Warrior, Rogue, & Mage. Weapon Qualities.

While looking around on stargazer games I noticed that Michael Wolf the author of WR&M was working on a scifi game using the same system, called Wyrm SF (Wyrm being the name of the system these games share). I got intrigued, so went over to the forums to check on progress on it. A post there really caught my interest.

Mr. Wolf proposed the idea of adding tags or qualities to weapons to add uniqueness to them. Here is the post:

 So, let's look at an example:

In RAG a light machine gun has the following stats: Skill (Ranged), Damage (9), Range (Long)

These stats could form the basis for any light machine gun in Wyrm SF. But there might be variants like these:

Gaian Arms Pacifier Light Machine Gun, Skill (Ranged), Damage (9), Range (Long), Tags (accurate, unfoldable bipod)

MarsCorp LMG-17 Light Machine Gun, Skill (Ranged), Damage (9), Range (Long), Tags (high-powered, extended clip)

I thought adding tags to weapons is a way to add a lot of variety to the simple system of WR&M.
For example an assassins dagger could have an armor penetration (AP 1 ignoring 1 point defense from armor) tag. Distinguishing it from other daggers.

I think Qualities is going to be the choice term. 

I have decided that not all items will have qualities. Just items that are well crafted or magical. This will keep the game running simple. But draw greater distinction to better gear and magical items. Items with qualities will fall into 3 categories. High crafted, Master crafted, and Magical.

High crafted: (HC) This weapon is well made by an experienced craftsman. It will cost and often sell for double that of an average weapon of the same type (more if it has another quality attached). High crafted items gain a +1 to damage and can often have one (and only one) other quality attacked to it.

Master crafted: (MC) These items are forged by great masters. Their quality and workmanship have no equal. Master craft items will cost 8 to 10 times that of an average weapon of the same type (depending on the number of other qualities).  High crafted Items gain a +1 to damage like high crafted. But master crafted items may have up to two other qualities attacked to it.

Magic: (MA) This quality shows that a weapon is magical. For all purposes the weapon is a magical item and can strike creatures that could not normally be harmed by mundane weapons. Most magical weapons give off some kind of glow but not all. Most magical items will be imbued with at least one other magical quality. There is no limit to the number of qualities a Magical Item may have on it.

 Added qualities: 

Armor penetrating: (AP) This quality will have a value from 1 to 2 if it is high or master crafted weapon. And can have a range from 1 to 4 as a magical quality. The number represents the number of defense from armor an attack with this weapon may ignore. But only defense from armor.

Accurate: (AC) This quality will have a value from 1 for being a master crafted item. And can have a value from 1 to 3 as a magical quality. This quality gives the user a bonus in combat to strike his opponent.

Slaying: (SL) This quality grants a bonus to damage against a single creature type. This quality will range from 1 to 3 and can only be applied to weapons with the magic quality. Slaying weapons glow brightly when they are with in 100' of the creature they are a slayer of.

Wizards: (WZ) This quality can only be on a staff or Rod. Only weapons with the magic quality may have wizards quality on it. This weapon works as a channel for raw mana. The character may channel one point

of mana into to fire a mana shard at an opponent. The range of a mana shard is 40' and requires a roll on thaumaturgy to hit.

Still underconstruction 

Interface Zero M20

As I'm sure any one keeping track will notice I'm really digging Modern20. While I already had the true20 book for this setting I went and picked it up for Modern20 too. It brought back to me every thing I really liked about it. I've always liked cyberpunk as a setting. A lot of cyberpunk games are stuck in the era they were created in and not really up to date with modern technology let alone future tech. Interface zero is an up to date cyberpunk setting.

What really stands out to me about IZ is the choices in character creation. As with a lot of cyberpunk games you can choose to be a human, genetically enhanced human, and a human altered by animal DNA.  But how many games can you play an AI living in a cyber form body? Or a combat simulacrum? And not just one of each but 3 kinds of AI characters and 3 kinds of simulacrum.

While reading this I got the idea of the hacker of the group who lives in the deep (net) but dons a cyber form body to walk among the meat world. He could also be the wheel man. Actually he could interface with the vehicle and be the wheels.

So many Ideas swirl around in my head about character creation. And its just the first 31 pages of the book. The Timeline and setting info is great. Its a true look forward from the world we live in now and not how the future may have looked looking forward from the 80s.

There is a True20, Modern20, and Savage Worlds version of the setting. I Cant recommend this setting enough to cyberpunk fans.

Modern20 Vampires

As a big fan of the Dresden Files book series I have really been thinking about running a game in it. Or in a modern fantasy setting very influenced by it.

Vampires Play a big part of the Dresdenverse, And I don't think that should be different in my setting. I really like the different types of vampires in the Dresdenverse. Vampires come in three larger species and a number of smaller ones. I really like this approach.

First off though I am going to come up with a basic vampire template. I have chosen to make the vampire template an occupation.

Vampire

Vampires are creatures of the night. They are predators among human kind. Some embrace the beast and revel in being a monster seeing vampirism as a blessing. Others hold on to any shred of their old life and do all they can to hold on to their humanity, to them vampirism is a curse.

Professional skills: Influence, Perception, and Stealth.

Improved Feats: Strength training (+2 Str), Agility training (+2 Agi), Awareness (+2), and Dodge focus (+2 Def).

White Court Vampires: White court vampires are not as powerful as other vampires. But they do not have any of the drawbacks others do either. White court vampires feed off of emotions of their victims. Strong emotions of fear, hate or lust being the food of choice. When a white court is provoked he must pass a willpower roll (14) or his appearance will shift. His eyes become a steel gray and all color fades from his face and skin and it becomes almost transparent. Gray and black veins show through his skin.

Black Court Vampires: These vampires are closer to what we know as vampires. Feeding on blood, repelled by holy symbols and destroyed by sunlight. Many believe Bram stoker was influenced by the white court to write his great book to expose and destroy the black court. Black court vampires gain a +2 to starting strength and gain a natural damage reduction of 2. Black court vampires start with disadvantage: weakness sunlight (3), taking 2D6 damage from direct sunlight. disadvantage: weakness holy symbols (1) repelled.