roleplay-geek

Fantasy Mass Transit - A Technology Too Far?

2012-02-29T22:42:00.000Z

A warforged hangs from the gondola of an airship as a
Lightning Rail loco passes below (artist unknown)

In his recent article, The Architect DM: Seven Wonders of Your World, Danny Rupp highlights the Lightning Rail from the Eberron setting as an example of a World Wonder. As I was largely ignorant of the detail of the Eberron setting I did a little more research and was both intrigued and horrified in equal measure by this concept.

As I've written before, in a quasi-medieval fantasy setting personal mobility is generally restricted to a couple of days walk and even those who own horses don't tend to travel long distances unless they have a pressing need. Long arduous journeys or quests to find this artifact or that magical location are the stock-in-trade of the fantasy novel and it is often the journey itself, not the final destination that defines the hero.

In Charlie Jane Ander's round-up of the 10 worst mistakes that Alternate History Authors Make, author Terry Bisson states that "if you don't bring your alternate history up to the reader's present, then you leave out half the fun". Whilst I agree that this often the case with Sci-Fi and especially with the alternate history subgenre, it is not the case with fantasy literature. In fact introducing some relatively mudane modern day solutions into a medieval setting can have disastrous effects.

Although attractive as both a plot generator and as a mechanism for swiftly moving PCs from one location to the next, a system like The Lightning Rail (even if access to it is heavily controlled) opens up a whole new can of worms in that it also ushers in an age of mass transit in the same way that the real railways did in the 1830s. With mass transit comes huge socio-economic upheaval as people inevitably migrate towards cities and goods suddenly become cheaper as transport costs are reduced. Consequently cities will gradually expand in size, usurping nearby land which no longer needs to be used as farm land because produce can be brought in just as cheaply from further afield. This is just the start.

As always there is the "exception that proves the rule" and in this case it would be a setting which has suffered some form of technological regression. There are often pieces of working ancient technology to which access is heavily controlled and the knowledge of its operation is usually forbidden by some form of techno-priesthood and the population will often rationalise this as being magical or divine.

A couple of good examples of this being:

Orson Scott Card's Memory of Earth features an Artificial Intelligence (which the population call the Oversoul) which uses mind control to prohibit access to ideas which will ultimately lead to the development of self destructive technologies. In this way he allows access to things like electricity and magnetism but avoids the wheel and the industrial revolution arguing that they ultimately lead to the development of war machines.

In his novel Cat Karina, Michael G Coney uses a sail driven monorail concept, which utilises the remnants of technology left behind by a previous human civilisation. A religious belief system prohibits the use of manufacturing and power systems which would ultimately lead to the development of faster, better "trains" and stems the onset of any transport revolution that might ensue.

RPG Papercraft: Judge Dredd H Wagon and Riot Tank

2012-02-25T22:51:00.000Z

It's been a couple of weeks since I posted anything as I've been busy papercrafting again. In honour of the 35th Anniversary of Judge Dredd, here's some photos of the prototype H-Wagon (and Riot Tank variant) I've designed for my upcoming Judge Dredd game.


H-Wagon configuration - Front Quarter(The interior floorpan measures 3" x 2")

H-Wagon configuration - Rear Quarter
(The model will come with six detail boxes
which can be glued anywhere you like)

H-Wagon configuration - Underside (showing off the grav plates detail)

Riot Tank Configuration (the tank "lid" just slots in place, so you get 2 models for the price of one)

The Ages of D&D: A Timeline v3

2012-02-13T09:00:00.003Z

By popular demand version 3

Click on the image to embiggen

You can also download a really big version from 4shared.

So what's the point? I hear you ask. Well, I just wanted to see where I fitted into this whole D&D universe and I have so far come to the conclusions that:

I am definitely of the 2nd Age of D&D, I cut my teeth on 2nd Edition AD&D and my favourite campaign setting is Al-Quadim (precisely because it is the most alien campaign world to most players). I was a late adopter of 3/3.5 and for me it didn't have the same hold on me as 2nd Edition (for all its failings). I have played a demo of 4e and am unlikely to buy it given that D&D Next is on the horizon.

The lifespans of D&D editions have become shorter, whether or not this is as a result of commercial pressure, is hard to say as there is evidence to suggest that D&D has always had more editions with shorter lifespans than AD&D and that it has only become noticeable since the 3/3.5 reformation. In fact I was mostly ignorant of the "Basic" D&D versions for many of my formative years, as my go-to game was AD&D.

More new campaign settings were published during the Second Age than any other and this may account for the slightly longer timescales between editions but also coincides with the Golden Age of Roleplaying, the 1980s. Dragon and Dungeon Magazine have been my stalwart companions along this journey, more so than any "edition" of D&D, and I have taken ideas from their pages and converted them to work in many systems and genres over the years.

D&D as a brand has been "managed" for a longer period of time than it was by its creators. It is bigger than any one person or team and it will most likely outlive us all (in some form). I wish Mike Mearls, Monte Cooke and all the other people at WotC the best of luck in what is arguably a truly Sisyphean task and I can say I am excited about the future of D&D under their guardianship.

The Ages of D&D: A Timeline v2

2012-02-11T15:26:00.001Z

Version 2 of my Ages of D&D timeline.

Click on the image to embiggen

You can also download a really big version from 4shared

The Ages of D&D: A Timeline

2012-02-08T20:23:00.000Z

When you can't google an image sometimes you have to make it.

Click on the image to embiggen

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s: K is for Knightmare

2012-02-06T09:00:00.004Z

A player dons the helmet of Justice as Treguard looks on

In the late eighties Tim Child, a Journalist/Reporter/Producer for Anglia TV, came up with an idea for a kids TV show having been inspired by the popular 8 bit dungeon questing games such as Atic Atac and Dragontorc.

The concept was simple, a team of four children would embark on a quest to retrieve an artifact from the dungeon. One child played as the "dungeoneer" and wore the "helmet of justice" effectively blinding them (to the primitive TV technology available at the time) whilst the remaining three acted as guides watching the action through a "magic mirror" and telling the dungeoneer where to move and what to do.

L: Treguard (Hugo Myatt) and R: Pickle (David Learner)

The guardian of the dungeon was a character called Treguard (played by Hugo Myatt) who would act as Dungeon Master, giving the players clues as they progressed through the dungeon rooms. Other characters would appear in rooms to offer clues to the completion of puzzle or give the players a riddle which might help in the next room. In later series some of these characters like Pickle (played by David Learner, who also wore the Marvin suit in the BBCs Hitchikers Guide to The Galaxy) became permanent fixtures.

Spells Yes, Combat and Roleplay No

Often players would be required to cast spells in order to defeat a puzzle, these consisted of the dungeoneer spelling out a word. I was never sure whether this mechanism was deployed due to the limitations of the technology or as an educational content element to pass the TV commissioners scrutiny. The technology was definitely a limiting factor with regards combat and the producers eschewed the opportunity to add a roleplaying element with the dungeoneers always being known by their real names. In essence the show was essentially a puzzle solving exercise and although there was some inspiration to be got from viewing in hindsight it was pretty limited, but nevertheless a fun show to watch.

The Technology

The show used the chromakey tecchnology to superimose the "real" world onto the digitised matte paintings of the "virtual" dungeon, the work of airbrush artist David Rowe who had painted a few of the more popular 8bit game covers of the early 80s.

Dungeoneer Martin gets fried by Sorceress Morghanna

Behind the scenes view of a typical room which
demonstrates the "blue screen" (chromakey)
technique that the show used extensively

Knightmare: The Boardgame and the Adventure Gamebooks

It wasn't long after the show's debut that the first of six gamebooks were released, between 1998 and 1993, in an interesting part novella part gamebook format. The obligatory TV boardgame was released by MB in 1991 and seems lack lustre and pedestrian by comparison to other earlier MB adventure games such as Heroquest both incidentally designed by Stephen Baker.

Groundbreaking For It's Time

Although I look back at this early attempt at an immersive TV show through rose tinted nostalgia glasses, it's hard not to be impressed with what they achieved. An attempt at a CGI reboot (known as Knightmare VR) was attempted with a pilot in the early 00s, but to date no channel has attempted this level of immersion in a mixed media environment. The BBC have come close with the creditable shows Trapped!, Raven and Mission 2110 which are essentially reworkings of the Crystal Maze physical challenge format with expensive sets.

Want To Know More?

http://www.knightmare.com - An excellent fan site with indepth history of the show.
First Ever Winning Quest (Part 1) - Video from Series 2 (1988)

Quadrotor Swarm: Evil? or am I just being paranoid

2012-02-03T09:00:00.004Z

Don't you just hate it when someone invents something with the best of intentions and all you can think about are it's potential evil uses.

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s: J is for Judge Dredd

2012-02-01T09:00:00.001Z

2000AD hit the newstands in 1977 and its most popular and longest running character, Judge Dredd debuted in Prog 2. The vision of writer John Wagner and artist Carlos Ezquerra, Dredd is a product of late 1970s pop culture, economic stagflation, and social and industrial upheaval.

Judge Dredd: Comic Book Hero (1977 - Present)

22nd Century North America is largely a blasted radioactive wasteland known as The Cursed Earth, humanity has retreated to the safety of a handful of megatropolis known as Mega Cities. The traditional policing structures techniques have been replaced by a system of hardline law enforcers known as Judges who are a combination of policeman, judge, jury and executioner.

Judge Joseph Dredd is the epitomy of a Judge, a single minded human machine entirely dedicated to the task of upholding THE LAW. He is feared and respected in equal measure by his peers and the citizens of Mega-City One and is an example of the Anti-Hero character concept. A peculiar aspect of the character of Judge Dredd is that in an almost unbroken 35 year long run of comic book appearances, his face has never been shown. This gifts him an almost mythical "Everyman" aspect, which coupled with his status as a clone (via a policy of state sponsored genetic experimentation), reinforces the man/machine idea and that he is more a product of his environment rather than humanity.

Judge Dredd: The Games Workshop Boardgame (1982)

JUDGE DREDD Boardgame (GW)

In the 80s Ian Livingstone designed the Judge Dredd boardgame to fit in with its expanding range of bookshelf boardgames. Essentially, a cluedo style race around Mega-City One to find and arrest a random collection of perps who were busy commiting random crimes in random locations. Each of the perps were famous faces from the comic escapades of Judge Dredd and had a "Perp Rating" which coupled with the severity or "Crime Rating" of the crime they were committing gave a target number you had to roll against with a pair of d6.

The artwork came straight out of the pages of 2000AD and the board (by Ian Gibson) was a glorious piece of artwork in its own right. Brian Bolland's cover pretty much sums up this very simplistic game, but lots of fun could be had trying to arrest the The Dark Judges for littering or The Angel Gang for Umpty Bagging even though these perp/crime combinations could be a bit bizarre.

This wasn't the last we'd hear from Games Workshop with 2000AD inspired games and they followed up with Block Mania (and its expansion Mega Mania) and Rogue Trooper. I never got round to buying these with my meagre schoolboy resources but they are on my ebay/thrift store wish list.

Judge Dredd: The Games Workshop RPG (1985)

JUDGE DREDD RPG (GW) Boxed Set

In 1985 Games Workshop released Judge Dredd RPG written by Rick Priestley (Warhammer, WH40K, Warmaster) and Marc Gascoigne (Blood Bowl, Chainsaw Warrior). As a fan of 2000AD it was almost inevitable that It would become one of my favourite systems and it holds the rare distinction that it's only system which I've bought twice! and still own both copies.

Opening the box reveals 2 books; The Judges Manual (a Players Guide), the self explanatory Game Masters Book, a double sided map to the scenario contained in the gm guide (one side is a meg-way underpass the other a shaggy hall) and a sheet of cardstock counters and standees with a good mix of judges, perps and bystanders.

The game system is very simple being based on two stats STRENGTH (2-4) and INITIATIVE (Percentile) and 6 percentile skills; COMBAT SKILL (CS), DRIVE SKILL (DS), TECHNICAL SKILL (TS), STREET SKILL (SS), MEDICAL SKILL (MS) and PSI SKILL (PS). The majority of roll playing is resolved through a simple percentile skill check (with modifiers dictated by the GM). A Combat Round consists of 10 Phases (or Frames) and a character's INITIATIVE dictates how many actions they may make and in which phases, fans of Steve Jackson's CAR WARS will immediately feel at home. Combat damage results in either STUNS (which temporarily reduce INITIATIVE) or WOUNDS (which temporarily reduce STRENGTH).

JUDGE DREDD Miniatures by Citadel

The full range of Justice Department specialisms can be replicated through this 6 skill system but the majority of PCs will most likely be Street Judges.

TECH Judges have a TS of 40+
MED Judges have an MS of 40+
Psi Judges have a PS of 40+

Once a PC has a score of 40+ in any skill (and for every full 10 points thereafter) they may choose a Special Ability offering bonuses to completing actions or for us in certain situations in much the same way as D&D Feats.

The rules light nature means that a session of Judge Dredd is fast paced with the focus on action (just like the comic books), although there is plenty of opportunity through the skills system to have a more detective style game. A healthy mix of rounding up perps and then trying to decipher the clues left behind in their aftermath is usually the best way to go.

Games Workshop supported the system with the hardback Judge Dredd Companion, a compilation of White Dwarf articles, two campaigns Judgement Day and Slaughter Margin, the excellent Citi-Block floorplans and a 200 figure strong range of miniatures.

Judge Dredd: The Hollywood Movie (1995)

Sylvester Stallone as Judge Dredd

It was only a matter of time before Hollywood would turn it's attention to the Dredd franchise and in 1995 the Judge Dredd movie was released starring Sylvester Stallone. Although the film has been derided by many for it's poor plot and acting, the production, costume design, CGI and miniatures work met with wide spread approval, in fact Stallone looked great as Dredd (until he spoke and took his helmet off!!). In a recent LA Times interview John Wagner was quoted as saying:

"perhaps that was one of the failings of the first film; they tried to do too much and ended up with not a lot."

Judge Dredd: The Mongoose RPG (2002 - Present)

In 2002 Judge Dredd was acquired by Mongoose who rebooted the RPG system using the D20 system. Although I have never GM'd or played this version, I do own some of the scenarios and supplements, which are eminently useable and are the usual high quality Mongoose products.

Mongoose were acquired by Rebellion Developments (who had bought 2000AD from IPC Magazines in 2000, coincdence???) and in 2009 they replaced the D20 System with its own Traveller System and also produced a set of free rules for mass combat in support of its excellent range of 28mm Judge Dredd Miniatures.

Judge Dredd: The Future

March 2012 sees the 35th Anniversary of Judge Dredd and a new movie starring Keith Urban is released in September. I hope to mark this resurgence of interest in my favourite comic book character by running a game with my Friday gaming group, writing more Judge Dredd blog posts and possibly releasing a PDF or two.

3 abreast in a 10' Corridor: Photographic Evidence from J E Holmes

2012-01-31T20:56:00.000Z

Jeff Rients recent post jogged my memories of playing with old school 25mm minis and this plate from Dr Holmes' book "Fantasy Role Playing Games" seems to support it. Citadel and their 1 inch plastic bases have a lot to answer for.


From "Fantasy Role Playing Games" by J Eric Holmes MD (p177) A tense moment. The cloaked figure of the thief (Ral Partha) crouches listening at the door as the rest of the party (Ral Partha) led by the Elf mage (Dragon Tooth) guard the corridor intersection.

Spellbooks as Physical Accessories

2012-01-30T11:30:00.000Z

Over at The Tower of The Archmage, Tim posted some inspirational images of spellbooks. In my campaign world, The Lands of Dual, I've always insisted that players whose PCs are spellcasters, create their own spell books (or in the case of Clerics, prayerbooks) as a physical accessory.

This fits in well with my preference for the "Spell Slots" form of spellcasting, where as long as the spell is in a PC's spellbook (ie: they have indepth knowledge of the spell) and they have an unused spell slot (ie: they have sufficient energy) then they can cast it. I also insist that the player come up with their own cantrip or rhyme which they recite when casting the spell.

Although some will undoubtedly think that this isn't very fair on the poor player who has to go to the extra effort of creating their own spell book, hang on a minute, there are a few paybacks.

PAYBACK FOR EFFORT

Mary Queen of Scot's Prayerbook and Rosary

How many times, as a spell casting player, have you had to dive into the rulebook to remind yourself of the spells exact effect or range? Using this system you can copy out the pertinent stats on a specific spell so you always have your own reference manual.

As DM I can give XP rewards to spellcasters for "roleplaying" their casting attempts. It's far too easy for spellcasters to get ignored (or just become non combat time specialists) when you're not upfront slaughtering the bad guys and getting XP for combat.

I've always struggled with the notion that if spellcasting characters "level up" in a wilderness, they essentially forfeit any advantage until they can get to a major urban location or meet another wizard to learn new spells and go through the whole "non-game time research" rigmarole which is not always possible to do in a fluid campaign.

Using the spellbook system, "levelling up" just means that you have had a breakthrough and that you have unlocked another level of mastery. If you already have, or subsequently find, a spellbook containing spells of your new level, you will now be able to "understand" them enough to add them to your own spell book. To my mind it is only right that mages should covet each others spellbooks, as a font of thaumaturgical knowledge. Cue a campaign where mages are being rounded up and slaughtered for their books.

PLAYING DOWN POWER

"But this might make spellcasters too powerful!" I hear you exclaim. Not so, there are ways in which you can temper their ability, whilst still making it interesting and challenging for them as players.

Environmental factors can make for interesting play. One of my players wizards had to cast all his spells from the safety of a trapped airpocket inside a submerged boat during an underwater encounter as he didn't want to get his book wet.

More powerful spells require longer incantations (the length of recital should be in line with the spells casting time) and therefore there is a greater chance that they will stutter or fluff their recital. This gives you the opportunity as DM to be a little bit creative with the resultant spell effect. Perhaps that level 5 Magic Missile wasn't quite on target or lacked a little concentration?

CRAFTING SPELLBOOKS

There are plenty of ready made notebooks, such as moleskines or the plethora of hand made notebooks, which you can buy off the shelf or from ebay. Personal organisers (medieval monks used miscellanies which were a kind of proto filofax) also make good spellbooks and have the advantage that you can add pages as you go. If you're a dab hand with word, photoshop or GIMP you could create your own page templates and paste in the important data in a fantasy font.

There are plenty of instructables about making antiqe paper with tea or coffee
The Necronomicon Notebook has some excellent downloadable pdf pages
Use a thrift store belt as a book clasp.
Follow Zombie Nation's Necronomicon Tutorial to make an awesome cover.
All Things Crafty's Spellbook with Removable Recipe Pages has a useful \bootlace binding.

Levelling up

2012-01-25T01:44:00.000Z

In his latest Legends and Lore article Monte Cook posits that:

"levels serve as a means to incentivize people to keep playing the game"

Whilst this may be true for the majority of MMORPGs and those time wasting level machines on facebook, it is not necessarily the case for D&D and other level based RPGs.

Levels are a Challenge Metric

D&D 3e introduced the concept of the Challenge Rating (CR) as a device to scale your encounters / scenario to match the levels of the PCs in your group, and before CR, we used a Monster's Hit Die. However, the constant used in both systems was the PCs level system. Successive layers of "Customizeable Elements" such as powers, feats, skills and kits have only added to the complexity of character generation and consequently devalued "Levels" as an effective constant.

Players use this metric during play to judge their own survivability and determine their reactions when faced with obviously superior force strength or capability. For example a lower level party will often resort to non combat means to overcome an encounter if they suspect that there is a high chance that they won't survive. Being a hero doesn't always have to mean slaughtering the enemy, particularly if a GM has intentionally used the monsters level to frighten or provoke a non-combat solution.

Storytelling Incentivizes Continued Play

In the same way that the storyline of a soap opera incentivizes millions of people to keep watching, the continuation or completion of a plot in an RPG incentivizes players to keep playing. Although min-maxing and power-gaming exist as styles of play these are generally regarded in a negative light and are discouraged in favour of more positive storytelling or cooperative styles.

Posturing vs Retrospection

Hands up those who've had (or overheard) a conversation before a game session which goes like this:

"My 5th level fighter will kick your 5th level rogue's ass..."

or after a session:

"Remember when I saved your ass by taking out that orc chief..."

As a DM, I know which one I'd prefer to hear my players use.

My 10 Favourite Sci-Fi Posters

2012-01-24T09:00:00.003Z

Thanks to Davis Chenault for his post highlighting the IGN 25 Top Sci-FI Posters.

Here's my top 10 (in no particular order) with some alternate versions thrown in for good measure:

1. MAD MAX

Original Theatrical Poster	UK Poster

I love the graphic simplicity of the original release, but the UK poster (which I remember from my childhood) makes me wanna see the movie NOW!.

2. DUNE

UK Poster

Japanese Poster

The haunting alien vista of the UK poster is infinitely preferable to the car crash of bad airbrush art that is the Japanese version. Who is Paul Atreides supposed to be kissing, cos it sure doesn't look like Sean Young.

3. BLADE RUNNER

Original Poster

Directors Cut Poster

The crazy angles and harsh edged look to the original composite are given a more sympathetic and dreamlike treatment for the directors cut. Much better poster IMHO.

4. THEY LIVE

Original Poster

Marc Palm Homage Poster

Rowdy Roddy Pipper eyeballs your "alienness" in the original, but there's a nice subversive edge to Marc Palm's "Hope" version.

5. STAR WARS

Original Poster

Olly Moss Homage

The original is a masterpiece of both composition and oil painting, even if the blasters seem to be firing light-sabre beams. The Olly Moss homage is an elegant piece of graphic design genius. I'm officially torn between the two.

6. ALIEN

Original Poster

Polish Poster

The minimalist original has it all, black for space, weird cracked egg with green glowy yolk, scary byeline and alien eggbox landscape. The poor poles have no idea what they're letting themselves in for with their bizarre blood vessel drawing of what I can only presume is a facehugger?

7. ESCAPE FROM NEW YORK

Original Poster

Special Edition Poster

The Big Apple has gone all to hell in the iconic (if a little cliched) original as the characters are caught in a spot of mid escape terror. The Special Edition looks like one of Snake Plisken's holiday snaps, posed right after he's brought down the Statue of Liberty in some sort of explosive mayhem.

8. SCANNERS

Original Poster

Italian Poster

In the definitive original, Michael Ironside's about to explode!!!. But I love the comic book style and vivid fiery reds in the Italian version.

9. GODZILLA VS MEGALON

Original Poster

Alternate Poster

Godzilla is kicking Megalon's butt in the original and classic poster. In the alternate version The Lost Continent of Mu has been given the boot in favour of a battle on top of the Twin Trade Towers which due to the exaggerated scale makes both these Kaiju look a bit puny by comparison. Nice idea, poor execution (and the typeography lets it down as well)

10. THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN

Original Poster

Ken Taylor Mondo Poster

The arthouse style original with its dirty steampunk qualities are eschewed by Ken Taylor for a heavily inked composite illustration evocative of a Hammer Horror movie poster.

Fantastic Locations: Mega City One

2012-01-21T12:14:00.000Z

This month's RPG Blog Carnival, kindly hosted by Keith J Davies, is entitled Fantastic Locations, and whilst it is tempting to write up one of my own Fantasy campaign locations (like the home plane of the Djinn Caliph), I decided to look again at the origin of the word fantastic.

According to merriam-webster the definition of fantastic is:

a : based on fantasy : not real
b : conceived or seemingly conceived by unrestrained fancy
c : so extreme as to challenge belief : unbelievable; broadly : exceedingly large or great

When balancing all three definitions it occurred to me that the only location which truly met the criteria was...

Mega City One

Mega City One Map

First appearing in Prog 2 of 2000AD (on 5th March 1977), Mega City One it is arguably the real star of the long running Judge Dredd comic book series.

Originally stretching across the entire Eastern seaboard of the once proud nation of the United States it was largely destroyed during the Apocalypse War and now is home to some 400 million citizens. It's western edge is bordered by a gigantic wall which protects it from the mutant inhabitants of the irradiated wasteland known as the Cursed Earth.

Architecture of Mega City One

The majority of Mega City One's citizens live in gigantic 1000 storey high Post Atomic Tower Blocks dominating the skyline. Nestled amongst these are smaller 500 storey blocks and puny 100 storey Pre-Atomic Blocks. The proximity of the blocks means that daylight cannot reach the lowest (and consequently) poorest levels of some blocks leaving them in permanent darkness and giving rise to the nickname "City Bottom". Much of what were once the shining corporate edifices of cities like New York has long ago been concreted over to form the foundations of these mega blocks and has created a subterranean "undercity" inhabited by a degenerate subhuman species of troglodytes.

Winding around and through all of these structures are a spaghetti like network of megways (roads), slidewalks (moving walkways) and pedways (pedestrian only) which allow citizens to move between blocks and other locations. Some of the citizens live in computer controlled mobile homes known as mo-pads which perpetually drive around cities megways.

Comparative Scales of
Contemporary Buildings
and a Mega City Block

The larger blocks house upto 60,000 citizens and contain everything that a person may need from schools, shops and recreation facilities to hospitals, offices and greenhouses. Each block is a self contained town and it has been known for some citizens to live out their entire lives in the same block until they die and are carted off to Resyk for disposal.

Life in Mega City One

Robot labour has largely replaced that of humans and unemployment runs at a staggering 87%. Most citizens try to find ways of aleviating boredom inevitably leading them to commit some sort of criminal activity which is dealt with swiftly by the city's law enforcers the judges.

This constant search for new ways to entertain oneself creates a steady stream of new crazes which sweep through Mega City like a plague (and are often just as deadly) and disappear just as rapidly leaving a swathe of destruction in their wake. The crazes which have graced the pages of Judge Dredd strips over the years are often influenced by contemporary fashions or pastimes, but taken to an extreme level For example body modification becomes crazes like fatties or uglies, extreme sports becomes crazes like boinging and skysurfing, even something as simple as being a pigeon fancier can be taken to the extreme when a "pigeon" is a giant prehistoric pterodactyl.

Living cheek by jowl can be stressful and there is always the chance that local rivalries will errupt into a full scale Block War between neighbouring blocks. Each block is equipped with its own militia (aka Citi Defence) in order to prevent large scale conflict from ensuing but they are sometimes as much of a problem as a solution. However, there are those citizens who just can't take living in such a crazy city are diagnosed as suffering from Future Shock Syndrome and end up taking their own lives and as many bystanders as they can.

Locations, Locations, Locations

The beauty of Mega City One is that it operates on a scale so vast that anything you can imagine might exist on an entire planet can exist within the walls of the city. Want a zoo stocked with terrifying alien creatures? have one. Want a 10 mile long ski slope with death defying jumps over a 10 lane motorway? have one. What ever your imagination can conjure up, Mega City One can accomodate it.

Mega City One as envisioned by artist Dave Taylor
Judge Dredd © 2012 Rebellion Developments/2000AD
Judge Dredd created by John Wagner and Carlos Ezquerra

Want to Know More?

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s: I is for Indiana Jones

2012-01-19T09:00:00.001Z

Indiana Jones

For most people of my age the movies of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg are part of the pop culture landscape and none more so than those of the unlikely hero, archaeologist and tomb robber Indiana Jones. The 80s saw Indy make three outings to the silver screen in Raiders of the Lost Ark (1981), The Temple of Doom (1984) and The Last Crusade (1989) but his origins lie in the heroes of the Saturday Matinee serials of the 1930s, 40s and 50s.

Kids TV in the UK also saw the more popular serial heroes (Flash Gordon and King of the Rocketmen) being repeated as cheap time filler. Christmas TV schedules were always peppered with repeats of great pulp movies like Doc Savage: The Man of Bronze and Doug Mclure always seemed to pop up "At The Earth's Core", in "The Land That Time Forgot" discovering "The People that Time Forgot".

The net effect was that British cinemagoers were already primed for Indy's arrival.

Indiana Jones RPG (TSR)

TSR Indiana Jones RPG

TSR released the Indiana Jones RPG in 1984 and followed up with six adventure modules and an expansion:

IJ1 - Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom
IJ2 - Raiders of the Lost Ark
IJ3 - Indiana Jones and the Crystal Death
IJ4 - Indiana Jones and the Golden Goddess
IJ5 - Indiana Jones and the Nepal Nightmare
IJ6 - Indiana Jones and the 4th Nail
IJAC1 - Judge's Survival Pack

Bizarrely, for an RPG, the boxed set did not include any rules for generating characters in the world of Indiana Jones, forcing you to play one of the established characters such as Indy, Marion or Shortround which probably accounts for its poor critical reception. When the license expired, all remaining unsold copies were ordered to be destroyed, all except one...

The Diana Jones Awards

The Diana Jones Award

When the staff at TSR UK destroyed their unsold copies the last one was creatively assembled into a perspex pyramid and has since 2001 been used as the trophy for the annual Diana Jones Awards celebrating excellence in gaming.

Other ways I've Roleplayed Indiana Jones

GURPS Cliffhangers - Originally released by Steve Jackson Games in 1989, this Genre Expansion for the popular GURPS System contains all you need to replicate Indy or any other pulp character's adventures.

Call of Cthulhu - CoC is set in the 1920s so needs little or no modification to update it for Indy millieu (anytime between 1930 to 1950). Dropping the heavy mythos creatures has little effect on the game mechanics and SAN can still be lost as a result of truly terrifying or shocking events such as dangling over a pit of snakes or gazing into the Ark of the Covenant. I have successfully used the system many times to game in the literary worlds of Agatha Christie, Tintin, Hercule Poirot, Jeeves and Wooster as well as other pulp heroes. Check out White Dwarf #60 (or the WD Cthulhu Omnibus) which featured the mini-scenario "The Bleeding Stone of Iphtah", an archaeological adventure set in Egypt.

All I want from 5e is...

2012-01-10T21:13:00.000Z

This is what happens when you type
"D&D 5e" into Google Images

The blogosphere is abuzz with the announcement that WotC are going ahead with development of the next iteration of Dungeons and Dragons. Rather than fuel the fires of the edition wars, which would be pointless as I don't play 4e and I don't play Pathfinder either, I thought I'd just throw up a list of what I would like to see in 5e and what would make me as an old skool gamer fast approaching 40 part with cold hard cash for what is essentially a new version of an old game.

1. Simple Rules to Start With - The concept of a basic game which as you level up gets increasingly complex makes good sense both from a new player/DM perspective and from a sales perspective. Everyone needs the basic rules to begin with but not everyone needs the Expert/Immortal rules right from the get go (notice how I didn't use those new fangled Heroic/Paragon/Epic Tier names, that's because it's a conceit and it sucks, what's wrong with calling something "an adventure for 5-6 characters of levels 10-15" anyway!!).

Face it, it takes years to become a good DM, there are no short-cuts or training courses you can go on. We've all put the years in to a greater or lesser degree and the focus of any pen and paper based game should be on DM arbitration. Too many rules to begin with overloads the casual or newbie DM and makes the game drag for players. If you want to entice more younger gamers into D&D to replenish the ranks of the old and bold then this is a must.

2. D&D needs to be cross platform - There are 2 major consoles (3 if you consider the Wii which actually outsells both of the other 2) which are more than upto the task of running an MMORPG / VTT game. There's also the traditional Mac and PC platforms, which even if you can't put together a full 3D HD Wizzy MMORPG such as WoW, it shouldn't be too difficult to put together an HTML 5 web app which will run on almost anything from the lowliest console to the latest spec kit. Hire an expert company like Zynga or their competitors to do the dev, they do it day in, day out.

Let's face it the world has moved on even from the 4e release only a handful of years ago. There are potentially more iPod/iPhone/iPad and Android users in the world than there are console gamers or any other platform specific community and it's getting bigger every day. A character builder is something that can feasibly be built for next to nothing and can even be given away as a free mobile app to entice new and old players alike.

Want to support the Organised Play / D&D Experiences / Living 5e communities, fine, let authorised DMs add XP and other adventure rewards online. These can then be reflected on your character app almost instantly. Couple it with a web based VTT as above for which you charge players as an in-app purchase to go on adventures and you've got a new funding model for a digital age (this should keep HASBRO happy).

Ultimately choice of OS should not be a barrier to enjoying a D&D online experience.

3. Miniatures with RFID/Bluetooth - The recent Wii hit game Skylanders has pushed technology that little bit further with their RFID enabled miniatures, do the same for D&D miniatures. No collectibility, just offer them for sale.

4. No Subscriptions Please (were British) - I know that PC and console gamers are going to object to this, but I'm afraid that the subscription model of charging for gaming is a bit of a dead dog. It works in an MMORPG sense as you tend to collaborate online with people you don't know, but in a sit around the table VTT sense I'm not sure it will work as I'm sure nobody wants to tell one of the Players to get their VISA card out or they can't join in.

I don't think I'd be able to convince "Her Indoors" that a subscription for a game I may only play once a week is value for money, but I also don't want, and can't afford, to invest the sort of time one needs to in an MMORPG style game in order to recoup my cash investment.

Ultimately, if the likes of major newspapers like The Times or the WSJ can't get paywalls to work for them, I can't see how WotC can get it to work for D&D.

5. Print Pubs with Online Extras - This is already happening in the indie scene as more and more publishers supplement purchases of the dead tree version of their games with a free PDF version. We're not stupid, we know that you sent the book to the printer as a PDF, don't try to rip us off with overpriced e-books. Whilst you're at it, give us some promo codes for extras which are only available if you buy the dead tree adventure modules (that are allegedly hard to sell). Look at the sterling work being done by Worlds of Wonder with their bordgame promo codes.

If a tenth of this ends up appearing in the final release edition of 5e, I may be enticed back, maybe...

Moviewatch: Looking forward to 2012

2012-01-03T09:00:00.004Z

I know that this is a little "off topic" but who doesn't use movies as inspiration for their games...? Here's a list of movies I'm looking forward to in 2012

MOVIEWATCH: LOOKING FORWARD TO 2012

JANUARY

The Divide - 13th January (USA) - A bunch of survivors are holed up in the confines of their apartment building's basement after a nuclear war.
Haywire - 18th January (UK) - Steven Soderbergh directs this story of a female Black Ops soldier who seeks revenge after being set up during a mission.
Underworld Awakening - 20th Jan (UK) - Kate Beckinsale dons the leather catsuit again for another outing as Selene in the 4th Underworld movie.

FEBRUARY

Journey 2: The Mysterious Island - 3rd February (UK) - Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson leads his girlfriends family to a mysterious island in the search for their grandfather.
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance - 17th February (UK) - Nicholas Cage returns as Johnny Blaze.

MARCH

John Carter - 9th March (UK) - Disney adaptation of the Edgar Rice Burroughs' Martian hero John Carter.
The Hunger Games - 23rd March (UK) - Gary Ross (Seabiscuit) directs this adaptation of the Suzanne Collins novel of a dystopian future.
Wrath of The Titans - 30th March (UK) - Sam Worthington returns as Perseus to battle Hades and rescue Zeus.

APRIL

Iron Sky - 4th April (FIN) - Nazi flying saucers leave their secret moon base to invade Earth.
MS One: Maximum Security - 13th April (UK) - Guy Pearce stars in this outerspace prison break movie written by Luc Besson.
Battleship - 20th April (UK) - Liam Neeson tries to see off an alien invasion with his trusty naval fleet
The Avengers - 27th Aril (UK) - Thor, Iron Man, Capt. America, Black Widow, Hawkeye and The Hulk appear in 2012's most anticipated superhero slugfest.

MAY

The 25th Reich - 10th May (AUS) - Time travel, Nazi Robot Spiders, what's not to like?
Sinbad: The 5th Voyage - 18th May (US) - Patrick Stewart narrates this low budget Sinbad tale.
Men in Black III - 25th May (UK) - Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones return as agents J and K in this time travelling sequel.

JUNE

Prometheus - 1st June (UK) - Ridley Scott directs this Alien prequel which covers the events of an earlier expedition to LV426.
G.I. Joe Retaliation - 22 June (UK) - Sequel to the family friendly action movie featuring Channing Tatum backed up by Bruce Willis, Dwayne Johnson and Ray Stevenson

JULY

The Amazing Spider-Man - 4th July (UK) - Andrew Garfield dons the lycra in this reboot of the spidey movie franchise and faces off against classic super-villain The Lizard played by Rhys Ifans.
The Dark Night Rises - 20th July (UK) - Christain Bale returns as Batman to face off against Bane

AUGUST

Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter - 2nd August (UK) - Dominic Cooper and Alan Tudyk feature in this adaptation of Seth Grahame Smith's novel.
Total Recall - 22nd August (UK) - Colin Farrell stars as Doug Quaid in a remake of the classic Phillip K Dick short story "We Can Remember It For You Wholesale"

SEPTEMBER

Resident Evil: Retribution - 14th September (UK) - Milla Jovovich makes another outing as Alice in the latest installment in the war against the Umbrella Corporation.
Para Norman - 14th September (UK) - The team behind Coraline and 9 return with this animated tale of a boy who can see speak with the dead.
Dredd - 21 September (UK) - Karl Urban stars as Judge Dredd in this big screen outing for the 2000AD hero, which will hopefully blow away all the bad memories of the 1995 Sylvester Stallone version.
Looper - 28th September (UK) - Sci-Fi thriller where mob hit-man Joseph Gordon-Levitt gets hired to kill his future self.

OCTOBER

Hotel Transylvania - 12th October (UK) - Genndy Tartakovsky directs this animated tale of a boy falling for Dracula's daughter in an upmarket holiday resort for monsters.

NOVEMBER

Red Dawn - 2nd November (US) - Chris Hemsworth stars in this remake of the 80s classic as a group of American teenagers attempt to save their town from a North Korean invasion.

DECEMBER

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey - 14th December (UK) - Martin Freeman as Bilbo Baggins in the first part of Peter Jackson's adaptation.
47 Ronin - 14th December (UK) - Keannu Reeves stars in this true story of 18th Century Japanese samurai who take revenge for the death of their master.

SCHEDULED FOR SOMETIME IN 2012

War of The Worlds: Goliath - Animated steampunk movie sequel to HG Well's War of the Worlds produced in association with Heavy Metal Magazine. This one has been threatening to come out for a while, hope it doesn't turn into vapourware.
Paradox Alice - A rescue mission is despatched to Europa to fetch water for a dying earth but something puts the mission in jeopardy.
A Little Bit Zombie - An HR manager turning zombie trys to keep his life together and marry his fiance.
Polypore - A young man's hunt for answers to his newly found gift of telepathy uncovers a web of corporate intrigue.
Cheech & Chong's Animated Movie - Cheech Marin and Tommy Chong's animated movie based on their Grammy Award winning albums. Probably has nothing useable from an RPG stance but I like a bit of Cheech and Chong now and then.
Vehicle 19 - Paul Walker stars as a foreign tourist who unwittingly picks up a rental car and is drawn into a scheme of corrupt local police.

Happy New Year and 2012 Resolutions

2012-01-01T11:11:00.000Z

Happy New Year to all of you out there in RPG Blogging land, especially to those members of the RPGBN and RPGBA who have been along for the ride over the past 12 months.

RPG Resolutions for 2012

1. Be a Player and not a GM - In 2011 I spent most of my time (33 weekly sessions) GMing my C&C campaign which took up most of my freetime. I don't know how other bloggers manage to fit two or three campaigns into a year, but one was enough for me. Playing games rather than running means that I have more time to put thoughts onto paper (or screen) and develop ideas for future games. I suspect that I'm no different to a lot of other gamers in this respect, I need a playing sabbatical in order to recharge my batteries.

2. Read More and Play Apps less - I have been seduced by a number of really cool app games over the last year which have taken over my daily commute and turned me into an iOS zombie. I used to read on the train but now I can be found playing drawrace or some other equally addictive timewaster. I have a huge stack of books beside my bed which I really ought to get through.

3. Re-skin the blog - Although this blog is cool it looks pretty scruffy and amateurish in comparison to other blogs, my day job is in the web so it's actually quite embarrassing at the same time that I've not done anything about the CSS or branding on the site at all. This year I hope to smarten things up.

4. Publish more - becoming a self publisher has been a blast so far and I have a number of projects which are in several stages of completion. This year I really must pull my finger out and get them published.

2011 in Review

2011-12-29T11:59:00.000Z

2012 is almost upon us and its time to set some goals, but first I have to review 2011.

2011 Resolutions Progress

Last year saw me start blogging in earnest and for the first time in ages I made some New Year Resolutions:

1. Take More Notes (5/10) - I'm counting this as a partial success. I created the Lands of Dual website to act as a repository for session reports and to store all my campaign notes and maps. I also began using record cards to take notes, but still relied far too heavily on players notes than I would have liked. This became particularly troublesome when calculating the XP earned by individual PCs so I must come up with a better solution.

2. Weekly Blog Series (5/10) - Another partial success as I managed to create two of the weekly blog series ideas I spoke of in my original resolutions article. Unfortunately they petered out within a few articles.

Monday Motivations - was an attempt to compile a list of mini-backgrounds for fantasy characters along class lines. I managed to write 12 articles before the juices ran dry. There's plenty of life left in this series though and I did promise to publish it as a collected series which will clearly need to be expanded upon.
Citymorphs - Following in the footsteps of the Geomorphing community I successfully created 29 citymorph tiles over the course of 7 articles. In retrospect I should probably have reduced the number of morphs per article and eked it out over more posts as the pressure to create 4 morphs per week quickly exhausted my creative juices. However, I did manage to get them added to Dave's Mapper so you can play with them to your heart's content.

The focus for Geomorphs seemed to shift towards the Dungeonmorph Dice project founded by Joe "Inkwell Ideas" Wetzel but there were casualties along the way and the inspirational Dyson Logos has apparently gone off line for the forseeable future.

I liked the concept a lot and as my attention drifts away from Fantasy (in the form of my current OSR clone Castles and Crusades) towards Sci-Fi (namely Judge Dredd) I think there are options for this in the future.

This was not theend of the story and a couple of other series ideas sprang forth.

A to Z of 80s UK RPG - Was an attempt at nostalgically recording my gaming inspirations but stuttered at "I is for ....". I intend to continue this series as I have written further articles along the line which have yet to see the light of day and it would be a shame to end it after only 8 articles.
Mapping Tools - Was a little 4 part series investigating the state of free cross platform mapping solutions at different scales. I enjoyed making this series and it led to the discovery of the sweet little tool TILED which I have now used on a number of occasions to construct classic blue style dungeon maps such as The Ruined Tower of The Archmage.

3. Blog in Advance (3/10) - I have come to the conclusion that scheduled blogging really only works if you have an ongoing series combined with enough inspiration to easily create articles for it in advance. This lack of inspiration has really been my issue and I don't want to end up with quality suffering for the sake of quantity.

Other Achievements in 2011

Blog Performance

2011 has seen Roleplay-Geek hit the 20,000 pageviews mark (woot) and I've written 96 articles. I've even tried mobile blogging with limited success, if anyone has any suggestions for free iOS apps for mobile let me know in the usual way.

The top 5 articles of the year (by pageviews) are:

Minions My OSR take on the one hit wonder (697pv) - High interest in this article probably due to being picked up in Tracy Hurley's Festival of Lights article on the official D&D website. I must namedrop 4e concepts a bit more...
Make: 3D Dungeon Tiles Pt 1 - The Design (193pv) - Where I set out the design to produce a cheap as chips and, more importantly, a useable 3D dungeon set.
Make: 3D Dungeon Tiles Pt 2 - The Build (189pv) - Building the rooms with foamcore.
RPG Mapping Tools Part 1 - Battle Maps (183pv) - Part one of my 4 part series exploring free cross platform mapping tools.
UPDATE: RPG Google mapping with MAPLib (159pv) - An update to my article on using MAPLib for your campaign map needs.

Top referrers are of course RPG Bloggers Network and RPG Blog Alliance, thanks for all the visits guys.

Roleplay Geek Publishing

In April I became an RPG publisher and over the course of the year managed to create a total of 7 products which are currently available for download on RPG Now. All the advice I gleaned from the various blogs I read forewarned me that this wasn't going to make me a millionaire, but I have enjoyed the experience so far and have been pleasantly surprised with the results so far.

Item	TOTAL SALES	TOTAL EARNINGS
Item Cards - Adventurer's Gear	57	$ 36.68
Item Cards - Potions	44	$ 26.18
Item Cards - Animals	32	$ 18.48
Paper Minis - Animals	28	$ 18.90
GM Aids - Decision Deck	18	$ 25.20
Item Cards - Free Sampler	391	$ 0.00
Paper Minis - Free Fungaloid Lurkers & Brain Vine	130	$ 0.00
Grand Totals	627	$ 124.44

RPG Now is a fantastic way to publish but consequently there are some 15,436 products available to download and standing out from the crowd is extremely difficult. Most of my sales occurred soon after products were added to RPG Now and so featured in the Latest Products list and I haven't worked out a marketing strategy yet.

PDF pricing seems to be a bit hit and miss, Tim Shorts of Gothridge Manor recently wrote a neat article revealing his thoughts and research into pricing his own products. It doesn't seem to be any easier for the DIY print publisher either, Chris Tregenza has started a new thread on his blog detailing his progress towards making a profit for the 6d6 RPG and I will be watching this with interest.

My philosophy with my PDFs is that I'm producing them for my own games anyway, so the personal effort involved isn't factored into the profit equation. I'm under no illusion that I'm going to become rich as a result, but if I can gather up a few dollars along the way to buy the odd bit of swag then it's a success.

Miniature Painting

I returned to miniature painting and finally completed my Harlequin Giant Forest Troll and am part way through painting a Ral Partha Djinn and Efreet. As I get older I have begun to have issues with painting under electric light (or it could be those god awful compact fluorescent bulbs we now have to use) so this restricts the time when I can comfortably paint to a small window on a Saturday morning. I have a stack of minis which need a bit of colour so I need to ramp up production in 2012.

All in all a mixed year, stay tuned for the New Year Resolutions post.

Star Blazer Adventures Random Scenario Generator, or How I Wrote a One Session Scenario in 30 minutes.

2011-12-24T17:26:00.001Z

I was scheduled to be playing a one session scenario last night when I received an e-mail that the GM had pulled out at short notice due to illness. In a moment of madness with 3 hours till I had to jump in the car, I offered to GM the slot with a Star Blazer Adventures (SBA) game. 2 hours of random internet surfing later I decided I'd better write the scenario.

Fortunately chapter 25 of SBA's monster 627 page rulebook contains a plethora of random tables to help you generate ideas for your games. The results of my rolls were:

Mission 1		Mission 2
Mission Nature:	Corporate	Mission Nature:	Diplomatic
Objective:	Industrial Espionage	Objective:	Hostage Negotiation
Complication:	Military Intervention	Complication:	Travel Difficulties
Who:	Mobster	Who:	Alien Race
Reason:	Mistaken Identity	Reason:	Training

Nothing immediately flowed from this so I decided to break the scenario down into 4 scenes and roll randomly for each:

Scene 1		Scene 2
Location:	Town / Village	Location:	Stock Exchange
Bad Guy Encounter:	Traitorous Politician	Bad Guy Encounter:	Corrupt Soldier
Good Guy Encounter:	Unexpected Ally	Good Guy Encounter:	Enemy of My Enemy
Reason:	Heresy	Reason:	Past Embarrassment
Scene 3		Scene 4
Location:	Hostile Fleet	Location:	Refinery
Bad Guy Encounter:	War Criminal	Bad Guy Encounter:	Murderer
Good Guy Encounter:	Judge	Good Guy Encounter:	War Criminal
Reason:	Blood Feud	Reason:	Recent Defeat

Putting Meat on the Bones

By now the creative juices had started to bubble now so I decided to select parts of the random generated scenes above and began to flesh out my scenario:

Scene 1 - The PCs are the crew of a Star Patrol cruiser currently stationed on Zorb 3 and investigating the disappearance of some medical supplies which have been misappropriated by the corrupt Mayor of the town. During the course of this first scene the PCs are alerted to an incident at the planetary stock exchange and immediately re-assigned to investigate.

Scene 2 - The PCs arrive at the stock exchange in the planetary capital only to find that an assault has taken place and a prominent corporate figure has been kidnapped. A snatch squad has blown a huge hole in the side of the building and made their escape in a warp capable freighter.

Scene 3 - The PCs exit a warp corridor into the middle of the Mercenary Pirate fleet of Desiderous Black, disgraced Star Patrol Officer and War Criminal. They are engaged and end up flying their crippled cruiser into a hanger of the pirate fleet's flagship The Medusa.

Scene 4 - The PCs land at a refinery on an uninhabited world where they attempt to rescue the corporate hostage in a final showdown and capture the terrorists with the aid of the War Criminal Desiderous Black.

Scene Transitions

Clearly these scenes needed fleshing out, which would occur during play, but more importantly, they needed transitions from one scene to another:

Scene 1 > Scene 2 - During their journey from the town to the stock exchange they narrowly avoid a collision with a blue and yellow freighter which is heading out of the capital.

Scene 2 > Scene 3 - The PCs hastily follow the jump coordinates of the fleeing freighter without knowing where the warp exit point is located.

Scene 3 > Scene 4 - Desiderous Black reveals that he is in fact still a loyal member of Star Patrol and has been on a deep cover mission to wrest control of the pirate fleet away from its rag tag band of mercenary captains and to use its immense power covertly in situations where Star Patrol cannot operate publicly for political reasons. With the mission now complete he wishes to "come in from the cold" and going off on a wild goose chase following the promise of hostage treasure is a credible escapade which befits his reputation in the the eyes of the other pirate captains.

How it Played Out

The game began at 7:30pm and finished at 2:00am which is quite long for a one session scenario, but fair considering that I had no pre-gen PCs and the players are relatively unfamiliar with the slightly obtuse character generation process that the game requires.

Scene 1 - The PCs were in the town running computer checks on the batch numbers of the medical supplies with the assistance of a low level admin clerk who refused to give anything other than minor assistance as he was in fear of losing his job. They successfully identified the serial numbers which had been tampered with and eventually the identity of the user involved. However, they triggered some file alarms which resulted in the Mayor making a run for it in his hover-limousine. The PCs gave chase and attempted to communicate with the occupant of the vehicle but in-advertantly caused it to lose control and crash. Whilst they inspected the wreckage for the body of the Mayor, he slipped into the cargo bay of their cruiser unnoticed. They were in the process of recovering the medical supplies from the wreck when the call came through to re-assign them to investigating the incident at the stock exchange.

Scene 2 - On their way to the scene, they narrowly avoid the freighter as they enter the emergency lane splitting the cities incoming and outgoing air-traffic. When they review the external security footage they realise that the freighter used in the incident is the same one they encountered on their way to the stock exchange. They use up some fate points to make plot declarations ensuring that they have access to the jump coordinates for the fleeing freighter.

Scene 3 - Coming out of warp they are attacked by five fighters and although they attempted to jump straight out of the situation, I frazzled their warp coils with some treknobabble about warp static. They engage the fighters and without suitable heavy weapons themselves attempt to use the enemies own missiles to cripple the flagship. They succeed in punching a hole inside the hull of the ship but resist the temptation to crash their vessel into the hole, seeking the safety of a conveniently located hanger on board. With the warp coils frazzled they need to locate suitable replacements from onboard the enemy flagship and assemble an away team to go investigate. During this mission the away team is captured and the star patrol ship boarded. Desiderous Black reveals his secret to the Star Patrol Captain PC and offers to assist by accompanying them for the final leg of their mission on board the captured Star Patrol vessel Aggamemnon.

Scene 4 - This was a straight up dungeon bash inside the atmosphere refinery where I gradually whittled down the Pirate Captain's lackeys until only the PCs and Black were left. The PCs located the corporate hostage who was tied up and swinging from the claw of an overhead crane whilst the kidnappers leader laughed maniacally from its controls. Getting the tension just right was key and when the leader was killed there was a chance that the mission would go pear shaped resulting in the death of the hostage. One of the PCs was playing a mysterious alien with a secret "fugitive time traveller" aspect and I allowed another PC to trade a fate point in order to tag this thereby saving the day.

Things I Would do Differently

Overall the exercise was a big success, but the bulk of time wasted during the session occurred during character generation and it's something I've seen players struggle with before. The freeform concept of aspects and legends and the complex list of skills is a little daunting to first time players and not at all helpfull if you are putting on an impromptu game. What would be useful is a set of archetypes with all the stat blocks filled in for a wide range of standard space opera types such as the crew of a star patrol ship, a bounty hunter, a law enforcement robot... etc... etc... (sounds like a project for the New Year...).

Merry Christmas everyone.

20,000 Page Views

2011-12-22T21:59:00.000Z

Some time today this blog hit 20,000 page views. Thanks for all the support guys and girls.

Kicking off Campaigns by Keeping Players in the Dark

2011-12-09T09:00:00.005Z

Joe Bloch's recent thought provoking article on Greyhawk Grognard suggests that the question facing DMs when starting a new campaign is one of information flow. This may be true in sandbox campaigns but I often find that if PCs know too much about the campaign world it results in Analysis Paralysis rather than driving their decision making.

Less information to begin with usually helps them to concentrate on the immediate choices to hand rather than worrying about the world at large. The worst trait that players can exhibit is that of the "Setting Lawyer" where they bring their own knowledge of the world, gained by playing other scenarios, into play. This can be a real problem for DMs who are not as familiar with the setting as some of their players and can be very disruptive or diverting for the rest of the group, particularly if conflict between player and DM arises as a result.

Chaucer's Pilgrims - The Canterbury Tales

Medieval history tells us that travel for peasants was fairly limited, many never having travelled more than 50 miles from their home village in their whole lives. The pilgrims of Chaucer's "The Canterbury Tales" took part in a round trip of some 120 miles from Southwark to Canterbury and back, which would be considered to be a considerable undertaking for anyone at the time. However, Chaucer himself travelled widely, making trips to France, Spain Flanders and Italy in various roles as a civil servant and diplomat (and perhaps spy). He even embarked on a Crusades, and like many English soldiers would have travelled unheard of distances, by comparison to their stay at home cousins. I like to see my player's PCs as more like Chaucer and those Crusaders (ie: adventurous persons) rather than like his pilgrims who, to all intents and purposes, are really nothing more than NPCs.

Gary Gygax's sage advice on the subject (A&D Dungeon Masters Guide, p. 87), which is interesting to read nonetheless, seems to be aimed at DM's running their first campaign and perhaps at novice players.

I entirely agree with Joe that the first few sessions of any campaign are really spent getting to know one another and less about finding out where in the world they are or what their next move should be. Starting of with a simple scenario to get them used to each other's company, traits and talents is a must.

When running my own campaign world my objective is as much about developing my world as it is about playing out interesting plot lines. To help me achieve this goal I insist that the majority of players select lands other than the starting location as their PC birthplace. This often requires them to come up with a convincing reason for embarking on some form of quest as part of their background, giving me the opportunity to weave parts of this into the arc plotline (clever, yes?).

I also recommend that DMs run short solo encounters, as prequels for each PC as a prelude to a campaign. These do not need to be any more than 30 to 45 minutes each and can usually be done as part of the first session or offline if needs be. Your players will thank you in the long run as it bridges the gap between character creation and provides believable reasons for turning up at that cliche of a tavern looking for work.

RPG Mapping Tools Part 4 - Planet and Star Maps

2011-12-08T09:00:00.002Z

In this part I zoom out even further and take a look at planetary system maps and star maps. Which conventionally use the hex grid I looked at in Part 3: Region Maps.

Regina Subsector Jump Map

STARMAPS

The definitive starmap has to be a Traveller sector map, which has some particular conventions of its own, namely the positioning of features around the edges of each hex to denote the hexes contents (clockwise from top; Starport Type, Gas Giant, Allegiance, World Name, and Base Type.) Stellar trade routes which are also the main lines of communication are denoted by solid lines from one planet to anotherand the hex center contains world information (water present / not present or if it has an asteroid belt). The sample I'm using is the Regina Subsector Jump Map and the standard 1½ hour rule applies.

Hexographer (http://www.hexographer.com)

Hexographer "Cosmic" output

If you've read Part 3: Region Maps, you'll know I rate this highly as an easy to use tool with great output. "The Daddy" of free online hexmapping solutions has its own "Cosmic" menu which offers features such as planets, stars, and spacestations which can each have custom colours. Hex features can also be placed at various clock positions around the hex, but these are not entirely traveller compliant and are time consuming to include and to be honest if you're running anything other than traveller you won't need them. 7/10 - "Not too Shabby"

The Traveller Map (http://www.travellermap.com)

An awesome bit of interactive mapping which shows the full stellar map divided into it's individual sub-sectors. Double clicking on the sectors zooms in and you can even print off the results in booklet form. If you're GMing a game in the Traveller universe then this should be your first starport of call. 9/10 - "Why DIY when it's already done for you?"

PLANETARY MAPS

The inherent problem of mapping a globe onto a flat plane has plagued cartographers ever since our view of the world changed from being flat to round and has resulted in a number of map projection techniques of which we are most familiar with the Mercator Projection. However, Sci-Fi roleplayers will be most familiar with the icosahedral projection popularised by Traveller.

Icosahedral World Generator (http://inkwellideas.com/2011/09/isocahedral-worldmap-generator/)
Joe over at Inkwell Ideas has pulled off an amazing planet generator which should keep most DMs more than happy. Not only does the tool allow you to customise the random size, temperature and percentage of land, mountains and vegetation, it also includes a hex editor allowing you to replace terrain as you like. There's no export to image function but you can export to hexographer for even more editing possibilities.

Inkwell Ideas Icosahedral World Generator

Other Notable Tools

Donjon's Sci-Fi World Generator (http://donjon.bin.sh/scifi/world/)

This browser based tool will happily generate planets for you all day long. You can customise the generator a little to make each planet a bit more useable, the output includes a map, physics (size and physical composition), gravimetry (gravity and esape velocity), rotation (length of 1 rotation and axial tilt), hydrosphere (ratio of water/ice), atmosphere (chemical composition), climate (temerature ranges) and biosphere (chemistry and lifeforms). If you want to create a whole star system Donjon also has a Traveller System Generator and a Star Wars D6 System Generator. There are a lot of really useful tools on his tsite I particularly like the Sci-Fi Name Generator's Star Trek Technobabble option.
9/10 - "Superb"

Legendary Locations: Cave of Crystals, Mexico

2011-12-07T21:59:00.000Z

Nature has this unnerving way of making humanities greatest achievements sometimes seem seem really insignificant...

Crystal Caverns, Mexico - National Geographic

You can learn more about the expedition to the Cave of Crystals over at National Geographic.

Minions: my OSR take on the one hit wonder.

2011-12-06T11:39:00.002Z

One of the 4e concepts that intrigued me most was the idea of minions, I thought it was very cinematic and was itching to see what it was like from a player perspective. Earlier this year when I got a chance to play in a demo game I was quite dissapointed, there was no sense of fear or uncertainty about the whole combat and It left me quite unsatisfied.

Geek Ken has some useful advice on how 4e DMs should use minions, particularly in the use of attack waves and Glimm's Workshop introduces the Resolve concept to make minions a little tougher but clearly something is not quite right with the rules for minions as they stand.

In OSR (or retroclones) a monster is generally ranked by its Hit Dice (HD) which in most cases equates to 1d8 of HP. The DM can simply turn any monster into a 1 hit wonder by reducing the number of HP it has to a value below the minimum damage dealt by the majority of the party. Even at 1st level this is usually around the 4HP mark and will increase slowly as the party's levels and damage bonuses increase.

HOW I HOUSERULE MINIONS OLD SCHOOL STYLE

How the DM assigns this HP reduction is up to them, for me this depends on what type of monster I am stocking the encounter with. If it's a creature with animal intelligence or lower with no social structure then I'll either randomly roll or just assign every creature the same value say 4HP per HD. However, if it's a creature with higher than animal intelligence or an animal which has a clear social aspect then I like to use the following system:

ALPHA - (8HP per HD) - This is the pack leader or alpha, the toughest member of the encountered group and will be the one giving the orders. There can never be more than one Alpha in a group regardless of its size.
BETA - (6HP per HD) - These are the Alpha's bullies, they do what the Alpha tells them to and will bully the norms into doing what the Alpha demands. Their number depends largely on the size of the group but I like to use the ratio of 1 Beta to every 5 Norms.
NORM - (4 HP per HD ) - The rank and file version of the creature who will be goaded into action by the BETA or ALPHA. In some cases I'll keep the actual value of Norm HP fluid just in case the PCs have excessively bad rolls, after all there's no point in them falling at the first hurdle and getting slaughtered by minions.

TAKING DOWN THE ALPHA

If players have the opportunity to observe a group before engaging they should be able to identify each ALPHA and BETA. This may have a bearing on their plan of attack, particularly if they have ranged specialists which can target the ALPHA and BETA types and take them out provoking a morale check which may result in the norms fleeing or surrendering and giving the PCs the victory but morale for minions is another thing all together and maybe a subject for a future article.

The Ruined Tower of The Archmage

2011-12-04T10:24:00.000Z

Ruined Tower Prize

David over at the Tower of the Archmage is running a competition to win one of his scenic models, a ruined tower. Unfortunately for me I'm based in the UK and am therefore ineligible (the postage to the UK would be ruinous) but I liked the model enough to knock up a quick map and the basics for an encounter.

The Ruined Tower of the Archmage

The ruins of this solitary tower sit atop an exposed moorland hill which is constantly blasted by the elements. Anyone crossing the moor on a particularly stormy day or night will be glad to shelter inside the towers walls even just for 5 minutes.

1. Ground Floor - Even in its ruined state, the ground floor of this 20ft wide tower offers a welcome respite from the storm. If the PCs search the tower or try to light a fire they disturb 3 Wolves who have made a den under the spiral staircase. They fight to the death.

2. Spiral Stairs - The spiral stairs stop after 1 half revolution, anyone making a leap of faith whilst on the outer part of the staircase will pass through a dimensional portal onto another set of stairs which lead to the 1st floor. The portal is invisible and can only be detected by magical means.

3. The Library - This room is dedicated to learning and storing knowledge as evidenced by the many bookshelves which line the walls. A staircase sweeps up to another floor above,

4. The Storeroom - A small 10ft by 5ft room containing shelves stacked with a myriad assortment of magical and mundane ingredients.

5. The Laboratory - An octagonal room whose walls are chalked with all manner of magical symbols and signs. The floor is dominated by a pentacle and a cloud of oily black smoke writhe within in the shape of a column. Sprawled face down on the floor just outside the pentacle is a white haired old man dressed in long robes clutching a book.

Enjoy....

Fields of Battle: What's in the box?

2011-12-01T09:00:00.012Z

During several recent trips to my FLGS (Orcs Nest in central London) I have found myself being drawn to Fields of Battle: Miniature Battle Rules for Castles and Crusades. Unfortunately I like to know what's in the box (or book) before I buy it and scouring the internet for photos drew a blank. Well here is a box content photo for those of you who may be thinking of making this purchase.

Fields of Battle - Box Contents

As you can see the bulk of the content is made up from cardstock counters, wilderness battlemat sheets and the beautiful papercraft siege engines from Fat Dragon Games. The rules are contained in a slim 48 page book. Potential buyers may be turned off by this plethora of cardstock, particularly if they are intending to use this as a wargame with their own miniatures, but this would be an injustice.

I'll admit that this is probably a niche product, but I see it coming in veru handy as an adjunct to a regular RPG campaign session. I know that in my own games I have written storylines where PCs are involved in mass battle events, either as a group of fighters in a particular unit or in defending a castle from a siege assault. RPG combat systems don't cope well with this scale of combat yet it is a quintessential part of almost every work in the genre which we use as our inspiration for our games.

The usual cludge is to focus purely on one or two encounters within the battle and your players will have no appreciation of the scale and in many cases will not have any impact on the battle as a whole. Fields of battle attempts to bridge that gap by introducing a variant of the Siege Engine system which allows your Castles and Crusades PCs to get directly involved in the battle and their players can see the whole battle rather than just the tiny vignette you may have otherwise created for them.

In essence I just can't see myself carting around hundreds of heavy miniatures in order to stage a battle as part of my regular games session, whereas slipping this box into my backpack opens up a whole new scale of combat for my players.

Guilds of Dual - Basic Guild Concepts for Fantasy Roleplaying Games

2011-11-29T22:03:00.002Z

Worshipful Company of
Feltmakers of London

I recently read a couple of interesting articles on Trollish Delver and Grognardling discussing the use of Guilds which inspired me to go revisit the guilds for my own FRPG campaign world, The Lands of Dual.

My first challenge (and one all GMs encounter) was to bring as diverse a party from the four corners of the globe together in as believeable a fashion as I could. I decided to use the scenario Challenge of Champions by Jonathon M Richards (featured in Dungeon #58) which called for the use of a Guild to host the annual competition. Thus was born the Adventurers Guild of Ayfal.

THE ADVENTURER'S GUILD

The seaport of Ayfal, and specifically their lodgings in the guildhouse, became the party's defacto base of operations for quite a while (15 sessions in fact). The guild offers a number of useful services for its members in exchange for an annual membership and I came up with the following template:

AYFAL ADVENTURER'S GUILD
Motto:	"In Darkness Find Rich Reward"
Membership:	500+
Annual Membership Fee:	200 GP
Guild Leader:	Guildmaster Fenwick
Notable Members:	Guild Secretary Ignatius, Guild Quartermaster Renfrew, Guild Loremaster Ehnid (Deceased)
Background:
Catering to the needs of the discerning traveller, the membership of the Ayfal Adventurer's Guild is an eclectic mix of Warriors, Wizards, Priests, Bards, Rogues and other occupations. Guildmaster Fenwick - A middle-aged Priest has led the Guild for the last 5 years and his greatest achievement has been to expand the welfare services that the Guild offers. The Guild is well received among the townsfolk of Ayfal and they enthusiatically support the annual Challenge of Champions contest and the increased trade it brings to the town.
Services Offered:
Banking - Money (or valuable items) can be left with the guild in it's secure vault and withdrawn at a modest 5% fee. Depositors are required to give instructions on what to do with their funds in the event of their death. Guild Secretary Ignatius handles all banking transactions. International transactions are also possible through the use of "letters of credit" which are accepted between affiliated guildhouses. Boarding House - Limited lodgings are available on a first come first served basis and the guild has arranged members discounts at several hostelries within the town. Employment Services - The Guild acts as an employment agency for many of the other guilds and organisations such as the Town Council where tasks of a questing nature are concerned. However, the Guild has a strict policy of not accepting tasks which involve the intimidation or assassination of town or guild officials. At breakfast each morning Guild Secretary Ignatius reads out the list of quest opportunities. Hospital - The Guild has several staff priests well versed in the medical arts and it's multi-faith membership ensures that last rites can be performed correctly irrespective of race or denomination. Procurement of Supplies - Superior quality adventuring supplies can be purchased through the Guild's Quartermaster at a reasonable rate (+10% cost above normal) and the Guild has arranged a generous membership discount scheme with local suppliers such as smiths, jewellers, tailors, corsers, and cartwrights. Training - The guild employs a team of veteran members in order to pass on their knowledge and skills to younger members. Library - The Guild has a well stocked library run by Guild Loremaster Ehnid who employs several scribes, clerics and cartographers to undertake research into ancient myths and legends and his pet project the cataloguing of creatures and monsters into the Guild's own Bestiary.

OTHER GUILDS

The Ayfal Adventurer's Guild is unusual in that it is multi-class in nature, accepting members from all the major character classes. Each career class should have a "guild" of its own dedicated to the furtherance of their own particular talents although in some cases these may not be structured in the same way as in the example above.

Rogues Guilds - Thieves and Assassins ply their criminal trades in the shadows and likewise their guilds operate in the murky underworld of organised crime. The chief concern of these guilds is to:

Organise Crime - function as an industry regulator, ensuring that the overall level of crime does not escalate to a point at which the local law enforcement would attempt to increase their arrest rate and to ensure that unregulated thieves do not practice within the city limits thereby protecting their members incomes.
Legal Services - including the provision of bail funds, legal counsel, patsies and corpses when members are inevitably caught, tried and possibly even executed.
Benevolence and Welfare - thieves guild members may use part of their share of any loot to fund a welfare scheme to provide for their children and wives if they are incarcerated or killed.
Fencing - ensuring that stolen goods are quickly converted into cash through a network of related tradesmen and merchants.
Racketeering - some scams or rackets can only be successfully operated with access to a large network of skilled individuals.
Support Services - some jobs require access to equipment such as forged documentation or disguises. Others require detailed plans of municipal buildings which can only be acquired from certain city planners.

Bardic Guilds - Bards, Actors, Jugglers and Circus Performers all have unique talents which to be supported different ways. In large cities a Bardic Guild may restrict itself to certain types of performers but the most successfull will have an ecclectic mix of membership covering all the entertainment needs of its surrounding population. Their activities would mainly revolve around:

Employment - ensuring that members have steady work and incomes commensurate with their skills or disciplines. Usually this takes the form of "promoting" members appearances in the taverns, theatres and other performance venues which exist in large towns and cities but also by forming travelling companies which travel from village to village in the lands between them.
Library - each guild will have access to thousands of pages of prose, verse, lyrics and music which any member can access in order to expand their repetoire or to assist in the creation of entirely new works. Members are encouraged to transcribe their creations and are rewarded with performance rights or credits when other members perform their work.
Training - members are regularly assessed to ensure that their performance skills are maintained at as high a standard as possible and tutors are available where performers need instruction and assistance when learning new techniques, instruments, disciplines or material.
Licensing and Protectionism - unscrupulous inn keepers and venue owners are kept in check by the guilds licensers, ensuring that venues pay performers the appropriate fees. Performers can also avail themselves of bodyguards or escorts when playing venues in some of the less salubrious parts of a town or city. These bodyguards are often called to perform enforcement services when venues fail to pay their acts.
Instrument Makers - Luthiers and other instrument makers are generally not populous enough to warrant their own guilds and the functions of quality and cost assurance and regulation therefore falls to the bardic guilds. Members will be able to commission appropriate craftsmen to fashion and repair instruments at fair and reasonable prices whilst the craftsmen enjoy the benefits of a steady steam of customers and the odd celebrity performer endorsement.

Spellcasters Guilds - The organization and function of these guilds largely depends on how your game deals with the concept of magic and more specifically its abundance (or scarcity) or legality. In societies where magic is rare or outlawed these guilds may be non-existant or operate in a similar way to that of a thieves or assassins guild. In societies where magical practice is commonplace or legal then they will function much like other class or occupational guilds. If the magic system you have adopted has different schools or types of magic it is also possible that some schools will operate within the law and others outside it. Either way these guilds will largely be concerned with:

Power Control - ensuring that access to knowledge of spells and their components is controlled to restrict the development of uncontrolled and destructive power. This may take the form of a hierarchical self regulatiing organisation such as a wizards college or in more extreme cases by the state or government using a system of registration and examination. These organisations may also be responsible for the licensing of magic shops or vendors of mundane items which may be used in the practice of the magical arts.
Procurement - many spells require components which may be difficult or costly to procure. A guild may control the supply of these components or may even fund expeditions to source and recover or harvest them. The existence of proscribed spells may result in certain components appearing on "banned lists" and either the guild is responsible for controlling their supply or actively engaged in acquiring these items on behalf of its members.
Library - new spells and magical techniques will need to be recorded for the benefit of other scholars or practitioners. Members may be actively encouraged to register new spells with the guild or if a competitive scholarly structure exists to publish their findings for peer review and adulation or advancement within the ranks of their organisation.
Training and Apprenticeship - the magical arts take years to master and there really isn't any alternative to the apprenticeship system. Schools and colleges may operate systems to locate, and test candidates for basic magical aptitude and then provide training until they reach the level when they can be apprenticed to a master magician.

Warrior Guilds - These may exist in many forms from the gladiator schools such as the Ludus Magnus of ancient Rome or dojo specialising in specific weapon forms or unarmed fighting techniques. The specific membership recruitment techniques of the guild can also vary from the lowliest slave fighter, to the wealthy merchants and gentlemen members of fencing clubs.

Tournaments - the guild's primary means of income generation outside of any membership system will be to regularly hold contests or tournaments which demonstrate their members prowess. These may range from gladiatorial contests (much like the roman colliseum) to organised boxing matches or illegal pit fighting against men or monsters or even a simple archery competition. Admission revenues may be supplemented (or more likely eclipsed) by gambling revenues, although this largely depends on the type of event, patronage and the local view on the legality of gambling.
Employment and Recruitment - wealthy merchants (and in some cases the state) will always need bodyguards to protect their persons and establishments and who better to supply them than the guild. Some governments may even use the guild as a front for recruiting fresh soldiers to fill out the rank and file of their army.
Training - the type of training on offer will largely depend on the theme of the school. It could be as simple as churning out capable swordsmen or wrestlers for entertainment at public venues or it could be dedicated to teaching the swordcraft of a single weapon.
Medical Benefits - fighting in any form will likely leave you with wounds at some stage and the medics of the guild will be specialised in patching up their members ready for the next bout. They may employ underhand or illegal means to do this such as magicians or alchemists and it is unlikely that they will be able to cure chronic illnesses, disease or poisoning.

NON-CLASS GUILDS

Some classes do not lend themselves to guilds in the traditional sense, but may instead be constructed around fraternal or religious lines.

Clerics, Monks and Paladins - their faith is their guild and their temples or shrines their guildhalls, although Monks may be aligned to a particular fighting school and it is through the application of their fighting technique that they achieve a zen like state, enlightenment or may commune with their Gods.

Knights - swear fealty to their King or Baron and do not seek out the brotherhood of other knights unless they are compelled by their code to seek out a common cause. Less scrupulous knights may engage in tournaments for sport or financial gain but are unlikely to join or form organisations unless it satisfies their chivalric duty.

Racial and Ethnic Guilds - Demi-human or humanoids such as Dwarves or Elves may form fraternal guilds out of a common need to support their "own kind" or to preserve or practice aspects of their culture. Humans from other nations may also band together under a common nationality in order to further their own cultural goals or to present a united front when engaging with a nation state where they may be a cultural or ethnic minority.

Occupational and Mercantile Guilds - The vast majority of guilds will be either occupational guilds designed to support the needs of a particular set of workers (skilled or unskilled) in the form of a labour union or mercantile guilds which control, regulate and promote their members business interests. More information on the history and structure of medieval guilds can be found on the website of the Economic History Association.

Dragonmeet 2011 - Con Report

2011-11-27T14:24:00.003Z

Dragonmeet 2011 was held yesterday, as usual, at Kensington and Chelsea Town Hall in the heart London's upscale Knightsbridge. It's a good venue and is close to the traditional exhibition centre that is London's Olympi and Earl's Court venue's. Sadly in recent times the Tube Network has suffered from engineering works at this time of year and this year was no exception. That said there was a good turnout with around 1,000 gamers queing up outside efore the doors opened at 10am.

LAYOUT

The venue lends itself to an RPG convention as it offers multiple small halls and meeting rooms where gaming can be broken up into collections of tables thereby keeping the volume levels down so you don't have to strain to hear or be heard.

The ground floor foyer was predominately reserved for boardgames with just one trade stand, the rest being contained in the large auditorium. The upper and lower foyers and their respective halls being reserved for games tables covering a wide assortment of RPG, Board and Card games.

The game sign-up table, located in the ground floor foyer was the usual chaotic scrum but I managed to get my name down on the game of Toon I wanted to play. Attending this con over a number of years has taught me to read the game announcements beforehand and to have at least one backup option should your main choice be full by the time you get to the sheet.

TOON

I fondly remember the large full colour ads for this Steve Jackson produced game of cartoon mayhem, which graced the pages of White Dwarf in the mid 80s and it had always sounded interesting so I was quite keen to give it a go.

We were playing the supertoons variant and our characters were appropriately named "Defenders of Toonsville" comprising of myself as THE WEIRDO (a purple alien made of rubber), RABBOT GIRL a robot rabbit girl with an OCD for tidying, MAGIC-I-AM a stage magician with a big bag of glitter, S.C.A.T.MAN A bebop jazz fanatic with an NSFW name and last but not least the scourge of toonsville's criminals, WONDER WABBIT.

The first scene called for our caped cartoon crusaders to find and defeat the evil villain known only as THE DE-ANIMATOR who's dastardly plan was to use goons equipped with de-animator guns to blast the citizens of toonsville, robbing them of colour and turning them into mindless zombies. The goons had arrived in an egg shaped spaceship which we managed to pilot back to his gothic castle in the desert where I used a plot point to "pull the plug" on The De-animator's plan quite literally by pulling the plug out of the vat containing the black ink which made up his body.

The game system was simple and easy to pick up lending itself to con or one-night game play rather than any serious campaign play. I found it both fun and intriguing to play as you really have to keep up with the action in the scene or your next action won't contribute to the zany plot. For example in one scene my character, THE WEIRDO, teleported into a corridor where a light was rapidly approaching with a clickety clack sound (clearly a train), as I had the shape change ability I changed my mouth into a tunnel entrance and promptly ate the train. Later in the final scene when I was been grasped in one hand by a now giant sized De-animator with no means of fighting back, I opened my mouth and let out the train, punching him in the eye.

I suspect that this is quite challenging to GM as you have to be very flexible and receptive to your players ideas. I liked that the GM (John Wilson) gauged the success of any particular idea by the volume of laughter around the table and awarded plot points accordingly. These Plot Points are pretty crucial to the game system as they allow you to produce items, re-roll dice and generally influence the plot and result in some very funny situations. I shall definitely be playing Toon again and it makes a welcome change from the traditional Sci-Fi and Fantasy RPGs I normally GM and play.

CASTLES and CRUSADES

Having run my first C&C campaign for over 30 sessions now, I thought it was high time I played in a game partly to see if my GMing of it was up to scratch and partly to play an FRPG I was familiar with in a con setting. Unfortunately I arrived at the table last so had the Hobson's Choice of pre-generated characters, a 1st level wizard. I hardly ever play wizards so this was going to be challenging. The scenario was GM'd by Gareth Larter (who also happens to be the Dragomeet Webmaster) and I was pleasantly surprised that he had also chosen to abandon the (IMHO) overly restrictive Vancian magic system in favour of a spell slot style system.

The Beacon at Enon Tor was a dungeon crawl in and around a large tower on a cliff-side promontory which acted as both a lighthouse and a wizards laboratory. The concerned townsfolk had hired the party to find out why the fog horn had been blaring for two straight days (long after the fog had lifted) and then had suddenly stopped.

I have always felt that I made a poor tactical player, and an even worse wizard. However, in this game I ended up playing extremely tactically, particularly in the use of a simple hold portal spell to prevent the escape of an orc and to get the drop on a bugbear. Perhaps my recent campaign sessions watching my own players struggle in tactical play has had an effect on me, I don't know, but I really enjoyed the game as a consequence. The rest of the players also enjoyed themselves and at least one descended into the dealers hall to try to pick up a copy of the PHB.

THE INDUSTRY IN RECESSION?

Sadly this year there were no goodie bags stuffed with freebies and all the trade stands seemed to have shrunk somewhat in the volume and variety of games they brought to sell. Perhaps this is sign that the industry is in recession or more likely that it's customers disposable income is shrinking and dealers are responding to this.

Unfortunately my game schedule meant that I was unable to attend many of the peripheral events such as the Discussion Panels from the attending industry celebreties such as Ian Livingstone or the aftershow auction. Nor did I manage to take any photos this year, however Big Lee has put up a few of his photos on Big Lee's Miniature Adventures which give you a taste of the atmosphere and scale of this event and I recommend that everyone who is a London based gamer should aim to visit next year.

Coinage, Nationhood and the defacto Gold Standard

2011-11-24T09:00:00.003Z

Irrespective of your particular flavour of FRPG the Gold Piece is one of the defacto fantasy standards, and is accepted the world over (whichever world it is that you play in). The implicit reliance on a Gold Standard, the intrinsic value of gold itself, means that a GP acquired in one nation has an equivalence to one acquired somewhere else ensuring trade is not stifled and that PCs can still buy what ever they need irrespective of what nations coinage they choose to use.

But what if that wasn't the case, some interesting plots and fun could be had from playing around with the Gold Standard and the ubiquity of the GP

1. Gold is Commonplace - The Gold Standard only really works because gold is rare and therefore valuable. In a society where gold is commonplace its value will be reduced and some other rare commodity will take its place. This concept is explored to a degree in post-cataclysm Dragonlance where steel currency replaces gold. However, this is the case throughout Krynn rather than just single region. Consider a party visiting a nation which has access to vast amounts of gold (like the conquistadors encountering the Atecs), the PCs will no doubt struggle at first and will need to convert their existing wealth into whatever is used as the local currency. Greedy PCs might try to exploit the difference in commodity prices by frequent trips across the border which could bring them to the attention of local law enforcement or worse border bandits.

2. Not Legal Tender - Imagine that two bordering nations are in dispute over something or other and their respective governments refuse to accept their neighbours coins as legal tender. A coin minted in one nation does not automatically become worthless on the other side of the border, as it still has an intrinsic value thanks to the gold standard, it just becomes really hard to spend it and stay the right side of the law. Local law enforcement may be on the lookout for strangers trying to infiltrate or subvert the locals with coins from across the border. PCs may be forced to turn to the blackmarket in order to buy simple provisions. They could even be approached by criminals offering to launder or re-mint their illegal coinage for a fee.

3. This gold's been watered down! - We've all seen those pirate movies where a character tests a coin by biting into it. This crude form of assaying tests that the coin has the correct amount of gold in it, but if a nation state changes the amount of gold in its currency this be reflected in the gold standard for that currency. For example Nation X is going through tough times financially and its unscrupulous leader decides to change the gold content in the GP it mints. Everything goes swimmingly until import prices start to go up and the population is in revolt. Enter the PCs with a fat wedge of foreign "pure" gold and suddenly the corrupt local sherrif is looking at ways he can relieve them of their burden and smelt it down for a fat profit. However, the local sherrif might be the least of their problems if the Thieves Guild's coin clippers and forgers find out that they're loaded.

4. Ripped Off! - Wandering into a town over the border can get PCs into all sorts of trouble when they are trying to spend unfamiliar coin with the local merchants and their chances of getting ripped off increase dramatically. Any difference in size or shape of a coin will result in differences in the coins value and exchange rate. One nation's GP might be twice the thickness of anothers and therefore worth twice as much. The first time they get a handfull of change, they might be pleasantly surprised or falsely accuse a merchant of ripping them off.

5. Accused of Forgery - The Gold Standard ensures that the intrinsic value gold is preserved but that doesn't mean that the local merchants gleefully accept foreign coin and trust it like their own. They might try to take advantage of the situation and accuse the PCs of forgery, particularly if they are using coins acquired from a distant land and not a neighbouring one. If the case goes to trial the local magistrate may be in on the swindle. This is also where an Adventurers or Merchants Guild can provide a valuable service to its patrons by operating a coin exchange program, for a fee of course.

Monsters of Dual: Brain Vine and Fungaloid Lurkers

2011-11-23T21:56:00.001Z

In a recent session of The Lands of Dual, I wanted my players to be harrassed by some plant minions during their exploration of a tunnel network like my favourite flamethrower wielding heroine Ripley. This is the fruit of my labours:

BRAIN VINE

This plant is only ever found in subterranean locations and therefore does not rely on sunlight for energy, instead it has evolved a mechanism to secrete a highly acidic enzyme from its tendrils which breaks-down the soil and rock to release minerals which it then consumes. Once the plant has grown to a huge size its energy needs soon outstrip it's surroundings and so it sends out its tendrils to find new sources of minerals, eating through solid rock and anything else which stands in its way. The plant often encounters small quantities of Gold within the rock it consumes which solidify and become trapped within the plants heart like gall stones.

Although the majority of its diet is made up of processed rock, it is actually omnivorous in nature and equally suited to extracting nutrients from other plants or animals. This unusual feeding mechanism also provides the brain vine with its only defence mechanism. When attacked the plant exudes a cloud of acidic poison gas for 1d4 / 1d6 or 1d8 rounds (depending on the size of the plant). In the first round the gas cloud has a radius of 10ft and expands by 10ft each round after that. The gas causes all creatures within the cloud to suffer 1d6 damage unless they make a save against poison.

It is especially vulnerable to strong sunlight which causes any exposed parts to wither and calcify and is pale white yellow in colour topped by a purple-pink fruit resembling a giant brain, hence the name. PCs may confuse this growth as evidence of an evolved intelligence however this is not the case and the brain vine has only a plant-like intelligence.

The brain vine is asexual and once it reaches adult size produces a single seed every 2 years. This seed is contained deep within the fleshy brain fruit and resembles a spiky rugby ball. When planted the seed grows quite slowly taking 1 year to germinate and grow into a Young plant (Medium size), 2 further years to grow to a fully grown into an Adult (Large size) and a further 5 years to mature into a Great Brain Vine (Huge size). A Great Brain Vine can live upto 5d6 further years before it will wither and die.

BRAIN VINE
# Appearing:	1
Size:	Medium (Young), Large (Adult), Huge (Great)
HD:	4d8 (Young), 6d8 (Adult), 8d8 (Great)
MOVE:	0
AC:	10
ATTACKS:	None
SPECIAL:	Acid Gas Cloud: 1d6 damage for 1d4 Rnds (Young), 1d6 Rnds (Adult), 1d8 Rnds (Great)
SAVES:	N/A
INT:	None
ALIGNMENT:	Neutral
TYPE:	Plant
TREASURE:	1d4 x 100 GP (Young), 1d6 x 100 GP (Adult), 1d8 x 100GP (Great)
XP:	40 +4/HP (Young), 120 +6/HP (Adult), 250 +8/HP (Great)

FUNGALOID LURKERS

These human sized fungal plants are an entirely seperate species which have evolved a symbiotic relationship tending to the Brain Vine and feeding off its decaying plant material and any other plants which inhabit its underground ecosystem. They are of low intelligence and appear to communicate with each other by releasing fungal spores from the pustules covering their bodies which they inhale through their tendril covered mouths. They are a mottled green colour, vaguely humanoid and each armlike appendage ends in two tentacles covered in vicious barbs. Fungaloid lurkers are immune to the Brain Vine's toxic gas.

They are fiercely territorial and interpret anything that is not either another Lurker or the Brain Vine as a threat to the survival of their colony and they will attempt to grapple their prey to the ground and use their barbed tentacles to macerate the flesh in order to bleed it dry. They will then feed the remains to the brain vine's tendrils and consume whatever is left behind. They are relatively quick to grow to maturity but the size of their colony is entirely dependant on the size of the Brain Vine plant that they tend.

A young Brain Vine can support a colony of 15 Lurkers, an Adult Brain Vine supports upto 30 Lurkers and a Great Brain Vine supports upto 45 Lurkers. When a Brain Vine dies the Lurker population will consume the remains of the vine and then plant a vine seed in its place (if one is available). Once this process is complete they will consume each other until only a handful are left in order to tend the immature plant. As the vine grows in size more Lurkers will be created and so the cycle is repeated.

FUNGALOID LURKER
# Appearing:	6-15 (Young), 12-30 (Adult), 18-45 (Great)
Size:	Medium
HD:	2d8
MOVE:	30 feet
AC:	15
ATTACKS:	2 x Tentacles (1d6)
SPECIAL:	None
SAVES:	P
INT:	Low
ALIGNMENT:	Neutral
TYPE:	Plant
TREASURE:	None
XP:	20 +2/HP

You can also download a free sheet of standees for use in your own adventures from RPGNow.

On the Workbench: Ral Partha Djinn & Efreet

2011-11-22T09:00:00.001Z

One of my favourite AD&D campaign settings is Al-Quadim: The Land of Fate and I've used the odd scenario or module on numerous occasions in my own campaign world. I picked up these two Ral Partha minis as a blister pair at least 20 years ago and I've had several abortive attempts at painting the Djinn (the turban wearing guy on the left) but never touched the Efreet. Hopefully this time (with an audience) I can push myself all the way to the finish.

Ral Partha (ES69) Djinn (left) and Efreet (right)

Here's an updated shot after the efreet had a little accident. His blade bent and snapped off... Guess I'll have to do some sort of fix, but not sure what yet, the blade is too thin to pin so perhaps I'll have to build something up in milliput as a replacement. I do however like how the skin and face came out. I'm also trying to work out how to blend from red to white on his trousers to make it look like he's rising out of a pool of smoke.

Unworked Blue Djinn and Battle damaged Efreet

Sometimes I'm just in awe

2011-11-20T09:00:00.001Z

This is the Golden Demon Germany 2011 Slayer Sword winning diorama and there's not much more you can say apart from... OMG!

I'm a Chaotic Neutral Human Wizard

2011-11-19T12:59:00.000Z

Been a while since I've done one of these cosmo style tests but everyone seems to be giving this a go, so...

I Am A: Chaotic Neutral Human Wizard (4th Level)

Ability Scores:

Strength: 9

Dexterity: 11

Constitution: 11

Intelligence: 14

Wisdom: 12

Charisma: 12

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

A chaotic neutral character follows his whims. He is an individualist first and last. He values his own liberty but doesn't strive to protect others' freedom. He avoids authority, resents restrictions, and challenges traditions. A chaotic neutral character does not intentionally disrupt organizations as part of a campaign of anarchy. To do so, he would have to be motivated either by good (and a desire to liberate others) or evil (and a desire to make those different from himself suffer). A chaotic neutral character may be unpredictable, but his behavior is not totally random. He is not as likely to jump off a bridge as to cross it. Chaotic neutral is the best alignment you can be because it represents true freedom from both society's restrictions and a do-gooder's zeal. However, chaotic neutral can be a dangerous alignment when it seeks to eliminate all authority, harmony, and order in society.

Race: Human

Humans are the most adaptable of the common races. Short generations and a penchant for migration and conquest have made them physically diverse as well. Humans are often unorthodox in their dress, sporting unusual hairstyles, fanciful clothes, tattoos, and the like.

Class: Wizard

Wizards are arcane spellcasters who depend on intensive study to create their magic. To wizards, magic is not a talent but a difficult, rewarding art. When they are prepared for battle, wizards can use their spells to devastating effect. When caught by surprise, they are vulnerable. The wizard's strength is her spells, everything else is secondary. She learns new spells as she experiments and grows in experience, and she can also learn them from other wizards. In addition, over time a wizard learns to manipulate her spells so they go farther, work better, or are improved in some other way. A wizard can call a familiar- a small, magical, animal companion that serves her. With a high Intelligence, wizards are capable of casting very high levels of spells.

Find out What Kind of Dungeons and Dragons Character Would You Be?, courtesy of Easydamus (e-mail)

Which makes me the Ninth Doctor

I found this Dr Who alignment chart... oooh I'm the Ninth Doctor, Chris Eccleston

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - H is for Heavy Metal

2011-11-18T09:00:00.003Z

H is for Heavy Metal

Iron Maiden - Powerslave
(Cover by Derek Riggs)

In the late 70's the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWoBHM) was unleashed across the airwaves and in dingy pubs and clubs all over the UK. Spearheaded by bands like Iron Maiden, Motörhead, Saxon, Judas Priest, and Venom who, although they had been inspired by the largely educated and middle class Progressive and Heavy Rock bands of the late 60's and early 70's, were unashamedly working class and many originated in the industrial towns of the Midlands and North of England such as Birmingham and Sheffield.

Teenage rebellion usually goes in search for something that will annoy the heck out of your parents and NWoBM was just waiting to be discovered. The music was a mix of piercing and wailing vocals, thumping bass and drums and a shredded guitar sound like an angle grinder on steel.

The album covers often featured Fantasy or Sci-Fi themes and the band logos (often using vaguely occult typography and symbology) were worn as patches on your sleeveless denim jacket like some sort of tribal brand. You wore your greasy long hair like a viking marauder and bullet belts and studded bracers were all part of the genre uniform.

Fantasy in song

Uriah Heep - Abonimog
(Cover by Les Edwards)

The literary tones of Sci-Fi, Horror and Fantasy were evident in much of the lyrical content of earlier progressive bands such as Hawkwind and Black Sabbath and this influenced many of the later Metal bands to cover these genres. On Iron Maiden's album "The Number of The Beast" the track "Murders in the Rue Morgue" was directly influenced by Edgar Allen Poe's novel of the same name, "Children of The Damned" influenced by John Wyndam's "The Midwich Cuckoos" and "The Prisoner" influenced by the cult TV Show of the same name starring Patrick Magoogan.

Just to prove a point Maiden famously did a 13 minute rendition of Samuel Taylor Coleridge's "Rhyme of the Ancient Mariner" on the 1984 album "Powerslave". This has to be both my favourite Maiden album and my favourite Derek Riggs cover. I spent a lot of time staring at that album cover and if you look closely at the hieroglyphics you'll also see some graffiti from "Indiana Jones", "Mickey Mouse" and the British "Chad" a version of "Kilroy was here".

Other artists like Saxon had tracks such as "The Warrior" which portrayed a generic fantasy storyline.

Of course Metal wasn't a peculiarly british phenomenon and US bands such as Metallica famously covered HP Lovecraft in the tracks "The Call of Ktulu" and "The Thing That Should not Be" and New York Thrash Metal band Anthrax covered 2000 AD's Judge Dredd in their song "I am The Law"

Art influences Art

Magnum - On a Storytellers Night
(Cover by Derek Riggs)

One of the other big attractions aside from the music where the amazing works of fantasy and sci-fi art which adorned almost every album. In fact it seemed that in addition to the standard lineup of drums, bass, rythmn guitar, lead guitar and vocals it was almost as important to find a great artist to design your band logo and album covers. A tradition begun in the 70s with prog bands like Yes employing Roger Dean and continued by Iron Maiden and their long (if not entirely harmonious association) with Derek Riggs.

Joe Petagno has had a 31 year association with Motörhead and devised their famous "Snaggletooth" emblem which has graced many of their albums.

Yngwie Malmsteen - Trilogy

Needless to say for every great piece of cover-art there were lots of awful ones which slipped through the net.

A particularly comical one was that of Sweden's Yngwie "J" Malmsteen (pronounced Ing-vey) and his 1986 album "Trilogy". The impossibly posed neo-classical guitar-god Yngwie, is depicted seeing off a three headed dragon with what can only be described as "a fire spewing lick of his stratocaster". I'm sure everyone in the meeting thought it was a good idea at the time.

In researching this article I also stumbled across an album cover which although it isn't metal is so monumentally bad that there just aren't words to describe it... Rick James - Throwin' Down

Métal Hurlant and Heavy Metal Magazine

Heavy Metal the Movie
(Cover by Chris Achilleos)

In France in 1974 two comic book artists Jean Giraud (aka Moebius) and Phillipe Druillet began publishing a quarterly sci-fi graphic novel under the title Métal Hurlant (Howling Metal). These comic books were in a grphic novel format and featured distinctive and detailed artwork and strong storylines with adult themes it was picked up by National Lampoon, translated into English and relaunched in 1977 as Heavy Metal and in 1979 the format was changed slightly to include Rock Music reviews.

With the release of an animated feature film Heavy Metal (1981), the combination of art, music and Sci-Fi/Fantasy stories was brought together in one vehicle. A combination of original storylines and a soundtrack featured tracks by a plethora of rock bands of the era such as Black Sabbath, Blue Oyster Cult, Cheap Trick, Grand Funk Railroad, Journey and Stevie Nicks it was every pubescent teenage boys fantasy brought to life.

Other Metal Movie Moments

Maximum Overdrive

The 80s saw the use of Heavy Metal soundtracks in films particularly of the Sci-Fi Horror genre and led to AC/DC recording the soundtrack to the movie Maximum Overdrive (1986) written and directed by Steven King. The movie featured Emilio Estevez and a bunch of "survivors" as they are terrorized by an army of machines, led by a "green goblin" faced truck, which have been brought to life by the passing of a strange comet. The author also makes a cameo appearance in the movie as a bespectacled sunday driver.

1986 also saw Kiss bassist and tongue waggler extraordinaire Gene Simmons and rock legend Ozzy Osbourne appear in cameo roles in the horror movie Trick or Treat which featured a soundtrack by Fast Eddie Clarke (also famed for playing guitar on Motörhead's "The Ace of Spades"). The plot plays heavily on the urban legend of satanic messages being heard in records when they are played backwards (Hey kids! I bet you can't do that with your Lady Gaga CD) and the spirit of dead rock star Sammi Curr's attempt to be ressurected through a Halloween Dance sacrifice. All good clean adolescent fun really.

Heavy Metal... Meet White Dwarf

The association of Heavy Metal music with gaming reached a climax in November 1987 when Games Workshop's John Blanche conspired to give away Nottingham Thrash Metal group Sabbat's "Blood for the Blood God" as a flexi-disc single in issue 95 of White Dwarf.

Sabbat - History of a Time to Come
(Cover by John Blanche)

I was lucky enough to see Sabbat in '88 when they played London's Marquee Club (the Charing Cross Road incarnation) following the release of the album "History of a Time to Come"which also featured cover art by John Blanche. A great gig which introduced me to the art of stage diving and I swear I had tinitus for three days afterwards.

Another Nottingham band to emerge in the late 80's in association with Games Workshop were Bolt Thrower whose name originated from the siege weapon featured in their Warhammer Fantasy Battle wargame. The cover of their 1989 album "Realm of Chaos" is the same painting by John Sibbick which graced the front cover of the original Warhammer 40,000: Rogue Trader rulebook.

Stop SOPA, SAVE The Internet

2011-11-16T09:26:00.000Z

Today is American Censorship Day and although I am not an American Citizen I feel very strongly against this poorly drafted bill which has the potential to do more harm than good.

Here in the UK we've already failed at preventing bad internet legislation from being passed in the form of the anti-democratic whitewash that saw the introduction of the Digital Economy Act (DEA). This law sought to create a situation where ISPs were responsible for actioning take down requests and for providing copyright owners with infringing customers account details without a judges court order or legal test to determine whether the content in question actually infringed anything.

Truth be told the mechanics of the enforcement of this bill are in such a state of dissarray that no-one knows how to implement this new law. This has recently led to the issuing of legal demands by copyright owners to ISPs to block traffic to certain domains. The impact of course is that every domain everywhere is subject to the same potential action. If you give government the tools in law, sooner or later they'll use them. The SOPA is similarly well intentioned but poorly drafted and dangerous legislation and I urge you to contact your congressman/woman.

You may well ask WTF has this got to do with RPGs?

Well, just from a blogging perspective this means that you could be censored for a whole range of posts where your original content draws on themes from movies, characters, locations or even ideas or even sharing that link to a funny fan generated karaoke video. If the owner of the copyright deems that you've crossed the line, at best you'll be staring a DMCA Takedown Notice in the face with no recourse to "fair use" or "safe harbour" and at worst you could be facing a legal challenge and potentially a punitive fine.

As a roleplayer I'm concerned that this legislation will ultimately damage our hobby and as a member of a democracy I am against the corruption of democracy by the money and power of "big business" for its own agenda against the will of the people. If you're like me and feel that we are on the brink of a cyberpunk dystopian future, act now before its too late. And here's a message from your Vice President Joe Biden.

Thanks for listening.

On the Workbench: Harlequin Giant Forest Troll - Complete

2011-11-13T21:23:00.003Z

Yesterday I posted a progress photo of my first miniature painting project in rather a long time. Here's the finished miniature (apologies for the crap photography).

On the Workbench: Harlequin Giant Forest Troll

2011-11-12T19:09:00.000Z

Giant Forest Troll

I have been out of the miniature painting game for many years but as I've always found it to be quite stress relieving I recently decided to give it a another go, so invested in some new brushes and paints. I hope that I can begin to put a dent in the large stock of unpainted miniatures which I have collected over the years. My first project is a Harlequin Miniatures Giant Forest Troll.

I was given this miniature many moons ago as a birthday gift and I had one abortive attempt at painting it soon after moving into my new home 9 years ago. The miniature is a multipart casting comprising of torso, legs and a huge log club which the troll wields with both hands. So the first order of the day was to de-flash the parts and then pin and glue them together with superglue. The gaps (and there are plenty) were then filled with milliput and textured. I then mounted the miniature to a Foundations of War 60mm Round - Battlefield Debris Base and sprayed it with black primer.

I never liked the painted image on the box lid as it was far too troll-like, so I decided to make mine a bit more generic so it could serve equally well as a giant or a giant ogre. I use Miniature Paints (the ones in the little glass bottles), they're cheap and have a reasonable consistency and don't seperate too much unlike other paints I've tried in the past. My painting style is to build up layers of colour from a black base getting gradually lighter and lighter and I find that this gives a good balance of detail at a stand-off scale, particularly when you are painting a bad casting.

Progress: face and skin all painted

I usually paint the face first to give me a guide to the rest of the figure and then block out the large areas of skin and clothing in darkest shades. With this miniature it was almost 30% painted to begin with but I wasn't happy with the skin tones so I decided to paint all the skin first.

The giant troll is wearing a sort of animal skin toga which barely covers its bum but the painted example on the box shows no trousers. Clearly this creature is fashion concious ( and enough of a seamstress to sew an animal hide toga) so I decided that it wasn't going to be comfortable without trousers. These I'll paint as a patchwork of different smaller pieces of cloth which it has clearly picked up off the battlefield (including a rather fetching red gingham tablecloth).

RPG Mapping Tools Part 3 - Region Maps

2011-11-10T09:00:00.001Z

In part 1 and part 2 of this series I looked at Battlemaps and Dungeonmaps which conventionally use a square grid. Now I zoom out a little bit more and look at options for Regionmaps and enter the realm of the hex.

Regional or Wilderness Maps

Regional maps use a variety of scales, my own maps use a notional scale of 1 hex = 50 miles. Erin Smale over at Welsh Piper has done some amazing work with a trio of hex templates which you can download in PDF and Hexographer format which use, 125 mil, 25 mile, 5 mile wide scales. Welsh Piper also has articles about demographics and campaign building for a low fantasy campaign and comes highly recommended. However, the purpose of this series of articles is to explore and evaluate the free (or as near as free as it gets) software tools available to the budding cartographer, and for the purposes of demonstration, I will be using a sample from TSRs HRW2 Kingdom of Nithia a Hollow World sourcebook and the usual 1½ hour (or thereabouts) timelimit to see what is possible.

Nithia

Hexographer (www.hexographer.com)

A free Java based map editor (There's also an offline Pro version available for $24.95) which comes complete with the majority of icons you will find on a standard TSR map. I have had trouble running this software before on my mac which is notorious for its Java implementation but a quick look in the support forum got me the answer I needed and I was up and running in no time. The interface is fairly self explanatory and after a bit of trial and error got some great results on the Hollow World map. I particularly like the option to fill the bottom half of each hex for the "features" such as towns and cities which is so characteristic of the TSR style of regional maps. 9/10 - "Almost Perfect"

Hexographer Output

HexMapper (http://www.mentalwasteland.net/HexMapper/)

Not to be confused with Hexmapper, is an interesting Java application which focuses on a single hex and allows you to drill down to smaller and smaller scales. Unfortunately the interface is a little cumbersome and there's not much of a manual to go with it. The colourset the tool uses is roughly similar to that of the sample map, but there is a limited amount of terrain choice and icons to depict settlements. I'm sure that given more time I could make a good looking detailed map as I learned how to and when to use the various tools. I especially liked the line drawing functions but it wasn't enough to keep me interested enough to persevere beyond the time limit. 4/10 - "Interesting... but no more than that"

HexMapper Output

Old School Hex Mapper (http://www.emacswiki.org/cgi-bin/old-school-hex)

An interesting project from Alex Schröder which generates black and white wilderness hexmaps from ASCII input. Although it seems simple on the face of it getting the syntax right can be a bit of a challenge and there aren't many feature options. As an exercise in ASCII to Hexmap it's a bit of fun and I expect it was more of a development challenge than an attempt to create something genuinely useable. One thing I did like was the oriental caligraphy aesthetic which was most pleasing on the eye. 2/10 - "because Alex could..."

Other Notable Tools

WildGen (http://axiscity.hexamon.net/users/isomage/wildgen/)

As its name suggests Wildgen is a random hex terrain generator and is an excellent resource for the time-poor DM. It just generates the base terrain and there's no options to edit or add features such as settlements or roads, but if you are world building in a entirely random fashion it may have some uses.

Conclusion

I was quite surprised that there aren't that many options out which are cross platform bar the excellent hexographer (which has been around for a while). Perhaps there are some enterprising HTML5 developers out there who feel like a challenge?

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - G is for Games Designers Workshop

2011-11-09T09:00:00.001Z

As I've said earlier I started roleplaying in the 80s with Tunnels and Trolls and then gravitated to AD&D (1e) but my first experience of Sci-Fi roleplaying was as a player in a Traveller campaign.

Although I never owned the LBBs (Little Black Books) or the boxed set I did (and still do) own a copy of Double Adventure 1: Shadows / Annic Nova. At this time White Dwarf was still covering all RPGs and regularly featured scenarios for traveller, a favourite of mine being "The Sable Rose Affair" featured in WD 17.

I loved the hard edge that traveller put on the whole Space Opera genre. It wasn't so much about racing through the galaxy to rescue the princess, it was about dealing with the day to day minutia of staying alive in the cold depths of space and yet trying to eke out a living and possibly making that big score. In other words more "Alien" than "Star Wars".

Believe you me, this was hugely influential to my 11 year old self whose Sci-Fi diet at that time was limited to Doctor Who, the odd episode of Blake's Seven, Battlestar Galactica and re-runs of Lost in Space. Traveller also heavily influenced one of the breakthrough 8-bit computer games Elite by David Braben and Ian Bell which I spent many hours playing on my school's only BBC Micro.

In 1984 GDW released Twilight 2000 which focused on the plight of the survivors of WWIII assembling their rag tag militas to fend of the remnants of the soviet army. This got quite a bit of play at the club I was a member of at the time, but it never fit in with my cold war childhod as I recall most of the scenarios being set in the US.

Towards the end of the decade GDW released Space: 1889 which in hindsight shows how groundbreaking GDW were when they published the first victorian Sci-Fi RPG before cyberpunk had truly emerged never mind steampunk. In recent years I have come to enjoy victorian sci-fi more and more, partly as a refracted, quintisentially English, vision of Empire and partly as a result of my fascination with the aestetic of heavy engineering during the industrial revolution (with brass finials and plenty of scroll work).

RPG Mapping Tools Part 2 - Dungeon Maps

2011-11-03T09:00:00.004Z

In the first part of this series I explored the free options for Battlemaps. In this part I up the scale slightly to look at Dungeon Maps.

Dungeon Maps

These usually conform to the scale of 1 square to 5ft and come in a variety of styles from the original D&D module "Blueprint" style to isometric maps for complex multilevel dungeons. For the purposes of comparison I will attempt to recreate small sections of maps from each of the TSR modules B1 In search of the Unknown (a 2D map) and DL1 Dragons of Despair (a 3D map). Again I am restricting myself to only using free tools or web based apps and from start to finish each map should take no more than 1½ hours to create.


2D Map Sample	Isometric Map Sample

Google Sketchup (sketchup.google.com)

Free to use 3D modelling application (Windows/Mac OSX) which has a 2d export function. First thing, make sure that you position the camera to be facing the "Top". Then you can start off by creating a grid (Sketchup is very flexible when it comes to unit measurement so if you want to create 5ft grids do just that, using the appropriate template) it is possible to use the draw line function to draw in all the floors doors and walls. Sketchup is always trying to fill enclosed shapes, so bear this in mind and make sure that when you close a shape you either delete or fill the "face". It isn't really designed to do this, but the learning curve is shorter compared to other free vector graphics tools like inkscape or CC3. Once you have a flat map it's trivial to use the isometric camera and Parallel Perspectives options to turn it into a full 3D map. Extra depth can be instantly added by extruding (google calls this push/pull) a short distance, you can even animate the result (Cue spinning Death Star animation). 7/10 - "Who's The Daddy?"


SketchUp 2d Output	SketchUp Isometric / 3d Output

Tiled (http://www.mapeditor.org/)

This is a free bitmap level editor (Windows / Mac OSX) designed to create level maps for 2d scrolling games and although it's not designed as an RPG mapping tool it is seriously versatile as it supports an unlimited number of user generated layers. However, you do need to supply it with an image of your tiles to begin with so this tool is more of a DIY approach (ie: if you don't have a good bitmap editor then you'll struggle). Here are my classic blue tilemaps if you want to try it out (the tilemaps are set at a size of 50 pixels square). It can do isometrics but I spent far too much time putting the 2d tilemaps together to get round to drawing an iso tilemap, but I'll get there as this tool is just a joy to use.

The interface is really easy to learn and if you've struggled with Pymapper like I did try this with my DT1 tilemap. In my opinion this could also easily replace Dunjinni for Battlemaps, and the ability to have all your objects instantly available in the tileset window is infact a big advantage, so no more struggling to locate that one particular tree which you accidentally loaded into the wrong folder. 9/10 - "The future so bright I gotta wear shades"


Tiled 2d Output	Example of Battlemap Output

RPG Map Maker X (http://fmteau.perso.neuf.fr/rpgmapmaker/rpgmapmaker.htm)

A Mac OSX native donateware tool ($37 to buy) which has been around for donkeys years. Although the feature set is huge as it has autogenerate dungeons, I found the interface frankly bewildering at almost every stage. The output is also quite primitive in comparison to other free options I tested and given the low pain threshold I have I couldn't even be bothered expend the extra energy to persevere with it beyond the 2d sample. 2/10 - "There's better fish in the sea"

RPG Map Maker X 2D Output

An infinite number of humans cannot type Shakespeare

2011-11-02T10:41:00.002Z

Please accept my apologies if you have been unlucky enough to see sneak peaks of future articles which were inadvertently published in the last 12 hours. Unfortunately there has been a breakdown in the trained humans used, and this will not happen again.

"Trophies" by Jason Edmiston

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - F is for Fighting Fantasy

2011-11-01T09:00:00.003Z

F is for... Fighting Fantasy

My first exposure to the world of Adventure Gamebooks was actually a copy of Weirdworld, a Tunnels and Trolls solo adventure which my dad brough back from one of his trips home whilst working in Durham in the North East of England. I was mesmerised by this crudely made book and I didn't let the mere fact that I didn't have a copy of the T&T rules stop me from repeatedly entering the Madhouse of Maximilian the Magnificent.

My father (who is to blame for all of this) was a keen wargamer and so I ended up going to the Bradford Wargames Society and being exposed to full blown Roleplaying Games such as D&D and Tunnels and Trolls at quite an early age. Then came the first great gaming hiatus as we moved away from Yorkshire to South East London.

I was already a veteran when the first of the Fighting Fantasy books was published in 1982. Schoolmates who had not already been exposed to RPGs devoured the Fighting Fantasy books with gusto and whilst I enjoyed playing their copies and followed them on their trips to the only gamestore in the area, I didn't buy any of these gamebooks at the time. However, it was on one of these trips that by chance I discovered a copy of the Corgi Tunnels and Trolls rulebook, money exchanged hands and I was now ensconced as the group DM.

So although my relationship with Fighting Fantasy is not atypical, I can acknowledge the huge debt owed by UK roleplayers to Steve Jackson and Ian livingstone for setting many of our friends on the path to exploring our own adventures, not just choosing them.

Want to know more

In the course of dragging these memories from my caffeine addled grey matter I have encountered some very fine Fighting Fantasy resources:

Fighting Fantasy Collector - A full listing of all the FF books and associated material
The Fighting Fantasist - An entertaining blog focussing on OSR and Games Workshop
FightingFantasy.com - Official site of current FF publisher Wizard Books
Big Blue Bubble Inc have released iOS versions of Warlock of Firetop Mountain, Deathtrap Dungeon, Citadel of Chaos and City of Thieves.
Advanced Fighting Fantasy - The RPG System based on the gamebooks recently re-released by Cubicle 7

NEXT: G is for... GAMES DESIGNERS WORKSHOP

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - E is for Elric of Melnibone

2011-10-27T09:00:00.001+01:00

Stormbringer RPG

E is for Elric of Melniboné (it's mel-nib-o-nay not mel-ni-bone)

Michael Moorcock was de rigeur reading amongst my fellow roleplayers and the Elric Saga particularly so. Elric was for most readers the first true anti-hero and introduced the concept of exploiting flawed and troubled character possibilities in roleplay.

The Novels

My fondest memories were of my school mates and I swapping the London Panther editions in the playground like kids do today with XBox games.

Elric of Melniboné (1972) - Where Elric, the 428th Sorceror Emperor of Melniboné and he discovers the runeblade "Stormbringer" from which he derives power and vitality.
The Sailor on the Seas of Fate (1976) - Forced to flee Melniboné, Elric journeys across the sea and learns his fate, to become the Eternal Champion.
The Weird of the White Wolf (1977) - Where Elric returns to Melniboné with his companion Moonglum and confronts the usurper Yrkoon.
The Vanishing Tower (1977) - Where Elric turns mercenary sorceror
The Bane of the Black Sword (1977) - Introduces the love of Elric's life Zarozinia and sets up the events of Stormbringer
Stormbringer (1965) - Elric must confront the Sorceror King of Pan Tang Jagren Lern who has allied himself with the Lords of Chaos in an epic final battle.

Elric is one of the many incarnations of The Eternal Champion, a hero who exists in all times, universes and dimensions who is charged by Fate to defend the cosmic balance between the gods of Law and Chaos.

The RPG

With all this rich source material and an established fan base it was an obvious move to publish an RPG based on the books, which Chaosium promptly did in 1981 with the release of Stormbringer. This then led to a small (in relative terms) collection of sourcebooks, modules and expansions.

The Miniatures

When Games Workshop began distributing Stormbringer for Chaosium one of the first things they did was to make a set of miniatures. The Eternal Champion range was quite extensive and, beyond the boxed set of hero characters, featured Melnibonéan infantry and cavalry and Pan Tangian infantry, and tiger handlers.

(Top: L to R: Corum Jhaelen Irsei, Elric Kinslayer, Elric of Menibone, Erekose)
(Bottom: L to R: Jerry Cornelius, Moonglum, Count Ulrik Skarsol, Duke Dorian Hawkmoon)

The Music

Michael Moorcock was heavily involved in the London psychedelic scene in the 1960s and he has explored many musical projects and has colaborated with several bands including Blue Oyster Cult and most notably space rockers Hawkwind. This lead to the album "Chronicles of the Black Sword" based largely on the Elric Saga, the notable exception being the track "Needle Gun" which is based on Jerry Cornelius another work by Moorcock and another incarnation of The Eternal Champion.

Tracklisting

"Song of the Swords" (Dave Brock)
"Shade Gate" (Harvey Bainbridge)
"The Sea King" (Huw Lloyd-Langton)
"The Pulsing Cavern" (Bainbridge, Alan Davey)
"Elric the Enchanter" (Davey)
"Needle Gun" (Brock)
"Zarozinia" (Brock, Kris Tait)
"The Demise" (Bainbridge, Brock)
"Sleep of a Thousand Tears" (Brock, Michael Moorcock)
"Chaos Army" (Bainbridge, Brock)
"Horn of Destiny" (Brock)

NEXT: F is for... Fighting Fantasy

RPG Mapping Tools Part 1 - Battle Maps

2011-10-25T09:00:00.007+01:00

My old friend +James Graham plussed me the other day (is this actually a verb, I can't decide) with the question "Do you know any good RPG Mapping Tools" and I'm sorry to say that I couldn't give him a straight answer. Although Jim wasn't very specific in his request, the underlying quandry with mapping is that there's so much choice in terms of the types of map you want to make. At the macro level you have Starmaps but at the micro level there are Battlemaps, with all manner of world maps, region maps and dungeon maps inbetween. First lets look at...

Sample Inn Schematic

Battlemaps

This type of map is mostly for use during play (with or without miniatures) and often uses the 1" to 5' scale convention. To test the output of each of the maps I used Inkwell Ideas Random Inn Generator to build a simple one storey building which I would then build in each of the mapping tools trying to stay as close to the original as possible and include as many items of decor as possible.

I restricted myself to free tools available to either download or use in a web app interface and limited myself to around 1½ hours time in order to learn the interface and build the map.

Dungeon Maker

Dungeon Maker (http://www.stonesword.com/dungeonmaker.php)

A free web app tile based editor which appears to be either a hobby project or a technical exercise. Limited functionality with only 4 layers per grid square (Floor, Walls, Objects, Special. Limited default tiles reduce its usefulness, but if you are in need of a quick map it has no learning curve at all and a reasonable output. One word of warning though, make sure that you keep your plan entirely inside the editor frame otherwise you will have difficulty exporting the result as there are no save or export functions - 5/10 " Simple, perhaps too simple"

Dungeon Painter (http://pyromancers.com/dungeon-painter-online/)

Dungeon Painter

A free web app tile based editor, this one has a much better interface and more tiles are available in the default set. The learning curve is a little steeper but the results are exponentially better. Still has the feel of an unfinished project about it as some tile sets don't appear to be populated (wooden floors and roofs). The export to jpg/png and export to pdf functions don't appear to work, but it is possible to upload to a server (which generates a png) and then use URL to access the png for saving to a local drive. There are other tilesets which can be used depending on the genre of game you're mapping for and your artistic tastes. All in all a great little tool which sets the bar for me. 8/10 "Very useable"

Dunjinni (http://www.dunjinni.com)

Dundjinni

Although it is not possible to buy Dunjinni (the online store remains closed until further notice) it is possible to use the free demo version to knock out a quick map. This can then be further embellished by adding in any items in a bitmap editing tool which you can find in either the Dundjinni forums or in the CSUAC (User Art Collection) available from www.halegaming.com. Unfortunately the demo app has the Save and Export functions disabled so you may have to resort to screen capture (as I did). 7/10 "Still worth trying"

Other Noteable Offerings

Tiamat (http://www.rpgobjects.com/tiamat/index.php)

TIAMAT

Fans of Ed Bourelle's Skeleton Key Games map tiles can use TIAMAT which is a tile layout web application. Obviously I was unable to test the software with the sample tavern map I used with the other apps because there are no editing functions. The map I made took literally 5 minutes to put together, but with 3,216 different tiles to choose from, you could easily spend hours pouring over the gorgeous tiles. Although the app is free to use, exporting them is done through the RPG Objects storefront, you will need to set up an account and each map export costs $2.00 (RPG Objects are giving away 1 free export a month as an incentive). 8/10 "So many tile options..."

BattleMAPR

BattleMAPR (http://battlemapr.com/)

This free web application is limited to an 8x10 grid and has a very limited tile set and you can only only uses 3 layers per square. Once you've set up an account you can add your own tiles, but there is a submission and approval process so it's not instantaneous. Development seems to have stalled at the moment and I hope that the coders pick up work again soon as this is a veery noble effort and I really like the clean no nonsense interface. 4/10 "I will follow your progress closely young Jedi"

Pymapper (http://www.pymapper.com)

Pymapper

This is a free Windows application (and alledgedly Mac OSX and Linux using a Python interpreter) and is like a cross between TIAMAT and Dungeon Painter/Dunjinni. It's predominantly a tile layout system for use with the WotC D&D tiles, the idea being that you can build a library of the tiles you have and then design using only those tiles. The tiles are double sided and therefore you sometimes have to choose between one side or the other. Fortunately there is an "unlimited" mode which allows you to use multiple copies of the same tile. The interface is slow and a little clumsy as the tiles often don't snap to where you've dragged them, but it's better than nothing. The tiles themselves are quite low res scans of the original and I'm not sure how good they'd look when printed out. One big issue is that the tiles do not include any transparent "objects" like tables or chairs so if you want to dress your battlemap beyond the WotC offerings you are still going to have to hunt down the images in the CSUAC or in the Dunjinni forums. 6/10 "Almost a real contender"

Apologies if I've missed out any other tools, or if you know of any you want me to try out, just drop me a comment below.

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - D is for Dungeon Floors

2011-10-17T09:00:00.001+01:00

As some of you are aware I am based in the UK and I've blogged before about how the roleplaying scene differs in Blighty to that across the pond (and probably that over in the Eurozone to boot). Here's an attempt to pick out some of the highlights of what it was like to be a roleplayer back in the dark days of Thatcher's Britain of the 1980s (cue the V for Vendetta trailer)...

D is for Dungeon Floors

No self respecting DM in the 80s could get away without using cardstock dungeon floor plans. Back in the 80s we didn't have photoshop and photo-quality printers, so if you wanted nice floorplans you needed to either make your own (and be very arts and crafty) or you could pop-along to your local specialist retailer and buy some ready made ones. There were quite a few ranges to choose from:

Endless Plans (Endless Games 1983-?) - Not much info has survived about these other than that they were mostly two colour plans and were also featured in The Complete Dungeon Master series of boxed sets and Tortured Souls magazine. There were at least 8 sets, with Set 8 being Forests, and they were very architectural in design. As I recall you were meant to cut them out along the dotted lines and you could then build up quite intricate and irregular dungeons by layering pieces one on top of another. This approach was novel, but futile and unplayable unless you had access to plenty of magic tape and an A3 photocopier. The wilderness tiles did have overlayed crosses for movement but they were far too intricate to be really useful (in comparison with the Dungeon Planner or Dungeon Floor Plans sets around at he same time.

Example of Endless Plans floorplans
(as found in CDM3 The Watchers of the Sacred Flame)

Dungeons & Dragons Dungeon Floor Plans (Games Workshop 1979) - Published by under license from TSR these are the granddaddy of all the Games Workshop floorplan sets and were reprinted in 1982 without any reference to the Dungeons and Dragons brand and also form the basis for the Dungeon Planner series reusing the same ground artwork.

Dungeon Planner (Games Workshop) - Neither of these are the traditional type of floorplans. Each box set came with an A2 map of the area in question (1in to 5ft scale) and a booklet for the DM to write scenario specific information in blocks corresponding to the numbered locations. The covers of the booklets also doubled as a DM's screen containing Encounter Tables and a black and white DM's version of the map with the rooms and doors numbered. I particularly liked the fact that the doors were seperately numbered as it is irritating when running a commercial scenario to find the status of the doors in the last line (or worse buried in the middle) of the room description.

Set 1: Caverns of the Dead (1984) - (Artist: Gary Chalk) - This map depicted a typical dungeon and came with an extra A4 map of the region of Koss.
Set 2: Nightmare in Blackmarsh (1984) - (Artist: by Albie Fiore and Robert Neville) - This set was part of a waterside village called Blackmarsh.


Set 1: Caverns of the Dead	Set 2: Nightmare in Blackmarsh

Dungeon Floor Plans (Artist Uncredited) - Designed in the same style as the Dungeon Planner series and based on the original Dungeons and Dragons Floorplans tile design. The latter sets included an overlayed cross grid to aid movement which was also used in the Judge Dredd RPG floorplans which were included in the boxed game. This series included:

Dungeon Floor Plans (1982) - 12 Sheets of generic dungeon floors including; 4 sheets of grey "crazy paved" stone floor, 3 sheets of beige flagstone floors, 1 sheet of wooden floors and 1 sheet of stone steps.
Dungeon Floor Plans 2 (1982) - 12 Sheets of exterior floors including; 3 sheets of grass, trees and Hedges, 3 sheets of water, 2 sheets of grey corridor features, 2 sheets of beige and 2 sheets of beige flagstone floors.
Dungeon Floorplans 3 (1983) - 12 Sheets of exterior features including; 4 sheets of roof tiles, 2 sheets of roof junctions, 2 sheets of timber features, two sheets of boats and two sheets of stone/dirt features.
Dungeon Floorplans 4 (1984) - 12 coloured sheets including; 5 rocky cavern floor Three Tunnel and Cavern walls 2 sheets of junctions openings and corners, 1 sheet of Cave features and 1 sheet of mine rails, rail junctions and accessories such as wagons, wheelbarrows and buffers.


Dungeon Floor Plans	Dungeon Floor Plans 2

Dungeon Floor Plans 3	Dungeon Floor Plans 4

DUNGEON Floor Plans (Games Workshop) - The previous sets released by GW all had a very flat feel to them, being at most 3 spot colours and no attempt was made to light, shadow or texture them. The next floorplans series attempted to fix that and hence moved to a full colour printing process but the lack of a defined grid made them far less useful for roleplay even though they were very pretty. The series was made up of:

Dungeon Floor Plans 1 (1986) - (unknown artist) - A re-imagineering of the 1982 set with full colour artwork including doors and furniture.
Dungeon Caverns (1986) - (Artist: Dave Andrews) - 12 Sheets of Caverns including 3 cavern floors, 1 cavern floor with stream, 3 curved cavern tunnels, 1 straight cavern tunnel with mine rails, 2 junctions 1 entrance and 1 sheet of cavern features such as steps, planks, treasure and weapons and a magma river.
Dungeon Rooms (1986) - (Artists: Tony Ackland, Dave Andrews, Colin Dixon) - 12 sheets including 23 rooms: Torture Chamber, Necromancer's Study, Armoury, Temple, Bedroom, Mausoleum, Apothecary, Guardroom and Cell, Treasure Room, Throne Room, Alchemist's Laboratory, Orc's Den, Wizard's Study, Great Hall, Forge, Kitchen, Barracks, Mortuary, Gladiatorial Pit, Library, Large Stairwell, Magic Well, Dragon's Lair plus Corridors and Passageways.
Dungeon Lairs (1987) - (Artists: Dave Andrews, Colin Dixon) - 10 sheets of monster lairs including: Sewers, Tunnel Complex, Troll Cave, Chaos Cavern, Chaos Temple, Ancient Temple, Barrow, Goblin Hall, Mossy Cave, Tree Root Cavern, Water Filled Cave, Ice Cavern Chaos Throne Room.


Dungeon Floor Plans 1	Dungeon Caverns

Dungeon Rooms	Dungeon Lairs

Role-Play Floor Plans (Playtwice Ltd) - I have one sheet (I have no idea when or where I acquired it) from one of the two sets published and they mimicked the Dungeon Floor Plans Set 1 but were slightly more colourful. No lighting effects were present but you did get a good spread of floor accessories as can be seen in this period advert from Adventurer Magazine.

Other NoteableFloorplans from the Era

Halls Of Horror: Gothic Floor Plans (Games Workshop 1986) - (Artists: uncredited) - Although not technically in the "DUNGEON Floor Plans" series these came out at the same time and were squarely marketed at Call of Cthulhu players even though GW did not brand them as such (probably due to licensing issues). 12 Sheets of floorplans depicting a gothic mansion including 11 Rooms; Hall, Dining Room, Kitchen, Conservatory, Laboratory, Guest Bedroom, Drawing Room, Library, Scullery, Attic or Cellar, Master Bedroom, Bathroom and 2 sheets of accessories including 2 cars, staircases sarcophagi and some
corpses.
Heroquest (Games Workshop / MB Games 1989) - This boardgame featured a big full colour dungeon which although it has some unfavourable design characterstics it is still quite useable for smaller dungeons.
Advanced Heroquest (Games Workshop 1989) - Came with some really nice floorplans with jigsaw connectors so they didn't slide all over the place. Far nicer and more useable than the DUNGEON Floor Plans which GW released 3 years earlier.
Judge Dredd: Slaughter Margin (Games Workshop 1986) - (Artist: Dave Andrews) - A campaign scenario boxset which included 8 A3 playsheets depicting scenes from the scenario but designed to be quite generic and 3 sheets of accessories like furniture and machinery.
Judge Dredd: Citi-Block (Games Workshop 1987) - (Artist: Dave Andrews) - 8 A3 Floorplans representing an open area, park, entrance plaza, office units, helipad/hover bus stop, 2 pipeway/corridors, and sky-rail station and 4 A4 sheets of cardstock vehicles, street furniture and machinery to populate your own Mega City block. Fully compatible with the earlier Slaughter Margin and very useable for all manner of Sci-Fi games.

Next: E is for Elric of Melniboné

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - C is for Citadel

2011-10-13T09:00:00.000+01:00

I'm not going to recant the life story of this company, just tell you what it felt like from my perspective. In my early days as a gamer my dad took me along to wargames conventions in an around the north of England from the age of 5. Shows such as Northern Militaire, Sheffield Triples or Leeds Fiasco. Roleplaying and Fantasy wargaming in general was often seen as the young punk of the wargaming scene, but it was very much part of the scene and not a seperate hobby. All the miniatures manufacturers were present so I got to see everything that was readily available. It wasn't particularly impressive to be honest.

The miniatures hadn't really evolved from the primitive "tin soldier" sculpts of earlier decades. For many wargamers in the 70s, my Dad included, it was all about Napoleonics. Large formations of miniatures which looked impressive due to their numbers and so they were sculpted to "stand off scale" quality. Yes you could see a nose and maybe an ear, but there was never any expression (or maybe that was cos they really were that stiff upper lipped back then). I ws never going to get excited about a featureless figure with no facial detail, this is my character I want to represent, he has to have a face!!

Then along came Citadel Miniatures, they were sculpted with charisma, a lone barbarian facing off against the goblin horde had a facial expression, you could tell he was pretty angry. The poses were far more dynamic and they had musculature, it was almost like the before and after shots in a Mr Universe advert. Of couse this was the only encouragement I needed to beg some extra pocket money and start my collection with the Dungeon Adventurers Starter Pack.

The early miniatures looked pretty primitive, by todays standards, and when in the Citadel launched it's slotta base ranges in the early 80s it was quite frankly a revolution. Gone were the mishappen lumps of solid lead at the bottom of each figure, which were never flat and which you had to file down (generating lots of lead dust) to make the mini stand up straight. Instead between its legs the mini had a strip of lead bearing the range number and the Citadel stamp of approval. An unintended consequence of this being that you can now easily identify any vintage miniature you pick up on ebay and prices of vintage miniatures particularly citadel have sky rocketed.

Early slotta base minis from my own collection
(LtoR: C10 Guard, ADD11 Female Magic User (Low Level) , C10 Brave)

My friends and I would drool over the Citadel Compendium and choosing a new miniature became a bit of a ritual as you scanned the contents of each page or jiggled the miniatures around in their "blister pack" to see if the one you wanted was in there.

There were some really useful ranges back then, Games Workshop released the first Warhammer Fantasy Battle rules in 1983 and White Dwarf was still mainly a roleplaying magazine. Higlights included:

Advanced Dungeons & Dragons (ADD): The Player Character Packs featured 3 versions of the same AD&D class minis per blister pack. Designed to represent your character as it evolved through the levels you got a Low, Medium and High level version of each character, all sculpted by Aly Morrison. There were also Monster Packs with a varying number of minis all of the same race usually. There's a great photo archive of the AD&D range over at Stuff of Legends.

Talisman: All the player characters from the original Talisman Boardgame were represented and were designed to replace the original card standees which came inside the gamebox, and came with distinctive hex bases. As further Talisman supplements were released the range expanded to include the characters from Expansion, Adventure, Dungeon and Timescape.

Two figures from the Talisman TL10 Blister Pack - Gypsy and Martial Artist

Gothic Horror: For players of Call of Cthulhu, Citadel released this range even though at the time they did not hold the license for CoC minis, they did distribute CoC in the UK for Chaosium and later created the Halls of Horror floorplans to expanding their Dungeon Floors range of cardstock floorplans.

Citadel quite literally broke the mould and pretty soon other mini companies started to smell the coffee. Wargamers demanded better quality sculpts and new manufacturers were started up, some by the Citadel sculptors themselves, those that didn't redesign their lines just faded into obscurity.

Next: D is for... Dungeon Floors

Old Skool Accessory: Dungeonworks Magnetic Dungeons

2011-10-11T09:00:00.004+01:00

Before Bendy Walls... before Dwarven Forge... before Hirst Arts... there was...

Dungeonworks(TM) Magnetic Dungeon!

Released in 1991, the set consisted of a 10" square felt backed metal board with 1" square stone tiles printed on it's face. The plastic walls and doors had a rectangular recess in the base to house a strip of magnetic plastic, a sort of thick version of that used in magnetic sign boards.

The corners of each wall section were mitred at 45 degrees so you could make convincing corners and but walls together to make corridors. Door archways were also included in the set, but there were no doors themselves. As you can see I added some resin cast doors to a few of the walls in my set.

There was one huge problem with the whole set which I found almost immediately during play. The walls are way too high and the board too small. In fact my experiences with this set were partly behind my reasons to go with a 1.5" square floorplan scale and 1" hinch walls in my foamcard 3D dungeon, a winning combination in my opinion.

The miniatures end up being crammed into a tiny area and the board can only handle a maximum room size of 50'x50'. I guess they were expecting you to buy more than one set, but it was too heavy to carry around compared with a box of cardstock floorplans, not to mention the price.

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - B is for Beast Enterprises

2011-10-10T09:00:00.003+01:00

Tortured Souls! - Issue 5

Publishers of Tortured Souls! magazine from 1983 to 1986 which was a scenarios only title in the same vein as Dungeon but pre-dating it by a whole 3 years!. It's primary focus was of course D&D / AD&D and specifically the Zhalindor campaign, but there was always an attempt to reach out to the Runequest DM so stat blocks also featured RQ conversions.

The genius idea (which was probably made out of necessity rather than anything else) was that they worked in close partnership with a few other companies, namely:

Integrated Games - Producers of the Complete Dungeon Master Series of boxed-set scenarios each containing everything you needed to run an entire game from the scenario itself (written by Simon Forest and Basil Barrett) to the floorplans (Brendan Hickling), A4 scenic illustrations (by Judith Hickling) and even a GM's screen. The boxed sets were:

CDM1 - Halls of the Dwarven Kings
CDM2 - The Lost Shrine of Kasar-Khan
CDM3 - The Watchers of the Sacred Flame
CDM4 - The Feathered Priests
CDM5 - Deep Water Shallow Graves (never released although 3 copies are allegeded to exist)

Endless Games - Produced A range of very detailed architectural floor plans known as Endless Plans, drawn by Allen and Brendan Hickling which featured in all of the Integrated Games products and Tortured Souls! issues. This mutually beneficial arrangement (from a GMs perspective) is much like that of Ptolus where Monte Cook teamed up with Ed Bourelle (Skeleton Key Games) to produce high quality campaign material with equally high quality floorplans.

TM Games - Manufactured (in partnership with Endless Games) a range of accessories such as the A4 character record pad and the ever useful hex map pad.

Back to the magazine

Looking back at Tortured Souls! I find it odd that the scenarios were never credited to anyone. They were always well constructed although they shared the same densely packed san-serif typography which was to be frank a little tireing on the eye.

The covers always stood out in a minimalist kind of way being almost exclusively black with a single illustration in the center. Interior art was supplied by Paul Ward and Jon Baker, who also supplied interior artwork for the CDM series and both had very distingtive styles.

Next: C is for... Citadel Miniatures

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - A is for Adventurer Magazine

2011-10-08T09:00:00.010+01:00

Adventurer was the first of the "independent" roleplaying magazines that made it out of specialist stores (in the US read FLGs) and into the High Street newsagents like John Menzies and W H Smiths. Published by the liverpool based Mersey Leisure Publications and ran for a total of 11 issues between April 1986 and July 1987, it appeared in the wake of TSR UK's IMAGINE magazine which had closed the previous year. It was put together by a small team on a small budget and the quality of the interior artwork sometimes suffered as a result, but that was always made up for by the glossy full-colour front covers.

The first issue featured:

The Black Tower (John S Davies) - A Rolemaster/AD&D scenario in two parts (Issue 2 containing the second part)
White Fire (Uncredited) - A Call of Cthulhu scenario featuring an amazingly detailed cut-a-way illustration of the mansion which was the main location.
How to become a Method Role-player (Steve Rawlinson) - An article discussing approaches to method acting in RPGs.
Gumshoe (Peter England) - A preview of the detective RPG of the same name set in the "gangster-ridden" streets of 1930's Chicago. I've never played Gumshoe, but it was released by Sleuth Publications who were also responsible for the bookcase boardgame Sherlock Holmes Consulting Detective which is well worth picking up if you can get it as it is the closest you'll ever come to a Boardgame / RPG crossover.
A review of the First British Play By Mail (PBM) Convention - The concept of PBM (ie: posting off your turn every week (including the small fee) to the GM for them to send you back a letter telling you how it went) seems so quaint looking back from this high-speed broadband always on mobile internet world that we live in, but it was the great granddaddy of the MMORPG, just done via snail mail.
Psychology in Games (Stephen Dillon) - A Roleplaying Theory article explaining the basic concepts of Psychology (ie: Motivation and Personality) and how they manifests themselves during play in PC and NPC interaction. Padding anyone?
Blood Loss (Paul Evans) - An article which offers an alternative way to describe damage to characters (particularly those high level characters with 50+ HP). Death by a thousand cuts anyone?

Regular Columns were also present in the shape of:

Figures Front (Martyn Tetlow and Will Hannah) - doing a reasonable job at reviewing new miniatures and featuring a page of full colour painted miniatures although the photography and printing were pretty grim by todays standards.

Live By The Sword - The defacto "letters page" including a letter requesting submission guidelines from Marcus L Rowland who was a contributor to White Dwarf and has since gone on to create supplements for GDW's Space 1889, Call of Cthulhu and his own RPGs Diana Warrior Princess, Flatland and Forgotten Futures.
Shop Window - Reviews of new RPG releases including; A View to a Kill (007 RPG), Gods of Glorantha (Runequest), Send in the Clones (Paranoia), Alone against the Wendigo (CoC), Fluffy Quest (Generic Fantasy scenario), Super-Power the boardgame (Games Workshop) and Time & Time Again (A Timetravel RPG)
Town Crier - A news section discussing products in development and new releases.
Once Bitten - A regular comic strip with artwork clearly inspired by the work of underground comic artist Robert Crumb.

The Adventurer Team:

Editor: Stephen "Ste" Dillon - Is this the same Steve Dillon who has since gone on to be a celebrated comicbook writer? you decide (see inset pics). Miniatures Reviews - Martyn Tetlow and Miniature Painting Tips - Will Hannah. Artists: Robin Parry (who created the cover for issue 1) and George Jones.

When I could get hold of a copy I would pour through it avidly as it had a certain homebrew appeal and was pitched at a slightly maturer reader. This was at a time when the other dominant force in the UK RPG (Games Workshop's White Dwarf) was still publishing RPG material for CoC, Golden Heroes and my favourite Judge Dredd and it had yet to morph into the Warhammer brochure that it is today.

I've since discovered that they're all available online via mediafire, if anyone else would like a slice of RPG nostalgia along with their cup of tea.

Next: B is for... Beast Enterprises

Scenario Writing: Non-Linear Plots and Node-Based Design

2011-10-06T10:04:00.000+01:00

A fine post from Justin (The Alexandrian) about Advanced Node-Based Design with respect to scenarios made me realise that I'd been been doing this for years without realising that there was a formal theory surrounding it. In an earlier article I described some of the techniques I've used to write linear plots, which can also be described in this node-based design approach like this:

Although the example is deliberately simple it demonstrates how taking this approach can and does prepare you for almost any eventuality and may even reap rewards in the design stage by focusing your writing (in a similar way to a mind map) and offer other plot possibilities that you hadn't thought of initially. Why does the patron want the artifact? Can it be used to control the Evil? Was the patron behind the event which threatened the PCs life?

However, this node-based design approach works best with non-linear adventures, particularly those where investigation is required and the DM has left clues which send the PCs off in one direction or the other as in this example:

Again the deliberately simple diagram above only details Two Clues per node and I cannot reccomend enough the importance of following The Three Clue Rule lest your scenario grind to a halt in a choke point. However, as you can see, the PCs may take any route through the scenario they choose and you will have already done the hard work of designing each node in advance and be prepared for most eventualities.

As Justin quite rightly points out these do not have to necessarily be clues, they can be events, objects or rumours which PUSH players into moving to the the next node or equally their desires can PULL them in a particular direction. It's quite fun to watch your players sweat over equally enticing possibilities or for them to choose what they think is the easy option only for it to turn nasty.

Passing on the Torch

2011-10-04T09:00:00.000+01:00

One of the joys of parenthood is passing on your bad habits to your kids and I have been hopeing that I can pass on my love of Sci-Fi and Fantasy literature to my 12 year old step daughter. This has been a struggle (personally, I blame Jacqueline Wilson novels) but my heart skipped a beat when she brought home her Key Stage 3 reading list from school. Here are some of the titles:

The Hobbit

Plague 99

The Mortal Engines

The Wind Singer

The Crysalids

The Hunger Games

Classic 20th Century Fiction:

The Hobbit (JRR Tolkien) - Despite her reticence to read my dogeared and yellowed 1973 copy which was handed down from Father to Son many moons ago (the book is one year younger than I am). By the time you read this we will be over half way through and I think she's secretly enjoying it (but trying not to show it). Of course I couldn't help myself but to put on a good Andy Serkis voice whilst reading the part of Gollum.

Science Fiction and Fantasy

Plague 99 (Jean Ure) - I know absolutely nothing about this book and am quite worried that other books by her have titles like "Girlfriends: Pink Knicker's aren't Cool" or "Frankie Foster Freaks Out!"
The Mortal Engines Quartet (Phillip Reeve) - I've been waiting for a good excuse to read these. I've been lusting after the Dystopian Wars miniatures from Spartan Games which appear to be inspired by them.
The Windsinger (William Nicholson) - From what I can glean from the internet this looks like a run of the mill fantasy trilogy. We may have to pass on this as I'd really like to get her opinion on Trudi Canavan's Black Magician Trilogy.
The Chrysalids (John Wyndham) - Can't wait to read this with her. She really enjoyed the BBC2 version of The Day of the Triffids.
Harry Potter (Series) - J K Rowling - She's expressed a strong dislike of Mr Potter, so we're going to have to skip these (which I'm rather glad about as I think they're purile derivative nonsense as well).
The Hunger Games (Suzanne Collins) - I know nothing aboout this book other than that it is being made into a movie slated for a 2012 release starring Jennifer Lawrence (who played Mystique in X-Men First Class). It's IMDB summary is "A young girl volunteers to take her sister's place in a fight to the death in a dystopian future" so sounds promising then.
I am Number Four (Pittacus Lore) - We really enjoyed the movie and I suspect that the book is a lot better.

Oh and the rest of the books on the list are:

Pre 20th Century Fiction

What Katy Did (Susan Coolidge)
Heidi (Johanna Spyri) - I used to love watching this on TV as a kid.
Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (Lewis Caroll)
Black Beauty (Anna Sewell)
Little Women (Louisa May Alcott)
Jane Eyre (Charlotte Bronte)
Oliver Twist (Charles Dickens)

Classic 20th Century Fiction

Lord of the Flies (William Golding) - This is a must read.
Ballet Shoes (Noel Streatfield)
The Secret Garden (Frances Hodges Burnett)
Peter Pan (JM Barrie)
Anne of Green Gables (LM Montgomery)
The Little House on the Prairie (Laura Ingalls Wilder)
The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe (CS Lewis)
The Railway Children (E Nesbit)

Modern Fiction

A Series of Unfortunate Events (Lemony Snicket)
Girl Missing (Sophie Mckenzie)
The Princess Diaries (Meg Cabot) - Got to read this.
Noughts and Crosses (Malorie Blackman)
Refugee Boy (Benjamin Zephaniah)
Step by Wicked Step (Anne FIne)
Saffy's Angel (Hilary McKay)
Lola Rose (Jacqueline Wilson)
Feeling Sorry for Celia (Jacyln Moriarty)
The Exiles (Hilary McKay)

Biography/Autobiography

Diary of Anne Frank (Anne Frank)
When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit (Judith Kerr)
Chinese Cindarella (Adeline Yen Mah)
My Family and Other Animals (Gerald Durrell)
All Creatures Great and Small (James Herriot)

Hard at work in The Lands of Dual, Super Random Saturday

2011-10-01T21:34:00.001+01:00

Unfortunately work on my campaign world has kept me very busy in the limited free time I have, but I thought I could share what I've been upto.

Castles and Crusades Class Based NPC Generator

As some of you may know I'm using Castles and Crusades for the rules sytem in The Lands of Dual, and I've been winging it with class based NPCs for a while and thought it high time that I created a generator which could knock out stat blocks in HTML. My programming skills are pretty limited so I usually turn to Excel for this sort of thing.

So far my Stat block looks like this:



NPC #1 (Level 7 HALFLING Paladin) STR (12), DEX (9), CON (12), INT (8), WIS (11), CHA (15) with Hit Points (44), wearing NONE Armour (AC:10). INIT (0) MELEE (6) MISSILE (6)WEAPONS: Hvy Crossbow (1d10), Sickle (1d4)

and the HTML output (which Blogger appears not to like! )

The generator can create upto 10 class based NPCs and I've configured it to give a choice of:

LEVEL - User can input individual levels for each NPC, Have all the NPCs one specific level, or randomly generate either LOW (Lvls 1-5), MED (Lvls 6-10), HIGH (Lvls 11-15) or HEROIC (Lvls 16-20)
RACE - User can either select one race (from the standard PC races) for all 10 NPCs or randomly generate each NPCs race. This enables the generation of mixed race NPC parties or gangs.
CLASS - User can either select one class (from the standard PC classes) for all 10 NPCs or randomly generate each NPCs class. This enables the generation of mixed class NPC parties.
ATTRIBUTES - User can choose to generate the 6 standard stats (STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, CHA) either totally randomly or LOW (values between 1-12), HIGH (values between 9-18) or along class lines where NPCs get one PRIMARY (values between 13-18), two SECONDARY (values between 9-15) and three NORMAL (values between 6-12) attributes.
ARMOUR - User can choose to randomly generate armour (or not) either Randomly, Random + Shield or give all the NPCs the same armour.
WEAPON - User can randomly generate each NPCs weapons from a subset of Melee and Missile weapons.

Now I can generate my bands of brigands or companies of knights pretty quickly and also automatically create their stat blocks in either plain text or HTML ready for printing or for inclusion into the the campaign website. Please remember that this is v1.0 so is probably buggy :)

Download Link

Random NPC Generator (172K) XSLX Format

Magic Item: The Bar of Expectation

2011-09-19T09:00:00.002+01:00

This curious item is a 1/2" square section ebony rod 8 inches in length. It is tipped at one end with a gold cap and at the other with a platinum cap (the business end). The rod holds upto 20 (2d10) charges and can be used once per round, a charge is spent each time the rod is used.

Using the rod enables the weilder to anticipate the actions of another. However, the item is a fickle one and only it decides the outcome.

During combat the weilder points at a target and utters the command word (DM decides what the command word is), and the DM then flips a coin secretly. If the result is HEADS the target always acts after the weilder and the weilder gets a free dodge or parry attempt whenever their opponent attacks. If the result is TAILS then the opponent always acts first.

The rod can also be used out of combat at the DM's discretion, although it's effects have a time limit of 5 minutes. Some example uses would be:

Assisting the weilder in winning games of skill or choice. Predicting the outcome of a fight or
Any form of prediction based on an opponents actions, thoughts and deeds. Predicting the outcome of negotiation or haggling.
Assisting in following a target. the weilder always knows which route the target will take

Again the DM tosses a coin secretly and if the result is HEADS, the use will be positive for the weilder or TAILS will be positive for the target.

It cannot be used to predict random events such as the drawing of a random card from a deck or the throw of a dice, nor can it's weilder use it on him or herself.

Dinosaurs, Myths, Monsters

2011-09-18T01:58:00.001+01:00

This was the title of a fascinating programme on BBC Four in which historian and novelist Dr. Tom Holland charts the alternative history of Paleontonlogy. The premise being that the fossilised bones and footprints which make up the fossil record have been misinterpreted by different cultures across the ages, from the early Chinese Dynasties through Ancient Greece to the Victorians.

I was aware that the origins of many western dragon myths lay in the discoveries made by earlier civilisations, but not in any level of detail. The Greeks believed that they were descended from the Gods and Titans and that paleontological evidence uncovered during this age was ascribed not just to mythical beasts but to the Gods and demigods themselves. Holland recounts that the successful conquest of the city of Tegea by the Spartans who recovered a Mastodon leg bone which they mistook for the leg of the giant hero Orestes.

Every bestiary I've ever read has had it's fair share of mythical beasts or giant this, that and the other, so much so that that you don't think twice about their origins. Players also take for granted that if their patrons say their village was attacked by a dragon, they ask "did you see what colour it was?" This blase approach to the origins of mythology got me thinking about some plot options which I could throw at my players.

Leg-endary Hero - The villagers have long revered their most treasured artifact a leg bone of a giant hero which they keep in their long house and bring out on feast days. During one such feast day, the village is attacked by a dragon who has caught the scent of the bone and swoops down to attack right in the middle of the festivities. The hero's leg bone is in fact that of another dragon which even though it is hundreds of years old, still contains plenty of tasty marrow. For the PCs there's a village to be saved, a dragon to be hunted and a precious artifact to be recovered.

Skeletal Jigsaw - A scholarly wizard contracts the PCs to recover the final piece of his paleontological puzzle which he has pieced together over many decades. He is now far too old to go digging around in the mud himself and pays handsomely for the party to recover and escort the bone from the dig site to the university where it will be installed along with the other bones in a reconstruction of a giant mythological beast. Unfortunately the wizard has gotten his reconstruction all wrong and has put the bones together in the wrong order. When the all the pieces are in place, the mage has unwittingly reunited the bones of some terrifying ancient magical beast which rearranges itself in its correct configuration before going on a rampage.

MOVIEWATCH: Attack The Block (15)

2011-09-04T16:33:00.001+01:00

Having been a fan of the cult humour of Adam & Joe for many years, the bar of expectation (good name for a wondrous item, that) was set pretty high for Joe Cornish's directorial debut. I can happily report that Attack the Block is definitely well worth seeing and I'd go so far as to give it 4 out of 5 stars.

The action takes place in and around a South East London council estate, where a gang of youths led by Moses attempt to thwart an alien invasion. The film hangs on the premise that Good can indeed come from Evil when the circumstances dictate it, and the quasi-redemption of Moses (John Boyega) and the rest of his gang is both darkly humorous and thought provoking to watch in light of the recent rioting in London and other parts of the UK.

Cornish's comedic sensibilities shine through and create some genuinely funny moments as counterpoints to the movie's tense and scary undertone. The creature design is innovative and well executed applying the common sense approach of less is most definitely more when working on a modest budget (for a sci-fi film) of $13 Million. The decision to cast newcomers to play the youths keeps the authenticity level high, whilst the inclusion of established actors in the shape of Nick Frost (Ron), Jodie Whitaker (Sam) and Luke Treadaway (Brewis) keeps the film accessible.

The only issue I have with the film is that the language used will not be familiar to most, being very specific to South East London gang culture of 2011 and like all similar "gang" films the colloquialisms will be also date very quickly. To help out here are a few words translated into English.

Endz - Gang territory, the estate. Originating from the concept that gangs territory is defined from one end of a road to the other.
Bare - Good
Fam - Family or gang. Abbreviation of Family.
D'ya'getme - Do you understand me.
Snitch - Informer, also used to
Po Po / Feds - Police
Bra Bra Bra - The sound of a machine pistol being fired.

There's some pretty rich material in here for any DM thinking of running an alien invasion one nighter and the setting would quite easily transpose onto any metropolis be it Chicago's Projects, Paris's "Banlieue, Rio's "Favela" or the city-bottom Blocks of Mega City One

MOVIEWATCH: Gaiking The Movie

2011-08-23T01:29:00.000+01:00

If there's one thing that I love about anime it's GIANT ROBOTS!!

Check out this awesome teaser trailer for Gaiking The Movie, hope it sees the light of day unlike some other live-action anime projects (Akira, Gatchaman, Cowboy Bebop)

Make: 3D Dungeon Tiles Pt 3 - Painting and Decorating

2011-08-08T19:49:00.001+01:00

As I mentioned in a Part One, I've made plenty of 2D floorplans from card and paper in the past and whenever I've painted or covered them they've warped quite considerably. So I approached the decorating of the first tile as an experiment in materials and techniques rather than trying to get any kind of quality or finish.

I was surprised to find that the foamcore stands up to painting quite well and doesn't warp much at all. I used some old rowney poster paint to begin with but this had a tendency to dry with a powdery finish so when adding wet layers on top it tended to blend or streak.

I switched to some cheap artists acrylics, but these were a bit too gritty in consistency even though they covered reasonably well and suit my painting style which is to blend up from black.

My next experiment was with household emulsion. I bought some tester pots from a local DIY store. This made the boards warp when the paint was wet, but they flattened out a bit when they dried.

Walls & Floors

These were painted in two shades of grey, dark then a lighter grey top coat. I then drew on the mortar lines for the brick and cracked floor tiles in pencil, before giving them a black wash. The black wash was repeated in the corners and edges of the door tabs before the bricks were edgelined with a lighter grey.

Doors

Bricks and doors were drawn onto foamcore in pencil

I sketched out a few double door concepts on the computer just to give me an idea of where things like the hardware (hinges, lintels and straps) would go.

Brickwork was sketched out and then the whole door was painted in three shades of brown.

The lintel was cut out and glued onto the door, then the brickwork was painted in the same fashion as the walls and floors. Once the highlights were done I cut out the hinges and glued them to the door. These were painted in brown and a very dark grey.

Right First Time?

As I wrote earlier, this was as much about experimenting in materials and techniques so it would be churlish of me to give you the impression that I got it all right first time, but I wasn't a million miles away.

In this earlier attempt I decided to go for a simple black and white checkerboard design with a red inlay on the white squares to give it a bit of an accent. My lining skills are pretty poor and not helped by the scabby brushes that now remain in my paintbox after my stepdaughter has been at them, time to invest in some new ones...

The Future

Now the basic technique has been cracked I'll be experimenting with some other features like stairs, a dias and maybe some other door concepts and different floor designs like lava and stuff...

Animals in RPGs

2011-08-03T18:00:00.001+01:00

The Tower of the Archmage is hosting this month's RPG Blog Carnival which poses the question "What roles have animals played in your games?". Here are some of the ways I've used animals over the years.

Familiar - One of the things most Sorceror's do fairly early on in their career is to augment their character with a familiar. As well as providing important skill boosts for the traditionally weak low level sorceror, they can be quite useful plot devices for DMs as well. In my last campaign one of the PCs had a cat which had an annoying habit of wandering off and discovering things I wanted the PCs to uncover. Non-magical classes can get into on the action

Animal Companion NPC - Non-magical characters can get in on the supplemental skill action with an animal NPC. Barbarians with tame bears and wolves are not unheard of, Rangers with birds of prey, Elves with dragons etc. They are a common feature in literature, from Samwise Gamgee and his pony "Bill" in The Lord of The Rings to Fitz's bonded wolf "Nighteyes" in Robin Hobb's Farseer Trilogy.

Pets - These animals tend to be more of a quirk than anything truly useful, but can be good plot devices for DM's. One of my current campaign PCs rescued a terrapin from the a streetvendor who was barbecueing them as tasty treats. All credit to him as a player he had us in stitches when in the middle of a rather intense discussion over a round of drinks in a tavern, he reached across the game table to retrieve his imaginary terrapin as it tried to escape.

Producers - All animal companions have the potential for use as a melee weapon, but there are some animals which can have uses beyond the mundane biting and clawing aspects of combat. How about animals such as the humble goose whose feathers make quills or arrow fletchings, the bear that you must kill in the Northern Wastes in order to make a coat to survive a snow storm. In my current campaign there's an Assassin who keeps a tree frog which produces the poison he dips his darts in.

Transport - If you've not run a game where your PCs have bought a lame, stubborn or unrideable horse, or in my case a psychotic spitting camel, then you should even if just for comedic value. Retrieving a loose horse or fending off a bunch of rustlers are also fun sidetreks to relieve the boredom on a journey. I've even created my own Animal Item Cards and Paper Minis to help my players to visualise and manage them.

Animal Hybrid PCs - One of my favourite RPGs is Justifiers which has the "Beta-Humanoid" animal hybrid concept at it's heart. These corporate owned constructs are bred for their congenital abilities which make them extremely useful for exploring new planets for natural resources which their corporate masters hope to exploit. I also used the animal hybrid as a concept for Lizardmen in my campaign, complete with a racial schism which over the centuries as meant that a common ancestor evolved into two distinct species Red Salamankari and Green Salamankari but who share many physical and social similarities including a bloodthirsty animosity towards each other.

Make: 3D Dungeon Tiles Pt 2 - The Build

2011-08-02T20:34:00.001+01:00

In Part One I discussed the design. However, I didn't give you any detailed plans with measurements, mostly because I didn't know how accurately I could cut the foamcore.

After a bit of trial and error, with different construction methods, I settled on the overlapping laminate design for each corner (as seen in the picture to the right). This means that each tile has an outside measurement of 6" x 6" and they will tesselate quite nicely without any annoying gaps in the floor. The downside to this design is that any opening which doesn't have a door or wall in it has an obvious slot in it's edge.

Cutting List

For each base you will need:

1 x Base (5mm Foamcore) - 6" x 6"

4 x Long Corner (2mm card) - 43mm x 1"
4 x Short Corner (2mm card) - 41mm x 1"
4 x Long Corner (5mm Foamcore) - 36mm x 1"
4 x Short Corner (5mm Foamcore) - 31mm x 1"
8 x Tabs (2mm card) - 10mm, 1"

Don't worry too much about getting it absolutely accurate to the mm as the foamcore is quite forgiving. The card on the otherhand needs to be quite accurate as this is going to provide your overhang and ultimately a slot into which you can slide your door or wall sections.

All the corner sections are glued up with PVA (or Elmers) as in the picture above. I used masking tape to bind the corner whilst I finageled in the foamcore, again the foamcore is quite forgiving so if the corners fold out, don't worry too much as the foamcore will compress back to 90 degrees when you glue each corner onto the base.

It's a good idea at this point to draw over the pencil lines on the base with a ballpoint pen, otherwise it'll be trick to get a straight edge in the confined space once you've glued on your corners.

My trial and error provided me with several abortive boards with good square corners, so I just used one as a jig. This was invaluable and I would recommend making one. The corners are then hot glued onto the base. This is a bit of a messy job, but hot glue is way stronger than the foamcore's paper backing and provides a great bond.

Once all 4 corners have been glued onto the base, take some time to trim off any excess glue particularly around the join between the base and the overhanging card which forms one of the inside faces of the door/wall slot. If there's any splodges of hotglue in the slot it will prevent your door or walls from sliding all the way to the bottom.

Then you just need to cut some 10mm x 1" tabs and hot glue to the opposite faces of the foamcore at both ends of each corner. It took me a while to develop a technique of sliding the tabs towards the open end to get them into the correct position to prevent any hot glue seeping into the slot.

Once this is done the doors and walls can be cut from foamcore. Doors are 3" x 2" and walls are 3" x 1", but can be trimmed down if they don't quite fit into the two slots at either side of an opening. This gives you the option of having a door or a wall in each side. Just cut more doors and walls as you need.

Eh Voila, three 20ft square dungeon rooms.

In my next part I'll be tackling the painting and decorating.

Make: 3D Dungeon Tiles Pt 1 - The Design

2011-08-01T12:08:00.002+01:00

One of the aspects of Roleplaying that I've always loved is the craft element, be it painting miniatures or making maps, it satisfies the modeller in me. In particular I've always wanted to have an impressive 3D dungeon setup, so when I stumbled upon Eredrian's Warhammer Quest Tiles I decided that I'd give it a go.

I've designed and built plenty of 2D tiles before, but never in 3D with walls and doors. The biggest change has been to scale everything up to a 1.5" grid as a 1" grid became too cramped and play broke down. Another inspiration was the fantastic drakkon boardgame which has a couple of fun actions like the Rotate a Room and Floating Room which I thought would be nice to have in a dungeon.

This all percolated into an embryonic design of a 6" square standard tile with a 4x4 grid 1 inch high walls with removable wall/door/feature sections which I drew out in sketchup.

In Part Two I'll be pulling out the foamcore and starting to cut.

Movie Watch: Eyeborgs

2011-07-25T19:39:00.001+01:00

Adrian Paul (Highlander TV Series) and Danny Trejo (Machete) star in this cautionary tale of technology gone too far set in a near future Chicago. The eyeborgs of the title are mobile surveillance cameras tasked with the surveillance of society for the Department of Homeland Security, but have they been compromised and if so, by whom? Gunner Reynolds (Adrian Paul) a DHS agent discovers the truth about the real nature of the eyeborgs design.

<br><br><br>Ref

If you can get past the distinctly "TV Movie" CGI eyeborgs which are nicely modeled but poorly composited, there's a good plot in there and certainly something that hasn't been seen before. The characters, and perhaps Paul's acting, are a little one dimensional but passable and Danny Trejo has the most lines I've ever heard him speak in one movie.

A solid 4 out of 5 for the story and a 3 out of 5 for the CGI.

Beast of the Week: Hydrothermal Worm

2011-07-22T09:18:00.001+01:00

Nature proves yet again that it can evolve animals which would fit quite nicely into any RPG scenario. Meet the Hydrothermal Worm, photo taken by Philippe Crassous at FEI (makers of Electron Scanning Microscopes).

I think that this is a suitable image for my 100th post

...meet Leonard of Quirm

2011-07-21T14:29:00.000+01:00

Although it has been pretty quiet for blogging here at roleplay-geek HQ, I'm very busy; running my C&C campaign The Lands of Dual with my regular friday group; designing and building a foamcard pirate galleon; designing a new "Deluxe PDF" approach to Item Cards which will debut soon with the release of RGP004 - Armour and Shields and preparing a Star Blazer Adventures one nighter as a birthday treat for my buddy Paul Stebles, to name just a few. I'm also working on v5.0 of my post apocalyptic car combat game which I hope to be able to release as a Print 'n' Play PDF in the very near future.
I'm beginning to feel a bit like Leonard of Quirm, too many projects and not enough time to finish them...

Legendary Locations: Mud Maid of The Lost Gardens of Helligan

2011-06-29T10:33:00.001+01:00

A very evocative image of a sleeping giantess which inhabits a glade at The Lost Gardens of Helligan in St Austell, Cornwall, England. This beautiful image was taken by flickr photographer Colin Boylett.

COMPETITION: RGP Products - Tell me what you think and win a Decision Deck

2011-05-29T10:20:00.002+01:00

I'd love to say that the life of a fledgling publisher is all good, but to tell you the truth I have no frame of reference. Put simply I have sales (woot) but no reviews (sigh). I have no idea what my customers think of my PDFs, how I could improve them, are they useful to you, is there anything missing that you'd expect?

I need some user feedback.

So, If you've bought any of the first 3 sets of Item Cards; RGP001 - Adventurer's Gear, RGP002 - Potions or RGP003 - Animals or RGP004 Paper Minis Set 1: Animals please feel free to let me know what you think using the comments box below.

As an incentive I'll send each one of you a complimentary copy of my new GM Aids Decision Deck courtesy of RPG Now/Drive Thru RPG.

Dice or Cards? Choose your weapon!!

2011-05-25T09:00:00.003+01:00

My regular gaming group (Hello Dualers!) have had the opportunity to sample my products in the early stages of development and this Friday was no different as I used them for playtesting my Decision Deck.

What's a Decision Deck? you say, well it's a pack of cards which I use instead of rolling dice. Each card has a dice roll value corresponding to the size of dice be it a coin toss or D3 to D30. In the production version I've added a number of other random metrics including Critical Hit, Fumble, Poker Hands and Dice Hands. It means I don't have to look for the appropriate dice anymore or have to consult a random result chart.

I know some players object to using cards instead of dice themselves but I gotta say as a GM I really felt they worked for me. I had my numbers ready at the turn of a card and the combat ran smoother and quicker than with dice.

What are your thoughts on the legitimacy of GMs using anything other than dice?

MOVIEWATCH: Limitless (15)

2011-05-24T09:00:00.006+01:00

Little clip here from the movie Limitless starring Bradley Cooper (of The Hangover and The A-Team fame) which somehow managed to slip under the radar here at Rolplay-Geek HQ...

++REVIEW++

Watching this movie was as much a revelation, for me, in how you make a superb superhero movie as was, Akira to animation or Blade Runner to near future Sci-Fi.

If you haven't seen this movie, put it at the top of your list (or at least above Green Lantern) you will not be dissapointed. Unfortunately I can't tell you anything about the plot in the sameway as you don't talk about Fight Club... it spoils the punchline.

Bob DeNiro is of course playing Bob DeNiro again, but there are shades of Travis Bickle in there which overshadow even Bradley Cooper's utterly believable performance as Eddie Morra, both as struggling writer and limitless hero.

5 STARS!!

...Errata, Erata, I love you Eratta...

2011-05-23T21:08:00.000+01:00

...You're only a ~~fay~~ say day away

As you are by now aware I have started a little publishing venture, and proof reading has kept me away from blogging. Today, was the first time I have had to publish an errata notice and this got me thinking.

I don't know of any other publishing genre which has so many errata which slip through the net. Fiction certainly doesn't, magazines and newspapers print retractions, but that's a content matter and not typos or other cockups. Do we the buyers seem to accept these errata more readily because we see ourselves as RPG fans first and consumers second? Do we appreciate the publisher's hard work that goes into even the smallest $1 PDF download, rather than wail on their poor proofreading skills? I'd like to think we're a better kind of people and we know how much love goes into the games we buy.

BTW if you've bought RGP001 - ITEM CARDS Set 1: Adventurer's Gear the errata have been corrected and you can download them in the FREE Item Card Sampler.

Mea Culpa, Mea Culpa, Mea Maxima Culpa...

MOVIEWATCH: The Adventures of Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn

2011-05-17T20:48:00.001+01:00

Probably the most eagerly awaited movie of the year (well in my house anyway!!), only 7 more months to wait...

Grimtooth's Most Useless Machine Trap

2011-05-14T11:31:00.000+01:00

I stumbled upon this video of the Angriest Most Useless Machine.

For those of you not initiated in the ways of Most Useless Machines, it's a device whose only function is to turn itself off. Each time you turn it on a finger pops out and immediately turns itself off.

Which got me thinking, perhaps Grimtooth might have invented something similar for one of his trap catalogues? Something like this perhaps:

The trap consists of a 100ft long, 10ft x 10ft corridor, at it's far end is a featurelss door with no handle. Protruding from the wall beside the door is a lever with a sign above it which reads "OPEN" and one below it which reads "CLOSE". Behind the wall sits an ogre, troll or other dim but dangerous creature who has been told to guard this door and stop anyone trying opening it by flipping the lever to CLOSE.

How to play it

The first time a player flips the lever roll 5d6, the resulting number is the PATIENCE of the guarding Ogre, make a note of this number. Each time a player flips the lever to the OPEN position the Ogre flips it back to CLOSE and reduce the Ogre's PATIENCE by 1. When the Ogre's PATIENCE is reduced to 0 it opens the door from his side snaps off the lever and bashes the PC with it before returning through the door and closing it.

Player's Solution

Go back the way you came.

Other RPG Uses

Unmodified, the machine would make a perfect Alpha Complex experimental robot...

"Listen up troubleshooters... The Computer, in its infamous wisdom, has granted you temporary security clearance to escort the experimental bot U-SLUS-MASH1N to R&D sector, please make sure that it gets there in one piece... "

Roleplay Geek Publishing - New Product - Paper Minis Set 1 - Animals

2011-05-10T13:28:00.000+01:00

RPG is proud to announce the first in a new line of Paper Miniatures with the release of RGP004 - Paper Minis - Set 1: Animals.

Do your PCs ever forget that they're on horseback? Do you need some mundane animals to populate that village scene? Do you want ink friendly disposable miniatures? Then this is the product for you!!

Paper Minis Set 1: Animals includes over 112 paper miniatures depicting the 28 animals featured in our sister product RGP003 Item Cards - Set 3: Animals. Each animal is based in 4 colours, 1 for each of your PCs, plus another 6 bonus animals, that's 136 miniatures in total all for the pocket money price of $1 dollar!!.

Animals featured include; Bear, Bull, 2 Types of Camels (Bactrian and Dromedary), Carrier Pigeon, Cart Horse, Cat, Cow, Dog, Donkey, Eagle, Elephant, Goat, Horse, Lion, Llama, Mule, Musk Ox, Ostrich, Pony, Reindeer, Rhinocerous, Tiger, 2 Types of Warhorse (Light and Heavy), Water Buffalo, Wolf and Zebra plus bonus animals; Ducks, Goose, Pig, Sheep, Boar and Chicken.

FBI Tracking Device Torndown on ifixit

2011-05-09T21:56:00.000+01:00

For those of you interested in modern conspiracy games, the guys at ifixit.com and wired have teamed up to teardown an alledged FBI GPS vehicle tracking device which has come into their possession.

Now I'm not for one moment going to get all high and mighty debating the pros and cons of one nation state surveilling its own citizen's, I just think that it's fascinating from an RPG stance to see the sort of technology, which if the claims are true, is current issue. Apart from the industrial strength casing for the battery pack it sure looks a little "Radioshack" to me...

roleplay-geek

Fantasy Mass Transit - A Technology Too Far?

RPG Papercraft: Judge Dredd H Wagon and Riot Tank

The Ages of D&D: A Timeline v3

The Ages of D&D: A Timeline v2

The Ages of D&D: A Timeline

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s: K is for Knightmare

Quadrotor Swarm: Evil? or am I just being paranoid

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s: J is for Judge Dredd

3 abreast in a 10' Corridor: Photographic Evidence from J E Holmes

Spellbooks as Physical Accessories

Levelling up

My 10 Favourite Sci-Fi Posters

Fantastic Locations: Mega City One

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s: I is for Indiana Jones

All I want from 5e is...

Moviewatch: Looking forward to 2012

Happy New Year and 2012 Resolutions

2011 in Review

Star Blazer Adventures Random Scenario Generator, or How I Wrote a One Session Scenario in 30 minutes.

20,000 Page Views

Kicking off Campaigns by Keeping Players in the Dark

RPG Mapping Tools Part 4 - Planet and Star Maps

Legendary Locations: Cave of Crystals, Mexico

Minions: my OSR take on the one hit wonder.

The Ruined Tower of The Archmage

Fields of Battle: What's in the box?

Guilds of Dual - Basic Guild Concepts for Fantasy Roleplaying Games

Dragonmeet 2011 - Con Report

Coinage, Nationhood and the defacto Gold Standard

Monsters of Dual: Brain Vine and Fungaloid Lurkers

On the Workbench: Ral Partha Djinn & Efreet

Sometimes I'm just in awe

I'm a Chaotic Neutral Human Wizard

I Am A: Chaotic Neutral Human Wizard (4th Level)

Ability Scores:

Strength: 9Dexterity: 11Constitution: 11Intelligence: 14Wisdom: 12Charisma: 12

Alignment: Chaotic Neutral

Race: Human

Class: Wizard

Which makes me the Ninth Doctor

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - H is for Heavy Metal

Stop SOPA, SAVE The Internet

On the Workbench: Harlequin Giant Forest Troll - Complete

On the Workbench: Harlequin Giant Forest Troll

RPG Mapping Tools Part 3 - Region Maps

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - G is for Games Designers Workshop

RPG Mapping Tools Part 2 - Dungeon Maps

An infinite number of humans cannot type Shakespeare

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - F is for Fighting Fantasy

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - E is for Elric of Melnibone

RPG Mapping Tools Part 1 - Battle Maps

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - D is for Dungeon Floors

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - C is for Citadel

Old Skool Accessory: Dungeonworks Magnetic Dungeons

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - B is for Beast Enterprises

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - A is for Adventurer Magazine

Scenario Writing: Non-Linear Plots and Node-Based Design

Passing on the Torch

Hard at work in The Lands of Dual, Super Random Saturday

Magic Item: The Bar of Expectation

Dinosaurs, Myths, Monsters

MOVIEWATCH: Attack The Block (15)

MOVIEWATCH: Gaiking The Movie

Make: 3D Dungeon Tiles Pt 3 - Painting and Decorating

Animals in RPGs

Make: 3D Dungeon Tiles Pt 2 - The Build

Make: 3D Dungeon Tiles Pt 1 - The Design

Movie Watch: Eyeborgs

Beast of the Week: Hydrothermal Worm

...meet Leonard of Quirm

Legendary Locations: Mud Maid of The Lost Gardens of Helligan

COMPETITION: RGP Products - Tell me what you think and win a Decision Deck

Dice or Cards? Choose your weapon!!

MOVIEWATCH: Limitless (15)

...Errata, Erata, I love you Eratta...

MOVIEWATCH: The Adventures of Tintin - The Secret of the Unicorn

Grimtooth's Most Useless Machine Trap

Roleplay Geek Publishing - New Product - Paper Minis Set 1 - Animals

FBI Tracking Device Torndown on ifixit

Strength: 9

Dexterity: 11

Constitution: 11

Intelligence: 14

Wisdom: 12

Charisma: 12