Showing posts with label SciFi. Show all posts

Thursday, 19 May 2022

[OSR Review] Warpstar!

What is "Warpstar!" ?

"Warpstar!" is the science fiction counterpart of "Warlock!", which was an RPG implying that they were neocloning Warhammer fantasy roleplaying first edition, but with a more unified system, and a similar setting, feeling the same but not infringing on games worshop's copyrights.
Warpstar wants to do to warhammer 40k, what warlock did to warhammer (and warlock was good, hence this buy).

What was I expecting?

A simple, unified, and twist-able system, based on a skill and career motor, with a D20 for resolution (and none of that percentile system from WHFRPG which I dislike so much).
A system for Sci-fi "magic", or psi powers, something like that, but I had no preconception of what I wanted, I just knew it needed to be gritty to fit with the universe.
A sparingly described universe, mimicking the desperate and fascist sci-fi of warhammer 40k at its beginnings. Something like 40k but with a really developed universe, not just with filed down serial numbers (doing to 40k the kind of unification and homogenization of the background they did in Warlock with the WHFRPG lore)

What did I find?

A simple system, to my taste, based on skills. There are not even attributes (and since they are not needed, you could wonder why you ever use them in game design). There are a lot of careers and advanced careers in the book, enough to cover all your basics but no 3rd level careers (my mind burped, they do not exist in Warlock either). Each basic career has 2 random tables to help build the character's background, and these are well done, introducing a lot of background - more details than the "universe" section afterwards.
A really dirty and gritty warp-glyph system with dire and mutagenic consequences for those than dabble too often in this corrupting power. I liked what I read: short, simple, and atmospheric.
The basis of a universe description, but nothing really deep. Larges axes are described: The Autarch is the sole ruler of the universe through his military, the Hegemony, and his monopoly on the Cadence, a substance that allows those ingesting it to get addicted but also living eternally, as long as they take it regularly; a very big merchant's guild; noble houses governing their planets in the name of the Autarch and bickering among themselves; a gigantic technological consortium that creates warp engines and miraculous tech (but their stuff is rare and not available to everyone). From what I read, they are not enough details to start a campaign without doing some heavy lifting and the stuff is vague enough that you could play in the universe of Dune without changing a lot. It's also vague enough that the universe could be collaboratively refined during a session zero. But it IS well written, concise and I felt compelled to order the other "warpstar!" books while i was reading this part of the book.

Advantages of Warpstar!

As I said before, it's well written. Simply, clearly, and with a will to keep it concise and dense, on the information value's side. The GM's tips part of the book is in my opinion the weakest, addressing a public of first time GMs but not going into enough details to be interesting (in my opinion). Still it's the only RPG book that I have read cover to cover in the last 5 years (last one was Mutant : Year Zero).
I liked the format (6'' x 9'' Hardcover), which is a bit like A5. It's easy to transport and light enough to be read in bed.
Art is black and white and very OSR-ish, pens & ink style that reminds of the illustration of the game books like fighting fantasy, and often full page.
Layout is simple but effective, no stupid background that impairs reading. It's not simplistic, though, and does serve what the book wants to convey.
It's nearly a all-in-one, as was WHFRPG back then, an adventure is all that i think is missing. But you have all careers, rules (including starship fights), a universe description, a bestiary, magic, and technology (quite expeditively covered - no details, but enough to be able to make rulings on the fly).

Disadvantages of Warpstar!

It's only available on print on demand, and I really fear what amount of import taxes i'll have to pay when it arrives (probably 7$ + 5% of the ordered amount - but if the toll declaration mentions game instead of books, they will probably ask for 7$ + 19% of the ordered amount and that would be a pain in the wallet).
There is no adventure / scenario in the main book, only a page trying to explain how to write one (which I did not find interesting because too theoretical - in this matter, Warlock! took more time and pages to explain how to prepare a scenario, doing a better job at giving us ways to ponder the fact, that no scenario was included).
The gaming universe is barely described. Inspirationally described, but really shallow. On the other hand, anyone having read a lot WH40k will be able to easily fill the blanks. Still, I have now great expectations concerning the background books that I have ordered. If it is as good as this book, i'll certainly adapt a campaign I'm planning to this sector.

IS it OSR?

Well, that's a difficult question.

If for you, OSR needs to be based on D&D, then no.
If for you, OSR needs to be fantasy, then no.
If for you, OSR needs to be gritty, then maybe.
If for you, OSR needs to be lethal, then maybe.
If for you, OSR needs to be rulings, not rules, then maybe.
If for you, OSR needs to be player's skills, then maybe not (depends on your style, I'd say).
If for you, OSR needs to be an invitation to go adventuring, then maybe.
If for you, OSR needs to be Black & White art, then maybe.
You're adult enough to know if you have enough maybes to call it OSR in the end (there are so many definitions of OSR anyway).

Also another point: Warpstar tries to give us an alternative to what WH40k RPG would have been, if it had been released with the philosophy behind WHFRPG 1E, back in the days. But there was no such book, the first WH40k books are much newer. So it's kind of funny to have a neoclone of something that did not exist back then. Still, it is believable and emulates the genre well, so i'd say, job done ! In my book, you are OSR and deserve that title (but I know that I'm lax with this terminology)

Would I recommend it, and to whom?

Clearly, if you want to play in the universe of WH40k, the system is much easier to learn than the fantasy flight games systems set in this universe (dark heresy, rogue trader, ans so on). It's a real good alternative if those are too complex, or not unified enough, for your taste.
For "on the fly" Sci-Fi gaming, with no preparation and commonly created universe, it would work too. There are no tools to help in this shared creation, though, so you'll need an imaginative GM, able to ask a lot of questions. Only warp, warp motors, and warp powers are anchored in the system, so it's really versatile and acceptive of stuff on top (maybe use the oracles of Ironsworn Starforged? [given you don't like it's system, because Starforged is excellent for this kind of situations]).
To those that want to use the game engine and pack their universe and campaigns on top, i'd say go for it, that's what I intend to do myself.
If you are really crazy and want to tinker a bit more, I'm sure there is a here an engine which would word with the universe of Starfinder. Add some stuff from Warlock! and you should be good. Playing Starfinder without having to spend weeks to re-learn D&D 3.x, what a dream😉.

For those that have read Warlock!:

Same engine, really. Even the books are organised very similarly. Should be easy to learn and use.
The main book is bigger than Warlock's and includes stuff that Warlock would have in the companions. You see that the editor's skills were better when he started this project.

What I intend to do with Warpstar!

Depending on how enthusiastic I am about the extensions, I would tweak a campaign to fit in a sector described in said warpstar extensions (I ordered Warpstar-Omoron & Warpstar-Caldera). Something that was in my head for a while and never found the system / universe I wanted to settle it in.
The campaign would be very similar to the SyFy show "Dark Matter": All characters wake up in a stasis pod while their ship is being attacked. But they have no memories whatsoever. They'll have to investigate to learn that they were really bad apples (not always by choice, or what they first discover is not even necessarily true). So will the reset of their memories allow them to reset their way of life and become a force of good?

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Tuesday, 4 May 2021

[Book review] Timeline by Michael Crichton

Timeline
by Michael Crichton

Reading is like a second nature to DMs. Our hobby is rooted in the fantasy writings of the big past monsters like Tolkien, Howard, or Leiber...

But it's also good to read newer stuff... And timeline belongs to the good stuff category, in my opinion.

Beware, there are some spoilers in this review

About the Author

Michael Crichton is a well known Hollywood name... Quite a lot of his books have made it onto the screen (Jurassic being the most well known), and the reason for that is that his books sold well and were easily portable to the screen.
What he writes are page-turners and Timeline is not an exception

Movie?

As most of Crichton's best sellers, Timeline was adapted to the silver screen, and as research for this review, I've watched the movie. And I understand why the movie was not a blockbuster (to put it mildly 😄). Hollywood tends not to respect what makes a book great, and a lot of what made the book great was trampled on for marketing reasons. Historical accuracy apparently doesn't sell, and that was one of the book's greatest assets.
Timeline was apparently Crichton's first (and last) venture in adapting one of his books as a computer game. Wikipedia can tell you more on that failure 😇. I'm not a masochist enough to have inflicted the game onto myself for this review, though...

Story

A wealthy genius tech magnate (à la Elon Musk, but more of an arse) discover a way to travel through time. Something goes wrong. A group is sent into the past to rescue the precedent group.

While is does not sound particularly original, the story is always intriguing and compelling. The very short version I wrote does not do justice to the book, but i didn't wanted to spoil it for you...

The characters and their motivations are believable and relatable (at least the present day characters)

Science

It's been a characteristic of Crichton's writing to use scientific facts and extrapolate on them to create science-fiction. In this case, he extrapolates on quantum theories and quantum entanglement to explain time / dimension travel, thus creating a believable theory for time travel, with it's limits and risks.
I really liked that part and think it's much better than most theories you can see in RPGs (when those deem to even try to explain dimension/time travel).

Still, like the rest of the book, the explanations are really well written and easy to understand, without dumbing it down too much...

History

The majority of the book takes place in the southern France 14th Century, and Crichton did a lot of research to actually keep as much of historical accuracy as possible, using recent sources that depict the middle ages as a harsh time, but certainly not a time of darkness, bigotry, and ignorance as the Renaissance thinkers depicted it, an image that has long tradition in our commonly shared imagination.

The biography at the end of the book is 4 pages long, and there are a lot of good references there too (but I'm not an historian, so some might be bullshit and I couldn't say).

One thing that Crichton got really well in this book is how different people thought back then, and how society was structured.

My opinion is that the historical accuracy is respected but not invasive. You won't get a lecture on the Three-field system or heraldry, but some of the repercussions on the life of those topics will be shown en passant (the ubiquity of horses is something we have to use in our games).

To me, this historical accuracy is the main appeal of this book, on top of the compelling story.

Style

The book is nearly a page-turner. I say nearly because it has more substance than your typical thriller that you will have forgotten in 6 weeks time.

The style is easy to read, yet not simplistic like a Da Vinci Code. The vocabulary used is also accessible, preferring to use common English than specific medieval terms (if a horse is a Percheron, it will be said once, and then called a draft horse)

Story

The story may not have been very original, still it was well rounded and balanced.
Let's say it was better than most easy fantasy novels on that side, because it never uses the "magic" artifact. The only "magic" is the quantum entanglement time travel.

There are actually 2 stories being told in parallel, one in the past (main story) and one in our modern day (the now of the characters - a side story), and both are interesting and intertwined.

The book has a very good rhythm, hence the "page-turner" denomination earlier on.

What's in it for roleplayers?

Well, the historical accuracy is very important, and can be reused in your fantasy game:

people in the past behave with another mindset - the mindset of the middle ages. Getting the mindset and not applying our "modern" way of thinking to people in the middle ages is for me one of the greatest challenges of fantasy roleplaying. Sure, you can describe a far-west-world with bows and arrows instead of guns (yes, i'm looking at you, D&D), but then you don't really need a pseudo feudal society, if the law of the strongest is gonna be your sole societal structure...
Horses, horses, horses. In all shapes and forms ! Everybody has a car, nowadays... Well most people needed more than one horse back then (transportation? Horse! Field-work? Workhorse! Battle? Warhorse! Cargo & logistics? Mules & Horses!). Everyone has to have a horse, and all these creatures are important to the survival of a family. They surely have names...
The feudal system does not oppress women completely (it's not kind to them, but they have rights... Widows in particular can be very powerful women) and you should not do that in your games either. Even though you might see it as historical, that's just a pretext to be a dick...
Danger was everywhere in the middle ages. Stuff like crossing a big river or falling from a horse could mean a life long injury. Life was cheap and short, and people started their "adult" life much earlier

Would I recommend it?

Yes, certainly. The book is MUCH better than the movie. Don't watch the movie, it's a loss of time and doesn't do justice to the book material. And it was better fantasy than most books I read in the past few years (I don't read a lot of fantasy, though)

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Monday, 21 December 2020

[Setting] Europol X - Setting overview

Europol-X

My love for parallel universes

This is a setting I've longed for since the first time I've heard of the concept of parallel dimensions.

I love time travel and alternate history, and they can meet in the concept of parallel dimensions.

I always find it difficult to make dimension travel "believable".

And in the past, I couldn't think of a plausible way to make the players travel.

Influences

Lately, I've had great influences in the science-fiction spectrum that I want to use as inspiration.

First and foremost, I want to talk about the "merchant princes" books by Charles Stross, which are a masterfully written story about dimension travel, but also a masterpiece of reflection on the subject of interactions between forces set on parallel universes.

Second, I'm re-watching the show FRINGE and it's a gold-mine for the beginnings of a dimension-travel-agency.

Third, the 2005 South-African TV-series Charlie Jade, which has only 3 worlds (ours, an utopian-hippie reflection, & an early-cyberpunky-dystopian reflection), which also depict credible interactions between universes

Last, there is a bunch of settings I'd like to send my players to, but never will have the chance to, otherwise... A lot of them are described in the GURPS alternate earths books (I & II), GURPS infinite worlds, some alternate history settings or novels (The Years of Rice and Salt by Kim Stanley Robinson, the Fvlminata rpg game setting, a bit of fantasy, some Shadowrun-esque, some nazi dystopia like The Man in the High Castle by Philip K. Dick) and I'll steal stuff from the Strange (at least the system, which is perfectly tuned for dimension travel) but I'll drop the process of translation - I don't like that a character changes when changing to an alternate reality.

Bits of time travel shows (like Quantum Leap, Terminator, Primeval, Counterpart, and many others) might find their way into this setting.

The Cosmogony

I envision the multiverse as a d20 with each of the sides being one of the realities.

Each reality could have access to it's 3 "neighboring" sides (the sides on each of the 3 sides of its triangle) and the opposite side (on a die: one and twenty, two and nineteen, and so on).

Players would play as members of a secret unit of Interpol, the section X, which is tasked with resolving "paranormal" cases. Other such units exists internationally (as division of the FBI, FSB, or any state police organisation you fancy), but I've decided to play in Europe, hence the choice of Europol.

Main plot would be a cold war between our reality (Earth Prime, as we call it) and Earth Second, a slightly more technologically advanced reflection of our reality, where 9/11 happened differently and Covid-19 never left China.

The 20 Realities in short

For the place of the numbers on the convex regular icosahedron (d20) we will use this model (which should be standard)

Our earth (Earth Prime) is situated on the side numbered 20 and Earth Second is logically situated on the side numbered 1 (the other 18 realities have not yet been discovered, as of the beginning of the campaign).

In my campaign, the other realities on the 3 other sides of the icosahedron will be Pan-Germania (a reality where the Nazi and their Imperial Japanese allies won WWII - side number 2), Al-Kīmiyā (an arabic-persian dominated world where alchemy works - sometimes), and Batuutaa (where the world was conquered by the Dogon Empire, using their astrological prescience techniques)

D20	Description of the local Reality
1	Earth Second: slightly advanced early cyberpunk reality. Their US, Chinese, Russian, and European governments know of dimension travel, the Quantum Rupture and have access to advanced Fringe-science gadgets. They spy on our reality and try to destabilize it. It is fairly certain that they started the Covid-19 infection centers in Italy at the beginning of 2020
2	Pan-Germania: In this dystopian reality, Pearl Harbor never took place, Charles Lindbergh was elected president in 1940 and Nazi Germany conquered Eurasia with their Imperial Japanese allies. They then conquered north america, with the Nazi overtaking all US and Canadian territories east of the Rockies and the Empire of Japan the West Coast
3	Zǔguó-Ming: The Black Plague decimated the whole world but the Americas and China under the Ming dynasty. The main powers are Ming-China, the United Tribes of America, the Polish-Lithuanian Empire and the African rivals: the Kingdom of Nri and the Kingdom of Imerina. Early 19th Century technology and Chinese colonial hegemony.
4	Rule Britannia: the world is dominated by the colonial views of an unchecked Victorian England. Main powers are the Crown, the landed aristocracy, the Anglican Church, and the colonial companies. All persons not born of English descent are considered inferior, at best. Most are legally enslaved by the colonial companies. Early 20th Century technology.
5	Roma Eterna: Instead of disappearing in decadence, Rome reinstated the Republic and used Chinese black powder to create weapons (and not only fireworks) and gain victory over the barbarians. Eurasia and Africa are all parts of the Great International Roman Republic, a network of federal city-states with a great deal of autonomy. Early renaissance technology but much better guns. America was never "discovered".
6	Sovietica Materna: Instead of fighting an arms race with the USA, the USSR continued to grow its influence and took over Europe, mostly through the democratic process. Accessing European technologies and foremost the microchip allowed the USSR to better plan their economy and be a competitor to the USA while allowing a much better standard of living to all its citizen (and not only the russians). The technology level is equivalent to ours, but surveillance technology is everywhere and the world wide web is segmented. The balance of powers is different, but the world is similar to ours.
7	Necrotica: This world was quite similar to ours up until the 1980ies when a pandemic did hit their reality like a truck on the highway. Thing went from bad to worse when the dead started to rise again with a hunger for human flesh. Only a few islands (Iceland, Madagascar and New-Zealand) have achieved the feat to ward off the zombie pandemic completely.
8	Batuutaa: Early in history, the Dogon Empire developed ways to predict the future by means of astrology. Their empire has spread over the whole African continent and around the Mediterranean Sea. Their society is planned years in advance, family is the core value and social peace is achieved through prescient politics. Population control is strict to avoid depleting the natural resources. Low technical level, but high life expectancy.
9	Solar Federation: Creation after WWI of the European Commonwealth, which would grow twenty years later in the Human Commonwealth (all of Europe and their colonies, with equal rights and access to development). Landing on the moon in 1939, worldwide political unification under the Human Federation in 1945. Landing on Mars in 1969. Trojan independence wars in 1991. Creation of the Solar Federation in September 2001. Advanced technology and strong welfare state with a lot of personal freedom and private sphere.
10	Pharaohland: Old Egyptian Gods exist and their prophet, the Pharaoh Akhenaton CCXXIV rules over the Mediterranean basin, the Arabic peninsula and the silk road. Technology is a mix of antic artisanship, advanced agricultural techniques through genetic selection, advanced seafaring techniques but wind-powered and bronze age metallurgy. Advanced divine magic for true believers can turn the scales of a battle, even against modern weaponry.
11	земля трех дочерей (zemlya trekh docherey): Baba Yaga and her two sisters have taken an interest in the fate of humanity and helped scientist melding high technology and magic. During WWII, the sisters decided that humanity did not deserve to be free and took over governments. Baba Yaga rules over the Soviet States, Mala Yaga over Asia southern of Mongoly, and Mengma Yaga over Europe. Technomagic surveillance state akin to a kind of theocracy. Transhumanism and compulsory human trials are the norm, not the exception
12	Transylvania: Vampire exists and have conquered Eurasia from their East European roots. They won dominance over the Werewolves in Europe, but they still continue to resist the vampiric oppressors. Vampire have the advantage of being able to create new vampires at the whim of a bit, whereas lycanthropy is only hereditary. Technological level is ~1950ies.
13	Atlantis: The Ancient Astronauts left earth during the Antiquity, taking off with their into the stars. 1947, they came back and declared Australia to be the new Atlantis. They have enforced peace on the whole planet and warring parties have been known to be disintegrated into thin air. Every year, 666 willing candidates are taken into the stars and never come back. Technological stagnation without wars mean technology like the year 2000. Ancient Astronauts' technology seems to be magical.
14	Al-Kīmiyā: During the middle ages, Persian and Arabic scientists discovered ways to treat the Black Death and could easily take over a decimated Europe. The Democratic Califates Union now spans over all North-Africa, Europe and Near-East and borders with the Indian Mughal Empire and the Russian Orthodox Empire.
15	Draconia: No big bad meteor hit earth to extinct the dinosaurs. Some of them evolved into the Dragons. Using their magic, dragons created elves, dwarves and other humanoid beings. Around 10.000 years in the past, humans started to appear and have spread all over the world and prosper in each of the Dragon Empires
16	Azteca: advanced blood-magic techniques have allowed the Aztec empire to conquer most of the american continent and send back the Europeans into the ocean, not without stealing their technological wonders. Currently, while the Europeans power fight for their colonies in Africa and Asia, the Aztec Empire prepares to invade them using their flying pyramids. Advanced blood magic and Napoleonic technology level in Europe and Russia
17	Pace: Here, all humans live in harmony with nature, in small societal structures, independently from each other, without technology. The clan delegate can speak with the spirits of nature to ensure that everyone is healthy, well fed and happy. Weapons are unknown. Wrath of nature is the only natural danger.
18	Tyberium: Instead of immigrating to the united states, Nikola Tesla gets recruited by the Soviet Union and develops Tesla-coils based weaponry. Nazi Germany never attacks further east than Poland, but conquers Western Europe and North Africa completely. The US annex Canada. A peace treaty is signed between the main 4 powers (US of North America, USSR, Nazi Germany, Japan Empire) but evolves in a ruthless cold war with shady alliances.
19	Echo: This world runs very similarly to ours, but with a 555 years delay. Right now, the most important man on the world is a visionary, an artist and scientist named Giovanni Da Rambaldi, working for the Duke of Florence, but way ahead of his time. He might be the first to pass through to an alternate reality without creating a Quantum Rupture
20	Earth Prime: Our world, which has been infiltrated by agents from Earth Second and their technology. They spy on us, destabilize the main powers and field test the worst of their technology in our reality

Quantum Rupture

It is possible to "slide sideways" to another reality, when possessing the correct brain chemistry (which can be attained through zen meditation) and willing your body to get through (the sudden change of state from complete zen to absolute willpower is the hard part of sliding). Those two requirements are the same as for Psi powers.

It is also possible to tear temporarily cracks in the fabric of reality to pass through to the reality on the opposite side of the icosahedron, but these cracks never heal fully and could lead to the complete destruction of all realities linked on this icosahedron.

Feedback ?

So, do you have any feedback on these "worlds"?

Is there a world you think should be included but is not here?

Would you like to play in such a constellation of worlds?

Would you be interested in more content for this in Zine format?

Please be kind and answer in the comments !

Wednesday, 5 August 2020

[OSR Sci-Fi Horror] Presentation of Alastor 55

I've teased some Art and told you i'm working on a new project:

With a friend, we are writing a new OSR rpg. Actually writing 2 versions of one RPG : one motorised by the black hack and another based on Microlite 5th.

I'm in charge of a lot of things, from the microlite 5th adaptation of the system to layout, but also artworks.

I've found a way to create easily and quickly art that I deem good enough for an OSR publication, and I wanted to share some with you.

The Pitch:

The "Ravenium Rush" brings hundreds of new settlers on the "Satanic Planet", but only a few will survive the horror, the demons, and the corporate greed... Will you Crew survive, die in the dirt, or thrive in this sick atmophere?

The Setting:

Alastor 55 is an outer system moon, that was colonized by a satanic church, long ago, and went missing from the human sphere, during a big "Colonies vs Earth"-independance-war.

Much later, when the United Earth Nations discovered Ravenium on Alastor, a black cristalline fuel for black hole jumpships, they tried to re-colonize the moon and discovered a world in shambles: internal strife, feuding satanic sects, technology set back in the 19th century. And DEMONS! A lot of them, with all the slaughter, orgies, gore and unethical behaviours bound with it.

In the middle of the war between all these factions, the U.N. and the corporations, are poor settlers that came as a last chance to escape the misery of life on the planets and moons of the solar system. Thinking that the demons and the black magic were rumors, like the U.N. pretends.

Poor people...

You are a Crew, freshly arrived on Alastor and you'll need a few credits to survive in the protected corporate enclaves. But maybe you 'll strive in this atmosphere of conflict, betrayal and ever present death.

The Art:

I've developped a few images, that might or might not make it into the book.

The demons:

(I have already shown them all but two)

They were the start of the project, and i'm not yet sure to use them all...

But since i'm getting better, there will be more to come, same style and same Modus Operandi.

The firedemon

Wreaking mayhem and playing fire in a plaza? Yes, that's a typical fire demon

The Chainsaw-Massacre-Demon

This is probably not gonna be our Cover. This is the first art piece I created. But it's too recognizable from heavily copyright protected material. Sad, i really love it...

The quick and agile Demon

Most of the life on the planet is settled deep under the earth. These swift jumpers are rarely seen not in packs, and are a bane for travellers.

Demonic Infighting

CSGO-map-DM-Neon-02-2-Demons-20200716-150447

Demons would not be demons if they were not bickering amongst each others. It's always a good thing for the colonist when they steer their anger at each others...

The Succubus

Who said all demons had to be ugly and spooky?

If there are orgies with demons on Alastor, I hope for the population that a few demons (independently of their gender) are good looking too. And manipulative. Evil anyway...

The tunnel confrontation

Alastor 55 is an ice moon, where hairy demons feel at home. Unless some pesky humans starts to crawl out of their warm underground arcologies...

The Origins

(I don't want to use the word "race" in a Sci-Fi context)

The Patrolling Cyborg

Technically-legal-cybertrooper-02-20200716-154448

Cyborgs are human brains implanted in a robotic body. There is no reason for anxiety, they are mentally stable and not prone to PTSD or loss of humanity. Never. Not at all. Remember these are the good guys.

And good guys go to bars, don't they?

This one doesn't drink, but likes to watch humans off-guarded by alcohol consumption...

The sad Cyborg

Why is he sad? He's working in one of the few places over the surface of the planet, at the equator.

Well why do you think he's sad? Maybe because he has to freeze his balls off to keep the privileged arseholes protected

Careers

Right now, I'm working on the careers (which is the ingame name for the classes), and there will be 8 of them:

Captain, Investigator, Medic, Occultist, Psiker, Scoundrel, Scientist, & Soldier.

I've already 3 pictures of classes, but i'll post them as a bunch when they are all ready...

Probably the next post

Friday, 17 July 2020

[OSR Sci-Fi Horror] Sample Art

Quick and dirty Art

You might remember that I teased a new OSR project, last week.

The design crew (that's me and a friend) has decided to go for a very OSRish approach, not only concerning the rules, but also the Art which will be included in our next RPG.

I wanted to present you some of the Art I've developped for that game, because i'm kind of very proud of it.

The Setting

The setting will be a planet of horror, settled by a satanic cult who achieved to break some Seals, align the stars, or create an arcane apocalypse (no one really knows, and those who know... don't tell...)

CyberDemonPunk

So it's a futuristic setting, with cyberpunk elements (don't think only of chrome, but more of very powerful megacorporations, poluted ecosystems, and galactic misery apart for the top 0,1%), with black magic, and demons. No Angels, no other arcane powers than the dark art.

Yes it will be pretty bleak.

If you think of Doom, right now, yes, that's a major influence (along with Blade Runner, Transhuman Space, Dead Space, and a bunch of others)