tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-34526587302285145072024-02-20T11:09:29.883-06:00"The Troll Ate My Homework"Gentle musings on D&D and other non-contact sportsBadmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.comBlogger40125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-59634614599617631492014-02-07T10:53:00.001-06:002014-02-13T15:17:15.923-06:00North Texas RPG Con 2014 Lineup<br />
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<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">Well it's time for the 6th Annual North Texas RPG Convention! The NTRPG Con focuses on old-school Dungeons & Dragons gaming (mainly OD&D, 1E, 2E, or Basic/Expert) as well as any pre-2000 type of RPG produced by the classic gaming companies of the 70s and 80s (TSR, Chaosium, FGU, FASA, GDW, etc). We also support retro-clone or simulacrum type gaming that copies the old style of RPGs (Swords & Wizardry and others). All RPG games are welcome at the Con, but we do not schedule card or board games except in special circumstances...unlike most other cons we are primarily old school RPG focused!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">Our convention dates are: Thursday June 5, 2014 @ noon until Sunday June 8, 2014 @ 1800. You can register for the convention now at Ntrpgcon.com. Registration for events begins at 12:01 am April 15th, so please make sure you have registered and paid your fees beforehand at the ntrpgcon.com site!</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">It is our second year at the DFW South Marriott, with lots of space for all sorts of gaming activities (we have the entire grand ballroom and several boardrooms, accommodating almost 30 tables of gaming), it is only a couple of minutes south of DFW airport and easily reached by shuttle. This venue also features a full restaurant and bar, as well as being right in the center of an area with many restaurants and coffee shops within walking distance. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">We have many, many confirmed special guests from the early days of the hobby attending in 2014; returning are Erol Otus, Sandy Petersen, Jeff Dee, Tim Kask, Dennis Sustare, Steve Winter, Frank Mentzer, Jennell Jaquays, Steve Marsh, Jim Ward, Doug Kovacs, Zeb Cook, Dennis, Jason Braun, Diesel Laforce, and Jeff Easley. New guests include Darlene, Kevin Hendryx. Chris Clark and Lawrence Schick. The lineup includes several of the more important figures in the history of RPGs as a whole and Dungeons & Dragons in particular.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">This year games include AD&D, Gamma World, Metamorphosis Alpha, Swords & Wizardry, OD&D, Basic D&D, GURPS, Recon, Call of Cthulhu, Adventurer/Conqueror/King, Amazing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperbora, Tunnels & Trolls, Runequest, DCC Rpg, Castles & Crusades, Cavemaster, Classic Battletech, and many more! Included will be our 5th annual Mythrus Tower game run by Matt Finch and Bill Webb; Also this year we will feature our 5th annual chariot racing classic Circus Maximus with the finals run by Tim Kask, an Aliens boardgame run by Allan Grohe with large scale miniatures, Avalon Hill's classic man-to-man combat game Gladiator (2nd year), and more. Included is the 4th Annual NTRPG Con AD&D tournament (run once again by Pacesetter Games). We also will have a lot of gaming goodness for sale and several dealer's tables set up (expanded to 15 tables including special guest tables) along with a raffle and auction. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">Several seminars are scheduled including an art panel featuring Otus, Dee, LaForce, Braun, Easley Jaquays and Kovacs. Bill Meinhardt (aka "Stratochamp") has one of the largest and most complete collections of D&D in the world, and will be exhibiting and telling the history of several rare items in a Q&A session; there will be others including the first annual NTRPG con Trivia contest! Besides Garycon, this is the premier old school style convention in the country with more classic gaming available than any other con in the south, run by some of the giants of the industry.</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">Game Event registration won't be open until April 15th, 2014! You must register for the con and pay your fee (either daily or weekend) before you are able to register for games. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">Rooms at the beautiful Marriort DFW South are only $107 a night! A bargain!!!</span><br />
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<a href="http://www.marriott.com/meeting-event-hotels/group-corporate-travel/groupCorp.mi?resLinkData=NORTH%20TEXAS%20RPG%20CON%202014%5EDFWAM%60RPGRPGA%60107.00%60USD%60false%606/4/14%606/9/14%605/26/14&app=resvlink&stop_mobi=yes" rel="nofollow" style="background-color: #efefef; border: 0px; cursor: pointer; margin: 0px; max-height: 1000000px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration: none; word-wrap: break-word;" target="_blank">www.marriott.com/meeting-event-hotels/group-corporate-travel/groupCorp.mi?resLinkData=NORTH%20TEXAS%20RPG%20CON%202014%5EDFWAM%60RPGRPGA%60107.00%60USD%60false%606/4/14%606/9/14%605/26/14&app=resvlink&stop_mobi=yes</a><br />
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<span style="background-color: #efefef; font-family: Verdana, Arial; font-size: 12px; line-height: 14.399999618530273px;">The North Texas RPG con is the south's premiere old school con and one of the few dedicated to OOP or old school roleplaying games. If you are in the area, please come by and check us out.</span><br />
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<br />Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-45295072343540286252013-05-26T09:03:00.002-05:002013-05-30T14:50:49.923-05:00Raffle Items for NTRPG Con 2013!Every year the NTRPG con sponsors a raffle to help fund the convention. We lose money every year to bring old school gaming to all the great gamers out there, so no surprise. This year, however, Doug informs me we are about 250 tickets off the pace! We have already had a 30% increase in attendence from last year and expect to have a massive walk-up, so the problem is not in number of attendees. I have heard from quite a few people they will buy tickets at the door, and that is appreciated. Yet our sales to people not attending the con are nearly microscopic. You do not have to be present to win any of these great prizes! Last year our Free Trip to NTRPG con was won by a non-attendee. Please think about dropping $10-$20 on a few $5 tickets if you get the chance! You will be supporting old school gaming and have the chance to win a few great prizes.<br />
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NOTE: At this late point, you can only purchase tickets at the event!<br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">Items for the Raffle (additional items will be added as they arrive)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">You do not have to be an attendee to win</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* Dragon Magazine #2</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* Dragon Magazine #3</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* Dungeon Magazine #1</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* Castle Zagyg - Upper Works (signed by Jeff Talanian)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* Strategic Review #1</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* A Complete Set of the new 1st Edition AD&D Reprints (Players Handbook, Monster Manual & DMG)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* Swords & Wizardry White Box</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* DCC #9 Tomb of the Blind God, Otus Cover w/NTRPGCon Logo (2ea, signed by Erol Otus)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* Jim Holloway special Limited Edition art set from Cairn of the Skeleton King, 13 prints per set (2ea)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* Pacesetter's V2 Palace of the Vampire Queen reprint (2012)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* Artesian Dice Polyhedron Set of 10 carved wooden dice in a wood box</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* Set of Jeff Dee's Egyptian Art from Deities & Demi Gods prints</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* Limited Edition Centerstage Miniature for NTRPG con 2011 - Lord of the Great Plains - Longhorn Minotaur</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* Limited Edition Centerstage Miniature for NTRPGCon 2013 - The-Thing-That-Should-Not-Be</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* Digest size copy of Misty Isles (Wee Warriors adventure reprinted by 2012 NTRPG con)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* Three different sets (bags) of Dungeonmorph Dice, Five D6 dice to a bag</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* Rules book for the DCC RPG (Collector's Edition)</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* Miniature painted by artist Angela Imrie</span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17.046875px;">* Free Trip to NTRPGCon 2014 (within 48 contiguous states); includes airfare/gas (if you drive) & hotel room. If winner is not in the USA, we will award cash value reimbursement if you attend in 2014, non-transferable (basically this is up to a $700.00 credit toward your travel/stay to the Con in 2014 only)</span>Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-11781574622701771082013-02-23T09:37:00.001-06:002013-02-23T09:52:09.436-06:002013 Three Castles Award Nominees<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkZ4vEZO-Dcwvpf_YVl8Mb_lRmIXZ-1-Vc0k2D8cy7fu93axsNvOAq3l7Efpd5XBWsyv1VX9srDBysujZzLqxyDyUiij4SkkaBFrEdvVXpO5-y1u5Hh7D4KiimMEY5YKst-Cjj27eYgTE/s1600/100_2549.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgkZ4vEZO-Dcwvpf_YVl8Mb_lRmIXZ-1-Vc0k2D8cy7fu93axsNvOAq3l7Efpd5XBWsyv1VX9srDBysujZzLqxyDyUiij4SkkaBFrEdvVXpO5-y1u5Hh7D4KiimMEY5YKst-Cjj27eYgTE/s320/100_2549.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">The North Texas RPG Con is proud to present our finalists for the Third Annual Three Castles Award for RPG Design. This year we have five finalists and I don't envy the judges...all are top notch. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: #fff2cc; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">The nominees for 2013 are:</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><b style="background-color: #fff2cc;">Adventurer Conqueror King System</b></span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: #fff2cc; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">by: Alexander Macris<br /><br /><b>Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea</b><br />by: Jeffrey Talanian<br /><br /><b>Barrowmaze </b><br />by: Greg Gillespie<br /><br /><b>Cavemaster RPG</b><br />by: Jeff Dee<br /><br /><b>DCC RPG</b><br />by: Joseph Goodman<br /><br />The judges for 2013 are:<br /><br />Erol Otus<br />Peter Kerestan<br />Robert Kuntz<br />Rick Loomis<br />Steve Winter<br /><br />The Third Annual Three Castles Award will be presented during the 5th Annual North Texas RPG con on June 6-9, 2013 in Fort Worth, Texas. Congratulations to all five finalists, and thanks to everyone who sent in a submission.</span><br />
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<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: #fff2cc; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">Prior winners of the award are Michael Curtis for <b>The Dungeon Alphabet</b> and Kevin Crawford for <b>Stars Without Number</b>....great company for this year's winner!!! </span><br />
<span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: #fff2cc; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;"><br /></span><span class="text_exposed_show" style="background-color: #fff2cc; display: inline; font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px; line-height: 17px;">Go to <a href="http://ntrpgcon.com/">ntrpgcon.com</a> for more information about the South's best old school gaming con!</span>Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-74388548483295342012012-10-12T17:55:00.001-05:002012-10-12T17:55:50.465-05:00Centerstage Minis KickstarterJust two days to go....I cannot say enough good things about this KS. Give it a look-see if you get the chance!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMdgtH9DZZoQ7U316Dralj9cbRR3iX5kldNgidju0O5g6pGp8LvX0PbMs6H1_-6rSM7IsC4-muOPF_Pw8TUIjTINPQ4nkvE93SFVqjX2p4gNkZKww68zpCojEx7IWE31ez6n0M-2N2FFE/s1600/e0c1781ae33138ff6266e08dcf8450b7_large.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgMdgtH9DZZoQ7U316Dralj9cbRR3iX5kldNgidju0O5g6pGp8LvX0PbMs6H1_-6rSM7IsC4-muOPF_Pw8TUIjTINPQ4nkvE93SFVqjX2p4gNkZKww68zpCojEx7IWE31ez6n0M-2N2FFE/s320/e0c1781ae33138ff6266e08dcf8450b7_large.png" width="320" /></a></div>
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<a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/centerstageminis/28mm-demons-and-devils-center-stage-miniatures">http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/centerstageminis/28mm-demons-and-devils-center-stage-miniatures</a>Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-58415505178800917892011-11-30T11:58:00.002-06:002011-11-30T12:06:15.106-06:00Eight months later....still pimpin'<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijCetYqN175vHsnKLknMK6dAvCpuRlawTFLFXevXx1sb6W7k3oVuOun_HnWZJc9y6ZkV43IrpQtXrhOpm2v9kk0Kc3nQYZLsoejLWSyyJHoWzIq4nzII_UpK6wTXKIwAZASrIBMkwbf8Q/s1600/3castles_web.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 320px; height: 240px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEijCetYqN175vHsnKLknMK6dAvCpuRlawTFLFXevXx1sb6W7k3oVuOun_HnWZJc9y6ZkV43IrpQtXrhOpm2v9kk0Kc3nQYZLsoejLWSyyJHoWzIq4nzII_UpK6wTXKIwAZASrIBMkwbf8Q/s320/3castles_web.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5680851660783052418" /></a><br />Anyone who has published a RPG product in the last year;<br /><br />The 2nd Annual Three Castles Award is still accepting submissions through the end of the year (December 31st) for next year's award, to be given out at the 4th annual North Texas RPG Con. If you published a RPG adventure, setting, rulebook or sourcebook between October 1st 2010 and October 1st 2011 you are eligible. The focus of the award is on design, and last year's nominees (LoTFP Boxed Set, Stonehell Dungeon, Dungeon Alphabet, Majestic Wilderlands and B/X Companion) and initial winner (Michael Curtis' Dungeon Alphabet) exemplifies the type of excellence in small press products we want to publicize with the award. The NTRPG Con makes nothing off the award; on the contrary, we will NEVER break even considering the amount Doug paid for the absolutely beautiful statuette award given to the winner! <br /><br />This is a designer award, not a publisher award, although the publisher is welcome to submit anything they wish for one of their authors. The only way this award will one day be able to boast an impressive run of quality winners is if the VERY BEST items are submitted every year, and that is up to the writers/designers themselves. So please, if you have neglected submitting your item so far, take the time to visit the site (ntrpgcon.com), go to the 3CastlesAward tab, fill out the required paperwork and send in three copies of your product for the initial selection process. Every year the judges are shuffled, and this year they are going to be Dennis Sustare, Rob Kuntz, Sandy Peterson, Dave "Zeb" Cook, and Steve Marsh....a group with an impressive list of skins on the wall in terms of products and ideas in the industry.<br /><br />Share this with as many RPG designers as you can, and if you know of someone with an impressive RPG product release in the last year, encourage them to send in a submission for the award. Besides obviously promoting our convention, we really want to promote the industry and some of the great products out there that may be overlooked by gamers who only pay attention to the biggest companies releases each year.Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-12719127392264975452011-03-24T09:53:00.002-05:002011-03-24T10:16:57.712-05:00Jim Roslof Commission<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c374/Badmike3/405abb2e.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 691px; height: 518px;" src="http://i31.photobucket.com/albums/c374/Badmike3/405abb2e.jpg" border="0" alt="" /></a><br />By now, those in the old school gaming community know of the unfortunate passing of one of the early TSR artists, Jim Roslof. Jim's unique style helped form the "look" of TSR just as much as Trampier, Sutherland and Otus. <a href="http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2011/03/retrospective-jim-roslofs-tsr-covers.html">James at Grognardia</a> and many other bloggers have spoken of Jim and his influence on the hobby, but mine is a more personal note. <br /><br />Several years ago I realized some of the old guard TSR artist from the early days of TSR were still active (due to the DCC covers by Jeff Dee and Erol Otus). I began thinking about whether or not it would be possible to get a commission done by one of these guys, a personalized scene that I could share with my original gaming group. Back in the day (late 70s/early 80s), I was not one for writing up my own adventures. We ran through every module published by TSR, from the letter modules to the contest winners in Dragon magazine. So, my original group did the great GDQ crawl with their first characters, finally escaping the Demonweb Pits sometime in 1984 or so after a good five years of off and on gaming. <br /><br />While looking for something to memorialize these times, I thought about the classic covers of the modules (all by David Sutherland) except for Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits. Dave Sutherland was sadly already gone, so I thought about asking Jim if he would do a "reinterpretation" of the classic Q1 cover, only with my group's favorite characters as the subjects. Through various online sites, I acquired his contact info, presented the idea to him, and he was very enthusiastic about the project. He told me that he had no problem going back to one of his classic pieces, and as a matter of fact it would be a lot faster and easier for him (as he could work with the original cover for reference instead of creating it from whole cloth). Jim was super easy to work with, and I remember him being very particular about what each character was wearing, what weapons they used, spells they liked to cast, etc. He wanted to make the art as "authentic" as he could so it wouldn't be just a generic fight scene.<br /><br />I was simply blown away at the art Jim did for me (only taking 30 days from start to finish). Each character (From the left: Krago the Dwarf, Gandolin the elvish mage, U-gor the half orc fighter, and St. Michael the cleric) is clearly recognizable to everyone in my old group (U-Gor using his flaming sword, Gandolin casting one of his ever present fire spells, etc) as their personal characters. It is something that I will treasure forever, now even more so that Jim is no longer among us.<br /><br />It is very obvious that Jim's skills were far from declining, and very sad he couldn't get more work in the gaming field in his later years (except for a few DCC covers and some incredible spreads in The Dungeon Alphabet). Jim still "had it", and in my opinion, his recent work was better than some of his originals (while still being recognizable as a Roslof piece). <br /><br />Not much more to add, except that I wish I had gotten Jim to do some other commissions. As always, we don't know what we have until it's gone....one reason for the North Texas RPG Con is for the old school gamer and fan to mingle with these guys while they are still with us....no one is getting any younger. If you are putting off sending an email to or attending a convention with one of the old guard, DO IT.Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-41988262927217917952011-02-12T17:35:00.004-06:002011-02-12T18:19:06.397-06:00Three Castles Award 2011 Nominees<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD2nvy3Y6I-tYywCpuhTHvxBr0mcnPgjMpYsyXx7nd56es4zbmoeyZx4yFN3XCr4dvPM4JmBNsD9Dq8EBj6mnknERCqSWadjxrJ9_KGoYuJVjVspXCRyK4qbIlCazRA9A1OUt1xuR7IVI/s1600/Picture+023.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 240px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD2nvy3Y6I-tYywCpuhTHvxBr0mcnPgjMpYsyXx7nd56es4zbmoeyZx4yFN3XCr4dvPM4JmBNsD9Dq8EBj6mnknERCqSWadjxrJ9_KGoYuJVjVspXCRyK4qbIlCazRA9A1OUt1xuR7IVI/s320/Picture+023.jpg" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5572961772966810866" /></a><br />Last year I posted about the <a href="http://trollhomework.blogspot.com/2010/07/three-castles-design-award.html">Three Castles Design Award</a> and how the NTRPG Con was proud to present this beautiful hunk of statuette each year to the RPG game rules, adventure, supplement or settings that was a high point of achievement in the hobby for the past year. In the last few years there has been an explosion of releases, mostly by solo writers or designers, that are a testament to the intelligence, imagination and resourcefulness of gamers playing and writing RPGs. What better way to put a small regional con like ours on the map than by sponsoring an award like this, and recognizing a field that often gets short shrift in other yearly awards (the RPG field, specifically the OSR).<br /><br />After due consideration the Steering Committee was able to choose five nominees of the many submitted to move onto the final round of judging. Some seminal names in the history of the hobby...Dennis Sustare, Paul Jaquays, Steve Winter, Tim Kask, and Rob Kuntz....have been asked to choose among these five for the first ever winner of this annual honor. The standards are very high, yet I feel that these five items are the creme of the crop of last year's releases, and one should walk away with the award. As you can see all four finalists (one had two nominations) are solo game designers often operating at small profit or even a loss, and it is our hope that by winning this award (or even by being nominated) they can all see a small boost in exposure and profits. I won't pretend this award will make or break anyone, but hey I can dream! <br /><br />We plan on changing members of both the Steering Committee (who are different than the judges and are kept secret so as not to bias the proceedings in any way) and the group of five judges every year to keep things from becoming predictable or stale, and will choose members from the fields of game design, art, writing, and production, as well as the occasional respected fan or blogger to make things interesting. We are also looking at possibly working each years previous winner in the mix somehow as either a judge or special guest at the NTRPG Con. <br /><br />This is the first year of the award, and I hope the standard it sets will cause it to grow in stature year after year, someday becoming as respected an achievement as winning, say, and Ennie is at Gencon every year. Anyway, we hope that if you are reading this and don't have all five of these products in your library you use this chance to purchase these and see why they were selected as this year's nominees. <br /><br />Three Castles Design Award 2011 Nominees:<br /><br /><a href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/">B/X Companion</a> (Jonathan Becker)<br /><a href="http://lotfp.blogspot.com/">LOTFP Weird Fantasy Roleplaying</a> (James Raggi)<br /><a href="http://poleandrope.blogspot.com/">Stonehell Dungeon</a>(Michael Curtis)<br /><a href="http://poleandrope.blogspot.com/">The Dungeon Alphabet</a> (Michael Curtis)<br /><a href="http://batintheattic.blogspot.com/">The Majestic Wilderlands</a> (Rob Conley)Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-87386171593156372012011-01-15T08:48:00.012-06:002011-01-16T02:44:38.194-06:00NTRPG Con 2011<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBj_FSo5-5CSGlgPiVHQzzgXNnlX4GzVbkD7N-GQpHlJJAyjekjZUGsoCLhj-26e9Ecm6HkB9Mjk_mKAHeSLDqLgRoHkWKvYjUuzMpwnRt9PZ7er99ZXVIl4WL8nDA_YZ0xbeWBxN3n4k/s1600/ntrpgc-weathered-154.png"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 154px; height: 189px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhBj_FSo5-5CSGlgPiVHQzzgXNnlX4GzVbkD7N-GQpHlJJAyjekjZUGsoCLhj-26e9Ecm6HkB9Mjk_mKAHeSLDqLgRoHkWKvYjUuzMpwnRt9PZ7er99ZXVIl4WL8nDA_YZ0xbeWBxN3n4k/s320/ntrpgc-weathered-154.png" border="0" alt=""id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5562430740906039922" /></a><br />The fact I haven't posted in months, with not so gentle reminders from friends, coupled with this <a href="http://cyclopeatron.blogspot.com/2011/01/next-phase-of-old-school-renaissance.html">wake up call by Cyclopeatron</a>, here is the latest info on the North Texas RPG con...<br /><br />First, before the prepared promo text below, I totally agree with Cyclo on the subject of minicons. These are a perfect, if not preferred, way to grow the OSR. Cheap and efficient, the rewards are huge, the outlay is small, and the enjoyment is worth any aggravation. When Doug and I started NTRPG Con, one of the things we discussed was being able to promote small, local mini-cons across the US where our preferred types of games would be played. Well, entirely without our promotion (we had a small hand in giving the Central Texas mini-con space on our website for registering attendees) this things are popping up all over. <br /><br />All you need is a place for a couple dozen or more gamers to meet (if you are going budget, a local civic center, library, KOC hall, church, school or pizza place may let you meet for free), some volunteers to run games, and at least one masochistic soul to put it all together. Advertise in local game and comic stores, online at local websites, blogs, or larger sites that cater to old school gamers. Have a contact point (preferable a web site, but a blogspot or message board forum would work as well) so you can get word out of changes or updates to interested gamers. Schedule at least 2-3 games, with space for pickup games that could develop, and make sure food is available either nearby or at the gaming location itself. It really is that easy!<br /><br />NTRPG Con 2011:<br /><br />Less than 5 months away, the 3rd annual NTRPG Con will take place June 2-5 in Irving, TX (same location as last time, the Staybridge Suites). NTRPG Con is the south's premier old school con, focusing on pre-2000 RPGs of all types, particularly D&D in it's many forms. No card games, no board games, no 4e, etc. Only OOP or old school oriented games need apply!<br /><br />Special guests this year will include (deeep breath):Returning Guests: Paul Jaquays, Rob Kuntz, Frank Mentzer, Tim Kask, Dennis Sustare, Steve Winter, Jason Braun; New Guests Steve Marsh and Erol Otus, and a surprise guest (Doug just informed me this week) will be Jim Ward, who has accepted an invitation and we hope will be recovered enough from his illness to travel here in June. As some of you might know Jim was scheduled to appear at last year's con, but had to cancel at the last minute due to a serious illness that has dogged him for the entire year. Jim says he will run a Metamorphosis Alpha game, and something from Eldritch Enterprises. <br /><br />Some tidbits: <br /><br />This year we will award the first ever Three Castles Design award for achievement in RPG design. The statuette is stone cold gorgeous! We have had some great submissions this year and we are still going through them.<br /><br />Doug and I have discussed giving out an annual NTRPG Con award for best release at the con itself. Basically, any adventure released at the con for the first time will be eligible. We need to work on it a bit more but it looks like we'll take votes on all submissions and give out the award sometime at the end of June, to be awarded at the next year's con. <br /><br />Reminder that registration for events goes live midnight April 15th....as some of you know events fill up VERY fast, especially premium events. <br /><br />Speaking of which, this year both Erol Otus and Paul Jaquays will be gamemastering events. I believe Paul has not gamemastered (is this a word?) at a con in many, many years, and I think apart from games with friends Erol has not either. Paul is running a Runequest game and Erol is running D&D. Should fill up fast! <br /><br />Some of you looking over events may have noticed this year's games seem to have taken a slight turn towards the sci-fi. Besides Jim's Meta Alpha game, we have two other MA games by Tavis Allison, more Urutsk from Kyrinn Eis, a Paranoia game by Ben Burns, another Gamma World scenario by Steve Winters as well as one by Rollin Kearney, and a Spelljammer retro game (using OD&D rules!) from Bob Reed. We didn't plan it this way but it sure looks quite interesting if you like mutants with your swords and sorcery! <br /><br />This year we will have a special charity game (the first event of the con, Thursday afternoon) DM'd by the esteemed Taco Jon Hershberger, which will contain all the special guests we can round up a the time. Two prime seats in this session will be auctioned off to a pair of lucky gamers, who can then say they sat at the same table as some of the founding fathers of the game! This game will be in the lecture room with seats for sale (for charity) to anyone wanting to watch; I expect this to be quite....interesting. Taco Jon is going to have his hands full with this one. <br /><br />Like last year we will have a mini-auction on Saturday, with some goodies from the prize closet. Included will be one of the 65 signed copies of the limited edition Erol Otus print done exclusively for The Acaeum last year....63 of these are owned by Acaeum members, which means there is a 99% chance none of these will ever see the light of day. This is the ONLY limited edition print Erol Otus has ever done! <br /><br />As usual the raffle (get your tickets now!) will have some great items including a Dragon magazine #1, Dungeon Magazine #1, a Castle Zagyg boxed set, and some signed items from past cons. We are tired of Cimmerian and JohnGaunt winning everything the last two years.....<br /><br />We will again have seminars this year. Friday there will be a 6 hour long (lunch included) adventure design seminar by Rob Kuntz where an adventure will be designed to be run by Rob on Saturday night! There will be an art seminar with Jason Braun, Erol Otus and Paul Jaquays; A "Tips for DMs" seminar with Matt Finch, Harely Stroh and Frank Mentzer; and an adventure writing seminar with Tim Kask and Dennis Sustare. <br /><br />This year we will again offer tables and shelves for vendors. We have a few tables left at $40 a pop ($50 after May 1st); these are good if you have a volume of material to sell and don't mind sitting there shooting the breeze with buyers during the day. We have several vendor shelves available at $15 each ($20 after May 1st); these are a GREAT deal if you don't want to have to worry about taking time out of your day to sell stuff, or you aren't going to attend the con. We do the work for you, displaying and selling your items, and only ask for 10% of your total sales; the shelves sit by the register and can hold at least 4 modules flat, more if they are overlapping. One vendor last year who bought a few shelves made $900 at NTRPG Con! <br /><br />Please post at this thread with any questions! Can't wait to see you guys again this year! <br /><br /><a href="http://ntrpgcon.com/">NTRPG Con Home Page</a><br /><br /><a href="http://ntrpgcon.com/index.php?option=com_dtregister&Itemid=65">List of Events</a> <br /><br /><a href="http://ntrpgcon.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=66">Buying Raffle tickets ($5 each)</a><br /><br /><a href="http://ntrpgcon.com/index.php?option=com_kunena&Itemid=55&func=view&catid=14&id=848">Staybridge Suites Info</a><br /><br />Mike B.Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-7954659745226027812010-08-11T18:18:00.004-05:002010-08-11T19:13:05.761-05:00'Bout That Time Again....Drama!<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWFwPJHTFWmziHwhXm1qfg3WFleU9n_001wgQVwzNBfx-vaN6VZHjjKTwix5AMzg3Kvj4Rvhc4Ui6wM-u3NECFwdqbGlP_vJXhLaOVFV30VeL0r-3x6KCJfGOU0XGvlkGIEwlYSPNtNOc/s1600/insidious.jpg"><img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 248px; height: 320px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhWFwPJHTFWmziHwhXm1qfg3WFleU9n_001wgQVwzNBfx-vaN6VZHjjKTwix5AMzg3Kvj4Rvhc4Ui6wM-u3NECFwdqbGlP_vJXhLaOVFV30VeL0r-3x6KCJfGOU0XGvlkGIEwlYSPNtNOc/s320/insidious.jpg" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5504309455181340930" /></a><br />Ah, it's been awhile since the latest dust up that lets gamers get all indignant and go on about suppression of freedom, oppression of free choice, and dire conspiracy theories....but enough about whether Edition 5.0 is reality or not....<div><br /></div><div>The publication of the module "Insidious" by <a href="http://www.diecastgamesinc.com/main.sc">Die Cast Press</a> has finally penetrated the blogger consciousness and the result is the typical S-storm such events bring. The main point of contention seems to be the use (front and center) of "Advanced Dungeons & Dragons" on the cover, while availing themselves of the OGL at the same time. Reactions at <a href="http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2010/08/kerfuffle-in-offing.html">Grognardia</a> and <a href="http://underdarkgazette.blogspot.com/2010/08/well-i-wonder-how-this-will-go-over-tsr.html">The Underdark Gazette</a> from the common folk seem to be full of doom and gloom that this gives "THEM" the ammo they need to finally awaken the ghost of Lorraine Williams and come at the OSR, retro-clone movement, and anyone with even a thought about publishing a D&D compatible item with both guns blazing (Yes, there have actually been comments about C&Ds, carpet bombing, IP and trademarks....it's 1994 and T$R all over again!!!). </div><div><br /></div><div>Unless the WOTC police are coming to my house to pry my 1E and 2E books out of my hands (ok, they can have the Wilderness Survival Guide, but that's it), it shouldn't affect me one bit...nor should it affect the die-hards who have been slogging through these dramas for the last 30 years. We have been creating, self-publishing and sharing material before the Lorraine Williams driven internet purges of the '90s (btw, how did that work out for them? Sure shut down those ruffians for good!!!) and will continue until they pry our solar powered cognition memory boards out of our cold, dead hands sometime in 2050 or so....<br /></div><div><br /></div><div>Some observations:</div><div><br /></div><div>1. This is a genius marketing move by Die Cast. Either nothing happens to them and they sell tons of modules due to the publicity of marketing a (gasp) ILLEGAL module, or they get a C&D letter and promptly stop publishing after having sold tons of modules due to the publicity...while holding back a handful of copies for collectible purposes (think a 2010 version of an Orange B3). Props.</div><div><br /></div><div>2. Maybe Rob Kuntz was right when he said (during the Kask/Raggi flap) one didn't even need the OGL to publish compatible material...</div><div><br /></div><div>3. Didn't Kenzer just publish a "compatible with 4E" box set awhile back? Anything happen to them?</div><div><br /></div><div>4. If Hasbro was going to go after "everyone" as the result of this, even those legally abiding by the OGL, wouldn't they start with Paizo? Aren't they the only ones really making any money off this stuff? You know, Paizo, the guys who just won a dozen Ennies....yeh that'll happen.</div><div><br /></div><div>5. And why all the sad faces and wringing hands from the guys who are diligently following the rules? The one guy that steps outside the lines is going to finish you all off? Sounds like a pretty precarious deal you got there....should have kept publishing under the table stuff using Microsoft Publisher on the home computer. Oh, wait, you could STILL do that even if tomorrow WOTC told everyone in the world to stop writing your own stuff, we really mean it....</div><div><br /></div><div>6. Reminds me of the time way back when, I admitted on an online forum that I used to photocopy Dragon magazines back in the 80s and give them to friends....which prompted lots of "seruz biznez" posts about what an awful pig I was by breaking the law like that. While our hobby attracts some of the most intelligent, creative and imaginative guys in the world, it also seems to be a magnet to the most overly anal retentive, finger pointing, tattle taling, hyperbole spouting conspiracy theorists ever.</div><div><br /></div><div>7. As I understand it, the OGL is for perpetuity. As in forever. Right? So when the Negative Nellies drone on how this will make things more "difficult" for publishers using the OGL, what are they talking about exactly?</div><div><br /></div><div>8. Just THINK of all the good will WOTC would engender to gamers should they come down on the OSR like a ton of bricks. Why, look at the reverence and respect gamers even today hold a figure like Lorraine Williams after her actions of the 1990s. One can only imagine, with the preponderance of blogs, internet forums, and you tube personalities of today, how such a well-intentioned public relations move such as this would endear the failing 4E even MORE to gamer nation!</div><div><br /></div><div>9. Man, the OSR sure has gone respectible. I remember when the OSR was a bunch of scruffy dudes with hand drawn maps, photocopied rules sets, and badly drawn artwork trying to set the world on fire. Now they are the "suits" with the haircuts and ties and pinstripes driving 55 in their Volvos. Hey, I understand, I know a lot of guys who stood in line with me for Clash tickets back in 82 that love a good Dave Matthews Band hoedown these days....</div><div><br /></div><div>10. Everyone is just mad because they didn't think of it first (See Post #1)......</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div>Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-13362769992595039072010-08-11T07:47:00.004-05:002010-08-11T08:49:16.840-05:00Sandbox fun in The Lost FrontierIn prior posts I've talked briefly about a <a href="http://trollhomework.blogspot.com/2009/09/anti-sandbox-sandbox-pt-2.html">sandbox campaign</a> I've set up for play when everyone can't show up for my "regular" campaign. <a href="http://thelostfrontier.blogspot.com/">The Lost Frontier</a> has seen four sessions since then, and while I have been remiss at getting up the play by play, it's been going along exactly as planned. So far, there has been a different mix of players each time, with last week's session having the most players (four, with five PCs)and things being suitably, well, sandboxy.<br /><br />Last week's session was remarkable in that as a DM I had to engage in not one, not two, but three complete focus shifts until the "real" adventure happened, which just highlights how non-scripted and seat of the pants such a campaign can become. The session started with the group meeting in the favorite inn/tavern of the town of Barnacus, and me presenting them with several (randomly rolled up) rumors from a rumor sheet of about 20+ adventure seeds. Some had been heard before, and dismissed (for the second time, a certain PC decided there was NO WAY he was going to try to find out why intelligent white apes were attacking caravans going to and from the city). Finally settling on a tried and true cliche ("A village at the foot of the mountains has had several young ladies kidnapped for an unknown fate")the party hired three NPC fighters, bought a pack mule, and headed off.<br /><br />On the way to the adventure, the party passed through an area where undead were said to be attacking people. The party clerics decided it would be a good idea to look into this while they were in the neighborhood, so convinced the party to just stop and take a look-see. This led to a battle with ghasts and a delve into a underground crypt, and a room with four doorways, all with cryptic clues to which sort of undead lay within. The first room they choose was a skeletal figure on a throne, and after disturbing it, it waved it's finger at them....and teleported them all far away. To a completely different adventure!<br /><br />They ended up spending the afternoon battling a small orc army (over 200 strong) protecting a freehold on the edge of civilized lands,and getting a better view of the wider campaign area (and the subtle idea that orcs are once again building up to another invasion of civilized lands, something that happens every decade or so with alarming regularity in The Lost Frontier).<br /><br />For my part, I enjoyed the fact that the adventuring focus changed three times: from rescuing village lasses, to cleaning out a tomb of undead, to defending a fortress against orcs, and it was more or less all player driven. Had different decisions been made at approximately any point (choosing a different initial rumor, not investigating the undead, certainly not choosing the tomb of the Crypt Thing over the other three tombs) we would have had a totally different experience. It definitely kept me on my toes, even if I experienced the mental whiplash of three entirely different DM foci in the period of an hour! Typical adventuring behavior seems to have players focus in on one goal (which happened the 2nd and 3rd sessions, as two different groups decided to clean out one dungeon due to the rapidly escalating reward for such an endeavor) and move on from there. I'm interested in seeing where the more scattered sandbox approach will leave the landscape (half-finished dungeons? Rumors never followed up on? Threats ignored that will have to be dealt with "off stage"?)<br /><br />Interestingly, hex crawling is a perfectly viable endeavor in my sandbox, yet the players have yet to go about adventuring in that way, although I hope they do at some point; simply because I've taken the ridiculous amount of time to plant over 1000 adventure seeds, treasures, NPCs, ruins, dungeons and what-not in the campaign area.<br /><br />Probably my only "disappointment" so far has been no character deaths. NPCs have not been so lucky, and the different groups have been smart in hiring cannon fodder every time out (once losing four NPCs in a single session in a dungeon delve near town). If this keeps up the group may develop a reputation in town (although the NPCs that do survive are very comfortably compensated, so this might mitigate the criticism somewhat among possible hirelings). These are all experienced players, however, who know the value of caution, retreating, and can recognize a threat that is too dangerous for their low level group (an entreaty from the priests of the Temple of Elemental Fire hiring adventurers to clean out their temple invaded by rogue fire creatures met with nothing more than a chuckle or two). Now that the two longest lived characters are 2nd and 3rd level, I'm interested in seeing the player's reactions if/when these characters bite the dust, and they are forced to begin again from scratch. In the other campaign I run, characters that die are raised by their companions; I'm wondering if this same dynamic will hold in the much looser confederation of "game as you go" sandbox playing style. Certainly in the case of the lost NPCs no consideration beyond running away was taken in their unfortunate deaths....Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-59106582837150452492010-07-21T09:53:00.003-05:002010-07-21T18:59:32.174-05:00Three Castles Design Award<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXxKG7cYV8EKO8EM8H3bFNtcPiXjtX2YrNhHjWQo4lW0dkSmy5AaQ_UUTW-fzVwApvyYuan6c4AqR-te7BSm27jgsUD1utBOxRUlhG5kAQ_m7MTG3gNIkHTmRI_SqyPH4iq6VDKXBNWHo/s1600/D&D_Pattern_20_copy.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5496513411015669762" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 284px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXxKG7cYV8EKO8EM8H3bFNtcPiXjtX2YrNhHjWQo4lW0dkSmy5AaQ_UUTW-fzVwApvyYuan6c4AqR-te7BSm27jgsUD1utBOxRUlhG5kAQ_m7MTG3gNIkHTmRI_SqyPH4iq6VDKXBNWHo/s320/D&D_Pattern_20_copy.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>One of the joys of creating and running a convention like the NTRPG Con is the ability to actually influence people's gaming habits. Whether it's the fact you've managed to convince gamers from all around the US (and some from out of the country) to attend your little shindig, or the fact they sit around meeting and gaming with old school gaming luminaries like Rob Kuntz, Tim Kask, Paul Jaquays, Steve Winter, Dennis Sustare and others, or maybe they will be introduced to a RPG they would have never thought about picking up like The World of Urutsk or Swords & Wizardry...well you get the idea. It's a little like being a DM, setting up the convention (dungeon), giving people choices and watching them decide what to do with those choices....except unlike a dungeon adventure there is no chance for a TPK.<br /><br />Besides the fun of bringing old school gaming to a bunch of really great gamers, through our association with Rob Kuntz the NTRPG Con was able to begin a tradition that I hope will go many, many years (well, at least ten years, as this is as long as we have guaranteed to run the NTRPG Con). The Three Castles award was created by Rob Kuntz and Doug Rhea, and it's purpose is to recognize excellence in gaming design. The three castles in question---Greyhawk, Blackmoor and El Raja Key---were the three original megadungeons, and their legacy has influenced fantasy roleplaying to this day.<br /><br />Here is Rob's <a href="http://lordofthegreendragons.blogspot.com/2010/06/three-castles-award.html">original post explaining the award</a>; below is the criteria for the award, which can also be found on the NTRPG Con website.<br /><br />Needless to say I'm very proud to be part of this award and of the process itself. I hope everyone reading this who has published something since October of last year throws their hat in the ring. The award is absolutely beautiful and an incredible item to have upon your shelf looking down on you....don't miss this chance to be part of the first ever Three Castles Award.<br /><br /><span style="FONT-STYLE: italic">1) This is an RPG award. Qualified works must be printed and bound (*) and<br />include the following categories: RPG rules, settings, adventures, sourcebooks<br />and/or combinations of these. No fiction, board games, miniatures, electronic<br />media, magazines or loose game aids (cards, screens, etc). Where the design is<br />unique and might make use of a board or other unique components, please<br />query with a detailed synopsis and sample copy of the work. Enclose an SASE if<br />you want the sample returned.<br />(*) Only the following binding types are acceptable: hard bound, perfect bound, saddle-stitched<br />(at least 2 staples), spiral bound and comb.<br />2) This is a DESIGNERS award. Companies may submit titles from their author<br />base, however, if a win occurs the award will be sent to the lead designer. The<br />plate attached to the trophy will be inscribed with up to two (2) designer names in<br />the cases of co-authorship. The press release regarding the win will specifically<br />mention the company name with address that the product was published<br />through. An entry is automatically disqualified when no designer name appears<br />in the submitted printed work.<br />3) No more than two (2) titles may be submitted by any one company or<br />independent designer in a year.<br />4) Submissions open October 1st and close December 31st. All published works<br />from the current year and those published in the last three (3) months of the past<br />year can be entered for consideration. Final Publication Date Range: Oct 1st<br />(previous year) to Oct 1st (current year).<br />5) This is a multi-stage qualification process. Each entrant must initially submit<br />two (2) copies of each work that they wish considered. Submissions will be<br />reviewed by the Steering Committee for the final round. If the entry(ies) makes it<br />to the final round starting January 31st you will be informed to submit an<br />additional four (4) copies of each work that qualified for final adjudication (note<br />the 3C Award Judges below). You will be informed by email and mail that one or<br />more of the entries made it to the final round. The cut-off date for us to receive<br />your additional copies is February 15th. The Judges’ final decision will be<br />received no later than May 1st. The winner will be announced at NTRPGCON in<br />June. All dates are final and if not met will unfortunately disqualify entries from<br />further consideration. Unless otherwise noted submitted materials are not<br />returned to the entrants. We strongly suggest that you purchase tracking<br />services for parcels you send to the 3C Award Steering Committee.<br />6) There can be only one (1) award awarded per year. This is an award for true<br />excellence in RPG design. As such the guidelines for adjudication are detailed<br />and stringent. The 3C Award Judges may rule that no entry qualifies to be<br />awarded and thus no award would be issued that year.<br />7) Complete the following entry form in full once or each title submitted and<br />enclose it with the mailing(s). This form is not required for the final round<br />(additional) submissions.<br /><br /><br />The 3C Award Judges for 2011 are:<br />Dennis Sustare<br />Paul Jaquays<br />Steven J. Winter<br />Tim Kask<br />Robert J. Kuntz</span></div><br /><div><em></em></div><br /><div>The full info on the award can be found here at the <a href="http://ntrpgcon.com/index.php?option=com_wrapper&view=wrapper&Itemid=75">NTRPGCON website</a>.</div>Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-50673532159774326212010-04-26T11:32:00.003-05:002010-04-26T11:57:46.542-05:00Tim Kask Adventures At NTRPG ConFirst post in a month and I'm pimping the con; hopefully I can put out some game related stuff in the next few days or I'll have to admit this blog is nothing but a fancy promo instrument for NTRPG Con!<br /><br />The NTRPG Con is proud to announce we will be selling limited edition booklet copies of Tim Kask's adventures "High in the Hellgate Mountains" and "Temple of the Weaver Queen" at the con. ONLY AVAILABLE at the con, in limited quantities of 50 copies each, these adventures were presented (respectively) at the 2009 Gencon Acaeum Game and 2009 NTRPG Con, and have never been available before except in extremely rare DM copies auctioned or given away at the Gen Con Acaeum dinner or NTRPG Con #1. <br /><br />The adventures will be in small booklet form, limited to one per attendee, with only 50 copies available of each adventure. Tim plans in the future to present these and other specially written adventures in a more traditional format, but for right now this is the ONLY way to get a look at two great old school OD&D adventures in their original form!<br /><br />I've read both of Tim's adventures, and they don't come more old school. Tim Kask, 1st editor for Dragon magazine and one of the first TSR employees, stopped taking in D&D rules and other innovations about 1979 or so, thus his stuff is firmly rooted in the OD&D/White Box tradition. Some day these and other adventures from Tim''s marvelous imagination will see more wide-spread appreciation when he has them printed up in a more proper format. Until then, they will only be available at NTRPG Con. <br /><br />As an item of interest, "Temple of the Weaver Queen" produced the con's first TPK last year at the Friday night game. Something about a lich riding a nightmare......!<br /><br />Each year we hope to present some of these booklet sized, con only collectibles so NTRPG Con can be on the map as a "Must attend" for old school players, writers, designers and collectors.Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-44557150970137407742010-03-17T11:24:00.003-05:002010-03-17T11:35:36.550-05:00Trust Me....AgainFollowing a recent theme, and after reading some of Lord Kilgore's <a href="http://http//www.lordkilgore.com/no-more-criticals#comments">musings on the critical hit</a>, I myself have some follow ups to my notion of "trust" being one of the more important DM/PC factors in a successful game.<br /><br />In regards to criticals, I don't use them, but we did dabble in the past (leading to one of the most amusing tales in my D&D career when my father tried to sit down and play with us long ago, a story for another time). Criticals are fun (when they happen to the other guy, natch), giving an unexpected bonus to that 5% chance of rolling a natural 20 when attacking in D&D. Likewise when you roll a "1" and the other guy's sword breaks or he hits the guy next to him (again, not as much fun when it happens to you). Who knows where the idea of criticals first originated...people that weren't satisfied by getting a sure thing hit wanted more? Sure sounds like a generation of entitled gamers to me! But I kid, I kid...<br /><br />Sidestepping entirely the idea of criticals (which is a long bit of potential subject matter in itself), is the way I approach the die rolls of "20" and "1" in my own campaigns. I tend to wait for particularly dramatic moments, and if either is rolled, it will affect game play in a way that I come with completely off the fly, apropos to the dramatic potential. While not absolutely consistent, I feel like it flows with the style of old school gaming I enjoy, and I've rarely had complaints from my players because (as in most cases) the results usually even out over the course of a campaign.<br /><br />There are only two absolutes: First, if battling an opponent with only a handful of hit points left (say, 2-3), and a 20 is rolled, I don't even require a roll for damage....whatever rolled, the bad guy is brought down in a particularly explosive way (decapitation, sword through the body, arm whacked off, etc)....basically a nat 20 against someone on the ropes is an instant kill. Likewise, if firing into melee, a roll of "1" guarantees you will strike one of your buddies in the back of the head (ouch). Those are probably the only two guaranteed good/bad results of rolling a "20" or a "1" in my campaigns.<br /><br />That rule in and of itself isn't particularly noteworthy or controversial. However, in particularly dramatic situations, a nat 20 can lead to interesting results. In a recent battle, a low level party was battling a foe far above their experience level (a fire lizard) who had just torched (literally) half the party and was chasing fleeing characters all over it's cavern lair. The party was making missile attacks work well against the menace, as in a stand up fight any of them would die easily under the lizard's claws, bite or breath weapon. Truthfully the party was inches away from a TPK, and when one character attempted a hit and run attack against the lizard and then turned to run for the safety of a nearby rock formation, the lizard scurried after him. Another character stated he was firing his bow at the giant lizard, trying to distract it. He rolled a natural 20, and so adding to the drama of the situation, I had the arrow miraculously strike the fire lizard in the eye! The now half-blinded, pain maddened lizard forgot about the retreating character, and was eventually brought down by the party's fired arrows (now emboldened by the fighter's lucky arrow hit, they rallyed for the win). It added to the touch and go aspect of the situation, by giving excitement and an entirely unexpected result, and the players were talking about the lucky arrow strike for hours afterwards.<br /><br />That's what a crit should do, give players a bonus in a dicey situation, but even more, that's what trust can do in a game situation....there is no "rolled missile chart for crits" in my game....I made up the result on the fly to conform to the game situation, and it worked well. Now, for the opposite side, you ask what would happen if the fighter had rolled a "1" instead of a "20" in that tense situation. Well, I don't rightly know, being separated by the event by several weeks, but any number of dramatic situations....perhaps his bow would break, or the arrow would strike his fleeing friend in the back, or maybe even nothing except for a particularly bad miss....I would have decided on the spur of the moment based on what I thought was the best and most dramatic application of the bad roll.<br /><br />Can every group have this dynamic? Of course not. Rules lawyers and BTB nuts would scream and howl bloody murder at such seat of the pants decision making. Where is the chart? The mechanic? The exploding dice? The rules, dammit! Such a method requires trust between a DM and his players....a willingness for players to accept the results such as this as it was...a lucky break, and likewise, a bad result as just one of those days when nothing goes right.<br /><br />Now, this same character later on was battling a foe in a slippery, dark and muddy area, got to experience the other side of the coin. In battle against a minotaur (another tough foe for a low level party), they rolled a "1", which led to my ruling the character had done a total pratfall and landed on his butt. They had to spend a round gathering themselves and their weapon, but luckily nothing worse happened (the opponent randomly elected to attack a different party member that round). The player accepted it without asking to consult the rulebook to see if he really should have fallen in that situation...they had rolled a "1", the conditions were rough, and they fully expected in another dramatic situation that "something" was going to happen. I could have had the sword fly out of their hands, had it break, had them hit a nearby friend, or just make it a particularly bad swing. Once again, the decision was all with me.<br /><br />There must be a level of trust between DM and player to have this happen, and it seems to be a particularly old school sensibility in that regard. I've noticed "newer" players (aka post-2000) tend to not enjoy my spur of the moment statements as to the result of a "20" or "1" in critical situations. Often they will ask for a saving throw, or a roll against their ability (DEX seems to be the most stated ability, aka "My DEX is 18, how did I fall down on the ice when my DEX is that high?"), or just grumble under their breath. Interestingly, this happens EVEN IF they have benefited in the past from a rolled crit, or the bad guy rolling an unexpected "1" and having their asses handed to them as a result. It's not about "fairness" or "balance" as much as it is about "What do the rules say?". Now I must say I rarely play with newer gamers so my experience in this regard is limited. One hard core 3E player I had for awhile hated my application of crits and misses; she kept bugging me to create a "chart" so that "some players" (aka herself) wouldn't think I was just picking on them. I told her the entire point of my method was that it was unpredictable and based on dramatic potential in the situation, something a chart or list could never quantify. I (and my regulars) explained I was very fair and would never DIRECTLY kill a character because of a bad roll (although the result could make their life difficult). She was still unconvinced and I think the idea there wasn't a official system in place made her nervous.<br /><br />I do know that this method would not work with most groups, including a lot of old school players. Even back in the "good old days" a huge segment of RPG gaming was "Us vs Them", or "DM vs Player", I know because I experienced some of these games (and hated them). A competitive DM would look to the dice to screw you six ways to Sunday, and a savvy player would NEVER surrender such a spot decision to DM whim (based on the fact that this sort of DM would use a bad dice roll to nail you to the floor while conveniently "forgetting" to reward you for a crit). So perhaps this isn't necessary a old school or new school attitude; instead it seems to be situational based on the maturity of players and DM, experience, and how comfortable a group is with everyone else in the group. I've been very lucky the last few decades or so to play with mostly old schoolers, and except for my brother (who deep in his heart STILL feels after 30 years of gaming with me I'm out to get him!) they accept my decisions with a shrug of the shoulders and "hand me the dice, let's roll again" attitude. I wonder how many DMs out there are at this sort of comfort level with players, and if it's more palatable to old schoolers than the post-2000 crowd?<br /><br />However lucky I am now I've had two groups the last two decades that I had to drop the practice with; one was a large group consisting of a LOT of schemers and a few players did not trust the other characters enough to wonder if I was somehow unconsciously influencing the application of crits and misses (one guy was so paranoid he was actually keeping his own scratch sheet detailing how often a rolled crit or "1" went for or against him or his rival in the party); another was the aforementioned 3E player who was so rattled by the entire thing we dropped it rather than completely freak her out (she ended up leaving after a few months anyway).<br /><br />Next I'll talk about the most gigantic application of DM/Player trust I ever had to administer in game and the result...Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-52429735009862373062010-03-10T23:35:00.005-06:002010-03-10T23:44:59.983-06:00D&D and Dopamine<meta equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5CMike%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:worddocument> <w:view>Normal</w:View> <w:zoom>0</w:Zoom> <w:punctuationkerning/> <w:validateagainstschemas/> <w:saveifxmlinvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:ignoremixedcontent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:alwaysshowplaceholdertext>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:compatibility> <w:breakwrappedtables/> <w:snaptogridincell/> <w:wraptextwithpunct/> <w:useasianbreakrules/> <w:dontgrowautofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:browserlevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:latentstyles deflockedstate="false" latentstylecount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal">I just finished Jonah Lehrer’s excellent book on memory and the decision making process, “<a href="http://www.amazon.com/How-We-Decide-Jonah-Lehrer/dp/0618620117">How We Decide</a>”. The book is highly recommended if you want a little inner peek at how and why we make the decisions we do in our day to day lives.</p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">One thing that Lehrer focuses on is the presence of dopamine neurons and their effect on our decision making processes. The nucleus accubens (NAcc), the part of the brain that makes you feel happy and generates pleasurable feelings, is what produces dopamine. <span style=""> </span>Dopamine regulates not only the pleasure centers but all our emotions, the molecule in ourselves that literally controls us. Dopamine neurons are working all the time, constantly generating emotions, feelings and “patterns” that lead to pleasurable impulses (they can lead to negative emotions also if something not-as-expected turns up, such as expecting a desert of chocolate cake and getting lima beans instead might induce)</p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">To make a long story short (and I heartily advise reading<span style=""> </span>the book to learn more about how dopamine controls our lives), our decision making is often controlled by the pleasure we will receive when we get a dopamine “hit” to the brain after making a “good” choice. Now, I’ve known for years (ever since reading about how junkies, gamblers and sex addicts are afflicted with excess dopamine surges) that the pleasurable “high” I experience when, say, walking into a game store or opening a new D&D module is dopamine related. However, after reading this book, it amazed me how many activities related to D&D (and sometimes not even directly related) trigger the pleasure neurons and leave me with a happy feeling akin to a drug high. I made a list of D&D related activities that I am absolutely convinced cause dopamine surges in my brain and wash away any negative or bad feelings I might have at the time:</p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">Looking at any classic “blue-white” map; </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Looking at an unpainted lead miniature;</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Looking at or drawing on graph or hex paper;</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Rolling 3 or 4 six sided dice six times;</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Flipping through a book of D&D monsters (any, but the 1E Monster Manual seems to have the best effect); </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Seeing the cover of a classic pre-#100 Dragon magazine;</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Opening D&D PDFs on my computer; </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Seeing the names “Gygax, “Kuntz”, “Mentzer” or “Kask” almost anywhere;</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Seeing, holding or rolling polyhedral dice;</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Booting up the Core Rules Expansion CD on my computer;</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Looking at any Trampier, Otus or Sutherland artwork;</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Hearing certain albums like Led Zepplin IV, Pink Floyd’s Wish You Were Here, or The Who’s Who’s Next (all albums we were listening to intently while running our first campaign back in 1978-79 with G1-3; to this day hearing Zepplin’s Misty Mountain Hop makes me instantly remember G2 Glacier of the Frost Giant Jarl);</p> <p class="MsoNormal">By extension, the word “Giant”, especially preceded by "Hill", "Frost", "Fire", "Stone" or "Cloud"; </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Looking at the underground hex map of the classic D "Descent" series;</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Seeing the word “Greyhawk” almost anywhere;</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Seeing the large first level poster map of Undermountain; </p> <p class="MsoNormal">Sharpening a fistful of pencils with the same electric pencil sharpener I’ve had since high school;</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Touching the smoothness of a Chessex battlemat;</p> <p class="MsoNormal">Seeing any sort of “random generation” chart, whether it be for names, weapons, skills, locations, etc as long as you have to use a d12, d20 or d100;</p><p class="MsoNormal">
<br /></p> <p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p> <p class="MsoNormal">What D&D related activities/word associations trigger dopamine surges of pleasure in your brain?</p> Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-37512659978695624002010-03-02T13:47:00.003-06:002010-03-07T22:24:34.478-06:00Trust Me, I Know What I'm DoingMichael on the <a href="http://oldguyrpg.blogspot.com/2010/03/dm-failure-long-freakin-long-post.html">Old Guy RPG Blog</a> had a really insightful post about DM failure. I thought the entire post was quite illuminating and this is one of my favorite blogs simply because Chgowiz allows us very intimate looks at his thought processes, as well as both his successes and failures while running a sandbox type campaign in his unique setting.<br /><br />I had a lot to say about this, but didn't want to entirely monopolize the comments section (although my two long posts probably did just that). After thinking about it some more last night, I think there are a lot of reasons this sort of thing happens. It happened back in 1979 when I started playing, and it happens to this day, which says as gamers (and humans) we haven't advanced much in the past three decades when it comes to trust issues. Because, when it all boils down to it, the DM/Player relationship, and really the entire gaming experience, comes down to trust.<br /><br />Michael has a quote that really summed up (to me at least) the entire DM experience: <br /> <br /> "I was hurt... hurt that after a year of playing together, after a tough game my players would think I would permanently fuck someone over with a no-win scenario." <br /><br />I have been there, and I feel for him. Since we first started playing, being a DM to me seemed like a natural calling. I get my kicks out of creating the NPCs, the plots, the bad guys, the monsters, the settings, the worlds, that others adventure in....the lure of actually playing paled next to actually being the guy who pulled all the strings. So, my DM to Player ratio is surely something like 9 to 1, as I rarely enjoy sitting on the other side of the screen saving the princess...I want to be the one who locked her up to begin with! I think a lot of DMs are authors (frustrated or not) and DMing is a very cheap "fix" for us. <br /><br />As a DM, I pride myself as being an impartial arbiter, although not always perfect (I think it's foolish to assume a DM can divorce all emotion from his game), I have trained myself over the years to be someone who REACTS to his players instead of GUIDES his players. Instead of deriving pleasure out of a by the book dungeon crawl, I've learned to find enjoyment at the differing ways players can confound expectations and sometimes accomplish a goal by a non-linear or unexpected route. <br /><br />Now at this point I have to mention my middle brother, Rob. I've been DMing since 1979 or so, and my middle brother has been with me that entire time. And to this day, he STILL doesn't completely trust me as a DM not to screw him (or by extension the group) over!!!! Even when he KNOWS I've NEVER screwed him around "In play", EVER! I think a lot of it still comes down to the old "player vs DM" mentality that a lot of old-timers have fostered over the years, and the general nature of competitiveness the game brings out in us....especially since gaming so long with my brother, some battle scenarios literally come down to each of us trying to out-strategize the other (knowing each other's quirks quite well by now) and we sometimes accusing the other of using "out of game" knowledge to give the other an edge. If two people (related to each other!) who have gamed together over 30 years still have trust issues, it's no wonder they have cropped up in your game. Needless to say, we've grudgingly reached an impasse to where we trust the other, but are always ready to yell "Bullshit!" if something unkosher comes up on either side.<br /><br />All these issues came together in one of my face to face campaign sessions (with my brother running a character). In a recent game, what I thought was going to be a really tough battle for a McGuffin that had a chance of falling into evil hands instead turned into a really tough battle....with the baddies having no chance of getting the McGuffin. For, you see, my intelligent players thought of a way to get the McGuffin (which in this case was an extremely powerful and evil sword) out of the dungeon and to a safehouse using teleportation, giving the ambushing baddies absolutely no chance to "win" even if they defeated the player characters. You see, I had been quite sure the players wouldn't give up their magical advantage by having the party mage leave the field of battle permanently (the teleport was one way with no method for return) just to make sure the baddies didn't have a chance to score the weapon. They did, surprising me, and in the battle that followed the party could rest assured that win or lose the baddies had NO CHANCE to come away with total victory (the PCs did win without the mage, btw, so the gamble paid off). <br /><br />Anyway, this brings us back to trust. The players had to trust me as a DM (was I going to let their scheme to get the weapon out of evil's hands succeed, or would I screw them over by saying "Your teleport spell doesn't function here" or any number of ways to confound them?) and I had to trust them as players (down a powerful mage, were they going to accept the results of the battle if I stomped them dead, secure in the knowledge they had at least died to keep the weapon out of evil's hands, or would they cry and moan and accuse me of taking it out on them in revenge for them outthinking me?). Both sides had to have trust, and to our credit, it worked out quite dramatically, even if it was totally off the rails concerning every eventuality I had planned for (even down a mage, the characters triumphed over a white dragon and frost giant sorceress and her minions, with only one PC death).<br /><br />It all came down to trust. I trusted they would take the results like men, since they had made the choice to be down a mage in the combat that followed; they trusted me not to dick them by either preventing their scheme from happening through some extraordinary DM bullshit, or take it out on them by proving "who was boss" in the combat that came after (oh, it would have been so easy to add another two white dragons to the combat....!). It worked out in their favor, but I have no doubt that had things turned nasty for them, they would have accepted the results and rolled up new characters.<br /><br />The advantage our group had was that all the players are old school, experienced gamers. In Chgowiz's <a href="http://arsludi.lamemage.com/index.php/78/grand-experiments-west-marches/">West Marches style</a> campaign, there are no guarantees of that as anyone can show up for any session (I don't presume to know the experience of Michael's players, but the entire sandbox style is predicated on a hodgepodge of different player levels adventuring together). Part of the sandbox charm is the "anything can happen" vibe; however, this can also lead to lots of frustration, as the DM is not creating a railroad as much as he is just the conductor letting players get on their own train. If DM and Players are not on the same page in these sorts of situations, a lot of bad feelings can result. <br /><br />The #1 thing to remember is communication. We've gone way past the days of "I'm the DM, you're the players, if I hit you with a 50 ton rock and kill you with no warning you just accept it and shut the hell up". That style was big back when you had a lot of really, really crap-ass DMs running around who were using this brand new game to feed their power mad egos; such DMs (at least BITD) ended up with bad reps and soon were only DMing groups of 13 year olds at the Rec Center once word got out. I love the ability to use the internet to post blogs and message boards about campaign history and doings; it is a great mechanism for addressing out of game concerns, and perhaps gently nudging players in the right direction, or giving them choices about what aspect of your campaign world interests them, and about what kind of game they are looking for (for example, if you are a fanatic about puzzle dungeons and your players are hack and slash fiends, someone isn't going to be having a very good time, it's nice to know that beforehand and plan around it). <br /><br />Particularly in the case of a sandbox, which can contain numerous players with different levels of experience and attitudes about what constitutes a "fun" or "successful" adventure, communication is key. I thought Michael asked some really good questions about how he could improve his game, and gave some really good advice to his players in the aftermath of his game. Sometimes just unfamiliarity with a DM's style can lead to all sorts of misunderstandings...if you are used to a real DM vs PC type game, you might feel you have to constantly argue and pull out all the stops instead of trusting that certain DMs won't screw you over without giving you a fighting chance. If you are used to DMs who are a bit more lenient, it might be a total shock to be told "roll or die!" by a DM after being bitten by a poisonous snake (but, like, my last DM's snakes only had poison that made us dizzy!!!).<br /><br />When I start a new campaign, using the power of blogspot, I try to set up a page dedicated to that campaign and lay out some of the ground rules....is it deadlier than most? More light hearted and heroic? Grim and gritty? If you choose to play a certain class or race will it impede your ability to succeed? I think this is one way to head off a lot of DM failure problems to begin with. If you are thinking "Dark Sun with even more attitude" and the player is thinking "D&D cartoon I wanna have a pet like Uni" before they even roll up a character, something's gotta give....<br /><br />To be Continued....Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-25597352612758854102010-02-25T08:47:00.003-06:002010-02-25T09:23:31.341-06:00More NTRPG Con Hints...<div style="margin: 0px; font: 12px Helvetica;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size:medium;">"Behind-the-Scenes Cooperative Project: I can finally hint at this... This has been in the works for the last 6 months and is finally coming forward. It went from my desktop, to <a href="http://www.freewebs.com/atomtaylor/">Andy Taylor,</a> back to me, and then on to Journalizer (<a href="http://laurenhawkins.com/">Lauren Hawkins</a>). I cannot say much about it for now other than this is being worked on in concert with <a href="http://ntrpgcon.com/">NTRPGCon's</a> host and co-founder, Douglas Rhea and with further involvement at the primary level by a prominent ex-TSR artist. There will be an official announcement on this soon. I will tell you that it does involve a dragon and some castles... Much more in a couple of months. "<br /><br />---From Rob Kuntz's "Lord of the Green Dragons" blog (<a href="http://http//lordofthegreendragons.blogspot.com/">http://lordofthegreendragons.blogspot.com/</a>)<br /><br />Sometimes I wish I was attending NTRPG Con instead of helping to run it...sigh.....<br /><br />BTW Joseph Browning of <a href="http://www.xrpshop.citymax.com/page/page/2561954.htm">Expeditious Retreat Press</a> is now running a Saturday morning session at NTRPG Con.<br /><br /><br /><br /></span></div>Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-3943001311513231012010-02-18T20:30:00.005-06:002010-02-18T20:50:26.844-06:00NTRPG Con Crashing FacebookWell, I gave in and created a Facebook page for the Con. Lord forgive me....but so far it hasn't been too much of an ass-whipping.<br /><br />We are "North Texas RPG Con" on Facebook...link to us so we can spread the good word!<br /><br /><a href="http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=310434204630">http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/group.php?gid=310434204630</a>Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-62902515831033418582010-01-23T22:15:00.003-06:002010-01-23T22:31:46.785-06:00NTRPG Con 2010: First UpdateLast year, defying all our own expectations, the first annual North Texas RPG Con was announced in February for that summer as a three day celebration of old school gaming. By June we had 60+ people signed up and a full fledged mini-con in session, with special guests including Frank Mentzer, Tim Kask, Paul Jaquays, Rob Kuntz, Dennis Sustare and artist Jason Braun. The point of the con was to prove we could get several dozen fans of old school D&D at a con featuring just old school gaming, and it worked. Over 50 attendees showed up for 14 events including OD&D, AD&D 1st Edition, Basic D&D, and Matt Finch's Sword and Wizardry. Attendees came from all over the world (the US plus Canada and the UK) and all events were completely booked up! (I had earlier predicted we MIGHT see a couple dozen gamers there!) Some of the highlights included releases of NTRPG Con logo versions of Goodman Game's Tomb of the Blind God, and the 1E version of DCC9 The Secret of Smuggler's Cove NTRPG version by Black Blade Publishing, a giant BBQ at co-founder Doug Rhea's house (Fresh meat for 50 people!), a tour of the Reaper Miniature's factory (thanks Gus!), and unbelievable support from the entire OSR and gaming community with treasure chests full of donated items including minis, modules, gamebooks, and more (all put in the raffle to offset costs). We lost a ton of money, but we proved it could be done, and I can safely say it was the highlight of my decade.<br /><br />Where did we go from there? Having realized a small but loyal group of old school gamers would support a mini-con if properly run and promoted, we almost immediately started planning a bigger and better con for 2010. We quickly confirmed most of last year's guests and added Jim Ward and Steve Winters, two veterans of game design from the old days of TSR. We found a much larger and nicer venue (Staybridge Suites, with FIVE gaming rooms instead of the ONE gaming room we had to cram everyone in last year!). We planned more games, with another day on the schedule (Thursday) for 30+ events total (in contrast to last year's 14 events). We will have seminars and discussions in a lecture room at the hotel (the first scheduled is a seminar on module design featuring The Megadungeon). We have prevailed upon several new faces in the retro-clone, simulacrum and old school gaming industry to show up and run games, including Matt Finch (Swords & Wizardry <a href="http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/">http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/</a>), Jon Hershberger and Allan Grohe (Black Blade Publishing <a href="http://black-blade-publishing.com/">http://black-blade-publishing.com/</a>), Michael "Chgowiz" Shorten (Three Headed Monster Games <a href="http://thmgames.blogspot.com/">http://thmgames.blogspot.com/</a>), Richard McBain (Castles and Crusades <a href="http://www.trolllord.com/">http://www.trolllord.com/</a>), Bill Barsh (Pacesetter Games <a href="http://pacesettergames.com/home">http://pacesettergames.com/home</a>), and many more. We basically pulled out all the stops to make this year's version of NTRPG Con even more like a "real" con and an essential stop for gaming grognards across the nation!<br /><br />And we did this all before February of THIS year! Ahead of schedule, baby!<br /><br />With registration for games opening February 1st this year, we are expecting double or triple the amount of attendees from last year, and look forward to once again spreading the word about classic RPGs to both the enlightened and the masses. On the first weekend in June 2010(the 3rd-6th) we hope to see anyone interested in old school gaming (particularly Dungeons and Dragons) in attendance at our hotel in Irving, Texas, reading to roll some polyhedral dice! This year not only includes the mixtures of old school games we had last year, many run by veterans of the scene, but other diversions:<br /><br />Vendor Tables where OSR publishers will peddle their wares;<br /><br />Open gaming room with lots of board games both donated and brought by attendees;<br /><br />Tim Kask running two sessions of the chariot racing game "Circus Maximus";<br /><br />Another raffle with some amazing prizes donated by the gaming community (including a Dragon Magazine #1, a copy of the hard to find Castle Zagyg, and a painted mini by renowned artist Angela Imrie);<br /><br />An auction of several items both unusual and rare;<br /><br />Several "themed" games, including Matt "Mythmere" Finch's SIX PART "Tower of Mythrus" Megadungeon scheduled to run once in every session, and Jon Hershberger's all-day Sunday (8 hour) game of Megadungeon exploration;<br /><br />A surprise announcement that should take the old school publishing industry by storm;<br /><br />And much more, etc etc. Besides Garycon, there exists few outlets for gamers who want to go to gaming conventions and not have to wade through many events involving cards, furries, Battletech minis, and the latest abomination from WOTC to get to a game they know and love. Here is a convention with ONLY the games you know and love! When a con is properly set up, each session you miss should drive you nuts, and this weekend surely delivers in this department.<br /><br />The best part IMO is the low key atmosphere of the con, where you can suddenly find yourself sitting in a 3 hour conversation between game designers Paul Jaquays (Dark Tower, Caverns of Thracia) and Dennis Sustare (Bunnies and Burrows) in the hotel lobby, or having a 1 am meal at IHOP next to Frank Mentzer (TSR) and Tim Kask (Dragon magazine editor), both of which I was lucky enough to participate in last year. We did a great job of finding special guests with a historical overview of the hobby who are approachable, funny, and above all still interested in talking about their years in gaming with anyone interested.<br /><br /><a href="http://www.ntrpgcon.com/">http://www.ntrpgcon.com/</a>Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-86351186168363457042009-12-21T20:17:00.004-06:002013-06-13T20:20:13.670-05:00My Confession...I Confess...<br />
<br />
Things have really been going well for me in the realm of D&D right now. My Skype game is continuing to meet weekly, and after a short holiday break will head into a section of my campaign world that is a huge re-write of one of my all time favorite classic modules. After a several month hiatus, my face to face group has met twice the last two weeks and finished one of my most challenging scenarios, setting up a bunch of unscripted (sandbox) stuff for the next few after holiday sessions. All in all, I do some work daily fleshing out both campaigns, and I love it. It's given my impetus to pull out some of my decade old campaign notes and go over them for themes I might work into my present adventures (which all take place on the same campaign world, Azura).<br />
While researching some tidbits from my campaign world, I came across the game play notes to my first two campaigns set in the world of Azura, right after I had tentatively created it and fleshed out a small sandboxy section of islands to start out adventurers on. These 14 year old campaign notes show just how far my campaign world has come in the last decade and a half, and have re-ignited my imagination in my first adventuring area, a small island chain consisting of five large islands and dozens of smaller ones. The largest such island had a fairly large trading center and port, but the real action was on the smallest island in the chain, Tiranouq (all the islands in the chain were named after members of the original adventuring band that discovered and settled the chain about 100 years earlier). The small island had one village, Rotwood, and their main industry was gathering reeds and weaving baskets....seriously.<br />
Of course, from this sort of setting, you would expect most adventurers to want to leave..immediately...and not spend a bit of time exploring their island. However, I had seeded about half a dozen possible adventuring sites there to give them experience and then head on to bigger and better things. The characters began this first ever campaign in my world as simple farmers, fishermen, and goatherds, but eventually left the island chain on a series of adventures that culminated a couple years later (real time) with them controlling a nearby island chain after wiping out the pirate lords that ruled there.<br />
However, at the beginning, there was just a group of inexperienced kids who wanted to explore the old abandoned manor on the other side of the island (Cough---U1---Cough). They soon acquired a sponsor for their group, who was a retired mage of some power, who mentored the spell casters of the party by giving them spells and sundry one-shot magic items to assist them. Jaylen the mage was a respected elder and member of the town council, and the kind of guy who would let a young mage copy a spell out of his own spellbook for nothing.<br />
<br />
Jaylen was also an evil demon worshipping lunatic....which leads to this confession.....<br />
<br />
When I first created the island chain (called New Empyria) and Tiranouq, I did some work on a back story.....not that the characters would ever fully know the full ins and outs, but I wanted to create a place that was "real" to me and had a history I could use if the occasion arose. Part of this was very vague adventure hooks for all the islands, including Tiranouq. One hook was that an isle about a mile off the coast had a long abandoned mage's tower that no one on Tiranouq had ever investigated. It sat within an owlbear-infested forest. There was also rumored to be an evil druid there who guarded the tower from all intruders.<br />
It was meant to be the kind of adventure hook that you mention to players who perhaps wait a few levels to follow up on (the presence of owlbears and an evil druid were the warnings they would have to gain some experience to find out the mysteries of the tower). Little did the characters know, but the seemingly jovial mage Jaylen was there on the small isle in the middle of nowhere specifically to get inside that tower....for the demonic knowledge involved. Long ago, he had learned of the existence of the tower, and the extensive library within, but his research also showed it had been protected by some ancient mage through traps and glyphs keyed to specific individuals...and Jaylen was one of these. His infamous reputation as a necromancer (forbidden in many societies) had led to several confrontations with minions of good. He was a well-known, feared and hunted mage throughout the empire, which caused him to maintain a low profile as a kindly old mage in this out of the way island, awaiting his chance to get inside the tower and increase his power.<br />
After many thwarted attempts to get inside, he hit on a plan: take a group of young people, sponsor them, and have a homegrown adventuring group assault the tower, and since he was a trusted mentor and teacher, have them unwittingly retrieve the books he wanted that would lead to dangerous (for everyone else) knowledge of the summoning of demonic beings. The party was actually his second such attempt; in my history, I said an earlier group attempted it and was destroyed by the dangers of the island (and their bodies would have been found had the party ever gotten to the island).<br />
However, players often take you in unexpected directions. For many reasons, this plotline was acknowledged but never followed up on as the party acquired a pirate ship early on, and decided to sail away to see the wide world (which was logical, since all they had ever known as characters was the boring life on Tiranouq). They never really made it back to the island, which (I said to myself off-screen) infuriated the mage Jaylen to no end.<br />
<br />
After a couple of years, the original party was high enough level that we decided to begin another group with their henchmen and followers. The group was about half the original players and half newbies, so once again we started out in the comfy confines of the isle of Tiranouq and village of Rotwood, where the fledgling adventurers had been sent to be sponsored and mentored...by kindly old Kaylen the mage! (He'd changed his name, but was still the same old demon worshipping psycho)<br />
Once again Kaylen attempted to put his plan into action, appearing the friendly old sage, but subtly pushing adventurers to investigate that abandoned tower on the isle full of owlbears. Once again, when the party reached a certain level (after I ran the excellent Citadel by the Sea from Dragon mag) they decided to investigate other islands in the chain, and follow up on knowledge they had gathered of a group of slavers operating the nearby seas....so once again Kaylen watched helplessly as another possible group of mercenary muscle slipped out of his grasp....!<br />
Thus, Kaylen is really the oldest plot device in my campaign world....going back 14 years, and never a player realized it. Hell, they didn't even suspect it in the least....Kaylen's helpful demeanor took both groups of players in hook, line and sinker back in the day, and I have no doubt that had they been high enough level to eventually investigate the tower, Kaylen would have managed to acquire his books of power and become a major baddie in my campaign world. Whew...what a burden off my back, confessing this!<br />
<br />
As for Kaylen, to fail once (the pre-campaign group that was killed) was annoying. To be thwarted twice in his gathering of patsies was very upsetting. To be turned down three times was maddening. If I was to play him again with another beginning group, I think I would make him just a bit more desperate and "hands on" trying to get the party to the island, merely because he has been waiting so long for his chance....<br />
So, my confession, to anyone who gamed with me back in the years of 1996-2001 or so, was that the kindly old mage Kaylen who mentored you, gave you mage scrolls, and was always available to help out with potions of healing or just sage advice in general, was a wolf in sheep's clothing. Better you guys headed out into the wide world of adventure than be taken in by him and unknowingly fetch for him the ancient tomes of evil he would use to possibly destroy Rotwood, Tiranouq, and perhaps the world beyond.<br />
That being said, maybe it's time to dust off the old campaign notes of Rotwood and the Isle of Tiranouq, and give poor old evil Kaylen yet another shot!!!Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-8186024021197226962009-11-23T13:52:00.002-06:002009-11-24T10:08:22.185-06:00Holiday GamingWhile most thoughts this time of year turn to family, friends, and food (not to mention football), the holidays were known for quite awhile in my family (from about 1979 to 1990 or so) as a time to game. After discovering D&D and RPGs in general in the late 70s, every stay at home holiday (Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years, Spring Break/Easter) when school wasn't in session turned into massive roleplaying exercises. You see, school would often but a crimp in our plans to game 24/7 so we used the time off to shove as much gaming in as humanly possible. One year, I think 1980 (being too young to drink) we started gaming about 6 pm New Year's Eve and didn't finish until sometime the next afternoon. I even remember the session, because it was one of the few non-TSR adventures I ran (a mash up of the High Fantasy modules Moorguard and Fortress Ellendar) and degenerated into a near punch-up when my middle brother was captured by orcs and they were debating whether to castrate him or not, and he (and his tied and bound character) great objected to this treatment (ahh, holiday memories!!!)<br /><br />Holiday gaming took on an even bigger aspect in the 80s. In 1981 my brothers and mother moved 800 miles away, and when I went to college I only saw them during the holidays. Unfortunately the very small town my family moved to had a huge dearth of anyone interested in RPGs, so it was left to me and my visits during the holidays to bring gaming to my brothers and their friends. When I got into town for the Thanksgiving or Christmas season, we would literally game non-stop for days (ditto when my brothers came to visit me during those same periods). Often they had friends stop by to game with us, as I was a "REAL DM" from the big city, a fact I was inordinately proud of when one of my brothers would introduce me to the few eager fellows they had recruited to play. The gaming was mostly one-shot as we didn't have the means to do any campaign related stuff, so I still to this day recall weekend-long sessions running I2 Tomb of the Lizard King, the classic X4/X5 Expert "Desert Nomad" series, and the Call of Cthulhu campaign Shadows of Yog-Sothoth. A couple times we squeezed in Top Secret sessions using the Orient Express adventure pack (Top Secret was a great one shot adventure game, especially for those not familiar with roleplaying, because everyone has seen a Bond movie or two and wants to be a superspy, and shoot someone in the head). Several times the entire neighborhood (which consisted of maybe 5 other kids) stayed the night at my mom's house during Christmas or Spring Break vacation so that I could run a group through Temple of Death with just a break or two to eat thanksgiving turkey leftovers or Christmas pies and cookies. A couple kids in the neighborhood either had no family or very indifferent families (one friend of my middle brother had parents that had disappeared on a fishing trip years earlier, feared drowned, and he practically lived at my mom's house most of the year). I think those kids looked forward to my holiday visits and promise of escape into fantasy worlds as much as my brothers did. <br /><br />In an earlier post I talked about a great Call of Cthulhu game run during holiday sessions, and we often ran one shots from The Asylum or Cthulhu Companion adventure packs. If we paused to contemplate the irony of rushing through our family Thanksgiving dinner so we could hurry back to butcher slimy Deep Ones and be eaten alive by shoggoths or have brains blasted to goo by Things Not Meant To Be, I don't remember. The best session we ever had was one of the last ones...the first year my brothers and family had moved back here, we decided to run a one-shot of B1 In Search of the Unknown. I made my brothers roll three 6 sided dice in order, old school, with the results of one brother running a functioning idiot (Int and Wis together about 10 pts total) and the other with a 90 year old priest (he said he was 90 because his Str and Con were about 4 pts each). The first character was so stupid my brother had him roll for his equipment randomly, which led him to bringing a cat (stuffed in his pouch) along for the dungeon crawl, and using a hammer (not a lucern or war hammer, just a....hammer) as a weapon. High point of the crawl was a desperate battle with orcs, which led my brother to take out the cat and throw it in the face of a surprised orc...and with it's claw,claw, bite, promptly rip the unlucky humanoid's throat out and cause the rest of the orcs to check morale and retreat at the "magical demon" the fighter had unleashed! We were laughing and hollering so loud during the entire game, we were getting dirty looks from the rest of the family engaged in more "genteel" pursuits on Christmas Eve (the only time we got dirtier looks was when we watched Reservoir Dogs one Christmas Eve on the big TV in the living room, but that's another story.....)<br /><br />Looking back on it, gaming was something we had enjoyed together before our parent's separation, and being together for the holidays gave us a chance to bond as brothers in a way we understood. Some families have touch football games, drinking bull sessions, card games or watching sports as a "bonding" activity during these times....we did the same except we bonded with a fighter and mage destroying an evil temple and rescuing a large amount of gold and jewelry. The most natural thing in the world!<br /><br />As we got older and my family moved back into my hometown, we didn't game as much during the holidays as we once did. Since we could see each other much more often, the urgency to cram as much gaming into the holiday period as possible wasn't there. Particularly when wives and kids became part of the picture, the RPG sessions we had enjoyed have become family game sessions (Trivial Pursuit is my favorite because I never lose, Scene It and Cranium are popular, but the kids love Apples to Apples and it's become somewhat of a Christmas Eve tradition). I sure do miss the day, weekend, and sometimes week-long RPG sessions of the 80s holidays though, when we didn't have a care in the world except which game session and adventure to use next!Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-28390673219748751462009-10-23T16:35:00.004-05:002009-10-24T23:34:27.387-05:00Non-Standard Critters For Fun and ProfitNothing like the look on a player's face when you are playing a "traditional" game of D&D and they run into an "iconic" creature like, say, a troll, or a mummy, or a minotaur, that doesn't perform "by the book" (the spellcasting troll, the fire resistant mummy, the poison gas breathing minotaur, etc). Stats should be a baseline; a good gamemaster takes the ball from there and runs it in for the touchdown.<br /><br />In my own campaign world, I do this all the time. I have dozens of types of skeletons and zombies; jungle stirges; arctic owlbears; a score of poisonous snakes (based on real life examples like the black mamba and fer de lance) each whose poison has differing effects; various varieties of iron cobras (some giant sized), spell-casting ogres, and much more. I know there is nothing "original" about this, but I have always disliked the player who memorized the Monster Manual to the point of a rabid zoologist and always knew the EXACT spell to counter any monster (which is the best time to mention that a blessed crossbow bolt does SQUAT to rakshasas in my world.....!) When I created my own campaign world, I gave certain monsters the "week off" (there are very few hobgoblins, bugbears and drow) and instead concentrated on more varied undead, climatical varieties of regular creatures (arctic owlbears and snakes, jungle stirges and ogres, desert spiders, swamp landsharks, etc), and intelligent spellcasting gargoyles, spectres and dopplegangers. I also allow monsters to pick up and use items like any other schlub. Why wouldn't a halfway intelligent creature pick up that glowing sword or shield instead of leaving it sitting on that sack of gold? The dead adventurer was wearing this pretty ring? I'm putting it on...hey, I'm invisible!<br /><br />Confounding player's expectations is really doing them (and you) a favor. If a character in my campaign sees a giant of any type and assumes ANYTHING other than it looks mean, powerful, and could have something up it's sleeve this side of a vorpal blade, they have only themselves to blame when the "simple" hill giant begins beating the tar out of them using a girdle of Storm Giant strength...or begins casting a fireball at the party standing out of missile weapon range. Presuming to know the DM's world (or mind) without empirical evidence can get you dead really fast in my campaigns.<br /><br />One of my favorite encounters was many years ago in some campaign or another I ran, as a band of adventurers was trudging across the wilderness and came across a kobold sitting on a fence post. He eyed the approaching group but did nothing to move or hide (a warning right there). In the middle of nowhere, the heavily scarred critter exuded toughness and had a gleaming sword hanging on a scabbard at it's side. Veterans of my campaigns knew something was up, so they gave the grizzled warrior a nod and wave and continued on. Newbies were looking at the vets with mouth agape..."It's a kobold, for crying out loud! Free XP! Let's get 'em!" as their characters rushed to what they thought would be easy pickens.<br /><br />A few rounds later, the 10th level kobold warrior having viciously thrashed the sadder but wiser newbies (being careful not to kill them lest he raise the ire of the other adventurers), he paused to spit on the ground and pointed to the pile of groaning bodies. "These idiots belong to you?" he snarled. The unbeaten party members smiled, shrugged and nodded as he strolled on, his rest spoiled. The players learned a valuable lesson that served them well: appearances can be deceiving, and don't base your expectations on what is in-between the covers of the MM. They soon learned that while the MM provides a baseline description, in my campaign world, it pays to be cautious.<br /><p>Here is a very heavily edited chart I sometimes use when I want to spring a little surprise using a iconic D&D critter. I usually just use it when I'm working on a unique encounter or trying to create a "boss" type with a little more "oomph". It's not the quality of a James Raggi Random Esoteric Creature Generator, but it does the job: </p><p></p><ol><li>Breathes Fire (3-18 pts, cone 10 feet long at base)</li><li>Has Shocking Grasp (1-8 electrical damage per touch)</li><li>Poisonous breath (cloud 10x10x10, sv vs poison or die, immune to own breath)</li><li>Spellcaster (mage or priest of 1st-5th level)</li><li>Touch causes disease (as 3rd level AD&D spell)</li><li>Immune to attack form (Cold, Fire, Poison, En/Charm, etc)</li><li>Uses a magic weapon in combat</li><li>Uses missile weapons in combat</li><li>Reflects magic on caster</li><li>Smarter than the average bear</li><li>Uses magic item (ring, potion, amulet, etc)</li><li>Unusual alliance</li></ol><p>For unusual powers like the above, I use the "touched by the gods" explanation in my campaign. In certain creatures, powers develop that mean that one is favored by the gods (may or may not be, it may be a mutation due to any reason) and they are often at the top of the food chain (natural leaders) of their group. Sometimes, however, their unusual powers make them outcasts and they will be found by themselves in a secluded lair, nursing their hatred at the world.<br /><br /><br />Breathes fire: self explanatory, can use once a round or turn;</p><p>Shocking grasp: can either turn it off or it is an continuous effect;</p><p>Poisonous breath: again, once a round or turn;</p><p>Spellcaster: Creature is particularly intelligent or wise (15-18) for it's kind, and has access to a spellbook and training or worships a god that answers it's call;</p><p>Touch causes disease: as the cleric spell, usually a worshipper of Bacaris (the god of Disease and Filth in my campaign, he often gives this boon to his worshippers hoping to spread plague)</p><p>Has a magic weapon: Got it from a foe defeated in battle or found it in a treasure horde;</p><p>Immune to a special attack form: choose randomly or use to confound expectations ( a troll immune to fire, for example, or a fire giant immune to cold);</p><p>Reflect magic: Only for "targeted" spells like Magic Missile or can expand to area spells;</p><p>Use Missile weapons: Many creatures would benefit from being able to fire a bow or even throw a spear or two before combat;</p><p>Smarter than the average bear: unlike most of it’s kind, the creature is a natural and cunning leader, of higher wisdom/intelligence, and is able to do some abstract thinking, use sophisticated battle tactics, and create devious traps/ambushes;</p><p>Uses a magic item: gathered from a defeated foe or found in a treasure horde;</p><p>Unusual alliance: has overcome it’s natural bestial hatred or hunger for others and entered into a mutually beneficial alliance with another creature.<br /><br />Examples of each that could spice up your game and confound player expectations:<br />A Minotaur with fire breath<br />A Mummy with a shocking grasp<br />A Naga with poisonous breath (in addition to or in lieu of its poisonous bite)<br />A Medusa who is a 3rd level mage with Charm Person, Magic Missile, and Invisibility<br />A Carrion Crawler whose tentacles cause disease instead of/in addition to paralyzing<br />A Wolfwere with a +2 longsword<br />A Troll immune to non-magical weapons<br />A Spectre that reflects magic<br />A group of Gargoyles that uses longbows before they fly to attack<br />A Displacer Beast who is a genius of it’s kind….a leader of the pack extraodinaire, it has turned the other beasts into a well-trained fighting force; they use tactics like ganging up on one character to kill them before moving to another, bounding past fighters to attack spellcasters, and setting ambushes in the caves where they lair (aided by howls and barks of the genius Beast)<br />A Lamia with a ring of fire resistance and a potion of extra healing<br />A pair of Dopplegangers who have formed an alliance with a Deathkiss beholder. They wait in the wilderness and take on the appearance of a merchant and his mule being attacked by the deathkiss. As soon as the party engages the deathkiss and attempts to rescue the “merchant and beast”, the pair will attack by surprise.</p><p>It goes without saying that such unusual permutaions shouldn't be overused, lest your campaign become a "random monster" session and lose a lot of credibility. If every goblin, orc and werewolf is wielding a magic sword, wand of paralyzation and firing lasers from their frikken eyes, the campaign starts to resemble a particularly jokey version of Gamma World or Mutant Future. I also like to leave some sort of small clue that "not everything is quite kosher" to train your players to be more observant. Perhaps the bodies in the minotaur's lair are burned beyond recognition, or the one survivor of the medusa's fury says "she appeared out of nowhere, I swear!" while recovering at the local inn.</p><p>Remember to bump that XP reward, while you're at it!</p>Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-86329139477358497152009-10-19T09:28:00.001-05:002009-10-19T10:30:19.106-05:00NTRPG Con: 2010 Guest List Set!Here it is, not even October and all guests have confirmed for the North Texas RPG Convention June 3-6, 2010 in Dallas (all the info can be found here: <a href="http://www.ntrpgcon.com/">http://www.ntrpgcon.com/</a>). Last year, this tiny gaming con took the old-school world by storm by having Frank Mentzer, Tim Kask, Rob Kuntz, Paul Jaquays, and Dennis Sustarre come to a La Quinta in Bedford, TX to game and hang out with a handful (50+) of old school devotees. Most of the con goers were members of The Acaeum and Dragonsfoot, with a few curious bystanders, and were excited to play almost non-stop OD&D, 1E and B/X events throughout the weekend.<br /><br /> Except for Gary Con (<a href="http://www.garycon.com/">http://www.garycon.com/</a> ) there exists few conventions nowadays devoted exclusively to old school gaming. NTRPG Con was brainstormed up one fine day as a way for old-school gamers to get together and share the game they love without having to dodge Magic cards, LARPs, pirate-dressed wanna be actors, and the latest "Game Du Jour" put out by WOTC or whoever. All the guys running games (which last year included Black Blade Publishing's Jon Hershberger and Allan Grohe) know the score and sometimes the choice of playing in an event is downright nervewracking (Friday night, should I go through El Raja Key DM'd by Rob Kuntz? Tim Kask's newly written OD&D adventure Temple of the Weaver Queen? Or Frank Mentzer's adventure in his classic game world of Emphyria? Arrggggh!)<br /><br />This year, we've expanded the action by a day to accommodate even more old school goodness, and have finalized our lineup of special guests for 2010. Joining Tim Kask, Rob Kuntz, Paul Jaquays, Dennis Sustarre and Jason Braun (artist extraordinaire) from last year are Steve Winter and Jim Ward. Jim's name is well known in old school circles as the creator of Metamorphosis Alpha and has had his presence in gaming since the beginning, his Tainted Lands setting has just been released by Troll Lords; Steve Winter worked at TSR for 20 years spanning the EGG era through the beginnings of 3rd edition D&D. Both gentlemen will be a great addition to the present lineup and we can't wait to meet both! (Due to other circumstances, Frank Mentzer won't be able to make the con this year, and we hope to have him back again for a con in the future). <br /><br />For those not in the know, the guests at NTRPG Con are not required to run games (although most happily do); all we ask is that they be accessable to con members and mingle. Guests were often seen (when not running games) in the eating area of the hotel discussing many events (the epic several hour conversation between old friends Paul Jaquays and Dennis Sustarre was witnessed and participated in by many con members not gaming at the time; one of my personal high points of the con!!!) Having a bite to eat at the local Denny's with Tim and Frank late Saturday night (actually, early Sunday morning) was also a treat. Lots of stories and reminisces were shared and the entire activity becomes an incredible experience for anyone interested in the history of the hobby.<br /><br />In addition to our guests we have had commitments by Sword & Wizardry's Matt Finch (<a href="http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/">http://www.swordsandwizardry.com/</a>), Black Blade Publishing (<a href="http://black-blade-publishing.com/">http://black-blade-publishing.com/</a>), Pacesetter Games (<a href="http://pacesettergames.com/">http://pacesettergames.com/</a>), and Troll Lord (publishers of Castles & Crusades) to run games at NTRPG Con. We are also open to accepting other old school games and gamemasters as space opens up. I wish this was next week! I'm ready to go today!Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-65321717246293812842009-10-08T11:31:00.003-05:002009-10-08T11:58:11.743-05:00Magic Item Junkie<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Z4cr0VtlpU5_J8wyan8x2g5ibSazp_yvB5I71znnftnYQcnTPFtDCXTVPh2i89gf9WIvo5GWE1zEE680Z8HStQYPkmcP6dPcda1vpvhGA2_dVYyBBqejyOY2X5D_3CTf-daTCzR-g0Q/s1600-h/EncyclopediaMagica1.jpg"><img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5390274477720126274" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 205px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh9Z4cr0VtlpU5_J8wyan8x2g5ibSazp_yvB5I71znnftnYQcnTPFtDCXTVPh2i89gf9WIvo5GWE1zEE680Z8HStQYPkmcP6dPcda1vpvhGA2_dVYyBBqejyOY2X5D_3CTf-daTCzR-g0Q/s320/EncyclopediaMagica1.jpg" border="0" /></a><br /><div>Thinking back on it, yeh, I'm a magic item junkie. I love endless variety in my magic items, as I figure mages in my world are of endless variety themselves and would naturally create magic unfettered by any boundaries. So, for example, instead of the usual 35 varieties of magic potions given on the standard 2E random chart, my jiggered chart in my heavily adapted <strong>2E Core Rules CD</strong> set gives 90! Rings, 84 varieties instead of 34; Wands, 32 varieties instead of 19. This isn't even counting a lot of non-standard type magic items I have occur in my campaigns that are just simple variations on existing items (Bracers of Invisibility and Necklaces of Protection from Missiles are two that crop up quite a bit in my world). It's safe to say that players in my campaigns have absolutely no clue what they have found when they find a ring in a treasure horde that detects magical....it could do everything from protect against disease, allow you to understand any language, let you polymorph into a giant, to give you the simplest of protection (the humble +1 Ring of Protection). I'm also a huge fan of unique, individual items...it's safe to say a typical party of adventurers in my world won't have standard magical items and won't look like the typical party of adventurers in anyone else's world, which is a good thing. Nothing more boring than a ranger equipped with a +1 long sword, +2 shield, +1 long bow and Boots of Striding and Springing; my player's ranger would probably have a +1 long sword that speaks giantish, a long bow of distance, Shield +1/+2 vs missiles, and a Horn of Wolf Summoning. I just can't help but goose up the magic items one way or another to make them interesting and just the littlest bit more useful than the "average" magic item.<br /><br />My philosophy on placing magic is probably not grognard tested (or approved), but generally, the weakest examples of magic items (+1 weapons, +1 rings of protection, +1 armor) are not uncommon. I figure some smart leader type centuries ago got a mage school to pump these out on a fairly regular basis to arm his minions; through the intervening period, these weapons have fallen into the hands of much "common" folk. Actually, that's pretty much what DID happen in my campaign world almost 2000 years ago when the Overlord's army threatened to over run the entire world; he literally had hundreds of mages (and priests, for that matter) loyal to his cult churning them out assembly line fashion to arm his followers. After the Cataclysm, these weapons have indeed found their way into various treasure hordes scattered across the planet. In my campaigns, it's fairly easy to determine you have come across a magical weapon or armor; they are the only ones in the treasure hordes that haven't aged and look new once they have been handled and polished off a little. Their individual powers might be a bit harder to figure out, although if grasped most magical items in my world will let the wielder know it's powers or purpose (kind of a bummer when the item is evil in intent, whoops).<br /><br />It's not out of the question to figure every village or town across my world has one or two village elders with a magical weapon or device squirreled away for an emergency. The trick is to make the +2 and higher weapons much, much rarer in context. Not only are they a factor harder to find, but almost every weapon of +2 and above is a "unique" weapon with a special power or two (even if the special power is only to create Light '30 radius or speak a language). So, if you enter a good-sized town and notice all the guard commanders have at least a +1 sword, be assured that only the Leader of the Guard will have something as esoteric as a Flaming Longsword or talking sword that also detects magic and alignment. So, while everyone in one of my campaigns may possess at least one +1 weapon by 3rd level, getting anything better than that prior to 5th-7th level may be quite problematic (unless the characters happen to defeat a group of adventurers of higher level, or specifically hunt down a long-lost treasure horde rumored to contain a magic weapon or two of high quality).<br /><br />It also must be noted at although I dearly love different types of variations on magic items, I don't favor "powerful" types of magic. I generally stick to items that have one or two intriguing functions that are not game changing, but that may affect the game in various ways. That, and the aforementioned "tweaking" an item to so something "standard" (i.e., invisibility) in a non-standard form. How the characters use an item that has probably never come up in their play before is one of the things that really interest me as a DM and as a student of the game. Everyone has been in a campaign with a +1 Cloak of Protection; how about a cloak that lets you assume the form of a stalagmite when the hood is put over your head? (one of the non-standard items in my campaign). I enjoy seeing what the clever player can bring to the table when give an item like that that takes them a bit out of the their "typical magic item" comfort zone.<br /><br />Now, I don't cater to party expectations and sometimes the characters must adapt to the weapons or items they have found, or use something they are not proficient with in order to wield a magical weapon. For example right now one of my current adventuring parties (everyone 3-4 level) has everyone wielding at least one +1 weapon (well, except for a priest who is only proficient in the sling, club and mace and hasn't stumbled across anything), although the thief isn't proficient in the magical dagger she has found, and the druid just this level gained proficiency in a magical spear he was toting for an entire adventure. A few times in the past I specifically placed weapons for characters, and I felt "dirty" afterwards....as if I was injecting far too much of my own bias in the proceedings. Since then, I've let the chips (or magical items/weapons) fall as they may, and it's much more fun to watch the characters adapt to what they find rather than the other way around. Sometimes players slog through a dungeon only to be rewarded with several items they cannot use (say, Robes of Shadow or Rings of Bone, which are evil in purpose, or esoteric like a +3 Maul or halfling-sized +3 banded mail). Sometimes, however, that's where the fun begins as players must figure out how to make a profit off such items, either by finding someone to sell it or trade it to. My caution would be if you play in my campaigns don't expect to be fully outfitted in magical gee-gaws by 5th level (or at least, the magical goodies you EXPECT to find).<br /><br />Anyway, this is a roundabout way of saying that to this day I add to my custom stock of magical items in my Core Rules CD rom program on a weekly basis, whenever I come across something in the four volume <strong>Encyclopedia Magica</strong> (fantastic resource for ANY edition) or while thumbing through an older Dragon, Polyhedron, or random fantasy oriented mag or rules system (like Rolemaster or Runequest). Some unique or interesting items may only rarely come up as part of a random treasure horde, while others might fit the personality or aims of a NPC character so perfectly they just belong with him or her. Whether or not the party can use the item is somewhat immaterial to me; I know in the past (particularly in the classic TSR "letter" series of modules in the late 70s and early 80s) magical items were placed with a purpose (Dungeon Design Tip #101, so to speak). For example, anyone hack and slashing through the classic G-series will, by the successful completion of G1, have not one but TWO flaming swords as well as a sword of Giant Slaying! (nice of Nosnra to keep that lying around.) I do enjoy the frisson that accompanies finding a not so standard item; sometimes players are flummoxed when they are confronted with an item that doesn't fit their preconceived notions of past dungeon play. So who gets the Bracers of Missile Protection? No previous paradigm exists for most of the oddball items that I toss into the campaign, so a lot of times it causes a new dynamic to emerge. Thieves, who are almost always presented with a Ring of Invisibility in a treasure horde, are often reluctant to instead take a pair of Boots of Invisibility (what if Boots of Elvenkind pop up later?). Mages presented with the aforementioned Bracers of Missile Protection will be in a quandary when Bracers of AC 4 are discovered; a fighter who wins a flaming longsword in battle might be loathe to give up his +1 weapon, since it also has the ability to detect invisibility '10 and can speak elvish, dwarvish and orcish. Even more so the truly non-standard items I introduce such as Pooky the Bear (detailed below) that anyone can use.<br /><br />Anyway, I do so love the non-standard magic item, and today while flipping through a random mag while on the throne (Polyhedron #58 from 1991, the Magic Item Contest Winners column they used to run every year) I found a few more to add to my data base. Here they are below if you want to throw a curveball into your own campaigns!<br /><br /><strong>Weapon:<br />Warstar of the Manticore:</strong> Several of these morning stars, +1, are believed to exist. However, scholars believe most owners of these weapons do not realize they have more than a melee weapon. Upon command, a Warstar of the Manticore releases 1d6 spikes at any one target. The spikes have a range of a light crossbow and instantly replace themselves. the wielder must make one "to hit" roll, adjusted for range, for the volley of spikes. The wielder gains the Warstar's +1 "to hit" bonus and any bonus he normally would be entitled to for high dexterity (the Warstar's enchantment negates dexterity penalties). The spikes can be released up to four times a day (thanks to Michael Madden)<br /><br /><strong>Apparel:<br />Rock Robe:</strong> This average looking garment radiates a strong aura of alteration magic, if such is detected for. When first donned, nothing unusual happens, as the robe takes 24 hours to attune itself to its new owner. After that time its powers become known to the owner. The robe has two powers, each usable at will. The first allows the wearer to become a statue, similar to the 7th level wizard spell of the same name; no system shock roll is required, and the effect can be maintained indefinitely. The wearer can change back and forth between his flesh form and statue, with each change requiring one round. No other action scan be taken during the transformation.<br />The second power is immunity to petrification. Further, the robe can be used to return a petrified individual to flesh after it has attuned itself to that person for 24 hours. The robe only functions when worn, and it is useable by any character class (thanks to Gary Watkins)<br /><br /><strong>Protection Item:<br />Pooky the Bear:</strong> This protection device is unique and was created by a high level mage for his children. This huggable, lovable stuffed bear looks like a typical toy animal, However, when held somewhere on the body, Pooky acts like a +3 Ring of Protection. In addition, if held while slumbering, the owner is surrounded by a Protection From Enemies 3 foot radius. This protection ends as soon as the owner awakes. While sleeping, the owner is prevented from suffering bad dreams. Because of the restful nature of sleep while slumbering with the bear, hit points are restored at twice the normal rate.<br /><br />(Pooky came from a oddball published module whose name I can't recall...I changed it up a bit and inserted it into an adventure I ran BITD. My brother's tough as nails high level dwarven fighter came into possession of it, and would wear it stuffed under his armor into battle. Despite a lot of ribbing he kept the item and was probably the only name level Dwarven fighter ever to run into battle screaming "For Pooky!" with a stuffed bear head peeking out over the top of his plate mail....!)</div>Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-52488254740559176052009-10-01T12:22:00.003-05:002009-10-01T12:54:22.974-05:00More Fun With Skype!Last friday night was our fourth session in a row with my Skype campaign. It was the best so far, mostly because I didn't drop out once (replaced a cable on my computer that was crimped, I believe that was the culprit) and the party reached a conclusion of sorts to their first real "dungeon" adventure on the jungle isle of Delos. They managed to defeat a far superior foe under tough circumstances, basically destroying a minor demon with the party only in the 2-3rd level range, with only one slight casualty (the npc fighter was hurled against a wall and knocked unconcious during the climatic battle, going to negative HP before being aided). Good show!<br />The party is really coming together, and it's always a magical moment for the DM when the players seem to "click" and everyone realizes their roles in the party...the thief/mage started hiding behind the burly fighter types to cast spells and shoot arrows, the cleric held his holy symbol and turned all the undead in sight, the druid began exploring the uses of his many spells when underground and battling mostly undead instead of outdoors battling living creatures, and the fighters, well they did what they do best. A lot less of "Everyone grabs a weapn and rushes up to whack the enemy" we saw in the first few sessions. I'm having a blast and the players seem to be having fun also.<br />While simplistic, Gametable has done just fine with the basics online (graph paper, drawing walls, pogs for representations of characters, monsters, trees, etc, dice rolling macros). I wish it had a few more features but right now it's performed admirably. Now that I replaced my cable, I had my first "drop free" session which helped quite a bit with the flow of the game....and might have hurt the players a little, they are used to having extra time to discuss strategy when I dropped out every 10 minutes or so for sixty secords or more!<br />I do miss some aspects of fact to face gaming...the minis, drawing out the rooms on the battle board, using my Dwarven Forge walls, being able to see the player's faces and react to that when I spring something on them, being able to easily show them visual representations, etc. However, Skype still remains IMO the best vehicle for gaming when everyone is scattered across the world, and has allowed us to have a 3-4 hour session four weeks in a row. For comparison, we haven't gamed in my face to face campaign since May, and even though it's been going for almost three years, have only managed back to back weeks one time (we are lucky to get once a month in at the best of times!)<br />My favorite part of the recent campaign (set on a steamy tropical jungle isle, and very reminiscent of pulp "Lost civilization" type adventures) was the last session when the party, who had successfully managed to deal with undead shadows, ghouls, zombies; poisonous snakes (the druid reasoned with the giant bushmaster snake and got him to leave!), tigers, and bloodthirsty native warriors....were almost wasted by....giant rats!<br />After clearing a room out of a bunch of ghouls, the party forced open a door that led a to a previously unexplored area. After entering, hordes of rabid giant rats began pouring out of a small pit it in the room. Two blown throws of oil vials later, the rats were swarming the party as I rolled 19's and 20's and covered the characters with bite after bite from the menaces. Finally, someone was able to get a pool of oil lit in front of the door and cut off reinforcements, just in time for the "king rat" (I described him as a rat as big as a potbelly pig, shades of Stephen King's short story "Night Shift") to show up and squeak a challenge. Just as they finished him off, a pair of ghouls returned from behind (whoops) with a Ghast leader, and the ghast quickly downed the two party fighters with paralyzing bites!<br />Suddenly, with the party's two fighters down to paralyzation, and still wounded from the attacking giant rats, (not to mention a rat as big as a pig gnawing on them), it looked reeeealy touch and go for a few minutes. I was down to deciding which character the ghast would choose as a "snack" after everyone went down, when the three remaining party members managed to hold off the undead just long enough for the paralyzed fighters to recover and rejoin the combat. That was a hard won battle, and in some ways was closer to a TPK than the later battle with a Shadow Fiend in the heart of the temple. Every campaign it seems has a moment early on when things are touch and go but the party pulls it out, and this gives them confidence for what lies ahead; this was definitely that moment!<br />Anyone wanting to keep track of the Isle of Delos Skype campaign (be warned, there's not much dialogue and it's more a "Just the facts, ma'am" type blog), the link is below:<br /><br /><a href="http://delosdark.blogspot.com/">http://delosdark.blogspot.com/</a>Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3452658730228514507.post-49925598502691986582009-09-25T12:52:00.004-05:002009-09-25T13:03:53.049-05:00The Anti-Sandbox Sandbox Pt. 2<img id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5385465309085569122" style="FLOAT: right; MARGIN: 0px 0px 10px 10px; WIDTH: 248px; CURSOR: hand; HEIGHT: 320px" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3jM5IlLUojXUf5Y8yM5Cb22Tc9suIGdUYGTsB4yyvC1R5p2E1kT2aImiZCr5bS9zl_hKKUvI732GrRLjI6gE__pwVhvgCPfjYab8Sigyybco4OtLYI1AuHO1q4gApKCzxOF22XWhS1Ac/s320/DungeonGeomorphs1st.jpg" border="0" />So, since my first work on this way back in April, I've finished the first level of my megadungeon, had an adventure in my megadungeon, found a town/village I want to use, drawn a map for my sandbox area of 270 x 150 miles, and started fleshing out lots of areas. I am not getting too detailed on anything as I want this to be mostly seat of the pants, although I am recycling and borrowing a lot of "set piece" dungeons I can plop into the wilderness, both for my own enjoyment and hopefully to tweak the old school memories of players. So far I have taken a lot of the old Dragon contest winner dungeons of the early 80s and plopped them into locales...Forest of Dread, Citadel by the Sea, and Mechica await discovery within my sandbox area!<br /><br />Just to update my purpose here, I wanted an easier, quicker adventure setting to run when my group couldn't get together, or I had random people populating my gaming table and didn't want to include them in my regular campaigning. Something quick but fun that I could pull out and run at a moment's notice, but enough "fiddly bits" that it would amuse me. I use 2E, with lots of fiddly bits, so I streamlined it down to a manageable set of rules, limited characters and races to mostly archetypes, and tried to get character creation quick and simple. While not as easy as running, say, Swords & Wizardry or Labyrinth Lord, I was able (with help from friends who took on character creation to work out the kinks) to get it down to 5-15 min (5 min for a simple fighter, 15 min for a paladin which had more decisions to make that I thought for his creation). With some practice I think I can streamline it even more. I'll have more on my rules systems, character types, etc in later posts. I tried to use as many random charts and lists as I could for ease of character creation, while allowing some choice. I just didn't want to bog down the process too much, while still keeping some of the aspects I enjoy about my own campaign world and the home brew rules system I use.<br /><br />For the first adventure, I was able to write up about 40 rooms in the SE corner of my megadungeon (which, btw, in my search for simplicity is taken entirely from the classic D&D Dungeon Geomorph tile sets!) with the use of random charts and my imagination, and decided to wing it if they went any farther (I wasn't too worried, they were all first level and wouldn't survive too deeply into the depths). I'll have to think of a catchy name for the dungeon; for right now, it's the "Dungeon in the Desert". Here's the reason why, plus the initial set up:<br /><br /><em>On the edge of town, in front of the watchtower of the church of Kazull, stands a gate that leads to an underground dungeon. The dungeon is apparently vast and ancient, and is in some other part of the world, as those who have made it to the surface speak of a vast desert area (unlike the sylvan wilderness where the village and environs are located). The dungeon is located underneath ancient ruins, in a desolate sand desert with temperatures 100 degrees or more. Nearby, on the surface, is a stronghold of the evil priesthood of Inari, but the priests curiously show little interest in adventurers or the ruins. There is a small oasis nearby, but nothing else for many miles except for rock, sand and waste. Explorers say that if you travel far enough you get to the tall and unscaleable walls of some massive cliffs, surrounding on all sides, indicating the entire location is in a rift.<br /><br />The gate was found one day several years ago. It apparently appeared out of thin air, as it was visible one morning on the outskirts of town. Curiosity drove many to investigate, where they found it led to some underground cavern. However, the gate is two way and soon fell creatures began emerging to terrorize the townfolk. The local authorities appealed to their duke for help, and he sent several troops to deal with the menace. They realized they were over their head as the creatures kept emerging. Responding to entreaties for aid, soon the church of Kazull built a temple in front of the gate to deal with any emerging creatures. They were joined by the priesthoods of Nythiir and Vistna who also set up nearby temples. War with humanoids and evil barbarians took up much of the duke’s time and men the last decade, so little could be spent fortifying the gate area. However, the gate began to attract visitors in the form of adventurers, and they were able to keep the monster population controlled, along with the help of the various priesthoods.<br /><br />The dungeon dates from pre cataclysmic days and is the source of much treasure. It also is the source of many creatures of evil temperament. Since the mysterious gate opened, many gems, rare art, and magic has been brought out. However, many adventurers have entered never to return. Others have emerged rich beyond belief. Your destiny awaits! </em><br /><br />The three priesthoods mentioned, btw, are the three main branches of religion that can be followed by PCs, and each church has a few special abilities available to their priests (Kazull-Battle, Nythiir-Healing, Vistna-Knowledge). Anyway, I've always wanted a deserted, forlorn, isolated setting, and the Dungeon in the Desert does this, while leaving escape back to a cozy and comfortable tavern and village if they make it back to the gate in one piece. I haven't worked out a ton of the logistics, but I figure the gate is a hazy shimmering in the air about 12 feet high, roughly oval in shape, surrounded by a small constructed archway/entrance (so some poor farmer or sheep herd or drunk doesn't stumble through on their way out of town by accident). Probably a contingent of city guardsmen and a few random priests in hastily constructed stone or wooden buildings about 100 yds away in case something nasty happens to stumble through from the other side. A small "waiting" area where people can hang out (or camp out) while waiting for friends or companions that have entered, or where loners can mill about looking for a possible group who is short on members, or other single adventurers like themselves, to join up with and try their hand at finding treasure and adventure. Perhaps at one time vendors and salesmen set up makeshift tents nearby to sell food and supplies to adventurers, but I've decided they are no longer allowed due to several incidents (plus, the shopkeepers in town protested vigorously as they were losing business to these fly by nighters). City guardsmen gruffly enforce the "move along, nothing to see here" attitude by knocking down any structures put up and arresting anyone selling items outside the walls of the town.<br /><br />The first approach goes something like this: the PCs approach the gate area from the village, walking slowly to the hill where the tower of the Kazullian priesthood stands like a lone sentinel against whatever might emerge from the shimmering gate. As they get closer, a couple of adventurer types, covered with sweat, blood and dirt, walk past them, too exhausted to raise a hand in greeting as they head for the village to spend whatever gold or gems they found in the depths on drink, healing, sleep and a bath, in that order. A hundred yards away from the gate the makeshift wooden and stone buildings show some activity as priests and off-duty guardsmen mill about, fixing something on a pot suspended over a fire. A small knot of city guardsmen near the gate throw dice and laugh at the results as the players file past them to the waiting area. A few unsavory looking thief types, and a hulking barbarian, are sitting on large rocks and bedrolls eying the party as they troop right past the waiting area to the gate itself. Framed by a crumbling stone "doorway" that arches over the area, the 12 x 12 area seems to shimmer and haze like a mirage...the countryside beyond can be seen through the gate, but it's as if through a gauzy veil...if the stone archway wasn't in place, and unwary traveler might just stumble inside by accident.<br /><br />When the gate is entered, the party is in the entry room of the dungeon.<br /><br /><em>ENTRY ROOM:<br /><br />The atmosphere immediately changes, and you realize you are underground. A dank, musty, wet sand smell fills your nose. Someone has placed a large rock with a continual light spell in the ground about 15 feet in front of you, and it gives off it’s illumination against the dark.<br />Behind you is a solid wall of rubble dozens of feet high…the gate you came in from appears to lead into the rubble as if a tunnel, although you cannot see the place you just left (just as you couldn't see inside the cavern from the other side). In front of you and all around you are the remains of dozens (hundreds?) of battles, bones and broken weapons and pieces of equipment in the churned up sand that seems to be permanently stained with blood. Many battles have been fought in this area, some recently if the stench of death is any indication (joined by the stench of bat guano, a colony must reside on the ceiling here).<br />You get the impression of a large, high chamber, surrounded by blackness…the ceiling slopes upward at the edges to rise to a height of about 70 feet in the center. Behind the range of the light there you can see small shapes squirming on the ceiling…bats, many of them. Far above you can see a very faint sliver of light…..some sort of natural chimney must lead out to the surface. Outside the range of the artificial light, all is darkness except to your right (which you immediately label as East, despite any evidence for or against). About 90 feet away, you see several burning torches set behind what looks like a constructed stone wall about 6 feet high with a wooden door in the center. The wall extends for 100 feet or so and forms a semi-circle around a large stone wall. You can make out human shapes behind the wall at intervals, and they shout a warning at your arrival, giving the impression of alertness.<br />To the left, more ominous sounds, the rumble of humanoid voices and whispers from beyond the range of the light</em>.<br /><br />I had two players, one with an elven mage (he told me he had never run a mage before), the other with a Paladin of Nythiir, and the group was filled out with a dwarven fighter, a human thief, and a human priest of Kazull, God of Battle....more on their first foray later! Rolling up the mage was fast and simple, the paladin took much longer, most of that my fault, as I had not reckoned on someone wanting a paladin first up (like I said, my fault, but it was good practice and now I've streamlined the paladin creation). A party consisting of fighters, thieves and mages would be pretty quick to work up; clerics (and paladins by extension) take a bit more time to create due to religious considerations (each of the three priesthoods you can follow gives you special abilities). However, once someone is familiar with the three priesthoods, that won't take much time either. My goal is to be very Retro-cloneish or Simulacrum-like and have it down to five minutes or less (actually, you can have a fighter or mage up and running that quick or quicker already).<br /><br />More on their first adventure, and some of my character types, later....Badmikehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06199830751033032585noreply@blogger.com3