And Another One

Transformers and Absolute Batman artist Daniel Warren Johnson created this fantastic piece featuring Optimus Prime defending citizens from ICE.

His regular collaborator Mike Spicer colored it.

Battle of the Planet Eaters

 Source

Enter The Collection Review

Enter the Collection was the 2021 Free RPG Day offering from Renegade Games Studios. The adventure uses their Essence20 system and was designed to be used for the Power Rangers, GI Joe, and Transformers RPGS. This is an interesting choice because this dropped in October 16, 2021 and the first of those games (Power Rangers) wasn't released until January 26th, 2022. That meant this adventure was basically useless for 3.5 months. 

The characters have a contact that ask them to look into a situation in the suburban community of Crystal Springs. A local professor has made a strange discovery and her colleague has gone missing. The culprits are a criminal organization called The Collection. They are dumping chemicals in the local lake and kidnapped the missing gentleman when he got too close.

Part I of the adventure is investigative.  The characters can search the missing man's house, avoiding nosy neighbors and potentially coming into conflict with suburban security guards and local police. They can then search the local lake. Day and night time search yield different results. During the night they can stumble across agents of The Collection. They can then engage these forces which may lead to Part II.

Part II is a late night chase. The different skill rolls needed are presented.

Party III of the adventure finds the characters coming up on abandoned airfield. They must make it past The Collection's guards The Keeper (commander of this group), a Vault (heavily armored soldier), pilot, and co-pilot await them. The Keeper then sets a bomb and seeks to escape. The players have a variety of tasks they can attempt: disarming the bomb, taking the hostage and running, stopping The Collection forces.

After the adventure the party have made enemies of The Collection, which can come back to bite them later. Additionally they've uncovered the truth of the chemical dumping and can a local politician to justice.

The adventure is generic enough that I can see how it is appropriate to all three settings. While primarily mundane, some of the foes do have access to an alien war drug, which add a sci-fi element. The adventure adds the following threats, which can be used in any of the games. They are:

• Longhall Homes Security Guard  - Threat Level 0
• Crystal Springs Police Officer  - Threat Level 1
• Collector Foot Soldier  - Threat Level 2
• Carry-All Halftrack (Land Vehicle)  - Threat Level 2
• Badger ATV (Land Vehicle)  - Threat Level 2
• Collection Stalker  - Threat Level 6
• Collection Keeper  - Threat Level 4
• Collection Vault  - Threat Level 6
• Sparrowhawk Stealth Jet (Air Vehicle) - Threat Level 3

In addition the Ajax Compound Inject and Camouflage Pop-Up are new pieces of equipment you can add to your game.

This seems like it a fun adventure and I will definitely use it when I finally get to run an Essence20 game. You can pick this one up on Ebay, Noble Knight, and other online retailers.

G0-BBL3R aka Gobbler

I know Thanksgiving has very problematic origins, but it's still a holiday I celebrate with family. Today I'm ignoring that to post some fun Valor Knights content.

Source

G0-BBL3R aka Gobbler

Evade: 15
HD: 1
HP: 13

Armor Points: 2/3 (with shield)
Level: 1 

Class: Mini-Bot 

Alternate Form: Techtrillion Turkey

STR: +0 INT: +1 WIS: +2
DEX: +4  CON: +1 CHA: +1

Luck: 9
Attack Damage: 1d4

Abilities: 

• Hard Target - attacks made against Gobbler are made at Disadvantage
• Lucky - additional starting Luck, recovers 3 luck per gaming session, can give Luck points to teammates needing it, allowing them to get additional re-rolls.
• Generate Ion Shield - can generate ion shield that negates 1 point of damage and increases Armor Points by 1
  
  

Background 

G0-BBL3R (or Gobbler as he is known by his Valor Knight and Earth allies) is a mini-bot (some would say microbot) who's alternate form is a Techtrillion Turkey. He's an excellent scout and loyal soldier. He's quite fond of humans and has been known to go with Punluvin' on his bookmobile route.

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Valor Knights is currently on sale for an amazing price because of Bloat Games Black Friday Sale. .

Character Creation Challenge - Day 28

 Today's definitely not a Transformer was made for Valor Knights: The Electrocube War. Instead of using one of the classes from the book, I'm using a class I created for it, Van-Pire.

Emo

Evade: 12 
HD: 12
HP: 15
Armor Points: 4
Level: 1 

Class: Van-Pire

Vehicle Form: Hearse

STR: +0 INT: +1 WIS: +1
DEX: +1  CON: +1 CHA: +2

Luck: 4
Attack Damage: 1d6

Abilities: 

• Charm - Emo can charm other Techtrillion (or other cybernetic being) that looks into his eyes/headlights. Target must make CM + Int vs DC 11or be under control of Emo for 1d4 rounds. During this time it does the will of Emo. Target under control makes saves to this ability at Disadvantage. A target that resists this ability is immune to it for 24 hours.
• Daylight Lock - Emo cannot transform into bipedal form during the day. He also suffers Disadvantage on physical rolls during the daytime.
• Electrocube Drain - has no ranged weapon, any damage dealt via Emo's claws and fangs heal him the same amount of Hit Points. Bite attacks are made at Disadvantage to any target that isn't restrained/unconscious/charmed. Against those targets an attack roll isn't needed. Damage dealt by cyberfangs can't be healed during combat.

Background 

Emo is the younger brother of elder van-pire, Dragula. Unlike his dark brother, Emo is youthful  and gregarious. While initially mistrusted by the Valor Knights, he's proven to be a heroic soldier and asset in the Electrocube War.

Character Creation Challenge - Day 7

Today's definitely not a Transformer was made for Valor Knights: The Electrocube War.

Mr. Plow

Evade: 9

HD: 1
HP: 12
Armor Points: 3/4 (with shield)
Level: 1 

Class: Support

Vehicle Form: Plow Truck

STR: +1 INT: +3 WIS: +0
DEX: +0  CON: +2 CHA: +2

Luck: 3
Attack Damage: 1d6

Abilities: 

• Repair - repair 1d6 HP once per combat
• Forcefield - can place a forcefield around teammate, forcefield has 10 HP, teammate takes no damage while forcefield is in effect, Mr. Plow can take no other action doing this, he can end it at any time
• Generate Ion Shield - increase armor and negates 1 damage from attack

Background 

Mr. Plow is a Valor Knight medic with a quirky sense of humor. He took his Earth name from an Earth animated series. His humorous and humble attitude, belies his intelligence. 

Music Monday - Mighty Morphin Power Rangers of DOOM

This video has many elements of awesome. First, it's been The Cybertronic Spree, an costumed Transformers-themed band. Then you combine the slappin' theme from Doom reboot with the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers theme. Combine all of these elements and you have geeky mashup of 100%  awesomeness. 

Champions of the Electrocube War Omnibus

The Champions of the Electrocube War Omnibus is compilation of the core rules of Valor Knights: The Electrocube Wars (with new art, since it's released by FGG), and Champions of the Electrocube War Volumes 1, 2, and 3. If you click those links, you'll see why I recommend this one.  

You can snag the pdf and print on demand version here. 

Character Creation Challenge - Day 13

Today's definitely not a Transformer was made for Valor Knights: The Electrocube War.

Firestorm

Evade: 15
HD: 1
HP: 17
Armor Points: 4/5 (with shield)
Level: 1 

Class: Warrior

Vehicle Form: Formula One Car

STR: +3 INT: -1 WIS: -2
DEX: +4  CON: +1 CHA: +0

Luck: 4
Attack Damage: 1d10

Abilities: 

• Double Attack - once per combat, Firestorm can make an additional attack after a successful attack, this attack must be the same kind of attack as the previous (such as ranged or melee)
• Plasma Melee Axe - +2 damage with this weapon
• Generate Ion Shield - can generate ion shield that negates 1 point of damage and increases Armor Points by 1
  
  

Background 

Firestorm is an extremely young and eager Valor Knight that only recently arrived on Earth. While he is a formidable fighter he often finds himself rushing in and getting in over his head. 

Champions of the Electrocube War Volume 3

Fainting Goat Games has released a third volume of Champions of the Electrocube War. Mike has shared the latest volume with me. You can read my reviews for Volume One and Volume Two.

Here's what you're going to find in this volume:

• Swarm (Class) - This unorthadox class is actually made up of 20+ identical smaller robots, it has some very interesting tactics and defenses
• Fusillade (VK) - an aged hero and unshakable warrior, he has become enamored with the pop culture concept of the American Cowboy
• Beta-Decem (VK) - the this fearless mini-bot serves the Valor Knights a spy
• Manticore (CL) - this selfish engineer and warrior is a bitter rival of Sextus-Null (described in the last volume)
• Voracicon (CL) - These low level warriors are Manticore's primary forces
• Voracicon Swarm (CL) - Voracion's can come together to create a devastating swarm

This is another spectacular addition to the Valor Knights game. Fainting Goat Games has knocked it out of the park again. You can grab the pdf here.

Champions of the Electrocube War Volume 2

Fainting Goat Games is back with another volume of Champions of the Electrocube War. I've already reviewed Volume One and Mike was cool enough to share Volume Two with me. If you want to see the actual play series this and the first supplement are based on, you can find it here.

Here's what you're going to find in this volume:

• 11 Adventure Hooks
• Red-Line (VK) - heroic support bot that spends his spare time helping humans in need, his description mentions "impostor' mini-bots, which I'm assuming look human (this is an awesome idea)
• Ultra-Bomber (CL) - the villainous leader is expanded from his appearance in the Valor Knights core. 
• Sextus-Null (CL) - this conniving warrior and second in command to Omega-Zed (who was described in the last volume), unlike many Chaos Lords, he sees value in allying with humans
• Sonic Assault (CL) - expanded from the core book, this overcompensating and trash talking mini-bot is the rival to my favorite Valor Knight, Nitro-Strike (though she probably doesn't even know he exists)
• Chaos Lord Drone (CL) - the dastardly Chaos Lords have found a way to fight the war without risking their lives, there are three variations: Average, Elite, and Heavy

If you play Valor Knights, you're going to want to pick this one up. You can snag it here.

Plutonian Mimic (Valor Knights)

I stopped at an antique store this week and found a Happy Meal toy that I used to have and love. It's a little plane from Hot Wheels Attack Pack. I used to love those, even though I never had the big ones and only had the Happy Meal versions. It is about the size of the recent Transformers minis I picked up from Dollar Tree and I decided it would be a cool mini for the game.

Plutonian Mimic

Plutonian Mimics are shapeshifting organisms native to the dwarf planet. They can survive intense pressure and don't require oxygen. While they start life small, they can grow to be as large as a stealth bomber or semi-truck and trailer. On Earth they often take the forms of vehicles to lure prey. While they don't pose a direct threat to many Techtrillions, their hunger for flesh and vehicular appearance can lead to paranoia and fear being spread among the human population about the robots in disguise.

Plutonian Mimic
HD 6d8
Damage: 1d6+1d8
Evade: 14
AP: 3
STR: +2 INT 0 WIS 0 DEX +1 CON +3 CHA -2

Luck: 2

• Swallow Whole - An a successful attack the mimic can swallow a man-sized creature whole.
• Adhesive - Despite their appearance, mimics are are pliable and covered in a mucus that is adhesive to organic matter. While this doesn't affect Techtrillions, it can spell disaster for their human allies. 

Punluvin’, Valor Knight Librarian

I wanted to turn myself into a Valor Knight so I did. Feel free to add Punluvin' to your game as a Support npc. Note I rolled the stats and created him as a level one character and then leveled him up to four. I want to actually play this character some day and will get someone to do art, until then here's a pic of his vehicle form.

Punluvin' 

Evade: 8
HD: 4
HP: 22
Armor Points: 3 (4 with Shields)
Level: 4 Support
Vehicle: Saf-T-Liner HDX

STR: -1 INT: +3 WIS: +3
DEX: -1 CON: -1 CHA: +2

Luck: 5

Abilities: 

• Repair - Once per combat, Punluvin' can heal a bot (other than himself) 1d6 damage. He can use this ability on himself outside of combat.
• Forcefield - Punluvin' can place a forcefield around a teammate. The forcefield has 10 HP and the ally takes no damage until these are depleted. The ally cannot attack or take other actions while surrounded by this forcefield. Punluvin' can end it at any point. 
• Generate Ion Shield - Punluvin' can create an ion shield that increases his AP by +1.

Equipment: Blaster pistol (1d6 damage), tool kit, carefully weeded collection of books and materials for all ages

Description: The Valor Knight known as Punluvin' was once an archivist.on Techtrillion. However, he was drafted into the Electrocube War like his fellow Valor Knights. Disliking violence he uses his knowledge to aid his kin in their battles against the Chaos Lords. Taking the form of a Bookmobile when he arrived on Earth, Punluvin' spends much of his time among humans, transporting knowledge to those in need.

Cybertron War (Rescored)

I recently watched Bumblebee for the first time. It was a fun and heartwarming nostalgia trip and definitely the best live action Transformers foray. Hell, the first three minutes of the movie are better than the rest of the franchise combined. How do you make this amazing opening even better? You rescore it with the theme from the classic Transformers animated movie.

If this doesn't make you want to play a Valor Knights game, nothing will! Also, shout out to Doug of Victory Condition Gaming for sharing this with me.

Champions of the Electrocube War Volume 1

Champions of the Electrocube Wars is a new Valor Knights expansion by Fainting Goat Games. It features artwork from the talented Jacob Blackmon and presents a new class and 8 (or 13 depending on how you look at it) new Valor Knights and Chaos Lords. For a low price (currently 1.50) this is what you get:

• Gestalt (Class) - a giant robot made up of several smaller ones (like Devestator and the Contructicons), the class is strong, packs a big punch, can take a lot of damage, but is really easy to hit
• Flyer (VK) - heroic soldier and warrior, definitely has a Master Chief vibe in design
• Gearbox (VK) - inventor and warrior, wants to create something that will end the war
• Nitro-Strike (VK) - hacker, grafiti artist, and mini-bot, she's probably my favorite new Valor Knight
• Mega-Hitch (VK) - rural mechanic and support
• Victor Alpha (VK) - librarian turned leader, you know I love this combination
• Omega-Zed (CL) - former friend of Victor Alpha and Leader of a chapter of Chaos Lords
• Tiamat (CL) - the five chromatic members of the Dragon Legion make up this terrifying gestalt
• Tombstone (CL) - cruel wannabe warlord and support

If you plan on playing Valor Knights, I HIGHLY recommend picking up this pdf to help flesh out your world. The characters are all interesting, Jacob's art is great, and the new class is really fun (though I think it makes a better villain class than hero one). 

Dragula and the Van-Pires

Van-Pires was short lived hybrid live-action/cgi series in the late 90’s. I vaguely remember it and think I watched a few episodes. I don’t want to steal the plot (which is stupid as hell), but I love bad puns and the idea of a vampiric Transformer, so I’m going to steal some of these ideas for use with Valor Knights.  

Van-Pires

Contrary to common lore, Ultrabomber and his forces aren’t the first first Chaos Lords to come to Earth. Hunted by his fellow Chaos Lords because of his unique ability to directly drain Electrocube energy from his fellow robotics, the lone warrior fled. He found the radiation from the sun affected his abilities and he could only fully use his abilities at night. Calling himself a Van-Pire, a play on the one the locals legends and vehicles, and renaming himself Dragula, the warrior went into hiding. He took local resources when he needed to and his feeding frenzies were the cause of few fuel shortages. 

Having captured a few Valour Knight and Chaos Lord scouts, he has found the ability to transform others into Van-Pires and is very slowly amassing an army of his own. So far all Van-Pires have aligned with Dragula and his Chaos Lord faction, but it is possible for a Valor Knight with a strong sense of justice to rebel.

Van-Pire

Class Hit Point Bonus: 

+4 at 1st Level

Hit Die:

1d8 per Level

Armor Points:

4 AP (No Shield)

Attack Damage:

1d6

Attribute Bonus:

+1 to CHA or WIS, -1 to CON or STR

Size in Robot Form:

12’-16’

Suggest Vehicle Form:

Drag Racer, Hearse, Windowless Van (anything particular creepy looking)

Special:

Charm, Daylight Lock, Electrocube Drain

Charm

Like the vampires of Earth’s fiction, Van-Pires can charm other mechanical beings that look them in their eyes (or headlights). The target must make an CM + INT vs DC 10 (+ Character Level) or be under control of the Van-Pire for 1d4 rounds. During this time the target does the will of the Van-Pire (though the Van-Pire can’t force it to physically hurt itself). A target under the control of a Van-Pire makes saves to this ability at Disadvantage. A target that resists this ability is immune to it for the next 24 hours.

Daylight Lock

At dawn a Van-Pire transforms into its vehicle form and cannot transform into it’s natural form until dusk. It also suffers Disadvantage on physical rolls during the daytime.

Electrocube Drain

Unlike other Techtrillion natives, Van-Pires don’t have any type of ranged weaponry. However, they have sharp claws and fangs that can shred any Valour Knight that gets in their way. Any damage dealt by their cyberfangs heals them the same amount of Hit Points. Bite attacks are made at Disadvantage to any target that isn’t restrained/unconscious/charmed. Against those targets an attack roll isn’t needed. Damage deal by cyberfangs cannot be healed during combat.

Dragula 

HD: 7
HP: 40
Level: 7, Van-Pire
Vehicle: Custom Drag Racer

STR: 1 INT: 2 WIS: 2
DEX: 2 CON: 1 CHA: 3
Luck: 7
Charm, Daylight Lock, Electrocube Drain

Dragula is the undisputed leader of the Van-Pires. He is eccentric and a showman. He is also a master schemer and researcher of the forbidden technology of Necrotronics. Unlike many Chaos Lords, Dragula understands that humans can be useful and he always has a small following of cultists and hangers-on.

Valor Knights: The Electrocube War

Today I was able to sit down and read Valor Knights: The Electrocube War, by Bloat Games.  This Transformers inspired game was Eric's addition to Kickstarter's Zine Quest 2.

The game is built using The Blackest of Deaths system, which means it's a nice combination of old school and new. I love the core mechanic of these games (which is why I'm using it for Slashers & Survivors). I also like that the game doesn't have levels. It does have several classes though, which help make your transforming robot different from others. They are Leader, Warrior, Support, and Mini-Bot.

The zine ends with several npcs for your Valour Knights to face. There are several of these Chaos Lords, seven to be exact.

The book has an easy to read two column layout done by Phil Stone, who also did all of the artwork.

If you love Transformers and tabletop games, you NEED this. I'm not even that big of a Transformers fan, but I'm excited to give this one for a spin. The game isn't currently available to the public, but I'll make sure to update this link with purchase links when it is.

More Than Meets The Eye Review

More Than Meets The Eye is one of four Gen Con exclusives from Lamentations of the Flame Princess. It was written and illustrated by Kelvin Green (of Fish Fuckers fame). It's a short adventure that's an homage/parody of everyone's favorite transforming robots. This isn't his first time mixing LotFP with Transformers. He had a contribution to Slugs.

The basic premise is that there are aliens that can disguise themselves as objects on earth. There are two factions, which the author refers to as group A and D. Both groups are from a far away planet and need access to the Primal Matrix. The adventure is full of Transformers references, even taking place in the village of St. Michael's Bay. The major difference is these shape changing aliens are big penis-y tentacle things and pump their foes full of alien reproductive goo. Actually one of the larger aliens has an attack with one of it's penis-like tentacle appendages that actually requires the victim to make a save vs poison or burst open with an overflow of "love juice."

So yeah, if you can't tell, this adventure is weird af, but also a fun tribute to a geek favorite. While it seems too out of place in a super serious game, I think it would still be a fun side trek.

There is a chance the players might get access to a living space ship thing, but hey that's not going to unbalance a game, right?

Autobots Roll Out!

Want to add Transformers to your Pathfinder or Starfinder game? It's probably not something you've thought about, but now that I've mentioned it, you're kind of interested, right? No? To each their own. However, if your answer is yes, Epic Races: Adapticons has got what you need.

The pdf is 25 pages (including front and back cover, a page of advertisements, three pages of OGL). It gives you everything you need to play a transfor... adapticon in Pathfinder (or soon Starfinder). The book starts with history and origins of the race. To be honest, if I added them to my game I'd probably just straight lift all of that from Transformers. That being said, the background isn't a bad one.

In game terms the designers created the race emulating racial creation rules from the Advanced Race Guide. Adapticons are "multi-formed constructs" which means they have the construct and shapechanger subtype. They are large and get bonuses to Str, Wis, and Con, while getting penalties on Dex and Cha.  They get an alternate vehicle form, though there are also options to have a metallic animal form, or even not being able to transform. There are Pathfinder favored class options and two racial archetypes (Spybot and Transporter). While these are cool, I kind of wish this pdf had came out a little later and we could have seen Starfinder racial archetypes (assuming the game has them). Note that adapticons do use vehicle rules which are found in Ultimate Combat. We get a new vehicle (dwarven dozer), nine feats (metamagic and racial), and several bits of new equipment (some magical, some technological).

Overall, I think this is a fun pdf. It's not a must have by any means, but it's still really cool. The race isn't overpowered and due to its size and actually has some rough drawbacks (beware of rust monsters).

To be honest, I mainly picked it up because I thought it would be cool for Starfinder, and I hope the pdf gets an update once that book comes out.

Free RPG Day 2016 Swag

Thanks to the always cool +Kevin Watson (who has a Kickstarter project you should back ending soon), I was able to get my hands on a few Free RPG Day 2016 books that I really wanted.

The Goodman games offering has two separate adventures. The first is a level 1 DCC Lankhmar. The pc's are captured by a foreign wizards and must escape captivity. The second is a Mutant Crawl Classics funnel. I've posted a link to a free pdf of the MCC portion of the book here.

Slügs! is even more bizarre than I expected it to be. It's a bestiary (which is something I never thought +James Raggi would ever release) containing 15 slügs (okay 14 giant slugs and one heroic robot (Transformer) that can transform into a slug).  The books is weird, creative, and really entertaining. Even if you don't use the slügs, the charts and abilities that accompany them can be quite useful with monster design. In addition to the monsters, the book also has an editorial/manifesto on the state of rpg's and the industry. It's a call to join the DIY scene too. Honestly, Trump-parody dialogue aside, it's kind of inspiring. I'm probably going to have a failure or two among my attempts, but I'm going to release new material outside of this blog.

Slügatron is my favorite.