And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?

This one right here does.  This rough beast came in yesterday and from what I read this has easily become my favorite tome of critters.  I really enjoy the touch of the lairs and the general commentary on each horror.  It goes beyond a mere physical description.  I'm sure many of you out there got a copy or at least peeked at the PDF, if you haven't indulge yourself.  It is worth it.

The only problem I had with the book was it came dinged up.  It doesn't appear to have been damage when it was shipped from FGG, but when it was shipped to FGG.  On the back cover mine has a big gouge and two corners of the front cover are bent slightly.  I'm not really too fussy about the condition of my books, but if its going to get damage I would like that privilege to do it.

But aside from a few scuffs and dings, this beast of a book is money well spent.

Into the Dark Lands Session 3 Notes

The System: AD&D with very few home brewed rules
The Dungeon Master: That would be me
The Players:
    Grim, halfling thief, 2nd level (Brian)
    Boog, half-orc fighter, 1st level (Rob)
    Corum, human cleric, 1st level (Rusty)
    Dickson, human fighter, 1st level (NPC)
The Locations: A Goblin Den, the fort, the forest

The second session left off with Corum and Grim in a shower of rot grubs.  The curtain that Grim pulled down was a patchwork of flesh.  Grim was quick to smash the four that fell on him.  Corum needed to burn one off him.  After they destroyed the rest of the squirming mass the players investigated the statue inside the room.  The body of the statue was made of stone, the wolf head was made of wood and was removable.  Behind the statue were two more wooden heads, one was of a bird and the third was a goblin.  Boog took all the heads.

The players continued to explore the den and found the temple.  Before they entered, Boog was charmed by a Goblin Lord.  Upon entering the temple a melee with four black goblins commenced.  My black goblins are 2HD creatures so they put up a good fight.  Dickson nearly died from bleeding out, but the party managed to stabilize him.  At the end of the fight the goblin lord appeared.  Boog began acting strange and agreeing with everything the goblin lord said.  The goblin lord explained he wanted to speak with them and form an alliance or at least a truce with the people of the fort.  In exchange he would make sure his goblins made no more attacks on the fort and would allow them passage through the forest without harassment.  He would also provide information about the area.  As a show of good faith, the goblin lord permitted Grim to keep the glowing sword he found last session and what power it possessed.  The sword can detect enemies.  Since I'm not using alignments I just change detect evil to detect enemies. 

On their return trip to the fort Grim saw a guild symbol scrawled in the dirt warning of danger.  Grim stealthed around the path and encountered Mo, a halfling thief, one of Waldron's men.  He hinted at not being to thrilled with Waldron and warned Grim that the traps they got from Bear were on the path and that Waldron was waiting to ambush them.  The party went around and avoided the situation.

The party informed Sterling of the Goblin Lord's offer.  He didn't see how turning it down would benefit them or by agreeing to it they would not lose anything.  In the morning one of the farmers and one of the adventuring mages had joined Waldron's ranks.  He is promising people women, gold and land. 

With the return visit to the Goblin Lord he informed them that one of the villages, Cason, would be attacked soon by the enemies of the goblin.  The hobgoblins.  He offered one of his black goblins as a guide.  They encounters a patrol of four hobgoblins and the fight was bloody on both sides.  The party retreated to a nearby cave to recover from the fight.  This is where the session ended.

So the currently plotlines are the overview of the fort dealing with the hostile environment, currently the hobgoblins.  Then there is a social conflict with a faction (Waldron's Men) breaking away from the fort and causing problems.  The area of story/plot that is lacking is the personal story lines, but that is something the players are developing.  Three sessions in and its been a lot of fun.

Mail Call: A Thief in the Night

Yesterday I received David Chandler's second book in his Ancient Blades Trilogy, A Thief in the Night.  It was a nice surprise.  I want to thank David for the book and I look forward to reading it.  But, I'm gonna buy the first book in the series, Den of Thieves, before I get into it.  It might be my first book I buy for my Kindle. 

My mailbox has been brimming with great stuff lately.  With Loviatar coming monthly and counting the minutes when the Tome of Horrors arrives. 

The Fuckits

Writing is a struggle, sometimes.  Each one of us has a place or two where the fuckits hit.  Mine is when I get close to finishing a project.  When all I need to do is reread, polish and fill in the cracks.  This is what I've been fighting through in the final parts of Start Adventures.  When the fuckits hit, those voices in your head tell you who cares if it gets finished, you can put it off until tomorrow.  Does it matter if it gets done?  There are more important things to do like getting the dishes washed, mowing the lawn, folding the clothes and the wife...well, the wife is the one that tells you those things need done.  (Before I go any further Whisk would like everyone to know she never puts housework before my writing and she doesn't.) 

My latest problem was I thought I was much closer to being done than I thought.  I had written all the parts.  Even added a tavern and a short adventure.  But as I went through the edits I felt the tavern did not match the tone or voice of the other parts.  It was bland.  Too vanilla for my tastes.  Then I realized the book would benefit from having a new monster and magic item section.  That finish line got a lot farther away.  So I stalled. 

I love writing.  Whisk will tell you I get in a pissy mood if I don't.  But like most writers I have an amazing knack for avoiding the project I need to be working on.  The 360 and Netflix are wonderful for this.  But with the new campaign I'm running something sparked in me to get going on Starter Adventures again.  I rewrote the entire tavern and I like it a lot better now.  The other thing I've been messing with and not getting done is sending Rob the maps I need done.  That in part was due to my scanner being a pain, but now I've got it up and running (knock on simulated wood). The campaign has forced me to produce each week.  We've had three sessions so far and I've written up the general theme behind it, a campaign starter for the players, details of a fort with over 100 people, the land around it and one adventure.  The players are heading into a second part now so I'll need to get that complete before next Monday.  And this is what makes writing great, once you get going, the energy spent on getting the writing done returns to you stronger than before.  It builds on itself.  You see results and the next thing you know the fuckits are in the rear view mirror.

So in short....I caught a bit of the creative constipation, but I'm feeling much better now. 

Great Finds at the Halloween Store

It's that time again when all those Halloween stores pop up in abandon store fronts.  Whisk and I went into one and I scored two very cool things and she got something for herself.  First off, I got a sign, "Zombies next 200km.  Love it.  It's hanging over my desk right now.  It suits the season and the fact we recently got the first season of The Walking Dead on BluRay it fits right in.

The second thing I scored was skull dice.  I got two sets of four.  How could I not get them.  I think they are a mandatory buy for any gamer.

Game night.  Third session.  It should prove to be an interesting one.  We left off with two of the three players getting showered with rot grubs.  I know I ended the session at the right time when all the players cry out at the same time.  Okay, one more picture of those beautiful dice.

Sleestak Sunday, The Lost Pictures

A few weeks ago I showed you this photo of Monet's interpretation of "Sleestak in a Field".

Little did I know there were three paintings in the series.  I think these paintings capture the pastoral life of the sleestak with an amazing amount of feeling.  Here are the other two in the lost series.

Loviatar Looks Great in Orange

Christian has done it again.  Issue #3 of Loviatar is great, but this entry isn't going to be about the gaming content.  Most of us know Christian is top notch in that area.  What I want to focus on is the small editorial.  The two strong points he made there that I agree with and what makes this zine different from all the other offerings out there.

First, he is committed to print only for the zine.  I don't know if this makes it financially difficult to ship it across seas, but I do like that he isn't not going PDF because he wants to know who is enjoying his zine.  Plus, getting good stuff in the mail is always great.

Second, everything in the zine is written by Christian and how he explains it is almost poetic. I feel that the zine's identity comes from the personality of its creator, and should reflect his or her ideas, visions and quirks.  In that respect, a zine is an extension of the writer.  Accepting submissions changes that, moving the zine author from role of creator in the job of editor.  I like that it will remain a one man show and this is what sets it apart from the other excellent old school magazines out there accepting submissions.

If you haven't gotten a subscription yet than I suggest you do.  It is money well spent.  Now on to another one man show.  It can be done with flair and fun.  Well done Christian.  Looking forward to future issues.

Redesigning an Adventure

What do you do when the players return to a lair/den/dungeon/ruin several times?  What do the inhabitants do?  What changes are made from visit-to-visit?  In my current 1st edition campaign the players have been tasked with finding and clearing a goblin warren.  The first attempt the players (Boog, a half-orc fighter and Grim, a halfling thief) entered they fought two goblin guards near the entrance and had to return afterwards due to Grim's injuries.

They came in from the north and just managed to get around the first two turns.

The second time the players entered the goblin warren (this time they had Corum, human cleric along).  They didn't notice anything different.  The first time around they hid the bodies of the goblin guards hoping to not alarm the whole den.  This time they got into a huge fight of ten goblins, one of the goblins alerted the area by pounding on the alarm. But an unfortunate event occurred, Boog critically hit Corum in the head with a mace.  So again, the party had to leave.

The room is where the battle took place.

In their most recent return to the Goblin Warren the players found it very quiet.  The bodies of the goblins had not been moved.  After a short time they did encounter a dark goblin better armed and better armor.  They were able to explore more.  They entered the small room to the north explored it and to end the session Grim torn down a curtain.  The result, Grim and Corum had a small shower of rot grubs fall on them.

You can see the players have only explored a small section of the dungeon. 

So the players have entered the dungeon three different times.  The original adventure was designed for the party to go in and do their damage.  Now I have to rethink the encounters.  What has changed?  I can't discuss in detail what I did since the players are continuing their adventure next Monday, but changes have been made from the original.  One of the things I needed to do was go through each room and see what population remained.  See what rooms would be changing and which ones would remain the same.


As a DM, I always enjoy these kind of challenges, when things don't go as planned.  And I would be remiss if I did not mention that the players have been great.  Their enthusiasm and excitement for the game makes me want to go the extra mile.  I think all of us are enjoying the process of rediscovering the system that got us into this hobby in the first place.

Mount Sleestak Sunday

It is only a matter of time.

What I Am Using Tonight to Whip Up an Adventure.

I'm currently working on an adventure for my group.  Yes, not doing it last minute.  I'm a little shocked myself.  I may need to check my temperature.  No Rob, Brian or Rusty I will not be revealing any surprises here.  I drew my own map on graph paper.  The books I am using to help create it is the DMG pages 217- 219 have some great tables for a little inspiration for the rooms.  1ed Monster Manual.

And I have a couple of old school products at my side for this one also.  JB's B/X Companion and Zzarchov's Neoclassical Geek Revival.  I'm putting their products and ideas into action.  I highly recommend both of these. Why?  You can tell these guys have lived with what they wrote.  Where one expands on existing rules the other developed new micro systems within the game.  The last thing I am using is Chaotic Shiny Productions Treasure Horde Generator.  I did a review on this one a while ago and it still kicks a lot of ass.  I'm using it right now to assist in making some magic items and something else I can't mention here.

So this adventure is a whole conglomerations of products spanning over 30 years.  Pretty cool.  I hope to create an adventure that my players will enjoy.  Now I need to get off here and get back to the adventure.  After the players are done with the adventure I'll post it here.

9-16-11 Nebie Blogger Award Winner

It's been a while since I've given one away and not for the lack of great blogs just the simple fact that I've been trying to write a bit more, work has been busy and two new puppies have invaded the household.  But I came across this blog and thought it deserved some recognition.  An old school blogger with a GURPS 4E tilt that I can appreciate.  And from the author notes has co-written several GURPS products.  There are several interesting links.

So please go check out...

Dungeon Fantastic

Congrats to Peter Dell'Orto, I look forward to reading many of your blogs to come.  Please take a look and support his blog.  It will be time well spent.

Critical Miss Table

Here is the critical failure table as promised.  Players I'll send you a copy tonight. 

1. Weapon Breaks, if it is a punching or kick attack it is broken and unusable for 2-4 weeks. If the weapon is magical the weapon falls where anyone can grab it.
2. Harm Self, half damage.
3. Harm Self, full damage.
4. Harm Ally, half damage.
5. Harm Ally, full damage.
6. Lose Weapon, lose 1 attack.
7. Lose Weapon, lose 1 attack.
8. Lose Weapon, lose 2 attacks.
9. Lose Weapon, lose 2 attacks.
10. Lost Weapon, no idea where it went will need to use another weapon for this combat.
11. Hurt Arm, half damage for the rest of the combat.
12. Hurt Arm, -1 to hit for the rest of the combat.
13. Hurt Arm, -2 to hit for the rest of the combat.
14. Weapon Stuck for 1d3 rounds.
15. Knock Out Self.
16. Knock Out Ally.
17. Enemy Gets Free Attack.
18. Injure Arm, unable to use for 1d4 days.
19. Harm Ally, roll on critical hit table.
20. Harm Self, roll on critical hit table.

Critical Hit Table (Yes, Another One)

There are a lot of critical hit tables out there, some where around one critical hit table per 2.375 gamers.  Well for my Into the Dark Land campaign I made another.  I like my critical hits to mean something, but keeping it simple.  Splishy. splashy when the halberd hits the goblin guts.

1. Maximum Damage
2. Roll Double Normal Damage, roll normal damage the x2*
3. Roll Double Normal Damage, roll twice as many damage dice*
4. Exploding Dice
5. Exploding Dice
6. Roll Random Hit Location - if damage does more than half the creature's max hit points that limb/head is severed
7. Roll Random Hit Location - hit location is crippled, if the head is hit that the person/creature is blind
8. Add 1d4 to Damage
9. Add 1d6 to Damage
10. Add 2d6 to Damage
11. Horrible Wound, this wound continues to do d6 of damage each round until healed
12. Target is Knocked Unconscious
13. Blow Through - if there is another target within striking range the player may attack again
14. Increase Damage by One Die Type (a d4 would be a d6, a d6 into a d8 ect...)
15. Roll Normal Damage, but Reroll All 1s
16. Roll Normal Damage, but Reroll All 1s
17. Knock Opponent Back 1 Square for Every 4hp of Damage
18. Add 1d10 to Damage
19. Add 1d12 to Damage
20. Roll Twice On This List

*Strength Bonus and Magical Bonuses to damage are only counted once.

I'll post the Critical Failure table later on when I can format it to the blog.  It went all wonky when I tried to paste it in.  My players haven't even seen this chart so it will give them something to look forward to next week.

Game Session Story

I know many do not like to read fiction on the blogs so I am not going to post what I wrote.  Besides its over 3500 words and that is too long of a blog.  Here is a download  for those who wish to read.  Warning though, this is a first draft.  I did this for my players and anyone else who might be interest.  I didn't go over it so typos will be abundant.  I'm just doing this as an interesting way to track the campaign.  It's a pretty good reenactment of what occurred during our game session.  I'm sure I have not gotten everything right and I know I took some liberties, but for the most part its our session in a short story (and maybe serialized) format.

If you have a long day at work today or waiting around in the doctor's office or ate a bad burrito it may help to pass the time. 

You can find it here.

XP Call Out

We finished our first session of the AD&D campaign last night.  It was a blast.  I had a lot of fun DMing it and I think the guys were exciting to go back to old grounds and stomp around.  After the session I awarded XP.  For monster XP it is straight out of the back of the DMG and is divided among the party.  Magic XP is straight out of the DMG, this is given to the player who uses the item.  And then I am adding some bonus XP for exploration.  They found the goblin cave so they each earned a 100xp.  I also am giving class bonus XP.  At first level, every time a fighter scores a critical hit, 50xp.  The thief successfully had a backstab and unlocked a lock 50xp each.  Clerics will be a little trickier, their XP bonuses will be determined by the philosophy of their chosen god.  But the one Rusty is playing, he will get 10xp for every hit point he heals.

What I am looking for is some of the systems others use out there.  If you have a blog that you wrote about it please link it in the comments.  I would like to gather everything about experience points I can.  I know I've written and pretty much every one out there has written one, two or ten blogs about the subject.  If you have the time, please let me know where I can find it.

Big thanks ahead of time.  I have the day off so I am going to the bookstore to drink expensive coffee, have a killer oatmeal raisin cookie, draw some maps, write a small adventure and draw dirty pictures on the napkins and hand them to Whisk to see if I can make her turn red.

30 Years and Back

Tonight my AD&D campaign begins.  I have to say I am looking forward to getting into those old tables, looking through the books and discovering things (yes, I still do after 30 years), and I really hope to recapture some of that old time magic that this game held for me so long ago.  To clarify, a new version of that old time magic.  This game kept me out of trouble, got me into reading and really let me know it was okay to let your imagination to roam where ever it wanted.  That eventually led me to writing which I have been enjoying since then.

When we played this game we were young teenagers who were fascinated by the dice, the whole concept of playing a game without a board and having a chance at being a hero like we'd seen in the movies and read in books.  Back then is was find or buy a dungeon, go through it, get the stuff, then maybe hit a town then back to another dungeon.  Continuity wasn't important until later.

Now we are middle-aged men whose campaigns have developed into a bit more sophistication sociology-political-economic-religious melting pot, but besides all that, there is nothing like killing your first orc with a 1st level character.  That simple thrill never seems to go away.  So what I hope to do tonight is to capture some of that simple magic from thirty years ago when it was exciting to battle orcs and skeletons, goblins and trolls to the bitter end and wrap it in something we also enjoy today with the complexity of a society.

One last note, I found out this morning Andy Whitfield passed.  He was Spartacus in the Starz mini-series for the first season.  He had cancer and after 18 months lost his battle.  He did a great job and on a very selfish note I would have liked to have seen him continue on and complete the series. 

It also reminds me take advantage of the time we have.  To have fun.  To play the game we love.  And laugh with some friends as I draw horrible maps.  Have a good Monday folks. 

He was Spartacus.  The best one I've ever seen.

Sleestak Sunday

A somber note for today.

Oh Yeah, It's Time For Some Football

In-Game Calender

This is an area as a GM I do not do well.  Having a in-game calender I think can add a lot to the atmosphere of a campaign.  Not just the weather changers, but holidays, tournaments and other significant events.  As a GM this lets me look ahead in time and see that the Midsummer Festival will occur in couple of weeks so I would have the people getting ready and excited.  As a GM this is a great time have plotline have some sort of climax during this time or a new on develop. 

Calenders can help with developing the plotlines.  Plus it helps keep track of time in the campaign.  How long it takes to get from here to there.  I usually gloss over that part, but this time I plan on keeping one. 

To develop my calender i was sorta stuck with names of months and days.  What I did is a simple 10 month calender with 4, 10 day weeks.  I haven't figured out the holidays yet.  For Months and days of the week I google Hungarian words to get inspiration. 

Gotta go.  Work is busy as heck.

A Bit Pissed

Last night I had about an hour or so to work on campaign background.  I was typing away, things were coming quickly and I liked it.  I should have known it was going too well.  Then I went to close a website I was using to do a little research, instead I hit my Word document.  I was thinking, I don't want to close this.  Then the old yes or no question popped up on the screen (Would you like save?) and instead of answering that question it asked, I answered the one in my head.  I answered 'no'.............

No Alignments

So the countdown the to new AD&D campaign is started.  All the players have their concepts, Rob created his so I am waiting on Brian and Rusty to finish theirs.  Rusty is thinking of doing a cleric or cleric/magic-user.  I finished the pantheon over the weekend, I think it ended up being 13 gods, two of which are dead and one that in a catatonic state. 

When I finished the pantheon I decided not to use alignments.  I just feel they won't fit in with the world I'm building.  I want players to have the freedom to slide a little up and down the good, evil or neutral scale.  A cleric will of course need to play within the philosophy of their god to have their spells granted. 

A paladin is just a title for one god's champions.  Each god will have their version of a champion that will have special abilities as long as they adhere to their god's will.  I have most of those figured out.

Working on the background now and a map.  I wish I knew how to use those mapping programs, but I'll be drawing this one by hand.  Which I like, but i have a lousy scanner and sometimes it doesn't come out.  Anyway, it's Tuesday (blah), lunch is over and I'm looking forward to doing more work on the campaign when I get home.

The Verm - New Monster

As I was writing the dungeon for Starter Adventures I wanted to use a favorite critter of mine from the Fiend Folio, the Volt.  I really like the picture in the FF.  Although when I was hunting around I didn't see if it was under the OGL.   I'm lousy at figuring that stuff out.  So instead of trying to find out if it was covered under the OGL I decided to create my own critter based off the Volt.  This is how the Verm came about.  And Jason drew a kick ass picture for the Verm.  Because I have a handful of new monster I am adding a new section to Starter Adventures.  They will be a collection of low level guys you can throw into the fray.  Here is the Verm given in Swords & Wizardry Core stats.




Verm
HD:       1+1
AC:        5 [14]
Dam:     1d3 (bite), 1d4 (shock)
Move:   12
Save:     16
CL/XP:   3/60
Special: A successful bite causes 1d4 shock damage (save halves).

The verm are giant rats with a natural ability to channel electricity.  They travel within packs of normal giants rats.  They are territorial so only one is usually present in the pack, but sometimes there is a mating couple.  Verm are slightly more intelligent than normal rats and can use some minor tactics in a fight.  One of the more unusual things about verm is when not mating they often bond with an individual.  The individual can train the verm and the verm will serve them as the same as a dog.  But the territorial nature of the verm makes it difficult for the person to have friends.  The verm considers them competition and will look remove it. 

Resurrecting Evil

The Briv'El waited twelve thousand and fifty-four years for this day.  The mountain eroded and the humans moved the great stones that marked their god's grave.  With quiet patience they watched the humans carefully remove the earth from Ba'al.  Bone-by-bone he appeared.  It would be time soon.  There was no prophecy, no portents nor visions of this day.  On a Sunday evening, on September 4th at 7:22pm the Briv'El sacrificed their lives to give life to their creator.  An evil being that walked this world before the oceans were born and before the sun burned bright, pulled itself out of the earth.  

Psychedelic Sleestak Sunday

Enik may cause seizures.  No really.  He's one trippy sleestak.

Building a Pantheon

I've been going over some of the gods and goddesses and epic monsters that I want to include in my campaign.  I have my own pantheon of gods with their build in history, legends and motives.  But  I thought I would crack open the Deities & Demigods and scavenge a few gods.  One addition and most obvious is Gruumsh.  Is there really any other orc god?  This one-eyed bad ass is perfect.  And his name is pronounceable which is not that common.  I plan on mixing in a few bad girls.  Loviatar, a demigod known as Mistress of Pain (Finnish).  Hecate, Goddess of Magic and the Night (Greek), and finally Kali, Mother of Creation and Destruction (Indian).  I've tweaked titles and will tweak mythology to fit.  This trio can cause a lot of grief. 

In my own pantheon there are a total of ten gods, two of which are dead, but are still very prevalent in the overall mythology.  These gods were built using a non-alignment, non-aspect system so I will need to do some tweaking for this.  The good thing is I won't have to put too much effort into this since they have already been developed.  What I need to do is create a few interesting legends, heroes and those epic monsters I mentioned earlier.  I know I have at least to of these legendary beasts in my back pocket.

In the end I won't know what the complete pantheon will look like.  I will edit the gods by combining, deleting or expanding them.  Not a bad way to spend a humid and hot Saturday afternoon.  Being a god of gods is thirst work.  I think I'll go get an ice tea.

Number of Players

As of now, there are three players in the AD&D campaign I plan to start after Labor Day.  I am sure there will be some fluctuation with some not being able to play some nights and we may get another player added later on.  As a GM, now I have to start gearing up the campaign, particularly the adventures towards that number of players.  I don't tend to have NPCs go along, and for whatever reason we rarely use hirelings.  If an NPC does go along I like it to a single individual who plays an auxiliary role so as not to take the action away from the players. 

I don't use too many canned modules, although I have one or two I put to the side, under glass "break in case of an emergency adventure is needed."  Most of the old AD&D modules are written for 6 to 8 players.  I've only ever had that players once for a campaign.  Most of my groups tend to be very small two to three players and there are times when we've done some one-on-one.  So when I start making these adventures for the players I'll need to consider their number.  Some encounters will be the same no matter if it was one or a hundred players.

Another thing to consider is the classes.  Rob made a super strong smash and bash fighter.  Not sure what the other two will play, but I do like to tailor make adventures for players.  Once I find out their strengths and weaknesses and motives I can develop something that will be fun for all of them.  And develop the backstories and other fun conflicts. 

Iplan on posting alot of the development stuff here.  And I haven't stopped working on Starter Adventures.  I'm actually rewritting one section and adding two more sections.