Tortured Earth

Two of our March conventions were canceled. The COVID restrictions are causing delays and cancellations in a lot of cities. At the earliest, we are looking at April (realistically, May) before the convention circuits begin to open again. Fortunately, our time has not been idled away. We have been creating and refining since the closures began. The game guide is edited and printed for the graphic design phase. Next on the menu is the editing of the creatures. The creature manuals will be a little different from most other creature manuals. They are shaping up to become more or less expansion material. There are certain spells and abilities that did not fit in the main guide because they referred to creatures. This has been pulled and placed in the appropriate creature manual.   To add interest to the main guide, I've embedded a story in the form of journal entries throughout the document. Does anyone have thoughts or comments on this concept? The game guide is a technical manua...

After about two hours of editing last night, we broke and worked on our separate projects. I started on the one thing about this industry I absolutely love - story creation. I worked on maps in Dungeon Forge, fleshing out the community of Gatlinburg. When creating this way, I usually begin with the key figures - providing backgrounds and environments useful to the game master. Today, I managed to get some of the destination maps completed - setting the stage for the preliminary campaign elements. I also dedicated a little effort to build the character profiles for the main players in the upcoming story. I know this is not often an important step, but it helps keep character personalities and interactions in line with the main storyboard from a writer's perspective. With the physical environment beginning to take place, I dedicate time to the missions through which the characters will segway into the main storyline. Normally, when homebrewing adventures, I don't dedicate this mu...

A few days ago, I friend called saying he was ready to start writing for Tortured Earth. His concern was he really didn't have a solid foundation in the base mechanics of the system. He was wondering if I could run him through the basics. He was looking to start a new group and wanted to convert everyone over to our system. Fair enough. Aside from running playtests, it's been about a year since I've actually run a full blown campaign. With Kevin and I almost wrapping up the rulebook, I'm more than willing to roll some dice. I've got the alpha test completed for the follow up to Mountains of Mists and Mystery and can definitely use a few more runs to refine the story elements. So, I'm in. Apparently his group is a little larger than what I was expecting. Personal groups and playtesting usually requires groups of about 3 to 4 players. The numbers are smaller, information a little more manageable, and juggling personalities with smaller numbers is far more pract...

Reward systems vary from system to system. Most provide awards for killing creatures. Some will simply grant players a new level for finishing a session. Others reward players based on specific goals or objectives. Regardless of the reward system used, it is an essential component of any system allowing characters to advance. Tortured Earth utilizes a goal oriented reward system. Story elements are divided into achievable goals and are ranked in degree of difficulty and importance to the overall storyline. In the broadest terms possible, we divide these goals into three types of objectives: Minor missions, Transition Events, and Master Events or Boss Encounters. This categorization of story elements is designed to be fluid and serves mainly as a guideline for GMs.  Minor Missions.  Small, simple events designed to aide the character's integration into a community, build familiarity with the surroundings, or create casual introductions to NPCs whose role may become major in ...

How and when characters gain new abilities in Tortured Earth has been a debated question since the inception of the game. This is ultimately a decision for the GM to make at the game table. The purpose of this discussion is to make the GM aware of the issue and solutions from a game mechanics perspective.   Playtesting has shown players tend to cash in points quite frequently causing these concerns to become mute in the overall storyline. If either of these limitations (On-the-Fly Acquisition or Trained Acquisition) are imposed on the players, it is wise to let players know at the beginning of the campaign. This both establishes expectations and allows players the opportunity to plan advancement.   On-the-Fly Acquisition of skills.  Due to the skill point-based advancement of Tortured Earth, a character does not have an entirely new skill dumped on them at one time. The system was purposely designed to simulate learning. As a character gains a use-per-day in ...