[Europol-X] Advancement Report

 Advancement report

Writing a game is more akin to a marathon than a sprint. Once the enthusiasm of the first days fades, it's not easy to sit down and write what's already developed.

How to keep the flow going?

It is always helpful to run your game parallel to developing it, to keep it on you mind and seeing problems before you wrote them down.
In the case of Europol-X, I've run about 5 sessions with a group of 2 friends, and the introduction of a 3rd player was the kick I needed to end writing the character creation tables.
Since they have received experience, I also was obliged to create the XP system, based on feats. Those are now being developed and written down (this is my next step in the book dev).

So what has been done?

Well I'm happy that, apart from corrections, the careers of the system are fully written down and illustrated. This is maybe not a cornerstone of the system, but the D10 "PAST PROBLEM THAT COULD COME TO HAUNT YOU"-tables are a big help in introducing side-problems and flavor to the game

And layout?

Well I actually try to do layout and writing simultaneously, because both steps don't seem to be a chore if I can do the other one, once I'm bored with the first... It also helps showing nice results before the product is final.
Sure, one could argue that someone might steal the stuff, but what I share is only pictures, and normally, not all the stuff is available. Certainly, one could steal my stuff, but I can't imagine someone giving that much fucks about the game to redo the work from my originally posted stuff as images. You could surely produce something as nice and personal in the same time. I expect the game to be pirated after it is available on Drivethru, not before 😄

Anyway, what I wanted is to show you how the careers look like, as of now (I've already spotted things to correct)

Community

Don't be a stranger, leave a comment on the blog 💗, I normally validate the comments quickly.

For a longer conversation, you can join the discord of my publishing outlet (from outer space games):

From outer space games Discord

There is also a facebook group focussed on my creations:
From outer space games on Facebook

[Europol-X] Career preview - Soldier

Soldier

Project advancement

I've started the first play test round with friends, even though the system is not totally finished (but I know where I wanna go), because it's motivating for me to have a kind of urgency...

As sure as 1+1=2 , they chose careers that I had not developed, so I had no "Past problems table" for them, therefore I let them roll on the existing tables (I present here the 5th - I do not post all of them on the blog), and luckily they rolled some entries that were not too specific to the career and generic enough to be adapted easily on the fly...

The Soldier Career

Europol-X recruits for their cell on two criteria:

• You had contact with an unexplained phenomenon and survived
• You have interesting skills

In the case of a soldier, it can be both, since their skills are always in high demand (in RPG at least), and in Europe (where guns are much less  available than on the other side of the Atlantic), it is rarer to find shooters without a military background (shooting ranges exist, and so does hunting, but you don't get to practice outside a controlled environment).

The Table

As always, remember that the "past problems" are optional... You can also just use them as inspiration for your character's past, but having troubles to add to the game will help your DM (or GM, or Storyteller, or Control, whatever you want to call them) personalize your troubles and make them feel more real. Up-close and personal, if you will...

My players

The characters that have been created are:

• A marketing Expert that was Head of Marketing at the Royal Dutch Shell (the oil company), where he has a lot of enemies - (expert in Manipulate skill) - He has a 12 y.o. daughter in a closed private School in Switzerland. A lawyer wants to put him in Jail because he influenced his star witness in a case against Shell.
• An intrusion specialist - like a white-hat-hacker, but for security systems (expert in Sneak skill), from Frankfurt. Her ex boss still long for their past relationship, and his secretary hates her for her special status in his eyes. She was abducted as a child and the only surviving abductor just got out of jail.

Plot Preview

Next week, they'll be confronted with the corpse of a Duplicate (a dupe) - Half robot / half human creatures that can copy the apparence (and therefore steal the identity) of any corpse...

Quick question

If I were to create a tipee/patreon page for this project, would you be interested?

Discord

If you wanna join my Discord ("from outer space games" is the name my publishing entity), click here:

From outer space games Discord

[Europol-X] Career preview - Olympic Fencer

 Europol-X's system is starting to really take form.

I will not post all the "past careers" (you should still want to buy the book someday 😁) but from time to time, so you see the work advances.

Remember that the "past problems" are optional... You don't have to have one, and it doesn't have to be one from the list, but they are a good help to help create some drama for your storyteller (or DM, or GM, whatever you call him).

This is the 3rd career from the twelve I want to develop (one per skill).

This time with the illustration included

By the way, I've opened a discord around my creations (all of them, not only what's posted here), so if you like my work and use this platform, come over and chat !

https://discord.gg/usYXJG7zBu

[Europol-X] Career preview - Brute

Brute

 I've decided to create a system extra for Europol-X.

It is heavily inspired by 5E and the Year Zero engine.

4 Attributes, 12 skills (3 for each attributes).

And a previous Career, for before you joined your EU-X-cell. These can be compared to the backgrounds of the 5th edition, but without a feature.

I present you the first Career, the "Thug" which can be any kind of very bulky and physically imposing character, specialized in demonstrations of shear strength.

I will probably make an illustration for the rest of the page...

Anyway, tell we what you think of this ! 

And happy start in the new year !

And I've opened a discord around my creations (all of them, not only what's posted here)
https://discord.gg/usYXJG7zBu

Edit: I renamed the Career Brute bc of the negative connotation that Thug has gained in the last few years

[Stellar Fiefdoms] More backgrounds - Church !

Slowly going forward building the backgrounds. And trying out a new template (which i like a lot).
Don't hesitate to tell me what you like (and don't like)
Here they are !

Still done with GM Binder, which is really nice to work with (and sometimes around :-D )

If you know an artist that would be willing to work on a space-feudal game, have them contact me, i'd be glad !

[Stellar Fiefdoms] 5th edition Space Feudalism - Aristocratic backgrounds

It's been a bit quieter in here lately, and there is a good reason for that:
I'm working on a new project...

Space Feudalism

Stellar Fiefdoms is my attempt to emulate “Space Feudalism”, which is, for me, a sub-genre of science fiction as much as fantasy, at one of their intersections called space fantasy or science fantasy.
It’s a universe where technological advancement has brought humanity to the stars, but society has decided to take a turn back in time and revive some sort of medieval societal organisation.
Aristocracy and Church are the main powers, and their whims can be made into law.
Many technological wonders were banned, first and most importantly one: the microprocessor and any kind of artificial computing machine.
Space travel is faster than light, but only possible thanks to drugged-up fortune-teller than can choose exactly where and when to drill a hole in the space-time continuum with their motor and come back unscathed on the other side of the transfer-black-hole.
Faster than light communication is only done by way of courier, bringing wax-sealed messages using the jump-ships.
The central authority of the emperor is uncontested thanks to his unrivaled military power and the backing of the Church, but the nobles ruling their planetary fiefs enjoy a lot of freedom, far away from Messadoon, the imperial planet and seat of the Adelscabinet (The House of Lords, the law-making body of the Messaran Empire). At least, as long as they respect imperial laws and pay taxes.

Neo-Clone

The game system motorising Stellar Fiefdoms is a mix of old and new, ranging from mechanics dating to the first role playing game to its newest installment, with rules borrowed from other clones and editions situated in between.

The f5eats system

Stellar Fiefdoms is motorised by the f5eats system, a system with roots in the fifth edition of the oldest published role-playing game. It also borrows concepts from the third edition of the same game, particularly the feats that are central in the f5eats system. This system is an attempt at deconstruction of the third and fifth editions, trying to mix the best of them to obtain a fun and simple system, with a progression not based on levels, but on feats. A bit of Macchiato Monsters is also sprinkled on top

GM Binder

I'm trying to get a handle on the GM binder's tools (check them out, their page is really great)
The out put is a pdf (or at least the extract i'll show you)
Instead, I'll upload image files of each page in here, to ease readability.

Backgrounds

First i want to present you the 3 aristocratic backgounds.

As always Comments and Questions are welcome !