Closing Out.

 A recent personal experience has soured my enthusiasm for gaming. 

I am no longer posting to this blog anymore. 

I thank you for your attention, good bye. 

Little Black Book

 In an effort to be a better dungeon master I have invested in some tools to help me run games. One of which is what I might refer to as the GM's book of doom. It is an A5 format, hard bound note book. The pages are printed with a 5mm dot grid originally for bullet journal-ling, but can handle writing and sketching. I never had a strict GM note book before, my notes (if i even bothered to make them) were a haphazard collection jotted down on whatever was handy. I have always had a aversion to permanence, I don't like not being able to change something or remove pages. But I started to combat that. I have a composition book that I write gaming ideas down in,  but the college ruled pages are not good for drawing. The dot grid is subtle and unobtrusive for greater creativity. I haven't decided if it will be just for a single game or more, and if it will be just encounters or world building as well. If I need more they are about $15 from Amazon, so they won't break the bank. I figure better tools will help motivate me.

 

Video response chages view on combat

 I recently figured out that talking about gaming can make me happy, not as happy as actually playing. But in the absence of a game it is better than nothing. I also decided that reading and watching videos about gaming can improve not only my mood but can add to my level of skill running and playing games. I have been watching a series of videos on running D&D. The channel is Dungeon Craft , and the host refers to himself as professor Dungeon-master. As I was watching an older video of his;  

Replace Armor Class in D&D & Pathfinder?

I realized something about the way I treat combat in Dungeons and Dragons. I think of combat as threat management. An attack roll represents a threat of harm to you. Armour class reduces the possible threat from weapons allowing you to rely on your hit points to save you less often. Hit points can represent dodging and parrying. Armour being passive doesn't require effort and never expires. AC is coverage and quality of protection and works the same for everyone who wears it. HPs are active defense and are exhausted as the character tires out. This could also explain the low bonus of shields in D&D. They require some effort and skill to employ so the benefit is the passive protection one gives you. I could give a HP bonus to characters employing a shield or give shields themselves some form of HP, I will figure that out later. Just that I now have a better understanding of  how my personal view of combat can work in the D&D world. 

 And I used to think that studying how other people did things would just lead to me copying them. This understanding of one aspect of the game will make me better at running a game in the future. Give the prof some of your time and maybe it will help you too.

More books in hardcopy

 Two things have motivated me to make some more hard-copy purchases of RPG rule books. First, the loss of my hard drive and nearly 20 years of collecting interesting things off the internet. Second, a quest to find a balance between simplicity and detail. Enough detail to promote player engagement. And simplicity for ease of running the game. I have a few very simple rule sets that I like but I think many players experience difficulty grasping the idea of them. FATE by Evil Hat is a great narrative game but few people play it. Risus is my favorite for its easy rules and incredible flexibility but it is perhaps even more obscure. Here are two games I collected to try and find that middle ground between what I like and what the players like. 

      BARBARIC!  from Stellagama publishing.  Barbaric is a mere 58 pages in A5 format. Based on its larger brother Sword Of Cepheus which in turn is based on an updated Traveller rule-set, for fantasy games. Characters in Barbaric have just two stats Endurance and Lifeblood. There are seven generalized  skills to assign points to, and and traits to customize your character. The elimination of stats might put off some players, however I find most players don't role play them. I also find stat checks to be more random than they should. Action resolution is 2D6 vs a target number with skills providing a modifier. Spells, monsters and treasure all read like lists from a D&D book so players will be familiar. Definitely recommended. Available at DrivethruRPG.com  

       ZENOBIA    by Zozer Games   Sometime ago I was looking for RPGs with interesting settings that I felt would inspire better role playing in players. Getting away from class and level systems and providing a detailed and realistic world might, I reasoned, discourage murder hoboism so often seen in other games. A historically realistic setting in the eastern Roman Empire region circa 260 AD. Magic is low level and monsters are rare, but there are plenty of adventure hooks. Even shipping trade tables for merchant campaigns. Just five stats define your character MIGHT FATE CRAFT LEARNING and HITS. A past profession can be chosen and provides a selection of starting money and equipment plus a skill or stat bonus. Task resolution is a standard 2D6 vs a target number with stats providing a bonus. Combat however is different, and deadly. Player and opponent roll their Combat score (MIGHT plus weapon) and compare, winner is the higher roll and the difference is the damage done to the loser. Armour grants a dice roll with any 6's negating the attack. If the damage inflicted is 4 or greater a roll on a critical table is made, and the results are nasty. Appendages may be lost and crippling injuries can be suffered. Players must choose their fights wisely. I first ran across this game as a free download of four books, each with a staggering amount of information. A combined total of 649 pages. I didn't think I would ever print out all that.  There is an updated version available now. The author Paul Elliot has a deal at Lulu , whereby if you buy a POD copy and email your receipt he will send a link to download a free colour copy of the PDF. I opted for the softcover, still cheaper than I could print. I recommend this one for the role-playing opportunities it can inspire. 

 So two more books on to the pile. I don't know how I will ever downsize.

Reason for adventuring 2

  In a medieval world 30-180 gold pieces is a lot of money for an individual to have. Given the poorer classes in even a very inflated economy rarely would see more than a few coins, how does that explain starting money in D&D?  In my hypothetical and still not actual Swords and Wizardry campaign I like to have an in world reason for the rules as written. So why would a starting character have such wealth? Simple given the setting of the game, make the characters nobles. Not grand imperial or kingly. Petty nobles with a small inheritance or stipend and no prospects for a future. Make them the 5th son or 3rd daughter of a title holder and adventuring is their only chance for a better life. Give them a retainer or even a small retinue to make things interesting. Money power and fame are the means to get back at their family for casting them out, or rightfully claiming the title from a usurper. The character's endgame is already written thus allowing for retirement when the player chooses.    

Change of Mind

  I have talked often about my love for simple game design, there is something to be said for more detailed systems. My original plan for running fantasy RPGs was to try to play D&D as close to as written. I wanted to prove to myself that the rules were viable in their simplicity.  Two retro clone systems seemed like the best fit for this goal.  White Box Fantastic Medieval Adventure Game and Untold Adventures. Both are based on Swords and Wizardry which in turn originates from a rewrite/update of the Dungeons and Dragons white box rules set. Being derived from a such a simple rules set I reasoned that my anxiety over remembering rules would be reduced. Yes it can be easier to run a bit but the lack of depth actually can work against my over all satisfaction. Its a little dull, uninspiring even. And I worried players would be put off. As running a RPG is as much for the players as the game master, this is a problem. I did look forward to creating a setting to explain things like race as class. Opening my players eyes to the elegance of D6 hit points and damage. Rationalizing Vancian magic. There are downsides although. The characters however are a little cookie-cutter assembly line type without any detail. The experience points earned to level up dynamic tends to direct players toward monster bashing to the exclusion of all else. True this can be moderated by XP awards for other things like role playing or exploration. All is not lost, I will simply tuck away those books for another time. Maybe I will do up a few dungeon levels for a random group that comes my way. I still plan to run a D&D based game some time. I have Mazes and Minotaurs, a D20 style game set in a mythical Greek world. I encourage everyone to check it out. Its free to download. Available on Drive ThruRPG.com. 

 Because of my recent tragedy of the lost hard drive, I am trying to collect hard copy of games. Taking advantage of the current GM's Day sales I purchased two game books.  

Sword Of Cepheus -  a fantasy version of the sci-fi Cepheus Engine rules.

 If you had ever thought " I wish there was a fantasy version of Traveller", this is it. I still have to create or adapt a setting but I look forward to trying it out.

Barbarians Of Lemuria - this is a 2D6 system with a rich character creation system. I have kept an eye on this system through several editions but this is the first printed copy I have bought. A full colour book details a robust background setting based loosely on pulp fantasy novels. Included are several adventures which will help start off the players.

 Given he current troubles in the world I don't know if I will get to run or play anything soon. but i can hope. And the new books generate some enthusiasm. 

 

Living Magic

  I am fan of what's known in RPG circles as RAW or Rules As Written. In that I try to play as close to the written rules as possible. My interest in the OSR was partially fueled by a realization that the fewer rules there are the easier it is to play RAW.  However most likely D&D page counts increased over later editions to try and iron out problems with the rules text. Often a strict interpretation of the rules doesn't fit with the expectations of the players. My solution is to change the players minds with a little creative background to the world in which the play. One such aspect for example is magic. Its not a secret that I prefer Vancian  magic to anything else. Vancian is the fire and forget style for the earliest days of D&D. But reading the text of magic use I never liked the following description. "Reading from this book, the Magic-user presses a select spell formula into her mind, effectively preparing it to be cast.Once a prepared spell is cast, the spell formulae disappears from the Magic-user's mind, and must be prepared again before another attempt can be made to cast it. However, it is possible to prepare a spell multiple times using the available slots in the Magic-user's memory." What troubles me is if the caster forgets the spell formulae then how come the other spells in the memory slots are not affected? Are they different formulae? I never liked what's known as double dipping or multi-use magic. It just seems so mundane. It turns the Magic-user into a gun and the spells are the ammunition. But with one small change to the text without changing the rules you can alter players expectations. What if the formulae for a spell was a summoning for some living magic entity that is the spell itself. The "slots" in memory are holding cells for them. When cast they are released producing the magical effect. Being a Magic-user requires the discipline to build and maintain the cells to contain spells. Multiple copies of spells are each held separately. Casting one does not effect the others. A spell caster can skip the prep time and summon a spell directly from its source (book or scroll), but such haste burns (destroys) the source as a backlash.    

 

 

Reason for adventuring

 Why adventure? Even in a world where adventuring is normal why do they do it? Characters should have some reason beyond fame and riches. Another blog I read years ago suggested that in their world Dwarf society was comprised of only males, and reproduction involved carving a magical statue of your offspring. The more money spent on construction the greater the quality of the result. All dwarves quested to acquire loot for this purpose.

 I am fortunate that one of my offspring likes RPGs and I was having a conversation about this idea. In my proposed Swords and Wizardry game the non-human races don't normally leave their enclaves. She also plays D&D and had an idea for Elves. Elven society doesn't care material wealth. They are chroniclers and storytellers and information is the motivator for them. Each elf must undergo a quest for some piece of information that the Elves do not have. The quality and importance of it is judged at their return and determines their place in Elven society.

I can picture a scene of some lost treasure room;

   an Elf tossing coins and jewels aside to uncover an ancient scroll.

 

Sorry About The Wait

 I have been absent for quite some time. Not entirely by choice. I had a mental health issues that necessitated an absence from being online. But after this delay I am moving on. I apologize for the inconvenience.

My computer hard drive crashed and as of this writing it looks like all my data is gone. I have a few really old backups but nothing recent. This has given me cause to reexamine my gaming habits. One of which is my hording. I have a lot of gaming stuff. Both physical copy and digital files. I use very little of it. I collect things like a mad man, thinking I might need it some day. Time to narrow the range of stuff I pursue. I will still follow and write about the great many games I like. However my personal collect will contract to include only the few games I want to play. This hobby is an important part of my life and I want to enjoy it more.

The Gateway

Here is an idea for introducing new players to a game world.

 A bright flash and your eyes slowly adjust to the light. You are standing in between the pillars of a ancient stone gate way. You have no idea how you got here, and you realize you don't remeber anything about yourself. A wild bearded man in tattered robes approaches loudly exclaiming. "Ah the gods have sent more to us, Welcome, Welcome strangers to our lands". "You will have many questions , yes but first you should eat and drink to regain some of your vigor". He and several others all similarly dressed drag you down the hill top to a small town and into a tavern. As you eat a hearty meal and drink some good wine or ale some small bit of memory returns.  
At this point the characters can remember their names and classes/levels (if applicable) but that's it. No other details, as they are just created characters their aren't any of course.
As you eat the bearded man explains; you have been sent to us from other places and we can help you start your new life here with us. " You are welcome to settle here if you wish, some newcomers have of course, but you may wish to continue your chosen professions as well". 

The next few days are spent teaching you of the lands and customs that they know of. This is of course the sketch notes of the world they will be adventuring in. Any gaps in knowledge can be attributed to lack of recall or something that was not known to the villagers of the gateway. I thought of this with D&D in mind but will work for any RPG. This was designed after seeing a number of adventuring groups fail to understand the world they were in. This offers an easy explanation for this lack of knowledge.

-Happy Gaming  

D&D 5th goes OGL? Meh, what ever.

 In case you haven't heard the news, D&D fifth edition has just been released for the OGL. My reaction is less than enthusiastic. Why? Because official D&D hasn't been my game of choice for some time now (since the switch form 3 to 3.5). The sucker punch of the official switch from one edition to another after so short of a time scale (only two years between my purchase of the 3rd Ed books and the 3.5 roll out) turned me off trying to stay current. I liked 3 rd edition just fine, but 4th just left me cold. Way too over complicated, tactically focused and just plain weird. I don't know what to think about 5th yet as I haven't absorbed it yet. But one thing I can say is that it's not my D&D. Some time ago I discovered the OSR community and found many of whom shared the desire to retain a simpler form of the rules.

 What did the OGL do for 3rd ed? Did it improve the game? Did it make it more accessible? These questions will most likely be asked of 5th ed and time will tell. But for me I see nothing but a glut of 5th ed material choking off some other possibly more creative stuff. I don't think its really good for the hobby. I see many game producers ditching their independent projects to crank out more OGL stuff. Soon the 5th ed like the Borg of Star Trek will assimilate all. Crazy talk? Maybe but one thing  is for sure, the new OGL doesn't matter much to me. You can always check out the SRD and judge for yourself. But as for me, Meh.

P.S. hopefully this post marks a return to me posting regularly 

Too Quiet For A long Time

Yes I have been not posting for the longest time ever. No this blog is not over, finished or abandoned. 

My Other Blog

 I have started another blog. I know, I can't seem to post regularly on this one so why would I take on more. The other blog is just for war gaming. My other past time. I play more war games than role playing games. And I want this blog to be for just RPGs. Go give it a look sometime.

 Enemy Of Dice

IT FIGURES

Mountain of Old Lead Behind Glass

 Some old miniatures I ran across at an antique store. It figures (ha pun) I would find a gold mine like this when I just don't have the cash to spare. I wouldn't normally care, however lately I've gone on a bit of the nostalgic kick for old lead. Since I discovered some old figs I had and decided to spruce them up by stripping them down and repainting them. There is really something to the old designs that I have come to like. The blocky oversize proportions and the cartoony style.  Maybe its nostalgia for those lost days of gaming way back . Around the blogosphere there has been the question of the OSR not supporting miniatures for play. If so then how do you explain all those miniatures released as role playing sets, even official D&D boxes. Back then not every game used figs. But I can remember some that did, and figure hunting was part of the fun. Nothing was better than the satisfaction of finding the perfect mini for your character. A wide selection of minis was hard to come by where I was and often some adaptation was needed. I recall once designing a character for a game based solely on the mini I had for him! Miniatures fell out of favor with my group and myself included as the cost and time to paint and difficulty in transporting them began to outweigh their usefulness. I don't use them anymore but and I have no plans to ever use them again but I still like them. Maybe now my collector side is coming though.  

Keep Smiling

I missed this post from my Great Grand Uncle's WW I diary, so I am posting it late.
Entry #2
I left for Finner Camp in the advance party. Finner is in Co. Donegal, an ideal camping site, as the soil is very sandy.Our first experiences of soldiering left nothing to be desired, as our daily training included a bath until the weather got too rough. We were in tents and experienced some very rough weather, as we were on the coast of a very wild part. Our training continued steadily and we had some very nice route marches to neighboring towns, including Ballyshnnon, Bundoran, and Beleek. We remained in tents until the December 3rd.

Keep Smiling

Keep Smiling, that was the personal motto of W. McCormack my grandfather's uncle. One hundred years ago on September 9th he enlisted in the British army. I know this because I have a copy of the transcript of his diary from that time. I will try to post all his entries on a day by day basis for the next four years. This is big project and hope I can stick it out till the end. Some Entries like this first one are only one line but others are longer. There are some large time gaps and you will just have to manage as I won't "speed up time" for this project. I know its not roleplaying ( and I was going to put it in its own blog ) but its something people might like to read. I might move it over to a separate blog later sometime.

Entry #1

Enlisted at old town hall and drilled in Davidson's Yard Until the 27th September.

Summer Time

As the song goes its summer time and the living is easy. Except it isn't. The kids are home from school (yes I have kids, and they are very distracting). Reenacting season is going full swing. I do War Of 1812 reenacting, or as a friend calls it "1 to1 scale wargaming". I don't game much during the rest of the year but during the summer it's even less than that. I still think about gaming and I could still write about gaming. But I hit a wall of sorts back in the spring. I stopped posting for a while (I didn't feel like posting) and the weeks went by. The longer I didn't post the harder it felt to try and post something. That's it. Nothing happened, I didn't get sick or die or my computer blew up. I just stopped. To those of you whom still check this blog for new posts; thank you for persistence and patience. Consider this an ice breaker to get things flowing again. I have written down some ideas for future posts.

Here is the list :

-Homeless demi-humans, making your Drawves, Half-lings and Elves vagabonds in your world
-Spells as living entities, something Vancian this way comes
-Divine PCs, something to explain the hit point problem
-Building a background for the rules, making your world fit the game
-A new look at armour, coverage not type matters more
-Game mechanics as story elements, letting them bleed for art

 P.S. now I will have to commit to these as they are in print

I'ts NOT Dead Jim

Yeah OK, a long time without posting makes you wonder. No I haven't gone the way of the dodo. And there hasn't been any big personal crisis. I had an attack of; laziness, apathy, writer's block, alien intervention or whatever. I still have things to say about RPGs but I have been thinking of including war-games as well. The inspiration for this blog was the other RPG blogs. But role-playing is only part of my gaming life. I do very little dungeon delving (space ranging, mystery busting etc.) right now so it makes sense to me to include the other stuff I do. I won't replace anything, it will just supplement it. I thought at first to create another blog to accommodate this other material. That is still possible, but for now I will post some stuff here. Kind of like a test run. I will sort stuff with labels to make it easier to find what you are interested in. Please feel free to post feedback on this or anything else.  And as Robocop says; "Thank you for your co-operation."

Tempted by FATE

I have been tempted by FATE. I am still deciding on which of my favorite rules light generic systems to run a game with. That list has grown by one. My list now comprises of ;
 1. Risis by S. John Ross
 2. Story Engine by Precis Intermedia
 3. Fate by Evil Hat Productions

I downloaded the two books and some other goodies. I only paid a few bucks for them (currently the game is pay what want).
 I can justify this by knowing that I will buy the hard copy when its out. Fate comes in two flavours Core and Accelerated. The Core book comes in at whopping 310 pages! Kinda of much for a light RPG. This is however at the pocket book 6 by 9 inch format. And much of the book is give over to help in running the system and not the rules. The other book, Accelerated clocks in at just 50 pages in the same 6 by 9 size. More of what I expect from a system of its type.
  I'm not crazy about the cartoonish style artwork in the book, it's kind of a put off. It makes me think that the system is not for serious role-playing. I haven't had a chance to read it in depth yet. But at a glance so far I like what I see. Accelerated ditches the skill system of the core rules and replaces it with something called approaches. Approaches are a set of dice modifiers based on how you approach a task rather than which skills you use. I was at first skeptical. But however I have always detested skill systems in role-playing games. Approaches can help define your character without resorting to skills or stats allowing greater flexibility in design and play. I haven't made up my mind yet. Whether or not this is the system I will use. But I do consider it to be a solid entry on the list. I might just have to go pick up some fudge dice and fire up the printer and print out a copy of the Accelerated edition.

P.S> thanks to all of you still reading this blog during the long gaps in posting.

Too long of a Break

Hello, yes I know its been a while. I took a break. A short break that ended up being a longer break. After not posting for some time it became harder and harder to post something. So I just let it go for a while. I didn't mean to go this long but stuff happens. My fancy new speech to text program was supposed to help but it actually made it worse. Its kind of awkward talking to no one with people around. So I had to try to post at night. But its summer and the kids are up later. And I would get too tired to post so I would put it of til another day. That other day ended up being months later, sorry.
I am flattered that people kept looking at the blog despite not having written anything new. Thanks for hanging in there and waiting. Next stop new posts.