Blog or Treat: Remembrance Thief

Perhaps one of my favorite posts on this blog is also my oldest: Demons and Fae. It examines the demon variety chart in Monster Hunters 3 (page 19) and talks about how it can  expanded and used to create Fae. It also talks about how a single monster concept can be used for multiple monster types, and it inspired me to actually write an expanded table and build a generator so you don't have to roll 50 dice to get answers.

This monster was generated using those tools and posts, but this time I'm not picking a monster type: I'm showing how the monster can a demon, an evil fae, or a type of vampire. I hope you find the monster evocative.

The monster is focused on Monster Hunters, as the original posts and the book that inspired the creature are focused there, but it can fit in variety of campaigns, particularly standard horror.

10 Points of Flavor

In my recent games I've started giving out '10 points of flavor'. These are to be spent on things the player doesn't expect the character to use. I view them as a tool for fleshing out a character, and hopefully for reducing the tension between building a realistic character and working with a low point budget.

 What people buy with these points varies. Area knowledge (home) is a common choice. Its only valid if the action doesn't take place their, but it lends a fair amount of flavor. I've seen an awful lot of people buy games. The specialization is usually video games, table top games, or chess. High Academic skills often get thrown in: I had one guy buy History (Occidental magical traditions), and musical skills are common. Animal handling (dogs) is another favorite, used by dog lovers. Cooking and housekeeping show up as day to day skills. I've also seen things like driving in a campaign where the planet is covered in ice (and thus snow mobiles are used). I think the weirdest one I've seen has been Professional Skill (Fire extinguisher maintenance).

Lawmen Of Borlo: Reflections on Setting Choices

I just finished my "Lawmen of Borlo" game, and last post I talked about how gameplay went. Today I'm going to look at the setting decisions and work I put into it, and how they turned out.

The things that went best were the way I handled races (which was a trick to get right), and the FTL system (which never got used). The books I actually ended up using were interesting, and there were some places where I did too much work, or too little. I also let the standard adventure be something I didn't plan. In this case, it worked well, but that fact is worth being cautious of in the future.