2d6 Supplement guide.

The 2d6 Supplement guide is well underway.

This supplement guide is meant to be used along side with the “2d6 Game System Manual”.  This book is by no means necessary to play any kind of 2d6 game.  It does however provide suggestions on rules that you may or may not wish to use.  We have provided a few basic genres and popular role-playing worlds for you to look at.  Just because an ability is placed in one section of this book does not mean it cannot be used in a different genre, assuming there is a good reason.  For example, if you wanted to create an alien race in a Star Trek world that was capable of turning invisible, by all means use the rules provided for invisibility in the Traditional Fantasy section.  However some abilities may be more or less useful in different worlds, and their point cost may vary at the GM’s discretion.

Next to abilities there is a number in parentheses.  This number represents the suggested point cost for that ability.  There are also some abilities that have different levels.  For example Illusions have three levels: Lesser illusion, illusion and greater illusion.  Each level in a set has its own point cost; however, you may upgrade to a higher level in a set by only paying the difference.  If my character started with lesser illusion, and then gained one experience point, I then could spend that one point to buy Illusion, even though it costs 2 because I already have the lesser illusion ability.  (btw...the points I'm talking about are the experience points you earn, you get 1 point of each 'chapter' of the story.  You may also start with a couple of points to play around with as well.) 

Take a look at the traditional fantasy abilities and let me know what you think!

Area heal (2, prerequisite Buff 2) This ability allows you to heal your allies within a 5’ radius.

Cleave (1) If you kill someone using the aggressive combat style, you can make a second melee attack against an adjacent creature.

Piercing shot (1) If you deal a heavy wound to an enemy using a ranged weapon, you may make a secondary attack against an enemy behind the primary target with -1 Damage

Dispel Magic (2) End a single magical effect by having both the caster and the dispeller roll 2d6 adding their respective magical ability attribute (typically Intelligence or Wisdom).

Elements (1) You gain the ability to cast spells with one new element type.  Suggestion elements are: fire, ice, acid, wind, electricity, poison. Spellcasters start with one element type for free.

Feather fall (1) When this spell is cast, the target can fall slowly like a feather, landing on its feet without taking damage.

Flight (2, this ability may cost more in worlds where flight is extra useful) You gain the ability to fly at your normal speed but not hover.  Any attacks made while in flight take a -3 to attack.

Superior Flight (4): You gain the ability to fly, including hovering.  You take no penalty to attacks while flying.

Lesser illusion (1) Create an illusion that fools one sense and cannot move (ex. make a sound, or visual illusion you can pass your hand through)

Illusion (2) Create an illusion that fools all 5 senses, but still cannot move or interact with its environment (ex a person that you can touch and smell and speaks, but does not move). 

Greater Illusion (4) Create an illusion that fools all 5 senses and can move and have simple interactions with its environment (ex the illusory person can open a door or speak when spoken to, but it cannot hold a conversation). 

For someone to detect an illusion, they may make an Intelligence and Logic or Wisdom and Perception versus a DL of 9 for minor illusion, 12 for illusion, and 15 for greater illusion.  Other relevant skills may be used to detect the illusion at GM discretion.

   

Invisibility (2) You become invisible.  If you touch or manipulate an object or attack something you become visible. 

Greater Invisibility (4) You become invisible.  You may touch and manipulate objects but cannot make attacks without becoming visible.

In combat, becoming invisible takes all your actions for the round.  You can still be detected by sound and smell while invisible.

Mind Reading (4) To read an unwilling person’s mind, you and the target roll each roll 2d6 and add its wisdom.  If your total is higher, you are able to learn one fact that is in that person’s mind.  If your roll is lower, then you are not able read that thought, and you cannot make another attempt for that specific thought.  In the event of a tie, you succeed.  The moment you start attempting to read a person’s mind, they are aware of it, even if they do not understand it.  You cannot read the mind of someone who is unconscious.  If the target is willing in your attempt to read them, there is no roll.

Shapeshift (1/shape) You gain the ability to turn into a different form of your size or smaller (ex a different humanoid, an animal, a potted plant).  For a second point, you gain the abilities of whatever you form you chose (if you turn into a bird you can fly, a fish can breathe underwater, etc.). 

Polymorph (3) You gain the ability to take any humanoid form, including looking like a specific individual you have seen.

Greater Polymorph (4) You gain the ability to take any form of your size or smaller.  For an additional 2 points, you gain the abilities of whatever form you take. 

The GM may limit your choices or abilities at his discretion.

Quick healing (1) You heal 1 heavy wound per day, instead of one light wound.

Regeneration (2) You heal 1 light wound per hour.

Greater Regeneration (4) You heal 1 light wound per minute, can regrow lost limbs, and cannot be killed without extraordinary measures (ex incineration, dismembered and buried in separate boxes, etc.)

Resistant to element (1/element) Choose 1 element: damage dealt to you of that type is reduced by 1 light wound. 

Immune to Element (2/element) Choose 1 element: you take no damage of that type.

Smite Evil (2) Once per day when you have scored a hit against an evil target, you may treat that hit as a critical hit.

Sneak Attack (1) When you hit a target that is unaware of your attack (ex you are hidden or the target does not expect you to attack), you gain a +2 bonus to damage with that attack.

Speed (1) Double the speed at which you run, swim and fly, or triple the speed at which you do one of those things (decide when you buy it).

Lessor Summon (1) You summon a small creature (ex cat, bird, snake) with 1 point in all attributes and 1 light wound.  You can command the creature to perform simple actions (ex attack, climb a wall, go over there).

Summon (4) You summon a medium creature (ex wolf, boar, ape) with 3 attribute points in each category (physical, mental, social) that you can allot as you choose and 1 health point.  You can command the creature to perform slightly more complicated actions, like open a door (if it has hands), guard a location, or avoid being seen.

Greater Summon (8) You summon a large creature (ex bear, horse, small dragon, demon) with 5 physical attribute points, 4 mental attribute points, and 3 social attribute points, and 1 combat style that you can allot as you choose.  The creature has 2 health points.  You can command the creature to perform any action that it is capable of carrying out.

Summoning a creature in combat takes up all your actions for the round, and you can only have one creature summoned at a time.

Telekinesis (2) You can manipulate objects you can see from up to 20’ away with the same dexterity as if you used your hands.  Your telekinetic powers can apply up to 20 lbs. of force.

Greater Telekinesis (4) As telekinesis, but you can apply up to 100 lbs. of force.  This allows a character to make magical attacks according to the normal rules.

Telepathy (1) This allows you to send messages to individuals within 30 feet.  The recipient of the message is unable to respond unless he is also telepathic or you have the mind reading ability.

Teleport (2) You are able to teleport up to 20 feet to a place that you can see.  You may not teleport anyone other than yourself.   

Turn Undead (1) Once per day, for each undead creature within 20 feet- roll 2d6 and add your Presence, and the creature rolls 2d6 and adds their wisdom.  If your total is equal or higher the creature cannot come closer to you

Unarmed Master (2) You may treat unarmed attacks as light medium or heavy weapons (you must choose before each attack roll).

Wall/ceiling climb (1) You gain the ability climb up a vertical surface or a ceiling.  You must have at least one free hand (you can’t be using a two-handed weapon or have a weapon and a shiled)

Water breathe (1) You can breathe underwater.  This power may cost more in certain worlds

Water walk (1) You can walk on water.  This power may cost more in certain worlds.

Free for all experiment.

I know I haven't given much attention to the 2d6 project lately, with school and starting other projects 2d6 got left behind.  But like a faithful friend, it sat and waited patiently for the day my attention would return.

I've come up with an idea, it might completely fail, or it might be awesome, or somewhere in between.

It starts with very few limitations.  Genre: Modern Fantasy (modern times with magic and beasties).

Each player will be given a handful of questions about the world.  Some or very open questions, while some or more specific.  Each player will of course also make a character, anything they want, and must include 2 things in character development 1) What makes your character special/unique?  What is his/her talent that no one, or not many have.  and 2) A secret that the character has.  Players will not know each other's secrets unless it gets revealed in game.  At the beginning only the player and the GM will know their secret.

And once all that is done, the GM takes all that information and runs with it.  I also plan on throwing my cute little story cubes and tarot cards into the mix.

I honestly have no clue how successful this will be, but I'm hoping for the best.

Here is the list of worldbuilding questions I have so far.  Please suggest more :)

Basic government structure

A popularly sold product

A famous person

A legend (a story everyone knows, but all think is just a story)

What is the income distribution like?  (ie. Mostly poor with a handful of extremely rich people, everyone is well off, huge middle class, etc)

A religion

The most common cause of death is….

A noteworthy historical event

Where do people go to have fun?

What was the top story on the news last night?

The most common mode of travel is…

Organics-The End

The conclusion to this campaignlet is being done through email.  I will be posting everyone's responses here on the blog.  PC responses will be in bold.  

You and 2 dozen others spent the cold night huddled together in a hunting lodge in the forest that separates the city from the suburbs.  It was a tense night, and very few of you got any sleep.  People diligently took turns patrolling, and keeping an eye on that lost little alien cube.  Dr. Biaochi learned much from that cube, he talked about his home planet and how it has become devoid of metallic substances, how he found aluminum foil to be delicious, and if his extensive knowledge of quantum physics.  He spoke of his parental unit, and hoped she would return for he found your kind to be strange and frighting.

The morning slowly came, and many were relieved to have survived the night.  People went to work, setting up the basement as a make-shift hospital and laboratory, a small group went into to town to look for any other survivors and collect any useful salvage. While another group went hunting for game.  Zebbi tried to calm the group, by singing her songs and distracting them from the recent events.  

Around noon, the earth started to shake and there was a loud humming noise.  Most ran and hid in the basement, while the more brave ventured outside to see what was going on.  Your little cube friend started humming excitedly and urged you to go out and look.

A floating cube, much larger than any you had seen or heard about approached.  This entity was the size of a small house, and it glimmered in the noon sunlight.  5 figures stood proudly on top waving enthusiastically to the onlookers below, the baby cube zoomed up and appeared to great the larger cube and started darting about the larger cube.  One of the figures on top gracefully floated down to the ground to greet you, followed by the other four who landed directly behind him.

When he landed, you instantly recognized him as your country's president.  Although he was altered slightly, around his head hovered 3 green leaves, and his skin almost seemed to glow in the noon light.

"Greetings, my citizens.  I am pleased to have found you.  Come, join us, and be frightened no more."  Your president reaches out his arms as if to embrace you all.

I (Zebbi) say to the President "Hi Honey!  What's up with the new hair style?"

The president smiles, "There are plants on our new home that even our most brilliant scientists could not have convinced."  He pulls from his pocket a green leaf with a purple sheen, "Try this, for example.  And you will be able to see beyond the narrow spectrum we have been limited to."

Session summaries

Since I didn't do a recap of the last game (of the one before that, I think), I'll combine them into hopefully a short summary...

You met a large shiny cube.  It said to leave the city and game you some hypo sprays.  You didn't trust them, but left the city anyway (After 'saving' all the pastries in the nearby starbucks from certain disaster).  As the group trudged their way to the suburbs, they came across a small, unpaved road.  With blueEye technology George, being a shoot first, ask questions later kind of guy, decided it was best to kill the random dude by the side of the road.  Which had belonged to a group of 5, and had until recently been the only survivor.  All of them wore civillian clothes, but as Dr. Biaochii went through the dead peoples' wallets, found that they all were affiliated with the military.

Finally, the group made it to relative safety- A diner, owned, managed and waitressed by Petunia.  She made the travelers a late lunch, and was paid with and extra PhaseRifle.  She didn't want to leave her diner, someone might steal her pie.

Then three hooligans decided to loot the diner, and break Petunia's historic store front window.  One of said hooligans turned out to be one of Bianca's exes.  Damon was more important to Bianca than she let on, and she was glad to see him alive but upset to see him still being stupid.

Zebbi wanted to go to a mall.  So they went to the mall, and made some friends.  With the group now expanded, everyone set up camp in a hunting lodge on the edge of town.

But of course they couldn't escape the craziness, and found a cute miniature cube that ate George's precious tin foil hat.

NPC Bio: Bianca

Bianca Signen was an orphan, something of a rarity in these times.  The origins of this status were unclear at best, however her adoptive parents loved her, and she didn't think much on her mysterious beginnings.  Her adoptive family was quite large, she had 3 sisters (all of which were adopted), and a plethora of aunts uncles and cousins.  Her parents, and much of her family worked for Stein Labs all over the country.  Her father worked on improving and updating the BluEyes, while her mother was a receptionist.

Since about the age of 12 boys have liked Bianca.  She liked the attention, and would hop from guy to guy leaving them heartbroken and unsatisfied.  She never really found a boyfriend that she could stay with for more than a few months tops, they were all imperfect, and she always found a fault in every single one (which her therapist said was a fault of her own, not the boys).

Bianca graduated in the top 5% of her high school class, and was accepted to II.  But after one semester, she dropped out, and through her strong family ties with Stein Labs got a job as a lab assistant.  She was relatively happy there, she washed beakers, held test tubes filled with god-knows what, calibrated various machines.  When they discovered that Bianca was in fact quite intelligent, they allowed her more interesting responsibilities and even a couple hours a week to work on her own experiments that usually didn't go anywhere.

A week before 'the emergency' Bianca got news that her favorite aunt had passed away.  When Bianca arrived at the funeral, she learned that her Aunt Beatrice had left Bianca everything, including her beloved cat, Mr. Sniffles.  What Bianca didn't know, was that attached to Mr. Sniffles' collar there was a crystal memory chip with a very important message.  dun-dun-DUN! 
                                            

Shakespeare mash-up

I would be surprised if this was an original idea, however since I hadn't heard of it, it's original to me :)

I often find myself lacking in story ideas, and this method is meant to be the foundation of a story arc as well as a fun exercise people can do as a group and then maybe end up roleplaying it along the way.

So this is what you do: Find yourself a copy of the complete works of Shakespeare (my house has at least 3 copies, so that wasn't very hard).  Then turn to a random page.  You could either pick a line randomly, or find a line on the page that you like (after the first one, I think it's better to pick one off the page).  Copy down or bookmark that line, and then pick another random page and find another line.  Do this as many times as you see fit.  Now that you have a bunch of lines together, turn them into a script of sorts which becomes the basis of your story.  Each line can be said by different characters, or it can be a conversation between 2 or more, or even a monologue, if it works.

This is what I came up with on my second try:

Male Character 1:  "The fairest hand I ever toucht! O beauty, Till now I never knew thee!" ( King Henry The Eight I.iv)
Female Character 2: "Worthy sir, thou bleed'st; Thy exercise hath been too violent For a second course of fight." (Coriolanus I.vi)
Male Character 1: "Go, you wild bedfellow, you cannot soothsay." (Antony and Cleopatra I.ii)
Female Character 2: "Follow me; thou shalt serve me: if I like thee no worse after dinner, I will not part from thee yet." (King Lear I.iii)

Two strong-willed and rather aggressive soon to be lovers (maybe soldiers of some kind) have gotten into a fist fight.  As the woman is dutifully kicking the ass of the man, he blurts out that he loves her more than anything.  The woman stops fighting for a second and realizes two things 1. the man is pretty beat up and 2. she in fact loves him too, but does not want to admit it.  She comments on his injuries and suggests that he give up.  The man knows this to be true, but takes it as an insult none the less, calls her a whore and tells her to leave before he catches his breath. The woman, not wanting to leave his company, but not wanting to say so directly tells him that if he takes her out to an expensive restaurant and he behaves, she might forgive him for whatever it was that started the fight.

Barely Success

So Tim and I have been looking through the Doctor Who RPG (which also uses a 2d6 mechanic) and they had an interesting concept about degrees of success.  A lot of points below the DC means uber failure, a few points below is a normal failure, and a tiny bit below is a sort of failure (ie you convince the guards not to kill you on site, but they will throw you in the dungeon).  And similarly for successes (sort of success, normal, and super awesome success)

We've decided to add a new optional rule that says when you get exactly the Difficulty level, it counts as a barely success.  A few examples: John's character is trying to jump from rooftop to rooftop, John's roll plus his strength plus athletics is a 12, which is what the DL is.  The GM could say, "You make it to the other roof, but only barely, and you're hanging on by your fingertips."

Another example is if you're trying to pick a lock and you roll exactly the DL; it takes the character longer to pick the lock and therefore has a higher chance of getting caught.  Or, you pick the lock, but your pick breaks in the lock, leaving you without your pick and unable to relock the door.

Act I: EMERGENCY!

It started off as an ordinary day for the citizens of Earth. Zebbi was signing autographs for her adoring fans, George was blogging about the effectiveness of his antique tin foil hat, and Dr. Baiocchi was getting ready for work.

A mass announcement was proclaimed through everyone's blue eye and every holo-board. The white letters and automated voice said, "This is wide spread emergency, please head to the nearest Tele-pod station immediately. This is not a drill."

Naturally, people panicked. They collected their most valuable belongings and did just as the announcement told them. Dr. Baiocchi could not remember the last time a mass message was sent like this, not even tests, he concluded that this must be taken seriously and went straight for the New New York Telepod station.

Zebbi, who does not wear a blue eye was informed of the announcement by her body guard. She decided to pack up her luggage train, and set up shop, singing and selling posters of herself in the crowded station while everyone waited for further instructions.

George, who also does not wear a blue eye for fear of the government reading his paranoid mind heard of the emergency through his system of numerous holo-boards that he had set up in the basement. George felt it necessary to go and report back to his 3 loyal blog followers.

The station was packed, and the anxiety was tangible. Searching through the news channels brought nothing but the usual dribble, and did not speak of the mass announcement, though many underground channels did, each of them having their own idea as to what was going on. The intercom system switched on and told people to cram as many people into the Tele-pods, that they were to be evacuated.

A few minutes later, as Dr. Baiochhi was trying to decide what to do, the overhead sprinkler system went off. Normally a whiteish chemical is released, which puts out the fire, makes a mess but leaves everything else unharmed. (Can you believe they used to use water in these things?! Everything got destroyed!) However what came out of the valves was in fact an extremely fine green powder.

George pulled out a gas mask and a tarp from his trench coat and ducked underneath. Dr. Baiochhi and Zebbi found their way underneath as well. People that had breathed in the substance started coughing, and a dozen or so collapsed to the floor. The group grabbed who they could and escaped to an exit.

In the emergency stairwell, where the air was clean and circulated with the outside, they had time to think. Bianca, a 20 something attractive female clutching a black cat and a large suitcase and Johnny, an ordinary looking 12 year old as well as Zebbi both had inhaled quite a bit of that green powder and were bent over coughing. Dr. Baiochhi administered some stimulants which calmed down their coughing fits. Bianca seemed to recovered fully, but Zebbi and the boy noticed that their fingers were tingling.

Dr. Baiochhi went through his expansive knowledge of chemicals and knew of three green powders that were likely suspects. Though none of them fit exactly, the closest being an old style anesthetic, but he was pretty sure that it's paralyzing effects started from the spine and core of the body before moving to the extremities, and that it hadn't been manufactured for at least 50 years.

The group along with about 20 others who decided to use the emergency stairwell found themselves outside along next to the station's massive parking lot. Two people were bent over a young man who lay motionless on the pavement. "He had the North River Fevers. but I didn't expect him to go so soon." Dr. Baiochhi knew the North River Fevers was a terminal illness that has no cure, but if well treated, victims can live into their late 30s. The Chemist secretly drew a blood sample of the deceased and moved on.

Not 3 minutes after they had left the building, large military trucks entered the parking lot. Unaware of the military's intentions, Dr. Baiochhi, Zebbi, Bianca and Johnny tried to sneak their way out of the area while George hid in a nook in a wall to watch. The group was spotted quickly, though the soldiers only told them to clear the area which they were doing anyway.

Zebbi used her fame and womanly ways to try to get information out of one of the truck drivers and distract him enough her her to steal his RoboLabor Unit that had parts Dr. Baiochhi wanted.  The tingling in Zebbi and Johnny's fingers started to spread, and by the time the ambulance came, it had spread all the way up Johnny's arm.

Johnny and several others were taken to the hospital.  Zebbi refused to go.

The group, along with Mr. Sniffles (Bianca's cat) collected blood samples and took them back to Dr. Baiochhi's lab where they made some interesting discoveries.  The substance that came from the fire extinguishers was an extremely complex organic molecule whose atomic weight fluctuated so much that it was impossible to get an accurate reading.  Samples from dead subjects contained a similar molecule with a weight of 3,028, the people that seemed unaffected still had the substance in their blood but with a weight of 3,024.  And those that were tingling like Zebbi had molecules that varied in weight and were much lighter than the others (Zebbi was at 1,016)

Dr. Baiochhi tested the green powder on 100 lab rats with different genetic codes.  None of them died, and one rat acted oddly until the water container poured water all over the cage without anything touching it.  The Doctor terminated all the rats and uploaded all the data he had collected.

Before they could preform any more tests, a huge earthquake shook the ground, and dislodged several items from their shelves, and a minute later, another larger earthquake followed.  The Laboratory building creaked and groaned from the pressure, and they decided to get out.  Buildings fell around them, and then they saw it.  A shiny floating box about 8 feet tall was hovering around the huge terraforming machine.  Johnny left his hiding spot and claimed to call it with his mind, the cube rotated and then floated over to Johnny and the others.

On being a good player/nice person in general.

Inspired by an article posted on LRPGSW

I've decided to make a list of simple things players can do to improve games on a social level, many of which apply to outside the game table as well. Now some of these things may seem obvious, but trust me, I've seen them happen all the time. If you have more, post a comment!

1. Don't talk when someone else is talking. Not only is it rude, but it can't mess with the flow of the game. If you're in a big group, it's ok to have quiet conversations on the side while someone else is deciding what to do on their turn, but don't let it get out of hand. Sometimes when the GM is your friend, they may not be inclined to tell you to shut up because they don't want to abuse the power of being a GM, so do them a favor and shut up before they have to tell you.

2. Remember you are a guest in a person's home. Games are often held at someone's house. And I don't know about others, but my house is my personal space. If someone asks you to take off your shoes, don't complain. Don't touch the fragile glass trinkets without permission, and please don't go through the medicine cabinet (tempting as it is).

3. Cover your mouth when you cough or sneeze. Gamers are usually in close quarters around a table, please don't sneeze on them.

4. Keep away from controversial topics (unless you know the person's views and are close friends already) RPGers come from many walks of life and like everyone else in the world, can be extremely opinionated. Talking about real-life politics can make people very upset.

5. Be on time. It can get frustrating for the GM and the other players if they have to start multiple times. If you know you're going to be late or absent, call the GM and let them know.

6. Keep criticisms constructive. Most people don't mind getting suggestions on what to do or how to improve the game, however most people do mind being told that they suck.

7. Clean up after yourself. Please don't make the host pick up you banana peel or half eaten tuna sandwich.

Plastics

The guy from The Graduate had it right. Plastics. The way of the future. Plastics had become increasing popular, with better and stronger types coming out every year. Instead of needing fossilized organic matter, labratories developed ways of using corn and recently dead organic matter to turn it into plastics.

Plastech is a plastic that is capable of sharing electrons, and conducting electrecity faster and more efficently than copper.

Plastix is extremely strong, and is used to build buildings.

Plastik is the cheap stuff that many things are made of, it's more breakable but it has it's uses

Plastique is a term used for many different kinds of plastic, it can refer to gem-stone replicas, metallic-looking stuff uses for jewelery and decoration. Plastique is also used in cosmetic surgery and can very closely resemble human skin. Similar to modern-day piercings and tattoos, teenagers often get external Plastique implants around their ears, eye brows and wherever they can think of. These implants are removable without permanent scaring which makes them very popular.

The Hunt

Tim and I starting a new game between just the two of us. I'm not sure how long it will last, or if it will get off it's feet at all.

A man wearing an expensive suit carrying a large manila envelope walked up a set of wooden stairs. The stairs led to a balcony with several doors, he found apartment number 25 and knocked.

A woman of 26 years opened the door a few inches, the chain preventing it from fully opening.

"Lt. Commander Ashley O'Reilly?"
"Yes, what is it you want?"
"I'm here on behalf of my client, who wishes to offer you a unique opportunity."
"I'm not interested in buying encyclopedias, Avon, or a time share, thank you." Ashley closed the door on the lawyer's face.
"It's nothing like that, I assure you." He said loudly to the door, "It'll be a lot more exciting than staying in your run-down apartment."
Ashley paused with her hand on the door, either this guy knew more about her than she would like to think, or he was very lucky in his word choice. She opened the door, fully this time.
"I like my apartment, save for the leaks." Without a word, the man stepped into the small living room, opened the folder and handed the top sheet to the former Navy pilot.
"What the hell is this? Spend a month on an island with a bunch of people, and the survivors split 10 million dollars? Is this some kind of reality tv show?"
"Not at all, no part of your trip will be recorded. And you will not be held liable for ANYTHING that goes on during that month."
"So, what happens on the island, stays on the island?"
"Yeah, something like that."
"Who is your client exactly?"
"I'm afraid I can not tell you that. I'll leave these papers for you to sign if you decide to join, I'll be back in a week, so decide by then."

Character bio: Zebbi (Londa's character)

Zebbi is a famous entertainer. She has used her Dolly Parton like figure to rise to the top. She sings in a breathy voice, and relies on a kind choreographer to make her look good. Mostly she plays very small parts that are written especially for her, because she can only play one character; which is herself. What she is good at is using wigs, costumes, and make up. She takes trunks full of them everywhere “just in case.” She pretends to be dumb, but she is shrewd and relentless when it comes to getting what she wants.

Draft 7!

We've finally finished draft number 7. Some Combat styles have been changed, Tim has gone through and edited the whole thing, and best of all: it's got pictures now!!!

The magic combat style has been renamed "Special" because it doesn't have to be magical in origin.

Click on the link on the sidebar to get draft 7. If you want to print it out, print it double sided, and it makes a little booklet thing.

Organics- SmartHouses and RoboLabor units

Aside from "Historic" buildings, all structures are built with varying degrees of SmartHouse technology.

When the House is dormant, it looks rather ordinary, save for the small holo-boards in each room. However, when active. The House is capable to executing all household tasks. Panels that when closed are virtually invisible, open up and release many arms and gadgets that clean and take care of pets, and the fancier ones are capable of preparing complex and delightful meals for the family. Though many of the earlier cooking models have been recalled due to their tendency to start kitchen fires. SmartHouses also work as personal secretaries and alarm/surveillance systems. All include parental settings which can inhibit dangerous behavior such as a toddler touching/turning on a stove to keeping adolescents from well...doing what adolescents do. The SmartHouse is also self-diagnosing and is able to instill simple repairs on itself, as well as execute simple first-aid to humans. There have been many cases when the house saves it's occupant by preforming CPR until help arrives.

One can communicate with their house through many means, the most popular is through their BlueEye and voice commands, but the wall holo-boards prove useful from time to time to issue commands.

RoboLabor:

Highly skilled jobs are still done by humans, but often have a RoboLabor unit as an assistant. These units vary in size and are made entirely of plastics, making them stronger and lighter than metals. They are generally boxy looking and in no way resemble a human. They preform simple tasks and unskilled labor. They're rather glitchy and can be a pain to work with, so human unskilled labor still exists in a limited quantity. RoboUnits work at full capacity for about 4 years, and then are often recycled. Sometimes people sell the old units, but it is often not worth it (Think sleezy used car dealer).

Catica- The End

The Flayers attempt at sneaking around to do some recon, did not end as well as they would have liked.

As most things happen, the attack on the Adventurers' guild did not go quite as planned. Two archers found a Flayer minion breaking in on the third floor and sounded the alarm.

Much to the Flayers' surprise Nog and the mysterious "bluecloack" was leading the Guild's group of fighters, and Crystal soon joined him.

Though despite the setbacks (and Sans tying Garrett up) the Flayers were able to diminish the Guild's forces to the point where the remainders retreated and scattered into the City.

As Nog died, his final words were "For the Starlight Goddess"

The Flayers took both the guild hall and the adjacent temple for themselves. Garrett became named Master Flayer, for the time being anyway.

Downloads and stuff

I recently figured out how to host files using WindowsLive, and you can now download the latest 2d6 draft and the cool excel program Tim made. Just click the link on the sidebar!

The End?

I just made the encounter with the Adventurer's Guild, and I'm not sure The Flayers are going to win this one....This will prove interesting.

On "winging it" and my method of GMing

It's nice to work with a pre-written script at times, it takes so much less effort to GM when you have most of the story on a page infront of you. But it's just so stagnant, even if it's a story you've written yourself.

I find it so much more interesting when you know only a bit more than your players, and you find yourself just as surprised with the game as you. It keeps you on your toes, and results in a livelier game. People feed off of others' energy levels. If the GM is bored, which could very well happen especially if the story is from a can, then your players will be bored too; but if you are able to produce a level of excitement and energy about what is going on in the game then your players will reflect and amplify that same energy. The downside is that it draining to keep only a step ahead of the players, whereas if you wrote everything beforehand than your creative energy was spent at whatever pace you wrote the thing.

What I have been doing with my campaignlets is having a rough sketch of the story. The underlying problem that the PCs solve, who the badguy is and a few features about the world. I often have a handful of events that are expected to happen, but these events don't usually have resolutions built into them.

By not knowing what will happen next, you don't end up railroading the players unintentionally. If there is no track to begin with, then there can be no train.

A word of advise for those considering this style of GMing. Fill the environment with a smattering of random details, and take notes, or have a really good memory. Those random details can be used later as clues or jumping points for the plot which you didn't think of before. But that can only work if you actually remember those random little things. I take quick little notes during the game, and after write down everything fully in a session recap. It's often during that process that I get ideas as to where to go next.

On the new side bar picture

That picture will be on the cover of the 2d6 manuals. Tim's dad described it as "someone about to be electrocuted", but I think otherwise. In my opinion it's more of a mind to matter sort of thing, which goes well with the concept of roleplaying games and any creative work as well. Taking the raw energy and creativity and forming it into something tangible. The results may be completely different than what you had expected and wanted but no matter what form it takes, it is an experience and hopefully a good one.

My mother (hi mom!) used Tim as a model for this, and I outlined her pencil with a felt-tip and then scanned it.

Organics

Just a working title until I think of something better. Post suggestions!

As Catica will be coming to an end in a few sessions, I've been planning our next campaignlet. This one will be a Sci-Fi story about survival, mystery, and hopefully some fun interpersonal relationships.

Year 2997.

Politics: While earth is still divided into countries, these divisions more resemble the differences between states than individual countries. The International Union (IU)is a collection of officials, some elected, some not, but at least one official from each country. Under the International Constitution they govern several aspects of life: International trade agreements, peacekeeping, military forces (most countries have their own military that take orders from both their country and the IU, which obviously gets messy sometimes), and tax collecting. There are many IU run services and facilities, with the International Institute (II) being the most prominent and prestigious universities in the world. Peace is a relative term, officially there has not been a war in 100 years, but there have been many underground uprisings and unofficial battles between underground groups. The IU tries their best to keep everyone happy, but naturally not everyone can be satisfied with the way things are.

History: The IU grew slowly over a number of years, and there are several ways to count when they started. At first their responsibilities and power was not well defined and in 2157, Adrian Switch, a member of the IU manipulated the IU, and took advantage of his seat and power, he was completely corrupted. Adrian very nearly collapsed the IU, several country governments, and almost started a World War. A Late night IU meeting on December 24, 2157 crafted the International Constitution overnight, which lay out exactly what the IU could and could not do, and gave them the power to remove Adrian from his position. It took many years after the the Switch trials to restore the peace and re-model the IU. Every school child knows the story of Adrian Switch and the Late Night meeting, the constitution can be found displayed on holoboards everywhere.

Technology:
Communication: Pretty much everyone has a BlueEye these days. It is a device that clips to your ear with a selectively transparent screen that covers the left eye. The BlueEye is controlled by one's brain patterns. It is a skill much like typing on a keyboard, it must be learned, some are faster transmitters than others but everyone can at least "hunt-and-peck" (For the exception of a few who are inexplicably incapable of interfacing with the BlueEye)

Travel: Short distance travel is done by car. Cars runs on solar cells and have very few but not insignificant pollution emissions. Long distance travel is done via Tele-pod. One can only travel from one tele pod to another with proper authorization and codes. The number of telepod stations is equivalent to the number of modern day airports. Travel for the ordinary citizen costs about 50 International Credits (ICs). Private Tele-pod stations are extremely expensive, but a few wealthy individuals have them as well as a handful of major companies (Equivalent to owning a private jet plane now)

Energy: Large metal towers can be seen everywhere, mostly in large urban areas. They convert the inert gases and pollutants in the air and converts it into energy which is fed into a switching station that sends the energy to where it needs to go and stores the excess.

Terraforming: Huge machines have been designed and built to be able to massively reshape the landscape. However, no one can agree what to reshape the land into. Every proposition is torn down by someone or another.

Announcing Draft #6

Announcing Draft 6. Page count: 20.

The biggest addition to this one is the Alternate/Optional Rules section. Things including: rolling character attributes (something I'm personally not a fan of, but recognize that many are), movement rules, simplifying the rules, cover and flanking.

On another note: I've signed up to GM 2d6 at the Recess in NYC. http://nerdnyc.com/phpBB3/viewforum.php?f=25

They're already full so I'm only signed up as a sub if anyone drops out, which I hope they do!

I've also made some unique business cards with an equally interesting business card holder.

Catica: the eve of battle

Things have been rather crazy at the wench bench lately. Eric, a promising young member of the Flayers interrupted the party with turning into a werewolf. Fortunately he was cut down quickly and was unable to infect anyone.

Ariel, an ambitious and attractive frost mage eyes the opening of a Lieutenant's position and is willing to do most anything for the job, including using her powerful magics to cool the drinks of her superiors. Bob and Garrett sent her to find out more about the lycanthrope and about the mysterious red shards Bob found in those pesky rats. Ariel knows of a similar kind crystals that come in pairs and resonate with each other, allowing for communication and remote control, though those crystals are extremely rare and are never this small.

Drool, searches the sleeping drunks and finds a small egg in a man's pocket. She thinks that it could hatch into a small lizard and maybe even a miniature Dragon, something that the wealthy often put collars on and name BoBo.

As the ashes of Eric were scattered to the wind, a Dwarven fellow came into the small inn, bringing with him a dozen huge wooden crates that stunk up the entire building making the wenches very unhappy. Drool opened a crate and recognized the contents to be humanoid remains that were stewing with raw necromantic energy. The problem with a product like this is even though the flesh carries a substantial amount of raw energy which can be crafted into many many things, is that the energy dissipates quickly and will become useless in a weeks time. And nobody really knew who they were supposed to sell the stuff to. So the stuffed all but one smelly crate in a warehouse, and called upon a few experts for their opinion and hopefully purchase of the meat.

A flying origami bird found it's way to the wench bench. It came bearing a message, a ransom note for Nog, with Nog's pin attached to it. After visiting a party store and finding out where Drool keeps her money (you do NOT want to know), Bob and Drool found themselves at the residence of an eldery Wizard named Sax.

Sax is a dealer in fine Magical artifacts, his store is held in his residence and only those who know that it is infact a store would know so. Just the way he likes it. Sax takes a sniff at the paper, and trades one crate of nasty dead things and a night with Mindy, and tells you that it came from the Adventurers' guild.

The group scout out the guildhall. It is a stone building that is three stories tall, with barred windows on the first floor. A mostly forgotten temple, made of the same stone sits next to the hall, they ask for a prophecy from the elderly Cleric who tells them that 'Goodness' is what has Nog and that goodness is their enemy.

The Flayers gather in the basement of the wench bench and start planning. Garrett secretly plans to kill Nog and blame it on the chaos of battle, leaving himself as Master Flayer, and also eliminating that pesky guild once and for all.

Grenades, Hordes, and Armor

Before I didn't have any rules for grenade type things, and I'm working on it. My idea is that the item will have it's own attack/damage stats and different things can have different effects. Such as some kind of grenade that makes them fall unconscious will have the status effect 1 or 2 power, with adding modifiers on the size of the room at GM discretion.

I've been thinking about how to run a mass battle type of thing because of the upcoming raid on the adventurer's guild in Catica. And I've come up with a few ideas.

1. Just use narratives. Since both sides have a bunch of minions and a handful of actually competent people, it would be easy to simply say, "Ok, this group of people and this group of people are busy fighting each other while the heroes are locked in an epic one on one fight in the middle.

2. Each minion on that side's initiative rolls 1d6 (all at the same time obviously), add up the number of 6s and that's how many minions/heavy wounds they have dealt as a group. This way is nice because it makes the battle a bit more quantifiable in terms of which group is winning and losing. However, it does take time, and if the heroes of a side win, it doesn't matter much which group of minions is left standing.

3. This one doesn't work as well with what I have planned for the next game but it is something I'm definitely going to play around with either in the playtesting group or on my own. Treat the horde as a single monster, but with a few differences. Give them a ton of health points (which in this system is like 10) which isn't necessarily representing 10 minions, each health point could be 2 or even three if your super heroic and can toss orcs like Gandalf. And give the horde a damage and/or attack bonus based on the number of HP they have left. It makes them incredibly scary at the beginning but as the battle wears on, they become much less so. I need to play with the numbers before deciding were the balance is with this one.

Armor and Mages: I wanted to have something to discourage a mage from wearing heavy plate armor. But I didn't want it to not be possible for there to be a fighter character or ranger type that can use both. So now light armor takes a -1 attack penalty to magic attacks, and heavy takes a -2.

Draft 5

Draft number 5 is here. Page count: 17 It annoys me when my boxed in things get split between two pages, so that every draft I have to space things out a bit differently. That's what all the pretty pictures will be for :)

The Daggers' names.

When you join the Daggers, you not only give your life to them, but also your identity. All new recruits must relinquish their names and take on their assigned number. Numbers do not exceed three digits, and a new recruit acquires the highest number that is not taken. (So if number 26 dies or is named, then the next to be numbered takes 26 even if there are only 300 Daggers with numbers). The numbers mean nothing, though a few Daggers try to expedite or delay their initiation to get certain numbers.

There are others, though that have names that are not numbers. These names are prized, and it is an honor to be given a name. Certain names are more prestigious than others. The only way one gets a name is by inheritance. A name is like a piece of property, it is something that you give to someone. The receiver of a name also inherits much of the reputation associated with the name, especially with those outside the Daggers who may not realize this tradition. Everyone's will is a secret, written in a book with magic weaved within it's pages so that the writing only appears after death.

Names come and go, and rise and fall within the ranks. The current high names are- Hawk, Talon, Spider, Jagged, Blade and Spark.

The only way someone can inherit more than one name is if multiple people with names die around the same time and did not have time to re-assign their name to someone else and they both had planned on giving their names to the same person. In this case the receiver take on both names, and can choose to give the names to multiple people or simply combine the names into one (ie. ShadowLark).

Catica-History

The city of Catica was founded by the great mage Dorian Catica. He used his magics to build a large square stone wall around the city, and planned the streets so that each block was a perfect square as well. It has been theorized that Dorian had obsessive compulsive tendencies, though mental illness and magery often goes hand-in-hand and is not that unusual. It has also been proposed that Dorian founded the mafribium as well as Catica city.

The curious thing about this city is it's location. Most cities grow around some well traveled place, like along a trade route so something like that. But Catica is build in the middle of the East Forest, with her farm land spaced between the trees and meadows of East Forest. Yet, despite it's obscure and hard to find location, it drew more and more people each year.

Long after Dorian Catica's disappearance the city had out grown it's square city walls and it was decided to erect a new city wall, this one circular as it is much more efficient. But they did not destroy her original wall. And to this day, the massive stone wall separates the highly organized inner city with it's haphazard outer city counterpart.

There are many ways to get through the inner wall other than it's original front gate, tall rickety wooden ladders are dotted around the walls, though climbing them can be somewhat dangerous if someone who does not like you (which in this city is almost anyone) spots you. There are many hidden doors, which is very valuable information to have. The Daggers own many of those secrets, though with the escape of Garrett, several of those doors have become used by the Flayers as well.

The city does not see many new comers or travels these days. In it's state of chaos it is no wonder why. And it has become exceedingly difficult to leave. Even news from outside Catica and her farms is hard to get without the help of a mage.

Not much else is known about the history of Catica, many of the libraries have been burned and any surviving books are heavily guarded by the mafribium.

Rules updates

So, we learned a few things about the system during the game.

1) Racial attributes will change from having a +1 and -1 in specific attributes to having a +1 and -1 in specific categories. For example- Mark's Half-orc will have a +1 in physical, and a -1 in mental making his array 6/4/2. The math works out the same and it eliminates the problem of not having negative stats.

2) All weapons will be classified as Light, medium, or heavy. Light weapons have a +1 attack, and -1 damage, medium have no changes, and heavy have -1 attack, +1 damage

3) Shields- I didn't have any rules for shields until now. Now if you have a shield you have one more point in the melee defensive combat style than you would have without a shield. Shields provide no armor bonuses.

4) Flatfooted/Surprise attack. Not sure what I'll name this, but when you catch an enemy by surprise, they loose their dexterity from their defense score for that attack

Tim and I are going to try to create an Excel program that allows one to see the chances of getting hit and damaged under different circumstances. It's a bit too complicated for me, but Tim is good with that stuff and thinks we can pull it off. It should be pretty cool.

Catica- Where Crime Rules!

Oh, the joys of Catica City. There used to be a government here, but after a few centuries of said government being corrupted, and the mayor having a average life span of two months in office, everyone sort of gave up on the idea. There are no guardsmen for civilians to run to, only local gangs who will just as likely kill you then help you.

There are three major gangs in the city, though dozens of smaller groups come and go. There are The Daggers, a highly organized group of rogues, thieves and assassins. They are mostly in it for the money, do odd jobs for the highest bidder, and breaking into any house that they so choose. One thing to be said for the daggers, is that they are relatively loyal to their own.

Then there are the Mafribium- a collection of mages, whose intentions and whereabouts are completely unknown. It is even uncertain how much influence they have over the city. Some say that they infact run both the Daggers and the Flayers, while others say they are just a bunch of old men who dabble in magics somewhere underground.

And of course, there are The Flayers. The lovely and eclectic group of nasties that the PCs have come to know and love. Master Flayer is a huge man, (rumor has it that he's part giant, though of course no one dares ask of his lineage), and his favorite Lieutenant, Nog is a small and wiry man with dark hair and unsettling eyes. Nog has been known to be extremely good with a blade, and he has undoubtedly earned his way up the ranks of the Flayers.

Bob Thrak, a half-orc that has only one tusk and a great fondness for his axe was having some fun upstairs in the Wench Bench when he was rudely interrupted by Master Flayer. He was ordered to take Garett and Drool with him to the "haunted house" on Sparkwood street and retrieve a powerful sword from there, he tells Thrak that anything else they find in the house they can take for themselves.

This particular house is fairly well known throughout the city. Many people have lived there, and have left soon after in a hurry. Garrett and Bob remember sneaking into the house at night on a dare when they were young and more easily frightened.

Garrett, had just finished "teaching" some of the younger recruits about respect when Bob told him to get ready, and Drool had been happily telling stories of her Great Auntie to no one in particular.

And without further delay, the three headed to the house.

In Catica there is no such thing as a nice part of town, yes there are areas where the houses are bigger, but the streets are just as crime and garbage filled as any other, and residences have all given up on keeping the outside of their house nice. Nearly every surface has painted graffiti, which is a nice break from other things one can find on the side of house if one looks.

The house looks quiet, no lights are seen from the windows, and the garden in the back appears overgrown but empty.

Garrett nimbly climbs over the wall to have a look around the garden, Drool follows him, and proves herself quiet useless. Garrett takes a peek into the gardener's shed/house and finds a diary that he hides from the rest of the group. He notices that amongst the gnarled vines and weeds, and dead plants, a rosebush in full bloom sits next to the shed, and looks perfectly trimmed. Garrett unceremoniously rips up the bush, and finds the bones of a human baby underneath. Not bothering to re-bury the bones, he decides that there is nothing else of interest in the garden and heads inside.

Bob does not bother to see if the front door is locked or not, and kicks in the sturdy wooden door. He finds that a thin layer of dust covers everything, and it looks like no one has entered in about a month. Knick-knacks and glassware still line the shelves, but Bob does not see any sign of the "powerful sword." He does however spot the ethereal form of a servant woman washing the floor, she does not appear to be aware of the orc's presence and speaks, "Poor Sandra, she lost the baby you know." He does however find a nice shield hanging on the wall and claims that for himself.

Drool enters the house through what used to be the front door, and is greeted by another servant ghostie who is quite aware of Drool, and attacks her with a small dagger that glints in the light and looks more solid than the figure. Drool screams for help, Bob's selective hearing ignores her. Drool casts a stunning spell at the ghost, but the magic energies flow right though her leaving her unharmed. She tries again with much the same effect.

Garrett enters though the kitchen door adjacent to the garden, and finds yet another female servant ghost that brandishes a kitchen knife and lunges at him. But before she did any serious damage to the halfling, he shoots a crossbow straight through her. The ghost screams for a second and dissipates with a pained expression. Garret then decides to go help Drool and quickly dismisses the second ghost.

The half-orc, intent on finding the sword searches the lounge and encounters another spirit. This one male, and nicely dressed. After scaring the spirits pants off, he says that the Master keeps the sword in his room. And tries to hurl a magical ice ball at Bob which bounces off his armor. He then heads upstairs, disregarding the sounds of battle in the kitchen, and finds two more spirits. One Butler looking man and a woman dressed as if she were headed to a formal dinner. Bob tries to hit them, but their forms simply change and reassemble. The woman misses Bob with a ice spell, but the man shoots lightning out of his hands, slightly electrocuting Bob in his metal armor. Drool, frustrated by the futility of her spells on the servant ghosts decides for whatever reason that the best thing to do with this new set of foes is to flash them her old, wrinkled body. The servant man looked as if he was about to gag and shoots off another quick bolt at Drool as somekind of knee jerk reaction to her hideousness. The Bolt strikes true, and Drool the witch falls to the ground unconscious with her dress still over her head. Bob and Garret don't quite know what to think.

Garrett sneaks outside, and Bob ends up walking straight through the manservant and enters the Master bedroom, both leaving Drool on the floor. He finds another spectral form. This one dressed in a nightgown, and his knees on the floor, crying. "How was I to know it was her in the shadows? She tried to end my life, happened so quickly." he says, and the form of the manservant dressed in a nightgown and silly looking stocking cap enters. And tries to comfort him, "What are we going to do with her?" the servant asks. At this point Bob notices a mass of shadows by the bed. On closer investigation he notices that it is the image of a corpse, an attractive female dressed in plain clothes and the hilt of a ruby encrusted blade pokes out of the waist of her skirt.

The conversation continues, and replays. And Bob learns that the corpse of this woman was to be buried in the basement. Frustrated that the sword was not really there, Bob destroys all the furniture in the room, and finds a bag of gold coins.

The two remaining conscious members head to the basement and dig up the remains of what they presume to be Sandra, and lo and behold, they find the "sword" which turns out to really be a dagger, but even Bob knows that it holds a very powerful magic.

They grudgingly decide to bring Drool back to the wench bench, Master Flayer might be annoyed afterall. However when they return, they notice that the wenches are not outside on their bench, something that rarely happens....

Inside, they learn that Master Flayer has been killed, and that Nog is not to be found. Even if Nog had killed Master Flayer he still would be the one to take the title of Master Flayer. The three Lieutenants already start to fight over leadership. Bob buys everyone drinks and starts a celebratory party for the life of Master Flayer. And then goes to a local Mage merchant to have the dagger appraised. Mela, a halfling is very impressed at the find and preforms a ritual to better understand the knifes qualities. She says that it is a lifedrinker dagger, that it will heal the wielder as he or she hurts their enemy. She says that it is worth at least 10,000 gold pieces, something she could never afford to buy off of him.

Guardia- the final session

After almost losing the ever so important computer. The trio were invited to come to psyche for some counseling because of the recent incident.

Dr. Ding went, in hopes of doing some reverse interrogation on the therapist, which ended up as a complete failure.

Derik looked around on Aphrodite (the dating service) for someone who works for Hephaestus (the nano machine division) the only person who he found was a man looking for a man. Derik chickened out and did not call him. He looked around some more just for himself and found a Dr. Martha Walsh. Derik called her up, and after an amusing conversation was rejected.

After thinking about the recent events the group decided to pay Larry a visit at his apartment. They spotted him coming home with none other than Dr. Martha! Derik decides to spy on them and climbs up to the balcony. He calls Larry on his phone and promptly hangs up once he answers. Dr. Martha uses that opportunity to ask about Derik, and she mentions that she once had a fling with him (Derik wishes it were true.) The conversation then devolves into meaningless small talk and Derik decides to give them some privacy.

They all try to go home for the night. However, Dan's apartment is full of giant rats, Derik's apartment has been temporarily closed down due to some mold, and Ding's building is on fire. They all end up spending the night at the Cottage Inn near Athena.

Derik sneaks into his apartment and gets his spy kit.

Early in the morning, the three grab a bucket full of doughnuts and head over to Larry's place. Larry has no memory of giving Derik a computer and denies that he would ever give him that super awesome password. The group decides to meet up after work at the club, the raging monkey.

Dr. Ding has a new assignment. There has been a report of a rare virus that makes the ASR ineffective. Since the company does not want to excite many people over this, she has been assigned to a different building, and Dan and Derik have been reassigned as well.

The experiment shows mixed results. half of the lab rats were not effected by the ASR, proving that this is something that needs more research.

At around lunch time, the fire alarm goes off. The group decide to stay in the building and not evacuate like everyone else. The fire doors close, and get stuck. When smoke starts to leak though the cracks of the door, they realize that this is in fact a real fire and they need to get out. Dan and Dr. Ding pass out from smoke inhalation but the firemen break though just in time to get everyone out relatively unscathed.

You talk to some of the people who left the burning building, who claim to work for Master Arms, some kind of weapon manufacturing company. They say they are part of Guardia (who isn't?) yet none of you have heard of them. They say that the fire had started in one of their labs and that they do often work with dangerous chemicals but that is all the information you could get out of them. Company secrets and all.

At the Raging Monkey, you find Larry, Dr. Martha, and several of Dr. Martha's friends. Derik plants a bug on Dr. Martha's collar, and then dances a bit with Dr. Ding. Derik proves himself to be quite a good dancer, while Dr. Ding just looks silly.

Dr. Martha and Dan have a private conversation.

Dr. Martha gets quite plastered and Derik tries to get some information out of her. She keeps talking about fate and how the three of you have formed such an awesome team and how you keep mushing together in a big ball.

When you get back to the hotel, Dr. Ding and Derik review the bug recordings, and find the conversation that Dan and Martha had. It becomes obvious that Dan and Martha are working together, they bring Dan and ask him what is going on. Everyone is remarkably calm. Dan is reluctant to talk but assures them that no harm has come to them.

A few minutes later Dr. Christoph Berkowitz (the CEO of Psyche) comes in with Martha and a few other doctors. He is happy to finally meet the group is overjoyed at all the lovely data. He explains that during the holiday party they were given a customized hormone that increased the group cohesion. Military groups need to have that team attitude and group trust, and this drug is meant to speed up that process. He offers the three an antidote, but explains that there may be some residual effects. And explains that as a Guardia employee, they did sign an agreement, making this whole experiment legal.

They agree to take the antidote. Dr. Ding and Derik wake up in their beds with no memory of the past events. To them the past week has been quite boring. Dan goes back to work in psyche. And whenever they pass each other in the hall they can still feel that attachment, but it is vague and they do not admit to it

The End!

draft #4

Draft # 4 is now posted.

Only rule change is that Athletics and Acrobatics are collapsed into one, and Mechanics will be added to the skill list. The rest is just fluff.

Page count: still 14

Guardia Session 2

After a day and a half stuck in Quarantine with only each other and incident reports to keep you company, the three were released. Dr. Adam Gordon claimed that the lock malfunction was due to a softeware update, and the chimps aggressive behavior was probably because of a new chemical they were exposed to during research.

Larry, Derik's computer security friend left a short and cryptic message on his home answering machine.

The next day, the group sat in Dr. Ding's car, blaring music and discussing the situation. Their conclusion: something was up, but they have little idea as to what.

Dan's wound from the chimps is getting itchy and starting to piss Dan off a bit. Doctors think it's simply an infection and nothing to be concerned about.

Larry makes a scene, and claims his computer broke, telling Derik to take it to the basement where the rest of the junk is stored. They manage to use the password Larry gave him, and are able to access quite a bit of information and gather a few leads.

Lead 1: the shift before Ding's, are all fired. When you go talk to them, they all seem to have legitimate reasons for being fired, though the fact that three people working on the same project were all fired on the same day strikes you as odd.

Lead 2: You found the update, and an IP address that went along with it. At a Starbucks, one of the very few places in Guardia City that is not part of the corporation. When you went there, you found a poster claiming that Athena was not all that humane, accompanied with an email address. After some correspondence, you met with Jack, an animal activist/conspiracy theorist. He claims to have gotten some tips, and released the animal cages remotely to free the animals. When you explained to him what had happened, Jack felt used. And while he may be a bit on the crazy side, he could prove to be a useful ally.

******

In terms of rules, I've got a few new ideas for draft #4. Athletics and Acrobatics will be collapsed into one (which will be named athletics), and Mechanics will take up that empty slot.

Also, there will be "critical skill checks" as in if you roll a natural 12 (that's a 12 before you add anything) it will count as a success even if your total wouldn't have added up to be a success. It represents being very lucky and also of you know something specific from your past that applies (like in Slumdog Millionaire).

I'll also be adding some more descriptive stuff as well.

Draft#3 is now posted. Unfortunately I forget to make sure that the charts didn't get split, which of course they did, so somethings that should be together on one page got separated to the next page. Not a big deal if you're looking at it on a computer, but it can be annoying if you print it out.

Total page count:14

Guardia session 2 will start in about an hour which will hopefully be as successful as the last. I ended up putting the entire campaign plan/script up on bubbl.us (the beta version) we'll see how that goes. I wasn't able to print it, things kept getting cut off because it's so big so I'll be GMing with my laptop, hopefully it won't be too much of a hindrance. I might try putting it in tablet mode and see how that goes.

Critical hits!

Draft #3 will be posted soon. I added a section about creating enemies, and made a few other small changes as well. I also made a alternative character sheet that is printed landscape, it has the character sheet on one half and the quick reference page on the other. I'm trying to get Tim to write a nice little introduction to 2d6 and roleplaying in general.

The only rule change that's been made is criticals. Rolling a 12 is a 1 in 36 chance, and +2 damage was just not exciting enough. So now when you roll a natural 12 to attack that attack automatically counts as a heavy wound. We were playing around with the idea of having some kind of bonus when you roll a 12 for damage, but decided against it in the end.

Perception.

I'm changing the skill "intuition" with "perception". While one might think that perception is not something that can be trained, I think that it can. A forensic investigator is much better at finding tiny things dug into the carpet than someone who is not. A skilled doctor can identify a disease where others would not see a problem.

Also, I was unhappy with intuition. It competed with the empathy, and when it didn't, it could be over used. My solution was that intuition/gut feelings, could be an ability. Whether you are force sensitive, have gods whispering in your ears, slightly psychic or whatever.

Guardia, corp. (session 1)

Guardia History:

1980- Guardia Corporation was founded, and placed their headquarters in the middle of rural upstate New York, the original company was made to research human chemistry and hormones

Slowly buildings started popping up around the HQ and the town kept growing and growing

Now, in 2063, the land surrounding Guardia HQ, has become Guardia City. Hundreds of different divisions of the corporation are located in the city, as well as most of Guardia’s employees. The different divisions range from Entertainment television to medical research, to weapons manufacturing, and everything in between.

For the ordinary citizen, life is much the same as is was in 2009. Personal computers and cell phones have not changed, and cars still run on gasoline.

The advancements have mostly been in the field of medicine. Where it is just starting to be common for people to be given micromachines that circulate the blood stream and are capable of detecting and often destroying illnesses such as cancers.

Guardia corp. prides itself with being humane, 5 years ago, the Athena division created the Action-Supression-Ray (aka ASR, commonly referred to as the Aser-proncounced Ace-er) Which is a device that looks very much like a normal handgun, but instead of bullets, it emits particles that enter the target’s body and painlessly makes their body and mind not want to act for a short period of time. People who have been shot with and ASR describe the feeling as being suddenly calm, and the idea of doing anything at all other than standing still does not occur to them.
******************
(Session start)

The Guardia holiday party is surely a sight to behold. All Guardia's employees are invited (practically the entire city), outside services and security are brought in just for this night of revelry.

Dr. Ding, Derek, and Dan are assigned to a small table together. None of them have anything in common. Dan is new to the division, but is well on his way to being a coffee transportation expert. Derek is preoccupied with all the potential security risks involved with the holiday party, and Dr. Ding asks Steve, 10 years her junior for a dance, he declines.

The party is a good one, as always. Derek ducks out to check on the Athena building and finds nothing, the only note worthy things are that of petty gossip (we never did find out if Cindy went home with that guy from accounting).

A few days after the party, everyone has settled back into their work routine. Dr. Ding works with the lab chimps in one of the larger laboratories. Derek patrols the hallways, pistol on one side of his belt, Aser (model 244) on the other. Dan carries oversized stacks of paper from point A to point B for no known reason.

All of the electronic locks on the chimp cages unlock, and the doors swing open. Several of the chimps look crazed, Dr. Ding runs out the door and calls for security. Derek, unhappy about the prospect of filling out an incident report breaks the window in the door and shoots the Aser at the chimps. After a chaotic few minutes, the chimps are subdued. Dr. Ding is very upset that Derek had to kill Bobo, her favorite chimp.

Help arrives 40 seconds later, and begins to clean up the mess. Apparently these mischievous monkeys knocked down and broke containers full of chemicals some of which have not yet been tested on humans. A Hazmat team comes, scrubs everyone down, and stuffs the trio into quarantine.

Abilities

I just added a new feature to 2d6, thanks to Mark's marvelous idea: Abilities.

Abilities are generally non-combat skills/spells that do not fit in any other category. The xp cost to acquire them varies on the ability, as some are more useful than others. If you want a starting character to have abilities, you must take the points away from your skills. Abilities can be anything, be creative! When you have an idea that fits with your character and the game, discuss it with the GM and he or she will assign a cost to your ability. Sometimes the ability could even be free (this is where bribing your GM with cookies comes in handy).

Some examples of abilities are:

Flight (either magic, or your character created some awesome jet pack, or whatever)
Polymorph- being able to change shape, and change others. (She turned me into a newt!)
Water breathing
Invisibility
Race specific abilities- Vampires gaining health by drinking blood, Werewolves infecting others,

2d6: An introduction

Tim and I made the majority of this game system in an afternoon, and it takes minutes to learn to play (even my mother says it was easy!)

It's a very simple roleplaying system that can be used for any genre of game and has very little limitations. We made it as flexible as possible, which to some is a good thing, and to some bad. The math is simple so people like me won't need to be embarrassed by counting on their fingers.

Rules to be found here: http://games.groups.yahoo.com/group/LRPGSW/files/RPG%20Systems/2d6/

If you're not a member of LRPGSW (which I suggest you join!) feel free to email me, and I'll email you a copy.