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20 Questions

My way or the highway, bitch.

Time for another questionnaire.... this time I'm answering "Brendan's 20 Quick Questions: Rules" questionnaire.


1. Ability scores generation method?
Roll 3 sets of ability scores in order using the "4d6 drop the lowest" method and pick the set you prefer.  I do this as sort of a half-way point between my "I'm old school, use those rolls in order, punk!" and "I hope your characters can survive the shit I'm throwing at them" mentalities.


2. How are death and dying handled?
Standard C&C rules:

At –1 to –6 hit points, the character or monster is unconscious and
grievously wounded. They require bed rest to recover, unless magically
healed. A character so wounded must rest 24 hours before the process
of healing begins, unless magically healed. With magical healing, the
character’s hit points can only be returned to 0, after which healing
proceeds normally.

At –7 to –9 hit points, the character or monster is mortally wounded and
loses one hit point per round after reaching -7 hit points. Aid administered
to the wounds stops the hit point loss. This takes at least one full round,
during which no hit point is lost. After 24 hours have passed, the normal
healing process as described for -1 to -6 hit points begins.

At –10 hit points death occurs immediately. Only resurrection,
reincarnation or bribes to the Castle Keeper can remedy death.

3. What about raising the dead?

I go by the book on this as well (you lose 1 point of Constitution). I try to make it accessible and allow it if the party can afford the cost. I've learned that being too hardcore about raising the dead is more trouble than its worth.

4. How are replacement PCs handled?

Plot Convenience Playhouse style: "Oh look, a new adventurer wanders into the dungeon/tavern/campsite/sewer/brothel/Chuck E. Cheese and wants to join your party."

5. Initiative: individual, group, or something else?

PCs get individual rolls while the monsters get one (i.e., individual for the players, group for the monsters).

6. Are there critical hits and fumbles? How do they work?

Yes. We use Paizo's Critical Hit Deck and Critical Fumble Deck (we convert the 3.X rules to C&C on the fly).

7. Do I get any benefits for wearing a helmet?

Only when something happens to a PC's head specifically (e.g., called shot to the melon, a trap targets the head, etc.).

8. Can I hurt my friends if I fire into melee or do something similarly silly?

Oh yes.  You get the penalty for firing into melee and if you miss, there is a percentage chance of tagging a relevant party member.

9. Will we need to run from some encounters, or will we be able to kill everything?

You will need to run.

10. Level-draining monsters: yes or no?

Yes

11. Are there going to be cases where a failed save results in PC death?

Yes

12. How strictly are encumbrance & resources tracked?

Not very strictly at all. Just don't be ridiculous and I reserve the right to enforce penalties if you are.

13. What's required when my PC gains a level? Training? Do I get new spells automatically? Can it happen in the middle of an adventure, or do I have to wait for down time?

No training. Whenever the group has a break from action, you can level up. You do get new spells automatically. All this can happen in the middle of an adventure.

14. What do I get experience for?

• Monsters slain or overcome
• Treasure gained
• Magic items gained
• Smart and/or entertaining game play (I reward this and ask the players to nominate people for rewards, even themselves).

15. How are traps located? Description, dice rolling, or some combination?

By dice rolls usually, but players get bonuses (or penalties) to those rolls if they describe how exactly they are looking. It is almost always is to the players' benefit to role-play the trap finding.

16. Are retainers encouraged and how does morale work?
Maybe not directly encourage, but certainly not discouraged. Morale for retainers, NPCs, and monsters is based mostly on DM judgement. 

17. How do I identify magic items?
With the identify spell, trial and error (sipping potions, playing with magic items, etc.)

18. Can I buy magic items? Oh, come on: how about just potions? 
Minor items, potions, etc. I was more open to this with 3.5, but I think I'll be bit more stringent with C&C.

19. Can I create magic items? When and how? 
Sure, although it hasn't come up in my current campaign yet.  I plan on just going by the book.

20. What about splitting the party?
Sure, but I wouldn't recommend it.

Okay, My Turn: Zak S's GM Questionnaire

I am very late to the party on Zak's questionnaire, but better late than never, I suppose.

1. If you had to pick a single invention in a game you were most proud of what would it be?

The Survival Trophy thing I do with my group (link).  In short, the player whose PC has latest the longest gets to hold the Survival Trophy.  When the campaign ends, the player currently with the trophy gets to keep it. Perhaps not the most original thing overall, but it reinforces, "Hey, folks, this is a game," softens the blow of a lethal campaign, and gives the players something to boast about (rightfully so).  A wrote about a fun exchange here: link

2. When was the last time you GMed?

January 6, 2012.  Resulted in a TPK.

3. When was the last time you played?

Labyrinth Lord (run by Tim from Darves Hill), November 13th, at GASPCon 12.  I usually only get to be a player at conventions.

4. Give us a one-sentence pitch for an adventure you haven't run but would like to.

The characters are servants of Odin and have been tasked to travel to different worlds and planes to retrieve missing artifacts. The characters maybe from any time, setting, genre, etc. Mutants, vikings, rogues, soldiers, post-apoc warriors, etc.

5. What do you do while you wait for players to do things?

Grab another beer, hurrying them along, read my notes, tell dick and fart jokes.

6. What, if anything, do you eat while you play?

Beer, liquor, cookies, cake, chips, and whatever else my players have brought.

7. Do you find GMing physically exhausting?

No, I feel wired. Takes me an hour or so to wind down.

8. What was the last interesting (to you, anyway) thing you remember a PC you were running doing?

In a Mutant Future game at GASPCON 12 (run by Mike From Gutter Cult), after completing the mission for the mayor of a small town, my mutated human took over his brain (i.e., my character became the mayor). It went from the mayor saying, "You guys better skedaddle!" to "Bring me the blue-skinned woman!"

9. Do your players take your serious setting and make it unserious? Vice versa? Neither?

Yeah, they do, but so do I. We don't take it too seriously and I have a knack for setting myself up for this kind of thing....

10. What do you do with goblins?

They are poison-using, conniving, slavers who like like this:

 Wield swords like these (for 2d4 damage):

And use daggers like these (for 1d4+1 damage):

 

11. What was the last non-RPG thing you saw that you converted into game material (background, setting, trap, etc.)?

I can't think of anything recent, but here are a few non-RPGs things I converted in the past:


I stole the Oracle scene from "The Eaters of the Dead" (aka "The 13th Warrior") as a way to assemble a party (see this clip: link).  I also used the night attack scene as a way to take that campaign into Planescape (see link; instead of savages attacking the heroes, it was demons).


Back in high school, I had dwarves with pump-action crossbows based on an episode of the old Filmation "Ghostbusters" show:  link

12. What's the funniest table moment you can remember right now?

The ensuing jokes that followed the party finding a giant obelisk with a pulsing red-tip.

13. What was the last game book you looked at--aside from things you referenced in a game--why were you looking at it?

"Crypts & Things," a newly released Swords & Wizardry variant. I was looking at it to check out the rules and to look for ideas to steal for my Wilderlands Castles & Crusades campaign.

14. Who's your idea of the perfect RPG illustrator?


Apart from the usual classic guys, I really like the work of: Brian "Glad" Thomas. 

My buddy, Dave "The Knave" White:

Brian Masse:

Peter Bradley:

15. Does your game ever make your players genuinely afraid?

In the horror sense? No.  In the "Oh shit, my character is going to bite it if I miss this roll" sense? Yes.

16. What was the best time you ever had running an adventure you didn't write? (If ever)

I would have to say the years spent running the mega-dungeon, Rappan Athuk Reloaded.  Just so many good times in that campaign.

17. What would be the ideal physical set up to run a game in?

A huge table with a big, dry erase battle mat covering the surface.  Ready access to beer and chips.  In other words, my basement.  All that is missing is a big book shelves for game books and a cork-board wall for displaying maps and art.

18. If you had to think of the two most disparate games or game products that you like what would they be?

"Carnage 3:16 Amongst the Stars" and "Harvesters" (anthropomorphic Castles & Crusades)

19. If you had to think of the most disparate influences overall on your game, what would they be?

Kids cartoons and real-world history.

20. As a GM, what kind of player do you want at your table?

A player that shows up prepared and doesn't take the game too seriously.

21. What's a real life experience you've translated into game terms?

I spent some time in Central Europe (Poland mostly, but I traveled around too) and I've used some real-world architecture, and customs in campaigns.

22. Is there an RPG product that you wish existed but doesn't?

A re-print of the Rules Cyclopedia so I could afford a copy.

23. Is there anyone you know who you talk about RPGs with who doesn't play? How do those conversations go?

My wife. They usually go fairly well as she's dabbled with D&D and has at least some clue about what I'm talking about.

Helping a Dice Brother Out...

Brian from AwesomeDice.com just made me aware of his dice-themed blog and site, so I thought I'd share. If you're looking for dice, take a gander.  Looks like a good selection.

Update: Just to clarify, I'm not affiliated with AwesomeDice.com and didn't get any kind of kick-back for the plug. Just like to help out anyone trying to make a living in the gaming industry.

Blog Update and Cthulhu Has Good Taste in Beer

Life has gotten rather hectic and I can't update this bad boy nearly as much as I'd like. So, in the mean time, I will be posting a few photo dumps and perhaps some audio recordings of a Savage Worlds game in which I play.

Also, Cthulhu has good taste in beer:

Down in the Dungeon at Monster Brains

Monster Brains has posted some awesome art from the 1981 picture book, Down in the Dungeon, by Don Greer and Rob Stern. Check it out at the blog or the Flickr site.

Here is my favorite from the set, The Trap Door:


Also, check out these excellent maps:

15 Games in 15 minutes Meme

Ok, my turn for this meme. The rules for the uninitiated: Don't take too long to think about it. Fifteen games you've played that will always stick with you. List the first 15 you can recall in no more than 15 minutes.

In no particular order apart from how they popped into my head.

Dungeons & Dragons (AD&D through 3.5)

Castles & Crusades (was tempted to include this above, but kept it separate due to the SIEGE mechanic)

The Classic Dungeon

Stratego

Chess

Necromunda

Magic: The Gathering

Call of Cthulhu

Gamma World (4th edition of GW, not the current one based on D&D 4e which I have not played)

Arhkam Horror

Ambush Alley (made me realize there is such a thing as a rules-light war game)

Battle Tech

War Gods

Nite Life (and old RPG with vampires and werewolves)

Battle Masters (the old miniatures board game)

A Winner is Me!

So I was perusing my Google Reader today and saw I’ve won a copy of Rite Publishing’s Book of Monster Templates (in PDF and print, no less).  Many thanks to Troll in the Corner and Rite Publishing.

I am a Remorhaz. Excellent.

I saw this over at The Dump Stat and had to give it a try. According to the WotC "What Monster Are You?" Quiz, I am a:

D&D Home Page - What Monster Are You? - D&D Compendium

Excellent. Nothing like an old school, freezing death beast. Appropriate for a guy who often goes by "Frost." Although they spelled it wrong (should be "remorhaz").

Let’s See What You Got – The Gestalt World Challenge

Last year I entered a Castles & Crusades Society contest and managed to win a copy of Brave Halfling’s Ruins of Ramat module (see here: link).  The contest took place on the now-defunct C&CS message boards.  It was called the Gestalt World Contest and I think Robert Doyel, author of the excellent (and highly underrated) Engineering Dungeons, started it. (A quick side note, if you are interested in Engineering Dungeons, don’t let the fact it’s a C&C product put you off. It is damn near system neutral and well worth $10).

The contest was a lot of fun and generated some great content.  I say we bloggers do something similar.  It won’t be a contest, but rather simply a cool way to churn out some ideas.
  
Here is how it works:

1.) Take the name of a person, item, or location offered up by a fellow blogger.

2.) Write up your description for the name and post it on your blog.  Include a link to the name’s source.

3.) Include a new name in your blog post for another person to use.

4.) Rinse, wash, repeat.

Obviously the blog-o-world isn’t centralized, so we’ll have some redundancy, but who cares?  The worst that will happen is we’ll get alternate descriptions. That sounds fine to me.

I’ll kick this off with the description I used for the original contest.

Manistus the Scrivener

Manistus the Scrivener was renowned for his ability to transcribe magic writings, such as spells and scrolls. His transcriptions were works of art, containing beautiful calligraphy. However, the transcribed texts he provided were not quite the same as the originals: they were superior. A wizard casting spells from such transcriptions was able to empower his magics beyond his normal capabilities. Not surprisingly, Manistus' services were in high demand and he charged a pretty price.

Thirteen years ago, Manistus disappeared. Three wizards, clients of the scrivener, eager to protect their works (and possibly pilfer those of others) invaded his home, a nondescript outpost outside the city of Wavery. They discovered that not only was Manistus gone, but so were all of his instruments: papers, inks, quills, and so on. Much to their dismay, not one page of magic writing was to be found.

Although no proof has ever been shown, dark rumors still circulate as to the nature of Manistus' abilities. Some say that he made a dark pact with a devil. Others say that his transcriptions, often noted for their odd color, were penned in the blood of the innocent.

Next: The Green Gauntlet of Magla Lock

Go for it.

[*Fantasy World by EvilDemonAkira and  Blood Ink picture by Minutestocountdown]

Old School Harlotry

Topless Robot has a thorough breakdown of the infamous Harlot table from the 1st Edition Dungeon Master's Guide: link (NSFW language).

I wonder what the XP table for the Rich Panderer looks like?

Official Internet Meme of the OSR

So given the reactions to my post yesterday, I think we have found the official Internet meme of the OSR.  Please use it as you see fit. 

Disclaimer: I did not create this picture.  I first encountered it on Fark.com and did a Google image search for it yesterday as it seemed appropriate.
 

Frog God Games, the OSR, and a big ol' "Huh?"

Ok, so first off, I'm a hardcore Necromancer Games fanboy.  Without a doubt, they have

made some of my favorite RPG products.  So when Bill Webb (a.k.a. Tsathogga), an NG co-founder, announced its resurrection as Frog God Games, I was stoked.  I still am.  Bill had been more of the silent partner at NG (Clark Peterson, a.k.a. Orcus, being the more vocal spokesman), so it was interesting to see Bill grab the wheel.

Recently, FGG made some big news by announcing they'd be producing a new edition of OSR favorite, Swords & Wizardry. The OSR community rejoiced.

Then folks found some interesting text on FGG's About Us page and there has not been much rejoicing.  I have put the entire text so you, Gentle Reader, can see the whole context. I have underlined the shit-storm causing text, though:
----
 "Who We Are

We consist of old grognard gamers, including a brilliant layout guy, and a cartographer who was not even a gamer when we recruited him. We have more than a few writing credits to our name, and have decided after dealing with publishers, printers and middlemen to head off on our own and make some books. We have developed friendships with, and worked with the best and most famous writers in the industry. We are the real deal.

Who We Aren't

We are not the guys who are going to offer bargain basement junk for a quick buck. We won't sell you hand drawn maps and clip art laid out by amateurs and posted up on Lulu.com as a cheap book that you look at and discard.

We won't fill your players coffers with millions of gold pieces and powerful magic items either, at least not without great efforts. Our encounters won't be "balanced" to make sure no one dies, and a 3rd level monster may or may not have 50.2 gp (like its supposed to in certain rule books). Death will be frequent, but fair, and players who fail to use their heads will surely lose them.

After all, Tsathogga's special attack is "eats 1d6 adventurers per round". Adventurers taste like chicken....errrr, flies."
---

That text has been on the FGG site from day one. I know that because I read it then and thought it was odd. No one took notice in the OSR-o-sphere until the recent FGG/S&W announcement (understandably so, since FGG had only talked about Pathfinder products up to that point).

So what do I think of this? That text had me scratching my head when I first read it and does so now.  Bill Webb has stated on the NG forums that he plays 0e D&D via Swords & Wizardry (available, uhm, on Lulu: link). He has stated he has committed to articles for Knockspell, a well-known OSR magazine. 

I think the words were very poorly chosen, to say the least.  But Bill seems to have inadvertently lumped in the very game he plays.  That tells me this isn't simply "the OSR was crap until now!"  It will be interesting to hear his explanation. I get why fans are upset, but I want to hear his response.

If nothing else, I think James Raggi's response kicks ass: link

Pathfinder, Zombies, and a Chance to Win some Pathfinder Tomes

Troll in the Corner is having a contest to support its Aruneus campaign setting project.  Check it out here and enter: link  What is Aruneus?  Sounds like it's Pathfinder meets Dawn of the Dead... in other words, it sounds very cool.

(Yes, part of the reason I made this post was to score an extra chance at winning the contest, but it really does sound like a great product.  Check it out).

My First Instance of Keyword Strangeness

Mike over at Swords & Dorkery often posts odd keywords that folks have used to find his blog via search engines (see here and here for examples). Apparently WordPress has a feature that does this. I myself use Google Analytics and Clicky for such reporting.

Most of the keywords reported have been kind of obvious, the lion’s share being about dry erase battle mats. However, Clicky picked up the following keyword string from Yahoo on June 16, 2010:

“what happens when you piss white”

So I did some checking and, sure enough, when you enter that into Google, my blog is the first result (at least as of today). See for yourself: http://search.yahoo.com/search?p=what+happens+when+you+piss+white

Good to know I can be of help to someone out there in need (by the way, this was the blog post associated with that search: link).

In Memory of the Man and in Celebration of GM's Day

If you're reading this blog, you likely know two things about today:

1. It marks the two year anniversary of Gygax's passing
2. It is GM's Day

There are many excellent posts today containing quotes of sage wisdom from the Man.  I'm taking a slightly different approach and providing my favorite quote from the Background section of The Steading of the Hill Giant Chief adventure module:

Therefore, a party of the bravest and most powerful adventurers has been assembled and given the charge to punish the miscreant giants.  These adventurers must deliver a sharp check, deal a lesson to the clan of hill giants nearby, or else return and put their heads upon the block for the headsman's axe!

That last sentence there is underlined in pencil in my copy of the module.  Why?  Because it's bad ass.

Thanks for the game, Gary.

SKULLS - Web Comic

Black Gate magazine has been posting a web comic called "SKULLS" by John R. Fultz on its blog.  Check it out: link

On a side note, Black Gate magazine is excellent and you should check it out if you haven't.

General Rappan Athuk Spoiler Warning

Perhaps I should have made this clear from the onset, but this blog will occasionally reference details about my group's exploits in Rappan Athuk.  If you haven't played through it, you may find the occasional spoiler here.  There aren't likely to be many as I'm too lazy to write up big session reports.  I do write small blurbs now and then, though.  A few of my players read this blog (much to my delight), so I won't be offering up anything their PCs haven't already stumbled upon.

Anyhow, you've been warned.

Excellent post about the Gamer-Friendly Wife

Over at Beyond the Black Gate, Al (a.k.a. Ravyn) posted this excellent ode to the Gamer-Friendly Wife: link.

I couldn't have said it better myself.  God Bless the D&D Widows of the world.