YouTube Video Unboxing

I've been toying with more videos for my YouTube channel. I want to get better at doing videos. I'm lousy right now. But the more I make the better I get. That's the theory I guess. My blogging has slowed considerably, but if I can make a couple minute video with my phone that would be great. I'll see.

I keep it simple. Whisk was helping me with the video shoot until she thought she saw her reflection in the tin then handed me the phone and ran.  I was abandon mid-stream, but like a professional it, didn't phase me. I carried on.

I'd like to do review videos. I have to find a way to do it so it is most advantageous for the product. Me flipping through pages as I'm talking about the book isn't what I want to watch. I'd like to find a way to present it better. I need to watch more videos, see what I want to do and what I don't want to do.

I want to do some reviews on +Christian Walker's "the tolling of the great black bell", those one-page zines are fantastic. +trey causey latest release, I don't have it in front of me and I would slaughter the title and still may once its in front of me. And +Charlie Mason's newest White Box book. 

So many things. 

So many ways to play.

Adventuring Themes: Sloppy Seconds

I've had a slow month as far as productivity is concerned. But I'm hitting the book store in a little bit and working on an adventure, using the traditional grid map I drew a while ago. 

Sometimes I use a theme for writing an adventure, this one would be sloppy seconds. Meaning, the party is hitting the dungeon soon after another adventuring party went through. Lots of evidence of mayhem. And I do take some license and narrate what occurred before the party arrived within the room descriptions.

I like to switch up the adventures sometimes with circumstances like this. How many times does the adventuring party hit a dungeon that is fresh off the vine? Aren't there more adventurers traveling around looking for a hole in the ground to loot? In my campaign, this is absolutely happening. If the party leaves behind loot thinking they'll come back for the rest later, they may find it cleaned out when they return.

That's what I'm working on today. How about you? What are you working on?

Old/New Twitter Beginning and Facebook F#*@!

I guess I've had a Twitter account since 2009. I'd forgotten. I did a few quick alterations and now I am Gothridge Manor on twitter. I've done some preliminary scouting, joined a couple hundred folks. If you are on Twitter and talk about gaming please let me know, better yet join me.

I'm still figuring out the hashtag and @ stuff. It's like learning a new language. I think I've got it.

I still haven't made any headway with the fucks at Facebook. My account is still suspended because I used Gothridge Manor as my name. Apparently the Facebook fucks are very concerned about everyone's safety...yeah I know, I couldn't keep a straight face when I wrote that. The Facebook fucks want to invade my privacy even more by demanding my license and other identifying markers. I told them I'd sent them a stool sample and they can run DNA tests on that. The amusing thing is, when I did use my real name, they still did not believe me. Apparently you can't be real if your name is the same as a piece of clothing.

I've never posted this much about social media before and hope I never have to again.

Oubliette, Rot Grubs and Minor Magic Items

Sorry for being quiet this month. Work has been kicking my ass. Big time. This coming week, at the end, I start vacation. And usually when I don't have work clogging my head I seem to become a creation beast. I want to take the time and start organizing what I've written. Then I can organize a schedule. Yes, you can stop laughing now. I know, me and schedule don't ever jive. But I can try.

One of the element I want to include in the sandbox is random set of ruins to populate the sandbox. Not sure how many I'll include or what format that's going to take (another reason why I need to organize my material this vacation).

Oubliette is a forest discovery. One of those many things found in the Komor Forest. While the premise is simple and short, this can be extremely dangerous. Rot grubs are a serious threat to a character's life span. 

And while I have dipped below the GM Advice goal you still can shut me up. I'ma gonna giv'ya my ardvice anaway. 

Atmosphere
The pit is dark, and quiet. If a torch is dropped down, just for a moment the party might catch a glimpse of the shackled skeletons before it hits the water and extinguishes. If your party is anything like the groups I run, their imaginations are going to go through a Rolodex of horrible things waiting for them in the dark. And even when they get to the bottom and see the skeletons they are going to freak out that the skeletons will animate. The atmosphere and the possibilities are the distraction from the real horror.

Rot Grubs
These wormy bastards strike terror in the hearts (literally) of adventurers young and old. And in a system where hit points are so few and precious, burning the rot grubs out could be as lethal as allowing them to squirm their way into your big, heroic heart. If the player heat up blades and try to do a controlled kill of the grubs I'd allow them to do only 1d3 damage. And for a character that has a half dozen or more on them, short of a Cure Disease spell, that player should be reaching for a fist full of dice for their next character.

Non-Heroic Deaths
Dying by a rot grub sucks. There is nothing heroic about it and that's something as a GM you'll have to decide. I prefer my games gritty and death by a dozen rot grubs is a perfect reward for those adventurers who don't take precautions. But I am not an unmerciful GM. Say the character has five rot grubs drop on their arm, I would allow someone to dismember that arm to save the  adventurer. The character gets to live, earns a background story and a nickname.

Awarding Minor Magic Items
One thing I love to see is players making use of minor magic items in unusual ways. To solve or create problems. Within the Oubliette, the party has a chance to discover a leaky Water Flask of Endless Water. A hand utility item, but I am sure the party could find uses for it that I haven't imagined. 

That's all for now. I have a batch of these short found places, micro-locations written. You'll see a couple more this month. And of course I am working on my next NPC card. 

Thanks patrons for the support and the fact you guys are a blast to game with and talk to on G+.

Enjoy!

Zombie Crawl Setting

Posted a 5 minute video featuring an abandon gas station and roadway with the woods taking over. A perfect setting for a zombie flick.

Kicksta te Missing Lette

A Mocking Tribute to Kickstarter Updates