Gen Con Indy is only 84 days away! With more than 300 exhibitors and a beer garden, this should be the greatest Gen Con yet.

Event registration is live and the event hall map is available here.

Magic: The Gathering art by Johann Bodin

This is piece by Johann Bodin is just one of many great and inspirational pieces from Magic’s Innistrad block of sets.

The post Wicked-Awesome Art Wednesday: Stitcher’s Apprentice appeared first on Age of Ruins.

Maybe you are like me.  You loved The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings when you read it.  You still enjoyed it when you read them for the third time.  Then...  came the movies.

You still liked the movies but you found that Frodo's frailty may have been exaggerated...  a lot.  That Sam seemed way too needy of Frodo, and that Frodo seemed way too comfortable with that neediness.

In fact, by the the time The Return of the King hit the theaters, you outwardly wished for the success of Frodo and his friends, but inwardly...  silently growing somewhere inside a small dark corner in your heart...  was the hope that Peter Jackson had prepared a surprise ending that deviated, oh, so little, from the original story...  a surprise ending where those two little walking mounds of frailty and neediness became Nazgl feed...

If so, on [...]

The Imperium didn't like failures. All around us among the smell of spent heavy bolter cartridges and plasma was the battlefield was littered with the remains of the latest alien assault on our bunker.  The lifeless piles of rotting alien flesh made no difference to the Tyranids though they would just make more. We couldn't afford the casualties either. For every fifty of their we killed they took down one or two of our boys. Those would normally be good odds and the men died bravely but the problem was we weren't fighting chaos or eldar we were fighting the [...]

Art By Matt BulahaoVenusian Trapper


Hit Dice: 10 (50 HP)
Armor Class: 2[17]
Attacks: 10 Tendrils (1d4) plus special
Saving Throw: 8
Special: Must save for each successful hit at + 2 or be paralyzed for 2d6 rounds. If successfully struck by 3 or more tendrils AND paralyzed, target will be placed in mouth for 3d6 acid damage per round until removed (no save)
Move: 12
Alignment: Chaotic
Number Encountered: 1
Challenge Level/XP: 12 / 2000

Venusian Trappers a gigantic, magically mutated version of a carnivorous plant. It likes to surprise it's prey, and will often use surrounding plant growth to camouflage itself.

It aims to grab it's prey, paralyze it and shove it's prey into it's ever open mouth. The mouth is full of [...]

Character creation and leveling up can be confusing, even for experienced players. There's a lot of keep track of, including abilities to choose and statistics to be recalculated.

The Character Workbook line for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is a series of game aids designed to walk you through the process and help you keep track of all those changes. It's not a character sheet -- you'll still need one of those -- but it will help you make sure you've filled out your character sheet completely and correctly. You'll never have to worry that your character has been short-changed. If you [...]

On January 9, 2012, Wizards of the Coast announced it was working on the 5th edition of Dungeons & Dragons. Public playtesting began on May 24th of that same year and like many gamers, I eagerly signed the non-disclosure agreement and downloaded the playtest packet. While I didn't see anything groundbreaking, I felt the basic system was interesting enough that I decided to keep giving each future playtest packets a look. However, I recently noticed something as I was looking through the most recent playtest packet.

I really don't care about D&D Next that much.

While there are [...]

And now a little commission for myself! Woohoo! He is going to be a priest of Razmir, the living god of Golarion! I went with a simple dirty grey-white scheme and a white mask - as most of them wear. This character has yet to play in the campaign... or even be built... But he'll be cool.

JP

You make your way to the bar on the seedy side of town being careful not to step on the unexploded bomb casings that seem to litter the sidewalk. A tired-looking disheveled woman pushes her pram toward some unknown destination utter despair visible on her face a complete contrast of the laughing infant. The German traitors are far worse than any story you remember your mother telling you. Yes little girl, the monsters are real and you should be afraid of the dark. Nothing in story tales can compare to the monster of war. Something must be done to stop this monster.

If you like Call [...]

It took some time to sort through all of the "Character Death Entries". Much like the S&W Appreciation Day Blogfest, there were just so many great entries to choose from.

I think +Rafael Chandler puts it best:

"Choosing three winners was an impossible task. I was astonished by the creativity, brutality, and hilarity of these entries, and I was also delighted by the sheer number of participants. Thanks to everyone who contributed, and if you didn't get your complimentary PDF copy of Roll XX or Roll XX: Double Damage, please let me know! And many thanks, Erik, for hosting!"

So, Rafael whittled the list down to a "10 Best" and then we whittled that down to the top 3. In no particular over, [...]

While regaling a new character with the team's previous exploits can be pretty fun, in some games there are often points where new characters need to be told large amounts of world building exposition - often in a big lump sum at the start.  This is often the case with new characters in World of Darkness - new vampires or Changelings, etc.  If you skimp on this, or simply paraphrase it, the player of the new character might have difficulty figuring out their characters' own thoughts on the subject since the describer's biases aren't revealed and therefore they don't know [...]

Game night was not unusual except for the fact that I was going t be playing a character that is essentially me. Character generation went quickly and left me feeling quite inadequate. My attributes are average with the one exception, my awareness stat was a little higher than average. Then we got into skills and I wanted to say, “I know how to do this and that” but the game only takes into account skills that you really know. This means all of my trivia and knowledges have little impact. Next was our vanity picks. For me I chose not to have suffered cancer. This means my character won’t suffer from the need for medicine every fraking day. I also chose to be a little better with a couple of skills that may come in handy down the road. Now we were all done and ready to begin.

First of all I want to make it clear, I really don’t like the idea of my home being invaded by anyone or anything. Having the aliens from the game HALO invade my planet was not a happy day. Washington was gone, Baltimore gone, York gone. We luckily in a rural area as [...]

Just got back fromStar Trek Into Darkness.Good movie! It made me (because my brain works like this) want to run a Trek-themed game, which reminded me of when I did just that.

I learned a ton from running that game—it was my first proper play-by-post game to get off the ground, and (almost) completed the adventure.

What did I learn:

1. Initiative Order is the enemy.Dungeon Worldis the future. The game ran great when it was everyone flying fast at once. It was only when I said “only this person can post next” that the game collapsed. Doing itDW
2. Be obvious. The one time in [...]

The Taint of  Orlock spreads  through out the ages and once again!  I put pen to paper and shed light upon the face of this monster stalking the ages kids!
Take a look right over HERE

Creeps are a breed of being akin to the fey. While there are many sub-species (so to speak), as one can see from the picture, they all have one thing in common -- a love of fear. All creeps feed on emotions in one way or another, so they have a tendency to pray on the weak (i.e. folks who tend to fail saving throws).

The creeps, seen to the right, are as follows (top to bottom, left to right): Sparoo, snozzle, wall hag, hood, pompion, gumble, gimenettes, awful eyeful, swamm, mad mum, tuck, lob-lolly.

Almost everyone is hitting up the Vampire/Zombie craze that has swept America for the past few years. On top of that, monster hunters are getting some love too. Now we get to look at the greatest hunter of all time and his little snazzy adventures.The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsingpits players in fierce battles against familiar supernatural foes in a one-of-a-kind action-RPG. Following the journey of Van Helsing, son of the famed vampire hunter Abraham Van Helsing, players can partake in immersive cooperative multiplayer to watch the engrossing dark storyline unfold. A tale wrought with wry humor and snappy dialogue, the dark adventure presents larger-than-life obstacles to overcome yet delivers a romantic charm of a fantastical 19th century Europe.
The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsingkey features:

• Detailed level-up system-- Players are able to spend points on hit points, mana, damage, and much more as they traverse through skill trees to mold Van Helsing to their liking.
• Hunter's Lair-- A central hub for players to stash collected loot, trade with non-playable characters, accept new quests from allies who join the resistance against the scientific scourge, teleport between locations, and utilize the alchemy lab.
• Tower-defense mini-game-- When the Hunter's Lair is attacked by enemies, players [...]

The Clutches of Fate
For the second time, and perhaps inevitably, combat all but ended with Tauren grasped in the claws of the immense dragon of Good. The great beast peered in at him as he struggled to swing mighty Arcanum to force his release, and once again offered to spare Tauren's life in exchange for the blade. Tauren knew that his blade was his first destiny, his to wield, his to defend. It was never to be surrendered - Arcanum had to be defeated to be taken.The dragon flew straight for the Dragon Pirate armada, and surprised Tauren when he let him go, but it was only for the moment. Grabbed by forces of magic,   he was slowly being dragged to a group of arcanists on board one of the pirate ships. This would prove to be the dragons mistake, for the power of the mages was not stronger than the strength of Tauren, who wrestled his way free of their grasp and fell into the saddle of Rusher, his magnificent steed. He had been guided along by Briar, for ever staying close by Tauren in combat. The Sister of the Cloak  had taken her shape of crows to [...]

It took some time to sort through all of the "Character Death Entries". Much like the S&W Appreciation Day Blogfest, there were just so many great entries to choose from.

I think +Rafael Chandler puts it best:

"Choosing three winners was an impossible task. I was astonished by the creativity, brutality, and hilarity of these entries, and I was also delighted by the sheer number of participants. Thanks to everyone who contributed, and if you didn't get your complimentary PDF copy of Roll XX or Roll XX: Double Damage, please let me know! And many thanks, Erik, for hosting!"

So, Rafael whittled the list down to a "10 Best" and then we whittled that down to the top 3. In no particular over, [...]

Hiyo, I'm Bryce. I'm one of Wil's very old Palladium characters. He hasn't really done a lot with Palladium in a very long time, and with me in even longer. But just because he's not really played any Palladium doesn't mean I'm not in here. There's a couple others in here too. On my way up, I saw some crazy woman with  metal in her face and tattoos babbling about rivers and dreams. Creeped me out, so I just kept walking. What I do know is that I've forgotten more about my world than Wil knows. See, I actually live here. [...]

Sing a song

You make your way to the bar on the seedy side of town being careful not to step on the unexploded bomb casings that seem to litter the sidewalk. A tired-looking disheveled woman pushes her pram toward some unknown destination utter despair visible on her face a complete contrast of the laughing infant. The German traitors are far worse than any story you remember your mother telling you. Yes little girl, the monsters are real and you should be afraid of the dark. Nothing in story tales can compare to the monster of war. Something must be done to stop this monster.

If you like Call [...]

I said I would do it and last week I made my honourable daughter the chance to become camera girl for the night.  So below you can watch a bit of a mash up of our in person game.  We play in the lube bay of a service station just in case you were wondering when you watch it.  Also my daughter has recently gotten a mobile (cell) phone and so the attention to detail may be a little lacking as she seemed more interested with the phone than the filming.  So much so I have banned her taking it [...]

Ongoing Save Ends Effects (May 10, 2013)

You know, I think maybe — just maybe — any effect that isn’t “until end of next turn” probably ought to be save-ends. I’ve been thinking about it since I wrote about a week and a half ago, that maybe save-ends encompasses anything that isn’t more limited.

Largely for simplicity, mind you.

So what I’m saying is, if an effect doesn’t say “until the end of your next turn,” then it ought to be, “until the end of encounter, or you until save.” (Whichever comes first.)

Ongoing damage might suddenly seem scarier — if there’s a distinct [...]

I my last post I stated, that I wanted to a D&D retro-clone heartbreaker, and so I do – and have actually done – and with this design diary I want to reflect upon my design choices and bit by bit reveal the rule set. At first I have for the last few years been […]

The Wolverine looks really good: samurai, ninjas, modern day Japan, what's not to like?

And even Man Of Steel is starting to look quite good with this most recent trailer:



Another great year for superhero movies!

Castles & Crusades Codex Celtarum

Oh I have have been looking forward to this book and doing this review for a while.
Regular readers here know that I LOVE Celtic myths.  I filled Ghosts of Albion with them, the Witch has them as well and there are plenty of posts here about them.  Though for me it isn't just Celtic myths, but Irish myth in particular.  That is a fine distinction to be sure, but one that is important on how I judge or rate materials for a Celtic game.

Long time readers also know that I have been [...]

After spending a week buying supplies, recuperating, and gathering rumours, Hurin is escorted back to his people in the Dim Forest. The remnants of the elves have temporarily taken up residence in the abandoned town of Hocholve, and there the party are welcomed and honoured as heroes; they are also asked to further aid the elves.Hurin wants to reclaim the elven city of Derelion, which was ravaged by an gigantic Shadow Dragon and a host of Shadows that came out of a portal to the Realm of Shadow. His sages have discovered the means to seal the portal, an act [...]

It’s that time again… time for the Geekly, PGM’s weekly report on the strange and wonderful geeky things we see around the Internet! First up are the new shirts being featured at Shirt.woot right now. All the Foods has some great designs, like the Portal shirt This Was A Triumph. And they’ve got a bunch [...]

Our weekly Wizards without Coats series from V Shane continues with this sombre story of the horrors PCs face when the GM runs out of props.

Has this horrible event ever happened to you? Share your experience in the comments below.

The post Wizards without Coats: Props appeared first on Geek Native.

This made my year.

Check out Paul’s podcast, The Mental Illness Happy Hour. It could change your life; it could save your life.

The post Comedian Paul Gilmartin: Depression Myths and Truths appeared first on Geeky & Genki.

With the rerelease of classic D&D products, it was only a matter of time before Wizards unleashed the most fearsome of their dungeons back into the world.

Dungeons of Dread is a fantastic new supplement that provides for classic dungeons for your 1st Edition victims… I mean… players.

These are the four classic S-Series adventures designed by the venerated Gary Gygax: Tomb of Horrors, White Plume Mountain, Expedition to the Barrier Peaks and The Lost Caverns of [...]

OK most of the changes are done now:

Renegade ~ Corruption remains free and – along with a mass of other free downloads – is now available from a tab at the top of Thistle Games Facebook Page.

The few remaining free downloads from here have been moved to Facebook, as [...]

RULES ENHANCEMENTS(2013 Donald Saxman)One of the major shortcomings of Superhero 2044 was the lack of detailed character generation guidelines.  The original intent was to devote an entire volume to this topic, but here is a summary of the original approach, with only minor updating.  Each of the three character classes is divided into seven sub-classes as follows.  Note that in most cases, there is still a great deal of customization and give and take with the referee.
CREATING UNIQUESSuperhuman Durability and Strength -- Divide 50 extra points between Vigor, Stamina, and Endurance.Superhuman Power Projection - This is the ability [...]

Tomorrow will be my first time playing ACKS as a player, not a DM.

I tend to go with clerics or multi classed fighter / clerics the few times I get to play. Generally speaking, I like to get my hands dirty and have the option to cast spells too.

This time around, I'm playing a Nobiran Wonderworker, which is pretty much a Magic-User / Cleric hybrid class that can't turn undead but can lay hands.

Very squishy, no armor and 1d4 hit points per level.

I'm going to need to change my mindset a bit it think ;)

Hmmm... I may need to bring along a meatshield / torchbearer to keep me alive... heh

So, what class do you tend [...]

If you are itching to dig into a deep and innovative adventure, watch this.

 

The post Jim Pinto: King for a Day Campaign Adventure 101 appeared first on Geeky & Genki.

We know you guys love maps and schematics. Let’s face it, we all hate the idea of presenting underwhelming scenery in our table-top campaigns, but who really has the time to beautifully design a whole town your players might end up burning down instantly? Well that’s why we have talented …

Following on from yesterday's salutary post about the dangers of magic in Tekralh I now present my "magical mishaps" rule.

This is primarily a reposting of a houserule/random table I posted a couple of years ago, but now updated for Castles & Crusades.

In my campaign casting a spell (arcane, divine or druidic) is not an automatic action.

Instead of a "to hit" roll, the spellcaster must make an ability check (Intelligence for wizards and illusionists, Wisdom for clerics and druids).

This counts as a class skill (naturally), so the spellcaster may his level to the roll, while the Challenge Level is the level of the spell being cast.

A failed roll simply means the spell doesn't "go off" that round, but it isn't lost and the spellcaster may attempt to cast it again on his next action.

However, a roll of a [...]

Yesterday, for no real reason, I decided to make some checklists of what needed to be done on various projects (including some 2013 goals), as a way to help guide me when I have a free moment. I dislike turning on the TV or web surfing simply because I couldn't [...]

I GMed today another session. It was really nice, and the players enjoyed it (at least, that was their answer to my question) but I went out of it feeling a bit disappointed. You see, I came to the game with expectations that were too high. Most of them are good players, that I GMed for a few times, and yet it wasn't as good as I expected. Maybe it was me? Maybe it was because I didn't stress from beforehand what I want from my players? And then I started to think: What is it that I look for [...]

Today’s post was inspired by yesterday’s Roleplaying Tips Newsletter #577. I thought I’d share a couple of the great resources I’ve found recently.

Roleplaying Tips

The Roleplaying Tips Newsletter is put out by Johnn Four. You get 2-3 emails a week with various ideas and links to resources primarily aimed at GMs and designers. I’ve only been subscribed for a few months but the wealth of information received in that time has been amazing. If you run or design games and you’re not already subscribed to his newsletter, stop reading this, jump over to the Roleplaying Tips website and subscribe. There is [...]

After a fairly long hiatus in which I’ve been playing a WoD/CoC mashup, I’m finally back to running my own Savage Worlds campaign, starting next weekend. Since I got a shared office in downtown Vancouver, I’ve also got an excellent base from which to run games (My cramped living room was never ideal).

The new Savage Worlds adventure is a sci-fi adventure game, sort of a mashup of hard SF and other influences like Gamma World, Fallout and Cormac McCarthy’s story, The Road — details at the Vancouver Roleplayers’ Collective Meetup group. If you’re in my hood, feel free to check [...]

Gaming wasn’t always good inspiration for fiction. I definitely got that impression on reading the original Dragonlance novels inspired by D&D back in the day — or I should say, trying to read them. Loved the game, hated the stories.

I think part of it was disappointment that the novels didn’t really reflect a typical gaming session. That instinct was soon followed by an equally strong hunch that basing fiction off a typical gaming session would be awful — sort of like the James Bond flicks that I hated before Daniel Craig took over, full of explosions and short on plot, [...]

But it’s true. Wow.

Source: the-funny-pictures.com via Tammy on Pinterest

Oh Harley, how much we love you. I find it hard to imagine comic Joker without Harley, although film Joker manages fine. Hard to believe she was created in the animated TV series. Harley Quinn (Dr Harleen Quinzel) Solo d6, Buddy d10, Team d8 "Oh Mistah J" Psychologist tuned criminal If it makes me happy, […]

Tenkar had a contest to give away a free copy of the S&W version of the Razor Coast and all you had to do was come up with a pirate ship and it's captain, and post it on his blog.


I did a little more than that, and it payed off, since I won! I'm pretty sure it's only because I wrote (and then recorded) a shanty. For those who missed it, my entry is below. I'd also suggest you check out the other entries on Tenkar's post.

Along the shipwrecked shores of the Razor [...]

So I was feeling bored and creative, a special combination that can result into utter nothingness when I experience it, since I create much better things when I'm actually busy with many things.
But one thing comes out easily from these moments: new D&D characters!!

For my next Ravnica campaign, probably to be played online with DM @gcampoverde and player @ArtificerAlf (and I hope someone else too! Drop a line if interested :D), I wanted a character who had something of both my favorite guilds: Simic and Dimir. Dimir is actually the only guild which "mixes" with any other easily, [...]

If ever a class deserved the marking mechanic, it would be the Duelist. I mean, come on! Of course, I avoided marking like the plague because, well duh, bookkeeping.

Here’s the Heroic Duelist class:
Download: Essentials Duelist (Fighter) v.1

First thing’s actually the skill list — one of the more interesting fighter skill lists you’ll find. The Duelist has access to Acrobatics, Bluff, Insight, and Perception — that’s largely the influence of the Complete Warrior Swashbuckler class. I had considered Diplomacy and History, but decided against them for the time being.

The class’s main schtick is the Duelist Gambit power. Simultaneously a [...]

A STACK OF SECRETS
Several submissions for this month's RPG Blog Carnival theme- "Campaigns I Want to Run" have surveyed multiple campaigns- wish lists of a sort. Some have been in established settings or used classic campaigns (The Enemy Within, etc). In recent years I've leaned more and more to building my own settings and campaign frames. I do that in about three-quarters of what I run; Changeling the Lost and Legend of the Five Rings are two exceptions. But even there, I've had control over the material for the most part. In my f2f campaigns for both, players  learned about [...]

Do you trust your GM?

It's a pretty straight forward question. If the answer is "no," then you should probably reconsider gaming with him. If the answer's "yes," well then "game on!"

At least is should be that simple. What about gaming at conventions? Or gaming with a GM out of some sense of loyalty? Or what if that particular GM is the only game in to town? What if the GM is a close friend?

Then things get tricky.

Victoria Praeparatio Amat (Victory Loves Preparation) is a series devoted to making gaming sessions great, the [...]