Thursday, February 25, 2010

OwlCon XXIX Game Recap

Car Wars
The Swords & Wizardry game got canceled (major bummer). Instead I drove the General Lee in a nicely put together game of Car Wars.

Life doesn't get better than laying down a line of dropped spikes in a sweet, orange Charger (although that looks like a GTO, eh?).




Couple of shots of me driving around the central cluster fuck. Sadly this awesome tactic meant I never got many good shots and the ones I did get I whiffed on . So, I had to drive off the arena alive but without a kill to my name. The south will Ride Again!


Burning Wheel

Is a game system that didn't appeal to me after reading the rules. Although the setup of this game (riff on the premise of the film Resevoir Dogs) was irresistible and caused me to give it a try. Glad I did. It was a total hoot. DM arrived scruffy beard, sunglasses, suit, pencil tile toting a briefcase. It got awesomer from there.

Our job was to rob jewelry store with this gang:
Mr. Green - punk pizza delivery boy on first job
Mr. Silk - womanizer, smooth talker
Mr. Velvet - Silks protective older brother
Mr. Red - Marine hot head who's father get's blown away in opening scene
Mr. Cotton - old mobster and crew boss
Mr. Burlap - old, washed up, drunk safe cracker (me)

Won't bore you with whole story but of course job was cocked up. During aftermath I won the argument (social contest), I won the draw, but I missed with my shot and in return got my chest and a good portion of head splattered round inside of the getaway van. Althought, not before I got to call someone Cocksucker! Game ended in Mexican standoff in which everyone got dropped except Mr. Velvet who dragged his brother out (in slow-mo as grenade someone had dropped explodes into huge fire ball behind him).

The system plays so much nicer, quicker, cleaner than reading the rules implied. Burning Wheel is definitely an RPG were you need a good GM and good, engaged, confident players. I would play again and totally recommend it to those looking for a good "indie" system.


Savage Worlds

Fun game with local Austin GM Flynn. I enjoy savage worlds as a player but DMing it something just doesn't work for me. I think it's cause I don't like fantasy/sci-fi to be heroic pulp type style that SW promotes. I can imagine running something like Tales of the Gold Monkey though.

The highlight was a late walkin, 10-13? yr old friend of the 10-13 yr old girl already playing. Her hyperness, enthusiasm and cuteness were fun and uplifting. Made me think I should be more open to kids in my games but after awhile her hyperness, enthusiasm and waning cuteness reminded me why I'm not.

Still fun time all around even though the Blood "God", pictured below, totally whipped our butts.



Zombies!
Another miniatures game. Insanely hard and evil. The more zombies you shoot the more that appear.

Oh noes! Zombies in the Hannah Montona Mall.


What happens when you start a semi-tracter & trailer?
Well 12 zombies per turn are generated and mob your ass. Then you crash into the side of Hannah Montana Mall's entrance. The resulting explosion burns most the zombies and propels you into the mall were the other players shoot you first in the face and then in the back of the head.


This is how it ends, face down outside CDs & More, brain food for zombies.

Draw!


This is an RPG in development by ... Some company blank_hawg or blank_hog from San Antonio I think. It was fun, but the very most important thing that I now know (also after playing Deadlands CCG) is

There is absolutely no reason to make or play any western RPG / Game that does not somehow use regular 52 card deck and poker hands as it's primary mechanic.
None.


Jesus Sanchez lets loose with some Tijuana lead!

Pixies Should Have d12 Hit Dice

or d6+6. Some high number of hit points.

Pixie being a Player Character version of some 6-8 inch tall thing with wings that flits about annoyingly.

Pixie characters typically get low hit points and large AC bonus. But that produces a sharp cut off. If you can hit them they go splat. If you can't hit them, they're safe until your lucky roll then go splat. I like keeping AC a class of armor and not mucking it up with Dex/Dodge. Seeing as hit points represent luck, fate, fatigue, and ability to not get hit I totally can imagine the flying pixie dodging and darting this way and that as having high hit points and normal naked AC.

A conceptual leap, perhaps one you should not attempt while playing D&D. But, it came to mind chasing my dog around the house and was curious what others thought.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Read an RPG Book in Public

Can't say it better than The Escapist's Read an RPG Book in Public.

Welcome to The Escapist, a web page devoted to the betterment of role-playing games and the education of the public and media of their benefits to society.

Tabletop role-playing games like Dungeons & Dragons are an engaging and intellectually stimulating activity that promote teamwork, problem solving, and creative thinking. Even better, in hands of a parent, guardian, or educator, they can be a fantastic teaching tool.

Too many "adult" gamers are embarrassed (or whatever excuse they claim in place of embarrassment) to strut their game geekness in public or even to non-gamer friends and family! Everyone's has a right to keep their secrets. Still, I say grow a pair and help our hobby get the legitimacy it deserves.

The 29th OwlCon

I got a nasty cough and sore throat that lasted the entire con. Popping cough drops, on verge of losing one's voice is a great way to be for a weekend of role-playing...

Owl Con organizers are top notch. Great con, good location (student union: various sized rooms, places to eat and hangout, bar downstairs! Everything went smoothly from pre-reg, to picking up badge/packet, to last minute changes to games. Definitely will get back there next year for OwlCon #30!


I finally met the Colonel. Bought a nice color map of the city of Viridistan from City State of the World Emperor ($4.00), Gamescience Book of Tables Vol1 ($6.00), and a Gamescience version of Tegel Manor? ($15.00, I think) No Gamescience dice though, I have plenty. All of which I'll post reviews on later. Also a couple metal tins of Fiery Dragon's older(3.5ed) Counter Collections for 1/2 price ($10 each). Paper counters are nice, portable alternative to mini's sometimes. Overall probably more than I should/had to pay for that stuff. But man, Mr. Zocchi has been dragging this stuff to cons and being part of the hobby forever. I'm happy for my dollars to go into his pocket.

From another vendor's (I believe it was a FLGS) boxes of old game stuff I got The AADA Road Atlas and Survival Guide Vol 3, The South ($5.00), the terribly awesome Tricorder/Starship Sensors Interactive Display accessory from FASA's Star Trek ($5.00), Non-Sequitur Productions' Cults & Conspiracies I Which I just found out is a supplement for Of Gods and Men (I bought book based on title alone and had assumed it was d20). I find it hilarious since I won the corebook of that system a few years back at DunDraCon. We'll see if it's worth the $12.00 I paid, way more than I normally spend on something like this. Must have been getting giddy from lack of sleep / having the flu.

Picked up nicely printed, pocketbook sized version of H.G. Wells Little Wars reprinted by Skirmisher Publishing ($10.00). Skirmisher's vendor booth dude threw in a coupon for a free copy H.G. Wells PDF Bundle. Nice! I also intend to pick up a PDF of their City Builder which I didn't feel need to have a physical copy of.

They were pushing a Cthulhu LARP. Even though LARPs are well outside my idea of fun it tickles me pink to know there are "kids" running around non-euclidean geometries loosing their sanity.


While in Houston, also visited Nan's Games & Comics Too (the FLGS of my con buddy's youth) and I picked up a copy of HackMaster's B2 Little Keep on the Borderlands ($?.?? I think full-price, guess supporting the FLGS). Nice store with a ton of stuff, lots of older stuff. I would have bought much more if we weren't in a hurry and I wasn't poor.

Sunday, February 21, 2010

One Page Dungeon Contest One Week Left


One Page Dungeon Contest 2010 edition over forever in just over a week, on

Ends March 1st at 0:00 GMT!!!


Never again will you have the opportunity to bemuse, bedevil, and brag to your RPG peers with your "dungeon" design.


Never again will you be eligible to win these fabulous sponsor donated prizes:

Never again will I volunteer to judge the 1PD contest, so, last chance to make me do a ridiculous amount of reading and reviewing! :)

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Does More Than 1d4

The Lost Fort is one of my favorite non-RPG blogs. Check out these real Roman Daggers. What struck me was how wide the blades were. Hence title, those suckers do more than 1d4 in damage!

Gone for long weekend at Owl Con

Getting ready then tomorrow leaving ridicuosly early (cause my ride is like a morning person) for


See you there!

Wednesday, February 17, 2010

Simplified Flanking

The more "complex" flanking rule.

When DMing without a battle mat I find it pain to deal with flanking. I could just ignore it but
1) More fun when players deserve tactical choices/problems.
2) I want swarms of low-level critters to be dangerous.
3) Likewise even punk 0 lvl men-at-arms should be "worth it" if you bring a posse.

When running combats without square grids / battlemats I form combatants into groups. If the players are smart they will form one group. But lacking plans and tactics they typically fight as individuals. Even with disciplined parties thieves are caught out front and fighters like to charge. Sometimes they get split across different rooms. It's abstract "these two are blocking the door", "rest are around pool". Monsters are grouped as well. "4 by 2 kobold phalanx" and "shaman with two guard dogs". With that in mind, here is a combined flanking/mob rule.
For every attacker beyond X attacking the same group they all get +1 to-hit. With X of 1, two attackers each get +1, three attackers each get +2, and so on.

Where X is one of:
  • count of defenders in group
  • defending monster's HD, for big(er) monsters
  • a swashbuckling character's lvl or perhaps base to-hit
  • a number DM picks based on situation, like it's never gonna bother a Hydra
At most 4 same sized or 6 smaller sized attackers can beat on the same defender. 6 kobolds each with +5 to-hit should give even "Mr. plate and tower shield" something to worry over.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

AGP Acquisitions

Prompted by AGP's sale I purchased a few items from DriveThru RPG.

Castles & Crusades: 100 Calamitous Curses - Exactly as advertised, 100 curses. In nicely formated d100 table that is self contained on it's own pages for easy extraction into one's DM Binder. One page on getting/removing curses and cursed scrolls. I'll use these for lot more than just bestow curse spell; failed sorcery rituals, traps, and NPC spells. Easily worth the price, $1.25

Castles & Crusades: Barbarians of the Wilderlands 1 - I got this for ready made descriptions of 9 barbarian "types" and the Versatility/barbarians in civilization. Very happy about descriptions, versatility not so much. It's too tied into C&C (no fault of the product it's clearly a C&C supplement). Still easily worth the price as the most expensive item of the lot, at $2.00.

Wilderlands: Faiths of the City State: Forn Sidthr - Details of afterlife, a system of tracking sins and virtues that impact your souls disposition, some fluffery. All Norse flavored. I'm so there. In my campaign elves are primarly follower of Norse gods. This gave me the interesting idea of splitting whorship of the Vanir and Aesir into separate groups / cultures. The fluffery (history, pantheon, holy days, etc) was short and brief. Which in my mind is ideal; Easy amount to read, comprehend, understand with plenty of space to expand and customize. It was also very dense, packing a lot of idea generating ideas in a few pages. Really excellent writing all around. It's sad that this style doesn't have wider appeal. The layout/format is good template and one I'll utilize when creating my own religious writeups. $1.50 very well spent.


If you have questions or want a fuller review, ask in the comments.

Monday, February 15, 2010

The Grand OGL Wiki

The Grand OGL Wiki is pretty bloody awesome. It's a wiki that aims to collect all the open game license content that exists. A tall order, one they need volunteers to complete. But they already have compiled a pile of content from an impressive list of publishers and titles.

Of course, a lot of it's d20ish and thus not that exciting outside the d20/3.x crowd. Still there's lots of ideas to mine. Anyone should be able to convert a magic item from 3.x to any of the lighter systems on the fly. There's plenty of generic goodness too.



Potent Portals
by Creative Mountain Games
Open Game License

A book full of magical...

Archways and Gates
Bars and Shutters
Coverings and Curtains
Doors and Trapdoors
Knobs and Knockers
Latches, Levers and Locks
Skylights and Windows



Swords into Plowshares
by Sean K. Reynolds Games'
Open Game License

Book full of unique magic weapons. Such as...

Trust in Fate

This heavy flail is made of pale yellow wood and partially plated in gold. The haft is bound in steel bandings and carved with shield spells on its entire length. The head bears many symbols of broken shields interspersed among its points.

This weapon was made for Dal Akan, the captain of the guard of a great temple of the goddess of fate. Dal Akan had a strange sense of prophecy—he awoke every morning knowing what harm would befall him that day, if any. This strange gift of the goddess made him a natural choice for leader of her temple guards, and secure in his knowledge of his life or death he faced down dangers to the temple that none thought could be defeated. When one day he awoke knowing he was going to die, he suspected a similar fate might befall the priests of the temple and convinced them to leave before the attack came. Guarding the temple door with only his most loyal soldiers with him—those that would rather face death than abandon their beloved captain—Dal Akan was attacked by evil cultists desiring secret prophesies said to be stored in the temple. All defenders were slain, Dal having been turned to stone by a medusa cultist. The attackers found no prophecies (as they had been spirited away by the fleeing priests) and had to be content with valuables left in the temple, including Trust in Fate.

The flail was used to defend the cultist’s lair and was taken as spoils when they were destroyed by a rival cult of necromancers. The necromancers gave the weapon to a ghoul priest in exchange for his services, and when the necromancers turned on each other in their paranoia the ghoul left with the weapon.

Trust in Fate is a +3 defending heavy flail. Once per day the wielder can invoke a true strike spell as a standard action. When the true strike is activated, the end of the flail shines with a clear, yellow light, illuminating a 30-foot radius. The light fades when the true strike effect ends.

Sunday, February 14, 2010

While Looking for Images of Galeb Duhr

This speaks to why random encounters, random generators, and random tables in general are beloved by many. Why ditching preplanned story and plot for the chaos of however, whereever, whatever trouble the players get up to is an easier and more fun way to DM (for me).


The other day I did a Google image search for Galeb Duhr. One of the hits was this page. Which I'm not sure what it is but it's freaky, full of monsters and fun.
"Climbing up to the third level, the Ralgül Party finds a very ornately decorated dungeon with columns and identical statues on each doorway. All the statues have grim and evil expressions and the light is a dark purple color and very hazy."

Middle of some sort of weird ass play report? I'm off to poke around (explore) that site. See what treasure I may find.

Let go of control, embrace the random. The surprise of not knowing what's ahead is a total hoot.

Saturday, February 13, 2010

Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #477

The latest edition of Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine #477 has been published. I've received a ton of great advice, tips, and inspiration from RPG Tips over the years. Well worth the time to check it out.

Table of Contents:

Galeb Duhr

This silly what monster are you was pointed out by the RPG Dumping Ground. One of the questions implied that Galeb duhr was an anagram. According to random anagram site found via Google it's one of these. But, damn if I can't figure out which one. Dale Burgh? Who dat?


Badge Hurl
Garbled Uh
Balder Hug
Balder Ugh
Blared Hug
Blared Ugh
Bald Huger
Garble Duh
Herbal Dug
Bag Hurdle
Bag Hurled
Gab Hurdle
Gab Hurled
Blah Urged
Glared Hub
Haled Grub
Haled Burg
Herald Bug
Lead Burgh
Lade Burgh
Dale Burgh
Deal Burgh
Had Burgle
Had Bugler
Hard Bulge
Hard Bugle
Hag Burled
Laugh Bred
Ha Burgled
Ah Burgled
Rah Bulged
Rah Bugled
A Burgh Led
A Grub Held
A Burg Held
Bad Her Lug
Dab Her Lug
Bald Erg Uh
Bald Eh Rug
Bald He Rug
Bald Re Hug
Bald Re Ugh
Bard Gel Uh
Bard Leg Uh
Bard Eh Lug
Bard He Lug
Drab Gel Uh
Drab Leg Uh
Drab Eh Lug
Drab He Lug
Brad Gel Uh
Brad Leg Uh
Brad Eh Lug
Brad He Lug
Bag Ed Hurl
Gab Ed Hurl
Grab Led Uh
Garb Led Uh
Brag Led Uh
Bah Led Rug
Bah Red Lug
Blah Ed Rug
Blah Dug Re
Lab Red Hug
Lab Red Ugh
Lab Drug Eh
Lab Drug He
Lab Dug Her
Lab Duh Erg
Alb Red Hug
Alb Red Ugh
Alb Drug Eh
Alb Drug He
Alb Dug Her
Alb Duh Erg
Bra Geld Uh
Bra Led Hug
Bra Led Ugh
Bra Duh Gel
Bra Duh Leg
Bar Geld Uh
Bar Led Hug
Bar Led Ugh
Bar Duh Gel
Bar Duh Leg
Ad Beg Hurl
Ad Herb Lug
Gad Be Hurl
Gad Blur Eh
Gad Blur He
Gad Burl Eh
Gad Burl He
Glad Hub Re
Glad Rub Eh
Glad Rub He
Glad Bur Eh
Glad Bur He
Had Rub Gel
Had Rub Leg
Had Bur Gel
Had Bur Leg
Hard Be Lug
Lad Berg Uh
Lad Grub Eh
Lad Grub He
Lad Burg Eh
Lad Burg He
Lad Bug Her
Lad Hub Erg
Lard Be Hug
Lard Be Ugh
Lard Beg Uh
Lard Bug Eh
Lard Bug He
Rad Hub Gel
Rad Hub Leg
Hag Blur Ed
Hag Burl Ed
Hag Rub Led
Hag Bur Led
Lag Bred Uh
Lag Drub Eh
Lag Drub He
Lag Dub Her
Lag Bud Her
Lag Hub Red
Gal Bred Uh
Gal Drub Eh
Gal Drub He
Gal Dub Her
Gal Bud Her
Gal Hub Red
Rag Bled Uh
Rag Hub Led
Gar Bled Uh
Gar Hub Led
Ha Bled Rug
Ha Bred Lug
Ha Drub Gel
Ha Drub Leg
Ha Grub Led
Ha Burg Led
Ha Rub Geld
Ha Bur Geld
Ah Bled Rug
Ah Bred Lug
Ah Drub Gel
Ah Drub Leg
Ah Grub Led
Ah Burg Led
Ah Rub Geld
Ah Bur Geld
Rah Bed Lug
Rah Deb Lug
Rah Dub Gel
Rah Dub Leg
Rah Bud Gel
Rah Bud Leg
Rah Bug Led
La Bred Hug
La Bred Ugh
La Berg Duh
La Herb Dug
La Burgh Ed
La Bug Herd


Oh and I'm a apparently "A creature out of legend, the heroslayer hydra earned its name from the heroes who fell to its fangs." Which I take to be subtily cautioning me about my Killer DM tendencies.

Friday, February 12, 2010

Didn't Even Cheat

I was messing around with RPG Dumping Ground's Character Generator for PBEM and check out the awesome roll 'f' got! Tripple 18's in the physicals, ok Int, Wis only bad stat is Cha aka the dump stat. It was 4d6 drop lowest but still I don't think I've ever rolled that well in my life.

Great little service PBE Games provides. Check out there other PBEM tools.

---- Signed section - include this line ----
Results displayed via web.
Summary: Characters generated by Play by Electron Games


--------------------------------------------------
Character One
Name: f
Method: 4d6 drop lowest, in order
STR: 18 DEX: 18 CON: 18 INT: 11 WIS: 13 CHA: 7

--------------------------------------------------
Character Two
Name: d
Method: 3d6 in order
STR: 14 DEX: 13 CON: 11 INT: 8 WIS: 10 CHA: 8

--------------------------------------------------
Character Three
Name: g
Method: 3d6 arranged
Arrange as desired: 13 14 10 8 4 9

---- Signed section - include this line ----

Signature: 772f402eb6da38aea7e07f1c82e87624
To verify: http://www.pbegames.com/verify/

---
Characters by: http://www.pbegames.com/character
Char Gen version 1.0

What Matters Most in Sci-Fi RPGs

Big computers, small computers - bah! Double bah! Such trivialities matter not. The prime quality I care about and the surest factor of sci-fi game worthiness is whether or not it features chicks with purple hair.










All purple ladies courtesy of British Sci-Fi UFO series

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Update to MS Surface D&D Game Table

The very idea of this is sure to make the traditionalists rant, the edge bleeders rave and the rest to go, meh? Short vid, but looks like they've improved some stuff compared to original MS Surface D&D Table. Still, dice response is too slow. [They really need to keep physical dice and use camera to read values, or something.] See also, other electronic game tables.



CNET Story with claims of coming soon to a store near you.

Even if you rage against mixing electrogadgetry with your RPG you gotta give the Carnegie Mellon crew credit for doing interesting research that will spread well beyond games.

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Screw In Coffin

[Forgot to mention that the patent for this screw your dead coffin has issued to Donald Scruggs of Chino, CA. The. Found in Make Magazine's Blog. More images of dead people being screwed.]


What a way to plant undead (zombie mines) around. I see a plain of these stretching off into the distance. (actually imagine the human battery "farms" from The Matrix)

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

A Dragon's Hoard Worth of Prizes

The One Page Dungeon Contest has been sponsored by a huge number of generous persons and companies. Wow! Thanks!

This stuff could be yours! Create a One Page Dungeon now and submit it by the March 1st deadline.


A US$50 voucher by ProFantasy Software

A full year Ascendant membership to Obsidian Portal by Obsidian Portal for first place
A 6 month Ascendant membership to Obsidian Portal by Obsidian Portal for second place
A 3 month Ascendant membership to Obsidian Portal by Obsidian Portal for third place


A perfect bound copy of Swords & Wizardry: WhiteBox by Brave Halfling Publishing




A copy of the Martial Flavor ebook by Chaotic Shiny Productions for each of the winners




A softcover copy of War of the Burning Sky #1: The Scouring of Gate Pass by EN World for D&D 3.5 or D&D 4 – winner’s choice




Issues #1-#8 in PDF by Fight On! magazine




Winner’s choice of either a physical copy of Labyrinth Lord or the Advanced Edition Companion by Goblinoid Games




A copy of The Dungeon Alphabet by Goodman Games




A copy of Random Esoteric Creature Generator by Goodman Games




A copy of Points of Light by Goodman Games




A set of The Grinding Gear, No Dignity in Death: The Three Brides, and People of Pembrooktonshire by Lamentations of the Flame Princess




A print copy of Stonehell Dungeon by Michael Curtis from the author himself




A one-year PDF subscription to Kobold Quarterly by Open Design





A $50 voucher for the winner by Otherworld Miniatures
A $30 voucher for second place by Otherworld Miniatures
A $15 voucher for third place by Otherworld Miniatures
A $15 voucher for fourth place by Otherworld Miniatures



A first print copy of RC2 The Screaming Temple by Pacesetter Games & Simulations
A first print copy of RC3 Eruptor’s Vengeance by Pacesetter Games & Simulations




A copy of the Treasure Awaits! boxed set by Precis Intermedia





A copy of the Fantastic Maps: The Dragon's Lair PDF by Rite Publishing
A copy of the Feats 101 PDF by Rite Publishing
A copy of the Restless Souls PDF by Rite Publishing






Dang! I sort of wish I wasn't a judge and had the opportunity to win some of those great prizes. Thanks again to the sponsors, you rock!

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

North Texas RPG Con

Just registered for the North Texas RPG Convention, June 3-6 in Irving, TX (somewhere near Dallas I think, close enough to Austin). It's specifically an "Old School" convention. These old school guys start it early and hard! Thursday night 6pm till midnight! Dungeon of Death, DM Rob Kuntz! AD&D 8 4th-6th lvl players Lake Geneva Original Campaign™
A dungeon crawl in the good ole sense of the phrase. Exploration, tricks and traps, and crazy combat situations await! This has been specially crafted for NTRPGCon and has some surprises in it for their members! Dead-PCs' character sheets will be autographed by Rob Kuntz...
How many suicidal characters will that create? An awesome beginning continues Friday morning when Allan Grohe runs Delving the Depths of Grodog's Castle Greyhawk! More AD&D goodness. 8-12 players!
Delve the wonders and perils of grodog's version of Castle Greyhawk, and (hopefully) come out alive, unchanged, and with some loot and war stories to share over a tankard or two at the Green Dragon Inn. Pregen PCs will be provided on replica 1977 TSR character sheets.
Mid-afternoon I slow down a bit and attend "Playing": Origns of the Game panel with Rob Kuntz, Tim Kask, Dennis Sustare.

Then it's back at it. Friday night sees me joining the Third Expedition Into Mythrus Tower. Original D&D (using Swords & Wizardry Core Rules) run by Matt Finch. This one looks really interesting. This megadungeon is being run by various DM's in different timeslots throughout the convention. Players can start new or return with a surviving character from a previous timeslot. A mini-sandbox campaign for the four days of the convention and beyond! I was tempted to fill up all my slots with Expedition's to the tower...
The third expedition into Mythrus Tower! Players from earlier expeditions may use their same characters (with all their xp and treasure), and new players may freely join the party. Information, including maps, may be freely shared by those who undertook one of the earlier expeditions; in fact, this is encouraged. Treasure that’s looted by earlier expeditions will be gone; bodies left behind will still be there. This is an ongoing series of expeditions, not the same scenario being played over and over again.
Notes: Newly generated characters are also entered into the “Book of Names” of the Swords & Wizardry World of Mythrus campaign. These characters can be brought into later World of Mythrus events with their existing levels and equipment.

Mythrus Tower is a vast megadungeon, with all the traditional features from traps to tricks to wandering monsters. Bring your A-game; the upper levels are easy, but this is the real thing, not an introductory module.
I think I'll be ready to pass out by this time and it's only Saturday Morning. I'm sure being in Michael Shorten's (who's that? oh it's Chgowiz) Swords & Wizardry adventure Tomb of Hulkursag will be incentive enough to drag me out of bed.

World/Setting : Fantasy/Mesopotamia!!! (that is sooooo super awesome)
The ziggurat has been breached and some secrets plumbed from the depths, but the brave party that initially ventured forth... alas... the gods must have cursed them as only one returned with the barest scratchings on a tablet to guide you. Tombs were found, filled with riches! Will you enter the Black Ziggurat and go where others have tried... and died? NOTE: This will be the first public play of a Sumerian setting/dungeon for Swords & Wizardry Core Rules, as well as a continuation of a game first started at GenCon 2009. It's meant for the cautious, the smart and the prepared, as combat, traps and riches await those who enter. While you'll have the choice of venturing to a place where clues are given, the entire ziggurat itself is available for you to explore if you desire.

After that , another panel. This one on Megadungeon Design. The panelists sound like they might know a thing or two about that. Paul Jaquays, Rob Kuntz, Allan Grohe, Jason Cone "Philotomy".

I actually have Saturday evening free, whew. Some time to poke around vendors, chat and meet some of the awesome people attending this con or simply sleep. Would have liked to have squeezed in some of Steve Winter's D&D Expert or Gamma World games. But they're scheduled other times and it just didn't work out this time. Tim Kask's Onto the Devil's Skillet's description was too intimidating for m;
"Skill level not recommended for beginners. No books/rules allowed at table except mine; just bring a writing utensil and dice."

Sunday I'm registered for Jon Hershberger's Castle of the Mad Archmage AD&D 6-7th lvl set in the Wilderlands of High Fantasy. But, this is continuation of mornings session (which was full) and I may or may not get in. If not I can always pillage the Mythrus Tower again!
The Castle of the Mad Archmage -- long a source of speculation and wonder among learned sages as well as common folk that live nearby, it has existed as an enigma for longer than most men can recall. And remain it does, still shrouded in mystery as rumors, old wives tales, and legend all blend together to veil a true understanding. The Castle has drawn adventurers from all corners of the realm, and beyond, who have sought to unravel some of the mysteries kept therein and to relieve the Mad Archmage of some of his material wealth. Have you the guile and the will, each in sufficient measure, to test your mettle in the depths beneath the Castle of the Mad Archmage?



Damn I'm excited about this convention and it is months away!

Monday, February 1, 2010

Labyrinth Lord Society

Now a sanctioned member of the Labyrinth Lord Society, the elite RPG society anyone can join. Goblinoid Games also just sent me pre-release copy of Advanced Edition Companion! Looks groovy. LL and SW seem to be owning the OSR mindshare, sorry osric.

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