Velocimancer Games

Well well well if it isn’t TTRPG Tuesday.  No time for the diary entry that precedes the recipe, let’s get right into the peas and carrots and patty-pan squash of the thing: expanding one of my Spectres of Brocken World Seeds to fit the new format template that Aaron’s laid out for the published version.  And maybe after I do one, I’ll do some more, or look at the ways in which this would differ from my Bulb system.  Here we go! HEADLAMPS IN THE FOG The City and its bridges shine in the night, reflected by the inky water of the bay.  When the wind blows from the North, a thick fog covers the waterfront and rain runs together with motor oil.  The city is home to millions, the lofty towers built and occupied by the unthinkably wealthy, the destitute unhomed and out of sight in the cavernous tunnels and sewers beneath the Earth.  Law and Order are maintained by the righteous Millennions, a mechanized peacekeeping force piloted by the bravest, most just and tru...

Damn, August feels like a long time ago.  Maybe because it is! Welcome back to the Velocimancer blog for another TTRPG Tuesday! Since last time I have done absolutely nothing further with Cold Iron Company, just absolutely stopped dead in its tracks.  lol and/or lmao - fortunately I’ve made peace with letting projects be on the shelf, as none of them need to be The One that’s going to launch me into a spotlight I’ve stopped craving, and I can just focus on the project that I want to at any given time.  As evidenced by the fact that I sat down this evening to work on a play and opened this tab instead hahahahahahaha.  Anyway, let’s get down to it, shall we? I’m kicking around this concept, and some title options are: Coming True; The Wyrds; You, the Myth, the Legend.  It started with the idea of specific quests that players could undertake, which upon completion would result in a specific level.  Yes this is framed for D&D and yes, this is kind of inspir...

It’s TTRPG Tuesday! Late last week I saw a call for a system that would work for an alt history WWII wargame style experience with minis.  Naturally I started throwing together some ideas .  I’ve fleshed out how characters are constructed and played, and some general bones for play, but I figured I’d dive a little deeper into some specifics, so here we go! Alright so what does combat physically look like? The brief that I wasn’t given but am running with, is minis on a grid - squares not hexes, for what it’s worth.  Let’s talk about the assumed default (D&D) and how this combat differentiates.  I’m using an action point system instead of the standard>move>minor>free action hierarchy because of what it models; D&D historically stated that a round lasted six seconds, and each entity’s actions went in initiative order, but all that happened quickly enough that no matter how many entities acted it all happened in six seconds (that generally takes ten min...

Hello hello hello, it’s time for another TTR- wait, what day is it? It’s Monday? Not Tuesday? But that would make this… dear God… a Mechanic Monday? In this economy? In truth, I don’t have a fun new game mechanic I wanted to noodle out today (a few in the hopper though, I should get on those)(holy shit my last Mechanic Monday was like 14 months ago), as I’ve spent the last few hours tinkering about and learning nanDECK , and my brain’s a bit fried but I wanted to get my thoughts together. First off, it’s a cool tool.  Free, runs on my work computer, or off a USB drive, some great tutorials (shout out to Ryan Langewisch of Ludo Lodge ), and boyyyyy does templating cut down on the repetitive work.  I’ve been using Fantasy GM Squared as my test, as I want to completely change layouts/formats from the one that’s in my existing prototypes, and this seems the perfect chance to try out some new ones without having to painstakingly redo every card.  I spent the day taking the old...

What the heck, why not another TTRPG Tuesday? There’s no law against it is there? And even if there is, I’d say my approach to this blog makes it abundantly clear that I care little for the breaking of laws.  I’m back with more World Seeds for Spectres of Brocken (link to the upcoming KS: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ehronlime/spectres-of-brocken) just like last time, almost like I kept thinking about them and this is just a part two to my previous entry. Bone Metal Necromancy was supposed to fix everything.  It promised a utopia unending, and instead we got an empire on whom the Sun neither sets nor rises.  People live and toil the same as they ever did, but do so now under black skies as the charnel houses spew their fumes around the clock.  And no longer is death any sort of release, for the souls of the departed now power the mighty constructs that stalk this blasted Earth.  Wrought from obsidian and onyx and tarnished silver, pitted iron and smooth ...

Good evening and welcome back to Tabletop Tuesday! A day for reflecting, a day for ignoring the months of inaction and chalking them merrily up to ReChArGiNg, and for once more visualizing how good it would feel were I to finally get around to playtesting Star Baker.  But actually, for today, I wanted to make incremental progress on the Bulb system - by which I mean Aaron Lim posted the world seeds for Spectres of Brocken (coming soon to Kickstarter!) and I wanted to make some too, and maybe I’ll eventually flesh them out into the format I have in mind for my Bulbs.  Anyway, I’ll use Aaron’s format (from here: https://twitter.com/ehronlime/status/1549437755213561856?s=21 ) to start. Walking Shrines The main societies of this world are inventive, industrious, and often ruthless in their striving for technological superiority.  Travel and trade are easier and more lucrative than ever; war is both brutal, and just another driver of the economy.  But wars now are nothing...

Hello and welcome back to TTRPG Tuesday.  It’s a lovely cool Summer evening, and I have a couple things been kicking around my head lately.  We’ll see how much of it I get out of the old noggin before my laptop battery dies, how’s that sound? First up, I’m still thinking about the Bulb system; what axes should define the first set of nine I want to make, and what questions/fields should be defined in every Bulb.  On Twitter, I mused about an x-axis of Fantasy to Sci Fi and a y-axis of Grim to Hopeful, but the truth is that I don’t usually want to write much Grim stuff, so do I really want to write three settings that fall under that umbrella? Probably not to start! So maybe a better first grid is x-axis Magic, y-axis Tech, yielding: High Tech / No Magic High Tech / Some Magic High Tech / High Magic Some Tech / No Magic Some Tech / Some Magic Some Tech / High Magic No Tech / No Magic No Tech / Some Magic No Tech / High Magic Some other axes to consider are: abstract <...

Weeeelcome to TTRPG Tuesday - or it will be if I actually finish writing this entry.  It’s been a long ass time since I updated this blog with anything at all, but here I am.  No idea how long this’ll be or what I’m working for, but I wanted to get some thoughts together for an idea that’s been kicking around my head: The Bulb System! What kicked this off was my experiences playtesting Aaron Lim’s Spectres of Brocken, and designing Star Baker.  Specifically, the worldbuilding section of both designs.  I love world-building, and I think that developing a setting is one of the most fun parts of running a game, and an important and enjoyable part of a session zero.  But I also think that there is (and always has been) an appetite for pre-written settings.  Existing settings can provide a common foundation, set a tone, serve as a shared vocabulary, and generally do some heavy lifting at several steps of the way.  I’ve also seen creators who’ve made system-...

Hello no one.  New year, new whatever.  I’m back with another TTRPG Tuesday! Mostly I want to talk about the thing I threw together over Christmas break instead of getting ANY playwriting or boardgame writing done: Star Baker! Yes, based on a joke tweet and the response, I got it into my head to design a Great British Bake Off TTRPG, and over the course of about six days  and six pages, that’s what I did.  I actually quite like the system, despite having followed a few dead ends and doubling back.  It’s got a lot in common with Riders, but it definitely honours its subject and may also owe a little to what I’ve heard of Blades in the Dark (namely the flashback stuff).  But I think this one could have legs, as well as a broader civilian appeal than any of my other stuff, and I’ve got feelers out with a graphic designer friend to explore the possibility of collaborating on a polished version to release on itch.  I think it’s on my end it’s a bit overdes...