They’re some handy tables for generating various physical characteristics and behavioural traits of NPCs on the fly or during prep all contained on a single page. Choose results or roll once for each column. She didn’t design it to make coherent NPCs by reading across the rows, but I think you can get some pretty interesting ones by doing that too.

When rolling, for the large table roll a d6 twice and check the results in order, or roll two different coloured d6s. For the d8 tables, if you happen to have only a d6 handy you can just use that, as the results that a 7 or 8 would bring can easily be ignored as they are the least common.

Also, some results have a few choices, sometimes as opposites or alternatives (hairy/hairless) and sometimes to just give a little more choice (bandaged/stitched). When you get a result like this, choose whichever you like best or whatever seems most appropriate.

If you don’t like a result or it doesn’t make sense with something else you’ve already rolled, simply re-roll or choose something else.

I hope you enjoy this gift as much as I have.

Life has run away on me this year, but I have finally managed to complete the fantasy newspaper I promised as my contribution for I Am Your Champion. I had some interest, but few donations, and that’s fine. I had fun making it and I hope those who donated to my charity are happy with the result. This isn’t just for them though, it’s a free download for everyone. I’ve made a parchment version and a print-friendly version. I hope you enjoy this and get some use out of it

Game masters can the newspaper for hooks, NPCs, adventures and worldbuilding or even just as a source of random rumours, information and goings-on. I think the best use for it, though, is for GMs to read it, think about it, then next time the PCs are in a tavern tell them “Someone’s left a newsletter on your table. It looks like this…” and then just give them the handout. I love doing this sort of thing in game and I hope you’ll enjoy my attempt at a fantasy newspaper, inspired by a thoughtful present my wife and friends made for me a few years ago.

If I get enough interest I might just make another issue. Enjoy

This year, I have released a free character pack with three pre-generated zillas for you and your friends to take to town. This is the ‘Classic Character Pack’ and it isn’t hard to see the inspiration behind Thoron, the giant lizard with atomic breath, Leoptra, an enormous psychic moth, and Kapparo, a gargantuan magma-infused tortoise.

Download the classic character pack for free. If you don’t yet have the game itself, download ZILLA! for free too.

Happy Free RPG Day, everyone!

The Pool is explained pretty well here with a few ideas for tweaking the game. I prefer Anti-Pool, myself. Both are dead simple and can be used for any genre. I play Anti-Pool with my wife in the car, it’s so simple.

Risus: The Anything RPG is a short comedic RPG with Aspect-like “clichés” and an easy to learn rule set. If you want to make it more serious, try the Serious Risus supplement.

Wheel of Fate is my new go-to game for on-the-go play. It’s got a bit more to it than The Pool, but it it is still only 8 pages long and does everything I want in a setting-less, genre-less rules-light game. Well, almost everything. There’s no advancement rules, but the ones from Wheel of Exalted Fate (last page of the document) fit perfectly. It’s well worth signing up to the Yahoo! Group to download Wheel of Fate and other FATE tweaks.

Otherkind is a cool game by Vincent Baker (Dogs in the Vineyard, Apocalypse World) about the fey. It has a sleek dice mechanic that has been the basis for other games.

GHOST/ECHO is one of those games based on Otherkind dice. It’s by John Harper, one of the best in the industry. It’s an “oracle game” in that it implies the setting, gives you the tools you need and sets you loose to interpret and create the world and adventures how your group sees fit.

The Wildlings is another John Harper game, this time with a setting and premise inspired by Penny Arcade’s Lookouts. It’s great for kids but I think it’s good for adults too. I wrote a game with rules inspired by The Wildlings and we all had great fun with it. Wildlings is simple but elegant and the PDF itself is very beautiful.

The Shadow of Yesterday is a fascinating fantasy setting with a great rules set, including some great mechanics linked to character and story activities such as your dice pools being refreshed by in-fiction actions, not the end of a session or similar; it links roleplaying and interaction to mechanical benefits in a very clever way. I’ve yet to play it, but it reads very well and makes me very keen to run it. Clinton R. Nixon created this game and it has gained a great deal of popularity.

Lady Blackbird is another game with a great implied setting (in fact, Ryan Macklin recently wrote on the subject) and fans of Firefly should be particularly interested. Lady Blackbird is yet another of John Harper’s game. It won the 2010 RPG Golden Geek award for Best Free Game and also won an Ennie that same year for Best Free Product. The game is beautiful, sleek and a great hybrid of the best bits of several rules sets (including The Pool and The Shadow of Yesterday), all in a beautiful pick-up-and-play package.

The Mustang is a short-form game (by, you guessed it, John Harper) that is about a very specific situation and a handful of characters. It’s an interesting idea and a good focus on character interaction.

44: A Game of Automatic Fear was a nominee for the 2010 RPG Golden Geek award and it’s website describes it as a suspense and horror role-playing game designed for single sessions with very little preparation required. It’s a great game for busy players looking for a one-shot session. Again, I haven’t played this one but it’s right up there on my list.

Nine Worlds: A Game of Cosmic Drama is another one I haven’t played, so I’ll let the text do the talking: “Modern-day fantasy meets Greek myth in this unique role-playing game. Nine Worlds is ideal for players looking to create exciting, magical drama. This game provides players the tools to create incredible stories set in a universe full of magic, myth, tragedy, and redemption. Players portray Archons—mortal humans caught in a cosmic cold war between the Greek Gods and Titans. The game master guides them among the Nine Worlds, testing their loyalties or tempting them towards rebellion. Will your Archon support the immortal rulers of the universe? Or, will your Archon break their laws and help shape a new reality? Features: Innovative playing card mechanics, rich history & survey of the Nine Worlds, quick and easy character creation, advice for players on creating great stories.

Hell for Leather is another I haven’t had a chance to run: a darkly gory game of pursuit and savage violence. In the Standard Setting, play as contestants on the world’s bloodiest gameshow and struggle for gruesome survival! Or customise the game during-play! Features: No GM – all the players are in charge of the story; no prep – like a board game, you set it up together; customisable – create a new setting (like Pulp Explorers, Ancient Rome or the French Wars of Religion) during play!

ZILLA! is my first attempt at game design. I released it last year for Free RPG Day. It’s a game about kaiju, or Godzilla-like monsters. I describe it as a game of destruction, mayhem and love. I was inspired by the idea that these giant monsters, like King Kong, are very destructive, but are prone to falling in love with or developing relationships with humans. Heavily influenced by John Harper’s GHOST/ECHO and The Wildlings, I’ve run a few games of ZILLA! and we all had a blast. It’s a lot of fun and very simple to just play. For Free RPG Day this year, I’m releasing a free character pack for the game. It’s easy to make your own, but these will get you started.

A Terrible Idea has come out with another great idea. I Am Your Champion is a game/challenge played in five rounds that will challenge your existing ideas regarding charitable fundraising. Basically, you choose a charity and support it, but it’s more like you use your creativity to provide rewards or thank you gifts to those who contribute to your charity. Jump over to the website to catch up on the requirements for each round. It’s not too late to join in! I’m participating, and this post is me announcing myself, my cause, my goal and my reward.

Act for Peace, I am your Champion!

Act for Peace empowers war-torn communities to reduce poverty, protect refugees and prevent further conflict. Our project partners are currently assisting more than one million people in many of the world’s worst conflict-affected areas, including Sudan, Somalia, Zimbabwe, the Middle East, Burma and Sri Lanka.

Act for Peace is a member of the global Action by Churches Together (ACT) Alliance which works in more than 125 countries worldwide enabling us to respond immediately and effectively to emergency situations as they occur.

Act for Peace is the international aid agency of the National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA). Act for Peace provides aid to those affected by emergencies and disasters like the Pakistan Floods and Haiti Earthquake. They are also involved in a lot of great advocacy and campaigns including Act for Disarmament, Make Poverty History, The Robin Hood Tax, Act for Peace in Palestine & Israel, and the Micah Challenge.

Goals & Rewards

So, here’s what I’m creating to support Act for Peace. I’m going to make a broadsheet or newspaper for use in fantasy roleplaying games. Rather than a few longer articles, it will have several short ones, kind of like a classifieds section. Each ‘article’ will be about an adventure hook or an item, person, location, or the like. GMs can use these as inspiration, or the broadsheet can be printed out and handed to players, telling their characters “You find this broadsheet in the tavern” and then letting them go wild, following or investigating whichever articles they choose. I’ll be creating the broadsheet as if it exists in a fantasy world. It will resemble a short newspaper.

Even if nobody donates I’m going to release the broadsheet in PDF format for free under the Creative Commons. So everyone gets that, but for those who donate here are the thank you gifts or rewards I’m offering:

• Donate $5 and I will use your name in an article.
  • The article won’t be about your namesake, but will mention them. For example, in an article about bandit raids it might say “Gary, a local resident, was quoted as saying…” or in one about a recent dragon attack “Among the victims of the tragic dragon rampage was a local scribe, Mr. Gygax”.
  • UPDATE: Alternatively, for $5 you can have your dead character listed in the obituaries as someone to mourn for and remember. This will be a list of character names, with no additional details. If you want more, see the $10 level.
• Donate $10 and I will use your name in an article as the focus of the article.
  • Your namesake might be a wanted criminal, a merchant advertising their new store, an explorer looking for help on an expedition, a local lord offering a reward for information about his daughter, a retired hero (Sir Gygax!) looking for new blood to settle an old score, and so on. At the $10 level, feel free to give me an idea of how you’d like your name used and I’ll see what I can do.
  • UPDATE: Alternatively, for $10 your character will get their own individual obituary. Email me with their name, some great deeds they would have wanted to be remembered for, and how they died. Or, for $10 you can write in a question to the newspaper’s advice column and have it answered.
• Donate $15 and I will use your name in an article as part of an adventure location or artefact name.
  • Your name will also be included in bold as part of the title of the article. For example, GYGAX PEAK: A NATURALIST’S NIGHTMARE or WANTED: THE GLAIVE OF GYGAX. The article will then go on, focused on that location or artefact, and perhaps an NPC of the same name. Like at the $10 level, feel free to give me some direction here.
  • UPDATE: If you wish, I’ll throw in an obituary or advice column answer from the $10 level here too, as a bonus.
• Donate $20 and you will receive the same reward as at the $15 level, but I will also add a little sketch to the article.
  • Sketches will be of things like a quick map of the location, an adventurer’s drawing of the artefact they claim they saw, or something similar. Again, happy to be given some direction on what you’d like me to do here.
  • UPDATE: If you wish, I’ll throw in an obituary or advice column answer from the $10 level here too, as a bonus.
• Donate $25 or more and I will write a longer article with all the rewards of the $20 level or I will write a number of shorter articles on a theme of your choosing.
  • So, I could write a few articles about an adventure location of your choice, or if you like plagues I could write a few articles focusing on a plague that has ravaged the land. That kind of stuff. I’m willing to discuss it with you and offer something more. At this level, I’m happy to do a fair bit.
  • UPDATE: If you wish, I’ll throw in an obituary or advice column answer from the $10 level here too, as a bonus. Or you can ask me for something similar. You might have some other idea, and for $25 I’m very happy to listen.

I’ve referred to “your name” in the rewards above, but if you want me to use the name of a character you have or the name of one of your friends or something, just let me know.

I Challenge You! Dare to Donate.

I’m making this broadsheet even if I don’t get any donations. When it’s released will depend on how much interest I get. I want to give people a chance to donate and let this get out there for a while. I’ll definitely keep you updated though.

So, will you accept my challenge? Donate to Act for Peace. Help them help those in need. It’s a great cause and they deserve your support. But as thanks from me, you will also receive the corresponding award above. Simple as that.

There are two ways to donate.

Way 1

Click here to donate now. Follow that link and donate to whichever Act for Peace appeal you prefer. Once you’re done, you’ll get an email receipt. Forward the receipt to pyresofvam@gmail.com with the subject “I Am Your Champion – Act for Peace”.

I’ll only be using the receipt to confirm your payment and amount, but if you don’t want to delete any personal details (like your home address) that’s fine. In the email also tell me what reward you want at your donation level, what name you want me to use in the broadsheet and any other relevant details for the higher levels of donations.

Way 2

Some people were having trouble using donating through the Act for Peace website, possibly because the donors were not in Australia. So, I’ve set up a PayPal donate button. I’m not sure how much extra it’ll try to charge you, I think it’ll be about 50 cents for a donation of 5 Aussie dollars. If anyone uses it, I’d be keen to know the real numbers (I can’t really test this myself). If you don’t want to pay the extra charge, I can foot the bill for you. Make sure to also tell me what name you want used in the article and any other relevant details. You can do that in the additional info box or by email.

Here’s the donate button:

If you have any questions before or after donating, or if you have any trouble donating, shoot me an email at pyresofvam@gmail.com or just ask in the comments below. And if you do donate, be sure to speak up in the comments and let people know how awesome you are!

I’m excited about being a Champion and I hope you take up my cause and support Act for Peace.

Emergency services are inundated with calls that they terminate because they appear to be pranks or non-emergencies. Stuff about aliens and werewolves. That kind of thing.

That’s where Hang Ups comes in.

They’re an independent (and not technically legal) group that intercepts these abandoned calls and sifts through them for seeds of truth. Armed with their knowledge of the paranormal, they respond to potentially legitimate calls to help those that the authorities ignore.

Getting the Call

GM: “Okay, so it’s Joe’s turn to be the Operator this week”

Joe: “Sweet! Okay, I’m on the couch, kicking back with the headphones on”

GM: “Alright. Montage time. The calls are rolling in. There’s the usually junk, but a few perk your interest…”

[GM looks around the table for anyone with an idea. Clara puts her fingers to the side of her head like she's on a phone.]

GM: “Emergency services. What is your emergency?”

Clara: “Uh… hi. Um… there’s something outside my house making these weird noises”.

GM: “Could you describe the noises?”

Clara: “Yeah… like, um… growls. But they don’t sound right.”

GM: “What do they sound like?”

Clara: “I don’t know… it’s not a dog, I don’t think. Maybe a bear? But it sounds sick or something. I can hear it moving in the bushes! My neighbour, he’s been working late nights on something in his garage. I see smoke and light and stuff coming from there and sometimes I hear animal noises. Wait… there it is again! Please send someone, quick!”

GM: *click* [Hangs up]

Joe: “Ooh, is he making a monster? Hmm…”

GM: “Emergency services. What is your emergency?”

Gavin: “Yo, dude. Dude! They’re, like… everywhere, man! Seriously!”

GM: “Sir, could you please explain the nature of your emergency”

Gavin: “Everywhere, man. All these… like… cocoon things, you know? Some nights they’re there. Some night’s they’re not. They’re there now, though. They glow and stuff. Oh… no way! No way! Some of them are hatching or something! What the hell is that!? Dude, you gotta get someone over here! Hello?”

GM: *click* [Hangs up]

Joe: “Haha, these are great!”

GM: “Emergency services. What is your emergency?”

Beth: “They’re in the computer!”

GM: “Madam, could you please explain the nature of your emergency”

Beth: “Beings… of electricity. I see them, crackling. It’s stormy tonight. That’s when they come out. It’s like… glitches in the computer screen. But also, my lights go on and off. Uncle Mort says it reminds him of something, the way it flickers. He’s been having dreams, he says, in the storms. My phone rings and I hear crackling. I feel like they’re watching me. I just got home and saw my lights flicking on and off. I can’t find Mr. Fluffy… what’s that burning smell?”

GM: *click* [Hangs up]

Joe: “Awesome, guys. I think I’m gonna go with cocoons. I wanna know what’s hatching out of there!”

Gavin: “Yes!”

Clara: “Cool. I liked that one too!”

Beth: “Aww, we’ll have to wait till some other time to find out if Mr. Fluffy is okay. I’m in though. Sounds good!”

GM: “Please hold, you are being transferred to Special Priority Emergency Services Unit”

Joe: “Special Priority Emergency Services Unit. Sir, could you tell us more about these cocoons?”

Gavin: “Yeah, no worries, man. You really gotta see this…”

[Here, we 'fade to black'. It's assumed that the caller keeps explaining what little he knows about the situation, but it's the GM's job to come up with these details on the fly to keep the players excited and guessing. That's half the fun for everyone: players make the seed of the story and the GM improvises as the game progress.]

Answering the Call

After you get the call, you respond. Here is where the real fun begins. Who knows how legitimate the call is? Can it be explained with science? Is it really something supernatural? Will the real authorities end up on the scene too, having never heard of this ‘Special Priority Emergency Services Unit’? Is the threat a physical danger? Can the Hang Ups take it down with whatever weapons and tools they legally (or not) have managed to get their hands on?

Most importantly, how are they going to get paid, this time? Are they going to ask for a ‘call out fee’? Will they take something valuable as ‘evidence’? Will they admit that they’re a group of vigilantes who need to keep food on their table?

Once the mission is done, the Hang Ups head back to base, swap Operators and do it all again.

When I present this to my players, I’ll explain most of this as we go. But to get them excited for, it I made this one-page PDF flyer. Feel free to use it with your own group.

If you know of a system that’d be good for Hang Ups, or if you give it a shot, feel free to chime in below. I’d love to hear any other comments too or potential calls. I think I hear the phone ringing…

Instead, when we went to advance her character again we decided to try ditching Hindrances and Edges and incorporating Aspects, from FATE-based games like Spirit of the Century and The Dresden Files RPG. Now, I know this may be blasphemy to some, but we wanted to give it a shot. I’ve read a lot about SotC and DRPG, but haven’t yet had the chance to run either, so this was also like a test-run for using Aspects.

Below are my house rules for adding Aspects to Savage Worlds. I took a lot of inspiration for these house rules from posts here, here and from Strands of Fate, here.

Savage Aspects

• Remove all hindrances and edges or use the same names, but treat them as aspects.^[1]
• During character creation, every character receives 5-10 Aspects.
• Each session, players start with 5 Bennies, no matter how many they ended last session with.
• Bennies can only be used in the following ways:
  • Gain a Bonus – A benny can be spent to add 1 to any roll of the dice (except damage)
  • Invoke an Aspect – If appropriate, an aspect can be invoked, allowing the player to:
    – Re-roll all the dice just rolled, using the new result, or
    – Add 2 to the final die roll (after any re-rolls have been done).
  • Tag an Aspect – A benny can be spent to invoke an aspect other than the characters’ (this could be an aspect on another character, the environment, a weapon, or other things of dramatic importance)
  • Make a Declaration – A benny can be spent to declare a fact. If the GM accepts it, it will be true.
• Bennies can only be earned through accepting compels. The GM can compel one of the character’s aspects by offering the player a choice: the player can act in accordance with the aspect to gain a benny, or the player can spend a benny to ignore the aspect. The only other way to gain bennies is through the refresh to 5 bennies at the start of each session.
• Persistent Aspects are aspects that are “free-taggable”, are considered “always on” and cover such things as deep darkness and taking cover. Aspects like these impact so heavily on a situation that they are considered always in effect and bennies do not need to be spent to invoke such aspects.^[2]

Notes:

[1]  Alternatively, remove all hindrances and edges that do not give a mechanical benefit or penalty, and those that only give +2 or -2. If you wish to use such hindrances or edges, treat them as aspects. Also treat those hindrances and edges that remain as aspects. For example, someone who is Filthy Rich receives extra funds, but also has Filthy Rich as an aspect. The Lucky aspect should not grant an extra benny.

[2] Persistent aspects in Savage Worlds may add more or less than +2 to a roll depending on the situation. For instance, invoking Dim Light gives a +1 to Stealth checks, while invoking Pitch Darkness gives a +4 to Stealth Checks. Persistent aspects can also be invoked by the GM. For instance, if a PC is attempting stealth while running, the Running persistent aspect should be invoked by the GM to grant +2 to opposing Notice checks (mechanically equal to granting a -2 penalty to the PC’s Stealth checks).

So, those are the rules we’ve started using. It’s only been a few sessions so far, but the aspects have been invoked and compelled a lot more than the hindrances and edges were ever used. Furthermore, the aspects say a lot more about the character and what the player wants from the game and story. It’s working for us so far. She has aspects like “But I’m Pregnant!”, Skin of My Teeth, Black Sheep of the Noble Merricks, and Tough & Sexy. We’re getting a lot out of them, so far.

I want to now talk a little bit about the removal of Hindrances and Edges and give some explanation about the Persistent Aspects. Hindrances and Edges are fairly well linked into Savage Worlds, but I think they are pretty easily ignored, too. I’ve never found a problem with not using them.

I favour stripping out the entire sub-system and replacing it with Aspects, rather than keeping some of the aspects there. If you do that, you get things like the Filthy Rich aspect granting you extra funds and working just like a normal aspect. It’s not game breaking, but it certainly could be seen as a much more advantageous aspect than others.

Persistent Aspects are an idea I only encountered recently, in Strands of Fate. I searched for and discovered the idea after running into a problem early on. In our game, my wife’s character has a shadow demon inside her. It’s powers only work when in the dark. She also sneaks around in shadow a lot now. She asked me whether she had to spend a benny every time she rolled to get the benefit of the darkenss.

Now the answer is, not really. If she rolled high enough, she wouldn’t need to spend a benny. But if she didn’t roll high enough, then, yes, she’d have to spend a benny so that the darkness would shroud her from view. We both found this very jarring, especially for this character.

I like the idea of persistent aspects and feel like it gives you something to play around with. If she’s fighting pirates during the “Darkest Hour of Night” on a “Stormy Sea” then every PC and NPC is going to be able to tag, invoke those aspects, as well as have them compelled against them. To me, that makes a lot more sense for the way we like to game. Rather than the pitch darkness and thrashing sea only impacting on the characters when they spend points to make it so.

That said, I’ve never played a FATE-based game before, so I might be missing something. In our current Savage Worlds game, persistent aspects make the most sense for us, so we’re giving them a shot. So far, so good.

I like the idea, too, of having a pile of bennies in the middle of the table for players to gift each other (like Primetime Adventures’ Fan Mail), but in a one-on-one game that’s irrelevant, so I haven’t done that yet.

We’ll keep playing using this system and I’ll update you on how it works out (or doesn’t) including any tweaks we add to the system.

If you’d like an offline copy of these house rules, you can download a PDF here.

Savage Worlds licensing information can be found here.