The Pawnee were a powerful tribe that dwelt in the Kansas/Nebraska region. They dominated the central plains for a while but eventually pressure from the Sioux to the north, Osage from the east and Commanche from the south dislocated the tribe; all this after it was ravaged by diseases such as small pox. The Pawnee practiced some agriculture and never fully adapted to the horse culture of the Great Plains, but because of the turmoil caused by their warring neighbors they frequently assisted the US in its conquest of the region.

But with all that they may have been [...]

Notes on the ROM-ER-Zero Complex by T. Savini

I. Introduction
Some have opined that "Ghoul" is the fastest growing danger to health, safety, and security in this nation. I would say the some think to small - this may very well be an international threat of unforeseen proportions. A bastardized perverted illicit formulation of a widely available clinical compound, the famous Robin-Onkhet-Michael regeneration therapy drug, abuse rapidly leads to dependance, violent action, and disregard for the consequences.

II. The Robin-Onket-Michael Complex
The ROM Complex - when used properly - one of the greatest wonder-drugs mankind has developed, [...]

Third Session(12 page pdf) – We continue to kill already-dead emperors in the Well of Demons. They’re livelier than you’d think. There’s devils and demons and daemons and whatever else they could think of. And then we fight Lo Pan!

First, after a conversation with the totally worthless kami who guards the holy waters (his main superpower appears to be “tastes good in butter”), we go back into the rift and fight stuff. First up are giant spellcasting boggards! Or hydrodaemons, as it turns out. With summoned water elementals and spell-likes and them being in the water it takes a really [...]

Introduction

PDF bookmarks are great. They can serve both as a table of contents and a quick navigation tool for all users. Tablet and desktop users alike appreciate the ability to jump to specific sections of a book without having to navigate back to the Table of Contents, look up a page number, and then search for that page number. Best of all, they’re not very difficult to add to your documents.

In this tutorial, I’ll walk you through creating bookmarks using Adobe Creative Suite, which includes InDesign and Acrobat Pro. For the purpose of this tutorial I will be [...]

This is going to be the last post, for this week, on positive thinking to help with your game. That said, despite the previous two posts, I forgot to mention one of the most important factors in enjoying your gaming time: you need to have fun. See, the G in RPG stands for game, and games are supposed to be fun. We get together with our friends for our regular gaming sessions to have fun. So, why are we letting all this other stuff get in the way of that? So here are some quick and dirty ways to remove [...]

Finally finished the new banner that I've had kicking around for several months. Just couldn't find the time with work and campaigns to finish it up. Certainly an improvement over the old woodcut version and this time I went with more of a contemporary comic book look.

The scene in question there is from our own little run through the G-series about a year ago (yeah, I've had this piece lying around for a bit). Dan's fighter Lucius (my buddy Dan over at Tales From the Tower) laid an utter beating on the doomed guards of King Snurri. He had help [...]

Today's character is one that a friend and I created for her to play on the rare instances that we get together to game. Mostly we just chatter back and forth at work.

Megan was reluctant to "be" the only dwarf in the party at first, but as we developed her story more, she really took a shine to it. I didn't have to ask many probing questions before we were off and running crafting her persona.

Her character is the jilted Greta Glitterstone. 

While wealthy by human standards, her [...]

The Invaders

As more and more playbooks roll out for tremulus, there is a greater potentiality for variance within party composition as well as a responsibility for the Keeper and the players to establish what type of stories they want to tell, as this can potentially avoid potential frustrations on the part of any particular player.

While all the playbooks are designed to work within Ebon Eaves, particular home brewed frameworks and future playsets may make certain characters feel like a duck out of water, and that’s okay. Hopelessness is part and parcel of horror. There is a different between perceived ineffectually and [...]

“For service to the Principality and its Gods, you are granted these bracers to make your honor manifest and the shield you from harm,” said Princess Calisero and she placed the silver bracelets upon the young knight’s arms.

“I will use them to serve the Principality with my heart and soul, my Princess, being your shield in times of danger,” the Knight replied.

“And my sword in times of war, rise and be recognized by your peers,” said the Princess as the assembled knights began a slow clap, welcoming their new member.

Bracers of Soul Armor

These bracers are usually made of silver inlaid [...]

I've posted before about how the Savage Worlds Plot Point Campaign (PPC) model would work well for Eberron. I also recently purchased a set of Rory's Story Cubes and Rory's Story Cubes - Voyages set. Then I realized that it might be entirely possible to create an outline for a PPC using Rory's Story Cubes.

With that in mind, I came up with the Rory's Story Cubes Plot Point Campaign Challenge.

1. Goal: Use Rory's Story Cubes to create a Savage Worlds Plot Point Campaign. Multiple sets are encouraged. Any genre or setting is allowed.
2. Requirements: Only an outline with rough notes for [...]

One character's healing time is another's season-long episode arc
"YOU CAN NOT HAVE A MEANINGFUL CAMPAIGN IF STRICT TIME RECORDS ARE NOT KEPT." -Gary Gygax 1st edition Dungeon Masters Guide

I totally didn't buy into strict timekeeping until I started playing my current Stars Without Number game.  The main reason for timekeeping here was as an experiment, but it ultimately emerged into one of the great passions of the game for me.  Though our group was unable to play this week, I know that our game's date rests at exactly January 9, 3200.  On January 8, 3200, a character was [...]

And here I was thinking that we would not get a Wandering Monsters article today. What is even more surprising is that I like a lot of what it has to say (in particular the entries on Demogorgon and Baphomet); though only a few paragraphs, each type of cult has its own defining word--madness, destruction, and decadence--as well as a solid foundation to build adventures on.

The Cthulhu association with Demogorgon is an angle I had never considered before, despite the fact that he is apparently allied with Dagon to some capacity. I dig it, but then I tend to dig [...]

I have been interested in picking up a PDQ-based game for a while. Swashbucklers of the 7 Skies is tops on my PDQ wish list, but on a whim, I ended up purchasing Dead Inside (PDF) from RPGNow. I won a $10 gift certificate from Erik Tenkar et. al. as part of the Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day celebration. I was a random winner, which means I posted that day (thanks, Erik!).

It may seem blasphemous to purchase a PDQ game with "old school money" but PDQ is like the Swords & Wizardry of new school games, kind [...]

Burning Mace of Areth Dor

The Burning Mace of Areth Dor is a + 2 Mace with the following special properties:

- When wielded by a lawful or neutral cleric, all Turn Undead attempts are made as if the cleric is 1 level higher than his actual cleric level.

- When wielded by a lawful non-cleric, the wielder may make one Turn Undead attempt at half of his character level per day.

- When used against undead as a weapon, the base weapon damage is doubled to 2d6

- If touched by a chaotic cleric, it inflicts 4d6 fire damage to the cleric (save for 1/2 damage). A chaotic cleric will find the mace impossible to hold, and attempts to do so will inflict the [...]

Hop Against Homophobia and Transphobia
http://hopagainsthomophobia.blogspot.com/2013/03/hop-against-homophobia-and-transphobia_15.html


I have never been shy about the fact that I support equal rights for everyone. In particular I have been a strong supporter of gay rights and freedom to marry rights.  So I am very pleased to be part of this one.  Since this hop is focused on authors I am going to talk about some characters.

But this is not just a regular blog hop.  This one is about making a difference.

So. For the time period between May 17 to May 27 I will donate all the money [...]

In my James Tyler campaign, the London Sheriff has assigned a Deputy Sheriff to separate precincts joined under his command rather than simply having a pool of deputies who serve him directly.  Each Deputy functions as a mini-Sheriff, reporting to the true Sheriff, but otherwise administering and investigating crimes within his precinct as he sees fit.  No Deputy is to stray outside of his own precinct, except to attend soirees or report a cross-city problem to another Deputy.  The Sheriff is to be kept apprised of all situations and has the right to personally investigate any problems that he sees as sufficiently interesting.

Sam, Jeff, and Randall talk about the D&D news of April 2013.

All our articles are linked here.

Support the show…shop below!

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This post is something I was thinking about when I was building yesterday's post and I was going to put in the why I like being a GM was because I like telling a story and then I realised that this is not really the function of a GM.  In fact the GM's role in regards to stories is quite different and this is going to contradict some of my early blogs that I have written.

I once asked what sort of GM are you.  Were you the GM that creates his adventures to tell his stories or were [...]

I started gaming with the AD&D 1e books back in 80/81 or so. I'm fairly sure that the official word was that the DMG had an Effetti on the cover, but to the eyes of most, that sucker was a kick ass demon.

Hey, that's what I thought it was, and my great aunt, Sister Camilla certainly saw it that way (it was a long summer of playing Traveller and Paranoia when she was visiting).

Then 2e came out, and the devils and demons were replaced with their simulacrum that lacked the names but certainly kept much of the imagery - because it was the time of religious backlash.

I'm going to skip 3e, as my gaming ended in 96 and didnt restart until [...]

I've posted before about how the Savage Worlds Plot Point Campaign (PPC) model would work well for Eberron. I also recently purchased a set of Rory's Story Cubes and Rory's Story Cubes - Voyages set. Then I realized that it might be entirely possible to create an outline for a PPC using Rory's Story Cubes.

With that in mind, I came up with the challenge Rory's Story Cube Plot Point Campaign Challenge.

1. Goal: Use Rory's Story Cubes to create a Savage Worlds Plot Point Campaign. Multiple sets are encouraged. Any genre or setting is allowed.
2. Requirements: Only an outline with rough notes [...]

A big shout out to the Sheffield Wargames society and their annual wargaming extravaganza that is “Triples”! Yes, it’s almost time again for the north of England‘s premier war games show on thiscoming Saturday and Sunday. I’ll be there to have a good look around, and work in the capacity of photographer and journalist for […]

While I keep rehashing exactly what it is that I'd like to include in the next "Elves of Ur-Hadad" post,  I was slightly afraid that I was going to get lost and not move forward with other new Ur-Hadad-related material. But then, +Wayne Snyder & I were talking more about the city itself and just how you'd get in. Here's the result.

While the Squat and Pilgrimtown are the most famous of Ur-Hadad's several gate towns, along with the East and West Gates that they surround, these two are not the only gates into the First City. Indeed, there are two [...]

And the trailers keep coming - this one giving more clues into the nature of the show and a taste of Joss Whedon's trademark wit.

Clark Gregg reprises his role of Agent Phil Coulson from Marvel's feature films as he assembles a small, highly select group of Agents from the worldwide law-enforcement organization known as S.H.I.E.L.D.

Together they investigate the new, the strange, and the unknown across the globe, protecting the ordinary from the extraordinary.

Coulson's team consists of Agent Grant Ward (Brett Dalton), highly trained in combat and espionage, Agent Melinda May (Ming-Na Wen) expert pilot and martial artist, Agent Leo Fitz (Iain De Caestecker); brilliant engineer and Agent Jemma Simmons (Elizabeth Henstridge) genius bio-chemist. Joining them on their journey into mystery is new recruit and computer hacker Skye (Chloe Bennet).

Free and exclusive to Thistle Games’ new Treasure Facebook group:

Do You Dare to Dream? is a system-free fork from the RPG Handbook. It remixes content from the RPG Handbook, Hope, RPG Renegade and Spinechillers and Silent Killers.

This e-book aims to demonstrate how Thistle Games' [...]

This month’s RPG Blog Carnival topic is “Campaigns I’d Like To Run” and is hosted by the Age of Ravens blog. Every GM has a campaign or two up their sleeve that they would love to trot out and play. But invariably they lack the time, the players, or just already have too much going on. In my case, it’s all of the above. Lacking an active gaming group, I’m not actually running any games right now. (That’s not completely true, I manage to get in about one gaming session every other month with my kids, but they are few [...]

…but never do? The other night, my wife and I were watching one of the old BBC Sherlock Holmes episodes (I still love Jeremy Brett as Holmes) and she was mentioning to me that she loves the stories where social propriety and status play a big role in how the story is shaped, how it […]

Ed Greenwood, the beloved father of the Forgotten Realms and highly successful fantasy author, has agreed to work with Vorpal Games on an undisclosed project for the upcoming Red Aegis RPG.

We don't quite want to spoil what Ed will be doing just yet, but just know that we're freaking out. How's that for a presser!?

:)

Happy Gaming,

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: Wizard for the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game is a game aid designed for that keystone arcane spellcaster class, walking you through the process of character creation and help you keep track of all those changes as you level up. 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 [...]

In a bit of weird news, apparently there’s a inter-dimensional portal of some kind at work in a Bristol Street! A concerned member of the public has been reporting several incidents of the phenomenon, including a crack opening up and a giant snake coming through! The line was supposed to be meant to report council […]

Holy Moly! Was geht? Aus meinem beilufigen Kommentar ber Exalted und die deutsche Rollenspiellandschaft wird ein Riesenrad!

Man muss systematisch Verwirrung stiften -- das setzt Kreativitt frei. Alles, was widersprchlich ist, schafft Leben.
-Salvador Dal

Eigentlich wollte ich eine Glosse ber meine Wahrnehmung und Meinung schreiben, stattdessen soll nun eine unvollstndige Auflistung der Blogbeitrge und Kommentare zu diesem Thema fr sich selbst sprechen.

• Rollenspiel-Almanach: Deutschland ein Entwicklungsland?
• Arkanil: Rollenspiel von der Stange
• Forum Greifenklaue: Ist Deutschland ein Rollenspiel Entwicklungsland?
• Adrian RPG Ideen: Neuen Rollenspielebraucht...

Abschlieend finde ich besonders faszinierend, dass bis auf wenige Ausnahmen viel ber meine Aussage geschrieben und diskutiert wird, aber nur sehr wenige [...]

After a couple of teasers we're finally treated to the full trailer for Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. and, oh god, this looks amazing. Just, just watch.

Wow.

When I agreed to write the science fiction version of the Advanced Fighting Fantasy game I knew it would be a lot of work, but I honestly didn't realise how much. I've been sidetracked somewhat as I complete other projects, but now they are pretty much out of the way I feel like I'm ready to dive back into the game again.

The rules are pretty much finished and I've finally decided on the way I want the psionic rules to work. I'm also not going to worry about the vehicle/starship rules as I'm using what has already been [...]

The sounds of battle, a term that does little to describe the chaos and death that permeated the air around Sanford's small group of hunters, rattled on around them.  It was difficult for everyone to stay silent and still, not giving into the dragon fear or rushing forward to help when a voice called out in pain and terror.  Yet this was the only way if Sanford was to maximize everything he had learned from the Dragon Cultist Kafcar.  While the task was grim Sanford couldn't help but appreciate how Damian and the rest of the Samular Seven inspired others to act.  As Damian was fond of saying, "Follow my lead not my footsteps." 
Tyrus Skullstorn quietly explained to Elads Edals his understanding of the situation.  "Wizards sometimes use items as a focus and other items as a form of meta magic, enhancing their spells, some priests as well."  Elads was nodding, the conspiratorial gleam in his eye, obvious to even the newly befriended Tyrus.  "These cultists don't provide the magic or prayers that are affecting everything but they certainly widen their scope and increase the dragon's efficiency.  From what Kafcar explained to Sanford, the cultist would use what [...]

Lich vs. Orc by Khairul Hisham

In this episode ofMonsters of the Shattered World, Andreas and his companions defending the city of Arrowsight face a second wave of attackers. But their enemies are not exactly as they seem.

For those of you new to this show,Monsters of the Shattered Worldis astorytelling podcast. It’s about a young scholar out on his own in the world, the newest member of an adventuring party encountering strange monsters and writing about them. Each episode is 5 to 10 minutes long, so it won’t overburden your iPod.

Credits:This podcast is written and performed byBrent P. Newhall(a.k.a.Dr. Worldcrafter), and [...]

First things first - there is a current contest going on here at The Tavern where you can win a print AND PDF copy of the Teratic Tome, a most awesome OSR manual of monsters. This contest will be taking entries until 8am Thursday morning NYC time - 5/16/13.

Thursday evening I'll be running a contest to give away a free PDF copy of the Razor Coast for S&W curtesy of Frog God Games. All hail the Frawgs!

I'm looking for a good idea for the contest theme. I've run lots of these, and sometimes I could use help with the ideas. Can't offer a prize for helping, just my undying gratitude ;)

So, drop your thoughts and ideas as [...]

One of the most bizarre characters of DARK*HERITAGE is Vermin Lord, a nameless sorcerer billed as a member of the Heresiarchy.  Although he's often considered--by those few who know of him--as unconcerned with mortal affair and either above (or beneath) them, this is a dangerous affectation to hold.  A common conceit of many sorcerers, and almost certainly true of the folks who merit the label of Heresiarchy members, is that the "gods" are merely mortal sorcerers grown beyond the confines of this world, and that their time may yet come, and a new generation of "gods" may yet replace them.  [...]

Boers didn't all look alike.  Neither should Orcs or Space Pirates.
Or Space Orc Pirates.  As a history nerd, I can't help but make the majority of combats in my games humanoid encounters.  If a grid is available, I try to make things as tactical as possible.  But if your group is attacking a squad of identical orcs carrying greataxes, there's no real reason to concentrate on one or the other.  They all present similar challenges, so the group just ends up saying "I attack the closest one."

One of my favorite encounters in the past was a [...]

Game of Thrones. Noch 3. Folgen, dann endet die aktuelle Season derMastbe setzenden Fantasy-Serie von HBO.

Auf absehbare Zeit wird sich wohl jede fantastische Filmproduktion mit dieser Adaption messen lassen mssen – auch der Hobbit. Ein riesiges Budget glamourse 3D-Effekte knnen nicht ber die lausige und spannungsbefreite Auslegung und das miserable Drehbuch hinwegtuschen.
Um eine gute Geschichte zu erzhlen, braucht es nicht an jeder Ecke ein Trickfeuerwerk. Das Auenland und das Nebelgebirge mssen nicht eingeebnet werden, oder?

Doch zurck nach Westeros. Luten bald die Hochzeitsglocken berall in den Sieben Knigslanden?
Joffrey vermhlt sich, Tyrion bekommt eine Angetraute, Edmure Tully schlgt die drohende [...]

A while back I wrote a review for Mazes & Perils, a 2012 Holmes-Basic Retro-clone from Vincent Florio.
http://timbrannan.blogspot.com/2012/09/review-mazes-perils-2012.html

The 3rd printing/edition is now out (or rather it has been out for a bit) and I promised then I would re-review it.

This new version is cleaned up considerably and it does look like it has been rewritten.  It is still free and the idea here (I think) is to provide a means to play "D&D Basic" or provide a common ruleset to allow people to create Basic compatible works.  As a goal, that is a pretty solid one [...]

Learning new games can be complicated. Watch what happens when the Mythical Show guys play Risky Settlers Knights and Allies of the Lords of Dominion of Earth (Pandemic Edition). It’s a spoof of board games, but I found a large collection of tabletop roleplaying references in there as well. Enjoy! …

Last Tuesday we had the final battle with the rejuvenated Oni, whom we fondly called "Kim."

It turned out to be fairly anticlimactic. We twigged early to the massive rune-laden club with the Thousand Words of Pain on it to being the real issue (and especially after several solid hits came to no good result on our part). We attacked the weapon directly, rolled really well, cut it in two . . . whereupon it exploded.

Dawn got pasted with a massive blow before that, but thanks to Ninja! Destiny/Bonus points, turned that into a miss/graze rather than an insta-kill with something like 20+ crushing damage in one blow.

After the club exploded, we had the big bad surrounded - the bane of many-on-one encounters in GURPS for the one - and more or less proceeded to pound him into jelly. As Mark points out in the comments, Shiba crippled Kim's foot, rooting the Oni in place and allowing us to more or less go to town on the beast.

Afterwards, Cadmus cleansed the temple for an hour or two of prayer, and we went a-looting.

Staver, bored and a bit put off by all the praying (Infernal, after all) grabbed the keychain tossed to him by +Mark Langsdorf's new character, Shiba the Mystic Knight. He found the magical lock, turned the key . . .

. . . and the entire room burst into flames. Oops. Trapped.

That's where we ended. We'll see [...]

These are the final days-
The signs are clear:
Even our pups know
That this is the age of the Apocalypse!

Werewolf the Apocalypse roared into hobby games in 1992, inspiring a generation of fans to stand up and howl their defiance at a corrupted world in a battle they knew they were doomed to lose. WtA presented the Garou: creatures at once both man and wolf, and filled with a Rage against the evils that would destroy and corrupt both the natural and spirit worlds. Capable of transforming into a variety of forms and blessed with Gifts that enabled superhuman [...]

The video for Session Fifteen:
This Episode:
G+ hangouts decided to be uncooperative last night, so we only got about half of the session recorded. That meant the loss of some high comedy.

I was going to move the scene forward, but the players wanted to return to the Hob Casino/Market Lil' Pals to finish off that scene. John in particular hungered for the Panic Bucket, perhaps jealous over Andi's Essential Ice Cream Scoop. John gambled and lost and then wagered again and won the Bucket which he clutched tightly. Morosa also gambled, winning a set of Murder Sticker [...]

To all our followers and readers, subscribers and fans…. THANKS

Perform it on the International Space Station!


Before returning to Earth in the early hours of this morning, International Space Station Commander Chris Hadfield (of whom I have spoken in awe before) performed a revised version of David Bowie's Space Oddity for YouTube (which has already rocketed past 5.5 million viewings)

Remember this video is not done with special effects... this is all real.

Too. Much. Fun.

The post RPG All-Stars Roundtable: Game Smarter, Not Harder! appeared first on Geeky & Genki.

In my opinion, this small game GETS Oz. We focus on the magic system but also discuss plenty of other aspects of the Adventures in Oz RPG.

The post F. Douglas Wall: Magic and More in the Land of Oz appeared first on Geeky & Genki.

Anachronistic Adventurers: The Sensitive The final installment of the anachronistic adventurers-line is 19 pages long, 2/3 of a page front cover, 1 page editorial/SRD, leaving 17 1/3 pages of content,...

Swordmaster This pdf is 23 pages long, 1 page front cover, 1 page editorial, 1/2 empty page, 1 page SRD, leaving us with 19 1/2 pages of content, so let’s...