Rach's reflections

Back with a campaign that might actually go somewhere!

2012-01-09T00:09:00.001-08:00

So lately I've been enamored with Microlite74 and tonight my latest group finally got underway.
Our heroines: A vaguely bigoted dwarf paladin whose name briefly escapes me (Sorry, Tenzin), a naive elf wizard named Moira, and a half-orc blacksmith-cum-fighter name of Lillith.
The Dungeon: Dyson's Delve.
The Screen: An extremely frustrating laptop with a broken touchpad.

The game: Awesome.

The players spent the night on the cave of level 1, luckily not having any random encounters. In the morning they decided to explore the main entrance of level 1, quickly taken in (much to the Paladin's chagrin) to the leader of the goblins, and put to work exterminating rats, in hopes of taking long-term shelter among the goblin tribe.
Then they stumbled across the stairway to the cave section of level 2, where they successfully fended off an ambush by a ghoul waiting within (due in no small part to our wonderful paladin scoring a critical hit with a shield bash, followed by Lillith sinking her scimitar into its head). The Paladin's player, Tenzin, an experienced caver, elected to follow the general flow of wind, which took them across the deadfall on level three (injuring Moira in the process-- the first damage of the session!) and taking another staircase. On level four they did a little exploring, finding mysterious spikes, ruined doors, and goblin bodies all around, until they found one of the two manticores asleep in their den. It awoke and a chase ensued. Though the paladin had the clever idea of trying to make it follow a thrown candle, Moira (poor unlucky creature!) was spotted and nearly chomped before they, once again, elected to escape downstairs.
This was the end of the session, them in the eerie semi-silence of level 5, waiting for the manticore to tire of defending its territory. Will they continue down, now certainly over their head? Or will they try to get to the surface and seek civilization? Time alone will tell.

Right up your alley.

2009-07-27T05:13:00.000-07:00

I have begun work on a new project. I make no claims as to originality, indeed the basic conceit is straight out of Jurassic Park. However a chance comment from a friend thankfully took me away from a simple rehash of that old story to something hopefully new: taking what was already going to be survival horror and distilling it to cosmic horror. I will (hopefully if I remember) continue to discuss the process of writing this adventure and make my work available through this blog until it is done, and maybe if I'm lucky I'll even be able to get published

Crunch for at least the early drafts of this adventure will use d20 Call of Cthulhu, because it offers ancient cosmic horrors by virtue of being COC and offers lots of dinosaurs by being compatible with D&D 3.x, but I hope to make this adventure available in a system that people (especially my precious few readers) will actually play, and to that end I need a recommendation for a modern-day-setting horror game that is easy to homebrew for or already has, by some miracle, an abundance of premade Dinosaurs.

Hey, lookit what I found!

2009-07-05T15:01:00.000-07:00

Pretty cool, huh?

Another short one. Maybe I should get a twitter or something.

2009-07-01T23:30:00.000-07:00

I think I've just figured out why people like this are so full of "4e isn't D&D because it isn't like 3e". It's because they've never even read any system other than 3e and 4e so they have no baseline for comparison.

Not to say 4e is so very much more like previous editions than 3e was, but it does have some more old-school aspects, at least in my experiences with.

Underrated Importance

2009-06-16T10:23:00.000-07:00

There's one fantasy novel I think tremendously important that I don't think has been given the credit it deserves among the old-school community.
I'll assemble a post about it shortly.
In the meantime, feel free to guess what it is.

Bounty

2009-05-24T21:41:00.000-07:00

I've recently come into posession of a number of wonderful old-school products, among them products from Arduin, Tekumel, and FASA's Star Trek lines, plus (at long last!) OD&D. I'd like very much in the near future to write brief reviews of them, but that's not a type of writing that comes naturally to me. Any experienced reviewers who'd be kind enough to give me some points on writing a book review that doesn't sound like a droning school report?

Tangent

2009-05-09T21:13:00.000-07:00

Only vaguely related to gaming, but between Barking Alien's excellent posts recently and the new movie (Damned excellent by my standards, though a very different animal) my enthusiasm for Star Trek is at its highest since I was 13.

Here's hoping I don't get quite so enthusiastic as I was at that age, though. I was such a weirdo back then.

Any readers seen the new movie yet? What did you guys think? And I'm still taking suggestions about simplifying my RPG tastes.

You know what?

2009-04-30T19:07:00.000-07:00

I want to simplify. I can't remember the last time I just sat and read through an RPG book I'd already read for the hell of it, which is a damn shame because I used to like to do that.
I don't even seem to do that with bestiaries any more.

Yo, California readers! (off topic)

2009-04-12T18:51:00.000-07:00

The importance of a fighter-mage hybrid

2009-04-07T11:37:00.000-07:00

If I had my way, Readers, there would be no Paladin. I like it and all, but it's seemed to me for some time now that the role of a holy warrior is filled more than acceptably by the cleric.

What I would have as a near-constant, had I my druthers, would be a more arcane-focused fighter class. Something along the lines of what 3.5 called the duskblade, 4e calls the Swordmage, or at least OD&D and BECMI's Elf.

The archetype of a wizard with a weapon is an old favorite, and one of which I'm fond. It has, I think, the most distinctly fantasy feel one can obtain.

Everyone has another mother, silly!

2009-03-08T19:14:00.000-07:00

Having gone to see Coraline again for the second time today (Excellent film, really, I recommend it if you get an opportunity to go see it) I became seized with the desire to stat.
Please critique. This is the 3.5 version. I'll eventually come around with a Castles and Crusades version hopefully.

Beldam

A woman stood in the kitchen with her back to Coraline. She looked a little like Coraline's mother. Only... Only her skin was white as paper. Only she was taller and thinner. Only her fingers were too long, and they never stopped moving, and her dark red fingernails were very long and sharp... And then she turned around. Her eyes were big black buttons. "Coraline?" The woman said. "Is that you?"

Size/Type: Medium Fey (Chaotic, Extraplanar)
Hit Dice: 6d8+6 (33 hp)
Initiative: +1
Speed: 30 ft. (6 squares)
Armor Class: 22 (+3 Dex, +9 natural), touch 13, flat-footed 19
Base Attack/Grapple: +6/+7
Attack: Claw +7 melee (1d6+1)
Full Attack: 2 claws +7 melee (1d6+1)
Space/Reach: 5 ft./5 ft.
Special Attacks: Energy drain, spell-like abilities
Special Qualities: Damage reduction 10/cold iron, darkvision 60 ft., immunity to electricity and poison, resistance to acid 10, cold 10, and fire 10, spell resistance 18, tongues
Saves: Fort +6, Ref +8, Will +7
Abilities: Str 13, Dex 16, Con 13, Int 13, Wis 14, Cha 26
Skills: Bluff +19, Concentration +10, Diplomacy +12, Disguise +17* (+19 acting), Escape Artist +10, Hide +10, Intimidate +19, Knowledge (any one) +12, Listen +19, Move Silently +10, Search +12, Spot +19, Survival +2 (+4 following tracks), Use Rope +1 (+3 with bindings)
Feats: Dodge, Mobility, Persuasive
Environment: Own Demiplane
Organization: Solitary
Challenge Rating: 6
Treasure: Standard
Alignment: Usually Chaotic Neutral
Advancement: 7-12 HD (Medium)

A Beldam is a peculiar variety of fey that feeds on the life force of mortals, particularly children. A rare few of them, rather than wanting to feast on the vitality of a child, wish instead to raise her as her own, but she must often go to great lengths to prevent herself from accidentally eating up their young charge’s life. Beldams are fond of most natural types of vermin and many keep them as pets, guards, or livestock. Beldams mistrust any animal that has the capacity to become a mage’s familiar, and the feeling tends to be mutual. Such animals can always find their way in and out of a Beldam’s private lair. In her true form, a beldam resembles a drider, only grayish-white, wearing clothes, and having enormous sewing needles for legs.

Combat

Beldams are not inclined to fight themselves. If pressed they will use their creations as human shields and their illusions as a distraction to ease their escapes.

A Beldam’s natural weapons, as well as any weapons it wields, are treated as Chaotic aligned for purposes of damage reduction.

Energy Drain (su)

For each night a mortal remains in a beldam’s demiplane, he must succeed on a DC 21 will save or be bestowed one negative level. The DC is 21 for a fortitude save to regain these lost levels. These save DCs are charisma-based.

Spell-like abilities

At will—charm monster (DC 22), detect thoughts (DC 20), suggestion (DC 21), Scry (DC 20), Simulacrum (Requires 2 yards of fabric per medium creature instead of snow, may be of any person the beldam knows by name and face, even if just by scrying upon a mortal), Major Image (DC20) Caster level 12th. The save DCs are Charisma-based.

Change Shape (su)

A beldam can assume the shape of any small or medium humanoid, however her eyes cannot be disguised, and remain black and button-like without some way of disguising them. Beldams often use this power to disguise themselves as the mothers of the children they abduct.

Tongues (ex)

A Beldam has a permanent tongues ability (Caster level 12th).

Skills

A Beldam has a +8 racial bonus on Spot and Listen checks.

Coraline is (Copyright) Neil Gaiman and Laika Pictures. This is not for profit.

The Young Doe

2009-02-28T11:00:00.000-08:00

I'm probably the youngest person in the entire old-school community, aren't I? (And even then, not always as old-school as many).

Other Races

2009-02-19T14:14:00.000-08:00

Most fantasy and scifi games have races other than human available for play, as we all know. These tend to follow a pattern (Take it away, TVTropes) and especially in fantasy, One always seems to find the same others, thanks in no small part to D&D's tradition.

So tell me, readership, what are some races you just love to death that don't follow the standard formula? I'll volunteer my favorite, D&D 3.5's Raptorans. Based in large part on the extinct Anasazi culture of my home state, New Mexico, the Raptorans are winged gliders with a nature-based culture that retains a vague feel of elves, without being quite so pretentious.

An Idea Occurs.

2009-02-01T21:07:00.000-08:00

Use Mongoose Traveller for a Futurama campaign.
Your thoughts, readers?

The bats have left the bell tower, the victims have been bled

2009-01-24T20:05:00.000-08:00

And I thought I'd leave a little proof for you that the old-school spirit existed on some official level into 3e.

I submit to you one of the features in Dungeon Magazine issue 91: Challenge of Champions IV. My excellent friend and fellow blogger James Malizewski often speaks about an important part of the old school revolving around challenges that test the player's reasoning rather than the character's powers, and this adventure delivers. Each of the ten challenges in the adventure is themed as an event in a sort of adventurer's decathlon, and revolves solving puzzles that revolve solely around the PCs' ability to reason (To add to the challenge, only items provided for the task may be used, and casters can only use the spells stored in rings, not any of their own). If you can come across that issue of Dungeon, I recommend it for this adventure alone (and, for 3e players, another nice old-school touch: a half-machine template for monsters).

Games to play with Elves

2008-12-26T23:29:00.000-08:00

Everyone is sick of the cliche of better-than-you-and-we-know-it elves. so here are some fun different takes to try.

Our elves are modern

These elves are long-lived and often rich. At some point in the past the Elven people discovered how to make themselves immortal. So they did it. They're now the magical equivalent of the first world, but instead of running water and television they've got magic to do anything you could name. The average elf does not understand how most of the spells that keep his civilization afloat work, and probably does not care. Their society is very consumerist, with professional designers. It's all quite shallow and decadent, and frankly not that many elves even remember a time when they didn't have whatever they wanted. This childishly indulgent lifestyle leaves the average elf rather immature and often selfish.

Our elves are failures

Tolkien's Elves seem like Mary Sues if you've only read the Hobbit and Lord of the Rings, but if you read the Silmarillion, elves only look so good because they spent thousands of years fucking up and there's not enough left to make things worse. Most elves aren't much more powerful than humans, and even those that are are mired in a desire to prevent all change. These elves could be played for tragedy or a sort of ironic comedy.

Our elves are aliens

Whether the transdimensional parasites of Pratchett or the mysterious abductors of thousands of conspiracy theorist, these elves are just not natural. Once in a great while, livestock or men will vanish, never to return, and some say that the elves take them away in chariots from the sky. A rare few elves, out of curiosity or out of a desire for conquest, masquerade as humans... there are always a few telltale flaws though...

Our elves are artificial

Some other force- the fey, perhaps, or a strange god- built the elves to serve him. Perhaps some have gone native, perhaps all of them faithfully serve their mysterious masters to whatever strange end they pursue.

Our elves are monkeys

Elves are forest-dwelling vegetarian hominids, right? Why on earth do they have good eyesight? They live someplace with little visibility. They don't have any brows, living in shade all the time, it's not needed. Being so fast and agile, they have a quick metabolism, which takes a toll on their lifespan. In fact, not being predators, they're probably not very bright either. As fruit-dependent herbivores they would be very appreciative of colour in the natural world, and probably spend most of their day eating one thing or another. Imagine one attempting to snack on a cache of gems... This leads to an interesting sort of culture oriented around bright colours and continual feasting on the move; one could track such elves by the trail of discarded foodstuffs they left behind.

Our elves are Indians

As humans encroach into what they have long took to be "wilderness", they are indeed encroaching upon the homes of the elves. Sure, the elves might try to fight back, but the humans have the numbers, and the arms, and the diseases. How long will elf culture hold up amidst these new changes? will they be able to keep any of their dominance, or failing that carve out a niche for themselves?

Our elves are liars

In an effort to maintain the image of being superior, elf society is fiercely competitive, with the weak enslaved or even left to die. Live in harmony with the forest? Sure, the way fleas live in harmony with dogs. If any human should stumble upon the ruined, bled-dry forest that was once an elvish village, it will quickly and categorically be blamed upon the orcs or some other scourge. Elves look so alike and use so few names, that a human might know five generations of elves in his life and believe them to be the same person. These elves aren't more beautiful than any other race, but part of their competitiveness is extreme vanity, and use everything from makeup to magical alteration to look prettier.

Our elves are Peter Pan

Elves are often described as childlike... indeed, they never truly grow up. though they reach the height of a man, they never go through puberty, which accounts for their hairlessness, androgyny, and hedonistic tendencies. Where do they come from? Are they spawned by the forest? Are they rare humans, only a few born in a generation? Are they changelings, kidnapped from their rightful parents and altered by fell magics? The elves aren't about to tattle. Perhaps they can mature, but don't want to for some reason, constructing their own illusory fairyland full of empty pleasures. When they leave, and smell the fresh air and eat the real food, they age and mature into something else. Perhaps humans, perhaps a more player-friendly sort of elf, perhaps into terrible monsters.

Our elves are klutzes

Ever wonder why an elf has to be over a century old to start adventuring, while a human who survives to be that old is almost certainly extremely powerful? It's because they need all that time to develop anything resembling grace or keen senses. No non-elf ever sees an elf city, because they are too proud to let anyone know that they spend the first part of their life with the senses and nimbleness of a drunken retard.

So this is Christmas

2008-12-23T12:47:00.001-08:00

Tell me, readers, if you could have one magic item/sci-fi technology for your own for Christmas, what would you ask for?

Myself... I think a Ring of Telekinesis. It's a power I've always desired.

Races of Eden, part 1

2008-12-21T08:30:00.000-08:00

The excellent Wyatt Salazar has given me permission to transcribe the races he created for his Spirits of Eden campaign setting. The first set of these posts will be devoted to converting them to D&D 3.5, the next set will do the same for Castles and Crusades.

IOMADI:
Average Height: 5'4"-6'0"
Average Weight: 120–180 lb.
Ability Scores: +2 Charisma, -2 Constitution
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 Feet
Low-Light Vision: An Iomadi can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. She retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
+2 Racial Bonus to Diplomacy and Sense Motive
+1 Racial bonus to Fortitude and Will Saves
Human Heritage: Iomadi qualify as human for prerequisites that require human as a race.
Automatic Languages: Common
Bonus Languages: Any
Skilled: An Iomadi may choose one skill that is not on her class skills list. She may then treat that skill as a class skill for all intents and purposes.
1 extra feat at 1st level

ATHIRUA:
Average Height: 5'4"-5'10"
Average Weight: 125–150 lb.
Ability Scores: +2 Charisma, -2 Strength
Size: Medium
Speed: 35 feet
Low-Light Vision: An Athiura can see twice as far as a human in starlight, moonlight, torchlight, and similar conditions of poor illumination. She retains the ability to distinguish color and detail under these conditions.
+2 racial bonuses to Tumble and Diplomacy
Automatic Languages: Common
Bonus Languages: Sylvan, Elven, Gnomish, Draconic, Celestial
Athirua Cunning: You gain a +1 bonus to attack rolls against enemies who are denied their Dexterity bonus to AC.
Graceful Step: An Athiura may take 10 on Tumble checks to move through difficult terrain

CUPORO:
Average Height: 4'3"-4'10"
Average Weight: 90–130 lb.
Ability Scores: +2 Wisdom, -2 Strength
Size: Medium
Speed: 30 Feet
Darkvision: Cuporo can see in the dark up to 60 feet. Darkvision is black and white only, but it is otherwise like normal sight, and Cuporo can function just fine with no light at all.
A Cuporo may attempt to make any skill check untrained, even if it would not otherwise be possible.
+1 Racial Bonus to Reflex saves
Automatic Languages: Common, Elven
Bonus Languages: Sylvan, Gnome, Goblin, Draconic, Undercommon
1 extra feat at 1st level

Iomadi, Athiura, and Cuporo were created by Wyatt Salazar. http://spiritsofeden.wordpress.com/spirits-of-eden-players-guide/
The fluff for those races is also there for the perusal of those interested. It's very game-neutral.

New Campaign

2008-11-30T10:18:00.000-08:00

Having been suckered into DMing D&D 4e for some friends, I decided the least I could do to atone was use an old-school adventure, so I picked the only one I had intended for starting characters: The Temple of Elemental Evil. I think it's everyone's first time through Hommlet and Nulb.
It's going well so far. The PCs already exposed Davl and Gremag, however at this time they have dismissed Zuggtmoy's cult in favor of trying to track the brigands around Hommlet.

Universal systems

2008-11-13T13:01:00.001-08:00

I've never much cared for universal systems that advertise themselves as being universal. Such games either tend to be too complex even for my arbitrary-rules-loving tastes, or to feel far too generic and incomplete. (Though I admit I used to follow GURPS for the sake of Bunnies and Burrows-- Rachel loves herself some Watership Down-esque antics.

Which brings me to my point: I love Green Ronin's Mutants and Masterminds. As one might surmise from the name, M&M is a superhero game. Now the versatility and variety in the superhero genre means that Mutants and Masterminds has to operate under almost any reasonable contingency-- Taking Marvel's characters alone as an example, it has to deal with characters as rooted in science as the Fantastic 4 or Iron Man as well as ones rooted in fantasy like Thor or Captain Britain as well as human-level action heroes like Nick Fury or the Punisher... but I digress. More to the point, the "Superhero" subgenre offers a hell of a lot of variety, and by capturing this, Mutants and Masterminds (in my opinion) offers the perfect solution for anyone searching for a universal system. (God, what a shill I must sound like.)

So tell me, readers, what are your experiences with universal systems?

Trick or treat

2008-10-28T12:17:00.000-07:00

Halloween is coming up, readers, and it's a big deal for me, as I'm sure it is for all of you (those of you who live in countries where Halloween is not a big deal, go out there and make it a big deal, you'll have fun.)
I bring this up, of course, because I think Halloween is very much a gamer's holiday. Even leaving aside the junk food and occasional bouts of elaborate costuming, the holiday's pagan roots and fantasy-horror present is highly appealing.

So what are you going to do to celebrate this Friday, guys? (I need some good ideas!)

Non-gaming related rant

2008-10-11T22:20:00.000-07:00

I'm inexplicably fond of Stephanie Meyer's Twilight novels, fully aware of their... let's say "limited" quality. As silly and mediocre as they are, I find myself reading and enjoying them greatly...

But dear god, the fandom. What a cesspit the Twilighters are. The vast majority are younger teenage girls and middle-aged housewives, many of whom are disturbingly fixated on the main romantic interest of the series, Edward, and who seem to ignore legitimate criticism of their series. I wish the series had stayed more obscure, 'cause almost every time I get online I see something that makes me embarrassed to like these books. (One of the most egregious examples of which was today, when I read about a 15-year old who hooked up with a man named Edward based on his name alone, got pregnant, and named her daughter Renesmee, after the daughter of the main characters in the final book.)

I swear to God, even the Harry Potter fandom never got this bad. Why can't I just enjoy my crappy novels in peace without having to be lumped in with all these obsessive freaks?

What's D&D to you?

2008-09-28T09:51:00.000-07:00

As my readers who follow Grognardia might know, I have expressed an interest in making a... well not exactly a retro-clone... but a new game line that could serve as an alternative to third and/or fourth edition. The rest of you... well, now you know, huh?

So here's where you, my readers come in. What does "playing D&D" mean to you? What tropes are required? What can be done away with? What's something you've always wished it had?

Additionally, and building on that, a small solicitation:

Is anyone interested in lending a hand to create a new game we can have pride in? (Financial returns would have to be based on any subsequent profit. (Sorry. Poor, semi-employed high school students kinda don't have money to burn)

Vexing

2008-09-24T13:16:00.000-07:00

I've come to a conclusion. From a mechanical standpoint, I'm not much of a DM. But when it comes to ideas, I have a lot of them. I come up with new items, new settings and locations, new monsters, and all that sorta thing every single day.
Still, when it comes to gameplay (at least in 3.5, it's been ages since I GMed any other games), I find that it takes me ages to run a combat or anything.

A question

2008-09-20T13:04:00.000-07:00

How important do my readers consider alignment to be to old-school play?

Masterworks

2008-09-12T14:11:00.001-07:00

I think part of the reason that magic items feel so commonplace is that frankly, PCs tend to have a fair number of them. To help inject a little more specialness into the idea of magical equipment, here are some ideas I've been having lately.

1) In order to create certain types of magic items, they must be infused with a destiny. Just as no spell can reveal the ultimate destiny of a person, nor can they tell you what the ultimate purpose of a weapon may be. That flaming longsword might be the thing that saves a northern village from freezing in the harshest winter of its history, or it could be the weapon carried at the front of an army that will burn a nation to the ground.
2) To create a magic weapon is not an easy task. It's not a matter of just casting a spell over and over and paying some XP. It's something that takes months and exotic materials from all over the world. A phoenix's wing feather might be necessary to a flaming weapon, or a horn forcibly taken from a living unicorn might be an important component in infusing that suit of armor you're making with the ability to drive back angels.
3) (the first two, in my mind, tie into this nicely, but any one can be used by itself with some ingenuity) Not all "magic" equipment is actually magical. Many items are simply crafted with such mastery that they're just better in some way or another than a conventional weapon that any blacksmith could make. Most often they are made in the remote homes of the dwarves or elves, but on a rare occasion the gods of the forge might bless a smith with inspiration to create such an amazing sword as this. There's even a precedent for this in that book which I consider to be most important to the D&D game as we know it, the Lord of the Rings. In Lothlorien (IIRC), the hobbits ask some of the elves about magic, and the elves' replies are something to the effect of "What do you mean, magic? This is simply craftsmanship!"

WARNING: 3e CONTENT AHEAD! YOU HAVE BEEN ADVISED

The following weapon special abilities (lifted from the Dungeon Master's Guide and the Magic Item Compendium) are, in my opinion, good choices to adapt as Masterwork properties. (Ones marked with an asterisk are from MIC)

Standard numerical bonuses (IE +1, +3, et cetera)
Aquatic*
Arcane Might*
Bloodstone*
Brutal Surge*
Chargebreaker*
Charging*
Collision*
Deadly Precision*
Defending
Distance
Eager*
Ghost Touch
Impact*
Implacable*
Keen
Ki Focus
Knockback*
Maiming*
Merciful
Mighty Cleaving
Parrying*
Power Storing*
Precise
Resounding*
Soulbound*
Soulbound, Greater*
Speed
Spell Storing
Sundering*
Sweeping*
Throwing
Wounding

Likewise, the following Armor/shield special abilities strike me as acceptable choices for masterwork properties.

Standard Numerical Bonuses
Anchoring*
Arrow Catching
Arrow Deflection
Axeblock
Bashing
Commander*
Easy Travel*
Fortification (Light, heavy, or medium)
Ghost Touch
Hammerblock*
Nimbleness*
Ranged*
Spearblock*
Twilight*

3E CONTENT OVER. YOU ARE SAFE NOW.

Of course, this is by no means a comprehensive list of all the properties that could be masterwork-based instead of overtly magical, but I'm not oging to file through every single book. If it's not on the list, use your best judgment. If the item doesn't increase its user's abilities beyond what they could already do, it's probably magical.

Dead Man's Yeast

2008-09-08T20:17:00.000-07:00

In some cultures, the creation of certain undead is not considered to be a great evil, as long as the body donor has expressed agreement to being made into an undead. Since not everyone can learn the kind of magic necessary to the task of creating undead, there is a substance called Dead Man's Yeast, 45 gp to the ounce, that can animate 1 HD worth of dead flesh (when poured into the corpse's mouth) as a zombie under the control of whoever includes a bit of hir genetic material (Spit or blood is the traditional additive) in the water used to activate it. It is, quite literally, the zombie virus. Whereas magically animated zombies need nothing to keep them animated but their master's will, Dead Man's Yeast consumes protein and fat extremely quickly and the zombies will rot over a few days or weeks unless they get some type of meat (the more similar to the zombie's former species the better, but this is often frowned upon). Having undead is generally a status symbol as such, because you need to either have lots of livestock, or access to powerful magic. If traces of Dead Man's Yeast remain on the mouth of a zombie, it can be passed on by biting. Since there is no genetic material left for the yeast to acclimate to, the resulting zombies will havel imited self will. Although they bear only animal intelligence, they will seek to spread the infection and to feed on any available sources of flesh. For a budding adventurer, culling wild zombies on the local lord's estate can be a good way to make your name known.

I wrote the preceeding just for the fun of it. What do you all think?

Neat.

2008-09-06T20:11:00.000-07:00

So I read through the starter set of Castles and Crusades...
And it made so much sense. It had this elegant simplicity that I really dug.
Not that I don't understand 3e on a pretty intimate level. I see the inner logic of both games pretty clearly. It's kind of like algebra to geometry, if you get my meaning. I really like what I saw, and I intend to give the books a good once-through. Review to follow.

Maybe.

If you're good.

Do you think it's alright?

2008-09-06T09:15:00.000-07:00

As I said in my previous post, I'm starting to gain an understanding of the philosophy of old school play. School and fairly soon, God Willing, work kind of limit my availability to learn a new system.
Thus, a question to all the people out there who are familiar with old-school play and 3.5 mechanics: Can the two be reconciled, and how difficult would it be to pull this off?

Waffling

2008-09-02T08:35:00.000-07:00

I really can't make up my mind about 4e, even after all these months. I can certainly SEE why someone might like it, but I just...

Something about it doesn't quite feel like it belongs. You know what I mean? I suppose that part of the difference to me is that when I got into D&D, 3rd edition was relatively young, so as my knowledge grew, so did the system, so having it start from scratch again throws me for a bit of a loop.

Another thing that bothers me is leaving out matters that have been part of core for decades. I mean, I understand that this is meant to be a reimagining of the concepts that make D&D (And also an attempt at making it more of a brand, see Grognardia for a discussion or three of that), but that doesn't mean that things that served perfectly well before should go away.

Also I like rolling dice, and I like variation. 4e sort of feels like a McD&D to me. Just like how a McDonald's hamburger tastes the same everywhere in the world, so too does it feel to me like a lot of customization and variation has been lost in the name of balance. To me balance is just a buzzword. A smart player's fighter is just as devastating as her druid, in my experience.
(My god. I finally understand what James is talking about when he says a game should test player skill. Shit. Old school makes sense now. Cool.)

Thirdly, I feel like a lot of utility has been sacrificed. Sure, for the most part the skills are still there, but there are so few utility powers and their application is very different. Even with the rituals, it sort of seems to me like non-combat magic is pretty much nil. I'm sort of uncomfortable to that. To me, it disrupts the illusion of a bigger world outside of my characters.

Finally, I feel like 4e is too specific in its design. In 3e (and I imagine based on firsthand stories from others, 2e, 1e, and OD&D) I felt like with a little finagling I could create a campaign with any sort of style I wanted. Look again at Grognardia: right now he's detailing a space opera setting for OD&D, fer cryin' out loud! 4e, conversely, seems quite rooted in its setting. As a general rule, I prefer my games to be more on the generic side (I have a few exceptions to this, in that I also enjoy d20 Star Wars and oWoD, both of which are highly dependent on their settings, but this is an anomaly.), and thus I simply don't cotton to a lot of the changes to fluff in 4e, especially because they make it quite hard to move a campaign over into it. (My god, just look at what they did to the poor Forgotten Realms! I mean, it was never a setting I cared much for, but it doesn't even sound like itself anymore!)

So yeah, in short, even though I understand why someone MIGHT like 4e, I still can't fully wrap my mind around why anyone would prefer it, and I think I finally understand old-school gaming (Though the possibility of an overly-malicious DM using any number of dirty tricks worries me a little bit).

I wanna play.

2008-08-16T18:45:00.000-07:00

I really do. I'd prefer either D&D 3.5, Mutants and Masterminds 2e, or Star Wars Saga. Anyone running any of those or looking for a GM?

Tell me about your humanoids

2008-08-05T10:46:00.001-07:00

(Monstrous or Demihuman, it's all good)

Tell me about what you do with your non-human races to set them apart. I wanna hear it from anyone who reads this freaking blog. Here are some of the things I do that aren't quite as rooted in tradition. The examples I use here are set in the campaign setting I'm currently making an effort to create, but are colored with what I've done over the years. (I've done the races more or less according to stereotype over the years).

The Good Guys (usually)

Elves: My elves come in a couple of varieties. None are super-original, but they hopefully differ enough from the stereotypes to be worth mentioning.

Tall Elves- Mostly integrated into human society, or else humans are mostly integrated into theirs. Tend to be nobility. These are the sort that tend to be mages. Tall Elves are their own race, although there is some blood in them from Fey elves who went native. (In 3e terms, they're probably grey elves)
Fey Elves- Envoys between the fairy courts and earth. Magically talented, but not always inclined toward it. (in 3e mechanics, Seelie elves are high elves, and unseelie are drow)
Wanderer elves- The most populous of elves. Proud Warrior Race guys, though generally the most amiable of the so-called savage races, and usually welcomed by the other breeds of elves when they come by. (Mechanically most often High Elves, sometimes Wild or Wood elves)

Dwarves: My dwarves mostly stick to the stereotype. Of the civilized races, they tend to be the most talented engineers and inventors. If there's gunpowder or steam power in a campaign, it was invented by the dwarves. When not involved in battle or manual labor, dwarves tend to dress in natty, Edwardian-esque clothes. When working or fighting (Both still highly prized occupations), though, they tend to prefer much more traditional dwarvish looks. Dwarves are ruthless capitalists when it comes to dealing with non-dwarves, even those that they trust, but a dwarf will always help out his brother in need.

Gnomes: Rather than linking gnomes to dwarves, my gnomes are actually closely related to elves. Both were originally spawned by the fairy courts to establish contact with mortal races. Gnomes adapted readily, and often go native, settling in human or tall elf lands. The race as a whole, depending on who you ask are either universally endearing or obnoxious and fairly geeky, tending to find a field that interests them and pursuing it to the point of obsession. As such, they tend to be the best at what they do, though often a little bit lacking in other subjects.

Halflings: The closest race (biologically and culturally) to humans. Like Tolkien, my halflings are simple homebodies with a fondness for farming, geography, geneaology, and stories. Persons who find dissatisfaction with some member of society, or other such disturbers of the peace, are encouraged to jion the subculture known as Outriders, the universal halfling term for any adventurer, particularly their border guards. Halflings refer to their country as their "homeshire". They tend to get along with everyone, but especially humans, with whom they have a big-brother/little-brother relationship, regardless of age.

Sea folk: The primary ocean-dwellers I rely upon are merfolk, largely Proud Warrior Race tribes, though officially all are under the rule of a single monarch, whose city-state tends to be more civilized and hospitable. Sea elves also exist as a result of fairly frequent interbreeding between merfolk and elves. Like Fey elves before them, they tend to be the go-betweens between two worlds.

The Bad guys (Traditionally)

Orcs: My orcs are actually not as villainous as many stories and settings paint them as, or at least they didn't start out as such. In fact, they have the same creator god as the Tall Elves, and were created to live in a symbiotic relationship with them. Long ago, a demon lord was able to trick his way into the faith of the previously shamanistic orc culture, using their faith to set himself up as a god. (In greyhawk/FR mythology [upon which I tend to base my gods], this is the source of the fued between Corellon Larethian and Gruumsh) A few select tribes have rediscovered the old faith, and at least one's lands are growing again as they re-learn powerful magics. Mistrustful of they fey races, Dwarves, and any culture that grows too civilized (in the orcish mindset, the right to hold a place in society comes from proving one's self with skill, whether that be martial, leadership, survival, or magical). Very few orcs ever learn arcane magic, preferring to work through channels of the gods or the spirits.

Goblins: The original goblinoid race was created as the protectors of gnomes and fey elves. These proto-goblins aren't particuarly common today, having mostly bred out into the other races. Those with gnomish ancestry became true-breeding goblins, those with elf blood are hobgoblins, and orc breeding resulted in the Bugbears. The three goblinoid races do not generally maintain their ties with their fey progenitors, and for the most part they emulate the culture of orcs (who find them to be kindred spirits in many ways).

Cultural notes

The races created by the fairy courts tend to become neutral third parties. In keeping with the chaotic, unstructured lifestyle of the fey, they do not feel that they owe their allegiance to their creators.
Gods tend to adopt a race that has no deities. (using the Greyhawk pantheon, Corellon became the patron of fey elves since they so resembled some of his own children, Hruggek and Malgubiyet were war gods who found ideal followers in the highly martial goblinoids, and Garl Glittergold, as a god of craft, attracted the worship of many gnomes.)
If I don't have a race listed for them, I don't tend to do anything different when using them, but I don't necessarily leave them out, I just think that the generally held culture is just fine.

Some of my other loves.

2008-08-01T17:58:00.000-07:00

Well, the new meme going around is to discuss other systems besides D&D that one is fond of, so here are mine.

Mutants and Masterminds

Billed as the world's greatest superhero RPG, and I'd certainly believe it. The mechanics are a derivative of d20, and they're extremely well-suited to making any sort of superhero you could want. In addition I think it would make a fine generic system as well, substituting the powers for magical abilities or advanced technology or special training or what have you.

Star Wars d20

A few different editions of this game have been produced. I am focusing mostly on the Revised and Saga editions. Saga served as a testing ground for many of the new mechanics in D&D 4e, but it implemented them in a way that I find much more bearable and fun. I do actually like some of the new mechanics in 4e, and this was a good example of how they SHOULD have done things.

Vampire: The Masquerade

I confess that I've always taken a lot of liberties when I played vampire, ignoring parts of the setting or metaplot. I quite like a lot of the fundamentals of the setting, and in my experience nothing is quite as good for highly political games. I don't like V:tRequiem so much, though, because it changed a little too much in my opinion. I liked the multitude of clans, just like I like the multitude of kits in D&D 2e or classes in 3.5.

A not-so-novel idea

2008-07-28T10:26:00.000-07:00

I really HATE novels based on game settings. They always seem to be of such abysmal pot-boiler quality, and if they start to get popular (I'm looking at you, Forgotten Realms), there can be so many powerful heroes in the setting already, putting PCs into it feels redundant. "Oh, a bloody great meteor is going to crash into Waterdeep? No matter, I'm sure Elminster can save us!" "The horde is preparing to lead an assault on our lands? Meh. That's why we have Drizzt!"
A lot of powerful characters in a setting takes away from the importance of the PCs in a big way. It encourages heroes being taken almost for granted.And it is for all these reasons that I say: This is why they should bring back some of the old settings, where there's not so much backstory or metaplot to be had.

On a related note, the one thing that always really irked me about Vampire: the Masquerade is that it had such an enormous metaplot to muck through. If they're going to call the GM a "Storyteller", then the GM should get to TELL HIS OWN FUCKING STORY without being left so far out of the lurch. My understanding is that the new World of Darkness has no metaplot, but I find myself mistrustful due to much flavor change within the context of Vampire.

Female adventurers

2008-07-27T12:23:00.000-07:00

As a female gamer who plays in a mostly-female groupI expect I probably have a fairly unique view of the subject of what a female adventurer might look like. I've always felt that a little element of wish fulfillment can be very welcome in a game, so my characters are often more than a bit idealized...

However, that said, my characters usually aren't waifish. My rogues are lithe, my wizards a bit scrawny, but I always imagine my creations with a build and musculature befitting what they do. My warriors are built like athletes. Not necessarily big (though sometimes), but there's definitely muscle on them. Look at a professional female athlete. notice how even if they're not bulky (and many aren't), you can see how strong they are just as much as you can on a male athlete. Well, to me, adventurers are quite special, so my female warriors are even more athletic than that. My rogues are sometimes built like this (depending on if I'm going for more of a brutish enforcer type), but more likely they will be built like a gymnast. I don't build them like that out of aesthetics (though I am quite attracted to both aforementioned body types), but because if your job is to hit things with a big hunk of metal while wearing more metal, then you're going to develop a lot of muscle. If your job is to sneak around, leap from building to building, et cetera, you're going to be fairly lean and wiry if you can help it. My mages tend to be skinny, as I said, because I tend to imagine a mage as being a very devoted academic, and I figure that they're not going to work out their bodies quite as much (Though I don't mind a mage instead being overweight or even toned, I just think that with the amount of strenuous activity necessary to adventuring, they're not likely to be particularly large.) I haven't really made much mention of priests and the like yet, but that's 'cause I don't think there really is a body type as endemic to them as to the other classes. (I don't think there's one particularly endemic to mages either, but the skinny academic sort of wizard is a bit of an icon.)

Of course, I adjust the body type a bit to fit the character's race (and to a lesser extent their social station). Using the classic D&D races, my elves tend more toward lithe shapes (I rationalize that elves have much more compact and efficient muscles than humans). My dwarves tend to be stocky (and a little more on the busty side than the other races. I tend to imagine dwarves as being very proud of their sex and of having very significant dimorphism between the sexes. Yes, I know, Heresy. My Dwarven Women don't have beards. Get her, burn the witch, yadda yadda.). My halflings tend toward a little chubbiness, but nothing that impedes their movement. Childlike, you know. In the same way that children tend to not have much tone, so do my halflings. Gnomes I picture as being not unlike dwarves in build, but with more elfin features. Basically an adult human body at half scale. My orcish women (and I'm surprisingly fond of orcish women, for some reason) tend toward being very broad and slightly mannish, but still quite attractive (I have long entertained the theory that the reason orc females are so rarely seen is that the menfolk guard them jealously from outside eyes). Not the "elf with fangs and green skin" look WoW gives them, but something, well, big. Tough looking. I'm not sure if my meaning quite gets accross without a picture.

But still, my female adventurers tend to be on the attractive side, unless I feel there's a reason for them not to be. I'd just rather imagine appealing, attractive characters. Chalk it up to vanity or perversion or taste, or whatever you like.

Hello hello!

2008-07-26T09:27:00.000-07:00

So if you're reading this, you found my blog. Good for you. Here, I mean to, in the spirit of Noisms's excellent Monsters and Manuals deliver whatever half-baked theories about roleplaying games might come into my silly little head, for everyone to mock and pick apart as they will.

A word of caution, unlike good ol' Noisms, I'm quite fond of third edition D&D, and most of my philosophy is based on it (It was my first game, after all!). Despite all that, I find that there are a lot of points in other styles of games I've found myself surprisingly in agreement with, so I hope this blog will offer some insights to readers on both sides... and more hopefully, pull a few people away from the abomination that is 4e.

Just kidding.

Maybe.