Conan is coming!

The new Conan Rpg is now on kickstarter. It is the wonderful design team in Modiphius that is behind this new iteration (and as a beta tester of this game I have only high praises for the new rules system and how it upholds the themes of the Conan setting).

And not only that, there is a huge list of artists in this book to, Conan artists.

I can say more on a later date about the game and its system, but for now you can always watch this small playtest of the game with the short beta adventure.


MODIPHIUS Conan Playtest from FauxPop TV on Vimeo.

Now back this baby!

The Kickstarter campaign

Evildoers as characters in roleplaying games.

   Suddenly your group have decided they want to play an campaign where they are the evil ones. The idea seems like something that can be great fun and something different form the usual goody two shoes or all is grey type of campaign. But, is it as easy to set up?

   I have had a few campaigns that focussed on the characters on the evil side of the scale, from full blown psychos to anti heroes wanting redemption from their past. The whole range of clichés. But the campaigns never really lasted. I'm not really certain why. But it felt like it was harder to keep the steam going. For the GM it is though keeping a serious tone all the time, even focus. It were more work, it were harder to not get distracted. Being evil is though as hell.

   I think it must be the psychological aspect of it all, because playing evil stops
being all fun and games after a while and starts to get to you. But that is no fun
when you are playing people being evil for evil sake. It can't all regress into
Dr. Horrible can it? Actually I think it is almost impossible to play a serious game about being evil without actually take into account the implications and aftermaths of what the characters have done. At first it is fun, as you kind of don't have any leash in what kind of rampage your group can decide to do. But unlike electronic games there are more direct responses to everything that happens.

   If for some reason the group decides to go on a murder spree under a robbery
gone wrong. One should for the evil effect describe the normal people's wailing
as another annoyance in the grand scheme of things. But me, I can't - I would
describe the repercussions of their doings, loved ones left behind and such things. And suddenly the tone is much more serious.

   For a shorter game there is really no problem, but if this is a game that is going to last for ten or more sessions it will get to me more and more. Not saying it is like that for everybody, but i do think gamers of a more mature mind setting will kind of focus on the reactions of those actions and the implications of it.

   But I am going to draw some inspiration from a couple of video games that I
think can be the right way to go for a truly evil campaign: Dungeon Keeper and the Overlord series among others.
Those games have a more appealing approach to evilness, and with a lighter tone on what evil is more playable. Maybe even the world is grimmer. That the heroes they are fighting against really is not as heroic as they seem?
And there is something to be said about being more dastardly then directly realistic evil without remorse.

   So I've been thinking about maybe making a small Fate game around the same type of themes like Dungeon Keeper and Overlord. Where one always tries to get on top of the hierarchy, were the goodness is almost like another evil. Use loads of dark humor and portions of slapstick. Almost like the evil league of evil?

   So you guys and gals out there, what are your experiences and thought's about playing and leading evil characters in roleplaying games. Easy, hard, do you have the perfect solution or is it just a plain bad idea stepping out of the grey zone when tackling evil themes? Give a hollor my in the comments.

   If you have never tried an evil camping, go out there and experiment and then come back. If nothing else, experiment with your evil laugh. Have still an awesome rpg day!

Magic in the Prophecy

The Prophecy or Profetien as the proper the Norwegian title, is a fantasy roleplaying game I am writing. it has focus on being an old norse and Scandinavian folk belief type of fantasy. Where I also use runestunes as part of the subsystems.

A trollpakk chieftain, on of the varied races in Vanahem that lives there with the humans. Trollpakk have been away from the surface world for well over a millenia and have newly arrived through certain cataclysmic events. And before now they have never seen humans before as the humans are not native of Vanahem.

The main engine for this game is based of  the Basic Roleplaying system, Runequest and a few design choices from Call of Cthulhu 7th ed.

One of the places I have put much effort in is the magic system, or Trolldom as it is called in the setting. And I have divided Trolldom into four different branches that are thematic for the game.

Galdr: This is the trolldom of runic vibrations. With only the users voice one can shift reality. it can be heard as a deep song and also as a massiv roar. Galdr can be quite powerful, but it is not flexible. it does only have the focussed effect its kvæði allows and there only excist so many kvæði. Most practitioners of Galdr may only have two till three kvæði but there are rumors of vættirs that have access to many types.

Galdr have two skills, Galdr and Ånde. One uses Ånde to inhale the power of Galdr, and one can do this a number of turns up to the users skill limit. Then Galdr is used to release the kvæði and see how powerful the effect is.

Gande: Is often seen as a darker form of trolldom. it is preformed using small movements and the whisper of your voice. And it is always used against someone or something. An victim may even hear the whisper even if he is far away from an audible range, as he can feel the runes of his essence begins to vibrate and shift. Ganding comes in three different skill sets.

- Cursing
- Spellbinding
- Warding

There are several skills used in Ganding. Gande is rolled to perform the trolldom, Hamingja is not rolled, but the higher it is the stronger the power of the Gand is. And then there are the three different Gande skill sets. The higher one have in each the more you unlock the versatility of Gande.

Seidr: By using their own Húg can non runeborn also manipulate the runes directly. But they do it by pulling out the power of megin from their own Lik or the sacrifice of items , the very landscape itself or others. Seidr uses binding runes as formulas to create their intended effects. Seidr is very flexible and powerful, but can leave a barren wasteland behind it and corrupt its own user if a balance between what is taken and given is not upheld.  It is the practising of Seidr that finally led to the great trolldom and vætir hunt so many decades ago. to perform Seidr one needs megin and a formula from one of the bindingrunes (Wild rune, muspel rune, nivl rune, midtgard rune, vættir rune ore the Loki rune).

The skill sets one uses are Seidr to trigger the trolldom, Húg to extract megin from the sacrifice. Also each binding rune is its own skill set and the higher they are the more complex formulas one can use.

Rún: This is a form of trolldom one can only be born with. And only in the last thirty or so years have people started to be born with the rune markings yet again, since the rain of fire. A rune born have a marking from one of the 25 runes some place on his body (the exception is the 25th rune as it is the invisible rune of nothingness). The rune born have the power of that rune within him. And uses his own storage of megin to power the trolldom.Each rune have different powers, but all are fairly powerful and very quick to use.

One only rolls for the skill Rún to use the trolldom, and the amount of megin used determin its power and effect.



So that is a little bit of what I am working with for the moment.

Next in line

So I've decided to blog in english since so many of my followers, especially on google plus are an international audience.

This is just a short up.

Since one of the next Swedish roleplaying games are coming to kickstarter. I wanted to do a review of it's first edition. And the game in question is of course the classic horror game Kult.

I myself have never played or red the full game,  something I am rectifying now.

Hopefully I will have a review up next week. But untill then there will surly be some progress report on my own games in development and other rpg related stuff.

En berg-og-dal-bane av rollespill

Det har gått opp og ned i min rollespill skriving. mye grunnet konstante livs forandringer med flytting, planlegging, mer flytting og aldri helt finne roen og dermed fred i sjelen til å sette seg ned og skrive - selv når kvelden er helt åpen for deg.

Brent Jord som er det rollespillet jeg utviklet lengst som rollespill fikk stå rolig en stund, og det siste året har jeg utviklet fantasi rollespillet mitt Profetien; som har fotfeste i skandinavisk folketro og den norrøne mytologien. Den har blitt utviklet til å bruke % system trukket rutt ut ifra rollespill som basic Roleplaying, Call of Cthulhu 7th edition og Runequest. Hvor jeg selv har forandret og skrevet om systemet så det tematisk hører mer hjemme til profetien.

Men Brent Jord er aldri langt vekk fra sinnet mitt og jeg vandrer hele tiden i en skyggedal over hva jeg skal gjøre med det. Settingen er er grei, den er satt den er i mine øyne perfekt. men jeg blir aldri fornøyd med regelsystemet.
Jeg ville bruke Fate siden jeg elsket det, men det ble ikke hardt nok, og Fate som regelsystem er på en måte optimistisk og positiv hele veien og dermed ikke helt i tråd med Brent Jord.
Jeg har lekt meg med % system her også i mange år, men går vekk fra det konstant, jeg føler ikke at jeg ønsker det her.
Mange vandringer har jeg gjort her uten å finne noe jeg blir fornøyd med - jeg har hovedtemaer som skal og må brukes - Håp, Fortvilelse/Fortapelse/Desperasjon - og dette skal knytes inn i hovedmotoren. Men jeg vil ikke ende opp med et altfor lett og abstrakt system, jeg vil at spillerne skal telle kuler, jeg vil at de skal bekymre seg for hvor mange desiliter med vann de er unna fra å tørste - men ei heller ønsker jeg at det skal bli et massivt og tungt beist. En mellomting er det jeg trenger.
Fria Ligaen sitt Mutant år Noll har nesten fått til det jeg ønsker i et postap rollespill system. Så jeg har bare innsett at jeg må tilbake til skriveborde og arbeide enda mer med det; men nå har jeg noen grunnideer som jeg vil arbeide ut ifra og en gruppe folk jeg vil prøve å kaste ball med rundt dette.