Here's a community involvement task - come up with some Firearms Manufacturers or other corporations/manufacturers. These can be for either the Space Western or Fantasy Western. I will add these to the 'Campaign Guides' that I will post on the recruitment threads.
Here's the format:
Manufacturer Name:
Setting (Space Western, Fantasy Western, Both):
Specialization (i.e. pistols, rifles, etc.):
Most Distinguishable/Well-Known Product:
Brief description/Motto:
If you don't want to contribute a manufacturer, how about some form of organization.
Is there going to be ship to ship combat in the space western? I thought the ship might mainly be just a way of getting from place to place like Mass Effect or Firefly. Space combat should be a lot like naval combat I would think. Doesn't skull and shackles have ship combat rules?
It all depends on the group really. I am prepared for either decision.
Also, upon reviewing starship mechanics for both Saga Edition and Revised Core Rulebook editions of the Star Wars RPG, it would seem the Saga Edition has better rules (especially for owning ships, such as licenses and registration).
Well, what I was gonna do with my character, is to have my Summoner create a vehicle with the Eidolon rules, basically. Only issue being that it'd be a while before the level was high enough to constitute actually riding on it. So... gonna start off as a mobile weapon that then -becomes- a vehicle. Seems reasonable, I think. :)
Well, what I was gonna do with my character, is to have my Summoner create a vehicle with the Eidolon rules, basically. Only issue being that it'd be a while before the level was high enough to constitute actually riding on it. So... gonna start off as a mobile weapon that then -becomes- a vehicle. Seems reasonable, I think. :)
Have you seen my Android Summoner racial archetype?
Your idea also seems like a combination of the machinesmith and the thunder scout.
Manufacturer Name: Leninar Long-Irons
Setting: Fantasy Western
Specialization: Rifles
Most Well-Known Product: 1583 (or insert whatever year) Model Elephant Gun, aka “Long Ellie”
Brief Description: Leninar Long-Irons is dedicated to the idea that larger bullets end fights faster than flashiness or speed. They’ve been manufacturing extremely large-caliber rifles for nearly 30 years.
Manufacturer Name: Oderick Custom Quickdraws
Setting: Fantasy Western
Specialization: High-end (Masterwork +) Pistols and Revolvers
Most Well-Known Product: Pair of pistols used by Colonel Lovell
Brief Description: Oderick and his small shop only produce a few weapons a month. These firearms are lovingly crafted and special ordered, and there’s usually a several month backlog unless the customer is willing to pay the rush prices. The quality is hard to beat in a pistol, though.
I tried to give the weapon manufacturers a little bit of flavor and their own niche. I can do more if you're interested, mostly for the Fantasy Western (I've been playing a lot of Borderlands, so my Space Western manufacturers would just be copies of the ones in that game).
Manufacturer Name: Leninar Long-Irons
Setting: Fantasy Western
Specialization: Rifles
Most Well-Known Product: 1583 (or insert whatever year) Model Elephant Gun, aka “Long Ellie”
Brief Description: Leninar Long-Irons is dedicated to the idea that larger bullets end fights faster than flashiness or speed. They’ve been manufacturing extremely large-caliber rifles for nearly 30 years.Manufacturer Name: Oderick Custom Quickdraws
Setting: Fantasy Western
Specialization: High-end (Masterwork +) Pistols and Revolvers
Most Well-Known Product: Pair of pistols used by Colonel Lovell
Brief Description: Oderick and his small shop only produce a few weapons a month. These firearms are lovingly crafted and special ordered, and there’s usually a several month backlog unless the customer is willing to pay the rush prices. The quality is hard to beat in a pistol, though.I tried to give the weapon manufacturers a little bit of flavor and their own niche. I can do more if you're interested, mostly for the Fantasy Western (I've been playing a lot of Borderlands, so my Space Western manufacturers would just be copies of the ones in that game).
Love them! Oh, I don't mind 'borrowing' from other games. Two of the firearms manufacturers I have are borrowed from Wild Arms 3.
Also, I think I'm going to use the Colonel for the commanding officer of the main wilderness fort for the region.
Awesome. Lovell was the last name of a character I can never play, because I wrote too much backstory, got attached, and won't let her be killed. Use the name however you want.
Oh! A female Colonel. She have a first name? Or should I just make one up?
I like the archetype. I'd intended to just eat the charisma penalty and 'deal with it' for the sake of the character concept. Losing a little less (and a little more) to gain alternatives seems reasonable.
Why do they have to retain the need to breathe? Why no aquatic as an option? I don't see any other antiquated stuff in your writeup.
Also, I'd basically scrapped summoning anything that didn't fit a rigid concept... So the gaining of part of the class back is also a boon :p
Oh! A female Colonel. She have a first name? Or should I just make one up?
Her first name was originally Alytsa, but feel free to make up whatever you'd like. "She" doesn't even have to be a woman if you'd prefer a guy.
Manufacturer Name:Smith and We'xolxyzka
Setting:Space Western
Specialization: Projectile weapons
Best Known for: Masterwork 'Earth classic' designed revolvers and pistols
As humanity made its way to the stars the venerable small arms weapon manufacturers of Earth experienced a crisis. New and deadlier energy and laser technologies had rendered their products quaint at best and obsolete at worst.
This changed and the old 'slug throwers' found a second life, but not before an enterprising and shrewd Kemtar businessperson bought out and consolidated many of Earth's projectile weapons manufacturers under a new name that reflected the joint Kemtar-Human nature of the new concern. Smith and We'xolyxyzka produces and sells a large number of one handed and two handed 'bullet chuckers'. Most of these are merely serviceable but they do have a range of premium one handed weapons that includes masterwork pistols and revolvers.
It's fairly obvious under even cursory scrutiny though that the main purpose of the corporation is to drive demand for another, sister company, the products of which gave the old projectile weapons their second wind in the first place.
Manufacturer Name:Ordnance by We'xolxyzka
Setting:Space Western
Specialization: Ammunition
Best Known for: All kinds of caster rounds. They kinda dominate the market
The Kemtars are incredibly adept at chemical-industrial manufacturing and research (they make great alchemists) and before their civilization ascended to star faring race status they fought amongst themselves almost entirely with what humans would consider 'chemical weapons' that are considered just plain weapons to the Kemtar.
At the level of progress where humans were shooting each other with bows and arrows the Kemtars were lobbing containers of alchemical fire at each other and setting off mustard gas traps. After first contact the Kemtar took to ancient human projectile weapons, which had fallen out of favour, like a duck to water and the mechanical ingenuity of the human weapons combined with the chemical wizardy of Kemtar ammunion rounds has revitalized the 'slug thrower' as a viable and effective combat choice.
Ordnance by We'xolyxyka is the premier source of caster rounds of every sort. From the standard shock and flame rounds to more specialized effects Ordnance by We'xolxyzka has you covered. Whatever chemical substance you may need to deliver with extreme prejudice A Smith and We'xolxyzka firearm firing Ordance by We'xolxyzka ammunition will ensure successful, and probably painful, delivery.
Below is a template for others. Just click reply and highlight the relevant parts.
Manufacturer Name:
Specialization:
Manufacturer Name:
Setting:
Specialization:
Best Known For:
Mox Chrysalis focuses on creating systems that do all the work so you don't have to! From autopilots, to automatic CO2 scrubbing, they have just the product you're looking for!
Unlike some other competitors, Mox Chrysalis keeps things simple. Every product, while able to interface with other products, is a standalone system that ultimately cannot interface outside of its system without permission. There's absolutely no threat of your artificial intelligence systems becoming self-aware and determining that you're unnecessary*.
When you think simple and powerful, think Mox!
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Center for the Three Laws.
Manufacturer Name:
Setting:
Specialization:
Best Known For:
Cyberdyne Systems is the leading producer of systems that learn and grow, readily anticipating your needs even before they need them. Just one integrated system can handle Shields, Life Support, Weapons, Cargo and Quartermaster Functions, Medical, Communications, Engineering, Navigation, and a dozen other functions!
For your one stop solution for everything you could possibly ever need in artificial Intelligence, think Cyberdyne!
>.>
Manufacturer Name:
Setting:
Specialization:
Best Known For:
Manufacturer Name:
Setting:
Specialization:
Best Known For:
This is a lot of fun! Let me know when you have enough of these.
Here are a pair for the Space Opera with a sample of their most well known equipment.
Manufacturer Name: Esper Protection Systems
Setting: Space Opera
Specialization: Defensive equipment including highly advances shielding, sensing, and jamming technology.
Best Known For: Aether Shield, a strange defensive field that functions on an un-identifiable power source giving lower protection but superior regeneration.
Aether Shield: A personal shielding device that grants the user thirty temporary hit points and generates up to fifteen each round up to the maximum capacity. This shield may not be reverse engineered and any attempts to do so destroy the power source and consequently the weapon itself. These items are extremely rare and almost impossible to buy (most stores have only heard of them in rumor).
Aether Shield: 30 Temp HP, 15 Temp HP/round; 2 lbs; can't be duplicated, not for sale.
Manufacturer Name: Daevon Arms
Setting: Space Opera
Specialization: Advanced unguided weapons design.
Best Known For: Predictive Sniper Rifle
Predictive Sniper Rifle: This weapon was produced by an ancient and long dead race who specialized in advanced computing and divination. They learned to blend the two into this high powered sniper rifle. When fully locked onto a target (a two round procedure), this rifle is able to ignore miss chances completely when fired. For each round less than two this effect is reduced (-5% miss chance at less than one round and -10% at 1 round). This weapon fires a self generated slug and is extremely slow firing only being fired every other round and can not lock on when it is reloading.
Predictive Sniper Rifle" Range 200ft; bludgeoning/piercing; 2d10 /x4 critical; 15 lbs; slow firing, predictive, not for sale.
Ok i'll contribute an organization/empire.
Organization Name: The Drow Combine
Setting: Space Western
In the age before ages the elves were masters of the cosmos, they traversed the galaxy in great arcane powered spaceships and colonized much of the void. Yet their glory was not to last, the elven reliance on the arcane was there undoing.
The arcane channels the power of the cosmos and is sensitive to it's fluctuations, when the galaxy underwent what is only known as the "Great Tumult" the arcane was thrown into chaos and the Elven empire was consumed.
The ancestors of the Drow were an ordinary colony upon the world of Macharican IV, when the great tumult occurred the elven arcanum beacons around the planet exploded. Unleashing a massive wave of magical radiation which bombarded the planet, killing half the population within five years (five million).
The other five million elves were not the only survivors either, the beasts of the planet that did not die mutated horrifically, the same occurred with plant life and fauna. The remaining elves recognized that while they were resistant to the radiation they were far from immune to it, the remaining elves fled into the depths of the planet.
This as it turned out was the correct choice, as not only had the radiation mutated and/or killed much life across Macharican IV it had also ripped apart the atmosphere of the planet. While the planet still possessed air and so forth the hostile rays of the Macharican IV's sun tore through the shredded atmosphere and killed off much of the life on the planet's surface.
That which did survive were extremely harsh forms of life to begin with and the surface of the planet is a massive desert that is patrolled by harsh predators well adapted to the hellish conditions of the world.
While the elven survivors did find refuge from the harsh light of the sun they found that they were not the only ones to have sought refuge in the deeps of the world...
Many creatures from the unexplored continents of Macharican IV also fled into the deeps, yet they were no longer mere beasts but horrific abominations that menaced the elves at every turn. Slowly over the course of millenia the elves too transformed their skin became darker then the void, their eyes became red as their vision adapted to the depths and their hair either became pure white or they went bald.
The Drow (Deeping Elves) quickly forgot their history, the arcane and the like. Instead in their ever brutal war against the abominations their scientific prowess came to the fore. The Drow advanced at a shocking pace, what would have taken other civilizations 6000 years to achieve the Drow accomplished within 2000 years. The threat of imminent, painful death is quite motivational after all.
Finally the brutal war the Drow had been waging for countless eons came to a close, Drow weapons and armor simply became too advanced for the abominations to contend with. Soon enough the Drow cleansed the entirety of the Deeps with lasgun and chainsword.
With their brutal war complete the Drow slowly turned their eyes upwards, probing the surface world with robotic rovers as they began to formulate their plans for expansion. For the Deeps while possessed of great resources would eventually be exhausted and Drow civilization would grind to a halt.
The Drow rather then bothering with the danger of space travel themselves created specially programmed AIs to do it for them. Mounting these AIs into newly designed and untested starships allowed the Drow to explore space travel in a considerably different manner from other races.
Where other races had to accommodate for crew safety and provisioning the Drow just had to make sure that the AIs had a sufficient source of power to function and that they could relay information in nanoseconds so that the Drow could know what went wrong in case of a ship malfunction.
The information the Drow gleaned from these experiments were invaluable in constructing their own unique method galactic transportation.
Other races travel the galaxy via harnessing the power of the arcane infused hyperspace lanes, Drow with no knowledge of magic devised a far different approach. Using advanced, physics bending "Gravity Warpers" the Drow were capable of lowering the mass of their starships drastically.
While nowhere as fast as hyperspace travel (about 5-7 light years at max compared to Hyperspace's 12-20 lightyears) the Drow method has unique advantages over hyperspace transit. First hyperspace transit requires one to set up proper navigation protocols, without these protocols a ship is destined to be destroyed. Furthermore these navigation protocols can take hours to set up for each jump.
By contrast the Drow method of "Grav Warp" can be activated on a dime and real space unlike hyperspace is easy for a computer to navigate. In addition to this a hyperspace jump requires considerable energy to utilize, "Grav Warping" does not hog as much energy and during transit a Drow ship cane do anything it could normally do... Like firing it's weapons.
As a result while Drow ships may be slower overall they are far more versatile then the ships of other races, especially in space combat where "Grav Warping" allows for unprecedented maneuverability...
With "Grav Warping" the Drow launched an ambitious colonization of the stars, exploiting their AI mastery and genius the Drow were able to take many worlds nearby (which were unsuitable for life) and terraform them in a mere generation (granted this is a Drow generation) into fertile, livable worlds.
Now the Drow are for the first time coming into contact with the rest of the galaxy as they make their way to the newly discovered Valixis cluster...
The Drow are ruled by a consortium of merchant houses and tech magos (a corrupted form of the word "magus") that guide the Drow on their hunt for more resources and more worlds to colonize. Drow military forces can be divided into two camps, the Merchant Marine (owned and run by the greatest merchant houses) and the Explorator fleet (charted by the tech magos to explore the galaxy in the hunt for more technology).
The Merchant Marine is "conventional" as far as Drow technology goes, the Explorator fleet by contrast boasts some of the most advanced technology and prototypes in the galaxy. The Tech Magos spare no expense with their prized Explorator fleet.
Together these forces make up the Drow combine (sort of like the UN but way more effective and ruthless) which is the governing body of the Drow in the intergalatic sphere (Drow worlds, continents, cities and so forth are ruled by either vast merchant satraps or by the great technocracies of the Tech Magos.
The Drow Combine has the power and authority to sanction new merchant houses and technocracies and declare military action.
Drow use advanced technology and their weapons can vary considerably from other races. Here are a few morsels.
Warp Guns: Many would ask why a race as advanced as the Drow still uses projectile weapons, Gravity Warping technology is the answer. Warp Guns are single shot weapons (they need to reloaded, they are not one use only weapons just to be clear) that charge the projectile as it's being fired. The resulting projectile goes through the air like a normal projectile does but thanks to it's unique properties it completely bypasses most shielding.
To some races (such as the elven remnant) this is particularly devastating since they rely so heavily on shielding technology.
Warp Pike: Warp Pikes like warp guns incorporate Gravity Warping technology, just like warp guns this allows warp pikes to bypass shielding. It also gives these deadly weapons the ability to "reach", by pressing a button on the haft a Drow soldier can cause the pike to briefly altar the laws of gravity and strike a target up to ten feet away, this action can be done so swiftly that it effectively gives the Warp Pike a reach of 10 ft all the time.
Warp Whip: The Drow Warp Whip is perhaps one of the most exotic and deadly weapons in the galaxy, even Drow have hard time using this strange weapon. The warp whip itself simply resembles a three foot long metallic rod, this is true even when it's activated.
As the "whip" that gives this weapon it's name it made completely of anti gravity and cannot be seen nor heard. This allows the weapon to trip targets up with shocking ease and can also be used to grab items like a hand under the guidance of a skilled user.
Even in Drow space warp whips are rare, these weapons are immensely difficult to use and in the hands of an unskilled user can be as deadly to himself as the enemy.
Thoughts GM?
Manufacturer Name: Burton & Chi Small Arms Company
Setting: Space Western
Specialization: Conventional firearms, swords and daggers.
Most Distinguishable/Well-Known Product: Reflex Pistol, Earthquake Hand Mortar (one-handed, single-shot, 1d10)
Brief description/Motto: The descendants of company founders Burton and Chi carry on the centuries-old traditions for creating a variety of well-crafted, reliable gunpowder firearms. They also create a full line of swords and daggers.
Hrm, I was planning on having one race denote both elves and drow, but I could have the evil drow exist from a schism from long ago. Elves in the setting have skin that ranges from fair to dusky gray. Maybe the drow have the deep purple and black skin. I can implement some of this. I'm trying to finish up a general campaign guide to post sometime this weekend on a new Recruitment thread.
Your Drow could be allies of the setting's Big Baddies, even providing them with some advanced tech. They keep all the good stuffs for themselves however. I'll have to modify the Drow race to fit this new depiction.
I'm loving all these submissions. Should have made a thread in the Suggestions/Homebrew forum for all this. Heh.
Okay, hold off on submitting more goodies until I get the recruitment threads up. It will make it easier to sort through them.
I wouldn't label the Drow as "evil" per se but very mercenary (like a more militant variety of the Ferengi minus the sexism), although they can definitely be villains but they wouldn't be the chaotic evil sadists of Faerun (more LE).
These tropes would summarize them as villains, http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/PragmaticVillainy, http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EvenEvilHasStandards. http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/EnemyMine, http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VillainousValour.
Space Western recruitment has begun!
Oh come now, they would be militant Ferengi with the sexism reversed.
Alright, I'll stop :). After flipping through the documents for the space game, I'm excited to see what you do with the fantasy western. I'm already thinking about what character I want to submit and how to make it work in the setting.
Alright, I'll stop :). After flipping through the documents for the space game, I'm excited to see what you do with the fantasy western. I'm already thinking about what character I want to submit and how to make it work in the setting.
I'm going to try and get the Fantasy Western campaign guide written up by the end of the weekend. It might be pushed out to next weekend though, so no promises.
Btw, your avatar looks like it would be a perfect character for a fantasy western. Heh.
Ha, thanks. No rush on it, though. Take your time, I'll stay excited.
So, recruitment to the space western is coming along slowly. Between making tweaks to the setting rules, I've been working on compiling my Campaign Guide for the Fantasy Western. I'm also looking into an affordable (aka free) webhost service to put this stuff on. Google Docs/Drive is too slow for my liking.
As mentioned before, I'll have the recruitment thread for the Fantasy Western up by the weekend (hopefully).
In the meantime, if anyone has any more suggestions or questions about it, feel free to PM me.
Haha, the space western got waay to homebrew for me so I'm not going to apply for it :). Too bad too since I wrote up a backstory for the character I had in mind.
Have you considered maybe creating a wikia site? It sidesteps a bunch of firewalls, you can throw a media and text on there, and the wiki format is pretty flexible and familiar.
Hrm, I'll look into it. If I do, it would be for both games most likely.
Here's another question for the Fantasy Western...
What do people NOT want to see with it?
I'm not doing any custom rules or anything like I am with the Space Western. Pure Steam, Thunderscape, and Pathfinder are the primary sources of rules for it. I was tempted to mimic 'automail' from Full Metal Alchemist using the cybernetics rules in the Technology Guide. That, or find the steampunk prosthetics rules from Ronin Arts' Steam Steel products. (I think I have that file somewhere. If not, it's only 2 bucks on this website).
Haha... This one IS starting at 1st though. Sorry LF2.
I don't see a way to catch the feel of western with high level play. It's gotta be at least a little gritty, in my opinion. That's just me, though.
One effective tool I've seen used in another campaign is sites.google.com. Other people can't edit it but it works just fine to post media and text.
One effective tool I've seen used in another campaign is sites.google.com. Other people can't edit it but it works just fine to post media and text.
I just need something that runs faster than Google Docs' "save after every frelling letter typed" setting. I can't figure out how to turn that off.
I'm pretty good at simple web design. I haven't dabbled too much into HTML 5, don't know flash or anything else. I also prefer writing it myself over WYSIWYG.
GM Warhawk, you might want to check out this thread for some ideas if you are still going to launch a western game.
I did see that pop up on the forums. I've just completed the recruitment for my Space Western/Opera game, and also completed the Campaign Guide for my Fantasy Western. I should have it up soon, I've just been busy with work and kids and whatnot.
Hrm, I need help with a name for this game. Any suggestions?
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I don't see a way to catch the feel of western with high level play. It's gotta be at least a little gritty, in my opinion. That's just me, though.
well maybe not high level persay, but I hate level one, I feel like most western heroes are are around level 3-5 at the beginning of the movies
Gestalt would work too, even at level one
I'm not really interested in a straight (non-fantasy) Western, but I think a fantasy Western with miners and gun-toting cowboys fighting strange creatures could be really fun. I could see being a shaman-type character. So, dotting.
It's going to have magic, some steampunk (mostly in the main cities), and LOADS of supernatural.
Fantasy Western Recruitment has started. Head on over to This thread .
Your sites.google.com page looks awesome btw.
Hehe. Still working on it.