Hit Point Press - Shifted My Schedule

I live in Ottawa and so attend Can Games. It's a cozy RPG convention full of friends and plentiful games of all sorts and types. I was there with Doc Steve, the best GM in the Universe, and my wonderful partner Xenotropos.

It was there I spied a colorful banner depicting a rabbit knight, with a mace, staring into a space pyramid. Given my banner is a mouse, I was rather intrigued by this adventuresome rodentia.

The man at the table was Jordan Richer, the designer of this new game. We struck up a conversation and I discovered a few things.

• Shift is being published by Hit Point Press

• Hit Point Press has connections to my hometown of Ottawa

• Jordan Richer is a close friend of one of the players in an In Nomine campaign I ran. One that shaped me as a person and a GM, and the direct inspiration for As Above, So Below.

Obviously, I had no choice but to play his game.

I'm glad I did, he's a good GM and it's a great system.

We were space miners rushing to kick someone who jumped our claim. I played a little rabbit techie whose home was a robot PC. Very fun.

Shift is a rules-light RPG designed for setting up fast-pased games in any genre you'd like. It's old-school in that you have players interacting in a world spun by a GM.

Characters are based on a series of traits that are ranked from a D12 to a D4. The lower the better. Rolling badly or getting hurt can shift these traits closer to a D12. If a trait goes beyond, it's exhausted. Resting, healing, or rolling really well can shift these traits back to their original levels.

NPCs are made up of similar traits, and the GM can set them up on the fly. If you get into a scuffle or argument, your attacks shift those down, and their attacks will shift yours in kind.

It's great for the improvised games I like to run. The rules let you draw up people, plots and tricks quickly. That being said there's a lot there you can use if you want to plan. They've got rules for travel, vehciles and all sorts of other fun system peices you can stack on to make the game you want to.

I've actually been working on a new Orboboros book that will make use it (not related to Hit Point press). It's why I haven't done more on Tales of the Haunted Blue....but that is still coming, I assure you.

Look, I got so inspired that I walked around Ottawa like a loon, yammering to myself on how I'd adapt Orboboros to Shift. I was THAT inspired.

So go and check out their Kickstarter.

If you're curious, they've got games running on their Discord group, I'm even GMing some of them.