Passing on the Torch

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

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

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

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)

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