It is good to be back. I realize the blog has not been updated in some time however there is no time like the present to rectify that. This year in particular has been crazy and everyone is looking for an escape of some sort, if even for a short while. Many of us even while restricted by the constraints of our new covid world yearn to create and provide to our fellows.
In just the last few months I have started not 1 but 2 games online now both of which are moving along decently, players have came and gone but already new stories are being shared and a lot of laughs and new friendships being born. Currently my Swords & Wizardry players are working their way through B1: in search of the unknown are have found just about every maze part of the castle but only minor scraps of what has been left behind, and still one of the clerics found a way to kill themselves setting off their own home made fire trap (i have never seen so many bad die rolls in my life) however they were a old school trooper and now the party has a new wizard friend and a paladin(npc) of the same faith looking to retrieve the body they left behind only to find a new mystery of where did the body go? Who took it and why? It has been quite the ride.
The other group is something I have wanted to run for a long time. As a collector of books, especially game manual, I like to justify all of that shelf space that is filled with dead trees. Having picked up shiny new copies of GURPS 4th edition at least 13 years ago and being able to count on 1 hand how many times I have gotten to use it has been a sore spot with me for quite some time. This has not stopped me from adding to my collection over the years, to the contrary it has only expanded more and more every chance I can afford it. Now has been the time I have taken off the gloves and laid down the challenge. Run a successful GURPS campaign for a few months. We are in week 2 and while it is certainly taking some getting used to, we are currently running a interesting campaign in the far future (year 3097) where in 2097 scientists who were messing around with strange science trying to open the door to another world succeed only for it to bath our world in a strange energy that lead to a great devastation, mutating much of what it touched and bringing with it the blessing/curse of magic. The players are in a future now where things have gone back to a feudal way of life, monsters are everywhere, many robots have become sentient, and the technology of the future past mixes with the arcane might of mages. Fun stuff.
Back back to the blog, I do plan to get back to writing more content here. The ideas never went away, things have just been a bit hectic. One idea I am very excited to bring every one is a planned weekly column I lovingly call Filing Off The Serials. The concept is taking an idea be it a location, character, mechanic, plot, or story from some other medium like a movie, book, or game and converting it to be usable in just about any ones game. “Good artists copy, great artists steal.” To quote Picasso and he was right, if it is good enough for Hollyweird when then its good enough for you too. I also plan to do a revised and updated version of the coveted d100 charts so stay tuned for that as well.
Any rate enough for my rambling, I look forward to bringing you all more content and cant wait to hear your comments down below. It is good to be back.
Showing posts with label blog updates. Show all posts
Showing posts with label blog updates. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 16, 2020
Tales of Aeril: The Return
Monday, July 17, 2017
Free RPG Day 2017
Wow its sure has been a long time since I last made an update here on the blog. I planned to have this post up way sooner then now but work has had me beyond busy and the lack of a regular game has made it a bit difficult to make regular updates a thing. Good news is the bug has bit me again with having a chance to play again got the ol juices flowing. Look for at-least a few more posts from me here in the following days/weeks as I put pen to paper once more.
Now as for FRPGD day I have been going to a new game shop since my old one closed down shortly after Ucon. I brought the idea up to the new shop after visiting a few times and making friends with the store owners. I am always happy to bring the joy of events like these to places that did not even know they existed. I showed up to run mutant future and swords and wizardry, however as it is still a fairly new store in a much smaller community the number of participants was pretty dismal. I was able to collect a few quick start rules I wanted to check out and I was even awarded a dice tray(which I never knew I would love so much). Since things were going slow we opted to get a game going with who we had available.
I am not the biggest fan of 5th edition, I don't hate it I just however prefer not to deal with the overall crunch now a days of the newer systems. I was ready and willing to rock and roll as a DM but the new guy behind the counter was adamant he really wanted to DM a game of 5th and well I just wanted to play so I took the neutral evil dwarven sorcerer(with dragon heritage hehe) of 5th level. My brother in law took a 5th level rogue/tinker mage, the store owner a super tank(22 AC) cleric who surprisingly didn't murder me for my self serving antics, and a nice kid I just met that day by the name of Ben who showed up and took over trodgar the npc barbarian. We was quite the motley crew.
The adventure was something the DM wrote himself involving all of us being members of a adventurers guild who gave us the assignment to go to the village of nowhere and go to the mayors tavern(of which I'm assuming was in the middle of nowhere) in exchange for a 2,000 gp per person to solve what is going on there. Apparently we were to be paid an advance but th rogue had walked off with it and "forgot" to tell us about it. We head to nowhere and once there find every one is in some sort of a weird daze. There are 2 kids hitting a dead animal with a stick in which I took an immediate dislike to and placed an extended hold person on one of them. The other child begins to smack the frozen on with their stick now but with no real sense of emotion. The place was certainly getting a weird vibe about it. we walk over to the tavern and got a bad feeling about what may lay on the other side so in true murder hobo fashion I went back, got the frozen kid, and once the door was open threw him in ahead of us. The tavern goers rough him up a bit before throwing him back out into street except for one really odd looking fellow with a near permanent grin and a strange looking golden badge. we go inside and he doesn't say a word but just keeps smiling like the joker and waving us to come hither. Having found my signature spell at this point I extend a hold person on him in which no one in the tavern even seemed to blink an eye. The cleric sighed and took the moment to at-least check for evil auras in the room in which the whole town sort of reverberated bad ju ju but the held guy did not. With some reluctance I released my hold and he went right straight into being overly cheerful welcoming us to the town and that we should not dawdle and get to the church right away. Wanting to get through this as quickly as possible and out of this weird no horse village we opted to follow him to the church in which a withered old priest brings us inside to tell us what is going on.
Apparently some 50 years ago a necromancer was looking to ascend himself to lich status, so the church sent one of their noblest of clerics to take care of the problem. The necromancers castle and the cleric dissapeared and had been missing until only a few weeks ago when the necromancers castle once more was next to the mountains in which it originally stood. Since then a miasma has invaded the town and only those who have a badge of the god of purity have been able to resist the drull that emminates now from the village. We are each given such a badge(the golden thing we saw the mayor wearing as well as the old priest) and told that we will be rewarded with 10k gp each for the destruction of the lich and the end of the miasma. We each received 2 healing pots, a pot that gives back 2 used spell slots, a good berry, and some sort of magic item based on if we asked for weapon or armor. the cleric got a +4 warhammer, the barbarian got his battle axe blessed from a +1 to +3 so long as he never lets it touch the ground(aka don't fumble), I got a ring that provided +2 dex and +1 to my lowest stat, and the rogue got some sort of dog tag that would become clear when the time came to use it. Shortly after his badge turned to wood and he too fell to the miasma and wandered off toward the bell tower above. the rogue started going through his journal and found a passage saying should the miasma take me please don't let me ring the bells, god please don't let me ring the bells. The cleric and I were already following the old guy up the tower and I use up my last hold person for the day and upon hearing the rogue say don't let him ring the bell we cut the rope. I didn't want to leave anything to change and "accidentally" knocked him down the flight of stairs in which the cleric being the good guy that he is tried to catch him and instead went for a tumble down the steps being cushioned by the old man. He barely survives and I make a strong case for he may try to bring the lich's wrath upon us before we are ready to deal with him and at-least we should tie him up so we can get out of here. So we ended up tying him up to the altar and after finishing the journal got a hint to avoid the main entrance.
We step outside and all of the village people of no where were standing outside their doorsteps and as soon as they saw us leave the church they all go inside and put out their lights. Happy to get away from them we avoid the main road and opt for an animal trail that went parallel to it. We eventually see the castle and decide to camp out until morning to get back my spell slots and to tackle this place at daylight instead of in the middle of the night. We all get rested no random encounters and when morning comes it is still pitch black and well the moon is still out....dun dun dun dunnnnn..... so to the side of the castle we go. Luck was on our side as we searched around and found a secret way inside through a loose cobblestone. I create some dancing lights and send them down the steps to light our way. Everything is good right up until we get inside and the door disappears and arrows start flying at my lights (I had them a good 10ft ahead to act as sort of an early detection system as well as light). We arm up and head down to face off with 17 skeletons. Captain cleric goes in and lays down the holy law putting the fear of his god into 14 of the 17 skeletons. the barb rolls in and starts going to town on the remaining non-frightened skellies while I cantrip away (I still cant believe I got to throw around 2d10 firebolts for free every round). The next round we hear a unholy groaning and then the skellies eyes burn brighter red and appear to have shaken off the fear(something just bloody bolstered the bastards) and so we had to face off with the rest of them. Super cleric held the line with the rogue backstabbing the hell out of everything aided by the multiple attacks of the barb and my firebolt spewing finger guns(pew pew) and eventually they were all reduced to dust and bone once more.
Now that we could actually take a chance to examine our surroundings we found 4 cells with chests in 2. I put on my magic detection(yeah magic eyes) and find in one of the other cells is a small hole in the wall radiating immense magical power. I pull out a strange looking deck of cards which then triggered a collapse of the other 3 cells...oops. I put the deck in my robes but eventually it started to burn and I had a compulsion to draw a card. In doing so I got a pendant which in my mind told me it would protect me from all magic, useful but I wasn't about to throw it around my neck just yet. Every one else opts to draw a card of which I don't quite remember what every one else got. When the 4 card was drawn the deck change to be much smaller in side and the back had that of a dragon. When I drew this time I got a horn that filled me with greed. I blew into it 3 times and on the third I actually succeeded at my perform check (18 cha FTW) and it blew away the rocks from the chest cell I was next to before disappearing and with it my new found additional greed. the cleric goes and opened the chest and found within a bright shining sword which the rogue succeeded on a lore check and found out it was a sword of luck and that it had charges of the wish spell. Here is where things fell apart quickly and in much humorous fashion...albeit in a very childish fashion. The rogue slight of hand reached for the sword and subtly wished that the cleric mis-identify it as a well I wont say here but it was pretty awful but funny in a dark sense of humor. The cleric goes on to misidentify alright but the spell didn't go quite as it was intended(do they ever...) and the DM rolls on his table of potential magic items, and apparently he believes in letting the die land as it may as it turned into a deck of many things. It detailed the rules and well I drew first and was rewarded with the sun card 50k exp, the experiences of my ancestors flash before my eyes and suddenly I was 9th level adding haste, banish, and cone of cold to my spell repertoire. the rogue got one of the other cards that gave some additional xp taking up to 7th level I think, the barb pissed off a demon, and the cleric refused to draw and thus the deck vanished.
Moving on I eat my good berry healing up and gaining back all my spell slots. We find the body of a cultist with a journal bragging out a terrible trap involving a mirror and the eventual ascension of his master...yada.yada.. and we decide to move forward through the stone doors which the barbarian had to bash down(which he did with ease) and down the corridor we found the mirror. The cleric saw something that looked like a chest with teeth staring back at him...in which I asked "like a mimic?" in which the mirror cracked some revealing a new image to the barbarian who said he saw a sphinx...which caused the mirror to crack some more but also released the sphinx....and that battle hurt. Long story short we eventually took it down and then the mirror disappeared leading us to a room with a skeletal knight. He greeted us and said he was here to slay the necromancer and was attempting to stop him from ascending to becoming a lich. He recited his hour long name and we recognized him as the paladin who came to stop the necromancer 50 years ago. Its at this point the door melted into the stonework and a terrible face emerged from the wall and proceeded to attack us from floor by causing jagged shards to flow up at us. I did not get as much damage done as I would have liked because the damn thing kept making his saves for half damage or straight up counter spelling my lower level spells(but I made the bastard burn all but one of his spells in the process) while the rest of the team attacked the moving face with everything they had. Eventually down to his last spell and attempting to still claim lichedom he cast reincarnation.....and turned himself into a female wood elf with no memory of their former life as a necromancer. Naturally as soon as this happened the place began to crumble and we had to make a mad dash out of their. The day was saved we got paid and the town was a little less bleak. Overall every one had a great time, the DM got some more experience under his belt, and there was a lot of laughs.
Now as for FRPGD day I have been going to a new game shop since my old one closed down shortly after Ucon. I brought the idea up to the new shop after visiting a few times and making friends with the store owners. I am always happy to bring the joy of events like these to places that did not even know they existed. I showed up to run mutant future and swords and wizardry, however as it is still a fairly new store in a much smaller community the number of participants was pretty dismal. I was able to collect a few quick start rules I wanted to check out and I was even awarded a dice tray(which I never knew I would love so much). Since things were going slow we opted to get a game going with who we had available.
I am not the biggest fan of 5th edition, I don't hate it I just however prefer not to deal with the overall crunch now a days of the newer systems. I was ready and willing to rock and roll as a DM but the new guy behind the counter was adamant he really wanted to DM a game of 5th and well I just wanted to play so I took the neutral evil dwarven sorcerer(with dragon heritage hehe) of 5th level. My brother in law took a 5th level rogue/tinker mage, the store owner a super tank(22 AC) cleric who surprisingly didn't murder me for my self serving antics, and a nice kid I just met that day by the name of Ben who showed up and took over trodgar the npc barbarian. We was quite the motley crew.
The adventure was something the DM wrote himself involving all of us being members of a adventurers guild who gave us the assignment to go to the village of nowhere and go to the mayors tavern(of which I'm assuming was in the middle of nowhere) in exchange for a 2,000 gp per person to solve what is going on there. Apparently we were to be paid an advance but th rogue had walked off with it and "forgot" to tell us about it. We head to nowhere and once there find every one is in some sort of a weird daze. There are 2 kids hitting a dead animal with a stick in which I took an immediate dislike to and placed an extended hold person on one of them. The other child begins to smack the frozen on with their stick now but with no real sense of emotion. The place was certainly getting a weird vibe about it. we walk over to the tavern and got a bad feeling about what may lay on the other side so in true murder hobo fashion I went back, got the frozen kid, and once the door was open threw him in ahead of us. The tavern goers rough him up a bit before throwing him back out into street except for one really odd looking fellow with a near permanent grin and a strange looking golden badge. we go inside and he doesn't say a word but just keeps smiling like the joker and waving us to come hither. Having found my signature spell at this point I extend a hold person on him in which no one in the tavern even seemed to blink an eye. The cleric sighed and took the moment to at-least check for evil auras in the room in which the whole town sort of reverberated bad ju ju but the held guy did not. With some reluctance I released my hold and he went right straight into being overly cheerful welcoming us to the town and that we should not dawdle and get to the church right away. Wanting to get through this as quickly as possible and out of this weird no horse village we opted to follow him to the church in which a withered old priest brings us inside to tell us what is going on.
Apparently some 50 years ago a necromancer was looking to ascend himself to lich status, so the church sent one of their noblest of clerics to take care of the problem. The necromancers castle and the cleric dissapeared and had been missing until only a few weeks ago when the necromancers castle once more was next to the mountains in which it originally stood. Since then a miasma has invaded the town and only those who have a badge of the god of purity have been able to resist the drull that emminates now from the village. We are each given such a badge(the golden thing we saw the mayor wearing as well as the old priest) and told that we will be rewarded with 10k gp each for the destruction of the lich and the end of the miasma. We each received 2 healing pots, a pot that gives back 2 used spell slots, a good berry, and some sort of magic item based on if we asked for weapon or armor. the cleric got a +4 warhammer, the barbarian got his battle axe blessed from a +1 to +3 so long as he never lets it touch the ground(aka don't fumble), I got a ring that provided +2 dex and +1 to my lowest stat, and the rogue got some sort of dog tag that would become clear when the time came to use it. Shortly after his badge turned to wood and he too fell to the miasma and wandered off toward the bell tower above. the rogue started going through his journal and found a passage saying should the miasma take me please don't let me ring the bells, god please don't let me ring the bells. The cleric and I were already following the old guy up the tower and I use up my last hold person for the day and upon hearing the rogue say don't let him ring the bell we cut the rope. I didn't want to leave anything to change and "accidentally" knocked him down the flight of stairs in which the cleric being the good guy that he is tried to catch him and instead went for a tumble down the steps being cushioned by the old man. He barely survives and I make a strong case for he may try to bring the lich's wrath upon us before we are ready to deal with him and at-least we should tie him up so we can get out of here. So we ended up tying him up to the altar and after finishing the journal got a hint to avoid the main entrance.
We step outside and all of the village people of no where were standing outside their doorsteps and as soon as they saw us leave the church they all go inside and put out their lights. Happy to get away from them we avoid the main road and opt for an animal trail that went parallel to it. We eventually see the castle and decide to camp out until morning to get back my spell slots and to tackle this place at daylight instead of in the middle of the night. We all get rested no random encounters and when morning comes it is still pitch black and well the moon is still out....dun dun dun dunnnnn..... so to the side of the castle we go. Luck was on our side as we searched around and found a secret way inside through a loose cobblestone. I create some dancing lights and send them down the steps to light our way. Everything is good right up until we get inside and the door disappears and arrows start flying at my lights (I had them a good 10ft ahead to act as sort of an early detection system as well as light). We arm up and head down to face off with 17 skeletons. Captain cleric goes in and lays down the holy law putting the fear of his god into 14 of the 17 skeletons. the barb rolls in and starts going to town on the remaining non-frightened skellies while I cantrip away (I still cant believe I got to throw around 2d10 firebolts for free every round). The next round we hear a unholy groaning and then the skellies eyes burn brighter red and appear to have shaken off the fear(something just bloody bolstered the bastards) and so we had to face off with the rest of them. Super cleric held the line with the rogue backstabbing the hell out of everything aided by the multiple attacks of the barb and my firebolt spewing finger guns(pew pew) and eventually they were all reduced to dust and bone once more.
Now that we could actually take a chance to examine our surroundings we found 4 cells with chests in 2. I put on my magic detection(yeah magic eyes) and find in one of the other cells is a small hole in the wall radiating immense magical power. I pull out a strange looking deck of cards which then triggered a collapse of the other 3 cells...oops. I put the deck in my robes but eventually it started to burn and I had a compulsion to draw a card. In doing so I got a pendant which in my mind told me it would protect me from all magic, useful but I wasn't about to throw it around my neck just yet. Every one else opts to draw a card of which I don't quite remember what every one else got. When the 4 card was drawn the deck change to be much smaller in side and the back had that of a dragon. When I drew this time I got a horn that filled me with greed. I blew into it 3 times and on the third I actually succeeded at my perform check (18 cha FTW) and it blew away the rocks from the chest cell I was next to before disappearing and with it my new found additional greed. the cleric goes and opened the chest and found within a bright shining sword which the rogue succeeded on a lore check and found out it was a sword of luck and that it had charges of the wish spell. Here is where things fell apart quickly and in much humorous fashion...albeit in a very childish fashion. The rogue slight of hand reached for the sword and subtly wished that the cleric mis-identify it as a well I wont say here but it was pretty awful but funny in a dark sense of humor. The cleric goes on to misidentify alright but the spell didn't go quite as it was intended(do they ever...) and the DM rolls on his table of potential magic items, and apparently he believes in letting the die land as it may as it turned into a deck of many things. It detailed the rules and well I drew first and was rewarded with the sun card 50k exp, the experiences of my ancestors flash before my eyes and suddenly I was 9th level adding haste, banish, and cone of cold to my spell repertoire. the rogue got one of the other cards that gave some additional xp taking up to 7th level I think, the barb pissed off a demon, and the cleric refused to draw and thus the deck vanished.
Moving on I eat my good berry healing up and gaining back all my spell slots. We find the body of a cultist with a journal bragging out a terrible trap involving a mirror and the eventual ascension of his master...yada.yada.. and we decide to move forward through the stone doors which the barbarian had to bash down(which he did with ease) and down the corridor we found the mirror. The cleric saw something that looked like a chest with teeth staring back at him...in which I asked "like a mimic?" in which the mirror cracked some revealing a new image to the barbarian who said he saw a sphinx...which caused the mirror to crack some more but also released the sphinx....and that battle hurt. Long story short we eventually took it down and then the mirror disappeared leading us to a room with a skeletal knight. He greeted us and said he was here to slay the necromancer and was attempting to stop him from ascending to becoming a lich. He recited his hour long name and we recognized him as the paladin who came to stop the necromancer 50 years ago. Its at this point the door melted into the stonework and a terrible face emerged from the wall and proceeded to attack us from floor by causing jagged shards to flow up at us. I did not get as much damage done as I would have liked because the damn thing kept making his saves for half damage or straight up counter spelling my lower level spells(but I made the bastard burn all but one of his spells in the process) while the rest of the team attacked the moving face with everything they had. Eventually down to his last spell and attempting to still claim lichedom he cast reincarnation.....and turned himself into a female wood elf with no memory of their former life as a necromancer. Naturally as soon as this happened the place began to crumble and we had to make a mad dash out of their. The day was saved we got paid and the town was a little less bleak. Overall every one had a great time, the DM got some more experience under his belt, and there was a lot of laughs.
Monday, November 21, 2016
Ucon 2016 writup
It is that time again to write about my adventures at UCON. As always it was everything I was expecting and more. I did not get to go to any other cons this year due to my new work schedule thankfully if I can only make it to one con a year I will continue to make it this one. With out further ado here is the breakdown of my time for 2016.
Friday:
Right after getting my weekend + play games all weekend badge I immediately ran across non other then followmeandie's very own Larry Hamilton. He was getting things setup for a White Star game. We had a good time catching up on lives outside of gaming and he was willing to let me hop in and play. I have not played white star before so I decided to just go with what sounded cool and played to my preferred playing style. Naturally I went with a mercenary and got suited up with a laser rifle, power armor, jet pack, and he even let me bring a few cannisters of oil(you never know when you need oil). I decided at this point I was going to be Boba Fett if he fought for the rebels. The rest of the players included a robot, pilot, and 2 space knights.
Here Larry revealed the map and the adventure, we was right in the middle of a battle zone as civilins when we hear a distress call coming from a federation ship. There was a black hole type area generating massive amounts of radation, which I lovingly referred to Cthulhu's butt hole, making scanning difficult. We knew there was insectoid bad guy ships in the area but getting accurate information on them was not easy. We headed for the source of the distress call and found some signs of life needing our help. Since i had a sealed suit and the droid did not need to breath we freefloat on over to the other ship just as it suffers a form of explosion. We adjust to its new movement and board. We find survivors holed up in a sealed room but they dont have enough oxygen to survive forever, so we craft a plan with the rest of the crew to fix what we can to re-oxify the ship where we can and seal the rest while bringing over survival suits and bring them on over to our ship. The poor pilot was having a hell of a time with the controls thanks to the radiation(damnit cthulhu.......) so it took him a few tries to connect our ship with theirs. Fast forward we eventually succeed, rescuing around 28 federation peeps and bring them onto our ship just before theirs blows up losing their captain and a few other higher ranking officers.
We reach out to some of the other federation ships in the area and several hijinks ensued including some fire fights with the insectiods, who at one point had 3 fighters on us 2 of which destroyed themselves by accident and I got onto coms with the 3rd ship that was disabled by our fire and I told them to perform seppuku. Rolling against my charisma and an additional roll he had me make the ship suddenly just goes up in a massive explosion, we may never truly know if my charisma actually worked in talking an enemy into killing itself but I will continue to believe that I did. All around it was a lot of fun for my first time playing White Star and the rest of the table appeared to have a great time too.
I then met up with Ryan Thompson of Gamers & Grognards to go over updating my con character to level 5 for his game he was running after the small lunch break. For those who haven't been following along my previous years posts, my first game of S&W was in Ryan's game running the adventure Eruptor's Vengeance back in 2013. I played a 3rd level elf fighter/magic user who with the help of his friends succeeded in collecting a dragon bane shortsword, which was used to deliver the killing blow on the fateful drake, and collecting a ring of regeneration. Ryan allows those of us who wish to at future cons to bring any characters we have played previously in his games to future games he runs. I have since then brought my elf with me last year who successfully rescued some lost patrol guards from the sewers. Some how going into this game this year I knew it was going to be my dragon slayers last game either via honorable death or retirement as I knew he was heading into a place known as dragon island.
Our adventuring group including some additional cool peeps including Larry, Del Teigel (who is an amazing artist btw), Andrew Moss, and a few other faces who I have met before but sadly cannot recall their names (my apologies guys if you read this please feel free to give me a hard time about it). We apparently got a treasure map during a game of cards from the lone survivor of a group who had been to an island with many untold riches but protected by a great many dragons. I went and collected some 1st level fighter mercenaries (first time I ever brought on cohorts) and we chartered a boat to the island. The first cave we found was completely frozen over with a large white looking dragon sleeping upside down like a bat. We debated for a while if we should attack it or not which the majority felt it was best to let sleeping dragons lie. The next cave over had an invisible dragon laying on its horde which only the wild elf was able to percept. Again discretion was the key to surviving and we left with out attracting its attention. Our luck ran out in the third cave however as we awoke 3 young dragons who went right to the offensive. We thankfully dispatched them quickly and looted their treasure before any adult dragons came out to hunt us down.
We then proceeded to a much larger cave, and I got a sinking feeling. Big caves tend to equal big risks(like big bloody dragons) and sure enough I was not disappointed. Shortly after entering our halfling thief(Del) got caught by a large dragon(don't quite remember now what color) and flew up to drop him. Thankfully he had a previous life as a sailor and knew how to use ropes and knots effectively. He tied his grappling hook to the dragons leg and as he fell rolled some of the best dice rolling Ive seen at a con. Rolling double 20's he caught his hook on a large bit of rock on the wall and the rope held as the dragon went to sweep in to get another victim causing it to go taught and swing the dragon head first into another large rock formation. Due to the critical nature double damage was rolled.....2 points more then it had. For the first time ever I saw a dragon go down via smashing its own skull in via grappling hook. High fives all around we celebrated him surviving his fall(and some healing via my ring of regen) and looted the horde finding some groovy gear and a mysterious potion which honestly must of been a black hole in a bottle as this stuff ate anything.....including the invisible dragon we encountered earlier. Having slain 5 dragons and fat with loot we ended the adventure and returned to our ship. From here I decided my character has had a good enough career as an adventurer that he will head back home and open a bar, retiring for now.
The last event I attended was the OSR panel on aesthetics in OSR products. Special guests was Stacy Dellorfano of Contessa, Bill Webb of Frog God Games, Donn Stroud of Drink Spin Run, and Ryan Thompson. It was a great panel talking about the new art aesthetic being used with the next printing of S&W. There was some great stories shared by the group and the overall tone from the hosts and the audience was a positive one. The fireside chat way they hold these panels every year really makes for a great bit of audience participation. On a side note who I would love to see a podcast of Bill just telling stories for a while.
Saturday
My brother in law is who introduced me to UCON back in 2013 and so we make it a point now every year to head out together if our schedules line up. We made it to the convention and split up for our separate interests (he is more into board and strategy war games) and I met back up with Larry for Delving Deeper. Again not a system I have played and there was several new faces at the table. I played a fighter(big shock I know) and we went to go rescue some misguided kids who disappeared while the town folk blamed the kindly old dudes in black robes who took up residence in the forest. I had fun and would play Delving Deeper again if I had the opportunity but honestly S&W is more my cup of tea.
Keeping with my current pattern I headed over to Ryan's table and got myself setup with a paladin on a quest to explore a dread burial ground where riches was rumored to be holed up. Several hijinks ensued including a run in with a gelatinous cube, the alchemist getting possessed (and subsequently my being charmed), an undead dude spiked to the wall in eternal torment, and more. Amazingly we all survived but it was close when I was charmed into waylaying another party member with my flaming longsword.
The con had tons of interesting things going on in which I checked out including but not limited to a vendor booth area(picked myself up the monster alphabet...hehehehehe), Bill Webb was available for book signing(got all 3 of my original Rappan Athuk books signed woooo!), a game auction, a vote for worst movie clips(which was hilarious for the parts i was there for, and for the star trek fans there was something very cool known as the Artemis Bridge Simulator. I didn't play the sim but it was pretty bad ass and the guys running it was super nice and talked shop with me for a bit when I was in between events.
Down in the boardgame area I met up with Christopher Badell of Sentinals of the Multiverse fame. A real stand up guy who is definitely passionate about gaming, and he was nice enough to sign some of my promo cards. He even popped into the writing/design talk later in the evening featuring John Wick, Darren Watts, and Marc Tassin. The talk was informational and plenty of note worthy pointers and resources was shared by each of the guests. It was great that UCON had something like this and I hope they continue to do so going forward in the future.
I met up near the end of the evening with my brother in law and checked out an interesting submarine group game. It was essentially a much more demanding game of battle ship for 8 players called Captain Sonar. I took the role of engineer and honestly I think I could have done better. It is a fun game but requires 8 players to really be interesting and would take atleast 2 or 3 games I think before every one really gets a feel for how to play well. If you have the play group it would be an interesting way to spend a board game night.
Back upstairs Dirk Collins, was kind of enough to bring his entire collection of Judges Guild materials for the 40th anniversary of Judges Guild. He had layed out all the maps for the Wilderlands of Fantasy(which is massive!) and was allowing us all to take pictures next to it and to peruse a bit of gaming history. I have a small but growing collection of Judges Guild material and it was cool to see it all there. Too bad I didn't have the time to hop into his game he was running. Thanks again Dirk it was a pleasure to chat and view your collection.
While I waited for my bro-in-law to finish up I stopped in and watched the first little bit of Bill Webb's game of Tegel Manor running the S&W lite rules. Things did not look like they was going to go well early on with some skeletons getting the upper hand and the poor clerics turn rolls not going quite in their favor. From the sounds of things Tegel Manor claimed several victims over the weekend. Alas I could not stay and had to take my leave and return to normal life. It was fun while it lasted and it was great to see many from the community who I feel have become friends and enjoy seeing even if it is only once a year. Looking forward to next year.
Friday:
Right after getting my weekend + play games all weekend badge I immediately ran across non other then followmeandie's very own Larry Hamilton. He was getting things setup for a White Star game. We had a good time catching up on lives outside of gaming and he was willing to let me hop in and play. I have not played white star before so I decided to just go with what sounded cool and played to my preferred playing style. Naturally I went with a mercenary and got suited up with a laser rifle, power armor, jet pack, and he even let me bring a few cannisters of oil(you never know when you need oil). I decided at this point I was going to be Boba Fett if he fought for the rebels. The rest of the players included a robot, pilot, and 2 space knights.
Here Larry revealed the map and the adventure, we was right in the middle of a battle zone as civilins when we hear a distress call coming from a federation ship. There was a black hole type area generating massive amounts of radation, which I lovingly referred to Cthulhu's butt hole, making scanning difficult. We knew there was insectoid bad guy ships in the area but getting accurate information on them was not easy. We headed for the source of the distress call and found some signs of life needing our help. Since i had a sealed suit and the droid did not need to breath we freefloat on over to the other ship just as it suffers a form of explosion. We adjust to its new movement and board. We find survivors holed up in a sealed room but they dont have enough oxygen to survive forever, so we craft a plan with the rest of the crew to fix what we can to re-oxify the ship where we can and seal the rest while bringing over survival suits and bring them on over to our ship. The poor pilot was having a hell of a time with the controls thanks to the radiation(damnit cthulhu.......) so it took him a few tries to connect our ship with theirs. Fast forward we eventually succeed, rescuing around 28 federation peeps and bring them onto our ship just before theirs blows up losing their captain and a few other higher ranking officers.
We reach out to some of the other federation ships in the area and several hijinks ensued including some fire fights with the insectiods, who at one point had 3 fighters on us 2 of which destroyed themselves by accident and I got onto coms with the 3rd ship that was disabled by our fire and I told them to perform seppuku. Rolling against my charisma and an additional roll he had me make the ship suddenly just goes up in a massive explosion, we may never truly know if my charisma actually worked in talking an enemy into killing itself but I will continue to believe that I did. All around it was a lot of fun for my first time playing White Star and the rest of the table appeared to have a great time too.
I then met up with Ryan Thompson of Gamers & Grognards to go over updating my con character to level 5 for his game he was running after the small lunch break. For those who haven't been following along my previous years posts, my first game of S&W was in Ryan's game running the adventure Eruptor's Vengeance back in 2013. I played a 3rd level elf fighter/magic user who with the help of his friends succeeded in collecting a dragon bane shortsword, which was used to deliver the killing blow on the fateful drake, and collecting a ring of regeneration. Ryan allows those of us who wish to at future cons to bring any characters we have played previously in his games to future games he runs. I have since then brought my elf with me last year who successfully rescued some lost patrol guards from the sewers. Some how going into this game this year I knew it was going to be my dragon slayers last game either via honorable death or retirement as I knew he was heading into a place known as dragon island.
Our adventuring group including some additional cool peeps including Larry, Del Teigel (who is an amazing artist btw), Andrew Moss, and a few other faces who I have met before but sadly cannot recall their names (my apologies guys if you read this please feel free to give me a hard time about it). We apparently got a treasure map during a game of cards from the lone survivor of a group who had been to an island with many untold riches but protected by a great many dragons. I went and collected some 1st level fighter mercenaries (first time I ever brought on cohorts) and we chartered a boat to the island. The first cave we found was completely frozen over with a large white looking dragon sleeping upside down like a bat. We debated for a while if we should attack it or not which the majority felt it was best to let sleeping dragons lie. The next cave over had an invisible dragon laying on its horde which only the wild elf was able to percept. Again discretion was the key to surviving and we left with out attracting its attention. Our luck ran out in the third cave however as we awoke 3 young dragons who went right to the offensive. We thankfully dispatched them quickly and looted their treasure before any adult dragons came out to hunt us down.
We then proceeded to a much larger cave, and I got a sinking feeling. Big caves tend to equal big risks(like big bloody dragons) and sure enough I was not disappointed. Shortly after entering our halfling thief(Del) got caught by a large dragon(don't quite remember now what color) and flew up to drop him. Thankfully he had a previous life as a sailor and knew how to use ropes and knots effectively. He tied his grappling hook to the dragons leg and as he fell rolled some of the best dice rolling Ive seen at a con. Rolling double 20's he caught his hook on a large bit of rock on the wall and the rope held as the dragon went to sweep in to get another victim causing it to go taught and swing the dragon head first into another large rock formation. Due to the critical nature double damage was rolled.....2 points more then it had. For the first time ever I saw a dragon go down via smashing its own skull in via grappling hook. High fives all around we celebrated him surviving his fall(and some healing via my ring of regen) and looted the horde finding some groovy gear and a mysterious potion which honestly must of been a black hole in a bottle as this stuff ate anything.....including the invisible dragon we encountered earlier. Having slain 5 dragons and fat with loot we ended the adventure and returned to our ship. From here I decided my character has had a good enough career as an adventurer that he will head back home and open a bar, retiring for now.
The last event I attended was the OSR panel on aesthetics in OSR products. Special guests was Stacy Dellorfano of Contessa, Bill Webb of Frog God Games, Donn Stroud of Drink Spin Run, and Ryan Thompson. It was a great panel talking about the new art aesthetic being used with the next printing of S&W. There was some great stories shared by the group and the overall tone from the hosts and the audience was a positive one. The fireside chat way they hold these panels every year really makes for a great bit of audience participation. On a side note who I would love to see a podcast of Bill just telling stories for a while.
Saturday
My brother in law is who introduced me to UCON back in 2013 and so we make it a point now every year to head out together if our schedules line up. We made it to the convention and split up for our separate interests (he is more into board and strategy war games) and I met back up with Larry for Delving Deeper. Again not a system I have played and there was several new faces at the table. I played a fighter(big shock I know) and we went to go rescue some misguided kids who disappeared while the town folk blamed the kindly old dudes in black robes who took up residence in the forest. I had fun and would play Delving Deeper again if I had the opportunity but honestly S&W is more my cup of tea.
Keeping with my current pattern I headed over to Ryan's table and got myself setup with a paladin on a quest to explore a dread burial ground where riches was rumored to be holed up. Several hijinks ensued including a run in with a gelatinous cube, the alchemist getting possessed (and subsequently my being charmed), an undead dude spiked to the wall in eternal torment, and more. Amazingly we all survived but it was close when I was charmed into waylaying another party member with my flaming longsword.
The con had tons of interesting things going on in which I checked out including but not limited to a vendor booth area(picked myself up the monster alphabet...hehehehehe), Bill Webb was available for book signing(got all 3 of my original Rappan Athuk books signed woooo!), a game auction, a vote for worst movie clips(which was hilarious for the parts i was there for, and for the star trek fans there was something very cool known as the Artemis Bridge Simulator. I didn't play the sim but it was pretty bad ass and the guys running it was super nice and talked shop with me for a bit when I was in between events.
Down in the boardgame area I met up with Christopher Badell of Sentinals of the Multiverse fame. A real stand up guy who is definitely passionate about gaming, and he was nice enough to sign some of my promo cards. He even popped into the writing/design talk later in the evening featuring John Wick, Darren Watts, and Marc Tassin. The talk was informational and plenty of note worthy pointers and resources was shared by each of the guests. It was great that UCON had something like this and I hope they continue to do so going forward in the future.
I met up near the end of the evening with my brother in law and checked out an interesting submarine group game. It was essentially a much more demanding game of battle ship for 8 players called Captain Sonar. I took the role of engineer and honestly I think I could have done better. It is a fun game but requires 8 players to really be interesting and would take atleast 2 or 3 games I think before every one really gets a feel for how to play well. If you have the play group it would be an interesting way to spend a board game night.
Back upstairs Dirk Collins, was kind of enough to bring his entire collection of Judges Guild materials for the 40th anniversary of Judges Guild. He had layed out all the maps for the Wilderlands of Fantasy(which is massive!) and was allowing us all to take pictures next to it and to peruse a bit of gaming history. I have a small but growing collection of Judges Guild material and it was cool to see it all there. Too bad I didn't have the time to hop into his game he was running. Thanks again Dirk it was a pleasure to chat and view your collection.
While I waited for my bro-in-law to finish up I stopped in and watched the first little bit of Bill Webb's game of Tegel Manor running the S&W lite rules. Things did not look like they was going to go well early on with some skeletons getting the upper hand and the poor clerics turn rolls not going quite in their favor. From the sounds of things Tegel Manor claimed several victims over the weekend. Alas I could not stay and had to take my leave and return to normal life. It was fun while it lasted and it was great to see many from the community who I feel have become friends and enjoy seeing even if it is only once a year. Looking forward to next year.
Monday, June 20, 2016
Free RPG Day 2016
This marks my third year attending Free RPG Day at my FLGS over in Fowlerville. My goal before hand this year was to spread the word the best I could across social media and word of mouth to try and draw as much attention to what I feel is something that is important to our hobby.
I went out early around noon just after they opened for the day and spent some time talking with a couple of the other DM's who signed up to run tables for the day. I was slotted in at 5 to run a S&W adventure and pretty much every one else was running this years version of the pathfinder goblin adventure. When the OK was given I collected just the few things that I wanted to have this year (the DCC adventure combo and the lamentations of the flame princess slugs bestiary) making sure that there would be plenty for any one else coming in and sat down for the first game of the day.
I don't really play pathfinder short of at FRPGD mostly because I prefer to DM and I prefer the old school method of adventuring. This is ok because our DM was new and my fellow adventuring companions are also experienced AD&D players we regularly broke away from the conventions of what was wrote out in the adventure and ad-libbed and on the spot ruled quite a bit. I played the bomb throwing goblin who absolutely loved finding random junk because I found a use for pretty much anything I found and made more then my fair share of improvised explosives (nothing makes me happier then finding a barrel of grain alcohol, several empty glass bottles, and plenty of cloth to create Molotov cocktails) along with throwing salt all over an enemy and watching their donkey chase them all around trying to lick them (I was aiming for their eyes but the DM found his stride and just went with it). When it was all said and done we burned down a gnome wedding, blew up alot of stuff, got high off some cake, and returned as heroes of our tribe. All in all I think it went pretty well and we helped a new DM find out that it is ok to deviate from what is written and just have fun with the game (which was a big win in my book).
Sadly being in a smaller area and being Father's Day weekend no one showed up for my 5pm game but that is OK. The point is to show up and show support not just for your game of choice but to support others as well. I might not regularly play Pathfinder but I wouldn't want to see it go away either. The hobby is about getting together, making friends, and adventuring and that goal was accomplished as well as supporting the local FLGS which sadly in our age of Amazon and Ebay, they get under-appreciated. I like having a place that is fairly close to me that has room to play, a shop owner who is receptive to what I am looking for both all facets of tabletop gaming, and regularly has interesting stock showcased that I might not have seen else where. Some times yes this means paying more then what I would have if I got some of the same things online but to keep game shops around who support our hobby I feel that extra 2 or 3 dollars I spent is going to something more worth while.
Side note: Thanks to Shawn at Game Links for hooking me up with the awesome mimic dice bag (at a very reasonable price too I might add) as shown below. I love being able to zip up my dice and not have them make the great escape!
Wednesday, April 27, 2016
A New Year and A New Group
I know it has been quite some time since I have made an update to the blog. In all honesty there has not been a whole lot for me to report on. My new job while amazing has kept me very busy and I have only gotten 1 gaming session in since the start of the new year. Thankfully things are starting to wind down to a more manageable state and the ol burning desire to roll dice is beginning to kick in once more.
I have decided to expand out the world of Aeril a bit more and did a bit of random hex generation thanks to Martin Rayla's Hexamancer which you can find Here. I sprinkled in some old school 1st level adventure goodness throughout my 4 map continent including the village of hommlet, the keep on the borderlands, saltmarsh, and a few others. I am looking to do more of a hex crawl with this group and so many areas of the map have room to grow into bigger things. Currently there is no major cities or kingdoms designed out but those will come as they are designed and or needed.
The new group is about as green as it gets but also bright eyed and bushy tailed as they come. My brother in law is a veteran of table top role playing and even runs an iron kingdoms game that I may be joining in the near future and rolled up a duelist who believes every one is responsible for their own fortune in life. A co worker of my wife's found out I DM'ed and had always wanted to play in a real D&D campaign and so him and his girlfriend signed on to play. Neither has really ever played in a real sit down D&D campaign before but were very excited to play. I informed them from the get go that I aim to give a fun experience but I run in the old school tradition, so do not get too attached to their characters, bad things happen whether any of us want them to happen or not. They understood and rolled up an assassin and a druid. I hinted heavily they may want to consider hiring on some additional help if there is a role in the group they feel they may be lacking in(ex: healing/magical support/extra fighting power) which they promptly forgot about later in the session.
Before the game began i gave them an option of what kind of local they wanted to start in; plains, mountains, or heavy forest. They voted for heavy forest and found themselves heading to Hommlet. Once there they went straight for the tavern to find a place to stay for a few days and maybe find some work. The assassin and druid ordered drinks and the duelist not having any money but still hungry sees a village militia man eating a steak. With out warning he goes up to the militia man and demands a duel for his steak. Obvoisly he is very confused by this odd stranger making an absurd demand and ingores him, right up until the duelist calls him a coward and unworthy of defending this village (at his point i rolled a hostile attitude for his reaction) and he accepts the fight to first blood outside the tavern. They step outside and unsheath their blades and the militia man side steps the duelist and delivers a cracking blow to the back of his skull with the pommel of his blade knocking him to 0 hp and out cold (it was a max damage hit) before getting a round of pats on the back by the other militia men and returning to his dinner. The inn keeper tells them where they find the local church to see if they can convince them to possibly help out their foolish friend.
The group throws him on the back of the druids horse and take him over to the church and discuss healing of their friend. They work out a deal that he will do so in exchange they check out the old moat house not terribly far from the village as there has been rumours of stirrings of vile creatures not seen in many years out there. The village cannot support a expedition at this time so if they will check it out it would be a great service to the village and they are welcome to take any spoils they find. The group agrees, the clerics heal the duelist and in the morning they head out to the moat house.
It is at this point that forgetting they are new I should have possibly done more to give them some additional pointers in maybe asking around town a bit more, or possibly seeing if there was any one in town who might want to come along that could provide some assistance instead of letting los tres amigos walk in by themselves however from the very git go i told them running away from anything that looks too dangerous is a extremely valid and perfectly acceptable answer to many situations they may face. If you feel you are outgunned, then fall back. With that they headed to the moat house.
The trip there was uneventful and seeing the marsh next to the moat they opted to leave well enough alone (avoiding at this time the killer giant frogs) and headed for the old draw bridge. They rightly took one look at the old draw bridge and figured it was safer to cross with out their horses/mules and left them tied out a little ways away from the place and go in on foot. They cross inside and find the place a ruins. The assassin decides seeing the many doors this place has to just start kicking them in and making as much noise as possible(i dont know why) the first door leading to just an empty room. The druid opens one of the others on the other side and is greeted by the swinging battle axe of a gnoll, just barely missed getting sliced in half. She backs up telling it they mean them no harm as the duelist moves in to engage and the assassin lets loose an arrow that misses. At this point the rest of the gnolls including a large darker haired leader step out and rolling a helpful reaction decides that they are outnumbered 3 to 1 that he will spare these gnats in exchange for them to leave all their wordly possessions and leave while he is in a good mood. The duelist is not having this and the rest of the group is not keen of leaving everything they got with no guarantee their lives will actually be spared. He steps right up to the leader and demands a one on one fight, if he wins they leave with their lives and their gear. At this point i figured what the hell let him have his duel and so the leader accepts and the rest of the gnolls surround them. The fight was mostly them dodging each others blows and only giving minor cuts to each other. The gnoll then loses his grip on his weapon(crit fumble) and the duelist gets 2 free shots at him which he sadly flubbed, just before the gnoll roared with anger and brought his axe down into the duelists skull killing him instantly (crit hit for 2x damage), rolling another reaction and surprisingly enough getting another helpful reaction the leader made himself distinctively clear, leave all of your possessions including your clothes and now dead comrade and leave now before he and the rest of his pack rend them to pieces. They was not happy but they did as they was told leaving everything that wasnt on their pack animals behind and left.
They found some tarp and a few daggers on their dead friends mule making some makeshift panchos to atleast cover themselves with as they ride back to the village. Despite the setbacks they had a bit of fun and are looking forward to our next game. A few npc characters will introduce themselves after hearing about their mis-adventure at the moat house and offer some advice and possibly some assistance. I let them know that they do not have to stay in the village they are welcome to travel wherever they like but I have a feeling there will be some revenge on their mind and a helpful new stranger may be willing to assist them with that.
I have decided to expand out the world of Aeril a bit more and did a bit of random hex generation thanks to Martin Rayla's Hexamancer which you can find Here. I sprinkled in some old school 1st level adventure goodness throughout my 4 map continent including the village of hommlet, the keep on the borderlands, saltmarsh, and a few others. I am looking to do more of a hex crawl with this group and so many areas of the map have room to grow into bigger things. Currently there is no major cities or kingdoms designed out but those will come as they are designed and or needed.
The new group is about as green as it gets but also bright eyed and bushy tailed as they come. My brother in law is a veteran of table top role playing and even runs an iron kingdoms game that I may be joining in the near future and rolled up a duelist who believes every one is responsible for their own fortune in life. A co worker of my wife's found out I DM'ed and had always wanted to play in a real D&D campaign and so him and his girlfriend signed on to play. Neither has really ever played in a real sit down D&D campaign before but were very excited to play. I informed them from the get go that I aim to give a fun experience but I run in the old school tradition, so do not get too attached to their characters, bad things happen whether any of us want them to happen or not. They understood and rolled up an assassin and a druid. I hinted heavily they may want to consider hiring on some additional help if there is a role in the group they feel they may be lacking in(ex: healing/magical support/extra fighting power) which they promptly forgot about later in the session.
Before the game began i gave them an option of what kind of local they wanted to start in; plains, mountains, or heavy forest. They voted for heavy forest and found themselves heading to Hommlet. Once there they went straight for the tavern to find a place to stay for a few days and maybe find some work. The assassin and druid ordered drinks and the duelist not having any money but still hungry sees a village militia man eating a steak. With out warning he goes up to the militia man and demands a duel for his steak. Obvoisly he is very confused by this odd stranger making an absurd demand and ingores him, right up until the duelist calls him a coward and unworthy of defending this village (at his point i rolled a hostile attitude for his reaction) and he accepts the fight to first blood outside the tavern. They step outside and unsheath their blades and the militia man side steps the duelist and delivers a cracking blow to the back of his skull with the pommel of his blade knocking him to 0 hp and out cold (it was a max damage hit) before getting a round of pats on the back by the other militia men and returning to his dinner. The inn keeper tells them where they find the local church to see if they can convince them to possibly help out their foolish friend.
The group throws him on the back of the druids horse and take him over to the church and discuss healing of their friend. They work out a deal that he will do so in exchange they check out the old moat house not terribly far from the village as there has been rumours of stirrings of vile creatures not seen in many years out there. The village cannot support a expedition at this time so if they will check it out it would be a great service to the village and they are welcome to take any spoils they find. The group agrees, the clerics heal the duelist and in the morning they head out to the moat house.
It is at this point that forgetting they are new I should have possibly done more to give them some additional pointers in maybe asking around town a bit more, or possibly seeing if there was any one in town who might want to come along that could provide some assistance instead of letting los tres amigos walk in by themselves however from the very git go i told them running away from anything that looks too dangerous is a extremely valid and perfectly acceptable answer to many situations they may face. If you feel you are outgunned, then fall back. With that they headed to the moat house.
The trip there was uneventful and seeing the marsh next to the moat they opted to leave well enough alone (avoiding at this time the killer giant frogs) and headed for the old draw bridge. They rightly took one look at the old draw bridge and figured it was safer to cross with out their horses/mules and left them tied out a little ways away from the place and go in on foot. They cross inside and find the place a ruins. The assassin decides seeing the many doors this place has to just start kicking them in and making as much noise as possible(i dont know why) the first door leading to just an empty room. The druid opens one of the others on the other side and is greeted by the swinging battle axe of a gnoll, just barely missed getting sliced in half. She backs up telling it they mean them no harm as the duelist moves in to engage and the assassin lets loose an arrow that misses. At this point the rest of the gnolls including a large darker haired leader step out and rolling a helpful reaction decides that they are outnumbered 3 to 1 that he will spare these gnats in exchange for them to leave all their wordly possessions and leave while he is in a good mood. The duelist is not having this and the rest of the group is not keen of leaving everything they got with no guarantee their lives will actually be spared. He steps right up to the leader and demands a one on one fight, if he wins they leave with their lives and their gear. At this point i figured what the hell let him have his duel and so the leader accepts and the rest of the gnolls surround them. The fight was mostly them dodging each others blows and only giving minor cuts to each other. The gnoll then loses his grip on his weapon(crit fumble) and the duelist gets 2 free shots at him which he sadly flubbed, just before the gnoll roared with anger and brought his axe down into the duelists skull killing him instantly (crit hit for 2x damage), rolling another reaction and surprisingly enough getting another helpful reaction the leader made himself distinctively clear, leave all of your possessions including your clothes and now dead comrade and leave now before he and the rest of his pack rend them to pieces. They was not happy but they did as they was told leaving everything that wasnt on their pack animals behind and left.
They found some tarp and a few daggers on their dead friends mule making some makeshift panchos to atleast cover themselves with as they ride back to the village. Despite the setbacks they had a bit of fun and are looking forward to our next game. A few npc characters will introduce themselves after hearing about their mis-adventure at the moat house and offer some advice and possibly some assistance. I let them know that they do not have to stay in the village they are welcome to travel wherever they like but I have a feeling there will be some revenge on their mind and a helpful new stranger may be willing to assist them with that.
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
End of an era and the start of a new one
So with the new year on the horizon I have got some big news. I will be taking on an exciting new job with a lot of new opportunities provided. This will however bring an end to my current S&W group that I have been running for about a year and a half. We stopped at a pretty good point and no one is terribly upset and every one is very happy for my chance to expand on my career.
With that said I am now focusing more of my creative energy on a fantasy based coop card game that it may never see the light of day beyond my play test prototype but should be fun non the less. It will be taking what I feel are the best aspects of adventure card games and expanding on it with my own take. Any one who wants to get into brainstorming ideas are welcome to ping me.
I will look to put together a new gaming group once I get settled in and have a better idea what my schedule will be like. I have several friendly local gaming shops that I want to spend more time at and get to know the players there better. I will also be continuing to create as much free OSR goodies as I can for all of you and perhaps even a book or two that i've been brewing may eventually get finished and available through lulu and drivethru.
So happy new year to every one in the OSR and here is to 2016, a year of change that I hope is good for every one.
With that said I am now focusing more of my creative energy on a fantasy based coop card game that it may never see the light of day beyond my play test prototype but should be fun non the less. It will be taking what I feel are the best aspects of adventure card games and expanding on it with my own take. Any one who wants to get into brainstorming ideas are welcome to ping me.
I will look to put together a new gaming group once I get settled in and have a better idea what my schedule will be like. I have several friendly local gaming shops that I want to spend more time at and get to know the players there better. I will also be continuing to create as much free OSR goodies as I can for all of you and perhaps even a book or two that i've been brewing may eventually get finished and available through lulu and drivethru.
So happy new year to every one in the OSR and here is to 2016, a year of change that I hope is good for every one.
Tuesday, November 24, 2015
U-Con 2015
This weekend was the first anniversary for me of heading to U-Con which just so happens to have been the first gaming convention I have participated in. Being only able to stay for 2 of the 3 days I made plans to get in as much old school goodness as I could.
Friday:
The early morning was taken up with mostly blundering around the convention getting a feel for where everything was this year. I was pleased to see the OSR track getting a bunch of love this year and ran into some old friends I have met from previous conventions. I missed out on getting into Tim's Stuper heroes game due to getting to the convention a little later then I would have liked but got a chance to hang out afterwards. Tim was even nice enough to give me a copy of the stuper heroes basic game rules which was much appreciated.
After this I met up with my brother in-law who came with me out to the con and we checked out a home brew game buildt on an expanded idea of triple triad from final fantasy called Battle Box: The Greek Gods by Chris Andersen. It appeared to be an interesting game and while I could not stick around to try it out my brother in-law said it was pretty good.
I then made my way over to Ryan Thompson's game GC1 It Lurks Below by pacesetter games & simulations. I was able to bring back my character from last year, a elven fighter/mage,who brought with him his dragon slaying sword and ring of regeneration and a few useful scrolls. Without going into specifics from the module the group played well together working as a team and while the initial goal did not get completed we still found quite a bit of loot to bring back to the surface world and a new mystery uncovered.
After the game I spent some time at the dealers hall and picked up some goodies from Bill Barsh including GC3 It Crawled From Below, H1 Six Feet Under, and B1 Legacy of the Unknown. I would the next day pick up GC2 They Lurk Below but he was out of GC1 for non 5th edition. I had a good time chatting with him and his family and getting a chance to meet him in person.
Over at the DCC booth I picked up the d30 Sandbox Companion by new big dragon games, into the demon idol by bloody hammer games, and Bill Webb's book of dirty tricks. I have been getting to know some of the guys from the DCC road crew and while I don't currently play DCC, it is always nice to stop and chat and pick up some old school goodness that I will make use of in my own games.
Six o'clock rolled around and I went over to the auditorium to check out the
Old School City Scapes Roundtable Panel. It was a great round table with OSR track Sponsor John Reyst, the guest of honor Bill Webb, Bill Barsh, Tim Snider, Adam Muszkiewicz, the OSR track organizer Ryan Thompson, and last but certainly not least Jim Wampler who was recording it all for the save or die podcast. While waiting for everything to begin I struck up a conversation with another con goer only to find out he was non other then Larry Hamilton of the blog follow me and die of which I am a regular reader. The round table was great and every one had a unique view on the topic of cities in games. The audience as per last year was invited to participate with questions and comments and even some friendly banter. All in all it was a great way to end the first day at the con.
Saturday:
I headed out early due to nature deciding snow needed to be on the forcast. I made it out there with little issue and got right into an open seat for the 9am AD&D game of the classic Lost Caverns of Tsjocanth. I took on the roll of a large 6'5" fighter and teamed up with a elven fighter/mage, a fighter/mage/thief, a monk, and a cleric of justice and truth. It was a fun run through the early part of the adventure and my character had to swallow his pride and his dignity to save the party from a blue dragon. We did well only suffering the loss of the fighter/mage/thief at the hands (literally it tore him in half) of a troll but bringing in a very helpful ranger who successfully found the correct path to the caverns and the end of our first part of the 3 part adventure.
Our next forray continued where we left off however the monk took a back seat and in came a straight thief. We explored the caves and came across some things like a clay golem that rocked our world pretty hard, some more trolls of which several I BBQ'd with some lightning javelins, and barely surviving turning into green slime thanks to what I will now forever refer to as the slim-fast potion of life saving (potion of vitality). We did some additional travel in the caverns and found some additional loot but this was where I had to call it quits. I said my goodbyes to everybody and ventured into the snowstorm that was raging and looked forward to the adventures next year.
Friday:
The early morning was taken up with mostly blundering around the convention getting a feel for where everything was this year. I was pleased to see the OSR track getting a bunch of love this year and ran into some old friends I have met from previous conventions. I missed out on getting into Tim's Stuper heroes game due to getting to the convention a little later then I would have liked but got a chance to hang out afterwards. Tim was even nice enough to give me a copy of the stuper heroes basic game rules which was much appreciated.
After this I met up with my brother in-law who came with me out to the con and we checked out a home brew game buildt on an expanded idea of triple triad from final fantasy called Battle Box: The Greek Gods by Chris Andersen. It appeared to be an interesting game and while I could not stick around to try it out my brother in-law said it was pretty good.
I then made my way over to Ryan Thompson's game GC1 It Lurks Below by pacesetter games & simulations. I was able to bring back my character from last year, a elven fighter/mage,who brought with him his dragon slaying sword and ring of regeneration and a few useful scrolls. Without going into specifics from the module the group played well together working as a team and while the initial goal did not get completed we still found quite a bit of loot to bring back to the surface world and a new mystery uncovered.
After the game I spent some time at the dealers hall and picked up some goodies from Bill Barsh including GC3 It Crawled From Below, H1 Six Feet Under, and B1 Legacy of the Unknown. I would the next day pick up GC2 They Lurk Below but he was out of GC1 for non 5th edition. I had a good time chatting with him and his family and getting a chance to meet him in person.
Over at the DCC booth I picked up the d30 Sandbox Companion by new big dragon games, into the demon idol by bloody hammer games, and Bill Webb's book of dirty tricks. I have been getting to know some of the guys from the DCC road crew and while I don't currently play DCC, it is always nice to stop and chat and pick up some old school goodness that I will make use of in my own games.
Six o'clock rolled around and I went over to the auditorium to check out the
Old School City Scapes Roundtable Panel. It was a great round table with OSR track Sponsor John Reyst, the guest of honor Bill Webb, Bill Barsh, Tim Snider, Adam Muszkiewicz, the OSR track organizer Ryan Thompson, and last but certainly not least Jim Wampler who was recording it all for the save or die podcast. While waiting for everything to begin I struck up a conversation with another con goer only to find out he was non other then Larry Hamilton of the blog follow me and die of which I am a regular reader. The round table was great and every one had a unique view on the topic of cities in games. The audience as per last year was invited to participate with questions and comments and even some friendly banter. All in all it was a great way to end the first day at the con.
Saturday:
I headed out early due to nature deciding snow needed to be on the forcast. I made it out there with little issue and got right into an open seat for the 9am AD&D game of the classic Lost Caverns of Tsjocanth. I took on the roll of a large 6'5" fighter and teamed up with a elven fighter/mage, a fighter/mage/thief, a monk, and a cleric of justice and truth. It was a fun run through the early part of the adventure and my character had to swallow his pride and his dignity to save the party from a blue dragon. We did well only suffering the loss of the fighter/mage/thief at the hands (literally it tore him in half) of a troll but bringing in a very helpful ranger who successfully found the correct path to the caverns and the end of our first part of the 3 part adventure.
Our next forray continued where we left off however the monk took a back seat and in came a straight thief. We explored the caves and came across some things like a clay golem that rocked our world pretty hard, some more trolls of which several I BBQ'd with some lightning javelins, and barely surviving turning into green slime thanks to what I will now forever refer to as the slim-fast potion of life saving (potion of vitality). We did some additional travel in the caverns and found some additional loot but this was where I had to call it quits. I said my goodbyes to everybody and ventured into the snowstorm that was raging and looked forward to the adventures next year.
Friday, April 17, 2015
S&W Appreciation Day 2015
Happy Swords and Wizardry day my friends. I have been enjoying and introducing the joy of this system for the last 6+ months and I have to say it has become my defacto game system.
Part of what I love about S&W is it easily allows me as a collector and user of modules past and present is the ease I can port just about any adventure or idea with very little prep but provide big changes to my game world. NPC's, monsters, spells, it doesn't matter because it all bolts on quite easily.
What helps make S&W so great and versatile is the simplicity of the rules and the building block nature that we all as players and GM's can build from and expand upon. I look forward to looking through everyone's contributions today and provide for you all today a new potion and 2 new monsters sure to both amuse and challenge your players.
Juggernaught Potion
Distilled from ionized mithril and the eyes from a basalisk when properly prepared with various other ingrediants creates of a potion that turns the ibiber into a being of hulking destruction. The users body size doubles and takes on a greyish tint while the eyes burn with a red glow. The strength of the user increases by +5, is able to make use of their strength for additional attack and damage as per a fighter, and gains a -10[+10] to AC. This comes at a price as the user is no longer in control of their actions and will attack at random looking to cause the most destruction possible either on inanimate objects or friends/foes nearby. The transformation lasts for 1d6 x 10 minutes. Once it has worn off the user will fall into a near coma like state barely breathing for 2d20 hours.
Dracoon:
HD 4d8+8(16 HP)
AC 3 [16]
Save: 13
Attacks: Bite (1d8 + disease) and 2 claws (1d6) or Breath of fire (1d10 save for half)
Reach 4ft/2.5ft
Move 6/24
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Region: Warm/Mountains
CR/XP: 8/800
Special:
immune to fire, vulnerable to cold
Dark vision 120ft
Dracoons are scavengers and hoarders. Often found in dens in mountainous regions not far from civilization they favor little baubles like gems or small magic items. They speak draconic but rarely have a reason to do so preferring to keep to their dens. When forced into a fight or when protecting their den a dracoon will attempt to catch the most dangerous looking foe on fire with its breath or set the area itself on fire then close in to bite. If captured young they make excellent partners to young mages so long as they are kept happy with a regular gifts of food, gems, or gold coins.
Scorpion Soldier
HD 2d8+4(12 HP)
AC 5[14]
Save: 16
Attacks: 2 claws (1d4+1) or sting (1d4 + lethal poison)
Move: 6
Reach: 6ft/2ft
Alignment: Neutral
Region: Anywhere
CR/XP: 5/240
These soldiers were the magical mutation made by a mad wizard to defend his tower. Created as barely intelligent shock troopers, usually from captured peasants and farmers. They prefer to attack from ambush trying to catch their prey and inject them with poison. If they hit with both claw attacks they latch on and can proceed to sting on the following rounds automatically. Cowardly by nature they will flee at the first sign the fight turns against them.
Many thanks to Ryan Thompson for hosting this years S&W appreciation day and don't forget to check out the Drink Spin Run live podcast tonight 9pm EST.
Part of what I love about S&W is it easily allows me as a collector and user of modules past and present is the ease I can port just about any adventure or idea with very little prep but provide big changes to my game world. NPC's, monsters, spells, it doesn't matter because it all bolts on quite easily.
What helps make S&W so great and versatile is the simplicity of the rules and the building block nature that we all as players and GM's can build from and expand upon. I look forward to looking through everyone's contributions today and provide for you all today a new potion and 2 new monsters sure to both amuse and challenge your players.
Juggernaught Potion
Distilled from ionized mithril and the eyes from a basalisk when properly prepared with various other ingrediants creates of a potion that turns the ibiber into a being of hulking destruction. The users body size doubles and takes on a greyish tint while the eyes burn with a red glow. The strength of the user increases by +5, is able to make use of their strength for additional attack and damage as per a fighter, and gains a -10[+10] to AC. This comes at a price as the user is no longer in control of their actions and will attack at random looking to cause the most destruction possible either on inanimate objects or friends/foes nearby. The transformation lasts for 1d6 x 10 minutes. Once it has worn off the user will fall into a near coma like state barely breathing for 2d20 hours.
Dracoon:
HD 4d8+8(16 HP)
AC 3 [16]
Save: 13
Attacks: Bite (1d8 + disease) and 2 claws (1d6) or Breath of fire (1d10 save for half)
Reach 4ft/2.5ft
Move 6/24
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Region: Warm/Mountains
CR/XP: 8/800
Special:
immune to fire, vulnerable to cold
Dark vision 120ft
Dracoons are scavengers and hoarders. Often found in dens in mountainous regions not far from civilization they favor little baubles like gems or small magic items. They speak draconic but rarely have a reason to do so preferring to keep to their dens. When forced into a fight or when protecting their den a dracoon will attempt to catch the most dangerous looking foe on fire with its breath or set the area itself on fire then close in to bite. If captured young they make excellent partners to young mages so long as they are kept happy with a regular gifts of food, gems, or gold coins.
Scorpion Soldier
HD 2d8+4(12 HP)
AC 5[14]
Save: 16
Attacks: 2 claws (1d4+1) or sting (1d4 + lethal poison)
Move: 6
Reach: 6ft/2ft
Alignment: Neutral
Region: Anywhere
CR/XP: 5/240
These soldiers were the magical mutation made by a mad wizard to defend his tower. Created as barely intelligent shock troopers, usually from captured peasants and farmers. They prefer to attack from ambush trying to catch their prey and inject them with poison. If they hit with both claw attacks they latch on and can proceed to sting on the following rounds automatically. Cowardly by nature they will flee at the first sign the fight turns against them.
Many thanks to Ryan Thompson for hosting this years S&W appreciation day and don't forget to check out the Drink Spin Run live podcast tonight 9pm EST.
Tuesday, February 17, 2015
An Introduction is in order
Greetings and welcome all who come to peruse my random thoughts on the OSR and RPGs in general. I am still fairly new to the community but have been an avid collector of TSR products, overall nerd, and believer in the spirit of the OSR for as long as I have played in RPGs(rulings not rules).
I have been a DM of 3/3.5 D&D since I was the impressionable age of 13 when I first found online the free introductory adventure on the WOTC website, Into the darkness, which I ran for some friends right out the gate modifying the few NPCs with traits of people we all knew well much to every ones delight. From that point on I was hooked and have been a DM ever since. I asked my dad to get me the introductory box to D&D 3rd edition but after he spoke with the comic book store he opted to get me the actual players guide and manual, spending more then I expected him to much to my surprise on a new hobby, knowing I would quickly out grow the simple box set and set me on my path that has lasted the rest of my life. That Christmas my parents got me the monster manual and I was set for a great many years running adventures for my friends right up until I moved away after college.
Until recently this has worked well for me but I always felt things were more convoluted then necessary with the rules. I have home brewed and house rules that I have ran with for many years but things have still felt off. Then I had the good luck and pleasure of attending my first gaming convention with my brother in law in November, U-Con, and met Ryan Thompson of Gamers and Grognards who I had read his blog on several occasions before and introduced me to my first game of Swords & Wizardry. I finally found what was missing! This game has a simple but robust rule set but was still everything I loved of D&D. After grabbing the freely available complete rules I knew where the path was taking me and down the rabbit hole I went, and into the OSR family I was born. Since then I have had the pleasure of meeting several other like minded people with in the community who have been both very welcoming and exceptionally helpful.
I hope this blog will serve as a useful resource to not only my growing home brew world of Aeril but to all of you who wander this way looking for charts, tables, resources, and ideas for your games as well. This will not be a blog where I get on a podium and preach about any particular rule set or complain about things within the hobby of role-playing, should I deviate from this feel free to call me on it!
Currently my world of Aeril is in its design infancy but it has a group of players currently running through it helping to grow. It will play host to places and names some of you may be familiar with as I am a avid collector of older TSR modules as well as areas and adventures I have designed over the years but never got the chance to fully play with in my previous campaigns. So come with me on this journey as I leave behind my past as a 17 year veteran of the 3/3.5 era of gaming and travel to a simpler time of high fantasy and grand adventure.
I have been a DM of 3/3.5 D&D since I was the impressionable age of 13 when I first found online the free introductory adventure on the WOTC website, Into the darkness, which I ran for some friends right out the gate modifying the few NPCs with traits of people we all knew well much to every ones delight. From that point on I was hooked and have been a DM ever since. I asked my dad to get me the introductory box to D&D 3rd edition but after he spoke with the comic book store he opted to get me the actual players guide and manual, spending more then I expected him to much to my surprise on a new hobby, knowing I would quickly out grow the simple box set and set me on my path that has lasted the rest of my life. That Christmas my parents got me the monster manual and I was set for a great many years running adventures for my friends right up until I moved away after college.
Until recently this has worked well for me but I always felt things were more convoluted then necessary with the rules. I have home brewed and house rules that I have ran with for many years but things have still felt off. Then I had the good luck and pleasure of attending my first gaming convention with my brother in law in November, U-Con, and met Ryan Thompson of Gamers and Grognards who I had read his blog on several occasions before and introduced me to my first game of Swords & Wizardry. I finally found what was missing! This game has a simple but robust rule set but was still everything I loved of D&D. After grabbing the freely available complete rules I knew where the path was taking me and down the rabbit hole I went, and into the OSR family I was born. Since then I have had the pleasure of meeting several other like minded people with in the community who have been both very welcoming and exceptionally helpful.
I hope this blog will serve as a useful resource to not only my growing home brew world of Aeril but to all of you who wander this way looking for charts, tables, resources, and ideas for your games as well. This will not be a blog where I get on a podium and preach about any particular rule set or complain about things within the hobby of role-playing, should I deviate from this feel free to call me on it!
Currently my world of Aeril is in its design infancy but it has a group of players currently running through it helping to grow. It will play host to places and names some of you may be familiar with as I am a avid collector of older TSR modules as well as areas and adventures I have designed over the years but never got the chance to fully play with in my previous campaigns. So come with me on this journey as I leave behind my past as a 17 year veteran of the 3/3.5 era of gaming and travel to a simpler time of high fantasy and grand adventure.
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