Oh, and that’s without artwork. We’re putting together a nice-sized value for customers!

We had to uninstall the old forum plugin and install a new one, but we were able to access the old posts and repost them in the new forums. (That’s why all the old posts are dated today and have “admin” as the author.)

If you registered with the site in the past, your login should still be the same. Of course, drop us a note if you have any problems.

Here’s how it works. At the core, it’s very simple: Roll 1d10 against a target number; equal or lower is success; and higher is failure. This is called the Tell Die roll, because that d10 tells you whether you succeeded or failed. However, things get more strategic with the introduction of Effort Dice.

Effort Dice are 1, 2, or 3d6 used to represent how much effort you are putting into the task at hand. They don’t affect your chances–that’s solely the purview of the Tell Die–but they affect the level of success or failure. Players decide whether to roll 1, 2, or 3 Effort Dice, and for each Effort Die rolled, 1-3 means a success and 4-6 means a failure.

• If your Tell Die was a success, one successful Effort Die means a Basic Win; two successful Effort Dice mean a Major Win; and three successful Effort Dice mean a Critical Win. Any failed Effort Dice are ignored.
• If your Tell Die was a failure, one failed Effort Die means a Basic Loss; two failed Effort Dice mean a Major Loss; and three failed Effort Dice mean a Critical Loss. Any successful Effort Dice are ignored.

The Effort System gives players have some control over the degree of success or failure. If a player really needs a big success on a roll, they can use all three Effort Dice. However … if you fail, you risk a big failure. You cannot get a chance at a Critical Win without a chance at at Critical Failure. Players manage risk in the Effort System–it’s their choice how much to reach for.

In other news, be prepared for New & Improved Forums!

For the time being, the forums are down. I will likely have to throw them away and start anew but I’m loathe to do that. While I’m getting over that, if you have any comments or questions, please send them to my email address: wjmacguffin (at) gmail.com. Thanks for your understanding!

In the Triune universe, humanity went to war with Heaven and Hell. In the end, there was a stalemate and all three signed a peace treaty at Pavonis Station, a large space station in orbit above Pavonis III. To get an idea of what enforcers do, here are some excerpts from the treaty:

From the various authorities of man in its universe, collectively engaged in union as the Economic Hegemony of Authorities, the various authorities of angel in its universe, collectively engaged in union as the Armies of Heaven, and the various authorities of devil in its universe, collectively engaged in union as the Armies of Hell;

Whereas the Armies of Heaven and the Armies of Hell, engaged in war against each other and, upon access to the universe of man, having engaged in war against the Hegemony to secure man’s allegiance against the other;

Whereas, both the Armies of Heaven and the Armies of Hell having having ceased military operations against the Economic Hegemony of Authorities and against each other within the universe of man;

Having agreed therefore to a cessation of the state of war between the Economic Hegemony of Authorities and themselves, who have appointed dignitaries who, after representation of their full authority, found in good and due form, have agreed to the following:

Article one: The Economic Hegemony of Authorities shall have sole authority within the universe of man and the Armies of Heaven and the Armies of Hell will respect that authority. The Economic Hegemony of Authorities will respect the authority of Heaven and Hell in their respective universes.

….

Article three: The Armies of Heaven and the Armies of Hell shall take the necessary steps to remove members of their universes currently within the universe of man; and the Economic Hegemony of Authorities shall take the necessary steps to remove members of its universe currently within the universes of angel and devil. Angel, devil, and human shall not travel, reside, or otherwise appear in a universe other than their original universe without express consent of the powers recognized in Article One of this Treaty.

….

Article nine: The Economic Hegemony of Authorities shall have the right to enforce the provisions and articles of this Treaty in a manner consistent with its laws, traditions, and regulations so long as it does not violate any of the provisions and articles of this Treaty in the course of enforcement.

In other words, the PCs enforce the Treaty. They run around the Hegemony, arresting angels, devils, and their human sympathizers. What other game expects you to arrest an angel?

When describing central and west African nations, we tried to think 1) what would they be line in the future, and 2) what would make for interesting gameplay. We settled on a continuation of the corruption and internecine warfare that plagues the continent today. There doesn’t seem to be an end to the corruption in sight, and it would make for good conflicts in the game.

Now, we’re wondering if that’s racist. Are we predicting the same kind of instability in other regions? No–Asian and White nations are stable. Are we assuming nations like Chad and Burundi will never get their act together? For the purposes of a game, yes. Are we predicting and assuming just because these nations are mostly black?

Our answer is no, not at all. First, we’re not making predictions–we’re writing a science fiction roleplaying game setting. Science fiction doesn’t try to predict the future; it tries to entertain by creating a possible future.

Second, the reality is that many African nations are incredibly corrupt. This isn’t news nor a contested, unproven idea. It’s a fact. We are simply using that fact in creating our game setting.

To answer the question we posed in the title, we believe that having African nations still struggle with tribalism and corruption in our futuristic setting is not racist. We aren’t making any judgment calls on the people of Africa. Besides the fact that this is just a game, the currently corrupt African nations don’t seem to be on the road to improvement. It makes sense to depict them this way.

We’ll be posting some excerpts soon. Promise!

Some people have wondered how I can combine such different games. Not easily, I can tell you that.  I started by creating some new roles that focused on how players can screw with each other. (Like D&D roles, they are focused on combat.)

This gave me much more focus when designing new classes that, while working within D&D, could also fit into the Paranoia paradigm. The new classes are:

• Disconcerter: Disconcerters use magic to create problems for others, usually a specific person. They create vulnerabilities, warp senses, or otherwise open others up to devastating attacks. If you want to pick on one ally at a time with a powerful debuff, play a disconcerter.

• Evangelical: Arrogant, proud to a fault, and completely convinced of his inevitable sainthood, evangelicals use guilt and fear like an artist uses brushes and paint. If you want to guilt people into protecting you and make them expect, even seek out, punishment, play an evangelical.

• Feral Mage: A natural magic user who escaped the High King’s purges through luck or conspiracy, feral mages have immense power but no training to control it. If you want to hurt friend and foe alike in a burst of magical fire, cause everyone to suffer, and somehow emerge unscathed, play a feral mage.

• Officer: Trained in shouting loudly and expert at making other people do stupid, dangerous tasks, officers send others to their deaths so they may live. If you want to slide other player’s characters around the battlefield and win debates through sheer volume, then officer is a good class to take.

• Prankster: Physical jokes are always funny to the prankster, especially if they hurt someone. If you want to knock allies about, embarrass them, then claim it was all a joke, play a prankster.

• Zealot: Power-mad is the perfect term for these: they have holy power and they are crazy enough to think they know better than the gods what the gods want. If you want to wield barely-controlled power that can take out the unworthy in groups (and only you are truly worthy), play a zealot.

I am proud of these classes and I think they’ll work well,  but we’ll see on Saturday how well these all work together. Or not, as the case may be. After all, there is a lot of Paranoia in my 4E these days.

As a gamer, parent, Catholic, and educator, I take particular attention to those who would label roleplaying games as evil, insidious tools of the Devil. I spoke about it here and here a while ago. Unfortunately, I have to speak about it again.

The Boston Herald has a small article about how a suspect in a killing was an avid D&D player. The article doesn’t go so far as to blame D&D for the killing, but it comes as close to that as possible without actually going there.

Oh, good for you! Dungeons and Dragons books are found in the suspected killer’s residence? There must be a connection! If that’s true, then check his DVR. Are there multiple episodes of Kitchen Nightmares? Then he’s killing for Gordon Ramsey!

There is no link between rpgs and violence, just as there’s no link between rock-n-roll and violence, race and violence, or religion and violence. People kill because they are 1) evil, 2) stupid, 3) desperate, or 4) crazy.  Hobbies have nothing to do with it. Just because you found something in the suspect’s home does not mean there’s causation!

Here’s some future Boston Herald headlines:

• “Suspect in slays fan of American Idol”
• “Suspect influenced by Hostess Twinkies”
• “Killer Driven By Love of $5 Footlongs”

On behalf of gamers everywhere, I’d like to tell Laurel J. Sweet of the Boston Herald that she is wrong. You can email her at lsweet@bostonherald.com.