Thursday, October 6, 2011

Dungeonspiration: Blue Öyster Cult


One crisp autumn day back in high school I found myself at a German Language Club get-together in the house of the school's German teacher.  The subtitled version of Das Boot was playing in the other room and I was talking to a cute girl in a cozy alcove while we sipped on thick, chewy German lager that Herr Lehrer swore would disavow all knowledge of if any parents found out.

Ahh - the eighties.

"So who is your favorite musician?" she asked.

"Oh - that's easy," I smiled.  "BÖC."

"Oh, I like Bach too," she nodded.  "And other classics like Mozart and Beethoven"

I chuckled.  "While Bach's Toccata and Fugue in D Minor and the Brandenburg Concerto Number Three are just spiffy, that's not what I'm talking about.  I'm talking about Blue Öyster Cult."

She looked at me blankly.

"You know - Blue Öyster Cult.  Heavy Metal?  Burning For You?"

She stared.

"Don't Fear the Reaper? No?"

"Veteran of the Psychic Wars? Dominance and Submission?"

"She's as Beautiful as a Foot? Hot Rail to Hell?"

Her nose had been crinkling up like she smelled something bad and she excused herself from my presence.  She didn't come back.

Okay, there was a valid - and probably scientific - reason that I stayed a virgin until 19 - and the conversation above probably exemplifies that reason very well.  But boy did I love me some Blue Öyster Cult.

Blue Öyster Cult had a lot more going for it than just 'more cowbell.'  They were arguably the first band to gratuitously use the heavy metal umlaut.  And they had Michael Moorcock - the Michael frikkin Moorcock - writing lyrics for three of their songs.  One of those songs, "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" was featured in the movie - the movie - Heavy Metal.

I was poking around on Spotify a few days ago and found what appears to be Blue Öyster Cult complete discography.  I was excited and nervous - nervously mainly because I figured my memories of  BÖC would probably be shattered by listening to them again after all these decades - and I'd walk away depressed that I had liked such a lame band as a teenager.

Hooboy - I was in for a pleasant surprise.  Blue Öyster Cult still rocks!  And after listening to them all over again, my favorite album of theirs is still Fire of Unknown Origin.

  • "Fire of Unknown Origin" - with lyrics by punk rocker Patti Smith
  • "Burnin' For You" - a song other people have actually heard of!
  • "Veteran of the Psychic Wars" - lyrics by Elric of Melniboné dad!  used in the Heavy Metal movie
  • "Sole Survivor" - completely awesome Post-Apocalyptic Gamma World song
  • "Heavy Metal: the Black and Silver" - probably intended for the Heavy Metal movie, but never made it
  • "Vengeance (The Pact)" - definitely intended for Heavy Metal, and tells the entire story of Taarna - which is probably why it didn't make it
  • "After Dark" - undead vampire kind of thing
  • "Joan Crawford" - Joan Crawford has risen from the grave!
  • "Don't Turn Your Back" - did someone order a dose of paranoia with vermouth and an olive?

I was also surprised about how much my early years of role playing were influenced by the band.  Tolkien was kind of the ideal - the 'theory' of what Dungeons and Dragons should be, but Moorcock and his Eternal Champions - Corum, Hawkmoon, Jerry Cornelius, and Elric - were what my campaigns would subconsciously evolve into - all to the soundtrack of Blue Öyster Cult.

Just thinking about the band and the songs puts and smile of my face, reminds me of how I used to run games, and makes me itch to run games influence by Blue Öyster Cult again.

So go dust off those old albums, or take a stroll through Spotify, and listen to some music you haven't listen to in ages - music that inspired your games back in the day - music that inspired you to write crappy stories and poems in your youth about the things you loved.  Go forth and stick monsters in your ears.

In closing, I'll point you to some more Blue Öyster Cult you should give a listen to:

"Tattoo Vampire," Agents of Fortune
"Black Blade," Cultosaurus Erectus
"The Great Sun Jester," Mirrors
"Cities on Flame with Rock and Roll," Blue Öyster Cult
"(Don't Fear) The Reaper," Agents of Fortune - significantly less cowbell than you remember!
"Godzilla," Specters
"The Red and The Black," Extraterrestrial Live

- Ark

Wednesday, October 5, 2011

Joan Crawford Has Risen From The Grave

It's that time again - time for Zombie Walk Dallas!  Last year a couple thousand of us descended upon Deep Ellum in Dallas and took over a few city blocks, eating brains, attacking ambulances and smearing public transportation with blood - all without a permit.  You know, fun for the whole family.

This year, we apparently have a permit - which, I know, I know, sounds a little less exciting - but it does reduce the chance of being hauled off to jail for unlawful assembly.  I think the permit sounds good - because this year they are shooting for eight thousand undead.

I've been notified that I'll be manning a table for part of the walk.  I think there are some duties involved.  Helping people or something like that.  Not sure.  The only one I really remember is that I get to squirt people with blood.  Lots of blood.  Of course, the first thing that came to my mind was to run a Bloody T-Shirt Contest.  Or a few.  Yeah - it should be a fun day.

So, if you are in the North Texas region on October 15th, stop by and stagger around for a while.  I hear make-up artists and psychos with big vats of blood will be around to zombify you - should you be too busy to zombify yourself.

Catholic schoolgirls have thrown away their mascara
They chain themselves to the axles of big Mack trucks
The sky is filled with hurt and shivering angels
The fat lady lives! Gentlemen, start your trucks!
                  - Blue Öyster Cult, Joan Crawford

It's just like undead LARPing, except for, well, for the LARPing part.


- Ark

Tuesday, October 4, 2011

All Hail King Torg!

by John Kovalic - NOT ME!
Things have been getting too serious around the gaming table as of late, so we have decided to play some Kobolds Ate My Baby. Okay, honestly, nothing around the game table is too serious. We just want to be even less serious.

Crazy-ass Tim will be GMing. Um, I mean PureStrainHuman. Maybe I should stop calling him Crazy-ass - since he's my new GM, after all, so I must be all nicey-nice and stuff.  Okay - maybe not.   I've never played before, and expect my new little life to be short, painful, and messy.

I want to play King Torg's (All Hail King Torg!) club-footed inbred brother-in-law - thrice removed - Schmecky Encephalitis - the tribe's Keeper of Wisdom.  Wisdom, of course, being the pet-name of the gangrenous growth on Schmecky's left nipple.

The Boy is pondering what his character's name should be, but per him, it definitely will not be Herpederpalitis. He is leaning towards Roast Beef Sandwich (and his faithful companion Mustard the Fly.)  Yes, the boy was eating lunch when he came up with that. :)

Oh - The Boy would like me to let all of you know that he would like his weapon to be a blade of grass - but the GM may feel that such a weapon would be too powerful and ban it.  Such is the life of a kobold.

Fun Kobold quote of the day:
Kobolds worship VOR, the Big Red Angry God™, which is understandable; wouldn't you be angry if you were the god of the Kobolds?  The only thing that Vor hates more than a Kobold is a coward, which is why Kobolds are the most fearless of all the intelligent (and we use that term loosely here) races.  Ironically, the complete and total lack of a sense of self-preservation is the only thing keeping the Kobolds going - any other race would have packed it in a long time ago, given up, and faded into extinction.

- Ark

Thursday, September 29, 2011

Dungeonspiration: Nit-Picking

Sometimes inspiration isn't about developing strange new worlds, or totally radically adventures. Sometimes inspiration comes from getting the law books out and digging through case files for precedents, just like on Paper Chase . . .

I've been following the discussion over at Monster and Manuals - specifically Piledriving D&D and I Blame The Children; Or, How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Declaring Actions Before Rolling Initiative, with as much interest as my sick, overworked brain has allowed.  One of the things that noism is talking about is missing out or forgetting important rules in Old School D&D - and the effect it has on the game.  One specific example is Declaring Actions before initiative is rolled.

That has been pressing on my mind for a while.  A few months into our Labyrinth Lord game, I noticed that the combat appeared a bit clunky, and that things that mattered, like spell casting, didn't seem to be going the way that they should.  I began to pay more attention to how I was running the combats and discovered the shocking truth - I was very sloppy about the whole thing - not enforcing any sort of order of sequence.  Over the past few months, I've been slipping order back into the combat sequence - at a pace that my feeble brain could remember - and it seem to be working well.

Except . . .

Except I've got this big block on 'Declaring Actions.'  It doesn't seem right.  And Declaring actions before initiative just seems downright crazy in the head.  Not nonsensical - just foreign - alien - aberrant - Cthullic.

Noism seems to think it works just great.  But then Zak piped up about how in the ConstantCon, nobody declares nothing in combat until their turn in initiative, and people seem to 'just do it' without a break in their stride.

The whole thing bugged me, so I began to delve into every Old Schoolish D&D version that I had in paper form (okay, I skipped Hackmaster, so sue me.)  I started to chart out their Combat Sequences, and dumped them into Excel.  While I didn't have the Holmes version to hand, I did take a peek at what Matt Finch had to say about it in Swords & Wizardry: Complete Rulebook, for some historical perspective.

Here is what I came up with:


B/X (B23-27)
BECMI (DMR22-24)
AD&D (61-84)
Distance Check


Surprise Check
Surprise Check
Surprise Check


Distance Check

Reaction Check


Declare Intentions
Spell Declaration
Roll Initiative
Roll Initiative
Roll Initiative
Monster Reaction / Morale Checks
Morale Checks
Encounter Reactions
Movement
Movement
Missile, Magical Device Attacks, Spell Casting, Turn Undead
Missile Combat
Missile Combat
Magic Spells
Spells and Magic Items


Closing / Charge


Set Weapons Against Charge
Melee Combat
Melee Combat
Armed Combat


Unarmed Combat
Rinse / Lather / Repeat for Next Group / Player
Rinse / Lather / Repeat for Next Group / Player
Rinse / Lather / Repeat for Next Group / Player
End of Turn
End of Turn
End of Turn




Labyrinth Lord (50-56)
Swords & Wizardry Complete (36-43)
LotFP Grindhouse (R&M56-62)
Distance Check
Distance Check

Surprise Check
Surprise Check
Surprise Check


Distance Check


Reactions
Movement / Action Declaration
Spell Declaration

Roll Initiative
Roll Initiative
Roll Initiative


Each Character Completes Their Actions One At A Time
Movement
Movement and Missile Combat
Missile Combat
Magic Spells
Melee Combat and Spells


Melee Combat


Rinse / Lather / Repeat for Next Group / Player
Rinse / Lather / Repeat for Next Group / Player
Rinse / Lather / Repeat for Next Group / Player
End of Turn
End of Turn
End of Turn


It appears that declaring one's actions wasn't what you did in early D&D.  After some digging in the Dungeon Master's Guide, I saw that you are supposed to declare spells before you cast them, but it wasn't very obvious.  If AD&D had more on declaring actions, I couldn't find it.  The first time I found a version specifically saying that Actions (Intentions) should be declared - all actions - and before initiative, was the BECMI version of D&D - which I don't consider as 'early' - more like mid-morning.

And that completely explains why it felt so strange to me.  My D&D track is Holmes->B/X->AD&D.  No declaring there, except for spells - and that's probably something I overlooked then.  For the most part, we were just chugging along with a B/Xish AD&D variant.

That also gets my head itching about why Labyrinth Lord, with it's hooks firmly set in B/X, pulled out a BMCMI combat sequence.  Odd. :)

Oh, and Holmes was a complete odd-ball, seeming to be a heck of a lot more like d20 in it's combat sequence.  No offence, doctor - none at all.  Before your time, you were.

Of course, I could be completely wrong with my analysis of the combat sequences - or my understanding of exactly what noism said or meant.  It was only a few hours worth of work, anyway.  But the exercise has gotten me very interested in WHY the editions picked the combat sequences they did.  I'd say that I'm so interested, I'm INSPIRED. :)

So, go pick an idea in role playing that always seemed kind of fuzzy - and go do some deep dive research on it.  You just might find a whole mess of interesting stuff you didn't dream of.  And who knows, your game might even be better for it!

- Ark

Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Persuasive Writing

The boy had an assignment today in Language Arts - a persuasive essay. He chose to write about Dungeons and Dragons. It's interesting because, up until very recently, he preferred 4e over older versions of the game. Okay, well at least *I* find in interesting. :)


Why Old School D&D is Better than New School D&D

by The Boy

Old school D&D is more fun because you have more freedom to do what you want. It is much more simple and easy to play, and it is a fun challenge.

In old school you have more freedom to do what you want. You don’t need a power to jump on to a building. You do not need an ability to be able to climb an ogre and stab it in the head

It is a simple game to get started with. Just roll up a character and role play. If your character dies just make a new one. It’s NOT rocket science.

Old school is fun and challenging. You can have long games or cliffhangers. You can play for what seems like ages and not play for ten minutes. You can get confused between the real world and the game world.

Old school is simple, fun, and cheaper than new school so try it out today!


I am curious as to what the teacher will think. :)


- Ark

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

Random Quotes from the Labyrinth Lord Game


"Hurry up!  Put on the ferret costume and dance.  There is money to be made!"

"I gather up the priestess' finger bones and make a pan flute out of them."

"Wait just a minute.  This is important.  Let me get the Zamfir video to play right."

"I hid in a bush all night in a puddle of my own urine."

"Hold on guys!  If we steal the bones, we loose the opportunity to surpise the door."

"I'm going to tea-bag the dragon with his buddy's testicles."

"I think I should really get some say in whether my character impregnated a horse or not."

"According to my calculations - given the xp value vs. damage output - orcs just really aren't worth attacking anymore."

"Are you kidding?  Why would I put my fighter on the front line when he has a sling?"

"What kind of thief are you?  You refuse to get anywhere near a trap!"

"So how does this guy have little folders with information on all of us?"

"My new family motto shall be Honoris causa in - Honor Within Reason."

- Ark

Thursday, September 22, 2011

Dungeonspiration: Crazy-Ass Tim

Ugh.  Over the last month, work has ground me down into a semi-lucid blob thing.  The extra work hasn't been any fun.  I'm still doing work - in hour 14 of today' workday again.  Of course, I'm salaried.  I've been worrying about the developers I manage too - which is an unexpected side-benefit of managing - worrying about people and hoping they will be okay under excess work loads.  My brain can barely form coherent computer code - much less find anything inspiring about the universe.

THAT'S WHERE TIM COMES IN!  Yay!  Tim is one of my players in the Labrynth Lord game I run.  You have probably read about him here.  He's Captain Chaos - the Eye of the MAELSTROM.  You know - that guy.

Tim has started a BLOG - From the Ashes.  Oh, and let's call Tim by his blog handle, PureStrainHuman .  I think a lot of you will get that reference.  If you don't, well, may you be visited in the wee hours of the night by Jim Ward holding a cricket bat.

So sorry, I can't lift a finger to inspire you today.  Dungeonspiration is exhausted mentally and physically, and still has many more hours of real life work crap to do.  But go visit PureStrainHuman. Say hello and go follow his blog.   He's pretty inspiring.  He has inspired the boy to create Chaotic Neutral Goth Halfling Sorcerers.  Wheee!

Brain hurts - must stop typing . . .

- Ark