Zombie Museum Day Trip

Yesterday, Whisk and I drove to Evans City, a small, but busy place just north of Pittsburgh.  Why would I drive there?  Because they have The Living Dead Museum of course.  Evans City is also the home of Evans City Cemetery which was featured in the first scenes of Night of the Living Dead, the original zombie movie.  A few years ago Whisk and I went on the hunt to find Nicholas Kramer there and had a great day.  Since then they have rebuilt the chapel that was in the movie.  It was rebuilt with the donations from movie fans who wanted to see it restored.

Here are a few cool picture we got from the museum.

Today the Whisk and I are barricading the doors and windows with all the scrap wood we can find.  We'll watch scary movies all day and she'll make great food.  Perfect Halloween.

Party Failure

I've been thinking about and discussing what constitutes failure for a party.  During my latest session the party put themselves into a situation where they are most likely to fail.  They were given the task to find and item before the week was out.  It probably won't happen.  There was one point in the adventure where I almost fudged it a bit to help them keep on schedule, but I hate fudging and decided to see how it played out.  The ending will as much a surprise to me as it will them.  So while they may not get the item back in time, there are a batch of other possible outcomes. 

I finished my 3rd micro-adventure this month, The Remains of a Most Unfortunate Party.  I started writing it before the game session, but it tied in nicely to my thought process.  Here we have an adventure that has been 'used' so to speak.  An adventuring party fairly recent went through here to get an item.  There are bodies and evidence of their passing.  In the the end they got their item, but they also were TPKed.

A few days ago I posted another micro-adventure titled, Old Warren Castle.  I have a post half written about found locations and that's what I consider Old Warren Castle. 

Time to head to the zombie museum in Evans City.  Enjoy the adventures.

Prison of Gallus

I completed my 35th micro-adventure last night, Prison of Gallus.  My 42nd piece over all for my Patreon.  I finally cracked 70 patrons!  Ivy likes to let me know when I get a new patron. 

I often overwrite my micro-adventures which is easily done given the restricted space on a 4"x6" notecard.  Or if I go bit it might be on a half sheet, from and back.  Or my largest is a full sheet, folded, front and back.  Often times I need to rewrite an adventure, on average, three times.  I kept doing over and over again this past month.

I was working on this one idea, but the problem was I had a great title and great cover, but the adventure I wrote for it did not fit the...I don't know, the importance of the title and cover.  So I had to put that one aside to go at it another day because it wasn't clicking.  I've got a folder on my desktop full of partially written adventures to come back to. 

So to give my mind a rest I binge watch Netflix (and there are so many good shows on right now) and draw maps.  I think I've drawn 5 or 6 maps recently.  Fodder for later use.  The map above was one I drew while watching an enjoyable episode of Arrow.

To get things churning again I often have to dial it down.  Think more of an adventure situation than an adventure setting.  These micro-adventures actually can produce an amazing amount of ideas to rift off of.  With Prison of Gallus you have the following situations:

• An unborn child was cursed to be a flesh eater, a living ghoul.  
• The noble lord who is embarrassed and ashamed of the situation and uses his power to sacrifice others in the hope of curing his son.
• The mysterious person who curse Gallus and what was the reason.
• The criminals are vanishing from the dungeons, even those who are guilty of minor crimes.
• The disappearances of people on the street.  

There are many strings to pull upon that are suggested in this micro-adventure.  These strings can be developed into much larger situations/adventures.  The seed, the beginning of something much larger.  That's why I like writing the micro-adventures because even though they are small, they can develop into many things.

Prison of Gallus is free for everyone.  Just hit the link and you'll be teleported to where you can do that.  If you are a patron or become a patron at the $2.50 level or above, you'll receive a laminated copy of the adventure in early November.  I huge thanks to my 71 patrons.  Their support has been a huge help over the past couple of months. 

It is Monday.  Time to make the doughnuts. 

Trick-or-Treat Giveaway Winners!

I had 24 entries into the giveaway.  Here are the 6 winners!

+Andy Action wins Menagerie of the Ice Lord
+Peter Schweighofer wins The Blasphemous Brewery of Pilz: Extra Stout Edition
+Frank Turfler wins The Undercroft No.5
+Taylor Frank wins Demon Drums
+Jim White  wins The Stronghold No.2
+Mike Monaco wins Slumbering Ursine Dunes

Thanks to every who shared their Halloween stories, they were a lot of fun to read.

Trick or Treat Giveaway

I was sorting and changing around my gaming shelf and found some duplicates of some zines, new and old, and thought I would do a trick-or-treat giveaway.  Here's the list of prizes.

The Treats
Demon Drums by +Tim Callahan 
Blasphemous Brewery of Pilz: Extra Stout Edition by +dylan hartwell
Menagerie of the Ice Lord by +dylan hartwell
Slumbering Ursine Dunes by +Chris Kutalik
The Stronghold by +Boric Glanduum
The Undercroft by +Daniel Sell

All of these are fantastic.  And the only reason I'm doing the giveaway is I have duplicates and spreading good gaming around improves the world.

The Trick
So here's how this will work.  If you want to be entered into this random goodness, in the comments below, share your favorite Trick-or-Treat moment.  Or Halloween if that words better.  Extra points if you mention what was/is your favorite treat to get. 

I'll randomly roll the winners from those who participate.  If there is a particular one you would really like to get, mention it.  Can't guarantee that's the one you'll win, but it improves your chances.  I'll determine the six winners Wednesday night sometime.

Enjoy this, the funniest of all the holidays, Happy fricking Halloween.

Starting a New Player

I've been reading various posts and the subject I've been drawn to lately are about starting a new game.  A new game with new players specifically.

There are several posts about easing a new player into a campaign world.  And others throw them in the middle of the pool of information and tell them to swim.  I prefer somewhere in the middle.  I've never been fond of extremes either way.  I prefer somewhere between the two positions and that somewhere may lie anywhere, depending on the player I am trying to introduce to the my game.

As I say in many of my posts, I will with this one, this is what works best for me and I am not saying if you prefer to use different methods that you are wrong.  I don't get paid to be the game police.

When I get a new player introduced into my campaign there a few factors that I take into account.

• What is the player's gaming experience?  Is this their first gaming or are that a 30+ year tabletop warrior.
• What is the player's age?  Once in a while you'll have a youngster join the party.  I would introduce a 10yr old into the campaign differently than a 40yr old. 
• How far along into the campaign is the party?  If the new player starts with the rest of the party I will take more time creating something to introduce them to the world.  But if a new player come in at the middle (I don't like doing this, but at times I have done it), I will give them a sketch of what is the current situation, and notes focused on how the party came to be where they are.  I don't want to disrupt the flow of the game, by bogging down the party's momentum to explain why this happened or this is how that happened.  
• Talk to the player.  If someone is going to join my game, I like to explain what the campaign is about and what kind of game are they looking for.  If they want a western theme, or a high powered video game experience I let them know they will be very disappointed in my game.  Plus, you want to make sure your new player isn't a dickhead.

I don't do much more than that.  If I have the time I'll do an outside session with them to develop their character and run them solo to get a feel for the background of the character and the tone of the campaign.  

Tales from the Game Tavern [Review]

Look at the beautiful orange and black cover.  The adventurers out with there jack-o-lantern candy containers.   A Halloween zine.  Two of my favorite things.  +Grand DM is the curator of The Game Tavern zine.

This review is based on the print version.  Tales from the Game Tavern is 28 pages, which is a bit meatier than the typical 24 pages.  The beautiful orange, cardstock wrap around cover.  There is a mix of artwork, some by the Grand GM himself and public domain images.  And the last two pages are dedicated to the OGL.  Now let's dive into the issue.

The introduction is one of my favorite parts of a zine.  A little glimpse of into the mind behind the zine.  This one is no different.  Grand GM professes his love for everything fall and Halloween and my favorite stat is he runs I6:Ravenloft and that Strahd record is 9-1.

There are seven articles within and the first on is titled Flesh Golem Redux.  An interesting take on flesh golems using the Gothic influence of Frankenstein.   A trio of female flesh golems, or the Monster's harem.  At the end of the article are a handful of helpful GM tips.

Haunted Armor is the next article, four pieces of armor that do more than protect.  I like the way this one is formatted.  A paragraph of flavor text, the appearance of the item and its enchantments.  The second paragraph is how to use it in game.  I like this feature.  Plus, the items are interesting and playable.  I am one of those GMs who likes to have magic items have drawbacks, these quartet fit that bill nicely. 

Tavern Ghost, a quick 1d4 table of, what else, Tavern Ghosts!  Add a little flavor into your tavern.  There are plenty of tavern name generators, tavern weird food or weird drink tables, but this is the first one for ghosts. 

Grody the Ghoul is a low level adventure.  This one is accompanied by a fantastic looking map.  Also a clever use of the map are two random tables Worm Chow and Gnarly Finds.  They do not disappoint.  I like the adventure, a straight forward affair that can be completed in a night.  What I like about it though is I can see it as part of the local folklore of a small village.  At the end of Grody the Ghoul is a nice hex map and suggestions on how to expand the adventure.   I like these GM tips and suggestions at the end of each article. 

Alien Abduction is a series of random tables to produce a horror abduction of the Halloween kind.  These table I see more useful in modern settings, but an interesting interaction between the four table can create crazy outcomes.

Now this one is my favorite article of the issue, Malignant Scourge.  It deals with disease, an underused thing in gaming I think.  And zombies!  I like the ideas and how it plays out I plan to steal it for my own game.  The spread of the Malignant Scourge is deadly and fun and add a few social elements and half-truths and it turns this article up to an 11. 

To finish out the issue is recipe for Game Tavern Goulash.  Taste is you dare. 

+Grand DM has put out a fantastic Halloween themed zine.  It is a lot of fun and there is a lot of good gamable stuff in the pages.  You can buy a print copy from his blog, Ultanya.  It is $5 US, $6 Canada and $8 for the world.  And after you order your copy go check out his incredible gaming room.  It's fricking beautiful.  If you want a PDF copy, it's available at RPGNow for $2.99.

Random Map Monday: Ruins & Quarry

Worked on this map all weekend.  Still working on ruins and also thought I would try my hand at a quarry.  This map took more time because instead of being on a 4" x 6" notecard, this map was drawn on a full-size sheet. 

I've got a unformed idea for this map.  My brain has not been working well these days so very little production of anything.  I'm hoping my brain begins functioning again or I may have to call my home owners insurance and see if I can get a replacement. 

"Screw The Man"

Tonight we run through +Ken H  2nd session and our 5th overall session.  Now I am armed with a physical copy of the Pits & Perils system.  +Chris C. and I will continue our investigation of the mysterious deaths in the area.  While we have gathered a bunch of information we are not sure what exactly what to do with it quite yet.  I figure tonight it'll come together somewhat. 

On Saturday is our face-to-face game.  +Rob Conley is running a Fantasy Age game in his Majestic Wilderlands.  +Daniel McEntee and +Dwayne Gillingham will be the other players around the table.  I finally finished my character after two false starts where I lost everything I did.  I ended up making an outsider, dwarven warrior, a radical.  So that should be interesting to play.  I have a 'screw the man', an Easy Rider kinda vibe.  In my head, this is what my character's home looks like.

Random Map Ruin

This map was inspired by +matt jackson.  I've always liked his ruin maps and it's something I've never been very good at drawing.  Matt allowed me to use one of his maps in issue 6 of The Manor, for an adventure, Witched of the Black Moon, I think it was called.  I went hunting for it and decided to give a ruin another go.

This is the original map by Matt.  I stole as much as I possible could from it.  I like the clear, simple defined walls.  And then Matt, like the other great map makers, create depth by adding a different level of exploration, it this case some underground caves.  I tried to steal that as well, but my attempt is a bit clumsy.  But I'll keep practicing. 

I may do a series where I draw a few maps in another map makers style, just as an exercise and I hope by the end of it I will have learned a few things from each to make my own maps better.

September Micro-Adventures Pre and Re View

I am ahead of myself this month.  I already have September's Micro-Adventures for my patrons printed and in envelopes.  Who is this guy who is all orginizational?  I decided to do a video of what my patrons will receive this month for backing me. 

In October I will do a promotional drive in attempt to increase my patrons.  I'll go into more detail later this week. 

Patrons, the micro-adventures will be sent out this week, but you get a sneak peek of what they look like.  Everyone else can got to my Micro-Adventures page and download the all the PDFs for free.

Mail Call Catch-Up

The past couple of weeks has been very good for mail.  I never get tired of getting cool packages in my post box.  It breaks-up the monotony of utility bills and advertisements and the latest political candidate flyer hoping you'll pick him or her over the other boneheads.  But this is how pretty my mail box looked like.

Look at them.  Just look at them.  That is a good looking group.

First, I finally got the print version for Pits & Perils.  I provided the thumb shadow, that was not included in my Lulu purchase.  +Olde House Rules created this rule set that the Wednesday night game use.  Wanna know something...shhh...I wrote in it!  I never do that.  But for some reason this book is inviting me to vandalize it with our house rules.  I like that.

This is the first of two +Simon Forster sightings in my mail box.  Simon has this fantastic patreon where he completed this Book of Lairs.  This is a great looking book.  And he and +Jim Magnusson, who illustrated this book, make a great team.  Review coming up for this one.

The newest entry into the zine scene id the +Grand DM's offering, Tales from the Game Tavern.  Absolutely love the cover.  There are 28 pages of gaming goodness that I will review very soon.  In the mean time grab a copy so you can follow along.

Another zine, but Crawl! is the original DCC zine and it turns 11 issues with this copy.  +Dak Ultimak the skipper, +Bob Brinkman as Gilligan, +Daniel Bishop as the Professor and +Sean Ellis as Mary Ann.  This issue focuses on seafaring adventures.  Which is good, because without a doubt, sea/water type of adventures are my weakest. 

And lastly, but not leastly is the second +Simon Forster offering.  A map on one side and The Disappointer on the other side.  This sad little shmoo won't hurt you, but it may have you questioning your life choices.

That concludes this episode of what's in the Manor's Mail.

How I Hate My Printer and Inspired by Folklore

Some days I like my printer.  This was not one of those days.  It was one of those days where you create new curse words to describe your frustration.  You ask your printer to do things that are anatomically impossible, not that it has the anatomical parts to perform such acts.  This is on of those days where you wish objects had feelings to hurt.  Am I mean?  Maybe.  But when you request a simple thing, like print landscape instead of portrait, of your printer, you don't think too much of it until it refuses.  Maybe you're asking the printer to change the size of your document, but no matter how many times you click the button to change the size and save, the printer reverts back to a size you did not select.  Over and over again.

I finally settled on what it wanted to do and stopped fighting it.  I lost every battle.

I bring you Along Came the Spider, my 34th micro-adventure.  This one features the map I drew in a map book a good man sent me as a gift.  The map that is included was drawn in my vehicle at lunch and scanned in to use for this adventure.

 This adventure was inspired by folklore.  We've been messing with folklore in our Pits & Perils game and that inspired me to come up with something.  A folklore thing.  An artifact.  But not some powerful magic item, but a thing,  a symbol that contains meaning to people who know it. A thing that inspires or causes fear.

My $5 patron will receive the zine copy of Along Came the Spider at the end of the month and the PDF is free for anyone to download. 

Enjoy!

Mobile Mapping Headquarters

Yesterday I posted about about the wonderful gift +Mark Hassman sent me.  Today I'm showing you a live action shot of how it is being used.  This is a console in my vehicle. 

• Mark's mapping book fits perfectly in the slot. 
• A pencil holder.
• A couple of pens, not so much for mapping for back of check signing or emergency defense.
• A letter opener for when I get cool mail at the post and can't wait to get home to open it.  That little stem on the apple is fricking sharp and it cuts through stubborn tape quickly.
• The mechanical pencil is my main mapping tool.  I make too many mistakes to not be erasable.
• However, when I am feeling cocky, I have an extra Micron .005 pen.  I'll need to remove it in the winter.  Pens don't do so well in sub-zero weather, but I think I still have a couple of months before that.

This allows me to map and jot down idea while at lunch or just sitting in the car waiting for whatever.  It's almost like the Batmobile.