Drawings & Dragons

Warhammer Quest Rules!!! D&D 5 felt quite old-school.

2012-01-31T21:58:00.000-08:00

I've played a few more games of Warhammer Quest and I have fallen madly in love with it.

Running it as an RPG, it is the ultimate lazy-DM's game. At any time you can kind of let the game play itself and it will generate challenges and situations and then, when the mood or situation strikes you, you can dive right back into full DM mode and run with it. I CANNOT SAY ENOUGH GOOD THINGS ABOUT IT!!!!!

ALSO

Played my first game of the new D&D play-test and it felt really old school. Strange how being butchered to a man by hobgoblins will do that... There were no survivors.

D&D Forever

2012-01-25T12:37:00.000-08:00

I received my play-test copy of the New D&D rules yesterday and have intensively skimmed through the entire packet.

Overall, there is a lot to like in there and I feel, given the many tough choices and pitfalls in their path, it displays that they have had clever and conscientious minds at work.

Despite the limited nature of the packet, I think I see several core mechanical design choices that I am really really digging.

That said, there are still some things which trouble me. Many of these things are not fully described in the play-test packet - I do take heart that a few of the core things I was most worried about (before seeing any of the rules at all) were handled very well in the play-test packet.

I'm keeping a journal of things I like, don't like, and things which just puzzle me for now. Sadly I can't share any of this yet, but I can tell you that amongst the elements I dislike, I have included "Tordek".

Screw that guy.

4e sucked.

2012-01-19T12:13:00.000-08:00

I'm just gonna do a brief vent... please don't read onward as what follows is completely pointless negativity.

I played some 4e; it really sucked. I'm glad it is dead (or at least dying).

When I played, all the players wasted too much time building characters (mechanics only) and analyzing feats and powers DURING COMBAT and not enough time doing anything interesting or creative. Combats, and to some extend the entire game, felt just so frikkin procedural.

I'm glad there is a new edition coming out for no other reason than some kind of satisfaction I feel with the burying of 4e.

I hate 4e especially for making 3e seem like such a good system in comparison - I hated that one too (also mostly because of all the feats and builds and min-maxing).

DM Questionnaire...

2012-01-18T09:41:00.000-08:00

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?

This is a hard one... there are so many. Well, the one that pops out is kinda complicated - I made this mega-dungeon and there was an area controlled by the orcs, with a no-mans land of secret passages between the orc area, the dungeon, and a secret exit. I didn't really realize it, but this particular layout led to some amazing circumstances. The best was the first, the party was cut off from their usual rout by some ghouls and stumbled onto a random encounter with lizard men - they took one as a prisoner and interrogated him and he revealed the secret dungeon exit... but they had to pass through this no-man's land. Well sure enough they were ambushed by orc patrols (coming out of nowhere it seemed due to the secret passages), the lizardman "guide" died and they were forced to flee... tense moments where had trying to retrace steps and find the secret door out.

2. When was the last time you GMed?

One week ago - I'm just back from vacation.

3. When was the last time you played?

Also one week ago.

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.

A black dragon worshiped like a Carcosa deity; people swallowed by dragon hatch from eggs as reptloids.

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?

Depends, sometimes I just gather my thoughts and review anything I have coming up, sometimes I just enjoy the players acting in character with each other - but I'm rather impatient so I'll often put some pressure on them, usually short of an actual encounter or ambush, but sometimes I go there too. I should say that often what I'm doing is listening to their decision making process and thinking about how my game world will react to their actions.

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?

I rarely eat and play. A few candies or cookies are nice of course. I love carrots and celery (they help me stay feeling fresh while gaming) but they are noisy and distracting like chips and even less convenient. I usually eat a major meal before playing. Liquids are a must and can be anything, water, coffee, soda... rarely alcohol.

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?

No - often I'm super pumped after DMing and have difficulty sleeping because I'm thinking about the cool things that have happened and what could happen next time.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?

Oh man, I'm blessed with so many creative players this is a really tough one. Well, most recent one that jumps out - while playing RIFTS (with my own system) the party was attacked by a bunch of doppelgangers which jumped out of a mirror. In the insane fight one of the PCs got their arm melted off and yadda yadda yadda the doppelgangers were at first trapped in the mirrors then the mirrors shattered so all of the doppelgangers were just severed chunks in mirror fragments. So after the fight one of the mages just reaches into the mirror world and pulls out the severed arm of the doppelganger and attaches that to the PC's stump and casts bio-regeneration.

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?

All of the above... I have run serious and silly games and I have players who play straight men and players who are gonzo. In general I think it is best when I at least try to stick to running a straight campaign and just play straight man whenever my PCs (OR MYSELF)deviate into silly land.

10. What do you do with goblins?

In my games goblins have some ammount of magic in a faerie sort of way - like in Labyrinth and Legend. They often have little magic items which act as minor curses to non-goblins, they can slip into cracks in dungeon walls and often turn themselves into crows. They reproduce by turning children and babies into goblins. They often use poisons, or just annoying things from nature like nettles, sticker-thorns, or bugs in such a way as to harass humans - like leaving a severed head full of rot-grubs in a leather sack in the middle of a dungeon hallway.

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?

Flash Gordon cartoon movie - great one-shot.

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?

This is an impossible question - so many laughs at my table... I guess it was just a month ago playing rifts. The cactus-man techno-wizard from Texas had gotten himself shivved in space-jail (an hilarious circumstance in and of itself, "WHERE'S MY PHONE CALL!") the players confiscated his body and took him to a greater demon on the space-station to get brought back to life. For complicated reasons from the past a fight ensued with spice-pirates AFTER the 3-eyed-demon-beast resurrected the Cactus-Man, mainly due to threats and a chance to get even more cash out of the PCs the 3-eyed-demon-beast also attacked the party... the newly raised Cactus-Man was also central to the brawl, wielding his magic double-barrel shotgun and yelling out things like, "Yeah, you kill that guy who just raised me!" and "Yall just resurrected the most dangerous man in the megaverse!!!!!" ... in a very thick texas accent.

13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?

Earthshaker by David "Zeb" Cook - I had just bought it while on vacation. I really like the feel that DZC can create in his stuff - it is imaginative and appeals to the kid in me without feeling dumbed-down. His stuff isn't dark or really particularly weird - but it is ALL about fun!

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?

Gary Chalk

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?

A few times - I've even had a guy go full Bill Paxton during a Shadowrun session - another player pretty much dragged his character out of the complex by his collar, not because the character was injured or anything, but because the player was pretty much paralyzed with the situation.

I have veteran players and while they can get scared, it is very rare.

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)

This is a hard one, because I've run many 1st ed WFRP modules and they are FANTASTIC adventures. The coaching inn scene in the restless dead campaign book is a favorite, I've run it many times and it is always a hit. I've also run most of the Power Behind the Throne mega campaign and there are lots of really really good parts in that - there was a great scene at a signal tower built on an old wizard's tower which featured just 1 ghoul against a relatively high-level party, but it was really great. Also the Dying of the Light mini campaign was really really tight - it was the first module I've ever run. So much good stuff in WFRP.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?

I'm not picky; comfortable chairs, a table with enough room... if you wanna go hog-wild get a dry-erase in there.

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?

What a peculiar question. Hackey-sack and League of Legends (PC game)? Within just table-top RPGs it might be Rolemaster and Warhammer Quest.

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

The Hobbit and Superjail.

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?

A player who loves to play, and to a lesser extent, entertain others.

21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?

Do dreams count as "real life experiences"? I guess that my experiences travelling have really helped me make more believable big-city feeling environments in my Shadowrun games (i'm from a small town). Also I saw some weird shit in a museum in Oxford which I have used as evil artifacts in my games - on that note I suppose I've taken a lot from museums and books on history and art-history.

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?

The perfect, rules-light yet satisfying RPG - particularly a magic system... I'm building my own attempt.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?

I only talk about gaming with others if they initiate it - at best they come and play it and get hooked. Those which aren't interested in trying it sometimes are abstractly intrigued by the concept but most see it as a children's game, and usually a waste of time. They don't get it and aren't interested in exploring it.

I haven't ever tried strike up a game with any kids.

Ode to Warhammer Quest

2012-01-15T18:43:00.000-08:00

At a time when I'm sure lots of people are all a twitter about the next D&D I've decided to step out of the shadows with a short message about an old but brilliant game: Warhammer Quest.

Warhammer Quest is a special board/role-playing game hybrid - it is the culmination of the Hero Quest family. I think it is easily one of the most brilliant and simply delightful games I've ever played.

The WQ boxed set includes what you need to play the basic dungeon crawl game (no need for a GM), rules for expanding your game to brief wilderness and settlement scenarios which relate to advancing your characters from dungeon to dungeon, and finally, rules for transitioning into what is essentially a full rules-light role-playing game with a dungeon master.

The rules-as-written include a lot of use of figures and movement squares and small-tactics (much lighter than Desecent from Fantasy Flight or the new D&D board games - both of which I have played extensively and both of which I consider awful) but I think the game really shines without the use of figures and grid-maps.

WQ is so wonderful because it has a delightfully brutal, and yeah, even cliche sense of adventuring fun. You play adventurers on the make (notably the game avoids the word "hero") who are gathering their fortunes by delving into dungeons - true deathtraps, braving the sinister wilderness, all in order to make it into towns populated by chiselers, cheats, and other hazards of civilization in the hopes of getting enough gold to get to level 10 (yes, the only experience points are gold)!

The game maintains relatively unforgiving rules and restricts the sharing of treasure - creating wonderfully dangerous scenarios and some player-to-player mistrust without encouraging actual backstabbing. Also it should be mentioned that the danger levels of the dungeon scale well as your characters advance in level, making success always feel like a real accomplishment.

It is worth repeating that the game can evolve from a card-based event board game, to broader chart-based dilemmas with abstract wilderness and settlement events, to full-on RPG goodness - the cards and charts remaining great seeds for adventures and scenarios.

The game really shines in the danger and flavor of these random events (cards and charts). Playing the normal game, they really put pressure on the players and if strung together create an entertaining story. As creativity seeds they provide ideas for danger and adventure EVERYWHERE - which I think of as a crucial aspect of a good game.

My particular favorite is a chart to quickly and abstractly determine if and how successfully the characters flee from a dungeon (when it would be otherwise impossible to proceed or escape via normal game rules) - it creates hilarious "scene missing" moments with haggard and half-starved adventurers stumbling out of the dungeon with only a fraction of the gold they had gathered.

Sadly, WQ is a game very much out of print and complete copies go for fortunes on ebay... however I believe that PDFs of the materials can be found for free, and frankly I think the game is so marvelous that it is worth your while to track down a copy - check out the discussion at boardgamegeek...

There is a lot of old-school adventuring goodness in the "roleplay" book alone, and with just a few alterations the game can easily be played without minis and without a map.

So if you are looking for a deadly, interesting, and quirky mini-D&D game (which can be played rather quickly) or looking for some cool charts and game concepts to spice-up your RPG of choice, OR EVEN looking for a different rules-light RPG altogether, WQ is a must read.

Thanks for your time.

Micropost: Medieval Prices

2011-11-09T12:23:00.001-08:00

Just a link I found with some prices for medieval items - many of which could be adventuring related.

http://www.luminarium.org/medlit/medprice.htm

Loose Ends

2011-10-25T09:55:00.000-07:00

Quick tip:

As you play, maintain a tidy list of elements which might come back to trouble the PCs and always keep it handy. This usually means villains but can be extended to all sorts of different game elements.

Personally, I award double experience if my players leave a potentially hostile NPC defeated but alive (or likely undead-able or something), rather than obsessively scrubbing the villain out. I also award this if they purposefully let foes escape ("thats the last we'll see of them." ... yeah right).

The logic is simple, I use xp to inscentivise fun (and providing me with loose ends is certainly fun), and pragmatically eliminating enemies is really its own reward.

Dungeons without Maps

2011-10-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

Just a few ideas for eliminating maps and mapping. I know mapping is one of the foundations of D&D and I too used to love to make maps and map out dungeons, but my current needs as a gamer (less time for prep and less time for play) are inspiring me to come up with options.

So, No Maps.

To begin with you invent the important areas, rooms, and features of your dungeon; in other words, the landmarks; and prepare them to the level of detail you need. Then, you simply make a list of those areas like this:

Dungeon Level 1 (example)

Main Entrance -> 1) Guard Post
2) Demonic Carvings
3) Magic Mirror room (S) Treasure Room
4) Animated Armor Room
5) Spiked pit trap!
6) Well Room -> Opening in ceiling (possible alternate entrance/exit from dungeon level 1)
7-9) Orc Guard Rooms -> Hall of Orc King -> Trapped Door -> stairs to level 2, location 18
10) Sealed door -> Abandoned Alter
11) Haunted Cellar
12) Trap door -> Ladder to level 2, location 13

So, its assumed that the numbered rooms are connected by a series of corridors and largely abandoned (or boring) chambers and so forth - this unspecified network of corridors can be thought of as "the dungeon at large". One need not pass through a numbered room to enter another numbered room - in other words all numbered rooms are accessible from the dungeon at large.

The rooms and features listed on a single line are adjacent rooms which can only be reached from the dungeon at large via the numbered room. If you attach two or more numbered rooms on a line then they are adjacent but both can be entered from the dungeon at large.

If the dungeon is small, then the rooms as listed represent the order the characters will likely discover them in (assuming they take a methodical and logical search pattern). Abstractly, the rooms which are numerically close can be physically close as well.

If the dungeon is larger and the desolated areas of the dungeon are more vast (or the players are in a hurry and are trying to get as deep into the dungeon as possible before exploring rooms), then it might make sense to roll randomly which room they come across.

If they characters are mapping as they go or the layout of the dungeon is easy to remember, then they are not likely to return to the same location twice on accident, however if the dungeon is a labyrinth then that is entirely possible.

As the characters explore from place to place the DM can roll for random encounters (rolling a number of possible encounters appropriate for the enemy population and distance the players must travel) and if a corridor layout is called for during a sudden encounter, one can be generated using a method like the Vornheim city street generator or just make it up. Depending on how you play, these randomly generated encounter locations might become important landmarks of their own for the characters, so the DM should keep track of them.

Also, I don't think it would defeat the purpose to mark out a very simple "map" just showing the general spacial relationship between landmark rooms and features. This would allow you to utilize some spacial specifics in game play ("Well, those bog-men said the idol of the Shadowless One is north of this chaimber, lets head in that direction.") but without needing to draw out lots of corridors and passages.

You are lost in time and space...

2011-10-06T21:09:00.000-07:00

Have you played Arkham Horror?

For those who haven't it is this cool cooperative board-game which is like a condensed Call of Cthulhu adventure... but with more blowing monsters up and fighting the old ones than any actual Call of Cthulhu game I've ever played in. Its fun and worth playing, but that's not what this post is about (WAIT FOR IT).

Its one of those Fantasy Flight games with tons of decks and tokens and whatnot which clutter up the board (and the rule-book).

Anyway, one of the decks is a deck of "other-world" encounters.

I've always found the contents of these "other-world" cards to be evocative and inspiring - they are much like a single line taken out of context from a short weird adventure story. Some feature familiar mythos creatures and characters, some do not.

What I'm getting at is that I have compiled these card entries into a rather large chart which I am sharing.

I intend to use it for my own games - either as encounter idea seeds or adventure seeds - really just general inspiration.

Note 0: The chart is organized into 1 mega chart (1-600, and several sub-charts for the various dimensions depicted in the game - they each have their own flavor).

Note 1: the formatting for when I "published" this from google docs does not seem to work perfectly - I'll keep fiddling.

Note 2: I did not include absolutely every card - I discarded some of the less interesting ones to round out the charts to make for easier-to-roll numbers.

Transportation

2011-10-06T11:14:00.000-07:00

The Sword is not news for most people but recently I was thinking about their music.

Beyond just the fantasy and sci-fi themes, and even their tight aesthetics, I love them for their ability to take me somewhere else; myth, fantasy, time, space...

...which is pretty much exactly what I love about RPGs.

DMing Experience

2011-08-22T12:17:00.000-07:00

DMing is the single most important aspect of our games - bad players might ruin games but a bad DM WILL ruin a game everytime.

Prompted by THIS great post; here are things that (when I remember to abide by them) always help me DM.

1 - Prepare for the worst and embrace the best.

Be prepared (emotionally) for your players to ignore or even be absolutely annoyed by your favorite ideas. Understand that your favorite NPCs will probably die like bitches at the hands of annoyed PCs. Learn to let go and move on fast.

On the other hand, sometimes things or NPCs you introduce will lodge in your players imaginations and they just won't let it drop - be ready for this and run with it! Be open to what your players do (and also the wonderful surprises the dice bring for that matter). These moments are pure DM gold!

Basically this is about understanding that your player's interest and affection for game elements must be earned, you can never force them to like a certain thing and the more your force it on them the more they will be distracted and cause "problems".

2 - Run a game you would LOVE to play in and carry this idea to every level of your game.

As often as possible, when you have the chance to make game decisions and interpretations, ask yourself, "If I was PLAYING in my game, what would be the coolest thing to happen right now?" When I remember to do this it always works - you will start running a game you LOVE - and some of that will rub off on your players for sure.

Oh, and remember that this rule is always useable in reaction to anything your players or the dice throw at you.

This especially includes the times when you players ruin or ignore one of your favorite ideas... say to yourself, "Ok... well, what would be the coolest thing to happen NOW?"

This rule is about understanding how your ideas and NPCs work out in the real game space - get used to thinking hard about what a player can or might do when confronted by this element or NPC -> Is it fun at all? Would you like to encounter this as a player? What would your character do in this situation and would that be fun for you?

3 - Give special awards for cool/clever player actions...

BUT give out this award EVENLY to ALL players present. This builds amazing positive energy at the table and encourages your players to build off of each other's ideas without having them worry or bicker about the credit and rewards falling on someone else. It also rewards all kinds of players - remember that the creative spotlight hogging guy is nothing without the straight-men at the table. This has done wonders for my games especially when certain players split up and the thief for example steals something and I say, "Ok, everyone gets 200xp," everyone cheers and behaves more patiently when the spotlight is not on them.

4 (why not 4?) - Danger and Adventure everywhere.

Nothing solves PC infighting and player boredom like constant danger.

No matter where your players turn, put adventures in their path.

Finally finished!

2011-08-11T20:34:00.000-07:00

I'm finally done with work on the Isle of the Unknown.

(My lack of posting was largely due to this work)

I'm looking forward to running my own game again - had to shelve it to focus on the drawings.

Mini Review: Vornheim (all up in the Vornhizzy)

2011-05-10T08:51:00.000-07:00

I got the Vornheim book a few days ago and didn't really look at it much, but just before I ran a game last night I thumbed through it and immediately saw things I could use that very night.

... I think that pretty much sums up how good of a book this is; obviously useful and easy to use.

You say you want more? Ok.

The Vornheim book is all about texture - by that I mean it is full of tools which help a DM generate variety, creativity seeds, and adventure elements, specifically for a city environment, without having to plot out all the little details of the city before hand and invest prep time in things that the players will often just walk past or may never encounter.

This is a book I need.

The covers: the dust cover has a neat (but horrifically tiny) map inside, but it just feels like it will get destroyed while gaming so I just stashed it without looking at it too closely. I guess I was thinking that if I wasn't willing to drag it to the table I wasn't too interested in it - I'll try to look at it later.

Underneath, the hardback covers have strange numbers around the edges which, when a dice (a d4) is thrown on them can be used to generate variable numbers of things. This is a really really strange tool, the strangest in the book, but I might actually use the front to create NPCs and determine prices and numbers of guards using the key on the inside. The back side however I will probably never use because it is used to quickly generate a large number of combat results quickly. Combat is something I'm very comfortable with and combined with the limited variability when dropping dice onto the book back, I just don't think it would be that useful.

Within the book!

As Zak, the author of the book, is clearly aware, cities offer a special challenge to DMs because there should be a lot to see and do in a city and there should be magical/strange/medieval peculiarities within a fantasy city. It takes a lot of effort to make a city come alive and not seem stale and empty like the set of a SyFy original movie. To this end, the book provides several tools for creating diversity and peculiarities, as well as just plain useful things for city adventuring.

Roughly the first half of the book is specific to Vornheim, a unique city of Zak's own creation. It is very inspirational stuff but I think I will never use it as an actual setting or dump the city into any of my games - I would just rather build my own (likely inspired by Vornheim). This section is fun to read and there are lots of really cool ideas in it.

The 2nd half of the book is the really really useful stuff. Charts for NPCs, city encounters, shopkeeper contacts (super useful), trials, libraries(EXTREMELY USEFUL!), and more.

There is a wonderful and strange flavor to most of these charts. I feel like there will be some DMs who cannot use most of them because the entries are too peculiar, but I wouldn't want to play in a dry, flavorless game so "screw that" I say.

There are also several pages on how to quickly and easily map out streets and neighborhoods of a city on the fly and create variations in prices and just all kinds of little tricks which save time and inspire creativity.

The book, specifically the charts, really fit my playstyle - I don't like to plan but I love creating texture and I love nothing more than when a randomly introduced element sparks creativity in me or in my players and snowballs into several sessions of fun which nobody really planned.

So the real magic of the book, like I said before, is how it becomes easy to create textural elements, randomly or semi-randomly, with very little effort - you don't have to waste time on pregenerating NPCs or areas and then never using 99% of them. You can generate areas and NPCs with some interesting texture on the fly and if they stick with your PCs, that texture can become a seed ground for your imagination.

(I really think it is worth mentioning that most of this also has a nice sense of fun to it. This is something which I've come to greatly admire in Zak's blog posts and which pairs wonderfully with edge of strangeness presented in the way he plays the game)

Also, texture... comes as no surprise when the guy draws like this:

Play Reports in 100 words or less

2011-04-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

Feudal Run:

In the Dungeon.

A Peasant girl was rescued from gluttonous Devil-swine.

The party returned to the inn with the girl where she was almost killed by an evil book a character was reading to become one with the strange magic (she grew gills in addition to her demonic eye).

The cleric tried to take and destroy the evil book which sparked a fight amongst the party!

The evil character's demon-homunculus eyeball was squashed messily and the evil book was burned.

The peasant girl ran away screaming.

What shall become of the evil character now?

On Art

2011-04-11T14:52:00.000-07:00

I'm late to the art party.

As any reader of my blog knows, I'm not a talented writer, so I think the ONLY useful thing I could add to a gaming art conversation is this:

Nothing, ABSOLUTELY NOTHING, fills me with that desire to get a game going more than inspirational art.

I'm sure a lot gamers out there feel the same way.

I think good writing is just as important to good gaming, but when I need a creative shot in the arm for my game, I turn to art every time.

Also, there is Stefan Poag's art itself, particularly when he depicts adventurers in dungeons, that just makes me want to be there and roll initiative.

That is all.

Magic by Tarot

2011-04-05T09:29:00.000-07:00

My friend is running a Conspiracy X game starting today. I'm not sure what edition of the game we play but it uses 2d6 mostly and it isn't the GURPS version or the d20 version.

Con-X is an incredibly sweet game. Long story short you build a cell of agents which are part of a shadow government group often pulled from other, real life, agencies to both investigate supernatural/extraterrestrial events and to cover them up. I break it down that you play X-Files, but you are both the good-guys and the bad-guys at the same time.

The system is really cool and I could go on and on about different parts of the rules but one of the game's greatest strengths is how it handles psychic powers.

The game uses Zener cards (pictured above) which some of you may recognise from the beginning of the movie Ghost Busters.

Any character can try to use their latent intuition - if they guess the card properly they get to use one of the basic powers (hunch, esp, etc). Psychically trained characters get to pick 3 cards and have access to other powers.

In-game it is a very fun, quick and tactile way to handle using esp - and also is like a last ditch thing that normal characters can use to get out of trouble or drum up some info when hitting a brick wall (some people in my group are scary good at guess these things).

This leads me to the WORST part of the game - magic and the supernatural.

Everything, from the campaign background to the rules, regarding the supernatural and magic is complete crap. Its not fun, its not intuitive, and it doesn't tie in at all with the real history of the occult.

Because of this I have developed some rules using a Tarot deck to a similar end as the Zener cards above.

While they are developed for Con-X, I think that they can easily be ported over for other games, including fantasy games - particularly for unusual rituals and when trying to make a magical item.

Now, I'm not into divination so the "interpretations" below are extremely simplistic, ripped basically from wikipedia.

I love tarot images, particularly the Rider-Waite tarot deck because of the occult feel of the card images. I think if I really got into tarot I would like it less - I like the mystery. I also use these cards for random encounters with NPCs. Anyway, the point is to let the card images inspire you and spark your imagination.

Tarot Deck Magic for Conspiracy X (and other games also maybe)

*** Brief note about tarot decks for those who don't know much about them. You can get tarot decks at books stores, they are not terribly expensive. There are 21 special trump cards (Major Arcana detailed below), numbered 1-21, plus the Fool card which is commonly numbered 0, but sometimes goes without a number at all. Then there are 4 suits (wands or staves, swords, cups, and pentacles or coins)of the Minor Arcana which each have an Ace, numbers 2-10, a Page, Knight, Queen, and a King. ***

Spell-casting Rules:

The occultist must outline the nature of the ritual and the desired effect to the GM.

If satisfied about the structure of the ritual, the GM will call for an appropriate skill tests (based on the preparations of the ritual, the difficulty of the spell, and other supernatural forces in the area - being tapped into etc).

If the skill roll is successful, the player must next announce a Minor Arcana card (i.e. King of Cups, 4 or wands, etc) and begin drawing cards one at a time, once each time unit; each card represents 1 round of combat or 1 unit of research time depending on the situation.

As soon as the magician pulls either the suit or the number (or rank) he called for, the spell or ritual is cast successfully. (If the GM wanted to get really fancy, the minor arcana cards might cause influences during long-term casting or enchanting - but that isn't covered in these rules).

If the magician instead pulls a Major Arcana before pulling the desired suit or number, the GM must interpret the effect of the spell using the entries below as a guide. The spell may or may not work as planned or may fail entirely depending on the ruling of the GM.

After pulling a Major Arcana, the magician falls under the influence of that card until a new Major Arcana is drawn while spell-casting, a full lunar cycle is complete, or the magician “plays” the card for an effect described below.

Normally a certain spell or ritual may only be attempted once per lunar cycle. More powerful spells may only be attempted once per year or series of years (centuries, millennia, epicycles?).

If a GM feels a magician is abusing spells they may rule that the magician is exhausted and cannot attempt any more spells until the next lunar cycle.

Major Arcana and effects:

0 The Fool (naught/unnumbered)

The fool represents the folly of intellect and the triumph of the illogical. External influences should cause rigidly intellectual spells to utterly fail and backfire while a poorly devised or illogical spell should take on special significance or power. While under the influence of this card the mage will gain a small bonus to luck rolls, however, external forces will often swoop in to ruin the intellectual or hard-working efforts of the mage. This card can be played to luckily save the mage from harm or lead the mage to a fortunate find.

1 The Magician

The magician card represents mastery of controllable forces. Drawing the magician card reveals the magician's full potential and will ensure a successful spell-casting but will NOT ensure that either good or bad comes from the magicians actions. This card will particularly increase the power of transformation and illusion magics. While under the influence of this card the mage gains a slight bonus to skill tests. This card may be played to automatically succeed a skill test OR successfully cast a spell but it must be used before dice are rolled or a single card is drawn. If used to cast a spell, one card is still drawn; if that card is a Major Arcana (other than The Fool which is ignored) that card's effect is honored and the spell-caster falls under its influence.

2 The High Priestess

This card represents wise and intuitive thinking as well as spirituality. This card is especially useful when casting divination spells and often turns other attempted spells into divination spells instead. Destructive and transformative spells will most likely fail if this card is drawn but the mage may see a vision instead, possibly revealing the folly of pursuing evil magics. Mages drawing this card should be more insightful while under its influence gaining a small bonus to skill checks involving empathic, intuitive, or spiritual thought. The magician may play this card to gain an insight (ESP) about something.

3 The Empress

The Empress card represents worldly abundance. Drawing this card while spell-casting should positively influence creation and illusion spells and negate or weaken destructive, knowledge, and transformative spells. For a mage under the influence of the Empress, worldly things (money, sex, food) will come easily, gaining a small bonus to skill and luck rolls towards those ends, but more ephemeral things, such as insights, emotional relationships, and spiritual pursuits will be confounded. The magician may play this card to easily get some mundane thing.

4 The Emperor

The Emperor represents the will to control ones surroundings and others. This is often misguided and leads to a backlash of forces. The emperor will add power to spells which influence or control elemental forces or other beings but will often have side effects which work against he mage. While under the influence of this card the mage gains a small bonus to leadership and intimidation skill tests, but also exposes himself to resentment and plotting. The magician may play this card to give a single, short term command to someone which must be obeyed, however, soon after completing the task, the person will feel extremely negative about the influence.

5 The Hierophant

This card stands for religion and orthodox theology as well as the military and political power of the church. Spells grounded in classic western traditions and preconceptions will be powerfully cast, while magicians trying to create a more free-form spell with little historical basis will find themselves punished with the fear of God (often by visitation of demonic spirits as a mockery to the poor grounding of the magician). While under the influence of this card, the magician will be treated with more respect, as if of a slightly higher social standing or one with authority and so gains a small bonus to influence rolls related to this. However, if the magician acts unprofessionally, he will be treated as the lowest of the low and those representing the status-quo will persecute him. The magician may play this card to positively influence someone in authority (as if on equal terms) or achieve success when trying to accomplish something via “normal channels”.

6 The Lovers

This card represents choice, sacrifice, and consequences. This card often will split a spell into two partial effects of which the magician must choose one (i.e. instead of a complete sensory divination the mage may either see OR hear the divination). Sometimes this split may just cause a singular, fragile, or weak spell to fail completely. The option the magician did not choose may take on a life of it's own which will jealously haunt the mage later. While under the influence of the spell the magician will suffer a small PENALTY to skill tests that involve relationships, dialectic choices, or interactions with individuals. The magician may play this card to either, take the best of 2 seemingly identical paths, take 2 actions in a combat round or accomplish 2 rounds of research within a single element of time (or something else twice as fast over a short time period).

7 The Chariot

Represents external conflict to which the will must be applied in order to succeed. Drawing this card causes forces of magic to resist the magician so a spell will take twice as long to cast (double the number of cards drawn so far in appropriate time units) and requires that the magician pass a willpower test (usually difficulty 3) to complete. The magician must complete this struggle alone – the magic will fail if interrupted. If the magician completes this successfully, the influence of this card will grant the mage a small bonus to ALL TESTS involving confronting danger or challenges. If unsuccessful at the will test or interrupted, the spell fails and the card is lost and cannot be played later. If the card is kept, it may be played by the magician to pass any test if it is undertaken by the magician alone.

8 Strength

This card represents internal discipline and control – higher reasoning dominating bestial forces. This card is best drawn when attempting healing and cleansing rituals or spells which bolster the mind and body. It will still produce results for other spells albeit weakened ones if it involves mastery of external forces. Spells which are underhanded or involve trickery, lies, and preying on weakness will fail under this cards influence. This card is also effective with spells used to repel or banish demons and spirits. While under the influence of this card the magician gains a slight bonus to willpower, healing, and strength related rolls. The card may be played to automatically pass a will, healing, recovery, or strength related roll, as well as resist temptation, fear, mind control, or to banish a spirit or demon.

9 The Hermit

The hermit represents the lesson of the complete journey of life; one who withdraws to find enlightenment and returns with it. In spell casting the magician will take at least twice as long to cast the spell, mentally or physically withdrawing from others, but will return, appearing in the right place with great magical knowledge, possibly critical knowledge vital to the current dilemma. Obviously immediate or direct spells will be ruined, but occasionally the magician may return at the critical moment with a powerful spell effect or enchanted item. While under the influence of the Hermit, the magician suffers a small penalty when interacting with others. This card may be played to automatically return top quality research results after d6+3 time units of isolated study. This can be used to obtain a new spell if there is access to occult materials.

10 Wheel of Fortune

The Wheel of Fortune represents change, usually to an opposite state. This usually reverses the effect of the spell in spell-casting; a curse instead becomes a blessing, or a combat spell turns to strike the caster or one of the caster's allies. On the other hand, this card will actually help the mage counteract unfriendly spells; if the mage was trying to lift a curse, the curse may fly back and effect the original caster. While under the influence of the card, all skill checks the mage undertakes (within reason) are rolled with a 50% chance of success, regardless of difficulty levels - due to luck alone. The magician may play after failing a roll to have something lucky occur.

11 Justice

This card represents... justice. In spell casting it will increase spells which restore natural order (spell-breaking), heal the righteous or innocent, and harm the villains. If a magician is casting a spell which disrupts natural forms, harms the just or innocent, or heals the unjust the spell will definitely fail and the magician will likely be punished by a backfire of some kind. While under the influence of the card the magician gains a small bonus when pursuing righteousness and a small penalty when working against justice. The magician may play the justice card to automatically pass a test which will directly result in harm towards a villain or justice for harm against an innocent.

12 The Hanged Man

This card represents life through destruction or positivity within negativity. In spell-casting this trump causes the spell to fail, but with no negative effects. While under the influence of this card the magician has a small bonus to all rolls until any magical operation is attempted. This card may be played to allow a magician to completely ignore wound penalties for the duration of the current mission or lunar cycle (whichever comes first). Attempting a spell-casting or other magical operation ends this bonus.

13 Death

This card represents a painful transformation. Drawing this card while spell-casting requires the magician to make a wound roll (level 3?) representing an extreme physiological stress being confronted. Damage from this effect is internal, usually causing some kind of hemorrhage or arrest within the body. If the magician survives, the spell will be successful (possibly passing out just as the spell is finalized). Transformation, destruction, and healing magic will be particularly powerful when the Death card is drawn. While under the influence of this card the magician gains a small bonus to attack rolls with lethal weapons. The magician may play this card to automatically hit with a lethal weapon.

14 Temperance

Represents harmony and well-being. In spell casting the Temperance card will increase the power of healing and curse lifting rituals as well as spells which bring different forces or ideas into unified harmony and peace. The Temperance card will nullify chaotic, destructive, or transformation spells. While under the influence of this card, the magician has a small penalty to violent or aggressive actions towards others but gains a small bonus to rolls while acting as counselor, peacemaker or mediator. The magician may play this card to calm someone down long enough to talk to them.

15 The Devil

Represents the power of worldly concerns or ignorance to hinder the spirit. In spell casting this card will cause spells with noble goals to be nullified or produce uselessly mundane results. Spells with evil or selfish intent will act out of control and possibly backlash against the caster. While under the influence of this card the magician becomes more susceptible to temptation, suffering a small penalty to willpower tests, but gains a small bonus when attempting to tempt others to worldly, sinful activities. This card cannot be played, the only way to be rid of the Devil card is to wait for a full lunar cycle, or to replace it by performing more magic and drawing a new Major Arcana card.

16 The Tower

This card represents disasters, usually those born of hubris. Almost all spell-casting will be ruined by this card, the ritual usually being badly interrupted by some object breaking or catching on fire. The one exception is destruction spells, however these become so powerful and out of control there there is usually much collateral damage. This damage usually destroys or harms the mage or someone or something important to the mage. While under the influence of this card the mage suffers from some kind of minor curse with an effect like clumsiness or gremlins. This card cannot be played normally, but the magician may be rid of the card by purposefully destroying something of some importance to him.

17 The Star

This card represents harmony of both the physical and the metaphysical worlds. This card produces particularly powerful healing, protecting, and cleansing magic and negates destructive spells. While under the influence of this the card, the magician will be at peace with all things, gaining a small bonus to all peaceful skill rolls, but suffering a -1 penalty to aggressive skills and attack rolls. This card can be played to reduce some kind of recent physical or mental trauma.

18 The Moon

The Moon represents dreams and the unconscious, with all of its fears and mystery. This card will create bizarre and often terrifying effects. It will deeply confuse the most basic divination spells, wrapping the information in EXTREMELY trippy and nightmarish layers of unreality, though there will often by truth hidden in the vision via symbolic riddles. Other spells will often be weakened or distorted and be accompanied by hallucinations and visions, sometimes useful sometimes not. While under the influence of this card the magician will suffer from poor sleep, plagued by intense dreams and nightmares, these may or may not be prophetic. The mage may play this card to gain an insight (precog) about something (“wait... this was in my dream!”).

19 The Sun

This card represents attainment. This card will grant immediate success to any positive spell – a spell which earns the magus something such as knowledge or a mystical servant or something. Negative and destructive spells will be nullified by the sun, but the magus may instead notice or learn something important as consolation. Under the influence of The Sun the magus gains a small bonus to all positive tests (which earn or accomplish without working against others). The Sun card may be played to complete an extended test early or succeed a skill check for a positive result.

20 Judgment

This card represents a return of past individuals or consequences. If the magician has skeletons in his closet this card invites them out to revisit and torment him. If the magician's cause is just, his spell may be strengthened by this card, if unjust or frivolous the spell with be canceled. While under the influence of this card the magician suffers a small penalty to all skill rolls because they are plagued by memories, melancholy, and guilt of the past. The magician may play this card to ignore a mental attack or the effects of a mental flaw or quirk for a short time.

21 The World

The world represents and ending of a cycle and the goal of mystical seekers. If this card is drawn, the spell will be extremely effective and difficult to destroy or alter, the spell may re-manifest on its own several times over the next lunar cycle (usually in a way beneficial to the caster). While under the influence of The World, the magician may not cast any more spells or create magic of any kind. The mage may play The World card to re-manifest the spell originally cast with it. Doing this ends the effects of the world and the spell will no longer manifest on its own.

***Enjoy.

Flailceratops Promo - Not April Fools

2011-04-01T08:37:00.000-07:00

I Made this comission promo picture of The Flame Princess trying to kill a Flailceratops for James's pre-order release day. Not an April Fool's prank.

(Special thanks to Zak for letting us use his wonderful monster for the picture.)

You can preorder all of that stuff on James's page and the PDFs right now (I think).

Also, it is Friday, so game on!

Hmmmm, needs less end-game...

2011-03-30T06:59:00.000-07:00

So there was this game that I had been running for many years (honestly can't remember how long, something like 7 years) which ended last night.

Somewhat paradoxically at this point, the campaign was called "The Endless Isles," referring to the hundreds of islands which made up the bulk of the campaign globe.

Now I think the really important thing to mention is that I began this game using the Cyclopedic D&D rules, BUT this was several years before I began reading the old-school game principles all of these old-school blogs discuss(particularly Philotomy's page, though not really a blog) which have since been so influential to me.

The campaign began with an excellent comedy of errors which resulted in a king's death and the players being thrust into the world with nothing but their wits, stumbling into and out of trouble dozens of time. The rules were light (and I would go on to make them lighter), danger was everywhere; lots of fun!

However, there was a snake in the garden.

While I had started a great campaign, one where the players had great freedom of choice and adventure was everywhere, I made a fatal mistake; I had planted the seeds for an "end-game" scenario in the form of a great cosmic evil.

Fast forward to last night, the characters, having finally tracked down the means to confront this cosmic evil chose to do so.

You see, I made the big bad guy way too evil, way too powerful, and way too impossible to negotiate with. The battle involved artifacts and time travel and cosmic explosions; I had set it up, starting at least 7 years ago, to become this insane cosmic/immortal level conflict terminating in the end of a campaign world.

Long story short, in order to revive all of the galaxies this evil force had devoured, the players had to stop the creature from ever entering the mortal dimensions thus making it so that the world they knew would never exist. It is kind of a cool idea but it also really sucks as an RPG end-game because the players all liked the world and were fighting to save it, which in a way they did even though it will never take the form that they knew.

The whole campaign ended with the bitter-sweet feeling the final credits of a too-long Japanese rpg video game has. Overall its not a bad way to go out, and is a fittingly tragic victory.

The point I want to make is that I, from absorbing all these old-school blog ramblings over the last few years, came to see a lot of these problems coming, but too late in the development of the campaign to fairly redirect where this was all going - I would have felt I was robbing the players of all that they had accomplished and worked towards.

While it would have been possible to write (DM MAGIC) myself out of this jam, I didn't because I'm not a great writer (my best DMing relies on rolling with player actions) and it would have been a messy cock-block to what my players had been orchestrating for several real years.

Facing this dilemma, I actually fanned the flames powering the campaign towards a final conclusion.

It was a great game and I think I handled the ending bit as well as possible (largely thanks to the players involved), but I want now to start a new campaign and better utilize what I've learned from Vance, Howard, and Leiber (and you bloggers) about worlds ripe with possibilities for adventure and leave out the "save the universe/re-write the world" end-game.

Of Rats and Ratmen

2011-03-25T23:57:00.000-07:00

I don't like normal animals, or giant sized normal animals as foes in D&D. While of course there are some exceptions, for the most part I like animals too much to really enjoy their imaginary slaughter.

I think Zak from D&DWPS somewhere deep in his blog mentioned something to the effect that ["I only like using a monster if it is cool to imagine a Knight fighting it"] or something like that - well however he said it, that really struck a cord with me. It was definitely something I had always felt but I find myself actually acting on it more consistently since reading those words.

To that end, I pretty much anthropomorphosizeinateatron any animals or giant animal entries on any random encounter tables I use or if I ever use a module.

I just can't imagine fighting a giant one of these:

But this guy on the other hand would make a totally sweet villain!

So far in my game the most common mutation is changing the giant bats from the standard first level random encounter chart to twisted batmanoids (horrible mutant bat men). This has actually created more opportunities for role playing and generating new threads for scenarios - my PCs have now started a sort of feud with some bat men. Animal-men can obviously have a greater range of motives than something with an animal's mind (it would also be cool to just give human like minds and motives to animal... Tolkien did that with wolves and other animals I think).

Notable exceptions to this humanoid rule include giant snakes, giant frogs and toads, arachnids and insects.

Although I might start using more snake men instead of snakes because they are pretty sweet:

Just what the crap is a Grindhouse anyway?

2011-03-25T09:09:00.000-07:00

According to the internets it is a theater specializing in films marketed by overstating lurid subject matter. The marketers 'exploit' the subject matter beyond what the films actually portray.

I guess that is why there are all these sweet movie posters for old horror movies but few of the films have stayed around.

I'm not really talking about LotFP:WFRP, I already have a copy of the old one and am going to get a new one, I know its good. I think what I'm getting at is related to delivering in a game. When I run a game, I want to deliver on something like that which is on those sweet movie posters.

*********

Author's note: never going to post before coffee again - this crap doesn't even make sense.

Cutting Room Floor

2011-03-18T13:33:00.000-07:00

Just for fun I'm going to make a post for some of my homies that didn't make it.

I'm of course referring to sketches which didn't end up as final versions in the new LotFP: WFRP printing.

Before we go on I think I should mention that I HATE drawing preparatory sketches. I like to start at a point of interest, usually an eyeball, and just let the picture tell me where to go as I start working. It is just too soul destroying to put effort into a toss-away sketch, so you'll probably get some laughs regarding how terrible these drawings are.

"Hold up. Imma get my sword back out of this guy we just killed on account of the sudden appearance of yon mofo."

"oh snap" <--- Obligatory. This is actually pretty close to the final version.

More clerical nonsense.

Not gonna lie, I love fishmen.

Hey, dwarf dude, lookin good.

Okay... getting angrier with dwarves.

"Blarg! Kinslayer's revenge!" Really sick of dwarves now. This one is pretty close to the final version.

"I fought in orc-nam, man!" Actually pretty sad this one didn't make it. *Shrug*

You can tell they're dead by, like, the "Xs" instead of eyes, man. I made a finished version of this one, but it was too medieval and so had to remake it. I actually like how BOTH VERSIONS turned out.

I like the idea of having to use floating disc to haul your dead companions out of a dungeon. Watch out for ghouls!

I wanted to do a sort of spoof of the classic "Frodo hiding from the Ring Wraith" image, with the twist being the halfling is hiding under a pile of corpses (his former party members). I really really wanted to get this one in, but alas. The halfling pic that did go in was a huge pain to do, but I hope it looks good... here is the sketch for it:

As you can tell I was thrilled to sketch this one up.

Usin' that magic...

Zany Frankenstein knock-off didn't make it. No tears here.

"One must be handful with ye steel. Earn one's board, mind you." Nate Dogg (1969 - 2001) RIP.

Grudge PCs.

Just some spooky page headers that didn't make it.

"Worlds of Adventure..."

"Mwahahaha, now I have the Super Friends just where I want them!"

Not spooky or strange enough to make it in a book for "Weird" role-playing.

This one actually did make it, but I just wanted to share the sketch version of the horse.

Tolliver actually graduated from an insert sketch to a full pager!

Kind of ran out of creative gas on this one - I was just hoping it would work out on the page in the final version. Verdict: its out.

"As swords go, its only 'pretty-good'."

"Nothing cool here, move along." One of my faults: It doesn't take much going on in a picture to make me happy - I just focus more on body lines and facial expressions when there are fewer elements in the composition. Verdict: not weird enough!

James: "NO ELVES!"

Boats can be fun to draw, but I hate trying to draw historically accurate buildings and objects. Kindly James handed this one off to another artist. "THANK YOU" whoever you are.

This one also made it, but with a cool alteration - get the box to see the final version!

James: "Enough with the books plus weird facial expression!" He had me there. Its out.

Would have really liked to get a carnivorous ape into the box. There will always be next time!

James wanted to go bigger for the thief AKA specialist.

Too many thieves spoils the sketch.

This one got axed early on. I still kinda would have liked to do it.

First attempt at a scene from the REH story "Worms of the Earth" (totally sweet; check it out btw) - but the section James quoted didn't have Bran Mak Morn in it so I didn't put him in the picture so...

I made this one next. Its cool and all but we were running out of time and its kind of a complicated composition so we just dropped it. Also, It would have been time-consuming trying to get uniforms just right on all of the soldiers.

Hope you all enjoyed this little behind-the-scenes look at what I've been doing for LotFP. The final versions in the book are a lot cooler and stranger than the stuff above!

Chaos Points

2011-03-17T10:29:00.000-07:00

I don't like alignment systems which limit behavior, particularly ones where if you act out of alignment a lot you lose a level or something mechanical like that. I do like moral responsibility impacting role-playing or the circumstances a player might face in so far that a cleric's deity might might look at them with either favor or disfavor based on past actions, or a sensitive magic item or being will be either be attracted to or repulsed by a character based on behavior.

So anyway, I was wondering if instead of picking an alignment, you have 3 stats, LAW, NEUTRALITY, and CHAOS, which start at 0 (or maybe at some variable low value at character generation) and as a player performs actions and make choices these numbers change.

How numbers are awarded is up to the DM and of course all DMs are a bit different but my rubric would be something like this:

Law - Keeping promises (especially to one's own detriment), thinking and planning before acting, building up things, organizing others, improving things, obeying laws, respecting and restoring order

Neutrality - Avoiding and dissolving prolonged conflict and argument, leaving natural relationships alone, aiding those in great distress, acting against those with too much power, mending damage in preexisting forms, subtlety, accepting circumstance, avoids making choices and acts according to external pressures.

Chaos - Destructive tendencies, disregard for laws and justice, disruption of relationships, acting without logic or planning, creating conflict, acts from momentary passions or acts randomly.

As characters gain points in the various categories, a DM can see the footprints of a character's moral choices at a glance.

Also, because this is a fantasy game, external magical and supernatural forces might effect these scores - one could even use CHAOS as a kind of insanity point or chaos mutation number.

Something to think about anyway.

Monster Brains Swamp Monster Repost

2011-03-16T12:28:00.000-07:00

I just have to repost this cool horror comic from over at Monster Brains today. Please follow the link and read the whole strip.

Strangest part; its written effectively in the 2nd person narrative form - which is really how most DMs form description while running a game.

...2nd person narrative in RPGs, something to think about...

Marginally Better

2011-03-16T09:44:00.001-07:00

I suppose this is a bit better. Still on the weak side as far as adventure hooks go.

Boring Crap

2011-03-10T18:09:00.001-08:00

The image below is the ad for the current official 4e encounter program - its also the first thing that appears on the WotC d&d homepage (before the huge pop-up shows up).

Marketers seem to have always had a hard time selling D&D products but damn. Rescuing loggers? Really?

I mean, presented as-is, its hard to think of a more mundane adventure hook than checking out some missing loggers. I know its the set-up for a pretty good x-files episode but to sell it as the only hook for a D&D adventure?

WotC, you need to get some adventure, magic, and fantasy flavoring up-ons, ya dig?

More art from LamentationsoftheFlamePrincess:GrindhouseEditionEXplusAlpha3

2011-03-09T10:25:00.000-08:00

James over at LotFP has put up a few more of my images, previewing the upcoming Grindhouse edition of the game. There is a NSFW image over there as well.

This picture demonstrates how in LotFP:G Edition, elves are treated as creatures of chaos and have weaknesses against holy objects, protection from evil and possibly turning from lawful clerics. It is a neat idea.

As far as the NSFW image, it was a fun commission, but my heart lies with more classic action & adventure fantasy.

See, I grew up as a gamer in the 90s and, aside from my first introduction to classic D&D, most of the time I was surrounded by GMs who wanted to make everything "unique" and often disturbing and effectively turned away from classic adventure staples.

What has really drawn me to old-school games (and reinvigorated my love of RPGs in general) is a desire for classic, fantasy-adventure focused play; something that was marginalized and looked down on while I was playing 2e D&D, World of Darkness, Shadowrun, Rifts, etc in the 90s.

The above is really a statement about my tastes as a gamer. As an artist, I love working with James, and I feel great that I can help him try and realize his vision for the game.

Again, as a gamer, I think he's developing a wonderfully twisted spin on classic D&D, and I think the "weirdness" he is offering really adds to the hobby.

Rolemaster and gamer dedication.

2011-03-06T22:58:00.000-08:00

I played in a one shot classic Rolemaster game this weekend - it was extremely cool.

Yes there were charts.

I had a lot of fun, largely thanks to the quality of players I was with.

For anyone who has never drank from pool of madness that is Rolemaster (or for those who have but have forgotten) here are some thoughts about this marvelous game:

The rules are thick with lots of chart based effects - fortunately I had some experience with Rolemaster. I had played some MERPS (Middle Earth Role Playing) back in the day which is a sort of Rolemaster variant so I was familiar with the format of the rules. I had also played in a home-brew game for several years that used a combination of Rolemaster and Bushido with a game world inspired by the Black Company novels by Glen Cook (extremely insane combo that).

So, while I hadn't actually played by the book Rolemaster, I was sufficiently prepared to be introduced.

There is a lot of adding and subtracting of many 2 and sometimes 3 digit numbers to a percentile roll. I happen to be excellent at this kind math, no doubt because I love games and adding numbers to dice rolls in the hopes of slaying monsters was my favorite childhood passtime.

There were dozens of huge charts used in the game. For EACH WEAPON, there is a unique chart with 2200 entries along with unique fumble ranges, and missile range modifier for missile weapons.

The critical mechanics add a lot of excitement and tension and make the game feel like you can die at any time, but it also makes having ubiquitous healing magic an absolute necessity if playing a game with "D&D" normal ammount of combat or more. We had 1 really awesome healer and another good cleric with healing magic.

While critical mechanics were often cool (especially for lower level criticals which really effect the tactics used) the actual flavor of the criticals was a little lack-luster. This is mostly because the specific words used are kind of ambiguous - for example a certain slashing crit to the elbo "destroyed" the elbo - "destroyed" is probably like the least awesome word they could have used for what a slashing weapon would do to that elbo. Also, I was dumbfounded that in ALL of the critical effects for slashing weapons, NONE actually will sever the head from the body - really that is just plain inexcusable.

Chart wise, there are 3 normal weapon critical hit charts (slashing, crushing, and piercing) with approximately 50 entries each.

There are also several non-standard critical charts ("tiny" class criticals of all flavors, claws, etc), as well a fumble charts and magical effects charts of every possible kind of magic damage and elemental damage, including shrapnel, disintegration, and internal disruption (wandering spleen syndrome?). We used them all.

Fortunately the DM had photocopies of all the charts in multiples, with the weapon table for everyone printed out and even handouts for the standard critical tables.

This brings me to the part about gamer dedication.

The DM I played under is a dedicated master of rpgs and other games, with an encyclopedic knowledge of dozens if not hundreds of games. He went through a huge amount of preparation to make all the reference sheets and chart print-outs, not to mention the well balanced set of pregens we got to choose from. He also ran a very solid, classic D&D style adventure (there were stirges and everything). The pacing was great - very important for a one-shot. He knew all the rules, seamlessly juggling all the critical charts for the wierd monster attacks.

It really is an honor to play with a DM like that.

The rest of the group, including myself were also veteran gamers more or less. I, being 28, was the youngest player there by several years though I had several years more rpg experience than a few of the gang.

To make the game go quickly it was up to us teh players to roll the percentiles and add up all of the modifiers and consult the first combat chart, remember the damage AND usually roll another critical effect and consult that chart. Certainly more responsibility and work than one encounters in many other games.

I guess what I'm getting at is that with my own normal group, people more around my age, I can't imagine them putting in the work even as a player to get into Rolemaster - maybe I'm underestimating them, I just don't know.

***

tl;dr-> Rolemaster is a sweet game provided you are rolling with dedicated gamers and a truly master DM. The criticals can make a lot of interesting things happen, but be sure to bring plenty of healing magic if you plan on running an action&adventure style game. I'll never run it for my normal group because the rules would slow the game down.

WoTC D&D Forums: Just check it out.

2011-02-23T20:36:00.000-08:00

Here is a post I ran across on the WotC 4e forums.

"4th represented the nadir of what I've always wanted from D&D- a separation of combat and roleplaying rules, thus facilitating the removal of the importance of a DM. I will never role-play but I respect that D&D is exactly that. That is why I am very happy to have what I got before Essentials.

D&D will now start shying away from what 4th culminated in and head more into an abstract ruleset with a DM fully at the helm. To garner the sales required these days it will have to just that. Thank god for MMO's."

So much could be said about that, but I'll leave that to the more skilled debaters... And of course, while it looks like a genuine statement it could just be a troll.

Sun Rod of Ruin

2011-02-18T12:10:00.000-08:00

Sun Rods are common alchemical items in both 3rd edition and 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons.

These items are essentially chemical flares, purchasable from the basic item list (which I guess means purchasable pretty much everywhere) at a reasonable cost for starting characters and so have practically replaced torches and lanterns. They cannot be blown out by errant wind, they last at least as long as a torch if not longer, and I think they even work under water.

The sun rod completely embodies what I don't like about the newer editions. As a game element it is both mechanically and within the imaginary game world, more reliable, effective, and easy to use and (aside from flavor and the ability to actually light things on fire) in almost every way superior to the much more iconic alternative.

I think that if you take any element from 3rd or 4th edition, this is how I feel about it. It looks slick but is somehow so wrong and so blase'.

Here is the first version of the fighter picture - the costuming was the wrong era.

___

JOESKY Random House Rule For Original D&D:

Something I use in my game; using 2 weapons at once simply changes the damage dice to 2d4 - doesn't matter if it is 2 daggers or 2 swords. It is simple, relatively balanced, and just feels right because you are using 2 dice for 2 weapons.

This rule wouldn't hold up so well in Advanced D&D because the weapon damages begin to vary wildly and some start out rolling 2d4 for damage.

Fighter Class and an Important Question

2011-02-11T12:29:00.000-08:00

A class picture for Lamentations of the Flame Princess Weird Fantasy Role Playing Grindhouse Edition. I think I've done all the class pictures so I hope you all enjoy them.

Also, to all the rpg players out there, what do you absolutely love to doing games?

Some simple examples:

- Killing people who deserve it

- Saving/Rescuing people who deserve it

- Finding Treasure

- Finding better weapons, armor, etc...

- Becoming more powerful, learning new skills

- Exploring interesting places

- Making decisions and solving problems

- Seeing your choices impact the game world and have consequences

What else? Please reply.

Merry Krampus!

2010-12-03T14:24:00.000-08:00

Apologies for not updating my blog at all.

The good news is that it is mostly because I have a mountain of work that I am doing for the new Lamentations of the Flame Princess RPG printing. I'm eventually gonna get around to posting some art and updating my portfolio and publishing the RPG I've been working on forever(for free).

Also, here is a screen printed design piece I made for a local "Krampus vs. St. Nicholas" themed art show.

I'll try to post more often but just in case I don't, I want to wish you all a kickass Christmas (its the perfect time of year to catch up with old gaming friends)!

Busy with artwork and the bro code...

2010-10-05T11:34:00.000-07:00

Been busy with lots of artwork... A mystery?

Feudal Run is still going strong despite my neglecting to post play reports. The adventurers have run afoul of some gypsies, making bitter enemies with them. Naturally, the gypsies visited a strange and terrible curse upon the party.

THE ELF,in a move truly unexpected by me, decided to try and "take one for the team" and managed to convince the old crone gypsy to lift the curse in exchange for his "special attentions". Gleefully the crone accepted the offer so long as he agreed to her terms of "anything goes!" - the episode left the elf a broken shell of his former self. None shall speak of that horrible hour he spent with that old gypsy crone.

The whole episode was unexpected, entirely my player's idea, and hilarious - it reminded me of the last part of this post (one of my favorites ever).

Even though it was definitely the right call considering that it was my player's idea and the dice rolls went favorably towards this outcome, it still felt very silly (obviously not always a bad thing).

My friend playing the elf loved the whole episode and even sent me a link to the "crone" entry on wikipedia. He pointed out the line about how in archetypal representation one of her traits is that "She is marginalized by her exclusion from the reproductive cycle." which just makes the whole scenario more perfect (that sex could be used as an incentive to lift the curse) and thus even more hilarious.

I may eventually get round to posting play reports, but its not likely. If anyone wants more Feudal Run play reports leave your comments on the matter below.

Until next time...

WotC Forum: A "charming" return and a player who just doesn't "get it"

2010-09-27T11:27:00.000-07:00

"But now I see an ugly beast rearing its head in the nature of two new Wizard powers - "Instant Friend" and "Spectral Image". Why? Well powers for 4E generally have a fluff description and a mechanical effect. These two powers lack any specific mechanical effect at all. The first makes a target (who cannot be targetted "in a combat encounter" - whatever that means) "treat the caster as a trusted friend". The second creates an illusionary figure or object in a square. Period. No idea how this might affect the actions of other creatures or whatever; this description is nothing but fluff - there is no actual game effect, there."

I found this intersting post today on the official WotC forums.

The poster's point of view is quite valid in regards to the way 4e D&D has been designed up to this point.

It is remarkable that 4e created a certain playstyle by design, one reliant on carefully worded and delicately balanced game mechanics, but is now reintroducing more "free-wheeling" play elements (ones which old-school gamers are so familiar with).

These free-form elements, such as the implications of a "charm person" spell, rely more heavily on the skill and imagination of the dungeon master to improvise and to adapt. This makes the game more difficult in the sense it is less predictable and can go in a new direction suddenly with a single dice roll, but most "old-school" fans understand that the rewards of this style or play, the limitless possibilities are awesome and fun if a good DM is behind the screen.

In other words, a good DM knows EXACTLY how to handle a charm person spell, and will more likely see it as a great asset to the game as a possible provender of exciting and magical circumstance, bringing many sessions of entertainment. From the players, the DM, and the dice rolls a new, unique, and unexpected story can emerge! What will happen next?

Anyway, the thread is worth a read. It is a glimps into the mind of the current D&D brand and the developing pains born of alienating some fans while trying to hold on to other fans who have previously been alienated - or maybe it is just that the designers are beginning to remember what the game used to be about - adventure and entertaining circumstance rather than just a series of set-piece battles.

The 4 month birthday party and other thoughts

2010-09-27T06:53:00.000-07:00

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks finally reached its thrilling conclusion last week. I began running the module for my brother's birthday (May 25th) and it was agreed by all that this was a truly bad-ass birthday celebration.

Verdict - Barrier Peaks is a module for experienced DMs only! The adventure is rich and dense, with lots of rewards to an attentive and energetic DM, however the material is rather poorly organized and a lot can go "wrong" in the sense that the DM (and perhaps players) can become confused, overwhelmed, and frustratedly bogged down. A DM needs to be either masterfully prepared or a master of improvisation (best if both obviously) in order to run the module smoothly. For those who can dial this difficulty number, this wonderful module will disgorge thick, steaming rivulets of chocolaty fun from its silvery space-retro innards.

Barrier Peaks play thoughts and highlights (SPOILERS: Continue at thy own risk!)

The module is extremely cool with plenty of room for improvising, flavoring, and expanding if you are a DM into that sort of thing.

My players like to poke prod and understand everything so I found myself making up a lot of extra details about the "ship" including small descriptions of wall texture, technical panels, materials, devices, etc. as well as layering on atmosphere and adding various objects and devices when the players found themselves in one of several "empty" areas of the ship.

One of the details I included was that the apparently seamless, spartan walls were encrusted with secret panels, so many that it became pointless to find them all - most contained broken buttons or knobs which did caused the ship to make strange sounds. I was taking a cue from "The Hitch hiker's Guide to the Galaxy" with buttons which only produce a warning not to press that button again.

To keep things strange and dangerous, I represented the ship inhabitants as coming from culture where almost nothing is labeled or possessing of the kind of safeguards we take for granted in our modern life - this is not a great liberty when considering the way the module is written and preserves the mystery, menace, and the aesthetic of a sleek 1960's glistening space-ship.

"Which end does the death come out?" - To all barrier peaks DMs, read the device descriptions carefully! The trigger mechanisms for some of the weapons are hilariously touchy and dangerous in almost anyone's hands. The writers of the module really made great choices in how the weapons have dangerous and illogical ways of operation, requiring finesse and luck to handle. Highlight: when the elf tried to dual wield the "blaster pistols" without thinking about the proper way to point them (the player actually pantomimed how he was dual-wielding them, this put the off-hand pistol facing back towards him so when he started blasting away he vaporized his own armor!).

In a similar vein I played on this twisted logic when role playing the robotic inhabitants of the ship, most of which are crazy and homicidal. The robots were a huge hit amongst my players. I don't know if it was my "lost in space" style hamming it up but, for some reason robots became the perfect NPCs - the players were always keen to both battle or talk to malfunctioning robots. I added a strange robot encounter in the "art" room of the ship.

Another addition of mine was including more stasis chambers containing various exotic monsters. Supposedly the computer has been freeing "samples" from the ship's stores and these monsters have been ravaging the country side. While the module includes finding one such chambers, I found it more fun and interesting to include more - just rolling randomly for the creature. While this sort of thing could have gotten out of hand it didn't (as I had guessed).

After several levels of painstaking mapping and room by room crawling the party bypassed much of the module due to a dungeon master "mistake". I allowed the players to find some tracks made by the mind-flayer, leading to the lower level of the "dungeon". I suspected that the players would merely note this and continue cleaning out the levels but instead this lead to the game ending well before the dungeon had been explored completely (the ENTIRE JUNGLE AREA WAS SKIPPED). However, there is always the opportunity to return :)

Most of the monsters are noted to specifically "attack the players immediately" so I was surprised that I had lots of opportunity for on-the-fly role playing out what certain monsters/npcs knew about the history of the dungeon/ship - the best episode of this was when the players used "speak with dead" on the mind-flayer. Aside from being evil, his motives are not particularly clear or logical, so on the fly I decided he was helping to unleash all these monsters to create chaos on this strange world so he could raise his own dominion from the ruins of the marches.

I was pleasantly surprised how my players were quick to piece together the intellect devourer's tale from the scraps of notes and the remains found in the service deck - definitely a hit, but even more importantly it serves as a testament of how just placing a few good clues can easily replace tiresome exposition.

The "ending" of the module is rather sticky - actually, not very good in my opinion. Unless the DM exercises a masterful hand, it is rather more likely that the affair will end in the complete obliteration of the party OR the party will destroy all the robots and possibly get sealed inside the ship for a time. I have to admit this is only speculation because it actually played out well at the table.

I was very worried about my players (who can be touchy, especially when they feel manhandled or railroaded) and my concern is that they would HATE the finale'. I think the illustration for the end really helped - when the players saw the drawing of the characters and the bullette being chucked out the door by robots, they were definitely excited to be part of "that" and more accepting when the robots were actually manhandling them after repeated stun blaster rounds.

The players were very worried that the "ship" would take off for galaxies unknown after discharging the occupants and so were delighted when the dungeon remained for later exploration (mega dungeon?). While the module has been shelved for now (probably Shadowrun up next) we plan to play it more at some point in the future.

Magic Inspired by Real Sources: Part 1

2010-08-30T10:46:00.000-07:00

I do a lot of reading about magic and the occult because not only is if fascinating, it inspires more exotic ideas for D&D and other fantasy RPGs.

I don't want overly authentic magic in my games, rather my design principle is to have typical fantasy magic (you know, of the whizzzz-BANG! variety) evoked from a rich and mysterious source inspired by real magical practices.

Here are some resources that I have found inspirational and evocative:

First is a series of YouTube videos on Goetic Magic. The narrator is "weird" but in an awesome way in my opinion. The magical reenactments are painfully unwatchable, but the information portion takes up the majority of the time and is extremely interesting, particularly the introduction and overview.

The second is the Book of Abramelin wiki article and the full Translation of the magical text. It outlines a magical ritual to bind beneficent angels to look over the mage and to evoke demons so as to cast them from influencing or harming the practitioner. The text is extremely interesting because it contains detailed drawings of necessary apparatus, tools, etc.

Lastly the Papyrus of Ani (Egyptian Book of the Dead) wiki article the EXTREMELY awesome Image of the Scroll and the full Translation of the text. Aside from being extremely visually interesting, the scroll contains many "spells" invoking the gods of Egypt to protect, transform, and purify the spirit during its adventures in the afterlife.

I will continue these thoughts in later updates...

"Percy, do you see how the king picks me out for special greeting?"

2010-08-27T09:55:00.000-07:00

I had a little mention by James over at GROGNARDIA for my work in Lamentations of the Flame Princes: Weird Fantasy Roleplaying.

"Newcomer Amos Orion Sterns is a welcome addition; many of his pieces are excellent."

Go me, I guess. It is nice to be singled out in a positive way.

The title of this post is a reference to this TV moment (it starts at minute marker 3:51).

Also I received my contributors copy of the BX Companion. I haven't read much of it yet, but I was sad to discover that a number of the illustrations I made for it are obviously skewed and warped out of their original aspect ratio :( It shouldn't detract from the enjoyment of the material too much, I;m just disappointed my work doesn't look its best.

Feudal Run: Session 27

2010-08-24T11:39:00.000-07:00

On this short episode of Feudal Run, the player character were forced to consider their living situation when the inn-keeper informed them their rent was up, and greedily demanded more for the large room they had been renting. Amidst threats and haggling, the characters eventually paid for another week at the rate demanded by the oily inn-keeper.

After lengthy discussion amongst themselves, considering safety and storage of treasure and gear, they decided to investigate the possibility of carving out a chunk of the wilderness, the woods south of town, or offering the help guard a farmstead on the muddy hills which Cluster around Malshire. So making plans to set off in the morning, the party spent another night in the decrepit Adventurer's Inn.

Meanwhile, Manana, the fighting lady, began to read the strange book that the mysterious trader had given to her on a previous adventure in the Bazaar. The evil book was full of horrifying images and her wicked mind was quickly overwhelmed by a terrifying presence of evil.

Soon the whispers began. Most were maddeningly unintelligible, but some began entreating her to slay her friends, reassuring her that her life has been meaningless up until now and that a new life of dark secrets waited for her. She had visions of the strange house they had adventured in previously and a compulsion to lead her party members once again to it.

The next day, Manana was too engrossed in the strange book to be brought along to investigate the living options, so a mere party of 3, Crovax the crippled, Gore-Thar the orc, and Tho Lad the thief, headed out of the southern gate of Malshire.

At the edge of the forest was a gypsy camp who's vanguard appeared to be an old crone and a gorgeous young beauty stationed by a few wagons at the roadside. From safety of the trees the rest of the campsite huddled, where women did work, and men glared from the shadows. It was common knowledge about town that certain curiosities and rare items could be purchased from the mysterious gypsies and rumor held that they hoarded still more treasures and lore, unknown to the "honest" folk of Malshire.

The party decided to question the gypsies about life in the forest, hoping to perhaps find a folk sympathetic to those wishing to escape the squalid life of the city.

As Tho Lad approached, the old hag of a gypsy began entreating him to gild her palm with coins to pay for a telling of his fortune. The young swarthy gypsy woman approached Crovax and silently offered him a cup of wine. When asked what it was, the girl merely said, "Wine, my lord." So he drank it.

As he drank, a man from the gypsy camp, all aswash with cloak and sash strode forward saying, "Jessica! How dare you?" The young Jessica slunk behind Crovax to keep him between her and the gypsy, and blurted out, "Why should you care who I choose as my husband?!"

As the argument progress, it was clear that this was all a ploy for the girl to pick-pocket Crovax and for the young man to extort money from the party for the "unforgivable insult" they had caused among the gypsy tribe.

Gore Thar roughly and orcishly chased the girl away before she could pilfer anything, and refused the pay the gypsy anything despite his threat that they now had acquired a blood-feud with Red-Feather tribe. The party was beginning to walk away from the escalating hostility when sudden drunken fatigue began to overtake Crovax; it appeared that the gypsy wine had been drugged! The gypsies all laughed as Crovax and Tho Lad (who had tried to help support the full-armored man) crumpled down into muck and filth of the road heading towards Malshire.

As the crone cackled horrifically, Gore Thar called the gypsy man a "dog" which immediately broke the gypsy's temper and taking up his curved short sword, he cursed, "You'll taste blood for that!" and charged the orc.

As Gore Thar fought savagely with the very skillful gypsy thief, Tho Lad drew his long daggers in preparation to aid him companion. However this prompted a volley of crossbow bolts to sail from the marksmen in the gypsy camp and both daggers were knocked from his hands by masterfully aimed shots. Tho Lad grabbed his short bow only to be momentarily blinded when the crone threw old wine in his face before cackeling and running off. He cleared his sight to return fire and soon found himself in a shoot out with gypsy marksmen.

As the orc and gypsy battled and arrows flew, the whole gypsy camp swiftly and silently made ready to depart.

Gore Thar launched a savage attack against the gypsy, which seemed to wound the thief, but as the orc sought to press his advantage, the gypsy launched a sudden counter which Gore Thar only narrowly evaded.

The gypsy thief, seeing that now was the time to make good an escape, vaulted onto one of the caravans, and cursing, the gypsys disappeared into the misty woods.

As Gore Thar and Tho Lad prepared to drag their unconscious friend away from the scene, a stranger wearing voluminous robes approached Tho Lad. His face hidden under a shadowing dark hood, he claimed to be the Well Keeper and pointed to a nearby forested hill where the ruins of a watch tower were said to lie.

He asked to tend to the drugged Crovax but when Tho Lad tried to keep the stranger away, a powerful terror overtook the thief and he was frozen, all of the hairs on his face standing on end. The sinister Well Keeper touched the drugged fighter, and he groggily came to his senses.

As Tho Lad stood amazed he realized that the Well Keeper had disappeared with the morning mist.

To be continued...

More LotFP Artwork - and mini review of Wierd Fantasy Role-Playing

2010-08-16T09:36:00.000-07:00

James at LotFP is gearing up for another project... I think. You can admire the bait on that hook over at his blog right now.

For me, it looks like a lot more commissions for artwork! This is a grand turn of events, indeed.

One of the perks of working on James'seses projects is that I got a "free" copy. The LOTFPWFRP box I landed is extremely sweet.

I've read a few reviews, as some of you may have also, so I just want to share what I really like about the game via a mini-review

First of all, it has a definite slant to it. This slant I can only conclude reveals James's personal tastes in both genre and playing style. Simply put, the book, taken whole cloth, will teach you how James rolls, well enough to roll a lot like him. This manner of "rolling" can be harsh and the flavoring is certainly dark and sinister. There is a twisted and blasphemous aspect to his world and cosmology. This is all part of the darkly-wierd backdrop and material from which he weaves his world. To me it seems that the titular "Wierd" really comes across "sinister supernatural with a creative twist".

The "twist" is all important because this is what injects the magic, wonder, and fun into an otherwise oppresively "crapsack" universe. James is proving to be a master of crafting these "twists", which you will find permeating almost all of the flavor, background, rule, spell, and encounter descriptions. Obviously some people will LOVE the sinister world... others will not. I support the overall theme of DANGER AND STRANGENESS EVERYWHERE.

The Rules are another matter altogether! The rules are great just by themselves and are worth the whole production even if you don't have any interest in the dark/wierd flavor.

The big seller really is the "skill" system for the thief class (a.k.a. the "Specialist"). Essentially, this system takes the "humans find secret doors on a 1 in 6 and elves find them on a 2 in 6" rule and BLOWS IT TO THE BACK OF THE DM SCREEN!!!!! I can't rave enough about how inspiring the skill system is.

Not only is the skill system elegant, rooted in OD&D, useful, and infinitely playable, there are many little rules throughout the game-guide that are born of the same mold. The system really represents something that can be widely applied to many game situations - I won't go so far as to say it should be a universal mechanic, but it certainly can inform many house rules or on-the-fly rulings a GM might make during play.

Just to drive the point home, the system is so elegant that veteran DMs will be able to immediately see opportunities to modify the skill system to their WILL and to their old-school game of choice!

THIS SYSTEM IS A GROTESQUELY FERTILE WOMB FROM WHICH ROBUST, GLISTENING, MANY-LIMBED SPAWN WILL SPRING FORTH!!!!!

In addition there are some interesting takes on old spells and some new (at least to me) spells that inflate the magic lists with extacy inducing fumes. I find it interesting, in a game that took a much more dynamic and loose route for defining magic items and monsters, the spell book is very fimiliar - a big section of well-defined spells that most of us will recognize. I suppose the reason is clear enough; as core class abilities of clerics, elfies, and magic-users, the spells need to be clearly defined to illustrate what a PLAYER can and can't do (by athority of the rules). I think this reinforces the "see the wierd, not be the wierd" part of the game.

Some strange things about the rules -> only fighters get better at hitting things, so monsters with good ACs will be very difficult to hit for all classes except fighters, regardless of level. Also the rules suggest that magic items, even weapons, shouldn't grant numerical advantages - which I like as it FORCES magic items to be more ... magical. I think a lot of people will not care for these two rules together, but, if one looks at the ACs of most monsters in OD&D or BD&D, very few have AC 3 or better (18 or higher depending on how you roll) - so a fair DM may find that this actually improves play - suddenly that ogre with a lowly 4AC is still a nasty customer, even for a mid to high level party.

Overall there is a lot to like about the LotFPWFRP game books.

I am DEFINITELY absorbing the skill system into my home game rules (with some modifications) and already see uses for the style of skill system for "on the fly" rulings (something that must never be undervalued).

In the end it doesn't matter HOW you look at LotFPWFRP, it adds something to the hobby we love and to the community. It is a good game, it has a unique and well constructed point of view, some very interesting modifications to rules, and a high production value for a niche of a niche product.

I give it an entire HORDE OF ORCS as a rating (ratings are pointless).

Feudal Run: Session 26

2010-07-27T08:59:00.001-07:00

Having enough of the surface world for now, once again the adventurers returned to the dungeon. Laek the elf still driven to locate the tormented soul of his brother.

Tramping down the stone steps and into the uppermost level of the dungeon, again the party retraced their steps towards the iron runged ladder which descends to the 2nd level of the dungeon.

A strange glowing room lay just before the shadowing passageway containing the shaft to the lower levels, and when within sight of this eldrich glow the adventure-hungry gang slowed their approach. Crovax the Crippled even made the remark that this area always seemed to be infested with monsters. At this, Laek the Elf sprang forward to scout the area.

Laek crossed the room stealthily and elfishly, the haze of the strangely glowing floor making it difficult to see beyond. As he neared the far side his tastefully pierced elven ears quivered at the sound of combat; grunts and the ring of steel on steel. However as soon as he was able to see the figures of animated skeletons brawling with hobgoblin warriors, one of the skeletons broke off and came cackling towards him with rusty sword raised.

Turning to rejoin the party Laek tried to be swift but the skeleton lunged with the hellish alacrity of the undead and ran him through. Fortunately for the elf, Gore-Thar the orc was following closely behind and saw the elf fall at the edge of the glowing room. Wasting no time the orc charged the grinning skeleton, which was exultant over felling the elf, and smashing it with his axe, saved the elf from a swift death.

Barin the Leprous Cleric shambled forward and placed his yellowed hands on the elf and intoning the healing words of Aiden the God-Child, sealed the mortal wound which went through and through his flimsy elven chest.

Manana the real bastard, just stood in the gloom across from the glowing room and yelled into the darkness where her companions had ventured while Crovax, being exceptionally wary, guarded them from possible attack from the rear.

After smashing the skeleton which had nearly slain Laek, the orc Gore-Thar, thinking to possibly make some allies ran forward and smashed one of the skeletons battling 2 hobgoblins. The tall, ginger-pelted goblinoids regarded the newcomer warily, but merely stood off from him, not wanting to immediately attack or expose themselves to a possible betrayal.

Manana yelled again, much louder this time, which rose over the sound of combat, distracting the hobgoblins just long enough for the skeletons to take advantage, slaying two.

Laek, brought back from the brink of death thanks to Barin's clerical magic, sprang up with elven treachery once again in his heart. With the grace and speed of his woodland people he drew back his bow and shot an arrow into the chest of a hobgoblin in the stand-off with Gore-Thar. The arrow splintered on the creature's armor, but the damage had been done, and the hobgoblins screamed, "The orc is in league with treacherous humans and elves!" at which point they lunged into a melee with Gore-Thar.

Laek then joined the fight with an acrobatic charge, and after a few passes with swords and axes, he, along with Gore-Thar and Barin, had slain all of the hobgoblin's and now faced but one skeleton which had been slinking near the back.

Barin, raising his new holy symbol, forced the screaming spirit, which now haunted the bones of a man, back and back, forcing it to step down the open shaft of the trap-door and plummet to a shattering end.

The party quickly looted the treasure and gear from the hobgoblins, finding a valuable amulet and a few skins of potent alcohol, and curiously, a jar stuffed with a mixture of black pepper and gun-powder. Finally they prepared for the descent into the 2nd level of the dungeon.

Gore-Thar kicked one of the hobgoblin bodies down the shaft, but was stopped before throwing the others for fear of attracting the attention of the dungeon denizens below.

Propping a large iron shafted and cresseted torch to stick out of his backpack so as to light his way, Crovax the Crippled, insisted on going first down the ladder because he was the slowest and his lead would ensure that the party arrived together at the bottom.

Sadly, after about twenty feet (roll of a 1), the heavy iron shaft of the torch burst through the bottom of Crovax's bargain-quality backpack, sucking the burning cresset into his pack! As his pack began to smoulder the poor fighter attempted to struggle free of the pack, hoping to let it drop down the shaft.

Possibly it was his cumbersome full plate armor, possibly he panicked from the fire and smoke issuing from his pack, or possibly it was because he had no proper hands to grip the iron rungs of the ladder (or maybe the rolling of yet another 1), poor Crovax plummeted the remaining 40 feet to the cold stone below and died instantly... or did he?

Laek, being next in line, rushed down the ladder with elven grace. At the bottom he found a small group of startled lizardmen who had started to drag off the body of the hobgoblin that Gore-Thar had kicked down earlier. Laek charged into the hissing trio of scaly scavengers who fought back with scimitars.

The 3 quickly gained the upper hand over Laek, despite his attempts to utilize the poisoned blade that had been stolen from goblins on a previous delve into this very level of the dungeon. However, Manana, quickly came to his aid and the two prevailed just as the remaining members of the party arrived at the bottom of the ladder.

Manana in petty frustration... or possibly evil jubilee, tore off the loin cloth of the nearest lizardguy hoping to mutilate his genitals but instead found some family jewels in the form of actual gemstones. She, never one to ruin a moment, stabbed the dead creature in what she best estimated the groin-ish area.

The party found a few more small gems in the loincloths of the other lizardmen, but as Gore-Thar began to "inspect" (loot) Crovax's body he noticed that the mangled and twisted human was still alive.

[[Dungeon Master's Commentary:
While the players were searching Crovax, we were determining what of his gear would have been destroyed or damaged by the fall or the fire. While doing this we found his most breakable possession to be a healing potion kept in his belt pouch.

I, as the DM, ruled that there was a 1 in 4 chance that he would have landed on the side with the belt pouch and thus his precious healing potion would be destroyed! Naturally, the player rolls yet another 1 for his poor fighter and the healing potion was destroyed.

However, I had a spark of insight and thought the idea of a smashing healing potion to be like a medieval auto-injector was hilarious, so I let him roll a constitution check to see his the healing potion was absorbed enough to keep him barely alive. The player rolled like a 10 or 11 on a d12 (his first good roll of the night) so I ruled he was still barely there!

Was I being too nice? Maybe. Was it fun and funny as hell? DEFINITELY!!!!!]]

His body bent and broken in numerous places, it was only after be painfully (and dangerously) straightened by Laek, and the healing magics of Barin, that the mighty Crovax was able to limp along again.

Despite the near uselessness of one of their mightiest warriors, the party, once again lead by Laek, began to search the 2nd level of the dungeon.

First passing through the chamber where the goblins and the harpy had attacked Laek on the previous excursion (now found empty), the band found themselves in a series of stone flagged passageways.

The party had not gone a dozen yards when a huge glistening grub-beast dropped from the dungeon ceiling. The crawling thing lashed out with slim-dripping tentacles at the party, where these tentacles landed the adventurer's flesh became paralyzed!

Gore-Thar, quite intelligently considering the disgusting ork that he is, braved the mass of tentacles and rand around the length of the long grub-like body so that the creature would have a harder time attacking the entire party with the paralyzing tentacles.

Manana followed suit, attempting to circle round the beast, but was struck and paralyzed! With its prey now rendered helpless, the creature began quickly sucking the fighter towards it's horrible mouth orifice.

Laek, hatching a brilliant scheme, ran forward in the attempt to stuff the jar of gun-powder and pepper (thinking it to be some kind of bomb), down the creature's throat. Sadly, a few lashes from the creature's tentacles froze him with arm outstretched toward the grub-like head. Having walked right in to the jaws of the beast, the thing immediately sucked Laek in to his mouth up to the should with a horrible slurp.

Fortunately, it was at this point that the jar of powder in Laek's hand broke inside the horrible gizzard of the beast.

The grub quivered and shrieked the shriek of a creature not designed for vocalization and began crawling away, dragging the paralyzed Laek away in his jaws. It was only by the quick blade-work of the rest of the party that the fleeing beast was slain before it could make good an escape with the choice elven morsel.

After a few minutes the party had shaken off the effects of the paralysis and had spent even more healing magic to restore Laek's mangled arm. Tempting fate, they pushed deeper into the dungeon.

Only 30 feet farther down the passageway, the elf spotted a damp spot on the wall, as if a wide trickle of water were flowing just over the surface of the broad grey stones. Moving closer he touched the seemingly moistened stones only to scream out elvishly in pain, his hand blackened and smoking, burned by acid! It was only by his elf-boy speed that he was able to spring away before a large section of the wall melted away and sprang at him.

This quivering mass of gray ooze rose in an unnatural way and began wobbling towards the party, burbling and occasionally steaming with foul choking smoke. Gore-Thar the orc, seeing that the thing was somehow compelled to absorb and dissolve the party, roared an order to retreat.

The party clanked back to the chamber behind them. Here they recovered their breath while the elf nursed his wounded hand. After a few moments they decided to check to see if the slimy being had moved on and they might continue down that passage. However when the door was reopened there beyond the threshold was the terrible gelatinous shape, glistening dully in the torchlight.

The party was only just able to throw the door closed as the bloblinoidinous form lurched towards them with startling speed! Yet this barrier began to smoke and blacken from the acidic body of the creature which, as they watched, oozed around and under the space of the door jam.

Acting quickly, Gore-Thar, sprayed the hobgoblin spirits on the door and set it alight with a thrust of the torch, but even this proved of no concern to the creature whose touch seemed to choke out the flames. The chamber began filling with strangling smoke as the door dissolved before the eyes of the party.

Deciding that this new adversary along with all of the injuries they had sustained were enough, the party beat armored feet back to the ladder and made way towards the uppermost level of the dungeon.

Nearing the top, Laek heard hushed rasping voices of some kind of unwholesome creatures preparing an ambush. Hoping to gain elvish surprise, he tried to hurl himself up an upon him with a flashy acrobatic vault. Sadly this did nothing but quickly render him helplessly into the hands of the waiting ghouls.

Hearing the quickly silenced yelp of the elf, Gore-Thar, drew himself out of the trap door more cautiously finding most of the bodies of the hobgoblins piled here partially eaten. He also was soon to discover the unconscious elf [DM: I just realized I screwed up by letting the ghouls paralyze the poor elf... sorry] and a hobgoblin corpse being dragged away by two ghouls.

The ghoulish beings hissed gruesomely to defend their prize, but were quickly overtaken by the orc and Manana, who clambered out of the trap door shortly after.

One ghoul was slain instantly, run through by Manana's petulant bladeswomanship, the other was badly wounded. Seizing the opportunity, Barin, advanced leprously and began to interrogate the ghoul by brandishing his holy symbol.

While this was going on, the badly wounded Crovax finally pulled himself off of the ladder only to be set upon by a large snake. This lightning fast snake, sprung suddenly out of the darkness and latched onto the fighter's wrist. Crovax fought desperately calling for aid, which eventually arrived in the form of the orc and the fightress. The massive snake was slain but not before it had torn open the wrist of Crovax who only survived and stemmed the blood flow by sheer will and hardiness.

Barin, demanded the ghoul answer his question regarding the whereabouts of Laek's elfin brother. For his part the ghoul only hissed that he knew nothing. Barin concluded the interview by beating the ghoul's skull in.

Despite the snails pace the party needed to take to help Crovax leave the dungeon, they were not harassed any further and made it safely to the final stairway and up again to Malshire which greeted them with it's latrinine aroma.

Monster Brains: Never suffer for lack of inspiration again.

2010-07-20T12:19:00.000-07:00

The ultimate repository of all things monstrous, including aliens, mutants, and robots.

MONSTER BRAINS, a blog.

I love these images so much I can't even barely articulate it.

I particularly like the vintage or vintage style monsters. These grotesque vintage monsters have so much "fun" in them - they form a strangely familiar and warm pantheon that I can only lump together under the term "Halloween". A perfect unending Pulp-Halloween of a yesterday that never really was.

The breadth of material, historic, foreign, pop, art, pop-art, past, and present will have you reeling, grinning, and sometimes gagging.

Feudal Run: Session 25

2010-07-19T09:41:00.000-07:00

This week we find our crew of desperate men and ladies discussing how they might safely explore other parts of the city. Malshire is divided by a large river, across which the more affluent members of the town, or "decent folk" as the thuggish guardsmen refer to them, live. These more affluent members are not all nobles and merchants, there is an entire world of "respectable" laborers and servicemen, craftsmen, merchants, and artisans, even farmers, which exist in a mockery of idyllic medieval life just a stones throw from the far more numerous filth gatherers, wretches, and rotten goods-sellers common to the "Adventurer's Quarter". The guardsmen's main duty is to isolate the decent folk from the rest of Malshire society.

The party came to the natural conclusion that they needed to dress with a lot more class if they were to safely traverse the "decent" part of town. This observation came mostly from the chance sighting across the river of a panhandler, dressed better than any of the player characters, being savagely and joyfully beaten by fat, sweaty rosy-faced village children, on one of the few occasion they had ventured into the nicer parts of town.

And so, dressing up in the best clothes they had, the party disguised as a servant accompanied by even lowlier attendants carrying soiled laundry, attempted to cross the bridge. Tho'Lad the thief managed to talk the menacing guards into believing their story and at last the party found themselves in village square where the "decent folk" gather to trade wares.

The party noticed that the so-called "decent folk", though puffed up in superior clothing and trading superior goods, had much of the same malformities and malevolence of their more wretched and impoverished counterparts on the south bank of the river - although many were more prone to gross obesity and vices of pride and confidence.

The shabby crew felt they stood out like sore thumbs so they tried to locate a clothier before becoming the target of one of the roving bands of town watchmen.

Eventually they located just such a shop-keeper and after scaring away his current customers inquired about his wares and prices at length. Thankfully the weaselly man seemed willing to deal with them especially when shown the goods they were willing to trade (some of the fine clothes which had been taken from the magical scroll Clethra the magic-user had been hoarding).

Laek cased the tailor's operation, humble by classic fantasy standards but opulent from his experiences in Malshire up to this point. Wares crowded the large windows and the main storeroom had several exists. The elf's treacherous nature began to over take him and he made ready to assault the shopkeeper hoping to slay or subdue him and abscond with the expensive clothes they sought.

To the surprise of everyone, better judgment prevailed and shortly thereafter the party had managed to trade their few articles of remarkable quality for several outfits of decent enough quality to pass as "decent folk".

Donning these new garments, the party once again hit the street and found that they were no longer suffering constant scrutiny not catching the volume of venomous looks as they had been earlier.

Despite this, after Laek approached a group of squires and elfishly inquired about establishments on this side of the river that might sell weapons, slaves, and black-market items, the situation turned ugly. The gang of young men acted at first interested and friendly but quickly produced clubs and attempted to waylay the elftarded adventurer and his friends. Crovax and Tho-Lad along with the lion's share of young squires bolted as townsfolk began calling for watchmen. Laek and one young man continued to brawl until whistles began to blow and the shouts of watchmen grew close.

Laek made a desperate run for the bridge and was over and across while crossbow bolts sailed overhead. On the far side he faded into the Malshirian scum that is the "Adventurer's Square" and regrouped with his comrades.

...to be continued.

A few drawings for LotFP

2010-07-16T11:19:00.001-07:00

Just a few drawings on commission for the Lamentations of the Flame Princess: Weird Fantasy Role Playing Game.

James gave very specific instructions about what the gamers around this table should look like. I think the logical conclusion is that his own personal group has EXACTLY the same make-up. :)

Just your typical crazed fighting man.

Feudal Run: Session 24

2010-07-13T12:09:00.000-07:00

This time on Feudal Run, our intrepid adventurers decided to visit the mysterious Mercenaries Guild they had discovered on a previous adventure. On a previous adventure the characters had discovered that for some ancient and forgotten reason, there was an abandoned part of the mercenary compound which contained a passage leading directly into the dungeon.

Approaching the street entrance of the mercenaries guild, the party was greeted by the cruel grins and predatory glares of thuggish men and ogreish half-breeds wearing battered armor and stained uniforms. After inquiring after mercenaries and rates they were led to a massive ogre of a man wearing badly polished armor whose breast was laden down with tarnished medals and awards of valor.

Laek specifically inquired about trackers and scouts that might be able to help find out the undead revenant which was skulking around in the body of his dead brother.

At a nod from the Mercenary Captain, two men-at-arms stomped off into a different part of the guild complex from which party members began to hear moans and pleas. Finally after hearing the rustle of metal shackles, the mercenaries returned with a thin, rat-like kobold who they were told could track by his powerful nose.

Laek, somewhat wary and certainly no stranger to treachery, demanded some kind of proof of this tracker's ability. By means of a demonstration, the mercenary captain asked for and received one of Laek's boots and hurled it far over the rooftops - towards the worst warrens of Malshire. Then the kobold, after taking in Laek's scent, was unleashed to retrieve the foot gear.

The horrible dog-rat-man never returned, and eventually the party left eh Mercenary Guild under the mocking laughter of the soldiers.

After Laek purchased a new pair of boots the party decided to once again enter the dungeon. However, on the way to the dungeon they were approached by a hideous old crone who attempted to sell them apples. In the end they only exchanged harsh words and (perhaps wisely) passed on the apples.

Once the stairs to the dungeon had been navigated, Laek guided the party to the area where a vertical shaft and iron rungs led to the 2nd dungeon level. It was here where his brother had been lost so this was the logical starting point to search for him.

As the party neared this area and passed the room with the glowing floor, they heard small gruff voices talking amongst themselves. Rushing forward, the party spotted some small shaggy shapes fleeing down the ladder. Whoever these creatures were, they had left behind a large wicker basket with a sturdy and fastened lid.

Laek prodded the basket at which point it shook and flapping, scrabbling sounds issued from it followed by several small pleasant voices pleading to be released. Claiming to be good faeries earned the creatures inside their freedom, unfortunately the creatures turned out to be large angry blood-sucking bug-birds (stirges) which swarmed over the party.

After losing a few pints of blood and digging out one of their nasty tic-like heads from Crovax's back, the adventurers were successful in slaying or chasing off the strange horrible creatures (who had mysteriously stopped talking during the battle).

With no one seriously wounded, the party again let themselves down the iron rung ladder to the lower levels of the dungeon.

Laek, descending rapidly found himself alone at the bottom of the shaft amidst haunting singing by a melodic female voice. He followed this voice down the left-hand passage and looked into the room that had been inhabited by goblins the last time the party had ventured here.

In the corner of the large room was a table where goblins sat enjoying the singing of a beautiful woman, also seated at the far end of the table. She seemed to be concealed from the breast down by a rough brownish robe. Though the strange music tugged at Laek's head, he fought loose from the strange enchantment and from the cover of the threshold he readied his bow.

Suddenly the music stopped as the strange woman screeched, "He's got a bow!" At this the goblins flipped the table and whirled from their seats leveling daggers and blow-guns at the elf who had already unleashed his first arrow!

Laek withdrew from the room firing arrows, hearing that his allies had almost stomped down the ladder from above. Once he had retreated from the room several goblins rush after him brandishing daggers, behind them followed a strange hopping bird-woman, with grey and brown feathered wings instead of arms, the torso of a bird below the breast and with large taloned feet of a hawk. This hideous harpy, her once pretty face now contorted into a rictus of gleeful malice, joined the goblins in a ferocious assault of the lone elf.

Crovax the crippled, finally navigated the ladder with his nub-like hands and withered leg while from just above him Gore-Thar orcishly leaped the final 12 feet from the ladder, over the fighter's head and landed facing the goblins.

Just as they arrive however, Laek was overcome by the goblins and the ferocious harpy and his allies looked on helplessly as a black-hearted goblin plunged a poisoned knife into the elf's elfin belly.

As the elf dropped to the floor of the dungeon dead, the party wasted no time carving up the goblins and the harpy. After looting the bodies of the goblins and a large bejeweled necklace from the harpy, the party made ready to leave the dungeon with the corpse of the elf in tow.

Gore-Thar lashed the hands of the elf together and flung its arms over his neck, gleefully rendering the dead Laek into a dashing elven cloak. Climbing the ladder carefully, the orc was still a half dozen yards from the top when he heard hushed voices, the sounds of several non-humans arguing with a small evil voice about the location of "human enemies". The small evil voice was brutally silenced and several horrible bat men appeared at the top of the shaft above Gore-Thar.

The orc began hastily lowering himself, cursing that he was laden with the elf-corpse. Below, Crovax, being a poor climber had waited for the all clear from Gore-Thar. As the orc shouted and appeared to be descending, the crippled warrior began shifting the bodies of the goblins and the harpy at the base of the ladder, hoping to break the fall of the orc should he be dislodged.

The foul bat-men rapidly descended the shaft, head first and threw themselves at Gore-Thar who had drawn a sword to fend them off above him. In this desperate fight he slew several, shifting to allow their misshapen leathery forms to fall below him, adding the corpse pile. However under the full assault of the desperate bat-men, he and they tumbled down the shaft and crashed on the pile of corpses.

All but one of the batmen rose and hurled themselves at Crovax but were slain before his mighty, malformedness. The final batman tried to rip the throat from the pinned orc, but the mighty Gore-Thar strangled the thing with his bare hands.

Panting, bruised, but alive the party dragged themselves up the ladder again, through the menacing passageways, and finally out of the dungeon.

Some few hundreds of coins later, Laek once again found himself on a cold slab in the morgue with only a poorly healed scar over his guts to mark where the goblin had skewered him.

...to be continued.

B/X Companion and artwork for Lamentations of the Flame Princess.

2010-07-13T11:41:00.001-07:00

The B/X Companion is nearly here with a great cover. As some of you may know I have done several illustrations for the set at no charge - as a way to introduce myself to the community.

More importantly, I hope the companion is a great... companion to the game we all love. I hope it is full of inspiration material, or insightful interpretations of previous rules, or anything that can inject a little more magic and adventure into the minds of players and DMs.

Meanwhile I'm done with a whole batch of illustrations for LotFP. I'm looking forward to doing more work on future projects.

It has been fun working for both of the Jameseses...

My first RPG related drawings started on my 8th b-day with the sketch of my cleric and I can't express how satisfying it has been to contribute drawings to actual RPG material.

The artistic process...

2010-07-06T13:02:00.000-07:00

I thought I'd share a little visual story about how the LotFP cover came to be.

James contacted me about doing the cover and after a quote we set about trying to come together on the cover. I quickly learned that James had very specific ideas for most of the aspects of the cover, including composition and the feel of what the characters should look like. He even went so far as to draw a nice little sketch of the composition.

Next, he laid out the descriptions for all of the characters. The wizard on the left needed to look like worldly renaissance gentlemen (I've noticed that he seems to like this sort of late renaissance look for his world - which doesn't scream weird fantasy to me but whatever) and the house would be also of renaissance architecture, with a spooky haunted house look. The girl needed to be an attractive adventurer of a kindred with Aleena and Morgan Ironwolf, but needed to be obviously adventure-ready, not just a model in skimpy armor. Lastly, the monster he left at first up to me with a simple homunculus like description (claws, wings, tail) but the monster needed to be excessively disturbing :) Here were my first attempts.

As you can see right away I added the ugly villager. I thought it would help draw in the viewer, inject weirdness (or maybe just grossness), and also add a cohesion to the overall composition. James didn't like it because it did draw away too much from the characters (who are important to the module)- so we scrapped it.

This first stab at the girl James felt was too comic-booky, and he helpfully sent me some pictures for the kind of armor he wanted; realistic medieval full chain armor (essentially the armor represented in Monty Python's Holy Grail which I think is around 1100 AD style armor).

Too much of a babe in a skirt...

Closer. More adventure ready. This was a sketch I made during a meeting at work :P

This is more or less the final version... a little too short, and James also stressed the hair should be longer.

The monster was the most difficult part of our collaboration. James didn't know exactly what he wanted at first but eventually we worked it out. The basic description was very generic, but it needed to be something that was so nasty, people might complain about it. To me that meant body, hair.

James thought this guy was too docile and friendly looking and I agree.

I have to say that this was my favorite creature sketch, but James thought he still looked too generic, so I kind of took this and tarted it up with some eye-stalks and hideous grin.

Hehehe. James didn't like the lips and came up with the idea of adding stegosaurus like ridges or plates on the back instead of the wings... oh and put the eyes UNDER the mouth.

I didn't like this one a lot so I also sent a different Idea I had thought up...

In the end James liked his idea better so that's what we went with.

The wizard came together instantly.

So I assembled the pieces and we were moving into the final step...

This got the ok with just a few alterations and I moved into the coloring stage.

As you can see the border around the primary figures is more solid and graphic, which James didn't care for, he also wanted to make the color around the wizard different from the one around the girl. Also he thought the lights in the house needed to get much darker and the villagers needed to be muted and shadowed so as not to compete with the primary characters.

And there you have it! I have to say when I made the red/black border around the wizard and monster I hated it, but I sent it over to James anyway and he liked it, so at the end of the day that is what commission is all about - making something for someone else.

It was very satisfying and I'd love to work on more projects in the future... and it looks like I will.

Cover for LotFP complete and reviewed?

2010-07-06T10:07:00.000-07:00

Finally finished the cover for the LotFP quick start adventure guide... thing.

Working with James over at LotFP was a great experience, he has a very defined vision for most of what he wants to see on the cover and was in controll of pretty much all aspects and many details of the drawing. All in all pretty much all that you see is by his careful direction.

Were I to have had complete control of the drawing I would have done a great deal of it differently, chiefly the composition.

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks: CONTINUES!

2010-06-24T07:22:00.001-07:00

So we're past session 4 of the module and the players have yet to get past the first level. There has only been 1 death (but many close calls).

Some thoughts:

It is such an amazing module, but I scratch my head regarding how this would work as a tournament module run over 4 or so hours. There is just so much stuff - so much ground to cover! The first level is made up mostly of empty rooms and vegepygmie warrens.

Speaking of which - @^$# vegepygmies!!!!! Man these vegepygmie battles have been rather large time sinks. I hate them. They have some immunities and abilities that are sometimes difficult to track - I always forget they are immune to electric attacks! And boy are they tough for such little mofos, only the weakest among them can be dispatched with one hit reliably.

The first level has lots of goodies and the players have discovered many. I could imagine a tournament group just rushing past this level in search of the tournament objective. That would be a shame. It would also be illogical, because the story goal is to discover the cause and reason behind strange monster attacks - it would be too risky to skip much of this strange "ruin" for fear of missing a vital clue.

Will-o-wisps are frikkin insanely powerful enemies. I also played out the encounter well, even getting the party to follow the wisps into radiation zones. I was helped because the players were all like, "This seems like typical wisp behavior... maybe that IS the trick?" Gygax's reputation actually played a part in that logic!

The inscrutable "magic" devices and their strange effects and collateral damage have led to some tense and hilarious moments.

Overall the module is definitely getting an A+ for FUN (however difficult to run at times) and there are still several levels to go!

Feudal Run: Sessions 22 & 23

2010-06-15T13:36:00.000-07:00

Laek, awoke on a cold, reeking slab surrounded by the darkness of a tomb. Memory of whatever afterlife, paradise or, more likely, hells he had wandered in beyond the dimension of the living faded from his mind, leaving only a dull ache as he came to grips with the fact that he again breathed the rank air of Malshire.

The elven adventurer coughed up ashen sludge and then slid off of the stone and wandered into the blackness. Shivering and stumbling, he made his way slowly through stone halls dappled with ancient blood stains, towards dim torchlight and the faint smell of the surface of Malshire (a different sort of stench than the crypts around him). Finally, he emerged and into the torchlit chamber where his adventuring companions awaited him. The party thanked the emotionless Morgue Keeper for reanimating their friend (for a price of course) and returned to the streets of Malshire.

The first order of business was to rest. The excursion into the dungeon had been profitable but taxing, and the looting left a leaving of riches more than suitable enough for not only the Morgue Keeper's price, but also the best of the meager food and drinks at the adventurer's inn for the lucky crew.

The next day, Laek made clear that he needed to replace his lost equipment (most of which had been destroyed by the burning oil which had claimed his life only yesterday). Despite swearing to the contrary, Barin, the Leprous Cleric of Aiden the god-child, returned the elf's swords, the only thing which survived the inferno.

After spending a great deal of their cash on weapons and armor of serviceable quality (the finest offered by the Adventurer's Store) the party returned to the dungeon to retrace their previous route and venture beyond, plunging deeper into the unknown!

Before making it halfway to the ends of their map, the rear of their party, made up of Manana, the wicked, and Barin, the lerpous, was ambushed by deadly cave spiders. The well camouflaged arachnids launched themselves at the tailing figures completely by surprise! While both Manana and Barin were girt in great suits of platemail, only Manana, was saved from the horrible fangs of the spiders, while Barin was driven to the ground with two large, venom-pumping fangs penetrating the side of his neck.

The party was astonished as the spider pulled it's gore and venom dripping fangs from the cleric's leprous neck and sought a new victim. With a little more trouble the party hacked apart the two spiders, but wasting no time, Laek threw himself passionately onto Barin and sucked the thick venom from his leprous neck. Miraculously, Barin recovered, but only returned a thin "Thank you," to the elf, with whom he had engendered so much animosity.

The party soon faced another trial. Set suspiciously in the middle of the corridor ahead of them was a soiled sack containing a large, roundish object. Gore-Thar the orc, leading the party, carefully prodded and tapped the bag and deduced that inside was a severed head. When the cranium was dumped from its damp, leathern prison, Laek gasped, thinking at first it was the bloated head of his fallen brother Kael (known to be a zombie lurking in the dungeon), but instead it was the rotting head of some unknown orc.

Casually, Gore-Thar (succumbing to his orcine instincts) hacked at it with his axe, nearly splitting the head, but only really managed in getting his axe stuck inside the decapitate. As he wrenched it free, horrible corpse-white grubs burst from the insides of the skull. One landed on Gore-Thar and immediately burrowed into his arm! Despite the orc's attempt to cut free the burrowing invader from his arm, the grub was not to be dislodged as it made its way towards his heart. Laek, being crafty and knowledgeable, heated one of his arrowheads and elvishly and callously jammed it into the weeping crater of an entry wound the grub had made. The orc squealed in anguish from the searing pain, but this tactic caused the grub to wither and die inside his arm.

As the party recovered, they realized they were being watched by a shadow-wrapped figure from a desolate corridor. Gore-Thar wasted no time in hurling his hand-axe which clove into the creature as it turned to escape. Moving up, the party discovered it was another black-clad goblin. Surely it was responsible for the putrid booby-trap which had nearly laid their orc-friend low! Searching through his remains the party found a vial of poison dust, deadly when ingested (or so Clethra the magic-user guessed).

With the party mostly recovered, though Barin still sore and oozing from his neck-wound, and the Gore-Thar's arm cramped up in pain, the band drove deeper into he dungeon, and finally wandered into unknown hallways which they marked carefully on their crude map.

The party began to think perhaps that the first level of dungeon had lost it's sting after a pack of fire beetles, swelling nodules all aglow, charged into them but were quickly diced. This short battle alerted a nearby guardroom full of orcs, who all came spilling out, swords at the ready.

The sudden assault of the orcs allowed them to crash into the flank of the party. Clethra, for some inscrutable magical reason (and poor dice rolls) doused the party in her new found poisonous powder. At this Laek, fearing the poison, flipped out of combat and out of his poison-dust covered cloak in one elven motion, leaving no one to guard Clethra from the merciless blades of the orcs. Being of a practical mind, Clethra, wove a panicked sleep spell. The slumbering orcs were dispatched, save one, which died after being cruelly interrogated by Gore-Thar (I hate torture... not sure how to logically eliminate it from a game).

A search of the cramped orkish gaurdroom revealed massive stores of silver, as well as some other gold and platinum coins. These treasures were piled on magic floating discs summoned by the elf and the magic user and hauled back through the dungeon to the surface.

The next day the party divided spoils and hit the muck clogged streets of Malshire to invest in new equipment.

Barin the leprous cleirc, went to the chapel of the poor to purchase some clerical scrolls.

Clethra examined a scroll found on an earlier adventure which had drawings of objects on it. She determined that these objects could be removed from the scroll and became real. The objects turned out to be high-quality gear of various kinds, including some weapons.

Crovax the crippled fighter, took an ill-fated trip to the bazaar near the waterfront and was nearly stabbed to death by a grizzled dock worker. Later he had better luck at the town Blacksmith, an intimidating, giant, red-faced man who agreed to make him a special blade and fitting for one of his stumps for a premium of 70,000 gold pieces or 35,000 if the sum was delivered in nothing but gold coins. Payment on completion in a weeks time.

Manana the troublesome fighter, also went to the bazaar to find a book of "evil" magic. Eventually she found what she was looking for when a swarthy merchant gave her a book with horrible wood-cut prints at absolutely no cost. This seemed to please the merchant greatly.

Eventually everyone returned to the inn and celebrated their newest haul with what feasting and drinking could be had...

To be continued...

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks

2010-05-26T08:10:00.000-07:00

The game was a big hit, especially the awesome illustration hand-outs from Erol Otis. He really is awesome and the hand-outs really complete the journey into this other world for the players. To me his illustrations have an amazing mix of fun, creepiness, and humor. He is a master of graphic line, and characterization. You just can't beat the player reaction when you start making clanking noises and drop a drawing like this one down in from of them! Highlight of the night.

The elements in the module along with the drawings create great atmosphere. The writer (Gygax?) came up with a lot of great words and phrases to describe plastic and other space aged materials and items in a way that a fantasy character might try to rationalize it. For example, plastic seems a lot like horn or ivory, which is flavorful. Most of the players really got into role-playing how they react to the strange devices and environs - especially the dwarf characters (helped along a little because I ruled that the background hum of the strange "dungeon" kind screwed with their normal dwarfish affinity to caverns and structures).

The game itself went pretty well. Because I was using BD&D and not my own system (and I had 10 players!), it went a lot slower - so we didn't put much of a dent in this MASSIVE "dungeon".

Other reviewers might have mentioned the length of this module, but I've never read anything about this adventure that left me with the impression that it is a huge delve - BUT IT IS. Its enormous AND detailed and I don't know how many sessions it might take to explore the whole place. We played from 6:30 to 1:30 and covered less than half of one level. This may take 10+ sessions!

I had to do a lot of page flipping despite my attempts to organize and simplify the module :(

Fighting the vegipygmy hoards was INTENSE, and I'm glad that they have been almost eradicated at this point because running those huge combats with 10 players is a beast. The highlight was when some "elite" pygmies came out of a locked door and ambushed the magic user squad (in the rear lines of the party) with a bunch of those horrible thorn dogs. Those dogs are nasty so I almost killed the lot!

We're going to finish this module, so expect More thoughts on it as we go.

Oh yeah, my brother said it was a great birthday party, which is really what it was all about to begin with!

Expedition to the Barrier Peaks birthday bash

2010-05-24T09:24:00.000-07:00

So my older brother's birthday is tomorrow and wants to play D&D to celebrate.

I didn't really want to write a 'one-shot' so I asked him how he felt about an old-school module?

I could almost see the light bulb go on over his head before he said he has always wanted to play Expedition to the Barrier Peaks.

I was all like, "F#@& yes!"

I also just realized that the module is copyrighted 1980, the year he was born!

For the last few days I've been sifting through the module to prepare myself. It is loaded with great ideas, fun and deadly encounters, humor, 70s sci-fi nonsense, and more.

Sadly, it is absolutely the worst put together module I've ever read. The encounters and places are keyed into dense text blocks where critical information hides. Letters and numbers are re-used for each section and DOOR types are coded with THE SAME LETTERS that encounters are, so at a glance the map is hopelessly confused. Occasionally there will be sweeping, module-important stuff that a GM should have been factoring in for the whole game, found at the end of some encounter description. The info you need to run a game is not logically displayed.

The only recourse is to digest the thing whole, become one with it, master the subtleties, and then do your best.

I copied the whole thing so I could use high lighter and to organize the game sections. I also created MY OWN map quick key by hand, with page references to the sections. Its been rough.

I love the content of this module, but dang, this must be what ancient scholars felt like before modern document organization practices, indexes, and tables of contents.

The adventure itself is fun, dangerous, hilarious, AWESOME. My only gripe with the actual content is that I wish they had made a handout for the 'diary' which explains the background of the adventure site. There are over 60 visual handouts, they could collected the snippets the GM gets throughout the module and made a handout for the diary... maybe I'll do that!

I'll post some play reports if they are fun.

It is gonna be a BEAST to actually run so wish me luck.

Working on Wierd Fantasy RPG art

2010-05-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

James at Lamentations of the Flame Princess announced that I'm working on some art for is LotFP Wierd Fantasy RPG, so I thought I'd... well I'll announce it also.

I'm really excited to work on his stuff as his was one of the first blogs that I regularly checked when first looking into the OSR community.

Feudal Run: Session 21

2010-05-20T06:31:00.000-07:00

NOT MUCH HAPPENS!

Our sessions are only about 3 hours long usually, and as you can see from my previous posts, we pack a lot of action into that little time. However, eventually one always hits that week were a combination of tardy players, bookkeeping, and other matters create a truncated game session.

So...

When we last left the adventurers they had discovered a passage from the dungeon which lead secretly into the mercenary guild. This new dungeon access point appeared to be neglected and possibly unknown to the mercenaries - but making use of it would place the party in risk of discovery by the blustering soldiers.

Choosing caution, the party slunk back to the dungeon the way they came, and began the journey through the shadowy halls to the main entrance.

Retracing their steps, the party noticed a secret door in the room where they had faced the terrifying banshee. This shortcut would take them almost directly to the dungeon entrance but the crew's craven delight was cut short when they realized it opened directly into a deadly cave spider nest they had discovered on one of their first dungeon adventures. Some of the characters shuddered as they recalled that they had lost a fellow adventurer in this chamber. The wretch had died screaming, covered in large white spiders after foolishly hacking open a pulsing and glistening egg sack.

Finally, twisting a secret stone latch, the panel slide open, and the party peered feverishly into the room for signs of recent spider habitation. Sure enough, strange, splayed shapes clung to the walls and in the shadows, otherwise perfectly camouflaged with the damp dungeon stone. Tense moments passed as the party peered into the gloom, not taking a step, deciding what to do, but before adventurers or spiders moved, the secret panel ground shut again.

Fearing the deadly poison of the cave spiders, the party decided to return to the surface via the long route, avoiding the trap which had claimed Laek (and passing his charred corpse), as well as a pack of cowardly ghouls.

As the adventurers climbed the great steps leading up to the surface, they began feeling a strange sensation, as if they were being watched. Turning around they saw, there hanging on the great wall overlooking the long flight of steps, was a peculiar and familiar tapestry "lovingly depicting a familiar thief vomiting up treasures amidst a shocked tableaux of adventurers". It seems as if someone or something had hung here the massive hanging which Tho'Lad had retched up along with so much other treasure.

Perhaps the task of removing the massive tapestry was too daunting or perhaps fearing that whatever had hung it up had also placed traps on it, either way the weary crew just continued up the steps and out of the dungeon.

Outside of the dungeon, in the fetid alleys of Malshire, the gang met up with Tho'Lad, the shaggy thief, and showing him the treasures they had secured from the banshee's chamber, he revealed that they were now many thousands of gold pieces richer.

Many of the party members felt the inexplicable desire to "train" at the Adventurer's guild. One of the "perks" of the guild is that training merely involves visiting the sinister guild master and paying a small fee, at which point the mysterious guild master's eyes glow red fiercely and the adventurer feels unnervingly enlightened.

While the adventurers were partaking of this training ordeal, a stranger approached them. The hulking figure named itself Gore-Thar, yet another misshapen adventurer hopeful. Despite the size of the fetid-mouthed brute, this orcish man bore scars of hard times in the form of a misshapen ear and, more horribly, where is perverse orcish pig-nose should reside, only oozing slits and a scared mass remained.

As is the wont of adventurers, Gore-Thar regaled the party with his sad life story. His people had died from some horrible plague, something which he had in common with Tho'Lad, and like the thief, he was seeking a new life as an adventurer. Always hungry for dungeon fodder, the party accepted the new recruit and he immediately signed on to the adventurer's guild with a bloody thumb-print.

After shaking off the sensations of the "training" the party scattered to conduct their personal business.

Evelrah, the drowess, slipped away to exchange some large amount of coinage for small gems. She had recently abducted Barin's father and secretly sold him to the town Sorcerer to use in his arcane experiments. Barin's father was a hateful man and a horrible burden while he was still around, so no one seems to miss him.

Tho'Lad and Barin, the leprous cleric, travelled to the crumbling chapel which serves as the worship place for the poor and down-trodden masses of Malshire. With a donation of a few hundred coins, a sweaty, swarthy monk cast a small healing spell which cured Barin of his temporary deafness. Barin spent some time in prayer, and wondered if he might have gone astray when he broke a promise after swearing on his "honor as a cleric of Aiden", attacked a party member over a disagreement, and when he left Laek, blinded, to die alone in the dungeon.

Crovax, flirting with danger, wandered towards the press-gang infested docks. Fortunately he got hung up with a fried rat and a mysterious magical harp in the Bazaar on his way there and, enchanted by its song, turned back to see if the party wanted to purchase the wondrous musical item.

The party ended the late evening by getting tanked in the only establishment that welcomes them, the Adventurer's Inn.

So now we leave the world of Feudal Run a for time gentle-readers. As we drift slowly away from the rank cesspools of night-strewn Malshire, I remind you to stay tuned for a more adventurous episode of Feudal Run.

To be continued...

Commissions

2010-05-20T06:30:00.001-07:00

Working on a few OSR art commissions... details will come out eventually.

I just thought it was worth mentioning.

Feudal Run: session 20

2010-05-13T07:16:00.000-07:00

And now, the long awaited continuation of Feudal Run...

The brave adventurers, having returned to the surface world, gathered at the inn to deposit their treasure, leaving Tho'Lad the thief to guard the spoils (his player being out of the state this week).

Fortunately the leprous Barin, cleric of Aiden the god-child, returned. Also the party was joined by an old comrade, Evelrah, the dark-elf sword maiden of drowy, drowishness. Evelrah is also the bearer of a powerful enchanted blade which despises undead; being the only magical weapon the party has found they are often impotently resentful that the drow comes and goes as she pleases.

With their treasure bags lightened, they returned to the dungeon without a moment's delay.

HOWEVER, on the way there, Manana, the manic fighter, and Barin, presented the wild idea that maybe they should explore elsewhere for adventure and treasure, such as the dark forests which loom just beyond the fields outside of the city walls.

Laek, the elven man, was incensed to his hollow-boned elven core at this idea, for it would make tracking down his fallen brother Kael (now a member of the really hungry undead which lurk in the dungeon) even more difficult.

After much arguing, Laek, Barin, and Manana decided to let a random factor (the will of Aiden the God-Child?) determine their adventuring destination. The coin was cast and king-face announced that victory was to the dungeon.

Barin and Manana, however, continued to argue (mostly amongst each other for letting such an 'important' decision be ruled by chance... against their favor). Laek pointed out rather elvishly that their human gawd, apparently a deity of chance, had given them all guidance in the form of a cast coin so they should stop arguing about it for fear of blasphemy. This comment lead to more arguing which only ended when Barin lunged at Laek with his leprous mace! The speed of his people did not fail him, and Laek was able to fend off the attack and two began brawling with live weapons in the sewage-strewn streets of Malshire.

After a few deadly passes, Barin demanded that Laek put down his sword, in a manner as if Laek had started the brawl. Laek agreed quickly and elfishly, to the disappointment of the gathering crowd, but by now Mad Manana had crept around behind Laek and ambushed him with her war hammer. The fight was on afresh!

It is at this point that Clethra Nutsedge the magic user, so far a silent and skeptical bystander, wove a misty sleep spell again over her companions which left the cleric and the fighter snoozing in the street sludge.

The party dragged their 'comrades' to the nearby ruins which marked the dungeon entrance and woke them with blows to the face after setting aside their weapons. At this point the two trouble-makers agreed to go into the dungeon.

With that matter behind them, the treasure-thirsty crew again made their way down the dark stone steps into the dungeon below reeking Malshire.

There was an added sense of anxiety on this expedition because of the absence of their mapper and some-time leader, Tho'Lad. His overly hairy guidance had led them in and out of the dungeon on almost all of their former adventures, and while they had relatively often "left men behind" as it were, they were confident in his mapping abilities.

So it was that the mighty, yet handless, Crovax led the way, a copy of Tho'Lad's dungeon map gripped as well as possible in the blunted, misshapen nub which is all that remains of one of his thumbs.

Next to him, the other fighter, Manana came bearing a torch, followed by Clethra and Laek, and finally Barin and Evelrah formed the read guard.

Though Laek wanted to again return to the second under-level of the dungeon to look for the walking corpse of his brother, Crovax, being a practical chap (possibly losing one's hands does this to you), managed to convince him that they would be wiser to explore more of the first level.

Crovax led the party through halls and chambers, towards areas the party hadn't explored for many days, hoping to find what lies beyond the edge of their existing map.

After passing through a chamber painted with hellishly crude laughing demonic faces, the party was menaced by a group of wondering beetles. The grotesque beetles hopes of dismembering the party and rolling the remains back to their lair were cut short by cunning sword work of the fighters and the Drow, as well as a sleep spell woven by Clethra. With beetle pocket change not forthcoming, the adventurers went grimly onward.

The party approached the lair of a ferocious owlbear (the result of an unholy union of bear and owl... terrifying), which they had slain on a previous excursion. Entering the lair they noted the corpse of this strange and mighty beast had been reduced to bones by entities unknown, and had joined the pile of bones of the victims it had amassed in life - a fitting end to a creature which exists in direct defiance of Aiden's will.

Just as the party made its way out of the lair, Evelrah whirled to face movement in the dusty bones. She watched as forms clattered to life and dusty skeletons stepped grinning and hissing into the torchlight. Seeking to feel the battle ecstasy her people crave, Evelrah dove into the mass of skeletons, her undead-bane scimitar glowing and reducing the shambling dead to dust all about her. Even so, she was nearly ripped to shreds at the bony hands after her initial charge. Her only hissing reply to their menacing was "Bring it, bone daddy!"

An all-out melee quickly ensued, but just as Crovax and Manana clanked towards the the battle, the skeleton of the owlbear stirred and formed as bone upon bone snapped unnaturally into place before their very eyes. Bravely or foolishly, the two fighters checked their charge into the skeleton men and turned to face this new foe.

Several man skeletons managed to corner the unprotected magic-user, hungrily claiming they could, "smell the magic in her boooooones!!!" Clethra soon found herself fighting for her life!

The two fighters fought grimly with the vicious owlbearskeletonthing but it was ultimately destroyed by Evelrah and her enchated blade after she did several unnecessary back flips.

While Evelrah hissed her satisfaction with herself, not to be outdone, Laek, did a few more unnecessary cartwheels (of the respectable elvish sort, not the unorthodox dark-elven back flips with which Evelrah had thrown down) and landed the final blow on the final skeleton.

The skull of this skeleton rolled to face Laek, and with a rasping, hollow demonic-mockery of his brother's voice it said, "This body is just a vessel for the greater evil which cannot dieEE!!!! aaAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!" before it was crushed to powder under his elfin foot.

After regaining their wind, the group continued on and shortly discovered a room with a store of preserved food; ancient dried meat and pickles in piled dusty jars. The party called on Manana (having a reputation for eating anything) to try some of the strong pickles which she did readily and found them palatable. Searching through most of the jars the party discovered not only various pickled vegetables but also several jars of humanoid organs and body parts preserved in thick, dark brine.

Leaving the pickle store behind them, they made way through yet more uncharted passageways.

Without warning, Manana stumbled onto a shifting flagstone which released gallons of burning oil from the ceiling. There was smoke, flames, screaming, and even some stop-drop-and-rolling. The flames died quickly but when the smoke cleared the charred corpse of Laek remained on the dungeon floor, grinning dead-elvishly from blackened lips. The dungeon had claimed another elf. Crovax stoically retrieved Laek's guild ring from the corpse's crumbling hand and the party continued onward.

At the end of the trapped hallway the party stepped into a room which hadn't been disturbed in some time. The adventurers could already see some objects, covered in dust, littering the floor, yet before they could investigate a horribly dusty apparition rose from the ruined floor with a mind-shattering wail. Evelrah was so affected that she dropped her sword, and next to her, Barin screamed and clutched his helmet as blood ran from his ears.

Barin attempted to turn this obviously undead thing, but alas, he had forgotten that his holy symbol was lost in the trap door shaft into which he had pushed the Zombie Kael.

The banshee swirled around the room while the adventurers desperately tore at its semi-real form with weapons. With one final, genital-withering scream the damned soul returned to the dust on the dungeon floor. The creature's unholy power had burst Manana's organs and she slumped to the floor coughing up blood; dying rapidly. Crovax hesitated only momentarily before saving her life with a quick application of one of their precious, precious healing potions.

The confrontation left Barin deaf, at least temporarily, but the adventurers rejoiced when they discovered that the object beneath dust were pieces of gold and silver finery encrusted with gems! No doubt they could use this wealth to raise Laek, recover Kael, heal Barin's ears, and find a heart and brain for Manana!

Moving onward, they soon discovered a slanting passage leading upwards, towards the level of the town itself. After following this passage it broke out into an isolated section of ancient sewer (obviously a holdover from a time when Malshire enjoyed more considerate civic planning). This tunnel led to a short flight of stairs and up to a trap door. After prying this open the party hauled themselves into an ancient-y dusty store room packed with crates of rusted and nearly useless weapons and armor. Some light filtered through a boarded up door and from there they could hear shouting. Peering through a knot-hole they watched while an ogre-ish mercenary captain addressed some new recruits in a shadowy courtyard. It seemed they had found their way into a blocked up store-room in the mercenary guild complex. The party had once hired on a man who was a member of the mercenary guild.

Not wanting to face the well armed mercenary guild and have to explain how they had gotten there, they merely scratched their heads and returned the way they came to the dungeon.

To be continued...

Terry Pratchett agrees with me on Doctor Who

2010-05-10T08:27:00.000-07:00

...Except that he still likes it...

British author Terry Pratchett (of Discworld fame) has an actually published rant on the shortcomings of the new Doctor Who but ends the thing with a "...but its still entertaining" cop out.

So I guess he almost agrees with me.

Jim Henson the Bard?

2010-05-08T09:56:00.000-07:00

Saturday morning kidshow moment...

Terrible News

2010-05-06T12:27:00.000-07:00

Feudal Run did not happen due to college finals, Cinco de Mayo, a birthday, and illness (I wonder where they got it). I'll try to run next week, but there are already some absentees (finals etc again).

I hope this does not anger my gentle readers too much. As I've gotten a lot of positive feedback (demands?) regarding Feudal Run play records, I fear to arrive on Thursday empty-handed, but these empty-hands are tied.

I'll try to put up some other content (maybe some drawings?) while we bide our time until the next play session.

Also, I'm pondering making a PDF of my game rules. I'm proud of them and they are really working out great - but I have a hard time trying to imagine that anyone else would actually try to use them. We'll see.

Apologies.

Horrible Fishmen... and a rant about Doctor Who

2010-05-05T11:37:00.000-07:00

So the new Doctor Who sucks. It sucks because it has forsworn great plots, writing, and story for bombast, fast-paced editing, Doc-thirsty companions and NPCs, and Doctor-brand grandstanding.

This suckening has been shadowing over the entire course of the new series but the two episodes of the newest iteration I've watched have really highlighted this garbage.

I like the series from Doctors 2-5 the most and there hasn't really been a Doctor that I haven't liked, even amongst the new crop, but the writing and directing has taken a turn for the worse.

The ochestral score has simply got to go. Now every encounter with the daleks is #@&!ing lord of the rings.

In the old series each show was a great story and the Doctor was an important character who often, but not always, motivated the plot - and he certainly was part of the plot resolution. The truth of the matter is that, in many episodes, the doctor could be replaced entirely by another main character and it would have still have been an engaging story. In the new series the Doctor just IS the entire show, the plot, the motivation, and everything and by god the script lets us know.

***Dramatization***

Old Doctor Who:

NPC: "So who is this Doctor character, anway?"

Companion: "He's... Well, he's the Doctor and he's here to help you. You can trust him. Now tell me about this [plot relevant story element]"

VS.

New Doctor Who:

NPC: "WHO ARE YOU!?!?!"

The Doctor: "IAM THEEEEEE DOCTOR! I'MBASICALLYSPACE-JESUSMIXEDWITHDAVIDBOWIE. LISTENTOWHATIHAVETOSAYIFYOUWANTTOLIVE. BECAUSE IAM THEEEEEE DOCTOR!!!!"

All NPCs and the Companion: *AWESOME FACE* ^_^ "OMG SWEET!"

The Doctor: "THATS RIGHT! NOWISHALLRUNAROUNDTALKINGREALLYFASTANDSOLVINGALLTEHPROBLEMS!!!!!!111"

***

So I hate it.

The last episode I watched was the WWII dalek one which managed to completely remove the balls of the daleks. The new series have often let the Doctor get on with some tea-bagging of the daleks; generally plot-lording over them. In the old series he never liked them, but at least he respected them as dangerous.

***Dramatization of scene from WWII episode***

The Doctor appears on Dalek ship.

Dalek: "THE DOCTOR, YOU WILL BE EXTERMINATED!"

The Doctor: "I AM THEEEE DOCTOR! REMEMBER ME ?!?! I PWN YOU AND WILL WIN BECAUSE I'M THEEE DOCTOR! YOU CAN'T SHOOT ME BECAUSE ihavesomekindofpoorlysetupselfdescructdevicewhichyoushouldknowaboutandbelieveimplicitly."

Dalek: "!" S#!ts a dalek brick and wets itself.

The Doctor poses like a superhero and smiles at the Companion.

All Daleks: "YOU ARE SO AWESOME WE ACTUALLY LOVE YOU TOO!" ^_^ *Double Awesome Face*

Companion: "You're THE DOCTOR!!!" ^_^ *Awesome Face* *Sexy Face*

P.S. Running Feudal Run tonight, hope to post the recap in the next couple of days.

What terrible mockery of life is this?

2010-04-30T12:09:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the lack of posts. Alas that I've been extremely ill for several days now.

Twixt hellish fever dreams, I ponder if there is any simple, ubiquitous, and survivable torment to rival that of the common flu?

Feudal Run: Session 19

2010-04-21T21:34:00.000-07:00

Schedules and whatnot caused this session to run much shorter than usual and with a switch-up of cast.

Last time on Feudal Run, Tho'Lad the thief was recovering from his near death experience at the gore moistened hands of the ghouls, being dragged to the dungeon entrance by his surviving companions.

The fighters, Crovax the Crippled and Manana the Unfortunately Named, and the hairy thief, Tho'Lad, decided to immediately inquire at the city Morgue, the place where nearly all of the dead in or under the city of Malshire end up for reasons unknown. It is from The Morgue that disturbingly cheap resurrections can be purchased. Barin, the leprous cleric went elsewhere to meditate on the events of the dungeon expedition (his player not being here).

The ghoulish Morgue-Keeper revealed that it was not beyond the power of The Morgue to retrieve the undead elf, Kael. How was not clear but the process involved unsavory agencies, uncertain outcome, and would require 3200 gold coins to undertake - a price too high for our heroes.

The Morgue Keeper helpfully offered up to the party that they could earn credit towards this fee by undergoing painful essence drain rituals (the magical products of which The Morgue would use in their important work).

While the party discussed this tantalizing prospect, as if guided by strange dungeon-fate, another elf revealed himself claiming to have overheard the party speaking of the late Kael. This dark haired elf claimed, through broken and missing teeth, to be Laek, the lost brother of Kael. The two were the only two survivors of a calamity involving a volcano and an earthquake which had eradicated their kin and left the two brothers slightly mutilated. Laek had come believing that Kael was in Malshire and was disturbed to find his lost brother had become overtaken with undeath.

After hearing all of this, Manana left to go to the Adventurer's Inn by herself. Crovax attempted to convince Laek that it was his duty to undertake the painful essence drain rituals so as to earn enough money to raise his brother, but finally, after much deliberation all agreed it would be safer(?!?) or at least less strange and painful (?!?!) to seek these funds in the horrible dungeon tomorrow.

The party made way to the worst establishment in town, The Adventurer's Inn, but not before establishing a complex escrow compact with the Morgue Keeper with regards to future resurrection fees and services. At the Adventurer's Inn, Tho'Lad learned from the surly Inn Keeper (who also harshly reminded him that he had only 4 days left paid for their room) that Manana had indeed come here but after a few drinks went straight to the room...

Hoping to drown out some of the horrors of their most recent trip to dungeon, the remaining group set to drinking and feasting on the best of the meager dishes and rancid ale the inn had to offer. Here the party also met up with Clethra Nutsedge, a magic user that had worked with them often. The crew also cast about for news or rumors recent to Malshire. This nearly led to bloodshed when Clethra accidentally spilled the swine-swill ale onto a filthy bar-wretch. A fight was narrowly averted with bribery of more the latrine-brew.

Tho'Lad was more successful in his news-gathering and had made a friend with an unwholesome old man who had beckoned him into a dusty booth. All the while cackling and reeking from rotted mouth, teeth, and gut, the old man spoke of a strange curse that would fall on any who entered the dungeon. Even though Tho'Lad and the party plied him with his favorite beverage, the rancid pain-stripper house specialty referred to as "Dungeon Water", the hideous man was unable to give any details except that bad luck would grip any who entered the dungeon. The unclean man also spoke of the road to "Next Town", a mountain pass which is overrun with bandits, orcs, and worse. Shortly after, drink overcame him and the party left him babbling and cackling in his own fetid vapors.

As a group, the party tromped up the stairs to their room, a modest suite but the finest in the inn, to find Manana, passed out from a failed suicide attempt (*facepalm*). Unfortunately she had blacked-out before being able to cause any serious harm. While the party questioned her, Clethra, being entirely sick of this nonsense, cast sleep on the entire party including herself and all enjoyed a deep sleep, drooping right where they stood. It would later come out that Manana was aggrieved that her prayers to Aiden the God-Child of being turned beautiful had not been answered (*double-facepalm*).

The next morning, after breaking their fast and updating their various map-copies, the party decided to visit the town Alchemist hoping to analyze the strange pouch of dust they found. The sage told them it was some kind of inferior orc voodoo, which allowed unbound spirits to inhabit the bodies of the recently slain. The party also made some inquiries about potions to cure their various deformities and ailments but the curatives were all well out of their price range. However, just as the Morgue-Keeper had, the Alchemist reminded them that he had certain opportunities available for those willing to undergo magical and alchemical experimentation. The party discussed this at length but decided another time would be best.

In order to enter the dungeon they needed to induct Laek into the Adventurer's Guild. The guild hall is an ancient officious building which squats near the main road and at the line where the dilapidated and run-down part of town meets the really horrible part of town. In side the abandoned looking building a creature with glowing red eyes sits behind a massive desk. The creature is shadowed by red robes and a wide-brimmed red hat. Like to all who had come before him, a scaly green hand with long red talons gave unto Laek an inscrutable contract which he needed must sign in order to gain entrance to the dungeon. Laek having done this, the strange guildsman handed over the badge of his enlistment, a bronze signet ring proving the bearer to be a member of the Adventurer's guild.

At this, the party made way to the northern edge of the Adventurer's Square, a noisome cess where the lowest quality wares and produce are stalled amidst crowds of thuggish sub-humans, filthy wenches, maimed beggars, and swarms of infirm children.

Approaching the dungeon entrance, a ruin preserved in the middle of town and manned by 13 brutish guardsmen, the party signed the great ledger which records the names of all who enter the dungeon. As usual, they also had to prove their passage by showing their Adventurer's Guild signet rings.

Finally, the shabby lot of them returned to the dungeon. Tho'Lad the thief and Crovax the crippled were only barely able to convince, Laek the elfin brother of Kael not to lead the party and suffer the same fate as his sibling. With the elf in the second rank, Manana the petulant fighter took place in the front by Crovax while Celthra the magic-user and Tho'Lad the furry rogue provided rear-guard.

Tho'Lad directed the party straight away through the damp halls to the trap door where so much had gone wrong on their previous expedition.

Here they came across a standoff between a party of small hideous dog-men, and a pair of lizard warriors.

Not wasting any time, Laek let loose a premature arrow which splintered on Manana's back armor, sending arrow splinters into her unprotected neck and shoulder.

The lizardmen, facing a battle on two fronts, called for a momentary alliance with the kobolds until the humans were butchered. Ignoring this, Manana whirled and attacked Laek, striking him savagely with her armored elbow. At seeing all this, Clethra, wove a powerful sleep spell, leaving all of the dungeon denizens snoozing fitfully on the ground.

Crovax and Tho'Lad, disarmed, looted and bound the lizardmen, while Manana slaughtered the hideous kobold dog-men in their sleep.

The lizard men were eventually set free, unarmed, to attempt to survive the journey back to their lair. The lizard warriors claimed that they would spread the word that these adventurers are to be friends of the Ssssli'tan clan and not at all the targets of a blood feud.

With no immediate threats to deal with, the party ventured down the iron rung ladder to the second level of the dungeon, hoping to find and destroy the terrible Zombie Kael.

At the base of the ladder, they discovered only the remains of the torch Crovax had thrown down on the previous adventure; there was no sign of Zombie Kael or Barin's holy symbol.

Choosing to go west, they all found themselves in a medium sized chamber where a recently abandoned table held the remains of a dice game. After careful investigation, Tho'Lad picked up the dice and found himself compelled to sit and play, throwing a score of 8. At this, a wretched, hook-nosed goblin materialized and invited the others to play, wagering 17 silver coins on the next roll. Tho'Lad again rolled, this time a 3, and felt pain build up in his body while sweat beaded on his facial pubes. Noticing this, Crovax attacked the goblin, smashing the game table and scattering the dice and the coins.

Four more goblins materialized out of the shadows brandishing knives. Clethra hurled a dagger into the heart of one immediately, then the party found themselves in a brief scuffle with the dark imps. Crovax managed to entrap the first goblin with his flail while the others tried to escape - only one was successful.

Tho'Lad again held the cursed goblin-dice in his hand while the captive goblin whined about being set free. The party demanded the goblin to explain the dice and while evasive, revealed that those who played, rolled away their own souls with each throw. Disgusted, Tho'Lad hurled the dice away, to-late realizing that this was yet again a roll of the dice! Fortunately (?) for him the dice came up 8 which the goblin explained with a gulp, was a winning roll for Tho'Lad.

Tho'Lad became ill and pallid and great pain doubled him over. Grabbing the goblin, he made to demand help and enlightenment of his predicament but was only violently sick. Yet what sickness! Coins, gold, platinum, silver, as well as gems and other treasures flowed raggedly from the poor thief. After more than ten minutes of this horrible yet productive retching the party looked upon coins, gems, fine silk of a puke-yellow hue, and finally a massive castle tapestry lovingly depicting a familiar thief vomiting up treasures amidst a shocked tableaux of adventurers.

While the thief recovered Crovax demanded to learn goblin magic from his prisoner, but eventually settled on letting the small fellow go in return for a store of silver and electrum coins the goblins had stock-piled. After being freed from the flail, the goblin placed a taloned finger to his hooked nose. He then transformed to black vapor which was sucked into the cracks in the dungeon masonry.

The party gathered up the mass of treasure and using a goblin-pouch (after first ejecting the centiped resident) carefully bagged the enchanted dice. All treasures ready, except the huge tapestry, they slowly made their way back to the city above. Aside from evading another group of scabrous, dog-like Kobolds and some mysterious eyes in the dark, they arrived unmolested at the exit of the dungeon.

To be continued...

How to make fun for the failing player.

2010-04-19T08:57:00.000-07:00

I was speaking with my friend, the one who played Kael in my Feudal Run game (previous post), and he said that what happened to his poor elf might be his favorite PC death ever and overall he loved the session and was pumped up for the next one.

I have a rule that almost always creates great sessions when I remember to stick with it:

I think very hard about what would be fun for ME as a player - I make that happen in the game.

This is never more important than when thinking about challenges and failure. As a player, I would want to be challenged, and yes, sometimes I would want to fail and even have my character slain. However, I want fun challenges, and when I fail, I want it to be fun and memorable, not boring and purely humiliating.

I should mention here that I rely heavily on dice rolls in my game whenever there is a significant chance of failure resulting in injury/loss/death. My dice mechanic is a simple, rules light, home-brewed system. I'll speak more about it some other time, but it boils down to a single dice roll (dice type based on level and stat) where a 1 is a failure, a 2 means success and failure still hang in the balance due to some kind of hang-up, 3+ is a success.

This narrow yet real window of failure (25-5% chance of failure on a single dice roll) allows me to be brutal with failures yet not have my games devolve into pure pain and constant TPKs.

Back to DM style - When a player rolls badly and fails to avoid danger, I always try to describe what happens in a way that if I was playing, I'd appreciate and would become more involved and excited to see what is going to happen next rather than in a way that would just piss me off and cause me to sulk. It requires a certain degree of sensitivity but really I just picture myself facing a failure and think about what I would want to have happen to me. My players know I am not afraid to kill characters; this is largely because I don't mind character death for myself and actually prefer it (over just languishing in failure) if I feel that I've earned it through poor choices or a streak of bad luck.

The best kind of failures are ones which put players in a new tricky situation and force them to make choices and take further risks. Players LOVE to be in dangerous situations - I think maybe this is why many players like combat so much.

Feudal Run: Session 18

2010-04-15T09:08:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't posted any session reports before...

Anyway so Feudal Run is a D&D-esque game I run weekly.

It is an extremely fun and easy to run game - largely thanks to the system I invented for it which is a kind of BD&D mod or hack. It is rules light (lighter than BD&D) and has a completely different saving throw, success test mechanic and a very altered, fast paced combat system. The system has some built in flavor/tension/drama injection mechanics which work amazingly well. I might say more about the system another time; who knows, I might even publish it.

This session begins with the hapless adventurers crawling the first level of the dungeon beneath Malshire.

The party consisted of 2 fighters (both level 3 I think), 1 elf (lvl1), 1 thief(lvl4), and 1 cleric(lvl1).

Last session the party had been ambushed by goblins. With no casualties taken on either side, the goblins fled.

Although the party knows that the 2nd level of the dungeon is more dangerous than the first, they decided to explore a stairway leading down which was discovered by another player (no longer present) last session.

The party's naive elf, Kael, insisted on taking point, followed up by the higher level, and far better equipped fighter and thief. The cleric and another fighter forming the rear guard.

At the base of the stairs Kael was clumsily ambushed by elfthirsty lizardmen. With great bravery, Kael fought the ambush off, and was joined by Crovax, the handless fighter, who charged into the midst of the cold-blooded half-men, stumbling on his withered leg and floundering with his ball and chain (attached to a metal cap riveted over where his hand should be). The lizard men savagely set upon Crovax who was saved only by his battered full-plate armor.

By this time the rest of the party joined the melee (except the thief who hasn't reached 4th level for nothing) and aside from a few close calls, made relatively short work of the lizardmen thanks largely to the prowess of Crovax. A well aimed dagger from Tho'Lad the thief made sure none escaped.

The party almost didn't take the time to loot the lizardmen, so afraid were they of the 2nd level of the dungeon. However nothing ambushed them as they discovered a few coins and 3 small gems secreted in the filthy loin clothes of the reptilian assassins.

The party then hauled themselves up to the first level, determined to explore it in entirety before testing themselves on the deeper chambers.

Tho'Lad the hairy thief (he has hypertrichosis), the timid brains of the outfit, suggested they retrace an area and recheck a dead-end discovered on an earlier excursion for secret doors.

Crossing through black vaults and chambers, the party carefully approached an room enchanted with a glowing floor, ensorcelled to appear like the flags were actually covered in silvery glowing water. The shadowy hall beyond this room lead to the dead end they sought, but peering out of that darkness were glowing red eyes which quickly disappeared.

Moving forward the party discovered 3 dead human wretches (the common sort of Malshire dwellers) scattered around a large trapdoor (which the party knows reveals an iron runged ladder descending to the 2nd level of the dungeon also).

Tho'Lad and Crovax, wanted to learn more of these poor souls (who they were and why they might be in the dungeon) and approached only to have the bodies rise and heinously distort, letting loose horrible demonic cackles. They were zombies.

Barin, the leper cleric, moved up to save Tho'Lad the thief from almost certain doom. Sadly, the dead hearted zombie only cackled at his Talisman of Aiden the God-Child.

The soulthirsty zombies caused havoc for only a few rounds before dismemberment left their corpses bubbling and gelatinizing on the dungeons flagstones.

Kael, the elf, who in the final round of combat had drawn his bow and lit an arrow on fire, having no zombie to perforate, launched the missile down the open trap door. To the delight of all, the arrow found a home in the eye socket of a perverse pig-man of orcish persuasion. The orc's pathetic squeals eventually stopped.

The party searched the dead-end, finding nothing, but while the party decided what to do next, a thin voice, like that of a kindly old man, began calling for help from the dungeon level below. Kael, renewing his deathwish, insisted on leading the party below to discover the source of the voice and molest the, likely slain, orc.

Quickly reaching the bottom with elven grace, Kael discovered a rosey-faced gnome in a red stocking cap fastened to the smouldering dead orc by a thick cruel chain. The gnome begged to have his manacles unlocked but Kael, wary of a trap, simply struck the poor gnome unconscious. As he did so the glamour left the creature revealing a foul, dirty, semi-toothless gnome! As Kael searched the creature and the body of the slain orc, the gnome's unwholesome crew crept up. Kael's elven sense alerted him and snatching up the unconscious gnome, laid blade to throat, leaving the other gnomes to face a hostage situation.

The gnomes, obviously fearing elf treachery and hearing the rest of the party clanking down the ladder from above, quickly offered a sum of gems to the elf in return for their friend, pouring out gleaming diamond dust from a bag. Suddenly, the horrible gnomes blew the dust into the elf's fragile elven eyes, which were quickly turned into ground up useless masses by the terrible diamond shards (all thanks to terrible rolls on the elfs player's part) as the elf screamed wretchedly.

Finally the rest of the party arrived, but too late, having made the mistake of sending Crovax directly behind the elf, whose withered leg, full-plate armor, and lack of hands, made the ladder descent a painstakingly slow process. The rest of the adventurers were horrified as their torches revealed the elf screaming in the darkness, with blood streaming from mutilated eye sockets. The gnomes had disappeared.

Manana (*sigh*), the other fighter, for whom social graces and forethought exist in another dimension, wasted no time in tormenting the now, next-to-helpless, elf.

The party decided to immediately head back to town in hopes of finding a way to restore Kael's beautiful elven eyes but not before finding a small black orcish pouch at the base of the ladder with some white dust about it which Tho'Lad carefully wrapped and brought with him.

Unfortunately for the party, as he topped the ladder in the lead, Barin came face to face with two orcs - one a great warrior, the other a small, weedy tracker of some kind (8 and 1 hp respectively).

Unbeknownst to the party, the orcs were the survivors of a larger party who were being harried by ghouls. Wishing to return to their stronghold on the 2nd level of the dungeon, they attacked Barin as he emerged from the trap door. In the ensuing struggle, the door to the trap was destroyed and the orcs, learning of the strength of the party, offered peace, allowing the party to pass if they,in turn, would be allowed to pass. With various unsavory oaths on the side of the orcs, Barin agreed, and vowed by his word as a priest of Aiden the God-Child.

As soon as the party was all off of the ladder, Barin charged the orcs accusing them of (at the time, non-existent) treachery. The orcs (being only two) fled from the party led by the leprous cleric, who was made slow by his affliction and full-plate armor.

This area of the dungeon being convoluted and the adventurers hampered by a blind companion and 3 members in full-plate armor, the orcs made as to wait nearby for the party to choose a route, then circle around and make good a dash to the unbarred trapdoor and thus safety.

As the party regrouped after the failed charge, still near the head of the trapdoor, the ghouls finally followed the scent of the orcs towards them. Being cowardly, the ghouls fell back at the sight of a 5 strong party, but stricken with sudden bravado, Tho'Lad, the thief, knowing this area of the dungeon well, made chase while yelling to the two fighters to circle down one passage so as to hopefully cut off the ghouls' escape. The leprous cleric Barin, while momentarily deciding to stay with the blind and helpless elf, followed clanking after Tho'Lad. Not wanting to be left out, Kael the blind elf, tried to follow also but fell on the uneven dungeon floor and became immediately lost - crawling around near the trapdoor.

The thief, being lightly armored caught up the ghouls, brandishing knife and torch, somewhat ahead of the split party. Foolishly the thief leapt amongst them but was quickly mauled and stricken with the paralyzing grave chill of the ghouls' vile touch.

The ghouls tried to rip apart Tho'Lad, but were interrupted by Barin (though also unimpressed by his holy symbol). Manana, being faster than Crovax of the withered leg, caught up with Barin standing off with the ghouls defending their hairy prize of Tho'Lad. She instantly slew one with her broadsword causing the others to flee, dropping the mauled, yet living thief.

MEANWHILE, the orcs seeing their chance made way to the trapdoor only to find a gift-wrapped elf (Kael), blinded and crawling. Giggling with glee they over-powered the elf, who fought bravely, yet ineffectively. The smaller orc transfixed the beaten elf with his scimitar, leaving Kael coughing blood and dying on the dungeon floor. The larger orc, wishing to make a prize of the elven blades (still held tightly in the elf's dying hands) started as if to wrench them free, but the smaller orc called his attention to the sounds of the party returning and offered to use his orcish powder on the elf instead. The larger orc agreed but as the smaller made to shove the bag of vile powder in the elf's mouth, Kael, with his last treacherous ounce of elven vengence slew the weedy orc as he came close. Deciding enough is enough, the large orc dragged the small one away (also covered in powder by now) and down the trap door.

Barin returned to collect the elf, while the two fighters carried the paralyzed thief towards the dungeon entrance. Barin noticed the powder and bag on the elf's chest with the scimitar jutting out of his ribs. To the surprise of no one, the elf rose unnaturally as a zombie, and hissed "Betrayer!" at Barin while black vileness flowed and churned from it's mouth and mutilated eyes.

No longer needing eyes, zombie Kael grappled with Barin who once again brandished his clerical merit badge to no effect. Zombie Kael hissed "Where is your god now!?!" and smacked the symbol out of the cleric's hand and down the trap door. Barin screamed, drawing the rest of the party's attention as they were hobbling away down a different corridor. Before they could join the struggle, Barin gathered his leprous will, and taking up his trusty shield, knocked Zombie Kael down the trap door. The horrible revenant screamed and screamed, fading into the dark depths for far longer than he should have, never striking the floor below but simply going out into unknown silence and blackness.

Tossing a torch down the ladder revealed nothing lying below but the smoldering torch...

Fearing for their lives, the remaining 3 characters in good condition decided to retreat, taking the paralyzed thief to safety.

The thief quickly recovered feeling and function of his limbs and the party is deciding what to do. To be continued...

WEG Star Wars RPG

2010-04-14T09:08:00.000-07:00

Always been a fan of WEG Starwars. The dice mechanic is ok, but it can get a little funky with multiple actions and when using the force.

It gets across the feel of Starwars fairly well by having great default skill rolls (you can use all skills at your base stat with no penalty). This tends to open up gameplay and simulate the fast action and ability of the characters in the original trilogy.

Starwars is a cool universe that feels real enough - its like world war II in space for the most part - a kind of retro sci-fi that is great for pulp style action adventure.

The character above is mine -we play every Thursday right now. He's a Barabel (which is a sucky name) a race of cool lizardmen from a planet that is largely a radioactive wasteland during the day and a predator infested deathworld at night (sweet). He travels the universe as a kind of "Chewie" to our party's "Han".

He reads space freight-pilot girlie mags and tries to pursue the affections of any and all "humanoid females" with tactless, cold-blooded, dispassion.

Aside from humanoid females, his greatest goal in life is to throw a crate or barrel at a stormtrooper.

TROLLSMYTH

2010-04-12T12:53:00.000-07:00

Just completed my first commission for the infamous Trollsmyth. I really hope he (and the rest of you) like it.

If anyone else wants something done, just email me.

Also this is the first piece I've made any serious attempt to color. I think it came out pretty good.

Orientalism

2010-03-29T14:37:00.000-07:00

I love the fantastic, romanticized version of the east. It always evokes my sense of adventure.

Here is a youtube video clip of a wonderful classic, "The Thief of Bagdad" (1924).

This clip has some great monsters in it including a particularly scary tree-man.

I'd recommend watching the film in its entirety. It is a film that could also serve as a visual argument for the validity of the thief character class.

It also includes a possible source for THE quintessential D&D Image.

Enjoy!

Ghouls

2010-03-26T10:21:00.000-07:00

Ghouls are one of my favorite undead. They are smart and powerful (aside from being turn-able)and worst of all they tend to travel in packs.

Because they are smart and carrion like, I usually play them crafty and cowardly, rarely attacking a party and easy to scare off.

I use them to hound and pressure a party. They follow waiting to eat those slain by the adventurers or attack when the party splits up or becomes weakened. I always give plenty of clues that the party is being tailed by the hungry dead; shuffling creeping shadows, rasping and cackling, and refelctive eyes in the darkness. If the party retraces over a former combat site, bloody drag marks will be all that is left of former foes.

This is the kind of atmosphere which players really get into. They get the fun and danger of the situation at the same time. Smart (and desperate) parties will bait or ambush the ghouls to discourage them or at least thin their number.

I've also toyed with the idea of giving ghouls a certain ammount of strange magic. Nothing formal, but kind of a Lovecraftian world which they can travel through. A deeper shadow-realm, half real and half of the mind, where ghouls and other abominations lurk. Dungeons, caverns, tombs, ruins, and graveyards are places where the real world ajoins the realm of ghouls.

Zombies are the New Nazis and Nazi Zombies are the new Nazi Zombies OR Why Zombies Suck Now OR Much Ado About D&D Undead

2010-03-25T07:39:00.000-07:00

I used to LOVE zombie movies. When the zombie movie resurfaced in a really big way I was, at first, elated. But they just kept coming and coming (like mindless legions of undead?), each generation more derivative and uninspired than the last.

That might be too broad a statement but anyway, my real point is that while zombies are totally popular, the kind of zombie depicted in most of these movies are of the most boring type. Hollywood is dead set on the mindless, infectious, moderately fast zombie.

Mindless.

Maybe some people find hordes of tireless, mindless dead scary but I don't. I usually end up thinking about how easy it would be to overcome zombies because they can't really think. They'd be relatively easy to bait, trick, trap, and exterminate. I find mindlessness dry and boring for some reason. Hollywood must like them for the same reason as they do Nazis; you can kill them in droves and not make the audience uncomfortable or feel guilty.

I didn't used to be this way. It doesn't have to be this way.

The zombies from "Return of the living dead," possibly the ultimate zombie movie if somewhat of a spoof of the genre, are far scarier while at the same time more fun. They have personality.

Despite personality and intelligence they often act somewhat mindless because they have been driven insane by the pain of death and hunger for human brains. This leads to many hilarious and/or scary moments in the movie, like when the zombies use an ambulance radio to call in more paramedics to the area.

The Evil Dead series of movies also have great undead. The "zombies" in the series range from genuinely scary possessed people (transient zombification) to the vastly entertaining slapstick buffoons in "Army of Darkness". These undead are created when people and corpses become possessed by demons or at least have their minds corrupted by demons (the shadow self sort of thing) and thus animate to do evil, consume life, and make others like them. I like that.

I want to mention one more great "series" of zombie movies. Not so much a series really but the body of zombie films by Luccio Fulci. These are very brutal films, on many levels. The plots and scripts are sometimes slow and don't hold up to popular movie standards, but the atmosphere and lovingly specific gory death scenes are why they stick with me. Fulci's zombies are difficult to classify. At a glance they are are of the mindless variety, but because they are so damn effective it is not really fair to compare them to the usual shambling suspects. The zombies in his film, "The Beyond" A.K.A."Seven Doors of Death," are really spectacularly evil. They appear suddenly, magically, and with deadly effect. These zombies are emanations from Hell itself. I love their magical quality and bizarre abilities.

Here is a brutal scene as a taste. Follow this link at your own risk.

What I'm getting at with this is that I think D&D zombies, and skeletons for that matter, should be more like these undead. I think that the animation of zombies and skeletons in D&D is boring beyond belief. Even the lowly undead should be evil, magical, and scary. They should have twisted vestiges of personality making their existence uncomfortable for the living. They should be abominations because they can feel and think but because they are dead they hurt and hunger to the point of madness.

If a necromancer isn't binding demons or the damned evil spirits of humans into his corpses then necromancy really just isn't that evil. If he is just turning corpses into easy-make robots that he has complete control over, its just a puppet show in poor taste. Necromancers could easily and effectively turn such minions to good.

Shadowrun 4E – Part 2

2010-03-24T09:18:00.000-07:00

Magic is the knockout punch of what makes running Shadowrun so difficult.

The magic system itself works quite well. Magicians can cast spells and/or summon spirits depending on how you set them at character creation. There are some fiddly rules with totems, foci, and whatnot but mostly that all just boils down to some dice pool bonuses.

Flavor wise I find the Shadowrun magic system exceptionally dry. They covered almost all of the bases as far as the kinds of magic one would need or want, added in a “turn to goo” spell (nice) but aside from that the spell lists lack... well, MAGIC. Magic is very predictable with the only major downside being that if a mage throws around powerful spells or summons mighty spirits they might hurt themselves. You don't “run out” of magic like in D&D. In my opinion, based on a lot of GM and player experience, drain is rarely a problem, even when casting the most powerful spells (if you build your mage well).

Magic has a few other negative impacts on the game. The direct attack spells are a bit too powerful and spirits are also extremely difficult to handle. I don't really want to talk about the combat advantage of these things (which suffice it to say is very significant) but rather how magic and especially spirits can limit the kinds of games one can play.

The spirit world is almost everywhere and spirits and the spirits of mages can travel through this astral space at a very fast rate. Spirits can see living things in the real world around them, but can't really do much without manifesting. The big logistical problem is that spirits can find people or things with auras known to the magic user. This power alone renders many obstacles, especially investigations, irrelevant. Of course enemy magic users and other astral strangeness can hamper a spirit, or you could have a clever bad guy plant a personal item of someone else to throw the team and the spirit off of the trail, but many foes, especially if you are trying to run a street level game, won't have access to this magical backup. If your PC mage is powerful with spirits, even a certain degree of magical defense can be fairly easily bypassed by a strong enough spirit.

Ad to the above, the power of mages themselves to travel or just see astrally, and read the auras (emotions) of people, and you have a very powerful detective, one that can quickly find any street-level thug and many important mcguffins with just the help of a few spirits. Mages also have some spells that let them read minds and possess people... yay. It all boils down to trouble for a GM.

Don't forget that this is a game with hackers too! With a good mage and hacker, a Shadowrun team can really cut an adventure to pieces.

Now, I like powerful magic in games. I like it a lot. The magic and spirits in shadowrun are just too predictable. There is little mystery or flavor to the rules as written. Of course a good game master can inject strangeness – and I do – but one can only go so far until you frustrate your players.

Shadowrun 4E Part 1

2010-03-23T12:30:00.000-07:00

Ryan at Save Vs. Poison mentioned Shadowrun 4E recently, a game I have a lot of experience with. Specifically he brought up a few things he didn't care for about the game at a glance which in turn reminded me of all the problems I had with the game.

I love Shadowrun. It was one of the first RPGs I really got into after D&D. I like the world and the flavor, evoking the best of what was found in the Matrix, a lot of Gibson (Johnny Mnemonic) and Philip K. Dick (Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, a.k.a. Blade Runner) PLUS magic and fantasy races and creatures. It is a game with really cool imagery, especially for a young person growing up in the internet age, and also has some of the best problem-solving fun potential of any game.

I've played 2E, 3E, and now 4E. The two older editions leave a lot to be desired as far as systems are concerned, but 4E actually saw a large reduction in complication, while still adhering to the overall feel of the game play (lots of d6s!). The result is a great dice mechanic that simplifies and expedites game play! The dice mechanic is so attractive that another friend of mine is trying to drum up a fantasy game using it.

I think the problems with 4E arise from how the game world is realized.

Part 1: The Wireless Web

While the technology in the game is a huge component of the fun of the setting, I found that I was limited in the kinds of adventures I could run. Any mcguffin with an electronic trail, or any foe without numbers, dollars, extreme tech savvy, or any reliance on tech, was easy meat for a hacker. Ultimately I had to put an awful lot of thought into whether hacking could trivialize a run/investigation/adventure.

- In Shadowrun 4, there are wireless networks everywhere and all technological gear can, and 99% of the time does, emit a small wireless signal. What this means is that a hacker(the artists formerly known as deckers) can get into just about anything, either directly or by bouncing from a long range device to a nearby short range device. While it is possible to have more secure systems w/o a wireless signal, the books do more than imply that this is not the norm. This access, along with how unsecured the average device is, make hacking just about anything fairly easy. Even very secure systems (rating 5 or 6) are relatively easy to hack, inevitable actually, and if a decent hacker (4 or 5s in everything) takes time doing it, they'll even enter the system with little initial chance of being spotted and targeted by counter measures.

WHAT ALL THIS MEANS is that hacking can do pretty much anything – go anywhere, know anything, or mess any system up.

There are certainly ways to stop a hacker. As a GM I found, invented, or plotted out many great countermeasures to make hacking just part of the solution instead of the complete solution to a problem. However, this was taxing and, because I like to be fair, not always logical for the situation. The taxing part was that I had to know how to defend or isolate any system the party might face or I had to place the adventure elements in such a way that hacking couldn't solve all the problems or deliver all the answers or vital information. These hang ups often led to great fun in the game but it was easy to run out of ideas or logical reason to make the really important or core parts of a run, difficult to hack and thus eliminate the tension or weaken the accomplishments of the PCs. As a GM which strove for fairness, I would also often have to concede that, logically, many villains would not really have access to the kind of defenses needed to keep a hacker at bay.

The real hardships (for the GM) occur when you have a decent hacker AND a decent mage in the party – to be continued...

Piercing perspective and Cutting out the un-fun cruft.

2010-03-22T08:22:00.000-07:00

Been very sick for a few days.

Anyway...

I really like what has been going on over at D&D With Porn Stars regarding the investigation of monsters. It is all about getting down to what is really fun.

When I run a D&D game, I always have felt that I had to do justice to, I dunno, DUNGEONS & DRAGONS as a whole I guess, and find a corner of my game world for every monster in the MM. The real truth is that some monsters in the D&D canon are more playable than others.

Over the course of this series, Zak has brought up a number of points which resonated with me as a DM which I can boil down to visualization, actual use, and fun.

-Visualization is extremely important in getting some kind of feeling out of your players. How can you describe, quickly and effectively, certain elements of recognizable monsters (dragons, frogs, fungus, snails) to draw players into the fantasy? What would a conflict with this monster look like (would you want to see an adventurer smack it with a sword or would that be stupid)?

-Several times Zak talks about some great ways to actually use certain monsters. Certain monsters make great scheming villains, other monsters make terrible/tired wilderness encounters but great set encounters. In a sand-box game it is often tempting and easier to just ambush the players with random encounter, however, if you take the time to really think about the most interesting way to use all of the monsters on your random encounter table, you can get a lot more adventure out of a single encounter. Applying this thinking to pre-set monsters or encounters almost goes without saying. (Sometimes I roll up a few dozen random encounters ahead of time, flesh them out, and when a random encounter is rolled I just move to the next one on the list, combining the best of b0th worlds).

-Fun, is self evident. The bottom line, the thing that keeps your game in the BLACK as it were, is fun. Is this monster fun to describe? Is the monster fun to fight against? What is the most fun way to introduce this monster? As a DM, my best game moments come from when I take a moment to think about what would be the most fun thing for me, as a player, and then work that into the game.

I've applied similar critical thought to many other elements of my games, but not monsters so much. I think this is what being part of a Renaissance is like - not only rediscovering something great, but sometimes discarding a bit of baggage (knowing why).

I know this is just reiterating another fellow's post - but it is worth it. Movements gain strength when people back up one another's good ideas.

Dwarf people and Elf people.

2010-03-17T15:26:00.000-07:00

I think most gamers tend to be either Dwarf people or Elf people or neither.

This is kind of like "are you a cat person or dog person?" sort of thing. I'd suspect that dwarf people tend to be dog people and elf people tend to be cat people. It would just make sense, wouldn't it?

Dwarves are dependable, hardy, and often rowdy. The comic-relief dwarf has even more doggish qualities; clumsy, unselfconscious, hairy, and friendly, even overly so.

Elves are typically catlike. Elegant, silent, sure-footed, aloof, moody and easy to piss off.

I've played both elves and dwarves but I have to admit I've played many many more elves in my day. I like both dogs and cats, cats probably more so, but I like my dogs clean and smart, and I like my cats friendly and doglike.

When I do play dwarves (or other tough characters for that matter) I like to give them soft male or gender neutral names. I think it sets off their dwarfyness.

The above WHFRP dwarf troll-slayer was named Sandy - he wore his helmet constantly and when he talked it was too muffled to understand. "Mmmmmrrrmmf! Mmmmrf." The real joke came in when he had to take it off to talk to the town guards and I (on the spot) decided he spoke in an entirely unintelligible dwarven accent (like a very guttural Irish accent with very broadly pronounced words). I liked him a lot more than most of the dozens of elves I've played over the years...

I can't even remember this elf guy's name!

Feudal Run: Picture Unrelated

2010-03-16T15:41:00.001-07:00

Just a Little sketch of no relevance.

I run one game a week right now. I call it Feudal-Run; a play on Shadowrun , which in turn is a play on "futile" run.

In essence, Feudal Run is a heavily house-ruled Dungeons and Dragons game loosely based on basic D&D (Rules Cyclopedia; simply the best single game book of all time).

The idea for Feudal Run originally came from the Jabberwocky Movie and the first Black Adder BBC series.

The original idea was a terrible, medieval/feudal-world oriented campaign where players play the lowest on the social order and are victimized from every direction. PCs would begin with many malformities and malignancies. Their adventures would focus on survival, being forced to take on hideous or humiliating jobs, avoiding beatings from the guards or horse-whippings from nobles, the dangers of a sinister world, and vainly searching for a swift dignified death. There would be several stats for tracking how miserable your character is and there were some thoughts that these scores would translate into even worse deformities and stats for your next character when your current one passed on.

We also thought about mechanics where your "feudal team" would buy a base of operations, like an abandoned pig sty, condemned latrine, or haunted poison factory run-off ditch. I even had ideas for special character classes like professional dog-botherer or leper's apprentice.

This all sprung from the grim humor my best friend and I enjoy - like that depicted in the movie and series previously mentioned. While we were both excited about the themes of the game, there really wasn't much of a game in there, at least not one that would last for very long. So the idea collected dust.

The inspiration for how to make it actually work came from a horrible video game. I won't mention what game, but it was a lot like a twistedly complicated and sinister version of Wizardry. The form is very simple; there is a huge dungeon you explore gaining exp, gold and loot, and a city where you resurrect your fallen men, buy weapons and armor, get training etc.

The first things that made this game horrible were the abysmally small amount of exp and gold one would gain from the dungeon and the savagery of the first level traps and monsters. Possibly more terrible was the fact that one had to identify each magic item twice and possibly pay to realign it in order to use it. It was also deceptively low in cost to resurrect allies wherein you learn of terribly high chance of having something in said resurrection go wrong and your characters end up with the stats of a potato.

ANYWAY - This game gave me the inspiration to take another stab at Feudal Run as a marriage of a dark, sinister feudal survival game and a classic town/megadungeon D&D game.

The resulting game has been a complete success.

Characters roll a quick background describing how their families/communities were wiped-out (monsters, plague, volcano), forcing them to journey to Malshire, the main city , in search of plunder from the famous dungeon beneath it. The PCs also bear some malformities or diseases befitting a stereotypical dark medieval setting such as leprosy, boils, withered limbs, no lower jaw, etc...

The characters find themselves in a hostile city (in some ways equal in danger to a dungeon), forced to live amongst the lowest class (of which adventurers are lowest) and try to survive. There is a dungeon and there is normal D&D treasure in the dungeon, but the city's economy is horribly inflated (book prices represent the lowliest quality of goods).

There is a sinister "adventurer's guild" which one must join to enter the dungeon and a more sinister morgue where adventurers can be resurrected for a very small fee. There is also a whole class of merchants who cater to adventurers and other wretches of Malshire.

To top all of this off characters have two new numbers to manage; misery and wretchedness. Some of these quantities are gained at character generation, more is gained during play. The only known (to the players) effect of these stats is that if characters fails to eat enough food, or comfort themselves with enough wine or entertainment within certain time periods they gain more misery.

So far the result has been pure D&D gold. I'll write more on it later and maybe even give some play reports!

Why is a raven like a writing desk?

2010-03-15T15:17:00.000-07:00

I recently went to see the new Alice movie. I didn't care for it at all. I sometimes wonder if I am just impossible to please or if the movies I don't like really do suck.

So the new Alice in Wonderland is essentially a f*&$ing fanfic sequel to original book. It entirely lacks all of the clever, charming, and strangely insightful satirical writing that made the original book a classic. The original bizarre journey of travelling through a strange and wonderful land full of sinister and charmingly insane characters is replaced with a thin "save teh werld " plot with an extremely irritatingly generic "believe in your self" moral. The script badly needed some kind of editor who could have told the story more elegantly - or maybe just a much better writer.

I also feel as if the acting suffered terribly from "person alone in a green-screen room" troubles. People tend to just bark lines and almost never seem to have any of the weight (not that there is much) of what is going internalized or emoted in any believable way.

I also find CG underwhelming compared to good practical effects. I think that video-games have ruined me for that. When I see monsters that could be in a video game I tend to immediately write them off mentally.

Danger Everywhere

2010-03-13T12:32:00.000-08:00

I haven't spoken on this blog much about my actual gaming experiences yet.
Currently, I run 1 game a week and play in 1 and 1/2 others.

I guess if I have to sum up what I prefer in a game it is DANGER EVERYWHERE. If you combine danger with quick game play, short but flavorful description, and an overall focus on fun, you pretty much can't go wrong.

One of the major inspirations for all of the above came in the form of the Lonewolf game books. Lonewolf is a series of adventure/fighting game books that I remember from the early nineties but which came out several years earlier (my entire gaming history involves getting into older games later in their life cycle). One can view and play most of the Lonewolf series for free online and http://www.projectaon.org/, a great community holding onto these great books.

Anyway, the books are great resources for a DM interested in short, flavorful descriptive text, fast-paced adventure, and a sinister world atmosphere. I owe them for much of my success as a DM.

The earlier books in the series also feature artwork by Gary Chalk, my favorite illustrator.

Raaaar!

2010-03-12T12:40:00.000-08:00

I love lizardmen!

One of the reasons I love to draw lizardmen is that even though they are relatively simple and iconic in theme, the subtle variations when drawing them are limitless.

I also find their reptilian features strangely emotive.

Maybe it is just because they are a merger of my favorite things to draw; dragons and humans.

I also love to play lizardmen or their like in games when they are available as a playable race. I'm playing a Barabel in a WEG starwars game right now. I'll try to post a pic of my character sketch in the near future.

Something Completely Different - Deadlands

2010-03-11T10:53:00.001-08:00

I've been playing RPGS, for 18+ years (first game was the little brown books, another story altogether). I've never truly left the hobby for any time. For most of that time, I would play absolutely every game that I could.

This drawing is of one of the many Deadlands characters I have tucked in my character folder.

Deadlands never stuck around for long in any of my gaming groups. The system was ok (not at all old-school) but really the problem was that the GM (and some players like myself) usually wanted to run an old-west game, with a touch of magic/sci-fi and ALWAYS ended up with the GM herding a group of morons in steam-powered armor, bullet-catching kung-fu railroad workers, ghost busters, JCLS paladins with two-handed swords, undead snipers with elephant rifles, and f*&#ing honest-to-god wizards in cowboy hats.

It just never fit.

4 years ago I discovered Boot Hill...

Undead Request

2010-03-10T12:41:00.000-08:00

I've always figured that the undead do not mess around when it comes to combat.

The Adventure Begins!

2010-03-08T14:11:00.000-08:00

I hope that JB over at B/X Blackrazor enjoys this artwork!

If you have a gaming project and are looking for an artist I hope you consider me. I can work fast and can produce a wide variety of styles for almost any budget. I really just want to get involved with the community and the old-school gaming movement, price will pretty-much only determine how much time I can spend on a piece.

I'd also consider old-school products or OD&D books and modules in exchange for artwork!

Sorcerous Power

2010-03-08T14:09:00.000-08:00

Summoning

2010-03-08T14:08:00.000-08:00

Fighting-Man

2010-03-08T14:07:00.000-08:00

Elves

2010-03-08T14:06:00.000-08:00

Thieves

2010-03-08T14:05:00.000-08:00

Magic-User

2010-03-05T15:10:00.001-08:00