H2O: A Role-Playing Ruleset is on sale now!

At long last, H2O: A Role-Playing Ruleset is finished and up for sale! For only $18, you can own the pen and paper RPG that is changing all the rules. The basic set comes with both the rulebook and a deck of H2O cards. Also, you can purchase extra decks of H2O cards for $10 here.

I'm taking a little time to enjoy the release, but am also already thinking about the first game world expansion. More on that later.

H20 has arrived!

Good evening! I came home from work today to a pleasant surprise!

My preview copy of H2O: A Role-Playing Ruleset has arrived!

Take a look inside the box. Manual: check. Cards: check. Things I don't recognize: check.

It's a sticker!

A little baggie of H2O cards. Ending in the 7 card, for some reason.

The manual, unstapled. I wonder if I broke their stapling machine. The cover image is a little dark (actually, it looks like just a black blob), so I'll have to lighten that up.

Here's a better look at some of the cards. I think they turned out pretty good! The borders are showing up, the colors are nice. Overall, a very nice deck of cards.

So I just have a couple of changes to make, and then the game will be ready to publish. Stay tuned to this blog for the announcement!

BETA

H2O: A Role-Playing Ruleset has been sent of the printers. I will be getting my preview copy in the coming days and will hopefully need to make only small changes.

My concerns:

1. Too much of the card edges could get cut off.
2. The rulebook will be too long and will be un-staple-able.
3. It will melt my face with its awesomeness.

Watch this page closely. It will soon feature a link to purchase your own copy. And purchase it you will.

Mr. H2O Rides Again!

Wooooooo!

The American Assassin

So I just discovered that I discarded a bunch of papers that had multiple enemies I had jotted down. Whoops.

So I have to spend some time re-imagining and creating some more baddies. If you have any ideas for what you would like to see, leave a comment below.

I have also finished colorizing an image of the American Assassin enemy (below). I had drawn this as a doodle a while back, and am pretty pumped I get to use it for something.

Card back!

I finished up the card back and remastered all of the cards. They are ready to go!

The 5 Card!

Based on a suggestion from my wonderful wife, the 5 card has been drawn and is nearly complete! I repurposed an old drawing of a mouth clamping down on a stick and turned it into a creepy clown type guy.

This is the final card. All that remains is the back for the cards. Above is a comparison of the original drawing to the near-finished image.

What to draw?

I am waffling on what to draw for the 5 card. It's the last card to draw and my mind is completely blank.

Here are some of my terrible ideas:

An exploding man.

A tree. Maybe evil.

A guy with a morning star in his mouth.

A robot who wants to kill humans.

Tap shoes.

Mexico.

This is really starting to hold me up. I wish I could just leave out #5.

About a Skill Set: Soldier Skills

From the rulebook:

"Soldier Skills focus on dominating an opponent through the use of physical attacks and strong defense. Soldier is the only class of Skills that focus on both melee and ranged weaponry.

Because this category is evenly divided between Attack and Defense, a character specializing in Soldier Skills needs to distribute his Attributes wisely."

Sample Skills:

Level 1

Windmill: The character makes a wide attack, hitting up to 3 opponents. Each opponent plays their own Defense Card. Damage is calculated separately for each opponent. The character must be unarmed or using a melee weapon.

Level 2

Shield: The value of the Defense Card is raised by 8. The character does not receive an Attack Bonus on his next attack for a successful block when using Shield.

Level 3

Sneak Attack: The character attacks an opponent while the opponent is in a volley against another character. The opponent cannot use a Defense Card. After the attack, the opponent must discard every Defense Card in his hand. He may draw cards to bring himself back to his Default Hand.

About a Skill Set: Qi Skills

From the rulebook:

"Qi Skills focus on using the life energy of a character to launch devastating attacks against an opponent. The special emphasis of this category is on unarmed combat, but the energy is often used to enhance bladed weapons as well.

Often thought of as melee wizardry, Qi Skills have high Attack requirements. Characters who specialize in Qi Skills will find they are unparalleled in physical combat."

Sample Skills:

Level 1

Lure: If the character uses this Skill while successfully defending an attack, the difference in card value is returned as damage taken by the opponent. The character does not receive an attack bonus on their next turn due to any Defense Card played.

Level 2

Bleeding Blade: The character impales an opponent with a bladed weapon. The attack deals normal damage. Each subsequent turn for the opponent reduces the value of his Attack Cards by 1 until the end of battle or he is healed. Max reduction in Attack Card value is 4.

Level 3

Spherical Qi: The character releases a ball of Qi that hurtles toward his opponent. Each character typically comes up with their own unique name for this skill. The range of the ball is 60 feet and damage is 2 times the Attack Card if the attack lands.

About a Skill Set: Holy Skills

From the rulebook:

"Holy Skills rely on divine and natural powers to aid allies and defeat opponents. This category of Skills is the only one that focuses primarily on aiding allies in battle and the characters who choose to specialize in them function best in groups.

That doesn’t mean, however, that Holy Skills should be taken lightly. The ability to heal allies, alone, can give a team a significant advantage against opponents."

Sample Skills:

Level 1

Boost: Raises any character’s Attack and Defense Attributes by 6 for a number of turns equal to the sum of the cards used. The character’s Attack and Defense bonus can be affected by Boost, but they cannot learn new Skills based on the improved scores.

Each character can be affected by only 1 Boost Spell at a time.

Level 2

Cure: Removes any status that hurts a character over time from that character and heals them for the average of the 2 cards used. Can be used on any character.

Level 3

Hurricane: Heavy winds stir up debris that hits every opponent within 100 feet of the caster for 4 turns. Damage equals the average of the cards used for the Spell each turn. Opponents can play a Defense Card to reduce the damage, but do not get to draw to replace it until the Spell is over.

What is H2O?

I'm calling H2O a "role-playing ruleset." You may not know what that means. This is the post for you.

I started developing H2O nearly a decade ago when I was in the thick of high school and a pretty big Dungeons & Dragons nerd. Also popular at this time was a little TV show called Dragon Ball Z. Long before "over 9000!" became an internet meme, I was sitting on my couch every afternoon watching those hideously drawn-out battles and wishing I could replicate the same type of action in my role-playing adventures.

I tried it a few times -- character flying around, energy blasts, quick, crazy action -- and found one thing was holding me back. Dice. You could plan intricate attacks, set things up perfectly for spectacular battles, and end up rolling 1's. It didn't make any sense to me then how my character could just totally whiff like that. Soon after, I would stop playing these games altogether, but not before I had come up with an idea of my own to ditch dice once and for all.

H2O is designed to be a set of rules based on a card-battle system meant to be fast-paced and strategic. This is not a collectible card game: a deck of H2O cards is similar to a standard deck of playing cards. Players are able to draw cards, think about their plan of attack based on what is in their hands and adapt their strategies to their opponents. No more unfortunately rolled 1's. If you are playing a 1 Card, you know what is coming and can incorporate it into your strategy.

Back then, the game never got past the conceptual stage. Now I am revisiting it, giving it a full rule-book and specially designed cards. It's a blast putting it together, and I will be self-publishing it soon. It will be awesome.

This is a new blog!

Development on H2O: A Role-Playing Ruleset is coming right along. I even got my wife to play it today!

So today I begin a blog for the game. It's a type of procrastination, really. But aren't all blogs that?

Stay tuned for updates.