Tuesday, 22 March 2011
No Monday Motivations this week
Sorry folks, but there's no new Monday Motivations this week as, in the words of the Fast Show's Jesse "I are mostly been having... a campaign arc breakthrough". Once it's safe to spill the beans I will let the idea loose on this blog.
Saturday, 19 March 2011
TLOD Campaign Report: The Teaser Trailer
Whilst running my current campaign game tonight I did something new and dropped in a teaser trailer. Whilst the PCs made their way back out of a forest after completing a mission they glimpsed a tower through a gap in the trees. I made them struggle to hack through the jungle before being ultimately frightened off by a giant bear.
I hope that they appreciate the payback in a future session...
You can read about their exploits in my campaign site The Lands of Dual
I hope that they appreciate the payback in a future session...
You can read about their exploits in my campaign site The Lands of Dual
Thursday, 17 March 2011
Character Accents: Rastamouse "'im proper tuff"
UK readers will no doubt be aware of the mild furore that Rastamouse has been causing since he debuted on the BBC childrens channel CBeebies. For those not acquainted, Rastamouse is a rastafarian mouse detective who along with his band "Da Easy Crew" solves minor crimes in mouseland. The issue causing all this consternation is should a public broadcaster (the BBC) be teaching impressionable under-fives Jamaican Patois.
I'm not going to concern myself with the wailings of the Daily Mail readership but draw your attention to this excellent resource which will help you to learn how to speak patois for those essential Jamaican character accents.
I'm not going to concern myself with the wailings of the Daily Mail readership but draw your attention to this excellent resource which will help you to learn how to speak patois for those essential Jamaican character accents.
Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Citymorphs #021 to #024
Another 4 Citymorphs this week, and the secret theme is revealed...
#021 - Hospital District
A tightly packed complex of hospitals clinics and spa nestled in some parkland make Morphia the envy of most of her neighbours. Morphians benefit from the wide variety of treatments for most common ailments and not just battlefield injuries.
#022 - Beverley's Hills
Some of the richest Morphian residents have chosen to set up their homes in this lush but stepped landscape which overlooks the town. Thought to have been created by an enraged mage many hundreds of years ago is the real secret that it keeps the residents looking young beyond their years...
#023 - Citywall Breach
Many years ago in the last great siege this section of wall was breached in a powerful explosion, fusing the remaining stones together. Over the years the residents using this new shortcut have worn a path over the earthmound and through the breach establishing a thoroughfare.
#024 - Market
I thought it was about time that I provided a marketplace for the inhabitants to buy and sell all of life's little essentials. A wide variety of stalls occupy the dirt square with a fountain at it's centre. Animal pens are to be found in the southeast corner of this tile and the borders are filled with an assortment of cannopied shops and restaurants.
And the secret theme?
If you arrange tiles #013 to #022 in order they spell out CITYMORPHS, see:
which I've also added to my T-Shirt Store.
Enjoy
A tightly packed complex of hospitals clinics and spa nestled in some parkland make Morphia the envy of most of her neighbours. Morphians benefit from the wide variety of treatments for most common ailments and not just battlefield injuries.
Some of the richest Morphian residents have chosen to set up their homes in this lush but stepped landscape which overlooks the town. Thought to have been created by an enraged mage many hundreds of years ago is the real secret that it keeps the residents looking young beyond their years...
Many years ago in the last great siege this section of wall was breached in a powerful explosion, fusing the remaining stones together. Over the years the residents using this new shortcut have worn a path over the earthmound and through the breach establishing a thoroughfare.
I thought it was about time that I provided a marketplace for the inhabitants to buy and sell all of life's little essentials. A wide variety of stalls occupy the dirt square with a fountain at it's centre. Animal pens are to be found in the southeast corner of this tile and the borders are filled with an assortment of cannopied shops and restaurants.
And the secret theme?
If you arrange tiles #013 to #022 in order they spell out CITYMORPHS, see:
which I've also added to my T-Shirt Store.
Enjoy
Monday, 14 March 2011
Monday Motivations #11
Article #11 in a regular series where I offer up some ideas for character backgrounds by class. I aim to collect these ideas together for a future pdf publication.
What made your character decide to become a wizard? Why did they leave their home town? Did they leave family behind or are they looking for something? These are all questions players face when generating their characters, with the best will in the world it's tempting to rely on cliché.
WIZARD
5. Star Child - You do not remember much about your early childhood other than that your foster parents found you in a shallow ditch blasted in a corn field. As you grew older and your powers manifested themselves they warned you to learn to hide that you were different lest others find out and turn against you. When in your teens they succumbed to the ravages of old age there was nothing to stop you forging out into a new and strange world in search of answers...
ILLUSIONIST
3. The Great Thespian - Your early years were an idyl spent playing with your brothers and sisters in the caravans of your parents travelling theatre. Your schooling consisted of mimicking your favourite characters from the tragedies and comedies you saw your parents play night after night as you travelled from town to town. As a teen you learned all the theatrical arts from actor to stage hand and honed your skills at night in supporting roles.
Your parents recognized that somehow your performances, even in the smallest of parts would often bewitch and delight the audience, but they could never understand where this talent came from. Until after a successful night playing in a sleepy village in the middle of nowhere a wizened old man asked to see your parents after the performance. He said that your skill was the work of magic and as an illusionist of the first rank he could not allow your parents to waste your talent on the stage and proposed that he make you his apprentice.
When several weeks later you had journeyed a thousand leagues from your homeland the illusionist disposed of his cunningly crafted disguise and revealed his true identity, he was infact the great thespian himself. You stood awestruck at the deception he had perpetrated on you and your parents and only narrowly avoided being skewered by his sword. As he lunged and you parried, he explained how he could not allow a talent like yours to overshadow his own and had decided to ensure that you would never upstage him. Sadly his talents did not extend to swordplay and his orations were cut short as you jabbed your rapier through his heart...
PALADIN
2. Dishonourable Conduct - Although you were happy being just a regular soldier in the Kings army, you never enjoyed the rough housing or esprit de corps as the officers called it. Sometimes you thought your comrades were as bad as the enemy you were sent to into battle to kill. All this changed for you when after a particularly bloodthirsty engagement you had to defend a young village girl from being sullied by one of your own sergeants. You stood trial by courts martial for acts of insubordination, and were it not for the pleadings of the chaplain your neck would have long since been stretched by the hangman's noose. Your punishment was commuted to life servitude in the order of paladins, a band of desperate men who, forced to give up their fate to the mercy of God, were despatched to the farthest reaches of the kingdom to despatch the Kings enemies no matter how suicidal the mission or overwhelming the odds.
DRUID
4. A Man in a Woman's World - You didn't realise it at the time, but all through your childhood your grandmother taught you the ways of the spirit world. How to bend nature to do your bidding and when to bend to nature's will. The skills and knowledge which have been passed down from mother to daughter since time began are not normally taught to boys but your grandmother insisted that as your parents only child you were to be taught these lessons lest the old ways be lost to future generations. When the time came for her to pass into the spirit realm, the druids from the other nearby villages assembled to appoint her successor. Their shock as you were presented to them was palpable, and even though you demonstrated your extensive knowledge of the rites and incantations your grandmother had so patiently taught you they would not accept you as one of their equals and cast you out as an abomination...
MONK
3. Collectors of Truth - The training was arduous and the mortality rate high, but only the most proficient students of your order are selected to become collectors. Their mission, to be despatched to the four corners of the world to accumulate knowledge in all it's forms and to return it to the monastery for recording and analysis by the multitude of scribes. To survive the dangers of the outside world a collector must be wise beyond his years in order to identify Truth from Untruth, have the mental capacity to store the knowledge and possess the self preservation skills necessary to protect it on it's often perilous journey home...
What made your character decide to become a wizard? Why did they leave their home town? Did they leave family behind or are they looking for something? These are all questions players face when generating their characters, with the best will in the world it's tempting to rely on cliché.
WIZARD
5. Star Child - You do not remember much about your early childhood other than that your foster parents found you in a shallow ditch blasted in a corn field. As you grew older and your powers manifested themselves they warned you to learn to hide that you were different lest others find out and turn against you. When in your teens they succumbed to the ravages of old age there was nothing to stop you forging out into a new and strange world in search of answers...
ILLUSIONIST
3. The Great Thespian - Your early years were an idyl spent playing with your brothers and sisters in the caravans of your parents travelling theatre. Your schooling consisted of mimicking your favourite characters from the tragedies and comedies you saw your parents play night after night as you travelled from town to town. As a teen you learned all the theatrical arts from actor to stage hand and honed your skills at night in supporting roles.
Your parents recognized that somehow your performances, even in the smallest of parts would often bewitch and delight the audience, but they could never understand where this talent came from. Until after a successful night playing in a sleepy village in the middle of nowhere a wizened old man asked to see your parents after the performance. He said that your skill was the work of magic and as an illusionist of the first rank he could not allow your parents to waste your talent on the stage and proposed that he make you his apprentice.
When several weeks later you had journeyed a thousand leagues from your homeland the illusionist disposed of his cunningly crafted disguise and revealed his true identity, he was infact the great thespian himself. You stood awestruck at the deception he had perpetrated on you and your parents and only narrowly avoided being skewered by his sword. As he lunged and you parried, he explained how he could not allow a talent like yours to overshadow his own and had decided to ensure that you would never upstage him. Sadly his talents did not extend to swordplay and his orations were cut short as you jabbed your rapier through his heart...
PALADIN
2. Dishonourable Conduct - Although you were happy being just a regular soldier in the Kings army, you never enjoyed the rough housing or esprit de corps as the officers called it. Sometimes you thought your comrades were as bad as the enemy you were sent to into battle to kill. All this changed for you when after a particularly bloodthirsty engagement you had to defend a young village girl from being sullied by one of your own sergeants. You stood trial by courts martial for acts of insubordination, and were it not for the pleadings of the chaplain your neck would have long since been stretched by the hangman's noose. Your punishment was commuted to life servitude in the order of paladins, a band of desperate men who, forced to give up their fate to the mercy of God, were despatched to the farthest reaches of the kingdom to despatch the Kings enemies no matter how suicidal the mission or overwhelming the odds.
DRUID
4. A Man in a Woman's World - You didn't realise it at the time, but all through your childhood your grandmother taught you the ways of the spirit world. How to bend nature to do your bidding and when to bend to nature's will. The skills and knowledge which have been passed down from mother to daughter since time began are not normally taught to boys but your grandmother insisted that as your parents only child you were to be taught these lessons lest the old ways be lost to future generations. When the time came for her to pass into the spirit realm, the druids from the other nearby villages assembled to appoint her successor. Their shock as you were presented to them was palpable, and even though you demonstrated your extensive knowledge of the rites and incantations your grandmother had so patiently taught you they would not accept you as one of their equals and cast you out as an abomination...
MONK
3. Collectors of Truth - The training was arduous and the mortality rate high, but only the most proficient students of your order are selected to become collectors. Their mission, to be despatched to the four corners of the world to accumulate knowledge in all it's forms and to return it to the monastery for recording and analysis by the multitude of scribes. To survive the dangers of the outside world a collector must be wise beyond his years in order to identify Truth from Untruth, have the mental capacity to store the knowledge and possess the self preservation skills necessary to protect it on it's often perilous journey home...
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