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Review: Awesome Ancestries: Galactic Species, Vol. 14 - Cloud City Bounty Hunters,

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 So, I've been following Far Distant Futures since their Doomed Denizen book, arguably one of my favorite new books in the 3rd party 1st ed space that I wasn't working on. Bryan's attention to interesting and novel new mechanics for ancestries that define them through what you can do with them without over powering them has been a standout of his design style, and his recycling of the action symbols idea from 2nd back into 1st is a perfect update from that system back to ours, and alongside his commitment to no AI art, has had me constantly coming back for more. And with each one of these I've picked up, the more I've started to learn that, when FDF decides to do ancestries, it's definitely worth it to pick up a copy. So, when I realized he was doing Star Wars tie ins, along with other scifi properties from the past, I knew I had to check in at least a little and see what's happening, and, long story short, I was not disappointed.  Now, before I get too deep...
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Rethinking Elves pt 1: Why I'm not a Fan, and yet I keep working on them.

I don't like elves. There, I said it. I'm not a fan of their long ass lives and how it makes world histories really weird when you have to contend with a work where your PC's dad might have met Christ, your PC might have been around for the civil war, and I the GM might have to figure out how much they know compared to the humans; I don't like how they are generally written as supposedly mostly CG, one of the most ill defined and most prone to misunderstanding and stupidity of all the Good alignments in gaming, I don't like how they all tend to be said to be long view goodies but who are somehow also petulant feudalist who tend to have kings and courts and somehow seem just as short sighted as the humans, and in hate how all of them tend to be some form of idealized white beauty in art while being called, "otherworldly beautiful".  It's all bad, and it's all so painfully redundant . And yet, I can't get away from the fuckers. Players want to ru...
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Making Curses Work: How the Rules can Add to your Game Rather than Take

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       Okay, I have a confession, I really hate the way that cursed items are presented in D&D and its children such as Pathfinder. As most groups and PR that you will see from outside the text will tell you, Cursed Items are the classic worst case scenario that you will see from classic literature. The bag that eats your items & your hand, the sword that makes you weaker not stronger, the crown that makes you mad or dumber rather than smarter, all of these things are really cool and fascinating but limits the actual use of the mechanic throughout the vast majority of games. Most players do not want to get saddled with weakening swords they cannot use, and most GMs don't want to stick players with bad items that are usually unfun in most instances and find using them to oftentimes feel more like a punishment than anything else.       And all of that is a shame, because as written, there's A LOT of really cool stuff that is written into the...
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Designing from the Style Sheet pt. 3: Halfling Homesteader

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Halfling Tenderfoot CR 1/3 XP 135 Halfing  commoner  1 NG Small  humanoid  (halfling) Init  +1d4;  Senses   Perception  +1 DEFENSE AC  14, touch 13,  flat-footed  12 (+1  armor , +2 Dex, +1 size) hp  3 (1d6) Fort  +1,  Ref  +1d4+1,  Will  +0; +2 vs. fear OFFENSE Speed  20 ft. Melee  shillelagh club +1 (1d6/19-20) or crowbar -1 (1d6) Ranged  sling +1d4+1 (1d3; 50ft.) Combat Abilities  Large Target (+1 dmg to target w/sling per size category difference) Combat Gear  potion of cure light wounds, sling bullets (10) STATISTICS Str  10,  Dex  15,  Con  11,  Int  10,  Wis  9,  Cha  10 Base Atk  +0;  CMB  -1;  CMD  11 Feats  Large Target Skills  Acrobatics 1d4+2, Climb +2, Craft (blacksmith) +6,  Handle Animal  +4, Heal +1 (w/Healer's Kit), Perception +...
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Designing from the Style Sheet pt. 2: Ranged Variant & Others

After finishing the last post I realized I had a TON of ideas inspired by that style sheet for the Frontiersmen and decided to push out a few more of these based on various other stereotypical character archs for the Frontiersmen culture. So, without further adeu enjoy this ranged variant of the Homesteader and maybe a Halfling Homestead Slinger. Homesteader Greenhorn (Ranged) CR 1/3 XP 135 Human   commoner  1 N Medium  humanoid  ( human ) Init  +1d4;  Senses   Perception  +3 DEFENSE AC  14, touch 12,  flat-footed  12 (+2  armor , +2 Dex) hp  4 (1d6+1) Fort  +1,  Ref  +1d4,  Will  -1 OFFENSE Speed  30 ft. Melee  kitchen knife +1d4-1 (1d3/19-20) Ranged slurbow +1d4 (1d10/19-20; 120ft.) or kitchen knife +1d4-1 (1d3/19-20; 10 ft.) Combat Abilities  Point-Blank Shot (+1 ranged atk & dmg within 30 ft.) Combat Gear  potion of cure light wounds STATISTI...
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