The Rogues' Gallery

[Hibou]

Welcome to the CBG guys. Keep active and help us make this place massive. The wiki is where it seems a lot of settings are getting posted, but don't forget to give the forums some love. :D

[Matt Larkin (author)]

I recommend reading the Creative Commons debate before posting a full setting on the wiki at this time. We are still uncertain about the future of license we'll use.

[Kirksmithicus]

Greetings and salutations, Iam Kirksmithicus and my real name is Kirk Smith.  As you can see from my screen name and real name, I am the highly creative type. If you think that's lame wait until you see my maps and drawings.


Gaming History and Current Interests
I started gaming with the D&D basic set in 1980. I have also played AD&D (1E & 2E), Star Frontiers, Palladium FRPG, Robotech, Rifts, Twilight 2000, Role-master and a lot of others.  I am currently interested in LOTR-CODA System, Burning Wheel and Harp.

Current Project
Currently I am working on a campaign setting that is not tied to a specific game system, so that it could be adapted to any system I, or anyone else might wish to use.  It currently goes by the name of The Prometheus Project and is hosted on an off site wiki.  The setting is a Bronze Age inspired setting, meaning that the technology is Bronze Age and some of the setting is inspired by historical and archaeological material, but the setting is not limited by this because it is not a strict "Historical" setting. Humans are the only race designed to be used as player characters and while the people of the setting are superstitious and believe in magic, magic is not a major aspect of the world as it is in many fantasy settings.

I think I'm going to love this forum.

[the_taken]

Welcome to CBG. We are always eager to see new faces and forms with similar interests, and hope you enjoy your experience posting on this board.

One question though: What is LOTR-CODA? I haven't heard of it before.

[Kirksmithicus]

Well me neither until about a month ago, when I bought it at the local bookstore for 3$, the original price was 40$. It is a Lord of the Rings game that uses the CODA rules system created by Decipher games.  The game was released in 2004, I think, and was a released to go with the LOTR movies.  Overall I think it is a pretty good system, could use a few tweaks, but what game doesn't. I was thinking of adapting the system to a non LOTR setting. Decipher has the license for the LOTR and Star Trek, but seem to be having trouble and don't seem to have marketed either game rather well IMO.

[Ishmayl-Retired]

That sounds pretty cool Kirk, I would love to see some more about this CODA system.

Oh, and welcome! :)

[Kirksmithicus]

Thanks for the welcome guys.  

Here are a couple of links for the CODA system; Decipher homepage and the wikipedia page.

Well it says the game came out in 2002, so I stand corrected.  It also says that the game system is similar to the d20 system, though I cannot confirm nor deny this claim as I have never played or even read a d20 book. I kind of drifted away from RPG's for about the last 6-8 years

[Hedgewriter]

Hello all, new to the site and thought I would follow suit with an intro.

Gaming Systems I use
-Castles and Crusades, AD&D/D&D (a bit from everything except 4.0)
-I've played a bunch of different stuff from Gamma World, Star Frontiers, MERP (not much), and various others.

General Gaming History
I was introduced to D&D Box sets and AD&D 1st ed in the mid 80's and played with any number of groups as I went through my career in the Navy.  Have done quite a bit of world development and campaign creation and actually enjoy that almost as much as the random game I get involved in.   (I live in the sticks and it is tough to get a group together.)  I have about 5 unfinished projects laying around, guess I never found a good world hook that kept me interested.  I recently came up with something that I "THINK" is unique that has truly captured my interest and the creative juices are flowing.  

Current Project
I am currently poring over one of my old geology textbooks and searching for info on the dynamo effect and how it creates the magnetic field around the earth.  The fact that our poles are wandering and that history shows the poles have reversed in the past made me start to think.  Our earth has a solid core with a molten iron  outer core.  My thought was what if the solid core ran completely from north to south effectively splitting the earth in two halves EACH with their own liquid outer core you would get two distinctly separate fields of force created.  If these fields of force (which on earth are used by turtles, homing pigeons, and other animals as guidance tools) could be taken advantage of by certain talented people and not just animals it could be considered a form of magic.  Two basic schools based on each side of the world's different fields.  If you apply the shift of magnetic fields to this world you could come up with a bunch of unique possibilities, plot lines, and hooks for adventures.  "Magic" could be changing and more difficult to tap into, the lines of force that would have traditionally been linear could change making areas previously weak in magic strong and vice versa, etc.  Anyway, I have probably not explained this well and you are most likely thoroughly confused right now, if you are interested in learning more or would like to suggest some ideas let me know!

Published Settings
None at the moment, just moved and actually disposed of the majority of my gaming materials.  Got tired of spending money on books that I wasn't using.

Strengths and Weaknesses in game design
Great ideas (I think) with little follow through.  I JUST NEED TO FINISH SOMETHING!

Influences on my world-building
Dreams and strange ideas that I discover surfing the net.  I generally will get an "A-HA" moment when I see something and think, "would that incorporate into a world somehow?"

I look forward to becoming a valuable member of the community here!

Hedgewriter

[Hibou]

Welcome Kirksmithicus, Hedgewriter. Don't forget to hit up the chat! :)

[Malebranche]

Er, hello from the southern hemisphere?

I'm from Tasmania, so things tend to reach us here a bit later than the rest of the world, so please excuse any confusion I may express, like what on earth is Gurps?.  Looking at starting either a batchelor of Science or Agricultural Science next year.

Alignment: Lawful Evil, verging on Lawful Neutral - Havelock Vetinari is the ideal ruler; an organised, benevolent and public minded dictator maintains efficiency, security and prosperity

Gaming systems you use and general gaming history;

D&D, 3.5.  I relatively new at only a year and a half.  D&D does not seem to be a common passtime in this state of Australia, so finding other people to play with can be challenging.  I was introducced to the system by a friend who was a DM of the local group in college, so my experience has largely been shaped by her.  
I've tried DMing myself a couple of times, but whilst the encounters have apparently been memorable (like being upstairs in a wooden house whilst the zombies burnt it out from under you), I still feel I need more experience and planning, as I am not good at giving answers on the wing.

What published settings have you used/do you like?

I guess I'm most familiar with Faerun and the Forgotten Realms, but have never really been attracted to Eberron.  Otherwise, most of it is home brew.  Faerun is good for it's depth, but I just feel something is lacking...

Strengths and weaknesses in game design
I consider some of my strengths my ability to have ideas (or plagiarize them if necessary), get them down and work through the bugs, especially with politics, scullduggery and scheming.
Weaknesses and drawbacks include little time available, inexperience, and the lack of a prestige class like mystic thurge to merge the shadowcaster with the incarnate.

Major influences on your world-building
Raymond E Feist - Riftwar et al. and Kelewan (Empire) Series
Terry Pratchett - Discworld
C.L.Werner - Mathias Thulmann Trilogy
Niccolo Machiavelli - The Prince
Laurell K Hamilton - Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter

Personal likes and dislikes
Likes - D&D, Science, European History, Science, Politics, Science, Philosophy, music (most types; excl. country, western, rap and hip-hop), Science
Dislikes - Essays!, also endless hack-and-smash dungeon delving (no scheming required)

[Randzz]

Salutations Melbranche.  Don't worry about it, as you gain experience you'll find your "niche".  As far as the tabletop roleplaying aspect goes, it's always tough to find people, partly due to a stigma that us "traditional" RPGers have (We sacrifice chickens, have no lives of our own, have some wierd fetish fantasies, & others to numerous to mention)  Find people that you're comfortable with & things will be alright so long as things are equal on both sides of the spectrum.  

As for one of your other questions: Gurps is another RPG system, never tried it myself though.  

The other RPG systems I can think of from the top of my head are:
The Palladium system
White Wolf
West End Games (D6)
Paizos D20 3e continuation (the Pathfinder system)  
Mutants & Masterminds (Superhero)  
Marvel & DCs RPGs (I think WoTC has the rights to one of them now).
Battletech  

[the_taken]

Battletech is an RPG? I though it was tactical skirmish game?

[Ninja D!]

I thought there was an RPG aspect to older Battletech.  If you go by video game standards, though, anything is an RPG.

[Matt Larkin (author)]

I thought there was an RPG aspect to older Battletech.  If you go by video game standards, though, anything is an RPG.

I think MechWarrior is the RPG for the Battletech universe. But not in the computer gaming world where it's a "flight" sim.

[Randzz]

The older Battletech stuff was more RPG-esk, as time went on it became the mini-tactical skirmish thing it is now.  You should see the Manga-based RPGs, particularly the mech-based ones, they're deadlier then RIFTs if that's possible.