Ravenpenny

Ravens N' Pennies: Gamemaster's Guidepost: Ritual Mass Combat

Today is Patreon Day, the day I say "thank you" to those who help to support me there. When asked what they wanted one of my patrons replied "What about Ritual Path Magic and Mass Combat?" Seeing as I playtested both books pretty extensively I had to write this post. Ritual Path Magic is ideal for b...

Ravens N' Pennies: Assembly Required: Development Step Two - Campaign Parameters

Slightly late - but still posted! Our second installment of Assembly Required talks about campaign parameters and how they can work for you, instead of against you. http://rave...

Ravens N' Pennies: Triple Threat - Tetramental

Earth, Wind, Fire - all that stuff - it's a elemental of many talents and it wants to freeze, burn, bury, and electrocute you all at once - it's friendly that way.Toss this schizophrenic elemental at your players and watch the crazy ensue. Written up by our very own Antoni Ten Monrós - I'm just pro...

Ravens N' Pennies: Gamemaster's Guidepost: Master of None

Every skill for every man - that's what I always say...wait, what do I always say? Ignore that gobbledygook and pay attention, you ever have a character who was omni-competent? Could do damn near anything? I love those types of characters. In this installment of Gamemaster's Guidepost I talk about p...

Ravens N' Pennies: Pyramid Mentoring Group, Year 1 Final Report

My end of the year report for how my grand experiment in teaching others how to write went - in short - not bad, not bad at all. http://ravensnpennies.blogspot.com/2014/06/pyrami...

Saturday the 21st is Patron Day - what would you guys like to see me cover on my blog for that day?

Today I'm talking about kung fu today and how to make it better than your target's. Inspired by a forum post I poke around a few ideas, codify a new trait, and offer up a couple of optional rules for it. 2014-06-12 20:17:53 +0000 UTC View Post

Ravens N' Pennies: Triple Threat - Hedleyspawn

I've been through the wringer the last few days. First I rescued a kitten from a engine block Sunday (and then adopted him). Then last night I ended up in the ER and got multiple steroid shots in the mouth for my rapidly swelling throat. More strep/tonsillitis issues. Wee. But fear not! I have deliv...

Ravens N' Pennies: Assembly Required: Development Step One - Campaign Foundation

So how do you start a campaign? Do you just dive in? Do you prep prep prep? I got a couple of ideas I'd like to share... http://ravensnpennies.blogspot.com/2014/06/assembly-req...

Ravens N' Pennies: Assembly Required: Inaugural Post

Creating a campaign setting can be difficult, creating a reusable can be even harder. In this new blog series I'm going to talk about my personal process when it comes to creating a campaign and provide examples of how it's done - or at least how I do it. 2014-06-05 21:22:50 +0000 UTC View Post

Ravens N' Pennies: Gamemaster's Guidepost: Magical Items From Cinema Part I

Sometimes you need a magical item in the middle of a game, and you don't have it written up. So what do you do? Like any good GM, you steal it from something your players have seen before "Yeah. It's a sword that's like X, from Y. Yeah, it can do Z." Bam. Instant magic item - now to file the serial ...

Ravens N' Pennies: Triple Threat - Leprechaun

If you talk about taking his lucky charms, he will kneecap you. This ain't no fairy tale and he doesn't pinch you because you aren't wearing green. Leprechauns are nasty, mean buggers that are more than happy to spit on you as they are look at you. Imagine you have this irate most-times drunk uncle....

Ravens N' Pennies: Designer's Notes - Alternative Ritual Path Magic

Sometimes, you write the article, sometimes the article writes you. I ponder on the half-mad state Alternative Ritual Path Magic left me in, what made it in, what didn't, who helped me along (and there were many of you! Thank you again), and how to create a sense-based ritual path magic spell. 2014-05-29 21:51:12 +0000 UTC View Post

Warehouse 23 - Pyramid #3/67: Tools of the Trade - Villains

My latest Pyramid offering is out. It's excellent overall...but my article shows you how to sell your soul in GURPS terms...I mean...c'mon, you're not USING it are you? Go buy and rate my article in this month's Pyramid! Tell'em C. R. sent ya! 2014-05-23 21:08:37 +0000 UTC View Post

Ravens N' Pennies: Triple Threat - Bodach

When we are little we instinctively fear the dark. There is something about the shadowy places in our homes that scare us even as adults. Now, science will tell you that we evolved this instinct because in the dark was were predators were...but what if it's more than that? What if a childhood fear o...

Ravens N' Pennies: Gamemaster's Guidepost: Starting Point Totals, Part Deux

Write up a GURPS character they said, it'll be fun, we'll have a few laughs... Sigh. I know. Point totals again. When will he ever shut up about it? Probably never - it's important and a pitfall I see GMs fall into all the time. This time, I've got a example - I write up John McClane from the Die Ha...

Guys, if you have any topics you want me to cover, let me know. I'm in search of some blog topics.

Ravens N' Pennies: GURPS101: Magical Styles - Spellslinger

Sometimes, you need gun. Other times, you need a spell. Occasionally, you need both. What's better than hurling a fireball at a foe? Shooting him in the face and then hitting him with a fireball. That's right, you can have your cake and eat it too (Dresden aside, of course). In this weeks "GURPS101"...

Ravens N' Pennies: Gamemaster's Guidepost: I Know a Guy Who Knows a Guy

You know the character type. He knows a "guy" who knows a "guy." He's got friends in every city and every walk of life, and everyone bloody well owes him a favor. He's the face man, but he's also the fixer. He can find the guy you need for the job or the diamond-tipped industrial drill at 3 in the m...

Ravens N' Pennies: Triple Threat - Rat-Thing Swarm

Rat-Things are scary enough as is...but get a half dozen together plus hundreds of normal rats and you have pure nightmare fuel. It gets worse when the little bastards are smart enough to cast spells and draw on the horde of vermin to power said magic... 2014-05-11 04:54:35 +0000 UTC View Post

Ravens N' Pennies: Designer's Notes: The Old Ways

When I write Pyramid articles I damn near always have extra - that's just the nature of the beast (for me at least). Sometimes I recycle my extras into other articles or even flesh them out more fully so they can become articles entire...but a lot of the time I just have orphan rules and crunch who ...

Ravens N' Pennies: Triple Threat - Wraith

A creature from my nightmares (literally)... A victim and abuser all in one, the wraith is a doomed creature that is forced to live on the life force of other beings, craving it like a drug - it fiends for the addictive rush of draining another being to death and dust. What's worse is that other sup...

Ravens N' Pennies: Melee Academy: Using Magic to Target Hit Locations

Sometimes, you just need to hurt somebody a little. Not much, just incapacitate them in some way. Maybe you need to disable them or make it impossible for them to do something with their hands. Whatever the reason, it's fairly straightforward to do this in a "mundane" way - you attack whatever body ...

GURPS101: Spell Kit's For Casters: The Necromancer

When you're a necromancer you don't need friends because you can *make* them. But being a lord of the dead can get lonely, so eventually you're going to need to make some living friends so that you can impress them with your all-powerful control over life and death. This week's Spell Kits For Caster...

Gamemaster's Guidepost: Character Point Debt

I ponder over how point debt can be used, when it should be used, and how to prevent abuses by players. The whole point of calling it point debt after all is the idea that you're going to pay it back... 2014-04-27 17:37:06 +0000 UTC View Post

Gamemaster's Guidepost: Ritual Path Magic, Wishes, and Permanently Granted Traits

Wishes...they can be the life long quest of a player character or NPC. They ought to let you do anything...but sometimes have rules (you can't bring back the dead, you can't kill anyone, and you can't make anyone fall in love...and no wishing for more wishes! What about wishing I could wish for more...

GURPS101: Beginner's Ritual Path Magic

New blog post is up (http://ravensnpennies.blogspot.com/2014/04/gurps101-beginners-ritual-path-magic.html#.U1CK01dgykg) Are you seeking to add more complexity to Ritual Path ...

Okay! I'm back. Feeling a ton better. Travis, I flipped a coin, you decide what you want this month on my blog. Keep it fairly general if you will (e.g., something about magic, something about guns) while I get back into the stride of things. Though if you do have a cool idea, post away and let me k...

Ugh. I've gotten a very nasty flu bug - been waylayed. I plan do do a update soon and one of you guys (I'll flip a coin) gets to pick a topic you'd like me to cover for the month of April. Hopefully I'll be feeling better soon. Thank you for your continued support! ~C. R.

Blog Entry: Designer's Notes - The Making of “Team Up!”

On this fine GURPS-day, I, along with my recent co-author, ruminate on our release in this month's Pyramid. How did this article come to be? How did we write it? Did we cut anything? Find out all that and more in this week's exciting edition of IT CAME FROM THE RAVENPENNY BLOG! (2014-03-27 22:33:38 +0000 UTC View Post