Based on feedback from the gaming public, not to mention spurred by a desire to improve the layout, Against the Unknown is now available in a newer, better PDF form.
The new PDF is already online at RPGNow and its sister sites - if you already got a copy from there, the updated file will automatically appear in your online library for download.
If not, why not get it now?
Monday, June 23, 2014
Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Mutant Chronicles: a partial Whitestar filmography
Stalker (1979) - this goes without saying, right?
Dersu Uzala (1975)
On the Beach (1959/2000)
Monsters (2010)
The Last Train (TV, 1999)
Mad Max trilogy (1979/1981/1985)
Le dernier combat (1983)
The Book of Eli (2010)
Solarbabies (1986) - don't actually watch this
Zombieland (2009)
Le temps du loup (2003)
Waterworld (1995)
Dersu Uzala (1975)
On the Beach (1959/2000)
Monsters (2010)
The Last Train (TV, 1999)
Mad Max trilogy (1979/1981/1985)
Le dernier combat (1983)
The Book of Eli (2010)
Solarbabies (1986) - don't actually watch this
Zombieland (2009)
Le temps du loup (2003)
Waterworld (1995)
Monday, June 9, 2014
Online procedural resolution for DramaSystem
I recently finished a successful online DramaSystem game that we played by forum posts over the course of a year.
As fun as it was, we quickly discovered that the back-and-forth of DramaSystem's procedural resolution mechanic was unwieldy in asynchronous play and slowed things down an awful lot.
With that experience in mind, I've drafted the following adaptation for play-by-post games. It is untried in this form, though it draws on accommodations we made in actual play.
The GM and players have red, yellow and green procedural tokens as usual.
Players may only make scene-level moves. That is, their actions must aim at resolving the scene in its entirety. No small preparatory moves like "I peek around the corner to get a better look."
PCs in a procedural scene may have the same or different goals.
If your PC is present in the scene, you must spend a token.
If your PC is not present, you may aid those present with a green token if you have one.
The GM does not conceal what tokens they have remaining.
Steps:
1) Declare your goal, and the attendant danger.
2) The GM says which token they are spending and which ability is appropriate to the task.
3) Spend your token and then add up the numbers from your token, your ability and the GM's token, as follows:
+1.................0.........................-1
Green ........Yellow................Red -- Player token
Red ...........Yellow...............Green - GM token
Strong.......Middling..............Weak - PC ability
4) Narrate the outcome as follows:
Total is +1 or more -- You succeed in your goal and the danger does not come to pass.
Total is 0 -- You succeed but the danger comes to pass.
Total is -1 or less -- You fail and the danger comes to pass.
Monday, May 12, 2014
Malandros in-house playtest episode 2
Aranha meets Jose at the quay, where he's making minor repairs to his boat. He wants her to find out what's going on with the redevelopment plans, and see if she can do something about them. Aranha stalls - she feels like this is beyond her grasp.
Later the same day, Aranha and Sem Parar, leader of the Sao Francisco parish Nagoas, meet on the beach at Praia Beijaflor. Sem Parar starts the fight, but Aranha ends it. When he goes for her, she pulls out one of her signature moves, the rasteira, and sends him sprawling onto a patch of rocks, then kicks him while he's down. With their leader half dead, the Nagoas decide not to push things. Some of them drag Sem Parar away; about 8 of them decide to join Aranha's gang.
At a party hosted by Pedro, Rosa gossips with her friends. Pedro hoves into view and eventually works his courage up enough to ask her to visit his family home near Fortaleza de Minas - she agrees.
Meredith follows up on the lead about da Silva's visit to the girl on Flower Street. For the price of a shoe-shining, a local shoeshine boy gives him the lowdown. The one da Silva went to see is called Joselita. She lives with her older sister Paoletta. They were orphaned, and it's hard to see how they're making ends meet since Paoletta lost her job at the factory.
Rosa goes to ask her father for permission to visit Pedro's place in the country. Having obtained reassurances along the lines of Pedro's parents being home, and Rosa's promise to behave, he agrees.
On her way to Santo Antonio square, Rosa is accosted by a strange man - it's Jose. He wants Rosa to put some pressure on Aranha to give up her wayward lifestyle. Since she's not listening to him, maybe she'll listen to her employer. "Well," says Rosa, who knew Aranha was tough but not that she ran a malta, "you may have just cost her her job."
At the market, Aranha talks to the traders and tells them about Senator Cruz's plans to demolish the area. Some firebrands want to go directly to the rioting and window-smashing stage of proceedings, but Aranha talks them down. There's no need to go that far -- yet.
Early next morning, at Senator Cruz's palatial residence, a stiff-collared butler brings the morning papers on a silver tray. We still haven't seen Cruz yet, so all that's visible is his arm on the rest of a high-backed chair. The front page is all about the demolition plans. "WHO DID THIS?"
Credits roll.
Later the same day, Aranha and Sem Parar, leader of the Sao Francisco parish Nagoas, meet on the beach at Praia Beijaflor. Sem Parar starts the fight, but Aranha ends it. When he goes for her, she pulls out one of her signature moves, the rasteira, and sends him sprawling onto a patch of rocks, then kicks him while he's down. With their leader half dead, the Nagoas decide not to push things. Some of them drag Sem Parar away; about 8 of them decide to join Aranha's gang.
At a party hosted by Pedro, Rosa gossips with her friends. Pedro hoves into view and eventually works his courage up enough to ask her to visit his family home near Fortaleza de Minas - she agrees.
Meredith follows up on the lead about da Silva's visit to the girl on Flower Street. For the price of a shoe-shining, a local shoeshine boy gives him the lowdown. The one da Silva went to see is called Joselita. She lives with her older sister Paoletta. They were orphaned, and it's hard to see how they're making ends meet since Paoletta lost her job at the factory.
Rosa goes to ask her father for permission to visit Pedro's place in the country. Having obtained reassurances along the lines of Pedro's parents being home, and Rosa's promise to behave, he agrees.
On her way to Santo Antonio square, Rosa is accosted by a strange man - it's Jose. He wants Rosa to put some pressure on Aranha to give up her wayward lifestyle. Since she's not listening to him, maybe she'll listen to her employer. "Well," says Rosa, who knew Aranha was tough but not that she ran a malta, "you may have just cost her her job."
At the market, Aranha talks to the traders and tells them about Senator Cruz's plans to demolish the area. Some firebrands want to go directly to the rioting and window-smashing stage of proceedings, but Aranha talks them down. There's no need to go that far -- yet.
Early next morning, at Senator Cruz's palatial residence, a stiff-collared butler brings the morning papers on a silver tray. We still haven't seen Cruz yet, so all that's visible is his arm on the rest of a high-backed chair. The front page is all about the demolition plans. "WHO DID THIS?"
Credits roll.
Malandros in-house playtest episode 1
PCs:
Aranha, gang leader
Jose Costa, fisherman (arrives later)
Meredith Cane, grifter
Rosa Victoria Rocha Santos, slumming aristocrat
(Each new paragraph was a new scene.)
At the campaign office for Councillor Santos's national election run, the loyal retainer Erineu da Silva quizzes Meredith about some money missing from the accounts. He suspects - correctly - that Meredith used it to pay gambling debts. Cane doesn't take responsibility, and the old man leaves more suspicious than ever.
Cane meets Aranha at the marketplace near Santo Antonio church. She agrees to have one of her men follow da Silva around for a day to dig up some dirt.
Rosa is at the well-heeled Artemis Club downtown. She meets the wealthy but thick Pedro, eldest son of a Minas Gerais dairy tycoon, and successfully angles for an invitation to the fashionable Duchess's ball next week.
Aranha finds her lieutenant Bacalhau at a run-down boteco just off Santo Antonio Square. He's initially reluctant - it sounds like a lot of boring effort - but eventually agrees to trail around after da Silva and report back.
At home, Rosa's father insists she attend the decidedly unfashionable Governor's ball instead of the Duchess's. It's important for his campaign that she be charming to influential people. They come to a compromise - she'll attend, as long as she can bring Pedro.
Cane spends the afternoon at a cafe frequented by the staff of rival candidate Senator Cruz, eavesdropping on their conversations. Cruz has secured powerful backing by promising valuable land which he'll acquire by demolishing Santo Antonio market and the slums around it.
At the same time, Rosa is out dress shopping for the ball, accompanied by several of her posh friends and Aranha, who - by day - is Rosa's maid and chaperone. After discussing the prospects for the ball and Pedro's eligibility, she decides she'll go to the Governor's ball but leave as soon as possible.
As the group leaves the dress shop, they're accosted by a number of uncouth young men. To Rosa's surprise but not dismay, Aranha handily beats one of them up. She gives Aranha the rest of the day off, and some spending money.
Just as Aranha is counting the cash, her teenage neighbour Tico-Tico comes running up calling her name. His Uncle Ze's cafe is being smashed up by the Nagoa gang from Sao Francisco parish. They say he owes them protection money, but he lives on Aranha's turf.
Aranha finds Bacalhau and sends him and Tico-Tico to gather the troops. They arrive at the smashed cafe too late to catch the Nagoas.
Meredith and Rosa meet outside Santo Antonio church to discuss the progress of their plan to swindle Rosa's brother out of his inheritance. Disagreements break out over who is supposed to be doing what, threats are made, and the alliance seems like it's starting to fray at the edges.
Bright and early the next morning, Cane meets Councillor Santos at his quayside warehouse and watch a cargo of coffee being loaded onto a ship bound for Europe. Santos is concerned that his honesty will be no match for Cruz's dirty tricks. Cane proposes a little underhanded work on their side, to which Santos reluctantly agrees, and gives him some discretionary spending money. "This is just between us," says Cane, " so if anyone mentions cash being missing, we know where it went but we won't say anything, right?" Right, says the Councillor. Cane uses the money to patch the gambling-debt hole in the accounts.
At the Santos house, Rosa goes to da Silva with the news that Cane has threatened to blackmail her, saying he'd expose her plan to steal her brother's inheritance. Which is preposterous, of course. Da Silva grimly replies that he will look into Cane's activities - he's been sure the man is a rascal all along.
At the pier, Jose talks with his niece Aranha while he prepares his boat for sea. Frederico's warehouse was demolished a week ago and he only got a pittance in compensation. What's next? Aranha promises to find out what's going on.
Bacalhau makes his surveillance report to Aranha and Cane. Da Silva looks clean, even dull in his habits. The only possible item of interest is that he visited a young woman on Flower Street, at the house with the blue door.
Later, posing as a possible backer, Cane gets a tour of the marketplace from Senator Cruz's banker, who describes in glowing terms how wonderful all the new buildings and plazas will be once the poor people have been kicked out. Cane gets a signed quotation for a parcel of land.
Aranha waits till the banker has gone and asks Cane what's up. He explains what's going down.
It's a week later, at the stuffy Governor's ball. Rosa feigns a dancefloor ankle injury, not very convincingly. Unwilling to make a scene, her father allows her and Pedro to leave early, on the proviso she goes straight home. She doesn't, of course.
Aranha, gang leader
Jose Costa, fisherman (arrives later)
Meredith Cane, grifter
Rosa Victoria Rocha Santos, slumming aristocrat
(Each new paragraph was a new scene.)
At the campaign office for Councillor Santos's national election run, the loyal retainer Erineu da Silva quizzes Meredith about some money missing from the accounts. He suspects - correctly - that Meredith used it to pay gambling debts. Cane doesn't take responsibility, and the old man leaves more suspicious than ever.
Cane meets Aranha at the marketplace near Santo Antonio church. She agrees to have one of her men follow da Silva around for a day to dig up some dirt.
Rosa is at the well-heeled Artemis Club downtown. She meets the wealthy but thick Pedro, eldest son of a Minas Gerais dairy tycoon, and successfully angles for an invitation to the fashionable Duchess's ball next week.
Aranha finds her lieutenant Bacalhau at a run-down boteco just off Santo Antonio Square. He's initially reluctant - it sounds like a lot of boring effort - but eventually agrees to trail around after da Silva and report back.
At home, Rosa's father insists she attend the decidedly unfashionable Governor's ball instead of the Duchess's. It's important for his campaign that she be charming to influential people. They come to a compromise - she'll attend, as long as she can bring Pedro.
Cane spends the afternoon at a cafe frequented by the staff of rival candidate Senator Cruz, eavesdropping on their conversations. Cruz has secured powerful backing by promising valuable land which he'll acquire by demolishing Santo Antonio market and the slums around it.
At the same time, Rosa is out dress shopping for the ball, accompanied by several of her posh friends and Aranha, who - by day - is Rosa's maid and chaperone. After discussing the prospects for the ball and Pedro's eligibility, she decides she'll go to the Governor's ball but leave as soon as possible.
As the group leaves the dress shop, they're accosted by a number of uncouth young men. To Rosa's surprise but not dismay, Aranha handily beats one of them up. She gives Aranha the rest of the day off, and some spending money.
Just as Aranha is counting the cash, her teenage neighbour Tico-Tico comes running up calling her name. His Uncle Ze's cafe is being smashed up by the Nagoa gang from Sao Francisco parish. They say he owes them protection money, but he lives on Aranha's turf.
Aranha finds Bacalhau and sends him and Tico-Tico to gather the troops. They arrive at the smashed cafe too late to catch the Nagoas.
Meredith and Rosa meet outside Santo Antonio church to discuss the progress of their plan to swindle Rosa's brother out of his inheritance. Disagreements break out over who is supposed to be doing what, threats are made, and the alliance seems like it's starting to fray at the edges.
Bright and early the next morning, Cane meets Councillor Santos at his quayside warehouse and watch a cargo of coffee being loaded onto a ship bound for Europe. Santos is concerned that his honesty will be no match for Cruz's dirty tricks. Cane proposes a little underhanded work on their side, to which Santos reluctantly agrees, and gives him some discretionary spending money. "This is just between us," says Cane, " so if anyone mentions cash being missing, we know where it went but we won't say anything, right?" Right, says the Councillor. Cane uses the money to patch the gambling-debt hole in the accounts.
At the Santos house, Rosa goes to da Silva with the news that Cane has threatened to blackmail her, saying he'd expose her plan to steal her brother's inheritance. Which is preposterous, of course. Da Silva grimly replies that he will look into Cane's activities - he's been sure the man is a rascal all along.
At the pier, Jose talks with his niece Aranha while he prepares his boat for sea. Frederico's warehouse was demolished a week ago and he only got a pittance in compensation. What's next? Aranha promises to find out what's going on.
Bacalhau makes his surveillance report to Aranha and Cane. Da Silva looks clean, even dull in his habits. The only possible item of interest is that he visited a young woman on Flower Street, at the house with the blue door.
Later, posing as a possible backer, Cane gets a tour of the marketplace from Senator Cruz's banker, who describes in glowing terms how wonderful all the new buildings and plazas will be once the poor people have been kicked out. Cane gets a signed quotation for a parcel of land.
Aranha waits till the banker has gone and asks Cane what's up. He explains what's going down.
It's a week later, at the stuffy Governor's ball. Rosa feigns a dancefloor ankle injury, not very convincingly. Unwilling to make a scene, her father allows her and Pedro to leave early, on the proviso she goes straight home. She doesn't, of course.
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