Horror at Dagger Rock

Paizo Publishing has posted a FREE module entitled Horror at Dagger Rock and, while it is designed for the Pathfinder RPG, it is dripping with lots of old-school style. I have only had a chance to have a cursory look at it but it seems to have a lot to offer; a fully populated village, rumors, various random encounters and a fairly extensive dungeon.

Ever since I read early modules like N1: Against the Cult of the Reptile God and T1: Village of Hommlet, I have been of the opinion that the 'village and nearby dungeon' make for an excellent way to start a fantasy campaign. Download it and have a look.

Sword & Wizardry Quick Start on the Kindle!

Ok. It's not a 'real' Kindle book, but I did manage to convert my Swords & Wizardry Quick Start PDF and put it on my Kindle. Aside from some obvious glitches in the graphics, it is quite readable and I am happy with the results.

I am not sure if there is enough of a user base for rpg publishers to justify releasing books in Kindle format, but I do plan to try and convert some of my other gaming PDFs to see how they turn out.

Surviving an Old-School Game

One of the problems with playing in an old-school game is the inherent fragility of the player characters, especially for the first few levels. Making the assumption that this is a feature and not a bug, there are things that both the players and DM can do to make the game a little more survivable, while still maintaining the old-school style of play.

Hirelings

Players only familiar with the more modern incarnations of RPGs might not be familiar with the concept of bringing a group of henchmen and/or hirelings into the dungeon. Clever use of these NPCs by the players can go a long way toward keeping a group of player characters alive, especially at low level. Even a couple of 0-level henchmen wearing leather armor and armed with simple swords can make the difference between a TPK and a successful adventure.

Of course it goes without saying that the DM shouldn’t allow the players to misuse and abuse such NPCs. Cheating, failing to pay or putting them in excessive danger should at best negatively affect their morale and at worst result in their deserting the party at inopportune moments. Both original and retro-clone games have morale rules for this situation. Also, if multiple residents of a particular town or village fail to return from their adventures, the player characters may find it difficult to recruit future employees from that area.

Morale

As mentioned above, a staple of old-school game are rules for morale. These cover both NPCs, as previously outlined, and monsters. Not all monsters fight to the death. Intelligent creatures might flee or even surrender if they fail their morale checks as outlined in the rules. While the DM should feel free to modify or even ignore the morale rules, based on their unique game situations, they can be a useful tool. Even a mighty dragon might be subdued or barter for its life in the right situation.

Multiple PCs

Some DMs don’t allow 1^st level PCs to hire henchmen, but they do allow them to run multiple player characters. This increases the chance that at least one of them will survive the adventure and advance in level. It also pads out the party and even gives players a chance to experiment with different character classes. Not all DMs allow multiple characters to be run by a single player so check with yours first.

Ingenuity

The open style of old-school games is particularly suited for ingenuity and clever ideas from the players. For instance, if the DM designs an airtight room in his dungeon and the players come up with a solid plan to lure monsters into the room and suffocate them – great! While the DM shouldn’t allow just any crackpot idea or shoddily designed scheme from the players to automatically succeed, outstanding play on the part of the players should be actively encouraged and rewarded. If the DM deems that a particular idea has merit, he should decide on percentage chance of success and roll. Old-school games depend as much on player ability as they do on character ability.

I haven’t even attempted to comprehensively cover every method that can be used by players and DMs to help the harried low-level player character survive. But I do hope that at least some of my ideas will prove useful. Old-school games really are different than their modern counterparts and require different approaches to play in many cases. Good luck and may your sword arm never fail you!

Learning to Hack: Part One - Getting Started

This is the first in a series of articles that I will be posting about learning to play the new HackMaster Basic roleplaying game from Kenzer & Company. In this and upcoming articles, I will discuss character creation, combat, magic and more. I hope you enjoy it and your feedback is appreciated!

Part One - Getting Started

First things first. If you haven't done so already, you need to buy the HackMaster Basic rulebook. You can go down to your Friendly Local Gaming Store and demand a copy or you can purchase it online from the Kenzer & Company website. I will wait here while you get it...

...Ok. Now that you have the book we can take a look at it. Despite the word 'Basic' in the title, you can probably see from just a cursory read that this is not exactly a 'rules lite' affair. Real RPGs need rules. But don't despair. Learning to create a character and play the game is lots of fun and you won't even have to purchase a subscription to some fancy online character creation tool. If you do want some electronic help, however, you can head over to the Kenzer website and download several handy tidbits, including a character sheet, Quick-Start Rules reference sheet and an index.

My advice for learning the rules is to first scan Chapter One to get the basics of character creation down. After you have read that, have a look at the next five chapters to get a complete picture of how to create a character. If you have any questions at that point, head over to the Kenzer forums. The kind people there would glad to help you.

After you have given the character creation rules the once over, it's time to sit down and create your first character. I will cover that in Part Two.

Rebooting My Interest in Roleplaying

I admit it.  I have been burned out on roleplaying.  I even thought about just chucking the whole hobby, but I couldn't do it - it's in my blood.  Well, after lots of procrastinating and general teeth gnashing, I decided to pick up the banner again.

I also decided that I just couldn't do D&D (of any edition) for awhile.  I want something different.  I always liked westerns and so I seized on the idea of trying Aces & Eights.  Much to my surprise, my gaming group (composed completely of aging gamers with 1st Edition AD&D books gripped tightly in their fists) actually agreed to give it a try.

Unfortunately, I stupidly sold the core rulebook about a year ago because I thought that I would never get a chance to play.  Equally unfortunate is the fact that Kenzer does not offer it as a PDF.  However, I did download the Showdown PDF from DriveThruRPG.com, which is basically an abbreviated version of the combat rules.  This way I can least get familar with running combats.  Now I just have to locate a copy of the rulebook and I can get back in the saddle.

Wizards of the Coast Continues to Disappoint

I have been playing D&D for a LONG time (over 25 years) and it saddens me that Wizards of the Coast has disappointed me as a customer so many times as of late. I recently stopped playing 4E and sold off my books (for a variety of reasons) but I still hadn't completely given up on the new edition of the game. Why? Well, as an adult with a job and family, it's hard for me to get a group together to play very often. But WotC has promised the game table so I could at least play online occasionally. For that reason, I have kept my DDI subscription active.

Then I read the following post yesterday on the DDI forums (emphasis mine):

So last week we announced that we were working on a set of Campaign Tools with the intention of helping players manage and run their ongoing games and campaigns. These tools will focus on encounters, monsters, mapping and adventures.

Previously, we focused all of our energies and effort into making the Character Builder the best tool it could be. We're going to continue that focused effort as we move forward - we're just shifting our attention to the Campaign Tools. This means that we're not actively working on any other unreleased tools, which includes the game table and the character visualizer. Once we have the Campaign Tools out and we're as happy with them as we are with the Character Builder, we'll have a better idea of what our next step is.

This means that the game table will not be seeing the light of day anytime soon. Just DAMN.

On an unrelated note, Wizards finally posted a gallery of all 18 miniatures from the Player's Handbook Heroes Set 1. While I haven't seen them in real life yet - color me unimpressed.

The Fanboys Don't Give a DA@N

I am somewhat amused at the wave of rage and gnashing of teeth that has been sweeping the Blogosphere and the Twitterverse over the WoTC PDF debacle. Don't the commentators realize that the average fanboy doesn't care? I doubt if 1/10 of 1% of the customers that purchase 4E D&D products from Wizards of the Coast will change their buying habits over this situation.

The fact remains that WoTC is a VERY big fish in a VERY small pond. They can basically do whatever they want and their fans will continue to support them. They sell D AND D and their customers want to play D AND D - no questions asked. For all intents and purposes, Wizards of the Coast IS the 'roleplaying industry'. Everyone else a ripple in the pond.

For a little perspective, point your browser to Google Trends sometime and do a search for terms like 'roleplaying game' or 'dungeons & dragons'. The results are very enlightening. As for me? I could care less. I love roleplaying games and I will continue to play roleplaying games. I made up my mind about (not) continuing to play and support 4E several weeks ago, however, so the decision for me is an easy one...

TARANTIS: An Old-School City

I noticed that DriveThruRPG has posted a scanned PDF copy of Tarantis*, the third of the city-states published by Judges Guild. I have fond memories of purchasing it 'back in the day'. I eagerly ripped off the plastic and geekily lusted over those wonderful yellowish city maps. I also seem to remember really liking it, but honestly none of the details of exactly why. It was a LONG time ago afterall. I may have to download it and give it a read.

They also have the revised City State of the Invincible Overlord, but oddly I do not see City State of the World Emperor.

*I also noticed that cut and paste is disabled in the PDF...caveat emptor.

New Editions and Old Fans

The announcement of the upcoming 6th Edition of the Hero System got me to thinking about the process that goes into conceiving and producing a new edition of a game system (especially a well-established and popular one).  From reading the Discussion Forums about the new edition of Hero, it looks like there is a fair amount of dialog about exactly what to change and how extensive those changes should be.  It's very interesting stuff to read.

Many games that were recently updated, including the 4th Editions of Shadowrun and Dungeons & Dragons, made significant changes from previous editions.  The 5th Edition of HackMaster also looks like it will be a pretty big departure from the previous edition (some of that by necessity I understand).  I know the case of D&D is a fairly unique one, but I wonder how dangerous it is for the average game company to make such a radical change in an established game.  How many new players are gained versus how many old fans are driven away?  Can the new edition of a game sink an established property?

Also, it looks like many new editions are produced in order to 'streamline' and 'clean up' an older edition.  Is this what the average RPG player wants?  I ask because, although I have been a fan of Champions and the Hero System since the early '80's, I have to admit that I wouldn't mind a version that requires a little less calculator work.  But is this what most Hero fans want?  Enquiring minds want to know....

A Review of Knights of the Dinner Table #149

Wow. I can't believe Knights of the Dinner Table (KoDT) magazine has almost reached issue #150! I started reading with issue #38 and the magazine has only gotten bigger and better. In fact, it's (at lease that I am aware of) the ONLY 'general purpose' gaming magazine left.

If you haven't ever read KoDT or haven't read in a long time, you might be interested to know that, while the general format and content have remained the same for quite awhile, there have been some tweaks. The layout is slightly different and some features have been removed and others added. It also looks like the fonts have been altered. All in all, I am pleased with the changes. The magazine is clean looking and easy to read. Now, onto the contents of issue #149.

This issue has seven strips. You have the Knights of course, the continuing saga around Hard 8, and the Black Hands continue their CattlePunk Campaign. I won't spoiler any of the particulars. but there is a cliffhanger of sorts at the end of the last strip, which I assume will be resolved in issue #150.*

*UPDATE: One of the editors over at KoDT (Barbara Blackburn) let me know that issue #150 will have a bushel basket of one-shot strips.  We will have to wait until issue #151 for the resolution of the cliffhanger from this issue...

As far as the rest of the issue's contents, I thought they were a mixed bag - and that's a good thing. While I never like every article in an issue of KoDT, I almost always like at least some of them. In this issue, forinstance, I really enjoyed the Web Scryer. It has a healthy dose of internet resources for the World of Darkness. I am thinking about working on a Vampire: The Dark Ages campaign at some point and so that information is useful to me. On the other hand, I have no desire to game in the universe of Quentin Tarantino and so Gaming the Movies held little interest for me. The regulars are all here too, including Bait & Tackle, The Good The Bad and The Ugly, and Lost Game Safari. You even get a complete fantasy d20 adventure; Tomb of the Frost Kings.

I really like Knights of the Dinner Table. The strips are always entertaining and every issue has at least some content that is interesting and/or useful to me. If you aren't reading it or haven't read it in a long time, I would recommend picking up. And don't miss issue #150. It contains a free copy of DAWG: the Role-Playing Game - hoody-hoo!

I nearly forgot.  If you are interesting in more info about issue #149 or if you don't have a FLGS and want to pick this issue up, click HERE for a link to its product page on the Kenzer & Company website.

Ok That Tears It - 4E and I are Done!

I came to the stunning realization today that in 4E even an ADULT red dragon can't take down a lowly 3rd level fighter by breathing on him - even with a good damage roll. I could care less about the design decisions behind this. The fact just sticks in my craw. The game is called Dungeons & DRAGONS after all

Time to eBay my 4E books. I just wish that I hadn't gotten rid of all my 3.5 books, except for my Player's Handbook. Most of them are wicked expensive on the secondary market. *SIGH*

More Thoughts About 4E

I have really been thinking hard about 4E and I stumbled across THIS post on Unnatural20 that neatly sums up some of my issues with the game. Namely that combat encounters grind on way too long and that there is a certain 'sameness' to all the character classes because of the powers system.

Do I think 4E is a bad game? No. I just think it might not be the game for me. so, if not 4E, what should I be playing? 2nd Edition AD&D? 3.5 D&D? HARP? Something else? I just don't know right now...

D&D Game Day: 4E and I May be Done

I want to say thanks to everyone that turned out for my 4E game at Games Plus this Saturday. I hope everyone enjoyed themselves. I have to say that as for me, however, I left the game feeling somewhat disillusioned about what 4E D&D has to offer.

What really did me in was the fact that the first encounter took over TWO HOURS to complete! I know that four of the five players were new to 4E and the characters were 9th level - but that's ridiculous. I don't think the players took excessive time to choose their actions and the game flow was ok. It just took way too long to grind the monsters down. The second encounter was not as bad, but I made a stupid error when I forgot the beholder's aura. We never got to the third encounter.

I am definitely going to take some time to mull this episode over and try to decide whether or not I am going to sink any more time and money into 4E. I play roleplaying games because they are FUN and based on the amount of time that I put into preparing and running the game Saturday, I can't say I got much fun in return for my investment.

A Modern Appendix N Reading List

I stumbled on an interested thread over at ENWorld that mentions creating a modern updated reading list similar to the one Gary Gygax included in Appendix N of the 1st Edition AD&D Dungeon Master's Guide. I think that's a great idea! I can see lots of possible candidates, including Glen Cook's Chronicles of the Black Company series, George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire books and a lot more. What books would you include? Comment up with your choices.

Dungeon Delve: First Impressions

Had a chance to read a bit of Dungeon Delve last night. Adversarial DMing... D&D as boardgame... Tool for learning to DM... One-shots... Con games... Side treks... Interesting stuff indeed. More in-depth review to come.

Unsheath Your SORD!

I run a very occasional 3.5 D&D game for some old buddies of mine in Macon, GA. While preparing for my next session, I picked up a copy of SORD version 1.4 from DriveThruRPG. If you haven't seen it, SORD is basically a big 34-page PDF full of charts, tables and cheat sheets for running a game of 3.5 D&D.

While that may sound boring, it looks like a FANTASTIC way to speed up a game. The PDF is colorful, laid out well and chock full of content. I can't wait to use it for my next session. I believe it was a $1.95 well spent...

Some Pics of Counter Collection 4th Edition Heroic 1

I did purchase and download Counter Collection 4th Edition Heroic 1 yesterday as part of the GM's Day Sale at DriveThruRPG. I also managed to find the time to print out and mount some of the counters. Below are a few shots of my handiwork. NOTE: the tile pictured is NOT part of the set. I just used it for 'set dressing' to see how the counters would look on the tabletop.




The counters are pretty neat. The art is slightly 'cartoony', but does a good job of representing each 'heroic tier' creature found in the 4th Edition D&D Monster Manual. I also like the little spot on the counter for writing a number. Very useful for keeping track of that horde of minions.



I mounted mine on plain old pasteboard box style cardboard. This seemed to work out pretty well. The tiles are light, but thick enough to pick up easily.




If you are looking for a cheap and attractive source of counters for your 4E game, i recommend that you check Counter Collection 4th Edition Heroic 1 out. I am very pleased with my purchase. And the price was right!

UPDATE: For those of you that would prefer the convenience of a pre-printed version, Jason of Fiery Dragon Enterprises reminded me that they now offer a boxed version of the 4E counters that are already diecut for your convenience. Check them out HERE.

GM's Day Sale at DriveThruRPG

I am excited about the GM's Day Sale at DriveThruRPG. There is so much to choose from, but I definitely think that I am going to buy Counter Collection 4th Edition Heroic 1. I have used counters in several 4E games and they make for a great portable alternative to minis.

Now I just have to figure out the best thing to print them on. I might try packing box cardboard or foamcore. Time to download...

Poll Follow-Up

Wow. I guess hardly anyone has any opinion about what I post on my blog since I have gotten exactly ONE comment and ONE vote. With that in mind, I guess I am going to focus on getting back to the campaign series and posting more content that DMs can plug into their campaigns.

However, if you DO care and just have not voted or commented yet - please do. I look forward to reading your comments!

A Poll

I am always interested in what YOU the reader are interested in reading about. To that end, I am putting up a poll to try and figure what you would like to see me posting about on this blog. What a concept! Please vote and feel free to comment as well. Make your opinions known!

What Topics Should I Focus On in My Blog?

• 
  
  Get back to the Campaign Building Series Already!


• 
  
  More Generic Articles Like 'What's He Got in His Pocket?'


• 
  
  HARP Stuff (NPCs, mini-adventures, etc.)


• 
  
  4E D&D Topics


• 
  
  Something Else (please comment)

view results
Free vote poll