WR&M Pocket Edition–A few Thoughts

During this year’s NaGaDeMon I worked on two projects: rewriting Galaxy Core (I worked on it during another NaGaDeMon) into a d20-based system and on a simplified and dice-less (!) version of Warrior, Rogue & Mage which I dubbed WR&M Pocket Edition.

Alas I didn’t have enough time to get either project done, but I am determined to at least finish the latter one eventually. I never had worked on a diceless game, so that’s a new experience for me, and my current draft actually looks pretty sweet. I even managed to come up with a freeform magic system which could easily be used with WR&M itself.

So, what are my future plans? At first I want to get the rules done so that I can do some playtesting. Then I want to focus on an original setting. Instead of just recycling the work I have done for WR&M, I want something exciting and new for the Pocket Edition (which may actually get a proper name). At the moment I love the idea of a magitech setting which skyships roaming the skies of a world where islands float in an almost endless sky.

You’ll probably still be able to just ignore the setting and use the rules as a basis for basically everything you want, but a proper game needs an exciting setting. Certain design decisions are also much easier if you have a background to rely on.

One question remains: when will it be done? Honestly I can’t answer that question right now. I might be able to put the upcoming winter holiday to good use and get things done, or it may take much longer. I just don’t know at this moment. I need to be in the right state of mind to be creative and with my mental health issues still looming and some stress at work, things aren’t looking too bright. But I’ll definitely keep you informed.

By the way, if you have any  questions, ideas, advice, etc. you want to share, feel free to post them in the comments below!

Michael Wolf is a German games designer and enthusiast best known for his English language role-playing games blog, Stargazer's World, and for creating the free rules-light medieval fantasy adventure game Warrior, Rogue & Mage. He has also worked as an English translator on the German-language Dungeonslayers role-playing game and was part of its editorial team. In addition to his work on Warrior, Rogue & Mage and Dungeonslayers, he has created several self-published games and also performed layout services and published other independent role-playing games such as A Wanderer's Romance, Badass, and the Wyrm System derivative Resolute, Adventurer & Genius, all released through his imprint Stargazer Games. Professionally, he works as a video technician and information technologies specialist. Stargazer's World was started by Michael in August 2008.

2 comments

comments user
johnkzin

“At the moment I love the idea of a magitech setting which skyships roaming the skies of a world where islands float in an almost endless sky.”

Sounds similar to something I’ve had simmering in the back of my mind. For me, it’ll probably be something similar to Spelljammer’s cosmology for the interstellar scale — with star systems that are bubbles. Some of those bubbles might be like our star system (or the star systems from published works, like Pathfinder and Caladar), but some of them might be more like what you said: islands of rock floating in a breathable “sky”.

For the intra-stellar part, it will probably be more like Space 1899 (aether ships, but probably not as much on the steampunk angle). And I’m probably going to be using modified versions of other settings for the planets in each “bubble”.

I’m also trying to figure out how/if Aether Sea will have an impact on how I put it all together. There’s already, surely, going to be some influence from The Mutant Chronicles, as well.

comments user
Guillaume JAY

For flying islands and ships, as a rpg settings you have this
http://www.rpg.net/reviews/archive/14/14549.phtml

As books :
http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/77887.Sun_of_Suns

I read the first two, they were quite good, with some very nice visuals and a thrilling adventure