Sell Me on the FATE System (Which I Already Own, But Don't Grok)

I supported the FATE Kickstarter, and I know there is lots of good stuff in the system - I just can't seem to grok it.

It not like my problem with Savage Worlds - I think I have that covered for the most part, less magic and powers and the like. That shit is confusing as all hell.

No, with FATE my problem is more - central. Maybe that's not the correct term. My problem is the Core, and I mean that whether we are talking FATE Core or FAE. I almost feel it's within my grasp, and then it all goes all to shit.

I'm at the point that I'm thinking of getting one of those new fangled Kindle Paperwhites, so I can read FATE Core every night before bed and then sleep with it under my pillow, in the hopes that I will absorb this shit through osmosis.

Not that I think my gaming group is all that geared towards FATE, but one never knows I'll never know until I have a firm grasp of the system myself, and right now I'm grasping at straws.

Are you a FATEr? Pros? Cons?

Better then sliced bread or worse than a loaf hugged by a 3 year old for 35 minutes while sitting in a shopping cart and you still feel obliged to buy it?

Are You Fluent With Multiple Systems or Just One?

Do Cats Dream of Polyhedron Dice?

Back in my high school and college days, I could pick up a new system and run with it later that day. Sure, I cut my teeth on AD&D, but I'd run just about anything: Paranoia, RuneQuest, MERP, RoleMaster, SpaceMaster, WFRP, Chill, GURPS, CoC, Traveller, WEG Star Wars, Champions, Top Secret, Star Frontiers, Gamma World, Boot Hill, Palladium Fantasy Roleplay, Star Trek, Sandman, Torg - I'm sure I'm missing a few. And these are just the ones I's run, there were others I'd play in others.

One of the few games that tripped me up was Swordbearer. By far, it was the exception to the rule.

These days, as a grumpy grognard of 46, I find that the further a ruleset strays from the OSR / D&D, the harder it gets for me to grok it.

I've owned Savage Worlds over many editions, and I still don't feel comfortable enough to run a session. Not even sure I'd be okay as a player in a session.

Loved Spirit of the Century when I first found it for the setting and the feel, but I still don't understand the FATE system. Heck, I supported the FATE Kickstarter, have my dice and my hardcover book - I may need some hand holding at some point. (Also have Dresden - gave up on that as reading the book caused eye strain - ah well).

I CAN run Tunnels & Trolls tho'. I proved that last Saturday Night when I ran it for the few regulars we had. But that game has old school sensibilities, and I've been running solos for years.

So, how well do you pick up new systems and rules? Easy? Hard? Not at all? Certain types easier than others?

Mini Review - Cess-Pit of the Bog Monster (Generic OSR Adventure by Jeff Dee)

Wow. I've never seen so much easily carted off loot in a low level dungeon. Over 60,000 GP, mostly in gems and jewelry. Hell, 1/10 of this would be an excellent find for a low level party.

Shit, yeah, I got distracted. Cess-Pit of the Bog Monster is an OSR / Old School adventure by none other than Jeff Dee himself.

Cool looking cover. Decent, one level map with multiple ways to gain access to the dungeon (this in and of itself is awesome). New monsters that can easily be ported into other situations / adventures.

It's a pretty cool offering - except for the Monte Haul amount of treasure for the rookie adventurers. All that bling is distracting me from the actual adventure. Damn it!

From the blurb:

What strange being has taken up residence in the long-ruined swamp-circled castle, and what is its connection to the increase of Orc raids in the region?

JD1: Cess-Pit of the Bog Mother is a dungeon on a swamp & muck theme for characters of level 1-3 for all advanced fantasy role-playing games by classic TSR artist Jeff Dee!

The adventure includes a full-page color map and a black & white cover painting by the author. Also included are three alternate scenario introductions and five unique creatures specially designed for this adventure.

Pay What You Want - The Tomb of Rakoss the Undying (OSR Adventure)

Yep, a new PWYW release for the OSR - The Tomb of Rakoss the Undying (for levels 4-6). Actually, the publisher, Mischief Inc say they want you to grab it for free, but they will gladly take a donation.

It's interesting to note that PWYW releases hit the New Release Page on RPGNow while free releases don't. Kind of makes sense to release as PWYW in that case.

From the blurb:

Rakoss was a great wizard of ages past who served the Emperor of Maere. Tales tell of his prowess as a military strategist, but they also tell of his fall. It is said that although he won campaign after campaign for his emperor, just one failure earned the wrath of his master. The Emperor had Rakoss, his generals, strategists and personal guard sealed in a tomb somewhere in the Ganlaw Mountains, and cursed them.

Who knows what treasure was buried with Rakoss and his retinue, or what horrors remain to test any who might enter the tomb. Certainly only a brave few would dare seek out the final resting place of Rakoss, and even fewer can survive the terrors of The Tomb of Rakoss the Undying!

"The Tomb of Rakoss the Undying" is a challenging adventure for 3-6 characters of level 4 to 6.

Note: This product is intended to be FREE!  Please do not pay for it if you do not want to.

That said, if you wish to "donate" to our future development, you can pay any amount you want when you "purchase" this adventure. Those who pay for this adventure will be granted a "Founder" rank on our Mischief, Inc. member forums.

Best / Worst Use of a Spell You've Seen in Game

Seriously, if you've seen the use of a spell in real life, that's something for a whole 'nother topic.

The best use - or worst, if you were the DM running the adventure, was by a 14th level druid in an AD&D adventure run at some con at Columbia University back in 85 or 86.

The adventure was some sort of death trap. I don't remember much of it, except that at the moment in question, the party was taking a beating with more harm incoming.

The player of the druid: "This is a tightly packed dungeon. What ate the walls and floors and stuff made out of?"

DM: "Er, stone I guess"

Druid: "I cast Transmute Rock to Mud"

DM: "K, so what are you taking out? A wall?"

Druid: "Uhm, its a 2" cube per level, which gives me 14 x 2" cubes - 2" is 20' in real life, so that's 14 20x20 cubes of rock to mud - I'll take the room out in front of us, to the sides and behind that room. Oh, and i center it mid height in the room, to me sure to take out the ceiling and floor. Next round I'll dispel magic on the mud."

DM: "Fucckk!" Throws notes and maps onto the table. "Well, we're done now."

Yes, I was that druid ;)

Thanks to Sa Roe for the topic :)

So, what the best, most creative, disruptive but BTB use of a spell you've seen in your years of gaming?

A Kickstarter Priced Beyond My Good Sense - Beyonder RPG

Yep, I'm still on the Kickstarter kick, which is good. I'm fighting off one hell of a cold (thanks Rach for sharing) so it's a bit hard to maintain any sort of coherent concentration for proper review reading the past week or so. Kickstarters however, just require my reaction ;)

The Beyonder RPG is an interesting project. It's written by a gamer that got his start in the hobby back in 75 or 76 and quickly decided he wanted to write and play his own RPG. So Beyonder is the genesis of the game played with his wife, kids and friends in one form or another for over 35 years. At least, that's what I take from the video. Pretty cool. It also looks like they were smart enough to hire a number cruncher to make sure the system works.

Also cool is the artwork. I really like what I see with the art. Evocative without going over the deep end, if you will. What I don't like is the pricing.

I want to stat this creature out for DCC, S&W and T&T ;)

Lets see, a PDF of the rulebook OR the bestiary will set you back $25. $40 if you want both, or $50 for both if the limited slots for the discounted price are gone. How many pages are the books? 300 or so for the rulebook, 200 or so for the bestiary.

You want a printed version? $125 gets you EITHER the rulebook or the bestiary (and PDFs of both - a $50 value - not). Hardbound versions of both? $140. So, $15 extra scores 2 books instead of one. I don't get the pricing at all. Maybe this is that "new math" shit they've been talking about.

I'm intrigued by the setting and really digging the art and totally turned off by the pricing. Looks like I get to save some money this time.

A Kickstarter That Rolled a "Natural 1" - The D20 Dice Bowl

I can think of many ways to blow my money - bills, booze, broads (oops - I'm married now), electronics, games, RPGs, dice - the list is nearly endless. Somehow, a D20 Bowl (It doesn't roll, it holds stuff) never would have made that list.

Or is it 2 bowls, because bowls aren't usually covered by a matching half. So maybe it's 2 1/2 d20 bowls.

Maybe it's just shit. One of those ideas that seem really cool when you are flying really high.

There is no way my non-gamer wife would ever use the bowl(s) in question. I don't see me ever using it, and for the price I could buy some actual gaming material that would possible get read, maybe even used.

This seems like something for the gaming geek that has everything, and if he already has everything, he probably doesn't want this either.

I must say, the guy behind the project really believes in it. He looks damn excited and earnest in his video.

This closes in less than 3 hrs of this posting. $3,192 pledged of a $15,000 goal.

The D20 Dice Bowl appears to be a critical failure. At least Kickstarter lets the idea die as one of the unfunded unborn projects, with little investment lost.

Goodbye, D20 Dice Bowl...

As If I Didn't Have Enough to Read - The Bundle of Holding "Gumshoe System" Collection

I'm not sure if following the "Bundles of Holding" is a good thing or a bad thing for me. I love getting really cool RPGs at an amazing price. It's just that I have so much to read before I can get time to properly dig into this latest bundle.

The "Ken Writes About Stuff" looks to be a series of articles - I think I can squeeze that in as time allows.

You can currently get this bundle with the bonus games for less than 12 bucks in PDF (and some ePub versions).

There's about 5 days left on this bundle...

Kick Yourself in the Head - A Kickstarter to Make a Miniature of YOU (or just your head) - Mimic Miniatures

I'm back to scoping out Kickstarters, as you can see. This time, I'm looking at Mimic Miniatures. These folks have found a way to use 3d printing to make miniatures of their supporters (and future customers).

This is fucking cool. Even cooler then finally getting your portrait into the Kickstarter edition of Far West (BTW, shouldn't we at least have a PDF of this at this point?).

Regretfully, 100% of my gaming is done via VTTs and the interwebs - and while a miniature with my head on it looking bad ass would look cool, it would probably be just me that would appreciate it.

Oh, and I sill have the Reaper Bones Kickstarter to paint.

Still, minis depicting gamers as their characters? It's a win.

A Kickstarter I Very Nearly Missed - Tabletop Connect: 3D Virtual Tabletop for Windows and Mac

I've been playing around with Virtual Table Tops since I found Klooge back in the day. I've played with many, and the first one that has come close to what I want in ease of use and features is Roll20.

Tabletop Connect: 3D Virtual Tabletop for Windows and Mac is damn close to what I've been looking for all of these years. It seems to be what WotC was promising a few years back that never came to pass.

3-D dungeons. 3-D minis. The promise of voice and even video chat.

I literally found this in my G+ feed 2 hrs before the Kickstarter ended and kicked in at the lowest GM level from my phone. I've never supported a Kickstarter from my phone before.

I'll be downloading the Alpha software later today. It's compatible with Windows, OSX and Linux. Three cheers for cross platform compatibility.

Apparently I've spent too long away from Kickstarter - I'll need to dig in deeper. Today, however, is reserved for football and beer ;)

A Do It Yourself Kickstarter - Build Your Own "RPG Gaming Table"

I remember seeing at least one prior RPG Table Kickstarter which had some major drawbacks -

Price, which was significant and delivery, which was within a certain driving distance from the project creator's home. Yep, personalized delivery as you were getting a piece of furniture.

With this project, you are getting PLANS to build your own RPG Gaming Table, which keeps the price down and makes delivery a breeze. You just need some skills, tools and a place to build it. Well, or hire someone to build it.

Still will be a pain to store when not in use, but the concept is pretty cool.

An Interesting Yet Confusing Kickstarter - Raiders of R’lyeh: Horror Adventure RPG and Mythos Sandbox!

From what I can understand, Raiders of R’lyeh: Horror Adventure RPG and Mythos Sandbox is built off of the Mongoose RuneQuest Rules, which are OGL. Which means, this project shares a gaming lineage and probably high compatibility with Call of Cthulhu. Not that they claim compatibility, as that would probably require a license

That much I can follow. Here's where it gets confusing -

There is a "Black and White" version of the rules that comes in a single PDF (and at certain pledge levels as a Print version, not just PDF) and a color version that splits the PDF into GM and Players books.

The PRINT EDITION (RAIDERS OF R’LYEH IN GOTHIC BLACK & WHITE) is designed for players who want ALL of the rules in one convenient & beautiful tome. NEW: NOW UPGRADED TO A HARDCOVER WITH SMYTH SEWN BINDING.

But it's NOT all of the rules. They say so themselves:

Coming in at about 256 pages, it's a good size, but has a significantly smaller page count than the combined player's guide (140 pages) and GM guide (240 pages). I doubt they added 100+ pages of art to the color version. Admittedly, there could be some overlap, but it isn't explained if that is so. The color version is only in PDF, no print option.

Now, they offer the color version as a split of the core rules so players and GMs can have access to what is applicable to them, but without a print option for the color PDFs, the reality is, at the game table, 90% of folks will opt for the printed version. A split of the rules in B&W would have been a nice option.

Also, it appears they've hit stretch goals while still waiting to hit their funding goal (they will fund before it ends in 3 days).

In any case, I have three days to decide wether or not to pull the trigger on this one. I'm on the fence on this, as there seems to be some confusion as to the print version being a complete set of the rules or not.

The Secret Fire - The Way of the Tree, Shadow & Flame (A Delivered Kickstarter)

The book is NOT that blurry in real life ;)

Look what I found waiting for me when I got home from work today - The Secret Fire - The Way of the Tree, Shadow & Flame.

Estimated to ship in August, it arrived today - not even a month past estimate. Hell, that's practically early in the Kickstarter world ;)

The layout is clean and very readable, although it may take a while before I find the free timne to read it.

Fun times :)

No Longer a Wayward Kickstarter - Reaper Bones are Coming "Dungeon Crusade"!

I've got to hand it to Rodger. I slammed his Kickstarter page pretty hard. Dungeon Crusade is a cool concept, but the initial presentation was severely lacking.

Rodger plans to relaunch the Kickstarter, and this time it will include Reaper Bones Miniatures. That's fricking cool as all hell.

Here's from the latest update:

Hello all, 

BREAKING NEWS!!! I just got a call from Ed Puhg, President of Reaper Miniatures. There WILL be Reaper Miniatures BONES in Dungeon Crusade! Upon news of this, Dungeon Crusade may be coming down for a relaunch with a much BETTER presentation, reward levels, and a better overall look to this kickstarter.  Ed from Reaper Miniatures was INCREDIBLY nice, and wants to help make Dungeon Crusade the best it can be. We discussed what miniatures would be in the base game. 

       So here's what I'm thinking: take down this kickstarter, re-launch with a MUCH BETTER presentation, no Blair Witch camera effect, reward levels in the form of Reaper Miniatures exclusive to the kickstarter crowd. I've learned a lot in the past week. I'm going to offer 2 versions of Dungeon Crusade. There will be 1000 copies of the Deluxe edition, packed with Reaper miniatures BONES, as you saw in the one video in the updates. Then a second "retro" edition that would have the cardboard miniatures, and a retro art work for the box. I will keep that $99 price tag for the retro edition, nothing should change with that. As for the deluxe edition with the reaper bones, that's what we have to figure out, price point.  The goal will also change to reflect that Reaper's Bones will be included now. I'll post more details, a list and pix of what miniatures will be in Dungeon Crusade as I speak with Reaper. Panda games are handing the printing and boxing of Dungeon Crusade.  I feel VERY confident when Dungeon Crusade relaunches, it will be a night and day difference, and all for the better. Have a great day guys, talk to you soon...Rodger :) 

Who says you can't fix what was broken?

I wish Rodger lots of success with the relaunch of Dungeon Crusade. Now, it would be really cool if there were some "print and play" expansions that use minis from the Reaper Bones Kickstarter ;)

Tip Toe Through the Tunnels and Avoid the Trolls...

I really have no idea if I'll be running DCC (and finally wrapping up Doom of the Savage Kings) or some Tunnels & Trolls - all depends on the turnout we get for Saturday Night's Hangout Session.

In the meantime I'm thinking of some house rules...

I'm figuring classic fantasy races only. Well, classic for T&T, including fairies and leprechauns. I see hobbits are actually called "hobbits". Guess FBI didnt fear the Tolkien Estate as much as TSR did.

Humans get to roll 2 extra d6 at the end of generating their stats, and can swap them with any other dice rolled. As I'll be using Triples Are Rolled Over, it may allow the humans to overcome some of the stat advantages the demihumans have.

I've going to allow creative use of the Saving Rolls, especially for the rogues. I was thinking of using the optional skills from the back of 5.5 rules but they seem to add move numbers tracking then they are worth, at least for now.

Full "death spiral" for the monsters (both in combat dice and adds) and Spite Damage. I'll be using the special attacks based on Spite from 7e for some of the more special monsters. I've done enough of them on the blog to have some decently new things to throw at the party.

Definitely using the 5x expo and leveling rules as a base and not the 7x rules. Both the 7e and 7.5e expo and level rules seem broken to me. I understand why they are as they are, but they just dont feel right (I'm interested in seeing the dT&T leveling rules).

That's probably the extent of the house rules, which as house rules go aren't all that much ;)

The Classic "Temple of Elemental Evil" for FREE at D&D Classics (AD&D)

Yep, Temple of Elemental Evil is FREE at the D&D Classics web store until September 28th.

How good are the scans? Damn if I know, as I can't get the fucker to download ;)  Still, the price is right, and once it's in my online collection I can always download it later - assuming WotC doesn't pull all of it's products like it did in the past...

Some Thoughts on Hit Points and Why the Resource Differs for PCs and Their Adversaries

I've been thinking a bit about Tunnels & Trolls recently. Specifically the "death spiral" that applies to monsters in 5e (I believe it no longer applies in 7e, but as this is being written on my lunch hour, I'll have to verify that later).

Simply put, monsters in T&T do damage based upon their Monster Rating. MR determines the number of d6 they roll for damage, and half of the CURRENT MR is added to the roll as Combat Adds. When a monster takes damage in 5e, it becomes less effective. As damage in T&T is applied to one side or the other (high total minus lower total equals damage to the losing side), as the MR of the monster decreases, it's opportunity to do damage drops quickly. Therefore, "Death Spiral".

Initially, I didn't like the rule, as D&D doesn't have a similar one. It just seemed foreign to my sensibilities.

Now I realize it's damn near genius. Monsters are, for the most part, just there for a single encounter. Rinse and repeat. PCs get whittled down - monsters get beat down.

You see, hit points or health or whatever you want to call it is different for PCs than it is for monsters. PCs need to survive multiple encounters - a monster, one or done.

Minions in 4e come to mind - it's probably the one think introduced with 4e that I like.

Ah well, back to the grindstone...

Razor Coast - FINALLY in Hand!

This would have been in the list of things to review that was voted on if only it had shipped on time.

It is a beauty to behold. Sure, the pages have the annoying artwork behind the text, but at least it looks readable.

I had gotten about a 1/4 of the way through the PDF earlier this summer before deciding to wait on my dead tree copy to arrive. Looks like I'll be waiting a bit longer with the review pile I have in hand already ;)

When is "Talk Like a Pirate Day"?

Thinking of Using Tunnels & Trolls to Convert The Wife to "The Dark Side" :)

I mentioned earlier this week that I plan to use Tunnels & Trolls as my back up game to run when our weekly game night runs a bit short on players. It's a handy system to balance on the fly, and so long as you keep the "death spiral" for monsters as a rule, combats shouldn't drag out overly long.

I'm also thinking of running a short "one on one" session with my wife. Again, not as overwhelming as D&D and it's immediate siblings, just uses d6s and again, easier to balance on the fly.

I did run a "one on one" session for her a few years back using the 7.5e rules, but I think I'll have her roll a 5.5e rogue this time around.

Not sure when I'll get around to running it for my wife, but the thought of it makes me smile :)

A Wayward Kickstarter - How NOT to Present Your Kickstarter - Dungeon Crusade (Solo Board Game)

First things first - a big thanks to +James Aulds for pointing out Dungeon Crusade - it is destined to be a classic. Maybe not in the manner the creator had hoped, but a classic Kickstarter none the less.

Where shall I start?

Maybe the 22 minute long motion sickness inducing video that tops of the project's Kickstarter page. Simple rule of thumb - any video longer than 3 minutes is going to drop viewers faster than a 9th level fighter slicing through a pack of kobolds. 22 minutes means you just don't give a shit about your potential customers. If you can't say what you need in 2 minutes, you'll never be able to say it in 22. Well, that and cut down on the camera motion. If I want motion sickness, I'll get on a boat.

Looking to raise 80 grand? How about using proper grammar in the very first image we see of your prospective product:

Remember, when it comes to crowd-funding, you are selling yourself as much as you are your product. If you come off as sloppy on your Kickstarter page, what can we expect from what you are trying to sell?

Hey, but wait! There's more sloppiness in the first paragraph:

Alright, you can have a full paragraph, but let me warn you ahead of time, it will trip you up. Hell, maybe it's a solo adventure of it's very own.

So yeah. Decent concept, horrible presentation.

Over / under? About 6 feet.

Sometimes I Forget I Own the Wilderlands Boxed Set

As I begin my delving into the City-State of the Sea Kings, it reminds me that I own the Wilderlands of High Fantasy boxed set. Which is cool, but I wish I owned the Judges Guild originals.

Ah, for a time machine. I remember my trips to the Complete Strategist in the late 80s and early 90s, where pretty much every Judges Guild product was on sale for original cover price - it lined the floor on the left side of the left isle. To my teenage eyes, it looked cheap and poorly put together compared to the TSR (and Role Aids) releases. To know then what I know now.

Sure, I've picked up some of the releases in PDF over the years, but original Wilderlands releases? I'm sadly lacking. I'll need to fix that at some point in the future.

The maps in the boxed set surely do rock :)

I Think the Backup Game for the "Low Turn-Out" Game Nights Will Be...

Tunnels & Trolls.

The answer was kinda staring me in the face. It's an extremely easy system to adjust on the fly based on part numbers / power.

The 5e rules have a free PDF that covers a decent spread of levels, including spells. And it kinda makes sense to use T&T, as I have 10 copies for the deluxe Tunnels & Trolls arriving whenever the Kickstarter finally ships - enough for the group and then some (yes, there will be a blog giveaway at some point).

Non-solo T&T adventures are rarer then for most system, but I do have access to a few, and there are more online I can grab in PDF.

I still want to run my SWN / Starships & Spacemen mashup at some point too. Too many games, so little time...

Dice - Often Imitated, Never Replicated

The one thing I miss about gaming at a real, as aside from a virtual table, is the dice.

Don't get me wrong, virtual dice can be fun too, and the ability to game in your underwear is hard to beat - it's just that the physical act of rolling dice with all of the sights and sounds can't be replicated. Imitated maybe, but not replicated.

Well, that and the cat can't dream about how she's gonna knock your virtual dice around.

I admit to having a dice fetish of sorts. At least once a year I buy a pound of dice, or a 100 die grab bag and see what I get.

Do you too have a dice fetish? ;)

Review - City-State of the Sea Kings - Part the First - Looks Good, Easy to Read (Judges Guild Wilderlands)

You know how I bitch and moan about some gaming books having layout that simply distracts from the words on the page, thereby making it difficult to read (Numenera, I'm talking to you)? City-State of the Sea Kings (henceforth referred to as CSotSK) does not suffer from that distraction. Simple layout, easy to read with black and white art, CSotSK has the proper "old school" feel for a work that is the first in a line to bring the Wilderlands back into print.

That doesn't mean it's all perfect. I'm glad the grey highlighting was explained by the author as a comment to a previous blogpost (it's there to highlight GM information) it would probably have been better served using a lighter gray for the highlighting. If you, like me, tend to read in poor lighting so as to not keep the significant other awake, the darkness of the highlighting can make things a tad difficult at times. Sure, I could read in better lighting - but that would cause other, non-gaming, issues ;)

The map (which is two sided) is excellent. I comes attached to the inner cover with a small bit of a rubber cement like glue. No stains to the map or the books itself.

I expected CSotSK to start out with detailed hex listed by numbers, but I was pleasantly surprised that it starts with the important settlements on the Isle of the Blest (which is the Isle this book covers). It lists them by hex number, but it isn't ordered by hex number. Having the population centers grouped together works well, especially when one is trying to read the material. I guess I'm used to sandbox styled products that list everything by order of hex number, which isn't easiest way to read material (although it does make for easy look up).

Currently, I'm at the beginning of the book, just reading about the settlements. I really want to skip ahead - I always do it seems, but if I'm going to do this right I need to go in order.

Something Was Left Off of the Review Pile List Voting... Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle for D&D Next... I Suspect It's NOT a Loss

As I've said on earlier posts, my review pile is much larger than my free time will ever allow me to dig through it.

That being said, Ghosts of Dragonspear Castle probably should have been included on the list of games to be voted on. That was an oversight, but probably not a loss.

My experience with D&D Next is mixed - it brought the core members of our gaming group together, and then nearly destroyed the same when the first Friends & Family update to the Beta (or at least, the first update AFTER we were accepted) made the game far more "wonky" and less playable then any of us desired to play. Yes, most of us moved on to ACKS, AD&D/OSRIC and now DCC as a group, but the final taste that D&D Next left with us was not a good one.

Now, after pretty much ignoring the Beta updates (both regular and Friends & Family) as my interest was no longer there, I thought the first "print" version of the Beta rules would be a good place to take a new look with fresh eyes.

It appears to me to be some hybrid of AD&D 2e / D&D 3.5 and the kitchen sink thrown into fill in the gaps. Alright, maybe not so bad as to deserve the kitchen sink line, but it doesn't seem to really do anything that hasn't already been done by a previous D&D rules system.

As for Dragonspear Castle the adventure? It's a campaign railroad, but so is every adventure path. It's not poorly written, but doesn't excite me - at least what I've read thus far. Probably won't read further either.

I'm kinda glad I forgot to include it in the voting - I might have actually have had to read this in full ;)

How Often Does Your Group Game?

My RPG group of friends generally plays every Saturday Night via G+ / Roll20, but recently we've had some cancelled nights - the most recent being last night, when I canceled the session due to events on my end.

Still, attempting to get 30 to 50 y/o somethings together on a weekly basis, in face or virtually, is set up for failure. We are no longer college students with responsibilities we can blow off - we now have "adult" responsibilities - it sucks ;)

So, I'm thinking to change things around a bit. I'll run 2 DCC sessions a month, and we'll leave the other Saturday nights open for open gaming - I could run a side game, one of the others could try running something, maybe a game or two of Drinking Quest.

Open game nights would be just that - no harm, no foul if you can't make it (which is why I was asking about RPGs suitable for small groups and easily picked up). It might relieve some of the coordination stress (although admittedly, emergencies come up, as I well know) of folks blocking out every Saturday Night on their calendar.

So, how often does your group get together? Do you use something like "open game nights" to break things up?

And the Random Winners of the "Pick the Top of the Review Pile Are...

I'm awarding 3 $5 RPGNow Gift Certs to random readers of the blog that voted for items for the top of the review pile. The lucky folks are:

Peter V

Dell'Orta

DerrikB

I'm also awarding 1 $5 RPGNow Gift Cert to a random voter on the G+:

+Joshua Ramsey

I need the above to email me at tenkarsDOTtavernATgmailDOTcom so i can send the prizes.

Moving to the Top of the Review Pile is... City-State of the Sea Kings

The readers have voted, and City-State of the Sea-Kings has made it to the top of the review pile here at the Tavern. I'll start digging into it heavy tomorrow.

Close behind it will be the Adventures Dark and Deep Player's Manual.

Rounding out the top 5 are Five Ancient Kingdoms, Whitehack and Arrows an Indra.

The above will all have multi part (or continue) reviews. Those not in the top five, as well as other items that crop up (like some DCC RPG adventures - hint, hint) will get the usual mini-reviews inter-spread amongst the longer reviews.

Tomorrow I'll award the random RPGNow Gift Certs. One will be awarded on the G+ side and three on the blog side.

Fun stuff.

On a personal note - the family dog has been in the local animal hospital since last night - she had two seizures late last night and one overnight at the hospital. She seems stable now, and we hope to take her home tomorrow night. She's already on three meds twice a day for her heart condition and it looks like we'll be adding a new medication to the mix. She's soon to be 12, and we treat every day we have with her as a blessing. We'll gladly take kind thoughts and prayers for her well being. She doesn't get into many photos, as she can't jump up on my desk like my cat can ;)

Pay What You Want - Westward Basic (Open D6 Steampunk Western)

There. I said it. Westward is a "steampunk western". Wasn't there a TV series a little while back that hit on both themes?

Personally, I really like the D6 ruleset, even in it's various flavors. I have fond memories of WEG Star Wars, and it's a simple enough system to learn with a decent amount of options. Well, that and the core D6 books are free. As in, well, free. Oh, and OGL. So have a blast.

Westward, the "steampunk western" comes in 2 flavors. "Pay what you want" (slightly crippled - no printing, no copy / paste, etc) and a full usable (printable) version for 10 bucks. The contents are the same in each, and neither requires other rules - they are self contained.

So, here's my advice. Pay NOTHING for the PWYW version of Westward. Set some time asides, as it's over 350 pages long with some decent color art. If you like what you see, and want to actually use it, as a GM or player, plop down the $10 for the full, printable version. Why pay twice?

I do suggest grabbing a copy of Westward, even it it's just for ideas in other games. The price is right.

From the blurb:

Westward Premium is the HighResolution version of Westward.  Buy the Premium Edition to remove the watermark, enable copy and paste, and printing!

In the distant future, a massive crew of brilliant explorers and their families set out to start a new world in a massive starship, the Chrysalis, but instead, they find Westward, a desolate and barren landscape ripe with adventure and danger! Far from Earth, their starship crash lands on this massive planet. This is where they form their colony, the Capital City. With scarce resources and a need for more, Humans begin expanding away from the city. With the need to survive, people turn to the ever-evolving Steamtech to stay alive. The places between the city and its prefects and forts are the Badlands. These regions are wild and known for outcast Humans, called Ferals, and bandit raiders. Amidst the treachery and betrayal of the steamtech-laden Capital City, or the danger and adventure of the desolate wild badlands, there are tall tales to tell. What is yours?

Westward is a fast paced, cinematic role playing game that uses OpenD6, made popular by West End Games. Whether by air or land, players can travel to every corner of the Westward world, exploring their imaginations and finding the new frontier!

For 3 or more players, playable in 30 minutes. (is this 30 minutes from opening the book to running the first adventure, or 30 minutes sessions? Either is intriguing.)

"Review Pile" Voting So Far Has "City-State of the Sea Kings" on Top

As of this posting, City-State of the Sea Kings has 21 votes between the blogside and G+ (G+ has been fairly quite).

The other front runners are Adventures Dark and Deep Players Handbook, Arrows of Indra, Five Ancient Kingdoms and Whitehack (all with 10+ votes).

There's a complete listing of the slush pile (and vote placing) going on on this post.

Voting is open until tomorrow (Saturday night). I'll close the voting whenever tomorrow's game session wraps up.

For every 20 vote posts (unique, you can only vote once but may vote for up to 3 items to be reviewed) or fraction of 20 posts, I'm putting a $5 RPGNow Gift Certificate into the random prize pool. The blogside currently has 2 GCs in the pool (to be awarded Sunday) and the G+ side currently has 1 GC in it's pool.

Help decided what gets moved to the top of the review pile!

(max of 5 gift certificates will be awarded on the blogside and a max of 5 gift certificates will be awarded on the G+ side - other reviews may crop up of shorter products / immediate gratification / just because - but for the major reviews, the readers will be selecting the order)

How Encumbering is Encumbrance in Your Campaigns?

Do you strictly track encumbrance? Hand wave it? Ignore it? Give everyone in the party Bags of Holding and hope it all goes away?

I find myself somewhere between ignoring and hand waving. Trying to jump over a pit trap? What are your carrying. Otherwise, I dont give it much thought, as the play is the game, not the number crunching.

Still, LotFP has a decent semi-abstract encumbrance system that doesn't seem to be overtaxing.

How do you handle encumbrance in your games?

New Bundle of Holding - Pay What You Want for a Bundle of FATE

Lets see, for as little as $4, you get FATE Core, FATE Accelerated, Spirit of the Century (my personal introduction to FATE), Full Moon and Ehdrigohr.

Beat the average price folks are paying (as I type this, its a hair over 12 bucks) you also get Starblazer Adventures, Legends of Anglerre, the Kerebos Club and any future additions to the bundle.

If you are "FATE Curious", this is you opportunity to get a ton of FATE for a really cheap price.

Did I mention it's all DRM free?

It's one hell of a Bundle of Holding

I'm in at $14 myself ;)

Vote on What Gets Moved to the Top of the Tavern's Review Pile - Because it's a Damn Big Pile!

I have a shitload of stuff to review, and I'm failing badly at doing so. Work is taking up more time then it had (which means overtime and more money to spend on goodies, so I'm not really complaining) but it does mean free time is at a premium.

So, I'm letting you vote on what gets moved to the top of the review pile (one random voter gets a $5 RPGNow credit, so there is an added bonus in voting).

In no particular order:

Adventures Dark & Deep Players Manual - a AD&D 2e "what if".

City State of the Sea Kings - a new Wilderlands sourcebook / campaign.

Five Ancient Kingdoms - a new arabic twist to a classic ruleset - and no D20's either

Whitehack - a nice, compact OSR style game that steps away from the OSR

Arrows of Indra - OSR gaming inspired by the subcontinent of India

The Dungeon Alphabet, Expanded Third Printing - do I need to explain what this is? ;)

Stoneheart Valley - just noticed the S&W version says "Pathfinder" on the cover - that's going to make for some confusing retail sales.

Tome of Horrors 4 - the latest monster book from Frog God

The Free City of Eskadia - a city book for C&C

Call of Cthulhu 6th Edition - cause Halloween is right around the corner

Army Ants RPG - 'cause I almost forgot ;)


I'll leave the voting up through Saturday evening.

Vote on the blog or G+. Vote for up to 3 choices. All picks get equal weight.

Do You Use Alignment in Your Campaigns?

I use it, but there are times I wonder why I bother.

Alignment is rarely a driving force in any of the games I've run, and my interpretation of the different alignments and the interpretations of my players rarely meet. Yes, even after reading the exact same section in the rules. Needless conflict ;)

I'm beginning to wonder if more general good / indifferent / evil type of axis would be more effective in future campaigns for my usual group. More latitude and less "various interpretations".

So, do you use alignment as is? Do you tweak it? Drop it all together?

Name Me Some Good Games For "Pick Up and Play" Roleplaying

The last few months for my gaming group have been hit or miss - at times, of the 8 in the group, only 3 or 4 can make a session. Not an easy way to move on with a campaign of DCC that usually has 6 or 7 players / PCs when we game.

And yeah, that is a sign of the summer months, but I'd like to be prepared in any case.

This means the sessions we wind up short either become yap sessions (not bad in and of itself) or get canceled outright.

So, looking for ideas of RPGs that can be run with little set up, short rules, easy to throw and adventure together, doesn't rely on niche protection and can handle small parties.

Throw your ideas and me and lets see what sticks ;)

First Look - City State of the Sea Kings (Judges Guild Wilderlands)

This book is more massive than I expected. City-State of the Sea Kings clocks in at 380 pages and a map. The map itself is two-sided. One side has the numbered hex map of the Isle, the other side has the map of the city. Both are very well done.

I didn't realize that this is one of the last projects that Bob Bledsaw senior had an active hand in (but I found out that and more reading the foreword - good thing I didn't skip that like usual).

It uses the "Judges Guild Universal System" for stats, which is easier to understand and convert (for me at least) then the system used in Lich Dungeon and the like. Still would have preferred OSR generic, but the system used has history behind it and is familiar to many.

Layout is easy on the eyes (I do wonder about all of the highlighting throughout the text, but maybe that will sort itself out with a solid read).

You probably could run a full campaign from beginning to end on this isle.

I want to move this to the top of my review pile - but that pile is getting friggin huge! Still, City-State of the Sea Kings is calling to me - loudly.

What is Your Favorite OSR "Clone" Ruleset?

I have a fairly decent list of OSR ruleset to the right of this post, but I'm sure it's incomplete.

Anyhow, my favorite OSR "Clone" (and a clone is in no way needs to be a prefect copy of the source material in this definition I'm using - it's more flavor and spirit than rule and letter) would be Swords & Wizardry Whitebox Edition if you are going by the actual boxed set. There is something about the box itself that just makes it special. The Deeper Delving Boxed set fails to recapture the same magic.

If I want an AD&D feel without the clutter, I'd go S&W Complete. Labyrinth Lord AEC comes damn close, but the need of two rulebooks compare to the one of S&W Complete is the tie breaker for me, if you will.

So, what are your preferred "clones"?

Quick "Overdue Kickstarters" Updates for September 2013

I know my mostly regular update is long overdue, so here are some quick pieces to hold you over ;)

Appendix N - I got mine, but most folks ain't got their. Folks are getting antsy.

Far West - there's talk about the PDF of the rules being released this month. Normally I'd laugh dismissively, but I just had my backer portrait emailed to me, so I can actually say "there's been some progress".Still hopelessly late.

The Perfect Beer Drinking Vessel and Private Keg! - not a gaming product, but I'd really like this by the end of the year. Updates fairly frequently.

OpenQuest 2 - just got the PDF today. Reminds me a bit of RQ2. I need to sit down and read this. I also need more time to do all of the things I want to do. Almost off the list.

Tunnels & Trolls Deluxe - didn't hit a GenCon release. Foolish me, I though it actually would ;)

Kingdom Death: Monster - delayed. Not a surprise. Yes, I bought into the miniature boardgame porn. Fuck you all, I'll make my wife play it with me...

Dungeon Deck: Quests - last update 9/7, stating that the overdue project still hadn't shipped from India - promised and update when there was something to update, so I guess a month later it still hasn't found its way onto a boat.

Tavern Cards - last update 8/4. Estimated to ship back in April. It's not the lateness so much as the lack of communication that irks me.

The Skies Over Danbury - Dungeon World Adventures - Barely late, but the last update was back in June, and it was awaiting layout by an overworked, over committed, layout artist. Ah well.

Tales From the Fallen Empire: Sword and Sorcery Setting - was it really due back in January?

Myth & Magic Player's Guide - 2E Revived and Updated!!! - he says it's shipping. Supposedly 98 shipments went out, apparently to folks that don't do social media, as I've failed to spot a copy "in the wild". Who knows, maybe one of my readers has a copy and can show us - for real yo!

Quantum Roleplaying Game: An ALL NEW Science Fantasy RPG - it's been a month since the last update, which wasn't much of anything. Can we just put a fork in this one? I've lost all interest. April 2012 was so long ago...

Dwimmermount - I really wish Tavis and company all of the best, but this project is cursed. It's given me lots of blogging material, so maybe I've already gotten my monies worth... or not. I'm one of the asses that went in for the vinyl maps.

Nystul's Fiascos - one for all, and all for naught. Thank God I didn't put in at the "Dwarven Stein" level to round out my drinking vessels collection. Shift responsibility away from "Mad Mike" and on to others - Mike is slick, I'll give him that.

Ogre - maybe in time for this Christmas?

Risus - this was due back in August of 2012 - I'm kinda glad I missed that boat

Games from the Basement - The Primal Order

So, I'm currently digging through what is now the living room closet (formerly my bedroom before renovations) as I'm looking to add some soundproofing to the back of it (my son's room is on the other side). In the course of moving stuff out of the top (nearly all gaming material) I came across this gem - The Primal Order from Wizards of the Coast from back in 1994.

Yep, that's before they bought out TSR and grabbed D&D and all of the rest.

Now, look at the back cover (or at least, the part of the back cover I took a picture of.

Notice and game missing from that list?

I guess TSR - They Sue for Real was the sleeping giant they didnt want to stir up.

I never used this. Heck, i barely remembered I owned it. Interesting to look at after 20 years...

What is Your Favorite Classic "Old School" Gaming Module / Adventure?

I was thinking about all of the great (and not so great) modules I picked up in my teens and early 20's - mid 80's to early 90's - and I find myself surprised that my favorite modules of the era are not from TSR. Heck, they aren't for (A)D&D at all.

Instead, they are for RuneQuest 2 - the Chaosium edition.

Pavis and Big Rubble, because in truth, they are just two parts that make up one exciting sandbox.

I ran this in both RQ3 and RQ2, using the Chaosium boxed sets that I picked up at a con held at Columbia University back in 86 or 87. The boxes had some shelf wear and crushing going on, but their contents were intact. It didn't hurt that I picked up a HC of the RQ2 rules from the same vendor.

I suspect if I had found Judges Guild's Wilderlands back in my early gaming days, my answer to the question would have been made a bit harder to come to - probably the same conclusion, just not so clear cut.

So, what's your favorite classic "old school" gaming module / adventure?

Mini Review - Tome of Horrors 4 (S&W Monster Book)

I'm a big fan of The Tome of Horrors Complete for Swords & Wizardry. It's a hefty tome, but it adds so many options for OSR styles gaming as far as monsters go, it's almost indispensable. Almost. The price is a horror for many, even if the hard cover includes a PDF copy in the price.

Did I mention my wonderful cat knocked a glass of water off the desk and onto my copy of The Tome of Horrors Complete below? That was a year or so ago. Damage was minimal and obviously she (the cat) still lives.

ToH Complete isn't so complete anymore, with the addition of Tome of Horrors 4. $44.95 for the print + PDF (and 5 bucks for the Pathfinder version and 50+ pages - Pathfinder certainly can be a bloated system). Is it worth you dollars?

It depends.

Are you a completist? If you own ToH Complete, you'll certainly want ToH4.

Are you a monster junkie? This is a well presented monster book with awesome art and an adventure seed for each monster.

Are you writing your own adventures for you group? You can keep them on their toes by introducing monsters from the ToH series.

Are you running a published campaign / series of modules / megadungeon? Much less valuable for you.

ToH4 is very well done and is worth the price for me, but it may not be for you. It's a bit of a niche product. Monstrosities is probably the monster book to start with if you need a basic monster book for your OSR campaign.

What is the "Worst" Kickstarter / Indiegogo Project That You Supported?

I know I need to do an updated "Overdue Kickstarters" post (the post is a bit overdue itself) but I figured, in the meantime, I'd ask you, my fine readers, about the worst Kickstarter you supported.

Worst, BTW, is for you to define.

For me, there are a lot of contenders, but only one true wearer of the crown. Quite simply, Axes & Anvils. Worst of the worst. The RPG industry equivalent of Attack From Planet 9, if not in final quality (we don't know yet) but certainly in execution. I've enjoyed on some sick level the sheer amount of horse shit that went into Nystul avoiding responsibility for the project and any sort of accounting for the monies raised.

There you have it. My worst of the worst Kickstarters. What's yours?

What is Your "Go To" Non OSR / D&D Ruleset?

I ask this question, because although I own a crapload of RPG systems, I run OSR / AD&D / DCC pretty much exclusively these days.

I'm tempted to run an OpenQuest 2 game for a few sessions when it ships (I supported the Indiegogo).

Still, all that being said, I'm open to other systems, so long as the crunch isn't much. And yes, I know about Savage Worlds, just have trouble wrapping my head around it at times (love the Solomon Kane RPG tho', go figure).

So, any thoughts or ideas?

Mini Review - The Haunting of Larvik Island (DCC RPG Adventure)

I've been running a DCC RPG campaign since the start of the summer. My herd of cats will be finishing up (I hope) Doom of the Savage Kings tomorrow night and I need to decide on some options for the party to head to next.. Larvik Island is a strong possibility.

Last fall I ran Attack of the Frawgs, the first DCC RPG release from Thick Skull (aka +Stephen Newton ) and my players had a blast with it. Just as importantly, I did too. The Haunting of Larvik Island looks to kick that experience up a notch.

Here's the players' intro:

For centuries the legendary exploits of the mighty warlord Larvik have inspired storytellers and adventurers. Despite his glory, Larvik’s fortunes were lost in the war between his sons following his death. What remains of his legacy is a dangerous island bearing his name and the legend of its treasure accessible only once every 35 years. 

That time is at hand! Will your party be stout enough to explore the island, defeat both natural beasts and lost souls, and decipher the mysterious markers Larvik left behind? Will you uncover the lost caverns before time runs out and the secret is hidden for another generation, or will you merely become another footnote in the history of the many who have fallen never to return chasing the legend of Larvik Island?

Yep, Larvik has an excellent DCC feel to it and can handle 1st to 2nd level characters, which is good, as it's quite possible that some of the PC's may hit level 2 before the end of the adventure.

New magic items, new diseases (did we have old ones?) and some interesting background pieces add value to the adventure.

My guess is about 2 evenings of play from Larvik for the average gaming group and probably 3 nights for mine - as I said earlier, it's like trying to herd cats with them sometimes...

There is a nice selection of wilderness and cavern locations and maps. The player handouts are spot on (and will work well in a VTT like Roll20 and the like). The maps will suffice for online gaming, but I do appreciate when publishers like +Purple Duck Games add unkeyed maps for online play, and wish other PDF publishers would follow suit (hint hint ;)

If I have a critique, its the addition of the slight watermarking on the pages to make them appear like aged paper on the corner. While it doesn't interfere with reading AT ALL, it will use more ink than is needed to print this out - and I print out all adventures before I run them (I dont print out the handouts, as Roll20 handles that awesomely).

All in all an excellent addition to the DCC RPG collection of adventures. Hopefully over the next couple of weeks we'll have some session reports to add to the mix - assuming my group heads off in this direction - damn cats!

What is Your Most Disliked RPG Setting?

This is the opposite question of last night's topic, but I think it's just as valid:

     Which of the RPG settings that you've played in / run / read did you like the least?

For me, it's Council of Wyrms. I read this, so it as a power gamer's heaven (and a DM's nightmare) and promptly put it on the bottom of my gaming pile. Shit, I haven't cracked the box open since then.

Did ANYONE actually play this?

What is Your Favorite Fantasy RPG Setting?

I made my argument for Greyhawk here. It was an easy choice for me, but I readily admit there are other strong choices:

Glorantha, Harn, Forgotten Realms, Birthright, Ravenloft, Whatever the world in Palladium Fantasy is called, Middle Earth, Spelljamer - they all had their own magic.

Favorite world I've never played in or run a game in? The Wilderlands.

Greyhawk was my first, and therefore my first love, if you will.

So, what's your favorite fantasy RPG setting? Is there a setting you want to play in but never have?

30 Day D&D Challenge - Day Four - Give Me the World

Day Four is "Favorite Game World".

This really is a no brainer - the answer is "The World of Greyhawk". And not one of the boxed sets either, but the original folio.

Back in my High School years, the group I ran decided they wanted to take over the Wild Coast when they hit name level. We didn't have much in the way of rules for running battles and campaigns on the scale of major wars, so I had to scratch some rules out by hand. I wish I could find those rules now. I'm sure they sucked, but 17 and willing to take a chance and say "here ya go - lets do some strategic battles with these rules and random tables I just wrote up" impresses the 46 year old me ;)

They did conquer much of the Wild Coast, but they were never able to hold it. Greyhawk to the north didn't look kindly on a new a powerful southern neighbor, and the Pomarj certainly didn't like the happenings to their north.

Besides, it wasn't called "The Wild Coast" for nothing.

Good times :)

Review - Five Ancient Kingdoms - Men & Mettle (Part 2 of ?)

There a lot in this little booklet of Men & Mettle. Enough to make you think about ways to borrow or steal for other OSR style games. Which is good, because the OSR works best when you you create the RPG equivalent of a Mongrelman to your own desires ;)

Hit Die and Hero Points for example. Heroes get Hit Points, but monsters and most NPCs just get Hit Die. One Hit Die equals one Hit of damage from a PC. If a player takes a hit, each Hit Die of damage is equal to 1d6 of HP loss, Kinda speeds up combat, which is probably already sped up by the focused use of D6s to resolve everything. Yeah, it takes a few readings to get the whole thing down, at least it did for me. YMMV.

Encumbrance and Movement is less about counting pounds of weight (although there is some of that) and more about bulk and ease of movement (or lack there of). Interesting way to handle it, especially for someone that generally hand waves this shit with most of the games I run. I tend to rely on common sense, and this seems to be much like common sense.

Experience Points and Level Advance should feel familiar initially - kill things and take their stuff, but there is more - taking damage and surviving, visiting strange lands, finding and messing around with artifacts and keeping to your alignment and motivation. Then there are "milestones" - events that are so important, so striking, they immediately advance the character to the next level. Of course, this is discussed in Book 3, and we are just about halfway through Book 1 ;)

Combat is the next part, and I expect that will need a post all it's own. It's different than what I am accustomed to, but it seems to work - and at the same time, it confuses the hell out of me. I expect I'll need to run a mock combat or two to full grok it - which I will do for the next post in the series.

Five Ancient Kingdoms is certainly an interesting read...

30 Day D&D Challenge - Day Three - Playing With Gods

I wasn't always partial to Clerics. The fighter type classes and magic-users were my "go to" classes back in my high school and college years. Heck, I even had the stats (thanks to Unearthed Arcana) to roll a fighter that dual classed with illusionist - it made for very believable Phantom Plate armor castings ;)

These days tho, clerics tend to be my go to class if a) I'm playing and not DM'ing and b) I'm not picking a class to fill perceived party gaps.

I like clerics (especially dwarven ones when the rules or the DM allow) as they are damn versatile. I can get my hands dirty in combat, with AC and HP that should help with survivability. A decent attack chart, decent damage weapons, undead blasting and of course spell casting.

What isn't there to like? ;)

(just don't ask me to be a "healbot" - okay? heh)

Review - Adventures Dark and Deep - Part the First - New Classes and Old (AD&D "What If?")

If Champions of Zed is OD&D as it may have been if it wasn't rushed out the door without proper editing and consultation between the two diverse playtest groups being run by Gygax and Arneson, the Adventures Dark and Deep is a possible AD&D 2e if it retained the Gygaxian flavor that was lost in the actual 2e release.

ADD is, if nothing else, a clone of AD&D 1e with lots of new options and classes. It reads much like 1e to me just more user friendly, which is a compliment. ADD cleans up much of what was broken in Unearthed Arcana (sometimes known as AD&D 1.5) and fixes it.

Much of the draw of Adventures Dark and Deep are the new character classes, which can be easily dropped into any AD&D 1e / OSRIC campaign with little effort. I've always felt an affinity to Bards, and +Joseph Bloch has an excellent version included. The Jester subclass reminds me of the old NPC class from Dragon Magazine - I remember my sister playing one.

Cavaliers and Paladins are again class / subclass. Not the way I would run it, but the precedence is there from UA.

Mystic is a new subclass of Cleric. An unarmored cleric (but not of the fighting Monk type) this is the mystic of legend. "The mystic must live a life of self-denial and poverty". At best an NPC class with my group - as none will ever be able to keep this vow ;)

Savants are a new subclass of Magic-user Mage. Their spell list is a bit of a cross over of mage and cleric geared around information finding and the like.

Thief-Acrobats are back as a split from the regular thief class at 6th level. I didn't like the class split in UA and my opinion hasn't changed. I still feel it should start as it's own class at level 1, but Joseph is following Gary's probable intentions. I just happen to think Gary was wrong on this account.

Mountebanks are another subclass of thief trained as con men with some minor magic casting ability. I like it. I like it a lot.

Of course you have the normal list of classes from AD&D - less Assassins and Monks. No real loss losing the assassin class, but I do feel the absence of the classic monk. Sure, it wasn't really a European flavored class in the classic sense, but it helped define AD&D for me.

Joe introduces a skill system, which I'll get to with my next post in the series. I think the next review post will be the next part of the Five Ancient Kingdoms series of posts.

 

30 Day D&D Challenge - Day Two - I Like the Short Ones

The old SNL song comes to mind about "Short People", but I've always been partial to Dwarves and Halflings. Alright, not ALWAYS. Back in my early days I played humans almost without exception.

These days, however, I prefer Dwarves and Halflings. Both come with built in roleplay possibilities, and there is little that more versatile than a dwarven cleric (asuuming the ruleset supports it). Viable frontline fighter and decent diving caster and undead destroyer.

Look at that - two days in a row ;)

First Look - Champions of Zed - An OD&D "What If"

Champions of Zed is a Kickstarter that I truly thought would never reach completion, so I stopped reading the infrequent updates for the most part. Which was foolish, apparently, as the finalized PDF was linked in the last update and even the previous update. Huzzah!

Was it worth the wait? Too early to tell at this point. In many ways, it hews close to the 3LBBs, but in others it goes far astray. I've been picking my way through the PDF in an admittedly haphazard fashion, hit the combat section and I stalled with some major head scratching.

In any case, Champions of Zed is Original Dungeons & Dragons as it "might have been":

To the extent possible, that is what Champions of ZED is. Champions of ZED aims to be very, very close in fact and spirit to the original three game booklets published in 1974, the earlier, recently recovered draft known as Beyond This Point be Dragons (aka the “Dalluhn Manuscript”), related materials directly from the two authors, and relevant portions of the Medieval Miniatures rules of 1971. The overriding goal has been to harmonize the collaborative genius of these two men, minimize the post publication input of others, and reset to zero the worlds greatest fantasy game, as only an inquisitive and careful editor can. Nevertheless the purpose for creating Champions of ZED is not simply to please a limited group of game Grognards interested in historical what-ifs. Rather Champions of ZED is designed to serve as a pathway to a different and neglected style of collective world building and open, exploratory gaming, or as it is often called, “Sandbox” play.

That's one hell of a goal, and it's going to take me a while to determine how many of those posts it actually hit. It's strange, in many ways I feel like I'm reading one of those classic Marvel Comic "What If"s I used to enjoy back in the early 80s. Familiar yet strange.

I give huge props to Daniel Boggs for including the following text:

Reproduction:
Any number of print or electronic copies of this supplement, in whole or in part, may be freely made by any purchaser for their own fair use and for the temporary use of any players participating in a Champions of ZED game with the purchaser or for the temporary use of students being educated by the purchaser. Copies may also be made for review purposes. 

No copies may be made for sale or open distribution without the express written consent of D.H. Boggs.

It may be a while before I get to review this properly, as I still need to finish Five Ancient Kingdoms and Whitehack first.

Gygax Magazine Issue #2 in Hand - Deja Vu All Over Again!

Listen Cat! You are too young to remember Dragon Magazine. I don't care how old you are in cat years either...

I reviewed Gygax #2 last week based on the PDF version. Now that I have the print version in hand, I want to make some further observations:

- this sucker feels like a Dragon Magazine from the mid 80's. I fully expect the cover to pull away from the staples after a few more flips thru the mag.

- I used to read Dragon as much for the ads as I did the articles. While I have no problem skipping the ads in the PDF version, I want to read the ads in the print version. I found myself looking for an ad for the Dragon Bones Electronic Dice Roller and Cyborg Commando.

- City-State of the Sea Kings - It's just a small ad but I'm so in. See, those damn ads work.

Again, issue #2 of Gygax is a marked improvement over the first issue's "hey! I'm cool! Let me tell you why!" self congratulatory back slapping. There were parts of the first issue that were really good - I just got turned off by all the "look at me" bs.

The Digital Orc Line-up is Back in Print (LL / OSR)

Mmmmm... beer!

+Dylan Hartwell , AKA the Digital Orc has just done a second print run of some of his more popular titles: The Blasphemous Brewery of Pilz: Extra Stout Edition, Menagerie of the Ice Lord and Verloren. I have them all and enjoyed each of them, but needless to say The Blasphemous Brewery of Pilz: Extra Stout Edition was my favorite. It reminds me that I need to get everything together for some home brewing this fall.

Of course, everything above and more is available at the Digital Orc storefront on RPGNow in PDF.

Now, I know a bunch of folks are going to Con on the Cob in the Akron area of Ohio in October, and by a bunch I mean "more than two".  Dylan himself will be running some Labyrinth Lord slots. Looks like the OSR will have some representation - very cool.

Wish I could go myself, but my next scheduled vacation isn't until Thanksgiving week. Ah well.

30 Day D&D Challenge - Day One - Making the Undead Deaderer and Such ;)

I don't normally do these "blog challenges", as most times I have way too many post ideas bouncing around my head to pay attention to yet more distractions, but this one seems like fun. So, I'm going to play along :)

I got started playing D&D (technically AD&D) back in my Junior High School days - late 1979 or early 1980 - 7th grade in any case.

My friend Kenny was introduced to AD&D at his school, and being best of buds decided he needed to share it with me. So, one afternoon after school, we sat down and he put me through a dungeon. My character's name was Cyrus (named after Cyrus Vance perhaps) and he was a human fighter. Really, for you first character, especially while playing one on one, is there any other character to choose?

I remember that I killed a bunch of skeletons and recovered a + 1 sword. The rest is kinda fuzzy, but that's because I both knew nothing about what I was playing and was so engrossed in the game on so many levels (story / first person persona / mapping / new fangled dice/ etc) that it was like an information overload. All that didn't matter, as I was hooked.

After the adventure was complete, Kenny had to call a classmate to see if I had leveled (of course I did - you had to bite the carrot to be fully hooked). You see, Kenny only had the Dungeon Master's Guide - limited resources and funds back in those days.

By the following summer, my parents got me the DMG, Plater's Handbook and a set of dice to start me on my own way into the depths of D&D.