Urh? OOTS!

Somehow, someway, I have failed thus far to post about my uber-favorite online comic - Order of the Stick by Rich Burlew.  Major damn oversight on my point.  It single handedly brought me back to gaming.

Go.  Read.   Start at 1. There are 719 strips to go, not counting the extras in the printed collections.

I'm open for suggestions of other comics to follow.  High standard to be met ;)

Midweek Meltdown - Or at Least Rescheduling

Looks like this weekends proposed first session of the Fantasy Grounds 2 / Labyrinth Lord Campaign will need to be rescheduled... Mother's Day is more like Mother's weekend these days, especially when you have two (or more) sides to the family.  Ah well.  Soon.

As a complete aside (and bizarre tangent)  my "get paid to play with your firearm training" has been postponed and instead tomorrow I will be sitting in a classroom learning "Basic Powerpoint".  If you can think of more diverse training I'd love to hear about it.

I've been putting the iPad through a nice workout with the plethora (always wanted to use that word) of PDFs I've been loading up on it.  I'm even going to bed early just so I can read in bed ;)

Next up (or at least soon) should be a small write-up on Battlegrounds.  I just need to find one of the two external hard drives I have it installed on.  Too many gadgets, not enough organization.

Twofer Tuesday

Yep, its a Twofer Tuesday here at the Tavern.

What's the Twofer you might ask?  Two short reviews ;)

First up is  Dark Fate, a Swords & Wizardry Campaign Setting.  Quite simply put, it is a product full of great ideas to lift for your own campaign (assuming you don't want to stick with the included campaign).  Actually, the included campaign information is so thorough, a prospective DM would be well adviced to just read up on a small corner of the detailed world.

It includes some variant rules (personal favorite... undead are harder to turn then in standard rules, but every 2 points of damage inflicted adds +1 to the turn roll - priceless).  It does suffer from one minor (or major problem depending on your sensitivities) issue -  the author is not a native English speaker, and it shows with the tense of verbs and some other awkwardness in writing.  The ideas and presentation rise above this in my opinion, but others may feel differently.  I'd like to thank my iPad for making this a very pleasant read from bed ;)

Next is OpenQuest, a free, total open ruleset of Mongoose's RuneQuest.  As Runequest is published using the OGL.  From the site:

Open Quest is based on the Mongoose RuneQuest SRD (MRQ SRD), with ideas from previous editions of Chaosium’s RuneQuest and Stormbringer 5th, mixed in with some common sense house rulings from the author’s twenty years of experience with the D100 system.

I don't own the Mongoose version of  RuneQuest.  My last experience with RuneQuest was from Avalon Hill, although I did pick up the Chaosium 2nd Edition years ago.  The price is right for me to start checking out the system again.  You can also pick it up in paper format on Lulu, but that kinda defeats the point of free ;)

Fantasy Grounds / LL - Soft Start Set

It looks like this coming Saturday will be the first session of the Fantasy Grounds 2 / Labyrinth Lord campaign I'm starting up.  I call it a "soft date" as it works for me, barring any unforeseen circumstances.  It may not work for my whole group, as the next day is Mother's Day.  The following week won't work for me, as I'll be playing as a player in a C&C campaign.

I've also been trying to get feedback from my players for an alternate campaign or two of one offs - kinda used for pick-up games when we don't have a full group.  I was figuring on using Basic Roleplay for that, as the rules can cover most genres, and a level-less game works better when your party is less likely to be balanced.

Of course that means they overwhelmingly voted to make the alternate campaign Star Frontiers.  Now I need to translate that into Basic Roleplay.  Eh, could be worse... I could be trying to translate Paranoia (great game, decent rules - don't think I could EVER translate it).

Weekend Wrap-Up

So, what did I accomplish towards getting my Labyrinth Lord Campaign up and running?  Nothing

How about getting ready for my next blog piece on Virtual Table Tops?  Nada

Maybe I found a nice RPG product to write a review of?  Maybe.  Dark Fate has my attention at the moment.  It's written for use with Swords & Wizardry, but that hasn't stopped me in the past.

No, Ive been a slave to the iPad.  Dumbass name but an amazing little product.  Dropbox is my friend for moving my PDFs over to the iPad and I've been ignoring family and fiends as best I can to keep my new toy in hand as much as possible.

Now, if someone could write a basic VTT that would run on the iPad... that would be damn sweet.

Back to work tomorrow.  Back to my regular blog posting tomorrow.  Tonight, I'll be reading some gaming material on my newest toy ;)

iPad-arama - 24 hrs with the iPad 3G

Yes, I've gotten about 24 hrs... less sleep, driving, travel, socializing, visiting family... sigh, alright, maybe more like a solid 6 hrs, much of that time spend searching the Apple App Store for, what else?  iPad Apps.

First things first.  The iPad doesn't do flash, in doesn't do external memory, and it doesn't do USB ports, so put your flash drives away.

What it does do (among a whole lot of other stuff) is read PDFs.  That's muy importante to me and just about every other gamer out there that has a collection of RPG PDFs and enough disposable income to pick up what is, for all intents and purposes, an expensive proprietary touch screen computer device.  Thank god my family understands the importance of my "family recycling program"; they know at some point my latest gadget will be theirs when iPad 2 comes out next spring ;)

Back to the PDFs.  Regretfully, most of the apps on my iPhone do not work natively on my iPad.  They either work by using just a small portion of the screen, or they can be blown up, like digital zoom on your camera.  Digital zoom can ruin the sharpness of a picture, and this is no different.  Not a big deal on most games, but for text (like a PDF) this is a game killer.  Now my nice (and expensive) document editor and viewer on my iPhone (DocsToGo) is pretty useless reading PDFs on my iPad.  Definitely annoying and discouraging.

Then I remembered an app I had read about in preparation of receiving my iPad - GoodReader.  If my short term memory is correct it cost 2 bucks in the app store.  There are different ways to get your documents transferred from your computer to your iPad, but the least stressful method (and I tried the stressful ones first) was to use a Cloud computing storage solution that the app could connect to and download the documents I wanted it to transfer.  I used Dropbox, but it supports about 6 cloud storage services.

Basic Roleplaying looks amazing, but the art didn't seem to work in the PDF.  No biggie.  Very readable, especially when one pinches out to get rid of the white margin.

Dark Fate, a S&W campaign setting, looks as good as the printed version would, assuming I had a printed version.  It really looks that good.

Take 5 minutes.  My son is happily playing the piano on my iPad at the moment ;)

The Dresden Files Roleplaying Game - Beautiful in full color.  The Kindle DX has been put to shame.  I pinched out to get rid of the margins.  It was readable at the default size, but the little extra made it so much nicer.

Labyrinth Lord, Advanced Edition Companion - Just a pinch and it was perfect.  I no longer need a hard copy of my gaming material if I wont be GMing (still quicker to flip thru a book then slide the page scroll to fast advance, but not by much).

Knockspell 4 - I was putting off the full in depth read for the arrival of my iPad.  This will be my reading tonight.  Again, just a pinch to enlarge slightly and it is perfect.

Basically, every PDF I've opened on the iPad has looked amazing.  Better then reading on the computer screen.  My preference for all that I've listed above (with the exception of Dark Fate, which didn't need any adjustments) was to pinch out the margins just a tad.  Probably has a lot to do with my eyes going just a tad bad at close work these days (43 is just around the corner).

The iPad is a winner, and for reading PDFs it is damn close to perfect.  The Kindle DX is going to have to drop in price to remain competitive, because as a PDF reader it is a very distant second (and will drop further as more devices get released).

Time to play.  I  want to load up The Dungeon Alphabet and see how it compare to the hardcover I have ;)

iPad - My Girlfriend is Gonna Kill Me

I can't put the sucker down.  Didn't get a chance to start playing with it until about 90 minutes ago, and I've been uploading some PDFs to read tonight.

I'll give a write up tomorrow when I can take an extended break from playing with it ;)

Geek Anticiation - Awaiting the iPad 3G

Yep.  I've gone off the deep end of Apple Geekdom.  I was doing OK until December of 2008, when my son convinced me to get iPhones.  Then there was the Macbook this past fall.  Now I await tomorrow's iPad delivery.

I'm excited for the techie geekness of it, but I'm even more excited with ability to read my PDFs in a native format.  Don't get me wrong, I've enjoyed reading most of the RPG PDfs I've placed on my Kindle DX, but the iPad should blow that away.

I fully expect tomorrow's posting will be a review of the suitability of the iPad to read PDFs.  Probably a quick review of some appropriate PDF reading apps.  Some pics of the iPad with some PDFs displayed. 

I never wanted to turn into an Apple fanboy.  Really I didn't.

I even took off from work to ensure someone would be there to sign for the package.

I'll go to my corner now...

(then I'll go back to the VTT reviews and such... might be doing a Q&A with someone involved with MapTools - look Ma, I'm a professional! ;)

Fantasy Grounds 2 - Review(ish)

Its much easier to review a game or RPG supplement than it is to review a Virtual Table Top.  Everyone has different gaming habits, as is easily seen by the different and overlapping style of play, let alone "Old School" vs "New School".  It seems to be even further afield when it comes to VTTs.  The major ones each seem to have found their niche, tho there is overlap with features.  So take my opinions with a grain of salt... or maybe even a pinch.

Fantasy Grounds 2 is probably the most popular commercial VTT on the market.  What are it's main draws?  They are simple really.

Amazing 3-d dice with physics and everything.  You know how players like to play with dice at the table, rolling even when they are not up?  The dice in Fantasy Grounds 2 are so cool you'll find your players doing the same online.  It's addictive, what can I tell you?  heh

Character sheets.  Nothing quite like interactive, self bonus populating, character sheets.  It really does speed things up having all of your character's info right there in front of you, laid out professionally.

Support for many of the major games out there.  Some are commercial add-ons (yes, you have to pay) and some are community created (free).  Generally speaking, the commercial ones add in bells and whistles and access to the rules in game... community driven projects rely more on accurate character sheets.

Off the top of my head, supported games include:  3e, 4e, C&C, Savage Worlds, Labyrinth Lord, CoC, Basic Roleplaying, GURPS, Traveller... there are more, and there is also a genric character sheet for use in unsupported games.

An active community.  An active gamers seeking games / games seeking players forum.  There are always games looking for players, although it may not be for the system you want.

Of course, there are some weaknesses with FG2.  They are big or small, depending on how important the feature is to you.

There is a Fog of War for mapping, but it is not line of sight based (like some other VTTs have).  As the GM you have to reveal the map as you see fit, it is not dynamic.

The dice aren't the easiest to convert to games that need special dice.  There is an extension for FATE/Fudge dice, but the work around isnt the most elegant - hell, its plain awkward.

No built in mapping program, just a chalk board.  There are free and commercial mapping programs out there that do great jobs, but some have remarked on this lack of a feature.

Price.  It isnt cheap.  Then again, neither are commercial RPG game books, video games, computer games, MMORPG games.  It's a one time expenditure.  For some, the bells and whistles pay from themselves.  For others, free alternatives do the job they need.

No VOIP built in, but again, if you want the feature there are many alternatives for free (Skype).

There is a learning curve.  Really, expect to be lost for a bit.  Play as a player before running a game if you can.  Watch the damn tutorial videos.  I can't stress this enough.  Watch and learn.

I've really enjoyed playing in FG2 campaigns and I'm working on running my own to start next month.  It will be my first time DMing in over 13 years.  This is the VTT I've chosen to run with, although that may change down the line.  It fits what my group and I are looking to do at the moment.

So, how do I rate Fantasy Grounds 2?  An exceptional Virtual Table Top that does what it does well.  It's not perfect, but then we are all waiting on perfection for a long time ;)

Fantasy Grounds 2 - Hands On Experience

This isn't going to be a review.  That will come later.  Nope, this will be about how I've used FG2 as a player, and soon, how I will as a DM.

I first picked up Fantasy Grounds back in late 2005 or early 2006... not really sure.  I had already found Klooge, even spent an evening playing in a playtest of a Rolemaster add-on for it, but except for a Play-By-Email game back in the heyday of AOL (damn I wish that game had continued, the GM was an amazing artist and storyteller) I didn't have any experience in on-line gaming.


I'll admit I was overwhelmed at first, and it wasn't until spring of 2008 that I actually got to play in a Fantasy Grounds campaign.  A nice Warhammer 40k Dark Heresy campaign.  The game rocked.  Some personalities conflicted.  New players were brought in.  Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Savage Worlds, Serenity - entertaining false starts. That group lasted a bit over a year and I have no complaints.  Those patient souls taught me a lot about using the Fantasy Grounds Software.  They made me ready from my next campaign:  Castles & Crusades.

I've been playing in a monthly (was weekly, then hiatus, then back again) Castles & Crusades game since fall of 2008.  Not a bad length of time for an online campaign.  Lost players.  Gained players.  Not one personality conflict that I've noticed, just an overall fun group to game with.  Leveling is slow as molasses going up hill, but at the age of 42 I've discovered its not the levels, its not the loot, but the time you spend getting there that is important.  Wonder how well that carries over to real life? ;)

Soon I'll be getting my own Labyrinth Lord game running via Fantasy Grounds.  I doubt I'd be at this point without the fellow gamers that guided me so well.  My hat is tipped to all of them.

Next up I'll give a more review like article on Fantasy Grounds 2.  I just felt the need to ground myself in a bit of personal history first.  :)

Basic Roleplaying Gets GORED

I totally forgot when I was writing up last night's post about Chaosium's Basic Roleplay that Goblinoid Games has given it the "open rewrite" treatment.

Meet GORE, a nice reworking of the percentile system seen Runequest, CoC, Basic Roleplay and others.  Its a nice alternative for gamers on the cheap.

I'll now return you  your regularly scheduled blog ;)

Basic Roleplaying - The Other "Old School"

I remember picking up a copy of Runequest 2, Pavis, Big Rumble and one other damaged (name escapes me) but perfectly usable Chaosium Gloranthian product at a gaming con at Columbia University back in the late 80's.  The amount of care that went into these products was amazing to me at the time (and I am way overdue to pull them ut of storage).  I had hoped the Avalon Hill edition would build upon the the gems that I had found, but it was an unwieldy, unnecessarily complicated beast.

As time went by I found Call of Cthulhu, Stormbringer, Hawkmoon, Elfquest and the under appreciated (even by me) Worlds of Wonder.  All using the same core gaming engine, nearly unchanged (the core - options galore as time has progessed) since Runequest's initial release back in 1978.

Why all this reminiscing?  I've had the Basic Roleplaying release sitting on my shelf for a bit... truthfully not giving it much of a thought until I saw that Smiteworks had released a Basic Roleplaying ruleset for Fantasy Grounds 2.  It brought back fond memories of Runequest and Call of Cthulhu.  So I picked it up.  Then I went to the Chaosium site and picked up an adventure book and the fantasy rules. (there is a perfectly usable and FREE quickstart pdf available)

Why, when I'm starting up a Labyrinth Lord game in the coming weeks?  Because I've already had a player ask for a quick pick up game, and a RPG without levels, without undue complications, will make it easier to pull a short scenario that is balance for 1-4, then a D&D variant.

Hmm, if I put them through a CoC session, any sane survivors is a sort of victory for them.  ;)

This is post 203.  Seems I passed 200 without even paying attention... heh

OD&DITIES Issue 15 On Sale Now

Full Color cover with this issue.  Not bad.  So, what does your 2 bucks get you in OD&DITIES 15?

First things first.  There is a call for submissions.  If you have something you are looking to see in virtual print, this may be your chance.  Go to the author's blog at OD&DITIES and let him know if you have something to submit.  There are deadlines you know ;)

So, what do you get for your 2 bucks? 

A new class:  The Elementalist.  Its an interesting twist on the arcane caster type, it comes with its own spell list.  Quite possibly worth the price of admission on its own.

An article dealing with what you way encounter traveling on the road.  Nice little piece.

A few pages on resurrection and other such spells.  Since my games tend not to reach the level players can cast, or afford to have other cast, these spells, it hasn't come up for me recently.  It may be a good article for others.

Alternate Alignments:  This goes hand in hand with the new class, as the new alignments are elemental in nature.

Elemental Beasts:  See a pattern?  heh.  Imps and Mephits for you Labyrinth Lord game.

An article and charts for treasure maps.  Useful if you need to define one that the party just found.

All of this ends with "Mr B's Last Word".  

The issues have gotten consistently tighter and professional with each release.  A bargain at 2 bucks.  You owe it to yourself to check out a copy.

VTTs - Where's the Damn Book?

I've noticed that probably the most frustrating aspect about running your RPG sessions with a Virtual Table Top, or VTT software is the lack of newbie usable documentation.

Case(s) in point: 

Fantasy Grounds 2.  The online documentation is really next to worthless in explaining to a new user how to set up and run a game.  Sorry, it sucks.  The download-able manual?  Might help a newbie player, but the GM?  Not enough to run a game.The documentation on how to mod rule sets is pretty much limited to users that have some experience in writing in computer language (XML).

What was the cure for this horrible handicap?  A community created series of tutorial videos.  Vids so good it 's gotten me to the point that I can convert a printed module into FG2 format.  Yes, when I get my game of Labyrinth Lord running, I should have both feet on the ground and some confidence in running a fun and enjoyable game for my friends.  All this thanks to Xorn on the FG2 boards.

BattleGrounds has an outdated user manual, and updated (yet still a bit outdated) user manual and tutorial video.
The included manual is much, much more thorough than FG2

Maptool has a very nice set of community created tutorial videos.  Which helps with the steep (almost overwhelming) learning curve due to the immense amount of custom-ability of the software.

What do these 3 VTTs have in common?  Very active development / revision / patching / enhancing of the software, to the point that keeping an up to date Instruction manual  is next to impossible without stealing man-hours from improving the software.  All there also have active forums and frequent participation by the developers... many questions get answered quickly, but may be hard to find later as they get lost in the forum chatter.

Most learning is either by watching as a player (or as a pure observer) in game, and trial and error as a new GM.  Thankfully these videos put the new GM on firmer footing, which makes for a better game for all involved.  At least, I hope that is the case for me.  We will know in a couple of weeks.

Virtual Table Top Roundup - Part 2

Hmmm... Part 2 of the VTT Roundup is also post 200 for me.  Huzzah!

Oh, and thanks to Heruca over at Battlegrounds for a "holy cow that's alot of VTTS" listing that he's compiled.  Way more extensive then I'm presenting here.

Gametable - Simple and effective VTT for free.  I was playing around with this last year before deciding to take the FG2 plunge.  Simpler then MapTools in my opinion.  A nice choice for a free option.

EpicTable - in development.  Screen shots look good but no ETA given for a playable release.  Forums are relatively active for an unreleased VTT

Glittercomm - freely available as long as hosting costs are covered.  Forums are fairly dead, but it might be a viable option for the gaming group on budget

WeRole - Uhm, I think its a video / chat service.  No screen shots.  Little info.  Subscription based.

JParanoia - Name is pretty descriptive.  This VTT is pretty much all Paranoia all the time. The main site also has a nice general Paranoia forum.  Free

GRiP - Generic Roleplaying for Internet Players.  Forums are up but fairly dead.  Software seems to be no where to be found.  From the looks of things it wasn't that bad a VTT.  Just looks tho, I've never tried it

ViewingDale - Appears to be more of a way to share maps interactively than a true VTT.  Forums are fairly dead.  Paid

TTopRPG 2.0 - A frequently updated VTT with an active designer.  Free

Of course, after listing all of these Virtual table Tops the past few days, I've never really gotten around to explaining what they are.  Cart before the horse I guess.  Next up:  What is a VTT?

Virtual Table Top Roundup - Part 1

Alright, lets get this Virtual Table Top Roundup Started.  I'll go deeper into each of these, as much as I can, later.  In the meantime, consider this the cheat sheet.

Fantasy Grounds 2:  If there is a giant in the VTT playground, this is it.  It has the virtual dice that WotC "borrowed" for their proof of concept VTT.  Recently under new ownership, it has gotten much more responsive to community requests.  Paid

iTabletop / Pandoren: While other VTTs get by with IM's and Group chat features, this one stresses Voice and Video.  iTabletop is the current (much less enhanced) version while Silvetable / Pandoren is the hopefully, soon to be released on the masses, gaming nirvana.  At least, I hope it hits that high note ;)  Paid

Battlegrounds RPG:  Before FG2 came under new ownership there wasn't a VTT that had as responsive a developer as Battlegrounds.  More map centric than other VTTs, Heruca is constantly updating it with new releases and patches.  Paid

Klooge:  One of the granddaddies of the VTT sphere, there are still some VTT grognards working on mods for it.  Paid

Screenmonkey:  Just the GM needs the software - the players log in and interact thru their web browser.  Paid for Full version, Free for the Lite version.

Maptools:  The constantly updated free alternative to the paid VTTs.  It has a large following and a very active community.  Free

OpenRPG:  Probably the grandaddy of the freeware, and one of the oldest VTTs still out there.  Free

K, that a quick list of the main VTTs (in my humble opinion).  I'll dig a bit for the more obscure or up and coming VTTs for part 2 of the list, and then get into the VTTs themselves.

Monday Mashup

First, I'd like to thank Kiltedyaksman for being my 25th follower.  Welcome.

Secondly, I'm working on a quick post to be used as an overview of the main (as I see them) Virtual Table Tops out there.  Later on I'll go into each one in a bit more depth, and include personal experiences where applicable.  Safe bet the Fantasy Grounds 2 will be the first one to get the in depth treatment.

Tonight is Zero Session part 2.  Working with my fourth player to get his character ready fro the campaign.  Should be fun :)

Correction, it is fun.  Edit: Was fun.

Party consists of a Fighter, a Thief, a Cleric and a Druid.  Might be able to guilt a 5th player to play the Magic User ;)

Keeping it Positive

As mentioned in my last post, last nite was a kind of "Zero Session" for my new Labyrinth Lord Campaign. It was character generation, playing with the Fantasy Grounds interface and general discussion of the rules. Skype was a godsend.

At one point one of my players (who had already decided on being the party cleric) frustratingly announced "I guess I'll be a human". He had been deciding between dwarf and gnome, but then he noticed the level restrictions and was backing away from his character concept. Not a good start when trying to bring people back to gaming who have been out of it for 12 years or more.

My solution last nite? I told him to make the choice based on concept and I would adjust the rules.

A few weeks ago the issue of demihuman level limits was making it's way around the OSR blogs. My idea was making the listed level cap a "Soft Cap" and reducing expo by 50% after hitting the soft cap (adjusted by any expo bonus due to high stats). I'll be sticking with that with one exception: single class characters have their soft cap increased by 2 levels. My reasoning is that the focus on one class allows them to push themselves that much harder. We will see how it plays out in game.


- Posted from my iPhone

Fantasy Grounds / Labyrinth Lord - Session Zero

I just did a 90 minute Intro to Labyrinth Lord / Advanced Edition Characters and Fantasy Grounds 2 for a few friends and I can already tell its going to be one hell of a game when it gets rolling ;)

We used Skype as we've all been friends for anywhere from5 to 25 years or so... no awkward silence, just many bad jokes told by all.  It was nice seeing guys from my old weekly face to face game from 13 years ago slinging virtual dice as they created characters.  So far we have a Cleric, a Fighter and a Thief.  I think our fourth player is going to be a Ranger, so they may be magic poor, but I'm sure they will cope fine.

I'm going to need to sit down and rewatch Xorn's amazing FG2 tutorial videos.  Especially if I plan on using some of the LL modules that are out there.  A few hours of prep time will speed the game up many times over.

ze bulette has a valid point about my idea to review some of the VTTs out there, or at the very least give a comprehensive overview of what is available.  Consider the challenge accepted.  It will start appearing on this blog on a fairly regular basis, perhaps as early as Monday if I get lucky ;)

Tomorrow is a six hour round trip to pay my respects for 15 minutes at a former co-worker's wake.  Thank God my kid can drive :)

Knockspell 4 is Out

Ah, the joys of electronic publishing and instant gratification for the consumer. I caught the post at The Society of Torch, Pole and Rope last nite that Knockspell 4 was released.  Minutes later it was mine to hold.  Well, maybe not literally hold, but virtually hold.

Then I promptly  went to sleep.  What can I say?  I had a long day.

Tonight I've flipped pages... okay, I've scrolled thru the magazine and it appears to be quality as always.  That being said, my eyes were drawn immediately to the article reporting on Online Gaming.  Play by Post, mail, blog, Google Wave, chat, VTTs.  Sorry, but a bit of a disappointment.  I know its billed as a quick overview, but I really wish there had been a mention of more of the Virtual Table Tops that are available.  Half the article dealt with VTTs and was pretty much... well, not much of anything.  It centered on OpenRPG with a throw away mention of Fantasy Grounds.  I guess this is something I could write up myself for submission to one of the mags.  I've toyed with at least a half dozen of the VTTs out there ;)