Thursday, December 23, 2010

2 New Species and 1 Power Added: The Harpy, The Hydra and the

The Harpy of Red Ash is a humanoid bird with a harpy eagles head but with black feathers like the crow. This is a man sized creature with a taste for carrion, or even fresh meat and a lust for shiny object which it will look to steal.

Read more Here


The Hydra is a swamp dwelling monstrous reptile of the tropics, very big, armor plated and of course multi-headed. The Red Ash Hydra has six heads modeled after the Horned Lizard but with exceptional long teeth and large fore limbs it uses to drag the rest of its weight through the wetlands of its territory.

Read more Here


To support the Hydra a new power was added called Polycephaly which means multi-headed. This power will define what benefits one has when you have additional heads and how well they work together.

Read more Here.


All the Best,
Chris J

Thursday, December 16, 2010

2 New Species Added: The Griffin and the Hippogriff

The Griffin and Hippogriff in Red Ash are made of the classic version from mythology.

Read up on the Griffin here.

Read up on the Hippogriff here.

All the Best,
Chris J.

Monday, December 13, 2010

New Species Added: Gorgon

Added one of Ancient Greece's most feared legends, the Gorgon. Unlike Medusa and her 2 sisters of myth. The Red Ash Gorgons are more animalistic creatures in a humanoid form. Since they are always female they will hunt males for breeding purposes, a honor that is not wished by any man.

Read more on them here.

All the Best,
Chris J.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

New Species Added: Ghoul and New Power: Unclean

The Ghoul of Red Ash is not an undead creature like in other games. It is a savage flesh and carrion eater that live alone or in small semi-social groups. It is noted for its massive claws and teeth and for carrying all manor of diseases.

Read More about them here.

To support the ghouls a new power was added called unclean. This power grants a species the ability to spread disease to those it encounters, usually via combat. The disease contracted will be determined with a random roll on a disease chart, that I have yet to make. This is rolled after it has been determined that the character in question rolls under both the infection rate of the unclean empowered and fails a save of the users Health +1d20 vs the targets Health +1d20.

Those that become infected will find out what type of infection they have in 1 to 2 days of game time as the systems begin to show.

Read more on the Unclean power here.

All the Best,
Chris J.

Thursday, December 9, 2010

New Species Added: Gargoyle, New Power Added: Cold Hands and Update to the Sensory Power

The gargoyle is a creature that was carved from stone and given a false life like a golem. They served as guardians for Humans keeping evil spirits from entering their cities. The gargoyles served perfectly for years and had become a staple to most cities. Such was their service that they were widely celebrated. 

That is until the gargoyles started turning on their Human creators. Rumors had been reported in the months prior to the first attack of the gargoyles acting oddly. Following people to their homes and being there in the morning when they leave. Most believed they were doing their jobs and hunting some unseen specters. This is until the first attack happened and in a market square in the middle of the day. 

A gargoyle jumped on a woman and pinned her to the ground. A horrendous gargling sound silencing the crowd of onlookers while it drew her life from her body. Once finished it simply walked away indifferent to the stunned witnesses. While some people have suggested the woman must have been possessed, no one wanted to leave this gargoyle operational and so the city guard was dispatched to destroy it. While they did, other gargoyles blankly watched one of their kind being destroyed. By the next morning they were all gone.

Rumors have been made of the gargoyle sightings, often in forgotten grave sites and battle fields. But also rumors speak of gargoyles traveling the deep roads far underground.

Read more on the here.



A new power: Cold Hands was also added to support the gargoyle as a hunter of Spirits. You can read more about it here. Also the Power Sensory has a new form subtype called Spirit Vision, to permit someone to see the realm of the dead and incorporeal.

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Added new Species: Dryad

The Red Ash Dryad is different from the dryad of myth in that these are living trees with a taste for flesh. Since they are not fast they make use of a special lure they can send out from a rooted appendage. This lure will attempt to charm a single target using different charms depending on the prey. Human males fall for the naked woman while a Human Female may fall for a wounded animal.

To read more please visit here for more details.

All the Best,
Chris J.

New Power: Growth

the growth power is added as a weakness that can be bought during the design of a species to stagger the full size over many levels. This is not like having a juvenile aged member of a species where they are under developed and lacking breeding maturity. These are physically mature but will continue to increase in size with level advancement, which is a kind of an simple aging mechanics. These size increases have effects on some abilities, movement, space requirements and of course food, water and construction cost when dealing with playable species.

Playable species can not have smaller than tiny nor can they have bigger than huge. Read more here.

All the Best,
Chris J.

Thursday, December 2, 2010

Added New Species: Chimera

Red Ash now has the Chimera added with a slight twist in appearance. But at its heart the Red Ash Chimera honors the Chimera of Greek Legends.

Read more on them here.

All the Best,
Chris J.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

New Species Added: Cactus Cat

The cactus cat is a lesser known mythical creature from the pioneering days of the american south west with lumber jacks credited with spreading the stories.

Personally I am not certain about the lumber jacks having much to do with with the myth. I mean lumber and cactus are not something that comes to mind as being near each other...but I could very well be wrong.

The Red Ash Cactus Cat is pulled from the myth and brought to RPG live in the Red Ash System. Not only are these predators dangerous to Small Sized creatures (and smaller), but they are somewhat humorous too. Getting drunk off of fermented cacti juice and carousing all night, reminds me of a few misadventures from a while back.

Anyways you can read more about them here.

All the Best,
Chris J.

Tuesday, November 30, 2010

New Species Added: The Honey Bee

The honey bee has had a special place in history due to the product of its efforts and its namesake, honey. In ages past honey was a symbol of immortality and also of resurrection. A number of old kingdoms used the bee as a part of their heraldic symbols. Bees wax can also be included in the commercial resource provided by these bees.

A;though get the honey and wax was often a problematic endeavor. read more on the honey bee here.

All the Best,
Chris J.

Saturday, November 27, 2010

New Species Added: The Common Bat

I added the common bat (modeled after the Mexican Free-tailed Bat) to Red Ash. This animals fit into the miniature size category and hunt flying insects at night. Like some other Red Ash creatures these are not a major threat to people but they do carry diseases and live in colonies that count into the millions. So a certain amount of caution should be given or your party could become infected with rabies or worse.

You can read more on them here.

All the Best,
Chris J.

Friday, November 26, 2010

Badger Added

Added the non-playable species badger. The Red Ash badger is modeled after the American Badger. You can read more here.

All the Best,
Chris J.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

Happy Thanksgiving!

Today in the United States we celebrate the holiday of Thanksgiving.  This is a day we gather with family and close friends to share in food and to reflect on the things in our personal lives that we are thankful for.

For those of you that are not familiar with the US version of Thanksgiving here is a Wikipedia article on the subject.

All the Best and Happy Thanksgiving Day!
Chris J.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

Added 3 New Species: Apes

..or more specifically Gibbons, Gorillas and Chimpanzees.

The Gorilla and the Chimpanzee are a part of the family of great apes which also includes Humans. Both of these apes are very powerful animals with complex social behaviors. Of the two species the gorilla is much strong but it is the chimpanzee that is more dangerous. Chimps can become very aggressive and will kill other chimps, humans or other animals. They also have displayed a very high intelligence and willing ability to use simple tools.

Read more on the Red Ash Chimps and Gorillas.

The Gibbon is one of the largest members of the Lesser Apes. It is well know for its close family structures around a pair-boned alpha male and female. The others in a group are children and sub-adults. While these apes may not offer the level of danger a chimp or gorilla can they can make for a good plot device as gibbons are also very alert to their territory and will make loud vocalizations when an intruder is spotted, not a good thing for players trying to evade notice.

Read more on the Red Ash Gibbons.

All the Best,
Chris J.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

New Power: Arboreal

The arboreal power is a life style adaptation for those species that spend nearly there entire lives in the tree tops of a thick forest canopy. Read more here.


All the Best,
Chris J

Monday, November 15, 2010

Many Updates

While getting to add the smallest Red Ash species to date the Common Ant, I did also update classes with a new racial class called scavenger.

I also added a new status called marked and a sub-form of poison effect by the name of marked too.

This of course ties back into the common ant. Now I know some of you are wondering why bother with such a small species that to be fair, we unwittingly, kill walking down the street.

The fact of the matter is we are at a size that most ants are of little concern, less of course, we are unlucky enough to become helpless near a very large colony, now we are talking about the thing of nightmares. not to mention that the ant is even more of a threat to Small and Tiny playable species. They can also be used as an in game device to deny a adventuring party their camp site when they need rest badly. Beside the ant is believed to have been here around since the time of the dinosaurs and are still with us now as one of the largest mass of biology on the planet, give them some credit.

Read more on the Common Ant here.

All the Best
Chris J.

Saturday, November 13, 2010

Added New Species: Anhanguera

The Anhanguera is a type of pterodactyl pterosaur and is about the size of an small adult human on the ground. During flight is wing span places it in the large size category, for space considerations. Although they are carnivores they have a primary diet of fish which is good as most playable small and tiny species can train them as mounts.

Read more on them here.

All the Best,
Chris J.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

New Species Added: Anaconda

Added the Green Anaconda in to the Red Ash Species. Read all about it here.

All the Best,
Chris J

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

New Power Added: Serpentine

To prepare for snakes being added to the species list I needed to make a new power called Serpentine. This power is a reflection of the bonuses and minuses to the design of a snakes body. From its movement, to its low center of gravity and flexibility. Also its simplicity and lack of the finer control one has with hands. I hope I have captured the spirit of the snakes design with the serpentine power.

Read more about it here.

All the Best,
Chris J.

Tuesday, November 9, 2010

New Species Added: Alligator

Added the alligator...more information here.

All the Best,
Chris J

Monday, November 8, 2010

New Species Added: Albertosaurus

Albertosaurus is a smaller cousin of the Tyrannosaurus Rex. It also has the distinction of being a pack hunter. Read more here.

All the Best,
Chris J

Sunday, November 7, 2010

New Species Added: Agustinia

Added a massive category sauropod dinosaur called the Agustinia. Unlike most sauropods this one had the advantage of being armored with spikes along its back and a spiked tail. Read more about the Red Ash description of the Agustinia here.

All the Best,
Chris J.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

New Species: Agilisaurus and Species Updates

Added the first in a long list of non-playable species to come. Besides the 2 wolves and 2 bears, I have had nothing in the way of non-playable species in Red Ash. I have held off on adding non-playable (encounters, summons and pets) while I worked on issues with how to best implement them. In doing so I have added a number of new powers and changed how the racial classes function in the rules.

The Agilisaurus is a smallish 2 legged dinosaur that is a herbivore. The name Agilisaurus means Agile Lizard and so these were implemented as agile and fast with a bit of armored skin (scales). These are not meant to be played as aggressive creatures, they are not, but when cornered or if they have a noticeable size difference they will fight to defend young (females only) or grazing areas.

You can read more on the here.

All the Best,
Chris J.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

3 New Powers Added

I finished adding 3 new powers Colony, Long Neck and Long Tail.

Long Neck and Long Tail are similar power enhancer used to improve the powers bite and tail, damage. This allows you to attack with either at a greater distance than your normal reach is. I needed to add this power since a number of the creatures I will be adding include dinosaurs which some had very long necks and tails. Not to mention mythical creatures like dragons.

Colony is a power that can only be used by the very small, in fact it can only be used by creatures below Tiny (the smallest playable race size category). What it does is allows for a mass of these little species to join together to form a much larger single creature.

All the Best,
Chris J.

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

New Power: Lure

Lure is a power I have been thinking about for a while. The basic lure is based on real world creatures like the angler fish or the alligator snapping turtle. This type of lure makes use of  the creatures buff skill to entice prey within striking distance. The complex lure can be describe in any way that one needs but makes use of a charm based power. Read more here.

All the Best
Chris J

New Power: Weaker Sex

Weaker Sex is a weakness power that makes a distinction between the male or female members of a species as being physically weaker and often smaller in stature. Find out more here.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

Update

Hello All,

I have been working on a new tool to make it easier to add powers to Red Ash. I am nearly finished with it and will be adding about 5 new powers. After that I will be back to adding the non-playable species.

All the Best
Chris J.

Sunday, October 17, 2010

Many Changes; 2 new powers and more

I have added 2 powers Claws and Bite. While Red Ash Species can have both they can not be used in combat to any effect unless these power are purchased. Unlike many other powers these two are more restrictive in that you can only buy 1 of 4 categories for you species size.
These categories are divided into small, ideal, large and huge. Each category is slightly more expensive than the smaller one and larger creatures have a bigger difference of damage between them and there are some negatives for having large versions.
If I was not clear enough on how the omnivores teeth work it is half of the listed value of both the carnivores and herbivores damages, round off.

Also I have change from the feed burner RSS reader to a custom one made by magpieRSS. magpie is a very well designed PHP script that free to down load and well worth it too. I was able to take the results from magpieRSS and turn the content into the text rotation script you see here. While I could have easily placed some pause logic so people can read the full post in-site, I decided not to as the link will open the Red Ash Blogger page.

Now I am off to continue work on Red Ash and add new non-playable species as list in the forums.

All the Best,
Chris J.

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Melee Skill Update

Melee has now been updated to include rules on the use of claws, bites and fist in combat. Fist damage is also included. Claws and Bite will become powers that I will add tonight. Read about it here

All the Best,
Chris J.

Monday, October 11, 2010

Changed Racial Levels Power...

...and added racial levels.

As I am soon to begin adding various non-playable species to RA, I needed to address the issue of racial classes. Racial classes are meant to provide an advancement path for playable and non-playable species that have selected racial levels. As I add more non-playable species to the system I will certainly modify these rules more...stay tuned.

All the Best,
Chris J

Sunday, October 3, 2010

Trolls (M&F) Added

I finally added trolls to the system as a new playable species. The trolls make use of the new power split which separates a species into vary distinct groups. I will make a change to powers as I did not care for the calculation of the xp gain divisor. the new change has been implemented and so you may want to catch up on this.

I also made a few changes to my script that displays the species. I noticed I had a couple of error in the math used to run the population totals. These have been addressed.

The trolls are divided along gender with males being tall and thin but powerful and of course equipped with regeneration. They have a slow learning curve as their xp gain will show. The female trolls are dangerous and beautiful. While much smaller than the males they are the ones that run trollish society. Learn more about males here and females here in Red Ash.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Added New Power: Split

Split is a power I developed to permit a species designer to have a species that is made up of very different members. An example maybe a bee hive, where the queen is different from the workers and the soldiers are another different type. This power is unlike making a sub species as they are ruled by their own ruler and can have a different culture, like the Elves and the Eldrin or the Titans and Giants. Split instead allows a designer to make completely different members of a group that is ruled by the same leader.

I will put this to use in the up coming Trolls where the species is divided along gender. The males are more of the slow witted brute and the females are....well something special.

Before I can implement the Troll I will need to update a script so, I may have them ready by this weekend.

All the Best
Chris J.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

New Weapon Art Added

A special thanks to a young San Diego artist, Jessica Jimerson. Jessica was kind enough to provide Red Ash with weapons art for the Dagger, the Iklwa and the Battle Axe. All are viewable in the artist section of Red Ash here. Smaller versions of the Dagger and Iklwa are found on the related weapons pages. The Battle Axe will have to wait until I add an image rotation script as the battle axe already has an image.

For more information on Jessica and her work, visit her website http://www.jessicajimerson.com/,

Thanks Jessica!

All the Best
Chris J.

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

Orcs added

A new playable species was added, the infamous Orc. Orcs of Red Ash are like a minotaur in that they are a humanoid animal hybrid deign but use the wild boar instead of the bull. While the appearance of an Orc may be different that in other games they still embody the brutality. Check them out here on Red Ash.

All the Best
Chris J.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Ogre added

A new playable species was added, the Ogre. Again these have a Red Ash twist. Check them out here.

All the Best!
Chris J.

Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Murrough Added

A new playable species was added to Red Ash, the Murrough. The Murrough are the Scottish and Irish Gaelic name for Mermaids and Mermen. In designing these people I tried to stay closer to the legend than in other species. Still there are a few changes.


Also in adding the Murrough, I added two new powers:

  • Semi-Aquatic - Aquatic and amphibious just did not seam to fit with the old stories of the mermaid lounging on a rock waving to passing sailors, so I made Semi-Aquatic which would also be used on the Seal, Penguins and others once I get to them.
  • Water Adaptation - a trade-in of legs for a fish tail, or seal tail.

Adding these 2 powers also made me take a look at the skill swim. I made a change to include holding your breath while diving underwater.

All the Best
Chris J.

Friday, August 27, 2010

Lacerians Added

Lacerians are a new playable species of lizard folk. These are loosely based on the green iguana, well the head at least. The name is an altered version of the Latin word for lizard, lacerta. Check them out here on Red Ash.

All the best!
Chris J

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Gnomes Added

Added a new playable species, the Gnomes. Red Ash Gnomes are not the smarter cousins of Dwarfs you may be familiar with from other games. These are deep cavern dwelling humanoids that can pass through solid rock! Come take a look at them here on Red Ash.

All the Best!
Chris J.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Giants and Titans Added

I added 2 new playable species the Giants and the Titans. I designed these two with a shared history. Titans are the people of mythology and giants are the ugly offspring of them that were cast away.

In designing the giants I added a new power under the weakness type called Deformity that I already made a post about.

What I forget was to add the random sub-form. Random appears in each form listed. When selected it is meant to be used as a random roll on a per character basis over all of the available sub-forms for that type and all lesser one too. So as a giant is made with the Deformity, Major they must roll for all of the sub-forms list  there and under Deformity, Moderate and Deformity, Minor. So the random list includes Odd Color, Non-Symmetrical Facial Features, Overactive Sweat Glands, Body Oder, Non-Symmetrical Body Features, Textured Skin, Translucent Skin, Bony Protrusions, Skin Tumors, Extra Horn, Hunchback, Club Foot, Extra Head, Extra Limb, Extra torso with head and limbs. I will make a chart and add it to the power at a  later time.

If the players rolls, Bony Protrusions, a sub-form that falls under the "Deformity, Moderate" Type the character can be made with the lesser restrictions listed.

If the species was only made with the "Deformity, Moderate" Type then the list of possible sub-forms would only consist of those from that and the "Deformity, Minor" Type.

All the best!
Chris J.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Added New Power, Weakness: Deformity

Deformity comes in three levels of severity, Mild, Moderate and Major. I leave it to a DM to decide if a  player can pick or randomly roll for the sub-form of deformity their character has. Of course a DM may include other deformities too. Also a DM may opt to have more than one deformity.

A few points about this power.

  • Odd Color is from the point of view what is normal for the species, so if a species is normally green then green would not be an odd color, try orange!
  • Textured skin would be skin that may look like it is bumpy, scaly, or like tree bark, or anything else that a DM would allow. Again this is relative to the species. BTW -There are no Natural Armor Bonus.
  • With Skin Tumors think of large fleshy masses in visible places lie the face, neck, arms, etc...
  • Extra [Anything] If a species does not normaly have a horn, or feather, etc..well now you do.
  • Extra Head, This does not make you twice as smart, it is an unsightly grossly misshapen head that at the most will let you eat and drink at he same time...or eat and speak at the same time...maybe the DM can added a control roll to keep from spitting food up.
  • Club foot does not alter land speed, but shoes may cost more.
  • Extra Limb is limp, under developed and more or less useless.
  • The extra torso, arms and head will not help you in combat, it is little more than a highly developed mass of bones and flesh...that happens to share to major arteries.