I am trying to scale back on my Kickstarter related contributions (or expenditures, if you ask my accountant).  However, since I just received my rewards from one of the Kickstarter projects I helped fund (Kickstarter: The Dice Tower), I decided to fund another one.  The lucky receiver of my money is Guardians Chronicles, by IELLO.

Guardians Chronicles is a 2 to 5 player semi-cooperative game.  One player assumes the role of evil Super Villian Pr. Skarov.  The remaining players assume the role of one of several superheroes, each with unique powers.  There are a different number of scenarios.  Each scenario poses different objectives and challenges for the Superheroes.  For example, a particular scenario may require that the Superheroes defeat three of Pr. Skarov minions and also stop the Super Villian from launching nuclear missiles that will reign destruction upon civilians.

The concept of Guardians Chronicles is not new.  In [...]

Over the weekend I was able to peruse through a copy of Porphyry - World of the Burn and form a few thoughts.  I don't play Tunnels & Trolls so I'll just be pilfering from this as a setting book.

The setting is a post-apocalyptic hellscape, where it appears technology fell to something eldritch and supernatural  ("The Burn"),   which has left a world that has advanced from monks and knights to somewhere between pirates and cowboys with remnants of robots and tanks.   What surprised me most of all though was how this was kept from the first [...]

Back in March, I ran a classic Battletech scenario at the local gaming convention (Madicon). Jeff, of Jeffro’s Space Gaming Blog, posted about the game today and it inspired me to talk a little bit about the experience and about some general Battletech musings. First, not to steal his thunder, but I ran a pretty […]

Yes, it’s official folks, Great Britain is a nation of human flesheaters! It must be true, it was in the Daily Star! But on a serious note, it does make one wonder, that really how many people around us can actually admit to thinking the same as a few of the questions posed in the […]

If only I was still doing Necromunda, or any other scifi gaming in 28mm, cos’ these look very promising indeed! Ok, the plain ones don’t really inspire, but by the look of things, these could turn out to be a very good system for gaming. Why some one doesn’t do something like this for 15mm […]

As you know, I love the strange and off the wall stuff, and I’m pretty surprised this one slipped past me entirely! Myconids are a race of Mushroom humanoid from the glory days of gaming, and one of my favourite fantasy races. There are a few good examples in miniature form, but they are few […]

Rathman's Immediate Intoxication Remediation 
Spell Level: Magic User, 1st LevelRange: 30'Duration: Permanent (Reversal lasts 1 Turn / Level)
This spell sobers up 1 target per level of the caster, removing all effects of alcohol from their system. Drinking alcohol after the spell has been cast on the target has it's usual effects.
The reverse of this spell affects one target. When cast in reverse, if the target fails their save they suffer a -1 to their to hit rolls and saves due to mild intoxication for the duration of the spell.
(Rathman learned early in his adventuring career that his companions enjoyed their beer and wine just a tad too much to be healthy in a dungeon environment. He researched a spell that would sober them up literally [...]

My Spellcialisation feat for the humble magic missile turned out to be an interesting experiment, so I thought I would try it with something more powerful. A magic-user's most trusted friend. The time-honoured fireball.

Spellcialisation (Fireball)

Prerequisites: Sorcerer or Wizard, ability to cast fireball.

Benefit: When you take this feat, choose to learn one of the following specialisations. For every 5 levels you gain in caster level (5th, 10th, 15th and so on), you learn one additional specialisation of your choice. When you cast fireball, you may choose to apply one of the specialisations you've learned to the spell's effects.

1. Airburst: Targets suffer a [...]

Because we've all had the problem of players wanting to buy stuff at high-tech, Class A starport on a lower-tech world, right?


All of this is based on the concept of  "more granularity equals more fun for your players." Like pretty much all of my stuff here, if you don't like it, don't use it...


I differentiate between the tech level of the facilities (based on their class) and the tech level of non-starship goods and services, which are based on the planetary tech level. For examples of which technology is available at what tech level, [...]

Continuing my two women only classes for Go Fer Yer Gun! by Simon Washbourn and put out by Beyond Belief Games.  As written, the rules define ten character classes; the Brave, Doctor, Drifter, Gunslinger, Maverick, Mountain Man, Muckraker, Preacher, Scout, Wrangler and the Wandering Monk optional class.

Though the west was quite the rough and tough setting and "no place for a woman", women played a big role in establishing the foundations of America's Manifest Destiny.  Though the classes mentioned above can be played by a women as equally as a man, there [...]

The latest series finale of Doctor Who, "The Name of the Doctor" didn't have much in the way of a plot, or structure, nor did it make any sense whatsoever, but it did have John Hurt, one of my favorite actors showing up as 'The Doctor', or at least as A Doctor, one who did something 'not in the name of the Doctor'.

Now, we have to wait until November and the 50th Anniversary special to find out what that something is/was/will be, but I think I have an idea ....

This is related to my post about Six Health Classes and Hit Point Creep, because it's something that's been bothering me for a long time: it's poor monster design.

In early editions, monsters required careful planning because of the relative fragility of both monsters and players. When you have three hit points and a sword does from 1-6 (and it hits roughly half the time), you are not taking any chances with swords or arrows. Combats tended to revolve around surprise, traps, and ambushes. You snuck up on them and got your bonus round, or else you made sure [...]

Ordinarily I’m not a fan of this time of year. I think somewhere down the line, one of my great ancestors must have been a polar bear and as such I tend to spend the hotter months growling at people for suggesting that it would be “nice” to go and sit outside in the sun. Luckily I have a whole host of exciting news to bring you to help get me through the summer.


Catch up on what you’ve missed with this month’s Director’s Briefing.


Rolemaster


We understand better than anyone that real life often gets [...]

Most (A)D&D worlds are generally sparse in population, with but a single village in an entire 30-mile hex, if that. Many find that sort of emptiness unsatisfying from an historical perspective, and seek to beef up their worlds' population accordingly.

Many are probably already familiar with S. John Ross's excellent Medieval Demographics Made Easy page. In it, he crunches a bunch of numbers and comes up with likely numbers of people, occupations, population densities, and so forth. If you haven't read it, it's worth the time.

There's also an excellent and informative Wikipedia article on the subject of [...]

When I stated that I was going to make a Swords & Wizardry related content post every day for the month of May, I really had no idea if I was going to be able to pull it off. Two thirds of the way through the month and still going strong, I think it may happen.

Funny thing is, content posts are not my traffic leaders. Kickstarters, news, rants, questions for my readers - they all blow away gaming related content posts as far as traffic goes.

The content posts are the most fun for me though ;)

Not every gaming content post this month was a homerun, but that's okay. Overall, I'm happy with what I've put out this month thus far. I've reassured myself [...]

Joseph Bloch is back with his latest volume in a series of books that imagines–based on Gary Gygax’s public comments and articles–what AD&D 2E might have been like. (So I personally like to think of it as 1.5E.)

The new Kickstarter will fund the art & printing of a 900 Creature Bestiary. The first two core rule books for the game, the Players Manual and Game Master’s Toolkit, are already published and can be found exclusively on RPGNow.com and DriveThruRPG.com.

Joe has had a great track record of delivering quality RPG products on-time. The twist with this Kickstarter is the higher [...]

Yet another promotional deal from Banners on the Cheap.

This time you get 15% off ALL items until June 3rd.

I think I'm going to get me another battle mat. Since I now have a 2x2 maybe I'll spring for a 3x5 or a 3x6.

I’ve uploaded the first video for how to use the Fantasy Dice ruleset for the Fantasy Grounds II virtual tabletop software. The ruleset will be released first for backers of the Crimson Exodus 2nd Edition kickstarter, but will eventually be available either on its own or with other Radical Approach products for free so that everyone can use Fantasy Grounds to play Fantasy Dice games online.

 

After a thirteen year hiatus from roleplaying games, I got interested again shortly after the release of 3e D&D. I was never much of a fantasy fan, but, like the Holmes blue box decades earlier, it was my gateway back into the hobby, and like my early experience with D&D, it was soon supplanted by something else I enjoyed much more: d20 Modern.

Floating around on EN World somewhere is a quote from me: "I love d20 Modern the way a fat kid loves Little Debbies." It was the first somewhat generic system I ever enjoyed playing, largely due to [...]

That’s right it’s easy. One the things some folks rant about OSR games is the mortality rate of player characters. As GM and a player, it’s just part of the game. But as a GM, I look at it a little differently.
It’s like this. No matter the game, it’s easy to kill player characters. It takes no creativity or it’s not a challenge for the players or the GM. Like I said, just killing characters is simple and easy and half time the time they’ll aim themselves at the gun.
But what’s challenge and much more fun [...]

Killer Carp

Medium Humanoid

Armor Class 12

Hit Points 18 (4d8) 
Speed 20 ft.; swimming 90 ft.
Str 13 (+1)     Dex  11 (+0 )    Con 10 (+0)Int  11 (+0)    Wis 13  (+1)   Cha  8  (-1)
Alignment lawfulLanguages common, pisces

TRAITS______________________________________Ruthless:  Once per turn, Killer Carp may gain advantage on his attack roll if there are not hostile creatures hostile to Killer Carp within 5 feet.
(Optional) Heart of Water: Killer Carp is vulnerable to wood damage.

(Optional) Riptide: Killer Carp is resistant to fire damage.

ACTIONS_____________________________________Melee Attack---Fins: +2 to hit (reach 5 ft.; one creature). Hit: 3 (1d4) water damage.
Melee Attack---Wave Axe: +3 to hit (reach 15 ft.; one [...]

Before we went to the Disney World parks, I got to hang out with two of my favorite people, my best friend Mark M. and his most awesome wife, Jackie.  He mentioned he's recently picked up a DarkWing Duck Disney Pin (if your not familiar with the Disney Pin craze, it  makes Magic: the Gathering look like amateur hour).
Then as I ventured the through the parks I began waxing nostalgic about DuckTales, DarkWing Duck, and Carl Bark's Uncle Scrooge comics.  I really enjoyed all of those stories and once had a buddy, tell me about a Basic Role Playing [...]

Welcome back one and all to yet another installment of my Game of Thrones recap and review series. As per usual, my obligatory spoiler warning goes here. So if you haven't seen the most recent episode, may I suggest a riveting game of Parcheesi instead? Or perhaps some Sudoku? No? All right then, let's get into it.

Bring it to the table: Melisandre's magic. Both Martin and the show have been mind-blowingly creative when it comes to the red woman's magic rituals. I mean, stealing part of a man's life-essence in order to give birth to a death-dealing shadow demon? Burning [...]

Hola Greyhawk fans! I'm afraid I got behind (as usual) in promoting the latest page, thirty-four of our long running Castle Greyhawk graphic novel. Follow the link to read bonus material by visionary author Scott Casper. You can also view this next to last episode HERE, courtesy of Maldin's Greyhawk.

Artist's Commentary: The first chapter is near complete, one more page to go. But stay tuned there will be more Castle Greyhawk in the coming months! Our trio returns to the ruined surface seen over a dozen pages ago, but from a different angle. Gotta love architecture and perspective. Scott has given me such a workout [...]

In most adventure design methods I have seen, treasure placement is kind of an afterthought. The perils and creatures come first, and then the treasure is placed more or less methodically according to what is guarding it. Or, you place your dangers and then you ration out how much treasure the level will contain, in dribs and drabs here and there, with an all-important number in mind ... let's say, 5 party members at 2000 xp each to get to second level ... yup, clearing this dungeon level should get them there.

Now, if the party never [...]

Today I got the third edition proof for The Artifact in the mail. Very exciting! Overall I’m happy with the book, the pictures look great and the text is crisp.

Before now I’ve gone with Lulu as a POD provider. I like Lulu as a company and they make good books. They also charge nearly double that CreateSpace charges. After getting my proof copy I think I understand why. The book from CreateSpace seems sturdy and the printing is well done but Lulu’s quality is better. Instead of making vague statements, let me break that down as to why I say [...]

Is it me, or as summer approaches here in the Northern Hemisphere, has the new content velocity slowed down in general?

I mean, I know why my velocity has slowed down - work heated up and my wife is training for her Black Sash test in Hwa Rang Do, which means my usual writing time is spent putting my toddler to bed.

But I feel (with no real data or stats) that where I used to see a few posts a week from people (and I was hitting 3-4 posts, sometimes more) things have slowed down.

Thoughts?

PATHFINDER GOBLINS TAKE OVER WITH THEIR OWN COMIC BOOKS   Mischievous Maniacs to Star in New 5-Issue Series from Dynamite...

|Episode 84 |

Announcements

The reforging beta forums are open! If you were a Tinkerer Ascendant backer or higher, be sure to get in there and get some discussions going.

Topics Memorial Day In Your Game

We discuss what Memorial Day means in your game, opportunities for adventures hooks, morally gray conundrums, and goblinbarbecue!

Player Expectations

What should players really be responsible for? Honestly, what is the bare minimum to expect from people? Micah and I discuss this article from Gnome Stew and throw our tow cents in.

Numenera Pre-Order

We talk about the Numenera pre-order over at DTRPG, which is actually 1c cheaper than the KS [...]

|Episode 83 |

Announcements

Tonight we’re joined by Tom Lommel, aka Bill Cavalier the Dungeon Bastard! No Announcements, on with the show! Do be warned though that this episodes runs a bit longer than most. It was hard to try and edit down the awesome time Tom and I had discussing gaming, I hope you enjoy it too.

Topics The World’s Worst Dungeon Crawl

We talk about Tom’s Kickstarter going on right now for the Dungeon Bastard, the show itself, and lots of general gaming nerdiness.

Weighing In On Print vs. PDF

Tom and I talk about a recent article on Stargazers World about print [...]

|Episode 82 |

Announcements

Thank you all so much for your unwavering support during our Kickstarter, we definitely achieved ‘wildest dreams’ territory and are honored to be part of such a great community. Thank you all, so very, very much!

Topics Talking To Yourself

Anyone who listens to the show regularly knows that Micah just loves to talk to himself. Recently Robin D. Laws was talking precisely about that on the Pelgrane Press blog. What to do when you find yourself with NPCs doling out dialogue to one another and how to avoid it in the future.

Giant List of Magic Styles

A cool little [...]

This weekend I believe we are going to have the whole gaming crew face to face.  We were talking about renting a meeting room at a local hotel so we could gather with some space and comfort.  None of us has the space the host all of us.  Well air conditioned space. 

Dwayne is bring his mega fantastic keep/inn/dungeon beneath he built brick-by-brick from Hirst molds.  Here's a few shots, its cool as it gets.  If you want to see his construction process run on over to his blog, Gamer's Room.





We are planning [...]

From zazzle.com

Erik Tenkar says that he's played AD&D Second Edition more than any other edition, but he detests it because of its rules bloat. 

Meanwhile, at the same time, a discussion in defense of Thac0 arose on G+.

AD&D 2e has been largely passed over in the Edition Wars, I feel. But when it does come up, rules bloat and Thac0 become the deal-breaker. Critics won't even try 2e because of these concepts. Even though everybody seems to agree that the 2e campaign settings are neat.

I've heard these arguments since the early days of 3e, [...]

2e was the edition best known for pumping out settings as if they were going out of style.

Greyhawk / From the Ashes
Forgotten Realms
Plansescape
Birthright
Dark Sun
Mystara
Ravenloft
Spelljammer
Council of Wyrms

I'm sure there are others, but these are the ones I recall owning.

I think besides the core / usual suspects (Greyhawk / Forgotten Realms) the setting I got the most use out of was Dark Sun, even if the adventures were a railroad and a half.

Plansescape I could never get my players into. It was "too different". ah well.

Birthright we all wanted to play but couldnt really grasp the political layer of play and how it meshed with adventuring.

Hi everybody, this is probably the first announcement I’ve made in a while. Most of the time I jabber about stuff I’m working on or interesting things I’ve discovered, but I don’t really make “announcements” about things, short of plans for the future.

I’ve been developing a game for RPG Maker VX for a couple months.

What’s different about this one? Well, this is the game I realized I would have to make before I could make Phosophoros – which you can read about in the site archives. Yesterday I mentioned the ‘things we learn during development that make us want to [...]

The Spiel is a ‘Game of the Year’ award in Germany. This one award will shape the sales of a game for the following year. It is given to light “gateway games” that should fit in with just about any game collection. The nominees have now beenannounced! The three titles include:

Augustus, by Paolo Mori is a light euro in which players are trying to complete objectives and control territory with a bingo-draw mechanic.Players hope to draw the correct symbol out of the bag to complete objective cards set out on the board. Reminds me a little of the decision process fromStreams.

Hanabifrom Antoine Bauza(does that man ever sleep?) is a fun light cooperative card game. It is just about to complete a wider release inthe states. Players must work together to complete as many card sets as possible. This is complicated as players cannot see their own cards; They must rely on information provided by their teammates. This is a great bar game and not one to over-thinkabout.

Finally we haveQwixxfromSteffen Benndorf. This too is a little like Streams, lols. It’s a press your luck dice game. It has not yet been released in the states. I can’t quite see how this [...]

Last year I had the pleasure of going to Gencon.  It was fun, I met some cool people like Tim Snider, and ran a few of my games with considerable success.  I bought a lot of stuff, saw a lot of attractive booth babes, and played my first Cyberpunk 2020 game in over fifteen years.  I also spent nearly a thousand dollars, stood in long lines, and couldn't get into 95% of the games I wanted to play.  Therefore, I am not attending this year.

However, I consider Gencon the bellweather of our little hobby and I like to [...]

Thanks to a link from a Google+ user, I was tipped off about Episode #303 of The Dice Tower Podcast. About half way through the episode (around the 48-minute mark) Jude talks about his experiences gaming with hearing-impaired board game players.

He briefly discusses some differences between games that are more dependent upon social interaction and those with less social dependency, then talks about how he and his wife formed an ASL board game group. Finally, he ended the segment by making a simple point, a principle on which Accessible Games was founded: “…the result of a meaningful [...]

Continue [...]

If you’re a fan of RPGs and you’re looking to convince some new people to dive into the classic fantasy universe of Dungeons and Dragons and the like, Lords of Waterdeep is the perfect introduction for the would-be role-player. “Lords of Waterdeepis a strategy board game for 2-5 players. You …

Living Shadows
by Tobie Abad

Start with simple things.
How there is always that feeling that someone else is in the room with them.  How there is a nagging sensation of someone watching them.  Of someone standing close by.    But strangely, this never seems to be the case when they are in total darkness.

While with others, or among crowds, the feeling is negligible.  Irrelevant.  But once they are alone - doing their business in the bathroom, or while alone in the shower, or just before they shut the lights to sleep - the feeling returns. [...]

My Changeling campaign is coming closer with each passing day. So, we'll begin the campaign and all my planning will be tested, but until then, I've got at least about 2 to 3 week, maybe even more. As such is the situation, I've decided to get into the fairy tales a little bit closer, so the first session will be a session that deserved this waiting. Anyway, I've came to a few observations about this genre of stories. My changeling game is supposed to resemble this tales in so many ways, that there's no other way so beneficial to prepare [...]

Thanks to the generosity of one of our artists, there is a new reward level now available for the Adventures Dark and Deep Bestiary Kickstarter:

ORIGINAL ART SPONSOR: You get your name listed in the Bestiary as the sponsor of a particular monster illustration. In addition, you get a hardcover and pdf copy of the Bestiary, and your name in the back of the book as a supporter. PLUS, you get the original version of your sponsored piece.

There are only five of these rewards available, and we're asking $145 (you're in essence paying $35 to sponsor [...]

I love monsters. I love monster books. My first introduction to AD&D was via the 1st ed Monster Manual and I was instantly hooked.  So these tomes always have a special place in my heart.

Castles & Crusades actually has a number of monster books.  Each has a slightly different focus.
The Castles & Crusades Monster stat block is a nice combination of Basic's simplicity, 1st AD&D's comprehensiveness, and some 3.x style rules.  Saves are simple (Physical, Mental or both), AC is ascending and there is a "Challenge Rating" stat and XP all factored in.  Honestly it really is [...]

The current RPG Handbook offer has at long last hit a 13. I do not intend to put it back up anywhere near the price it was originally at, but a series of adjustments are going to go ahead tonight or tomorrow night. Depends on how much time I get.

[...]

In almost every D&D edition or fantasy RPG there are a handful of character concepts that I try to re-create. Now, usually these are just in one-shot formats. I don't want to be that guy that always plays the same thing over and over and over again. That guy isn't any fun at gaming tables. That gal isn't willing to try something new (usually.)
But, like I said, there are a few character concepts that I created during my years of play that I keep coming back to. Some of them have been re-created in various systems and editions and [...]

I love to use fairy tales as an inspiration for my games. Ralph, the talking chicken, was a prince transformed by a witch's curse. Rumpelstiltskin served as inspiration for a bargained child tale. Given this, I'm always on the hunt for new tales, especially given how often the current Grimms' versions don't have great roles for women.

Enter End to End, a book of four fairy tales written by Jocelyn Koehler. I was fortunate enough to get a review copy. Set in the mythical land of the Nine Kingdoms, near the borders of Faerie, these tales often mix the real [...]

This sounds like an odd name for a lesson learned, but it is in fact very fitting. I’m unsure as to how many people this will apply to, but it sure is something I have learned.

Even though I mostly GM, it is only recently that I’ve started playing Dungeon World. When you ask questions, then never expect the players to give you answers that you want to hear. Deal with it. Not all answers sound great when you get them, but lets face it; not everything you say as a GM is awesome either.

The really strange thing is that no [...]

I changed the names of two of my posts, mainly because they were boring. I hope this doesn’t annoy anyone, but “Lesson Learned X” was kind of dull.

It’s a lot more fun to win despite adversity than through the sheer lack of it. That’s a very important lesson learned from playing with Eric and Bastien.

I see this question a lot of times on the net: “How much can I throw at my players in Dungeon World?” Short answer: All you’ve got!

Dungeon World really empowers the players, sometimes to a scale where the GM can feel a bit powerless. If they continue to roll well, they can more or less do whatever they want, as long as it does not contradict the fiction.

As the principles goes, we are [...]