Over the course of some previous months, we, The League of Magnificent Scoundrels, have taken part in helping out with various aspects of AIR, a Steampunk MMO Roleplaying Game. Some of us have even gone so far as to help out IndieZen, creators of the Zen game engine that is powering AIR.

I personally started working with the AIR team when I fist shed some light on the game here. The game has magnetized us Scoundrels, in such a way that now each one of us is partaking in the inception of this mighty creature. A Steampunk game is only fitting for us to be drawn to.

We are proud to say that The League of Magnificent Scoundrels is an official contributor to the project, not just as individuals, but as The Scoundrels.

Operations Commander Samantha (some of her work) has hopped aboard as a concept artist, while Master Engineer Edwin has joined my side as a web developer (I have been granted the position of web administrator). Nathanael, our resident Tinkerer, has also joined up with Edwin and I to create pixel icons for the website, as well as any other pixel art AIR may require. Joshua Tremaine, Archaeologist and oddball, has contributed ideas and some insight on how the website looks from an “end user” perspective. Our Scientist, and Brewer of Alchemical Goodness, is helping IndieZen with their engine and newsletter.

After reading through all ten of The Core Mechanic’s “Skill Challenges of War”, I have come to the conclusion that converting them to Shadowrun is pretty moot (at least, in the case of the current gaming group). The way our GM is running our current campaign, we are already thrown into a war that is very much larger than ourselves. My reasoning as to why I’m not going to convert them: skill challenges are inherently built into Shadowrun. A lot of our “quests” are mission-based. Some of the things our ‘runners have done are very much like the listed possibilities within the Skill Challenges Concept, such as “capture something” or to “gather information on a diplomatic mission“.

To help explain, let me expand on the latter challenge. When the first piece of our Runner group came to the Sixth World from the Fourth World (more explanation later), we were immediately trained to be Runners by a corporation held by Knight. We were to go see the Elves, but on our way there the Elves captured us, thinking us prisoners of Knight’s. Through this, we ended up working for both sides for a time, with our main mission given by Knight to give them information about certain Elves.

We were working both sides, and in one instance, Azitade contacted Mr. Johnson of Knight to arrange a dummy server with dummy information, with short notice. He arranged this, and some of our group, including our Troll decker Exodus, did not know about the set up. Neither did Knight’s headquarters that we were to break into.

Exodus, Drek, and Elk Foot made it to the floor we were supposed to. We watched over Exodus while he pilfered the information off Knight’s matrix. When he was done, he decided to plant explosives that he had with him around the terminal. (The troll likes to blow things up.) Before we blew it up, alarms sounded and we were greeted at ground level by some twenty or so guards. Using our combined abilities (and Drek’s seeming magnetism to bullets), we managed to escape. Luckily, Mr. Johnson also arranged for the patrol of the headquarters to be new recruits who thought this was a training exercise… until we totaled a few of them.

We gave the “stolen” data to the Elves, and continued working for them as well as Knight.

The way Shadowrun works, there was no reason for me to implement a conversion of the skill challenges. Everything from street thugging to corporate espionage, is an integral part of the game. Skill challenges of DnD are a commonplace among Shadowrunning. Things like taking out important people and flushing out spies are a day-to-day event for any good ‘runner group. Sure, you have plenty of shooting and hack’n’slash, but there is a much larger emphasis on stealth and hacking the matrix (by the way, this use of matrix predates the movies). There are sessions spent with characters solely gathering information, which Shadowrun (as well as a good group/GM) make fun.

Oh, to explain the Fourth and Sixth world references, Shadowrun’s timeline is based on events of the Mayan calendar. The Sixth World is said to start in 2011/2012 (the end of the known world and all that). We are presently on the “closing” of the Fifth World. It is only fitting to assume that DnD/fantasy is in the Fourth World.

Over at The Core Mechanic, there is an interesting series about a way to incorporate war into a campaign (in this case, it’s Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition) using skill challenges. I find this rather fascinating, as it adds a cool element to the roleplaying atmosphere. As of this writing, there are four parts.

This has got me thinking about a campaign that I want to run, and seeing how well it would translate into other tabletop games, such as a modified Shadowrun 3rd Edition (there are a few rules we don’t like, but we’ll not cover that here). There are so many possibilities. Being that it is centered around skill challenges, it would work perfectly into Shadowrun, and I imagine possibly even White Wolf games (though I have only played them once, a long time ago, so I really have no bearing on that).

When I have some progress, I’ll post about doing it the Shadowrun way.

There is a new game that is entering the MMO arena, and that is AIR, the Aerial Steampunk Online RPG. This one caught my attention, thanks to a blog post by Dread Captain Robert, of Abney Park fame. Here is a small glimpse of what is to come:

AIR is a Steampunk Online Role Playing Game, where players can sail the skies, mine abandoned eyots, create mechanical constructs, concoct potent chemical compounds, join secret societies, and participate in large scale battles as a sky pirate, naval officer, or mercenary. AIR features a deep character development system where the choices your player makes affect his or her attributes and alliances. Take to the skies and unlock the secrets of AIR!

As it so happens, their forum is open to the public as of today. Their simple (as of this writing) forum style is something that I have been working on for the past few days. If you are into games, pirates, steampunk, or just plain looking for something new to check out, this would definitely be it!

In the latest turn of evil events that ChattyDM has been planning, he has announced quite a bit more of his new project, “Project Kobold Love“. Here is his “elevator pitch” regarding this:

A bunch of Kobold ugly ducklings go forth on a Quest to seek out the Tavern-in-the City. They are to kill the mysterious stranger that sits in the corner, giving quests that always end up destroying their dungeon home. It’s going to be a 5 scenes, Semi-linear event-based adventure, filled with carefully chosen Fantasy RPG tropes. Playing time 4 hours.

Sounds grand, doesn’t it? The best part is that he is wanting us to shamelessly rip it apart and create our own derivative! You must read it to see what I mean.