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…
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