So, last week I had a birthday. Even though I feel in my heart that I’m a 17 year old boy trapped in a a body which performs almost as well as a 25 year old, in actuality, I have traveled around Earth’s sun a lot more times than how I feel. And that means that I’m closer to the end of all things that are me. In celebration (or mourning) of this state of affairs, I released my RPG on DTRPG. Which, I guess means that I have published my first game.
VERSION ONE (PUBLISHED) OF RATIONAL MAGIC RPG
Descriptions below.
Tomorrow, if I get hit by a car or a North Korean nuclear bomb tomorrow, at least my game has been published. But this is not the end of my plans. I intend to do a Kickstarter in 6 months or so for this game, so that it can get the art it deserves and I can justify further development of scenarios and additional supplements. That Rational Magic Kickstarter will be my second Kickstarter… the first one I’m going to start on July 1st for “The Sassoon Files”; a Trial / Call of Cthulhu campaign book Any and all coaching on how to run kickstarters is very appreciated.
In the meantime, this Summer, in about 2 weeks, my family will go off to other parts to attend socialization in Japanese Summer school. Which means that I will be able to GM some online sessions. Anyone interested in playing with me, (or… wow… GMing my game so I can play it) please let me know.
What is Rational Magic
Rational Magic is a game of investigation, intrigue, and espionage set in a gritty “dystopian fantasy” world: a world that has evolved from a traditional sword and sorcery setting. Society is in upheaval, as competing economic and social ideologies struggle to set people free or enslave them. In this world, players are agents who work either to maintain the status quo or rebel against the forces of magical modernity.
Rational Magic uses the Lore System, which was purpose-built for this game. This system is meant to give you a fast and meaningful role playing experience which also ties a character’s story and development into the game world. It was developed by looking at some of the best (in this author’s opinion anyway) features of such games as FATE, Savage Worlds, Barbarians of Lemuria, and Warrior Rogue Mage. The Lore System dice mechanic (2d10 +mod beat a TN) and system basics are relatively simple. Characters are mechanically described with just a few attributes, a few special powers, and one or two descriptive Professions. This game promotes the Game Master to make rulings, instead of just following rules. Although this is essentially a traditional type of RPG, an important difference between Lore System and many other RPGs is that there is relatively little emphasis on “leveling up”. Instead, this game system uses a feature called “Lore Sheets” which define the character’s progress in the game world, grant mechanical power to relationships the character has cultivated, and might serve as a running log of the character’s accomplishments.
Rational Magic Inspirations
This game was heavily influenced by certain modern writers of fantasy and science fiction. In particular, these books:
* Richard K. Morgan’s “A Land Fit For Heroes” series
It is the author’s hopes that Conflict in this game would seem as thrilling as in Mr. Morgan’s books, and the World convey a similar, gritty, intense realism.
* Richard K. Morgan’s Altered Carbon
Although Altered Carbon is seemingly a “transhuman” sci-fi setting, the technology described (cortical stacks, mind-control) fits well with a fantasy setting.
* China Mieville’s “Bas-Lag” series, including:
Like Mr. Mieville’s works, Rational Magic tackles issues of racism, imperialism, culture shock, and labor rights in a fantasy setting.
* Charles Stross’s “Nightmare Stacks”,
Part of his Laundry series. I feel that this book is essentially a Tom Clansy modern warfare dramatization, except that it focuses on the tactics and techniques used by the modern British military as it faces off against the modern military of an elven army from another dimension which developed mixed-arms magical combat doctrines.
* TippyVerse
This can be found on various internet forums. It is setting idea which stipulates a world where all the rules of D&D 3.5 are interpreted rationally and literally. I only discovered this setting idea recently. Where the starting point of TippyVerse seems to be the existence of easy Teleportation, the starting point in the development of Rational Magic was the idea of commercialized reincarnation (and necromancy) being common abilities in the Game World.
* “The Gods are Bastards”
Online serial by D. D. Web and can be found at: https://tiraas.wordpress.com/ TGAB depicts a fantasy world similar to a generic D&D setting which has “evolved” into the industrial revolution through the rationalization of “magi-technology.”
Rational Magic Links:
* Rational Magic Product Website
* Rational Magic Rule Book and Quick-Start on DTRPG (version 1: FREE)
Right now, this is free. There is a player-quickstart guide and starter campaign in the same link.
Rational Magic is a game of investigation, intrigue, and espionage set in a gritty “dystopian fantasy” world; a world that evolved from a traditional sword and sorcery setting. Rational Magic uses the Lore Role-Playing Game (RPG) System, purpose-built for this game.
You can see SRD here. You can download the whole beta-version rule-book, play-test package, and Player quickstart rules at this Google+ folder.