This Saturday will be our final 4E session. Pat's going back to the States for the summer. That means everyone's going to be turning to me for my Maritime Campaign (although there were a few mentions of a Star Frontiers game as well...could run them through the Volturnus cycle in a pinch).
I've still got to create the final 2 maps, decide what the hell sort of macguffin I want their 'quest' to be, and then figure out where on my maps the important NPCs, monsters, and treasures are.
Oh, and come up with a new set of maritime encounter tables, including random ghost ships and pirate crews.
That's a lot of work for 2 weeks, since I'm also working on a screenplay and in the 1st month of doing a live daily radio show. Volturnus is starting to look better and better...
But the Maritime Campaign will be a lot of fun if I get it going!
Wednesday, April 14, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Some d20 Modern Antiheroes
Tim Shorts suggested I didn't have enough antiheroes in this post. Okay, here are some antiheroes as I'd stat them in d20 Modern.
Strong Antihero*
Fast Antihero
It's all in the reflexes.
Tough Antihero
Smart Antihero
Dedicated Antihero
Charismatic Antihero
Just kidding!
Charismatic Antihero
*Picked O-Ren Ishii over the Bride because Lucy Liu is IMO hotter than Uma Thurman.
Strong Antihero*
Fast Antihero
It's all in the reflexes.
Tough Antihero
Smart Antihero
Dedicated Antihero
Charismatic Antihero
Just kidding!
Charismatic Antihero
*Picked O-Ren Ishii over the Bride because Lucy Liu is IMO hotter than Uma Thurman.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Shouldn't we be applauding things like this?
So you've probably read the report at Penny Arcade here about a group of 4E players having a special session where they used S&W to recreate the OD&D experience lite.
Shouldn't we be applauding and encouraging things like this? Isn't that what the OSR is about? Getting people to try out these games...either the originals, or the retro-clones? Showing people that they are fun games too?
Seems like most of the commentary I've read on the old school blogs recently has been ripping into the guys for their methodology (trying to reign in the lethality or whatever) or arguing semantics of the description of the visit to the frontier theme park.
I say who cares? Looks like they tried out Swords and Wizardry, made it their own, and had fun. Isn't that what we're all about?
Shouldn't we be applauding and encouraging things like this? Isn't that what the OSR is about? Getting people to try out these games...either the originals, or the retro-clones? Showing people that they are fun games too?
Seems like most of the commentary I've read on the old school blogs recently has been ripping into the guys for their methodology (trying to reign in the lethality or whatever) or arguing semantics of the description of the visit to the frontier theme park.
I say who cares? Looks like they tried out Swords and Wizardry, made it their own, and had fun. Isn't that what we're all about?
Tuesday, April 6, 2010
Unique Magic Weapons series
Sitting here at work printing out what are likely the second to last drafts of my Unique Magic Weapons, Unique Magic Armors & Shields, and Unique Magic Wands, Staves and Rods documents.
Assuming I don't find any glaring omissions or typos or just plain wrong things, I'll likely finally be releasing them soon.
Assuming I don't find any glaring omissions or typos or just plain wrong things, I'll likely finally be releasing them soon.
Sunday, April 4, 2010
A not so good gaming session
Last night we played Pat's 4E game again. This time, Bill joined us. Alex had made an Elf Ranger for Bill to play, and a Dragonborn Warlord for his own second character.
We introduced the new characters to the party, then went to the 'burial ground' where we'd heard there could be cultists and Josh's character's mentor was last seen. We of course were attacked by the folks digging stuff up there, and rescued the mentor. We did a bit of town stuff, then went to the kobold lair.
That ended up being one big giant encounter where we managed to clean out the place without stopping to rest. Through a mistaken idea--Alex thought he could stop the one guy trying to run away and warn the others in the cave--we ended up fighting the guys inside right after fighting the guys outside.
After the initial onslaught inside the cave, the leaders appeared, and some of us went one way (Alex's and my characters) and some went the other (Josh and Bill's). Alex's Warlord was dropped, and while trying to get close enough to heal him, Josh's dwarf and Bill's elf were getting tossed around by the leader, who was really tough (around 100 hit points or so, I assume, and this is for level 1 guys to take on? Then again, my previous observation is that it's similar to playing normal D&D with weapons that only do 1 point at a time, so I guess that would be like 10 hit points in Classic or AD&D if that were the case...)
By the time I got the warlord healed, Josh had been making comments about how the healer should be over healing him, but just as I'm getting there, he decides to roll to see what his PC will do--fight or run. The result was run, so he had is fighter book it out of the cave.
We finally finished off the goblin leader and the kobold shaman in then end, and got some loot. But the session ended with Alex swearing that his two characters will kill Josh's when they see him again.
Anyway, I didn't really have much fun. The module (probably the system itself) seems to assume combat must happen. Alex assumes that once combat begins, it must be finished successfully by us. I was kinda bored spending most of the night just staring at the battlemat, and arguing rules minutia (which we're all still learning) or 'plausibility' issues.
Case in point, Alex cast Flaming Sphere right in the middle of a waterfall. Josh thought that would instantly snuff out the fire, Alex and I thought otherwise. We spent a long time arguing it. Pat didn't make a ruling on it, and eventually Bill looked it up in the book and found out that it's magic so it will work. Later we had a big go around about whether that flaming sphere counted as a 'ally' that the warlord could shift or not.
Alex, getting to try out new mechanics and then having lots of tactical board game challenge, loved the evening (except the last bit about Josh running away). Josh and Bill said they had fun as well. I'm the only one who didn't.
Well, only one more session of 4E before Pat goes back to the States for a few months. While he's gone I'm gonna run my Maritime Campaign idea, unless someone else steps up with another game they want to run. Alex isn't sure he wants to play in my game, and he may well not have fun. There will be times in it when the group had better run away or come up with some clever strategy to win, and Alex seems to just want to rush in Diablo style and kill everything.
We introduced the new characters to the party, then went to the 'burial ground' where we'd heard there could be cultists and Josh's character's mentor was last seen. We of course were attacked by the folks digging stuff up there, and rescued the mentor. We did a bit of town stuff, then went to the kobold lair.
That ended up being one big giant encounter where we managed to clean out the place without stopping to rest. Through a mistaken idea--Alex thought he could stop the one guy trying to run away and warn the others in the cave--we ended up fighting the guys inside right after fighting the guys outside.
After the initial onslaught inside the cave, the leaders appeared, and some of us went one way (Alex's and my characters) and some went the other (Josh and Bill's). Alex's Warlord was dropped, and while trying to get close enough to heal him, Josh's dwarf and Bill's elf were getting tossed around by the leader, who was really tough (around 100 hit points or so, I assume, and this is for level 1 guys to take on? Then again, my previous observation is that it's similar to playing normal D&D with weapons that only do 1 point at a time, so I guess that would be like 10 hit points in Classic or AD&D if that were the case...)
By the time I got the warlord healed, Josh had been making comments about how the healer should be over healing him, but just as I'm getting there, he decides to roll to see what his PC will do--fight or run. The result was run, so he had is fighter book it out of the cave.
We finally finished off the goblin leader and the kobold shaman in then end, and got some loot. But the session ended with Alex swearing that his two characters will kill Josh's when they see him again.
Anyway, I didn't really have much fun. The module (probably the system itself) seems to assume combat must happen. Alex assumes that once combat begins, it must be finished successfully by us. I was kinda bored spending most of the night just staring at the battlemat, and arguing rules minutia (which we're all still learning) or 'plausibility' issues.
Case in point, Alex cast Flaming Sphere right in the middle of a waterfall. Josh thought that would instantly snuff out the fire, Alex and I thought otherwise. We spent a long time arguing it. Pat didn't make a ruling on it, and eventually Bill looked it up in the book and found out that it's magic so it will work. Later we had a big go around about whether that flaming sphere counted as a 'ally' that the warlord could shift or not.
Alex, getting to try out new mechanics and then having lots of tactical board game challenge, loved the evening (except the last bit about Josh running away). Josh and Bill said they had fun as well. I'm the only one who didn't.
Well, only one more session of 4E before Pat goes back to the States for a few months. While he's gone I'm gonna run my Maritime Campaign idea, unless someone else steps up with another game they want to run. Alex isn't sure he wants to play in my game, and he may well not have fun. There will be times in it when the group had better run away or come up with some clever strategy to win, and Alex seems to just want to rush in Diablo style and kill everything.
25 Followers!
Thanks to Talysman the Ur-Beatle (great screen name there) for becoming the 25th follower of "What a horrible night to have a curse..."
Thanks of course to the other 24 as well. And for everyone who's reading this without following. It's kind of amazing that so many people would care to read what I think about gaming on a regular basis.
Anyway, happy Easter, everyone (and if you don't celebrate Easter, well, hopefully you'll have a nice sunny warm spring day to enjoy)!
Thanks of course to the other 24 as well. And for everyone who's reading this without following. It's kind of amazing that so many people would care to read what I think about gaming on a regular basis.
Anyway, happy Easter, everyone (and if you don't celebrate Easter, well, hopefully you'll have a nice sunny warm spring day to enjoy)!
Friday, April 2, 2010
Clash of the Titans review
Spoiler alert, for the 3 people out there that don't know the myth of Perseus or the original CotT.
My wife and I went out to see the new Clash of the Titans tonight. We both enjoyed it, but the whole time I was watching the movie, right from the very beginning, I was sorta annoyed at the way they had to Hollywood-ize EVERYTHING about this movie. (Yes, they made the ending with a potential for a sequel...fucking Hollywood.)
Now, having studied script-writing (and being in the middle of writing one myself at the moment) I know the conventions. Character drives plot. And writers reverse engineer motivation from the events in order to make a satisfying (cathartic) experience for the movie-goer.
But for me, the Perseus myth has always primarily been about his confrontation with Medusa, not with his confrontation with the sea monster (I think the original is called "cetus" or something like that--the original borrowed the name Kraken from Scandinavian sailor legends.) That was more of a tack-on. In this movie, defeating the Kraken--and thereby Hades--is the main motivation of Perseus.
Something about that just didn't jibe with me. I didn't really like the glittery 70's type Flash Gordon special effects for the Olympians' armor either. But that's just a nit-pick.
Anyway, the action scenes were fun, the monsters looked cool (saw it in 2D, 3D might be even cooler...), and while the story was even more removed from the original myth than the 1981 original movie, it does work. My wife thought it was great, because she's never read the original myth nor seen the original CotT yet.
What I liked--Perseus struggling to reject his 'hero nature.'
What I didn't like--Perseus's main goal being to defeat the kraken.
See it if--oh, come on, you're gonna see this eventually if you're a D&D geek. If you're big into mythology, though, you may wanna see it on the cheap.
My wife and I went out to see the new Clash of the Titans tonight. We both enjoyed it, but the whole time I was watching the movie, right from the very beginning, I was sorta annoyed at the way they had to Hollywood-ize EVERYTHING about this movie. (Yes, they made the ending with a potential for a sequel...fucking Hollywood.)
Now, having studied script-writing (and being in the middle of writing one myself at the moment) I know the conventions. Character drives plot. And writers reverse engineer motivation from the events in order to make a satisfying (cathartic) experience for the movie-goer.
But for me, the Perseus myth has always primarily been about his confrontation with Medusa, not with his confrontation with the sea monster (I think the original is called "cetus" or something like that--the original borrowed the name Kraken from Scandinavian sailor legends.) That was more of a tack-on. In this movie, defeating the Kraken--and thereby Hades--is the main motivation of Perseus.
Something about that just didn't jibe with me. I didn't really like the glittery 70's type Flash Gordon special effects for the Olympians' armor either. But that's just a nit-pick.
Anyway, the action scenes were fun, the monsters looked cool (saw it in 2D, 3D might be even cooler...), and while the story was even more removed from the original myth than the 1981 original movie, it does work. My wife thought it was great, because she's never read the original myth nor seen the original CotT yet.
What I liked--Perseus struggling to reject his 'hero nature.'
What I didn't like--Perseus's main goal being to defeat the kraken.
See it if--oh, come on, you're gonna see this eventually if you're a D&D geek. If you're big into mythology, though, you may wanna see it on the cheap.
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