Old School RPG Planet

May 17, 2012

Between Are the DoorsTemplate: Monster Hunter

I admit it, the inspiration for this template was taken directly from the TV show “Supernatural.” However, the earthy blue-collar nature of the hunters on that show blends nicely with Gothic fantasy. At first I was going to go “vampire … Continue reading

Richard’s Dystopian PokeverseAd hoc random table generation for Carcosa Wacky Races

Here’s my method for generating a random table I should’ve anticipated but didn’t, in 10 minutes or less: Drive the kids to school, muttering to myself like a madman. Listen to whatever’s on the radio, ask them baffling questions. Then try to hook their baffling answers back to Carcosa, CoC, Vance or the Moomins.* Thus: [...]

Classic Realms of AdventureLike Everyone Else I Suppose

Just busy staying busy.

And learning Win7...god help me...what a freakin' nightmare...I have got to get with Linux soon.

Just a bit of what has been progressing here in the land of eternal work :)

I'm slowly squaring away the software/hardware issues (and learning 'new' and lots of it...ugh) and catching up back ups (2tb of data is a lot to lose).

My batteries are drained. I have pushed myself way past the limit and it has come back to haunt me. Not taking care of yourself properly is a bad idea. I should have learned by now but....

So, recharging, resting and still keeping the back end running (coding the front end to the website, getting my notes together for not one but two gaming based pdf based journals, sifting through binders of hand written material,etc), listening to a LOT of music and trying to find something to watch that I can pay attention to for more than 15 minutes. I have a pile of films (mostly 2nd view) that I need to work through. Just good for the mind-Ironclad, …

Tales of the Grotesque and DungeonesqueGothic Dungeons



One terror that characters are often forced to endure in Gothic literature is enclosure within a frightening, claustrophobic underground environment. This convention is a perfect fit to old-school fantasy gaming; after all, old-school role-playing games frequently assume that dungeon-crawling is the default unit of play. Nothing says adventure quite like venturing into the cavernous depths of the earth in search of gold, glory, and mystery. It takes very little to turn this convention into the stuff of Gothic Fantasy gaming. In fact, utilizing the idea of enclosure is largely a matter of thinking in terms of typical Gothic locations that are already ripe for adventure. A dungeon expedition done in the Gothic mode might involve any of the following adventure settings:

The Haunted Manor House—while a haunted house might not have the same dank and unexplored atmosphere of the usual fantasy location, it does offer one point of advantage: by their nature, rooms and hallways are small, …

Too Much JohnsonAlign In The Sand

For the schizophrenic in all of us
Although I started with 1E around 79-80, I consider myself a 2E baby due to the fact I took the long way around to get back to TSR's shining jewel.  It is only recently that I have been experiencing the joy that is Basic D&D (something I completely missed out on the first time around).

I say all this because by the time 2E rolled around I'd been deeply entrenched in the 9-point alignment system.  Some people even then considered the whole concept a dinosaur leftover from D&D's wargaming roots.  Me, I just took it as it came, finally realizing that alignment was, with the exception of clerics and paladins, NOT a hard and fast set of rules, but more like guidelines for the player in figuring out the character's personality.

Now that I'm dealing with Basic though, I've come to appreciate the 3-point alignment.  Lawful, Neutral and Chaotic, that's it.  As much as I like a story that's told in black and white terms, I enjoy the wiggle room that the three …

Tower of ZenopusOverreaction Thursday



This week there's a lot of interesting news with the open playtest starting up in about a week:

  • Balancing the Wizard - I am OK with a lot of what is said here, though I admit I've never seen it as a huge problem either though I did see evidence of it in 3E. In 1st and 2nd Edition the lack of feats and the lack of easy item creation rules kept a lot of the potential min-maxing under control.  Sure, wizards could unleash a ton of damage - for a while. That's why you almost never saw them without a party or at least a wall of bodyguards and minions surrounding them.
  • Rule of Three - Here - Feats not tied to class abilities - good; Backgrounds = skill packages - OK but kind of simple; Traits = non-mechanical benefits, fine but some will likely be clearly better than others in different campaigns and this kind of thing doesn't require much playtesting.
  • Skill and Task resolution is described here. It mentions the base for having skill X is a +2, which is similar to Specialties in ICONS in …

. . lapsus calumni . .Messy Mapping

I have been fortunate to have been contacted recently to work on two projects for a few fine fellows and in doing so I am of course trying to out do myself a little...a bad habit of mine. Especially when someone is paying me for work, I really want to do a good job, so I tend to practice, try new things and generally take longer than I would normally take to complete the work.

So I am at it again and both projects require a map of a town so I began playing around a little, getting my juices flowing, whatever you want to call it. I call it Messy Mapping and it is usually my test/warm-up/experiment phase where I get my mind around the general direction I will head for this particular project.

For this one I was using a fancy journal my wife bought me a few years ago (hence the lines)and trying out a new pen I got tonight at Office Depot. It is green. My initial thought was I could add some foliage sort of stuff to the maps I have been drawing, but honestly now I am not so sure. I just …

Servitor LudiA cessation of stupidity?

"Creativity is the power to connect the seemingly unconnected."
"Creativity is the greatest expression of liberty." 
"Creativity is the sudden cessation of stupidity."

My post's title comes from the third quote, but my thinking about creativity often meanders between all three...

But enough of that, since I am grateful to the wonderful Amanda Heitler for nominating me for the Kreativ Blogger Award!  For such a vaguely German sounding award, I think I must do my best to obey zee rules...

1. Thank and link back to the awarding blog.  Check!

2. Answer the following seven questions:

(a) What's your favorite song?  Everybody seems to avoid this one... or give multiple answers depending on genre... but I don't think it gets any more perfect than Rush's "Closer to the Heart."  (Live extended version, please.)

(b) What's your favorite dessert?  I can still be macho and say "anything with chocolate," right?  Right?

(c) What do you do when you're upset?  Now THAT'S one that varies with th …

"It's okay; Gary sent us."Playtesting with Blackrazor!

After an unfortunate real life-driven hiatus, it's nice to be getting my game on again, and with none other than J.B. of OSR blog and "B/X Companion" fame!

Met up last night at the Baranof in Greenwood to try out his new rules-light fantasy/cyberpunk game (mysterious codename "CDF").

Playing a game session at the Baranof was crazy enough. It's a glorious dive that positively oozes history. All you have to do is mentally replace the flat screen tv with an ancient b&w model and it's uncanny how easily you can picture Charles Bukowski perched on the barstool at the end.

The game itself was a blast. My elf sorcerer fireballed six goblins and a rental car. Four were incinerated instantly. Thankfully, the car was among the survivors, otherwise I don't know how we would have made it back in one piece from Goblintown (aka 2050's version of Renton). I didn't get as much chance to get play done as I would have likes, due to character creation, setup, etc, but that's pretty much a given at a …

The Latest from Ain-4Dimsheen: Events


Event Sub-Table for Dimsheen
  1. Section of Dome collapses, exposing everyone in 4d100' to massive glare, heat and dessication effects.
  2. Dust Blow-out at Smelter. Most of the explosion is contained by makeshift barriers. This time.
  3. Dust Storm surrounds the entire dome-plex. No one is going anywhere for 1d6 hours.
  4. Sumps back-up, cause flooding in alleys. Takes 1d4 days to get cleaned-up and drained.
  5. Air plant malfunctions. Air supply doesn't get replenished for 1d4 hours.
  6. Excessive Glare. Dome opacity fails. Interior exposed to harmful ultaviolet radiation.
  7. Cybertribe raiding party strikes outlying domes.
  8. Inspector arrives by way of ornithopter from South Polar Authority Complex.
  9. Sewer-slugs (or incredibly large snails) break loose, go on rampage.
  10. Riot amongst Dust Trawler crews working for one of the four main outfits.
  11. General Strike called.
  12. Anarchists sabotage the Alloy Works. Parts will need to be shipped-in.
  13. Bar room brawl gets out of hand, 1d4 fatalities and Security is called.
  14. Sinkhole …

The Savage AfterWorldOfficial Gen Con 2012 Mutant Future Schedule


Hey Gang,

I'll be running three Mutant Future games at Gen Con this year (the only Mutant Future games, it appears). If you'll be in Indy and would like to traipse through the wastelands with yours truly, here are the events I'll be running:

RPG1230160 - Thundarr the Barbarian: Across the Dimensional Divide
Mutant Future - 6 players - 4 hours

Thursday, August 16 at noon
Location: Marriott :: Indiana Ballroom C :: Table 1
Demon Dogs! A dimensional time-rip has appeared near "Indeenapliss". It must be the work of an evil wizard, but who? Join Thundarr, Ookla, and Princess Ariel as they try to save the world of 3994 AD!

RPG1230159 - Gimme Shelter II: The Rushmore Salvage Job
Mutant Future - 6 players - 4 hours

Friday, August 17 at 10 a.m.
Location: Marriott :: Indiana Ballroom C :: Table 2
NOW HIRING: Barter John needs up to 6 mutants to help secure and move four very large Ancient busts near the village of Blackhill. Must be OK with heights. Tools supplied. No mants need apply.


Roll For InitiativeVolume 2 Issue 82 – The Forgotten Realms

Intro – 0:00.000 Roll For Initiative Website www.rfipodcast.com Roll For Initiative Twitter www.twitter.com/rfipodcast Roll For Initiative Facebook Page http://www.facebook.com/RFIpodcast OSR Gaming Forums www.osrgaming.org RFI Actual Play http://rfiactualplay.tk/ D20 Radio Forums http://www.d20radio.com/forums/ DM Vince’s Blog http://www.theevilgm.com/ The...

d20 DialecticWaRP System Released on OGL!



The game Over the Edgehas been converted to a 28-page OGL rulebook called the Wanton Role-Playing System. Huzzah!

In case you’ve been living under a rock, Over the Edge is one of those games that hipster RPers like me love to talk about as though we played it for hours and hours, each moment revealing new secrets of the depths of our inner Being like unfolding lyric poetry. Truth is, I’ve never played a game, not really. But the system is badass, and if you ever want to get a grip on what the whole ‘indie RPG’ community is all about, it’s a good place to start.

I think that we D&D players have a lot to learn from this little booklet. It might not have d20s and to-hit bonuses and classes and Vance, but it’s got speed, style and inventiveness as its core tenets. It revolves around the classic rule, ‘if you don’t know the outcome of an action, make up a number on a die and roll for it.’  

I hope that we get a chance to see a lot of stuff being produced for this system, just like the …

The Crown and the RingSome Men Just Want to Watch the World Burn

I got a lot of work done on the Green City today.  I've been mapping out towers, floor by floor, both to have something in place before starting to run this setting, and just to get me used to the act of stocking a dungeon again.  My last campaign was almost dungeon-free, so I'm a little rusty. 

One thing I'm kind of wrestling with are the hoards.  Specifically, weapons.  These floors are winding up jam-packed with all sorts of weird weapons -- Hyperborean and Atlantean swords, alien blaster pistols and rifles, etc.  Some of these are in the hands of enemy combatants, when it makes sense for them to be.  Occasionally I throw a rack of 1d4 alien guns in a room if I'm at a loss of what else to include. 

And suddenly it dawns on me that if they survive long enough to explore two levels, they can essentially take on damn near anything that rears its ugly head. 

Part of me says to dial it back, include fewer super-science weapons, make them more unreliable, etc.

Part of me says, "Leave it as …

Discourse and DragonsD&D Five Chat Transcript

Have any of you read the chat transcript from today? If WotC was ever interested in reclaiming gamers of previous editions, it sure doesn't sound like it now. Anyway, our group plans on kicking the tires on the playtest regardless. The primary upside? I won't have to DM! WooHoo!

Tenkar's TavernThe Grumpy Dwarf Chews The Chat - Mike Mearls D&D Next Chat Session (Part 1)


This is a long chat to chew.  I may have to break this into two separate parts.  Lets see how much actual meat there is as I chew the fat ;)


Original chat is here

10:51
Trevor: I've just opened the chat so people should be making their way in now. Once we're about to start, I'll do another couple announcements.

10:55
Trevor: Hah! You're all awesome with your questions, but we haven't started quite yet. You can keep them coming in, just know that we'll be starting this party in about five to ten minutes.

11:00
Trevor: For a few of you asking about a transcript - yes, the contents of this chat will be available on the site after we're done.

11:01
Mearls: Hello world. (Hello Nurse!)

11:01
Trevor: There's Mike Mearls, one of the stars of the show!

11:01
Mearls: Jeremy Crawford will be a little late. We just finished up a meeting on the playtest packet.

11:03
Trevor: You want to regale us with any playtest tidbits while we wait for him, Mike?

11:04
Mearls: Hmmm... let's see. I've been DMing …

Dreams of Mythic FantasyValley of the Azure Ziggurat ... And Hope to be back soon

Studying for my State Agent License exam. I finished my 40 hr pre-exam course and passed the "practice" exam. It's a bear. Hope to be back to regular posting, soon. Got a game, Friday night. Woo-hoo!

Made a map.

Right Click and open for expandable pic.

I SEE LEAD PEOPLEAlphabet Fail

I gave it a good try but I have to admit that the more I ran with the A to Z project, the more I realized that I was never going to find something for every letter. I am sure that if I dug down deep I could, but at that point the project begins to feel like work and I really don't want to labor through the posts.

So, sorry to disappoint folks but I'm not going to be doing "S" through "Z".

-Eli

May 16, 2012

The Latest from Ain-4Dimsheen: Common Encounters


Common Encounters within Dimsheen
  1. (1d4) Dusters going on-shift
  2. (1d6) Latchkees
  3. (1d2) Prowling Limb-Bandits
  4. (1d4) Dust Handlers
  5. (1d6) Proles
  6. (1d4) Robots going to next workstation
  7. (1d4) Dusters coming off-shift
  8. (1d4) Doxies
  9. (2d4) Roustabouts
  10. (1d6) Mercenaries (out of work)
  11. (1d8) Bully-boys
  12. (1d4) Slidge
  13. (1d6) Domerats
  14. (1d4) Drop-Slugs
  15. Scav-Swapper
  16. Cymek Peddler
  17. Cymek Customizer
  18. Wandering Graffitti
  19. (1d12) Dust Mites
  20. Event

Giblet BlizzardThe Koronus Expanse

As much as I love the maps in Rogue Trader, they reveal too much about the Koronus Expanse for starting characters. So I've made up this map to show the general known regions of the Expanse, and the Warp Routes the characters have access to; as they discover/pay through the nose for/stumble across/steal new routes and planets I'll add them in.

unworthycudgelACKS and Eíre

A quick build-out of Eíre in ACKS is turning out poorly for my conceived values of NPCs. Stated simply, the NPCs in positions of power are too powerful. The king of Broken Mountain bears the Heartscale and numerous magic items; has fought … Continue reading

Save Vs. PoisonTwo Things About Which I am Greatly Excited



1. Adventures Dark & Deep: A Curious Tome of Forgotten Lore
I dig on AD&D (err....) I like the "lost Gygaxian" classes, I like the rules additions, I like parts of the skill system (not a fan of skills costing boatloads of xp, but I think I can come up with an alternative) I am exceedingly glad that the Greyhawk Grognard is going to be publishing a modular book of just the new stuff. Tentatively set to release this summer, I'ma snap me up a copy  as soon as it is available.

2. Deadlands:  Hell on Earth Reloaded. Okay, so I've been waiting for this since 2004. (When Savage Worlds first debuted, the demo adventure was set in the Hell on Earth world....and we've had not a crumb from them since then) According to Pinnacle dudes on the Pinnacle forums, the book should be out this year. Normally I scoff at "this year, we promise!" calls from books that are many years overdue, but I've got a good feeling about this one and I am remaining uncharacteristically optimistic. With any luck, I might …

HeroPressFour Minutes Of The Amazing Spider-Man...


I have to say I'm far more jazzed about The Amazing Spider-Man than The Dark Knight Rises, but then I don't really hide my passion for the Marvel Comics Universe.

Now just to get Peter Parker into a film with The Avengers (and Ghost Rider, Blade, The X-Men etc) and my head would truly explode!

Applied PhantasticalitySecret Doors

My approach to detecting secret doors is the same as my approach to detecting traps: description. The players listen to my description of their surroundings, then they describe what their characters do to search for them. If a secret door is in their vicinity and their efforts fail to reveal it, then I secretly roll for their chance to detect it. This represents a second chance to notice something they have overlooked.

I realize this is the opposite of the method used by many groups. Standard practice is for the players to declare that they are searching a particular 10' by 10' area. For each such area searched, the referee makes a roll for each player character who is actively searching. That's all there is to it. It takes 1 turn per 10' by 10' area searched, so the only thing preventing a party from inspecting every foot of a dungeon (and making hundreds of secret door rolls) is time and Wandering Monsters. This might be considered reasonable from an archaeologist's point of view, …

The Land Of NodAmazons, Archons and Azers [Blood & Treasure]

I'm now working my through the monster chapter doing a first pass on editing before it goes to Tanner for a more thorough look, and I decided "Why not preview a few monsters on the blog". (i.e. I needed a quick and easy post for the day because I'm busy as spit).

I figure this can give folks an idea about the format (different than in earlier previews - a format I liked but just became too difficult to layout effectively and make the info easy for the TK to access during play) and maybe preview a few of the new monsters in the game.

AMAZON
Medium Humanoid, Alignment Varies, Average Intelligence; Company (1d20)

HD: 1 + 1
AC: 16 (chainmail and shield)
ATK: Longsword (1d8+1) or longbow (100 ft., 1d8+1)
MV: 30
SV: F 15, R 13, W 15
XP: 100 (CL 2)

Amazons are humanoid females who are expert warriors. All amazons are uncommonly tall and handsome. They come in three varieties, named after the color of their skin; the blue amazons, green amazons and red amazons. All amazons eschew accepting …

The City of IronCarcosa one-shot: Session report

Yves has risen to the occasion!

I can sort of feel a sporadic campaign of Carcosan killy-looty-humpy-party fun coming on!

Strange StonesEcho Chamber News Flash: 30% Off Sale At Chaosium

Chaosium is, indeed, having a 30% off sale. Apparently this applies to all the stuff they sell online. Print and PDF. BRP stuff. CoC stuff. Even the Arkham Fire Dept. t-shirts. The sale runs through May 28th. So start digging … Continue reading

In Like FlynnIsles of the Saharan Sea: Devil's Cove...

Good Afternoon, All:

Now that work has let up a little bit, I can continue my exploration of the major ports of the Isles of the Saharan Sea setting. Today, I'm writing up some basic details for Devil's Cove, or Kelshandan.

Kelshandan
Location Name: Devil's Cove, or Isle of Games
Ambiance: The slave trade thrives on this Kelshani island. The extreme social distinctions between the masters and their slaves divides the residents and flavors almost all social interactions. The Demon Court, an arena where warrior-slaves fight for their masters and for treasure, is the most recognizable feature of the island, and easily distinguishes this port from others at a distance. Other vices, particularly those of a hedonistic nature, thrive in Devil's Cove.
History: Around seven human generations ago, the Kelshani emerged from their underground empire and began to establish a presence on the surface of the World Within. About two human generations ago, the Kelshani established their autonomy from …

The Dungeon DozenThe Lich's Secret Identity

d12
1. Filthy street urchin w/unsettling stare
2. Continuously drunken petty noble w/penchant for provoking peers
3. Kindly hedge wizard, always offering to aid and advise fledgling adventurers
4. Travelling minstrel who ruthlessly satirizes the powers-that-be
5. The mysterious "druid" seen stalking the king's forest
6. Mild-mannered yeoman farmer who recently inherited ancient farmhouse
7. Court torturer: famous throughout the land for extracting secrets w/100% accuracy
8. Perpetually masked guild master of assassins
9. Foppish dandy said to be extraordinarily successful philanderer
10. Extremely helpful librarian at the Royal Scroll & Tome Repository
11. Preternaturally attractive young aristocrat looking for marital prospects
12. Foreign dignitary representing largely unknown empire from somewhere beyond the edge of the campaign map

Monsters and ManualsLamentations of the Flame Princess and the Virtues of A5 of

I've been playing a bit of Lamentations of the Flame Princess [Grindhouse Edition] these last two weeks, and I have to say, I'm impressed: the game is intuitive, easy to use, retains basically all what makes D&D, D&D...in fact, I'll go out on a limb and say it's what D&D 4th edition always should have been and what D&D 5th edition should be. (If I have a complaint, it's that the art feels like it's trying too hard to be shocking in places, though if that's your only complaint about a game...)

But that's not even the best thing about it. No, the best thing about it is that the rulebooks are in fucking A5. If there ever was a way in which God intended rulebooks to be set out, it would be A5 format paperback. Easy to flick through, light, will fit in a man-bag or brief case, and way more readable in bed or on a train than clunky A4 hardbacks. For that alone, James Edward Raggi IV, I salute you.

Tales from the Flaming FaggotPosting Sitrep

I realize that my posting frequency has been pretty sparse lately, but I have a good excuse for a change, beyond laziness and apathy.  For the past several weeks I have been devoting all of my free time to working on Covert Ops, the old school espionage role playing game that I announced last year.  This hasn't left me a lot of time for blogging, and my head is so immersed in the clandestine world of the secret agent that it's hard to shift gears into fantasy.  Consequently I've fallen several sessions behind on my campaign session reports.  I apologize to everyone who has been missing them, and I will try to get one up in the next few days - just in time to have another session and fall behind again.

I am really thankful to have Barrowmaze, though.  It has been a real time-saver to be able to run such a great adventure right 'out of the box,' so to speak, which has allowed me to concentrate on Covert Ops instead of spending all of my time trying to stay ahead of the players.

Anyhow, …

The Zhodani BaseMy house rule for planetary size

A problem with the random generation of worlds in Traveller is that for small worlds (where size < 4) is that these worlds might get an ordinary breathable atmosphere. This is a problem, since the minimum molecular weight retained for … Continue reading

The Tao of D&DWherefore Does The Flame Burn?

In winding down my day, I wanted to make a quick inquiry to anyone who might be having some of the same feelings I'm having.

Does it seem the heyday of D&D blogs has passed?  Has the subject been worked to death?  Have some of the great blogs in community ceased to be relevant, or have too many great blogs simply disappeared?

Mind you, when I say "great," I mean other people's opinions, or in terms of nominal importance.  I don't mean my personal feeling regarding their value.

Perhaps I've lost touch.  Perhaps I have been less and less inclined to roam the wastes looking for something of worth, and I have grafted my apathy upon the reality.  If so, correct me.  Tell me the flame wars burn with the same intensity.  Tell me the fan boys still pound the drums.  Tell me that interests have not waned, so that I may believe again.

Mythmere's BlogWisdom of Guy Fullerton (and Gothridge Manor)

Given all the publishing activity that's begun in response to Kickstarter's insane ability to gobble in money for its clients, Guy Fullerton has posted an absolutely fantastic set of guidelines for the prospective module-publisher. He also references an earlier set of posts on the specific topic of editing that were done at Gothridge Manor.

Here is the link to Guy's first installment.

Here is a link to the Gothridge Manor series, but I recommend going here from within Guy's posts where the link appears.

Tartarus PressRestructuring

 I have discovered that I have more ideas than I do time to execute them. This leads to the typical 'Gamer ADD' where I jump from one idea to another without fully finishing them. The end result is a constant feeling of dissatisfaction and restlessness as I try to muddle through the myriad of thoughts that bang around in my skull.

 In an attempt to give order to the chaos I have made some decisions based on insights I have had to what I really want to do. The first of which had to be a final decision on what system I wanted to run. That particular system would form the structure of the campaign and be the first step in creating the outlet I would use for ideas. After some long and hard thought on the subject a thought came to me that was this; I never really finished with AD&D 2e.

  Looking back at my personal history this does hold true. Every other system I have played has been an exercise in trying to make it like 2e. From using spells, kits or even relying on the Monstrous Manual fo …

Hidden in ShadowsBTPBD discussion download and a new dungoen from a familiar name.

A compleat and revised version of my series of posts regarding Beyond This Point Be Dragons is available for free download at my PDF shop here:

http://sites.fastspring.com/apriorcrs/product/product_catalog

Scroll down to the bottom of the page to the last listing.  Note that my store offers "CD Backup" on all files and you likely will want to decline those unless you are ordering something else.  Oh, by the way, OD&D Combat with CHAINMAIL is another free download available there for those who may be interested.

For the sake of convenience, I've also posted it here:
http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=dragonsatdawn&action=display&thread=7199


In other news, the Champions of ZED kickstarter is now 60% funded.  If you've been thinking of signing up, please do and help to get this project made!

http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/280000504/champions-of-zed-zero-edition-dungeoneering


For those who may not have see it in my kickstarter update, I'd want to point out another kickstarter …

HeroPressThe Big Money Joust...



This quarter-of-an-hour clip shows the final round of the jousting from Sherwood Forest Faire - as featured on HeroPress earlier in the week - for the big cash prize.

Again, we have YouTuber GnonplussedGnome to thank for the footage.

Greyhawk GrognardMapping Beyond the Flanaess: The Tharquish Empire

At long last, another in my series of Darlene-style maps covering western Oerik. This time, we cover the Tharquish Empire and the remainder of the Tharquish Dominions. I envision the region as a Greco-Roman type place (which is attested to in the Chroniques de la Lune Noire, which shows a decidedly Classical Tharquatis about to get taken out by a tidal wave; but that's okay, because it's no more canonical than Tharizdun destroying Oerth in the Gord the Rogue books), with lots of hilly terrain broken up by smallish woodlands.

I also made a few changes to the Free States map, which I'm posting here so you can see how they fit together. The one on the bottom is the new one. Click to embiggen.

As always, the latest largest-scale versions of the maps are available off to the right in the "Free Resources" section.

You'll also notice a corner of Gonduria off in the extreme southwest corner of the map; I deliberately didn't put anything there, because the focus of this series is Oerik itself, …

Sea of Star RPG Design JournalRPGNow Discounts – Through June

Those fine folks at RPGNow/DriveThruRPG have the latest set of discounts up, you can get any of the following items at 20% off (until 14 June) with the secret code at the bottom of this entry: Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion [Pinnacle Entertainment] Realms of Cthulhu [Reality Blurs] Karma Roleplaying System Core [Bards and Sages] FantasyCraft [...]

1d30Katamari Villainy

I’m sure you’ve played Katamari Damacy, a game about a sticky ball your little Prince rolls around and as things adhere to the ball it gets bigger. A bigger ball can pick up bigger things. Then the timer runs out and the King of All Cosmos hurls the Katamari ball into the sky as a [...]

Tenkar's TavernShowing a Little More Sand in the Campaign


I suspect that my players will wrap up the current adventure this Saturday. They've already accomplished much of the current scenario and have indicated a desire to move up the game's start time - as 4 hrs of gaming was a hard place to stop last week. The next session will last as long as it needs to last I suspect.

So, afterwards, it will be time to lift the curtain, so to speak, and allow my players to explore more than just the initial surroundings of their starting town.

Initially, my plan was to use Christian's HEX 000 Series as is, but I think it will serve my purposes better to break the hexes up and use them where I need them. Christian's decision to draw the series to a close with the 7th installment made it an easier decision to make, as I want an opportunity to use all of the quirky stuff he's included so far. Breaking them up will allow me to do so.

I've been going through the Toys For the Sandbox series to see which ones fit my view of the setting I'm using.

To some …

Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets[New Monster] Denorphys

Denorphys A duo of bizarre half snake, half human creatures hissed at Stork, baring vicious claws and fangs. The wizard smirked at the monsters. “Why do you wander into our domain?” one of the things growled. “To enlist your aid, I wish to cause havoc in a nearby town and I believe that a small [...]

Bloody 20sDesigner's Notes #2 A


                                                      Click on images to enlarge.

...and the sky full of dust.The Tour Continues

Over at The City of Bones, the tour of the city continues with the Merchants Quarter.

Discourse and DragonsIndiegogo: Barrowmaze II Hits 5k!

A quick update to say that the Barrowmaze II Campaign on Indiegogo just hit 5k! As a stretch goal to 6,000 I'll add a new field of Barrow Mounds and a deluxe Random Barrow Mound Crypt Generator that will have application to BMII and beyond. Be sure to come chek out the campaign for further details!

Terre TormentateCronache di un Avventuriero

Ricevo e come sempre pubblico un nuovo estratto dalle “Cronache di un Avventuriero” di Dargan di Retoril: “… Finalmente abbiamo trovato, o meglio dire ci ha trovato, la proprietaria di quell’indomabile pulcioso animale cleptomane! Si tratta di una ragazza molto intrigante, ben preparata e che sa il fatto suo; ha detto di chiamarsi Scafalia di [...]

For A Fistful Of CoppersThe Vomorhin Experiment

A full-time job and an impending move to a new apartment haven't really left much time for idle pursuits, including Dungeons and Dragons. But all work and no play has often left Jack a dull boy, so I've been thinking about getting back in the saddle for a few weeks now. In my current situation, tabletop gaming has been a great way to both stay in touch with distant friends and make new ones in the greater Philadelphia area. In preparation for this eventual calming, I've been working on a little experiment.

The City of Vomorhin is a project that I've been planning since I put my ideas together for the Cheap Minis Project: a city setting that utilized many of the strange, common or otherwise minor parts of the Dungeons & Dragons experience in order to craft a campaign setting. There's a place in the Vomorhin universe for kenku, grimlocks, troglodytes, krenshar, chaos creatures and constructs of all shapes and sizes. Taking all of these disparate elements and making a coherent world …

Ramblings of a Great KhanPossibly an odd question to ask...

....especially on an old school gaming blog; but one of the things we were talking about at our latest Garnia brainstorming session, and have talked about in the past as well, was the possibility of making the campaign world system neutral and letting people "plug in" what ever system they are most comfortable with. Now I have D&D/AD&D and it's clones/simulacra pretty well in hand. We have a Fudge guy and a Savage Worlds guy, so what I am really looking for is a guy that can spread the audience a but more to the modern gamer- a Pathfinder guy. I guess a GURPS guy couldn't hurt either. Anyone interested in the project should comment either here or go check out my other blog and comment there.

Thanks!


The Other Side blogWhite Dwarf Wednesday #16

We open the 80s with White Dwarf #16 for Dec 1979/Jan 1980.
First up we notice another step up in the cover art.

We have a few pages of ads and the editorial begins on page 7. Ian Livingstone talks about how WD was voted the best games magazine in the recent Game Day Awards.  The questionnaire they did a few months back is reprinted here (later in the magazine) and they want to get feedback.

Lew Pulsipher has 3 pages on monsters from the Thomas Covenant the Unbeliever series for AD&D. I was always one of those people who stopped reading the book after the rape of Lena so I have no idea if these are on target or not.  The monsters though look like they will work and there is quite a bit of them.

Andy Slack gives us more of the Traveller Universe with Social Class and Psionics.  These articles, while neat, are all over the place.  Maybe it is my modern sensibilities or just me in particular, but I would have enjoyed these more if there had been some organization to them.

A table of Boot …

The Warlock’s Home BrewICONS Issue 5

DEATH AT 30,000 FEET!!

Lord Genovasis - The father of Meta-humans
Automaton - The Mechanical Marvel
Nate Brown - Lowly janitor (AKA The Sponge)
The Scarlet Hood - The bane of organized crime and political corruption
Prophylactica - The woman wonder of rubber!
King Cobra
Col.  Francis "Popeye" Sanders

Trapped aboard a Nazi airship loaded with stolen American weaponry, Lord Genovasis, Col. Sanders and The Scarlet Hood plan their next move.  They send their new ally, Tarpit, out to beat up the Nazi soldiers who have retreated offering him $5 a head.  Tarpit gladly takes them up on that offer and slushes off.

Meanwhile back at the Vanguard 13 headquarters, General Fairway calls the remaining members together to pursue the airship and aid the team.  Prophylactica, Nate Brown (the Sponge) and a King Cobra running to catch the gyro-copter take off after their companions.

Back in the airship, Lord Genovasis along with Penolope Kirt, the reporter, work their way up to the ship's bridge.  …

Swords & Stitchery - Old Time Sewing & Table Top Rpg BlogHigh Tech Mysticism & High Caliber Adventure Encounter -Random Artifacts Of The Space Gods Passing



Random Artifacts Of The Space Gods Passing 
  1. The corpses of several thousand encased with  vibaranium & crystal lattices 40000 credits value 
  2. The remains of a city street of alien design & aspect its angles leading to different times & places. 
  3. Several Dozen Space Craft fused into one mass their power sources still salvageable 10,000 credits 
  4. Twelve ancient buildings spinning through space. 1d4 Space Spiders 4 hit points each feeding upon the corpses. Save versus poison or be infected with a nano plague of dissemblers 50000 credits in loose treasure & goods 
  5. 1d6 cosmic machines left behind within an asteroid field that was a planet. They are a radiation hazard but very,very valuable. 50,000 credits each but they each weigh 40 tons. Take 1d4 points of radiation damage per round unless save versus poison is made every 4 rounds 
  6. A field of uranium laced meteors that used to be a planet. Radiation hazard of 1d6 points of damage per round. The place contains 1d10 ancient computers with …

Echoes from the GeekcaveRMA: Rhinoceroseseses

(Rhinoceri?)





Like many other real creatures, this one hasn't seen a lot of table time in my experience. In fact, the normal rhino doesn't even appear on the random encounter charts; and the wooly version is only on the optional "Prehistoric" table.

While, in real life, rhinos are hardly racking up the kills (much more the reverse, actually), they are notoriously unpredictable. Looking at the stats and descriptions, it's totally understandable why PCs might give this fellow a wide berth.


Rhinoceros       Ordinary        Woolly  (from Cook)

No. Enc.:        0 (1d12)          0 (1d8)
Alignment:      Neutral           Neutral
Movement:     120' (40')         120' (40')
Armor Class:  5                    4
Hit Dice:        6                     8
Attacks:                  -butt or trample-
Damage:        2d4 or 2d8       2d6 or 2d12
Save:            F3                    F4
Morale:          6                       6


What the scariest thing about its stats (either version)? No, not the trampling damage. Give up? The answer is its morale! I know, but it's a trick question. You need to read the description to see why.

"If threatened, surprised, or charged, they will stampede in a …

The Latest from Ain-4Astronaut Shrines: Dimsheen


There is only one viable settlement within the entire Griffsilv Crater Region and that is Dimsheen, a tumble-down series of scored, pitted and constantly malfunctioning domes squatting on the very lip of the crater-rim at the South-most point.  The dust smelters and alloy-works are the only industry in Dimsheen, not counting the usual service-sector professions that always spring up to cater to and prey upon lonely populations of isolated workers. Conditions within Dimsheen are grim, demanding and dangerous. There are constant fatalities out on the dust, and everything is patched together and recycled or jury-rigged to get by on a budget dictated by absentee overlords of commerce who only ever read the production reports.

The Dust Trawlers cannot hire enough workers fast enough to keep up with the demand, let alone the injuries or casualties, which has acted as an incentive for standards to be relaxed quite a bit within the Region. Crude, hand-crafted, hand-me-down cymek prosthetics …

HeroPressMINDPROBE: "Superheroes Don't Get Oscars, They Get Action Figures!"


As The Strobe says in The Specials: "Superheroes don't get Oscars, they get action figures".

Short of having their home town or city erect a statue in their honour, a line of action figures is possibly one of the most concrete ways a superhero group is going to get recognition in a superhero roleplaying game.

Hulk roll low percentage! Hulk mad!
Inspired by the comically disastrous roll-out of the line of action figures based on The Specials in their movie, I came up with a quick little formula, for an Icons campaign, to  randomly measure of how accurately a superhero is represented by his "official action figure":

ACCURATE PORTRAYAL = [(1d6+2) x (2d6-2) + X-Factor] per cent

(A character's X-Factor is either the sum of his highest ability and highest power rating or twice his highest power rating, whichever is greater)

The lower the score the less likely the figure is to accurately  represent the character and his power set.

The figure could have incorrect proportions, be the wrong …

The Nine and Thirty KingdomsSettlement Tricks I: Broad Trends

As I said in yesterday's post, I have some vague ideas of how to approach a settlement campaign. One element you would need to track is the broad status of the settlement's success or failure. As a settlement becomes more successful, it will attract more migrants; bad conditions may drive settlers away.

Clearly, this should be based on Loyalty and morale. Migrants are, in essence, "hirelings" of a settlement as a whole. You can also modify the Loyalty roll based on changes in the basic necessities: do you have an abundance of food, water, and safety, or a scarcity?

I proposed something like this earlier, using ideas from the weather reaction roll to interpret population and resource reaction rolls. The modifications I'd propose now are:

  1. Initial 2d6 reaction roll for general character of the proposed destination. Friendly or Very Friendly locales are going to have a bonus on other rolls, Hostile/Very Hostile locales will have a penalty. The GM might also want to determine seasonal …

Under SiegeGetting Back On Track

Sorry about the absence... the return to work from my Vacation has been a bit busy.  I'm also doing a lot of work around the apartment the past couple days which has largely kept me away from my computer.

Admittedly, I did spend a couple of hours yesterday combating the minions of Diablo.  ;)

Full posts will resume by the end of tomorrow!

M

GrognardiaRetrospective: Mach: The First Colony

You know you're talking about an obscure roleplaying game when it's nigh impossible to find a stock image of its cover. Mind you, until very recently I wasn't 100% certain Mach: The First Colony had ever been published. I remember seeing advertisements for it in many issues of Dragon back in the early '80s and I thought it looked intriguing, but I never saw it on the shelves of any game store I visited. The artwork of the advertisement, coupled with the tagline "A role playing game of soldiers of fortune in a New World," made it seem right up my alley. I've long thought that a RPG taking inspiration from the European exploration and conquest of the western hemisphere had potential. Strangely, comparatively few games have ever done this, so perhaps I'm alone in thinking this way.

Regardless, the way Mach (originally published in 1983) presented itself in those Dragon ads of old made me think that perhaps it might be the game I was looking for. So, when I saw a cheap copy on eBay …

Thoul's ParadiseWas Osama bin Laden Lawful Good?


According to the System Reference Document (SRD), “A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act.”  Please note the words expected and required; a lawful good character conforms to certain expectations or requirements.  What are they?  What authority establishes these expectations or requirements?  Absent answers to these questions, we are left with a jejune tautology: a good person acts like a good person.  What authority is appropriate to define good behavior?  Is the verbatim word of God sufficient?  How many ways of interpreting the word of God are there?

The SRD epithet for Lawful Good is “crusader.” While bin Laden would vehemently object to that term based upon its historical context, the Muslim corollary – mujahed – has been applied to him.  Of course, the mere fact that bin Laden is a hero to some does not mean he was a moral paragon.  There are disturbed persons that believe Hitler was heroic, if not “good.”

The definition of a lawful good …

Von der Seifenkiste herab...[Rezension] Abenteuer Weltgeschichte: Die Spanische Armada

Die Spanische Armada (Abenteuer Weltgeschichte - Band 2)

Autor: John Sutherland & Simon Farrel
Übersetzung: Marcel Agsten
Layout: Karl-Heinz Zapf
Verlag: Mantikore Verlag
ISBN: 978-3-939212-09-6 
Format: 216 Seiten, 300 Spielabschnitte, Softcover, A5 (Taschenbuchgröße)
Preis: 12,95 Euro

Band 1 mit den Geschehnissen im England des Jahres 1066 hat mir ja ganz ausgezeichnet gefallen und der Nachfolgeband reiht sich da nahtlos ein.

Wieder sind Engländer beteiligt - nur geht es diesmal nicht gegen die Normannen, sondern gegen die Spanier. Das große Plus gegenüber dem ersten Band besteht darin, dass man direkt zu Beginn eine wichtige Wahl treffen kann (muss!) - will man Sir Rupert Havilland spielen oder Don Jaime Pena. So hat man praktisch zwei Bücher zum Preis von einem, denn es ist völlig klar, dass beide Helden die gleiche Geschichte, allerdings genau aus der anderen Sichtweise heraus erleben werden. Man kann Spielbücher zwar immer problemlos zweimal oder gar mehrmals spielen, aber hier …

The Incredible Fétide Grigou Rôliste ShowInitiative rôliste locale.

Je relaie une information qui intéressera les rôlistes locaux : Le samedi 20 mai, le Country Rock, au 44 boulevard Gambetta à Nîmes, réserve sa soirée et ses locaux pour les adeptes du jeu de rôle. Plus d'une vingtaine de tables disponibles, musique médiévale et celtique seront à l'honneur. L'entrée coûte 10€ : ce forfait comprend le repas et la boisson. En espérant vous voir

HeroPressKnights: Are You Ready?

Some full-on jousting from the Knights Of Mayhem at this year's Sherwood Forest Faire, shot by YouTuber GnonplussedGnome.

It takes a minute or so to get going, but after a couple of false starts, the horses are thundering and the lance's are splintering!

shenblog4...

This blog will self destruct in 4 days. Find the new blog at:  http://theshenblog.blogspot.com

This is just a taste. Cick on over to see what else The Shen are up to...

Telecanter's Receding RulesWilderness Travel Mini-Games II

Some more thoughts on spicing up travel through the abstract wilderness.  Keep in mind I intend these in addition to encounters and in addition to terrain-based encounters.  I'm just trying to shift the default from nothing happens to- there is some slow-burning tension.

One thing I've done in the past is add npcs to converse with on a ship.  But that takes some prep and players don't seem to want to interact with anything that isn't explicitly a boon or a hook.

After my last post I was worrying that all terrain might be seen as an element wearing you down: thirst in the desert, cold in the tundra, etc.  So I pushed my brain trying to think of a different approach for a mini-game.  Here's an idea for steep and rocky terrain:
Once a day (or hex, whatever works best for your scale) the treacherous mountain terrain will consume a random piece of equipment.  Ropes and spikes used to cross ravines will need be left behind.  Poles will be lost into deep drifts.  grapnels irretrievably wedged …

Blood of ProkopiusA Sense of Place

I recently had a conference in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin and though I did not get much of a chance to wander around and get a sense of the place, I was acutely aware that I was in the place where my favorite hobby was essentially born. It reminded me that within a four hour drive south one could also find the birth place of both GDW, creators of Traveller, in Normal, IL and Judges Guild in Decatur, IL.

Recently, James over at Grognardia asked the question if there was such a thing as “California games.” He cites Runequest, Arduin and Warlock and now (thanks to Dan of Gobinoid Games) Wizards’ World is also part of that tapestry.

In Orthodox Christianity, there is still a very strong pull towards the pilgrimage. I myself have done so on several occasions — to Mt. Athos, Thessaloniki (to follow the footsteps of St. Paul), and the island of Aegina and the tomb of St. Nektarios. There is a personal presence that accompanies these places because of the people I went to see — the various …

Wrathofzombie’s BlogGiving My Setting, Hubris, a Facelift Part 3- Mutations

For previous posts- Part One, Part Two, Part Three, Part Four) One thing I really dug in Warhammer 2e was the descriptions of mutations and beastmen.  I knew I wanted something tainted and pervasive in my world and thought corrupting mutations that can fuck up my players would be loads of good fun. I got [...]

Hack & SlashOn Abundunt Wealth

Are you feeling a little dark? Gothic? Do the shadows creep long throughout the realm of your world?

Looking to add interesting flavor to your game? Useful tables.

Well, holy crap Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque is awesome. And he's compiled many of the useful resources from his blog in a free .pdf.

Then he went a step further, and expanded that .pdf and added the ability to purchase it POD in either hardcover or softcover.

No Kickstarter, no waiting (well, besides shipping). The background table is IMMEDIATELY thefted and now will replace the secondary skill table from the DMG for my game.

Untimately5E Wizards

Mike Mearls has a design column up talking about Wizards. There are a few interesting things here, and also a few possibilities that I don't think would suit the kinds of games I like to run. But before I talk about those things, let me observe that there seem to be an awfully large number of things that are still up in the air considering that the first public play test is in just over a week.

The aspect that is potentially most problematic from an old school point of view is the treatment of cantrips (basically, at-will powers by another name). This is because having unlimited uses is fundamentally at odds with the resource management that is core to low-level traditional D&D. It is possible to make this work, but the cantrip powers have to be chosen very carefully. For example, there can be no light cantrip. I'm not 100% opposed to something like an at-will attack power (for example, see this post about cantrip scrolls) but an at-will attack does fight against the perception magic …

UntimatelyThe Gods are Fickle

Jack over at TOTGAD recently reminded me of his cleric spell preparation house rule: the referee chooses half (or all) of a cleric's prepared spells every day. Here is his original post on gothic character classes. I think that I would like to try out something similar: random spell determination for clerics. This would represent the incomprehensible and mysterious nature of the gods. In terms of game play, this would also differentiate the feel of the cleric from the magic-user even more. Intuition versus reason.

The only downside that I can see is that some players might feel best served by just waiting several days until they get the spells that they want. To make this work in general, strict time records must be kept. But we're all good Gygaxians, so that's already a given, right?

Creative Mountain GamesTracker Tokens from Faster Monkey Games

The good folks at Faster Monkey Games have come up with a neat little solution to dealing with the many resources that players need to keep track of during tabletop roleplaying games and they've got the fun-loving Jim Wampler of Marvin the Mage fame doing the illustrations.  Check out their Tracker Tokens and see if it is something that can help during your own gaming!

MF WARSGolden Demon Winners

Toward the end of last week, Games Workshop put out a series of videos on YouTube showing off the work of a number of Golden Demon Award winners.  Enjoy!




Bloody 20sDesigner's Notes #2

Contacts, expanded to Street and/or Political Contacts in later versions of Bloody 20s were a very important part of play in the Bloody 20s.

Contacts were the highest rewards for the players. They were exchangeable, sometimes reusable "get out of jail free" cards, or just about anything a creative player could devise. The only limits were that the Judge was the final authority on how far a player could go in using their Contact. If Luck checks were a form of "saving throw", using a contact was dependent on how well the player justified their desired effort to the Judge and/or their fellow players. Contacts were also transferable between players. Wasn't it Vito Corleone's refusal to provide the use of his political contacts that resulted in his being shot in "The Godfather" ? Or, they could be used to attempt to block another player's use of a contact. There's a guaranteed way to start a series of ingame vendettas.

Why not try and incorporate Street & Political contacts into your …

Hidden in ShadowsThe Death dealing fighting man

One of the things that everybody in the know, including me until last week, knows about OD&D is that fighting men get 1 attack per level against opponents of 1 Hit Die or less.  This is simply a fact that we all accepted without much thought, so let’s give it some.
The rule does not appear as such in the 3lbb’s but it’s inferred from:

 “(Attack/Defense) capabilities versus normal men are simply a matter of allowing one roll as a man-type for every hit die attacks, i.e. a Troll would attack six times, once with a +3 added to the die roll.” M&T p5 

The rule here seems to specify only attacks against normal human beings.  However, we might reasonably stretch that to include all “normal” “man-types”.  In this post here http://odd74.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=monterstreasure&action=display&thread=7165&page=2
Waysofearth has dug through the 3lbb’s to identify exactly what falls into the ”men”,  “man-type” or “human-type” category:

Man-type:
kobolds, ½ HD
goblins, 1-1 HD
dwarves, 1 HD
orcs, 1 HD

The Other Side blogTalk to me about C&C

My son's group has moved from Pathfinder, to ACKs and now to Castles & Crusades.


I recall playing around with this game a little bit when it first came out.  But now I see there are a bunch of new 4th printing covers that are green.  Are they any different?

I have the Castle Keepers Guide and I have Tainted Lands.  The C&C books that came with that are all that I have.  For the record I was not thrilled with Tainted Lands.  It just never really jelled with me I guess.

So tell me about it.  What appeals to me is the 1st edition feel of it, but still taking advantage of the progress made in 3rd Edition.

This is what I have on my current "wish list", I think this could keep me set.


My son really loves it, but I have also …

From the Sorcerer's SkullComics to Game

The recent Avengers film has put superhero gaming into my mind, at least as idle consideration.  The new Journey into Mystery collections and the classic Avengers: Kree-Skrull War, got me to thinking about campaigns in superhero games.  Previously, I've done more "done in one" sort of games--though I have done a Secret Wars riff in the past. I think that you could pull off a comic book "epic," though.  Not one of the currently decompressed storylines with a lot of talking heads, but one of the more episodic, action-based stories of the Bronze Age and early Modern period. Something that would provide the room for the player's to make fairly divergent choices than the heroes did on the comics page.

One of the storylines that I think could form the underpinings of a great rpg campaign would be "Lost in Space-Time" in West Coast Avengers.  It's got Rama-Tut, Kang, a host of Old West Marvel heroes, and the Living Totem.  That's epic.

The Kree-Skrull War would be good, too.  Particular if …

From the Sorcerer's SkullWarlord Wednesday: Reminiscing

Let's re-enter the lost world with another installment of my issue by issue examination of DC Comic's Warlord, the earlier installments of which can be found here...

"Reminiscing"
Warlord #91 (March 1985)
Written by Cary Burkett; Art by Dan Jurgens.

Synopsis: Morgan, Tara, and their friends decide to head back to the Valley of the Lion to check on the refugees they left encamped there. The villagers around Shaban D’Aba told them about a bridge across a ravine that will greatly shorten their journey.

When they arrive at the bridge, they find it guarded by a giant warrior, who demands they send out a challenger to fight him. On the other side of the ravine, he displays the heads of the challengers he’s defeated. He claims he ate their bodies. Morgan’s response:


As he steps out unto the bridge to meet the giant, Morgan remembers another bully he face before: Danny Maddox, the scourge of Thomas Jefferson Junior High. Morgan stood up to Maddox to protect his friend Chuck. He beat …

Jeff's Gameblogreturn of Wizardly Wednesday


Not everyday you see a wizard wearing a wristwatch.

Dreams in the Lich HouseAdapting D&D to the Early Modern Settings


Lately I've been looking at criteria for a good D&D setting because I knew I had a few ideas kicking around, and I wanted a structure for looking at the opportunities objectively.  I'm intrigued by the idea of a D&D setting in the early modern period, but when bouncing the settings up against the things that make a regular D&D setting great, some issues emerge.  Let me know if you agree.

Here's the check list I'm using to see how well the setting match the needs of the game.  Some of the items involve what adventurers do or need, some are institutionalized in D&D's mechanics:
Adventures and Frontiers, Autonomy, Dungeons, XP for Gold, Treasure and Magic Items, Classes and Levels, NPC Classes and Levels, Alignment, High Magic, Humanoids and Monsters, The End Game, Demi-Humans, Clerical Magic, Vancian Magic

There should be no problem with adventures, frontiers, player autonomy, or even placing dungeons in the early modern age; the big change you notice is they need to be more remote or …

Tower of the ArchmageDiablo Dowager



Have you ever heard of
WoW Widows? They’re the partners of World of Warcraft players who can't step AFK and spend time in the real world. It isn't just limited to WoW either. Just about every MMO has some. It goes beyond computer games too as evidenced by other examples like football widows.

Now, my partner plays WoW, but it isn’t an addiction. She’s actually a responsible adult, for which I’m very thankful. It probably helps that

However, Diablo III came out yesterday. You might have heard something about it?

What you need to know is that she loves the Diablo games. She's played them through numerous times, with all the expansions, all the classes, and has been waiting for a decade for this game. She's so into it that she got a new computer almost solely to play it!

Earlier today Amazon delivered the game to our doorstep.

Now I have become as much of a victim of Azmodan and Belial as Deckard Cain.

This is as close to it as I'm able to get, and only because she had to leave the house …

The Ongoing CampaignWednesday Morning Randomness

1) I've been re-reading MegaTraveller. I'm surprised at how very simple the rules are, except for the vehicle design sequences. Most of the first two books are taken up with either those design sequences, the world generation sequences, or the character generation tables. Only a very small amount is taken up with resolution systems.

2) Work proceeds on the Top Secret clone. I'm keeping things pretty close to the basic book, but there are bits from the Top Secret Companion that I feel like I really want to include. I'm also making sure that some of the material from Dragon magazine would be usable by including the extra stats from, for instance, the space program articles and the wilderness survival article. I'll probably include highly simplified ways of using those.

3) Almost no one seems to be voting on the poll to the right. Please vote.

4) One of my projects for this year is to finish all of the Burroughs Barsoom books. I'm on the eighth, Swords of Mars, now.

5) I'm really …

Between Are the DoorsThe Vistani Fate Tradition

The Vistani come from Ravenloft. If you are ripping of Dracula or Eastern Europe for Gothic horror, you need gypsies. Ah, the Tarokka deck; did you know this year it is 20 years old? I have a deck, and looking … Continue reading

Rather GameyGrrr . . .


I'm up waaaay past my bedtime.  Time to put the stylus down. :)

G'nite.

- Ark

Stocking The DungeonThe Dungeon Stocking Twitter feed is now live

In my wanderings in the Classic D&D, OSR and Mystara communities, and surfing the internet at large, I often come across things I want to share that just don't make the cut as posts here at the Dungeon. I likewise don't want to over flood my associated Facebook and Google+ pages with tons of links that some people won't find interesting. So, I decided to start up a twitter feed, @dungeonstocking

Tales of the Grotesque and DungeonesqueIsle of the Unknown is a Non Sequitur


First, a bit of a review.

Isle of the Unknown is a really lovely little book.  The many-hued image that wraps around the cover hints at all manner of mystery and mysticism.  The interior art is certainly strange and often carries a note of uncanny "wrongness."  The layout, while sometimes leaving too much margin unused, is easy on the eye.  The full-page paintings that crop up now and then in the interior and evocative.  The object itself is sturdy and feels like no expense was spared in its production.

However, I think the actual content of the book is a bit of a let-down.  The titular Isle of the Unknown is a hexcrawl location; however, each hex is described almost solely in terms of what might try to kill any adventurers who wander into them.  The dangers come in essentially four major flavors: clerics (probably the most benign, as they just seems to be hanging out), magic-users (each seems to have powers that make them potentially unbeatable meat-grinders if the characters attack …

Tower of ZenopusChecking In



Multiple overlapping project launches at work is not conducive to regular blog-posting. Add in various apprentice commitments topped off with Apprentice Twilight's decision to do a six week school project in one night* - the LAST night - as well as a project for another class that was also due and it's been a very busy couple of days with a lot less sleep than normal. Thanks to Lady Blacksteel for keeping me sane the last few days. I should be back on a normal schedule tomorrow, with overreactions and some updates on the current D&D campaign.



*thanks again baby for that decision, not that you'll be on the internet anytime soon to see this message...

The Plateau of XOLGMODFlying Swordsmen: Movie NPCs 2

If you don't have the chi power to read all of Jin Yong's Condor Trilogy, you can watch a partial adaptation by director Wong Jing entitled The Kung Fu Cult Master. Once again, Jet Li and some other famous actors tie on the flying wires and slice through an unbelievable plot. This film encompasses some of the third book, Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber. My version of characters below is adjusted a second time for compatibility with Flying Swordsmen.
 
 A campaign theme in line with KFCM would be a desperate battle between wuxia masters for the supreme martial arts technique. The invincible style can only be learned if two secret manuals are found and studied, which has polarized various schools. Meddling in this struggle are foreign agents, who deem this a fine opportunity to thin the number of heroes in the Empire.

Princess Shaomin Temur: 5th Level Yin Sorceress 
The elegant and cunning Shaomin is the daughter of Temur Khan of Gudu Oasis. She pretends to be a wealthy merchant dealing in …

A Paladin In CitadelSaving Appendix N


Abbey, Lynn:

Adams, Richard: Watership Down; Shardik

Alexander, Lloyd: The Book of Three 1; The Black Cauldron 2; The Castle of Llyr 3; Taran Wanderer 4; The High King 5

Anderson, Poul: Ensign Flandry; Flandry Of Terra; Agent of the Terran Empire; The Long Night; Three Hearts and Three Lions; The Broken Sword; The High Crusade; A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows

Anthony, Piers: A Spell for Chameleon; On A Pale Horse

Ariosto, Ludovico: Orlando Furioso

Asprin, Robert A.: Thieves World I; Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn II; Shadows of Sanctuary III; Storm Season IV; The Face of Chaos V; Another Fine Myth

Barker, M.A.R.: The Man Of Gold; Flamesong

Baum, L. Frank: The Wizard Of Oz, Emerald City Of Oz, Land of Oz

Beagle, Peter S.: The Last Unicorn; A Fine And Private Place

Bellairs, John: The Face In The Frost

Bellamy, Francis R : Atta

Bloodstone, John: Thundar Man Of Two Worlds

Bok, Hannes: The Sorcerers Ship

Brackett, Leigh: Eric John Stark, Outlaw Of Mars; The Best Of Leigh Brackett; The Sword …

DisambiguationTelemachoboros

—You horrid old man, stop provoking me! 
—Youth reproaches old age with reproaching it its youth. It reminds me of a snake biting its tail. 
 —Louis Aragon, "The Adventures of Telemachus" 



 (Via Damion Searls)

Greyhawk GrognardMapping Beyond the Flanaess: The Sundered Empire and Lynn

Apologies for not posting much in the last couple of days, and for not having any updates to my "Mapping Beyond the Flanaess" series lately. Hopefully today's post will make up for that with three, count 'em, three new maps. These cover Thalos, the Free States, and Drazen's Horde, finishing off the Sundered Empire region. This batch also includes the Empire of Lynn, detailed in François Marcela-Froideval's series of graphic novels Chroniques de la Lune Noire. Way down in the southwest corner, you can also see part of the Tarquis Dominions and Ishtarland from the DA #1 map. I'm including the previous map of Ravilla and Mordengard (in the upper-right, below), so you can see how everything lines up.


This was, in many ways, the trickiest batch of maps to do, not only because they all needed to be done together (because as you can see above, the way the grid lined up, several places such as Thalos and Lynn really need the adjoining map to give context), but also because I needed to fully …

Henchman Abusesession recap, 5/10/2012

CAST
--------
Razoe the Fantra Paladin (2) and his dog Brownie
Mongo the Fighter (4) and his henchman Prinny the Dwarf (1)
George P. Burdell the Cleric (2) and his henchmen, Slick Eddie the Thief (1) and Seegar the Elf (1)
Drunk Eddie the Magic-User (2) and his henchwoman, Pepa the Battle-Dancer (1)

Now that the blade zombies were not-moving-dead as opposed to homicidal-dead, Razoe and Gutboy and their respective henchmen and/or menageries wandered off into the fungus forest for a potty break.  In the meantime, Mongo and George searched for secret doors - no luck.  As they did so, a pair of strangers walked in, introducing themselves as Drunk Eddie the wizard and Pepa the surly battle-dancer.  They had gotten separated from their party out in the fungus forest, and were welcomed by Mongo and George as bosom companions.

The trio and their entourage proceeded to the next room, finding the backside of a curtain made of rotting human flesh, and gigantic pile of rotting body parts, 10' high …

Tenkar's TavernMini Review - Toys For the Sandbox - The Abandoned Mine (OSR Generic)


I'm simply amazed that The Abandoned Mine is the 19th release in the Toys For the Sandbox release.  There's a few reasons for that amazement.  Let me count the ways:

I'm amazed that the series has hit 19 issues, as I've missed the last few between The Grumpy Dwarf riffing on D&D 5e and my own preparations for my recently kicked off ACKS campaign.

I'm also amazed that Quinn Conklin can keep on coming up with new and interesting locations and events, let alone 6 hooks or possibilities and 3 twists for each one.  That's one hell of a lot of creative juice.  Do each of the 18 combinations work for me?  No, but each release has had several possible combinations that got my mind going in many different directions on how to flesh them out.  This issue is no exception.

I'm also amazed that we've now reached the point where it's 10 pages of brain storming goodness.  The first release was a mere 4 pages.

The backstory of the Abandoned Mine is excellent, as is the main hook.  Uncovering an …

Chronicles of GanthPainting with the Kids: 40k!

I know the models are not cheap, but my boys love 'em and love the game. We play 3e, it was the edition introduced to me and I have not decided to upgrade as of late after hearing the 6th edition is on the way.


Calli, on the right is "helping" with a Predator Tank for my own "Bad Company" Space Marine Chapter, while Caleb in the camo is working on his "Snow Orks" Clan. Kyle is Chaos Marines, called "The Golden Chaos" the boys love it. Calli wants to get involved but she has a bad habit of "getting bored" too quickly.

Kyle recently picked up a HQ Character, a Chaos Lord, and Caleb got a Trukk for his Orks. Caleb's Orks have red skin, some mutation I would assume, and yes we use Testor paint, I full of Hersey.Kyle has worked a little harder on his "Golden Chaos" we went with yellow instead of Gold paint 'cause it "pops" better. Kyle wants a Bike squad next.
My "Bad Company" boys are hardly play legal I would guess but I don't play with guys that are all WYSIWYG. This is the start of my …

Digital OrcMap: Dungeon 5

Here is another map I've map for my upcoming module.  While there are many monsters and physical dangers, there are also many cunning traps.  Will you survive?

I hope to have it for sale before Gencon.

Sea of Star RPG Design JournalReview – Dreamchipper

Dreamchipper is a blast from the past, an adventure for the original version of Shadowrun.  It is still a fun read and a fun adventure but a few additional pages with suggestions on ways to update and adapt it to the current edition and setting would not have been amiss. Dreamchipper for Shadowrun written by [...]

The Dungeon DozenThis Monster's Got a Charming Side

d12
1. Anomalous yet beautiful singing voice
2. Has overlarge, plaintive child-like eyes
3. Inordinately protective of underlings/henchmonsters
4. Extremely polite and respectful, conducts itself w/the utmost honor before and after devouring adventurers
5. Lovingly raising brood of monsterlings
6. Has somehow amassed a rather impressive fine art collection
7. Cuddly, affectionate, dog-like relationship w/dark master
8. Has taken the time to carefully decorate lair according to its incomprehensible tastes
9. A certain indefinable je ne sais quoi
10. Exhibits gentle curiosity toward small animals, halflings
11. Has a pet that it cherishes (see Unusual Dungeon Pets table)
12. Accepts nothing short of unconditional surrender but will listen thoughtfully and appear to entertain terms before rejecting them utterly

Gothridge ManorClick Here to See What Rocks

Loviatar's 9th issue does!

So somewhere in the shuffle of stuff I did not post my thoughts on the latest issue of Loviatar.  To you not so smart people who have not subscribed to it, get an automatic +1 boost in Intelligence for doing so.  And there is a cumulative 10% of each issue read your Wisdom will increase. 

I reread it recently and think its Christian's strongest offering.  The entire issue is dedicated to another hex.  Hex 005 to be exact.  It is a very, very cool hex.  As a GM you have a lot to play around with, a lot of intricate relationships going on coupled with some great detailed locations.  I won't go into too much detail because I'd rather you experience it in Christian's words.

The best part.  There is a sequence in the Knockers tunnels that fucking rocks.  It is seriously good stuff.

I would be a bad person if I didn't mention the incredible artwork of Jay Penn.  He's done all the artwork for the issues, but he really out did himself in this issue.  Look at that …

Armchair GamerWaRP: OGL and Over The Edge?

Not quite. Atlas Games has apparently released the rule system (not the setting) to the classic Over The Edge RPG under the Open Gaming License. I'm quite interesting in seeing who will release books under this simple RPG system (called the Wanton Role-Playing system), because then I will just import all the interesting characters and plotlines from Al Amarja and plop them into the game! Haha!

May 15, 2012

Tenkar's TavernMike Mearls Live Chat 1100 - 1200 PDT May 16 (Tomorrow)


Yep, Mike Mearls and Some Other Guy are going to be having a chat about D&D Next and the upcoming play test tomorrow, May 16 from 1100 am to 1200 pm in a chat format with moderated questions.

Now, as the hours are such that most folks gainfully employed are working, I suspect the Q&A isn't so much intended to elicit true questions about the direction of the game, but more likely it will turn into a sort of posted FAQ for the play test after the fact.

Do I think that most of the questions will be from "ringers"?  Yes.  Or at the very least, the only questions that will make it through moderation will be "ringer" type questions.  But hey, I'm working during the chat, so I'll never get to ask MY questions:

Are you no longer attempting to design a game that can evoke the play styles of all the D&D Editions prior to D&D Next?

Since when are a first level and a second level Magic User spell considered "high level"?

Is "The Lazer Cleric" the reason you redesigned the cleric to be damn near …

The Crown and the RingThe World of 1011 AD, Part 3

The Caliphate of Cordoba

Controlling a large portion of modern day Spain and Portugal, the Caliphate of Cordoba is an Islamic state in the midst of the mostly-Christian West.  The capital city of Cordoba is the largest in Europe, boasting over a hundred thousand inhabitants, seven hundred mosques, seventy libraries and the only University in Europe.  The streets are paved and lit at night, a novelty in the western world at this time.

Much of the population is ethnically Arab or Berber (North African Muslim), and the Islamic faith dominates.  There are substantial Christian and Jewish minority populations however, which are largely treated with respect by their Islamic neighbors, though Christians and Jews do pay a special tax.  Social mobility is possible for members of all faith, though practitioners of Islam find it much easier to move up the social ladder; many Christians convert to Islam in order to advance socially.  These converts are known as "Mozarabs."

Most of the populace, …

Sorcery & Super Science!Grand Dweomercraefter Bammon Nine-Fingers

The sample character from Worlds Apart.

Grand Dweomercraefter Bammon Nine-Fingers
Race/Age Human/40: 6 terms: 3,924 sp (600 sp on person): 3,000 sp annual pension
Str 7 (+0) Dex 4 (–1) End 10(+1)
Int 7 (+0) Edu 10 (+1) Soc 3 (–1) Mag 12 (+2)
Skills: Agriculture 0, Language (faru) 1, Language (lyartian) 1, Language (seso) 0, Leadership 1, Magic 3, Magical Language (korora) 2, Magical Language (nigilri) 0, Social Sciences (philosophy) 1, Strength Burn 2
Magical Talents: Magical Talent (abjuration) 0, Magical Talent (elf) 1, Magical Talent (enchantment) 1 (receives a +1DM to all enchantment throws), Magical Talent (necromancy) 1, Magical Talent (wizard) 1
Possessions: light crossbow (3d6) and 20 quarrels, chain armor (4 protection), staff of deflecting (2d6, Mag 6+ to deflect missile attack as minor action)
Misc: 2 contacts, 1 rival, 1 enemy