Review - The Monolith From Beyond Space and Time - Part II - Head Scratching and All That Jazz

Despite the fact that it looks like a VD infected
penis of a Mongelman, I like the cover.

It's been over two weeks since the first part of my review of The Monolith From Beyond Time and Space. Why the delay?

Because I really wasn't sure what to make of the "adventure" as a whole. Actually, let me rephrase that just a tad. I wasn't sure what the "whole" of the adventure was supposed to accomplish, except to bring an ongoing campaign to a screeching halt. If the adventure doesn't outright kill your party, the survivors will probably be so fucked up, your campaign will be just as dead. This isn't ending your campaign on a high note - it's more like a slasher flick killing.

As a tournament module, where the players aren't invested in the characters or the campaign world, it could be a hoot to play. Heck, if you want the the players to be invested in it, make it like that whole season of Dallas that was retconned back in the day - after you basically skull fuck your players, it never really happened. Take them out for drinks and have a laugh. Because if I ran this for my regular group as a legitimate part of the campaign, street justice would fail to describe the acts of violence that would be directed at me.

All of which is a shame. The concept of the Monolith From Beyond Time and Space is a good one. Who doesn't want a little Lovecraftian weirdness and horror in their fantasy? I know I do. The key word is "little". One scoop of Mythos - the full half gallon in one sitting leaves one sick and never wanting more, ever again.

Monolith is certainly worth more for it's parts, than as a whole. A dungeon that reacts to the voiced thoughts or desires of the characters? I can run with that. Screwing with perceived distances in a certain location, due to magic or otherwise? Crapload of fun with that. Screwing with the free will of the players? Not so much fun. Damning them deeper and deeper, pretty much irrelevant of the decisions they make? Not my style of game.

I think any of the "screw the party" aspects of the Monolith are workable on their own. Maybe more for inspiration other than taken straight up, but James has some interesting scenarios that could play out well on their own (and probably toned down a bit). So, raid it for parts, plots and ideas if you will, but avoid adding this to your campaign unless you really want to burn it all behind you with no going back. Or run it as a one off at a con.

(yes, I see I used some pretty vulgar language above. it is what it is.)

Running Campaigns Like a Cable TV Series - A Way to Address the Extended Campaign Grind?

Joe England over on G+ has an interesting thread about running RPG sessions over G+ Hangouts. In it,  the discussion touches on one- shots, short arcs and campaign play. The answers as to preferences are pretty much as varied as the posters. So, of course, a thought occurred to me -

Why not run RPG campaigns like the cable channels run their TV series - 8 to 12 episodes that come to a natural climax - take an extended break, then pick it up in a few months time. Some players will probably stick around, some may drop and get replaced, but the setting and theme have continuity built in.

You would probably need a set day for the return of the new season, just so players don't forget, but it could work. Campaign play without the extended grind.

Workable, or not worth the extra work?

I Wonder How Close the Current Poll Mirrors Current Games Played Trends

For the poll asking folks to vote on "Which OSR game system they would want me to run on G+ Hangouts for them" I gave 16 choices and allow folks to vote for more than one choice.

About 12 hours later, there are 70 votes (!), and already a pattern can be seen:

Labyrinth Lord (21 votes) and Swords & Wizardry Complete (19 votes) are practically neck n' neck. They also have been around the longest - they are pretty much the "OSR Name Brands".

Blood & Treasure (14 votes) and Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea (12 votes) and very recent releases and have gotten good feedback and word of mouth.

Crypts & Things and LotFP Weird Fantasy both have 11 votes. Both take classic assumptions and about FRPGs and make them something else.

Interesting results so far.  The should only get more interesting over the next week of the poll.

(As an asides, the supporters of AS&SH have been the most vocal in the comments section of the post linked to the poll)

Poll - Which "Old School" RPG Should I Run in October for the Fine Patrons of the Tavern?

Awesome Logo borrowed from Matt Jackson

There were a lot of suggestions for this poll, and I suspect I'll be doing this every month or two, so I trimmed the list to 16 choices (I'll do the next poll with other games from the list). You can pick as many as you want, and you can add a comment as to why a certain game should be the one chosen.

Comments will hold weight, so even something that doesn't come up 1st (but is close) may be the game chosen if the comments are persuasive enough.

Besides that, commenters will get some kind of consideration if I have too large a pool of players to accomodate - tho if I do 2 one-shots, that may put us at 12-14 players. So, if I have to go random picking players, commenters will get their name put in the hat twice. That should work ;)

So, take the poll and choose a game or games you would like to see played in October, then tell me "why" in the comments below.

Time to roll "Old School" ;)

New Site for Swords & Wizardry Goodness - S&W SRD

I found this site a few days ago and I still need to link it on the left side of this page, but figured I'd put it out there now.

It's the Swords & Wizardry SRD, which has the support of Frog God and Matt Finch.

A bunch of one-sheet adventures, a GM Shield to print out, character sheets and a whole lot more.

There's enough here to kick off a campaign and then some ;)

Will the Real Original Elf Class Please Stand Up? (Delving Deeper and S&W White Box)

Elves in Delving Deeper:


Elves begin as either fighters or magic-users, but can change class between adventures as often as desired. An elf becomes dual-classed when he changes class for the first time, and may thereafter use both the weaponry of a fighter and the spells of a magic-user simultaneously.

The dual-classed character must maintain separate experience point totals for each of his classes, with all earned experience going toward his currently active class. He uses the more favorable game statistics of both classes during play, but cannot act as a magic-user while wearing non-magical armor.

Elves in Swords & Wizardry White Box:


The Elven adventurer may choose, on any given day (perhaps when the moon rises) whether to use the capabilities of a Magic-user or of a Fighter. As a result, the Elf has access to either the Fighter or Magic-user chart for to-hit bonuses and saving throws, depending upon whether he donned steel that day or summoned up the power to cast spells.

Character Advancement: Elves may use either theFighter or Magic-user class advancement charts, to be announced at the start of an adventure. They are typically allowed to progress as high as fourth level as a Fighter or eighth level as a Magic-user.

Weapon/Armor Restrictions: Elves have general limitations similar to those of Magic-users, but are allowed to wear special Elven chain mail while adventuring as a Magic-user.

and the Variant Elf in S&W White Box:


Some Referees may want to allow the Elf to advance as a blend of Fighter and Magic-user instead of switching back and forth. In that model, the following abilities and advancement table might be used instead:

Weapon/Armor Restrictions: Elves would have the advantage of both magic and armor at the same time, so the Referee may limit the Elf to chain mail. Elves may not use shields when casting spells. Elves may not use two-handed weapons (two-handed sword, pole arm) when casting spells.


Why I do these comparisons when I don't have access to my OD&D Boxed Set escapes me, but whatever. I believe the S&W White Box non-variant elf class is truer to the OD&D rules, but I suspect the Delving Deeper version is probably how more groups played it.

Delving Deeper - A Look at Volume III - Monsters and Treasure Reference

Let me bring your attention to the cover of Delving Deeper Vol III - many layers of awesome! I love this cover. Maybe it's because it has a troll and a hairy footed hobbit halfling on the cover. Nice choice and well done.

If you liked the way the OD&D Boxed Set listed it's monsters, you like the set up of the monster section. If you are like me, and hate that part of the OD&D Boxed Set - you won't like it. I understand why it was done this way (emulating the original) but it doesn't mean it was the best choice. It's not horrible, and if this became your ruleset of choice I'm sure you'd grow accustomed to it fast enough, but  it is not user friendly. At least it will be addressed when they do the softcover.

The magic item section is the magic item section you'd expect. Seems pretty close to the other OSR rulesets I've read and the OD&D Boxed Set.

Damn, this means I have to go back and read DD Vol II, which I seem to have skipped over.

A Look at Thieves and Skills in Blood & Treasure

Alright, I've looked at thieves in Delving Deeper and Swords & Wizardry Core. Now it's time to take a peek at thieves in Blood & Treasure, which means we have to look at skills.

Blood & Treasure doesn't try to emulate OD&D like the above two, but it certainly has it's feet roots in the OSR.

There is nothing that Thieves can do in Blood & Treasure, skill-wise, that every other class can't do. Thieves just do it better - much better.

Here's how skills, or "Heroic Tasks" work in Blood & Treasure:

If you are unskilled, you need to roll an 18 or better, but you can add your stat modifier to the roll.

If you have a "knack", like elves finding secret doors, your target is 15 and you can add your stat modifier.

If you are skilled, like a thief with finding traps or hiding in shadows, your target is your relevant save. You get to add your stat modifier to the roll.

I like it. I like it a lot.

I liked how Crypts & Things handled it, but this one goes to "Eleven" in usability.

Even if I never play Blood & Treasure (and with the number of OSR games I own, it's possible) I'll be porting this over to my next game, not matter the system. It really is that good.

The fact that the different task descriptions include examples that would elevate the difficulty, thereby imposing a penalty on the die roll is just icing on the cake.

Guess I still need to cover the rest of the classes next, don't i?

Want a Free Peek at the Blood & Treasure RPG? Grab NOD #1

Seriously, if you want to see where some of John's ideas took root and morphed into Blood & Treasure, you can just look at the article on Boons & Benefactions in issue #1 of NOD. This is the seed that morphed into the optional Feats in B&T (some of them didn't make the cut, but I'm sure you could use the list to add options to your own B&T game). Not to mention some additional classes for S&W, especially if you just want to stick with the free S&W Core rules.

What, you can't an issue of NOD? First issue is free and full of goodness for any OSR game.

From the blurb:

In this first issue of NOD, you can explore the Wyvern Coast, a sandbox hexcrawl with over 190 encounters. There are six new classes, three new races, a random village generator, a dozen new deities, new monsters, and more! Compatible with most Old School game systems.

Delving Deeper - Quick Comment on the Optional Thief Class

I'm not home at the moment, so I don't have my OCE D&D Boxed set to refer to.  Swords & Wizardry White Box doesn't have a thief class, but Swords & Wizardry Core does.

Here's my comment / observation:

S&W Core's Thief skills are percentile based (except for Hear Noise) and increase with level.

In Delving Deeper, all of the Thief Skills are D6 based: 3 or higher on a D6 indicates success. Level doesn't not increase this.

So, Delving Deeper has a bit of LotFP Weird Fantasy thief to it, but not quite.

I'm fairly sure S&W Core is closer to the original thief class.

I'm not sure if I like the DD version of the thief, but it does make him more relevant at lower levels.

Thoughts?

Poll Results are in: Old School Spell Level Caps for the Win (Barely)

There can be only one - well, not really. Everyone has their own preference of where to cap spell levels at.

The preferred cap for 38% of the poll responses was 6 magic-user / 5 cleric, which corresponds to OD&D.

Right behind that was 9 magic-user / 7 cleric, which of course matches up to AD&D. That came in at 33%, but by pure numbers only a difference of 7 votes.

Capping at level 9 for magic-users and clerics is a 3x concept if I'm not mistaken, and came in at 24%.

Honestly, it's a bit across the board, and not one answer was overwhelming in it's responses.

Kinda tells me a have a nice cross section of mostly OSR type readers on this blog, but also a chunk of 3x / Pathfinder / why play a game with levels in it readers too.

That's okay, in the near future I should have my copies of Drinking Quest in hand. I suspect that game will appeal to readers and gamers of all editions and rule sets ;)

(there were 127 total responses to the poll - thanks to all who took the time to respond)

So Many Systems, So Much OSR Goodness

As you saw with my earlier post, I came home to my boxed set of Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea earlier today. Last night I found Volumes I + II (still waiting on Volume III) of Delving Deeper. I just got my HC of Blood & Treasure last week. I am swimming in OSR Goodness!

So, here's what I want to do. I need to compile a list of OSR games, which will then become part of a poll - Which OSR Game do you want me, your friendly neighborhood barkeep, to run as a short story Arc of 2 to 3 sessions on Google+ Hangouts? Once the poll is decided we'll figure out a day, time and TPK victims ;)

I'm going to remove ACKS and DCC RPG from the list, as I already run ACKS pretty much weekly, and I've run a handful of DCC RPG sessions, and should be running some more later on this month for those that played in the earlier sessions.

I suspect the list of options is fairly long, so I'm going to throw a list out there off the top of my head - let me know what I omitted and I'll make sure it's part of the poll when it goes up.

In no particular order:

Labyrinth Lord
Labyrinth Lord AEC
Labyrinth Lord OEC
Swords & Wizardry Core
Swords & Wizardry Complete
Swords & Wizardry White Box
Crypts & Things
Blood & Treasure
Castles & Crusades
Dark Dungeons
Delving Deeper
Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea
OSRIC
Mazes & Perils
For Gold & Glory
Microlite 75
Adventures Dark & Deep
Basic Fantasy RPG
LotFP Weird Fantasy
(added below thanks to readers here and G+)
Mazes & Minotaurs
Worlds Apart (Traveller)
Mutant Future
Realms of Chaos (LL)
Starships & Spacemen
Neoclassical Geek Revival
For Gold & Glory
Myth & Magic
Par Fortuna
Bucklers and Backswords
Space Princess
Tombs & Terrors
Tunnels & Trolls


What needs to be added?

Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea in Hand

The Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea comes in a huge box, suitable for display on a bookshelf. The books are damn huge too. Heck, I haven't even unfolded the map yet, but that also looks sizable.

I'm very thankful it looks good on a shelf, as I've got Blood & Treasure and Delving Deeper to read thorough before I get to AS&SH ;)

Just got back from my mini vacation to the Poconos. Hopefully tonight I'll have the next part of the Blood & Treasure review up.

Spent My Night Wrapped Up With Delving Deeper Vol1

Yep, spent bedtime reading Volume 1 (the Player's Book) of Delving Deeper. It was a very comforting read.

Of course, I have the same question here that I have with the OWB - hit points and hit die progression.

For example, Magic-User HD progress as follows:

1

1+1

2

2+1

3

etc...

So, do you roll the new total number of HD every level, replacing the previous HP, even if the new total is lower?

Do you roll the new total number of HD every level, replacing the previous HP, except if the new total is lower?

Do you add a new HD only when the number of dice increase, and subtract one from the roll to take into account the +1 from the previous level?

Inquiring minds want to know...

Review - Blood & Treasure - Part the First: I Got Race (and Niche Protection)

There is something to be said at starting at the beginning, and that's just what I'm going to do with this part of the review of Blood & Treasure - Races and Classes (or at least, touch on classes), as they work hand in hand.

First things first - it's the usual 6 stats, and bonuses and penalties run the usual stretch - -3 at 3 and +3 at 18. It was nice to see which saving throws a high Dex gives a bonus to, as I usually just winged that part based on common sense. It should also be noted that stats give bonuses to task rolls (think skill rolls). So Dex may help you open a lock but Wis will help you listen to that locked door.

Races: The same ones from the AD&D 1e Player's Handbook. Humans, Dwarves, Elves, Gnoes, Half-Elves, Half-Orcs and Halflings. If you wanted to run a game emulating the OD&D Boxed set, you would omit the races designated with a [A] for "Advanced". Things are designated thus throughout the rules, so you can set a virtual switch of what stays in your game or not. The other designation is [E] for "Expanded".

Now, as far as I can tell, any race can be any class, which obviously is the first thing you'd house rule if you were going to emulate an earlier edition of the game. That being said, John built in some niche protection for the races. Humans get a 10% bonus to expo, which is huge. They also get a free feat (if used) or +1 to all saves if feats aren't part of your game (they are not really 3e feats either, but that's a whole 'nother post).

The demi-humans get their niche protection in their multi-classing, which is determined by race. For example:

Dwarves can multi-class as cleric/fighters, magic-user/fighters or fighter/thieves.

Half-Orcs can multi-class as assassin/clerics, assassin/fighters and assassin/magic-users (or if they single class, they can dual class later like a human.

See a trend? Every demi-human race has a set of 3 multi-class combinations, and each combination has a preferred class. Nice way to take care of niche protection. Before you ask, halflings have thief as the preferred class.

Classes share one of three experience point advancement tables. Multi-classed characters all share one table, no matter the class combination. It certainly simplifies things. I like it. I like it a lot.

Alright, more on classes tomorrow - I've rambled enough for tonight ;)

Free Game of the Week - Worlds Apart

Maybe you remember me posting about Worlds Apart over the weekend - I did. It is currently reside in the Free Game of the Week spot on the left side of this page, so consider this a reminder if your haven't already grabbed a copy.

What is is? A fantasy RPG on a water based world with the Traveller OGL rules as the engine. Pretty neat.

From the blurb:

Four islands composed the sultry chain, floating upon a bright blue sea under a tropical sun, each island gradually decreasing size as the eye passed from north to south. They were mountainous, etched with deep valleys, and covered with lush foliage. Greysolt surveyed the chain as best he could with his spyglass, taking the longest time upon the southernmost island, covered in a hazy steam of warm clouds. The crew of The Dromedary remained silent as the Captain surveyed what no other voyagers had ever seen. Each held different thoughts in the silence: thoughts of receptive natives, thoughts of fresh water and fresh fruit, thoughts of spices unknown to the civilized world, thoughts of slaughter and pillage.

The crew was a motley sort, a dozen or so hardened men and women in their late 30’s. Each had another life behind them; some, several different lives. They were unreliable in the mainstay, but rock-solid in a clutch. They bickered and feuded as they worked, helping each other make The Dromedary move, breath, and live. Their ship was not just a thing of wood and artifice, it was a collection of elemental powers: it was a voyager ship.

Greysolt declared the all clear indicating an isolated cove to drop anchor, and the crew jumped into action. Several went into the hull to tend to the elementals bound within eldritch machinery, but most headed towards their cabins, gathering various equipment for the coming landing. The cove beckoned, the unknown called.

The Dromedary calmly pulled into the bay and slowed to drop anchor. Two dinghies plopped into the water, and their crew descended into the rocking ships. Crossbows ready, the small craft rowed to the black sand shores. Behind the shores a seemingly impenetrable wall of vegetation dazzled in a multi-colored display. Now, to heed the call…

Welcome, traveler, to Worlds Apart! Brave the Forever Sea in a fantasy game of trade and exploration. Take the role of soldier or sailor, entertainer or scholar, dweomercraefter or drifter. A thousand thousand islands populate the world and riches, adventure, and danger lurks upon every shore!

How Not to Do a Kickstarter Project - Craft of Corpse Born (DCC 3rd Party Adventure)

Craft of Corpse Born - A Zombiefied DCC RPG Adventure Module is a DCC RPG 3rd Party Adventure that hopes to fund using Kickstarter. It might be the best DCC Adventure since Sailors on the Starless Sea, but it's hard to tell because the Kicstarter site for it is really lacking in info.

Lets see what it's currently doing wrong, and what could be done to correct it.

1 - Fails to give a descriptive, engaging description. 

The dead roam the town of Westport. Find the cause, fight your way through quests & conquer evil in this DCC RPG compatible module.

That's the bolded description. It doesn't excite me. It doesn't say much. Heck, it's barely 2 sentences. You don't need a video to give your Kickstarter a kick (Appendix N did fine without one) but you need to sell what you are offering. You need to have confidence in your product. You need more than 2 bland sentences to capture your customers.

2 - Which of the following do you really care about as a prospective customer?

In the spirit and rules of DCC RPG (Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game) this module will guide you through an adventure including over 50 separate areas within the town buildings, ships and the final battle area.  Inside are clues to what is causing the disease on this town and how to end the curse.  Fighting animated dead and corrupted living force you down the path to glory. You must save the town from the demonic and magical evil that imparts its will on the people.

This Kickstarter project starts with the module already being about 75% written.  The full color art for the back and front covers of the module have already been created by professional artist Jordan Galaviz.  Black and white art for the inside has been created also.  The maps are complete and an initial editing has been finished (of the 75% written so far).  The content is close to complete and about ready to go to Alpha Play Testing.  An experienced gaming group in St. Louis, Missouri has agreed to Alpha Play Test this module and Beta test it if needed.  The module will then go to final modification and editing. Then to layout composition preparing it for final online publishing and then for its initial printed run.

The funding deadline is for the module to be (initially) complete and submitted to Joseph Goodman of Goodman Games, Inc. (makers of DCC RPG) for licensing approval by Sunday, 21 October, 2012 at 11:59pm (CST).  Licensing approval is mandatory to be able to include the "Compatible with DCC RPG" logo on the cover and back of the module and for linked marketing of the module with Goodman Games.  

Funding is required to pay for the required software to create this module and compensation for art and efforts for those involved in pushing this through the production process.  The completed and licensed module (Using the OGL from Wizards of the Coast and DCC RPG licensing from Goodman Games) will initially be published online through RPGNOW.  Once this goal has been met, the printed production run will start (approximately January, 2013).  This is where your rewards come in.  As a contributor you will receive your rewards long before anyone else has access to the printed module at their local gaming store.

Maybe the above is of interest to a distributer, but it's just useless noise on a Kickstarter support page when you are looking for funding.

Tell us what makes your product special. Why should I be looking to fund this, sight unseen? It's Zombies and the DCC RPG. Two hot properties. What makes this special?

If the creator can't be excited about his/her project, how can prospective customers?


3 - $8 bucks for the PDF seems steep. Even Goodman sells their DCC RPG PDFs for $6.99 on RPGNow, and Goodman seems to set the high water mark.

4 - Don't offer a free PDF to go along with the print copy. The print copies ship after it releases in PDF, so anyone looking to buy a print copy will get their's after it releases on RPGNow. Adding a PDF copy to the print pledge level costs nothing, but adds a huge benefit, both perceived and real, to the potential customer.

5 - Don't bother with stretch goals. Yeah, I know some folks don't like the endless "carrot on a stick" trick that is so popular at crowd sourcing sites, but you know what? The shit works. Use it. Promise extra pages. Maybe a short PDF booklet to support it. Doesn't have to be fancy, but offer something.

Kickstarter is not an automatic home run for funding. Slapping "DCC" and "Zombies" on a product isn't enough.

If you want my money, I need to desire to give it to you for your wants to be filled. At this stage of the game, I'm not even sure what's actually being offered here, which is a damn shame.

I THINK Craft of Corpse Born is offering more encounter locations / areas than any other DCC RPG currently on the market. It's town based, so it should be more free form and less linear than most. But I don't know that, I can only guess.

There might be a diamond in the rough here, but I'm not going to pay to find out without more info.

Update! Everyone That Entered The August DCC Corruption Contest is a Winner! (With Thanks to Mike at Occult Moon)

I meant it when I said I wish I could give a prize to everyone that entered the August DCC RPG Corruption Contest - the entries were just that good.

Mike Garcia from Occult Moon agrees with me - so I need the following to reach out to Mike at thecrazygmATgmailDOTcom with the email they use at RPGNow, because Mike is going to hook you up with one of the first 16 releases in the Toys for the Sandbox Series.

Yep - everyone wins and I couldn't be happier.

Holy shit but I'm part of an awesome community of roleplayers and publishers and artists and let me just shut up...

ScrivenerB

Epic Prime

Tamas Illes

Duncan

Joshua Ward

Lord Mhor

Alan

McWieg

SAROE

KristianH

Sean Smith

(if I missed you, let me know)

The Winners of the DCC RPG Corruption Contest Are...

It's time to decide the winners for the DCC RPG Corruption Results Contest. If I thought getting winners form a list of 133 was hard last month, all 25 entries this months could be and should be considered winners. That being said, I need to pick the winner of Crawl! #3 and 5 winners of single issues of Toys For the Sandbox. Thankfully the 2 adventures from Purple Sorcerer Games I get to determine randomly.

Alright, Crawl! #3, courtesy of Dak Ultimak goes to - TheMetal1, for the following entry:


A black and yellow ichor filled semi-transparent sack appears on the PC’s back, small at first but growing into an enormous orb in 1d3 months. Reduce movement by 5ft and agility by 1 for each month of growth. After which the following happens (d6):

(1) The sack will burst causing 1d4 acid damage in a 30ft radius, but the PC there after immune to any acid attacks.

(2) The sack tears open, revealing a unique demon (roll on page 404 of the DCC rulebook to determine type) causing 1d6 damage immediately to the PC and attacking anyone in the area.

(3) The sack tears open, spilling out thousands of tiny hungry spiders with the PCs head in place of a normal spider head. Treat as an Insect Swarm (see the DCC rulebook page 418) but each attack forces a DC 8 Fort save with failure indicating a mild poison (1 hp damage plus -1 penalty to all rolls for 1 hour)

(4) The sack solidifies and becomes like a sickly turtle shell. The character is considered permanently encumbered (slowing to half his speed) and PC receives a +5 AC to any rear/back attacks.

(5) The sack dissolves revealing a Primeval Slime (see on pages 423-424 of the DCC rulebook to determine type).

(6) The sack bursts causing pus to ooze out. After 1d4 days, the sack is empty and deflated. It will then start to refill again in 1d3 months. Roll again on this table to determine the result.

Perils of the Sunken City, courtesy of Purple Sorcerer Games will be randomly awarded to - JeffStomer for the following entry:


Your stomach's bile is magically replaced. Roll a d5.

1. Alchemical acid. Your insides slowly corrode. -2 CON and you can no longer eat spicy food.

2. Maggots. They rip into your food, increasing your appetite. You must now eat twice as much to stay adequately fed.

3. Water. Food sits in your stomach for weeks, slowly digesting but weighing you down. -2 to movement-related skill checks, but you only need to eat once per day.

4. Blood. There is now a 2% chance of receiving a random disease at every meal.

5. Alchemist's Fire. You may force yourself to belch, expunging a minor breath attack up to five feet away (1d8 damage, Reflex save avoids). However, doing so badly burns your mouth and innards--dealing you equal damage.

The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk, also courtesy of Purple Sorcerer Games, will be randomly awarded to - Gabriel Perez Galardi for the following entry:

Roll 1d6 to know which of the senses is corrupted:

1-Sight: Your eyes double in size and the optic nerve grows like snail antennas.

2-Smell: You grow an elephant nose but can't breathe through it.

3-Hearing: You grow necomimi.

4-Touch: A hand grows from each finger of your finger tips.

5-Taste: You get Gene Simmons tongue.

6-All of the above.


Congrats to all the above. The Metal1, I'll need your snail mail address to give to Dak to get you your reward. Jeff and Gabriel, I need you to email me at erikATtrubluniteDOTnet so I can forward you your prize codes.

Now, for the five winners of Toys For the Sandbox (one issue to each winner, chosen by the winners from one of the first 16 releases):

Charlie Gilb

Ted C.

David Macauley

Geraldo Tasistro

Eldric IV

Doug Medesha

Tim Shorts

Yeah, that's 7, not 5 winners. Sue me! ;)

(edit - all others that entered go to this post and Mike Garcia from Occult Moon will hook you up with some Toys for the Sandbox!)

The above 7 need to email me at erikATtrubluniteDOTnet and let me know a) which of the first 16 Toys for the Sandbox they want me to but for their account and b) the email address the use at RPGNow, so i can buy the release you want for your account.

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, should consider themselves winners. Amazingly great entries all around.

Next month will include some more products in dead tree format AND hopefully a a judging panel :)

Tenkar's Minor Magical Tidbits - St. Betran's Holy Chalice (DCC RPG)

Saint Betran's Holy Chalice

This chalice is a lawful holy relic. In the hands of a Lawful Cleric, it adds +2 to Lay on Hands spell check attempts IF the the target is Lawful. It adds +1 to the check if the target is Neutral. It has no effect if the target is Chaotic. It’s most special ability is obvious when it it used by a Lawful non-cleric.

In the hands of a Lawful non-cleric, it allows that character to attempt to Lay on Hands once per day. The spell check is adjusted by the character’s Personality modifier and a +2 from the chalice itself. There is no adjustment for the character’s level. Whether the spell check succeeds or fails, no further checks may be made until the next day. A natural roll of 1 requires the PC to roll on the disapproval table and he must comply with the results if he desires to use the chalice again.

St. Betran’s Holy Chalice first appeared amongst the Dwarven Clans, often as a reward to a great hero that furthered the goals of the Patron St. Betran. No more than one has ever been awarded to a specific clan, and over the years a few have been lost to the outer world, either by clan extinction, individual foolishness or theft. All dwarves recognise a St. Betran’s Chalice on sight and will assume the possessor to be a thief if they are not themselves a dwarf.

(If you wanted to use the chalice in an OSR styled game, change it's power to Cure Light Wounds once per day / Cure Disease once per week - usable only by good characters, healing power does not effect creatures of evil alignment).

Expeditious Retreat Press is Giving Away Free Adventures in PDF

You read it right. Joseph Browning, the main man behind Expeditious Retreat Press, is giving away free PDFs of his Advanced Adventures line for OSRIC (usable with the OSR ruleset of your choice with minimal work).

So, how do you get in on this deal?

1 - Go the Joseph's Sorcery & Super Science Blog.

2 - Follow the Sorcery & Super Science blog via Google Friends Connect if you haven't already done so

3 - Let him know in a comment on the post linked here (and above) which singular aventure you would like to get (there are 25 to choose from - he has it linked on the post).

simple, aint it?

The Tavern is an Old School Blog. Joseph is giving away an Old School Adventure of choice to those who simply ask.

Match made in heaven if you ask me.

Time to unleash the hordes of drunken (and sober) Tavern patrons!

Worlds Apart - Traveller Based RPG From Expeditious Retreat Press (Free and Pay Versions)

Joe Browning has released Worlds Apart, a Traveller "Powered" RPG. Unlike many of the games using the OGL, which are D20 based, Joe went with OGL Traveller to build his latest game's engine.

At it's simplest, its a fantasy themed pirate RPG setting, with Dwarves and Elves (no halflings or gnomes - the shame). Well, actually not pirating, but I could see privateering happening in the setting.

AS far as I know, this is the first game that isn't Traveller using the Traveller game engine, including careers and tours (and possible death) during character generation. For this reason alone I want to give it a try.

I'm working my way through the paid with art version of Worlds Apart, and I like what I see so far. I need to see how well he's integrated magic spells ("Talents") into the Traveller engine. I'm very intrigued. I'll review it when I'm through the rules, but I wanted to bring it to your attention, especially with the free version of the Worlds Apart rules being released (and practically the whole art free package being released to the OGL) alongside the paid.

From the blurb:


Four islands composed the sultry chain, floating upon a bright blue sea under a tropical sun, each island gradually decreasing size as the eye passed from north to south. They were mountainous, etched with deep valleys, and covered with lush foliage. Greysolt surveyed the chain as best he could with his spyglass, taking the longest time upon the southernmost island, covered in a hazy steam of warm clouds. The crew of The Dromedary remained silent as the Captain surveyed what no other voyagers had ever seen. Each held different thoughts in the silence: thoughts of receptive natives, thoughts of fresh water and fresh fruit, thoughts of spices unknown to the civilized world, thoughts of slaughter and pillage.

The crew was a motley sort, a dozen or so hardened men and women in their late 30’s. Each had another life behind them; some, several different lives. They were unreliable in the mainstay, but rock-solid in a clutch. They bickered and feuded as they worked, helping each other make The Dromedary move, breath, and live. Their ship was not just a thing of wood and artifice, it was a collection of elemental powers: it was a voyager ship.

Greysolt declared the all clear indicating an isolated cove to drop anchor, and the crew jumped into action. Several went into the hull to tend to the elementals bound within eldritch machinery, but most headed towards their cabins, gathering various equipment for the coming landing. The cove beckoned, the unknown called.

The Dromedary calmly pulled into the bay and slowed to drop anchor. Two dinghies plopped into the water, and their crew descended into the rocking ships. Crossbows ready, the small craft rowed to the black sand shores. Behind the shores a seemingly impenetrable wall of vegetation dazzled in a multi-colored display. Now, to heed the call…

Welcome, traveler, to Worlds Apart! Brave the Forever Sea in a fantasy game of trade and exploration. Take the role of soldier or sailor, entertainer or scholar, dweomercraefter or drifter. A thousand thousand islands populate the world and riches, adventure, and danger lurks upon every shore!

More Thoughts on Racial Specific Character Classes - How Many Does a Race Need?

Assuming you are going to go the ACKS route of introducing Racial Specific Character Classes to your OSR game of choice, how many do you need?

What I mean is this - humans cover all four compass points in pretty much every ruleset (with the exception of S&W White Box, which lacks a thief class, just like the the original D&D Boxed Set). A human centric party has access to a fighter, cleric, magic-user and thief class. You can leave out demi-humans and not have a hole in your party.

Most OSR games have PC clerics as human only (apparently demi-humans dont actively worship their own gods - or maybe carpet bagger human clerics come along to fill the niche?). Elves are usually the only option for a non-human arcane spell caster. Sure, they can all be fighters to a limited extent, but the only class offering unlimited advancement to the non-humans is thief.

Think about that for a moment. Thievery is the niche that was given to demi-humans to thrive in. Apparently it's the only thing they are good at, and they all make better thieves than humans if your game uses racial adjustments.

I know, the demi-races are balanced by their level limits, but what about the limited options? Isn't part of the fun of playing a game about imaginary fantasy to be able to be and do fantastic things?

3e almost got it right by opening up all classes to all races, but even that fails to capture the uniqueness of each race. A Dwarven Warrior and a Halfling Warrior draw upon different backgrounds, and especially in the case of the halfling, I'm pretty sure the human centric "Fighter" class is a poor fit.

Yes, this stuff is kicking around in my head and on my hard drive to some extent. We'll see if it bears fruit.

So, does each race need to cover all 4 corners to some extent? If you want an "All Halfling" campaign, or "All Elf" campaign, the answer is probably yes. Doesn't mean each race would be equally good at each of the four "class type niches", but they probably all should be covered.

This, of course, would lead to an insanely huge rulebook ;)

I'm sure I'll have more thoughts on this soon...

The August DCC RPG Contest Has Closed - 25 Extremely Corrupted Entries

From the very first to the very last, twenty-five very imaginative corruption results have been presented by the readers of this blog for entry in the Design Your Own Corruption Result for the DCC RPG. You can read the entries in the original thread here. After we award the prizes I'll organize them into a general list and later work them out as two new variant DCC RPG Corruption Result Tables.

Not an easy thing to judge (I can see why people farm out judging contests like this - I may need some suckers... er, volunteers for September's Contest ;)

In any case, this current contest has a committee of two - my wife Rachel and myself. She's no gamer, but I'm sure she'll get a kick out of reviewing and judging the 25 entries we received here at The Tavern. Expect the prize awarding post to go up sometime tomorrow.

I want to thank everyone that took the time to enter the contest, and to everyone that read the entries. That one blog post has well over 500 hits as I type this. It was by no means an easy contest to enter, and the high quality of the entries shows the effort that was put into each.

Well done to all!

Blood & Treasure Complete - All the Cool Kids Are Doing It!

Yep - got mine!

Coincidentally, its the only RPG book I'm taking in physical format for my weekend in the country. Not saying my Nexus 7 isn't fully loaded, but for hammock and / or lake shore reading, there can be only one - Blood & Treasure Complete.

With Halflings Even!

Time To Roll a New PC...

Mini Review - Castles & Crusades Player's Handbook - 5th Printing - Now in Fabulous Technicolor

I've spoken about Castles & Crusades many a time on this blog. It literally is the game that brought me back to RPGs. It spoke to me like nothing else had since D&D 1e, and at the time it was first and only retroclone-ish release in the RPG market. I have every printing of the C&C Handbook - some multiple printings even, as I have the leatherette and the softcover PH / M&T flip book.

Every printing but the 5th. Well, now I have the C&C PH 5th printing in PDF. I still need to get it in HC.

So, what's the appeal of Castles & Crusades, when you have all of the other retroclones out there that hew pretty close to one classic ruleset or another?

Easy peasy compatibility from 3x to 0e. It plays very much like AD&D, and it's class selection is certainly built upon AD&D 1e.

Tons of support, adventures, and even a Fantasy Grounds ruleset available for it.

The 5th edition Player's Handbook is much like earlier editions, but with typos stomped and now color added. It's a pleasure to look at (and the PDF is nicely bookmarked) but it would be a PITA to print on your own. Consider yourself warned.

So many games, so little time ;)

What's Your Favorite Non-Classic Fantasy Race?

The discussions about halflings and gnomes has reinforced the idea that there is some push back against some of the "non-classic" fantasy races. I can understand why, even if I don't fully agree with it, but it got me thinking about my favorite "non-classic" fantasy race - Wolfen from the Palladium RPG.

Somehow the idea of wolflike humanoids that are organized enough to create their own empire strikes a cord in me. I really should write up a OSR styled conversion - Wulfs maybe, so big Kev doesn't get all up in arms ;)

What's your favorite?

What't your least favorite? (that would be Dragonborn for me - don't ask why, there is no rational reason)

More Complicated the Rules = Lesser Expectation of Character Death?

I think I've touched on this before, but I find it interesting at the moment, as I'm reading a Pathfinder adventure with the idea of porting it over to ACKS or S&W Complete for my own use. It caught my eye, as a reviewer referred to it as "deadly" and "an old school dungeon crawl", but then seemed to be turned off to it in large part for those very reasons.

Does Pathfinder not mesh well with old school dungeon crawls? Is the risk of character death in a rule system that encourages players to plan out their skills and feats in advance too great for the "Oh Shit! Run!" style of play?

I really dug the Pathfinder Beginner Box. It kept the complications down and did a great job in presenting the system. I'd actually play the Pathfinder Beginner Box. My Pathfinder Rulebook? It's a great value, but it's going into storage with the rest of my Pathfinder goodies to make room for the OSR stuff that I actually use. Pathfinder is just too much for me. Too heavy. Too complicated.

I really wish there was a Pathfinder Basic or Light version that was compatible wit all of the great Pathfinder adventures without all the unnecessary system weight. Okay, the weight may be necessary for some people, but it's not for my taste ;)

As for the adventure I'm reading? So far it seems like a perfect fit for my style of gaming. Which isn't Pathfinder...

Came Home to Some Great Art - Elric By Jeff Dee!

Got my Kickstarter package from Jeff Dee. The man is a really good artist. I'd jump in for more stuff, but I'm going to have a hard time finding places for these after I get them framed. ;)

(poor lighting in my dining room didn't help the shots- ah well)

No Gnomes? Oh Nos!

I'm sure pretty much everyone remembers the "No Gnomes!" videos and other similar advertisements that WotC used when it was rolling 4e out the door. Somehow "No Gnomes!" was supposed to be a selling point.

How did the little buggers get such a bad rap?

In AD&D, the were the only non-elf (or non-half-elf) race to get access to arcane magic, although they did it as illusionists.

In the realm of OSR retroclones, halflings might get slighted, but they aren't overlooked like gnomes are:

Swords & Wizardry - Gnome free

Labyrinth Lord - I believe they make their appearance in the Advanced Edition Characters book

LotFP Weird Fantasy - Just be happy halflings made the cut and don't ask about the gnomes. They're probably being corrupted as I write this.

ACKS - Halflings were omitted on purpose. Gnomes weren't even thought about enough to be purposefully mitted - the were just left out.

Is it just because they were one of the last races (certainly the last race that wasn't a hal breed) that was added to the adventuring mix that they suffer this oversight? Is it because they are some ill defined quasi cousins of dwarves? Is it the curse of the Garden Gnomes that keep them down? Did the Tinker Gnomes of Krynn use up the last of the goodwill that was aimed in the Gnome's direction?

Found! Free City of Haldane (Iridia #87)

I've been trying to find The Free City of Haldane for the better part of a year. I knew I had it somewhere, but I didn't expect to find it in a bunch of papers sitting inside a box of RPGs destined for storage. All because I was trying to track down by softcover copy of Swords & Wizardry Complete (I think that must currently be IN storage - I'll track it down of Friday).

This was a classic issue in Christian's old Iridia zine. I'm glad I found it just in time for the kick off of The City of Haldane series in his Loviatar zine :)

I'm looking forward to the new version, but I'm extremely happy to have my old version too.

Sometimes You Get Amazing Quantity - Other Times You Get Amazing Quality - I Like Both :)

Last month's DCC contest had over 130 entries. Simply amazing. There were some real gems among the zero level professions entered, and I still need to whittle it down to a 100 entry long table for Crawl!

So far this month, the DCC contest has 9 entries for the "Post a DCC Corruption Result of Your Own". It's a fair number, and there is just under a day and a half left in the contest, so there is still time to enter as I post this (hint!).  This contest has struck the quality bar and surpassed it. The entries equal or exceed those in the DCC RPG rulebook on pure imagination alone. At least, that's my humble opinion.

As I am the sole decider of the non-random prizes, I can see this is going to be a beautifully tough contest to judge. I can also foresee that down the line, if the monthly contests pick up in both quality and quantity, I may need to farm out the judging.

Damn cool :)

Converting Between OGL Systems - On the Fly or Prior Prep?

To a certain extent, everything from OD&D through 3.5e (and quite possibly 5e) are somewhat compatible. Back in my early gaming I was using D&D adventures in my AD&D game without batting an eye.

These days, I've used LL, C&C and S&W adventures and supplements in my ACKS campaign. Most of the conversion work I can do on the fly, but there are times I wish I had spent a few minutes ahead of time making sure things were ready for ACKS.

I've also grabbed some stuff from 3x and Pathfinder with minimal effort in converting, but I suspect the reverse would be more time consuming if not downright frustrating.

So, do you mix and match OSR/OGL rules in your games? Convert on the fly or scratch it out ahead of time?

Racial Specific Class - Halfling Adventurer (S&W Complete)

Based on yesterday's Halfling discusion and my later post on Racial Specific Classes, I came up with the following for Swords & Wizardry Complete:

Halfling Adventurer

Prime Attribute: Dexterity, 13+ (+5% experience bonus)
Hit Dice: 1d4/level (gains 2hp/level after 9th - maximum level is 10th)
Armor: Chainmail or Leather; no shield
Weapons Permitted: Any, but magical weapons are limited to daggers, swords and bows

Adventurer Class Abilities:

Fights as a Thief of the same level. (No Backstab Ability)

Saves as a Thief of the same level.

Levels as Thief

All thieving skills except Climb Walls. If wearing chainmail armor that is not magical, thieving skill effective level is reduced by 2 levels (Adventurers of 1st or 2nd level can not attempt any thief abilities while wearing chainmail armor)

Dodge Fatal Blow 1/day (2/day at level 5, 3/day at level 10) the Halfling Adventurer can attempt to dodge a fatal blow (physical attack from combat or trap - does not apply to spells, or spell effects - it does apply to breath weapons). The attack in question must have the potential to reduce the Adventurer to 0 HP or less (the DM will state if it does if the player asks). 

After the roll to hit against the Adventurer is successful, but before damage is determined, the player of the Adventurer must decide if he will attempt to use his Dodge Fatal Blow ability. If he decides to use Dodge Fatal Blow, he rolls a saving throw, and if successful, no damage is taken (nor is it rolled). If he fails his saving throw, he takes damage as normal and loses his next attack due to disorientation from attempting to dodge the blow that landed.

Racial Specific Classes - Or - Are the Core Classes Too Human-centric?

I've been running an ACKS campaign for a couple of months now, and if there is one main difference between ACKS and other retroclones (besides the rules for high level / ruler style play) is the inclusion of racial specific classes. Dwarven Vaultguards are very similar to human fighters, but it is a specific class available only to dwarves. Elven Nightblades are a magic-user/thief combo class that takes some abilities from each, but not all (no open locks or find / remove traps, much to my party's dismay).

The thing is, these classes are unique to each race. They are different from the standard classes. It's been  an excellent roleplay tool, and it helps folks think of races in the game as other than just a set of adjustments to a class.

Now, I'm not saying you can't have dwarven fighters or elven magic-users in your campaign - I'm sure I will when I run my next campaign of length, which will probably be a slightly houseruled Swords & Wizardry Complete game. But I think there should be options available for those that want to play something that more "racial specific" in the way of class.

It might also be an excellent way to give the halfling a better definition other that "short thief".

Hopefully I'll have something for the morning, and if I do, I'll post it here. Well, not THIS post mind you, but a new post, but here on THIS blog ;)

How High Should Magic Spells Go in Your OSR Game?

Notice how I said in YOUR OSR game ;)

Should spells go up to level 9 for both Magic-users and Clerics?

How about level 9 spells for Magic-users and level 7 for Clerics?

As low as level 6 spells for Magic-users and level 5 for Clerics?

Magic does set the tone of a campaign to some extent, and knowing how high your caster's potential is can be a defining moment.

For me, the answer would be level 6 for Magic-users and Level 5 for Clerics. It just seems like the right spot to top off the power of mere mortals. Magic beyond that is the business of the gods themselves.

What's your answer?

(there is a poll that will be up for a few days to grab your statistical answers, but I'd like to hear your reasonings too)

Why Do Halflings Get the Short Stick in Many RPGs?

Halflings were never all that powerful in AD&D. Poor guys were limited to 4th level as a fighter (although unlimited as a thief, something they excelled at).

LotFP's Weird Fantasy made them into some kind of "kick it and see if it goes off" trap detector, where their only specialty was good saves. No offensive usefulness, no utility worth besides setting off traps, they seems more like an afterthought.

Adventurer Conqueror Kings System does away with them all together. They're in the moster section if I recall correctly, but they were intentionally left out during the design of the system.

Halflings fair a little better in the DCC RPG, with dual wielding and their luck ability. Actually, with their luck ability, they seem a wee bit like their shorter green cousins of Irish lore ;)

Is it a general disdain of the race / class? Has it been over used and over played due to it's LotR roots? Is there an Anti-Hobbit backlash going on?

I always enjoyed playing a halfling Fighter / Thief - it made for a nice dungeon styles ranger substitute, but maybe that's just me and my style.

Do you also feel the wee folks have been held down, or am I over reaching? (had to get some height jokes in while I could ;)

How NOT to Get a Link Back From the Tavern

Every once in a while, Google's spam catching software let's a post get through. More often, it catches legitimate posts, and I have to release them from the spam dungeon. The following comment dodged Google's Spam Police and actually was live for about 30 minutes:

I just found your site and wanted to say that I have really enjoyed browsing your posts.In any case I'll be subscribing to your blog and I hope you post again soon Mr. King Solomon Sword

The Mr. King Soloman Sword part linked back to a novelty store for knives, swords and such. Cheap prices and even cheaper quality.

If you think you have something that this blog's readers might be interested in, reach out to me direct. Figure out how to do it. Others do.

Trying to scam The Tavern's readers is NOT the way to do it. This means you - Jeffery R Carter on G+. 

Free Game of the Week - Flying Swordsmen (OSRish)

So, what exactly is Flying Swordsmen? It is the OSR styled rules turned slightly askew. It's the Sunday Matinee Martial Arts Movies of your (or at least my) childhood brought to life - via an RPG. This is not Oriental Adventures. This is Flying Swordsmen.

Here's how the author's blog describes it at What a Horrible Night to Have a Curse:


Welcome to the home of the Flying Swordsmen Role Playing Game.  Flying Swordsmen is a game of fantasy martial arts, where characters use swords, fists, spells, and more to battle other martial artists and monsters, and seek out new techniques or magic to improve their martial skill.

Players take on the role of a Fighter, Wizard, Shaman or Thief, and can customize their martial arts abilities as they advance in level.  The Stunt system allows players to create the sorts of wild and crazy abilities and moves seen in Wuxia (fantasy martial arts) movies and comics.  

Alright, I guess it even covers the more recent martial arts flicks, but I still love my poorly dubbed ones from childhood ;)

If you are comfortable with OSR style rules, this should be an easy fit for you. The stunt dice even remind me a bit of Mighty Deeds of Arms from the DCC RPG.

What's the Deal With Parrying in S&W Complete?

Alright, this has my head scratching (Swords & Wizardry Complete Page 14):


Parry: Fighters with a Dexterity score of 14 or better can fight on the
defensive, parrying enemy blows and dodging attacks, as shown on the
table below.

Fighter Parrying Ability
Dexterity Score Penalty to Enemy Attacks

14 -1
15 -2
16 -3
17 -4
18 -5

Is this in lieu of Attacking? In addition to? Is this like a super AC bonus? Does it stack with the +1 from a high Dex?

Heron Prior on G+ got me thinking about this and I'm not sure.

I've read a post on Dragonsfoot that indicates Matt intended it to be vague and open to interpretation. I find that answer to be disappointing, to say the least. If there are options on how to use something (ability, skill, spell, whatever), say so in the book - don't leave folks wondering if they have it right or wrong.

There is a post at the above link suggesting that it be limited to Fighters in light or no armor. Another post suggested the Fighter choose between Strength bonus to hit and a Parry bonus based on Dex - you can't have both in the same round.

I think either solution could work, but a Fighter in plate with an 18 Dex get +6 (+5 from parry, +1 from pure Dex) to his AC - so then I'd say know to the Hit OR Parry bonus scheme.

My vote is - light armor or no armor, the fighter can elect to gain a parry bonus from high Dexterity.

So let it be written, so let it be done ;)

Re-Reading Swords & Wizardry Complete Has Started...

Somehow, I never noticed during my first read through that Con and Dex have a maximum adjustment of +1 for high stats. At first, my mind rebelled when seeing this, but in further thought, it keeps AC and HP less swingy. I actually like it.

Str bonus only for Fighters I'll probably house rule away, although I'd probably cap it at +1 for non-fighters.

S&W Complete feels much like AD&D, simplified to the way my groups played it. We had houseruled it without knowing that's what we were doing.

I do miss the Illusionist. I might have to write up my own version of the class, much like I did the Bard last year.

The Google Nexus Tablet Meets My RPG PDF Collection

I've had the Google Nexus 7 Tablet for about 5 weeks now. I can tell from an earlier post today (talking  about the Blood & Treasure RPG) that folks are interested in knowing how the Nexus 7 holds up when reading RPG PDFs.

It holds up very well.

The last two PDFs I've looked at on the Nexus 7 (using the EZ PDF Reader App) have been Blood & Treasure and Swords & Wizardry Complete. Why? Because I just bought the first one, and the second one is on my mind with the Reaper Kickstarter and the Swords & Wizardry Complete Kickstarter.

Both are readable with the tablet held in the vertical position, like a book. The print is small, but readable. I've mostly been using it to read for a few minutes in bed before sleep. If I were going to read for a longer period of time, I'd probably hold it in the horizontal position and move the page up and down for the two column format most games seem to favor.

Actually, I've got bunch of stuff on it in PDF format, so I'll rate them from zero to 2 thumbs up for vertical (V) and horizontal (H) reading. In no particular order:

RuneQuest 6 - 1V, 2H
S&W Complete - 1V, 2H
Blood & Treasure - 1V, 2H
Death Love Doom - 1+V, 2H (just a tad better to read than the others so far in vertical position)
ACKS - 1-V, 2H (its readable in vertical, but the walls of text don't make it easy)
Advanced Dungeons & Savages - 2V, 2H
Attack of the Frawgs! - 1V, 2H
The Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk - 1V, 2H
Stars W/O Number - Core Edition - 1V-, 2H (readable but not easy on the eyes in vertical)
Other Dust -1V-, 2H (readable but not easy on the eyes in vertical)
DCC RPG - 1V+, 2H (maybe it's the font, but it's a bit easier on the eyes than most of the others when held in the vertical position)

So, most is readable in the vertical (book held) position, but for extended reading, you'll probably want to hold it vertically. I couldn't even really try to read most of my PDFs in the vertical postion with my Kindle Fire. I'm going to chalk that up to the quality of the screen.

Tenkar's Magical Tidbits - Talizmar's Woundlicker (OSR Weapon)

I was going to label this for use with Swords & Wizardry, as it certainly has gained some fame over the last few days, but Talizmar's Woundlicker should work in any OSR/OGL game with little changes necessary. So use it in ACKS, DCC RPG, Blood & Treasure - it should work in all.

Talizmar's Woundlicker is a magic longsword with some known history. It's first owner of any sort of fame was Talizmar, a warrior that fancied himself a ranger of sorts. He found the sword in an ancient barrow, and quickly fell fond of it. Maybe it was the etchings on the blade that seemed to slowly flow when stared at, or maybe it was the minor yet consistant healing of his wounds in combat that caused the bond, but he was never without out it. He kept it until the day he was felled by Tal & Mal, the two-headed giant, who left the sword where it fell with it's owner.

The game effects of Talizmar's Woundlicker are as follows. It is long sword of excellent quality, and as such, it inflicts +1 damage on all damage rolls. The blade is enchanted, with the following effects. When first used in combat, it instills a -2 adjustment to the wielder's to-hit roll, as the blade is groggy and desires blood. After the first hit, the adjustment becomes -1 to hit, after the second successful hit in the same combat it has no adjustment, upon the third successful hit it is +1 to hit and so on until the 5th successful hit, where it becomes +2 to hit until the end of the combat (and combat within 1 turn / 10 minutes picks up where the blade's bonus last was at).

Additionally, each successful hit on a living opponent heals one point of HP damage of the wielder (2 points when maximum damage is rolled). These points can heal past the normal maximum HPs (phantom HPs) of the wielder. Any phantom HPs fade one turn after combat has ended.

When the blade heals the wielder, an observer will notice blood drawn by the blade flows down the blade, over the hilt and seemingly into the wielder's hand.

First Impressions - Blood & Treasure (OSR Ruleset)

I bought Blood & Treasure Complete (Player's and GM's Books rolled into one) the other night, as I had both a Lulu 20% off coupon and a desire to see what John Stater, he of the Land of Nod setting, was going to put together as an OSR RPG. Besides, he was offering the PDF for free to those that purchased the hardcover copy. Win - Win if you ask me.

So far I'm impressed. I don't agree with everything John has done with Blood & Treasure, and I'm not sure I'd run it as is (do I run anything as is?) but it appears to be a tight set of rules that are easily houseruled. I dare say they were built for houseruling.

Blood & Treasure draws deeply from earlier editions of D&D, but it's not afraid to also draw inspiration from D&D 3e (such as with the optional Feats he's included, but I'll probably touch more on that with a later post).

The classes seem like fun to play (and higher level assassins even get spells). Heck, there's even a Bard class included - and if you know me, you know I love a flexible Bard class.

I have a minor issue with the layout - it only effects the class section, and I understand why it happens. Sometimes, class descriptions get broken up by the full page spread of the following class's base info / character portrait. I understand why it is done - to avoid lots of white space, but it breaks up the flow while reading.

I do like the Spell section. Spells descriptions are, for the most part, short and to the point. Easy to reference. Much like the Monster section - easy and quick to reference.

I'm still working my way through the PDF (which is surprisingly readable on my 7" Google Nexus tablet held in the vertical positon) but I like what I see so far. I also need to go back and reread by Swords & Wizardry Complete PDF at some point, as it might become the standard currency of the OSR after Reaper's Kickstarter ;)