Off to a wedding!

It isn't every day that 2 of your players get married, but today happens to be one of those rare and lucky days. In fact, as this post goes live, the ceremony should be starting...

Congrats Kat and Julia!

I'm so lucky to have you two as both players and friends, and I'm so happy you two found each other. 

Now, quick poll for those readers I have... should I give them an in game wedding present?

What to review next?

I have a ton of RPG stuff that I’ve been reading (or in my to read pile) and planning on reviewing here that I just haven’t gotten around to. This is in part because so many people are so prolific, even in our little corner of the RPG-verse. And for the most part I’m talking about free things! It’s truly an embarrassment of riches from campaign settings, to splat books, adventures, and zines.

While I want to get to all of them, I’d like to know what you want to see first. Your options are:
Blue Rose RPG
Cyclopian Depths vol 1.
Emirikol Was Framed! DCC adventure
Better than any man LotFP Free RPG Day giveaway
Secret Santicore vol 1
Isle of Dread (D&D Next)
Dreaded Island by J.D. Neal
Scarlet Heroes
Return to the Keep on the Boarderlands
Phonomicon Ex Cultis
The Lost Keys of Solitude
The Monolith Beyond Space and Time
Hack! Firearms
Back to the Dungeon Vol 1 Issue IV
Demonspore: The secret of the shrooms
The Maze of Nuromen
Eldritch Weirdness Compilation
Space Age Sorcery
The Tower of Azal'Lan

Let me know what you're interested in!

Prop Map of Numinor

There's just something wonderful about a map, even more so when put together in such a tableau as this.

I wish I had the time to create such wonderful maps and props for my games. Unfortunately it seems that most of the time I end up just printing something out, or even just showing a picture on the computer screen.

There have been a few times where I've gone and made maps and props like this for a game, but they've primarily been for LARPing, and usually for my own costume.

Have you ever made a prop map for your game? Poll off to the right, as usual!

Map by Tóbal, and found on his blog El Dodo Albino

Slavery and D&D

I never considered using slaves in my D&D games until I read the Al-Qadim setting and found them listed in the equipment section. I remember being shocked at the thought, my 12 year old brain thinking it was crazy for TSR to do that. Seriously pushing the envelope!

Ok, yes, I was a fairly sheltered 12 year old.

I remember that I quickly shifted our game to Al-Qadim and introduced slavery, and for about a week it was edgy and interesting.

After that... it just dropped away. I don't think I ever removed slavery from my game, it just stopped coming up.

During High School and College I was running a lot of Forgotten Realms, and since that setting doesn't have slaves as the default, the only time it came up was when fighting off a drow or Zhentarim slave raid on a village or town.Or freeing slaves from a previous raid. While they weren't generally heroes, they weren't interested in keeping slaves. My 3.x games were pretty much the same, with slightly more heroic tendencies... slightly. On the other hand they were just as likely to use the "rescued" slaves as meatshields/hostages if they weren't given what they felt they were owed for rescuing them.


My 4e game is set in the default "points of light" Nentir Vale, and the PC's are clearly Heroes, so the only slaves they'll likely encounter will be the kind they go and rescue. Actually, they've already done that...and even gave back a reward once.

As for my (rarely run and desperately in need of fleshing out) old school game? Slavery is probably in there somewhere, but I haven't decided how prominent a feature I want it to be.It wouldn't bother me to have it as a significant part of the campaign, but it also wouldn't bother me if it didn't come up.

So I'm curious how common slavery is in your games, and how involved PC's are in it. There are 2 polls off to the right, let me know!

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I think it's stupid that I feel like I have to say this... but here goes: Slavery in the real world is and was a terrible practice, both throughout history and today. I do not support slavery in any way. This is a blog about a fantasy role playing game that combines aspects of history and fantasy to create a realm of imagination. If you can't handle that, go play Candyland.

Multiple Drafts of Maps

How often are you satisfied with first drafts? Me? I’m rarely satisfied even with my 3rd or 4th drafts.

Way back when I started my megadungeon project I envisioned a great mohole with sections of the dungeon branching out from it. I scrapped that idea, and then moved onto an early draft of the current incarnation of the project. I was greatly inspired by Michael Curtis’ Stonehell, and the popular 1 page dungeon format. I expanded my dungeon from it’s initial map out into several levels and many maps.

Original Dungeon Map

Recently I’ve gotten to play in Stonehell, and I’ve run my own megadungeon a couple of times. It has shown me some of the shortcomings of my own design. For one thing, the map needs some reworking. It’s already gone through several incarnations, each of which incorporated some minor tweaks, but for the most part it remained true to the original design. I recently set it aside, and redrew it from memory, doing my best to simplify the lines and make describing it easier to players over G+. The result shown below isn’t bad, still fails.

Current(ish) map

Map from memory - an interesting experiment, but ultimately I’m not pleased with it. For one thing, it's missing an entire section that I forgot about. For another, it doesn't really do what I wanted - it's not really simplified.

Of course the option remains of scrapping the whole level and starting over, or keeping the original map in front of me when I redraw it. I think I’m going to try to redraw it one more time after I make note of the specific changes I want to incorporate into it.

This all leads me to my new poll - Do you do multiple drafts of your maps?

Constantcon & Romance polls

So I'm curious, and because I want to know, I've created 2 new polls!

Are you are playing/running any constantcon/flailsnails games?

&

Do you include romance in your D&D games?

A real post tomorrow, I promise!

Tower and Dungeon

Here's a raw scan of a tower, a dungeon, and an underground river. I'm not real thrilled with it...

Sorry for the lazy post. I've come down with a cold, and it's kicking my ass.

Also, there's a new poll on the right about pictures from my actual play posts. Do you like pics from the table, pics from the module (or other online sources) or no pics?

What's your holiday gaming wish?

There's a new poll - Are you asking Santa for any gaming stuff this year?

I am! I want Vornheim.

Santa won't bring Carcosa - so don't ask!!

What's on your list?

New Poll - Classic Movie Monsters

I’m rather insanely busy finishing up a big research paper for class, so in lieu of a real post here’s a new holiday themed poll.

What is your favorite classic movie monster?

• Vampire
• Werewolf
• Invisible Man
• Gill-Creature
• Phantom
• Mr. Hyde (Dr. Jekyll)
• Frankenstein's Monster
• Mummy

The good news is I’m almost done, and I’m hoping to be back up to speed by the end of the week.

Bits and Bobs V

Tim Curry Tuesday is postponed this week to Thursday, on account of the fact that I haven't finished stating it up the character for the different systems I picked this week. I should have it up on Thursday.

I'm considering doing Asshat Paladin's OSR Challenge: A September of Short Adventures. However I'm undecided. There is a poll off to the right, and you've got until Sunday night to help me decide. Leave a comment and vote, and I'll count both! If it's a really good comment, I'll count it even more!

August's RPG Blog Carnival topic is Animals and it's being hosted here at the Tower of the Archmage! How can you get involved? Easy! Write a post about animals, anything about animals, and then share the link! The response so far has been amazing, and I really appreciate everyone who has taken part. There is still some time to get your post up, so get those fingers typing!

Also, if anyone has anything specific about Birthright they'd like to know about, let me know. I'm not quite sure what to write about next for that.

Only 18 hours left to vote!

And a couple of votes could swing this poll around! Pick the next Tim Curry post!

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In about 2 hours I'll be sitting down to run session 2 of Thunderspire. I only wish it wasn't going to be 100+ degrees out today.

Keep cool!

Tim Curry Tuesdays - You pick the next one!

Welcome to Tim Curry Tuesday!

It’s been a busy week, and I haven’t had time to write up a post for today, so I’m going to ask which character you want to see next?

Cardinal Richelieu - Three Musketeers
Hexxus - Legend of Fern Gully
Dr. Frank-N-Furter - Rocky Horror Picture Show
The Grand Wizard - The Worst Witch
King Arthur - Spamalot
Wadsworth - Clue
Dr. Petrov - Hunt for Red October
Gaal - Earth 2
Gomez Addams - Addams Family Reunion
Chief Elder - Dinosaurs
Other??

The poll to the right closes Saturday night.

Balticon 45

Balticon is over by only a couple of hours, but I'm dead tired. It was a really good con, even if I didn't get much gaming in. There was a lot of really informative panels, and the masquerade and the short film festival were both solidly entertaining. Unfortunately I couldn't spend all my time at the Con

I didn't take too many pictures, and I already showed you the space monkey man. You've also gotten a preview of the geomorphs I drew. You can expect to be seeing them over the next couple of weeks starting tomorrow. During that time I'll also be putting together PDFs of my posts.

Speaking of, there are only 5 hours to go before the poll closes, and there is currently a tie! Dogs and Magic Items each have 7 votes! Monsters isn't far behind with 5 votes, so there is still time to swing the balance.

Poll and PDF

There is a new poll asking what PDFs you would like to see first. Monsters? Dog related posts? Magic Items? Vote off to the right!

Also, the PDF of the complete Sample Dungeon has now been uploaded. It's purely the adventure, not any of my commentary. Let me know if you check it out! You can either click here, or on the downloads page.

New Poll!

Ok, this was supposed to go live this morning... I guess the kobolds were at it again. 

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Today's post is merely to tell you about my new poll: What is your gaming style? Feel free to pick multiple answers for this one.

The results from my last poll question Do you play 40K? are below.

All the time!	4 (11%)
Once a month or so	2 (5%)
Once every couple of months	1 (2%)
Couple of times a year	0 (0%)
Once a year or less	6 (17%)
No (other GW games, yes)	4 (11%)
No (other mini games, yes)	8 (23%)
No, I don't play with toy soldiers	9 (26%)

Interesting...

Greater Insect Swarm

Greater Insect Swarm
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice: 4*, 5*, 6* (S)
Move: 30' (10')
Flying: 60' (20')
Attacks: 1 area effect
Damage: See below
No. Appearing: 1 swarm (1d3 swarms)
Save As: F3
Morale: 11
Treasure Type: Nil
Intelligence: 0
Alignment: Neutral
XP Value:
Monster Type: Lowlife, Enchanted (Rare).

A greater insect swarm is not simply a larger swarm of bugs, but rather a swarm of the nastiest insects that a fantasy world can produce. Like the lesser version, the swarm takes up an area of space 10’ x 10’ x 30’ and anyone caught in the area will take damage. Swatting at the swarm will reduce the damage by half. Weapons are generally ineffective, and spells that target only a single target will do only half damage, but area effect spells do double damage. There are a variety of different types of greater insect swarms, all of which use the above stat block with the following modifiers.

Giant Fire Ants: These ants are individually a pest at 3”-5” long, with a burning bite. Together in a swarm their infernal heat sets fire to anything flammable. Anyone in their 10’ x 10’ x 30’ area will take fire damage equal to their hit dice per round, and an additional 1d6 points of bite damage. Swatting them will reduce the bite damage by half.

Flesh Eating Scarabs: These flying beetles can strip a cow to the bone under a minute. Anyone in the swarm not wearing a full suit of metal armor will take 2d8 points of damage every round. Those encased in metal armor will take only 1d6 points of damage. Swatting will reduce the damage by half for both.

Killer Bees: These bees are only 2" long, but they have the disposition of a pissed off red dragon. Anyone caught in this swarm will take 2d4+3 points of damage every round. In addition the buzzing of the bees creates a Cause Fear effect (as the Cleric spell) to anyone in the swarm. Anyone who fails their saving throw will be unable to take any action but running away from the swarm (including swatting) for 2 turns.

Blooderflys: This swarm moves slower than other flying swarms (Flying: 30' (10')). Anyone viewing their crimson, gold, and black wings must make a saving throw vs spells or be entranced by their beauty. Anyone so entranced will take no action as the swarm overtakes them. Once within the area of effect they will be drained of blood 1 hit point per round. Once a creature is reduced to half and then one quarter their hit points they may make additional saving throws. Anyone who passes their saving throw will be immune to the blooderfly swarm's entrancement power for a day.

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You may have seen this on Saturday, but it wasn't supposed to post till today.

Also, there is a new poll! Do you play 40K?

Admin Updates

I have disabled anonymous comments. As much as I love getting comments (and I do) I always feel like anonymous comments are cowardly. I never use the anonymous option even when it's given. If I am going to take the time and effort to leave a comment, I'm going to put my name to it, I'm going to own it. I have to insist that while you're here, you do the same.

Thanks

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Monthly Audience Participation voting update!
With 1 day to go, Megadungeon Topics is in the lead, but just a couple of votes could dislodge it from the top spot. Corgis remains in last place with a single vote. I have not told my dogs this.

If you haven't voted already there is still time! 

Monthly Audience Participation Poll

The poll for this months audience participation is live!  Go vote for your topic choice!

Monthly Audience Participation for February

Once again, I'm opening it up.  What would you like me to blog about?  Want more reviews? Magic items? Monsters? Corgis?

Leave a comment, and let me know.

Also, there is a new poll over to the right about genre preference in your games.

Bits and Bobs

My most recent poll has closed, and the vast majority of you did indeed download Starter Traveller, and those who didn't already owned it!  I hope you are enjoying my read through of it.

At the start of the month I was worried that I wouldn't get more than 10 posts written, but I'm already well past that mark.  This is all thanks to Traveller, however for the next couple of days I'll be sharing some seasonal themed magic items. This will give me a chance to finish writing up the subsector (which I should really give a name to).

Lastly a shout out to my newest followers: Porky and Higgipedia.  Please don't be shy, let me know what you like, and what you don't!  This goes for all my readers too!