I’ve written before about my love of Mage: the Ascension. I even went and hacked another game system to play it in a way I really enjoyed, and have run it that way multiple times now. I’m not the only one who wanted to bring Mage back with a modern system. Ryan Macklin also wrote up the hack he was playing with. Now we’re joining forces on it.
“13th Age” Musings: Running Non-Combat PC vs. NPC Scenes
Specifically for my needs, 13th Age does not have an obvious way to emulate “duel of wits.” I’m aware I could just “roleplay” them or make use of the generic difficulty ratings and “failing forward” concepts. In spite of that, I still felt like something’s missing from my 13th Age GMing toolbox.
13th Age Musings: Of Templates, Uniqueness and Adventure Hooks
On one hand, I’m excited about creating stories, plots, and themes needed to establish the best possible campaign. I know the game provides me with some solid tools to do just that. On the other hand, I want to fiddle with the very same tools to make them even more useful.
“Neverwinter Campaign Setting” Icons for “13th Age”
I’ve played (and run) a few more sessions of 13th Age since I wrote my first preview, as the rules became more solid and filled out from those first playtests. I was initially more guarded, but since then, my opinion of 13th Age has only gone up. The actual books are making their way into […]
The Cortex Plus Hacker’s Guide: The Old School Job
In which Chatty describes his Cortex Plus hacks included in the Cortex Plus Hacker’s Guide and points to where you can get a preview copy of the first part!
Cortex Plus Hacker’s Guide and Fantasy Heroic Roleplaying
As you might know, Phil and I have been D&D fans for decades. Here on Critical Hits, we’ve spent a lot of time writing about, musing about, and generally playing with D&D and games like it.
Fifty Shades of “Marvel Heroic Roleplaying”
Cortex Plus is an imminently hackable system. Having played in a game that began as Pathfinder and switched to MHRP and kept the same setting, I have experience in crafting MHRP to fit unusual circumstances. I have used MHRP as a basis for changing and epic level Pathfinder game into a more story-telling emphasized hack of MHRP. What follows are some of the more interesting applications that developed in my own game.
Epic Changes: Converting from “Pathfinder” to “Marvel Heroic Roleplaying”
As our Pathfinder game progressed through 18 months, 75+ adventures, and nearly 20 levels of play it was increasingly apparent that we had captured lightning in a bottle. Despite the pressures of adulthood, careers, significant others and children in some ways our play group of nearly two decades had just started to hit its stride. Thanks to our DM, the world was teeming with possibility, fantastically developed, and linked together with a metaplot that we had been organically and naturally unraveling since day one. Meanwhile, each player had reached a synthesis of Pathfinder-style combat potency and crafting believable personalities for well-rounded three dimensional play. There was only one problem: Pathfinder itself.
Torg: A Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Hack (Orrorsh – Realm of Gothic Horror) – Part 1
In the original Torg game, Orrorsh is where Storm Knights went to die. The powers of the Horrors allowed them to prevent Storm Knights from soaking damage, which often ended up in dead heroes. I’m not looking to make Orrorsh so deadly in my Torg hack. After all, dead heroes can’t be afraid, or become corrupt and become Horrors. Since a horror style roleplaying game has a different feel than Marvel Heroic Roleplaying, there needs to be some substantial changes to how you play the game in order to get the atmosphere of horror.
Torg: A Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Hack (Storm Knight Datafiles)
Today, I’m publishing six datafiles that I’ve worked on so far for my Torg hack. Since the World Laws of the various cosms show up in the datafiles, I will briefly discuss them as well, although not every datafile will include every World Law.
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