Don't Rest Your Head
Fred Hicks - 2006
days? Or is it weeks now? It's hard to remember. You've been so busy with... well, whatever it is that's been keeping you awake. Then one night you're walking down the block toward your apartment, when you realize there's a new building on your street. A new building, somehow... in between two buildings that used to be side by side... that's impossible, isn't it? You pause to take a closer look. It's a bar. The sign says "Serious Moonlight", and a bright white moon blinks through the phases from new to full and back again, waxing and waning with the buzz of neon. It's been a stressful week. Or is it month now? It's hard to remember. But you could sure use a drink. So you cross the street and step inside.The citizens of The City welcome you with open arms. After all, you're one of them now. With all the gifts and curses that come with being Awake in a world of sleepers.Just be careful. The Nightmares you've been dodging haven't forgotten about you. They're waiting, just around the corner; waiting for you to nod off- and then they'll have you.They won't wait much longer.Whatever you do... don't rest your head.
Unknown Armies
Greg Stolze - 1999
Completely reorganized, largely rewritten, and jam-packed with new art, the second edition of Unknown Armies isn't just better. It kicks metaphysical ass! We've remixed the book based on the level of campaign you want to play: Street, Global, or Cosmic. At street level, you're outsiders to the secret world of magick, ordinary people entering a land of mystery and peril. At global level, you're mojo-wielding cabalists in the occult underground, pursuing your arcane agendas and plotting against your rivals. At cosmic level, you're in tune with the cosmos itself, fighting to shape the next incarnation of reality. Background material is divided up as well, so new players in a street-level campaign only read what the GM wants them to know. But the beats don't stop there: Much more information for new players, to get them into the mindset of the game and help them make better characters and stronger campaigns. * New character-creation options, including Trigger Events, Paradigm Skills, and power levels scaled to match the level of campaign you're playing. * Numerous rules tweaks, including a new initiative system, Fuzzy Logic skill checks, player-directed combat modifiers, amped-up martial arts rules, a new experience system, and more, all dedicated to upgrading UA's innovative percentile system into a lean and precise tool for fast play and player empowerment. * More magick for non-adepts: Authentic Thaumaturgy, new rituals and artifacts, and revised versions of Proxy Magick and Tilts allow the freewheeling use of symbolic, sympathetic magick by anyone with the will to make it happen. * Twelve schools of magick (up from seven in UA1) for obsessed adepts, including revised versions of published schools (Bibliomancy, Personamancy, and Urbanomancy) and two new schools (Videomancy and Narcotic Alchemy). * Fourteen avatars (up from eight in UA1) for archetypalists, including revised versions of published avatars (The Messenger, The Mother, The Mystic Hermaphrodite, and the True King) and two new avatars (The MVP and The Warrior). * More resources for the GM, including specific guidance on combat, wounds, skill checks, campaign building, and other critical issues. * New cover art and design, new interior art and design, and a hardcover binding to keep this game in line.
Martial Power: A 4th Edition D&D Supplement
Rob Heinsoo - 2008
This book provides new archetypal builds for the fighter, ranger, rogue, and warlord classes, including new character powers, feats, paragon paths, and epic destinies.Martial Power is the first of a line of player-friendly supplements offering hundreds of new options for D&D characters.
Aberrant
Glenn Fabry - 1999
We are the celebrities, the heroes, the villains, the legends, the shining icons of our times. We are novas, and we will bring about a new golden Age... and you will like it.Golden age -- or Hell on Earth? To the residents of the Trinity Universe, the 21st century was a monstrous era when mad gods ran rampant across the world. But is this truth -- or OpNet propaganda? What was the Age of Aberrants really like? Find out the truth. It's not what you expect.Aberrant is a core rulebook and prequel to the Trinity science-fiction game. Set in the early 21st century, before the devastating war against humanity, this new complete roleplaying game allows you to be one of these doomed beings of vast power, and to experience their struggles to avoid the coming cataclysm.
Oriental Adventures D20
James Wyatt - 2001
In these pages, you'll find:* 5 new races, including Hengeyokai, Nezumi, and Spirit Folk* 5 new classes, including the Samurai, the Shugenja, and the Wu Jen* Over 23 new prestige classes, including the Ninja, the Tattooed Monk, and the Yakuza.* 100 new spells* 75 new monsters* A complete campaign setting: Rokugan, the world of the Legend of the Five Rings Trading Card Game.
Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy
Justin Achilli - 2000
Is it the power of summoned demons? An application of the Blood's mystic properties? The will of spirits? Or is it something else altogether? Only those who master its dark secrets can know.Hidden Lore RevealedBlood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy provides the answers to long-asked questions about this most powerful of Kindred Disciplines and explores a gamut of new possibilities. Included in the book are new paths and rituals as well as details on the lesser known but similar arcane practices. What is it about Thaumaturgy that has allowed the Tremere to ascend to prominence in the modern nights? This book examines the answer.Blood Magic: Secrets of Thaumaturgy includes: A complete look at Thaumaturgy, from its dark origins to its modern practice; A wealth of new paths and rituals; Other path and ritual systems like Necromancy and Koldunic Sorcery
Microscope
Ben Robbins - 2011
Want to explore an epic history of your own creation, hundreds or thousands of years long, all in an afternoon? That's Microscope.You won't play the game in chronological order. You can defy the limits of time and space, jumping backward or forward to explore the parts of the history that interest you. Want to leap a thousand years into the future and see how an institution shaped society? Want to jump back to the childhood of the king you just saw assassinated and find out what made him such a hated ruler? That’s normal in Microscope.You have vast power to create... and to destroy. Build beautiful, tranquil jewels of civilization and then consume them with nuclear fire. Zoom out to watch the majestic tide of history wash across empires, then zoom in and explore the lives of the people who endured it.Mock chronological order.Defy time and space.Build worlds and destroy them.A role-playing game for two to four players. No GM. No prep."Microscope is incredible! A truly brilliant design. Also, the book is extremely well done. Highly recommended."-John Harper, designer of Agon & Danger Patrol"Ben Robbins' Microscope may be the clearest-written game text I've ever read - which is helpful, because it is also one of the most innovative games I've come across in a long time. Microscope engagingly challenges assumptions and upends long-held conventions of play while delivering a singular and satisfying evening of gaming. And "fractal role playing" is no joke - the minute you finish, you'll want to dive back in and explore some interesting sliver of the vast history you just built."-Jason Morningstar, designer of Fiasco"It's been a long time that a game captures my attention like Microscope. Bypass the hype, it's a truly remarkable well-instruction'd game"-Andy Kitkowski, founder of story-games.com
Ravenloft Core Rulebook
John W. Mangrum - 2001
A world ruled by fear and horror. Vampires who command the night. Shapeshifters who prowl the forests. Eldritch ghouls and undead skeletons who prey upon a fearful populace. If ever a world needed heroes, it is the world of Ravenloft.
Serenity Role Playing Game
Jamie Chambers - 2005
The Earth got used up, and we found a new solar system and used terraforming technology to create hundreds of new Earths. The central planets formed the Alliance and decided that all worlds should unite under their rule. There was some disagreement on that point. After the Unification War, many of the Independents who had fought and lost drifted to the edges of the system, far from Alliance control. Out here, people struggled to get by with the most basic technologies. A ship would bring you work, a gun would help you keep it. A captain's goal was simple: find a crew, find a job, keep flying. The Serenity Role Playing Game lets you re-create the action of the 'Verse, the science-fiction setting created by writer/director Joss Whedon. Fly a ship out in the black, take jobs as they come, and always make sure you get paid. Everything you need to get started is right here! All you need is dice, friends, and your imagination. - A self-contained role playing game. All the rules are provided for both players and Game Masters! - Full character creation rules, plus fifteen sample characters-including the crew of Serenity. - Complete details on spaceships, guns, and technology. - Emphasis on story, action, and character development with easy-to-learn rules. - Game details and descriptions of the characters and settings of the film!
Night's Black Agents
Kenneth Hite - 2012
Bush's War is winding down. You were a shadowy soldier in those fights, trained to move through the secret world: deniable and deadly. Then you got out, or you got shut out, or you got burned out. You didn't come in from the cold. Instead, you found your own entrances into Europe's clandestine networks of power and crime. You did a few ops, and you asked even fewer questions. Who gave you that job in Prague? Who paid for your silence in that Swiss account? You told yourself it didn't matter. It turned out to matter a lot. Because it turned out you were working for vampires. Vampires exist. What can they do? Who do they own? Where is safe? You don't know those answers yet. So you'd better start asking questions. You have to trace the bloodsuckers' operations, penetrate their networks, follow their trail, and target their weak points. Because if you don't hunt them, they will hunt you. And they will kill you. Or worse. Night's Black Agents brings the GUMSHOE engine to the spy thriller genre, combining the propulsive paranoia of movies like Ronin and The Bourne Identity with supernatural horror straight out of Bram Stoker. Investigation is crucial, but it never slows down the action, which explodes with expanded options for bone-crunching combat, high-tech tradecraft, and adrenaline-fueled chases. Updating classic Gothic terrors for the postmodern age, Night's Black Agents presents thoroughly modular monstrosity: GMs can build their own vampires, mashup their own minions, kitbash their own conspiracies to suit their personal sense of style and story. Rack silver bullets in your Glock, twist a UV bulb into your Maglite, keep watching the mirrors E and pray you've got your vampire stories straight.
Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game
Cam Banks - 2012
It's one thing to stop an alien invasion or throw down with the Juggernaut, but sometimes you have to make the hard choices when you're saving the world. With the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game books, that great power and great responsibility is yours! Based on the Cortex Plus system, Marvel Heroic Roleplaying takes the award-winning events in the history of the Marvel Universe and gives you all of the heroes, villains, key decision points, and rich background you need to fight your own battles and forge a new destiny!
Domains of Dread: Ravenloft Campaign:
Steve Miller - 1997
Features new rules for creating heroes native to the domains, adapting magic to the demiplane, and dealing with fear and horror checks when the characters experience the true terror that dominates the Ravenloft "RM" campaign.Night is Falling. The Mists are RisingEmbrace the Darkness.Enter the dark and macabre world of Ravenloft.But beware -once you begin to walk among the mists and shadows,you can never leave.Domains of Dread is the core rulebook for the second edition of the award-winning RAVENLOFT campaign setting - the original fantasy horror role-playing game. Within the pages of this book, players and Dungeon Masters will discover the darkest secrets of the Land of the Mists, including many never-before-seen features:Detailed guidelines on designing anything from short-term horror adventures to long-running campaigns of twisted terror.Complete rules for generating player characters native to the Demiplane of Dread.Four new character classes specifically designed for use in RAVENLOFT campaigns - the avenger, the anchorite, the gypsy, and the arcanist!An all-new player character race - the half-Vistani!Updated and expanded descriptions of the Demiplane and the foul lords who rule its tortured domains!Revised fear, horror, and madness checks to enhance the terror.New rules for power checks, plus thirteen detailed steps that lead from grace to absolute corruption!Summary of content:1: The Demiplane of Dread: general description of Ravenloft, as well as a history and theories about the nature of the dark powers, and an overview of the technological levels in Ravenloft (from Stone Age to Renaissance)2: Domains of the Core3: Islands of Terror (Bluetspur, G´Henna, I´Cath, Kalidnay, Nosos, Odiare, Souragne and Vorostokov)4: Clusters (Amber Wastes (Har'Akir, Sebua and Pharazia), Zherisia (Paridon and Timor), the Burning Peaks (Vecna and Kas's domains) and Pockets (Davion, The House of Lament, The Nightmare Lands and Scaena)5: Secret Societies - short chapter on nine secret societies - Keepers of the Black Feather, Green Hand, Circle, Church of Ezra, Vistani, Carnival, Kargatane, Fraternity of Shadows, Unholy Order of the rave)6: Fear, Horror, and Madness rules7: Powers Checks rules8: The Path of the Priest - changes in the priest class9: The Way of the Wizard - changes for wizards.10: Mazes of the Mind - changes for psionics11: Forged of Darkness - changes for magical items12: The Whispered Evil - curses.13: Tenets of Terror - discussion about the general nature of Ravenloft adventures and campaignsAppendix: ability scores, character races, character classes (some new: Avengers (paladins), Arcanist (wizards), Anchorites (priest of Ezra), gypsy (bard)
Ravenloft Campaign Setting:
Bruce Nesmith - 1994
Other lords of darkness have embraced the Demiplane of Dread as their own, and woe to heroes who wander there. Creatures of the night prey freely upon the living in this land, and day is but a prelude to another night of horror.This new edition of the RAVENLOFT game combines the original Realm of Terror boxed set with elements of Forbidden Lore and updated rules from other accessories. Domains destroyed in the infamous Grand Conjunction have been deleted, new domains added, and key personalities detailed.This boxes set includes: Realm of Terror - a 160-page book of rules concerning the reshaping of character classes; fear, horror, madness, and powers checks; curses; spells and magical items,both new and old; psionics; techniques of terror; and more. Domains and Denizens - a 128-page book describing the dark lands of the Core, the islands of terror, and many nefarious personages. Two maps depicting the reshaped Core domains and the islands of terror.A poster featuring a painting by artist Robh Ruppel. A tarokka deck of beautifully illustrated cards for role-playing fortunetelling.A DM screen specifically designed to be used with a RAVENLOFT campaign.