I Got it , I Got it

Number two on the list of inspirational authors from the AD&D 1st ed DMG. I have been looking for years. Apparently John Bellairs is mainly a children's novel writer with only one adult book to his name. That might explain why its been difficult for me to find a copy. But after a recent trip to the local used book store to just browse the shelves it practically jumped out at me. I wasn't even looking for it at the time. Although coming in at less than 200 pages (my copy has 174) I look forward to it with great anticipation. Each book that I have read from that list has given me great insight into the complex realm that is Dungeons & Dragons.

The Busted Comp Blues

OK, so that's not quite what happened to my computer. But (the power supply spiked and fried my motherboard and one hard drive), I have been without a computer for almost a month. Updates to follow shortly. Please stand by.....

The Big Move

I have recently moved into much larger place (3bdrm townhouse) from my tiny apartment. A big plus of the place is a finished room in the basement. And of course its my new games room. I'm still unpacking as you can see. Its about 8' by 20' so a full size gaming table might be a tight squeeze. Andy suggested instead of a 4x8 lengthwise why not a 6x5 sideways against a wall. I had my heart set on a full size table but this is a better idea. Of course this for minatures gaming not RPGs. I plan to run those around the traditional dinning room table. Does the space you have to play in shape the size of your table?

P.S. yes those are boffer weapons in the big box along with my shield,
my geekness knows no limits

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This is the main source of your hobby supplies.

A Party Of Newbs

Why is it that starting level adventurer partys only have novices in them? Its like the masters of said novices tell them , " Go ahead and adventure now and dispite spending much time and money training you I won't go with you but hey you have got your other inexperienced novices to help you survive." Who says training ends at first level? I was thinking of old school Clerics who don't have any spells yet. Why would they go out adventuring alone? It seems more likely that a group starting to adventure would hire or otherwise get someone experienced to join them. So the next I'm Dm , a starting party will have a couple of higher level NPCs to" guide" them. Anyone else like this idea?

Jerry, Creator of Worlds

This guy is creating worlds and mapping them. Just cause he likes to.

Shift Of Focus

I get it . I think I really get it. MMOs I mean. I of late have been entranced by the World Of Tanks online game. Its a MMO for tank vs tank combat with 1930's to 1950's vintage armoured vehicles. Despite not being a RPG it fits the MMO mould. You fight battles to get experience and money to research and accuire better tanks and equipment. I have been at times been caught up in a quest to improve a tank or with better equipment. Or get enought points to upgrade to a better tank. This is not that different then what you do in a MMORPG like World Of Wracraft. There is very little roleplaying in WoW and thats the way most like it given its huge popularity. The only connection to traditional RPGs is perhaps its fantasy setting. The design of WoW was influenced by RPGs. Yet now it seems to have reversed this and now influences RPG design. I speak of course of 4th ed D&D which many have said plays like a pen and paper MMORPG. The early days of roleplaying seemed to focus on exploring worlds of fantasy. Now the focus seems to be on improving your character. I wonder when did the shift occur or at least start to?

Showing Mine

I thought I would jump on this bandwagon and show you my dice collection. The large plastic dice container made an earlier showing on a previous post. I still have even more dice as part of the many games I have, especially the several Axis & Allies sets I own.

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This has happend to you or someone you know.

funny gamer webcomic

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You can relate to this.


The best comic site about gaming

Flower Picking Kolbold Livered Dress-Wearing Budgie

This (in the absence of the new season of Journey Quest) is the best new funny RPG live action web series I've seen. The Humour is more subtle than JQ. You have to wait a bit for the funny but worth it.

What's Up With Blogger?

Has anyone else noticed continue weirdness going on with Blogger? People have complained about lost posts and missing features. But has anyone else noticed a huge change in their hits counter? I write this blog for my own amusement but knowing that I have an audience is important to me. I pay attention to the hits counter for fun and I don't worry about it mostly. But something funny has gone on with it lately I think. Since the start of this blog the number of hits has grown slowly but steadily. In May I had 700 page views. In June I had 1967. Wow a huge increase. I was happy. I don't do this for the page views but its nice to be read. But then July was a big drop. Only 246. Yes i know its only the 11th of the month. But looking at page views pr day I got 243 for June 15th and the very next day I got 30. Huh? That's a huge drop. And the trend continued on from that day. For the end of June and the beginning of July I am way below average on hits per day. Its as if suddenly everyone stopped reading my blog, all at once, on the same day. And now I am being boycotted. I don't think that is what is going on. But I ask anyone else if they to have noticed a huge change in the number of hits on your page. Up or down, any sudden change with out a reason. Just let my know by posting below (if you can, I heard that was not working as well) or e-mail me. My e-mail is posted in the about me section.

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You sort your dice.

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You find yourself browsing the store just to find out the latest in
"binder technology".

Short List

I have many different RPGs in my collection. There are many I like. But I have only a few favourites. How I determine a favourite is simple, would I actually run a game with it. My favourites are subdivided into several categories. Generic is self explanatory. Genre games are one that deal with a type of fictional universe but without having a specific setting detailed. For example Dungeons and Dragons is a genre game. And finally setting-specific games. Games built around a detailed background, ie Shadowrun. Here is the short list of my favourite generic games.

F U D G E , is not so much a complete set of rules as a toolkit. It is free, although deluxe printed versions are available for purchase. It has a funky dice system and its task resolution system can be translated into real words for ease of play with non-role players. Its a good transition from traditional RPGs but it requires much prep work for the GM due to its toolkit nature.

Story Engine, has simple mechanics and a cool health system. Very cinematic with a flexible descriptive character creation system. Works better with more experienced players as the game requires greater than average player input. It has an simpler intro version called Story Bones that takes up only six pages. This was my top favourite until recently and remains my solid second choice.

Risis, also only takes up six pages and despite not taking itself seriously is a well designed game. It requires the most player input from both the clever character creation system to the cinematic and dramatic style of play.It does sacrifice alot on detail to achieve ease of play and some traditional gamers might find it unsatisfying. The six page rules are free and there is a 50 page "companion" for sale by the game's creator.

My interest in generic games goes back to the late 80's when I first got into GURPS. It didn't make this list because over the years I began to see the game as clunky and unwieldy. Especially with the newer 4th edtion.

Shield Math

Some recent posts about the great shield debates have me thinking again. Historically shields became less useful as plate armour began to be worn. So I thought, "Is this replicated in the D&D rules?" Lets look at the math. If we compare the rating of different armours to the the fixed bonus for the shield. We get a ratio or percentage of protection of the armours'.

If you have leather gives a bonus of 2 points and a shield which gives 1 point
the ratio of bonuses is 1 to 2 or 50% so the shield is 50% as good as the armour


Now for Chain mail , bonus 4 points and 1 for the shield is a ratio of 1/4
or 25% as good as the armour


And finally Plate , bonus of 6 and the shield's 1 point for ratio of only 1/6

or about 17% as good as the armour.

So you can see that shields account for a smaller and smaller percentage of the total protection as you wear better armour classes.

Yeah, the system's fine. Nothing to worry about here, move along citizen.

The Cool Stuff Next Door

I often lament about how it seems that in the 21 years since I left my native Toronto, the city has become a much cooler place to live. And now there is yet another reason to wish that I could afford to move back there.

OSR CON

There is an old school RPG convention now in Toronto. Aw man. Why do the kids next door always have the coolest stuff?

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You have many reference books for fictional subjects.

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Your inspirational reading shelf looks like something from the Pentagon.

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Your bookshelves have a lot of books on them.

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Your bookshelves don't have any books on them.

P.S. Yes yes over a month and no new posts, I was uninspired.

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You can think of two or more things to do with this,
other than store food in it.

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Your kitchen table is a workbench.

(P.S. the first one was a popular post, so I will do more)
(P.P.S. I challenge OSR blogosphere to post their own)

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Your dish drying tray has more miniatures than dishes.
( P.S. this just might be my first non-rpg gaming post)
(P.P.S it might also be the first time I've posted twice in one day)

This Might Sting a Bit

There has been some noise on the blogs lately about how much magic sucks in D&D. And by proxy how magic-users suck as well. Forgetting a spell after its cast makes no sense. The spell levels don't match character levels. You can't scale the magical effect up or down. Why do I have to waste a spell slot on Read Magic? Well, (pardon my bluntness) Waa, Waa,Waa. I say deal with it babies. Everyone who has played or will play D&D should do one thing first. Read Jack Vance's The Dying Earth. The way magic is presented in the book is what the D&D system is trying to replicate. Magic is not science, it is not technology and its not even an art. To summarize here is a few brief points on Vancian magic for those of you who haven't read the book (no story spoilers).

• Magic is a dying practise, there were once 1000's of spells now only about 100 are known
• Each magician jealously guards their spells and writes them down in a unique code
  
• Memorising a spell is like putting a ethereal creature in your head and casting releases it
• Even the most powerful mages can store only a handful of spells in their head
• The greater the experience of the magician the greater power of and number of spells
  
• Casting a spell requires only a few words and simple gestures ( ie no time at all)

I would say to try incorporating some of those ideas into the background of your game before deciding that the magic system sucks. Never mind balance. Just make it interesting.

the Sucker Punch, abandoning realism

I liked Sucker Punch. It was a rock and roll, gonzo kick ass movie. While watching a combat sequence in which the heroine faces down a giant demon samurai , I had a thought. How very D&D this fight was. During the fight she gets hit and flies through the air and crashes against a wall. The impact leaves a crater. She shrugs it off and gets back into the battle. A perfect visual example of how hit points work. Its not realistic, it doesn't even try to be. But it works because the world is fantastic, larger than life, magical and wondrous. Even a little bit anime. Definitely a make believe world. If the players can get behind the idea of that, than the other iconic features of D&D can work as well. Levels, experience points and even armour class can make sense. So inspired by how cool it looked on the movie screen. And what a cool world it was. Sucker Punch has motivated me to abandon realism in gaming. In truth I have been moving away from it for some time.

Sub-Optimal To Optimal

Gradnardia was musing on optional character creation methods (or the cheating methods) in AD&D. And their use in avoiding sub-optimal characters. Use of such characters is discouraged because of their low survivability. Without the maximum hit points and full bonuses for combat its felt that they would fair poorly. This probably stems from the fact that combat is almost always lethal. Lose all your HP and you're dead. But it doesn't have to be. The losing side can flee, surrender or negotiate. This can occur before all hit points are lost or the point when they run out (zero or below). Sub-optimal characters might have this happen more often but it is survivable. But in world where combat isn't always the end in death it does make them more optimal.
And something about a flawed character just appeals to me.

Crunchy But Not Too Filling

I was reading Schlock Mercenary and thinking what a awesome universe the author has created. And what a cool game that could be run in that setting. But which system would I use? Its a high-tech world with lots of techy gadgets. So a more detailed system might be in order. But I will now let you in o a big secret. I'm a lazy GM. I don't like to work hard to prep a game. I just want to have fun. And I have a bad case of ADD. So I don't focus on details to well. Hence my perchance for simple systems. So I'm looking for a contradiction, a catch 22 of RPGs. I'm looking for some crunch without much fat. Any ideas?

Story Games, Not Problematic

Theo Dudek the Ultimate Gamemaster states that story games are problematic because real life isn't made up of stories. Well I don't think games are real life. The fantasy books that were the inspiration for role playing games are not real life. And many modern games that draw directly from TV and movies and are not real life. Personally I'd much rather adventure in a fantasy world than a real life one. He goes on to say that real life is essentially random. And the best games should attempt to capture the randomness of reality. He claims that DMs create adventures by merely stringing together a series of random events. And it is the players who create a story by looking for a pattern afterwards. From the sound of it I don't think I'd want to play in his campaign. A good game should combine both elements. Story creates a backdrop to which the players can feel they belong. And randomness in the outcome insures that players feel a sense of satisfaction in it. And we all know how unsatisfying real life can be. Role playing games souldn't be. And the story is not a problem.

Xeroxing Spells, Copy Paste and Hand Wave

Some old school luminaries have been blogging about spell copying. They wrangle over cost and time vs level schemes. But since my games are about adventure and not bookkeeping or resource management I'm thinking of doing something different. I'm going to hand wave it. No cost, no time. It happens "off screen" from the main action. There are however a few provisos. Spell books still cost money. The magic-user needs a place of study to do it. And the materials like pen and ink plus paper. Minimal cost but they must be available. Also in my world spells are secret and rare. So before any spell caster thinks about tossing off a wad of scrolls they should think about one thing. Every scroll is another chance that someone , perhaps and enemy could acquire one of your spells. And if they find a extra spell book they can know all of your spells. I like to run a Vancian style world when it comes to magic. Jealous mages guarding secret tomes of lost knowledge fragments. No magic-user knows more than a few of all the spells known. Anyone who can recover all the know spells in the world would be very powerful indeed. Motivation for adventuring. Now potions, thats a different ball of wax or kettle of fish.

Rule for Learning A Spell ; The DM rolls a D 20 vs the magic-user's Intellegence score if the roll is equal to or lower the magic user can learn the spell

ComputerPocolypse

A recent rash of serious computer troubles has me thinking. How much I depend on the computer to support my hobbies. Specifically roll playing and war gaming. On my computer there is over 7 GB of stuff in over 100 folders containing over 15 00 files. Barely a fraction of that has been converted to hard copy. I admit I'm a collector of stuff. Most of which I will never use. I had been filling up my available physical space rapidly in the years before owning a computer. Fortunately electronic files will never clutter your place or choke off your living space. And I have certainly cut down on the physical collecting in the 12 years I have had personal computers. So every year more and of my gaming materials require a computer to use. But what if suddenly all that stuff was gone? What if you couldn't even use a computer any more? a rouge wave of cosmic rays or something wipes out ever computer and electronic device on the planet. Could you go back to pen and paper, counter and map? Just dice, pencil and paper plus your imagination?

Kicking The Tires and Checking Under The Hood

When I look at a RPG for the first time I usually look at the character sheet first. Why? Because the character sheet can tell me a lot about the game. The level of detail present can indicate the complexity of the rules. Or how involved creating a character can be. Its a microcosm of the rules. What factors are the most important: in combat, skills checks or even character interaction? The quality of design can be seen in the layout of the sheet. Was it cobbled together at the last minute? Or carefully planned from the start? The lack of one doesn't have to mean something bad. Perhaps there are plenty available elsewhere? Maybe the game is such that they not required. Checking the character sheet is like kicking the tires and looking under the hood of a car. A quick check of the basics to see if everything is all right. I used to work in an electronics store. I would tell people looking for a new stereo that you should get the most expensive one you afford with the fewest controls on the front. The least number of knobs and switches, lights and other bits. You are usually getting the best quality that way. My own preference for rules-light systems works like that. As I can plainly see how rules light or heavy the game is by the character sheet. I don't think that rules-light systems are better than rules-heavy. I just prefer them. The character sheet can be a guide and intro to the rules. More visual than skimming over the rulebook.
For your Swords & Wizardry needs I have created a simple sheet for the White Box rules, enjoy

I'm Not New To Old School

I have a file folder of quite a few of my old RPG characters. I was going through it when I came across two classic Traveller characters sheets. I don't always fill out the date of preparation slot on these things but I was glad I did this time.

July 25th 1995. I immediately remembered helping two friends fill out these photocopied sheets for a campaign I was starting up. I had just picked up a used copy of the black traveller hardback book. I didn't have a computer back then. And although I had heard of the Internet it wouldn't have occurred to me that you could get stuff for games from there. So I was planning on running a game with just one book. This was the era of AD&D 2nd Ed skills and powers splash books. Most games at the time seemed to moving towards multi-book systems. So why would I run a game with just one book? And an old game at that. Was I crazy?

No, I was Old School before it was cool. I had realized back then that there was nothing wrong with the original Traveller rules. And there were other advantages. It was cheap, the book cost me 5 bucks I think. It was easier to learn. And it was easier to run. I could run the whole thing with just the book some dice and paper and pencil.

So 16 years ago I was gaming old school style.

I guess you can call me an early adopter.

And now to pay the Joesky tax here is a character sheet, I can't remember where I got it from.

I Began with Dungeons and Dragons and it was Advanced, How I Started Roleplaying

My recent post about playing Traveller reminded me about how I was introduced to role playing. Is a funny story. Well to me at least.You see it started with a detention. I was in the 7th grade and not a model student. I don't remember what the detention was for. It was 1979 so more than thirty years ago. Anyhow I dutifully showed up to the assigned room to serve my time and catch the late bus home. The teacher who assinged me the detention wasn't there so I asked the teacher who was what to do. She told me ot sit and wait out my time. As I sat there bored out of my mind, I noticed 4 kids at the back of the room. They were talking, aurguing and rolling dice. Dice? Are they playing a game? The teacher seemd oblivious to them and me. So after a bit I got up and walked over to them and asked what they were doing. I went through all the newby questions. Were was the board? How do you win? And what's with those weird dice? They laughed and began to explain when one of them said "Its easier just to show him. Let him play". I sat down and rolled up my first character. A 1st ed AD&D half-elven driud. My character joined the party as they entered the dungeon. The first room was home to some giant spiders who attacked. And in the melee my charcter was bitten. Rolling my saving throw vs poison I failed. My character died and so went my very first encounter. But I was hooked. This was nothing like I had ever done before. Because they were teaching me the game they let me play on with the same character. I don't remember what happened next. And I don't know if I played with those guys again. But it was the start of something that has come to mean a lot me.

Look What I Found, Mapping Inspiration

I was looking at the Sword +1 blog about mapping with a 11"x17" bienfang pad 8x8 squares and then I remembered. I still have this;


Its a left over desk blotter from years ago. I still have it because I never throw out anything that I might have a use for. It measures about 16"x22" with 1/4 inch squares overlaid with larger 10x10 squares. With 37 pages attached to the pad. Perfect for dungeon mapping. Maybe a little large to bring to the table. But certainly awesome. Now to fill it up old school style.

It Takes Place in the Far Future, But Somehow the 1970's

I haven't talked much about other games. I've mainly focused on D&D. My other top favorite RPG is Traveller. I was introduced to the game in high school by mutual friends. Our school decided to ban D&D during the great anti-rpg panic of the early 80's. After speaking to the school board it was determined that they were not banning role-playing just D&D. Could we play another game? Like Traveller , we asked. Does it have demons in it? They asked. No we answered truthfully. Just spaceships and aliens, like Star Wars. Fine, anything just no D&D, they declared. Rather than continuing on with some sort of protest we thanked our lucky stars and got back to role playing. Within a year or two the hysteria had died down and D&D quietly returned to our post curricular activities. Being that it was the early 80's. We didn't notice the tech inconsistencies in the game. The computers that weigh tons, the bulky comm sets or even the total lack of internet and bio-tech. The rulebooks were written in the 70's so they reflect the state of the art of that time. The technological progress that would make these items seem out dated was yet to happen so it didn't bother us at all. But now it does bother me. A bit at least. Mongoose's Traveller and T20 rulebooks are more modern. But I would like to play original Traveller. But its hard to justify the bizarreness of some of the original predictions of the tech level chart from the rulebook. According to Traveller we should be at tech level 10 or at least 9 by now. So where is the laser rifle they promised? Or jump drives, gravity control, fusion power or limb regeneration? How come we don't live in that future? What happened to it? I have a theory. When the US government canceled their ambitious space program in the 70's the scientists and technicians had to go somewhere. They went commercial. How else do could we have got cell phones, DVD players, laptop computers, the internet and GPS? Our technology is small. Little products easily sold to eager consumers. The big stuff like fusion power didn't happen because the focus was elsewhere. What does this all mean to a Traveller campaign? The setting of the game starts in our world and expands out to the far future. So our world didn't evolve into the Traveller future but it doesn't mean that another one could have. A parallel world. Setting the game in a parallel world where technology went a different direction can explain the oddities of the original rulebook. So maybe your character wears flare leg pants. A world more like Space 1999. Where the future is the 70's.

As Seen On TV

I finally saw the episode of Community where they play AD&D. Its not really the best portrayal of it on TV. They skip over most of the identifiable mechanics of the game. But they do so to push the plot along. I don't blame them for doing so. The game itself is boring as a spectator sport. I don't think we will ever see TSN broadcast the World Series of Dungeons and Dragons. And the game is being played largely by those whom have never played before. I thought it was particularly funny when Abed the DM starts to describe the different characters and how they might choose one only to have the players scramble and randomly grab sheets. That would not happen in any groups I have played with. The focus of how the game is shown is through the players choices. Die rolls serve only to provide drama or comedy, like the die roll for Pierce to successfully rub his balls on the sword. Its not the best version, that award goes to the Freaks and Geeks episode featuring Carlos the dwarf. In the Community episode it doesn't really matter that the game is D&D. That is secondary, any game could be substituted. Many have wondered about why that version of D&D was used. Maybe the writers picked AD&D for the widest possible recognition. Or it might have been a subtle homage to the afor mentioned Freaks and Geeks episode. Or possibly to avoid copyright infringement. Whatever the reason it was good to see D&D being shown without it being analyzed.

Serendipity

Just as I decided to drop the stat bonuses a new version of Swords & Wizardry White Box is available. And stat bonuses are now optional. Wow, neat. In the strictest sense all the rules are optional but to have it actually spelled out in print is cool. And an interesting coincidence. So it further solidifies it as my choice of rules for old school D&D style action.

Only Rewarding Random Success

I am a avid reader of Schlock Mercenary webcomic by Howard Tayler. Today there is a short video loop on his site of him doing a happy dance (because he got his comics done early). There is also a link to the full video on Youtube. After checking out the link I decided to watch one of his other videos "Talent? Who needs Talent?". Now I consider myself a creative person and (slightly) smarter than your average bear. So his lecture was most illuminating. In it he explores that relationship between talent and practice and success at any endevor. For those of you who haven't watched it yet here is what it boils down to. Talent is not responsible in any measurable way for success. Instead he reaffirms the old adage "practice makes perfect".People get to the top by practice. By working at it for a long time. Despite that, it occured to me that we tend to only look at talent as nessesary for success. And our society is obsesed with success. We love "winners". We pour accolades on and practally worship those who eccel at something. And only talented people will succed. That somehow the top of the heap are better than us lesser people. That they are destined for better things. We love the idea of the overnight success story. And as a society we only reward people for their success.The effort is ignored and only the result matters. This view even is present in RPGs. Why do we only get experience points for winning? In D&D you don't get XP for fighting the monster you get it killing it (or otherwise overcoming it). Only success matters. The players can have a good plan for dealing with the monster but ultimately it comes down to random die rolls. And the game rewards talent by having those rolls modified by bonuses for high stats. For example the level 1 fighting man with 18 strength vs a level 3 fighting man with 12 strength. Assume the same hit points for both. The odds favor the higher strength over the greater level. You can argue that the level 3 fighter should have more hit points and therefore last longer in the fight thus winning. But what if that player rolled poorly for hit points. And hit point rolls are modified by high constitution, once again rewarding a "talent".
I have decided that in my game there will not be any personal stat bonuses. They were optional anyway and were added in later supplements to the orginal rules. I feel that they alter the results of a random die roll by something that was itself gained by a random die roll. Thats too much randomness for me. The critics will decry that then stats don't matter. I will still allow the XP bonuses as per the rules as they don't seem too unreasonable. And stats will matter in a different way see my post Using The Numbers . And the other change is that players will get XP for fighting monsters not killing them. As long as you survive the encounter you get the points. The reward will be geared to the effort not the result. And the result will be judged more from good play and less from die rolls.

Happy Birthday Blog

Dice of Doom is two years old. As of yesturday. I forgot to post about it. I blame my ADD. Not just gamer ADD but real did-poorly-in-school-and-used-to-take-medication-for-it ADD. But since the first post on January 14 2008 was about the creation of the blog itself and the real first article was the following day I can still celebrate.
I think that my ADD may have had something to do with my fondness for D&D. Like many with ADD I am frequently bored. I need alot of stimulation. And I found it in simulation. When I became to old for acceptable pretend games and I did't care for the structure of drama classes I found D&D. It was more than just a game. It captured my attention and rekindled my imagination. I required you to think and create not just play. I think that the recient versions of the game are more mundane. Just games. Less and less creation and more memorization. D&D was a wonderful uncut diamond in the rough. But as that stone has been cut and polished it has been diminished. This blog will continue to be a refuge for the flawed and imperfect thing that is the original editon style of D&D. Long may it shine.