Blog Archives

New System Thursday, 3/11/2010

It’s New System Thursday! That day of the week where we deepdive into the binary sea of cyberspace to bring you a better tomorrow through technology. Today, we’re taking you to Night City, California. Today we’re taking you to Cyberpunk 2020.

For over two decades, the Megacorporations have ruled the world from their starscraper towers, enforcing that control with armies of cyborg assassins. While the boostergangs roamed a shattered urban wilderness, the endless party went on 24-7 in the hottest clubs, sleaziest bars and meanest streets this side of the Postholocaust. But that was before the Crash; before the dark days of 203X. Now
the battlefield belongs to the new Lords of theStreet: the DNA-shape shifting Reefers vs thefull-body cyborgs of Corpore Metal, Desnai’s robo-enhanced mechajocks against the monster makers of Riptide, the nano-boosted roadwarriors of Rolling State against the cybertech megaweapons of the urban Edgerunners.

So get ready to hit Streets of the Dark Future, a world so dangerous, so dark, that only the toughest, smartest and most cybered-up will survive. But you can deal with it. Because you’re ready. Because you’re Cyberpunk.

So take the red pill, and make a Cyberpunk 2020 campaign now!

New update: Social Publishing!

UPDATE!

A lot of you also seem to want us to add this feature to edited characters, Adventure logs, and Wiki pages. So we did!

Hail Adventurers!

Do you wish that you could alert your friends, followers, and players to your important Obsidian Portal campaign updates? WISH GRANTED!

We’ve burned the midnight oil at both ends again this weekend, and not only did that leave a terrible burn mark on the carpet, but we’ve managed to work social publishing features into the following actions!

• Create new campaign
• Create new Adventure Log post
• Create new Wiki page

So now when you’re doing one of the above, you can choose to publish a note about what you’ve created to Facebook and Twitter! Be the envy of your friends and loved ones… after all, they didn’t create the perfect campaign setting. You did!

Here’s how to set it up so your account can do social publishing.

1. Log into your Obsidian Portal campaign
2. Click on My Profile
3. Click on Edit My Account
4. Scroll down to Third Party Signin
5. Click on the Facebook button and follow the instructions to allow Facebook updates
6. Click on the Twitter button and follow the instructions to allow Twitter updates

After that, you’re all set to start publishing to Facebook and Twitter! Here’s how to do it.

When you’re creating a new campaign, Adventure Log, or Wiki page, scroll down to the bottom and just above the create button, you’ll see Social Publishing. Click on that, choose either Facebook or Twitter, or both, and then click create. Simple as that!

Just so it’s clear from the start, we will never post something to your stream without your explicit permission. We won’t sneak behind your back and push updates. We hate that kind of dishonest behavior, too.

Four new site updates, 3/1/2010

Hail Adventurers!

We’ve been busy behind the portal making changes so you don’t have to! As you know, we’re dedicated to providing the best campaign management platform in the world, and that means that the changes are always fast and furious around here. Here’s what’s changed in our most recent round of updates.

1) Co-GM Functionality –Ascendant Members Only!

You’ve dreamt about it. You shouted about it. And we’re finally giving it to you! Just log into your account, open one of your campaigns, click on Manage Members, and the screenshot above says the rest! This feature is available to our Ascendant Members only. Why not become one today?

2) Improved Notification System –Ascendant Members Only!

Want your players to know about an important update to a page in your campaign? Or perhaps you’d like to share a particularly sensitive update with a single player? Now you can send automatic email notifications for any of your campaign pages!

Additionally, we’ve tweaked forum notifications so that each poster can control who gets notified for each post. It’s super nice! Just like the last feature, this one is only available to our Ascendant Members. Why not give it a go?

3) Changing your Username

This feature is available to all users! Did you enter in the wrong Username when you signed up? Does it haunt you throughout your day with a dark whisper in your mind saying “You did it wroooooong. I’m a scary voice in your heaaaaaaad!” Well fear not my deranged friend, because now you can change your Username!

If you’d like to change your Username, log into Obsidian Portal, click on “My Profile” and then “Edit My Account”. Your Username is the first thing on the page. Changing your username will change the URL for your profile and all the previous links to your Obsidian Portal user profile will no longer work! So be careful when you make the change, or the hauntings will continue forever.

4) 15 day free trial for new Ascendant Memberships!

All new Ascendant Memberships are eligible for a 15 day free trial! Simply choose the length of subscription you’d like and checkout with Amazon. If you don’t like your Ascendant Membership, cancel any time before the trial runs out and you won’t be charged a cent! Sign up today!

New System Thursday, 2/25/2010

It’s New System Thursday! We take some time each Thursday to add a new system to our list of over 130 supported table-top RPG systems and settings. Today’s system is 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars by UK RPG demigod, Gregor Hutton.

In space, you murder a lot of aliens.

Is 3:16 a perfect game? Well, no, as it’s not got….. ummmm…… then there’s…… errrrrr…….. OK, I’ll admit it; I can’t think of a damned thing to add or take away from 3:16 that would make it a better game. So I guess it must be perfect after all.

3:16 is a stupidly simple beer-and-pretzels game and a deeply complex moralistic one, all at the same time. The players’ characters are members of the elite 3:16th Expeditionary Force who’s task it is to rid the universe of alien scum to keep the Utopian Earth a safe and wholesome place to be. It’s Starship Troopers, Those Guys from Alien II and every dumb Space Marine movie all rolled into one. Add in rules which perfectly fit the tone and setting, the utterly brilliant Flashbacks concept, the promise of Starkiller missiles and the lightest touch of moral decay and you’ve got a system that everyone should be legally mandated to play at least once in their life.

–Greywulf

If you haven’t it yet you can buy a PDF of the rule book here. Then, Make a 3:16 Carnage Amongst The Stars campaign now!

Contest Results for the Stats & Art Contest: The Giraffelich!

So we announced our 6 winners on our Newsletter. By the way, do you get the Obsidian Portal Monthly Newsletter? To get it, edit your Obsidian Portal Profile, check Receive e-mail updates, and click Update! Anyway, we announced the winners, now we’ll show you the winning entries!

Stats:
First Place: Matthew Rinehart’s giraffelich.

Second Place: Geoff Nunn’s giraffelich.

Third Place: Owen K.C. Stephens’ giraffelich.

Art:
First Place: Justin Swadlo

Second Place: Bryan Cohen

Third Place: Nicole Jekich

Congrats to all the winners! If you won, e-mail our Content Director (dan (at) obsidianportal (dot) com) to get your $25 Amazon Gift Certificate.

New System Thursday, 2/04/2010

It’s New System Thursday! That magical day of the week where we broaden our horizons. A day where we take on new challenges. A day where we seek out new life and new civilizations so that we may exploit them for treasure! I’m getting a bit ahead of myself.

Anywho, today is New System Thursday, and on New System Thursday we add a new system to our list of over 100 supported table-top RPG systems and settings. Today we did things a little differently. Today we asked our Facebook fanpage to pick the systems and settings we would add today. Yes, systems. Yes, settings. We asked them to come up with 10 new and exciting systems and settings and boy, did they deliver! Here they are in no particular order!

IronClaw
From the Anthropomorphic Cat People at Sanguine Productions comes their flagship product, Ironclaw.

Ironclaw is a role-playing game set at the cusp of a change in a fantasy world’s history. Dozens of different sentient races, cultures, and societies are converging upon the strategic island of Calabria. As a player, you will start with humble beginnings, only to become involved in machinations as each noble house vies for control. Which side will you take? Will you throw your dice with the Bisclavret, becoming a mercenary hoping for riches and glory? Can you stand against the Avoirdupois warriors, in their staggering numbers and unyielding formations? And what of the mysterious Doloreaux, with the rumors that they may have unlocked the secrets of the wizard-kings of yore? Or can you really hope to remain neutral as the fates of nations are decided?

Will you succumb to the animal within and rule with an iron claw, or will help save a wild world from itself? Make an IronClaw campaign now!

A.G.E System
From Green Ronin Publishing comes a brutal game of dark fantasy, Dragon Age RPG.

It has been hundreds of years since the last Blight ravaged the world of Thedas. Many believe that it can never happen again, that the Dragon Age will pass without the rise of such evil. They are wrong. Beneath the earth the darkspawn stir. A new archdemon has risen and with it a Blight that will scourge the lands and darken the skies. The nations of Thedas need a new generation of heroes, but who will answer the call?

Defeate the Blight, cleanse the land, make a Dragon Age RPG campaign now!

Iron Kingdoms
Privateer Press has an awesome RPG setting in the same fictional world as the Warmachine minis war game. That awesome setting is Iron Kingdoms.

The Iron Kingdoms possess a rich history—and a dark future—full of unique monsters, deities, heroes, and villains. Immerse yourself in the detailed world of grit and sorcery with the Iron Kingdoms RPG. Unleash the power of mechanika, the fusion of magic and machine; take on the persona of unique character classes, like the Gun Mage who combines powerful magic with a deadly acumen for firearms; and travel through a fantastic world that blends classic fantasy settings with a high-octane rush of contemporary culture.

I once made my own Trollkin high holy day in this game. Called it Tromadan. True story. Make an Iron Kingdoms campaign now!

Qin: The Warring States
From Cubicle 7 Entertainment comes a system that would make John Woo proud, Qin: The Warring States.

China. 240 BC. The state of Qin is the most authoritarian and brutal of all the Warring States. Its vast and disciplined army stands ready to embark on its great project : the union of all things under Heaven into a single Empire, or Tian Xia. But you can still change the course of history. Become a legend ! Enter the epic world of Warring States China, a world of colorful myths and timeless legends, bold wu xia and beautiful courtesans, wise scholars and scheming eunuchs, exorcists and monsters…. All await the daring exploits and noble deeds of a new generation of heroes.

Apparently, everybody is kung-fu fighting. Are you? Make a Qin: The Warring States campaign now!

The Shadow of Yesterday
From that one guy at CRN Games comes The Shadow of Yesterday.

The Shadow of Yesterday is pulpy romantic sword-and-sorcery at the end of one world and the beginning of the next. This game melds the best of standard fantasy role-playing and a hard-charging narrative engine. The revised version of this game, out now, focuses even more on mechanics that make your story zing off the table and into your imagination.

Set in a post-apocalyptic fantasy world where the creation of a moon has ravaged cultures and thrown the fate of the earth into question, TSOY is like a Weird Tales contribution written by Emily Bronte.

We’re halfway through! Make a The Shadow of Yesterday campaign now!

Prose Descriptive Qualities
Atomic Sock Monkey Press teaches us that sentence structure is FUNdamental with PDQ! Quoth the Wikipedia:

Most ASMP games share in common the PDQ (Prose Descriptive Qualities) system, a rules-light game engine that has three different levels of task resolution for any situation, in order to let players resolve encounters in as much or as little detail as desired.
The mechanism is to generate a random number or roll, add a freeform stat or set of stats, and compare to a difficulty number — either a fixed difficulty number or the opponent’s roll. In conflicts, the amount which you beat another character’s roll by is the amount of damage or failure ranks (see below). Stats are rated in five named ranks: Poor [-2], Average [+0], Good [+2], Expert [+4], and Master [+6].

Conflicts result in the accumulation of either “failure ranks” (which recover at the end of the contest) or “damage ranks” (which may take longer to heal). Each point of either type means that the loser must choose a stat to downgrade by one rank. So if you lose a conflict roll by 3, you must lower three stats each by one rank, or one stat by three ranks (with a minimum of Poor: -2). You can choose any stat to take your damage in — i.e. you can downgrade your “Accounting” quality based on a hit in a fight. When you can’t lower your stats any lower (i.e. a hit when all stats are at Poor [-2]), then you have lost the contest.

I’m almost as excited to play this system as I am to finish this blog post. Make a PDQ campaign now!

Master Craft
Crafty Games made a table-top RPG system too, you guys! It’s totally Master Craft!

It’s super fun!

-Dan

Make a Master Craft campaign now!

Fantasy Craft
Did you know that Crafty Games makes settings for their Master Craft system? They sure do, check out Fantasy Craft.

This is the time of high adventure – your adventure! Take charge of your gaming experience with simple yet powerful rules that let you craft any character, any monster, or any world you can imagine. Whether you like your fantasy bright or bleak, gritty or gonzo it’s all here, supported with one of the most versatile RPG systems ever devised.

Will you embark on a new legendary quest? Will you make a Fantasy Craft campaign now?

Mechwarrior
You’ve clamored for it, you’ve threatened personal harm, so here it is, Mechwarrior! Make a MechWarrior campaign now!

Colonial Gothic
From those filthy backstabbers at Rogue Gamers, comes the hair-raising, What If setting, that is Colonial Gothic.

You know the history. All have read about the founding of America. This history shows what led to the American Revolution and the cry for independence. The history is clear, and there is no real dispute over these events. Or is there?

There is a secret history, and this history deals with events that took place in the shadows. These events played a role in the history of the American colonies and the Revolution that few know about. The truth is hidden, and plots are afoot. Events are moving behind the scenes, and lurking in the shadows are agents with their own agenda.

Shoot some red coats, and watch out for those elder gods, and make a Colonial Gothic campaign now!