Multi-classing in Beacon

While I've been converting NPCs to Beacon from AD&D, I've noticed the discrepancy between systems -- other versions of D&D use multi-classing. This won't be as difficult to handle in B/X and Original D&D modules, but the issue comes up with AD&D and, notably, D&D 3.x/Pathfinder. Beacon doesn't allow multi-classing, yet many modules have NPCs and adversaries who are multi-classed. I have had to grapple with how to handle something like this in converting the first module I converted to Beacon -- Grakhirt's Lair. In this post I'm going to discuss how I have approached it.

To begin with, I wouldn't allow players to multi-class in Beacon. It's technically possible. However, it's an easy way to inflate various skills and intrude on another PC's niche. Certainly, there could be a few fighters and those fighters might be spectacularly distinct from each other. I would nonetheless restrict multi-classing to avert skill inflation. I'm sure that there are a few ways that a group could handle it: The skill bonus in multi-classing is the only skill improvement you receive (i.e. they couldn't also receive a +1 to any skill of their choice when they choose to take a level in another class); Restrict multi-classing to only one other class; perhaps bar Savant as a class that can only be begun with (so as to limit the skill inflation). Indeed, multi-classing in this way might open up a way for the Paladin to exist (Fighter-Cleric). Those limitations might keep the game in balance, but there's another reason for the restriction: Beacon has much OSR flavoring. To be sure, there's multi-classing in AD&D, but the version of D&D that Beacon seems to strive to emulate (know that I don't have Todd Mitchell's word to back me up here) is Original or B/X D&D. In those versions of D&D there is no multi-classing. 

So to sum up, even though, provided the limitations above, multi-classing is possible, it may be worthwhile to restrict it for niche-protection, skill inflation, and the flavor of Old-School Basic D&D.

To the point of my post -- how I deal with multi-classing in modules I'm converting when I don't necessarily allow my players to pursue it -- I have usually dealt with them as monsters with special abilities. Many NPCs in Beacon are handled as monsters. An easy reference is the Human Commoner: HD 1d8 (5-8) AC 10 Dagger or sling (frankly, I'd revise that to club or sling). As the case-study for today's post I'll use the NPC I had described above -- Grakhirt.

Grakhirt, in AD&D1e terms, was a level 2 Assassin and a level 4 Illusionist. In Beacon, this would be Rogue and Enchanter. In the module, he was supposed to cast invisibility and then attempt an AD&D Assassination on one of the PCs (whichever one had been slaying the most near-goblins). I, consequently, gave Grakhirt Subterfuge and Knowledge as his highest skills. I gave Grakhirt the ability to cast spells as a fourth level Enchanter and the ability to sneak attack as a Beacon rogue. To represent the deadliness of AD&D assassination, I gave Grakhirt a rather high Subterfuge.
That's pretty much it. Basically, as most NPCs, treat the originally multi-classed adversary as a monster with special powers from a number of different sources. I imagine that this might be a no-brainer for most Beacon GMs, but I hope that the accompanying house rules on Multi-Classing in Beacon will also be helpful.

Campaign and Adventure Outline Documents

From when I first started GMing until now I have been trying to find the best way to categorize information for myself. I am still slowly striving for a better way to categorize this information. To begin with, I would always have two documents: one for the campaign and its adventures and another for the setting information (including most NPCs, information about towns and wildernesses, etc). When I first started making outlines it was based off of the first modules that I was using, which amounted to bullet points within bullet points in Evernote. Here's an example of what that looked like:

[Encounter Title] (Type of Encounter, CR + remaining XP) [Encounter Synopsis] Flavor Text: [description for players]. Creatures: Tactics: Development: Treasure: 

Obviously this is from when I was running Pathfinder. A bullet-point list with this information is obviously very good for a dungeon, especially if made into a numbered list to match the numbers given the rooms of a dungeon. The breakdown of the encounter into these parts of Description,Creatures, Development, and Treasure was something I appropriated from a Paizo D&D 3.5 adventure (from the Falcon's Hollow series).

After I finished running Pathfinder, I switched from bullet-points to broader, more narrative outlines. GURPS didn't really need so much of the number crunching of encounter design as D&D does (unless I feel like exactly calculating the adversaries of the Party, which I sometimes do just to make it fairer). GURPS especially doesn't require so much of a focus on doling out treasure -- wealth isn't so tied to character progression as it is in D&D. 

Part of what helped me in outlining my campaigns and my campaign information was the Dungeon Master's Design Kit from AD&D 1e. I recommend that any fantasy GM flip through it. That book certainly provided me with an idea of how I may want to organize information for my campaigns. The principle of the bullet-points remain, however. The way that I categorize my information from adventure to adventure is by headings. I have two top-tier headings: the first for broader campaign information adn the second for individual adventures and plot threads within the campaign. NPCs, campaign and PC information, and plot and meta-plot ideas go in the first section, while plot thread-specific NPCs, mooks, and events and encounters are listed in the second section. What I have so far developed as served me well so far; although it has become more and more difficult to discern where exactly some information should go as things become more fluid.

Here are my two Google Docs that facilitate this strategy: The Campaign Document Outline and The Adventure Outline. For ease in creating an adventure, I can simply copy/paste the Adventure Outline directly into the Campaign Document. Once my campaign "An Orc's Lot" finishes up, I'll share a couple copies of the outline that I've made. I should note that I don't always put all the information on those, for already having the information in mind ready to spring at the opportune moment or hand-written in a notebook dedicated to the campaign. If the reader has any questions, please don't hesitate to share them in the comments section below.

Orcish Pantheon

Grokolok

Grokolok is known as the Goddess of the Tribe. Many funeral rites are performed invoking Grokolok. She is a Goddess of both birth and death. Her primary motivation is the survival of the tribe (taken literally to be one’s own tribe) and, more broadly, the survival and propagation of orckind. Many consider the customs and ‘laws’ of orcs to be her purview, though some dispute this and assert that it is the domain of Vruudash.

Gruumsh

Gruumsh is only the god of war. His remaining eye, his condition inflicted by a fallen Lynochian God, is his symbol. Some orcs believe that the berserker rage is the holy spirit of Gruumsh channeling through fierce orc warriors. Gruumsh is believed to be present at every battle, relishing in the bloodshed and watching for signs of dishonor. His angels are said to sweep up the most valiant felled orcs and bring them, at first with an audience with himself and Vruudash, and then ferry them to a special palace in Grokolok’s realm (the Hall of Hallowed Warriors).

Harzdolkar

Harzdolkar is the god of the plains. Worshipped by the herders and farmers. He grants fertility for crops and grasses. He is simultaneously taken to be a god of sedentary agricultural life and semi-nomadic animal husbandry. Modest sacrifices are offered to Harzdolkar for healthy crops and livestock and rain. He is the consort of Grokolok.

Kalgazgro

God of Shadows. Deals with trickery (and many intermediaries with Kalgazgro deal in body control, death magic, and necromancy). According to orcish mythology, Kalgazgro wardens the souls of honorless orcs, keeping them as his slaves. Occasionally, it is said, he will dole them out to intermediary spirits to supply them to their necromantic servants.

Gaku

Gaku is a demonic agent of Kalgazgro. He was originally created by Brozmul, but escaped when Brozmul’s power base collapsed.

Vruudash

Orcish All-Father. Vruudash is said to have created orcs. He is claimed to have set as their destiny to end human dominance and destroy the Lynochians (and its Chetsin off-shoots). However, reasons for the creations of orckind vary immensely. After the Lynochian Gods disappeared and the Lynochian Empire was destroyed and/or shunted out of existence, Vruudash retired, allowing the lesser orc deities to rise to what they are now. Vruudash is rarely invoked, and is rarely counted on to intervene in orcish affairs. He is, nonetheless, respected and revered by orcs, and it is hoped that he still watches with interest the future and conditions of his children.

Orc Society and Status

These are the notes on Orcish Society that I had written for the GURPS Orc campaign, "An Orc's Lot." When I finally clean up the Guide, I'll also post the "An Orc's Lot" version of the Lumaras Player's Guide that I had arrogantly written way back when.

Orc Society

Control Rating: 4/0 (Obedience to superiors is expected, but murder is hardly illegal)

Tech Level 2 (no goddamn tonfas)

Magic

Orc magic has been somewhat stunted. It takes longer for an orc to develop magical styles and spells. The most magically-developed races of the dwarves, elves, gnomes, and humans are hostile to orcs (or vice versa, depending on who speaks). Despite these setbacks, there are orc mages. They often fill the role of shamans, since unlike many shamans, the spells they practice generally take shape. Those who weren’t born with magery often make bargains with spirits and extraplanar entities for powers (taking pacts), or plead with the orc gods to invest them with power.  

Sacrifice

Orcs had practiced sacrificial magic for so long as any orc can remember. The orc gods often demand sacrifices, anyway. The practice of directing the sacrificial energy into Manastones is a practice imported from goblinkin mages.

Status

Status and Military Rank are tied (or, if you like, military rank replaces status).

Status Level	Examples
5	Warlord (Lord)
4	Chieftain (Chief)
3	Captain (Boss)
2	Sergeant
1	Warrior (Grunt; tribe-name)
0	Trades/craftsorc (Builder), herdsorc
-1	Serf (Scraper)
-2	Slave

Warlords

Warlords are the Orcish approximation of dukes or minor kings. A warlord is a powerful chieftain who brings to submission other chiefdoms to control their armies. Thus, warlords manage to accumulate fairly large armies. The morale of these armies vary depending on the strength, charisma, as well as a few other qualities, of the warlord. If the warlord dies, the armies typically scatter, each chiefdom independent again and each chieftain scrambling to replace the late warlord. Warlords have Administrative Rank 4, Social Regard 3 (feared) and an Ally Group (Orc Horde, 100-1,000) (which may also be represented by a Patron organization).

Chieftains

Chieftains are the leaders of tribal settlements. A tribe may consist of a number of different settlements, and there may be lower, local chiefs who swear fealty to the Chieftain of the tribe. The Chieftain, however, rules the tribe and coordinates its military. The Chieftain has Social Regard 2 (feared), an Ally Group (50-300), and Administrative Rank 3. If they swear to or are subjugated by a Warlord, they have that Warlord as a Patron. If subjugated, Chieftains have a Duty to a Warlord.

Captain

Captains are the leaders of warbands sent out by Chieftains or Warlords. They command a band of warriors to protect the tribe and to perform raids upon other tribes. There are usually only a handful (3-5) of Captains in a tribal settlement. A Captain has Social Regard 1 (feared), an Ally Group of Orc Warriors (21-50) and a few sergeants (6-10). Captains have a Duty to their Chieftain. Those captains who manage settlements outside of the principal settlement (that one wherein the Chieftain resides) and serve their Chieftain as administrative agents also have Administrative Rank 2.

Sergeant

Sergeants are Warriors who have displayed combat prowess and leadership capability. They can be assigned a very small squad of grunts to command for various tasks. They may take a small Ally Group of Warriors (6-10). Sergeants have a Duty to their Captains or the Chieftain.

Warrior

Warriors are fairly self-explanatory. Warriors follow their assigned (or preferred) Captains to raid, patrol, scout, and defend for the Chieftain. Warriors have Status 1 [10] and often try to cultivate a Reputation among their tribe, and, hopefully, among other orc tribes [variable].

Builders

Builders are a broad social class. They include herders, tradesorcs, craftsorcs, and smiths. If attacked, Builders also constitute the tribe’s militia. Showing bravery and combat prowess in a raid and exhibiting their ability to follow the Orc’s Code of Honor may allow them to improve their rank and status. Some Builders (as well as some Warriors) who serve the Chieftain as assistants or aides also have Administrative Rank 1. Those orcs are known as the Chief’s Free Servants.

Scrapers

Scrapers are the equivalent of human serfs. They are known as Scrapers because they attempt to wrench from the inhospitable earth whatever crops they can. This is to say, the orcs’ farmers constitute a semi-enthralled caste. They have the Social Stigma (Second-Class Citizen) and Status -1 [-10]. They are generally seen as tied to the tribe – wherever travels the tribe, the land of the destination is their concern.

Slaves

Most slaves are non-orc captives, taken and enthralled by the warriors who took them. Slaves have little to no chance of emancipation. Slaves take Dead Broke [-25], Social Stigma (Subjugated) [-5] and Status -2 [-20].

Grakhirt's Lair (AD&D1e to Beacon Conversion)

Today I bring you a Beacon d20 conversion of an Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 1st Edition module from Dungeon Magazine. The next module I will convert to Beacon will be an AD&D2e module, also from Dungeon Magazine. I have been converting modules to Beacon from AD&D to see how effective and versatile it is. Also, there is some good stuff in the old modules. I will also be converting these same modules to ACKS to see how well that system can handle material from AD&D (it'll probably be easier than converting to Beacon). The conversion is available in this blog post, on this Google Doc (if I change anything, the changes will be there first), this bookmarked PDF, and this ODT.

Converted from AD&D 1e to Beacon v6: “Grakhirt’s Lair” by John Nephew Dungeon Magazine no 1 pp. 28-37.

Orc Racial Template

This is the first of a series of posts on Orcs. I have been running a GURPS campaign that I've called "An Orc's Lot." So there will be plenty of orc-related posts, ranging from these racial templates, cultural norms of orcs, a sketch of orcish social status and society, and a short primer on The Orclands. I hope this might be useful for GMs who are keen on having more materials for orcs for their GURPS (or otherwise) fantasy games.

This is the racial template for the orcs that I made for Lumaras in my first GURPS game for Lumaras (and ever). It also includes the 'lens' for Deep Orcs, those orcs who survived the destruction of the underworld years earlier and who have had to adapt to 'surface' life of Lumaras. They are a slight sub-species of orcs. I made it for a campaign whose premise was the PCs are orcs and the life of the orcs is a desperate pain in the ass. I should note that the racial template was written for a mono-race party of Surface Orcs, so the notes on the “bottom-feeding” Deep Orc “freaks” comes more from the bias of Surface Orcs than from an objective statement (although, it probably could be an objective statement). This post is only the racial template. In future posts I will share the notes on society and religion of the orcs (which might also detail how religion works generally in the Lumaras setting). I hope this template will be helpful for GURPS GMs who are searching for an orc template that isn’t solely an adversary (or is, at least, a nuanced adversary).
Without the Orc's Code of Honor, which technically doesn't belong in a racial template since it's both a self-imposed and cultural trait, the racial templates cost 26 points for Orcs and 23 points for Deep Orcs.

Orc (11)

There are two kinds of orcs: Orcs and Deep Orcs. The ‘Orcs’ are the orcs who’ve been on the surface for thousands of years; meanwhile the Deep Orcs have been below it. There is often resentment and hostility between Orcs and Deep Orcs. Orcs believe that Deep Orcs are untrustworthy, weak to the sun, and bottom-feeding freaks. Deep Orcs, in contrast, believe surface orcs are untrustworthy, human-like, sun-loving weaklings.

Orcs have a height typical (by human standards) of their ST, but weigh 10 pounds more.

Attributes: ST +1 [10], IQ-1 [-20], HT+1 [10]

Secondary Characteristics: HP+1 [2]

Advantages: Acute Hearing 1 [2] (B35), Discriminatory Smell [15] (B49), Fangs [2] (B91), Fearlessness 3 [6] (B55), Hard to Subdue 1 [2] (B59), High Pain Threshold [10] (B59), Night Vision 8 [8] (B71), Reduced Consumption 1 [2] (B80), Resistant (Disease) +3 [3] (B80).

Disadvantages: Bad Temper (12) [-10] (B124), Code of Honor (Orc) [-15] (B127), Magic Susceptibility 2 [-6], Short Lifespan 1 [-10] (B154),

Many orcs also have Berzerk (15) [-5] (B124), Bloodlust (15) [-5], Bully (15) [-5] (B125), Callous [-5] (B125), Intolerance (total) [-10], and/or Overconfidence () [] (B).

Among demihumans, an orc has many social disadvantages. These are Ugly [-8]; Social Stigma (Monster) [-15] among the Chetsins, Dwarves, and Elves; and Social Stigma (Barbarian) [-10] (B155) among the Mostills and Valkads.

Deep  (Resurfaced) Orcs (8)

Traits: Bad Sight (nearsighted) (-30% Only in direct sunlight) [-17], Dark Vision instead of Night Vision 7 [18], Unfit (Only by day -20%) [-4].

Feature: Any magery that a Deep Orc has must come with the Night-Aspected (-40%) limitation [0].

The Orc's Code of Honor

I gave the PCs this mandatory disadvantage. It’s a pretty brutal disadvantage, worth -15 points. The PCs, at times, have used this disadvantage to point out where other orc NPCs have dishonored themselves when I myself forwent the disadvantage (to my chagrin). I should point out that I was heavily inspired by Bill Roper and Stu Venable from the Happy Jack’s RPG Podcast as they described their own college-era GURPS game. The disadvantage explains why orcs are often quick to combat and rarely flee. It's not because they're stupid swine-men, but because they take their honor seriously and trust in the angels of Gruumsh to carry their souls to Paradise. Dying in battle is the highest honor an orc can claim (besides dying in battle as an Orc Chieftain).

Orcs have a rigorous code of honor by which all orcs are held to and measured. Those orcs which don’t hold to this code of honor are seen as cowardly and weak (represented by a reputation of cowardice and eventually, if nothing is done, a social stigma (either disowned or second-class citizen)). Often other orcs will antagonize and seek to enslave these “honorless” orcs (Social Stigma Valuable Property). The Orc’s Code of Honor is as follows:

• An honorable orc never abandons a fellow orc in battle.
• An honorable orc never surrenders or retreats.
• An honorable orc never refuses an opportunity to fight.

Among orcs of their own tribe, read "opportunity" of the last item as "challenge."

Converting AD&D Treasure to Beacon d20 (Illuminating Fantasy Roleplay)

I've been converting AD&D modules to Beacon as sort of a test for how Beacon would handle material from beyond the d20 system. I have two different modules that I am working with. Both are from Dungeon Magazine since that material is available on Archive.org so I assume that whoever could have owned the material has given it up. Each of the modules use both editions of AD&D.

So, to begin with I looked at the currency chains of AD&D1e and AD&D2e (as well, of course, of Beacon). It's interesting to see that AD&D1e attempted to have a strange fluctuation in the value of gold, which was desperately annoying. I found this very useful D&D wiki with both of the currency chains available. So here they are:

AD&D1e

1 gp = 20 sp = 200 cp = 2 ep = 1/5 pp

AD&D2e

1 gp = 10 sp = 100 cp = 2 ep = 1/5 pp

Beacon

1 gp = 10 sp = 100 cp = 1/10 pp

After glancing through the catalog of weapons from AD&D2e, only able to wonder what the equipment prices might be for AD&D1e, comparing prices between gear from AD&D to Beacon, coming up with an average in deviation, I've decided to abandon this and make an arbitrary system. This arbitrary system for AD&D1e will be: all gold is converted to silver, halve silver is converted to copper, halve copper, 2 ep convert to 5 sp, and convert platinum to gold.
For AD&D2e, I might leave everything the same but the original silver and copper amounts will be two-thirds of what they were instead of half.

Beacon Weapon Damage

If you haven't heard of Beacon, well, I suppose that's not too surprising (the rulebook for free). It's based off of the Microlite 20 (M20) explosion from when the d20 system was exploding. The way it outshines the other M20 systems is that Beacon is simply better than them. It's combat system is cleaner. The magic system isn't Vancian, so it's infinitely better. The classes offer a more feasible progression that doesn't really create a skill bloat as other M20 systems did. The races, while only offering the tip on balancing new races that boils down to "don't let the new races be unbalanced," offer a much more nuanced and interesting race option than other M20 systems, and give the fantastic approach that the types of hit dice are based on what race the character is. A frail elf or a little halfling, realistically, should be weaker than humans, dwarves, or orcs.

Of the M20 systems, Beacon is the superior. Like all M20 systems, though, Beacon has its flaws. The largest, in my opinion (besides having AC), is its weapon damage tables. There are two types of weapons, light and heavy. Heavy weapons have a further subtlety added to them -- whether or not they're two-handed. As written the damage system works like this: All light weapons deal 1d6 damage and heavy weapons deal 1d8; one-handed melee weapons add half of a character's Strength modifier (rounded down) while two-handed weapons add the full value. When I read that, I scrunched my eyes in surprise and disbelief. The prices of weapons varies quite a bit (from nothing to 50 silver) to the point that, considering the way that damage works, I could just disregard the prices and tell my players to acquire whatever weapons they feel like having, since it's flavor and doesn't really matter anyway.

I decided that it might be better to not waive the prices of weapons and add a little more complexity to the system, by providing simple damage modifiers to all of the weapons based on their price. That might strike someone as strange, but this isn't GURPS and seemed to solve the issue I had. I figured the average of each of the tables and modified the damage by price grades.

For the Light Weapons, the average was close enough to 8. I decided that the price grades would be 3 below 8 and 7 above 8. So weapons costing 5 sp or less had a -1 to damage, 2 sp or less -2, and the club, which costs nothing, has -3 (I'd assume that minimum damage is still implemented). Likewise, weapons that cost 15 sp have +1 to damage, 22 sp +2, 29 +3, 36 +4, 43 +5, and 50 sp (the rapier) +6.

For the Heavy Weapons, the average is close enough to 26. I decided that I would follow the lead of what I'd done above and reduce the weapon damage to half of the die type -- the decreasing price grade is 6. So weapons that cost 20 sp or less are -1 to damage, 14 sp -2, 8 sp -3, and 2 sp -4. I decided that I would again follow what I had done with light weapons and set the increasing price grade to 9. So weapons that cost 35 sp or more are +1 to damage, 44 sp +2, 53 sp +3, 62 sp +4, 71 sp +5, and 80 sp +6.

So there is my solution to adding some more complexity and nuance to weapon damage in Beacon which will allow players who want to buy a falchion or a bastard sword or a great sword get something for their silver, and no munchkin rogue will just grab a club and think themselves in the clear. Share a comment and let me know if this patch is worthwhile or not.
the the

Reorganized Skills in Cepheus Engine

I was not entirely impressed with the Cepheus Engine (CE) skills. I frowned that there wasn't a skill for deception, that there wasn't a skill for investigating a scene or deduction, or that skills were arrayed in a position that I found a tad confusing. This post is about how I've been reorganizing the skill list, changing cascade skills, adding skills, and, consequently, reorganizing the skills listed on the Career Tables. Cascade skills in Traveller are the same as specialty skills in GURPS.
I figured that Persuade, Deception, or whatever else kind of social pressure/social maneuver mechanic could all fall under Liaison. How the PCs use the Liaison skill (whether by diplomacy, persuasion, deception, or, perhaps, intimidation) will reflect how the skill is handled and resolved. Persuading someone to do something can actually be pretty difficult -- nearly impossible if the target already doesn't want to do it. Depending on what the goal of the PC is and the attitude of the target (the NPC), the difficulty/target number (TN) of the PC may be higher than it is for the NPC, or I may give the NPC more DMs (Direct Modifiers). For example, attempting to fast-talk a guard will consist of a an opposed Liaison skill, where the PC's TN is 10+ and the NPC's TN is 8+. Depending on how compelling the reasons given by the PC are, the TN for the NPC may be raised. A later blog post might go into more detail how I'll be using the Liaison skill in CE.
I threw in a couple skills from Mongoose Traveller (MgT1) -- Art and Investigation. I needed a skill to represent the ability to write coherently and appealingly for the Journalist career I was adding (noted below). I also needed a skill for the Entertainer. That's why I added Art, a cascade skill. I'm using the same specialties of MgT1. To create a successful report on something that the Party does or what they observe, they would have to make a successful Art check, typically based on Intelligence.
I have seen the Investigation skill used in MgT1 primarily as research. This might make sense, but I would just have the player make a Computers check. Computers covers the ability to comb a database for relevant information, and even to find typically inaccessible, secured information (though at higher risk). Investigation is using the principles of detection and discerning motive. Investigation will not only include the skills of finding clues in a crime scene or judging the character of a person by searching their rooms, but also of stringing together the information gleaned from the Computers skill to accurately string together meaning from the information.
Besides adding skills, I have been reorganizing the skill list -- placing the skills under their cascade and rearranging the cascades themselves. I've added Grouped Skills. These are a group of related skills, rather than cascade skills. I did these to cascade skills that are related, but wouldn't realistically allow for defaults between the skills. I did this to two skills: Sciences and Vehicles. Knowing how to fly some kind of ground vehicle doesn't give someone a working idea of how to pilot a submarine, sailing ship, jet, or helicopter. Related, the Sciences are no longer a cascade skill. Knowing Social Sciences doesn't default to Life Sciences. Whether each of those Science skills are Cascade Skills will depend on how cinematic the players and the GM want the game to be. If they don't want the game to be too cinematic, I would use the specialties of MgT1.
I turned Engineering into a Cascade skill. I basically mirrored the specialties from MgT1. I did this because I liked the idea of having there not be a general Engineering skill that serves as a catchall for all types of engineering, from complicated systems from life support to arcane jump drives. If the players want the game to be more cinematic, these specialties could, of course, be disregarded. I tend to appreciate more 'realistic' games, so I divided up the Engineering skills into the MgT1 specialities of: M-Drive, J-Drive, Electronics, Gravitics, Life Support, and Power. I figured that the CE Gravitics skill seemed to be a specialized form of Engineering, so I included it as such. On the career tables, Gravitics would be replaced by Engineering and where it's important that it's listed as Gravitics, Engineering (Gravitics). Where Engineering is already mentioned, it would be Physical Sciences.
Reading through the cascade skills, I also found that Survival was listed as a specialty of the Animals skill. I wasn't sure that this was a mistake or not, but I liked it. I decided to keep Survival as a specialty of Animals, and replaced Survival on the career tables with Animals. Where Animals was already listed, I kept it open for another skill was important or useful for that career. I could also, if I so desired, list the specialty as Animals (Survival).

Modifying the skills -- adding these two skills -- proved important for me to do because I was replacing the Hunter career with the Journalist career. Art (writing) and Investigate would be invaluable for the Journalist, of course. I also wanted to have players who wanted to try making a space detective have that opportunity. The adjustments to make the space detective has mostly been focused on either the planetary defense careers and Agents.
In the future I may post my modified career tables and what I have done to the skills.

Blog Introduction

Hello, people on the internet. Welcome to yet another introductory blog post.

Obviously, this blog is about RPGs. It's likely going to be discussions about systems and GMing. I'll likely share some of the mook-stat blocks that I have used in my games, races for settings that I've made, ideas on how things may shape settings, how settings shape campaigns, etc. -- basic GM-blog fare. I can't say as of yet what my post-frequency will be. I imagine that at least once every other month I will have posted and entry into the blog, but there will probably be a period of a few days where I make many posts centered around a theme or a game that I'm very excited about. If you read blogs or write blogs, you'll know what I mean. The genre of the material will vary, as well. I enjoy both science fiction (space opera, hard scifi (both conservative and radical)) and fantasy. A fun and interesting (but exhausting) genre is the fusion of fantasy and scifi. 

I have played a number of different games, including Shadowrun 5e, oWoD Vampire the Masquerade, D&D 4e (once). I have run Pathfinder and GURPS. I don't particularly enjoy running Pathfinder anymore since it can too easily become too much of a crunchy war-game catered to rules-lawyers and power-gamers, but I'm not turning my nose up at it -- I still play it occasionally. I have been running a fantasy GURPS game for roughly half a year at this point and I have been preparing various GURPS games, ranging from a TL 9 radical hard scifi game based, roughly, on a combination of The Expanse and Kim Stanley Robinson's Mars Trilogy. I have also been investigating several other systems, including Stu Venable's Moment of Truth RPG, Basic RolePlaying, Burning Wheel, and the various incarnations of Traveller, but primarily the Cepheus Engine (CE). CE has been my new shiny, of late, so you can expect a few posts on how I have been hacking the system. You might see a post on how not to hack, when you might realize you're making redundant changes.

I have a blog besides this one that basically serves the same function. I've decided to switch most of my content over to Blogger, though. The blog is the Lumaras Chronicle. It's named after the world I first created for a Pathfinder campaign. I still run games in that world, though they're in GURPS now. I have been putting out a slow but steady stream of content mostly based around Lumaras. As I got interested in other genres and games, though, I started posting about those interests as well. Finally, I've decided to start a separate blog about RPGs and my other games. I'll leave the Lumaras Chronicle to Lumaras, as well as the odd tiny posts as befits tumblr. I might include a few posts about Lumaras on this blog, but they will likely: be a broader overview of a portion of the setting, focus on the systematic aspects of the setting, or be the result of my decision to abandon tumblr completely and reroute its content here (not sure how likely that is, though -- tumblr has a purpose to save).

Finally, I feel I should explain what "Provinto" is. It's an alias I've been using for a year or two. Well, that was quick. It's esperanto and means "one who has tried." Sound bleak? Well, what can I say? At least I tried.