Magical Biotech and Monster Making Part II – Monster Making for the GM.

To pick up the biotech for d20 series again, we’ll take a look at “monster design” from the game master’s side with the Spirit of the Times. Some places achieve timelessness. Others have timelessness thrust upon them. A time and place may become a legend, an idealized archetype, a fixed reference point for later civilizations, [...]

Eclipse, Heroic Deaths, and the Old School

A lot of old-school gamers say that they miss the feeling of heroism; that games these days just aren’t the same. They’re right really – and the difference is pretty simple. Old school characters die a lot. They’re quick to make, they start off weak, they catch up with older characters quickly, and they generally [...]

Magical Biotech and Monster Making, Part I – Ingredients

There was an earlier request for this, and – now that I finally have a little time for writing and putting things up again – it’s time to start this particular article-series… d20… covers a lot of settings. The realm of dream? Been there. Virtual reality setting? Done that. High Fantasy? Please! That’s where it [...]

Eclipse – Troublesome Relics

Here we have an a small package for personal relic creation designed for a character who’s own powers backlash against him, even when channeled through a focus, and thus cause him various disadvantages. This isn’t the most efficient possible way of building such relics – for starters, you could simply the abilities purchased for the [...]

Eclipse Martial Arts – Fang of the Wind

All right. Now that reality is no longer beating me over the head with a hammer, it’s time to try to get back on track, starting with a Martial Art for Eclipse d20. Tlantli Ejecatl (Fang of the Wind) (Dex). Stillness is Death. Always in motion, Strike and Retreat. Linger Not within a Foe’s Reach. [...]

Residents of the Ars Goetia, Part II

The “Demons” of medieval tomes were mostly the creation of fevered would -be demonologists and “scholars”. While they might be loosely based on a few genuine mythological fragments, those tattered threads are pretty thoroughly lost in a sea of wild conjecture. For our purposes this is good; it provides a lot of room for turning [...]

Eclipse – Building the Possessed

Today’s request is a character loosely styled after Jason Blood / Etrigan (DC Comics) or Naruto (Anime) – a youngster who’s had a mighty demonic force that some magician couldn’t handle or kill directly imprisoned in his or her body, so that it will die when he or she does. That provides the character with [...]

Eclipse d20 – White Necromancy

Today it’s a request for a mildly unusual Eclipse d20 writeup – a Wood Elf Spiritualist / Necromancer who DOESN’T dabble in negative energy, and thus is free to be a gray – or heroic – figure. This isn’t really likely to be the version the player finally uses – the backstory is severely abridged [...]

Residents of the Ars Goetia

When it comes to source material, it’s hard to get much more authentic than going medieval – and the list of “demons” in the Ars Goetia offers quite a lot of inspiration. Of course, when you read that list you don’t find a lot of game-style “demons”. You don’t find much in the way of [...]

Biomancy and Monster Mashing

Today we have a question/request from Derek. I have a request. Could you please write a book on magical biotechnology and monster creation (as in spellcasters who make monsters, not GM monster design)? Looking at most of the existing examples in d20 land I find most of them lacking. There are plenty of good ideas [...]

Variant Eclipse Shapeshifting – The War Forms

The query here is how to build a shapeshifter who more closely resembles the version found in the Player’s Handbook II – or, for that matter, Pathfinder and several other sources. The basic version of Eclipse shapeshifting involves a serious transformation into another form – taking on both it’s abilities and limitations. Turn into a [...]

Federation-Apocalypse Session 201c – From the Mouths of Babes

Felan, meanwhile, was busily angling for becoming a junior coalition member in charge of creches… After all, the others had placed a – quite astounding – level of trust in him. Having a group of hatchlings come to their dominant parent to say “We want to get rid of this kid! Give the dominant kid [...]

Federation-Apocalypse Session 201b – Draconic Circumstances

Markov was momentarily bemused when his coalition-allies asked about how he’d gotten his hatchlings so organized and useful. That was mostly Felan and his statues of course – and the fact that they had some extra powers that were useful in themselves – but that would call for rather more explanations than he wanted to [...]

Eclipsing Wealth, Part II

For today, we have an Eclipse question…. The rules let me have the internal equivalent of pretty much any magic item, whether through Innate Enchantment, Inherent Spell, or Spirit Weapon… but the only mechanism I can find for specifying external enchantments is really clunky. Equipage, with the Signature ability, lets you specify a an expensive [...]

Federation-Apocalypse Session 201a – It Dropeth From Heaven Like Gentle Rain

Marty was taking advantage of Markov’s constant mental peeking at the hatchlings to peer a little deeper… The hatchlings were so ruthless, so driven to defeat each other, so vicious in victory. They were so YOUNG. Were they REALLY that… inherently cruel? Then why had Tethen become so… benign once enthralled? He’d written that sort [...]

Viva Le Revolution! Realms of the Banefire

Life… isn’t fair. A sizeable chunk of the population winds up holding the short end of the stick in early childhood, continue to hold it all their lives, and ultimately die with it jammed in some very uncomfortable place indeed. The promise to make it fair lies at the base of many faiths. “It will [...]

Federation-Apocalypse Session 200b – Markov versus Marty

Meanwhile, Markov had been trying to track down that fat mage who’d snatched Tokif – and apparently a few more of his enslaved offspring – right out of coalition territory! He’d called him fat! He needed to be tracked down and eaten! He burst in on the young slaves he’d gotten from that “Kadia” place [...]

Federation-Apocalypse Session 200a – Flowers and Unicorns and Rainbows

Meanwhile, Valira – the formerly-possessed mouse-lady – and her two children had fled into the wilds of Kadia – although Kevin had sent a few Thralls after them to help them out. (A Thrall, in the form of a talking songbird) “Ms Valira Turner? Please don’t hide! You can get very lost in Kadia without [...]

Eclipse Questions – Reducing Action Types

Today’s query from Jasper Merendino is about reducing the kind of action required for various actions in Eclipse d20 – most notably, reducing Full Actions to some other kind of action and with respect to the Enhanced Strike abilities. This is one of the tricky ones, simply because most simple, generic, methods of reducing the [...]

Federation-Apocalypse Session 199 – Gold versus Red

With the creche under control, Markov elected to concentrate on building his coalition – with a focus on what his remaining local opposition (Ishvialsen, that gold who’d moved into the area) was up to at the moment… As it turned out, he’d enslaved the four reds near his territories, and they’d recruited one and enslaved [...]