At a recent game night my nephew and i display our dancing skills.

Get the gaming where you can!

When real life lets you down on the gaming front, then turn to the virtual world.  Google plus is a haven of gamers getting together over video chat and game. The feeling of these games is wild and wooly much like the games I played back in the 80s. The spirit of anything can and will happen,  flourishes in G+.  Since my home is lacking currently I think its time to take my first love to G+.

Gamma World was my first real rpg. The first one I played correctly. Through my learning with GW I in turn mastered D&D, Top Secret and many others. I have ran campaigns of GW around the world while in the army. For just my little sister when I was still in junior high. I have sat for hours and scribbled out bits of world and characters to encounter. It has always been my first gaming love.

Weekly game nights

How does a perfectly good gamer group go from fantasy adventure rpgs to family games?
I dont know if i would have believed it if i hadnt lived through it.
Slowly but surely what used to be a hard core rpg group became a friends and family game night.

Gameing went from ....to...

Now it feels like this...



Dont get me wrong, i like good fun for all board game. Untill it becomes the weekly thing.
I think in my current group i have 2 actual gamers, a tag along, a warm body, a thrill killer, and a social butterfly.

Now the wife is joining in and buying new games from target to play... Yes apples to apples is fun, no it isnt the game i want to play week in and week out.

How do you get a derailed group back to rpgs?

I know what derailed us, boot hill. By trying to make it less of a shoot em up and more of a strategy game I lost the casuals. The main fantasy game was derailed by attitudes. They arent able to play supers, no one acts like they care if innocents are harmed or die. As a group they hate Gamma World. I could try Top Secret and see if a high pc body count will drive em back to D&D again.

Neighbors move i score cool wall hangings!

A couple of months just flew by. Not much going on here other than life.
Had my big Independance day BBQ party. Went to some birthday parties for friends and relatives.
It has been a hectic summer thus far.
I broke the rear hub of my bike. stripped it completely. pedaling does nothing now.

On the gaming front board games and card games are all i have done recently.

The game 'Trailer Park Wars' i can not rate this little gem of a game high enough.
Its a card game about running a trailer park. you win by gaining the most pink flamingos. The game with 100 pink flamingo minis.


The rules are this simple.

Count how many flamingos you get.
Play 3 cards (cards have everything about them on the card)
Discard one card if you want
Draw back to 7 cars.
Next players turn...

Short sweet and fun. it is a screw your buddy game, you play bad trailer park tenants and disasters on other players park and good ones on yours.

If you have a chance pick up this game !



Its deffinately better with more players. I would think playing with only 2 people would be less fun.

Boot Hill campaign in full swing.

factions

Tommy two-guns gang (Outlaws)
Lazy J ranch
Texas Rangers
Skinya's indian raiders.

Have played almost a month of time, starting may 1 1866.

Painted 71 15 mm size western plastic figs.

They are all mounted on pennies to given some weight and keep them up right in play.
Prop (toy) guns and hats add to the festiveness of Boot Hill.
While playing out a card game one player pulled a gun on another who was cheating and surprised everyone at the table.

2 sessions 3 deaths

Kill totals

1 Indian raider, 1 outlaw, and 1 law man dead. So far the rancher is playing it cool. The outlaw has robbed 2 banks and a stage. the raiders killed and burnt down an entire ranch. The law made a couple arrests and killed two trouble makers in the county seat.

Drug out Boot Hill last weekend. Couple people seem very excited to play. Aiming a campaign as opposed to a short bloody bank robbery gang. Everyone had to create a group to play.  I made everyone roll up one character in everyone elses group. So far we have
1 Gang of desparados (bank robber gang)
2 Indian raiders
3 Lawmen of the county

I am placing the game in nevada shortly after the civil war. 1866 vetrans are streaming to the open west and bringing guns with them. It will be very wild and wooly.

Working on goals for the players so far i am going with

1 outlaws, rob 100,000 and escape to Mexico.
2 Indian raiders, kill/loot/pillage enough to start an Indian war. Escape with their tribe to Mexico or Canada.
3 Lawmen, capture all the wanted men in the teritory.

Working on town maps and such , reworking some encounter tables from an old gaming book. Will post my western encounter tables asap.

Happy trails!

Most important

Who is the most important person in a rpg?

I know some story teller games people will cry 'No one is more important than any other. We are all equally important at the table.'
I tend to disagree with that. The GM/DM/CK/ref is the most important. No GM no game period. How ever every member at the table is important. There is a social contract of sorts between player and GM. There is a fine balance of power between players and GM. The GM can can do any thing , make any ruling kill any character on a whim. The players have the collective power of no confidence. They can walk or threaten to walk and influence the GMs decision.

If either party is too heavy handed the game breaks down and no one is happy.

As a GM i find recently I will tend to allow more of the players ideas to succeed lately. By giving them the illusion that they are helping direct the game when i take their suggestions. I know everyone can be creative why limit my game to only my creative input?
So I am saying yes to plans and ideas in the past might have said never gonna work or roll for it. It seems to speed play and the players only really want to bash things get  cool stuff and feel like their characters matter.

I guess it all boils down to everyone having fun. No one sits down to game with the idea of not having fun.
Finding the balance in the GM -v- players struggle is what I think makes a good GM.

Side note, wife just baked brownies and gave me some still warm from the oven.. yum!

Who owns the character sheet?

Back in the early days of my gaming. I had a portfolio folder that i kept all my character sheets in. Heck everyone i knew had a folder like that. or some people that played alot had 3 ring binders for their sheets.
As my horizens broadened I started separating character sheets by game. D&D had its own folder. Champions had a couple folders (like 6 I think..). I had a folder for all the games I played but had only had one character in. Like I said everyone kept their own sheets.

In the mid 90's frustrations due to forgoten character folders got GM's I knew to start campaign folders to keep all the characters of their players. I did this for every game. Some games I ran have character folders with PCs going all the way back to my campaigns beginings. Gamma World is one I always kept the PC sheets for. I have every character ever rolled under me as GM for that game. D&D was the only game I never kept sheets for.

When 3rd ED came out i initialy switched from my old 1st ED AD&D to it. That was when i started keeping sheets for D&D. I quickly realised how much i disliked 3rd ED and since I had sold my old books we switched to HackMaster. I had been buying the books for HM for about a year and half as they came out with no real intention to play it.

As i realised my distaste for 3E my gaming group pretty much fell apart. One moved to Arkansas, a couple just quit coming and a couple drifted away. So a few weeks after Scott had moved away, I found myself staring at only 2 players. We sat around the table discussing who we could bring in to fill the group out a bit more. The only person I knew we could get that night was a friend who would not play D&D for religious reasons. A quick phone call was made and he said he would a parody of D&D. So my first HackMaster campaign kicked off.

After about 6 months of playing we decided that HackMaster was cool and retired the test characters we had been playing. I then kicked off a new campaign. This campaign continues to this day. Over the 3 to 4 years we played HM the group waned and occasionaly waxed. At one point the group was 16 people strong. I think we had a couple of  game nights with all 16 in attendance.

Over the course of HackMaster: I moved from a house to an apartment and then bought a house. Shortly after buying the house myself and 5 of the group went to Gencon. That was the last time we played Hackmaster. The tourney for HM was so badly run and we got screwed so badly we dropped the game.
For awhile we played HM light. basicly stripping HackMaster down to AD&D 1st ed. (no skills talents quirks or flaws).  I bumped into Castles and Crusades and fell in love.

Castles and Crusades is rules light. (current players are not into rules crunch and like simple systems) it plays quick and easy. I can run things by the seat of my pants if I need with out stressing about monster stats. Over all the game feels alot like AD&D 1st ED but with some modern bits..assending AC and a few other minor bits. Its in print so players can find it at the local game store and i can easily port in any version of D&Ds stuff.

I converted my campaign lock stock and barrel to C&C. I still use spells, monsters and classes from HM. Spells from every edition of the game except 4th ED. Through this time I still keep everyones characters. HM brought about individual folders but they all stay at my house. When a player left the characters stayed.

A couple days ago a former player texted me asking for all their old characters if they hadn't been thrown away. I am kind of loath to give up those character sheets. I think i am going to photo copy them and let the player have the copies. Some might think i dont have the right to keep them from the player.
My reasoning is this...
1 They are in my world even if the player quit the caracter didnt just vanish.
2 I supply all the sheets either printing as needed or photocopies i paid for.
3 They are written in pencils I provided
4 No other GM is ever going to let these house ruled things into a game. Heck the person asking for the sheets didnt game before I taught them to play and probably never will game again.

Am I wrong about keeping the sheets?

Whoops

Been a few days since i posted anything.

Played in Joe the Lawyer's G+ last week. Was a blast we mostly explored out side the chateau but got inside a bit. I found a magic saddle, and gained enough xps to advance to second level. This officially makes My fighter the highest level character I have played in about 3 years.

Missed my regularly scheduled Constantcon last night due to extreme pain and suffering. Sorry to the maybe 2 or 3 people who might have played.

I notice the established games on G+ seem to over flow with players while new games barely have have any. I hope everyone will give a stranger a break now and again. Remember being popular doesn't equal good DMing.

Finally received my copy of "Classic monsters from Troll Lord Games. Kickstarted this project in November. The book is pretty cool alot of those old Monster Manual, Fiend Folio and MMII critters have now been added to the C&C game. Not that converting them was hard. It is so simple to convert a classic D&D variant to C&C I usualy do it on the fly at the game table. Some of the cooler monsters cant be published. Some had to be renamed and reworked to avoid copy right problems. I love monster books, hell i bought all the HackMaster Hacklopedias and there were 10 of those. If you want to add more beasts to your game this tome is the way to go. I am very pleased to add it to my shelf.

Sterotyped

Woe betide, i have been given label! The guy with the big ass sword! I suppose i brought it on myself. First i played a human warrior with a big ass sword. Next i played a pixie-faerie with a "relitively big ass sword". Now the pixie-faerie was a fighter thief. I didnt get alot of time to sneak and be tricksie.
I do like two handed swords .. um alot but it is not the end all be all of the rpgs for me. I mean who doesnt like to see those big numbers fly when a honkin big sword connects! I know everyone does!
Its kind of cool to gain a reputation of sorts, even if it is not exactly the one you would label your self as.

No clue

Couple days ago i played in a G+ game. I dont know what the game was called. I dont know the setting. I have no idea how characters are rolled for it. Myself and a few others played D&D/FLAILSNAILS characters. Mine was actualy a Castles and Crusades fighter but i am sure you all could have guessed that.
It was a freaking blast. The world reminded me a bit of rifts, with the end of civilization and magic returning. There wasnt any hi-tech stuff that i saw but there were black powder weapons and magic. We infiltrated an office building via the sewers then fought our way back out. Wolf monsters, Gargoyles, road warrior biker types and a brief glimps of a dragon.
Remined me of my early days in the hobby before i knew any of the rules. Everything seemed possible and danger lurked at every turn.

I very much love ready RPGs memorizsing the rules and mastering various systems. There is something to be said being clueless in every reguard about a game. It makes everything surreal. you wander around dazzled by everything that happens. Instead of thinking in rules jargon you speak with creativity.

Thats a big part of why i have embraced the rules lite of the OSR. I collect everything D&D and AD&D i can get my hands on and read every rule set that comes down the pipes.

Next time you get a chance to play a new system. go in blind. have the GM give you a character or roll one with the GMS help. Try not to learn the rules and just experiance the game.

Ikka’Patang , god of nature

This is an nother conversion of a HackMaster dieity. My games have had alot of druids, so this dieity sees alot of use.

Ikka’Patang

God of nature

Symbol:  Elm leaf

Deity province; Nature

Ceremony, Every new moon druids and clerics must dance at a

Consecrated ring

Taboo willing destruction of habitats and animal lairs is forbidden. Worshipers also must never kill a mother with/or her dependant young.

Granted abilities, all worshipers receive, Those that remain steadfast to the faith gain +1 con and nature lore.

Ikka’Patang appears as middle aged man with neat hair and short beard. He wears neutral colored robes and carries a long spear. Where ever he is encountered he will be accompanied by two male animals of the local dominate species. There beasts will be of maximum hit points and size and unusually intelligent.

Ikka’Patang believes duty is of utmost importance and has no tolerance of shirkers and traitors. He is fond of punishing transgressors by changing them into prey species and releasing them into the wild alone.

Ikka’Patang’s Spear of throwing. Triple throwing range and returns when called. This +6 weapon can be borrowed for 1 year by any druid of 7^th or higher level.

Ikka’Patang’s scythe of reaping. This artifact doubles the harvest of any field it is used in.  Ikka’Patang will give this to any druid who asks for one harvest season. Most druids require very big sacrifices to grant this boon on a community.

Ikka’Patang ’s avatar, neutral druid 20^th HP 160 AC 22, Primes Dex 21 Wis 28 Chr 26. Fights with Spear+6 that he can throw any distance. The spear returns to his hand after striking its target. Ikka’Patang can summon the wild hunt per its standard summoning.

Luvia, god of justice.

Since my campaign originated in HackMaster 4th edition I have had to convert some monsters, spells, magic items and dieities. This is my conversion of Luvia. This dieity is the intelctual property of Kenzerco and presented here without permission in the hopes you might enjoy adding it your C&C game. If you like this dieity his original write up in Dieities and Demi-Gawds is highly recomended. 

Luvia

God of Justice, aka the blind god

Symbol, Balanced scale

Deity province; Justice, mercy, and endangered species.

Ceremony, Must wear a symbol of Luvia prominently. Must maintain a neat appearance. Clergy of Luvia act as judge for disputes every month.

Taboo, Never breaks a law. Never performs a dishonorable or evil act. Knights will not wear armor of lesser station then plate mail

Granted abilities, all worshipers receive +1 wisdom and charisma. Clerics and Paladins gain +2 to strike and damage against lawbreakers, criminals, convicts, and the dishonorable.

Luvia appears as normal man with a bandage covering his eyes. He dresses in simple robes. He is always accompanied by a pair of ravens; Mishap and Circumstance. The ravens act as his intermediaries. Carrying messages and commands, or watching over his followers.

Luvia teaches that any act of kindness, no matter how simple can pay great dividends. Luvia is fond of proverbial punishments. He likes polymorphing the judged into inanimate objects then destroying them in symbolic ways. (Turning a damned man to coal and putting him in a great furnace)

Luvia’s ring of alclairity. A ring that prevents its wearer from being influenced by out-side forces. This ring acts as protection from all mind effecting or altering effects. It only functions when the bearer sits in judgment in a lawful court.

Luvia’s Flask of mercy. This flask will pour forth whatever magical potion or concoction is needed to cure the patient whose lips it is brought to. The flask will function but once a day for any person.

In combat Luvia wields a special sword +7 holy reaver. When he departs the mortal plane it is always left behind. The sword will come to rest in a manner akin to the sword and stone. Luvia’s symbol will be etched into a ruby in the pommel if it was one of his blades.

Luvia’s avatar, Lawful good Paladin 20^th HP 160 AC 24, Primes Str 25 Wis 28 Chr 25. Fights with his holy reaver. Can polymorph anyone he has judged at will to any form desired. Can create or summon mundane items at will.

Ragea island nation, home of The Core.

Ragea, Free nation.  One of the first independant human kingdoms. Broke from the Elven empire some 30 years ago. Once renouned for its battle mages. When the Brethern of the Star vanished the study of magic was nearly lost. Many still wizards 'Starmen' as the Brethern of the Star were called.

The Core rises near the north western shores. Bards say it was formed when a demigod killed a powerful demon lord. The demon lord Pang'gras' body melted into a green ooze that burned trough the earth as acid burns through wood. Thus spawning the evil of The Core.

Near The Core about 2 miles west from the entrance called 'the maw' sits a rambling innhouse. The Last Chance Inn. It is three stories tall with 3 wings, stables, smithy and guard towers. It is nearly a small fort.

Many merchants venture here to purchase the goods brought out of the dungeon's depths.

For those with a desire of a more civilised base with better defences and cheaper prices the town of Huberg is five miles west of the Last Chance.

Huberg is booming village rapidly growing from the influx of travelers and merchants. Currently the town is constructing walls. to better deffend against raving bands of humanoids. Castle Wrengate sits near by guarding the road to ragea's capitol.

Rumors

Those who go mad inside the Core will over time transform into hideous creatures.

The Fragrant Helm of Rosalyn was lost somewhere on the third level.

There is a library part of the Brethern of the Stars former citadel that randomly appears through out the dungeon. Most call it the Wandering Library. Everyone who has gained access to it has found a wealth of arcane lore and many spells thought lost.





The Core , Another after action review

William Broom  Adventured in The Core tonight. 
Playing Thalia cleric of the Raven Queen.
two bold hirelings in tow,
Blagger and Ago both strong fighting men.

The small party explored a bit. Encountered the walking corpse known as McGee. Thalia promised to end his curse and lay the poor soul to rest. Her stawart band investgated a strange demon head of gigantic proportion. It was hewn from an unknown type of white rock.
They battled a clutch of kobolds and emerged victorious. A few of the little buggers fled down a tiny hole and after a bit of trickery Thalia managed to capture one and use him as a guide to treasure. Alas the poor kobold died opening a treasure chest after the party had cleared a group of undead guardians. Satisfied with their take the group retreated from the dungeon heading to the nearest town to sell their loot.

Great game, Hi to Tiffany Simmons who observed the game for a time. William managed to find one of the larger treasures on the first level. Well played!

Another explosive new time for The Core!

Last move for the forseeable future i promise!

The Core now running tuesday nights 8:30 pm CST (-5GMT)
FLAILSNAILS participants welcome level 3 or less for now.



I run useing Castles and Crusades. It is effectively 3.5 lite. No skills or feats universal mechanic for resolution of most things.

http://www.trolllord.com/cnc/ccqs.html  Link to the C&C quick start rules. Its free and explains things probably better then i can. (even if i am a fantastic writer) = p

Rumors of The Core...

Sleeping in the Core drives men mad.

There is a wandering zombie in the dungeon: he is sentiant, friendly and named McGee.

Beware the woman in the mirror!

Sarrafinn also called the broker, is a multi colored dragon that deals in information and secrets.

I swear i met a talking displacer beast and it said its name was Casbah.

Dwarves like friends.

More rumors in the future.

The Core play summary

Dave Younce along with 2 hired men at arms entered The Core. They skipped a barred passage. Explored a side tunnel killing a lone skelliton. Delving deeper into the twisted tunnels they found a few unfortunate souls who had met their fate. Eventualing combating a mad wizard and an evil party of adventurers. Einhart Thors Hammer soundly defeated the villians killing half the group and cowing the rest after a single bloody round of combat. Of the survivers an evil cleric was brought to the light converting to Thor's church.

Dave played Einhart

Hired men , Jerome and Ian the fighters accompanied him along with his faithful linkboy Harold.

The villianous group had quite a spot of treasure over 200 gold and 500 silver was recovered from The Core's wretched halls. (Drinks on him at the Last Chance Inn.)

Short but prosperous adventure.

Moving the game to tuesday night starting next week. Hopefuly a better turn out as well.

WotC, 5E update from pax.

I previously said 5E aint for me and i wouldnt talk about it. I just want to point a few things out from the video floating around. Mike Merls main points are listed below.
What I dont like is they are acting like thier R&D figured this out. Any gamer who has played the older editions could have spelled all this out.

Campaign settings as modules that can alter core rules.
What a brainstorm on this one. This has only been happening since the first D&D supplaments. (Hello Greyhawk, Blackmoor, Eldrich Wizardry)

Grids and minis optional in the core.
They are throwing a bone to the old schoolers and the people who cant afford minis.

Will not let the wizard overpower martial classes.
This one boggles my mind. Why play a wizard? if martial classes can do the same damage why be a weak robe wearer when you can wear armor and have grobs of hit points?

About 20% done and on 4th iteration of DND Next.
This sounds like they are at least trying different things. Playing out some options and then deciding on what gos into the final draft.

focus on non-combat roles and abilities returning.
Nice that the next generation of the game might try to roleplay instead of rollplaying.

Giving more power back to the DM.
This one truely boggles my mind. Your the DM, its your world...how much power do you need? You have it all allready!

Bringing back step-by-step adventure creation instructions.
While i can appreciate helping new DMs craft adventures..... This sounds alot like roll on a random table. pick a monster roll on a table... pick a motive, roll on a table.  If you DM and can not make your own adventures... i dunno download or buy one! There are hundreds to choose from.

Focus on shorter games.
After the last 2 editions 2,3, or 4 hour long combats i can hardly wait to see how long it takes to fight in 5e.

Skill challenges not in core.
Aww no more "how many dice do i need to roll to solve this problem gaming?"

No info on public playtest date.
Give it time, shortly it will come then soon followed by 4 players hand books and 5 DM guides.

At-will spells have a pretty huge following.
Of course they do, munchkinism has always been popular. Why would handing the players more power be not popular?

WHats the saying about pleasing all the people all of the time?

The rule of cool?

Went back and forth last night with a person  G+. arguing over bard and how he thought the idea was stupid. I am paraphrasing him as he basicly said... if it isnt cool to paint it isnt cool.
Now i do realise we game to have fun. Cool mosnters and plots with bad ass heros are the goal of gaming.
Its a modern gaming trend the "rule of cool" Where everything must be cool and awesome all the time.

When you try to be cool all the time you tend to be not cool alot. Hollywood seems to be stuck in this make it so cool mode. Big budget action flicks that are so dull and predictable you can figure out the whole plot less then half way through.

News flash people it cant be cool all the time. If it could there would be nothing uncool. When you spend all your energy making it awesome you numb the audience and they want bigger and better more and more.

Make the cool parts cool and let the parts that arent be what they are.

Player involovement

It has been years since I have had a player that was truely involved with the game.  I touched on one such player in my last posting. Brian..Mark's little brother was involved with the world i presented. He took the game beyond mere rpg. His involvement with the world was such a fascinating thing. He breathed life back at the Game master. Usually its the GM trying to make it all seem alive for the players, but he helped make it alive for me too.

Excellent players like those are long cherished by GMs. I know i have very found memories of those players from over the years. Players who worked on their character out of the game. Players who drew up houses and made up family trees. I lament having players that involved. It seems now days they show up and expect me to just entertain them. Very little input of thier own. Oh they will fight with gusto and hate the villans. They will expect me to act like their characters have homes and families. Worse they expect me to draw those up.

Opps back to what i was really meaning to say...

Some of those special players have left me momentos of their effort. Most people kept their D&D characters. I know i dont have any old D&D characters from my friends. I do have EVERY SINGLE character ever created for my Gamma World games. The same holds true for my senior year super hero game of Villians and Vigilantes. I have all my players old sheets.

One player Chad made a list of supers and his opinions of them.. including nicknames and things to do when he encountered them. I still boggle at what he thought were tough villians and what he was afraid of.
He has foes listed as wimps that he should trash and forget...those were some of my toughest villians.
yet some of the weaker ones he had listed as run from.  I still laugh when i read this list so here it is.

Players like this make a GMing fun.

So my challenge to those who read this... make the game fun for the GM and you will be rewarded a hundered fold.

Gamma World goodness

Yanked out the old Gamma World stuff and reread the rule book. (I know the pic is from 3rd ed but its one of the best GW pics ever) I like the old 1/2ed stuff the most so I am falling back to that rules set. For years i used the 4th ed version. But of all the edditions 2nd is/was my longest running campaigns.

Flash back to the halceon days of 1983/84 my junior year in high school. I ran GW games at lunch in school, and on sat morning in my kitchen. (the only time in my childhood my mother supported/allowed gaming in her house.) Later in the spring/summer of 84 a local sci fi con started running weeking gaming as a fund raiser for theier yearly convention. They had open gaming in a rec center sat evenings and sunday morning. So i started running GW there also.

They called it Society of Omaha Roleplaying Enthusists. or S.O.R.E. for short. They charged 75 cents to get in 50 cents a soda. If you GMed admission was free. So i GMed alot. That Gamma World campaign took place in the area around the ruins of Mobil Alabama.

I think i had roughly 30ish players roating in and out of game that summer. Some very memerable moments and characters rose from those days.

There were 2 brothers, Mark and his little brother plus their friend Steve. The three of them were hillarious.
Steve had a character that was semi inept. Seemed the dice never liked him and some of his fumbles were beyond belief. At some point in the game Marks little brother started a list of books his character was going to write about Steve's character ...Herb P Gunpoke.

He listed these books on the back of his sheet ...

I always get a smile looking back at this piece of personal gaming history.

Where was i going with all this....  Oh yeah working on my Gamma World stuff. Planning a G+ offering for friday nights.  Watch Constantcon and or here for the formal announcement of when it will start.

Explosive new time for "The Core!"

Moving my G+ game time to 9pm CST (-6 GMT) wed night.
I Changed jobs a bit ago and the old time was not doable any more.

The Core has been my Mega-Dungeon project for about 3 years now. Offering it up to G+ Constantcon is an interesting experiance. Kind of like sending your child to school alone.

I originaly concieved the The Core as a 20+ level mega dungeon. With the idea one level was pretty much equal in level of challenge as its depth. I got the first 5 levels mostly complete when i decided i hated using mainly one level of monsters for such large areas.
So i restarted, redrew all the maps and started keying based on what had come before but using this formula.
1 Monster weaker then level
2-4 Monster same HD as level
5 Monster 1 to 2 HD greater then level
6 Monster 1d6 HD more then level

I also decided to make each level encompass 2 HD. So The Core's first level is mostly 1 HD monsters near the entrance and gradualy changing to mostly 2 HD beasties as you get further from the entrances.
Thusly the second level has roughly 3 and 4 HD monsters
With the third having 5 and 6 HD ...etc...

This prompted me to alter the number of levels to a more reasonale 12 plus sub-levels.
I have remapped back down to the fourth level. With the first two levels filled and waiting for adventurers to plunder.

The Core is literaly a monster magnet. Because a Demon Lord died on this spot his essence calls out to all the evil of the world. Its architecture is an amalgom of 9 or 10 ruined sites the dormant volcano has absorbed. Add in monsters that build their own tunnels and lairs. Plus the dungeons seems to rearrange it self sometimes makes for a varried conglomeration of halls and tunnels to explore.

To date 4 different groups have entered The Core.
 My old home group, we had a Mega-Dungeon campaign in the original instance of the dungeon.
Special occasion one shots have happened twice.
A short run series of delves that ended abruptly.

This much i can say for sure. Every group to enter the dungeon thus far have explored the same area first.
Using restocking tables has been interesting. A couple of times the restock was a no brainer and i just went with what i figured should be there.

Hopefully the new time will encourage more players.

Bargin finds

Someone cleaned out their basement and dumped abunch of used stuff on my local game store.
In one clear plastic bag i got two of these   and one of these

Found a complete psionics hand book. a good copy of B2 Keep on the border lands
U3 in much better shape then i had and L2 plus UK2 which i didnt have.

Lastly i found this little gem for 5 bucks

Complete vintage Avalon Hill goodness.
Cant wait to try it out.

I am kinda surprised more people arent selling old game stuff. I keep hearing how the economy is so bad. But i guess games are a cheap form of entertainment in a down economy. Buy it once play it for ever.

Gamer on!

What brings em

+Zak Smith shared the traffic searches that brought traffic to his blog. I liked the idea sooo much i came right here to check what my sources are... so here it is...

hot elves 14

dungeons and dragons hot 4

dungeon hack tsr 3

porn elf 3

bard d&d 2

company working 2

d&d bard minis 2

d&d monster manual dragon 2

d20 hot chick 2

d20 library Some of these make little or no sense to how they relate to my blog. I will however take any traffic i can get = ).

The Doom of Google+

A bunch of rpg bloggers waved the G+ flag. I decided to try it, and dove into my first ever social media.
Maybe it is just the spring thats causing the lack of gaming posts. I know I am posting less and enjoying the weather more.

Lately G+ plus seems to devolved into 'Pimp my Kickstarter'. Now I do think publishing your rpg is cool...but thats in general. Rpgs aimed at children is as lame as all the bad cartoons aimed at kids.
The Muppet Babies, Scooby doo kids, etc...  Kids want teen age stuff. Teen agers want grown up stuff.

Plus i am sick of seeing all the Kickstarter crap. Sheesh but that is a good idea already gone too far. Seeing the same two or three projects pimped all day gets old.
Can we all get back to the gaming stuff?  I actualy hope those projects hurry up and get funded so i dont have to hear about them any more.

Gamma World

Been a slow last few days.
I have been thinking of offering a G+ Gamma World 2nd ed game.
I dusted off some old notes and updated things. went through the books and reread the rules.
Juices are flowing and i desire mutant battles.



Working out the details, I have a friend that moved away a couple years ago. I am trying to mesh with his scheduale so he can play also.

Railroads and Sand boxes

Alot of people are discussing these types of play around the net.
What i dont see people talking about is the type of game their players like.

My players like to be guided. Check that , they want to be led by the nose. If I mention something offhandedly they charge after it. If I buy a new product and mention it they will try to move into a position to use it. Basicly my players think about what they think I want them to do. Then they try to do what they think I want them to do.
Convuluted enough for you? Left to their own devices they will sit and do nothing untill i prod them or give them a clue. Hell rumors to them are fish hooks waiting to be swallowed.

All aboard the plot train! Some times I am flat out exasperated by their do what you want us to do attitude.


What can you do but cater to your players style. So sandboxes or railroads... nothing matters if the players are h aving fun.

Jon Carter

Ok i saw John Carter....
 

I fail to see why they needed to add a meta plot the to story.  But the movie was good. There was action, humor fighting,intrigue, and of course plenty of fighting.
Wola John Carters adopted dog/beast was too cool for words.

A good near genre gaming movie. I can see elements i want to emulate in a game and i can see parts i dont.
Things that never work in an RPG
1 Gladiator fights. too focused on one person everyone else is bored.
2 Romance, it cant b e forced and it cant be corerced. Players buck at any attempt to introduce a romantic sub plot.
3 Lastly , Spliting the group... never do it!

Over all i give John Carter a 'B' Solid good movie. I will purchase this when it comes out on disk.

John Carter excitment

John Carter opens tomorrow and i am going to see it at the earliest showing. (thanks 3rd shift)
Each day Disney leaked more/longer/better trailers. i dont think i have been this pumped for a film since Lord of the Rings.
Maybe i can pitch a sword and planet style game now...

National read an RPG in public week

I practice this all year long. I have a travel copy of Castles and Crusades PHB in the back of my truck.
So that were ever i may go i may read gaming stuff!
Practice this over the next week and be surprised at how many people also game or did game.
I get comments often enough from those who see me reading in public.
Geek pride my people! Show your nerd to John Q Public!

This is the cover my truck copy. Spread the joy of adventure  gaming!

The glory of a TPK.

Story gamers think a TPK is the worst imaginable end to a game. Time wasted characters destroyed. TPK's can be rough, they are necessary. If adventurers dont have a real of character death,there isnt much point to a game. If you believe every encounter should/must be balenced to your party you might be a story gamer.
I remember a DM i played under who TPKed five parties in a row. Five weeks of short painful premature character death. I dont remember any of those deceased parties at all. Know what i remember? The sixth party. They lived and thrived. They knew when to run and live another day. The sixth group made it to the high teens before being retired. I think 2 of that group assended to godhood. I remember the 6th very fondly as the group that lived.
TPKs do suck, but the group that follows savors life all the more. Especialy if they dont TPK also.
TPKs while a bit disappointing make the victories all the sweeter. For without the fear of death whats the point?

GM's day

This saturday is Game Masters day. Show your appreciation of the countless hours your GM puts into entertaining you!

(Short post Busy busy)

Tavern rumors

Last time i played i was bombarded with requests for rumors at every tavern the group went to.
I was unprepared for this. So given some thought on the matter i present the random tavern rumor charts

I edited the chart to make it more likely to hear a useful rumor. Now 50% chance of hearing of some kind of adventure op.


Rumors and gossip for any Inn
1 Local gossip
2 Location of a nearby monster
3 Location of a nearby lair
4 Rumor of a famous treasure or item
5 Local rumor
6 National rumor
7 Location of a religious relic
8 Location of nearby ruin
9 Local gossip
10 Regional gossip
11 Regional rumor
12 National gossip
13 Local superstition
14 Rumored location of a famous item
15 Location of nearby shrine (with rumored power)
16 Local job opertunity
17 Regional job opertunity
18 Tries to get you to join their religion
19 Location of unusal local oddity
20 Reginal superstition

Rumor/Gossip is/are...
1 True
2 Partialy true
3 False
4 Partialy false
5 True
6 False

I realise this requires a DM to think a bit but we all seem to be creative types.

Double blerg

Sick again, i guess my boss is right about our office being full of germs.
Going on 3 days sick hard to be creative when you just want to lay there.
More posts in a day or so when i am better.

Creative control

From a comment a couple days ago a poster claims we all need to be equal in creative control when we sit at the table.
While i agree an improv can be very entertaining. They dont have staying power. A world where for arugement we will say 5 people all have equal creative control is going to suck. It will be a patchwork mish mash of 5 minds. I like my game worlds to at least appear internaly consistant.

If your creative desires are so great, become a DM! Write a book/story/novel. Paint or draw. But come to a DMs world and try to creatively change what has been made. That is the hallmark of a bad player.
The world we DMs make is you players to explore and interact with. Not for you to edit as you wish.

The more i look at/interact with the story as play types the less i think any system can unify fantasy role play.
WotC is in way over its head.

Is the DM equal to the players?

Is the Dungeon Master just another player?
The debate seems to be raging as 5E slowly rears its its all encompassing eye over gamerdom. The cries of players yelling for rules and controls over DMs seems to me like the cries of the French Revolution, "Off with his head"! Equality for all in an RPG cant be achieved. If the DM is equal to the players then you force one player to lose every fight. One players must always defere to the group. One player will never get to win. DMing like that will drive the few good DMs away.

For every good Dungeon Master there is probably 4 or 5 bad ones. The masses who post on WotC's boards seem to think that with the right set of rules they can control a bad DM and make a perfect game. Bad DMs are like unto a force of nature. No rule or system of controls can constrain the train wreck of a bad DM. I understand finding good DM's is hard but you can not fix a bad DM. The only thing you can do with a bad DM is leave the game.

I was originaly curious about 5E. But i come to realise. It can not encompass all past types of D&D. The differences between editions are too great. To keep the new edition players it will have to power creep. The old edition players dont want any change, which there will have to be to unify the editions. The dream is actualy the ravings of a madman.

5E wont work. It will only further splinter the player base.
The only one benefiting from a unified D&D all playing the same game is Wizards of the Coast.

Hot elf chicks draw the page hits..

Hot Elf Chick Oct 5, 2011  56 Pageviews

Save the poor goblins Feb 12, 2012, 3 comments 41 Pageviews

Better with bacon Feb 10, 2012  4 Pageviews

Ugh Feb 5, 2012  3 Pageviews

Vengence is mine sayeth the player Jan 29, 2012   1 Pageview

Short post Oct 26, 2011   1 Pageview

MegaDungeon, The Core. Oct 8, 2011   1 Pageview

Weekends were made for dungeon crawls Jan 31, 2012   1 Pageview

Bonus material for DM's Jan 16, 2012   1 Pageview

John Carter of Mars Feb 3, 2012   1 Pageview

I guess the results are in. Hot elf chicks bring the hits. I know in the world of blogs i am less then small potatos. I do enjoy the fact at least some people think i post a bit of interesting stuff from time to time.

I have been considering offering 1/2e Gamma World game up on G+. more to come on this...