(Interest Check): Sword and Planet by Traveler or other system

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So...can I be an Irish mobster who was watching in order to report to his boss:grin:? Or am I going too Dark Side for your idea?
 
Still working out what I want to play. I have a couple of ideas I'm thinking about.
 
Dumarest said:
As long as he secretly is redeemable with a heart of gold.
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Of course he would:smile:!
I'm currently studying the Irish mob in order to decide whether I want to play one of those guys, but the question was mostly about the intended tone. The answer is clear as well!
 
Just posting to let you know I'm still working this up. Coming up with 13 different moons is the hard part as I'm trying to both evoke and sidestep clichés. The skill list is pretty much go. I'm hoping to use Microsoft Paint or something like it to make a neat character sheet similar to this at work but tailored to our needs...assuming my work computer has Paint. (I don't have anything at home that I can use.)
c080c8f7fb21f644b15ac7b898a99c16--bord-games-star-wars-rpg.jpg​
 
Great!
And I decided to create a mix of my suggestion and yours, avoiding an outright mobster-type. So, my guy is a plucky Irish reporter (whose immediate family are bootleggers:smile:).
As a result of the above, he often hangs in bars that most of his colleagues would avoid - at least during the Saturday Night Brawl:wink:.

Hope we can get an Archetype for this? Those save on lots of work!
 
I haven't been able to make a character sheet as I had intended as I don't have the proper programs and devices at home and now I see that my workplace has taken away all the fun accessories most computers come with. Rather than do that, then, I'm just going to post the modified skill list under each attribute and the guidelines for how to go about making up your characters. I'll have the list up later tonight.

Too bad! I was hoping to concoct a sheet with maybe some evocative imagery like this:
themoonsofju.jpg flash-gordon-the-spaceship.jpg​
 
Dumarest said:
Hmm...that might be a "raygun" as there was no word "laser" (light amplification by stimulated emission of radiation) until 1959! Rayguns are better anyway!
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You're right, of course. How could I have forgotten raygun? I have to polish up on my terminology before we play.
 
Okay, here is the long-awaited modified skill/attribute list for THE THIRTEEN MOONS OF SHAMBALLA! My hopes are that it will be a blend of sword & planet (E.R. Burroughs), 1930s sci fi comic strips and pulps, and Flash Gordon-type movie serials of the 1930s. Attributes are in bold with their related skills listed beneath. It's essentially 1st edition West End Games Star Wars with minor alterations. Pretend there is a blank under each attribute as well: if someone really wants to be good at digging, we can create a Digging skill under Strength, and so on. I've deliberately made the skills very broad: if you can pilot a plane, you can pilot an atom-propelled skyship; if you can use a hunting rifle you can use a raygun. The "Science" skill covers all sciences to reflect the incredible cross-discipline genius of men like Dr. Zarkov or Doc Savage.

As in Star Wars, you get 18 dice to divide between your six atrributes. No human can have an attribute lower than 2D or higher than 4D. You can divide 1D into 3 pips to split them up (for instance, 5D could be assigned as 2D+1 and 2D+2).

After you assign your attribute dice, you get 7D to assign to skills. You can break these up as well and there is no minimum (you can break up 1D and assign as little as +1 to three different skills if you want) but you can't assign more than 4D to any one skill. Remember when you write your skill dice that you are adding them to your attribute dice, so, for example, if you take 3D of Science you add Knowledge 3D+2 and write Science 6D+2.

I haven't come up with any templates as I kept coming up with physicist, reporter, pilot, athlete, explorer, actress, and such things. Starting equipment is negotiable. Anything reasonable for you to have on your person or in a valise or traveling trunk should be okay but I'll veto anything I don't think is reasonable. Also I'm slightly changing the premise (I hope no one minds) and it should be easier to come up with a character who fits: all of the PCs will be passengers or crew aboard a transatlantic zeppelin flight from Frankfurt-am-Main Germany to Lakehurst, New Jersey in 1936. Naturally your flight will never arrive at its intended destination...!

Once we have some PCs, I'll work on the in-character thread and an out-of-character thread to go with it.

DEXTERITY
Dodge
Hand-to-Hand₁
Heavy Weapons₂
Rayguns₃

KNOWLEDGE
Bureaucracy
Cultures₄
Languages
Science₅
Streetwise
Survival

MECHANICAL
Beast Riding
Driving₆
Piloting₇

PERCEPTION
Bargain
Command
Con
Disguise
Gambling₈
Hide/Sneak
Search

STRENGTH
Climbing/Jumping
Hand-to-Hand₉
Lifting
Stamina
Swimming

TECHNICAL
Demolition
Electronic Repair₁₀
Mechanical Repair₁₁
Medicine₁₂
Security₁₃

₁ includes fisticuffs, wrestling, and parrying, as well as thrown weapons: grenades, knives, custard pies, etc.
₂ encompasses cannons, mortars, etc.
₃ includes rayguns, Earth-type guns, bows, etc.
₄ includes recognizing proper etiquette, identifying taboos, etc.
₅ includes identifying, adapting, and altering technology
₆ applies to automobiles, tanks, rocketcars, etc.
₇ applies to airplanes, atom-propelled skyships, etc.
₈ includes all nonphysical games of skill and luck
₉ not a typo: this allows you to be a good fighter based on your speed and agility or your brawn and endurance--or both!
₁₀ covers anything mechanical
₁₁ covers anything electronic
₁₂ includes identifying poisons and toxins
₁₃ encompasses everything from simple locks to electronic security systems
(HA! JUST REALIZED THERE IS ONE FOOTNOTE FOR EACH MOON!)
 
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I would like to play a soldier type. Someone like Captain Hastings from the Poirot stories ( but not such a twit), with shades of John Watson ( but not a Dr, and a bit more reckless/hare- brained).
 
When I get home I I'll come up with stats and skills for him. This sounds like it will be a blast!
 
Are there two hand-to-hand skills, or is it the same skill which gets added to Str or Dex as we choose at the time:smile:?
 
AsenRG said:
Are there two hand-to-hand skills, or is it the same skill which gets added to Str or Dex as we choose at the time:smile:?
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There are 2 separate skills: you have to decide whether your guy fights based on his DEX or his STR or take both. But really it only makes sense to take it for the higher attribute as it has no effect in play except for how many dice you roll. I just wanted to allow for each type of fighter to take advantage of his particular métier.
 
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OK, obviously an Irish bootlegger wouldn't do here. My current idea of a Bulgarian who got sent to a German university by the Communist party to train him as a spy is potentially funny, but I'm not sure I really want to go that way:tongue:.
I'll totally have to read some pulps tonight and think of something else. Criteria being, it should seem credible and entertaining, and doesn't make me want to kill my own character in mid-game:grin:!
 
Shemek hiTankolel said:
Got my character's stats figured out, and most of his skills chosen. I just need to divide the 7d among the skills I've chosen.
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Great! So who all is signed up to play this thing? It seemed like there were more than 2 of you when this thread started!
lon25301_jpg_5415_north_626x_white.jpg
(Gratuitous Barbarella photo)​
 
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Shemek hiTankolel said:
Got my character's stats figured out, and most of his skills chosen. I just need to divide the 7d among the skills I've chosen.
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I haven't had the time to sit down and think about the concept. But spending the points would amount to 15 more minutes after that:smile:!
 
So by my count based on posts here and a couple of PMs I received, we have Shemek hiTankolel Shemek hiTankolel, AsenRG AsenRG, and Johnny Blade Johnny Blade. That's enough to start whenever you have your PCs ready. I seem to recall we have a military man, a professor-type, and whatever AsenRG AsenRG is going to be. I have some notes on the various moons and denizens thereof, as well as Shamballa itself...:thumbsup:
553627936db5db3ce4d9ec9314da9f2f.jpgtumblr_ovzp3gNDQp1relg8bo1_500.gif images8TD0VT91.jpg360d08325183f72bf7099b74f692e566.jpg Gorilla2pk8-1300x.jpg group.jpg startrek62cloudminders.jpgrwisgrdpew7y.jpg Hawk_Guard_Dale_-_small.jpg​
 
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Shemek hiTankolel said:
I'll be ready today or tomorrow. Just need a good name like Doc Savage. Captain .....?
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Stryker
Steele
Gallant
Jagger
Armstrong
Challenger
Hunter
Gunn
Cage
Richter
Storm
Starr
Wolfe
Castle
Harding
Justice
Lord
Bullitt
Briggs
Banner
Burke
Hawke
Rock
Strange
Fortune
King
Stone
Steed
Locke
Corrigan
Ritter
McQueen

...are a few that spring to mind.​

Also some nicknames and given names:

Rocky
Frank
Dash
Rick
Brock
Chuck
Craig
Rex
Chance
Bruce
Speed
Jake
Hank
Jet
Blake
Hawk
Mike
Steve
Matt
Joe
Rip
Tex
Vic
Jock
Rod
Crash​

One from Column A and one from Column B and you should have a decent pulp hero name!
 
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Captain Tiberius "Rex" Hunter it is. That sounds pulpy to me. :smile: Do we post our stats here, or do you want me to PM them to you?
 
Shemek hiTankolel said:
Captain Tiberius "Rex" Hunter it is. That sounds pulpy to me. :smile: Do we post our stats here, or do you want me to PM them to you?
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Indeed! :thumbsup:

Post them here, please; once I have them all I'll copy them into the out-of-character thread for ease of reference.
 
Doctor Christof Alois Klingermann of Munich University.

Dex 2d
Know 4d
•Cultures +1d
•Languages +1d
•Science +4d
Mech 2d
Perc 4d
Str 2d
Tech 4d
•Medicine +1d

Equipment: some books, glasses, invaluable notebook, fountainpen, change of clothes, first aid kit.

•He knows more than anyone believes, but way less than he thinks he knows.
•He wants to leave germany before that psychopath ruins it again. He's going to the US to "visit" his old friend, Prof Ludwing Von Mises; famed economist. He's not sure he'll come back...
•This at least is What he tells everyone who asks him in non accented english. But he's also there looking at his notebook and apparently making complex calculations and taking notes, while sometimes looking out of the window...
 
The character shall be a Bulgarian, Stoil Spisarevski because it makes total sense given the location...also, not a "military" guy, he was just a conscript who got sent (semi-randomly, meaning it wasn't his decision) at Doiran and took shortly before there was an almost inconsequential battle there. Of course, he was almost 16 at this point... but then volunteering before age was a thing for patriotic youth.
Before that, he was a folk wrestler who grew up in a village and studied to get higher education. After he returned from the front, he decided that politicians are bitches and he should have nothing to do with them anyway, so he resumed his studies.
Fast Forward the decades to 1936, and he's a minor academician in anthropology, who has just been invited to the USA for the first time. He decided to travel by zeppelin from Germany.


DEXTERITY 4d
Dodge 4d+1
Hand-to-Hand 5d
Heavy Weapons
Rayguns 4d+1

KNOWLEDGE 4d
Bureaucracy
Cultures 5d
Languages4d+1
Science 4d+1
Streetwise 4d+1
Survival 4d+1

MECHANICAL 2d
Beast Riding 2d+1
Driving
Piloting

PERCEPTION 3d
Bargain 3d+1
Command
Con
Disguise
Gambling 3d+1
Hide/Sneak
Search 3d+2

STRENGTH 3d
Climbing/Jumping 3d+1
Hand-to-Hand
Lifting 3d+1
Stamina 3d+1
Swimming

TECHNICAL 2d
Demolition
Electronic Repair
Mechanical Repair
Medicine 2d+1
Security
Sorry it took me so long!
 
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