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Showing posts from May, 2022

The Shire of Appleboro

      Today on the blog we will be looking at a place whose existence I proposed on Twitter.     Appleboro is a quaint little halfling settlement nestled in a small valley. It is a quiet place where the smells of wood smoke, baking, and gardening mingle with honey suckle and apple blossoms. It is a good place where the folk have made a prosperous living from the land.      There is a nice inn here called the Willow Bend Inn and Tavern, it is run by a human family who has lived around these parts for a few generations. Halfling burrows are the predominant structures hereabouts and the innkeepers are good enough folk.      Sheriff Amelia Lightfoot runs the town. She was elected by her fellow halflings and seems to be a fair upstanding woman with sandy blonde hair, an infectious smile, and a will made of iron as strong as the well worn short sword she carries at her hip.       The Willow Bend is the center of the community's prosperity. Jacob Prine and his family have lived in Applebo

Fate RPG: My Favorite Universal System

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     Fate is one of my favorite Tabletop Role-Playing Games. It is fun, versatile, and exciting. It is also hard as hell to get into and the explanations in the book are pretty lackluster. The way the text talks it sounds like this is a game so far removed from your average RPG that you have entered a world that must be experienced properly to be understood. This is not the case.     Fate is a universal system. It lets you play anything you like at any power level you like with minimal rules. In the book it says characters are: "Competent, proactive people who lead dramatic lives." This turned me off immediately because I don't like assuming that every character is this way. However, in retrospect, this is true of every character in every RPG I have ever played. Even in games where one plays as children, amateurs, or beginners in their craft the players can expect a reasonable chance of success of they attempt something. The situations in RPG's are often dramatic eve

Kentucky Bourbon Brainstorm

      My Twitter friend, Lex ( @titanomachy ), was asking about what kind of liquor would make for a good TTRPG. I responded with this: "Kentucky Bourbon. Families of Appalachian conjure folk warring and scheming over ancient hollers filled with magical secrets. Making deals with the fairy folk and dodging the coal companies that want to take away their homes." Thanks to their encouragement, here we are with me sharing my brainstorming process publicly because it might be interesting.     I will be creating this game using Fate Core rules and a few of the Fate Tool Kits. I want this to be a game that isn't too far removed from the Appalachia where I grew up. I was intimidated by the concept of doing this because Old Gods of Appalachia is already a thing both in podcast and TTRPG format and I was like: "Well hell, what can I do that hasn't been done?" Then I realized that was just a cop out. Any project that scares me is something I need to be doing. The fact

Let's Make a Fudge Character

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        Good morning all, today I am working on an idea for a Fudge game I would like to run. So let's look at what parts of the Fudge RPG system that I intend to use. I am skipping attributes because honestly, they don't do much unless you focus on them. Instead we are going to zero in on Skills, Gifts, and Faults. I use the Subjective Character Creation method because counting points bores me silly. Here is an example character: Zealia Bishop, vampire socialite.      Zealia is a beautiful blond lady with sad eyes and a gloomy demeanor, in life she was the promising wife of an up and coming businessman but after she killed him for his infidelity she met her sire who made her into a vampire in order to get access to the fortune she would inherit.  Let's Start with Zealia's Gifts Striking Looks- She is pretty and this gives her +1 to social rolls Charismatic- Another +1 to Social rolls Wealthy- She is still filthy rich thanks to her husband Daniel Bishop's fortune Va