There's a rat in me kitchen what am I gonna do?

Well, over here in Blighty the nights are drawing in and the temperature has dropped, consequently I am now sharing my home with at least one field mouse.

I have to admit that, when we came face to nose, I did go a bit girly and shriek like Mammy Two Shoes when she sees Jerry the mouse.

It got me thinking about the classic movie scene when the heroes are going through a tunnel or sewer and a horde of rats comes writhing towards them and how whenever I've set the same scene in my game my players never react like I did when I saw the mouse?  The D20 SRD says that a rat swarm will cause

"Distraction (Ex): Any living creature that begins its turn with a swarm in its square must succeed on a DC 12 Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1 round. The save DC is Constitution-based."

The problem with this is that I want the players to suffer the effects before they are in the swarm and I want a fear condition not nausea.  Fear also escalates with exposure so a character who fails a fear check (Will save) is Shaken, fail twice and they're Frightened, fail three times and they're Panicked.  I just want 1 roll so I'm going to try:

• Fail by 1-3: Shaken
• Fail by 4-6: Frightened
• Fail by 7 or more: Panicked

This should prove entertaining...

Dragonmeet 2010

Anyone going to Dragonmeet 2010 this year?  I know I am and will definitely blogging about my favourite UK Con on here.  Maybe I'll even meet a few fellow bloggers on the day (look on the con message board), maybe I'll blog at the con.

For those of you who don't know Dragonmeet 2010 takes place on Saturday 27th November at Kensington Town Hall, doors open at 10:00am.

Whilst I'm there I'll also be:

• looking to pick up copies of D&D Essentials map tiles The Dungeon and The City after seeing Thaseus C's wonderful unboxing video on his blog "This is My Game".
  
  
• playing a few con games (lots of choice for morning and afternoon RPG game sessions are scheduled)
  
  
• supporting the traders by buying Castles & Crusades rulebooks to use as the system for my upcoming The Lands of Dual campaign

Hello Whirled! ...grr... Hello World!

Just had my case for membership of the rpgbloggers.com network approved, so woot! is me.  Sadly the first of my posts which was visible was an abortive mobile blogging attempt via BlogWritter app on my 3GS.  Damn unintuitive GUI!! I've just worked out that if you're in the "New Post" screen you can save a post in draft format just by tapping "Back".  Lesson learned...

"What was your first post then!" you ask

It was an instructable on how to make a scroll case from a Pringles can.

Let me explain, I'm looking through my old copies of Dungeon to get a few scenarios to link together to form a new plotline for my campaign world The Lands of Dual and I came across the scenario "A Race Against Time" (Issue 81 Jul/Aug 2000).  The scenario features a nice 3 hour timed plotline which calls for the delivery of a message in a scroll case delivered via juvenile winged snake courier.  The message is the cornerstone of the scenario and will be poured over ad-infitum by the players, so I thought it would be nice to give them a nice handout to look at.  The theatrics are very important for the message's punchline so I need to make a scroll case to hold the message.  The campaign starts in Jan 2011 so watch-out for more posts about the make and a session report.

I Want... Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency for Xmas

Stephen Mangan

Sadly there will be no new adaptation of a Terry Pratchett novel on the telly this Christmas.  Instead I'll have to enjoy the BBC's adaptation of Douglas Adams Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency...yes!!

Scheduled air date is 11 December 2010 on BBC 4 and stars Stephen Mangan as Dirk Gently and is directed by directed by Damon Thomas who directed the excellent BBC 4 adaptation of HG Wells' "The First Men In the Moon".  Rumour has it that if this pilot episode is well received it may become a series.

What's in your DM's bag?

Whilst writing the article Trouble with Torchlight I thought it would be neat to share pictures or descriptions of the contents of your DM'S bag.  Bags can be SPECIFIC (the one you use for your favourite game or the one you're currently using, GENERIC (containing all the things a DM just can't be without) or FANTASY (a bag you wish you owned or could even exist in this dimension)

In my GENERIC DM's Bag I have:

• Dice - I've forgotten these and then borrowed a players dice and blamed them for lucky monster successes.
• Munchies - gotta keep the DM awake somehow.
• Grid Paper - for drawing off the cuff maps when you're too lazy to
• Note Paper - for writing secret notes when you're too lazy to take the player out of the room.
• Adventure - yes once or twice I've forgotten to pack this, with hilarious consequences.
• Character Sheets - Some players don't like giving back their characters at the end of the night, but I find it makes it easier to cope I have to NPC a player's character in their stead when they can't make it to a session.
• Pens, Pencils and Markers - At my regular Friday night game we have a box of club resources such as dice and stationery.  We also use club battle mats (kitchen lino) so OHP pens come in handy for drawing walls and doors etc.
• Beverage - My beverage of choice is mineral water.  It doesn't exacerabate the sugar rush of the munchies and keeps me alert and hydrated.