Furries, Heroes and Bastards

So right now, I'm putting the finishing touches on the revised Freeform Anthropomorphica, which I will probally release as "FURSONA: The Definitive Guide to Creating Anthro Heroes". The new draft is currently 117 pages, about 42,000 words, as opposed to the original edition, which was about 23,000 words. Right now, I'm trawling Fur Affinity in search of artists in the community who work good and work cheap. I think I've found a couple of really good potential artists, and I've got enough in the art fund from Black Tokyo II to comission a relative shitload of new art.

This will be fun. As deep as the orignal Freeform Anthro was, Fursona is deeper. FA included 10 templates for Anthro characters- this revision has 20. I added a few new orders, got a little deeper into the psychology and culture of furry fandom, and have added a bit more world building info.

The biggest change between FA and Fursona is that character creation is now point based. After picking your Order, each character gets 4 points to play with (one of the reasons I went with a 4 point system is I don't like systems that are math heavy and use huge numbers for false granduer. For instance, if every advantage in your game costs 5 points and you have 20 starting character points, you're at the same place my system is, just with inflated numbers.)

Minor racial traits now cost 1 or two character points, Major traits cost 3 or 4, and if an Order has a particular Major trait as Favored, it knocks 2 points off the buy cost. The bird Orders, for instance, get Winged Flight at a discount, so they can pick it up for a point, and still have 3 points to play around with. This revision adds a TON of flexibilty and opens up some interesting design space.

I'm also working on Pirates of the Bronze Sky still. Last night I sent Louis a few monters and ecology notes, and I've been playing with the equipment section a bit. A few final tweeks to the feats, a revision with any changes Louis wants implemented, a few more monsters and peices of gear, and this one will be good to go.

Also, I'm still collecting art for Otherverse America Unlimited Edition, and I keep puttering around with rules info and setting details, but right now I'm working more on fantasy.

So I've got a few ideas I'd like to share with you.

First. I fully expect Fursona to be a Top 5 or maybe even a #1 seller on RPGnow. The first abortive release sold incredibly well, and this draft is going to be better. So sooner or later, I want to release a similar character builder for Undead heroes. I have a feeling that one will sell very well too.

I wonder if instead of releasing a completely generic character builder like GURPS or Mutants & Masterminds or BESM, releasing individual builders based around a specific genre of creature might now be the way to go? If I did a Freeform Undead sourcebook, it would have the same mechanical elements: There would be Orders, Minor and Major Racial Traits and Disadvantages as with Fursona, but the mechanical elements and flavor text would be specifically designed for building Undead. Instead of releasing a generic character builder that does multiple things satisfactorialy, I'd be releasing multiple character builders that each do one thing, but does that one thing amazingly well. I could actually see myself selling a line of character builders in the vein of Fursona: furries, undead, robots, aliens and mutants... all the highly customizable and infinitely fun races that fantasy and sci-fi have to offer.


Anyway, that's something I want to get working on in the coming year.

Another thing I want to do, after Black Tokyo III hits is a Pathfinder sourcebook for the setting. In Black Tokyo, I've mentioned the Tatakama again and again, this twilight half world where monsters and demons come from. It's always been a sorta vaugely definsed "Oriental Adventures" style D&D Setting, and now that I'm more comfortable with Pathfinder, I want to detail some of it. I also want to go through and convert Black Tokyo content to Pathfinder.... not just a boring translation, but a sorta through the looking glass effect, where we see the Tatakama perspective on the Black Tokyo setting.

One thing I want to do, and I'll have to get working on this is contact Paizo, say hey, this is what I want to do... I want to do a PFRPG version of Black Tokyo in all its hentai glory, I want to put in everything, including the stuff that even squicks me out and see what sticks and I want to put the Pathfinder Compatability Logo on it, not just the 3.5 OGL sticker with a little note upfront saying "yep, this plays well with Pathfinder."

I have a feeling they'll say not just no, but no fucking way, but I figure it's worth a shot. Despite all the sex and shock value fetish content and gore, there's a pretty good story under there, and I figure Mark and I have been way more responsible about not marketing to kids than we've needed to be, so who knows? If Paizo says no to their logo, releasing it as a straight OGL fantasy product isn't a big deal, but I would like the legitimacy the Pathfinder logo gives the release.

So finally, here's an idea I've been kicking around at work today. I've been wanting to revise D20 Modern in line with Pathfinder for a while now, and I think I've got an idea on how to do it.

What if instead of the attribute based Basic Classes (Strong Hero, Fast Hero, Smart Hero, ect) you just have classes based on how the characters perfer to solve problems. You might have Brute Force Heroes (brawlers and fighters, martial artists), Manipulative Heroes (social interaction), Stealthy Heroes (spies, ninjas, theives), High Tech Heroes (gadgeteers, hackers, weapons experts, pilots) and the like. Treat your preferred hero type, which is really your comfort zone, as an Order like in Fursona. That basic hero type determines your BAB progression, saves and skill points.

Each hero type gets a few build points each level to buy major and minor class abilities,and like in Fursona, your hero type/Order gives you a break on the cost of Major abilities. Anybody can buy anything though, if they meet the prerequisites.

Finally, at each level, you can pick talents from either the Hero side or the Bastard side. Hero talents would be more defensive, helpful and give you new non-combat tactics to use, while Bastard talents focus on directly putting the hurt on your enemies. Whichever you have more off determines your character's outlook and interaction.

I can off the top of my head see the differences: I can see Capt. America as a Brute Force Hero with his focus on defensive abilties and non-lethal takedowns, while Wolverine would be a Brute Force Bastard. Vic Mackie is like an Investigative Hero/Brute Force Bastard. John Constantine is a Manipulative Bastard/Magical Bastard. The classic movie James Bond is a High Tech hero with his cool gadgets, while the Ultimate Universe Iron Man would be a High Tech Bastard, since so much of his super-tech can put a direct hurting on other people.

(The mention of High Tech heroes above brings up one other concern: tech levels. In my revised D20 Modern, the Modern and Future rules run together, and with the corebook, you should be able to play anything from Unforgiven to Sister Alice, in other words, from Wild West tech to completley insane godlike post-humanity a million years into the future. So naturally, a "High Tech Hero" in a Wild West setting is going to look a hell of a lot different from a High Tech hero in a 1980s campaign, or in Otherverse America's 2107 or in Galaxy Command's 3478. How to limit the tech levels appropirately, yet have the character type be playable in all the myraid genres D20 Modern and D20 Future encompass is a big question I'd have to adress.)

Of course, the problem of multiclassing rears its head. In Fursona, you pick your Order once at character-generation, and it never changes. In the revised modern system, you pick your Hero type upto 20 or maybe even 30 times, and it can change every time. So obviously there are a few kinks to work out, but I think this is a good starting place. Drop me a line below to let me know what you think of the nascent "Heroes & Bastards" system.

Blessed Be,
CHRIS

Wierd sex dream

So guess who I had a sex dream about last night? That's right, the ever sexy Domino of X-Force. Kinda cool.

Art Preview Otherverese America Unlimited Edition

The following two sketches are works in progress that will be used in the revised Otherverse America. I just got them earlier today, and thought I'd show them off. The top image is by Amanda Webb, who like myself, is a huge Alfonse Mucha fan, and is using that as a major inspiration for Choicer characters. The bottom is by a new artist named Mark Hyzer, whose blog I'll be adding over to the right soon. Isn't it amazing? That's one bad ass Lifer right there. Can't wait to see it in color.

Also, I'm posting this from my new laptop!
CHRIS

New TOY!

The computer that my brother frankenstiened together for me a few months back finally died last night. So this morning, I bought a nice new laptop. The computer folks are transferring over most of my files (I hope they can get my stock art files, because I'm not looking forward to re-downloading all that shit.) Tonight, I'll pop the cherry on the new computer with some fantasy work, some Pirates and some Freeform Anthro.

CHRIS

What I'm Working On: 11-7-2010

So what's in my working folder right now?

Black Tokyo III. About 20,000 words, including some new starting talents, a couple of new races, a new advanced class (the Assault Witch!) spells and 10 new monsters was left over from Black Tokyo II and will be a standalone release, probably before the end of the year.

Otherverse America: Unlimited Edition. This project is already 25,000 words longer than the original core rulebook and it'st only about 3/4 of the way done. I may split the revised corebook into a core player's guide and a gamemaster's guide. I've alredy got some art trickling in, purchased with the funds from Black Tokyo II. In to Amanda Webb, look for art by some new faces: Felipe Gaona and Mark Hazer.

Freeform Anthropomorphica. Yesterday, I finally came up with a good campaign setting to match the crunch. I'm only about 1,500 words in, but this will FINALLY be re-released. More on the world of Ferras later.

Pirates of the Bronze Sky. Again, we're on track for the July 4 release date. I'll be finishing off the first draft of this in the next couple weeks.

Talk to you later,
CHRIS

Thank You

It's been up just a couple of hours, and it's heading rapidly to #1. My royalties have already paid for the art I commissioned. It's going to top its predecessor in sales and hopefully in critical acclaim by the end of the week.
It is Black Tokyo II: Chastity & Depravity, and thank you all for buying it. Enjoy.
CHRIS

Design Notes, the Revised Otherverse America

For the last couple of days, I’ve been working HARD on the revised Otherverse America. The core book is going to be absolutely huge, and will be out sometime next year- late spring or early summer, depending on how quickly I can afford to gather art resources. I don’t want to rush it, and buying a lot of art at once strains my finances to the breaking point unfortunately.

(As an aside, if you’re an artist and want some work in the next couple of months, drop me a link to your online portfolio and information about your rates. My email is Christopherafield@hotmail.com.)

So what’s going to be in the book?

Right now, I’m consolidating information from the original core book and APEX, and incorporating bits and pieces of the sourcebooks I’ve written to date: Coven of Bast, the Eleusinian Covenant, Neverborn Again, and Razor Culture. Those will all still valid, and I’m pulling all the good ideas I had in those books, that I hadn’t though of yet when the core book was written. For example, the evil Nuremberg AI from Neverborn Again will be mentioned in the corebook, though greatly expanded on in the sourcebook, and the expanded information on the Nicellos family from Eleusinian Covenant will be included.

I will be including 11 races in the corebook- humans plus 10 non-human options:
• From the original book, we’ll have the Full Conversion Cyborgs, along with the expanded cultural options from Cybernetics Armory. We also keep the Neverborn, though their more complex racial feats will remain with their sourcebook.

• From APEX we’ll include the Couriers, Mechanics, Mediators, Nanofeasters and Shy Minutemen. (The Fluxminx and Softling Healers are getting moved to Sexually Transmitted Future, along with greatly expanded cultural info and racial feats.)

• From Coven of Bast we’ll have the Dreamborn Mau and the Ubasti, which are such an awesome idea I wish I had included them originally.

• From Guide to the Known Galaxy, we’ve got the Half Grey, who will be absolutely bad ass as spies.

The racial mix is pretty good. We’ve got at least four races that are incredible melee bruisers: FCBs, Nanofeasters, Shy Minutemen and Ubasti. Of those, two are tied to a specific faction: the Choicers have Ubasti and the Lifers get Nanofeasters, while the remaining two can be associated with any faction. With the Mechanics, you’ve got tech-experts and the Dreamborn Mau and Mediators are both diplomacy / leadership specialists. The Couriers and Half Grey make excellent spies and rogues. The Neverborn are just creepy and add a lot of flavor, and also have some great defensive abilities as undead. So we’ve got all the major game play niches filled.

Object Philosophies- the techno-magic superpowers which are unique to the setting- got heavily revised. I went through and edited a bunch for clarity and simplicity of effect. Instead of each philosophy being tied to a specific key attribute, 90% of them are now Wisdom-based, which makes sense as the abilities are run off willpower and belief. I also standardized the durations and uses per day- if a Philosophy had fewer uses per day, it’s likely now usable 3 + WIS Modifier times per day.

A few of the minor Philosophies were simply pulled and turned into regular feats. That will make them a bit more common. Also, I took a look at entry prerequisites for Philosophies and adjusted a few downward, to make them easier to learn. Also, I’ve added a few more feats, Stating Occupation and other rules elements to reinforce the idea that Object Philosophies are a big, important concept.

I’ve gone through and revised the classes in original corebook. We’ll still have Covenguards, Neo-Witch Midwives, Closers and Vindicators, and they’ll be joined by the renamed Juggernaut Brutes from APEX and a few others. Several abilities and entry requirements got tweaked. For example, the Midwife’s “Feminist Medicine” class feature was altered so it now provides a skill bonus equal to ½ her class level, and it’s easier to become a Closer.

I’ll be adding a few more classes- the Tactical Commander and Sniper from APEX will get expanded into ten level full classes, I think. I also want to adapt the old Scion of the Pilgrim into a general Politician class. I also want to add at least one more class to each faction, but I’m not sure what it is yet. I’ve mentioned that the Choicer military uses a lot of precogs and diviners in it’s strategic planning, and I want to expand on that. I also want to create a Lifer illusionist/fear manipulator type character… I’ve been thinking of a Lifer “Mysterio” for a long time.

A couple of days ago, I downloaded Big Finger Games Talent Tree Compendium because I want to include variant Talent Trees for each faction’s basic classes, to further differentiate the cultures. I wanted to see how another game company did the same thing. I’m going to pull some of the OGL talent trees from the Big Finger Games product, as well as add lots of setting specific talent trees to each side. If I can pull it off, it will really help differentiate the cultures. Depending on the final word count of this section, it might be in the revised core book, or might end up being a stand alone product released near-simultaneously with the revised corebook.

As I’ve gone along, I’ve taken note of some stuff I originally wanted to include in the revised corebook, as well as elements from APEX that I’ll be pulling out and releasing soon after the revamped corebook as short 5-20 page PDFs. Part of the reason I’m not loving APEX as much as I did some of the other sourcebooks is that unlike Coven of Bast, which had a single tight focus, APEX seemed to be all over the place, a clearing house for data on everybody in North America who WASN’T Lifer or Choicer. It doesn’t hold up as well.

• As I said, Fluxminx, Softlings and data on the meta-porn industry and genetic engineering goes to Sexually Transmitted Future.

• Black Dream gets its own short PDF and hopefully a better name.

• From APEX, the info on FBI Freelance Investigators, Beasting and NEST Teams, not to mention the sex crime stuff from the original corebook will each get their own micro-PDFs.

• The information on Mexico gets its own PDF, which right now I plan as Zapatista rebels versus drug cartel full conversion cyborgs. Cyberpunky and fun.

• “Beyond Otherverse America” a section on the state of the world beyond North America will get its own splatbook.

• Information on Diana Station and the Lunar cities get their own PDF.

• Solomon Station will eventually get its own PDF, which will probally be in the 20-30 page range.

• The X-Swat Agent and expanded information about the Islamic asteroid mining industry and space salvage industries will get their own book, which will tie back into Guide to the Known Galaxy more strongly. Expect near-Earth space to get a lot of support soon.

• The Submind talent tree from APEX will get its own short PDF.

In terms of world information, I’ll be adding a lot more content on specific locations within the setting, especially city info on the big factional capitols: San Francisco, Boston, Pensacola and the DC Metroplex. I’m also changing the organization of information, hopefully to make the book easier to flip through and more useful.

I’m keeping some but not all of the fiction. The Lifer story focusing on the beginning of the War still feels strong, and I plan to expand that into its own short PDF. You’ll have all the Dacoveney family scenes, stats for the players and Lifer political information. That might be a freebie or might be released day and date with the revised corebook.

The other fiction needs some rewriting and I want to include more evocative vignettes, that give a better sense of the world. To this end I’ll be including a glossary and time line, probably as stand-alone short PDFs included with the zipfile containing the Core Book. And yes, we’ll have a full index to everything.

So I’m also working on story elements as much as I am game play elements. I want to include more information about game-mastering this wild and complex setting. Expect a series of suggested plug ‘n play rules modifications that explore different themes and story elements in the world. Also look for the Intangibles sidebars, which I liked from the original core book, to remain and get a bit more comprehensive and useful. They’ll also be a bibliography in the back, which is an odd inclusion for a RPG, but there you go.

They’ll also be advice on more fully integrating Psi-Watch material into Otherverse America, either just as bits and pieces of classes, guns, ect and exploring some of the dimensional connections I brought up in Psi-Watch Unlimited Edition (Metamorphosis North, Bubastis Black, the dimensionally duplicated Cassie Feneris’).

Something else I want to do is include a sense of generationality, and provide better options for campaigns set at different eras of history. I’ve ran campaigns set during the RAINBOW era, during the War itself and during 2107, and I want to include that versatility for players. I really want player to be able to run characters groups of mixed age- 60 year old War veterans, 120 year old immortal physicians, 18 year hot headed rookies, and precocious 8 year old apprentice priestesses and child soldiers, and have the differences all mean something.

I also want to include more support for Lifer characters as player options and not just as shooting targets. It’s funny, but even when I’ve played the setting with people who are pro-life or conservative in real life, they’ve built characters that were either explicitly Choicer or unaligned mercenaries who work most often for the Choicers. They do this even when I try to keep interactions with both sides neutral or friendly, until the players themselves pick a side. It’s weird, and I wonder how much is my unconscious bias as a GM, and how much is a realization that whatever your real-world politics, in Otherverse America the Lifers are pretty clearly the bad guys.

Anyway, with Black Tokyo II coming out soon, Pirates of the Bronze Sky coming out next summer, Fantasy Firearms (print edition) still looming on the horizon and now the revised Otherverse America on the docket, 2011 is going to be a kick ass year for Otherverse Games.

Blessed Be,
CHRIS