlaw, the gunslingers have access to charms that protect them even when they are unaware of danger. The setback is that there is a cooldown to recharge.

Lightning Jack (1994) - 'never miss' amulet

 Armed with guns and trinkets, all was missing was mounts. Instead of creating other animals beside horses, I just went with a mesh with classical and bonkers colors. Wanna a purple body horse with red hair? Be my guest. It doesnt travel dimensions though.

The back pages/GM session, I tried something maybe bold confusing: the jobs are opportunities where any party involved might want to hire the players. So if the situation is 'Cattle being escorted through a long distance', the players can either do the escorting or do the robbery. That way the players can be 'as outlaws as they want'

This one I'm satisfied with final game but maybe I tweak a detail here or there.

Let's create one job now!

In a miner town, almost opulent with gold, dead victims are being found every night. A noble want to hire the palyes as bodyguards, the town wanna more security or even investigators dto discover the source of the attacks. Which one would your table choose.

The players don't know it yet, but the oposition they will face is made of a party of outlaws almost as skilled as the players but the leader is THE most wanted man in the country.

Also, a surprise, when eveything is done or lost, the players wake up! It was all a premotion given by the spirits! They can be more prepared for the real deal!

Hope you enjoy it! Click here to get your copy

WHAT IS MURAMASA?

 Usually, for me, a sentence or image is the true spark that iniate the design. When it happens, suddenly other ideias start sticking to it. This amorphous blob is what i have to 'sculpt' into some something cohesive

During the 24XX Jam, i was shuffling through Beeple portfolio, looking for a spark, When i came to this, I knew i've found it.

I started thinking about samurais, the originals not a sci-fi version. The cave made think about a search of something...hidden? forbidden? lost? What about all of the choices? Yes.

Then, the blade caught my eye. Maybe they're looking for blades? Cursed blades! YES!
That reminds me about the name Muramasa. Don't remember where i heard it before...Samurai Shodown? Wolverine comic? who knows...

Muramasa is a cool name but i didn't know anything about it. Where is muramasa? Who is Muramasa? Why is Muramasa? Research time!

Afte some time i learned that Muramasa is the name of a blacksmith in Japan (oh, really?) of the 1600s (also of a short school of blade forgers later on). Which means there many Muramasa blades, mostly different types of katanas but there were also spears and maybe others.

Later on, the blades where really banned by one of the firsts shoguns. Mainly because of relatives being wounded or killed by those blades. The blades became a symbol against the clan occupying the sgoun position at the time and many forgeries were made.

Much years later, it became pop culture that they were actually cursed an that spread to the media. Nowadays, there roughly 20 Muramasa blades kept in different collections. None are considered national treasury (many others are) and only one is considered work of art.

Myōhō Muramasa - The sublime Dharma

While I was absorving thtat, a plot was forming around the spark

• What if the blades were really cursed but only a few knew or believed? 
• What if the reason almost none are remarkable today is becasue the best works were destroyed?
• What if the players are adventures tracking the blades to kill the curses?
• What if the adventurers were wounded deeply by one of those blades?
• What if the name of the blade was sort of a representation of it's 'curse' and it fights back?

That's how most of the game took it's rough form in my head and i started typing. Since the curse was becoming strong as magicla element, I had to give the players some juice too.

Loosely inspired by concept of the 5 Rings of Miyamoto Musashi, I plugged some techniques for each player. 

As items, I also added the magic seals so player could exercise their creativity using keywords.

I'm really satisfied with game overall but i'm specially proud of the Muramasa Blades tables.

Let's create one now!

You're tracking 'the Darkest Night, a regular sized katana.

You donn't know it yet, but when confronted, a full armored samurai avatar will spill forth from the katana, wielding it against the players. You'll only see some metal reflections here and there in the armor and blades hilst. Everything else looks like a starless sky,

Hope you enjoy it! Click here to get your copy

HELLO, WORLD

I've being playing TTRPGs since my early teens but only started hacking/desinging when I became my group GM/MC/Moderator... some years ago. And I must say, it's SO MUCH FUN, both moderating and designing. 

After some years, toying here and there with ideas, this year I decided to make things happen, even in small steps. Done is better than perfect. That's why i started with a personal logo.

I wanted to create something that reflected what I believe are quintessential for games to be fun. For me, games are the best they can be when two factor stand out: depth and lightness.

Depth is the ability to create more with less material, to feel part of the world without reading lots of pages of setting. Allow some empty space, so it can receive meaning - Jared Sinclair (abridged version)

Lightness is when the rules are easy to remember and apply, when they're simple and versatile enough to make the game work without overburdening any player with lots of things to remember. 

With these in my mind, I took my rusty skills to make the following logo. 

 

I'm proud of it, not exactly by it's quality, after all i'm not even close of being a graphic designer. 

My pride revolves around that I wanted to create games and now that feeling has a face, it's an entity.  From this point on, i'll give it the best body i can with the best games I can make.

Anyway, I hope people enjoy reading what I say here and have fun playing the games I make, as much as I have a great time writing those.

Let's go, people! It's show time!