The names have been changed to protect to innocent. Filmed before a live studio audience.
The boy finished his character the day before the game. I really like to name halflings after vegetables. Chicory Chives. Magnolia Honeydew. I don't know why, but it always makes me laugh. The boy, however, had another taxonomy in mind.
"Ferrit," he had decided on. Not Ferret. No. That wold be too pedestrian. So 'Ferrit' the halfling thief had life blown into him by my son. He also blew the rest of his cash on a saddle and a white pony named Snowfire.
Ron arrived first on game day. He had been carefully thinking about his character for a month. Ron rolled up a no-nonsense dwarven fighter-assassin named Spike - armed with a crossbow.
Tim was late. He hastily rolled, spitting out two jaw dropping seventeens and a sixteen. Then he flipped though the Advanced Edition Companion, not really familiar with anything before 2e. Eventually he put one of the seventeens in Charisma and said, "Elven Fighter."
I scratched my ear. "Um . . . charisma is kind of a dump stat. There are not really any . . . skills . . . so to speak, that would use it."
He nodded, a wild glint in his eye. "But there is some kind of reaction roll, isn't there?"
My palms began to sweat. Tim can be . . . Tim. This did not bode well.
"His name shall be 'Imbroglio,'" Tim said with much flourish.
I began to ask him if he knew what that meant. But, of course, Tim very knew very well what imbroglio meant. He was Tim, after all.
"Interesting," I nodded. "So it's a party of three demi-humans, starting off in a human controlled area where humans don't take too kindly to non-humans. Sounds fun," I smiled.
"Imbroglio will have a hat - a black woolen one - like Spock - to hide his ear tips," Tim was still buying his equipment.
I made the requisite mechanical rice-picker joke. Don't blame me. It's a part of my DNA.
"Can I get 50 pieces of paper with the same thing printed on them? Tim asked. I nodded and continued.
"Okay, so the three of you have made it to Audrain Keep, which looks like this," I pointed to the Erol Otus picture on the back cover of B2. "You know that settlements lock there doors at night and won't let anyone in till morning. It's evening now, and there is a long merchant caravan awaiting entrance at the gates. You three are behind the wagons, waiting for your turn. Since you don't know each other, this is a good time for introductions. A caravan guard is nearby, keeping an eye on the tail end of the train."
"I look at the others," Ron said.
"I'm on my pony," the boy smiled.
"Oh," said Tim, still writing in his equipment block, "Imbroglio has 50 - or however many he can carry - ten foot poles. Strapped to his back, maybe."
I thought about that. I really didn't want to ask why. "Um . . okay . . . then you look like that old man on the cover of Zeppelin Four."
Tim's eyes brightened. "Awesome."
"I am Spike. I am a huntsman and bounty hunter." Ron had his dwarf introduce himself.
Tim smiled. "My good friend dwarf, that is great news. I just happen to be here in the wild to capture some ferocious animals so that I might tame them and use them in my show. I could greatly use your help."
"Show?"
"Yes! I run the Amazing Spirit Traveling Extravaganza, where I break these ten foot poles over my head to show the amazing power of my god!"
I hastily tried to explain my religious concept for this world in which there was only one actual lawful god. Tim waved my explanation off. "It's okay. Imbroglio hears his god speak to him all the time, but the god doesn't really exits. Imbroglio is stark raving mad."
"Oh."
"Hi there. I'm a thief!" the boy had Ferrit introduce himself excitedly.
"Hmmm," I smiled, "The caravan guard's ears perk up and he starts walking over."
Tim almost leaped out of his chair "'Fine sir,' I say as I hand him one of the pieces of paper. 'Please accept this pamphlet explaining the wonderful miracles my god has bestowed on this land and . . .'"
"The guard nods, mutters something, and gets away from you as quickly as possible.," I chuckled.
"Young halfling," Ron said to my son in a whisper, "You might not want to announce yourself as a thief so close to armed guards. They tend to get over-excited. Maybe 'genetleman adventurer' instead?"
"Okay," my son grinned. "I have a pony and a slingshot."
I saw Tim carefully erase '50 pamplets' on his character sheet and replace it with '49 pamplets.'
This was going to be an interesting session, to say the least.
- Ark
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
Saturday, March 5, 2011
Back in the Saddle Again
The boy, two friends, and I played the first session of our Labyrinth Lord campaign. It was quite awesome. It felt really good to be playing again where I had the freedom to . . . be a frikkin DM again. Honestly, 4e sucked out my soul without me even noticing. Okay, 4e is just a different style of playing - okay for those who like it - blah blah blah. But this is MY GAME. It's good to be back.
I'll be posting a session report, but for now, here is a rumor table for the players:
- Ark
I'll be posting a session report, but for now, here is a rumor table for the players:
Audrain Keep Rumors Table | |
d20 | Rumor and General Gossip |
1 | A bandit dressed in red has been robbing landowners nearby. |
2 | A huge bird has been seen flying over the treetops in the evening. |
3 | A merchant was kidnapped on the road from Audrain Keep to Barton Hill. |
4 | A powerful witch has been charming innocent young men and luring them to her lair. |
5 | A vile one armed man stalks the plains to the east, back stabbing the unaware. |
6 | All merchants from Fultum smell like fish. |
7 | An invisible mountain lays half a day's ride to the northeast. |
8 | Dangerous monsters roam the countryside to the west. |
9 | Drinking from the Pool of Death will allow evil spirits to take control of you. |
10 | Elves have been seen out in the woods practicing strange magical rights. |
11 | Gobelyntur and the Razing Zone lie several days to the north. |
12 | Several fortified villages have mysteriously burning down to the north. |
13 | Some have seen a man with glowing red eyes in the keep at night. |
14 | Some say an ancient temple lies at the top of a hill to the south. |
15 | The Castellan of Audrain Keep slew a huge ogre in his youth. |
16 | The stables of Aloftgres breed the finest horses around. |
17 | There is a dwarf out there in the wilderness who throws axes at people. |
18 | There is an ongoing feud between the Castellan of Audrain Keep and his brother. |
19 | Three parties of adventurers have disappeared in as many months. |
20 | Women have been disappearing from the village of Dwergen Doun. |
- Ark
Friday, March 4, 2011
Leading the Faithful Into Battle
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| You-sa Clicken To-sa Embiggen, Okie-Day? |
- Ark
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Hex on the Borderlands
Okay, so yeah, this is a crappy scan from a crappy print of a crappy scan. But that isn't the point. What is the point that the map is serviceable.
If you've ever wanted to dove-tail the Wilderness Map from Dungeon Module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands into your campaign, here is your leg up. The purple sharpie lines form standard 6 mile hexes.
I'm going to be starting up my Labyrinth Lord campaign this weekend, and I'm using the venerable Keep as the starting place. I have no idea whether I'll use the caves, though. Probably not. I'm all into this randomly generated wilderness encounter thing right now - thus the hexification.
So, the theory is you can start with Gygax's Borderlands map and extend it off into any direction with liberal application of dice and terrain tables. You just need to transfer the puppy to a hex map. Hexographer is wonderful for such work.
Down here is the Keep on the Borderlands Hexographericated. Isn't it cute. Okay, no, not all blown up like this. Looks much better smaller. Oh well.
You know, Gary never mentioned the name of that road, that I recall, but I hear the locals call it the Reden Rot Road. They say that a couple of hexes to the east lies the Lascon Thickets. Hmm. I bet some adventure lurks over there.
I guess I should get some hex paper for the players. Not that they'll use it - but it's a perfect opportunity to say 'I told you so.' :)
- Ark
If you've ever wanted to dove-tail the Wilderness Map from Dungeon Module B2: The Keep on the Borderlands into your campaign, here is your leg up. The purple sharpie lines form standard 6 mile hexes.
I'm going to be starting up my Labyrinth Lord campaign this weekend, and I'm using the venerable Keep as the starting place. I have no idea whether I'll use the caves, though. Probably not. I'm all into this randomly generated wilderness encounter thing right now - thus the hexification.
So, the theory is you can start with Gygax's Borderlands map and extend it off into any direction with liberal application of dice and terrain tables. You just need to transfer the puppy to a hex map. Hexographer is wonderful for such work.
Down here is the Keep on the Borderlands Hexographericated. Isn't it cute. Okay, no, not all blown up like this. Looks much better smaller. Oh well.You know, Gary never mentioned the name of that road, that I recall, but I hear the locals call it the Reden Rot Road. They say that a couple of hexes to the east lies the Lascon Thickets. Hmm. I bet some adventure lurks over there.
I guess I should get some hex paper for the players. Not that they'll use it - but it's a perfect opportunity to say 'I told you so.' :)
- Ark
Wednesday, March 2, 2011
Cyclopeatron is Doing Math Again!
He's making a list and checking it twice. You know what list I am talking about. Congratz to Beedo of Dreams of the Lich House. Go look at it TODAY. ACT NOW. OPERATORS ARE STANDING BY.
- Ark
- Ark
World Skeletons
For me, the core of a fantasy world has always been it's spiritual side. Players may never know or care anything about it, but in actually building the world it's vital. The spiritual side of a fantasy world is the skeleton you hang everything else from. In my quest to build a universe from D&D/Labyrinth Lord basics, I'll focus on alignment, plannar structure, and deities.
Alignment is an important feature in any Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Even it's absence from a DM's creation is very telling about that world. Entire planes of existence were even created along the nine point alignment system. But it sure has been a pain in the ass.
In thirty years of wrestling with the alignment system, I've come down to a simple thought. It doesn't mean a great deal to say your character is Lawful Good of Chaotic Neutral or whatever. It matters what you do.
People are what they do. Not the other way around. A frog can sit around and do geometry problems and recite lines from the movie Toxic Avenger, but it's not being a very good frog. In fact, we probably need an entirely new word for this frog-like entity. Characters are the same. They probably shouldn't even bother writing down an alignment. The DM should just assign one based on past behavior.
In breaking down alignment, good and evil are the simplest part. There is nothing particularly spiritual about the continuum in itself. It's really just how beneficial your actions are to the groups of which you are a part. That group can be an adventuring group, a village, a nation, a race, or all intelligent creatures. A person can't define themselves as good. Group members have to do that. Evil is pursuing self interests that conflict with the group's. Of course, the definitions are always subjective, depending on who is doing the labeling, and what group they belong to.
I think Law and Chaos are where it gets interesting. Chaos can be likened to entropy, the universe's inclination to break down into disorder and randomness. Law can be likened to life itself. Life is not only organized, it tends to create even more organization. The Life = Law idea is borne out in the fact that Lawful clerics have turn undead, while Chaotic clerics have create undead. The undead appear to be a subversion of Law. Skeletons, ghouls, and zombies rarely build cities or formulate tax codes. They kill the living without benefiting the living.
I've read bits of James Raggi's LotFP alignment system and love it. All magic users and elves are chaotic. It's great. It's not quite what I am striving for with this world, but man, do I want to use it. It fits in with my Law/Chaos theories as well. I'll probably sneak as much as I can in, though.
In D&D and Labyrinth Lord, Law and Chaos stretch off the edges of the page, so to speak, into other planes, indicating that they are Platonic ideals with their 'source perfection' somewhere beyond the realm of mortals. These places tend to be the planes of the Gods.
In thinking about the nature of the alignments, I am thinking of breaking away with tradition, well, at least D&D tradition. It only makes sense to me that Law, it it's purest form, would be purified into a singularity. There would be one, and only one, Lawful deity. I have surprised myself by becoming a fantasy monotheist.
The human culture that I envision eventual came to understand that all clerics received the same spells and abilities, whichever god or goddess they were worshipping. They could hop from one deity to another even, with little issue. It dawned on the spiritual leaders that there was only one God of Law. More 'primitive' cultures might have a whole slew of lawful deities, but they were only worshipping aspects, or avatars, of the one true source of Law.
Furthermore, they believed that this Lawful God could not be represented in any suitable visual form, and to attempt to do so was silly - to the point of being dangerous. The best you could do was to represent this god with geometric shapes or abstract symbols.
Chaos, on the other hand, has a thousand gibbering mouths and a million tiny little hands and feet, all busy disassembling the universe and eating it from the inside out. There is no one Chaos - it is infinite.
So, there are some of the bones I am using for this new campaign world I am working on. Not like the players will ever know - since they will only see the flesh. They won't even care - but you know, it's not about them. :)
- Ark
Alignment is an important feature in any Dungeons and Dragons campaign. Even it's absence from a DM's creation is very telling about that world. Entire planes of existence were even created along the nine point alignment system. But it sure has been a pain in the ass.
In thirty years of wrestling with the alignment system, I've come down to a simple thought. It doesn't mean a great deal to say your character is Lawful Good of Chaotic Neutral or whatever. It matters what you do.
People are what they do. Not the other way around. A frog can sit around and do geometry problems and recite lines from the movie Toxic Avenger, but it's not being a very good frog. In fact, we probably need an entirely new word for this frog-like entity. Characters are the same. They probably shouldn't even bother writing down an alignment. The DM should just assign one based on past behavior.
In breaking down alignment, good and evil are the simplest part. There is nothing particularly spiritual about the continuum in itself. It's really just how beneficial your actions are to the groups of which you are a part. That group can be an adventuring group, a village, a nation, a race, or all intelligent creatures. A person can't define themselves as good. Group members have to do that. Evil is pursuing self interests that conflict with the group's. Of course, the definitions are always subjective, depending on who is doing the labeling, and what group they belong to.
I think Law and Chaos are where it gets interesting. Chaos can be likened to entropy, the universe's inclination to break down into disorder and randomness. Law can be likened to life itself. Life is not only organized, it tends to create even more organization. The Life = Law idea is borne out in the fact that Lawful clerics have turn undead, while Chaotic clerics have create undead. The undead appear to be a subversion of Law. Skeletons, ghouls, and zombies rarely build cities or formulate tax codes. They kill the living without benefiting the living.
I've read bits of James Raggi's LotFP alignment system and love it. All magic users and elves are chaotic. It's great. It's not quite what I am striving for with this world, but man, do I want to use it. It fits in with my Law/Chaos theories as well. I'll probably sneak as much as I can in, though.
In D&D and Labyrinth Lord, Law and Chaos stretch off the edges of the page, so to speak, into other planes, indicating that they are Platonic ideals with their 'source perfection' somewhere beyond the realm of mortals. These places tend to be the planes of the Gods.
In thinking about the nature of the alignments, I am thinking of breaking away with tradition, well, at least D&D tradition. It only makes sense to me that Law, it it's purest form, would be purified into a singularity. There would be one, and only one, Lawful deity. I have surprised myself by becoming a fantasy monotheist.
The human culture that I envision eventual came to understand that all clerics received the same spells and abilities, whichever god or goddess they were worshipping. They could hop from one deity to another even, with little issue. It dawned on the spiritual leaders that there was only one God of Law. More 'primitive' cultures might have a whole slew of lawful deities, but they were only worshipping aspects, or avatars, of the one true source of Law.
Furthermore, they believed that this Lawful God could not be represented in any suitable visual form, and to attempt to do so was silly - to the point of being dangerous. The best you could do was to represent this god with geometric shapes or abstract symbols.
Chaos, on the other hand, has a thousand gibbering mouths and a million tiny little hands and feet, all busy disassembling the universe and eating it from the inside out. There is no one Chaos - it is infinite.
So, there are some of the bones I am using for this new campaign world I am working on. Not like the players will ever know - since they will only see the flesh. They won't even care - but you know, it's not about them. :)
- Ark
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
Bullied
I've written this post countless times over the last few days and deleted it an equal amount. I've posted some information, then removed it, which has probably confused some who have caught snatches of it. To sum up,
My son has been bullied at school for a while now, and it has taken a very heavy emotional toll on him. He has a large amount of people surrounding him to help him through this, ranging from family to professionals. Steps are being taken to make things right.
My son is different in many of the same ways that I am, and many of the ways that I think anyone who sits down and writes a blog abut role playing is different. Differences get pointed out in painful ways. It hurts down deep to see my boy have to go through this.
Things are now getting better, but it has been very rough.
I'd like to thank Johnathan Bingham, ze bulette, Telecanter, Mike, Spawn of Endra and Chris Hogan for your support, and I am sorry that your posts were deleted when I deleted the blog entry. I have them in email and I am keeping them, having reread them many times already. They mean a lot.
I'd also like to thank Harald over at The Book of Worlds for a very succinct reality check . The flat of your Viking battle axe upside my temple has cleared my head. Seriously. Thanks.
- Ark
My son has been bullied at school for a while now, and it has taken a very heavy emotional toll on him. He has a large amount of people surrounding him to help him through this, ranging from family to professionals. Steps are being taken to make things right.
My son is different in many of the same ways that I am, and many of the ways that I think anyone who sits down and writes a blog abut role playing is different. Differences get pointed out in painful ways. It hurts down deep to see my boy have to go through this.
Things are now getting better, but it has been very rough.
I'd like to thank Johnathan Bingham, ze bulette, Telecanter, Mike, Spawn of Endra and Chris Hogan for your support, and I am sorry that your posts were deleted when I deleted the blog entry. I have them in email and I am keeping them, having reread them many times already. They mean a lot.
I'd also like to thank Harald over at The Book of Worlds for a very succinct reality check . The flat of your Viking battle axe upside my temple has cleared my head. Seriously. Thanks.
- Ark
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