Poor Meepo's Almanac
Never imitated, rarely updated.
Wednesday, May 11, 2016
I found this
Wednesday, April 6, 2016
I made a game.
Monday, June 29, 2015
Echoes in eternity
Anyway, I ran a game! With my own homebrew system! And my own original setting!
So how neat is that? For added indy cred, my homebrew is classless, much like its creator.
That setting doesn't have a name, yet*. But it's a science fantasy setting, possibly in our own world's distant future, or just uncomfortably nearby in the multiverse as things such as V8 muscle cars and the Top Gun soundtrack exist. Also 8 track players with said soundtrack stuck in them, forever playing side B.
It is a place of dwarven biker gangs tearing down the highways on their custom machines. A place of lizardmen mechanics working lonely, isolated, filling stations with nothing but the company of his shrew of a wife to pass the time.
It is a place of only one elf. But the elf is legion. And an A.I. It exists in many bodies, but one mind, unless of course, a body is sent out into the world to experience the world through the cultural lens of the ELF, and perhaps find true individuality, only to return to the collective.
It is a place of sharp-dressed, psychic spell casters, wielding laser swords and sniper rifles, who have sexual performance issues, and are fiscally conservative.
It is a place of wild nomadic beastmen, ripped from their tundra home and placed in a hive of scum and villainy. They live in abandoned "living spaces" and play cards with cheating robots, who double as microwaves.
Magic, high science, pop culture, post apocalyptica, fear, loathing, and really old cans of coke.
*I think I'm going to call the setting "The Danger Zone". Well, I know it's not a very good name, but, well, fuck you. Go on. Fuck off.
Monday, June 16, 2014
When all your blog posts are just posts apologizing for not posting...
Well, fuck you then.
Go on, fuck off.
Or continue reading.
When one cannot game, one must think about gaming.
When one thinks enough about gaming, one must write about it.
So I'll do that.
I've been spending a lot of time thinking about my original world, its politics, and denizens and have created a map that I am most proud of. Not proud enough to show you people, but still proud.
Furthermore, I've started work on blending my favorite elements from Lamentations of the Flame Princess and ADnD 2E. I call it, Lamentations of the Second Edition Remix or LoSER.
The idea behind the project is to marry the accessibility and quick start up time of LotFP with the depth of 2E. My biggest issue with 2E is the time it takes to roll characters and my biggest gripe with LotFP is how flat characters made with that system start out.
Now, it is my belief that characters really receive their "roundness" through actual play, but I think that the decisions made during character creation help the process. In LotFP, your choices are class, alignment, and equipment. I'd like to add some depth there.
Depth, but not crunch. Unnecessary number crunching is to be avoided. To that end, saving throws are out the window.
At first I thought I'd steal from the third edition of DnD, with its three simple saving throws, and then I thought, "Wait. Aren't fortitude, willpower, and reflex covered by constitution, wisdom, and dexterity? Y U ADD MORE THINGS?" Why not a simple stat check?
What's that you say? Saving throws should be more difficult? Fine. Bring back the 3E style saving throws but each one is set at 10 and acts like an armor class. Modify that number with the relevant stat bonus. (Descending armor class, you Luddite.) Whatever is forcing the saving throw now must make an "attack roll" against your saving throw. Embrace the suck. Because this shit goes both ways. Anytime you force a saving throw against something else, you must make an attack roll against it. Wizards, dust off yer d20's.
Saturday, October 12, 2013
About dem gnomes...
In my home campaign setting I've spent some time working on three sample backgrounds for each major race, divided along social and sub-race lines.
In this I have two major goals: First provide some ideas to players creating characters and second to further flesh out the individual cultures that populate my world.
Gnomes are general divided into three groups: Architects, peasants, and exiles.
Architects are part of the former ruling class of the highly organized and rigidly caste-based gnomish society. Before being conquered by the Iron Empire, these gnomes belonged to the gnome leaders who were directly involved with the cult of Mechanics.
Peasant gnomes where the hoi polloi of gnomish society and have barely noticed the change in management. Though many of the laws that had made them second class citizens have been repealed, most stick to the old restrictions, still not daring to violate what have become cultural norms for the uneducated laborer class.
Exiles are those gnomes that regardless of which caste they had previously belonged too, fled their homeland en masse rather than be ruled by a foreign power.
Friday, September 27, 2013
Two for the price of naught
But who is the man without fear?
We'll find out when that adventure continues, I suppose.
In the meantime, I'm scratching my sci-fi itch by coercing the group to switch to a Travellers game, of which, I am DM.
I find that space games suffer from the same problem as sea-based fantasy games. Ostensibly, the only difference would be that the characters mode of locomotion has changed from foot and hoof to oar and sail, but the reality tends to be "OK, we have a ship.... now what? We just sail around until something attacks us?"
I've never had it work out, for whatever reasons. However, I am not one to walk away from such problems.
So I lurk here, in my basement, chain smoking unfiltered Camels and listing to Neil Young; stewing over the elements of the scenario.
Also, I read an article about the Michigan Dogman. So, using Ed's sans-system monster thingy, here is the Dogman.
Name: Dogman
Purpose: Could function fine as a random monster, or the focus of a one or two shot adventure, or as an element of a location, something of an environmental hazard. I see them as being something horrific, without origin or a natural place in the world. A corruption of both man and beast.
Appearance:
Wednesday, August 28, 2013
Must... keep... blogging....
I'm playing in a Savage Worlds game, it will soon be converted to The Pool, then back to Savage Worlds, I think.
I dunno. My character is a complete sociopath. Everything good that happens is because of him, everything bad that happens is the fault of his weird pre-human sasquatch goblin companion.
What the GM had envisioned as an epic quest to rid the world of the taint (HA!) of the Elder Gods has become "A Complete Asshole and a Goblin Awaken All the Old Evil".
So far, I have two pacts with a snake god (who's unholy text I possess) and a blind wolf god of sleep who's avatar I may or may not have helped slay and then further desecrate with poop. Some death goddess tried to attack us, but she was cast down.
Basically, my character is an ex-pharmacist turned unwilling polygot priest who takes credit for everything, deflects all blame, and is never grateful for anything. It's only a matter of time before he becomes some kind of cult leader/serial killer.