Palette Cleanser...

Sometimes, when in the middle of a lot of stuff (like building a lot of User Interfaces), I have to take a break and do something totally random just to shake up the neurons a bit. For an artist who is also a game designer, that usually means some form of game art. 

In my particular case, said art has to be ultimately useful, so I created a couple of (very) large maps with numbered hexes that can be used for your hex-based space wargame of choice. Of course, dove-tailing work and school as I am wont to do, they will also come in handy on a new summer semester grad project as well as a potential paying project for the end of the summer (which I will talk about later as it approaches completion).

Messier 78
Download Map 
Low-Res Image 

 Nebula
Download Map 
Low-Res Image 

The first link under each image is 36"x24" at 300 dpi, so don't try and print these out at home. The Low-Res image is only 72 dpi for those doing Play by eMail games or other electronic whatnot.


Now back to the regularly scheduled program...

Barbarians of Heavy Metal: Game Slate Panel 1...

Just a quick update on the progress of BoHM, this time talking about the tablet interface for the Gameslate.

The interface is made up of multiple panels, accessed through a pull down menu bar (which can be seen at the top of the picture below). For the first, Kickstarter, release, we will be focusing on everything the player needs to play the game, so that means a Character Generation panel, an Action Panel, a Music Panel, a Gear Panel and a digital Rulebook reminiscent of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, which can be pulled down and read at any time from any panel.

To illustrate, here is the first panel a player will use, the character generation panel, and a character that has been created using it - Nicodemus Bosch, a Ledite of House Capricorn (inspired by Jethro Tull, of course):

Using this panel, one can completely create a new character, save it, delete it or search through the database for other characters created on this tablet (we'll be looking into transferring them over Bluetooth later this year).

The Bio Panel is the first stop, as this is where you create a name for your character. the six buttons, from left to right are: Search, which allows you to use the next two buttons, left and right, to flip through the various characters stored in the database; two buttons to delete or add/save a character, represented by a '-' and '+'; and finally a Text button that pulls up the keyboard so you can name or rename your character. The small number to the right of the name is the 'Level' indicator. Basically, this keeps track of how advanced the character is over a starting one. This makes it easy to manage experience on sight.
 
The Attribute and Combat Adds panels are fixed, as the names of the stats are constant, and only allow the rank of the relevant Attribute or Combat Add to be adjusted up or down by the use of the adjoining dial. BoL players will notice that there is no panel for secondary attributes built off of these, like Life Blood (or Fight in the case of BoHM). This is intentional, as these are automatically generated from the ratings on these panels and will show up, and be manipulated on the Action Panel.

The Career and Instrument panels are three part: the top allows you to dial through the relevant careers, and by hitting the text button on the bottom right edge, even allows you to add custom ones. This is particularly important for instruments, which aside from the standard grouping of Axe, Bass, Percussion and Voice, can include a wide variety of other sonic devices, as Nicodemus shows with his preferences for Flutes, Keyboards and Mandolins.

The second part of these panels allows you to dial in a rank for said Career or Instrument and then add it with the down arrow button, to your skill list or, if you want to remove a career or instrument, take it away again. Very simple.

The third, bottommost panel simply shows you the careers you have chosen along with their appropriate ranks. If you end up with more than 4, the handy dial will let you scroll through them. 

The final part of our character generation panel is the Style Dial. This large central construct determines three things for your character: their School of Rock, which is indicated by turning the metal Roctagon so that the character's school is at the top; the character's ranking in various styles, indicated by the number in the radiating Rank Indicators adjacent to each schools position on the interior Rocktagon; and the opposition school, at the bottom, which is the only place on the dial without a radiating Rank indicator.

Ranking various styles is done by turing the central selection dial so that the arrow is pointing towards the appropriate school and then using the '+' and '-' buttons at the base to change the number in the indicator.
 
The controls are all designed to look good and prevent accidental mishandling, hence the use of dials for a large number of selection points. I like dials on a touchscreen because they require a three step process to use: touch - drag - release. Unlike a plain button, which is simply touch, this means it is harder to accidentally change something by a simple misplacement of the finger.

There are buttons of course, but in accordance with the way people hold tablets,  they are kept towards the center of the design so that any movement of the hand to access them will be largely deliberate (in theory, or course). This is also why the dial controls are mirrored on the left and right edges. Ease of use for the thumbs. And of course, mixing it up a bit helps to make the design more varied, hence the use of buttons for Style Ranks instead of Dials.

Once the character is created, all these numbers will be fed into the approriate spots on the  other panels. The only place to change them, however (except in temporary cases, as when using equipment) is on this panel. This avoids accidental changes to the character during play and also allows the information to be presented in a more compact manner on the other panels, which is hugely important from a mobile platform perspective.

This panel is being broken up and the graphics added to the underlying code this week, and I'm currently putting the finishing touches on the Action Panel and Splash Screen panel (the in-progress version of which I placed at the top of the page). Hopefully, the Gear and Music panels will be finished by the end of the month so that we can get everything the player needs, sans Titans, ready for beginning of May. The Titan screen will probably have to wait until we can figure out how to get the tablets to communicate through Android, which might be a post Kickstarter deal, but progress is apace and I'm very happy with how it is turning out...

Barbarians of Heavy Metal: The Dedites...

At this point, I've finished with the rules for character creation and the use of music in the game and have started working on the vehicle and Titan rules. Another thing I'm doing as I go along is filling out the details on the various schools of rock.

Now, you may wonder why I haven't finished that before moving on to another part of the rules-set and the reason is simple: basically there are a metric butt-tonne of ability lists to fill out. I have to define 11 levels for each Style's Sonic Wzardry Effects, which means 88 separate Effects spread between 8 schools of rock.And then I also have to fill out the various Licks available to specific schools, and those add another 40 sub-effects that may or may not be based on the Sonic Wizardry Effects.

That takes time and you should never try to tackle a job like that all at once. Best to come back to it a bit at a time as you are inspired and in between working on all the other stuff that needs doing as well. Not only is it less maddening, but working on other rules can often inspire an idea that will grow the lists as you go while still maintaining forward momentum in other areas, and all while keeping the thematic and mechanical elements holistically connected. This is a much more effective use of time than simply staring at a screen and straining your brain for ideas to finish lists in one go while other bits of mechanics need finishing.

All that said, I have completed one of the schools and thought I'd post it up today to give folks a look at how a fleshed out section of the Rocktagon looks, mechanically speaking. There will be additional verbiage, thematic information and so on, added later as the book is finished, but for now, here are the rules for the Dedite School of Rock and their favored sonic style: Fire... 

DEDITE
Characteristic Bonus: Fire +1
Special Career: Sonic Slayer

HARMONICS
Harmonic Number - 4

Domination: The current roll is pushed up one Level of Success.

Killing is My Business (and Business is Good): Double the total damage caused by the current roll OR ignore the target's armor.

The Four Horsemen: The Dedite and up to 3 Band-Mates gain a Bonus Die on all actions related to Combat (including strategy and tactics) and intimidation for the rest of the Scene.


DISCORDS
Discord Number - 8

RagNaRok: For the rest of this scene, any benefit the Dedite gains from striking a Harmonic is also given to one of their enemies for their next roll.

War Nerve: If the Dedite is in combat when this Discord is struck, the pressures of combat trips their bloodlust into overdrive and they attack with nor regard to their own safety. Their Defend Score is reduced to -2 for the rest of the Scene.

Ride The Lightning: The Dedite pours too much power into their instrument and reaps a vicious energy backlash from the feedback. If using a Sonic Weapon with the Safeties Off, the Dedite takes D6+3 damage.


LICKS
Axe - Rapid Fire: The guitarist may use their sonic amplifier to shoot a hail of flaming bolts at the enemy. This gives them a Rapid Fire rating equal to their Rank in Dedite.

Bass - The Fallen Angel: When used by the Frontman to create the Heat Shield Effect, it will last a number of Rounds equal to 3x the Decay rating after the bassist ceases to maintain it.

Percussion - Hot and Heavy: When used by the Frontman, any Sonic wizardry Effects gain one free bump in Intensity, Damage or Area of Effect.

Vocal - Tears of Fire: When used by the Frontman to create The Sky is On Fire Effect, tiny drops of flame start to rain down from the sky, affecting a number of Titan Hexes equal to the singer's Dedite Rank. Everything within those hexes takes a hit from an Intensity 1 flame each turn. Cover may negate this effect, so long as the cover itself doesn't catch on fire...

Other - All Guns Blazing: When using the Fire of Unknown Origin Effect, all ballistic weapons within D6 Personal Hexes of the player gain a +1 flame damage and all Flame weapons roll a Bonus Die for damage.


FIRE EFFECTS
Fire in BoHM is measured in Area of Effect and Intensity (see pg.xx). Enhancing Fire Effects doubles the Radius and adds +1 to the Intensity or Damage for each Rank added to the Effect.

0 - Turn Up the Heat
The headbanger can raise the surrounding temperature (a number of Personal Hexes equal to the roll total) to an extremely uncomfortable level, enough to melt ice quickly and cause extreme dehydration and fatigue (see pg.xx), but not enough to boil liquids or to start fires.

1 - Flames Rising
The headbanger can increase the power of existing flame. Each successful use of this Effect doubles the Area of Effect or Intensity of the fire.

2 - Fight Fire with Fire
The previous level of Fire Mastery can only grow or maintain flames. At Rank 2, the heabanger learns to reduce or eliminate them. They may reduce any fire in Intensity or Area of Effect by 1 using this Effect.

3 - Bat Out of Hell
The headbanger can now exert fine control over existing flames, shaping them into animated avatars of flame that move and dance around at their whim as long as they continue to maintain the Effect. The flames may move a number of Personal Hexes per Round equal to the headbanger's base Dedite Style Rating.

4 - Fire of Unknown Origin
The player may now ignite flammable materials spontaneously, creating a fire of Intensity 1 with a Radius of 1 Personal Hex. The fire will burn as long as it has fuel or for D6 x Decay in Rounds after the player has ceased maintaining it.

If used to light a close combat weapon on fire, add a damage modifier to any attacks using it equal to the Intensity of the flame. You can also do this with feet and fists, but combustible weapons and body parts will take damage every round this Effect is in action. In these cases it's best to combine it with Hellion, below.

5 -Hellion
The headbanger hardens a single target's resistance to flame, lowering the Intensity of any fire attacks by 1 for damage purposes. This Effect lasts for D6 x Decay in Rounds after the player stops maintaining it.

6 - Heat Shield
A wall of pure unadulterated heat rises up to melt and diffuse incoming attacks. This Effect will protect one Personal Hex along one side from attacks. this provides a +6 Cover bonus to DEF against all personal attacks that pass through the shielded hexside.

7 - Great Balls of Fire
The headbanger can use the Sonic Amplifier on their instrument to shoot balls of exploding flame at their enemies.

The player fires a number of balls equal to the their Ranks in Dedite, each of which may be aimed at a separate target hex. Each ball has a range in Personal Hexes equal to the player's Ranks in Dedite x5 and causes D6+5 damage to everything in the target Hex. Individual victims may reduce the damage they suffer by their Defense (including cover).

8 - Firehouse
This Effect can be used to set an entire Titan Hex aflame with temperatures hot enough to melt iron. Just being in the area causes 2D6+6 damage to unprotected living creatures each round.
Any enclosed vehicle that traverses the terrain, like a tank or Titan, gains D6 points of Heat.

9 - Quest for Fire
A giant pillar of flame erupts from a Personal Hex of the player's choice and shoots 1km up into the night sky. This acts as a beacon and all who see it must pass a Saavy + Nazarite or Ledite roll to avoid being drawn towards it by a long forgotten  primal attraction to flame.
Those drawn in this manner will immediately break free of the spell once they are within 10 Personal Hexes of the Effect, or if they are attacked before they get that far.

10 -  Heavy Metal Fire
The band sets an entire Titan Hex on fire and the flames created are hot enough to melt the armor of Titans and pretty much vaporize any living being. Titans and vehicles passing through this hex takes D6 hits to each location and 2D6 Heat. Titans and vehicles in the surrounding hexes take D6 Heat.

11 - The Sky is on Fire
The band sets a thin layer of atmosphere above the battlefield, an entire Aerospace Hex worth, on fire. This blocks visibility to the ground and forces and vehicles in that hex or passing through it immediately take D6 hits to each location. Any ordinance travelling through the flame is automatically detonated.

Temperatures under this umbrella of flame soar, causing the same effects as Turn Up the Heat above, and it is impossible to see through it from above or below. Titans and other vehicles gain 1 additional point of heat each turn they are in the hex.

Verboten Role-Playing...

One of the more interesting things you can do with role-playing games is to fully explore alternate timelines in which history took a decidedly different turn. It is true that many novels do this as well, Harry Harrison's Stars & Stripes Forever series being one superlative example and the book Fatherland, by Robert Harris, being another, but what role-playing games allow you to do that novels cannot, is to explore the world on your own terms and, through your actions, experience the ramifications on a personal level.

One such game that has relatively disappeared from gaming history was Reichstar, by Creative Encounters.

I believe the reason the game is almost unknown is that it allows you to take pretty much any side in the conflict, including the Nazis or Imperial Japan, in a dystopian future run by the same. Many people find that idea to be too horrible to contemplate and feel to do so would forever mark you as a sympathizer for the Nazi cause.

I find this fascinating, because playing a bloodthirsty murder-hobo in D&D, an immensely depraved Sabbat vampire in V:tM (don't make me describe the horrors from that book), or an evil human sacrificing sorcerer in any number of games, never seems to phase those very same folks, but the idea of pretending to join up with the SS makes them feel all dirty inside.

I understand the argument that one is fantasy and the other is history, but is there really a difference  when you are pretending to participate in the very same atrocities in your mind? Just because magic missiles don't exist and bullets do, does that make the act of killing any more acceptable? Is the raiding of a humanoid cavern to slay everything within and take their stuff based on the idea that they are 'sub-human' any different form the raids on Jewish homes to steal their hard-earned possessions and kill off their entire family?

Let me be very clear at this point: I do not take gaming nearly so seriously as all that. I really don't find it all that useful to navel gaze that deeply into what is, in essence, an adult game of make-believe. In fact, if I were to get even the slightest bit over-analytical on the subject, I'd say that playing a Nazi in the game could be helpful for exploring the historic forces and mindsets that led the Nationalist Socialist Party from a movement to recover German pride and independence, to a nationalist government driven to become a superpower, to one of the blackest, most vile political movements in (recent) recorded history.
 
At what point did it start to turn nominally sane people into monsters? What could generate so much fear and intimidation that an entire populace would rather turn a blind eye to the atrocities all around them rather than cry out for justice? And how much of that was actual fear or the selfish sense of superiority that we all know resides deep in the heart of every last person on this planet and led to an entire country basically saying ''the Jews deserve it' even though they personally would never lift a hand to harm anyone?

Learn from history or repeat it, as they say. See the slippery slope in action and learn to recognize its effect on humans in every culture in every era, including our own. And what better way to do that than to play a soldier in the Third Reich from the beginning, as an idealistic soldier in the SS with dreams of national unity and a proud Germany, to the end, when as a highly placed officer, your declaration of 'I was just following orders' does nothing to save you from the hangman's noose.

From a marketing perspective, however, games like Reichstar seem doomed from the outset because, even with all the disclaimers in large bold letters that proclaim the writers intent to educate not support, the whole idea of playing a Nazi is verboten. It's simply not PC in either use of that acronym: politically correct or player character.

Me personally, I thought Reichstar was a great game in concept and an interesting take on what life in the future would have been like if things had turned out differently in WWII. The mechanics were a bit all over the place, light in some areas and entirely too crunchy in others, but I'd say that if I could find the guys with the rights to the concept and get their permission, I'd be more than willing to remake it with a new system. Especially since it seems that, as we get further and further out from the events of WWII, as the last veterans of that war die out, people seem to throw about the term Nazi with way too much abandon and with too little concept of just how insulting that word really is. And all, ironically, while ignoring, or actually participating in, the attacks on religion, free speech, gun rights and personal liberty that were the historic markers of the growth of that very same movement over 70 years ago...

Barbarians of Heavy Metal: Sonic Wizardry...

I'm currently working on the basic rules for using music in the game. As you may or may not have read here, the whole foundation for game setting rests on the idea that scientists at some point in the past created Harmonic Resonance Technology that could manipulate the underlying superstring structure of the universe. Harmonic Resonance Forks are built into various items, but the most important one for our discussion today is the Musical Instrument, from guitars to drums to flutes.

These Instruments can be played in two modes:

1. Safeties On: The Harmonic Fork is disengaged and the instrument functions as a normal one of its type.

2. Safeties Off: The Harmonic Fork is engaged and the instrument may be used to manipulate reality or focus sound into a killing force.

In game, characters will use their Harmonic Instruments for three specific types of encounter resolution:

1. Gigging: This is a simple attempt to gather Fame by playing to an audience, either solo or as part of a band, with the Safeties On. Audiences are generated by the Metal Master (the gamemaster) with a few rolls to take into account their mood and their musical tastes. Results can lead to permanent Fame increase, temporary Fame Points which can be used in social situations, or possibly the entire audience rushing the performance area to beat the band into the dirt for wasting their time and hearing.

2. Headcutting: Musical Duels which can be played Safeties On or (if there is really bad blood between the competitors) Safeties Off. Headcutting rolls are like Gigging rolls except that one side bids a performance level (the Difficulty of the roll) and makes their roll. The other side then tries to match that Difficulty with their own performance.

If the safeties are off, then all sorts of physical effects can be added to performance, which make it more difficult for the individual performer, but can cause serious damage to the opponent or even do things like throw them through the air or open up the ground beneath their feet so the earth can swallow them. The only defense is for the target to add their own effects to cancel out the incoming ones. Sometimes, if they think the roll will be too difficult if they attempt to stop all of the effects, they may choose to block only a few, letting the others past their guard.
The trick to Headcutting is the Fame generated is based not only on winning, but doing so without hammering the same combinations continuously. In addition, repetition is easier to block, so you can't just 'magic missle' someone over and over again, you have to use your abilities creatively.

3. Sonic Wizardry: Duels are quick effect affairs, but the ultimate use of Harmonic Instruments is to play entire songs that can alter reality in a real, long term way. By playing specific chord progressions in an extended performance, the character can create 'magic' using effects from any style they know, integrated into their main style.
Effects for Sonic Wizardry will be leveled, so a novice in the Nazarite style will be able to light up the area around him, but journeymen  musicians will be able to use that style to create light shows and illusions and masters will be able to create destructive beams of energy that will make even a Titan sit up and take notice.

BANDS
While a single character can utilize Harmonic Resonance on their own, it is with a band that they can achieve even greater effects in all three arenas of music. The basic idea is you are only as good as your Style permits and even Grandmasters of a Style can only achieve their maximum potential with the help of a backing band. Our Nazarite Grandmaster might be able to plink a Titan, but with a great backing band, they could possibly destroy one and bring down any aircraft nearby with a massive Electro-magnetic Pulse.

HARMONIC RESONANCE INSTRUMENTS
I'm still working out the details on a  lot of this section, but instruments are basically composed of three parts:

1. The Base Instrument: This can be a guitar, bass, drums, whatever. It also includes microphones to allow vocal wizardry. Harmonic Instruments are built to take enormous amounts of punishment and the Harmonic Forks inside them can survive the complete destruction of the instrument in many cases.

2. The Harmonic Resonance Fork: These are AdTek, and their construction methods are lost to the mists of time. They are a contested resource, for that reason, and the victor in Headcutting Duels usually claims the instrument of their opponent, or the Harmonic Fork if the instrument is destroyed.

Harmonic Forks come in Keys, with each Key representing a particular Style and it's attendant effect, and Chords, a single Fork with numerous Keys. Whatever the case, a Fork of a specific Key cannot be used to create an effects opposite it's Key (or the root Key of a Chord), so choosing the right instrument is important.

3. Sonic Amplifier: This is the lethal end of a Harmonic Instrument. Instead of using the Resonance to generate effects, it uses the fork to build up a burst of sonic energy that can be fired like a gun. The Amplifier is typically located in the headstock of a guitar, bass or other stringed instrument while drums tend to place them in the Bass Drum, but configurations can be customized to place it almost anywhere.

Mechanically, Instruments are defined by the following characteristics:

1. Attack: This is the Damage Rating of the instrument when the Sonic Amplifier is used.

2. Decay: This is the maximum duration of any effect after it is no longer maintained.

3. Sustain: This is the maximum number of effects that this instrument can maintain simultaneously.

4. Release: The chance that the instrument will cause Silence or Fury.

5. Key/Chord: This is the Key or Chord of the Harmonic Resonance Fork inside the Instrument.

6. Forte: Certain instruments are items of such masterwork that their body actually enhances certain aspects of the instrument's resonance. The Flying V guitar, for instance, is built in such a manner that it enhances any use of Sonic Wizardry to move through the air.

SUMMARY
Although I'm still working out the gaming specifics of a lot of this, what I've laid out here is the basic idea behind using music as a weapon and a tool in the 31st century Metalsphere. I've attempted to make it highly thematic as well as useful, but am eager to hear ideas on how it can be made even better. Comment below and let me know what you think...

Barbarians of Heavy Metal: Character Generation...

I have, this very day, put the finishing touches on Character Generation (I have an alpha presentation of the game and tablet functionality due Tuesday) and will now take you through the character generation process by making a couple of sample characters.

NAME & SCHOOL OF ROCK

The first and most important thing is to name the character and determine exactly which School of Rock they were brought up in. Schools of Rock, as I have mentioned, are more than just simple music schools, they define a way of life for a whole section of the inhabited universe.
The characters we are going to create here will be a pair of rival Titan Riders: Keneniah, a Nazarite; and Asmodeus, a Sabbathite. The names fit the schools, the Nazarites taking names from angels and Biblical heroes and the Sabbathites taking names from fallen angels and bastardized Latin names.

The Schools themselves will affect the rest of character generation (and I'll talk more on them in detail in a future post), so we'll move along and show their character by example.

ATTRIBUTES

In BoHM we use the same four attributes as BoL, but we've reskinned them to sound more Metal: for Strength we have Might; for Agility we have Celerity; for Mind we have Savvy; and finally, Appeal is now measured in Cool. We still distribute 4 points amongst the Attributes, as with BoL. One attribute can be reduced to -1 to gain an extra point for another.
For Keneniah, we are going for a more well rounded character, so we will be placing 1 point in each Attribute.

MIGHT 1, CELERITY 1, SAVVY 1, COOL 1

For Asmodeus, we are going to focus more on Might and Cool, so 2 points in each of those. In addition, the Sabbathite School provides a +1 to Might, so Asmodeus' final Attributes look like this:

MIGHT 3, CELERITY 0, SAVVY 0, COOL 2

Every School of Rock has a Bonus in either an Attribute or Combat Ability, meaning that the average character will have 5 points in one or the other. This is intentional as it further delineates the strengths and weaknesses of the various schools and fits in well with the extended range of difficulty set forth in the previous post.

COMBAT ABILITIES

Again, we have reskinned these to fit the thematic qualities of the Metalpshere: Brawl is now Rumble; Melee is now Shred; Ranged is now Fire, and Defense is still pretty close to the original as Defend, which fits in better with the other CAs, from a tense perspective. Again, our characters have 4 points to spend. Like attributes, one Combat Ability can be reduced to -1 to raise another by 1 point.

Keneniah gets the School bonus here, adding +1 to Defend, and sticking with our drive to be well-rounded, his Combat Abilities come out thusly:

RUMBLE 1, SHRED 1, FIRE 1, DEFEND 2

Asmodeus' stats are going to lean more heavily on personal combat, to take advantage of his heavy might, and he'll probably wear heavy armor to make up for his average defense:

RUMBLE 2, SHRED 2, FIRE 0, DEFEND 0

CAREERS

There are 24 Careers currently in the game, and our characters have 4 points to spread amongst 4 careers, with no career starting out with a rating greater than 3.

Keneniah is going to take advantage of a special ability of his School and take a career normally not allowed to anyone but The Church: Priest. Along with that, he's going to want to be able to fight in Titan combat, so he takes Titan Rider. He wants to play up the leadership side of his character, so he takes Manager. Finally, he wants to be able to do some basic repairs on his Titan and other equipment, but cannot take Tek (another Career only available to the Church), so he takes Roadie. He spreads his 4 points amongst those four careers thusly:

TITAN RIDER 2, MANAGER 1, PRIEST 1, ROADIE 0

Asmodeus, coming from a very different school has very different interests. He is fascinated with the Occult and so he takes Occultist. He also wants to ride the 'Heavy Metal' and takes Titan Rider. His final two skills reflect his dedication to his School's Style: Inquisitor, because only the most dedicated deserve to be a Sabbathite in his eyes; and Warlord, to indicate that he is Sabbathite nobility. He takes an even spread in those careers.

TITAN RIDER 1, WARLORD 1, INQUISITOR 1, OCCULTIST 1

STYLES

Our characters must now choose 4 Styles of Rock to play in. They receive 4 points, as above, to distribute amongst these styles, with the following restrictions:

• They must take their School as their first Style.
• They cannot take a Style that is opposed to their School of Rock.
• They cannot have more points in a Style than they do the Style of their school.

As mentioned in the previous post, Styles are more than just musical characteristics and make up one third of every resolution test. They are therefore important when determining what sorts of tasks your Headbanger will be proficient in.

Keneniah's main Style will be Nazarite, Christ Rock. He won't even touch Sabbathite music, which is opposed to Nazarite music, but he does appreciate both Dedite power shredding (and has an affinity with the application of force) and Yngwie virtuosity (along with a bent towards skills that require precision and timing), so he takes those. For his final Style, he chooses Ledite, as he finds the blues driven but contemplative style to be very cool (and his slightly intellectual nature is derived form this). He spends his 4 points in these styles in an even manner, with no style being greater than the other:

NAZARITE 1, YNGWIE 1, DEDITE 1, LEDITE 1

Asmodeus prefers the upper half of the Rocktagon with a little wild chaos thrown in, so he goes for the party-hard Glamling style (which enhances his vitality and makes him somewhat fearless), the Dedite style (for the raw destructive power it provides) and throws in some Punk for flavor (he is highly adaptable and good at sorting through chaos), but he makes sure that his main style is his first and most potent style:

SABBATHITE 2, GLAMLING 1, DEDITE 1, PUNK 0

INSTRUMENTS

Every Headbanger is proficient to some degree in 4 instrumental styles (and has 4 points to spread around those instruments). There are 5 to choose from: Axe, the ubiquitous guitar; Bass, the bass guitar which provides a pounding rhythm; Percussion, the use of drums; Vocal, including singing or spoken rap; and Other, which covers a wide range of other instruments which must be chosen separately.

Keneniah is going the frontman route and chooses:

VOCAL 2, AXE 2, BASS 0, OTHER (KEYBOARDS) 0

Asmodeus goes for the might of pounding rhythm with a bit of back up vocals and an instrument designed to unnerve his enemies:

BASS 2, DRUMS 1, VOCALS 0, OTHER (BAGPIPES) 1

HARMONICS & DISCORDS

Every Headbanger starts off with 1 Harmonic and 1 Discord from their School of Rock, which, if you will recall, are activated by hitting the Harmonic or Discord numbers on the Rocktohedron. Headbangers may take an additional Harmonic, but must either take another Discord or reduce their starting Fortune to 3.

Keneniah's Harmonic number is 1. He has the following choices:

• You Are I Am: The Nazarite is infused with the Holy Spirit and gains 1 Fortune. This may take them above their maximum.
• Reborn: The Nazarite is filled with the breath of life and regains 3 Fight.
• Seventh Angel: A guardian angel intervenes, aiding the band in small, almost imperceptible way. The Nazarite generates 3 Bonus Dice that can be added to any of their Band's rolls until the end of the scene.

Keneniah doesn't plan on doing much fighting outside of his Titan, so Reborn is not very useful for him. You Are I Am is very useful, but only once in awhile (you can only activate each Harmonic or Discord once per session) and Seventh Angel fits in more with his concept of a Band Leader, so he takes the latter.

His Discord Number is 5 and he must choose one of the following:

• Abyss: The Adversary takes a personal interest in the Nazarite and their band. The enemy gains D6 Penalty Dice that they may apply to the entire Band for the rest of the scene.
• Holy War: The Nazarite becomes wrathful and divisively sanctimonious. They take a Penalty Die on any Cool rolls for the rest of the scene.
• Lamentations: The Nazarite has a crisis of Fath that  reduces his Nazarite Style to -1 for the rest of the scene.

As a leader, Keneniah would be a poor example if he suffered Lamentations, so he gives that a quick miss. The same could be said of Holy War. Abyss sounds perfect, as it fits in with the idea of Satan trying to bring the whole Band down by messing with its leader.

Asmodeus has an entirely opposite set of Harmonic and Disocrd realities. His Harmonic number is 5 (the opposite of Keneniah, which is appropriate as they are of opposing schools), and he has the following Harmonic choices:

• Iron Man: The power of the abyss seems to fill the Sabbathite with unholy vigor and they regain D6 Fight.
• Sabbra Cadabra: The Sabbathite sometimes pulls off miraculous feats that seem for all the world like true Magick. The roll is counted as a Success, even if it is a Failure or Critical Failure.
• Hand of Doom: Those around the Sabbathite feel the hand of The Adversary himself interfering with their actions. The Sabbathite gains D6 Penalty Dice that can be added to any roll from any character until the end of the scene.

At first glance, Iron Man would seem to be ideal for a close combatant like Asmodeus, but he loves the thought of the Devil himself interfering on his behalf as well as the ability to pull a success out of certain failure. He dices to take two Harmonics, forgoing Iron Man, as he is already fairly robust, in favor of the other two.

Again, Asmodeus Discord is opposite that of his rival Keneniah, a 1, and he has the following Discords from which he must choose 2 to make up for his bonus Harmonic:

• Paranoid: The Sabbathite is distracted by what they think are demons eyeing them with diabolical intent flitting about with just outside of their direct  line of vision. They suffer a cumulative -1 modifier to all rolls for the rest of the session.
• Faeries Wear Boots: The Sabbathite is convinced that demonic gremlins in massive Doc Marten boots are interfering with their actions by hobbling gear and stomping on their feet. This roll becomes a Critical Failure automatically and cannot be rerolled or modified in any way.
• Crazy Train: The Sabbathite sees demons of madness swirling around the heads of D6 Band-Mates and allies, who suffer an automatic Discord on their next roll, even if they roll a Harmonic.

Faeries Wear Boots just happens to be a favorite song of mine, and its effect, while critical in the moment, is not as long-standing as Paranoid, so we'll take FWB. Crazy Train is definitely more punishing, but it punishes others, not Asmodeus, so [two-ginger salute] those guys! ROCK & ROLLLLLLL! (translation: we'll take Crazy Train).

 SECONDARY CHARACTERISTICS

In BoL we have Lifeblood, which is called Fight in BoHM (as in 'having the fight beaten out of you'). It is figured the same way: 10 + Might.

Next we have Fortune, which are like Hero Points and have a similar function. You start with 6 in BoHM, as they have an additional use that will see them spent a bit more freely, that of negating Discords.

Fame is a new Secondary Characteristic, and it represents a pool of influence that can be used during an adventure to add 1 point to any Cool roll to influence others. Like Fortune, it only recovers at the end of an adventure, so it is a dwindling resource. Fame is equal to Cool during character creation, but may be raised using advancement points, to represent the Headbanger's increased notoriety spreading their reputation throughout the Metalsphere. If there were a single number that represents 'winning,' in the Charlie Sheen sense of the word, this would be it and the Headbanger with the highest Fame should lord it over the other, lesser players.

There is a fourth characteristic that will be introduced in a later expansion: Freak. For those who want Sabbathites to cast real sorcery, Priests to get actual miracles from God, and Punks to disrupt their foes with Psychic screams while Ledite Yogis levitate above the fray, this is the power source of those sorts of things, which will be an option in the expansion, which will cover all sorts of alternate wrinkles for the universe of the Metalsphere, and it will be equal to 10+Savvy.

Keneniah's Secondary Characteristics come out as follows:

FIGHT 11, FORTUNE 6, FAME 1

Asmodeus comes out a bit tougher and a bit more notorious:

FIGHT 13, FORTUNE 6, FAME 2

GEAR

Ok, so I fibbed a bit, as I still haven't worked out the way Gear will be distributed. the general idea however is to restrict it in a way similar to BotA, as this is a post-apocalyptic universe, but not so severely and without the between-adventure attrition found in that game.

Career will play a large roll in what you can have and you will gain a number of free points, + career points + special items that are granted by your school to equip your Headbanger. I imagine that, as both the above Headbangers have Titan 2 a careers, they will be able to pick up a Medium Titan as part of their equipment.

 SUMMARY

So there are your two sample BoHM characters. Hope that gives you a taste of how they differ from other BoL games and a feel for the type of people you might meet living in the Metalsphere. Next time I'll try and go into depth about the Revised Rocktagon and the Schools of Rock themselves...

Barbarians of Heavy Metal: The Base Rules...

 NOTE: For those who have not read the design diaries that led up to this post, you can find them over at Strange Stones. The rest of this will make a lot more sense if you start there...

After a long pause, during which time I have written, designed and laid out an entire supplement for Doctor Who; wrote, recorded and engineered a 45 minute science fiction audio-play; created an alpha prototype for a Sword & Sorcery boardgame; experimented with publishing tabel-top RPGs as fully functional apps and have generally been kept hopping by my graduate degree *DEEP BREATH* I am back at work on Barbarians of Heavy Metal. And about time, too.

The game will be designed specifically for the Gameslate format, with a cheap text only version of the rules going up for distribution after the full app is finished. It is part of my experimental game design class, so the player's version of the app should be ready by Summer, to be quickly followed up by the full game.

Now that I've had a year to digest the idea, I've started realizing the mechanics. The core mechanic of Barbarians of Lemuria is intact, but modified in a number of ways to fit the genre:

Roll 2D6+D8, Base Difficulty 13

The D8 is called 'the Rocktohedron' and it is something special for BoHM. First, it adds a 3rd die to the roll to extend the spread between character ability and difficulty and prevent characters from becoming too powerful too quickly. But more importantly, it ties into your School of Rock, your school of musical martial arts.

By rolling your school's sacred number on the Rocktohedron, you activate a Harmonic effect. By rolling the sacred number of your opposing school, the one opposite yours on the Rocktagon, you instead generate Discord, or some sort of penalty. These will be described in further detail in the next post.

Mighty Successes, Legendary Successes and Critical Failures still exist, and are generated on the 2D6 part of the roll, as normal, but are now called Hardcore Success, Thrashing Success and Bollocks. They work pretty much the same way except now they are organized into a 'Results Ladder' that goes Bollocks-Failure-Success-Hardcore-Thrashing. The reason for this will be explained when we talk about Harmonics and Discord, but suffice to say, striking certain Harmonics or Discords can move a result up and down the ladder without need for Hero Points.

Another change comes in the area of Opposed Rolls. In BoHM all opposed rolls will involve bidding wars, similar to the system used in the old James Bond RPG chase system, with both sides gradually increasing their risk to borderline ridiculous levels to outperform their opponents.

Another possible change, one which I need to see in action to judge the effectiveness of, is to add in three factors to the characters roll, instead of the two normally allowed in BoL. So, instead of Celerity+Fire being used for ranged combat, I might allow Celerity+Fire +Appropriate Career. This allows for a wider spread of difficulties, a wider range of character ability and a whole lot more variety in the mix of Attributes, Combat Abilities, Careers, Styles and Instruments. A virtuoso guitar performance would use Celerity+Yngwie+Guitar, for instance, a crushing drum solo would use Might+Deadite+Percussion and firing a Titan's weapons would use Celerity+Fire+Titan Rider. 

Regular Career use would add an appropriate Style, assuming that certain Schools of Rock are more adept at certain tasks. So trying to fly an aerospace fighter through an asteroid field, which requires precision and virtuoso piloting, would be rolled using Celerity+Yngwie+Flyboy.
So as you can see, in BoHM, your School of Rock is more than just a musical style. It is a way of life that affects every aspect of the game and helps to further define your character and their place in the Metalsphere.

Now that you understand the basic mechanical modifications, the next post will discuss the ins and outs of BoHM characters...