Ariale (of Fjörgyn infamy) Has a Blog!

The subject line pretty much says it all.

Ariale has started posting some of her Tunnels & Trolls solo exploits, as well as her side of the screen for our ongoing B/X campaign, where she plays the chaotic, arguably evil, unarguably impulsive, Fjörgyn the Elf.

You can check her blog out here: Ghoul Slayer.

Her side of the screen. Photo by Ariale M.

Five for Friday : Week of 2/8/13 - 2/14/13: Meteor Watch Edition

The Sky is Falling! (reported everywhere)

Big news today was that a meteor tore threw the sky over a city in Russia today and it was caught on video. Pretty amazing stuff. Not to mention how crazy powerful the shock wave was - putting a fair sized gauge in brick wall, shattering windows, flexing window frames, etc. Even without any kind of impact to the planet surface, it caused quit a bit of damage (most injuries due to shards of glass).

There has to be a way to work a meteor into one of my games.

Fantasy Background Generator Hack From Cyberpunk 2020 on Wrathofzombie's Blog
I love random generators. They're mini-games unto themselves (taken to the extreme, you get GDW's Classic Traveller where characters can die during generation). This one from Wrathofzombie is a lot of fun.

The B Team Can Relieve Your Campaign on Roles, Rules & Rolls

Roger the GS talks about having some second string characters to fill in on those days when one or more players are absent, and it's better to wait for their return than to move the campaign forward without them. It also works well when the main game has a lot riding on the PCs and the players or GM want  a game without worry about how much they've invested in the game and character so far.

How Can Impermanent Terrain Be Justified on SoloNexus

The idea is simple - terrain is not necessarily the constant we often take it to be. Artillery, weather and meteors can all reshape it. JF poses the question to his readers for ideas that can be used in a game to justify that change - to create new tactical challenges in play. The focus is on miniature gaming, but such things are not uncommon in the RPG world and the ideas mentioned are probably of use to both.

Mini Campaign II "Rear Guard" on The Wars of Wine and Cheese

This is eye candy pure and simple. The table and soldiers look beautiful. Hoping to get some time out in the garage this weekend to paint my own table top.

Five for Friday: Week of 2/1/13 - 2/7/13: Space Marine Edition.

In the Future, All Space Marines Will Be Warhammer 40K Space Marines

MCAH Online

GW is throwing its weight around, claiming trademark infringement by an author using a term in use almost since the dawn of the sci-fi genre. Many, myself included, are not at all surprised by this action. Just one more reason for me not to purchase GW products.

Dwimmermount, 3x5 Geomorphs, The Tome of Adventure Design & Boring Adventure Design
Blood of Prokopius

FrDave covers a lot of stuff in this post, but what caught my eye was the mention of my favorite office supply: the 3x5 index card. He notes that "[he] challenged folks to start working on 3x5 geomorphs, but that, too, has thus far fallen on deaf ears."

I rather like the idea of geomorphs on 3x5 cards. 

When I was trying to run the Labyrinth Lord social game in November-ish, I drew up maps of the towns, as well as one dungeon map, on 3x5 index cards. They are so much easier to shuffle through than full size paper. I've got a pile of things I'm working on right now - but I find the appeal of doing dungeon-y goodness on a 3x5 is too hard to resist.

Morale & Fog of War

Saxe-Bearstein

Bluebear Jeff discusses his method of inserting fog of war into his tabletop games via morale by rolling varying numbers of average dice based on the unit's rating . Most interesting to me is that, after the battle, if one unit of an army improves their morale to a higher rating, another unit must consequently worsen. 

Savage Menagerie: Nosfrogtu

The Savage AfterWorld

The picture just cracked me up.

Lady Shadowmoss upon seeing it exclaimed, "You're not putting that in our game are you?" 

I denied any such intention, but of course, I can't help it if they show up uninvited.

On Gameplay in the Megadungeon

Hack & Slash

-C breaks down the key elements of play when traipsing through a megadungeon. If you already enjoy this kind of game, you probably won't learn anything new, but if you aren't familiar with it, you may be thinking: smash the door, kill the monster, take their loot. 

And, in that case, you really should read this.

Speaking of megadungeons, session 11 of The Ever Expanding Dungeon will have to wait until next week to be played. My parents will be visiting this weekend and there hasn't really been any time to game this week  (plus I want to write about why and how I changed XP allotment last session).

Five for Friday: Week of 1/25/13 - 1/31/13

For your Friday afternoon after lunch waiting for the weekend to start entertainment:

dndclassics.com? I don't need no stinking dndclassics.com! on Rended Press

Far and away the best response I've seen to the recent celebration over the return of classic D&D materials to PDF format.

I've always been a little hesitant to print and assemble downloaded booklets because my printer doesn't support double-sided printing. After reading this, I gave flipping the paper over and sending it through again method a try and it worked fine. I plan to put together some of my favorites now, too. Even if you're not interested in doing this yourself, there are plenty of great links in this post.

XP Evolution - The Orc on Alesmiter

A thought provoking (well, it was for me) look at the creep of XP for monsters across editions. Most interesting is the look at how many orcs a PC has to kill to advance a level.

Manor #3 Cover on Gothridge ManorThe Manor is easily my favorite zine effort associated with the OSR community. I have been eagerly awaiting  the completion of the 3rd issue and it looks like that's going forward now.

Warning Order #34 on Wasatch Front Historical Gaming Society
Everytime I stumble on the WFHG site and read Warning Order,I think, "I have to make an effort to get back here and look for new issues."And then I forget completely until someone/something reminds me to do so. A free PDF wargaming newsletter? Yes, please! Articles are well written and the photography is decent as well.

Basic Fantasy Role Playing Blog Appreciation Day on Tenkar's Tavern
23 different blogs took some time to post about BFRPG yesterday. If you haven't heard of, or thought to check this system out, take a look at any of the many posts listed at the link above. There's a lot of love out there for the "red-headed step child of the OSR" (as Tenkar described it).

Five for Friday: Week of 1/18/2013 - 1/24/2013

DandDClassics.Com
bonus link: In Search of the Unknown 

Mixing Scales on the Tabletop: Heresy or Not on Wargaming Miscellany 

L'amore tra i mostri: Session 1, Q1-3 on SoloNexus

Instant Adventures, Artifacts and NPCs with Rory's Story Cubes on The Savage Afterworld

The Need to Achieve on B/X Blackrazor

I thought it might make more sense to put the links at the top, for those who want to get to the meat of the post. My thoughts about each link appear below.

DandDClassics.Com
You couldn't click anywhere this week without stepping on a blog post about the One Book Shelf (wargamevault.com, drivethrurpg.com, etc.) partnering with Wizards of the Coast to offer classic D&D books and modules in PDF format again (years ago they were available and then one day they suddenly weren't).

The pricing for many of the options falls short of the point where I would definitely choose the PDF over a print copy on eBay. But for some rare / hard to find titles, I can see this being a nice stop-gap solution.

Which brings us to our second link:

 In Search of the Unknown on DandDClassics.com
This classic basic D&D module, B1, is available for free download at the time this was written.

I grabbed a copy before the servers crashed under the volume that One Book Shelf experienced (they're now working just fine) and checked the print vs. the quality of the scan.

For those who remember, or who have, the old scans, they were unappealing to say the least. I'm happy to report the new scan was quite legible and crisp.

Mixing Scales on the Tabletop: Heresy or Not on Wargaming Miscellany
This one was rather timely as I contemplate adding more 1/35 scale figures and vehicles to my Eastern Front WWII  collection. I was even thinking 1/43 or 1/48 might not be too small for a "toy soldier" look next to 1/32-1/35 figures, but I don't have any easy way to test that.

L'amore tra i mostri: Session 1, Q1-3 on SoloNexus
also see Q4-6 and Q7-9

JF kicked off his new Italian Comic Opera D&D Next campaign this week. Not only a great illustration of the 9Qs in action w/Rory's Story Cubes (which have recently been featured in a number of RPG blogs), it's a great read.

In the comments on the first post, JF explains his use of the game mechanics and their place in the story.

Instant Adventures, Artifacts and NPCs with Rory's Story Cubes on The Savage Afterworld
Speaking of Rory's Story Cubes, Tim over at The Savage Afterworld demonstrates how he uses them for inspiration.

It's been awhile since I've used the Story Cubes for an adventure - I may have to rectify that with tonight's session of The Ever Expanding Dungeon.

The Need to Achieve on B/X Blackrazor
Although the impetus for this post was a discussion about character advancement in super hero RPGs, the discussion is broader than that and discusses achievement as a player goal in role playing games.

Five for Friday: Week of 1/11/2013 - 1/17/2013

The second edition of my Five for Friday (I'm on a roll!) It leans a little heavy on RPGs this week, but it starts off with an article written by a wargaming pioneer:

Chessboard War from Tabletop Talk
Bob Cordery got me hooked on the idea of grid-based games. Morschauser solidified that interest (yes, Morschauser had the idea before Mr. Cordery, but that's not how I encountered them). And now, as seen on Tabletop Talk (a blog connected with Historifigs, keepers of the Jack Scruby figure lines), it appears Tony Bath also had a set of gridded game rules.

Gridded games aren't everybody's cup of tea ,but I find gamers of note, like Featherstone, Grant or Bath, fun to read regardless of whether I would ever use their proposed idea in a game or not.

Dungeon Construction from Matakashi's Teahouse
Matakashi does amazing work with DIY terrain and scenery. Most of the time, I look at it and think, "I doubt I could ever do that." However, this project is one I think anyone can do - possibly even using generic Jenga blocks or children's wood blocks to save yourself the cutting. I suspect such a thing could be done for sci-fi interiors as well.

Fridge Logic & Dungeonsc from Tao of D&D
Love him or hate him, Alex of the Tao of D&D posts thoughtful, interesting articles and this one is no different. Alex discusses the peculiarity of monsters hoarding gold when, in their daily lives, they have no need of it.

As I don't strive for verisimilitude in my dungeons for the most part, these things don't terribly concern me, but for those who do, it poses something of a problem if thought about logically. As an aside, I think it's a strong argument in favor of why gold and experience should not be equated  (although I don't think that was his point).

Secret Party House of the Hill Giant Playboy from roll1d12
Download a free module from the mind behind a website dedicated to the neglected d12? Don't mind if I do.

I've had a read through it and it seems very solo-able with plenty of random tables, interesting NPCs and even a new monster. I would probably solo this using Mythic and Labyrinth Lord; it looks like it'd work equally well playing as the PC or the GM.

Random Tables - Inspiration or "As Rolled?" from Tenkar's Tavern
Tenkar's Tavern is one of my favorite RPG blogs out there, always insightful or thought provoking questions, without being unnecessarily serious. In this post, well, I think it's pretty self-explanatory.

I posted in the comments on this one, in favor of making an effort to use results from random tables "as rolled", before giving up and either choosing or rolling again. Perhaps it's because as a solo player, I'm usually designing encounters and such "on the fly" and typically I have no preconceived notion of what exactly I should encounter (unless I've set up a special encounter list, as I did for the goblin territory in The Ever Expanding Dungeon).

My job is to rationalize the random result given what I have already learned about the game setting.

This also touches back to the question of verisimilitude; it's not terribly important to me if the logic of the game world doesn't make sense compared to our world generally or in my mind specifically. But, then, I am happy to sometimes drift into surrealism if that's what occurs. Often it doesn't, because I impose the laws of this reality on the narrative or the very random tables I am using have pre-limited the possible results to things that make sense in the broad game world, and while they might not often appear in the same space there, they are not mind boggling in their weirdness individually.

A Little Link Love

I think I'd like to have a regular "feature", if not weekly then perhaps more often than"whenever", where I highlight a few of the gaming-related items on the web that I encountered in the preceding week that I think merit attention.

The purpose is two-fold: in case you missed it in your own feed reader, this is a second chance, and, more selfishly, I'm hopeful that others might do something similar from time-to-time on their blogs.

There's so much good stuff out there, and we have so little time to read it all, I rely on other bloggers to steer me to items I may have missed and that might be of interest.

JF of SoloNexus has turned his 9Qs into a PocketMod!
I love PocketMods so, of course, that got my attention. I know not everyone is ga-ga for PocketMods like I am, but it's worth a look if you're short on table space or want to make an ultra-portable solo gaming kit. Combine with the Risus or USR rules pocket mods, wilderness or dungeon words mods, and some dice and you have everything you need for solo gaming in a tiny package.

Bob Cordery released the Ancients version of his Portable Wargame into the Wild
I don't play ancients, yet. I have contemplated doing a medieval army or two. Russia and Teutonic Knights or perhaps Mongols and Russians. What's with me and Russia? Anyway, I don't have any way to evaluate these rules except to say that I enjoy gaming on a gridded surface, so someone who plays ancients will have to give them a go and report on it.

The Tunnels & Trolls Deluxe Edition Kickstarter Exceeded Funding within 48 Hours of Launch
As I mentioned earlier this week, I went in on this. I had sworn off Kickstarter after seeing too many undelivered and long delayed projects (two of which I supported). But, this is something I want in on. It sounds like it will be 5th edition with plenty of bells and whistles if you want to use them and Flying Buffalo's involvement means that someone in the publishing business is right there at the start. It seems that's where a lot of the RPG Kickstarters falter.

Are children intuitive railroaders? on Daddy Grognard
As the father of a one year old, playing rpgs with my kid is a distant dream, but never-the-less, it's a subject I enjoy reading about. Daddy Grognard presents an interesting analysis of children and how their experience effects the way they might run a game in spite of having played in a sandbox campaign for some time.

Wargame Horizons on Polemarch
Not unrelated to the above, Polemarch examines the basis for our ethical decisions and the role our experience plays in the decisions we make. If the article is of any interest at all to you, make sure to check out the discussion that continues in the comments!

There were certainly many more posts and articles I read that were interesting and worthy of review, but there you are, five for Friday.

Which is what I'll call this from now on, thereby dooming me to never being able to come up with five again.

And way off topic, this arrived Thursday afternoon!

2nd Printing
(you'd be surprised how happy having an index inside the book and not as a print-out makes me)

I am slightly overwhelmed by the monstrous size of the thing. As someone who spends a great deal of time with Moldvay (at a whopping 64 pages, 128 if you include both Basic and Expert) and Labyrinth Lord (133 pages), the 460 pages of DCC is a touch intimidating. Fortunately, I'm slated to play in a game of DCC, not run one, thereby greatly reducing the burden of what I should try to remember.

An Award and Link Love!

You've probably seen this going around, and now I have discovered I was nominated for a Liebster as well by Fitz-Badger on his Soweiter League blog. As an admirer of his approach to the hobby, I find it hard to believe that he has less than 100 followers. If you don't already, you should go and add him to your feed asap!

Now, according to the rules set forth, I'm to nominate five others. So, to avoid charges of laziness, I won't count Soweiter League among my five, even though it most certainly belongs there!

I follow a LOT of gaming blogs - between RPGs and wargaming, it numbers in the triple digits, so to help me narrow it down somewhat, I'm sticking with the wargaming blogs here. Besides, most of the RPG blogs have over 100 followers. So, in no particular order:

Just Another Wargames Blog - I enjoy Chris's entries about gaming with his daughter (I hope to one day game with my son, so I gobble this stuff up), DIY sci-fi scenery projects (I've got a standing order for Lady Shadowmoss's empty yogurt containers), and general musings (his post on computer aided gaming earlier this year is something I still contemplate). But even better, can you point me to another game blog that posts a recipe for pork fried rice to tie over readers until the pictures for an AAR are posted?

Saxe - Bearstein - I know Jeff has been nominated already but I would be remiss if I did not second it. I remember stumbling upon this blog early on in my wargaming life and being inspired by the pictures and campaign related advice. His Great Northern War game pictures were the first encounter I ever had with that conflict. When I decided to begin my first wargaming campaign earlier this year, I went straight to this site for his simple campaign idea. He's currently running an imagi-nations campaign over on The Alpian Wars.

Polemarch - The depth of thought that goes into these posts is staggering! If this was a college course, it'd be called The Philosophy of Wargaming. You won't find pretty pictures here, but you will find thoughtful posts on various aspects of the hobby. He posts on Saturday, but I save it to read on Sunday after young Lord Shadowmoss has gone down for his morning nap, so I can sip my coffee and give the post the attention it deserves.

Kelroy Was Here - I first found this blog when I was looking for information on Pith Helmet, but it was his Star Wars-ian Safari that totally sold me. Fun game reports, nicely painted figures, simple but effective scenery - he doesn't post often, but it's worth the wait.

Adventures in Portable Wargaming - This is a relatively new blog, dedicated to Bob Cordery's rules, The Portable Wargame. I am a huge fan of grid based wargames - especially for those with little space to game. I believe Morschauser noted that grid games are more likely to be perceived like board games and may help introduce reluctant adults to give wargames a try. I've downloaded their ECW variant for possible modification to the GNW and I'm looking forward to seeing photos of their ECW games.