Weirdhammer Science Fantasy Roleplay

BOOKS USED
Mutant Future
Warhammer Fantasy 1st edition

OPTIONAL BUT COOL
Necromunda
Realms of Chaos
WH 40K: Rogue Trader

CREATING A CHARACTER

~ The Mutant Future stuff ~

1. Roll 3d6 for each ability, in order. ( MF page 10 )

2. Choose race. ( MF page 11 )

--> Human (+3 to CHA, INT and CON)

--> Mutant / Psyker

--> Beastigor ( Mutant Animal )

3. Roll 2d4 for number of mutations. ( MF page 21 )

--> Psyker Mutants may choose two mental mutations to represent the focus of their wyrd powers.

--> Bestigors may choose two physical mutations to represent what kind of animal breed they are.

--> Roll remaining mutations randomly. Choose to roll each on either physical or mental mutation tables.

~ The Warhammer stuff ~

Each of the Mutant Future races will count as specific Warhammer races for rolling on the skill and career tables, thusly:

--> Humans always count as humans.

--> Mutants may count as humans, elves, dwarves or halflings.

--> Beastigors will be described as predator, herbivore or scavenger.

----> Predators count as elves.

----> Herbivores count as halflings.

----> Scavengers count as dwarves.

1. Choose a career class. Ignore ability restrictions. ( WH page 16 )

--> Warrior

--> Ranger

--> Rogue

--> Academic

2. Roll 1d4 starting skills. Ignore age modifier and mandatory skills.

 ( WH page 17 )

3. Roll or pick basic career. ( WH page 18 )

4. Determine hit points as per Mutant Future.

5. Record trappings and roll 3d8x10 for gold. ( WH page 18 )

A Note on Magic

Magic is weird.

Option A: Use the Warhammer magic rules with saving throws or ability rolls from Mutant Future.

Option B: Do not use magic. Instead, give the magic user types some bonuses to use weird technology.

Option C: Treat magic similar to spells in Call of Cthulhu. The characters may know the theories behind magic, but it is dangerous and unpredictable. You could even say it's chaotic.

So what do skills do, then?

When a character tries to do something involving a skill or special talent they have, they won't completely suck at it.

Character Advancement

Use the career advancement system from Warhammer.
--> Each attribute bonus from Warhammer converts into a +1 attribute bonus to the Mutant Future attribute listed below.
--> New skills, talents and new careers are handled in Warhammer.
---> Optional: Find a way to use special talents from Necromunda.

Warhammer Ability  =  Mutant Future Ability
Move = Speed
Weapon Skill = Melee Bonus
Ballistic Skill = Ranged Bonus
Strength = STR
Toughness = CON
Wounds = Hit Dice
Initiative = Initiative
Attacks = Attacks
Dexterity = DEX
Leadership = CHA
Intelligence = INT
Cool = WIL
Willpower = WIL
Fellowship = CHA

Weapons. Combat. Critical Hits.

Use rules from Mutant Future for weapons, equipment, combat.

When a character reaches zero hit points,  make sure you use the Warhammer critical hit charts so things get all grim and gory.

There shall be mud and blood and skulls shall be shattered.

JOHN BLANCHE

Thank you.

Calling All Road Warriors, Wastelanders and Mutant Dregs

Do you have a Gamma World, Mutant Future or other post apoc RPG blog or website? Old school or new and shiny.
Or maybe you have favorite websites with art, fiction or science news that might serve as inspiration for these games.
Please tell me about them and provide some links.
I'm going to create an index on my blog and on G+.

2012 Was Expensive...

Because I bought so many damn games!

I took a whole bunch of pictures of the stuff I bought last year and this post was going to look SO PRETTY!
But somehow I deleted them all and that dream died on the rocks.

So here is a list of some games I bought, or the ones I can remember right now, in no particular order.
Some of them look to be useful for the campaign I'm currently working on, others for the RPG I'm writing.

I may review some of them at some point this year. If anyone has any questions or any requests for more detailed information, please let me know what interests you and I'll create a crazy conglomeration of crap that will KNOCK YOUR SOCKS OFF, BABY!! YEAH!!!

Too much coffee.

Basic and Expert D&D boxed sets, Erol Otus art
Marvel Superheroes 1st edition, TSR
Gamma World 1st edition boxed set
Compleat Alchemist and Adventurer
Arcanum and Bestiary
Warhammer 1st edition hardback
Warhammer City
Stormbringer GW hardback
Judge Dredd GW hardback
Starblazer Adventures
Legends of Anglerre
Kerebos Club
Pandamonium
Fantasy Gamer's Compendium
Gamma World D&D 4th edition (Which is actually Gamma World 7th edition, if you know what I mean.)
Chill 2nd edition
Dungeon Crawl Classics
Warmachine/ Hordes
Iron Kingdoms
MYSTERY MEN! (Hi +John Stater)

Weird West (Hi +Stuart Robertson)

That's about all I can recall right now.
Who wants to play what?

New Mutant Future Monster: Observer

Here's a new mysterious mutation for your Mutant Future adventures.

Observer

No. Enc.:  1d2 (1d3+1)

Alignment:  Neutral

Movement:  120' (40')

Armor Class:  5

Hit Dice:  8

Attacks:  1

Damage:  by weapon

Save:  L8

Morale:  9

Hoard Class:  III, IV, IX, XXI

XP:  4060

Observers are alien humanoids from some other strange dimension. They appear to be visiting Earth to perform scientific and behavioral experiments on any seemingly random various lifeform that may pique their interest.

Often they will simply appear via teleport and silently watch events unfolding before them.

At other times they will use their empathy mutation to manipulate emotions to instigate fights or other situations they find interesting.

If two or more observers are encountered, they may attempt to possess other lifeforms bodies from a hidden location while using their damage turning mutation simultaneously.

They will then join in combat using the possessed bodies, testing their physical capabilities and limits, but always relinquishing control before death.

Observers rarely communicate with what they consider to be lesser beings. If they do, they never speak, preferring to use their neural telepathy instead.

Mutations: Damage Turning (Only during Possession use), Empathy, Force Screen, Neural Telepathy, Plane Shift, Possession, Teleport

New Labyrinth Lord Monster: Web Witch

Here's a new monster for your Labyrinth Lord or other OSR adventures!

Web Witch

No. Enc.:  1d4 (2d12)

Alignment:  Chaotic

Movement:  60' (20')

       Climb:   120' (40')

Armor Class:  5

Hit Dice:  3+2

Attacks:  1

Damage:  1d6 or weapon

Save:  E3

Morale:  8

Hoard Class:  XVIII

XP:  135

Web witches are evil female elves that have made soul binding pacts with infernal powers.

In addition to all the normal abilities of an elf, they can also climb any surface like a spider and cast a web spell every four rounds.

Many web witches keep giant black widow spiders as pets.

Monstrous Mutated Monday: Noose Golem, Gundroid

Two new monsters presented for your approval:
the Noose Golem for Labyrinth Lord and the Gundroid for Mutant Future.

Please see The Other Side Blog for details on Monstrous Mondays
and The Savage After World Blog for Mutated Mondays.

Noose Golem

No. Enc.:  1d4 (1d4)

Alignment:  Chaotic

Movement:  60' (20')

Armor Class:  3

Hit Dice:  5

Attacks:  5 (nooses)

Damage:  1d4 (per noose)

Save:  F5

Morale:  12

Hoard Class:  None

XP:  800           

Noose Golems are often created as assassins by evil magic-users. They have all the special attributes of both golems and undead, meaning they may move silently and are immune to mind effecting spells such as hold, charm or sleep. They can be turned as undead, however.

They may attack five separate victims up to ten feet away. Their nooses choke victims when they successfully attack, and deal 1d4 hit points of damage each per successive round. For each noose that is choking a victim, the victim suffers a cumulative attack penalty of -1.

A noose can be cut off if a total of 6 hit points or more is dealt with one blow.

Blunt weapons will only do half damage to a noose golem.

Gundroid

Hit Dice:  50

Frame:  Armature

Locomotion:  Treads

Manipulators:  None

Armor:  Reactive (AC 1)

Sensors:  Class VI

Mental Programming:  Programming

Accessories:  Weapon Mounts (7), X-Ray Sensors, Self-destruct System

Weaponry:  Arm Mounted Maser Rifles (4), Arm Mounted Stun Pistols (2), Head Mounted X-Laser Rifle

DIY. Reskinning. Gameshaping.

As usual, I'm late in joining the conversation. Which conversation?
The Glories of Incoherence by James Maliszewski back in 2008 B.G. (Before Grognardia)

I found this topic while doing research on an adventure I'm writing. Basically I was looking for ways to describe D&D as sort of a recipe that that DM can use as a basis while still being able to throw in their own flavors from their genre of choice. But how far do you go with alterations?

Specifically, at what point do you need to make up a whole new class or monster?
Would it be easier to take an existing idea and just tweak one or two things?

Here are some quotes from Mr. Maliszewski:

"...1E never attempted to explain the Ranger and its jumble of abilities. Why are Rangers spellcasters at all? Why are they good at scrying (besides the Aragorn/Palantir thing)? As a kid, I found the Ranger simultaneously intriguing and baffling. He clearly wasn't Aragorn but neither was he Robin Hood. Who the heck was the Ranger? Like the Monk, the Ranger seemed odd and so I was forced to find a way to make sense of its seeming incoherence. I eventually came to some conclusions and ran with them and had a lot of fun doing so. Rangers, to this day, remain one of my favorite classes, despite -- or perhaps because of -- their weird mish-mash of abilities."

So how about this scenario: A player is making up a thief character. He tells the DM he wants the character to be a sort of aborigine, a member of a primitive society somewhere.
So he won't have the lock-picking skill because he has had no exposure to that kind of technology.
Should it be left at that? Does a whole new class have to be created?
Perhaps the DM could compensate the lack of that skill with another appropriate skill like survival or something.

When you read about the fighter class, what do you imagine? A ruthless mercenary? A knight in shining armor? Depending on what movies you've seen or books you've read recently, maybe you'll imagine a samurai, a cowboy or a soldier.
That's one of the strengths of the D&D rules. Because of the simplicity and universality of the core abilities and saving throws and such, they work with a wide variety of descriptions for the type of character you have in mind.
Whole other games were based on the core D&D rules, even before the whole D20/OGL explosion.
Gamma World. Buck Rogers. Masque of the Red Death.
AD&D 2nd edition Player's Option: Skills & Powers provided even more choices for character creation.

James again:
"RPGs need rough edges and elements of incoherence. Creativity thrives on the tension between rationality and lunacy and D&D has always been right smack in the middle of that tension. Shove it too far one way or the other and it either becomes boring or unbelievable. I want the game to exist in the eye of a storm; that's where it's the most fun and that's where pulp fantasy D&D exists."

"The eye of a storm." In the middle of something. Not necessarily a statement about "rules balance."
But in the middle of what? The middle ground between light and shadow.
People talk about rule mechanics or the game engine. These are just the odds of something happening according to the dice. So that's one side of an RPG.
The other side is the descriptive part of what is going on in the imaginary world. A continuing series of choices and consequences.
Where the two factors meet in character creation or during play is "the eye of the storm", I think.

Without rules, the game is just sort of a conversation that could potentially turn into an argument or just not be fair and fun.
And without the description, you would be just rolling dice and doing some math.

The "rough edges and elements of incoherence" are the nuts and bolts of the mechanics, the gears of the game engine.
This is where the fictional description has to describe what's happening with all those die rolls.

One gear in the thief description is the lock-picking skill example mentioned earlier. What consequence if a player wants to alter some things? Well, when is a thief not a thief?
If the DM agrees to this kind of player input, let the experiment proceed fairly.

If a player wants to describe their fighter character as a barbarian, assuming that class isn't normally available, why not roll with it. If the player and DM can collaboratively hash out what advantages and disadvantages come from being a barbarian, play it up and have some fun.

How you describe the results of all those dice rolls and math is going to depend on what type of entertainment you are trying to create and imagine. This can be as broad as genre type, but it can also focus on a certain mood or theme. 

And finally:
"What D&D desperately needs is to be generic again and it hasn't been in 20 years (at least). I have no interest in doing anything that adds unnecessary specificity to the game."

"What I want to see is a game that's very specific about its inspirations but without catering to the ready-made campaign setting crowd. I want D&D to be a do-it-yourself game again."

So where was I going with this?

1. Don't change the player, shape the game.
2. Rules should facilitate imagination.
3. Be cool to each other.
4. ???
5. Optional complexity. Functional simplicity.