Housekeeping!

Been a loooong time since I posted anything, but the ol' wheels are always turning, have no fear.  I've been busy researching cyberpunk, reading alot, and jotting down ideas.

To keep things tidy, I've created a second blog Retro-Cyberpunk, which will be the home of my musings for cyber74 (the straight-cyberpunk S&W supplement) and ultimately, Mages & Megacorps (the full-blown Shadowrun game).  I decided to keep Kingdoms in Trevail for it's original purpose - D&D musings, and development of my gameworld.  Keep in mind that by "D&D" I mean straight fantasy.  It will include tidbits for BECMI/RC D&D and Swords & Wizardry, I imagine.

While I've spent alot of time doign cyberpunk reading, I also have been reading some world-building and sandbox campaign creation stuff, so there are ideas brewing on both fronts.  It seems there are too few hours in the day, but I do intend to occasionally post to both blogs.

So that's the story for now, intrepid readers!  If you are here for the cyberpunk goodies, please hop over to the new place and become a follower there, and I hope you find something one place or the other that you enjoy!

See you in 2010!

Where It All Began

NOTE: This post is copied over from my other blog which I had originally created as a place to build and share Trevail, my D&D gameworld.  Once I hatched the idea to create a cyberpunk-inspired ruleset, I felt it deserved it's own home, and thus is born Retro-Cyberpunk.


So, welcome!  I hope you enjoy the fruits of my labors...


I hate it when I get an idea in my head and it WON'T GO AWAY. I always loved the idea of Shadowrun - and yes, I know a lot of people hate it just as much, if not more. But for me, the meshing of fantasy - magic & monsters, elves & dwarves - with cyberpunk - guns, cyborgs and virtual reality - just ROCKS. I played a bit on and off while in college. We were playing mostly 2nd Ed. AD&D and needed a break, so switched to Shadowrun for variety. We loved it, but the rules? Meh. Too much a change from what we were used to, I guess.


So now we fast-forward to 2009 and The Rise of the Retro-clones. The OSR is in full swing. I've fallen back to Classic D&D rather than the newer, more complex versions, and play around with Swords & Wizardry, too. Did I mention in an earlier post how much I love the simple elegance of S&W? I did, didn't I.


This is when the bug bites me. The OSR doesn't have a cyberpunk clone yet. Maybe it doesn't need one, but there it is. Obviously, somebody needs to write that puppy - so I'm stepping up. It will be a looooong process, I know, but I think it will be fun (mostly) and worth while in the long run.

Using Swords & Wizardry White Box Edition as my base, I need to first write a cyberpunk variation on the ruleset. Some of the things that need to be worked up include guns, cybernetics, computer hacking stuff, and some basic vehicle rules. For inspiration and research, I'm slowly working through the original - Cyberpunk 2020 - as well as Shadowrun (2nd Ed), GURPS Cyberpunk and even a bit of d20 Modern. I'm re-reading some William Gibson, too. Oh yeah, and watching Blade Runner at some point.




THEN, after the basic Cyberpunk/Modern rules are done, I'll need to put all that back together with the fantasy of base S&W. For the proper Shadowrun feel, I'll need to add in some additional new magic rules - most importantly Astral Space and a drain-based spell casting system.

So there it is. It will be a long, tedious process but I think it can be done. S&W has proven itself to be adaptable to other genres - look at Mike "MikeD" Davison's Ruins & Ronin, David "grubman" Bezio's X-plorers or Michael "chgowiz" Shorten's The Seige Perilous - Ultima RPG. There are also "in the works" things (poke around S&W's forums page) for a superheros conversion (Hideouts & Hoodlums), Westerns (Fantasy Wild West) and pulp science fiction (Anacreon Zeta). Some projects are further along than others, sure, but they still show the flexibility of the system.


Wish me luck! I'll be posting bits here and at the S&W forums for comments and vetting.


If anyone cares to comment, I'll initially ask one question. How should these rules be released? I see three options to choose from.
1) Offer the generic cyberpunk supplement (no magic or fantasy elements) first. It will be compatible with S&W, obviously, so people can add the bits they like from it into whatever modern or cyberpunk-esque game they want to run. Then follow that with the "full" Shadowrun clone version.
2) Offer it as a cyberpunk supplement and put in the magic rules in as optional, in an appendix or something.
3) Just go all out and do the thing as SR right from the start, with the fantasy fully integrated. People who don't want the magic bits can still use what they do like.


S&W: Cyberpunk first, or go right to Mages & Megacorps? Thoughts?

Another crazy idea I don't have time for...

I hate it when I get an idea in my head and it WON'T GO AWAY. I always loved the idea of Shadowrun - and yes, I know a lot of people hate it just as much, if not more. But for me, the meshing of fantasy - magic & monsters, elves & dwarves - with cyberpunk - guns, cyborgs and virtual reality - just ROCKS. I played a bit on and off while in college. We were playing mostly 2nd Ed. AD&D and needed a break, so switched to Shadowrun for variety. We loved it, but the rules? Meh. Too much a change from what we were used to, I guess.

So now we fast-forward to 2009 and The Rise of the Retro-clones. The OSR is in full swing. I've fallen back to Classic D&D rather than the newer, more complex versions, and play around with Swords & Wizardry, too. Did I mention in an earlier post how much I love the simple elegance of S&W? I did, didn't I.

This is when the bug bites me. The OSR doesn't have a cyberpunk clone yet. Maybe it doesn't need one, but there it is. Obviously, somebody needs to write that puppy - so I'm stepping up. It will be a looooong process, I know, but I think it will be fun (mostly) and worth while in the long run.

Using Swords & Wizardry White Box Edition as my base, I need to first write a cyberpunk variation on the ruleset. Some of the things that need to be worked up include guns, cybernetics, computer hacking stuff, and some basic vehicle rules. For inspiration and research, I'm slowly working through the original - Cyberpunk 2020 - as well as Shadowrun (2nd Ed), GURPS Cyberpunk and even a bit of d20 Modern. I'm re-reading some William Gibson, too. Oh yeah, and watching Blade Runner at some point.


THEN, after the basic Cyberpunk/Modern rules are done, I'll need to put all that back together with the fantasy of base S&W. For the proper Shadowrun feel, I'll need to add in some additional new magic rules - most importantly Astral Space and a drain-based spell casting system.

So there it is. It will be a long, tedious process but I think it can be done. S&W has proven itself to be adaptable to other genres - look at Mike "MikeD" Davison's Ruins & Ronin, David "grubman" Bezio's X-plorers or Michael "chgowiz" Shorten's The Seige Perilous - Ultima RPG. There are also "in the works" things (poke around S&W's forums page) for a superheros conversion (Hideouts & Hoodlums), Westerns (Fantasy Wild West) and pulp science fiction (Anacreon Zeta). Some projects are further along than others, sure, but they still show the flexibility of the system.

Wish me luck! I'll be posting bits here and at the S&W forums for comments and vetting.

If anyone cares to comment, I'll initially ask one question. How should these rules be released? I see three options to choose from.
1) Offer the generic cyberpunk supplement (no magic or fantasy elements) first. It will be compatible with S&W, obviously, so people can add the bits they like from it into whatever modern or cyberpunk-esque game they want to run. Then follow that with the "full" Shadowrun clone version.
2) Offer it as a cyberpunk supplement and put in the magic rules in as optional, in an appendix or something.
3) Just go all out and do the thing as SR right from the start, with the fantasy fully integrated. People who don't want the magic bits can still use what they do like.

S&W: Cyberpunk first, or go right to Mages & Megacorps? Thoughts?

ROCK THE VOTE - OSR STYLE, BABY!!

Voting for the ENnies opened up today and some great FREE OSR stuff has made the list of nominations.

Get out there and drop a white ball for Swords and Wizardry as "Best Free RPG Product", and both Mythmere Games (Swords & Wizardry) and Goblinoid Games (Labyrinth Lord and Mutant Future) for "Best Publisher".

You can vote for more than one choice in a category, so don't be shy.


The OSR needs YOU!

EDIT: Got a Silver!! Congrats to Mythmere and everyone else involved.

Another S&W Index Card Character Sheet

It seems that putting your "old school" character sheets onto index cards is all the rage nowadays. I think it's a great idea, what with them being so "stat light" and have seen some great ones.

In particular, my version was inspired by le bulette's and made use of the graphic elements in a full-sized sheet by Thomas Denmark at Original Edition Fantasy. Thanks again for letting me use those!

You can find the PDF here. And the editable Photoshop (psd) file is here. Help yourself if it's of any interest to you.

UPDATED 11/10/10 to add the master file and update the PDF link.

S&W "Travel" Game Kit

As I discussed in the previous post, I'm throwing together a "digest-sized" set of Swords & Wizardry White Box. The idea is to be able to take it on vacations, camping or wherever, and be able to play if the desire strikes.

At the right, is a pic of my setup so far - a digest printing of the WB rules, punched and put into a DayPlanner binder I had lying around. With it for comparison is my full-sized copy of the S&W core rules, comb-bound with laminated covers. It helps to work in an office supply store. (No NOT Staples.)

I've also copies of the Classic D&D Modules B1: In Search of the Unknown, and B2: The Keep on the Borderlands. Both printed up booklet style.

I found these great S&W index card character sheets (here) that fit right into the spirit of the kit.

And, based on another post in that sane blog (Thanks, bulette!), I need to make a little mini DM screen to pop in as well. Work, work, work!

I'll also be modifying his Labyrinth Lord 3x5 character sheet to use for my DM copies of character sheets and NPC sheets in my "regular" Classic D&D game.

WTF?!

OK, those last two posts are ones that I started back on May 31st and just saved the drafts as I worked on them. So, I finish and post both this afternoon, and the date stamp still shows May 31!

Don't you think they'd go onto the blog dated for when they were actually PUBLISHED?

EDIT: I actually searched the Help section and found an answer! The date defaults to when you first started the post, but it can be changed. Yay!