Amoebaman - A Plantman PC idea for your RPGs

I came up with a silly idea and had to post it otherwise I would forget I'd had it.  Clearly too much cheese was consumed that day.

Ameoeboids

These complex vegetable organisms are humanoid in shape and come in a variety of heights and classes.  they have all the same stats as humans.  Their one distinguishing feature is that they reproduce asexually.

Yes every time they level up they immediately split into two distinct life forms with the same stats, skills and memories.

Go forth my Son (or daughter)

Of course whilst it sounds like a fun idea, it presents a problem for the party if they keep on their new recruit.  If this lappens every level by 4th level (assuming that they all survive) their will be 8 versions of it and the party will keep growing exponentially.  The player will have to decide which to put to the sword and which of his children to cast out into the cold unforgiving wilderness.  Tough love indeed.

In hindsight perhaps to prevent this getting out of hand reproduction should be capped at twice per lifetime.

Not at all Thought Through

I cannot be held responsible for my creation if you should choose to use it in your game.  It could be an interesting Invasion of the Body Snatchers style plot hook though if you use it as a benevolent monster NPC type which can also assume the visage of an unwilling party member.

DC came up with the Amoeba Man idea first - dangitt!

A to Z of UK RPG in the 80s - Q is for Qadim

Q is for Qadim, Al-Qadim

TSR brought out many different campaign settings during the 80s but the one that really caught my attention was Al-Qadim The Lands of Fate.  The premise is simple it's the world of exotic Arabian adventure. Think Aladdin, Sinbad and the 40 thieves or Prince of Persia.

Why Al-Qadim is Worth Your Time

If you are like me and have been running games for the best part of 35 years, I am sometimes weary of the standard quasi medieval fare.  Your players know the monster manual like the back of their hand and there is no mystery any more.

Al-Qadim is a rich and spicy setting which is both familiar and completely alien at the same time.  The protagonists are often humans hell bent on acquiring power through strange magics and the use of elemental forces.  The strange and unfamiliar monsters range from the plethora of Djinn (Genies) to the smelly mishapen Yakmen.  All of them will be unknown to your players and therefore genuinely mysterious, intimidating and scary.

Your players are going to have to use their roleplaying skills of guile, cunning and persuasion rather than putting everything to the sword.  Trust me they're going to love it.

Need More Inspiration?

There are a ton of classic movies out there which will whet your appetite for some sun, sand and sorcery.  

• The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1953) - A Ray Harryhausen classic with
  
• The Golden Voyages of Sinbad (1973) - Caroline Munro and Tom Baker star in this epic.
• Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977) - My favourite Sinbad movie starring Jane Seymour and Patrick Troughton 
  
• Arabian Adventure (1979) - Christopher Lee, Peter Cushing, Mickey Rooney and John Ratzenberger what more do you need.
  
• The Thief of Baghdad (1940) - The definitive and classic version
  
• Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time (2010) - Jake Gylenhall, Gemma Arterton, Ben Kingsley
  

Unloved and Unwanted

TSR pumped out a huge number of settings during those heady days of 2nd Edition AD&D.  Like Birthright, Mystara and Spelljammer it didn't have much staying power and it got shelved like the rest. 

I was lucky enough to pick the majority of my collection up at the height of their unpopularity when my FLGS was clearing out.  Prices are significantly higher now but investing in Al-Qadim has a solid and fun payback.

My Collection Includes

The Land of Fate	Arabian Adventures	City of Delights
Corsairs of the Great Sea	Ruined Kingdoms	Assassin's Mountain
Secrets of the Lamp	Golden Voyages	Caravans

Tunnels and Trolls Adventures - iOS/Android App

Once again the Fans of Dead Games Society came up trumps.  A member pointed me in the direction of the Tunnels and Trolls Adventures app (available for both iOS and Android).

During this COVID-19 Lockdown I need some solo adventuring whilst I wait for eBay to deliver my physical T&T Solo Adventures.

Tunnels and Trolls Adventures

The app is free and comes with 27 adventures:

The Ascendant (Free) Buffalo Castle (40) Blue Frog Tavern (40) Sword for Hire (40) A Sworded Adventure (40) Gamesmen of Kasar (40) Misty Wood (40) Caravan to Tiern (40) Road to Gull (40)

Golden Dust, Red Death (40) Hot Pursuit (40) Sewers of Oblivion (40) Deathtrap Equalizer (40) Stop Thief! (40) City of Terrors (50) Ultimatum (40) Overkill (50) Naked Doom (Free)

The Black Heart (Free) The Necropolis of Vaarh (Pt 1) (Free) The Necropolis of Vaarh (Pt 2) (40) Labyrinth (40) Circle of Ice (10) Seven Ayes (10) Grimtina's Guard (10) Thief for Hire (10) First Command (10)

The Characters

You start with 4 basic characters which can be selected using the horned hemet icon, these are:

• Borgoth  - Dwarven Warrior with
  
• Lelana - Elf Warrior
  
• Morgan (Human Warrior)
• Rufus (Hobb Warrior)

Like all solo adventures your class is limited to warrior types for simplicity's sake, no spell casters here.

However, there is the option to roll your own character with a fairly simple pick and place interface which I like.  You get to choose from the four basic races Dwarf, Elf, Hobb and Human and Lore panels give a little bit of flavour text to explain the race, how "Adds" work and what your modified scores will be if you select the race. 

Updating Your Character

The app handles all the recording of experience and items you acquire as you complete the various adventures. 

However, it does not level you up or equip your character with new weapons you acquire on your adventures.  Make sure that you check back regularly to update your character and their inventory.

The Ascendant (Free)

This an introductory game designed to teach you the basic mechanics of T&T and the interface but the storyline is well written, rich in descriptive text.  It is a bit binary in terms of the decision tree, you either choose to do something or not, but this is understandable given that it is essentially targetting a newbie audience.

Your character goes from a humble villager to a starting adventurer which reminded me of the Dungeon Crawl Classics 0-level character concept.  I am a fan of this method of starting a new character as it is a refreshing alternative to the cliched "You meet in a Tavern".

Naked Doom (Free)

Buy it on eBay

As author Ken St. Andre says "I'm trying to kill your character" and there's no mistaking that.  You will have to acquire a decent weapon and some bonuses if you want to successfully beat some of these challenges.

It's been a long time since I played Naked Doom IRL, but this brought the memories rushing back.  I felt a real sense of relief when I finally escaped and a nagging sense that I'd left much yet to be discovered.

The beauty of this app is that you can pick another character and be dungeon delving again within minutes.  You may have to try several different characters to find the optimal combination of Attributes and Adds to successfully complete every path.  Good Times.

The Necropolis of Vaarh Part 1 (Free)

This is a well written but short taster adventure which sets the scene and gets you through the wilderness and up to the gates of the Necropolis.  To continue you must purchase part 2 or as I did play using one of my hearts. 

It is very short but still it has some excellent characters and some items can be acquired which have some significance both in this part and the next.  I enjoyed our brief time together and was sufficiently intrigued to give Part 2 a go which proved much more in depth and deadly. 

The Black Heart

A night on the town sounds like fun, you've got a coin full of gold and the Black Heart Gambling Den awaits. 

Essentially this adventure is a series of games of chance which are played using attribute checks.  The twist is that if you win you gain adventure points, if you lose you pay with your life force (CON).  An interesting concept which is definitely finding its way inside one of my cities.

Micro Transactions

The majority of the adventures must be purchased using the in game currency of Gems at the (bracketed prices) listed above.  You acquire Gems in game as loot and also buy puchasing them at the store.  You can buy 50 Gems for the $4.99.

However, the game is supported by ads.  If you watch an ad you earn 1 heart and can play any adventure once without owning it by spending a heart.   

Good Cheap Fun

This was some good cheap and incredibly fast fun whilst I waited for my solo adventures to arrive and to be honest why not take advantage of technology if it is available.  I really appreciated the fact that every adventure could be played for free.  If everything had been locked off with micro transactions I would have not given this app the time of day.

I blazed through the five adventures in no time and would have played more but the postman delivered my new solo adventure book in super quick time. 

Wish me luck as I enter the Arena of Khazan!

Jessie's Prints Episode 9 - Car Wars

This week, I are mostly been printing...

Classic Car Wars Vehicles 15mm / 1:64 - https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:4403771

Steve Jackson's classic automobile apocalypse game Car Wars was a big part of my childhood.  The tiny scale (and cardstock counters) meant that the whole epic game could fit  into a case slightly smaller than a video cassette.  

Many expansions were released over the years including The AADA Vehicle Guide.  By now SJG had developed a sort of short hand for describing these vehicles but the AADA Vehicle Guide was unusual in that it included a full set of elevation drawings for each vehicle.  A further expansion pack of AADA Counters was also available for play in the game. 

These are perfect for my 15mm Judge Dredd game so I thought I would have a go at modelling and printing some of these futuristic looking things.  They are also perfect for Gaslands with a bit of postapolcalyptifying and each model prints out in about 30 minutes, so faster than you can say "Can we go to the shops and buy some Hotwheels, mum?".

If you download them please remember to collect, share your makes and tip the designer if you fancy it.

Reminds me of the Volvo Ad catchphrase in the 1990 movie Crazy People "They're boxy, but good"

Superflash

Tonto

Spring Surprise

Painted

Schwarzenegger and Chan Team up in Weird Wuxia Fantasy

The Mystery of the Dragon Seal (also known as The Iron Mask) is the sequel to 2014's utterly bonkers Forbidden Empire. 

Watch it on
Amazon Prime

Directed by Oleg Stepchenko this is a bizarre mix of Russian creativity and Chinese money which results in a visually sumptuous affair.  Immaculatly dressed sets, fantastic wire work and a half decent storyline make this an engaging watch.

Set in the mid 1700s, Jason Flemyng reprises his role as hapless cartographer and adventurer Jonathan Green who, having survived the supernatural monsters of Transylvannia, has made it to the court of Peter the First of Russia.  Having previously met the Tsar when he visited London, Green is eager to present the map he has made for the him and hopefully be richly rewarded for his efforts. 

However, Green immediately spots that an imposter sits on the throne of Russia and he is summarily thrown in jail where he meets the Cheng Lan, daughter of kung fu master Jackie Chan.

Pigeon post correspondence with his betrothed Miss Dudley is intercepted by the real Tsar who is currently imprisoned in the Tower of London alongside Jackie Chan.  They return a pigeon and the whole story starts to pick up pace thanks to some political influence from her father (Charles Dance).

Enter unlikely prison warden and history buff James Hook (Captain Hook?) played by Arnold Schwarzenegger.  He seems to spend a lot of his screen time in a weird Ultimate Fighting American Ninja Death Match ring where prisoners have to beat him in combat and climb to the top of a ladder to win their freedom.

I don't want to spoil it for you so I will leave the spoilers there.  I will say one last thing though, Rutger Haur has a fleeting cameo.

What Did I think?

I have never been a fan of movies where you can literally feel the influence of the producers.  Arnie was an executive producer and it feels like his segments are overly long and drawn out because he is in control.  There is a nagging sense of direction by committee about this movie.

The multi-national cast means that the movie is dubbed entirely in English and badly at times even when the English cast are talking you can see that sections have been redubbed to change dialogue.  I'm guessing that the intention from the getgo is to sell this movie to as many different territories as possible with their own local dubbed version so lipsync is going to be an issue no matter who watches it.  Welcome to the real world of modern global cinema.  

Whilst this is immensely fun and a much better than the original movie in colour palette consistency and delivery it is no wuxia masterpiece like Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame.

An enjoyable watch if you don't think too hard.