Sleestak Sunday of Waiting

Another sleestak in line for another iWhatever.  He thought his fame would allow him to the front of the line, but was sent to the rear when he tried to pass for Enik. 

Random Dungeon Room Filler & Sleep Deprived Dungeon & Pictures of Feet

d12 Random Dungeon Filler

1-3 Creature

4  Trap

5  Treasure

6-7  Empty

8  Corpse

9  Event

10-11  Room Feature

12 Roll 2x

Adventure of the Randomly Rolled Dungeon

    This adventure was randomly rolled with the table above.  Why?  Because I have nothing else to do on a Saturday night when Ivy is the middle of a coupon frenzy.  I'm using the Blood & Treasure RPG for the system.  Now your probably wondering how I drew such an amazing map and did all the artwork in a single night.  Well it wasn't easy.  My secret, ice tea.  Now back to our not so normal program. 

1. (rolled 12 - roll 2x) (rolled 4 - trap and 1 - creature)

     The players descend the stairs and at the bottom a giant beetle devours the lower half of some poor smuck.  By the look of his tattered pants you and shitty shoes it is easy to deduct he must have been a henchmen.  The beetle's eyes glow red as it stops eating and scurries towards the players.  Fire Beetle (HD: 1, HP: 5, AC: 16, Dam: 2d4 (bite), MV: 30)

     There is a backpack deeper into the recess of area 1.  It was carried by poor Gilly Rumbutter whose plump body has been devoured by the beetle.  Only his stubby little legs remain.  Being a careful sot, with his possessions, not where he went, Gilly trapped his backpack with a powder.  If someone opens the pack without being careful a small packet of powder will erupt into the victim's face blinding him or her for an hour.  Inside the backpack are 6 torches, mallet, 4 iron spikes, 14 days of iron rations and a pint of hard cider.

2. (rolled 3 - creature)

     There is a mound in the center of this room with several large larva eggs.  They are round enough for a human to hug and tall enough to touch a the knee.  Nearly half look to have been broken.  The whole larva pulsate with a mild warmth.  

     Once the players enter the room or investigate the cavern ceiling they will see the movement above.  The beetles above are silent except when they attack.  They will release a loud whistling and click noise.  This allows them to perform basic strategic maneuvers.  These bombardier beetles will begin their attacks by releasing a acidic vapor from their back ends (1d6 damage, Fort save nullifies damage) then descend and engage.  3 Bombardier Beetles (HD: 2, HP: 10 each,  AC: 16, Dam: 1d4 (bite), 1d6 (acid spray), MV: 30) 

  

3. (rolled 9 - event)

     When the players enter the area the ground will shake and chunks from overhead will fall (make Reflex save or suffer 1d4 damage).  Once the earthquake passes there will be cracks above along with debris on the floor reducing move to half.

     The top eastern passageway was sealed long ago.  Should the players decide to excavate the tunnel they will find three dead goblin corpses with picks still in their hand. 

4. (rolled 11 - room feature)

     This room looks to have once been a grand setting, but the recent earthquakes has nearly buried it.  The floor is covered with a white limestone.  Each stone seems to have been shaved perfectly to fit with the rest.  And upon each tile of limestone is a small etching depicting the everyday life of a goblin.  

     If the players decide they want to give digging a go roll a d12 every so often ignoring all rolls except a 9 which will cause another earthquake.  If they can avoid another earthquake they can dig to the south and find The Chair of The Verge.  The Verge is a not so famous chieftain who liked fancy chairs.  The chair is broken, but it is decorated with over 100 cheap gems (each not worth more that 1 or 2sp).  The tiles are the real treasure.  Each tile can be sold at market for at least 10-20 sp.  Each stone weights 10lbs.  

Conclusion

     Who knows.  It's late here and I'm sleepy and the dog keeps biting my foot.  No I don't have a picture of that.

Friday Question

First off the real NFL refs are back!  And I guess I'll use that as a lame connection to my Friday Question.

Referees, Judges, GMs, DMs, CKs, TKs...whatever you prefer to call the man or woman behind the screen.  Have you ever played with a temporary or not so regular GM and found they were annoying beyond comprehension?  What did they do that was so annoying?

Back in the day when we used to carry around folders filled with characters we made in case a D&D game would break out.  So pick up games were what you survived on.  Campaigns were not much other than a couple of adventures strung together.  So a friend and I spend the night at this new guy's home who recently joined our D&D circle.  He'd been quiet most of the session so we thought it might be fun to get together and pull an all nighter.  This guy starts to lay out the rules and all of a sudden we were in the presence of the notorious Chaotic Evil DM.  No matter what you did it was wrong.  Rules changed to favor the people we were fighting.

Each time he would kill one of our characters he wanted our character sheet.  This is before easy access to copier, there were no real home computers and carbon paper was priceless.  So giving up your character was a huge deal.  Luckily he was little so I didn't give him mine.  But for the next couple hours he killed off nearly every character I had.  I had a mid level paladin that got struck by a kobold sling stone and killed.    And his laugh...everytime he'd kill a character he would, not laugh, giggle.  He'd giggle as if he drowned his neighbor's puppy.

Anyway share annoying habits of your referees.

Dungeon Map Rough Draft

This a rough map for one of the dungeons I'm including in the 4th Manor.  Yes, I am working on two issues at the same time.  It will harken back to the days of a double album.  Without the albums.  And I got to use the word harken.  I want to snaz it up more. 

It's a underground complex that recently got hit by an earthquake and why some of the regions and rooms of the dungeon are cut off.  Crap fell and blocked off the passages.  This one is nearly done.  Just need to finish the last encounter and then tidy up the text.  Right now I have four more in progress, but I'll have to see if I can get everything in I want.  Space is precious and I can fill it up with crap.  Although I think I squeeze in either 4 or 8 more pages which would be awesome.  So the next Manors will be fat.  Like they ate too many of those Rocky Road Klondike bars. 

Star Trek Test...I Wanna Retest!

Your results:
You are Deanna Troi

Deanna Troi 75% An Expendable Character (Redshirt) 75% Jean-Luc Picard 65% Will Riker 65% Worf 65% Geordi LaForge 55% Data 44% Leonard McCoy (Bones) 40% James T. Kirk (Captain) 35% Uhura 35% Beverly Crusher 35% Spock 32% Mr. Scott 20% Chekov 20% Mr. Sulu 10%

You are a caring and loving individual. You understand people's emotions and you are able to comfort and counsel them.

Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character am I?" quiz...

Sychronized Sleestak Sunday

A faithful sleestak spotter, David, took this blurry photo of possible sleestak emerging from the Olympic pool in London.  I want to thank David for the photo and letting us all know the sleestak can swim.

Sleestak Sunday Sauce

Definitely a required taste.  Although many foodies claim it makes the best risotto.  While I am a sleestak enthusiast, I have to draw the line somewhere.  And today that line is drawn by not eating their sauce.

Blogging Cancelled Due to Rain

How can I cancel blogging by writing about my blog being cancelled?  Sometimes its best not to question too deeply.  In the Bugs Bunny world, we're all only one erasure away from the truth. 

I wanted to take a picture of this fantastic envelope I received from William Dowie for join his Viking Fest Adventure Contest.  Inside was a fantastic fridge magnet that will be stuck to my computer.  Also got the latest issue of Loviatar.  I got tired of seeing the red squiggly line under Loviatar so I added it to my dictionary.  I want to write a bit more on the latest issue.

Oh yeah, Matt Jackson came out with his first rendition of Moleskin Maps.  Again I wanted to take a couple of pictures of it and one I was working on using his great product, but it will have to wait for a bit.

My intended blog of cool pictures has been cancelled due to Ivy leaving our digital camera out in the rain last night.  Maybe it will get better later, but right now its not doing so well.  I waited for it to dry before turning it back on to test it, but it let out a little pathetic squeak, not picture in the viewer only quick flashes like there was a tiny lightning storm happening in my camera.  Hmm, maybe that's what happened, the camera absorbed the lightning storm last night.  Some how that could be cool, but I'm not sure how.

But I got some cool stuff in the mail and can't show you.  So that's all I have to say about that.

Friday Question: Day Trip

Wow, did Blogger just take a crap?  Its new.  I'm sure it will be fine...still not liking it.  Guess I need to give it more time.

On to Friday's question.  Last weekend Ivy and I went to the Evan's City Cemetery to find the location of Nicholas Kramer.  A small scene in a movie, but we always wanted to just go since it was close by.

Is there a location you would like to visit that you've seen in a movie?  I was thinking of keeping these location a day trip away from your home.  And in places in New York and LA there are probably more places than you can count, but what site would you visit or did visit just because it was on a movie?

....still not too thrilled about this new look.  More time I guess.

Finding Nicholas Kramer

How many of you know the name?  Probably not one of the more popular names, but its in one of the most famous movies, Night of the Living Dead.  In the beginning of the movie Barbara, and her brother Johnny go to the cemetery.  Johnny utters some of the most famous words in horror movie history, "They're coming to get you Barbara."  Soon mayhem ensues and Johnny becomes lunch while Barbara hides behind a tombstone to watch.

Nicholas Kramer's tombstone.  Ivy and took a day trip to the Evans City Cememtary.  This is where the cemetery scenes were filmed.  It's been one of those trips we've been wanting to do for a while. 

It took a long time for us to find Nicholas Kramer.  But we did finally find the famous tombstone of Nicholas Kramer.

This is me making scary hands behind the marker.  Ivy said my right hand was scarier than my left.  What can I say, I'm not a profession scary hand maker.  It was a cool day trip, weather was great and the company was the best.

As a bonus we took a few pictures of the closed keeper house.

Pretty big place.  All of it was locked up except the door to the left had a hole in it.

So we took a picture of the inside.  I thought it was pretty creepy and very cool.

This keeper's house screams out to be included in my Rural PA segments in The Manor.  

*Sleestak Sunday will resume next Sunday.

Friday Question : Pick a System, Any System

Over at Tenkar's Tavern he did a poll of which system 'the people' would like to see him run in Google+.  The list of old school systems was longer than I expected.  Labyrinth Lord surged ahead at the end, shooting past Blood & Treasure.  The systems are all fairly similar.  I know if I pick up a LL adventure and can switch it to Swords & Wizardry without much effort.

So what makes you choose one system over another?  And what system do you like best?

My answer is Swords & Wizardry right now.  Mainly because that's the main one my group uses.  Although I like LL a lot and now that I have Blood & Treasure I think I found my new favorite.

Boris Starts a Fire

Lenny a good man.  A Big man.  Not a smart man.  But a good man.  Met with this Waxy Malroon.  Boris know something about this man.  No touch or skin melt.  While Boris never see such a thing, Boris would prefer to keep it that way.  Remind Lenny no touch Waxy. 

Before this we go to club.  Club where rich people talk about being rich and how to be richer and laugh at not funny jokes.  He talk to rich man, we try to trick him into thinking things, by saying things and Erskin read his mind.  No work.  Erskin pretends to be reporter.  Does good job.  Make Boris laugh.  Erskin make good repporter one day.  Still no information.

Back to Waxy and Lenny.  Still no touch.  They meet at Duppy Jones.  I tape gun in bathroom.  You never know.  Boris think gun in bathroom is better than no gun in bathroom.  Boris go early find spot and wait for Waxy and his goons.  They arrive take Lenny into back and then into warehouse.  Erskin does his mind thing.  He pushes his forehead forward when thinking hard. 

Boris need to make distraction.  Throw brick.  Later need to make other distraction.  Start fire.  Fire not go so well.  Boris need to work on fire setting.  Should be better by now.  Lenny make break with half metal man.  Head back to Heyward's secret apartment.  Boris find it funny that a brain and two metal men stay there now. 

Grease Lake only clue we have to go on.  Boris know something about this.  A little.  Location at least.  Need to find clue or we sit in room and stare at phone that does not ring.

I'm Sage'olicious

Yeah, creepy title.  I just realized I leveled up to Sage!  I could have had extra hit points all this time.  And a gotta start planning my stronghold.  And so have to get some new dice now.  Sage dice.  I wonder if Ivy will buy that?

Just an aside.  A lot of dirty pictures came up when I Googled Sage.  So after 45 minutes of being appalled the only picture I could find to post was this:

Game Night Glitches

Our Monday game session was riddled with technical difficulties.  Fantasy Grounds was being cranky, Rob's IP address kept changing, skype would go in and out, personal computers were being rebooted by ghosts, and Bug was attacking me as I was battling an owlbear.  She has no danger sense.  We emailed maps instead of shared them on FG, we rolled real dice and virtual dice, we sometimes had to roll for someone else because of their computer freezing.  And I believe their was something mention about bards performing fellatio.  While not a technical difficulty it was something we did not need to know.

Despite the horde of glitches it was a good time.  We pushed through.  We had a short time to adventure and had some fun.  I'm playing a son of a forester who was kicked out of the village because he tried to help people, but didn't think it through.  He's not worldly and often believes what people tell him, but he has an internal sense of what is right and wrong, but he often gets into trouble in these cases.  He respects those above his station and refers to them in cases where even he may know better.  And he has a dog named Red.

Update on The Manor.  I've enlisted the assistance of Rob Conely to help me finish the map.  I drew it up, I like it, but when I tried to number the locations it didn't look good or was unreadable.  So I defer to the old carto pro.  He'll teach me a few mapping tricks.  Anyway.  If you look at my previous post and see those blue section, especially the one in the northeast corner, it is not water.  It's a new mineral I've concocted called blue coal.  I'll do a write up on it in my GM Games blog.  If you haven't joined the blog please go on over.  I want to build a email list for those who join that blog and once in a while I am planning to shoot out freebies and just stuff to those members.  Anyway, I am liking the direction the issue is going.  I also found out I can squeeze in two more page in to the fold increasing the size of the zine from 24 to 32.  Which I'll need. 

Tonight, its Weird Adventures with Trey.  Boris got into a robot fight last time and luckily was not wearing a pink shirt.

Evolution of a Map

Wow, this map took a lot of time.  More than I expected.  There are 80+ buildings.  I've decided to name the village, Hiemfell.  I'm not sure how I'm going to describe everything in 24 pages, but I'll figure it out.  I promise not to use a 4.5 sized font.  The third issue of the Manor will have a color map on the inside of the loose cover. 

Here are five pictures showing the progress of the map.  My standard style, pencil first, micro Sharpies, colored pencils then I'll use Xara to put in the numbers and words.  I think this map took me nearly 6 to 8 hours to complete.  So I better not spill ice tea on it.  And keep it away from Bug.  

I'll also be doing an overview map.  Probably a hex, but maybe not.  Right now I need to get cracking on the Village of Heimfell.  

Sleestak Fight Club

In the white corner, standing 6'8" and weighing in at 275 pounds, is Sssssessshhh the Destroyer.

And the undisputed sleestak champion in the red corner, standing 6'9" and weighing in at 283 pounds, the killer of Droosh, Mangler of Orshi, is Ssssssavaavid the Groaning God!

Both fighters will roll initiative per round with a d10.  Attacks will be determined by a roll of a d20.  Each one will need a 14 to hit.  When a hit occurs a d6 is rolled to determine damage.  Sleestaks return to your corners, when the blogger write fight come out fighting.

Fight!

Sesh comes out swinging first, but his wild kick is way short.  Ssavid takes his time to evaluate his opponent giving him a +1 to his attack next round.

Sesh rushes is and Ssavid easy steps out of the way causing Sesh to lose his balance.  Ssavid delivers a glancing blow, but it does no damage.

Boy Sesh is coming out hard and looking like he wants to end this fight early.  But his spinning back kick leaves him vulnerable on the ground as he loses his balance and falls.  Ssavid leaps into the air and lands on the challenges chest.  The crowd hisses as the sound of bones breaking echoes through the cave as 6 points of damage are delivered.

To Ssavids surprise Sesh kips up into a standing position despite blood dripping from his mouth.  But once again his attack goes wide leaving him vulnerable to the champion's attack.  This time the champion delivers a blow, but Sesh is able to block it with his shoulder.

We're nearing the end of round 1 and its been all Ssavid.  His experience is paying huge dividends against the anxious challenger. 

Still moving quick the challenger released a quick jump kick, but again his attack falls short.  Ssavid didn't even need to move to dodge the blow.  Oh No!  Ssavid runs around to the back of his opponent and delivers a jumping punch to the back of Sesh's neck!  Oh my what a devastating strike.  This is the same attack the crippled Instag two years ago.  The blow delivers, 10 points of damage and sends Sesh face down to the ground.

Enik, tonight's ref, runs in quickly and starts delivering the count.  The champ goes to his corner looking like he's not ready for this fight to be over.  1 - 2 - 3...Sesh is trying to get up, but his arms are buckling.  5 - 6 - 7.  The crowd is up and shouting.  It is pandemonium in here.  9 - 10!

The champ has done it.  The champ has done it.  A first round knock out!  Oh my.  The medical crew and clerics have rushed into the arena.  The challenger still isn't able to get up.

Ssavid holds his pylon belt high for all to see.  The Groaning God shows the world once again why he is the champion.  There is no argument.

Map in Progress

It's a rainy afternoon here in rural Pennsylvania, perfect for drawing a map.  This is the preliminary map for the next issue of The Manor. 

Friday Question : Fantasy Line Up

With football season ready to begin and along with that there are several zillion people getting ready for their fantasy drafts.  So let's set up a fantasy line up for your game.  The line ups would include:

2 fighters
1 wizard/mage
1 cleric/priest
1 thief/rogue
and 1 wildcard guy

Here's my fantasy line-up:
For fighters gotta go with Conan.  Strong as they come, dependable up the middle with little disregard for his own safety. Then I think I would go with Tempest from the Thieves World books.  Guy has been around forever and he can regenerate.  Mage wise.  Merlin is the obvious choice, but he's too slow.  He likes casting epic spells when I want someone who can whip out some fire fast.  So I'm going with Zeddicus Zu'l Zorander from Legend of the Seeker.  He had no problem toasting a few bad men.  Cleric...hmm, Friar Tuck wouldn't be so bad, but not sure if he would be much for healing.  I'll have to get back to you on this one.  Thief, I'm going with Gray Mouser, I don't think I need to explain why.  And the wildcard.  Here's where I go out of genre, but I'd want to bring in Sherlock Holmes.  He'd find the clues, traps, knows his poisons and not too shabby of a fencer.

Okay your turn.  Who is in your fantasy line-up?

Picture Inspiration for Writing

Here's a series of pictures I recently found that I plan to use to develop a few ideas I have swimming in my head.   Some locations, people and events I've got planned for the future issues of The Manor.

Map Porn, 1-Page Dungeon, and Vikings All Free

Could you ask for much more from one post?  William Dowie over at the Ramblings of a Great Khan is running a viking themed one-page dungeon contest so I through my helm into the ring.  I made the map and wrote up the adventure.  I put it on RPGNow for a free download.   I'm not in love with the cover.  It was something I put together fast so I could have a cover.  It was a perfect diversion from all the other work I needed to get done. 

Sleestak Sunday

by Mattew Petz

A new alliance has been formed.  Batman will never know what hit him.  And Robin will scream like a little girl.

But it seems the sleestak nation is divided and some have pledged their loyalty to Batman!