I'm quoting from another thread rather than babble in that one:

Quote from: Kuroth;544934I can see High Valor being used for Star Wars.  Have you had any luck with the science fiction game?  Perhaps this was a bit of playtest of ideas for that project.  It would be cool to have an adventure set in Aeia about. I think you could help folks a lot to understand what the system can do with one.  Just some general interest in High Valor.

I've got three "FEAT" System (as my friend calls it) games in the works.

Cold Chrome Knights: My homage to cyberpunk, all science fiction/near future, but with a dose of heroism. (See: Hard Wired, Count Zero etc.)

E.o.N: Empire of Night: Dark Space Opera. The Hellbleed opened and released "demons" into the universe, and now all human space falls to the might of alien things from our worst nightmares. (Yes, my Star Wars gamed help me test some of the ideas for mechanics from this concept.)


Un-named Wuxia-Space Game: Space opera done as a wuxia novel. Beautiful space ships flying between worlds, where corruption and failure exist, carrying the wandering heroes of the fighting arts. A distant Emperor rules, and makes decisions by necessity. Immortal, inhuman, but wanting the best interests of the Empire itself.


As for High Valor itself, I'm slowly slowly hammering out a wuartet of adventurers. One of them about  "Hunger."

That is all I will say at this time.   I'm also planning a sourcebook  of "Magical" things and the places they can be found. No changes to the magic system, but example spells, more magical items, and some wondrous places both beautiful and safe, and awe-inspiring and dangerous. After that there will be a few fill-in downloads for places in the world to flesh it out.

I really expect people to take what is there and run there own way with it, but it seems many people want me to fill it on in for them. I always preferred room to spread my wings as a GM, but I'll write it because it is in my head already.



I'm just slow and busy with other things.  (Hearts & Souls 2E, and Derelict Delvers. As well. Once I put H&S to bed hopefully in October, I'll beging pushing the adventures.)

It's always good to read of interesting projects that are being taken up, especially when the hobby aspect is still important to the writer, with the writing taken up as a matter of enjoyment.

High Valor's approach to resolution is a fair change from the system that a great many are used to playing.  So, I think the adventures would help provide insight into structuring resolution in encounters to further scenarios that build an adventure.  Not long ago, I mentioned The Kinunir as a great Traveller adventure.  What made that adventure great was seeing how Traveller could be used to organize adventures.  It was a different process than D&D.  Using the adventure as an outline for an actual group of sessions was just a bonus.  The Kinunir is just an example of a published adventure that other games also provided to illustrate the system in practice.  Traveller resolution is simple, but understanding how to negotiate the rolls of resolution into good encounters that built adventures wasn't always so obvious to those that were used to a different approach.

High Valor's use in the Lucas world brought these ideas to mind for High Valor.  Star Wars' issues for many players can be an issue for any well developed world.  All of the difficulties many express about setting up campaigns on Middle-earth is another good example.  It is one of the benefits of being an author of role-play games that one may open the door for everyone to ways to utilize the created world, rather than feel constricted by a set of universe elements.

I know everyone here knows of these two issues that new or less well known games face, and how they approach them differs, but I thought it might help make the writing easier to be reminded of the real value of published adventures, either free or not free, beyond the adventure outline alone, particularly for new or lesser known games.  I rarely used written adventures back in the day, and today I use them to have another person at the table with small groups, the adventure author.  However, for new or unfamiliar games a published adventure can really help describe the game's system of resolutions during encounters that further scenarios toward fun adventures, and they also reduce campaign constraints by displaying how the  game may be applied to different party activities, settings or character goals.

So, I end up with a very analytically framed pep talk. ha  Thank you for all the cool news about the projects Silverlion.  I hope your Summer looks to be a great one for everything other than games too.

Quote from: Kuroth;545675It's always good to read of interesting projects that are being taken up, especially when the hobby aspect is still important to the writer, with the writing taken up as a matter of enjoyment.

High Valor's approach to resolution is a fair change from the system that a great many are used to playing.  So, I think the adventures would help provide insight into structuring resolution in encounters to further scenarios that build an adventure.  Not long ago, I mentioned The Kinunir as a great Traveller adventure.  What made that adventure great was seeing how Traveller could be used to organize adventures.  It was a different process than D&D.  Using the adventure as an outline for an actual group of sessions was just a bonus.  The Kinunir is just an example of a published adventure that other games also provided to illustrate the system in practice.  Traveller resolution is simple, but understanding how to negotiate the rolls of resolution into good encounters that built adventures wasn't always so obvious to those that were used to a different approach.

High Valor's use in the Lucas world brought these ideas to mind for High Valor.  Star Wars' issues for many players can be an issue for any well developed world.  All of the difficulties many express about setting up campaigns on Middle-earth is another good example.  It is one of the benefits of being an author of role-play games that one may open the door for everyone to ways to utilize the created world, rather than feel constricted by a set of universe elements.

I know everyone here knows of these two issues that new or less well known games face, and how they approach them differs, but I thought it might help make the writing easier to be reminded of the real value of published adventures, either free or not free, beyond the adventure outline alone, particularly for new or lesser known games.  I rarely used written adventures back in the day, and today I use them to have another person at the table with small groups, the adventure author.  However, for new or unfamiliar games a published adventure can really help describe the game's system of resolutions during encounters that further scenarios toward fun adventures, and they also reduce campaign constraints by displaying how the  game may be applied to different party activities, settings or character goals.

So, I end up with a very analytically framed pep talk. ha  Thank you for all the cool news about the projects Silverlion.  I hope your Summer looks to be a great one for everything other than games too.

I agree with and second this. It's why I love sample adventures in the backs of rule books as well. I'd love to see more stuff for HV Silverlion. Looking forward to CCK as well. Cyberpunk is till one of my favorite genres.

How important are "true" cybernetics to your vision of cyberpunk? I ask because I've stolen something from a friend called "Lace."*

Lace is molecular re-engineering of the body that mimics a lot of the cybernetics in other cyberpunk games. At least Black "Lace" does. White "Lace" mostly bolsters immune system response to certain things, makes your bones stronger, and the whole organism a bit healthier in most ways. (Corps use it as a reward to their loyal serfs.)


I'm thinking that "Lace" makes many of the aspects of cybernetics obsolete, while allowing others to be more functional. I like the fact that it may indeed be just Lace most characters have, because cybernetics are nearing obsolescence.  Yet, I want to run this idea by people.

I love cybernetics, but the whole "chromed up super arm/leg" things seems a bit outdated for the future as we push into actually developing real ones now.

Of course I also like the idea that Lace above allows you actually mount super strong limbs to a human body since the human body is now stronger/more resilient (at least for the people who could afford being tanked.)

Red Lace is an outgrowth of the process where they generate an entirely artificial humanoid molecularly identical to a laced human. Created from scratch (as opposed to cloning.) Leaving us with "Are they human?" and "What is human?"  and such fun stuff is "am I human?" questions in the game.


Lacing is not exactly genetic engineering, it relies on rewriting the organism to produce atypical organic compounds. Such as turning bones into a hardened organic amorphous crystalline structure, and lacing ligaments and musculature with what amounts to human produced resilient "spider-silk"



I was thinking of the following traits that characters could take as background ones to build their character around (instead of "race" in High Valor)

Laced

Synthetic: Think Ghost in the Shell's "Major") or an A.I who is downloaded into a similar body.

Warewolf: Genetically Uplifted/Laced Canine with cybernetics

Normal Human

Of course each trait offers advantages and disadvantages.



*Stolen is really incorrect, he let me use the idea because he wrote a 24 hour RPG (Karbon) meant to mimic the Blade Runner movie in many ways, and hasn't done anything with it since it was written. I love the idea of "Lace" and so borrowed it. Red Lace is of course merely rumored to exist.

Depends. I'd say true cyberpunk requires the chrome, but true cyberpunk is an outdated genre anyway, so it depends on if you want the flavor of '80s cyberpunk or the more modern post-cyberpunk/transhumanist flavor instead. I'm also a fan of the biopunk/dark-transhumanist vibe, so either way I'll be happy The bio and genetic engineering thing is certainly going to be more modern. Perhaps the bio route with some limited chrome relating mostly to IT ("datajacks", implanted comms and computers, etc) would be the way to go. The augmented reality thing is pretty big, and pretty cool IMO.

Edit: I guess that means I'd advise a blended approach. I like the Lace you've described, so what I'd do is use that for the "better but natural" augmentations. For example, eyes. I'd make lace eyes that let the character see farther and clearer, with actual cybernetic enhancements that give the eyes the ability to have low-light or infrared capabilities, and to take advantage of Augmented Reality technology without external appliances, as well as interface with implanted computer systems. One of the advantages of having extensive or complete Lace modification could be suppression of the body's defenses acting against implants. The body could be tailored to recognize compatible implants as "natural" so the whole bio/cyber system could be acquired in packages.

Maybe require mods to be done either all at once, or at least by the same person/company, or the later additions will cost more, or not work as well, or have a higher chance of being rejected, etc.

Yeah, I rather like the Hybrid approach. Implanted computer network systems, augmented reality interfaces, things the normal body can't do and the like will be covered by bio/cybernetics.

Things like ones PIN (Personal Interface Network.) Eye modifications, a few implanted devices and the like.

Cyberpunk.  Have you ever read or perhaps played Ex Machina?  That has an excellent approach to this type of setting.  It has a lot of interesting ways to over come what might be perceived as ludicrous today to many.  It is as the author of Ex Machina suggests. " Cyberpunk makes the familiar strange, so that the strange may become familiar."