This week I released two complete books. Both of them are powered by the popular Year Zero Engine and both of them part of a series to create a “Dark Urban Fantasy” world. The first, Ex Sanguine (Out of the Blood) is about modern vampires. It has rules for Hunters, Familiars, Fiends and Elders and…
Category: Qabal
Current work…writing scripts
For the last few months, on top of travelling and attending a bazillion courses, I’ve been writing. I’ve written five short scripts in the world of THE 23RD LETTER. I’ve written two more in the world of STATUS: REFUGEE. I’ve written one horror script. And I’m looking at writing some scripts based on FRONTIER and…
QABAL: INTENT vs IMPLEMENTATION
This thread on rpg.net asks why secret magical settings in games tend to be dumb. My problem is, it’s never made any sense to me on an absolutely fundamental. The idea in most of these settings is that humans not only don’t believe in the supernatural, they’ll even go so far as to doubt their…
The theft of the Book of Raziel
I’ve stolen the main text here from page 54 of the Smallville RPG but remodeled it on Qabal: Isaac’s player, James, says, “I step into the room from where I have been eavesdropping and accuse Rothschilde of stealing the Book of Raziel.” He then grabs his TRUTH die and his CIRCLE die. None of his…
OK, it’s no secret I’m just a big geek.
I got the Serenity book a few months ago from Sub City in Dublin and the Smallville book arrived today from Amazon. Both use derivatives of the Cortex system from Margaret Weiss Productions. While Serenity uses the Cortex systems in a “traditional” way, Smallville uses it in an interesting way. To perform an action, it’s…
Horror – Sids Story
I wanted to write a quick horror scenario which would fit in with pretty much any game and I figured that it couldn’t just be a magical teleporting serial killer, like Jason, Freddy or Leatherface. Inspiration for this one is “Sids Story” from the Captain Britain trade paperback. http://www.rambles.net/capbrit_88.html http://marvel.wikia.com/Captain_Britain_Vol_2_4 Summary: A local homeless man…
QABAL – the origin of Magic
In the beginning Each culture has its own mythology, a tale of their creation. Some believe mankind came about through the spilled seed of a mighty god, whilst others believe that their maker fashioned them from the clay of the earth. Perhaps the universe was fashioned from the corpse of a great monster or from…
QABAL – a history of the world
History of the world Legend has it that in ancient times, gods walked the earth beside Man and waged great wars amongst themselves that shaped the face of the lands and seas. To end all wars, the earth was divided amongst them and great domains became ruled by mighty gods. To some was given the…
QABAL intro – Genre
This game can be played in one of many genres. A genre is a certain style where recurring themes show up and both GM and player are expected to perform within this style. In a low magic, high suspense game then the players would be expected to react accordingly and the GM would be expected…
QABAL – The essential nature of spirits
“Firm, constant faith works wonders even in the course of a flawed operation, whereas mistrust and hesitation in the soul of the worker, who holds himself aloof from all excess, leads to dissipated effort and ruin” Spirits are constructed of matter. The matter that forms their bodies is not immutable and often depends on where…
QABAL – Wandering Mystic
It came to me while I was out shopping. The voice said “You are the chosen one”. I had always known I was special. It went on “You must dedicate your life to contemplation and gather others who wish to share in sublime glory”. I knew then that this was no mere flight of fancy…
QABAL – The Orthodox Sorcerer
I’ve seen things you wouldn’t believe. I’ve touched the Hand of God, I’ve watched Angels feasting on the entrails of Devils, witnessed the seven headed dragon and yes it burned me. Yes it burned me. And tonight, when the stars are right, you too shall be burned. More tea, Vicar? – Henry Olcott, Grand Magister…
QABAL – a brief history of Magic
The beginning of time In those days giants walked the earth and fought with the gods. Secrets were passed from the gods to man through Thoth, Prometheus and Hermes Trismegistus – Secrets of fire, science and magic. 350 BC Plato describes Atlantis. It symbolises the origin of all knowledge. Believed to be a myth, certain…
I have a pretty strong stomach…
…but this revolts me: A BOY of seven was kept chained in a cellar by his cannibal family — as they ATE parts of him. He had been partially skinned after monstrous mum Klara, 31, caged him for months while relatives who were also in a sick cult feasted on his raw flesh, an appalled…
Collaboration, writing and vision
This weekend I was busy with family duties but still managed to do a bit of work on WoTW:Earth. Most notably taking the draft ideas Aidan sent through and turning them into mechanics and flavour. Collaboration is hard. I’m very conscious that I’m an ignorant so-and-so with strong opinions and a jeadstrong way of doing…
What’s He Building In There?
Title taken from the Tom Waits track. This blossomed into a scenario where the PCs were sent to investigate a murder. A newcomer to a quiet US suburb was found beaten to death in his home. The house is trashed. And no-one else in the suburb heard or saw anything… Anyone else have done something…
Man vs…
The topic of conversation this morning in the car was the substance of plots. Traditionally, we have plots which are Man versus Man (and yes, I intend to keep the male pronoun because anyone who would be sensitive to it likely has stopped reading a long time ago). Man versus Man This describes the quintessential…
I bought a book today…
…entirely because it was illustrated and designed exactly the way I want Q to be paid out. I spent a few minutes leafing through it and in my minds eye transposed the text and art to that which I envision for Q. Looking over my Q notes the other day reminded me of the parts…
Pan’s Labyrinth
Watched it last night round with Aidan, Abi and some ice cream. It’s a good movie – personally I don’t think it’s the same sort of emotional tour-de-force as perhaps Fight Club or American History X or even Watership Down but it’s a good movie nonetheless. They manage skillfully remove a lot of the anticipation…
r-Maps (and being ahead of the curve)
There’s a lot of talk of relationship maps. I’ve been playing with the idea of an r-map for gaming for use as a player aid for a while. It really started to surface when playing superhero games in order to try and keep up with the number of NPCs and subplots that were going on….