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If you’ve ever wanted to play a Flash Gordon-esque roleplaying game then rejoice, because Slipstream is here. A pocket dimension accessible only through a black hole, it’s home to dozens of planetoids and dozens of (playable) alien races. Yes, people, places and things from around the galaxy and across time get sucked in, and the shattered remnants end up in Slipstream. There is no known way out, so make yourself at home. And to make it more fun, the whole pocket dimension is ruled by the evil Queen Anathraxa, who captures men and does… well, no one’s sure what she does with men she captures, but you can use your imagination.

This is not hard science fiction. This is barely even pulp science. This is science fantasy. All of the “planets” (the largest being the size of Earth’s moon, the smallest about 1/6th of that) have exactly 1G of gravity. Earth normal. There’s 0G in space, but there’s atmosphere. It’s thin, and you probably want a helmet or some kind of breathing apparatus, but you won’t suffocate or explode in the vacuum. There are no “balkanized” planets or mixed-race planets — it’s a jungle world, an ice planet, a desert moon, a planet of bird men, or lion men, or robots.  You fly spaceships by looking out the front window at where you’re going, and navigate with a compass (what’s generating a magnetic force to provide compass directions isn’t explained, just roll with it). It’s is deliciously silly in the best cliffhanger serial sort of way.

The game is powered by Savage Worlds, and some copy of the full rules is needed for play. This isn’t a problem for me, but I did note that nowhere on the cover does it say that you should pick up the Savage Worlds Explorer Edition or another game with the full rules. There are new Edges and Hindrances, and a neat system for generating new alien races which can be usefully ported to other Savage Settings.  There are rules and writeups for rocketships, though, and the worlds within the pocket dimension, and all of the alien races. But the core rules ain’t in here, just so you’re warned.

The art, as usual with recent Savage Worlds products, is good, plentiful, and in full color. I like the art deco-style trade dress of the product, harkening back to the 1930s. The character sheet in the back of the book is gorgeous. I want to print one out in full color, frame it, and hang it on my wall. Seriously, it’s the prettiest character sheet I’ve ever seen. The map is pretty keen, too.

About half the book is a campaign, broken into episodes like a cliffhanger serial. Everything you need to run this except the core rules and some pregen characters is right here. Prep time: minimal. If you want to be heroic and goofy and blast evil villains and all that sort of chewy pulpy retro-future fun, this is the stuff.

Buy Slipstream (Savage Worlds, S2P10008) at Amazon.com

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This is more food for thought than a rule, really: If you’re using more than 3 house rules, you may want to consider using a different system.

Allow me to clarify that. I’m not talking about minor tweaks that accommodate style of play or ease of prep, like mook rules. I’m not talking about tweaks that make the rules better reflect the setting, like adding a class or a handful of spells for local color. I’m not talking about the intentional creation of a homebrew rule set. And I’m not talking about hacking rules for fun, as an intellectual exercise. I’m talking about serious adaptations of the rules set you think you’re actively using, because that system does not meet your current needs. If you have to write up a player handout longer than two or three sentences for the house rule, or spend more than 30 seconds going over it with players, it’s a significant hack.

We don’t live in the Old School world where there’s one system we have to bend and twist to fit our needs. We live in a world with so many systems available, both free and commercially published, that you should be able to find something pretty darned close to what you want without having to expand a lot of effort to make it fit. Then you can spend your time on worldbuilding and adventure prep, instead of rules hacking. Rules exist to serve your needs, not create more work.  Hack smarter, not harder.

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Way back in the year 2000, John Wick wrote a fascinating game called Orkworld. It spun out of a bet that was in turn inspired by his wanting to run an orc bard in D&D and being told orcs don’t have bards. Being John Wick, he went off and created an intricately detailed culture where orks (with a ‘k’) have a rich and interesting culture and can, among other things, be bards.

The game is long out of print, but can be found via the usual used outlets online. I dug my copy out recently while I was looking though the latest John-Wick-details-an-interesting-culture game, Houses of the Blooded. In the language of the Ven (the protagonist race of HotB), “ork” means other, outsider, or monster. Anything not-Ven is technically an ork. Carnivorous plants? Orks. Gibbering tentacled monsters? Orks. Big regenerating things that live under bridges and harass billygoats? Orks. Naturally, I want to use Wick capital-O Orks (the Orkus)  as small-o orks in the Ven’s world of Shanri. One detailed culture should compliment another, right?

Here’s the problem: in Houses of the Blooded, you play landed nobility who would never, ever get their hands dirty dealing with a primitive tribal culture like the Orkus.  They have servants and staff for that. An Orkus wouldn’t ever get close to a Ven player character unless they were in chains under heavy guard, as a slave or an amusement. So how would a crossover even be possible?

The answer I devised is to run both games, alternating between the two as if chapters in a book. Replace the humans of Orkworld with the Ven. The nomadic Orkus are bumping up against Ven estates. In Houses of the Blooded, you play the political intrigue of debating how to deal with these orks. In Orkworld, you play the Orks trying to survive and bumping up against the Ven. The actions in one game affect the other. If the Orks household decides to move into an abandoned keep for shelter, the next scene for the Ven will be receiving that news. If the Ven order huntsmen to go in and clear out the orks, the next scene for the Orks will be a raid on their household. They impact each other, without ever meeting each other.

One thing I’d strive for would be parallels and irony. The Orkus characters would all be members of a household, working together to survive. The Ven characters would be at each other’s throats. Who’s more civilized here, really? I might have players try to create counterpart characters – a Ven swordsman and an Ork hunter with similar aspects and personalities, an Ork dowmga (mother/head of household) and a Ven Lady, and so on. The same player doesn’t have to play both parallel characters, but it could be fun.

I wouldn’t bother trying to do a conversion between the systems. I’d run both. Each player would have at least one character in each game. I’d switch game systems when switching scenes seemed warrented. I woudn’t want to cut back and forth too often, but certainly as it felt appropriate for the narrative. It might be a challenge, but I think it would work. And because Houses of the Blooded is a tragedy, if all of the orks die in the end it would be sad and completely appropriate.

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The woman known as Laetitia ‘Lia’ Urgantha was stolen from her true parents by Chaos cultists shortly after birth. She was given over to Imperial Nobles who had been corrupted by Chaos, and were working as sleeper agents. They raised her as their own child and trained her to be a spy. Under the guise of diplomatic immunity, she was transporting plans for the secret Imperial craftworld Astrum Excessum when her ship was seized by Inquisitor Lord Dorath Fator and members of his retinue. Upon interrogating her, Lord Fator learned of the widespread Chaos infestation upon Urgantha’s homeworld of Alderryn and ordered it destroyed. To demonstrate that the Imperium will not be swayed in the face of Chaos, Fator ordered that Urgantha watch the planet be destroyed from the bridge of the Astrum Excessum, under guard of Commissar Wilmoff Tarqin.

Urgantha escaped custody with the aid of one of  her lovers, the rogue trader Hanso Loh, and his crew. Although she has been recaptured twice, she escapes each time and it is suspected that she has been allowing herself to be captured in order to make contact with Chaos agents operating within the Imperium. It has recently come to light that Dorath Fator is her true father. Based on surveillance footage, she is known to be lovers  with wanted psyker criminal Lukas Skirrmakker, who is also her biological brother. It is also believed that Urgantha is a latent psyker, and is being trained by Skirrmakker.

WS: 30 BS: 35  S: 33  T: 37  Ag: 32  Int: 34  Per: 35  WP: 36  Fel: 37

Wounds: 13
Fate Points: 3
Insanity Points: 11
Corruption Points: 15

Traits: Blessed Ignorance, Hagiography, Litugical Familiarity, Peer (Nobility), Peer (Administratum), Superior Origins, Nascent Psyker
Basic Skills: Common Lore (Imperial Creed), Common Lore (Imperium), Common Lore (War), Deciet, Literacy, Psyniscience Speak Language (High Gothic), Awareness, Dodge
Advanced Skills: Speak Language (Low Gothic)
Talents: Melee Weapons Training (Primitive), Basic Weapons Training (SP), Pistol Training (SP), Ambidextrous, Pistol Training (Las)
Psyker Powers: Inspiring Aura
Gear: sword, knife, 3 doses of stimm, charge (corpse hair), white bodyglove (Common Quality Clothing), shotgun and 12 shells, compact las pistol and 1 charge pack, all-weather cape (memento)

Buy Dark Heresy RPG: Core Rulebook (Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay)

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Or Hanukkah, or Yule, or whatever you celebrate at this time of year? And any other stuff, for that matter, not just game stuff? Do you have anything planned for it? Only for reading, just part of the collection, planning to run a campaign, looking forward to being a player? Go ahead, brag on the holiday swag! Add your thoughts in the comments below!

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Wishing you and yours a Happy Holiday from UncleBear, The Core Mechanic, and the RPG Bloggers Network!

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Deep within the most classified archives of the Ordo Xenos is a file on the being known only as The Apothecary. Reputedly the last of his race, he appears as a human male but is the carrier of his species’ gene seed. When close to death, he is able to activate this gene seed and reconstitute a new body from the old. This ability also allows him to alter his appearance, making him difficult to detect. Inquisitors and Adepts who have faced him have frequently been unable to recognize him from one encounter to the next. Although he has a high psyker rating and is resistant to psyker abilities, he never draws upon any significant powers of his own. It is believed that he does possess great power but chooses not to use it, preferring instead to toy with humans as a means of demonstrating his self-proclaimed superiority.

His ship, if it can be classified as such, is disguised as a Adeptus Arbites detention box and generates its own warp gate. This device allows the Apothecary and his Accomplices to travel not only through space, but time as well.  His weapon of choice is a “sonik psydriver”, a force weapon that can open locks, disable devices, and even reprogram complex machinery sich as servitors and cyborgs. He has been spotted numerous times in the company of servitors known as “dalex”. These are in fact cyborgs powered by Xenos brains. Dalex are armed with disintegrator rays, and have the Psyker ability to drain life through a sucker-like appendage. It is believed that they are the Apothecary’s personal bodyguard, but they are known to have turned against him on at least one occassion.

The Apothecary’s primary method of operation is to seduce humans, frequently young women, into being his Accomplices. It is through these Accomplicates that he performs acts of terrorism against the Imperium. These woman typically discarded by the Apothecary once he is done with them. A great deal of the intelligence the Ordo Xenos has on the Apothecary has in fact been extracted from abandoned Accomplices. While he is most commonly found with only one Accomplice, he has been known to have many at one time with varying abilities in a dark parody of an Inquisitor’s retinue.  His primary is to sew heresy among the civilian populace, introducing such as ideas as humans and xenos coexisting and living in mixed societies, and that war should be abandoned so that the aliens, the mutants, and the psykers can become the overlords of Mankind.

Buy Dark Heresy RPG: Core Rulebook (Warhammer 40,000 Roleplay)

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• Dark Heresy
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Over the Christmas break I plan to crack open the Dungeons & Dragons 4th Edition Players Handbook and do some fiddling with it. One of my plans is to create four characters, one for each role (leader, striker, defender, controller). My intention is to have these pregens for use as player characters if I ever fall into pickup or convention game. I’ll probably stat them out up to 10th level, documenting what’s gained at each level so I can power up or power down dending upon what’s needed. Then I can jump in and play whatever role other folks don’t want to fill.

One would think I’ve got too much free time on my hands.

I’m also going to do some rules hacking around the area of Action Points. While I’m largely disappointed that 4e wasn’t a point-buy system with templates relacing classes, I am happy about the inclusion of Action Points but would like to see their uses expanded. There’s no reason they can’t be utilized in ways other games handle hero points/fate points/style points etc. I’ll post that once it’s written.

As for the subject line… that doesn’t have anything to do with anything. It just sounded good, and it made you look, didn’t it? If I were starting a D&D-only blog today, I think that’s what I’d name it.

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We’re all familiar with twinks and munchkins, those folks who place emphasis on “game” over “roleplaying.  They do things to get experience points and in-game swag even if it makes no logical sense in terms of character or story. They’re frequently rules lawyers so long as the rules (and loopholes) are to their advantage, becoming “rules outlaws” when something is “unfair” (i.e., doesn’t let things go their way). Most people I’ve played with have at least a small twink streak, because human beings tend to be competitive by nature. Most of us accept this behavior as just another style of play, and most gamemasters can work with it as long as it doesn’t disrupt the game or ruin the other players’ enjoyment of the game.

After some long consideration of my own play style, I’ve decided that I’m similar but opposite. “Roleplaying” is more important to me than “game” and I want my character to get what they deserve.  My play style can be as much a pain in the ass as that of the munchkin gamer. I tend to play flawed, underdog characters. Blind swordsmen, gnomes who suck at magic, unlikeable superheroes, discredited DEA agents, people with issues. Not combat monsters. There’s no challenge, for me, in playing a combat monster. It’s like playing a first-person shooter in god mode; it’s fun for a while, but it’s kind of mindless and pointless and loses its luster quickly. I don’t care about the experience points and the swag. I care about playing my character in character. I care about what my character does and how he reacts in the context of the story. I’ve decided that I’m like a temperamental method actor. I’m one of those journey-trumps-destination people. I’m an ego-driven roleplayer.

Yes, I have asked a gamemaster to not give me a powerful magic item because it didn’t suit my character. I didn’t even want to having it in order to sell it, because it made no sense to me within the plot and setting that my character would ever lay hands on such an item and it didn’t flow thematically.  I have banked XP in a point-buy game and not improved a character because increasing their skills would break the vision I had for that character. I have gotten angry when a character of mine didn’t die, because that was the best possible conclusion for that segment of the story and tied up a bunch of plot hooks. Saving the character ruined the story for me because it was a cop out, a deus ex machina that spoiled a ton of dramatic tension. I’d have rather started a new character and maintained the purity of the dead character’s core.

These days I’m fortunate that a lot of my friends and acquaintances are “story gamers” and understand what I want out of a game. They put up with my quirkiness and appreciate my dedication to the character. Some folks would say that my play style shows a lack of ego, because I’m not competing to win. But I am. I’m looking for a different sort of win. What I want, and the only thing I will settle for, is my character’s story being told properly. That’s pure ego, baby.

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There are multiple ways to use Traits and Skills and Encounter Savage!, all of which use the Savage Worlds rules of assigning polyhedral dice types. The first is to just use the Traits and Skills of Savage Worlds which is not the method I recommend as it does not reflect the True Scientific Realism of the setting of Vanth. The second method is to use the Statistics and Skills of Encounter Critical and buy die types as in Savage Worlds. You will get 8 points to do this instead of 5 because there are 9 Statistics in Encounter Critical instead of 6 in Savage Worlds. The journey Master may also wish to give players more points to buy skills with as well because not only are there more skills in Encounter Critical but characters in Encounter Critical would logically be superior to any other sort of Savage Worlds character! You can make this adjustment by just having beginning characters in Vanth be Seasoned or Veterans according to Savage Worlds rules.

The method that I am recommending to you here is to create a hybrid of the two and use the Traits from Savage Worlds and the Skills from Encounter Critical! While this does not comply to the code of True Scientific Realism it will give you a Savage Vanth game that is very interesting and fun to play! The table below shows what skills will connect with which Traits.  Note that in two instances there is no specific Trait but you should use the character’s lowest Trait because those skills are very hard and cost more to advance in.

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• Encounter Savage: Other Stuff
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