SWORD & SHIELD

Atari flashback

2012-02-01T19:54:00.000-08:00

I am in the last month of editing and work before the Rogue Space RPG manual releases. As a lark I mocked up a faux cover using the Atari 2600 Super Break out manual.

It was funky cool...but what struck me as really cool was the actual sci-fi back story for the game...

All of that story and cool art...and then you get to play this:

I now remember why our Atari was the bullpen choice if we couldn't get enough people to play an RPG...

Warrior-Lords of Darok pt2

2012-01-29T08:27:00.000-08:00

Next in Darok we come to 5 pages describing the geography, history and warrior culture of Darok. The battle proven are leaders and the state religion is a cult of Akhora brought over by barbarian mercenaries. Actual wizards are frowned upon and only members of the cult are accepted practitioners. A separate book covering the capitol (Shaylle) was planned but not released for TFT. Instead, the completed TFT work for Shaylle was reworked to match a d20 system and released as City of the Sacred Flame.

Next are 3 pages of major NPC's in Darok including a brief write up of personality, treasure and equipment. Following this, is a village (Ghee) with buildings notated and stocked with NPC's. After the village set up, is a companion scenario The Treasure of Zierro Mhaddray, set on the plans of Darok. Next are additional rules for horsebreaking. First (and last) time I have read 3 pages on horsebreaking in an RPG or its supplement!

The next pages are dedicated to additional scenarios to play, and possible random encounters (like a hexcrawl) while players are in Darok. On the balance the few scenarios are interesting, but the hexcrawl bits are quite good. Odd that a as completely hex mapped system, TFT failed to develop a hex crawl tool. Gamelords provide a limited on in this book specifically for Darok, but it could easily be applied elsewhere.

Finally, the book ends with Random tables to create NPC Fighter, Wizard,...and THIEF. As TFT only designated characters as either wizard or hero, it is interesting to see a codified Thief option and title in an official TFT book. In all the tables are functional but unspectacular.

So what do I think? As Darok was the first in the line to be published, I see it as a pretty good teaser for a much broader and more expansive line that never was. This is disappointing on a number of different levels. First, these came out right as TFT was dying. While I don't think it would have saved Metagming, in any way, this range of supplements as planned were the first true RPG supplements for the TFT system beyond the core rules. Its inclusion of scenarios, a village, NPC's, treasure tables and basic hexcrawl tables were a much needed addition to flesh out and expand TFT. TFT as a system and product line remains a vast expanse of what ifs in my mind, and Warrior-Lords of Darok serves to further that expanse. If you are interested, my own take on a basic rules TFT inspired the system can be downloaded at Heroes & Other Worlds.

Warrior-Lords of Darok, Part1

2012-01-27T05:31:00.000-08:00

This supplement was to be the first of 4 broadly describing the Land beyond the Mountains. The residents, according to the book, cleverly call this area-The Land...uhm...yeah. Moving on...

The Land is actually a great big island. A brief history discusses some strange folks who originally mined with hi-tech stuff, then left the Land and abandoned their stuff. Aeons pass, some cat has map of hidden gold, and eventually colonies start. The land is rules be one family until some old crown sporting cat who can't make a decision on succession so he splits up the Land among his 4 sons...then trouble ensues. Now the Land is split into four counties: Darok, Muipoco, Dihad, and Soukor. Welcome to the Land pilgrim.

What is interesting in reading this is how epic the plans were for this series of sandbox supplements. Each county was to be given a book, then specific capitol cities were to have add-on books. From reading the line summary, it would appear the 4 country books were all written as they were due to release in the same year in pairs (Darko/Dihad first then Muipoco/Soukor). Pity they did not and one must wonder if the manuscripts for Muipoco and Soukor lie in a file in someone's office somewhere.

After the history and intro comes the "using this book" section. One of the issues with having a heavy skill system are the stat blocks. While the ones in Darok are nowhere near 43...or even 3e in length, for the time they were more involved then D&D"

Name and Stats (ST, IQ, DX, MA)
Weapons (type, damage)
Armor (type, protection)
Talents (Skills-listed)
Spells (Type-listed)
Special Possessions (listed)

Then came the Treasure Factor (could be a Fox reality show?) description table. In shorthand it shows how much in total value (coins/goods) the person or building may have as well as the possibility of finding significant treasures. The table also shows if the person or building will have guards or traps. It's simple in presentation, but a bit klunky I think in practice.

That summarizes the basics for the Land Beyond the Mountain series set up...next we enter Darok proper...

Warrior Lords on the horizon

2012-01-25T17:39:00.000-08:00

As I develop more bits for my TFT inspired Heroes & Other Worlds RPG, I am re-reading Warrior-Lords of Darok and The Forest Lords of Dihad. These two TFT books were developed by Gamelords, the folks behind the Thieves Guild RPG.

Thinking of the slew of D&D aids that came out in the golden age of RPG's, its amazing ho little support TFT really had. In fact only one traditional modular (Tollenkar's Lair) was ever published!

I will post some thoughts as I finish each book.

Release the dogs of war!

2012-01-22T09:32:00.000-08:00

Well I can't seem to leave well enough alone, and that's just fine. So after creating a trilogy of skirmish rules this week...for fantasy, zombies, and sci-fi...it made sense to add a modern warfare element.

So OPFORS is now available for download! You could play fun skirmish battles from the 20th and early 21st century with these rules...and it includes VEHICLE RULES!

I paid NO attention to things like worrying about a German 88 guns vs. a Sherman's rear armor in a down slope firing position during a rain storm in November of 1944. Nope, it is strictly meant to get out your models and start playing! Lots of detailed rule sets are out there already, but in 6 pages of rules you now have the chance to throw some tanks, dog faces, terrorists, or special forces onto the table top and have some fun in under an hour!

Hat-trick!

2012-01-21T08:41:00.000-08:00

...and to complete the hat-trick of skirmish miniature rules, its Sci-Fi for the win!

Rogue Space Skirmish rules (version 1.1) are now available for download.

And in case you missed the first two skirmish rules sets:

Zombies Attack Skirmish A zombie survival minis game.

Heroes & Other Worlds Skirmish A Fantasy minis game.

In 4 days, that's 3 games, 2 bleary eyes, and 1 tired brain! Off to breakfast, then the table top becomes a battlefield again!

Excelsior!

Zombies Attack Skirmish

2012-01-20T08:53:00.000-08:00

With the fun and success of Heroes & Other Worlds Skirmish rules, it made sense (in my mind) to convert the rules to play a Zombies Attack Skirmish game.

Zombies Attack is my zombie survival pocket RPG, and the Zombies Attack Skirmish rules let you play out miniature based combat scenarios quick and deadly.

You can download the skirmish rules, or go wild and download the rpg and its supplement and the skirmish rules all at one time! Find them all on my Zombies Attack blog.

If there is enough interest I think an OPFOR (modern military vs terrorist) spin on the rules could be next, or maybe more ZA Skirmish scenarios? Who knows what fevered ideas may breakout next.

I recommend Rebel Minis as a great source for quality 15mm figures to use.

Battle Report

2012-01-19T17:39:00.000-08:00

My wife and I played a battle today using my Heroes & Other Worlds Skirmish rules and I thought it would be good to post a quick synopsis of the fight. Note, while my wife likes games, this is not the sort of game she is used to playing. So while she can tell an Orc from a Goblin, she isn't a hard core miniature Valkyrie.

Her Forces
1 Sorceress with mage staff, sword, leather armor and spells Hex bolt and Hold
1 Knight with chain, sword and shield
1 Spear guy with chain and shield
1 archer with chain, dagger and bow
1 archer with leather, dagger and bow

Him Forces
3 goblin archers in leather with bow and dagger
3 orc fighters in leather with shield and sword
1 Necromancer with mage staff, dagger, and the spells Shatter and Coward

The battlefield 24x24 with 16 chessmen scattered around in diamond pattern. In the center of the board was The fabled ORB OF MIGHT!

Goal: Grab the Orb of might and take it off the board back to your wizard's keep. We each started on opposite sides of the board.

I arrayed my forces goblin archer in a line first, followed by a row of 3 orcs and the Necromancer Eddie in
the back.

She placed archers on the wings, with knight and spear man in the middle and the sorceress behind the row of warriors.

Turns 1-3 move to contact

Turn 4: First blood. A goblin archer shot her spear man...but was shot in return fire from a human archer. Her: 4 left, Him: 6 left

Turn 5: Goblin archer takes gem and sorceress casts hex bolt killing goblin. Goblin archer returns the favor and kills the sorceress. Second human archer and remaining goblin trade fire, goblin loses that exchange. Her: 3 left (2 archer 1 knight) Him: 4 living (3 orcs & necromancer)

Turn 6: Orc moves in to retrieve Orb. Necromancer casts shatter on archer's bow...but he gets a shot off and kills the necromancer. Another orc is dropped by the second archer. Her 3 left (dagger wielding archer, knight and archer) Him: 2 orcs.

Turn 7: Orc carrying orb moves to leave the battle field, second orc moves into hand to hand with knight, they trade blows but both survive. Archer shoots at orb carrying orc and hits...his shield. Her 3 left, Him 2

Turn 8: Orb orc moves further away, interference orc chargers archer...and is shot dead.

Turn 9: Orb orc moves closer to edge of board...and is shot by William Tell in the back...The Red Knight has his men retrieve the orb and its off to the bar to quaff some brews. Her 3 left, Him:0

The whole battle, with explanations, questions and spell reference, took 50 minutes and I spent 30 in prepping figure sheets and the battlefield. A roaring success as we will face off again after dinner.

Some tweaks and clarifications are still necessary, but I think I can clean it up and have it in a 12 page booklet soon! As is, the pocket mod works well and is free to download!

Intelligence 18, Wisdom 3...a rant

2012-01-19T10:47:00.000-08:00

So the 3 original AD&D hardbacks (that most gamers have) are being reprinted...

Why the hype? Who really cares? 4e players? Pathinder fans? OSR? I'd say nobody SHOULD care! You can get old copies of the originals easily, and if some altruistic impulse makes you want a statue of Gary, go make one from mashed potatoes, or just donate your game book purchase funds IN TOTAL to a statue, not a mystery percentage-the whole dollar amount! How can folks bash Hasbro for mishandling of the game and the rules, and then support them with your dollars when they reprint some old stuff? WTF people!

For all your intelligence you critically lack wisdom! How many retro clones (OE through 3.5) are out there (many available FREE)and easily purchased, and well supported ALREADY? Want the old books? Go buy THE ORIGINALS!

Still you slavishly follow the dragon into the dungeon. Swear to heaven, at least when Odysseus knew he was headed into trouble he had the sense to be lashed to the mast so he could do no harm when he heard the siren's song. Do you have this wisdom? No. Like a former love who treated you like crap and says, "baby, this time it will be different" you believe it! FOOLS!

It's a trap! They know how much cred the OSR has, they see the vitality, creativity and originality they lost, and now like a stranger with candy they are trying to lure you back in to the shiny van with a Wizard painted on its side. Kick them in the junk and tell them to get bent!

Ask yourself why aren't they going after Paizo and retuning to a modified 3.5?? Pathfinder is the sales and game king right now and they can't compete there? So they are going to go back, try to lure the OSR in and gain support from the gamers they treated like a rented mule? Seriously folks. The Red Box reprint was a failed attempt at this. Now the current rumors of going back to earlier editions and making one rules set to play them all is so much B.S. it makes me sick to think some folks can't see the crap through the flies.

Do whatever you like, but I see it, I don't like it, and I won't support it.

Skirmish rules done

2012-01-18T11:52:00.000-08:00

The first draft of the Heroes & Other Worlds Skirmish rules is done. It is in a pocket mod booklet form and ready for download and playing at my Heroes & Other Worlds blog.

If you are a TFT fan, check out my Heroes & Other Worlds RPG there as well.

You add figures (lego or otherwise) some six sided dice and a battlefield or grid map.

Heroes & Other Worlds Skirmish

2012-01-17T16:21:00.000-08:00

Inspiration has struck again with an unexpected turn. Inspired by the original board game elements of Melee/Wizard, Cry Havoc and the old Heritage USA miniature rules for their Dungeon Dwellers games, I plan on releasing a miniatures based skirmish game for Heroes & Other Worlds. When? How about in the next day or two. Pick some figs, some six sided dice, and go to war.

You will be able to build your own forces, pick spells and make little war bands to do battle. They can gain experience and maybe special abilities too. This will all be contained within the pages of a wee pocket mod booklet. A few monsters will be included, but I think a separate Book of Beasts will ultimately be a separate add on if the initial foray meets with success.

Cry Havoc!

2012-01-13T05:18:00.000-08:00

Back in the early 80's there was another game we played quite a bit, though maybe not as intended. Cry Havoc was a series of man to man skirmishing war games from Standard Games in the U.K. It used colorful counters and maps to simulate warfare from the medieval era. Games sets existed for everything from Vikings to Crusades to Samurai and Fantasy warfare. While the rules are not difficult, to the modern eye they are a bit too crunchy. Below is a good description of the game system from Lutz Pietschker:

The game scale is one-man-one-counter, though in fact each character is represented by more than one counter depending on his state of health and, for knights and other cavalry, whether he is mounted or dismounted. Playing pieces (18 mm square cardboard counters) show barons and knights, sergeants, spearmen and so on, down to poorly armed peasants and even civilians and their mules. Each character has a name and a nice illustration printed on the counter. This makes the playing experience very "personal" as you follow the fate of your knights and men-at-arms through the scenarios. The fact that the counters of killed men remain on the map also gives a distinctive feel to the game (if there are enough of them, they even hinder movement!).

One game turn represents about 10 seconds, one 25-mm map hex about 2 metres of terrain.
The mapboards are approximately 40 by 60 cm each and show a village and crossroads (with a small castle, a forest, a watering place, etc. added by other games of the series). These maps are excellent and printed on semi-laminated cardboard stock. They are not quite isomorphic, i.e. though most of them will fit to each other there are some edges that might show different terrain in adjacent half-hexes. This is especially true, of course, for the maps containing a coastline or a river.

The units are, as mentioned above, single persons of different social class. Each person has only 3 status values which are all printed on the counter, namely an attack strength, a defence strength, and a movement point allowance. These values correspond roughly to the equipment carried and armour worn. They also vary with the health status of the person. A wound approximately halves the values, while characters fall back to just a minimal defence strength while stunned. Combat results can have a person retreat, or reduce him to "stunned" (inactive) status for one round, or wound him, or kill. A second wound/stun result immediately kills. Cavalry have additional double-size counters showing the mounted state (healthy and wounded), the dismounted horse, and a dead horse. The fact that all stats are printed on the counter front and back eliminates any book-keeping. If a person is stunned the counter is just flipped on the back side. With each game some 50 to 150 characters are supplied.

The scenarios give a background story and victory conditions. Technically, they state which mapboards are used, the order of battle of both sides, and initial set-up. They are usually not limited to a certain number of game turns but demand control of a certain location or, more often and quite in line with the name of the game, the destruction of the enemy forces.
An average scenario usually can be played in 1 to 3 hours, though there are some bigger scenarios that can hardly be played in one day. Scenarios include "Street Fight", "Peasant Revolt", "City Sack", "Burning the Camp", and Design-Your-Own rules. Sounds promising, doesn't it?

The game is played in strictly alternating player turns (a concept that allows to get by with a minimum of book-keeping and also makes for the excellent play-by-mail capability). Each player turn has a fixed sequence of action options like missile fire, movement, second fire of fast-loading missiles like bows and slings, combat, and possible retreats/advances.

Movement is governed by the in-hex and hexside terrain and is limited by the available movement points of the characters. In addition to normal movement options like leading animals, climbing ladders etc. are available.

Combat and missile fire are governed by tables. For combat, the relation of attack strength to defensive strength are calculated. The result points to a table column; it is then modified for terrain influences and other factors. You roll a 10-sided die, cross-index the roll with the table column, and get the result. Multiple attacking characters add their strengths if they do not wish to attack separately. For missile fire the table column used does not depend on strength values but on factors like weapon, range, and cover. Both tables come printed on a 20 by 30 cm player aid card that also gives a terrain overview and some additional data.

Even with a considerable number of characters on each side the game plays fast and smoothly. In turbulent skirmishes it is even sometimes hard to see at one glance which characters belong to which player since the counters have no faction marks, and even if you place them pointing to your home edge of the map players have been known to shoot at own troops in their excitement. As you can see, the game provides some realism even with the simple approach it takes!

Other action options are given in the subsequent games of the series, adding short rules sections as required. These range from transports like carts, wagons and ships to usage of special equipment like siege engines. Also, rules for night action and for swimming are given. Unfortunately, the rule set became ever less clear with each module and option, and there were also rules changes when Eurogames published their version. This is no real obstacle when playing face-to-face but can become a nuisance when playing by mail. This situation has spawned my extended and consolidated rules set.

While we did play it a few times as presented, it was way to fiddly trying to switch out counters all the time to show each guy's status. So for each guy you had multiple counters to keep track of. Including body count markers. Now if that guy was mounted? Then you had his horse too AND the guy on it mounted, un-mounted, wounded, stunned, killed...blah. Plus, lose a few counters or have the dog swallow a couple more...and its game over for that character. The game was a great idea, but suffered from the "accuracy over fun" problem that takes a game too far into the simulation realm for me to enjoy.

Fortunately though, maps and counters were PERFECT for using and expanding our Melee/Wizard stuff and that's just what we did! The rules, maps and counters are readily available on the the internet. Even a white belt in google-fu will find them. As I have my own spin on the old Melee/wizard/TFT rules now available, I will be posting some Cry Havoc maps today and cleaned up useable counters next week. My game rules and the Cry Havoc items can be found at my Heroes & Other Worlds game blog.

D&D 5e: Vox Populi

2012-01-11T17:08:00.000-08:00

So 5^th edition is on the march and the people will have their voice in it.

Question, is that necessary? In short, no.

1) WotC has all the market info they need already in the form of: reaction to 4^th, success of Pathfinder, and the rise of OSR. What is Billy from Madison going to tell you? I like goblins more than skeletons? Who cares!

2) Everyone has a way they play the grand old game and no one will be 100% happy with your design decisions. By involving people, you are instantly creating conflict and potential backlash against your game before it launches. New untried games may need this, D&D does not.

3) While this does provide a “social media” buzz the marketing kids are hot for, it will not provide a workable nor cohesive design blue print.

4) This only reaches out to or excites the veteran players who will buy your stuff anyway! The new potential player will not be responding to this, and frankly THAT is who you should be reaching out to most. Swapping pieces of the same pie around with Paizo is pointless, you need to get a bigger pie my friend.

To me this idea is akin to asking everyone watching the Oscars to vote on what the best movie of all time is, and announce you will make a movie based on an amalgam of people’s replies.

I looked through 4^th, played a few sessions and quickly abandoned it never purchasing any of it. It took too long to do anything. In the days before video games this may have been okay, but in today’s instant gratification consumer market, you can’t try to mimic video games by codifying and emulating their workings in a paper based space. Play to your strengths in relying on the flexibility and creativity of the individual and the game group.

To use a house analogy, the rules should be enough to provide the framework, and then rely on the individual to furnish the rest of it. I see modules as furniture options to add in your house and source books as paint jobs or entire room add-ons. Let people make of the game what they will, that is the strength of pen & paper RPG’s. My only suggestion would be to go lean and mean with the rules, then provide lots of resources and let everyone make his game his own. Warcraft, Final Fantasy, and even Skyrim can’t compete with that.

Video games all have limits, Pen and Paper RPG’s still represent gaming with no limits.

All's quiet

2012-01-07T08:34:00.000-08:00

Sorry not much to say really. I could opine on a number of things, but nothing in particular has my interest right now, working on my own games (links to the right) and trying to find time to get stomped some more by Dark Souls. I love that it requires and rewards THINKING instead of simply quick button mashing (although that too has its place) Skyrim is great and worthy of purchase--but Dark Souls really is my video game of the year.

On my own work, the Rogue Space RPG manual is out for editing, and I posted an updated Heroes & Other Worlds RPG manual download. I am also going to knock out the first pocket mod called Cults. It will focus on a cult, some new spells, and an adventure--all in one Pocket mod booklet format!

Tomb of Ice

2012-01-02T11:42:00.000-08:00

Tomb of Ice, the first adventure for Heroes & Other Worlds, is now available for download.

The 1 page adventure is based on my Pocket Full of Peril #2, with map bashed together from geomorphs created by Dyson Logos (hooray he is back!)

It's a good way to give my TFT/Melee/Wizard inspired RPG a spin and I hope you find its a different kind of retro game you will enjoy.

Melee, Wizard, TFT and me

2011-12-31T16:06:00.000-08:00

If you have followed or read my rambling missives before you know I think the Metagaming TFT system is pretty sweet...but a just miss.

I know I am not the only fellow who feels that way, in fact way back in 1980 Howard Thompson himself commented on how disappointed he was with the project. To quote from a letter he wrote dated 3/31/1980:

TFT is too complicated as completed by Steve Jackson. He completed the project as he wished, not as I'd hoped or even laid down constraints....All the material in Advanced Melee and Advanced Wizard didn't need to be added at all. More spells and weapons fine, more detail of combat, no.

My feeling is that in the extra two years of work TFT got longer instead of better.

I could not agree more with with HT on these points. TFT overly complicated the game system rather than producing a streamlined game. Some folks love it, and that's great, but it was a just miss for me. That feeling of what could have been stuck with me for 30 years now. In fact as I mentioned before, Metagaming's revision of the TFT system became Dragons of Underearth. It could have been the TFT basic set, but was incomplete and Metagming died shortly there after.

Next came Dark City Games and their revival of the system. This was closer to what I hoped TFT would be, but it too did not work for different reasons. The manual is a brief pocket mod friendly 7 pages but its only meant to usher you into playing their (very good) adventures, not actually running a game yourself from your imagination.

All of that to get to this, my own re-imagining of a basic RPG version using Melee/ Wizard/ and Dragons of Underearth as inspiration: Heroes & Other Worlds.

Weighing in at a svelte 24 pages, its the way I would have liked to see a basic TFT game offered. Note, what is lacking from my book is any semblance of a referee's aide section or an adventure creator. Maybe I will make one next, but for the time being, it is what it is.

If there is enough interest I'll convert some of my Pockets Full of Peril adventures for play. In the meantime if you are interested in downloading and trying the game, charge on over to the Heroes site. I have a download link for the game manual up now. .

Happiest of New Years to you and yours!

http://heroworlds.blogspot.com/

Heroes & Other Worlds

2011-12-29T22:26:00.000-08:00

More to come from yours truly

Hexploration and scale: 6 miles, 5 miles, or 1 mile?

2011-12-29T10:44:00.000-08:00

I am not sure when nor who set the default mileage size for hexplore maps. I always defaulted to the 5 mile size without thought...but I just read an interesting take on the subject from "steamtunnel" on his Hydra's Grotto blog. While his post is months old, it bears some more discussion I think. Below is his original post for your thought, and discussion.

So last weekend wandering around PAX the one thing I would get excited about if I had the time would probably have been Elder Scrolls V. In my opinion the Elder Scrolls Series is the heir to whatever crown Ultima wore. Technologically it picked up where Ultima Underworld, UWII and Ultima's V, VI, and VII left off - with Ultima V being the Empire Strikes Back or the series (more on this later).

But this is not a review per se of Skyrim. Rather in reading and hearing about it I was struck with an interesting piece of info: The region of Skyrim is roughly the same size as the region covered in Oblivion, which is around 16 square miles in area. Really? 16 square miles is 4 miles on each side. My 6mi hexagon obsessed brain immediately replies: "You realise that's all on one hex." The game is supposed to be epic -and from what I can tell it is- but, the fact that the whole thing would fit in a single hex boggles my mind. So I went and got a map of Cyrodiil the land covered in Oblivion I saw once in my internet wanderings just to see how much adventure (by location) you could cram into less than 1 6mi hex. The map is below, and it is too small to see here, so I suggest looking at it here.

Places designated as cities on this map are actually more like citadels and walled towns- you can actually see their wall outline from the map. And a study of medieval settlement patterns indicates that the distances and frequencies of these in relation to each other is entirely believable. Counting each city area as a single location this map displays 89 caves, 50 forts, 15 Shrines, 16 Inns and Stables, 23 mines, 30 settlements, 31 camps, 12 cities/castles/walled towns, and 50 ruins for a total of 316 or more distinct locations. Granted many of these locations stack into way to lend verisimilitude to a quarter of a square mile. If you start walking and walk for 4 miles in the game it will take you about the same time as if you walked 4 miles in real life. Ad to it all that this is the area surrounding a major city. Also there is a representational telescopeing -a sort of illusion that tricks the video game player into feeling like there is a cast of thousands when there really is just several hundred- but my point is that when played the area seems realistic in the frequency of encounters and the amount of travel someone needs to do in an adventure.

My own stocking of a six mile hex pales in comparison. Granted I don't have buckets of money from a major video game studio and a team of people designing adventure locations- however the OPD contests and similar collaborative efforts in the OSR, not to mention the wealth of relocatable locations published in the tabletop gaming sphere (Dyson Logos alone give you a lot of maps) put similar levels of detail in the grasp of pretty much any DM.

Looking at things like google or bing mapping programs really shows how you could have several adventure locations in just one 5 or 6 mile hex and it be completely believable. This stats me wondering about the implications of a sandbox- perhaps the 1 mile hex might be more conductive. Additionally if a DM wanted to link several worlds in a setting that crosses time and space perhaps all they need do is detail the 6 mile hex around the entry point to that world. The complication arrives when the entry and exit are not in the same place. Certainly information like this makes me rethink the range that adventure needs to be epic and yet still a sandbox.

Dark Souls

2011-12-28T20:47:00.000-08:00

Although Roguelikes, FIFA, and MLB the Show, fill the bulk of my scant video gaming time there is one console RPG I had on my list this holiday season. Nope not Skyrim (the wife is playing that), my pick was broodingly entitled Dark Souls.

This is supposedly the ultimate "gamer cred" game as it unflinchingly hands you your ass for simply rushing around and not thinking through things. Wide open sandbox format, no spoon fed niceties, just a man and his will to survive.

In concept it reminds me of my experiences in RPG's and why I still play and design them. The wide open, go exploring, try anything and cross your fingers it works out nature of RPG's is something that no other game format can equal. In a console game, there are always going to be limits, in an RPG-it really should be wide open. While many modern (non-OSR) games seek to codify and limit the experience (becoming more like Video games in that aspect) the OSR trend seeks to pare back the restrictions and its why I still play them.

Think back to when you first started playing RPG's, my first character was a dwarf. I walked down some stairs, tripped a trap fell onto spikes 20 feet down and died--the end. I was shocked, surprised, upset, and ready to play again. I learned to look for traps after that death lesson! From what I read, Dark Souls is much like that experience with the same philosophy of learning through trial and deadly error. That's a staple in earning your RPG gamer stripes, and its amazing that this is somehow an earth shattering experience in video games.

If you are interested, the manual that comes with the game is spartan-in the extreme (worthless). Fortunately the beautiful Dark Souls guide (hardcover, 380pg full color, $25 MSRP) was an additional on holiday gift and will certainly see use.

Below are snippets of an interview with the designer and review of the game that both sparked my interest. Maybe they will interest you too.

Interview with Hidetaka Miyazaki
Dark Souls' genius – the hook at the heart of its gameplay philosophy – is the concept of death as education rather than punishment. Death can teach you something in other games too, but here it's an intentional learning device. It's a wonderfully elegant piece of game design, and one that I hadn't seen anywhere before Demon's Souls. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Miyazaki can't cite any other game as an inspiration. "Strictly, there are no other specific games that inspired this unique design," he says.

"But the main concept behind the death system is trial and error. The difficulty is high, but always achievable. Everyone can achieve without all that much technique – all you need to do is learn, from your deaths, how to overcome the difficulties. Overcoming challenges by learning something in a game is a very rewarding feeling, and that's what I wanted to prioritise in Dark Souls and Demon's Souls. And because of the online, you can even learn something from somebody else's death. I'd say that was the main concept behind the online, too."

Death, as a concept, is the constant that runs through every element of Dark Souls (and Demon's Souls before it) – not just the gameplay, not just the level and enemy design, but its artwork and internal mythology as well. These games' worlds are places of suspended animation: places where everything has died, save a few lost and wandering souls. They have a strange, unsettling sense of the eternal about them. Wandering the Boletarian Palace or the Undead Burg, you feel like the grime-blackened medieval structures around you might have been there for ever – once full of the living and breathing, perhaps, but long, long since given over to death and decay.

"We spent a long time discussing the base concept of the art design," explains Miyazaki, asked how the team of artists and designers that he manages constructed Dark Souls' visual design. "The game focuses a lot on death, but what is death? What does it look like? What does death mean in this world? What does it mean to live and to die? That is something we discussed very closely. The story is about a fire in the world, a symbol of both living and death. The fire is what brought death to Dark Souls' world, but also the only hope for life. Demons, chaos, dragons, all of them are different incarnations and representations of our idea of death in Dark Souls.

"Dragons, for instance, emerged as a concept somewhere between a living and a dead thing – neither one nor the other. At the same time, though, I wanted to create something beautiful, with this idea of death at heart. But again, people have a lot of different definitions of what beautiful means. We had deep discussion about what beautiful should mean for Dark Souls."

REVIEW SOURCE
Descending a granite staircase early in Dark Souls, you find a Black Knight obstructing the corridor below. He stands with his back turned, oblivious to your approach. A white loot orb glows cheekily at the far end of the passage. Lesser games might telegraph this enemy’s difficulty by showing it rear its head back and screech, flecking the camera lens with spittle. Such condescension would be superfluous in From Software’s action-RPG template. The mere outline of the knight’s horned helmet – instantly recognisable from the game’s box art – sets your pulse galloping.

You know he’ll be an ornery bastard, relentless and overpowering. He will carve you into slices finer than a deli ham. But the option here of whether or not to engage is a calculated farce. You know that, after wiping your palms off on your trouser legs and taking a deep breath, you’ll provoke the Black Knight. Because glowing loot is to the RPG enthusiast as fire is to the moth. Put simply, ‘compulsion’ is too weak a word.
In order to keep a reassuring distance, you hurl a throwing knife before switching hastily back to your primary weapon. The Black Knight hardly flinches as he pivots around to face you, still terrifyingly mute. Then he charges. Just like the moth, your flailing, flapping demise is both grim and comically Chaplin-esque.
You died, says the game, just in case you’d mistaken your hero’s slumping to the ground for a sudden fit of narcolepsy. You died. This curt declaration appears on your screen with such dispiriting frequency over the course of your time with Dark Souls, the words practically burn into your TV screen. You died.
Just like its 2009 predecessor Demon’s Souls, Dark Souls mirrors the Black Knight’s posture. The game stands with its back to gamers who feel entitled to the coddling of selectable difficulty tiers, enemies with neon-signposted weakspots, and checkpoints as tightly spaced as a trail of Pac-Man dots. Anyone who expects to button-mash their way to victory should avoid playing Dark Souls entirely and simply watch walkthrough videos with a bucket of popcorn in their lap.

Dark Souls has all the trappings of a rote fantasy RPG. You’ll select from the usual bundle of character classes – warrior, hunter, pyromancer, cleric, et al. You’ll chop down undead and skeletons and plague-infested sewer rats – and if you persevere long enough, proud dragons. But don’t be fooled. Embracing a slew of the RPG genre’s hallmarks enables the game’s designers to subvert player expectations with sadistic glee.

For a genre so handicapped by its thrall to almighty Lore – an endless reshuffling of fridge-magnet poetry using words plucked from Tolkien’s Silmarillion – Dark Souls’ most revolutionary design choice involves giving the world just enough history to feel concrete and then dive-rolling out of the player’s way.

Dark Souls’ most seismic achievement – the thing that parlays the grandeur of Demon’s Souls into something improbably greater – is its persistent open world. If you could feasibly conquer Dark Souls without dying, you’d stumble across the occasional momentary framerate freefall, but not a single loading screen. The Nexus hub world and level-based structure of Demon’s Souls tacitly marked your progress through its adventure, but Dark Souls splinters that measuring stick over its knee and dares you to approximate the dimensions of its universe.

As you butt up against what you naively assume to be the outer rim of its world, a defeated boss drops a key that opens a door leading into subterranean sewers. Beat another boss at the bottom of the sewers and the world peels back further, sending you down into a massive cylindrical hole leading to a foetid shantytown. You delve farther down, expecting to hit bedrock. There can’t be another layer. Can there? You shrug off your claustrophobia and spelunk deeper still. Yet another sprawling domain opens up. You get dizzy with the scale, unsettled and insecure about the progress you’ve made, like the explorers in Danielewski’s House Of Leaves descending the book’s infernal, ever-expanding spiral staircase. After all, this is just one of many paths you can explore in the world of Dark Souls. You could’ve explored the Catacombs instead. Or the Darkroot Basin lake, shimmering in moonlight, with its projectile-spewing Hydra. Welcome to the most memorable game world since… wait a second, did we just consider deleting the word ‘since’?

Most contemporary games are unctuous, clingy suitors, welcoming players with fawning deference and open arms. Conversely, Dark Souls beckons the masochistic with its chilly indifference. If you steel your nerves and persevere, the loot you'll uncover is an adventure so exquisitely morose and far-ranging that it will tug at your mind insistently during the hours you spend apart. After more than 60 hours into our journey, an NPC clucks: "How do these martyrs keep chugging along? I'd peter out in an instant." We do so, quite simply, because other games feel comparatively bland, facile and unsatisfying. Few will complete Dark Souls, but that fact won't nullify the adventures they've had straining toward its elusive summit

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-24T05:26:00.000-08:00

Best wishes to you and yours this holiday season!

Far Trek adventure seed

2011-12-23T07:39:00.000-08:00

Lots going on and not much time to post recently, sorry!

I posted an adventure outline I ran for my Far Trek game RPG game.

It's kind of a Star Trek version of zombies entitled No Mercy...and it was a hit!

You can download Far Trek for free and give the adventure a go yourself, let me know how it works out for you.

Live long and prosper fellow gamers!

Treasure Island

2011-12-13T17:57:00.000-08:00

Growing up, Treasure Island for me was my best loved tale. My edition was illustrated by NC Wyeth, and I destroyed 2 copies with constant reading. I've never tired of it, and the movies never captured the magic of the tale for me...until 1990.

Home from college, my brothers and I saw what I consider to be the best version ever. It blew me away how great the adaptation was and how much of the story they stayed true to. Better yet? CHARLTON HESTON is in it as Long John Silver...along with Oliver Reed, Christopher Lee, Pete Posthelwaite, and Christian "Batman" Bale as Young Jim Hawkins. Add in musical score by The Chieftains and you have one of the best pirate movies ever.

I had the VCR tape, and wore it out with viewings...and finally the day I never thought would arrive is here...21 years later, the DVD just released. I've yammered endlessly to my wife about the film for ages and tonight it arrived, and we are settling in to watch it.

If you are a fan of pirate movies, Hornblower, Patrick O'Brien, or Treasure Island... do yourself a favor and get it while you can. I bought two as I have learned my lesson, and won't repeat the mistake of not having it.

FYI-Fraser Heston (son of Charlton) directed and wrote this version, because his dad read it to him as a boy, the illustrated N.C. Wyeth edition. Those Wyeth illustrations formed the look, feel , and overall cinematography of the film. A commentary by Fraser is an option on the disk...and it reinforces why this filmed version rings so true to me and why I still love this story.

Don't make the mistake of missing it.

Rogue Space review

2011-12-12T14:22:00.000-08:00

Porky, from Porky's Expanse, just published a very fair and honest review of my little game Rogue Space. Dig it!

Westeros...like you have never seen it before

2011-12-09T19:30:00.000-08:00

Big version here

Can a brother get a Greyhawk version? Hey WotC--why not unleash the kraken on THAT idea.

Also I have a hankering to make a Game of Thrones Risk game now. I experimented with one for Wizard Kings block game a few years back...but I think a Risk version would be easy to sell, easy to play, and like the LOTR, Star Wars, HALO, and Metal Gear Solid versions-could be unique and flavorful. Heck, there's another multi-million dollar idea I gave away...damn.

What if: Dungeons & Dragons for sale

2011-12-03T06:32:00.000-08:00

It's clear D&D 4th did not turn into the lucrative cash cow that Hasbro wanted (needed?) it to be. For modern fans of the game (3.0+) 4th edition did not deliver, and for many classic gamers, it was a bit of an abomination. Note this is not meant as edition wars stuff, its just the lay of the land.

How can I tell it failed? 4 things: Look at the rise of OSR during the 4th edition era. I see that as a sign of Old Schoolers who may have rediscovered the game in the 3.+ era, but then went further back when 4th went forward.

Second the rise to dominance of Paizo during 4th edition era as gamers who liked the 3.5 rules, were happy to keep playing them.

3rd, the demise of 4th edition products: nothing says failure like people not buying your game, right Radakai?

Last: Distributors, they confirm Pathfinder out sells D&D in their channels.

Net result: people still wanted to play D&D, just not the official game as currently presented by Hasbro.

So let's put you in the shoes of Joe Hasbro (my these are expensive shoes): You have an RPG property that:

1. Is known world wide
2. Has a mixed public perception
3. Has high costs to support: art, publishing, warehousing, staff, support teams
4. Does not have a solid repeat purchase model
5. Has lost market share
6. Is in a declining/decaying market category
7. limited mass market placement (book stores)...which is on very shaky footing.

So if I am Joe Hasbro, why would I want to make 5.0? Why wouldn't I license a company to produce the RPG for me....or maybe I just sell the RPG portion of the property outright.

The boardgames do well enough for me, and I could make those in my sleep. For me they are cheap to produce, and I can charge a premium for them. I have tons of miniature molds so I could dump out minis like there is no tomorrow into my games as modules. A couple maps, some cards, a few scenarios and I'll make that random monster in red, blue and green for different power levels or what ever the kids call them. I have enough clout to get these games into Target, Wal-Mart, and TRU. That's where the sales are! So I'll make the board games I am good at and get them placed where I know they will sell. We did D&D clue, so why not Greyhawk Risk...and Forgotten Realms Risk. LotR Risk worked quite well... Why not a D&D version of Trouble? or Dungeonland instead of Candy Land? Chutes and Ladders-how about Traps and Tunnels? What if Sorry was re-themed with magic spell cards? Can I keep giving away million dollar ideas for free? Anyway, as Joe Hasrbo, I'll let some other schmo can relieve his dreams of the 80's (checkered bandana not included.)

GW did it with Warhammer RPG, so let's assume it happens, and Hasbro licenses, or maybe sells, the RPG business to someone: Who would it go to, and would (could?) they cancel the OGL as part of the agreement to take it?

From the Pipeweed Gnome: Realism vs. Rationale

2011-11-27T10:59:00.000-08:00

AS I get older (not necessarily more mature) my tastes in gaming have changed. At one point D&D was enough, but there were gaps I wanted filled. Then TFT fixed some issues but left out some of the fantastic in favor of realism. Experimenting with game systems went to and fro: from Gamma World to Aftermath or the Morrow Project, Conan to Palladium Fantasy, Chill to Cthulhu, Dinky Dungeons to Chivalry & Sorcery, Marvel Heroes to V&V and DC Heroes...and on and on. If I sat and tried to recall all the various game systems I have owned and played I am pretty sure its well over 120 at this point. From the simple to uber-complex each offered something I liked...and things I did not.

Now I know I am firmly on the side of simple game engine, and players ability to add their own complexity. In the end though, one of the greatest issues in adventure games for me is the conflict of realism versus rationale. I think I have finally resolved this issue (for myself) as well.

So let's define both before proceeding further:

Realism: concern for fact or reality and rejection of the impractical and visionary, the theory or practice of fidelity in art and literature to nature or to real life and to accurate representation without idealization

Rationale: an explanation of controlling principles of opinion, belief, practice, or phenomena,

an underlying reason or basis.

At this point I have steadfastly learned to limit the need for realism in fantasy games of any stripe, at the same time I have replaced and increased my need for rationale in my gaming. Orcs that breathe fire and fart poison gas clouds-okay cool, but why? I am all for weird fantasy and the oddities of some of the more creative minded, but I can't simply go there with you just because you say so.

Many decry the fun-house nature of some dungeon crawls, wanting a logical ecology or reason for things operating the way they do. I agree with a rationale for the setting, but not with a need to create an ecology to turn the fantastic realistic. An old dungeon becomes the lair for a lich and his legions of undead? That is a rationale for the undead dungeon crawl. An old king or wizard kept a menagerie of beasts in dungeons under his castle from foreign lands-okay there is your fun house rationale, I am good to go.

I am no longer looking for accurate damage models based upon the unicorn horn piercing strength while charging at 33.7 MPH versus the tinsel strength of adamantium armor blessed by King Gruffenwald. At one time I was, but having given up on most realism in my games, all I need to know is: what the rationale is in your world for this happening.

Oh to be clear, I don't desire a frustrated fantasy novelist exposition. Given a couple sentence of description regarding your rationale, maybe 3 at most, I am happy to play right a long and enjoy the ride.

Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away. Antoine de Saint-Exupery

In praise of pig faced orcs

2011-11-27T08:18:00.000-08:00

I never had an issue with orcs being pig faced. In fact it never struck me that they would be anything but. Which is odd considering my first memorable look at orcs was not D&D, but instead the Bakshi Lord of the Rings animated films. In Bakshi's roto-scoped vision they seems more like fanged beastmen. Cool looking and spooky, but I'd be hard-pressed to call them pig faced. Even so I don;t think I ever thought of them as "pig faced" until D&D.

Now these green skinned guys are more along the lines of the orcs I had in mind from D&D. Pig faced humanoids, boar tusks, and green skinned. I never understood why they were green skinned though. For what ever reasons goblins being green was fine (probably a pre-established mental tie-in from Marvel's Green Goblin) but orcs as green skinned? Well I guess if there are other oddities in a fantasy world, why not this one. But...on the front of module B2 we see Roslof's interpretation...maybe. There is still dispute over are these hobgoblins (with their samurai like armor) or are these orcs give their pig faced attributes...if orcs, why are they reddish and not green skinned?

Either way, the orc never really held too much overt interest as an enemy for me. In fact in the starting monster hierarchy (Kobold-Goblin-Orc-Hobgoblin) they were just a stop along the way, with more HP and who could do more damage. I blame two things for this: one is my own youth and (lack of) understanding in DM-ing monsters and two, the level up mechanics of D&D which pre-supposes only creatures of a certain level are deadly to you at certain levels. Advance in levels, and the previously deadly monsters disappear like a bad dream from your world. Any orcs in the S series of modules? Goblins? Kobolds? Hobgoblins? not so much...

That's why in Roguish, monsters are going to be treated a bit differently. More along the lines of TFT where monsters are always dangerous. Recently I watched the series "American Hoggers." In it a family (with help) goes after wild boar in Texas. Thinking back to the pig faced orcs of old, and watching how wild, deadly and destructive actual boars are, I have a new paradigm for using orcs in my games. Now formerly pig-faced green skins, my orcs will be more boarish in appearance with short bristled hair. They will be tough, deadly, able (and ready) to eat anything (or any one). They will breed quickly and thus pose problems to all other humanoid races because of these. As voracious eaters they are a threat, and as a fast breeder, their numbers swell quickly. They will be tough and dangerous fighters. Oh..and no half orcs, that's just lame. My orcs will be more like this:

A little Roguish Magic

2011-11-19T08:31:00.000-08:00

Here is a sneak peak of one spell in my Roguish Fantasy RPG. Magic is one of the most difficult (for me) bits about designing (and for that matter playing) an RPG.

This is more true as I am specifically desiging Roguish to be old school in feel and style, while also NOT being another retro clone/OGL/d20 system. There are so many (some very good) ones out already. I can't say that Roguish will meet or fit your style of game play, I can only guarantee it will fit and meet mine. The system uses 3d6 to resolve all game actions (combat, spell casting, resisting, tests) so the funny sided dice (as my wife calls them) will have to take a holiday when you play Roguish.

OSR Team-Up #1

2011-11-12T12:01:00.000-08:00

I am honored to announce I will be working with the talented A.J. of Stonewerks blog fame on a new project. Our project will be an expansion and fleshing out of a previous adventure I posted, Pocket Full of Peril #7: Lair of the Lunartics. Originally, I used A.J.'s unique hive like geomorphs for this adventure and posted it as a smaller part of the larger adventure I had made.

Now A.J. is using his talent and time to bring the full adventure to life...and to you true believer! In the spirit of the Team-Up comics of yore, we've conceived of our own version: an OSR Team-Up! This is the first one, and we may even publish it in a comic book format!

A.J. is creating all new maps, as well as unique art (check out that wicked cool cover he made-outstanding!), and it will include full descriptions of the setting, the adventure, and of course expanded info on the foes!

Stay tuned for project updates on both our blogs as the Lunartics come to life!

Excelsior!

PFoP module D4 now available for download

2011-11-11T10:04:00.000-08:00

The final module in the Pocket Full of Peril edition of Dyson's Delve is now available for download.

This was a fun project and I really like formatting adventures in this manner. A couple things I learned and would change when going forward are:

1) Limit adventures to 2 maps and use more space for text or stats if using them.

2) Have an actual back cover. That will make it into an actual mini module!

When I use this format for modules for my own fantasy game Roguish I will apply these lessons, and any other suggestions or comments you may have. Thanks for downloading the series and I hope you enjoyed them!

I plan on making an announcement tomorrow about a project in the works with another OSR blogger.

PFoP Module D3: download it now!

2011-11-05T06:46:00.000-07:00

The latest, and next to last, PFoP module edition of Dyson's Delve is now available for download! Click on the PFoP Repository picture to your right to download it, or any of the other PFoP's you like! There are 13 to choose from now, holy crap I put out stuff more frequently than WotC baby! (Sure it's not as good, but hey what do you want for free!)

I have one more DD Module to go which I will post next weekend!

My nerd wallet geomorph project will begin shortly, unfortunately the actual squares of graph paper are TINY--but hey who doesn't like a challenge!

Also, another project is starting to slowly take shape, I hope to share the details of it in the next few days.

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-31T05:22:00.001-07:00

Geomorph + wallet = The Ultimate Pocket Full of Peril!

2011-10-30T19:21:00.000-07:00

I needed a new wallet and wound up getting a Dynomighty wallet. Actually my wife picked it out while I was at work. At first I scoffed...but...after using it for a week, it really is a kick ass wallet. Looking more into them, I saw a design that every gamer on the planet should own...and personalize-the Graph Paper wallet! These can be illustrated with permanent pen (think sharpie) and individualized! Holy crap a Stonewerks or Dyson Logos hand drawn geomorph wallet would ROCK! Crap I need to do this even though my map skills stink on ice! Maybe I will copy some of the B2 Caves of Chaos?

Anyway I had a gamer gift exchange idea here: You buy a wallet, you draw a map on it, and you send it to someone else for Christmas. Hell you could actually make a mini adventure for the map you draw on the wallet! Kind of the ultimate OSR Christmas gift. Then you could scan the wallet (or redraw it, with the adventure) and put it on your blog. Damn it is Pockets Full of Peril!

The wallets run $15, so with shipping you are probably out $20--but then someone would send you a handmade one back so really-it's a break even proposition.

Anyway it's just another crazy idea from yours truly. More about the wallets below:

The writable surface can become a convenient note pad for your Frequent Flier, Car Rental and Hotel membership numbers without having to carrying a card around for each.

The Mighty Wallet® is tear-resistant, water-resistant, expandable and recyclable. Made from Tyvek® (think express mail envelopes), these cool wallets resist tearing because of thousands of interlocking plastic fibers spun in random patterns, giving them incredible strength.

The ingenious origami construction was and is the original folded Tyvek® wallet designed by Terrence Kelleman. The stitch less design reinforces the materials own strength and allows these very slim wallets to instantly expand and adapt to your own personal storage needs. The Mighty Wallet® will expand right before your eyes (watch the videos).

Because of the slim, lightweight and water resistant features, you can take these cool wallets anywhere. They make great "night out" wallets for a slender silhouette and the writable surface conveniently acts as a quick note pad on the go.

In time, the Mighty Wallet® will gradually soften and patina but, even after years of wear, it will still offer surprise and solicit intrigue.

Historical Oddity: Female Classes for D&D

2011-10-30T07:16:00.000-07:00

It's 1976 and the World's most popular role playing game has yet to break out. In this pupa stage of development, many interesting, if odd, ideas were still possible. One of them being female specific rules for classes. The article from Dragon magazine #3 below is 4 pages and there are many interesting bits from a historical and gaming perspective. I won't pontificate my own thoughts as I think this speaks best on its own.

Pocket Full of Peril Module D2 now available for download

2011-10-29T07:07:00.000-07:00

The second Pocket Full of Peril Module in the Dyson's Delve series is now available for download! Click on the Pocket Full of Peril repository image to your right to download it now.

I really like this format, and once I publish my fantasy game Roguish, I intend on doing a few modules in this format for it. This would be in addition to the regular Pocket Full of Peril quick adventures for it.

For Roguish, I'll expand on my Lunartics and publish it as the first module.

As always your thoughts and comments are welcome.

Trick or Treat?

2011-10-23T00:35:00.000-07:00

As promised earlier this week, here is a new Pocket Full of Peril..but with a twist. I am going to do a 4 module series using Dyson Logos' Dyson's Delve as the subject.

Dyson's map work has been the feature of past PFoP's and it struck me, while looking at a copy of Stuart Robertson's Masterful mini-module CITADEL OF EVIL, that this could be a cool mash up! A Pocket Mod module series? Truly a Pocket Full of Peril!

So click on the Pocket Full of Peril repository to your right and download the first mini module in the series.

Tip of the cap to Dyson of course for the great adventure to work with and to Stuart for the inspirational pocket mod module design.

Pirates & Peril

2011-10-22T16:04:00.000-07:00

Well a busy day of writing produced 3 (holy crap!) new supplements for my Rogue Space RPG. The new setting is Space Pirates and is set in an alternate 1930's setting after Worlds War One. (no, Worlds is not a typo). This poster says it all:

Rogue Space: Pirates &Peril

D&D, what it is and where it is going....

2011-10-21T20:53:00.000-07:00

I read the following article 3 times to drink in all of its goodness, and I am still a bit in awe. Think about when this was written, in late 1978 or early 1979 before the D&D rocket really took off, right as it was leaving the launch pad really. AD&D was new, the DMG not even out yet, Holmes Box Set was D&D Basic, and the LBB's were still a core part of the product mix. A time of transition, consolidation, clarification and anticipation. Read for yourself, and be amazed (p.s. folks in charge of D&D @WotC, especially you!). This was published in the February 1979 issue of The Dragon #22

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS®
WHAT IT IS AND WHERE IT IS GOING
by Gary Gygax

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS® pioneered role playing in the gaming hobby. It brought fantasy before hobbyists, and it set before them a game-form most had never heard of. Perhaps 150,000 persons now play D&D®, but it was by no means an instant success. 1,000 boxed sets, hand assembled and labled, took eleven months to sell, another 1,000 of the same took only five or six months to sell (and Tactical Studies Rules was thrilled). Finally a third printing of 2,000 sold in five months. So from January, 1974, to December, 1975, only 4,000 sets of the original version of the game were in circulation. (Of course, I have no way of knowing how many pirated copies of D&D were in existence, but some estimates place the figure at about 20% of the total sales, some as high as 50%. In any case 5,000 or 6,000 sets was certainly nothing to set the gaming world on fire, or was it?) Today the “Basic Set” sells 4,000 copies per month, and the sales graph is upwards.

A month has not gone by in the last two years when I haven’t been interviewed by one or more newspaper writers or independent journalists who want to know all about D&D. I have likewise been interviewed by radio and TV news media, generally for the same reason. At the risk of claiming too much for the game, I have lately taken to likening the whole to Aristotle’s POETICS, carrying the analogy to even more ridiculous heights by stating that each Dungeon Master uses the rules to become a playwrite (hopefully of Shakespearean stature), scripting only plot outlines however, and the players become the Thespians.

Before incredulity slackens so as to allow the interviewer to become hostile, I hasten to add that the analogy applies only to the basic parts of the whole pastime, not to the actual merits of D&D, its DMs, or players. If you consider the game, the analogy is actually quite apt. DUNGEONS & DRAGONS is like none other in that it requires the game master to create part or all of a fantasy world. Players must then become personae in this place and interact with the other populace. This is, of course a tall order for all concerned — rules, DM, and players alike.

Relating a basic adventure, an episodic game session in the campaign, to a trip in an underground labyrinth does help the uninitiated to understand the simplest D&D fundamentals — discover an unknown area, move around in it by means of descriptive narration from the Dungeon Master, overcome whatever obstacles are there (traps, problems, monsters), and return with whatever has been gained during the course of the whole. The DM takes the part of everything in this fantasy world which is not operated by a player. While this should not mean it is then a game of DM versus the players, it does mean that DUNGEONS & DRAGONS is a co-operative game where players must interact successfully amongst themselves first, and
non-hostile portions of the campaign milieu thereafter, in order to be successful. The Dungeon Master is incidentally against the players when he or she is operating that part of the “world” which is hostile, or potentially so, but in general the referee must be disinterested.

At about this point I am always asked: “Well, then, how do you win? who wins?!” The answer is, EVERYBODY — providing that the game is well run. The DM gets the satisfaction of testing his abilities against those of the players, the fun of taking the non-player parts, and the accolades of participants when a particularly well-done adventure or series has been completed. Players enjoy the challenges of each situation and have the prospect of continuing adventures and puzzles to confront them, each with his or her game persona. Thus all taking part in the campaign get something besides a momentary diversion.

Winning no more applies to D&D than it does to real life. The successful DMs and players gain renown via their campaigns or their superior characters. To enthusiasts of the game it is far more satisfying than triumphing in a single game or whole series of games. Simply stated, D&D is a multi-player game of fantasy role playing, where the rules give systems of resolution for common game occurrences, lists and explanations of things which are not actual (monsters, spells, magic items, etc.), systems for interaction, and suggestions as to how to put this into the campaign, i.e. create the milieu. Once begun, the campaign continues until the DM and/or all of the players decide it should end. As with any exercise in fantasy it requires suspension of disbelief. Those who find the game interesting will soon enough thereafter create their own sort of involvement and belief. But why is such a game (and similar fantasy role playing games, for that matter) so popular? What is its appeal!?

Our modern world has few, if any, frontiers. We can no longer escape to the frontier of the West, explore Darkest Africa, sail to the South Seas. Even Alaska and the Amazon Jungles will soon be lost as wild frontier areas. Furthermore, adventures are not generally possible anymore. The frontiers are receding into memories, modern communications make all of the world available to casual travellers, and the most backward places are becoming more and more civilized. Certainly it is still possible to go scuba diving, mountain climbing, auto racing, sky diving, and so on. These are expensive and risky for no real purpose in most cases. One can also have adventures as a criminal, or possibly as an agent of the government (if one is sufficiently qualified), but the former is distasteful to say the least, and the latter is most unlikely. Americans, with more leisure today than ever, crave entertainment. Some desire adventure and excitement. Obviously, various entertainment media are doing big business — TV, motion pictures, spectator sports, recreational vehicles, sporting goods, book publishers, and game manufacturers are all growing. “Escape fiction” sells better today than ever, and witness the success of the recent science fiction and fantasy films.

Looking towards space and the future for new frontiers and adventure is logical. The universe has fascinated mankind since recorded history, and today it seems quite probable that within a few decades numbers of us will live off of the earth, and in a century or so we will travel to the stars. Perhaps there will be frontiers and adventure enough then for all who care to test their mettle. But it is no less surprising for us to look into the realms of fantasy for imagined adventure. Most literate people grow up on a diet of fairy tales, Walt Disney, and comic book superheroes. We somehow relate to stories of young princes going out into the world to seek their fortune, of knights rescuing maidens in distress and slaying dragons, of dealings with wicked magicians and evil witches. The myth of all peoples contain great stocks of such fantasy lore. If nothing else, the desire to believe in such seems to be innate in humanity. Whether or not there are parallel worlds or places where fantastic creatures actually live and magic works is not germane, for most of us are familiar with the concepts as if they were actual, and we have a desire to become involved, if only vicariously, amongst such heroic epics of magic and monsters. It is therefore scarcely surprising that a game which directly involves participants in a make-believe world of just such nature should prove popular; and had I reasoned out the enthusiasm it roused amongst the first few who played it, it would have been evident that D&D was destined to become a very popular game indeed. (Naturally, hindsight is usually a 20/20 proposition, and the fact is I wrote the game for a small audience of devoted miniatures players . . . )

If millions take to the fantasy world of J.R.R. Tolkien, and nearly as many follow the heroic feats of Conan, the market potential of a game system which provides participants with a pastime which creates play resembling these adventuresome worlds and their inhabitants is bounded only by its accessibility. Access has two prominent aspects; availability is the first; that is, are potential players informed of the fact that the game exists, and are they able to physically obtain it; and difficulty is the second, for if once obtained the game is so abstruse as to be able to be played only by persons with intelligence far above the norm, or if the game demands a volume of preliminary work which is prohibitive for the normal individual, this will be recognized and the offering shunned even if it is available. D&D failed on both counts, and still its following grew. Today we are putting D&D onto the track where it is envisioned it will have both maximum availability and minimum difficulty. This is best illustrated in the “Basic Set.”

Well over two years ago we recognized that there was a need for an introductory form of the game. In 1977 the colorfully boxed “Basic Set” was published. It contained simplified, more clearly written rules, dungeon geomorphs, selections of monsters and treasures to place in these dungeons, and a set of polyhedra dice — in short all that a group of beginning players need to start play with relative ease. Later editions have cleaned up most of the flaws in the first, and the newest will do away with the geomorphs and list of monsters and treasures in favor of a complete basic module, so that difficulty will be reduced even further. This should broaden the game’s appeal to a base in the millions, and then the major factor becomes availability. Popular demand always increases availability, and D&D has been blessed by its enthusiasts most generously in this regard. Coupled with the work being done by TSR to publicize and promote the game, the availability factor will also be maximized over the next few years. Finally, to maintain interest, a series of new and interesting modular dungeon and outdoor scenarios, as well as more playing aids, will be made available periodically. The number of D&D players should certainly continue to mushroom for several years.

Fanatical game hobbyists often express the opinion that DUNGEONS & DRAGONS will continue as an ever-expanding, always improving game system. TSR and I see it a bit differently. Currently D&D is moving in two directions. There is the “Original” game system and the new ADVANCED D&D® system. New participants can move from the “Basic Set” into either form without undue difficulty — especially as playing aid offerings become more numerous, and that is in process now. Americans have somehow come to equate change with improvement. Somehow the school of continuing evolution has conceived that D&D can go on in a state of flux, each new version “new and improved!” From a standpoint of sales, I beam broadly at the very thought of an unending string of new, improved, super, energized, versions of D&D being hyped to the loyal followers of the gaming hobby in general and role playing fantasy games in particular.

As a game designer I do not agree, particularly as a gamer who began with chess. The original could benefit from a careful reorganization and expansion to clarify things, and this might be done at some future time. As all of the ADVANCED D&D system is not written yet, it is a bit early for prognostication, but I envision only minor expansions and some rules amending on a gradual, edition to edition, basis. When you have a fine product, it is time to let well enough alone. I do not believe that hobbyists and casual players should be continually barraged with new rules, new systems, and new drains on their purses. Certainly there will be changes, for the game is not perfect; but I do not believe the game is so imperfect as to require constant improvement.

Does this mean that D&D will be at a dead end when the last of AD&D® is published? Hardly! Modules and similar material will continue to be released so as to make the DM’s task easier and his or her campaign better. Quite frankly, the appeal of D&D rests principally upon the broad shoulders of the hard-working Dungeon Masters. The rules never need improvement if the DM is doing a proper job, but of course he or she can do so only if the rules are sufficient to allow this. With refined rules and modular additions, all aspects of a long lived and exciting campaign will unquestionably be there for the DM to employ. Will D&D dead end when its novelty dies? That is impossible to answer. It is my personal opinion that the game form is a classic which is of the same stamp as chess and MONOPOLY® ; time will be the judge. No doubt that there is a limit to the appeal of the game in any of its current forms. If tens of millions play a relatively simple, so- cial sort of a game such as MONOPOLY, it is a sure thing that a far more difficult game such as D&D will have a much more limited audience. As the game cannot be simplified beyond a certain point, we look to another means of popularizing it.

DUNGEONS & DRAGONS can be played on a computer. Computers are most certainly a big aspect of the near future, particularly the home computer. Non-programmable computer games are already making big inroads into the toy and hobby market. They will grow still more, and soon programmable games will join this trend. D&D program cassettes plugged into a home computer would obviate the need for a DM or other players. Thus the labor of setting up a campaign or the necessity of having a fairly large group to play in it would be removed. The graphic display would be exciting, and the computer would slave away doing all of the record work and mechanics necessary to the game, giving nearly instantaneous results to the player or players. Computerization of D&D has many other benefits also, and such games would not destroy the human-run campaign but supplement game participation. This is the direction we hope to make available to D&D. Let’s see if my foresight is as keen as my hindsight.

All that being so, what is the purpose of this column, the reader may justifiably inquire? Well, as I make no claim to perfection, no such claim can be made for ADVANCED D&D or D&D for that matter. This column will cover controversial rules or systems, problem and so-called problem areas of D&D/AD&D, and consider new material as well. If the games are not to be continually changing and “evolving,” neither is it envisioned that they have reached such a state of perfection so as to become immutable. What appears herein is discussion which will sometimes lead to alteration, amendment, or expansion of one or the other system. Initially, what you read here will be direct from me, but all DMs — and players also — are invited to submit article material of high calibre. A glance at the introductory sections of all of the works comprising the D&D/AD&D systems will show that many individuals contributed to the designs. The list in the forthcoming DUNGEON MASTERS GUIDE is longer still. All of these individuals, and the audience at large, are cordially invited to submit their thoughts and opinions on pertinent matters. If I am not to be “the great god gygax,” a claim I have never made nor supported, there must be input which presents argumentation and systems which are meaningful alternatives to replace or augment existing rules and systems. This is not to say that anyone’s favorite variant, even if well designed, is likely to become D&D/AD&D, but at worst reasons for why it is unacceptable will be given, and the possible results could be a major change in the game. So here is your forum. Let us hope it becomes a useful and meaningful exchange!

Quick updates...the Walking Dead

2011-10-17T17:28:00.000-07:00

1) Sorry I was traveling out of town last weekend so I was unable to update the site.

2) I think I found a middle road for Roguish combat that meets my hopes and expectations. Thanks for the feedback, I ran through it with the wife last night and she thought it was really good and easy to grasp. More testing needed, but overall it works well.

3) With the wife out of town this weekend, that means I will be able to get a lot of creative game stuff done.

4) Look for a Space Pirates expansion for Rogue Space this weekend.

5) A new Pocket full of Peril will show up here this weekend.

6) I put up a Far Trek site RPG site.

7) Last, I loved the first episode of The Walking Dead season 2, try out my 8pg Zombies Attack game if you are in the zombie mood

Combat in Roguish, a fork in the design road

2011-10-12T18:06:00.000-07:00

Now that I have character creation sorted, I have one more design fork in the road. Dynamic or passive combat resolution.

Both have merit, and play testers are split. As a referee I like rolling as well as in combat players...but in the wrong hands that mechanic could lead to a "versus" feeling between referee and players...

Here are the options and reasons as I see them

Dynamic Combat

Attacker: Roll 3d6+stat bonus + ability bonus ..VERSUS

Defender: Roll 3d6+ armor bonus + ability bonus

If attacker’s total is higher than the defender roll for damage, if not-no damage done.

· Positive: combat feels more dynamic in play both for players and referee

· Negative-a lot of dice rolling and it does lengthen combat.

This method gives the attacker a bonus based on natural ability and specialized skill. The defender is also seen as actively avoiding being hit by also using dice +abilities to defend.

Net result: This method leaves much to the randomness of dice, or fickleness of fate if you prefer. This randomness is somewhat mitigated by the bell curve of using 3d6 instead of complete randomness of a d20

Passive Combat

Attacker: Roll 3d6 + stat bonus + ability bonus

Defender: Armor Protection + any applicable ability total.

If attackers total exceeds defender AP + ability total, damage is rolled against defender. If not defender is safe.

This method follows a more modern d20 style of play.

Positive: simple to adjudicate and quick to resolve.

Negative: lacks dynamic feel in combat as player juts waits to see if hit or not. 3d6 bell curve also means heavier armors make players/foes much more difficult to hit. This makes that armor very valuable and sought after which also means in game economics, there is a good reason for very high prices.

Net result-well if you have played the reverse (modern) AC system then you know what to expect here.

Below is the play test chart I have used for Roguish if you’d like to have a go, let me know your opinion.

Armor	Bonus	Protection	Rating
none	0	9	L
Padded/furs	+1	10	L
Leather	+2	11	L
Ring/brigandine	+3	12	M
Chain	+4	13	M
Banded	+5	14	M
Scale	+6	15	H
Plate	+7	16	H
SHIELDS	Bonus	Protection	Rating
Small Shield	+1	+1	L
Shield	+2	+2	M
Tower Shield	+3	+3	H

Pocket Full of Peril #10-Rising of the Wickerman

2011-10-08T08:01:00.000-07:00

The druid Alfius Gruun was once a noble and trusted man. As time went by he changed, secluding himself and hiding away from those seeking his knowledge. Many years later, word came of local masons and men being hired to dig a tomb for Alfius. His wife and daughter, sombre and thin, hired the men and work was done in secret as none of the men ever returned. Search parties were created, adventurers hired and eventually many years later on a bleak and withered hill a tomb door was found with one word--WICKERMAN inscribed upon it. None could figure out how to enter and a large hangman's tree is the lone sentinel guarding the entrance and marking the spot.

Download the PDF of the full adventure to your right in the PFoP link. Tip of the cap to STONEWERKS for the map!

Also note I published my Zombies Attack! Pocket RPG today. If you liked Buckshot or Rogue Space, you'll like this too!

Far Trek Update

2011-10-07T07:14:00.000-07:00

Just a quick update of the PDF text cleaning up a few extra bugs I found in there. Note I have NOT updated the printed version and will probably just remove it altogether as an option shortly. For those who have taken time to download and give it a spin, let me know what you think.

Also if you are like me and really dig minis, I HIGHLY recommend you check out Captain's blog as he makes 15mm trek-esque minis. I am not just a pitch man, I own some! I am really hoping klingons, romulans and other conversions he has made of his original figs become guys I can order. (BIG HINT). Check out the coolness below:

A quick retrospective in pictures

2011-10-02T11:06:00.000-07:00

So in the midst of all my work on a lot of different games and projects I thought it might be fun to share some images of my work. In no particular order here are some pictures of some work I have done.

Some notes on the pictures:
Akratic Wizardry is a booklet I made using Akratic's house rules and adding my own pictures as an RPG reference
Collapse is my apocalypse, fall of civilization RPG
Far Trek is my Star Trek based RPG based on Mike Berkey's Where no man has gone before 2.0 rules
The Microlite 74 booklets I bootlegged this weekend myself, they have the new 3.0 rules. It's funny a lot of my ROGUISH RPG ideas are in here, except I am only using 3d6 in my game. Still highly recommended.
The Rogue Space menagerie are all of the pocket mod books I have made (so far) for my Rogue Space Game.

Much is done--and more to come!

Pocket Full of Peril #9...Now available, and corrected!

2011-10-01T06:48:00.000-07:00

As promised, since the Halloween adventure book fell through, here is the first in a new weekly series of Pocket Full of Peril adventures for October. This Village map is actually from STONEWERKS blog. It's a killer blog I have pulled lots of maps and inspiration from! I visit it a lot...but its been awhile since he's posted so hopefully we will see more soon! Maybe I can use some of his stuff to do a Far Trek Episode of Intruigue series? I still recommend highly Dyson Logos site! I recommend you bookmark both sites and visit them often, lord knows I do!

Bleak Water Village is something a bit different than previous PFoP adventures. Now you have a setting and I think (unlike a dungeon romp) it could lead into a larger adventure possibly. Play it and see what you make of it. You can download it to your right, along with the previous 8 adventures.

For those new to it, Pocket Full of Peril adventures are index card sized mini adventures which give you a skeleton script to start you, and a lot of flexibility to add, change, and to make it your own. Drop them on your map wherever or use as a one night adventure. You have to do some work to use them like figuring out spells for the wizard or full stating the opponents, but there is enough there (I think) to give you a springboard and room for creativity.

Anyway, I hope you dig it and my apologies again to AJ @ Stonewerks for mis-attribtuing his "werk" on the original post.

Good idea...but not good enough...

2011-09-25T19:00:00.000-07:00

First, a very heartfelt thanks to those who kindly offered a commitment of their time, energy, creativity and talents to creating an OSR Halloween adventure "advent calendar" book. I also want to say a special thanks to those who got the word out on their own blogs. Unfortunately, it is not to be this year.

Sadly (from my perspective) we did not rally enough interested parties to make it happen. The short timeline, and perhaps the idea itself, may have caused its unfortunate demise.

For those who were inspired and willing to create your own Halloween inspired adventure, I hope you will continue to create one! So many talented folks committed and I was really looking forward to seeing and playing through your adventures. Hopefully I, and the rest the blogosphere, will still have an opportunity to do so.

In the meantime, I plan on creating a weekly Halloween inspired Pocket Full of Peril for October. I will float the idea again earlier next year, like a zombie, you just can't keep a good idea down.

To all who offered generously their time and talent, thanks again!

Something Wicked this way comes... (maybe)

2011-09-23T16:45:00.000-07:00

October is coming and of course that means Halloween! This season always puts me in the mood for spooky good stuff! That spooky feel has had a lot of influence on Role Playing games that I have played, probably most notably AD&D Ravenloft, Call of Cthulhu, and Chill.

I want to make a spooky adventure for Halloween, and I thought maybe I am not the only one. That got me to thinking (always dangerous)...

I don't know if you remember (or still use) advent calendars at Christmas? In essence every day you locate the date on the calendar and then pop open the small door. Then there is some gift or treat or little picture for each day leading to Christmas day.

I was thinking maybe it would be fun to do a kind of spooky "advent calendar" book of adventures for use with Old School role playing games. Kind of an "Ocktoberfeast" of spooky gaming goodness.: 31 one night adventures for the 31 nights of October!

Each adventure would need to be short (done in one night of play) and would be a stand alone so people could place them anywhere they like in their own sandbox. (Of course, we could make a gothic adventure sandbox to house them all, sort of a dread plane...but let's keep the idea simple for now.) Ideally we would have a total of 31 entries (one for each night), and I'd combine them all into a book that could be purchased at cost on lulu or downloaded as a free pdf.

Are you interested? Okay here is what I see as the parameters:

You get a date in October to make an adventure for (maybe that will inspire?)
each adventure is 2 pages:
-1 page would be the map
-1 page would handle all back story/ adventure set up and the location/ room contents.

What do I need to make it happen?
1) 30 people to commit to making a one evening adventure in a spooky or gothic horror style (you'd have about 2 weeks to complete it) (for free)
2) Some one willing to do a front cover image or scene (for free) (B&W)
3) Someone to do a back cover image or scene (for free)
3) Someone willing to make a "map page" spooky border (for free) (B&W)
4) Someone willing to make an "adventure page" spooky border (for free) (B&W)

Ideally everything would be submitted to me by the middle of October so we could have it out (at least the PDF for download) before Halloween, and the book for purchase (@cost) as soon as possible. Everyone gets full credit for their work and retains their own rights, its a labor of love.

So is this of interest to any one else and do I have 30 willing volunteers or any artists willing? The deadline would be this Sunday (9/25) to go or no go on this idea...and please do not commit to it if you really can't be 100% sure of delivering on a short schedule.

Spread the word and let's see if we can make an OSR Oktoberfeast !

Commitment count 15 out of 31 needed! I am calling it one way or the other at 7pm PST 9/25. We fell short this year, but we should have another go next year!

Classes or Skills-thoughts from a roguelike designer

2011-09-20T18:15:00.000-07:00

Here is an older, yet great post I found from a roguelike developer regarding one of the core arguments in RPG gaming. Whether pen and paper or electronic roguelike, I think the importance of the debate is the same regardless of medium. So here some food for thought and an interesting resolution from the author.

Friday, 12 January 2007

Skills vs Classes

I've been reading the debate on skills vs classes being revived again. Firstly, have a look at those blogs. They're an interesting read, and as a game developer myself, I've got a whole lot of sites to bookmark and go through.

I also feel qualified to comment on them. For the record, I have been developing a variant of Angband called Unangband since 1992. Its playable; feel free to download it from the links on angband.oook.cz or direct from the development website unangband.berlios.de.

My game falls firmly on the side of classes at the moment. However, I've learnt a lot from fellow Angband variant developers, and particularly feel in debt to the excellent coding and game-balancing of Leon Merrick who developed a skills-based Angband variant called Sangband, which I recommend you download and start playing immediately. Leon has stopped developing Sangband approximately a year ago. The last official version is that I can find hosted is here, however a more recent 'unofficial' version is available if you wish to track it down. So I'm not alien to skills, in fact, I suspect I may be implementing skills in a later version of my game.

I think the discussion around skills vs classes has been missing one very important point: if you implement a cool special ability, why should you be cutting out even 1 person in your player base from using it. Its an important point, particularly for developers who don't have large development budgets, which is what I presume the majority of people reading these articles represent. Valve, who are arguably have designed some of the best games ever, will put a huge amount of developer time to script in cool events that have happened accidentally during a playtest run through. If they put in that much attention to ensuring that everyone has the same cool experiences, surely I (and you) should be doing the same.

I'll use the concrete example of the backstab ability. This is an almost trite fantasy cliche: a thief character sneaks through the shadows up to an unsuspecting monster, pulls out a short blade and thrusts it between the enemies shoulder blades. With a gurgling shudder, the monster drops to the ground, its compatriots unaware of what has just happened.

Now most games will have some kind of routine for backstab that goes if class = thief and/or skill-check(backstab) is true and monster is asleep, apply massive damage multiplier (With no apologies to Sony). But in reality, this requires a whole lot more development work to support. In a recent discussion on rec.game.roguelike.development, for instance, I discovered that one of the competition to my roguelike implemented a line of sight dependent wake up routine, and a dungeon generation algorithm that designs the dungeon to have multiple routes to a monster, so its possible for the player to see a sleeping monster and find a path to the monster that has a minimal line of sight in order to maximise the chances of getting in the precious backstab that they have specialised in.

Now, to keep up with the Jonses, I potentially have to implement a CPU-intensive modification to my LOS algorithms, and completely rehash my dungeon design algorithms which I have just changed to ensure that I only have at most 1 connecting tunnel to each room. No way am I going to put in all that effort, just so one class specialist of the hundred or so class combinations I have in my game gets an infrequent damage multiplier.

So howabout I go through the following thought process instead. Screw classes and skills!

I want everyone who goes through the process of sneaking up on an unsuspecting monster and hits them in the back with a bladed weapon to get a massive damage multiplier. They've made the effort, they deserve the multiplier. Same with magic spells. If they've got some oil and a big red book of fire magic, and know that the monster they're fighting is vulnerable to fire, then they deserve an easy kill for covering the monster with oil and hitting it with a fire spell.

Instead, I should concentrate on things like how much of a bonus should back-stabbing give? What incentives should I be giving the player to switch to a small bladed weapon, when they have a perfectively good big brutal axe? How should I ensure that an critically injured monster can't call out to his friends, but a less critically injured one can alert them? How do I model the line of sight, AI and dungeon design/generation systems to allow a player to get to an unaware monster? What should the consequences be of the character getting caught red-handed? How far can a player throw oil and what's the splash range? If a monster catches fire, what does it do? If the player casts a fire spell, and has managed to get oil on himself, what are the consequences?

You'll probably have noticed something about the back-stabbing and fire spell examples. Each of the abilities requires a different equipment load out. Its a developer bias. Angband and their ilk are all about inventory management. But every MMORPG is also all about the loot you get from monster drops. And the good thing about a classless, skill-less system is that every drop is potentially useful to you. Not just the next-bright-shiny item for your class, which you have to spend forever looking for.

Note that I am not saying that every attack shouldn't require skill. But the skill and preferred attacks should be down to the human at the edge of the keyboard. And I'm not suggesting no levelling. Characters may still be able to level up - just a level 10 character should not be any better at backstabbing or casting spells or swinging a sword than any other level 10 character. Levelling up should be about better luck, or improved health, or something else accruable that gives the players a fighting chance against tougher monsters. Or if you have "skill-checks", make them a simple comparison against the characters level, rather than level * class progression or skill level.

Its something I've been moving towards in my variant but won't have the guts to do for some time, if ever. But I suspect it'll be incredibly liberating, and let me concentrate on the important stuff, which is implementing more cool features for the player, as opposed to any kind of min-maxing of different classes and races and nerfing of skill and class combinations.

So this is a clarion call against classes and skills, from a developer guilty of a little bit of both.

On main view screen...FAR TREK!

2011-09-17T07:23:00.000-07:00

After a road trip this week, I came home Friday to find my beta copies of Far Trek! Then up at 4am this morning to edit and finalize it. Damn it Jim, I think it's ready!

If you want to purchase a digest sized copy of Far Trek, well now is your chance!

I make no money on this and it is sold at production cost of $6.30 USD each. You can out fit your away team for $20! I will updated the Far Trek link to the right with the final booklet PDF as well for free download.

Live long and prosper!

And now for something completely different...

2011-09-10T11:44:00.000-07:00

In the past I have had made a couple games dealing with zombies. With Halloween fast approaching and the Walking Dead TV series shambling back, now seems like the right time to release something in this genre using my accumulated past efforts.

You can follow the progress if you are interested on my Zombies Attack site, or ignore it completely and go about your business.

My beta Far Trek RPG books are not due for delivery until next Wednesday, so the earliest I'd have them up on LULU would be a week from today, sorry for the delay! Again they will be available at MFG cost only, I will make ZERO profit on this book.

Captain, my captain

2011-09-08T17:29:00.000-07:00

I have seen posts and questions concerning, 'How do you role-play Trek when the captain makes the call?" In other words, if one guy has all the say so how do you share it or at least make every player valuable?"

I guess I wonder why it's an issue at all? Going back to D&D and the idea of a caller for the party the "captain role" has been a part of RPG's since inception. Watch Trek episodes, Kirk isn't a dictator he listens and uses all of his crew. Kirk can't fix the warp engines, he can't diagnose strange signals in space or analyze new life forms, heck out side of "fire phasers" statements he does not even fight with the ship nor fly it. He is the figure head in most deals or conversations (a diplomats role), but he does not do so in a vacuum. The crew can disagree with him and shape his decisions, but yes in the end he has to make the call for the benefit of the crew and ship.

A captain in an RPG of Trek is no different than what you find in business, sports, or nearly any other group human endeavor-a leader, or captain is part of the mix in life, so why is this situation any different or more troubling? Not sure, but give my Trek inspired RPG Far Trek a download and see for yourself in game play if its an issue or if it is just in the mind's eye.

HAPPY 45TH BIRTHDAY STAR TREK!

Far Trek RPG booklet test...

2011-09-04T17:11:00.000-07:00

Well for better--or worse, I cranked through the obvious issues and some of the left over goofs in order to get a beta booklet edition done and in the mail to me for some hands on editing and game time. The printed copies lay abused around the house and I am hopefully having something a bit more...gamey...in appearance will make a few people kind enough to edit, feel like they are working on a near finished thing and not the mad scribbles of a Trek obsessed goofball.

Sure I don't think it will work either, but it is going to look bad ass on the table top! I will shoot a picture of the game books, dice (Yup red, blue, yellow just like on the cover)and miniatures from our session.

Trek Minis? Indeed sir! Matt over at Captain's Blog has produced an "Astro Crew" in 15mm! Even has sprues of heads and weapons to monkey with. I asked and there is more to come provided folks order! So don't be shy, order already I need some TOS Klingons baby! You can find the download the Far Trek Beta via the logo to your right!

(the image is from the back of the Far Trek game book)

FAR TREK --Beta verison of the RPG now available

2011-09-03T12:53:00.000-07:00

It is only in beta release but you can find the PDF for the Far Trek Rules at the link to the right. Character sheets are also available for you to use on the previous posts.

For the weekend, that's all I plan to do as I figured I labored enough here just getting the beta out for you to try and enjoy.

Eventually I will tighten up the loose screws and make a digest version available (at MFG cost-not for profit) for you to purchase if you like.

Your feedback is welcome, both good and bad.

GO BOLDLY!

Far Trek character sheets

2011-08-28T07:20:00.000-07:00

Yup just like Roguish and every other game I make, the character sheets are book marked size. I might goof around with doing a note card version as well at some point, but for play testing these worked just fine. I intentionally left off equipment because Trek isn't about hording and hauling. Everyone has a phaser, a communicator and if you are a blue shirt, tricorder or med kit. Anything you need is a transporter call away (assuming you can use your communicator) or on board ship (assuming the Turbolift works).

The neat thing I have found in refereeing Far Trek is how much more I focus on creating a cool story and not so much on is this creature too tough or easy? How much treasure is enough and will that item ruin my future campaign plans? Will the players have enough challenge? Those mechanical considerations are gone and instead I am more interested in story and plot. Yes there are mechanics involved and phaser battles, but (rightly or wrongly) there isn't the same feel to these events in the game. They are more plot devices that help resolve or increase plot tensions rather than mechanical game grinding for all or nothing resolutions. Well at least that's how I play them in the game when I run it. Your warp speeds may vary.

Beyond Mike Berkey's orginal document for Microlite, I have a stack of FASA's Star Trek RPG stuff, Last Unicorn's, and ADB's Prime Directive (GURPS) books. The one thing I find interesting and similar about all of the professionally published stuff is how much intricate detail is included. It's impressive (almost like a tech manual in detail) but also stifling and not necessarily in line with a TV series based RPG. Kind of like most RPG's in general now, they tend to overly rule and over explain everything in detail to do away with ambiguity. In my experience it's the ambiguity in RPG's that makes the referee's job the most fun, the player's experience the most harrowing, and the game play in general the more memorable.

Note none of that applies if playing with "rules lawyers and munchkins." If that's your group, I'm sorry and I hope you find a new one...SOON!

UPDATE: posted original "class based" play test sheets.

These are the continuing voyages of the Far Trek RPG...

2011-08-27T15:27:00.000-07:00

This has become quite a rework. It's sort of like deciding to repaint a room in your house, and then realizing crap, now I have to change every room in the house to match. I realize it sounds strange comparing home improvement to fantasy gaming...sigh..well that's how mixed up my life is right now, plus a blizzard of a year at work has kept me swamped.

Meanwhile, back on the bridge...

I have retained a lot of the spirit and text from Where No Man has Gone Before 2.0 because it's really good! At the same time I have tried to make it feel more like a game I'd want to play and mashed it up with some of my own game rules. In addition I have tried to make FAR TREK into a more cinematic playing experience to match the feel of TOS rather than a number crunching, hit point tracking, and damage detailed RPG. So to give you a quick idea of where things are headed:

Things you will not find in Far Trek:
Levels
Hit Points
Weapon Damage rolls (like knife 1d6, phaser 4d6, photon torpedo 100d6...nope, not in here)
Armor Classes
d20 and other D&D standard polyhedral dice

Things you will find
Four Attributes (ST, IQ, DX, CA)
Classes (Gold Shirt, Blue Shirt, Red Shirt)
Skills
Special Talents
3d6

I have had a lot to do (and continue to do a lot) of cutting pasting and redesigning to work Far Trek into the game system (d6 based) and play style which I think will fit the spirit of Star Trek.

Will Far Trek succeed or EPIC fail? You can beam a copy up in a few weeks and decide for yourself.

One to beam up...

2011-08-20T11:49:00.000-07:00

Adventure Design Lessons from the Roguelike game genre

2011-08-14T17:59:00.000-07:00

No secret I love roguelike games. I came upon an article discussing 8 key design points for making a roguelike and surprise, they are just as applicable to pen and paper gaming (IMHO). Sometimes I think we can all get a little too "inside baseball" regarding adventure design so its important to read stuff outside your normal haunts to expand and add to your views. Below are 8 Roguelike design rules by John Harris. While they may not all apply directly to table top, I think there is a lot of good food for thought. Here is John's article:

Back in November, in the previous @Play column, I mentioned a number of proposed rules of roguelike design, and promised soon to describe them. It's taken a bit longer than I expected, but here they are.

I call these rules for rhetorical purposes only. I don't think there are any inviolate laws of game design. But given we are talking about roguelikes, there are certain properties that have been important to the genre.

Maybe not to all roguelike games; some of these have to do with designing a good item identification system, for instance, and many of the more recent games do not use that. I'm fairly outspoken in my appreciation for item-ID systems, so please calibrate your wonk-o-meter appropriately.

I use the term "reasonable play" several times here. It refers to being in a neutral state in terms of danger. For example, almost any bad effect from using an item can prove fatal if the player uses it at the wrong time. Discovering the potion of confusion by quaffing when a troll is attacking you is dangerous—so don't do that!

f you're down to one hit point, even slight damage could kill you, and some games have items that do piddling damage, so don't do that either. Most of the time in a roguelike the player is not in immediate danger. That is the fact on which the idea of reasonable play rests. Unknown items are possibly dangerous, so there must exist times of lesser danger in which to try them. A game built on the idea of literally constant peril would have different design demands. You are on your own in figuring those out.

Now, while a bad effect is active, it's possible for a previously out-of-sight monster to walk up and start hitting the player. That is a less obvious case, but the player could have test ID'd the item while in a large, lit room, decreasing the chance that an unseen monster could reach him before the potion wore off. This helps to make it okay. In fact, the most effective roguelikes purposely make it difficult to always know when it's safe to perform dangerous actions. If there were a hard-and-fast rule about test-IDing potions of confusion, then an argument could be made that they shouldn't be in the game!

Of course game design is not a science. I tend to rebel whenever I hear someone tell me about features that "obviously" should never, or always, be present in a game. The following rules are no different. They are useful, however, when talking with respect to the default state of roguelike play and design, which I will define here as being that of Rogue itself. But they all apply, with different strictness, to all the other major roguelikes: Nethack, Angband, ADOM and Dungeon Crawl.

So here is a list of eight rules. Each leads with a name, in quotation marks, to facilitate discussion, followed by the rule itself in around a sentence, followed by discussion, and then finally followed by both examples of games using it well and "reverse examples" of games doing it badly. I apologize in advance for there being a lot of Nethack in these examples, but, well, it still has many features worthy of discussion.

1. "No beheading rule." Provided reasonable play, the player’s character should not be killed or harmed too greatly & permanently in one attack.

Example: In Nethack, cockatrices can't immediately kill the player through a single attack. They can initiate delayed stoning, but that gives the player a few turns to cure the condition.

Reverse example: In old versions of Nethack, Medusa was a random monster that appeared in a random room in the deeper dungeons. Since merely seeing Medusa kills the player, this breaks the rule unless the player had a way of knowing Medusa was there before stepping into sight, and the game was random enough that there was no reasonable chance of that happening. This was arguably bad design, which may explain why more recent versions of Nethack put Medusa on a special level, where at least experienced players will know where she lurks. Still, Medusa always appeared on a specific level of the dungeon, and it was always on the downstairs which were never generated in the same room as the upstairs, so a player could conceivably be prepared for her. It's still rather more reliance on spoilers than anything in Rogue requires.

There also items that can be wielded by monsters that can kill with one hit, such as Vorpal Blade or the Tsurugi of Muramasa. But the chances of running into a monster wielding the first in the dungeon are vanishingly rare, and the second is in a specific location like Medusa, and only appears in the Samurai quest anyway. There are also other difficulties with monsters with wands of death, Touch of Death spells and disintegration beams and the like; after a certain point, the game requires that the player be proactive in protect himself from sudden instadeaths.

Reverse example: Shiren the Wanderer. Shiren is mostly really good at this, but its Skull Wraiths may be a little too strong. Their distance attacks can inflict amazingly dangerous status ailments that could conceivably result in Shiren dying before he gets to make another decision. With careful play this can be negated mostly, but there is still a chance on the last wide-open level that the player could face a situation he cannot escape.

2. "No cyanide rule." No unidentified item should be immediately fatal upon use given reasonable circumstances, otherwise the player should never try to use-identify.

Example: In Rogue, probably the worst item is the potion of blindness, which makes the game nearly unplayable. Not only does it give all spaces on the level a vision range even worse than that of dark passages, it is impossible to find secret doors while blind, which state has a good chance of stranding the player until the blindness wears off of he drinks a potion of extra healing. But there is not ring of blindness, because for such an item to have bite it must be initially cursed, and if the player put on a cursed ring of blindness he might not have any means of curse lifting available, and if that were true and he was blocked from the exit by a secret passage he would not be doomed to starve. The effect would be to make it unwise to try to test-identify rings because of the chance of death. One might qualify this by saying it'd be unwise to test-ID rings if no means of curse removal were available, but considering all curse-lifting in that game is from random sources it might be considered unreasonable.
Example: In Nethack, there is a random item that can kill in normal situations just from ordinary use: the Amulet of Strangulation. However, it is a delayed death, and prayer can get the player out of it. However, what if the player has recently prayed and his timeout hasn't expired? What if he's in Genhennom and can't effectively pray? What if his luck is negative, making it impossible to pray effectively? These aren't the more common states though. In Genhennom, the player should know enough lore to know not to test amulets there.

Example: There are other items in Nethack that can kill instantly from use, but not by their most common uses. The Wand of Death, if zapped at self, kills instantly if the player isn't magic resistant. But players don't usually zap random wands at themselves, so one might consider this to be reasonable. Reverse example: Note that there _are_ cases in Nethack where death might be considered unreasonable; every random egg has a chance of being a cockatrice egg, so eating eggs is an unexpectedly bad idea.

Reverse example: Dungeon Crawl has a potion of poison with a long-lived effect. This one plays carefully with the line, since it could well prove fatal to a very low-level character, but usually by resting during that time it has a chance to wear off before death ensues.

Rules 3 and 4 are about item identification. Many recent games don't include this feature. Here I give my reasons for suggesting such a system. While item identification in roguelikes does aid in presenting the world as a mysterious place to figure out, and in giving the dungeon itself a dangerous character as opposed to just the monsters, there is also a game design reason. It disassociates the player's progress from the random number generator: the player could find all of the best items in the game on the first level, but he'll still have challenge figuring that out without wasting the resources. The items found are not a gift to the player; he must still expend some effort to properly understand what he's found.

The identification game in roguelikes is one of the least considered by designers. Even to this day, it's probable that Rogue has the best ID game, although Nethack's isn't bad (although mostly irrelevant as soon as the mid game). Rogue's is designed so that scrolls of identify cannot be relied upon, for players almost never find all the scrolls they want. Plus, since no random items are guaranteed, the player never knows if he'll find another item of a type. A few items are extremely good but easy to waste. The best of them all (scroll of scare monster) shows unusual care in its design; using it in fact wastes it, but it is the only scroll that can be identified without even picking it up.

3. "Item masquerade rule." Items should be difficult to identify even for spoiled players, due to similarities between items of the same type.

It is best if this rule is not perfectly adhered to; giving observant players some benefit for their insight is in keeping with roguelike gameplay.

Example: Yes, another Nethack example. Both Potions of See Invisible and Potions of Fruit Juice generally have the same messages upon use.

Example: In most games, the effects of most rings are vague and can only be deduced through close observation, if even then.

Example: Nethack and Shiren both take steps to obscure item identification through shop pricing by offering many items that sell for the same amount. Example: ADOM clearly marks the weights of items on the inventory screen, in "stones." A few random items and artifacts have distinctive weights, which an observant (or heavily spoiled) player can note and use to pick those things out.

4. "Situational ID advantage rule." When unknown, item effects in a category should overlap in such a way that use in some situations would be good to discover, while others simultaneously would be bad.

If no potions provide combat disadvantages, then it's in the player's best interest to test them out while fighting. If none do direct damage but one does heal, then the player should only test ID when below maximum hit points. It is easy to go overboard in eliminating these kinds of situational ID advantages, but a good designer will still be cognizant of them and devote a little thought to lessening their influence on the game.

Example: Rogue has items that can be very useful when used in battle (extra healing) and very bad (confusion, blindness). When zapping wands at monsters, it's possible a monster to be slowed (very good), hasted (bad), teleported away (generally good) teleported directly to the player's side (somewhat bad) or polymorphed (potentially game-ending at early levels, more beneficial as the game continues). Study of the items included in the game make it clear that some thought was put into providing a healthy amount of risk in most situations, to provide fewer "no brainer" situations to using unknown items.

5. "Item enchantment rule." When known, items should as much as possible present interesting decisions.

Example: All of the major roguelikes, to some extent, use scrolls of enchant weapon and enchant armor to do this to a degree. When you use a scroll, its enchantment bonus becomes a permanent fixture on the one item it's used on. If a better item comes along later that the player would rather use, maybe one that already has a high enchantment, it could be that the scroll was wasted. However, the longer the player waits to see if something better comes along, the less total use he gets out of it. All the major roguelikes feature this to a degree, but it's Rogue that makes the best use, since as stated previously, the player has no idea if he'll find a better weapon or any more enchantment scrolls.

Example: Also in Rogue, armor has an extra wrinkle. The weakest, Leather Armor, has the special property of being immune to the rust caused by rust traps and rust monsters/aquators. If the player uses all his enchant armor scrolls on leather, he can be sure of never losing those enchantments, but he probably won't be able to get the suit enchanted up to the heights of plate mail. The player can overcome this a bit waiting until after the aquator floors before using his scrolls. All versions of Rogue offer rings of maintain armor which allow the player to not worry about having his armor weakened, though at a cost of food.
Reverse example: Later versions of Rogue also provide scrolls of maintain armor, which, if one appears (they are fairly common) make the decision pointless.

6. "Two-sided coin rule." Given perfect knowledge of identifications and uses, items should never be completely useless.

In fact no roguelike that I know of does this perfectly, but many of them show a lot of effort has been expended towards reducing the prevalence of completely useless items. The reason for this is not just to reward player wit and knowledge; if no item is entirely bad, then the player is additionally insulated from the caprices of the random item generation. This does not mean that all items need be great.

Example: In Rogue, even potions of blindness are useful when fighting medusas, which sometimes confuse on sight. Bad potions can also be thrown at monsters to possibly affect them.

Example: In Shiren the Wanderer, most bad items will affect enemies when thrown at them, making few things completely baneful. This can even be used to get a last use out of depleted wands.

Example: Nethack is pretty good about this, and has shown special care in making sure many bad states have hidden upsides. Hallucination protects against "touch of death" magic. Confusion is sometimes very useful, providing most scrolls with alternate effects (which also makes some bad scrolls into good ones). Thrown potions break and provide vapor effects (which are, sadly, usually negligible). "Bad" wands that help the monsters can be zapped at yourself to give you their benefits. Conversely, there are also good items, such as Wands of Cancellation, that can be very bad if used incorrectly.

7. "Reducing grind rule." The mere act of spending time should deplete some finite resource, forcing players to keep those resources up, while also limiting the amount of "grinding" he can do.

Example: Historically, this is done through a food timer. Rogue has the best of these: food only ever enters the game through item generation, which is tied to generating new levels. Technically food can be created by killing some monsters, but that's fairly rare, random, and suitably dangerous.

Example: Dungeon Crawl's food timer, while not as strict as Rogue's, still serves its traditional function of forcing a hard limit to the player's activities. Dungeon Crawl is explicitly designed to reduce grinding, an admirable goal.

Example: ADOM does this okay for the most part. Although food is not limited as strictly as in Rogue or Crawl, its corruption timer serves much the same purpose. There are loopholes in its item scarcity, however, that can give particularly clever players a way out from under the weight of the clock. Look up "ADOM wish engine" on Google sometime….

8. "Race you can't win rule." The game's monster difficulty should increase slightly faster than the advancement of the player, given average stats and default equipment, so as to force him to rely upon items and tactics.

The reasoning here is that if the player doesn't have to rely on randomly-found stuff then they become unimportant to play. However, if it's required to have specific items to be successful then many games will be outright unwinnable. The balance between these two poles is what makes random dungeon generation difficult, but it's also part of what makes random dungeon gameplay interesting.

Example: Rogue is, again, best at this. Even with excellent equipment, you can't just pound through all the monsters; starting around the time you encounter trolls, you'll need to use some tactics or resources to survive more than one fight, and griffins up the ante even further, not to mention medusas, ur-viles, and of course dragons. Shiren is also pretty good at it; more enemies in that game have special attributes, which in practice means you can get further on strategy.

SOURCE

Eldritch Roast

2011-08-11T20:44:00.000-07:00

I am not sure if I could challenge Starbuck$ but I think I have a new fall blend for them, or possibly a whole new endeavor for myself. A 1920's like coffee shop, slightly gloomy filled with books and built at odd angles, counters a bit too tall, or short or slanted. Just enough to make one feel uneasy. Hmmm, where to begin...

My wife is an artist and has a passion for coffee and coffee mugs. We have a shelf in our cabinet filled with various coffee mugs. I have 3 at the house one is Red Sox, one is Portland Timbers and one is a Prisoner (TV show-not crimes) inspired one I made. The rest have cats and flowers and other feminine things. Well my wife has an absolute crazy love for the clip below from Portlandia. It is funny, BUT I am sick to the back of my teeth of being told to 'Put a bird on it." First the clip

Now my wife has decided I just need to chill about being told to put birds on things. So every morning I am informed and reminded via a coffee mug with the following sentiment

The smile and laugh of my wife are infectious and lovely, yet mischievous as well. This cup, filled with coffee and its message to me is her morning motivator. Sigh...well for better, and possibly worse, she married a guy who is not only able to take the constant shenanigans...but to surprise her with my own comeback. Lovecraft, the elder gods, and all things H.P. are especially spooky and icky to her...with that in mind I have a mug coming with the following

I am looking forward to our morning coffee on a cool rainy morning a few weeks from now when the sleeper will awaken...

Hey Starbuck$ give me a call, let's talk.

The way forward is back in the past...Basic D&D revived.

2011-08-07T11:35:00.000-07:00

As the D&D RPG is in a state of flux and the way forward is yet to be determined I thought a bit about how I would make changes. The following suggestions assume that one would want to use Basic D&D to grow a player base by acquiring new players, it is not the end all be all of a full plan, just focused on new player acquisition .

Goal: Remove barrier to entry on playing, price, and presentation. No boxes, no hard back tomes, nothing above $5.

Plan: Create a simplified instant play adventure series. Each with 4 pre-made characters. Individual adventures should be comic book sized in page count and presentation. These are cheap to print, easy to stock and impulse purchase friendly. Ideally create a monthly adventure series meant to guide characters from 1st to 3 rd level over a year of play. This is the new Basic D&D and adventure series year one would be "The Caves of Chaos"

The center page of each issue would be the map for each adventure. Each comic would have an unlock code allowing you to go online and unlock a digital version of the adventure, and a online comic book version of the whole adventure played out by the pre-gens featured in the adventure. Every 6 issues would be combined into a book (graphic novel sized and priced $20 and would contain the adventures and the printed online comic series)

2) The core adventure rules would be part of issue one (double sized issue!) and could be downloaded for free online after that.

3) A basic (all red) dice set could be made and offered cheaply ($3 or $4) or if you subscribed to a years worth of issues you get a deluxe set free. These could be pearl or glitter or something else with a dragon image on the d6 and a set of exclusive pre-painted figures (old D&D mini sculpts).

4) The year end annual would have a final adventure and rules to create your own characters (4 basic classes)

Impossible? Preposterous? TSR did something similar before, but I think it was a bit unfocused and random.

This would be the starting point for entry into the D&D system. One might even allow this Basic D&D rules system to be OGL to stimulate the comic and game industry supporting this vehicle of game play/ comic combo. That way they support and spread the growth of your entry rules broadly. Imagine a Batman, or Spider man adventure comic. Now tie your basic rules set to a super hero movie comic? That's gold Jerry! Nintendo used to allow 3rd party games but they had to be reviewed for quality before publishing. The infamous Nintendo seal of quality. Why not do the same and requires a D&D approved logo on every "action comic" that is licensed and approved. They did ads in comics back in the day, why not do more.

Anyway, there is a lot more but what do you want for free?

More Trek? Fascinating...

2011-08-04T18:57:00.000-07:00

Well it's officially a full on trek-palooza at Sword & Shield. My wife and I watched the animated episodes (really cool) I scored a ton of the olds FASA trek stuff on the cheap (original game, deluxe edition and 15 modules and source books for $60) Now I find some cat has made 15mm miniature trek guys...and these cosplay images are fantastic!

You know between these images and the web-isodes, I keep wondering why they mess around with other eras? I can also recommend highly the Star Trek book series Vanguard. It is set in the original era, but focuses on a star base. Kind of an original series Deep Space 9...but better.

I have to do some roof work this weekend, but hope to crank out my Trek game by the end of August.

Viva TREK baby!

Trek Update

2011-07-31T11:34:00.000-07:00

My mad scientist TREK mash up took a different turn this weekend. While originally just revising a microlite (d20) based Trek game was the goal, I just can't help the fact I am not a fan of d20 gaming. So I am taking the guts of Roguish (which is more TFT-ish) and mashing it up with the Microlite "where no man has gone before"

So its kind of a TFT inspired Star Trek in the making...I wish I had more time to work on it so I could just get it done asap but sadly I do not.

Please excuse the space dust...

@ + ^(;,;)^ = ?

2011-07-29T19:10:00.000-07:00

I love Roguelikes on the one hand and I love Lovecraft on the other. You too? SWEET! Now put your hands together like I did and checkout Infra Arcana.

Infra Arcana is a Roguelike set in the early 20th century. The goal is to explore the lair of a dreaded cult called The Church of Starry Wisdom. Buried deep beneath their hallowed grounds lies an artefact called The Shining Trapezohedron - a window to all secrets of the universe. Your ultimate goal is to unearth this artefact.

The theme and inspiration for this game comes mainly from the horror fiction writer H.P. Lovecraft. It's not a pure H.P.L game though, as it also draws flavour from various B-horror movies, as well as the 1997 first-person shooter Blood.
As a Roguelike - the game adheres to the virtues of the genre, such as high replay value and challenging tactical game play.

To put you in the mood to try this game, I'll give you the Mountain Goats killer tune "Lovecraft in Brooklyn"

^(;,;)^

Updates and more Star Trek

2011-07-24T07:05:00.000-07:00

A few quick updates on the week that was:
1) I was at Comic Con a few days for work. The show is crazy, but not as crazy as it once was. I don't know I would say "on the decline" but certainly not what it was even a year or two ago.

2) Saw the new Captain America movie, it was better than I had hoped. I loved Cap growing up and this was a good (if somewhat flawed) origin story. Cap busting the Red Skull on the big screen is as great as I hoped it would be. It was just as the image on my favorite Cap sweatshirt I wore as a wee lad.

3) I am editing and compiling a new rules set based on Mike Berkey's Microlite "Where no man has gone before 2.0" rules set. Has me busy but I think I'll be able to share it in a couple weeks.

Almost forgot-there is a group who creates web based Original Star Trek Episodes that are really damn good. If you have not seen them, you are in for a treat.

Akratic Wizardry--the book

2011-07-16T09:54:00.000-07:00

It's odd how inspiration grabs you at 4.30am...

I read Shane Magnus' post regarding Crypts & Things play test and was intrigued. PS Shane i can't wait for YOUR rules to come out!

At the end he notes that the genesis of Crypts & Things was a series of rules posted by Akrasia on his Akratic Wizardry site.

So I went over checked it out and was even more inspired. As a result I spent the next 4 hours throwing together a PDF book of these house rules, in 6x9 size, using the original text posted by Akrasia. I added art, and now a couple bound editions with the cover shown left are on their way from Lulu to yours truly.

If you haven;t checked it out and you are a fan of S&S gaming I highly recommend it!