With your hosts, Liz and Mike! This week, we tell you why you should have been at GUGaCon! Liz’s Mage may be a saint! Mike invites you up to show you his sketches! And more!

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Geeky Week!

• Mike: L5R

  • Some NPCs I sketched

• Liz's Mage Game! Now with SAINTS!

• GUGACON

News

• Chick Publications being made into a film???

• New Batman, Wonder Woman, and Green Lantern Figures showcased, and my god the costumes are awful.

Mike's [...]

 Introduction When I was in college this book was part of a book sale and I bought it for fifty cents.
Back then I was deep into the Prisoner television series and Squares was part of read while taking a train ride. This is thoroughly sociological SF, when that was still the Next Wave (originally published by Ballantine in 1965).The  Plot According To Wiki:
It is a sociological story of urban class warfare and political intrigue, taking place in the fictional South American capital city of Vados. It explores the idea of subliminal messages as political tools, and it is notable for having the structure of [...]

We all have our "go to" character type. Well, almost all of us ;)

For me it seems to usually be a Cleric or a Fighter / Cleric type multiclass. A Dwarven Fighter / Cleric to be precise.

I like to mix it up in combat AND I like the chance to cast the occasional spell. I tend to find the lower lever Magic-Users to be difficult to stay engage with as a player, especially after you throw your spell or two. M-U / Thief or a Bard type class work for me too.

So, what class / class combo is your default? Maybe you don't have a default...                

Well, that was a first for me.

All my gaming for the past 30 years has been around a table, passing books and dice around and quickly and easily explaining character generation, rules and combat. Minis and counters guided our encounters and banter was easy and flowing. Not so in the internet. A slow connection and a dicey computer almost destroyed any interest I had in gaming over the web.

Let me explain what's happening here. Recently my wife joined the International Geek Girl Pen Pals Club and met some very nice people there. They swapped letters and [...]

I’ve noticed that there are plenty of feats in DnD/Pathfinder for specialising in certain weapons, even some that allow you to access new manoeuvres and tactical options for your preferred weapon, but very few feats that focus on spells in the same way. It’s a shame really, so I’ve come up with my own feat which focuses on a single spell and expands its power and usefulness.

I call it “Spellcialisation” and I thought I’d start with every-first-level-mage’s favourite: the magic missile. Stats are provided with DnD 3/3.5 in mind, but should work perfectly well with Pathfinder as well.

Spellcialisation (Magic Missile)

Prerequisites: [...]

Some of the largest and most established RPGs have had publisher organised play. These may involve an official archive of character sheets, adventures and convention support. Pelgrane Press are edging closer to the release of their highly anticipated 13th Age and have announced plans for organised play to support it.

Details are scarce. We know the intent is for Pelgrane to publish a series of linked adventures and follow through them with the community. This means you can turn up at any location that uses 13th Age organised play and continue your adventure from last week.

We don’t know the name of [...]

Note: Special thanks to Memory Alpha for the description text (just placeholder text for the time being) Federation Races At the beginning of character generation the player should choose from one of the Federation races they wish to play. Each race comes with advantages and disadvantages. Andorian: The Andorians were a warp capable humanoid species [...]

ok more sketches of house eritheii nobles...as i suspected they are moving away from cenobites...and now are decadent undead / vampire nobles. palace intrigue abounds of course :D
house eritheii nobles !

Grab onto something, I'm making a radical course change. Again.

So, I played the included adventure in the Beginner Box with my kids last weekend. I didn't have time to post about it afterwards. We had fun. They enjoyed it more than the previous, old-school style, game. They felt more engaged with the game and that held their interest better. So, I forged on ahead with reading the Gamesmaster's book and ran into a snag. Two, actually.

The first was magic items. It quickly became obvious that the system is designed from the ground up for magic items to [...]

Continued from "The Alphatian Province of Ambur"
Not to be confused with the Capital City of Ar, this northern county lies within the Kingdom of Ambur's borders. Hotheads have gotten into violent arguments about the name's "intellectual property," each side claiming moral ascendancy over the label. In truth, it's neither here nor there, as both in their own ways do reach for the sky.
County of Skyreach -- Map Scale: 8 Miles per HexThe seat of the county lies in the provincial town of Star Fall (8,000 inhabitant plus 1,500 military). It earned its name from a [...]

A few weeks into my new job and I've got my blog back functioning including RSS - featuring a new map and a new map style!

read more

A few months ago I picked up Ruins of the Undercity, a solo adventuring book for Labyrinth Lord. At heart, it’s a variant of the random dungeon system from the classic first edition DMG, wrapped up in a system to handle going back to town to buy stuff, along with some new monsters and other fun bits. I immediately wanted to hack it to suit my own random megadungeons instead of the Undercity, but figured I should try it out as given first.
The implied setting is very similar to that of the second part of Diablo II – a slightly arabesque city with deep sewers under the city that progress down into deeper ruins and strange areas that the ancient liches and undead thieves built.

So, to run through the Ruins of the Undercity, my girlfriend and I rolled up six characters and set them loose… This is her first time playing Labyrinth Lord / AEC (she’s played Dungeons & Dragons in both B/X and 3.5 flavours, but not this particular 1e-esque combination), and this is my first experience running AEC characters myself (although I’ve run a few AEC campaigns from the DM side of the screen).

Our initial party ended [...]

A little known figure from the era of the Old Ones is that of the mistress of the last king of the old ones, Wiifandra.

From the sketchy accounts that still survive, and those that have been pieced together by the Archivists at Parn Tandalorn - mostly from surviving images and translated texts inside ruined sites of the Old Ones, it appears that Wiifandra was imbued with great magic powers, but that she sometimes disagreed with her consort, Ba'a Zarn the Builder, especially on matters concerning the Elemental gods.

Images that have survived that depict Wiifandra, depict her [...]

Anybody else have fond memories of the Centurions?  Power Xtreme, indeed.

These figure were just awesome as a kid, and I dug them  and their accessories out recently and they are still in GREAT shape.  My son and I are enjoying playing with them together.

I remember playing with these guys quite a bit and actually have fond memories of the cartoon.

It's funny, I remember referencing Ace McCloud to remember Conner McCloud's name after watching Highlander the first time.

As I look back at my childhood, I've begun to realize I prefer the larger scale [...]

I'm participating in the April A-Z Blogging Challenge and my theme of choice is Dungeons & Dragons.

Artwork by Gary Dupuis
Dead Rats tell no tales. Or is it that they tell tales, but their tails may fall off?

I'm working out the details of a Swords & Wizardry flavored ezine to be published under the Dead Rat Banner. Tentative name is "Copper Droppings". Hey, sounded good to me as I was falling asleep last night ;)

With the return of Knockspell we don't need another full pledge magazine but a fairly regular ezine for Swords & Wizardry just might work. This is where I'll work on some alterative class ideas, spells, encounters, monsters, Tenkar's Landing setting stuff and whatever else strikes my fancy. Or your fancy. I'm thinking of "buying a beer" for those that contribute to the ezine [...]

Although it's a month until our wedding anniversary, this morning Rachel got me this fantastic canvas print of the cover of Amazing Fantasy #15 - the first appearance of Spider-Man.

It came from Gorgeous George, an incredible gift shop in Tonbridge that also does a fine line in wines and locally-sourced, flavoured spirits (Rachel and I have become regular visitors there).


Co-incidentally, Rachel's parents were visiting this afternoon and so her dad was able to hang the picture for me (I couldn't have reached!).

There are only really now a couple of empty "slots" on the walls of the stairwell and I already have items lined up to fill them - one needs framing and the other needs to be manufactured.

In September 2012, I had two articles published in Dungeon Magazine issue 206. The first article was called "The Xanathar: Beholder Crime Lord of Waterdeep" and in it I provided a new take on one of Waterdeep's most infamous criminals. The second was an adventure called "Eyes on the Ball" in which the PCs found themselves forming a tenuous allegiance with The Xanathar and his lieutenants to stop an evil slaver.

Today I'd like to share some of the background and insights that inspired my re-imagining of The Xanathar. But in order to do that I need to first provide some [...]

Looks like either the money-grubbers at Disney pulled the license for the Marvel Heroic Roleplaying gamefrom Margaret Weis Productions without warning, or MWP couldn’t make the reup on the license work out since they couldn’t move enough product (I’m guessing it was a combination — they couldn’t pay for a more expensive license and Disney just pulled the license, complete with a cease and desist for selling productthey were authorized to sell,although now you have until April 30 to snag all the material at Drive Thru RPG.) MWP is trying to make amends by crediting pre-orders 150% the cost of [...]

Just the morning appendix N Stuff for when I'm writing space based stuff. Enjoy the old school influence. 

Ok so in "celebration" of today being X day, how about some Zatanna from the X-rated side of things.

The biggest trouble is with "porn" versions of superheroes is not that people are having sex (come on, that is WHY we get them) it's that often the producers of the adult movies do a better job than Hollywood does!  Not always, but sometimes.
I have a number of adult film actors and producers on my G+ and Facebook friends and they are every bit as geeky about this stuff as I am.
Here is a post by fellow [...]

C'mon, tell me that doesn't make you want to run a swashbuckling campaign.

This post is to let everyone know what the situation is with our weekly game sessions, and how the write-ups for the games we play have stalled for now. I usually add a tweet on Twitter as to regards with this, when I can, but not always get a chance to write a full report [...]

After spending two decades playtesting and designing what became the Codex Celtarum, with scores of players and rule reinventions and updates, the project is over...for now! The 1st edition of this massive 174 page book is now printed and the PDF is being sent out to those who purchased it on the Kickstarter! So far the comments have been all superb and everyone is amazed by it on so many levels. Hopefully I will receive some full reviews soon, once I have them I will post them on here.


I do have, already, the changes for [...]

To be honest, I have no idea what I can write for the letter X. Yet Another Useless Names List seems to be the only way to complete the challenge :D

1. Xss'lnyy
2. Xavlan Xenren
3. Xuluo
4. Xandria
5. Xanlariel
6. Xornox
7. Xuluoth
8. Xiom Xin
9. Xu-lia
10. Xsylien
11. Xylval
12. Xertenna
13. X'phl
14. Xweirli
15. Xuir-nanth
16. Xij-xuu
17. Xopro'y
18. XBN-66
19. Xdetne
20. Xi-ji

As you can see, creating a names beginning with letter X is really simple and funny task. Also you may try to X-ize your own name :D Xalbert sounds as powerful but slightly pathetic sorcerer, isn't it? :D
Also, some time ago I received some negative comments about my lists of unpronounceable names. Well, I can't deny it BUT I don't view it as a negative feature. [...]

This is a fairly run of the mill leather shop. The proprietor, Sam Tully, sells only leather, but no leather goods; he lets other shops actually manufacture goods. His claim to fame, and the reason he opened a leather shop in the first place, was that he had managed to kill a Xorn when he was younger. He skinned the creature and made enough from the sale of the skin to a magician's guild that

OK, did you do the Reaper kickstarter and are wondering how you’re going to use your hundred plus minis when they come in? Well, here’s an idea.

Dwarven Forge makes those super sweet ridiculously detailed 3D resin miniature terrains you may have seen that no one can afford. But… Kickstarter to the rescue! They are starting a new line of Game Tiles, which is basically the same terrain but made from a less expensive material. And they are Kickstarting them at a ridiculously affordable level! You can get them “unpainted” – which is still dungeon stone grey – or get them [...]

Thanks for your damage limitation exercise, including an extended ad saying how great all your products are. I won’t be approving that.

You do seem rather keen on the ads with everything. Personally from what I’ve seen of your products Iconsiderthempoorly presented, limited value for money and of short-term appeal. I [...]

by_D_MAC (DeviantArt)

The ogres hurry down the stairs, only to be blocked before they exit by the adventurers, their freed dwarfMim and the rescued elven king,Hurin. Ungrid, still giant-sized, wades into the ogres, felling one after another after another, while Corvin and Xellos loose arrows and bolts, Sidni stabs with his spearWerebane, and Halmary slings rocks. The ogres fall swiftly, then a dire wolf is hacked down, and the Hill Giant pushing the ogres on falls to Ungrid’s sword, but not before it bruises Sidni.

With the rebel orcs holding back for now-- one of the bosses follows the party, ready to [...]

Dragon Warriors: Friends or Foes (2012 Jon Hodgson)

Cubicle 7. The absolutely stunning The One Ring roleplaying game bySophisticated Games and the small but dedicated British publisher received a lot attention and deserved awards. Beside this hit they are publishing other popular titles such as Cthulhu Britannica, the Laundry (both based on the Basic Roleplaying System), the upcoming Victoriana 3rd edition and last but not least the Doctor Who RPG and card game. Among other titles some long awaited French translations like Qin: The Warring States, Yggdrasil and Kuro complement their fine portfolio. Now, they announced a collaboration with Joe Dever [...]

This mini-documentary recounts the origin story of Free Comic Book Day, the popular global event that takes place on the first Saturday in May every year.

Dragon Warriors: Friends or Foes (2012 Jon Hodgson)

Cubicle 7. The absolutely stunning The One Ring roleplaying game bySophisticated Games and the small but dedicated British publisher received a lot attention and deserved awards. Beside this hit they are publishing other popular titles such as Cthulhu Britannica, the Laundry (both based on the Basic Roleplaying System), the upcoming Victoriana 3rd edition and last but not least the Doctor Who RPG and card game. Among others some long awaited French translations like Qin: The Warring States, Yggdrasil and Kuro complement their fine portfolio. Now, they announced a collaboration Joe Dever to launch [...]

Thanks for your damage limitation exercise, including an extended ad saying how great all your products are. You do seem rather keen on the ads with everything. Personally from what I’ve seen of your products Iconsiderthem tohave to be poorly presented, limited value for money and of short term appeal. I haven’t seen [...]

[Back this Campaign]

Palladium Books have a success on their hands with the Kickstarter for Robotech RPG Tactics. The pitch asked for $70,000. At the time of posting, there are 23 days left on the clock and the project has attracted over 2,100 backers and raised $385,820. That’s a pile of money for the RIFTS publisher.

Robotech has been an evergreen title for Palladium with plenty of loyal fans. The smallest pledge is $15 (144 backers currently) and offers a special edition Rick Hunter Veritech. It’s the First Contact pledge level where the game unlocks; the full colour, 90+ page, [...]

Just the morning appendix N Stuff for when I'm writing space based stuff. Enjoy the old school influence. 

I've got nothing for the A to Z Blogging Challenge for Domikka. Zilch. Okay, the equivalent of the letter "x" rarely appears in the Low Imperik language. Does that count?

Or how about news that the final revisions for my story "Murder on the Hot Flats" are underway. It takes place in Domikka. It'll be published in pdf.

Follow Till Wilderwine as he discovers the captain of his mercenary company strangled. Moments later, a fellow mercenary discovers Till with the body and accuses him of murder. Both are then summoned to battle the heathen Hazahdians in a [...]

A few months ago I picked up Ruins of the Undercity, a solo adventuring book for Labyrinth Lord. At heart, it’s a variant of the random dungeon system from the classic first edition DMG, wrapped up in a system to handle going back to town to buy stuff, along with some new monsters and other fun bits. I immediately wanted to hack it to suit my own random megadungeons instead of the Undercity, but figured I should try it out as given first.
The implied setting is very similar to that of the second part of Diablo II – a slightly arabesque city with deep sewers under the city that progress down into deeper ruins and strange areas that the ancient liches and undead thieves built.

So, to run through the Ruins of the Undercity, my girlfriend and I rolled up six characters and set them loose… This is her first time playing Labyrinth Lord / AEC (she’s played Dungeons & Dragons in both B/X and 3.5 flavours, but not this particular 1e-esque combination), and this is my first experience running AEC characters myself (although I’ve run a few AEC campaigns from the DM side of the screen).

Our initial party ended [...]

It hit me today that I may be blogging about things that may prompt visits to my site by friendly neighborhood Federal Agents... I mean, I have blogged about military-grade weapons a number of times over the last few weeks, and today I'm actually titling my post 'explosives'... and I've been perusing wikipedia pages about small arms and other sundry military weapons.

So, just to assuage my paranoia - it's all research for a role-playing game where you are 6 mm tall insects fighting for the good guys against the bad guys.

Just to be clear.

I [...]

Have you followed the history of the Razor Coast getting published? No? Google it ;)

In all seriousness, if Frog God hadn't picked up the ball and run with it, this probably never would have happened and folks that had preordered years ago would still be SOL.

Now, the Razor Coast was written for Pathfinder and we certainly wouldn't have a Swords & Wizardry version if it wasn't for the Frogs. Their habit of producing a Pathfinder and Swords & Wizardry version of pretty much all that they do is pretty damn awesome.

I didn't support the Kickstarter, as the added third party goodies were almost universally for Pathfinder, so the S&W version wasn't as good a deal. Sad but true. The [...]

Challenge was the house magazine for Game Designers Workshop. It began publication in 1986 with issue #25. This is because Challenge is the continuation/replacement for another magazine. It's predecessor was the Journal of the Travellers Aid Society (JTAS). Challenge expanded the systems covered and moved to format of the magazine to 8.5"x11". The magazine ran until 1996 when GDW shut down operations.

Traveller

    Traveller News Service (News of events in the Imperium to use for scenarios and campaign flavor)
    A Decade of Traveller (Article commemorating Traveller's tenth birthday)
    Universal Task Profile  (A comprehensive system for defining and resolving tasks. )
    Scientists (A rules supplement with a special character class for players and NPCs.)
    Picking a Homeworld (Rules to help establishing player characters by first determining their 'home world)

Traveller 2300

    In the Cards (An adventure with supplemental rules on individual finance in 2300AD)
    Trade in 2300  (A short scenario along with rules for buying and selling goods from world to world)

Twilight 2000

    Weather (Rules Variant to make your campaign more realistic. Includes weather effects)
    Inside an M1 (Take a tour of the US' primary Main Battle Tank)
    Buildings Optional Rules for Urban Locales (Presents a system for classifying buildings and suggest how their condition and contents can be more readily summarized.)
    Equipment (A selection of AFVs with an illustration for each. )

I had a completely different article I intended to share, but then, yesterday (April 26), I saw a performance that made me stop what I was doing and write this article. The performance was of She Kills Monsters, a play by New York playwright Qui Nguyen.

This was a great play and a fantastic performance. It's been a long time since I laughed out loud so hard at a play, and I also found myself choked up a couple of times. The play had some twists and turns that were predictable, and others that were not.

I'll try to keep my review [...]

Have you seen the 1E AD&D DMG T-Shirt? Pretty cool and available here!

UPDATE! I am too excited and I just can't wait to kick this mutha off!

So this is what I have got, I have a chunk of money in reserve at onebookshelf.com, you know Drivethrurpg/rpgnow...etc etc...

And well I want to give it out....

Here's the catch, 'cause there always is a catch...or two....

FIRST...you have to enter, and by entering I mean commenting in the comments section below, I of course will randomly decide a winner.

Now here's the next part, I will be working in tiers...what do I mean...well, one lucky person is gonna [...]

Here’s a free resource for you fromsiobhan68at Deviantart. Sure, you could buy a $10 map from a professional or draw a map using sharpies, but siobhan’s map is so full of details and colour it’s impossible to resist. Once you’ve printed it, it’s easy enough to put into any campaign. …

This post was originally written on October 18, 2010 at 4:44 am. I have always considered it a quite useful tool for playing in an adventure game. I imagine if I were to codify a list for hexcrawling or megadungeons it might be different. Some of the advice for interacting with NPC's was based on my neophyte ideas of NPC design and interaction. If I wrote the post today, I would change many things, not the least of which is the title.

I perused the "A Quick Primer to Old School Gaming" document earlier tonight, and it got me [...]

Happy Saturday to you, and welcome back to Frightful Fridays! A-Z! Theodric found this monster, and posed the question of whether this was a monster or some sort of armor. That spurred some thought, and I decided that perhaps the elf wasn't actually wearing the xenomorphs, but was instead a single metamorphic xenomorph impersonating the elf. The illustration depicts what the poor victim sees before the creature kills him.
The extra comes from a weapon that the xenomorphic infiltrators' accidental creators, the yih (from the soon-to-be-released Sailing the Starlit Sea), developed to defeat the creatures, but a GM should be [...]

[Back this Campaign]

Some of my roleplaying game sessions make heavy use of music. I like to use it when I GM. It’s a challenge to find it though – first I look for movie or game scores as any singing tends to disrupt the game. The advantage computer game scores have over movie scores is that they’re designed to loop, they don’t have highs and lows or a start and a close. This makes them better for tabletop RPGs.

There is a problem with computer game scores, though. They bring with them memories of the computer game. Play Skyrim [...]