Back to the Keep

Can somebody hand me a torch?

2012-02-10T15:03:00.002-05:00

I've been reading a little about the next version of D&D, including the posts on the Wizards site, a couple of forum threads, plenty of blogs, and Google+. Most of what I have read is along the lines of "whatever the design team does, it's not going to please everybody, so I'm going to shred it sight unseen on the internet" or somesuch. A lot of that vitriol is coming from the usual quarters, but some is coming from people who I thought were more reasonable than that.

I wish I could say that was an observation and not a criticism, but that would be out-and-out lying. I do want to criticize everybody who is tearing into the statements from WotC and the design team about the game. I do want to tell people to just wait until the new version is released, at least in beta form, to assault it. Speculation is fine, but lambasting something that you haven't even seen yet is both counterproductive and mean. And by mean, I am thinking of every meaning of that word as an adjective - cruel, malicious, small-minded, and undignified. There is no reason for it.

Dungeons & Dragons has been under constant revision since the beginning. It started as house rules for medieval minis in Minnesota. Then it moved to Wisconsin and got interpreted a little differently. It was published in 1974 as three little books. Then it was changed (twice!) in 1975 by a couple of campaign supplements. In 1977, more was added to it by way of the Monster Manual and a new "basic" boxed set. Then in 1978 it Advanced. In 1981, there was a new basic set and we got to become experts. Then in 1983 we split the basic players from the DMs and got some companions. In 1985, we unearthed some arcana and became even more advanced. Then we got proficient with some survival guides in 1986. In 1989, we took a second shot at the advanced side of things. In 1991, we checked the Cyclopedia, and in 1992 we started on the path to immortality. Then we got some options for players and DMs, starting in 1995. In 2000, we got it all back together again, but we made some changes to strengthen our core in 2003. In 2008, we added some power to the mix. Then in 2010 we went back to the essentials. Now we're getting ready for the next evolution.

People talk about the acrimony between adherents to each edition of the game. They talk about the grognards (including the co-creators of the game!) that stick with a preferred edition or way of playing instead of grabbing the shiny new books. They lament that they won't be able to introduce people to the game if the rules change too much over time or if they can't get books with their preferred rule set. They use these and all kinds of other arguments to criticize any change to whatever iteration of the game they love.

Here's what I have to say - the game has never been, is not now, and never will be static and unchanging. No edition or rule set will appeal to everyone or address every play style. Nobody is going to be able to build the "Rosetta clone" that bridges every edition and allows for seamless transition between games or editions. But nobody is forcing you to play with a particular set of rules, either.

I have played every edition of D&D I could get a group for. That includes everything up to 3.5 and Pathfinder. I currently play in a Pathfinder game every other week and a Labyrinth Lord game every week. I would probably try 4E if I could find a group to play it with.

I play Pathfinder because that's what my friends play. In Pathfinder I'm never sure if I have all of my points right. I have to constantly look up feats, spells, skills, and other things. But I still have a good time playing it, because I am gaming with my friends.

I prefer to play Labyrinth Lord because it's easier for me to wrap my head around. I don't have to look things up, and I can concentrate on the action of the game instead of the mechanics. I play in a group online with people that I may never meet in real life. We discuss rules interpretations as we need to, making decisions about things as they come up in the game. We haven't had any disagreements, because we know what kind of game we signed on to play.

The same people that I play Pathfinder with play in my LL game on alternate weeks. They play LL because I like to run it. They seem to enjoy it as much as playing Pathfinder. They have the same attitude as the players in my other LL game. They're willing to roll with a simple ruleset for the game and work things out if necessary.

None of us expects one game to play like the other. We know what we're getting when we sit down to play each one. And if we want to change something, we talk about it as a group, work out a solution and get on with the game. That's the way I've always done it. It's the same way we handled incorporating rules changes when the Players Handbook was released in the 70s, when we saw something we liked in Dragon or White Dwarf or somewhere else over the years, or when any of the new editions came out. Just because something is released by whoever currently holds the rights to the game doesn't mean you have to automatically incorporate it into your game. If something changes, talk it over with the people that share your table. If everyone agrees they don't like it, leave it out.

Looking ahead to what is coming and being critical of it sight unseen is wasting time and energy that is better spent on other things. Sure, give some feedback to the designers. Let them know your preferences. Answer the polls at the end of the articles. Drop comments and let them know how you think things should run or how you use different things in your own games. But save the criticism until you actually see what they have planned. Lay off the trolling, play the game the way you and your other players like, and wait and see what the designers are actually going to release. After that, you can complain about it.

In the meantime, I'll be over here rolling some dice, shooting goblins, and setting trolls on fire.

80s Crush blogfest

2012-02-10T14:06:00.001-05:00

It's been quite a while since I posted here. I've been diligently working on several projects, interviewing for jobs (finally!!), and gaming. In fact, between prepping and running my LL game and playing in another LL game and a Pathfinder game, I'm finally getting close to the amount of gaming I want to be doing. I've also been keeping up with the blogs and a couple forums, and the former has paid off handsomely and prompted this particular post.

The other day, Tim Brannan has a contest for people to guess his 80s crush in anticipation of the Tumble 4 Ya Blogfest about 80s crushes. I correctly guessed that his crush was Stevie Nicks, based on a couple of posts he did months ago and won a $10 gift certificate for RPGNow. I turned that into an order for the Dungeon Alphabet (finally!!), a book of geomorphs, and a pair of story dice pdfs. I'll have reviews for these sometime soon. Who would have ever thought Stevie Nicks would get me some cool gaming stuff? Thanks, Tim!

Like Tim, I tended to gravitate more toward musicians than movie stars for my crushes, favoring Jane Wiedlin of The Go-Gos, Pat Benatar, Cindy Lauper, and Lita Ford. My real 80s crush was in the center of all the rock goddesses without being one, though. Martha Quinn.

Martha Quinn spent ten years as regular VJ on MTV, from 1981 to 1991. While all my other crushes came and went, Martha was right there on MTV, day in and day out. She was cute, vivacious, and perky. She was like somebody's kid sister down the street. She introduced or interviewed all of the big names of the 80s and stuck around after most of them faded into obscurity. She's since done a few movies and several TV shows, but she'll always be my favorite VJ from back in the day.

Here is an interview she did last year. And here's a video of her with Pat Benatar on MTV back in the day:

Another questionnaire

2012-02-01T15:29:00.000-05:00

I've been away from the blog for a bit trying to clear up some projects and take care of things offline. I'll be posting some new material soon.

In the meantime, I ran the second session of my new LL game and created a character to play in another LL game using Infrno. I also threw together some quick answers to Barking Alien's question list:

1) What is the most common type of environment or terrain encountered thus far in your current or most recent campaign?

I've only run two sessions so far, so it would have to be either forest or a pair of ancient towers.

2) What is the most exotic or unusual environment or terrain encountered thus far in your current or most recent campaign?

The closest thing in my current game would be a magical gate between a pair of ancient towers. The PCs haven't found anything too exotic yet.

3) What environment or terrain type have you never used but always wanted to? Why haven't you?

The lake of elemental fire pictured on the back of the first printing of the 1E DMG. None of my players has gotten a character to the plane of fire yet.

4) Do you have a combat rule or mechanic from another game system you are using in the game system you currently play, played recently or generally play?

The only adapted combat mechanic I use is critical hits. On a natural 20, you threaten a critical. If you make a successful attack roll, your attack does maximum damage.

5) In your opinion, what genre has received too little attention in regards to RPGs based on that subject?

I've seen games for every genre I can think of right now. I'd like to see better mechanics and systems for some, but the games exist at least.

6) If a quality RPG on the aforementioned neglected genre came out tomorrow, what would make you buy it? What would prevent you from buying it?

For any game, solid mechanics, an imaginative setting or story twist, and personal interest in the genre or setting make me more likely to buy it. The things that would prevent me from buying a game are games the opposite of those things and poor design, editing, and layout. If you can't take the time to properly proofread and edit your game, I don't want to take the time to read it.

7) Do you find it easier to learn the rules of a game by reading the rule book or by sitting down and just playing it?

I usually do a combination. I read the rules to get a general sense of the game. Then I make a character or two and run some mock combats and skill or mechanics tests. Then I play it and see how it works overall.

8) Name a currently available artist not normally associated with RPGs who you'd love to see do some RPG work.

I have no idea. The current artists I know have all done at least a small amount of game work at some point.

9) What one book, movie, video, etc. that is not an RPG that you think should be.

I'm not a fan of RPGs based on branded properties. I prefer to adapt things from different properties into something unique to the group I'm playing with.

10) Can you think of an RPG you've run or played in which the GM (be it you or someone else) used/referenced non-game related books to run the campaign more often then game related books?

There are thousands of references that I and my fellow GMs have used for games, but none have been referenced more than the actual game rulebooks.

Zak's GM Questionnaire

2012-01-18T17:05:00.001-05:00

Zak posted this questionnaire. Despite this being an obvious ploy to get people to report their play preferences and experiences for some nefarious scheme, I will comply and join the herd. Here's what I've got:

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?
Kurlamek's band—a kobold chieftain and his warband that I developed for a 2E campaign in the early 90s.

2. When was the last time you GMed?
January 13, 2012. Who else started a new game on Friday the 13th?

3. When was the last time you played?
I played Pathfinder on January 2, 2012.

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.
The characters are trapped in an inn while it is menaced by the ghost of an ancient dragon.

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?
Read and review notes, answer their questions, make rolls to anticipate expected player actions, or flip through my gaming books and make notes of things I want to develop later. If they take too long, I start rolling wandering monster checks.

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?
Pizza, chips, popcorn, pretzels, veggies, grapes, whatever munchies happen to be available. For drinks, whatever people prefer. I generally go with iced tea or wine when I play. When I DM, I stick with the tea, coffee, or caffeinated soda. I used to be bothered by players drinking alcohol during games. Now, as long as they can handle it, I don't mind.

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?
Sometimes, especially if we play late in the evening or for more than four or five hours. I almost always find it mentally exhausting.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?
My character used a bellows, a bag of holding, and a lot of holy water to trap and destroy a vampire that had been forced into gaseous form.

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?
Sometimes the players make more jokes than I think fit the setting, but it hasn't really broken the setting or the game yet. I've played in a couple of Paranoia games where the party took things way too seriously. For the most part, though, I prefer pretty casual play, so I haven't seen a lot of game-breaking behavior either way.

10. What do you do with goblins?
Pester player characters or use them as harassing flankers. Skirmishing archers can't take a charge, but they're hell on an unguarded flank. In D&D games I normally use them as low-level wilderness raiders and opportunistic scavengers.

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?
Mrs. Coulter from The Golden Compass. I love the idea of an incredibly charismatic, well-connected lady that uses no magic, just personal charm, grace, and vicious political skill to abduct children for experiments, manipulate government and church resources, and advance herself, while appearing totally innocent and well-meaning to most of the world.

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?
Nothing that would make sense outside of the particular group at the table. Game humor usually takes too much explanation to be funny to anyone that wasn't there.

13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?
Fantasy Wargaming. I played it and stole things for my D&D game from it years ago, and I'm thinking of posting about it on my blog.

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?
Dave Trampier. Others that I like, depending on the game and the material, include Erol Otus, Darlene, Jeff Dee, Angus McBride, Zak, and Terese Nielsen.

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?
Usually, no. I normally run a more heroic and less horrific game.

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)
Running an entire party of new players through the Sunless Citadel using 3E rules. Not knowing how the game mechanics worked, they couldn't math their way out of situations. They just described the crazy stuff they were trying and had fun.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?
I'm running all of my games online at the moment, so one good computer with a solid internet connection and twin monitors, my paper gaming library close at hand, Google+ hangouts for video conferencing, and a professional shared whiteboard space for drawing maps and notes.

If I were running face-to-face, a good computer to use to access my electronic books, my gaming library at hand, gaming paper and terrain tiles, minis, and a small whiteboard for me. Comfortable chairs, good light, and plenty of table space for the players.

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?
Avalon Hill's Rise and Decline of the Third Reich and Microlite74.

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

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?
I prefer to play with people that follow the rule of Fs—forget fighting, fun first. Whatever else your style is, if you don't come to the game to play and have fun, it's not worth it for me to run the game for you. If all you want to do is prove you can crunch numbers, use tactics, or roll dice better than the other players and I, go get an army and head to your local Games Workshop store.

21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?
The closest thing I can think of is being able to describe what is involved in primitive camping like most D&D characters do.

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?
I'd love to see a Traveller expansion that detailed Frank Herbert's Dune setting.

I'd also love it if WotC would rescan all the old edition material, produce properly recognized, layered, and bookmarked PDF files and release them. I'd love to see the old gaming magazines—Dragon, Dungeon, White Dwarf, Imagine, etc.—get the same treatment. I'd like it even more if they released all of that old material with conversion notes to make it work with the most current edition in print.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?
I talk to my girlfriend about my games. She doesn't really understand what I'm talking about.

Darkness, 15 blog radius

2012-01-18T02:04:00.000-05:00

I try to keep my personal politics out of the blog, but this is important to the ability to even keep posting.

Lots of websites and blogs are going to be offline today to protest the PIPA and SOPA that are being considered in the US Congress. I'm not taking the blog down, but I encourage people to protest both of these bills. If you're in the US and you want to sign Google's petition against the bills, you can do so here.

Another Lulu Discount

2012-01-17T21:57:00.004-05:00

Lulu has another discount available: 20% off until January 20th.

Back to the Borderlands, Session 1 reflections

2012-01-14T17:33:00.001-05:00

Last night I ran the first session of my new Borderlands game, which I have dubbed Back to the Borderlands. I had four players, and the party ended up with a paladin, a cleric, a thief, and a magic-user. All of them are human except the thief, who is a halfling. We spent a good portion of the session getting characters done and getting the party settled at the keep. Then they set out, did a little exploration, and knocked off a small gang of bandits in the wilderness south of the castle. One of the bandits managed to get away, but they captured four of them and brought them back to the keep to face justice.

I was little rusty in places, and we had a few technical problems here and there. Overall, though, I had a great time. Now I can't wait for the next game in a couple weeks.

Running the game on Google+ went fairly well. One of the players had a spotty connection, so he dropped out and had to reconnect several times. Other than that, there were a few screen freezes but nothing major. I definitely noticed a difference between this game and most of the others I've played on G+ in terms of stability. Either Google has been really working on solidifying the framework behind the hangouts or switching browsers has made a huge difference. For this session, I switched to Chrome to run the hangout, and it worked flawlessly for me. I couldn't say that about any other session I've played on G+.

This session was also the debut of using the Screenshare feature in the hangout. I drew a new map of the area surrounding the keep using a combination of Hexographer and GIMP, covered it with a fog layer in GIMP and shared it in the hangout. As the party explored south of the keep, I drew their movement on a new layer and cut out the fog on the fog layer. I had to disable the screenshare while I was editing the map, but it worked wonderfully.

I also used GIMP to sketch out a couple of tactical maps for the encounter with the bandits. This didn't work as well as the overland map, but it was fine for the first couple encounters. It would have been easier to have everyone mark up the map to show where they are moving and what they're doing. I think I either need to use an interactive whiteboard like Twiddla or go with one of the virtual table top programs if we're going to do tactical combat, however abstract it is. I'm looking at the various options to see what might work, but if anyone has any suggestions of free programs, let me know.

Borderlands House Rules

2012-01-10T14:32:00.002-05:00

I'm getting the last bit of prep work done for the new campaign. I take a bit of perverse satisfaction in knowing that the whole thing will start on Friday the 13th.

I'm still working away on incorporating all of the information from the Advanced Edition Companion into my LL reference sheets. In the meantime, I managed to finish off the first draft of my house rules I'll be using for the campaign. Most of them are fairly standard reinterpretations of things we used in campaigns back in the day. I did add a version of Shields Shall be Splintered and the Carousing rules. For carousing mishaps, I decided to use the table from The City of Iron.

I have a few other rules I'm on the fence about yet, but I'll drop a note here if anything changes. In the meantime, if you're interested, you can get a copy of my house rules here or in the DM Binder section of the sidebar.

Everything New is Old Again

2012-01-09T09:26:00.000-05:00

The New York Times broke the news, and now Wizards of the Coast has their announcement up. Fifth edition D&D is currently in development. You can sign up to be notified when the playtest starts through a link on the Wizards announcement page. I put my name in the hat, so we'll see if I get the chance to participate.

I doubt that they will be able to accomplish their goal of reuniting the D&D community, but I am anxious to see exactly what direction they take. Most likely, they will move things back toward 3E, with options for a more rules-light version to appeal to the people that prefer that approach. At the very least, hopefully they will open things up for third-party development again. I am somewhat heartened to know that Monte Cook and Mike Mearls are driving a lot of the new edition, as they are both designers that have produced some of my personal favorites over the years.

Regardless of what happens, it's going to be interesting to watch.

LL Original Edition Characters Reference Sheets

2012-01-07T18:02:00.000-05:00

In preparation for my upcoming LL game, I've been working on updating my LL Reference Sheets to include the info from the AEC. As a little side project, though, I decided to put together some sheets for LL with Original Edition Characters. These sheets include the basic ability score, class, combat, and equipment information. I didn't include the magic items tables as those are exactly the same as in my LL reference sheets.

There are two versions of the sheets included in the document, one with shading and one with lines to highlight the tables. Feel free to print and use whichever you like better, the information is exactly the same.

As always, let me know if you see any errors. Enjoy!

Naming the Borderlands

2012-01-03T21:23:00.003-05:00

I've started working on some details for my new LL game, since it's supposed to get started on the 13th. One of the players requested that we start with the Keep on the Borderlands, so I'm especially excited to get going with that again.

The players all wanted to play something like a mega adventure path, so I'm going to start with B2 and then move on to other old school modules. I've got several to choose from, including the Temple of Elemental Evil, the Slave Lords series, both of the I series, the S modules, and more. The actual modules we end up playing will depend on the choices the players make and the leads they follow. I'll be dropping hooks and rumors about different things that could lead to the other modules during their time at the Keep.

Because most of these are set in Greyhawk, I'm putting the Keep into Greyhawk. I decided to put it in the Kron Hills near the Lortmil Mountains. That gives fairly easy access to most of the main adventure sites in the modules.

This also highlighted one of my favorite things about the Keep. Going through the module again and making notes to hook it to later adventures and other places in Greyhawk, I'm reminded about how much detail is left to the DM to develop to fit their own game. None of the NPCs in the module are named. None of the places are detailed or described too clearly, and all of the various story arcs are left vague enough to be placed anywhere. It's easy to hook to anything else with just a little work.

One of the ways that I'm going to start hooking things to Greyhawk is with some names. I am horrible at naming things, and creating appropriate fantasy names always drives me a little crazy. So I'm cheating. I downloaded a couple of free baby name apps on my iPhone, and I'm going to use those to create names for NPCs. I'm going to choose a nationality or ethnic division to correspond to each of the main Greyhawk races and then use the baby name programs to generate some lists of names. Then as the players meet NPCs in the game, I'll just grab the next name off the list. Hopefully that will let me use less concentration on trying to create names and more on keeping the story going.

DM Binder Updates

2012-01-02T05:46:00.001-05:00

I've got a few players that are interested in getting a LL game going in the next couple weeks, so I'm starting to pay some attention to my DM binder again. That mostly means that I'm rereading the LL rulebook, the Advanced Edition Companion, and as many of the various house rules I've collected as I can. In the process, I'm weeding things out, tweaking things here and there, and generally trying to get things enough in order that I'll have a fairly solid house rules document to give to the players when we start. As I dig through things, I'll be adding some more items to the DM Binder sidebar on the blog and updating what is already there.

One of the first things to do is to compile all of the various house rules I'll be using for character creation. I'm also hoping to finally add the information from the AEC to the Reference Sheets so I'll have an up-to-date reference to use while running. I have a nice spiral-bound, index-sized rulebook that I had done at the local FedEx, but I want to save as much wear and tear on that as I can.

In the meantime, I've added a link to the Holmes-like LL document that I mentioned in my last post. Definitely check it out if you haven't already.

Holmes LL

2012-01-01T01:00:00.000-05:00

I just saw this post over on the Goblinoid Games forums. One of the posters there has created some guidelines for using Labyrinth Lord with Original Edition Characters and a short, three-page document to basically recreate the Holmes D&D rules. Super simple and very well done.

New Year's Eve

2011-12-31T16:17:00.003-05:00

Everything I've got to say about New Year's is pretty depressing. So I'm just going to say thanks for reading the blog, stay safe whatever you're doing tonight, and I hope that next year is better for all of us. Peace to you all.

Hanar's Glass Menagerie

2011-12-30T00:58:00.004-05:00

Hanar the Sculptor, also known as Hanar the Mad and Hanar the Lost, was a dwarf sculptor that lived about two hundred years ago. He spent most of his life in Northgate and perfected the art of sculpting stone and crystal using traditional tools there. He carved a series of masterworks in the stone walls of a small, secluded valley near Northgate and then left the settlement to travel and study the works of other sculptors. He was gone for over a decade.

When he returned, he settled in the valley rather than return to Northgate. He built a sturdy stone house near a stream and started working on his menagerie. Hanar claimed that he had spent time with an elfin master sculptor, learning their methods of sculpting crystal using song and resonance. He claimed that he had not only perfected their art but improved it, allowing his sculptures to live and move.

Whether his claims were true or not, Hanar spent the rest of his days secluded in the valley, creating beautiful crystal sculptures of all manner of wildlife. The sculptures were inanimate but perfect in every detail.

A few decades later, a party of elves found Hanar dead in his valley. His body was lying just outside his house next to a stunning sculpture of a unicorn. The elves interred his body in a crystal casket where they had found it.

Since Hanar's death, visitors to the valley have reported a variety of strange phenomena. The wind often causes the statues to hum, creating an eerie natural song near the cabin. Some claim to see the spirit of the sculptor singing to the crystal sculptures scattered around the valley. Others claim that when the moon or stars are right that the menagerie can move about the valley and gather around the casket of their maker in homage to his skills. Rumor also has it that if anyone disturbs Hanar's body, the unicorn will animate and defend its creator.

The dwarves of Northgate stay away from the valley entirely. They believe that the place is haunted and cursed, that any dwarf that spends the night near Hanar's house will be driven mad by the old sculptor's spirit. A few elfin sculptors come to the valley occasionally to pay homage to Hanar, but they are quick to leave the valley when they do.

Hanar's valley is in hex 07-02 on the Coastlands map, just north of Northgate.

Bob's Game of Adventuring

2011-12-28T16:13:00.000-05:00

This post and the comment by drsamsara got me thinking about writing my own retro clone. There are certainly a lot of rules I would love to change, and I have some ideas for different things to rework to make my game different. And besides, Bob's Game of Adventuring has a nice ring to it.

Truthfully, I have no desire or delusions about writing my own retro-clone rule set. I am perfectly happy plinking away at my own little tweaks and ideas for reworking Labyrinth Lord and other already-produced rule sets. Reworking the core just to add my own bits of flavor seems a bit too egotistical for me and a bit redundant. LL, especially with the addition of Advanced Edition Companion, has all the base rules I need to run the game I want.

I know there are plenty of people out there that love seeing alternate rule sets and different interpretations. Great! I like to look at different rules to see if anything strikes my fancy that I can steal and tweak for use in a game. But that doesn't give me a compelling drive to write my own set of rules.

If you want to write your own set of rules, go for it. If you post it for free, I may even take a look and steal some ideas from you. I doubt that anything new will become my go-to system is place of LL, though. Any new game is fighting 33 years of personal experience with that system, and I'm pretty attached to it. To paraphrase (at the risk of sounding blasphemous), as for me and my house, we will serve the Labyrinth Lord.

That said, I am always anxious to see what other people are creating as far as characters, story lines, adventures, locations, monsters, magic items, and so on. If you have modular content that I can use in my game (with or without conversion) or look at and use as a springboard for ideas, that's even better to me than trying to create a new rule set. I can add these things to my game much easier than I can learn a new system to do what LL/D&D already does so well.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T20:18:00.002-05:00

Merry Christmas! I hope you all had a great holiday today.

Beastmen in the Coastlands

2011-12-23T15:14:00.000-05:00

Kobolds, orcs, gnolls, minotaurs, some ogres, and many other humanoids in the Coastlands are not actually distinct species per se. They are all beastmen, humanoids that have characteristics of both animals and men because of the warping effects of chaotic magical energy. Humans, dwarves, and halflings in the region have given different names to particular tribes, based on the physical characteristics most common to the particular group of beastmen, but these distinctions are artificial at best. Some tribes pick up on these names and adopt them, calling themselves orcs, kobolds, and so on.

Beastmen may have a variety of animal-like features including tusks, horns, coarse hair or fur, hooves instead of feet, tails, and more. The number and variety of these features is endless and completely variable from individual to individual. A typical beastman will have 2-5 bestial features. Beastmen typically congregate with others that show similar characteristics, a tendency that has contributed to the normal human assumption that these creatures are actually several separate races.

All beastmen can interbreed with each other, and some can interbreed with humans, goblin-kin, halflings, elves, and dwarves as well. When beastmen breed with each other, they produce other beastmen. The exact characteristics of the offspring may be similar to their parents, but they have as likely a chance of being completely different. Typically the closer the two parents' characteristics resemble each other, the more likely the offspring will be similar. Still, mutations abound among them.

When they breed with other races, they most often produce other beastmen as offspring. Some of the offspring of beastmen and humans bear a fairly close resemblance to their human parent and lack severely bestial features. They may have small tusks, simian proportions, or even tiny horns, but for the most part they do not stand out too much from humans. These crossbreeds are generally known as half-orcs or half-ogres among humans. There are some half-orcs with parents other than human, but they are exceptionally rare. Demi-humans in the Coastlands are more likely to kill such creatures or expose them at birth, rather than raise them into their communities.

What most other races call kobolds are small, halfling-sized beastmen that tend to have characteristics similar to dogs, goats, or rats. They typically have pinched, canine or rat-like snouts and small goat-like horns that protrude from their foreheads. They often have tails. Many kobolds have cloven hooves similar to a goat as well. Because of their small size, these beastmen often band together out of necessity. They often welcome the outcasts and castoffs of other tribes.

Kobolds frequently prey on isolated settlements or small groups of travelers They are opportunists who quickly recognize when they face a strong opponent, mainly from extensive experience being bullied by their larger fellows. They are vicious fighters, but they re cowards at heart who will run as soon as they are outmatched.

Orcs are mostly human-sized or slightly larger. The most common orcs have boar-like characteristics, including long, piggish snouts and sharp tusks. Other orcs have simian qualities, including longer torsos relative to their legs, long, dangling arms, and broad features. Some tribes contain orcs of both varieties, but this is rare.

Orcs typically organize themselves into strong warbands composed of small fighting groups. Each fighting group will be led by a leader. The leader with the strongest group is typically the leader of the warband as a whole. Within this organization, though, all of the leaders constantly fight for supremacy unless a stronger, non-orc leader is present. Orcs are the most likely of the beastmen types to identify themselves using adopted human nomenclature.

What humans call gnolls are tall, canine beastmen that resemble hyenas, jackals, or wolves. Because of their size, these beastmen are stronger and favor two-handed weaons like polearms. They tend to be somewhat rarer than other beastmen and form smaller tribes.

Minotaurs are the some of the largest of the beastmen. Most minotaurs have humanoid bodies, cloven hooves, and a bull-like head. Minotaurs are normally found alone or in small groups of a half dozen or less.

Other beastmen this size with different bestial traits are typically called either ogres or beastlords. The former tend to be less bestial than the latter. Both often have curving, ram-like horns, long claws, and heavy hooves. They are normally found alone or as leaders of other, smaller beastmen.

Some beastmen, especially those that have interbred from members of many different tribes or that reside near strong emanations of chaotic energy, have an overwhelming number of mutations and bestial traits. They may have mismatched, missing or extra eyes or limbs, mutable features, or non-mammalian characteristics like scales or feathers, tentacles, pincers, or insect-like carapaces. Humans that are familiar with these creatures call them mongrelmen.

All beastmen use weapons and armor appropriate to their size and ability. Some beastmen do not have human-like hands, instead having clawed paws, pincers, tentacles or other mutations. These creatures will attack with their natural weapons if possible.

Because of their affiliation with chaotic magical energy, these creatures are adept at using magic of all kinds as long as they have the intelligence and aptitude for studying and learning to cast spells. Fortunately for the civilized races, the patience and dedication needed for this is very rare among the beastmen, so they do not have many spell casters among their tribes. They are all fascinated by magic and willingly serve chaotic spell casters, though. They will only serve other non-beastmen if these leaders demonstrate that they have superior strength.

I'm excited to see The Hobbit

2011-12-21T01:31:00.000-05:00

The Hobbit is one of the first books of fantasy literature that I read, and it was largely responsible for getting me started into gaming as well. If I had not followed Bilbo on that mad adventure, I might never have been excited to dive into the Caves of Chaos or any of the other fantastic places I've been in the last thirty-five years.

When I saw the Lord of the Rings movies, I was pleased and excited to see how Peter Jackson brought the novels to life, even with the editorial changes he made to make them fit his vision on film. After seeing this trailer, I am even more excited to see The Hobbit. I literally got chills up my spine when the dwarves started singing!

Goblin-kin in the Coastlands

2011-12-18T06:01:00.003-05:00

I've been thinking a bit about monsters in the new world, specifically humanoids. I want some of them to stay basically in line with traditional D&D canon, but I think I'm going to change a few of them up a bit. Goblins, hobgoblins, bugbears, will probably stay fairly close to what everybody expects. Ogres and giants will probably stay fairly close as well. Gnolls will get a few changes. Kobolds and orcs are probably going to change quite a bit. I'll deal with the reptilians, amphibians, and avians separately later.

For now, here's the information on goblin-kin.

Goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears in the Coastlands appear to be related, if not the exact same species. Goblins are the smallest, weakest, and most disorganized. Hobgoblins are larger, organized, and militaristic, but they are still goblins of a sort. Finally, bugbears are larger still, but more prone to individualism and barbarity. All goblin-kin have wiry black or brown hair, skin tones of green or brown, sharp features, and large pointed ears.

Goblins in the Coastlands are mean in every sense of that word. They are cunning in their own limited way, but will generally only attack an armed party if they outnumber them or think they have some other tactical advantage. They have a dark sense of humor and take every advantage to play deadly tricks on their enemies. They usually arm themselves with whatever they have at hand, modifying their weapons and armor with spikes, barbs, and other deadly additions. They form tribes, but constantly fight amongst themselves to get ahead. They are about four feet tall and typically thin and spindly.

Hobgoblins are fiercely militaristic. Their entire society is based on the idea of waging war. They are the favored non-human troops of conquerors and regularly work as mercenaries. They view most other races as frivolous and soft. They have a strict martial code and respect other warriors but nobody else. Hobgoblins bully goblins and attempt to enforce discipline on them whenever possible. Hobgoblins are as tall as humans and heavily built.

Bugbears are as individualistic as hobgoblins are regimented. They see life as a contest of survival and domination, and they seek to win that contest by whatever means necessary. They are excellent survivors, hunters, trackers, and warriors. They have incredible strength. They are also masters of stealth and use their cunning to gain the advantage of surprise whenever possible. Bugbears rarely associate with other goblin-kin. When they associate with goblins, they bully their weaker cousins and typically demand tribute from them. They respect the military capability of hobgoblins. Rarely a solitary bugbear will serve as a scout or specialist for a hobgoblin tribe. Bugbears typically stand taller than an average human, often approaching seven feet. They are normally heavily muscled and hairier than other goblin-kin.

All goblin-kin are actively chaotic. They often ally themselves with chaotic powers, spirits, or rulers. They have no appreciation for civilization and respect strength and power above all else. They appear to have some affinity for crude technology, and they are able to work metal and stone to some degree. They often take members of other intelligent races as slaves, preferring to use slave labor over working themselves.

Goblin-kin are able to use some magic. Most tribes will have a shaman or priest dedicated to a chaotic power or spirit. A few tribes have magic-users of limited power, but these are very rare.

Hex templates for world building

2011-12-16T23:17:00.000-05:00

With the end of the year coming, I've been trying to catch up on projects and get some things ready for next year. One of the big things is making some detail maps for my new world. To do that, I built a template to use with Hexographer.

As I said in my previous post about the world building, the hexes on the painted map are ten miles from side to side. If I use the medium hexes on the template for the hexes on the painted map, each small hex on the template works out to two miles across. That's more than enough detail for basic hex crawling.

If I use the largest outlined hex on the template for one of the hexes on the painted map, that means the medium-sized hexes on the template are two miles across, and the smallest hexes on the template are four tenths of a mile (704 yards or 2112 feet) across. That's probably a lot more detail than I will ever need, but it allows me to drill down and get more detailed if I want to later. It might also be useful if I ever do anything that involves lots of tactical maneuvers.

Regardless of which way I go with it, here are the templates for your own use in Hexographer and png formats. Do a right click, save as (or whatever the equivalent is on your kind of computer) to download them.

Thinking about pie

2011-12-04T01:47:00.001-05:00

Today I decided to clean out the fridge a bit, and realized that I had most of the makings for some sweet potato pies. So, I made a quick trip to the store and bought a couple of pie shells, some pecans, and some more eggs, and tonight I made some pies. Sweet potato pie is typical for the southern US, but not necessarily prevalent elsewhere.* It's one of my favorites, though, and I don't make it nearly often enough.

This got me thinking about how much food and cooking ties into defining particular regions and cultures.

One great example is the role of food and dietary laws in religion. The way food is prepared, what is permitted for consumption, and even what foods may be eaten together help define the people of Israel in the Bible. The specific laws that are given for the people of Israel separate them from their neighbors, marking them out in a very fundamental way as God's people. The same is true with Islam, Hinduism, and other religions. The things they are permitted to eat help to define who followers of these religions are.

Every region of the world has its own unique diet and culinary specialties, often depending on what is plentiful in the region. Sometimes, though, something could become a delicacy in a particular place just because of its rarity. Look at the role of spices in world history for a great example of this.

Fantasy authors occassionally use food and spices to highlight the cultural identity of particular people or places. J.R.R. Tolkien and George R.R. Martin are the two best examples that come immediately to mind, but there have been plenty of others. In both of their works, they use food to distinguish particular regions or people, as well as particular classes. Compare the descriptions in Martin's books of the fare at the Inn at the Crossroads and the fare at the nobles' tables in Kings Landing.

I'm sure that someone will correct me as soon as I post this, but I don't recall any gaming products that really recognize and use food as such a distinctive and distinguishing characteristic. I remember in some of the old Forgotten Realms products there would be occassional mentions of food or spices, but I don't recall them having any particular import in defining the culture or regional identity of the place or people being described.

So I'm thinking that I need to start looking at food and seeing how to incorporate it into my games as a way of separating and distinguishing particular people and places.

* Except for Indiana, proving my theory that Indiana is the northernmost southern state in the US.

The New World

2011-12-03T09:38:00.001-05:00

I finally finished painting my new world map and all of the mines, ruins, castles, and settlements! If you click on the little picture, it should open a larger version.

As I mentioned before, the map is made from a couple of sets of Mighty Empires tiles from Games Workshop, along with a few of the extra river tiles that were included with White Dwarf when ME was released. I arranged the tiles and then glued them to a large cork bulletin board with Liquid Nails. I primed it with a black spray and painted it with craft acrylics.

I numbered the hexes using Gimp. They are numbered with the following format: [column number]-[row number]. You'll notice that the numbering for the first column starts with hex 01-02. I did this to maintain consistency in the rows reading across the map.

Each hex is 10 miles from side to side. That makes the whole map about 90 miles north to south and about 120 miles west to east, overall a little over 1000 square miles. The settlements and details are not necessarily accurately placed or sized.

I'm going to develop this hex by hex, incorporating some elements from things that I've used before and adding new ideas as they come to me. I probably won't adhere to a specific system for developing things. The only thing I can say at this point is that I want to focus less on realism and naturalism and bring in a lot more fantasy elements. I want this world to be more magical and spectacular.

I plan to use a lot of different sources for inspiration, but I am especially leaning on fantasy and science fiction art that has been produced over the last fifty years. I'll be drawing on everything from old Yes and Asia album covers to Frazetta and Vallejo paintings to Deviant Art drawings and sketches to Magic cards. If it strikes my fancy and gives me an idea, I'm going to use it.

For the moment I'm calling this the Coastlands. I may change the name to something more unusual later. We'll see.

Oh no, we lost Canada and Australia!

2011-11-29T22:23:00.001-05:00

I just saw this very cool population density map that shows the population density of the world in dots of different sizes and colors. The interesting thing to me is how much of the world's landmass is covered by black and gray, especially the majority of Canada and Australia. Sometimes it's easy to forget how much sparsely-settled wilderness there still is.

This could also be a great alternate Earth map. Just redraw the coastlines to conform to this map, maybe eliminating a color or two, and you have something that's close but not too close to the current real thing.

Maybe Canada and Australia were the first countries to fall when the other primates took over and nuked everything. Or maybe those countries and most of Russia broke up and sunk due to a combination of global warming, resource grabbing, and deep crust mining...

Professional self-publishing

2011-11-28T18:15:00.001-05:00

A lot of people out there in the OSR blogosphere are talking about self-publishing right now. The basic argument is that you should put whatever you have been developing into the public eye, thereby spreading and expanding the hobby and maybe making a few bucks. Sounds great! I would love to see a lot more things that people are doing and creating.

Some people are trying to distinguish hobbyist and professional publishers, but I think it's more important to distinguish amateur and professional publishers.

Almost everybody in the business of publishing things for roleplaying games is a hobbyist in one sense. I say almost everybody, because I'm sure there are some people that edit, produce art, do layout, or provide some function related to RPG publishing that do not play the games. But the people developing the content, writing the adventures, and creating the stories and characters are people that play the games and participate in the hobby of gaming. If they didn't or hadn't played the games they are writing for, they wouldn't understand the mechanics well enough to write for them. In that sense, then, we're all hobbyists.

When it comes to publishing, some people have made the distinction that a hobbyist publisher is someone who doesn't make any money from what they are producing. They produce content and distribute it solely to advance the hobby, rather than a particular material interest. A professional, on the other hand, produces items for money, regardless of how much or little they actually make. Well and good. Hobbyists work for free, professionals work for money. That doesn't really get to the heart of the matter when it comes to publishing in the gaming community generally and in the OSR community specifically.

The distinction between amateur and professional is more appropriate to the discussion at hand. Amateur productions tend to be unpolished, have significant typos or regular grammatical errors, have no or poorly-executed art, have little or no distinctive layout, and often lack organization or effective execution of the idea of the product. Some good examples of amateur efforts include the original D&D boxed sets (the LBBs), early 'zines (definitely not Loviatar), and the typed campaign notes I have from back in the day.

Professional products, on the other hand, have few typos and grammatical errors, have appropriate art, have distinctive or at least clean layout, have organization and polish, and effectively communicate the ideas in the product well. There are plenty of good examples of professional material, but some that have particularly struck me out of the OSR are Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Labyrinth Lord and the supplements produced by Goblinoid Games, and Woodland Warriors. All of these meet the requirements of professionalism both by being for-profit and by being well-made. Some others that are professional-quality without being produced for profit include Dyson's Delve and Challenge of the Frog Idol from Dyson Logos, Joseph Bloch's Castle of the Mad Archmage, and the DungeonWords, DungeonWords d30, WilderWords, and WestWords PocketMods that Risus Monkey puts together.

This brings me to the point of this post. If you are producing something for someone else to read, regardless of whether you are making money from it or not, it should be as professional (non-amateur) as possible in execution. That doesn't mean that it has to have glossy covers, full-color art, or a shiny slipcase. It does mean that it should be clear, well-organized and presented, have a minimum of spelling and grammatical errors (preferably none), and be accessible to the audience.

I love when I find a great product that has been produced to this professional level, and I generally go back to the people that produce these products when I want something new. It doesn't matter if it's free or it costs me some money, if the product is well-produced, I feel better about owning and using it.

I hate when I find a product that doesn't meet these minimum standards. Honestly, if you don't take the time to seriously proofread and edit your copy, including having it read and marked up by someone who is a good proofreader, I don't want to spend my time reading your material. I'm willing to let it go on a blog or a forum, but not in a published product. If I have to pay for it, it's even worse.

That is my biggest pet peeve about gaming publishers, and it applies equally to the "professional" publishers as it does to the "hobbyist" publishers. A lot of gamers can't write well, don't edit what they write, and sell it anyway. I won't even look at books from particular publishers because of how poorly they edited books I already own.

So, at the risk of sounding like your high school or college English teacher, before you put your work together and publish it, make sure that your writing is as professional as you can make it. Get a style guide or two and read them. If you have problems with grammar, get some good grammar and usage books and look over the things that give you trouble. And above all, have someone else read what you write and edit it. Bonus points if you have your old English teacher do it.

The same thing applies to layout. Layout should make something easier to read and understand. If your layour gets in the way of the comprehensibility of your text, you're doing it wrong. That doesn't mean that you have to always use the same old fonts, two-column layouts, blue-gridded maps, or anything else that is necessarily traditional. Look at the design decisions that Zak made in Vornheim. Some are traditional. Some are completely new. But they all work to make things easier to understand and use at the table. They contribute to the goal of the book.

So definitely keep publishing new material. I'm looking forward to seeing what people put out. Just please try to make sure it's readable first.

Happy Thanksgiving

2011-11-24T21:18:00.001-05:00

For everyone, whether you're in the US or not, Happy Thanksgiving! I am thankful to be a part of the RPG community and especially for all of the people that have spent so much of the last 34 years with me creating incredible imaginative entertainment. I hope everyone had an abundant and creative day!

More world building

2011-11-18T12:30:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I got the settlement pieces out and did some cleaning on them. I also combined a couple of town pieces to make a larger city piece to use on the map. For ruins I took the existing town and castle pieces and chopped on them a bit with my clippers and a razor knife.

Today I broke out the primer and got a few of the settlements done. Here are some pics of the castles and a couple of ruins stuck into the board. One of these is probably going to end up being the setting for a retooling of B2, the module that started me back into this whole crazy thing.

A keep surrounded by farmland and a ruin by the lake

A keep on the northern borderlands and some ruins deep in a forest

A keep on the southern marches near a mysterious crater

World building

2011-11-16T15:36:00.001-05:00

This is a blurry picture of a project I've been working on for the last couple weeks. This is going to be the wilderness map for some things I'm tinkering with right now. It's made from two full sets and a few of the special Mighty Empires tiles from Games Workshop mounted on a full-size cork bulletin board. I still have to add the settlements and some other details and seal it, but it's coming along. I'll post better pictures once I get it completely finished.

2011-11-16T14:07:00.000-05:00

I saw James' results on Underdark Gazette and decided to give it a whirl.

I Am A: Lawful Neutral Human Cleric (6th Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength-11
Dexterity-13
Constitution-11
Intelligence-18
Wisdom-15
Charisma-18

Alignment:
Lawful Neutral A lawful neutral character acts as law, tradition, or a personal code directs him. Order and organization are paramount to him. He may believe in personal order and live by a code or standard, or he may believe in order for all and favor a strong, organized government. Lawful neutral is the best alignment you can be because it means you are reliable and honorable without being a zealot. However, lawful neutral can be a dangerous alignment when it seeks to eliminate all freedom, choice, and diversity in society.

Race:
Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class:
Clerics act as intermediaries between the earthly and the divine (or infernal) worlds. A good cleric helps those in need, while an evil cleric seeks to spread his patron's vision of evil across the world. All clerics can heal wounds and bring people back from the brink of death, and powerful clerics can even raise the dead. Likewise, all clerics have authority over undead creatures, and they can turn away or even destroy these creatures. Clerics are trained in the use of simple weapons, and can use all forms of armor and shields without penalty, since armor does not interfere with the casting of divine spells. In addition to his normal complement of spells, every cleric chooses to focus on two of his deity's domains. These domains grants the cleric special powers, and give him access to spells that he might otherwise never learn. A cleric's Wisdom score should be high, since this determines the maximum spell level that he can cast.

I guess getting that theology degree made sense after all. Check it out yourself, if you're so inclined: http://www.easydamus.com/character.html

Things Role Playing Bloggers Tend Not To Write About

2011-11-04T12:01:00.000-04:00

Noisms made a post listing Things Role Playing Bloggers Tend Not To Write About - TRPBTNTWAs. I'm going to use this as a way to get a quick post in without taking a lot of time away from other projects I'm working on today, like the Iron Chef Adventure Challenge and casting a bunch of blocks with my Hirst Arts molds. I'll have more about those projects either later tonight or tomorrow.

TRPBTNTWAs:

1. Book Binding.

I like books. I especially like well-made, hardbound books with solid, stitched and glued signatures, heavy facing paper, and well-made covers. Unfortunately, there aren't too many gaming books that measure up anymore. Most gaming books now are glued instead of sewn and just don't hold up to heavy use at the table. The first offender I remember in this regard was Unearthed Arcana, but most of the 2E Complete books had the same failing. The glue was too rigid and not deep enough to hold the pages, so they fell out after a short time. I still have my much-taped copy of UA, but it doesn't see a lot of time off the shelf anymore.

The game books I use the most now are either electronic or copies of old-school D&D that have survived the ages. The one exception is my copy of Labyrinth Lord, including the Advanced Edition Companion and Original Edition Characters, that I printed two pages per sheet and had spiral-bound at FedEx. The book is slightly larger than my index-sized OD&D books, and it lays flat, opens easily, and was fairly cheap to make.

In the future, I'd like to see more books professionally done like that - heavy pages, spiral binding, solid plastic covers.

2. "Doing a voice."

Nope, not really. I do it occasinally when I'm reading aloud or acting, but not when I'm roleplaying.

3. Breaks.

I generally let people take breaks as they need. Ocassionally I've had groups that wanted to take regular breaks every couple hours, but generally I don't schedule them. They occur naturally during play. If someone's character isn't involved, they can take a break.

4. Description.

It all depends on the game. Normally I use enough description to get the players into it without trying to sound like a Robert Jordan novel.

5. Where do you strike the balance between "doing what your character would do" and "acting like a dickhead"?

I strictly enforce the Wheaton law in my games. If most of the people think you're being a dick, you are, regardless of whether it's "in character." Fortunately, most of the people I game with don't need to be reminded of this. The ones I continue to game with most not only don't need to be reminded, they enforce the Wheaton law on their own and happily vote offenders off my gaming island.

6. PC-on-PC violence.

I don't have a problem with it, but everybody has to agree to it. Generally, my players have threatened it a lot more than done it. Still, as long as everyone is having fun and nobody is violating the Wheaton law, we're good.

7. How do you explain role-playing to non-role-players?

I don't. I'm not really a good gaming evangelist.

8. Alcohol at the table?

I'm ok with it if everybody can handle it. I don't drink at the table myself, because I'm dumb, belligerent, and absent-minded enough without it. Why make it worse for myself?

9. What's acceptable to do to a PC whose player is absent?

Anything the player agreed to when they started playing the character. Normally that means they just sit out or become a non-participating zombie for the session. Except the cleric. Clerics are heal-bots that deserve whatever happens to them. (Sorry, Dave!)

Iron Chef Adventure Challenge, part 3

2011-11-01T07:24:00.000-04:00

In between cleaning my desk and avoiding Halloween, I've been working on more of my adventure for the Iron Chef Adventure Challenge. I'm working on stat blocks and descriptions for the characters, some site-specific encounters, and a couple of maps. The first map is Nana's Glade.

Nana, short for Renata, is a half-elf druid that has lived in the wild since her earliest childhood. She speaks no human or demi-human language, but seems to have a natural ability to communicate with any animal she encounters. She normally wears clothes woven of grass or wildflowers. She has a simple gold ring on one finger with her given name engraved on the inside. She lives in a secluded glade.

Nana's glade is surrounded by dense woodland. The trees around the glade include a few species of oaks, northern pear, apple, and walnut, among many others. Most of the trees are deciduous. There is a dense stand of cedar nearby, and the smell of the trees is noticable from the glade on warm days when the wind is right. Medicinal and edible plants flourish in the area as well, and characters looking for common plant-based material components will be able to find almost everything they need without much trouble. Rarer plants may (20%) be found in the area as well.

The glade itself is bordered by a raspberry patch on one side. Wild strawberries, daisies, bluebells, and other wildflowers are plentiful here as well. Where there are no flowers, the ground is covered with soft, low-growing creepers, so that walking in the glade feels like walking on dense, soft carpet. The glade catches a fair amount of sun during the height of the day but is otherwise shady and cool. A deep creek runs along the side of the glade opposite the raspberry patch.

A. Hidden under a particularly thick raspberry bush is a badger sett. This is the home of Ludda, an old male badger that has lived in the glade for years. He is generally inactive during the day, but he will attack anyone other that Nana trying to enter the sett. Otherwise, he is not very territorial compared to most badgers. When the weather is too cold or wet to sleep outside, Nana often sleeps in the sett.

B. On one edge of the clearing is a pile of old logs and brush left by a forester some years ago. The pile is infested with thousands of bees. Any character that disturbs the pile will be attacked by the bees (treat as an insect swarm with 6 hit dice that causes 4 hp damage per round against armored characters or 8 hp damage per round against unarmored characters, LL p. 83). Ludda is particularly fond of the honey here and is not affected by the bees. Nana occasionally eats a bit of the honey when she can convince the badger to dig out a bit of comb for her.

C. The creek here is deep and fairly quick. The bottom is rocky, covered with pebbles and coarse sand. Occasionally, small nuggets of gold can be found here, washed down from a dense vein in the nearby mountains. Nana collects these when she finds them. Fish are plentiful, and Nana occasionally tickles one out for dinner.

D. There is a large, flat stone in the middle of the creek. Nana often sunbathes on the stone in the afternoon during the summer. Under one edge of the stone is a deep, dry cavity. Nana uses the cavity to store some of her treasures: a handful of gold nuggets (30 gp value total) and a variety of fancy river stones (including 2 gems that would fetch 50 gp each if polished).

Renata "Nana"
Low: AC 7, Druid 1, hp 6, #At 1, Dmg 1-6 (quarterstaff), S 10, I 13, W 13, D 9, C 11, Ch 15
Spells: detect snares and pits, pass without trace, shillelagh
quarterstaff, ring of protection +2

Medium: as above except Druid 3, hp 13
Spells: detect snares and pits, locate creature, pass without trace, shillelagh, charm person or mammal, cure light wounds, hold animal

High: as above except Druid 5, hp 20
Spells: animal invisibility, detect snares and pits, locate creature, pass without trace, shillelagh, charm person or mammal, cure light wounds, find plant, hold animal, snare

Ludda
Low: normal badger (LL p. 106), hp 7

Medium/High: giant badger (LL p. 106), hp 14

Note:
The map of Nana's Glade is copyright 2011, Robert Morris.

Renata is based loosely on Layla Necuurluf from the 1992 set of Advanced Dungeons & Dragon Trading Cards (TSR, Inc. (1992), Advanced Dungeons & Dragons Trading Cards, card # 454, Lake Geneva, WI: TSR, Inc.). Used without permission.

LL stands for Labyrinth Lord produced by Goblinoid Games. AEC refers to the Labyrinth Lord Advanced Edition Companion also produced by Goblinoid Games. References to spells and magic items are to either Labyrinth Lord or Advanced Edition Companion, as appropriate.

This post contains no open content other than these references.

15 Games

2011-10-30T07:33:00.000-04:00

During the last couple days I've been cleaning off my desk and trying to impose some order on my personal chaos. Part of that has involved making sense of random notes and scraps of posts that I've jotted onto slips of paper or in notebooks meaning to get back to them and do some posting. I've long maintained "idea books" in which I keep notes about things to read, write about, research, or otherwise deal with. One of the tasks I took on was getting the scraps and random notes into one book that I can use as a go-to resource for a post topic.

The majority of these ideas are based on things I have read on other blogs, movies I've seen, or books I've read. I keep holding onto the idea that I'll make enough time and find enough energy to catch up and develop all of these ideas. Then again, that's probably one of those goals that, once achieved, heralds your immenent demise, sort of like finishing painting all of your miniatures.

One of the things I apparently missed was the "15 games in 15 minutes" meme - in fifteen minutes or less naming the fifteen games that have meant the most to you. I've seen this variously limited to video games, tabletop role-playing games, or boardgames. Thinking about it myself, I decided to limit myself to "hobby" games, basically board, miniatures, or tabletop rpgs, but no video games. I am excluding card games and video games because, although I have spent plenty of time playing quite a few card games, they haven't meant nearly the same to me that the games on my list have. I'm leaving off video games because I just haven't played enough of them for them to have a significant impact on my gaming life.

So here's my list with a few notes on why I picked each game:

1. Dungeons & Dragons

D&D was my introduction to the world of hobby games, the first rpg I played, and the one I've played the most and the longest. I've played every edition I've seen except 4E, and it's still my go-to game. Whether you call it D&D, Pathfinder, Labyrinth Lord, or whatever, I still think it's the greatest game ever invented and the one that I'll play until they pry my dice from my cold, dead hand.

2. Gamma World/Metamorphosis Alpha

Gamma World was the second rpg I played. It was similar enough to D&D to be easy to get started, but had enough difference to be its own game. In time, my friends and I would incorporate elements from GW into D&D and vice versa, and this was one of the first experiments we tried with mixing game systems.

3. Boot Hill

I was a big fan of the Lone Ranger television show and the old spaghetti western movies when I was a kid. Boot Hill was a natural fit for me. Unfortunately, the original rules were mostly miniatures rules with an equipment list. There was little guidance on how to develop a story or run a game included with the rules. Playing this back in the day, we used the 1/72 scale plastic cowboys and had lots of shootouts and bank robberies, but nothing like a campaign or continuous story game. Looking back at the rules, I love that they are so sparse and would still love to actually play a longer, story-based game. This is a great example of how keeping a game simple could encourage experienced players, but that new players still need some help on exactly what to do with a game system.

4. Top Secret

My friends and I played every TSR game we could get our hands on up to a point. Top Secret was a particular favorite, though, since most of us were fascinated with James Bond films and spies in general. Shooting was particularly deadly in this game, which encouraged us to actually develop some other gaming skills besides combat. Also, the modern setting let us draw on what was actually happening in the real world for inspiration for games.

5. Dawn Patrol

This was one of my first experiences with historical wargames. It was an immediate fit, since two of my great grandfathers fought in World War I and one was a pilot. It also helps that this game does a decent job of capturing a lot of the spirit of early aerial combat with some fairly simple mechanics.

6. Middle Earth Roleplaying (MERP)/Rolemaster

My grandmother got me the first edition MERP boxed set one year for Christmas because I loved The Hobbit. At the time, D&D was my fantasy game, so this was something completely different. Reading the game challenged a lot of my assumptions about fantasy roleplaying games and made me look at how different mechanics made for a much different game experience. It also taught me that I prefer a rules-light system. The comparison between MERP and D&D I got from reading and playing this game really gave me some good insight in comparing later editions of D&D to earlier ones.

7. Car Wars

I had the original version of this game that came in the pocket case. It was a great game in its own right, but was especially handy for entertaining a few people while someone was rolling up a character or doing something solo with a DM. This was another one of the games that highlighted simple mechanics, expandability with the various supplements, and portability. Thinking about it now, it also sticks in my mind because of the hard plastic case. If more games had come with a similar hard case, they would have fared much better among my gaming group.

8. Traveller

Traveller was my introduction to hard science fiction and skill-based games. We never played any of the published adventures that I recall, but we had a couple of great games that lasted quite a while. One included elements of Star Wars, Star Trek, Dune, Starship Troopers, and Buck Rogers, all mashed together. Even though all of these properties eventually had licensed systems, I still prefer Traveller to any of them. I haven't played any iteration of the system other than the three LBBs and some supplements, but I'm not surprised that it has followed a similar path to D&D and survived for nearly forty years.

9. Call of Cthulhu

Aside from introducing me to horror games, Call of Cthulhu introduced me to the idea of a game where you played a character that was almost certainly doomed. The fun came not from "winning" and advancing but more from surviving without going too insane. It was a definite departure from most of my game playing experiences and forced me to think about gaming differently. It made me think about developing a character with an eye to playability and personality rather than necessarily focusing on combat effectiveness.

10. Star Wars (West End Games/d6)

Star Wars changed my life when I was a kid. From seeing that first scene in the original movie, nothing was the same. This game did a fair job of capturing the feel of the original Star Wars universe. More than that, though, it was a great example of how to take something that was a completely unique property and expand it. Using this system it was equally possible to play a movie-based campaign or one that was closer to the Marvel comic series. You could also spin off into a completely different direction. It respected the property but allowedyou more freedom than any other licensed game property I remember.

11. Champions

I had the first edition boxed set of Champions, and I played quite a bit of the game with a couple friends one summer. I got the game at the perfect time, about the same time that I started seriously collecting comics. This was one of the most difficult games to play because of the math involved in creating characters. I also remember how difficult it was to keep track of actions and movement in combat. The slowness of the game was in exact opposition to the subject, so this one had a short life in my group.

12. Risk

My friends and I played Risk constantly. It seems like we had a game at least once a week, even though I know it wasn't nearly that frequent. Still, this was a perennial favorite. It was also one of the first games we house ruled. We had so many variant rules for playing that we had to sit down and list which ones we were going to use every time we played. Sometimes variants were so hotly contested, we actually wrote our rules changes down and stuck the paper on the table under the edge of the board.

13. Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader

40K was the first miniatures game that I played to any extent. I had painted plenty of miniatures before, but Rogue Trader was the first game that I played that involved collecting and painting an army. At the time I had looked at several other miniatures games, but this was the first one I could convince any of my other friends to play. I ended up playing for almost two decades before I finally got fed up with the way that Games Workshop constantly changed the game to make more sales. More than anything, that convinced me that I like games that I can play with the original rules and tweak or house rule as I need.

14. Rise and Decline of the Third Reich

I have a long love affair with Avalon Hill's hex-and-counter wargames. It all started with Third Reich. I've seen lots of reports about this game as overly complex, unmanageable, or even unplayable. When I was in junior high, I didn't know anything about that. In fact, a couple of friends and I spent weeks poring over the rules and playing the game, working our way through every scenario we could find or create. We loved it! This got us into other games - King Maker, Gettysburg, and tons of others. Over time, we drifted away from these games, mostly because we didn't want to take the time to study the rules for so long to play a game that lasted an afternoon or a weekend. Better we figured to spend that time playing or reading about D&D. In the intervening years I've drifted back to these games because they don't take as many people or as much time to play as most rpgs.

15. Fantasy Wargaming

I got this game originally in the large format that was about the same size as the AD&D hardbacks. Then I got a copy when I joined the Science Fiction Book Club back in the early 80s. I still have a couple of the book club versions of the book on my gaming bookshelf. Despite owning so many different copies of it, I've never actually played a game of it. I created characters for it. I played some mock combats. I've pilfered ideas from it. But I've never played it as written. It is a great example, though, of how pervasive hobby gaming was in particular segments of society at the time. It's also a great example of how different people in different areas approached gaming. The book has a very British feel to it, and that made it stand out against all of the other games I was familiar with at the time.

Putting this list together made me think about the kinds of things I like in games, and there is one common thread that keeps coming up. I like games that have a fair amount of replayability, but I love games that have adaptability. If I can house rule it and really make a game mine, I will like it better than one that can't be modified without breaking. I started gaming when it was expected that you would house rule or create variants in games. That is one of the things that keeps me coming back. Absolute rigidity about rules and systems is the one guaranteed way to get me not to play a game.

Vote Imperial in 2012

2011-10-24T17:35:00.003-04:00

I'm giving up on the Democrats and, especially, the Republicans. I'm voting Imperial. Everyone else eventually acts like Republicans anyway.

Iron Chef Adventure Challenge, part 2

2011-10-21T14:29:00.001-04:00

This is the second post describing my process for the Iron Chef Adventure Challenge. The first part is here.

Looking through all of the hooks for the characters, I've managed to put together a situation that incorporates all of them and allows the players to have plenty of choices along the way to accomplishing the goal. I won't go into the situation until I get to putting together the full adventure. Before I put the adventure into its final form, though, I have to deal with a couple of difficulties that I encountered in the process.

First, some of the characters have classes or items that don't work for me. I'm going to use Labyrinth Lord with the Advanced Edition Companion to put the adventure together. That means I need to get rid of the psionics for the Dark Sun characters, and I need to change some of the equipment. Not really a big deal, but it does make for some work fiddling with the details.

Second, is the level range of the characters on the cards. Outside of Layla, none of the characters is what I would call low level. Most of them have double-digit levels, which makes them fairly noteworthy in my view. And having this many high-level characters concentrated and involved in a particular situation makes it pretty world-shaking. To get around this, I'm putting together a few different options for the adventure so that it will be playable with any level characters and the NPCs will scale to match the party. Basically, each NPC will have a low-level, mid-level, and high-level version and details of the adventure will change based on the scale you choose for the NPCs.

Third, I need to change the names of the characters. A lot of the names on the cards need to be changed because they don't make sense, seem too cliche, or are just distracting. These are some of my continuous complaints about names in a lot of fantasy products, especially from this era of D&D, so I wasn't surprised to see it show up in these cards. That's what I am going to deal with right now.

A lot of fantasy writers and game designers seem to default to the same phonetic constructions, regardless of the way they sound (if they are easy to pronounce) or how they feel. Most of them attempt to induce a fantasy feel by introducing names that have so much difference from real-world naming conventions that they break the spell for me. They immediately kill the fantasy by being so fantastic that I can't take them at all seriously.

In this case, the opposite is also true. They use names or nicknames that are so real-world that there is nothing fantastic about them at all or they invoke something that is completely modern.

Aside from these concerns, though, I'm going to change all of the names to remove as much of the copyrighted material as I can. So the first order of business is to change the names to protect my sanity and strip off the serial numbers from the characters.

I'll say up front that I suck at making up names for characters in fantasy games. Most of my characters back in the 70s and 80s tended to be named after characters from fiction or comics, the majority coming from the index of characters in The Silmarillion. Since then I've come to rely more on either historical lists of names or online resources for naming. The resource I use most frequently is the reprinted version of the Treasury of Archaic Names from Judges Guild.

The ToAN has tables for male and female first names, surnames, and titles. It also has tables and systems for creating random "fantastic" names, which tend to be the jumbles of letters that drive me a little crazy, a tavern name generator, and systems for place and geographic names. Most of the names are drawn from medieval European sources, especially old Celtic and Norse. I like it because it forces some consistency on the naming I do and the names sound better to my ear than most of the names produced at random by fantasists. I don't think it's still in production, but you could get a copy from the normal used game sources.

The male name table in ToAN is a d1000 table, so I'm going to roll three d10s and look up all of the possible combinations those three dice could produce on the table. For example, if I rolled a 1, 5, and 8, I would look up the results for 158, 185, 518, 581, 815, and 851 and choose the one that works best. Female names are a d500 table, so I'll roll the same three d10s but divide one in half for the hundreds to produce the same options for each roll. If it seems appropriate to the character, I'll tack on a title or nickname as well.

So, running through each character and using the ToAN, here's what I've come up with:

451 Sagus: I'm reading this like magus with a leading s. It's not horrible, but it really doesn't seem to fit a druid that works as a mercenary. I would have changed this one anyway. The roll is 1, 2, and 6 so the names from the table are Asaf, Barstow, Bracken, Clipster, Irvin, or Jawaharial. I'm going with Bracken.

452 Benson: This one definitely needs to get changed, because I can't look at it without thinking of the sitcom from the early 80s. ToAN gave me Conor, Cylarus, Natty, Plummer, Tufnell, and Wightman. I like Conor for my former bear-wrestling druid. For the bear, I'm tempted to call him Ben since I have old TV shows in my head now. I'm going with Natty instead. It seems like a good name for an old bear that used to wrestle in a circus.

453 Aldo Gladhand: This is one of the names I probably would have kept. Aldo seems to fit a halfling, and Gladhand is a great surname or nickname for an outgoing, friendly nature priest. Rolling gets me Barret, Bjarni, Griggs, Hollister, Tilloch, or Vokos. Hollister is the diminutive nature priest.

454 Layla Necuurluf: I would probably keep her proper name, but drop the surname. There's no sense in a character that has no family or understanding of human language to have a surname. Rolling gives me Brita, Cora, Mignon, Renata, Silvia, Vicentia. I'm going with Renata as her given name, but taking a clue from the movie Nell, she calls herself Nana.

455 Martha Bigbones ("the Great"): Martha and her nicknames actually work or this character, but they're pretty bland. ToAN gives me Aina, Alfrida, Banba, Beara, Halina, or Helga. Helga is too typical for a large woman in a pseudo-medieval fantasy environment. I'm going with Beara. If anyone met someone that new here before she learned to cover her weight with illusion, they would hear her called Big Beara or Beara the Bear.

456 Bilkon: Meh. I could probably take or leave this one. Name choices from the table are Alcan, Allyn, Darrell, Eager, Hunter, and Kaspar. I'm calling him Alcan.

573 Manawabe: I like this character's name. It completely distinguishes the character from everyone else and gives the feel of a pulpy African jungle shaman. I'm going to change it to something more Meso-American. A quick search on Aztec names and a roll on this page gets me Nochehuatl as the name of our visiting shaman.

574 Logan: Every time I see this name I see Wolverine from the X-Men, not a reclusive female druid. Rolling got me Aithne, Bruna, and Maya, thanks to rolling double ones. I love the name Maya for the former Grand Druid.

575 Grindlethorpe: This works for a gnome for me, but somehow doesn't seem to fit Krynn in my mind. Moving it out of Krynn, though, it would be okay. ToAN gives me the choice of Findley, Forester, Halfdan, Hatcher, Kirk, and Kurd. Since gnomes seem to have surnames in a lot of the old TSR materials and Forester makes a great surname for a gnome, I'm taking the first two in order and calling the illusionist Findley Forester.

576 Burganet: This is another one of the names that doesn't sound horrible, but doesn't really seem to fit the character. Rolling got me Aldwin, Alvan, Endicott, Freeman, Marsden, and Norvin. None of those really screams to me either, so I'm going with Aldwin and giving him a title as well. Rolling on the title tables came up with Golemsmasher. So the formerly megalomaniacal abjurer is Aldwin Golemsmasher.

577 Usteria: This name makes me think of a houseplant. It definitely needs changing. Rolling on the female tables got Karine, Leila, Lucinda, Ludmila, Nita, and Novomira. I like Nita.

659 Herminard the Eloquent: I like this name, but it reminds me of the evil cleric from Dragonlance. The roll got me Amadis, Arder, Megan, Pinkstone, Thornwell, or Whitwell. I'm using Thornwell and changing up his nickname to get Thornwell the Glib.

660 Quick Wenzer: Oh look, a fantasy name with a z in it. How unusual! Besides that, it reminds me of Kenzer & Co. As appropriate as a gladiator named after the makers of Hackmaster is, it needs changing. The tables give me Bede, Bjorn, Jahverbhai, Maddern, Todhunter, Walsham. Since every good former gladiator needs a nickname, I'm picking one of those as well. A roll on the title tables came up with Helmhewer. I'm changing that so we have Bjorn Helmsplitter.

661 Dlasva: This has a nice Slavic sound to it, but doesn't exactly trip off the tongue. Instead, our merchant gets to be either Baring, Barton, Greenleaf, Hartwig, Ivor, or Kroh. Ivor it is.

662 Captain Kazhal: I actually like this name for a caravan master, even with the zh in it. I'm keeping the title. The Treasury gave me Beck, Bidwell, Jagadis, Lovegood, Ranald, or Sibert. I'm combining a couple to get Captain Ranald Beck.

664 Barnabas: This is another one of the names that works for the character and doesn't sound too crazy or out of place. Rolling gets me Cadwallader, Carlyle, Dirk, Duer, Eudo, or Eyulf. None of those really fits as well as Barnabas, but I'm going with Carlyle.

So, the druidic faction is Bracken the mercenary, Conor and his bear Natty, Renata or Nana, Nochehuatl, and Maya.

The cabal of wizards has Alcan the invoker, Findley Forester and Big Beara the illusionists, Aldwin Golemsmasher the abjurer, and Nita the transmuter.

The caravan consists of Captain Ranald Beck the caravan master, Ivor the trader, Bjorn Helmsplitter and Carlyle the guards, and Thornwell the Glib, entertainer and orator extrordinaire.

Finally, there's the halfling nature priest, Hollister.

Now I have to write up the stat blocks, draw some maps, and write out the details of the adventure.

Iron Chef Adventure Challenge, Part 1

2011-10-20T11:34:00.000-04:00

I decided to take Mike up on the Iron Chef Adventure Challenge. Yesterday I got my cards in the mail, so it's time to take a look at the secret ingredient. Today's secret ingredient is...

NPCs!

Yup, I got a pack full of NPCs. All sixteen cards. No monsters, no magic items, no checklists. NPCs.

Here's the roster:

451 Sagus - 11th level Neutral Human Druid - earned all his experience as a mercenary

452 Benson - 6th level Neutral Human Druid - former bear wrestler turned druid that is accompanied by Muscles the Bear
453 Aldo Gladhand - 5th level Neutral Good Halfling Priest - wants to meet a druid to learn how to chat with the local fauna and change his shape
454 Layla Necuurluf - 3rd level Neutral Half-elf Druid - raised in the woods, no parents, speaks with animals but doesn't speak common tongue

455 Martha Bigbones (the Great) - 7th level Neutral Human Illusionist - uses illusions to hide her weight problem

456 Bilkon - 18th level Chaotic Good Human Invoker - Ravenloft - powerful good-aligned mage in Ravenloft that doesn't like to get involved

573 Manawabe - 10th level Neutral Human Druid - Forgotten Realms - jungle druid from Chult

574 Logan - 18th level Neutral Human Druid - Greyhawk - abdicated her Grand Druid position and is visited quarterly to answer a single question for another druid

575 Grindlethorpe - 15th level Chaotic Good Gnome Illusionist - Dragonlance - supposed to be most respected gnome illusionist on Krynn, known for long, boring lectures on gnomish culture

576 Burganet - 11th level Lawful Good Human Abjurer - Ravenloft - used to be evil and was driven insane for five years by Strahd for trying to magically split off part of Strahd's realm, saved by a young woman

577 Usteria - 10th level Neutral Good Half-elf Transmuter - received a bracelet of free action that is actually a dragon-sized ring for freeing a gold dragon from an extra-planar prison

659 Herminard the Eloquent - 6th level Neutral Evil Human Bard - Dark Sun - became a slave when trying to find a patron in Tyr

660 Quick Wenzer - 7th level Chaotic Good Human Gladiator - Dark Sun - likes to use his psionics to gain an advantage over opponents

661 Dlasva - 7th level Neutral Good Half-elf Psionicist - Dark Sun - merchant that uses psionics to get customers to deal fairly

662 Captain Kazhal - 10th level Lawful Neutral Human Fighter - Dark Sun - wealthy head of a caravan that follows a strict code when trading

664 Barnabas - 10th level Neutral Good Human Warrior - Greyhawk - has a sabre +5 with a sheath and baldric that were presents from a noblewoman
According to the rules of the challenge, I need to use at least half of these characters to make an adventure, encounter, scenario, etc. Just to make things really interesting, I'm going to see if I can use them all.

Obviously, each of these characters has a hook - something that distinguishes them and makes them unique and memorable. Since I don't have any items, monsters, or other equipment to use, I'm going to have to see what I can make of the hooks. Before I get into that, though, I can already see a few common threads I can use.

First, there are quite a few druids and magic-users in the pack. The rest of the characters (except Aldo Gladhand and Barnabas) are all Dark Sun characters. So here I've got three factions to work with - the druids, a cabal of magic-users, and a caravan. Aldo is a priest that wants to find a druid to study with, so he's going to be the connection between the druids and the wizards. Barnabas is a fairly generic fighter, so he goes with the caravan.

Since the characters are all based on 2E mechanics, all of the druids are true neutral. The wizards are all good except for Martha. She's true neutral. The rest are all good except for Herminard and Captain Kazhal, and only Herminard is evil. That means either I'm going to have to change some alignments or come up with some other reason for most of these characters to tangle with a group of PCs.

Time to dig into the hooks a bit and see what happens.

Sorcerer's Apprentice

2011-10-16T19:03:00.000-04:00

I finally got a chance to see Disney's The Sorcerer's Apprentice the other day. It was a cute coming of age story about a kid in modern New York that inherits the power of Merlin and must use it to defeat Morgan le Fey and her apprentices and magical descendents. As expected, it moved fairly quickly and relied on pretty standard tropes to tell the story. There were plenty of fancy special effects and lots of flash, and they were fairly well executed. Overall, the film was pretty much exactly what I expected. It was a fun movie to watch to eat up a couple hours.

That said, there were a few things that I didn't like at all. First, the movie tried to explain magic too much. In the movie, magic is tied in with physics and explained away as something anyone could do if they used the majority of their mind. Since most people only use ten percent or so of their brain power, they can't do magic. Because of this, in the end, Dave's knowledge of physics (and not his ability to use magic to manipulate the universal forces) is the pivotal ability that allows him to be successful. I personally would have preferred less explanation of the magical. Magic should be mysterious.

The film had two nods to the Sorcerer's Apprentice scene in Fantasia that I caught. Obviously, there was the mishap with animating the brooms, mops, and sponges to clean the magical lab. At the end of the credits, they show a conical hat with moons and stars like the one Mickey Mouse had as part of the sequel leader. Both of these were nice tips of the hat (pardon the pun) to the original inspiration, but nothing special. The product placement for Magic: The Gathering was well done and gave me a little chuckle.

What I loved, though, were a couple of the plot props. First up here is the use of the magical rings as boosters for magical power. Each ring was unique to a particular person in some way but could apparently also be used by someone else if the original owner was dead.

I also loved the use of the nesting dolls as a magical prison. The idea of an item that holds a series of big bads that get released in stages is pretty video-gamey, but it worked well in the movie. I'm not sure how much I liked the inclusion of the Chinese villain. It made for a decent fight scene with some good special effects, but he seemed out of place among the other Morganians.

Gaming Takeaways:

Ring of Wizardry

Each ring of wizardry is the personal ring of a sorcerer or wizard. The more powerful the wizard, the more powerful the ring. It is used to focus and partially power their spells.

Every sorcerer or wizard could be required to have their personal ring of power to fully access their magical abilities. I would probably say that as long as they have the ring they can cast one spell of each level they know per day without memorization or the use of spell books. This is part of the normal complement of spells allowed. Also, as long as they have their ring, they can cast an extra spell of the highest level they can possibly cast once per day. If they lose it, they lose the bonus and can cast one less spell of the highest level they could normally cast per day until they recover their ring.

If the wizard dies, the ring could be used by another wizard to increase their power. In order to access this ability, the new user must know the true name of the wizard that originally used the ring. A wizard can only access the power from rings of their own school or tradition, if there are distinctive schools or traditions in the campaign.

Doll of Binding

The doll of binding looks like a normal wooden nesting doll, but the outer surface of the doll appears to be seamless. When the proper command word is spoken, the doll can capture a man-sized or smaller target, imprisoning them in the doll. The subject must make a successful save versus paralyzation or be trapped. The doll will show an image of the last person trapped on its surface. A person trapped within a doll will not age but will be aware of the passage of time and things that happen in their image's sight.

Each doll can capture between five and eight (1d4+4) different people. People captured by the doll can be released by use of another command word, but must be released in reverse order of the order they were trapped. Thus the first person trapped by a particular doll will be the last person released.

Checking Out Chainmail, Part 10

2011-10-14T20:33:00.000-04:00

The inlcusion of arquebusiers and cannon in Chainmail seems unusual coming to the rules from Dungeons & Dragons, especially given the long-time exclusion of gunpowder weapons from D&D. They are also striking in a historical sense, as the inclusion of gunpowder weapons on the battlefield in Europe generally heralded the change from older medieval tactics and organizations to pike-and-shot and other characteristically Renaissance-era formations and tactics. Their inclusion here allows for some play in the transition, especially the Hundred Years War and the Wars of the Roses. They also allow experimentation with Chinese historical armies where guns were included earlier and wielded more frequently.

In game terms, arquebusiers are similar to heavy crossbowmen as far as movement, rate of fire, fire arc and the prohibition against indirect fire. So arquebusiers can move up to half their regular move and either fire or reload. If they make more than a half move, they must beat their opponent's die roll to fire and may not reload. They fire every other turn.

Where arquebusiers are completely different is in the way that their hits are resolved. Archers and crossbowmen are required to be grouped, and their effectiveness depends on the number of models in the group and their targets' armor. For arquebusiers, you roll a die for each gunner model. The range to the target determines how difficult it is to hit. All hits kill their target, regardless of armor!

Hard cover that conceals more than half the target imposes a -1 penalty on the roll to hit. If more than half the target is covered, the shooter has a -2 penalty. These penalties are partially offset if the shooter is using a rest or mount. If the shooter is using a support, they receive a +1 bonus.

Looking at these rules, arquebusiers suffer from a lack of mobility, but that is more than made up for with their effectiveness shooting. They have the potential to easily dominate the area of the battlefield within their range, especially if they are firing from a position where the guns have supports.

Camelot and mapping

2011-10-13T05:25:00.002-04:00

Sir Timothy over at I'd Rather Be Killing Monsters... made mention of a map of Camelot as envisioned in the TV show Merlin that is available in the kid's magazine for the show. Being a long-time Arthurian fan, I decided to track down the map and see what it looks like. I found a pic online, and I like it quite a bit.

I've never seen the show, but I imagine you could easily adapt the map for use in a Pendragon or D&D game. It's pretty simple compared to most of the gaming campaign maps I've seen, but there are enough unique places to spur some adventure here. And that's the thing I generally love about maps, especially for fantasy gaming.

A map doesn't have to present all of the details of a particular environment. It should only present what is significant symbolically. In most cases for gaming, that gets interpreted to mean the type of terrain present, any particular place names, and noteworthy geographical features. But there seems to be a tendency in most gaming maps I've seen (and created) to overburden the viewer with too much detail on the map. There's too much tendency to try to recreate an exact picture of the environment such that the true highpoints get lost among the minutiae.

This map takes the exact opposite tack. It presents the central features of the area with only enough concern for the details of the environment as are necessary to place those features. There seems to be little concern for scale or exactness, and a great concern for the story that the map tells. Good stuff.

Zak the innovator or ConstantCon goes mainstream

2011-10-05T15:43:00.000-04:00

I just saw this article about someone using Google+ to run D&D games. It mentions the dice rolling issue that Zak solved a few weeks ago and describes in the weekly ConstantCon post. Once again, the OSR is leading the way. I don't know whether I want to point that out to the mainstream D&D 4E community or continue to hang out on the fringes and enjoy things the way they are.

Happy Birthday, Jim!

2011-09-24T04:00:00.000-04:00

My favorite megadungeon

Today would have been Jim Henson's 75th birthday. For many people of my generation, he was an exemplar of creativity for much of our childhoods. Whether through Sesame Street, the Muppet Show, the various early Muppet movies, his special effects puppetry on Yoda in Empire Strikes Back, Dark Crystal, Labyrinth, or Fraggle Rock, he showed us how to stretch our imaginations and dream big!

As a run-up to today, I re-watched Labyrinth and the Dark Crystal. In both of these movies, I am consistently amazed at how well Henson did at giving a sense of immense scale in his productions. Despite the limited scope of most of the scenes in these movies, you get the sense that there is something much bigger and more grand behind it all. In the Dark Crystal, it is the history and character behind the characters and their complementary quests. In Labyrinth, it is the combination of the depth and development of the labyrinth itself, as well as the goblin mythology and cosmology that drives the story.

At the same time, he was a master at making individual characters distinctive and unique, even when they only appear for a few moments. Just look at all of the different goblins in the goblin city in Labyrinth or all of the minor Muppet characters that have appeared over the years.

Henson's movies and shows have been an inspiration for me for years. Occasionally I use them for ideas to steal, but more often I use them as examples for the kind of scope I wanted to achieve. I want my encounters, locations, and characters to have the kind of depth and distinction that Henson gave to his creations.

Happy Birthday, Jim.

Game of Thrones at the Emmys

2011-09-19T03:44:00.000-04:00

HBO's Game of Thrones won a couple of Emmys this time around. Although it did not pick up the award for Outstanding Drama Series (my favorite Netflix addiction Mad Men won that), it did win a couple of awards. First, it won for Outstanding Main Title Design for the incredible animated map of Westeros that starts each episode of the show. More importantly, Peter Dinklage won the award for Outstanding Supporting Actor for a Drama Series for his portrayal of Tyrion Lannister.

Tyrion has been my favorite character since I started reading the series, and Dinklage does an amazing job at bringing him to life in the series. Bravo and congratulations!

Inkwell Ideas Icosahedral World Map Generator

2011-09-18T05:40:00.003-04:00

Yesterday I spent a little time playing around with Joe Wetzel's new Icosahedral World Map Generator. I've had world building on my mind a bit lately, and this looks like it's going to be another great tool to add to my toolbox.

Like all of the tools from Inkwell Ideas, the generator runs on Java. It only has a few simple controls for setting the number of hexes along the side of each triangle in the template, the amount of land, vegetation, mountains, and temperature for the world. Once you choose the appropriate settings, hit the recreate button, and the program generates a new world map.

Once you have a map generated, you can change the terrain in the hexes using the symbols at the bottom of the screen. The symbols are fairly intuitive, with a descriptive popup if you hover over the symbol.

The program doesn't have a native save or print feature. If you want to save or print the map, you can export it as a map for Hexographer. The symbols automatically change to the default Hexographer symbols when you open the map with that program. You can then edit the map further using Hexographer or print, save, and export it as you would any other Hexographer map.

I can see quite a few uses for this program. The most obvious is as a quick way to generate world overviews for Traveller and other sci-fi RPGs. You could also use it, though, to generate the appropriate templates to allow you to work on an icosahedral world design from scratch in Hexographer. Just load in a map at the appropriate size and then rearrange the terrain as you need for your own map.

Once again, Joe has done an excellent job creating a simple tool that is exceptionally useful and does exactly what it needs to do very well. Check it out.

Checking Out Chainmail, Part 9

2011-09-14T13:43:00.002-04:00

This time we are going to look at the catapult rules. Prior installments in this series can be found with the links in the left sidebar.

Catapults in Chainmail are divided between light and heavy types. Light catapults have a range of between 15 and 30 inches and affect an area 2 inches in diameter. They can fire every other turn if fully crewed. Heavy catapults can hit a range between 24 and 48 inches and affect an area 3 1/2 inches in diameter. Heavy catapults can be fired every third turn.

Both kinds of catapults cannot be fired unless they were stationary for the prior two or three turns before the firing turn. They both also require crews of four to operate. If a catapult has less than four crew, it takes an additional turn to fire for each crew less than four.

Catapults can be fired in a 90 degree arc, 45 degrees each left and right. To fire, you state the distance forward and the distance left or right of center that you want to fire the missile. These distances form two sides of a right triangle, with the flight arc of the missile forming the longest side of the triangle. The appropriate hit template is centered on the end of the flight arc. Any model completely or partially under the hit template is a casualty.

As an optional rule, you can roll two different-colored dice, one for overshooting and one for undershooting. If the dice are equal, the missile lands at the estimated point. Otherwise, you deviate the missile by the higher of the two.

The requirements that catapults be basically static emplacements and that they be crewed by trained soldiers make sense historically and allow the machines to be effective in the game without allowing them to become modern mobile field artillery. These rules require you to consider how you will place your catapults and how you will defend them if you want them to be effective. From an opposing view, you need to consider where your enemy's catapults are placed so that you can best maneuver through or around their field of fire.

Triangulating the shots requires that players develop a good eye for the board and terrain and become skilled at estimating distances. This is similar to the old "guess" rules for Warhammer. If you have a player that is exceptionally good at guessing distances, they can almost always land a catapult shot where they want. Chainmail takes care of some of that by requiring the player to estimate the length of the shorter two sides of the triangle rather than the longest one, but it can still be easy for someone with an accurate eye and good geometric and spatial skills to abuse.

One rule I am particularly fond of here is the rules for overshooting and undershooting. They put a little variability into the mix and help account for some of the range-guessing issues. You could also introduce a variant of the variant for expert crews: If your catapult is crewed by an expert crew, their shots deviate by the lesser of the mismatched deviation dice.

Remembrance, vengeance, and forgiveness

2011-09-11T17:51:00.000-04:00

Today we sang "America the Beautiful" at the end of Mass. I would be surprised if many people in the United States do not know the first verse:

O beautiful for spacious skies, for amber waves of grain,
for purple mountain majesties above the fruited plain!
America! America! God shed his grace on thee,
and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.

What struck me in the context of the anniversary of the attacks, though, were the other two verses:

O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife,
who more than self their country loved, and mercy more than life!
America! America! God mend thine every flaw,
confirm thy soul in self control, thy liberty in law.

O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years
thine alabaster cities gleam, undimmed by human tears!
America! America! God shed his grace on thee,
and crown thy good with brotherhood from sea to shining sea.

Ten years ago, when the planes flew into the buildings, I was cleaning my apartment and enjoying a mild, sunny, pleasent September morning. When I first heard about the attacks, I thought it was a hoax. I could remember positing similar scenarios with my friends years before as the historical run-ups to post-apocalyptic games. That our hypothetical disasters would become reality was something that we considered so unlikely as to be impossible.

Looking back on the events that morning, I have a difficult time recalling anything other than shock and horror. I deliberately tried to not watch television for more than a week, just because some of the things that happened that day were too terrible to see over and over. Those images I did see are forever burned into my mind, and they do not fade with age.

That kind of horrific experience changes people. It spawns the most noble and most terrible actions in response to it. We have seen both over the last ten years. We have seen thousands of people involved in a continuing war as a result of what happened that day. We have also seen thousands of people consciously engaging in diplomatic and relief efforts around the world. Both are intended to keep anything similar from ever happening again.

I don't know if I knew anyone that died in the events ten years ago. I suspect I would have heard if I did. Certainly, none of the people I am closest to perished that day. I do know people that were there, though. I know firefighters that went from Indianapolis to New York to help with the recovery of people and bodies from the ruins of the World Trade Center. I know clergy that worked at St. Paul's Chapel, providing what comfort they could to victims, families, rescuers, passersby, and anyone else they could. I have heard first-hand stories of people that were there that day and many days after. Like the images, these stories stay with me.

I was changed that day in ways that, even now, I cannot understand or explain. Our nation and our world were changed as well. Nothing can ever be the same as it was before the towers fell and so many lost their lives so quickly. We may not understand it or know exactly how we have been affected, but there is no denying that we have.

In the aftermath of the attacks, there was a great cry for vengeance. There are still many who think that the only way to properly remember the people that perished that day is to wage war on our enemies and impose our political will strongly throughout the world. There are just as many people that think that any military action just encourages someone else to do the same thing or worse to us sometime down the line. They are convinced that if we could forgive and work for peace, justice, and equity around the world, we could make the world safer than if we try to eradicate our enemies with force.

I understand both of these desires. I have a real human need to see the people that caused this tragedy punished for what they have done. On the other hand, though, I have to wonder what would drive someone to such hatred that they could even consider slaughtering thousands of innocent people. I have to wonder if there is a way to address that so that the violence doesn't happen in the first place.

I don't know the answer to any of the questions I have about that day or the events that have happened since. That doesn't mean that I don't have to think about them, though. I am a theologian, and I believe that you have to start thinking theologically from who and where you are. Today that means trying to take account of the unspeakable, unfathomable events of ten years ago.

I have no idea how to feel about the attacks, but I know that God does not want me to respond with vengeance. Human desire leans to revenge, but God asks me to forgive instead. Vengeance is easy. Forgiveness is hard. In some cases, it may be beyond our human capacity, but that doesn't mean we don't have to try. Ghandi said, "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind." Hopefully, we can keep our vision long enough to see the path forward that doesn't just create the same level of destruction elsewhere. We will always remember, but we need to do what we can to forgive so we can heal.

Our alabaster cities have been smudged with the ashes, dust and tears of the fallen, the responders, the families, and everyone who witnessed the attacks. We have seen our heroes proved in liberating strife. I pray that God will mend our flaws, help us keep our self-control, and help us maintain our liberties. More than anything I pray that God's grace will shine on us and that we will be able to find the brotherhood around the world that keeps all nations safe in the future.

Testing the waters

2011-09-10T20:42:00.001-04:00

I just downloaded the Blogger app for the iPhone and wanted to see how it works. I'm definitely not a fan of typing on the phone, but I think it might work for making a quick post now and then.

Checking Out Chainmail, Part 8

2011-09-07T08:19:00.001-04:00

It's time to get back into the Chainmail rules, this time looking at missile fire and cover rules. Previous installments of this series can be found with the links in the left sidebar.

The missile fire rules in Chainmail distinguish between fire from bows and crossbows, thrown hand weapons, gunpowder weapons, and catapults. The missile fire rules I'm looking at here deal only with bows, crossbows and thrown weapons. The first thing we see in the missile rules is a table that shows the results for missile troops firing at unarmored, half-armored or shield-bearing, and fully armored troops. To resolve missile fire, missile troops are organized into groups and a die is rolled for each group. The result is then compared to a target number to determine the number of casualties inflicted on the enemy unit.

The number of archers in each group and their effectiveness is determined by the type of armor worn by the target. When firing at unarmored, half-armoured, or shield-using troops, the archers are considered in groups of up to 10. When firing at fully-armored troops, archers are considered in groups of up to 20. If the group of archers is larger than 10 or 20, respectively, they are divided into 2 or more equal groups so that each group is under the maximum. Archers cannot be divided into smaller groups unless they exceed 10 or 20, respectively. So, if a group of 16 archers is firing at an unarmored opponent unit, they would be divided into two groups of 8. If the same archers were firing at a fully armored unit, they would be considered a single group of 16.

Basically, the larger the unit of archers you field, the more chances you have to cause casualties against better armored opponents. If you field a tiny unit of archers or your archers take heavy casualties, they will only be effective against the weakest-armored troops, and they will not cause many casualties when they fire against them. On the other hand, if you field huge masses of longbowmen in long ranks, you can dispose of the bulk of your opponent's knights and heavy foot in short order.

Rate of fire varies between archers and light crossbowmen on the one hand and heavy crossbowmen on the other. The former can fire twice if they do not move or melee, once if they move up to half their movement, and once if they move their full movement and beat their opponent's roll in a roll-off. Heavy crossbowmen can only fire every other turn if they are stationary or move up to half their move. If they move their full movement, they can fire if they beat their opponent in a roll-off, but they cannot reload.

Horse archers can fire and be fired at after they complete half their move, and stationary foot archers can fire at troops that are in sight and range at the half move stage of the turn. These shots are part of the regular rate of fire. So horse archers basically strafe as they move rather than in the normal missile phase, and stationary foot archers receive their extra shot in the movement segment rather than doubling up in the missile phase later. This allows stationary foot archers a chance to shoot down anyone charging them as well.

Two ranks of archers are allowed to fire, and more ranks can fire if they are elevated above the front ranks. A unit of archers arranged on a stepped hill or pyramid could raind own significant fire on an enemy. Range is always measured from the front rank.

Indirect fire is possible if the troops are armed with bows. Crossbows are limited to direct fire only. Indirect fire is not effective at all against heavily armored troops, and archers firing indirectly reduce their range by a third.

Soft cover cuts the casualties taken in half. Overhead cover or woods eliminates indirect fire. Hard cover makes troops "arrow-proof" to direct fire.

Thrown weapons may fire once per turn, may always fire at enemy troops charging them, and may not fire indirectly.

All of this amounts to some very comprehensive missile rules with a lot of subtlety to them. How you deploy, arrange, and maneuver missile troops can have a great impact on the battlefield, as it should. With the split fire, pass-through fire, and indirect fire rules, missile troops are given some of the best tactical flexibility rules I've seen, and these rules do a fine job of capturing the roles and effectiveness of archers on the medieval battlefield. I also like the way the cover rules and the missil charts limit their effectiveness in certain situations. Against hard targets or targets with good woody concealment, archers are not very effective unless they are massed in large groups and firing directly at their targets. Against poorly armored opponents, even a small number of archers can be somewhat effective.

Magic Challenge: Black Deck part 1

2011-09-02T02:09:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I threw out a challenge to take one of the Magic swag decks from Gen Con and use it for inspiration for something for your RPG of choice. I started looking through the black deck and jotted down a few ideas based on just the Swamp cards in the deck. I'm going to use these four cards as the inspiration for a place to populate with things inspired by the rest of the deck.

In keeping with the background for Magic, I'm putting everything together around a place saturated with old residual magical energy from a war between powerful wizards that occurred centuries ago. The magic in the land causes subtle mutations in certain species and magical effects in key places. One such place is the Darkling Swamp.

Darkling Swamp is a mixed salt and freshwater swamp that borders and merges with the Darkling Forest at the terminus of the White River. The majority of the swamp is covered by dense forests of mangrove, cypress, junipers, swamp oak, water ash and red maple. The swamp is also home to a unique tree species known locally as steelspike.

Steelspike trees are dense hardwoods with grayish-black bark that produce long, sharp, spiky growths. Primitive humanoid tribes in the swamp use these spikes as stabbing weapons that cause 1-4, 1-6, or 1-8 points of damage with a successful hit, depending on the size of the spike. These weapons are also favored by druids throughout the Coastlands. The wood of a steelspike is light gray in color and polishes to a brilliant luster. Many nobles along the coast prize furniture and decorative chests made of the wood.

Typical fauna in the swamp include black deer, raccoons, minks, and beaver. Dozens of frog, turtle, and snake species can be found in the swamp as well, including several giant species. Alligators are rare here. Typical birds include egrets, herons, eagles, spotted hawks, owls, and several species of woodpeckers.

Ghost birds, rare snow-white birds that resemble ravens, can be found here. These carnivorous birds have a variety of calls, including a haunting call similar to a dove and a throaty cackle similar to a rook or raven. They can be taught to mimic a few words, and many wild ghost birds speak a few random words learned from local humanoids or humans. Captive ghost birds can be trained and fetch a fair price in cities along the coast.

The southern end of the swamp is a blasted landscape of twisted, decaying stumps that poke up randomly from fetid water and spongy hummocks of drenched land. The entire area is covered by a fine red-tinged mist. The mist is not harmful, but travelers have reported that it is difficult to breathe and has a faint ferrous taste, like blood. Vampires and other undead are more common in this area than elsewhere, and there are rumors of a feral vampire lord that makes his home somewhere in the mists.

Magic swag deck challenge

2011-08-31T14:02:00.000-04:00

This year at Gen Con, the swag bags included a thirty-card intro deck for Magic: The Gathering. I played Magic when it was released and through the first couple of expansions. I stopped playing about the time that the Ice Age expansion was released and haven't played regularly since. Every once in a while, I flirt with the idea of putting a new deck together, but I'm too far out of the loop to know what cards and combinations are currently competitive and I don't want to spend the time to relearn everything. I still love the background ideas for the Magic universe(s), though, and the card art and flavor text always give me some ideas that I want to bring into other games.

Seeing the decks in the swag bags this year made me think of using the cards for inspiration again. So, I decided to issue a challenge to a couple of old gaming friends. Although one said he basically already did this all the way through high school years ago, he and a couple other people were ready to go. Here's the challenge:

Take a swag deck and the instructions and create something for your tabletop RPG of choice. Use the art, flavor text, box art, descriptions on the instructions, and whatever else you see in the box. You don't have to use every card or image in the deck, but the more you use the better. If you can do it, create at least one interesting place, one monster, one magic item, one character, and one scenario idea.

If you don't have one of the swag decks from the con, I've listed all of the cards, the flavor text from the box and instructions, and the name of the character associated with each deck below. You can see all of the art and flavor text on each of the cards at the Gatherer. Links to individual cards are in the lists.

All of the individual copyrights and trademarks associated with Magic: the Gathering and its associated art and descriptive text belong to Wizards of the Coast. Use these for inspiration, not replication.

If you take up the challenge, leave a comment below and I will put together a list with links to what you develop.

Black
"No price is too great for black Planeswalkers to seize power and dominate their foes."

Sorin Markov
Black magic enslaves and corrupts. Black mages wield spells of death and darkness to satisfy their desire for power. They will do whatever it takes to win. With his dark blood magic, Sorin Markov can drain the life force of other beings, place curses on enemies, and even possess the minds of others.

1 Bloodrage Vampire
1 Dark Favor
1 Dementia Bat
1 Diabolic Tutor
1 Disentomb
2 Duskhunter Bat
1 Fume Spitter
1 Hideous Visage
2 Moriok Reaver
1 Necrogen Scudder
1 Onyx Mage
1 Sorin's Thirst
1 Taste of Blood
1 Tormented Soul
1 Vampire Outcasts
1 Wring Flesh
12 Swamp - click the numbers under the card to see the variations in the art

Blue
"Blue Planeswalkers control and manipulate the flow of battle with powerful mind-magic."

Jace Beleren
Blue magic is about air, water, and things of the mind. Blue mages use their vast knowledge and quick reactions to control the battlefield and gain the upper hand. Jace Beleren is a Planeswalker with a gift for such mind magic. He must choose whether to use his vast power for good or evil.

2 Aether Adept
2 Aven Fleetwing
2 Cancel
2 Coral Merfolk
2 Frost Breath
1 Lumengrid Gargoyle
1 Mind Control
1 Neurok Invisimancer
1 Phantasmal Dragon
1 Skywinder Drake
1 Spire Monitor
1 Turn to Frog
1 Unsummon
12 Island - click the numbers under the card to see the variations in the art

Green
"Ferocity defines green Planeswalkers, who overwhelm their enemies with giant creatures."

Garruk Wildspeaker
Green magic is all about tooth-and-claw ferocity. Green mages revere life, growth, and the brute force of nature. They summon huge creatures to do their bidding. The Planeswalker and master summoner Garruk Wildspeaker believes that to revere nature, one should live like a predator.

1 Alpha Tyrranax
1 Ezuri's Archers
2 Garruk's Companion
1 Gladecover Scout
1 Hunter's Insight
1 Lead the Stampede
1 Llanowar Elves
1 Lure
1 Plummet
2 Runeclaw Bear
1 Sacred Wolf
1 Slice in Twain
2 Tangle Mantis
1 Titanic Growth
1 Trollhide
12 Forest - click the numbers under the card to see the variations in the art

Red
"Red Planeswalkers channel their fiery impulses to destroy whatever stands in their way."

Chandra Nalaar
Red magic embodies fire and lightning, passion and fury. Mages who wield it are quick to act and quick to anger, smashing and burning their way to victory. The pyromancer Chandra Nalaar is fiercely individualistic, even for a Planeswalker. For her, nothing is more important than freedom.

2 Blisterstick Shaman
2 Goblin Arsonist
1 Goblin Bangchuckers
2 Goblin Fireslinger
1 Goblin Grenade
2 Goblin Piker
2 Goblin Tunneler
1 Goblin War Paint
1 Goblin Wardriver
2 Shock
1 Slaughter Cry
1 Tectonic Rift
12 Mountain - click the numbers under the card to see the variations in the art

White
"White Planeswalkers lay down the rules and command armies to enforce them."

Gideon Jura
White magic lays down the law, protecting and defending its allies. White mages call on soldiers, knights, and even angels. For them, honor and light are shield and sword. In his devotion to duty and justice, Gideon Jura has never hesitated to enter combat. Now he seeks a new cause to champion.

1 Alabaster Mage
2 Arrest
2 Assault Griffin
1 Auramancer
1 Banishment Decree
1 Divine Favor
1 Greatsword
1 Inquisitor Exarch
2 Kemba's Skyguard
1 Lifelink
1 Loxodon Wayfarer
1 Pride Guardian
1 Shattered Angel
1 Siege Mastodon
13 Plains - click the numbers under the card to see the variations in the art

I know what a sleep spell feels like

2011-08-30T13:43:00.000-04:00

[Disclaimer: This post is not about gaming and I'm not paying a Joesky tax!]

I don't post as regularly as I would like to. I've been dealing with a lot of very difficult things in my offline life right now. I've hinted at some of them here before, but here's the deal.

About this time last year, I had to move out of the place I was living. Fortunately, I was able to get back on my feet pretty quickly, but the blog went dark while I was doing so. The reason is that I was moving from place to place and working full time and didn't have any free time to write. That lack of free time was due to me sleeping almost all of the time I was not working.

I've battled depression for most of my life. I do pretty well managing it, but sometimes it gets the best of me.

On top of that, I was diagnosed with fibromyalgia a few years ago. For those people that don't know, it's a chronic condition that causes systemic pain, fatigue, "fibro fog," and a host of other symptoms. Fibro fog is a kind of memory and thought disruption, basically being scatter-brained or having momentary memory loss or confusion. It's nothing major. It's like when you put your keys in the freezer when you're unpacking groceries or have a word stuck on the tip of your tongue. Some researchers think fibromyalgia is the same as chronic fatigue syndrome, which has almost the exact same symptoms, but with more pain than fatigue. Whatever the case, it causes me to have occasional bouts of pain coupled with exhaustion and fogginess.

Around the same time I started figuring out the fibro, I was diagnosed with hypersomnia, which is a fancy way of saying I was sleeping too much. At the time, I was taking a ton of medication, and the doctors figured that the sleepiness was a side effect of the meds. When the sleepiness continued after I stopped taking the meds, though, they started looking for other causes. Long story short (too late), I saw another sleep specialist and found out a few months ago that I probably have narcolepsy.

So I have occasional bouts of sleepiness that cause me to drop off very quickly and uncontrollably. Just like being the subject of a sleep spell. I also have rare bouts of cataplexy, which causes me to lose muscle tone and become unresponsive, even though I can see and hear everything that is going on around me. That one is more like a hold person. Needless to say, both of them can be upsetting to people that are around when it happens. I also cannot drive, operate heavy machinery, etc.

Some days I have plenty of energy and no pain. Other days I'm exhausted and achey. It varies from day to day and season to season. Usually, I try to laugh it all off and keep going as best I can. Some days I just want to curl into a ball and sleep for a week or so.

Unfortunately, the symptoms of each interact in such a way that it's hard to treat any one of them. Antidepressents and stimulants to stave off the sleep make me anxious and increase my pain. Painkillers magnify the depression and make me more sleepy. So I have to control everything the old-fashioned way by sleeping about twelve hours a day total (about eleven hours overnight with a couple of naps during the day) and generally making sure I don't overdo it physically.

Lately, I've been doing well at that, except when I was at Gen Con. Working the convention wore me out such that it took me over a week to get back to a barely passable energy level. So unless I can work out a way to do my hours over a couple weeks before and after the con, this was probably my last year volunteering. The same thing goes for work in general, though. I get exhausted and lose focus very quickly, which makes it hard for me to work for any length of time. I definitely cannot work in the field that I'm trained for, as it involves supervising people in dangerous situations. It is also very difficult for me to work and keep up with anything else in my life.

Right now I'm not working and am trying to get disability. I'm also trying to take some classes as my energy allows to see if I can move into a different field.

All of this is a long way of saying that I'm doing the best I can, but to expect more when I'm able and less when I'm not. I'm working on some more substantive posts for here, and I'll post them as I get the time and energy to polish them up. I have a lot more to do on my Checking Out Chainmail series, my promised dice project, plenty of reviews (including a full review of Vornheim), and a great set of miniature skirmish rules that my blog friend Jack sent me. I also have a challenge for the rest of the gaming blogosphere coming once I can get the links for it finished. So there are plenty of things on the way. I just wanted you all to understand why it's taking so long to put them together.

I also wanted to thank all of you that read the blog regularly (or intermittently) and leave comments. I don't do this for the money and fame. I do it because I want to put my ideas out there and see what other people have to say about them. I want to interact with the community and try to get some positive things going. Until today, I followed a blog where the author would routinely abuse his readers, delete comments he didn't agree with or thought were too politically charged the wrong way, and generally spent his share of electrons berating other people for having BADWRONGFUN. I took that blog off my Google Reader list today. I just don't have any more patience or energy for that kind of negative crap. Instead, I am trying to focus my energy on the people that are trying to put some good things into the community here in the blogosphere and try to put out some good things myself.

I don't moderate comments, because I don't think I need to. I treat my readers with respect and have received the same in return. Thanks to everybody that has given me comments and suggestions. And for everyone that hasn't left any comments, if you like what I'm doing, drop me a comment or an email and let me know. If you have a suggestion or a different idea, do the same. I'm open to discussing anything I write about. Otherwise I wouldn't put it here. You can find my email address at the top of the blog.

I may never recover...

2011-08-24T23:52:00.001-04:00

I picked up a copy of Vornheim at Gen Con and have been reading through it in small doses over the last few days.

On the one hand, this is some brilliant stuff. There are tons of incredibly creative ideas crammed into a small package here, and I am finding myself very taken aback at how different and inspiring it is.

On the other hand, there are some ideas here that have really made my head hurt. I can't tell if they are amazingly weird or weirdly amazing, but they are making me think about some game ideas in ways that I have never even considered before.

I was late getting on the bandwagon to buy this book, and I am regretting that I waited. It may not have everything I personally need or want to run a city in a game, but it has enough resources that I can heartily recommend it as a great resource and inspiration mill for urban adventuring. Zak has done an amazing job at distilling a ton of information into this book!

Fatigue and recovery

2011-08-24T00:32:00.000-04:00

No, this isn't the next round in my Checking out Chainmail series. That is coming as soon as I can get time to type it into the computer. It's just a comment on why I've been mainly silent since Gen Con.

I have a few health issues that make it difficult for me to function on a day-to-day basis. Two of those issues cause me to experience unusual levels of fatigue and tiredness almost daily. When I overwork, as I did at Gen Con with working up to twelve hours a day, it takes quite a while for me to recover. I'm starting to get back to normal (for me), so hopefully things will pick up here in the next couple days.

In the meantime, I was able to fit in a bit of editing for Dylan over at Digital Orc. He put together a nice little one-page module called "The Dutch Oven." I was fortunate enough to be one of the people to help him get it into its current shape. Check it out.

Gen Con swag

2011-08-15T05:22:00.001-04:00

It's been a week since Gen Con, and I'm starting to catch up on all the sleep I missed during the con. I have volunteered for Gen Con for years, and the last two years I have been a Captain in Badge Registration. That means that I spend most of my time at the con managing the temps that are selling badges. After work I try to fit in a few games here and there. In addition to the strain of working long hours, I have a few medical conditions that make it difficult for me if I don't get enough sleep. That makes it hard to fit in games in the off hours. This year I did as well as I could keeping up on sleep, but that means I played exactly zero games during the con. I did a lot of shopping in the exhibit hall, though, and I scored some pretty good swag on top of it.

I already talked about the dice I got in my show me your dice post. Here's the rest of the haul:

A 50th Anniversary Edition of Stratego and a Monster Vault for 4E

I played Stratego a lot when I was a kid, so getting this as swag was awesome. The Monster Vault came from my con roommate. Even though I don't play 4E, it's a pretty good product, and I'm hoping I can find some use for it.

Here I've got a couple catalogs, the Lego Heroica comic, a free novel, a download code for an ebook, and an Obsidian Portal flier. I have a few old catalogs from back in the golden age of gaming. I go back to them occasionally for inspiration or nostalgia. The two catalogs here are from Fantasy Flight Games and Chessex, and they're going on the shelf next to the old ones.

The Heroica comic is a reminder to check out more of these games. I played one of the Lego games a few months ago with a couple friends and my goddaughter. Judging from the one we played, these are cool little games with some interesting mechanics. I'm interested to see how they do dungeon crawling mechanics.

The novel is a signed copy. I don't know anything at all about Elizabeth Vaughan, but it's billed as romantic fantasy, so I'll probably pass it off to someone. The ebook is a prequel novel to an iPhone game. I'm not really sure what that's about.

The Obsidian Portal ad is a reminder to keep up with this. I signed up for OP a couple weeks before the con because a couple friends are working ona project using it. I haven't really done anything with it myself yet, but I'm thinking of using it. If anyone has any feedback or suggestions for getting started with it, let me know.

This is the promo map from Inkwell Ideas and seven copies of the Rift promo. I'm going to use the map for a game sometime. I'm not sure if I'll try Rift or not, since I'm not really into the whole MMORPG scene. If anyone wants a copy of the promo, let me know.

This is a Dark Crystal poster I found in the exhibit hall. I don't remember the company where I got it. I loved Dark Crystal as a kid. So I was excited to find out that there are new comics, another movie, and a game set in the Dark Crystal world on the way. The game is going to be based on Burning Wheel, so we'll see how it comes out. I've heard good things about the system.

Around the poster are all of the swag Magic decks people gave me from their con swag bags. I got a single blue deck, three green decks, and four each of the red, white, and black decks. I don't play Magic anymore. Instead, I'm going to use the decks for inspiration.

Here are the rest of the cards I got, some True Dungeon tokens, a Neverwinter promo button, my Gen Con Captain's pin, and a free Reaper mini I got. I'll use the cards for some more inspiration and paint the mini and stat it as an NPC for a game. The button goes into my collection of con buttons. The True Dungeon tokens will either go on eBay or I'll use them as a prize for some kind of contest. We'll see.

This is the stuff I bought at the con. On the left are Arms Law & Claw Law and Character Law & Campaign Law for Rolemaster. All I need is a copy of the old Spell Law, and I'm ready to run some RM. Back in the day, my group cribbed a lot of stuff from these for our AD&D games, and I'm going to see what I can get from them for games now. If nothing else, Campaign Law has one of my favorite campaign generation systems.

On the right are Vornheim, the Dungeonmorph cards from Inkwell Ideas, and a Hirst Arts basic block mold with a sample of Merlin's Magic plaster. Here's the mini review on all of these: they're awesome; go buy them. Hopefully I can put together real reviews soon.

Next is a big Half-Price Books bag and some card boxes. I got the bag for spending ten bucks at the Half-Price Books booth buying the Rolemaster books. The card boxes had promo cards that went into the swag bags. They're not quite large enough for storing gaming cards on edge, but they are great for storing tokens, minis, cardboard characters, or whatever. They also fit perfectly in the bag, either on end or flat. So now I've got a perfect bag for carrying all of the stuff I need for a game.

Finally, I got a Gen Con shot glass and a Gen Con pint glass, a Gen Con yellow volunteer shirt, a pair of black Gen Con t-shirts, and a download code for a special Scotty's Brewhouse Ultimate GM Screen from Fat Dragon Games. I got the GM screen for collecting all four of the Scotty's dice this year. I don't have pictures of any of these. Once I get the gatehouse printed and built, I'll post a review and some pics.

Everybody else is doing it...

2011-08-12T01:13:00.000-04:00

So here are all of my dice. Tim's challenge to show off your dice came while I was away at Gen Con, so I'm late to the party again. Fortunately, I acquired a ton of new dice at the con this year, so I have twice as many to show off.

My current collection comprises only the dice I've managed to collect over the last couple years. My original collection disappeared sometime about fifteen or twenty years ago in one of my various moves. At the time, it consisted of a couple hundred dice in an old Crown Royal bag. I sold off most of my second collection about three years ago in the great d20 purge. That collection consisted of two plastic shoeboxes full of dice, thanks to a couple of pitchers of dice from Gen Cons in the 90s. Despite all of my best intentions to limit my dice purchasing, my current collection is approaching the size of my original one, especially thanks to the additions from the con last week.

The picture above shows everything packed into the current dice bag (a much newer Crown Royal bag) and my "box-o-game" for 40K. With everything stowed away, the bag barely holds all my dice, so I'll probably be either buying or sewing a larger bag soon.

This picture shows the collection in a big pile. The box-o-game has the dice bag on top, along with the mini Crown Royal bag that I use for my pocket Boggle.

This picture shows the two bags. The box-o-game is at the top. You can see the different kinds of Warhammer templates in the box, along with some red Games Workshop measuring rulers that have been cut into 6" and 12" lengths. Normally there's a tape measure in the box as well, but it must have wandered somewhere. Below the box-o-game is my pocket Boggle game (1) that has sixteen nice letter dice; my vehicle damage dice, a scatter die, and an artillery die for Warhammer 40K (2); some order dice from Epic 40K (3); four Games Workshop sustained fire dice (4); and four Games Workshop artillery dice (5). All of the dice here go in the box-o-game for use if I ever get another game of 40K going. Dice count for this picture: 50.

This picture shows the new dice I got this year at Gen Con. I got fifteen each of seven different colors of Chessex six-sided dice for a forthcoming cluster mapping project (1); a cube of teal and white Chessex six-sided dice (2); a Cthulhu Dice game (3); four Gen Con 2011 souvenir dice (4); a good-neutral-evil alignment die (5); a Le Boomb game (6); five souvenir dice from Scotty's Brewhouse (7); ten Fudge dice (8); seven Gen Con 2010 souvenir dice (9); my new GameScience dice set (10); my tiny purple dice set (11); and my two Gen Con Forum Stink 8 souvenir dice (12). Dice count for this picture: 186.

This picture shows the dice I had before I went to the con this year. At the top left are all of my normal 40K dice, a mix of red, white, and green six-siders, a mini scatter die, and a mini artillery die (13). Next are a pair of old GameScience d12s (14) and a few red on black dice I kept from the purge because they looked like one of my original dice sets (15). The next ones are all dice that I got last year at Gen Con: my d30 (16); my lawful-neutral-chaotic alignment die (17); and Chessex dungeon design, trap, and treasure dice (18). In the middle of the photo is my collection of old TSR-era soft dice (19). Next is a pair of random d20s I saved from the purge (20). Last year I got three souvenir dice from Gen Con, one from Stink 7, one from Scotty's Brewhouse, and one from WanderingGeek (21). The tiny dice on the right are a pair of GameScience twenty-siders marked 0 to 9 twice (22). Next to the TSR dice are a few random six-siders that don't match anything else (23), including one that came from my copy of Outdoor Survival. Along the bottom are my clear crystal set with extra red d10 and d6 (24); my tiny green set of dice (25), my bone and red dice set (26); my striped green set (27); and a pile of twelve siders I got at Gen Con last year to use for Shadow, Sword, & Spell (28). Dice count for this picture: 110.

All together that puts the total dice count to 346. Not the largest collection I've seen (or had) but definitely enough to cover anything I'm playing for a while.

Back from the con

2011-08-09T14:52:00.000-04:00

This year I ended up spending a total seven days at Gen Con, mostly working and, when I got a few free minutes, shopping for things in the Exhibit Hall. I started with ten goals for the con and managed to accomplish most of them. Here's what I set out to accomplish and how I did:

1. Meet some new people. I always try to get to know at least a few new people at the con every year.
I met a few new people this year, including a couple of old school bloggers and soem people I may be getting into a local game. I didn't meet as many people as I would have liked, though.
2. Get some GameScience dice to replace the set I had decades ago. The originals were lost with my original dice bag. I will be getting the main seven dice, not the funky dice for DCC.
I got myself a new set of blue GameScience dice. When I went to the booth, I had a friend with me that didn;t know anything about GS dice. I ended up launching into a description straight from the video of Colonel Lou about why they are so much better at randomizing.

3. Do a True Dungeon run.
I didn't do a TD run this year, and I'm not likely to do so in the future. I had a very bad experience with some of the volunteers there this year, and I don't feel like pouring lots of money into a company so they can treat me like crap. 'Nuff said.

4. Check out the OSR booth and see who I see and what I want to pick up.
I checked out the OSR booth and picked up a copy of Vornheim. I then showed the book to a few friends who went back and bought their own copy. I'll do a review of it soon. It was a little overwhelming seeing all of the old school goodness in one place like that, but the booth was great!

5. Find a copy of the Gangbusters rulebook for fairly cheap. This is the only one of the classic TSR games I don't have in print or legally available online.
I didn't find a copy of Gangbusters, so I'm still hopng to find one on ebay or somewhere in the future. I did get a copy each of Arms Law & Claw Law and Character Law & Campaign Law for Rolemaster. They were each $6 at the Half-Price Books booth.

6. Get a batch of d6s for a cluster mapping project I'm working on.
I got d6s. Then I got more d6s. Then I got a few more d6s. You get the idea. I definitely have enough dice to get started with the project, so expect a post about that soon.

7. Get a couple of basic brick molds from Hirst Arts. I'm thinking of starting a big casting project to use up a lot of plaster I have, and I need some more basic molds for it.
I ended up getting one large basic brick mold, but that should be good enough for the project. With the new mold, my old large and small basic brick molds, and a floor tile mold, I should be able to use all the plaster in a batch without a lot of waste or unusual bricks.

8. Have dinner and/or drinks with all of my friends from out of town at least once each.
I didn't get the chance to see everyone I wanted to see, but I did have plenty of time with the people I did manage to connect with.

9. Avoid the con crud. I'm going to stock up on vitamin C, water, and healthy snacks and try to get plenty of sleep throughout the con.
No con crud, despite not eating well, sleeping much less than necessary, and not drinking nearly enough water.

10. Get some good swag.
I left with a ton of great swag this year!I'll do a separate post about that in a bit.

Altogether, this was a great con. There were a record-breaking number of people at the show. I have to wait until the actual number is released by GenCon, LLC, but there was a huge jump in attendance and participation. The extra space in the convention center helped to spread things out so there was not as much clumping in the hallways, and everything seemed to just go a lot smoother.

The Long Con

2011-08-01T11:18:00.001-04:00

Lately I haven't been posting much here because of other things going on in the rest of my life. Hopefully, I will get back to a more regular schedule soon.

In the meantime, I'm in the final stages of getting ready for Gen Con today and tomorrow. Tomorrow I will be doing some training and going to the big planning meeting. After that, it's pretty much all work for me until Sunday. Next Monday is going to be recovery day.

If you're going to the con, you can try to find me. I'll either be working at Badge Registration (not a good time to catch me for a chat!) or walking around and seeing what I see. The only consistent way you'll be able to recognize me in the crowd is by my backpack, so good luck. I was planning to get a shirt or button made to wear, but I ran out of time.

Aside from working a lot, here are the things I'd like to do at the con:

1. Meet some new people. I always try to get to know at least a few new people at the con every year.

2. Get some GameScience dice to replace the set I had decades ago. The originals were lost with my original dice bag. I will be getting the main seven dice, not the funky dice for DCC.

3. Do a True Dungeon run.

4. Check out the OSR booth and see who I see and what I want to pick up.
5. Find a copy of the Gangbusters rulebook for fairly cheap. This is the only one of the classic TSR games I don't have in print or legally available online.

6. Get a batch of d6s for a cluster mapping project I'm working on.

7. Get a couple of basic brick molds from Hirst Arts. I'm thinking of starting a big casting project to use up a lot of plaster I have, and I need some more basic molds for it.

8. Have dinner and/or drinks with all of my friends from out of town at least once each.

9. Avoid the con crud. I'm going to stock up on vitamin C, water, and healthy snacks and try to get plenty of sleep throughout the con.

10. Get some good swag.

Hopefully, I'll be able to do an update or two during the con, but I'm not promising anything. If not, I'll have a full report next week.

Captain America is still my hero

2011-07-24T11:52:00.002-04:00

I saw Captain America: The First Avenger on Friday morning, and I was very happy with it. My comments here have spoilers, so here's the obligatory alert.

Like the rest of the recent Marvel movies, it took some liberties and changed a few things from the comics. While some people have seen that as a fault of the movies, I am willing to give the filmmakers the benefit of the doubt in most cases and look at the films on their own. Since Cap is such a favorite of mine, I was afraid I wouldn't be able to do that in this case. Fortunately, I didn't find any of the changes that jarring, and they all seemed to make the story flow better on its own and, eventually, into the storylines of the other movies leading to the Avengers movie next year.

I commented before that Cap isn't a hero like a lot of others, in that he is not best on his own. He works best as a leader and inspiration, and this film captured that well. None of the Invaders make an appearance except for Bucky and, possibly, the Human Torch. The Howling Commandos do appear, sans Nick Fury, but they are never credited as such. Cap assumes the role that is normally reserved for Fury in regards to the Commandos. He leads them into a situation and then lets the wreak havoc.

Bucky is a fairly central character in the film, taking the role of friend more than sidekick here. I liked the presentation of Bucky's character and the shift from being the "plucky sidekick" kind of character. It kept the tone of the movie away from camp.

Overall the movie had a fairly serious tone that is absent from a lot of superhero movies that befits the character of Cap. There were a few humorous scenes, but these all helped to stage the development of Cap as a soldier and leader forced to be a symbol of his country and, ultimately, as a man out of time. The film definitely demonstrates a different attitude toward patriotism and duty than what is commonly touted as such today, and I was glad to see it.

There were plenty of nods to the classic Cap canon in the film as well. He participates in stage shows to rally the civilians in the US to buy bonds. In the show he "punches out" Hitler for the audience, an obvious nod to the first issue of the Golden Age Cap. There is a scene that shows him in a black and white movie that appears to be a nod to the B movie from 1944. In the expo where he and Bucky see Stark demoing the floating car, there is a synthetic man on display that is a nod to the original Human Torch, all the way down to the red body suit costume.

The one thing that seemed odd at first in the movie was that there were very few nazis portrayed in the film. A few nazi officers menace the Red Skull early in the movie, but the Skull kills them to show that his aims are separate from those of Nazi Germany. This puts the focus squarely on Hydra. That actually works in this case, as it allows Cap to be involved in fighting the war without being in the thick of otherwise historical events. World War II is fought and won by the GIs because Cap and his team take on the threat of the Red Skull and Hydra. It's a nice touch that preserves a lot of the Marvel continuity and history.

Hugo Weaving as the Red Skull is perfect. He has a particular air of arrogance and malice that I have not seen in any other Marvel screen villain so far. Chris Evans plays Cap well, but Weaving is definitely the strongest actor in the film.

Now I just have to wait for the Avengers...

Snow White what?

2011-07-24T08:25:00.000-04:00

I don't know anything about the Snow White and the Huntsman movie that's going in production. I just heard about it through some of the Comic-Con news. I did see some pics of Kristen Stewart all dressed up in armor, though, and had to say, "What?" Snow White apparently suits up like Joan of Arc to take on the evil queen. OK. Whatever.

Said evil queen looks great. Charlize Theron is definitely channeling her inner Maleficent in this:

But does anybody else think that Stewart looks like she should be fighting alongside Merry, Pippin, and the defenders of Gondor:

Maybe it will be cool. Meh.

Note: None of these images are mine, and I do not have permission to use them. If you're the owner and you want me to remove them, let me know.

Dancing with Dragons

2011-07-18T16:44:00.000-04:00

I've been quiet the past few days because I've been reading A Dance with Dragons. Fortunately, I got to meet George R.R. Martin and get my copy signed this past Saturday. I also got him to sign a couple copies of the Hedge Knight comic, too.

I don't drive, so I got a copy of DWD for my mom and she drove us to the signing. We got there early to get an armband for the line and ended up being in group 11. Banded and ready, we went out for breakfast and then back to the bookstore. Neither of us really like crowds at all, and we especially hate being in a cramped space with a crowd. There were a couple thousand people there for the signing, so we spent a couple hours walking around the store and trying to stay out of people's way.

In the process, I found out a copy of the collected fiction of HP Lovecraft that is now published by Barnes & Noble. Happy birthday to me! Once we finally got in line, it only took about thirty minutes to get to the table to get things signed.

While he was signing, I talked a bit about the important stuff -- gaming. I found out that he doesn't game in Westeros, but he does like the various game products that have been developed based on his books. He still games regularly in a GURPS-based historical Rome game, which I already knew about from some of the other gaming-related interviews he's done in the past. I also asked him if we could ever expect to see him at GenCon. He acknowledged that there has been a lot of interest and even some formal requests for him to go. Unfortunately, there are so many other things going on about the same time (San Diego ComicCon and a couple other big shows) that it has been impossible for him to fit GC into his schedule so far. He did say he'd like to get there sometime, though.

The pic at the top is my mom and I talking with George after he signed my books. Here's the other stuff:

This one goes to 11

My copy of A Dance with Dragons

Image Comics Hedge Knight #1

Hedge Knight #1
Convention Special from Wizard World Chicago 2003,
signed by Mike S. Miller (penciller and art director) and (now) GRRM

The Complete Fiction by H.P. Lovecraft published by Barnes & Noble,
1098 pages of Lovecraftian goodness!

Still hoping for the best with Cap

2011-07-15T01:28:00.002-04:00

I've been a Captain America fan since I was a kid. Even without a lot of over-the-top powers, he still holds his own. I'm still hoping the new movie lives up to its hype. It's at least nice to see they got his fighting style right!

Old school sandbox in Indy

2011-07-14T16:45:00.001-04:00

I already posted this on the OD&D boards and the Goblinoid Games forums, but I figured I'd throw this out here in case someone local is looking for a game.

I am trying to put together an old school sandbox-style game in Indianapolis. I don't have a lot of details yet, but I'd like to play in person about every other week. I don't expect to have all the same players there every week, necessarily, but I would like to get a good core group.

More than likely, we'll need to find somewhere downtown to play. I have limited transportation options, and none of the local game stores are easily accessible. If someone is willing to make sure I have a ride, I'd be willing to play at Gamerz in Greenwood.

I'm open for playing either on a weeknight or the weekend.

Once I have a half dozen interested people, I'll get things rolling. I already have one person I'm in contact with about it, so I need five more.

Anyone interested?

My plea to Disney

2011-07-14T12:26:00.000-04:00

Please, don't suck. That is all.

Checking Out Chainmail, Part 7

2011-07-13T13:41:00.001-04:00

This time we turnto the fatigue rules and some questions about Swiss troops. Priorposts in this series can be found by following the links in the leftsidebar.

The fatigue rulesintroduce an interesting element to the game. Basically, if troopstry to do too much continuously, they suffer penalties to fightingability, defensive ability, and morale. The things that cause fatigueare movement, charging, and morale. To recover to full strength, theunit must spend one full turn not moving.

Swiss andLandsknechte take twice as long to become fatigued, presumablybecause of the combination of light armor and better training,discipline, and experience. Several other bonuses and exceptionsapply to these troops as well. I will describe some of these as weget deeper into the rules, but here's a quick list of what I foundflipping through my notes. In addition to taking twice as long to getfatigued, they incur half the penalty of other troops when changingformation. They have the option of forming a true hedgehog ifarranged in a square. They receive additional dice in combat, are notslowed by taking prisoners, have morale bonuses that prevent themfrom breaking, and force morale penalties on anyone they charge.

From what I cansee, if there could be an exception to some kind of rule that wouldmake these troops better, they have it. These guys are definitely thesupermen of the Chainmail battlefield! I understand that Swiss wereconsidered the best mercenaries at the time and achieved a storiedreputation. They did shield the Pope well enough to become hispersonal guards, but were they really that good?

Angry elves in Iceland

2011-07-11T22:06:00.000-04:00

How much do I want to incorporate this into a modern D&D-style game.

Sacred Cows

2011-07-11T15:39:00.000-04:00

Last year when I started my blog here I didn't have a Facebook account. At the time, I realized that I didn't want to spend the time to keep up with it. A few months ago, I changed my mind and decided to get one. I got laid off soon thereafter, so I've had plenty of time to keep up without having to worry too much about it eating my soul.

For the most part, I don't use Facebook for a lot of gaming stuff. I follow a couple of gaming companies and have a few friends that I've met through gaming, but mostly I try to keep the gaming stuff to the blog, forums, and email. If I get a Google+ account started, I'll probably use that for more gaming stuff, but we'll see when that happens.

One of the people I'm friends with on Facebook is Monte Cook. Regardless of what I think about how D&D has developed since WOTC took the property, I really like a lot of what Monte has put together. He's had a ton of interesting ideas, and I'm always happy to steal ideas from him.

Anyway, today he posted a question on Facebook:

Back when I worked on 3rd edition D&D, we developed a list of "sacred cows"--things we had to make sure we didn't change or screw up. These were things that, if they weren't in game, the game wasn't D&D. Some of them were mechanics, like stats from 3-18. Some were flavor, like beholders. Some were actions at the table, like picking up a bunch of 6-siders when you said you cast fireball.

What would be on your list?

I don't really have a lot of scared cows. The ones that come to mind quickly are: 3-18 for basic player ability scores, armor class, hit points, separate to hit and damage rolls in combat, saving throws, the big four classes, a variety of monsters, treasure and magic items of inexplicable provenance, and a vast subterranean environment in which to thrash said monsters and acquire said treasure. Everything else is up for grabs, and I've been known to compromise on some of these in the past. Like I said, I'm not too worried about sacred cows.

What I am concerned with are central ideas. I think this is because I'm not really thinking of or trying to develop a new system. I like developing campaign and adventure ideas, instead. So, what I want to think about are not the sacred cows of the system but the setting. For the most part, D&D settings have a few sacred cows that define them. Greyhawk assumes a late medieval tech level, the involvement and machinations of various gods and demi-gods in mortal affairs, a moderately high magic level, and an integrated cultural history. Forgotten Realms assumes a slightly later tech level, more magic, less immediate involvement of the gods (at least before second edition AD&D), and an anything goes cultural basis. Ravenloft takes slivers of a lot of worlds and juxtaposes them, mixes magic and tech levels, and tinges everything with horror. The list goes on, but you get the idea.

So, what are the sacred cows on your list for a setting to be considered D&D?

Waiting for Dave

2011-07-11T12:09:00.000-04:00

One of the NPR blogs has a post aboutan Ericsson commercial that is really creepy. Go check it out. I'llwait.

Okay, now that you're back, I'll tellyou why I'm talking about this on a gaming blog. This commercial andthe analysis in the post reminds me why I prefer to play pen andpaper games instead of electronic ones.

I like all of the personal, human stuffthat goes along with the actual gaming. I like that the othercharacters in the game are created and played by real people. Theirresponse is not based on some algorithm, however complex. They arenot constrained by the decisions coded into the AI of the game, as isthe case for computer RPGs. Their response to any particular thing Ido in the game is based on the human supposition of how theircharacter(s) would respond in that situation.

Also, whatever happens in the game,half of the activity is getting together with other people. WheneverI game with other people, we eat and drink together, share stories,banter and tease, and generally have a good time with each other.Most game sessions we don't accomplish much in the game, but we havea good time together nonetheless. Online gaming has some of thebanter and teasing, but without the actual presence and interactionthat happens with immediate personal proximity.

I don't look forward to thedehumanization of our world through the implementation of technology.Fortunately, there are still enough people that agree with me thatpen and paper RPGs are still being played.

Checking Out Chainmail, Part 6

2011-07-10T04:00:00.000-04:00

This time I'm going to look at theformation and facing information. This is the sixth post in theseries; the other posts are linked in the left column.

In Chainmail,units have movement penalties for changing formation orfacing. The rules give the penalties for a unit changing from acolumn to a line formation and vice versa, from a column to a square,and from a line to a square. Only foot troops can form a square.Essentially, you could chart out the formations like so:

Line – Column – Square

Any change from one to the next incursa penalty of one move. So it takes one movement to reform for eachstep across the range. As a unit reforms or turns, it loses movementin order to maintain its organization. That makes sense. A unit hasto exercise some discipline and energy to reform itself.

The interesting bit in this section,though, is the reliance again on some former knowledge orassumptions. Specifically, none of the formations are described orspecified in any way. This caused me to exercise the extent of mystupidity until I realized some of the assumptions inherent in theseparticular rules.

Initially, I was looking at thestraight geometric arrangement of the troops as the determiningfactor for their arrangement. I assumed that a line is a single fileformation of troops, a column is a rectangular body of troops that issignificantly wider or longer in one direction than the other, andthat a square is a body of troops that approximates a square asclosely as possible. So, if you have 24 models in a unit, a linewould have them arranged in a 1 x 24 formation of figures. A columnwould be either 2 x 12 or 3 x 8. A square would be 5 x 5 with amissing model in the formation, possibly in the back rank or the verycenter of the formation. A 4 x 6 formation would either be a columnor a square, depending on how literal you wanted to be about asquare.

Then I started thinking in terms ofhistorical formations. Thinking in these terms, a line is the same, asingle rank or file of troops. A column is a block of troops,arranged in ranks, facing in a single direction.A square is a block of troops arranged in equal ranks around acentral command, facing outward in all directions.The important thing to consider in determining the unit's formationis its facing. A column faces one direction, and a square faces inall four outward directions.

Thisfacing also determines how it can move and how much it is penalizedfor doing so. Any move in other than a straight line is penalized.Oblique moves incur a 1/4 move penalty, left or right face incur ahalf move penalty, and turning about takes a full move. So, units inlines and columns move in a particular direction with the appropriatemovement penalty. Most troops formed into a square formation, though,would need to reform into a column before moving. The only exceptionswould be the troops that are allowed to form a hedgehog as describedlater in the rules. Square formations are not subject to flanking,but they are immobile until they reform for movement.

Wargames Research Group Ancient and Medieval rules

2011-07-09T04:00:00.001-04:00

In the comments to my most recent Checking Out Chainmail post, faoladh pointed out some similarities in the old Wargames Research Group Ancients rules and Chainmail. I found a site where you can read about the development of the WRG rules and download copies of the old rules to trace their development. I downloaded all of the rules sets that were available during the time when Chainmail was being developed. That includes the first edition, published in February 1969 up to the fourth edition, published in 1973. Later I'll be taking a look at these rules to see how they may have influenced Chainmail. If you're interested in checking them out as well, you can do so here.

Digital Orc's blog list

2011-07-08T21:54:00.003-04:00

Digital Orc has put together a list of a ton of old school blogs, including this one. Check it out.

Checking Out Chainmail, Part 5

2011-07-07T13:04:00.000-04:00

This is the fifth post in this series. You can find links to the other parts in the left-hand column of the blog.

After the terrain section, the next thing we see is the movement table. This shows the movement rates and base missile ranges for the various troop types in the game. The movement rates for foot troops arebetween 6" (armored foot) and 12" (Landsknecht/Swiss, arquibusiers/crossbowmen, and longbowmen). For cavalry, the moves are 12" for heavy horse, 18" for medium horse, and 24" for light. All artillery move 6".

Cavalry and artillery benefit when using roads to travel, gaining a 3" or 6" bonus to movement. Most foot and cavalry also gain a 3" or 6" bonus when charging. Only armored foot and heavy crossbowmen gain no bonus to movement from a charge.

Missile ranges are from 3" for heavy foot armed with throwing axes and spears to 24" for heavy crossbowmen.

None of this really sticks out as being unusual, except possibly the lack of a difference between the normal and charge move for armored foot and crossbowmen. I can only guess that Gygax and Perren assumed that the heavy armor worn by armored foot was too heavy for running or that their weaponry was too unwieldy to allow for a running charge. In the case of heavy crossbowmen, I can only assume that they were thinking of difficulties in movement for these troops caused by firing stands, winches, and other equipment. Otherwise, both of these troop types should probably have the 3" bonus when charging that other infantry do.

Looking forward

2011-06-28T11:19:00.000-04:00

I haven't been posting much lately because I've been trying to fight off the combined assault of a nasty summer cold and the end of a statistics class. As much as I love poring over old tables in the DMG and looking at the probabilities for various things based on those tables, I really struggle with the math involved in stats. Fortunately, we were expected to use Excel to solve most of the problems, so I was able to muscle my way through most of the stuff for the class without much strain to my brain.

I'm also getting ready for GenCon again, and that means both planning my schedule and deciding what to look for in the exhibit hall. Lately I've been filling in a lot of holes in my gaming collection. I finished my collection of OD&D and supplements, got another copy of the Rules Cyclopedia, got a copy of the Traveller boxed set and Book 0, and picked up copies of the Gamma World and Boot Hill rulebooks on eBay. I also picked up Woodland Warriors and the two supplements for it. The gaming shelf is looking like it used to back in the day, with a few choice new supplements like WW.

In addition to all the physical stuff, I've got quite a pile of electrons to sort through as well. I've been slowly going through a lot of pdfs, free and purchased, deciding exactly what to print and use at the game table. I have quite a few references that have found their way to print so I can see how they play.

All that said, I'm not sure what I'm excited to see at the con. I know I'll be stopping by the OSR booth to see what's available. I'll probably check out the Gamescience booth for some new dice. Other than that, I'm not really jazzed about anything in particular. Is there anything out there I should be looking for?

On a similar note, I'm not really scheduled for any events. I may be doing a True Dungeon run with some old friends if it works with my volunteering schedule, but otherwise I don't have anything specific planned. Any of you old schoolers have a game planned I could jump into? Or is there a game you'd love to play you couldn't fit in the schedule that you'd like me to run? Or does anybody want to just get together for breakfast or a late dinner and swap some old school war stories? Drop a comment or an email my way and tell me what I should be looking forward to.

Checking Out Chainmail, Part 4

2011-06-14T17:10:00.000-04:00

This is the fourth installment in my Checking Out Chainmail series. The other installments are here: Introduction, Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3.

The next section of the rules deals with terrain, beginning with descriptions of the effects of different types of terrain and ending with a section on choosing specific terrain for the battlefield. There are rules given for the following terrain types: hill, wooded, marshy, rough, ditch and rampart, river and stream. All of the terrain types slow movement by 50% except rough and river and stream. All terrain prevents charge moves. Most also have other special rules or effects on particular troops. Most of these are fairly standard adjustments.

Rivers, though, are slightly different. For rivers and streams: "Treat individually as to fordability, penalty for crossing, and so on. (A typical stream would require 6" to cross and prevent charge moves, while a typical river would require troops to halt before and after crossing and cost an entire move to cross.)" (p. 10) This kind of variability and need for planning between opponents is a reminder of when these rules were written and the breadth of their applicability. In rules sets developed more recently, the normal tactic would be to describe the effects of streams and rivers in more detail or simply write them off as impassible except at particular points like bridges and fords. The variability in regards to rivers also highlights that these rules were written by and for gamers who like to house rule and modify their games. Just like the options in the turn sequences, this is a reminder that none of the rules is set in stone. They should be modified to best simulate the kind of play the group wants or that the battle situation warrants.

In regards to choosing terrain, the rules present a system where different terrain types are listed on 3x5 cards. The players take it in turns to draw and place terrain on the table. It's a nice, elegant system that I am probably going to adopt for all my wargames from now on. It's also a great example of the kind of subsystems that are so typical of the classic wargames and roleplaying games.

Touching base and weighing in

2011-06-10T16:54:00.000-04:00

It's been a while since I posted, but my non-gaming life took over for a bit. Between looking for jobs, dealing with a couple chronic medical issues, and taking graduate classes, I've been a little too overwhelmed to do much writing. I have been reading lots of other blogs, though, and I wanted to respond to a couple things.

First, there is a great set of resources for Labyrinth Lord linked over at Mithril and Mages. My reference sheets and monster matrix are in the list, but my stuff definitely pales compared to a lot of what is there. If you like LL or B/X D&D, check it out.

Second, almost everyone has weighed in on the DCC RPG beta. I haven't even bothered downloading it, because I have too many other things I'm interested in looking at already. I also agree with Al over at Beyond the Black Gate. I have enough flavors of D&D to run any game I could ever want to play.

The way I figure it, with what I have on my gaming shelf or in pdf on my hard drive, I can run a game with six different core systems: OD&D, Holmes Basic, Moldvay/Cook B/X, AD&D, Mentzer BECMI, or AD&D 2E. I could also run one of the retro-clones, near clones, or derivatives: Swords & Wizardry, Labyrinth Lord, OSRIC, Woodland Warriors, Backswords & Bucklers, etc. If I want, I could add in elements from TSR's Warriors of Mars, Metamorphosis Alpha, Gamma World, or even Boot Hill. I could pull in things from Judges Guild supplements, Bard Games' Compleat series or Arcanum system, a dozen different magazines (old or new), and all of the various websites, blogs, forums, and products that are being put together and published by people online. I have a wealth of materials that I can draw on for a game. I don't need another game. I don't even need another supplement, really.

Expect another episode of the Chainmail read-through in a bit.

Checking Out Chainmail, Part 3

2011-05-31T11:10:00.000-04:00

This is part three of my read-through of the Chainmail rules. The first two installments can be found here and here.

This time, we're into the turn sequence for the game. The rules present two different possibilities for the turn sequence, a move/countermove system and a simultaneous movement system.

In the former, the turn breaks down as follows:

Both players roll a die. The player with the higher score chooses to go first or second.
First player moves, performs split fires, and takes pass-through fire.
The second player moves, performs split fire, and takes pass-through fire.
Artillery fire is resolved by both sides.
Missile fire is resolved by both sides.
Melee is resolved.

In the simultaneous movement system, the turn breaks down this way:

Both commanders write orders for their units. Orders must specify direction of movement and facing.
Both sides move half their movement.
All split fire and pass-through fire are resolved for both sides simultaneously.
Once move-based fire is resolved, unobstructed troops complete the other half of their movement.
Artillery fire is resolved by both sides.
Missile fire is resolved by both sides.
Melee is resolved.

The first sequence is similar to the typical “you go, I go” turn sequence that Warhammer and most other miniatures games use, except that movement happens in sequence and combat is always resolved simultaneously. It also differs from Warhammer and others because you roll to see who moves first every turn. Each commander has the option every turn of deciding to take the initiative or wait and respond to what their opponent is doing with their movement.

The second sequence eliminates the possibility of immediate response to your opponent's actions during the turn. It forces commanders to really think ahead and plan what their troops should do for a particular turn. I like the idea of this system, as it automatically introduces some uncertainty and “fog of war” possibilities into the game. The only downside to it is recording all of the orders and making sure that they make sense and are executed appropriately. I can definitely imagine situations that would cause problems using written orders, and I would only play with this system with people that I trust not to nit-pick things to death. Otherwise, I can see a lot of arguments happening.

The one thing I love about both systems is that combat is always resolved simultaneously. You still have the typical “move-shoot-fight-recover” breakdown, but all of the fighting happens for both sides at the same time. You can't have half your force wiped out before they get to act unless you move poorly and subject yourself to fire in the movement portion of the turn. I can accept that exception, because it's based on something I do and not on the arbitrary basis of having rolled higher on a single die roll. In a lot of games, you are at an impressive disadvantage simply by having lost the die roll to see who gets to move first. Both of these systems mitigate this.

LL Reference Sheets and Monster Matrix moved

2011-05-31T07:01:00.000-04:00

I finally moved the Labyrinth Lord Reference Sheets and Monster Matrix I made last year over to my RPG Files page. They're both available in pdf. For now, they only include information from the main LL rules.

Reference Sheets
Monster Matrix

That was fast!

2011-05-28T16:24:00.000-04:00

I ordered a copy of Woodland Warriors and the compilation of the first four issues of Fight On! from Lulu on Thursday, and they just got to my door. On top of the fast shipping, both books were individually wrapped in bubble wrap and plastic wrapped to a stiff sheet of cardboard! This is the first time I've ordered anything from Lulu, and I have to say that I'm definitely impressed.

Look for some reviews of the new books soon.

Kicking the ant nest

2011-05-28T14:15:00.004-04:00

Almost a year ago, I wrote a post about giant ants where I expanded on the types of ants available. You can download a copy of my writeup here. I also put together a map of an ant lair for an adventure I was planning to put together featuring giant ants. I’m still kicking the adventure around and working on some more ideas for it.

One thing that I’m thinking about is having no specific map for the adventure. Instead, the ant nest would be generated on the fly, making every run through the adventure completely unique. To accomplish that, I drew up the following table. It’s designed to be used with hex paper (or Hexographer), but you could probably adapt it to use with regular gridded paper if you wanted. I like hexes for this because it gives a lot more variety to the angles in the nest. It could also be used for other tunneling insects or monsters as well.

Random Tunnel Generator

Die Roll (1d12)	Result
1	continue straight for 2d4 hexes (1 in 6 ends)
2	turn left behind; check again in 2d4 hexes (1 in 6 ends)
3-4	turn left ahead; check again in 2d4 hexes (1 in 6 ends)
5	turn right behind; check again in 2d4 hexes (1 in 6 ends)
6-7	turn right ahead; check again in 2d4 hexes (1 in 6 ends)
8-9	branch in two directions (roll 1d10; check again on this table for each passage after 2d4 hexes; 1 in 6 chance for each passage to end)
	1	left behind and left ahead
	2	left behind and straight
	3	left behind and right behind
	4	left behind and right ahead
	5	left ahead and straight
	6	left ahead and right behind
	7	left ahead and right ahead
	8	straight and right behind
	9	straight and right ahead
	10	right behind and right ahead
10	branch in three directions (roll 1d10; check again on this table for each passage after 2d4 hexes; 1 in 6 chance for each passage to end)
	1	left behind, left ahead, and straight
	2	left behind, left ahead, and right behind
	3	left behind, left ahead, and right ahead
	4	left behind, straight, and right behind
	5	left behind, straight, and right ahead
	6	left behind, right behind, and right ahead
	7	left ahead, straight, and right behind
	8	left ahead, straight, and right ahead
	9	left ahead, right behind, and right ahead
	10	straight, right behind, and right ahead
11-12	chamber (roll 3d12 for size in hexes; roll 1d3-1 for number of exits if room is less than 24 hexes in size, otherwise roll 1d6-1 for number of exits)

Best captcha ever and a milestone

2011-05-26T15:00:00.001-04:00

I was leaving a comment over at Chicago Wiz's blog, and this was the captcha that came up on the form. Obviously I couldn't resist taking a screen capture.

I also noticed that I have finally made it to over a hundred posts here, which would be a great milestone if I hadn't started the blog almost a year ago. Taking several months off obviously killed my post count for a while, not to mention losing me quite a few readers. The funny thing is, I'm not really worried about either of those things now.

I started the blog as a way to get some of my gaming ideas out into the world and as a way to recruit some players. It's working admirably for the first and not so well for the second. Despite the lack of players, though, I'm still working on gaming stuff almost every day and trying to get more of it written and posted. I haven't lost the idea of developing as much of my own stuff as I can. I've just hit a few bumps in the road that have slowed me down.

Until I can get more new stuff done, I'm enjoying doing the Chainmail read-through, posting maps, and generally trying to clean things up. I still need to migrate my old stuff to RPGFiles and correct the links in the old posts. I also have quite a few stalled projects to filter through, prioritize, and get back into. It's going to take some more time, but I'll get to it soon. In the meantime, hopefully the rest of my content here is better than the captcha.

Thank you to everybody that has been reading and putting up with my crazy gamer ADD here. Hopefully some of what I've been putting up has been useful for some of you. If there's anything I've started you think I should pick back up right away, let me know. (And, Trey, I've got some ideas already in the works about yeti and Bigfoot.) In the meantime, Keep gaming!

Checking Out Chainmail, Part 2

2011-05-26T03:08:00.000-04:00

Moving forward in my reading of the Chainmail rules, this time we reach the "Chainmail rules for medieval miniatures" section of the book. The section starts with some notes about the purpose of the rules, the scale for the game and ratio of figures, as well as what is now a fairly typical suggestion about the game rules.

In regards to the scale and ratio, the rules were developed for 40mm scale figures, which were probably the most common scale miniatures in the authors’ collections or thatthey saw as being the most commonly available. They note that they will work equally well with any scale, including the 25mm plastic figures that were produced by Airfix back in the day. The recommended figure to man ratio is 1:20 for larger figures (30mm or larger) and 1:10 for smaller figures.

I collected quite a few sets of the 1/72 scale figures when I was a kid, and I'm thinking that may be the best way to get some figures to test out the rules. They're available in reasonably large quantities for much cheaper than any of the traditional plastic and metal miniatures, and I've seen examples of figures from just about every time period and place. As much as I love higher quality minis, I'm just not that interested in spending a fortune to play.

I'm not really sure about the figure ratios suggested. My first thought is that it really doesn't matter. The only real determinant for which to use is how many troops you have on each side and the appropriate ratio required to make that look good on the table. I agree that miniature wargaming should produce spectacle, so I'm going to use that as my main criterion for what ratio to use. I’ll see how it actually works out in play before I really decide how I like it.

The ground scale is static, specifically 1" to 10 yards, and each turn is about one minute of scale time. There is no flexibility in these categories. Interestingly, these same scales will carry through almost all of the derivatives of Chainmail, especially Dungeons & Dragons.

Another thing that will carry forward from these rules is the suggestion that they be house-ruled:

Although the rules have been thoroughly play-tested over a period of many months, it is likely that you will eventually find some part that seems ambiguous, unanswered, or unsatisfactory. When such a situation arises settle it among yourselves, record the decision in the rules book, and abide by it from then on. These rules may be treated as guide lines around which you form a game that suits you. It is always a good idea to amend the rules to allow for historical precedence or common sense — follow the spirit of the rules rather than the letter. (p. 8)

Because of the variety of options available in the rules, some interpretation is always required. Also, no matter how clear a particular set of rules is, there will always be arguments about how particular things work during a game. There will also be times when the rules produce conflicting situations. This is pretty common in all of the wargames and derivatives I’ve played.

Something that stands out to me in this particular statement of the “have it your way” paragraph, though is the last two sentences. In most games, the wording of this sentiment is much stronger. The designers want you to use their rules their way and only adjudicate rules arguments when things conflict. That isn’t the case here. Gygax and Perren want you to use the rules as guidelines to create the game you want to play. Chainmail is the skeleton that you can flesh out to suit your own particular tastes.

This particular sentiment may be the spirit of the times. In the late 60s and early 70s, the wargaming community was experimenting with a lot of different rules ideas and game mechanics and styles. Game clubs exchanged ideas and tweaked rules, often creating entire systems of home-brewed rules for tournaments and events. Part of this was due to necessity (there were not a lot of different rules sets to draw from) but part was the do-it-yourself nature of the hobby at the time. If a set of rules could approximate more than one period or style of game with just a few modifications, it makes more sense to develop a few house rules than try to reinvent the wheel and create a whole new system.

On the other hand, though, my interpretation of these lines may be simply based on hindsight and my preferred understanding of some history of the game. Knowing that it was the framework that D&D was built on, specifically through the process described by these two lines, probably colors my thinking. I like to see intention where it may not be appropriate.

Regardless of which is true, though, the fact that these lines appear in the second paragraph of the rules definitely encourages us to work with them and make them useful for our own particular games.

Something's happening here

2011-05-24T23:10:00.000-04:00

What it is ain't exactly clear, but George Strayton has been hinting at something that completely change the gaming industry. If you read his post about it today and do the math, you'll find that it coincides with the beginning of Gen Con this year. So there will at least be one big thing happening at the con this year. I'm not really convinced that anything will be that revolutionary anymore, but we'll see.

Checking Out Chainmail, Part 1

2011-05-23T05:37:00.000-04:00

Last week I posted about wanting to read through the Chainmail rules to see what I could make of them. Having finished an initial read-through, I have to say that I am impressed. I am looking forward to getting some minis out on the table and running some games. In the meantime, though, I'm going to go through the rules here and tell you what I think of them.

At the time I wasn't sure that I wanted to do a full page-by-page reading of the rules, but I've changed my mind since actually going through them. There's a ton of information there! There's also a fairly robust system for wargaming.

This reading is based on the 3rd edition, 7th printing of the rules that was published in April 1979, according to the copyright page. The 3rd edition was copyrighted in 1975, so this edition is four years after that date. Presumably, it incorporates some rules changes and/or clarifications that were developed over that time. I don't have access to any prior versions of the rules, so I'm going on what I've got here.

The book is 45 pages long. Pages 1 through 3 are the title page, copyright notice, and Table of Contents respectively. Page 4 shows a couple of pictures of figures on a gaming table. The Introduction starts on page 5 and runs through page 7. We then have the "Chainmail rules for medieval miniatures" from page 8 through 24, "Man-to-Man Combat" rules from page 25 through 27, the "Fantasy supplement" from page 28 through 39, and five appendices with combat and reference tables on pages 40 through 44. Page 45 shows a listing of products from TSR.

Introduction

The Introduction is fairly dense with information. It begins with a one-paragraph description of wargaming as a hobby and then launches right into the requirements for a game:

In order to play a wargame it is necessary to have rules, miniature figures and accompanying equipment, a playing area, and terrain to place upon it. There can be no douubt that you have fulfilled the first requirement, for you have purchased this set of rules. Your troops can be any scale that you desire. The playing area that the battles are fought out upon should be a table rather than the floor. It can be from a minimum of 4' to a maximum of 7' wide, and it should be at least 8' in length. These sizes will assure ample room for maneuver. There are several methods of depicting the terrain features generally used for wargames, such as hills, woods, rivers, roads, etc. (p. 5)

So here we see the basic list of equipment. Apparently the authors assumed that players would have dice on hand.

It's interesting that here they say that the miniatures used can be any scale, while later they will recommend using particular scale figures for the game. It's also interesting that they insist on a playing area of at least 4' by 8'. This is a fairly large area for a basic skirmish, but is definitely good for a larger action. I'm thinking that a board that large will definitely "assure ample room for maneuver," but it may also make for lots of maneuvering and wheeling without a lot of fighting. I'll have to see how that plays out in practice.

In the descriptions of the methods for constructing terrain, we see suggestions for piece terrain, modular 2' by 2' boards, and a sand table. The latter is described as the most complicated and realistic option. Having seen the way that wargames terrain has developed over the last 35 years, I'm going to respectfully disagree with the authors here.

The authors next turn to the different ways that players can select their forces for a game. They suggest the following:

Use a historical battle and choose the forces to match historical accounts.
Choose sides by points.
Have the forces assigned by a neutral third party.
Map based campaigns determine the forces. "... worked out from a 'campaign' situation where larger armies are moved on a map until hostile forces come into contact." (p. 6)

What's most interesting in the determination of forces, though, is the way that they interpret "balance." In most current rules sets for wargames, there is an overwhelming emphasis on playing games balanced by having equal forces on both sides. The authors here specifically say that shouldn't necessarily be the case:

Playing ability and terrain must also be taken into consideration, however. If, for example, the better player is to receive a 300 point army, it might be wise to allow his opponent to select 50 additional points worth of troops in order to balance the game. Similarly, if one player decides the kind of terrain the battleground is to be composed of — or the historic terrain favors one side — the side with such a terrain advantage should probably have a considerably weaker army. (p. 6)

So when determining the balance between forces on the table top, it is important to consider the relative playing ability of the players. Curious, and definitely a different take on balance.

The remainder of the introduction talks about the abstract nature of wargaming (scaled movement and representation, randomness represented by dice rolls, and so on), morale, and determining victory conditions. For the latter, "it is up to the parties concerned," (p. 6) but the following options are suggested:

Play until one side is down to a particular percentage of its original strength.
Play until one side is completely routed or destroyed.
Play a set number of turns for points assigned to particular troops or terrain features.
Play to match a particular historical objective.

The first and last are the most realistic in terms of historical gaming. The second is generally the option that I have seen most wargamers use. One side is beaten when it's wiped out. The third is similar to the objective and victory point systems we see in games like Warhammer. What is interesting, again, is the amount of variety that they've managed to suggest in a very small space.

More than anything else, the Introduction stresses that these rules are about creating options. They do not insist on being absolutely specific, because they want people to be able to use the rules in as many ways as possible. As they say in the last paragraph,

With no other form of wargaming — or nearly any form of game for that matter — is the player given the scope of choice and range for imagination that miniature warfare provides. You have carte blanche to create or recreate fictional or historic battles and the following rules will, as closely as possible, simulate what would have happened if the battle had just been fought in reality. (p. 7)

Although I can't really speak to the accuracy of the rules for historic recreation of a battle, they do have plenty of variety and a broad enough scope to cover a huge variety of historical periods, game sizes, and types of action.

It's the End of the World As We Know It

2011-05-21T06:12:00.000-04:00

With all the talk of the supposed Rapture today, I've been thinking about apocalypticism. I know that several people in the blogosphere have talked about the typical D&D setting being post-apocalyptic. Lots of dungeons and ruins, fallen civilizations that have left their loot behind just for the adventurers to find, legendary artifacts and relics of a bygone golden age, and so on all point to a prior civilization that the characters are gleaning the scraps from. But what if you made D&D pre-apocalyptic? Especially immediately pre-apocalyptic?

Think about it. You have a civilization at its peak, peopled with the most righteous of the righteous and the most depraved of the depraved. Throw in a religion that has a view of history that includes both a goal and an end to history. Then add some prophets, omens, signs, and portents that point to the end of days being immediate and definite instead of at some nebulous time in the future.

What would your characters do if they heard the world was going to end in a matter of hours? What if they knew the world was going to end in a matter of hours? Do they prepare for it? Take cover? Try to burn all their gold carousing and make a few last XP?

And what do they do if they survive? Do they look for other survivors and try to rebuild? Do they carve a bloody swath through the world and establish their empire on the ashes of the old world? Do they loot to their heart's content? What do they do?

RPGFiles.org

2011-05-19T15:27:00.000-04:00

The other day I decided to check out RPGFiles.org as a way to host some of the things I've put together. In the past I've used Scribd and Google docs to host things, and somehow I always seem to have problems with one or the other. Fortunately, RPGFiles seems to have solved all of the problems.

Setting up the account took a couple of emails. The response was very fast. Once the account was setup, it was easy to upload documents through a web-based ftp site. Addresses for hosted documents all point to the same folder, which has very simple structure. This makes it very easy to link to documents and maintain them on the site.

I can't say anything to uptime, troubleshooting, or technical support, because I haven't had any issues with the site yet. Overall, I'm really impressed. If you need a place to host some files for an old-school rpg, check it out.

In the next couple days I'll be migrating all of my old resources to the site. If you want to see what I have uploaded so far, you can access my files here. I'll provide specific links to each file later once I get them switched over.

Checking out Chainmail

2011-05-19T04:59:00.000-04:00

A couple months ago, I won a couple auctions on eBay for a Collector's Edition OD&D boxed set with the three little brown books, Supplement I: Greyhawk, Supplement II: Blackmoor, Supplement IV: Gods, Demi-Gods, and Heroes, and Swords & Spells. Although I already had them in pdf from WOTC from years ago, it was nice to have actual printed originals. If nothing else, it helps me spot some of the inconsistencies between the pdfs and the originals.

This convinced me to finally print and bind a copy of the Chainmail rules. I'm not as worried about getting an original copy of them, as the printed copy is perfectly readable. I'm also not really sure I want to use it for gaming. I'm perfectly happy using the alternative combat system for OD&D, after all.

I still want to get a handle on Chainmail, though. So the other day I started reading through the book and taking some notes.

My first impression is that this is a much more solid game than I was led to believe. I've seen all kinds of criticism of it, from it being archaic and unwieldy to downright unplayable. There are some things I would probably want to house rule, but I can definitely say it's not unplayable. In fact, from my initial look through the rules, it looks to be a pretty fun little system.

Over the next couple weeks, I'll spend a little more time going through the book in more detail and give you my impressions. It probably won't be a true cover-to-cover analysis, but I'll cover the things I find interesting about it. I'm not really interested in going through everyone else's impressions of it again until I get done, because I want to read it with fresh eyes and see what I see in it on my own. Later, though, I'll try to sift through some of the other stuff online and see where my reading matches and doesn't.

Old Village Map

2011-05-18T10:02:00.000-04:00

I found this map in a folder with a ton of old maps that I worked on about twenty or twenty-five years ago. I'm going to work on scanning and posting them as I can. This map was drawn in pencil on graph paper, and you will probably notice how much it was influenced by the map of Hommlet from T1. I'm thinking of reworking it to make the fields larger and move some of the buildings off the grid to make it more realistic. In the meantime, you may use it for personal use. If you do so, let me know how.

Hex Calculator Revisited

2011-05-14T15:52:00.000-04:00

Jim over at Carjacked Seraphim posted a spreadsheet that populates my spreadsheet from yesterday with values from ChicagoWiz's table. In his post, Jim noted that he was unable to get the Excel sheet to work properly. Here's an Excel sheet (.xls for Excel 97-2003 or .xlsx for Excel 2007) that fills the cells based on the table entries. It doesn't highlight the empty cells in yellow like Jim's, but it's a start.

Sometime in the next few days I may revisit this with different tables, but we'll see how things go. Now it's back to writing more papers for school.

Hex Calculator

2011-05-10T16:19:00.000-04:00

ChicagoWiz just posted a nice table that combines several resources into a single table for populating a hex map. In the post he mentions putting everything into an Excel spreadsheet that could then be tweaked and modified easily. I love what he's done here, but I hate rolling tons of dice to randomly populate maps. So I made a spreadsheet that will do the rolling for me. Obviously, you can use it with whatever percentile table you want to generate results for hexes.

This spreadsheet has two pages, one for vertical hexes and one for horizontal hexes. I only did 100 hexes per sheet to avoid eyestrain. Besides, 100 hexes is plenty for most people to run a sandbox campaign for years. If you need more, just generate one page, print it, and then do another one.

The sheet calculates a random number for each hex between 1 and 100. It automatically recalculates every time you open it. If you want to manually recalculate it, press F9.

You can get the file here:

.xls (Excel 97-2003) version
.xlsx (Excel 2007) version

A to Z Blogging Challenge

2011-05-10T04:00:00.001-04:00

I missed the A to Z blogging challenge, at least as far as writing goes. I spent most of last month trying to get my life in order so I could have time to blog and game. I did follow quite a few old school bloggers that participated in the challenge, though, and it was interesting to see what people were posting. All through the month, I thought of things that I would love to write about if I had the time, energy, and inclination.

I am not going to go back and try to do a series of entries A to Z. Instead, here’s a list of some of the things that came into my head as possible subjects for posts. I picked three for each letter. I had other ideas for some of the letters, but I figured three was a good number for posting.

Eventually, I may try to flesh out some of these. If there are any that you really think I should pursue, let me know. For now, here’s the list with a few comments:

A
Abacus – I learned to use an abacus in grad school as a tool for teaching counting and arithmetic to people that are visually impaired. I’d love to look at counting systems and create some magical abaci to throw into a game.
Atlantis and Lost Civilizations – Atlantis, Mu, Lemuria, Hyboria, etc.
Alignment – three-fold, five-fold, or nine-fold, I still have trouble with alignment schemes in games.

B
Bard – I like bards. Not the start at first level, second edition and later bards. The first edition, be a fighter then a thief, pray you keep all the high ability scores, you finally made it after four years of playing bard. Years ago I developed a similar bard class for BECMI D&D. I created a prestige class to emulate the 1e bard for 3e. I’d like to bring the bard back to where he started.
Backstabbing – Whether thieves or players are doing it, backstabbing gets in the way.
Bibles – I studied theology and focused on biblical ethics. Can your campaign have a holy book or books that have the same weight that the Bible had in the medieval world? Especially interesting since most people in the medieval European world knew the Bible but never read it.

C
Comic books – I read a lot of comics back in the day. A lot of them influenced my games. Some of them still do.
Cartography – I’ve used quite a few cartography and drawing programs to create maps. Now I’m going back to pencils, pen, and paper.
Creativity – All of us have it. Some of us use it. Few of us develop it. I’m working on it.

D
Depth – The deeper the dungeon, the greater the challenge. It applies as much to the pre-game experience of the game master as it does to the in-game experience of the players.
Death – 0 hit points, negative hit points, and save or die. Death in the Tarot and the Death card in the Deck of Many Things.
Decisions – Make some as a game master but leave room for the players to make some, too.

E
Evil – I played my longest-running character in a mostly evil party. We made it work. Evil isn’t stupid, either.
Elves – I love elves, but I would just as soon send them all across the sea. My love-hate relationship with the pointy-eared.
Experiments – Sometimes you have to try new things in your game. Sometimes they don’t work. What do you do when that happens?

F
Fire – I’m terrified of burning, but I love having monsters set things on fire in dungeons and enclosed spaces. Make your characters deal with a literal smoke screen sometime.
Fantasy – How fantastic is your game?
Forests – I worked at a Boy Scout camp for several years. That means I spent a ton of time in the woods. Forests are fascinating and have a lot of character. You can use that in your game.

G
Gods – I don’t like big, removed gods. I like the gods in Conan stories, the kind that you can hack the head off with a broad sword.
Gold – I don’t mind the gold standard in D&D. I never have. I didn’t even used to mind the problems with encumbrance and weight for coins. I just accepted that it was fantasy and got on with it.
Geography – Earth has a ton of variety and some crazy geographical phenomena. Why don’t most fantasy worlds?

H
Howard – I started reading Conan stories when I was in junior high. Howard influenced my idea of fantasy but really didn’t change my D&D games much.
Herbs – Outside of a few articles in Dragon, herbal medicine never really made it into D&D much.
Heraldry – Different places should have different styles of heraldry, depending on the prevalent culture and their ways of conducting war.

I
India – I would love to see a game that uses the myths and legends of India as a basis.
Inspiration – We all have our own Appendix N.
Ivory – What kinds of rare materials exist in a fantasy world? What creatures are hunted for specific materials? How rare are they? Who hires the characters to do it?

J
Jester – I hate the old jester class from Dragon, but jesters serve a very important function in society.
Justice – I love looking at the weird laws that exist in different places and times. I’d love to see more of them come into play in games.
Jerusalem – The holy city and the immediate surrounding area have been contested and fought over for three thousand years. What would a campaign set there be like?

K
Kilts – I can trace one branch of my family tree back to the Scottish clans. So I like kilts. I’d like to have a society in game that has such distinctive clothing.
Kings and royalty – Everybody uses kings, knights, and other European royalty. I want to come up with different titles and organizations for hereditary government.
Kit-bashing – Stealing rules from other games is like kit-bashing models. It works, but you have to do some serious fitting to make it work well.

L
Library – The real world library can do as much for a game as a fantastic one.
Limits – Sometimes you have to say no to your players.
Leniency – Sometimes you have to say yes.

M
Money – Money never really works right in D&D.
Monsters – I love the Monster Manual, but people always scare me the most.
Magic – D&D takes magic for granted, but magic in fantasy fiction is very different. Is there a way to make magic magical in game?

N
Necessity – If your players push you, be ready to expand your boundaries.
Necronomicon – Why don’t books in D&D have this much power?
Necromancers – I played a necromancer for years. Necromancers are not nice people, and they should be the creepiest things running around.

O
Official supplements – I was always a little annoyed at the stuff about official supplements that made it into the DMG and Dragon back in the day.
Old School Renaissance/Revival/Rebellion/Ruh-ro Raggi – Just what does the R stand for anyway? I’m going to start splitting the Old School from the Olde School from the Olde Schoole.
Organization – I always kept a DM binder back in the day, and I still use one now.

P
Playing – The best way to get jazzed for running a great game is to play in one.
Painting miniatures – I’ve built models and painted minis as long as I’ve played role playing games.
Patrons – A good patron is great for a character or party.

Q
Quests – You might as well just call the spell Laying the Tracks, since most quests are just a way to railroad the players. They still make for a good game if handled well, though.
Quasit – I love imps, quasits, mephits, and other little demons and devils.
Quitting – Sometimes you need to just take your dice and go home.

R
Ridiculous – Sometimes it’s fun to throw in something completely gonzo. It’s fantasy after all.
Riding animals – A friend of mine played a minotaur that rode a rhinoceros. What other kinds of animals can characters ride in a game?
Renaissance – What would the Renaissance be like with D&D-style magic thrown in? What would need to be added or changed to move from a medieval-style to a Renaissance-style D&D game ?

S
Sanity – Just like Tim, I hate the rules for insanity in games.
Science Fantasy – I loved mixing D&D and Gamma World back in the day. Expedition to the Barrier Peaks is still one of my favorite adventures. Back in the 70s and early 80s, there was no hard distinction between sci-fi and fantasy. I dropped a hive city in my LL game because of that.
Stormtroopers – I loved stormtroopers from the first time I saw Star Wars. Who are the stormtroopers in your game?

T
Treasure – What constitutes treasure exactly?
Titans – I love the idea of old deposed gods hanging around and plotting revenge.
Teaching – One of the best things about gaming is learning new things. An even better one is teaching other people to game.

U
Underworld – This could be either the mythic underworld or the world of crime. I love the stories of old organized crime, especially in the Depression. I want to incorporate a similar organization into a game without it just being the Thieves’ Guild.
Usurpers – One of the things that makes George R.R. Martin’s A Song of Ice and Fire so good is the fact that ultimately all of the seven major houses are usurpers. I love that kind of unrest and political tension in a game, as long as it doesn’t get in the way of playing.
Undead – There are a lot of ways to make something not quite dead.

V
Variety – It’s the spice of life. Change things up already.
Villains – The best characters are defined by their villains.
Vesting – Pay back the players so they stay with you.

W
Writing – Languages, spellbooks, scrolls, messages, etc.
Witches – They were promised by Holmes and made a few appearances in Dragon and elsewhere.
War – Making war work in a D&D game has always been difficult for me.

X
Xerxes – Sometimes a great defeated would-be world conqueror is exactly what a campaign needs. After all, what would Greyhawk be without Vecna, Kas, and Iuz?
Xenophobia – I always liked the racial preferences table in the PHB.
Xanadu – Aside from the mystical lost continents, there are all of the hidden places like Xanadu, Shangri-La and Avalon.

Y
Yggdrasil – It might be fun to have a campaign that uses a world tree that connects various planes. It might be a good way to play OD&D and incorporate all of the various supplements and ideas that people have created – Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Carcosa, Chicagowiz’s OD&D Modern, Terminal Space, etc.
Young at Heart – Frank had it right.
Yeti – Yeti, Bigfoot, and other legendary primates were all the rage in the 70s. Bigfoot even made it into the Six Million Dollar Man. The premise for the show might make a good science fantasy adventure.

Z
Zodiac – Astrology is fun to play with, but it hasn’t made its way into a lot of games other than Fantasy Wargaming.
Zagyg and fantasy names – If your name is unusual, it’s easy to come up with some good fantasy names. But what do you do when your name is Bob?
Zap – Punctuate your game like an old comic superhero show.

Another Map Doodle

2011-05-09T22:37:00.000-04:00

Here's another map doodle I did. I did this one with a blue Sharpie pen. I definitely like the Sharpie pens a lot, and they are probably going to be my pen of choice for a while. They're about half as expensive as artist tech pens, and they give a strong line without a lot of bleed.

Several months ago I proposed the idea of doing a map a week on the blog. Like som many of my plans from last year, I didn't get the chance to keep up with it. Now that I have the scanner running, though, I'm going to work on getting back to that goal. I want to publish at least one map a week, even if it's just a quick doodle.

I dug out a folder that has a lot of my old maps from back in the day, along with some newer ones that I've done over the last few years. I'll start posting these here as I get them scanned.

You may use this map for personal use. If you use it in your game, please let me know how.

Cave Map doodle

2011-05-07T05:22:00.000-04:00

I've been experimenting with some mapping lately. This is a small set of caverns drawn in a style similar to the style Dyson Logos uses for his maps. I drew this in a small spiral notebook using a cheap gel pen as I was watching television.

I'm fairly happy with the overall look, but I want to figure out some kind of shading to use other than the Dyson-like crosshatching. I love his style, but I need to develop something of my own.

I also need to find some better pens to work with that won't cost a fortune. The one I used for this map has very wet ink, so it tends to run into the paper and produces some mushy line work. If anyone has some suggestions, other than the expensive artist tech pens, let me know.

I'm making this map available to the community for personal use. Let me know what moves in here if you use it in your game. You can download it here.

Back in the saddle at Back to the Keep

2011-05-07T04:37:00.000-04:00

A little over a month ago, I made a post that I was going to be getting back into blogging here. That was the most recent of several such threats. Needless to say, it has taken me a bit longer than I thought, but I am finally starting to get things back in order again so I can start posting on a regular basis.

I apologize to everyone that was following my scattered ramblings last year and was disappointed that I just disappeared. I would have happily kept going then, but real life got in the way. Without going into a lot of detail, I have had quite a lot of things to deal with. I had to move quite suddenly a couple of times in the fall, and I started a job that took most of my time. I started dating a great girl at the beginning of the year, which is great but definitely takes some time away from gaming. At the beginning of April, I was laid off from the job. Then I had a few doctor's appointments that confirmed some things that dramatically impact my ability to work. Finally, I started back to school at the beginning of May, continuing to work on the MBA that I abandoned a couple years ago. Needless to say, it's been a roller coaster ride, and I'm not sure if that lanking is the rise of another hill or the run up to the platform. Either way, though, I've still got my hands in the air!

All of that said, I'm getting back into some gaming again. My LL group fizzled in the midst of all my drama, and I'm not sure if I'll be able to get it back together again. I'm still looking for ways to run a local face-to-face old school game, though. I'm also considering running an old school PBP game as well, but I need to decide exactly what I want to do with it first.

In the meantime, I've been lurking about the OD&D and LL forums a bit and started playing in a PBP game over at the OD&D forums. I'm playing Boro in the City-State of the Emerald Eye game. So far it's been a blast, and I'm enjoying a chance to play again. It's been a while, so I'm still shaking off some of the rust, but it's a good time.

I've also been trying to keep up with what has been going on in the blogosphere lately. I'm glad I missed the A to Z challenge, although I did have a few ideas for that. For instance, I'm still wondering why nobody talked about backstabbing for B. In the next few weeks I hope to get completely caught up on all the stuff I missed and throw my two cents in. Fortunately, my longest-running character was a necromancer, so I don't feel bad about reanimating a bunch of dead posts and arguments. I'm also going to start catching up on some of the other things I promised last year. I've got a bunch of maps I've been working on, several reviews to do, and some new gaming stuff I've written that could use some playtesting from the community.

Time to saddle up and get back to the keep.

Coming Home

2011-03-28T01:47:00.000-04:00

The wagonmaster pulled lightly on the riens, and the horses came to an uneven halt. He hadn't spoken with his passenger for hours, and both were happy for the silence. Too many drivers wanted to chatter the day away, filling the time on the road with useless sound. The driver tucked the reins over the footrest and settled back.

The passenger was holding a heavy crossbow across his lap. He set the bow between them on the seat and then levered himself out of the seat. He lowered himself easily down to the road before he turned and offered his hand. The palm was worn as much from labor as a sword hilt, and it had the texture of old, dried leather.

The driver leaned out and shook the passenger's hand. He nodded gravely and then pulled back and reached over to put the crossbow in the bed. He would have no need of it now that the caravn had crossed back into civilized lands. When he turned back, the passenger was already making his way down the road into the village.

The village was old. There was plenty of new construction, but the builders used old foundations as often as not, carefully resurrecting the past as footings for the future. The passenger looked around at the new buildings and shook his head in wonder. It seemed just months since he had left the village to embark on his adventures, yet now he couldn't even recognize the way to his own old home. He shook his head at the way time passed and walked on.

Coming Soon

2010-08-24T07:11:00.000-04:00

I've been offline for a while, so I haven't been posting nearly as much as I would like. I've got several things in the works, and I'll be trying to get them posted as I can. Hopefully things will settle down a bit soon.

Bits and Mortar

2010-08-19T14:46:00.000-04:00

I bought three products from Rogue Games at Gen Con. After I bought Shadow, Sword & Spell, the folks at the booth had me fill out a form so they could email me a pdf copy of the book after the show. That a pdf was included with the physical book was one of the big motivators for me to go back and get copies of Thousand Suns and The Cursed Chateau. I received the emailed pdf of SS&S a few days after the show, along with coupon codes for the other two at DriveThru RPG. I've now downloaded all three, giving me print and electronic access to these books.

I have since learned that Rogue Games is one of the publishers involved in Bits & Mortar, an initiative to give away free pdf copies of game books when you buy a physical copy of the book. Evil Hat and several other small publishers are also involved in this.

I love this program! I just hope that game stores will see the benefits and jump on board.

I have been a big fan of the pdf revolution since its inception, and I have quite a large collection of pdf-only game books. Using pdfs makes it easier for me to prepare a game, since I can use the search features of the pdf to find information quickly. I can also print portions of the book for reference.

I still prefer a printed book at the table, though. It's much easier to hand a player a book and say "flip to page 53" than to try to do the same with a netbook. Having a bound game book also makes it easier for players to flip through and read rules during lags in the session. A bound book also prevents the inevitable loss and reprint of the equipment list.

In the past, I've either had to make do with one or the other or somehow justify the cost of both. Now, with the publishers involved with Bits & Mortar, I don't have to choose. I encourage you to check out these publishers and point your FLGS toward Bits & Mortar.

Making the best of things

2010-08-14T03:17:00.000-04:00

I want to thank everyone that left comments to my last post. I ended up deleting the post because I want to focus on more positive things here. I have to deal with the offline crap, but that doesn't give me an excuse to fling it around at all of you. I definitely appreciate the support, though. It means a lot to me to know there are people that really care out there. If we meet in person, I owe you all one. I was in a pretty dark place yesterday, but your comments really brightened things up for me. Thanks.

I'm running a game later today. I'll try to post a recap tonight or tomorrow. Other than that I've got a couple more reviews coming in the next couple days along with some info about elves.

In the meantime, though, I've been working on some ideas for a random dungeon generator. Here are a few of the ideas I had about magical doorways.

Magical Doorways

The GM should determine the exact nature of magical entrances. In most cases, a magical entrance will only open when specific requirements or conditions are met. Some examples include:

1.The entrance only opens according to a set schedule. Otherwise it is sealed and will not open. The schedule is left to the GM to determine. It could be as often as every ten minutes or as infrequently as once a decade or century. Generally, the more often the door opens, the shorter it stays open.
2.The door requires a magical key to open.
3.The entrance is passable only when someone says a password or magical command.
4.The door opens only if threatened.
5.The door only opens if asked politely.
6.The door speaks a riddle and only opens when the correct answer to the riddle is spoken.
7.The door will only open if a particular puzzle is solved correctly.
8.The entrance will only open for a member of a particular group. This could be a character of a particular race or class, a member of a particular family or organization, a follower of a particular god or religion, or some other group. Others may or may not be able to enter with the person that opened it.
9.The door will only open if it is given gems, coins, or other treasure.
10.A blood sacrifice must be performed to open it. This could be as little as a small quantity of blood or as great as requiring the sacrifice of an intelligent being.
11.The door will only open in the presence of light or darkness. It may require that the light or darkness be magical, such as that caused by a spell or magic item.
12.The door requires that a particular spell or effect be cast before it will open.

In rare cases, the entrance will produce a magical effect on anyone passing through it. These effects could apply only to someone passing the entrance in a particular direction. For example, a door could bless anyone entering a dungeon or cast a healing spell on anyone leaving the dungeon. These effects could also be limited in some other way, similar to the opening requirements suggested above. The exact details of these effects should be worked out by the GM before play. Some example effects include:

1.Anyone passing through the door is blessed or cursed.
2.The door heals or causes damage to anyone passing through it.
3.The entrance grants temporary bonus hit points.
4.People entering gain a temporary bonus or penalty to an ability.
5.Using the entrance grants protection or causes susceptibility of some kind. This could be against evil, an element, magic, poison, or a particular creature.
6.Anyone using the entrance glows with magical energy.
7.Characters gain the ability to magically sense something by entering the doorway. This could include evil intent, secret or concealed doors, treasure, thoughts, or some other effect or item.
8.The doorway increases or decreases a character's movement.
9.Anyone entering the doorway and all of their equipment are magically cleaned.
10.Entering the doorway gives a character magical vision. This could include the ability to see in the dark, telescopic or magnified vision, x-ray vision, or something similar.
11.The doorway grants the ability to speak with or control animals.
12.Characters passing through the doorway are temporarily rendered invisible and/or inaudible.

Adventures in Oz

2010-08-12T10:00:00.015-04:00

Nope, not Australia, but the homeland of the Wizard, the Wicked Witches, the Munchkins, and so on. Today Google is celebrating the 71st anniversary of the release of the movie version of The Wizard of Oz. I remember watching the movie every year growing up, and I read a few of the books when I was really young. My tastes in fantasy quickly moved to things like The Hobbit and Conan stories, but Oz, like Narnia, still has a fond place in my heart.

It is still one of the better-realized fantasy worlds and has a lot to recommend it. The movie is a breathtaking fantasy vision on screen, even though it did make some major changes from the books. Most particularly, it toned down a lot of the weirder elements of Oz to make it more appealing to a wider audience. Even toned down, the flying monkeys and wicked witch are pretty scary for a little kid, and I remember the combined thrill and fear of watching them attack Dorothy and company. Great stuff!

To celebrate, why not watch the movie or check out some of the original books. You can also check out an Oz-based rpg or gaming blog.

Review - GameMastery Plot Twist Cards

2010-08-12T09:00:00.003-04:00

Paizo's GameMastery Plot Twist Cards are definitely one of the more generally useful items to be produced in the GameMastery line. Unlike the item cards and some of the other products in the line, they are easily convertible between game systems. They are an excellent tool for players and game masters alike. The deck includes 51 plot twist cards plus two cards with instructions printed on both sides. Additional cards include an OGL and an advertisement for the GameMastery Item Cards and GameMastery Pathfinder RPG Condition Cards.

The cards are printed on heavy cardstock and have the same weight and feel as regular playing cards. They are sealed but do not have a heavy coating, so they probably will not stand up to heavy shuffling. Although sleeves would protect them, I prefer to leave mine unsleeved to allow me to use the original box for storing them. I just plan to be gentle when shuffling them.

Each of the plot twist cards has a unique picture, under which is printed the particular plot twist of that card. The cards then have a mechanical game effect the card can cause. All of the game effects are primarily for the D&D 3.x/Pathfinder system, but most can be easily modified for other systems if desired. Finally, each card lists four possible descriptions or events that could coincide with the particular twist.

For example, the “From the Shadows” card shows a menacing shadow above the card title and includes the game effect that “Target receives a +10 insight bonus on opposed Perception checks for 3 rounds.” It also lists the following four possible events:

”A deadly hunter stalks you in the night”
Deadly missiles fly from the darkness
A ray of light reveals what was hidden
Dealings yield questionable boons

The directions for the cards suggest handing them out to players, one at first level and each level thereafter. The players can then play them during the game to influence the events in the game. It is up to the game master to interpret how they impact the game and what effect, if any, they have on a particular situation. I like the idea of doing this, as it gives the players some control over the flow of the story and provides a tool they can use to influence situations that would normally be outside of their characters' control.

In addition to allowing players to use them, though, they also make a handy tool for the GM in designing story and plot elements. I plan to use them to generate possible story twists as I design adventures. I also plan to use them to generate interesting events or characteristics for NPCs. Finally, I plan to use them for generating unusual occurrences if a session is dragging or the party gets stalled somewhere in an adventure. I am sure someone else will come up with other uses for them as well.

Regardless of how you use them, they are a great tool for sparking some creativity or simply throwing a wrench into the clockwork patterns of your campaign. You can get them from Paizo or your FLGS.

I'm not prolific (yet)

2010-08-12T02:55:00.000-04:00

I've spent the past two days catching up on all of the blog and forum posts I missed while I was at Gen Con. In the process, I've realized that there are a lot of people that are much more prolific than I am and that I am following a lot of blogs.

As I was reading, I made a list of things to follow up on, and I've probably got several weeks worth of posts to write. I've got a lot of new products to read and review, a game recap to put together, some development on my world I need to publish, and a few other things that have been percolating in the background.

Expect to see me posting fairly often over the next few days as I try to catch up.

Review - Chessex Alignment, Dungeon, Treasure, and Trap Dice

2010-08-12T02:45:00.000-04:00

This year I got a lot of dice at Gen Con. I didn't plan on getting so many, but I kept finding more that I really liked. I stopped collecting dice decades ago, and I lost my original dice collection about fifteen years ago. After that, I bought some dice to replace some of my original sets, but I controlled my urges to start collecting again. i figured I had enough dice to game with, and I didn't really need more.

Like most gamers, though, I always keep an eye out for new and original dice that meet particular gaming needs. I also like the idea of getting a few new dice at a convention or when I buy a new game. Somehow, those dice bring back memories of the show or feel particularly tied to that game.

Since I was at Gen Con, I definitely met the second criteria. And I got a few of the Gen Con dice from the swag bag, a Gen Con Forum Stink die, a die from Scotty's, and a die from WanderingGeek.com. I also got a bag of 12-siders to use with Shadow, Sword & Spell and Thousand Suns. I got a new 30-sider to replace my old one, even though it's not marked 0 to 9 thrice, with plusses and minuses to note ones and twenties. I even got a pair of soft plastic 20-siders marked 0 to 9 twice to replace the pair I had in my original dice. The d6, d8, and d12 that Mike gave me with the Basic box for my birthday were an added bonus.

The dice I like best from the show, though, are the unique ones I bought from Chessex. Even though I could easily draw up a table to approximate each of these dice, I think they're great to have for doing some random game elements in a pinch. All of them are high-impact white plastic with carved, black-painted markings.

The first die is a simple six-sided alignment die marked with lawful, neutral, and chaotic twice each. The lawful sides have a traditional serifed font and also show a pair of interlocked gears. The neutral sides use a plain, sans-serif font and have a pair of scales on them. The chaotic sides use a handwritten, free font and have an eight-pointed chaos star. I've seen numerous takes on alignment dice, but for some reason I've never had any of my own. I got this one because I liked the combination of the different fonts and pictures on the faces. They help to capture the feel of the alignments for me.

The random dungeon die is an oversized (28 mm) twelve-sided die marked with corridor and room shapes as well as numbers. Although I have plenty of random dungeon generation tables, I really like the idea of this die. It's a quick solution for when players go off the map and I don't have my tables at hand. The die was a little pricey, but it should get plenty of use.

The random treasure die is similarly sized to most of the twelve-sided dice I have in my dice bag. It is marked on all twelve faces with a variety types of treasure, including mundane items, coins, gems, art, and magic items. Different treasure types occur more frequently. Coins, for instance, are on four faces, while magic items are on one. This makes a nice alternative when I don't feel like using the tables from the random dungeon generators or dungeon stocking rules from Moldvay or LL.

Finally, I got a random trap die. This is another twelve-sider. The traps include acid spray, arrow, blade, boulder, crushing, death ray, fireball, lightning, monster, pit, and quicksand traps. The only one missing is poison gas. This is a good go-to if I can't come up with an innovative trap when I'm working on a dungeon. I don't think it will see as much use as the others, but it's a good idea spring when I need it. The only downsides to this die are the frequency distribution of the traps and the size. I can get over the fact that there are eleven different trap types that thus have a pretty even frequency of occurrence (or totally equal if I use poison gas to replace one of the duplicates). Unfortunately, the print and pictures on the die are very small. That means I have to really look at it to be able to read it clearly. Obviously, being able to read the die quickly isn't as much an issue as it is with other dice, but it would be nice to have an oversized die with larger pictures and print.

I couldn't find any of these dice on the Chessex website. If you're interested in getting any of them, you can definitely get them from the Chessex booth at major conventions. Your FLGS may also be able to order them from the major distributors or Chessex directly.

My BrainHex Class

2010-08-11T21:11:00.000-04:00

BrainHex is a personality-type test you can take based on video game behavior. I found this courtesy of Scott at Huge Ruined Pile. I like taking personality tests, and I like seeing what box they put me in. In this case, I came up as a Mastermind with the subtype Achiever. This matches my style in video games very well and is also reflected in how and why I play pen and paper rpgs. I like to solve puzzles and collect everything I possibly can in games. I'm a completionist.

One interesting thing about this quiz, though, is that they associated an animal with each type. For the Mastermind, the associated animal is an octopus. For the Achiever, the associated animal is the beaver. What's interesting is that I was in the beaver patrol when I went through Wood Badge with the Boy Scouts, and the beaver has been one of my minor totems ever since. What's more interesting is the image I get when I combine the two. I imagine an overgrown beaver with tentacles growing from its back and shoulders, like some kind of vicious, displacer beast-like, mutated rodent. I'll have to stat it up for my LL game...

If you want to take the test, you can find it here.

Another LL Character Sheet and Star Frontiers

2010-08-11T18:43:00.000-04:00

For the game last Wednesday, I used the LL Character Sheet on the Goblinoid Games LL page. I printed it two sheets to a page, and it worked well for the core game I was running. It was simple and had all the info I needed without getting too complicated. Today I found a link to another very simple sheet that could be used with either core LL or the AEC. You can find it here.

The guys at DwD Studios that put it together also have a lot of information and extra material available for the old Star Frontiers game. Check out the Downloads page for all the SF goodness you could want.