How they failed/How they Fumbled

"You got a 13, you miss."
A phrase often heard at the gaming table: a sad and uninspiring statement that renders the PC's actions and efforts meaningless; It shuts them down; and takes them out of the game.
The idea that I had was to let them describe their failed attack in terms of the encounter (or challenge) allowing them some narrative control.
The next time a PC misses I am going to ask them: "Describe what happened?"; "Tell me about the attack that missed" or "Tell us what went wrong".

Just a short thought for the day.

NaNoWriMo Thoughts

It's been some time sense I last posted anything real here (2009/06/01 as a matter of fact). So many things I have missed commenting on:

Mega Dungeons

Mapping

Gencon

RPGBloggers Controversy

etc.

However I am not goning to comment on any of those today.

Today I am thinking about NaNoWriMo and what I might do during November.

I am Tempted to use that time to actually do a write up of "My Campaign World" which I call "The Living Lands": A world suffering from a plague of Immortals into which the Players, or Heroes, are born.

The world is, save for an excel spreadsheet and a map, existing largely in my head and I do believe that it is time to commit it to "Paper". A Friend of mine did something similar last year for his world and I am rather pleased at the result.

I plan to use the very nice "How to Make a Fantasy Sandbox" guide from Bat in the Attic as a road map for the development of the document.

Places of Intrest in the Living Lands that should be covered in the Gazetteer:

• MoonFell
• Libraries of the Ancients
• City of Glass
• Tilted Tower
• Sky Thread
• Shattered Dome

The Races of the world that will be covered are:

• E'tenal - a mixed population of standard PC races (elves, humans, Dragonborn etc) that were rendered childless but functionally immortal.
• FeralKin - which includes Clawfoots, Wigs, Bigtooths, Dog-Faces and many other of the non-immortal, "Uncivilized" humanoids.
• GreyKin - a race of Undead once noted as the greatest of Healers.
• Plauge Dreamers - Rarely encountered diabolical undead.

The premmis of the game is that very rarely, an E'tnal will give birth to a child, who is mortal (or "Hero" as they are know) and has no normal role in society. So the Heroes are trained and set out into the world to "Make a Difference". Three major hero quests are:

• Return the memories that were lost 691 years ago.
• Cure the Infertility of the E'tnal
• Remove the curse of Immortality from the E'tnal.

With much effort I do believe that I can get 50K words in 30 days (but I am not certain enough to actually sign up for it). Maybe, after some review and editing I will post a PDF of the world.

As for this blog, I want to post snippits and progress on the project. After it is done I will get back into a regular posting schedule of NPCs for Pathfinder, 4E, Traveller and Call of Cthulthu (4th edition and possibly Trail of Cthulthu).

Note: this post is a result of me committing to my self that I would spend an hour writing and this was the easiest place to start. I am also attempting to see what pace I write at and after 43 minutes I now have 519 words. Given that I need to write 1666 words a day that means that I will need to write for 2.3 hours (or improve my writing speed by 130%).

Thanks,

Snork

My Top 10 Favorite Monsers

Several other blogs that I read have been doing the their top ten favorite monsters (here, here, here, and here). Not being one to miss a meme I present to you mine. (Though most are OD&D).

1. Medusa: A nicely proportion gal with looks that can kill.
   
2. Beholder: It's smart, it's evil, and it can Nerf casters with a glance.
   
3. Gas spore: a worthless monster other than psyching out those players who memorized the Monster Manual.
   
4. Crypt Thing: It' looks like a lich, but more chatty. Once you honk it off it will "disintegrates" a party member by teleporting them a thousand miles away (or paralyzing them and making them invisible).
5. Rust Monster: I love seeing the Fighter types scream and move to the back of the party when this cute little beast shows up.
   
6. Lich:Undead arch mages or high priests, great behind the scenes villains, and hard core combatants when prepared.
   
7. Shuggoth/Gibbering Mouther: I was privileged to have the First Edition Deities and Demigods that contained the Cthulthu Mythos. The Gibbering Mouther is an obvious nod to the truly frightening Shuggoth: 10 tons of Jello sprinkled with eyes, mouths and limbs that just want to give you a full body hug.
   
8. Drow: A late addition to the OD&D school, but very capable opponents with no real weaknesses. I also enjoyed the "take back" effect that their equipment had. The DM could hand out tons of +5 magic items only to have them become worthless in the surface world.
   
9. Xorn: Treasure eating, trilateral symmetric, intelligent rock. Aside from the Gibbering Mouther it's the most alien of the OD&D creatures.
   
10. Flesh Golem: Frankenstein's Monster in D&D form. Strong, largely invulnerable, but can get a little crazy every now and then.
    

Playing with Campaign Cartographer

Here is what I've done while following this set of video tutorials for the second time.

They were instructive and reasonably easy, it helps that I had done 

some playing on my own.

Playing With Gimp: part 2

Over the last few weeks I have improved my Gimp'in skill to the point that I am producing Photo Illistrations for my game.
Here are a couple examples:
This first example is a view to the south looking at the Thread (or Great Tower as the locals know it.) (this image was built from my photos from Ireland)


The second one is of the Temple:
Tree back ground from: Axel-D
Field from: CatDancing
Path From: Ana Carol Mendes
Temple from: Koshyk
Clouds by: Kevindoley




Both Images are released under the Creative Commons 2.0

Snork

Playing with Gimp

So I have been playing some more with gimp:
Today I followed this toutorial (which wouldn't be bad for world creation in Traveler and other world games). 
Part 1 Part 2  

Here is the result.

Writing for the Sake of Writing

I have found my self falling into my old (decades old) high school habits: Doing the homework, but failing to turn it in. Example: I have created the skeletons "Asmor's Instant Dungeons" completing the series all the way to level 30. I just need to assigne the treasure and write up a few tips on how to handle each encounter and they would be done. Yet, for the last week they have sat idol in my queue. (Palm slaps Head).

Enough Venting, time to get writing.

In the mean time here is some link love: Sham/Dave, Amityville Mike on the one page Dungeon template that would work wonderfully with the instant dungeons: and I have been playing with Ghgowiz Old Guy RPG Blog which linked to a number of very nice tutorials on Dungeon and Map making with Gimp. The Dungeons with Gimp was suprisingly easy to follow and produces a spiffy looking map in not too many steps. I think I will next try the Regional Map with Gimp tutorial and see how that goes.

Also from Outsyder Gaming, I found a link in a comment to a javascript 4E character generator.

I did create another blog (yup, can't keep one blog up to date, so I go and create another one (sigh)) to house my actual game running and creation called Tales of the Table.

Like I stated: enough venting, get writing.
Snork

Writing for Writing Sake: Thinking of the Next Year

In the coming year these are the things I want to do with this blog:

• Complete the Asmor's Instant Dungeon series through 30th level.
• Create some more pre-generated characters from levels 1 to 30. (This will probably wait until Wotc finishes it's Character Builder application).
  
• Create actual test dungeons to run the Pre-gen's through.
  
• Improve my mapping Mojo so that I can produce maps efficiently and with a level of acceptable quality.
  
• Post NPC's with Stat blocks for 4E (that's kinda like the point of this site).
  
• Possibly explore NPC's of other systems (Traveller, Pathfinder, Dogs in the Vineyards, Call of Cthulthu) when I need a change of pace.
  

Enjoy what ever hollidays you care to enjoy,

Snork
--
Snorkey: Collating Links, though handy, does not an origional artical make.

Writing for the Sake of Writing

This is one of those times, A Sunday morning waiting for 4 step grand children to arrive, that I find my self stuck in my game writing. I will, more likely than not, as I already have so far this morning, spend it NOT WRITING.

I had the same problem on my "Snow day Friday", I took the day off from work and spend it NOT WORKING. Not Working is different from a day off, where I actually get stuff done. It is a day in which I get buzzed every 5 minutes by emails asking questions, or at least making statements that I feel the need to respond to. There were a large number of things I could have done during the hours between emails and meetings, but none of them were.

In the past I used to think that I needed large 8-16 hour blocks of time to work upon my games or blog, but In the last year I discovered that even as little as 5 minutes is enough to get something started (and possibly even finished).

So what do I want, both now and in the coming year:
1. Run my first 4E game: my Thursday group is currently world building using the Dawn of Worlds rule system to build a collaborative world. I want everyone to have a positive experience with 4E (though 2 of the players have strong opinions against 4E, they are willing to try).
2. Regular Posting: I started this blog to help my writing and help me improve my greatest GM weakness: NPC's. I also wanted to give something back to the gaming community. (I also wanted fame and fortune but I didn't really expect that to happen).

So my vow, starting now, is to:
1. Not NOT DO SOMETHING, either I am doing the thing or I am not. So If I am Writing, then I write. Mapping, then map. Programming, then program.
2. No regrets: I will enjoy what I do when I need to do it. I will try and jettison the Coulda, woulda, shoulda.
3. Schedule a time for writing. I find that at 4am to 7am is my most creative time, I think that I will go back to setting my alarm an hour earlier to help facilitate this.
4. When in doubt read. I have a habit of buying gaming books and never reading them, so it is back to the rule of Read 2 before I buy 1. This should keep me busy for the next 5 years.
5. Be happy: I set this rule for my self when I was 16 (too many decades ago), and have had a generally positive experience with it.

Snork
--
Snorkey: is not, not writing this post.

Need Inspiration : Look Here

The page is staring at me, it's emptiness taunting me, freezing my creative juices and dooming me to another lost hour of "Not Writing". Yes, I often suffer from blank page syndrome (a.k.a) writers block. If I move away from the computer and consult with my oracle (a.k.a. my cat Mindy) I have dozens of ideas. Then when I return to the evil blank page, I freeze. One of the best way I have found to get around it is to use a random generator to give me a starting place.

• Abulafa: 10 Word Adventure Synopsis's, Dungeon Seed, Encounter-a-day, Scenario's, Quick NPC's, NPC, One Sentence NPC's, Towns, Location Encounters and a lot more.
• Roleplaying Tips: One sentence NPC's, (non random)5 Room Dungeons.
• Asmor: Encounter Generator, Treasure Generator, Seeds, and several other very useful 4E tools.
• StolenCitadel Dungeons, NPC's, Plots, Locations, and Societies.
• Forbiden Kingdom: A simple seed generator.
• DM Tools: NPC's, Benign Encounters, Mercenary Missions, and Towns.
• WotC: Adventure seeds.
• Gozzys Dungeon Map Generator.
• Jame's NPC generator
• Dungeon's Unlimited (non-random) Map Index.
• TV Tropes:(possible mature content, and spoilers) Plots, Universal Tropes, Characters (as a plot device). Curses be upon the Chatty DM for spreading this evil, evil time sucking site to the gaming world.
• Story Spinner is a story starting generator but it can be useful for creating the "box text" of the adventure.
  

A quick "cut and paste" stab and the blank page monster is gone, and I can move forward.

Sometimes a less "gaming specific" source of inspiration is more useful to jump start my creativity, to prevent me from settling into the standard Tavern/Clearing in the Woods/Dungeon tropes. These links are good for finding new ideas, though they may take more effort on your part to turn the ideas into something "game-able".

• Random Wiki Page: The page Title or subject is the title for you next adventure, or encounter.
• Random Fliker Photos: (potential exists for encountering mature content). Possibly the second or third photo is the subject or location of the adventure.
• Quotations: Maybe the top quote documents or characterizes the motivation of the actors.
• Stuck in Customs: (non random, updated daily), The top photo is the setting of an important event.
• Random Irregular Webcomic: Mix and match the settings and dialog.
• XKCD random comic: (some mature and mathematical stick figure content)
• Word of the Day: Quotations Page, Merriam-Webster (daily updates); If you combine the two words together you might have a title.
  

Finally there are (GASP) "non-digital" methods of finding inspiration:

1. Open the Monster Manual and flip to a random monster, this will be the "Villian" of the adventure. (I got Goblin Hexer)
2. Grab a book (even non gaming) and flip to a random page, the middle paragraph indicates what the plot or focus of the adventure. (It was a pragmatic choice).
3. Grab a Campaign Setting or Adventure, either one of your own or a published one and reuse the map contained with in, but rotate it 90 degrees.
4. Start writing.
   

Grab a foreign language dictionary (I like Latin) and flip find two random words and note their meanings use that as a title for the next adventure.

Also you can just start writing what ever gibberish comes to mind. What you write may not be game related in any way but at least the blank page monster is dead.

Snork

Excuse Post: From Tidal Pool to Glactic Core

What have I been doing for the last for the last 39 days? Crawling from the from the sea; performing for other members of my species; transforming planets; and journeying to the galactic core. In my travels I have found Earth, and colonized it. Made friends with some; eliminated others; traded the rarest of spices; made all the money I could have; chatted with Steve; wielded the staff of life to transform worlds. I have become the creator of life; and the distroyer of worlds.

Ok, so I have been playing Spore WAYYYYY too much.

It's a delightful Sim game (DRM issues aside) that has enough variety that you never get truly bord (though it has happend once of twice), yet there is always something to do. In the past I have avoided The Sims figuring that it was a massive time suck (and it is just based upon what I can do with the free demo).

Normaly, I keep to Turn based resource management games like GalCiv and it's decendants. The real time resource management games become an execsie in plate spinning, and ultimatly, the computer will be better at managing queues than I will be. GalCiv is nearly the game I would wright if I were so inclided (and had arbitrarily large amounts of time and resources).

But spore is simple enough that 8 year old my step granddaughter can play it (and I have run into many of her creations in my quest for the core). Varried enough that I am willing to keep going (my current quest is to rid the galixy of the Grox).

What does any of this have to do with Table Top RPG's: zip. But it is what I have been doing for the last month and a good bit.

Snork

Leveling and Math in 4th Edition

Having leveled 5 characters up through 11 levels: keeping track of all the numbers is a big deal. If you have looked at any of the pre-generated character sheets you may have noticed all of the end-notes (all 30+ of them): This has been the only way I could keep track of all the numbers.

Now in the real world, where a player need only keep track of their character, and leveling occurs every few sessions (assuming 10 encounters, with 2-3 encounters a session, it should happen every third or fourth session); The math should not be too much of a problem. I would, however, suggest that Players keep track good notes on what effects what.

Keep in mind that I am not using A spread sheet or any other tool. Just word, calculator and CutePDF. In a better world I would have started with a spread sheet for each PC or used one of the available tools. In the perfict world, there would be a sanction WotC application that would remove all of this drugery.

This is not a complaint, just a minor venting after a full day of rolling the party through levels.

Update The Party of Six files: Cthic, Ehlin

As our heroes close in on paragon tier I found a few errors that required me to re-upload the PDF's.

Cthic 9th: There was an error in his 9th level hp.
Ehlin 9th: All attack values for all implement based powers were not updated for the new holy symbol, nor was it's title, though the body text was correct.

Thanks,
Snorkey

Updated The Party of Six files

The very kind Gregor LeBlaque pointed out that I had miss-calculated the Hp by using the Con bonus instead of the Con Score, resulting in lower Bloodied and Healing Surge values.
I have re-pushed the following pre-gen character PDF's

Agninu - 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th.
Beck - 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th.
Cthic - 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th.
Darrin - 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th.
Ehlin - 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th.


The character sheets rolling forward should be more accurate and of a more compact format.

All characters have been updated.

Thank you,
Snorkey

The Obligitory Excuse Post V00000000000003

I am placing "The Party of Six" character pregens on hold for a week as I am traveling on business.
I will try to post something vaguely interesting during this week but who knows.
I hope to pick the series back up Sept 1.

Thanks,
Snork

The Party of Six: Files Updated

When I got to fourth level I ran into a problem remembering all of the math that went into each particular attribute and skill. So to give myself a little help I added endnotes to the document to detail the calulations that went into each value.
I have updated all of the associated PDF along with a number spelling and typo errors. The old links now link to the new files.
We shall try and continue with the 4th level instances tomorrow.

Snork

Choices to Make: 4E vs 3.5 vs Pathfinder

At this moment I am debating if I should: switch to 4th ed (though I do plan to run a game in 4ed as an experiment); Stick with 3.5 in an OGL form; or Start using Paizo's Pathfinder alpha rules for D&D NPC generated on this site. Admittedly, in the past, I have posted precious few NPC stat block here, which was and still is the intent of this site.

D&D 4th
Pros: NPC generation is very easy, as equipment is largely irrelevant, as are feats and skills.
Cons: The SGL is a bit restrictive AND currently Wizards of the Coast has not published their Web Site licensing terms, which I fear may be even more restrictive in terms of what I can include in a stat block.
Comments: I do like, at first blush, D&D 4th Ed, but some of the licensing unknowns scare me. I am sadden by what they have done to the economy (not that D&D ever had any real economic balance or realism). I like how, even at 30th level, a full blown PC will still be relatively simple and concise. I do like how encounters are group vs. group. I also like how it mechanically encourages teamwork.

D&D 3.5 OGL
Pros: Nice licensing terms, but if I go this route I might be restricted in what I publish in 4th Ed terms. A further benefit is the wealth of material both official and 2nd party. Finally, there are a number of tools that make creating NPC less intensive. I also have some issues with the balancing, especially with multi-class characters.
Cons: NPC generation is very cumbersome, In fact I pretty much have to use a tool like HeroForge or PC Gen to create characters. I am further limited by the fact that the tools, for the most part do not produce the Stat block format that I would prefer (DMG II format).
Comments: Creating a arcane spell caster is the most difficult task even with the tools, as first you must select the spells, then choose which spells they would typically have selected for the day.

Pazio's 3.5 Pathfinder Alpha.
Pros: Equipping and creating NPC's seems simpler than standard 3.5. I believe that the licensing is reasonably flexible with regard to what I want to do with it.
Cons: This rule system is still in Alpha, which means it can and will change. The Beta rule set wont be available until August of this year. And given that it is a 3.5 derivation, it may have some of the same balancing issues that 3.5 has. HeroForge has a few tools to assist in NPC generation. It's another system to learn.
Comments: The NPC generation rules are short, succinct and to the point. The question of "how much equipment" does this person have is easily answered. The mutability and current incompleteness of the rule set is less than desirable.

Generic System Less NPC's
Pros: No numbers to crunch, no balance issues, very flexible; Non-genera specific; Not RPG specific.
Cons: More work for you the reader as you are required to create the stat block and balance the NPC with your game.
Comments: Most of the NPC sketches that I have created so far have been of this nature. The Base NPC's do not specify a setting; assume a race; technology level; or even the gender of the NPC. In fact I had some hope that writers might stumble upon the generics and find a use for them in non-rpg writing.

I don't plan to make a decision tonight, or even this month: I've got an Adventure to write.

One Last day

Ahh, it is the last day prior to D&D 4th ed release.
Now to get it and get cooking...

Snork
--
Snorkey: apparently dosen't have all his burners working...

Playing with Ideas Part 2

Less than 36 hours remain (no I am not excited, why do you ask) until I pick up my copies of 4th ed from my FLGS.

I would like to demonstrate and showcase the mechanics and rules of 4th edition: So a number of combat and skill challenges seem to be in order. Further more it would be nice see how it behaves at various levels and with various classes. It would be nice if I could place a socal encounter or two between so that the players wont feel that all 4th is fighting.

So one possibility that I currently favor is creating a series of PC type characters at various levels: 1, 8, 16, 24, and maybe 30. (This would also fuel this ever hungry blog with content). Normally I wouldn't go with pre-generated characters but I do think it would speed things up.

From a story line stand point the heroes are in their final test before ascending to divinity, but in order to do so they must overcome some of the challenges of their past. To slowly reveal this I would use the amnesia trope so that with each victory I would exchange character sheets to reveal details of their back story. I imagine a glowing symbol on each of their foreheads' that would alter as more of their past and powers were revealed.

My largest fear with this design is that it wouldn't give the players enough time to 'Jell' , to figure out how to best work together. I understand that teamwork is an important part of 4th ed: No one character will have a single trick or exploit that would make them a killing machine (or at least that is what I have been lead to believe).

I am also concerned that, given the time we have to play that the players would get bogged down with having to relearn their characters. Though, I don't think that this would be the problem that it would be under previous editions.

Something to ponder over.

Snork
--
Snorkey: is trying to feed the monster...

Playing with Story/Campaign Ideas for D&D 4th ed

With the imminent arrival of D&D 4th Edition I though that I would play with some idea for campaigns.

• A world where the past is coming into the present at an accelerating rate. Ruins appear over night, and grow with passing days. The Epic task is to fix time so that history goes back to where it belongs.
  
• A holy war where a good goes on the offensive against evil, with an epic twist that the war becomes a war against all non-believers.
  
• Start with gladiatorial combat with heroes know nothing of their past, as they succeed they regain what was lost.
  
• A town build upon a million (or billion) years ruins.
  
• City Gods, where incarnate deities rule a city.
  
• My take on "The City Built Around a Tarrasque".

More to come latter...