Amidst The Void 3rd Edition

Started noodling around with my old Amidst The Void ruleset. Trying to bring it more in line with modern RPGs -- throwing out random chargen, simplifying damage. Thinking about keeping Stun/Nonlethal damage old-school crunchy but having lethal damage less so, a la WEG Star Wars/7 Seas.

Adding more worlds, a new faction - The Mercantile League, and folding in concepts from the Mythic Rowaer and Hyboris/Karphis fantasy campaigns. Posts will cover a single part of the new edition/campaign.

I was pleasantly surprised to read my last VOID campaign notes; it was very "Song of Ice and Fire", even though I had not read the series at the time. Of course, Dune was a big influence, and a lot of "Ice and Fire" feels like Dune without the environmentalist stuff.

Big Robot Dinosaur

"Big Robot Dinosaur"
by Darkest of the Hillside Thickets

Dad's working on something special
Down in the basement
I yelled goodbye as I headed out
To wait for the bus

At school it's the usual tortures
Pushed and tripped in the hall
Hit in the head with a half-eaten orange
Face washed in the snow

Got home so fed-up and angry
My dad came to me
Took me down to the basement and said
"It's finally ready, son!"

My senses reeled, my heart stood still
Before me glowed a glory
Fruit of my father's laborious weekend
Towering three to four stories

We're on the rampage in a robot dinosaur
Me and my dad in his robot dinosaur
We're in the cab of a robot dinosaur
Stop on society, robot dinosaur
My tool of vengeance is a robot dinosaur
Talons ripping, robot dinosaur...

Midnight Shrike

Since I can't draw for shit, I've taken to doing Photoshop logos for some of my Champions characters. Format so far tends to be a base insignia for each super-team, with the individual logo and hero name overlaid.

This one turned out the best.

Hyboris

This is the most ambitious campaign I have in the pipeline; it's based around Nikan's old RoleMaster campaign, but with everything changed to fit my esthetic.

The Aethyr came from beyond the celestial sphere to Hyboris, fleeing the evil which destroyed their world. The Silver Aethyr Akkar left his insular people to explore the new planet and study its peoples. He made allies and aided the young races of Man in building great empires, so that when Tya finally came, the people of Hyboris were ready to fight. This epic battle is called the Sundering, as it ended in the destruction of one of the Hyborian moons, which is now a rocky ring circling the world. The release of mana caused by the Sundering elevated Akkar and his allies to godhood, and led by the great warrior Mardok they fought the Destroyer Dragon on equal footing. Their battles lasted centuries, and resulted in the Dragon being rendered into several weaker, but still godlike, Aspects.

The war ended after both sides suffered grievously; Akkar was slain by the traitorous Devash, Aethyr who served the Aspects of Shadow and Whisper; the Aspects of Corruption and Cataclysm were slain by Mardok, who was poisoned by Corruption in the fight and himself killed.

It is over a thousand years later; the High Men rule over great Empires, while the more fecund Common Men make up the bulk of those ruled. A young race of Amazons--the Mante-- bring gifts of technology, civilization, and philosophy to the world. The Aethyr withdraw from the doings of man.

Within the dark and decadent Dragon Kingdoms of the Devash and Sargothans grows a darker threat still. The heretics of the Reunifier Cult strive to resurrect the slain Aspects of Corruption and Cataclysm in hopes of restoring the Seven Aspects back into the Great Destroyer of Worlds. Reviled by both followers of the Hyborian Gods AND the Dragon Aspects (who quite enjoy their autonomy, thank you), the Reunifier Cult delves into deeper, fouler magics than any diabolist or necromancer.

Characters will be pregenned from Player requests after a brief overview of the RM system, what classes are actually used, new classes of my design, etc. It's a complex system that I've played for over a decade, and I'm barely confident I can run it. I hate this kind of system normally, but since I've played it so long am sort of used to it--at least moreso than any flavour of D&D.

XP will have to be really simplified. Looking at standard 1K-2K awards plus 250-800 bonus points for conspicuous valor, roleplaying, etc.