My current mobile RPG rig:
My current mobile RPG rig:
- Lodestar (yes! Glad I sprung for it)
- Assets deck in a Card Caddy
- Game Master's Apprentice, the ultimate oracle, inspiration, and dice replacement. This is in another Card Caddy. I really love these products, they're solid chunky plastic to protect your cards but also the shell separates and the two halves slot together to form an awesome draw/discard tray so you don't clumsily knock them off your table or bed, like this here moron.
- cheapo thin Moleskine notebook for recording mechanics, narrative and dialogue in my uber-illegible shorthand notation, to be reconstituted as type later if I deem it worth reincarnating in a more entertaining format for the consumer. Plus doodles and maps and shiz
- 4-panel (8 slot) GM screen with Mythic fate chart/event+description tables, plus most (all?) the Ironsworn moves inserted, though I'll likely swap these out for something else (Covetous Poet tables or something similar) since I have Lodestar now, though I could use some printouts of progress tracks and the like for more dry-erase action
- Most importantly slotted is my solo character, Kaylee. I've got wet-erase marker for more permanent markings like stats/bonds/vows, and dry-erase for transient details like momentum/health/spirit/supply
- sweet-ass laminated Mythic scene/character/thread/chaos tracker. The scene setup/modification, random events and lists are easily my favorite thing about GME. I don't know how much I'll actually be leaning on it with everything that's in Ironsworn, but it's there when I want it.
- an old Böhm headphones zippered clamshell case repurposed as a dice/utensils carrier and itty bitty dice tray. I could usually use the GMA cards or an app instead, but it's wear on the cardstock and who doesn't love tactility of dice-chucking? I've got a standard poly set cobbled together, plus a baggy of B&W dice for those not-even-in-a-blue-moon Fiasco sessions I'm "always" having, and 4dF for whenever I get back to my EverMyst game, a mashup of Everway and Myst meta-settings and Everway and Fate mechanics. I wish I knew what became of my hardcopy Deck of Fate, but I've got the mobile app and it works a treat. Same goes for my original set of Rory's Story Cubes: the app is just straight up better if I'm just using it as inspiration. (I do still enjoy using the dice if playing with Untold: Adventures Await, where they get slotted in boardgame style to build out your tale's elements, and revisit existing ones such as recurring locations, villains, etc...)
Not pictured but frequently dragging around as well:
- Archipelago deck, which uses a map to track events/characters as the world changes, a simple "yes/no and/but..." resolution and some interesting random event cards, and each player is considered to own/have final say on particular matters of your world, such as weather or politics
- Backstory Cards which you use to build out interesting, surprising and interlocking scenes out of a matrix of story elements
- Mystic Empyrean Balance deck. I mostly have these cards for scrying cool adjective/noun pairings from two cards. They also act as a very cool/thematic/simple resolution system for the game of the same name, and are built into a small deck that reflects the elemental composition (and thereby the probabilities of certain types of actions to succeed or fail, and in so doing altering your play style as you adjust to the workings of the world) of your current whereabouts, like unto a "soul" of that realm. Another super cool indie RPG with a multiverse of the shattered remains of an old world torn assunder by an apocalyptic event. You play troupe style with GM duties passing around the table, each player a burgeoning demigod of elemental forces made flesh, working to topple literal colossi to free the elemental energies of each world into shards which you collect, in order to remake the universe as you see fit. Your characters, eidolons, physically and mechanically change over the course of the game, taking on forms and abilities that reflect their souls, as judged by your fellow players based on actions taken during play. Really fascinating little game
- Ironsworn hardback, because duh. I'm not 100% versed in the mechanics still
- Whitehack 2e Notebook Version. This is currently my favorite OSR-ish system, using elements of d20, True20, narrativist underpinnings and a very freeform magic/abilities system and only three base classes (Wise/Deft/Strong, which you can mold into quite unique characters and ability sets with little effort or ambiguity), plus some prestige classes I haven't played with yet. It's like the perfect amount of crunch for me when I want more than Fate but less than Pathfinder. Like a rapid-advancement vRPG grind for leveling up, where there's effort and achievement but it's not a boring-ass chore. This edition of the book has 100+ blank pages for recording whatever you like, plus two _Lone Wolf__-style random number tables for dropping a pencil on the page rather than needing to haul dice along. It's very terse and mostly straightforward_, and freaking brilliant.
Very rarely I'll have along my hardcopy of Engine Publishing's (the Gnome Stew folks) Masks, but as I do rarely play it's mostly just a fun read w a fun random name strip along the page bottoms, and expert advice on how to build memorable, unique NPCs in little time, from scratch or by grabbing or remixing those (1000 spread across three genres!) found in the book.
I don't usually carry it around, either, but The Storymatic is a very neat box full of cards to prompt the interpretation of any number of interesting and unique characters and events. It's a big box of prompts, folks. Think Trivial Pursuit card boxes.
There's other tools, too. I'm such a dork of a collector and guilt trip like mad over their disuse.
Thanks if you bothered reading any of this!
Oh, hey, Shawn Tomkin , I have a suggestion I think will go over well with the crowd here: put together a slim, Lodestar-size booklet of just the Foes and Encounters content from the Ironsworn book! Feel free to embellish or pare it down a bit From its current state, but I'd love a lightweight flip book of inspiration that goes beyond the single page on Foes in Lodestar. Really, if you could pack in another 10-15 pages of Foes and Encounters content into a revised Lodestar, if absolutely but it again and find this copy to a new loving home with another family!
- Lodestar (yes! Glad I sprung for it)
- Assets deck in a Card Caddy
- Game Master's Apprentice, the ultimate oracle, inspiration, and dice replacement. This is in another Card Caddy. I really love these products, they're solid chunky plastic to protect your cards but also the shell separates and the two halves slot together to form an awesome draw/discard tray so you don't clumsily knock them off your table or bed, like this here moron.
- cheapo thin Moleskine notebook for recording mechanics, narrative and dialogue in my uber-illegible shorthand notation, to be reconstituted as type later if I deem it worth reincarnating in a more entertaining format for the consumer. Plus doodles and maps and shiz
- 4-panel (8 slot) GM screen with Mythic fate chart/event+description tables, plus most (all?) the Ironsworn moves inserted, though I'll likely swap these out for something else (Covetous Poet tables or something similar) since I have Lodestar now, though I could use some printouts of progress tracks and the like for more dry-erase action
- Most importantly slotted is my solo character, Kaylee. I've got wet-erase marker for more permanent markings like stats/bonds/vows, and dry-erase for transient details like momentum/health/spirit/supply
- sweet-ass laminated Mythic scene/character/thread/chaos tracker. The scene setup/modification, random events and lists are easily my favorite thing about GME. I don't know how much I'll actually be leaning on it with everything that's in Ironsworn, but it's there when I want it.
- an old Böhm headphones zippered clamshell case repurposed as a dice/utensils carrier and itty bitty dice tray. I could usually use the GMA cards or an app instead, but it's wear on the cardstock and who doesn't love tactility of dice-chucking? I've got a standard poly set cobbled together, plus a baggy of B&W dice for those not-even-in-a-blue-moon Fiasco sessions I'm "always" having, and 4dF for whenever I get back to my EverMyst game, a mashup of Everway and Myst meta-settings and Everway and Fate mechanics. I wish I knew what became of my hardcopy Deck of Fate, but I've got the mobile app and it works a treat. Same goes for my original set of Rory's Story Cubes: the app is just straight up better if I'm just using it as inspiration. (I do still enjoy using the dice if playing with Untold: Adventures Await, where they get slotted in boardgame style to build out your tale's elements, and revisit existing ones such as recurring locations, villains, etc...)
Not pictured but frequently dragging around as well:
- Archipelago deck, which uses a map to track events/characters as the world changes, a simple "yes/no and/but..." resolution and some interesting random event cards, and each player is considered to own/have final say on particular matters of your world, such as weather or politics
- Backstory Cards which you use to build out interesting, surprising and interlocking scenes out of a matrix of story elements
- Mystic Empyrean Balance deck. I mostly have these cards for scrying cool adjective/noun pairings from two cards. They also act as a very cool/thematic/simple resolution system for the game of the same name, and are built into a small deck that reflects the elemental composition (and thereby the probabilities of certain types of actions to succeed or fail, and in so doing altering your play style as you adjust to the workings of the world) of your current whereabouts, like unto a "soul" of that realm. Another super cool indie RPG with a multiverse of the shattered remains of an old world torn assunder by an apocalyptic event. You play troupe style with GM duties passing around the table, each player a burgeoning demigod of elemental forces made flesh, working to topple literal colossi to free the elemental energies of each world into shards which you collect, in order to remake the universe as you see fit. Your characters, eidolons, physically and mechanically change over the course of the game, taking on forms and abilities that reflect their souls, as judged by your fellow players based on actions taken during play. Really fascinating little game
- Ironsworn hardback, because duh. I'm not 100% versed in the mechanics still
- Whitehack 2e Notebook Version. This is currently my favorite OSR-ish system, using elements of d20, True20, narrativist underpinnings and a very freeform magic/abilities system and only three base classes (Wise/Deft/Strong, which you can mold into quite unique characters and ability sets with little effort or ambiguity), plus some prestige classes I haven't played with yet. It's like the perfect amount of crunch for me when I want more than Fate but less than Pathfinder. Like a rapid-advancement vRPG grind for leveling up, where there's effort and achievement but it's not a boring-ass chore. This edition of the book has 100+ blank pages for recording whatever you like, plus two _Lone Wolf__-style random number tables for dropping a pencil on the page rather than needing to haul dice along. It's very terse and mostly straightforward_, and freaking brilliant.
Very rarely I'll have along my hardcopy of Engine Publishing's (the Gnome Stew folks) Masks, but as I do rarely play it's mostly just a fun read w a fun random name strip along the page bottoms, and expert advice on how to build memorable, unique NPCs in little time, from scratch or by grabbing or remixing those (1000 spread across three genres!) found in the book.
I don't usually carry it around, either, but The Storymatic is a very neat box full of cards to prompt the interpretation of any number of interesting and unique characters and events. It's a big box of prompts, folks. Think Trivial Pursuit card boxes.
There's other tools, too. I'm such a dork of a collector and guilt trip like mad over their disuse.
Thanks if you bothered reading any of this!
Oh, hey, Shawn Tomkin , I have a suggestion I think will go over well with the crowd here: put together a slim, Lodestar-size booklet of just the Foes and Encounters content from the Ironsworn book! Feel free to embellish or pare it down a bit From its current state, but I'd love a lightweight flip book of inspiration that goes beyond the single page on Foes in Lodestar. Really, if you could pack in another 10-15 pages of Foes and Encounters content into a revised Lodestar, if absolutely but it again and find this copy to a new loving home with another family!
Forgot the photo!https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/Qyz04fuVwAHY8065YErYIDv72qvhAZeL7-k9C1dqS5SFSd1Ig64r1UT95470MlgZLR4W3NYQxmyIHdr44qGY1W7WZLo-YFGPJT91=s0
ReplyDeleteThat's a heck of a kit, Nick Carter. You're all set for being stranded on a desert island.
ReplyDeleteRegarding NPC's ... I played with this, actually, but it got to the point where I felt like I was duplicating the core book. I'll consider it for future versions, though.
Shawn Tomkin I hear you on wanting to make each product its own, but there's already a lot of reformatting and tiny variations on phrases, etc in Lodestar already, right?
ReplyDeleteI figure worst case I'll hit up Kinko's and spiral bind the Foes and Encounters chapter from the PDF. But any sketchy inspirational materials akin to Lodestar or more detailed breakdowns of border towns where trading between Firstborn and Ironlanders may thrive, or it may threaten lives...? I'm living for that stuff right now homie.
Regarding Encounters in my "Shedding the Veil" story, one thing is almost certain: Kaylee's parents, who each died at sea under less than calm circumstances shortly before - her father - and a week or two after her birth. (her mother) In my Ironlands, any complex organism that dies on the soil of the peninsula - or even in sight of it, will absolutely return a revenant of some kind, and as Kaylee eventually wends her way back toward the coastal colonies. By now the second and third generation Ironlanders have mostly learned they need to perform a "desecration ritual", but the silent, sodden sire who died aboard the ship seemed a sufficiently creepy foe to want to throw at my leading woman after I made the - for me very much not automatic - choice that yes, undead exist and they are mysterious and they are prolific in this land, and no one knows why but everyone has had to normalize the savagery on the empty vessels of their fallen friends and loved ones. It's almost the living who are the monsters. I guess it's a statement that's been made plenty in horror but it's not my genre.