I’ve been working on the experience and advancement system for Claustrophobia! The original game didn’t have rules for XP because I figured gnomes would die before they had a chance to level, or that sessions would be once off affairs. After play-testing and thinking about it more, I figured it was necessary and an important way to award players for creating an entertaining story.

In designing the system there were some specific considerations. The system needs to reward players for the following:

1. Entertaining role-play.
2. Interesting, dramatic or creative character death scenes.
3. Creative use of a gnome’s name in play.
4. Creative use of a gnome’s gear.
5. Completing missions, overcoming challenges and defeating monsters (the bread and butter stuff).

I didn’t want a clunky system with loads of tables and calculations, like the rest of the game it had to be rules light and easy to run. Also, since gnomes should always be expendable, I wanted to award the player, rather than the character. Some games that stood out to me for their experience systems are the Mouse Guard Roleplaying Game and the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Basic Game, which I recently picked up, so I drew inspiration from them in part too.

Trophies of Triumph

For the Beta I decided on a simple awards system, with award recipients decided by group voting. Players have four awards to give out and, like in Mouse Guard, need to give them to different players. If there are fewer players than awards then awards are dropped from the list until there is one award per player.

The Golden Gnome: given to the best role-player or the person who delivered the most interesting scene using their character and the circumstances before them.

Drama Queen: given to the player with the most entertaining death scene.

I Name Thee…: given to the player with the most creative use of a name during the session.

I Never Leave Home Without It: given to the player with the most interesting use of gear during the session.

Players who win an award get 2 experience points. Each player also gets one further point for each scene in which they faced danger. Once six points are accumulated, the player can increase one sphere by one point or gain two health. Sphere scores cannot be increased above 5 or a total of 14 between the three spheres of Social, Mental and Physical.

Lastly, when a gnome dies, the player can take half of its total XP, rounded down, to create a new character. This represents crew members of the HMS Keeton rising up through the ranks to take their place in the spot light.

What do you think about this simple system? Any ideas or comments, please let us know!

Drive Thru RPG is currently having a sale on Old School RPG’s. You can check out the sale here, and use this coupon code to get 15% off featured titles: OSRF711F2.

Avernos in Trow-ble

You may have noticed that I’ve reworked the Avernos Campaign Setting here on the site. I’ve got so much in store for you that I needed to rework the structure of the pages to ensure it would all fit together well. I’ve added pages too and the most recent is a look at the Trow, or dark elves. These guys put the “dark” back in being a dark elf.

Claustrophobia!

The copy editing for the Beta is done, so expect more news on that in the coming months. You can keep in touch by connecting to the Claustrophobia! Facebook page.

Super Secret Mystery Projects

Because of contracts and bad tempered gnomes I can’t reveal some of the other projects under way in the lab, but many wonderful things are bubbling away nicely. I’ve decided to refocus my efforts and so you’ll notice less blogging from me and more wonderful goodies in the future.

Till next time!

It’s been a busy week in the bunker, including having my backside kicked in a rousing game of Munchkin Bites. That hasn’t kept me from Claustrophobia though, or the world of Avernos. So without further ado… the news:

Lunatic Labyrinth, a neat little one-on-one or solo adventure for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is now available on Paizo.com. The PDF is only $3.13 and includes a re-usable maze tile set. While the adventure is set in Avernos, you can easily include the adventure in just about any fantasy setting with minimal effort.

Oh, so very, very close to the Beta release of Claustrophobia! now. In fact, the rules are just waiting for a final read through and you’ll have them, if you’ve signed up of course. You can still sign up for the beta test by letting me have your name and e-mail (preferably use our contact form).

You can never have enough beasties in a role-playing game and Claustrophobia! is no exception. Here are three new monsters that showcase some of the ideas I’m playing around with for next weeks Beta release. Enjoy! 

Claustrophobia! is a light role-playing game about gnomes on a suicidal mission to the Earth’s Core. Today I’m offering you a re-worked combat system. It’s lighter than the previous version (which was already pretty light), but this one has the benefit of actual play testing. Please have a look and let me know what you think.

A Garden Gnome ready for battle. You can tell it’s not a dwarf by the shoes, apparently.

If I haven’t said it before then it’s high time I did: check out Solo Nexus. It’s a blog all about solo gaming and solo role-playing. Even if you never play by yourself solo nexus has some interesting stuff and is well written. Recently my own Lunatic Labyrinth got a shout out, check it out.

Play testing for Claustrophobia! is coming to an end and I’d love to hear your feedback. I set up a little survey on SurveyMonkey. Check it out and let me know what you think of the game. Don’t forget that there’s still a chance to bag a free copy of the improved version of the game. You know, free stuff. Nudge nudge, wink wink.