What are you working on now?

[jarulf]

It's always fun to hear about what others are doing, or planning to do.

I have just started on a setting that I've had vague ideas about for a long time, but for some reason it seems they are starting to come together now. As I don't have a group to play with, I don't have any concrete plans for it, or a deadline but its fun and I may run it as a PbP sometime.

It's basically a city setting, on the coast by a river. Inland to the east is a semi-arid region with nomadic "bedouin" tribes and a high mountain range further away. North and south are similar coastal cities, rivals and allies while across the sea (which is a bit like the Baltic, only larger and less narrow at the inlet), is a mercantile empire reminiscent of the Attic League. Across the eastern mountains is Persian style empire with a dualistic religion. The Westerners have a Greco-Roman style religion but with a quickly growing monotheist sect, based on sun worship.
I haven't detailed any of that yet, so it's just working descriptions so
far.

The city (without a name as yet) is built around, on and inside a huge cliff, somewhat Petra-like. The lowest level is outside the base of the cliff, and holds the harbour, fishmarket, poorer areas and so on. The second level, which is only reached through a stepped tunnel in the cliff, holds the mansions of the wealthier families, temples and barracks. most houses on this level are both cut into the rock and a front built outside. Indeed, they have "front" doors at both ends, outside onto the plateau and inside cliff opening onto tunnels and indoor plazas.
The cliff itself is honeycombed with tunnels, residences, larger open areas, shops etc and is where the real life of the city takes place.

The top level, on top of the cliff holds a garden (pity the slaves who carry the water!) and the palace of the king or ruler.

The city was founded by seven tribes in the area long ago, the cliff may have had some religious significance to them, and the political, economic and religious life is still dominated by these seven tribes or clans. They each brought their patron god (modeled on animals, thus a toad god for death and rebirth, a wolf for hunting and war etc. suggestions welcome!) and the high priest of each cult is now a member of a special council. There is a great deal of scheming between the cults and between the council and the king. The different clans also control various trades and crafts, though none has a monopoly. As can be expected from an rpg setting, there is a constant wheeling and dealing going on with each family seeking the upper hand and trying to muscle in on the others' territory.

Magic is rare and without having seen the rules yet, I haven't decided on how to go about it. What I don't want is point-and-bang spells, I like magic for this setting to be almost exclusively of a ritual nature, i.e it takes hours or days to perform. I think there will be two basic types, one that mostly gives enhancements or penalties to skills, not too high but lasting for a day or two. Perhaps some mind influencing stuff as well.

The second kind is the summoning, control and mastery of spirits, elementals and demons. This is all very dangerous. I'm seriously considering having each summoning spell have a (possible) SAN cost. A friendly spirit ancestor wouldn't be hard on your mental health but a Azrosha demon could rip your soul to bits while it chewed on your legs.

I'm also entertaining the idea that demons and spirits can be integrated, giving the sorceror some aspect of their abilities or even increasing stats. The downside is that this really puts a strain on your SAN and that you are very likely to gain some bad stuff to, aka chaos features.
The cults may have ways of dealing with this, to some extent and the priests may have simple spirits or benevolent "demons" available for integration. I haven't though of the mechanics for this yet, but it would require very high skills (over 100%) to integrate demons.

[Jack Tar]

It is 1190 and the new King Richard has embarked on his Crusade to the Holy Land in order to take back Jeruselum. All who would join him are welcome and will surely gain fame and fortune in addition to Holy Favour. But this is Mythic Europe (ala Ars Magica) and all is not so simple......

The adverturers (my regular Tue. evening group), are on their way to join him. Led by the Lord of Old Sarum (a NPC), the rag-tag group consists of (in no particular order);

i) Steeplejack - Ordered to go on the Crusade and return the "Rope of the Crusifiction" which was used to raise the Cross. He was ordered by the local Abbot because of his mistake during the building of the new cathedral at Old Sarum. Due to his negligence, one of the bells being raised fell and crushed three men, one of which was his older brother. Expert in clumbing, grapling, stone masonry, construction, cudgle.

ii) Outlaw - A Saxon outcast who lives in the woods through woodsmanship and occasional thefts from the Normans. Tired of this day-by-day existance outside of society, he takes advantage of the Lord's amnesty to redeem himself. Either he'll find respectability and the right to return to civilised society, or he'll find death. Expert in bow, staff, sword, tracking, hunting.

iii) Soldier - One of the guards at Old Sarum, he longs for the love of one of the Ladys in Waiting. But she will not consider it while he is but a lowly guard. For her station, no less than the Leader of a Company will do. Thus, he follows King Richard to prove himself and find advancement through arms. Expert in Sword, polearm, shield.

iv) Leech - Disfigured at birth but born with the Gift, he lives among the normal folk apparently as a leech with significantly better than usual healing powers. In reality he is a Mage and member of the local Covanent centred in the cathedral at Old Sarum. He knows of the real threat that rises in the Holy Land and sets off to do what he can to protect all of Europe from it. But he will need help, so along the way he must seek out other Magicians and convince them of the doom comming from the East.

The band sets off with the Lord, together with a band of others (priests, nuns, soldiers, etc.), towards Portsmouth. But what power will try to stop them, even from leaving merry England's shores?........

[Charles Green]

I'm hip deep in composition on Fractured Hopes, my Space Fantasy book.

Right now, I'm working on the vehicle design and combat system. Since a very thorough look at this would take more room than I have in the entire book, I'm trying to keep it as simple as possible.

In this game, players are the crew of a Voidship, a vehicle fitting with a sorcery-powered engine that allows them to travel between tiny worlds that were all once part of the Earth. They can explore the ruins of Earth, evade space pirates, or try to figure out how to put Earth back together again.

[Sunwolfe]

...of roleplaying goodness at my house

I'm presently reading over the Zero Edition in a leisurely glass-of-wine-in-hand fashion, enjoying myself immensely and day-dreaming...ah, so many possibilities, so little time.

I'm also reading the RQIVAiG, the game-that-wasn't, and imagining the possibilities there.

I'm working on a version of the BRP character sheet, information, font, set-up, for our games here in wet and rainy Riverbank, California

After a heartbreaking theft (never, ever, even accidentally, and "...only for a minute..." leave your lap-top w/external hard drive and jump drives in your car…even in your own driveway), I've devoted most of the time I reserve for gaming to organizing my game world: all the notes, manuscripts, diagrams, drawings, stories, maps and information pertaining to my game setting from the last 30 plus years and prepping them for a mass delivery to the Library of Congress for a copyright. I know it won't bring back all that I have lost, but it makes me feel better.

I have seen the light

Hmmm, what else...ah, oh yes, reading what you fonts-of-wisdom have to post and enjoying myself heartily

Cheers,
Sunwolfe

[Atgxtg]

Current projects:

1) BRP Old West stuff

2) BRP Vehicle Quite Write UP rules

3) BRP Vehicle Modfication rules

4) BRP Vehicle Design System

5) BRP Space:1999 setting

6) EABA Space:1999 setting

7) Star Trek for SotC

Probably something else that I forgot about.

[Ars Mysteriorum]

I'm currently running a small group through Warhammer FRP's Paths of the Damned campaign.

Here's the lineup of characters:

Arabella "Bella" Tabbeck: Human Apprentice Wizardess who aspires to become a Druid of the Jade Order, or the Order of Life, and help those in need. She is no stranger to combat and has used her quarter staff to great effect against mutants by forcing them off a bridge to be impaled on the rocks below.

Pippriadoc "Pippit" Knickerbocker: An incredibly charming Halfling Thief who carries about etchings of flying squirrels as proof of their existence. Pippit's knowledge on the topic of flying squirrels has won him sponsorship and quartering to educate a noble in the biological mechanics of how exactly a squirrel can fly. His famous maneuver is hunching down behind a mutant so Nicodemus could more easily push his foe over the edge of a bridge to join his comrade in death.

Nicodemus Falkenheim: An initiate of Morr, God of the Dead, from Sylvania who is training to become a warrior-priest, join the Black Guard, and strike back at the undead which lord over his homeland. He wields two blades and intimidates his opponents by chanting their death rites as he engages them.

They're about to enter the sewers beneath the city of Middenheim and face off against legendary horrors that are not supposed to exist to solve a case of murder.

[Trifletraxor]

Houseruling a combat system and skill rules to work with the new system.

SGL.

[Zane]

My two primary projects:

1. Expanding the Call of Cthulhu 5.6 weapons tables to include the extra columns in Basic Roleplaying.

2. My Call of Cthulhu Campaign set in Boston in 1919.

Additional projects when I can find the time:

3. An Article for Empire of the Petal Throne (it is not specific to any game system). This is almost done.

4. A Secret Agent genre Pulp setting. The basic setting is in place, still needs some work.

5. A cold war inspired West vs. Neo-Soviet Sci-Fi setting. The basic setting is in place, but needs a lot of work to flesh it out.

6. A Doctor Who BRP conversion. Needs a lot of work, largely based on the FASA RPG, with some inspiration from the "Time Lord" RPG (I actually own a print copy).

Only in the most basic of planning stages:

7. Aircraft oriented Pulp setting

8. A Sci-Fi setting, this is actually going to get bumped up to a primary project, as it looks like it will be run occasionally when the one player isn't available for my main campaign (currently the Boston 1919 CoC campaign). I'm looking for ideas, the ruleset will be BRP. Current ideas include Stargate SG1, Serenity, or some kind of Space Opera setting. It needs to be something that interests both me and the two people playing. Of course if it is Stargate, we're likely to have my 4 year old wanting to play. It won't be #5 though.

9. Heroic Pulp setting

[threedeesix]

Originally Posted by Atgxtg

Current projects:

1) BRP Old West stuff

2) BRP Vehicle Quite Write UP rules

3) BRP Vehicle Modfication rules

4) BRP Vehicle Design System

5) BRP Space:1999 setting

6) EABA Space:1999 setting

7) Star Trek for SotC

Probably something else that I forgot about.

While i'm interested in all the projects on your list I'm VERY interested in
the BRP Space 1999 setting. Keep me posted.

Rod Leary

[threedeesix]

I have a website I want to get running that is going to be a BRP
conversion database with characters from film, comics, novels,
etc all converted with setting information.

Character Conversions for...

The Micronauts (Marvel Comics)
Selene and Michael (Underworld Movie)
Sky Captain and Polly (the girl and the plane) (Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow Movie)
Electra Woman and Dyna Girl (1970's Saturday morning TV show)
Isis (1970s TV show)
and many more

Setting conversions for...

Basic Dungeons and Dragons Mystara setting
Star Frontiers
Fallout Computer Game (My brothers conversion)
Warhammer Fantasy (Mostly notes)

I continue to convert/adapt new stuff every few days.

Rodney Leary