Troll and Flame

Brute

2012-01-30T10:00:00.021-06:00

:Requirements: Ogre Ancestry
:Primes: None
:Max Level: 9
:Hit Die: d6+4 (two HD at 1st level)
:Combat: Great To Hit Progression, any Armor, any Shield
:Saves: as Fighter

"Urgh, me smashy now?"
-- Bubba Twoclub

Brutes do not gain any XP bonus for high abilities and roll them differently:

* STR d6+12
* DEX 2d8
* INT, WIS, CHA 3d4

Brutes are dumb, dull, ugly and strong. Large, 6.5' - 8' tall.

"Brutish"
d8 damage die size.

"Slaughterhouse"
May melee attack up to X opponents where X is character's to-hit bonus. All opponents must be <= 1HD (2HD at 5th level, 3HD at 9th).

"Bloodlust"
After dropping foe, roll free attack against different foe that is within range.

"Rampage"
Declared after successful hit. Keep making attack rolls until you miss or choose to stop. If you miss, your turn is over and you are over-extended; no action next round. If natural unmodified roll <= number attacks this round you're exhausted for d6max rnds; 2x(worst), no attacks, 1/2 move.

Notes:
Based on various house rules. I'm not overly concerned with balance but other classes get 25/50% XP bonus for high stats which mitigates the Brute's brutish abilities. Most classes use d6 damage die (for all normal weapons). "Great to-hit" is whatever fighters get. d6max means roll d6 at start of your turn, if '6' (the max value) is rolled then effect ends. Feel free to replace that with normal d6, I just don't like to track things). 2x(worst) means for every required die roll (saves, attacks, etc.) roll two dice and take worst result. The rest should be interpretable.

What Movies / TV Shows Illustrate Your Game

2012-01-27T17:44:00.000-06:00

While writing up blurb to announce afterwork game for coworkers I started a list of movies / shows to give folks a feel for the game. I kept list a bit old school, cause that's how I roll (haha!).

Also see my past RPG Movie Posts.

This http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MUOSsQlV2Qw

Everything in this Ray Haryhausen compilation.

Fire Lances of the Ancient Hyperzephyrians

Conan the Barbarian

Krull

Legend

Dragon Slayer

Thundarr the Barbarian

Metalocalypse

The Messenger

Flesh+Blood

The Dark Crystal

Big Trouble in Little China

The Princess Bride

Raiders of the Lost Ark

Flash Gordon

Clash of the Titans (this fan made trailer flippin rules!)

What's your list?

Daughter of Delphi

2012-01-27T10:00:00.059-06:00

:Requirements: Human, Female, CHA 9+, CON 9+
:Primes: WIS
:Max Level: 12
:Hit Die: d6 (+1 after level 9)
:Combat: Good To Hit Progression, Med Armor, Any Shield
:Saves: as Cleric

"Your own reason is the only oracle given you by heaven, and you are answerable for, not the rightness, but the uprightness of the decision." -- First Daughter Kalliste

Daughters with 13+ WIS earn 25% XP bonus. They must have a WIS of 16+ to earn 50% XP bonus. May only use bludgeoning weapons, i.e. those that don't draw blood.

Daughters of Delphi are clerics of Apollo the god of sunlight, seers and medicine. They are all that remains of the Cult of Apollo centered around the ancient Oracle of Delphi. The Daughter's advise, protect and heal those who value truth and beauty. They delude, obstruct and harm those who do not.

"Divine Prayers"
Clerical slot progression, no memorization, on demand. Litanies at 1/2 highest level slot.

"Shield of Faith"
20% per level magic resistance vs arcane, divine, faerie magic. 100% at 5th level. Only applies when direct target of spell, not spell effect. Idea from Supplement VI The Majestic Wilderlands.

"Prophecy"
50% chance of vision. (d20 + 5 + lvl >= 20) vision completely correct without omissions. A vision is either an answer to one yes/no question or a fleeting glimpse of past, present or future. 1/day, (2/day 4th level, 3/day at 7th level).

"Healing Touch"
Curative prayers heal +1 hitpoint per die, (+2 3rd level, +3 5th level, +4 7th level, +5 9th level)

"Favored of the Gods"
2x multiplier for Divine Intervention.

"Turn Undead"
Turn undead as Cleric of same level.

Notes:
Based Judges Guild Dungeoneer 1-6 Compendium article. Utilizes various house rules I might have mentioned in past blog posts... Feel free to replace 25/50% XP bonus with more standard 5/10%. Good to hit progression is what Clerics get. I don't require Clerics to memorize spells. But, there is possibility (DM's whim / omnipotent knowledge of god) "prayer" goes unanswered. Litianies are divine version of ritual casting (10min + 10gp/lvl). Divine Intervention is last ditch appeal to gods d100 >= character level.

I don't let real life males play this class, it's a "reward" for girls cool enough to nerd out around the table with us obnoxious males.

Elves, they are Freaky

2012-01-25T12:22:00.000-06:00

This is how Elves (Skandians) work in GnG

Also, Die Antwoord rules.

Circean Enchanter

2012-01-25T10:00:00.013-06:00

:Requirements: Human, Female, INT 9+, CHA 14+
:Primes: INT, CHA
:Max Level: 12?
:Hit Die: d4 (+1 after level 9)
:Combat: Gimped To Hit Progression, Light Armor, No Shield
:Saves: as Magic-user

"You think a few tears upset me? My friend, every woman is a pragmatist at heart."
-- Circean

Circeans must have 13+ in both INT an CHA to earn 25% XP bonus. Must have a CHA of 16+ and INT of 13+ to earn 50% XP bonus.

Circeans are temptresses, beguilers of men, and poisoners of mind.

"Arcane Magic"
Intrinsic Arcane Magic, focii oriented, not memorized, CHA based.
Requires casting checks; d20 >; spell level. New spells gained only via capture.

"Shield of Magic"
20% per level arcane magic (i.e. not divine, not faerie) resistance. 100% at 5th level. Only applies when direct target of spell, not spell effect. Idea from Supplement VI The Majestic Wilderlands.

"Arcane Perception"
Can identify potions, sense magical auras, and the like. Must sample potion, handle object, etc. 2 in 6 chance, (3 in 6 at 3rd level, 4 in 6 at 5th level, 5 in 6 at 7th level)

"Arcane Prestige"
Minor magical effects based on currently memorized spells. May Counter Arcane Magic and engage in Arcane Duels.

"Beguiling"
Once per day a Circean may attempt, (d20 + 2x Circean's level - target's level >= 20), to charm a human male by merely speaking to him. This charm is broken if victim leaves the sight of Circean for more than a moment.

"Elixirs"
Circeans know the secrets to brewing non-magical potions. See Dungeoneer 1-6 Compendium pg 18 for details.

"Astrology"
Ability to discern Fate's path. Requires access to astrological structures, orrery, library or the like.

Notes:
Based on Judges Guild Dungeoneer 1-6 Compendium article. Utilizes various house rules I may have mentioned in past blog posts... Feel free to replace 25/50% XP bonus with more standard 5/10%. "Gimped to-hit" is whatever magic-users get. Not posting Arcane Duel, Counter spelling, or Astrology rules, use your imagination (or Google). Intrinsic Arcane Magic, think D&D3.5 sorcerers and illusionist spell lists. Or this.

I don't let real life males play this class, it's a "reward" for girls cool enough to nerd out around the table with us obnoxious males.

Amazon

2012-01-23T00:15:00.014-06:00

:Requirements: Human, Female, CHA 9+, CON 9+
:Primes: DEX, CHA
:Max Level: 12
:HD: d6+4 (+3 after level 9)
:Combat: Great To Hit Progression, Light Armor, No Shield
:Saves: as Fighter

"Go in peace my daughter. And remember that, in a world of ordinary mortals, you are an Amazon."

-- Queen Hippolyte

Amazons must have 13+ in both DEX an CHA to earn 25% XP bonus. Must have a CHA of 16+ and DEX of 13+ to earn 50% XP bonus.

Amazons are raised from birth to be warriors. They serve no man and will only follow Amazons or other similarly powerful women. Amazons favor the spear, hand axe, and long dagger above all weapons. Amazons will not use missile weapons such as bows, guns, and slings.

"Warrior Women"
Increased damage die when using favored weapon (d8 at 2nd, d10 at 4th, d12 at 6th). Natural medium "armor" at 1st level, (heavy at 3rd, plate at 5th).

"Focused Strike"
Once per combat, if target hit, attack does no damage, target must Save vs Death or be stunned for d(Amazon's damage die)max rounds. At 9th level, target must Save vs Death or die.

"Gilded Bracers"
Amazons are trained to block and deflect with their bracers. Which protect as Large Shield vs melee and ranged. Including Shields Shall be Shattered, in this case destroying the bracers.

"Athletic"
Generally successful at jumping, leaping, tumbling, etc. Takes 20' less falling damage, (40' at 8th level).

"Riding Mastery"
Amazons are raised in the saddle. Experts at all things mounted, esp combat. At 3rd level a white mare of superlative attributes will appear and serve Amazon, (a unicorn at 6th, a pegasus at 9th).

Notes:
Loosely modeled on Monk and Judges Guild Dungeoneer 1-6 Compendium article. Utilizes various house rules I might have mentioned in past blog posts... Feel free to replace 25/50% XP bonus with more standard 5/10%. Most classes use d6 damage die for normal weapons. "Great to-hit" is whatever fighters get. d6max means roll d6 at start of your turn, if '6' (the max value) is rolled then effect ends. Feel free to replace that with normal d6, I just don't like to track things). The rest should be broadly interpretable.

I don't let real life males play this class, it's a "reward" for girls cool enough to nerd out around the table with us obnoxious males.

Shit People Say to Roleplayers

2012-01-21T14:14:00.000-06:00

I can't figure out how to comment to the post on The Escapist Blog. So, replying here.

I'm a single (41yr old) programmer and board/card/computer/RPG game player. I live in a liberal city. I work at a small hi-tech company. Most the people I interact with are well educated and tech-savvy, many are nerds of one sort of another (music, computer, game, TV, etc).

I say all that cause the list of what people say to RPGrs from The Escapist Blog was so negative. I rarely have heard shit like that since high-school. Holy crap guys! Where do you live and who the hell do you hang out with? No wonder people "hide" the fact that they are gamers.

Mostly I get:

"How does it work?"

"Its like WoW?" Often people don't realize right away I'm not talking about MMORPG or other computer game.

"Can I join?"

"Can I have my own figure?"

"Wish I had still had time for that."

"Oh man, let me tell about the time my Paladin Centaur ...."

The winning / what's the point thing comes up fairly often. But, more from curiosity / wanting to understand rather than derogatory angle.

OwlCon 2012

2012-01-21T10:00:00.008-06:00

February 3-5 2012

Can still volunteer and get in free!

I won't make it this year, not enough time :(

Fighting Man

2012-01-20T10:00:00.018-06:00

:Requirements: Human

:Primes: STR
:Max Level: 12
:Hit Die: d6+2 (+2 after level 9)
:Combat: Great To Hit Progression, any Armor, any Shield
:Saves: as Fighter

Fighting men with 13+ STR earn 25% XP bonus. They must have a STR of 16+ to earn 50% XP bonus.

Fighting men aren't complicated or specialized. Which makes as flexible as your imagination (and ability to connive DM).

"Combat Master"
Fighting men's damage dice explode.

"Downright Blow"
Once per combat. If target hit, one damage die does max damage, which will cause die to explode.

"Slaughterhouse"
May melee attack up to X opponents where X is character's to-hit bonus. All opponents must be <= 1HD (2HD at 5th level, 3HD at 9th).

Notes:
Posted mostly to provide baseline for comparison with classes to follow. Utilizes various house rules I might have mentioned in past blog posts... "Great to-hit" is whatever fighters get. "Explode" means if max die value rolled, re-roll that die and add to total. Anything else should be broadly interpretable.

23 Questions, Answered

2012-01-19T11:30:00.001-06:00

Zak Asked too many questions. My answers...

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?

Hmmm, "proud" and "invented" are too strong. But, I enjoy eliminating modifiers and rolling 2 (or more) dice. e.g. attacking invisible target, roll two attacks take worst result. charge, roll two take best. Ranged into melee, both must succeed to hit target. If only one does you've hit some other random target in the melee

2. When was the last time you GMed?

Last Sunday, Jan 15th

3. When was the last time you played?

Within a month. But, I don't play nearly enough.

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.

The Dirty Dozen - Twelve humanoids prisoners, given option of beheading or suicide mission to sneak into the Fey Court's Winter Festival and slaughter as many Elven Princes, Princessess, and Generals as possible.

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?

Pester players to do something, review notes, go pee, remember to take notes (rarely)

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?

Nothing. Take break for food.

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?

No. I tend to GM standing which I find tiring, significantly less extreme than exhausting

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?

My elephant ex-butler arm wresting a wolf biker for his chopper. (After the Bomb)

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?

Neither. Setting and players are, happily, middle of the road, nice mix of serious and sillyness.

10. What do you do with goblins?

Create unique tribes of them. Butt-stink(stink bombs & disease), Fart-knockers (flaming gas attacks), Poo-eaters (poo toss attack), Red Eye & Runny Nose tribes related tribes addicted to snorting zombie "blow", Mud Face (mud covered, +sneak, favor swamps/rivers).
Like all humanoids I use the basic stats and reflavor them. Need pygmy orcs, use goblin stats.

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?

Conan the Barbarian orgy scene -> Toad God's pleasure chamber and complex were strange lotus incense is used to convert the faithful into God's image ala "Innosmouth Look". But, I do this constantly. I'm not creative, but I am good at mixing/mashing/converting.

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?

I have bad memory. The players deciding to drink all together at same time the potions of "water breathing"(actually poison) that the EHP (whom the deal with far too often) gave them. So, instead of being able to swim down to the Black Dragon's lair while he was being distracted, 1/3 party was dead, rest injured with very perturbed Black Dragon almost done destroying distraction and looking for those responsible. Very funny to me, players not so much. I (NPCs) told them to not mess with dragon, but player agency and all that ;)

13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?

Latest Fight On! Cause it just arrived in mail!

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?

Illustrator's work varies. A "Perfect" RPG illustration inspires me to create or play RPG.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?

Once that I remember. Got the players so paranoid and afraid of each other the each put back to different wall and drew weapons on each other until they finally figured out there was an invisible tormentor in their midst.

Now days they're mostly just shell-shocked. "Pfft! Your character only died? My guy in Norm's campaign had his soul stripped away who knows where. He's not dead, not undead, just drooling."

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)

Caves of Chaos at various conventions.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?

DM at end of long table, DM surrounded by shelfs and cases, side table for DM's stuff. NO DM Shield! Lots of decoration for "ambience". That or someplace with lots of "traffic" to recruit new people to hobby, game store, mall.

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?

I will limit answer to RPG games. "Bunnies and Burrows" "Pallidum Rifts"

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?

Serving in the U.S. Navy. Reading Jeff's Gameblog.

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?

Engaged, well-adjusted, mature.

21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?

I use my military and tactics training when running Hobgoblins, Gnolls, and elite soldiers. Which really (sadly) fucks up players who for the most part don't know doodle about tactics.

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?

Nope. There's more existing now than I can possibly ever use.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?

Lot's of people; Sister, friends, co-workers. Some are simply humoring me, thanks sis! Others don't understand why people "do" RPGs and are vastly interested. Many are into other games / programming and like to discuss mechanics, world creation, player interactions, etc.

Potion Brewing

2012-01-18T10:00:00.017-06:00

For brewing potions I use similar mechanics to Spell Research.

To brew any potion requires it's recipe, non-magical lists of ingredients and instructions. It also takes time and money. Success is not guaranteed. In fact peculiar or even deadly results are possible. The chance of success can be increased if a congruent spell is cast as a ritual during potion creation.

One day and effect's level*d4*25gp per roll:

  2d6 + mods >= 7 potion created
    "doubles" - Funkyness from bad (12) to good (2)

    +X brewer's level
    -X potion effect's level
    +X matching ritual caster's level

Example "doubles"; 12, poison. 10, Potion of Delusion. 8, potion lasts only 2 rnds. 6, brewer's skin is green d6x days. 4, d4 doses created. 2, double strength.

Project Gutenberg Appendix N

2012-01-17T10:00:00.000-06:00

Find it here:

http://monstersandmanuals.blogspot.com/2012/01/project-gutenberg-appendix-n.html

Spell Research

2012-01-16T10:00:00.000-06:00

In my Gold and Glory campaign I've created some fluff around standard D&D magic. Which has lead to particular research rules I use.

Magi open valences in their mind that attract and store magical energies (aka memorize spells into spell slot). To do this they study complex mathemamystical formulae (aka spell book). Each valence is unique and it is not possible to open two identical ones. (aka no duplicate spells). It takes about a night's rest to accumulate enough magical energy (aka cast each spell 1/day). These energies are expended when spell is cast, but, the valence remains open (aka spell book only needed to change "load out"). These formulae may be written in any language, but most grimoires, at least the good ones, tend to be written in ancient, obscure, and/or diabolical languages (aka no read magic required). These formulae are not magical in and of themselves (aka no scrolls). With a source of concentrated mana to fuel spell in place of valence energy, a formulae may be slowly followed/recited (aka 10gp/lvl & 10min ritual casting).

[I make frequent use of a 2d6 mechanic where player rolls 1d6 and DM rolls 1d6 (in secret). The player will have some idea of the total, but not absolute knowledge. I use this for various rolls below. I picked this up from some blog post where it was used for reaction roll. In addition rolling "doubles" indicates some special (odd) occurrence from bad (snake eyes) to good (boxcars).]

Spell formulae maybe be copied

It takes a great deal of skill and time to copy formulae. Ruining the copy during this process is common. There is always the chance of introducing an unintended and unnoticed alteration. The Magus may continue spending time and money until they create the number of copies desired.

One day and d4*25gp per roll:

  2d6 + mods >= 7 copy of formulae created
    "doubles" - Funkyness from bad (12) to good (2)

    +X Int Mod
    -1 spell is not known
    -2 transliterating spell from one language to another
    -4 transcriber does not know language spell is written in

Some example "doubles"; 12, error in transcription, spell will explode (d6/lvl, centered on magi) when cast. 10, spell will have opposite effect. 8, spell will fizzle. 6, spell's effects won't manifest until d4 rounds after it is cast. 4, weird but not that beneficial change to spell. 2, spell improved (better range, duration, effect).

Spell formulae must be learnt

Learning a formulae, which is required to cast spell, requires only time. Magi "learn" a given formulae after a number of "research points" equal to 10*spell level is accumulated.

One day per roll (reset to 0 if one week passes without study)

  2d6 + character level + INT Mod research points accumulated
    "doubles" <= spell level, roll on Formulaic Research Mishap Table

  Base difficultly 10 * spell level research points. Multipliers:
    .5x      With tutor, access to extensive library, or the like
    .1-1.0x  How well understood is formula's language

This same process can be used for other research, magic item creation etc. Additional researchers are possible. Add their level(s) and Intelligence modifier(s) but still only roll 2d6. Inventing new spells, creating magic items takes more time and costs money. Typical spell research; d4x days uninterrupted study and d10*100gp per roll (reset to 0 if four continuous weeks pass without study)

Formulaic Research Mishap Table

d20
1    "Formulaic Magic is relatively Safe", roll on Heinous Blunder Table,
     but effects only last d6x days.
2    Unwanted magical discharge destroys d4x nearby formulae.
3    "Whoa that was intense", wake up d4x days later.
4    "Blammo!", take Xd6 damage (X=spell level), laboratory needs rebuilding.
5    Research attracts a knicker fairy which now lives in your pants.
6    "I am a meat popsicle"; Mental breakdown, worthless for d6x days.
7    "Who set the roof on fire?"
8    "Who set me on fire?" d6 cumulative damage per round until put out.
9-11 A kindly Magus offers you assistance; send them packing? Yes; research
     failed very next day... No; roll d4
     1) Robs you instead.
     2) Is an incompetent idiot and kills himself in process of ruining
        your research.
     3) Spy for an enemy.
     4) Actually helps! d6x research points.
12   Brain is mental mush, can't memorize spells for d6x days.
13   Develop minor psychosis, lasts d6x days.
14   Roll on d10,000 magic effect table.
15   Research ruined when peasantry with torches and pitchforks come round
     to put and end to your "deviltry".
16   Burnt out; no Formulaic Research for d6x weeks.
17   Waste d4 more days of fruitless research.
18   "Note to self; brandy good, research good, together bad."
19   Succumb to exhaustion and sleep for 8+d6x hours. Wake up refreshed with
     desire go outside, take a walk, see the Sun.
20   "We learn from failure", re-roll to determine nature of that failure
     but formulae is learnt/researched.

Heinous Magical Blunders Table

Experimental Magic System

2012-01-14T10:00:00.001-06:00

When I've run games with "new to Pen and Paper RPGs" players I've noticed they don't pick up well with the standard spell mechanic (memorizing a subset of spells they know into spell slots). It's also kind of a pain to track what's memorized and what's been cast. New and old players don't jive well with "I cast one spell, and then nothing until tomorrow morning?" Over the years I've tried various mechanics to reduce paperwork, planning, and increase frequency of "action" for spell casters.

I see two very different types of magic-users, that appeal to different types of players. Magi, scholarly types who poor over tomes to memorize spells. i.e. the traditional D&D Vancian magic-user. And Wizards, intrinsic magic types that have a smaller set of spells but can cast them without memorization. Something akin to 3.x sorcerer but I believe sorcerer class made mistake of using spell slots. Not different enough to be unique and similar enough to be confusing.

This is the experimental draft system I'm gonna try in my "after work with coworkers" campaign starting soon. Experimental in that it hasn't been play tested and thus is lame blog filler ;)

Wizards have a pool of mana. [need glass beads, poker chips, MTG life counter, something tangible / better than keeping track on paper]. The amount of mana in pool will increase in level. Exact numbers TBD but 10 + spell slots seems good starting point. Mana resets daily.

When spell is successfully cast, reduce wizard's mana pool by amount equal to spell's cost, minimum 0. It's ok not to have enough mana for spell's cost. [maybe should rename it "arcane stamina"?] Cost normally equals spells level. The cost for spells that scale with level (e.g. fireball, magic missile) equal effect's level.

Unlike Magi Wizards, do not get "at will" Rituals (which take 10min and cost 10gp/lvl).

To cast a spell Wizard must roll successful casting check.

d20 + mana pool >= 20 spell cast (expend mana == spell level)
natural "1" - consult Intrinsic Arcane Magic Miscast Table.
natural "20" - mana not expended.

Basically a spell point system with twist current spell point total is casting check modifier. The slowly eroding chance to successfully cast spell gives lot of intuitive control and options for resource management. A casting check with fairly high chance of failure is key to giving the player more to do (trying to make roll every round) without greatly increasing the number of spells cast.

Overall these house rules seemingly result in more spells being cast. But, if rituals (which I have play tested) are an indication, it's really less "running back to town" to rest/memorize and nearly same amount of casting per session. Which is great in my book.

I'm not sure how it holds up at higher level, 5+. When they have large mana pool they will be able to cast many lower level spells. First, I'm fine with magic in general and Wizards being "powerful". Second, there is always 5% (natural 1) chance of failure.

Hmmmm, just thought of variation: Instead of total pool being modifier to casting check, the player decides how much of their pool to use as modifier each time spell is cast. If they make pass casting check mana is expended. Otherwise, it's retained.

Obviously I need to ruminate a bit further.

Monster - Big Bad

2012-01-12T10:00:00.096-06:00

When I think of player challenges (monsters, traps, puzzles, etc) I think less about stat blocks and numbers and more about theme and feeling. In my notes I'll write "fire monster" and couple lines on cool abilities/tactics, "flame whip", "sticky napalm". I'll figure out how many, what hitdice, damage, AC, etc on the fly. Faster for me to wing it than look it up. So, I've never been a big author or consumer of monsters. Instead I use things like this;

Big Bad

This monster should be large and the centerpiece of an adventure's / dungeon's climax. It is the Big Bad, the terror the party has been hearing rumors of, seeing clues of it's presence, and eager with anticipation and fear to finally face it. The exact stats (AC, HD, hitpoints, Damage, Immunities, etc.) are left up to you to determine. It should be tough though. The main feature is the Big Bad's counterattack.

Counter attack: Every time the Big Bad takes or is hit for damage it gets to immediately strike back. Attacking whoever just damaged it. Or, random opponent if source of damage is undefined or unattackable. This occurs in violation of any rules regarding initiative, number of attacks per round, etc. The Big Bad should have a melee and a ranged counterattack.

Ongoing threat: Instead of a normal attack the Big Bad (or it's environment, spawned minions, etc) drains opponents of some resource (hitpoints, stats, levels (ouch)). This is to make it tougher to work around / exploit limitations of counter attack.

Example Big Bad

The Blobinator

This humungus blob of oozes, jellies, and puddings must be the source of all the things that have dripped on, corroded, slimed you in this dungeon. It's the Mother of all gooey things, end it's reign of gelatinous terror!

At all times the Blobinator is belching, spewing and otherwise projecting bits of ooze, slime, jellies, and puddings (use your favorites). Everyone and thing in the area of the Blobinator has a 50% of being hit by one of these each round. Figure damage/effects as appropriate for type of goo.

The Blobinator's primitive alien nervous system will respond to any attack with reactive counter attack. Melee and any target within 20' will be responded with a slam of a oozy pseudopod. To reach targets further afield the Blobinator can swing a pseudopod around like sling until the tip flies off to strike opponent. Critical hits result in random oozy thing's effect on target.

Each creature killed by the Blobinator will rise as a random oozy thing d4 rounds later.

Immune to fire, cold, acid, electricity, mind affects. Takes "normal" damage from holy water, alcohol. non-magic weapons have 25% chance of corroding, breaking, getting gooified each time they hit. The Blobinator can stick/climb along walls and ceilings.

Monster - Soul Wraith

2012-01-10T11:00:00.001-06:00

[I couldn't sleep last night and this came floating into my head. Scaled for d6 damage system, descending AC.]

Soul Wraith

HD: 8hp, attacks as 4HD monster
DAM: d6 swipe that rips life force from victim
AC: 8*
MV: 12 (fast as unencumbered human)

*Incorporeal, only hit by magic, blessed, and the like weapons. Can pass through holes, thin cracks but not solid material. Soul Wraiths are not undead and can't be turned.

Every living being the Soul Wraith had line of sight at some point during the round takes d6 damage as their life force is drained into the Soul Wraith. This damage heals the wraith (up to 8hp). Any leftover becomes temporary hitpoints for the Soul Wraith.

Soul Wraith Assassin

HD: 8hp, attacks as 4HD monster
DAM: d6 swipe that rips life force from victim
AC: 8*
MV: 12 (fast as unencumbered human)

*Incorporeal, only hit by magic, blessed, and the like weapons. Can pass through holes, thin cracks but not solid material. Soul Wraith Assassins are not undead and can't be turned. They fade to invisibility at the start of any turn and after they are hit if they have 8 or less hitpoints. They remain invisible until they attack. When attacking while invisible Soul Wraith Assassins do back stab/critical/max/(whatever your system uses) damage.

Every living being the wraith had line of sight at some point during the round takes d6 damage as their life force is drained into the Soul Wraith. This damage heals the wraith (up to 8hp). Any leftover becomes temporary hitpoints for the Soul Wraith. Draining produces faint wisps of life force revealing the general location of an invisible wraith if bright light is available. Soul Wraith Assassins can suppress their draining so as to retain surprise.

They are highly intelligent, cunning and will use hit-and-run and other tactics to survive and drain the life out of their victims.

What to Buy Yourself on Xmas day

2011-12-25T11:44:00.000-06:00

Today Dec 25th only Lulu is offering 30% discount coupon code 25DEC. These are some items "off the beaten path" that you should take opportunity to acquire with this discount. I've bought (the paperbacks) and recommend all the following. (prices sans discount)

Engines & Empire $9.99 - Intriguing mixture of Victorian, fantasty, steampunk based on D&D Rules Compendium). Interesting rules to lift and use elsewhere. (Free PDF)

Backswords & Bucklers $7.74 - S&W Whitebox based Elizabethan fantasy adventure. Inspired by works such as Michael Moorcock’s Gloriana and Sir Walter Scott’s Kennilworth. Neat! (Free PDF)

Oubliette 1-4 Compilation $12,37 - 148 pages of Labyrinth Lord goodness.

And of course the latest Fight On! #13 and Knockspell #6.

It's d20 day!

2011-12-20T10:00:00.010-06:00

I bet thinking about polyhedral dice monsters led to modrons. Clicky for more.

The 2nd Annual Three Castles Award

2011-12-04T17:37:00.000-06:00

[Posted on behalf of Michael Badolato]

The 2nd Annual Three Castles Award is still accepting submissions through the end of the year (December 31st) for next year's award, to be given out at the 4th annual North Texas RPG Con. If you published a RPG adventure, setting, rulebook or sourcebook between October 1st 2010 and October 1st 2011 you are eligible. The focus of the award is on design, and last year's nominees (LoTFP Boxed Set, Stonehell Dungeon, Dungeon Alphabet, Majestic Wilderlands and B/X Companion) and initial winner (Michael Curtis' Dungeon Alphabet) exemplifies the type of excellence in small press products we want to publicize with the award. The NTRPG Con makes nothing off the award; on the contrary, we will NEVER break even considering the amount Doug paid for the absolutely beautiful statuette award given to the winner!

This is a designer award, not a publisher award, although the publisher is welcome to submit anything they wish for one of their authors. The only way this award will one day be able to boast an impressive run of quality winners is if the VERY BEST items are submitted every year, and that is up to the writers/designers themselves. So please, if you have neglected submitting your item so far, take the time to visit the site (ntrpgcon.com), go to the 3CastlesAward tab, fill out the required paperwork and send in three copies of your product for the initial selection process. Every year the judges are shuffled, and this year they are going to be Dennis Sustare, Rob Kuntz, Sandy Peterson, Dave "Zeb" Cook, and Steve Marsh....a group with an impressive list of skins on the wall in terms of products and ideas in the industry.

Share this with as many RPG designers as you can, and if you know of someone with an impressive RPG product release in the last year, encourage them to send in a submission for the award. Besides obviously promoting our convention, we really want to promote the industry and some of the great products out there that may be overlooked by gamers who only pay attention to the biggest companies releases each year.

Jeff Dee, Recreating His Lost TSR Art

2011-11-09T15:18:00.000-06:00

Jeff Dee has kickstarter project to recreate all of his TSR art starting with Egyptian Mythos from Deities & Demigods.

Kick ass!

I'm trying to contribute at the sweet "get all 13 signed prints" level of $200 but Amazon Payments is being troublesome.

Check out this original / recreation of Elric. Right side being sweet example of the new recreations Jeff Dee aims to make.

Surprise Suxors

2011-10-31T10:00:00.001-05:00

DMing lately I've realized I don't like surprise... rules. They are (to lessor or greater extent depending on system) a confusing exception to combat sequence. Esp in OSRIC! Surprise has the same, bad "swingy" characteristics of criticals (unfun to be surprised, an anti-climatically "win" button to surprise). Worst of all, asking for a surprise check eliminates any actual surprise! [Don't generally wanna roll dice in secret for players. A mechanic that requires me to, is a bad mechanic].

I'm not against surprise. But, it doesn't have an effect on play often enough to deserve it's own specialized mechanic and it should not be a part of every combat. Surprise should be uncommon and special. Not, "ho-hum we rolled for surprise". Instead, "Holy fuck where did that come from!" Certain creatures that attack from ambush, should roll for surprise. Or, just give them the initial attack automatically.

My just formulated rule of thumb; If ambusher is something like jaguar, piecer, mimic combat will start with their "free" attack. Then roll for initiative. If it's just some schmuck orcs with bows hiding in the woods I'll give them first initiative. Which, I guess is a surprise rule. So, I must alter my initial statement to "I don't like existing, complex surprise rules. I like mine." Which is really no surprise ;)

Still, describing how a stalagtite has fallen from ceiling, knocking down Sir Roderick and piercing his shoulder is much more fun/dramatic/tension building than annoucing "roll for surprise".

Publishers & Products

2011-10-29T14:49:00.000-05:00

This is an Epic post of Publishers & Products, also where to get them online. Epic amount of work, epic amount of usefulness, and shows breadth and depth of hobby's commercial side.

One snippet of post (System Equivalence)

Game Master Philosophy

2011-10-29T10:00:00.104-05:00

Another from Roleplaying Tips Weekly Blog/Newsletter http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issues/txt/530.txt

What's your philosophy of running a tabletop game?

It varies by type of campaign. Although after writing this out I seem to be converging ToEE towards style I preper.

OSRIC ToEE

1. What sort of environment does your story take place in? Is everything random? Semi-random? Carefully planned?

World of Greyhawk before 2nd edition stupidness. Magic is common but not a technology replacement.
Mostly player triggered semi-random consequences. There are some events that I roll randomly to see if one happens. But mostly world reacts to players. For instance they wiped most of Lareth's minons but went back to town before dealing with him. Instead of sticking around for obviously powerful party to return, Lareth being 18INT/18WIS decided it was time for strategic retreat and moved into the Temple Proper. Player inaction also triggers events.

2. Does your environment support the characters, challenge the characters, or both?
Challenge players. There are many, many factions. Some strictly for or against characters. The rest will ignore, help, hinder party based on what that faction learns about what PC's are doing. There is opportunity for much support, mostly ignored by players even when waving it infront of them.

3. Do character actions have a meaningful impact on the environment?
They could.

4. Does the environment have any laws that differ from the laws of our universe?
Of course, this is fantasy! There is magic, gods & demons that exist, etc. Things that may trip up players but their characters would know or rules issues (many new players), I warn them about. For instance Paladin's detect evil ability requires vocal/somatic and thus is clearly visible and considered rude to do on people.

5. Are your characters regular joes or heroic types?
Above avg joes & semi heroic abilities (cause AD&D expects some level of munchkinism). ToEE campaign is LG so "heros" in that sense. But, death and failure are very possible. There is no guaranteed happy or heroic ending.

6. Are the dice weighted in the characters' favor or is the universe unforgiving?
Worse than unforgiving. If players rely on dice/mechanics over wit and strategy they will fail.

7. Should the characters trust the GM? If not, why not?
Not as NPC / Monster, obviously.
Yes for rules (although I make tons of mistakes etc. Overall I strive to be fair. Also, never penalize players for my mistake)
For rest, in a way no and yes. I challenge *players* (which is the yes part. DM role is to challenge, otherwise might as well do collaborative storytelling or play computer RPG) One way to challenge is subtly using psychology against them. For instance if they know they are in a race to get through area. I will give them every opportunity, temptation even, to dawdle. Just by providing a word or two extra description on something will often lead players mistakingly believing that something to be vastly important and waste inordinate amount of effort on nothing.

Labyrinth Lord / OD&D mashup Gold & Glory

1. What sort of environment does your story take place in? Is everything random? Semi-random? Carefully planned?
Exploration based sandbox. Crazy mashup of Science Fantasy, Steam, Post-Apocalypse, and anything else that catches my fancy. The world is unknown (to characters) everything must be discovered. There's tons of stuff placed on map ala JG Wilderlands or Carcosa (btw some of that in there also). Many, many random tables for fleshing out, filling in blanks.

Despite that I consider it carefully planned, lots of (learnable) internal logic.

2. Does your environment support the characters, challenge the characters, or both?
Indifferent and Uncaring. There are few if any self-less "good" NPCs/Monsters. Everyone has their own goals and agenda, just like in real life.

3. Do character actions have a meaningful impact on the environment?
They could. But, only if characters do something meaningful.

4. Does the environment have any laws that differ from the laws of our universe?
More so than most campaigns. The Wilderness and Dungeons are "Mythic", they don't follow any rules. Goblins don't have ecology, they are in this room to eat you!

5. Are your characters regular joes or heroic types?
Outcasts and "failures" of society. If they had skills (say blacksmithing) or even ability to settle down make a farm & family. They sure as hell would be doing that rather than risking death and worse poking around in dungeons.

6. Are the dice weighted in the characters' favor or is the universe unforgiving?
Random. You lose control over your fate if you leave it up to dice. It's almost always better to anything other than dice rolling. (better to trick dragon out of treasure than fight for it) No skills, descriptive adjudication.

7. Should the characters trust the GM? If not, why not?
They should (but probably don't) trust that I'm not out to kill them. They shouldn't (but probably do) trust that I'm gonna only provide challenges they can handle, that I'll lead them along a path of success, that campaign world exists to provide them regular, safely acquired, parcels of treasure and experience.

Three Minute Magic Items

2011-10-28T16:59:00.000-05:00

Roleplaying Tips Weekly newsltter/blog posted great article http://www.roleplayingtips.com/gm-techniques/how-to-create-great-magic-items-in-just-three-minutes/ Here are a few items I just created. The best advice I can give is use a crazy random name generator (several are linked in above article). At least for me it spurs the imagination and leads to things I wouldn't have come up with otherwise.

Bloodstained Maul

Appearance - Large, two-handed, iron shod oak maul. Wood is weathered, gouged, and bloodstained. Iron shows rust where it's not caked with blood.

Benefit - On critical hit or killing blow the target's blood seeps into wood and down shaft along now visible pulsating veins. Invigorating wielder with healing or bonus hit points.

Drawback - Automatically contract any disease, lycanthropy, etc target had.

Lore - Prior to the Battle of the Mounds a lone Barbarian prayed for victory, his god responded with this maul.

Twist - Over time, develop insatiable thirst for blood.

Illuminated Medallion

Appearance - 4" circular gold medallion, inner recessed surface covered in intricate cloisonné

Benefit - 1/day after 1min concentration the cloisonné will alter to depict current view of known or nearby area e.g "other side of this door"

Drawback - There is 1 in 20 chance of user becoming trapped within cloisonne picture.

Lore - Created for Czarina Aneska who worried excessively over and wanted to keep eye on here many children.

Twist - When user becomes entrapped, previous victim is released.

Device of Lighting

Appearance - 2' dia copper/silver Tesla coil on 4' rosewood pedestal and stable iron base. Thick, stiff 15' cable attaches pedestal with matching 2' rosewood box. Attached to side of box is large hand crank. On top of it is large metal contact blade switch.

Benefit - After one round of cranking electricity crackles around the coil. After the second or any subsequent round of cranking the switch may be thrown releasing a Xd6 bolt of lighting where X is the square of the # rounds cranked. 2rnds 4d6, 3rnds 9d6, 6rnds 36d6. Bolts may fork to multiple targets, e.g. a 9d6 bolt may fork to 4 targets doing 2d6, 2d6, 2d6, 3d6 to them. Max range is unknown definitely further than the 15' cable.

Drawback - Big, clumsy. Overloads, friendly fire, rain, water/damp ground.

Lore - Bennie Frankinbottom, the infamous Gnome tinker is blamed for inventing this device. It is said to be the primary cause of Sultan Al-Dinsur's defeat at Bugbear Grove whose army was operating the device.

Twist - Those in full metal armor with helmets are insulated from damage (bolts pass harmlessly to ground)

South Texas Mini-Con August 20

2011-08-17T10:10:00.000-05:00

[Ripped announcement this straight from Kutalik's Hill Canton's Blog. I plan to be there maybe not at 9am! Also, maybe run a game in the afternoon.]

The details are a little more firmed up for our August 20 day-long old school mini-con in New Braunfels, TX. The Con starts at 9am and runs to 8pm. Admission is free, free, free (donations welcome), just leave us a note here on the blog or drop me a line at kutalik at gmail dot com to save yourself a seat.

Site details can be found here. We are in breakout room 105 which is on the righthand side of the convention center.

Below is the tentative schedule. We are still willing to entertain proposals for one or two more games if you want to run a game.

Morning: 9-12:15
• Starfleet Wars (Mack H.)
• open gaming

Afternoon: 12:45-4
• Advanced Dungeons & Dragons, First Edition (Brad E.)
• When the Navy Walked (Don M)
• Red Sand Blue Sky (Ed/Two Hour Wargames)
• open gaming

Evening: 4:30-7:45
• Empire of the Petal Throne, Jakallan Underworld (Yours Truly)
• Surprise Special Guest Session
• open gaming

Modules I Want to Run Before I Roll my Last d20

2011-08-15T14:44:00.000-05:00

Got the idea for this list from John Four of roleplayingtips.com

Limiting this to published D&Dish modules of the non- darksun/dragonlance/spelljammer/hollowworld/etc variety. In a not too particular order:

B2 Caves of Chaos [done many times to great success]
T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil [doing this right now, haven't got to the temple yet though]
G1-3 Against the Giants [having looked over this (and decided to start T1-4 instead I'd rather do a Against the Giants flavored adventure(s) of my own creation. It just seems a little too "archaic"/bad old school, I don't like Q1, and not supper excited bout D1-2 at least as follow on's to G1-3. Drow bore me.]
S3 [oh hell yes]
Caverns of Thracia [old Judges Guild or new Necromancer's]
Tengel Mannor [old Judges Guild]
Hellpits of Nightfang [old Judges Guild]
EX1 EX2 Dungeoland [these fascinated me when I first got them as a kid]
UK2 Sentinel & UK3 Guantlet [ran parts of 1st one in larger campaign (players did not pick up glove and campaign went different direction)]
I3-5 Desert Desolation [never looked at it, heard it was good]
U1,U2,U3 [I did run sinister secret when young, vaguely want to do the series now that I actually know something about DMing]
X1 Isle of Dread
X2 Castle Amber
JG1 Thieves of Fortress Badbbaskor [Goodman's]
JG2 Citadel of Fire [Goodman's]
JG3 Dark Tower [Goodman's]
Ptolus [or Freeport, or Vornheim] some mega city.
Stonehell Megadungeon
Bottle City
The Keep [Role Aides Fantasy vs Nazis!]
City of Brass [I don't think any published ones can (or do) live up to what DMG cover made me imagine. So I'll proly have to roll my own...]
Gygax's Necropolis
The "mega" dungeon from Fight On!
Anything from Gabor Lux's Fomalaut!
Butt loads of 1page dungeons

Special mention: OA, Oriental Adventures some or all (haven't looked at more than a couple (mad monkey and haunted castle one)

I know almost nothing about the AD&D H, I, R, and parts of the UK series not mentioned above. Nor about D&D B, X series beyond the B2 & X1 that came with my boxsets back in the day. Any recommendations of must play modules from them?

Detroit - Great Postapocalyptic Inspiration

2011-08-10T11:39:00.000-05:00

Modern Detroit is an abandoned, deteriorating wasteland. Perfect inspiration for Mutant future.

Many more pics at http://detroiturbex.com/content/neighborhoods/bwhousing/bwhousing.html

Sunday Inspiration

2011-07-31T10:00:00.003-05:00

Nine Legged Bloob!

2011-07-27T10:00:00.003-05:00

Few parties survive an encounter with the dreaded Bloob.

Killer DM

2011-07-27T10:00:00.002-05:00

Without really trying I've become a killer DM. Well I mean I do try to kill characters but only to make our games fun ;) What I mean specifically by "killer DM" is that characters are dieing too often and for arbitrary reasons. D&D is fun with threat of death, not so much when it's happening every other session. But arbitrariness is the real killer. Threats are fun challenges to avoid. Arbitrary death robs everyone of fun, DM included.

Looking back at last couple of G&G sessions I recognized the arbitrary death and I've spent some time thinking and discussing it with players. I'm firmly in the "provide a dangerous world with consummate rewards and let players suss out / make choices based on risk vs reward" camp of DMing. Here are somethings we've come up with.

First, to make rational choices players need to understand the situation they are in. Where risk is and were it isn't. Whether their choices end up being rational is up to them. But, if I haven't provided them the info (or at least ability to acquire it) I've failed as a DM. To this end I'm providing them with accurate wilderness map as discussed in previous post.

Also, mystery/suspense needs to be limited to nature of threat. The level of threat must be clear. "No one ever has returned from the Swamps of Almost Certain Peril". Definitely a deadly threat is in the swamps but is it the old crone living there or the castle of nubile maidens? This is very hard for me. By nature I'm a misleader, a trickster, a manipulator. I like to throw out 3-4 "hooks" and 2-3 red herrings. Then try my hardest to confuse the players... This doesn't seem to work so well in sandboxes. Players need to be able to "trust" the information they gather for choices to have meaning.

Bite-ur-face

Players also need clear concept of how deadly an area is. [btw pretty much all wilderness is deadly to 1st/2nd level]. I'll have more obvious signs, slaughtered knights, skulls / bones of tough creatures that have been chewed on, big footprints piles of poop. More warnings from NPCs, [This tends to back fire cause when they hear about Snow,the giant albino wolverine, from the battle scared, shell shocked, sole survivor NPC. Player's rarely think "Holy Crap stay away from that", they think "hey, XP+loot+DM mentioned it so lets hunt Snow!"]. Also need to make it even more obvious where low-level dungeon is. So, players don't wander around dieing on "worthless" random encounters.

I'll start using a NPC "guide". Someone to demonstrate basic survival skills. Such as investigating through roleplay before charging after everything DM mentions, listen at the door first, shouldn't we look for traps, there's at least 20 of them and we are surrounded don't you think we should parlay instead of fighting to our deaths, hey this time instead of just charging in and everyone doing their own thing why don't try having a plan and working as a team, and the most important lesson of all, running the hell away (ideally before people start dieing/knocked out slowing down whoever remains conscious).

NPC will also help with another problem. 3-5 low-level characters is no where near enough, esp in wilderness where danger isn't channeled along corridors. Smaller groups are vulnerable to having no backup specialists (healer, caster, etc). When party flees there aren't enough bodies to provide rear-guard, carry the injured. So, either injured are abandoned (and die) or the whole party is slowed and TPK'd by merciless bad guys. There is saftey in numbers. 8+ characters is my new semi-enforced requirment for low level parties. Doesn't matter how they get there; running multiple PCs, hirelings, henchmen, pets, more DM controlled NPCs.

Finally, I've tweaked my version of the Death and Dismemberment Table. Now with "Less Deadly"(tm). Likely death only on results 5 or less. More "out of fight results" knocked out and stunned.

When character reaches 0 hit points and every time they take damage 
when at 0 they must roll 2d6 +/- Con Modifier.  Dwarves may reroll once,
taking better result, except any natural 2 is always applied.

2d6   Death and Dismemberment Table
========================================
nat 2  "Instant Death" = Decapitation, red mist, or similar. You are dead.

<=3   "Fatal Wound" = Death in d6max minutes.
       Knocked Out until death unless Save vs Death is made. 
       Magical healing allows Save vs Death with bonus equal to lvl of 
       spell cast. Success means Incapacitated 3d6max days. (magic used 
       for this doesn't restore hp)

4-5    "Cleave" = Limb loss and bleed out (die) in d6max rounds.
       Knocked Out until death unless Save vs Death is made.
       Magical healing, a tourniquet, or cauterization allows Save vs 
       Death with bonus equal to lvl of spell cast, if any. Success means 
       Incapacitated 2d6max days. (magic used for this doesn't restore hp)

6-7    "Broken bone" = Incapacitated d6max days.
       Knocked Out d6max rounds unless Save vs Death is made.

8-9    "Brain bashed" = Knocked Out d6max rounds.

10-11  "Glancing head strike" = Stunned d4max rounds.

>=12   "Lucky bastard" = No effect.

nat 12 "Now I'm mad" = Surge of adrenaline returns d4 hit points per hit die.
       If you roll this more than once in a single combat consider yourself
       a Fanatic (treat as potion of super-heroism).

Result
3-11    Lack of helm worsens result one level.
3-7     Optionally use die to determine hit location.
3-7     All result in loss of ability point.

Any hit to head/helm will knock off/damage helm such that it does not 
protect from further hits.

[d4max, d6max, etc means roll max value on that die type, roll at start of each time unit, round/day/week. My method of "tracking" durations without having to track rounds/whatever.]

Read and RPG Book in Public Week

2011-07-26T10:00:00.014-05:00

[To spread the word I straight copied The Escapist's Blog Post.]

Read an RPG Book in Public Week

What is Read an RPG Book in Public Week, you may ask? It's a thrice-yearly event, held during the weeks surrounding March 4th, July 27th, and October 1st, where roleplayers are encouraged to take their favorite roleplaying rulebooks, modules, supplements, and splatbooks with them when they leave the house and read them in public. The purpose is to make the hobby more visible, promote inquiry and conversation about the hobby, and maybe even attract some new players or bring back some of the lapsed ones.

To find out more about Read an RPG Book in Public Week, visit the official page at theescapist.com/readrpgsinpublic There, you'll find links to the Facebook and Flickr accounts and much more!

T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil Session #3

2011-07-25T10:00:00.000-05:00

I've replaced the T1-4's moat house with modified Caves of Chaos featuring swamp, boglings, Cajun ogre, 20' tall Storks, a baby Dragon Turtle, and lately undead. (or at least that is what the players have encountered so far).

This session was at my house a nice group of six players. Next Sunday we're back at FLGS, King's Hobby. Couple player's reports/emails on group list below.

After the Death of my dear brother, Ander. I was visited by the visage of Saint Cuthbert of the Cudgel. He told me to join the band of adventurers that were mucking around in the swamps. Revenge against the chaotic forces that dwell in the caves and filth. Determined and enraged with the great spirit of Cuthbert. I set my sights on the swamp, though the party felt the need to chase their tails in the woods all day. We entered the swamp, and a provided a nice gift to Januc, he might be a gross looking Orge, but he heart and belly mean for the better. He was in danger with a large crocagater (Must be a swamp term for alligator). After to disposed of the beast and ate some food and rested. We planned to take out the Idol of the Boglings. This would not be an easy task, we had a Dragon Turtle to dispose of, which was causing the mass amount of fog in the swamps. We pulled up to the small island where the Idol stood, and our selfish, dimmed witted thief climbed up and popped out the humongous eye ruby. Which was the plan, but I don't trust thieves. The bogglings began to croak and the beast of the swamps drew near. Luckily we prepped and lit our circle of fire. Though it didnt really stop the bogglings, he proved to be most effective on the dragon turtle. We were able to defeat the best along with countless bogglings. We retreated, but one of the bogglings took the ruby right from my grasp. Kitty sent the surviving swamp dog [Angeline] after the boggling with a command in that filthy language of the orcs. When we arrived to town, wouldn't you know... that ugly dog had the ruby. Our journeys will take us to Verbonoc next to sell this ruby. Cuthbert will be most pleased with the offering that I have for the church.

-- What's his name, Acolyte of St. Cuthbert

Well, Januc is certainly more than he seems to be. When we were leaving the boggling camp after killing the [baby] dragon turtle, my character heard him chanting a spell (couldn't say what it was, nor whether arcane or divine). Not to mention the fact that apparently the shield [see below for stats] he made for my character, using the skin of that gator we helped him kill, is apparently magical. [It isn't] So he's not just your run-of-the mill ogre. In fact, he may not even be an ogre at all. We know of one other instance where a halfling is apparently becoming an ogre. That halfling/ogre (can't recall the name right now) is using his power to lead a band of human bandits [Jets as in the black gem]. It could be that Januc is actually some other race, and is using magic to take ogre form.

Or he could just be a magic-using ogre (which is also interesting). We also don't know what Ostler meant by the message he gave us to take to Januc. It was something like "We need more of them/that". Januc seemed impressed that Ostler would entrust us to carry that message, cryptic though it was. He never explained, though, and never gave us anything to take back to Ostler. Of course, we weren't really able to chat while retreating from the bogling hoard. Come to think of it, anyone think it strange that he volunteered to help us wipe out the boglings? Maybe he just wanted to get rid of the [baby] dragon turtle, as it would be a threat to all the swamp denizens, including him. But maybe he had another angle.

...do ogres typically speak orc? [yes] I've been wondering why the swamp dogs respond to commands in orc. Any ideas?

After leaving the swamp, we saw what apparently were gnoll zombies emerge, and move towards us. We lured them back towards the swamp before giving them the slip, so they wouldn't head into Hommlet. Want a wild-ass guess? What if Januc is actually The Master? What if he doesn't mind us killing gnolls and xvarts and boglings because he's just going to animate them into an undead army? What if the undead soldiers were the "more of them" of Ostler's message?

Maybe I'm way off the mark, but there are a lot of questions out there. I think we need to do some investigation.

-- Bowie Ftr/Mu/Cl of Kord

That, esp last line, warms my DM heart. Getting players to think and wonder about the world, characters, places I have created is my highest goal.

Crocogator Shield
Few have remembered the old ways, such as how to craft a sturdy shild from the back plates of a Giant Crocogator. It acts like a normal large shield and if prepared properly is surprisingly resilient to blows. Crocogator Shield's most amazing feature is providing +4 to saves vs most breath weapons.

btw it's a crocogator cause I kept switching back and forth from crocodile and aligator when describing it.

Sunday Inspiration

2011-07-24T10:00:00.004-05:00

Austin is Great for Gamers

2011-07-22T10:00:00.001-05:00

Austin is great for gamers. I'm guessing the combo of lots of computer game companies, lots of geeks cause of tech industry, and being best place in Texas ;) to live drives up the gamer to schlub ratio. The most gaming per capita I've seen having lived in Kansas City, San Francisco, and Seattle.

Lots of old school activity, lots of new school activity, lots of boardgame activity. Several great conventions in the area.l NTRPGCon, Owlcon are two I goto and love. Also, various minicons ABGB, oldschool in Austin. Lots of minis wargaming, centered around Great Hall Games. Big ASL group.

D&D Meetup http://meetup.com/dnd-823/

RPG Meetup http://www.meetup.com/roleplayers-413/

I maintain a Google map of Austin FLGS even though they keep going out of business there are still several to choose from.

Paint Night!

2011-07-21T10:00:00.005-05:00

Not much painting got done. But my friend did assemble and base my Otherworlds Pig Faced Orc tribe. Even with voucher Otherworld minis are dear. But, man do they look great. I have vague plan to get all minis for B2 Caves of Chaos.

Pig-faced Orc Tribe! Also got tiny winy Kobold tribe, gluing tiny arms and shields is challenging to my sanity.

Just to make you jealous, pic of rest of my Otherwold minis! Boglings, some gnolls, lizardmen, couple demons, undead, troll, owlbear, and two awesome Ogres!

NTRPG Minotaur!

I'm working at painting other mini's to build up some painting skills before I uglify the great Otherworld sculpts. Painted some crappy no detail space ships from I think Buck Rogers game which I mounted on some stands from Heroscape, using "counting sticks" from teacher supply store. Doesn't really work well, mountings are fragile and kind of ugly. Much better to buy stands from that one online acrylic everything for games manf I can't remember right now. Glue mini-magnets (cheap off of Ebay) to stand and to space ship. Less likely to snap and you can quickly change stands (to represent elevation or ???, and so you don't need stand for every model). btw I glued magnets into all my minis stands. Now they (non-metal atl east) stick to my magnetic whiteboard and to my magnetic square grid mat and disks I got from Alea Tools.

Painted a golem thing, troll (pic below). And started on some actual spaceship minis (not pictured). Don't think I like painting spaceships. Straight lines are hard.

Cheap plastic pieces from some game. White brow ridge is flash artifact. I painted these tonight!

My friend has painting skills, he did this Tri-kreen rip off.

These pictures look better than real thing...

Monkey loves Banana!

Sunday Inspiration

2011-07-17T10:00:00.003-05:00

T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil Session #2

2011-07-12T10:00:00.011-05:00

I've replaced the moat house with modified Caves of Chaos featuring large swamp and Januc the Cajun Ogre. This session played out at FLGS, King's Hobby, and had TEN players. One player's report follows.

Our adventurers were getting their crunk on in the Welcome Wench and attracted the attention of a few scruffy-looking schrees at the bar. These newbie neer-do-wells had the audacity to suggest they should be allowed to join the party. For a few under the table favors their dreams of professional skull-thuggery were realized and they took off toward the Swamps of Chaos to kill smurfs [Xvarts].

Many steps were retraced through the cave maw and many Detect Trap checks were fumbled until, once again, our heroes faced the inpenetrable bulk of a highly electrified door. After numerous probes, prods, and sensual strokes, Ftr/Mu/Clr of Kord began to perceive this as a situation in which size really did play a crucial role. Casting Embiggen on the door caused it to shatter into a half dozen gnarled panels, sending a shower of sparks dancing across the party's shiny helms.

They wandered up dark stone stairs, careful to stay in the newly clean-swept areas of floor where some poor blue soul had recently been dragged. Salty kicked in a barred wooden door and stormed into the room beyond with Steve, the apprentice fighter, near at hand, sword gleaming in the tepid torchlight.

The sound of puppies had tempted them, and had especially peaked the interest of one H.C. Johnson; but only death waited. Death, not cute puppies as "guy who got killed latter" would discover. The adventurers were quickly overcome by an unending stream of gnolls and gnollettes. A haunting laughter echoed off the walls behind as the trap was sprung. Surrounded, "guy who got killed latter", pious Cleric though he was, found no sanctuary as he was torn assunder between the slobbery, dulled jaws of a dozen angry gnolls (whose blasphemous coupling had most likely just been disturbed by the party's untimely arrival.)

Sunday Inspiration

2011-07-10T10:00:00.004-05:00

Happy Birthday Dungeon

2011-07-05T10:00:00.000-05:00

My good gamer buddy's wonderful wife recruited me to help with surprise birthday party. Amongst the giant inflatable dice, mini stuffed egg hunt, I drew this on 1" graph paper.

Sunday Inspiration

2011-07-03T10:00:00.003-05:00

Hackmaster Basic Pics

2011-06-26T10:00:00.040-05:00

Ran a few sessions of Hackmaster Basic. Made great use of all the Heroscape terrain I spent previous year buying off of ebay. And the Alea colored magnetic bases I spent too much money on. Each character / creature got 3 of the same color. One for under the mini, one on HP track to track hit points, and one on the initiative track. Which is great way to keep track of HMB's "continuous" initiative system.

Ambush while on patrol in the woods. Also note the "continuous initiative" track at bottom and hit point track on left.

Kill, kill, kill the PC's.

Can our intrepid militiamen defend the river ford. Turns out sadly, yes they can.

Basic Training!

Always worth including shot of guy picking his nose.

So booooored, can we get on with the killing and mayhem!

Haha, orc got pushed back into water (cool HMB rule, btw) and is now being washed downstream.

Btw I like HMB and some of it's ideas. But, as a whole there's too much tracking of stuff I don't have any time to "be awesome DM".

Radom RPG Pics

2011-06-21T10:00:00.000-05:00

Things in my "blogme" folder that I probably meant to blog about but am now too lazy (to write words, uploading photos is easy) and / or forgotten what they were to.

Massive town battle were we liberated the oppressed townsfolk by burning down their town.

DM claimed these represented archers.

We got sick of fighting necro mold, cause we got stomach aches eating all the marsh mellows.

Makes me think of the technology flowcharts in S3

I like dice. These all cost way too much. But buying RPG things I don't need is why I have a job.

NTRPG Con 2010, Matt Finch DMing Mythrus Tower

Heroscape terrain is pretty cool. Hackmaster game I ran. Orcs attempting ford crossing.

Mad Monkey God!

My paper craft DM "shield" and dice tower.

It comes apart!

Austin Board Game Bash

2011-06-20T10:00:00.000-05:00

Board Game Bash is a board game convention right here in beautiful Austin, Texas. It's going on all weekend long from Saturday, August 13th through Sunday, August 14th at the DoubleTree Hotel University (1617 IH-35 North, Austin, TX 78702).

Tickets can be purchased in advance for $20, or at the door for $25. Note that advance tickets also come with a few extra incentives, including aMYSTERY GRAB BAG.

Sunday Links

2011-06-19T10:00:00.014-05:00

http://quicklyquietlycarefully.blogspot.com/2011/06/crossroads-boggles-and-exemplary-map.html

A map too bad ass for words

Proper sword fights and a counterpoint

I see Lead People - besides an awesome name this is a great blog about physical craft side of hobby. Lately they've been on a DIY/Cheap terrain kick. Totally worth checking out.

Play this next time the players want to slay adolescent gnolls.

True dat! same thing said with more words (which some people prefer).

NTRPG 2010 Pictures

2011-06-18T10:00:00.000-05:00

Only a year late... Didn't take many (and no good ones) this year. So, look at all the fun I had year ago and be sure and put NTRPG Con 2012 on your calendars!

More NTRPG Pictures.

I'm a 6th level Blogger

2011-06-17T17:17:00.000-05:00

Thanks to 102 followers.

And you can blame The Savage Afterworld for learning me blogger levels even existed.

Player Mapping

2011-06-17T10:00:00.119-05:00

Running my Gold & Glory and Caves of Chaos as well as playing in Mythrus Tower at NTRPGCON 2010/2011 has totally convinced me of the awesomeness of player drawn maps.

At least for sandbox / exploration type games whether exploring a dungeon or a wilderness. I guess/I seem to remember it being much less useful (and fun) for plot based story driven games. In those map is just a DM tool to describe where the next plot point is. But, for exploration the map is kind of the whole point.

For G&G I originally drew out a very rough map (on plain paper) and the players added to it, very wrongly, based on my vague directions. When playing Mythrus Tower it was important to have a more or less accurate map, it allowed discoveries (hey there must be a secret door to this big empty space) and decisions (lets find a way round nasty monster's lair). Making players struggle with wildly wrong wilderness map may be "realistic" but it robs them of "meaningful choice". A primary requirement for fun sandbox play.

So, I've redrawn the players wilderness map on my nifty new Black Blade Publishing hex paper (which is awesomely same 6to1 hex scale of my master electronic map (made with HexGimp btw). It's not as pretty as the map drawn by player artists. But, it does show players where they haven't been, where they might go, etc.

As players explore I will very meta gamely give them accurate info on terrain in each hex (many hexes if they ever figure out climbing a tower or hill they can see 12-24 hexes all around). I'm thinking when they get lost, easy thing to do in Woods of Woe, I'll flat out meta game tell them they're lost just so they don't jack up their map.

Outlines of woods and things players can see or have heard about. I put in (parts) of several trails in hopes players will wonder "hey, what's down this road?" And follow it to their doom, er, I mean fabulous wealth and fame. One group explored a little bit into Goblin Woods. It's almost certain that bit of river hooks up with one to south, maybe a group will follow it one day to find out.

The obstacle and challenge I want to present to sandbox players isn't "can you figure out this jacked up map" it's "given knowledge of the area, a map, can you figure out safest path to your goal, where hidden things are, how to travel around the zone of much death and little treasure." The map below provides that. I believe it will help game play a lot.

This is about 1/2 the campaign area (higher level stuff is off to right. Most of it is blank cause it's unexplored. Mtns can be seen from far off so are filled in. And "The Wall" (diagonal from center top to lower right) is known to exist (but not every tower is known to players so those weren't drawn in). That north west section, Fog Meadow, has heaps of adventure. But, with old maps it seemed unlikely players would ever notice it was there. Now it's this big, empty, hopefully enticing area relatively close to civilization (and thus lower level like the players).

OSRIC Suprises

2011-06-16T10:00:00.060-05:00

Reading over my OSRIC tome in prep for a T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil campaign this Sunday I came across some surprising, to me, rules. Assuming I'm not reading them wrong.

[btw excellent thematic (list of spells, list of monsters, etc) TOC. Even though I found few things still vague I still give mad props to the OSRIC crew. This book is bad ass.]

Dex does not modify initiative, except with missiles, but it does reduce surprise. Grrrrr, beginning to remember why I like simple Labyrinth Lord. I'm gonna try the whole segment initiative system as written. If it bogs down combat it'll have to go. Expected individual initiative at least as an option. I prefer group, so yay.

Multiclassed Elves the less restrictive class requirements apply. (except thieving). So armor and spells are go, swords and clerics (this is allowed for any races multiclassing). Rules mention limiting this to elfin chain which I might do otherwise elves seem darn uber.

Multi Dwarfs suffer most restrictive and Multi Gnomes can were leather no better.

Racial level limits seem way low. Very view multiclass chars would be suitable for 8-12lvl modules. I didn't see anywhere bonus for being single classed demi-human, maybe it's a UA rule, but I'm gonna allow single class demi-humans 150% max level restrictions.

I never liked Assassin class, but this one seems unsucky enough that I'll allow it.

No monk class :(

Traps spring 50% of time. Similar rule in D&D/OD&D(I believe). As DM I've totally missed this and have always had traps "fire" 100% of time (unless, of course, they are disarmed).

pg 121 When Closing Into Combat neither combatant may attack that round.

pg 121-122 Creatures with multiple attacks are considered one "routine". They all happen on creature's initiative and they all attack same target! Unless creature description says otherwise.

pg 122 Melee targets are random! Players can't choose their target. Not sure how I feel about this. Having everyone beat up on the same target is time honored tactic.

pg 122 Melee range is 10'

12 Ways to Stop Sounding Metagamey

2011-06-15T10:00:00.001-05:00

Written by not me. Not even found by me. I read them in excellent Roleplaying Tips Weekly. Who included them with permission from www.leonineroar.com/

Several are 4edisms and a couple I don't agree with But the "spirit" of the list was good enough for me to blog it. Click to get the original full article, it's worth a read.

12. Stop talking party roles.
11. Stop calling D&D a game it’s not. [yes it is]
10. Describe your actions instead of reading off a skill and rolling a die.
9. Roleplay your social skill checks.
8. Stop giving gamey play-by-play.
7. Stop calling them short and extended rests.
6. Don’t go ‘Bag of Numbers’ on us.
5. Roleplay during combat.
4. Abort Tactical Metagame Mission Conference Discussion Delta Niner.
3. Stop calling them powers.
2. Stop saying “I Spend an Action Point!”
1. Stop Sleeping in the Damn Dungeon.

Bear Hugs on Notice

2011-06-15T00:12:00.003-05:00

According to B/X Blackrazor. My initial reaction was "Huh, I knew everything he said but never put 2 and 2 together". But, then I was like "Wha? Bears are instruments of destruction. They will totally kill you dead."

Counterpoint 1, I believe a bar hugged someone in Grissly Adams or some such Mtn Man movie. If it's been in a movie it's fair game for my, er, game.

Counterpoint 2, DM's job is to make bear more awesome not turn it into some pansie GR wrestler. From now on all bears (esp owl type) will be

If a bear (of any type) hits with the same opponent with both paw attacks in a single combat round, the beast has got one of it's victim's arms in each paw and inflicts an additional 2-16 (2d8) damage as it rips them apart. Blood fountains, spilling/spewing/splattering entrails and ripped off limbs used as clubs in future rounds at DM's option.

Counterpoint 3, no less than flippin photographic evidence. Hug that B/X!

Those bars aren't gay man, they're totally in a bear hug flippin death grip!

We Kick Ass

2011-06-14T10:00:00.007-05:00

There should be a day of honoring, or somefink.

Starting OSRIC(AD&D) T1-4 in Austin, TX

2011-06-13T14:51:00.002-05:00

Play one of the classics T1-4 Temple of Elemental Evil. OSRIC (same as AD&D but currently available in PDF or printed). Raise your characters from lvl 1 schmucks to heroes who can take on and defeat a demi-god! Experienced and new players alike are welcome.

Bonus: By popular demand, campaign will include Caves of Chaos action.

Inaugural session Sunday June 19th 11:00am at DM's, Norm's, house in south Austin (near Mopac and William Cannon). email njharman@knoggin.com for info directions. Possibly moving to King's Hobby* for future sessions. Probably 1or2/mo depending on groups availability desire.

*Went by Kings Hobby other day and they mentioned having space for and desire for people to run games. Which is awesome. And great news as there's was a dearth of decent public game space in Austin.

Vornheim The Complete City Kit Review

2011-06-13T10:00:00.199-05:00

tldr; buy this unless you loath "off the cuff" style of DMing.

Another NTRPG Con 2011 purchase. I've read some of Zak S. Vornheim blog posts but dropped off blogosphere several months ago and didn't even know this book existed. I recognized the art style and name right off.

Was sadden by hardback (and slipcover) until I learned it was "only" $17.50 Which ain't bad for a 64 page book let alone a hardback one. The entire book is, of course, in the proper digest size. Since the cover and back of the hardback is actually used to roll dice on the hardbackness is nice and the binding lays perfectly flat. The inside of slipcover is a map of Vornheim and instructions on using hardback. Every inch (indside of hardback cover, the normally blank facing page, back cover, every bit of paper is filled. And the fonts used are on the small side (but not microscopic). This book is a stuffed with gaming goodness as much as a little book can be.

The art I believe is all Zak's. Whose style I'll wager is polarazing. I like it. Although, a few of his drawings are maps, even if you don't care for his art the amount is not so overwhelming and the other content is worth it. The layout is nice, clean and seems that it would facilitate rapid, easy in game use. The production values including printing, materials, and binding are high. Props to author and publisher in equal measure.

Vornheim The Complete City Kit as the name might suggest is a schizophrenic work. On the one hand it describe the cold, creepy city of Vornheim. On the other it proffers a philosophy and tools to run city adventures "just in time".

Rough break down of what you get. Page of introduction. Page of regional map and key. Six or so pages of Vornheim overview, personalities, background etc. Several more pages dedicated to various locations (actually cool mini dungeons) around Vornheim. House of the Medusa, Immortal Zoo of Ping Feng, Library of Zorlac. Typical Vornheim tower and player (this book is the content Zak uses in his game) commentaries. Together provide enough meat to get a feel for the style and atmosphere of Vornheim as well as plenty of hooks/inspiration/space to make it your own. And some ready to run for when DM is caught pants down.

Next are, for me, the exiting parts of running city "on the fly". Urban crawl rules. Instant floor plans, chase system, libraries, shop locations/demographics, NPC connections. And lots of charts and generation systems (the front/back covers), ~22 pages. Tables: Aristocrats Books, city NPCs, City Shopkeepers, Contacts, Directions, Encounters, Fortunes, "I search the Body", Legal Situations, Magic Effects, Taverns and Games, Buildings. There's also a further reading list (always like) and conversions to 3x.

I like/agree with the JIT style of gaming, I like this book. It's maybe not perfect but for $17.50 it doesn't have to be. It's a valuable addition to one's gaming arsenal and I recommend DMs pick it up if only to read/explore Zak's style of running city adventures. Personally I'll be using it in my Gold & Glory campaign if the players ever make it to Nindus, The City of Necromancers.

Buy it in Print / Buy it in PDF

Good: bang/buck, the several extractable "systems" for city adventuring, Vornheim's not another squeee! clichéd, magic == technology, badly faux fantasy city.

Bad: (I dig it) but if you don't subscribe to the "on the fly", "off the cuff", a "100 entry table is better than a 100 page description" philosophy of DMeering this book is not for you. Some content has been published on Zak's blog (but like he said in intro it'd be kind of lame to call something complete if 1/4 of the tables were on the Internet.)

Ugly: slip covers are a PITA, but book is still 100% usable after I stuffed slip in drawer.

Sunday Links

2011-06-12T10:00:00.027-05:00

Things I've seen around the interwebs last few days.

Huzzah! http://poleandrope.blogspot.com/2011/06/thank-you-all-very-much.html

Dodecahedron RPG Zine from A Character for Every Game blog.

Pockets picked

Pretty http://matt-landofnod.blogspot.com/2011/06/deviant-friday-ilias-kyriazis-edition.html

A music Video!

EZ Happy Donut

2011-06-10T10:00:00.002-05:00

[This was a writing exercise I did when I lived in SF and had a writing group. Wave guys, I miss you. Thought it is an interesting adventure hook. Playing Paranoia at NTRPG Con made me remember this ;) Oh, lots of cussing below, if you're bothered by that, go away.]

EZ Happy Donut

Alphon was hungry. He'd been picking neolopes out of hydroponic bays all shift long. Ten hours, no break, only pick, no food, only pick.

The EZ Happy Donut sign pulsed green then orange as he stumbled up and slumped onto a plastic tool discolored by the asses of countless pickers before him. The sugary smell of freshed baked donuts that was pumped out of the circulation ducts all along this section made him sick, but he was too hungry to care.

"Gimme an old-fashioned and a..."

"Please restate order in 'product desired' - 'product quantity' form." The supposedly soothing voice of the automat interrupted.

"Fucked up lame software."

"Order confirmed, insert Universal, PCA or Orbital3 debit card, now."

"What order? I haven't finished!"

"Insert debit card now, please"

"Tell me what you think I ordered." Alphon knew this was way too complex of an inquiry for the version 3.x automats they installed in WorkerZone.

"Insert debit card or be in violation of Orbital3 code Title 372 Section G 'Ordering products or services from an automated device with no intent to pay or fraudulent intent'"

"Fuck this, cancel order & gimme a god damn old..."

"Order has been confirmed unable to comply with cancel request. New order function not available until current order complete. Please insert debit card."

Alphon looked at the only other automat at this EZ Happy Donut. Someone had put what looked like a glide rail strut through its screen. It didn't look very operational. The girl who had been waiting behind him gave a sort of "thanks for breaking it, asshole" look and headed off towards the Qwicky Licky BBQ automats further down the corridor.

"Please insert debit card within the next 60 seconds or be in violation of Orbital3 code Title 372 Section G. This is the official notification required by Orbital3 code Title 380 Sections A & C."

"Blow me!" Alphon started checking the numerous pockets they put on Orbital3 duty jumpsuits for an old debit card. One he hoped only had enough for a donut or two. He had heard that some other picker was delivered 118 pairs of foul weather gloves from a fucked up automat. Why foul weather gloves are even on the menu in climate controlled station was of no concern to the arbitration panel, they denied his debit reversal appeal. That kind of shit Alphon didn't need.

"30 seconds until violation, please insert debit card."

"Yeah, yeah." Alphon found the card that had been floating amongst the neolope roots just a few hours earlier. Local Orbital3 issue, looked beat to hell, maybe it had a few creds left. He stuck it in. At least it wasn't in his name.

"Thank you, Chief Director Johnson. One pink sparkles, $4.78 total debit."

Alphon stared at the name on the graphical display, not sure whether to push the card return or to bolt. Sudden movements like that tended to get the camera systems to alert station security. Instead he glanced around, he was relatively alone. Then a thought occurred to him.

"Account balance" he asked?

"Current balance is three-hundred seventyfive-thousand eight-hundred sixteen point seventy-two credits."

He grabbed the card and left the donut. Alphon's life had either gotten a whole lot better or a whole lot worse. He wasn't sure which.

You can continue this tale at StoryMash.com

LotFP Grindhouse Review

2011-06-09T10:00:00.235-05:00

[Disclosure: I don't like Raggi (or at least the person he plays on the Internet). I don't believe this biases my review, but you may. So, feel free to stop reading now. Oh, another bias I may have and which probably **is** responsible for the central thesis of this review is, to me, anything ~$20 less seems cheap and a no thought "buy", anything over ~$35 had better be damn awesome. Like more value than two editions of Fight On!, like that's gonna happen.]

tldr; If you're in a narrow niche (ha, gotta read to find out what niche that is) and willing to shell out a wad of cash, it's good and exactly what you want. For "experienced" RPG'rs there's not enough to justify the price.

I'm sure everybody and their familiar has reviewed this already. But, whatever, I've been off the blogs for months and it's new to me. Just picked up mine last weekend at NTRPG Con 2011 (impulse buy cause box looked so damn cool and my rational mind was weaken from Con Spending Spree!).

The packaging is cool and packed. Three books (of the proper size, digest), dice, character sheets, everything you need. The art is everywhere, really the most art I've ever seen even compared to some coffee table art books. (there's even 8 gratuitous full color plates in the middle of one book). Most of the art excellent (some merely good). It suits and compliments the material. And I appreciate that it's (not sure word arranged? composed? directed as in Art Director) well. Of similar quality and the styles synergize with each other. Beautiful. For a collector proly makes it worth the price of admission. But I don't collect games, I play them.

"Tutorial" seems excellent. Using programmed instruction and "choose your own" style adventure. Along with an extensive 20 page! example of play. It truly is a tutorial. I very much like the extensive Recommended Reading section which goes into detail on the lives and writings of the usual authors. 95 pages. This should be a PDF download and would probably help spread RPGs to many.

"Referee", 95 pages, has much that a newb DM needs to learn. It's opinionated which is better than being vague and useless. I especially like how Monsters and Magic Items are handled. Rather than having lists of them it's explained what they're for, how to use them, and how to create them yourself. The sections on attracting players and survey of "Traditional"(their word not mine) RPG products are interesting. But this whole book is written like the Internet doesn't exist and the reader is incapable of doing Google search. (Which feeds into point below that product should have been less pages and price). There's a sample adventure which should have been a separate book.

Final book, "Rules & Magic", is largest at 166pages. Half taken up with spells to 9th level. Cause newb players need that ultra high level content in the first product they buy. This book is booring. There's little (I saw) innovative here. Even the encumbrance system I've seen people rave about isn't changing things from adding up what you carry apply all these modifiers. It just made it more granular. The rules seem to take bunches of finiggly bits from AD&D but none of the fun stuff like classes. The Specialist is nice but like 3rd time I've seen that type of system. So many rules. Maybe that's what newb needs. But, I'd much rather see emphasis on rulings. More rule 0 and 1 from Referee book. Do what seems fun, when in doubt roll d6 low is bad, high is good. Less, much less, how many days can I survive without water and what do I roll...

Overall this product from the tutorial to DM advice is squarely written for new players. For a new DM with some friends. Probably all younger (as in under 30) with no to little experience with paper RPGs. This is that niche I mentioned. And I just can't see a $45 product being the right one to target that audience. The various pocket/field editions of various RPGs (e.g. Savage Worlds, M&M, Mongoose Trav) for $10-$20 are better price/product for that purpose. Dump all the high level spells, nautical adventures, use a simpler rule system, be less verbose and this could have been one of those products. For non-newbs the tutorial and most of the DM book is wasted paper. It's priced, packaged, and stuffed with art like a deluxe edition but serves up intro edition content. Satisfying no one 'cept star eyed fan boy/girls.

Good: Art, composition/style, "game in a box", tutorial and newb DM advice.

Bad: Price, ho hum system. Miss-matched content/price/audience.

Ugly: It's full of rules.

South Texas Mini-con

2011-06-08T23:47:00.001-05:00

UPDATE: http://hillcantons.blogspot.com/2011/06/south-texas-mini-con-august-20-save.html

In August, In New Braufels (which I guess qualifies as "South" and "Texas"). Details on the Hill Cantons blog.

Ignore the Austin

DCC RPG

2011-06-08T23:39:00.000-05:00

I'm regretting not signing up for the play test sessions offered at NTRPG Con 2011.

Holy fucking crap that is a lot of really stupendously fantastic inspiring art in the Beta download. If those images don't make you **ache** to roll dice and adventure across graphpaper, man I don't know. Ask Data for you emotion chip back or something.

The biggest thing I'm giddy with excitement over is how this product will reach masses of players. Who are going to be exposed (and hopefully indoctrinated ;) to most of my preferred style.

Stats in order / in general random generation over "char building".
Race as class, suck it gnome paladin!
Death happens and it makes game fun.
Rulings over rules / don't need a rule to do something, just a DM.
Morale, shit don't just keep attacking until you beat the XP out of it.
Magic is fickle and not entirely under your control.
Weird is were it's at!
Proper adventuring attire is pointy pg 44

There's differences but I'm willing to take the bad with the good. Esp if it's gonna be illustrated all funktacular like.

Half of Goodman's Games make me cry tears of suckyness but then they publish products like Dungeon Alphabet and this. I can't hate'm but I can't love'm either. Damn shades of grey!

NTRPG 2011 Quotes

2011-06-08T10:00:00.015-05:00

Things I heard at NTRPG 2011 and remembered to write down. Apologize in advance for misquotes as there's likely to be some.

"You're one of those fruity half-elves? Commit one way or the other!"
-- Tim Kask

"We using those new-fangled variable damage rules or d6 for everything"
-- Frank Metzer

"Do we have an elf that can get oiled up and naked to do all the levers at once?"
-- thankfully forgotten

As I returned from the bathroom, "A flask of oil hits you in the back of the head"
-- forgotten

"Ticks falling from the ceiling like blood sucking confetti."
-- Mike Stewart

NTRPG 2011 Report

2011-06-07T10:00:00.150-05:00

[tldr; you should have gone]

Some other people's reports on NTRPG 2011

Yeehaw! That was a blast. Over sooooo fast I couldn't believe it was already Sunday. 2nd time attending and will definitely be back next year. Nice to see more of the Austin Region Crew. Will try harder to convince more of them to go next year. It's a fun con, run by great guys, at a really nice and convenient hotel. But, for me at least, (even though I'm not a celeb chaser or signature collector) I get one hell of a kick out of being DM'd by and playing with people who wrote the games, modules, and magazines that thrilled me so much as a teenager it started a life long hobby. I healed the guy who wrote the original Druid class. That's bad ass in my book.

Thursday morning I was too excited I couldn't sleep so I headed north around 3:30 am, only took a few hours and had to spend the morning dozing in my car until I could check in. That night Ben Burns ran my very first game ever of Paranoia. A game that I've been curious about since first seeing ads in Dragon Magazine. My communist mutant only lost two clones and succeeded in recruiting two comrades. Power to the Infrareds, down with the computer!

Friday I returned to Matt Finch's Mythrus Tower. An ongoing convention S&W campaign. Father John (my character from last year) and party futz around on 1st level for a while before plunging to the 3rd level and totally p0wning some ghouls. Early edition clerics turn undead is darn powerful. Later on I played in Bill Web's Mythrus game which was wilderness adventure. I died. Fortunately I had made a pact with another cleric to use my raise dead scroll if I died. Oh, death by Giant Coral snake bite, 1pt of damage save or die vs poison. Over all this con was costly for Father John. He expended all three potions of heal he had, a scroll of raise dead. Otoh, he gained a+1 mace, several thousands of gold ;), and a level. Now 5th and able to cast 3rd level spells, woot!

That evening Dennis Sustare ran me and several others through his great module (written for NTRPG Con 2011) "Tourist Traps". Emphasis on the plural in traps. Swords & Wizardy rules. Fun and different module where characters are at a resort town, Fort Charles, for some rest and relaxation. Fun, funny and filled with "references" such as my favorite two crows Munin and Hugin. I liked playing in this module so much I bought a copy and I'm not much of a module purchaser. Btw Grognardia's interview with Dennis.

Saturday was the before mentioned Mythrus Wilderness, the auction in which I bought lots of art (more on that later). After dinner I and several other brave Millenians plundered the Tomb of Amemnes, a Basic/Expert Hollow World adventure written and DM'd by Steve Winter for NTRPG 2011. Travis was one of the funniest thieves I've every gamed with. Several other good role-players eliminated the potential tedium of exploring trap infested tombs. The well written module helped there as well. Short, but varied and interesting. I actually won a copy of this module in the raffle. Pretty darn cool.

Sunday, wow already. It came fast but 3 days of junk food and 9am till midnight gaming was wearing heavy on me. I lasted for a few more hours in which I explored a too small portion of Castle of the Mad Archmage DM'd by Jon Hershberger. AD&D. I'm very proud that my Paladin was able to topple the blasphemous rat god temple before I left early to drive home before I passed out.

See ya next year.

Three Castles Award

2011-06-07T01:38:00.000-05:00

Announced at last years NTRPG Con. This year's, 2011, winner was "The Dungeon Alphabet" and Michael Curtis. Huzzah and congrats. Not sure if I could decide between that and "The Majestic Wilderlands". The judges that did were Paul Jaquays, Tim Kask, Rob Kuntz, Dennis Sustare, and Steve Winter.

The nominees included:

B/X Companion (Jonathan Becker)
LOTFP Weird Fantasy Roleplaying (James Raggi)
Stonehell Dungeon(Michael Curtis)
The Dungeon Alphabet (Michael Curtis)
The Majestic Wilderlands (Rob Conley)

I own all but the first, the last three are awesome. Just got LOTFP at NTRPG and haven't had a chance to really get into it.

More info (the symbolism is pretty cool) on The Three Castles Award. Hmmm, but I see that link doesn't explain it. Well the top castle is Dave Arneson's Blackmoor from which creativity flows down to G. Gygax's Castle Greyhawk and Robert Kuntz's El Raja castle.

Labyrinth Lord GnG at Dragon's Lair Austin

2011-02-21T14:47:00.002-06:00

The 4th session of Gold and Glory my Labyrinth Lord D&D campaign will be held at Dragon's Lair Austin FLGS this coming Sunday Feb. 27 from 1pm - 6pm.

New and existing players welcome. Gold and Glory is specifically designed for episodic play. Players can attend whenever they have time and go on an "adventure" with who ever else is able to make that day. Instead of being locked into the same party/characters. Or risk missing out on key plot element. Every session is "come as you are" and hopefully leave alive and wealthier.

But, players should be sure and reap the spoils of their efforts or others will. As witnessed in the 2nd and 3rd GnG sessions. Where the 2nd session witnessed slaughter of many NPC's at the paws of "Winter", infamous giant wolverine, and mostly ran away. Then in 3rd session a totally different group of players had easy time cleaning up the few survivors. Gathered up the loot, all the equipment thus receiving a huge haul in XP and GP for very little effort.

If you're planning on going, please RSVP on the Austin D&D Meetup website. Since it's Dragon's Lair, we only have a table for 8, and I wouldn't want people to come, only to find out there isn't enough room.

Austin D&D Meetup Announcement fro this Sunday's foray.

The Kingdom is prosperous, peaceful, and BORING. When King Osric "The Reasonably Just" decreed the wild and dangerous Eastern Frontier open to exploration, none abandoned their fat and easy lives to risk almost certain doom. But when King Osric aka "The Relatively Generous" further decreed that there would be no taxes, tariffs, excises, or royal shares levied on treasure recovered from the Eastern Frontier a few desperate adventurers took notice and headed East. Those few that didn't come to their senses and turn back found themselves in the newly established Barony of Brink, last outpost of civilization and gateway to the Eastern Frontier.

Tomb robbers, out of work mercenaries, professional scoundrels, holy men looking to save or be saved, seekers of forbidden knowledge, naive farm boys with dreams of glory, assorted ne'er-do-wells, and foreigners from near and far all congregate at the Goat & Wizard Inn. Drinking the last of their coin, eyeing the competition, chasing up rumors and bar wenches. Eventually, a motley party of assorted characters gathers round a large table to plan their first foray in search of Gold and Glory.

Are you brave or foolish enough to explore the Eastern Frontier in search of gold and glory? More to the point are you strong enough to survive its perils and return body, mind, and soul intact?

Adventure beckons, will you answer the call?

Austin/Texas Area Game Cons 2011

2011-02-20T10:00:00.009-06:00

Update to game convention section of Austin/Texas Game Scene 2011 post. Missed some.

~~OwlCon XXX Jan 28th-30th, Houstin Bam! If I could, I'd clone myself and go twice.~~
Was awesome, you missed it. Ran two sessions of "B2 Caves of Chaos" to packed 8 player tables, I had a blast. Seemed that everyone else did as well.

Aggie Con Mar 25 - 27, College Station Game, Sci-fi con, art room, lots of dealers. Never been. Probably no go for norm.

ChimaeraCon April 1-3, San Antonio "Chimaeracon is a South Texas festival for Gamers, Sci-Fi enthusiasts and Anime fans. Come and enjoy video games, miniatures, card games, RPGs, live action role play and much more. " Never been. Probably won't make this one.

TexiCon May 20-22 Downtown Fort Wort h This year the convention will focus on Role-Play. Looks like good mix of other games and other stuff (seminars, silly things) They're expanding for 2011, taking over more of the sheraton. Never been. I might go for fri/sat...

North Texas RPG Con June 2-5, Irving. Heck yeah! I'll be slamming the early-bird registration page when it opens on July 1st. I went last year and had the best time. The size and old schoolishness of NTRPGCON give it a unique atmosphere. Pics.

MillenniumCon Nov 11-13, Round Rock - RPGA, Historical Minis, Boardgames. By November might be feeling the need to get my Wargame On! Will hafta wait and see.

Maybe there will be another Central Texas Mini-Con.

Aggie Con March 25th-27th

2011-02-14T23:19:00.000-06:00

Don't know how I missed this one in my roundup of Austin/Texas are RPG Cons. It's even closer to Austin than OwlCon (where I picked up the flyer (after being berated by my Aggie friend for not knowing 1) it existed and 2) it was even older than OwlCon)). Won't be making this one though, too much game and not enough time to play it!

Aggie Con 42! @ Texas A&M / College Station
March 25th-27th, 2011

3-Day badge: $15 for students, $25 for others by 2/20/11

Many guests
Art show
Anime marathons
Huge Dealers room
Console gaming
Masquerade Ball
Tabletop gaming including D&D, Hackmaster, & Magic
Charity auction to help Scotty’s House, a Child Advocacy Center

Video Update to DIY Dice Post

2011-02-08T10:01:00.000-06:00

Dicecreator posted video update to my DIY Dice post, nice!

Looks awesome, thanks for the video.

Always the First to Die

2011-01-24T22:30:00.000-06:00

Great song (ignore the video if MMORPG bother you). Thanks for the link Mike! (player who died twice in last Sunday's 3rd Session of Gold and Glory campaign).

RPG Blog Roll Additions

2011-01-21T10:00:00.000-06:00

http://supergalacticdreadnought.blogspot.com/ recent posts are some really cool OGRE minis

Gold & Glory 2nd session

2011-01-17T10:00:00.001-06:00

Ran the second session of Labyrinth Lord (heavily house-ruled (more on that later)) Gold and Glory Campaign. Went fairly well. Two players from 1st session came back so it can't be all bads. I'm not as prepared as I would like (need DM screen, more things in my DM book, etc) But, at some point you gotta say fsck it and just start playing the darn thing or else your campaign will never get started.

3rd session set for Sunday 23rd Jan, Feb is still chrono incognita.

One of the campaigns "themes" is clawing your way up from nothing. Which means characters start out practically destitute. Besides basic camping gear, backpack, some rope most characters have a dagger. Martial types get leather armor and a spear. That's it, no bows, oil, lanterns, no shields, not even money enough to stay more than 1 night at the inn. This has been a struggle for the players as well as the characters. They have done fairly well at surviving. Mostly by running away. Which means they aren't able to pick up better gear (like a freakin shield) from their foes. They got a spiked club only because it was impaled on the soon to be dead character.

The point of this post was to say how nice it is to have artists amongst your players. Pro-tip: Always have a place for character portrait on your charsheets.

Front side of my custom LL Char Sheet

Player map, looks totally bad ass

Really dig background details for this Blue (hence water I think) Magi, sadly MIA.

Wizard wearing "Mother's Wig", the only character to survive 2 sessions and thus proud owner of 179xp.

A Scout/Archer type, KIA?

Another Scout Marksmen, KIA? or just down for some R&R?

Hobbit is rockin the bolo tie. Sadly MIA.

Not at all what I had in mind for the sign of the Goat & Wizard Pub. It's much better.

This Week's Blog Roll Additions

2011-01-14T10:00:00.008-06:00

http://fistfulofcoppers.blogspot.com/

http://henchmanabuse.blogspot.com/

http://oldschoolheretic.blogspot.com/

http://leadpeople.blogspot.com/

http://axe-n-hammer.blogspot.com/

http://gorgonmilk.blogspot.com/

More blogs added just now

2011-01-07T11:04:00.000-06:00

http://addgrognard.blogspot.com/

http://eternalkeep.blogspot.com/

Added New Blogs to Roll This Week

2011-01-07T10:00:00.004-06:00

http://www.risusmonkey.com/

http://stonewerks.wordpress.com/

http://mapandcounters.blogspot.com/

http://swordandshieldrpg.blogspot.com/

http://quicklyquietlycarefully.blogspot.com/

http://the-city-of-iron.blogspot.com/

http://lordgwydion.blogspot.com/

http://docgrognard.blogspot.com/

Gold & Glory Campaign

2011-01-06T10:00:00.035-06:00

The Kingdom is prosperous and peaceful. When King Osric "The Reasonably Just" decreed the wild and dangerous Eastern Frontier open to exploration none abandoned their fat and easy lives to risk almost certain doom. But when King Osric aka "The Relatively Generous" further decreed that there would be no taxes, tariffs, excises, or royal shares levied on treasure recovered from the Eastern Frontier a few desperate adventurers took notice and headed East. Those few that didn't come to their senses and turn back found themselves in the newly established Barony of Brink, last outpost of civilization and gateway to the Eastern Frontier.

Tomb robbers, out of work mercenaries, professional scoundrels, holy men looking to save or be saved, seekers of forbidden knowledge, naive farm boys with dreams of glory, assorted ne'er-do-wells, and foreigners from near to far all congregate at the Goat & Wizard Inn. Drinking the last of their coin, eyeing the competition, chasing up rumors and bar wenches. Eventually, a motley party of assorted characters gathers round a large table to plan their first foray in search of Gold and Glory.

Are you brave or foolish enough to explore the Eastern Frontier in search of gold and glory? More to the point are you strong enough to survive its perils and return body, mind, and soul intact?

Adventure beckons, will you answer the call?

Gold & Glory is a retro D&D sandbox/exploration campaign designed for any number of players and for players not being able to make it every session (Western Marches Style). Characters take 10min to create. Rules are fast, loose and learn as you go. Players need nothing other than paper, pencil, and a desire to have fun. I host a gameday (almost) every Sunday. Players certainly do not need to attend every session, come when you can. And not every gameday will necessarily be G&G. But, if three or more people want to play, it's game on!

[Finally getting this started. First New Year's Resolution complete six days in, booh yah! ;)]

Worth Linking To

2011-01-05T10:00:00.002-06:00

Don't get to read all the blogs as much as I use to, but these posted I happened upon recently

Good lord I love map s "A Character for Every Game" blog hits it square on the head.

More Geomorphs

Totally linking to this

Also, wouldn't be better served if works such as "Seven Samurai" and "Fellowship of the Ring" were available to all instead of being endlessly merchandised?

Custom Card Decks

2011-01-04T09:00:00.002-06:00

http://godeckyourself.com/

That is all.

New D&D Movie

2011-01-03T10:00:00.001-06:00

Did you know that there’s a new D&D movie in the works? It’s called Book of Vile Darkness. Oh and you totally missed chance to win a walk-on role as the character you created. But, having to create a "heroic tier" character using the D&D Character Builder tool, currently available through Dungeons & Dragons Insider. With no more than no more than 100 words of flavor.

Uh, huh. 100 words you say? Guess their going for the one-dimensional, paper thin depth type of characters. Didn't they already make that movie? [Actually I like the D&D movies.]

As an aside; I once read somewhere on the blogs that their belief of why TSR adventures style changed from open / sand boxy / location based to more linear / story / plot based is because as TSR grew they hired out of work / wannabe fantasy fiction authors. I bet when WotC took over the ratio of game(as in not RPG) designers went way up. That could explain a lot of 3.x's balance / mechanics obsession. I wonder if an influx of programmer/video game designer types influenced 4.x? Seems much less clear than other two style changes. But, having a character building tool and other stuff made me wonder that.

Monday Morning Trivia Answers

2011-01-03T09:00:00.024-06:00

Finally, what I'm sure you've all be anciously awaiting, answers to last Friday's Troll's Trivia Tragedy!

1st Level
What character class has the ability to influence the reactions of others through music, poetry, and stories?

bard

2nd Level
Which of the following is NOT a special ability common to all rangers?

D. Can accurately identify plants and animals. PH page 29

3rd Level
What is the maximun number of missiles permitted by a magic missile spell?

Five. [Surprised me, I thought there was no limit.]

4th Level
What specific advantage do characters gain by parrying?

Nonwarriors gain an AC bonus = to 1/2 their level, Warriors gain a bonus equal to 1/2 their level + 1.

5th Level
Francis casts polymorph other on a lesser basilisk (INT 1) turning it into a chipmunk. What is the chance that the basilisk will take on the mentality of Chippy the chipmunk?

65% (Twenty minus 1 intelligence, minus 6 (level difference) equals 13. Twenty divided by thirteen equals 0.65, or 65%) PH page 100 [Holy complicated crap! How about DM judges circumstances and picks an X between 1-5 and rolls X in 6 chance.]

[bonus question: will Chippy's gaze turn to stone?]
I say yes! But do lesser basilisks even turn to stone?

Happy New Year

2011-01-01T13:11:00.020-06:00

May 2011 see many Nubile Virgins sacrificed
to the Toad Gods in your honor.

Why is it so hard to find toad/frog god pics?

btw I didn't know Three Legged Toad God was a "thing", but apparently it is.

Friday Trivia Tragedy

2010-12-31T16:00:00.018-06:00

Do you dream of Dryads, converse in Cant, wonder about wands, think THAC0? Are you geek enough to reach 5th Level? Then step on up to the Troll's Trivia Tragedy!

Every Friday (except when I forget and until I get bored of it) I'll post five questions, one from each level, from my AD&D 2nd Ed Trivia Game. Bragging rights will be bestowed. Prizes, not so much.

Comment with your best guesses, no fair looking answers up! Bonus points for humorous, sad, poignent or otherwise anecdote involving the answer. I'll post the answers later, Mondayish.

1st Level
What character class has the ability to influence the reactions of others through music, poetry, and stories? [hint: what is the lamest character class?]

2nd Level
Which of the following is NOT a special ability common to all rangers?

A. Tracking.
B. Use of clerical spells at 8th lvl.
C. When wearing light armor, can fight two-handed without penalty.
D. Can accurately identify plants and animals.

3rd Level
What is the maximun number of missiles permitted by a magic missile spell?

4th Level
What specific advantage do characters gain by parrying?

5th Level
Francis casts polymorph other on a lesser basilisk (INT 1) turning it into a chipmunk. What is the chance that the basilisk will take on the mentality of Chippy the chipmunk?

[bonus question: will Chippy's gaze turn to stone?]

Austin Game Scene 2011

2010-12-31T08:00:00.224-06:00

Another year of gaming in Austin awaits!

FLGS and Meetups

A Google map of Austin Area RPG / Game Stores I maintain (let me know if I'm missing something).

Battleforge Games like Thor's Hammer before failed its Save vs Business Reality. Taking a good gaming space with it (same as Thor's). Austin lacks (like everyplace I've lived) public gaming space. RPG's just aren't commercially viable. They run long 6-10 hours, take 5-10 peoples worth of space, require infrequent and/or minimal purchases, and few people are willing to pay say $5 to have a place to play. Metro Seattle's Gamers is/was? kind of working that pay to play model. Don't think they break even, and are subsidized by Dragonflight Con, and MSG is an exception. The only game stores surviving in Austin are supported by comics sales and focus more on CCG/miniatures and recurring income games such as Hasbro's 4ed. They certainly have (some) shelf space for all sorts RPG's but can't justify having much playing space for them. It's not their fault, it's just business.

Dragon's Lair is the only (AFAIK) "not way the flip up North" public place for RPG. But is very crowded, often booked and too noisy for me. [I was just there utilizing my xmas gift card (thanks Paula!) and space has been rearranged, with several more tables in different areas. So, I must reserve judgement on crowd, availability, and noise until I get a chance to play in the new setup. Looks promising though] They do have the largest selection of games I've found. Standard stuff, oddball stuff, indie stuff, local stuff, OSR stuff. Some of everything except wargames. They also have many events, tournaments and author/celebrity signings. Definitely should subscribe to Dragon's Lair email newsletter. DLair also started a podcast, but I'm not podcast kind of troll so know zilch about it.

Tribe Comics and Games is still the southernly place for RPG, board games, minis, and of course comics. Also, still, not letting people game in their store :(. But a great store, with friendly folks, a varied stock of RPGs and other games. Will order anything you may want that's not in their store, pay when you pick up. I've used this service twice it was painless and quicker than waiting for USPS delivery.

Tribe "sponsors" S. Austin Game Night, Tuesdays 6pm-late at Rockin Tomato on S. Lamar. Great group of people, great place (tables, booths, beer, and pizza!) But for board games only.

Great Hall Games (a bit north for some) still has great board game, historical minis, wargame, Go, and other game nights. The place in Austin for wargames and historical minis. No RPG games or gaming.

King's Hobby still has RPG section and is worth an occasional visit. And if seems to be Austin's modeling HQ. Although, I'm not into that scene and could be wrong.

I believe the "modern" D&D Meetup folks have moved from defunct BattleForge to Dragon's Lair. But, it seems the D&D meetup activity has died down (could just be holidays). The GeekingOutOldschool contingent of the D&D Meetup has been gathering at the Troll's house in S. Austin recently. More activity with Austin's RPG Meetup group of late is encouraging. Sadly I don't believe Redbox BCS ever built up enough steam.

Georgetown RPG Meetup (too far for me). Another, Friar Tuck Meetup, for the Northerners. This thread about Options for gaming in Austin.

Game Conventions

OwlCon XXX Jan 28th-30th, Houstin Bam! If I could, I'd clone myself and go twice.

MillenniumCon Nov 11-13, Round Rock - RPGA, Historical Minis, Boardgames. By November might be feeling the need to get my Wargame On! Will hafta wait and see.

Maybe there will be another Central Texas Mini-Con.

ARGH!

Austin Region Game House!

Starting Sunday, Jan 9th I'm opening my house for gaming almost every Sunday. Since SAGN covers board games pretty well, ARGH! will "focus" on RPGs and wargames, but I'm open for what ever. I'll be running my new Labyrinth Lord campaign "Gold & Glory" on some of those days. GeekingOutOldschool may still be meeting there 1/mo, at least until a more centralish location can be found. If interested email me.

Next update 2012. Hopefully my enthusiasm and stamina maintains for the next 52 weeks!

I am 40

2010-12-28T09:00:00.067-06:00

I was born on this date.

I'm a 40yr old nerd and proud (overly so I'm sure) of it. I have a great job, recently promoted to Director of Server Development, boo yah! I own a house, share it with my demon dog! At my awesome birthday party the Piñata was filled with D&D mini's.

Rock Out the New Year!

Malware Site No More, I hope.

2010-12-27T21:24:00.000-06:00

Thanks again to all the people who took the time to email, post comments, send me screenshots, links. That was really impressive of effort and goodwill. Seriously.

From this Google Safebrowsing Report:

What is the current listing status for trollandflame.blogspot.com?

Site is listed as suspicious - visiting this web site may harm your computer.
Part of this site was listed for suspicious activity 2 time(s) over the past 90 days.

What happened when Google visited this site?

Of the 7 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 5 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2010-12-27, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2010-12-27.Malicious software is hosted on 2 domain(s), including digieyar . ru/,
caxdermain . ru
1 domain(s) appear to be functioning as intermediaries for distributing malware to visitors of this site, including hackslash . net.

Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?

Over the past 90 days, trollandflame.blogspot.com did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites.

Has this site hosted malware?

No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

I've removed hackslash.net from my blog list, and am asking google to review TF's status. Hopefully it will clear up for the new year.

Monday Morning Trivia Answers

2010-12-27T09:00:00.031-06:00

Finally, what I'm sure you've all be anciously awaiting, answers to last Friday's Troll's Trivia Tragedy!

1st Level
On average, which of the following groups enjoys the greatest booty of initial funds when play begins?

A. Warrior PH page 66

2nd Level
Schools of magic allow wizards to specialize in a particular type of magical study. What is the corresponding concept for clerics?

Spheres of Influence.

3rd Level
Which giant-kin most resembles one of the Three Stooges?

Verbeeg. [lamest question/answer evar!]

4th Level
If a creature with magic resistance fails its resistance check, does it still get a saving throw (if appropriate)?

Of course!

5th Level
There is only one way to slay a Tarrasque. What is it?

Reduce Tarrasque to -30 or fewer hit points. Then cast a wish spell on it. That or get Chuck Norris to round house kick it.

oh noes!

2010-12-26T18:01:00.000-06:00

lots of people are telling me their browsers report this blog to be attack site or malwarelishous.

i didnt do it.

probably some bad link(like a old blog in my blog roll whose domain is now a bad site) or maybe someone commented with a naughty link. unfortunately not in posostion to figure this out now (typing this on my phone) so, feel free to stay away until after i resolve this. before this happened i scheduled up a few posts for during my vacation from computers (which im theorectically n right now) when they post dont assume malware issue fesolved.

ill post blog when i figured out and remove whatever is triggering malware alerts.

thanks to everyone who alerted me about this.

Friday Trivia Tragedy

2010-12-24T16:00:00.056-06:00

Do you dream of Dryads, converse in Cant, wonder about wands, think THAC0? Are you geek enough to reach 5th Level? Then step on up to the Troll's Trivia Tragedy!

Every Friday (except when I forget and until I get bored of it) I'll post five questions, one from each level, from my AD&D 2nd Ed Trivia Game. Bragging rights will be bestowed. Prizes, not so much.

Comment with your best guesses, no fair looking answers up! Bonus points for humorous, sad, poignent or otherwise anecdote involving the answer. I'll post the answers later, Mondayish.

Ah hah! Seems I'm not the only one with a copy nor the idea for a blog post series ;) Dungeonmum beat me to punch.

1st Level
On average, which of the following groups enjoys the greatest booty of initial funds when play begins?

A. Warrior
B. Wizard
C. Priest
D. Rogue

2nd Level
Schools of magic allow wizards to specialize in a particular type of magical study. What is the corresponding concept for clerics?

3rd Level
Which giant-kin most resembles one of the Three Stooges? [huh, wtf? this question is lame.] (Hint: They're sometimes called "human behemoths".)

4th Level
If a creature with magic resistance fails its resistance check, does it still get a saving throw (if appropriate)? [A basic rules question seems much lower level than knowing random giant's that don't resemble the Three Stooges at all.]

5th Level
There is only one way to slay a Tarrasque. What is it?

AD&D 2nd Edition Trivia Game

2010-12-24T10:58:00.000-06:00

I didn't know this existed until I put a eBay bid on it. I won and it arrived a couple days ago. Early present for me, yay!

Even though 2nd ed is my least played and least favorite edition of all, I'm still pretty stoked. has some tokens, neat (if you like 2nd ed era art, I do) player cards and oh I don't know 1 box (500?) trivia cards plist into 5 levels.

3rd Level Card

Dragon and Dungeon Magazine Insert

3d6 in order, another quick point

2010-12-23T11:31:00.000-06:00

I'm not a fan of demi-human level limits. I've often heard people support them because they desire demi-humans to be rare / have a human centric world. I'm not that into human centric campaigns either, but if I were the demi-human level limits haven't been in my experience an effective means of making them rare. Nor does it balance them at all in most campaigns cause those levels aren't reached often.

I was noticing (I believe Labyrinth Lord) had some modest ability requirements for demi-humans. Which reminded me of the really tough ability requirements of 1st/2nd ed Paladins and Rangers. It donned on me that ability requirements combined with "3d6 in order" are an effective way to make certain classes/races rarer. The Paladin and Ranger requirements are way, way too high making them virtually impossible to qualify for unless you use one of the multiple dice stat methods. But, say requiring elves to have >= INT 9 would make them less common just by virtue of dice rolling statistics. Also elves would gravitate towards Magic User.

I've often read at Grognardia the author's belief much more thought than we give credit for went into the earliest editions of D&D. Much of what many (myself included) consider(ed) an arbitrary hodge podge of rules. Are actually tied together in subtle and elegant ways. I'm still undecided how much I believe it was intentional vs survival of the fittest (there were tons of RPGs the one(s) that happened to be elegant survived, the others not so much). But, I'm definitely seeing more and more of what James talks about re: how effective the rules are when taken as is. Changing one thing ability rolling has a tremendous effect on many other parts of the game.

3d6, in order

2010-12-22T10:23:00.000-06:00

After using it on both sides of the screen I've become a serious fan of rolling up characters using 3d6 and assigning the rolls in order. That is no rearranging of scores. Even in games where the DM doesn't require it I sometimes assign ability scores in order. This morning, in the shower, I was thinking about 3d6, in order, what was lost when game rules moved away from that.

We need feats and doo dads and more rules to differentiate characters!
I'm sure you've heard that. I hear it from friends and read it online. Where I don't often hear it is from people playing "3d6, in order" games. Of flippin course every fighter is gonna be the same if you rearrange scores (esp if you roll tons of dice, reroll '1's, etc. to "guarantee" one or more 18's) so that they all have 18 STR, next highest rolls in DEX/CON and WIS/CHA dump stats. Duh! If you decide to play a fighter and then roll 3d6 in order. A lot of interesting, fun to play characters will emerge.

The player characters should be Heroes, well above the common folk.
I like campaigns were the characters are average schmucks as much, maybe more, than when they are near super-humans and "destined" heroes. But, assuming we are interested in heroic play the above is often claimed as reason for rolling lots of dice, rerolling 1's, etc. So as to greatly increase chance of high stats. Instead of elevating the PC's and introducing substantial power creep (thus requiring increasing monster & magic item power and leading to endless splat books, 1-up manship, and rules) I suggest degenerating NPC and esp common folk. Farmer Bob doesn't have 3d6 abilities, he has 2d6 or 4+2d4 or 8+/-2(Fudge Dice are wonderful things), or simply 8. Or really old school it, "normal" folk are 0lvl without stats or significant abilities of any kind. Only PC's and henchmen have levels.

3d6, in order isn't for every game style, it isn't more better, I don't always use it. The point of this post is to encourage you to try it for yourself and find out if you enjoy it as much as I have grown to.

OwlCon XXX

2010-12-06T12:26:00.000-06:00

I'm going to OwlCon again this year and if you're in Texas area late Jan, so should you!

One of the best convention experiences I've had was last years OwlCon. The organizers do a great job. There's a nice variety of RPGs, boardgames, miniature games, interesting vendors, and other events. The location, Rice University, is great. (The Student Union's bar in the basement sells beer!)

I'm running "B2 Caves of Chaos" using Labyrinth Lord on Sat at 8pm and continuing Sun 10am. I wanted to do something new, but 1) Been busy, 2) it's been a blast for me and seemingly popular with the players every other time I've run it. So, why jack up a good thing?

I was surprised at the relative lack of OSR type games. Seems to me that there's a lot of old-schoolish interest in Texas, what's up guys? I did find and sign up for some S&W space adventures. But dawdled for too long, missing out on the single session of "Barbarians of Lemuria", its slots are all full :( At least The Paradigm Traveller got in so he can tell me about it. Got in on some Atomic Highway which I know nothing about other than both "atomic" and "highway" where in the title. Which is enough. More Burning Wheel (cause the GM last year was phenomenal and I'm hoping it's the same guy.)

I highly recommend OwlCon. $20 gets you a full weekend of great gaming. Or if you GM games for two time slots you get in free! Hint, Hint OSR DMs, events like this is how to get the word out (if you're into that). Preregistrations must be received before pre-registration closes on Friday, January 21, 2011.

Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #506 Taking The Initiativ

2010-11-29T12:03:00.000-06:00

Be sure and check out tip "7. Only Use Init As Needed" ;)

Taking The Initiative: These Methods And Ideas Will Surprise You

Troll and Flame is ranked 63rd Old Schoolish Blog

2010-11-26T14:55:00.001-06:00

By followers, or was. Thanks follower peoples ;) See the Cyclopeatron's Post

Rank	Blog	Followers
63	Troll and Flame	71

Represent!

Some Blogs that should have more followers than Troll and Flame:

I'm sure there are others. Those are ones I remember knocking my socks off and/or giving ideas for my games.

Gobble Gobble

2010-11-25T10:00:00.000-06:00

Wereturkey

Dire Turkey 1

Dire Turkey 2

Necromould [Guest Post]

2010-11-24T10:00:00.014-06:00

[This post was written by Flip, author of The Paradigm Traveller RPG blog. Payback for the guest post Role Playing Game aides and accouterments I wrote on his blog.]

You round the bend in the underground tunnel and a cavern opens ahead of you. The faint rays from your flickering torch disappear into the yawning gloom ahead. You make your way down to the floor, miniature rock-slides marking your progress. When you reach the bottom, you brush the heavy dust from your clothes and turn to resume your trek. You freeze as the torchlight flickers over something... strange. After a moment's hesitation you move cautiously forward to gain a better view, halting several yards from the oddity.

A large irregular sphere, pale yellow-green and roughly six feet in diameter, hangs suspended before you, perched atop numerous slender filaments that stretch down to pierce the ground beneath. The surface glistens with slime and large pores with swollen rims, each a hands-breadth across, dot the lumpy skin like a multitude of festering wounds. At first it seems odd that such ponderous bulk rests on such seemingly fragile supports, but the longer you gaze at it, the more you feel the central mass actually supports and anchors the filaments as they stretch down into the earth. You become convinced when your scrutiny reveals that while the center mass is motionless, the filaments are continuously undulating in a nigh-imperceptible writhe.

As your eyes pass over the area where the thing's tendrils enter the stone, a small glint catches your attention. Several small objects gleam in the torchlight, and they seem to be spilling out of a half-buried pouch. Coin! -- a matching gleam sparkles in your eye as greed compels you forward. Not wanting to move any closer than necessary, you halt several feet away and stretch out your sword, hoping to catch the pouch with the tip of your blade. Suddenly a long drops and ricochets off your weapon. With a start you leap back, eyes darting up. From every pore the fungus oozes a mix of yellow ichor and bone, all falling into a slimy pile on the ground. Ribs, shoulder blades, a spine, and finally a skull. An inhuman, fang-toothed skull. A moment after the skull hits the pile, the bones begin to rise and join together. Seconds later a full skeleton stands before you, yellow ichor flowing over and around each bone in narrow rivulets. Jaws open in a silent roar and the nightmare steps towards you...

Necromould

[Before we go any further, allow me to note that the Necromould is not a monster per se, but can be thought of as a flavorful explanation for the presence of undead, both in the world and in a particular location. The Necromould can also serve as the existential threat against which the PCs are striving]

It is said that long ago, an elder god from a distant dimension was cast down and murdered, betrayed by his most trusted servants. With his last strength, the old god uttered a curse of vengeance that consumed his own essence and gave rise to the Necromould. The Necromould may best be classified as an unliving disease, an unholy cancer that spreads decay and death wherever it propagates. The Necromould quickly consumed all life in its home dimension, and now strives to spread to other planes to feed anew.

While the vast majority of the Necromould's physical bulk resides in its native realm, it is constantly sending out astral feeding tubes that probe other realities. When one of these feelers happens to alight on a living creature at the time of its death, the life-force acts as a conduit through which the Necromould can deposit a spore in creature's body. Part of the creature's soul is drawn back through the astral feeder to the main body of the Necromould, to languish in uncomprehending torment. A sliver, however, remains behind to nourish the pod. Each necropod exists to consume life, and catches its prey by reanimating the dead. These undead minions may be the remains of the creature that first served as the gateway of the necropod, or may merely be the bones of some other dead creature. Indeed, the necropod extrudes tendrils which slowly phase into the ground, always searching for a stronger corpse to reanimate. On finding such a prize, the necropod magically draws it up through the earth and into itself, ready to act when needed. When a living creature approaches within a certain distance to a necropod, roughly equivalent to the diameter of the pod itself, the horrible mass begins expel the physical components of the corpse it has animated. In a matter of seconds, the skeleton, zombie etc is made whole, held together by faintly glowing necroslime. The undead minion remains tethered to the necropod via an astral feeder, but is otherwise able to move freely in pursuit of living targets. The minion will attack all living targets, and if successful in making the kills, will bring the corpses back to the necropod. The newly fed necropod may grow, and may "elect" to animate the fresh kill.

Necropods vary greatly in their own size and in the size and number of creatures they control, based on how many lifeforms have fallen prey to them. Mechanically speaking, each necropod has a diameter proportionate to the number of hit-dice worth of undead it commands. The ratio is three feet of diameter for every 1 hit-die. Thus a 15-foot diameter necropod might contain five human skeleton warriors at one hit-die apiece, or a single 5 hit-dice owlbear skeleton. Or it might contain a 2 hit-dice ghoul, and a 3 hit-dice shark skeleton. Of course, the shark skeleton won't be terribly effective in combat, but the necropod is effectively non-intelligent. It cannot choose it's servants selectively, it merely seeks out the echos of the most powerful form. Necropods of sufficient size may even contain intelligent undead, which are capable of independent thought, but are nevertheless compelled to serve their master's hunger. There is no upper limit to the number of monster hit-dice a necropod may contain.

Even if a living creature survives an encounter with a necropod's minions, the danger is not yet passed. If the necropod managed to injure the living creature during the fight, then the living creature itself now contains traces of the Necromould. The creature is now sensed by the Necromould, and when the creature dies, there is a 1 in 6 chance that the Necromould injects a spore at the moment of death. It may or may not be within the power of certain clerics to help a victim to avoid this fate. Necropods are mostly immune to physical damage, but their minions have all of the normal undead vulnerabilities. The only known way to destroy a necropod is to sever the astral feeder tube that connects back with the Necromould, and then to burn the now-vulnerable pod with fire.

Cheap Mini's

2010-11-23T10:00:00.001-06:00

Roleplaying Tips Blog had a recent post "Where can I find cheap minis online?" which is worth checking out.

I love my cheap plastic toy frog and spider minis more than any "official" mini's I've seen. I've had success finding various animals and "giants" looking through bags of kids toys at thrift shops. I want to save money for special mini's like this one:

Slug Eat Your Face

Were do y'all find minis?

When Random Encounter Tables Go Wrong

2010-11-12T15:18:00.002-06:00

Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger, Badger, MUSHROOM!

Guest Post at The Paradigm Traveller

2010-11-08T11:30:00.000-06:00

I wrote a guest post on Role Playing Game aides and accouterments over at the The Paradigm Traveller. The author, Flip, is great guy and frequent player and occasional DM in various RPGs of all editions/brands/stripes. He arrived "late" to gaming and has many interesting ideas & viewpoints. His blog is well worth checking out.

some accouterments

Magic Items Should be Magical [repost]

2010-11-01T10:00:00.004-05:00

[Magic Items Should be Magical originally posted Dec 25th, 2008! A good post, edited and shortened a bit.]

Magic Items Are Special

Create a 3x5 note card for each item to give to the lucky new owner (keep a separate card or notebook for secrets about the item the player has not learned yet). Providing something tangible that the player receives, can hold, point to, wave in the air, throw across the room when it fails, and is missed when taken away is a bit of psychological trickery. But trickery that, from personal experience, creates heaps of fun. Unfortunately, it takes no small effort esp if like me you draw pictures too.

The card provides space for descriptions, pictures, history and the like. Occasional additions to or outright replacement of the card should be made as the player discovers the item's secrets. Reserve the back of the card for player notes; where they keep it, thoughts on how it works, great deeds accomplished with it, whatever. In manager speak you want to facilitate player "ownership."

Never flat out tell the player what an item does. Do not include mechanics in your descriptions. Never out loud for the whole group to hear, provide them privately. Allow the owner an opportunity to roleplay item's explanation and usage. The same way scary movies slowly hint at what's so scary the mysteries of magical items should be slowly revealed. Provide one detail in an epic floor-to-ceiling mural, another in a bard's song several sessions later.

Even if you want the players to know everything upfront don't just blurt out "It's a Horn of Blasting, can demolish doors, walls, small structures and does 6d6 to constructs." At the very least say in your best fabulous voice "Aha! You have found the legendary Trumpet of Droog. A single note of which shattered the stone guardians of Thool. A sustained blast from this legendary horn will crack and crumble city walls and utterly demolish lesser structures." Pass the game mechanics to the owner in a note, or hey on that 3x5 card you made for this item.

Some rules expect there to be plenty of accessible "plus items". Which really makes it hard to maintain the mystic of magic. Solution; items that only provide a plus bonus aren't magical! They are legendary masterworks. "You, lucky sir, hold a Montoya Blade forged more than 300 years ago when the Golden Caliphs still ruled." You could keep them magical and do the same thing. But, +1 hit/damage seems like the effect of a master craftsman. Something magical should be so much more...

Magic Items Are Unique

When describing an item describe that particular individual item. Describe in specifics, don't neglect sounds, tastes and smells the item possesses or generates. Depending on how magic & morality work in your world there might be other detectable emanations. "Before you is a 5' long smooth metal staff capped on one end by a large translucent bluish-white crystal. It crackles with arcane power." Not "Found a Staff of lighting, they are from 5-6 feet long and often have crystals incorporated in their construction."

Focus on one or two signature details. Not just "a crystal" but "a large translucent bluish-white crystal." Consider making items other than scrolls and potions literally unique. It's pretty awesome to know there is exactly one Rod of Lordly Might and your character gots it. If a player asks a leading question "What's in the crystal?" Roll with it! "The multi-faceted crystal captures your attention. Within its depths the torchlight's feeble orange light is reflected and amplified into the purest white. You drift off into pleasant memories of moonlight sparkling off the frost white snows of your long missed homeland." Maybe that's too fluffy... but, hopefully you get the idea.

Getting your players accustomed to specific traits being associated with particular magics creates opportunities for atmosphere and immersion. From frequent past usage everyone knows that invisibility potions smell strongly of lemon. While in the Dungeon of Dark Despair the scout makes a detect hidden check. Instead of blurting out "There's an invisible bugbear behind you." Lean forward, sniff the air and whisper "Something familiar, a smell you can't quite place. It gets stronger, you know this smell. It's lemon! From behind you and quite close."

Magic Items Are Important

Once a player has the item, don't let them forget about it. Reinforce how rare, magical and amazing it is. Peasants, followers, and hanger-ons will beg to see it. Collectors will offer to buy or try to steal it. The characters will hear songs that mention it. Perhaps the heir of the original owner believes it rightly belongs to them and takes their claim to the authorities. Does it need maintenance? Perhaps a magical fungus starts growing on it. "Brave sir Hadley what is that fuzzy brown stuff on your Holy Avenger?".

If they carry it on their person it should be in danger; of being broken, getting rained on, pick pocketed, drained of magic, dropped into a volcano. Players keeps it safely stored "at home"? The place should be broken into and ransacked but the item was fortunately not stolen, this time! Let them overhear how a great conflagration burnt down the characters home town. Make them fret over whether or not their hoard is so much melted junk. If it fits the character, encourage them to roleplay misplacing it for a few days "Oh, here it is, in my other robes."

Don't make every event negative. It shouldn't be a constant burden just to own a magic item. Positive encounters persist even longer in players' memories. An artist or sculptor might desire to see it, even pay for the privilege. Perhaps a great wizard asks to study it. Having a wizard owe you a favor should be worth something. Events involving the characters' magic items shouldn't come up every five minutes either. Occasionally when you need a plot pick up or if the players complain about there not being enough phat lootz.

Final Thoughts

sirlarkens mentioned the "It's Sort of Like a Wand" article from Dragon Magazine. Looking it up I'm damn sure that some 19 yrs ago this is the article that got me started. Garry Coppa, where ever you are, I owe big. More recently I've gleamed sage advice from the most excellent Roleplaying Tips newsletter. Oh hey, look what they have done there.

I challenge every DM to make it a personal goal that every magic item your players pry out of you will be notable and prized by the character who obtains it. Invest as much time detailing items as you do on NPCs. Give them names, colorful descriptions, histories, previous owners, secrets. Make them mystical, wondrous, and exciting. It is likely that characters will have more interaction and a longer relationship with their items than they will have with most NPCs.

Star Fleet Technical Manual

2010-10-29T10:00:00.000-05:00

I (well my older sister) had a copy of the Star Fleet Technical Manual from ADB (who went on to use that material and Star Trek License to make Star Fleet Battles). It was really, really cool to my adolescent mind.

Adrenaline and other compounds.

In a big auction lot I recently picked up a different version (red cover) and SF Medical Reference Manual (blue cover) which I had never heard of before.

Flipping through the pages made me wonder how cool it would be to base an TOS campaign on just what's presented in these two books. Other projects got in the way. The main effect was I started hunting for old FASA Star Trek RPG books. I dig the Triangle Campaign / Trader Captain "campaign". Playing Klingon "Privateers", Romulan "Traders" (aka spies), or Harry Mudd type "Merchants" seems more fun than encountering new and dangerous aliens, seducing their women, then warping away before you have to deal with any consequences of your actions. Actually that sounds pretty neat too ;)

Medical procedures for those suffering from a Mugato bite.

More pics from the Star Fleet Medical Reference, which is really a bizarre and interesting collection:

Note: not a red shirt.

Hearts!

Skulls of the Universe

Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #504 Heists and Haunted Houses

2010-10-27T10:00:00.000-05:00

Heists and Haunted Houses

Patent Searching for Ideas

2010-10-25T10:00:00.034-05:00

BoingBoing mentioned Using Google Patent Search as coloring book generator. Trying a few searches seems like a great idea. Of course I tried looking up a couple "game" terms; Role Playing Games, Dragons. Found some really interesting drawings and ideas. The patent drawings are typically nice clean line art with labels and descriptions. Not that I need another endless rabbit hole to dive down, sigh...

If I had endless time and energy I'd put together a RPG coloring book! But instead I'll just mention it on my blog in the hopes someone else does it ;)

Totally Awesome Dragon pistol! Just what every Shadowrun street samurai needs!

Reading those patents, mostly (esp the software/system/idea patents) just made me sad over how much time and energy and money to lawyers is wasted on patents. Stupid, trivial, obvious. Ideas worth less than the patent application forms they are on.

15 Games with Annotations

2010-10-22T10:00:00.074-05:00

"I rarely participate in these blogosphere trends (mainly because I tend to come to them too late), but here are the fifteen most meaningful games to me, not necessarily in order. I've provided a little explanation for some of them, as well:"
From the Sorcerer's Skull

Well I'm a blogwhore and jump on any meme, even ones I read about tangentially and aren't even sure exist ;)

1. D&D - Blue Box! Norm's first RPG ever, nuff said.

2. Rolemaster - When 2ed and TSR's money grubbing, splatbook whorring ways became apparent to me I fled D&D. And fell into Rolemaster's warm embrace. (the warmth was from the 4/hits round of bleeding I suffered from the Fall/Crush 'C' critical I had received)

3. FUDGE - The messiah that wasn't.

4. ICE MERP - Middle Earth Roleplaying. I had most if not all of the 1st ed supplements. Showed me how bad ass a wilderness map could be. Gave me interest in Flora and Fauna, Herbs and Poison tables. Taught me everything I knew about Middle Earth before the movies came out. And sold along with MTG cards funded a 9mo bike trip around Europe.

5. ToEE PC game (and module, one of my most successful campaigns. Lareth the Beautiful most fab villain ever). The game that brought me back to D&D (3.5).

6. D&D 3.5 - Taught me exactly what I like as a DM and a gamer (it's not 3.5)

7. Arduin - Arrived very late here. The Parlament Funkadelic of RPGs.

8. Go - subtlety, sacrifice, the whole, humility.

9. SPI's War of the Ring - My first (of very many) paper chit and hex wargames. Wow, just realized this is probably the only item I've managed to retain from before age 14, certainly the only game.

10. Star Castle - Arcade video game, the first I ever played.

11. MTG CCG - Learned very much about game mechanics/theory.

12. Settlers of Catan - My first (of very many) modern/adult/euro style board games.

13. Traveller RPG - Space; it's really, really big and still you can't get away from "Hard" Sci-fi dweebs.

14. Labyrinth Lord - The game I most want to play, and by play I mean houserule beyond all recognition.

15. "Basic Computer Games" - Start of my tech career which has given me joy, stress, bad posture, pale skin and best of all; time and the money to play all the games I want.