Jmonty

There is a Spanish RPG with a setting like that, "La puerta de Ishtar". Sargon made some magic and is immortal, and his empire last centuries, and the world is like his people thought it was. Add barbarians, and Lovecraftian deities and forbidden magic. But, for my taste, was a setting a bit depressing. Liked very much the chapters of culture and archaeology.

Thanks for the suggestions. The plot idea can be said (the adventure will be here once played) and is Ape-plus was captured and the Trust wants to free him while he's being transported to prison. In a train. With other convicts ("Con Air" but in a train).

Anyone has used the Brain Trust in an adventure? I have a plot idea and could publish it here, once we play it, but it would be interesting to read some people who used them or fight them before me.

Not discussing wich is the best, I'm here just to tell I played a campaign in 6th century Europe, from Byzantium to the Vandal Kingdom to the Persian frontier in Armenia, with the Blue and Green hippodrome factions fighting in the streets, Huns still menacing, conspiracies, spies, and a gold mine. Years 519-535, a long run.

Adventurer PCs in fantasy genres are often a bunch of rogues, not very different of criminals. Sure, they have a code of honor, maybe... In present time RPG genres, crime-fighters and crime-doers are the most akin to adventurer types. I mean, a regular office working person has little adventure time, but a gang member or a cop could have more. That said, has anyone played gang members (one of them an undercover cop, of course), a gang war, or a similar adventure thing? If not, but you like the concept... Hudson City has many gangs, Dark Champions is a cool game, but I need some inspiration. Some general idea, something more concrete. May be stories of Maffia, or samurais, can be adapted to the gang setting. Well, I read your comments if anybody has something to write.

Refloating this topic because I published the adventure in the Downloads sections, 5th edition documents.

You must decide if you want a group of PCs with good relationships between them, or not. I usually give my players their PCs built with a group idea, like a mad doctor and his followers (an assistant, a bodyguard, and a fixer), so I would think of monsters in a pack. Or not, then I would give them a medieval version of the Universal Monsters and let them fight for the same goal. Or may be you want Kaijus.

An earlier idea was something like "Hudson City GTA", but... We are in a Fantasy forum. I only have at this moment 3 PCs, will be better with five. 1. The conscripted antihero, knight or minor noble, probably a human male. The less evil one of the pack, or maybe not. Loyalty not questioned because happens to be a lover of a lieutenant of the Dark Lord. (this Dragon Lady inspired by Kitiara, from Dragonlance, and yes, she is a dragon rider) 2. Battle mage with ambitions. What kind of magic has? May be some fire magic, and spells from the god of evil. 3. An Ogre, strong and all that, a minion pure and simple. Unless I find another idea.

Well, the PCs should be the protagonists and have some power in the outcome of the adventure, so they are more or less trusted agents. They proved their worth in some previous mission, and now are far from the headquarters of the Dragon Lady in a moment of this Evil Empire expansion. They have to decide wich chieftain is the better for the Dark Lord, and one of the PCs might think of himself as the best, but must convice the rest or let all the contenders be killed so he might be promoted. In game terms, I think PCs should have 200 CP. And what happened to the city? That must be answered because the PCs need to be there and know that. The city suffered a short siege. Royal family escaped and are guests of a nearby nation. Factions control territories, yes, the most powerful has the palace from the beginning. The city gates could be more or less shared because of the supplies received, and the local population... Well, that's a point to develop. I'd like to minimize things like torture of innocents, and have the bad people fight each other instead. Some collaborationists are to be found, may be one of them was a king's adviser.

Well, this idea might have been used before. What if the PCs are not the good guys but some baddies? First problem, for me, is how much of evil are they allowed to be without spoiling the fun. Some things are not fun in a game, I won't like the PCs raping peasants and beating baby seals. One solution is "comedic evil", but I want a serious approach. Another ideas are "evil can turn against itself, sometimes" or "you see, the minions of the Dark Lord are not so different from people working for unethical corporations and bosses they hate just beacause the money". So, inspired by the Turakian Age, I have more or less this outline for a long adventure, and for a group of characters. The forces of the Dark Lord, Kal-Turak, conquered a city. But they are a mess of orcs, goblins, humans, ogres, a few trolls... Each group with their captains and chieftains. Kal-Turak hopes one leader will unite them, killing the weakest, but one year passed and there are four factions yet. The PCs a legates from the Dragon Lady, serving the Dark Lord, and their mission is to help the best leader of this factions to become the Overlord. One of the PCs is conscripted to serve Kal-Turak, and the rest could suspect of him. He battled against the evil forces, but his hometown was conquered and the warriors were offered to choose death or service. Now he is one of the many lovers of the Lady, and has something to gain serving evil. Another may be a wizard who considers himself the best candidate to Overlord. Another can be a big ogre who simply follows orders. The strongest contender in the city, based on Zarlang Thul, is very suspicious of the PCs and will conspire to have them killed by unknown assassins and blame the opposition. This adventure is what comes to my mind by now, it can work with baddies, not will work well if the PCs were goodies.

In my mind the cars are like the ones in the 2008 movie. In the 5th edition Ultimate Vehicle we can find some of these gadgets (the Supercar in page 46 has many of them). I like things from the movie like the tombstone droppable panel (this makes more sense in surpass a car with forward machine guns) and the idea of activating weapons or gadgets only when arriving to certain places. But I would like to write some background story for the PCs, some motivation and things to do outside the cars, not just a race.

Well, I should have figured the police could be very busy this day with a great number of incidents and calls, not all of them for real but they must check them anyway. The points thing is interesting, but killing innocent bystanders is not OK. Killing a rival, or the police, on the other hand... This adventure can be fun, but must be written as a screenplay with charcters and motivations.

Every year a mysterious Maffia boss forces some tough people to run the Death Race in Hudson City. Lots of money in bets around the world, hidden cameras in the cars and the streets, thousands of spectators, the police trying to stop them or infiltrate a driver, drivers running for their lives or the money or trying to discover and kill this boss. Well, I only have this idea, but could grow into an adventure. Drawbacks I see so far, which is the race course to follow and why the police could not stop them with helicopters.

Finally, the adventure is here. Spanish/English edition, with the stats only in English and a different illustration in each part. This is the blog, with one player telling their playtesting. https://murallasblancas.blogspot.com/2020/10/los-misteriosos-contra-las-cuerdas.html And this is the link to the adventure text in PDF. (28 pages) https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YVi-OxupXsIny-r4qsNtn94mOilO0Hot/view

I think this Sunday we will finish the adventure, it will be available at one of the player's blog some days after that. With two drawings inspired by one of the Santo movies.

5th edition. The first half was played last Sunday and gave me some things to think for a faster play in the ring. It starts with Relevos Australianos (3 vs 3) and a PC is in the other team.

I am about to play a Lucha Libre adventure, as Master, and when we finish it I would like to make it available for everyone to play. So, the question is, may I post a link to the document in this forum? (It will be written in Spanish and translated to English in the same doc, with 4 Player Characters write-ups ready to start)

I miss the good old days when you could find tens of character adaptations. We have even a Doctor House for Hero System back then, but now the magic is gone.

We have many Marvel character's write-ups in several web sites, but... Has anyone written a Marvel Cinematic Universe character as it? Just curious... and thinking about an adventure with cinematic flavour, of course.

I think Sansa will be the Queen, and marry the son of Robert Baratheon. Dany killed by Arya, Jon and Arya killed by Dany or Grey Worm. Tyrion also killed, may be.

And I want to write this as a Champions adventure and play it.

Well, I think in Medieval times the idea of "we could be better" equals "we could be rich, or Lords" for they knew about this people living better but had none or very little idea of improvements in technology. But money were not used as today, most peasant people never had a coin, they barter and pay taxes in goods. We are used to have coins in Fantasy games because is easier and we are used to money in real life. Not an expert in Medieval Economy myself but for sure there are interesting books about this topic (how much holidays peasants had, use of commond lands, etc). Also for the corruption, apart from the church may be the nobility has chances to plot for their gain, especially against the king. Migration for economic reasons is almost granted. More in the case of artisans or qualified workers. It is a thing of demand and offer, people travel if people of their village tell stories about their better life abroad, if there is no job for unqualified peasants because this jobs are covered few peasants will migrate (unless crossing the border could save them from famine or war) but your kingdom could be viewed as a "brain drainer". Guilds could be losing their apprentices.

Just a few random thoughts wich may apply or not at all: If the kingdom is in an economic stage of Feudalism is hard to imagine a Social-democrat king "Olof Palme style". It has more sense in a context of absolutism, say Louis XIV with Illustration ideals. But this is fantasy, of course. The recruitment of the brightest childs to the state administration was practiced by Romans and Chinese, but the childs had to become eunuchs. So they will not use their power to enrich themselves and his family. The Romans had public basic education, by the way, until Christian Church took it over and do the privatization thing with it. Paganism had a strong communitary sense, it doesn't had this idea of "personal individual salvation" as the primary goal. Religious ideas come from material and social needs, if you follow the cultural materialism school of Anthropology.

A modest approach to the Idirans as imagined in The Culture series. Criticism welcomed. Idiran Warrior Val Char Cost 30 STR 5 20 DEX 30 30 CON 40 30 BODY 34 23 INT 13 18 EGO 16 25 PRE 15 0 COM -5 12/32 PD 9 8/24 ED 2 4 SPD 10 10 REC 2 60 END 0 60 STUN 7 Characteristics Cost: 178 Cost Power 23 Idiran Body: Growth (+15 STR, +3 BODY, +3 STUN, -3" KB, 800 kg, -2 DCV, +2 PER Rolls to perceive character, 4 m tall, 2 m wide), Inherent (+1/4), Reduced Endurance (0 END; +1/2), Persistent (+1/2) (34 Active Points); Always On (-1/2) 5 Three Legged: Extra Limb (1) 12 Keratin skin: Armor (6 PD/2 ED) 5 Idiran Physiology: Life Support (Longevity: Immortal) 20 Idiran Physiology: Physical Damage Reduction, 50% 15 Idiran Physiology: Doest Not Bleed 4 Hyper-oxygenated Lung: Endurance Reserve (30 END, 1 REC) (4 Active Points) 10 Four Eyes: Increased Arc Of Perception (360 Degrees) with Sight Group 5 Infrasonic Perception (Hearing Group), Transmit Cost Equipment 15 Armor (14 PD/0 ED), Hardened (+1/4) (26 Active Points); OIF (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4) 9 Armor (0 PD/14 ED) (21 Active Points); OIF (-1/2), Ablative BODY Only (-1/2), Real Armor (-1/4) Cost Martial Arts Maneuver 4 Fast Strike: 1/2 Phase, +2 OCV, +0 DCV, 8d6 Strike 5 Offensive Strike: 1/2 Phase, -2 OCV, +1 DCV, 10d6 Strike 4 Charge: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, -2 DCV, 8d6 +v/5 Strike, FMove 4 Shove: 1/2 Phase, +0 OCV, +0 DCV, 45 STR STR to Shove Cost Skill 10 +2 with Ranged Combat 3 Demolitions 14- 3 Electronics 14- 3 Mechanics 14- 2 KS: Pan-Humans 11- 2 KS: Idiran Religion 11- 2 AK: Galaxy Area 11- 0 Language: Idiran 1 Language: Marain (basic conversation) 3 Security Systems 14- 8 Survival (Arctic/Subarctic, Marine, Desert, Mountain) 14- 11 Systems Operation (Communications Systems, Environmental Systems, Medical Systems, Battleship Cannon, FTL Sensors, Radar, Sensor Jamming Equipment, Sonar) 14- 3 Tactics 14- 3 Tracking 14- 4 TF: Common Motorized Ground Vehicles, Science Fiction & Space Vehicles 10 WF: Beam Weapons, Common Melee Weapons, Emplaced Weapons, Energy Weapons, Small Arms Cost Perk 3 Contact: Military or Religious (Contact has significant Contacts of his own, Contact has: useful Skills or resources) 8- 1 Favor Cost Talent 4 FTL Pilot Total Character Cost: 394 Pts. Disadvantage 20 Distinctive Features: (Not Concealable; Extreme Reaction; Detectable By Commonly-Used Senses; Not Distinctive In Some Cultures) 20 Psychological Limitation: Religious Fanatic (Common, Total) 15 Reputation: Warrior Race, 14- Disadvantage Points: 55 Well, I used Growth (Idirans in warrior stage are 3 to 3.5 m tall) but you may think is not necessary. I listed a body armor equipment with one entry for PD and another for ablative ED. I think laser and plasma weapons are always ablating armor in this series. I did not create a plasma rifle for them, maybe the next time. The effect for the extra lung is a guess. What can hyperoxygenated blood do? Extra time for moving and fighting if deprived of air? Also I think Idirans would have different damage multipliers by Hit Locations, an Idiran can live one or two hours after half of the head has been destroyed.