Nov 2011
New look to the Rogue Games website
11/30/2011 01:47 Filed in: News
Been a busy week or so. What do you think about the new look?
I am sure there are some things that need tweaking, but I like the overall feel of the place.
The Online Store is next, that is going to be a major project. Why? Moving to a new shopping cart, and changing the entire look and feel of it. What you see now, is only temporally.
Some have asked, why do I change the look of the website so much. The reason, is that I have never been happy with how the site looked. The site has been a constant evolution when it comes to the presentation and layout. Organization is something that that I have never been pleased with. So as the months and years past, I tinker and tweak. I think this is like the eight iteration of the website, and I think I finally have come to a look a like.
I am sure there are some things that need tweaking, but I like the overall feel of the place.
The Online Store is next, that is going to be a major project. Why? Moving to a new shopping cart, and changing the entire look and feel of it. What you see now, is only temporally.
Some have asked, why do I change the look of the website so much. The reason, is that I have never been happy with how the site looked. The site has been a constant evolution when it comes to the presentation and layout. Organization is something that that I have never been pleased with. So as the months and years past, I tinker and tweak. I think this is like the eight iteration of the website, and I think I finally have come to a look a like.
Comments
Sneak peek of Shadow, Sword & Spell: Threats
Shadow, Sword & Spell: Threats is currently in editing. Art is coming in. I am starting to think about the layout, and work up page designs and the like. I think this is the book that I will start to change things up when it comes to presentation. Why? This is a monster, threat, book after all, and the entries need to have space.
Speaking of the threats found within the book, here is a new one, ready to be used in your Shadow, Sword & Spell games now, the White Ape.
White Ape
Brawn 8, Quickness 8, Toughness 8, Wits 9, Will 9, Resolve 45, Vitality 40
Skills: Athletics–Climb [+8/+10], Brawl [+9], Melee [+9], Observe [+10], Tactics [+10], Track [+9]
Traits:
▪ Albinism: White Apes suffers from albinism, and as a result their fur is white, and eyes are red. Albinism gains Fear −2.
▪ Fierce: White Apes are naturally aggressive, and once they take damage they must make a Will Test. Failure, they become enraged, and as a result, its Brawn and Toughness are temporarily raised by 2 points each, and its Vitality is temporarily increased by 15 Points. In addition, both its Will and Wits are temporarily lowered by 2 points each. Fierce lasts for 1d12 Rounds, and while in this state, the white apes is immune to all Fear and ignores any modifiers associated with lost Vitality. As soon as the Fierce state passes, the creature’s Abilities return to normal, and the boosted Vitality disappears.
▪ Leaper: White Apes are able to leap incredible distances, and gain +5 bonus on all Athletics (Jump) Tests or any other Tests where the GM rules that this Trait has bearing. They are also able to leap 16 feet every round as an action.
Before the time of the Lost Kingdom, even before the Rise of the Lost Empire, the White Apes possess an advanced civilization which rivaled that of the Serpent People. How, or why, their culture fell, no one knows. Now the White Apes are found scattered throughout The World, but there are persistent reports that living amongst the ruins scattering The Jungles of Moarn is a city populated by the apes. White apes resemble gorillas, but are bipedal, and their hair allows some to past as human. Though they are afflicted with albinos the white apes show no real effects from it.
Speaking of the threats found within the book, here is a new one, ready to be used in your Shadow, Sword & Spell games now, the White Ape.
White Ape
Brawn 8, Quickness 8, Toughness 8, Wits 9, Will 9, Resolve 45, Vitality 40
Skills: Athletics–Climb [+8/+10], Brawl [+9], Melee [+9], Observe [+10], Tactics [+10], Track [+9]
Traits:
▪ Albinism: White Apes suffers from albinism, and as a result their fur is white, and eyes are red. Albinism gains Fear −2.
▪ Fierce: White Apes are naturally aggressive, and once they take damage they must make a Will Test. Failure, they become enraged, and as a result, its Brawn and Toughness are temporarily raised by 2 points each, and its Vitality is temporarily increased by 15 Points. In addition, both its Will and Wits are temporarily lowered by 2 points each. Fierce lasts for 1d12 Rounds, and while in this state, the white apes is immune to all Fear and ignores any modifiers associated with lost Vitality. As soon as the Fierce state passes, the creature’s Abilities return to normal, and the boosted Vitality disappears.
▪ Leaper: White Apes are able to leap incredible distances, and gain +5 bonus on all Athletics (Jump) Tests or any other Tests where the GM rules that this Trait has bearing. They are also able to leap 16 feet every round as an action.
Before the time of the Lost Kingdom, even before the Rise of the Lost Empire, the White Apes possess an advanced civilization which rivaled that of the Serpent People. How, or why, their culture fell, no one knows. Now the White Apes are found scattered throughout The World, but there are persistent reports that living amongst the ruins scattering The Jungles of Moarn is a city populated by the apes. White apes resemble gorillas, but are bipedal, and their hair allows some to past as human. Though they are afflicted with albinos the white apes show no real effects from it.
Website Redesign: Step One is done
11/25/2011 03:23 Filed in: News
Step One of the Rogue Games website is done. The pages dealing with the games have been reorganized, and the structure makes a lot more sense. The games have been put into the following categories:
Next up with be a reorganization of the information pages. This will be followed by building a new section which will be dedicated to the Rogue Games podcast I plan on starting the first of 2012. The last step will be rebuilding and redoing the entire online store.
Yeah, I sort of snuck that in there, didn’t I? There will be a monthly podcast starting the first of the year (2012). The plan is to use it as a place to talk about the games. I am still working out the details, but it will happen.
- Core
- Supplements
- Settings (if applicable)
- Adventures
- Fiction (if applicable)
Next up with be a reorganization of the information pages. This will be followed by building a new section which will be dedicated to the Rogue Games podcast I plan on starting the first of 2012. The last step will be rebuilding and redoing the entire online store.
Yeah, I sort of snuck that in there, didn’t I? There will be a monthly podcast starting the first of the year (2012). The plan is to use it as a place to talk about the games. I am still working out the details, but it will happen.
Shadow, Sword & Spell: Companion
11/19/2011 10:46 Filed in: SS&S
The other day I mentioned I would write about the Shadow, Sword & Spell: Companion. I said I would do this on Friday, and as what usually happens, I got side tracked with some other things needing my attention. So even though this is a day late, here we go.
Companion was always a book in the works when Basic and Expert was being written. Both Basic & Expert had a clear goal in mind, and everything that went into those two books was put in for a reason. The design goals was focused on creating a pulp fantasy inspired game, that was influenced by the writing of Howard, Smith and Lovecraft. Because of that, certain things were not covered. Some may balk at this, but I really wanted both books to be as slim as they could be, and I did not want to try to make the game as inclusive as it could. Thus Companion was going to be the book that the kitchen-sink would appear.
Fuzzy footed goblins? In Companion.
Psionics? Companion.
Weird styles of magic? Companion.
More options than you can shake a stick at? Companion.
Basically, Companion is an attempt to harken back to an earlier time of game design and game publishing. A collection of add ons that anyone can use, without harming the base game.
Huh?
Think of Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu. No matter what edition of the game that exists, that rulebook is all you ever need if you want to run CoC. For just as long as the rulebook existed, that has always been a Keeper’s Companion and an Investigator’s Companion. These books exist to present new ideas and topics that would not fit within the main rulebook. In many ways they offer a buffet of game ideas that players and Keepers alike can use to expand upon their games. The Call of Cthulhu example is just one example, and many earlier games always followed the companion model, which presented new ideas and topics without cluttering the main rulebook. a companion is not a splatbook, in that there is no meta plot being advanced, official world setting be explored, or marketing blitz being launched. The design idea of a companion is to collect all the odd bits and pieces that would not hold their own release, and present players and gamemasters alike new ideas to explore.
Thus, Shadow, Sword & Spell: Companion is the book where all the extraneous bits and pieces are going to appear, and allow the players and gamemasters to add new things to their own games, to make them their own games.
Thus if you want to have elfs, dwarfs and the like, Companion has those rules. Does that mean if you rather play pulp fantasy, you can skip this book? Yes and no.
If you love Shadow, Sword & Spell as it is, nothing in Basic and Expert is changed. They game still runs as is. If you want new spells, or new little options that you can plug in, then Companion is an accessory that will allow you to tinker. If you like Shadow, Sword & Spell’s The World, there is more information in Companion, but it is not exhaustive. It is there to give color to the rules and put things into context.
So what does Companion contain? Here is the rough outline as it exists today, November 19, 2011.
Chapter One: Character Options
Chapter Two: Combat Options
Chapter Three: Gear
Chapter Four: Psionics
Chapter Five: Magic
Chapter Six: Settlements & Domains
Chapter Seven: Dimensions and other planes
Chapter Eight: Random Items
Chapter Nine: New Creatures
Chapter Ten: Campaigns
So there you go. That is the outline right now.
Companion was always a book in the works when Basic and Expert was being written. Both Basic & Expert had a clear goal in mind, and everything that went into those two books was put in for a reason. The design goals was focused on creating a pulp fantasy inspired game, that was influenced by the writing of Howard, Smith and Lovecraft. Because of that, certain things were not covered. Some may balk at this, but I really wanted both books to be as slim as they could be, and I did not want to try to make the game as inclusive as it could. Thus Companion was going to be the book that the kitchen-sink would appear.
Fuzzy footed goblins? In Companion.
Psionics? Companion.
Weird styles of magic? Companion.
More options than you can shake a stick at? Companion.
Basically, Companion is an attempt to harken back to an earlier time of game design and game publishing. A collection of add ons that anyone can use, without harming the base game.
Huh?
Think of Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu. No matter what edition of the game that exists, that rulebook is all you ever need if you want to run CoC. For just as long as the rulebook existed, that has always been a Keeper’s Companion and an Investigator’s Companion. These books exist to present new ideas and topics that would not fit within the main rulebook. In many ways they offer a buffet of game ideas that players and Keepers alike can use to expand upon their games. The Call of Cthulhu example is just one example, and many earlier games always followed the companion model, which presented new ideas and topics without cluttering the main rulebook. a companion is not a splatbook, in that there is no meta plot being advanced, official world setting be explored, or marketing blitz being launched. The design idea of a companion is to collect all the odd bits and pieces that would not hold their own release, and present players and gamemasters alike new ideas to explore.
Thus, Shadow, Sword & Spell: Companion is the book where all the extraneous bits and pieces are going to appear, and allow the players and gamemasters to add new things to their own games, to make them their own games.
Thus if you want to have elfs, dwarfs and the like, Companion has those rules. Does that mean if you rather play pulp fantasy, you can skip this book? Yes and no.
If you love Shadow, Sword & Spell as it is, nothing in Basic and Expert is changed. They game still runs as is. If you want new spells, or new little options that you can plug in, then Companion is an accessory that will allow you to tinker. If you like Shadow, Sword & Spell’s The World, there is more information in Companion, but it is not exhaustive. It is there to give color to the rules and put things into context.
So what does Companion contain? Here is the rough outline as it exists today, November 19, 2011.
Chapter One: Character Options
- Honor
- Prestige
- Legend
- Animal Totems
- Family and Social Levels
- New Backgrounds
- Character Templates
- Fantasy Races
Chapter Two: Combat Options
- Martial Arts
- Ariel Combat
- Ocean Combat
- Chase Rules
- Combat Maneuvers & Stunts
Chapter Three: Gear
- Gunpowder
- Oriental weapons and armor
- Other weapons and armor from historical cultures
Chapter Four: Psionics
Chapter Five: Magic
- Counter spelling
- Necromancy
- Summoning
- Name Magic - knowing the true name allows for power
- Rune Magic
- Witches
- New Alchemical Arts
- New Common Spells
- New Arcane Spells
- Scrolls and their use
- Crystals and gems and using their magical properties
- Ritual Magic - Domain scale spells
- Ley Lines (maybe)
Chapter Six: Settlements & Domains
- Treating settlements as if they are characters
- Expanding the events and actions you can do on the domain level.
Chapter Seven: Dimensions and other planes
- Possessions and exorcism
- Corruption from extra-dimensional creatures
- Using planes and dimensions
- The cosmology of The World
Chapter Eight: Random Items
- Creating random items or power
- Creating random tomes
Chapter Nine: New Creatures
- New devils and demons
- New monsters
- Djinni’s
- Constructs
- Golems
- Psionic creatures
Chapter Ten: Campaigns
- New types of campaigns
- Using Domains as characters and each player plays one
So there you go. That is the outline right now.
Website Redesign Coming
11/16/2011 06:55 Filed in: News
Just to give a head’s up. I am shooting for a major website overhaul for next week. Nothing is going away, I just need to do some backend cleaning.
What will change is:
Why is this taking place? There is a lot of information here, that needs to be organized.
Friday I will have a post about Shadow, Sword & Spell: Companion.
What will change is:
- Color Scheme
- Look
- Page Organization
Why is this taking place? There is a lot of information here, that needs to be organized.
Friday I will have a post about Shadow, Sword & Spell: Companion.
Color Maps Uploaded
11/11/2011 11:42 Filed in: Colonial Gothic
A change takes place
11/10/2011 08:07 Filed in: News
I have not talked about this a lot, because, as always, I tend to keep things private. Yet I have been getting emails, and now is the time to address it.
As of this morning, James and I are no longer business partners. There is no drama, no hard feelings, or any anger. We simply found ourselves at a cross roads, and our goals as designers were not the same goals we once had. In addition, the directions we wanted to go, were not the same, and as we always said, if we did not agree on something 100% we would not do it. So that we would have the freedom to do the projects we wanted, we decided that it was time go our separate ways.
So what does this mean?
Nothing.
Rogue Games is still here, will be here, and always will be here. James will just be doing his own thing with his own Grognardia Games. What that means is that Thousand Suns, The Cursed Chateau and the projects that were James’ will be coming out from his own company.
Colonial Gothic and Shadow, Sword & Spell will be coming out from Rogue Games.
I have known James for years, and have worked with him on many projects both with other game companies, and with Rogue Games. I wish him nothing but the best, and I cannot wait to see what he will be producing.
And to answer the question before it is asked: no, Rogue Games is not dead. As you can see there is a lot of product coming out next year, and the plans I have, as well as Graeme Davis has, is many. Many. What are these plans? That would be spoiling the surprises.
As of this morning, James and I are no longer business partners. There is no drama, no hard feelings, or any anger. We simply found ourselves at a cross roads, and our goals as designers were not the same goals we once had. In addition, the directions we wanted to go, were not the same, and as we always said, if we did not agree on something 100% we would not do it. So that we would have the freedom to do the projects we wanted, we decided that it was time go our separate ways.
So what does this mean?
Nothing.
Rogue Games is still here, will be here, and always will be here. James will just be doing his own thing with his own Grognardia Games. What that means is that Thousand Suns, The Cursed Chateau and the projects that were James’ will be coming out from his own company.
Colonial Gothic and Shadow, Sword & Spell will be coming out from Rogue Games.
I have known James for years, and have worked with him on many projects both with other game companies, and with Rogue Games. I wish him nothing but the best, and I cannot wait to see what he will be producing.
And to answer the question before it is asked: no, Rogue Games is not dead. As you can see there is a lot of product coming out next year, and the plans I have, as well as Graeme Davis has, is many. Many. What are these plans? That would be spoiling the surprises.
Coming March 2012: The French and Indian War
11/07/2011 10:08 Filed in: Colonial Gothic | News
Colonial Gothic: The French and Indian War
A time when Washington was a militia colonel.
A time when Bostonians drank tea.
A time when the British were the good guys.
Welcome to a new era for Colonial Gothic, as the pages of history are tuned back to a time prior to the American Revolution. In The French and Indian War, players and gamemasters are presented with the tools and sources they need to run their games during this critical time of American history.
Join General Wolfe at the Siege of Quebec. Walk the woods with Hawkeye, Chingachgook and Uncas. Raid with Rogers' Rangers. Or pair this book with the New France sourcebook and fight to drive the British out of North America!
The French and Indian War includes historical background, new rules, adventure seeds, and game statistics for the leading personalities of the period 1754-1763.
Details:
Colonial Gothic: The French and Indian War
ISBN-13: 978-0-9826598-8-5
MSRP: $14.99
Pages: 120 B&W 6”x9” Softcover
SKU: RGG 1754
Available March 2012
A preivew of one of the threats found in Shadow, Sword & Spell: Threats
11/04/2011 11:30 Filed in: SS&S
Work on Shadow, Sword & Spell: Threats is winding down, at least on my end. It goes into editing this weekend, and the book will be ready for pre-order no later than the end of January 2012. Art is being worked on, and in many ways, this is going to be a book that turns out to be far better than I ever thought. I always felt Threats was a good idea, but I hit the wall, creatively with it over the summer, and I almost decided to kill it (that is a story for another day). Long and the short of it, I am glad I came to my sense.
Just to wet your apiece for the threats to be found in the book, here is a preview of one of the creatures. Threats is going to be book filled with a lot of threats. Some of these threats are monsters from myth and classic fantasy. Some of these monsters will be from, and inspired by, the The Writers Three, who influenced the game. A lot will be original. This one is an example of one of the original ones found within the book.
Brawn 7, Quickness 11, Toughness 7, Wits 3, Will 3, Resolve ??, Vitality ??
Skills: Brawl [+10], Dodge [+10]
Traits:
Just to wet your apiece for the threats to be found in the book, here is a preview of one of the creatures. Threats is going to be book filled with a lot of threats. Some of these threats are monsters from myth and classic fantasy. Some of these monsters will be from, and inspired by, the The Writers Three, who influenced the game. A lot will be original. This one is an example of one of the original ones found within the book.
Slime
Brawn 7, Quickness 11, Toughness 7, Wits 3, Will 3, Resolve ??, Vitality ??
Skills: Brawl [+10], Dodge [+10]
Traits:
- Damage Reduction: Edge weapons, blunt weapons, cold, water and electricity cause slime only 1 point of damage.
• Drain: Every Round a slime engulfs a creature, they loose 5 Vitality and 1 Toughness. This continues until the creature is freed or dead.
• Elasticity: Slime is able to bend and twist its body in unnatural ways, allowing it to squeeze into and through very tight spaces. Consequently, slime squeezes through an opening or passage one-fifth as wide and tall as its height, in inches, although it does so very slowly compared to its normal movement rate.
• Hug: Slime is able to damage an opponent by engulfing the Hero and contracting its form to cause damage. In order to use this ability, the slime must make a successful Brawl Test to grab its opponent. Those trapped can try to break out by making a successful Brawn Test. For every round trapped in the slime, the opponent suffers a cumulative -1 to the Test. For example, if the opponent has been in the hug for 3 Rounds he would suffer a -3 to the Test. The damage from this ability is equal to the creature’s Brawn + Toughness.
• Poison: The slime’s touch is poisonous, and those touched, suffer 2 Damage every round for 10 Rounds, and a −1 to all Tests.
• Spawn: Draining all Vitality and Toughness from a creature creates a new Slime.
• Stench: Slime has a terrible odor, and it is so powerful that it makes contact with the creature troublesome. Any within hand-to-hand range of the creature suffer a -1 to all Tests.
• Weakness–Fire: Slimes are susceptible to fire, and fire causes double damage to them.