Working on a Poll

No, not a stripper's pole... I don't think you or I could stomach that.

No, a poll, as in "vote for the silly stuff you want Tenkar to do next"

I'm thinking something along the line of my next in-depth review (like I did for Tunnels & Trolls 7e) or even running myself thru solos in D&D 4e Essentials Red box, LotFP Weird Fantasy Tutorial, T&T, MSPE and maybe even a Fighting Fantasy adventure and compare... crap, that would be a series of posts.

Eh, lets see how the poll works out.  It might even surprise me ;)

Another Good Session Last Night

When you can play for four hours of gaming, not roll any combat dice and not even realize it, it's a damn good session.

That, or maybe I was just too tired to tell the difference ;)

Some great role playing last nite. I had a blast. Next month will be a long wait for the next session.


- Posted from my iPhone

Sometimes the Hook is Only as Good as the Players

Here I am, in the middle of a Castles & Crusades (via Fantasy Grounds 2) session, and all I can think is that my roleplaying almost cost us an adventure hook that I was willing to avoid at all cost (being the suspicious dwarf that I am).

Of course, there are 4 of us tonight, and you only need to hook one ;)

Still, it is something to bear in mind... if you can hook one player, you'll probably pull the rest in tow...

I'll remember that as I work on my Tunnels & Trolls campaign... (no asking for when yet... after the New Year at the very least)

Ass... Dragging... Must... Game...

I am totally beat.

Last nite was movie nite.  After letting the kid get his driving time in and doing taxi service for the lady, I didn't get home until after 1 am... and then i had to be up at 615 to get the kid to his SAT test at 730 this morning.

More driving after the test and I'm ready to crawl into the sheets.  I can't tho', as I have a C&C game via FG2 at 8 tonight.  The game only rolls around once a month so I'm not going to miss it, but I can already feel the pain.

Let's see how long I last tonight before the "junkie nod" takes me out for the night ;)

QuickStart - BattleTech: A Time of War

Yep, Battletech has RPG rules, and now there is a free Quickstart for those rules.  If you've lived in a cave for the last 25 years or so, Battletech is a game of mechanized fighting robots, with people in the gooey center.  Alright, that may be an oversimplification, but why take my work for it?  Here's your chance to roleplay the gooey center ;)

A Note From the Troll God

A word about James Shipman and Outlaw Press.

Xxxxxx removed as per Ken St. Andre's request xxxxxx

--Ken St. Andre
Nov. 6, 2010



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

In Spite of Damage

Tunnels & Trolls 5.5e and later added Spite Damage into the mix. Basically, every natural 6 rolled on a d6 during combat represents unstoppable damage... Roll 2,4,6,6 you know you did at least 2 points of damage to your opponent, irregardless of whether you won that combat round or your opponent's armor protection.

As combat between two relatively equal opponents in armor could drag out forever before spite damage, it's a nice change. The problem is, most solo adventures were written for the 5.0 rules (pre-spite damage), and the inclusion of spite damage will frequently whittle your delver down to pieces.

My suggestion? Leave out spite damage when playing the solos, or for a harder solo, only count it for the delver's dice... Use it against the monsters.

It really is there to help the mobs more then the delvers anyway. Delvers tend to roll less dice (but have better combat adds) then the monsters, and spite damage is all about the dice.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Where There is Darksmoke, There Are Trolls

Yep, got myself The Isle of Darksmoke, a GM Adventure for Tunnels & Trolls, in the mail today.  It seems when you shake the Post Office just a wee bit, prompt deliveries are the result.  Sweet.

Now, a quick glance at the cover (and an advertisement on the back), shows that this was supposed to be part on of a 2? 3? part series.  The actual full title is The Isle of Darksmoke -1: The Nameless Village and the Dome Level.  At 56 pages, it's no slouch, and the back cover has a Cardboard Heroes Fold out, if you want to add paper miniatures to your T&T game.

The module is quasi-sandboxish, in that the island (aside from the village and the dome) aren't mapped, but it is suggested that you could do so, and entrances are indicated on the dome map for levels of the GM's own design.

Suggested levels are 1-4 and an average party size of 5.  Which is a good starting point, but I suspect the trek to Island could make for a decent adventure itself.  Actually, I think you would need a reason to get the party to this remote island, at least these days (todays youngen's need more purpose then player's basic greed and lust for adventure - paraphrasing a bit).  The included quest hooks assume the party is already on the Island.

All this from a quick glance.  It's pretty meaty.  I'll need some time to digest it, but it's a nice change from the usual (there aren't all that many really) GM adventure for T&T

Too Many Hats, Just One Head

I've got my finger in too many pies at work at the moment. It seems I need to find a temporary replacement for my (old) job as I temporarily fill in for someone else. Either that or I go sick for a few weeks when this crap catches up to me.

Wait, that could leave lots of time for games and blogging.

Maybe I need a third hat ;)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Mini Review - A Dungeon Dash: Wraithwood Cavern

I'm throwing this one out there for Christian, as its a short and FREE side adventure for 4e.  Having read thru most (not all) of the 4e rules when they came out, and having picked up the Essentials Core Books upon release (cause it was damn cheap on Amazon, and you never know where your next game group may gravitate) I still can't tell how well this will play out.

I just have a hard time visualizing all the 4e tactical combat... hell, 3.5e had way to much for me.  In any case, I figure some of you 4e DM's mind find a use for this.  OOOOoooo, and they include adventure hooks for the lazy DM ;)

From the blurb:

The "A Dungeon Dash" series of side adventures by Kurt Sparkuhl are FREE products designed to enhance your 4th edition D&D campaign. Each Dash takes only 10 minutes or less to read through, and usually clocks about 3-5 hours of play time. With some additional preparation, each Dungeon Dash can serve as the foundation for a larger highly detailed adventure.

Every Dungeon Dash includes:

- New custom monsters

- New traps/hazards/puzzles

- A detailed map and descriptions of every encounter

- Treasure and reward guidelines

- Example story hooks to blend the adventure into your campaign.

First Look: Monsters! Monsters! (Reprint Edition)

I actually have my Monsters! Monsters! 2nd Edition (4th Printing) open right next to my Monsters! Monsters! reprint edition.

Some quick things.  Apparently the 1st Edition had a full color cover by Liz Danforth.  2nd Edition has a mostly black & white cover with red highlights.

The reprint is stapled, the 2nd Edition has the spiral binding that is either loved or hated it seems.

1st edition has some footnotes that are missing from 2nd Edition.  Apparently there were some text "errors" inserted by the 1st Edition's Editor, that were changed / corrected in the 2nd Edition.  Steve Jackson wasn't perfect back then it seems ;)

The 1st Edition Reprint has been reset professionally using modern techniques (computers) according to my untrained eyes.  It's not a photocopy of the original but a remastered copy.  Oh, and the Reprint also includes an 8 page GM adventure inserted in the middle... can't complain with freebies ;)

The rules appear to mirror T&T fairly closely, but I'd probably need to see them next to the 4e and or 5e  rules to make sure.  It looks like stat increase for leveling is boosted,  I'll look at it closer to be sure, probably over the weekend.

It is nice to see there is a Monster Glossary with a sentence or two detailing each of the Monster Kindreds, something sorely lacking in T&T 7.5 e.  Even at that it still takes 5 pages of the 40 page book (plus an 8 page insert of a town).

More later...

Parent = Game Master

Really.  As a GM you want your players' characters to grow, it's sometimes hard to give them enough freedom where they can get in actual trouble, whatever plans you have for them they somehow always avoid, they are suspicious of the carrot and resent the stick, the Friend / GM line is a fuzzy one at times, even running a game with just one PC can feel like herding cats...

Thing is, after a few hours once every week or two, your players go home.

After a few hours in school for the day, your kids come home.

Can you tell I had a wild parenting ride over the past few days?

I did six months of chemo a few years back, hardly lost any hair.

Solo parenting a teenager must account for 90% of my grey hairs tho ;)

It's all worth it in the end... even if I start pulling my hair out...

See, being a GM over all those years left me well prepared... heh

Alright, back to the gaming crap mananna folks :)

Better Late Then Never

I mentioned previously that my local post office had a package sitting for over a week at the neighboring post office for me but never told me.  That was my collection of T&T solos and a few others choice books.
My Flying Buffalo order that was shipped on October 12th was no where to be found at either post office.

What do I find leaning against my front door today?  My Flying Buffalo order from nearly a month ago.  Go figure.  Two reprint copies of Monsters! Monsters! for the next Gathering of Fools and some other small T&T stuff.  It was a wait but I'm glad it didn't get sent back to Rick.

Today was a good day.  The fact that I ditched work made it even better ;)

Not a Review (Yet) - Wordplay Basics

Just recently released for free on RPGNow / DriveThruRPG, Wordplay Basics from D101 Games is a new RPG that uses d6s by the bucket.  Well, maybe not by the bucket, but if you are a Tunnels & Trolls player, you probably have the right number of dice.

I haven't done more then skim the first few pages, but from what I can tell the system look fairly free form and rules lite.  Oh, did I mention it's free?  It's been a while since I posted one of those ;)

From the publisher's blurb:

Wordplay is very easy to play and has been designed to be played with

any created setting or genre that you wish to explore.

The game features the following:

• Free flowing character creation, allowing a player to describe their alterego in the game and use those descriptions as Traits (which are then split between Body, Mind and Soul categories)

• A dice building game. Describe what your character is doing and make use of as many advantages as you can to build as large a hand or pool of dice as possible.

• Roll your dice and count up your successes and the highest total wins, only the dice that land on the table count!

• Create goals for your character and drive them forward to succeed.

Instead of numerous complicated rules, Wordplay provides story telling opportunities that are translated into dice for your characters.

The game is meant to be rules light, open and encourages players to give vivid descriptions that build a shared, character focussed, story.

Wordplay requires traditional six sided dice to play and many of them!

This plain text Basic edition of the game, gives you the core system which is everything you need to play the game except your imagination and a hand full of dice.

Just a Coincidence

It's just a coincidence that Tenkar's Tavern and Tunnels & Trolls share the same initials.  Heck, I never even realized it until just now.  Go figure ;)

Alright, on the T&T review plate we have:

The Delver's Pack for 7.5e
Monsters! Monsters! (reprint and 2nd printing - haven't checked closely but I expect they are the same)
5e T&T Boxed Set (can't find my 5.5e book from back in the day, so I ordered a second copy)
5e T&T Corgi Paperback Edition
4e T&T Rules
Mercenaries, Spies & Private Eyes Boxed Set (MSPE)
A whole bunch of T&T Solos
            1-10 & 12-14 from Flying Buffalo
            11 & 15, 8 & 19, 16& 17, 2 & 4, 12 & 20 and 9 in Corgi Paperbacks (I believe this is complete)
            So, effectively 1-17 and 19-20 and hunting the rest down (with the intent on getting all in FBI editions)

Decisions, decisions... heh