State of the Planes 8/20/26

Its been a pretty quiet summer here as back to school approaches, I ran a single session of TMNT and Other Strangeness (and hope to run it again) and a short campaign of Shadow of the Weird Wizard for my DnD Summer Camp this year (the 3rd "class" I've taught). The Kids in our Thursday game (graduates of the previous two years of DnD Summer Camp) are taking turns DMing right now so it has given me time to get some extra work done. I'm continually impressed how talented each of them are. My Friday game sees us playing the 5E Vecna campaign when scheduling allows and I'm not running anything on Wednesdays right now.

Running a family business in this economy is pretty challenging but we all keep plucking away it and God willing we will come through the other side eventually. For the first time in years Comics are outselling Magic: the Gathering which I attribute to an initiative we made about three years ago where we started marketing to younger customers of all genders and having my 25 year old son and 22 year old daughter taking over larger roles. I think the icing on the cake is our ComicsHub Point of Sale that has an App to allow you to order or preorder from us 24/7.

I've spent the last few months counting down to Mongoose Publishing's Dark Conspiracy powered by their Traveller 2E (now funding on Backerkit) and am going all in on the project. I have always loved the game and hope to do something with it later this year or early next.

Yesterday, I picked up Cypher Character Rulebook, the 2E player's book from Monte Cook Games, and am impressed by the changes they made to it. There are no longer only 4 Types as the genre now dictates the number and role a Type takes which I think is a big plus. I also applaud the Wound system as a nice change from using your Pools for doing cool stuff AND your "hit points". Cypher was always easy to run and I think the changes make it even easier to do so. The books production values, clarity, and ease of use (yay hyperlinks) has improved and I prefer this book over the expanded version from few years ago that, because I felt like they were trying too hard to be GURPS and it just came off as dense. I also like the order information is presented and look forward to the GM Guide and the new Bestiary. If you do pick it up the Cypher Unlimited Discord is very active and Sean K. Reynolds posted there about a quick conversion for how much damage enemies now do in Wounds which I have posted below.

The new edition of Cypher has me looking at some of the past creations/adaptations I did years ago on here and reignited my creative juices. I've found my interest in 5.5 diminishing, though my love of World of Warcraft has piqued my interest in its November release. Overall, my interest in the D20 system is waning a bit. I really like the bare bones nature of Traveller/Cepheus Engine (I keep realizing I really don't care for Feats or Classes at this point) and prefer it to Basic Role Playing. Even my passion for Shadowdark has diminished significantly.

I'm hoping for that inspiration to translate better into posts on here.

Invincible RPG: I want to succeed more often and not break the Stunt rules

I really like the Invincible RPG and therefore the Dice Pool version of the Year Zero Engine. However, only succeeding on 6s and Pushing aren't what I want to emulate with my Super Hero games. But how do you increase your probability of succeeding without breaking the Stunt system? I think I have a good solution for that.

Step 1: When rolling every 5 or 6 is a Success.

Step 2: Each pair of 5s or 6s generates a Stunt. So if my Agility is a 5 and I roll 5,6,3,4,5, I have three Success (5,5,6) and generate one Stunt (5,5).


That is it.

I hope to test it soon.

Pocket Dark Sun: Dune Reaper & Gaj

Dune Reaper: "The reaper prowls the sandy wastes in wild packs, leaping from dunes to ambush and impale its prey on its scythe like limbs."

Combat 1, Physical 2, Stealth 1, 2 Protection, 1 Wound. Heavy attack. No. Appearing 1d4+2.

Gaj: "This large reptile resembling a beetle is a psionic horror that is covered in a scaly, rust-orange shell with six legs that end in sharp claws."

Combat 2, Knowledge 1, Physical 2, 3 Protection, 2 Wounds. No. Appearing 1. 

If the Gaj succeeds with a Full Success in melee combat the target is held in its mandibles which grants the monster Advantage on further physical attacks against its prey. It may make telepathic attacks against living creatures using Knowledge.

Platinum Hits

Over the years I've created several digital products that I sell on DriveThruRPG and I was browsing those today and discovered that four of them are Platinum Best Sellers meaning I have sold over 1,000 units of each. 

Cross Planes Game Studio is very much the definition of vanity publishing and I'm extremely grateful to everyone who has purchased these products. I'm not sure what is next for me but I'm thinking about something for the Cepheus Engine or the Quantum Engine.

For those curious the Class Hack 1st Edition, the Race Hack 1st Edition, the Class Hack 2nd Edition, and the Race Hack 2nd edition are the products that are Platinum. I guess if I were a better businessperson I'd make more products for the Black Hack.

Pocket Dark Sun: Defiling

In Pocket Barbarian all actions are resolved in the same way: Roll 2d6 add the relevant Skill and if the total is a 6 or less you Fail, on a 7 to 9 you gain a Partial Success, and on a 10 or higher you gain a Full Success. 

When casting spells you may choose to Defile by using the energy of all living beings within 10' of you, whether animals or plants, to ensure a successful casting. You choose to Defile before casting a spell and it is treated as a Full Success, however you gain a Wound and all living beings within 10' are Stunned.

Pocket Dark Sun using Pocket Barbarian & Pocket Mutant

A few years ago, I discovered Stellagama Publishing's Quantum Engine and I fell pretty hard for it. This eventually led me to the full Cepheus Engine/Traveller system and I've really been enjoying it at least as much. A few weeks ago, Stellagam released Pocket Barbarian, which is a further streamlining of the Quantum Engine for Sword and Sorcery. Last week, they released Pocket Mutant and I found out today the first Pocket game was Solar Winds. All three games remind me of a clever fusing of QE, Shadowdark, and Savage Worlds. They take the best parts of those games and make them sing.

On top of enjoying these Pocket games I've been contemplating Dark Sun and Pocket Barbarian and Pocket Mutant has given me some ideas for running it.

Pocket Barbarian's skills will be the baseline but instead of giving each PC psionic gifts I'm going to have them roll mutations as "Wild Talents".

The first character I rolled up is a Hunter named Gundar Spann

Archetype: Hunter

Combat 2; Knowledge 1; Physical 1; Social 0; Sorcery 0; Stealth 1; 

Wounds: 3

Wild Talent: You can take over a creature with your mind for 1d6 rounds.

Weapons: Long Bow; Axe; Dagger (attack roll has Disadvantage)

I might get a chance to run it Friday. We will see.

DeRo for Dragonbane

 

"Clothed in rags and dirt, hung all over with hand weapons, their hair long and matted, were the strangest, most disgusting creatures I had ever seen in my life. They were dwarfs, some of them white-haired, from the Gods know what hidden hole in Mu's endless warren of caverns."

- Richard Sharpe Shaver, I Remember Lemuria!

DeRo (Degranged Robot) for Dragonbane

Movement: 10  Damage Bonus STR: +D6    HP: 15

Typical Armor: Endoskeleton (4) WP: 8

Skills: Awareness 10, Evade 11, 

Abilities: Fearless

Typical Weapons: Mace (Skill level 11, damage 2d4)