RPG Bloggers

Dungeon Dramas: A Guest Spot from Bob @ The Dice Bag from Vulcan Stev's Database » RPG

Welcome back to Dungeon Dramas, my ongoing series of plot hooks as developed by the random roll of my Story Cubes. Today’s Dungeon Drama is guest written by Bob from The Dice Bag. Believe it or not, Bob and I concocted this little guest spot last year. Many things happened including more hours at work for [...]

New Combat System – Part 1 from Robertson Games

Here is the basic rules for the new combat system I’m thinking of using for our Weird West game in place of the current system (Swords & Wizardry aka Original Dungeons & Dragons). I recognize that I’m trading some of the balance and granularity of results by considering moving from a d20 + modifiers type system, and there may be some unexpected ways this could interact with other parts of the game… but I’m okay with seeing how it goes. This system is based around these things I like: Reducing down time while ...

Black Rose, Part 3 from The Other Side blog

Sorry for the delay here. Been really sick.Now I want to look at the mechanics of how Black Rose will work. I want to include as much of the Ravenloft feel as possible, so that means fear and horror checks. To accommodate bo...

ITGW B2 Caves of Chaos is Go! from Troll and Flame

At the Austin D&D March Meetup I'll running B2 Caves of Chaos for International Traditional Gaming Week at BattleForge Games in Austin Texas March 21st! Classic D&D - B2 The Caves of ChaosDM - Norman J. Harman Jr.The thick, twisted tree t...

Geomorph #20 from Risus Monkey

Today's geomorph is the first to feature furniture. I imagine that these rooms represent a barracks of some kind, with the large room housing bunks of common soldiers and the smaller rooms housing officers.

Minicast now available on Itunes from www. Newbie DM .com

Just a quick post to let you know that the NewbieDM.com Minicast is now available on the Itunes store. You can find it here. Also, you could just do a search for Newbiedm.com in the Itunes store. There’s only one episode so far, but there’s more coming. Also, we (Phil the ChattyDM, Dave Chalker, and I) [...]

Yet Another Free Download: Complete Character #4 from Jason Richards cannot be trusted

I figure that I shouldn't mess with a good thing. People seem to be really enjoying my Complete Characters series of NPC downloads, so allow me to introduce you to Shelly Jackson, the Psychic Cat-Lady. That's the crazy old lady with all the cats, by the way, and not a young woman that inexplicably has cat ears like something out of an anime stereotype catalog.

Shelly Jackson had a tragic childhood, so what did she do to cope? Talk to her dead father, of course! This wouldn't be too strange, except that her dead father apparently tells her the future. That might sound great, but he's a little bit particular on what information he chooses to discuss. Shelly spends her days tending to her dozens of pet cats, chatting with the shade of her dearly departed dad.

You can read more about her by checking out the PDF in the Downloads section on the right side of the screen.

I chose this character because it's a twist on the familiar. Everyone has that crazy old lady in their neighborhood. As kids you took dares to touch her front door. The older kids tell their younger brothers and sisters stories about how she once cursed Jimmy from down the street and made him break out in hives. She almost never leaves the house, and the whole place just gives off an eerie aura.

We're dealing with a gaming world here, so what if that lady did have some touch of the supernatural about her? Might she be a subtle instrument of dark forces? Maybe she's misunderstood and could use a friend, who in turn might benefit from some glimpse into who will win next week's football game. Maybe it's true that she just fattens up those cats to eat them.

I'll leave that up to you.

Do You Have Time For Serpents? from Reviews from R'lyeh

Last Saturday I participated in a demonstration game of Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying Set 1: For Characters Level 1 to 5, the new roleplaying game from Green Ronin Publishing based on Dragon Age: Origins, the computer game from Bioware. Our GM, Dickie, ran the scenario that comes with the game, “The Dalish Curse,” for myself and two other players. I played a Surface Dwarf Warrior called Gorim, and armed with a two-handed axe proceeded to cut a swath through a lot of the opposition, which is not to belittle the efforts of my fellow Mage and Rogue, but boy did Gorim tank his way through the scenario! Everyone said that they not only enjoyed themselves, but that they would play it again. I certainly would, as I really enjoyed myself! While it was fun dishing out lots and lots of damage, what really made it exciting was the game’s Stunt Points and Stunt Point system. Make a really good roll in combat, whether casting a spell, shooting an arrow, or striking with an axe, and a character gets to pull off spectacular manoeuvres. For example, I made a good roll when we were being attacked by three possessed wolves and choose to do Mighty Blow followed by Dual Action, which meant that Gorim could not inflict extra damage on the beast in front of him, but swing his axe with such force that he could strike at an adjacent beast. This means of handling Stunts added a dynamic aspect to the play of Dragon Age.

The first thing that you need to know about Dragon Age is that you do not need to have played the computer game to enjoy the RPG. For example, I have not, although I do want to try the game at some point. If you happen to have played the computer game, then you need to know that Dragon Age is set about the same time as the computer game. The second thing that you need to know is that the game is written to be played by both experienced players and those new to roleplaying, such that learning the game is really easy for the experienced player, and relatively easy for the neophyte player. The third thing that you need to know is that Dragon Age is a Class and Level game, one that comes with three races, three classes, and only covers levels one through five. Further boxed sets will detail five levels each up to level twenty, much like the 1983 version of Basic Dungeons & Dragons did with its Basic, Expert, Companion, Master, and Immortal Boxed Sets (though they actually took Basic Dungeons & Dragons from level one up to level thirty six rather the levels one through twenty of Dragon Age).

What you get in the Dragon Age box set is two books, one for the players, and one for the GM; plus a large full colour map of the game’s beginning setting, Ferelden. Lastly, the box contains three six-sided dice, two of one colour, and one of another colour. Both of the Player’s Guide and the GM’s Guide are sixty-four pages in length, in full colour, profusely illustrated, easy to read, and each come with their own index. The Player’s Guide gives the background for the setting, along with rules for character creation, magic, combat, and equipment, as well as how to play the game. The GM’s Guide gives the rules in detail, describes how to run the game, and gives both plenty of adversaries along with the beginning scenario, “The Dalish Curse.” Both books are also written with the neophyte in mind, so that the Player’s Guide has advice on how to be a good player and the GM’s Guide, advice on how to be a good GM. If a player reads through the Player’s Guide, he will have a good idea of how the game plays, and to be honest, the GM does not have that much more to learn from the GM’s Guide.

The setting for Dragon Age is the world of Thedas, with the first boxed set focusing on Ferelden. This is a nation of humans descended from barbarian tribes that has not long achieved independence after suffering invasions from other nations and darkspawn incursions known as Blights. Each Blight was brought about by a mage who grew too hungry for power, and for this reason, the use of magic is distrusted. Hence every mage must be a member of the Circle of Magi, or he will be hunted down as an apostate. Even Circle mages are monitored by Templars of the Chantry, watching for the use of blood magic or for signs of demonic possession. Any mage not part of the circle is known as an Apostate and is in danger of being hunted down. The Chantry is a powerful influence in Ferelden – and elsewhere – such that when the newly formed second Elven nation of the Dales refused to worship the Maker, the Chantry declared an Exalted March, resulting in the sacking of the Dales and the scattering of the Elves. Today, most Elves live as second class citizens, free though quartered in Alienages in Ferelden, but live as slaves elsewhere. Still some Elves choose to follow their own gods and live independently, but these Dalish Elves are even more distrusted. The only contact with the Dwarves is with the surface houses, which act as middlemen between those Dwarves that live underground and the surface nations, and so have got rich in the process. While other nations might regard the Ferelden people as barbarians, to the West lie the Frostback Mountains, home to the Avvar Hillsmen, tribes people who refused to join with what they see as the old and corrupt folk of Ferelden.

The setting of Ferelden is described as Dark Fantasy. It has neither Unicorns nor Pegasi, and it is rare for anyone to be of pure heart. It feels reminiscent of Saxon Britain, having been invaded many times, including by a once mighty but now fallen empire, and is still threatened today, while holding numerous superstitions and prejudices. Mechanically, it can be quite lethal for the player characters. In one encounter in our demonstration game, the rogue was cut down very quickly by an opponent as the mage held off another and I ran round the room smashing the other opponents down. Fortunately healing is freely available, usually from a party’s Mage, either from his Healing Focus, Chirurgy Talent, or Heal spell, but also from resting after a combat encounter.

For its mechanics, Dragon Age uses what it calls the “age” or “adventure game engine.” To undertake an action, a character rolls three six-sided dice – two of one colour and one of another colour, this single die being known as the Dragon Die – adding the result to an appropriate ability (or attribute) and if the character has one, an appropriate Ability Focus (or skill). For example, Gorim (see below) attacks a Genlock, a humanoid type of Darkspawn, with his two-handed axe. He rolls a total of ten (three, three, and then four on the Dragon Die), adds his Strength (three) and the bonus from his Strength (Axes) Focus (two) to get a total of fifteen. This is enough to hit the Genlock and Gorim can roll his damage.

Yet before Gorim can roll this damage, he gets to perform one or more cinematic stunts. This is because he rolled doubles on two of the dice. When this happens in combat, a character gets to spend Stunt Points equal to the number rolled on the Dragon Die, choosing Stunts from one of two tables. One table covers Stunts for melee and ranged attacks, while another covers spell combat. In our example, Gorim has four Stunt Points to spend. He selects Pierce Armour for two Stunt Points, which halves the Genlock’s armour, and then Mighty Blow, allowing him to deliver an extra die’s worth of damage. It is not possible to take a Stunt more than once in a combat round, but in this instance, it is enough for Gorim to inflict a mighty twenty six points of damage on the Genlock, killing the creature straight off!

Essentially, the Dragon Die works as an “Effect Die.” In combat it allows a character to undertake dynamic and exciting actions, while out of combat it works as a tie breaker in opposed rolls, as means to determine the length of time an action takes, and as a means to determine the quality of an action. We found that when playing, rolling four or more on the Dragon Die gave us lots more options than when we rolled under four. In addition, if you have a good GM, he will also let you suggest ways in which you can spend the Stunt Points to gain visually exciting effects.

The method of creating characters is primarily random. Three six-sided dice are rolled in turn for eight Abilities (or attributes) to generate numbers between -2 and 4. A 1 in an Ability is average with the Ability table weighted towards results of 1 or above. Abilities are rolled in order, but a player can swap one Ability result with another. Next a Background is chosen. Each Background – there are seven given in the Player’s Guide – determines a character’s culture, upbringing, and race. The seven available are Apostate, Avvar, Circle Mage, City Elf, Dalish Elf, Ferelden Freeman, and Surface Dwarf. In game terms, a Background also provides one Ability increase and one Ability Focus (or skill), but can provide one or more of either depending upon rolls made against a benefit table given for each Background.

Each Class determines a character’s starting Hit Points, Talents, and Weapon Groups besides the Powers that each Class grants. A Mage knows Arcane Lance, a free magical attack projected through a wand or staff, Mana Points, plus spells. Only seventeen spells are described, but these are enough for the moment. A nice touch is that several different sets of beginning spells are suggested to help a player get going with his Mage. The rules suggest that a starting Mage take the Heal spell and after our demonstration game, this is good advice. The Mage only knows the Brawling and Staves Weapon Groups, and will probably refrain from wearing armour as casting spells in armour costs more Mana points. In comparison, the Rogue knows more Weapon Groups, all of them light, and is trained in wearing light armour. He can also Backstab, an attack from an unexpected direction, so a Rogue cannot be adjacent to the target at the start of a combat round. A Rogue also has one of the Contacts, Scouting, or Thievery Talents. Lastly, a Warrior knows more Weapon Groups, wear better armour, and can specialise in various Weapon Styles, such as Archery Style, Dual Weapon Style, or Weapon-and-Shield Style.

Lastly, a player can choose his character’s name, purchase equipment – this in addition to the basic gear that each class receives, work out the game’s few derived stats, and set the character one short term and one long term goal. The character creation process is actually pretty quick and once familiar with it, a player could create his character in about five minutes. To prove it, and because I like the game so much, I include not one, not two, but three sample characters.

Name: Gorim of House Strakan

Race: Dwarf Background: Surface Dwarf

Class: Warrior Level: 1

Communication: 1 Constitution: 4 Cunning: 0

Dexterity: 2 Magic: -2 Perception: 0

Strength: 3 Willpower: 1

Defence: 12 Speed: 10 Hit Points: 37 Armour: 4 (Heavy Leather)

Foci: Constitution (Stamina), Cunning (Engineering), Strength (Axes)

Talents: Armour Training, Dual Weapon Style, Two-Hander Style

Weapon Groups: Brawling, Axes, Bludgeons, Bows

Languages: Trade Tongue (Speak and read), Dwarven (Speak and read)

Attacks: Battle Axe (2d6+3), Crossbow (2d6+1), Two-Handed Axe (3d6+3)

Money: 59 silver pieces

Name: Adanna

Race: Elf Background: Circle Mage

Class: Mage Level: 1

Communication: 2 Constitution: 1 Cunning: 2

Dexterity: 3 Magic: 3 Perception: 2

Strength: -1 Willpower: 1

Defence: 13 Speed: 15 Hit Points: 21

Mana Points: 17 Spells: Arcane Bolt, Heal, Rock Armour

Foci: Cunning (Arcane Lore), Cunning (Historical Lore)

Weapon Groups: Brawling, Staves

Languages: Trade Tongue (Speak and read), Ancient Tevene (Read)

Attacks: Arcane Lance (1d6+3), Quarterstaff (1d6+1)

Money: 58 silver pieces

Name: Blaen

Race: Human Background: Ferelden Freeman

Class: Rogue Level: 1

Communication: 2 Constitution: 3 Cunning: 1

Dexterity: 2 Magic: 2 Perception: 1

Strength: 1 Willpower: 1

Defence: 12 Speed: 12 Hit Points: 28 Armour: 2 (Light Leather)

Foci: Communication (Animal Handling), Willpower (Courage)

Talents: Backstab, Rogue’s Armour, Contacts

Weapon Groups: Bows, Brawling, Light Blades, Staves

Languages: Trade Tongue (Speak and read)

Attacks: Long Bow (1d6+3), Short Sword (1d6+2)

Money: 59 silver pieces

Character progression, made by being awarded Experience Points and gaining levels (Experience Points are awarded according to the difficulty of an encounter), grants a character increases to his Abilities, new Talents and Focuses, increases in his Talents – from Novice to Journeyman, and if a Mage, new spells. Of course, this boxed set only takes a character up to fifth level. Future boxed sets will add more.

The base set for Dragon Age only gives three races – Dwarf, Elf, and Human; and three Classes – Mage, Rogue, and Warrior. Depending on the Background selected, Elves and Humans can be of any Class, but Dwarves cannot cast spells and so can only be Rogues or Warriors. To an extent, this does limit choice, and hopefully, future sets will provide new Backgrounds and Classes, such as Chantry Clerics and Templars. Another problem with character generation is that despite the fact that the game describes the Classes as being quite broad, this not quite true. The starting Talents available to the Rogue – Contacts, Scouting, or Thievery, of which he can have just the one, do define his role. He either knows people, can act as a scout, or as a burglar. Thus the choice of Talent defines the Rogue’s role, but there are fewer obvious choices when it comes to the other two Classes. With the Chirurgy Talent a Mage can be a healer, but he is otherwise a scholar of some kind. With the Warrior, what defines his role is the choice of Weapon Groups and Style Talents known, and there is not enough of a difference between these to define an actual role beyond fighter.

Another problem with the random creation method used in Dragon Age is that a roll earlier in process will often determine what a character can select later. For example, if a Mage wants to be a healer and take the Chirurgy Talent available to him as a Mage, the requirements for the Talent are that the Mage have the Cunning (Healing) Focus, and this is only available on the Human benefit table for the Apostate Background and on the Elf benefit table for the Circle Mage Background. This also occurs in other cases because a character does not match the Ability requirements and so limits a player’s choice. Also, this is not obvious in the rules and can only be found out by actually creating a character.

In addition to the advice on being a GM and a more detailed explanation of the combat, the GM’s Guide provides a bestiary of some twenty or so adversaries. Most monsters and adversaries can make use of the same Stunt Tables as the player characters, with many entries listing the preferred Stunts. In addition, many creatures have their own Stunts, such the Black Bear’s Quick Bite Stunt. While advice is given on making these creatures tougher, there are no rules for the GM who wants to create his own. It also includes a detailed scenario, “The Dalish Curse.” This has the player characters come upon a farm that has been attacked and its inhabitants killed. Amongst the bodies, they discover a wounded elf, who when taken to the nearby village, arouses the suspicions of the villagers that an Elven curse has befallen them. This follows on from an altercation that the villagers had with some Dalish Elves that attended the village’s harvest festival. Worse still, the wounded Elf manages to tell the heroes that her fellow Dalish Elves were abducted and begs for their aid. This begins a scenario that should played through in a session or two, or just the one long session. It is quite detailed, and focuses upon two elements of the setting mentioned elsewhere in the two books – the prejudice against the Elves and the chance of demonic possession and transformation into a Darkspawn of some kind. It does lack advice for staging each scene though, which is pity given that Dragon Age is designed for the new GM as much as the experienced one.

From having played through “The Dalish Curse” I would recommend that the game be played with a minimum of three players plus the GM. And if there is just the three players participating, then they should play one each of the classes. Plus the mage should absolutely take the Heal spell.

Dragon Age is a lot of fun, but it is not quite perfect. One problem is with the map, which though very nice, is marked with the locations and their names for the scenario. I would have preferred a map that was more neutral in this regard. I also would have liked more background, if only to help me create more scenarios, and as much as I like the random method of character generation, it is disappointing that all too often it limits character choice.

Interestingly, on the back of Dragon Age’s box, it claims to offer “A New Age of Fantasy Roleplaying!” whilst at the same time describing it as “old school roleplaying.” Which begs the question, is such a combination possible? The mechanics in Dragon Age certainly look back to the Old School Renaissance with their simplicity, with their lack of explanation for every eventuality, and for the room they make for the GM to interpret and apply them. As does the format with its multiple boxed sets designed to take a character from first to twentieth levels. It would have been interesting for the rules to have explained this use of the term “old school roleplaying” and in doing might have made it more attractive to players with an interest in that style, let alone explain its claim to herald a “New Age of Fantasy Roleplaying!” This I am less convinced about, and without the words to back it up upon the part of the author, it reads as hyperbole.

What is so refreshing about Dragon Age, is that it runs counter to the current trend in fantasy roleplaying games for complexity, for overburdening the players with choice, for the absolute need for playing boards and miniatures, and for making fantasy roleplaying games more like board games than actual roleplaying games. If you happen to be looking for a beginning RPG, then Dragon Age – Dark Fantasy Roleplaying Set 1: For Characters Level 1 to 5 happens to be an excellent choice. The basic rules tend towards the simplistic, but that also means that they are very straightforward, very easy to grasp, and in play the game proceeds at pace. On top of that, the Stunt Point system is a delight, being so easy to use, and will have players begging to roll doubles just so that they can use it. For experienced roleplayers, Dragon Age is very easy to pick up and play, and once the game gets going, playing is not just fun, it is a blast!

RuneQuest II versus OpenQuest from Akratic Wizardry

I’m still on a bit of a ‘d100’ kick, it would seem…

OpenQuest is a fantasy-role playing game by Newt Newport that makes use of Mongoose’s SRD for RuneQuest I as a base, but builds its own ‘simplified’ version of classic RuneQuest. Mongoose’s RuneQuest II, by Lawrence Whitaker and Pete Nash, is an overhaul of Mongoose’s earlier attempt to resurrect the classic game, and allegedly overcomes many the rules problems with the earlier ‘MRQ’.

Here are some of my initial impressions of both games. Important caveat: While I own both of these great games, and have looked through them many times over the past few weeks, I have not 'mastered' the rules of either yet. So please take these initial impressions with a grain of salt. I welcome corrections, comments, and different perspectives!

OpenQuest definitely is to be the 'lighter' of the two systems. Among other things, it has a shorter skill list, and does not use hit locations (although MRQII does have an optional rule for 'general hit points' for 'lesser' or unimportant NPCs). OQ's combat system lacks certain interesting things that MRQII has (e.g., combat manoeuvres), but, personally, I prefer a fast-moving but 'simple' combat system to a complex and 'interesting' one that can take up more time. So, given my personal taste on this matter, OQ looks better than MRQII with respect to combat. (However, once a certain level of comfort has been achieved with the combat system, I could imagine becoming interested in introducing additional complexity into it, as MRQII does, so I would not rule out eventually getting on board with MRQII’s combat system.)

The character creation rules in MRQII are wonderful. They seem designed to ensure that any character created is going to have an exciting and rich background. I'm especially impressed by the 'community' and 'background events' rules. They are simple but flavourful -- a winning combination! OQ, on the other hand, has (again) the advantage in terms of simplicity. Creating a new OQ character is more straightforward and thus faster. However, when it comes to creating new characters, I don't mind adding 20-30 minutes to the process in order to come up with a more interesting character. So, with respect to character creation, I think that I prefer MRQII.

Both systems cover the same types of magic (common/battle magic, spirit magic, divine magic, and sorcery). MRQII's account of spirit magic seems much more fleshed out than OQ's account. More generally, MRQII provides more information on magic. The four magic systems appear to be 'modular' in both games, although only MRQII explicitly makes this point (i.e., one could choose to use only some, or one, of the magic systems without affecting the overall ‘balance’ of the game – e.g., a game with only 'sorcery' is perfectly feasible).

I'd be curious to know what people more familiar with both systems think about the relative strengths and weaknesses of the magic systems in MRQII and OQ. It's very hard for me to evaluate them, having played neither game yet.

The bestiary in MRQII is pretty lean (18 creatures). In contrast, OQ provides over twice as many critters (37 in total).

MRQII provides no setting background or adventures. I don't mind the lack of a setting – in fact, I generally prefer it – but it would have been nice if the authors of MRQII had included a brief 'intro' adventure. I find such adventures helpful for GMs new to a system. Even simply reading an intro adventure helps give a starting GM a sense of the way that the system works. OQ, in contrast, provides two adventures (if you purchase the 'Furnace edition'), as well as a campaign setting. The campaign setting in OQ is a little bland, in my opinion, but I don't mind that it's there. And I'm very grateful for the adventures!

Aesthetically, I find MRQII to be the prettier product. The leather cover is simple and attractive, whereas OQ’s cover looks too cluttered and ‘busy.’ The interior art is nice in both books. I like Simon Bray’s black and white pictures inside OQ (as opposed to his cover). Some of the pictures in MRQII look a bit ‘off’ (the heads of the ‘barbarian’ and ‘primitive’ on page 13 look disturbingly large), but for the most part the quality is fine. There are a couple of ‘cheesecake’ pictures in the MRQII book (e.g., pages 102 and 132), but I don’t mind such things, in moderation. The layout of both books is clean and readable.

Overall, the two systems are very similar. This is not surprising, given their common lineage. It should be easy, I think, to take bits from one game to use with the other. For instance, I would be tempted to use the combat system of OQ for MRQII, simply because I find hit locations rather 'fiddly' (although I suppose that they might be something that I could grow to like). Conversely, the ‘community’ rules could be ported from MRQII into OQ without any trouble. (It would also be easy to take bits from BRP to use with either OQ or MRQII.)

In the end, I like both systems a lot, and can’t really say which one I prefer. I would be curious to know if anyone has an ‘all things considered’ preference for OpenQuest or Runequest. And lurking in the background, I suppose, is the question of whether to simply use Basic Roleplaying instead. Since I am judging MRQII and OQ in terms of potential fantasy games, I suppose that the focus of those systems make them easier to use ‘out of the box’ than BRP. Nonetheless, taking the appropriate bits of BRP – or simply using Elric!/Stormbringer – is a definite option (depending on what kind of fantasy game one wanted to run).

Okay, enough rambling, back to procrastinating!

The Glass Ward from RPG dumping ground

The Glass Ward is a medium-sized round shield made from a twisted mass of black volcanic glass tinted with red and green stains caused by impurities. The edges of the shield have been polished smooth, but the face is a mass of twisted, razor sharp spin...

Random Album Covers (Repost) from World of Corruption

If you’re running a near future game like Cyberpunk or Shadowrun, the music scene is a huge part of the atmosphere. Or should be since I’ve noticed it doesn’t get alot of play time. Part of that, I think , is that it can be hard to come up with good artist and song names. If [...]

New Games Detected! from Dice Monkey

I sold some games on Craigslist the other day; Some old board games I’ll never use. I let them go for 25 bucks, which, if you were to buy those games individually, would probably be around $200. But I wasn’t playing them, as I said, and they needed to go. So what did I do? Naturally, [...]

Mind Bullets, Anyone? from StupidRanger.com » rpgbloggers

For those of you awaiting the ability to destroy their enemies with merely a single thought, you’re going to enjoy the Players Handbook 3. Introduced in this volume are several new psionic classes: Ardent, Battlemind, Monk, and Psion. Finally, the Monk Returns The Monk returns as a Striker with a Psionic keyword. Monks spend years training and [...]

Novel Adventures: Games with Predefined Endings from Dungeon's Master

In February’s issue of Dungeon (#173), Craig A. Campbell has created a three-encounter delve called Haruuc’s Tomb: A Novel Adventure based on events from Don Bassingthwaite’s fantastic Eberron novel, Word of Traitors. As a big fan of Eberron and a huge fan of this book I was very concerned about how this adventure would turn [...]

Exponential Number Encountered from Troll and Flame

[Very short idea I had while hitting snooze button over and over.]Instead of linear 1d6, 1d10*30, 1d100 or bellcurved (perhaps unintentially) 2d6, 3d36 I'd like to have an "exponential" scale. For instance, the surface of Hell Pit Megadungeon (think Ca...

things I want to do better from Jeffs Gameblog

Lighting - This post has gotten me thinking. Often someone playing a magic-user says "I'm carrying a torch" and then we forget about the whole thing. If you were really going into a dungeon would you trust the wimp in the mumu with the sole source of i...

Fringes of Khorvaire, Session 3 from My Girlfriend is a DM

The third session of Fringes of Khorvaire was a mini-session more than anything else. Just a social encounter with Qolleb, the leader of a band of treasure hunting orcish freelancers. In all honesty, this really served as an excuse to take the campaign into an actual direction, as the moments after Khyber’s Harvest was really [...]

Friday’s 4E Freebie: Haruuc’s Tomb by Wizards of the Coast from NEUROGLYPH Games

“Kings know that the throne and the sword are jealous lovers. A king born to the throne may grow to love another, but the king who fights his way to the throne already has queen and mistress both.” ~ Lhesh Haruuc Shaarat’kor (Word of Traitors, Prologue, Don Bassingthwaite) This past week, Wizards of the Coast released [...]

Earthdawn Soundtracks from Earthdawn Blog

City of Spires from Nevermet Press

Edited by Cassey Toi The begining Treasures once filled even the beggar’s satchels, the towers of the least nobles reaching heights of a hundred feet or more, a red light district like none the world had ever seen, dens of vice filled with all sorts of vile and decadent pleasures, temples to gods long [...]

Idealist Game Designer from Mad Brew Labs

Last November, Neoncon introduced a series of presentations from tabletop gaming industry insiders called GamesU. Luminaries like Eric Mona, Ed Healy, and John Wick. I think Neoncon did a great job executing GamesU and I especially enjoyed being able to stream a couple of the presentations live. Now, Neoncon is editing the presentations and placing them on their YouTube channel. The first video they released was the keynote by Eric Mona on the topic of Pen & Paper Games in the 21st Century. I obviously have a large interest in how roleplaying games will evolve in the next decade, but this article is to address the latest video released from GamesU, Marcelo Figueroa's Live the Dream: Building a Career in the Games Industry.

The underdark map from D (Drow) series from Bat in the Attic

I seem to remember there was a project done by somebody in the OSR where they finished detailing the underdark map found in the D series. For the life of me I can remember where it is. Does anybody know what I am talking about? I think I found it a 1 1...

DC Gameday VI from Risus Monkey

Posting may or may not be light this weekend because I have friends coming in from out of town. We'll all be going to the DC Gameday on Saturday, so I'd love to meet any readers of Risus Monkey that are also in attendance. I was not going to run anything because I didn't have enough time to submit an event before the rush. However, my morning session was cancelled and I could be persuaded to run a pickup game of Risus. I'll also be playing in a Labyrinth Lord game run by Cthulhu's Librarian (he's one of my friends coming from out of town). Last time I checked, there was still room at his table so if you live in the DC Area and are looking for a little Old School gaming, come on by (you'll need to email the event organizer to gain admitance to the building).

Friday Discussion: Spousal Attitudes Towards Gaming from RPG Blog II

Yesterday, my wife had a tonsillectomy. Of course, she did great, because she’s about 10 times tougher than I’ll ever be. She’s awesome, and I’m tremendously, unbelievably lucky to have her.

She’s not a tabletop gamer, but she puts up with more of my nonsense and gamer talk than she probably should. She’s been supportive and flexible in me running my biweekly campaign, even if it isn’t something she herself enjoys.

With that in mind, today’s Friday Discussion is all about the spouses (or partners, girlfriends, or significant others, take your pick):

What Is Your Spouse’s Attitude Towards Gaming? Tolerance? Enjoyment? Thinly Veiled Disgust? A Sort of Resigned Support?

Have a great weekend!

More positive D&D coverage from a college paper from The Escapist Blog

Here's another positive article on the roleplaying hobby from a college newspaper - this time it's the University of Oregon's Daily Emerald, publishing "A cool creative outlet" by Greg Dewar:

Any sort of activity that by its very nature forces participants to think, feel and create should be lauded, accepted and popular in our society. It is a triumph of humanity. It’s a game where people get together and think, both individually and communally, to create a detailed mindscape to exist within. It’s the perfect creative and social outlet, and it boggles my mind that it isn’t more popular. Our society is in a sad state indeed when a game that allows you to explore your own humanity and exercise your mind is a frowned-upon activity (also, reading books should be considered cooler than it is).

(Full article is here.)

The way I see it, what we really have to do is find out how and when these collegiate journalists are taught the standard practices of always referring to gamers as loners and being certain to mention some unsubstantiated rumors about murders and suicides associated with the game whenever writing a piece about roleplaying.

Then maybe we can nip the problem in the bud.

[Friday Map] Geomorph Set 7 from A character for every game

Another six geomorphs down! No real theme to this set, just getting back into the groove.

[TotalCon 2010] The Unexplained: Spirits Among the Ruins from Held Action » Role-Playing Games

This, regrettably, is where Saturday unraveled for me. Back when I preregistered, I hadn’t considered the effect of scheduling three investigation-heavy role-playing games in a row. It got rather tedious to go through the steps of investigation three games in a row. Considering the last two adventures had been rather inconclusive, I was subconsciously looking [...]

Five good things I learned playing D&D 4th edition (or… How I learned not to care about diagonal movement!) from Stargazer's World

Some of you might have gotten the idea from a previous post that I don’t like Dungeons & Dragons 4th edition. Nothing could be further from the truth. I played the game for the better part of a year and had fun with it. Ultimately my players and I sat down to talk about it [...]

Houserules and Dice Fudging – at what point are you no longer playing D&D? from Back Screen Pass - A DM's Secrets

In the comments to my last post many people made the point that D&D is never played RAW, and each group will come to a consensus together on how the game should be played. My post was about PC mortality, and Rob Barret even went so far as to state,

"In all the years we played Moldvay, Mentzer, and AD&D, I don't think we ever had a character die. Ever. Same for 2nd edition and 3rd edition for that matter."

To me, that suggests either some serious houseruling to reduce the lethality of these games or some serious dice fudging or both. Houseruling I totally understand, being a big proponent of this myself. The urge to tinker with the rules runs strong within me, and sometimes I have to consciously hold myself back from making unnecessary changes just because a particular mechanic seems a little wonky to me. Lately, I have been satisfying this urge by just writing my own rulesets, and that has been a ton of fun.

Dice fudging is a little more alien to me, on either side of the screen. As a DM, if I am not comfortable with the idea of PCs dying, what am I doing running a game that has an abstract combat system like D&D where the falling dice determine success or failure with very little room for player skill to influence the outcome? I think a lot of DMs roll their dice behind the screen, so no one would ever be the wiser anyway. As a player, sure I can understand the desire to roll well, but half the fun to me is when you get that awesome critical hit in after a long string of pathetic rolls. Still, I guess a lot of people out there do practice dice fudging. Heck, I was reading a thread on rpg.net the other day about how one of the top sellers on an online RPG store were the loaded d20's!

I would hazard a guess that both houseruling D&D to decrease lethality and fudging dice rolls are a product of the desire to make D&D more of a storytelling game. Them may be fightin' words in some circles, but I feel that the desire to play out a storyline involving the PCs as the Heroes of the story precludes the PCs dying from being a very real possibility. Many people don't want to play a game of D&D that involves their characters dying.

More power to 'em, I say. People should play the game they want to play. I guess what has been bugging me when I think about this is the nagging feeling that this isn't really D&D. I keep going back and forth about this; the rational side of me knows that houserules have been mentioned and encouraged in every edition of the game (as Kevin reminded me in the comments to my last post), but my gut reaction just keeps being that a game with no chance of death just isn't the game that I call D&D. It may be as simple as that - there is no monolothic D&D, and what each person thinks of as D&D is really a unique creation of how she interprets the rules and how she has bent them to her own ends.

But let me conduct a little thought experiment: surely there must be some point past which you cannot push D&D and still have it be recognized as D&D. Let us imagine a hypothetical gaming group. This group has decided that they like D&D, they like the races and classes and character creation, but they don't like the way combat is resolved, they don't like the non-combat skill system and they don't like the magic system. So they make a houserule - each player simply narrates what her character does, and the DM narrates what the NPCs do. If there is a conflict between these narratives, the group as a whole must come to a consensus as to what happened before play can continue.

Is that still D&D? Or is it a group storytelling session with some elements of D&D thrown in?

Where would you draw the line? Give me some examples of what, in your opinion, would push a game beyond "D&D" into the territory of something else entirely.

Lazy Friday Video Post: A Gentlemen’s Duel from Stargazer's World

I found this great short movie on Geeks are Sexy the day before yesterday and I thought this is something I have to share with my readers. The movie is not only extremely funny but also great inspiration for everyone thinking about running a steampunk RPG! The duel (and the resulting destruction) is truly inspiring! [...]

A Shiny Thought from The Player Side of the Screen

Well, it's Friday. Like I've hinted at, I'm going to be drawing the inspiration for this post from a television show called Firefly: a space western that got cancelled early by the FOX network. (I will now calmly silence the inner Browncoat before diatribing against the network) I just started rewatching the series with some friends. It's beautiful. What I'd like to talk about, though, is

Microlite20, sold! from Greywulf's Lair » RPG

I am happy to announce that Microlite20 has a new owner. I received a whole load of enquiries regarding the rights to M20, and want to thank each and every person who took the time, thought and care to make an offer. If I could cut Microlite20 into tiny word-sized pieces so you could each [...]

Multiple Attack Update from Mobunited.com

Hi folks, I’ve been pretty sick for about a month off and on due to strep. That’s why this blog’s been silent. What’s going on? Aeternal Legends: It’s available in print and PDF, still. Stew and I are slowly talking about some cool stuff to come, but we’re both pretty busy. Why don’t you buy that sonofabitch? Knights [...]

Friday Funny: Krenshar-Pei from Kobold Quarterly Magazine: Monsters and Magic for D&D Gamers

The shopkeeper looked at the leopard-spotted dog sitting outside his shop, and he found himself oddly compelled to leave his shop so he could pet the sad-looking animal. The dog sat there while he consoled it and asked it where its owner was. Suddenly, a sharp whistle sounded to his left, and the dog trotted [...]

Coding Behaviors, and Why It Matters from Exchange of RealitiesOn gaming

One of the most interesting sources of dissonance between creator intent and audience interpretation, at least as far as I’ve seen, is what what happens when the creator does something that to her signifies one thing but to the audience, or to some part of the audience, comes across as something else. What’s [...]

First Who, Then What from Continuing Clockwise

Not long ago I came across the audio version of Jim Collins’ Good to Great. While the focus of the book is to understand the difference between truly great companies with great leadership and enduring growth from the merely good companies who’ve experienced brief periods of strength, many of its themes apply to any group [...]

My 4th Ed. Character won’t DIE!! from The Vorpal Spork

Not that I want him to die mind you. A little more Drama would be cool. I'm starting to see what the Haters are talking about.
Tonight the PC's were randomly transporting around floating elemental moats fighting whatever the DM put on them. First up for me was a solo with an Immolith. I should have saved my dailys', cause up next was an adult Black Dragon. To be fair, had not my party members showed up (see Cleric*) I would have been in big trouble. Then, after a short rest, the Aspect of Lolth. Luckily for us she had a previous engagement and left early. All this is a lot to chew for an 11th level Dwarf Warlord.
Having said that, I've been playing this guy for almost a year now. He has taken on a near legendary status. He's got 11 ex-wives and 17 children to feed. And, he possesses the "Axe of the Dwarvish Lords" Come to think of it, I am very attached to Grognard Deepmug. I'm hoping that I can take him all the way to Level 30.
I guess what I'm saying is that when a campaign is well run, it's like a book. And, no one likes it when their favorite character dies before the book is done.

Build the best multimedia D&D rig ever – Part 1 from Meta Gamemastery

I'm finally ready to unveil my latest project: a video and sound effects processing machine mounted in a portable case. The project is geared toward use with tabletop RPGs. The kit will contain a video projector to display initiative and effects during combat, images and video to illustrate the plot and a speaker system for music and sound effects. A wireless network access point will be installed to allow remote control from a laptop or iPhone.

Build the best multimedia D&D rig ever- Part 1 from Meta Gamemastery

Inversion, a Realm of the Manifold from Emergence Campaign Weblog

Setting Background: The 21st century has been hard for humanity. Total ecological collapse across much of the world has brought humanity to the brink. Temperatures have risen worldwide, raising sea levels as the polar ice melts, turning the tropics into vast, barren deserts, sending species extinction rates skyrocketing, and beginning to unravel many of [...]

Dry Spell from Under A Blood Red Sky

It is a dry season for me as far as gaming is concerned. Work has eased up a little bit but promises to come down in a raging torrent by the beginning of next month, what with the news that I’m being handed another department to run. This has its respective pros and cons- and I am reminded of the age old adage which says that crisis lends its share of opportunities. Far from complaining, I continually thank my lucky stars. At the very least I have a job and this counts for very much in these curious times we live in.

That said, I foresee no further sessions of Mutant Future (or any gaming, for that matter!) perhaps until the first week of April at the earliest. I thank the Pancreator that the inhabitants of this third world paradise I am constrained to call home have an apparent collective fixation with Holy Week. This means, amongst others, that work tends to stop as early as the day after Palm Sunday. Maybe (just maybe), I can wangle some seriously fun gaming time on that week.

In the meantime, I’ve taken the opportunity to catch up on my reading (both gaming-related and otherwise). Amongst the items I am presently going through include Urutsk, World of Mystery (‘UWoM’). These are two downloadable PDF documents written by Kyrinn S. Eis (who also maintains a blog here). These documents appear to be beta versions of a players’ book and a referees’ guide.

It is a fact that I don’t post on my blog now as much as I would want to – I’ve learned to accept this as part of my present circumstances. The same is true with my attempts to follow the posts on many blogs I have grown to love. I’ve followed Timeshadows blog for some time but only recently had I managed to find the breathing space to go over UWoM. I must confess that I have not had the chance to go over this as completely as I want to (and I’m still going through it as I write this) but so far, it’s beginning to fire me up as inspiration for future games.

Briefly, my take on UWoM is that it is a science-fantasy RPG background and system. It’s got the elements I automatically look for in such a setting: galactic-scale cataclysms, weird and wonderful flora and fauna, aliens, humanoids, a liberal mix of tech levels, swords wielded alongside blasters, guilds, religious wars, the rise and fall of empires- just to name a few.

The writing style in the opening of the players’ book grabs your attention. It puts you right there with a minimum use of words-

“I want you to imagine or remember the wilderness in or around your area. If you live in a city, think of the area with the most trees, parks and open fields. Now imagine all that twice as vibrant and close and dense.

If you live by the coast, imagine the worst storms you can remember. Anywhere else you may live, jungle, desert, etc. imagine or remember the same intensities but keyed to those locales you know best.

Now raise the sea-level three feet (roughly a metre). As the planet is generally flatlands not much higher than sea level, most Trees have developed long torpedo-like seed pods, similar to mangroves which allow them to grow from under the water. Cedar and cypress, sequoia, everything simply adapted to the added three feet of water.”

In three starting paragraphs, I found myself in Urutsk already. This is something I have not seen in a long time in gaming material, and I find this very refreshing.
The fluff associated with UWoM spans centuries and concerns events which can be very convoluted and often-times violent. My impression here was something very akin to the political-military machinations in Frank Herbert’s Dune. This provides the players a lot of leeway as regards the kind of games they want: whether these are dungeon crawls, stand-up fights or a lot of skullduggery and covert ops.

Speaking of stand-up fights, I can’t help but agree with the spirit of the writer’s advice at the beginning of the combat section in the UWoM players’ book:

“Also my understanding of combat is heroic by virtue of its terribleness, and the amazing fact that some fighters survive at all, and not by dint of cinematic illusions or desires for wish-fulfillment.

While certain more forgiving elements have been included, in general these rules are justifiably lethal at all levels of play, and even heavily armored foes are capable of being instantly slain by exceptional strikes.

My overarching advice is for player-characters to avoid combat under all but the most favorable conditions, and even then, to be prepared for the loss of said characters, as healing in the early Autumn era is in no way as common or miraculously effective as in many other games.”

This resonates positively with me. This is how I see combats being played in my games as well.

I know I’ll be re-reading UWoM after I finish my first reading. Even as I’m going through it, I’m finally convinced to run that science fantasy game of a rather different sort from my current Mutant Future one. Along with this, I’ve this hankering to revisit Dune, Book of the New Sun, and Tales of the Dying Earth in the next few weeks.

If I can’t game for now, I’ll at least put the time to good use.

Bloodstorm Blade (or How to Throw a Mancatcher) from Rocks Fall, Everyone Dies

Every now and again you come across an ability that strikes fear into your heart as a DM. A lot of the most crippling combos in D&D are not obvious and require quite a bit of fanangling to pull off, but the very worst were somehow designed that way. When the guys over at WotC were writing Tome of Battle they apparently didn't feel like the whole book was powerful enough, so they included this little jewel of a prestige class. I won't bore you with all the details, but if you read the following ability and don't immediately seize up, you need to go re-read it until you do.

Thunderous Throw (Ex): Beginning at 2nd level, you build up incredible tension as you ready yourself to throw your weapon, which becomes visible around you like heat waves. When you release your weapon, that power rushes out with your weapon. As a swift action, you can choose to treat your ranged attack rolls with thrown weapons as melee attacks for the rest of your turn. You use your melee attack bonus, including Strength bonus, feats, and so forth, to determine your attack bonus for each attack as normal, but you apply the standard modifiers for range penalties. Attacking into melee, through cover, and so forth incurs the standard penalties. In addition, you can apply 1-1/2 your Strength bonus to damage if you wield the thrown weapon with two hands, and you can use Power Attack with your thrown weapon attacks (adding two times the number subtracted from attack rolls as a bonus on damage rolls when throwing a two-handed weapon).

Obvious benefits aside, this means that you can do anything with a thrown weapon that you can do with a melee weapon. Like, say:

Trip
Disarm
Spring Attack
Use Maneuvers
Charge
Grapple Them With a Mancatcher/Pincer Staff

That's right, folks. Mancatch from a distance. In a previous article I discussed the benefit of a 1st level spell by the name of Guided Shot, which eliminates range increment penalties. Can you imagine a perfect 50' Mancatcher throw that grapples your foe?

Alright, alright. I hear some of you going "That's insane!" but I hear others murmuring that it's not really that much more powerful than some other PrC abilities, which granted is true. The Bloodstorm Blade, however, isn't ready to give up just yet.

Blade Storm (Ex):At 10th level, you can hurl your weapon as a full-round action to make it seem as if you are attacking a dozen foes at once. You become the center of a storm of steel as your thrown weapon flies out to strike a foe, returns to ricochet harmlessly off you, then flies out to attack another foe. You can make a ranged attack with a thrown weapon at your highest attack bonus against as many targets as you wish. You can attack each target just once with this attack, calculating range and cover penalties from your position on the battlefield.

Holy crap, Michael! What is this, a per day ability?

When you use blade storm, you lose th use of one Iron Heart strike you have readied for the current encounter, just as if you had initiated the strike (except you do not also gain the strike's normal effect). Once you use this ability, you can recover the maneuver you expended and use it normally.

FACEPALM! So wait, WotC, you're saying that I can throw a single mancatcher at every living thing in 50' and grapple it too!? This is the sort of nonsense that caused a collective welcome sigh of relief from a large portion of the community when the far more structured 4th edition surfaced.

Can you think of funnier weapons for the Bloodstorm Blade to throw? I'm interested if you can!

Computer Simulations and Modern Warfare from LivingDice.com

Foreign Policy magazine has a great article about the use of computer simulations and how they are used by the American military. “America’s Army” does get a mention, but there are several other programs either underway or planned that leverage games to train soldiers. It also mentions some of the pitfalls of virtual training. Interesting [...]

The Great Livingdice.com Munchkin Boomark Contest has begun! Find out how to enter at LivingDice.com!

Spells vs. Rituals from Neitherworld Stories

When 4e came around, one of my big criticisms was the ritual system. I mean, I liked the idea of rituals, but the way that they were implemented seemed driven wholly by game balance. It didn't make any sense to me that the vast majority of utility magics cost time and money to use while combat spells were quick and free.

I knew that I wanted both spells and rituals in Destined, and I also knew that I wanted the distinction between them to make sense. My solution was to make rituals into more formal versions of spells. Spells are quick, flexible... and dangerous. Rituals are slow, more static, more reliable, and far more safe.

How are spells dangerous? I'd discussed how to limit magic use here before. I don't think I explained what I settled on. The first thing to note is that to cast a spell very effectively, you need a number of degrees of success which can be used to do things like increase the spell's duration, range, damage, etc. On the flip side, spells have a penalty to their casting roll based on their power level. Spellcasters will be scrounging for bonuses (there are a variety of ways to get these) and will need to manage them wisely. They can get by on casting spells without bonuses, but those spells will tend to be much less effective... and they are far more likely to fail altogether.

When a spellcaster fails a roll to cast a spell, he has a choice: he may accept the negative shifts on his failed roll as a penalty on all his future spellcasting rolls for the day (until he gets at least four hours of sleep) or he can suffer a penalty such as fatigue or damage that is based upon his degree of failure. If the spellcaster just barely fails, then he doesn't suffer either of these problems. Instead, the spell misfires. In general, this means both that the spell has an effect that is slightly less useful than that of a one-success casting and that it has some unintended (and unwanted) side effects. For example, a misfire on a simple Light spell might result in one of the caster's fingers glowing in flashing colors that fade over the course of a few days. If a spell misfire occurs and the GM sees an opportunity for a spectacular spell failure, he may offer the spellcaster a fate point (which the spellcaster can later use for a bonus). If it is accepted, the GM may describe the misfire any way she wishes. In general, established rituals do not misfire. This is one of the benefits of rituals, but it also accounts for their cost.

It is possible for a spell to be cast as if it were a ritual. You could perform a ceremony that ends with a fireball... and no chance of misfire or backlash. There are other costs involved in this, though.

I'm actually really happy with my ritual system. Nonspellcasters can, potentially, learn rituals. In some ways, they can even be better at using rituals than spellcasters (though it is more of an investment for them to learn how to use them in the first place). The primary factor here is that identification and learning rituals depends upon the Lore skill rather than the Spellcasting skill. In addition, many (particularly more powerful) rituals must be performed at auspicious times, and the caster must calculate the next time they will be able to cast it. For a rare and potent ritual, it might be a number of years before it can be next used effectively. If a ritual has an

auspicious time listed, this is the length of time until it can be cast. The caster can attempt

to calculate a sooner time; this, too, is a Lore roll.

Sacred Oaths from Game in the Brain

The humble Serf, as well as Husbands and Wives, to entrepreneurial Peasant and Yeomen, to loyal Retainers and Vassals, the Knights, Lords, Dukes and Princes... all these people have one thing in common: Promises.I have said before promises are cheap, i...

Class Acts: Wizards from Points of Light

This wizards Class Act focuses entirely on summons--of the elemental/demon variety--adding fourteen to the roster in addition to a pair of new mechanics called intrinsic nature and symbiosis. Intrinsic nature is basically instinctive effect by another ...

Crafting Castle Black Star, part 1 from SAVE OR DIE!

In his article on town design in The Strategic Review #7, author Joe Fischer mentioned his home dungeon, Castle Black Star. In my ongoing mission to construct a sandbox campaign out of D&D's many disparate elements, I have decided to include a Cas...

Mail Call from Destination Unknown

11 years ago - rocking the GURPS with by best friendsIt was one of those days. Initially, I was told that after I get the axe at work I could be hired back as a temp. Today I found out that that is no longer an option. Bummer. I'm not sure how long I w...

Change of Opinion: Flexibility not Limitation from Role-Playing Discussions » table-top

I have been complaining since Dungeons & Dragons 3rd Edition came out that many of the features that I relied on in Advanced Dungeons & Dragons 2nd Edition had been removed. I have now not only come to accept that this information will never be added to D&D, but have actually come to see [...]

Credit Where Credit Is Due, Other Neglected Notes and Further Zigguratitude from PLANET ALGOL

1. A while ago I posted my "100 NPC(s) Table." I feel terrible for neglecting to mention/credit how much of an inspiration Zak Smith's "Hidden Traits of NPCs" tables was. #99 is my favorite!

2. After I posted about my appreciation for Morten Braten's Ancient Kingdoms: Mesoptomia, the admirable Melan put a boot up my ass for neglecting to mention XP1: The Spider God's Bride And Other Tales, an excellent 3.5 edition traditional Sword & Sorcery resource and non-sucky adventure path easily usable with any version/edition.

3. While I was discussing Mesopotamian D&D, I should have also mentioned Chgowiz' yet unreleased "Land of Two Rivers/Tomb of Hulkursag." The crumbs of info I have seen have me drooling...

4. One day I berate simulacrum producers and the OSR-at-large for neglecting the Froghemoth and the next day a true scholar and gentleman of the aforementioned OSR provides an open game content version for us all to use.

5. More Black Ziggurat sightings: The Mutant Future and a partial cross-section of Ziqquratu Ziyaret.

6. I make a post about unique spellbooks and than one of you wise-acres has to go and beat me to making a Random Magic Book Name Generator. Also Trollsmyth went and provided links to further examples of such books.

Hopefully my next post will actually have some Planet Algol related content instead of blogosphere/meta- echo chambering (as much I love the "echo chamber" effect!).