Sertorius Playtest and Update

We playtested Sertorius this month, running a full scenario. Things went well. The changes we made to the system work for what we are trying to achieve. Sertorius are more durable than standard Network system characters and this allowed the players to take on multiple combats without too muh risk. In the adventure we ran, the party was trying to track down and destroy a Monstra, a kind of magical beast driven to the brink by its powers. This led them through perilous forests where they encountered undead and hostile humanoids similar to goblins. It was interesting to see our spell system in action for an extended period. Every spell can be cast endlessly, so characters never run out of juice. But casting a spell at a high level of power comes with some risk. In one instance a player character was able to summon an avalanche of flame against their foes, and in another one character went mad from channeling too much magical energy.

The adventure culimnated in an ancient ogre temple dedicated to a dead lion god. There they fought a Monstra inhabiting a giant lion, with all kinds of magical abilities (its roar unleashed a tide a thorns that ripped the party's flesh for example). In the end, the characters were victorious but wounded.

So far we are pleased with the game. It has 20 spells so far, and that list is going to grow considerably (we want to playtest in small batches though). Character creation works great.

Most characters are assumed to be powerful people called Sertorius. In the ancient history of the setting (called Gamandria) a powerful god named Senga (the lion god from our playtest scenario) was killed by his Ogre worshippers. This resulted (after some other developments) with the scattering of his soul which was then reborn into living creatures as fragments (rebirth plays an important role in the Gamandrian cosmology).

So a Sertorius is simply the reincarnated fragment of a shattered god. This sets them apart from other characters, giving them more health and access to magic. However players have the option of playing mundane people or creatures as well. In most cases this means an inferior character, which we clearly state to the readers of the book. But in the case of Ogres, things are a bit different. They are a cursed race because their ancestors killed a god. As a result Sertori are never born among them. Ogres have no access to magic. While they were the first to establish civilization, inventing agriculture, writing and engineering, they no longer excel at these things (due to the curse) and live mostly on the outskirts of other societies (this is expressed mechanically as a penalty to related Trade skills). However they have one small benefit from their curse: resistance to magic. As an Ogre grows in power, his ability to withstand spells (and therefore fight Sertori) goes up. Ogres also have a large amount of health.

We are quite excited by the game so far and looking forward to developing it over the next year.

Arrows of Indra Cover Preview

This is still in the final stage of development, so I might update the image in the next couple of days if we make any changes, but here is the cover for Arrows of Indra:

 

Ask Bedrock

We are introducing a new feature on the blog called Ask Bedrock, in which we respond to your questions about our games. So send us your questions about rules, settings, design, production schedule etc to: BedrockBrendan@gmail.com

Provided we are not flooded with hundreds of rules questions at once, we will try to answer each question as we receive it. All responses will be posted here (occassionally in video form).

Guide to Aegyptus Available in PDF

Pomponius Mela's Guide to Aegyptus is available in PDF:

Guide to Aegyptus - Avalon Game Company | RPGNow.com

Visit the Roman Egypt in 38 AD with famed geographer Pomponius Mela as your guide.

The Guide to Aegyptus is a supplement for use with the Servants of Gaius game. Gamemasters and players will find its contents useful for any campaign set in this unique province.

Includes:

• A complete description of Aegyptus (history, cities, government, etc)
• Maps of Alexandria and Aegyptus
• Equipment
• New monsters
• The Aegyptian pantheon
• Adventure ideas

Orlando's Guide to Organized Crime Available

Bedrock Games is pleased to announce the PDF release of the long-awaited Orlando's Guide to Organized Crime (to be released in print soon as well). This is an excellent sourcebook for any crime-based campaign and covers all the basics: mafia families, the mafia lifestyle, equipment, laws, crimes, other criminal syndicates and managing a successful mafia adventure:

http://www.rpgnow.com/product/105849/Orlando%27s-Guide-to-Organized-Crime?src=FrontPage

Sertorius: Our Fantasy RPG

We accomplished a lot of work on Sertorius this week. After months of talk and taking notes we have begun writing the rulebook for our first big fantasy roleplaying game (we already made a small fantasy game when we designed Slayers).

Everything is still in an early stage, but here is what we can say right now:

It is about very powerful beings called Sertori, capable of wielding magic because they were born with a gift. All player characters are assumed to be Sertori because they are tougher than the normal population. However we have options for playing mundane people.

The setting is going to be well developed. We put a good deal of thought and time into establishing the basics of the setting before moving onto mechanical considerations. It is a world where gods walk the earth and magic is a new source of power.

There is a large list of playable races: dwarves, elves, humans, halflings, orcs, ogres, kobolds, and more. The standard races are familiar but new at the same time. We didn't just want to rehash the orcs or elves, but we also didn't want to veer so far away from the familiar that they became unrecognizeable. In our setting elves may be long lived but warlike for example. Orcs may be martial but civilized.

This is a network system game, in many ways similar to Servants of Gaius. The skills from SOG all carried over smoothly (with one or two exceptions). But spells change everything. Characters all have spells and a number of other attributes related to their use.

The spell system is rather interesting. It isn't vancian but it isn't point based either. You can cast the same spell as much as you want all day. But there are built in checks and balances for fully unleashing a spell's potential.

The rulebook will be big: about 190 pages or so. It will contain character creation, spells, combat rules, monsters, world information, etc.

Our aim is to have a playtest worthy character sheet and spell list by the end of the month. Then we intend to playtest the game into the ground. Anyone interested should contact us (as always) at: BedrockBrendan@gmail.com

The Secret of Actium is Ready for Playtest

The Secret of Actium is officially complete and ready for playtest. This exciting new adventure begins with a mysterious murder in Rome at the beginning of 38 AD and uncovers an insidious plot against the empire. It includes points of investigation in three major cities and gives the players the freedom to explore in any way they like.

Anyone interested in playtesting the Secret of Actium can contact us at: BedrockBrendan@gmail.com

Playtesters will be provided with a complimentary PDF of the Servants of Gaius rulebook, a pdf of the Secret of Actium manuscript, early-stage maps to help manage the adventure (including a war map to track unfolding political events), and their names will appear in the credit of the module. Once it is released all playtesters will receive a PDF copy of the Secret of Actium.