Majus By Michael Curtis - In Hand and PDF

I think these bookmarks will be Minor Contest Prizes

I was a backer of the Majus Kickstarter by Goblinoid Games. It's a modern magic RPG written by Michael Curtis and powered by the classic Pacesetter System (Chill, Timemaster, Sandman and others). I had lots of fun running Pacesetter games in my college days and having Michael Curtis writing one was icing on the cake.

I woke up to my RPGNow code in my email this morning and returned from visiting my mother in law to find my printed copy in my actual mailbox. It's a good day.

Of course, yet more for me to read and review ;)

Did I mention the non-watermarked layout layout?

Free Stuff Today Only From Purple Duck Games

Today is +Mark Gedak 's birthday, the man behind Purple Duck, and he has put some stuff out there for Free TODAY ONLY:

Following Daniel Bishop example of giving things away on his birthday. I've put the following things written by me up for free today. Get them if you haven't yet. 

Purple Mountain I 

A Score of Trapped Chests

Legendary II: Legendary Weapons  

I wish I could offer something newer but most of my time now is spent in layout and not writing. 

Feel free to share the link so that nobody misses out. 

Review - Lich Dungeon Level II - Old Vs New "Non System Specific" Stat Block

My first introduction to the "Non System Specific" stat block employed by Eldritch Ent was in Lich Dungeon Level I. I found it needlessly confusing for something aimed at OSR gamers and the straight forward stat blocks that are employed in the vast majority of adventures aimed at such systems.

Here is a sample of a stat block from Lich Dungeon Level I which I reviewed in May of 2012:

Painfully annoying to convert, and really, if it's aimed at old school or OSR rulesets, why should one have to convert at all?

Here's an example from the recent release of Lich Dungeon Level II:

The conversion from percentile to straight up plusses based on a D20 are included for you, which is a big step up. Still, it's not easy to read and is repeated in total in the back of the PDF for each monster encountered. That results in on heck of a needless page bloat. The above works well for a bestiary in the back of an adventure, but not when it's used to fluff out an encounters "page space".

Now here's an example from a recent release, The Last Candle:

The above is about the most I want when I'm running an adventure and looking at an encounter or dungeon room or whatever. It also aligns fairly closely to classic stat blocks in adventures.

So, to recap. Lich Dungeon II has an improved stat block compared to Lich Dungeon I, but it's still needlessly bloated. The adventure itself has some charm to it. More on that later.

Random Winners From the Latest Poll

I promised to award $5 RPGNow Gift Certificates to two random commenters on the Unofficial Poll - Artwork Behind Your Text in RPG Purchases or "Plain Vanilla"?

And the winners are:

+matt jackson and rachel ghoul

send me your emails so i can send out those gift certificates :)

edit: send to tenkarsDOTtavern at that gmail thing

Review - Lich Dungeon Level II - Prelude (Some Things Never Change)

Remember that "Non System Specific System" or as I prefer to call it "The Stat Block Fluffer and Obscurer" is back in Lich Dungeon Level II 

It's easy to convert from one OSR game to another. Hell, there is little conversion needed at all.

Here's an example of the definitions of the stats used with the "Non System Specific System" or whatever it is called now:

And this is better than the usual OSR stat block because...

Welcome to "needless conversion for every encounter". Sigh.

The above get's presented in full with the encounter and again at the end. My biggest gripes with Lich Dungeon I seem to still be present.

Ah well, at least the stat block issue is out of the way. I mean, it's a hell of an issue for me, but at least I can put it to the side for now.

Time to read this sucker...

Lich Dungeon Level 2 is Out - It Has to be Better Than Level 1, Right?

In case you missed my coverage of the 1st Level of Lich Dungeon back in April of 2012, I'll link it here (it's actually a 3 part review)

In summary, it wasn't as bad as I had actually expected and pulled off the "1970's Nostalgia" fairly decently, but didnt compare well to more modern dungeon releases. Well, that and the "Non System Specific System" stat blocks were annoying as all hell. Reminded me a bit of Mayfair Games products, and not in a good way.

So, 15 months later Lich Dungeon Level 2 is out from Frank Metzner.

Is there an interest in having this reviewed?

Level 2 is about 50% larger in page count than level 1, but there was lots of bloat in the page count of level 1. So, there's lots of room for improvement or just repeating last year's annoyances.

If you are interested in a review, let me know and if there is enough interest I'll grab it in PDF.

Since We Are Talking About Iridia - How About that "Freecity of Haldane"?

I've been a reader of +Christian Walker 's musings on RPGs since the very beginning, and through it all, The Freecity of Haldane has always stuck out as something special to me.

Detailed enough to seem real, but not so detailed that the details get in the way of running it. Probably my favorite presentation of an urban environment I've come across in my years of gaming.

Thanks to +matt jackson for making me think of such things today and to mwschmeer for keeping the archives ;)

Some Thoughts on the Book "Playing at the World"

Let me preface the following by mentioning that my BA is in History. In the late 80's and early 90's, I read a shit ton of dry, historical writing.

We are now in 2013, and Gaming at the World is "dry, historical writing".

It's not bad at all. Actually, it's very informative. I just find that I can only stomach reading it using the Kindle app on my phone when I'm in the crapper, waiting for the bus or something else that is of a limited yet random time frame.

I tried reading it in bed on my iPad and it put me to sleep. Apparently getting that History BA in my 40's would have required much more discipline than it did 20 some odd years ago.

If you want an interesting history of RPGs that can actually be engaging to read, try Designers & Dragons (currently out of print - soon to be a multi-volume release from Evil Hat). If you want a textbook approach to many of the background events leading up to D&D, Playing at the World could very well be your cup of tea.

Ambition & Avarice - Print Copy in Hand

I came home today to find my print copy of Ambition & Avarice waiting for me. Good stuff, especially as I've been involved in playtesting the system pretty much since it's earliest version.

Even better, the layout is nice and clean. Sure, I knew that from the PDF version, but it's still nice to see it in print ;)

Unofficial Poll - Artwork Behind Your Text in RPG Purchases or "Plain Vanilla"?

Simple poll.

Simple answers, unless you want to explain your choice.

Do you like artwork behind your text in the RPG products you buy, or "plain vanilla"?

One random commenter will get an as yet undecided prize from The Tavern's prize closet.

Mini Review - CE 4 - The Seven Deadly Skills of Sir Amoral the Misbegotten (DCC RPG Campaign Element)

I got to run a playtest session of CE 4 - The Seven Deadly Skills of Sir Amoral the Misbegotten a week ago Saturday with my group. The timing was perfect, as we were short a few players and that is something the Campaign Elements series by +Daniel Bishop specializes in - handling parties of all sizes.

It was just the right length for the time we had to game and had a built in hook to move on the next adventure. Roll play and combat all rolled into one. All that and one of the PCs gets a nice, small boost. This is a location I expect the players will wish to return to at some point.

So yeah, the CE series works as billed - suitable for parties of almost any number and level and are easy to slip in where needed in your campaign.

From the blurb:

In years long past, Gryffon Keep was a border fortification guarding a somewhat well-used roadway. In that day, the keep was placed in the trust of Sir Harold Amoral, one of the greatest warriors available to the then Lord Duke. Time has changed the land, and brought the keep low, and Sir Amoral has become little more than a figure of fable and children’s story. That the ruins in the forest were those of fabled Gryffon Keep have been forgotten by most, and the area is now known to locals as the Forest Ruin.

Although history has faded to legend, the ghost of Sir Amoral still haunts the ruined keep. During his lifetime, he sought to hoard his martial knowledge so that it might never be used against him by a mortal foe. Now, after death, he regrets this parsimony, and seeks above all to pass on his skills to those who are worthy.

The catch, of course, is that the ghost believes that only he can determine who is (or is not) worthy – and, of course, his methods for doing this are deadly.

The Campaign Elements series is designed to help judges create persistent campaign worlds, as well as deal with patron quests, divine requests, and the sudden need to “Quest For It”.  Whether it is because you are short on players one evening, or the wizard needs to locate a new spell, the Campaign Elements series has you covered.

Each of these areas is short enough to be played through by most groups in only a single session.  That doesn't mean that the value of the area is limited to a single session – each adventure includes notes on “squeezing it dry”…effectively getting the maximum re-use from your investment.

An adventure for Dungeon Crawl Classics characters across multiple levels.

Numenera - No Longer an F'n Eyesore (thanks to a friend)

This is the crap I was bitching about last night:

and this is the corrected version:

which version would you rather read?

(why I had to jump through fucking hoops to get an actual, readable, usable version of Numenera that I paid good money for is beyond me)

13th Age Arrives in Print - A Fine Example of Using Art and Print on the Same Page

Hard to focus with a cat tail in the upper right corner ;)

I need another vacation just to read gaming material ;)

I had a lot of goodies arrive today (including my Google Chromecast, but that's a whole 'nother story) but the main item was 13th Age.

I can't vouch for the rules in 13th Age any more then I can for Numenera at this point, but I can say I'll be reading the rules for 13th Age before Numenera. The layout is is quite simply much more pleasing to my eyes, and that's half the battle ;)

The right way to integrate text and art on the same page

Rant: What the Hell Is It With PDFs and the "Artistic Watermarking" (or whatever the f' it's called)?

I hate, with a passion that burns, PDF gaming releases that have artwork behind the text. WTF do you call it? Watermarking? Layering? An eyesore? A waste of my printer's ink? All this and more?

I hated it when WotC did it and I hate it even more now. It does NOT make your product more useful. It does NOT make your product easier to read. It does NOT make you product a piece of art (real piece of work is more likely). It does NOT make it easier for me to print a handful of pages out at home for my own legal use without killing my printer.

The above example is from Numenera, but it could have been from any number of RPGs that have come down the pike over the last few years.

Really makes a PDF much less useful than it should be.

Save the wicked annoying art shit behind the text for the printed version. In truth, I hate it there too, but at least I expect it there.

Maybe there are ways to turn off the layers, but I dont see it.

Whatever happened to KISS?

Drinking Some "Ginger Beard" English Beer

I don't do many beer posts, but when I do, I hope to make them count ;)

The label on Ginger Beard is of a red headed dwarf complete with braided beard. You don't get more "fantasy dwarf" than that.

It's a sweet beer with a ginger burn on the tail end. I'm currently sipping it out of a scotch glass. If I'm going to cut back on beer due to calorie intake, beers like Ginger Beard that are made for sipping are the way I'm going to go.

Four tankards and a half pint out of five for this one (the extra half is for the awesome label).

Mini Review - The Last Candle (OSR Adventure / Micro-Setting for levels 1-3)

I've been falling behind on my reviews, so I'm starting the "catch up" phase with The Last Candle by +Greg Christopher of Chubby Funster Games. You know Greg - he wrote the recent OSR release Ambition & Avarice (recently went POD too).

So, what makes The Last Candle special? Quite simply, it is written to give you and your players many game nights of play.

First, its a micro-setting of sorts. It includes a map and descriptions of the Satrebonne River Vally (immediate setting).

Secondly, it includes a base of operation for the players - The Priory of Chaurillon (alright, it's really spelled the French way, but I don't grok French) It is detailed with locations of importance and NPCS. So now we have both general setting and urban location for the group.

Last we have the Eagle's Eyrie, which is an excellent dungeon. You really do get a complete campaign starter with this.

I playtested the Eagle's Eyrie and ran it for my weekly group. It proved to be a suitable challenge with some fun role playing opportunities within. No PCs died during the playtest, but that was due to some very smart playing on the part of my players ;)

Really, for 4 bucks it's hard to go wrong.

Here's a bit of advice from the adventure:

...it must be noted that you have enormous freedom to customize the challenges in this module. There is plenty of extra space on the campaign map for you to add your own content, content from other modules, or just random wilderness encounters. You are encouraged to give the NPCs their own agendas and have them work independently toward those agendas while the players are busy with other tasks. For example, the players might return to the Prieuré after exploring the Eagle’s Eyrie to find that xxxx xxxxx has been lynched for practicing foul magics. This occurred because the players told xxxx xxxx how they saw xxx healing an injured man. Actions should have consequences and every NPC has their own agenda. 

You are also encouraged to give the players significant freedom as they investigate the region and the dungeon at their own pace. This is intended to be a mini-sandbox where the players can explore in the manner they desire.

From the blurb:

The Prieuré de Chaurillon lies isolated in the upper valley of the Satrebonne river. The empire that once protected it has fallen. Barbarian hordes now roam the land. Once tamed borderlands have become infested with monsters and foul beasts. The monks of the Prieuré are all that remain of their ancient order. They stand alone against the darkness of the age; The Last Candle of their faith.

This module provides the Dungeon Master with everything they need to build an entire campaign in the Satrebonne valley; a full-color campaign map of the entire region, wilderness encounters, struggling towns that could benefit from player protection, locations of interest to explore, a fully-detailed priory compound protected by a palisade, descriptions of prominent NPCs, plot hooks to draw the players into the world, unique items to add to your game, a complete dungeon complex to explore, and guidance on how to weave it all together.

Against the Slave Lords - Good Fit for the DCC RPG?

It's been ages since I read any of the A series of modules, even though A1 (along with G 1-3) were the first actual (A)D&D adventures I even owned.

I received Against the Slave Lords for my recent birthday and was wondering if it would make a good for for the DCC RPG.

A1 should fit well if I recall correctly.

Damn, more goodies to read :)

Any ideas on how well the rest of the series would fit the DCC RPG?

Which Comes First: Game or Story?

Yeah, it may be a weird question, but with some of the recently released high profile RPGs (Monsters & Magic, FATE Core, Numenera) there are many an OSR gamer that will be looking under the hood of other game systems with different assumptions than "classic" play.

What do I mean? Generally, in an OSR game, the two general assumptions are "let the dice roll what they will" and "Rule Zero" - the DM will make decisions for situations that aren't explicitly spelled out by the rules.

Basically, the dice rule and the DM rules and the game proceeds, often in unexpected directions, and randomness can be an awesome thing. The game leads to the story.

My general gut feeling (and it is very general) is that the recent releases listed above put the story before the game. Even Numenera has aspects that, upon a quick perusal, remind me of what is generally referred to as "storytelling games".

Eh, I'm getting crotchety in my old age. Change means new learning, and new learning aint as easy at 46 as it was at 16 or even 26.

Still, the new games are sure purty to look at ;)

A Metric Ton of FATE (This is a Heavy Book)

So, I got my signed copy of FATE Core along with a set of FATE dice this weekend (I never paid extra for the FATE Accelerated book in print it seems).

What surprises me most? This book is heavy, which is surprising for it's size (trade paper back-ish) and page count (about 300 pages). I could hit somebody in the head with this and do some serious damage.

No idea if I'll ever play a session of FATE, let alone run one, but the book is a beauty physically and the font looks relatively easy on the eye to read. Maybe when I get through my OSR backload of reading I'll get to this.

Eh, who am I kidding? I'll never get through that backload ;)

A Quick Peek at Numenera

Overwhelming.

That is my initial reaction to the Numenera RPG PDF that I received yesterday after supporting the Kickstarter.

Over 400 pages long, its too much for me to digest in PDF. I'll need to await the hardcover's delivery.

The Numenera Player's Guide comes in at under 70 pages, and I might be better suited reading that first. Actually, I've leafed through it (the Core and the Guide), and Numenera gives off a highly revised 3.5e vibe. Needlessly confusing in the way it figures out the DC for certain roles, which I find annoying, but my opinion may change as I read further.

I can't help but wonder how much of Numenera was destined for D&D Next before Monte left the team.

Observations on the Arduin Grimoire (and it's PDF return)

I just recently spent the better part of a week in the Poconos, and the only in print gaming material I brought was some DCC RPG stuff and the Arduin Grimoire Vol II.

I'm not sure why I grabbed AG Vol 2 - I just saw it in my room on the top of other gaming material waiting to return to a shelf or a box and grabbed it. Over the vacation I read it in bits and pieces, enjoying it even as the horribly small font tortured my 46 year old eyes. Time travel does that to me ;)

Imagine my surprise when OneBookShelf notified me of new Arduin releases in PDF. They are popping up like wildflowers (or fires). I'm going to grab Arduin Adventures for 4 bucks and maybe kick the tires in the near future.

Last Call For Submissions to the Issue #1 of the "Unofficial OSR" Zine

This weekend I plan to do a physical print out of the submissions we have so far, just so I have a better time visualizing everything. Then I start organizing, proofing and editing and finally get it into our amazing layout volunteer for this issue.

We could still use some art. Not that I don't have a large amount of stock art to pull from, but I'd rather showcase original art when possible. Paying beer money doesn't help, I know ;)

Hardish deadline for submissions is August 12.

Send them to: tenkarsDOTtavernATgmailDOTcom

Dyson's Dodecahedron Magazine Goes "Pay What You Want"

The first six issues of +Dyson Logos 's Dyson's Dodecahedron zine have gone "Pay What You Want.

It's an excellent Labyrinth Lord fanzine, but as with nearly all of the OSR releases it can easily be used in the OSR system of your preference.

+Dyson Logos is well known for his mappings skills, and this is a chance to see some more of his work.

Raggi Pitches the LotFP Referee Book's Upcoming Crowdfunding

I like James. Really, I do. I really like his earlier adventures and I think some of the best parts of LotFP's Weird Fantasy ruleset are the Referee Rules. There is some great advice within (even if, as James admits in this video, he doesn't follow them himself). As far as production quality goes, James is second to none.

James has been hit fairly hard by his crowdsources projects - they've run late as sin, they seem to run over cost and postal rate increases slam him on top of that.

So, to summarize 10 minutes of video (that are fairly entertaining even if they are overlong and really shouldn't have been more than 2) - James needs to put out a Referee Book to match the recent Rules & Magic Book for Weird Fantasy (3rd incarnation of the rules for those counting at home). Funds are tied up in previous Kickstarters that are overdue and still to be released. Therefore, there will be a new crowdfunding campaign for the Ref Book. But you don't get the Ref Book for supporting the campaign, you get credit at James's store to buy the Ref Book when it is completed (or any other product at the store, you are not locked in). You pay shipping (which saves James from postal increases, but not you, the supporter).

The stretch goals are to return Tower of the Stargazer and Death Frost Doom to print. If the stretch goals are hit, your LotFP Store Credit will include the value to buy the reprints too - so you will potentially get more value from your money if the stretch goals are met.

The Ref Book as a stand alone product is damn cool, as I think it's one of James' better pieces of work, even if he doesn't follow it himself (and I suspect never has). If I were to reprint two of James' prior work, I'd got with Tower of the Stargazer and The Grinding Gear myself, but Death Frost Doom isn't a horrible choice either.

So why is it that I feel we're taking a cash advance from one credit card to pay off another with this latest crowdfunding campaign?

Which Has More Lasting Effect - Shocking or Disturbing Imagery?

(what follows is my opinion - nothing more, nothing less - I expect others to add their opinions in the comments below - I very much doubt we will all agree, but that just means there will be a healthy discussion - I hope)

Love it or hate it, "Shock" sells.

To a point.

Each release has to top the previous one in shock value for it to garner the needed attention and audience, and at some point, your audience get's numb to it.

Shock also turns some folks off, but initially your gain far outweighs your loses. So, I understand it as a business practice.

Disturbing to me has more value. Carcosa made me feel a bit disturbed after reading it. Alright, very disturbed. It wasn't shocking, it was disturbing. I'll almost always come back for more disturbing. It might take a while, but I can't help myself. I might never feel comfortable using it, but it keeps me always looking for Geoffrey McKinney's work. Not that there is much at this time ;)

The Omen as a movie was disturbing.

Nightmare on Elm Street and the whole genre of slasher films work off shock value.

Shock to me seems to be the easy substitute for disturbing, but that's like replacing a home cooked meal with McDonalds - they may both fill a need, but one is more fulfilling than the other.

Fuck For Satan might drive the bible thumpers angry by title alone but if they read Carcosa they'd break out the Holy Water and start the exorcism right then and there.

The thing is, to be disturbing you don't have to be evil or overwhelming or even in your face. You just need enough realism to make someone relate, to feel it.

Eh, maybe it's my occupation. "Shock" has never stuck with me, it has no value. "Disturbing" is the shit that you keep for years. The pool of blood and brains and raspberry jam. The maggots in the living crackhead's open sores, and trying not to touch the wiggles as you cuff the crackhead. Opening a door to the overwhelming stench of death and guessing the day of death based on the intensity of the smell. Looking for the living heroin addict's boot that was ripped from him when he was struck by a truck, only to find his foot still in it. The he-she prostitute baring it's hairy chest. The body with a bullet in it's temple but still breathing, slow to realize it was already dead.

Disturbing rents space in your head.

That's my problem, apparently. My bar is set higher than most ;)

I may need to write up some gaming examples of "disturbing encounters and locations" later on.

Ambition & Avarice is Now Available in Print!

I really like Ambition & Avarice, but I've never reviewed it. Why? Because I playtested, proofread, helped edit and have a mention in the dedication. I can't do a review of it and be impartial. Simple and honest truth.

That being said, I do believe it's one of the more unique takes on an OSR ruleset that I've read, remaining true to it's source material and gaming ancestors and yet taking on a new direction of it's own.

PDF is 7 bucks.

Print + PDF is $12.42 (if you already ordered a PDF copy of the rules, there should be a coupon coming your way later tonight for 7 dollars off).

I plan on running a game session of A&A using +Greg Gillespie 's Barrowmaze in late September via G+ Hangouts, and I'll put out a call for players as the time gets closer. If all goes well, I'll make it a monthly event.

I raise my tankard to +Greg Christopher for a great game now in print.

Huzzah!

A Tale of Two Kickstarters - Axes & Anvils vs Numenera - Of Truth and Lies

Patrick over at the Nerdwerks blog has put together a very enlightening comparison of the Axes & Anvils vs the Numenera Kickstarter. It's very well done, and worth your time for the chuckles it will elicit.

Here's a snippet:

Go on now and read the rest ;)

Mind Your Manors!

As I spend my last night of this stint of vacation in the Poconos, I'm getting to read the latest issue of +Tim Shorts The Manor. It's half S&W adventure and half mini Monster Manual and pure goodness.

Maybe if I'm lucky, the hard copy of The Manor #4 will be waiting for me as I arrive home to NYC tomorrow afternoon.

I'll do a proper review of this after I settle in back at "la casa".

Oh, and a review of Fuck For Satan too, although I'm in no rush to do so at this point. I'm trying to figure out how it would mesh into an ongoing campaign. From what I've seen from my initial skim, the answer is "poorly". I suspect it works better in a one-shot or con type setting. One-shots have their place, just not in an on going campaign. I suspect there is a blog post topic here for a future date.

Treasure - By the Book or Off the Page?

Treasure, whether magical or mundane, is detailed in most OSR / Original (A)D&D DM / GM / Ref sections of the rules. In effect, this gives one a shopping list or, even more likely, a classic Chinese Menu to choose from. This certainly simplifies things, but it does lead to repletion, especially after 35 years or so of gaming. How many + 2 Longswords can one expect to find over that time? I suspect the answer is infinite.

This is a large part of the reason my first two OSR projects / products dealt with more unique magic items. I have no problem taking many of the magic items in my campaign off the shelf (or out of the core rules), but it's the ones crafted at the workbench that helps keep the magic "magic" in my opinion.

The same goes for the more mundane treasure - gems, jewelry, coins - get repetitious after a while. Having the party try to successfully recover (and later sell) the fragile porcelain tea set without breakage is a lot more fun (challenging) than the next hoard of coins.

Am I guilty of taking the shortcut of grabbing from the shelf more than I feel I should? Definitely, but I'm trying to go to the shelf less often in the future.

Do you create your own magic items for your campaign? Do you add more unique non magical treasures? Does your group even care one way or the other?

Updated and Finalized Winners List From July's DCC RPG Contest!

The winners of the DCC RPG Adventure Path contest are:

B at 21 points

G at 20 points (someone shoot me)

E at 19 points

1st Place goes to Dithering Fool you get: print copies of In the Prison of the Squid Sorcerer (Mythic Bull Games), AL3 Through the Cotillion of Hours (Purple Duck Games), AN1 The Ruins of Ramat (Brave Halfling) and AN2 The Vile Worm (Brave Halfling)

2nd Place goes to Bannana Bill you get: print copies of AL3 Through the Cotillion of Hours (Purple Duck Games), AN1 The Ruins of Ramat (Brave Halfling) and AN2 The Vile Worm (Brave Halfling)

3rd Place goes to Hex Ox, you get a PDF copy of In the Prison of the Squid Sorcerer (Mythic Bull Games) -

Special Mention goes to yves larochelle - Yves, Dak and I will hook you up with the latest issue of Crawl! You kicked things off with an excellent entry.

The other 4 entrants get the following random prizes courtesy of Purple Sorcerer:

+Jim Magnusson  - Perils of the Sunken City in PDF

+Kenneth Cummins  - Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk in PDF

+Daniel Bishop  (aka RavenCrowKing) - A Gathering of the Marked in PDF

Neko-Kun - Lair of the Mist Men

But wait! There's more! Some of those that cast votes are in for prizes too!

Attack of the Frawgs in PDF goes to Simon J Hogwood.

A $5 RPGNow GC goes to David Eppling

I'm sure I forgot to award a prize or two, and if so they will simply carry on the the next DCC RPG Contest.

Winners need to reach out to me at tenkarsDOTtavernAT that gmail thing. I'm still on vacation, and some of these prizes are coming from different folks to different folks, so I'll start untangling this over the weekend.

Congrats to all, and thanks for the patience as I royally bugger things up over this past weekend ;)

Some Thoughts on the Latest LotFP Release - F@ck For Satan

This is not a review. The review will be forthcoming in the next few days. This post is just some thoughts and observations on Raggi's latest LotFP release.

First, the name. Even James states that it's named Fuck For Satan to get noticed:

As I write this I’m still unsure whether or not I’m actually going to call this thing Fuck For Satan. It would be unnecessarily divisive and provocative, especially for an adventure that’s essentially a farce... that by putting something so patently tasteless right on the cover they can avoid spending money on a product they won’t like anyway. Plus they’ll do it loud enough that they will entertain us all with their outrage that a role-playing game scenario is not to their tastes and help me with a little publicity to boot.

There was a time when James sold adventures based on quality, not drummed up controversy. The Grinding Gear, Tower of the Stargazer, Death Frost Doom - these all became popular based on the quality of the adventure, not some innuendo or attempt at shocking the gaming public.

Now, I know that James sells on his own webstore as well as RPGNow, but I find it striking that Fuck For Satan has fallen to 13 place on RPGNow after a week of release on the Hottest Selling List, whereas Ambition & Avarice, a new OSR RPG from a relatively unknown publisher (compared to LotFP) is at a solid 7 after nearly 3 weeks.

Why is that? Quality outshines shock nearly every time. Shock can also obscure quality. I haven't fully read FfS yet, but I suspect the walking penis will make this adventure just a notch less quality then I had hoped.

I guess if I want to read quality over shock from James these days, I'll have to read his older stuff - until he re-skins them with more "shocking" titles.

How Much of Your Campaign Involves Getting to the Next Adventure?

I'm sitting here in the Poconos, looking out the window at the woods across the street from me, and it occurred to me that much adventure could be had within (and there certainly was much adventure had within when I was 30+ years younger).

How much of your campaign takes place in the places in between? Done properly, the travel to one adventure from another can in and of itself be an adventure. To a large extent, this is what sandboxes are about, but even without running your campaign in a sandbox, the places in between have the potential to challenge the players. I'm not talking random encounters but more like "random localized locations" that you can drop in between to change the pacing.

Hmm, in many ways this is what +Daniel Bishop 's series of Campaign Elements for the DCC RPG seeks to do, but it could be done on even a smaller scale of simple fleshed out encounters that include localized setting elements.

In any case, do you explore the places in between when you run a campaign, or do you players more from location to location fairly uneventfully?

Magic Mayhem Monday - Zaznaraz's Cage of Flesh and Bone (DCC RPG Magic Item)

Zaznaraz's Cage of Flesh and Bone - This 12" tall, 10" wide and 10" deep cage is made of human bone wrapped and held together by human skin and tendons.

Inside this small cage is a dimly glowing white orb. If the orb is removed from the cage, it will dim and turn to a white powder in less than an hour, effectively destroyed. Creating a new orb requires sacrifice of living beings and permanent attribute loss by the wizard involved. The details, if required, should be fleshed out by the Judge.

Zaznaraz's Cage of Flesh and Bone is a prized possession of any wizard which might come across it, as it can be used to enhance spellburn.

When a Wizard spellburns, he may use Zaznaraz's Cage of Flesh and Bone to add the effect. When the cage is first found, roll 1d3+1. These are the attribute points that the orb within the cage holds. The wizard can burn these in addition his own (the wizard must spellburn at least 1 point to enhance the spellburn with the orb), and the regenerates 1 point of spellburn per day.

If the wizard rolls a natural one on his spellburn attempt, in addition to the usual corruption check, he must make a Luck Roll. Failure on the luck roll means that 1 point of the wizards own spellburn is transferred to the orb permanently (determine the attribute that suffers the permanent loss randomly). When this happens, increase the orb's own attribute point total by one permanently.

Anyone Have Recent Info on the Gygax Memorial Fund?

I know I asked this question fairly recently, but as Gary's birthday just passed this weekend and I've seen other blogs and even ENWorld point folks to the Gygax Memorial Fund Site, I was wondering if anyone had more info on it.

The website doesn't look like it's been updated in a year and the two items in it's online shop have been out of stock for months if not longer.

Has the statue been completed yet?

How much money was raised by WotC's 1e reprints?

How much money has the fund raised so far?

The website states the memorial is to be completed in a 3 year period. 3 year period from when?

I'm not trying to be negative at all, but there really should be some updates to show things are moving as planned. Asking for money is all fine and good, but those that are giving should see how it's being used.

Announcing the Winners of July DCC RPG Contest (with a follow up tomorrow)

(HUGE fucking edit! Why I should not post while in pain / on meds)

(Second edit - I THINK it's right now)

The winners of the DCC RPG Adventure Path contest are:

C  B at 21 points

G  F G at 20 points (someone shoot me)

F  E at 19 points

1st Place goes to Dithering Fool you get: print copies of In the Prison of the Squid Sorcerer (Mythic Bull Games), AL3 Through the Cotillion of Hours (Purple Duck Games), AN1 The Ruins of Ramat (Brave Halfling) and AN2 The Vile Worm (Brave Halfling)

2nd Place goes to Bannana Bill you get: print copies of AL3 Through the Cotillion of Hours (Purple Duck Games), AN1 The Ruins of Ramat (Brave Halfling) and AN2 The Vile Worm (Brave Halfling)

3rd Place goes to Hex Ox, you get a PDF copy of In the Prison of the Squid Sorcerer (Mythic Bull Games) -

Special Mention goes to yves larochelle - Yves, Dak and I will hook you up with the latest issue of Crawl! You kicked things off with an excellent entry.

I need y'all to email me at tenkarsDOTavern and that gmail thing

Our other 4 entrants will also get some loot as will some of the voters. I'll figure that out tomorrow. Time to lie down and abuse myself reading some more Playing at the World. It's painful but good.

(I'm really out of sorts - this better be right this time - I need to sleep at this point I think ;)

I Went to the ER and All I Got Was Slightly Less Pain and Meds

I'm trying to put together the list of the winners for the July DCC RPG Contest. I know who they are, I just need to link the prizes to them, and award all the other prizes and fun stuff.

I'm also enjoying the effects of antibiotics and a pain killer from todays trip to the private ER.

Yay I'm healing! Fuck I'm still in pain!

Is it wrong to want to drink a beer or two in the midst of all this fun?

In any case, I'm working on the post of the contest winners, but I seem to be having difficulty keeping it all in order. Not sure if it's because of the pain or the pain killer... sigh.

Hopefully it all sorts out tonight.

The Game Session That Nearly Wasn't

Last night before the game session my internet went down twice. Not a good sign. And it really isn't my internet, as I'm currently on vacation in the Poconos. My parents went from piss poor DSL to pretty poor DSL recently, and this was the first serious test.

I found that so long as I killed the incoming video feeds on G+ AND kept my father off of Netflix, I only had rare moments of distorted audio.

When we all got in to the session, is was time to level up the four players that could make it to level them to actual classes, as last week had been the funnel.

A wizard, an elf and two warriors, it took a little time to sort it all out. And then there were the usual side treks in the conversation - everything from Land of the Lost to juvenile attempts to decode scramble porn back in the day.

I think it was nearly two hours before we actually got to the game session proper. Even that almost didnt happen, as there was some thought of just wrapping things up as we were short party members.

Luckily, we were set to playtest an upcoming release in Purple Duck's Campaign Elements series of releases. It truly was usable and adaptable to all levels / party sizes. The session went well (and thankfully it was short, as we had already burned much time) and it even was used to easily set up next weeks session - Doom of the Savage Kings.

Well done +Daniel Bishop . I'll give the latest CE a proper review when it is released :)

Bits and Pieces - Winners, Losers and Whiners

First day of vacation has caught up to me. With the help of Hex Ox, I've determined the winners of the July DCC RPG Contest, but I don't have the time tonight to post it and award all of the prizes and still finish game prep for tonight. Sorry, it will have to wait till the morning ;)

Now, a brief message to my legion of fans over at Youthful Dilettantes Intellectually Stunted - No, I haven't supported every fucked up Kickstarter I write about - there are enough poorly run Kickstarters to keep those posts going forever if I never spend another dime. Glad you enjoy them. Sorry to hear you haven't found your way out of the outhouse behind the Tavern. No worries, when you turn 21 you can walk in through the front door and get served.

Alright, back to game prep ;)

On Deck for Tonight's DCC Session - Doom of the Savage Kings and...

What's that hidden behind my printed out copy of Doom of the Savage Kings?

Something that will be playtested tonight (internet connection willing) and lead the players to DotSK.

Answering Random Wizard's Top Ten Troll Questions for Your Game

Here's my answers to Random Wizard's Top Ten Troll Questions for Your Game 

(1). Race (Elf, Dwarf, Halfling) as a class? Yes or no?

a - depends on the ruleset. As I'm currently running DCC, I'll go yes

(2). Do demi-humans have souls?

a - sure. animals too while we are at it

(3). Ascending or descending armor class?

a - either or - I'm a fan of S&W and it's flexibility in this matter

(4). Demi-human level limits?

a - except for halfling fighters, do we ever really hit it?

(5). Should thief be a class?

a - yep. but I prefer bards ;)

(6). Do characters get non-weapon skills?

a - ACKS is about as complicated as I would get with this, but yes

(7). Are magic-users more powerful than fighters (and, if yes, what level do they take the lead)?

a - fireball is the game changer in classic / AD&D - in DCC, I think it balances a bit better as all of the classes can bust out beyond the others if lucky with their rolls

(8). Do you use alignment languages?

a - say what? never have

(9). XP for gold, or XP for objectives (thieves disarming traps, etc...)?

a - gold, killing, special achievements and the like

(10). Which is the best edition; ODD, Holmes, Moldvay, Mentzer, Rules Cyclopedia, 1E ADD, 2E ADD, 3E ADD, 4E ADD, Next ?

a - 1e if I had to choose, but I like them all and their little clones too!

Bonus Question: Unified XP level tables or individual XP level tables for each class?

a - really depends on the system - in AD&D, those xpo tables are part of the class balancing

Kickstarter - Updates From the Terminally Late Projects - Dwimmering the Far West with Nystul's Quantum Powers!

There are updates and there are - non updates.

I'm not sure WTF these are, but they really don't say all that much. Still, why should you have to go all over the place just to find these tidbits?

Here's some recent ones:

Far West: this was due Dec 2011

Limited Run News

Update #72 · Jul 26, 2013 · 3 comments  
Another quick update for you -- a lot of you have been waiting to hear about this:

I had a conference with Dom at Cubicle Seven this week, and I've confirmed that we WILL be doing a separate limited print run of the core rulebook for the Kickstarter backers.

The Kickstarter Limited Edition will feature a leatherette cover (basically leather-bound, but using faux leather made from cloth), and will of course precede the general-release edition sent out to local game stores world-wide (any new estimate on WHEN?)

I'll post an image when we have a sample.

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'll get back to work...  gotta do something to keep The Normal's 1978 groundbreaking industrial track "Warm Leatherette" from playing, over and over, in my head.

--
Gareth-Michael Skarka
Lawrence, KS

Quantum this was due April 2012

Breaking Bad Silence

Update #78 · Jul 18, 2013 · 8 comments  
Hey folks!

This is just a quick update to let you know I'm still here and the game is still progressing. I hope to put up a larger update next week showing some rules changes implemented during my work this last month. Until then, here are teasers of those changes:

Armor Rating changed to be simpler and require less paperwork.
My original intent was to have Style Trees rather than just Styles. I figured out how to do that without changing much.
Style Trees allow for "builds," even within Paradigms that aren't the Generalist.
Each Paradigm (except the Generalist) has two Core Styles and two Core Abilities. The rest of the Styles are now General Paradigm Styles learnable by most Paradigms. General Paradigm Styles will still be restricted to Fatigue or Prime, though some have neither as a requirement.
There are three Style Trees, tentatively called Melee, Omnimancy, and Erudite. You start at the top and purchase your way down various branches of your choosing to get the build you want. The Melee branch is associated with Fatigue, the Omnimancy branch with Prime, and the Erudite branch with neither.
Next week I want to preview the new Archer along with possible builds. This will serve to both preview the rules changes and show off the new Archer. (15 months late and the system still isn't finished?)

Until then!

Josh

Axes & Anvils - AKA Nystul's Fiasco - project that spent the money with nothing to show for it

Day Two Update (actually, this was posted early Thursday morning - technically Mike missed wednesday's promised update in addition to Monday's, which was supposed to be Day One. Mike needs to learn to follow the schedule he set for himself)

Update #53 · Jul 25, 2013 · 3 comments  
Hard at work. I will have some fairly big chunks to show you very soon. First up - Character Generation (which is big fun and practically a game itself). Until then, some news.

• The Okum Arts A&A set will be provided to you guys in a day or two - as soon as we get the file set up for you to download. It has a lot of really great character. I'm super happy with it.

• A test sculpt of stones was just completed - there will be pictures as soon as the artist takes them and sends them to me. I know some of you are concerned that with no real motivation to produce more the line will die with the first book. To offset that possibility I'm working with a local game store to have a regular Axes and Anvils night. That will ensure ongoing games that will breed new material. Also, if any of you is in Austin let me know and I'll arrange to run for the game for you. (WGAF?!? There's no money to make this shit anyway)

Below is the cover of the Okum Arts minis and the current Table of Contents. As I pass along stuff to look at please be aware that this is pre-release - pre-edit stuff. I'm a game designer, not a writer and certainly not an editor. Every thing goes through an editor before you get it.


More tomorrow.

Day Three Update

Update #54 - For backers only (sorry Mike, but you lost those privileges)· Jul 25, 2013 · 2 comments  

Another busy day. Still finishing up the Character Creation chapter. (this makes it seem like Mike actually write games. I though he was the "idea guy" and "overseer")

Andrew is working on the introductory adventure.

The artists who did the stones for me is at a Ren Faire and will have to get home before she sends pictures. As soon as she does I will share them.

The Axes and Anvils paper minis are ready for download. Okum Arts will sell these in about a month - they are free to Backers. Please do not share this link. There is no special download protection on this folder.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx no link for you! ;)

These print and cut minis are not a replacement for anything you are owed. They are a bonus for Backers of the project.

More tomorrow

Dwimmermount (I wondered where Tavis was the past month)

What the Goalposts Look Like

Update #57 · Jul 26, 2013 · 2 comments  
It's been a month since the last update, during which the development team has been racing pell-mell to get the Labyrinth Lord version of Dwimmermount ready for Gen Con. The bad news is that we won't have a book that we'd be satisfied with complete in time. What we will have for you in August are the illustration book and the outdoor maps. If you'll be at Gen Con, you can pick these up there; if not, we'll mail these to you around that time. Although in some cases the project could save money by combining the illustration books with the rest of your order, there's a lot to be said for using this opportunity to work out all the kinks in the shipping process before it comes to the hardbacks. Over the next week I'll be sending out an email blast to all backers who are getting print rewards, letting you know which address we have for you. If you want your illustration booklet sent to a different address, please reply within the Kickstarter system. (I'll try to make sure that all the address changes already sent in are reflected before sending out this email.)

If the bad news is that we won't have all of the book where we want it to be for August, the good news is that we do have 87 pages laid out to the development team's satisifaction (pending a final proofing step). The link in the last update now has the files for Chapter 5: Muntburg, Chapter 6: Outside the Dungeon, Appendix A: The Four Worlds, Appendix C: New Monsters, and Appendix D: Rival Parties, as well as the finished cross-section maps from Last Gasp and the complete set of door-revised level maps from Tim Hartin.

I hope that these sections make a compelling argument that the work we're putting into organizing, polishing, and presenting James' manuscript is worth waiting for. In deciding not to skimp on what I felt was necessary to do justice to this first publication of Dwimmermount, I was guided by the results of last year's development survey and encouraged by reactions to the revised sections like this, sent via private email:

Having seen the layouts you posted in the most recent update, all I can say is "Wow!" I am profoundly grateful for your vision and the way you went about implementing it, especially as you describe it in the introduction.

Although such feedback helps me feel we're on the right course, I'm going to return to weekly updates to crowdsource the process of making sure the project is on track. Under the time pressure of the Gen Con goal it seemed to make sense to spend all my time doing what needs to be done rather than making announcements about it. However, sharing regular progress updates helps the development team as well as honoring our responsibility to backers, and I'll be glad to work at a less break-neck pace that allows time for reflection on where we've been and what the next steps are.

I expect we'll also see a return of the (in)famous charts (Fuck Me ;). The things we now have that make this possible are a comprehensive list of what remains to be done, and data about how long it's taken the development team to do similar work on the sections to date. In this update I'm going to focus on the remaining to-do list. Over the coming week I'll be talking with the team to refine our estimates about how long it'll take us to do this work, refining the projections from previous performance in the light of things we know are coming up like summer travel or dedicated blocks of time free to work on the project.

One of the ways a project can fail is through the quest for perfection. The more we've delved into getting the manuscript ready for publication, the more improvements suggest themselves, and there is a certain temptation to keep tweaking Dwimmermount forever. Fear not: the desire to get it out there for people to enjoy will always be stronger. Here's the list of things I see as necessary for the remaining sections to be worthy, if not perfect; a comparison of how the existing layouts differ from the original drafts may be helpful in interpreting these fragmentary notes.

Chapter 4, Referee's Overview: Many changes are in the Word file available for download at the link in the last update. Remaining steps are to complete the discussion of access control systems to include the brooch of the Terrim and link to the indexes of control rods and passkeys, and to add some quotes about naming and link to the tables of sample namesJames contributed.

Chapter 7, Factions in the Dungeon: A table of each faction including leader's name, HD or level, alignment, and location in the dungeon is complete, as is the spreadsheet delineation of factions on levels 0, 7, 8, and 9 that weren't included in James' draft. The remaining steps are to complete the summary of these factions, with a greater emphasis on inter-relationships between factions and levels; to present a chronology of how factions have shaped the history of the dungeon, especially the recent changes since the Termaxian infiltration; and to sketch out different faction's relationship to coins and treasure, with a house rule about bribery.

Dungeon Levels 0 - 9: Tables of each level's wandering monsters, key rooms, treasures, and inhabitants are complete in Excel and divided up by faction; these will form a facing page to the map of each chapter. Most levels then need an introduction along the lines of the ones James wrote for levels 0 and 9. These intros will include a concluding section about future developments, focusing on the key rooms included on that table and marked on the cross-section maps. The dungeon keys need a final development pass to make sure that contradictions resolved in the revised intro chapters, like whether dwarven corpses are stone or decaying flesh, are reflected throughout. Most such instances are marked by comments in the development drafts.

Appendix B: New Magic Items: Editor Pookie has written descriptions for some items implied in the text - the athame of law and the Typhonian mace - that weren't originally contained in this section. I need to do the same for the helm of astral movement and the astral vessel, the details of which have been worked out in development calls and recent emails with James. Pookie has also done an analysis of the different kinds of cloth garments found in the dungeon and their special properties, which I need to integrate into a couple of different items that can be described discretely.

Appendix E: New Spells. In the course of writing up the Rat Boss I created a new spell, lose coin, which will go into this section as well as a to-be-written new spell that the King of the Cats offers to his animal clerics. We've also hit on the idea of using spell research as the model for getting the Great Machine to do things like lower the barriers around the prison, so the more substantial work to be done on this section will be to describe the various things the Machine could do and what level effect these would be considered for the purpose of the time/investment required to develop them.

Appendix F: New Gods and Demigods. This is a new section which will subsume the content I've referred to in early drafts as Secrets of Turms Termax. My existing writeup of the Rat Boss will go here, as well as being included in Petty Gods (pending the addition of a stat block), as will the King of the Cats. Erol Otus has given us an evocative and creepy description of Turms Turmax's lieutenants; Jonathan Bolding is working on the description of their powers, as well as that of their questionably-divine master. This section will also include a slightly expanded description of the Sleeping God's capabilities and physical characteristics, currently found on Level 9.

Appendix G: Azoth. This section will be revised to accord with Turms' powers once that section is complete; we've discussed ideas about how his golem body uses azoth as a fuel and a weapon, which will be reflected here.

Once the above changes to the text are made, they'll undergo another editing pass and then go to layout. We'll then do a final proofing based on the layout. Since the bulk of the email I quoted above was devoted to just this kind of proofing, I should say that it is very helpful indeed. Changes pointed out to us by backers and fans aren't being ignored even though they're not reflected yet on the sections available for download; they're  accumulating on hardcopy markups that Richard will use when the time comes.

Planning for Some DCC RPG Playtesting on Saturday Night

I  was offered the chance to have my group playtest some unreleased DCC RPG material and not being a complete fool, I said "Yes!".

I've already figured out where to fit it between last week's funnel and Doom of the Savage Kings. Actually, it may very well lead right to DotSK.

I just need to spend some time tonight prepping things in Roll20.

Fun times!

Working on the "Magic Mayhem Monday" Post for the DCC RPG

I'm not sure exactly what this "Cage O'Skin" will have as it's magical powers / enchantments, but whatever they are, I'm sure they'll be suitable unnerving ;)

Actually, the question might be "What does the Cage O'Skin hold on the inside?" Is it an egg? A spirit? Magic essence?

Heck, not even sure what I'm going to call it for "Magic Mayhem Monday", the totally unofficial "post your DCC and / or OSR magic item event.

A few of the fine folks from the DCC G+ Community page are on board, and as suggested by one of the fine commentaries on this blog, we're using the items found within the following piece of DCC RPG art for inspiration.

Want to join in? Just post your own "Magic Mayhem Monday" magic item ;)