Ravenpenny

Gamemaster's Guidepost: No Such Thing as a Free Lunch

A few quick thoughts on making sure players play their disadvantages and alternative methods to make sure they count in some way if they don't.

Boil and Bubble: Detailed Ritual Path Magic Grimoires

Little less fiction this time. Basically, these rules take the ones for grimoires for RPM and breaks them down by form, composition, etc. Enjoy.

(Note: This link will expire on 9/2/17)

The Hurt Locker: Spirit Phone

Say you get a phone call in the middle of the night. You reach for your phone and you answer it:

"Hello?" you say. At first there is silence. Then the line crackles a bit and you know you either have a bad connection or it's a robocall.

"Is that you, dear?" says a frail old voice on the other end. You're blood runs cold because you think you recognize the voice on the other end. It's your grandma. But grandma died when you were a kid. How could she be calling you? Relief washes through y...

Gamemaster's Guidepost: Slow Lane Sessions

Sometimes the GM messes up. Sometimes its the players. In any case everyone has had slow lane sessions where the speed of game and speed of plot are simply not. I've got a few ideas on how to deal with gaming in the slow lane when it happens.

The Chronicles of Ceteri - A-Team - S00E11 - Given Up for Dead, Part III

Apologies for the late post. I got wrapped up yesterday and utterly distracted by the fact that it appeared I would not make GenCon due to transportation issues. Here is a session recap from the Vault.

Workity McWork Work

Guys,

I'm in the process of going through Patreon and reworking things. So bear with me. Also, I've taken the plunge and purchased web hosting. I'll be migrating everything over to a wordpress.org blog hopefully within the month (my goal is before Gen Con). I've got August 2017's specials near finished (RPM and Monster Hunters FTW, y'all). I've got some backlog of blog posts done and you guys will not be without posts when I'm absent the middle of next month.

Hmmm. Wh...

Gamemaster's Guidepost: Building a Mystery

A few notes on how I incorporate mysteries in my own campaigns along with some advice.

Blog Post Fishing

Ok! I'm looking for FIVE blog topics to cover for my blog. Hit me up, beautiful people. Tell me what you want to see.

Note: Lengthy topics or very complex ones are likely to be ignored at the moment. So keep it somewhat simple. :-)

Designer's Notes: Chi Sorcery

Designer's Notes for my latest article that's out today in Pyramid #3/105: Cinematic Magic.

Pyramid Article Fishing

I'm fishing for ideas for some Pyramid themes. I've got ideas for things with an asterisk - those without I've no idea yet. So what would y'all like to see me write?  Any thoughts? 

Combat*

Hot Spots and Locations

Action

Alternate GURPS*

After the End 

GURPS101: Battle Fatigue

A random thought on how to make FP in combat more "costly" by making it use Long-Term Fatigue Points instead of just FP.

The Hurt Locker: Doodads and Gewgaws, Part II

 Finishing up my thoughts on pulling something outta yer tuckus in game using Gizmos and its ilk. 

The Chronicles of Ceteri - A-Team - S00E10 - Given Up for Dead, Part II

 The first session back in a campaign that's been ongoing in one form or another for the better part of a decade. Lots of stuff in this episode and even more to unpack setting-wise (which I'll be getting to at *some* point). 

GURPS101: Simplified Skill Maintenance

 As foretold by prophecy here is yet  another "simplified" version of rules from the GURPS Basic Set. In this case it's the rules for maintaining skills. Enjoy.

The New Plan Part II

I’ve been putting some thought into this for a while and I think I’ve come up with a plan of action that will work better than the old. But before I do that I want to explain why I’m changing things up for a third time in under four years:

1) I want to make sure that those who support my Patreon – even the $1 patrons – feel like they are getting their money’s worth. But this is also a problem: what exactly is a $1 (or more) worth every month? 

Carpe Blogiem: Author, Patreon, and Blog Highlights - June 2017

The start of a monthly post talking about the state of the blog, the current goals of Patreon, and my own writing endeavors as a freelancer.

Boil and Bubble: Seiðr Ritual Path Magic

Today's second Patreon Special as how to reskin Ritual Path Magic using Norse mythology and mystical practices.

(Note: This link will expire on 8/1/17.)

GURPS101: More Telepathy Powers for Psionic Powers III

Today's first Patreon Special is more psionic powers.

(This link will expire 8/1/17.)

Designer's Notes: It's a Quest!

Some Designer's Notes for my current Pyramid article "It's a Quest!"

GURPS101: Simplified Improvement Through Study

A look at some more simplified system when using the Improvement Through Study rules from the Basic Set.

The Hurt Locker: Doodads and Gewgaws, Part I

(Been a while since I did a Hurt Locker post so I thought I'd do one. Normally, I try to get designer's notes out on the day of one of my releases, but that isn't going to happen this week.)

Today's post is about material goods - specifically material good you pull out of nowhere. I'm talking about gizmos, peoples. Glorious, wonderful, Make-A-GM-Curse gizmos. 

"What do you mean you made a mini-nuke out of bubblegum and lycra?" "Eh, I had an hour." Stupid players and their mini-nukes...

The End of Staycation

Okay, folks. I'm back on it. I had to end my little vacation early to handle some gaming and freelancing related stuff. I'm still putting together my new plan but I've got some great ideas that I think you'll like. I'll be posting a preliminary of that in the future at one point. For now, I'm catching up with everything. I'll have a new post come tomorrow - till then "It's a Secret."

Boil and Bubble: Old Skool Delving Incantations I

Today is GURPSDay and today I'm posting some spells I converted from one of my favorite editions of That Other Game for my Incantation Magic system for Dungeon Fantasy.

Carpe Blogiem: Staycation and New Patreon Plan

I'm heading out for a bit. Read on.

Still Working on New Plan

For all the new folks who have joined (thank you!) I'm still working up how I want to rearrange things a bit. My goal is to streamline stuff a bit while being able to interact with my patrons and those who frequent my blog.

If you'd like to add your voice to others please check out this patreon thread.

Again, thanks everyone. I think my July I'll have the data needed to move forward and I'll have made up my mi...

Gamemaster's Guidepost: The Worthiness or Unworthiness of Complex Mechanics

Today is GURPSday so today I'm going to talk about something I've been thinking about for a while: what does adding or reducing complexity actually do to a game? Do the rules support the roleplaying or can the roleplaying support the rules?

The Hurt Locker: How Tough is Wood?

Today is a guest post about the hardness of various types of wood. It's pretty cleverly done and I wish I'd thought of it myself. Warning, lots of crunch.

GURPS101: More Psychic Healing Powers for Psionic Powers II

The second Patreon Special of the day is all about healing folks - even if it hurts them a bit.

(This link expires 7/1/17.)

Boil and Bubble: Technomagic Ritual Path Magic Spells

Today's first Patreon special is a few new ritual path magic spells with a technological bent.

This link will expire on 7/1/17.

The New Plan

Guys,

I'm working up a (hopefully) better model for Patreon. So I'm opening this up to suggestions from all. One thing I've very likely to do is release old Patreon-only content as freebies to everyone as certain reward tiers are unlocked. 

If you have further thoughts or ideas on how I can make this better for y'all, please comment below.