Triangle Geomorphs

A set of dungeon geomorphs with equilateral triangle having 2 exits on each side. These were made to make it easier to connect geomorph sections on angles for the dungeon architect and annoy the heck out of players trying to map while being pursued by fearsome grues.


(click for larger image)

A few campaign ideas for NML-Mutant Front

Working on the kernel of the idea for No Man's Land - Mutant Front I've come to see there are certainly a number of campaign ideas/models available that can really effect how a campaign plays out. Here are my ideas in brief:

The Six-Finger Brigade: The chemicals of the war have caused catastrophic and amazing changes among some in the military and civilian populations. General public reaction is horror leaving the military and governments are struggling with a host of issues. One solution is the newly formed and almost secret "Six-Finger Brigade" composed of mutant troops with some Mutant and Pure human NCOs. Scenarios will be specific war time operations like raids on munitions plants, airbases and mad-scientist laboratories in addition to leading the boys over the top to take on the enemy.
Players in a Six-Finger Brigade should be mostly Mutant humans with the occasional Pure Human. Mutant animals are common or recognized as sentient in the beginning of a NML-Mutant Front campaign using The Six-Finger Brigade setup. Mechanical men should be confined to the status of monsters/NPCs at the start of such a campaign. Most weird-tech will be unusual and even un-invented and be introduced as the campaign rolls along.
Most of the World is relatively intact in a Six-Finger Brigade modeled campaign, the plague bombs haven't fallen yet but may indeed do so at some point.
A Six-Fingers Brigade campaign isn't really post apocalyptic it's more apocalyptic with plenty of chances for freaky science and mutants.

All Quiet on the Mutant Front: Mutants have been with humanity for a generation now and the first children born with mutations are now adults able to fight who are pressed into service. Many futuristic wonders are common and PCs can include the occasional Mechanical Man. Mutant animals are used as war beasts but are not yet recognized widely as thinking beings.
The struggling militaries of the world are hard pressed to mount major offensives so the war has wound down to a low intensity conflict where deserters and looters can often be a more serious issue to deal with then the enemy.

War Without End: The war has been on so long there is seldom any difference between the military and civilian governments anymore. Some minds think the war continues so the population that has survived the plagues and economic depredation of the war don't question the authorities or look to make something better. Thinking beasts have been pressed into service and some fight alongside more traditional mutant and human forces. PCs will be desperate combatants fighting for a few yards a month and dealing with renegade communities unwilling to support the war effort.
Weird high tech seems to be all over the place these days but supplies are unreliable and forces can find themselves fighting with every weapon ever deployed by man.

It's Over Over There: The war at least all the prospect for major battles seems to be over. Nations have all but collapsed and military units are often the only authority. Vast swaths of the past battle grounds are hideously dangerous but can also hide goods few have dared to reach for until recently. Plague bombs have left some cities ghastly graveyards that haven't been surrendered by those changed by contamination and those that refuse to stay dead. PC's are bedraggled veterans or stalwart holdouts refusing to give up on the remnants of the past. Nothing is in ready supply and each winter brings the threat of famine on an ever shrinking and desperate population. The gadgets of the past are falling apart and less understood as those trained in their use die off. For many there is no home to return to their entire lives having been the war and it's struggles, is there a life for them out there?

Shadows of War: The war is long over and a distant memory. Civilization is fortified towns shut tight against ravaging hordes and cruel beasts. Ancient munitions litter forgotten battlefields and feudal lords may rule from an ancient redoubt surrounded by barbed wire and disused trenches. Aside from a different range of artifacts and a setting that may be vaguely recognizable this is mostly a straight-up Mutant Future campaign. PCs are explorers, scavengers and adventurers as they are in other mutant futures.

So there are the campaign ideas. A campaign could explore more then one of these and some aren't' too radically different from each other on the tactical level. If one wanted to play a march-of-time campaign it could shift from one campaign model to another as time marches on.

Now That's a sweet deal

James Raggi of Lamentations of The Flame Princess is having a sale on his pdf products, they are going for $1.34 each. A preety good deal for anyone curious about the products he publishes. Full info:

http://lotfp.blogspot.com/2010/12/independence-daybirthdaywedding.html

I picked up a few I've been putting off purchasing myself. The pdf version of his take on oldschool RPGs is available for the sale price too.

Poor Paris

Things are a little dead in Paris. Working away on my map for
No Man's Land - The Mutant Front. I'm keeping it relatively simple. I'm giving names for intact towns and cities but leaving the plague zones (like poor Paris) and ruins unlabeled for now and possibly forever. I'm going with stylized gaming iconography for the maps. Not sure if I want to include hex numbering or not, I may simply indicate hex coordinates on the border of the map.


(click for slightly larger image)

ElectroCannon-MK-1 (1st Draft)

for No Man's Land - Mutant Front



Electro-Cannon, Mk-1
Damage: 2d6 to 18d6 + special
Trigger Type: Manned Station
Normal Range: 400 ft
Maximum Range: 1200 ft
Wt: several tons
Shots/Battery: special
AC: 9
HP of Unit: 100 (each point of damage has a 1% chance of shutting down the device until fully repaired)
Complexity Class: 3

The Mk-1 Electro-Cannon is a huge device (up to 200' tall) that builds and delivers fearsome electrical charges capable of causing significant destruction at a distance. A MK-1 requires a special dedicated power station that must be powered up along with the weapon, it takes about 20 minutes to go from a cold start to being able to charge the weapon for effective use.
After the warm-up period each round of charging will allow a electrical bolt to be hurled at a target in range for 1d6 damage (minimum of 2 dice required for a discharge). Organic targets struck by the electrical bolt must make a save vs energy attack or be incapacitated for 10 minutes, mechanical-men and other automated electrical systems must make a save or be incapacitated for 1 minute per point of damage suffered.
Each firing of a Mk-1 Electro-Cannon reduces the total discharge capacity of the weapon. If charged to 16 dice and a 4 dice bolt is discharge 12 remain for additional firings. Once a bolt is discharged additional charges can not be added to the discharge capacity until all charges are expended and a cool-down period of 1 round per dice formerly charged is required. Ex: If a Mk-1 Electro-Cannon is charged up to 18 dice and fired in bolts totaling 18 dice in potential damage there is a cool-down period of 18 rounds required before the device may be charged again (leaving electro cannons somewhat vulnerable).
While Electro-Cannons are charging or holding a charge mechanical-men and aerodrones within 200' of the unit must make a save vs energy attack or they will be unable to function properly for that round (mechanical men will be helpless, aerodrones will go off course and are likely to crash).
Because of the electrical fields in action Mk-1 Electro Cannons may NOT be placed within 300' of each other.
Due to the nature of the operating station and firing controls hitting a man-sized target has a -2 penalty in addition to normal penalties.

No Man's Land - Mutant Front

This post over at The Land of Nod gave me a bug my gamer ADD couldn't ignore a Mutant Future campaign set in the setting of the Great War. So I did a little reading and map research and I'm working up a campaign map set in what would be the North-Western front of WW-I in our reality.

Here's a low-res sample of the map in progress at 10 miles to the hex:

The map is just rivers, "No Man's Land" and some railways for now.

It's a cool idea I just can't let drop: An unending Great War with mutants, weird-tech and gas-masks. Not sure if the war will be a raging, petered out to almost done or mostly over after chemical weapons, electro-cannons, heat rays and plague bombs have ravaged the world.

As time goes on I'll improve the map and likely have some companion posts for No Man's Land - The Mutant Front

Coin Sizes

It's an age old conversation in RPG land: How big are coins?

Well, good question. Lot's of games give us the handy answer of 10 coins to the pound which is sure handy for how much a coin weighs but just what size are those coins?

I was pondering that myself so I did a little research and looked up some math, probably got the math right and worked up some graphics to demonstrate the size of coins.

The rows of cubes for each metal show us what a bunch of 1cm cubes of copper, silver or gold would look like.

The three cubes to the upper right demonstrate how big a 1/10th pound cube of each metal is.

The rows of coins all copper, silver and gold show the relative size of coins. I have no reason why I picked a 38mm diameter for the fixed diameter 1/1oth lb coins, there is some math reason for this but it escapes me now while I'm posting.

The measurements were all done with almost 100% pure metals. Real world coins were hardly ever 100% pure so sizes would of course vary with the quality of the metal and the quality of the coining.


Click on the image to see the true to scale 72 dpi figure, where an inch is an inch and a cm is a cm.