Monster Blood! Expanded Edition

Monster Blood! Tweaking your beasties in a magical setting This is an edited version of the Monster Blood file with some new additions and explanations. Hopefully the improved formatting makes this easier to read. Enjoy. In fantasy settings, we often have a disgustingly complicated world filled with weird varieties of twisted creatures. The universe we [...]

Federation-Apocalypse Session 182 – The Coral Dragon

Splitting their disputants across two ships settled things down easily enough – and they continued their trip edgewards. Kevin had become tired of heroically posing, and had retired to his cabin to enjoy some less-heroic companionship. Now that they were past the reef, and were moving back into the deep waters, one of the consequences [...]

Assorted Eclipse Builds by Christopher West

Christopher West has been putting up a fair number of Eclipse character designs over on his RPG Blog over the past month or two – and I thought I’d set up some links here. His notions of how to build things tend to be very different from mine – and that’s a very good thing; [...]

A Feat full of Tricks, Part II – Clerics

Cleric Tricks are kind of awkward. After all, most of the other classes have clearly defined roles; Druids, Paladins, and Wizards are may use a variety of tactics, but we know what they do. Clerics… not so much. Are they the Spanish Inquisition? Laid-back Universal Unitarians? Holy Men? Demon Worshipers? Cultists? Hermit-Philosophers? Military Heroes? Wise [...]

A Feat Full of Tricks

The writeup for “Ghost”, and her Shadow Mastery ability, has produced a special request – some as-cheap-as-possible “signature” power packages for other types of low-level characters. That’s actually pretty easy; the Witchcraft system was designed to flatten the d20 magical power curve – offering small-but-versatile abilities to start, hitting the most potent abilities in the [...]

“Ghost”, Level One Shadowwalker

For today it’s an optimized version of “Ghost”, a character from the “Chosen Ones” campaign. That particular setting casts the characters as heroes who were being given a variety of special enhancements to meet the demands of a particular set of missions – and hopefully accomplish them easily. Unfortunately, the process was interrupted and the [...]

Exalted – Exaltation Research

“Lesser Exaltations” are one of Charles’s research projects – and the techniques involved may or may not have anything to do with actual Celestial or Terrestrial Exaltations. What they do involve is bonding a mortal or god-blood character to three especially-designed and augmented five-dot Manses and twelve dots worth of artifacts – a Soul Sheathe [...]

Federation-Apocalypse Session 181b – The Crimson Permanent Assurance Trust

As the convoy moved into deeper water again the temperature dropped significantly. It seemed that the reefs covered the top of a mid-ocean mountain range, creating a seascape of scattered islands surrounded by mile upon mile of barrier reefs stretching across a multi-thousand mile arc – and had inhibited exploration and trade for a long [...]

Federation-Apocalypse Session 181a – Jaws

Kevin promptly had the Nightwind Voyager move up front for the trip through the reefs; that way he could both pose in the front and be ready to do something about the reefs if necessary. Besides, he had one of the larger ships – and the toughest. Raphael preferred not to be distracted while navigating [...]

Eclipse Pathfinder – Basics and Races

I’ve put up articles on how to build (and expand on or modify in an assortment of ways) the various Pathfinder classes in Eclipse. (Alchemist, Barbarian, Bard, Cleric, Druid, Fighter, Monk, Paladin, Ranger, Rogue, Sorcerer), Hence here we have the basic package deal for Pathfinder games and the assorted Pathfinder variations on the races. The [...]

Federation-Apocalypse Session 180b – The Convoy

It wasn’t easy to get out of view of the port on a flat world – – you had to get far enough out that atmospheric hazing did the job for you – but a few patches of mist helped. Come to think of it, that meant that – at least on the open sea [...]

Federation-Apocalypse Session 180a – Driven with the Wind

The cook was most impressed with his new place of business. Not only did it have plenty of seating, an excellent layout, secret escape routes, and built-in conveniences, but the granite walls and vaults, asbestos hangings, and other fireproofing tricks might well stand up to pretty much any fire – even one of his worst. [...]

Eclipse Compiled; Umbra and Penumbra

Since I’m putting a combined version of Eclipse and Eclipse II into print, I thought I’d put up a bit about what it’s all about. “Eclipse d20″ was meant to be quite literal. Most of the upcoming problems with the d20 system were obvious from the very start, and Eclipse was designed to solve as [...]

Federation-Apocalypse Session 179 – Any Old Port in a Storm

Raphael and Marty’s continued investigation into the survivors of the Pirate’s Cove Massacre had led from one of their contacts and suppliers to the Port Authority – where one ex-pirate might be working. Who knew? He might turn out to NOT be the accountant who’d run off… Raphael rather felt that just walking up, knocking [...]

Federation-Apocalypse Session 178b – the Monks of Meanderment

Marty sighed when he saw Raphael in the tavern… You’d think he was expecting the violence to break out – and someone to cut his arm off – at any moment! He wouldn’t get anything out of people when he looked like a hermit crab clutching a concealed weapon! He practically had a sign up [...]

Federation-Apocalypse Session 178a – The Councils of Holmes

With the platypus trading expedition departing early tomorrow morning, it would be their last day in Cyrweld for a bit… Kevin was spending the last day in port at the moment sorting things out with a young lady, getting a local mansion (since he’d decided to keep up a presence in Cyrweld), seeing if the [...]

The Chronicles of Heavenly Artifice Part XXIV – A Pointed Plot

Tomorrow was indeed another day – and Charles’s morning project was to follow up with Rachel’s father about that weird starmetal item she found on herself after the fit. Fortunately, they were all worried enough about it to be up early as well. He headed on down to the family home in Atlanta – an [...]

The Chronicles of Heavenly Artifice Part XXIII – The Great Gates

After Charles got back to Dudael – and some secure communications – he got in touch with Rachel through her old “trans-dimensional cell phone” (he ought to make more of those some day!) to find out why she’d apparently attacked Astrid… The response was pretty prompt: Yes, she’d attacked Astrid. No, she didn’t remember a [...]

Exalted – Geomantic Engineering

The basic Exalted rules for Geomancy can be found in Oadenol’s Codex. Sadly, they’re painful to read and don’t cover a fair number of things that our characters keep wanting to do. Ergo… Geomantic Surveying is fairly simple; all you need is a thaumaturgic ritual to attune and extend your senses. The essence-flows of Creation [...]

Sith Hierarchy – The Artificers

Force sensitives can go over the edge in many, MANY, ways. When a mind taps into the raw power of the force, it reinforces the mental patterns associated with that use – burning them into the mind and making it easier and easier to draw on the force in pursuit of those patterns. With caution, [...]