Post 500

When I first started this blog, I sketched out 100 possible post topics, just to make sure I had plenty to write about (I didn’t want the damn thing to peter out from personal disinterest like my last blog). So far, I’m sure I've hit at least half of the ideas on the list but my love of the topic is what has really kept me going. Well, that and the generally positive feedback from my readers. Thanks, folks.

I wish I had something more for you for The Big #500…unfortunately, a peculiar form of writer’s block/performance anxiety has affected me and I absolutely could NOT think of anything super-special to give y’all. Sorry.

To make up for it, I’ll try to make my post-500 posts this week stand out a bit.

My B/X conversion of N1: Against the Reptile God should be done sometime before Saturday…probably tonight if I’m lucky (turns out, I was NOT able to “spread out” on the plane as I’d like, making the project a real bitch to work on). It’s nearly completely compatible with B/X as is (low level AD&D generally is), though I had to dip into my B/X Companion monsters to stat up the Big Bad. Which makes the adventure pretty insanely hard for a group of low level characters. But what can I do? The original “reptile god” of the module was insanely hard for low level characters…so much so that Niles had to include a 7th level NPC magic-user (or a fudged spell scroll) to get the characters through the end. Having play-tested the thing now, I’m inclined to think Niles was a big fudger in his own games, or he was just a straight ignorant ass…OR he had an exceptionally skilled and cunning group of players. I’ve had the latter myself, but when they encountered an adventure this tough, they generally would “get going” (as in, move on to easier pickings). So it goes…I suppose I could make it a YOUNG naga (like I did with White Plume Mountain’s “young sphinx”). Hmmm…

I’d really like to do a post on Terminal Space and space RPGs in general…actually a whole series of posts on the topic. My B/X Star Wars RPG may have to wait until someone with the cash to pick up the license commissions me to do it…although I might make a free, short .pdf one of these days. But regarding Off-World RPGs in general (from Dune to Cowboy Beebop) I think there is a LOT to explore on the subject…and many ideas that I’ve been “saving” for my own RPG should probably be brought out for discussion.

I would also like to try my hand at least a couple conversions of the The Compleat Spellcaster, most likely the witch and the necromancer. Witches have been a subject of this blog more than once, and I’m hopeful I can deal with the subject in a way that ain’t too offensive to our Wiccan friends (I’m not too concerned about offending the Christians). Necromancers, though, are probably better as a monster than a character class. Though it pains me to admit it, my imagination fails at the idea of a non-Evil necromancer, and one thing I’ve come to see (and like) about all the B/X classes are their versatility when it comes to alignment. Yes, clerics might play differently depending on alignment, but they are not limited to a single alignment or pair of alignments in B/X (unlike every other edition).

Actually, come to think of it B/X already has a Necromancer class…it’s called being a Chaotic Cleric. TCSC’s necromancer is based on the cleric template anyway…everything else is just animating the dead and having long conversations with the deceased, something already available (at least in my Companion spell list). Everything else dead-related is just the Chaotic cleric doing magical research as per the Expert set rules. Guess I don’t need to convert that one after all!

Of course, I also want to do a little bit more design brainstorm, riff off a couple recent posts over at Save Vs. Poison (specifically Rifts and Vampire: the Cash Cow), and throw down a list of my soon-to-be-in-the-works-design-projects. Oh, yeah…and give you all some updates on the B/X Companion project (still waiting on ISBNs, but the cover art is looking FANTASTIC, and my “branding expert” and I talked about the symbol for my company).

All right…more on all this stuff later. Thanks again for reading, people.
: )