Open Game Table Volume 2

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

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

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

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

LotFP - Weird Fantasy - Brainstorming Houserules

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

LotFP -Weird Fantasy - More Thoughts

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

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


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Rebooting the Never Fully Booted

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

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

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

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

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

LotFP Weird New World on Sale at RPGNow

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

 

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

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

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

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

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

 

 

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

 

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

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

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

Revamp in Progess

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

Very much a work in progress.

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

DC Adventures - Quick Start

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

 

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

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

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

LotFP - Weird Fantasy - Weird New World

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

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

 

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

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

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

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

Gamers Seeking Gamers

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

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

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

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

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

Throwing Stones - Sorta

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

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

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

LotFP -Weird Fantasy - My Thoughts

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

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

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

Game on!

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LotFP - Weird Fantasy - Tower of the Stargazer

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

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

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

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

LotFP - Weird Fantasy - Referee Book -

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



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

So right, yet so often left unsaid.

Back to Weird Fantasy reading...

Superhero Summer

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gathering of Fools Recap

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

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

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

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

I Looted the Birthday Beast

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

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

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

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

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

Pending Gathering of Fools

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

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

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


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

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

Warrior, Rogue & Mage

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

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

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

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

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

LotFP - Weird Fantasy in Hand

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

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

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

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

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