Old School RPG Planet

February 05, 2012

Gothridge ManorReview: Zogorion, Lord of the Hippogriffs

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The Land Of NodThe Roustabouts [Mystery Men!]

While the Great War raged, the eminent fighter against supernatural evil, Doctor Silence, found himself locked in a struggle with a nascent demon lord. Their battleground was a circus, and in the ensuing struggle a fire was lit. While Silence managed to send the demon back to Hell, he had occasion to witness three of the circus performers save many people from the inferno. These people exhibited extraordinary powers, and as a result were soon ostracized from their former companions in the circus, despite their heroism. The Doctor gathered these three and made them the core of a team of extraordinary people that could work for the good of all. They are known as the Roustabouts.


ELASTO (Marcus DuPres, Sideshow Freak)
Born in New Orleans, Marcus learned early on of his strange gifts and hid them from the world. A gangly man with only a mediocre intellect and education, he wound up working in a sideshow as a rubber man, and it was in this job that he met Doctor Silence. Marcus isn’t sure …

Swords & DorkerySaturday craft time!

We did nothing today — nothing ‘productive’ anyway.  My wife did some sewing, my daughter did some painting, math workbooks, knitting, and watched an episode of Scooby Doo, I painted some minis.  We try to have ‘family craft time’ once a week, especially in the winter when we’re stuck inside anyway. Since my wife was [...]

Módulos RPGA Ordem do Poder Supremo e os Demônios

Há muitos anos deixei a Ordem do Escudo Sublime para me juntar ao seu grupo dissidente, a Ordem do Poder Supremo. Nosso grupo vem crescendo cada vez mais, agregando membros de várias ordens em busca dos conhecimentos e práticas que já foram de comum acesso aos arcanos e clérigos de outrora, e hoje, lhes são negados.

Os Inquisidores buscam poder, isso é claro, e não é do interesse desta missiva entrar em tal questão, mas sim explanar ao senhor, Patriarca, um pouco de nosso conhecimento sobre a principal fonte dos conhecimentos ocultos: os demônios. Esperamos, assim, que o senhor repasse aos seus irmãos estas informações, e logo, juntem-se a nós na busca pelo que nos foi negado a eras.

--------------------------------

Demônios são criaturas sobrenaturais de outros planos de existência, como o senhor deve saber. Inegavelmente, são criaturas vis e traiçoeiras, mas de grande poder. Eles atendem a uma hierarquia própria, uma forma satirizada da nossa própria organização social. Não me …

Discourse and DragonsInteresting Discussion

There's a very interesting discussion going on over at enworld regarding the differences in combat styles between 1E and 4E.None of the information is effectively new. However, the author of the original post does an outstanding job of explicating the situation.Basically he breaks combat into two forms: combat-as-war (1E) and combat-as-sport (4E). The former requires the PCs to do everything in

of PedantryDivinity And Magic

I've mused on metaphysical questions for the early modern period before, but I still haven't stumbled upon something that I like, fits a pseudo-historical interpretation, and is still recognizable with typical D&D tropes. Let's take some inspiration from the Trinity.

There are a ton of denominations and religions throughout the 17th century world and I don't want them ALL to be Clerics or Druids and I probably don't want religion to dictate class when it comes to divine spellcasters. While it would definitely be neat to have a separate class or at least spell list for Catholics, Lutherans, Muslims, Animists, Ancestor Worshipers, Pagans, etc, I think the granularity would mostly be lost in meta-gaming, both in terms of players who WANT certain spells and players who WANT a certain religion making the decision mostly moot. So let's compromise and utilize the Trinity.

God the Father is the omnipotent, uncaring creator of the universe. He created existence with a set of natural laws and is …

Uhluht'c AwakensRealms of Crawling Chaos Nominated for Three Castles Award!

Realms of Crawling Chaos, written by myself and Michael Curtis, has been nominated for this year's Three Castles Award! Many thanks to the steering committee, and to my coauthor Michael Curtis for his great contributions.

February 04, 2012

Playing D&D With Porn StarsPlease Read These You Will Become Smarter

Just got off the plane and I am too busy basking in the tits and sunshine to clean up and post any of the things I've written up recently, however, out of respect for your need for regular injections of ludological wisdom I direct you to a recent post full of mad crazy insight:

Check it Combat as war vs. Combat as sport. The best--and least partisan--analysis of TSR D&D combat vs. WOTC D&D combat I have ever seen. Read it now or be forced to follow a link to it every time the issue comes up for the rest of your life. It's a classic on the level of Matt Finch's Old School Primer.


Bonus: (Noisms on how it isn't anybody's job to give you ninja opportunities)

Weekend WizardryI swear I did not Photoshop this.

The people at Google have way to much free time on their hands.

Underworld KingdomRumors and legends about Black Volcano

  1. Some ancient scriptures contain information that volcano was artificially created by some pre-human civilization.
  2. It's said that one or more dragons live inside the Black Volcano.
  3. Volcano was used as gigantic forge.
  4. Savage tribes worship Black Volcano as god and "feed" it with caught people.
  5. There is some kind of control room to determine flow of lava.
  6. There are automated machines installed in the Volcano.
  7. There are many shafts and tunnels leading down the mountain, maybe they are connected with the Underworld Kingdom.
  8. Black Volcano is place inhabited by demons.
  9. It's said that the ghost of powerful elementalist is haunting the volcano.
  10. Huge artificial energy crystal is the power source of the volcano.

Swords & Stitchery - Old Time Sewing & Table Top Rpg BlogWar Of The Worlds Goliath New Preview!


There's a new War of the Worlds Goliath Sneak Peak up

This is going to be exciting for me I'm a real die hard HG phile. I've seen just about everything when it comes to this subject. Martians have appeared throughout my rpg table top adventures. So apparently I've got to wait till 2012.
Here's the older trailer for the War of the Worlds Goliath Plus the behind the scenes here 

I can't wait for this one. There will be follow ups on this blog when it comes to this movie! Stay tuned!
While we wait here's Orson Wells War Of The Worlds 

Time Corps HQHistorical Figure: John Titor, Time Renegade

John Titor
(2011 - 2076)
Significance Rating: 100

STR: 33 --- DEX: 27 --- AGL: 50
WPR: 61 --- PER: 61 --- PCN: 45
STA: 73 --- UMS: 42 --- WNDS: 15

SKILLS: Disguise, Master 99; Laser Pistol, Master 82; Historical Specialty (21st Century), Expert 83; Martial Arts, Expert 73; Outdoor Survival, Specialist 68; Stealth, Specialist 54.

PARANORMAL TALENTS: Telepathic Probe, 40; Adaptation, 45

"John Titor" is the name used by on several Internet bulletin boards in 2001 and 2001 by an unknown individual claiming to be a time traveler from the year 2036. In these random posts to various science and time travel threads, John Titor explained he was a soldier from 2036 sent back to 1975 via a governmental time travel experiment to retrieve an IBM 5100 -- necessary to debug future time travel technology. He was making a "stop" in 2000 to visit his family and retrieve personal items lost in the Second Civil War. In his posts, Titor explained the fundamentals of time travel and made several …

Reviews From R'lyehA Kobold's Score

As Kobold Quarterly #20 attains its score, its coverage of Dungeons & Dragons – and its primary variants, continues to maintain a high standard with its mix of articles, advice, and scenarios. As with Kobold Quarterly #19, this latest issue from Open Design continues to move away from its previously self-avowed tag line – “The Switzerland of the Edition Wars” – with more coverage for Paizo Publishing’s Pathfinder Roleplaying Game than Wizards of the Coast’s Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition. This is not to say that Dungeons & Dragons, Fourth Edition receives less coverage than in the previous issue, but the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game definitely gets the most space. In addition there are articles for the Adventure Game Engine, the mechanics that power the Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying from Green Ronin Publishing.

So if being neutral is not what Kobold Quarterly #20 is all about, what then, does it have as its theme? Again, the clue is in the tag line: “A Strong Bow and a …

Tenkar's TavernReal or Memorex? - Short Comparison of the Tabletop Experience to Google+ Hangout


Although I have years upon years of tabletop roleplaying experience and a couple of recent years of playing roleplaying games via Fantasy Grounds (a VTT), it hasn't been until the last few weeks that I've actually had the opportunity to sit at a table and game AND sit at my computer screen and game (using an actual RPG) during the same week. The experience, at least with Google+ Hangout, is

Gothridge ManorMagic Bullets

This is one of my favorite Tom Waits songs.  No video, just a very cool story.  Enjoy.

Trollish DelverSneak peek at Derring-Do! and DemonLord {USR}

In my spare time I've been working on the two projects that I'm looking to released this year: Derring-Do! and DemonLord.

Both games use the USR system as their base, but add a little to make them unique. For instance, Derring-Do!, which is about pulp heroes, includes powers along with specialisms, adding a new dynamic to the game. Powers are like specialisms, but come in primary and secondary flavours. Like specialisms, powers give the character a bonus, but they also come with a bunch of information for role-playing too. Below is the character template for Phantom Detective. Character templates are for those players who want to get stuck in straight away rather than rolling up a brand new character.

DemonLord is the series of solo gamebooks that I'm writing using the USR system and you can see the prototype barbarian below. Again, this is a template  - USR promotes complete creativity when it comes to character creation, so there's nothing stopping you from creating a Druid Thief or …

Destination UnknownOh Dear...

I forgot that this little fellow was in the garden. He was buried under an out of control lavender plant. He didn't forget he was there, though. Oh no. He had a good, long time to wait and now he's going to make his displeasure felt. 

I SEE LEAD PEOPLEGood Bye Dear Friend.

I am sad to say that this morning our family dog, Serene, passed away.

What started out seeming like just an ordinary case of worms turned into something more and before we could get her to the vet, she succumbed to her illness or complications related to it. I still do not know what it was, but it could be any number of things and may have even been related to a preexisting condition that had been hinted at in a prior vet visit.

With all the grace of her name, she went without once having complained once and was still a loving dog the whole while. If I didn't know better I think she really just let herself go at the end after having a long, relaxing brushing from my wife.

Serene came to use two years ago. A shelter rescue and a bit of a holiday gift to my two daughters, she had bonded more with my wife, Jenn, than anyone in the house. She was loved by friends and family alike and enjoyed nicknames like "Stalker Dog" and "The Sausage".

She was a bright spot in our lives for the short …

. . lapsus calumni . .Friday Five Minute Map (#FridayFiveMinuteMap)

Last week a couple of fine fellows named Larry, Bryan and I got together with me and played around with trying to come up with a decent map using only what we had on hand. It seems people find it interesting and fun because this week we went from a few folks participating to over a dozen. We have decided to continue the exercise in creative....and extremely fast...map making. To keep it organized and ensure everyone's maps get out on G+ and are seen by everyone interested I have come up with a few rules.


The Rules:
1) Map must be created on Friday (0001 to 2359).
2) Map must be created using items found in your work place.
3) You have exactly five minutes to create your map (not including photo/scanning it and loading image into G+). Thinking about the map prior to does not constitute "creating" the map. Nor does the time it takes to add your name or website url to the map, so add those after your time is up.

4) Once your map is complete, take a photo or scan it and post to G+ using …

Swords & Stitchery - Old Time Sewing & Table Top Rpg BlogThe Forgotten Eternal Cycle Of Edgar Rice Burroughs



These cycle of books is very special & represents a bit of a forgotten chapter in Edgar Rice Burroughs for some people. The idea of astral projection as time travel is one of those  that greatly appeals to me. We'll start with the Mad King! 
 
We start out with one of my absolute favorites of Burroughs, The Mad King! 



Set in a tiny European Kingdom moments before WW1, the hero is a little less wild and fantastic than, say, John Carter of Mars. He is still none-the-less, a man of principle, integrity and action - a true ERB hero.
 The plot of the Mad King is as follows SPOILERS AHEAD !! - 
Set in the mythical European kingdom of Lutha, the protagonist is a young American named Barney Custer, of Beatrice, Nebraska, who is the son of an American farmer and a runaway Luthan princess, Victoria Rubinroth. Unaware of his royal blood, much less that he is a dead ringer for his relative Leopold, the current king of Lutha, Barney visits Lutha on the eve of the First World War to see for himself his …

Sword and BoardPoison Ivy for Hi/Lo Heroes

Poison Ivy

Secret ID: Pamela Isley
Professional Career: Botanist
Hobby Career: Eco-terrorist
Charge: Harley Quinn

LIFE: 13

Training: Plant Control

Build: Quick
Mentality: Intuitive
Temperament: Cautious

Move Die: HIGH
To Hit Die: LOW, Plant Control +2
Evade Die: HIGH, Pheromones +1
Damage Die: LOW, Poison Kiss +1, Mundane, Villain +1
Block Mundane Die: LOW
Block Fantastic Die: HIGH, Weak -1
Barrier Power: Poison Immunity +1

Character Bio
Poison Ivy is an eco-terrorist. She commits crimes to pay for nature preserves, and also attacks loggers and other people in the woods that “don’t belong there”. She is best friends with Harley Quinn, and is romantically interested in Batman.


d20 DialecticDark Wilderlands of Forgotten Greyhawk (The Final Fantasy Campaign)


or, World Building Part 1

            I’m running (hopefully) a game of OD&D for some friends of mine next weekend, most of whom have never played D&D before. Now I was going to take this as an opportunity to dust off an abandoned OD&D setting project I’d worked on before which I called Varth (Zarth, Oerth, Vanth…the pattern goes on and on). The intention was to create an explicitly D&D setting, and a fairly traditional one at that, for sandbox play. I usually create settings and then play D&D in them, rather than attempting to derive the setting itself from common elements. I usually dislike most published D&D settings since they usually take the ‘kitchen sink’ approach and I like things a bit more streamlined. Nevertheless, after reading Vornheim I was all jazzed to do some kind of crazy setting where everywhere you went there was some group of pseudo-humanoids hanging out like its no big deal, the ‘Cantina Effect’ as I call it.
            So I sat down and thought of all the races I wanted to run around …

Tower of the ArchmageStonehell Delve 3

On the evening of 2/1 the following brave adventurers ventured into Stonehell once again in search of a mystical talisman.

Drak the Hood
-Menwyn
Nick the Pike
-Kaldue - Spearman
-Boarface - Swordman & Groom with Aslan and Thistle (wardogs)
-Sacco - Torchbearer
Dirk
Lemmkainen the Elf
Nolan Bracegirdle the Hobbit

Her fingers dug down into his shoulders, kneading Nick’s flesh. “So what happened?”

Nick sighed, feeling the stress begin to ease out. “It’s all Drak’s fault. That curse he’s suffering from... After restocking and gearing up we all got together and headed off. Just outside there was something rustling the trees. We avoided whatever it was and entered Stonehell itself. We again retraced our steps, this time bumping into a whole squad of orcs. They wanted to know if we’d defiled Rocky.”

“Who’s Rocky?”

“According to the orcs it’s an oracular giant stone head, and I guess they worship it or something. I wanted to check it out but Drak started laughing and didn’t, or couldn’t stop …

HeroPress[TEKRALH] It's All About Bella...

Bella Of Ilyat
A couple of campaign-related articles on the blog since last weekend's round-up:
  • Meet Bella - a new NPC to serve as Maud's maid (once she returns from her first adventure)
  • The Devastation of Ilyat - an overview of Bella's homeland (explaining her generally pessimistic nature)
Meanwhile, over on the campaign blog, we have what could be termed a "cut scene", I believe, foreshadowing the arrival of Bella in Maud's life.

Of course, should anything untoward happen to Maud (Clare's character) when the player-characters get to finally explore the ruins of Dyr Dwm in the Forest Of Ascetir, then that will probably trigger a whole new tranche of sub-plots as Baron Tiberius won't be too pleased that his ward has disappeared... and he will have to explain it to her father, Baron Balliol.

I should also point out that the graphic I used as the basis for the map of Ilyat was one of the free, unlabelled maps generously provided by The Labyrinth, which I then mucked around with …

Hack & SlashOn Alchemical Items, Oil of Magical Backlash

Oil of Magical Backlash
BSC:0%(R)gp:350 gp
DC:28TTC:1 days
CC:12CGP::60 gp
NWP:-9XP:200 xp
D100:-25%Weight:- / 20
D6:0 in 6 / 7Difficulty:Formidable
RarityVery Rare

Materials: Powdered Gold (1 dram), Powdered Silver (1 dram), Powdered Platinum (1 dram), Rare Earths (4 drams), Almonds (10 drams), Grape Seed (10 drams), Sunflower (10 drams), Olive Oil (8 drams), Zombie Flesh/DecayEssence (10 drams), Naga Scale/Protection Essence (4 drams)

Description: This oil coats a person lasting up to a full month, or coats an item lasting up to a year. During this time if any attempt to break or disjunct magic occurs the attempt is resisted. Spells such as Dispel Magic fail outright and stronger effects such as disjunction either give a save if none is given or provide a +5 bonus to a save.


Rules are here.

The Eye of Joyful Sitting Amongst FriendsAdventure help

I'm coming back to adventure building after a long hiatus, and I don't feel like I was ever that good at it to begin with. I pulled a couple books out of my library and wondered what the opinion of the assembled minds were of them before I commit time to reading them.

The first is Dungeon Master's Design Kit by Harold Johnson and Aaron Allston from AD&D 1E. It is an adventure design kit that has three parts -- Book 1: Adventure Design, Book 2: Forms Book, and Book 3: Adventure Cookbook. The forms are sheets for planning out your villians, and other aspects of the adventure.

The second book is the Dungeon Builder's Guidebook by Bruce Cordell for AD&D 2E.

Any thoughts? Useful to read? Total crap?

Are there more useful books? I've heard the AD&D 1E DMG has good advice.

Speak up, please.


Alex Schroeder: RPGWhat I'd like to see from artists

https://farm4.staticflickr.com/3126/2785476126_78e60abf4f_m.jpg

I was reading Stefan Poag’s post Do I know how to be a famous artist? He lists some questions he thinks artists should answer for themselves. The question “How to make sure that anyone who’s interested in your art is able to buy something, regardless of how little or how much they have to spend” reminded me of something…

What I would like to see is a simple, semi-automated process on artists’ websites. Artists would post cool pictures and they’d all include the following:

  1. a link to a nice resolution picture (not quite fit for printing but fit for the web, eg. 600x600)
  2. a PayPal or Flattr or whatever button saying “license this for $5” (or $2 or $10, whatever you find will result in sales)
  3. a link to a license saying that paying the amount grants me unlimited, non-exclusive rights to use and distribute it in digital form (or in any form, or print for an additional $5?) for commercial use or for non-commercial use with the requirement to link back to the page where I pressed the button …

Greyhawk GrognardOn Magic

So you want to learn the secrets of magic from me, eh, boy? Well, then. Imagine you are an ant living in the courtyard of a castle. And you have a horn that, when you blow it with all of your might, so hard that it sucks the life out of you, you might, just might, attract the attention of one of the men moving about the courtyard. You keep blowing the horn, and one of those men might be amused enough to drop a crumb of food in front of you. More likely, he'll just smile and keep walking, or ignore you altogether. If another ant is trying to take your crumb, he might be amused enough to reach out with a finger and flick the other one away, or crush you both with his thumb. Or, far more likely, you'll just get stepped on without the man even noticing, because although you were standing there out in the open, blowing your horn with all of your breath, he never heard it or saw you in the first place. 

And you want me to hand you a horn and teach you to blow it? Are you mad? Go back to your …

Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets[New Spell] Mislabel

Mislabel Chalk, Valance and the Scholar of Wexos strolled into the magic shop in the town of Crumble. Chalk nodded to the illusionist, which meant that the apprentice wizard was running the store while the owner was out for something or other. The Scholar of Wexos picked up small bottle and whispered as he read [...]

Dreams in the Lich HouseCampaign Frameworks for Cthulhu Games


Cover image from The Armitage Files

I've been interrupting the regular stream of Dungeons & Dragons posts this year to bring more Cthulhu blogging, and my first big project has been to step through campaign structures and different approaches to launching campaigns.  I'm particularly interested in exploring ways to run investigative sandboxes to enable the kind of free-form, sandbox style I enjoy so much in D&D.  If you're wanting to run a weird horror D&D game in a mundane or historical world, these posts should offer ideas for that as well, since there's a lot of overlap with games like Cthulhu Dark Ages or Cthulhu Invictus.

Last week's entry, Points of Darkness for Horror Gaming, contrasted a horror setting with the typical D&D fantasy approach (points of light).  It emphasized the importance of plot hooks for engaging the characters;  I further separate plot hook approaches into "passive" or "active".

Passive plot hooks are related to the back story of the characters before the …

Dreams in the Lich HouseOn The Trail of Cthulhu - a Review


I'll just come out and say it; Trail of Cthulhu is controversial.  It's a new school game and uses mechanics that feel very different from the simulation approach of 1970's games.  It shares a common setting with Call of Cthulhu, and it's fairly easy to convert back and forth between the two systems.  However, Pelgrane Press is challenging the status quo with a lot of interesting supplements, many of which I'll review as the year goes on, so Trail of Cthulhu is worth a close look.

The physical book is amazing - much of the art is photo realistic, brooding, and ominous.  There are many full page prints of intrepid investigators or explorers dwarfed by alien ruins, strange monuments, or haunted locales, and it captures the spirit of the game perfectly.  It’s written by Kenneth Hite, and there's a ton of Mythos scholarship and useful ideas for Cthulhu games.

The book is published by Pelgrane Press and uses their Gumshoe system; Gumshoe shows up in most of their games: Esoterrorists, …

Delta's D&D HotspotFriday Night Book of War

Last weekend I had the good fortune of having my friend BostonQuad come down and visit me in Brooklyn. Although not traditionally a big RPG'er or wargamer, I've managed to suck him into miniature wargaming via Book of War, and he's been cooking up strategies to use against me for a few months now. We played several games over the course the weekend; in the first one, with Basic-only units (historical), he managed to craftily hold me off and beat me (with end game being pikes vs. cavalry to my disadvantage). In the second one I figured I'd shake things up with some fantasy units he hadn't considered before: namely, a big army of Goblins. As we saw on Monday, Goblins statistically are just as difficult to kill as any other 1HD unit type (even though in D&D they have a one-hit-point penalty, and also a Morale penalty from fighting in daylight). So here's how that played out:


Start -- 300 Points; Advanced Rules for Mass Units Only. At the top, BQ has selected a small group of powerful and …

SWORD & SHIELDDying Earth

I had never read Jack Vance's Dying Earth novels, and recently acquired a compilation of all 4 in one volume.  Two brief stories in and it is as if I am reading stories penned by someone who played a LOT of D&D.  I have read many others comment on the influence of Jack Vance on D&D, but I am amazed at how the tone, style and events seem to be the whole sail cloth from which D&D was cut. 

I don't know if I like it though, and again my own prejudices against a ton of sorcery in favor of a ton of swords may unfairly shade my appreciation.  It is still early as I have barely scratched the surface of the novels.  Even so, it is a good read so far and very illuminating in many ways.

Tenkar's TavernDigging Into the Adventurer Conqueror King System - Covering the Classes (Human)


This is going to be the first part of a multipart look at the Adventurer Conqueror King System (as voted for by my friends at Google+).  I figure I'll attack the book pretty much in order, passing over the introduction and moving on to section 2 - Characters. (My quick mini review of ACKS is here). The default method of character generation is definitely "Old School".  3d6 IN order!  An

Green Skeleton Gaming GuildSimian Saturday

Not sure what is going on in this picture but it looks cool!
Have a Great Simian Saturday!

Limited WishIt's Just A Flesh Wound!

As I mentioned in my last post, I've been thinking about some of the things I liked about 4th Edition. One of these is the "healing surge" mechanic, which shifts the basic unit of healing per day from the cleric's spell slots to the recipient's ability to recover. The reason I like this is that a party without a cleric (or other dedicated healer) can use their own healing surges to restore Hit Points between encounters, and therefore isn't doomed to "death of a thousand cuts" brutal attrition that they would be in older editions.

To steal this in full would require an extensive re-writing of magic in classic D&D, but there's a "lite" option that's quick and easy. I call this the Health Reserve option.

OPTIONAL RULE: Health Reserve.
Characters get a health reserve (HR) die type equal to their base HD type plus Constitution modifier at level 1. They gain another die (plus Con mod) at each odd level afterwards. Each PC may use health reserve three times per day.
Example: a Fighter with a …

Destination UnknownZogorion - Lord of the Hippogriffs


Zogorion - Lord of the Hippogriffs by Jason Sholtis is a thing of beauty, a throwback to the days when dudes armed themselves with long-arm staplers, some stamps, heads full of ideas and furious pens. As I read it, I played some Minor Threat because it just seemed so damned punk rock to me and I needed appropriate background music. Jason, all I can say is, "I love it and PLEASE WRITE MORE!"

Underworld Cleaning ServiceHeroism in D&D

In my opinion, some of the most memorable and defining moments in D&D come as a result of those split-second decisions that players must make about how far to risk their characters' life and limbs.  You know what I'm talking about.  Your party is being decimated by a pack of ghouls.  Grumple the dwarf has been cut off from the rest of the party, trapped in a room with four ghouls closing in for the kill.  He's wounded and will surely die if left to his own devices.  Meanwhile, the other three grieviously wounded party members have an escape route - 50' of open hall in front of them - beckoning...

What would you do as a player?  Would you bolt for safety, sparing the lives of the majority of the party?  Or would you take a deep breath and charge back into the fray, risking a TPK in the hope that you will persevere and defeat the ravenous beasts - rescuing Grumple in the process?

What sort of thought cross your mind in a situation like this?  One factor in this split-second decision is …

Digital OrcI Cast Word Cloud!

I used an online word cloud generator to make two word clouds.  Word clouds organize the text from a document or website into an interesting picture in which the size of each word is determined by the number of times it occurs in the entire text.  

The first cloud is derived from the complete text of Labyrinth Lord Basic.  The second is from my own published module, THE BLASPHEMOUS BREWERY OF PILZ!  For my module cloud, I removed the OGL and afterward text.  If you don't understand why I made the Pilz cloud in the shape of a beer mug, click HERE and find out before it's too late!

Click to Enlarge
Click to Enlarge

Blood of ProkopiusSaintly Saturday: The Right-believing George the Great Prince of Vladimir

When looking over some of the possible subjects for today's post, I ran across an obscure saint. Celebrated today is the Right-believing George the Great Prince of Vladimir. He was one of the rulers of the Principality of Vladimir-Suzdal at the end of its golden age, which was during the late 12th century and early 13th century. He died during the Battle of the Sit River in 1238. His body was found by Bishop Cyril and transferred to the Rostov Cathedral and finally to the Dormition Cathedral in Vladimir.


As an aside, George (also known as Yuri II Vsevolodovich) is the uncle of Alexander Nevsky. When it comes to influences on my life and on my gaming, there are actually very few films that have any sway at all; however, Sergei Eisenstein’s Alexander Nevsky is one of the few film experiences that I can say with certainty started me down several paths that led to the person I am today.

Ostensibly, it is an historical piece about the Battle of the Ice, where Alexander Nevsky defends …

Swords & Stitchery - Old Time Sewing & Table Top Rpg BlogDiesel punk Moscow From 1900 With Random Encounter Table



This rare glimpse into the pre pulp Russia came out in 1900 & is the perfect encounter area for those steampunk or space adventures. When you need something exotic this is the perfect jump off point. The cars, planes, monorails, etc show an alternative world where the Revolution never happened.
 Snow street scooters, cars, etc its all right here. I'm thinking of grabbing these for my post apocalpyse alternative universe game. They are within the public domain & are perfect fodder for any number of games 

Diesel punk Moscow Random Encounter Chart 1d10 

  1. A group of Siberian shaman on their way to an audience with the royal houses. They're desperate for adventurers to help deal with a multi headed dragon that threatens their villages 
  2. A group of royal youths looking for trouble & thrills. There is 1st level wizard among their ranks with cantrips. 
  3. Communist terrorists about to cause trouble on one of the mono rails. They have a bomb & are about to use it. 1d4 # 2 hit points 2 level fighters 
  4. A …

chirine's workbenchThe new edition of the blog

This is the successor to the old version of the blog I did, and the old links should take you here from there. I may not like the new format, but Blogger is free so I won't complain.

The old blog ran from June of 2009 to November of 2011, and had 21,128 page views during the lifetime of the thing. All of the old posts have been deleted from the old blog, and I will be rebuilding both the content and indexing of a lot of that material as I go along. Please be patient, and I'll get as much back on-line as I can in this Brave New World that I now live in.

I do not know if I will bring back the Photobucket pages with all of the photos I've been taking of games and miniatures; we've had to delete about ten percent of the images (so far, 372 out of 3,970) for legal reasons, but there's been no real loss of the data. The look and feel of the games and events are still there, so I don't think there'll be a problem.

So, we'll see how this goes. It's going to be a much more personal blog, this …

The Realm of ZhuLair of the Dragonslayers

1983 1981 I'm currently (as in 'just put down my Mitsubishi Micron Uni-pin fine liner') doing some lettering which, suddenly reminded me of these two very similar type treatments. The imagery is...

[[more...]]

The Dungeon DozenUseless Hirelings

d12
1. Panic Attack Jack: tunic, sword, 2 in 6 chance of freak out in combat
2. Huroo the mentally deficient yet totally bold and confident torchbearer: loincloth, torches
3. Thuy the Crafty: threadbare toga, boasts of melee skills but requires armament(s), runs off immediately with whatever he is given
4. Typhoid Tujam: hospital gown, dagger, 1 in 6 chance of dying per turn
5. Cleem of the Pukarat people: two-handed sword, breechclout, a barbarian so ferociously savage and given to violence as to be a constant liability
6. Jurusan the Tremulous: leather cuirass, short sword, 3 in 6 chance of dropping his weapon each round in combat
7. Yukant the treasure-hauler: farm hand outfit, pitch fork, mule, provides continuous stream of arguments against everything he's asked to do and every possible course of action
8. Lin Fin the torchbearer/extremely patient doppelganger: wide-brimmed hat, tunic, poisoned dagger
9. Bad Shot Yot: Leather armor, short bow, full quiver, 2 in 6 chance of …

HeroPressMerlin's Miscellany: Part Eight


Serket
(from The Nightmare Begins)

Although not native to the Forest of Ascetir, where they can be found in large numbers, it is unknown how these giant scorpions found their way from Delos - their homeland, where they are revered as sacred.

Their sting alone, although it causes fever, delirium and unconsciousness, is not lethal, but as they travel in packs of up to a score it is unwise to allow yourself to be caught off-guard with so many around - and armed with vicious pincers.

#ENC: 3d8
Size: Large
HD: 5
AC: 3 [16]
Att: 2 pincers (1d10), sting (1d6+posion)
Move: 18
ST: 12
Special:

  • Poison Sting - a target struck, and damaged, by a Serket's sting must save versus poison or suffer the consequences. He will first collapse to the ground, vision going blurry and limbs heavy (unable to truly act and certainly not fight or defend himself). Next round he must make a STAT check of 4d6 vs CON+LVL to stay conscious. This save is then repeated every round - with the penalty …

The Dungeoneering DadSpider-Man Plays D&D

I watched this on Netflix with my daughter the other morning.  It's one of the better episodes of the old "Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends" series from the 80s.  It's always cool to see how D&D spilled over into other things back in the day.

Check out the 10:25 and 22:53 marks for the explicit Dungeons & Dragons .... err... I mean "Serpents & Sorcery" .... references.


Sword and BoardHarley Quinn for Hi/Lo Heroes


Harley Quinn

Secret ID: Dr. Harleen Quinzell
Professional Career: Psychiatrist
Hobby Career: Criminal
Charge: Joker

LIFE: 12
Training: Acrobatics

Build: Quick
Mentality: Intuitive
Temperament: Bold

Move Die: HIGH
To Hit Die: HIGH, Weak -1
Evade Die: LOW, Acrobatics +1
Damage Die: LOW, Martial Arts, Gun, and Hammer +2, Mundane, Villain +1
Block Mundane Die: LOW
Block Fantastic Die: HIGH
Barrier Power: Poison/Disease Immunity +1

Character Bio
Harley Quinn is an insane sidekick and girlfriend of the Joker. She dotes over “Mr. J”, even though he often treats her poorly. She is best friends with Poison Ivy.

The Tao of D&DEnough Fetish - Let's Play Instead

From the 10,000 word post, in reference to choosing a setting for a D&D campaign:

"No one appears for a football game in order to watch the field. The field is lacking as an entertainment medium. It's sole purpose is as a measuring device to determine who wins and who loses."

This, I felt, deserved a few words of its own.

Very often, in fetishizing a setting such as we read in books or see captured in a film, we tend to attribute a greater importance to that setting than it really deserves.  This is the meaning of a 'fetish' - to take an ordinary object and embue it with supernatural power, such as a cross or a book.  This supernatural fetish takes hold of a culture and continues to manifest itself in ridiculous traditions, such as having a President swear to be a good President with his hand resting on a Bible - as though the swearing itself means nothing if it is not supernaturally 'enforced' by the Bible's presence.

Consider a setting familiar to most gentle readers: Middle Earth.

Armchair GamerCivilization vs. Borderlands; Village vs. Wilderness

In an earlier post on fun in D&D, I mentioned touched on the adolescent power fantasy and the ability to explore different personas as one of the fun things in the game. One of the dangers here is, of course, reinforcing certain behaviors that are supposedly not acceptable in normal society. This includes being rewarded for following tenets like "might makes right" and "if no one else sees

Swords & DorkeryGamer survey

JB, of B/X Blackrazor, needs your help with this survey.  It’s geared toward people who do or have player D&D. Follow this link to his blog, download the Excel file, fill it in & return it to him. Tagged: other blogs

Lecker THAC0!Pathways #12

Diesmal war die Greifenklaue schneller. Trotzdem der Vollständigkeit halber auch noch mal hier: Ausgabe #12 von Rite Publishings kostenlosen Pathfinder e-zine "Pathways" kann bei DrivethroughRPG geladen werden. Die pdf-Datei umfasst 48 Seiten, ist 51,93 MB und enthält wieder viel Material zum Pathfinder RPG. Links zu den alten Ausgaben findet man hier.

MF WARSYouTube's TerranScapes on Hot Wire Foam Factory's 3D Scroll Table

YouTube's TerranScapes has a new video reviewing the Hot Wire Foam Factory's 3D Scroll Table.  A second video gives a demonstration.  Take a look!

Creative Mountain GamesFilm of a 1981 D&D Game

Ethan Gilsdorf, author of Fantasy Freaks and Gaming Geeks: An Epic Quest for Reality Among Role Players, Online Gamers, and Other Dwellers of Imaginary Realms, a memoire from a former gamer, recently discovered some Super 8 film footage he shot of his gaming group from 1981.  Enjoy!

Greywulf’s LairImagination, a review

Imagination is not a new product, but is one easy to overlook among the countless pile of RPGs and supplements we gamers collect. Let’s take a look at this classic aid to role-playing and see if there is still room … Continue reading

The Other Side blogZatannurday: Happy Birthday Bruce Timm!

Bruce Timm, artist, animator, director and producer celebrates his birthday this coming week (Wednesday, Feb 8).  So I figured what better than some Bruce Timm and DCAU/Timmverse version of Zee!

Zatanna came in to the Bruce Timm/DCAU/B:TAS world in the episode naturally titled "Zatanna".


It featured a young Bruce Wayne and an even younger Zatanna back when Bruce was learning escapology.


Here is what Timm and Paul Dini said at the time about this episode.

Paul Dini on Zatanna’s appearance on Batman: “Bruce [Wayne] had to learn to be an escape artist from someone, and I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be great if he learned from Zatara, DC’s old Golden Age hero, who at the time had a cute, little sixteen-year old daughter?’ I pitched this to Paul Levitz, president of DC Comics, who said, ‘That’s wonderful; that’s better than anything we’ve ever done with Zatanna! And it was logical that, if he learned from her father, he would have had a little thing going with Zatanna (courtesy of …

Delta's D&D HotspotSuper Saturday: Shift X

In the past week, this blog hit 150+ followers, making it officially "Shift X" as per the Sorcerer's Skull OSR Blogger Advancement Table, Superhero Flavor (otherwise known as the Marvel FASERIP Universal Table). Zounds, that's as powerful as when Thor hits you with his hammer!

As always, big thanks to everyone who reads and/or comments here. :-)

UntimatelyOverusing Dice

Revisitation: a series of posts that each feature a quote from a classic source along with a short discussion. Quotes that make me question some previous assumption I had about the game or that seem to lead to otherwise unexpected consequences will be preferred.

From the Rules Cyclopedia, page 148:
New Dungeon Masters often make the common mistake of using random dice rolls to determine everything. An entire evening can be spoiled if (for example) an unplanned wilderness encounter on the way to the dungeon goes badly for the party. The DM must use good judgment in addition to random tables. Encounters should be scaled to the strength of the party and should be in harmony with the theme of the adventure; whenever possible, they should be worked into the story the characters are playing out.

Likewise, the DM may choose numbers instead of rolling for the amount of damage, number appearing, etc. This may be necessary to allow for a more enjoyable game; heavy damage early in the game may …

Monsters and ManualsYou are responsible for your own orgasm

There's a daily free newspaper here in the UK called Metro, which appears on buses and trains in the early hours of the morning in time for the morning commuters. When you get on your morning train to the office you're greeted with a scene like the aftermath of a gun battle - Metro are scattered hither and thither, strewn at random, like corpses littering a battlefield. (If you like your "going to work = going to war" metaphores, I suppose you would see this as making a cosmic sort of sense.)

Anyway, the Metro has a weekly sex advice column, which I always read. (Don't pretend you wouldn't.) The letters people write run the entire gamut from the boring ("I'm 26 and my girlfriend is 34, and I'm worried she's more experienced than me") to the stupid ("I can't figure out which hole to put it in") to the amusing ("I'm in love with my boyfriend's grandfather"), so you get quite a smorgasbard of advice being given by the collection of Agony Aunts on the payroll, but one thing I've noticed …

Once More Unto the Breach!Take this Gaming Survey!

So, JB at the awesome B/X Blackrazor blog has put out a call for people to complete a gaming survey. I've already completed it and sent it back to him. I think you should as well!

Take the survey!

Forgotten RunesSkyrimic Sandbox Chart revised


Hopefully some of you noticed the roll-up chart I posted a few days ago (unfortunately I double posted on that day got lots more hits on the second one). Alright, so the last iteration was a little too flat for my tastes (too many chances for the first level adventurers to be eaten by dragons). So here is a new one sorted by distance from civilized area. Decide which zone you are in and roll a d6 to determine the settlement.


Settled

1. Lumber Mill

2. Military Fort

3. Town

4. Mine

5. Bandit Camp

6. Roll on Borderlands

Borderland

1. Hunter Camp

2. Military Camp

3. Orc Stronghold

4. Forsworn Redoubt

5. Animal Den

6. Roll on Wilderness

Wilderness

1. Giant Camp

2. Spriggan Grove

3. Draugr Crypt

4. Dwarven City

5. Falmer hive

6. Roll on Places of Mystery

Places of Mystery

1. Hargraven Nest

2. Dragon Lair

3. Dragon Priest Lair

4. Vampire Lair

5. Warlock lair

6. Dungeon Masters choice

Design notes: The bandit camp and animal den could be easily swapped, same for the falmer hive and hargraven …

The City of IronMore classes! (?) -- Brute & Archer

Character classes, that old cornerstone of D&D... As a DM I've always been a "more is less" kinda guy, of the school of thought that who needs a ranger, paladin, cavalier and barbarian when you have the basic fighter. But something has been shifting... I've been thinking about what the players in my campaign might want, and the main thing I think players desire for their characters, in the context of an adventuring party, is for their character to be able to do something that no one else in the party can. And this something should be of a mechanical nature, that is, not purely a role-playing / behavioural difference.

So I've got to thinking about what additional classes I could allow. Thus far we've just had the classic four -- with cleric constantly teetering on the edge of being disallowed due to me as grumpy DM not liking it and claiming it doesn't fit with the setting. The obvious course of action would be allow some or all of the "advanced" classes from the Labyrinth Lord AEC, …

Trollish DelverMega-solo Tower of Terror is released {T&T}


There probably hasn't been this many products released since Tunnels & Trolls' heyday, but it seems 2012 has a set off a creative spark in the game and ignited a whole load of new titles; the latest being Tower of Terror.
 
This is the latest offering from David Ullery, who readers may know as a prominent T&T artist, illustrating many of Ken St. Andre's more recent adventures. Ullery also writes, and it's from his pen that new mega-solo, Tower of Terror, comes. 

The description from DrivethruRPG is as follows:
Tower of Terror takes place in an old wizard's tower that has been sealed off, and is now currently used by the worshipers of Ophion, the serpent god (aka Set). Expect many slithering snake-like opponents as well as a bunch of regular type of enemies to overcome. Much treasure is to be had as well as attribute enhancements.
There are two ways to play: you may go through 16 short individual adventures, or for longer more advanced play you can go on the "Trip of Terror" involving the …

Trollish DelverUSR available on RPGNow {USR}

Just a quick heads up that earlier in the week the folks of DrivethruRPG and RPGNow accepted my submission, so USR is now available to download for free.


Have fun!

Von der Seifenkiste herab...Dem Glgnfz seine kleine Umfrage...

Bei Blackrazor gibt es gerade eine Monsterumfrage, die mehr in Richtung D&D schielt. Leider ist das Ding total umständlich per Excel-Tabelle zu bearbeiten und erfragt mehr als 120 Items - trotzdem möchte ich euch bitten, dort teilzunehmen, vielleicht ergeben sich so ja halbwegs valide Daten zu unserem Lieblingshobby.

Ganz nebenbei habe ich spontan beschlossen, eine Mini-Umfrage zu starten, in der ihr mir Antworten zu 10 Items an rpgumfrage@googlemail.com schicken könnt/dürft/sollt. Ich denke das ist zu bewältigen und unter allen Einsendern verlose ich ein Exemplar der Larm Chroniken und eines von Drachen über Larm oder wahlweise ein vergleichbares gutes Stück aus meiner Feder, solltet ihr den gewonnenen Preis schon besitzen - was ja nicht völlig unmöglich sein soll...

Schneidet also einfach die folgenden 10 Umfrage-Elemente aus, klebt sie in eine E-Mail an die oben angegebene Adresse ein und gebt eine kurze Angabe zu den Punkten - abgesehen von der E-Mail-Adresse könnt ihr völlig …

Swashbuckler’s HideoutAgrivaina, Session 1

Micheal: Father Jack, cleric
Sarah: Rhubarb the Ravenous, fighting-woman
Eeri: Radimir, Carcosian fighting-man
Will: Abaddor, magic-user

Father Jack the Drunk, Rhubarb the Ravenous, Radimir the Antichirst, and Abaddor the Mutator sailed to Agrivaina in search of adventure and riches. After scouring the Flying Anvil Tavern, the group ahead off to see the foppish Lord Burndi in order to retrieve his heart's desire, a lovely Irish red head with the mouth of a sailor (who is Lord Michoil's hearts desires) from the depths of Lorae Forest.

Drunk in the tavern, the conquerors of the Lorae highwaymen boasted stories of enchanted mirrors and the womannapping sorcerers who escaped death by turning himself into a fish; of sparely haired midgets sporting stakes and hammer pulling bags filled with potion ingredient behind them; of the Denarii and Thesian Bull relic won in their parade that may have once been kept at the ruins of Valak'Tul. Perhaps these treasure are what the …

Swords & Stitchery - Old Time Sewing & Table Top Rpg BlogSamurai Star Wars By Clinton Felker! Awesome

 brings a whole new meaning to the adapt "Star Wars To This Era" craze. These are insanely nice. I can't really say which ones I like more. They're even more detailed then you can see here. His site has them all in very beautiful detail. I know that the samurai movies of the 60s from Japan were a huge influence on George Lucas, to tell you the truth I want to see this movie rather then the new 3 D Star Wars release. You can buy the Boba Fett one on ebay for 35.00 which isn't bad at all. For me to say that I'm not going to be filing these away someplace for a future Star Wars game would be me lying very badly. Anyhow from his ebay add - Hello my name is Clinton Felker. I'm a concept artist. This is my interpretation of what Star Wars Characters would look like if they lived in Feudal Japan. I have done a series of character concepts. This one is of Boba Fett in multiple view for fabrication.
You can see all of these in great detail Here





Samurai Boba Fett 




Samurai Yoda




HeroPressLadies & Gentlemen, It Lives! It Lives!


The bloomin' germs are still hanging about, but my productivity rate has risen almost back to normal this week, so - despite a slight relapse towards the end of the week - hopefully that will soon show itself through the blog.

Game-wise I must learn to curb my enthusiasm for developing the world at large when the adventurers have only played a single session in a very small area of land. Better to develop the area they are in (and the dunegon they are approaching) than too much of the wider world that may never get used (or, at least, not for years at this rate).

Of course, the temptation is - when you only game once a month - to spend the intervening days padding out the campaign world, but I need to stay focussed on the task at hand... which is getting the first dungeon ready for the Tuesday Knights to crawl through.

Which isn't too say I haven't got a few ideas for new character classes, but I shall try to rein in the world building and most definitely not cook up any more …

Destination UnknownWhat Lays Beneath?


The ivy in my median was cut back, poisoned, then dug up. The area has been re-planted with lilies, lavender and lantanas. 

     Yet the ivy stubbornly persists. 

     It lurches and creeps skyward from unknown depths. Every few months I must engage in fierce combat, hacking and cleaving until it is weakened and forced to retreat. The ivy reminds me that as a DM I must always mind what's beneath the PCs' feet, because whatever is down there never rests. 

Swords & Stitchery - Old Time Sewing & Table Top Rpg BlogSuperman's Mega-dungeon of Doom! The Little Known Underworld Dungeon Near Metropolis

In 1943 this was one of the best of the cartoons that Famous Stuidos released! I recently ran across this cartoon while doing research for my inner world game on Saturday. The plot is pretty cool -
   A local scientist, Dr. Henderson, comes to the Daily Planet with a proposition for Perry White. Several decades earlier, Dr. Henderson's father discovered a series of caverns that he named the "Henderson caves." The elder Dr. Henderson explored the caves for several years before he mysteriously disappeared in them. Now, the younger Dr. Henderson would like to go back into the caverns. He would like the Daily Planet to fund the expedition, and he would like Clark Kent and Lois Lane to come along and report on everything they find. Mr. White agrees.
Several days later, Clark, Lois and Dr. Henderson are at the entrance to the Henderson caves, ready to go spelunking. The caverns are part of a river system, so the only way into the caverns is by boat. Lois and Dr. Henderson take the first boat, …

GrognardlingPaperwork…

My players didn't do a whole lot this session; we even ended early because one of my players is sick and the other was fading. The players found a library, which they looted about 40 books from (using the library tables from Vornheim) and then were ambushed by dopplegangers, which they defeated disappointingly quickly. While the characters themselves didn't do a lot, I've got a lot to do before our next session:
  • Start mapping the second level of my dungeon; they found a stairway down to it today.
  • Map another section of the first level that they explored close to today.
  • Define the mechanical benefits that the books they looted can give.
  • Determine Thoth Razylym's response to her assassins' deaths. I've already determined that she's sending an intelligent 6 HD creature after the party; she may make things even more difficult for the party too.
  • Roll up another dragon, since the party was noticed by another dragon for killing the dopplegangers.
  • Figure out building cost rules; the players …

Kingdoms in TrevailA Few Minutes of Your Time...

JB over at B/X Blackrazor has put together a little survey in an effort to gather some information on just who is playing D&D, or has in the past.  Not really a marketing survey, but more of a way to gather info on what people are playing or want to play, when they started and so on.

Just fill in the answers in a spreadsheet and email it back to him.  Seems worthwhile, so I'd encourage you to take a few minutes and help him out!

http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2012/02/rpg-gaming-survey-your-help-needed.html

Tower of the Archmage#fridayfiveminutemap

On Google+ some of the mappers started up a friday five minute map challenge. Reading through the early comments with that hash tag it seems like there may be awards or prizes handed out, but I just think it's a good exercise.

This was my map for today. I call it "Big Underground River, little dungeon level"

The Society of Torch, Pole and RopeThree Castles Award Finalists Announced

Over on the NTRPGConvention website, the finalists for the 2012Three Castles Award have been announced. This year’s contenders, inalphabetical order, are:
  • ASE1- Anomalous Subsurface Environment by Patrick Wetmore
  • Realms of CrawlingChaos by Daniel Proctor
  • Stars WithoutNumber by Kevin Crawford
  • Tome of AdventureDesign by Matt Finch
The finalists now move on to this year’s judging committeeconsisting of Dennis Sustare, Sandy Peterson, Steve Marsh, Zeb Cook and Rob Kuntz.Congratulations to this year’s nominees!

No School Like The Old SchoolGaryCon Update.

I wanted to post this earlier last weekend, but Real Life is a bitch.

I signed up for my events for GaryCon. With the exception of Saturday, I tried to keep it to one event per night to leave myself time for pick-up games and other things. I'm leaving Sunday open so I can play in Victor Raymond's EPT game. I also decided to help out a fellow convention goer--and reduce my own hotel bill--by rooming with him.

Here's what I'm doing:

Thursday:
2 PM: Ghostbusters - How Dry I Am
I haven't played WEG Ghostbusters since middle school!

Friday:
10 AM: Heroes of Barsoom Episode 1 - The Lost Sextant vof Inak
This is part one of a two-pater. I'm not sure how the the GM is going to modify 1st Edition for Barsoom, but it should be interesting to watch.

Saturday: 
10 AM: Heroes of Barsoom Episode 2 - The Lost Sextant vof Inak


6 PM: Amazing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea - Taken From Dunwich
I pledged for ASSH's kickstarter campaign. With a copy on the way, so I want to see how well the game runs.

Green Skeleton Gaming GuildWisdom from the Wastelands!



"The inaugural issue of Wisdom from the Wastelands is now available! This new publication is dedicated to providing useful information, game content, and ideas to players of modern, science fiction, and post-apocalyptic table-top and role-playing games in general, and to fans of Goblinoid Games’ Mutant Future RPG in particular. The rules it contains are compatible with this game and with any others that use the “Basic” system introduced in the most popular role-playing games of the early 1970s and are easily adaptable to many other games (especially successor systems and those covered by the Open Game License).

                      I know what I'll be reading this weekend!  : )

Tenkar's TavernMini Review: The Secret Fire GM Screen - Keeper of the Unknown


I don't believe I've ever reviewed a GM / DM Screen before, let alone one available in PDF (you insert it into a blank GM screen available in fine hobby shops everywhere).  The Secret Fire - Keeper of the Unknown is my first attempt to do so. It has 6 sides / pages, so even if you just printed it out for reference as the gaming table, the charts themselves should help expedite play.  It does

UntimatelyRerolling Hit Dice & Healing

Ian over at Magician's Manse has an interesting house rule for healing:
Rerolling hit points at the beginning of each adventure represents healing. Roll all your HD, if the total is greater than your CURRENT hp, use the new roll. Otherwise, you current hp is retained.
This is a great rule and I am going to adopt it. This has old school pedigree: in Empire of the Petal Throne, hit dice were rerolled upon gaining a new level. Such rerolling has a number of advantages:
  1. Simplified healing math: no need to bother with exact downtime
  2. Healing and gaining a new hit die are mechanically identical
  3. PCs are not stuck with low rolls forever (or even for a level)
  4. It reflects variation in health and preparedness
  5. Healing and recovery are diegetic explanations; this is not "just" a game mechanic
  6. Promotes a reversion to the mean in HP totals
  7. Record hit dice on the character sheet and hit points on scratch paper
I would only change Ian's rule to allow 1 HP worth of healing for every night of rest during …

Armchair GamerIsle Imperium: Episode 1.20 -- The Coming of Chaos

Let the Numbers fall where they may when they are sent on missions. As the party is swarmed and nearly overcome by the avenging horde of bluetongues, things go from bad to even worse with the sudden arrival of Chaos’s LADY BLIGHT and her troop, comprising TISIPHONE, Carnifex Black; ARIADNE, Beloved of Spiders; and CARESS of the Pallid. The bluetongues are decimated and various terrible effects

Discourse and DragonsCritical Hits

I'm curious how you or your DM runs critical hits in your game?In my BX/LL game, a roll of 20 indicates a critical hit and the PCs can double their rolled damage. We also play with critical fumbles. If PCs roll a 1 they then roll on a d8 sub-table for mishaps.There seems to be more consternation about critical hits in more recent editions. This is just another example of rules bloat to me.

Tenkar's TavernFrom Nada to Alotta - Balancing the Time


When the Castles & Crusades game I had been playing in via Fantasy Grounds came to an end early last year (and that had previously dropped from a weekly game to a monthly game) I was suddenly left with no regular gaming on the horizon.  If it wasn't for a session of play testing for White Haired Man, there would have been no gaming for me in 2011. Truth to tell, by the time summer arrived,

The Dungeon DozenUnderworld Hunting and Foraging Success Table

d12
1. 2d6 delicious bats
2. 2d4 plump and juicy rats
3. Large sack full of giant insect larvae
4. Bushel of nutritious lichen
5. A dozen giant lizard eggs
6. Small sack full of edible lizards
7. 1d3 giant rock snails
8. 2d4 cave cephalopods
9. 2d20 giant spider hatchlings
10. Several days worth of life-sustaining pool algae
11. 1d6 blind cave fish
12. Several handfuls of glutinous fungi

Note: assumes presence of native guide or trained Underworld Ranger

The Land Of NodThe Space Princess Has Arrived!

Available in E-Book for $5.00 and in print (WARNING - I DON'T HAVE MY REVIEW COPY YET - BUY AT YOUR OWN RISK) for $10.00.

The old Space Princess came in at 48 pages with the table of contents, OGL and a page of character sheets (they fit four on a sheet, so I'm not sure character sheet is the right term). The back page is a map you can use for your first space fortress - I'm posting it below as well.

Lots of Space Princess ideas bubbling in my head today, so the next few weeks will see a few posts dedicated to it here. I already want to do an expansion called Space Patrol that will get a little more into a setting, but also throw in some classes, monsters and rules that will make it more useful for depicting characters in a fleet that travels between stars, a "star fleet" one might call it, wearing technicolor uniforms, exploring strange, new worlds (maybe even THE Strange New World), etc. etc. etc. You get the idea.

If you buy it, I hope you like it and get some use out of it - and …

February 03, 2012

Terre TormentateQuinta Edizione, cosa dice Monte? -parte 2-

Secondo giro di note, informazioni e dichiarazioni di intenti dai seminari della D&D Experience: “Re-empowering the DM”. Le meccaniche di risoluzione delle azioni saranno, in ordine di priorità: 1. il master decide che lo puoi fare senza dubbio. 2. il master ti chiede quanto hai di Forza, per esempio, e ti dice che il tuo [...]

. . lapsus calumni . .Friday Five Minute Maps

I am mobile at the moment, but I wanted to drop a quick comment. I will do a more formalized write up on this later this weekend to the guidelines for the project.

If you are on Google+, you should a quick search using the hash tag  #fridayfiveminutemap

This is a fun little exercise a few of us started last week and decided to continue as a weekly thing. Some of the guys have pointed out that the time limit of just five mere minutes really pushes the boundaries of what can be done but wow I have to tell you some of the maps are extremely creative and inventive. From just last week to today I think we doubled the number of people participating!

So drop over on Google+ and see what others are making, pretty cool!

In Like FlynnFantasy Friday: Thoughts on Character Themes...

Good Afternoon, All:

It's time for another installment of Fantasy Fridays. Today, I'd like to discuss the concept of character themes. I believe I've mentioned them before, when discussing Background Abilities, although not necessarily by that name. From the interviews I've read regarding the seminars at DDXP last weekend, it seems that themes will potentially play a significant role in 5th Edition D&D (5E) character development, at least optionally so. Similar in concept to AD&D 2nd Edition's character kits, the theme provides certain abilities to a character based on its origin, background or affiliation.

Under 4E, themes provide the following benefits:

  • You automatically gain the theme’s granted power.
  • You can choose to take additional theme powers when you reach the appropriate level.
  • You unlock feats or paragon paths that use the theme as a prerequisite.

Offered in comparison, the character kits of AD&D 2nd Edition offer the following potential benefits:

  • You might gain access …

Planet Algol[Science Fiction Future] Raspberry Pi - $25 Computer - Coming Soon

"The Raspberry Pi is a credit-card sized computer that plugs into your TV and a keyboard. It’s a capable little PC which can be used for many of the things that your desktop PC does, like spreadsheets, word-processing and games. It also plays high-definition video. We want to see it being used by kids all over the world to learn programming."

http://www.raspberrypi.org

It's supposed to be available sometime in February; I definitely want one of these!

Imagine how embarrassed the dudes who wrote Traveller and Shadowrun would feel if they hear about this?

BeaconRandom Character Race

When I ran my old AD&D games I didn't let anyone play halflings or elves.   I thought halflings were lame and only belonged in Tolkien settings and I didn't want to bother with them, and elves annoyed me because they were supposed to be ancient and have no souls.  However in actual play no one seemed to ever play either of these races much different than a human.  So for PCs I just had a bunch of different human races with slight stat modifications and cultures, and I kept the dwarves in - halflings didn't exist and elves were so unbalanced power wise that they were only ever monsters or NPCs.  Earlier on I let some people play a half-elf but later on I even cut that out and decided the races couldn't interbreed.  And even though I included both elves and halflings (with the caveat that 'halfling' is a term that could mean anything from gnome to goblin) in Beacon, I still am not eager to have people play them in my game.  Any Beacon setting source book I do will stress my distaste for …

...and the sky full of dust.ACKS

Been looking through my PDF of ACKS (Adventure, Conquerer, King System) [downloaded because I am a KING] and liking what I see, especially the section on campaigns and the like. Lots of design stuff, tables, ideas. Looking forward to reading more in depth, when I get the chance.

Sea of Star RPG Design JournalPathfinder Rules Musings – Fortification

“Knife him in the gut!” “I tried!  His armor stopped it!” That is how the Fortification ability is suppose to work in Pathfinder (and 3.x), here are the actual rules as written: Fortification: This suit of armor or shield produces a magical force that protects vital areas of the wearer more effectively. When a critical [...]

Tower of ZenopusFrom the Archives - A Scarred Lands 3E Campaign Snapshot


I ran across an old email from when I was updating a returning player who was joining the campaign and thought it was interesting.

Our first session in the Scarred Lands was 5/7/05 with the adventure "The Serpent Amphora" - rememebr that one? The really tough lizard-guys flatten the party to cries of "we're only 1st level" and "killer DM killer DM"? Ah, good times...


Other published adventures along the way have included "The Wizard's Amulet", "The Dragonfiend Pact", and "The Crucible of Freya".


I believe the Swashbuckler left us after Session 8, the long river voyage to the trading post at the
southern edge of Vesh.


We arrived in Amalthea at the end of session 12, 10/22/05 after some trouble with a medusa.


Justin joined us beginning with Session 17 on 1/21/05


We are now up to Session 22, which we just finished.


So we have spent about 11 months of real time, 4 months of game time, and we're running about 6th level on average.


Party death totals:
Cleric - none?
Paladin - 2 (cursed once)

Anniceris[JDR] Les mondes de Traveller (6)

Rappel des épisodes précédents : (3) Introduction aux mondes Traveller de Judges Guild, (4) Secteur Ley & système Tancrède, (5) Glimmerdrift Reaches.

On arrive à l'antépénultième Secteur de chez Judge Guild. Je sais que j'aurais pu être plus synthétique sur ces Atlas du Domaine Gatewau qui ressemblent parfois tant à de simples "Annuaires" téléphoniques. Mais je préfère prendre un peu de temps, au cas où il y aurait quelques petits joyaux cachés dans ces données.



Carte via Traveller Map.


  • Crucis Margin Guidebook (1981)
    Le Secteur Crucis Margin (dont j'ignore si elle est censée avoir un rapport avec la constellation de la Croix du Sud) est sur les côtés "traîne" (i.e. à gauche droite sur la carte) du secteur Glimmerdrift. Le Guide de 32 pages est à nouveau par le même auteur, Dave Sering.

    Le Secteur Crucis est donc encore plus près de l'Empire K'Kree des 2000 Mondes et les quelque centaines de mondes sont indépendants du Troisième Imperium. Un K'Kree ("Centaure") est …
  • Swords & Stitchery - Old Time Sewing & Table Top Rpg BlogJ.J. Abrams sells sci-fi apocalypse pilot to NBC



    deserted-city
    First it was Star Trek reboot  & now he's taking a wack at Gamma World? Nope this looks like Aftermath the television series. Every single piece of technology? Hmm this might actually be worth watching. I wonder where this is going to go? 


    Just when you thought J.J. Abrams might not have a sci-fi pilot in contention for next fall, along comes Revolution.
    NBC has picked up a new drama pilot from the Star Trekdirector and Warner Bros. TV. The logline: “A high octane action drama from J. J. Abrams following a group of characters struggling to survive and reunite with loved ones in a world where all forms of energy have mysteriously ceased to exist.”
    Now that’s the rather cryptic official description. But here’s an earlier, more exciting logline with more detail:“In this epic adventure thriller, a family struggles to reunite in a post-apocalyptic American landscape: a world of empty cities, local militias and heroic freedom fighters, where every single piece of technology — computers, …

    The City of IronThe death of Henry Slippums

    My Labyrinth Lord campaign has been running for just over a year now. About half of that time I was running games every two weeks, and more recently we've gone to playing every week. Over the course of those games, many characters have come and gone. I'm not one to shield PCs from the brutality of old-school D&D. Of the characters who featured in the first session, only one has survived all that time -- Henry "Slippy" Slippums. Until two days ago that is.

    The death of a PC is always a shocking moment, but even more so when the PC in question has been the only constant of the campaign from day one, and, indeed, the self-styled "boss" of the party.

    Really the death was an un/lucky fluke. I rolled three natural 20s against him, giving whatever armour or precautions he'd taken no chance of helping him.

    But whatever the cause, we now find ourselves in a very interesting position -- the first time in the history of the campaign where raise dead is seriously being discussed. As luck would …

    1d30The Grey and Wolves

    This is sort of a reply to Wolves are Really Scary. One thing I’ve noticed is that I tend to overdo it when I try to do “X is pretty dangerous” in my game. So I consciously refer back to game stats to try to keep things sane. In 1E D&D: A normal human is [...]

    The Other Side blogRPG/D&D Survey

    Johnathan over at B/X Blackrazor has a survey he would like everyone to participate in.

    http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2012/02/rpg-gaming-survey-your-help-needed.html

    There is an Excel file you need to download and send back to him.

    Fill it out, encourage other to do so as well.  It is not really marketing research (not asking those sorts of questions) but more of a temperature gauge.

    Check it out.

    HeroPressOld School Maps...


    The incredible map-designing prowess of Tim Hartin first featured on this blog back in 2009, but as my Follower count has skyrocketed since then I thought it prudent to draw everyone's attention to his new Facebook page.

    At Paratime Design, Tim offers "offers both commercial maps for sale and over 250 map freebies, as either image files or as PDFs, with more being added all the time".

    Dungeons Masters need never go without a handy dungeon design ever again...

    To see his full portfolio, survey the freebies and make purchases visit: http://paratime.ca/

    RetroRoleplaying: The BlogMicrolite74 Swords & Sorcery: A First Try at Classes

    Here is a very early draft of the Character Classes for Microlite74 Swords & Sorcery. Everything is Open Game Content under the OGL. Everything is also very "First Draft." Changes are extremely likely. Comments are welcome, greatly desired even.

    Classes

    The classes are Adventurers and Sorcerers. Characters normally begin at Level 1 (unless directed otherwise by the GM).

    Adventurers can wear any kind of armor, can use any weapon and may use shields. Hit Points (HP), Physical Combat Bonus PCB), Magical Combat Bonus (MCB), Saving Throw (Save), and Minimum Experience Points Required for Level (XP) are listed on the table below. Maximum Level is 6.

    Level

    HP

    PCB/MCB

    Save

    XP

    1 - Adventurer

    1d8+STR

    +1/+0

    14

    0

    2 - Explorer

    2d8+STR

    +3/+1

    12

    3100

    3 - Champion

    3d8+STR

    +5/+2

    10

    12500

    4 – Hero

    4d8+STR

    +8/+3

    8

    50000

    5 – SuperHero

    6d8+STR

    +11/+5

    6

    120000

    6 - Lord

    8d8+STR

    +15/+7

    4

    250000

    Sorcerers can wear any type of armor, can use any weapon, may not use shields – however, wearing armor and using …