Look What Came in the Mail

I haven't made it the post office for about a week, but when I opened my PO box I found a squished copy of Loviatar in between bills, advertisements, and mail that wasn't even mine.  Within my envelop was a note that reminded me I have one issue left in my subscription.  But it was the last line that made me chuckle.  "Goodness knows we can all use some good mail now and again."  Amen to that brother.

Issue #6 is broken in four sections.  The Introduction, which I will admit is something I skip in most magazines, but not this one.  I consider Christian's introduction just as valuable as the other content.   

Thursday Night Fight Club kicks off Christain's series "This Is L.A.".  It is stated out for BRP and is set in modern day L.A.  I love the accompanying photo and the story that goes along with it.  This is a timely article because my group has been discussing a modern day campaign.  My only problem is I don't have a smart phone to decipher the code square thingys.  In truth, I didn't have a cell phone for about three years until last week.  What can I say, I really, really, really hate phones.  But with an email I know I can get the answers.  Plus, I think its an excellent use of technology.

Now we move into the next and my new favorite, Hex 002 for basic D&D.  I love this series.  It reminds me of the dungeon Christian had in his OSE5F.  An adventure that saw the demise of Lester, Hester and Chester.  That dwarven clan never recovered.  In issue #5 hex 001 connects with 002 and so on.  I like it.  What I enjoy so far about the series is its understatement of adventure.  This series alone is worth taking a look at to all those OSR folks who haven't checked out Loviatar, seriously, you really should. 

And the last entry is A Lonely Dance on a Cold, Northern Shore Part III for Vampire: The Requiem.  Although I don't play Vampire the characters can be used for any system.  This is a great example of the system doesn't matter, its about characters and their stories.  If you got that you can plug them in any where.

On a final note, I wanted to say something about the artwork of Jay Penn, he has a blog called Realms of Faerie that you can check out and see his work done for Loviatar #6.  For me, his artwork fits the attitude of Loviatar perfectly.  His line drawings have an old school feel, but with his own style.  The cover is one of my favorites.

In conclusion, excellent job Christian, excellent job Jay.  My first gaming purchase of the new year with be my renewal to Loviatar.

Evil Garden with a Free Download

I'm on vacation and prone to doing something completely irrational.  In this case I went through all the monster manuals, tomes, catalogs and bestiarys to form a comprehensive list of all the plants, fungi and rock creatures.  I tried to keep it to creatures, not constructs.  You will find piercers within, but you'll find nary a stone golem.   In all I scoured 22 different books.  I'm sure I missed one or two and maybe included one that shouldn't be on the list, but give a poor fellow a break.

The reason I did this you ask?  I was creating wilderness encounters and though it would be a good idea to have a listing of natural inhabitants that make it so dangerous.  I also made myself a makeshift random table as I created these encounters which is included at the bottom of the post and within the list.

A not on my manual selection, even though there is a lot of redundancy in the creatures (Shambling Mound leading the pack with 5 separate entries, the Treant, Quickwood and Yellow Musk Creeper each scoring four), but there are differences in each entry.  Not to mention whole books dedicated to the ecology of the so and so.  While I did include the AD&D version of monsters I did not list the 3.0 and 4.0 editions.  I have no idea why just didn't.

Hope this list is of some use to someone.  I plan on using it for another goofy vacation project I will post about soon.  And as promised, here is the random table I produced to come up with a variety of encounters.  The percentages may not make any sense, nor were they meant to.

Random Wilderness Table
01-08   Monster
09-20   Animal
21-28   Person
29-35   Item
36-41   Magic
41-47   Water
48-56   Roll Twice and Combine
56-61   Trap
61-71   Plant
72-77   Weather
78-83   After Scene (roll again)
84-87   Ruin
88-93   Empty Lair
94-97   Landmark
97-00   Grave

I Got Skyrim

What a gorgeous game.  I just got it this afternoon and dig the new crafting system.  But the only thing I have gotten proficient at is stealing from the NPCs gardens.

Monster Strength

I want my strength bonus!

I've been running my AD&D campaign now for a few months and something finally penetrated my thick brain the other day.  Let's take the Ogre for example, in the Monster Manual is does 1-10 damage or by weapon type.  No strength bonus is figured in.  The only reason this penetrated my thick skull was one of the characters has an 18/00 and is a fricking slaughtering machine.  The ogre is 9' tall and one mass of muscle and no bonus and if I remember correctly and I know do, the magic item Gauntlets of Ogre Power provide the wearer with an 18/00 strength.  The only creatures I can think of off the top of my shaved head that strength is figured are the giants, but again not into the damage itself. 

Here is a table I got out of the Monster Manual II.  It gives 19 to 25 strengths and a comparable monster.
Str   Monster
19    Hill Giant
20    Stone Giant
21    Frost Giant
22    Fire Giant
23   Cloud Giant
24    Storm Giant
25    Titan

Again, none of these strength bonuses are included into the damage.  Now I can hear some readers out there saying they don't include any attribute bonuses into the stats. True and not true.  Some of the armor classes are lower because of creature being quick, some critters can cast spells because they have a higher intelligence and so on.  Is it quantified?  No.  Would I want it to be?  No.  I'm just saying this because I've been thinking about it.  Although I wouldn't go around figuring out dexterities for creatures, I have done a lose configuration of strengths.  Why?  Because I'm on vacation this week.  If you want to make any more sense of it beyond that then you are wasting your time.  I'm doing this before I go out and by Skyrim.

Since my campaign is mainly populated by gobliniods, humanoids and the occasion horrific abomination here is my half ass list.  Is this set in stone?  No.  Why am I asking myself all these questions and answering them?  I don't know.

Str    Monster
7       Kolbolds
8       Goblins
12     Orcs
16     Hobgoblins & Gnolls & Troglodytes
17     Bugbears
18/00  Minotaurs & Ogres & Owlbears
19     Trolls & Umber Hulks
20     Ettin

PDF Pricing

I've been reading a few marketing books on my time off (do I know how to have a good time or what) and came upon the controversial subject on pricing PDFs.  I know as a fiction writer the rates for writing are pretty much as they were in the late 60s, early 70s with a lot less avenues of opportunity.  These days with electronic self-publishing though writers can make a decent income without the need of a magazine or publishing house.  With POD we have a more control of our writing, presentation and pricing.   

Knowledge Illuminates at this time has netted me $193.05.  After you take out the OGL and stat blocks it is a 5400 word manuscript.  That works out at .035 cents word with the ability to increase.  This is about what I would make if I wrote for an RPG company and less if I were selling a short story.  All of them have different rates, but the few I have seen, none go over 3 cents.  Once an editor/owner/whatever the title is that controls the purse strings likes your work and you become more reliable, he will pay more.  But many gaming companies are not accepting submission.

So after all the above veering off the path I want to swing this blog back to its original intent, the pricing of PDFs.  Your PDFs. And back to the book I was reading.  Here are the guidelines I saw for short PDFs (this was written in 2005).  These numbers are coming from ePublishing 101.

Pages          Base Cost
1-5                   $1
6-7                   $1.25
8-9                   $1.50
10-11               $1.75
12-14               $2
15-17               $2.50
18-20               $3.00

Additional Factors
Appropriate  Artwork +$1
Established, Respected Publisher/Writer +$1

The one thing I see now on RPGNow is there is no standard.  You will see a 100 page product priced at $1 and a 32 page product sitting at $32.  I know when Troll Lord Games released their Castle Keepers Guide on PDF for over $30 I was thinking it would never sell.  It's a silver seller.  I am Mongoose, and so can you! at $23.96 is a copper seller even though it is only 37 pages.  But these guys are well established and well liked.

For me, I try to figure out how much I would like to make with each sale.  With Knowledge Illuminates I wanted to make $2 after RPGNow took their cut and costs were factored in.  With my upcoming Starter Adventures I would like to make $3 PDF.  PDF pricing for me is much easier because all I need to do is subtract what the seller percentage which is set.  No matter how big or small, cheap or expensive, RPGNow takes35% for non-exclusive sales.  So I make 65 cents per dollar.  To make $3 I need to sell my PDF for $5.  Will that be too much?  Sales will dictate if I was wrong.  It will all come down to if people believe they got value for their money.  And that does not mean bloat the manuscript with additional material, but to streamline and make the material as assessable to the reader as possible.

EDIT: Forgot to add my last paragraph.  With production values increasing so have the prices.  With LOFP recent releases and the recent release of Weird Tales the OSR is becoming more professional and proficient at producing products.  And of course with that the PDFs have increased.  To me you have to ask yourself three questions:  How good is your product?  How many you would like to sell?  And is it a product that people want? 

I'm done.  Now go outside and play.

Favorite Posts/Blogs of the Week

I've been trying to pay more attention to the blogs I read.  I don't know how many times I read something then want to go back to it and cannot remember where the hell I read it.  So I started writing down a few of my favorites from each week.

My first one I saw this week was from R.W. Chandler of the Black Hole Diaries.  He post a tavern game called Rot Grub Roulette.  Absolutely love this game.  It's horrible and creepy and exactly what stupid drunk adventurers would do.

Ckutalik over at Hill Cantons started a Point of Light Contest.  Being that my campaign is run on this concept I took an interest in this post.  Read the comments.  There is a ton of great entries.

Lastly, Jason Sholtis from UNDERWORLD INK started a brand new blog called The Dungeon Dozen.  I love the concept of the blog.  Each entry is a random table on random subjects.  Jason brings back some respectability for the often forget d12.  Love the tables he's done so far.

I am off this week and looking forward to getting some work done on a couple of my projects.  I hope everyone had, is having a great holiday and then we got another one of those next week.  I love 2fer holidays.

Merry Sleestak Sunday

Enik gets into the Christmas spirit by installing fiber optics into the ancestors' skulls.

I know this one is a little big, but it was the only way to keep it flashy.

A Super New Blog!!

I'm just missing the superhero balloon around that title.  But its true.  Jason Sholtis, OSR artist extraordinaire and all around swell guy has a new blog.  This one is called the Dungeon Dozen.  This blog is not about his art which is already well known and features in his other blog Underworld Ink.

If I'm not mistaken the theme of the blog is the posts list 12 things in a variety of topics.  Some examples are Dungeon Corpses, Unknown Spells, Unfathomable Deities and what are you still reading my blog for click on over to The Dungeon Dozen and join.  He doesn't bite.  Although he does fling poo. 

Spells as Treasure

My players are stuck in an uncivilized land.  When leveling up this hurts the mages the most.  Why?  Because fighters increase their fighting ability, thieves continue to improve their craft and clerics get addition spells by their god.  What about mages?  They level up, but where do they learn their new spells?  There is no guild hall, no secret coven, no lonely tower in the wilderness (at least none that they've found) for the mage to go and learn new spells. 

Now spells become a commodity.  Something that can be traded among a few of the spellcasters that are on the same side.  And those scrolls that are often considered minor treasure become important.  To the mage, the most valued treasure. 

The rules I have in place for my current campaign is a magic-user may transcribe a scroll into a spell book, but it consumes the original scroll.  I pretty loose with the recovery of spells.  Just get a full night's rest and say you're recharging your spells and I'll let you know if all of them are memorized.  The other thing I've added is a version of Rob's (Bat in the Attic) version of ritual casting spells.  Great for utility spells.  Such as a detect magic.  When you're in a hostile environment keeping yourself armed is critical, so using a precious spell slot on a service spell is not often done.  But with the ritual spell, a magic-user can cast a spell by using 10gp of spell components/level of the spell and it takes 1 turn/level of the spell to cast.  Here again, since the players are in an uncivilized area they need to take time to gather the natural spell components available in the woods.  Which I've decided takes 1d2 hours/10gp worth of components.  *On a related note, I had all the players before the start of the game pick a secondary skill, like mason, leatherworker and so on.  If a player chose herbalism or some sort of wilderness skill this time is reduced by half.

I've always liked the idea of spells as earned or found treasure.  I have those spell compendium books so I have a lot of new and interesting spells the players may have never heard of or experienced.  It adds an element of surprise to the casting itself.  It is not a memorized effect.  So the caster will need to experiment a bit to discover the nuances of the spell.

Werestak and My 600th Post

A little known fact that the sleestak are susceptible to lycanthropy.  Despite this, some of their features, such as their large eyes remain intact during the transformation.  Probably the strangest thing is hearing a wolf hiss. 

Yep, that's right this is #600.  What does that mean?  Means I've managed to stick around longer than I thought.  I'll be doing a couple year end blogs looking back on stuff I bought and blogs I've read and written.  Sometimes it seems like I've been doing this forever.  Have a great Sleestak Sunday.  Even you Lurker.

The $1000 Mark Has Been Surpassed

Well I've gone and done it.  I've been keeping a close tally of my year's spending on gaming stuff and it looks like I have officially gone over $1000.  Trey's Weird Adventures was the temptation that put me over.  A thousand is it a lot, but I have no regrets.  I don't smoke or drink so my indulgence is gaming material.

This year is coming to an end, but there are still a few things I would like to get.  That total may get a little higher.  Ivy is in the background chanting "Now I can get my Vitamix.  Now I can get my Vitamix."  So she has ulterior motives in her support of my gaming habit.

I just saw Weird Adventures hit #8 on RPGNow.  Go buy a copy and make it #1.  I haven't read it yet, but since I follow Trey's blog I know it's going to be great.

A Stellar Week for the OSR

It's been a pretty good release week for the OSR.  The long awaited Weird Adventures by Trey, From the Sorcerer's Skull blog.  It is available in PDF, but if you want it in print *raising my hand* then you'll have to  wait until after the New Year.  I plan on getting both.  This is one I've been waiting to get my hands on for some time.  The PDF runs $10.99.  No word on how much the print will be. 

Second, James Raggi had double release of Carcosa and The Isle of the Unknown.  There is a long line waiting to get these.  I think it's smart to do the double release.  More than likely gamers will purchase both and save on some shipping.  The LotFP machine rolls on.  I would give you the price, but its in euros and James is has discounts so go check it out and buy yourself a very cool Christmas present.

Third, lesser known than the two above, but I think just as significant, is the first release by Dylan Hartwell over at the Digital Orc blog.  He took the plunge and decided to produce and sell his product, The Blasphemous Brewery of Pilz!.  He wrote and did the art.  The artwork is great, reminds me of old Judges Guild drawings.  At $2.99 go check it out and let him know.  Support a fellow OSRer.  (OSRer? I'll go with it.) 
 
And I am so damn jealous I did not get in on those Dungeonmorph Dice.  Those look great.  Everyone involved in that project did an excellent job.

Have a great Saturday.  And don't forget the buy some OSR goodness for Christmas.

A Monster of Monsters

The other day I asked a question on Google+ if anyone had used the Tarrasque in their game.  Most had, one even said it was a playable class which boggles the mind and sounds fun as hell.  Recently in my campaign the players were exploring one thing and ended up seeing the Tarrasque free itself from hibernation.  They're not sure what to think of it other than not to get in its way at this point.  I know what I am doing with it and how to use it, but I was thinking of different ways such a creature could be used in a campaign.

First, it is a force of nature, destroying everything in its path.  It eats and sleeps.  It's only purpose is to eat and sleep.  There is no grand scheme to its actions other than that.

Second, it is a force of nature that does have a purpose.  When things get unbalanced, because we all know nature is neutral and loves balance, this big boy comes out to play to set the scales equal.

Third, a god pet.  Release the Kracken kind of thing.

Fourth, a prehistoric god itself who has outlived all its followers and now seen only as a abomination.

And I am sure there are a billion other back stories you could give this big boy.  I'm still working on the mythology for mine.  I've got most of it figured out, but still looking for some tasty bits.  So if you have any Tarasque stores and feel like sharing please do.  I want to peek at your ideas and maybe steal some ideas.

At least I am an honest thief.

I've Hijacked Tim's Blog

Yeppers.  I'm taking over this blog and offering gamers 20% off their entire purchase at My Blanket Shoppe.  Hope you take a look-see.

Coupons expire 11:59PM (12.18.2011). As always, Free Shipping within the continental US. And please remember to add your coupon code GAMERDISCOUNT, when asked at the end.

In other news, Tim's due home soon.  Paprika chicken and sweet tea for lunch.  And for the pups, homemade ice cubes.  Nums, nums for all.

Merry Christmas & Happy Gaming.

Thanks Bunches,
 --Whisk