5e Play Test

Last night I got to participate in a 5e play test. It consisted of creating characters and a battle with a troll and some goblins.  We'd entered a dungeon, but didn't get too far into it.

I won't go into too much detail other than many of us have seen these rules before.  They lean more toward older editions than 4e.  There is a cool rule about magical healing.  Monsters have low hit points, but do a lot of damage.  And we had a good time.  I still need to fill out my questionnaire which is what I like least and best about my experience and if I had any questions about the rules. I'll fill it out tonight.

I am hoping this outreach towards old school guys and the reprints is a step toward a friendlier relationship with everyone.  That they realize its not just their rules that needed to change, but their attitude.  I'll be adding that to my feedback email also.

Why I Am Not Buying the 1E Reprints

I think the covers look great.  I think the idea of the reprints is great.  I hope new gamers grab a copy and check them out.  It reminds me a little of when I was a young lad and loved Hard Rock, but then found the Blues.  A source of what I loved. 

But, I already bought the books.  I like the ones I have.  I'm not sure, but I thought I saw they were going to be $35 each.  That's $105 for books I got.  That's $105 I could spend on OSR stuff, zines, adventures, and supplements.

I would rather buy more OSR stuff. 

Working on Starter Adventures

Yesterday I put in about six or so hours in working on Starter Adventures, mainly doing the layout.  With the artwork and maps and stat blocks and oh yeah the text, trying to find a good way to put the page has been a big challenge.  I fought my way through the introduction, cleric and fighter section and the adventure in the back is all set.  I had one of my little incidents again with Word closing on me and I lost about 90 minutes of work.  After a tirade of swearing I got back to it and ended up calling it a night when I got back to the place I had been before the loss.  Sometimes I swear this project is cursed, never had so many problems with Word.

Sections that need done:
Magic-User (4 sections)
Thief (4 sections)
New Magic Items
New Monsters
Red Bear Tavern
  - I need to get the map for this one.  I keep making them and losing them just as fast.
  - Need a few pieces of art for this.

Everything is written, except the magic item section which only need one more added.  Most of this is just layout now. 

Some of you offered to do some proof reading for me (Porky and Boric G) and I will be taking you up on that offer.  I would like to have one more set of eyeballs.  So if you are interested let me know.  Not only will it be for making sure my typos are no too obvious, but problems with layout they see or maybe something that needs clarification. 

And this one is just for Rob Conley, maker of maps, 5-4 I win!  Muhahaha.

Little Sleestak Sunday and Zines

Little Enik when he was happy.  Before the weight of his fore-bearers was placed on his shoulders.

This little guy's first words were "Lurker, yum.  Munch, munch."

Snowy Sleetstak Sunday to all those in the blogosphere.  Last night I failed to make the 5e playtest.  Whisk was down with an injury and needed tending.  But it sounds like we may do it Monday instead of our regular game.

I also wanted to mention that I've gotten 20 sales this month with Knowledge Illuminates.  Someone bought 2 copies this morning.  This burst of interest in it has inspired me to finish Starter Adventures.  I'm stuck on the layout.  I'm struggling with even the basics things (like fricking margins).  I've got a good chunk of time to work on it today since I don't have to worry about GMing tomorrow.

I think Christian has started something with Lovitar.  Their is a welcome zine-demic going around the OSR.  Matt Jackson is planning to put out a new issue of his Lapsus Calumni zine.  You can grab some of the older issues using that link.  Also Matt has been doing a Friday Five Minute Map feature on his blog.  Very cool, but I keep forgetting to do one. 

Johnathan Bingham mention on his blog he is working on a zine called Delve.  He also mention Kobold Quarterly is open to publishing OSR articles, but hasn't received submissions.  In my ignorance I thought KQ only did 4e stuff.  I have been corrected.

I did a review on another zine style adventure earlier from Jason Sholtis, Zogorion, Lord of the Hippogriffs.  Fun adventure, well written and some cool surprises.

And I'll end it with the man who started this madness, Christian, is working hard on issue #8 of Lovitar.  Jay Penn is kicking out some great artwork and it sounds like Christian is going to need a bigger stapler.

Time to get back to work.

My Newbs Are Growing Up

Last night the newbs grew up a little.  They impressed me.  A simple chain of events started the game.  First the recap of last adventure.  Some of the players were thinking this was an episodal game, where everything got reset at the beginning of the next session.  After the short explanation this was a continuous  game that what they did in the last session will effect what happens in the next and the next.

So they returned the acolyte to the temple thus earning the right to be healed there.  Brother Owen, head of the temple, handed of all people, the thief the reward.  At first he wanted to keep it all.  After a brief discussion on how to split it everyone went away satisfied.  The thief got to keep the 'change' left over from the split.

The thief went to sell his goods and met up with a member of the Brotherhood, my world's thieves guild.  At the beginning of the discussion the player wanted nothing to do with Trent, the Brotherhood recruiter.  But as they spoke some more the Trent explained how difficult it would be to sell anything in town if he didn't join.  Plus he'd have access to some of the information gathered and not least of all have no worries of other thieves taking from them.

The thief sold some things off and later regretted not trading for the stuffed badger because the mage that he wanted to identify his ring really wanted it.  There was a promiscious encounter with the elf mage and a mercenary.  At the tavern there was a gathering of adventurers.  After some talk they discovered a new source of treasure was being hauled up from the depths of a giagantic tomb.  Later on the bartender told them about a merchant looking for some help.

I dangled both these leads out in front of them.  What do they do, the smart thing.  They dig for more information.  After agreeing to join the Brotherhood, I player Trent as a very convinceing NPC who is only looking out for their own best interest, he told them they were not ready for the Barrowmaze.  Sure they might hit it big, but more don't come out than do.

So they met with the merchant.  Two of his wagons were stolen.  He wants them back.  And he was high as hell.  As the party deliberated on whether to take the job he smeared coins all over his table to make a point.  They accepted. 

This is where I used my one-page dungeon Where is Margesh Blackblood.  He has four hideouts.  But again the party did the smart thing and deducted out of all his hideout the wagons could only be kept safely in his manor outside of town.  With some clever role playing and strategy they formed a good plan of attack. 

But that is when the bad rolls began.  They fought with Blackblood for a while until in the end a string of good rolls brought him down.  End of session.

One of the players said, "I can't believe we played for two hours without getting into a fight.  We just talked." 

Hoping the Newbs Find Their Own Carrots

Newbie group is tonight.  Everyone is coming.  The guy who plays the thief saw me this morning and said he'd been thinking about what he wanted to do for over a week.  I gave the players the assignment this time around to think of names of their character like I mentioned in an earlier post.  This time around I don't want to call them dwarf, mage, thief. 

Last time around it was minimal role playing.  A little in the beginning and then into the dungeon crawl.  This time around it will be more of an urban session.  This is where they will get to exercise their rping chops.  When they return from the dungeon they will learn about the town they are in and selling, haggling, resupplying, finding information about the next great adventure and I am sure what it means to break the law. 

I haven't developed a structure for this adventure.  Maybe a lose flow chart of things that will happen.

1. Return to town.
2. Collect Reward and get healed.
3. Sell of loot and probably resupply.
4. Have a few vague rumors to tickle their ears.
5. Have them interact with certain group, such as an encounter with the thieves guild, mage guild, merchant guild.  Just to give them the sense there is a depth to this place.  
6. Then I will have a certain merchant ask them to assist him.  His wagons were taken by some bad people and he would like his wagons back.  

This is just a general flow of the night.  It might completely change on a whim.  I am going to have the players drive this session.  I want to see what they want to do and explore.  I have carrots if they need them to get them started, but I hope they find the carrots on their own. 

Player Monster Knowledge

Peter over at his Dungeon Fantastic blog asked an interesting question in his post, Player Reading Monster Manuals.  Go give it a read, I'll wait.  And if you have a second answer his poll on the side.  I'll wait.

There is no way you can enforce the players not to read the monster manuals.  If you play, most people I know get the core books.  And in a game where monsters are a regular occurrence I believe players would have some knowledge of them through stories, trainers or whatever.  Most people who live in my campaign world know trolls regenerate.  I'm not going to deny my players that knowledge.  Some may argue the more unique monsters the players would have no knowledge.  Fair enough.

But this is when a GM needs to take advantage of the player's knowledge and turn it on them.  So for shits and giggles let's use a medusa as an example.  Stone gaze, and because of Clash of the Titans she may be kick ass with a bow, poison snake head, all of us can recite the list of fine qualities this lovely lady possesses.  So players are armed with what they think they will happen.  Ah oh, lookie here, this medusa doesn't turn anyone to stone.  This one turns them into water, trickle into the river next her layer and wash into the sea.  Those stone to flesh potions might as well be orc turds for as useful as they will be. Maybe her gaze is not the catalyst, maybe she breathes out a gas and those who are in the area of effect become nothing more than a puddle. 

GMs cannot be lazy.  They must put the effort into creating new monsters or at least variations of  a critter to build tension when a monster is encountered.  Tweaking old monsters, playing on expectations is a great way to startle the players out of their comfort zone. 

The other thing is just to make new monsters.  Blogs are dedicated to making monsters.  You can't swing a dead displacer beast without hitting a new one.  But the best monsters are the ones you make yourself.  In this case the players will only know them by their description and not their stats.  Like I said before, GMs cannot be lazy, they need to put that effort in.  Players know as much as the GMs and sometimes more. 

This ain't 1979 when only a couple of kids had the books.  This is 2012 and everyone has the books in print, PDF, on their phones and ipads and crap I probably haven't heard of. 

But I say go ahead and read your little monster manuals, I got stuff in my head that's gonna make you lose sleep. 

3 Game Nights in 1 Week

Monday Night, the veteran group actually found an item to control the Tarrasque.  For the entire campaign they have been stranded on the back side of a mountain range after an earthquake slid most of a mountain into the pass.  After taking control of the big guy they used the Tarrasque to bulldoze out the pass.  The only thing about the Tarrasque, it has lousy brakes and destroyed the keep at the other end.  I can't go into too much detail because of some of the stuff that is happening is still a mystery to the players.  But in the end, when they reached the end of the pass a few days later, they were greeted by an small army and placed under arrest.

Tomorrow night is the second session of the newbie group.  One of my assignments to them was to come up with names for their characters.  One of the women who plays an elf found a name generator and came up with a first name I can't pronounce with the second name 'Bearcharger'.  So when I pass her in the hall at work she chants 'Bearcharger'.  I'm very much leaning on doing a AD&D version of the Kingmaker adventure path from Pazio.  I think the beginning hex crawls are fun and manageable.  Then I was thinking of slipping in various adventures I've bought.  Classic AD&D adventures and OSR stuff.  I need to go through some of my things and decide.

Then on Saturday, as long as we don't get buried in snow, going to playtest some 5th edition D&D with Rob (Bat in the Attic) DMing and Al from Beyond the Black Gate might be making his way down.  Again I am sure it will be decided by weather.  Then there will be handful of others there.  I'm curious to get a feel for the new offering.  I've had the playtest stuff for a while I haven't looked at it. 

I can't remember the last time I had 3 games in one week.  And Whisk doesn't even want to strangle me.  She may by the weekend. 

POW! BAM! ZONK! 100! Done!

I just wanted to thank everyone for the support and shout outs and comments.  At the end of the day I lept over the 100 mark and landed on 110.  It may not break any records or seem like a large number, but I think its great.  I never thought I would sell a 100. 

I've been a big fan of the OSR.  And tried to to support it as much as I can promoting and purchasing what others have to offer.  My favorites tend to be the one man or two man products who really want to put a personal spin on gaming.  A peek at what it might be like to play in their game.  With Knowledge Illuminates I tried to give people a small dose of what it would be like to have me GMing a game.  And when you hear about others using it in their game its a great feeling.

Those who purchased a copy yesterday let me know so I can get you the proper xp.

Again, thanks to everyone who purchased a copy in the past year.  I hope to have a second offering soon.

One More Sale

I have 99 sales of Knowledge Illuminates.  I released it on the 16th of February last year.  Its anniversary is coming up quick.  I'm hoping to reach 100 sales before that date.  So if you had any wee bit of an inkling to buy a copy, do it now.  Help me hit triple digits.  Rob, from Bat in Attic, said I would sell a 100 and he likes to be right.  All I need is one person to buy one copy.  Easy enough.  It's only 100 cents.  And if having the adventure weren't enough, I'll throw in 100 Gothridge Manor experience points to sweeten the pot.  How the hell can you resist that? 

A Very Weird Sleestak Sunday

I have no idea what is going on here.  A guy peeing up, standing by some pit (better be careful using that hand dryer) while Chaka Obama is a giant looking very happy he can look over walls and a big sleestak head at the end of the bathroom.  There is something written in the clouds, I think it says Al Gore.  Anyway, despite all the political stuff it has a sleestak and really, that is all that matters.

Review: Zogorion, Lord of the Hippogriffs

The party is be-bopping over hill with poor old Dale dragging his ass because he's still wounded from the fight against the potato throwing gnomes.   High above a small herd of griffons flies over head when one lands nearby and addresses the party.  You have just met the Mighty Zog,Lord of Hippogriffs.  This is where the adventure begins.

Okay because this is a Jason Sholtis adventure first thing I'm checking out is the artwork.  He and John Larrey, Jason's cohort at UNDERWORLD INK, have done a fantastic job.  Their artwork can be found in almost every corner of the OSR.  I like the attitude they take towards the artwork and the adventure.  It all revolves around having a good time.  The cover cracks me up because they are playing a tabletop RPG using Zog's house rules.  And once you read the adventure that cover tells you a lot of what goes on in the adventure.  It's very, very cool.  The other piece I thought was outstanding was a quivering lipped goblin wearing suspenders.  I feel really bad for the lumpy headed fellow.   

The adventure itself is a short one.  Something that can be built up to for a minor boss or something the players encounter in a sandbox setting.  It has a perfect set up to be an interesting location in a sandbox.  The other thing that I really like about the adventure is it is built for 3rd to 7th level characters.  Most OSR adventures are geared for beginning levels, having an adventure that is in that mid-range is a nice change of pace. 

Jason was inspired by Loviatar, so this adventure as of this writing and as of this blogger's limited knowledge is only available from Jason himself.  No PDF.  At $2, Jason will send you this 16-page adventure with a cardstock cover and map inside.  The print and pictures are sharp and good quality.  So scrape together a couple of bucks, you can find that in your couch cushions and treat yourself.  Treat your players to a wild adventure. Just follow this link and look to the left side of the page and Zog will be flying to your door in no time.

Magic Bullets

This is one of my favorite Tom Waits songs.  No video, just a very cool story.  Enjoy.

Review: Weird Adventures

...blues man scribing the perfect murder ballad in the jaundice hue of a street light.  I want to be a smuggler running bootleg alchemicals in a forest infested with shotgun wielding ogres and they are the least of my worries.  I want to be a photographer who captured a picture of oil para-elementals tearing apart a rigging crew and is now running from big oil.  Rumor is they hired a hit fiend to get to me before the pictures could be released.  I want to be a scholar who's discovered the gargoyles have collect treasures through every history and store them in a sacred mountain.  I want to play Weird Adventures in black and white, wear a hat and pretend I smoke.

Weird Adventures is a world setting that takes very interesting twists on our real world.  Set in a world where weird is not weird, but the normal.  Where Ripley's Believe It or Not mixes with Film Noir and pulp magazines.  It's a world where you need to big...huge or no one will notice you.  It's a place for big adventures and big ideas. 

Trey has developed a world of some depth.  If you have every read his blog, From the Sorcerer'sSkull you know most of his posts are dedicated to the City and the surrounding world.  Nothing is out of bounds.  You can run this setting with pretty much any elements you can come up with.  The City is a playground to be explored and the wonders enjoyed.

I bought both the PDF and hardcover (actually two of them).  The books are gorgeous.  The artwork really enhances the content and you can tell they had a lot of fun.  Trey set up the book for easy reference, but I guarantee the first time you pick it up you'll read it cover to cover because it is a great read.  Then Trey added some great touches by adding mock advertisements.

I think Weird Adventures hits all the right notes.  If I did a rating system I would give it a 5 out of 5.  But I think the true test of a good gaming book is after you read it you want to play it.  And I want to play in The City.  I want to be...