I picked this up today. I'm not sure what that means. Been debating it for a couple of years.
But, you know what curiosity killed, don't you?
My wallet!
<tin hat>
- Ark
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Friday, August 5, 2011
The Boy's New Thundercats Review
We just sat down and watch the first episode of the New Thundercats series on Cartoon Network.
The Boy says, "It's a cool series and I want a sword that shoots giant lasers too!"
I think that about sums it up.
:)
- Ark
Thursday, August 4, 2011
Dungeonspiration: Umm . . .
I detest Erin Palette. She got on this kick about My Frikkin Little Pony. Over and over and over again. This pony thing was the complete antithesis of cool when I was a teenager. While I was trying to watch the Zentradi acquire PROTOCULTURE, my sister was fighting me for control of the remote to watch those ponies with combs.
So This Erin Palatte lady is writing and writing about these dog sized horses being perfect for an RPG and I'm ignoring her posts over and over and then she posts the last one - so I breath a sigh of relief and hope she goes back to talk about guns. But I look at the pony pictures and think - hmm - those ponies don't look like the ponies of my youth. Actually, I kind of like the art. At least it doesn't make me vomit. So . . . curiosity reared it's ugly head and I loaded up the first episode on YouTube.
Shit. Shit shit shit. I watched the next two. Shit. I'm not saying the episodes were shit. I'm saying shit because I LIKED IT. SHIT.
I am a god-damned BRONIE.
Crap. It's a good show. I like it. I even like it when they sing.
I'm so embarrassed. Somebody please kill me now. DAMN YOU ERIN PALETTE!
Um, it's chock full of all kinds of cool ideas for a D&D game. I won't get into it beacause I'm too embarrassed about the whole thing. Don't let The Boy know, okay? I'll loose any street-cred I ever had with him. Not that I probably had any to begin with . . . but still.
Actually, Erin Palette is pretty cool. But still . . . I feel dirty. Ugh.
- Ark
Wednesday, August 3, 2011
If Everyone Rolled Their Dice Off A Cliff . . .
Yes, apparently I would too. :)
These are most of my dice - except the ones sitting in game boxes, lost under couch cushions, or still stabbing painfully into the bottoms of my feet.
Whheeeeeee!
- Ark
These are most of my dice - except the ones sitting in game boxes, lost under couch cushions, or still stabbing painfully into the bottoms of my feet.
Whheeeeeee!
- Ark
Vayniris Anthology Project Writing Guide
Wow. My whole brain hurts. I finally completed a rough draft of the Vayniris Anthology Project Writing Guide. For those interested and have an email address that I could find - you should have it in your email now.
Some of you - like Jeremy and and Taketoshi - I couldn't find contact info. Well, other than spamming your blogs with the pdf. Comment here with your email, or grab my email from that blogger profile thing and email me your email so that I can email you the email. Yeah. Did I mention that my brain hurts? ;)
And for anyone else interested in submitting a story for the Vayniris Anthology Project, let me know and I'll get you the Writer's Guide.
- Ark (off to do copy-editing for Christian's awesome Freecity of Haldane! Woot!)
Some of you - like Jeremy and and Taketoshi - I couldn't find contact info. Well, other than spamming your blogs with the pdf. Comment here with your email, or grab my email from that blogger profile thing and email me your email so that I can email you the email. Yeah. Did I mention that my brain hurts? ;)
And for anyone else interested in submitting a story for the Vayniris Anthology Project, let me know and I'll get you the Writer's Guide.
- Ark (off to do copy-editing for Christian's awesome Freecity of Haldane! Woot!)
Sunday, July 31, 2011
Heroica
The Boy and I are sitting around the computer right now, listening to Spotify, singing "Tonight Tonight" along with Hot Chelle Rae as we look up pictures of Zak Galifinakis. We just got back from a three day weekend at the lake. I didn't catch a single fish, but the boy caught quite a few perch. That was okay, as I was feeling particularly Buddhistic and wasn't in the mood to jam a hook through a fish's jaw. I did breifly wonder if my poor little skewered worms were broken though.
The Boy picked up Heroica, which was the perfect alternative to sitting outside in the 110 degree weather. I have two words for you:
ENTRY DRUG.
Here in ten years we are going to see a lot of kids coming out of high school, rubbing the LEGO track marks on their arms, looking for a fix. If we in the OSR are prepared, all we need to do is wave a bag of dice and some minis at them - and they'll be hooked just like those perch the Boy was catching. Tru dat.
Heroica is a pretty fun game. I don't know why I didn't think of it when I was ten. You pick a character, you track your hit points, you get gold and can buy equipment, and you can slay the beasties. WoTC may not sue them, but TSR certainly would have. I like it a lot.
It got me thinking though. Why not just use LEGOs to map your D&D dungeons, rather than graph paper? Hmm. Perfect for fidgeting players. Might even be good for DMs. I think I'll try that.
:)
- Ark
The Boy picked up Heroica, which was the perfect alternative to sitting outside in the 110 degree weather. I have two words for you:
ENTRY DRUG.
Here in ten years we are going to see a lot of kids coming out of high school, rubbing the LEGO track marks on their arms, looking for a fix. If we in the OSR are prepared, all we need to do is wave a bag of dice and some minis at them - and they'll be hooked just like those perch the Boy was catching. Tru dat.
Heroica is a pretty fun game. I don't know why I didn't think of it when I was ten. You pick a character, you track your hit points, you get gold and can buy equipment, and you can slay the beasties. WoTC may not sue them, but TSR certainly would have. I like it a lot.
It got me thinking though. Why not just use LEGOs to map your D&D dungeons, rather than graph paper? Hmm. Perfect for fidgeting players. Might even be good for DMs. I think I'll try that.
:)
- Ark
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Dungeonspiration: Simon
![]() |
| Draw-rings |
When I included a rumor about an Invisible Mountain in my Labyrinth Lord Campaign, it was on a whim. I had no idea what the heck what it was - but it sounded like something interesting and very hard to find. Later, I decided it was a structure in the Ethereal Plane.
Then the players decided finally to go to the Invisible Mountain. Crap. Now I had to get serious about it. I was having some painful DM-block until one night, before falling asleep, my crusty old brain opened up and tossed memories of Simon and the Land of Chalk Drawings at me.
For those of you who don't remember, Simon and the Land of Chalk Drawings was a British cartoon about a boy who would visit an alternate world made of chalk drawing and solve everyone's problems there in five minutes or less. It's a theme that was revisited last decade in the cartoon Chalkzone, but there is something inherently creepy about the Land of Chalk Drawings that Chalkzone never replicated.
Mark Myers re-interpretation of Simon was creepy, but in a different way. "Are you looking at me bum? Bum-looker!" ;)
So anyway, the PCs were looking for the Invisible Mountain, and they ran into the family of a crazy guy who had found it decades before. In his basement, they discovered stacks and stacks of stolen slate roofing tiles, all with strange chalk drawings on them. They didn't think much of it.
When the PCs finally went through all the rigamarole to get to the Invisible Mountain, they entered the Ethereal Plane and found it looked just like the Land of Chalk Drawings. Everything was black except the objects had chalk outlines.
I had no idea how the players would react. The guys were pretty freaked out. They were even less happy when egg-shape headed humanoids with no eyes, noses, or mouths began to beat the holy hell out of them. They were seriously hating on the egg-headed dudes.
My biggest worry was that the Land of Chalk Drawings would be silly enough to deflate the players suspension of disbelief. But it worked out just fine, despite my worries - I think especially because there was a real threat of PC death there.
So go watch some of your favorite old cartoons on Youtube and get inspired! Handled correctly, you can drape strange things (The Land of Chalk Drawings) over old ideas (the Ethereal Plane) and freak your players out. And isn't that what DMing is all about? Freaking out people? Right? ;)
- Ark
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)






