Vornheim Box

Those of you who don't at least have a PDF of Zac's amazing Vornheim, run, don't walk, over to RPGNow and get one.

Those of you who do have a copy, I wanted to show you the "drop table" box that I made -- because I don't have a dead tree copy.

I went to Hobby Lobby and I bought this box for $3.99.  I painted it black and I Mod Podged a picture of the Flailceratops to the top.

Then I printed out the drop tables at 95% and cut them to fit inside the box.  I Mod Podged the rules to the inside of the lid.  The d4 fits inside the box with the lid slid shut.

I'll let you all know how it works out!

[Gaming Memory] Lord Neville Trollbane

[I will use no names to protect the innocent and not so innocent]

Years ago (I was in high school), I was playing AD&D at a friend's house.  We'll call him A.  He had an Arizona room (a kind of screened porch with an evaporative cooler) and that was where we played.  Think of it as an Arizona basement.  :)

For tonight's session, I was playing my monk, Robyn Hoodwink and another friend, B, was playing his cavalier-paladin, Lord Neville Trollbane.

Robyn was probably about 4th level and he was pretty pathetic.  I loved him anyway.  Every single thing Robyn had, I had to claw and scrape to get.  He had a +1 gem that absorbed into his quarterstaff -- that was his primary magic item.  He also had a cool steel ball that would expand to Indy Jones trap size when rolled at enemies.  He also had "the copper tube" or "copper wand".  More on that in another post.

Bottom line -- I had nothing and I was (relatively) happy about it.  I enjoyed playing Robyn.

Neville was literally dripping with treasure.  I believe he had magic armor, a magic sword, magic other doodads.  I think he might have actually had a Hammer of Thunderbolts.  He had a lot of HPs and he could soak damage in combat.  He was near unstoppable.  Despite all that, I think it's fair to say that Neville wanted MORE!

-=-=-=-

On that night, we were in the bowels of Bellicose Keep.  Bellicose was a funhouse megadungeon before those things had names.  Cool place to adventure.

Somewhere in its depths, was a maze.  I don't recall what it was called, but deep in the maze you could find your heart's desire -- but you could only go in ONCE.

-=-=-=-

Robyn had died earlier in the campaign and a kindly paladin (whose name escapes me) raised me from the dead.  Did you know you get XP for that??  Anyway, in exchange for the second chance, Sir Whatzizname asked me to go into the maze to find an artifact of his choosing.  He couldn't go in again. He had quested within the maze at a time in the past to save Kranston, the local town.

I agreed to his terms.  Neville agreed to go along.

-=-=-=-

We delved into Bellicose and we found the maze.  We traversed the maze and we found the chamber of  your "heart's desire".  Scrawled above the door was a stern warning about not entering the maze twice. Something about "half your life" or "half dead" or similar.

In we went.

-=-=-=-

Once inside, the DM, Mr. A, told us about all the fabulous treasures that could be seen.  Literally ANYTHING AND EVERYTHING was in there.  All I cared about was the artifact for the paladin, which I quickly found.

Neville was drooling.  :)

Was there a holy sword?  Yes.  Magical armor?  Yes.  Girdle of Giant Strength?  Yes....  You get the idea.

Neville made a selection and we both departed.  Once outside with the item, B rationalized the situation and went back in.

-=-=-=-

He made another selection and he exited the chamber.  Upon stepping outside, a great energy sapped him of half his HPs.  PERMANENTLY.

Ouch.

-=-=-=-

This is when Player B should have thought about math more like fractions and less like Zeno.  B was under the impression that since he lost HALF his HPs the first time, he'd lose half of what was left the next time, and so on, and so on...

Nope.

Half + Half = Dead.  In this case, Dead = being turned to some kind of goo...

-=-=-=-

The night ended when Player B leapt across the card table at DM A.  Dice, character sheets, minis (for marching order) when flying.  I had to separate them.

We laugh about it now, but it wasn't funny then.

PS: the paladin did eventually get his artifact and Robyn's debt was paid in full.

Warhammer 40k on a Sunday

For those of you who read my blog, you may have noticed that my posts have trailed off a bit.  The problem is (and its a good problem to have) that I'm gaming too much.

I run my LL/1st Ed Castle of the Mad Archmage game for 7 players (!) every two weeks on Wednesday nights.  Lately, I've even gotten back into 40k.

Here's a shot of the table from yesterday.

My grandson Matt and his dad heard about a 40k game I played in a few weeks ago.  Matt got all excited to see my Space Marine army (his dad has one too) and he wanted to play.

I took a bit of time on Saturday to mock up the game table.  Lowe's will cut a sheet of plywood (in this case OSB) into strips if you ask.  I bought a quart of mis-mixed latex paint and then I spray painted camouflage over the top in 4 colors.

I made a few terrain pieces from some plastic tubs, a couple ice cube trays, some foam packing and a couple cardboard boxes.  We even used some papercraft terrain I had lying around.

The game was 1000 points on a side, and I'm proud to say that I won... barely.  One more turn and I was hosed.  :)

Anyway, it's really hard to post when you're having so much fun playing!  

"John Carter" Review

TLDR - I liked it.

Last night, I had the opportunity to go and see "John Carter" in 3D for free.  I saw an ad in the paper for an early showing, and I signed up.  I got two tix, so I convinced my wife to go with me.

What follows should be a spoiler-free review, but I'm not always sure what qualifies as a spoiler, so if you're nervous -- read no farther.  Go see the movie for yourself.  :)

OK, on to the review!

I thought the movie was pretty good.  It had some exciting moments, some funny moments, some dramatic moments, some sappy moments...  It isn't a ground-breaking movie, but it seemed to all come together well and it was enjoyable to watch.

I'm not exceptionally well versed in the John Carter of Mars mythos, but, from what I know, it seemed to be a fitting adaptation or homage to the series.  I'm sure that true JCoM aficionados will be able to find fault or places where they could have done better, but I think they did a fairly admirable job, in my semi-informed opinion.

I personally don't think that 3D added much to the film, but I'm not a big 3D fan, so that might be bias.  (PS: I think it's a fad)

The CGI was good.  I found the animated characters to be believable and they were able to convey emotion to the viewer.

I especially liked the animation of the white apes.  Here's a pic.  Gotta stat those up for LL or something.  Wow!

Anyway, if you're on the fence about the movie, wait for Netflix or Blue Ray.  If you went to see the Conan movie, I liked this one better.  Skip the 3D and get some popcorn instead.  :)

CotMA Recap - Session (I've lost track...) Part A

TLDR (I describe in detail the last two expeditions to CotMA -- Spoilers ahead!!)

Three weeks ago, we had our regular game night, but a few players couldn't make it.  As a way of thinning out the party and removing the characters/players that weren't there, I decided that the Mad Archmage was going to make an appearance.

The party was hanging out, refilling their waterskins, in the water basin room on level 4.  They had arrived via teleport from level 6 just a little bit earlier.

The Mad Archmage arrived, clad entirely in purple, and demanded "presents" from the party.

Wisely, the group started digging through their packs and made quite a number of kind donations to the Mad Archmage.

Shortly thereafter, he returned the gifts, saying "Thank you for your generosity," and then half the party vanished with no explanation.

He awarded a single "Get out of Death Free" card to the party members who remained, then he walked away and vanished.

The group diced for the card and Oryx ended up with it.  Appropriate, considering how often he puts his neck on the line...

The adventurers then began their explorations...

They scouted the area around the water basin room and discovered two corridors of interest.  One was much, much warmer than the surrounding corridors and had a faint heat glow.  The other was dimly lit with red illumination.

The adventurers opted to enter the redly-lit corridor.  Henri scouted ahead of the larger group.

At the end of the corridor, he found a group of six warriors sparring in a large pillared chamber illuminated with red light.  The group was made up of four orcs, two humans and two gnomes.

Henri decided that he would take advantage of their distraction and would pick one of them off with arrows.  He settled upon a large orc and he took aim and fired.

The confusion of combat and the dim light proved their worth and with several successful shots, the orc was felled.

The rest of the party seized the initiative and charged into the room.  Several foes were defeated before the gnomes could raise the alarm...

Soon thereafter, a minotaur, an ogre, and an impressively armored human fighter joined the fray...

The adventurers took advantage of their superior numbers and magic (Beata charmed an orc, Yuri, who proved a valuable asset...)  Soon all of the Red faction were defeated -- including the four humans who slept in a nearby bunkhouse.

Yuri, the charmed orc, was a valuable source of information as he explained the layout of the area to the party.  He didn't have detailed information, but he knew enough from random patrols to help the adventurers better grasp the area.

At one point he got very excited and offered to show off "the mascot."  He led the party to the warm corridor and around the corner to where a beautiful fire-nymph was imprisoned.

She seemed sad and genuinely distressed by her fate.  She brightened up (!) when she saw the adventurers, obviously hoping that they might release her, but communication was nearly impossible.

The party discovered that she spoke extremely broken draconic, but it wasn't enough to really comprehend how to release her -- if in fact she knew how!

The fire-nymph seemed to suggest that command words could be used to release her from the circles of runes imprisoning her.

At one point, Grunbar touched the whirling flames encircling her with an iron spike.  The spike glowed  white-hot almost instantly and Grunbar was forced to drop it and nurse his scorched fingers.

Scratching, marring or otherwise destroying the runes proved similarly impossible and dispel magic was determined to be impractical.

While the adventurers were attempting to free the nymph, the sounds of many hobnailed boots approached from nearby.  The adventurers hid in the room with the nymph and set up an ambush.

A group of six Red faction warriors approached and were soon defeated by the party.  One warrior tried to run, but was knocked flat with a blow from Grunbar's thrown training keg.  Oryx later used the power of persuasion (and threats of instant immolation within the fire-nymph's flames) to convince Boltoff (human warrior) to switch sides.  Recognizing the dwarf's toughness and resolve, Boltoff swore to join the group and was immediately put in charge of the remaining Red faction warriors -- himself and Yuri.

The party gathered itself and then asked Boltoff and Yuri to show them around.

The warrior and the orc explained that their area was north of the arena, somewhat isolated from the other factions.  The explained that the factions have a general non-agression pact when they meet in the corridors.  They try to save and disputes for the arena.  He further suggested that everyone in the party should put on Red faction colors.  The group complied.

They headed south.  They entered a chamber with a racially ambiguous warrior statue.  The walls were painted in murals of sporting events and other feats of strength.

"The greys [laughter] are over there," Boltoff explained.  He explained that they are trying to make a name for themselves, but they are outnumbered and out gunned.  "Mostly it's just embarrassing..."

Pointing in the other direction, Boltoff and Yuri both warned, "Don't go that way.  I've seen people go in and never come out..."

The party continued further south and eventually they entered Red faction's antechamber near the arena.  The party stepped out onto a crowded ledge to find organized chaos.

Around the outside of the arena, all the other factions had their chambers.  Members of Green, White and Blue factions could be seen.  Purple faction was noticeably absent.  Gnomes with strange hats bustled about taking bets and offering odds on the battle at hand...

...in the arena stood two hill giants fighting four manticores.  One manticore had been crushed under a thrown boulder.  The hill giants were thoroughly peppered with iron spikes and one had been partially blinded as a result.

Both hill giants wore red armbands and sashes...

(to be continued!)

OSR Dragonbone

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

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?