I Must be Paranoid - Paranoia RPG Kickstarter

How many versions of Paranoia are there now? Three West End Games versions and two Mongoose editions? Actually, this would make three Mongoose editions.

So, the latest would be the 6th Edition of Paranoia.

Do we really need 6 editions of Paranoia? Really, do we? I'm asking this question as someone who came on board with the very first edition of the game and quickly realized the rules were worthless - it was all play and players. Seriously. Charts, rolls, weapons, powers - all paled compared to notes being passed back and forth and clones falling by the wayside.

You could just as easily reprint the 1st Edition Paranoia rules as a limited run collectible and probably get the same results on Kickstarter - overwhelming success.

What kind of success?

A goal of 30k pounds, slowly inching up on 56k pounds raised with 38 days to go. Yes, that kind of success.

I just can't get myself worked up for yet ANOTHER version of Paranoia when I have the greatest version of all - 1st ;)

The Braindead Dwarf Arrived From Sweden

+Jim Magnusson THIS is my kind of postcard ;)

I'm Realizing we did Very Little "Sandboxing" Back in The Day

Now, when I say "we did very little sandboxing back in the day" I'm referring to the groups I played with back in junior high school, high school and college. Heck, when we first started playing, we didn't even have a setting - just dungeon crawl to dungeon crawl. I guess we would call his "episodic gaming" these days (thank God for Dungeon magazine.)

Heck, even when we had the World of Greyhawk folio and adventures like Temple of Elemental Evil, it's not like the players roamed around looking for adventure. The DM either had a dungeon he'd mapped out or a module he bought, and that was the adventure for the night. The world map was just to point out where it took place;.

The few times the wilderness became part of the adventure, it was usually because it WAS part of the adventure.

I didn't start to try and sandbox (not that we called it that) until the first Forgotten Realms boxed set, as that was full of hooks and locations. Even at that, it was more like story arcs than a sandbox. Sure, the party could go where they wanted, but they were well trained and pretty much stuck to the beaten path.

It wasn't until my group was down to three players for a while in the early 90's that we fully embraced sandboxing. Spacemaster was the ruleset, and my two players found adventure or adventure found them, with little more than some plot hooks and a desire to get into trouble. We had a blast, and when our full group returned, it was to play Rifts and Battlelords. Now, somebody else was running the sandboxes.

I'm going to guess for my first 10 years of gaming, it was mostly episodic play.

Was sandbox gaming really that big a thing in the early days, or is it something that found it's place in later years, with the advent of numerous published campaign settings?

Just idle curiosity on my part...

Kickstarter - Infrared Tag RPG style - Go Ahead, Ask Why?

Alright, I feel a need to point this part out from the Infrared Tag RPG style opening video. If you are going to opt out on wearing shoes, wear clean socks. Better yet, wear shoes, as no one wants to see your socks. Oh, and nobody really wants to hear you ramble on during the video. When you say at 5 and a half minutes into the video that you were going to make the video longer (and it still clocks in over 9 minutes) it's probably already too long.

If the main video isn't enough for you, there are 11 more linked. Huzzah!

Maybe shoes should be part of the rewards offered

Did I mention:

This Kickstarter has failed once before (it was canceled after 5 days last month)?

That buy in for anything that actually might work starts at $399, and I assume you need at least 2 sets to make this work?

That the project creator "is currently a graduate student and, and such, has much free time on his hands when class isn't in session?" Which makes me worry that monies raised could go toward living expenses (it's happened often enough in the past to raise this flag.)

That after watching the video, I really fail to see the RPG link, except that adding "RPG" to the title appears to be an attempt to bring in rolpeplayers?

11 Days into funding - no backers towards the goal of $12,500.

Maybe the niche of a niche that's being aimed at doesn't have $399 to drop for an electronic game of tag...

Run, Don't Walk to Amazon for Deals on Basic Fantasy RPG!

I have no idea how long these prices will be in effect - could be days, hours, minutes.

The BFRPG Core Book for $3.85

BFRPG Adventures for as low as $2.66

All ship free if you have Prime at Amazon.

If you've been waiting to pick these up, NOW is the time.

Tenkar's Wondrous and Whimsical Trinkets and Trifles - Staff of Sneezing & Wheezing

Alright, time to kick off Tenkar's Wondrous and Whimsical Trinkets and Trifles weekly offering. This week, it's going to be reflective of the cold from hell (and the accompanying sinus infection) that I've been gifted with ;)

Staff of Sneezing & Wheezing - First created by the insane wizard Sinusitus, the Staff of Sneezing & Wheezing can be recognized by the nose like protrusion from the head of the staff that constantly drips a yellow like but harmless sap-like fluid.

When the proper command word is uttered by the magic-user holding the staff (often "Ah-Choo!" or "Prrfffttt!") the following effects will happen:

- Within a range of 60', a 10' radius circle will cause all within to save vs. poison for up to three consecutive rounds. Once a creature makes it's save, no further saves are required.

One the first round, creatures that fail their save notice their noses begin to fill with mucus uncontrollably. -2 to all attack rolls from the distraction for 3d6 rounds.

On the second round, creatures that failed their first save must attempt a second save vs poison at -2. Failure means they will spend the next 1d4 rounds uncontrollably hacking, and coughing. No attacks are possible and their AC becomes 2 points worse, as they are unable to effectively defend themselves.

On the third round, creatures that failed their previous two saves must attempt a third saving throw, now at -4. Failure to save results in death, as the creature drowns in it's own mucus.

Review - Player's Companion (for Swords & Wizardry)

+James Spahn and Barrel Rider Games have released their first Swords & Wizardry product, and they didn't aim small, either. The Player's Companion adds a virtual ton of optional rules for your S&W campaign.

Attributes over 18? Got you covered.

Appearance and Luck as optional stats? There if you want it.

Missing out on racial attribute modifiers? They're here.

Additional class features for the classes in S&W Complete? Yep

New Classes? Damn but yes.

- The Anti-Paladin would make a decent BBG but I don't see it as a player class. YMMV

- Another take on the Bard. I want to play this class so badly. It reminds me of the original class from 1e AD&D days, without needing to be a fighter and a thief first. For me, damn near worth the price of admission.

New races, at least for S&W.

- Dark Elf - If anyone tries to play a dual sword wielding dark elf ranger in my campaign, you wont survive character generation.

- Gnomes - Strangely enough I like gnomes but never play them. Didn't 4e pride itself on removing gnomes from the core races?

- Half-Orc - It isn't D&D without Half-Orcs - 'nuff said.

The new weapons are pretty cool. I like the parrying dagger myself.

The new armors are interesting. Makes me realize my PCs tend to wear lighter armor, as most of these would not be an option for them.

The new magic items is basically a GM's section in the Player's Companion. It's a fun section, especially if your like me, and like to keep your players guessing when they find new magic items.

So, overall, how is the Player's Companion? Chuck full of a variety of useful stuff. At $2.99 I strongly suspect if you only use bits and pieces, you'll still be getting your money's worth.

Indie, Meanie, Minie Moe...

So, I've been sidelined with the virus from hell since Friday. Yep, I'm actually home sick from work. Go figure.

It's also made me a bit dopey. Dopey enough that I'm going throw this question out to my overwhelmingly OSR rooted readers:

What "indie" game would you recommend to an OSR styled gamer?

With my ongoing low grade fever I don't see myself returning to work until next week at the earliest, so I figured I'd throw this question out to the masses.

Yes, I'm in need of reading material ;)

Talking About Magic Items...

Episode 11 of the Brainstorm Podcast released today, and we talk about some unique magic items that we created for our campaigns. Listening to the episode (which I do, because I rarely remember what I said unless I actually listen to it) got me thinking about the fun I've had in the past making up new magic items, both for posting on the blog and in my campaigns.

I've stepped away from it for a bit, but I think I'll get back in the saddle creating new magic weapons, armor and misc items again. Maybe a weekly post.

Tenkar's Wondrous and Whimsical Trinkets and Trifles

Of course, it could be the fever, head congestion and the medication on on giving me these thoughts...

A Kickstarter That Leaves Me Scratching My Head - Digital D20

My first thought was "isn't D20 a trademark of WotC?"

My 2nd thought was "is there a 50,000 British Pound market for a 3x adventure path distributed via tablets?"

My 3rd thought, after playing the video was "aren't these the same guys with the cardboard gaming tables?"

Actually, my wife had the same thought when she heard the voices - the Spanish accents are so strong we thought they were Italian, subtitles would have been helpful.

Then I read this:

and I knew the journey was going to be a good one.

So, Digital D20, or DD20, or D20 tabletop Role Playing Game Campaigns is a method of distributing D20 RPG adventures from DigitalD20 Ltd to your tablet, and perhaps those of your players.

Yes, you can't use the underlying software Gamethrough without using adventures purchased from DigitalD20. No writing your own adventure or going off the adventure path here it seems.

They do offer a sample page from the first adventure:

That is going to be painful to read on an 8" tablet, and not just because of the size of the font and the background graphics - the English is awkward at points too.

So, they give is a short write up of the campaign:

The English is awkward throughout the projects Kickstarter page. I understand the 7 people behind this project are all Spanish in background (and I'm going to guess it is their mother tongue too) but for the sake of any possible backers they are hoping to bring on board, please, I beg, grab a native English speaker to edit and make corrections. And if they are too cheap for that, try spellcheck.

They've set a fairly high goal for a project that is aiming for $80,470 using today's conversion rate. For a rule system that was supplanted by Pathfinder and a project that they can't be bothered to present in proper English.

First impressions mean a lot and Digital D20 isn't leaving a good one.