Chronicles Pre-Alpha Test, Session 1

Greetings everyone!

As I stated previously, I will be posting the test-play of my personal game system here.
So far, we only have one session.
Additionally, the players are the sort that do what they want, when they want.
Which, for testing purposes, makes things all for the better :)
Things will be a little childish.

I won't be putting up any of the rules in this post necessarily, but I will clarify if anyone has any questions.
Both players are human. Their skills, perks, and archetypes... I currently don't remember (and also might end up confusing the narrative a little).
I'm also continuing to work on a playtest document for Chronicles so that you, in the comfort of your own home, can help me develop this game :)

Without further ado...

---------------------------

The scene opened on the town of Riverwatch in the early hours of the morning.
Demigod, a mugger with a penchant for magic, saw what he thought would be an easy mark:
Sparky, a wandering tinker and priest, whose packs seemed laden with goods.

He made his approach...
And...
Successfully knocked Sparky to the ground!
Sparky attempted to roll over and get into a better defensive position, but wasn't quite quick enough.
Now was the moment for Demigod to act.

He attempted to knock out Sparky with a punch to the back of the head, but ended up hitting a shield he was carrying instead.
Then, with some acrobatic-shenanigans, Demigod attempted to kick Sparky but the priest was able to jump up to his feet before the hit could connect.

But, of course, this is when the town guard would happen by and see the scuffle.
Both of them attempted to lie their way out of the situation.
Something about a "friendly sparring match."
The town guard weren't buying it.
So, the two of them were placed into police custody until someone started making sense.

There, they met someone who would forever change their lives.
An old man that was chained in the adjoining cell.
"Chamby."
So called because he smelled and looked like he was a chamber pot.

The party soon formed a bond with Chamby, who quickly revealed that he had some magical talent and could easily escape his restraints at will.
Which got the two to thinking about escape.

So, they formulated something of a plan together.
Demigod used some of his magic to telekinetically lift the cell key off a guard.
And quickly the two escaped.
They also let Chamby out.
Because... you know... honor among thieves and all that...

However, it wasn't long before the guard was upon them!
Sparky tripped the sentinel, knocking him out.
Demigod, seeing an opportunity, snatched up the guard's sword.

Then, to help mask their escape, they decided to perform a mass jail break.
Sparky attempted to call upon his god's power to bend the cell bars, but his deity had no interest in this feat.
So, with just the key, they ended up performing the jail break.

Just as they and their fellow mutineers exited the jail, there was a thunderous roar from overhead.

---------------------------

And that's where we ended the session.

While I haven't had any feedback from Demigod's player yet, Sparky had the following to say:
He liked the simplicity of the system and thought that character creation was fun.
He disliked the lack of loot and felt that while combat was balanced, the guards were too easy to take down.
Overall, however, he says he has no major changes he'd suggest at this time.

But, we might have more down the road :)
Until next time, readers, may the dice fall in your favor!

Chronicles

Morning everyone!

Like I said a while back, updates are going to be kind of sparse for now.

However, today I thought I'd share a real treat with everyone.
For the past 10 years or so, I (like many other gamers) have been attempting to create my own completely unique roleplaying game system.
And, for a very long time, I was struggling with getting it just right.

This past year, I decided to really revamp my efforts and dig in to design this game.
The one thing that hasn't changed in that whole time is the name of the game:
Chronicles.

Some of the original ideas that I had were to grandiose or complicated to work out.
As such, they were scrapped for a cleaner, simpler game that everyone could enjoy.
However, I tried to salvage as much as I could in a reasonable fashion.

Chronicles is a fantasy roleplaying game that uses mastery as the key mechanic.
Simply stated, it means that better training in a skill actually makes you better with that skill on average.
Your mastery is measured by the size of the dice that you roll when attempting a certain action.

And that's pretty much the key concepts on how to play.

I don't have anything resembling a playtest document ready yet, but plan to have one soon-ish if things pan out nicely for me.
However, I do have some pre-alpha testing that friends of mine and I had accomplished a few weeks ago. I plan on putting up a summary of what happened then, as well as their initial thoughts about the game itself.

So, until next time, stay classy readers :)

Some Updating

Hello, everyone.

Due to a death in the family, things have been a little hectic for me since the 3rd.
To help assuage some of your embitterment, here's a 5e homebrew that brings something from olden days to new light.

SPELLFIRE

As with everything, a work in progress that needs further help to develop.
And yes: I know it is incredibly strong.
I worked with someone who played 1st edition and has read the novels to get this idea to this point.

It's just one feat, but it takes 2 pages due to complexity.

Feel free to use and abuse as you see fit.


ALSO, I will be writing/working on a campaign setting that I got a hankering to write up.

Until next time :)

Surprise Homebrew!

Good morning, everyone!

So, I decided on Monday to homebrew something from 3.X that I really just loved.
But, then I was trying to figure out how to do it.
Over the course of the week, I bashed this thing out and I'm really satisfied with what I've produced.
As always, your mileage may vary and input is always appreciated :)

Here I present:
my favorite class
probably of all time.
Brought back from the mists of time with a tasty 5e twist.

I also have a few other things that I'm working on that I hope will satisfy folks, and I am (as always) working on the soulmeld and psionic powers lists. Made some good headway on the soulmelds, but the powers tend to vex me (they have far more moving parts that need considering).

So, I leave you all to peruse and enjoy.
Until next time, dear readers - may the dice fall in your favor :)

Ask the Audience #3 - What NEXT?

Hello everyone!

So, my move has been pushed back a week. Which means I am another week without any of my books or notes. Which makes working on things a little difficult.

HOWEVER!
I'm still working on all of the stuff that I've posted up to this point.
Nothing else completed just yet, but I have quite a bit of ground covered on several things :)

Now, returning to the title of this post: Ask the Audience!

I just want to know: what would everyone like to see me homebrew next for 5e (previously called NEXT... see what I did there?)
Up-vert old material? Create something new? Bring something from your favorite fandom into the game? WHATCHUWANT?

I would like to focus on 5e D&D stuff (because I'm on a roll there), but I'm open to any suggestions or ideas :)

So, until next time dear readers.

Happy Start of October!

I love this month.

Also, the following homebrew items are "done":

• sha'ir warlock pact
• hybrid class rules
• incarnate base class for incarnum rules
• simple tome of magic conversions

Feel free to use and critique at will :)

That's all I had.

Until next time, dear readers!

Quick Post and A Thing!

What? Two updates in one week?
Surely this is the golden age returning!

Sadly, no.
I'm just dropping in to deliver the rough draft of the

4e-to-5e Race Conversion Guide

which I had said would be up this week :)

I'm thinking that I might take a brief hiatus this coming week to pack my house and maybe work on some of my other projects (such as the first novel in a series of four that I'm writing [part 2 is already finished]).
I am not abandoning the blog or my homebrewing stuff.
But next week will probably just include an update on the adventuring group's shenanigans.
Assuming that we meet :)

Anyway, that's all I had for today.
I'll try to work on that guide and the other homebrew stuff on-and-off for the next few days, but don't expect miracles from me.
When I return to homebrew stuff, maybe I'll write up some 4e class conversions that need doing...

Until next time, readerfolk :)

Difficulties in Getting the Group Together and Other Gaming Group Discussions

Internet people! How goes?

So, Sunday fell through.
As usual.

But, Hekatonchires' and Rellon's players showed up and we hung out anyway.
And discussed a campaign that Hek's player wanted to run.

For those of you that are familiar with Giant in the Playground, this campaign is called "The Test of Ice and Mettle."
For those of you that recognize that, you can stop reading now.

For the rest of you:
This campaign takes place in a fantasy-version of Scandinavia/Norway.
It is cold.
The whole thing is an escort mission.
Death is expected more often than not.
The classes are all homebrewed (and pretty freaking cool!).
The rest is pretty crazy (bloodlines, feats from anywhere, traits and flaws, one homebrew item, any race, etc.).
Full information here.

So, there's that.

I'm playing an eighth level Pengu (refluffed tundra halfling turned sapient penguin) Pathfinder with a major Titan bloodline and feats that focus on his "backstory" of being one of the spawn of Loki.
Might tack on some other stuff...

So... yeah...

Anyway, I've decided to stop saying that the group "will meet," because I'm constantly surprised.
However, I can say with certainty that I will not be doing any gaming this weekend, so any updates will be on completely random tracks :)

As always, may the dice fall in your favor!

My Spin on a 5e Artificer Class

Howdy, everyone!

I hope everyone enjoyed the 4th. I sure did, though several towns near mine had big fires due to absurdly dry weather in Washington these past few weeks.
I sure hope everyone is alright from those blazes.

Back to business...
My gaming group didn't end up gathering this past weekend. Which is a bit of a drag.

However, I did get a wild hair last night and decided to create something for folks to look over.

5e Artificer

As usual, this is a WIP. But it is mostly done up at the moment.
Created this in part because I don't quite like what WotC has done with the class, and because most of the other "fixes" I've seen aren't quite my style.
So, I just got some crazy inspiration last night and created this in about an hour's time at work this morning.

Please enjoy :)

As for the rest of the week, my group and I are hellbent on meeting, so we should have a new update soon.

Until then, may the dice fall in your favor!

The Long-Awaited Pathfinder Homebrew

Hello dear readership!

Sorry to be slow to upload this, but better late than never, right?
For your perusal, as promised, I have some homebrewed material for Pathfinder that I've been sitting on for some time.

To begin here are:
Some Random Races.

This list includes:
tilli - a race of faeries you may-or-may-not have seen somewhere before...
gurao - a wolf-people from some stories I've written
xartyyl - hulking blue brutes from another dimension (I think I got the idea for them from a random generator)
yrsig - cruel fey that once enslaved the xartyyl
the betrayed - the undead descendants of a necromantic empire (a race of undead that are balanced for playing at 11RP!)
enderen - a race of spiritual parasites that cause mutation in their hosts
the Ulganish trio - three races that were engineered to excel at one particular role
terox - very powerful beings that were built to fight in apocalyptic battles (also, an exercise for me to see what the biggest race I could build was :D)
dormin - a race of half-ghosts (not complete, they were an exercise to see what the "cheapest" monstrous race I could build was)

None of the races are in a clear, readable format like you would find in a PHB or some such. Some of them are also missing some bits of lore or rules data. But, here they are just the same!

Next, a base class that I built to utilize what I felt were an untapped resource in the Pathfinder game: race points.

I present:
The Chimeric

The class is kind of like a mad scientist that develops mutations as they gain levels. Such are the risks of experimenting on oneself.
This has been looked over by folks at the Paizo boards, and got many good reviews. It just needs some actual testing now.

And that's all I have for the time being.

As a PSA, avoid spending money on Steam summer sales. They don't treat your wallet kindly.

No gaming on Sunday, which should allow me some time to work up some stuff for my players.

I think I might start up my series of player interviews this coming week.

Until then, may the dice fall in your favor :)

A Short, Simple 5e Homebrew and "I Think I Broke 5e"

Hello readers!

So, to begin, I have one minor, simple homebrew project for 5th edition that crossed my mind the other day and I largely jammed out in about two hours.

Here you have it:
Tome of Magic

Includes the vestige otherworldly patron (features complete, working on vestiges), shadowcaster sorcerous origin (needs the most work), and truenamer arcane tradition (completed).

I may or may not expand on each of these as their own classes. I don't really feel like these classes need to be their own in 5e. But I might be convinced by a good argument :)

Now, on to the bit that people are probably most curious about:
How I broke 5e.

See, I've been scouring the internet to find anything that is genuinely "broken," and so far my searches have proven unfruitful.

Then I started reading my DMG.
And hit upon a genuine, RAW, "bork" powerhouse!

So, to do this thing, you need a rod of security and at least one copy of each of the tomes/manuals that improve your ability scores.
As written, the tomes/manuals will improve a score and its maximum by 2, without a secondary maximum indicated (such as "to a maximum of 26"). However, once you've read from a tome, it becomes non-magical for 100 years.
The rod creates a pocket dimension that you can dwell in for (200 / [number of occupants]) days. You do not age there.
So, it should be pretty obvious that this is pure cheese, but you could literally spend eternity in a pocket dimension, bumping your stats to over 30, and becoming even more powerful than the Tarrasque.
If you need even more aging reduction, learn how to make potions of longevity and/or be a high-level druid (or incarnate with my homebrew).
Thankfully, deities don't have stats at this point in 5e, so they can still (theoretically) squash you, but you can still overpower everything on the material plane single-handedly.

And that is how I broke 5e.

That is all I have for today's update. Later this week I will try to put up some stuff from my Pathfinder homebrewing days, just to show you all that I'm not a total 5e fanboy.
And because I still enjoy Pathfinder :)

So, until that time, may the dice fall in your favor.

Psionics 5e Conversion, Part 3

Finally!

I'm sure at least one of you has been waiting for the final piece to the puzzle.
So, here it is!

Psionic Character Options

This includes three new races:

• the bioengineered elan
• the subterranean dromite
• and the otherworldly synad

Also includes options for several classes, a pair of new feats, and may include some spells down the road.

As usual, this is a work in progress. I just felt like getting the rough draft on the site for your perusal. I was debating adding in another race or two, but these are the only three that really strike me. Maybe I could try to port over shardminds from 4e... or work on playable gith...

At any rate, no game on Sunday, so this will have to do to tide everyone over for now.

I do have a couple other homebrew projects for 5th edition D&D en route. Nothing too fancy.

So, dear readers, I have a question for you:

What would you like to see me homebrew next?

I don't have to stick to 5th edition D&D, it just happens to be where my current gaming is.

I could share some ideas I had for 3.X, or some other systems entirely.

Or I could post some of my own systems/creations. Most of them are REALLY ROUGH but some of them can be ran in their current iterations.

So, if you have any requests, just put them in the comments!

Until next we meet, may the dice fall in your favor :)

Psionics 5e Conversion, Part 2

Yikes. Literally no page views in two days.

Well, hopefully today will bring some good news to you fine folks that do read this blog.

Today, I present the second part of my psionics conversion for 5th edition D&D.
Here you are:

Psionic Powers

More so than most of the things I've done to this point, this section is under construction.
Hopefully, now that you have these options and the psionicist class from earlier this week, you can see what direction I'm heading with design for this conversion.

Originally, the powers were listed so that there were fewer augmentations, with similar ones clustered together.
However, with the "more spelled out" approach to a lot of things in 5e, I thought I'd break them down and make it a bit easier to understand what your focus dice would do for you.

EDIT: I just realized something that may need mentioning - for all the homebrew I post, the Doc pages are shared in such a way that anyone can suggest or comment on material. Feel free to share your thoughts there and, if you have a better idea than I do on something, feel free to put that up too!

Next time we gather, I'll upload the 3rd portion of the process. Much like the incarnum conversion, it will contain options for every character.

Also, it is still very in-the-air as to whether or not the Praerus group will be meeting on Sunday, so I may not have an update in those regards for another couple of weeks.

Whatever happens, thanks for dropping by just the same :)
Until next we meet, may the dice fall in your favor.

Psionics 5e Conversion, Part 1

Thank you all for your patience!

Now, to unveil the latest of my LARGE homebrewing projects for the 5th edition of D&D:

PSIONICS

Why bother, you may ask?
Isn't this easier done with a sorcerer using spell points, you may ask?
What's with all the questions, you may ask?

Well, to break my thought process down for you fine folks:

1. I've looked at several homebrewed psionics conversions, and they all fall very short of what I was looking for. Mostly because they...
2. Use magic folk to do psionics? It is a nice, simple refluffing that way. But what I bring to the table is...
3. Ari Marmell. That mad genius. In a discussion that was brought up (at GitP, I believe) on the subject of psionics in 5e, the legendary Mouseferatu (author of some things from 3.5 that I LOVE) made one, simple suggestion on how to make psionics unique in 5th...
4. And I ran with it.
5. Also, psionic combat is back in a way that I hope will be easy for new players to grasp and appealing to neckbeards such as myself.

And so, I present to you my take on:

The Psionicist

(Yes, I went with the class name of yesteryear.)

I hope that I make at least one person out there in the vastness of the internet happy with this.

Just like with the incarnum options, this will be updated regularly and I will release the next two parts in a steady-ish stream.

Until then, may the dice fall in your favor :]

A Calm Before the Brewing Storm

Hello again, my loyal fans!
What few of you there are, at least :)

Today,  I thought I'd put up a few links to some smaller homebrew projects that I've been working on. Nothing grand, just a couple of options for folks to do with as they see fit.

As is normal, these are both projects under constant construction and any critiquing or ideas would be appreciated.

So, without further rambling:

Hybrid Class Rules
For those of us that can't quite get our character concepts to work out. These rules are closer to the hybrid class rules of 4e than the gestalt rules of 3.X. Which, in my opinion, is just fine. As this is an entire optional system of rules rather than just a class or race, any input would be appreciated. Feel free to try these out at your table and see what everyone thinks.

Noble Genie Warlock Pact (Sha'ir)
I've seen several takes on this concept across the internet, but none of them really "popped" to me. So, I decided to make my own. Additionally, sha'ir are actually an integral part of the Praerus campaign setting, so I need these rules for my own game. Nice two-fer, in my humble.

And that's all I have for today!

Tomorrow, the Praerus campaign group meets up and we get to delve deeper into the dark underworld of the plane. I'm excited, personally :3
Also, I have another BIG homebrew project that I will start posting this coming week. I won't offer too many hints, but I will say this:

• I hope I can do justice to the idea
• I hope that this makes a LOT of people happy

Until next time, may the dice fall in your favor :)

Magic of Incarnum 5e Conversion, Part 3

Good afternoon, people of the internet!

Today, I give you the final part of my Magic of Incarnum up-vert material.

So far, I've given you the incarnate base class (a master of raw incarnum) and a list of soulmelds for them to use... but nothing for anyone else.

What about the fighter who wants to channel incarnum to bolster his sword arm? Or the sorcerer who can use essentia to make her spells even greater? What about racial options?

Well, that brings us to today's post:
incarnum character options

Here, you'll find the following:

the duskling and mishtai races (with some artistic liberties taken on my part)
new archetypes for the barbarian, druid, fighter, monk, paladin, rogue, ranger, sorcerer, and warlock
a new fighting style
a new feat: Meldshaper Initiate
new spells

Currently, the race section and fighting style are the only parts that are complete enough to use, but I will keep cracking away at this project until it's golden.

As usual, feel free to comment, critique, and suggest to your heart's content!

I think I will do something much smaller for my next homebrew project... (he said with something large up his sleeves)

Sometime today or tomorrow, I will post an update on the Praerus campaign.
Until then, may the dice fall in your favor :)

Magic of Incarnum 5e Conversion, Part 2

Greetings folks!

So, as you all know, I was able to upload a pre-testing version of the base class for my MoI conversion the other day. (If any of you have done any testing with it, feel free to share the experience! I'm also open to comments, suggestions, criticism, and interesting thoughts!)

And I'm sure several of you noticed the complete lack of soulmelds.

So, for today's part of the project, I present to you my current list of soulmelds.
This is only about half as many as I would like, and all of them are very simple.

Without further ado: the soulmelds.

As with anything homebrew on this blog, feel free to comment, critique, or suggest to your heart's content!

Next time, I will hopefully have my "options for everyone" post made up. Not quite sure when "next time" is with this project, though...
Until then, may the dice fall in your favor :)

Magic of Incarnum 5e Conversion, Part 1

Hello, people of the internet!

Unfortunately, my three day weekend was busier than expected and I wasn't able to finish my homebrew that I had been saying I'd have posted by today.

However, it is really close and I might be able to upload part 1 properly sometime tonight.

For now, I'll just reveal what I've been teasing about:
Magic of Incarnum! (a quick reference guide here)

I've been working on up-converting that magic subsystem from 3.5 to 5e. And, so far, so good! Currently, I only have the base class (incarnate) (mostly) done up, but I intend to have options for every character when my project is done.

So, hang tight and hopefully we'll see this thing come to fruition by the end of the day.

EDIT 8:41PM
Not 100% done, but here's a link to the Doc: The Incarnate

This is just the base class. Soulmelds and other class's features will be done up later.
I'll keep working on this. Feel free to comment, critique, and suggest things that need to be done to make this class awesome.

Until next time, may the dice fall in your favor :D