This Saturday, the 14th, we're still playing. Unfortunately, one of our players is going to be out for a while. She has gotten really ill. My best wishes to her and hope she has a speedy recovery!
Friday, August 13, 2010
Friday, August 6, 2010
Rain Delay
This Saturday's session has been canceled due to the fact that only a few people can come. Oh well, there's always next week! It will give me time to prepare more things!
Some System Changes
Tuesday Rachel, my girlfriend, and I met up with a new potential player, Cody. A really cool guy who seems to have an exuberant enthusiasm for modifying existing systems and game creation. While he was creating a character, he noticed a slight irregularity in one of the skills named "Tinker". At the time, I was trying to interpret what I thought must of been correct (which is a bad habit of mine) because I let it into a final product. Though, I was dead wrong.
In this particular skill it said that a player had to roll the skills points against their own character's wisdom to see if they made the object which they originally intended. Well, Cody pointed out that the character would ONLY benefit if the character had less wisdom points. After mulling over that, I agreed and had seen my mistake.
It seems in several skills where I used the term "roll against", I actually meant the skill was DEPENDENT on a stat and the chart which followed showed what to roll depending on what levels that particular stat was. I am glad that was pointed out, but that is why I am having people play this game so we can find all the bugs which have crawled into it.
Also, another thing I have done was tweak a few skills because they were pretty bad how they were. Especially skills which had to with running away from opponents or running further. Since I know all the lengths you think I would have changed all of that in the second draft.
Lastly, I want to know people's opinions on the skill hypothesis. I read it over and was wondering what kind of mechanic in the game I was basing that off of. To refresh everyone's memory, or for those who don't have any of the rules, the skill hypothesis is something a character would use to ask more questions before another character or NPC gets annoyed. Since I do not have a mechanic for annoyance depending on how many questions are being asked, I think I should replace that skill something better. Though, I wonder what it could be.
Also, I am vigilantly working on a vehicle sheet so players can soon have vehicles of their own and also this coming meeting I will be handing out lovely objects to everyone since I forgot to do that last session. Hurray, most people will receive awesome things, while other people will be receiving awe-inspiring paraphernalia.
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
Game Play 7/31/2010
This is based off of the game play which happened in the last session of Tales of Hepian. By no means does this reflect game play or any mechanics which are found in the game.
Introduction to Characters
Bruno Von Feif
A pugilist from Bransal, West Hall who comes from a family of pugilists. Though secretly he always wanted to be part of the circus, but instead chose the path which his father dictated to him. So, after making a name for himself as a pugilist, Bruno acquired a circus bear named Oscar.
Bruno is most identifiable by his large waxed mustache and his traditional pugilist's outfit.
Maybelle
A 70 year old woman who lived happily with her husband on their wind farm (in this game many cities use wind energy and other "alternative" power sources to power their cities) outside of Ranstoc. Her husband unfortunately passed away and left her with the wind farm. After after some endeavors which led to folly, the wind farm was left with a skeleton staff of one maid and a grounds keeper.
Maybelle is most identified by her white curly hair and round glasses with silver frames.
Jesay
Jesay or Jess, is a 22 year old woman who lived in poverty for the majority of her childhood. Her parents were free thinkers from North Crow who never seemed to get their act together. In turn, she became responsible for taking care of her brother. This made her look for alternative means to make a living. Through these jobs she found escape from her biggest fear, being poverty stricken again. She has a companion which is a big black crow named Sal.
Jesay is most identifiable by her short black spiky hair. She is also petite.
Ezekeal Ramhor
Ezekeal is an ex-authority (the authority are the major police force and military force for the Hepian Empire)and a mercenary. He was on the fast track in the authority until his person morals changed and made him believe that people should not be living under such an oppressive system. Now he helps fight for freedom and helps the cause of anyone who is trying to change society.
Ezekeal can be most identified by how tall he is. Also he is well dressed and has an ever present smile on his face.
Evelyn Wolfe
Evelyn is a black sheep of a family of Cizinec. She found jobs through her lust for blood and revenge as a mercenary. She now rides alone with her wolf companion, Zora. She is 25 and has no permanent home.
Evelyn is most identifiable by her pale skin, red curly hair, and she is usually with her giant black and silver wolf.
Game Play
It is early morning in the town of Ranstoc, a city which in it nests the Night Lamp Auto and Airship Company. All is quiet in the streets and the sun is slowly rising. The ports are busy with workers coming into town. Though, the authority are busy as well because in the offices of the Night Lamp Company there has been a murder. The Owners become aware of this since they are the first to arrive. An emergency stock holders meeting is called to see what they can do about the untimely murder in their own company offices.
The sound of sirens can be heard from all around, except in a dimly lit basement. There, a makeshift ring has been made for two men to fight in. The coarse ropes sag lazily between the weather worn metal pipes which stand at each corner of the ring. The mats are boards with cotton linen tightly stretched over them. Two men enter the ring, the first is a man named Bruno and the other is a man named Jesse.
The owner of the bar steps between the two pugilists and explains to both of them the gravity of the fight, "Okay! I think it is time for you two to fight to see who represents this bar in the grand fight tonight!"
The owner slips out of the ring as the two men come toward each other. Both with gloved hands and looks of grave seriousness on their face. Bruno takes the first strike and connects. Jesse staggers a little but takes a swing, but misses. Bruno takes his chance while Jesse is off balance but misses. Though when Bruno strikes again, he succeeds. Jesse's attempts to hit the swift Bruno mostly fail, while Bruno pummels Jesse. Bruno ends the fight with a three hit combo and out of the heat of victory throws the unconscious Jesse out of the ring.
The owner at the sight of this tries to calm Bruno.
Meanwhile, a cab pulls up to the sleepy town center, Clock House Square. An elderly woman climbs out and looks around. The square is empty and not full of life like it usually is when the sun is up and full. All the street vendors are just setting up, all the Cizinec caravans are just starting to buzz with the sounds of people waking up. In the distance the sirens of the Authority cars come ever closer.
The woman hears the sirens coming and he first instinct is to get off of the street. She looks around, the only good place is the old clock house which looms over the town center. She decided to go further away from the sirens and goes into an alley. In the distance she sees The Lady of the Brewery, which is the religious house for the Galau religion.
After finding refuge in the church, she hears the sirens of the Authority fade away. She meekly crawls out of the building and heads back to where she originally started. There she sees a poster for the Grand Exhibition. The idea bursts into her head of placing bets for the night's fight. It was time to travel to a bar called Slippery Slope to place some bets. She thinks that perhaps she can bet enough at each event to win big at the Grand Fight of the Grand Exhibition.
On another end of town two people come in by airship. One is a young woman who goes by the name Jesay, the other is a man named Ezekeal. These two strangers can see from their descent that below in the city of Ranstoc not all is well since the authority are hurrying down south to the Night Lamp Company.
They get off with the droves of people who are both arriving for work and for the up coming events which are being held in the city. The airship port is bustling with activity with people leaving and coming. Some of the wealthier riders step into cabs while the less fortunate walk to their destination. People are being hugged for greeting or hugged for a goodbye. The mixture of people swirl around, as businessmen, tourists, and workers buzz every which direction.
Jesay's first instinct is to find a job and find money. As she looks around she sees large gaudy posters for the Grand Exhibition, the largest and most important pugilist exhibition in the Hepian Empire. Her mind starts to scheme, and she conjures up a plan. Next she looks for people who look like they are familiar with the town, not too far from her she sees an odd couple, a rather tall and handsome man and a rather short ugly woman, embracing each other and start to talk how they are happy to be back with each other and how it will be nice to stay in town.
Jesay approaches them, "Excuse me, can you direct me to a market nearby?"
The short ugly woman of the couple starts to laugh like Jesay must have known the answer. "Why don't you go down to the fish market? It is only the biggest general market there is."
"But how do I get there?" Asks Jesay as she hold her temper.
The woman starts to laugh again, "Why don't you go south toward the waterfront."
The man and women walk away, laughing together like there is some kind of joke which they are not letting Jesay in on.
Jesay grits her teeth and leaves and heads toward the west, which fortunately for her is the right direction for the fish market. On the way she collects plants for her scheme. Though not too long she arrives at the Fish Market, which use to be a real fish market until a capital called Tourism reared its' ugly head.
Though right now, the tourists stay away and the vagrants come for hand outs from the generous people of the Galau religion. The shop owners start to lift the iron gates which are in front of their store fronts. Jesay sees one which particularly strikes her interests. It is called Geoff's Goods. A young lad is opening up the store.
She enters the store looking for cheap and strong alcohol.
Meanwhile, Ezekeal is also looking for a job. Being a native to the West Hall region he has some idea where to go. He knows that bars would probably solve the slight problem of his unemployment.
His destination is the Light House Bar to the north.
He arrives there without much effort and looks inside. The bar has the appearance of being nice, though it is like an old maid trying to give herself the appearance of being young.
Ezekeal sits at the bar and orders a drink before last call happens. He then asks the bartender about jobs. The bar tender bends over and pulls out a roll-a-dex of cards and asks firmly, "What kind of Mercenary are you?"
Ezekeal is taken by surprise by this and thinks. "Do you have anything for a bodyguard?"
The bartender starts to look through his roll-a-dex of cards and takes out two. "Since there's that giant boxing match in town, there's people who need some bodyguards."
The two cards have names, addresses and prices on them. One of the cards gives the name of Clarence Taylor and the job only being worth 500 Pres and he needs to be protected at the Slippery Slope Bar. The other one has no name, wants the mercenary to meet them at the Ocean View Bar at table number 12 at noon for 10,000. The later one peaks Ezekeal's interest.
"Do you have more information on this one?" Ezekeal indicates the card without a name.
The bartender smirks back, "Some Chick."
Far off from the ports, airfields, bars, and shops but toward the approaching sirens, a figure on a giant black and silver wolf arrives in the city. She has never been here but she knows how cities work. She figures the more she goes toward the water the more city there will be. She can also see the Night Lamp Company's Factories to the east and the ever present light house far to the North.
As a mercenary herself she knows where she needs to find jobs. So she heads toward the north on her wolf. As she heads that way the Authority completely ignore her as they drive to the factory, as they have more important business to attend to. A slight sigh of relief inside her releases.
She gets near the Lady of the Brewery, where they are starting their holy brews. Shops around her start to open up as she heads more toward the town center. She continues on north to seek a bar to find a job.
Introduction to Characters
Bruno Von Feif
A pugilist from Bransal, West Hall who comes from a family of pugilists. Though secretly he always wanted to be part of the circus, but instead chose the path which his father dictated to him. So, after making a name for himself as a pugilist, Bruno acquired a circus bear named Oscar.
Bruno is most identifiable by his large waxed mustache and his traditional pugilist's outfit.
Maybelle
A 70 year old woman who lived happily with her husband on their wind farm (in this game many cities use wind energy and other "alternative" power sources to power their cities) outside of Ranstoc. Her husband unfortunately passed away and left her with the wind farm. After after some endeavors which led to folly, the wind farm was left with a skeleton staff of one maid and a grounds keeper.
Maybelle is most identified by her white curly hair and round glasses with silver frames.
Jesay
Jesay or Jess, is a 22 year old woman who lived in poverty for the majority of her childhood. Her parents were free thinkers from North Crow who never seemed to get their act together. In turn, she became responsible for taking care of her brother. This made her look for alternative means to make a living. Through these jobs she found escape from her biggest fear, being poverty stricken again. She has a companion which is a big black crow named Sal.
Jesay is most identifiable by her short black spiky hair. She is also petite.
Ezekeal Ramhor
Ezekeal is an ex-authority (the authority are the major police force and military force for the Hepian Empire)and a mercenary. He was on the fast track in the authority until his person morals changed and made him believe that people should not be living under such an oppressive system. Now he helps fight for freedom and helps the cause of anyone who is trying to change society.
Ezekeal can be most identified by how tall he is. Also he is well dressed and has an ever present smile on his face.
Evelyn Wolfe
Evelyn is a black sheep of a family of Cizinec. She found jobs through her lust for blood and revenge as a mercenary. She now rides alone with her wolf companion, Zora. She is 25 and has no permanent home.
Evelyn is most identifiable by her pale skin, red curly hair, and she is usually with her giant black and silver wolf.
Game Play
It is early morning in the town of Ranstoc, a city which in it nests the Night Lamp Auto and Airship Company. All is quiet in the streets and the sun is slowly rising. The ports are busy with workers coming into town. Though, the authority are busy as well because in the offices of the Night Lamp Company there has been a murder. The Owners become aware of this since they are the first to arrive. An emergency stock holders meeting is called to see what they can do about the untimely murder in their own company offices.
The sound of sirens can be heard from all around, except in a dimly lit basement. There, a makeshift ring has been made for two men to fight in. The coarse ropes sag lazily between the weather worn metal pipes which stand at each corner of the ring. The mats are boards with cotton linen tightly stretched over them. Two men enter the ring, the first is a man named Bruno and the other is a man named Jesse.
The owner of the bar steps between the two pugilists and explains to both of them the gravity of the fight, "Okay! I think it is time for you two to fight to see who represents this bar in the grand fight tonight!"
The owner slips out of the ring as the two men come toward each other. Both with gloved hands and looks of grave seriousness on their face. Bruno takes the first strike and connects. Jesse staggers a little but takes a swing, but misses. Bruno takes his chance while Jesse is off balance but misses. Though when Bruno strikes again, he succeeds. Jesse's attempts to hit the swift Bruno mostly fail, while Bruno pummels Jesse. Bruno ends the fight with a three hit combo and out of the heat of victory throws the unconscious Jesse out of the ring.
The owner at the sight of this tries to calm Bruno.
Meanwhile, a cab pulls up to the sleepy town center, Clock House Square. An elderly woman climbs out and looks around. The square is empty and not full of life like it usually is when the sun is up and full. All the street vendors are just setting up, all the Cizinec caravans are just starting to buzz with the sounds of people waking up. In the distance the sirens of the Authority cars come ever closer.
The woman hears the sirens coming and he first instinct is to get off of the street. She looks around, the only good place is the old clock house which looms over the town center. She decided to go further away from the sirens and goes into an alley. In the distance she sees The Lady of the Brewery, which is the religious house for the Galau religion.
After finding refuge in the church, she hears the sirens of the Authority fade away. She meekly crawls out of the building and heads back to where she originally started. There she sees a poster for the Grand Exhibition. The idea bursts into her head of placing bets for the night's fight. It was time to travel to a bar called Slippery Slope to place some bets. She thinks that perhaps she can bet enough at each event to win big at the Grand Fight of the Grand Exhibition.
On another end of town two people come in by airship. One is a young woman who goes by the name Jesay, the other is a man named Ezekeal. These two strangers can see from their descent that below in the city of Ranstoc not all is well since the authority are hurrying down south to the Night Lamp Company.
They get off with the droves of people who are both arriving for work and for the up coming events which are being held in the city. The airship port is bustling with activity with people leaving and coming. Some of the wealthier riders step into cabs while the less fortunate walk to their destination. People are being hugged for greeting or hugged for a goodbye. The mixture of people swirl around, as businessmen, tourists, and workers buzz every which direction.
Jesay's first instinct is to find a job and find money. As she looks around she sees large gaudy posters for the Grand Exhibition, the largest and most important pugilist exhibition in the Hepian Empire. Her mind starts to scheme, and she conjures up a plan. Next she looks for people who look like they are familiar with the town, not too far from her she sees an odd couple, a rather tall and handsome man and a rather short ugly woman, embracing each other and start to talk how they are happy to be back with each other and how it will be nice to stay in town.
Jesay approaches them, "Excuse me, can you direct me to a market nearby?"
The short ugly woman of the couple starts to laugh like Jesay must have known the answer. "Why don't you go down to the fish market? It is only the biggest general market there is."
"But how do I get there?" Asks Jesay as she hold her temper.
The woman starts to laugh again, "Why don't you go south toward the waterfront."
The man and women walk away, laughing together like there is some kind of joke which they are not letting Jesay in on.
Jesay grits her teeth and leaves and heads toward the west, which fortunately for her is the right direction for the fish market. On the way she collects plants for her scheme. Though not too long she arrives at the Fish Market, which use to be a real fish market until a capital called Tourism reared its' ugly head.
Though right now, the tourists stay away and the vagrants come for hand outs from the generous people of the Galau religion. The shop owners start to lift the iron gates which are in front of their store fronts. Jesay sees one which particularly strikes her interests. It is called Geoff's Goods. A young lad is opening up the store.
She enters the store looking for cheap and strong alcohol.
Meanwhile, Ezekeal is also looking for a job. Being a native to the West Hall region he has some idea where to go. He knows that bars would probably solve the slight problem of his unemployment.
His destination is the Light House Bar to the north.
He arrives there without much effort and looks inside. The bar has the appearance of being nice, though it is like an old maid trying to give herself the appearance of being young.
Ezekeal sits at the bar and orders a drink before last call happens. He then asks the bartender about jobs. The bar tender bends over and pulls out a roll-a-dex of cards and asks firmly, "What kind of Mercenary are you?"
Ezekeal is taken by surprise by this and thinks. "Do you have anything for a bodyguard?"
The bartender starts to look through his roll-a-dex of cards and takes out two. "Since there's that giant boxing match in town, there's people who need some bodyguards."
The two cards have names, addresses and prices on them. One of the cards gives the name of Clarence Taylor and the job only being worth 500 Pres and he needs to be protected at the Slippery Slope Bar. The other one has no name, wants the mercenary to meet them at the Ocean View Bar at table number 12 at noon for 10,000. The later one peaks Ezekeal's interest.
"Do you have more information on this one?" Ezekeal indicates the card without a name.
The bartender smirks back, "Some Chick."
Far off from the ports, airfields, bars, and shops but toward the approaching sirens, a figure on a giant black and silver wolf arrives in the city. She has never been here but she knows how cities work. She figures the more she goes toward the water the more city there will be. She can also see the Night Lamp Company's Factories to the east and the ever present light house far to the North.
As a mercenary herself she knows where she needs to find jobs. So she heads toward the north on her wolf. As she heads that way the Authority completely ignore her as they drive to the factory, as they have more important business to attend to. A slight sigh of relief inside her releases.
She gets near the Lady of the Brewery, where they are starting their holy brews. Shops around her start to open up as she heads more toward the town center. She continues on north to seek a bar to find a job.
Monday, August 2, 2010
A Starting to a Tale
This is the first official post to Tales of Hepian. This is all based off a table top Role Playing Game (RPG) made and GMed by Paul Gerrish. Before we talk about the game, let's talk a little about Paul Gerrish (who is also writing this blog in the third person).
Paul is 25 years old, works at a pizzeria, and has several hobbies. These hobbies include writing, designing t-shirts, music, and art. He also has a girlfriend of 3 years, who is not only a great friend of his but also a constant close companion in many of his real life adventures. Even though he is not willing to admit it, she helps tilt his world back to being a level sane place.
Tales of Hepian started out as an idea one slow night at his job when talking to co-workers. The steam punk genre was fascinating to Paul for a long while and he never had a chance to play a RPG or make a RPG based in this realm. The idea burned in the back of Paul's mind until a back injury gave him time to sit and write out the essential rules and system which the game is based on. As motivation and momentum arose, Paul scouted out a group to play this game with.
Paul's main goal with this RPG is not only have a great time playing something which he has made (which is a goal that has already been achieved) but to publish this so others can also can play in the fantastical world which he created. Hopefully this blog can be both a great tool to show the progress of the game while the group plays but show the progress of the system as flaws are found.
Paul is 25 years old, works at a pizzeria, and has several hobbies. These hobbies include writing, designing t-shirts, music, and art. He also has a girlfriend of 3 years, who is not only a great friend of his but also a constant close companion in many of his real life adventures. Even though he is not willing to admit it, she helps tilt his world back to being a level sane place.
Tales of Hepian started out as an idea one slow night at his job when talking to co-workers. The steam punk genre was fascinating to Paul for a long while and he never had a chance to play a RPG or make a RPG based in this realm. The idea burned in the back of Paul's mind until a back injury gave him time to sit and write out the essential rules and system which the game is based on. As motivation and momentum arose, Paul scouted out a group to play this game with.
Paul's main goal with this RPG is not only have a great time playing something which he has made (which is a goal that has already been achieved) but to publish this so others can also can play in the fantastical world which he created. Hopefully this blog can be both a great tool to show the progress of the game while the group plays but show the progress of the system as flaws are found.
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