Elves & Espers: CybOrcs

CybOrcs are a cybernetically enhanced Orcs, linked together into a hive-mind. They are the enemies of all other races, but most particularly the Elves; other races will be enslaved or eaten to sustain the organic parts of CybOrcs…Elves are converted into CybOrcs. CybOrcs can no longer reproduce sexually, so capture and conversion of Elves is […]

Elves & Espers: Klangons

Klangons are a race of bumpy-headed cyborg warriors, fierce and proud. Klangons are the name given to them by other races, for the way they borg themselves until they clang when they walk. Their own name for themselves translates to “The People” (or literally, The Non-Wusses). Klangon Tough – +1 Toughness Armor – +2 Armor […]

Situational Ethics

Session Summary for 12/7/08: Elves & Espers When a typical Rambling Bumblers session starts up, there’s often quite a bit of dithering, and we try to find our feet in the scenario, and try to recapture exactly what it was that we were going to do next, which, after a break, doesn’t seem like such […]

Elves & Espers: Drowleks

Drowleks are one of the most feared and hated races in the universe, committed to wiping out all non-Drowlek life everywhere. Long ago they were a sub-species of Elf that lived underground, until the byproducts of their incessant warfare with the surface-dwellers poisoned their land and nearly killed off their species. A mad genius constructed […]

Elves & Espers: The Broken Spire

The Broken Spire is the Westernmost of the spires that comprise the New (upper) part of New Ark City. It is called Broken not because the physical structure has been compromised, but because all the systems have failed and cannot be repaired. When queried, Gax–the Giant Thaumaturgic Brain in charge of the city–always replies that […]

Elves & Espers: COBOLds

COBOLds are biological constructs left over from a previous era, designed as workers to do all the dirty and dangerous infrastructure jobs. Although looked down on and widely regarded as obsolete compared to the shiny new droids, they still do most of the grunt-work that keeps the arcology running because they still work and it […]

Skill Challenges: Threat or Menace?

This has been bugging me a while, so I’m finally going to rant about it and get it out of my system. Skill Challenges are what D&D 4e has in place of roleplaying. And no, I’m not really kidding. As a method of injecting some pseudo-RP in a tabletop miniatures skirmish game, they make perfect […]

Bait and Switch

This month, the RPG Blog Carnival topic is “Transitions and Transformations,” so I’d like to talk a little about Baiting and Switching campaign premises in RPGs. The basic idea, seductive in its simplicity, is that you emulate a common staple of fantastic fiction where the protagonists find themselves in a setting or situation that is […]

Elves & Espers: G-nomes

G-nomes are the descendants of pre-Apocalypse gnomes, and embrace genetic engineering with the same enthusiasm (and sometimes explosive results) as their ancestors embraced mechanisms and before that alchemy. They use magical viruses to rewrite their own genetic codes to cosmetically alter their appearances and give themselves interesting and unusual animal parts and abilities. They are […]

Elves & Espers: Zombots

Zombots are corpses that have been infested with nanite colonies that grow mechanical linkages to make them lurch around in an unholy resemblance to life. Zombots are hideous travesties, with wires and rods piercing their flesh, writhing under their skin and snaking around their bloody and decaying bodies, manipulating them like grotesque marionettes. In settings […]