BECMI Barbarian

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For the past few (5+) years, I’ve been running a B/X game with my children, and much like I did when I was just a wee little tyke, I’ve let them build character’s that they’d like to play rather than restrict them to the classic seven. I love making new classes for these games, and I also like to convert old classes. To date standout classes that we’ve created are a Hedgehog Guardian (a druid demi-human), a Red Wizard (modeled off the class in Final Fantasy 1), a Grim Reaper, a Ninja Cat (inspired by our feline master who has so graciously allowed me the time to make this post), and a few more classes inspired by earlier editions of a world famous Adventure Fantasy Game.

The one I’d like to share today is one I created almost a year ago after being inspired by a livestream on YouTube by Fred from How to RPG. What he did was take the 5e Barbarian class, deconstruct it, and rebuild it.

So I thought, why shouldn’t I do that for my game. And I did. What’s even better is that after I shared it with him, he devoted another live stream to making a BECMI character using that design. You can watch that here.

So after all this time, I am posting this class write up here. Let’s see if I can figure out how to use the WordPress system again. Click on the image to download the pdf.

Well, crap, I should post more often. I had to copy a previous post to get this one set up to match my previous posts.

A few notes on my version. I based my class on the 1e version of the barbarian, but that one has a lot of abilities than I am not a big fan of and doesn’t have the rage ability which I think is one of it’s core abilities. It also has an insane amount of experience required to rise in levels so I had to make a lot of choices on what to include and exclude. I am really happy with the final product so feel free to use this class for your own game and please reply if you have any thoughts you’d like to share.

Alexander’s Solo Dungeon

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So it’s been a while, and boy do I hate the way this editor works. If I did it right, either image should give you a link to a PDF I created that describes a dungeon my seven-year-old son and I played over the course of three (maybe four) sessions.

It’s a small dungeon, but one I think turned out exceptionally well. It’s one that I think Alex will look back on fondly for a very long time. Click on either image and make sure to get the PDF. More after the break.

You see, it’s the first dungeon he explored by himself, and he did it with a custom character class we call the Grim. It’s a grim reaper based on a youtube video for a game called Totally Accurate Battle Simulator. His class looks like a grim reaper with a scythe and tentacles and has about six abilities that mimic magic-user spells. At first level he can cast Burning Hands by swinging his scythe that shoots black and purple flames. At third level he can use his tentacles to grab and hold people. By 11th-level, he can just straight up use Death Spell. He loves it and keeps asking to play.

I also was able to test a custom character class based on the Red Mage from Final Fantasy I. We built both classes (including a Hedgehog class) with BX Options Class Builder, and they both worked great. The Hedgehog class we’ve tested in the dungeon that the whole family plays in. Check out the commentary for a much more in depth discussion.

After setting up this post, I guess in the grand scheme of things, this editor is not a big deal. Just don’t like having to relearn these things every time I post. Cheers.

Local Campaign Area Map

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Well it has been awhile. I’ve been busy with all sorts of stuff but I wanted to share this.

I started it today and think it really turned out well. I had found this tutorial: [Award Winner] Hand-Drawn Mapping (for the Artistically Challenged) at the Cartographer’s Guild years ago, and I have used it periodically throughout. Recently a co-worker started getting involved with D&D and needed help with making maps. Lots of it. So I thought of this and showed it to him. With a portable copy of GIMP and his hand drawn mess, we ended up with something he was happy with.

That brings me back to today. It looks like we are going to start a Zoom game, and I’ve been putzing around with making a quick campaign using Dungeoncraft from Dragon Magazine and the AD&D 2e World Builder’s Guide. But I needed a quick map. I have been making quick hand-drawn hex maps, but wanted to play around with this tutorial. So in between three hours of yard work and reinstalling two lazy-susans, I started on this.

Local Campaign Area

Local Campaign Area

I think it looks wonderful and am happy to share it (for non-commercial purposes) with anyone who should happen on by. Cheers.

Feeding fans starving 4 Action around da World!

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Despite what I said a few weeks ago, I never really retired, just semi-retired. I regularly check this site and love that it still gets traffic. So keep it up.

And now for something completely different…

I may be late to this, but there is just something I love about it. So I post this without further comment for your pleasure.

For more action check out their site: Wakaliwood.com. It appears there is another movie coming in June.

Congratulations UVA

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Leave it to the Cavs to bring me out of retirement. 🙂

I’ve been a Hokie fan ever since I came to Virginia in 1999, but I’ve almost always rooted for the Cavs. Great job tonight. That was an amazing game. Take it all the way and show everyone the power of the Commonwealth.

I would have loved to see UVA v. Tech but alas it was not meant to be. Congrats to my Hokies for not making into the NIT. 🙂

Save Vs. Dragon and Typography

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Richard over at Save Vs. Dragon has started a series of posts on Typography. I’ve tried to comment on both posts (as of this posting) and either wordpress.com or blogspot.com is being stupid. So I figured I could post the links to his posts with a few comments of my own.

Typographic Pet Peeve #1: Automatic Leading on Titling with Type Elements of Multiple Sizes

Typographic Pet Peeve #2: Default (and/or Bad) Letterspacing/Kerning

Lymdonshire Story Hour

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Over at theRPGsite I started a thread for a Story Hour I had written over two years ago as a quick exercise. Shit the game itself was an experiment, but fun times none-the-less. It is not super polished (hell, there is still verb tense disagreement buried in there).

What I really like about it is that it is different from most Story Hours I’ve read. This one is almost more about the players at my table than the characters in the game.

I’ve written almost 14,000 words and intend to post them all in due course, but it will really come down to if anyone (aside from me) is interested in the nonsense and general goings-on at my table.

You can find the thread at this link: Lymdonshire Story Hour

UPDATE: So here it is, July 2016 and I haven’t made another post to that thread. Shame on me. I actually haven’t been to the site much since it was redesigned. I do not like it. Now it looks like every other forum site. For some reason it seems to have lost its character.