Amateur Night at The Tavern - "Five Rooms, No View"

I really am not good at naming these damn maps, but I did squeeze in five rooms.

I figure marking the secret door on the side that the door is "not" secret makes sense, and would work if one needed to use this with a Virtual Table Top (VTT) like Roll20 or Fantasy Grounds.

I didn't add any extra details like coffins or altars or the like, as I'm going to take the night to try and figure out exactly what is going on.

Damn. I should be taking this little booklet to work with me to play with during my lunch hour.

Search the OSR at "OSR Search"

Need to search the many blogs that make up the OSR? You need go no further than OSR Search.

It really is a nifty tool to search for posts from blogs that are OSR heavy.

Did I just say "nifty?"

Seriously, OSR Search is an often overlooked resource.

I probably should put up a permanent link to it, shouldn't I?

Barrowmaze article over at The Escapist

It never hurts when the OSR gets a bit more exposure.

The Escapist has an article up today on Barrowmaze and our very own +Greg Gillespie .

It's a decent read and a nice synopsis of what the OSR is.

You can read it here.

(lunch is almost over and I need to return to the world of the working ;)

Amateur Night at The Tavern - "Some Guy's Crypt"

I'm not really a mapmaker. Really, I'm not. It's just that the damn kit that +Peter Regan sent me makes me want to draw maps. The small sized paper is a plus for me, as it allows for me to experiment.

My thatching still needs lots of work.

Lets see - two hallways, two rooms, two coffins, one statue, one dais, one single door, one double door and one secret door. Not too shabby for "Some Guy's Crypt" ;)

Quantum - The New Holder of the "Worst RPG Kickstarter" Crown - based on Kickstarters supported by the Tavern

Sure, Far West is by far the most overdue Kickstarter on my list, but I'll give Gareth a pass for legit health reason this time around.

And yes, Dwimmermount has become the poster child of "how not to run a Kickstarter for someone else".

Myth & Magic is certainly the one most likely to ship via imaginary packing slips.

Nystul is still in a world of his own.

But Quantum? Quantum holds a special place in my Kickstarter heart.

Update #82 Sep 29 2013 

Problems and Resolutions

The past nearly two months have been awful. I've struggled mightily to get the final art pieces in, even going so far as to seek additional art help for Hugo with no positive results. I've hesitated to discuss art struggles as my own writing and design struggles have been significant, but I feel all struggling aspects of this game now need to be discussed, not just my own. At this point, I may have to release the book missing some of the monster art and without a poster map. I seriously hope this doesn't happen, but I can't wait for the art any longer. 

Financially, I reached the wall where continuing to work on this game without a paycheck is not possible. I then had to spend time looking for, finding, and then accepting a new part-time job. It's not exactly the sort of job I want to shout to the roof tops, but it pays the bills. It also takes a great deal of time away from what I want to be working on (the game), but after the "busy period" I'm in right now at work ends in a few weeks, things to will settle back down to where I can crush the remaining chapters. 

Colleen is the bright spot in these last two months. She's banging out some amazing layout work despite working a full time job. Her work is amazing and I think you'll be equally impressed. 

My goal right now is to have the entire game out of my meddlesome hands by Turkey Day with the final book, at minimum, released as a PDF by the New Year and well on its way through the printing process with our overseas printers.
We are very close to being done and have unfortunately been very close for a while now. 

I'm back to frequent updates again and I'm sorry for the lack of updates. 

-Josh

See the date above? September 29, 2013. Nearly 5 months ago. I'm glad Josh returned to something that he considers "frequent updates" or it might have been 6 months since his last update.

Yes Josh, I'll drink my next beer with a toast for you. Amazing job not doing your job without even giving us a stroke job.

Map Doodle - Putting the New Mapping Kit to a Quick Test

Yep. Shit works.

Perfect size for desk doodling at work.

Heck, even Ashley appreciates the sample of my work, even if I can't draw doors for shit ;)

Peter has some stuff up at RPGNow and in dead tree at Squarehex.co.uk

Five Mapping Kits have Arrived from Across the Pond!

+Peter Regan , the Mad Mapper that Maps at Midnight! (not really, but it sounds really cool) shipped a box of mapping awesomeness that was waiting for me when I arrived home from work.
Peter's store is at Squarehex.co.uk

Peter has donated 4 bundles to the 4 finalists of the OSR Superstar Competition and also forwarded me a review copy. Let me just say I'm inspired to start mapping right away, but the size of the pads makes it something I could toy with during my lunch hour.

Each bundle contains the following:
A5 Hex pad (7mm hexes) with Super Hex
A7 Hex pad (7mm hexes) (lunch time sized)
A7 Pad of Geomorphic Intent (7mm grid) (lunch time sized)
Little Hexes mini-campaign setting (a mini sandbox campaign with a fold out map - I need to review this on it's own)
Pocket Guide to Dungeon Geomorphs
7mm plastic card ruler
Hex symbol card
Dungeon symbol card
Dungeon symbol fridge magnet (already stuck to the metal cabinet near my desk)
A7 polyfile wallet
Staedtler black fineliner pen
Papermate mechanical pencil

Any Ever "Split the Stat Bonuses" for Strength and Dexterity?

Strength gives a bonus "to hit" and "to damage".

Dexterity gives a bonus to "AC" and reaction / initiative.

Have you ever split those bonuses, so instead of a Str Bonus of + 3, instead the player has to choose between bonus to hit and / or damage. So, + hit and no bonus to damage or + 2 hit and + 1 damage.

It might need a slight reworking of the spread of the bonus itself. Just an idle thought that occurred to me.

How Important Are Ability Scores?

Sure, much of this depends on the OSR rules of choice, and whether the adjustment spread is -1 to + 1, -3 to + 3, -4 to + 4 or some variation of the preceding. In truth though, what meaning do those adjustments have in the long run?

So long as your character survives, those bonus and penalties have much less meaning as one's character progresses through the levels.

When I was in High School, those numbers were the be all and know all - those old "goldenrods" had ability scores that seemed, in retrospect, to grow on their own. In reality, they were erased and replaced with frequency. I guess, in the long run, it's good that my focus was on DMing.

One of the things that the DCC RPG gets amazingly right, even though it goes against all of my gaming instincts, is the "character funnel". The characters that survive the funnel have special meaning, no matter their actual stats. It's an amazing thing. Yep, I'm a firm believer that the "character funnel" should be liberally borrowed into every other OSR ruleset.

I'm less concerned about ability scores these days. Failure often leads to more exciting stories than success, and no, I'm not talking about "storytelling games". I just think there is as much to be found in the average game session when success comes despite failure.

Still, i think thieving abilities are largely irrelevant at lower levels, but that's a whole 'nother post for a whole 'nother day.

Talking About "Players' Maps"...

I have no idea if this map was the players' map of a homegrown dungeon, a module or something from Dungeon magazine.

I do like the idea that they made notations for the areas to check more thoroughly when there is no where else to go. Apparently they also found the well down.

At least it wasn't one of those dungeons where I filled in every block of the hex paper with dungeon. Because I have those ;)

Games From the Basement - Dark Folk (Mayfair Games)

Back in my early days of gaming, production quality equaled legitimacy on my eyes. Therefore, Mayfair Games "Role Aids" line was in and Judges Guild was out. Very foolish cutting out Judges Guild like that, but I was a teen with limited funds. There was no internet with a quick way to find a review on the next great gaming product - appearance was everything, at least for me.

Dark Folk isn't a bad product at all, although it is a bit inconsistent in quality if memory serves right (the Troll adventure "is designed for a party of 6 to 8 characters of 5th to 8th level of ability with at least three magic items specifically designed to neutralize Trolls - emphasis mine).

Come to think of it, I'm not sure if I used any of the included adventures, but the background fluff and sub races were pretty cool. I may just steal some of this for the current campaign.

How Important Are Included Player Maps to You as a DM?

I do pretty much all of my DMing these days via Hangouts / Roll20. I grab a screenshot of the map, upload it, enable Fog of War and it's ready to go.

Except that 19 out of 20 products don't include a player version of the map. Which means secret doors, traps and the like are often marked on the map, which takes some exceptional use of FoW to keep those from being exposed too early, and in some circumstances, there is not much one can do to keep the secrets secret.

A few publishers (Purple Duck is one) do provide players maps for use in VTT sessions, which is awesome for folks like me.

Would player maps make running your game sessions easier?

Mini Review - Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad Issue #1 Winter 2014 (DCC RPG Fanzine)

My first thought?

This Zine goes to 11!

Not because I think Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad is a comedy, but because it cranks the DCC RPG up to 11. It knows no bounds or maybe it pushes boundaries. Whatever it does, it does it damn well.

Actually, what is does is Swords & Sorcery as a theme to the proverbial "T", especially for an urban environment. You most certainly do not need the DCC RPG to make the most of Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad, although the wacky DCC dice will certainly help with the tables. The tables are insane, use funky dice and look to be a blast in actual play. I did mention I love tables that work in session, right? Because much of these do.

Shit! I'm thinking that Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad layered atop the classic Thieves' World boxed set running with Crypts & Things (but stealing liberally from AS&SH) would be like the most awesome RPG Urban Sandbox ever run by a mere mortal.

Then I remember I don't have the time! Grrrr!

Metal Gods of Ur-Habad is PWYW. This means you can try before you buy, but you will buy.

Trust me.

You will buy ;)

Tavern Winelist - Tøøthstejnn The Red, The Grimy Wyvern Wine-Hall Cabernet Franc

Woot! is one of those "deal a day" sites. They are also a bunch of geeks.

I've never bought one of their wine selections until today (and this deal has a 5 day span to run) but with the gaming theme (and the fact that I generally like cabernet wines) I had to give this a shot.

Fuel for the Fire...of Imagination! 

Hours of adventure await you and your party in the Grimy Wyvern Wine-Hall.  In every darkly purpled shadow lurks an intriguing character. 

The freebooting mercenary Blackpepper....the alluring temptress-witch Dcherryi...the cutthroat half-elf assassin twins Ceedarr and Van'Illa... 

This richly flavored source material brings a complex, multilayered world of fantasy to life, one sip at a time. The only limit is your imagination - and your bladder.

4 bottles for 50 bucks. It may be a gamble, but if nothing else I'll have some cool bottles to display ;)

Time to Get Myself Out of the Way - Judges Now Have Access to the OSR Superstar Entries

When I thought up the idea of having all of the entries on a single document with identifiers redacted, I never thought we'd have over 330 entries. I also didn't expect the interesting bit of turmoil going on at my real life job, with big bosses being replaced and others waiting for the axe to fall or transfers to be announced - it's made for a really long work week and has left me less free time at home to put together the master document.

The judges were picked not just because they know RPGs, but because I felt they were honest and could do the job without bias. I still feel that way. Therefore, I've given them direct access to the entries via the email account. What we lose in anonymity, we make up for in time - without this we'd have lost a week at least in the process of getting the entries judged. I think it is a very good solution to get the dice rolling again.

This does mean that I can now move what little free time I have to sending all of the entrants their free PDF copies of Dagger, the RPG for Kids. I'll start sending those emails out tonight in the order the entries were received. It will take a little time, but at least we've addressed the largest blockage - me ;)

Experience Points, Levels and the Demarcation Line of the OSR

Earlier this week, Mike Mearls had an article at the WotC website talking about experience points and levels in DnD Next. I am not going to critique the article here, but it got me thinking about the "line in the sand" that separates 2e and 3e, or OSR game rules from those that follow. It comes down to one thing, and it's not skills, feats or any one of a number of other things that annoy me.

Nope, it comes down to one simple thing.

Class based experience tables.

Prior to 3e, each class had it's own experience table and their own rate of advancement. Part of the balance between the classes was just that - the rate they advanced in levels based on experience points.

I do remember the houserule we used in high school for a bit - one level gained per adventure, no counting of experience points. It sure seemed to make leveling easier, less number crunching and the magic-users sure loved the idea. Multi-class characters were always an issue, and thieves got boned. We didn't use this houserule for long.

Now, Mike goes on to say that counting expo for more "open" campaign is fine, but for adventure paths, automatic or paced leveling is the way to go:

Tracking experience points and using them to award levels makes a lot of sense in open-ended games, where the players can go where they wish, tackle the specific challenges that appeal to them, and create their own goals as a campaign progresses. In this type of game, when the players decide to assault the lair of a blue dragon, their primary goal is most often the treasure and XP they'll gain for defeating it. 

In a more story-driven campaign, however, that lair assault could have a more complex purpose. The characters might serve as an elite cadre of spies and operatives for a king. The blue dragon might be a key villain who plots against the crown. Defeating the dragon removes a threat to the realm and creates a key event in the campaign's story arc. In this type of campaign, treasure and XP take second place in the characters' goals, behind the dragon's importance in the narrative.

That "story-driven campaign" crap reminds me of the old Dragonlance series of adventure.
No matter what the players did, they always ended the same way. The players were not part of the story, but detritus carried along by the pre-ordained story plot.

I suspect DnD Next will be heavily supported by "story-driven campaigns". Shame.

Not that I'm all that surprised. I'm not saying that Next won't support "open-ended", or home brewed campaigns out of the box. I just think the follow up products will be much like Pathfinder Adventure Paths, with even less wiggle room.

I may be wrong...

Books or Boxed Sets - How do You Prefer your Rulesets?

In recent years, I can only think of the following publishers putting out their rules in boxed sets:

Brave Halfling - S&W Whitebox, Deeper Delving and X-Plorers

LotFP - two editions of Weird Fantasy Role-Playing

North Wind Games - Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea

Precis - Ancient Odysseys - Treasure Awaits

Troll Lord Games - Castles & Crusades "White Box" Edition

I'm sure I missed a few, but as far as I can tell, most RPGs are released as books and not in boxed format.

As a gamer, do you have a preferred format in which to buy your RPGs, and if so, why?

(personally, I like boxed sets ;)

Latest "Thieves' World" Addition - Traitor (an edited version)

Life is like a box of chocolates. Yadda yadda. So is eBay, as you never know wxactly what you are going to get.

With Traitor for Thieves' Word, what I got was the player handouts and pregens removed from the middle of the booklet and some editing done to the pregens. If nothing else, it's nice to see the adventure got some good use back in the day, whenever that day was ;)

More and more tempted to run something using Thieves World as the setting. Time. Time, or lack there of, is my enemy.

Ah well. Do have some other thoughts bouncing around my head too...

Not Nearly as Far Along as I had Hoped...

I'm still working on putting the 339(?) entries to the OSR Superstar Competition into one document. It's moving along but no where near where I had hoped it would be. Isn't helping that we have a new chief at work, which means I had to do a breakdown of what my unit does and to justify my staffing had to work on the breakdown while home.

What is the ancient Chinese curse? May you live in interesting times. I's be happy to stay with boring and dull for a bit ;)

I also need to send out copies of Dagger, the RPG for kids - I have the copy to email out, but at about 150+ emails, sending the copies is taking second place to finishing the consolidation of the entries so I can send it out to the judges.

I'm not complaining about the number of entries, but damn it was a lot ;)
 

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

I ask, because I'm not even sure if I have one. Well, there is Tunnels & Trolls, but that is still fantasy and stripped down to it's history, very much "D&D".

I've heard much goodness about Savage Worlds, but I think I'd really need to play in a few sessions to really wrap my head around it. Ubiquity (Hollow Earth Expedition and others) seems almost like a stripped down Savage Worlds. FATE just makes no sense to me, even if I did support the Kickstarter and have endless support for it. Yet another game I'd probably have to play in order to grok.

Hmmm...

I guess I don't have a "go to" non OSR RPG.

That sucks.

So, what's your game to play when you're not playing OSR?