Observations of the Fox

I like artwork that reflects the tone of the setting, and gives ideas toward the types of narrative that might be found within the setting. I've also found that Lulu doesn't like printing paperback books with less than 32 pages. So, with these two factors in mind, I've started writing up some mini comics to help set the tone for the urban sprawl of The Law . These mini comics will appear at the beginning of the various sourcebooks I'm writing up, and will be used to illustrate specific rule concepts within the game. If you've been following the blog, you'll know that this game is set in a pseudo-"Judge Dredd" urban sprawl, and the characters are agents of a megalithic bureau of law enforcement that is overworked and barely able to maintain peace despite having an incredible array of technology at their disposal, and the authority to act as Judge, Jury and Executioner on the streets. It's a post cyberpunk setting, where there is the potential for ...

Last night, I managed to upload " The Law " to my DrivethruRPG/RPGNow shopfront. I was thankfully alerted to the fact that there were a whole heap of spelling errors on the page, due to the "p" key on my rapidly aging keyboard not working half of the time...but that's all fixed now. I'll probably update the shopfront page with a few more images and a couple of more interesting elements of text, but for the moment it's done it's job. While I was sleeping, a copy of the game sold, and now I can purchase the "Dr Who Humble Bundle" that I referred to in yesterday's RPGADay question. Stupidly, in my enthusiasm last night, I started working on the Dispatch Guide for the game (which, for those who haven't been following, is basically the GMs guide). The first ten pages of that basically came from the fact that I wanted to keep the whole game tightly focused as a highly illustrated 32 page "game comic"...which meant there ...

I've been thinking about ways to integrate the two games, " Familiar " and " The Law ", perhaps even connecting the mutant animal game " Other Strangeness " and the unnamed Angel game. It shouldn't be hard. Most have been based in a setting that's a huge, overwhelming, dystopian sprawl... similarly, they've all been based on very similar game mechanisms which have reflected an evolving core system which began as " System 4 ". It's been the specific interconnectedness of these elements that's given me trouble. Until today, when this article about a library scanning in magical texts came across my radar. It made me think of the Librarians in Warhammer 40k, and how they might be written if the game started today. Mystics with books filled with arcane methods of harnessing the mystic energies of the warp... basically the Imperial sorcerors from Warhammer (but that's not surprising given that everything in Warhamme...

I think we're getting a good feel for the urban blight of The Law with these images, just a few more to go.

The Lawbringer needed a few features to make it feasible as a vehicle for our Agents of the Law. It needed mirrors, headlights, indicators, seat cushioning, footplates, display consoles, and handlebars. To add a bit more to it. I've also added Department of Law insignia (to the front, and on each side at the back), and some cooling fins to the main engine at the rear wheel. I'm working on the assumption that these bikes will be electrically driven, so there's no real need for a massive engine assembly in it.  Applying the previous filters to the image, I get something like this... ...and I think we're basically done. Now it's time to move on to the uniforms of the Agents of Law, and their two signature firearms (the taser used by training agents and the multi-purpose multi-ammo assault pistol used by full agents). 

Here's a copy of The Law. It doesn't have images in it, but just imagine dark-gritty-noir-cyberpunk-2000AD-Dredd inspired images all through it. I've thought long and hard about the extra things I want to add to it, but most of those things are probably better suited to a GM/Dispatch guide. Such things include... details about how to actually guide agents through a patrol ideas about different types of scenes that could be played through (vehicle chases, interrogations, negotiating with kidnappers/terrorists/corporate-management, etc) twists in the story that could be inserted when agents cause certain situations to unfold (eg. discovering later in the story, that killing a certain gang member a few scenes ago was a bad move) ideas for the Department of Law R&D labs, and how they can offer untested equipment to agents if a requisition roll is made ideas about linking multiple patrols into an ongoing story ideas for developing quirky gang members and citiz...