Hello, everyone! I have been working hard on my Vales fantasy setting, getting ready to run a solo campaign there. But now I am look ahead to the future, literally–and looking to switch gears and head back out into space.
Outward Bound
The sci-fi setting I created is known as Far Jewel. It is actually the primary reason I got back into gaming overall. Far Jewel started as a home-brew setting for the space combat game Full Thrust, but grew into a full Cepheus Engine roleplaying campaign setting.
I got to thinking about it again, and have also been picking up some SF and cyberpunk supplements here and there. They all made me want to switch back to the Far Jewel space, and start playing a solo campaign there.
I have come a ways in my campaign organization abilities since I first started drawing up Far Jewel, back in 2015. The first thing I need to do is re-read my setting info, get it organized again, and catch back up where I left off the campaign. Then I can start adventuring there…
A Brief Diversion…
But before I do that, I have my horror month! During October, I usually try to do some horror gaming, leading up to Halloween. This year, instead of the normal devils and ghosts, I think I am going to try for… UFOs!
One of the supplements I picked up a while back is something called Attack Squadron: Roswell, from Zozer Games. It is a great setting game for Traveller. It takes place in 1953, at the height of the 50s UFO craze. According to the setting, the UFOs are real, and the players play characters who are Air Force fighter pilots who go out and shoot down the invading UFOs–and also investigate reports and conspiracies on the ground!
It’s all cheesy as hell, but looks to be a ton of fun. The game looks like it can easily be used with Cepheus Light: Upgraded, by Stellagama Publishing. I also don’t have to put a ton of work into the worldbuilding, either. Using Zozer Games’ Solo, I can easily run a party solo, with a very story-heavy feel and not worry about a ton of details in the places they visit.
But Before I Go…
But that is in October, not now! Before I start battling UFOs, or heading into deep space, I need to wrap up my fantasy gaming in the Vales setting. I’m getting close to being ready to start solo gaming there, and want to finish up a few adventures before the beginning of the year.
That also includes a first cut at some solid solo roleplaying rules using Blades & Black Magic, plus some basic rules for a magic system. I want to get those written up and played a few times so that I can start getting some feedback on them.
I will also post the info about the Vales on this site, as well as those rules. I want to do that by the end of this year. After that, I will pivot and move over to science fiction gaming for most of next year. That will include more information about the Far Jewel setting and the places there.
It will be interesting to see where this change takes me. I’m looking forward to it, and can’t wait to let you all see it, too!
Marko ∞
REALLY looking forward to what you have to say about a B&BM solo system. Or, really, just any solo system. It’s something this industry NEEDS and simply hasn’t figured out a really good, fast-playing way to make it work.
I was hoping BM would come out this year, but, as they say, “Hope is not a principle of war,” so I think I need to give up on that and just start figuring out how to do it on my own. (Or our own.) There are a lot of features in S&S magic that need to be accounted for — it’s evil, it’s damaging to the user, it’s generally not “combat magic,” but instead “ritual magic” which takes a lot longer, and generally uses life force (yours or somebody else’s) to cast instead of some ultraterrene power source like “mana” or whatever… I’m still thinking that the paradigm that best replicates this in the commercial industry right now is Call of Cthulhu’s magic system, but of course the processes there are pretty unsuitable for the basic rules of B&BM. I like CR’s basic idea — that the power for ANY magic is drawn from “outside” and is tainted with darkness, which serves both to define the why AND the how in terms of where you get the energy from (and why it will eventually destroy you), but the devil is in the details…
I’m leaning toward the methodology set in Zozer Games’ Solo supplement, along with the combat system from Blades. The update they came out with for their Hostile SF setting has a few more tools I’m looking at, too. Both of those are great books for solo roleplaying, by the way.
Still some details to work through, but I think that will work well (for me, at least). Layering on the magic will be a little more interesting. I definitely want to have options for different genres, and let people tailor it for their own needs.