The Sarna Len Campaign

 I've been working on this role-playing game design for several years.

The background setting goes back to my first homebrew derived from Dungeons & Dragons, first edition. I think it was a brown box with a white label for the front. I don't have it anymore. The point is, this was from a long time ago.

The Old Homebrew

It wasn't pure D&D. I liked the spellcasting points system that Tunnels & Trolls had, and like a magpie added that to my homebrew. Over time, the setting grew. I remember vaguely that the players, my middle-school and high-school friends, got up
to level 8. Across maybe five years? I was sort of stingy on the whole XP thing. 

The game and setting went across several hands when I entered the Marines. I took over the setting when I returned and expanded it further, as a magpie would, by including ideas from GURPS, Cyberpunk, BRP for Call of Cthulhu, and some BTRC stuff from Time Lords. In 1992 I finished it and  named it FYBS (as in the "white-lie", for fanciful story-telling). 

With FYBS I created several settings ranging from post-apocalyptic to amazon-warrior to cyberpunk to a couple of others, including my Superhero 2044 setting. Another setting was for, of course, Sarna Len, my low-fantasy fantasy campaign.

Thus Sprang Forth DXD

The Old Sarna Len Campaign

For about six years now, maybe 10 to 20 gaming sessions a year, I've been entertaining my nephews and nieces in this "make-believe with rules" hobby. I took lots of notes, re-examined my hand-written rules from the earlier homebrew and FYBS incarnations, and built out DXD. DXD "dice by dice" is the game engine for Sarna Len. Sarna Len being "red deer" in the Polish language. Reasons.

DXD is the RPG ('role-playing game") engine which is derived from my development of MEST Tactics. It expands the Attribute line of MEST Tactics with two more attributes; "PER Persuasion" and "KNO Knowledge". Furthermore, it broadens the stat values from 1-2-3-4 for human normal ability range to 7-10-13-16 within DXD. This required a differet dice system and several other big changes, such as how spellcasting is managed. Regardless, I am stating that this setting goes back more than 40 years (summer 1976 until now 2022) and I've got something new. Maybe a better system than my earlier iterations.

To MEST and Back Again

The effort is cross-platform. As I build out Sarna Len, I take those concepts to build out the default settings for MEST Tactics. Although I don't have such things yet ready for presentation, I have been working on and play-testing several Sarn Len modules for MEST Tactics. This includes "Sarna Len :: Dunjon of Death" and also "Sarna Len :: The Black Gates of Hüyük". One is the underworld ("Dunjon of Death") and the other is the overlands above the underworld which lead into it ("The Black Gates").

To Do

I've got lots to do. Too much. Really, too much.

• Finish Spells list
• Finish Lore and Setting. Probably need to break this entire section out into a separate volume.
• Finish Magic Items lists.
• Finish Bestiary. I need to convert from MEST Tactics, but then there are new entries, soo ...
• Finish editing. This is really hard to do.
• Add Hirelings and NPCs. Sort of like D66 Warriors, D66 Knights, D66 Wizards, etc.
• Add illustrations. I am really glad for Midjourney.
• Probably dozens if not hundreds of other things. I have notes everywhere.

I think that I'll need to build a quick-start.

Maybe when everything is ready, it will be 500+ pages. It's already 300 pages, and that is without  diagrams, or illustrations. Wow. I am now definitely thinking two if not three volumes.

For More Information

See more about this on the microsite at:

https://sites.google.com/site/sarnalen

MEST Tactics :: v.2.83.55

Matter-Energy-Space-Time

Here are some updates to MEST Tactics. I'm nearly ready to extract the primary game into a Quick Start rules and begin building out series of illustrated instructions. 

I've expanded the semver to include minor updates. It is now the version 2.83.55 rules which are up on the link.

The changes don't have page numbers because I've been moving the sections and paragraphs around. I recognize that I still need to work on the Interconnect System and will likely break that out into smaller sections.

STANDARD GAME

Moved Overreach into the Performing Close Combat section, and simplified.

• Clarified Leaning and moved that into sections for Terrain and Range Combat.
• Specify that voluntarily Exiting the battlefield doesn't make a model Eliminated
• Bonus Actions are returned to v1.x; cascades spent don't affect Damage created.
• Added Oversized Weapons and Armor block under Additonal Concerns section
• Clarified Improvised Weapons by adding a block under For Attacks section
• Clarified Laden and Armor Rating by adding a section under Some Important Traits section
• Added Concerted Attack variation for Group Actions.
• Collated the Hindrance types for Blinded, Heat, and Cold under Expanded Effects
• Added Counter-spells for the Magic System.

OPTIONAL RULES

• Added Tricky Terrain into an Exotic Environments section for Optional Rules.
• Moved Variable Weather from the Environs section, since removed, into Exotic Environments.
• Added Planetary Variations into Exotic Environments.
• Added Truly Hindered, Weapon Breakages, Motivated by Fear into Rules Adjustment.
• Simplified Sweeping Attack, Disarm, Subdue under New Bonus Actions
• Simplified Hurl, Slam, Drag, and Hold under under New Thematic Actions
• Added Apex & Free-fall under New Thematic Actions
• Simplified Noise rules a bit by re-adding [Reveal] where needed, and using [Noisy X] less.
• Added Fantastic Energys to Noise section so as to intergrated Fantastic Items rules
• Moved Element Destruction into Optional Rules
• Expanded and clarified Mission Elements, and re-arranged Standard Missions layout.
• Expanded Objective Markers, VIPs, and POIs.
• Rewrote the first 9 Missions to match new Standard Missions layout.
• Added Campaign Game rules with three basic formats. Included Elan and Postmortems.

INTERCONNECT SYSTEM

• Moved the Customization rules into their own section.
• Create the Interconnect System section.
• Clearly tied Champions, the Reputation trait, with Levels-of-Absurdity and Time-lines.
• Expanded Factions to include Organizations.
• Added Archetype Availabilty lists to Factions.
• Expanded the Medical Postmortems rules.
• Clarified and simplified the Allegiance Diagrams to incorporate Availabilty lists.
• Added Loyalty checks.

TRAITS

• [Automaton] - Clarified Automaton vs. Machine vs. Mindless
• [Blackpowder] - Simplified tremendously.
• Amphibious - Expanded to work with Tricky Terrain for Shalows, Deeps, and Rapids
• Believer - Clarified and simplified Believer, Charismatic, Hatred, Comrade
• Brawl X - Generalized to award +X cascades for any Bonus Actions
• Celerity X - Rephrased to be simpler and more clear.
• Disrupt X - Simplified
• Horrifying X - Simplified
• Infect X - Added. Useful as a post-Mission effect.
• Leadership X - Simplified by removing the INT + X Turns benefit.
• Multi-target X - Added. For Range Combat.
• Mythos - Re-wrote Mythos, Outsider, Invader to exclude each other
• Night-vision X - Re-wrote into Night-vision X to allow gradations
• Reach X - Re-wroteto better handle SIZ 4+ models
• Sensors X - Clarified
• Splash - Added Splash > Trait. For throwing bags or glass bottles of Acid or Fire or whatever.
• Surefooted X - Repointed. It is still very powerful on very cluttered battlefields.
• Tactics X - Simplified by removing the INT + X Turns benefit.

ARCHETYPES & ITEMS

• Re-pointed many Archetypes
• Re-wrote Common Packages & Upgrades to match the ones used for Variant archetypes
• Expanded Archaic Equipment List
• Expanded Modern Equipment List
• Added Near Future Explosives List

PLAY-AIDES

• Clarified and re-wrote as necessary Tactics cards.
• Clarified and re-wrote as necessary Spell cards.
• Clarified and re-wrote as necessary Resource cards.
• Clarified and re-wrote as necessary Agendas.

MEST Tactics :: Update to v2.83

Here are some minor updates to MEST Tactics.

Matter-Energy-Space-Time

The version 2.83 rules are up on the link. Here are the recent updates to the rules:

• page 14 > Spear should be shown on this page as 37 BP instead of 27 BP, and the attributes should instead be Damage STR +2m instead of Damage STR +1m. 
• page 25 > Added that Mission Attacker may state to win Initiative Tests on ties but receive zero cascades. Added Optimized which provides +1 Base die on Turn 1 Initiative Test if starting Mission with an Assembly that has the fewest BP. Also, the Mission Defender chooses the battlefield edge which to deply their own Assembly.
• page 26 > Recover and Revive applies SIZ Delay tokens, and convert all but 2 into Wound tokens. This makes revived characters be prone to KO'd again.
• page 29 > Hindrances of both models affect Revive.
• page 36 > Reposition and Disengage use the reposition keyword instead of the move keyword.
• page 38 > Clarified that Charge movement disallows direction changes.
• page 43 > Convert GP to IP altered to 2 GP for 1 IP. An IP converts to 1 GP plus 1 per IP.
• page 51 + 52 > Spell Mastery stacking. This wasn't clear and must have been removed during an earlier update; that acquiring multiple copies of the same Spell increases the Mastery Level.
• page 66 > Simplified Busy status under the Optional Rules. I'll need to check this in play-testing and see if it is something which should move into the Advanced Rules. 
• page 112 > Revised Mission 1 and Mission 2 to be more interesting. Revised VP conditions to have four goals instead of three. Play-testing is much more interesting now for Mission 2.
• page 141 > Addicted X updated to include Hallucenogenics. 
• page 148 > Burn X and Confuse X simplified.
• page 156 > Poison X simplified.

 Several critical site updates.

As ridiculous as it may seem, when I converted my sites into the updated Google Sites 2.x apparently many users lost access to my Downloads directories.

So ... I've updated them.

MEST Tactics

https://sites.google.com/site/mesttactics/downloads

Sarna Len RPG

https://sites.google.com/site/sarnalen/downloads

 

Giant Robots of World War II

Restored this.

https://sites.google.com/site/groww2/downloads