Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine's Supplemental Issues and Dowloads

I mentioned these briefly before.  But, John Four has collected some great stuff over at the downloads section of the Roleplaying Tips website.  I decided they deserved own post and more exposure.

Supplemental Issues

• Supplemental Issue #22 - Making Magic Items Interesting
• Supplemental Issue #21 - RPG Advocacy
• Supplemental Issue #20 - Over-Resting PCs
• Supplemental Issue #18 - Roleplaying Quests
• Supplemental Issue #17 - Tips For Dealing With Stealthy PCs
• Supplemental Issue #16 - Tips For Planning & Running The First Session Of A Campaign
• Supplemental Issue #15 - Wilderness Encounter Ideas
• Supplemental Issue #14 - The GM's Library
• Supplemental Issue #13 - Electronic Gaming & Tools Reviews
• Supplemental Issue #12 - Free Maps
• Supplemental Issue #11 - NPC Essentials Article & Book Info
• Supplemental Issue #10 - Online Games
• Supplemental Issue #9 - Remedies For GM Burn-Out
• Supplemental Issue #8 - Running Games At Conventions
• Supplemental Issue #7 - Buildings, Establishments, and Places You Can Find In Villages, Towns, and Cities
• Supplemental Issue #6 - Minor Rewards Ideas
• Supplemental Issue #5 - The Character Questionnaire
• Supplemental Issue #4 - The Perfect Gaming Environment
• Supplemental Issue #3 - Helping Players Choose To Roleplay vs. Fight
• Supplemental Issue #2 - Alternative Forms Of Character Rewards
• Supplemental Issue #1 - Silly Players

Other Downloads

A grab bag of  goodness, overland encounters, book generator, 8000 first names, excel spreadsheets, and the like.  Also, awesomely, Roleplaying Tips Archives - plain text format - Issues 001 to 431 a 4.7MB zip file.


Not linking them all, head over to Roleplaying Tips Website's Download Section and scroll down.

5 Room Dungeons - Contest Entry Downloads

Before the One Page Dungeon Contest, there was the Five Room Dungeon Contest. These are all smallish (5 rooms) adventure settings based on the 5 Room Format.

• Volume 18
  
  
  1. The Tomb of Three Brothers by Jake Sorensen
  2. The Wizard's Retreat by Jake Sorensen
  3. The Shifter by The Shifter
  4. The Braun Castle by Monstah
  
  
• Volume 17
  
  
  1. Retreat by Aki Halme
  2. Tomb of the Colossus by Bryan Smart
  3. Too Many in the Tomb by John Moseman
  4. Minaret of the Smoking Tankard by Michael Sinclair
  5. The Witchwood by H L
  
  
• Volume 16
  
  1. The Sledge by Dragonlordmax
  2. The Pyramid by Jeremy Coffey
  3. The Masters of Evil by David J Rowe
  
  
• Volume 15
  
  
  1. Prison Break by Nathan Wells
  2. The Company by Nathan Wells
  3. Catching the Traitor by Amy
  4. The Wizard's Land by Dr SciFi
  5. St. Nathanial - Harbinger of Doom by Thewizard63
  
  
• Volume 14
  
  1. Caravan of Courage by Nathan Wells
  2. Escape From Slavers' Isle by Jason Kemp
  3. Vault of the Wiglord by Ken McCutchen
  4. The Towers of Wisdom by manfred
  5. Through the Maze by Margaret Coffey
  
  
• Volume 13
  
  1. The Wizard's Challenge by Thewizard63
  2. Drop of Blood in the Bucket by mrcelophane
  3. Temple of the Four Elements by Nathan Wells
  4. Random 5 Rooms Dungeon Generator by Davide Quatrini
  5. Promised Aid by Jonas Dorn
  
  
• Volume 12
  
  1. Stranger Than Fiction by Uri Lifshitz
  2. Aboleth by Andrew Anderson
  3. Dragon's Lair by Aki Halme
  4. Lord and Killer by Drackler
  5. Upshi Rises by Cheka Man
  
  
• Volume 11
  
  
  1. The Mercenary Shrine (sci-fi) by Ancient Gamer
  2. The Cursed Keep of the Wastelands by Captain Penguin
  3. The Well by Bert Isla
  4. The Governor's House by Anthony Hart-Jones
  5. Blind Pack by Jean-Christophe Pelletier
  
  
• Volume 10
  
  
  1. Revenge of the Urn Beast by Cheka Man
  2. Raid on Tantalus IV by dark_dragon
  3. Sewer Lair by Daniel Burrage
  4. Orcish Olympics by Aki Halme
  5. Pitfall Castle by Nathan Wells
  
  
• Volume 9
  
  1. Skanda Biologicals by Siren no Orakio
  2. The Spirit Never Dies by Ria Hawk
  3. Saving Plaque by Strolen
  4. Barrow of the Bored Berserker by DeeCee
  5. The Stone Labyrinth by Daniel Burrage
  
  
• Volume 8
  
  1. To Sell a Gem by David Hickman
  2. Place of the Embalmers by Wulfhere
  3. The Nobleman's Daughter by Dragon Lord
  4. The Great Gate by Davide Quatrini
  5. Heart of the Dwarves by Paul Darcy
  
  
• Volume 7
  
  1. Of Pines and Roses by valadaar
  2. The Tomb of Agellar by Dragonlordmax
  3. Deserted Island by Nik Palmer
  4. Henge of Ascension by Nik Palmer
  5. Taking Sides by Uri Lifshitz
  
  
• Volume 6
  
  1. Diamonds and the Deluge by valadaar
  2. Bedizen's Traveling Dungeon by Scrasamax
  3. Thieves' Guild by Aki Halme
  4. 'Ringed' by fadeaway1978
  5. Tomb of a Cleric by Uri Lifshitz
  
  
• Volume 5
  
  1. Spawn of the God-Egg by Wulfhere and EchoMirage
  2. Foray into the Forest of the Frog King by Thewizard63
  3. Troll Brothers Cove by Nik Palmer
  4. Black Fire Ruins by Will Cartier
  5. Shadow Vault by William K. Wood
  
  
• Volume 4
  
  1. The Sanctuary of Sumuho by Dozus
  2. Crossbones Island by Chaosmark
  3. Swamp Music by Nik Palmer
  4. The Windspire by Nathan Meyer
  5. The Message by Morgan Joeck
  
  
• Volume 3
  
  1. The Haunting by Matthew and Paul Darcy
  2. The Quest for the Rod of Spellius by Davide Quatrini
  3. The Plague Devil by Nik Palmer
  4. Villainous Cellar Pub by Aki Halme
  5. Ye Classic Wizard's House by Gillian Wiseman
  
  
• Volume 2
  
  1. Warts and All by Paul Darcy
  2. Temple of the Volcano God by DJ Mindermast
  3. The Necromancer's Cave by Morpha
  4. Merchant's Crypt by Aki Halme
  5. The Temple Defiled by Tyler Turner
  
  
• Volume 1
  
  1. A visit to the Witch's Cottage by Gillian Wiseman
  2. Isles of Ice by Mothshade
  3. The Tomb of the Dragon Queen by Joseph Rapoport
  4. The Living Vault by Mothshade
  5. The Sunken Vault by Nathan 

All 18 Volumes 181 pages! Includes a new advenrure, The Pool of Unmaking by John McCullogh

Saturday, June 19 Free RPG Day

Free RPG Day is sneaking up on us once again!

[blurb from Dragon's Lair]

Manufacturers like Paizo, Wizards of the Coast, Fantasy Flight Games, Mongoose Publishing, WizKids/NECA, White Wolf Publishing and many more provide free samples of their best games and retailers like Dragon's Lair Comics & Fantasy® run game demos, giving new players a chance whet their palate for the amazing gaming experience tabletop RPGs can provide and giving veteran players a chance to test out new games.

This is a great chance to discover the world of role-playing games - or re-discover them and to share your love of the game with new players!

Dragon's Lair Austin's Schedule

TIME	EVENT
11 AM	Pathfinder: Master of the Fallen Fortress (AM)
12 PM	Age of Cthulhu
12 PM	Shard RPG Demo [Shard is flippin cool, my Shard review cool from last years Free RPG Event.]
1 PM	D&D 4E: Bloodsand Arena
3 PM	World of Darkness Ghost Stories
5 PM	D&D 4E: Bloodsand Arena
6 PM	Pathfinder: Master of the Fallen Fortress (PM)

Other than Shard which I demo'd last year,  "meh" is the strongest emotion that list brings. 


Battleforge Games

I don't see anything listed in their calendar.



Tribe Comic & Games

South side represent!

They don't feel they have the room to support in store gaming (Although, I could squeeze me and four players in that front space).  So, I kind of doubt they are doing anything either.  Sad, cause S. Austin needs a place to game.






Any other Austin / Central Tx stores doing stuff for FREE RPG DAY?

Central Texas Minicon

Last year there was a small social (non-gaming) gathering of those with an "old school" inclination/interest.  It was fun.  Been thinking it's time for another one, but this time with games.  Found out at NTRPGCon I am not the only one thinking such thoughts.

Seems there is a cadre of Dragon'sfooters conspiring to hold a multi-weekend mini-con in Austin.  They are currently discussing the "when".  Late July through earliest Sept are the current canidates.  You can vote for dates in that thread.

Old School Success

Been sick and there's so much to be blogging about; NTRPGCon discussion panels, Free RPG Day, games played, new Arduin, e-bay, and NTRPGCon loot, ...

This elevation was formative.  There's been a Skull Mountain in
every campaign I've made since seeing this sometime in the 80's.

My boss has been interested in playing some D&D with his two boys (10-12 age range).  He's asked me various questions about running games and the like. [It's very enlightening and refreshing talking with an "empty mind".  To him it's just D&D, full stop. Not a jillion of editions, old/new school, sandbox/storypath, etc/deadhorse.]  I purposefully was not edition evangelizing (Although, I was totally evangelizing RPGing in general.  Mentioning the several bloggers posting about great times gaming with their families).  A couple weeks ago his kids cornered him and got him to run an encounter with the 4ed (intro set?) they had.  The Joy of Play was experienced by everyone.  But it was a short session and all involved craved more!

I've endlessly encouraged him to go to an Austin's D&D Meetup [Which are great, btw. If there's a meetup in your area you need to go to it, if there's not you need to start one.]  I warned him that it might be a bit confusing to play a different version of D&D.  But, I fear that my raving about how much flippin fun NTRPGCon has been might have unduly influenced him.  Cause last weekend when they finally made it to the June 13th D&D Meetup they rolled up Swords & Wizardry characters and entered the Dungeon of Skull Mountain DM'd by Jimm Johnson also known as The Contemptible Cube of Quazar. [love that banner art]

My boss and his sons had a blast.  He's been talking about it all week.  Has downloaded and printed S&W manual, monster collection, character sheets, and asked me for intro modules. [I struggled to find S&W specific, free, intro modules, wtf?  I gave him B1 and a copy of OD&Dities #12 which had "Ruins of Castle Vendegaar" by Robert Adkins. Thanks Robert!]  He wants to play D&D on long road trip. I told him friends don't let friends DM and drive.

Any suggestions for him?
 



I was kind of bummed Jimm ran his game when I was running something and couldn't join in the fun.  But, I believe he'll be running Skull Mountain as a continuing "campaign", booh yah!  So, all you Austin area old-schoolers (and I know there's a few of you) that haven't been coming to D&D meetups thinking it's all 4ed.  You're on notice.  Kick those kids off your lawn early so you have time to attend the Austin D&D Meetup.  There's now a S&W ongoing game, several 1st / 2ed ongoing games, and I'll run Labyrinth Lord on demand.  We also have space for more DMs, bring it.


Jimm Johnson's irresistible game blurb.

SKULL MOUNTAIN
Two days north of the last outpost of the Sparn Empire, through the cannibal haunted jungles of Brool, across the piranha teeming river, a great boulder-strewn crag rises from the mists. An enormous, leering reptile skull sits atop the rugged formation. Some say the skull is an odd natural formation, while others insist it is the petrified remains of some primordial unhuman god. Whatever its origins, the whispered tales of Skull Mountain all agree on one thing: incredible treasure and unmatched glory await those bold and foolish enough to penetrate the mountain, unravel its dark secrets, and brave its untold dangers. Of course such treasure and glory will only accrue to those who can return alive!

This is an OD&D/Swords & Wizardry scenario for low-level characters and beginning or experienced players. Characters will be created at the table before play begins.  [damn straight!]

4 Best Ways To Handle Town Guards Roleplaying Tips #492

[Before I found all you bloggers RPTipsWeekly was my main "fix" for Cool New Stuff.  It continues to be important part of my RPG breakfast.]

Roleplaying Tips Weekly E-Zine Issue #492
4 Best Ways To Handle Town Guards

Contents:

• A Brief Word From Johnn
• 4 Best Ways To Handle Town Guards
• Character Development Templates

Here's a bit from "A Brief Word From John" I wanted to highlight.  The text archives are great. There's also a downloads sections with 22 focused supplemental issues and a bunch of other downloads. AND the 5 room dungeon collection.  RPGTW Downloads.  John's parting message is one we should all take up.

Text Archives Available
Reminder: you can get past issues in plain text format anytime at the website: http://www.roleplayingtips.com/issues/txt/

Get at least one game played this week!

TSR 1992 Fall/Winter Catalog

Look at how many different settings TSR was supporting/pushing in '92!  Lack of focus much?  The should have used SpellJammer / portals to link up all their settings into one connected mega setting with support for transferring characters between them.  But, I suppose the "epic" scale, "serious" campaigns Dragonlance and later-day Forgotten Realms couldn't handle anything that awesome.

Dark Sun

Ravenloft, Al-Qadim

Dragonlance

Forgotten Realms

SpellJammer, Greyhawk

Sunday Links

[Been sick all week, haven't been reading much online, Found these though.]




Roll and Interrupt initiative -- http://zzarchov.blogspot.com/2010/06/changing-initiative-yet-again.html  This really makes me want to use individual initiative...

Epic6, D&D 3.5 limited to levels 1-6.  Nice, but nice enough? Simplify skills (fewer & no points), simply movement (hex or no 1.5 diagonal), some other tweaks (AoO) and I can see myself maybe considering DMing 3.5 again -- http://www.myth-weavers.com/wiki/index.php/Epic_6

Old Book Picture Blog hasn't disappointed yet -- http://scrap.oldbookillustrations.com/post/692247880/batten-giant-drinks-stream


Mule Abides RedBox Workshop series, esp Spellbender -- http://muleabides.wordpress.com/2010/06/02/red-box-workshop-the-spellbender-pc/

RuneQuest II -- http://sordnbord.blogspot.com/2010/06/runequest-ii.html
http://akraticwizardry.blogspot.com/2010/03/runequest-ii-versus-openquest.html

My Favorite RPG Quote

Character background is what happens between levels one and six. 

                                                                                   -- Gary Gygax

Got no reference, maybe he never said it, doesn't matter to me.  I'm not like omg Gary said it so it must be awesome!!!  Rather it succinctly nails how I think about sandbox campaign characters. [although I'd say one through four since 9th lvl is my high end] Who you are, where you're from, what you've done are not as important (or as interesting) as what are you gonna do next?  We play the game to discover the answer to that question.  The most interesting character's history is built in game.

Hmmmm, I like that "what are you gonna do?"  Good definition/delineation/explanation of a sandbox/rulings/seat of pant DM to new players.  DM's the guy/gal who asks you "What are you gonna do?" With the follow on implication that once you tell them, they then figure out what it means / how it works out.


Others I've recently added to my collection of quotes.

Booty may have different meanings in different places, but it's all the same to Conan.

-- Matt http://matt-landofnod.blogspot.com/2010/04/few-random-thoughts.html

Me early on:  Whats the goal of the adventure? Why are we here?
Them: Gold, treasure, and to kill the minotaur king/Beastlord.
Me: Why are we killing him?
Them:  Because he's the guy on the cover of the module! 

-- http://wondrousimaginings.blogspot.com/2010/05/played-my-first-od-game-this-past.html

 

In 4E you call out the name of your attack. In OD&D you call out the name of the henchmen who are throwing javelins. [is the proper quote according to muleabides]

In 4e its called Whirling Strike.  In OD&D it's called my 5 henchmen attack. [what I posted originally]

-- http://wondrousimaginings.blogspot.com/2010/05/played-my-first-od-game-this-past.html

Grappling

[Really need to stop posting untested houserules, but I keep getting ideas from the blogosphere.]

This is meant for mass of goblins swarming and brigining down Sir ThinksHe'sAwesome and maybe for grabby monsters like crabs and octoterrapuses (land octopie).  Not for ju-jitsu, wresting, or other mostly mano-a-mano unarmed combat.  I'd just use normal combat for that.  When hit points gone you got a knee-lock or whatever.


Goals

• The strong man throws off buch of piled on grapplers trope.
• Different than regular combat, specifically freaking avoid non-leathal damage/hitpoints.
• Make weak, low level creatures a threat when swarming.
• Fit in with 1 attack roll, multiple damage dice, all attacks do d6 themes of my other house rules.
• Simple / vague enough to allow on the spot rulings for unusual situations. 
• Grappling is not effective when target has something sharp to poke you with.  That is until there are enough attackers target can't poke them all fast enough.

Grappling

2x the normal number of attackers may grapple a target.

Ungrappled defender (with weapon in hand/natural damage) negates up to BAB grapplers.  If all grapplers negated there is no grapple, attackers are kept at bay (and wasted their action looking for opening).  Alternatively grapplers can force their way through but then defender gets automatic 1 damage die vs each (up to BAB targets). 

All attackers combine into one to-grapple attack.  Attack roll gets +1 per attacker.  If attackers are "natural" or "trained" grapplers also add (avg/highest/lowest) to-hit bonus to attack roll.  Attackers must roll to-grapple every round.

On successful hit all grapplers add their grapple damage dice rolls to Pin Total.  If they choose to attempt to break free, a grappled defender auto-hits and subtracts their grapple damage dice roll from Pin Total. 

If, at end of round, Pin Total is:
  <= 0 defender is free/ungrappeld, pin total reset
  > 0 defender is grappled (restricted movement/actions(no normal attack))
  > defender's Str score, defender is held fast/pinned (no further grappling rolls, no actions. The defender has "lost".)




Grapple Damage Dice:
Is based on size but some creatures (crabs, boa constrictor) may have fixed amount.  Tiny 1pt, Small 1d4, Man-sized 1d6, Large 2d6, Huge 4d6, etc.
  Extra dice (1 per Str mod) are only given to defender.    Ex. a Str 18 man gets 4d6.



Aiding Grappled Defender: 
Depending on size of "pile" one can shoot/whack attackers without much danger of hurting defender.  Alternatively ally can "dive in" and subtract the roll of their  grapple damage dice from defender's Pin Total.  No to-hit required.


BAB:
Base Attack/to-hit Bonus what they get for class/level not including magic, buffs, stats mods, etc.

City to Dungeon

The recent (although I swore I saw this photo long ago*) big hole in Guatemala and Purple Worm Post got me a thinking.

I'm partial to huge fantasy cities.  Places like Ptolus, Alexandria or Constantinople analogs, CSIO, and the like.  Lots of adventure, weirdness, and debauchery to be had. It's a nice change of pace/action from being way off on the edge of civilization in some po'dunk Keep on the Borderlands.

But, eventually I get the hankering for some down and dirty megadungeon exploration and monstrous beasts.  I've never been able to  the idea of mad wizards castle/dungeon just outside of town, or "it's catacombs and forgotten dungeons all the way down" and all these fantastic monsters have had absolutely no impact on the city full of tasty civilians but 1st level characters can come and go as they please, or other even lamer "dungeon next door to city" hand-waves.


This one is no less arbitrary but some how I like it better.

50' wide Purple worm bursts through surface, rampages, kills thousands, devastates an entire district of the city, takes days to kill, an epic battle that claimed many of the region's greatest heroes.  Now, weeks later, initial exploration has revealed extensive tunnels deep withing the gapping hole left by the worm.   Authorities are calling for new heroes to step forward and explore these depths.  To determine if more of these purple monsters or worse threaten the city.


* Actually this seems to happen regularly.  Karst formations - networks of underground caves formed from eroded limestone and highly unstable (sounds bloody perfect dungeoning territory) - are endemic to the region  More on karst: http://www.waterencyclopedia.com/Hy-La/Karst-Hydrology.html