quasarknight

[quasarknight]

It’s been a long time

Phew. I have not logged on here in like forever. I am mostly a Facebook and Twitter person, but I should probably look into expanding back here. A lot has happened since early 2017, and I’ll try my best to keep things updated in future posts, such as my new writing projects.

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The Core Concepts of Arcana High

The Avengers - Iron Man by theDURRRRIAN of deviantart

For the past 2 to 2.5 years there's been a particular idea stirring in my head for a while. An idea which as of now has several hundred pages worth of notes and draft write-ups the result of 2 campaign's worth of design. One of the campaigns was uncompleted sadly, yet still brought about several months worth of play. I at first decided to write up an adventure path for Pathfinder for this work, as a four-part series. This took a lot more time than I thought, so I decided to work on various side projects all the while hoping to one day see my magnum opus on the shelves of online storefronts one day (most likely for Pathfinder and 5th Edition). But like Larius Firetongue's School of Sorcery, I figured that drumming up interest over time can be a great idea.

As such, this blog post is the first in a series of revealing Arcana High.

Introduction

Arcana High is a hybrid four-color fantasy and magic school campaign in the vein of

Harry Potter

meets

Teen Titans

in a D&D fantasy world. For those unfamiliar with my earlier posts on the subject, the general idea is that the PCs are adolescent mages who found some magical artifacts. With these powerful relics, they can transform into alternate identities to better fight the forces of evil. All the while they must juggle their public lives as students in a world-renowned magical academy along with keeping the good people of Brancean safe from their ever-growing rogue's gallery of villains.

It was a rather popular itch I've been wanting to scratch for a while, due to the rarity of such play elements in traditional fantasy games and retroclones. When you think about it, the worlds of Dungeons & Dragons can support a pseudo-superhero style of play quite well. You have titanic dragons ravaging cities, foul cults seeking to awaken sealed evils, mad archmages brewing up new and deadly horrors to inflict upon the world, and holy forces bestowing their powers upon worthy mortals. With the preponderance of city-based campaigns and sourcebooks, diversity of adversaries, and the ever-popular appeal towards saving the world, a superhero kind of game with masked vigilantes wielding supernatural powers not for gold but for justice is not only feasible, it can work very, very well!

Major Themes

Four-Color Fantasy:

Masked knights, sorcerers, and druids battle a mad alchemist atop an undead leviathan creation wreaking havoc on a port city. Thieves' Guild goons shake down storefronts and make a quick getaway on charmed manticores. A golem built by the lord-governor to fight crime goes on a  rampage due to interpreting the law in an over-literal fashion. The city's gnomish-designed printing press publishes eye-catching headlines of the PCs' latest exploits and clashes with the aforementioned threats.

A Central City of Adventure:

The city of Brancean is modeled off of the real-world city of Constantinople, the capital of the East Roman Empire and then the Ottomans. As such, it is the focus of most of the setting, akin to what Gotham is to Batman and Metropolis to Superman.  It is a city of history, formed around the foundations of Highstone Academy when Aleria was but a division of independent baronies and tribes. As a principle nexus of an intercontinental trade network, it sees folk from all corners of the world (and some say of the planes). It is home to many wonderful sights, from the Colosseum where one can watch and participate in chariot races and all manner of sports tournaments; a literal Undercity home to drow, dwarves, and other subterranean beings; a 200 foot tall statue of the Goddess of Law and Civilization; and the pre-eminent Highstone Academy, of course!

Mediterranean Style Setting:

The region is known as the Bowl of Levios, dominated by a central sea also called the Sea of Levios. This body of water was home to a great sea serpent of its namesake who ruled the lands as a god-king in times long past. Although in the current era there is debate as to his divinity, there is no question that he left a great mark on the land, and many of the oldest realms are seaside and underwater cities. Here are but a few lands of the Bowl:

the Alerian Empire, home to the cosmopolitan metropolis of Brancean and the world's most famous magical academy.

the Al-Bahri Sultanate, a southern kingdom home to the Ridhai, who sail the seas on the back of island-sized Zaratan turtles.

the city-state of Kremdora, which suffered a devastating cataclysm while fighting an ascendant mage-tyrant and whose domain is now located within a residual anti-magic field.

Bristor, a northwesterly realm of small, independent kingdoms and tribes, home to knights, druids, and berserkers.

Tabiach, a realm of merchant princes and feuding city-states.

Imagine a Venice with merfolk and aquatic elf residents.  Imagine open-air tavernas serving pita bread dips and shish kebab street food to apprentice mages on their way to school . Imagine masked vigilantes fighting a possessed toga-clad statue of a long-dead emperor. Imagine an adventuring company accepting submissions from not just honorable knights and iconic elven archers, but also fair-haired northern reavers and steppe-borne nomads with curved swords. This is the world of Arcana High.

Scaling Powers:

One of the chief mechanical principles of the two Pathfinder campaigns I ran for Arcana High was the use of magical relics. Once belonging to heroes of the distant past, they could transform a wielder into a masked form which the original heroes wore themselves. Aside from the super-genius gadgeteer, most superheroes were not known for carrying around gabs of equipment to act as the primary extension of their abilities.

For that reason, instead of accumulating gold and magic items as a primary campaign concern, I more or less made the relics into scaling magic items for the

"big six" bonuses

(weapon, armor, shield, saving throws, deflection, and natural armor). I also let the PCs choose from a broad array of

relic upgrades

which could be gained once per level. They included things ranging from an elemental energy blast attack to a Green Lantern-style

major creation

spell-like ability of limited duration. Magic items were still a thing in the campaign, and the PCs did have access to a pseudo-Batcave where they could load up on common gear between missions, but with the versatility of relics reliance upon the "Magic Item Christmas Tree" effect was nowhere near as pronounced. Being an all-spellcaster party helped ease things as well, for they are the classes in base Pathfinder which can best replicate a superhero feel.

Conclusion

I have a lot more to say about this dream project of mine, but right now I wanted to focus on the major themes instead of losing my dear readers in layers of lore I already wrote up in various documents.

What aspect of

Arcana High

should I focus on next?  Talk a bit more about the magic school? Perhaps a few figures from the supervillain rogue's gallery? Sample relic powers and abilities?

Feel free to leave your thoughts in the comments!

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KickTracking: Dungeon Grappling

It's been a while since my last blog post, and I apologize for that. Truth be told January went past me like the blink of an eye, and I neglected some of my regular duties. But over the past few months more than a few RPG KickStarters I backed began delivering finished products to me. I've been fortunate to have most of them arrive around their estimated release schedule, and be more or less what I expected. I decided to share some of my thoughts on them, starting with Dungeon Grappling. The Pitch: Dungeon Grappling is more or less a variant rules fix for not one, but three popular rules systems: Swords & Wizardry, Pathfinder, and 5th Edition Dungeons & Dragons. From the days of AD&D to the D20 era, grappling has always been a bit of a bother with baroque resolution to the point that most gamers did not bother with it. I cannot speak as to 4th edition, and 5th Edition's grappling rules don't seem very obtuse from what I've seen and heard, but it was a common enough trend that the creator of Dungeon Grappling sought to create an improvement to make this combat maneuver a viable option as well as being easily understood. Communication: Douglas Cole was surprisingly active ever since the project first came to light, a rarity for many crowdfunded RPG projects. Updates occurred several times a week, and this did not change even after the project was fully funded. Cole was very active in the comments section as well, Delivery: The estimated release date for the PDF was in February 2017, with several print copy tier rewards estimated around April. I backed at the PDF level, and the final version of the eBook came to me around mid-January. There are now Print-On-Demand options for the book on Drive-Thru RPG and RPGNow in a softcover color. Delivered ahead of schedule, a rarity in the KickStarter world. End Product: The book itself is 53 pages, full-color. The artwork is very good, and the meat of the mechanics can be summed up in the use of Control Points, a kind of pseudo-hit point system reflecting how "beaten into submission" a target is in regards to grappling. I can't help but feel that won't really cut down on "book-keeping clutter," for as it is another value to keep track of in regards to hit points, spell slots, etc. Even more so if multiple creatures are grappled or grappling in the same fight. The book seems rules-heavier than I like, but in regards to individual systems it does seem to make fighters, monks, and martial types quite competent in grappling in Swords & Wizardry. However, in Pathfinder  the problem of huge monsters having extremely high CMD (Combat Maneuver Defense) values is still a problem as the CMD is substituted for a target's Grapple DC (or the overall defense value when people try to grapple you). As for 5th Edition, the Athletics skill is still important for various grappling moves and defenses, meaning that Bards and Rogues with Expertise and raging Barbarians are still the best class choices for this. Although I was expecting a more quick and dirty rules-lite option in lieu of a gradient scale, the professionalism and early delivery of the KickStarter  helped earn trust from Gaming Ballistic and any future projects they might have in store. Dungeon Grappling can be purchased on Drive-Thru RPG and RPGNow.

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The Magic School Campaign Posts

So my last four posts below are all links to my blog articles about general DMing advice in campaigns primarily centered around a magical academy.  If the idea intrigues you or you've been itching to run a game in the vein of Harry Potter, check out the articles!

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The Magic School Campaign, Part 4: 6D10 Tables of Plot Generators

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The Magic School Campaign, Part 3: Dungeons

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The Magic School Campaign, Part 2: Party Composition

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The Magic School Campaign, Part One: Themes & Motivation

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Update and State of Affairs

I came back to Tumblr, the most inactive of my social media profiles. In recent months I've taken to Blogspot, building up a following. However, I've decided that my lack of views and such on Tumblr was due to my glacial update schedule. To remedy this situation, I'm going to try and be more active here as well.

Regarding the current work projects of Quasar Knight Enterprises, I am busy writing up an adventure for Pathfinder. I cannot give an exact release date, but I can safely say that I've made significant progress on writing it up!

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14 New Monstrous Races for your Labyrinth Lord and OSR-compatible games!

Have you ever wanted to try your hand at a more exotic option than dwarf or halfling?  Have you ever gotten your wish to play as a monster, only for their society to be lacking interesting cultural details beyond the familiar “kill or be killed” write-up?  Have you ever worried that a monstrous PC would end up overshadowing the other players with abilities far too powerful for standard adventuring parties?

  If you answered yes to any of these questions, then Old School Monster Classes is the answer to your prayers!  Included within this book are 14 new classes based off of popular and iconic figures.

  Play as a Giant, a mighty descendant of a fallen empire!

Be a Medusa, a transformed humanoid whose gaze can cause deadly petrification or great insight in onlookers!

Try your hand as a Naga, a spirit guardian of ley lines and extraplanar prisons

Take the role of a Vampire, a powerful yet cursed undead being with peerless predatory abilities

  And much, much more!

  You've GMed them, you fought them, now it's time to play as them!  Grab Old School Monster Classes if you want fun, versatile options your gaming group is sure to enjoy!

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 My new mini-bestiary for the Pathfinder Role-Playing Game!

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Someone in a thread over at the Pathfinder RPG pafe said said “These personal issues really distracts from the game. Does anyone remember the days when none of this stuff was a friggin issue and all we had was fun????” Such a time never existed, and if you think it does it’s because either as a guy you never had to deal with it, or for some reason your experiences were sheltered. You know what days *I* remember? I remember being told no matter how well I rolled, my female D&D fighter could not, as a matter of the *rules* be as strong as a man. Another player could decide his 13-year-old boy PC had a 18/00 Strength because he was magically blessed, but as a female character I *couldn’t*. I remember bringing in a new character and being told they’d pick me up at the next village, and my background would be randomly rolled for. And do you know what was rolled? Harlot. And then I had to see what KIND of harlot. But, I was assured, this was totally fair. Because I might end up being a pimp, which would mean I was a male character. But no, I was a wanton wench. I remember not being ABLE to find a figure for a female warrior who didn’t have her tits, ass, thighs, or all of the above exposed. I remember being shown an editorial in Dragon Magazine where Kim Mohan *admitted* that sexualization in female miniatures was a problem, but claimed the Strength cap wasn’t “something any reasonable person could argue with” … AND didn’t offer any suggestions on how to deal with either issue. I remember being told that since my magic-user’s level title for the next level was “sorcerer,” and not “sorceress,” and there was NO evidence in the rules of female sorcerers, I could NOT gain that level. These were the people who TAUGHT me to role-play. And yeah that last argument is stupid, but I had NO WAY of knowing that. I mean there were racial caps for classes, and a Strength cap for gender, so why wouldn’t I accept a gender cap for classes? Those days sucked. Roleplaying was so great a thrill I wanted to do it anyway. It wasn’t until one of the toads I played with physically assaulted me I left that group, because I was young and impressionable and they had LOTS of evidence that was just How the Game Was Played. Never, EVER think that HOW a company describes things, presents itself, covers issue of gender and sexual orientation in the rules, and comports itself with customers doesn’t have a MAJOR impact on the culture of people playing the game. TSR, and then WotC, had a LONG history of showing that women are second-class PCs at best, and mostly exist as sex objects to cling to the thighs of Conan-like heroes. Played by Boys. Gary Gygaz once said that women’s Brains are “Wired Differently,” and that’s why they just aren’t interested in rpgs. Of course that attitude impacted how woman were portrayed, and thus how a lot of players and DMs played. It’s NOT that “All Cheesecake is Bad.” I’m not claiming you can’t have sexy character and nods to pulp – you just have to have them for both genders, and you have to have more than that. You have to show a RANGE of characters, male and female, spellcaster and warrior, preferable in every product but absolutely in the core rules. Paizo and Pathfinder do a MUCH better job of that than anything WotC did before 5e (and 5e is too new to fairly judge either way). And so yeah, it is NO surprise to me when I can have fun with every Pathfinder group I ever meet, and get inappropriately harassed by about a third of the MTG and D&D groups I encounter. So yeah, this stuff matters. It has ALWAYS mattered. And we NEED it in order to allow EVERYONE to “all have fun.”

Dungeon Dames (via adventuresinozrpg)

Preach it, sisterfriend.

(via jessicalprice)

Seconded.

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TABLETOP RPGS GET CLASSY WITH THE ADVENTURER’S KIT

Designed by Mitch Barchi, the Adventurer’s Kit is what I imagine someone like Mark Twain or Winston Churchill would have played D&D with back in their day.

From the artist: 

The Adventurer’s Kit had been inspired by my lifelong passion for roleplaying games like Dungeons and Dragons or World of Dungeons. My goal was to create a portable kit that anyone could pickup and play a quick, or introductory, roleplaying session with little to no prep time. I created a simple overland map illustration for the lid using the Art Institute of Seattle’s lasercutter. I also included a standard set of polyhedral dice since they are used in many roleplaying systems. Many roleplaying systems also use miniatures, I wanted to include some basic minis for the players. The miniatures featured in these sets are vintage unpainted Heroscape monsters. Also provided is a Moleskine notebook with gridded paper if the player or game master want to map a dungeon or take notes. Each kit also includes a pamphlet for the excellent hack and slash World of Dungeons RPG system. These printouts and other adventure PDFs can be found on Dungeon-World.com for free. With the tools provided in these kits players and game masters alike can enjoy an adventure on the go.

Too bad it’s a one-off. This guy should think about pitching this to Wizards of the Coast for some sort of D&D Collector’s Edition Starter Set idea. I’d totally by the living shit out of something like that.

CHECK IT: More tabletop ish BUY: Dungeons & Dragons 5th Edition Starter Set

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Ever notice how few beasts there are of Fine and Diminutve size?  And how most of the ones that exist are some variety of insect swarm?

Well, I just designed a new mini-bestiary containing 12 new monsters to rectify this problem!  Get it at Drive-Thru RPG, RPGNow, and (soon) Paizo and D20 Pathfinder SRD for the low price of $3.99!

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Meet the iconics: Zadim the Slayer \m/

Zadim, the so-called “Shadow of Sarenrae,” travels the lands of the Inner Sea as an associate of Sarenrae’s church, providing deadly solutions to problems the religion cannot resolve through diplomacy and forgiveness.

I’ll take two, please. This kind of backstory is exceptional, and the way it connects with the other iconics in the world is exciting.

In my own games, I try to write things so that the players will meet or re-meet someone from their past during the story or during a fight of some kind. Glad to see this happening in Zadim’s past too.

- Mathew out!

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Very cool artwork

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He who fights with monsters should be careful he doesn’t become a monster himself. Unless that makes him more effective at fighting monsters. Like he becomes a badass werewolf who knows how to use a sword and has magic armor. That’d be so rad.

Nietzsche (via doc-sarge)