Archive Two c.1994: The HiBRiD Playtest Campaigns (Geocities Version)

This post was meant to be a list and brief description of the playtest campaigns I had run over the last 18 years. The game world evolved as I tested different technology levels and rule sets, crossed genres, and just brought all of the crazy thought in my head to the game table.

One thing that you may note that is that at the time I wrote this, I was running a campaign in the Fourth Age. Interestingly, I have moved on to what would be the equivalent of the Fifth Age. This "fifth age" is actually the Ara Knochen campaign I plan on publishing. The nomenclature breaks down, as most of human history is lost, and the inhabitants of Ara Knochen measure time in generations rather than years, leaving a sense of large spans of time while still allowing the director to set the tech level and genre anywhere she wishes.

One other item of note that I find kind of neat, is that at the various cons over the years, players have noted that the world did seem to have a history and wanted to know more. As I wrote the Ara Knochen Almanac, I found that I had over 1000 pages of notes! Indeed it has been a long road, and my goal when the rules are finally published is get all 5 generations of history finally documented.

So without further delay, enjoy: 

The HiBRiD Playtesting Campaigns

Let me first start by saying that the effort to create and develop the HiBRiD game involved more than concern over just a bunch of statistics and balanced game mechanics. The development and testing if the game core rules originally took place in a campaign of high fantasy originally created as a homegrown world for AD&D. Over time, however, the events that took place in that world, a world known as the Nameless World by the original gaming group led to the evolution of the world into two new campaign settings.

The first campaign took place in a high fantasy world, highly magical world. The campaign, known as the Nameless World Second Age campaign, chronicled the effects the invasion of a ruthless group of knights from a parallel high technology, far future, galaxy had on the characters.

Exposure to a new generation of role playing games such as Biohazard Games’ Blue Planet, R. Talsorian’s Cyberpunk and Castle Falkenstein games, HERO, GURPS, and FUZION systems brought forth not only a new age in the development of the HiBRiD rules, but also in the evolution of the Nameless World play test world as well, into a world with a much less pronounced fantasy element. This campaign, known to its play testers as the Nameless World Third Age campaign, took (and currently takes) place in a low magic, Victorian horror Era. Setting. The setting explores the effects on the Nameless World of the fall of magic, the rise of industrial technology, and the emergence of psychic abilities as a result of a great cataclysm that ended the Second Age and left mankind scrambling once again for his very survival.

With the completion of the HiBRiD core game engine, the play-test campaign has recently undergone yet another facelift. While still set in the Nameless World, the campaign spiraled down from its lofty, high-fantasy medieval campaign roots, to one set in a low-magic, Victorian era with a hint of the paranormal, to finally end up to its current state of development. This campaign, the Nameless World Fourth Age campaign, is a hard-science fantasy campaign in which the evolution of the psychic powers recognized in the Third Age have become as rare as metal, and bioplastics, quantum computers, and renewable energy sources are the norm. 

Current Play-test Efforts

Currently, with the Core Rules completed, I am working on the development and publication of the HiBRiD core rules in hard cover book format, as well as the completion of the Nameless World Campaign Sourcebooks, which include descriptions of the First, Second, Third, and Fourth Age Campaigns.

If you live in the Chicago Area, he has also been interested in running either a Third Age (Victorian Era Paranormal) or Fourth Age (Hard Science Fiction/Bio-punk) campaign, should you wish to play in the game or run a play-test game of your own, feel free to download the rules and email me, and I’ll be glad to get you the Background Information you need for running or playing in such a campaign.

Playtesting Quotes

One of the things that makes role playing game sessions memorable are quotes from players, either in or out of character, during those sessions. Throughout the numerous HiBRiD play-testing sessions, a number of rather humorous quotes arose that I thought that you, as fellow gamers, might enjoy…

Archive One c.1994: The Origin Of HiBRiD (Geocities Version)

I came across the archive of original HiBRiD© web site from when i was in college and learning to use HTML and using the now defunct Geocities web sites. Though most of the information is already posted on this blog elsewhere, I thought you all might to read the way I envisioned the game back in 1997. So without further adieu, enjoy Part One: The Origins of HiBRiD:

The Origins of HiBRiD^©:  A Brief History of the HiBRiD^© Game

Well, to put things in perspective, let me tell you a little bit of the history of the HiBRiD game, from an objective, Nordic-man's point of view…

A game is born…

The HiBRiD© rules were not originally created from mid air, but were developed over the course of a number of years. Originally designed as a rules supplement to my AD&D campaign, the inflexibility of the class-based, skill-anemic game system led to experimentation with a number of other game systems in the same gaming world. In the end, however, the desire to keep the linear probability scale, to use a well-balanced skill system, and to simplify action resolution led to the development of HiBRiD©, the Highly Bastardized Role-playing Game in Development, Version 1.0.


HiBRiD© Version 1.0 used a non-random, player-determined 15 Attribute System, with character Attributes ranging in values from 1 to 20. The Skill System was based on only the d%, and a Damage System based on the d10. The system was an amalgam of a number of game systems. The skill resolution and improvement system were adapted from the Morrow Project and Space Opera RPGs, while the actual Attribute and Damage Capacity System was adapted from the Mythus RPG. Speed Factors for melee weapons were adopted from the AD&D system, as well as the psionic and magic systems. Initial Skill Percentages, Skill Improvement, and Damage capacities were all derived from the character’s Attributes. Combat Statistics and Defense Values were adapted from the Gamma World RPG, and also calculated from a formula I derived that depended on each character’s Attributes.


Several new concepts were added from my own thoughts and game experiences. The concept of Aspects was derived simply from the desire to be able to control the level of power in the campaign while the use of a single d10 for all rolls stemmed from his desire to reduce the need for a bunch of dice and reduce clutter at the gaming table. The luck points concept was added to give characters a chance when the die rolls failed and to mitigate character complaints. The Character Concept and History requirements came from the desire to keep the campaign from becoming disjointed, to give the characters a reason to work together, and to give the less experienced players some guidelines for making their characters.

…then matures…

After several years of playing with Version 1.0, a number of issues cropped up that caused a complete overhaul of the game system.

The first and foremost was the sheer number of dice rolls and math required to carry out combat oriented actions. While being simple and balanced in terms of mathematics, whenever two characters combated one another, both combatants were required to do at least two calculations each combat round. While the calculations were fast and easy, they still slowed down game play. Thus, while well balanced statistically, the fluidity of game play suffered.

The second issue arose from the fact that the players just didn’t like the look and feel of the d10s, as well as the fact that low numbers were better. Such a system forced characters to perform more subtraction (which they felt was slower than simple addition) and required to use of a myriad of modifiers that just made the game system aesthetically unappealing to the various play testing groups. As Ben Zarit, one of the more involved play-testers put it after a marathon night of gaming, “a d20 just looks cool…”

Third, exposure to a new generation of RPG’s brought more elements that I wanted to add to the game. I had been toying with possibly simplifying the game play. Exposure to FASA’s Shadowrun and the various White Wolf Storyteller Games inspired a desire to simplify the game mechanics and seriously decrease the number of dice, but it took exposure to Steffan O’Sullivan’s FUDGE game to finally initiate the reworking of the game mechanics. While the simplicity and flexibility of the FUDGE system were highly desirable, I desired to reduce action resolution to one die roll and leave out as many modifiers to die rolls as possible. I also wanted to bring back the d20 that my group adored so much and maintain the linear probability scale.

Exposure to these new games as well as Biohazard Games’ Blue Planet, R. Talsorian’s Cyberpunk and Castle Falkenstein games, HERO, GURPS, and FUZION systems brought forth not only a new age in the development of the HiBRiD rules, but also in the evolution of the Nameless World Campaign Play Test World as well, into a world with a much less pronounced fantasy element.

…and finally finds itself…

In 1994, I introduced the HiBRiD game’s new incarnation: HiBRiD Version 2.0. It used the d20 mechanic currently seen in the game and resolved all tasks in the same manor, with one simple Task Roll. The concept of Ite’ was introduced, to make the game more heroic and Aspects were much more well defined. The resolution and description of a number of well-defined psychic abilities were also added, as well as the Movement/Time/Action Results Scale to give the rules a bit more structure. I also rewrote the entire psionics system to more closely match what I had learned in my neurophysiology  and pharmacology classes while I was in pharmacy school.

While the new system used only one method of resolving actions, there were a number of different damage systems the players could use, depending on whether they wished to tell stories or sling dice. Game play moved much more quickly, and it became much more dependent on the interaction between the GM (referred to in the rules as a Game Moderator or the director) and players of the game to maintain game balance.