LotFP -Weird Fantasy - Unsorted Thoughts on a Paladin Class

Looking at the Paladin class, the conversion to Weird Fantasy shouldn't be too hard. Drop saving throw bonuses, detect evil, protection from evil 10' radius becomes self only, no undead turning and no spell gain at higher levels.

Lay Hands, Cure Disease and an Undead Power Attack (poor choice of attack name - consider it in progress) get increases based upon the "Die Pip" system used by the Specialist Class. I have an idea for this, probably won't get written up until tomorrow.

Only one pip awarded per level gain, and no power can have 3 pips or more then any other, which should keep them fairly balanced while allowing specialization.

Expo chart needs to be worked out.

Anyhow, that's a snapshot of my notes.

Hopefully this gets fleshed out better over the weekend. Then I'll attempt the Ranger ;)

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Blood Moon Rising - A New Labyrinth Lord Adventure

I'm sure all of you have been following the noise about Insidious, the adventure released using the AD&D trademark, under the OGL, and basically making a mess of thing but garnering lots of publicity.  If not, check out The Greyhawk Grognard's posting on it - its the best I've seen so far.  My main problem with this product?  It appears to be a crippled PDF, with a watermark on every page (apparently across the page).  I like my watermarks not to interrupt my reading, thank you very much.  I'll pass.


Blood Moon Rising is not the adventure you've been reading about all day.  Nope, this one is for Labyrinth Lord.  It appears to make proper use of the OGL.  Figure that one out.
Here's the blurb:

Garanton is a village like any other, except for five days out of the year when it hosts the Feast of St. Garan. During this time, fighters from abroad come to join in the revelry, mingle with other adventurers, and win fame and fortune fighting in the daily games. But all is not well in Garanton this year. Cruel orcs prowl the forest, dark wizards cast webs of treachery and deceit, and bat-winged demons fill the moonlit sky. Does your party have what it takes to ward off this evil before it consumes the entire town?

Blood Moon Rising is a Labyrinth LordTM adventure that is easily converted to other editions of the world's most popular fantasy roleplaying game. Designed for 3-6 characters of 1st through 3rd level, the adventure is set in and around the village of Garanton and involves a mixture of wilderness, dungeon, and urban encounters. Use your archetypical frontier village for more than just a rest stop between forays into the wild. Come enjoy the Feast of St. Garan today!

Hopefully Small Niche Games isn't penalized for actually following the rules as spelled out in the legal document they are apparently abiding by.
Still, I wish it was bookmarked.  I never used to care much, but LotFP has spoiled me for life i seems ;)

Working on the Weird (Fantasy)

Work has been relatively insane since I came back from vacation on Monday. I'm still working on the Paladin and Ranger for Weird Fantasy, but might not have much time free until the weekend (assuming I don't get ordered in for the weekend, which at this point in time is a possibility).

I'm also toying with a few more (minor) house rules for Weird Fantasy. Time is the adversary at the moment.

I've reread LotFP Weird Fantasy Referee book on my iPad. First, kudos to James for making an excellent PDF conversion. It looks awesome on the iPad. Secondly, the advice James gives is priceless, even the parts that I don't agree with in total. Magic is a rare, wonderful and scary thing in the default setting of Weird Fantasy. I still think this book is worth the price of admission on it's own, and it would be nice to see it for sale separately.

Okay, more when I have my next few minutes of lucidity in this insanity ;)




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The House of Blue Men - A Sorcery and Super Science! QuickStart

Sorcery and Super Science! is Expeditious Retreat's new RPG.  I don't think I can explain the game setting better then they do, so here it is:

After the cracking of the moon and before the rise of Atlantis the world was a place strange to the thoughts of honest men. The death throes of science amid the birth of magic sculpted new generations of conquerors who strode the lands forging civilizations of steel, sinew, and sorcery from the decrepit hulks of the ones that fell before.

Tyrannical wizards, amoral super-scientists, charismatic catalysts, and multifarious mutants battled for wealth, power, and honor. It was ten thousand years of barbarity; ten thousand years spent in the shadowy shells of past glories, hiding from horrible creatures that scratched and skittered for blood; ten thousand years of tyranny and injustice, ten thousand years of Sorcery & Super Science!

The House of Blue Men - A Sorcery and Super Science! QuickStart is a free peek at the setting and the rules.  At 48 pages, its a fairly large free peek.

It's written to be Old School at heart, or so they say.  I'll have to give this Quickstart a full read and get back to you on that.  First glance does show a professional prepared product.  Nice bookmarking in the Quickstart too.

And the Winner is...

We hit 50 Google Connect Friends / Followers today.

So I get to give away a prize... fun.

Rolling my wonderful crystal red (I've been told they look pink, but whatever) I've rolled:

a 14

"Al" is the winner of his choice of the following in PDF, courtesy of RPGNow / OneBookShelf:

     Savage Worlds Fantasy Companion
     Paths of Power (Pathfinder)
     Dark Heresy:  Inquisitor's Handbook

I'll be sending an email to Al's google email shortly.  Once he picks I'll send him his code.

Congrats!

Next prize at 60 members ;)

Let's Get to 50!

The Tavern currently has 48 Google Connect Friends / Followers. Let's hit 50 so I can randomly reward one of the 50 with a free PDF product from RPGNow.com.

I enjoy giving stuff away, so if you regularly pull up a seat at the Tavern, why don't you sign the book and possibly get some free swag.

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August Sales at RPGNow - 20% of Coupon for Selected Publishers

The following publishers are offering 20% off with the following coupon code for the month of August:

Code: DTRPGAugust2010BlogPCast

Publishers:

A Terrible Idea

Aethereal Forge

Bailey Records

Crucifiction Games

Dream Pod 9

Fantasy Games Unlimited

Final Redoubt Press

Gold Rush Games

Goodman Games

Highmoon Games

Morbid Games

OtherWorld Creations

Palladium Books

Rogue Games

RPG Objects

Savage Mojo

Tricky Owlbear

Vigilance Press

Enjoy ;)

OSR Rulesets - Art Free for Free

I think Goblinoid Games the first with the art free version of the Labyrinth Lord PDF given away for free and a version with art sold an a nominal price.

LotFP Weird Fantasy is the second OSR publisher that I know of that went art free for free, pay for version with art. (although Weird Fantasy's art enhanced set includes 2 books not in the free version).

Has anyone else gone this route? Did I miss a game or two?

Is this effective marketing? I suspect it is, but I have no way to know for sure.

Some people put little value on free. Does the fact that there is a pay for version that is essentially the same make the free version more valuable?

Please leave your thoughts after the beep. BEEEEP!

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Cartographer - RPG Mapping for the iPad

Cartographer is a mapping program for the iPad that allows for downloading of maps to your computer for printing or Virtual Table Top use.

At 12 bucks it's 18 dollars cheaper then it's only competitor I know of (whose name escapes me at the moment).

The mapping is fairly intuitive... It took me about 10 minutes to figure out how to do a small 4 room dungeon complete with doors, stairs, pools and assorted trappings.

You can also use the map as a battle map directly on the iPad, and can move counters around on the virtual screen. A bit small for my use, but with a video out to a HD TV or computer monitor it might make a decent option

I only stumbled across this little gem late last night, so I haven't put it thru all of it's paces. My one peeve is that the zoom is not set to work with the ipad's pinching feature... Instead it uses preset zoom out /in settings.

Interesting so far, this might become a mapping program I can actually use ;)

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LotFP - Weird Fantasy Role-Playing Rules - On Sale at RPGNow

James put the Weird Fantasy Role-Playing Deluxe Edition - Rules Book, The Magic Book, The Referee Book and the Tutorial Book up on RPGNow - $12.50 for the lot of it.  The Referee Book might be worth that on its own, its just that good.

485 pages  of gaming fun, including character sheet, an info sheet and Raggi's Recommended Readings

(short review of the Referee Book here.)

 

Some might prefer a free peek, and James is doing you one better... he's offering the Rules Book and Magic Book as a free download on his website.  They are art free but the real deal.

I think it's awesome that you can get everything that was offered in the collectors box for less then $23 total in PDF (if you add in Tower of the Stargazer and Weird New World, reviews here and here).

Give Weird Fantasy a free grab if nothing else.  It's good, well written, and making me think of house rules and adding classes - that's amazing unto itself ;)

Back to the Grindstone

The joys of returning to work after nine days away... this morning was painful just to deal with the alarm. I'd like to know where all the time went on my vacation, as I have little of productive completed projects around the house to show for it.

At least i've found time to think of the ways to stat out the Paladin and Ranger classes for Weird Fantasy. It may be a few days before I have anything ready to post. Damn work and it's ability to destroy free time ;)

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LotfP - Weird Fantasy - More Thoughts on Houserules / Adding Classes

Driving has become a very relaxing way for me to think about life, love... and gaming.  If I could write and drive, I'm sure the products would be awesome, at least until the point the car I was driving went off a bridge or into a wall due to my attention being diverted.

Anyhow, I'm really digging the Specialist class in Weird Fantasy.  It is a great solution to a class with multiple abilities that increase with level gain.  It allows for the individualization of each character, specialized or jack of all trades.  It is very well thought out.

It's also a fine example as a baseline to design other classes with abilities, some that increase with level, some that are gained at later levels, or a combination of the two. I'm thinking of writing up a Ranger, Paladin and possibly Bard class for LotFP's Weird Fantasy.

If nothing else, it gives me a reason to reread the rules again, and the referee advice.  Oh, and run the damn tutorial.  Sigh.  Where the F' did my vacation go?

Open Game Table Volume 2

I remember vividly when Open Game Table Volume 1 came out last year.  It reinforced my desire to blog and really opened my eyes up to some of the blog sites in our corner of the blogosphere.  It also made good bathroom reading material, as it could be read in short sections and picked up next round.  Yep, I own the hard copy.

This year I have the PDF version of Open Game Table Volume 2, and I just started virtually flipping thru it.  There are some blogs that will be added to my blog role (how Gnome Stew has missed it for so long I do not know, but I shall soon rectify it).

Still, there seems to be something lacking this time around.  In all probability, it is my sense of wonder that is missing, as now I have become part of this thing we call blogging, and although I am not a major part of it by far, I have lost the sense of wonder I used to have.

No matter, it should be a good read, and I expect to find some interesting blogs to read in the future.

LotFP - Weird Fantasy - Brainstorming Houserules

Like I posted earlier, Weird Fantasy comes together as you read the whole friggin' package.  The rules themselves work best with the implied low magic / low fantasy setting.

That being said, there is room to tweak, and here are some of my first thoughts on the matter:

Specialists - Sneak Attack - The rules state each "pip" bought in the skill increases the damage multiplier by +1.  It also states that putting any points into the skill gives a +2 bonus to the Sneak Attack.  I'm leaning towards making that +2 per "pip" bought for the to hit bonus.  Only Fighters increase in To Hit Bonus - I'd like to think a sneak attack at a higher level of expertise will actually hit.

Halflings - The implied class for Halflings is Fighter, as the descriptive text refers to "a chiseled, battle-scarred warrior Halfling."  I'd rather see him default to a Specialist, but keep the Halfling Expo Advancement, so he will lag behind a Human Specialist.

Fighters - The only class to increase in combat ability.  One problem, they may hit more often (if that isn't balanced out by decreasing AC in higher level opponents), but their damage won't be increasing - the Low Magic setting will make magic weapons vey rare - and forget about gauntlets or girdles of strength.  My suggestion?  Three attacks per two rounds starting at level 6, and two attacks per round at level 11.  He still has to hit, but we've increased his damage potential.  I foresee extremely long combats at higher levels otherwise.

Clerics and Wizards - On the fence on this one.  Thinking of adding one level 1 spell for a +1 in the appropriate stat bonus, a level 2 spell for +2, and a level 3 spell for +3.  Clerics aren't going to be going toe to toe in combat anymore, and Wizards are going to suffer from the lack of Christmas Tree goodies.  This keeps the player in the game a bit longer before he has an empty spell battery.  I don't think the balance issue is all that huge.

Dangerous what a day of driving - with most of that in the passenger seat as my son is getting his "driving time in" - leads one to think of ;)

LotFP -Weird Fantasy - More Thoughts

I've spent more time reading the Rules for Weird Fantasy and I have to say the pieces are falling into place. Keeping the magic item Christmas Tree from entering gameplay makes the Fighter's monopoly on combat bonus' even more valuable. Armor Classes across the board will stay in the positive number range for the most part, and no monster book means most monsters will be fairly unique, or at least I think that is the intention.

I have some house-rule tweaks I'm thinking on. I'll post them when I work them out. Possibly later today.


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Rebooting the Never Fully Booted

So, the Labyrinth Lord Campaign via Fantasy Grounds I was going to run will now be a Castles & Crusades Campaign via Fantasy Grounds 2.  Why?  Simple really.  There are aot of mods already converted from C&C to FG2... nothing for LL... and premade mods means much less prep time.

I simply don't have all that much time to play with too convert a module for use in FG2.

Besides, all we did was character generation, and that is easy enough to convert over.

Did have an interesting time with one of the group on Wednesday, who has it in his head that his Ranger is going to be "kiting" the "mobs" like in DDO or EQ2.  As he is the closest thing the party of four has to a tank, I don't think that is much of an option. Besides, bow and arrow isn't well suited for the low ceilings of a dungeon environment. ;)

Aiming to get this going in September when vacations are over.  Time will tell.

LotFP Weird New World on Sale at RPGNow

James has been a busy little beaver getting his latest works up on RPGNow in PDF Format.  The latest to hit is Weird New World.

 

Another solid conversion to PDF by the current OSR Workhorse... at least until the next thing hits.  Catch a review of Weird New World here.

Currently $6.00 in PDF from RPGNow for 62 extremely well bookmarked pages.

LotFP's Tower of the Stargazer and Hammers of the God for Sale at RPGNow

I woke up this morning to see that Lamentations of the Flame Princess' Tower of the Stargazer and Hammers of the God had been uploaded for sale at RPGNow.  This is the perfect opportunity for those that didn't, or couldn't pick up the Weird Fantasy box set to grab Tower of the Stargazer (short review here).  Hammers of the God is being sold by James as an individual purchase - I picked up my hard copy when I ordered the Boxed set.

James did a great job reformatting Tower of the Stargazer to PDF format.  What was 16 pages in print becomes over 40 pages in eye pleasing PDF.  Nicely done. Still as deadly as the hard copy tho.

 

 

Hammers of the God was 36 pages plus wrap around cover.  86 pages in PDF format.  See, I knew James did some dense formatting in his print copies, its nice to see them reworked for PDF.  They'll be hitting my iPad shortly.

 

Did I mention they are both well bookmarked?  Well, they are, which is a nice bonus for the PDFs.

Tower of the Stargazer is $3.25 on RPGnow,  Hammers of the God is $6.00.

James, when are you going to put up the Referee Book from Weird Fantasy? Come on, you know I want it ;)

Revamp in Progess

Out with the old Template, in with the New Template.

Very much a work in progress.

Feel free to throw your two cents below... I'm not too proud to take advice ;)

DC Adventures - Quick Start

I know I'm overdue on the next install of the Quick Start listings I've been putting together, but I'd hate to see this one fall thru the cracks.

 

The DC Adventures Quick Start highlights the new DC Adventures game, which is built upon the Mutants and Masterminds rules, of which you can also grab a quick start for here.

DC Adventures Quick Start is a mere 9 pages (the M&M quick start is 34 pages, but who is counting?).  What I do find strange is that the new quick start uses Superboy and Smallville as its hooks... didn't we just get a Smallville RPG?

I've been waiting for a DC supers game since the old Mayfair days... now where is my Marvel Heroes RPG?

LotFP - Weird Fantasy - Weird New World

Lamentations of the Flame Princess - Weird Fantasy - Weird New World is James Raggi's sandbox setting for the Weird Fantasy Ruleset (although it should work with any of the retro clones without much work.

So, why check out Weird New World when fantasy settings are a dime a dozen these days?  Simply because they ARE a dime a dozen these days, and James never plays it safe or close to the vest.  This is not  your normal fantasy setting, but you probably guessed that already.

 

James gives us a cold land further divided by climate zones, a weather severity system (which will effect gameplay), random encounter charts (land, sea and ice), encounter areas and notable landmarks, some detailed encounters, elves that make the Drow seem tame... in the long and short of it, typical Raggi... if there was a typical Raggi.

The man crams a lot into 28 pages.  Most if it is snippets, short pieces to get you thinking about how you want to flesh things out.

Now, could I run this as is?  Nope, its a sandbox, a very large sandbox, and James plants some very nice seeds.  You need to make this your own before you can run it.  Which is fine by me.

Did I mention its a very lethal setting, or did you just assume that with James writing it? ;)

Gamers Seeking Gamers

It appears ENWorld overwhelmed it's servers when it went live with its Gamers Seeking Gamers service over the weekend.  Which tells you there are a lot of gamers seeking game groups, and / or game groups seeking additional players.  Which is good.  Heck the service is good for the hobby, especially from a site that gets traffic like ENWorld does.

Gamers Seeking Gamers is a way for you to find other gamers in your area. But not only that - you can find conventions, events, online groups, and more!

You are able to seach by location - you tell Gamers Seeking Gamers where you are, and then tell it how many miles away from you you'd like to search (and yes, you can change that to kilometers if you want to!) Gamers Seeking Gamers will then show you a map and a list of matching gamers, events, regular games, conventions, and groups within that area.

You can even filter your search results - you can narrow the list down by age group or by which games people are interested in. 

Which makes for a very interesting tool.  Not sure I'll use it much myself, as I have enough trouble trying to schedule  my old gaming group to gather once a month via Fantasy Grounds 2.

Throwing Stones - Sorta

I'm nearing the halfway point of my vacation, and so far I've had:
     - an explosive case of food poisoning
     - passed a kidney stone (apparently - I wasn't going to retrieve it to be sure)
     - received Gold - A Web Series - Season One DVD to review
     - got myself a reviewer's PDF copy of DC Heroes
     - got to spend lots of bathroom time with LotFP's Weird Fantasy
     - other assorted crap too minor to mention

One hell of a mixed bag.  Then again, I seem to always get sick on vacation, which is why I haven't had to take a sick day in almost 3 years... sigh.

Tomorrow I set up my new Mac Mini, with switches to share my monitor and other peripherals with my PC.  Hopefully more quality time with Weird Fantasy and DC Heroes too.

LotFP -Weird Fantasy - My Thoughts

Its weird, but the last pieces of the boxed set I'll probably put some serious reading time into are the Rules and Spells books. This is for the simple reason that the rest of the boxed set steps pretty far from standard fair.

I'm not saying the rules are standard OSR clone-age, but the rest of the set stands unique enough to get preferential reading treatment, and micro reviewing on this blog.

Never got the chance to run thru the tutorial, but i will try to in the next few days.

Game on!

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LotFP - Weird Fantasy - Tower of the Stargazer

Lamentations of the Flame Princess - Weird Fantasy - Tower of the Stargazer.  It's a hell of a lot to write to name one of  James Raggi's latest works, but it is worth it.  It's included in the Weird Fantasy boxed set that James just released, but its also available separately.

So, what do you get for your purchase?  More then you might expect.  You get 16 pages crammed full of text,  a wrap around cover which, just like TSR's old modules, includes all the maps the DM needs on the inside cover, and cover art by Peter Mullen.

Now, as for those 16 pages full of text?  James outdid himself.  Seriously.  The adventure itself is excellent and extremely deadly (as one would expect with Raggi writing it).  Its not just another Wizard's Tower.  But that's not where the value lies.  The value is in James' notes. Notes on the playtest, what worked and what didn't.  Notes on WHY he wrote something one way, and not another way.  Notes that just about any DM will read and say "I just learned something useful".  All that hidden like little Easter Eggs in an an already sweet piece of work.

I really need to sit down with the Tutorial Booklet.  I suspect there will be things to learn there too.

LotFP - Weird Fantasy - Referee Book -

I'm not sure if James plans to make the Referee Book from his Weird Fantasy boxed set available as a stand along product, but he should.  I've read numerous books on DM'ing, GM'ing, Ref'ing, etc... and not one spoke to me in a real man's (or person's) language and terms.  James is spot on way more often then not, and where we disagree its more on a level of play styles - and even in these cases I can see and understand what James' point is.



Rule 1 won me over:  "Don't be a dick."

So right, yet so often left unsaid.

Back to Weird Fantasy reading...

Superhero Summer

I'm amazed at the number of superhero games that are / have been / will be released this summer. 

Icons was released earlier in late spring / early summer.  Its a nice little game from the designer of Mutants and Masterminds, and offers a quick and easy method to get you Superhero fix in.

DC Adventures was just released on RPGNow yesterday, although I think there is a revision going on with the PDF file.  I got an error with Adobe Reader, but Sumatra read it fine.  It's syncing to my iPad as I type.  Nice rainy day here in the Pocono Mountains makes for great reading time. It's engine is the Mutants and Masterminds system.

The Smallville RPG landed last week.  I haven't checked it out as I don't watch the series, but I have heard  good things about the series, so I may have to check it out as I run thru the other superhero rpgs.

Then of course there is Wild Talents 2nd Edition, which I had overlooked until I noticed the current superhero explosion currently in effect.  It came out earlier this year, and I must say it looks nice.  The One Roll Engine looks interesting, tho' I'd like to see it in play  Then again, I'm a bargain hunter at hard, so the earlier Wild Talents Essential Edition for only 5 bucks is very attractive.

Feedback when I get thru some reading, although I may be running the tutorial from LotFP Weird Fantasy as a single player adventure with a DM later tonight or tomorrow.  If I do I'll post the results and review.

Gathering of Fools Recap

Amazingly enough, Army of Darkness was NOT on the list of things to do or watch.  No idea how that fell thru the cracks.

We did however, watch The Hunt for Gollum.  Very well done, especially considering it is a fan movie.  Better then most of the made for SciFy Channel stuff in any case. 

Family Guy, bad Heavy Metal videos, classic arcade games like Gauntlet 2 on the PS3... plus beer, chips and beef jerky.  Classic Fools Fare.  Oh, and some Krod Mandoon.  My god but that show left little to the imagination.

In the end I gave everyone copies of Dark Dungeon, and they got to do a last man standing with generic level 1 fighters for a copy of the collectible Swords & Wizardry Whitebox boxed set (a copy of the S&W Quickstart rules went to the three eliminated).  Probably the first time I had the classic group rolling dice in a meaningful manner in 13 years... it was a blast.  Think I've hooked 'em, no to reel them in ;)

I Looted the Birthday Beast

and all I got was a lousy t-shirt.  Not!  heh

I feel truly blessed, as I received presents way beyond what I deserved.  I'll be hitting Amazon pretty hard in the next couple of days and will need to hit Microcenter soon to spend my new gift card.  Got some new Teva sandals which will be worn at the Gathering of Fools in lieu of socks ;)  Even got a handly dandy Apple Keyboard and Stand for my iPad.  Most excellent.  Oh, and of course Monty Python's Holy Grail  ceramic goblet.  Good one.

Number one b-day loot?  I Hate Your Guts, by comedian Jimmy Norton (also a regular on the Opie and Anthony Satellite Radio Show).  This book was delivered to my Kindle app on my iPad thanks to my son Chris, who figured out the prefect gift without any help from me (i just said get me an iTunes gift card).  I'm a real proud poppa.

Of course, his other idea was to put money on my Paypal account so i could by some of those silly RPGs at RPGNow.  He really knows me well ;)

I get to give gifts out in about 3 hrs at the Gathering of Fools.  Awesome vacation so far.  Heh

Pending Gathering of Fools

Today is my birthday.  I have hit the grand old age of 43, an age I never would have imagined people actively roleplayed at when I was 13.  Go figure.

More importantly tomorrow is the seasonal (more or less) Gathering of Fools.  The core of my old High School / College / Life Before our own Families and Responsibilities Group gets together every few months to shoot the shit, have a few beers for old fiends we've lost, watch Army of Darkness for the 27th time, eat lots of beef jerky and basically act like we did 25 years ago.

I like to bear gifts when possible during these gatherings.  Castles & Crusades books, OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, Swords & Wizardry... I've given them all out.


Tomorrow I get to give out copies of Dark Dungeons, some Swords and Wizardry Quickstarts and a single copy of the Swords & Wizardry Whitebox Edition in the collectible box.  Think I'll run a mock combat with the S&W rules, last man standing gets the boxed set.  Should be a blast.

Posting may be light the rest of the weekend.  Or not.  One never knows what may spark a post ;)

Warrior, Rogue & Mage

Warrior, Rogue & Mage from Stargazer Games is a free, lightweight fantasy RPG.  Its a complete game in all of 40 pages, including setting.

In this game, the classic class names from fantasy RPGs are instead your attributes.  Once you wrap your head around that a few times you'll be fine.

In simplest terms, Warrior defines your combat abilities,  Rogue your stealth and Mage your academic / magical abilities.  Add in skills (that are linked to your attributes) and talents and you've pretty much defined your character.

Simple games can be a lot of fun, but they take the correct group.  A 40 page PDF is not going to cover all possibilities, so common sense and GM fiat may be needed at times.  Still, for a quick and easy system Warrior, Rogue & Mage reminds me in ways of Ancient Odysseys - both games are easy to pick up and get gaming with pretty quickly.

Decent layout and nice enough artwork makes this a keeper.  Warrior, Rogue & Mage is released under the Creative Commons BY-NC-SA license.

LotFP - Weird Fantasy in Hand

Gotta give props to Jim and the Finnish mail service.  I got my copy of Weird Fantasy this afternoon, the 28 of July - Jim shipped o the 26th.

Lots of goodies jammed in the box.  Its a tasty box too, or at least my cat thinks so.  She was nibbling on the edge.

The first parts I plan to read are the Tutorial (to see how well it might actually explain role playing to those outside the hobby), and the two included adventures:  Tower of the Stargazer and Weird New World.  Need to step away from my iPad for a bit it seems ;)

Heck, the dice may be small but they look to be decent quality.

I'll give a review after I read thru everything.

Dungeon Demon - Mapping for this Dummy

I have spent years trying to use a computer program for my dungeon mapping.  Campaign Cartographer is an amazing program in the right hands - those hands are not mine.  Dundjinni is another excellent mapping program.  I came closer to success with this one, but still far from pleasing, and it takes me forever.

I stumbled across Dungeon Demon from Rusty Axe Games last nite, a surprisingly intuitive mapping program for the mapping impaired.  I was able to put a no frills 4 room dungeon together in about 10 minutes, suitable for my online Virtual Table Top of choice, Fantasy Grounds (tho iTabletop may be knocking on that door soon).  I figure if I spend another 20 minutes making it all pretty I'll be pretty well set.

It won't overwhelm you with options, and will probably be seen as a mapping program with training wheels for the mapping masters out there, but I need the training wheels :)

This is a first for me.  I'm actually kind of excited.  Another excuse for not running a game removed from me.  Going to need to get off my ass and DM soon it seems.

If I get anywhere near passable I'll post some on the blog, just don't hold your breath ;)

No More Core 4e Books?

Found this linked on Louis Porter's Facebook page. Will be interesting to see how this plays out if accurate.

ManaNation has received a tip that Wizards of the Coast has decided to end the print run of the Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition Core Handbooks, instead aiming to turn the game in the direction of “Dungeons and Dragons Essentials”, a product to be released later this year. The first product for the Essentials line is starting with the ‘Dungeons & Dragons Fantasy Roleplaying Game’ also being called ‘the Red Box’ and is due to be released on Sept. 7th, 2010.

It is our understanding that they are not going to be reprinting any of the three main books, the Players Handbook, Dungeon Master Guide and Monster Manual from this point on to allow them to be phased out. No other books have been mentioned.

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Location:No More Core 4e Books?

EGG's Lejendary Adventures - Quick Start

Lejendary Adventures was Gary Gygax's most recent game system.  Somewhere in my piles and shelves and closets of gaming goodness, I have both the full sized paperback books and the boxed set published by the Troll Lords.

These days it is out of print.  As Gygax Games has yet to decide what to do with the property, it may be out of print for a while.  That being said, DragonsFoot has a decent amount of material for use in the game.  More to the point, they have the PDF version of the Lejendary Adventures Quickstart available for download.

On the day we remember the man who did much to bring about this hobby of ours, why don't you download a copy of the Lejendary Adventures Quickstart.  Designed by the man.  Played by the man.

Heck, I'm gonna download another copy myself.  So I can give it a good reading.  I never got to play on the man's porch, but I've gotten the chance to spend many a year with his creations.

Roll them dice lads and ladies.

edit:  fixed the damn "G" for "J" deallie - Gary's f'n with me from above I tell you! ;)

Encounters Mag - Aussie for Classic Gaming

The lads down under have been putting out a free PDF magazine called Encounters.  There is a nice amount of material to borrow or steal for your D&D, LL, S&W, or other assorted old school styled gaming.

Very high production values and a decent page count, this quarterly magazine would have me subscribing if it offered such, but it's free, so I'll need to remember to track it down very few months.

Issue 2 of Encounters was just released.  Do yourself, and your gaming group a favor, and grab a copy.

Quick Start Rules - The Listing - Part the Seventh

Yep, the Quick Starts just keep rolling along.  Seventh posting and no where done.  Free is fun ;)

HELLAS: Quick Start Rules - Hellas is an exciting fusion of high drama, action-adventure, romance, mythology-infused space opera and science fiction - all that seems to be missing is the kitchen sink.

S.A.V.A.G.E. Essentials Rulebook - (Survival and Victory after Global Extinction) - Stripped down core rules for free.  When the author says "for experienced gamers only", I lean toward beleiving him.  Still, mightbe some stuff stealable for your Mutant Future game.

Promethean: The Created Demo - Promethean: The Created Promo -  Think Frankenstein and Golems.  Its set in White Wolf's World of Darkness.  Hell, with of of the WoD quickstarts, you could game for months and not spend a cent.

SLA Industries FREE Rulebook - Not a quickstart, as the quickstart's link appears to be dead.  Instead, its the full core rulebook.  Spies, espionage, magic, biogenetics and more.  Over 300 pages.  Full game.  'Nuff said.

Destination Now Known

Christian over at the Destination Unknown blog has gotten back to the zine business. The latest can be downloaded directly from his site, or for the lucky few a paper copy will be arriving in the mail.

I'd link it up for ya, but still haven,t figured how to do that from the iPad. ;)

I'll edit this tonight for linkability.


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edit:  Got mine in my snail-mail box today.  Woot!

Weekend Bits N Pieces

Lets see.  I've been getting a bunch of hits on the blog today from Germany.  It appears a German RPG Forum linked my BRP Classic Fantasy review.  Of course, I haven't taken a German class in over 16 years, and even when I was taking it in college I sucked at it.  I'd love to post a comment on their end, but I'm probably safer not doing so ;)

I just realized yesterday that Netflix on Demand has many of the Mystery Science Theater 3000 movies for instant viewing.  Some great Scifi and Fantasy cheese to watch.  Of course, my all time favorite Mitchel isn't available for instant viewing... I might have to pick that one up on DVD (not a gamer movie, but oh god, its great in its badness).

The Smallville RPG just hit RPGNow.  I don't think I've watched more then an episode or two, but I have friends that watch it religiously.  I have access to a reviewer's copy, so I might have to check this out.  Alot of folks like the Cortex System, so it should be fun to see how good a fit it is.

Oh, and I'm still going to bitch about the heat we've had in NYC.  Last year I didn't need to run my AC at night until August - but then again, last summer was unseasonably cool.

Last bit - open to suggestions for a new wireless router.  Mine is "okay", but I'm looking for some extra range and perhaps better support for wireless gaming.

Thanks for listening.  Should have some more Quickstarts listed in a day or so.

Fantasy Hero 6th ed- The Beast

I'm referring to Fantasy Hero 6 as The Beast because the sucker comes in at nearly 500 pages, and you still need the Core Hero Rules to use it.  It is an impressive PDF to behold, although it is of limited use to those that do not use the Hero System.

I tend to beg, borrow and steal from many sources when I run a game, and good ideas don't need to share the same rule system.  There is much here that is not specific to the Hero system.  The sections Elements of Fantasy, Fantasy Sub-genres, and crossing fantasy with other genres could stand on their own as generic advice for anyone about to begin a new Fantasy game with any set of rules.

Other Chapters, such as Beyond the Fields we Know:  Fantasy Worlds and Races and Wonders of the Imagination: Gamemastering Fantasy Hero stand pretty well on their own too.  The ideas and advice presented could easily be published as a systemless supplement, and I strongly suggest that Hero Games, or whatever the company is called these days, consider publishing these chapters to an audience outside of the Hero Game circle.  I suspect they would do well.

As for the bulk of the book?  Its been ages since I've run anything Hero / Champions - wise, so I am far from the person to be counted on for a definitive judgement, but even with my time away from the game I could see myself creating a Fantasy Hero character.  I don't have the day and a half available to do so at the moment ;)

On a more technical note, there is an excellent use of bookmarks in Fantasy Hero, something that is unappreciated until you start using them.  At that point, they become priceless.

The Lonely Coast Campaign Setting

Raging Swan Press (now THAT'S a company name) has released a mini-campaign setting called The Lonely Coast for free.  Its about 30 pages long and made for the Pathfinder RPG, but as we all know the easiest thing to convert from one rules set to another is a campaign setting (at least ones that don't include lots of optional rules).  As such, you could easily convert this to any Old School game on the fly.

The setting details a small area that can fit into just about any campaign world.  It's designed to fit on the outskirts of a kingdom, and doesn't cover a huge area, so it shouldn't disrupt much if you drop it into a world you already plan to use.

Five wandering encounters are included to help the DM hit the ground rolling.

You can grab The Lonely Coast here and visit the Raging Swan Press' website here.

Raging Swan has also released an adventure named Retribution for 1st level PCs, that can be used with The Lonely Coast or not.  It's also for Pathfinder and would required some conversion to use it with other rule sets.  I'll give my thoughts on it when I finish reading it.

Fantasy Games Unlimited Seems Limitless

Foolish me.  Here's I thought the 10 notifications I received last night that FGU had uploaded some of its classic library to RPGNow meant that is was a new thing.  Apparently there is a crapload of FGU stuff to be found in PDF format.

There are 26 adventures and supplements for Villains and Vigilantes along.  I assume that they are pretty compatible to the new release of V&V, but maybe someone can confirm or deny that for me.

The title that caught most of my attention last night was Swordbearer.  It was one of the first non-AD&D RPGs that I purchased.  Never played it, not even sure if I understood how all the rules would have worked in game play, but I loved that boxed set.  Come to think of it, games in boxes were generally more exciting then book format.  It's kinda like opening a present every time you play.

I did use the Swordbearer adventure Dwarven Halls in my AD&D campaign back in the day.  Wish I could remember how well it played, but time has stolen the details from me.

Anyhow, FGU appears to be participating in the Christmas in July promo on RPGNow.  25% off aint bad.

FGU Classic Releases on RPGNow

Last night I received numerous emails informing me of Fantasy Games Unlimited releasing classic titles from it's library on RPGNow. It included some V&V titles, some Aftermath and Space Opera supplements and even the Swordbearer rules (of which I have the original box packed away somewhere).

Over the weekend I'll take a closer look at the releases. I figured I'd let y'all know now, as there are some FGU fans out there ;)

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And The Winners Are...

Yep, giving away THREE PDFs thanks to the generosity of RPGNow and the publishers of the books being offered.

Still haven't figured out a better method than rolling dice by hand, although I'm sure there is a better method.


Forty-three peeps registered via Google Friends Connect.  I'm going to be lazy and just roll percentile dice and disregard any results over 43.  Breaking out the pink crystal dice inked in black (which I SWORE were red when I ordered them online).

Ashley the Feline will be our dice rolling witness.  Hopefully she will refrain from playing with the dice until after the winners are chosen.

And the rolls are:

18 - JimLotFP - Fantasy Craft - (go figure - he can read it at RopeCon)

 95 - ignored roll

36 - Le Bâtard - Karma Roleplaying System

42 - Marcelo - Fat Dragon's Dragonshire Deluxe 

  The winners should be receiving an email to their gmail shortly with a link and coupon code. 

Congrats to all. 

Just think, we get to do it again at 50 - just need to check the prize closet and make note of what we have ;)

Breaking Out the Dice Tonight

We, I have three items to give away from June, and I'd hate to see them expire and go to waste, so everyone that is on the Tavern's Google Friends list by 7 pm NYC time tonight is entered. Raffling off PDF copies of:

Fantasy Craft Karma Roleplaying System Fat Dragon Deluxe Set

Should be fun ;)

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My ENnie Choices - Atomic Highway

Is there anything better then a nuclear, chemical and biological agent wasteland to adventure in?  The Road Warrior showed us the fun potential of a world gone to shit.  Atomic Highway puts that holocaust world in your hands.

Even the cover plays homage to the Road Warrior series of movies.

This book is a blast (nuclear?) to read.  Simple rules (as in not too crunch heavy), nice setting rules (so you can customize your own setting) and a well done sample adventure.  Haven't yet put the rules to a playtest, but I suspect they would be quickly picked up by the average gaming group.  All that and a solid 5 star rating on RPGNow.

Now, for a free alternative post holocaust RPG (more on the side of Gamma World then Road Warrior) you can check out Mutant Future.

Or just read them both and make your own future. 

The 40th Person Just Stepped up to the Bar

Thanks to bliss_infinite, the Tavern now has its 40th regular.  Kinda like Cheers, but with RPGs and BYOB.

Tomorrow night I'll do the random rolling to determine the winner of a PDF copy of Fantasy Craft, compliments of RPGNow.  Actually, I'm leaning on giving more then one prize away, as the codes are from June and I'd hate for them to expire ;)

Best of luck to all.

Bits n Pieces

Over the next few days I'll be posting some short reviews of my picks from the ENnies list. I figure most of them are independent publishers and might have flown under some folks radars.

I also need to complete another Tales of the Blue Knight installment. Let's see how far I can get on that.

Another week in the 90s here in NYC. Saturday will be gunning for 98. Did I mention I hate the heat?

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Eenie, Meenie, More ENnies....

Alright, the rest of my Ennies pick list... so you can all stop waiting on it (not like you were).

Best Production Values
Eclipse Phase (Catalyst Game Labs & Posthuman Studios) - 'cause its a damn good book
Pathfinder Core Rulebook (Paizo Publishing) - Paizo outdid their already high standards on this one
Warhammer Fantasy RPG (Fantasy Flight Games)- Holy Shit!  Open the box and be left in awe!

Best Regalia
I'm not even sure what this means

Best Rules
Atomic Highway (Cubicle 7 & Radioactive Ape Designs) - a most excellent post nuke the world game
Diaspora (VSCA) - FATE system rules rule

Best Setting
Day After Ragnarok (Atomic Overmind Press) - If I were to play in a pulp setting, this would be it... excellent read, even w/o getting to play it

Best Supplement
eh, I refuse to vote for Player's Handbook 3

Best Website
Obsidian Portal - if you want a site that will help you run your game between sessions, this is it

Best Writing
Eclipse Phase (Catalyst Game Labs & Posthuman Studios) - like i said before, its a damn good book
FantasyCraft (Crafty Games) - i like the book, even if i know i will never use it

Product of the Year
Pathfinder (Paizo Publishing)  - why?  because this one goes to ELEVEN!  or 3.75, or the alternate 4e

Closing the Pandoren Box

Something I think I forgot to mention about iTabletop Pandoren is that is uses Silverlight or some such (I'm doing this from my iPad so I'm just gonna roll with it). There is nothing to download. Everything is saved server side, even the application.

Which can be good or bad, depending on the future health of the company. In the hear and now it is awesome. Log in on any computer that can access the Internet and your account, your resources, everything you have saved game-wise is there.

Alright, closing the Pandoren box for now. I'm sure I'll have more after I give it a bit of a workout in the coming weeks.

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Opening the Pandoren Box

iTabletop... I mean iTabletop Pandoren, has come a long way since I first stumbled across the v1.0 software nearly 2 years ago.  It was Easter Sunday of 2009 that I took the plunge and invested 200 bucks in a Lifetime Membership with 11 floating licenses.  I liked the potential I saw.  And I waited.  And waited...

For a brief time I was a volunteer mod on the site, it was at a point where v1.0 was no longer being worked on, and v2.0 wasn't even in pre-beta.  Like any real growth, it was a rough spot.  So I walked away.  Not proud of it, but I was hoping to get my own fairly regular game running, and iTabletop wasn't ready for prime time.  I turned my attention back to Fantasy Grounds 2, no slouch in the Virtual Table Top field, but with a decent learning curve if you wanted to run a game with it.

I never completely walked away from iTabletop Pandoren (which I assume is a play on Pandora's box), as the stream of emails updaying threads I was following on the forums could attest to.

At the moment they are offering $25 Lifetime memberships, good for one person, with all the bells and whistles.  Crap, that's right, the bells and whistles that set iTabletop Pandoren apart from the others:  Video and voice built into the platform.  Which is damn nice, as my group is in NYC, Texas and Washington State... and everyone wants to make faces and crack jokes.  Hard to do that via the chat log in Fantasy Grounds 2.

You can also share sounds for events, video clips, PDFs (tho the last part is a bit touchy, as copyrights can be involved).  Suffice to say it is far enough along that I can now stumble my way thru the idea of getting a game running with it.

At the very least my group with use this for the 4 time a year Gathering of Fools... so  that those in distant lands (Texas and Washington) can enjoy and participate in the foolishness.

Eenie, Meenie, ENnies....

Its that time of the year again, where all good publishers hope to get their products the recognition that an ENnie awards gives.  So, on that note, I'll be highlighting my favs from the list of nominations:

Best Adventure
The Grinding Gear (Lamentations of the Flame Princess)

Best Aid or Accessory
er, don't know, don't rightly care 

Best Art, Cover
Eclipse Phase (Catalyst Game Labs & Posthuman Studios)  
Pathfinder Bestiary (Paizo Publishing)
Rogue Trader Core Rulebook (Fantasy Flight Games)

Best Art, Interior
Pathfinder Core Rulebook (Paizo Publishing)  
Rogue Trader Core Rulebook (Fantasy Flight Games)

 Best Blog
guess i dont read the big ones 

Best Cartography
and don't now much about the final picks  

Best Electronic Book
not one of the finalists are on my digital bookshelf... sigh  

Best Free Product
amazingly enough, I don't know anything off this list either... and I LOVE free

Best Game
Pathfinder (Paizo Publishing)
HM: Labyrinth Lord (Goblinoid Games) Honorable mention isnt bad, but I'd have preferred a vote ;)

Best Miniature Product
I dont really do minis these days  

Best Monster/Adversary
Pathfinder Bestiary (Paizo Publishing)  
Pathfinder: Classic Horrors Revisited (Paizo Publishing) 

Best Podcast
I listen to like 4 podcasts a year, so my vote doesn't count  

eh, there's more, but I'll post it later tonight

Quick Start Rules - The Listing - Part the Sixth

The never ending list... well, it will end, or slow down, but not yet.

Misguided Ambitions - An Introduction to Earthdawn Third Edition - My experience with Earthdawn is limited to the harcover published by FASA back in my early days of gaming.  This cover to the new edition's quickstart reminds me of little in that old book, which is a good thing.

Mage: The Awakening Demo Part 1 and Part 2 - ENnie Nominated for best free product or web enhancement.  Can anyone tell me what the difference is between the Ascension and Awakening line for Mage?

City of Heroes RPG Quickplay Pack - Based on the MMORPG of the same name, it appears the full system was never released.  If this weren't a PDF, it would be a collectible. 

A Players Guide to Castlemourn - Not so much a quick start as an intro to the setting with enough rules (for use with 3.5e) to allow a player to create a character for use. Includes original fiction from Ed Greenwood, which by itself means it deserves a gander, especially for free.  Castlemourn Quickstart for the Cortex System here.

The Osmond Family RPG

No, don't go looking for a link or bother doing a google  search.  There isn't one (my God I HOPE there isn't one).  It's just that as I sit here in the Poconos, watching my hives appear even fuller (but the discomfort is almost all gone, go figure) I have Donnie and Marie Osmond bouncing around the nether region of my mind.  The Dark Side, if you will.

That damn stupid ass song:  I'm a little bit Country... I'm a little bit Rock n Roll!

I'm a little bit OSR, I'm a little bit 3E.  And a smidgen Rolemaster, MERP, BRP, CoC, FATE, Rifts, peanut butter and chocolate...

Just imagine if I HAD been drinking.  This could have been a whole lot worse, but the point is labels dont mean shit except from a marketing perspective.

Talking about marketing, I wonder if one could pull off an Osmond Family RPG.  I mean, TSR did publish a Dallas boardgame.  I actually owned that train wreck in my youth.

Pendragon - The Once and Current King

Pendragon 5.1 was just released in PDF format on RPGNow.  I don't know how it differs from 5.0, as the Wikipedia entry hasn't been updated to include the release of 5.1.

Pendragon is one of the great games that I never played.  I have the 1st edition boxed set and the 3rd edition soft covered book (there was no 2nd, and i missed the 4th and 5.0).  I've read them repeatedly, cover to cover, over the years as they are great King Arthur  resources unto themselves and make for nice reading (my BA is in History, so I may be biased).

The new PDF is 238 pages from end to end, and I'm starting at the begining and moving directly forward.  It's not the only thing on my plate, so its going to take some time before I can give a full (or even partial) review, but if it stays true to form it should be excellent.

Maybe I'll finally get to play with the rules this time.