What is Ballista?

Anyone who has read my blog on and off over the years (and remembers) could explain it away in different ways. I had to look myself and talks about Ballista goes back to 2011. So many things have happened in this gaming landscape in that time period. It was... at first a periodical. Then, as I worked on creating content for the first issue of that periodical, I stumbled upon something really cool. The idea became the Ballista Rules Companion and I scrapped the periodical and decided to just re-purpose some the material for this. Then I proceeded to build up... tear down... and build up a system and framework.

Before all of that... I had a different idea. The idea was basic enough and it was FAR from an original concept. I had already produced a couple of adventure modules for Castles & Crusades and was looking at converting some of these to Swords & Wizardry. Given the similar roots that these systems shared with so many other like them thanks to the OGL and the SRD, I mused that a condensed set of rules could be included in just a few pages at the back of the module eliminating the absolute NEED for a rule book. So... I essentially went back to that idea and build from there.  So...

What is Ballista?

Ballista is a new line of adventures and gaming material published by Arcana Creations. The books in this series is all about providing a basic, rules-light, gaming experience making it easy to get into and start playing.
 
What it is not.
 
Ballista is not a new game. Instead it uses a distillation of elements found in the world’s most popular fantasy roleplaying game whose roots stretch back to 1974. The material is simplified and streamlined in order to maintain compatibilities with many other rule systems that share the same familiar gaming heritage.

What rules do I need?   

Very little. Each adventure module has some basic rules written on the inside cover of the booklet and others also have pre-generated characters. If you are familiar with any old school fantasy role playing game or newer games that derive from them, you can refer to those rules. Two excellent games to consider are Castles & Crusades published by Troll Lord Games as well as Swords & Wizardry published by Frog God Games.  Both companies offer free versions of their games in electronic format.
 
However, as long as you have characters in hand, the rules summary and suggestions provided in a Ballista book are all you really need to play.

At this point... we have three titles ready to go with another two on the way. Since this is a NEW line, I wanted to have a small selection to start with as opposed to just one or two. As such, the first three titles have been previously published for a different system though there have been some changes beyond a simple 'conversion'. In the next few days, I will showcase each of these titles as well as to illustrate what ties it all together as a new line. A Kickstarter to launch the line will be starting in less than a couple of weeks.

M