21 May, 2009
Today’s Tabbloid
PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net
ROGUE FEED
Escapism
MAY 20, 2009 05:16P.M.
I never fully understood the label of “escapist” till my friend
Professor Tolkien asked me the very simple question, ‘What
class of men would you expect to be most preoccupied with,
and most hostile to, the idea of escape?’ and gave the obvious
answer: jailers.
—C.S. Lewis,”On Science Fiction” (1955)
ROGUE FEED
[Lost Works] Salvaging Chaos
MAY 20, 2009 04:52P.M.
The following was the campign write up I gave to the players of the
small Demon City Shinjuko (Guardians of Order) campaign I ran.
This appeared in Alarums and Excursions and has not appeared since.
Looking at this early stuff, I am amazed with the changes I have made in
my writing. I am finding these looks backs to be illuminating.
Salvaging Chaos
The history of Koizumi & Yuasa is one that is a perfect example of what
can happen if a company chooses to be the best in their chosen field.
Founded in 1930 by Hachemon Koizumi, it was during World War II
Koizumi Deep Sea Salvage (as it was then known) found a lot of work
and made a name for themselves with its successful salvage operation.
After World War II Koizumi bought out the failing Yuasa Construction
Company, creating a giant company that would soon become
international in scope. With the end of the war, the newly formed
Koizumi & Yuasa accepted many lucrative contracts for the massive
rebuilding of Tokyo and Japan. Since the 1950’s Koizumi & Yuasa has
continued to be the most successful salvage and construction company
not only in Japan, but in the entire region.
When Tokyo was rocked by the Devil Shake in the 1980’s Koizumi &
Yuasa moved quickly to secure contracts for the massive rebuilding and
salvaging operations in Shinjuku. When the reports of monsters and
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other strange occurrences began to spread, it was Koizumi & Yuasa that
decided to become the only salvaging company to focus exclusively on
Shinjuku salvage. Unlike other companies, Koizumi & Yuasa actively
sought out employees who were suited to the rigors of Shinjuku. These
“Specials,” as they are called, possess skills and abilities that are not
found among typical humans.
Unlike other salvage operations Koizumi & Yuasa salvage for special
items and clients contact them when they need specific items to be
recovered. Computer files, art objects and sometimes hard currency that
still lay within Shinjuku, are example of the work they do. The nature of
the Devil Shake prevented many companies and businesses from
bringing much out with them. Also, the relative danger that Shinjuku
presents did not allow many to return to their offices to recover what
they need. Add to this, the government efforts of preventing people from
entering into the area, it is next to impossible to reclaim lost items. For a
very steep fee Koizumi & Yuasa sends in specialized teams to recover
what a client wants. This recovery is not limited to Shinjuku, and it is a
very well kept secret that Koizumi & Yuasa makes available their special
teams for corporate theft and espionage world wide.
For the past 20 years Koizumi & Yuasa has been under the leadership of
Motoki Koizumi. Motoki, who is the grandson of Hachemon, is
aggressive in pushing the company into new areas. Taking the reigns of
the company when he was only 20, Motoki has made a lot of money, and
a huge name for himself. He has slowly turned Koizumi & Yuasa into a
conglomerate with interests in areas outside of construction and salvage.
Under his control the company has been aggressive in the construction
business and slowly has become the most profitable construction
company in Tokyo. For the past 10 years Motoki has been pushing
aggressively for his pet project: New Shinjuku.
New Shinjuku will see the total rebuilding of the current ruined area.
From rebuilding the numerous buildings, to fixing the destroyed
infrastructure, this 20 year plan will turn Shinjuku into a high tech
marvel. The plan calls for high speed telecommunications networks, a
modern environmental friendly mass transit system, and expanded
green spaces. Once completed New Shinjuku will be the city of the
future. Unfortunately, Motoki has met with a lot of resistance over his
plans.
Many in Tokyo’s government do not want to give the project to one man.
They feel that the city and the state should rebuild Shinjuku, and not a
private individual. Meanwhile, supporters of Motoki’s plan argue that
Shinjuku is a disgrace blight and that neither the state nor the city have
shown any desire in rebuilding it. They argue that by allowing such an
eyesore to fester in the city, sends a message that Tokyo and Japan is
weak. After all, 10 years is too long to allow a city to stay in ruins. It is
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net
rumored that within the next year Motoki will be awarded the exclusive
rights to rebuild Shinjuku. Not only will New Shinjuku make Koizumi &
Yuasa rich, but it will also make Tokyo richer.
Unknown to all, and to the majority of Koizumi & Yuasa, Motoki has
other plans besides the rebuilding of Shinjuku. Motoki craves power and
he knows the true origins of the Devil Shake, and about the truth of
Shinjuku. Motoki is a wizard who wants to harness the magical power of
Shinjuku. Since he was a teenager Motoki has been a student of the
occult and a practitioner of the magical arts. As he grew older so did his
powers which he used them to better himself.
Motoki’s powers brought him to the attention of Levi Rah. Levi, who was
preparing to summon the Demon Void, did not want someone around
who could pose a threat to his plans. The two fought a magical battle in
the countryside, but Levi was the stronger. Wounding Motoki, the youth
feigned death allowing Levi to assume he had defeated him. The defeat
angered Motoki, who vowed to one day avenge his lost and disgrace. It
would not be until Levi performed the ceremony. The result of this
disruption was the Devil Shake. While Levi licked his wounds and waited
the ten years to perform the ceremony again, Motoki reaped the benefits
of a ruined Shinjuku.
Shinjuku was devastated making the area ripe for the picking. Taking
control of the family business he pushed Koizumi & Yuasa into the
lucrative area of Shinjuku salvage. Motoki used these salvage operations
as a cover for his own teams to steal as much material as they could.
Motoki figured that due to the inherent risks, Koizumi & Yuasa could
afford to fail 10% of all their assignments. Telling the client that they
were unsuccessful, they refunded their fee and Koizumi & Yuasa would
take the apparent loss. In truth Motoki kept the salvage items for himself
and made a profit off of them.
Over the next ten years Motoki used his discoveries to move the
company into other areas. Holding companies were set up and Motoki
put the salvaged intellectual property he found to work. Teams scoured
Shinjuku looking for working mainframes and downloaded whatever
data they could find. Some of this data proved to be useless, but a good
part of it was profitable. Motoki also spent time in Shinjuku cultivating
relationships with demons and forging ties that would eventually prove
to be very useful. Motoki also sought wizards who were attracted to
Demon City. A few wizards arrived in hopes of uncovering new
knowledge in the ways of magic, or binding demons into servitude pacts.
Motoki studied with them and as soon as he learned all that he could he
killed them and stole their books and notes. All of this study was in
preparation for Motoki to seek his revenge against Levi. Sadly it would
be Genichirou’s son, Kyoya, who killed Levi and not Motoki. Though his
rival was dead, and Shinjuku was open for Motoki’s control, he has never
gotten over his defeat to Levi.
With Levi out of the way, and Shinjuku still under the influence of
demons, Motoki hatched a new plan; the rebuilding of Shinjuku.
Realizing that the demon problem needed to be dealt with, Motoki used
the alliances he forged to his advantage. He had entered into a pact with
two of the twelve Demon Lords who really controlled the city. The three
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21 May, 2009
vowed to work together to bring Shinjuku under control. Slowly the two
lords worked to destroy the forces of the others bringing many
independent demons into the group. In addition, the two overlords
ensured that every attempt to rebuild or reclaim Shinjuku would fail.
They did this by terrorizing all who tried to enter the city, and the reports
of monsters in the ruins can be traced to this group. Motoki made sure
the only one who could control a new Shinjuku would be himself and his
company.
For ten years he has worked, and pushed to rebuild Shinjuku. He has
started small and rebuilt areas on the borders as an example of his
dedication. Slowly the government has come around, and now if
everything thing works out, 2002 will be the start of the New Shinjuku
rebuilding project. Little do they know that Shinjuku will still be a city
run by demons, but this time the demons are in the woodwork and led by
Motoki.
For the most part Koizumi & Yuasa is staffed and run by normal humans.
There are a few who are special and have powers and abilities that
separate them from the rest. Because Koizumi & Yuasa actively works in
Shinjuku the company has hired many demons and those tainted with
demon blood. It is an open secret in Shinjuku that those with demon
blood can find work with the company.
There is a small group within Koizumi & Yuasa that are collectively
known as The Suits who answer to Motoki only. The Suits get their name
from the dark suits they wear signifying who they are. The Suits are not
only in charge of security within the company, but also perform special
assignments for Motoki. Because all salvage contracts must be approved
by Motoki, he has the ability to pick and choose which items he wants. If
an item attracts his attention, he approves the contract and a salvage
team enters Shinjuku. Motoki, unknown to all, then sends The Suits into
the city with orders to kill the other salvage team and bring the goods
directly to him. This ensures there are no witnesses, as well as helps
continue the stories of the dangerous nature of Shinjuku.
Currently, Motoki owns a number of companies that were started with
procured items found in Shinjuku. His first company, Gee Go Gigs, was
founded after the chip and computer designs of Aoki Concepts were
recovered. As a result of this Gee Go Gigs became very profitable and
ironically purchased the failing Aoki Concepts five years later. The most
recent company Motoki formed is the entertainment company knows as
Genesis Entertainment. This company is behind the most popular
singing group in Japan, Pretty Girls.
The group was founded after unreleased recordings of Go Girl was
discovered. Learning that the group did not sing their own songs, Motoki
formed his own group, and silenced Bando Management who owned Go
Girl. Pretty Girls are actually demons who have the ability to cast
convincing illusions. The demons can mimic any voice, and by using the
recordings successfully mimicked the singers of Go Girl. Their illusions
are very good and no one suspects the groups true nature. In return for
posing as singers Motoki provides them with enough fresh meat to live
on. It is a well kept secret that sometimes fans are invited to have dinner
with the group. This dinner often proves to be the last meal the fan ever
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net
has.
Salvaging Chaos is based on secrets, and the PCs have no clue as to what
is going on. As the campaign progresses they start to learn that their
company is a little shady and that things are not what they seem.
Eventually they begin to learn what is going on and who Motoki is really.
Not every adventure will deal with conspiracies, but the conspiracies will
be in the background throughout.
Posted in Games, Salvaging Chaos Tagged: BESM, Lost Works, writing
ROGUE FEED
Retrospective: Player Character
Record Sheets
MAY 20, 2009 02:06P.M.
Much as I love elegant simplicity of OD&D and its retro-clone, Swords &
Wizardry, I have to admit that one of the greatest attractions of AD&D
for me was its seeming complexity to outsiders. And few things
concretized that attraction more than the Player Character Record
Sheets first released in 1979 and later reprinted with a different colored
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21 May, 2009
cover in 1981. Both printings had the terrific Erol Otus artwork, but I’m
pretty sure I owned the 1981 printing you see pictured to the left.
If you ever owned these record sheets back in the day, I suspect you’ll
understand precisely what I mean. These sheets were gloriously
cramped, with every nook and cranny filled with lines, boxes, and other
areas intended to contain vital information about your AD&D character.
“Vital,” of course, is a relative word, since, along with things like hit
points, armor class (including shieldless and rear AC), and
known/prepared spells, there was also room for the percentage of his
wealth your cleric tithes to his church, the name of your magic-user’s
familiar, and what disguises your assassin regularly uses. Now, some
may argue that this is precisely why AD&D was such a miserable,
tedious, newbie-unfriendly game and I certainly see their point. At the
same time, this is precisely why AD&D held such an attraction for me
and my friends. Mastering all these minutiae was like being initiated into
a secret society and we felt a perverse pride in doing so. I think people
often overlook just how appealing esoterica can be.
To this day, I still contend these are the greatest character sheets ever
made for any iteration of Dungeons & Dragons, possibly for any RPG.
They were eminently usable rather than just being pretty — though their
non-photocopyable goldenrod color did hold a certain charm. The three-
hole punching of the sheets pretty much ensured that everyone in my
gaming group had a D-ring binder for each of their characters, so they
could include the sheet along with other important bits of paper under a
single cover, resulting in a kind of “mini-biography” of each PC. You
could tell by looking at these binders what adventures a given character
had undertaken, how much XP and treasure he’d gained, and lots of
other small details from which amusing anecdotes could be spun later.
This was true even — or perhaps especially — of dead characters, whose
sheet and papers were typically removed from a binder and stuck inside
a separate folder that served us as our Hall of the Glorious Dead (even
though many PCs met their deaths in less than glorious fashions).
If anyone wants to bask in the reflected light of these awesome character
sheets, the amazing Mad Irishman has lovingly recreated them as
customizable PDFs. They’re well worth a look.
ROGUE FEED
13 Chapters in 13 Weeks —
Chapter 2
MAY 20, 2009 11:01A.M.
Last week I talked about the changes taking place in Chapter 1 of
Colonial Gothic Revised. This week, I want to discus the changes
taking place in Chapter 2.
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net
Chapter 2 covers the creation of Heroes. Unlike Chapter 1 which saw
very little in the ways of changes, sees little changes as well. What
changes that do take place is the purchasing of Skills, slight
modifications to Faith Points, the introduction of a new Ability, and
finally a revision on what an “average” ability Rank is. So let’s take it
from the start.
Abilities
The five abilities are still with the game (Might, Nimble, Vigor, Reason
and Resolution). The big change to them is that they now follow the led
that Thousand Suns set. That is the average Rank in a Ability is 7. To
create your Hero you have 45 Ability Points to divide among the five
Abilities.
Joining Abilities is a new stat — one that is similar to Vitality and Sanity
— Resolve. Let me quote straight from the Rulebook:
Resolve is a mental counterpart to Vitality and represents a
Hero’s determination and the strength of his convictions.
Resolve is equal to [(Reason + Resolution) ÷ 2] x 5. Like
Vitality, Resolve possesses five levels, each equal to one-fifth
of the total. Thus, a Hero with 60 Resolve has five levels, each
with 12 points. These points correspond to five levels of
attitude toward others. For more on this Attribute and how it
comes into play, please see Chapter 5.
So why Resolve? Good question. Resolve comes straight from
Thousand Suns, and it is something James saw as being very
important to a SciFi game — the idea of social combat. When working on
the revision of Colonial Gothic one of the big things I wanted to add to
it was the idea of social combat. Social combat captures the witty banter
and cutting remarks that polite society has. This was even more
important during the American Colonial period, with numerous
examples of debate, written critiques and the like. Moving Resolve over
to the Colonial Gothic for me made perfect sense. Judging from the
playtests, many either liked this change or really liked it.
Fate Cards & Faith Points
Fate Cards see no major changes, but see a slight modification. That
modification is that by using them, they allow you to gain faith points.
Let me quote from the Rulebook:
Fate Cards have another purpose beyond roleplaying: they let
you gain and spend Faith Points for your Hero (see below).
Fate Cards provide you with a justification for using Faith
Points at an appropriate time in an adventure. Conversely, if
you can connect one or more of your Fate Cards into the
current adventure in a way that makes your Hero’s life more
difficult (which is to say, more exciting), you gain a Faith
Point. Likewise, the Game Master may at certain times decide
that one or more of your Fate Cards is relevant and introduce
new obstacles to your Hero’s progress, in which case you also
gain Faith Points.
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21 May, 2009
So the first question that comes to mind is why? The answer is simple, I
really wanted to make the use of Faith Points important, and I also
wanted to encourage the use of Fate Cards. This change, was one I was
afraid to make, because part of me really thought about dropping the two
concepts all together. When working with James on Thousand Suns, I
soon came around to this, and merged the idea into Colonial Gothic. I
am really happy I did this.
Faith Points do not see much of a change, and they still behave the same
way. What I did with Faith Points was give more examples, and really
spelled out what could be done. Now, Faith Points allow you to:
1. Gain a +1 Bonus.
2. Work with your Faith Card.
The second point, working with the Faith Card, really gives you more
options. In short Faith and Fate are more linked and the two really allow
you do ramp up the drama. For fans of Thousand Suns they will notice
that I followed the lessons of James, and if you play one, you will get the
hang of Colonial Gothic quickly.
Backgrounds
This section of Chapter 2 sees very little has changed. The section’s
been edited, rewritten in many places, and in all spruced up. I toyed with
adding more backgrounds, but then I realized: there is no need.
Purchasing Skills
This sees the most changes.
First up when you buy a Skill, the cost is equal to half the Rank of the
associated ability. When buying a skill you buy it at Rank 1. When raising
the Rank of a skill the cost is equal to half the initial cost. To make it
easier let’s use a table.
Attribute Rank
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Base Rank 1 1 2 2 3 3 4 4 5 5 6 6 Raise 1 Rank 1
11122223333
You always buy a Skill at the Base Rank.
A new addition to buying skills is the idea of Specializations. Since I do
not feel like describing something that is written really good in the
Rulebook, I am just going to share the section with you. Here you go:
Specializations
You may choose a specialization for any skill above Rank 2.
By doing so, your chosen specialization’s starting Rank is
equal to one greater than the Rank of the skill of which it is a
Today’s Tabbloid PERSONAL NEWS FOR riorio2@rogue-games.net 21 May, 2009

specialization, while the original skill is lowered by one Rank.

For example, if your Hero has Shoot 4 and you decide you
want him to specialize in Flintlock Pistols, his new skill write-
up would be Shoot (Flintlock Pistols) 3/5.

Any time you gain additional Ranks in a skill, you may choose
to apply them either to a specialization or its parent skill.
Using the example above, if your Hero gained an additional 2
Ranks in Shoot, you could apply them either to Shoot or to
Flintlock Pistols provided that the parent skill is always at
least one Rank lower than the lowest Rank of specialization.
Thus, if your Hero has Shoot (Flintlock Pistol) 3/5 and gains
2 Ranks in Shoot, you can apply them to gain either Shoot
(Flintlock Pistol) 4/6 or Shoot (Flintlock Pistol) 3/7, but not
Shoot 5/5.

You may also acquire additional specializations at any time,

but every time you add another one, the parent skill drops by
one Rank and the new specialization begins at one Rank
higher than the previous Rank of the parent. For example, if
your Hero has Divination (Alectryomancy) 2/4, you can
choose another specialization (say, Augury) and this
specialization would begin at Rank 3, while Divination itself
drops to Rank 1. Your Hero can gain no additional
specializations until the parent skill increases to at least Rank
2 (and thus the lowest specialization is at least Rank 3).

Credit to this goes to James, who introduced the concept in Thousand

Suns. The concept works so well, and in playtest it allowed the players
to make their Heroes more unique. I think of all the changes in the game,
it is this one that I like the most.

So there you go. More than you thought you would want to know about
Chapter 2.

As always, questions are welcomed. Through them my way.

This issue contains posts from between

May 20, 2009 07:06a.m. and May 21, 2009 03:05a.m..
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