Carjacked Seraphim

OSR Dragonbone

2012-01-25T06:00:00.000-08:00

Years and years ago, I saw this ad in The Dragon...

I always wanted one, but I never did buy one. Too expensive for my high school student budget. Of course, I could use my programmable calculator to generate random numbers as well, so...

This past weekend, I was at the Dollar Store and I saw this:

It's a large, plastic "take your pill" reminder case. I had an idea...

You can put a set of dice in there just fine. There's plenty of room to shake them around.

You can see the dice very easily through the clear bottom of the container. I plan to make one with 7d20 (of different colors) in it to rapidly generate "to hit" and "saving throws" for multiple monsters at once -- or to roll multiple attacks at once.

I'll let you know how it turns out!

When A Session is Boring

2011-12-30T08:01:00.000-08:00

I ran an episode of my CotMA game last night. Six of my seven (or eight) players were present.

They decided to "go deep" -- they have goals on the seventh level -- and they decided to bring the whole crew. We had 14 PCs and NPCs combined.

You see, back in the beginning, when the characters were exceptionally fragile and instant death was a real possibility, I let everyone play two characters. Some of them died, but some of the players still have two characters.

In short, when the whole party is together, it is a huge, noisy, Continual Light toting, juggernaut of monster death.

Now, I'm not complaining. I don't care if they kill my monsters... I can always make more. :) I don't care if they kill my NPCs... I have more of them too. (Of course if you kill the bartender in town, that's a legal problem that your big muscles and magic spells might not get you out of...) They didn't do that, so I digress...

Well, here's the rub. When they have a big party, combat with monsters on the upper levels is too easy. It's literally a roll of the dice and the monsters are dead. I think one or two of the PCs can generate 10+ damage practically by default.

Once again, I'm not complaining about the instant death of my precious monsters -- let them die.

What I am worrying about is how boring or tiresome the upper levels have become. I have no desire to scale the upper levels to meet the challenge of this überparty. The upper levels just don't have very many powerful creatures.

It's not appropriate, in my mind, to throw powerful creatures at them on level 2 just because they can handle them. THOSE KINDS OF MONSTERS AREN'T ON LEVEL 2.

I did try to make the encounters with the easier monsters a little less straight up die rolling contests --

I had carnivorous apes jumping and leaping into combat so that the back ranks were vulnerable
I had wereboars using a flanking maneuver and missile weapons to show tactics and knowledge of the area
I threw a cockatrice at them for good measure

At any rate, the PCs took care of the combat challenges with relative ease.

I did throw in some strangeness, a teleporter, some Mad Archmage magic and a talkative NPC ogre (poor Karn, we hardly knew ye!) to spice things up, but that only goes so far when combat is such a cakewalk.

I guess the bottom line to me is, the dungeon needs to have some kind of rules and if you come in alone or if you come in with an army of 14, those rules apply.

I don't want to scale encounters other than by the level you are on. You're on level 3? OK, here's what it can throw at you. Level 5? Here's a tougher set of challenges. Level 10? You'd better be ready.

Am I wrong? I feel like the adventure dragged a bit for the players last night, but then again, they were on the third level most of the night. Most of the PCs are 6th or better. Hell, one of the NPCs is 5th and the donkey/mule is even 4th level...

Shouldn't an adventure for higher level PCs be a bit boring on the upper levels or is there a DM trick that I've missed?

Design Features Dice

2011-12-28T06:57:00.000-08:00

Back in May, Talysman over at 9and30kingdoms wrote up a series of posts about alternate design features for walls, ceilings and floors. Check them out if you haven't seen them.

In each of those posts (as you know, cuz you've seen them) he made six little square pictures to represent his ideas.

I must be honest, six little square pictures SCREAMS to be made into a d6 and I have these wooden cubes, 3/4" on an edge, so what was stopping me?

Well, procrastination, I guess. I printed out copies of each little pic back in May, but they've been sitting in a folder since then. I made each set a different color --

Black = ceiling features
Red = floor features
Blue = wall features

I just got around to making the dice yesterday.

I figure I'll leave them in among my DM stuff and from time to time, as dungeon dressing, I'll randomly grab 1 or 2 of them and I'll mix things up.

Thank you to Talysman for the great posts and the inspiration!

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-25T07:55:00.000-08:00

Continuing in the tradition of my local campaign, here are this year's Krampus Coupons!

Attention MY PLAYERS! I'll print you a copy for Thursday!!

You can download a PDF of the file here. If you'd like an editable file, click here.

My Christmas Gift to You -- NPC Cards

2011-12-24T07:39:00.000-08:00

It's no secret that I like using cards in my games. I've blogged about godeckyourself.com before.

Here's a set of NPC cards you can use in your game. All the fields are blank; you can write on them using a pen/pencil after you have printed them out.

I've been collecting images off the blogs/sites/posts I read. If the image was interesting, I dropped it into a folder and cropped it to the correct size for cards.

The following two files are the results of this effort for the year. 100 NPC cards in two files.

As always, if I've used your art and you would like me to remove it, please let me know. Please know that I'm not intending to violate copyright and my use is only as a fan and gamer. I mean no offense.

Merry Christmas!!

NPC Cards 1
NPC Cards 2

Floating Cannonballs

2011-12-23T12:36:00.000-08:00

I just had to post this, if only to share. It isn't that often that you see an iron ball bobbing like a cork.

From a gaming perspective, I'm drawn back to the room of pools in B1. As a DM, I shouldn't underplay the density of a magical liquid...

Ant, Giant Poison Gas

2011-12-22T06:00:00.000-08:00

Num. Enc: 1-4
Align: N
Move: 180' (60')
AC: 3
HD: 2
Attacks: 1 bite or gas
D/Att: 1d6
Save: F2
Morale: 9
Hoard Class: VI
XP: 80

When the Giant Poison Gas Ant is threatened or attacked, it will turn its abdomen toward its attacker to emit a paralysis gas. Any target within 10' of the ant must save or roll on the following table: [d6]

Suffer a -1 to AC from cramping
Suffer a -2 to AC from nausea
Suffer a -4 to AC from vomiting
Become slowed
Become stunned (fall down, unable to defend self, no actions for 1d4 rounds)
Become paralyzed (as ghoul)

When gas is sprayed, there is a 1 in 4 chance that an additional 1d3 Giant Poison Gas Ants will be attracted to the area to join the fight. Gas effects last for 10-40 minutes.

Should a target fail additional saves vs the gas, only rolled effects higher than the current effect will occur and the new effect will supersede the previous effect.

For example, Harrack the fighter has failed a save. He rolls a 2 on d6 and is now nauseous and -2 AC. Two rounds later, he fails a second save. He rolls a 1. No effect (1 is less than 2). The next round, he fails a third save. He rolls a 5. He is now stunned (5 is greater than 2).

Inspired by this creature at i09

The Dice Have Arrived!

2011-12-21T06:00:00.000-08:00

Here they are! My DungeonMorph Dice!

I went a little crazy and I got --

2x Adventurer,
2x Explorer,
1x Spelunker sets

I'm planning to frame the colored die "map" documents as references.

With these dice and --

Matt Finch's "Tome of Adventure Design",
Kellri's "Old School Encounters Reference CDD#4",
The old Judges Guild Ready Reference Sheets,
Michael Curtis's "Dungeon Alphabet",
My "Wilderness Alphabet", I should be able to invent any adventure!

Thank you Joe for an excellent product (and project!)

The Rules of Magic

2011-12-10T20:49:00.001-08:00

Saw this post over at i09... Seems like a lot of food for thought...

Here's the pic - click to embiggen...

Partial Party Kill (PPK)

2011-11-27T06:00:00.000-08:00

Earlier this year, I blogged about using a Deck of Many Things in my CotMA game. I believed at the time (and I still do) that that little "one off" adventure was a big success.

One of the draws was the Sun card:

Sun KD Gain beneficial miscellaneous magic item and 50,000 experience points.

Xavier the Marked (a cleric of Mesha) drew the card and was catapulted to 7th level. I randomly rolled in the LL AEC for the magic item and it was a "Helm of Brilliance."

I've never played with one of these before. When I announced that Xavier had found this, I didn't fully realize what it could do. See below.

Wow. This thing is practically an artifact.

Upon reflection, I had an epiphany (1) about this kind of powerful magic item (at least with regard to my campaign.)

Xavier became the heart of the party. I know the group felt that there was no foe too powerful to handle if Xavier was around. DB was excellent at using the gems on the helm to maximum benefit and he also used the flametongue and detect undead powers to maximum effect.

Xavier became the party leader, the party powerhouse and the party savior, time and time again.

DB made a special card (I hope to get a scan of it) to keep track of all the things Xavier could do with the helm. It was excellent.

We all knew in our heart of hearts, however, that that little clause (I highlighted in blue above) would be the death of him (eventually...)

Well, it happened.

It was awhile ago now, but I feel I had to memorialize Xavier with this post. Writing nothing about it just doesn't seem right.

The party was completing their exploration of the second level of CotMA. They came upon a somewhat isolated room and the monster description said that there was a "worry hag" in the room. I'm sure that Joseph had a perfectly fine description of this monster in Appendix III, but I decided to wing it.

The party listened at the door and they heard a creaky voice... "Oh, I hope they don't come in here... Oh, I hope they go away.... Oh no...." I decided that this was a suitable warning that something nasty lurked beyond...

The adventurers took this as an invite to go in. Funny lot those adventurer types...

Well, the party was split. Half of the group was checking out an adjacent room and the other half was listening to the hag worry away. The hag group included the Sir Owyn the Paladin, Vera Diamondtree the Wizard, Kalen the Wizard and Xavier.

The party knocked on the door.

In a hushed voice, "Oh no, oh no... I hope they don't come in..." Then a louder voice, "Who is it?" Quieter again, "Oh no, why did I say that..."

Sir Owyn asks, "Is there evil on the other side of the door?" Yes I say. It reeks of evil...

I'm still hoping to creep the party out and hoping they'll just go away. I've decided that this hag has some serious claw attacks (3d6x2) and that her claws will turn you to stone if you don't save. She's got a crystal ball and a couple of cat familars. One cat familiar has accidentally been turned to stone by an errant scratch under the chin. She has a potion that can be used to cure petrification of one victim. She keeps it around to cure her cats...

The party goes in through the door.

Xavier and Sir Owyn close in on the hag who erupts from her quiet repose with a blood curdling shriek. She leaps over the table she's seated at (with her crystal ball) and tears into the party.

The battle is joined. Sir Owyn loses his protection from evil ability because he's attacking her directly (but he's still AC -4). Xavier is AC 0. They both begin to wail on the hag, who has considerable HPs, 8 HD, but a low AC of 5.

Eventually Owyn is hit and he (amazingly) fails his save. Instant Paladin statue. JW is bummed that his Paladin is petrified.

Things start to go sideways. Kalen casts protection from evil on himself. He uses his Wand of Illusion to simulate a Blur spell, making Xavier harder to hit. The group retreats to the doorway and slams it shut. The hag is on the other side.

The rest of the group joins the fray and there is some discussion about how they will finish the hag off. Will they use a web? Magic missiles? Lightning? Will they fireball the hag?

They decide that Xavier will fireball the hag and that he'll do it at close range because he has fire resistance from the helm. Collen Redsides has a frostbrand that likewise confers fire resistance so he'll stick around as backup. The idea is to throw the fireball into the room and slam the door shut.

A few other party members, Thannor the Ranger and Larot the Warrior linger in the immediate area... The rest run to minimum safe distance...

The hag is ready and when the door is opened, she fights to get through... The fireball goes off...

Xavier rolls a "1" on his save.

The helm detonates.

We took the time to roll the Prismatic Sprays to see if any of the characters were sent to another dimension. Nope.

The minimum damage from all the fireballs and walls of fire was hundreds of points.

We rolled saves for all their magic items. Only a couple survived. Here's a scan of everything that was destroyed in the conflagration:

All that was left was a statue of a Paladin. JW is now happy that his Paladin is petrified... :)

RIP -- Collen Redsides, barbarian warrior of the North; Thannor, Ranger of the Deep Woods; Larot, grim Warrior (we hardly knew ye...) and Xavier the Marked.

You will all be missed.

(1) A magic item of this magnitude just couldn't be made by a single wizard. Either these things are made by a cabal or, I've decided, they are made by the gods. You see, the gods put items of chance, like the Deck of Many Things into the world and then if an adventurer is lucky enough, they bestow items like The Helm of Brilliance upon them. That's how items of this power make it in to the world at large... at least in Queston.

Building the Ominous Storeroom (Part 1)

2011-11-20T09:03:00.001-08:00

Kev, of Kev's Lounge fame, helped me out a while back with my One Page Dungeon design.

Since then, he and I have chatted online and via Skype about gaming and also about his latest projects at the Papercraft Dungeon. Here's a previous post.

His first set is the Ominous Storeroom and it's very cool. In my game, there are always dank, dangerous warehouses near the wharf of cities like Ravenport. Crimelords use these warehouses to plot and plan their next job. Greedy merchants protect their warehouses with Box Golems.

What better than some 3D scenery to make it all come to life?

Well, I've printed out all the stacks of boxes and crates and I've begun the process of building. There are several levels of difficulty within the set. I've started with the basic. As I progress, I'll post more picture and more comments about the build.

I began by gathering my materials:

I have a copy of the crates boxes, scissors, a ruler, a hobby knife and a cutting mat.

I started cutting, using the ruler and the hobby knife to make straight lines. I actually never used the scissors. The hobby knife turned out to be too flimsy and I made some sloppy cuts. It's also possible that the tip of the blade was a bit dull. I was going to need a bigger knife...

This made the process go a lot faster. I used the ruler for the long, straight lines. I was able to freehand the little triangular notches.

When it was cut out, I flipped it over and I scored the back on the folding lines using the ruler and a black ballpoint pen. This works very well for scoring, regardless of whether you fold forward or backward.

I prefolded all the corners and I worked to make sure the folds were matching up where the box pattern started. Ideally, I wanted all the corners to join up so you couldn't see any of the white paper. I didn't succeed terribly well, but it isn't too bad. In the future, I might use a brown marker PRIOR to glueing to make the white paper a bit more invisible.

I used a toothpick to apply a little white glue to each flap. The paper I used (non-glossy cardstock) glued very quickly. I didn't have to hold the flaps very long at all.

In the end, here's the first part of the Ominous Storeroom...

More boxes to come!!

What kind of D&D Character am I?

2011-11-20T06:00:00.000-08:00

I Am A: Lawful Good Human Paladin/Sorcerer (3rd/2nd Level)

Ability Scores:
Strength-12
Dexterity-12
Constitution-15
Intelligence-16
Wisdom-13
Charisma-15

Alignment:
Lawful Good A lawful good character acts as a good person is expected or required to act. He combines a commitment to oppose evil with the discipline to fight relentlessly. He tells the truth, keeps his word, helps those in need, and speaks out against injustice. A lawful good character hates to see the guilty go unpunished. Lawful good is the best alignment you can be because it combines honor and compassion. However, lawful good can be a dangerous alignment when it restricts freedom and criminalizes self-interest.

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.

Primary Class:
Paladins take their adventures seriously, and even a mundane mission is, in the heart of the paladin, a personal test an opportunity to demonstrate bravery, to learn tactics, and to find ways to do good. Divine power protects these warriors of virtue, warding off harm, protecting from disease, healing, and guarding against fear. The paladin can also direct this power to help others, healing wounds or curing diseases, and also use it to destroy evil. Experienced paladins can smite evil foes and turn away undead. A paladin's Wisdom score should be high, as this determines the maximum spell level that they can cast. Many of the paladin's special abilities also benefit from a high Charisma score.

Secondary Class:
Sorcerers are arcane spellcasters who manipulate magic energy with imagination and talent rather than studious discipline. They have no books, no mentors, no theories just raw power that they direct at will. Sorcerers know fewer spells than wizards do and acquire them more slowly, but they can cast individual spells more often and have no need to prepare their incantations ahead of time. Also unlike wizards, sorcerers cannot specialize in a school of magic. Since sorcerers gain their powers without undergoing the years of rigorous study that wizards go through, they have more time to learn fighting skills and are proficient with simple weapons. Charisma is very important for sorcerers; the higher their value in this ability, the higher the spell level they can cast.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Slimes, Jellies and Puddings - Redux

2011-11-14T06:00:00.000-08:00

It's been over a month and my "milk plastic" slimes/jellies/puddings are doing just fine. They aren't breaking down. They're not oozy or outgassing. Sure, they're a little smelly, but not any smellier than some cheap plastic toys.

Here's my prior post

Here's a quick video.

My DIY DM Station

2011-11-11T06:00:00.000-08:00

In these videos, I show the rolling GM station that I've built for myself. I built this on Columbus' Day this year (I usually do something crazy on that day each year -- my wife is always out of town!)

Enjoy the videos

If you have questions or feedback, please post that in the comments.

The 20-Sided Quickies are ALSO from 9 and 30 Kingdoms (thanks Talysman) They are AWESOME!!

The Many Hobbies of Tabletop RPGs

2011-11-08T06:00:00.000-08:00

I'm sure someone else said this before and I'm certain that they said it more eloquently than I will.

Tabletop RPGs aren't just a single hobby. They are an axle around which the spokes of many hobbies revolve. They are the gateway that allows participation in many different (related) hobbies.

For example, I'm a writer because of D&D. I wrote this little book, I'm working on another (slowly) and I'm rolling other ideas around in my head for a third.

I write adventures too. I write spreadsheets and other software tools to help me run games. I write this blog.

What's more, I'm kind of a hack artist too. I like to draw maps, monsters, magic items, etc. Sometimes I use pencil and other times I use GIMP. It's fun.

I'm also a minis painter. I do crafts. I invent all kinds of things.

I've even built a rolling DM station that stores all my minis, includes an LCD projector, is my DM screen, contains frequently used charts... (I'll post about this very soon)

The bottom line is, what other hobby lets you do all these other hobbies too? Hell, it practically compels you to do these other hobbies too...

...and I haven't even mentioned ACTUALLY PLAYING THE GAME as a hobby in its own right. :)

Earning Achievements in Video Games

2011-10-29T11:58:00.000-07:00

OK, I don't play video rpg games. I like them and I have in the past. Might and Magic, Wizardry, and the Legend of Zelda were all cool. I liked Elder Scrolls, but I never finished it. I did finish Myst and Riven.

I just don't get the point of THIS

From this page

First of all, having to play the piano 2000 times is asinine.

Second of all, this "hack" is like giving the GM in a face-to-face game a flowchart and telling them to execute it and you'll be back when the character is 20th level...

I just don't get it...

"Coolness" Bonuses

2011-10-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

Saw this post over at Tower of Zenopus about City of Heroes and it got me thinking.

I used to like to give out FATE points, Fudge points, Bennies, etc. to players when they did something "cool." When they took a risk or made everyone laugh or caused a roar from the crowd.

Awhile back, I bought these Old School Bonus Cards at RPGNow. I haven't used them yet. Mostly because I don't have any thieves in my game. That's not really a good excuse, but it eliminates 25% of the deck...

Here's my idea. (This is untested, but I think I'll be trying it out ASAP)

Get out a deck of cards.

Spades = Combat

Hearts = Healing

Diamonds = Treasure/Certain Skills (lockpicking, find traps, find secret doors)

Clubs = Social/Reaction/All Other Skills

Take out the face cards, leaving just the Ace through 10's.

Anytime a player does something cool with their character, give them a card. They can have as many cards as they want, but there's only one deck. If all the cards are in the hands of the players, no one else can get one.

I'd let players trade cards anytime during the game. If they are in the middle of something, like combat or a social encounter, I'd make them explain HOW they use one of their cards to help their buddy.

I probably will only allow the use of two cards MAX per action; one of yours and one from a buddy (to encourage teamwork).

So, here's how the cards work. You give the DM the card you want to use and you roll a d12.

If you roll LESS THAN BUT NOT EQUAL TO the number on your card, you get a +1 or +5% bonus to what you are doing.
If you roll EXACTLY THE NUMBER ON YOUR CARD you get a +2 or 10% bonus to what you are doing.
If you ROLL A 12 you get a +3 or 15% bonus.
If you ROLL AN 11 (Snake Eyes) you get nothing.

For Hearts, I might allow the use of the bonus as extra dice or rerolls --

+1 = reroll the healing attempt and take the better result OR roll an extra d6
+2 = reroll the healing attempt OR roll an extra d8
+3 = reroll the healing attempt OR roll an extra d12

I plan to implement this system right away in my CotMA game. We'll see how it goes.

3D Dungeon Walls from Foam (Part 3)

2011-10-07T07:00:00.000-07:00

The exciting conclusion!!

If you have any questions, leave a comment. Enjoy making your walls!

3D Dungeon Walls from Foam (part 2)

2011-10-07T06:00:00.000-07:00

Previous post here

During these two videos, my lovely wife Jeanne calls on the phone twice...

More video in the next post!!

3D Dungeon Walls from Foam (Part 1)

2011-10-06T06:00:00.000-07:00

Those of you who have followed this blog for awhile, know that I LOVES my minis. I love the prepainted kind (got lots of those). I love painting my own (when I have time). I love finding toys that can substitute for minis. I love making minis from scratch.

Well, a few weeks ago, I posted about making dungeon walls from foam. The pics aren't very good in that post.

Here's part one of how I'm making articulated dungeon walls from foam, toothpicks and O-rings.

Enjoy!

Thank You Mom, Dad and Steve Jobs

2011-10-05T22:50:00.000-07:00

My parents bought me a Mac 128k (Skinny Mac) in 1985, right before I started college. It cost $3000 (seriously!!) and it was a big investment by them, in me.

I used it for school work, like writing school papers. But mostly, I made cool stuff for gaming with it.

Thank you Mom and Dad. Thank you Steve Jobs.

Here are some examples that I still have:

Mexico City Megadungeon

2011-10-03T06:30:00.000-07:00

Imagine this structure fallen into ruin. Intrepid adventurers standing on the edge, looking down into the mysterious depths below...

click to embiggen

From i09

"Finding Stuff" in my games

2011-09-29T06:00:00.000-07:00

There's been some talk around the blogs, some by Mike Mearls and Monte Cook especially, about how to handle player vs. character when things are hidden and need to be found.

The system that both of these gentlemen propose is workable, I suppose, but I believe it has a fatal flaw.

The DM.

You see, if characters have a perception of "Good" or "Awesome" or 10 or 3π or whatever, the DM knows what that number IS.

She can set the value of the hidden object to be Above, At or Below the value of the character skill.

Do I want the characters to find the item easily? Set the value low.
Do I want the characters to roll some dice? Set the value equal to their ability.
Do I want them to miss the item unless they search? Set the value high.

In the end, the game is controlled by the DM and she can decide, up front, how the search is going to go...

They find it, they roll some dice to find it or they don't find it.

Here are the ways I work the system and how you might want to work it too.

If I want them to find the item, I just put it out there. If they say "we search the room," they find the item. Easy peasy. This is the same as setting the value low. This seems too easy, I know, but anyone who has been running a game for awhile will attest to the frequency that players forget to search rooms. Maybe they are running from a monster. Maybe their characters are hurt. Maybe they just forget. This isn't necessarily a gimme, in other words. :)

If I don't care one way or another, I roll the dice. A large group of people searching for secret doors (or hidden stuff) can be simulated by one percentile roll. See this post. It takes one turn and I roll for wandering monsters. They can try again if they'd like. Takes more time and another wandering monster check.

If I want them to work to find the secret, I don't leave it to a random roll. I rely on player skill in a couple of ways: keywords and puzzles.

Keywords

Say the secret word and you find the vorpal sword...

Let's say that the key that unlocks the chest is hidden in the teeth of the idol in the corner of the room. I mention the idol. They need to ask about the idol. I'll then describe it in more detail, including the detail about its big teeth. They need to say that they "touch the teeth" or "search the teeth" or "pull on the teeth" or whatever... if they do, they find the key.

Puzzles

If I want things to be especially challenging, I create puzzle for them to solve. You might want to use the method I've created for Knockspell #6 (go get a copy! I don't get any kickbacks!)

I've also used the Soma cube puzzle (got it from my Grandpa years ago...)

Lastly, you can actually create a procedure that the players must describe their characters performing.

For example, in a recent game, there was an engraved displacer beast carved into the wall around a secret door. The secret door was apparent to the elves in the party (I rolled dice) but it wouldn't open. The players said they would search the other walls in the room. Lo and behold, kitty-corner (!) from the displacer beast was another displacer beast carving. Pressing upon the tentacles of the second carving opened the secret door behind the first.

Well, that's how I do things. YMMV.

Slimes, Jellies and Puddings -- PAINTED!

2011-09-25T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here they are. I vlogged about making these here.

I painted them up as 4 large black puddings, 4 medium/small sized green slimes and five small ochre jellies.

Here are some pics:

You dumb, dead bastard...

I painted them with their primary color and then layered on other colors using drybrushing techniques. After they were dry, I put on a layer of matte finish to protect the paint. I'm not a great painter, but these turned out pretty well.

They don't really have any odor at all now. The paint sealed the "plastic".

Daffy Duck on the Borderlands

2011-09-24T06:30:00.000-07:00

If you haven't already seen this, watch it now: (hat tip to Dr. Rotwang!)

Near the end of the video, Daffy is flying on a dragon over a keep. Here's a pic of the keep:

click to embiggen

Does that castle/keep layout look familiar to anyone else?

How about now?

Making Slimes, Jellies and Puddings

2011-09-23T21:35:00.001-07:00

Now THAT'S Quality Control

2011-09-19T21:34:00.000-07:00

So, I get a post in my blog reader from WotC...

New 4e info about Sahuagin and Kuo-Toa. I'm not a big 4e fan. I don't even know why I still have my WotC membership, but I click over.

"Maybe there's a little hunk of inspiration I can (ahem) borrow for MMMM," I'm thinking.

When I get there, I see this:

WTF?

Neither of these articles are about Kuo-Toa or Sahuagin... If you click on them, they are about Foulspawn and Grimlock...

Oh well. Where's the button to cancel?

Ant, Giant Glue

2011-09-18T06:28:00.000-07:00

Num. Enc: 2-8
Align: N
Move: 180' (60')
AC: 3
HD: 2
Attacks: 1
D/Att: 1d8
Save: F2
Morale: 8
Hoard Class: VI
XP: 80

When near death (1 or 2 HPs left) the giant glue ant wrenches its body in in half, rupturing a sac filled with an orange glue.

The glue sprays out in a cone onto all targets within 5'. They must save TWICE. If the first save is failed, the target is blinded until alcohol or some other solvent can be used to remove the glue. If the second save is failed, roll d6 on the following chart:

1 - random arm is glued to torso;

2 - random leg is glued to floor;

3 - legs are glued together (hopping is possible);

4 - clothing/armor is glued to body;

5 - objects in hands are glued to hands;

6 - ant has glued itself to target (200 gpw of encumbrance, -1 on all DEX related actions/AC, effects are cumulative)

Inspired by this actually real creature at i09

Knockspell #6

2011-09-16T06:28:00.000-07:00

Matt Finch has just released Knockspell #6!

It is AWESOME! so go and get yourself a copy!

I wrote a little article about using dice as a mini-game for thieves/rogues/etc. It's really old school, because it challenges the player (primarily) with a little help from the character.

If you decide to try out my little system -- you might want to grab this larger PNG image and print one out for the player. Enjoy!

click to embiggen and download!

Card Sleeve Geomorph Dungeons

2011-09-01T06:28:00.000-07:00

As you all know, I'm a fan of DIY gamer bling like normal items, magic items, weapons, etc. I really like GoDeckYourself.com and I encourage you to head on over there.

Well, I've got some of those 9 card sheet protectors (I used them back in the days when I was playing M:tG) and my players have been using them to organize their magic items.

"If you don't have the card, you don't have the item..."

It occurred to me today that I could use these same sheets to organize a dungeon made of geomorphs!

My first attempt involved using Goodman Games DCC #9 Dungeon Geomorphs -- here they are in their sheet.

You can buy the PDF file over at Paizo and when you print it, scale it to 78% (that's approximately 2.5" x 3.5") These geomorphs are already rectangular, so they fit nicely in the pockets at this size. I recommend using cardstock; the thin paper is sometimes hard to slip into the pockets.

If you are using geomorphs from Risus Monkey or Dyson Logos, you can always take their images and drag them into a Word (or similar) doc. From there you can resize them to the appropriate size.

I think that building a dungeon in this manner might make it easier to make changes. If your dungeon is a mythic underworld, just swap out a geomorph or two each time the party enters. You can also rotate them 108° easily to confuse parties of adventurers.

YMMV

Enjoy!

Our Bacterial Overlords

2011-08-31T06:28:00.000-07:00

Apparently, you can have bacteria in your stomach that can change your brain chemistry. I don't know how I feel about this.

Perhaps my bacterial masters will clue me in...

Link here

DIY Dungeon Walls

2011-08-30T06:28:00.000-07:00

Back in 1987, I purchased a copy of Game's Workshop's Warhammer 40,000. This was my first big foray into the miniatures world.

Sure, I had some D&D minis that we mostly used for marching order, but when you need to build an army -- you paint a lot of minis...

...and you paint a lot of terrain.

The original WH40k book encouraged you to build your own terrain (and even vehicles!) Here are some pics from that book that show you how I caught the mini/terrain bug...

Bottom line, once you start building terrain for your WH40k army, you never look at a plastic cup, margarine tub, or toilet paper tube the same way again!

In fact, McDonalds drink holders are PERFECT for a set of four linked pillboxes. You just flip it over and paint it... Here... see for yourself...

It even has "T" shaped slots that orks and space marines can stick their bolters out of and stay in cover!!!

I told you all of that so that it would come as no surprise what I am going to tell you now.

You see, I work in the Tech Services department and this year we bought about 300 new HP laptops for our schools. Each of those laptops has two sturdy foam "bumpers" that protect it during shipping.

Each of those laptops was removed from its box and the cardboard was recycled. The foam "bumpers" were put into trash bags and that is where I stumbled upon them. FIVE bags of them.

Well, the first thing I think of is, "what can I do with these?" Certainly there is something... Let's have a closer look... Rough texture, layers, lightweight... I have an idea.

Here are some pictures of what I decided to do...

these are the foam bumpers

you can tear the end parts off with your hands

this is a LOW TEMP glue gun; the high temp one melted the plastic. I also bought some gray acrylic paint ($0.39 each) and a bag of plastic skulls (it's almost Halloween!)

glue them together two high

this is what they look like from the top. You can see that I made a knife out of a razor blade and some tape...

it's long enough to cut through in one slice...

You can see that there are a couple of different places you can cut these. You can make long straight walls; C shaped sections; L shaped sections; etc. I might even make some claustrophobic narrow dead ends...

Here are the pieces that I cut out. You can reuse some of the tops you tore off to make some pillars too!

Here are the first three pieces I've done. I haven't experimented with spray paint (it's really hot here in AZ right now and I've no good place to spray at the moment...) but that might be a real time saver.

Of course, I plan to do some architectural elements (like those skulls) and I might paint some graffiti or runes on some walls. Some green slime here and there would be a nice touch too...

The pictures really don't do the walls much justice. They do look pretty good.

Special bonus: you can buy little plastic champagne glasses at craft stores. They are PERFECT to use as flying bases. (see the wizard in the first pic!)

Now THAT'S a Surfeit of Lampreys...

2011-08-24T20:02:00.000-07:00

LOL!

A rough adventure hook/idea/maguffin

2011-08-21T06:28:00.000-07:00

So there's this dungeon where a known, terrible big bad dwells... Maybe a dragon or a behir or a purple worm...

There's a creature... maybe a parasite or a vengeful wraith or an elemental that must be consumed/destroyed/incinerated by the big bad...

So it tricks the adventurers... through guile or promises or disease to take it there...

Inspired by this post at i09...

Parasites trick their rat hosts into being eaten by cats

A Motto for the Ages

2011-08-20T13:14:00.001-07:00

Saw Conan last night and I just couldn't resist putting this together.

Enjoy!

DM Prep Page

2011-08-14T06:28:00.000-07:00

Years ago, when I was running my Queston campaign, I used AppleWorks spreadsheet (!) to randomly roll dice of all types. I then printed out pages of these random rolls and just crossed them off whenever I needed them. I rarely rolled dice at the table.

Now, I think that certain rolls should be made right at the table -- initiative, saving throws, surprise -- but rolls on random tables could easily be made in advance.

Awhile back, I wrote about how you can roll percentile dice to determine WHEN the next wandering monster will appear -- essentially preparing in advance for that inevitable event.

Well, here's my next attempt at GM prep.

click to embiggen

It's a page of PRE-ROLLED random encounters along with some other inspirational rolls.

I used Djeryv's Graveyard, Risus Monkey's DungeonWords and Seventh Sanctum as my inspirations. The right-hand column is over 800 random dungeon oddities that I've culled off the web or created myself. Thank you to all that have inspired this spreadsheet/tool.

The left column are "pips" that represent rounds. When all the pips are crossed off and gone, the wandering monster to their right appears on the scene.

This IS NOT another random list that you roll against -- the rolls are already done. You just work your way down the list in order.

The same is true of the inspirational words, containers and traps. These ARE the one's you rolled up (or that the computer rolled up) you just use them in order...

So, on game night, I'll just print one of these pages and then use it at the table as an "on the fly" inspiration!

How to build a pyramid

2011-08-10T06:00:00.000-07:00

Here's an interesting article from Archaeology magazine. I post it here because it reveals a bit about how massive structures within a game might be constructed and what the intermediate stages of construction might look like.

Here's the article and here's a pic from it:

Custom d10's

2011-08-08T06:28:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago, I got a wild idea and I contacted Dice Creator to make me a dozen custom dice.

They arrived in the mail on Friday.

Dice Creator was extremely helpful and is a very nice guy. He kept me in the loop throughout the process and he sent me pictures of some demo dice he made.

Awesome experience!

In short, if you want some special dice made, drop him an email. You won't be disappointed at all!

Here's a pic --

The logo is in place of the "10" and is the symbol of The Questians, the legendary group of adventurers from my longest running Queston campaign.

Make it a TSR Night!

2011-07-25T06:28:00.000-07:00

In my neck of the woods, there's a casino called the "Talking Stick Resort".

They have an ad campaign going on right now that makes me smile every time I see it. You see, there are GIANT billboards around the valley adorned with sexy ladies wearing evening gowns. The text on these billboards reads, "Make it a TSR Night!"

LOL!

Here's a sample and enjoy the laugh with me

Randomness Motivational Poster

2011-07-22T06:28:00.000-07:00

Enjoy!

Dice picture found on the internet; used without permission (please let me know if its yours and you'd like me to remove it. Truly sorry.)

DM Treasures - X3 The Curse of Xanathon

2011-07-18T06:28:00.000-07:00

At my local used book store, I recently picked up a copy of X3 The Curse of Xanathon.

I have not run the module and I haven't even read it in detail yet, but I thought I would share the few beginning pages because I think they are a hidden treasure.

The first few pages of the book detail the stocking of Rhoona, the city the adventure is based in. Rhoona comes unstocked/unkeyed (in fact unnamed on the map) and it is the DM's job to put the city together.

The author, Douglas Niles, has created a couple of great tables to do just that. I believe that these tables can easily be transferred to your own game. Of course, YMMV.

On the map, CIRCLES represent businesses, SQUARES represent taverns and the empty spaces in each zone are otherwise crowded with residences (described in each section.)

The sections are:

A - Old Town

B - Warehouses

C - Marketplaces

D - Temple

E - Temple

F - Barracks

G - Middle Class Residences/Businesses

H - Racial Sector

I - Ducal Palace

J - Dwarven Quarters

K - Upper Class Residences

So, after drawing the map, you roll on a random table and note down the name of a tavern or type of business for each of the circles or squares on the map. There are low class and middle class taverns.

Here are a couple example tables. Enjoy. I think they can be of great use in any fantasy city game. If you can get your own copy of X3 I think you'll find other treasures therein.

Dyson's Delve with Grandkids 4

2011-07-17T06:28:00.000-07:00

Previous post here.

So Anonymous runs out of the hall and into the larger room, screaming that the ogre is trying to get him.

Hoss (fighter), Brena (F hireling fighter) and Pelton (hireling fighter) are all staged and ready to accept the ogre's charge. Tiny (dwarf fighter) is hiding by the door, hoping to attack from behind. Guy (cowardly hireling fighter) is safely in the back near the retreating wizard and his goblin "friend".

The ogre charges into the room and the fighters attack. Most miss, but in two successive rounds Brena deals 12 points of damage to the ogre. This is enough to take him out and the party is duly impressed.

Cheers for Brena the "Bad Axe" all around the table! (dad coined that phrase and I don't know if the grandkids catch the double entendre...)

They gather the coins he has in his belt pouch and they move on toward "the forbidden doors." About 320 gp.

The goblin told the adventurers that the doors were sealed shut. "No go in," he said. Hoss had a theory that perhaps the ogre lived behind the doors, but both doors were solidly blocked. The doors were boarded up, but that did not serve as any kind of deterrent at all. Hammers and prybars were employed to gain entry.

The party tore the boards off and forced the door. They found themselves in a 20x20 room with an old font filled with a bit of stagnant water. At the request of Anonymous, the goblin tried the water and said it was okay to drink, but not really very good.

Anonymous got out his 10' pole and tested the walls, floor and ceiling for traps. Eventually, they came upon four stony graves/tombs in the floor of an adjacent room. With a single poke, Anonymous determined that the rocks, dirt and stones were quite loose around the tombs...

Hoss urged caution, but Anonymous kept poking at the stony graves until four zombies burst out of the ground!

Anonymous activated his shield ring and his AC jumped to 18. The party waded in.

Within two rounds, the zombies had rolled exceptionally well and the party had rolled very poorly.

Brena (the hero of the ogre encounter), Pelton (the brave) and Hoss (the fighter/leader) were all dead on the floor. It took the efforts of Tiny, Anonymous and Drago (with his sling) to defeat the zombies.

In the end -- 3 dead out of 7 -- two hirelings and another PC. The adventurers needed to call it a day and return to Verbosh.

In the end, they found some gold, silver and a shiny +1 dagger.

Back in Verbosh, the adventurers returned the dead to their families (Brena and Pelton) and they put out the word that they needed a few new hirelings. (I love the Meatshields resource so I printed another page) They settled on three new companions and also sought out Hoss's smaller brother, "Ross" who is more of an archer than swordsman (7 STR and 15 DEX).

SIDENOTE: so far, both PCs that have died (fair and square) have belonged to Brian my stepson (father of the two grandkids.) He has taken both deaths with grace and good spirits. I'm thrilled, because eventually one of the grandkids is going to lose a character. Brian (as I expected) has been a great example to his kids. If I had to guess, its gonna be Matt if he keeps being reckless with ogres and he keeps poking at obvious traps with his 10' pole... :)

SIDENOTE 2: on his way out on Thurs nite, Matt said, "if my wizard dies, can I make up a twin brother for him?" "Sure," I said. "I'll name him Hip Hop Anonymous." -- a funny phrase that Brian and I keep using during the game...

:)

Dyson's Delve with Grandkids 3

2011-07-16T06:28:00.000-07:00

Previous post here.

On Thursday night, my grandkids came over again with their dad and they once again made a foray into Dyson's Delve, or as they know it, the Church of the Blue Stones.

They gathered their hirelings and purchased some much needed supplies -- and headed back into the unknown.

I asked Matt to recap where they had been and he did a pretty good job. He was able to recall what they had done and then they all decided to go back into the goblin infested ruin.

Upon descending the stairs, they heard some grunting from behind a previously cleared-out door. Matt asked if it sounded like goblin or orc -- I said it was just loud grunting, not really a language.

He sent his goblin "friend" to "just take a look". The goblin reported that "dere's an ogger" on the other side of the door.

Matt got very excited! "Can I charm an ogre?" he asked. I said that he could.

Anonymous, the elf mage, snuck through the door and carefully peeked around the corner. The ogre was looking the other way.

"I'll cast charm person!" he exclaimed. I told him that the ogre would get a save and if he saved, he'd know that someone was there to cast the spell. Matt said that would be OK.

The ogre saved. Matt was disappointed. "I run away!" he said. I rolled some dice and told Matt to make a saving throw, otherwise Anonymous wouldn't get away in time. He rolled a 1 and Anonymous tripped over his own feet....

The ogre stormed up to the fallen elf and swung his mighty club... I used this guy

(I paused throughout this part of the adventure for dramatic effect. :) I asked Matt his AC. "10" he said. Gulp. I told him that the ogre would have to roll a 10, but he'd also get to add 4 to his roll for being a powerful monster. "Less than 6" he figured and Anonymous would be OK.

Dramatic pause. "3". Whew!

Matt said, "I get up and run" but I told him, roll initiative. This whole time the party is in the larger room getting ready for the ogre to emerge. They didn't know that their wizard was in peril...

He rolls a 2 for init. I roll a 4. "Oh no."

I told him, "He takes an other swing at you lying on the floor. You are rolling around trying to avoid getting hit..."

"5" Seriously. I rolled these in the open. "I run away!"

(more later)

Magical Pipe Organ Desk

2011-07-15T05:51:00.000-07:00

Saw this over at Make. It's amazing.

It is COMPLETELY made of wood. INCLUDING THE MECHANICAL/PNEUMATIC COMPUTER!!

When you push in the drawers, it makes a sound and a combination of sounds (a tune) opens a secret compartment. The tune can be changed by adjusting the big wooden screws. The desk itself contains clues as to the tune that should be played.

AWESOME! A real, live magic item. What else can I say!?!

this is the computer!

PS: he makes puzzle boxes that he sells too!

Massive Monograph of Malignant Malefactors - A thru C

2011-07-14T06:28:00.000-07:00

125 pages. Whew.

That's just the ABC monsters! Wow! This IS going to be a Massive Book.

This is not a final version or layout, but I want to put it out there for you to use if you are so inclined. I've included all the art I have at the moment, including the new pieces by Scadgrad. (AWESOME!) I also found some public domain stuff and I drew some pics myself. To me, the art serves as a signpost that helps navigate the book.

I'm not including maps or landscapes anymore -- not that I won't -- I will! I am just trying to concentrate on getting the monsters done. It takes the better part of 2 weeks to format/compose 30+ pages of monsters per letter. :) Eventually, I'll put the maps, landscapes, treasure tables, random encounter tables, challenge levels, etc. in the book as well. Honestly, that's probably months away -- gotta get the other 23 letters done!!!

I continue to refine the intro to the book and I keep adding the proper OGL credits to the end.

Enjoy! Here's the link!

If you like the work, please post a comment. Please let Scadgrad know that you like his pics too!

Character Names

2011-07-13T06:00:00.000-07:00

I guess this is a philosophical post that asks a question --

Do you allow silly or absurd character names in your games?

Why do I ask? Well, I think if your campaign has a particular theme or style, nothing breaks the theme or style like a silly name.

The kingdom is in peril. Anglarth the Black Dragon is at the gates. The tome of Arl-an-Uuthark must be opened. The sword of Tor Azul must be reforged.

Can you save us, Eye-Pad McRib San-Witch?

See what I mean?

In the Rythlondar Chronicle, it seems like the PCs didn't even have names (caveat - I haven't read the whole thing yet), but the NPCs do. Of course, this is very early in our hobby's history.

I actually think this might be preferable to silly names.

I know that when I played Wizardry, I *tried* to come up with a clever, somewhat silly name. Of course, you are playing against the computer in this case. Basically, you use a silly name to amuse yourself. One of friends came up with one of the all-time best Wizardry character names (in my opinion)

Sir Loinsteak

In my games, I like the PCs to (eventually) have realistic sounding names. I don't rush the process. For a session or two, players might refer to their characters by their class.

In my Queston Campaign, I used HyperCard (years ago) to create a stack that randomly generated names for each fantasy race in play.

First names were made from an assortment of sounds (you might loosely call them phonemes) that were randomized and assembled by the program.

Last names were made from two-word combinations (in most instances)

Since these were computer generated, you could still get some silly results. I made up for this by generating hundreds of names and then allowing the player to mix and match. It seemed to work pretty well.

Here's a scan of a page of names from my "Questoni Book of Names"

Now, of course, with the internet you can find many random generators out there. My favorites are here. Special nod to this name generator which I like a great deal.

So, do you allow silly names at your table?

Box Golem

2011-07-11T06:28:00.001-07:00

In my Queston Campaign, a terrorist/crimelord named Kerrick the Fist ran a crime syndicate in the city of Traderton.

He protected his wharf warehouses with some automatons made from reinforced old crates and boxes -- the box golem.

Here's an artists take on a similar creature from io9

Box Golem

Number Appearing - 1d4
Attack - 2 fists (2d8) or 2 snapping claw-boxes (2d10)
Special - Surprises, Capture, "Mystery Boxes", Golem immunities, Vulnerable to fire, Immune to electricity
BD - d6 = [1][2] the box golem "opens a mystery box" to hinder its attackers. Typically, this one is designed to hamper or slow its attackers
MD - d6 = [3][4][5] the box golem "opens a final mystery box" to deal with its attackers. Typically, this one is extremely lethal
MV - 12
AC - 3[16]
HD - 12 (60 HPs)
Save - 3
Mor - A
HC - Nil
CL/XP - 13/2300

Built from reinforced wooden crates and boxes, the box golem looks like an inanimate stack of storage containers until it is disturbed by intruders or thieves. It will surprise on a 1-3 on a d6.

When active, a box golem can be built to have nearly any shape. Most are humanoid in appearance with boxy fists that snap like claws. More "stylized" versions look like crabs, spiders and giant hounds.

Box golems attack by bashing with their wooden and steel reinforced box fists or some attack with snapping claw-like boxes with sharpened edges.

Box golems are often built with a number of "mystery boxes" contained within their structure -- poisonous snakes, scorpions, centipedes, caltrops, bear traps, explosive runes, poison gas, sleep gas, acid spray, etc.

If a box golem hits a target with both fists, it will attempt to catch and capture it within a box. The target must save or be trapped and locked within the body of the golem. The compartment is cramped and suffocating, but the victim will be safe until released. If the victim possesses exceptional STR or certain skills or magical abilities, escape might be possible at the discretion of the GM.

Box golems take half again as much damage from magical fire attacks. They are immune to electrical damage.

Dyson's Delve with Grandkids 2

2011-07-10T06:28:00.000-07:00

On their second trip into the Church of the Blue Stones, they decided to begin up top, in the ruins.

Before they left, the party decided to advertise and hire a few henchmen. They did some interviews and settled on three good men.

Guy, Human mercenary
Pelton, Human mercenary (seems really trustworthy)
Brena, (F) Human mercenary

I rolled their initial morale and let's just say, the players were in for a surprise...

They were expecting Goblins and they weren't disappointed. They headed down a spiral stair, and found themselves in a 30' square room. Two doors exited the room. One was ajar.

The adventuring party consisted of:

Anonymous, an elven wizard (Matt)
Tiny, a dwarf fighter (Maddie)
Drago, a halfling cleric (Brian) -- this is Brago's "twin" brother
Hoss, a human fighter (Brian)

Drago snuck into the room and then over to the slightly open door. He heard goblin-y arguing going on behind the door.

Anonymous snuck up behind Drago and cast Charm Person on one of the goblins. The gobbo didn't save so Anon now had a new friend. "Protect me," he said in common (which the gobbo understood) and since he was already a bit angry with the other goblin -- combat ensued.

It could have gone either way, but it was quick and the rolls favored Anon's new friend. He was victorious, but he was injured. He now had only 1 HP left.

The party asked the little fellow a few questions and they found out that the big boss was a bit further on down that corridor. They also learned that the ferret trainers were in the other direction. They also learned that there were some doors on the level that the goblins NEVER OPEN. In fact, they've blocked them shut.

The party decided to head away from the big boss for now and they moved toward the ferret trainer rooms. They discovered a series of tunnels that sloped downward (they figured they knew where they went) and they also found the first of two FORBIDDEN doors. Eventually they found the ferret trainers and leapt to battle. Two goblins and two giant ferrets were waiting behind the door.

Well, most everyone did. Turns out that Guy is a big chicken. He stood in the hall with his sword out while everyone else ran into the room. Pelton and Brena fought bravely but not Guy.

Anonymous was very disappointed in him.

Eventually, when the battle had turned in favor of the adventurers, Guy decided to join in.

The ruckus drew the attention of the big boss and his guards. Anon's little goblin friend (who was keeping watch) ran quickly to find him and let him know that "boss is coming!"

The battle was won by the adventurers who found the second FORBIDDEN door and a set of stairs down.

Where will they go next?

More Monster Illustrations

2011-07-07T16:28:00.000-07:00

Boggart

Tony over at the Savage Sword of Scadgrad has kindly offered to do some monster drawings for the Massive Monograph of Malignant Malifactors!

This is AWESOME!

I have some excellent artists onboard and I'm just thrilled with what Tony drew up.

Go over to his blog and take a look! Wonderful stuff! Thanks again Tony!

He has kindly offered to draw up some (well not some, ALL of the) demons too! I can't wait to see them.

Now to get C finished so we can get on to D!

This bugs me...

2011-07-07T06:28:00.000-07:00

I read the Kobold Quarterly blog and they just put up a post about "Strigoi"

Go here to read it. I'll wait.

It's not the post that bugs me; it's that little part at the end...

(This post is Product Identity.)

Well, that seems kinda uncool. I mean, strigoi are like like Romanian vampires. They are kinda in the public domain, like ghosts, or werewolves, or elves.

Well, let's just see if the content is super original and worthy of "Product Identity" status.

Here's a bit from the post --

An old gypsy remedy for killing strigoi:
Dig out hearts; cut in two.
Drive a nail into the forehead.
Place clove of garlic on the tongue.
Smear body with fat from a pig killed on a holy day.

Here's a similar bit from Wikipedia --

One gypsy remedy for killing a strigoi is as follows: dig up the vampire corpse, remove its heart(s), and cut the organ in two. Drive a nail into the forehead, place a clove of garlic under the tongue, and smear the body with the fat of a pig killed on St. Ignatius’s Day and rebury it facedown so as to send it to hell if it were to reawaken.

There are more examples, but honestly, I don't think this kind of thing qualifies as PI.

Just sayin'

Technological Artifacts

2011-07-06T06:28:00.001-07:00

On TV this morning, I saw this --

-- and that made me think of these --

Just sayin'

:)

Sharkclops

2011-07-05T06:28:00.000-07:00

I am sooooo writing this up for the MMMM...

Cyclopean Baby Shark

It's kinda the opposite of this little beauty...

Massive Monograph of Malignant Malefactors - B

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

Here's a little present for all of you on my country's birthday -- July 4th!

When I named this book the "MASSIVE" Monograph, I was being a bit prophetic. "Monograph" is looking less and less likely though...

Here are the B monsters. This weighs in at 42 pages of monsters!

That's just monsters that start with "B" folks. Whew.

I've found some public domain images to include... I've mocked up a map from Risus Monkey's geomorphs. I put together a beetle pic with one of Telecanter's silhouettes... I've added all of Bat's "B" monsters...

Wow.

I tried to add a plot hook to every monster. I took a new look at every beastie and tried to put my own spin on them. You'll have to decide if you like them or not.

Download it here and enjoy!

Harrison Ford Interviews

2011-07-03T09:35:00.000-07:00

I just watched these over at Cacto Cacography and I have to pass them on.

Jon Favreau interviews Harrison Ford about Cowboys and Aliens and a bunch of other stuff too!

Check them out! You won't be sorry if you are a Harrison Ford fan!

Dyson's Delve with Grandkids

2011-06-30T06:28:00.000-07:00

It's summertime and I promised my grandson Matt that we'd get together and "have an adventure." My job search intervened a week or two ago and the promised date slipped by. A promise is a promise, so we rescheduled for Monday and we got together for a morning adventure.

Matt (10 yo), Maddie (his 7 yo sister) and Brian (their dad) came over for a Swords and Wizardry Whitebox day.

We've been playing Savage Worlds, so this was a bit of a departure. I wanted to try something a little simpler with fewer dice (basically d20 and d6) so we gave it a go.

It took us about 45 minutes to roll up characters and get organized for the session.

Anonymous, an elven wizard (Matt)
Tiny, a dwarf fighter (Maddie)
Brago, a halfling cleric (Brian)
Hoss, a human fighter (Brian)

We started off with a nod toward the city we'll be adventuring from, Verbosh. I explained that they were longtime friends and that they had decided to embark on an adventure. They met up with a local veteran, Jad, who told them of "The Church of the Blue Stones." The church is named that for obvious reasons.

Further discussion dug up rumors of a cave entrance below with known rat inhabitants and an entrance from inside the ruin. Rumors of goblins in the ruin were also heard.

I'm using Dyson's Delve for the adventure under the Church of the Blue Stones.

SPOILERS FOLLOW

The adventurers began in the cave entrance to Level 1. Inside, they found a bunch of giant rats and a few giant ferrets. They put flaming oil to good use and discovered that scaring wild animals off with fire is just as effective as fighting them all to the death. They discovered some narrow, crawl-able tunnels but they opted for the stairs down.

They ended up in the cave part of Level 2. They found some dead rats and a horde of live ones. Again, well timed flaming oil caused the rats to rout into their holes leaving the adventurers alone.

Tiny, the dwarf, stumbled unwittingly down the hall and was surprised by the ghoul. It's claws were turned aside by his chainmail and his axe and Hoss's spear made short work of the foul creature. They found themselves quite rich after they took all of the ghoul's "bling".

They proceeded on and narrowly avoided a pit trap in room 12 and Anon found a magic ring on the fingerbones of one of the ghoul's unfortunate snacks. The ring seems to create a protective field when it's command words are spoken in elvish.

The intrepid group continued down the stairs to Level 3. Here's where things went bad.

Although Anon was poking at the ceiling to try and find traps, and he did in fact trip one large block out of the arched ceiling; he wasn't persistent enough to trip the second blog. Poor Brago was crushed to death under the massive stone.

The collapsing stones caused the zombies from room 7 to move toward the adventurers and soon they found themselves badly damaged and outnumbered 5 to 3. To make things worse, their cleric was squeezed to paste.

RUN AWAY!!

Up the stairs and out into the sunlight and back to Verbosh. Whew. That was close.

(More to come!)

Lego Heroica (another actual play report)

2011-06-29T06:28:00.001-07:00

Last night, my grandson Lance came over to hang out for awhile. His mom had softball and he hadn't been over lately, so it was a good time.

Anyway, Lance is a Legomaniac. Seriously. He loves the Legos.

We played air hockey for a few games but eventually I couldn't resist busting out the new Lego Heroica set I bought. He was instantly captivated.

Being the incorrigible DM that I am, I couldn't help but tinker with the rules. I explained to him that we were going to explore the complete castle (3 games; different layouts). During the first two games, whatever magic or treasure we found, we would carry that over to the next game. If our characters died in the first two games, they could regenerate and we could regenerate all our hit points between session. In the final session, if we died -- we were out. We'd need to team up to defeat the goblin king.

In my back pocket I had a rule that if no one character made progress during a turn, the goblin king would get one random reinforcement from the goblin jar. Never had to use that. Lance didn't fool around.

The first game was occupied mostly by Lance getting a handle on what his characters could do. He took the knight and the wizard. I took the barbarian and the druid. Basically, you roll the Lego die to move and if you end up fighting you roll the die again to fight. The one symbol that is common to both rolls is the shield. If you roll a shield during movement, you can use your ranged power. If you roll a shield during combat you can use your melee skill. Here's a picture of a page from the rules. You can see what the character skills are at the bottom:

During game two, we started to discuss strategy. We talked about what weapons we should buy with our gold and who should have them. We discussed who should have the potions. The weapons duplicate the skills of each warrior. That way, you could have a barbarian (close combat) who also has the staff (healing).

When the map was laid out for Game 2, we talked about what we'd do first and if we should split the party (in Lego this is a good idea). We talked about what order we should visit the rooms and we made sure we'd have enough keys to open the locked doors.

During Game 3, I really thought Lance would be afraid that his characters would die. He wasn't. At one point, his knight with only 2 HPs left charged a green and grey goblin. The green does 1 if you lose in battle; the grey does 2. He took on the green first and won. Then he took on the grey. That could have been the end. Nope. He rolled a shield and took him out. High-fives across the table.

At the end of the battle, we had to go 1:1 with the goblin king. My barbarian had a potion of strength (instant kill) and I told Lance to just wait. Nope. He ran right in with his knight and rolled a sword. Dead goblin king.

"Ha! I got him! I didn't have to wait for you!" He was really proud of himself.

Great game, great fun. This just might be the "gateway drug" that the OSR needs. A few rules tweaks and you've really got something.

Proposed Rules Tweaks for Heroica to OSR conversion (not playtested yet):

All damage is 1. You can attack diagonally. Monsters take multiple hits to kill based on their color.
Spend gold for healing potions (heal 2 pts; 3 gold)
No regeneration.
If the heroes fool around and don't make progress toward the goal, add one random monster to the board in unexplored areas.
Maybe have a GM and reveal the dungeon one room at a time.
Allow the monsters to move (I think this is already in the rules). Wandering monsters from explored areas when the GM rolls a shield during monster movement.

A Big Thank You

2011-06-28T08:37:00.000-07:00

This post goes out to ScottZ of Old School Jump.

On another blog, I offhandedly mentioned that none of my local game stores were participating in Free RPG Day.

Scott volunteered to share some of the swag he picked up.

He graciously sent me two Mutants and Masterminds books (a friend would like to play supers this summer.)

-- AND --

He sent along a die for luck. Awesome. I shall roll it with pride!

Thanks again Scott! Thank you for your generosity!

Pixar's BRAVE - a "flame princess" we can ALL enjoy!

2011-06-28T05:33:00.000-07:00

There's a trailer on the web for the new Pixar movie, BRAVE. I thought I'd share.

Here are a few screenshots. Embedding the video is disabled. Click the link to view.

BRAVE trailer

Castle of the Mad Archmage (Video)

2011-06-27T06:28:00.000-07:00

Here's an actual play video of my group going through the Castle of the Mad Archmage. I'm the DM.

This was recorded awhile ago and I forgot to post it. It's not the most exciting bit of play, but heck, it's a start. Maybe I'll post some more from this session if folks are interested.

Enjoy!

Areth, an architectural atlas

2011-06-26T06:28:00.000-07:00

Saw this over at io9 and I thought it could be a great sourcebook for a post-apoc or spacey-sandbox game, like Terminal Space.

Areth

Dungeonland and the Magic Mirror

2011-06-25T05:18:00.000-07:00

When I was running my Queston campaign in the late 80's for my high school friends and college buddies, I used parts of DUNGEONLAND to fill out the mythical continent of (this is a mouthful) Mythophantarealean (!)

I used the Smilodon Cat, the Mad Hatter and the Caterpillar atop the mushroom to great effect.

I have no experience with BEYOND THE MAGIC MIRROR, but it looks like it comes from a similar vein and could be of great use in any madhouse dungeon.

Gary Gygax must have used these (or similar) in Castle Greyhawk. Here's part of the introduction from MAGIC MIRROR:

ENTERING THE LAND BEYOND THE MAGIC MIRROR
The entry point for The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror will be
shown on the proper level of the Greyhawk Castle Dungeon
series when it is finally done. As that is likely to be years from
now, it is probable that you will be inserting this module into
your existing campaign.

I don't know if he ever reference these modules in Castle Greyhawk (or elsewhere).

DOWNLOAD BOTH MODULES HERE BEFORE THEY ARE GONE!

Lego Heroica - Actual Play Report (Castle Fortaan)

2011-06-24T21:40:00.000-07:00

I went out to Target tonight to buy dog food and I found myself drifting over into the toy section. I like to take a look around at Target because in the past, I've found Heroscape on clearance and other games as well.

So, what did I find? Lego Heroica!

This is the Castle Fortaan set ($30)

Target had two of the other sets, but not the Waldurk Forest, which is the other one I really want... Actually, who am I kidding? I'll be buying all four...

You can download the rules here (check them out!)

Anyway, I busted open the box, which is quite sturdy and will store the game well for some time to come. Inside, I found four bags of Lego parts, a rulebook, a scenario book and the instructions for how to build the set.

You only have to build it once -- you can disassemble it and store it in the box for future play. The pieces build out like dungeon tiles and corridors. You can assemble it nearly any way you'd like. There are three "scenarios" or dungeons in the book. Each one is set up a little different and each one shows you where the monsters are and where the magic items are.

There are four characters, a barbarian, a wizard, a druid and a knight. Each one has a special ability that sets them apart.

The game is played by rolling a really cool Lego die and reading the "pips" to move. Then, if you are adjacent to a monster, you roll the die again and read the "symbols" to determine the outcome of combat.

You can find gold, magic potions and magic items. You can search chests -- some are trapped and some have treasure. You have to find keys to open locked doors.

I convinced my wife to play and the game was quite fun. It requires a bit of teamwork at the start to get past the locked doors and the monsters (there are quite a few to defeat on the way). At the end, I was in position to take the throne when my wife's wizard blasted the goblin king to oblivion. Huzzah! It took about 20 minutes to play one scenario.

What's Good?

The whole game is good. It's not complicated and I can tell that it has a bit of replay value. Kids will probably love it. I really liked it.

What Would You Hack?

There's a rule in the game called "Battle Heroica." One player runs all the monsters. Sound familiar? If I ran that version of the game, I wouldn't lay the whole map out. I'd build it as you go. Sound familiar?

I could also go digging through my Lego box to find a bunch more bricks to make more tiles... :)

You literally could use this as a dungeon representation at a tiny scale. One "stud" being 5' of actual scale. The little guys could be used to set up a marching order very easily. The abstract nature of the old school games would work perfectly.

If your Heroica hero "dies" you just kinda have to sit there until you regenerate. You could give monsters a number of hits to kill (instead of just dying after one) and you could make all monsters do 1 pip of damage (some do 3 and you only have 4...), but when you're dead you're dead. Would make defeating the adventure a bit harder AND more rewarding.

You could easily add new kinds of magic items, potions, monsters, traps, etc. to this game if you have the Legos to do it. Of course, you could go all "abstract" and forget about the Legos. In actuality, if you turned this into a campaign game, a little character sheet would make that easier.

All in all, great game, lots of fun and lots of ways to tinker (don'tcha just love tinkering?)

Adventure Workbook: Auto-Generated Random Tables

2011-06-24T06:28:00.000-07:00

The Paladin in Citadel had a great idea that I'm going to be chewing on for awhile. If you haven't read it, go here and do so. You won't be sorry.

He offers some interesting ideas and I don't pretend to have fully grasped them yet, but here's a tool that I think might be helpful in this quest.

It's a RANDOM Wandering Monster Chart. I mocked this up because it seems like it could play a role in an adventure workbook.

Here's how it works. It generates a random spread of percentages on Sheet 2 and then it generates SIX sets of random numbers on Sheet 1. It roughly builds a d100 chart, or at least that's the intention.

In the upper left, you can play with the spreads on the main sheet. A random spread between 1 and 5 is the default and it matches the spread on Sheet 2. If you change the number in yellow (see below) you can radically change the way that the sheet is randomized. That would impact the monsters that appear in the sheet -- and how frequently they are encountered.

If you hit CTRL-R it changes all six charts. Sometimes monsters disappear and sometimes monsters HAVE A WIDE SPREAD... These are the monsters out of the Labyrinth Lord book, by the way...

Here's a screenshot:

Here's the spreadsheet. Use as you see fit.

I also mocked up a RANDOM sheet (Risus Monkey said I could!) that redistributes and randomizes Risus Monkey's DungeonWords. This is an excellent resource that I wrote about here. Go download it for yourself, you won't be sorry.

Anyway, you could use this sheet to add/change words of your own. It could serve as the "atmosphere" of the adventure and could serve to develop plot hooks and themes within adventure points. Once again, you can change that little "5" in the upper left to a larger or smaller number. That will change the way the tables interact with Sheet 2, changing your results.

Here's the dungeonwords sheet to download.

Go forth and create workbooks!!! I'll be there soon!

Monster Contributions from Bat at Ancient Vaults

2011-06-23T06:28:00.000-07:00

Bat and I have been exchanging emails lately. He's been telling me the names of all his "A" monsters and now his "B" monsters. I occurred to me that there might be an easier way.

I did a little "Google-Fu" and I slogged through over 30 pages of results to find these monsters. I grabbed all their webpages so I could find them when the time was right.

I'm planning to include ALL of these in the new monster book. Whew!

Thanks Bat for all your contributions! This is going to be an awesome resource!

a
[New Monster] Alicanto Bird « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old School Revolution is weird.webloc
[New Monster] Alopekos Teumesia « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old School Revolution is weird.webloc
[New Monster] Arcane Herons of the Jade Valley « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old School Revolution is weird.webloc
[New Monster] The Astral Raiders « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old School Revolution is weird.webloc
b
[New Monster] Azlar’s Behemoth « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old School Revolution is weird.webloc
[New Monster] Biligar (demon-queller) « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old School Revolution is weird.webloc
[New Monster] Birds of Peace « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[New Monster] Bladehead « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old School Revolution is weird.webloc
[New Monster] Blazing Sentinels of Klaroak « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old School Revolution is weird.webloc
[New Monster] Blue-Belted Bee « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old School Revolution is weird.webloc
[New Monster] Brawling Garant « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old School Revolution is weird.webloc
[New Monster] Fungal Behemoth « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old School Revolution is weird.webloc
[New Monster] The Bloodless « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old School Revolution is weird.webloc
c
[New Monster] Aquatic Black Centipedes of Jurgess « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old School Revolution is weird.webloc
[New Monster] Cantankerous Porom « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch ....webloc
[New Monster] Changeling « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Creeping Zilb « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[New Monster] Crimson Arbiter « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[New Monster] Crocodile Hounds of Nefthis-Yd « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
[New Monster] Ethereal Cat « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[Swords & Wizardry] New Monster- Cat, Golden or Wooden « Ancient ....webloc
[Swords & Wizardry] New Monster- Celestial Lion « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
d
[Monster] Aeoneum Dragon « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old School Revolution is weird.webloc
[New Monster] Despair Mold « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Dorshk « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Dreadheart « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Drone Spore « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Dysnomia « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Pig Daemon « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Soulstealer Devil « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch ....webloc
[New Monster] Stone Dragon « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[Swords & Wizardry] New Monster- Drought Daemon « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
[Swords & Wizardry] New Monster- Night Daemon « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
e
[New Monster] Eidos Loimos « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Elaphos Khrysokeros « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch ....webloc
[New Monster] Spike-Crowned Earth Elemental « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
[New Monster] The Eater of Luck « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch ....webloc
f
[New Monster] Fallen Celestial « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[New Monster] Firefox « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Flounch « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Forlorn Mage « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Fungoid Prowler « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
g
[New Monster and Spell] Grimalkin and Call Grimalkin « Ancient ....webloc
[New Monster] Gegenees « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Ghosts of the Wicked Monks of the Vermilion Temple ....webloc
[New Monster] Glove Imp « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Gnashing Mnark « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[New Monster] Goblin Luck Bottle « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch ....webloc
[New Monster] Grank « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Grazovi (reptilian brutes) « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
[New Monster] Groxalen « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Nightmare Giant « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[S&W/LL] New Monster- Aegir « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old School Revolution is weird.webloc
[Swords & Wizardry] New Monster- Diabolic Giant « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
[Swords & Wizardry] New Monster- The Gwylion « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
h
[New Monster] Hagrath « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Harbinger Raven « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[New Monster] Hauntwood Fairy « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[New Monster] Helikonis « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Hornet, Limbo « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[New Monster] Horror Turtle « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[New Monster] Horror Worm « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Hound of Lozag « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[New Monster] Hunting Tower « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[Swords & Wizardry] New Monster- Hus Klazomenaios « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
[Swords & Wizardry] New Monster- The Niliniss or Hawkpeople ....webloc
i
[New Monster] Iakklos « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Infernal Bull « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old School Revolution is weird.webloc
[New Monster] Inky Slinkers « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[New Monster] Rat, Infernal « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[Swords & Wizardry] New Monster- Infernal Brute « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
[Swords & Wizardry/Labyrinth Lord] New Monster- Iron Scorpions of ....webloc
j
[New Monster] Jagralek (crocodile-shark) « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
[New Monster] Jiresko, People from the Dream « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
k
[New Monster] Keepers of the Moon Garden « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
[New Monster] Keres Tenebrae « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
l
[New Monster] Lanternfish « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Lavegor « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
m
[New Monster] Metal Calling Mushroom « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch ....webloc
[New Monster] Mujina « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] The Morili « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
n
[New Monster] Nodstraga, the Betrayer Dragons « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
o
[New Monster] Oppressor Jelly « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[New Monster] Orange Shriller « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[S&W/LL] New Monster- The Oakmen « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch ....webloc
[Swords & Wizardry] New Monster- Ornithes Stymphalides « Ancient ....webloc
p
[New Monster] Phlogn « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Pouch Sprite « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] The People of Izarg-Grak « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch ....webloc
q
r
[New Monster] Ragerock « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Returned Mage « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[New Monster] Roshot « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
s
[New Monster] Sage Tree « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Scaled Assassin « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[New Monster] Seether « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Serpents of Saram-Laq « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch ....webloc
[New Monster] Shadow Cobras « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[New Monster] Sin Hounds « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Skyfish « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Slug, Fire « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Snarg « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Snarling Statue of Kolluk « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
[New Monster] Snorbing Grilt « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[New Monster] Snorgle « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Spider-folk « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Spiderwolf « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Storm Hounds « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Stravak (tree-lounger) « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch ....webloc
[New Monster] Subterrestrial Prowler « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old School Revolution is weird.webloc
[New Monster] The Shadow People « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch ....webloc
[S&W/LL] New Monster- the Serpent Kings « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
t
[New Monster] Tangeenirs « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Telechines « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Temple Guardian of the Old Gods « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
[New Monster] Tentacled Horror « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets ....webloc
[New Monster] Thelg « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Threlg « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Time Slime « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
u
[New Monster] Urisk « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[Swords & Wizardry] New Monster- The Unbidden « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
v
[New Monster] The Veledge « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Vazang « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Villainous Murdge « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch ....webloc
[New Monster] Viltch « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[Swords & Wizardry] New Monster- Vilivoll « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
w
[New Monster] Dread Wyrm « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] The Wayward Knights of Wrekkle « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
[New Monster] Vermin Wyrm « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[New Monster] Waspfolk « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Watcher in the Woods « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch ....webloc
[New Monster] Wisefish « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Woe-Wyrm « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[Swords & Wizardry] New Monster- the Werebat « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
[Swords & Wizardry] New Monster- Wisp « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch ....webloc
x
y
[New Monster] Yidge « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The Old ....webloc
[New Monster] Yogala (daemon attendant) « Ancient Vaults ....webloc
z
[New Monster] The Zolhiz « Ancient Vaults & Eldritch Secrets-The ....webloc
[Swords & Wizardry] New Monster- Zaticav Demon « Ancient Vaults ....webloc

DINKS!

2011-06-22T06:28:00.000-07:00

A while back, I posed the question, "what's a dink?"

It seemed to be a monster and it showed up in my EVIL TEMPLE TO FRAZ-URB'LUU adventure.

You can read about them here.

Anyway, I found a writeup that I did of them in my gaming file cabinet. I'll be including them in the MMMM for sentimental reasons.

Enjoy!

Voltaaran

2011-06-21T06:28:00.000-07:00

In my Queston Campaign, I have dragons and then I have "true dragons."

True dragons are the real bad-asses of the setting. They are AWESOME. There are only a few of them around, one for each color.

The blue "true dragon" is Voltaaran.

Skanderbag the Unexpected, a powerful wizard, married Fyrprincess Fyrissa and as part of the ceremony, the Fyrking wanted to go on a "Dragon Hunt."

They decided to go after Voltaaran.

I don't remember the play-by-play, but you can see Voltaaran's HPs dwindle on this scan (I will never erase it...) I know that the battle was fought on the ground and in the air. Diagrams were drawn on the whiteboard. The tide of battle went back and forth.

In the end, both sides called a truce and walked away. One more round of combat and someone or some dragon was going to die.

It was EPIC!

Here are some scans of Voltaaran:

The Tyranny of Awesome

2011-06-20T18:01:00.001-07:00

I don't often wax philosophic on my blog, but I had a thought today and I thought that I'd take a crack at expressing it to the group.

Awesome is a burden. It's a tyrant. It's a ravenous monster that can NEVER be satisfied.

I was watching WANTED today. I TIVO'd it yesterday and I decided to check it out today. The intro was kinda cool and I thought I'd see where it went...

Well, it went somewhere I don't want to go.

I was just watching it, as a viewer, and I found it to be... exhausting. Then I started thinking about it like it was an adventure and I was the GM. Wow, what a trap this movie would be to fall in.

You see, all the main characters are assassins. They are literally superhuman in everything they do. Heck, they can even "curve bullets" and shoot around corners. (Don't know how they do that, I turned it off before I found out.)

The long and the short of it is that all of this super-stuff is just MORE. It doesn't make the story better. It doesn't make the plot move. It doesn't add anything except MORE EYE CANDY. MORE. It's like "action/adventure junk food." THE PROFESSIONAL was a much better movie about assassins.

As a GM, I found myself thinking, "What would I challenge these characters with?" I'd have to come up with Übervillains that had the same kinds of abilities as the heroes so that they would have a fighting chance against them.

Think about all the constraints on play that these characters have forced. Something as simple as a conflict with a "normal guy" has no impact on them at all. In WANTED, Fox, Angelina Jolie's character starts talking about "your dad was one of the greatest assassins..." RIGHT IN FRONT OF A PHARMACIST. Then she goes about shooting up the whole store. Those normal people? Who cares. They can't touch us. We're so far above them.

How do you effectively deal with that? Another example...

It's like Pokemon. (I don't play, so if I've got this all wrong let me know) In Pokemon, all the stats seem to be in multiples of 10.

Why not use single digits? Probably because "1" just isn't enough. Gotta be "10" Problem is, its just MORE. 10 is still a low stat in Pokemon, right? The numbers are just 10x bigger. SO WHAT?

Anyway, the adventures that I enjoy, the ones that are memorable aren't the ones where the big, bad hero that can do everything kicks the crap out of the big, bad villain that can do everything too.

It's the one where the little guy triumphs against the odds and was clever doing so.

When I think of stories and adventures, I think Frodo or Bilbo, Indiana Jones, Malcolm Reynolds, Harry Potter or Luke Skywalker.

I don't think Superman. Superman is just MORE. The Foo Fighters have it right --

Grymjaw, the baddest axe you'll ever see

2011-06-20T06:28:00.000-07:00

Back in the day, my buddy Norm and I used to do a bunch of "solo" or "one-player" gaming. He would run adventures for a hero of mine and I would run for him.

I've already mentioned how I left one of his characters in limbo after a fall down a slide...

Well, after UNEARTHED ARCANA came out, I wanted to play a barbarian, so, I made up Grym. If I ever find a copy of Grym, I'll post him too.

Well, Grym didn't start at 1st level, I think he was 4th. Norm said that I could have a magic weapon and I parlayed that into designing one specifically for Grym.

The result was Grymjaw.

I was a big fan of THE SWORD AND THE SORCERER. If you don't know, the hero in that movie has a really cool sword. Watch the clip --

Another weapon, JART, was based upon this sword. Read about it here.

I designed Grymjaw to have similar properties, but I turned it up to 11. Here are some pics for your gaming pleasure. Maybe one of the characters in your game deserves a real "badaxe" weapon... LOL!

Download Grymjaw here as PDF

Ascomoid

2011-06-19T06:28:00.000-07:00

Here's my take on the Ascomoid. It's a giant puffball fungus that rolls after you and spouts deadly spores.

My little armored stick figure has an EO helmet on. :)

Updated MMMM A Monsters

2011-06-18T09:13:00.000-07:00

I've received some good feedback so far (Thanks!) and I've implemented a few of the changes.

Symbols for movement rather than the old Gygaxian symbols
Horde = Hoard (Duh!!)
Disclaimer on "Badly Damaged" and "Mostly Dead" -- purely optional folks
Edits: Apparition, Greater Arcanix, etc. (you look at a file soooo much that you can't see these things. That's why people hire editors!!)

Anyway, you can download the NEW VERSION at the old link. Go here; at the bottom of the page.

Enjoy!

DIY Dungeon Master's Screen

2011-06-18T06:28:00.000-07:00

A long time ago, I purchased a TMNT game at a dollar store. It had some cool dice with stickers you could use... and it had this nearly square 6 segment game board.

So, one day, I was looking at that gameboard and I thought -- "I could just make one cut and I'd have two 3 panel DM screens..."

Whack!

Some trimmed sheet protectors, 2-sided tape and a little gorilla tape later and I had one 6-panel DM screen.

Then I got out a little Mod Podge and laser printed some art... Here's the result.

on the left panel, I've removed one page. You can see the TMNT gameboard...

Sorry the pics are blurry -- damn crappy cellphone camera... :(

Massive Monograph of Malignant Malefactors - A

2011-06-17T05:00:00.000-07:00

So, here it is, the file you've all been waiting for! :)

This is the compilation of ALL THE "A" MONSTERS that I think are cool.

Alright, this file is a DRAFT. I didn't print that all over the file; you might want to use it. I reserve the right to edit it prior to the final release. In fact, if you find something that needs changing -- please let me know. I'll fix it or if it's a constructive criticism, I'll consider it.

To all my contributors -- THANK YOU! If I have not recognized your contribution in an appropriate manner, you have my apologies. Please let me know how to remedy the situation and I will fix it!

So, here... we... go!

A big addition (at least I like it) are the ICONS:

They kinda give you a "snapshot" of the capabilities of each monster.

Then I added a bit about the monster's "environment."

And I added the "Badly Damaged (BD)" and "Mostly Dead (MD)" lines to the stat block:

This is a big change and it might not be your cup of tea. It's optional.

I included Morale and Horde Class:

I also included my "OPTIONAL MECHANICS" on "Hits" and "Plot Points"

As an aside, here's how I track "Hits" and "BD" and "MD" for my monsters:

I copy down the number of HD as a bunch of circles. Then, I guesstimate where half is (in this case it is 8 "hits" in) and I draw a line. I write down the range for the monster's BD event. If I don't roll it, I don't even have to look it up (of course I glance at it when I write down 1-4...) Then I mark a line for "MD". I'll do 1 or 2 hits based on how tough the monster is (I note the 5).

That's all there is to it. Just thought you might be interested.

I've collaborated with Risus Monkey to use his geomorphs as the basis of some maps in the book. It never hurts to have some maps ready to go. I've tried to find some evocative public domain art to help identify where the maps are. Just think it helps.

Finally, there are the monster write ups. I've scoured the source material and I've used my best judgement to make these as complete as possible. I hope you can use these monsters in your games. I've included a bunch of monsters from Bat at Ancient Vaults. Other contributors will be coming on line soon as I add the letters to the book...

So, here's the bottom line. This IS A LOT OF WORK!! SERIOUSLY! I've probably put in 12 hours this week on the letter A!

Please give me some feedback. Do you like it? Is it crap? Shall I press on and finish the other 25/26th of the book or should I just hang it up and call it a failed experiment?

Seriously, please, please, please let me know. It's a fun project, but I'm looking at (conservatively) TEN DAYS PLUS of my life here. That's not chump change.

:) Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD THE FILE HERE

Zocchi Dice AS SPREADSHEET

2011-06-16T21:15:00.000-07:00

Oh, Google Docs, is there nothing you cannot do?

To me, the real "trouble" with the new Zocchi dice are the d7, d14 and d16. These dice, if you try to use something like a d8 or d20, can cause you to re-roll results over their max.

That's bad.

All the other "weird" dice like d3, d5, d16, d24 can be easily simulated by rolling and halving or rolling with a "control die."

So, here's a spreadsheet that I threw together. It's got a bunch of RANDBETWEENS in it. Just print it off anew each session (refresh the calculations) and use the numbers in order as the rolls are called for. Easy enough for a game.

http://tinyurl.com/zocchi

Ocular Overlord

2011-06-16T06:01:00.000-07:00

Here's a pic that I drew for my new monster book. I'm pretty proud of it. I know it's amateurish, but I think its still pretty cool. I have other more talented artists too... I just can't help myself. :)

Let me know what you think.

J. J. Abrams is a DM at heart!

2011-06-15T22:18:00.000-07:00

J. J. Abrams was on the Daily Show last night and he offered some advice about writing for television that can be used at the game table.

Substitute "player" for "blogger" and his advice makes a lot of sense.

I can't embed the video from Comedy Central -- you'll have to visit the link. Fast forward to about 18:00.

http://www.thedailyshow.com/full-episodes/tue-june-14-2011-j-j--abrams?xrs=share_copy

If you haven't seen this video on TED, consider watching it too. Very inspirational!

Enjoy!

PS: here's one take on JB's "Bear Hug" controversy from the "sneak preview" at the beginning of the clip. I don't think it really settles anything. In fact, it just unsettles me... :)

Armory Character Sheet

2011-06-15T06:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a real blast from the past -- a blank Armory Character sheet.

Download it here and use it in your OSR games. Enjoy!

Trampier Easter Egg

2011-06-14T06:28:00.000-07:00

Jeff Rients mentions this over at his blog, but I just had to post about it to call it out for those of you who may not have seen it.

In the back of the 1st Ed DMG is a picture of "Emirikol the Chaotic." This is one of the most iconic images within the whole DMG, or in any 1st Ed book for that matter. Here it is if you've never seen it:

Emirikol was drawn by the legendary Dave Trampier who is also the author of Wormy, one of the classic cartoons that could be found in The Dragon magazine back in the day. Here's Wormy:

Here's a Wormy archive if you would like to see and read some awesome stuff... Read it before it disappears...

Anyway, in the new DUNGEON CRAWL CLASSICS, page 49 has an homage to Emirikol. It is excellent and a fantastic tribute to a legendary artist. Here it is:

I want to call your attention to the sign on the wall above "Lokerimon the Lawful." It's Woimy himself! Here's a detail:

TOO FREAKING AWESOME!

It's a bitch being thorough...

2011-06-13T18:01:00.000-07:00

[rant]

I don't normally do this kind of post. I like to keep things light, hopefully interesting, and generally excuse free.

I decided I had to post this because there is probably a small group of folks out there who are beginning to believe that the Massive Monograph of Malignant Malefactors (MMMM) is vaporware.

Trust me -- its not. It's just that I'm detail oriented.

I started off with one template and I put a lot of monsters into it. Mikey over at HEYMIKEY.org helped too.

Then I changed the template. Then I started adding monsters from THE TOME OF HORRORS. Then I added some new ideas. Then Bat over at Ancient Vaults said that he'd contribute monsters (AWESOME!)

Then OpenOffice crashed. UGH!

Anyway, I am slogging through this thing, and I hope to put 1/26th of the book out this week. I'm working on the A's right now. I want to make sure that they are done to my satisfaction. I will finish the intro and then I'll put "Part A" out as a PDF.

I'll probably repeat that process 25 more times.

Then, I'll get the encounter tables and treasure tables and maps built and I'll assemble the whole thing.

[/rant]

Just thought you (might) want to know.

Lorien Longbow

2011-06-13T11:01:00.000-07:00

Over at Quag Keep, Wymarc posted about the Armory Character sheet. I bought a TON OF THOSE, but can I find a blank one? Nope.

Here's a scan of one of my buddies characters. He's Lorien Longbow. He's a ranger and he was the companion of one of my favorite characters, Robyn Hoodwynk. (I'll have to post some Robyn stuff someday...) This character was played in my buddy Jim D's game.

click to embiggen

I only post him because not to do so seems wrong. After all, I'm going to erase these scans so that I can get a clean copy of the Armory Char Sheet... I'll post that later too...

The Ominous Storeroom

2011-06-13T05:45:00.000-07:00

Kev, of Kev's Lounge fame, has a new product up at his webstore. It's called "The Ominous Storeroom."

I've posted about Kev's stuff in the past.

I've used his "Rocklands" to create upcycled dungeon tiles. He and I collaborated on a One Page Dungeon this year.

This is his first pay product. All of his other awesome work so far has been free.

Well, as someone who frequently buys printable dungeon tiles (from folks like Fat Dragon) I have to say that I'm duly impressed.

The tiles are dynamic. You can change the way the floors look. There are three styles of stonework --

flagstone

stonework

small brown flagstone

You can even turn some "crusty muck" on or off if you'd like and there are cool additional tile bits like rats, straw and puddles that you can stack on top of these larger tiles.

You can also change the grids: none, 1" squares, 1" corner stars, 1.5" squares and 1.5" corner stars.

Now, as if that wasn't enough -- you also get some really great 3D models of stacked wooden crates. The crates are customizable with mold, waybills, varied colors, etc. There are also three sets of models with three sets of construction difficulty. Very cool. I'll build some of these this week and I'll post about that here as well.

are these cool or what?

In my opinion, Kev's "Ominous Storeroom" is a fantastic set of printable dungeon tiles with some very cool 3D paper models included. You can't beat the price, so if you are into this kind of thing, do yourself a favor and go check them out!

(full disclosure, Kev sent me a copy of the files to check them out.)

Deck of Scrolls

2011-06-12T06:11:00.000-07:00

Here's a file of 18 different scrolls. Sure, the picture is the same on each, but I've either changed the color of the scroll or I've changed the color of the card.

Print them out and write the spells on them, then give them to your players. Enjoy!

DOWNLOAD THE FILE HERE

Melee Weapon Cards

2011-06-11T06:28:00.000-07:00

Here's a deck of 78 melee weapon/gamer bling cards for your enjoyment. They have no text; you'll need to write that in yourself. Enjoy!

Set includes swords, warhammers, maces, axes and daggers!

Download here

DCC Easter Egg Art

2011-06-10T06:28:00.000-07:00

There has been some discussion on the blogs about some of the art in the Beta of Dungeon Crawl Classics.

It seems that some folks believe that a bit of the art borders on "parody" or "rip off".

My take is "inside joke," "homage" or "Easter egg."

You see, some of us old timey gamers will see this stuff and we'll recognize it's original origin. It puts a smile on my face. Newbies will just see "art."

I was just leafing through the PDF again and this little number popped out at me. I've looked at it a half dozen times already, but it finally clicked:

It is an homage to "The Keep on the Borderlands." Here's the original:

SMILE :)

My Adventure Creation Process

2011-06-09T16:43:00.000-07:00

I enjoy reading and hearing about how other DM's go about creating their adventures. My process has evolved over the years. I don't know that I have a "set" process, but in this post I'll tell you a bit about what I did to create a recent adventure.

In the past, I used to spend a lot of time drawing maps. Then, I would spend a lot of time writing up keys for the maps. Check out this adventure to see what I mean.

Sometime in or around 1986, I dispensed with all that and I wrote up adventurer that were a lot more sparse. I filled in the gaps at game time. Sure, I thought about what I *might* do, but I also listened to my players, read the room and tried to live up to expectations. I've shared an example before where my players gave me a better idea than I actually had -- AND I STOLE IT ON THE SPOT.

Ultimately, I've learned that overplanning is simply a waste of time. It's better to hone your improv skills and try and be flexible during the game.

This lesson was reinforced just a week ago by my CotMA group. I sent an email around and tried to get a sense of *where* they were heading during our next session... Would it be level 2, 3 or 4? Would they go seek out the wizard's keep? Something else entirely?

Well, they told me that they'd be heading back into CotMA. I should have asked more questions, because I mistakenly assumed that they'd be heading to level 3. I prepped for that and I even rolled up some random encounters.

Nope. They went to level 2. Lesson reinforced (I hope I can say learned...)

So, back in March, I had an unavoidable meeting on game night and the CotMA group agreed to get together from 7 - 10p for an abbreviated session. I decided that the session would have something to do with my favorite DM tool, the DECK OF MANY THINGS. :)

One result of that night was that Oryx, their doughty dwarfin warrior drew "The Void" and was suddenly without a soul. What to do?

I informed the player that he would have to go on a "quest" of sorts so that his soul could escape the void and be reunited with his body. Instant side adventure and an opportunity for improv.

Here's what I did.

I went to Dave's Mapper and I loaded a map. I looked at it with one purpose in mind -- WHERE IS THE EXIT? Where is the goal that Oryx's soul will be looking for. I found it in this map:

Can you see the "gate"? It's right there in the upper left geomorph by the red arrow... Just climb the stairs and jump through the ring... Oryx started on the stairs in the red circle.

We were playing this adventure via email, so I loaded it into Queeky to reveal the map a bit at a time.

But how to stock the dungeon? That's where Risus Monkey's "Dungeon Words" came in. I used random numbers generated here: http://www.pbegames.com/roller/

I rolled 500 d12s and then 500 d20s. I crossed them off a pair at a time and I put the suggestive/evocative words on the map. Here's the new map with my writing on it:

Once I had a map with some ideas on it, it was time to look for patterns or connections or something. Sometimes a word suggested another word in my head and I used that. I had a preconceived notion of a connection to Oryx's "Azer" heritage so I had to put that in there (I think you can find that room -- more on that later.)

I started jotting down some rough notes (about 2 pages) that could remind me of the connections I discovered:

Here's another neat trick. I needed a name for Oryx's little imp-like Azer mentor (kinda like Yoda made of magma). I had no idea what to call him. I used some dice rolls on the DungeonWords tables and just took the first letter of the responses. The letters I got were: SFRBSA. I stared at those for awhile and I decided that I should call the little hothead, "Sulphur Bones". His hellhound turned out to be Ashfang (just pulled that one out...) Anyway, that's another really cool trick.

All in all, the adventure was a huge success. Oryx is now in full possession of his soul. He lost a level due to dying in the void, but he regained about 4000 XP for the experience.

Here are some pictures of the finale today. Enjoy!

Oryx and Jace parlay with Sulphur Bones and Ashfang.

Oryx and Jace face down with the lizard-slime, Bloolbloop and his ooze minions.

Oryx goes hammer to tongue with Bloolbloop who is dead set on having his "maaaain cooourse." Eventually, Oryx will wrap his tongue around a pillar and that get's his attention...

Oryx and Jace take the brain out of the fountain of spinal fluid and dump it into the statue with the empty head. The statue then gave Oryx cryptic directions for how to exit the dungeon.

1st Ed PH as Wizard Hat

2011-06-08T06:28:00.000-07:00

As I continue to plug away at the Massive Monograph of Malignant Malefactors, here's another of those "word clouds" to amuse you all.

This one is the text from the Original 1st Ed Players Handbook. I was able to find a PDF of that venerable document on the interwebs. A quick copy/paste and viola! Enjoy!

Click to embiggen

Monster Book Word Cloud and Update

2011-06-07T09:46:00.000-07:00

I've been working diligently to finish the Massive Monograph of Malignant Malefactors during my June vacation. Whew. No way that's gonna happen. :(

This is a project that has (dare I say) a terrible case of mission creep.

What began as a reformat with the addition of morale and treasure type, has now blossomed into a massive tome that I hope will become the be-all, end-all of monster books... and it will be FREE!

I'm adding --

Some Gygaxian Naturalism where the muse strikes me
Two new stats that will modify combat and monster behavior

BB -- Badly Beaten
MD -- Mostly Dead

My "Hits" system with supporting rules
Adventure hooks for some monsters (once again, the muse...)
A "random d6" system for modifying some individual monsters at the encounter and/or adventure planning level (muse, muse)
Some sample lairs built from genuine Risus Monkey (!) gemorphs
Treasure Tables from Mithril and Mages (!)
Revised Encounter Tables
Tons and tons of new* monsters
Art! (PS: if you are an artist and would like to donate some art to this effort, please leave a comment and an email address. You will retain all copyright to your art. It will be included in the print and PDF versions of this book (print will be available at cost and PDF for free)

* new is defined as new-new or new to the book (culled from other OGL sources and newly included).

In short, there's gonna be a lot of good stuff in this book when I finally get it done. Seriously.

While you are waiting, here's a word cloud generated using Tagxedo that you might enjoy. It is based on the original text from the 0e Monster Book by Matt Finch and company.

click to embiggen

More exciting news and sample pages to come!

Remix the Dungeon

2011-06-06T06:28:00.000-07:00

I subscribe to a lot of blogs. One is Thingiverse. I really, REALLY would love to have a 3D printer -- so much I could do with THAT.

Anyway, yesterday there was a post entitled "Remix Everything" and I realized that this is EXACTLY what I do in my games. You probably do too. We OSRians have been remixing for some time now.

Here are a few pics to illustrate how I "Remix" all the time.

A - plastic toy from Dexter's Laboratory -- think it came in a Happy Meal. Perfect for Mad Scientists/Mage's lab

B - Gronckles dragon from How to Train your Dragon

C - Heroscape Mini (Marro warrior of some kind) See Hydrospawn

D - V.V. Argost from "Secret Saturdays" has been glued to plastic disk, is now Uuthak the Obscure in my CotMA game

E - Bathalian mini from Reaper (this is the "normal" thing you'd use) :)

F - Star Wars mech/droid mini. I've used this as a deadly construct along the lines of Matt Finch's Amphorons of Yothri

G - Strange Japanese die from dice game. Repurposed as dragon headed altar.

H - Rubbery mice from Walmart at Halloween. They are about $1 per dozen.

I - Compass now a magic well

J - Wooden egg from Michaels, now the Regen-O-Pod

K - Jenga blocks -- good for EVERYTHING

Below is a picture of just SOME of the books that I frequently pull off my shelves for use during my games. There are many, many, many more, but I ran out of floor.

Books (top to bottom, left to right -- in no particular order)

Michael's Dungeon Alphabet, JG Verbosh, Moldvay Basic, Cook/Marsh Expert, DMG 1st Ed., OSRIC, -C's Tricks, Jeff's Miscellaneum of Cinder, Al's Beyond the BTBG Compendium 2009, Matt's Quick Primer on Old School Gaming, Philotomy's Musings, Hill Canton's Compendium, S&W Whitebox, One Million Magic Items, Al's BTBG Compendium 2010, Tome of the Spider Mage (Thanks to Gavin at The City of Iron), Chgowiz's S&W Reference Sheets, Jeff's Ye Olde Book of Spells, JD's Dungeoneer Cache tables, LOTFP, Random Fantasy Adventure Generator, Matt's Pars Fortuna, S&W Quickstart, The Wilderness Alphabet (by me), Roger's Varlets and Vermin, and Matt's City Encounters.

Whew!

If you aren't pulling stuff from about thirty-seven different books, you probably aren't trying hard enough. :)

101 Followers!

2011-06-05T12:08:00.000-07:00

Wow! I'm pleased and honored that 101 of you have decided to follow my blog. I hope that you find it interesting and amusing.

I'm posting this because I've probably been hovering at around 95-98 followers for the better part of a year. It just wouldn't be right not to recognize this milestone!

Thanks for reading and welcome aboard!

Mapping with Jenga Blocks

2011-06-05T06:28:00.000-07:00

In my CotMA game, I use minis. I make no bones about the fact that I like them.

I also like battlemats and dungeon tiles. The problem with the battlemats and dungeon tiles are the SQUARES. It's very easy to get hung up on the 5' squares. I'm sure we can get past it, but in the interest of trying something out, we skipped the squares and used Jenga blocks for the dungeon walls in our most recent adventure.

I've posted about making my own battlemats before. I have a "battlemat" that I used years ago when I ran a FATE game. Combat is very abstract in FATE, but I still wanted some kind of representation. Basically, my FATE battlemat is a large piece of white vinyl with no markings. You can write on it with wet erase markers, but there are no squares or hexes. I put this down in case we needed to draw something and to protect the table from all the rolling dice.

It turns out that there are some advantages to using Jenga blocks for mapping.

First, each block is about 10' in scale. That makes scaling the map easy.
Second, you can just rearrange the blocks AROUND THE MINIS! This was kind of a revelation. When you use a battlemat with drawn walls/rooms, you have to move the minis off the map, spray it with water, wipe it down and then move them all back. When you use Jenga blocks, you just move the walls. The minis stay put. You can then just adjust the placement of the minis to restore the marching order, etc.
Of course, the Jenga blocks can't form just any shape. You can't easily make a cavern with the detail you could draw with a marker. I don't think that's necessarily a bad thing, the battlemat and minis are supposed to be an abstraction of the reality of the fantasy environment. (Did I just blow your mind there?) I actually like the "chunky" nature of how the walls fit together.

In addition, these will kinda mesh with my previous post about using blocks in games.

Overall, the reception to the Jenga blocks was positive at the end. I think we'll keep using them for awhile and see how their use holds up over time.

Here are a couple of "re-created" pics to show how the blocks look in play.

The rogue has found a pivoting secret door that opened to reveal a dark altar...

Also, in the TV series, FREAKS AND GEEKS, the characters play a game of Dungeons and Dragons. You can plainly see in these screencaps that the DM is using dominoes to represent the dungeon. I hear that this was common back in the day, but we never did it. Dominoes might be a little easy to tip over in use, but maybe not.

Here's the segment of the episode that includes the adventure. Enjoy!

Little Wars by H. G. Wells -- PLUS BLOCKS!

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

I've known about this book for quite some time now, but I recently re-Googled it when I saw the Kickstarter for Uncle Chestnut's Table Gype. I haven't decided if I want to be a Supporter yet. It's not that I don't like the game -- I DO! It's that I've already done three Kickstarters this month. (I'm patiently awaiting my DungeonMorph dice!!!)

I have not given the book a thorough read-through yet, but I plan to do so during my June vacation. :)

One part that clicked for me was the use of wooden blocks as scenery. Here's an example pic:

I've recently dug through several boxes of wooden blocks in my garage and I've liberated some blocks for use in my games. Here's a pic of the "block box":

I haven't decided if I'm going to paint them yet. I guess I'll just need to see how they work out in play.

Some of the blocks are tall and relatively thin. I think they'll make fine pillars. Other blocks are more "wall like" and I think they can be used effectively to give more dimension to battles. There are also some blocks that will be fine stand-ins for doors. Others for altars. Some odd pointy ones for who knows what. There's a cone and pyramid in there somewhere too.

I've had these blocks a long time. I think I got them years and years ago when I was in college to be an elementary school teacher.

I don't get any commissions off these links, but to save you the trouble if you are thinking of buying some blocks....

http://www.amazon.com/Maxim-Natural-Wood-Blocks-100-Pieces/dp/B000JUTX3G -- $16.99 -- these are natural wood

http://www.walmart.com/ip/KidKraft-Wooden-Block-Set/15135626 -- $15.98 -- these are part natural wood and some are painted...

This is an expensive set, but Wells and Chesterton would be proud!

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Guidecraft-Tabletop-Building-Blocks/12388509 -- $46.20 -- here's a pic:

Here's a set that intrigues me. Called "vari-design" these are funky shapes like urns, pillars, spheres, eggs, etc.

http://www.walmart.com/ip/Guidecraft-Vari-Design-Wood-Blocks-6-lbs/12388484 -- $15.12

Also, here's a post about using blocks to map a DUNGEON ADVENTURE FOR KIDS! Cool pics over there too! Check it out!

Enjoy your blocks and enjoy LITTLE WARS!

Little Wars - HTML

History and Overview of Dungeons and Dragons

2011-06-03T06:28:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across this link at a site called "Jonny Nexus" while I was Googling for something else. :)

It's a PDF of the "History and Overview of Dungeons and Dragons." It seems to be well written, it has a lot of footnotes and it's 186 pages long.

Download it here

This should be called Telecanter's Silhouette Font

2011-06-02T06:28:00.000-07:00

Was searching for a dice font to use in my monster book and I happened upon this one. Pretty cool.

Download Here

Underground Adventure

2011-06-01T13:22:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, my wife, some friends and I all drove to southern Arizona to visit Kartchner Caverns and the Copper Queen Mine. It was very interesting being underground in these two locations. It felt a little like a dungeon adventure!

Some comparison/contrast observations:

Cavern	Mine
Walls are smooth, natural in appearance	Walls are rough, chunky, evidence of tools used
Wet, dripping water, mud, pools of water	Dry, dusty
Warm, humid (80°F+)	Cold, dry (47°F)
Flowstone, stalactites, stalagmites, soda straws	Wooden supports, metal bolts, tools
Bats, guano, crickets, ground sloth	Evidence of human(oid) activity

One key idea -- without light you are doomed!!!

Here are some pics I found online of the two places. Enjoy!

KARTCHNER CAVERNS

THE COPPER QUEEN MINE

DM Tool Page

2011-05-30T13:02:00.000-07:00

I'm putting this page together primarily for my own use. I want to have some of my favorite links in one spot for ready reference during games. It may be of some use to other folks out there.

Random Names these are particularly suited to my style of game. YMMV.

RANDOM NPCs
-- Personality
-- Crowds
-- Adventurer 1-sentence
-- Detailed description
-- Cussing
-- Villains

RANDOM DUNGEONS
Gozzy's
Dave's Mapper -- geomorph based awesomeness.
Donjon
MythWeavers
Dizzy Dragon -- uses geomorphs and stocks the dungeon

MAGIC
-- Mystical and Magical Places
-- Vancian Spell Names
-- Random Magical Effect -- Wand of Wonder on STEROIDS!
-- Potions
-- Unique Items
-- Unique Weapons
-- Swords
-- Quest Items

Random Treasure grab a PDF and GO!

MEGA RANDOM PAGES
Chaotic Shiny -- too much good stuff to mention
-- Cities
-- Traps
Serendipity -- lots more
Seventh Sanctum -- even more!
-- Tavern Names
-- Books -- lots of detailed information to make the book come alive!
All of Chris Pound's stuff here
Age of Fable -- lots of stuff!!
-- Age of Fable Labyrinth Lord Generators

The Twice Twice Stone

2011-05-27T22:26:00.000-07:00

Hidden somewhere in the wilderness (or perhaps in a dark corner of a dungeon) is this strange carved stone. It radiates a strong alteration magic if detected.

Some say that the ancient ones used devices such as this to activate their many mystical concoctions. Whether that is true, none can tell. It's use is somewhat limited now.

Any liquid poured onto its topmost basin will trickle down through the lower basins. The volume of liquid will be quadrupled, but there will be a 10% chance that the efficacy of the potion will be affected in some way.

Pouring liquid into the middle-most basin will cause the volume to simply double. A 5% chance that the potion will be altered exists.

Pouring the liquid into either of the two lowest basins has no magical effect.

Random Changes to Potions (d6)

the magic of the potion is reversed.
the magic of the potion is canceled.
the magic of the potion is changed into something exceedingly strange (think Wand of Wonder)
the magic of the potion is tweaked in an odd way (potion of flying turns drinker into bird; potion of invulnerability covers drinker with thick iron scales; etc.)
the potion is changed randomly into another type of potion.
the duration of the potion is likewise doubled or quadrupled.

Type I, II and III Demons are TERRIBLE - Part II

2011-05-24T20:34:00.000-07:00

Type II-G Demons (Hezrou) - GREATER

Frequency: Common

No. Appearing: 1

Armor Class: -2

Move: 6"//12" (that's swimming)

HD: 9 -- (maximum 72 HPs)

% In Lair: 10%

Treasure Type: C

No. of Attacks: 3

D/ATT: 1-10/1-10/4-16

Special Attacks: See Below

Special Defenses: See Below

Magic Resistance: 55%

Intelligence: Low

Alignment: CE

Size: L (7' tall)

Hezrou look like a gross toad with arms in place of forelegs. Greater Hezrou look very much like the normal sort, but their skin may be a bit shinier and lustrous than typical. Some Greater Hezrou have skin of unusual colors (purples and bright green) where typical Hezrou are of dull colors. They may be struck by normal weapons. Their Darkness is of the 15' radius variety. These additional abilities may be performed, one at a time, at will: Cause Fear (as the wand), levitate (as 8th level MU), detect invisible objects, telekinese (5000 gpw or 500#), gate in another Type II demon (see below).

Each round, roll 1d6 and consider the following additional attack modes:

1	2	3	4	5	6
On a roll of 1, the hezrou attempts a Tongue Lash. It attacks a single target within 10' for 2-12 points of damage if it hits.
On a roll of 1-4, the hezrou utters a Croak of Doom. All within earshot save or take a -5 to their next saving throw.
		On a roll of 3-6, the hezrou will attempt a Froggy Piledriver. The hezrou rolls to attack up to 3 adjacent melee attackers. Roll to hit each one in turn at +2. Each target hit takes 1d10 damage, moved back 5-20' and the hezrou follows up.

Opening a Gate

When a Hezrou attempts to gate in another of its kind, roll 2d6. If any die comes up a 1 or 2, a single Hezrou of a normal sort will appear. If both dice are 2's, a Greater Hezrou will appear.

Type I, II and III Demons are TERRIBLE

2011-05-22T20:32:00.000-07:00

So, this past week, the Heroes of Ravenport discovered that the demons they accidentally loosed in the Bandit Hideout/Temple to Jubilex had tracked them to the city.

They marked their targets with a rather large area of vile gore and ichor surrounding the local inn that the PCs use as their primary residence.

In the morning, this disgusting sight was discovered by the local constabulary and the PCs were summoned to the Lord Mayor's office.

Once there, the Lord Mayor, his advisors and the PC representatives (paladin and elf) visited the Oracle of the Well.

At any rate, the Oracle spilled the beans that the PCs had loosed the demons and the PCs needed to go clean this up or the archmage Kerr would "execute" his plan to deal with the offending citizens.

The PCs managed to finagle a little help from the Wizard's Guild in the form of some +1 magical weapons and two scrolls of Protection from Demons.

Okay. I told you all that so that I could tell you this.

The players were generally pretty nervous about facing these demons. They were worried that the demons would outclass them and that they'd be killed. That was not the case at all. I was hoping that the battle would be epic and that at least one PC or NPC would meet their end in the battle with the demons.

Nope.

These are 8, 9 and 10 HD monsters and the mostly 4th and 5th level adventurers took them out without much peril to themselves. Ugh.

So, I've decided that the Type I, II, and III demons in the MM are "lesser" varieties of these demons. There are "greater" versions of these three demons (and possibly others) and I will detail them in this post and in others to follow.

Here goes nothing!

DEMONS - AN OVERVIEW

These are just some of my notes relating to some of the "overarching" powers/capabilities/restrictions placed upon demons.

A thaumaturgic circle will keep out demons of types I-V. Alright. I'll need to figure out who can scribe these things, how long it takes and what is required. That's probably another post... (Note to self - see "Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth" and/or Dragon #56, p.18.)
Type I - III demons are hit by non-magical weapons. I actually think this is OK.
All demons have these abilities:
Infravision. Good.
Darkness (r. varies). OK. Kinda lame, but OK.
Teleport (without error). Well, I guess these guys don't ever need to walk. Good to know...
Gate (specifics vary). Also, OK. I have some ideas about how to make this better though...

In short, I think that demons should probably have MORE spell-like powers. This seems like kind of a small list. I'll probably pull some stuff out of the 1st Ed. DMG Appendix D.

Demons are affected by the listed attack forms as noted below:
acid - full damage. This is OK.
cold - half. Whaaa? This should be FULL
electricity - half. Fine.
fire - half. Whaaa? How about NONE?
gas (poisonous) - half. NONE. Seriously. How does poison affect things that probably don't even have a biology? Do they even breathe? If so, why?
iron weapons - full. Fine.
magic missile - full. Totally cool with this.
poison - full. This has to be NONE. See "gas" above.
silver weapon - none (unless affected by non-magical weapons). This is fine.

OK, here's a place where I really biffed the encounter. Half the magic shouldn't have worked at all. Maybe my take on this table is based on my own preconceived notions of what a demon is, but heck, this is my blog, right?

Type I-G Demon (Vrock) - GREATER

Lesser and greater Vrock all pretty much look the same. The greater versions might be a bit taller or their feathers might be shinier, but I don't see them as being immediately recognizable as the "greater" version.

Frequency: Common

No. Appearing: 1

Armor Class: 0

Move: 12"/18"

Hit Dice: 8 -- maximum (64 HPs)

% in Lair: 5%

Treasure Type: B

No. of Attacks: 5

D/ATT: 1-8/1-8/1-10/1-10/2-20 -- these needed to be beefed up.

Special Attacks: See below

Special Defenses: See below

Magic Resistance: 50%

Intelligence: Low

Align: CE -- duh

Size: L - 8-1/2' tall (see picture below... Whaaa?)

Vrock are vulture-like demons. They can be hit by normal weapons. Darkness caused by them is of the 10' radius sort. In addition, they can do one of the following, one at a time, at will: Detect invisible objects, telekinese (4000 gpw = 400#), gate another Type I demon (Opening A Gate below).

Greater Vrock have superior hearing and vision. They cannot be surprised and they can see their prey at great distances.

Each round, roll 1d6 and consider the following additional attack modes:

1	2	3	4	5	6
On a roll of 1, they may expectorate Venomous Spittle. This attack is against a single target within 30'. It hits automatically. The target must save vs. poison or be paralyzed for 2d6 rounds.
On a roll of 1-4, they can attack with a Wing Buffet for 2d6 damage. They make this attack against all opponents in melee combat. Roll to attack each in turn.
		On a roll of 3-6, they can attack with a Death Screech for 5d6 damage. This screech affects all targets in a 60' cone in front of the Vrock. Targets who are affected by sonic attacks may save for half damage. Wearing a full helm adds +2 to the save attempt.

Vrock are fond of human flesh, shiny gems and precious metals, but they are too stupid to accept bribes.

Opening A Gate:

When a Vrock attempts to Gate in another of its kind, roll 2d6. If a "1" is rolled on either die, a single "lesser" Vrock is gated in. If "double 1's" is rolled, a single "greater" Vrock appears.

Seriously? Unless that other guy is a leprechaun, this demon isn't 8-1/2 feet tall...

Talk about scale creep...

Ode to Jeff and Telecanter

2011-05-18T22:08:00.000-07:00

Jeff Rients posted a pic of this guy over at his blog. I saw it and I couldn't resist giving it the Telecanter treatment, so here he is.

Special thanks to both of those fine gentlemen for being such inspirations to us all!

Filling Those Hexes

2011-05-10T17:00:00.000-07:00

ChicagoWiz has a great post over at his blog where he references my Wilderness Alphabet and the excellent Kellri's Classic Dungeon Designer Netbook #4.

Furthermore, in the comments, Bob from Back to the Keep references a spreadsheet that he has made that automatically rolls d100 for each hex.

Being unable to resist tinkering, I took ChicagoWiz's table and I merged it with Bob's spreadsheet. I used a vlookup to make the results of the d100 roll populate in the hex.

Here's a screenshot:

You can download the spreadsheet for OpenOffice here. I could not get it to work in Excel and I don't know why. Perhaps later today I'll take another crack at it. If you know how to fix it, let me know.

Thanks a bunch to ChicagoWiz and to Bob for putting the table and the spreadsheet out there. I just mashed them together.