Sun, Garden, and The Witcher 3 on remote play!

    Being able to play outside, in the garden, when the sun is high and the temperature is hot, with a frozen beer at my side, always intrigued me.

    First reason is that this way I can enjoy a bit of the "outside" people always talk about, leaving my Hobbit Hole for some time.

    Second reason are my dogs, who can enjoy the garden more than they usually do, while I can still devote myself to my favorite hobby.

    So, during this sunny week end, I brought out the "solution" described in my previous post "PS4 and PlaystationTV marry Power Line Adapters", as shown in the attached photo.

    A very long extension cord provided energy to the whole thing, and the remote play on PS4, through the PlaystationTV, worked perfectly, with only some very minor connection drops.

    Sunlight is a major issue, because it strongly limit visibility. Still, increasing both game and TV brightness, make the game playable. I'll try to find a solution to this, even if I already know there aren't that many: anti-reflection film for PC and other device can perhaps better the experience, so I'll try out one of them.

    The Witcher 3 is a great game for remote play, as it doesn't need an incredible precision in controls: differently from Wolfenstein: The Old Blood, I found the play experience to be almost like I was playing directly on PS4.

    Speaking of this, this title is very attractive, big, and masterfully directed. Still, I must admit it has a bunch of things I strongly dislike:

    - Controls: Let's face it, the "action" side of this game is pretty sick. Controls, movements, attacks and the like are clumsy, woody and inaccurate at best. CD Projekt RED clearly haven't improved this side of their development skill, as both The Witcher 1 and 2 had the same problem!

    - Fast Travel: I think the sign posts system is a bit annoying; being forced to reach one of them to use the fast travel is just a waste of time. The ability to open up world map and directly select a destination sign post would, imho, improve exploration.

    - Food: Food heals so few it hurts, and you're forced to bring tons of them with you, if you want to rely on it. I strongly dislike this (going around with 50 meat chunks, 60 hives etc etc just sound wrong to me). I think it would be better to have the food heal more, perhaps over longer times, in order to limit the carriage. I understand the developers want perhaps to force the player into using alchemy, but still food works bad for my taste.

    - Quick Items Slots: Dunnow if later in the game you gain more, but the two item slot I can use so far is a bit limited. 2 potions or 2 kind of food (or a mix of the two) is not very much. Something like four slot would be probably more enjoyable.

    The game is still a precious gem, and one of the best titles for PS4 so far, but my vote for it is around 8/10, perhaps 8.5/10, mostly because it's pure gameplay aspect is definitely clunky.

Valhalla Knights 3: Skill Master List!

    A couple of weeks ago, Valhalla Knights 3 was on discount on PlayStation Store, for the great price of €4,99 (A joke). Even if I knew this is not the best game ever, I decided to buy it, as the price was luring enough. And now I'm here, playing it here and there on my PSVita.

    As a niche game, it is not easy to find english help for this title, apart from something on http://www.gamefaqs.com/ boards. There is much more material in japanese, where the game met more interest.

    This is why I decided to create a post here and there about this game, with interesting info I'm struggling to find on the internet.

    By the way, I'm liking this title alot, to be honest, as a relaxed game to carry around; moreover it's great on PlaystationTV, too. Pity for the loading times, that are quite annoying.

    So, first post is a list of all Skill Master available for this game; Skill Master are "secret" skills that unlocks for a character when you learn all the skills of a specific profession.

Prisoner
SBP Needed: 4590.
Name: Prisoner 25601.
Effect: Make it possible to equip every weapon (except firearms).

Fighter
SBP Needed: 3760.
Name: Challenger.
Effect:  Increase HP+500 and P. DEF+100.

Mage
SBP Needed: 3150.
Name: Great Magician.
Effect: Increase SP+500 and M. ATK+100.

Priest
SBP Needed: 2500.
Name: Holy Servant.
Effect:  Increase SP+500 and M. DEF+100.

Thief
SBP Needed: 2230.
Name: Thief King.
Effect:  Increase HP+1000 and SP+500.

Akatoki
SBP Needed: 4135.
Name: Unleashed.
Effect:  Increase HP+500 and STRK+100.

Archer
SBP Needed: 3265.
Name: Sharpshooter.
Effect:  Increase HP+500 and SHOT+100.

Soldier
SBP Needed: 3185.
Name: Mercenary.
Effect:  Increase P. DEF+150.

Samurai
SBP Needed: 3850
Name: Swordsman.
Effect:  Increase HP+1500.

Ninja
SBP Needed: 1645.
Name: Shinobi.
Effect:  Increase SP+1500.

Shaman
SBP Needed: 3450.
Name: Archmage.
Effect:  Increase M. ATK+150.

Merchant
SBP Needed: 3920.
Name: Great Fortune.
Effect: Receives 15% discount on all items at the item shops.

Amazon
SBP Needed: 1410.
Name: Warrior Queen.
Effect:  Increase SHOT+150.

Automaton
SBP Needed: ???.
Name: Ultimate Gizmo.
Effect:  Increase all stats.

Bunny Girl
SP Needed: 1950.
Name: Paramour.
Effect: Uses love to get bonuses.

    I hope the SBP Needed voice is correct. All these info are based on what I found over the Net AND from personal experience.

    I'm going to build a collection of game maps, and place them in another post like this!

    Good game everyone!

Dark Souls 2: SotFS Platinum!

    Ahhh, so, after around 150 hours, I finally earned Dak Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin Platinum!

    I haven't rushed this Platinum, as I explored the game very deeply before completing the trophy list, reaching level 709 and gathering around 98% of all the equipment and spells available (I actually miss 11 "objects", between spells, weapons, armor, rings and shields).

    It's my plat n° 48. Not that many, but I'm proud of all of them ^_^ .

    This one has been a long, but not so difficult, Platinum. The game itself is hard and unforgiving, but once you get the grip of how it works and how you should approach exploration and combat, everything goes much smoother. And you can always farm a bit to make your character more powerful but, most important thing in my opinion, more versatile: being an huber melee fighter with some backup healing spells, the ultra-useful Repair or some ranged magical attack can prove to be quite helpful.

    Still it can be difficult to earn this Plat without a guide,  as some of the trophyes are tricky to obtain, if you don't know exactly what to do. For this reason, I strongly suggest to have a look at this guide: Dark Souls 2 Scholar of the First Sin Trophy Guide and Roadmap, at least to know what you'll be facing.

    And now, let's start Final Fantasy Type-0, at least until I don't receive my physical copy of Wolfenstein: The Old Blood *__*!!

Blooddborne farming - Blood Echoes farming - 11000 every 2 minutes - Lecture Building

    So, Bloodborne is out, and I'm very engaged by the title. It proved to be a neat challenge and a fun game, with a great, if hard, gameplay and a beautiful setting. I love demon/monster hunting, after all :) .

    Among the various tips and advices you can give/find about this game, I learned that one of the most important is to level up your character. I was quite lucky in finding an incredible Blood Echoes farming location early in the game, and this made a big portion of Bloodborne incredibly easy after just an hour or so of farming. So I'm here to share this trick with you. As mentioned, the best about this farming spot is that you can reach it very soon: Just after you defeat Vicar Amelia (she can be your 3rd boss, after Cleric Beast and Father Gascoigne) you can travel to the Forbidden Woods, which is the first step to discover the Lecture Building. I don't exactly remember when and how I reached the location, as it was mostly a matter of luck and risk, but I made my best to rebuild the steps to get there, and here they are:

    Step 1) Go to Forbidden Woods and follow the path of the bridge (beware the trap), until you reach a group of enemies near a campfire. Kill or rush beyond them and go left, following the path throught a flowered camp with a ruined house to its right (with an enemy inside it). Go ahead and pass a low gate that bring you to a big group of houses, like a small town. You should reach another house with a red lantern and some cages near it (with caged or free dogs, depending on how deep are you in the game). Speak to the person inside and you'll receive an item you need to reach the Lecture Building (Beast's Roar?).

    Step 2) Go to the Grand Cathedral lamp and exit down the first ramp of stairs. Looking at the Grand Cathedral entrance, follow the right path, which bring you to an area where you need to fight (or avoid) two hunters (one of them wield a Tonitrus). From there, the path continue down (there are other enemies along the road: kill or avoid them), to a large area with a couple of big guys and an edifice at it's end. Inside the edifice there is a giant monster hanging from the cieling (the monster is incorporeal until you reach a given point of the story), and a door (closed in the beginning of the game: it will automatically open as you progress into the story). When you try to open the door (or if you pass through it while it's open), a warp/portal-like effect will appear: you must do your best to get caught by that distortion. The creature will take you in it's hand, squeeze you, give you Frenzy and say something, before throwing you to the Lecture Building (it will kill you, if you don't have the item recovered from the Forbidden Woods; note that you are automatically teleported in the above mentioned area after you kill Rom, The Vacuous Spider).

    Step 3) Activate the lantern and clear all this floor by opening all the door and exploring all of it's parts. When you're done, you can go back to the Hunter's Dream and start farming the location shown in the video (see below), for a neat amount of 702 x 16 Blood Echoes each run (which takes 2-3 minutes). One of the best things is that the load time for this location is pretty short, as it is small!

    Here follow a couple of videos that explains both how to reach the location and how to farm it:

    Video 1 - How to reach Lecture Building: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jRpandCc3Bs (exactly at 4:48, the guy reach the Lecture Building lamp)

    Video 2 - How to farm Lecture Building: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=icj6T9Ez0A0

    Hope this can help some of you in not succumbing to frustration for such a demanding title ;).

    Good hunt, out there.

FATE Accellerated ITA versione almost ready!

    Attached picture does not mean anything for the most, but for me it's a little big satisfaction. After a lifetime as RPGs lover, a passion now standbyed because I'm unable to find a group with which I am comfortable, I was able to tie my name to a commercial work belonging to this world.

    It is a small book, more an introduction to a wider world, but still I was part of his birth and growth, something that makes me proud and satisfied, although there will probably not a continuation on thise field, as it can keep you very busy: translate decently from English to a good Italian it's not easy at all!!.

    The project concern the FATE role playing game, and in particular the "Accelerated" version, which allows you to quickly approach the complete game with simplicity.

    FATE is more a "game creation system" than a classical RPG, as it allows the game master and the players to shape they'r own game experience by detailing both the characters and the world as they like more, and with the participation of everyone.

    The game will be published by http://www.dreamlordpress.it/, both in PDF and printed form.

    You can find additional details on the italian FATE website: http://www.fateitalia.it/ or on the Dreamlord Press facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/dreamlordpress.

FATE STAR WARS on paper!

    I just received the printed version of the FATE STAR WARS book, translated in Italian language by MAMMUT RPG . Both the translation and the final physical result are quite satisfying.

    When I want to print a book from PDF (or another digital format) to paper, I use YouCanPrint services .

    You can build an estimate directly from the website, and the final costs are always quite good, if you print in Black&White. For most of the books I printed so far, the shipping costs have always been higher than the book itself, because YouCanPrinte uses SDA Courier instead of taking advantage of the lower costs Itialian Post Office can offer for books delivery.

    Preparation times aren't incredibly fast, because they prepare a draft of the final product you need to approve before they proceed with print and delivery. All of this took around 3 weeks, if you answer quickly to their mails.

    They publish your books, too, as eBook or paper: the one YOU write, I mean :), taking charge of everything is legally needed.

    I'm quite satisfied by this print-on-demand service, and I strongly reccomend it to anyone who needs somthing similar.







   

Joe Dever's Lone Wolf game books revival

    When I was a youngling (of well, ok, I still am, somehow!), I spent tons of hours playing & replaying the mythic Lone Wolf saga, by Joe Dever. This long serie of game books covered the adventures of a Master Ramas, moving in a dark fantasy world to save it from Evil and Darkness.

    I really loved those stories, and I delved alot in all the game books I was able to recover (there were alot around, besides Lone Wolf, which told fantasy, oriental, post apocalyptic, horror stories: a true boon for my thirst of fiction).

    I just discovered that a small Italian editor is publishing this saga from scratch, revisited and "remastered". I must admit I'm heavily tempted to buy these books again, even if I still own the old, original ones.

    Anyway, for everyone who can be interested in this new publication, this is the link for a direct buy:

    Vincent Books - Lupo Solitario 1, "I Signori delle Tenebre" (Italian language).

    I wish you the best of lucks in Magnamund ;).

Evolution Pulse for FATE Core/Accelerated

    So, I got the chance to read the beta rulebook of this interesting new setting for FATE.

    The project is an Italian one, and I don't really know if there will be an English version, but if you can understand my native language, you should definitively have a look at this rpg.

    Evolution Pulse is a dark and cruel reality, set in a far future where technology is far beyond our actual standard and where flesh and machinery are now melt together.

    A spoon of cyberpunk, mixed in a mug of horror with some drops of mysticism and esotherism, all served on a plate of post-apocalyptic moral sci-fi, make this game a shiny pearl for tastes like mine. Yeah, ok, it don't have lightsabers, but it's cool anyway!

    Everything about this game is very inspired: the manual, the graphics, the history, the background, the way it uses FATE mechanics and the adult approach to a reality teared apart by a massive and unbearable change.

    Even if I will not be able to play this game easily, it will be a pleasure to support it and buy the final version if it will be released for money.

    If you like to deepen your knowledge about Evolution Pulse, Alberto Tronchi is the author, while Evolution Pulse is the Facebook page; you can ask for the beta PDF directly to the author, but only in Italian language ;) (I think, at least...).

My first HangOut RPG experience!

    So yesterday evening I played an RPG for the first time using Hangout as a videochat. The game of choice has been PSI*RUN, a very interesting game which employ few strong mechanics and put more emphasis on the narrative aspect.

    The experience has been quite interesting and satisfying, even if I expected a better quality of the videochat service (I employ a powerful internet connection). Still, this tool seems a very strong choice for playing RPGs when you're unable to gather around a table with other guys.

    The game itself met my tastes very quickly, as it is very narrative and with a very low mathematic aspect: after years spent on the nastily numerical systems like d20 System or GURPS (even if I still consider GURPS a great game engine), I ended up liking narrative systems like FATE or The One Ring much, much more. The other players has been a very good company, too.

    I hope to be able to use this tool very soon to play some Star Wars- themed RPG. Pity my english is not that great, or I could play with foreign people without problems!

By the way, you can buy the italian version of the PSI*RUN game at this link: http://www.narrattiva.it/psirun

FATE ACCELERATED EDITION ITALIAN TRANSLATION! (Traduzione Italiana)

    So, after a couple of weeks of intense work, I finally ended the first translation of FATE ACCELERATED EDITION, which is now readable in italian language, too. Around half of this book was already translated by another guy, and I just gave it a quick revision, while the other half is all my work.

    I think it will require some tweak and arrangement, and must be merged with the work of other guys, before it reach it's final installment, but it is quite satisfying to have such a work done for the most part.

    If you're interested in having a look to the actual book, here is the link:

    - FATE EDIZIONE VELOCE (FATE Accelerated Edition)

    Please fell fre to give advice and opinion on the translation if you like, in order to help us to reach the best version we can think of.

The FATE affair

    This month I started working at a wonderful project, which I sincerely hope will be successful. This project concerns the Italian translation of FATE Core. FATE is a very interesting free RPG based on the FUDGE system, which aims to allow a group of players to create their game together, through a narrative collaboration that allows the group to build the setting, the characters, the theme, the mood, the powers and all those aspects of an RPG which are usually preset, the way they like most.

    It is therefore a product different from usual, which encourages players to shape every aspect of the game to their liking, instead of providing tomes of rules, data and statistics about something already settled.


    The collaboration began by chance, after reading an interview with Nicola Urbinati, project manager, on an Italian site dedicated to the world of RPGs. In this interview Nicola raised the possibility to participate in the publishing future of the Italian version of FATE. So I decided to write to him, proposing to help with the translation. It was quickly decided to give me the job of translation revisionist. My work is to smooth the original translation, in an attempt to make it more enjoyable to read. I hope to do a good job!

    This is a stimulating and interesting experience, but unfortunately, having another job, I will be forced to proceed slowly.

    After all, let's face it: who among those who truly love RPGs does not dream of seeing their name printed among those of the staff responsible for the publication of a manual?!? I really hope this will happens to me thanks to this opportunity !

    If you care to delve a little more into FATE, here are some useful links:

    - FATE at Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fate_(role-playing_game_system)

    - FATE at Evil Hat Productions: http://www.evilhat.com/home/fate-core/

    - FATE dedicated blog: http://www.faterpg.com/

    - Italian FATE site: http://www.fateitalia.it/

Goodbay 2013, welcome 2014?

    Whoa, the last month has been pretty intense!

    The new year has brought a lot of new features and changes, some good, some bad. My parents are breaking up, unfortunately, after many years of marriage, and the question is not solving easily. Inevitably, I'm also catched into this affair, as a member of the family. This event has blocked my move, as the house where I had to relocate will instead be occupied by my mother, and I'll move in to the one where she lives today (which is much larger and more beautiful, to be honest ...!). She also decided to stop working at our store for some time, which made job more complicated for those who remained.

    I also bought a new car. Oh well, my first car to tell the truth :). Some photos soon in a separate post!

    Moreover, I'm partecipating to a very cool project in the RPGs world, as translation revisionist for the Italian version of FATE Core. Additional info in a future post.

Vegan Salami

    So, even 2013 is gone. This year I spent a rather quiet New Year's Eve, along with my girlfriend and all our beasts. We have finally begun to keep Enny, Kiro, Nobu and Giget
ta in the same rooms, finding that they bear each other better than we expected. Apart from a few sporadic attacks from Gigetta, some typical feline romp here and there and canine mutterings by Enny, cohabitation seems quite possible!

    We had dinner with the simple vegan dishes you can see in the pictures. To drink, sparkling wine Ferrari for her and beer for me!

Kiro + Nobu + Enny

Ferrari + Beer

Pie

Heroes of Water - A Star Wars: Edge of the Empire Adventure Hook

    Here is my first attempt to a complete adventure for Star Wars: Edge of the Empire. This is only the general synopsis of the story, but neverthless a strong track of how the events should go, so everyone can adapt it to his group style with few effort. In the future I'll probably write down a complete list of Acts, and Scenes, but this will happen after I play the adventure with my own group!

    This adventure is completely inspired by the movie A Dark Truth, which addresses the issue of the exploitation of South America's water reserve.

Heroes of Water - Synopsis

    On a small planet, a galactic company is trying to conclude the exploitation of a precious and delicious reserve of water (or any other valuable resources, as it fits better to your campaign! This can sounds like Hutt stuff, too, right?). To do this, the company had started a systemtic extermination of the local population, unleashing a wave of disease through water and food supply, and then using a local militia, backed by the Imperial troops, to complete the massacre.

    One of the leaders of the company who still has some moral sense, kept in the dark about this businness, suddenly become aware of these atrocities and decides to hire a group of unknown "adventurers " to go take a look and bring back evidences and/or survivors of this wickedness, promising a large sum of credits as reward.

    This good-hearted leader is watched by another manager and his assistant security officer, who hires a murderer to spy on him, and, where appropriate, to remove any proof of their plan that leaves the planet.

    The adventurers must find a way to land on the planet, which is kept at a low techonological level by those who control its economy, probably in secret or with alternate identities, in order to avoid military control. There they find small villages and towns scattered in an area covered with dense jungles, heavily patrolled by local militia and Imperial troops that do what they want to the locals, commanded by a ruthless warlord who "works" with the company.

    Here they should meet or find a contact able to guide them on the unknown territory. Eventually they will come across a group of rebels survivors, hidden in the jungle, which is lead by a local hero who guided more than a past rebellion and possesses evidences of what is going on.

    Shortly after this meeting, the hidden camp is detected and attacked by the military, and the characters must first escape enemy's overwhelming numerical superiority. During the flight, however, the local hero decides that he can not leave his people to die at the hands of the military, and entrusts the documentation which proves what happens to his wife, to go back and fight the military. The adventurers must then decide whether to help him or leave him to his fate, bringing his wife to safety with the evidence of misdeeds.

    They will have to find a way to leave the planet, probably searching help from the rebellious population (which should be much easier if the local hero is still with them) and reach the manager who hired them, in order to conclude the "deal".

    At some point during or after this final reunion, all of them are attacked by a strong opposite force deployed by the rival manager and his assistant, supported by the murderer hired earlier, in an effort to eliminate all the proofs. The murderer, however, discovers to have some sort of sympathy for the cause of the rebels and of these daring adventurers, and decides to turn against his employers, providing an unexpected and important support to the group, informing them, after the fight, if he is able to do so, about the identity of the responsible for the attack.

    The story may end up in the best way, with the presentation of the evidences and a fair investigation by the Board of Directors of the company; perhaps, instead, echonomical interests will win over morality and everything will be covered up again, leaving the heroes with a dry mouth; maybe the armed wing of the Empire will intervene and prevail over the forces of the adventurers, neutralizing their efforts and maintaining the status quo; perhaps the Rebel Alliance itself may become aware of the events, taking action to try to restore one of the many wrongs of the galaxy.

    The possibilities are many: choose your turn and have fun :-) !

Escape from Mos Shuuta

Beginner's Set

    I finally got to try the new Star Wars: Edge of the Empire game! I used the Beginner 's Kit to introduce both me to game mastering, and players to the new mechanics.

    The adventure was extremely linear, but still fun and full of Star War's flavor. In just 3 hours we cleared the plot, which included fierce firefights with blasters, raging Wookies with huge axes and risky meetings resolved with talk and wits!

    The system proved to be entertaining , immediate, dynamic and fluid, even if I was wrong to understand one of the main rules for the interpretation of the results of the dice, which made ​​it all too easy to overcome checks (both for me and for the players)!

    Pre-generated characters are more powerful than those created with the core rulebook, but this was not an issue at all. The characters have chosen the Twi'lek Bounty Hunter, the Human Smuggler and the Wookie Hired Gun, leaving out the Droid Colonist.

    I'm really curious to see which group will jump out of the standard creation procedure and I 'm looking forward to finishing the basic manual to create my first adventure!

    May the Force be with you all!

It's been a while, in a galaxy far far away!

    It's a while I don't post here! All my GURPS works has stopped since I begun to play Pathfinder as a player. At the moment I'm preparing some adventures using the Star Wars Saga Rules. This set of rules is based on the d20, which I don't like very much at all, but my actual game group is very comfortable with this system, so I'm disposed to give it a try. It's always Star Wars, after all, and what matter most is the setting and the mood, not the rules :) ! It's possible we'll try the new Star Wars: Edge of the Empire game, published by FantasyFlight Games, but I need to buy the core rulebook first, which is quite expensive here in Italy.

    I'm videogaming like hell in the latter times. I platinated 25 games so far, this year, most of them in the second half of the year. I rarely replay old games, but this new hunger for Platinums made me willing to go back to each game I own for Ps3 which don't have many online trophies, At the moment I'm playing Star Wars: The Force Unleashed 2 on PS3 and Soul Sacrifice on PSVita (great game btw!), while Amazon just shipped Beyond: Two Souls.

    Winter is coming, here, and it bears dark days, so pleasant to spend on a sofa with my animals and a good book or videogame. In a few months I'm moving to a new house, much bigger than the actual one, and I'm going to buy an enormous,  monstrously comfortable sofa :D !

    May the Force be with you all!!

Huorns: those between Ents and Trees!

HUORNS

Description

    Tolkien's character Treebeard describes both Ents that become tree-ish, and trees that become Entish. Meriadoc Brandybuck believed Huorns to be the former, although Treebeard would not say much about them. Huorns can create darkness to conceal their movements and are capable of moving quickly and quietly. They still have voices and can speak to the Ents, but unlike Ents, they do not seem able to speak intelligibly to other races.

    According to Treebeard, Huorns have become queer, wild and dangerous. They watch over the trees but are in turn looked over by Ents. Merry believes there are hundreds and hundreds of them in the darkest dales of Fangorn forest. It is possible that some of the trees of the Old Forest, especially Old Man Willow, were Huorns as well. Both forests were once parts of the same primeval forest. A connection is implied by Treebeard's statement in response to Merry's question as to whether the Old Forest was similar to the dark spots of Fangorn forest:

    "Aye, aye, something like, but much worse. I do not doubt that there is some shadow of the Great Darkness lying there still away north; and bad memories are handed down. But there are some hollow dales in this land where the Darkness has never been lifted, but the trees are older than I am."

History

    Huorns could have existed as far back as the First Age when the Ents appeared. They make their first appearance in The Two Towers when they take part in the Last March of the Ents and participated in the Destruction of Isengard and the Battle of the Hornburg, destroying all orcs trying to escape the battles.

Etymology

    Huorn is the name in the "short-language" of the Ents, given because the Huorns "still have voices". It includes the Sindarin noun orn which means "tree". The meaning of the hu element is unknown, Tolkien himself seemed unsure. In the Huorn entry in a wordlist published in Parma Eldalamberon Tolkien gives the possible Sindarin roots hô, hyoba and hû. The description of hô could be interpreted "speak, show" which would correspond with the earlier names for Huorns in The War of the Ring which all meant "talking trees".

Game Statistics (for GURPS 4.0)

    Attributes: ST 30, DX 10, IQ 6, HT 20.

    Secondary Characteristic: SM +2, HP +20, Per +4, Will +4, Basic Speed 5.5, Basic Move 8.

    Advantages: Constriction Attack, Damage Resistance 8, Doesn't Breath, Doesn't Sleep, Extended Lifespan 7, Haigh Pain Threshold, Indomitable, Injury Tolerance (Homogenous), Obscure 6 (Vision [cloud of darkness], Defensive, Area of Effect 8 yards, Mobile, Persistant), Plant Empathy, Reduced Consumption 3, Regrowth, Resistant to Disease +3, Resistant to Poison +3, Speak with Plants, Spines (long), Terror (Always On), Unfazeable.

    Disadvantages: Bad Temper, Berserk, Cannot Speak, Fragile (Combustible), No fine Manipulation, No Sense of Humor, Sense of Duty (Trees), Social Stigma (Monster), Stubborness.

    Skills: Brawling 14, Camouflage 15, Gardening 15, Herb Lore/3 14, Observation 13, Power Blow 12, Stealth 13, Survival (Forest) 15, Throwing 12, Tracking 12.
    Attacks: Punch 15 [3d+2], Kick 13 [3d+3], Throw (what the Huorn can reach, usually large boulders) 13 [various damage].

[Note: Description, History and Etymology taken from Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Huorn!]

The Last of Us - A Sourcebook for GURPS 4.0

Ok, GURPS has really turned my brain, making me want to adapt all the fantastic worlds that I like best to be played with these rules!

And so here's the turn of The Last of Us, a splendid, zombie-themed game for PS3. I've always been a fan of the living dead / infected and all the fiction that surrounds them. The Last of Us particularly impressed me, perhaps due to the significant impact video games have on my imagination, or maybe because I particularly liked the setting, where there are still many communities locked up among the ruins of a city, to protect themselves from the horrors that inhabit the outside.

So, here is an other conversion, absolutely still in progress: THE LAST OF US - A SOURCEBOOK FOR GURPS 4.0 .

TOR to GURPS conversion, BETA 2 - UPDATE!!

    A quick update on my conversion PDF. Added some stuff and started spelling/mistakes check.

    Available at: TOR to GURPS Conversion [BETA2]

The One Ring To GURPS conversion: BETA 1!

    So, here it is. After some day of work I completed the Beta version of my TOR --> GURPS conversion. All template for races are ready, and so are the rules to manage corruption and taint derived by the Shadow.

    To fully enjoy this conversion you need to own The One Ring manuals (or, at least, being able to access them as PDF files, if you get it), because I omitted many text stuff in order to avoid copyright issues.

    Still, by simple reading my document, you can have a feeling and an idea of what I'm creating.

    So, here is the link to the PDF: TOR to GURPS Conversion [BETA1] . Have a good read, have pity of my bad english and mistakes, and, please, share your thought about this.

    UPDATE: A new version of the PDF is available. More stuff, minor change and spell/mistakes check. Link: TOR to GURPS Conversion [BETA2]

Beornings: The One Ring --> GURPS conversion

    The One Ring (TOR from now) is a great game produced by Cubicle 7. This game is set in the area around Mirkwood, a few years after the fall of Smaug (long before the events of The Lord of the Rings). The game relies on a rather low level of power, even if it allows you to play as characters already "heroic" confronted with common people. It places a strong emphasis on Shadow, corruption and the loss of Hope faced by adventurers who decide to deal with the Enemy, venturing out of the civilized lands, in the wilds subject to the influence of the Shadow.

    Many of the game mechanics are truly innovative and full of Tolkenian flavor. It is, without any doubt, a true gem of its kind and, probably, the best Tolkenian RPG created so far.

    It has, however, some major limitations in simulation, and its point of greatest weakness is probably the combat, which is monotonous and repetitive for the players, whose options during an armed conflict are severely limited.

    For many gamers this is not an obstacle, but for others, perhaps accustomed to systems based on d20System or in any case much more simulative, is a strong limit. I just started playing a campaign of TOR with a group used to D&D3.X and video-rpg-games: all of them immediately appreciated the setting, but they were shocked by the combat brutality and limitation and by the unforgiving corruption system. After all they're used to play heroic fantasy, and therefore not to see their characters suffer the psychological effects of fighting Evil (yes, with capital E ^_^).

    For this reason I want to try to convert the campaign to GURPS, so as to present them with a more comprehensive and simulative set of rules, still capable of supporting a high lethality of combat and a psycho/phisical degeneration due to contact with the Shadow.

    GURPS Horror offers a very nice set of rules for corruption, so I'll just use them, tweaking them where I need.

    So, the first step is to convert the races presented in TOR, which are Hobbits, Woodsmen, Bardians, Mirkwood Elves, Beornings and Lonely Mountain Dwarves.

    I decided to start from Beornings, which I am particularly fond of. So here is the template of the people who gathered around Beorn, with a brief description stolen from Lord of the Ring Wiki.

    As always, comments and opinions are always largely appreciated.

Beornings

    Beornings, also known as skin-changers, were a race of men that were able to change into bears. They were descended from Beorn, from whom they inherited their name and their ability to turn into bears. They dwelt in the Vales of Anduin between Mirkwood and the Great River. During the Third Age they guarded the Ford of Carrock from the Orcs and Wargs (though Gloin lamented that their tolls were high) and they also aided the Elves in defending their kingdom in northern Mirkwood.

    Original Beornings are magical shape-changing beings who could take different forms at will. Little is known about them and of their abilities. The only skin-changers identified by Tolkien were Beorn and his descendants (who could take the shape of a man or of a bear). Actually, they're a great community of common men who gathered around the mythic figure of Beorn, becoming the guardian of the areas between Misty Mountains and Mirkwood.

    They had the same life-span of mortal men, and could speak in both the tongue of men and of bears. They did not seem very fond of Dwarves, and were enemies with the Goblins. The people of Rohan shared kinship with them. They hunted neither bird nor beast and lived mostly off of cream and honey.

    The Beornings were well known for their honey-cakes, which they likely made in their bee farms and sold openly to others, at least until the return of Sauron, for then the Beornings no longer trusted strangers and their trade stopped. Gimli considered the Beornings the best bakers he knew, though they were not so willing to give out their cakes to travelers during the days of the War of the Ring.

    During the War of the Ring, while wearing the One Ring at Amon Hen upon the seat of seeing, Frodo Baggins saw many things from afar, including the land of the Beornings aflame. This hints at an attack by Sauron's forces upon the Beornings, though the outcome of this attack is unknown.

    Gandalf believed that Beorn might have come from the mountains, making the Beornings descendants of the men of the mountains. The only known leaders of this people were Beorn and later his son Grimbeorn.

    Racial Template
    Cost: 13.
    Attribute Modifiers: ST +1 [10]; HT +1 [10].
    Advantages: Fearless 1 [2], Hard to Subdue 1 [2].
    Disadvantages: Intolerance (Orcs & related) [-10], Berserker (15) [-5].
    Skills: Two Handed Axe/Mace DX-1 [1], Intimidation Will-1 [1], Survival (Mountain) Per-1 [1] or Survival (Woodland) Per-1 [1] , Tracking Per-1 [1].
    Other suggested traits: Many Beornings have the Animal Empathy or Empathy advantages, and one or more mental disadvantage(s) or perk(s) which categorize them as "grim" persons.

    Every attribute, advantage and disadvantage of the template can be removed by paying/gaining the appropriate amount of points. This template represents just the very common Beorning: heroes are often different from standard.

    A Beorning able to change to bear form is, probably, a descendant of Beorn himself. Such a character will probably be very powerful (and rare): the creation of such a force of nature should be fully agreed with your game master!