Rob Conley Gets Interviewed

My good friend Rob Conley of Bat in the Attic has been interviewed over at The Bedrock Blog.  Rob's a historian of RPGs and one hell of a GM. 

Beware of this Post, It Will Eat Your Wallet

Rob Conley from Bat in the Attic Blog and Bat in the Attic Games has unleashed his adventure set in the Majestic Wilderlands, Scourge of the Demon Wolf.  This book is jam packed.  Don't be fooled that this is just and adventure, it is also a companion to his The Majestic Wilderlands. 

Scourge of the Demon Wolf is a non-linear adventure.  It is a true sandbox adventure.  The players could solve the mystery in several ways.  Rob has playtested this adventure several times and has included some of his own experiences of the playtests within the adventure.  I liked his inclusion of his own notes.  The other great thing about Scourge is it a mystery adventure.  There are clues, suspects, agendas and an exciting conclusion.  I've run it myself a couple of times and it was a lot of fun running it and watching the players sift through everything they learn.

As I said, the adventure takes up the first half of the book, but this puppy is 72 pages long.  The second half of the book is crammed packed full of goodness for the Majestic Wilderlands.  If you bought the original I think you'll be very pleased with the companion pieces.

And if all this goodness wasn't enough, if you know Rob, you know he does the best maps in the business.  His maps are pieces of art on their own.  Speaking of art, Jason Sholtis and John Larrey did the art.  All of it.  Look at the color pieces for the cover.  I know those two worked hard as hell helping Rob bring his adventure to life.

But wait...there's even more.  Right now Lulu is running a 20% off sale.  Just put in the word JEKYLL.

The book is $15 and available at Lulu (it will also be available at RPGNow in a couple of weeks).  And the PDF is $10 and available at Lulu and RPGNow. 

Got My Print Copy of Blackmarsh

Went over to Rob's and got my print copy of Blackmarsh.  It looks fantastic.  The cover colors are crisp and clear.  The print quality is excellent.  RPGNow print has impressed me.  This is the first one I have received and I like it.  A lot.  Way to go Rob!

If you got the free PDF and like it, get the print copy, you'll love it.  Done.

Blackmarsh Released

Rob Conley unleashes Black Marsh.  Go get a copy, it's a great product.  Oh, and the PDF is free so there is no reason not to get it.  The print version is $7.  Great work Rob.

Knowledge Illuminates March Sales

My latest entry on my journey selling my adventures.  Knowledge Illuminates has been for sale just under two months and March turned out to be a better month than I expect.  I participated in the GM's Day sales RPGNow had in the beginning of the month and that helped increase my sales. 

For March, I had 15 sales for a total 52 sales.  Ten of the sales were during the GM's Day Sale.  The gross sales for March were $50, making the total gross sales $198.  So March put $32.50 into my pocket for a total of $128.70.  A total of 17 comp copies have been downloaded.

Right now there are 18 people who have Knowledge Illuminates on their wish list and 3 have it in their cart.  The total product views at RPGNow is 3654 for an average of 70.3 views per sale. 

I was pleased with the sales from GM's Day sale.  What I didn't do well is get more progress done on the new Starter Adventures.  Most of my extra time was spent editing Rob Conley's Blackmarsh and working on my One-Page Dungeon contest.  So where as I did get some things done I did not get what I wanted done.  I am hoping to finish the rewrites of the original Starter Adventures then double the size.  Get Rob to do some maps and then get some very cool pictures.  I plan on offering the original version of Start Adventures for free with the addition of the maps.  The new Starter Adventurers will be double or more the size, with maps and art included.  This will be my first attempt at using the print option.  I hope April proves to be a productive month.

It's Friday!!!  I am so glad.

Final Edits for Blackmarsh...Done

Edits for Rob Conley's, Blackmarsh project for Brave Halfling Publishing'a Delving Deeper Box Set is done.  Last night Rob and I did a final read through.  It took a couple of hours, but we got it done and I think Rob has another fantastic land to share with everyone.  The final read through is done out loud.  I read the manuscript and this way we catch small typos and find a few sentences that can be tweaked, switched around or explain an idea better.  After working on a project for a while its good to smack it on the ass and send it out the door.

Dungeon Map

I've been focusing on developing adventures during the past few weeks. This corner of the blogosphere has become one long episode of "The Housewives of the OSR". So I'm sticking to rolling dice, making stuff up and adventuring with friends on Monday nights.

The map above was developed by none other than
Mr. Rob S. Conley. He said I came up with the idea of this map and I thought he had either way I think its a very cool map. The dungeon room entries 1 and 2 are for this map. I plan to have it linked on the side of my blog and post the a room or a couple of rooms at a time until its done.

Please feel free to swipe this map and make your own adventure with it. It would be interesting to see what others would come up with. Have a great Monday.

Rob Conley Interview on RPG Circus

My good friend Rob Conley, author of the Points of Light and Point of Light II by Goodman Games and his own self-published baby Suppliment VI The Majestic Wilderlands, was interviewed on RPG Circus. Please check it out. I think Rob and the RPG Circus crew did a great job.

A Vote for the Ritual System

James M. recently did a review on Rob Conley's Majestic Wilderlands. I read his review and a couple of his negative statements on the Ritual System got me to thinking why it's a good addition to a campaign.

The comments that caught my attention were "I don't much care for the concept of rituals, precisely because it changes the complexion of spellcasting character classes in a profound way. Without the so-called "utility spells" taking up spell slots, spellcasters no longer have to weigh combat effectiveness against the unpredictable needs of adventuring. Should I memorize find traps or hold person is a significant decision..." then finishes with "...I think it (the Ritual System) does serious violence to the class structure of D&D and would never allow the rules to be used in my campaign."

I completely agreed with James when Rob first wanted to introduce the Ritual System. Then we did a few playtests that included the Ritual System and I was shocked by how much it made sense. The effectiveness of the spellcasters increased and it made playing them at low level more enjoyable. In addition almost every historical tome on magic includes the components and specific time or situation needed to complete a ritual. Rob has simplified this into a gold piece cost per ritual. So it makes sense historically and it's very playable.

The other way I think it makes sense is that intelligent races innovate. Intelligent races find ways to make things better in a shorter time. So why would a magic be any different. After years of practicing magic, especially in an adventurer profession world, they would find ways to give them the best chance possible to survive and to thrive. I think a ritual system is a natural progression in what the next step a magic system would take.

Do I think the ritual system is right for every campaign or every GM? Absolutely not. But it's a viable option a GM should consider when developing their world. Options are good. Really.

Incompetence and Ignorance Can Be Fun

Rarely did Rob and I have a chance to adventure together. Rob was usually the GM while Dwayne and I tore up or got tore up in his Majestic Wilderlands. This time Dwayne decided to give it a go. We were playing GURPS so no alignments were needed, but Rob and I played a pair of nasty SOBs. I played an unlucky mercenary named Del-Goth who was not all that tough, always got into trouble and he never thought any of it was his fault. Rob played pretty much the exact same type of character except he was a dwarf and I was human. I referred to him as my 'little brother' because we were constantly getting into one mess or another. Neither were that smart and we played their incompetence to the hilt. It was a blast.

One of the first adventures we had was when I was fired from a job for no fault of my own. Little Brother was fired due to his association with me. So we concocted the fantastic idea of mugging thieves' guild members. We figured thieves steal for a living so they have money. We knew of one place where the thieves went so we set up an ambush. Little Brother with his crossbow and me with my sword. First guy comes to the door we are staking out so Little Brother tries to plunk him off is a shot to the top of the head. He had to point down so much that the bolt fell off the crossbow and onto the street. Alerting our mark and he disappeared. Crap.

Onto the next plan. We figured we were big bad mercenaries and they were just thieves so should just kick down the door crack some skulls and take the money. We needed money bad because we had none. So we go into the door we were staking out and went into the den of thieves. At first we did well. Kicked some asses and feeling good about ourselves. We were plucking the bodies clean like a pair of starving vultures when Little Brother got his with a knife. Then another. I grabbed Little Brother and tried to get out, but they had surrounded us. Crap.

I managed to get out by beating one little thief to the side and running out the door. On the way out running through the streets trying to lose the pickpocket boys we ran into our old boss. He didn't see us so we had a few healing potions got back up to snuff and came up with our next brilliant idea. Steal the money from the mercenary group. We knew the people, knew the layout, and knew where the gold was. Why hadn't we thought of that before? This plan lasted all of fifteen minutes. Del-Goth tried to convince one of the other mercenaries to let him in on the premise he'd forgotten something. I got in, apparently the guard was a bit more incompetent that us, and we went directly to the treasury and looted as much as we could carry. What we didn't figure on was how to get out. It's difficult to sneak by people when you jingle. The gig was up when we were spotted coming out of the treasury with sacks full of payroll. An alarm was raised and we were on the run again. Crap.

So we ran and ran until we ducked into a temple in the middle of the city. The priest was kind enough to offer us sanctuary. They fed us, were kind to us and when we woke in the morning all the gold we looted was gone. The priest explained it was the price of staying. Just when me and Little Brother were about shish ka bob a couple of priests I noticed outside a small crowd of mercenaries was camped and in the alley ways a crowd of thieves waited. Crap.

It took some time but Del-Goth and Little Brother escaped by getting shipped out inside barrels. At least we were fed and in good condition even if was a brief. We were shipped to this tavern at a crossroads and here is where Del-Goth and Little Brother's story ends. Again, we were out of money so a tavern seemed like as good as any place to rob. What I didn't know is the tavern was protected by an iron golem. After a short fight that saw Little Brother killed by a small mob of patrons. Del-Goth fell into a water trough and held underwater by the iron golem until he died.

We died they way we lived, unremarkable and wasteful. But there was a charm to playing them. It was one of my favorite pairings. The campaign did not last long, but I will always remember the adventures of the two most incompetent adventurers to strap on boots.

No Evil Religions?

I'd thought I'd comment on Mr. Conley's post today. One, because I think he is wrong and two he's been a good friend for more years than I can remember and sometimes arguing with him can be good fun. The argument is whether there can be evil religions. He uses human history to make his point that at no time has there ever been an evil religion. I won't get into historical relevancies. I don't need to. My argument is there can be evil religions in my gaming world. I'm the GM so 'poof' there is an evil religion in my world.

Is it that simple? Not really. Not if you want to make it fun and have some sort of logic. But it's no more work than having to develop any religion on any alignment. If I were going to argue about what religions would or would not exist it would be chaotic aligned religions. You need structure and cohesion of laws and beliefs to make it work and a chaotic aligned religion wouldn't have that structure. Alignments are not my favorite thing in the world, but since this discussion began with the alignment terms I have used them.

As for something being evil or good it is often a matter of perspective. Again though, I believe Rob was speaking about the mustache twirling baddie who exists only to cause grief and pain even to those who follow him faithfully. I gotta say there is room in my campaign for such a villainous deity. Why not? I would need to do the work to justify why these people would want to adhere to such a god. I would also need to take into account whether the power of the gods in my world is equal to the number of those who worship him or if they are just incredibly powerful beings who can impose their will onto others.

Let's go for the latter for now. Bronson the Dreadful is an evil god whose power is not dependant on his worshippers. He is a mean tempered, jealous, vengeful son of a bitch. But others find value in following him. An example could be they are an enslaved race and Bronson is a huge fan of revenge, sabotage and mayhem. He inspires this enslaved race to revolt even though they know they might be crushed, but gives them hope. Now Bronson the Dreadful could give two turds in a punchbowl about these people, but because they entertain him he will grant a few powers to make the game more interesting. But to get these powers they must sacrifice their most beloved to him. And some will. And more will if they see those who have sacrificed have succeeded. And as people are, even if no laws or codes exist they will begin to develop them.

There are many reasons why an evil religion can exist. I am not talking about the perspective argument, but the cartoon this is good this is bad version. And it can work. It can add a lot to a campaign. And sometimes it's nice to have a bad guy who makes no bones about it. He stands there with a wide stance, hands on hips, black mustache waxed and curled, dressed all in black and with a sinister cackle he looks at all the land and all the people around him and says, "It is all mine. All mine I tell you. Muhahaha."

Castles & Crusades Adventure Playtest Concludes

Last night Dwayne and Rob completed the playtest of the adventure I designed using Castles & Crusades. They died and were turned into zombies. Running and playing in GURPS campaigns for years it was difficult to switch back to a 1st ed. state of mind.

Mistakes I made.
1. I thought I was in charge.
In the village of Aberton I had a handful of skilled NPCs who could assist the players if needed. There was a 1st level mage, 2nd level thief and ranger and a 3rd level barbarian available. Depending on how they interacted with the village they would get certain NPCs to join. The ranger and barbarian went with them. So the players being 1st level and the NPCs being higher made them feel as if they were being led around. I had the players take the lead the entire time and only had the NPCs as combat enforcements, but because the NPCs were higher level Dwayne felt that it took away some of the players' thunder.

The solution for this will be to take the NPCs down one level and make it more of a farming village atmosphere. Also, the players requested I draw a map of the village.

2. Any more people in here we’re gonna need a lubricant.
This mistake came in two parts. I originally made the mine with a scale of 10'/square then reduced it to 5'/square. Wow, did things get crammed. Then to make it worse I applied the number of monsters with a heavy hand. I didn't realize this until I started putting miniature tokens down and thinking, there is no room in here. The players used the small corridors to their advantage. They fell back and funneled the monsters through so only one could attack at a time. But because of the number of monsters they were still getting whittled down at an alarming rate.

The second part of this mistake was I had too many HD worth of monsters in the room considering the level of the players. I designed this adventure to be for 1st through 3rd levels. One or two good cracks from a zombie and all of a sudden Mr. Balls to the Wall fighter is having a very bad day. In one room I had 8 zombies, 16HD worth of critters. The players and I agreed that was too many.

The solution for this is I plan to keep the map at its 5'/square because it is a mine and the crammed spaces was the effect I was looking for, but for each room I am cutting the number of monsters in half. That one room where I described had 8 zombies, it was only a 10' x 15' room. This solves the cramped conditions and the reduction in HD per room.

3. Me and my Shadows.
As above I had some rooms with too many HD worth of creatures and in other rooms the abilities and challenge levels of some of the monsters I included were too high, like a Shadow. I had two Shadows in one area. With two 3HD creatures with an AC of 18 and a strength draining attack can cut the adventure short.

Solution, I think the Shadow is a good challenge so I am keeping one of them. The players will need to learn that sometimes hightailing it out of dodge is the better, wiser part of valor. You can't spend all that gold if you're dead.

4. Huh? How did we get here?
Usually this is something I do well, but for some reason did not bother to include it in this adventure and that is reason why the players would be involved. I like to develop three to five possible scenarios why the players would put themselves into the current situation. I like to have something better than, 'because that's where the action is'. Although I pretty much did that this time.

Solution, write the three to five hooks to get the players involved right away.

This is the first time I've playtested an adventure of mine and I learned a lot. When I finished writing the adventure I thought it was good, but did not see the problems until I played it. So thank you Rob and Dwayne for helping out and your suggestions will definitely make this a better adventure. I hope to have the adventure completed and posted by next week.



Where are you??

Castles & Crusades Adventure Playtest

Monday night Rob and Dwayne started going through my adventure module I'd designed from the C&C rules. I definitely enjoy the 1e feel of the system and the parts they simplify. Still being new to C&C the three of us worked out some combat glitches and I'm still getting a grasp on when you add a character's level to a roll.

The first part was a quick character creation. I let the players choose which of the two ways they would like to roll, 3d6 reroll ones or 4d6 and toss the lowest. Each would get six rolls and they could put them into any stat they chose. I want them to have competent characters and the system works well, a player does not unbalance the game due to great rolls. A quick purchase of items and off they went into wilderness.

There was little to no set up for this adventure. Something I need to add. I had them encounter a group of skeletons right off to have a sample combat and warm up those virtual dice. We use Fantasy Grounds 2 and Skype. Combat went well, but both had piercing weapons so all their damage was halved. During this sample combat Rob rolled a critical and I always like to see what the players want to do, double damage or automatic max damage. They opted for the max damage because some class skills already grant double damage.

The funniest part of the night was when they were fighting a skeleton warrior. Dwayne was firing arrows at it while Rob finished off another skeleton. When Rob was done he ran over to engage the skeleton warrior. Shooting through an occupied space is -4. We made the rule that if a player shot through that space and missed his target within that -4 he possibly hit the other player. Well Dwayne missed in that -4 span. I had him roll to see if he hit Rob. Natural 20! Rob screamed out, "You killed me man!" Automatic max damage put Rob six below zero. I couldn't talk for a minute or so because I was laughing so hard. Favorite part of my night.

After the battle both of them agreed they needed some sort of healer in the group. Rob recovered some of his hit points and we stopped there for the night. We plan on continuing the game on Thursday.

Once I finish running them through the dungeon, see what their suggestions are and what I think needs tweaked I will post it here. I hope everyone has a great gaming night. Laugh a lot and don't eat too many chips.

Random Ramblings #2

Last weekend our group, Dwayne, Rob and I got to sit down and play around a table. I'm not sure how many years it's been since we've done that. We continued on with Dwayne's campaign and my Paladin got his butt handed to him. Last week I was throwing critical like I bought them at the dollar store. This week I couldn't hit water if I fell out of a boat. Rob was turned into charred remains. Luckily we brought along competent henchmen. Remember players out there, henchmen, don't leave home without them.

I went out and bought another giant d20 that I could kill a bear with. A red one this time. Again, they don't really roll as much as drop to the table and make a crater.

Been reading through some old time dungeons to get a feel for the magic item dispersal. The blog below this one is the one I wrote about selecting magic items. It was good to take a look at T1 and some others. I plan to get into more of a discussion about the minor magic items and well-crafted items. I think it's interesting or I hope to make it interesting.

I've also completed more work on my project that I hope to release before the end of the summer. And I also hope to have my website up in running before too long. I've got a few reviews of gaming supplements finished and need to find a home for them.

Well, it's Saturday in the blogger world and it seems everyone is outside playing. So that is where I am headed. Outside.

Random Ramblings

It's Monday after work and about an hour before our game. Right now Rob and I are testing a setting Dwayne has developed. I'm playing a paladin of a defeated god trying to carve out a niche in a new world.

Over the weekend I was at my FNGS and bought a new d20. It's huge. When I came out of the gaming store I had a big smile on my face that made my wife nervous. I love fun gaming stuff like this. I think I could kill a bear with it. Whimpy did not like the new addition, but they are getting along fine now. In the picture you can see my new d20 'Big Brother' towering over the regular sized Whimpy.

I'm beginning the process of writing reviews for some of the gaming items I buy. RPGNow is one of my favorite sites. In the past I wrote reviews for video games, movies and other gaming supplements. Get free stuff, give an opinion. It's a good thing.

I'm working on a gaming supplement myself. Who isn't these days. I'll give more information about it later. Currently Rob and I are waiting for the release of Points of Light 2. I did the editing for the first and second PoL. If you've ever edited something you know its a thankless job although Rob is fun to edit because I get to joke with him and we work well together. Rob is working on an independent project that is shaping up nicely.

It's gaming time. Good gaming guys and gals. Have a good night and blog at you soon.

Monster Cards Continued

Rob from Bat in the Attic discusses the 4 sets of 20 Monster Cards that came out in '82. What I intended to use them for was when I DMed I would show the players the card instead of naming the monster. Back then everyone had memorized the monsters, knew their stats down to what treasure type and used knowledge their character would not have had at the time. So the cards would provide an element of surprise. The players would have to guess at what the monster was. This worked fine for a short time until everyone memorized the cards. The artists did a fantastic job depicting the monsters. And it wasn't hard to figure out the guy with the pinchers on his face was an Umber Hulk. So the cards novelty did not last long and what they were to add to the game no longer worked.

The Monster Cards were one of those additions to the game where you wanted them to work. You wanted them to be useful because they were cool. But the usefulness did not last. Back then you could carry only so much from friend's house to friend's house (unless you were Rob and he would bring crates full of stuff). The Monster Cards were one of those items you left at home. I think the Monster Cards were the first (that I remember) supplements that didn't work. But still, they sure looked good.

First Dungeons & A Thank You To Mom

Rob over at Bat in the Attic wrote about first dungeons. That got me thinking about my first dungeons. The discovery that got me started in developing dungeons was a graph paper tablet in my mother's supply closet at her office. Holy crap, I just found gold. I asked if I could have it and before she said yes. Armed with a ruler and pencil I carving out dungeon map after dungeon map.

After I finished a few dozen maps I chose the maps with the best personality and started room descriptions. There was no logic or theme to the dungeons. Just rooms with monsters and loot. Blink dogs next to a room of ogres next to a hallway of Type 2 demons with an alcove where Beelzebub lounged. Didn’t matter how ridiculous it was, it was cool. I was doing it. I was making dungeons. And it was my first real writing gig. It was exciting.

With map done, descriptions described I was ready. But it didn’t feel right. Back into my mother’s supply closet I went. Good god all mighty a box of manila folders. I fricking rule! She said take them. So I borrowed her stapler and stapled my map to one side on the inside of the folder. There was room on the other side. So I made up a wandering monster table and stapled it there. I set the folder on its side and wa-la I had a cardboard screen just like those TSR modules.

I walked the halls with my homemade modules waiting for a study hall to break them out. I had one dungeon called the Taps Six Dungeon. It got kinda famous in my school. Everyone wanted to go through it. They wanted to know what the name meant. I just smiled and said there is only one way to find out. Actually, it didn’t mean a damn thing. I just thought it was a cool name.

So thanks to the supply closet at my mother’s office I started my career in developing dungeons then world building. And being that it will be Mother’s Day soon I want to give a huge thank you to my mother for allowing me to raid her closet and being understanding and allowing me to indulge myself on this weird hobby I really love.

Different Age of Gaming

With my group of gamers the chance to sit around the table and sling dice is pretty much gone. While Rob and I only live on the opposites sides of town, the others in our group live in different states. A few years back we got Fantasy Grounds so we could play over the computer. Not quite as fun as sitting around a table discussing where we should order the pizza and what to get on it, but its good enough to do some gaming. Fantasy Grounds was a pain at first. It crashed or spewed out error messages. We spent more time patching and reconfiguring than playing. Now Fantasy Grounds works like a champ and with the addition of all the rulesets it is the best online tabletop on the market. All of us have fully licensed versions so if the GMing bug strikes us we can start uploading all the maps and pictures (although Dwayne should be banned from posting certain pictures). The current GM is Dwayne running a 4e GURPS campaign. Rob has some rules he is percolating and wants to test before he unleashes them. Waxing nostalgic for playing on the tabletop is fine, but because of Fantasy Grounds we can get together and sometimes more often than if we did live close by. Its easy to start drifting away from gaming as real world matters press in around you, but once you pick up the dice, create a character and meet with your friends it helps to take on those problems.

So on Sunday afternoon starting at 2pm til whenever Dwayne runs out of breath, I'll be sitting at my computer playing Torren of the Red Hand looking to find the guardian to the gates of hell. Much more interesting than an electric bill.