Tag Archives: Indiegogo
Machinations: First goal hit!
We’ve raised the initial target of $1000 for Machinations of the Space Princess and so we’re now looking into stretch goals.
The first one is that if we hit $2000 we’ll offer a full colour version of the PDF and PoD of the game.
I’d love to hit the $6000 target that MotSP had when it was ‘just’ an adventure and toolkit but we’ll see how we go.
We’re looking into the possibility of certain stretch targets such as an MotSP tarot deck (and adventure generator), GM screen, badges, T-shirts, character booklets, cards etc and will keep you appraised of what we figure out!
Those of you who have already funded, please take this time to try and drum up more donations, pass on the word and let people know about the project!
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Machinations: It’s the Little Differences…
People keep asking about cross-compatibility with LotFP and while I’m working from the same basic stock there are going to be a few key differences to make it work with the SF ‘thing’ and because I can’t help but fiddle with things anyway.
The main places where there need to be – or will be – some differences are:
1. Saving Throws – Something more general, more broadly applicable to the vast array of situations in which Sci-Fi/Sci-Fantasy characters can find themselves. Saving throws based from the characteristics seems to be the obvious choice, broader than 3rd Ed’s Ref/Fort/Will and capable of handling a broader array of situations.
2. Skills – The LotFP skill system is simple and robust. Too simple for some but with a huge amount of potential for all sorts of applications. Skills will be expanded out for all character classes, though experts/specialists will still have the edge – other character types can access more skills. Fighter-type characters in particular will have access to combat bonus abilities and will be the best capable of using alternative tactics.
3. Armour – To allow for both force fields and protective armour there needs to be a differentiation between preventing damage and avoiding damage. Agility, deflection and avoidance on the one hand (Armour Class) with some sort of damage reduction (perhaps randomised?).
All of this stuff will be optional – of course – and I’ll put in sidebars and alternatives so that people can do without them but I do think they’ll make for a better game with its own feel.
Machinations: Fundraising and Rewards
So, Satine’s back and we’re talking about rewards.
Now, I don’t have the resources or profile of someone like Monte Cook and people are definitely hitting their Kickstarter/IndieGoGo exhaustion limit.
Hopefully there’s still enough goodwill out there and I’m not asking for as much as many projects because I think we can squeeze a great deal of quality out of a more reasonable amount of cash.
I’m not going to think ahead to stretch goals, that’d jinx it, but we’re thinking up extra reward levels and options.
So, here’s a thought. Why don’t YOU let us know what sort of rewards you might like on this project and how much money you’d heft out of your pocket to get it. We’ll see what we can do about it making them – or something like them – a reality in order to wrangle money out of you!
FUND IT!
Machinations: Guns, Blades, Armour and Force Fields
Switching from fantasy to science fiction/science fantasy you run into issues with deadliness, firearms, automatic weapons and the whole panoply of high tech gizmoes, gadgets, sights, bullets and so on and so forth.
You also have to account for more advanced forms of protection while not overdoing the whiff factor or making it too easy to hurt someone the other way.
This ain’t easy.
I haven’t quite decided yet but I’m leaning towards damage reduction for armour and armour class boosting for force-shields/agility. Force shields won’t apply to melee attacks and ranged attacks should find it easier to hit,
I want to keep things as simple as possible but I also want combat to have plenty of options and to have a universal guideline so players can easily decide what they want to try. Sticking with LotFPs attack guidelines, mostly, this also gives fighters (soldiers) a much greater capacity to pull special attack moves.
Something like a universal -5 penalty no matter if you’re tripping, headshotting, disarming or any other environmental or competency issues. You could then offset that penalty – and even turn it into a bonus – by taking lots of skill levels.
The spirit of ‘old school’ is heavy on the improvisation but by providing a framework you can enable a lot of improvisation from that.
“What’s the penalty for fighting in zero gee?”
“-5”
“When I levelled last time, I took Zero gee combat once.”
“-4 then.”
Bosh, sorted and fighters/soldiers become a damn sight more interesting all of a sudden 🙂
Machinations: Here Come the Lizards
So, in Machinations there won’t be any racial classes, rather you’ll be assumed to be humanoid by default and will then pick a two templates from which you’ll get to choose bonuses/racial abilities for your character.
The universe teems with different life forms though humans are all over the place and humanoids are the most prevalent. Choosing not to be humanoid will give you access to more racial template abilities but also knock your Charisma on its arse.
For example a Reptilian template might offer you:
- Infravision
- Teeth & Claws
- Skin Armour
- Heat resistance
While the Humanoid template might offer you:
- +1 skill point
A ‘pure’ human would have +2 skill points.
A human-like reptilian might have +1 skill point and infravision.
A reptile like humanoid might have teeth & claws and skin armour.
A completely reptilian character might have infravision, teeth & claws and skin armour, but would also suffer a penalty to their charisma, as well as having to pay through the nose for custom gear to fit their peculiar bodies.
The other thing about these templates is that you could slap them on to basic and generic monster/animal templates to customise them.
A simple ‘rat’ becoming a Centauran Lizard-Rat, for example.
Characters are going to start out more competent and capable than standard LotFP characters but that suits the genre a little better.
Of course, in a realistic SF setting you likely wouldn’t get a bunch of humanoids but in-genre you tend to find most people are humanoid, even if they look a little odd.
Templates could also be used to represent psychological or other racial types, elemental, energy forms, silicon life, all sorts.
Want a heavy-metal Sci-Fi RPG?
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Machinations: Style & Substance
Machinations
This is a universe where everyone has an angle. Almost everyone is out for themselves and to get ahead. It’s a universe of chaos, destruction and struggle punctuated by a few islands of civilisation – and much of that is corrupt, decadent or despotic.
The Urlanth Empire has fallen and chaos has ensued as every prince, princess, duke, duchess, baron and knight who thinks they can take a shot at the title goes for it. Taking advantage of this every rebellion, criminal organisation, pirate gang, mercenary company and independent trader has made a ‘break for it’.
Newly founded colonies? They’re on their own.
It’s a violent, brutal, universe that breeds violent, brutal heroes.
Sexy
There’s something about a woman that can kick your arse. Men too, strength, capability, that’s something that’s attractive to all kinds of people and – in this universe – things that aren’t really people as well.
This is a heavy metal aesthetic, leather and metal, rubber and plastic, big guns, big blades and probably an amount of big hair as well. This is album-covers, this is euro comics, this is Kirby and Brom, Tim White and Jim Burns, Moebius and Vallejo.
The game won’t be ‘horror porn’, but it will retain adult subject matter and some of the pinup aesthetic.
Sleazy
The universe is a run down, dirty place that has been lived in for a very long time by multiple civilisations that have come and gone and left their mark. Urban decay, desert wastelands, graveyard worlds, fire worlds, ice worlds, leaking asteroids and orbiting junk-stations.
This isn’t a future of gleaming control panels and flashing lights. This is oily, sooty, damp and covered in obscene graffiti in a thousand languages. People will do just about anything to survive and that means crime, vice, drugs, all the usual things that people resort to when they’re down on their luck.
Swords
Whether it’s a blaster or a knife, if you’re good with a weapon you deserve respect. Ranged weapons may be great for blasting away primitives but any civilised opponent has personal shielding and armour. Close combat is more effective, within the range of the shield and hey, guns break, run out of ammunition or get lost.
You might start off in a pressurised power suit with a repeating laser blaster and jump jets, but all too soon you may well end up reduced to trying to kill your dinner with a rock, in your pants.
Sci-Fi
More science-fantasy to be exact. As the old saying goes, any sufficiently advanced science is indistinguishable from magic. The real ‘magic’ will be through psionics and ancient high-science artefacts but the base-line tech will be graspable, usable, things within the bounds of relative plausibility. That’s just the baseline though and there are exceptions, races will be templates of different kinds that you can mix, match or even double-down on, but most are assumed to be humanoid.
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IndieGoGo: Machinations of the Space Princess – Sexy, Sleazy, Swords & Sci-Fi
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The Machinations of the Space Princess fundraiser as part of the Lamentations of the Flame Princess adventure fundraiser didn’t fund but there was sufficient interest to warrant another look.
MotSP will set its sights on the world of sleazy, sensual pulp Science Fiction from the likes of Metal Hurlant, creating a universe of heavy metal space opera (rather than rock n’ roll).
Rather than a single adventure and some ideas, MotSP will be a FULL GAME.
MotSP will give you ALL THE RULES you need to play.
MotSP will BULGE AT THE SEAMS with adventure ideas and toolkits to help you create and maintain your game and produce ideas.
MotSP will include fantastic art by Satine Phoenix.
MotSP will take your gang of wandering space-reprobates from the strip clubs of Proxima to the feudal planets of the Black Cluster. The glass spires of Imperial Space to the wastelands of scrap-worlds.
MotSP will take you from confronting elemental evil to delving the crypts of long-dead civilisations across the known galaxy.
MotSP is planned to include:
- Expert, Psion, Scholar and Warrior classes.
- Extensive rules for creating humanoid and inhumanoid aliens or robots as PCs or monsters.
- Expanded skill & combat rules.
- Cannon fodder rules.
- SF gear.
- Starship combat.
- Psionics
- Hints, tips and toolkits for the GM and players alike.
- Basic rules for creating stars, planets, cities and adventures.
- A full game background.
- A sample adventure.
Why should you back us?
Satine is a fantastic, up-and-coming illustrator and associated with I Hit it With my Axe and D&D With Pornstars. This project will give her a real chance to stretch her artistic legs and show off.
I am a full time RPG writer and author with a lifetime love of science-fiction comics, novels and fantasy art. If you’ve ever looked at a Tim White or Roger Dean illustration and been inspired to set a game in what you see, we have something in common.
I have a proven track record of producing great games in PDF and POD as well as selling through publishers such as Cubicle 7 and Chronicle City. I have worked for Wizards of the Coast, Steve Jackson Games, Cubicle 7 Entertainment and others and won an Origins Award (along with my writing partner Steve mortimer) for my work on The Munchkin’s Guide to Powergaming, the book that spawned the card game.
If nothing else, you’re guaranteed an amusing read with great art and that HAS to be worth a few bucks.
NOTE
All funds donated will be used whether the project hits its target or not! If you’re donating, you’re actually donating! Whatever amount up to $1,000 is raised will go on art from Satine. Past that number we’ll start to reveal and trigger stretch goals and the money will be split 50/50 between art and payment to me for my time/effort (and driving lessons!)
FACE MELTER!
So, Machinations of the Space Princess didn’t fund, but we didn’t do too badly. There’s around a grand’s worth of interest out there it seems so maybe we can still do it. Satine’s still up for the project and I would still like to see it done so we’ll take some time and and think over the options and maybe, in a while, we’ll do a Kickstarter or an IndieGoGo with a more modest target and see what we can scare up.
If I do that I’d want to do something closer to a full game, but built on the scaffold of Lamentations of the Flame Princess. Something that’s a bit more fulsome a little bit less of a toolkit that still needs some wangling. I’d wand to do more than an asteroid, scare up a whole background and some proper spaceship/space combat rules.
I’d also mod the fuck out of the game, just because that’s how I roll. More skill based, some shiny combat options that are better set out, or at least have some guidelines in there. Psychics, aliens and a Metal Hurlant theme, feel and freedom to the whole thing. I want the good parts of the style, creativity and craziness of album covers, sci-fantasy, comics and crazy B-movies all wrapped up in sexy, dangerous bundle.
I just cleared my desk of work, so I’m in no major hurry to get cracking with this but if there is support and if we can raise some cash to throw at Satine, it’ll still happen.
Rock and roll!
\m/ >.< \m/
I’d buy that for a Dollar!
RPGNOW has a big sale on and you can go here and spend your hard-earned cash on our PDFs and thereby make me happy. At least, as happy as one can be whilst being pelted with Olympic propaganda from all sides.
To double my pleasure you could pop across and drop the money you save on the Machinations of the Space Princess. There’s, just barely, time to fund it IF you pull your finders out your arses.
Postmortem Studios 