New RP projects...

Figures that now that I have more time to myself I'd do MORE RP, yes? These projects are meant to be a lot more lightweight and slower paced games than the other stuff I was trying, though. And it helps satisfy my curiosity about messing with non-Exalted systems!

Reborn Again: Destiny's End - Unfinished page for my BESM game, which should start in August after I'm settled in Montreal. I'm probably being a lil' slow with this one, but it's *Reborn Again* and so that requires some more attention to detail (read: perfectionism) from me to write all the necessary docs.

Roguelike Adventures! - A D&D 4e game, good ol' dungeon crawler in the style of a roguelike game. This site is more or less complete (with players' charsheets) and is almost ready to run. :O I just need to poke at the DM book and get a good method of churning out random dungeons and such.

One thing I regret, though: working from PDFs. Gah, I prefer having physical books when I can, for running games, but I don't for either of these systems. *sad*

I've got to give BESM a more thorough look, still, so I can write all that detail that needs writing for the playable races, the setting and how magic and technology mesh in the Reborn Again world. Hopefully I can get that done sooner than later, but I don't think I'll sit and really work on it till next week. ^^;

Today (yesterday, really), I've mostly been messing with D&D 4e, which I seem to be in the minority for liking. I have to admit, it REALLY looks like a fun game to play in a RL group. Something of a mix of miniature gaming and roleplaying on a smaller scale. In fact, I think you pretty much can't play this game very effectively without having miniatures, or something to simulate them, because movement and positioning is VERY important in this game.

I'm actually excited to try this system out. It may be "dumbed down D&D" but it's just... very UNLIKE other types of D&D I've played. It really is a totally different game. I mean, I'd almost be tempted to say it's a misnomer to call it D&D! But there it is.

4th edition cut down a lot of the skill bloat and removed Prestige Classes for a multitiered advancement system instead. I think of it kind of like Shining Force promotions, actually, which makes me REALLY like it. :P (And speaking of that, I'd SO play Shining Force with D&D 4e. TOTALLY. It fits *perfectly* for that... but oooookay brain, stop thinking of RP ideas you won't be able to run! *kicks self*) The system no longer separates special class skills from magic, instead combining the two into a set of "Powers" and distributing them per level (there's a good amount of choice involved, too). There's even ritualistic magic, which I thought was pretty awesome.

And... what else. Well, feats are still there -- I suppose they count something like passive abilities, while powers are activated abilities (you have some that are at-will, which you can always use, some that are only used once per encounter and some that can only be used once a day.) Hit points are no longer rolled, and you're guaranteed to start with a decent amount -- it's 10 + Constitution score to start with. Races no longer get any stat penalties, just bonuses, and also get some powers specific to them. (Humans don't get powers but do get to choose 2 feats at 1st like before.)

It really is simplified in terms of character creation. I actually think the system as designed is harder to twink, and maybe some people may feel it allows for less creativity, too. But I really like it. :/ I'm particularly looking forward to actually trying to run the combat system on OpenRPG, with the whiteboard/map and uploaded pictures as miniatures. I'll probably have to go out of my way to find pictures of enemies though, or I can possibly be REALLY amusing and just use letters to represent them like in ADOM. With different colored @ symbols for the PCs!

Aw man. I totally have to do it now, and it'd beat having to find pictures of EVERY kind of monster they'd encounter. ^^;

There are a few things missing though. Like bards. They left out bards from the core! *gawk* Will this be corrected, I wonder? There isn't any true multiclassing, either, which will REALLY deter 3e players from trying it (though you can 'dabble' in a second class, at least.) And some other things I'm not recalling now, but none of it is vital enough for me to not be excited about the 4e features I DO like.

Also, I just talked to Jon and came up with some *awesome* plot hooks for our roguelike game. EPIC plot hooks! :D Mmm, I'm just so happy when I'm creating -- and I hope these games will lead somewhere good!