tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-41434353149326331482024-03-19T06:30:10.296-07:00B/X BLACKRAZORJBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.comBlogger2403125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-77546630535154705832024-03-15T09:50:00.000-07:002024-03-15T09:54:40.703-07:00Adding Psionics<div style="text-align: left;">Another "Friday Funday" post...which is to say, random musings that folks might check out later this weekend as Fridays are (notoriously) slack for reading.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I was considering writing about my current "house rules" (because there are so few these days), and skimming my last post on the subject was struck by something that has NOT changed since I posted it; namely, that I haven't yet added <b>psionics</b> to my game. And...as I have, more or less, gone back to "straight AD&D" I think it might be time (finally) to bite the bullet and just go ahead and do so.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Turns out I've written about psionics before, and reading back through these posts I see my thoughts on the topic <a href="https://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2009/11/psionics.html">haven't changed much since 2009</a>. The main difference between then and now is that I was struggling to figure out a way to implement psionics into the B/X game system; now that I'm playing AD&D, the mechanics are already a part of the system.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So why haven't I implemented them?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Reflecting a bit on the question, I think the main reason has been a little intimidation (or laziness). I am already running AD&D very well, thank you, using the vast bulk of the Rules As Written. But adding psionics requires me becoming intimately familiar with a number of sub-systems that I have let fall by the wayside, left to gather dust for DECADES. Jeez. I'd have to RE-READ (Heavens!) the Appendix A of the PHB, and familiarize myself with the psionics section of the DMG combat section, not to mention reviewing the psionic wandering encounters...and probably skimming the half dozen psionic monsters in the MM just to remember what I once knew.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Mm. That's not really all that much. I think this IS laziness on my part.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Of course, there's always the "fear" that psionics will "break" the game, even though I don't recall this ever having been the case. My own (<a href="https://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2010/08/psionics-power-gaming-and-death.html">vastly over-powered</a>) character back in the day made LIBERAL use of his potent psionics...and still <b>died</b> more often than any other PC in the game. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>yes, favorite characters still die in 1E games...sometimes MANY times. It's why it pays to have SOME friends who will do the work of reviving you</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Psionics (<a href="https://www.thebluebard.com/post/psionics-the-way-no-one-ever-played-them">as others have pointed out</a>) add "flavor" to the game...and complication...but they're not destructive, and they open new avenues of game play, adding richness and (possibly) depth. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And it's not terribly difficult. I mean, we ran the game with psionics just fine back in the day, and we couldn't even <i>drive</i> then. Just a matter of re-familiarizing myself with rules I haven't used in (35!) years, that's all. And making all our new PCs check for psionic potential; hm, let's see:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>H Paladin (I13, W15, Cr17): <b>2% chance</b></li><li>HE<b>*</b> Thief (I14, W12, Cr13): <b>0% chance</b></li><li>E Magic-User (I16, W14, Cr14): <b>0% chance </b>(because he's an elf)</li><li>H Fighter<b>**</b> (I13, W16, Cr16): <b>1% chance</b></li><li>G Illusionist/Thief (I16, W13, Cr11): <b>0% chance</b> (because he a gnome)</li><li>H Cleric (I14, W16, Cr 14): <b>1% chance</b></li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;">Those are pretty slim odds we'll see ANY psionic-wielders in our game at all. And, yet, I wouldn't put it past my players to roll a double-0 when checking (we have, after all, seen TWO characters with 18/00 strength since we started playing AD&D). </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Yeah, I'm kind of getting excited at the possibilities. Even though psionics DO add some extra "oomph" to a character, it just means they have <b>A) </b>extra survivability (always welcome at low levels), and <b>B)</b> some additional ways to approach challenges (one of the same reasons I like <a href="https://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2023/06/my-magic-part-2.html">my house rules for magic-users</a>). </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Yeah, time to get off my ass about psionics. Oo-oo...just the <i>thought</i> in implementing (re-implementing?) them has given me some ideas for my campaign! Now I'm getting excited!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>; )</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>*</b> I allow half-elves to gain psionics due to their partially human heritage (and we always played that way, back in the day). Yes, I still have ONE type of "half-human" left in my campaign (<a href="https://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2022/02/a-different-half-orc.html">as noted before, my "half-orcs" are just orcs</a>). This Friday fun post was <i>almost</i> a discussion on race in AD&D, because I have a <i>lot</i> of things I want to write/discuss on the subject, but I'll save that for another day.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>**</b> This is my son's "bard-in-training." Just wanted to note the funny bit: he's named the character <b>"Landon Jr."</b> after <a href="https://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2022/06/pride.html">my old bard character</a>. Very amusing. It'll be interesting to see if he inherited his "father's" psionic power.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-80381761374919810882024-03-14T11:13:00.000-07:002024-03-14T12:27:52.344-07:00Filling Holes<div style="text-align: left;"> Two more "capsule reviews" of NAP entries and then some comments (maybe):<br /></div><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><div style="text-align: left;"><b>TOMB OF THE TWICE-CROWNED KING (Hawk)</b><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">A moderately good adventure. Highlights include a nice, sensible map with the illusion of verticality (rather than <i>practical</i> verticality) and clear, usable text with tight themes. It has received excellent reviews <a href="https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2022/10/23/no-artpunk-0-tomb-of-the-twice-crowned-king/">here</a>, <a href="https://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2023/06/review-tomb-of-twice-crowned-king.html">here</a>, and <a href="https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=8688">here</a>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Written for levels 8th - 10th, this straightforward tomb includes a lot of undead monsters and appropriate traps for this level range (disintegration rays, 6d6 attrition, pop-up banshees, etc.). The adventure nerfs turning with a -2 penalty, but communicates this from the outset, which should be a clue to experienced PCs to stock up on barrels of holy water and <b><i>protection from undead</i></b> scrolls.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's not bad, it's just not that spectacular. It's written for OSRIC, so perhaps that explains some of the oddities (like "hill giant skeletons" that are somehow more powerful than standard "monster zombies," or little inconsistencies with magic item values). I feel like a lot of this can be bypassed in a party with a 9th level magic-user and cleric, and maybe that's the point. There's some whimsical fantasy elements here that don't make a lot of sense (the iron golems, the giant king and his (human?) wife), but I know the standard line: "It's D&D, it doesn't have to make sense." I'm okay with letting some things slide.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Treasure is quite light for the level range. Because characters in this level range have the resources to power through standard dungeons, I'm inclined to <b>halve</b> the normal amount I'd expect for a 30 room adventure: call it 750,000 x.p. worth of treasure, for a six PC operation. Unfortunately, even if you acquire every last scrap and SELL all the magic items (some of which are quite nice: a <b><i>cubic gate</i></b>, a <b><i>dwarf thrower hammer</i></b>, a <b><i>mace of disruption</i></b>, etc.), you're going to net less than 400K...and retaining/using the magic items will mean taking home barely 150K. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">However, this is somewhat mitigated by the fact that MOST of the magic items are directly applicable to the circumventing the tomb's dangers:<b><i> oil of elemental invulnerability</i></b>, the aforementioned magic weapons (good against both undead AND giants), a scroll with <i><b>spider climb</b></i>, <b><i>knock</i></b>, and <b><i>detect magic</i></b>, stashes of holy water, etc. The dungeon is designed like a puzzle of moderate difficulty, where solving things in the correct order make it a lot easier than a straightforward "bashing;" but it feels like the scale is off a bit, and successful parties are going to walk away with a NUMBER of very powerful, very rare items.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This adventure is 'okay.' I can place it in a a small section of the Snake River canyon. Probably won't do the whole "golem smashes bridge thing" which is kind of silly given the PCs should have a method to climb (or fly!) up the cliff face and all this does is prevent the golems from getting to the tomb-robbers (also, a 2d6 damage fall is nothing to a party of 9th level characters). The -2 "defilement" penalty to turning attempts doesn't mean much when a 9th level cleric automatically destroys wights and turns ghasts (half the wandering monster table)...I might change how that functions. Maybe. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>DUST & STARS (Settembrini)</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This is a tough one. It appears that it suffers from being translated from a previous (German) text. Having met Settembrini, I can attest that his command of English is excellent, but this needs a little editing for coherence.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'll not prolong this one: it's not going to work for my campaign. There is a LOT of campaign-specific backstory to this one that simply won't function in my world. The author has re-skinned a lot of D&D's fantasy to function in a weird sci-fi fashion and while I appreciate that (I do that myself), it is very specific in its "lore"...basically, his re-skins don't match with my own.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Also: </b>don't like the giant serpent folk (sorry). <b>Also:</b> don't like the cataclysmically explosive potential of the "star pump." Sorry: I intend my world to far outlast the player characters, and I don't relish the idea of blowing it up or turning it into a post-apocalyptic hellscape.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">*<i>sigh</i>*</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Treasure amounts are fine, given the "cheats" in area K (i.e. DM gets to make up how much the rare elements are worth/valued...potentially "millions"). But I'm not going to use this one so it doesn't matter. <b>Space/time wars</b> <i>are</i> cool and DO fit with the ancient history of my campaign world...but the details of that history are lost in the depths of centuries and the specifics are unnecessary for the campaign to progress. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Sorry, Settembrini: probably won't be testing this one any time soon. You can read the more detailed, <a href="https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2021/09/16/no-artpunk-entry-13-dust-stars/">original review here</a> (and, also, <a href="https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=7712">Bryce's gushing</a>). </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>SHIP OF FATE (Yours Truly)</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As my players are currently in a <b>land-locked, desert region</b>, this one isn't going to work in my campaign as currently constructed. ALSO: I don't anticipate the PCs reaching the requisite levels for at least a couple years. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">*****</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Mmm. <b>Ten</b> "AD&D" adventures read. <b>Six</b> deemed "usable." Of <i>those</i>, only <b>TWO</b> are properly stocked, treasure-wise. That's...not a lot, considering I had a pool of 19 published NAP entries from which to draw. NAP entries that received fairly high marks from all the reviews I've seen.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">What does that say about the "standard fare" these reviewers are usually subjected to?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'll admit that I am a crank, a curmudgeon, and an elitist snob. Perhaps some of the OTHER (non-AD&D adventures) are better written, better adventures. Perhaps. But they're still not written for 1E, so how good are they? How good can they be? Good enough to make up for the deficiencies inherent in running a campaign using a lesser (OD&D, B/X, etc.) ruleset? I know there are plenty of DMs out there who run a much more "loosey-goosey" game drawing pieces from ALL the various editions of D&D that have been published over the years, but (and I know people will object to this statement) <b>that is a pretty miserable way to run a D&D campaign</b>. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">If you disagree: that's fine. If you're having fun, running your OSR/edition-agnostic campaign...well, that's all the evidence to the contrary you need. I can only say: I doubt I would be having as much fun at your table as you do. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So I guess it's on me? </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But would you be disappointed at <i>my</i> table? Now THAT is an interesting question. And maybe the answer would be "YES," especially if you were used to (and had an expectation of) playing tieflings or dragonborn or being able to cast magic missiles "at will." Yeah, if you needed those kinds of 5Eisms to have a good time, you'd probably HATE my game. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But, then, you'd probably NOT be the kind of person I want at my table.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">All right, that's enough for now; I've got a lot to do today.</div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-77520960381770657842024-03-12T10:35:00.000-07:002024-03-12T10:37:18.793-07:00*sigh*<div style="text-align: left;">Before I continue with my (what RPG.net used to call) "capsule reviews" of the NAP entries in the (ostensibly) AD&D category, a few notes: </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>We did NOT have a chance to begin <i>Lair of the Brain-Eaters </i>Sunday night...it was a VERY long day for the fam, and we went out to dinner and then relaxed on the couch, watching the Oscars. My players DID have a chance on Friday to create new 1st level PCs for a NAP specific run, so we are ready to go. Party will consist of a fighter (bard-in-training), paladin, thief, cleric, magic-user, and an illusionist-thief (two humans, an elf, half-elf, and a gnome). Easter break is coming up and we ain't going nowhere so I'm <i>hoping</i> to get a good pile of gaming in.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>RE the Oscars: I've seen most of the nominated films at this point and so was rather disappointed with most of the results. <b><i>Oppenheimer</i></b> is a well-crafted film on a difficult subject, but it failed to move me (in fact, it took multiple nights to watch it, because it put me to sleep). Nah. Also: it is a damn crime to put <b><i>Barbie</i></b> into a Best Adapted Screenplay category. Also: I obviously need to see <i><b>Poor Things</b></i> (don't even remember <i>hearing</i> about this movie). Also: <b>Ryan "Triple-Threat" Gosling</b> was robbed.</li></ul><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><b>Finally:</b> <a href="https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2024/03/09/no-artpunk-announcing-the-winners-of-the-no-artpunk-iii-competition/">the NAP III contest has concluded, and winners (and finalists) were announced</a>. My adventure made the final cut to be in the book (which looks to be some <b>600+</b> digital pages long) and I'll be needing to some clean-up work over the next couple weeks. My son was asking me about NAP IV last night as he really wants to participate and has a "great idea." That's pretty groovy.</li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Okay, enough prattle...on with the read-throughs!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>*****</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>NO ART PUNKS <i>AKA</i> "FUGITIVE GOLD!" (Peter Mullen)</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This entry is listed as <i>No Art Punks</i>, both in the initial review and the book's TOC, but it clearly bears the title <i>Fugitive Gold!</i> at the top. I mean, it's not bolded or italicized or anything...but, then, neither is the No Art Punks "title" printed beneath it. Not much for fancy formatting this one...which doesn't bother me overmuch (just by the way), but...well, who cares about the title, anyway.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This adventure is...mm..."pedestrian." <b>At best.</b> It has a spectacular, isometric map that will prove difficult to use in play, though not <i>un</i>usable. I dread the thought of printing it (my old printer doesn't do color), and having to pen in the numbers (which are fairly faint in the image). </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Except that I probably won't, because I'm not feeling this one. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">My first thought upon reading it is that this was done by a kid...maybe a teenager or (more likely) an art student in their early 20s. It's better written than what I would have done as a teenager, but it's not great, and it exhibits hallmarks of youthful exuberance and a lack of sophistication. Take away the carefully crafted map and the complete sentences and it's only a slight step up from "random dungeon." No, that's probably too harsh. But...again...it's something I would have done in my youth (again, I'm talking my 20s). A good one to give my kids to run, maybe. But it's not my cup of tea.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Written for PCs of levels 4th-5th, it's got 43+ encounters. Treasure is abysmally low: under 44K with just a smattering of magic items (about a dozen, only a third of which are permanent, nothing over +2 and a couple couple cursed items to boot). Things like <b>"scroll with one spell (clairvoyance)"</b> or <b>"short sword +1/+2 vs. burrowing mammals."</b> This is <i>chump change</i> that does not raise the treasure count to an acceptable minimum (something in the 120K+ range). One piece of treasure is a 10,000 gold piece emerald that can ONLY be acquired by a "very small halfling" or through use of a <b><i>potion of diminution</i></b> (or similar, presumably). There is no such potion in the dungeon, meaning its quite possible that ONE-QUARTER the treasure will be unobtainable. What's more, the emerald is magical and if submerged in water (the labyrinth is a series of sea caverns with a lot of water), it <b>"screams like a banshee killing everyone all within a 50 foot radius." </b>Okay, pal.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">No, this adventure isn't good. There is an optional timer on this one that, if botched, results in the players facing a hostile 18 HD titan, his undead storm giantess consort, and four (undead) giant hetmen (no stats provided for undead giants). If you don't use a timer than there's a good chance the bad guy still activates his infernal machine and summons the Bigger Bads in 1-3 days that summon typhoons and wreck the coastline. Eh. No. Titans aren't angry "storm gods." Storm gods are storm gods. And facing 18 HD titans shouldn't be a "fail state" for an adventure aimed at PCs of 4th-5th level (let alone angry storm gods). This is dumb. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Which (*<i>sigh</i>*) doesn't mean it's <i>bad</i>. You can have a lot of fun running a "dumb" adventure. It's beer and pretzels night! It's a break from more "serious" fare. It's <i>White Plume Mountain</i>. Etc.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But I'm not throwing it in my campaign. Sorry. Maybe something for someone to run at a con with its delightful little encounters: ogres selling rat-on-a-stick, leprechauns doing their BS antics, etc., etc. But it's pretty long for convention time slot. Eh. Pedestrian.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>ALCHYMYSTYK HOOSEGOW (Alex Zisch)</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This one is a tough one to judge.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Zisch has put together a really nice adventure site. It's a little whimsical in an <b><i>EX1: Dungeonland</i></b> kind of way (understanding that I don't own EX1 and haven't even looked at in decades...) but it is tightly themed and put together...for the most part...with care and attention.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's also a "whackier" form of D&D than what I tend to run. Puns and "in-jokes" abound, as is (in some parts) pointed "zaniness." That's not to my taste, but I may be in the minority here; I realize that a LOT of early D&D included the zany, and many old school aficionados think of this as a <b>feature</b> of old edition play. <i>"Why so serious, bruh?"</i> The problem (for me) is that there comes a point where zany tips the game into the realm of farce, at which point no one at the table (DM or players) take the game terribly seriously. And if we're not going to take the game seriously, I really don't have time to run/play the game; I'm a VERY busy guy.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Hoosegow, however, doesn't have TOO much of this. The mine section is good. The tower is a little weird (guards on the roof but they have to go through the warden's bedroom to get there? Hmmm...). It's kind of unclear why there even IS a warden still, since the alchemist has vanished...? I mean (re-reading the background now) I guess the lycanthropes just "moved in" recently; so why bother taking up the title of High Commissioner? There are some inconsistencies here.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Also inconsistencies with regard to the system. The alchemist proper has been polymorphed into a homunculus which, first, no...that's not how you create homunculi...and second, there's no explanation of how or why this came to be. Which, okay, fine, it's a mystery, but so many other parts of the adventure are explained and functional. Mostly...I mean, there's a giant skeleton dead so long that "only a very high level cleric could cast speak with dead" to question it. How long is that? Note to the designers: the PHB lists maximum lengths of time a corpse can be spoken with based on clerical level...no need to be so abstract (since you're designing this for AD&D)...just tell us he's been dead X number of years and we can find the info ourselves.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Lot of puzzles in this thing...lot of puzzles. And a lot of potions and potion mixing. A lot of NEW potions and special magic items in general (not sure how this skirted under the NAP contest stipulations, but, whatever...). I don't get the <b>Plentiful Potions Prototype</b> room...like,are we just supposed to make shit up if they try different formulae other than those listed? Um...huh? Likewise the <b>Potion Mixing Machine</b> room...it references the <b>potion miscibility</b> table in the DMG, but functions differently...so why bother referencing the table? Puzzling puzzles. Along with all the random writings and text the PCs will find in this adventure (much of which is nonsensical), this is likely to be a looong adventure of clue tracking. Which also isn't (usually) my style of dungeoneering.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The adventure was tested for 5-6 character parties with an average level of 7. For an adventure this size, (60 encounters, not counting random ones) I'd hope for 400K-500K in treasure, probably? Enough for players to level up at least once and make a good dent in the next level, so AT LEAST 400K...something like 70K-80K per character. Total treasure (<u>not</u> counting magic which, naturally, falls mostly in the "potion" category): <b>167,205</b>. Maybe that gets boosted by various art pieces that had "price tags" attached to them (it wasn't clear from the text if these items were ACTUALLY valuable), but that would only add a few hundred extra gold pieces. The players would find a better use of their time hunting giant dragonflies in the mountains for their fancy chitinous hides.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Speaking of magical treasure...it's really annoying not to include SOME sort of formatting to distinguish magical items from mundane...italics, bolding, underlining, <i>some</i>thing. Really annoying. Yes, this is a usability issue, not a design issue, but it's really tough to be reading through a text block of alchemical equipment and things like a <b><i>beaker of plentiful potions</i></b> isn't highlighted in some fashion (i.e. nothing indicates to the DM/reader that the item is MAGICAL...I just know it is because I've been playing for decades and have <i>some</i> memory of most of the items in the DMG). Same with monsters that don't reference where they're from...great use of obscure critters (fire snakes, stone guardians, spriggans, etc.) but if you're NOT going to detail their special abilities and whatnot in the text, then please provide a reference for me to look them up. Irritating.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">However, flawed or not, there's a lot of good thought and craft in this adventure. It's a tad whimsical for my taste and the alchemical puzzles are a bit over the head of my players (the oldest of whom is 13), so fitting it into my campaign is a slight conundrum. There are, of course, plenty of mountains in the Idaho Deathlands, so it would be easy enough to stash...but it's a little too LONG to be a "side jaunt" and a little too light on treasure to make it really worth questing for. I think I'll locate the compound somewhere northeast of <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayfield%2C_Idaho">Mayfield, Idaho </a></b>(the wikipedia entry calls Mayfield a "ghost town" but there's more <a href="https://elmorecounty.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/mayfield-townsite.pdf">historic data of the town available online</a> for interested folks), and seed a few rumors of the Hoosegow's history...it'll be a good location for magic-users seeking rare spell components (once they have a few levels under their belts) or ingredients for enchantments.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>; )</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-29962294083385716442024-03-11T12:34:00.000-07:002024-03-19T04:23:43.979-07:00Rougher & Smoother<div style="text-align: left;"> Just continuing <a href="https://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2024/03/rough-start.html">where I left off</a>:<br /><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>UNDER MT. PEIKON (anonymous)</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Ostensibly written for levels 3rd - 8th, this adventure is <b>unusable</b>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>original <a href="https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2022/10/10/no-artpunk-18-under-mt-peikon/">review by Prince here</a></i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Total treasure count is less than 14K, not counting (limited) magical items. I'm thinking 70K would be more appropriate. But that's not the main issue.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This adventure is all over the place; creative, sure, but it shows a profound lack of knowledge...or trust...in the base presumptions of AD&D. This is "OSR" (a non-edition), not 1E. Poor format, layout, etc. makes this too much work to read, parse, and re-work.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I will be skipping this one. Sorry.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>: (</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>THE CARCASS OF HOPE (Zherbus)</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Much better; Zherbus knows his stuff.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">My comments on <a href="https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2022/09/22/no-artpunk-7-the-carcass-of-hope/">the original review</a> were somewhat uncharitable; now that I have the full text in front of me, I can give the thing a more thorough analysis. This adventure is pretty solid.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Written for characters levels 3rd - 4th, play-tested with two groups (one with four players, one with five), and roughly 60 encounters long; I'd be looking for this thing to provide at least 60,000 x.p. worth of treasure over its length. Total cash is (on average) a bit more than 30K, but there are a LOT of magical items in this...at least 34, by my count, many of which are permanent in nature and quite valuable in terms of x.p. (a <b><i>cloak of poisonousness</i></b>, for example, still has a sale value of 2,500 gold...all x.p.). I don't have an issue with the treasure stocking.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Nor do I have an issue with the threat level which, for the most part, is quite 'par' for an experienced party of 3rd and 4th level killers. Yeah, there's a cursed vampire and a ghost, but both have alternative methods of dealing with them...same with the harpy nest. For the most part, this just good, stouthearted D&D.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The adventure DOES suffer from being large and sprawling, making it difficult to parse and grok at times, but that's the <i>main</i> challenge in using it...little things that won't be discovered without a couple reads. For example, there's quite a lot of <b>mummy rot</b> in the adventure: something that's tough for PCs less than 5th level to deal with (since they don't have access to <i>cure disease</i>). And yet, careful reading shows that there is a <b>6th level cleric</b> ("Lowrine") in the nearby town of Mirfield, easily reached within a day from any location on the map; these are the things the DM needs to be aware of when prepping the module. Fortunately, being a 22 page PDF, the adventure can easily be printed, bindered, and separated by section for ease of use. Yeah, it's a <i>little</i> challenging to render it useful, but it is still very, very functional scenario.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Will probably locate it somewhere down by <b>Bruneau, Idaho</b>, or possibly farther east at <b>Glenn's Ferry</b> (though I was planning on keeping that for something else...). Regardless, this is one of the last "wet areas" before the Great Dry Expanse; a suitable location for the "carcass of Hope."</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>; )</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>FRACTIOUS MAYHEM AT MELONATH FALLS (Trent Smith)</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Another excellent AD&D adventure, this one penned by an acknowledged master of the system. A couple annoying quibbles aside (the use of UA-isms like social class, the appearance of the B/X bone golem in an AD&D work), this is a solid entry for PCs of levels 3rd to 5th. <a href="https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2021/09/19/no-artpunk-entry-15-melonath-falls/">Here's Prince's review</a>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">These days I am less comfortable with humanoid lairs as simple places to sack and despoil, but Trent provides plenty of reason for doing just that: these particular goblinoids aren't exercising a live-and-let live policy with the local humans, but are raiding river traffic, making deals with wererats, and getting involved in kidnapping schemes. Plenty of reasons for players to go there and do that "D&D thang" even if you (like me) have axed alignment from your game.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The scenario is written for 5-8 characters of levels 3rd-5th and is composed of some 44 encounters. Something on the order of 70K in treasure would be appropriate for an adventure this size, and an eyeballed 63K figure (not bothering to include the magical offerings) shows that Mr. Smith and I are on the same page in this regard. It is definitely worth the players' time and efforts.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Good maps, good scenario, good interactivity (lots of different things for players to do), disparate factions that make sense in relation to each other, and even a bit of the so called "weird" that everyone seems to rave over with an ancient subterranean god-force. All excellent.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Placement is tough for my campaign setting...<a href="https://www.waterfallsnorthwest.com/Idaho/tallest">a lot of waterfalls in Idaho</a>, but there just aren't any in near proximity to the part of the world in which my players will be adventuring, certainly none as tall as the 500' Melonath Falls (Goat Peak at 650' is actually taller, but it is waaay up north in the mountains). However, if I cut the scale in half (1 square of the map equalling 10', rather than 20') and then use artistic license to "stretch" some real world locations a bit, I can shoehorn the location into <b>Big Fiddler Creek Falls</b>, some 40 miles east of Boise. The falls are five miles away from the town of <b>Prairie, Idaho</b>...a mountain town so small it doesn't even rate a page on wikipedia...a perfectly reasonable stand-in for Trent's hamlet of Veirona (described as a "glorified logging camp"). I doubt Prairie is much more cosmopolitan as the info I found for it on the interwebs suggests it doesn't have a single storefront in the place.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdOTeIu2IC6YbwFhipTAFkdC4_ng5OhMEclJmlQNf_5DxoSsPW35mLUqA5Rq3JFv0fofgUVDxchrOZsJug6CfEQxaEH3pVWl3fMIbVp3AbmYOokOOm0zo3nJgeKXHy7BRjo7StgIN8J0e2gu2ccBUPEWNwNjDKEalDitzH-Qju0tjsiyVQrqJzkeaIcHjU/s960/54519821_1154937091354466_8456287514829783040_n.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><b><img border="0" data-original-height="683" data-original-width="960" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdOTeIu2IC6YbwFhipTAFkdC4_ng5OhMEclJmlQNf_5DxoSsPW35mLUqA5Rq3JFv0fofgUVDxchrOZsJug6CfEQxaEH3pVWl3fMIbVp3AbmYOokOOm0zo3nJgeKXHy7BRjo7StgIN8J0e2gu2ccBUPEWNwNjDKEalDitzH-Qju0tjsiyVQrqJzkeaIcHjU/w320-h228/54519821_1154937091354466_8456287514829783040_n.jpg" width="320" /></b></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Big Fiddler Creek Falls</b>: <i>my</i> version of <b>Melonath.</b></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-69449296435764555532024-03-07T09:45:00.000-08:002024-03-07T13:45:25.995-08:00Rough StartSome of my thoughts on the (AD&D) NAP adventures, as I read through them in <a href="https://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2024/03/reading-nap.html">preparation for running them</a>:<div><br /><div><br /></div><div><b>LAIR OF THE BRAIN-EATERS (D.M. Ritzlin)</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Adventure is written for PCs of levels 1st - 3rd; actual number of party members is un-listed, but the playtest group has five names. Five sounds about right.</div><div><br /></div><div>This low level adventure is pretty sparse...sparse on hooks, sparse on treasure, sparse on on antagonists (both number and variety). You can read <a href="https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2022/09/19/no-artpunk-4-the-lair-of-the-brain-eaters/">Prince's review here</a>.</div></div><div><br /></div><div>29 encounters over three levels is a good number. Maps are...odd. Two entrances into the dungeon site, but the <i>main</i> entrance to the <i>main</i> section (20 out of 29 areas) is the <u>lowest</u> level...the other two levels are above? So how deep does that initial stairway drop into the bowels of the earth, in order to have two levels of architecture above?? Especially as that main level is described with 25' ceilings. Magical D&D, I guess.</div><div><br /></div><div>Treasure is under 8,000 g.p. worth. I'd want at least 10,000. Very few magic items, unless you count <b>"enchanted brains"</b> (consume as potions). Assume the x.p. value is the same as a potion? But will players recognize this as "treasure;" hard to see them deciding to eat cerebellum, especially given the degeneration of the brain-eating cultists. Not very portable items, either. Even if the PCs detect them as magic, they're probably going to figure it as some sort of trap, rather than a reward. </div><div><br /></div><div>Not much danger...small variety of monsters, and all fairly weak...good for 1st and 2nd level players. Traps on the other hand are crazy. Illusionary floors over bottomless pits, 300' chasms, a trapped "front door" that has a 50% chance of inflicting 2d6 damage in a 10' radius (tough on 1st level characters), a second entry contains THREE damage-dealing trap rooms in a row. To be fair, the latter is unlikely to kill all...or even most...of the party, even if bumbled through...and should the party enter <i>that</i> way, they face only <b>four skeletons</b> before a HUGE payday (a room with 4,000 g.p. worth of unguarded treasure, plus the necromancer's spell book!). </div><div><br /></div><div>Not how I'd design it.</div><div><br /></div><div>I think I'll put this one just outside of <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boise%2C_Idaho">Boise</a></b>...that's the current starting location for my players' new low-level characters. Still plan on them finding their way into the desert, but this will be an all right warm-up. Also goes along with that DCC "Lankhmar" adventure I picked up a while back (and converted to AD&D)...makes a good follow-up scenario.</div><div><br /></div><div><br /></div><div><b>THE ARCANE FONT OF HRANADD-ZUL (Daedalus)</b></div><div><br /></div><div>Adventure is written for "4 - 6 characters of levels 2 - 4 (plus henchmen)." The <b>summary section</b> at the end implies that the party be about 10 strong including henchmen...which may actually be appropriate given the danger level of this adventure (see below). <a href="https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2022/09/17/no-artpunk-2-the-arcane-font-of-hranadd-zuul/">Here's the initial review</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>The summary is a godsend, providing treasure and x.p. counts for all of the 25 encounter areas plus wandering monsters. Slight adjustments are necessary (the x.p. value of a <b><i>scroll of possession</i></b> is 2,000, not 200; also, I don't award x.p. for spell books recovered), but it generally does all the work for me. For a party of five 3rd level characters, I'd be looking for around 20,000 x.p. worth of treasure...but if you're talking TEN characters, you'll be wanting more in the 40K range. Considering that you'll probably lose AT LEAST three or four characters in this deathtrap, 30K would probably be fine, and the mark of <b>26,614</b> hit by <i>Arcane Font</i> looks pretty darn close. </div><div><br /></div><div>That number, however, is a trifle misleading. No less than 5,450 x.p. of that number comes from wandering monsters (there's a drow on the run being pursued by a bugbear bounty hunter and its hobgoblin gang), and it's quite possible that NONE of this will be discovered: neither group has a camp in the dungeon, or any way to track/locate them other than a 1 in 8 chance on the wandering monster table. In addition 4,000 g.p. of the treasure is tied up n two immense bronze statues/cressets, each weighing 1,500 pounds...trying to get <i>those</i> out of the dungeon will be a helluva' feat, let alone getting them to a place where they can be sold to a collector. At least the drow's magical items aren't labeled as the normal dark elf stuff that <b>dissolves in sunlight</b>; yes, one could <i>assume</i> that's the case (subtract another 3K+ from the treasure total), but I probably wouldn't...I'd also probably change the creature to a non-dark elf on the run (because I haven't introduced drow to my players as of yet).</div><div><br /></div><div>SO...17K of probable, recoverable treasure...which is still okay for a group of four surviving (3rd) level PCs. Which is (maybe) the BEST you can expect to walk out of this place. While the place is light on monsters (only one-fifth the encounter areas have set creatures), they are VERY ROUGH encounters for a group of this level: 10 large spiders, 12-16 grimlocks, a carrion crawler, and an<b> intelligent, evil plant capable of making up to 19 attacks per round</b> (minimum of 8) <i>at</i> <i>range</i>. 1d6+2 of those attacks (30' range) carry a save vs. poison or be <i>mind-controlled</i> effect, that is likely to turn a low-level party's henchmen into turncoat murderers. I can easily see ANY of these four encounters ending in a TPK.</div><div><br /></div><div>This scenario will be well-placed outside of <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Home%2C_Idaho#Demographics">Mountain Home, Idaho</a></b>...a quite suitable replacement for the "meager farming village of Blightmor" on the road to the southern wastelands. Probably I'll re-skin the humanoids as human bounty hunters (with the same hit dice) and leave out the whole Underdark political shenanigans. The PCs themselves might be bounty hunters hired to bring back Drannon the elf (all the elves in my campaign tend to be on the shady side of the law) having to contend with the rival group...gives the players incentive to seek out that extra treasure stash if they know the runner is packing goodies. Of course, they'll probably bumble into a pack of grimlocks and get wiped out...</div><div><br /></div><div><b>Last thing: </b>I also HATE the magical effect of the namesake font...I do not want characters gaining the ability to cast magic-user spells, even at the cost of a few ability points. No. Fortunately, I'm not sure how any party is going to get past the killer plant (but you never know)...I would probably have the effects, good and bad, fade with time. Poor Vezzelar, being a mind-controlled slave of the plant master, has no choice but to continue <i>his</i> regular baths.</div><div><b>; )</b></div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-47903755982463594462024-03-06T10:27:00.000-08:002024-03-06T10:30:26.776-08:00Reading NAP<div style="text-align: left;">I should probably pen a <b>Blood Bowl</b> post discussing the Seahawks transition away from <b>Weird Boy Pete Carroll</b> and the cutting of the <a href="https://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2023/12/and-finally-sigh-blood-bowl.html">oft-maligned <b>Jamal Adams</b></a>, etc. But the NFL off-season is long...I'm sure there'll be time for that. Instead, allow me to wax on about adventures.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Specifically, the adventures found in <b>No ArtPunk</b> volumes <b><a href="https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/379533/no-artpunk-vol-1">I</a> </b>and<b> <a href="https://princeofnothing.itch.io/no-artpunk-ii">II</a></b>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I've discussed <a href="https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2023/05/22/hype-announcing-no-artpunk-iii/"><b>Prince of Nothing</b>'s NAP contest</a> before...both what it is and why I find it valuable, as well as my own participation in this (now annual) event. What I haven't done is <i>played</i> any of the entries/winners...well, except for play-testing of my own submissions. Heck, I haven't even given a deep read to the books; I've only skimmed them.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And that's a shame. I've said before and I'll say it again: you need to <i>play</i> an adventure to really understand how it works and whether or not it's any good. Adventure gaming, as entertainment, is an <i>experiential</i> medium. Adventure cobblers are not (or, rather, <i>should not</i> be) writing adventures just to provide lonely souls with fantasy reading material. I know that, within the hobby as a whole, there is a certain amount of joy in this practice (both the writing and the reading), but that's not what the D&D <b><u>game</u></b> was designed for; it was designed to be played...a fact that is too often forgotten, or lost.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">SO, I've decided that, despite my limited "free" time (free <i>what</i>? are you kidding?), I am going to make an effort to read and examine these winning NAP entries, and attempt to play them in my own home campaign...assuming I can find a place for them in my home campaign. This is probably a stupid assumption and I should simply continue with my ongoing <b>DESERT OF DESPAIR</b> project (a rewriting of the old I3-I5, <i>Desert of Desolation</i> module series). But, well, someone's got to do it. And then blog about it. Since no one else is (or very few people), I might as well do <i>some</i>thing to "contribute" to the cause.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">*<i>sigh</i>*</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">BUT...I won't be putting ALL of these adventures on the docket. Between both NAP volumes there were a total of <b>19 winners</b> (with a super-secret-sexy 20th "honorably mention" <a href="https://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2021/10/hells-own-temple.html">by Yours Truly</a> that continues being brought up on podcasts despite not making it into either book!). Of these 19, only NINE were written for AD&D with a 10th written for <b>OSRIC</b> (1st edition's original retroclone), and given my limited time, I'm not going to waste it doing conversions.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Well, maybe, but only in exactly TWO cases: Dashwood's <b><i>City of Bats</i></b> looks really delightful (I, of course, have a soft-spot for Mesoamerican themes) and is written for AEC (Advanced Edition Companion) Labyrinth Lord, and Chomy's <b><i>Caught in the Web of Past and Present </i></b>was recently converted (by him) to AD&D...I might just go purchase <a href="https://emdt.bigcartel.com/product/the-webs-of-past-and-present">the updated version</a>, but only because I've met Chomy and he's a swell guy who did not run over me with his motorcycle and leave me in a ditch.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">First things first, though, and I am going to be reading the adventures that were ACTUALLY written for use with <b>Advanced Dungeons & Dragons</b>. Going in "level order" these are:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>The Lair of the Brain Eaters </i>(1st - 3rd) by D.M. Ritzlin</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>The Arcane Font of Hranadd-Zul </i>(2nd - 4th) by Daedalus</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Under Mt. Peikon</i> (2nd - 8th) by anonymous</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>The Carcass of Hope</i> (3rd - 4th) by Zherbus</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Fraction Mayhem of Melonath Falls</i> (3rd - 5th) by Trent Smith</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>No Art Punks</i> (4th - 6th) by Peter Mullen</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Alchymystyk Hoosegow </i>(7th) by Alex Zisch</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Tomb of the Twice Crowned King </i>(8th - 10th) by Hawk</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Dust and Stars</i> (9th - 12th) by Settembrini</div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Ship of Fate</i> (10th - 14th) by JB</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>eh, you know what? I don't need to read that last one</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>Web of Past and Present is for levels 4th - 5th, while City of Bats is for levels 4th - 6th, just by the way</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So, semi-deep dives first. I know that some of these include the dreaded (*<i>shudder</i>*) <b>Unearthed Arcana</b> rules in their games, but so long as I'm not needing to delete major portions of the adventure (cavalier NPCs or whatnot), I don't anticipate there being much of a problem. But that's why I need to do the read-through. The main areas I'm concerned with are "theme" and "fit" (since I'm throwing these into my campaign world) as well as PRACTICALITY...which, generally, means treasure counts. Here's the rule of thumb:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>30(ish) encounters requires enough treasure to level up an ENTIRE PARTY of the average given level range.</li><li>If the party size isn't listed, I default to SEVEN characters.</li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;">Anything less than that is probably not efficient enough for use (really), but I understand that lack of treasure is pretty endemic to adventure writing these days. I will still make an effort to run all of these, regardless (well, depending on how light the load actually is)...at least until my players get bored with a lack of loot. Again, hard to judge without actually RUNNING the things...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>There it is:</b> a new D&D project on the horizon. I might post (okay, I'll <i>probably</i> post) what I find in my readings <u>before</u> I run the adventures. But, yeah. Let's play some D&D. </div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-69479376726951684902024-03-05T07:38:00.000-08:002024-03-05T07:38:30.388-08:00"Memorable Encounters"<div style="text-align: left;">Oh, boy. Feather ruffling time.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>I don't care about writing <u>memorable encounters</u>. </b>Writing adventures is NOT about writing "memorable encounters." Trying to design "memorable" encounters is the DM-equivalent of the player twinking out over how to use their <i>kewl</i> powers in some super-awesome combo.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">No. Just no.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">People need to trash the "video game thinking." Video games are not the origin of this concept, but they have far and away been the proliferator of it. Stop thinking like you're designing a video game. OR, if you really must: go design video games. Video games love (and desperately need) "memorable encounters."</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">D&D does not.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I'm looking back, over my many decades as a DM and a player, and trying to recall "memorable encounters" and I'm pretty much drawing a blank. Really: I'm coming up with zero. Certainly nothing that was <i>set up to be</i> "memorable." There are, of course, things that <i>are</i> memorable, and they fall into three general categories: <b>situations</b>, <b>successes</b>, and <b>failures</b>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Successes</i> are times when the PCs had a "big win." I've noted some of these on Ye Old Blog over the years: things like slaying the naga in N1 or offing the gender-bent Strahd in my re-skinning of I6. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Failures</i> are usually amusing (to me anyway) TPKs and pyrrhic victories; I've sometimes blogged about these as well, including parties (well, what was left of them) fleeing <i>White Plume Mountain</i> with their tails tucked between their legs. My own journey through Q1 (as a player) resulted in a rather memorable failure, just by the by.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Situations</i> are something else completely...I think I'd best define it as <b>"player manufactured drama."</b> Players bumbling into some sort of predicament, based on ignorance, lack of leadership, or ridiculous in-fighting of some sort. In my youth (before I 'wised up') this sometimes (often?) led to some sort of PVP...but not always. Sometimes, "situations" just involved PCs trying to Rube Goldberg their way out of some sort of silliness. Yes, it makes for a "memorable" event.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>These</b> are the things that are remembered: successes, failures, and silly situations. <u>Not</u> encounters. Encounters are a dime a dozen. It's not about what the encounter IS...not about the types of creatures or NPCs or their combination of attacks. It's about what happens DURING the encounter and the RESULT of the encounter...maybe. A fight with kobolds that ends in a TPK is memorable <i>because we got gaffled by a bunch of tiny dog people with spears</i>...not because of the monsters' special abilities or any sort of tactical BS. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">You do NOT need super special snowflake set-piece encounters to have a memorable game of D&D. Forget that noise, because making it a priority is a <b>distraction</b> from what makes ACTUAL memorable D&D play. Memorable D&D play comes from playing the game HARD, with CONSISTENCY. It is about applying PRESSURE via the rules at hand. It is about creating scenarios that drive PLAYER ACTION, and then following that thread <u>ruthlessly</u>...for good or ill. Sometimes the players win and they take away a big pile of treasure with lots of cheering and hollering. Sometimes the players lose and everyone has to roll up new characters (at least now they can try playing a ranger...or whatever).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">For my players, there are only a couple things I care about them remembering at the end of the day:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>#1</b> I want them to remember their character and their character's journey. NOT because the character has a cool backstory or story arc or blah, blah, blah. I want them to remember (with fondness) their dwarf or paladin or WHATEVER and feel a sense of pride (if the character was successful and had a long career) or wistful sadness (if its career was cut short by some untimely demise). Because, in the end, the character's journey <i>is the player's journey</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>#2</b> I want them to remember <i>me,</i> <b>as a Dungeon Master</b>: that I <i>challenged</i> them and pushed them and played HARD with them and allowed them to <u>EARN</u> Every. Thing. They. Got. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Because THAT, my lovely readers, is what D&D is really, <b>really</b> all about. <i>That</i>, my friends, is what makes the game great. Playable content and a well-run game is all that's required to make a game memorable. DMs that are "firm but fair." Worlds that are consistent and have verisimilitude. Play experiences that players get lost within.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Yes, encounters are a large part of the D&D play experience. But it's not the uniqueness of an encounter that makes it worth remembering (if it <i>is</i> worth remembering). Rather, it is the <i>interaction</i> with that encounter, and what the <i>consequences</i> of that interaction might be...and those things can't be scripted, only played. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">You want a memorable script? Write a screenplay.</div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com12tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-35489577115884532742024-02-22T07:09:00.000-08:002024-02-22T10:22:11.515-08:00Adventure Writing<div style="text-align: left;">One thing about cutting out the booze and caffeine...so long as I don't overeat and get to bed at a decent hour, I tend not to sleep all that long. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Today I awoke a bit before 5am, which is less than six hours of sleep, but part of that is stress. I've got a lot I've got to get done today...a LOT. None of it should be terribly hard, just mentally taxing as I have to deal with a number of different people with a number of different emotional needs and pitfalls to navigate. That bit's a challenge but...whatever. I said I'd do it, so I've got to do it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Also, it's our last volleyball practice before our first game. Oh, man. Things are looking better than they were, but there is a LOT we haven't covered, especially regarding on-court procedures. And tonight's practice is going to be a short one; communicating info to the players while still working skills is going to be <i>tight</i>. I'm hoping we have a full roster today. I'm hoping the jerseys come this morning (they're supposed to) and that they fit. I'm hoping we're competitive this weekend. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And the taxes still need finishing. *<i>sigh</i>*</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">SO...<b>adventure writing</b>. A nice distraction from the stress and humdrum of daily life. I think I've done more adventure writing in the last 7-8 months than I've done in the last 7-8 <i>years</i>. Okay, that's probably an exaggeration. But I've certainly been writing more standalone, site-based adventures recently than any period I can remember in the past. Contests and conventions have been largely the reason for this writing "explosion," but its also <i>enjoyable</i> work: a creative exercise, a stretching of the mental muscles. Adventure writing is one part of the DM's "craft," and it's fun to indulge in this aspect of the work. It's a chance to strut a bit...to show others what I'm capable of, to exhibit my own particular style and knowledge base.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And it's good <i>practice</i>. The strictures and limitations imposed by contests or the needs of a con game (time blocks, etc.) forces restraint, requires me to be "tighter" in my writing...expressing the needed information in the most efficient, practical means possible, for maximum clarity and playability. It's good, challenging work...and I enjoy good, challenging work...the same way one enjoys a good session of physical training (in the gym or on the field for example). It <i>feels good</i> to be <b>constructive</b>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's also nice to get feedback on one's writing. Most all the things I've published lately have received reviews from one source or another. Here (for the interested) are some of the latest:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><i><a href="https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=8674">Ship of Fate</a></i></b>, <i><b><a href="https://beyondfomalhaut.blogspot.com/2023/12/review-shrine-of-demon-goddess.html">Shrine of the Demon Goddess</a></b></i>, <b><i><a href="https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2024/02/12/no-artpunk-16-dragonwrack/">Dragonwrack</a></i></b>, <b><i><a href="https://coldlightrpgpress.weebly.com/home/adventure-site-contest-lost-vault-of-kadish">Lost Vault of Kadish</a></i></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This is all good stuff. Not just because positive feedback is encouraging, but because <b>critique</b> shows me ways I can improve...things I'm not doing well enough, areas I need to improve, exposition that needs more clarity. I've written before that reviews of game adventures are largely unfruitful without having played (and, thus, <i>experienced</i>) the adventure...however, <b>for the author of the adventure, </b>reviews <i>are</i> helpful: they show whether our ideas are "landing" and whether or not they make sense for the person doing the reading. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">If we can't communicate the ideas properly, how is there even a chance that the adventure can be run in a fun and engaging manner?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">These are the thoughts I'm having this morning. That and the question of whether or not, going forward, I should try <b>monetizing</b> such works. To date, all the adventures I've published have been freebies, downloadable from my mediafire files. Each adventure has garnered several hundred downloads. If I had polished them and sold them as PDFs on DriveThruRPG for a buck apiece, I could have netted...well, you get the math. Not a lot of money...but not insignificant, either. ANY money exchanged for one's creative endeavors is "significant;" it tangibly affirms the artist's decision to create.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Anyway...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Just my thoughts as I down my (decaf) coffee and prepare for the morning ritual to begin. And...it's time to go. I'll yak at y'all later.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>: )</b></div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-77737490338448829242024-02-15T10:30:00.000-08:002024-02-15T11:56:46.622-08:00On Losing<div style="text-align: left;">The kids have finished basketball season and have started volleyball (soccer, of course, continues year round). For both this is their first year of the sport.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Volleyball for boys remains very niche...in high school, I don't believe there is a boys volleyball league (at least not in King County). So far as I know, my son and his 7th grade teammates will have only two years to compete for their school with a chance of winning trophies. Maybe. There are only three boys from his class that signed up to play, and so we are combined with the 8th graders (who only had five) and are playing up a year.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Oh. <b>And the school asked me to coach the team.</b> Because (I guess) there weren't any other parents up for coaching boys volleyball (unlike during basketball when they had THREE coaches).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">*<i>sigh</i>*</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">SO...I haven't played volleyball since <i>I </i>was in the 8th grade. Turns out there have been a lot of rule changes since 1987; I've been learning these (outside of coaching) the last couple weeks. Practices have been going well but our team is...rough. I mean, my own kid can barely reach over the 7' practice net, and the game net is going to be 6" higher. As with the basketball squad, our most athletic kids aren't the tallest. And this is the first year playing for ANY of the kids (outside of gym class). My confidence is none too high.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And yet, that's <b>okay</b>. Because one of the great benefits of youth sports (in addition to exercise and skill development and team building and teaching sportsmanship, etc.) is that <b><i>they give kids a safe space to fail</i></b>. Failing in the sports arena happens...blowing plays, <i>losing</i>, these things happen in sports. And kids get to experience that, and then experience that <i>it doesn't kill you</i>. It doesn't end your life, neither literally, nor figuratively. There's always another game to play, another play to be made. Part of MY job (as a coach) is to drive this home to the kids...so that they can be with the failure, yet still respond to it constructively.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's important for kids to learn this lesson. Because later on in life, shit happens...<i>loss</i> happens...all the time. You get laid off from your job. Your spouse leaves you. Someone totals your car. Your basement gets flooded or your roof torn off by a hurricane. You (or a loved one) gets diagnosed with cancer. All sorts of trials and tribulations...some of our own making and some outside our control. And we are forced to respond to those trials and tribulations. There are all sorts of ways we fail in life; all sorts of way we take a loss. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And how do we respond to it? What do we do about it? How do we roll with the punches?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">A person's character is built over many years and many experiences. People can and do change their behaviors. But, man o man, there is a LOT about me, about my personality, that is much the same as it was when I was in my middle school years. Many of my <i>bad</i> habits were certainly acquired then, if not earlier. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>not the drinking (thankfully) but definitely my tendency towards <b>over-indulgence</b> is a good example</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So allowing kids the chance to fail (yes, even these 13-14 year olds are "kids," despite being bigger/taller than me and having more mustache) is a GOOD thing. Get them <i>losing</i>, from a young age, is a good thing. <b>Character building.</b> Hopefully. Maybe (perhaps they've already had their personalities set, as mine was). Well, regardless...the experience <i>should</i> (I believe) be useful.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And I expect quite a bit of failure this season.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As an aside, I will note that old edition <b>Dungeons & Dragons</b> is ALSO a "safe place" for kids to experience (and learn from) failure, loss, and hardship. Playing D&D isn't quite as <i>visceral</i> as playing sports, but that's balanced (IMO) by a larger use of the mind, creative juices, imagination, etc. Personally, I find both sports AND gaming to be fun and valuable, and I encourage kids to partake in (or, at least, <u>try</u>) BOTH activities. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Okay, that's enough. Time to start doing the taxes.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>; )</b></div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-14079125782388320012024-02-13T18:47:00.000-08:002024-02-13T18:47:54.570-08:00Fat TuesdayEmphasis on the <i>fat</i>.<div><br /></div><div>Tomorrow marks <b>Ash Wednesday</b>, the start of Lent for Roman Catholics like myself (as well as many other Christian traditions). No pancakes or leftovers in this house...I am currently cooking a <b>pot roast</b> (couple hours to go) while enjoying a delightful beverage of the alcoholic variety.</div><div><br /></div><div>I've come to look forward to...and enjoy...Lent and its forty days. It gives me a good excuse to un-tether myself from the many vices and bad habits I've created...and enjoyed...over my decades on this planet. This year, I've decided to abstain from <b>alcohol</b>, <b>white flour</b>, and <b>white sugar</b>...all things that I should probably be abstaining from anyway (none of them are <i>good</i> for you, really). But the fact is I've been enjoying ALL of them in far too much <i>abundance</i> lately. The holiday season tends to do that...it's amazing how much weight I've put on since October.</div><div><br /></div><div>But abstaining and fasting (I'll probably do a 7 day juice/water fast next week) are wonderful for clearing the mind, as well as the body. And I <i>need</i> to get "clear;" far too many ridiculous stresses on my mind the last many moons...really, since my mom died in April so, yeah, most of the last year. </div><div><br /></div><div>[<i>I </i><b>did</b><i> get my shit together, round about September, but I started drinking again in October and everything kind of went down the tubes</i>]</div><div><br /></div><div>SO...one last evening of over-indulgence, and then six-ish weeks when I try to get a bit closer to God, and a bit cleaner with regard to my <i>own</i> "temple" (i.e. the body I've got to work with). Hopefully, I can re-establish some of the good habits I started building <i>last</i> Lent. </div><div><br /></div><div>Here's hoping.</div><div><br /></div><div>Anyway. No gaming-related stuff to report at the moment, so I'll sign off. Happy <i>Mardi Gras</i>, folks! And happy Lent, as well.</div><div><b>: )</b></div><div><br /></div><div>[<i>for people interested in my <b>pot roast recipe</b> (which is delicious), I use <b><a href="https://cookingformysoul.com/dutch-oven-pot-roast/">this one</a></b> from the internet. Enjoy!</i>]</div><div><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ7VHbj9SMivAo-3yaTfIcKvqr5mGaRpZ6d4ZsajFCBGc40H6p96xLjIeuQu5YnVCL-nstNSfO1JYuGIjwjE0cg_qSuTx6FUbojskvxZJ5OYQO_fU-w0uQrSz2VsO6W9URXKIq1Kv2vvxrVYh9ZJ1Wd8ewTcp-KOBu2EzZQQ8obqIm4GOVUFybBwxyc1XH/s1200/pot-roast-recipe-snippet.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ7VHbj9SMivAo-3yaTfIcKvqr5mGaRpZ6d4ZsajFCBGc40H6p96xLjIeuQu5YnVCL-nstNSfO1JYuGIjwjE0cg_qSuTx6FUbojskvxZJ5OYQO_fU-w0uQrSz2VsO6W9URXKIq1Kv2vvxrVYh9ZJ1Wd8ewTcp-KOBu2EzZQQ8obqIm4GOVUFybBwxyc1XH/s320/pot-roast-recipe-snippet.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Like this, but my Dutch oven is<br />Seahawk blue (of course).</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div><br /></div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-90041274713533316092024-02-11T10:44:00.000-08:002024-02-11T10:44:38.310-08:00Happy Super Bowl!<div style="text-align: left;">There is something distinctly American about<b> Super Bowl Sunday</b>...and that's part of why I love it. Oh, I dig on football and sport and competition in general, of course. But this year, as with most years, my team is not in the big event...and, yet, that will not stop me from watching. And it will not stop me from rooting HARD for the <b>Kansas City (Amazon) Chiefs</b> to upset the favored <b>San Francisco (Dwarf) 49ers</b>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Because I <i>hate</i> the 49ers...and it is O So American to root <i>against</i> things we hate. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And I embrace that about America, as I embrace <i>many</i> of the ridiculousness things about my country. No nation is perfect...we all have our flaws and foibles. Some are worse than others (in my estimation, of course) and some of those of the US of A are worse than a LOT of other countries. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Still...we don't make things better by running out on it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This is (as usual) a silly post to write, but it's what's on my mind at this moment as (again, as usual) I am pressed for time. The family is upstairs getting ready for church, while I'm drinking coffee in the kitchen, wearing a blue sweater over a Captain America t-shirt. I am not much of a suit/slacks guy...just plain old blue jeans (but clean and un-holed) for Yours Truly. Hoping I'll have time to get some ribs in the oven in time for the second half (no grilling today...it's pouring rain in Seattle)...but chances are the fam will want a Sunday brunch after Mass.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Which is fine. It's just what Americans like to do...and we are having an extremely casual Super Bowl event this year: just us, "snacky food" (as my daughter calls it), making spot wagers with each other over what type of commercial comes up during the break.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The usual really.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Hope everyone has a safe and fun (American) holiday. Later, gators.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>; )</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-16766809262067655292024-02-07T23:22:00.000-08:002024-02-08T07:04:02.342-08:00Slyth Hive<p style="text-align: left;">I’ve said before that it’s not really possible to review an adventure that you haven’t run or played. An adventure module is not a book; D&D is not a film to be viewed or acted. <b>Dungeons & Dragons</b> is a <b>game</b> that needs to be played to be experienced. Without that experience of play, the best one can do is offer thoughts and opinions, critiques and praise over how one BELIEVES the thing will play. And while…sometimes…those opinions will be informed by the experience of the “reviewer” with regard to game play and design, it’s <i>still</i> all just “theory” until the adventure is actually run as a game.</p><div style="text-align: left;">Call all that <b>“The Standard Caveat.”</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><a href="https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/458449/slyth-hive">Slyth Hive</a></b> is the latest adventure penned by the erudite rapscallion known as <b><a href="https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/">Prince of Nothing</a></b>. You may recall his earlier adventure modules: <i><a href="https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/341381/the-palace-of-unquiet-repose-ll-version">Red Prophet Rises</a></i> and <i><a href="https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/341381/the-palace-of-unquiet-repose-ll-version">The Palace of Unquiet Repose</a></i>. I own both of those modules; I have not played them (nor reviewed them), though I have offered opinions on them (here and elsewhere): <b>generally, I find them “okay.”</b> In relation to other adventures published these days they are far better than the standard fare, but this is an extremely low bar and, despite nice writing and good-to-interesting atmospherics/aesthetics, I have my issues with them...it is doubtful they will ever see my gaming table.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Slyth Hive</i>, on the other hand, is a different matter.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This is no sophomoric work or retread of earlier work. Rather, it is <b><i>tour de force</i></b>, far surpassing (in my estimation) the quality of Prince's early work, while still displaying his trademark flair for evocative writing and his penchant for sword & sorcery tropes. Yet <i>Slyth Hive</i> is <b>elevated</b>, and...for the most part...it is <i>well designed</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">True, it needs polish and definitely a good pass with the editor's pen. Several minor flaws related to the map and keying are present (I intend to send him a list of fixes...for when he has the time) and there are numerous 'slip ups' with regard to the system. But the bulk of what's here is "good stuff," and a cut above his earlier work in a way his earlier work is a cut above the usual business produced for publication. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Let's begin with the basics:</b> the adventure is written for high level (14th+) AD&D play; fully outfitted pre-gens are included. The adventure itself <i>in its current form</i> is some 50ish pages in length PLUS twenty-one pages of appendices (pregens, new monsters, magic items, notes, etc.), ten more pages of maps, and roughly half a dozen pages of (AI generated?) art. Characters seek to penetrate and conquer an enormous, multi-level hive of insect-like super predators (and their minions) obtaining great fortune and glory and (presumably) putting a civilization-razing threat to the sword. The adventure has been play-tested more than once...I observed Prince running it at the <a href="https://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2023/10/frankfurt.html">Cauldron convention</a>, and I have heard nothing but glowing reports from those who've played the thing.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLJAl9tt84a84SrfosI5fHmdmL0f9BqauJXQAKjSMfiUH4y8vVjiX7HbzaZTMioIp0R3jUh1WosdKREcLAAZuq7L2o4VkqAyWqStdzXmNcjEIov27SJb8AWppckoOb8lTzSTsbWa-JXowcNaBwUQCYP3hSJAzftB3juItAza4ZehaU6YKT1OL5eut2yWCn/s1016/Broods-Agents-SHIELD.webp" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="712" data-original-width="1016" height="224" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiLJAl9tt84a84SrfosI5fHmdmL0f9BqauJXQAKjSMfiUH4y8vVjiX7HbzaZTMioIp0R3jUh1WosdKREcLAAZuq7L2o4VkqAyWqStdzXmNcjEIov27SJb8AWppckoOb8lTzSTsbWa-JXowcNaBwUQCYP3hSJAzftB3juItAza4ZehaU6YKT1OL5eut2yWCn/s320/Broods-Agents-SHIELD.webp" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Something like this, but far nastier...and bigger.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: left;">It has been fascinating to watch Prince's gaming evolution over the last 6-7 years (well chronicled on his blog)...from Basic play (generally of the <i>Lamentations of the Flame Princess </i>and <i>Labyrinth Lord</i> variety), back to 2E (from his own primordial origins), to <b>1st Edition AD&D</b>, aka <i>The King of Games</i>. It seems to have been quite a journey of discovery, aided both by discussion on various forum sites and his own delves into the numerous publications ('zine, mag, and module) of the game's early days.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Writing this post, I find myself wanting to write more about our Brave Sir Prince himself, rather than the module proper. You see, I've <i>met</i> the Prince...I have broken bread with him, have talked with him, have gamed with him. I have had the chance to take something of his measure. He is very intelligent and creative and cursed with the nagging <b>self-doubt</b> that ALL intelligent, creative, self-aware people seem cursed with. He is a <i>young</i> man...but he's no kid. As a creator, he is still maturing, and you can see the growing pains...even as you can also marvel at the brilliance of the work.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Okay, down to it: the scope of the thing is massive, though the premise is simple, drawing amply from a rather obvious list of horror and sci-fi media of the "bug hunt" variety. The tyranid species of <b>Warhammer 40,000</b> figures hugely in the titular antagonist's mutating/adaptation abilities, creating the main operative pressure on the player characters: the more they fight the slyth, the more the buggers change and adjust (via manifest organic weapons and defenses) to come back harder against their persecutors. This is a wonderful and original concept and...while I might have some quibbles about its implementation...it is a fantastic way to challenge <i>and punish</i> players who take a passive and/or tentative approach to engagement.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The environments here are excellent: a level of prehistoric simulacrum, a level of fungal forests and killer slimes, a more-or-less submerged (underwater) level, a level featuring nothing but a gigantic cavern with a waiting army of killer bugs, etc. Good stuff. Non-bug creatures abound as well, including both minions and subterranean denizens willing to become allies of the player characters. This adventure offers many, many interesting challenges for experienced players, in a horrific, terrifying environment, with (what appears to be) plenty of reward. I'm fairly satisfied that this will provide many hours of glorious bloodshed and adventure gaming, and probably not a few "oh, shit!" moments...exactly what jaded, er, "high level" players are hoping for.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I will move to the criticism: aside from needing an editor to catch some of the errors, the thing could use an editor to tighten things. I hate to say it (because I can already guess the reaction) but, in my opinion,<b> the thing is too big</b>. There are a few many encounters that are<u> too much the same</u> <i>despite</i> the transformative ability of the slyth. There are things added that have the marks of "this would be great!" but really add little to the adventure as a whole. There are two or three too many Giant Impossible Utterly Devastating New Monstrous Threats sprinkled throughout...like endless video game boss battles. There are one or two too many homages present (sorry, not a fan of the <i>Dune</i> reference) that <i>for me</i> would indicate a little too much exuberance with the source material.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And I don't just mean the fiction from which the author draws...I'm talking about the source material of OTHER "high level adventures" that Prince has digested and is now re-synthesizing. He may have looked at TOO MANY examples from days of TSR past, adding things that are unnecessary in terms of theming or even gameplay. By the time an adventuring party has braved a gauntlet of six or seven levels they should be in their last legs...resources depleted, men lost, bleeding from scores of wounds. You don't then hammer them...and then hammer them...and then hammer them again with Ever Bigger Hammers. There is a rhythm to game play...ebbs and flows...even in an adventure like this. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Back to the good stuff for a moment: <i>Slyth Hive</i> actually includes TWO sets of pregens. A group of mid-level miscreants than get sent in to investigate, followed by the immense high level heroes. This is a great gimmick: it gives the players a chance to scout a bit and get some idea of what they'll encounter before taking the REAL troops into the jaws of death. Unfortunately, the mid-level guys aren't likely to get too far (unless played extremely well), and the <i>Hive's</i> defenses against gathering intelligence means the party is going to be operating in a blind, reactive state from at least the mid-point of the adventure. Perhaps that won't be an issue for experienced, resourceful players...but it could be a rough go for players of middling proficiency using the pregens.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Eh. That's just critique. As noted, the adventure has been run...multiple times for multiple players...and I am unaware of any complaints. "Stylistic nitpicks," I suppose...but I know what I like. And this feels...mm...'over-exuberant.'</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Even so, there IS room to breathe, in the adventure...there are 'beats' that don't feel rushed. The adventure is BIG, but (for the most part) it is has the appropriate DENSITY of information. I didn't feel that in Prince's early adventures, even though they were written for a "basic" edition of D&D.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">NOW...one last negative, and then I'll stop. Going hand-in-hand with the "learning too much of the (maybe wrong) thing" category, let's talk treasure. There's a LOT of treasure, and its not just the hand-waved 'millions and millions' found in TPoUR; but a many of the treasure piles are incredibly obscure...they take the whole 'treasure should be hard to come by and/or hidden' thing a little too far; some examples:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>a monster whose "carapace, treated with acids and worked by a supremely capable dwarven blacksmith, yields 3d10 gemstones of 1,000 g.p. value..."</li><li>125,000 in coins buried under a diamond-hard stone slab that weighs 50,000 pounds and is immune to <i>stone to mud</i> and <i>passwall</i> spells (but not <i>disintegrate</i>).</li><li>a 50,000 g.p. sapphire hidden in the heart of a giant mushroom (requires 120 h.p. of damage by edged weapons to cut through; every round of attack requires a save vs. poison at -4 to avoid effect of hallucinogenic spores; <i>fireballs</i> and the like have a chance of destroying the gem).</li><li>an immense pile of treasure covered in a colorless, odorless contact poison (lethal, -2 save, seeps through fabric and even metal gauntlets). The poison is slow acting (only takes effect after 1 turn) so everyone handling treasure has the potential to be wiped out without warning.</li><li>a purple worm nest with nearly 200,000 in detailed treasure that is not on any map and no indication is given of how one might discover it</li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;">A brief accounting of monetary treasure indicates something less 1,400,000 g.p. worth, which is surprisingly small given <b>A) </b>the size of the adventure proper, and <b>B)</b> the number and level of pre-gens on hand. However, magic items are plentiful (though many...specifically Eyes taken from, I assume EoPT sources, have no value listed), and I suspect that this, accompanied by valuable "cores" dug from specific corpses could get that treasure total up to 2.5 or 3 million. But that's still...not much? I'm probably looking for something on the order of <b>8M</b> or more for something this size, and I can't believe I'm saying this (there are ENORMOUS sections of detailed treasure!) but this might be...stingy? Not on purpose, mind you...it's just tough when you're dealing with things of this size and scope. By the book, 92,000 silver pieces weighs <b>4.6 tons</b>...and is worth only 4,600 g.p. That's not much bang for the buck when your 16th level mage needs 350,000 x.p. to level up.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Still. There's a lot of combat x.p. on the docket in <i>Slyth Hive</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">This "review"...this list of critiques...is going to sound overly negative, I know. Please allow me to reiterate that the adventure is an immense, fantastic <i>tour de force</i>. <i><u><b>I</b></u></i> have issues with it, but this is a case where my feelings are 90% positive and 10% negative, and I am only harping on the negative because...well, because that's what I do. <b>I am impressed</b>...<u>very</u> impressed with <i>Slyth Hive</i>. I paid $15 on DriveThruRPG for a PDF so that I could read the thing, and I'm not disappointed. It's an ass-kicker of an adventure, with some fiendish design, clever ideas, and evocative writing. It is solid enough to run. With a bit of polish and editing, some slight mechanical fixes (if you're going to include UA rules, you need to get them right), and...perhaps...a slightly streamlined system to the slyth adaptations, this thing would rate in among the best high level adventures of all time.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And I say that as someone who's not really into 80+ page modules.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>; )</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>EDIT: </b>For a more detailed review/advertisement for what's in the adventure (including designer notes and substantial SPOILERS), please check out <a href="https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2024/02/03/no-artpunk-16-slyth-hive-add-1e/">Prince's own article on <i>Slyth Hive</i>.</a></div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-67096666145395027422024-01-26T23:37:00.000-08:002024-01-26T23:37:35.710-08:00Contests<div style="text-align: left;"><i><b>AKA "Friday News Dump"</b></i></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Or, rather, it <i>would have been</i> (a Friday news dump), if I had been on the ball today.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Let's get right to brass tacks. I feel like a heel for failing to mention this earlier, but <b><a href="https://coldlightrpgpress.weebly.com/">Ben Gibson</a></b> is currently running <a href="https://coldlightrpgpress.weebly.com/home/spread-the-wordadventure-site-contest">an adventure writing contest that ends on the 31st</a>. I should definitely have mentioned this earlier, but the thing has a limit of <b>two pages</b>, which many would-be designers can bang out in a weekend. And guess what? You've got a weekend left. Get to it!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So who the heck is Ben Gibson? He's an adventure cobbler himself, who's written some well reviewed pieces, most (all?) of which are of the "short form" variety. Spent some time today downloading and reading things like <i><a href="https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/210944/the-fall-of-whitecliff">The Fall of Whitecliff</a></i> and <i><a href="https://preview.drivethrurpg.com/en/product/228129/one-session-kit-k1-night-at-fausen-s-manor">Night at Fausen's Manor</a></i>...3E/<i>Pathfinder</i> stuff that reminds me (somewhat) of the best of the old <b>One Page Dungeon Contest</b> (which might still be going on, but I'm not paying attention). Anyhoo...no wonder he's chosen the small format for his contest...if anyone's qualified to judge such stuff, he'd be. Heck, reading it nearly entices me to play a little 3E...except that I still remember what 3E turns into after 7th level or so.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>spoiler: a crapshow, that's what</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Still, for low level stuff, those adventures have definite conversion material/potential. Anyway, I'm going to try to get something in for his contest before Wednesday (the deadline); that's doable, right? Just have a basketball game, a soccer game, volleyball practice, etc., etc.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>somehow, I got tagged with coaching 7th/8th grade volleyball this year. I haven't played volleyball since <b>1987</b>, when I WAS in 8th grade! *sigh*</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I <u>am</u> sorry I haven't been keeping up with the blog posts in the New Year...I've been distracted. NFL playoffs, and football coaches disappearing from the local teams and eager awaiting of news on those fronts have me glued to my radio while doing menial chores around the home. It's silly; it's distracting. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">*<i>ugh</i>* I don't have time to talk about this right now. Okay, I'm going to amend the title of my post. Get your contest submission in, if you have the chance (five more days!). I haven't yet put pen to paper, so it's not like you'd be lagging far behind Yours Truly...just get something in.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Yak at you all later. Later!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>; )</b></div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-60535585517118059202024-01-24T10:32:00.000-08:002024-01-24T10:32:27.742-08:00Return of the Jedi<div style="text-align: left;">Last night my family watched <i>Return of the Jedi </i>(AKA <b>Star Wars, Episode VI</b>). This was not our first time.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>I </i>was cooking dinner tonight...grilling, in fact (no rain...for a change)...and had briefly considered posting pix of how I make Paraguayan chimichurri and baked mandioca. Eh. Another time. My grill is on its last legs (at least the charcoal pan), and in need of a replacement (probably in the Spring). The film I just threw on as "background noise" while putting stuff together...although the movie I started streaming was <i>Rogue One</i>. It was my daughter that switched it to RotJ.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">My daughter (Sofia) is <b>nine years old</b>. Because she is my daughter, she's already seen these films...multiple times. However, this is not the same with her classmates. Oh, some have seen the movies...her friend Posey, and most (all?) of the boys. But not her best friend (Milana), and another friend...Maddie...has only seen the original trilogy, and only over the last three weeks. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">They, of course, love it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcsqlhUtsLTm_DKdqDcF0KZQGuskVJiH5ySxvfNl2n5QAzRw9sqac2pmqMxIp7SBq4jGnEasCXarJQeW4S9wJegOexe4Xjp7mM8mrb33n8x4fzprM8TxPw6IMnwVbAriKOw5PQRi1F4AOHg1hELkWSUJKxIo0-0_jzbEs0S8raRCzW7wBPfELp35RRnsJi/s274/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="274" data-original-width="184" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcsqlhUtsLTm_DKdqDcF0KZQGuskVJiH5ySxvfNl2n5QAzRw9sqac2pmqMxIp7SBq4jGnEasCXarJQeW4S9wJegOexe4Xjp7mM8mrb33n8x4fzprM8TxPw6IMnwVbAriKOw5PQRi1F4AOHg1hELkWSUJKxIo0-0_jzbEs0S8raRCzW7wBPfELp35RRnsJi/s1600/download.jpg" width="184" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Still Good</td></tr></tbody></table>So they've been playing a lot of "Star Wars" at recess. Acting out the movies. Pretending to be the heroes or the villains or the stormtroopers, etc. This is why she wanted to watch <i>Jedi</i>...they've been self-performing the films sequentially and only just gotten up to "Jabba's palace." Sofia says they know most of the lines (well, <i>she</i> does anyway), but she just wanted to 'go over it.' The film had only just started as my wife and son got home from soccer practice (her turn driving tonight), and Diego exclaimed "Hey! I want to watch!" So we did.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's interesting, watching my kids re-watch these films...films that were so much a part of MY childhood (I saw all the original films in the theater...multiple times). Sofia is...mm...about where I was at her age as far as understanding goes, but interesting to see her amazement at non-CGI special f/x. My son is much more developed and mature for his age and eyes things with the critical eyes of a film critic and seasoned campaigner (a lot of pseudo-military stuff in these SW films and my boy is all about the war games and military history). </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">BUT...just astounding how well they hold up as <i>entertaining films for kids</i>. I do not approve of, nor appreciate, all the the things my kids find "awesome"...a lot of their pop music, for example, or some of the kids shows they dig, or many of their book choices (I can't stand those "Wimpy Kid Books" and they <i>both</i> eat those up). But here's something that we all connect on.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It is also interesting that the 9 year olds are SO into this...perhaps this is the "sweet spot" for those movies? I believe Diego was about the same age when he started his "D&D Club" at school, mainly to run a Star Wars RPG of his own devising (based on the B/X chassis...natch). <i>That</i> club has since gone defunct, but the kids who enjoyed it are still playing D&D (albeit with different groups outside of school). But...<i>Star Wars</i> (and, specifically, the original trilogy) were a unifying factor. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Sofia last night (during the opening scene in the new Death Star): <b>"Darth Vader is the BEST!"</b> He's pretty good all right, probably <i>my</i> favorite "supervillain" of all time. Religious zealot, scarred cyborg, rage-filled brute...plus, James Earl Jones. Just...menacing. Shiny helmet. Black cape. Featureless mask. It's all delightful. <i>Jedi</i> may be the worst of the first three films, but turning Vader into the hero at the end was a stroke of genius (although I prefer the original cut of the climactic scene which has NO inserted Vader dialogue during the crescendo of the film's score...why make the scene <i>weaker</i>, Lucas? Jeez).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Ok. I'll stop. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>by the way, while Sofia has a huge appreciation for DV, I <u>know</u> that her favorite Star Wars character of all time...from all the films...is still <b>Darth Maul</b>. She will tell you the same, if asked. She prefers the Rebels for our <a href="https://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2024/01/space-wars.html">Star Wars Legion</a> games, but I'm guessing that'll change as soon as she sees a Maul model on the shelf</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Why am I talking about this? Partly to grease the ol' 'blogging wheels' (a little rusty lately). But also because it's (<b>very slightly</b>) pertinent to a project I want to talk about. NOT a Star Wars project, but...perhaps..."SW adjacent?" That might be accurate.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">First, though, I need to get back to that whole 'procedural gameplay' thing <a href="https://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2024/01/something-new.html">I mentioned earlier.</a> We'll get to it.</div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-7389305589449606312024-01-20T23:20:00.000-08:002024-01-20T23:20:17.132-08:00Something New<div style="text-align: left;">I wrote three-quarters of a rather long post yesterday (the 19th...<b>my son's birthday</b>) that I didn't have a chance to finish/publish...what else is new?...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>at least it wasn't particularly <b>maudlin</b>...THAT long post happened a couple days before (when I was more than usually drunk) and will probably stay, lingering, on the draft board as a reminder of my "inner darkness." I was just in a rather depressed mood that evening</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">...*<i>ahem</i>* a rather looong post attempting to explain why D&D <i>as designed</i> is eminently suitable to its role as an adventure game, as opposed to...mm...well, pretty much any other game that gets categorized these days as an "RPG."</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>we are, of course, NOT discussing "computer RPGs;" for purposes of my writing here, I have zero interest in CRPGs</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Anyhoo, I didn't finish it because <b>A)</b> time constraints, and <b>B) </b>I was having a hard time <i>nailing my point</i> or (perhaps) bringing the argument/thesis around to a satisfying conclusion (satisfying to me at any rate). Why do other games...games not beholden to elves and swords and wizards and dragons...just, flat out <u>suck</u> for long-term, experiential adventure gaming?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Why indeed.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">SO, while out driving today, or musing a bit, or...<i>SOME</i>thing....a new idea popped into my head. A new, interesting (maybe) project. Kind of a culmination, or (better) a possible <i>synthesis</i> of a NUMBER of ideas I've had over the years. For a particular game design. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As usual, this particular idea is a bit...daunting. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So that's all I want to say at the moment. If anything comes of it, I'll write more. I just want to spend a couple days/nights tinkering with the idea. That's all; just...tinkering. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">My son is a teenager, by the way. <b>13</b>. I started this blog two years before he was born. It's been a long road. A long, long road.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Peace and love, folks.</div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-78134813822765816262024-01-10T09:19:00.000-08:002024-01-10T09:19:34.497-08:00RIP Jennell Jaquays<div style="text-align: left;">Legendary game designer <b><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jennell_Jaquays">Jennell Jaquays</a> </b>passed away today at the age of 67. She will be missed.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Thank you for the games.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhblArArQ7yEBn2OG9c1IY6kBCdYqs2Prk2DvYjphu4OXstxj2QJtaUsDwWgsR79N9eMuIoaKHcRbp1Zw9fA7jjTzE7HPBWYOEWsIVQkvF5i6_NxXOqEY5yF4msY36aMxJBTT9RQHwXVrYDH2G7dDxEKVvdnCc3CnDI17mT7VDRSnaQOj3NO8_7o4-AZZay/s271/Dragon_Mountain_(boxed_set).jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="271" data-original-width="200" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhblArArQ7yEBn2OG9c1IY6kBCdYqs2Prk2DvYjphu4OXstxj2QJtaUsDwWgsR79N9eMuIoaKHcRbp1Zw9fA7jjTzE7HPBWYOEWsIVQkvF5i6_NxXOqEY5yF4msY36aMxJBTT9RQHwXVrYDH2G7dDxEKVvdnCc3CnDI17mT7VDRSnaQOj3NO8_7o4-AZZay/w295-h400/Dragon_Mountain_(boxed_set).jpg" width="295" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Good art.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-89828676124580905162024-01-08T11:44:00.000-08:002024-01-08T11:44:02.512-08:00Space Wars<div style="text-align: left;">So the <b>Seahawks</b> season is over and, despite yet another close win (against a 4-13 halfling team...big whoop), the orks are out of the playoffs (*<i>sigh</i>*). I may discuss that in later post (or the playoffs in general), but at the moment I'm not in the mood for <b>Blood Bowl</b>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>not that Blood Bowl hasn't been on the mind a bit...the kids have been clamoring for it in recent days and are in the process of painting up a couple BB teams (<b>wood elves</b> and <b>amazons</b>; Christmas gifts from last year, if I remember correctly)</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It should come as little surprise that in MY household, there's been plenty of game playing that's been going the last couple weeks (during the holiday vacation season). What <i>might</i> be surprising is that almost none of it has been D&D related. Instead, it's been card games, board games, and war games...specifically a new war game that was on the boy's Christmas list: <b>Star Wars Legion</b>. Prior to New Year's eve (when we had to clean the table for a dinner party) our dining room was dominated by battlefield detritus and unpainted models. Now...well, the battlefield hasn't returned (yet) but the table is once again dominated by scores of miniatures...primed miniatures that are in the process of being painted.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Since it IS game related and it's been the main thing occupying my attention lately (at least, the bandwidth I reserve for gaming), I figured I might as well write something about it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="228" data-original-width="221" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi8M4LbeMbgCwpWqaJwHJy9FO9GFG08hJU9m6tBE3hQ7HYJ5loab83C05sKar-Yh9zFPVCQIMJXdOYKsXreCkCdGrSnHZUKzClWzEdTa1-pbkBAfmo9-DEKu00eCdjiYRqode9csDIZzR6fKILBFXT8jE8P3RbKjh9rj-EXlHMGVOhL1OyOpnbSjZQdgAgh/s16000/download-1.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;" /></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Under the tree this year.<br /><br /></td></tr></tbody></table></div>Star Wars Legion </i>is a miniature war game; the core box set comes in two varieties <b>Republic vs. Separatist</b> or <b>Empire vs. Rebels</b>. The rules for both are the same, but the models included in the box are different. We, of course, have the latter set because...duh. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I find the game VERY reminiscent of 2nd edition <b>Warhammer 40,000</b>. Not necessarily in game play (initiative and turn procedure is NOT 40K-esque, and the thing uses custom dice rather than standard d6s), but in terms of army construction and general paradigm. Each player picks up a faction. Unit types are given "rank" categories, which limits how many of each type can be included in the army list. There are normal generals and whatnot or "special" (Unique) figures based on film characters. There are "upgrade" cards that can purchased for specific points...very much like 40K's "war gear" and "psychic power" cards. And just like 2E 40K, the special characters, can punch above their point value, absolutely dominating the battlefield...something that the 40K designers endeavored to rectify between 2E and 3E.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>when it comes to 40K, I logged the most "game time" playing 2E, though I spent more years collecting & building 3E and/or 4E, before chucking the thing around the time of 5E</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Which is FINE...it is very <i>Star Wars</i>. Luke Skywalker <i>should</i> be able to carve his way through a unit of stormtroopers. Vader <i>should</i> be a big, menacing presence on the moving (slowly) about the battlefield. Mandalorians with jetpacks <i>should</i> be highly mobile, elite units. Etc.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The game has a LOT of fiddle to it: a lot of special rules and spot mechanics and tokens, reminiscent of <b>Magic cards</b>...a fairly obvious influence on the design of <i>Star Wars Legion</i>. But I <i>like</i> the game...a lot. For a NUMBER of reasons:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>1) </b><i>Star Wars</i> is fun. <i>Star Wars</i> as a war game (stormtroopers vs. rebels) is a blast. The models are all recognizable by anyone with even a passing knowledge of the films, and their capabilities are well-modeled by the game mechanics.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>2)</b> Really quality components (easily stored in a nice box) and fairly straightforward rules that, after a couple play-throughs, are fairly easy to grok. No issues for the 12 year old, despite being for ages 14+.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>3)</b> <b>Dirt-cheap investment.</b> Anyone familiar with GW stuff knows how much money can be spent on the miniatures hobby. I remember when a single <i>rhino</i> tank was $35 or a <i>landraider</i> was an "outrageous" $50ish. Just checking Amazon this morning, the prices on these are up to <b>$89</b> and <b>$140</b>. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Holy. Crap. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Star Wars Legion</i>, by contrast, are cheaper to buy BUT (more importantly) have an 800 point structure limit. The core box provides two forces of circa 500 points...you can customize a legal army with the purchase of 2-3 extra units, probably with less than $70ish total in extra expenditure. They're cheap enough you can outfit multiple "800 point armies" of the same faction for little money (the core box is currently available on-line for $95...compare <i>that</i> to 40K!). I bought myself a late Christmas present of the <b>"Blizzard" box:</b> three snowtrooper units (21 models), 2 speeder bike units (4 models), another Vader, and an AT-ST (!!) all with associated cards, upgrades, and extra tokens. Total price: <b>$105</b>. Scheduled to arrive tomorrow. One of these days I'll throw down the extra $13 to buy <b>General Veers</b>, and my "Hoth assault" army will be complete. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>never mind...just took 2 minutes to place the order. It's still only $15 with tax...arrives tomorrow, too</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNqLOIAmiP-3UCp3wwU0zpSAaA-Kl0MSy3OKypNItpMN_x3vlAw1BKgCWScG0MzmQ57joKtT32amh11pga7e4tsbi05huMQOqRxxbGqYaQx60XJjJE9vCKJJg6tGOeQ3uv5jY6Ks4URrEDEuSwWWodzpsucJUv3obE8F6yqPzU52PZmjGiLIQPBVfHB9Wd/s225/download-2.jpg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="225" data-original-width="225" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhNqLOIAmiP-3UCp3wwU0zpSAaA-Kl0MSy3OKypNItpMN_x3vlAw1BKgCWScG0MzmQ57joKtT32amh11pga7e4tsbi05huMQOqRxxbGqYaQx60XJjJE9vCKJJg6tGOeQ3uv5jY6Ks4URrEDEuSwWWodzpsucJUv3obE8F6yqPzU52PZmjGiLIQPBVfHB9Wd/w200-h200/download-2.jpg" width="200" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Arriving tomorrow.<br /></td></tr></tbody></table>Back in 1996 I paid $18 a pop for each two-pack of space marine terminators. I got six (total), all with <b>thunder hammers</b> and painted them up to be <b>Khorne berserkers</b>. Less than a year later, they were outlawed by 40Ks new rule set and (so far as I know) have never since been a legal 40K unit. <b>Screw you, Games Workshop.</b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>4) </b>Easy assembly. The kids have been doing (most of) the cutting and gluing...<i>I</i> just do all the priming, out in the garage (to save on their young lungs). Even the really fiddly models (the AT-RT, the Mandalorians)...the kid put them together no problem, without adult help.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>5) Lego compatible. </b>Over the years, my kids have acquired quite the collection of Lego sets, many of which are <i>Star Wars</i> themed. While these have been used for plenty of "Lego wars" in the past, they are pretty close to the same scale as <i>Star Wars Legion</i>...which means that we have ready-made "terrain" for our battlefield. Who needs plastic forests and spray-painted "hills" when you can battle in the Tattooine cantina? Plus, I just like repurposing toys...or anything...in ways that make it useful. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>6) </b>Fast gameplay. The game plays quite fast...once you get a handle on how each unit's special rules and instructions work. That part <u>is</u> kind of a pain, as each unit generally has<i> at least </i>1-2 special rules associated with it (even before adding various "upgrade" cards), and you're bound to make mistakes in the first battle or two (we did). However, the limited NUMBER of units (that 800 points is only enough for 6-7 groups), combined with fast turn sequence means you get ramped up pretty quick. The whole "issuing orders" phase (a card drawing mechanic that takes the place of initiative rolling) allows for interesting tactical maneuvering, and the quick attrition means game play speeds up substantially as the game goes. Six turns (again: memories of 2E 40K) goes VERY fast, but battles are tight right to the end. We dig it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>7) </b>With regard to rules, I'm generally fine. Yes, Luke is a beast. He's also been shot to death in every battle we've played. Same with Vader. The only mechanical issue that bugs (or that I'm not used to) is that troop models cannot be screened by other troop models. So, even though the stormtroopers advance in front of DV (because Darth is Sooo Slooow), rebel forces can <b><i>ignore</i></b> the troopers, focusing fire on the commander behind. In practice it hasn't been a big deal...but it does feel odd.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Anyway.</b> War gaming is fun. War gaming <i>in spaaaace</i> is also quite fun. Even the nine year old is into it (she's currently painting her Amazon team, but has a Chewbacca and Leia for SWL and plans to get in on the next battle). The kids are getting to an age when I can fo this kind of thing with them...an age where I can unpack my old crates of 40K minis and not worry about them smashing them crazily, or pitching one in a tantrum of frustration (always a possibility with young or immature players). </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But I'm kind of <i>over</i> 40K. I mean, there's a lot of sly <i>Star Wars</i> references in the original 40K game (which I own, but have never played), and I'm tempted to run some first edition 40K using the SWL miniatures in place of GW stuff (now <i>that</i> would be a hoot!). I thought about introducing them to 40K proper, but even though I've got the stuff for it...what edition would I teach them? I mean...how many editions are there now? Eight? Nine? I've got rule books for the first four (five? Maybe) editions. But do I have a <i><b>favorite</b></i>? Not really. It's such a simple system, but there are changes to every version that changes the game in significant ways. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Nah.</b> I think I'll stick with the new <i>Star Wars </i>game for a bit. I'm sure 40K will still be around in ten years...in a twelfth edition with $300 tank models...if the kids want to try it out.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">*** EDIT: Sorry, almost forgot: <b>Go Dawgs! </b>***</div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com13tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-45692491335833554022024-01-01T12:03:00.000-08:002024-01-01T12:03:06.589-08:00Happy New Year!<div style="text-align: left;">This is my second try at writing this post. The first one just kept getting more and more <b>morbid</b>...far too morbid for the holidays, in my opinion.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Apologies. My 2023 was rough.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Here's hoping 2024 will be LESS rough...less an emotional roller coaster. Man, I had some high High Points this year. But I also had some really, really low points (main culprit: <b>too many deaths</b>).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Eh. It's life. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The kids will be going back to school this week...mm...tomorrow. It is nearly noon PST and they are still sleeping (we had some friends over last night and were up till 2am). I should probably wake them so that we can have at least SOME fun before getting back to the grind.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But I do enjoy these solitary moments with my coffee and laptop.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">ANYhoo...once they <i>are</i> back to school, I'll have a little more time for reflection and posting. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">To everyone reading this: Best wishes for happy and healthy New Year for you and your loved ones! God bless!</div><div style="text-align: left;">: )</div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-38061825719267331282023-12-14T18:20:00.000-08:002023-12-14T18:21:18.569-08:00Shrine Of The Demon Goddess<div style="text-align: left;">SO...last Wednesday <a href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2023/12/storming-forbidden-city.html">I wrote about my tournament scenarios</a> for the <a href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2023/10/frankfurt.html"><b>Cauldron</b> convention</a>, promising (more-or-less) that I'd release my con notes for the adventures, including the new scenario, <i><b>Shrine of the Demon Goddess</b></i>. Unfortunately, events conspired to make me <b>late</b> in delivering on that promise. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Don't they always?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Well, better late than never. Here are the downloads:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><a href="https://www.mediafire.com/file/83hpms4xpuuefi3/Forbidden_City.pdf/file">Forbidden City</a></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><a href="https://www.mediafire.com/file/u2fu7chrcermk78/ShrineLevel1.pdf/file">Shrine L1 Map</a></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><a href="https://www.mediafire.com/file/j50u7bvlpuq933e/ShrineLevel2.pdf/file">Shrine L2 Map</a></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><a href="https://www.mediafire.com/file/k0664myfnsq2qf7/ShrineLevel3.pdf/file">Shrine L3 Map</a></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It's been a while since I've uploaded anything to <b>MediaFire</b>...please let me know if there are problems with the links. The <b>Forbidden City PDF</b> contains all my tournament notes, including the notes for the first two scenarios; you will need an actual copy of <b><i>I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City </i></b>to make much sense of those (this would be the first five pages of the PDF).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>Shrine of the Demon Goddess</i> beings on <b>page 5</b>. Despite being three levels deep, it is only 27 encounters in total...it is designed for a short excursion (suitable for a four-hour tournament time slot). It IS possible for a group, given four hours of play time to dig out at least TWO of the substantial "pay drops" (I know...I've seen it in testing) but clearing the whole dungeon in such a time frame would be pretty close to impossible...give it a session for each level if you want to run it as a "standard adventure."</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As usual, feel free to hit me up with any questions and/or comments.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>OH...</b>just by the way, I'll throw in a PDF of the pre-gens I brought to the tournament. Those who have a copy of I1 will recognize these as the 20 pre-generated characters provided in the back of the adventure module, though some have been modified to better work with the level of the scenarios given here:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><a href="https://www.mediafire.com/file/vtnfxlvrtd317pa/Pregens.pdf/file">Pre-Gens</a></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Enjoy!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>: )</b></div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-36732737519750076162023-12-13T14:22:00.000-08:002023-12-13T15:12:23.277-08:00Why AD&D For Fantasy Adventure Gaming<div style="text-align: left;">Over at the<b> "Classic Adventure Gaming"</b> discord, there is a channel/thread with the subject title of this blog post. The originator of the conversation had several questions they wanted addressed, including:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Why is it the Fantasy Adventure Gaming style prefers AD&D to other "old school" versions of the game? </li><li>Is running a B/X game in the Adventure Gaming style possible? </li><li>Is the Advanced Fantasy of OSE a reasonable middle ground? </li><li>Is running a game RAW an element of Adventure Gaming? </li><li>Any advice on how to sell AD&D to your players who like B/X for the simplicity?</li></ul></div><div style="text-align: left;">This was posed back in November (when I was deep in the heart of Mexico), or I would have weighed in (duh). As is, most of what I would have said was rather sufficiently answered (and probably more succinctly and elegantly) than anything I would have written anyway.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And, yet, the subject continues to come up, in various shapes and forms: here was a comment recently posed on <a href="https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2023/12/12/no-artpunk-5-death-maze-of-the-sorcerer-kings-ose/comment-page-1/#comment-127401">a different blog</a>:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote>"...what’s the beef people have with OSE? It’s a retelling of BX using modern layout and publishing tools."</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>this with regard to a criticism of <b>OSE: Advanced</b> being less-than-wonderful as a system for high level game play</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Of course, here at the <b><i><u>B/X</u> Blackrazor </i>blog</b>, I made my "reputation" (such as it is) in part by propping up the B/X system and extolling its virtues, long before there even was such a thing as "OSE" (close to <i>ten years before</i>, seeing as I started blogging circa 2009). So, I think it's safe to say I know some stuff about B/X play...the good and the bad. I think, if required, I <i>could</i> defend the system pretty well...the Basic edition of the game <i>does</i> have virtues, not the least of which include its clarity, accessibility, compactness, and simplicity. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">These are EXCELLENT things...for learning how to play D&D.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I now run AD&D <b>exclusively</b> (when I run games) even for new (i.e. "never have I experienced D&D") players. Not because it is clear, accessible, compact, or simple...first edition AD&D is NONE of those things. But none of those things matter to ME, because <i><u>I</u></i> already know how to play and (more importantly) <i>how to RUN </i>D&D. I know how to be a <b>Dungeon Master</b>. Can I be a better one? <u>Absolutely</u>...one can <i>always</i> get better at their craft. Experience, practice, self-evaluation/reflection, research...<i>all</i> these things go into honing one's skills (not just running and managing players, but building worlds and scenarios and running campaigns). It is an on-going process of <i>refinement</i>. If I am judged a "better DM" than others (I won't make that claim myself), it is ONLY because I've been doing it longer. There are PLENTY of DMs out there that have been doing it longer than me, who are smarter than me, who have been more consistent than me. But I know that I am <i>competent</i>...and I think that most people should be able to obtain a solid degree of competence with a few decades of practice; I am not unique in this regard.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">SO...part of being a competent DM is knowing how to run the game at table. And running the game at table OFTEN involves picking up the slack for players. It is not imperative for players to know all the rules of the system (though the best players will have a high degree of knowledge/mastery when it comes to game mechanics). However, it IS imperative...heck, <i>essential</i>...that the DM has a good grasp of the game concepts and how they function. Which is one of the reasons the original B/X (Moldvay/Cook/Marsh) edition of D&D is <i><b>so darn good</b></i>...it provides ALL THE TOOLS NEEDED for a beginning Dungeon Master to 'learn the ropes:' clarity, accessibility, compactness, and simplicity. You have a Basic book of 64 pages (with plenty of examples) describing the most elementary concepts of a very complex game, and then an Expert book of 64 pages (<u>most</u> of which is simply new CONTENT...spells, monsters, treasure, extended tables...<u>not</u> CONCEPTS) to fill in a few additional "blank" spots in the game. These are GREAT TOOLS...for learning how to play D&D.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Everyone needs to learn how to play <i>some</i>how. Learning to play <i>as a player</i> is "a piece of easy, chummer" so long as you have a competent DM running the game; most folks content to play a PC have little need to crack a rule book at all, except as a reference. The lack of actual nuts-n-bolts mechanics (saves, combat tables, etc.) in the original PHB may have simply been Gygax acknowledging the way MOST players approach the game: the DM is going to tell them their "target numbers" for dice rolls (or what followers are going to be available, etc.), what <i>they <u>need</u> to know</i> is how close they are to leveling up, and what new capabilities such leveling will convey to their character (in terms of hit dice, spells, skill percentages, etc.). The PHB is a <i>lovely</i> reference...and everything a (1E) player really needs <b>as a reference</b>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Learning to be a Dungeon Master is a different story. It requires <i>reading</i> (and knowing and understanding) the rule books. I will argue (strenuously) that it's not something you just "pick up" from watching other DMs at the table or...worse!...from videos on Ye Old Internet. Such viewing can CLARIFY certain concepts, but you have to read the damn book. You have to <i>know</i> the game to <i>run</i> the game, and the knowing comes from reading (and learning) the rules which (surprise!) are found in the rulebook.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>The B/X rules are short.</b> Even at 64 pages, Moldvay's book includes...roughly...thirty-three pages of instructional text, of which at least five pages are EXAMPLES of: character creation, encumbrance, x.p. calculation, combat, dungeon design, and running a session. So, <b>27-28 pages</b> of instruction? Is that too many? <b><i>I</i></b> don't think so...but I'm an old man who grew up reading books from a young age. If you want to learn how to be a Dungeon Master for <i>the greatest game ever penned</i>, I think that an afternoon or evening's reading seems like a small price to pay for the opportunity.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">'Great, JB. We get it. SO...why then make AD&D your staple for adventure gaming? Why not just run Labyrinth Lord or OSE, or (even) "OSE Advanced" if you miss the inclusion of illusionists and beholders? Why insist on running 1st edition? What gives man?!'</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">B/X is a GREAT game...for learning to play D&D. But for <i><b>running the game long-term</b></i>, it is my opinion that you need a more robust game system. I have written about it at length before, but those posts are divided over many topics. Let's see if I can collate them here.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">First you have to get on-board with a premise: that the game is at its <u>best</u> when run in the form of a long-term campaign. That means: there is a (fictional) world that PCs adventure in, that is sustained over time and that exhibits consistency. That PCs advance in level and thereby have opportunities to experience MORE content and adventure. If you can't buy into that premise, it doesn't matter what system you're running nor (probably) what game. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">SO, assuming you buy said premise, you need a system that sustains long-term play. And that is NOT just a matter of "bonus content." It's not just about adding additional levels of spell-casting or a larger selection of treasure and magic items or extra, more powerful monsters. If that was all there is to it then, sure, <i>OSE Advanced</i> <b>might</b> be your huckleberry. After all, it adds more <i>content</i> to OSE: AD&D classes, AD&D monsters, AD&D magic-items, etc.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But it's not the content (alone) that makes a game suitable for long-term play. Does <i>OSE Advanced</i> address issues of PC survivability that allows sustained play and advancement over time? AD&D does, adding clerical spells at 1st level (and bonus spells for WIS), increasing HD dice types, reducing penalties for low ability scores, adding rules for negative HPs, and increasing weapon damage versus large-sized monsters. Does OSE Advanced address issues of game economy, by adding x.p. and g.p. values for magic items, instituting training costs, and monthly expenses as AD&D does? Does <i>OSE Advanced</i> add systems that increase or promote verisimilitude like urban encounters, disease, racial relations (between sentient humanoids), discussions of medieval politics and taxes, folklore remedies and dungeon trappings? Does <i>OSE Advanced</i> introduce cosmological considerations, outer planes, interactions between clerics and their deities, dimensional cross-overs for even wilder fantasy adventures...as well as getting down to the nitty gritty of troop movements and costs for traditional war gamers?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Perhaps <i>OSE Advanced</i> DOES do all this? I honestly don't know, as I don't own the <i>OSE Advanced</i> books. But I <b><u>know</u></b> that 1st Edition AD&D does all this...and it does so in <u>two</u> books (the <b>PHB</b> and the <b>DMG</b>), one of which is 126 pages (and mostly "reference material:) and the other of which is 240 pages...of which <i>more than half </i>is <b>non-instructional material</b>: tables and charts and treasure descriptions and random dungeons and appendices and glossary and index and (repeated) cheat sheets.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">SO...100 or so pages of DM-facing rules? For a system that supports long-term, sustained campaign play?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>OSE Advanced Fantasy Player's Tome</i> is 248 pages. <i>OSE Advanced Fantasy Referee's Tome</i> is 248 pages. Sure, much of that latter book includes the monster manuals...got to have more content!...but does it have the oomph to use that content? And even if it <i>did</i>...which I'm not sure it does...why not just stick with my 1E PHB and DMG? Their page count means they take up less space in my backpack when I take them on the road.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There are other advantages to using 1E. It is OLD and it is MODULAR. There is a LOT of material that has been written for it over the years. I don't use the <i>Unearthed Arcana</i> or the <i>Dungeoneer's Survival Guide</i> or the <i>Manual of the Planes</i>...but I <i>could</i>. I don't use the vast majority of suggestions and variants and house rules found in the pages of <b>Dragon magazine</b>...but I <i>could</i>. In general, I have enough experience with the system that it's not necessary for me to consult the plethora of grey-beard AD&D players that exist in various forums and discord channels and chat groups...but I <i>could</i>, if I needed to do so. Those resources are available, which are great aids for would-be DMs trying to get better at their craft.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>"But JB, those books (the PHB and DMG) are so OLD! And clunky! And crunchy! Hell, they aren't even SOLD anymore!</i>" Oh, wait. Yeah...<b><a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17003/Players-Handbook-1e">they</a> <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17004/Dungeon-Masters-Guide-1e?term=1e+dungeon+masters+guide">are</a></b>. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But okay, let's talk about "crunch." I know several folks via the blog-o-sphere who will swear up and down that they run a B/X or (more usually) a BECMI or RC game, and have <i>for years</i>...long-term, campaign play...using nothing more than the simpler, stream-lined rules these Basic games provide. That, in fact, they <b>do not want</b> additional complexity. And these are guys <i>older</i> than me, with more years of experience...competent, veteran Dungeon Masters. <b>Why?</b> Why does it work for them?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I cannot say...I haven't played in their games. I <i>could</i> speculate, but instead I'll focus on the question at hand: "Why choose AD&D?" I can only discuss (with confidence) why <i>I</i> choose AD&D. For on-going campaign play, I want a robust system, designed <i><b>in conjunction with</b></i> that "added content." For me, a B/X fan, AD&D functions <i>better</i> and for <i>a longer time</i> than the Basic alternative.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">As said (at the start of this post), I have played a LOT of B/X...at home, on the road, in campaigns, at conventions, in my youth, and as an adult, with family, friends, and complete strangers. What I have found is that...<i>as written</i>...the game does not sustain play over the long-term. Rather, <b>the system becomes a source of frustration</b>. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Now some folks would say: "just add the changes you need to add to make the system sustainable." And that's fine advice. However, in practice what I find is that I simply end up adding pieces from AD&D. EXCEPT THAT a "patch" doesn't work as well as simply using the rule with the system for which it was designed and (presumably) play-tested. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I could use the treasure tables from the DMG, the classes and spell lists from the PHB, the monsters in the MM...but then why not just play 1E? I like that fighters improve in hitting at every level. Why not 'port the combat matrix into my B/X game? Why? Because I can simply <i>play</i> <i>1E</i> and discard the extra books.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Why play AD&D? Why <i>NOT</i> play AD&D? What is the issue? That it's hard to find the specific rules you're looking for in the book? Because it's "poorly organized" (the common complaint)? It still has an <b>index</b> and a <b>table of contents</b>; it still has <b>quick reference sheets</b> at the back of the book. I don't know, fella...I have little problem finding info I need within the book. And it's easy enough to create my own cheat sheets (if needed). So...what else? You don't like the artwork? You don't like Gygax? I mean, what is it, really?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">A lot of folks talking these days about <b>ACKS</b> and (the soon-to-be-published) <b>ACKS II</b>. Okay. I picked up ACKS: it's a 270 page book that takes B/X and adds some extra elements to <i>extend</i> game play, specifically (what is commonly referred to as) <i>domain</i> play for high level characters. Fine and dandy. But AD&D's system, the way it's written, extends "standard" <i>adventure play</i> into high levels, while giving you options for that "domain stuff." To be clear, a lot of ACKS "extras" can be seen as having their precursors in AD&D. And so I ask again: why not just play AD&D? Because you want a single, enormous book to flip through? Because you want new art? Because you don't like the occasional Gygaxian digression into statistical analysis or flanking maneuvers from his war-game days?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Okay.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">So sorry folks. So sorry this post is so long, and that I've taken up so much of your time. After all, none of this is <i>terribly important</i> anyway...the most important thing is (of course) that you <i>play</i>, regardless of what you choose to play and/or what your reasons are for playing the system you choose. Hopefully, I have managed to communicate <i>my</i> reasons (for those who are so interested) and this will be an issue I don't have to address again in the future. Hopefully. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>; )</b></div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com50tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-22583060050729551822023-12-12T23:26:00.000-08:002023-12-12T23:26:06.623-08:00Tuesday Night Musings<div style="text-align: left;">Man, I started TWO (2) posts today, on different subjects, and posted neither. Sheesh.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Writing about D&D is not nearly as much fun as <i>playing</i> D&D...and I just haven't had the time to do much of that lately. It's tough that there aren't enough hours in the day to do ALL the things we'd like to do...but we all have priorities. Pick and choose, pick and choose. *<i>sigh</i>* It is what it is.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">What I need is a weekly game. Unfortunately, with my ever-shifting schedule, that's a tough ask. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">It. Just. Is.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">*<i>sigh</i>* (again)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I almost posted another <i><b>Blood Bowl </b></i>post yesterday (Monday). Man O Man. Did people watch the Niners dominate the Seahawks? Sure, the orks kept it close (for a while), but the dwarves still piled up more than 500 yards of offense. <i>Dwarves</i>! That is what happens when you don't tackle. When you pay too much money for goblins.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Mm. I'll be at the game versus the Eagles on Monday. Taking the daughter. Only fitting as Philly is her favorite type of BB team (<b>Chaos Renegade</b>). Fingers crossed that their defense sucks worse than ours.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>Drew Lock wasn't bad. He's just another ork thrower</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Ugh. I want to play some D&D. World building is fun, adventure writing is fun. But it's not the same as <i>playing</i>. It's a step up from blogging or chatting on social media. But it's not the same as playing. Playing puts into practice, into <b><i>action</i></b> all the things you work on as a DM. The perpetual campaign is is an electric curent, always running in the background; playing is PLUGGING IN to that current. Playing is watching the lights come on.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">In better news: the dishwasher got fixed, finally (only took 32 days). Kids are out of school Friday. Got most of my Christmas shopping done. Got the gutter cleaners scheduled. Soccer season is over till the New Year after Thursday (still have basketball). Things are clearing up; schedule is opening.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>still need to find time to get to the dentist</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Gaming is coming. Soon. It'll be kid gaming (I've got five lined up to play, soon as school's out) with possibly one or more adult "uncles" showing up. We'll see. That'll be fun. But I need regular gaming, too. Not just holiday one-offs. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Ah, well. Better than no gaming.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Okay, I'm tired. Good night!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-79501032292947780662023-12-07T23:16:00.000-08:002023-12-07T23:33:59.040-08:00Taking Castles<div style="text-align: left;">Oh, the things I get dragged into.</div><div style="text-align: left;">; )</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Over on the Pedantic discord channel...mm...Wednesday (I think) there was a minor dustup over such-n-such argument about BrOSR/Jeffrogaxian 1:1 time play not being conducive (or supported) by the 1E "domain" rules or <i>somethin-somethin</i>. Not a terribly big deal (IMO) as <a href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2022/07/jeffros-d.html">I've already settled my thoughts/feelings on 1:1 time play</a> and I'm content to NOT tell people how to enjoy themselves when it comes to running their campaigns (folks are going to do what they're going to do till they're tired of it). </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But then <b>Ash</b> wrote the following: </div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote>It is better to take existing castles, at first. This is true for literally any campaign, timekeeping or no...One of my players took over a ruined keep, and made it a stronghold. however, that same player (once the ruined keep was established) began the process of building new strongholds/buildings from scratch</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: left;">To which I had to put my foot in it, with this:</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">Rehabbing a house (let alone a ruined castle) would be a tremendous job given the presumed state of a pseudo-medieval campaign world. You're going to get skilled laborers, masons, carpenters, etc. to come out to the middle of an orc-infested wilderness to re-build a used lair? Are you kidding? Such a place probably ain't fit for human habitation, even after you clean out the slimes, vermin, and otyugh...best to burn it to the ground.</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">And also:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><blockquote>Taking over a ruin (that itself was, presumably, taken over in the past by whatever monsters were lairing there) isn't as easy as just killing the critters and moving in.</blockquote></div><div style="text-align: left;">As well as:</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">A ruin would require substantial rehabilitation after recovering it from the monstrous creatures that live there before it would be a fit habitation for your average player character type? Um...that seems pretty obvious. Though, I suppose, only if one gives a shit about world building...nothing in the rules demand such action, though I suppose a DM could make it pretty difficult for PCs using the disease tables. </div></blockquote><blockquote>Normal folks (even adventurous PCs) don't usually want to settle down in a troll cave. And a ruin would be...um...one step up from that?</blockquote><div>Oh, AND this:</div><div><blockquote>A fortress built by a humanoid tribe is quite another issue. I was talking about a once-human (or dwarf or whatever) ruin that had taken over by hobgoblins. You want to claim an orc fort as your base of operations? You want to be the guy who lives in the orc hut? What is that going to do to your PCs' reputation?</blockquote></div><div>I was having a bad day, I suppose (actually I was) and was in a combative mode...silly and childish on my part. Ash later discussed the incident on <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR02q5fcvPQ">the <b>Rolling Bones</b> v-cast</a>, refuting my protestations as (in part) one example of folks not grokking how domain play can function when running an AD&D campaign with 1:1 time. Which wasn't really the case...or, rather, wasn't really the <i><b>point</b></i> I was trying to communicate. The POINT, in fact, was just that taking over a ruin (or a lair or a "dungeon") for use as a stronghold isn't something to be done on a whim or a lark.</div><div><br /></div><div>Doesn't mean you can't do so...<a href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2009/08/i-claim-thee-in-name-of-toad.html">I've had my own musings regarding taking such action</a>. However, one should note that even back in 2009 (the hay-day of my adult B/X play), I was't so glib as to say such would be <b style="font-style: italic;">easy, </b>and there were extenuating circumstances that made such a location worthy of consideration for my toad-worshipping cleric; observe the thoughts of "Younger Me:"</div><blockquote><div>Sure, it would take a little work to get it up and running (a rickety bridge would need to be replaced, new furnishings added, kicked-in doors re-built). But for the most part, the place was of good dwarvish construction, had its own water supply, was located only a day from civilization (a little out-of-the way from curious travelers, but not inconvenient for obtaining supplies). Plus the waterfall and underground pond/river, and the small pool outside all said, “great-place-to-worship-amphibious-deity” to me.</div><div></div></blockquote><div>Even at the tender age of 36 (before I'd started to grasp the importance of world-building and thoughtful campaign planning), I had an inkling that such undertakings would not be a walk-in-the-park. Doesn't mean it can't be <i>done</i>, but rewards of value (even in D&D-land) <b>require effort</b>. DMs that skimp on the effort do so at their own peril. Yes, the game is a game and we want to maintain its "game-ness;" however, we don't want it to devolve into Ren-faire farce. That way lies <b><i>contempt</i></b>, much the same as <a href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2021/08/disagreement-on-every-level.html">fudging dice rolls</a>.</div><div><br /></div><div>Every would be stronghold-<i>nee</i>-lair requires its own consideration in this regard. When the Starks retake WinterFell from the Boltons, it's mainly a job of policing the corpses and cleaning bloodstains off the cobblestones. In other words: <b>normal castle maintenance</b> (in a violent D&D world anyway). But that's <i>humans</i> taking a <i>human habitation</i> from humans that were using it for <i>the same purpose</i> (human habitation) that it was originally intended. We're not talking about a place with walking deads, acid-dripping slimes, otughs and owlbears. We're not talking about a <i>ruin</i> or a tomb or a "dungeon."</div><div><br /></div><div>I discussed this with my nine year old daughter (1E player): she was aghast at the idea. <b>"It's a <i>ruin</i>! You'd need to fix it before living in it!"</b> The idea of living in a place once inhabited by monsters sounded crazy to her. What kind of stench is left behind by a tribe of goblins or gnolls? How about the walking corpses that roamed the halls?</div><div><br /></div><div>Yes, orcs build their own longhouses and forts, but how long to air the thing out once the orcs are gone? Do they employ glaziers? Doubtful given their aversion to sunlight. Would a lair built by inhuman hands be suitable for human habitation? Maybe. A goblin or kobold hall would probably have low ceilings; a fortress built to accommodate giants might have really, <i>really</i> heavy doors.</div><div><br /></div><div>The desire for PCs to own property...some place to stash their treasure, some place to act as a base of operations...is a natural desire, and one likely to come up sooner rather than later in any established campaign. And such desires are likely to come up long before their characters reach 9th level or find an excess of gold burning holes in their trousers...why not use one of these cleaned out lairs as "adventurer HQ?" It's got walls and a roof, doesn't it?<br /><br /></div><div>But in a well-designed campaign, "walls and a roof" aren't the only consideration. Living in a cave (or under a bridge) is fine-and-dandy for a nest of trolls. But that's not a suitable demesne for a group of 5th and 6th level PCs, despite the expedience of such a shelter. Regardless of a lair's defensibleness, it's location (in a swamp, on a mountain top, underground, whatever) just might not make it <i>livable</i>. Probably not a place to entertain the local duke, or the princess, or the wizard that has a quest for you.</div><div><br /></div><div><b>That's the thing:</b> an orcish hill fort, a crumbling tower, a haunted moathouse...these are not places one wants to set up shop, generally speaking. Unless they are in an ideal location (close to resources...both material and personnel), and possibly not even then. The hobgoblin fortress had been lording it over the local villagers for years, and now they've been wiped out...but does it still stand as a symbol of degradation and malevolence? Is it a constant reminder of slavery and subjugation? Should it not be torn down and something new, bright and hopeful, be erected in its place?</div><div><br /></div><div>Maybe not...maybe such issues don't arise in your campaign. Or maybe, like me, it appeals to your dark humor to build your base in a rustic humanoid lair...you have a certain penchant for <a href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2014/12/kraven.html">the dramatic flair of <b>Kraven the Hunter</b></a>, and relish the idea of a PC warlord whose stronghold is decorated in skulls and antlers and the occasional banner sewn from skinned humanoid. Even then, it's generally going to take your character(s) a while to bring the place up to snuff. </div><div><br /></div><div>No site is going to be <b>"move in ready"</b> from the jump. Cheaper than building your own castle? Sure. Faster to rehab then quarrying the stone and prepping the timber. 100%. But no picnic...no easy-breezy.</div><div><br /></div><div>And me saying <i>that</i> has nothing to do with robbing players of their "shortcuts;" it <i>CAN</i> be a "shortcut" to claim <b><a href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2019/04/q-is-for-quasqueton.html">Quasqueton</a></b> as your new abode. Of course it can! And that's a nice little reward (on top of whatever loot you plumbed from it) for cleaning out the various monsters and villains, undead and vermin, that had (previously) spent YEARS if not DECADES (or CENTURIES) leaving their filth all over the place: bones and excrement and the detritus of uncared for interior structures. If I don't vacuum my house every couple weeks, the floors get FILTHY, and I'm just raising two kids, not a tribe of kobolds that cook indoors and aren't known for washing much. Don't forget Gygax included systems for dealing out diseases and parasitic infections, too!</div><div><br /></div><div>It's not "screwing the players" to make them work a bit turning a hovel into a home; it's simply <b>common sense</b> (oh! that phrase!). Some things (some!) can be inferred from our own experiences...like maybe there are times when PCs should take off their armor and unbuckle their sword belts. We don't need to have overly complex systems in place to handle cleanup operations, but neither should we simply hand-waive such inconveniences...unless (maybe) PCs have access to a pocket djinni or similar. <b>TIME. MONEY.</b> These are the<i> driving factors</i> of the D&D game. Hand-waive them at your own peril. </div><div><br /></div><div>NOW...does all this seem like some argument against using 1:1 time in your campaign/game? Maybe. Fact is, the thought hadn't really crossed my mind, even when I was initially putting my foot in my mouth. As I said, <i>I'm not interested</i> nor <i>worried in the slightest</i> about the debate over whether or not 1:1 time is valid or "the <i>only</i> valid" way to play D&D. That debate has no influence over how <b><i>I</i></b> run <b><i>my</i></b> campaign. In general, I run AD&D based on the guidelines in the DMG ("G" for "guide," yeah?)...and the DMG includes notes for construction and labor and materials. So why shouldn't I use those notes and instructions...both for players wishing to build their own castles, and as inspiration (and guidelines) when it comes to how challenging it'll be to re-hab the party's new (half-destroyed) digs. </div><div><br /></div><div>Hope all that makes sense and doesn't overly annoy too many people. G'night!</div><div><b>; )</b></div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-21541904899170126272023-12-06T15:40:00.000-08:002023-12-06T15:47:06.421-08:00Storming the Forbidden City<div style="text-align: left;">SO...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">For <a href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2023/10/frankfurt.html">the <b>Cauldron</b> convention</a>, I decided I would run a number of scenarios based on the classic (TSR) adventure <b><i>I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City</i></b>, an AD&D (1E) module I've blogged about on more than one occasion.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">There was, of course, a little impishness to my choice: the (main) convention organizer (the much esteemed Settembrini) is an outspoken critic of David "Zeb" Cook, author of <i>Forbidden City</i>. While I agree that there's plenty to criticize about Zeb's work, it's not ALL bad, and I'm <i>trying</i>, Ringo, to be a Good Shepherd these days...even when it's so darn hard not to be the overly negative 'Tyranny of Evil Men.'</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>that's a 90s film reference for you young 'uns</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">ANYhoo...I1. Great adventure (IMO) and one I hadn't run in a while. Also, fairly massive in scope (if sketchy in the details): a whole city full of potential danger and antagonists. Far too much for a 4-hour convention time slot...and, yet, the adventure as originally conceived was <i>designed</i> for tournament (convention) play. The thought that struck me: can I rehab this thing and make it a showstopper?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Having decided to give it a shot, I hit upon the following strategy:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><ol style="text-align: left;"><li>I would offer three separate, successive scenarios, all set in the Forbidden City.</li><li>Each scenario would "ramp up" in difficulty (expected level of participating PC).</li><li>Each scenario would present a different environmental/situational challenge, despite using the same theme.</li><li>Each scenario would offer enough reward ("treasure") to level up the presumed party, allowing players who wished to continue to play each successive scenario.</li></ol></div><div style="text-align: left;">For the first scenario (<b><i>"To Rescue A Prince"</i></b>) I used the original tournament scenario from the module (section <b>"A"</b> of the <i>I1</i> publication). Section A consists of a linear map with 10 encounter areas, including several challenging set pieces. For this scenario, I changed very little of the original scenario; designed for six characters of levels 4th - 7th level, the original pre-gens actually average 6th level. So, I tightened it up by making sure no pregens under 5th would be allowed, made sure I had eight available, and upped the treasure take to ensure that even the 5th level PCs could expect to rise in level...should they survive and succeed at their objective.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I removed the sleep gas trap (it really doesn't make sense, and the reverse gravity field is enough as far as the "reasons" for its inclusion) and changed the bugbears to <b>skulks</b>, which I felt were a little more thematic given the jungle theme while retaining (more-or-less) the danger level (semi-invisible backstabbers are on-par with wookies that more easily surprise). I previously <a href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2023/06/con-games.html">wrote about the play-testing of this scenario</a>, and found that four hours was just a tiny bit too short to get through, though I chalked that in part due to the party's wizard getting eaten by crocs in the first encounter and thus having some difficulty with the more populated encounters (tasloi and whatnot).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>unfortunately, even though the Cauldron party retained their MU (and, in fact, carried a second spell-caster...a fighter/magic-user) the convention group would still fail to make it to the final encounter in the four-hour time slot</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">My second convention scenario (<b><i>"The House of Horan"</i></b>) was also taken directly from I1. The wizard Horan is named as the mastermind behind the newly organized and ambitious raiding groups from the City; he resides with his apprentice in a well-kept, walled compound that contains his house, gardens, and more than a few guardsmen (bullywugs, leopards, and...*sigh*...bugbears). For a con, I set the adventure one week following the first, giving adequate time for the party to recover their strength and (as background/intro to the scenario), discover through careful scouting this "suspicious stronghold" in the midst of the ruined city.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Horan's house is quite a different scenario from the linear affair that is the original tournament adventure. It is, in fact, extremely open: a classic housebreaking situation, the PCs are given full autonomy to decide how they approach the thing. It is exceptionally dangerous, even for a party of 6th - 8th level PCs; the first time I play-tested, it <a href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2023/10/another-forbidden-foray.html">resulted in a TPK</a>. The second play-test wasn't much better, despite the PCs knowing (somewhat) what to expect...it's just very difficult to tackle a 12th level wizard in his home, if he's prepared for such a possibility with reasonable defenses. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>the Cauldron players fared all right: a couple deaths, a couple zero-outs, but they managed to conquer the wizard while playing on the edge of their seats. It was a near thing...which is the way I like to run adventures, just by the way</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">For the third scenario (<b><i>"Shrine of the Demon Goddess"</i></b>), I crafted an entirely new adventure: a three level, traditional dungeon of 27 encounters for 7th - 9th level characters. As readers might surmise from the title there is, in fact, a demon in the thing: a<b> type V demon</b>, inspired by (and foreshadowed by) the first encounter location of the tournament adventure:</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div><blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">"The walls of the alcove are worked with carvings of snakes and men in a pastoral scene and at its back stands a large statue of a snake-bodied, six-armed woman."</div><div style="text-align: left;"></div></blockquote><div style="text-align: left;">The adventure module, as published, has no real "base of operations" or headquarters of yuan-ti...something that's been pointed out by <a href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2021/10/nostalgia-bias.html">plenty of folks</a>, along with a general "incompleteness" to the thing. But the very incompleteness provides plenty of potential for DMs/designers to <i>add to</i> the Forbidden City...which is what I did, creating a temple within a temple, complete with catacombs, remnants of the prior (pre-snake) religion/culture, and a Hell-like cavern section full of dretches and assorted badness, including a pool of inky black capable of transforming normal folks into snake-folk.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxfamGw62qD9qGw1O64Y6oMr3rMQpiWjXDAWSImcUtq_I8Ve09DCEZ8oMwl2WTTs8eIBoSKqLP-Myx7K0FzVFxAgssSvaAXEJyNvQS9cYHGjoByI8pDQunUh0KJeGOHYdf-xY0j3HgWrQ2ZgcMVIwrKIKBaZX1hPIOEWhpZxF1Wb5mcCnVzPrlTcjl7tuk/s273/download.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="185" data-original-width="273" height="217" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgxfamGw62qD9qGw1O64Y6oMr3rMQpiWjXDAWSImcUtq_I8Ve09DCEZ8oMwl2WTTs8eIBoSKqLP-Myx7K0FzVFxAgssSvaAXEJyNvQS9cYHGjoByI8pDQunUh0KJeGOHYdf-xY0j3HgWrQ2ZgcMVIwrKIKBaZX1hPIOEWhpZxF1Wb5mcCnVzPrlTcjl7tuk/w320-h217/download.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The City: lots of room for more lairs.</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div style="text-align: left;">Good stuff, in other words.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Scenario three also has plenty of treasure squirreled away, at least three large pockets of it. When play-tested at home, my players found troves #1 and #3...the Cauldron players found #2 and, yes, it all turned out as decidedly deadly as a DM could ask for (if you're giving away big heaping piles of loot, there better be the potential for a decent body count). </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">*<i>ahem</i>*</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">ANYway...as <b><i>I1: Dwellers of the Forbidden City</i></b> is available <a href="https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/17046/I1-Dwellers-of-the-Forbidden-City-1e">at DriveThru for a grand total of $4.99</a> (PDF only...sorry), it's easy enough for people to see the bulk of my first two scenarios, including maps. As for the third scenario? Eh...I'll probably just make it available here on Ye Old Blog as a free download in the next few days...just as soon as I can get my maps scanned. And, yes, it will contain my notes/changes (especially treasure counts) for the first two scenarios. Look for that...mm...Friday, probably.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">All right...that's enough for now. I'll talk some of the specifics of my Cauldron play experience in a future post.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b><br /></b></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>: )</b></div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-35385329040702151812023-12-05T07:20:00.000-08:002023-12-05T07:20:00.136-08:00And Finally (*sigh*) Blood Bowl<div style="text-align: left;">This will not be a long post. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">We are 12 games through the (now) 17 game season...more than 70%. The end is fast approaching and the Seahawks are probably looking at missing the playoffs. Losing to the Rams twice means the skaven have the tie-breaker over us (even though they are a bad, bad team). The Packers, Lord help us, are probably going to get 10 wins down the stretch with their remaining schedule. And the Vikings, despite all their woes might...<i>might</i>...even have a chance to sneak in over us. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Even after a 6-3 start. <b><i>Even after acquiring everything Pete Carroll said they needed to acquire </i></b>in the off-season, two years running: offensive linemen. Pass rushers. More stellar defensive backs. Bobby Wagner. And more offensive weapons (Charbonnet and Smith-Njigma) to add to a full cupboard of offensive weapons (Metcalf, Lockett, Walker).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">What. The. Hell. Is the problem?</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Orks. Orks being orks. That's it.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Oh...and Jamal Adams. And Geno Smith.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Smith is...fine. He's an ork thrower: no more, no less. Not every team in the NFL is composed of high elves and wood elves...they just ain't. There <b><i>are</i></b> those teams, make no mistake. But the Seahawks have never been that type of outfit...not when they've been good, certainly not when they've been bad. They are a <i>waaagh</i> team; always have been. We can go down the list:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Jim Zorn</b>: ork thrower</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Dave Krieg</b>: <a href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2010/12/dave-krieg-lineork-made-good.html">ork lineman</a> (but with a lot of star skills)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Rick Mirer</b>: ork thrower (add <i>dodge</i>...happy feet!)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Warren Moon</b>: ork thrower (with a LOT of arm talent, despite being long in the tooth)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Matthew Hasselbeck</b>: ork thrower (good number of star player points)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Tavaris Jackson</b>: ork thrower</div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Russell Wilson</b>: <a href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2019/11/mvp-goblin.html">goblin</a> (with a lot of star player skills)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>there really no need to mention guys like Gelbaugh, McGwire, Stouffer, Whitehurst...oh, boy, we've had some baaaaad ork QBs</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">None of these guys fit the mold of the high elf...or even human!...thrower. And that's <i>fine</i>. In <i>Blood Bowl</i>, ork throwers are plenty serviceable. No, they're not going to be setting any passing records (on <u>this</u> team...Moon did most of his damage <i>before</i> coming to the 'Hawks). But that's not the orks' game. They are grinders that play solid defense.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Problem here is you're counting on a damn goblin to play linebacker.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I am sorry, <b>Jamal Adams</b>. I know I've called you <a href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2021/12/trash.html">trash</a> before (and <a href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2021/10/friday-updates.html">a "pigeon"</a>) later <a href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2021/12/retraction-not-trash.html">retracting the former accusation</a>. But you're an idiot. Not only were you the obvious target in the Dallas game (giving up a touchdown and 2-point conversion on back-to-back plays against the dark elves), but then you take shots at a critical reporter's <i>wife</i>? Pretty f'ing classless, considering the impact you've had this year <b>while healthy</b> (spoiler: zero sacks, which is especially damning when you consider <b>A)</b> this is supposed to be his specialty and <b>B)</b> 12 different Seahawks have at least one sack this season, including guys who aren't even starters). What an a-hole.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">SO...ork thrower (Gino). Fine. But, generally, not going to win you any games with his arm. Going to have some good offensive performances (vs. Detroit, Dallas) and some stinkers (Rams, Niners) depending on how the dice fall. That's to be expected. But when you're giving up a bunch of points on defense, it makes it tough for the orks to catch up...in <i>Blood Bowl,</i> ork teams are just not built that way.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I've talked about it before: the NFL has a LOT of similarities to BB, the way it's structured. Most NFL teams have a maximum of 7 or so STAR (i.e. standout) players on their roster; the others are position guys who are...fine. Nothing special. How the Stars perform (and how the coaches use the players they have) are going to go a long way towards determining the outcome of games. Seahawks current stars this year include:</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Kenneth Walker III (blitzer)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Abe Lucas (black ork blocker)</div><div style="text-align: left;">DK Metcalf (blitzer)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Tyler Lockett (goblin)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Jackson Smith-Njigba (goblin)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Bobby Wagner (blitzer)</div><div style="text-align: left;">Devon Witherspoon (goblin)</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And Walker's hurt. And Lucas has been injured for most of the season (he just came back, in the Cowboys game, and it showed on offense).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Charles Cross is a black ork blocker. Jordyn Brooks and Charbonnet are standard blitzers. The tight ends (and Jake Bobo) are simply lineorks. And Adams is nothing but a goblin who woofs at opposing teams every time he makes a tackle on some "big guy," even though he gave up 12-15 yards (and a first down). </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Embarrassing.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>Sevenbastard</b> suggested (in the comments of <a href="http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2023/12/sunday-night-musings.html">my last post</a>) there might be some worry about the Seahawks winning another game this season. This is not my worry...I am CERTAIN the Seahawks will win another game. Heck, I'm 95% sure they'll win THREE more games, achieving a 9-8 record...a winning season in a year where every team plays 17 games. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But I don't see them making the playoffs this year...not if they insist on continuing to play Adams on defense...and they have shown that they absolutely Will NOT Stop playing this guy, no matter how bad he sucks. They let Ryan Neal WALK even though <i>he</i> showed...again and again...that despite his cheap salary, he was a better asset on the field as a replacement when Adams was injured. It may just be that the Seahawks managed to get to the playoffs last year <b><i>precisely because</i></b> Jamal was out (he played <i>only one game</i> in the 2022 season) and Seattle was forced to make do with "lesser" talent. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">You play the pigeon, and opposing teams will target the pigeon. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And 9-8 simply will not cut it this year when it comes to making the playoffs. And THAT is disappointing. Because there is a LOT of star power on the Seahawks team...real star power, real talent. And it would be nice to see them do some damage in the playoffs.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Ork teams cannot rely on goblins. That's just not good roster construction.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">SO...just like the 90s, we're going to see a middling record, and a middling draft pick and a tough time clawing our way out of this hole. The Seahawks aren't exactly "risk averse" (when it comes to picking players), but they can be loyal to a fault, and doubling down on their mistakes (like Adams) is going to hurt them. It's already hurt them. Second chances are cool, but sometimes you have to admit you were wrong and cut bait.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">*sigh* It's oh so silly. It's just entertainment. It's just live-action <i>Blood Bowl</i>.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">By the way, I am fully aware that I am (probably) being overly harsh on a guy who's selling his body for my entertainment. Oh, well. I'm a fan...that's what fans do. He's paid millions of dollars (in a league that has a hard salary cap). I'm allowed to be critical. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">At least I continue to watch the Seahawks. At this point, I've all but decided to boycott the Mariners.</div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4143435314932633148.post-71314450797145489512023-12-04T09:46:00.000-08:002023-12-04T09:46:17.274-08:00Sunday NIght Musings<div style="text-align: left;">Man, I started writing a post...mmm...yesterday morning (I think)?...a whole 'hey, I'm back, here's what's up, here's what I'm doing, blah-blah-blah' thing, with some sort of half-hearted segue into role-playing theory.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Let's forget all that for the nonce.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">The 2023 year has nearly slipped away from me, at this point. <b>47 posts at this point</b>...my lowest output total since starting this blog in <b>2009</b>. Wow. <i>Crap</i>. That's what happens when you have a bunch of f'ing family members die on you, I suppose. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">And yet, some stellar game related stuff occurred, too. Ran some great D&D sessions. Campaign is struggling, limping along, but it's still going. Got to Germany for <b>Cauldron</b>...that was fantastic. Got my submission in for <a href="https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/">Prince's</a> <b>"No Art-Punk"</b> contest for the third year running...that was, mm, grueling, but a hell of an accomplishment, considering the time constraints. So much travel this year (California, Port Angeles, Montana, Germany, Mexico). So much...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><b>I need a break.</b> And, yet, I don't. I need to do <i>more</i> work. More <u>Work</u> work (capital-W)...more <i>vocational</i> work. This game, this hobby...it's my calling. It's what I do. Dumb as that is.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>just some Sunday night musings</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Been spouting off on a lot of different outlets lately. Mainly Discord servers. A podcast or two. In person (at the Cauldron convention). Other places. Some people care what I have to say; others don't. Some care but don't understand. All that's okay. Mainly I just have to be slightly careful of how I present information...I don't want some folks to make the wrong inference just because <b><i>I</i></b> wasn't thoughtful enough in my monologue.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Take the Cauldron convention, for instance: I set about crafting three different scenarios for it with very specific objectives. I like how they turned out...they more-or-less fulfilled my objectives. But do I think that my approach was the <i>"right" </i>approach? Or the <i>"best"</i> approach? Or the <i>"only appropriate" </i>approach that I could have taken? <u>No</u>...not at all! I created mid-level adventure scenarios with lots of danger (and lots of treasure) specifically because of the convention setting and its adherence to <b>ADDKON</b> rules (the German equivalent of the old <b>FLAILSNAILS Conventions</b>). I was writing scenarios for people to bring their h<i>ome campaign PCs</i>, place in danger, and yet reap big rewards (if successful).</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">I could have just easily run some sort of High Level one-off to showcase AD&D's extended potential. Or I could have run low level AD&D play, to demonstrate the survivability of such characters (in clear contrast to B/X play). Heck, there's lots of things I <i>could</i> have done for the con, but I figured I'd rather give the players some real up-the-ante, risk-reward stuff. Because if you're going to let players bring their own hard-ridden characters...then, yeah, let's give 'em some good stuff!</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">But I have to explain this to folks: I have to be explicit that just because I'm writing/running mid-level adventures<i><b> does not mean</b></i> that I presume this is "the best tier of play" or something. Honestly, I don't think there is a "best" tier of play...ALL tiers offer different experiences of game play, and the Great Joy of D&D...more specifically, <i>Advanced</i> D&D...is that it facilitates game play at ALL these tiers. </div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>and, what's more, it's possible to mix-and-match within the tiers...though that's a story for different day</i>]</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;"><i>ANY</i>way...</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">Man, I've been spending far too much time lately on social media platforms, particularly Discord. It's just so nice to interact with other humans who both <b>A)</b> <i>have an understanding of</i>, and <b>B)</b> <i>give a rip about</i> D&D gaming. But I think I'm going to cut back a bit...that, as much as anything, has contributed to the lightness of blog posts this year. Too many times someone has posted a query or a thought exercise or a subject of conversation that I've been all-too-willing to engage with (in long-winded format) when what I <i>could</i> be doing is writing about the topic Right Here. It might not be especially "deep," but it is (generally) on game-related (i.e. "on topic") and it gives my readership a reason to come back besides looking at old posts about yadda-yadda.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">*<i>sigh</i>* More later...time to sleep.</div><div style="text-align: left;"><br /></div><div style="text-align: left;">[<i>posted Monday morning, as I could barely keep my eyes open</i>]</div>JBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03263662621289630246noreply@blogger.com8