Showing posts with label Gaming Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Gaming Life. Show all posts

Friday, June 3, 2011

Stapled

Spent day at NTRPGCON.   RPed with The Boy, Timeshadows, and Cyclopeatron.  Big ass smile stapled to face.  Bought too much merchandise from Finland.   Exhausted.  Must sleep now.

- Ark

Saturday, May 28, 2011

A Quote From Tonight's Game

"If we steal the bones, we loose the opportunity to surprise the door . . . you know, only in a D&D game would you ever say something like that."

- Ark

Wednesday, May 25, 2011

Geek Pride Day

I had no idea that I had a whole day

Rights:
  1. The right to be even geekier.
  2. The right to not leave your house.
  3. The right to not like football or any other sport.
  4. The right to associate with other nerds.
  5. The right to have few friends (or none at all).
  6. The right to have as many geeky friends as you want.
  7. The right to be out of style.
  8. The right to show off your geekiness.
  9. The right to take over the world.

 - Ark

Saturday, May 21, 2011

The Awful Green Things From Outer Space

There were a lot of strange games advertised in the first decade of Dragon Magazine.  I think I wanted every single one of them at that point.  Steve Jackson must know this, of course, because when I walked into FLGS on Friday, The Awful Green Things From Outer Space was staring at me, straight in the face.

I remember thinking about the game a lot as a kid.  I imagined what it would be like, and even fashioned a Star Frontiers adventure after my impressions.  It wasn't like I ever hoped to own it - or even play it.  West Texas just really wasn't awash in 'gaming product,' even though I knew Steve Jackson was sitting in Austin being raided daily by the FBI for committing bizarre Illuminati hacking conspiracies.  Or whatever the hell that was about.  So, it was just a pipe dream.

Then I was holding it in my hands. 

Crap.

Steve Jackson got more of my money yesterday.  He's never let me down - but - well - I know he does produce lemons and was worried.  I still have no idea.  The boy didn't look too impressed, so I haven't got to take it out for a spin yet.  But I'm ready.  Look at the photo!  I'm ready, dammit! :)

(Pewter raptors and skeleton army not included - I was just getting ready for THE RAPTURE.)

- Ark

Thursday, May 12, 2011

Assume the Party Escort Submission Position

I finished Portal 2 Single Player last night and am still basking in the glow of my celebratory candescence. This is an awesome sequel to the nifty first Portal game. Chell and GladOS are back - but that shouldn't be much of a spoiler - as well as lethal testing for science, the weighted companion cube, and plenty of elevators. What's more, there are new characters - including Wheatley and Cave Johnson, various gels, repulsor beams, 'discouragement' beams, a potato, and a brand new end game song.

The single player game for Portal 2 (which is the only reason I actually picked it up - to heck with multi-player,) is longer and more difficult that the original Portal. As the scenarios fling you further and further into the bowels of the earth - and back again, they get more complicated as new technologies are added to the mix. The most time a test took me to complete was about an hour. It wasn't because of the difficulty, however. It was becasue as the options grow, it's easy to miss the simple stuff - like gravity. Gravity is your friend. It also kills you - but don't forget to use it to your advantage.

Beyond the game play is the story and the characters. It was great to see GladOS again - despite the fact that she is a homicidal passive-aggressive insane AI. You get a lot more back story and insight into what makes GladOS tick. The whole thing really reminds me of the heyday of the RPG Paranoia. That West End game was great fun to play - trying to survive the machinations of the crazy AI overlord in a future distopia. Portal 2 just really puts that concept into overdrive.

I highly recommend the game, especially if you liked the first Portal. It's a great mental workout. And now, I've got all sorts of new ideas (can you say Portal Wand?) for torturing the PCs in my Labryryth Lord game. I mean, helping them test - for science.

- Ark

Tuesday, May 3, 2011

It Still Hasn't Sunken In Yet

After killing two groups of morlocks, the party is confronted by 40 of their angry brothers, all armed with spears and changing down the hall at them.

The Boy: Uh . . .

Ron: Let's get out of here.

Merv: Forty?  Yeah.  Lets go.

Tim shakes his head and waves his hands:  Hold on, hold on.  I know the whole design philosophy is a bit different with these old games, but I'm not sure.  Would he really set us up to fail?  I think we should stay and fight.  There has got be be a way - some trick - some gimmick.  We can win this.  He wouldn't just keep on throwing things at us to kill us, would he.  Stand firm.  We can do this, guys.

Me:  What the hell are you talking about, Tim?  I attacked your group of first level adventurers with a DRAGON on a random roll.  You are not being paranoid.  I AM trying to kill you.

Tim looks back at me and scrunches up his forehead:  Oh.  Well, let's run away then.

- Ark

Monday, April 18, 2011

NTRPGCON and Golf Ball Sized Hail

So I registered for my events at NTRPGCON last week.

Late. 

Cyclopeatron's blog post reminded me.  I had intended on staying up till midnight and signing up.  The thunderstorms rolled in that evening, however.  The golf-ball sized hail smashed the windshield of my car and knocked out power in my neighborhood until the wee hours of the morning - long after I had passed out on the floor next to my computer, surrounded by candles, in a pool of drool, waiting and hoping for power so I could sign up to play D&D with Erol Otus.

I woke up late for work and in that fluster-cluck of a morning, I forgot to sign up until Cyclopeatron reminded me with his post later that day.  Piss. No Erol Otus game. :(

But in it's own Taoist way, the universe has handed the boy and I the perfect NTRPGCON schedule.

Thursday
 
Evening - URUTSK!

After reading Timeshadows' blog for a bit, I still have no idea what the heck UTURSK is, but it seems so cool and mysterious.   I look forward to it.

Friday

Morning - ???


Okay, this one is a little confusing.  The description block goes something like this:

Game Title : ???
Game System : Eldritch Entertainment
Number of Players : 4-6
Pregens/Level of Characters: ?? /??
World Setting: ??
Short Description: ??

Normally, I would have walked on by this one.  However, the name at the top was James M. Ward.  I couldn't get into his Metamorphosis Alpha game.  I think sitting with his for a few hours would be cool all by itself - even if the only thing he did was fold napkins or try to sell me a time-share in Hot Springs, Arkansas.  But a little research told me that Eldritch Entertainment is some kind of start up by Frank Mentzer, Chris Clark, Tim Kask, Jim Ward.  Well.  Again, I don't know what the heck this is, but it kind of sounds like the boy and I get to be guinea pigs for, in the words of Dave Bowman, "Something Wonderful."

Afternoon - ART!

The boy and I get to watch Erol Otus, Paul Jaquays, Jeff Dee, and Jason Braun draw for an hour.  I mean, how cool is that?  To answer my own question - that is BOOYA cool.

Evening - Frank Mentzer

Gaming with Frank.  Nuff said?

Saturday

Saturday is psycho hectic day.  At least for everybody else.  I only scheduled one thing up.  While everyone else is flitting around like crazy, I'm gonna bum around the vendor stalls and pretend I picked up smoking again and find old grognards to hang out with in the parking lot.  I did schedule one thing:

Afternoon - Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game

I think this means that Harley Stroh is going to be play testing the new DCC RPG from Goodman Games.  I hadn't even heard of the product until I saw it mentioned on George Strayton's blog.  Seems like it might be pretty cool.  I get he feeling that the boy is going to like it a whole heck of a lot.  Luckily I have a set of Zocchi dice.

As an aside - have you seen the artists who have worked on the DCC RPG book?  Jeff Easley, Jason Edwards, Tom Galambos, Friedrich Haas, Jim Holloway, Doug Kovacs, Diesel Laforce, William McAusland, Brad McDevitt, Jesse Mohn, Peter Mullen, Erol Otus, Stefan Poag, Jim Roslof, Chad Sergesketter, Chuck Whelon, and Mike Wilson.  Even if the game blows, it would probably be worth it for the art alone!  Holy moly.

Sunday

Morning - OD&D + Spelljammer + Cyclopeatron

I really can't think of a better way to wrap the Con up than with Ochre Jelly in Outer Space and Dave Areson's fashion twin.  Can you?

Let's just hope their are no thunderstorms concealing golfball sized hail over the weekend.  But we'll be safe.  We never have thunderstorms during the spring in Texas.

o.O

- Ark

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

Old School Rocks! World Tour

A Childhood Dream . . .
Joseph Browning of Expeditious Retreat Press contacted me last night about using the Old School Rocks logo.  Since I gave the logo away to all-a-ya'll last month, he didn't have to ask, but it was very nice of him anyway.

He's wanting to use in for t-shirt logos and booth images at the OSRG booth at Gen Con.

Hot.

Frikkin.

Damn.

They've got quite a ginormous booth this year due to a Gen Con scholarship (or something like that) and need to pimp it out big time.  Spinning hubs caps, suicide doors, and a diamond grill.  You know, that kind of thing.  They needs help. Go buy a t-shirt form them!

I'm so pleased!  Okay, not pleased.  Head explodingly wowed.  If someone could figure out how to get them stacks of the t-shirts to sell directly at the booth, I think that would be way cool.  I'm not making any money out of this.  I just want to get the world out and reanimate some grognards or cook up some grognardlings.

By the way, Old School Renaissance Group consists of Black Blade Publishing, Brave Halfling Publishing, Expeditious Retreat Press, Frog God Games, Goblinoid Games, Henchman Abuse, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Pacesetter Games & Simulations, Sine Nomine Publishing.

That's quite a list of rock stars there! Oh, and some metal dude too.

When I was 11, Gen Con was my Mecca.  I never got to paint my donkey orange and go on Hajj, but at least this time I am going in spirit. 


Boo! :)

- Ark

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

Crotchety Old Sour Man

So I'm on a message board that doesn't have anything to do with role playing games (yes, I have a deep life outside of role playing games) and a post pops up about older Dungeons and Dragons and getting a local game together.  I was all over that (okay, so my deep life outside of role playing games is more like a very shallow bathtub.)

Even though I have a group already going, I could always play some more, eh?

The organizer asked about what versions people are interested in, and I pop up with my 0e or 1e Old School Rocks spiel.  Then the avalanche of 3.5, 4.0, and Pathfinder post start.  People are hooking up right and left and I'm siting there with my dick in one hand and nothing else in the other. 

It made me feel old.

Old and lonely.

I remember when I was absent from D&D for years, then came in when 4.0.  I was with it, brah.  I was NOW.  I heard other people bitching about 4e and man - those guys were old crotchety bastard who just couldn't get with the future, baby.  They were stuck back in childhood nostalgia and were perhaps just bitter and nasty old people to begin with. 

So I sat there feeling bitter and nasty. 

But maybe . . .

Maybe I should give 4e another try.  I mean, what does a paltry 2 years of campaigning really tell a person about a gaming system?  Or maybe I should embrace Pathfinder?  Forget the boring ass game I had when I tested out 3.5.  Pathfinder couldn't really have hour long combats, could it?  Maybe if you just halve everybody's hit points or something.  I mean, maybe there was a way to be hip and modern and fun and not have to rewrite the newer D&D versions completely in a way that I hadn't tried yet?  Maybe?

Maybe I was just a stubborn bastard who would rather wallow in self-pity and melancholy rather than get with the new times and have some fun.

Then I received a private message on the board.  It was from a guy and his friend and they really wanted to get together with me and play some 1e.

BOO FUCKING YA.

Suck on THAT, modern day burnt coffee swilling smart phone addicted hipster D&D!  Imuna go crawl back into my caveman cave with some caveman buddies and play some real shit!

;)

- Ark

Monday, April 11, 2011

Seafaring Halflings

"Get off the computer and let's play something," I told the boy when I got home from work. 

He spun around in his chair.  "How bout Minecraft?" he said.

I gave him a 'dad' look.  He gave me a pouty ten year old look.

"Get off the computer and stare at the wall then.  Just get off the computer.  You'll go blind and sterile.  We could go play soccer."

"Nah."

"Munchkin?"

"Nah."

"Castle Ravenloft?"

"Nah."

"Sorry Sliders?"

"Nah"

"R2D2 Trouble?"

"Nah?"

"Forbidden Island?"

"Nah."

"Zombie Dice?

"Nah."

I checked to see if my son had turned into the Aflac goat.  Not quite.  Horns, but no beard yet.

"How about Small World?" he asked.

I blinked.  Small World - the game that had sat languishing on the dresser since Christmas morning.  The boy had shied away from it as if it was a cootie-filled girl dressed all in pink.

"Um . . ." I still hadn't finished reading the rules.  There was a lot of rules.  It seemed like a pretty complicated game.  I wasn't sure that I could pull it off and make it enjoyable for him.  If I showed one second of unsureness - WHAM - he'd be all over me like stink on a dog and he'd never want to give the game another chance.  Crap. 

"Sure!" I said.  Sometimes you have to stuff your our neuroses down into the pit where you keep your childhood fear of Aunt Sandra and that whole striped sock fetish thing.  "But I don't know all the rules yet, so I'll read them out loud as we go.  Okay?"

"Okay," he smiled.

The game turned out about 500 times easier than I had thought.  You've got all of these fantasy races on a world that is too small for them - so they are fighting it out one chunk of land at a time.  Races have their own powers - like Trolls attack really well from mountains.  But then the races get a random attribute - like Flying, so they are not forced to only attack adjacent land, but can go attack anywhere on the map.

The two of us picked up the game really quickly.  There are some weird things, like when your race gets spread to thin, you can put it into 'decline' mode and go get another race to continue your conquest.  Each race and ability offers a lot of options and tricks - if you use them right.  Each bit of land you hold generates money for you, and at the end of the game, the player with the most victory coins wins.

The boy went first, paying top dollar for Berserk Dwarves.  I went for the cheapo Spirit Trolls.  The Beserk Dwarves ate up a lot of ground, while my spirit Trolls attempted to make a mountain empire.  We stayed on opposite sides of the board, not fighting one another.  At first, I wasn't sure how to do that anyway.  But then about at the same time, we realized that we had extended our armies to the breaking point.  There was really nothing to do but set the races into decline and pull out new ones. 

Setting the races into decline keeps the land on your side, generating money, but not as much as it would have if they were not in decline.  Again the boy paid top dollar - this time for Seafaring Skeletons.  I grabbed the cheapo Diplomatic Halflings.  Those skeletons were wicked.  Since they were seafaring, they could grab lakes and seas where no other army could.  And the were freaking undead, so they could generate extra troops if they conquered lands with creatures in them.  Geez.  My Halfling spent their wad pretty quickly, and I was overextended.

But my Trolls had been Spirit Trolls, meaning that they could stay in decline longer than any other race.  So I popped my halflings into decline, kept my Trolls in decline, and grabbed some Heroic Humans.  In the end, because of the trolls, I generated more victory coins that the boy did, and won.  Boo-yah!

It will probably be the last time I win, so I best revel in it.

One thing I really liked about the game is that it doesn't take itself too seriously.  Its all funny and goofy - and the boy didn't get upset when he lost.  Other battle-type games have set him on edge before.  This was light and fun and we are both looking forward to play again.  I just need to go over those rules again to see what I messed up on. :)

Four thumbs up!

- Ark

Sunday, April 10, 2011

Poison

The party was recuperating in the ruins of the temple above the dungeon again.  They had been fighting a room full of gelatinous cubes - slowly - over a period of a week.  Suddenly, Tim's crazy elf, who was on watch duty, heard grunting sounds.  He quickly woke everyone else and they went outside to take a look.

Crouched behind boulders, they saw eight orcs sniffing around - perhaps for truffles.  The PCs were nervous since they were no match for such a large contingent, but the party had careful canvased the area with snares the day before.  Luck was on their side as seven of the eight orcs sailed into the air, cursing and dangling upside-down like pinatas.

The players smiled.  This would be a breeze - but they had to act quickly.  The orcs could break free very easily.   Ron's dwarf assassin jumped up.  This was Ron's second dwarf assassin, as the first had recently been eaten by a dragon.  He pulled out a dagger that had been carefully coated with the venom of a giant spider and threw it at one of the dangling orcs.

Ron rolled a 1. 

As a DM, I see critical fumbles as the universe's way of informing me that it is now time to be a dick.

"Hmm, roll an attack on yourself."

He sighed and rolled the d20.  It came up 20.

"Ouch, full damage," I blinked.  Ron stared at me, and continued to stare, as if I was forgetting something.

I suddenly remembered.  "Oh crap.  Save vs. Poison." I searched my mind for what type of poison.  It was save or die.

He failed.

"Um, okay," I took a deep breath.  "You throw the dagger and it lodges into your foot.  You clutch at your chest, make a death rattle, and fall down on the ground, dead."

Ron calmly slid his character sheet under his folder, pull out a piece of notebook paper, and began rolling six-siders.

Tim pulled his jaw back to it's closed and upright position, looked at me, and busted out laughing.

I try really hard in my life not to upset anyone unduly or pick on people or make them feel bad.  However, I am human.  I laughed. 

The whole group began to laugh uncontrollably until our sides hurt.  All except Ron, who finished rolling up his new character.

"I'm sorry," I apologized to Ron, trying to control myself.  "What is this new character going to be?"

"Another dwarf assassin, of course." he smiled.

"Hopefully the third time would be a charm."  We all cracked up again. 

When we all calmed down, I described the situation again.

"We are so screwed," Tim shook his head, the smile fading from his lips.  "I run."

- Ark

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Thoomp Thoomp Thoomp

The party spent the night in the ruins above the dungeon, nursing their wounds and preparing for their journey back to the Keep.  The two retainers - a magic user and cleric - had angrily quit the group, but agreed to travel with them through the wilderness for mutual protection.  This was their first dungeon together and things had not gone well, but they had all survived.

A few hours into their journey, as they passed through a clearing in the forest, the party heard a loud 'thoomp thoomp thoomp' sound in the distance, emanating from the treeline beyond their line of sight . . .

* * *

As I began to design my campaign world for Labyrinth Lord, I drew large scale maps and painted out a history and cultures and jotted down all manner of ideas for adventure.  I focused in on the maps, drawing more detail and went more in-depth about the cultures and lands.

Then I abruptly stopped.

For thirty years I have reveled in world creation, from top to bottom, bottom to top, side to side - what have you.  World creation is a love.  But something happened in my brain.  Re-reading the classic rules, devouring old school blogs, and listening deep in my heart - I couldn't do it.  I had to stop.  I began to hunger for something that only happened occasionally - something that was never planned - the excitement of what happens when the players go off the map.

At those points, I got to improvise.  I got to fly by the seat of my pants.  I got to pull crazy shit out of my ass.  During those times, I was much more willing to let the players come up with crazy ass shit that had deep impact, not only on the game, but in the campaign universe itself.

I realized, suddenly, that it was there all along - in the rules.  Random tables all over the place.  Monsters, dungeons, treasure, even harlots.  Crazy stuff to keep the DM on his or her toes just as much as the players. 

I'm going to rag on 4e now.  To feel like I was 'doing it right,' I had to prep 4e, and prep it hard.  Every adventure, I had to set up encounters that were balanced.  I had to understand in detail the intricacies of the fighting abilities of each monster and how they would act as a unit.  I could usually only offer the players a hand full of path options during a night as getting off track screwed up all of the planning and balance.  Sure, you can run 4e loosey-goosey - but it never felt right.  I never could pull it off.

But oooh boy, it's not like that in the old school.

NO PREP.  I don't have to think of a single thing before hand.  I can randomize just about every part of the game, and it flows smooth like butter.  Of course, It's hard not to think about things, come up with horrific trap ideas, fearsome beasts, and bizarre NPCs - but I can slap all of that into tables and surprise myself with the combination, no matter how off balance they are.


As the party travelled, I rolled that a wilderness encounter would happen.  I flipped to page 105 in Labyrinth Lord and looked on the Forest/Wooded Column under the Wilderness Monster Encounter Table.  Dan says right there above it, 'The Labyrinth Lord will have to adjust encounters to fit the particular environment and level of the PCs.  Further, this table should only be considered an example."

No . . . I like those tables for this section of my wilderness.  They are all over the place.  Scripting an encounter and carefully measuring it and balancing it is something I'm quite sick of.  Dan has wonderful tables.  Don't let him talk you out of using them.

I rolled a d20.  It came up as a 7.  Green dragon.

* * *

"A green dragon whooshes over your heads.  It's neck cranes, pointing it's beady little eyes back at your party and with a flick of it's wings, it cartwheels in the sky, lining up for an attack run."

The three players stared at me.

"So how young is it?  Juvenile?  A hatchling?" one player asked, used to the age ranks of dragons in 4e.

I shrugged. "It's a dragon - the first one you've ever seen.  Set down the die.  There is no skill check.  You have no idea how old it is, but it's big - about 30 feet long.

I saw numbers flash by in the player's eyes as they determined what the mini of the beast would look like.  Worry set in quickly.

"I run." they all said.  They scattered in different directions towards the trees.

It was glorious.  Some back story is needed here.  In two years of playing 4e - these guys never ran from a fight.  Sure, once they ran after a fight, just in case.  They trusted me to play fair and run things in the spirit of 4e.  In most games, they were on an offensive adventure path and had time to reconnoiter - but even when surprised, they trusted the magic of the balance.

Not this time.

The entire game session dealt with the dragon attack and the aftermath.  Everyone had a good time, even the poor guy who got killed and had to roll up another character.  It was one of the most intense and visceral sessions I've played in a while.

All because I rolled a seven on one of Daniel Proctor's Encounter tables.

- Ark

Tuesday, April 5, 2011

Jesus Christ vs. Dungeons and Dragons

When I was growing up, my mother was a new-age hippie type - interested in the whole Erich von Däniken, Edgar Cayce, Ruth Montgomery, Charles Berlitz, Rosicrucian, reincarnation, Atlantis, crystal power, and the space jalopy of the gods kind of thing. Catty-corner to us lived my mother's good friend, who was a bona fide pre-'Wicca' witch, armed with incense burners, beaded curtains between doorways, mood rings, a pointy black hat, a real-live crystal ball, blank horoscope quadrant sheets, and a huge map of Middle Earth displayed prominently in the living room.

I loved that map. 

My grandmother, on the other hand, was an old time, bible thumping, tent revival, fire and brimstone, speaking in tongues, casting out demons, book burning, rattlesnake handling, warrior for Jesus.  Nothing was safe from her cleansing gaze.  She found a OUIJA board hidden under my mother's bed once and burned it.  My mother was 33 years old, married, with two kids at the time.

While I only saw the lady several times a year, this was apparently enough for her to gauge my personality.  My grandmother pronounced me a 'hooligan who would burn for all eternity in hell' at the age of eight.  I do not recall what I did to receive such judgment.  Perhaps my disembodied head appeared to her in a dream spewing fire.  I just don't remember.

Needless to say, Dungeons and Dragons was a huge issue.  If she would ever have found my TSR stash, it would have been up in flames faster than the lady could switch from speaking English to speaking in Tongues.  She knew I played it.  I was a friend of Satan, so obviously, I played it.  I had probably even attained the loathsome rank of 'Dungeon Master' in the cabal, she could just never prove it.

The thing I was interested in that she approved of was Star Wars.  It was obviously the story of Space Jesus versus Space Satan.  That kind of thing was okay.  But the Smurfs - no way.  Evil.  The Smurfs promoted homosexuality, witchcraft, and necrophilia.  It was obvious.

I was rather shocked when I discovered that other people began to agree with my grandmother.  Kids echoing their parents, mainly.

"If we could play Top Secret, that would be okay, but mom doesn't want me playing D&D.  It's a sin."

"My dad says I can't play with you because you play D&D."

"Dinosaur bones are actually whales put together wrong and when you burn D&D dice you can hear the the souls of the damned screaming."

God bless Texas.

So, years later and I'm pulling together a 4e group.  The open call brought in a guy who had the potential of being a tad late to the Saturday evening games because of church.  Well, that was a new one, but it was a good excuse as 'sorry dude, I just flaked' ever was.

Eventually, his ranger multi-classed into a cleric.  I noticed that he never put down a word in the 'Deity' field on his character.  He never did pick D&D deity specific powers like you can in 4e, either. 

It wasn't hard to figure out what deity his character was worshiping, though he never did say.

I really just wanted to hug the guy and tell him that it was perfectly okay for his character to worship Jesus, and if anyone at the table had an issue with it, I'd give them the smack down.  But being a dude, I just watched quietly.  He stealthily went around doing clerical things in the background and no one gave him any shit about it.  I have no idea if anyone really noticed.

It's funny how life works, isn't it?  I'd have let my Grandmother worship Jesus too, if she'd have ever asked.

- Ark

Saturday, April 2, 2011

Dice Bonanza

Look what arrived in the mail today!


From top left to right bottom:
  1. A big-ass red d30.
  2. A big-ass d12 hit location die.
  3. A d30 alphabet die with 4 wildcard slots.
  4. A mythical rientsdie.
  5. A six-sided multiplier.
  6. An X/2X/3X d6.
  7. An eight-sided compass rose die.
Yeah!  I can officially join the Order of the d30 now!  I never realized, though, how freaking HUGE those d30s are.  And HEAVY.  You could put on of those in a sling and kill Goliath.  And they roll so strangely - like they can't make up their little minds.  It's a very odd beast.  But yeah!

Note:  Observers from across the house think that when I roll several d30s together on my desk, it sounds like loud farting.

- Ark

Monday, March 21, 2011

A Hex on You

I was bumming around Half Price Books this weekend.  In the gaming section, I spied something with my little eye; a mess of tall, skinny, funny shaped boxes in the board games section.

It looked like some variation of scrabble.  Lexigo was the name.  Not exactly my cup of tea, but for some reason I could not avert my gaze. 

The back of the box claimed the game came with 100 hex shaped tiles. 

My mind exploded with possibilities.  I've been having a lot of fun with hex-based wilderness adventures using random land type tables.  The tiles had a blank white side.  I could draw land markings with dry erase on the back of the tiles and build a map right before the player's eyes.

I grabbed the game.  For less than seven dollars, it was a steal.

It even comes with a giant black 'dice bag' for all 100 tiles.

The plastic tiles look good and are nice and heavy.  No cheapo crap plastic here.  The big problem is that when you write on them with either dry erase or wet erase, it doesn't completely erase.  Not great for my original idea.

However, one could easily use a sharpie or acrylic paint to mark what type of land the tile represents.  And heck, you could just prepare all the tiles and draw them randomly from the bag, rather than rolling a die, then drawing the tile.  It would be easier that way.

So I'm excited.  I think this would be a cool doo-dad for wilderness adventurers.  I could even have the players draw the landforms from the bag as they explore.

Another thought struck me.  You could use this bag selection process for important random events as well - having the letters act as indicators.  I worked out percentages based on tile frequency.  Here is an example:

Tile # % Magic Weapon
[blank] 4 4% Callandor
A 8 8% Glamdring
B 2 2% Spear of Lugh
C 2 2% Tizona
D 4 4% Gáe Bulg
E 11 11% Fragarach
F 2 2% Mjolnir
G 3 3% Sting
H 2 2% Narsil
I 9 9% Axe of the Dwarvish Lords 
J 1 1% Clarent
K 1 1% Stormbringer
L 4 4% Hrunting
M 2 2% Grayswandir
N 6 6% Mournblade
O 8 8% Excalibur
P 2 2% Sword of Martin
Q 1 1% Anaklusmos
R 6 6% Joyeuse
S 4 4% Kusanagi
T 6 6% Zulfiqar
U 4 4% Orcrist
V 2 2% Broken Sword of Stubbing
W 2 2% Umbrella
X 1 1% Golf Club
Y 2 2% A Stick
Z 1 1% Air Guitar

So, looks like I'm going to have some type of fun with these tiles, even if it wasn't the original method intended by the creator. :)

- Ark

Thursday, February 24, 2011

Robot Holocaust and Hackmaster

I mentioned the Robot Holocaust in an earlier post, so I suppose I should introduce them.  Robot Holocaust - readers, readers - Robot Holocaust.

My son bought a bunch of little animal shaped erasers in those toy machines you find at the front of grocery stores.  I was more interested in the little clear bubbles that held the erasers, than the erasers themselves.  Coming in at an inch wide, they were perfect for my nefarious plan.  A touch of paint later - and I had a myself an army bent on taking over the world.

Regretfully, the campaign that I had intended to use them in fell through and they never got used.  But they are lurking on my craft table - waiting for their chance.

In other news, I picked up the HackMaster GameMaster's Guide at Halfprice Books yesterday.  Why was I not informed of this product?  If D&D is rock and roll, HackMaster is HEAVY METAL.  I did not realize that Gygax's lily could be gilded, but indeed it has.  Quite awesome!

But why, on every page that I turn, and I reminded of Zak of Playing D&D with Porn Stars? Must be Vornheim or something.

- Ark

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

DMs Say the Darndest Things

"Sit down here." I patted the chair across from mine, a clipboard and pencil in my lap.

My son eyed me suspiciously and sat down.  I began writing on the clipboard with it tilted away from him.  I had come up with some awesome Middle English based names for my Labyrinth Lord campaign.  I just wanted to run them by my son to make sure they sounded okay.

"Why are you hiding that piece of paper?"

The boy is always to the point.  "I want to see what you think of a some words.  They are names for places that I've made up, and I want to see what you think.  I'll read them out loud."

"Oh. Okay."

"Great.  The first one is Aloftgres."

He tilted his head and made a 'thinking' face.  "Interesting," he said as he taped his lip.

Great.  He's posing and I don't even have a camera out.

"The second one is Duskenfaunt."

"Sound like something you do while on the toilet."

That one took me aback.  Duskenfaunt was a fine name.  A really good name.  What did that even mean - something you do on the toilet?  How dare he insult my word.

"What are you writing on the paper?"  he asked.

"I'm writing what you said."

"Why?"

"Because I care what you think,"  chuckling at myself and my word vanity.

"Oh," he smiled.

"Dweryen Doun."

He thought for a moment.  "Cool."

"Ernslak,"

"Sounds like an insult for lazy people."

I'm not sure how long I kept my mouth open.  "Um, okay.  Yeah, I guess so.  Interesting.  The next is Nyrvylrem"

He laughed.  "Nervilrim . . . it's funny."

"Hethwalle."

"Cool."

"Senginbergh"

"That's weird"

"Senginerd"

"Next"

I raised an eyebrow, just like Spock.  Well, just like Spock in my mind.  My eyebrows don't do that willingly.  He wasn't smiling.  It was a complete and utter diss of the word.  Wow.

"Vathloof"

"Bless you,"

Okay, so he's a smart-ass, just like me.

"Lefdikuss."  The minute the word left my mouth, I realized I had made a horrible, horrible mistake.

"Are there two? Is there a right one?  Left?  Dick?  Left?  Dick?  Huh?  Huh?" he guffawed.

Oh dear god.  I can't believe it.  I even put this up on the blog.  I blame you people.  I had no idea.  You should have warned me.  You saw it.  You knew.  You set me up.  On purpose!

I suddenly realized I was in a Monty Python skit.  After he calmed down, we moved on.

"Fultum."

"Cool."

"Rotenslade."

He chuckled.  "That's funny.  Rotten."

"Failham"

"Sounds like an epically failing ham."

"Flumrys Brig."

He smiled, "Sounds like the name of a ship."

"Gobelyntur."

"Sounds like a goblin giving a tour.  Or!  Or a tour inside of a filthy goblin!"

I tried to wipe the image of goblin intestines from my mind.  "Kyndrecchen"

"Interesting," he nodded.

There was one last name.  All I can say is, never say this word in front of my son.  Ever.

"Pricketholt."

I mean it.  I have witnesses who will concur.

You have been warned.

- Ark

Friday, February 18, 2011

And They Say 'Geek'

I was driving my son to school, and suddenly remembered something important from the night before.

"Do you remember Beedo?  He had talked about starting up a blog for his boy when you set yours up?"

"Uh-huh," he nodded, confused that I had switched from the lecture on cleaning the bathroom to blogging all of a sudden.

"Well, his son is posting on his very own blog now.  I emailed you the link last night."

"Oh cool," he smiled.

"They have a game where there are a bunch of kids and a bunch of dads play D&D."

His looked at me, "Can we play with them?"

I took a deep breath, "They are not around here.  They are in Canada or Mongolia or someplace.  I'm not sure where, but not close."

"Oh," he looked down at the floorboard in the car.

"But we could set something up like that.  Are any of the kids in your school interested in fantasy stuff?"

"No, he said, looking out the window, "I say 'Dungeons and Dragons' and they say 'Geek.'

"Is there something wrong with being called a geek?"

"Yeah."

I sighed.  "You know, people who use words that they think are an insult to you were not your friends to begin with."

"It's not people that I know really well that say it," he shrugs.

We do the school drop off thing and on my way home, I begin to think about the day before.  My boss was in town with a bunch of other manager and executive types.  A group of us go to lunch and for some reason the topic moves to Star Wars and I express that my favorite Star Wars movie is The Empire Strikes Back

My boss pops up that he preferred the stories when Han and Leia had kids.

Thinking for a second, I cock my head and reply, "You mean the ones with Admiral Thrawn?"

He points at me with a smile and says, "Yeah!"  Then he immediately looks embarrassed and covered his mouth.  "I shouldn't talk about things like that.  People will think I am a geek."

Too late, dude, too late.

I sighed.

- Ark

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Kicking it Olde Schoole v3.5

The boy and I had a pretty busy weekend. We went to a micro anime convention at a local library, talked Labyrinth Lord over dinner with a old 4e friend, and attended the kick-off meeting for brand new Old School D&D Group in North Texas.

I've attended - and run - quite a few rpg-centric greet and meet-ups, ranging in focus from D&D 4e, Star Wars Saga Edition, and Shadowrun.  Really, the best formula seems to be shaking hands, reminiscing about the old days for half and hour, than taking out the dice and getting to business.  This new group did not disappoint, as the organizer guessed that to be the proper course of action.

The one thing that I didn't realize is that the organizer considered D&D 3.5 to be old school.

That was . . . okay.  Not what I was hankering for, exactly.  I had never player 3.5, but am willing to give anything a shot.  I took my pre-gen's backstory and ran with it, playing an cleric who had been told by his deity to meet up with the group.  I played up the creepy stalker guy who 'talks to God' aspect.

The boy was bored stiff.  He was playing an elf ranger.  Plink plink plink.

While he has some attention problems in day to day life, a good game usually snaps him into focus.  This was not one of those games.

I too wasn't incredibly impressed. The DM and the 'theory' behind adventure were fine.  But the actual fights took forever.  I once thought that 4e fights could be painfully long.  I had no idea.  And at first level even.

I don't really know all that much about 3.5.  I'm sure that some experts could have banged out the fights in half the time.  But these guys we were playing with seemed to know what they were doing - yet it still took freaking forever - and the time was mostly spent on the mechanical details - not in anything that I consider particularly fun.

3.5 seems to be pretty damn fiddly.  There is all sorts of math and bizarre rules slapped willy nilly on everything you might want to do.  4e is much more cut because of what appears to be a rules consolidation and simplification from 3.5.  0e and 1e is much more clear cut cause THE DM JUST MAKES UP RULES ON THE SPOT AND NO ONE FUSSES ABOUT IT SO THERE.

The DM and players were all nice people and fun to be around.  My new buddy 3.5 - well - I don't know if I'll call him back for a second date.  I'm just not that into him.

That gives me some worries about Pathfinder.  I was thinking about taking a look at it - now I'm wondering if D&D 3.75 will do it for me.  How different is it?

I should probably give 3.5 another try - but - hmmm.  Yeah.

Talking to my son about it, he said he didn't like it much.  I asked him what he thought the biggest problem was.  He told me in no uncertain terms - it didn't have and POWERS.  All he could do was plink plink plink.

Ah.  I'm noticing a pattern here.  Options makes the game.  For my son, at least.

- Ark

Tuesday, February 8, 2011

Map's Up


Okay, not the island one - the boy's map.  He finally finished tinkering with it and coloring it and the wonderful work of art is up on display here.  It's the land of Flornar in the year 1207.  Apaprently, EVIL is afoot.

For the first itme in 25 years, I've rolled up a character for an RPG that I seriously intend to play.  I'm quite tickled.   Prickly Buckthorn is a gentleman adventurer who owns no shoes, but is proud of that fact.  He's from the Misty Isle of Isniri where, evidently, people disappear in the mist and never return - or so says my son.  

Prickly is kind of concerned about the whole mist thing and has decided to leave his home island as soon as possible.  After all, giant alien bugs could be in the mist.  That would be bad.  But luckily the boy doesn't read Stephen King.

The boy appears to be trying to drum up some players over there on his page.  I might have to help him redirect that energy to the kids in the neighborhood. 

Does anyone know of some low level OSR adventurers that are relatively short and easily digestible by a ten year old boy - adventures his father could just print out and hand him without having to read and spoil the surprise. :)

- Ark