Sunday, November 24, 2013

High Strung and Ecce Homicide

Usually, when I am writing one game, I am also writing another as well, so that when one game is released, there is another partially written game taking its place immediately. For the first time in a decade, I had no secondary game going while writing Lowell Was Right!. Now that it is in Beta Playtest, I find myself at a loss.

So, I took some suggestions from folks on G+, then went my own way. Lord forbid I should write a game someone actually WANTS! I came up with two games, which I am starting simultaneously. One or the other will at some point start clicking and pull ahead, but at this point it could be either.

One game is called High Strung - thanks for the name Ray Otus! - which is about being a rock musician in the mid-to-late 70s trying to make it big with original music. Why the seventies? Well, I lived this game, and know it very very well. Besides, it was a time of change and ferment in music, and lots of new things were being tried out. If I can make an RPG about baseball, I can do this!

The other is called Ecce Homicide. Yes, it's a police procedural game. People are always telling me that this is very difficult to do, but I have run procedurals in a dozen different games over the years, and they are fun and easy to do. Every time I see someone write about how they tried to do this, I think they are doing it backwards.I will design this game the way I do it. :D

-clash

Tuesday, November 19, 2013

Look! Up In The Sky News

So, some *Look! Up In The Sky!* news!

I'm taking advantage of the wait to get some feedback from *Lowell Was Right!* Beta Playtesters, and doing some editing for Klax' supers, game, *LUITS!*. Klax has sent me some examples for power restrictions, and I am inserting them under each power description. You can take a power restriction to reduce the cost of a power - or the reverse, technically, though it isn't common, and one of the "restriction" examples actually increases the cost.

After that is done, Klax thinks that an example character - with some restrictions - could demonstrate things nicely. When that is done, it will be ready for Beta Testing. We have had an immense amount of fun with LUITS! over the last year or so of Alpha testing, and I can't wait to get it out there!

Monday, November 18, 2013

Lowell Was Right! Now Available for Beta Testing!

Lowell Was Right! is now available for Beta testing. I am interested in both play and non-play testing - in other words reading - as I believe both are helpful in different ways. If you would be willing to give some feedback, please contact me via email at clashUNDERSCOREbowleyATyahooDOTcom and I will send you LWR! via return email.

Saturday, November 9, 2013

The Uranus System in Lowell Was Right!

Uranus

Uranus is quite cool, with little heat left from gravitational collapse. Minor differences in heating occasionally start weak storm systems in its atmosphere. There is no heating of the surrounding moons except through tidal interactions. None of Uranus’ moons is massive enough to retain a significant atmosphere.

Ariel

The moon Ariel seems to be an anomaly. It is significantly larger than its small mass would indicate, suggesting a hollowed structure rather than solid. It also has a lower albedo than most moons. This was discovered fairly recently from telescopic observations from the Saturn system.

Friday, November 8, 2013

The Saturn System and the Neptune System in Lowell Was Right!

Saturn

Saturn is warm, but its rate of collapse is nowhere near Jupiter’s, and the warmth is not even close to enough for supporting life on Titan any more. It is possible that Titan’s people have migrated in to Saturn’s clouds, and are living in anti-mass supported cities in those clouds - that is up to the play-group/GM to decide. It would be extremely hard to detect them if you were not looking specifically for them, and virtually impossible to escape Saturn’s gravity well if you went in to see them.

Titan

Titan is an iceball, about the size of Luna and the Galilean moons of Jupiter. There is no life on the surface - everything is frozen. The atmosphere would still be breathable. The old Titan cities are way down under the ice, some of them smeared by glaciers, and some crushed by the weight of the ice above them.

A possibility exists that there may be a Titan city down under the ice, protected by a shell and warmed by geothermal heat produced by tidal forces. If so, the Titans living inside may be degenerate and devolved. According to the Galileani, who knew them when their culture was fading, the Titans were evolved from a kind of land octopus.
The Neptune System

Neptune

Neptune is cold, with no residual warmth at all left from gravitational collapse. Heat differentials do not pump energy through the atmosphere. Compared to stormy Jupiter and Saturn, Neptune is placid.

Triton

Triton was once habitable, like Titan, but the time it was habitable is so long in the past that only the Titans may have met them, and they did not tell the Galileani about them. Titan’s cities are crushed and smeared under mountains of ice, and there is no possibility anything still exists of that culture.

Gravity And Physical Exertions in Lowell Was Right!

Gravity affects any type of physical exertion in different ways. In the Solar System of Lowell Was Right!, there are basically four sorts of gravitational conditions:

Zero Gravity

This is the condition prevalent during Boost-Drift-Brake space travel. Boosting and braking are of short duration, and most of the travel is done under Zero G conditions. While not quite Zero G, the micro-gravity of tiny moons and smaller asteroids can be classified as Zero G for game purposes.

Very Light Gravity

This is the condition for Slow Boost space flight, and for the smaller worlds in the system - Luna, Callisto, Io, Ganymede, Europa, Titan, Triton, and Ceres. It is approximately 0.16 (one sixth) G.

Light Gravity

This is the condition for the medium-sized worlds in the system - Mars and Mercury. It is approximately 0.3 (one third) G.

Standard Gravity

This is the condition for the large worlds in the system - Earth and Venus. It is approximately 1.0 G.

The Gas Giants have heavier gravity, but there is no way to experience it and live.

Effects of the Various Gravities

The effects of the various gravities depends on the gravity you normally live in.

People From Zero G

In Zero G, things are normal.

In Very Light G, you have a -3 to your TN on all tasks based on STR, AGY, or END, and all Missile Skill tasks. After a month, this improves to -2 to the TN, and after a year  to -1 to the TN,. Also, all Quality of Success for STR based checks is halved.

In Light G, you can barely move. You have a -5 to your TN  on all tasks based on STR, AGY, or END, and all Missile Skill tasks. After a month, this improves to -4 to the TN,  and after a year to -3. Also, all Quality of Success for STR based checks is divided by four.

In Standard G, you are helpless.

People from Very Light G

In Zero G, you have a -3 to your TN on all tasks based on STR, AGY, or END, and all Missile Skill tasks.
After a week, this improves to -2 to the TN, after a month to -1 to the TN, and after a year to normal. Also, all Quality of Success for STR based checks is doubled.
In Very Light G, things are normal.

In Light G, you have a -3 to your TN on all tasks based on STR, AGY, or END, and all Missile Skill tasks. After a month, this improves to -2 to the TN, and after a year to -1. Also, all Quality of Success for STR based checks is halved.

In Standard G, you have a -5 to your TN on all tasks based on STR, AGY, or END, and all Missile Skill tasks. After a month, this improves to -4 to the TN, and after a year to -3. Also, all Quality of Success for STR based checks is divided by six.

People from Light G

In Zero G, you have a -5 to your TN  on all tasks based on STR, AGY, or END, and all Missile Skill tasks. After a week, this improves to -4 to the TN, after a month to -3 to the TN, and after a year to -2. Also, all Quality of Success for STR based checks is multiplied by four.

In Very Light G, you have a -3 to your TN on all tasks based on STR, AGY, or END, and all Missile Skill tasks. After a week, this improves to -2 to the TN, after a month to -1 to the TN, and after a year to normal. Also, all Quality of Success for STR based checks is doubled.

In Light G, things are normal.

In Standard G, you have a -3 to your TN on all tasks based on STR, AGY, or END, and all Missile Skill tasks. After a month, this improves to -2 to the TN. Also, all Quality of Success for STR based checks is halved.

People from Standard G

In Zero G, You have a -5 to your TN  on all tasks based on STR, AGY, or END, and all Missile Skill tasks. After a week, this improves to -3 to the TN, after a month to -2 to the TN, and after a year to -1. Also, all Quality of Success for STR based checks is multiplied by ten.

In Very Light G, you have a -5 to your TN  on all tasks based on STR, AGY, or END, and all Missile Skill tasks. After a week, this improves to -3 to the TN, after a month to -1 to the TN, and after a year to normal. Also, all Quality of Success for STR based checks is multiplied by six.

In Light G, you have a -3 to your TN on all tasks based on STR, AGY, or END, and all Missile Skill tasks. After a week, this improves to -2 to the TN, after a month to -1 to the TN, and after a year to normal. Also, all Quality of Success for STR based checks is tripled.

In Standard G, things are normal.

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Lowell Was Right! System Overview

I have been posting almost entirely setting related stuff for Lowell Was Right!, so a bit of system info. I'm using - as always - a mutant form of my StarCluster 3 system. SC3 uses drop in switchable resolution mechanics, and I'm including only StarPool and Star Worm with the book, though any of the mechanics available for SC3 would work fine, depending on how your preferences lie. I have been particularly impressed with using the combination of the two - StarPool for task resolution and StarWorm for conflict resolution. They use the same dice and same TNs, so they play very well together.

Character generation is like I used in Volant - a series of templates you apply, stacking results - if Template One says you get Skill A +1. Skill B +1 and Skill C +1, and Template Two says you get Skill B +2
and Skill D +1, you have Skill A +1, Skill B +3, Skill C +1, and Skill D +1. The templates are arranged in template trees, with earlier templates being pre-reqs for later templates - you must take Hunter before Expert Hunter, and Expert Hunter before Master Hunter. The result is extremely fast life-path type chargen.

Skills use for LWR! is different from my earlier games. There are 30 basic skills, five tied to each attribute. They are very broad, but they only go up to +2 in rank. If you have higher than +2 rating, you have to turn that into an Expertise, which is much more focused - so Science +4 could turn into , say Science +2 with Biology +3 and Chemistry+3, meaning for all general science, your skill checks are at +2, but for Biology and Chemistry related checks, you would have a +3.  Expertises are free form, with three examples given for each skill, but not limited to those. As always Skills are Center Defined and Overlapping. The benefit of this is broad basic skills but with areas where characters can map out their own place to shine.

Personality Traits and Edges work as always, Traits give you bonuses when you burn them, as a resource, so long as the trait matches the situation. Edges always work so long as the situation matches the Edge.

PSI use  is standard skill check plus burning a PSI point - thus Telepathy is Language or Communications skill plus 1 PSI point, for example. Effectiveness depends on the skill. You can choose PSI abilities as Expertises of the related skill, so you could have Language +2 and Telepathy +3. This makes PSI use very simple - no special skills to use.

Hopefully that gives an overview! Questions welcome!

Saturday's Playtest #2 finale for Lowell Was Right!

 
The wrap-up for playtest #2 went off interestingly! In this playtest, we had decided on an earth-limited espionage game, and created an earth circa 2013, where the Nazis had taken continental Europe, and were opposed by the League of Nations, a union consisting of the eastern US and Canada, and the UK. The two were at actual war, and the Nazis were supported by their allies in Mormon Zion, which held the American West. BTW, the current Fuehrer was Arnold Schwarzenegger...

The PCs were agents of the League, on a mission to snatch plans for a new weapon from the industrialist Rudolf Hochstetter. After sneaking, sabotage, and changes of identity in previous sessions, the climax came at a party Hochstetter gave at his castle.

One pair of PCs were invited in, disguised as a reporter and photographer from the Mountain Press, a Mormon Zionist paper in Provo. Another got in disguised as a waiter. It turned out that the man he was replacing - and killed - was unfortunately gay - not a good thing in Nazi Europe - and was intending to poison the entire group invited to the party. The fourth PC was a cat burglar who lurked outside as the backup plan.

As the the "waiter" served poisoned flutes of champagne, the "reporter" and "photographer" snuck upstairs. The Gestapo man who had almost caught the "waiter" and the cat burglar drank his, but went to the toilet to throw up too early, and the cat burglar slipperd in the bathroom window and drowned him in the toilet.

Using dowsing, the "reporter" located the attache case with the plans in the wall safe of the main bedroom. The "photographer " cracked the safe using past sight, watching Hochstetter dial the combination the day before. The guests began dying, and Hochstetter, who wasn't drinking, went looking for the two "Mormons" who had disappeared. He walked in and saw the "photographer" opening the  briefcase, but didn't see the "reporter" who threw him down with a judo move and crushed his larynx.

The "waiter" escaped out the side door in the confusion. He was stopped by a guard, but shot him with a single shot pen-gun in the temple. Taking the gun and overcoat from the SS Trooper, he followed another trooper who was chasing after the "Mormons, who had escaped from the bedroom balcony. As the trooper raised his rifle to shoot them, the "waiter" shot the trooper in the back of the head.

The two "Mormons" had run to a cliff and were trapped. the "Waiter' came up and identified himself. The "Photographer" grabbed the other three and stepped off the cliff. He was wearing an anti-mass belt held down by weights. He dropped the weights, and by rappelling down the cliff, was able to break his fall enough to get away, the cat burglar joining them later.

The combination of training, psi, and strange LWR! devices like the anti-mass belt gave the whole caper a real Bond-ish flair. Lots of paranoia, betrayal, and skulking made this one of our favorite campaigns yet!

Sunday, November 3, 2013

Luna in Lowell Was Right!

Luna is the accepted multinational name of Earth’s only moon, which has many names in Earth languages. Luna was used by the Martians as a raiding base for taking human slaves, and they left a number of intact structures on the far side of Luna, which humans discovered and re-inhabited when they became capable of reaching Luna. Great artificial farms were renovated and adapted to Earth crops to feed the growing population.

Martian artifacts were found and studied, and through understanding of the underlying principles, many devices were created and refined. Most important were the various crystals used to enhance and control PSI abilities, which before this were elusive and almost unusable. The famous Luna University located here grew out of these scientific explorations and research units, one of most prestigious institutes of higher learning in the Solar System.

This complex is known as Luna City, and it has grown, with new structures built by Humans and Martians, as well as the various Galileani. Luna city is the only place near to Earth where Humans, Martians, and Galileani can meet and trade. The gravity is almost identical to that of the Galilean moons, and the Galileani have built huge flight cages to live in.

The Great Concourse of Luna City is famous for the availability of anything from anywhere. Great liners from Earth put in here, and hotels and restaurants have sprung up to serve the tourists. Luna City is the stepping off point for travel anywhere in the solar system.