Star Wars: The Malicrux Peril

When I think old school gaming I think D6 Star Wars.

My Thursday-nighters are in the middle of a Classic Era (of course!) fringers campaign I'm running, and I thought I'd share some of the setting info. They've been galavanting round the Malicrux Sector in a race to discover the location of the Malicrux Peril - whatever that is - before anyone else gets it.

Good ol' fashioned space-romp fun, with a Beiberesque noble Captain,  a slimy and duplicitous Mon Cal tech, a Force-Sensitive Togruta stripper (watch her take the pleasure from this lightsaber!), and until recently a money-grubbing bounty hunter and a drug-fueled ex-corporate saboteur (these guys like their Shadowrun). Last week they were joined by a sentient garbage-hoarding amoeba and they've begun to explore a ruinous Jedi Temple; very haunted-house in spaaaaaace... like I said, fun.

I'll post stuff up about it every so often for anyone to use. Hope it makes you wanna break out handfuls of D6's and play :).

THE MALICRUX SECTOR

The Malicrux Sector is a small region of space limited to the confines of the Malicrux Nebula. Located on the fringe of Hutt Space in the Mid Rim Region, the Nebula has been slow to relinquish its wealth and many planetary systems lie hidden and unreachable deep within the interstellar clouds of the everchanging maelstrom.

The Nebula is the remnant of a colossal supernova that occurred tens of thousands of years ago, and has inexorably spread to its current girth and even today continues to expand. Scholars believe the Djakarshi void anomaly is all that remains of the original star, and the cataclysm utterly destroyed the fledgling Malicrux Empire that spanned a number of star systems that now lie in the heart of the Nebula. Little remains of the ancient Malicrux, consumed by the Djakarshi void or seared from the surrounding worlds in the fires of the interstellar explosion. These fires still smolder today, in great swathes of starburn that make navigating the Malicrux Nebula a very difficult and dangerous feat. The more turbulent regions of the Nebula still utilize ancient jump beacons — vast satellites that constantly scan the surrounding area for changes in the Nebula's starburn drifts then broadcast adjusted hyperspace co-ordinates for all to use.

Despite its comparatively small size and the challenges of traveling in the Nebula, the Malicrux Sector is blessed with a surprisingly high density of inhabited worlds. Over the millennia the Nebula has shielded its star systems from the much of rapacious hunger of the galactic corporations or the depredations of the neighboring Hutt clans; the Starburn Trade Run links only the most accessible star systems in the outer reaches of the Nebula, and few hyperspace routes have been plotted into the Nebula's deeper regions. It is widely believed that various select individuals and organisations know secret routes that cut right through the heart of the Malicrux; only fools and the insane would attempt to jump into the Nebula without meticulously calculated jump co-ordinates. Many are the stories of ships simply vanishing into the veils of the Nebula, and a number of pirate raiders plague the sector.

The Sector was controlled by a Council of Noble Houses, each with vested interests in one or more star systems. The Council would meet regularly at the Sector Capital of Sapphirica. Corporations and other mercantile organisations were required to negotiate with the Houses to enter the Sector's markets. During the days of the Old Republic a Senator was elected from the Council to represent the Sector's interest in the Galactic Senate; under the reign of the Emperor the Senator now liaises with the Imperial Governor Moff Kyreiken, based in the new Imperial City on Ravenholt. The relationship between the Sapphirican Council and the Imperial Governor is complicated, being at times obsequious, fractious, and occasionally deadly; ultimately the Council is slowly losing control to the rising power of the Empire.

DungeonFu for Google+

So this is for anyone who's using Google+ Hangout to run dungeon crawls online: a map-making template that anyone in game can use. Industrious DMs can make their maps before hand; lazy ones can make it up as they go.

I've included a sample map of a crypt that took me a little over an hour to do (though I use graphic programs every day) and I found Google Documents to be pretty nifty. One quick tip: once you've created a room, group all the objects used. Makes it easier to handle.

First time I've done something like this so if it's got bugs, lemme know (gently).

Go have fun with it; if you make anything with it send me a JPG so I can chuck it in here. Plus if you go all out and make geomorphs for others to use lemme know so I can link'em.

Last thing, there's plenty of free icons out there, specifically for this kinda thing; so if you think my designs suck just go for a quick search.

Monday Map: Aurorica

Ever wondered what a Antarctica free from ice might look like? Want polar fantasy adventure? Need a map for your campaign setting but can't be arsed making your own?

Hope you like, go have fun. Send me a link of your results if you use it.

Bigger version.

Really big.

Worldstorming : This Bloodsoaked Land

Take this simple premise:

"Blood is life, life is sentience, thus blood is sentient. That which is imbued with blood, is alive."

Turn it into a set of game rules:

Every successful physical attack delivers to the surrounding area a splash of gore; whatever is coated in the bloody spray must make a d20 save equal or over the total damage done (for slashing weapons, halved for piercing and quartered for bludgeoning) or become sentient. The number rolled is then assigned between the six base attributes, and the newly aware creature gains the dominant attitude of the bloodgiver as a basis for personality.

Example: Schlork the Gouter cuts Edvard Sparkle in half with his slashing zweihander, doing 18 points of damage and showering the stone statue behind him with blood. The statue has a chance of becoming sentient; GM rolls a 14; the statue becomes sentient, with 14 points in attributes (say Str 5, Dex 1, Con 2, Int 3, Wis 2, Cha 1) and starts whining.

Then apply it to a setting... like a castle or a city or a region or a world.

Would would it be like?

Weeklings

Simple game: you give me a subject matter - characters (portraits is good, I like 'em) gamey stuff, whatever - I do one illustration a day for seven days and post the results at the end of the week.

Good for you: you get piccies of what you want; good for me: I get to bulk up my illustration muscles and my portfolio.

Go!



EDIT: For DrCheckmate...

Straya... or what's left of it

So one of my many favourite games growing up was TMNT, which naturally led me to After the Bomb, Heroes Unlimited and then on to Rifts. Great fun, good times, 'cept one thing always bugged me. The maps of Australia in Mutants Down Under (you can check it here) and Rifts: Australia (similar, with a sea from the west coast to Uluru) didn't really do much for me. I've always intended to do my own post-apoc mutant version, really trash the motherland. And a coupla years back, I finally did.

Secret Santicore

Zak over at Playing D&D with Pornstars put out the request, and yeah: I give you SAGE with bells. And eggnog. Same deal as before, only the dates and email have changed. 

So from now til December 1st everybody who wants to participate e-mails me a request for some specific brand new campaign material--a new race, a location, a one-shot adventure outline, a random table, whatever. The idea is to be as specific as you need to be, but not too greedy (ask for a page or two of material). Then I'll mix all the campaign stuff requests up and e-mails them randomly back out to the people who entered. Everybody gets the requests, and then they have until December 21st to write up something matching the request. Then you post the material on-line or just send it back to the person who asked for that thing in the first place.

UPDATE: REQUESTS FOR SECRET SANTICORE HAVE CLOSED. 


YOU CAN CHECK OUT THE FINAL SECRET SANTICORE PDF COLLECTION HERE!
_____________________________________________________

Send your requests, with the (all caps) subject SANTICORE REQUEST to malignicant at gee male dot calm.

Be as specific as you need to be, but don't get greedy. Asking for a d100 table is cool, but a d1000?--better let your Secret Santicore know that going that extra 900 miles is optional. Asking for a structure is cool, a whole mega-dungeon isn't.

I will stop taking new requests on December 1. Which is also when I'll re-mail them all out to respondents.

Then everyone has until December 21st to write up responses to the SAGE request he or she got.

From then til December 25th everyone must either post their product on-line or e-mail it to the original requester.

The original requester's name and e-mail address will be on the request unless s/he specifically asks otherwise.

One request per person.

All human undertakings involving interactions between strangers involve a capacity for misunderstanding and idiocy. Secret Santicore is a gift horse. Do not look it in the mouth. No bad-mouthing people for what they ask for or provide. Serious and simulatory requests may get gonzo answers, gonzo requests may get serious answers, c'est la vie. If you're worried, try to be specific in your request so you get something you can really use.

None of this stuff should get used commercially unless the person who wrote it gets paid.


You don't have to request D&D-specific stuff. I bet anybody could handle a sci-fi or super request--but just be aware that the pool of people responding to your request will be the pool of people who read PD&DWP and act accordingly.

If you want art, accept that some people (non-artists) may merely google some interesting art on the subject and e-mail it to you. Everybody entering is probably a GM, not everybody is an artist.

I reserve the right to completely fuck up since this is the first time, but will try very hard not to.

This is Open Content.

Why Rifts was cool

Sunken Temple Map

Ain't finished yet. Basically it's explored from the top down, where the tallest towers peak through the waves. The lower levels (light blue) are far from completion, and there'll be catacombs beneath them. Press the right combination of buttons and the six towers spin round the temporal-warp-doom-gate thing in the middle and unleash hell on the world of your choosing.

Three for the Money

A Sky Full of Ork

So I've been edging round Warhammer 40K for a few years now, and finally played my first big ol' battle with some mates. Was fun. Am hooked. I'm gonna go for the Orks, cause they're stupid and hilarious and have ridiculous rules around some of their units that all fit the big risk/big payout style of gaming I like. Plus I'm taken with the Stormboyz - Orks with Rokkits!!!! - and have this silly idea for an army based around as many Stormboyz as I can field - which should be about 60 of the blighters...

Gawd knows where the money's gonna come for all this, but I have the creative itch something bad, and kinda don't want it to go to waste. I also have a bunch of coke bottles lying around, and I think I can make a pretty badass Ork Landa out of them. They're a bit zeppeliny and blobby and if mashed together the right way will (I think) look pretty cool. 

But Coke bottles are really difficult to work with. Polyethylene terephthalate is really hard to glue, it isn't that strong, and paint doesn't adhere to the surface very well. So I've been doing a bit o' research to see if I can make it happen.

Glueing polyethylene terephthalate -  for a bit of cash you can fork out for special plastic glues. I'm yet to test it but that's solved easily enough.

Strength - I'm thinking of using plaster of paris to fill up the insides of the bottles. Interestingly, plaster of paris generates considerable heat - enough to cause third degree burns if you  encase parts of your body in them - but a quick check and I learn Science! Polyethylene terephthalate melts at 250C so should be fine. I also want to add several lengths of PVC piping running through the length of the bottle, as well as sticking out the sides so that I can then have an easier time attaching different bottles together.

Paint -  turns out there's specialist paint for priming polyethylene. Just gotta find out if it works with modeling paints. Which it should, given all GW's minis are, well... plastic.

So yeah. It's still all in my head. But it might just work...

The Children of Umbraxu

Born from certain souls of newborn babes that have died in their mother's arms, the Children of Umbraxu want nothing more than to have and to hold. Sensitive to the psychic wailings of mothers of the dead, they seek out those who have lost their sons and daughters, eager to fill their void with a smothering, all-encompassing embrace. One touch from its grasping arms is enough to cause the object of their desire to surrender, and they are united as one when the parent is finally held and absorbed within the Child. Once consummated, the Umbraxu drifts onwards, driven by a baby's greed for love. Weapons have little effect on these amorphous creatures, though the sound of a baby's rattle is said to be a murderous cacophony that drives them utterly mad.