A Paladin In Citadel

Things You Can't Say On The WOTC Fora

2012-01-26T15:04:00.003-07:00

I have discovered, from sorry experience, that you cannot talk about the following things on the WOTC Dungeons and Dragons fora.

Nine-fold Alignment System

Realism

Save Or Die

World Of Warcraft

Random attribute generation

Vancian Magic

XP for GP

Fragile entry-level characters

Role-playing

Player-skill challenges

Narrative combat

Heterogenous classes

Appendix N: January 2012

2012-01-24T15:49:00.001-07:00

One of the more convenient uses I find for this blog is as a repository for various lists. I maintain three lists, Appendix N, Microgames, and Dragon Magazines, and I access my blog from my wireless devices when shopping at second-hand bookstores.

Maintaining my Appendix N list recently allowed me to identify 10 books at a local second-hand bookstore that were highlighted in red, and were thus on my "to-buy" list. Those included E.C. Tubb's The Winds Of Gath, and A. Bertram Chandler's The Road To The Rim, both of which were recommended (as Traveller-related Appendix N resources) by Chevski.

I keep rolling this Appendix N list forward, as it's a nuisance to have to dig through my posts to find this list.

Abbey, Lynn:

Adams, Richard: Watership Down

Alexander, Lloyd: The Book of Three 1; The Black Cauldron 2; The Castle of Llyr 3; Taran Wanderer 4; The High King 5

Anderson, Poul: Ensign Flandry; Flandry Of Terra; Agent of the Terran Empire; The Long Night; Three Hearts and Three Lions; The Broken Sword; The High Crusade; A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows

Anthony, Piers: A Spell for Chameleon; On A Pale Horse

Ariosto, Ludovico: Orlando Furioso

Asprin, Robert A.: Thieves World I; Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn II; Shadows of Sanctuary III; Storm Season IV; The Face of Chaos V; Another Fine Myth

Barker, M.A.R.: The Man Of Gold; Flamesong

Baum, L. Frank: The Wizard Of Oz, Emerald City Of Oz, Land of Oz

Beagle, Peter S.: The Last Unicorn

Bellairs, John: The Face In The Frost

Bellamy, Francis R : Atta

Bloodstone, John: Thundar Man Of Two Worlds

Bok, Hannes: The Sorcerers Ship

Brackett, Leigh: Eric John Stark, Outlaw Of Mars; The Best Of Leigh Brackett; The Sword Of Rhiannon; The Ginger Star 1; The Hounds Of Skaith 2; Reavers of Skaith 3

Bradley, Marion Z: Sword and Sorceress Anthology

Brooks, Terry: The Sword of Shannara

Brown, Fredric:

Burroughs, Edgar R.: Pellucidar; Tanar of Pellucidar; A Princess Of Mars 1; The Gods Of Mars 2; Warlord Of Mars 3; Thuvia, Maid Of Mars 4; Chessmen of Mars 5; The Mastermind of Mars 6; A Fighting Man of Mars 7; The Moon Maid; Out of Time’s Abyss; Jungle Girl, Land of Hidden Men; Tarzan Of The Apes 1; The Return Of Tarzan 2; The Beasts of Tarzan 3; The Son Of Tarzan 4; Tarzan and the Lost Empire 10; At The Earth's Core

Campbell, J Ramsey: Demons by Daylight

Carter, Lin: Thongor and the Dragon City; Thongor and the Wizards of Lemuria; Thongor Fights the Pirates of Tarakus; Zanathon; Tower at the Edge of Time; The Black Star; Beyond The Gates Of Dream; Down To A Sunless Sea; Journey to the Underground World; Warrior of World’s End; Flashing Swords 1; Flashing Swords 2; Flashing Swords 3; Flashing Swords 4; Flashing Swords 5; New Worlds For Old; The Young Magicians

Cervantes, Miguel: Don Quixote

Chalker, Jack L.: Midnight at the Well of Souls 1; Exiles at the Well of Souls 2; Quest For the Well Of Souls 3; The Return of Nathan Brazil 4, Twilight at the Well of Souls 5

Chandler, A. Bertram: The Road To The Rim; The Hard Way

Chant, Joy: Red Moon And Black Mountain

Cherryh, C.J.:

Cook, Glen: The Black Company

Daley, Brian: Han Solo At Star’s End; Han Solo’s Revenge; Han Solo And The Lost Legacy

Davidson, Avram: The Phoenix In The Mirror, The Island Under the Earth

deCamp, L. Sprague: The Complete Compleat Enchanter; The Compleat Enchanter; Lovecraft, A Biography; Warlocks and Warriors; The Fallible Fiend; Conan The Barbarian; Conan And The Spider God; Lest Darkness Fall; The Carnelian Cube; The Emperors Fan; The Reluctant King; The Goblin Tower; The Clocks Of Iraz

Derleth, August: The Trail of Cthuhlu

Dickson, Gordon R.:

Donaldson, Stephen: Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: The Lost World

Dumas, Alexandre: The Three Musketeers

Dunsany, Lord: The King Of Elfland’s Daughter; Over the Hills and Far Away; The Charwoman's Shadow

Eco, Umberto: The Name Of The Rose

Eddings, David: Pawn of Prophecy, Queen Of Sorcery, Magician’s Gambit, Castle of Wizardry, Enchanter’s Endgame

Eddison, E. R.: The Worm Ouroboros; Mistress of Mistresses; A Fish Dinner In Memison

Ende, Michael: The Neverending Story

Farmer, Philip Jose: The Maker Of Universes 1; The Gates Of Creation 2; A Private Cosmos 3; Hadon Of Ancient Opar

Fiest, Raymond: Magician

Finney, Charles: The Unholy City; The Circus of Dr. Lao

Foster, Alan Dean: Nor Crystal Tears, Splinter of the Minds Eye; The End of the Matter; The Tar-Aiym Krang; Bloodhype; Orphan Star; For Love Of Mother-Not; The Time Of The Transference

Fox, Gardner: Kothar Barbarian Swordsman; Kothar and the Conjurer's Curse; Kothar and the Wizard Slayer; Kothar and the Magic Sword; Kothar And The Demon Queen; Kyrik Warlock Warrior; Kyrik Fights The Demon World; Kyrik and the Lost Queen; Kyrik and the Wizards Sword; Warrior Of Llarn

Funke, Cornelia: Inkheart

Gardner, Craig Shaw: A Malady Of Magicks

Garner, Alan: Elidor; The Moon Of Gomrath; The Weirdstone of Brisingamen

Gemmell, David: Legend

Goldman, William: The Princess Bride

Glut, Donald F: The Empire Strikes Back

Gygax, Gary: The Samarkand Solution; The Anubis Murders; Infernal Sorceress, Death In Delhi

Haggard, H. Rider: The People Of The Mist; The World's Desire; When The World Shook; She And Allan; King Solomon Mines; She

Hambly, Barbara: The Time of the Dark, The Walls Of Air, The Armies of Daylight, The Ladies of Mandrigyn, Dragonsbane

Harrison, Harry: The Adventures Of The Stainless Street Rat; The Stainless Steel Rat

Heinlein, Robert: Glory Road

Hickman, Tracy:

Hodgson, W.H.: The House On The Borderland

Holmes, John Eric: Mahars of Pellucidar

Howard, Robert E.: Sword Woman; Almuric; The People Of The Black Circle; Red Nails; Shadow Kingdoms; People Of The Dark; Beyond The Black River; The Hour Of The Dragon; Black Hounds Of Death; Conan 1; Conan Of Cimmeria 2; Conan the Freebooter 3; Conan the Wanderer 4; Conan the Adventurer 5; Conan the Buccaneer 6; Conan The Warrior 7; Conan The Usurper 8; Conan The Conqueror 9; Conan The Avenger 10; Conan Of Aquilonia 11; Conan of The Isles 12; Solomon Kane, The Hills Of The Dead; Skull-Face; Black Canaan; Swords Of Shahrazar; Marchers Of Valhalla

Hyne, C J Cutliffe: The Lost Continent

Jakes, John: Brak The Barbarian; Mark of Demons; The Sorceress

Jackson, Steve: Fighting Fantasy

Kline, Otis Adelbert: Swordsman Of Mars, Outlaw Of Mars, Planet of Peril

Kuttner, Henry: The Mask Of Circe; Elak Of Atlantis, The Dark World, Robots Have No Tails

Kurtz, Katherine: Deryni Rising; Deryni Checkmate; High Deryni

Lanier, Sterling: Hiero’s Journey; The Unforsaken Hiero

L’Engle, Madeleine: A Wrinkle In Time

Le Guin, Ursula: A Wizard Of Earthsea; The Left Hand Of Darkness; Tehanu; The Farthest Shore

Lee, Tanith: The Book Of The Damned I; The Book Of The Beast II; The Storm Lord, The Birthgrave, The Dragon Hoard, Night’s Master, Death’s Master

Leiber, Fritz: Swords and Deviltry 1; Swords Against Death 2; Swords In The Mist 3; Swords And Wizardry 4; The Swords of Lankhmar 5; Swords and Ice Magic 6

Lindsay, David: A Voyage To Arcturus

Lovecraft, H.P.: The Doom That Came To Sarnath; The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath; The Shadow Over Innsmouth; At The Mountains Of Madness; The Lurker At The Threshold; The Tomb; The Watchers Out Of Time; Waking Up Screaming; The Dunwich Horror

Martin, George R.R.: Dying Of The Light; A Song Of Ice And Fire

Matheson, Richard: I Am Legend

McCaffery, Anne: The Ship Who Sang; Dinosaur Planet

Merritt, A.: The Ship Of Ishtar; The Seven Footprints Of Satan; The Moon Pool; The Face In The Abyss; Dwellers In the Mirage; Creep Shadow Creep

Miller, Walter: A Canticle For Leibowitz

Moorcock, Michael: Legends From The End Of Time; The Jewel In The Skull; The Mad God’s Amulet; The Sleeping Sorceress; The Runestaff; The Lord of the Spiders; The Masters of the Pit; The City of the Beast; The Warlord of the Air; Stealer Of Souls; Stormbringer; Elric of Melnibone; The Sword Of The Dawn

Moore, C.L.: Northwest Smith; Jirel Of Joiry

Morris, William: The Well At Worlds End I; The Well At Worlds End II; The Wood Beyond the World; The Water of the Wondrous Isles

Mundy, Talbot: Tros Of Samothrace; Avenging Liafail 2; Liafail3; The Praetor's Dungeon 3; The Purple Pirate 6

Niven, Larry: The Man-Kzin Wars; A World Out Of Time; A Gift From Earth; Tales of Known Space; Neutron Star; The Magic May Return; The Magic Goes Away; The Flight of the Horse

Norman, John: Tarnsman Of Gor 1; Outlaw Of Gor 2; Priest-Kings Of Gor 3; Nomads Of Gor 4; Assassin Of Gor 5; Raiders Of Gor 6; Captive Of Gor 7; Hunters Of Gor 8; Marauders Of Gor 9, Tribesmen Of Gor 10, Slave Girl of Gor 11; Time Slave

Norton, Andre: Quag Keep; Exiles of the Stars; Warlock of Witch World; High Sorcery; Witch World; Sargasso Of Space; Lord Of Thunder

Nowlan, Philip F.: Armageddon 2419 A.D.

Offutt, Andrew J.: Demon In The Mirror; Eyes Of Sarsis; Web Of The Spider; Conan, The Sword of Skelos; Conan The Mercenary; Swords Against Darkness I; Swords Against Darkness II; Swords Against Darkness III; Swords Against Darkness IV; Swords Against Darkness V; The Iron Lords; Cormac Mac Art

Piper, H. Beam: Space Viking

Pratchett, Terry: The Colour Of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites, Mort

Pratt, Fletcher: Land Of Unreason; The Blue Star; The Well of the Unicorn; The Carnelian Cube

Saberhagen, Fred: The First Book Of Swords; Second Book Of Swords; Third Book Of Swords; Empire Of The East

Schmitz, James: The Witches of Karres

Shea, Michael: Color Out Of Time; A Quest For Simbilis

Sims, John:

Sirota, Mike: Master Of Boranga

Smith, Clark Ashton: Lost Worlds Volume 1; Lost Worlds Volume 2; Out Of Space And Time 1; Out Of Space And Time 2; The Abominations of Yondo; Genius Loci; Poseidonis; Zothique; Hyperborea; Xiccarph; Tales Of Science And Sorcery; Other Dimensions 1; Other Dimensions 2

Smith, L. Neil: Lando Calrissian and the Midharp of Sharu; Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of Thonboka; Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Osean

Smith, E.E. ‘Doc’: Triplanetary

Springer, Nancy: The White Hart

St. Clair, Margaret: The Shadow People; Sign of the Labrys

Stasheff, Christopher: The Warlock Wandering; A Warlock's Blade; Warlock And Son; The Warlock Is Missing; Her Majesty's Wizard; King Kobold

Stewart, Mary: The Crystal Cave; The Hollow Hills; The Last Enchantment

Swann, Thomas: Green Phoenix; Day Of The Minotaur; Cry Silver Bells; Moondust

Tolkien, J.R.R.: The Hobbit, The Lord Of The Rings

Tubb, E.C.: The Winds Of Gath

Van Arnam, Dave: Star Barbarian

Van Vogt, A.E.: The Voyage Of The Space Beagle; Quest For The Future

Vance, Jack: The Languages Of The Pao; The Dragon Masters; The Best of Jack Vance; The Dying Earth; The Eyes of the Overworld; Cugel’s Saga; Rhialto The Marvelous; Trullion, Alastor 2262; Wyst, Alastor 1716; Marune, Alastor 933; The Faceless Man 1; The Brave Free Men 2; The Astura 3; Lyonesse 1; The Green Pearl 2; Madouc 3; The Face 4; The Blue World; Galactic Effectuator; Big Planet; City Of The Chasch 1; Servants of the Wanhk 2; The Dirdir 3; The Pnume 4; Suldrun's Garden

Verne, Jules: The Mysterious Island

Wagner, Karl E: Bloodstone, Death Angel’s Shadow, Dark Crusade

Weinbaum, Stanley; The Black Flame; A Martian Odyssey

Wellman, Manly Wade: The Old Gods Waken; The Hanging Stones; The Lost And The Lurking; After Dark; Silver John; Who Fears The Devil?

White, Theodore: The Once and Future King

Williams, Robert M.: Return of Jongor

Williamson, Jack: The Trial Of Terra; The Legion Of Space

Zelazny, Roger: Nine Princes In Amber; The Guns of Avalon; Sign of the Unicorn; The Hand of Oberon; The Courts of Chaos; Jack Of Shadows; Dilvish, The Damned; The Changing Land; Isle of the Dead; Trumps of Doom; Blood Of Amber; Sign Of Chaos; Knight Of Shadows; Prince of Chaos

It's No "Living In A Box" But It'll Do

2012-01-24T10:50:00.000-07:00

The Sights And Sounds Of Magic Realm

2012-01-23T22:54:00.001-07:00

I should probably add smells and treasure sites to that list, as there are multiple sense-evoking clues regarding monsters inhabiting the Magic Realm, as well as eight treasure sites scattered across the kingdom, just waiting to be looted by enterprising characters.

While the valleys in Magic Realm are relatively safe (except for one valley, haunted by a pair of ghosts), the caves and mountains are both dangerous and rewarding.

There are eight treasure sites in Magic Realm, as well as the lost city and lost castle, hidden in the mountains and caves. When setting up the Magic Realm board, the treasure sites are distributed secretly and randomly, so that none of the players, not even the person setting up the board, knows where the treasure sites are at the start of the game.

The above treasure and location chits include both the name of the treasure site and the clearing it will be located in. For example, the Altar is found in clearing 1. You may recall, from my earlier blog on the Magic Realm map, that each clearing on a map tile is numbered. That allows these treasure sites to be placed in a particular clearing of a map tile.

As the characters travel throughout the Magic Realm, they will discover these treasure sites. Some of them are more rewarding than others. For example, the Dragon Hoard and the Pool Of The Octopus each contain nine treasures. Others, like the Altar, Shrine and Statue (guarded by Demons and Imps) have only 3 or 4 treasures each.

The Lost City and Lost Castle are special locations. They signify large concentrations of monsters and treasures, as a map tile with either contains five monster and treasure chits, rather than the usual one chit.

In addition to treasure sites, you're likely to hear strange sounds as you venture through the mountains and caves of the Magic Realm. Those sounds are clues to the types of monsters you will eventually encounter in that map tile. For example, you may here the slithering of a giant serpent, the pattering of goblin feet, or the howl of the giant bats, long before those monsters appear. These sound chits are accompanied by a number, indicating in which clearing the lair of these monsters is located, so it is relatively easy to avoid them, at first.

In addition to the sound chits, there are the above warning chits. They are perhaps more aptly named the no-warning chits, because these chits represent clues indicating monsters are very near. The above chits all have the letter "C" indicating that these are warning chits found in the caves, attracting such monsters as the goblins, trolls and serpents.
And the above warning chits are placed in the mountains, signified by the capital "M" under the warning description. The mountains are where the spiders, giants, and bats are most likely to be found.
While most of the deadliest monsters are found in the mountains and caves, the woods are home to packs of wolves, poisonous snakes, and a pair of unpleasant ogres. It is often wise to hide before ending your turn in the woods, at least until you have determined who inhabits it.

There's Only One Artist For The ADnD Reprints

2012-01-22T18:10:00.002-07:00

The question is, can Wizards Of The Coast convince him to abandon his self-imposed exile and complete three manual covers?

Horse Power

2012-01-19T22:35:00.002-07:00

You'll excuse me if I get on my high horse, once again, over the lack of satisfactory cavalry rules in Dungeons and Dragons.

Gary Gygax's original Chainmail rules recognized the advantages of fighting from horseback. In those original 1971 Chainmail rules, mounted warriors were three or more times as effective in combat than their foot-bound brethren.

But in DnD's transition away from Chainmail's mass combat rules, and towards the alternate d20 combat system, the importance of mounted combat diminished.

This is true of every version of DnD I own, and while I don't own a copy of the 4E rules, i'm willing to bet that mounts provide little or no combat advantage in the most recent version.

Mounted combat is a problem for DnD, of course. Certainly in the early years, much of Dungeons and Dragons was focused on underworld adventures, an uncomfortable milieu for one's horse. And there were significant dangers in leaving your favorite warhorse tethered outside the dungeon entrance, not the least of which was returning to find nothing but bones.

Apart from capricious DMs and their propensity for mount-related mischief, treatment of horses, as separate from a rider, with its own hit points, meant that horses became less useful as the character levelled up. While the character increased in hit points, his favorite mount did not. Therefore, as a hit-point sink, the horse diminished in value over time.

Games like Lord Of The Rings: Strategy Battle Game restore the combat advantages of fighting from horseback. Other games, like Avalon Hill's Magic Realm, don't go quite so far, but do provide some not inconsiderable advantages to owning a mount.

Magic Realm includes three categories of mounts: ponies (pictured at the top of this post), workhorses (above) and warhorses (bottom).

The pony doubles a character's movement in Magic Realm. For every move action that a character performs, she gets a free move action, by virtue of riding the pony. Ponies allow Magic Realm characters to travel quickly across the map, permitting them to visit the natives and find monsters and treasures. However, ponies are vulnerable in combat, killed with medium damage.

Workhorses are less vulnerable, being killed by heavy damage. For example, workhorses are invulnerable during encounters with giant bats, who can inflict only medium damage. Thus, a common opening day in the Magic Realm sees all of the characters gang up on, and eliminate, the Rogues, who possess a stable-full of workhorses that can be raided once the Rogues are dispatched. In addition to providing protection against giant bats, workhorses provide an extra move phase every day.

Warhorses are kept by the Order of Knights, residing at the Chapel. Warhorses give no movement advantage, but are tremendous and armored, making them very difficult to eliminate. Warhorses make characters well-nigh unkillable.

Actual Play Report From The Belly Of The Beast

2012-01-17T12:36:00.000-07:00

Every so often, it's valuable to visit the belly of the beast, to see what is being digested.

With the secret play-testing of an alpha-version of 5E still fresh in his mind, one blogger on the WOTC site decided to take a spin with Original Dungeons and Dragons. His OD&D play reports can be found here, on his WOTC blog.

I thought that some of this blogger's comments were worth reprinting here:

"We ran out of time [with OD&D] at this point. I asked the players what they wanted to do. Move on to the blue box, for the second version of AD&D? No way, they said. Both women said [OD&D] was the most fun they had ever had with D&D! The optimizers, used to crunching lots of numbers? These guys also wanted to keep playing and experimenting. These are guys that, before the session, said on their podcast "I expect to not enjoy the game at all". They were amazed by how great a time they had. So, yeah, more White Box this week! After that, my hope is that we can continue to climb the version and edition ladder.

We had gone from expecting to just ridicule OD&D to actually having a lot of respect for how D&D started. More incredibly, we wanted to play more. Some of the playtesters have been allowed to share that they see the versions of old in D&D Next. And they are having a lot of fun."

Pathfinder Miniatures: Ones That Won't Get Away

2012-01-16T23:48:00.000-07:00

As far as painted plastic miniatures go, here are some of my Pathfinder keepers.

Pathfinder Figs For Sale Or Rent

2012-01-15T16:58:00.005-07:00

Update: The goblins are sold.
The ettin is sold.
The Trolls are sold.
The Ogres are sold.
The Orcs are sold.

My Pathfinder minis were a couple of days late, but I finally picked them up on friday.

As I mentioned four weeks ago, i'm not a fan of the Pathfinder humanoid monsters, like the two Ogres accompanying the Half-Elf Cleric, above. So if anyone is interested in the extra miniatures pictured in this post, feel free to make me an offer via my email address. Any unsold figs will probably end up on eBay in late January.

In addition to the available Half-Elf Cleric and two Ogres, I have two extra minotaurs and an extra Watch Guard with spear and Watch Officer with sword, perfect as henchmen.

This Ettin is massive, as you can see by comparing it to the size of Seelah, Human Paladin.

Here we have two Pathfinder Trolls menacing a Dwarven Fighter.

The odd looking black-and-blue fellow in front is a Spectre, and is surrounded by two Orc Warriors and an Orc Brute.

The above photo is of two Dire Rats and two Gnome Fighers. I kept two of each, and I don't think i'm going to need four of them. The Dire Rat would be good for a were-rat figure.

Finally, here we have 12 Pathfinder Goblins, the ones I have been complaining about. Now available to good home, make me an offer and we'll see what we can do.

Incidentally, if you're looking for other individual Pathfinder miniatures, you can find them on the Paizo website. The online Pathfinder store can be found here.

If The Glove Fits You Must Acquit Yourself

2012-01-15T16:50:00.001-07:00

Most characters in Magic Realm will eventually be required to acquit themselves well in combat. As much as you try to avoid it, you will eventually be forced to face-off with some monster, or a group of natives with chips on their shoulders.

This is where a set of magical gloves come in handy. There are four sets of magical gloves scattered throughout the Magic Realm: the Deft Gloves, Handy Gloves, Power Gauntlets and Gloves Of Strength. Each set of gloves provides unique advantages to its owner.

The Deft Gloves are so named because not only do they provide the equivalent of a light fight chit with a speed of 2, useful for the nimble, swashbuckling characters, but they also allow the wearer to roll one die when looting a treasure site.

Since the wearer would otherwise roll two dice, and use the higher of the two rolls when looting, employment of these gloves significantly increases the wearer's chances of obtaining rarer treasures, since those treasures are usually only discovered with low die rolls.

The Deft Gloves are the most valuable of all gloves, worth 10 gold pieces to any of the native groups. In addition, if sold to the Order, you obtain 5 fame points towards your victory conditions.

The Handy Gloves and Power Gauntlets are very similar. The Handy Gloves provide the equivalent of a medium fight chit with a speed of 3, while the Power Gauntlets provide the equivalent of a heavy fight chit with a speed of 4. Both sets of gloves are attractive, as most characters must exert significant effort to achieve those fight speeds, and where effort is expended, fatigue is suffered. Thus, the medium and heavy characters can avoid fatigue by utilizing these gloves.

Like the Deft Gloves, the Gloves Of Strength are coveted by the Order, who will award you with 5 fame points if you sell those gloves to them.

However, these gloves are far more useful in combat: they allow you to dish out significant damage, when employed with the right weapons, and can also be used to open the Crypt of the Knight and the Vault, two rich treasure sites, since you need tremendous strength to open either.

The Gloves Of Strength, like the Handy Gloves and Power Gauntlets, also eliminate the fatigue that usually accompanies playing tremendous fight chits of this speed.

Type V Will Be Awesome

2012-01-15T13:39:00.007-07:00

More evidence that Dungeons and Dragons Type V will be the most awesomest Dungeons and Dragons ever.

I mean, have you seen the related images for Types I through IV? Do you really want to play a version of the game that is represented by a boar-headed goat-man?

I'm holding out for Dungeons and Dragons: Succubus Edition.

Magic Realm: Anatomy Of A Goblin

2012-01-15T02:14:00.004-07:00

Goblins have serious old-school credibility. They have been a staple of fantasy literature and folk-tales, and appear in the earliest Dungeons and Dragons rulebooks. So if I appear to be less than enamoured with the Pathfinder RPG goblins, it is that Paizo neutered them, making them seem less menacing and more cutesy.

Not so for the goblins of Magic Realm. These guys are ugly and dangerous.

There are three goblin tribes in Magic Realm: the axe goblins (above), the spear goblins and the sword goblins. The axe goblins are the least formidable, but because of their move speed (3, 4 when alert) and their numbers (there are six of them), they can easily tie up and overwhelm any character, even heavy hitters like the White Knight and the Dwarf.

The axe goblins are pretty straight-forward. They inflict either medium (light + sharpness star) or heavy (medium + sharpness star) damage, depending on whether they are unready, or alert.

The threat the spear goblins pose is less obvious. Let's have a closer look at the spear goblins.

Every denizen in the Magic Realm is represented by a cardboard counter, printed on both sides. The front side represents the denizen when it is unready. The back of the counter represents the denizen when it is alert.

The above counter is the front (unready) side of the spear goblin. When the spear goblin is front-side up, it poses little threat to the character.

The unready spear goblin can prevent you from running away (with a move speed of 3, very few characters have the necessary move speed of 2 to avoid it). But the spear goblin inflicts no damage while unready (there is no damage information printed on the spear goblin's front, unready side).

When the spear goblin flips to its alerted side (the black bar across the bottom of the counter tells you that the denizen is now alert), it becomes much more dangerous. While the spear goblin's move speed drops from 3 to 5 (making it easier to run away from) the harm it dishes out increases to tremendous (heavy + sharpness star).

Normally, this would be a good time to run from the spear goblin. But not all of the spear goblins will become alert at the same time: some will still be speed 3, preventing you from running away. The entire goblin tribe battles you when you stumble on their den, but only a few of those six goblins will be alert during a particular combat round. So while a few, unready spear goblins prevent you from running away, the rest skewer you with their spears. Not a pretty way to die.

The sword goblins are the most dangerous of the three goblin tribes. On their unready side, above, their move speed of 3 prevents you from running away, and they inflict tremendous (heavy + sharpness) harm when they hit you.

And when they flip to their alerted side, above, they can kill anything, including that armored warhorse you purchased, for a not inconsiderable sum of gold.

No, like the knights of the order, you do not want to tangle with the sword goblins, not unless you are the sorceror, who can scorch them with the fiery blast spell and then fade into mist.

Melee And Magic Realm Counters

2012-01-14T23:57:00.004-07:00

It should come as little surprise that I like Magic Realm. It includes all sorts of features that I like in a game. A fast, diceless, player-skill combat system. A mysterious and unrevealed backstory. Player agency, with clear and deadly consequences for bad decision-making. A wealth of opportunities for both player cooperation and competition. A circumscribed game length of only one month (28 days), which turns victory into a race against the clock.

And most importantly? Counters. Lots and lots of counters.

Magic Realm is notorious for its fiddly bits and long set-up times. You can easily spend 45 minutes to an hour setting up Magic Realm. That may not seem like a long time, for those of you who enjoy spending hours, as they say in the modern D&D parlance, "building your character", but it does become a barrier to casual gameplay, when other boardgame setups take only minutes.

But those other boardgames don't have cool counters like Magic Realm does. And since i'm also a big fan of Melee and other chit-and-hex microgames, I really dig counters with artwork.

Here are a few Melee counters, juxtaposed with some comparable Magic Realm counters. Metagaming missed the boat with their counters, as they could have easily printed some of the monster and npc stats on the counters included with their various death test adventures.

Natives Of The Magic Realm

2012-01-12T23:08:00.006-07:00

Monsters are not the only denizens of the Magic Realm. Natives, the human survivors of a shattered kingdom, also roam the land, helping and hindering those adventurers who seek to loot the lost treasures of a once-mighty civilization.

There are 13 individuals and groups the adventurers can meet and interact with in the Magic Realm. They are the rogues and mercenaries, lancers and soldiers, woodsfolk and royal guards, saracens and knights, patrol, scholar, shaman, warlock and crone.

In addition, there are two groups of travellers, looking to hire reliable escorts to deliver them to the Chapel and the Inn, respectively.

Each adventurer has a prior relationship with the various native groups. For example, the black knight is allied with the mercenary company, and is an enemy of the royal guard. The game rules do not explain the source of those prior relationships. Thus, it is left to our imaginations to fill in the gaps: for example, that the royal guard blames the black knight, the former leader of the mercenary company, for the death of the king.

Like the monsters of the Magic Realm, the Natives can be battled. But they can also be traded with and hired. Some will even join you in grand campaigns, such as eliminating the forces of Law, or ridding the land of a dragon infestation.

Most of the natives can suffer only light or medium damage before being dispatched. But despite their combat vulnerabilities, none of the native groups are a push-over. Even the black knight, with his reputation, prowess and predilection for betrayal, must be cautious when confronting the native groups.

One of the "standard openings" of Magic Realm, is for several adventurers to gang up on the rogues during day one. But care must be taken to ensure that the most dangerous rogues (rogues 1, 2 and 4) are eliminated first, otherwise it can turn into a bloodbath for the adventurers.

Of course, there are some natives that you really should avoid tangling with. The order would be found at the top of the list. Not only must you inflict tremendous harm (through their armor) to defeat them, but each knight rides a warhorse similarly protected. And since you must dispatch the mount before you can attempt to kill the rider, you must effectively kill each knight twice.

5e: This One's Real, So Believe The Hype

2012-01-11T19:00:00.001-07:00

Because Inquiring Minds Need To Know

2012-01-10T21:18:00.002-07:00

Yesterday's exciting announcement from Wizards Of The Coast, that the next iteration of Dungeons and Dragons is under development, promises to open all sorts of new vistas and avenues for creative types (like those found in the Old School Renaissance) to influence the direction of official D&D.

Vital, important questions will be explored in our quest to create the ultimate D&D version. As with all such development projects, we are obliged to start with the most critical and pressing design decisions, and work our way down the list.

You can't even begin to imagine my state of mind therefore (which bordered on delirium) when the design group posed their first question to the gathered masses.

In case you're curious, I voted kobolds.

I can't wait to participate in further acts of community engagement.

Paizo Pathfinder Miniatures Countdown

2012-01-10T00:06:00.000-07:00

Only one more sleep until the Pathfinder "Heroes and Monsters" pre-painted miniatures set goes on sale. The above figure is the Succubus, which is a welcome addition to my miniatures collection.

There's lots of enthusiasm being expressed for the new medusa figure. She's standing beside an Ettin, from the same collection, in the photo below.

Lords Of Creation: Book Of Foes

2012-01-09T00:06:00.001-07:00

The 1983 Lords Of Creation Role-Playing Game has inspired me to return to the Phillip Jose Farmer World Of Tiers book series, starting with The Maker Of Universes.

While I spend the next couple of days re-reading the first four books in the series (my recommendation is that you don't bother with the last two, just imagine your own perfect ending), perhaps you will enjoy these illustrations from the Lords Of Creation RPG Book Of Foes, the LOC equivalent of the 1978 AD&D Monster Manual.

Quite a few NPC's appear in the book of foes, in addition to your typical monster entries.

And where would a bestiary be without naked women sporting animal heads?

Equal treatment demands that we include some cheesecake for the ladies. Who wouldn't be attracted to a bodybuilder with a Rhino-head?

Nearly every famous character from history and fiction is included as an NPC in the Lords Of Creation.

It's cheap wings night at Callahan's Crosstime Saloon, and the entire gang has arrived. Can you identify them all?The final (unpublished) LOC RPG adventure was entitled the Mines Of Voria. You just know we were destined to meet up with a Vorian Death Maggot.

And for absolutely no reason, here's another illustration, of a Drake with two riders.

Magic Realm: Missile Weapons

2012-01-08T12:14:00.002-07:00

Thus far, I have avoided posting the Magic Realm missile weapons, because i'm not an advocate for using missile weapons in Magic Realm.

At first blush, Magic Realm missile weapons appear to be extremely powerful.

For example, the longest melee weapon in Magic Realm (the spear) has a length of 10. The missile weapons, by comparison, have lengths of 12, 14 and 16, meaning they attack first in round 1 (since longer weapons hit first during that round).

Just as impressive, missile weapons have an alerted speed of 1 (red side up), meaning missile weapons hit first in the second and subsequent combat rounds, as the fastest melee weapon has a speed 2.

Lastly, the light and medium bows have two sharpness stars, meaning they do heavy and tremendous damage, respectively, while the heavy crossbow, with its single sharpness star, does tremendous damage.

All of those features would seem to support the employment of missile weapons. However, the harm inflicted by missile weapons is modified by the above missile table.

If a character hits with a missile weapon, the player rolls two 6-sided dice, takes the higher of the two rolls, and consults the missile table.

The probability of rolling a particular number by rolling two 6-sided dice and taking the higher number is summarized in the following table.As you can see, you are three times more likely to roll a 4, 5 or 6 than you are to roll a 1, 2 or 3. Since higher numbers equate to less damage, you will often hit with your bow, but fail to inflict sufficient harm to kill your opponent.

And unlike melee weapons, you get no benefit for playing a stronger fight chit when firing missile weapons. It does not matter whether you play a light, medium, heavy or tremendous fight chit with your light bow, as you get no benefit from the overswing rule that increases melee weapon harm if a higher fight chit is played.

So except for a few Magic Realm characters like the Woodsgirl or the Elf, who have special missile weapon advantages, there is little point in employing missile weapons in the game.

Tom Moldvay "Gets" Old-School

2012-01-05T22:25:00.013-07:00

In addition to editing the 1981 Dungeons and Dragons Basic Set, Tom Moldvay also designed the under-appreciated and long out-of-print Lords Of Creation role-playing game, an RPG that emulates the World Of Tiers universe of Phillip Jose Farmer.

Published by Avalon Hill back in 1983, Lords Of Creation allowed characters to advance from basic human, all the way up to "lord of creation", beings who possess the power to create, and become lords of, pocket universes of their own.

The Lords Of Creation RPG sold poorly, and the planned fourth and fifth pre-packaged adventures for LOC RPG never saw the light of day, although the first three adventures were released: The Horn Of Roland; The Yeti Sanction; and Omegakron.

The third adventure, Omegakron, is set in the ruins of Akron, Ohio; a gamma-world-like setting, several hundred years after a devastating global nuclear and biological war.

Someone has subtly and maliciously altered history, thus creating this alternative "Omegakron" timeline that threatens to usurp the main timeline. The characters trans-dimensional gate to this alternative timeline, and search the ruins of Akron, seeking to identify the altered time event, so that the alteration can be undone and the main timeline saved.
The player characters are sent to Omegakron by the mysterious Time Adjusters, who through some unknown power, have been blocked from accessing this alternative timeline themselves, thus precipitating the enlistment of the adventurers.

Here is the first of two Omegakron examples of how Tom Moldvay "gets" old-school:

"I have purposely kept the origin of the Time Adjusters open to the Game Master's imagination. For one thing, I do not want to restrict the Game Master's creativity. Quite a few adventures can be designed around the Time Adjusters and the GM should be free to use his impression of the Time Adjusters, not mine. Secondly, too much explanation often ruins the mystery, and I prefer the Time Adjusters to remain mysterious. Besides, when I asked them, they wouldn't tell me where they came from."

During the Omegakron adventure, the player characters join the security forces of Akros, a bastion of civilization in the surrounding sea of chaos.
The characters discover that a saboteur has planted bomb aboard the Akros flying city, but the saboteur blows himself up, along with three other suspects, before he can be revealed and the location of the bomb uncovered. The GM hands the players a single page handout containing the police interview notes of each of the suspects , and the players must determine which of the four suspects is lying, thus revealing the identity of the dead saboteur and by extension the location of the bomb, before it explodes.

Tom Moldvay has this to say about this player-skill test:

"This particular encounter was designed to test the reasoning powers of the PLAYERS (emphasis mine), not the skills or powers of the characters. The bomber is the one person among the suspects who is lying. By comparing the statements, it is possible to deduce logically which person is lying, and which people are telling the truth. If the players can deduce who is lying inside of 5 minutes REAL TIME (emphasis mine) give each of their characters 200 xp. For each minute beyond 5 minutes, deduct 10 xp. The players should know in advance that they are being timed (since "real time" does not usually matter in an adventure)."Incidentally, here are two reminiscences of Lords Of Creation, from the RPG.net website:

Yes, this was an awesome game and still is. I ran it for years and everyone had a lot of fun. I bought the Horn of Roland, and Yeti Sanction, and Omegakron, but never could find the other two adventures, Mines of Voria and Towers of Illium, not sure they ever published them. It was chaotic, but the game system is simple and easy to learn and allows characters to feel like they are really making progress with every adventure as their stats rise. Better, from a game master's point of view it allowed me to send them anyplace I could imagine, favourite book worlds, far flung galaxies, strange new dimensions, the beginning of history, ANYWHERE, and I did:)I sent them to medieval France, to many alternate universes ( like the old Sliders series I enjoyed). I shrunk them down to microscopic size and they hung around in the microverse where they discovered the remains of a dying Lord of Creation and his mad invention. I turned them all into cats for one adventure when they angered one of the Animal Lords (from the Book of Foes). They even helped the lost prince of faerie reclaim his throne, the battle being fought on the streets of New York in the late 1800s. They spent a lot of time in the future too (lots of old Dr Who inspiration here). All in all a thoroughly enjoyable game that I still own. Heck I may see if I can get another game started:) Thanks for sharing your experiences, it brought back a lot of good memories.Ah yes, good ol' Lords of Creation. I bought the game, ran my first adventure and suddenly it was The Next Big Thing™ in our gaming group. Got all the adventures for it too, and still have all of it.This game was a total blast. Fortunately my friends also picked up copies so I could play as a PC as well. By the time we stopped playing all of our characters were Lords of Creation. We played for about 3 or 4 years in the late 80's as I recall.We had all kinds of bizarre adventures. One that I ran sticks out in my mind: I had the PCs arrive on a huge starship that was hurtling through interstellar space. Most of the humans onboard had been killed off by the rogue AI ship computer by using various models of killer robots. They eventually discovered that the ship was headed straight for Earth, and so had to find a way to destroy either the AI (and thus saving the few remaining humans), or destroy the entire ship. They tried to take out the AI but failed, and instead destroyed the ship (by making the "reactor core" go critical or some such, I forget exactly), and barely made it out in time. It was a real cliffhanger!On an adventure that a friend of mine ran, my PC aquired a unique weapon called The Voidal Sword™, a sword hilt with a "blade" consisting of the total absence of everything, a void in the multiverse as it were. It could cut though anything, anything at all... there was no defense against it. The next adventure was run by another friend and Romerac Elerion showed up and took it from me. Well, the original GM didn't like that and so the next adventure after that Romerac showed up again and gave it back... apparently he was just borrowing it :p My PC had that sword for the rest of his career, all the way up to Lord of Creation. Yeah, go ahead and try and take from him, I dare you :D We created an entire mythology around this game, added some powers, and all kinds of additional weaponry and artifacts. We eventually tired of it and moved on to GURPS. But man, what a blast we had! Good times.Also, I really like the old school black and white art in the rule book and Book of Foes, back when showing a little flesh just wasn't really an issue, you know what I mean? It's like after that, the roleplaying industry got all "PC" and could no longer show the dreaded boobie :eek: If you can find a copy of this game, I heartily recommend picking it up. There's nothing else quite like it.

Paizo Is Stealing WOTC's Cookies

2012-01-04T16:52:00.003-07:00

Wizards made a huge mistake dropping their line of plastic pre-painted fantasy rpg miniatures. Paizo and Reaper have both stepped up, producing their own lines.

The new Paizo Heroes & Monsters figures are scheduled for release on January 11. This Black Dragon is the signature figure from the collection, although the remaining miniatures are lovely as well.

Keep it up Paizo.

Magic Realm: Hex Crawling

2012-01-04T14:03:00.002-07:00

Magic Realm was released in 1978, and was one of the first hex-crawling rpg boardgames.

In fact, Magic Realm uses 20 hex tiles to create a unique game board every time you play.

The above BORDERLAND tile is placed first, and the players take turns placing additional tiles, until all 20 tiles have been placed.

The tiles can be rotated and oriented in any of six facings, and are then placed next to another tile.There are only three rules about building the game board. One, every tile must be placed so at least two edges touch other tiles (after the first and second tile placements). Two, any tile with 6 numbers must be placed so that all numbers can be reached from the Borderland. Three, road edges must be placed next to road edges, non-road edges next to non-road edges.
There are four kinds of tiles. The above CLIFF is a mountain tile. There are also cave tiles, woods tiles and valley tiles. The brown numbered circles are clearings, which characters move from and to. The light brown paths are roads. The dark brown paths are secret paths, which must be searched for, before they can be used. The black paths are secret underground passages, which also require searching.Each clearing has a number. Treasures and monsters are placed randomly on tiles, but can be found in specific clearings. The treasure and monster counters are placed face-down on the tiles at the start of the game, so you don't know what is in each tile, nor which clearing it is in, until you travel to one of the hex tiles and search it.
All of the valley tiles have a bridge. In the case of the CURST VALLEY, above, the bridge takes you from clearing 1 to clearing 4. A road underneath the bridge takes you between clearings 2 and 5. You cannot travel from clearing 1 to clearing 5 on this tile: you can only follow the roads that link the clearings. So to get from clearing 1 to clearing 5 you will need to exit this tile and find a road that brings you back to this tile and that clearing.
All of the mountain and caves tiles have 6 clearings, and are the only tiles where treasure hoards are to be found. The DEEP WOODS above is considered a mountain tile for the purposes of the game, as well as a woods tile. Woods tiles benefit the Elf and the Woodsgirl, two characters in the game.
The HIGH PASS is considered a cave tile, even though it has mountain clearings. The dotted white lines denote underground roads and clearings. Again, characters can move between clearings 3 and 6, or between clearings 2 and 4, but not between clearings 2 and 3. You can only travel to a clearing that is connected to the other by a road, secret path or secret passage.
The MAPLE WOODS is one of five woods tiles. The woods tiles are generally used for travelling and connecting other tiles, but some of the native groups and medium monsters appear in the woods.
The RUINS is considered one of the 5 cave tiles, even though clearing 6 is only actual underground clearing. There is a secret path between clearings 1 and 5.

The characters in Magic Realm can travel quite easily between regular clearings. However, the cave and mountain clearings are handled differently. Without going into specifics here, moving through cave and mountain clearings slows characters down.
Here is another valley tile. Valleys are where you will meet most of the human inhabitants of the Magic Realm, and are safe havens from monsters. The Inn, House, Chapel and Guardhouse are all placed in separate Valley tiles at the beginning of the game. Two other human gathering places, the Large and Small Fires, are found in the woods tiles, but those locations are unknown at the start of the game
I know I said that you can only travel along the roads, but there are two exceptions to that rule. The first is flying. Characters that can fly (the Witch using her broom, the Sorceror if he finds the Magic Carpet, and so on) to a tile and roll randomly to see which clearing they land in. Also, some spells allow characters to walk the woods, with essentially the same effect. Here is a sample game board built with all 20 tiles. Again, every game board will be different, with different placements of treasures, monsters and human inhabitants. So every game is different.

Magic Realm: Anatomy Of A Monster

2012-01-04T00:08:00.003-07:00

I'm mightily impressed with those few souls who comprehended and played Magic Realm using the first edition ruleset. They were a peculiar breed of gamer.

The majority of us struggled through Magic Realm's first edition, playing the game incompletely or not at all. Most of the blame rested with the first edition ruleset, but the Magic Realm counters were also to blame.

Not only did Avalon Hill misprint several of the monster counters during the initial print run, but the counters were incomplete, lacking sufficient information for efficient gameplay. The above counter, representing the tremendous troll, is a case in point.

Only the harm inflicted by the troll's attack -- heavy (H) with an attack speed of 4 -- and the troll's move speed (4), appear on the counter.

The second edition of Magic Realm fixed some of the rules problems, but failed to improve the counters. It would take some dedicated fans to resolve the problems with the counters.

Below is a counter for the tremendous troll, from the electronic version of Magic Realm, called Realmspeak. One of the most valuable innovations of the Magic Realm fanbase is the addition of the vulnerability code, shown in the top right corner of the counter.In this case, the vulnerability code is "T" and is surrounded by a grey circle. The T signifies that you must inflict tremendous damage on this monster to kill it, and the grey circle signifies that the monster is armored.

As I mentioned earlier, armor eliminates one sharpness star from an attack, so any attack on an armored monster loses one sharpness star before damage is determined.

For example, the Black Knight strikes the tremendous armored troll with an axe.The axe does heavy damage (medium weapon plus a sharpness star equals heavy damage) and the Black Knight overswings the medium weapon with his H4** chit, thus increasing the damage to tremendous. However, because the troll is armored, we must deduct one sharpness star. Therefore the Black Knight does only heavy damage, insufficient to kill the tremendous armored troll.

If a monster is unarmored, its vulnerability code is surrounded by a yellow circle, rather than a grey circle. Case in point is the tremendous giant.As you can see, the giant's tremendous vulnerability code of "T" is surrounded by a yellow circle, signifying that he is unarmored. In the case of the giant, the Black Knight's attack, above, would have dispatched the giant, as the tremendous damage inflicted by the overswung axe equals the vulnerability of the unarmored tremendous giant.

Hobbit Movie: Production Video Number 5

2012-01-04T00:03:00.001-07:00

So, are we getting excited yet?

Magic Realm: Enchanted Weapons

2012-01-03T17:00:00.003-07:00

Earlier today, we looked at some of the regular weapons available in Avalon Hill's Magic Realm. We will now review the four enchanted weapons secreted amongst Magic Realm's scattered treasure hoards.

There are four enchanted weapons in Magic Realm: the greatsword, Bane; two broadswords, Devil and Truesteel; and the thrusting sword, Living.

If sold, each of those swords fetch 20 to 25 gold.

If kept instead, those enchanted weapons bestow renown on the possessor and are thus worth additional notoriety and fame. The Devil sword is particularly infamous, and is worth only notoriety. In addition and perhaps more importantly, these weapons are more effective in combat than their non-enchanted cousins.

The greatsword, Bane, can be found in the Crypt Of The Knight, along with a set of tremendous armor and the dead Knight's trusty (and apparently immortal) steed. Perhaps this is Dilvish the Damned's warhorse.

Looting the Crypt Of The Knight for Bane is certain to bring down one or more curses on the interloper, but it is generally worth it, particularly for the White Knight who benefits from the treasures waiting within.

While greatswords are normally heavy weapons, Bane is a tremendous weapon; the only one in the game. Only characters possessing tremendous move and fight chits can wield it. It has the same length (8) as the regular greatsword.

With a speed of 8, when unalerted, Bane is the slowest weapon in Magic Realm. But when alerted, Bane is also the fastest, with a speed of 2. The only creature that has a chance of dodging an alerted Bane is the Octopus; every other tremendous monster is toast. The only danger to the wielder is from missing with this weapon, while it is unalerted.

Devil is found resting within the Toadstool Circle, a potent source of black magic. A lovely place to visit if you are the Witch or Warlock, but generally to be avoided by the other visitors to the Magic Realm.

Questing for the Devil broadsword is verging on suicide. You are nearly as likely to die a horrible death, dragged into the pits of hell (this can and does happen in the game) as obtain this weapon.

Assuming you don't take my advice to avoid the Toadstool Circle, and somehow wrest this sword away from its resting place, Devil is a potent weapon. Being a heavy weapon, with a sharpness star that boosts its damage to tremendous, it can kill most Magic Realm creatures without overswinging. Despite its heaviness, this sword sings in your hand, with a respectable speed of 4 when unalerted, and a blinding speed of 3 when alerted.

Those without a tremendous fight chit cannot derive complete benefit from Devil, but any characters with heavy move and fight chits can still wield it.

In my estimation, the risks in obtaining Devil from the Toadstool Circle far outweigh the advantages.

We now come to everyone's favorite magical broadsword, Truesteel. Found in the Enchanted Meadow, along with a magical pony, you are in far less danger while searching for this weapon. The worst fate you will face is an annoying curse, easily lifted at the Chapel.

Truesteel can be wielded by Magic Realm characters with medium move and fight chits. It is unique for its keen edge, providing not one, but two sharpness stars. Thus, Truesteel is notable for being a medium weapon dealing tremendous damage. When overswung with a H or T chit, it dispatches any tremendous Magic Realm monster.

Truesteel's extra sharpness is a great advantage. Another is that Truesteel does not need to be alerted; its speed is always equal to that of the character wielding it. That is great advantage for fast characters, not so much for slower ones.

The Living thrusting sword and a large treasure are both found with the Remains Of The Thief. Wresting those treasures away from his remains brings down a curse.

Living is a quicker version of a regular thrusting sword. Instead of an unalerted speed of 4, Living is a speed 3. In addition, Living has a speed of 2 when alerted, allowing the wielder to preemptively slay nearly any medium denizen and large unarmored monster.

While Living is much quicker than its non-enchanted thrusting sword cousin, it still suffers from an inability to dispatch armored heavy monsters, an advantage that would have given this sword just the right amount of bite.

Magic Realm: Melee Weapons

2012-01-03T01:20:00.004-07:00

In Avalon Hill's Magic Realm, there are a range of weapons available to the characters.

Each weapon has a weight: Light (L), Medium (M), Heavy (H) or Tremendous (T).

Each weapon's weight corresponds to both the strength required to wield it, and the amount of damage the weapon inflicts. Characters can only wield weapons if they can play fight and move chits of the same weight level or higher.

In addition, a weapon can have a "sharpness star" (a five-pointed star beside the weapon's weight) signifying that the weapon does the next higher level of damage. For example, an L-rated weapon does light damage. However, an L*-rated weapon does medium damage (light plus the sharpness star), but is still wielded as a light weapon.

Armor offers partial protection from weapons that do the same or less damage than the armor's rating, and negates the sharpness star of an attacking weapon.

Characters can "overswing" their weapon, by playing a fight chit at a level higher that the weapon's weight. For example, a character wielding an M weapon could play an H or T fight chit to boost the damage to heavy. It does not matter whether an H or T fight chit is played; you can only boost the weapon's damage by one level by overswinging.

Weapons have various attack speeds. Generally, the fastest attack speed is 2, while the slowest is 6. The speed of the weapon varies, depending on whether the weapon is unalerted (white-side) or alerted (red-side). If the weapon has a speed printed on it, that is the weapon speed. If no speed is printed on the weapon, the speed of the fight chit played with the weapon determines the weapon speed.

Each weapon in Magic Realm has its own advantages and disadvantages. Let's have a look at each weapon to see what I mean.First up is the lowly mace, the signature weapon of the Black Knight. With a length of 1, this weapon is the last to strike during the first round of combat (because longer weapons strike first during round one).

The mace inflicts only medium damage (heavy when the mace is overswung using a heavy or tremendous fight chit), meaning that a character wielding the mace can kill only medium or heavy monsters, not any of the tremendous monsters. Since all of the treasure sites are guarded by tremendous monsters, this makes it difficult for any mace-armed character to collect treasure.

The mace is good for something, however. With a speed of 3, when alerted (red-side up), the mace is a fast weapon, in combat rounds after the first. With the mace's superior speed, weilding the mace allows a character to quickly and easily dispense with heavy dragons, heavy trolls, the guards, the patrol, and other human-sized denizens and monsters.

Medium and heavy monsters and denizens have little or no treasure. However, they are sources of fame and notoriety, two potential routes to victory in Magic Realm.
Next up, the axe. With a length of 2, the axe hits before the mace in round one. The axe inflicts heavy damage (medium damage plus a "sharpness star", boosting the weapon to heavy damage) and can inflict tremendous damage when overswung with a heavy or tremendous fight chit. That amount of damage is sufficient to eliminate unarmored tremendous monsters like the giants, spiders, and demons.

However, this weapon is useless against the tremendous armored monsters, who also guard the largest treasure hoards.

The axe is slower than the mace, with a speed of 5 when unalerted (white-side up).

Unfortunately, the tremendous monsters threatened by this weapon either have no treasure (the giants) or have very fast attack and move speeds (spiders and demons). That means your character may be killed before the axe can be brought to bear.
The shortsword has a length of 3. Inflicting medium damage (light damage plus a sharpness star, boosting the weapon to medium damage), the swortsword can also do heavy damage when overswung with a medium, heavy or tremendous fight chit. The Amazon begins the game with this weapon.

The most significant advantage is that the shortsword does not need to be alerted. The shortsword is the same speed as the fight chit you play, regardless of whether the shortsword is alerted or unalerted.

The shortsword's disadvantage is that, with it's L* harm, it cannot kill any of the heavy armored monsters and denizens. Armor reduces the damage by edged weapons by one level. So the shortsword-armed character that inflicts heavy damage cannot kill the heavy armored dragon, since the armor reduces the harm to medium.

The shortsword is useful against other unarmored characters, medium denizens, the heavy spiders and the goblins, but is an inferior weapon when it comes to other monster hunting.
The thrusting sword is the Swordsman's weapon-of-choice.

With a length of 4, and a speed of 4 when unalerted, the thrusting sword is both longer, and slower, than the shortsword. That slower weapon speed is not usually a problem for the Swordsman, as he invariably springs from hiding, weapon alerted, to slay his opponent.

Other than being longer and slower, the thrusting sword suffers from the same malady as the shortsword. It is inferior for anything other than killing other unarmored characters, medium denizens, spiders and goblins.
The Great Axe is the favoured weapon of the Dwarf and Berserker. When the Great Axe is played in combination with those character's tremendous fight chits, they can slay any monster in the Magic Realm. As long as they hit the monster before it eats them.

This weapon is useless to the medium and light characters, as they are unable to wield or overswing it.
The morningstar is a terrific weapon for the heavy characters, like the White Knight, Berserker, Dwarf. With a length of 6, and an alerted speed of 3, this weapon, when played with a tremendous fight chit, can make quick work of all monsters in the Magic Realm.

While the unalerted morningstar speed of 6 is a problem, it is no slower than the greatsword, which the White Knight begins the game with. And the alerted morningstar is much faster than the greatsword.
The broadsword and greatsword are vary similar weapons.

The greatsword is a little slower, a little longer, and does a higher level of damage.

The broadsword has a lot in common with the axe. They have the same speed and damage profiles. The only difference is the length, as the broadsword has a length of 7, while the axe has a length of 2. This makes a difference only in combat round one, but sometimes the first round is the determining one.

Like the axe, the broadsword is useless against armored tremendous monsters. Not so the greatsword. When overswung, the greatsword can finish off any monster, but as mentioned earlier, it is slow when unalerted, and even when alerted you must rely on the fight speed of your character.
Other than it's length of 9, there is little to commend regarding the staff, which both the Wizard and the Pilgrim start with.

Like the shortsword, the staff need not be alerted. The speed of this weapon depends entirely on the skill of the wielder.

Both the Wizard and the Pilgrim are relatively proficient with the staff, but they move slowly and are therefore outmatched when faced with multiple opponents, which is usually the case with denizens that are felled by medium damage.
We come, at last, to the spear. With a length of 10, only the bow and crossbow offer more reach in round one.

An M* weapon, the spear is great for impaling your enemies at a distance. And it can be wielded by the faster medium characters to great advantage in later combat rounds.

But the spear has a unique disadvantage: unlike every other weapon, the spear does no damage when unalerted. Therefore, it is critical that the character wielding this weapon ensure they have a way of readying their spear every turn.

Magic Realm Tutorial

2012-01-02T14:07:00.003-07:00

I was mentioning that there is a series of videos that demonstrates how Magic Realm is played.

You can find those videos here (this link points to the video for the Amazon, but there are more character demonstrations in the left-hand column).

Check out the video for the Black Knight as well. He is perhaps the best character to play, when you are first learning how to play Magic Realm.

Some additional play examples can be found here.

Microgame Investment Opportunities

2012-01-02T11:09:00.003-07:00

Instead of putting my money in Google shares, I should have bought a container of Metagaming's Invasion Of The Air-Eaters microgames.

In 1979, Air-Eaters retailed for $2.95. According to this top-rated eBay seller, the game is now worth $39.00.

That's a 9% average annual rate of return.

How's your RPG portfolio doing?

Magic Realm: Taking Actions In 2012

2012-01-01T19:21:00.026-07:00

As many of you are aware, Avalon Hill's Magic Realm is one of my favorite old-school fantasy RPG boardgames. It is played without a referee, yet has sufficient depth to satisfy your role-playing itch.
We played several games of Magic Realm over the holidays, and were never disappointed with the game play. Hopefully more games will be played in 2012.

For those of you who cannot find a tabletop version of Magic Realm, the free, electronic java implementation, called Realmspeak, is available here.

One of Magic Realm's unique features is the use of action chits to govern what tasks each of the 16 unique characters can perform.

Morritz Eggert of the Westpark Gamers has this to say about Magic Realm's action chits:

"Characters move, fight, cast spells and perform other tasks in Magic Realm utilizing their action chits. Below are the Black Knight's move and fight action chits.

Each action, like moving, fighting or casting a spell comes in Light (L), Medium (M), Heavy (H) or Tremendous (T) versions.

Each action chit includes a speed number, with 1 being the fastest action, 2 being the next fastest, and 8 being the slowest.

Depending on the character you play, some action chits will also have one or more effort stars (* or **), limiting their use, or forcing you to suffer fatigue (rather than wounds) as you overstrain yourself by playing action chits with effort stars.

Playing a combination of action chits that, between them, includes a total of two effort stars, results in one of your twelve action chits becoming fatigued, and therefore taken out of play until your character rests.

The four-tier system of light, medium, heavy and tremendous actions corresponds with everything you do in the game, and is actually very logical and easily understood.

For example, to wear heavy armour, you need to play a heavy move chit, otherwise you won't be able to wear it. Easy, isn't it?

Actually the game is far from obscure or difficult once you play it, and there are no myriad exceptions or special rules like in Advanced Squad Leader.

The best way to learn Magic Realm is have someone teach it to you. I have yet to find somebody who finds the game too complicated when taught to them, because it actually plays very fluidly and logically.

Yes, if you include all advanced and optional rules, you will have a lot to read, but the full game also simulates an absolutely complete and logical fantasy world: seasons; days and nights; weather; warring factions of natives that act realistically, buy and sell items, can be hired, and move around;monsters that have their own life;players that can interact with each other in complicated ways, each with completely different and interesting goals; and a fully fledged magic system that is by far the most interesting of any Fantasy RPG's.

In short, the world of Magic Realm really lives, in the best sense of the word, with a flawless internal logic to it that is far more realistic than the event-card driven games of the "Talisman" school, but can still surprise you at any moment.

Although I have played the game (really often) I still have yet to use every possible spell combination or every available magic item,so many possibilities does this game offer.

In addition, each of the 16 available characters not only has a completely different set of movement, magic and battle chits, but also has 2 special abilities, which makes each character totally unique and forces players to develop different strategies for each of them."

Appendix N Update: December 2011

2011-12-30T05:50:00.001-07:00

Abbey, Lynn:

Adams, Richard: Watership Down

Alexander, Lloyd: The Book of Three 1; The Black Cauldron 2; The Castle of Llyr 3; Taran Wanderer 4; The High King 5

Anderson, Poul: Ensign Flandry; Flandry Of Terra; Agent of the Terran Empire; The Long Night; Three Hearts and Three Lions; The Broken Sword; The High Crusade; A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows

Anthony, Piers: A Spell for Chameleon; On A Pale Horse

Ariosto, Ludovico: Orlando Furioso

Asprin, Robert A.: Thieves World I; Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn II; Shadows of Sanctuary III; Storm Season IV; The Face of Chaos V; Another Fine Myth

Barker, M.A.R.: The Man Of Gold; Flamesong

Baum, L. Frank: The Wizard Of Oz, Emerald City Of Oz, Land of Oz

Beagle, Peter S.: The Last Unicorn

Bellairs, John: The Face In The Frost

Bellamy, Francis R : Atta

Bloodstone, John: Thundar Man Of Two Worlds

Bok, Hannes: The Sorcerers Ship

Brackett, Leigh: Eric John Stark, Outlaw Of Mars; The Best Of Leigh Brackett; The Sword Of Rhiannon; The Ginger Star 1; The Hounds Of Skaith 2; Reavers of Skaith

Bradley, Marion Z: Sword and Sorceress Anthology

Brooks, Terry: The Sword of Shannara

Brown, Fredric:

Burroughs, Edgar R.: Pellucidar; Tanar of Pellucidar; A Princess Of Mars 1; The Gods Of Mars 2; Warlord Of Mars 3; Thuvia, Maid Of Mars 4; Chessmen of Mars 5; The Mastermind of Mars 6; A Fighting Man of Mars 7; The Moon Maid; Out of Time’s Abyss; Jungle Girl, Land of Hidden Men; Tarzan Of The Apes 1; The Return Of Tarzan 2; The Beasts of Tarzan 3; The Son Of Tarzan 4; Tarzan and the Lost Empire 10; At The Earth's Core

Campbell, J Ramsey: Demons by Daylight

Carter, Lin: Thongor and the Dragon City; Thongor and the Wizards of Lemuria; Thongor Fights the Pirates of Tarakus; Zanathon; Tower at the Edge of Time; The Black Star; Beyond The Gates Of Dream; Down To A Sunless Sea; Journey to the Underground World; Warrior of World’s End; Flashing Swords 1; Flashing Swords 2; Flashing Swords 3; Flashing Swords 4; Flashing Swords 5; New Worlds For Old; The Young Magicians

Cervantes, Miguel: Don Quixote

Chalker, Jack L.: Midnight at the Well of Souls 1; Exiles at the Well of Souls 2; Quest For the Well Of Souls 3; The Return of Nathan Brazil 4, Twilight at the Well of Souls 5

Chandler, A. Bertram: The Road To The Rim

Chant, Joy: Red Moon And Black Mountain

Cherryh, C.J.:

Cook, Glen: The Black Company

Daley, Brian: Han Solo At Star’s End; Han Solo’s Revenge; Han Solo And The Lost Legacy

Davidson, Avram: The Phoenix In The Mirror, The Island Under the Earth

deCamp, L. Sprague: The Complete Compleat Enchanter; The Compleat Enchanter; Lovecraft, A Biography; Warlocks and Warriors; The Fallible Fiend; Conan The Barbarian; Conan And The Spider God; Lest Darkness Fall; The Carnelian Cube; The Emperors Fan; The Reluctant King; The Goblin Tower; The Clocks Of Iraz

Derleth, August: The Trail of Cthuhlu

Dickson, Gordon R.:

Donaldson, Stephen: Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: The Lost World

Dumas, Alexandre: The Three Musketeers

Dunsany, Lord: The King Of Elfland’s Daughter; Over the Hills and Far Away; The Charwoman's Shadow

Eco, Umberto: The Name Of The Rose

Eddings, David: Pawn of Prophecy, Queen Of Sorcery, Magician’s Gambit, Castle of Wizardry, Enchanter’s Endgame

Eddison, E. R.: The Worm Ouroboros; Mistress of Mistresses; A Fish Dinner In Memison

Ende, Michael: The Neverending Story

Farmer, Philip Jose: The Maker Of Universes 1; The Gates Of Creation 2; A Private Cosmos 3; Hadon Of Ancient Opar

Fiest, Raymond: Magician

Finney, Charles: The Unholy City; The Circus of Dr. Lao

Foster, Alan Dean: Nor Crystal Tears, Splinter of the Minds Eye; The End of the Matter; The Tar-Aiym Krang; Bloodhype; Orphan Star; For Love Of Mother-Not; The Time Of The Transference

Fox, Gardner: Kothar Barbarian Swordsman; Kothar and the Conjurer's Curse; Kothar and the Wizard Slayer; Kothar and the Magic Sword; Kothar And The Demon Queen; Kyrik Warlock Warrior; Kyrik Fights The Demon World; Kyrik and the Lost Queen; Kyrik and the Wizards Sword; Warrior Of Llarn

Funke, Cornelia: Inkheart

Gardner, Craig Shaw: A Malady Of Magicks

Garner, Alan: Elidor; The Moon Of Gomrath; The Weirdstone of Brisingamen

Gemmell, David: Legend

Goldman, William: The Princess Bride

Glut, Donald F: The Empire Strikes Back

Gygax, Gary: The Samarkand Solution; The Anubis Murders; Infernal Sorceress, Death In Delhi

Haggard, H. Rider: The People Of The Mist; The World's Desire; When The World Shook; She And Allan; King Solomon Mines; She

Hambly, Barbara: The Time of the Dark, The Walls Of Air, The Armies of Daylight, The Ladies of Mandrigyn, Dragonsbane

Harrison, Harry: The Adventures Of The Stainless Street Rat; The Stainless Steel Rat

Heinlein, Robert: Glory Road

Hickman, Tracy:

Hodgson, W.H.: The House On The Borderland

Holmes, John Eric: Mahars of Pellucidar

Howard, Robert E.: Sword Woman; Almuric; The People Of The Black Circle; Red Nails; Shadow Kingdoms; People Of The Dark; Beyond The Black River; The Hour Of The Dragon; Black Hounds Of Death; Conan 1; Conan Of Cimmeria 2; Conan the Freebooter 3; Conan the Wanderer 4; Conan the Adventurer 5; Conan the Buccaneer 6; Conan The Warrior 7; Conan The Usurper 8; Conan The Conqueror 9; Conan The Avenger 10; Conan Of Aquilonia 11; Conan of The Isles 12; Solomon Kane, The Hills Of The Dead; Skull-Face; Black Canaan; Swords Of Shahrazar; Marchers Of Valhalla

Hyne, C J Cutliffe: The Lost Continent

Jakes, John: Brak The Barbarian; Mark of Demons; The Sorceress

Jackson, Steve: Fighting Fantasy

Kline, Otis Adelbert: Swordsman Of Mars, Outlaw Of Mars, Planet of Peril

Kuttner, Henry: The Mask Of Circe; Elak Of Atlantis, The Dark World, Robots Have No Tails

Kurtz, Katherine: Deryni Rising; Deryni Checkmate; High Deryni

Lanier, Sterling: Hiero’s Journey; The Unforsaken Hiero

L’Engle, Madeleine: A Wrinkle In Time

Le Guin, Ursula: A Wizard Of Earthsea; The Left Hand Of Darkness; Tehanu; The Farthest Shore

Lee, Tanith: The Book Of The Damned I; The Book Of The Beast II; The Storm Lord, The Birthgrave, The Dragon Hoard, Night’s Master, Death’s Master

Leiber, Fritz: Swords and Deviltry 1; Swords Against Death 2; Swords In The Mist 3; Swords And Wizardry 4; The Swords of Lankhmar 5; Swords and Ice Magic 6

Lindsay, David: A Voyage To Arcturus

Lovecraft, H.P.: The Doom That Came To Sarnath; The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath; The Shadow Over Innsmouth; At The Mountains Of Madness; The Lurker At The Threshold; The Tomb; The Watchers Out Of Time; Waking Up Screaming; The Dunwich Horror

Martin, George R.R.: Dying Of The Light; A Song Of Ice And Fire

Matheson, Richard: I Am Legend

McCaffery, Anne: The Ship Who Sang; Dinosaur Planet

Merritt, A.: The Ship Of Ishtar; The Seven Footprints Of Satan; The Moon Pool; The Face In The Abyss; Dwellers In the Mirage; Creep Shadow Creep

Miller, Walter: A Canticle For Leibowitz

Moorcock, Michael: Legends From The End Of Time; The Jewel In The Skull; The Mad God’s Amulet; The Sleeping Sorceress; The Runestaff; The Lord of the Spiders; The Masters of the Pit; The City of the Beast; The Warlord of the Air; Stealer Of Souls; Stormbringer; Elric of Melnibone; The Sword Of The Dawn

Moore, C.L.: Northwest Smith; Jirel Of Joiry

Morris, William: The Well At Worlds End I; The Well At Worlds End II; The Wood Beyond the World; The Water of the Wondrous Isles

Mundy, Talbot: Tros Of Samothrace; Avenging Liafail 2; The Praetor's Dungeon 3; The Purple Pirate 6

Niven, Larry: The Man-Kzin Wars; A World Out Of Time; A Gift From Earth; Tales of Known Space; Neutron Star; The Magic May Return; The Magic Goes Away; The Flight of the Horse

Norman, John: Tarnsman Of Gor 1; Outlaw Of Gor 2; Priest-Kings Of Gor 3; Nomads Of Gor 4; Assassin Of Gor 5; Raiders Of Gor 6; Captive Of Gor 7; Hunters Of Gor 8; Marauders Of Gor 9, Tribesmen Of Gor 10, Slave Girl of Gor 11; Time Slave

Norton, Andre: Quag Keep; Exiles of the Stars; Warlock of Witch World; High Sorcery; Witch World; Sargasso Of Space; Lord Of Thunder

Nowlan, Philip F.: Armageddon 2419 A.D.

Offutt, Andrew J.: Demon In The Mirror; Eyes Of Sarsis; Web Of The Spider; Conan, The Sword of Skelos; Conan The Mercenary; Swords Against Darkness I; Swords Against Darkness II; Swords Against Darkness III; Swords Against Darkness IV; Swords Against Darkness V; The Iron Lords; Cormac Mac Art

Piper, H. Beam: Space Viking

Pratchett, Terry: The Colour Of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites, Mort

Pratt, Fletcher: Land Of Unreason; The Blue Star; The Well of the Unicorn; The Carnelian Cube

Saberhagen, Fred: The First Book Of Swords; Second Book Of Swords; Third Book Of Swords; Empire Of The East

Schmitz, James: The Witches of Karres

Shea, Michael: Color Out Of Time; A Quest For Simbilis

Sims, John:

Sirota, Mike: Master Of Boranga

Smith, Clark Ashton: Lost Worlds Volume 1; Lost Worlds Volume 2; Out Of Space And Time 1; Out Of Space And Time 2; The Abominations of Yondo; Genius Loci; Poseidonis; Zothique; Hyperborea; Xiccarph; Tales Of Science And Sorcery; Other Dimensions 1; Other Dimensions 2

Smith, L. Neil: Lando Calrissian and the Midharp of Sharu; Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of Thonboka; Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Osean

Smith, E.E. ‘Doc’: Triplanetary

Springer, Nancy: The White Hart

St. Clair, Margaret: The Shadow People; Sign of the Labrys

Stasheff, Christopher: The Warlock Wandering; A Warlock's Blade; Warlock And Son; The Warlock Is Missing; Her Majesty's Wizard; King Kobold

Stewart, Mary: The Crystal Cave; The Hollow Hills; The Last Enchantment

Swann, Thomas: Green Phoenix; Day Of The Minotaur; Cry Silver Bells; Moondust

Tolkien, J.R.R.: The Hobbit, The Lord Of The Rings

Tubb, E.C.:

Van Arnam, Dave: Star Barbarian

Van Vogt, A.E.: The Voyage Of The Space Beagle; Quest For The Future

Vance, Jack: The Languages Of The Pao; The Dragon Masters; The Best of Jack Vance; The Dying Earth; The Eyes of the Overworld; Cugel’s Saga; Rhialto The Marvelous; Trullion, Alastor 2262; Wyst, Alastor 1716; Marune, Alastor 933; The Faceless Man 1; The Brave Free Men 2; The Astura 3; Lyonesse 1; The Green Pearl 2; Madouc 3; The Face 4; The Blue World; Galactic Effectuator; Big Planet; City Of The Chasch 1; Servants of the Wanhk 2; The Dirdir 3; The Pnume 4; Suldrun's Garden

Verne, Jules: The Mysterious Island

Wagner, Karl E: Bloodstone, Death Angel’s Shadow, Dark Crusade

Weinbaum, Stanley; The Black Flame; A Martian Odyssey

Wellman, Manly Wade: The Old Gods Waken; The Hanging Stones; The Lost And The Lurking; After Dark; Silver John; Who Fears The Devil?

White, Theodore: The Once and Future King

Williams, Robert M.: Return of Jongor

Williamson, Jack: The Trial Of Terra; The Legion Of Space

Zelazny, Roger: Nine Princes In Amber; The Guns of Avalon; Sign of the Unicorn; The Hand of Oberon; The Courts of Chaos; Jack Of Shadows; Dilvish, The Damned; The Changing Land; Isle of the Dead; Trumps of Doom; Blood Of Amber; Sign Of Chaos; Knight Of Shadows; Prince of Chaos

Alien: Intruder And Xenophobe

2011-12-29T16:08:00.001-07:00

Between the release of Chevski's Thousand Suns and Ridley Scott's Prometheus trailer, 2012 is shaping up to be the year of the science fiction old school renaissance.

Ridley Scott is directing Prometheus, and directed the original Alien movie. H.R. Giger gave us the look of the Alien antagonist, the Xenomorph. The above Giger image inspired Alien's Xenomorph.

That antagonist later makes its appearance in all sorts of unauthorized spin-offs.

The first of those two is the Xenomorph's appearance in a Task Force microgame from 1980, entitled Intruder.

Intruder was designed by Dennis Sustare, known for having designed the much beloved Bunnies and Burrows RPG and Dwarfstar's engaging, if somewhat arcane, Star Smuggler microgame.

Intruder is set in the near future, on the Deep Space Station Prometheus, orbiting the star Sigma Draconis.

An exploratory team brings back an alien life form, and is directed to keep the creature alive for study. When the creature escapes from the lab, this directive proves to be a deadly mistake.

If the premise sounds familiar, it may be because it is. That is the same premise that informs the first two Aliens movies.

The second unauthorized spin-off is a Bally Midway Arcade game from 1987, entitled Xenophobe. Xenophobe is obviously inspired by the Alien movie franchise, as the goal of the game is to rid various ships, bases and planets of alien infestations.

The game allows you to play one of nine different characters. Among them: Dr. Kwack, sporting a duck head; Mr. Brace, with a Quasimoto face; Col. Truth, the spock-eared; Mr. Fogg, crazy scientist hair and a Geordie visor; Dr. Udderbay and Col. Poupon, two female chaaracters; Mr. Eeez, with a green bug head; Mr. Zordiz, the James T. Kirk of the game; and Col. Shickn, with white hair and an eye-patch. The characters wear yellow, blue and red tunics, Some also wear black slacks, given the characters a look reminiscent of early Star Trek attire.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-25T00:48:00.001-07:00

Merry Christmas.

Split Enz: I Hope I Never

2011-12-21T15:38:00.006-07:00

A while ago an old buddy of mine remarked how much I looked like Tim Finn from Split Enz. That reminded me of one of my favorite Split Enz songs, I Hope I Never. My other favorite is Iris.

Split Enz would later transform into Crowded House. Anyway, enjoy.

The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

2011-12-20T23:05:00.001-07:00

More Pathfinder Minis

2011-12-18T19:10:00.001-07:00

I'm not a Pathfinder player, but i'm quite enthusiastic about Paizo's new line of pre-painted miniatures. Over at their website, they continue to reveal more of those miniatures, these from the Heroes and Monsters collection, which is set to be released in early 2012.

Erik Mona's most recent blog entry provides a visual update of several figures, including the Lich, pictured below.

If you scroll down to the December 8th entry, Paizo reveals their Gargoyle and Goblin figures. Here are the four Goblins from the first set.

I've mentioned before that I dislike the Pathfinder humanoids, like the Goblins above. For those of you that do like them, I'll have a plethora to trade once I take possession of my case of figures.

Terrain For Skirmish Games

2011-12-17T22:23:00.005-07:00

I enjoy an occasional LOTRSBG skirmish. I was introduced to the tabletop battles hobby late in my roleplaying game career, sometime in 2003 if memory serves. It was Games Workshop's Lord Of The Rings miniatures, and the related strategy battle game, that led me there.

Once you are introduced to tabletop skirmish games, there's a natural progression towards the other facets of the hobby, including terrain-building. This is a work-in-progress; a rocky outcropping that can be used as cover and visual interest. I think it needs some grass and foliage to finish it off.

Here are a couple of additional photos of the same rocky outcropping. I added some miniatures to provide scale.

Microgames: Still Back-Filling My Collection

2011-12-07T08:43:00.000-07:00

I have a pretty extensive Microgame collection, but that doesn't mean i've stopped my search to fill in the gaps. I recently chanced upon several Dwarfstar microgames at reasonable prices and added them to my collection. Still, there are a handful of games, included Helltank, that continue to elude me.

Canadiana: The Safety Dance

2011-12-07T07:41:00.002-07:00

The Safety Dance is perhaps the most hated of all Canadian songs.

Performed by the French Canadian band, Men Without Hats, this song has been spoofed multiple times, by such shows as Futurama, Simpsons and The Family Guy.

This song is an endless well for lampoonery. Enjoy.

DnD End Game: Empire Building

2011-12-06T10:38:00.001-07:00

One of the forgotten pleasures of Dungeons and Dragons is reaching name level and being permitted to establish your own stronghold. This early feature of DnD is obviously inspired by the wargaming traditions of the first roleplayers.

The problem is, there are woefully inadequate rules in Original DnD to govern stronghold and empire building, and stonghold-building precipitates player-versus-player conflict, particularly when the name-level players want to expand into the same territories. Not to mention that the level of abstraction necessary to handle a game of empire building is different from the level of abstraction necessary for a game of dungeon-delving resource and hit point management.

Though not perfect by any means, I get my fantasy empire building and PvP conflict fix from our occasional games of Settlers of Catan. Settlers is at just about the right level of abstraction to avoid getting bogged down in the minutae, and allows for a certain amount of PvP conflict without resulting in the total elimination of the other players.

Settlers would be a suitable base upon which to build a really interesting high-level fantasy empire building game. I've heard good things about Small World as well, but have yet to give it a try.

Revolt On Antares/Erol Otus: One Fine Young Artist

2011-12-05T08:11:00.004-07:00

From the Forward (sic) to The Arduin Grimoire; Volume 1, by Dave Hargrave:

"Special Note. The artwork for this supplement is the sole doing of one fine young artist: Errol (sic) Otus. I'm only glad I'll be able to say ten years from now, 'I knew him when...'"

Erol Otus did not merely produce fantasy artwork during the late 70's and early 80's. He also rendered the science fiction artwork below, which graced the centre pages of the 1981 TSR Revolt On Antares minigame booklet.

Click to embiggen.

With the seeming-success of Metagaming's microgame line, other game companies jumped into the soon-to-be-crashing minigame market. That included TSR, SPI, Task Force Games, Chaosium, Mayfair Games, Heritage USA, Operational Studies Group, Steve Jackson Games, and FASA.
TSR's Revolt On Antares concerns a power struggle on Imhirros, ninth planet in the Antares system, on the fringes of Imperial Space.

Several noble houses, the Imperial government, and alien invaders vie for control of Imhirros using raw military power, alien artifacts, galactic superheroes, and hereditary psychic abilities to achieve their ends. Interplayer diplomatic efforts are encouraged in the rulebook, but there are no game systems to regulate diplomacy.

The game was designed for TSR by Tom Moldvay, who also designed Avalon Hill's Lords Of Creation. Two pieces of Erol Otus art appear within Revolt On Antares.

The game showed great promise, particularly when viewed through the lens of the above Erol Otus art.

More Pathfinder Miniatures

2011-12-04T14:54:00.002-07:00

Here are more images of the Pathfinder Heroes & Monsters miniatures being released in January 2012. You can find the images of the miniatures here, and on the Paizo blog. I like nearly all of the miniatures in this first set, with the exception of the humanoid monsters. Not because the sculpts and paint jobs are poor, but simply because I don't like the monster designs themselves. To see what i'm talking about, scroll down to the last three images, of the Ettin, Troll, and Goblins.

Winter Wonderland

2011-12-04T14:09:00.000-07:00

We received quite a dump of snow last night, easily six inches or more. A significantly heavier snowfall than back on November 18.

A drive to the grocery store that usually takes 5 minutes took 20. I just finished shovelling for the third time, so I thought I'd take the above photo of the culdesac.
Here's the snow piled up on the handrail of the back deck.

Miniatures Done Right

2011-12-03T15:19:00.004-07:00

One of my central compliants with the prepainted Wizards Of The Coast Dungeons and Dragons miniatures line was the lack of quality. It was a combination of average to poor paint jobs and uneven poses. As a result, my DDM purchases were almost exclusively in the after-market.
Paizo's upcoming line of Pathfinder pre-painted miniatures has me quite excited. Not only is Paizo staying true to their artistic source materials, but the miniatures paint jobs are much improved compared to the old DDM miniatures. You only have to look at the sample miniatures in this post to see the improvements.
I'm not a Pathfinder RPG player. But i've already pre-ordered the full Paizo Heroes and Monsters set and am looking forward to receiving it in January 2012.

Endless Night: A Megadungeon Hook

2011-11-28T14:58:00.005-07:00

Imagine a fantasy world in which two events happen simultaneously. One, a total solar eclipse that never ceases. Two, an earthquake and rend in the earth near the city centre, providing access and passage to the endless stair. What is the cause? What do both events portend? Will you brave the endless stair to discover the answers to these questions?

Conan The Barbarian In Space

2011-11-27T15:16:00.002-07:00

Or am I telling you something you already know?

My favorite lines from the trailer ...

Girl: Are you going to stop the monsters now?

Riddick: I am the monster.

Paizo: Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box

2011-11-26T17:44:00.003-07:00

It's unlikely you'd ever catch me playing Paizo's Pathfinder RPG. Roleplaying being what it is, I can't say never: social will always trump system. But as the natural heir to Dungeons and Dragons 3.5, Pathfinder holds little allure for me.

It's the granularity. Like its cousin DnD 4.X, character generation and development is far too detailed, and i'm predisposed to viewing Pathfinder RPG as too much determined by character skills, scores and abilities; too little by player skill and role-playing.

So, given my obvious pre-disposition and therefore lack of interest in this game system, why bother purchasing and reviewing the Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box? Two reasons. First, the shallow one: with certain exceptions, I really like the art of Pathfinder. I am a big fan of Wayne Reynolds, and the stable of other Pathfinder artists seem to maintain the same high standards. Second, I wanted to see if this Beginner Box set would moderate my pre-disposition against the Parthfinder RPG.

The Pathfinder Beginner Box retails for $35, compared to $20 for the DnD 4E Red Box starter set that was published by WOTC roughly a year ago. The Pathfinder box is 9" x 12" x 2.5" deep, and includes a one-page welcome page, a single-page advertisement for Pathfinder RPG and Pathfinder Society, a 64-page Hero's Handbook, four pre-generated characters (corresponding to the four characters pictured on the side of the Beginner Box), four blank character sheets, a 96-page Game Master's Guide, a 24" x 30" fold-out battle mat, a complete set of polyhedral dice, and 90 cardboard monster and character stand-up pawns.

Considering the breadth of contents, the Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box compares very favorably to the DnD 4E Red Box Starter Set. Add to the above the following: the Pathfinder set allows you to go from levels 1-5, while the 4E set only allows you to go to level 2; Pathfinder includes another 64 pages of gaming material; Pathfinder includes stand-up, rather than flat, pawns; and the Pathfinder box is sturdier and more visually interesting.

With 64 pages of game material in The Hero's Handbook, Pathfinder goes into far more detail than Red Box regarding character creation. Paizo provides a solo pick-your-path adventure and an example of play in the Hero's Handbook.

The game mechanics suffer from the same malady as 4E: too many rules and too much dice-rolling. On the other hand, the art is amazing, and there's so much of it that it almost becomes a distraction from learning the rules. Paizo has gone all out here, though I couldn't say whether some or all of this art is recycled from other Pathfinder products.

Four pre-generated character sheets are included in the Beginner Box: Ezren, Valeros, Kyra and Merisel. The Beginner Box includes four cardboard standup pawns for those characters, but you can instead buy a set of pre-painted miniatures, which, at $12 for the complete four figure set, has higher production values and is more modestly priced than any pre-painted plastic figures heretofore produced by WOTC.

The 96-page Game Master's Guide delves into areas completely ignored by the equivalent Dungeon Master's Book found in the 4E Red Box. Most startling is significant page count devoted to gamemastering, building your own adventures, environments, magic items and random encounters. Pathfinder is noted for its prolific publishing of pre-scripted adventure path products, so devoting page count in the Game Master's Guide to building your own adventures is laudable. Like the Hero's Handbook, the Game Master's Guide is heavily illustrated: I will hazard to say that every page has some manner of illustration.

The Pathfinder battle mat is superior to the 4E Red Box effort. It feels heavier and is plasticized to stand up to more wear. And the cardboard pawns in the Pathfinder Beginner Box can be slipped into round plastic bases so they stand up. The Red Box equivalent are poker chips with pictures on them.

If you are playing DnD 3.5 or 4.X and looking for something just a little bit different, the Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box may be just your ticket. This is good value for $35. Indeed, the gorgeously illustrated cardboard pawns are almost worth the price of admission alone.

For those that prefer old-school gaming, there is little here to convert you to the dark side. But if you're like me and have more money than sense, or want to support the underdog, you might consider buying the Pathfinder RPG Beginner Box. While i'm unlikely to play Pathfinder, I don't regret this purchase.

The Death Frost Doom Map That Never Was

2011-11-25T01:47:00.003-07:00

Still getting my head around a different kind of megadungeon design for the endless stair; something that appeals to my naturalistic adventure design aesthetic.

This is a map of St. Paul's catacombs in Rabat, Malta. That catacomb map would have made for an inspirational reference for Death Frost Doom, a James Raggi adventure full of menace and horror but lacking in evocative cartography.

I continue to be attracted to maps and images like this one of St. Paul's catacombs. As an adventure designer, there is an honesty in using real world subterranea for the basis of one's own maps, if only for the designer's own moral fortification.

The user of the adventure may not appreciate that the environment does, and therefore can, exist. But from the creator's point of view, there is a certain amount of satisfaction in knowing that the environment makes sense.

What's most challenging for me is attempting to visualize these catacombs. There are a handful of images on the internet, but I think it would take actual exploration of an environment like St. Paul's catacombs to truly appreciate the depicted map. The next challenge would be to communicate what you have seen to the end-user of the adventure in a way that is not burdensome.

Winter Is On Its Way

2011-11-18T15:29:00.002-07:00

This is the view of my culdesac this morning. Its garbage and recycling day today, so all of the bins are on the street.

Fall In Calgary

2011-11-13T19:23:00.007-07:00

The last time I did a weather post was June 5, so it's high time for another one. Here's a photo of one of the two trees in my front yard. This is why I love the Fall, all of the golds, reds, oranges and purples as the leaves change color. The snow will be flying soon, so let's enjoy Fall while it lasts.

Remembrance Day

2011-11-11T11:11:00.001-07:00

All she knows, is she takes his hand
And prays the child will understand

At the door
They watch the men go by, in the clothes that daddy wore

Mother's pride; baby boy
His father's eyes; he's a soldier waiting for a war

Time will come

He'll hold a gun; his father's son

And as he grows, he hears the band
Takes the step from boy to man

At the shore
She waves her son goodbye, like the man she did before

Mother's pride; just a boy
In his country's eyes, He's a soldier waving at the shore

And in her heart, the time has come

To lose a son

And all the husbands, all the sons, all the lovers, gone
They make no difference, no difference in the end

Still hear the women say, your daddy died a hero
In the name of God and man

Mother's pride; crazy boy

His lifeless eyes; He's a soldier now forever more
He'll hold a gun, 'til kingdom come

Microgames Collection

2011-11-08T21:00:00.007-07:00

Remember Remember The Fifth Of November

2011-11-05T21:03:00.000-06:00

Good evening, London.

Allow me first to apologize for this interruption.

I do, like many of you, appreciate the comforts of everyday routine -- the security of the familiar -- the tranquility of repetition.

I enjoy them as much as any bloke.

But in the spirit of commemoration, thereby those important events of the past, usually associated with someone's death, or the end of some awful bloody struggle, a celebration of a nice holiday, I thought we could mark this November the 5th, a day that is sadly no longer remembered, by taking some time out of our daily lives to sit down and have a little chat.

There are, of course, those who do not want us to speak.

I suspect even now, orders are being shouted into telephones, and men with guns will soon be on their way.

Why?

Because while the truncheon may be used in lieu of conversation, words will always retain their power.

Words offer the means to meaning, and for those who will listen, the enunciation of truth.

And the truth is, there is something terribly wrong with this country, isn't there?

Cruelty and injustice, intolerance and oppression.

And where once you had the freedom to object, to think and speak as you saw fit, you now have censors and systems of surveillance coercing your conformity and soliciting your submission.

How did this happen?

Who's to blame?

Well certainly there are those more responsible than others, and they will be held accountable.

But again, truth be told, if you're looking for the guilty, you need only LOOK IN A MIRROR.

I know why you did it.

I know you were afraid.

Who wouldn't be? War, terror, disease.

There were a myriad of problems which conspired to corrupt your reason and rob you of your common sense.

Fear got the best of you, and in your panic you turned to the now high chancellor, Adam Sutler. He promised you order, he promised you peace, and all he demanded in return was your silent, obedient consent.

Last night I sought to end that silence.

Last night I destroyed the Old Bailey, to remind this country of what it has forgotten.

More than four hundred years ago a great citizen wished to embed the fifth of November forever in our memory.

His hope was to remind the world that fairness, justice, and freedom are more than words, they are perspectives.

So, if you've seen nothing, if the crimes of this government remain unknown to you, then I would suggest you allow the fifth of November to pass, unmarked.

But if you see what I see, if you feel as I feel, and if you would seek as I seek, then I ask you to stand beside me one year from tonight, outside the gates of Parliament, and together we shall give them a fifth of November that shall never, ever be forgot.

Dragon Magazine Collection

2011-10-23T16:45:00.007-06:00

Appendix N Update

2011-10-23T14:17:00.006-06:00

Abbey, Lynn:

Adams, Richard: Watership Down

Alexander, Lloyd: The Book of Three 1; The Black Cauldron 2; The Castle of Llyr 3; Taran Wanderer 4; The High King 5

Anderson, Poul: Ensign Flandry; Flandry Of Terra; Agent of the Terran Empire; The Long Night; Three Hearts and Three Lions; The Broken Sword; The High Crusade; A Knight Of Ghosts And Shadows

Anthony, Piers: A Spell for Chameleon; On A Pale Horse

Ariosto, Ludovico: Orlando Furioso

Asprin, Robert A.: Thieves World I; Tales from the Vulgar Unicorn II; Shadows of Sanctuary III; Storm Season IV; The Face of Chaos V; Another Fine Myth

Barker, M.A.R.: The Man Of Gold; Flamesong

Baum, L. Frank: The Wizard Of Oz, Emerald City Of Oz, Land of Oz

Beagle, Peter S.: The Last Unicorn

Bellairs, John: The Face In The Frost

Bellamy, Francis R : Atta

Bloodstone, John: Thundar Man Of Two Worlds

Bok, Hannes: The Sorcerers Ship

Brackett, Leigh: Eric John Stark, Outlaw Of Mars; The Best Of Leigh Brackett; The Sword Of Rhiannon; The Ginger Star 1; The Hounds Of Skaith 2; Reavers of Skaith

Bradley, Marion Z: Sword and Sorceress Anthology

Brooks, Terry: The Sword of Shannara

Brown, Fredric:

Burroughs, Edgar R.: Pellucidar; Tanar of Pellucidar; A Princess Of Mars 1; The Gods Of Mars 2; Warlord Of Mars 3; Thuvia, Maid Of Mars 4; Chessmen of Mars 5; The Mastermind of Mars 6; A Fighting Man of Mars 7; The Moon Maid; Out of Time’s Abyss; Jungle Girl, Land of Hidden Men; Tarzan Of The Apes 1; The Return Of Tarzan 2; The Beasts of Tarzan 3; The Son Of Tarzan 4; Tarzan and the Lost Empire 10; At The Earth's Core

Campbell, J Ramsey: Demons by Daylight

Carter, Lin: Thongor and the Dragon City; Thongor and the Wizards of Lemuria; Thongor Fights the Pirates of Tarakus; Zanathon; Tower at the Edge of Time; The Black Star; Beyond The Gates Of Dream; Down To A Sunless Sea; Journey to the Underground World; Warrior of World’s End; Flashing Swords 1; Flashing Swords 2; Flashing Swords 3; Flashing Swords 4; Flashing Swords 5; New Worlds For Old; The Young Magicians

Cervantes, Miguel: Don Quixote

Chalker, Jack L.: Midnight at the Well of Souls 1; Exiles at the Well of Souls 2; Quest For the Well Of Souls 3; The Return of Nathan Brazil 4, Twilight at the Well of Souls 5

Chandler, A. Bertram: The Road To The Rim

Chant, Joy: Red Moon And Black Mountain

Cherryh, C.J.:

Cook, Glen: The Black Company

Daley, Brian: Han Solo At Star’s End; Han Solo’s Revenge; Han Solo And The Lost Legacy

Davidson, Avram: The Phoenix In The Mirror, The Island Under the Earth

deCamp, L. Sprague: The Complete Compleat Enchanter; The Compleat Enchanter; Lovecraft, A Biography; Warlocks and Warriors; The Fallible Fiend; Conan The Barbarian; Conan And The Spider God; Lest Darkness Fall; The Carnelian Cube; The Emperors Fan; The Reluctant King; The Goblin Tower; The Clocks Of Iraz

Derleth, August: The Trail of Cthuhlu

Dickson, Gordon R.:

Donaldson, Stephen: Thomas Covenant The Unbeliever

Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: The Lost World

Dumas, Alexandre: The Three Musketeers

Dunsany, Lord: The King Of Elfland’s Daughter; Over the Hills and Far Away; The Charwoman's Shadow

Eco, Umberto: The Name Of The Rose

Eddings, David: Pawn of Prophecy, Queen Of Sorcery, Magician’s Gambit, Castle of Wizardry, Enchanter’s Endgame

Eddison, E. R.: The Worm Ouroboros; Mistress of Mistresses; A Fish Dinner In Memison

Ende, Michael: The Neverending Story

Farmer, Philip Jose: The Maker Of Universes 1; The Gates Of Creation 2; A Private Cosmos 3; Hadon Of Ancient Opar

Fiest, Raymond: Magician

Finney, Charles: The Unholy City; The Circus of Dr. Lao

Foster, Alan Dean: Nor Crystal Tears, Splinter of the Minds Eye; The End of the Matter; The Tar-Aiym Krang; Bloodhype; Orphan Star; For Love Of Mother-Not; The Time Of The Transference

Fox, Gardner: Kothar Barbarian Swordsman; Kothar and the Conjurer's Curse; Kothar and the Wizard Slayer; Kothar and the Magic Sword; Kothar And The Demon Queen; Kyrik Warlock Warrior; Kyrik Fights The Demon World; Kyrik and the Lost Queen; Kyrik and the Wizards Sword; Warrior Of Llarn

Funke, Cornelia: Inkheart

Gardner, Craig Shaw: A Malady Of Magicks

Garner, Alan: Elidor; The Moon Of Gomrath; The Weirdstone of Brisingamen

Gemmell, David: Legend

Goldman, William: The Princess Bride

Glut, Donald F: The Empire Strikes Back

Gygax, Gary: The Samarkand Solution; The Anubis Murders; Infernal Sorceress, Death In Delhi

Haggard, H. Rider: The People Of The Mist; The World's Desire; When The World Shook; She And Allan; King Solomon Mines; She

Hambly, Barbara: The Time of the Dark, The Walls Of Air, The Armies of Daylight, The Ladies of Mandrigyn, Dragonsbane

Harrison, Harry: The Adventures Of The Stainless Street Rat; The Stainless Steel Rat

Heinlein, Robert: Glory Road

Hickman, Tracy:

Hodgson, W.H.: The House On The Borderland

Holmes, John Eric: Mahars of Pellucidar

Howard, Robert E.: Sword Woman; Almuric; The People Of The Black Circle; Red Nails; Shadow Kingdoms; People Of The Dark; Beyond The Black River; The Hour Of The Dragon; Black Hounds Of Death; Conan 1; Conan Of Cimmeria 2; Conan the Freebooter 3; Conan the Wanderer 4; Conan the Adventurer 5; Conan the Buccaneer 6; Conan The Warrior 7; Conan The Usurper 8; Conan The Conqueror 9; Conan The Avenger 10; Conan Of Aquilonia 11; Conan of The Isles 12; Solomon Kane, The Hills Of The Dead; Skull-Face; Black Canaan; Swords Of Shahrazar; Marchers Of Valhalla

Hyne, C J Cutliffe: The Lost Continent

Jakes, John: Brak The Barbarian; Mark of Demons; The Sorceress

Jackson, Steve: Fighting Fantasy

Kline, Otis Adelbert: Swordsman Of Mars, Outlaw Of Mars, Planet of Peril

Kuttner, Henry: The Mask Of Circe; Elak Of Atlantis, The Dark World, Robots Have No Tails

Kurtz, Katherine: Deryni Rising; Deryni Checkmate; High Deryni

Lanier, Sterling: Hiero’s Journey; The Unforsaken Hiero

L’Engle, Madeleine: A Wrinkle In Time

Le Guin, Ursula: A Wizard Of Earthsea; The Left Hand Of Darkness; Tehanu; The Farthest Shore

Lee, Tanith: The Book Of The Damned I; The Book Of The Beast II; The Storm Lord, The Birthgrave, The Dragon Hoard, Night’s Master, Death’s Master

Leiber, Fritz: Swords and Deviltry 1; Swords Against Death 2; Swords In The Mist 3; Swords And Wizardry 4; The Swords of Lankhmar 5; Swords and Ice Magic 6

Lindsay, David: A Voyage To Arcturus

Lovecraft, H.P.: The Doom That Came To Sarnath; The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath; The Shadow Over Innsmouth; At The Mountains Of Madness; The Lurker At The Threshold; The Tomb; The Watchers Out Of Time; Waking Up Screaming; The Dunwich Horror

Martin, George R.R.: Dying Of The Light; A Song Of Ice And Fire

Matheson, Richard: I Am Legend

McCaffery, Anne: The Ship Who Sang; Dinosaur Planet

Merritt, A.: The Ship Of Ishtar; The Seven Footprints Of Satan; The Moon Pool; The Face In The Abyss; Dwellers In the Mirage; Creep Shadow Creep

Miller, Walter: A Canticle For Leibowitz

Moorcock, Michael: Legends From The End Of Time; The Jewel In The Skull; The Mad God’s Amulet; The Sleeping Sorceress; The Runestaff; The Lord of the Spiders; The Masters of the Pit; The City of the Beast; The Warlord of the Air; Stealer Of Souls; Stormbringer; Elric of Melnibone; The Sword Of The Dawn

Moore, C.L.: Northwest Smith; Jirel Of Joiry

Morris, William: The Well At Worlds End I; The Well At Worlds End II; The Wood Beyond the World; The Water of the Wondrous Isles

Mundy, Talbot: Tros Of Samothrace; Avenging Liafail 2; The Praetor's Dungeon 3; The Purple Pirate 6

Niven, Larry: The Man-Kzin Wars; A World Out Of Time; A Gift From Earth; Tales of Known Space; Neutron Star; The Magic May Return; The Magic Goes Away; The Flight of the Horse

Norman, John: Tarnsman Of Gor 1; Outlaw Of Gor 2; Priest-Kings Of Gor 3; Nomads Of Gor 4; Assassin Of Gor 5; Raiders Of Gor 6; Captive Of Gor 7; Hunters Of Gor 8; Marauders Of Gor 9, Tribesmen Of Gor 10, Slave Girl of Gor 11; Time Slave

Norton, Andre: Quag Keep; Exiles of the Stars; Warlock of Witch World; High Sorcery; Witch World; Sargasso Of Space; Lord Of Thunder

Nowlan, Philip F.: Armageddon 2419 A.D.

Offutt, Andrew J.: Demon In The Mirror; Eyes Of Sarsis; Web Of The Spider; Conan, The Sword of Skelos; Conan The Mercenary; Swords Against Darkness I; Swords Against Darkness II; Swords Against Darkness III; Swords Against Darkness IV; Swords Against Darkness V; The Iron Lords; Cormac Mac Art

Piper, H. Beam: Space Viking

Pratchett, Terry: The Colour Of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites, Mort

Pratt, Fletcher: Land Of Unreason; The Blue Star; The Well of the Unicorn; The Carnelian Cube

Saberhagen, Fred: The First Book Of Swords; Second Book Of Swords; Third Book Of Swords; Empire Of The East

Schmitz, James: The Witches of Karres

Shea, Michael: A Quest For Simbilis

Sims, John:

Sirota, Mike: Master Of Boranga

Smith, Clark Ashton: Lost Worlds Volume 1; Lost Worlds Volume 2; Out Of Space And Time 1; Out Of Space And Time 2; The Abominations of Yondo; Genius Loci; Poseidonis; Zothique; Hyperborea; Xiccarph; Tales Of Science And Sorcery; Other Dimensions 1; Other Dimensions 2

Smith, L. Neil: Lando Calrissian and the Midharp of Sharu; Lando Calrissian and the Starcave of Thonboka; Lando Calrissian and the Flamewind of Osean

Smith, E.E. ‘Doc’: Triplanetary

Springer, Nancy: The White Hart

St. Clair, Margaret: The Shadow People; Sign of the Labrys

Stasheff, Christopher: The Warlock Wandering; A Warlock's Blade; Warlock And Son; The Warlock Is Missing; Her Majesty's Wizard; King Kobold

Stewart, Mary: The Crystal Cave; The Hollow Hills; The Last Enchantment

Swann, Thomas: Green Phoenix; Cry Silver Bells; Moondust

Tolkien, J.R.R.: The Hobbit, The Lord Of The Rings

Tubb, E.C.:

Van Arnam, Dave: Star Barbarian

Van Vogt, A.E.: The Voyage Of The Space Beagle; Quest For The Future

Vance, Jack: The Languages Of The Pao; The Dragon Masters; The Best of Jack Vance; The Dying Earth; The Eyes of the Overworld; Cugel’s Saga; Rhialto The Marvelous; Trullion, Alastor 2262; Wyst, Alastor 1716; Marune, Alastor 933; The Faceless Man 1; The Brave Free Men 2; The Astura 3; Lyonesse 1; The Green Pearl 2; Madouc 3; The Face 4; The Blue World; Galactic Effectuator; Big Planet; City Of The Chasch 1; Servants of the Wanhk 2; The Dirdir 3; The Pnume 4; Suldrun's Garden

Verne, Jules: The Mysterious Island

Wagner, Karl E: Bloodstone, Death Angel’s Shadow, Dark Crusade

Weinbaum, Stanley; The Black Flame; A Martian Odyssey

Wellman, Manly Wade: The Old Gods Waken; The Hanging Stones; The Lost And The Lurking; After Dark; Silver John; Who Fears The Devil?

White, Theodore: The Once and Future King

Williams, Robert M.: Return of Jongor

Williamson, Jack: The Trial Of Terra; The Legion Of Space

Zelazny, Roger: Nine Princes In Amber; The Guns of Avalon; Sign of the Unicorn; The Hand of Oberon; The Courts of Chaos; Jack Of Shadows; Dilvish, The Damned; The Changing Land; Isle of the Dead; Trumps of Doom; Blood Of Amber; Sign Of Chaos; Knight Of Shadows; Prince of Chaos

The Endless Stair: Dungeon Inspiration

2011-10-03T12:07:00.011-06:00

I've been busy working on a 3-page dungeon design for The Endless Stair, an idea I had for a mega-dungeon, and have been searching for inspiration from the plethora of cave maps available on the internet.

My disenchantment with the traditional graph-paper-constrained dungeon maps continues to grow, as I pore over the myriad underground systems mapped by cavers.

The deeper I fall down this rabbit hole, the more tempted I am to dispense with graph-paper altogether, in favour of a scale legend and dimension map-notes.

Hirst Arts: Wooden Doors

2011-09-18T16:14:00.003-06:00

Here's a photo of some painted Hirst Arts wooden doors. I'm not entirely happy with the wood. Next time i'll go for something with a little more red. I was experimenting with the metallics, trying out the bronze and iron looks.

I'm going to build some wall sections next, and play around with the look of those.

Canadiana: Idle Eyes, Blue Peter, Eight Seconds

2011-09-15T23:58:00.002-06:00

Canadiana: Honeymoon Suite

2011-08-30T15:32:00.006-06:00

Honeymoon Suite is another 80's Rock Band that received plenty of airplay on Canadian radio stations, thanks to the CRTC Canadian content rules. If i'm not mistaken, 30% of all music played on canadian radio stations had to be Canadian. That percentage has since increased to 35%.

Burning In Love

Feel It again

New Girl Now

What does it take

Hirst Arts - Making Your Own Dungeon Tiles

2011-08-23T23:09:00.000-06:00

One of the more enjoyable facets of building your own dungeon tiles is creating additional molds to add your own unique pieces, as well as speed construction. At the beginning, it is smartest to restrict yourself to using the molds available from Hirst Arts, but at some point you may want to branch out and customize your dungeon tiles.

Bruce Hirst encourages people to do so, while observing that creating original molds is an exacting process. So far, my mold making efforts have been confined to creating molds to speed construction.

Here is an example. I created this mold to assist in the production of my floor tiles. It yields 14 half-by-one inch edged blocks, and 7 half-by-half corner blocks.

To produce this, I needed to make a master (the original blocks are glued to this piece of 5" x 8" glass.

You'll need a frame, in order to pour the silicone over the master and keep the silicone from running off the sides. In this case, I raided the lego collection of my son and made this 4" x 6" frame.

You'll also need some silicone. As far as I can tell, this Mold Max 40 is the same silicone that Bruce Hirst uses for his Hirst Arts molds, and it sets up fairly quickly.

The goal is to produce more of the floor tiles pictured below. While I have a glut of the one-inch centre blocks, I have very few of the edge pieces, thus necessitating my mold-making effort above.

Canadiana: Bachman-Turner Overdrive BTO

2011-08-23T22:27:00.001-06:00

Bachman-Turner Overdrive played music for the generation that preceded mine.

It doesn't mean I can't enjoy them, but I suspect their music is more meaningful to that generation than to me or mine. I still crank up the volume when I hear them on the radio though.

Trampier: Master Of Light And Shadow

2011-08-18T22:24:00.005-06:00

You can't help but marvel at David Trampier's mastery of light and shadow. Here's a beautiful example ripped from the pages of The Dragon, Issue Number 12, Volume II, No. 6, February 1978.

This DAT illustration accompanies a preview of Andre Norton's Dungeons and Dragons-based book, Quag Keep. If you pay attention, you'll notice that the seated adventurer, in the foreground, is wearing a bracelet encrusted with oddly-shaped dice.

Politics And Potato Salad: Sesame Street Edition

2011-08-16T20:07:00.004-06:00

Here endeth today's civics lesson.

Canadiana: Nash The Slash

2011-08-16T19:54:00.003-06:00

Dance after curfew (12inch Mix) by escaton78

I still can't find my favorite Nash the Slash song, I'm An American Band. Dance After Curfew will have to do.

Nash the Slash is the one wearing the fez, and wrapped entirely in bandages. That was intended to hide his true identity.

Warren Buffet To Legislators: Stop Coddling The Super-Rich

2011-08-15T12:19:00.004-06:00

I'm speechless. You can read the entire New York Times article here.

Warren Buffet's concluding sentence: "My friends and I have been coddled long enough by a billionaire-friendly Congress. It’s time for our government to get serious about shared sacrifice."

Canadiana: The Spoons

2011-08-12T21:47:00.000-06:00

Dice Pron

2011-08-04T18:51:00.007-06:00

There seems to be a lot of enthusiasm for dice pron posts. Here's a sampling of my dice. The picture above is my dice from the Holmes Basic DnD set. And the photo below is my new 7-sided die. It gets to be featured individually, as it is the first die that I paid more than $5 for.
And, finally, the rest of my dice. Lots of purples and pinks there. Those are for the three ladies of the house.

Hirst Arts - Cobblestone Floors

2011-08-03T18:27:00.004-06:00

There's an old saying: make hay while the sun shines. With only 4 months of the year available for casting here in Calgary, i'm spending as much time as possible pouring plaster to make more Hirst Arts elements. Here are more fruits of my labours. Several 3" x 3" cobblestone floor tiles.
Some of the tiles have straight edges, while others have a wavy edge. The wavy edge permits the tiles to be placed along side each other, while minimizing the seam between the tiles.

These are my "master" tiles. Using these, I will create new molds to speed up the floor tile casting process.

I still need to get working on my wall tiles. Once I have produced a couple, I will post them.

Microgame Collection Update

2011-08-01T16:22:00.006-06:00

My microgame collection is coming along quite nicely. I recently added a couple of titles, including Artifact, Goblin and Hitler's War. I'm missing most of the Dwarfstar Games, but I never collected those when they were first released, so they must be purchased from the resale market, meaning they are out of my price range (at least what i'm willing to pay).

Canadiana: Bryan Adams

2011-07-31T23:00:00.001-06:00

Bryan Adams "made it big" in the US, based on some of his sappier romantic ballads, but his earlier work is far better.

Vacation -- Day Three

2011-07-26T10:06:00.001-06:00

What with our internet access being unpredictably intermittent, this post is a little late. Yesterday morning began with more sourdough waffles (we've been promised them as long as they are in demand) fresh strawberries and ice cream.Then out for our morning constitutional, snapping photos along the way. We came across a couple of blackberry canes, with the first hints of blackberries growing on the tips.
We also came across a wild apple tree, with the branches groaning under the weight of its apples.
Down to the beach after lunch, for a swim. Following the swim we drove into Sicamous, a town 6 miles from the cabin, to buy more strawberries, fill up the gas tank, and buy a couple of ice creams at the local ice cream shoppe, D Dutchmen Dairy.
The kids had bubblegum, chocolate silk and strawberry wafflecones. The adults picked up two gallon pails of ice cream, one, chocolate raspberry swirl, the other, cherry custard.After dinner, we played an 8-player game of Settlers of Catan. Though I was not in the running for the title of victor, others did worse. It was a fun game, with lots of drama and betrayal.

Vacation -- Day Two

2011-07-24T23:08:00.012-06:00

Normally you start your vacation posts with day one, but yesterday was an adventure to say the least. A couple of hours before we left for vacation, there was a massive mudslide on the highway between Calgary and our cabin. The detour added 55 miles and four hours to our roadtrip. A roadtrip that should have taken us six hours ended up taking ten.

Everyone was in the same situation, as you can see from the photo of the traffic that was in front of us. Now imagine that the stalled traffic stretches for another 20 miles beyond the range of my camera.
Homemade waffles with fresh fruit and ice cream this morning make up for a miserable roadtrip.
That, and lakeside views like this. Today we went for a long walk on the property, visited with some family, did a huge grocery run, and enjoyed a hot tub.

Tomorrow: day three.

Hirst Arts Elements Part III

2011-07-22T21:54:00.000-06:00

My first Hirst Arts elements post was dominated by doors. This post features pillars.Here we have a corner pillar, a crate with a removable lid, a keg and a pillar section.
Here are two additional pillar sections, a plain pillar and a 3/4 corner pillar.
The top corner pillar has some interesting runes on the edges. There is also an alcove pillar, a pillar with a hooded figure, and a tubular pillar in the bottom corner.
Here are some other interesting elements, including another crate, various sacks of grain, a crystal ball and a lion's face.
Finally, we have a pile of coins, a broken barrel and pail, a pile of bones, and a campfire with flames.

Hirst Arts Elements Part II - Altars

2011-07-21T11:59:00.001-06:00

I promised I would post a couple of pictures of painted Hirst Arts elements. Here are a couple of altars that I built and painted. These were my first efforts at building and painting.
The great thing about the Hirst Arts elements is that the configurations are endless. Here is a 1 1/2" x 1/2" altar, painted brown. The corners, edges and centre blocks are separate pieces and in 1/4" sections, so you can make something as small as 1/2" x 1/2", or as large as you want.
Here are two 1" x 1/2" altars painted blue and white. I laid the white on too heavily, but it's easy to build new ones, or repaint these.
My favorite altar of the three, and i'm sorry that the picture is so grainy. This 1 1/2" x 1" red altar will be perfect for an evil shrine or the sacrificial altar for a death cult.

Hirst Arts Elements Part I

2011-07-19T12:35:00.001-06:00

Here are photos of 15 of the roughly 120 Hirst Arts elements that I have available to me. Sorry for the quality of the photos, I was shooting these with my iPod, which has terrible resolution. I have painted very few elements, but I will post a couple that have been painted tomorrow. This first set of photos includes a bench or temple pew, a treasure chest, a wooden door, and a door to a prison cell. This second set of photos includes a brazier with flames atop it, a stone door, a steel door, and a gate. Here we have a series of photos that include a crate, an empty barrel, an urn, and a small pool.
Finally, we have a peaked door, a large metal-bound and locked door, and a basin.

Hirst Arts Elements: Casting Time Of Zero

2011-07-18T12:08:00.004-06:00

One of the questions posed to me the other day, about casting Hirst Arts molds, relates to the required time for casting the plaster elements. Sadly, the casting time for Hirst Arts is NOT zero.

However, with a little planning, you can complete one mold every six minutes.
Here's a series of photos showing the Hirst Arts casting process. In addition to the Hirst Arts molds (in green, plus one of my own molds in pink) you will need some plastic cups, water for mixing with the plaster (in the Indiana Jones popcorn bucket) and a soaking tub for your molds, complete with jet dry mixed in to the water, to break the water tension in the soaker. Obviously, you'll need some plaster. I recommend dental plaster...this is a 50 lb box of the stuff. You'll also need some paper towels and spoons.
The white molds are mine. The larger stack of green molds are more Hirst Arts molds, and next to them are four 5" and 6" drywall knives, used to scrape the top of the molds to make all of the blocks and elements level and the same size. Sometimes we have all four drywall knives going, which means more molds being cast.
This is the demolding table, with two bits cabinets that hold 60 drawers each. On the table are several Hirst Arts casting elements that have recently been removed from their molds. Paper towel has been placed on the table, to protect the table from scratches and assist in drawing out any excess moisture that may be in the elements as they are being removed from the molds.
Here's the other end of the demolding table. I use old plastic berry containers to hold some of the larger or more frequently cast plaster elements. The smaller or less frequently cast elements are placed in the bits cabinets.
I have a lot of plaster elements previously cast and waiting to be brought together. Here are more berry and ziplock containers holding additional plaster bits.
The casting table is set up at the entrance to the garage. The pictured molds have been pre-soaked in the jet dry tub (the jet dry tends to break up the bubbles that form in the plaster and helps the plaster to flow into all the crevices of the molds) and are resting on paper towels that will soak up any excess moisture and unused plaster. The table has been covered with a black garbage bag to prevent stratches from the plaster and make cleanup easier. I get a lot of neighbourhood traffic dropping by to see what i'm doing, which gives me the opportunity to catch up on the latest gossip while i'm casting.
I half-fill the plastic cup with water. I know there is a specific ratio, but i'm too lazy to measure the water and plaster precisely, and this process is pretty old-hat now so I go mostly on feel.
I slowly add the plaster to the water until the cup is nearly full, usually only a 1/2 inch from the rim, and the plaster no longer absorbs into the water.
Here's the final product, after some vigorous stirring with a spoon, plus a little plaster on my hands.
The plaster mixture should be thick enough that it has the consistency of a thin milkshake.
Now it's time to pour. Some people spoon the mixture into the molds, but again, LAZY, I just pour the plaster directly from the cup. A little bit of splashing, but not bad. As you can see, on the right, the first mold is poured, and bubbles are starting to form on top, when trapped air has risen to the surface.
Nearly done the pour on the second mold.
And here are the first set of six molds, poured. The next step is vibrating the molds, so that any unreleased air bubbles can be released. I'll try to get to the next steps in a day or so.

Canadiana: Triumph

2011-07-17T21:58:00.000-06:00

Lay it On the Line

Tears In The rain

Just One Night

Somebodys Out there

Follow Your Heart

Hirst Arts: Three Dimensional Dungeons

2011-07-17T10:03:00.003-06:00

I've been spending much of my time, lately, casting Hirst Arts blocks.

Hirst Arts is an web-based company that offers a line of rubber molds. Those molds produce plaster-of-paris blocks that can be used to build castles, dungeons, buildings and table-top gaming terrain elements.

From the 20 Hirst Arts molds that I currently possess, I am creating a set of three-dimensional dungeon tiles, complete with walls and dungeon dressing, to add some visual interest to our dungeon-delving sessions. Thus far, I have produced nine different kinds of dungeon floor tiles.

Each dungeon tile shown below is 3" x 3", comprising a 10' x 10' section, so that the tiles can fit together to make hallways and rooms. The walls will sit on the inside edges of the tiles, providing sufficient room in the middle of the tiles to have two 28mm miniatures walking abreast down a hallway.
The above picture shows my favorite set of tiles so far. Those dungeon tiles have a decorative edge running along the borders of the tiles. The edging appears to be made of runic script. I will use those tiles when the players find a section of dungeon that is more skillfully hewn from the surrounding rock, and the path of the runes will carry them to specific encounter or dungeon elements.
Most of the dungeon tiles will be comprised of these chipped stone numbers.

The benefit of this tile configuration (with the one-inch blocks in the center and smaller blocks around the edges) is that you can put the tiles together and the half- or quarter-blocks on the edges create full blocks when placed side-by-side. Those tiles can be used both for room and hallway tiles.

For a time, I agonized over the configuration of my dungeon tiles. Based on the design, the floor scale is 1" = 3 ft. 4 in. Compare that to 28mm figures, which translate to a vertical scale of 1" = 5 ft. Ultimately, the convenience of laying out connectible dungeon tiles (with the walls internal to each tile) won out over my need to keep the horizontal and vertical scales congruent.
This 10' section of dungeon tile is for cobblestone floors. It has an irregular edge so that the seams between floor tiles are less obtrusive.

I envision using this style of dungeon tile for hallways such as the entrance to the Tomb Of Horrors. In the ToH, a path of differently-colored stones winds its way down a 20' wide hallway.
Here is a dungeon tile with a herringbone pattern. The tiles lock together. This particular set will take some time to produce, since there is only 1 of the 1" blocks on the Hirst Arts mold, so I need to cast that mold 9 times to create one 10' x 10' section.
The same is true of the above tile. This decorative tile will be a good choice for royal chambers, temples and other lavish rooms.
The above dungeon tile has a neat octogonal pattern, however, the seams between the blocks is too pronounced. I'm still trying to find a way to fill those seams so that they don't distract from the tile pattern.

Don't ask me to tile your home. As you can see, I didn't do a very good job of laying down these smaller blocks to create floor sections that have tiles set at a 45 degree angle to the direction of the hall or room.

The first of these two tiles is of chipped stone, the second in smooth tiles.
This last dungeon tile is made up of cracked, smooth blocks. I prefer these less than the chipped stone blocks, since it's more difficult to give the final, painted version of these tiles visual interest.

My next task is to start working on the walls and dungeon dressing. Fortunately, I have well over 120 different elements to choose from, based on the Hirst Arts molds I already have access to. I will post some pictures of some of those other block elements so you can see the breadth of elements available in creating a three-dimensional dungeon environment.

Salem's Lot: Horror Adventure Inspiration

2011-07-12T11:34:00.001-06:00

As a young lad, I watched "I, Claudius", Salem's Lot, and Night Stalker and found them equally terrifying. My older siblings stayed up late to watch I, Claudius and Night Stalker, and I would often sneak out of bed to watch those TV shows with them, despite being far too young for the adult content.

Several years later, the Salem's Lot mini-series was broadcast on television. Even though I was many years older, I found the final episode, featuring the grisly death of Dr. Norton, the vampire horde in the basement, and the reunion with Susan, quite frightening.

All three of the above shows would make good fodder for horror-themed adventures, but I consider Salem's Lot to be particularly inspirational, since i've always wanted to DM a long-running, all-cleric, vampire-hunter themed horror campaign.

As far as role-playing adventures go, i'm not familiar with any really good horror adventures. That may simply be because my purchases have favoured traditional fantasy fare.

I'm tempted to buy Salem's Lot, and mine it for adventure ideas.

Canadiana: Stampeders

2011-07-10T11:44:00.006-06:00

For the next ten days we're celebrating the Calgary Stampede ... The Greatest Outdoor Show On Earth.

Due to OVERWHELMING demand, I give you The Stampeders, a Calgary band from the late 60's and early 70's.

One of the following clips is an actual performance at the Calgary Stampede, albeit 1971 or thereabouts.

Wishing you were all here, whooping it up with me! Banjos optional.

Canadiana: Three Days Grace

2011-07-10T00:12:00.001-06:00

Three Days Grace - Pain (Official Music Video). Watch more top selected videos about: Three Days Grace

Community: Modern Warfare

2011-07-09T13:03:00.017-06:00

We, we turned on each other; like ... like ANIMALS! This is not over ... this is still happening, RIGHT NOW!

This has to stop!
Put me in the game...

If you liked the Fat Neil / Advanced Dungeons and Dragons episode, you must see the Modern Warfare episode of Community.

Canadiana: Kim Mitchell

2011-07-09T11:33:00.007-06:00

Some pretty negative vibes these days in the blogosphere. I think eveyone needs to take Kim Mitchell's advice...might as well go for a soda!

Might as well go for a soda nobody hurts and nobody cries
Might as well go for a soda nobody drowns and nobody dies
Might as well go for a soda its better than slander better than lies

And once you've done that, make sure you do your rock n roll duty.

Remember, we're not in it for the money, we're in it for love love love...

Traveller: Zhdits Destroyer Escort

2011-07-07T23:21:00.003-06:00

A failed experiment in screening Zhodani Destroyers from enemy fire, the Zhdits Destroyer Escort is nevertheless one of my favorite Traveller starship designs.

The thin neck and forward bridge, along with the winglike aft, gives the Zhdits a vaguely Klingon bird-of-prey or Romulan warbird vibe.

Since my early science fiction indoctrination was heavily informed by original Star Trek, the Zhodani initially became a convenient stand-in for the Klingons and Romulans.

Once I put my hands on the full-sized Zhodani Traveller supplement, my view of the Zhodani became more nuanced.

But I still think of Zhodani starships in Zhdits / Klingon / Romulan terms, and am slightly annoyed to see other, non-needle-shaped starship designs promulgated for the Zhodani.

What We Did On Canada Day

2011-07-02T12:34:00.002-06:00

Since I was Mr. Mom this weekend (my spouse is working on contract and has been away for the better part of the week) the kids and I went to Calaway Park for Canada Day.

Calaway Park is an amusement park roughly 10 miles west of Calgary (towards the Rocky Mountains).

Many summers ago, I worked at Calaway Park. One of the best jobs ever. There was a large contingent of 18-25 year olds, and after the park closed at 10 p.m., we were off to some bar, and on more than one occasion I got home just in time to change and race back to work for my 10 a.m. shift.

Ah, to be young and stupid. But I digress.

Calaway Park has grown substantially since I worked there back in 1985 (it now has 35 different rides). Here is a Park map.

My kids' favorite ride is the swings, called the Dream Machine. It was my six-year-old daughter's first time on the swings, and she wanted to keep riding it, but there were too many other rides, so we had to move on.
My ten-year-old daughter loves the roller coaster, but do you think I can get her older brother to ride with her? We'll have to keep working him over!
Here's a photo, from the top of a viewtower at the centre of the Park. This is looking towards the north. We bought season's passes to the Park, and the drive to the Park is only 15 minutes, since we live on the west side of Calgary. We normally get there at 10 am, when the Park opens, and leave at noon, since the Park gets really busy by early afternoon.

Canadiana: Trooper

2011-07-01T21:44:00.002-06:00

In recognition of Canada Day, here is a classic Canadian party-band ... Trooper.

Happy Canada Day!

2011-07-01T09:50:00.002-06:00

Magic Realm: The Black Knight

2011-06-27T12:10:00.007-06:00

I've mentioned before that Avalon Hill's Magic Realm is the best fantasy-adventure role-playing board-game ever invented.

Magic Realm's greatest fault? An earlier set of labyrinthine, and nearly inscrutable, rules. Those rules caused most Magic Realm early-adopters to throw up their hands in frustration, relegating the game to the top shelf of the game cabinet, never to be played again.

Though the rules remain labyrinthine, they have since been cleaned up by a group of stalwart fans. But the game is now long out of print. And it's unlikely to be reprinted anytime soon, since the world has moved on from the chit and hex styled board-game.

Attempts to purchase a copy of Magic Realm are an exercise in frustration, because of the game's out-of-print and cult status. But you can obtain a free electronic version, called Realmspeak, that is a near perfect re-creation of the board-game.

The problem is, once you download Realmspeak, what do you do with it?
That's where video tutorials come in. Here is the first part in a series of tutorials at Bookshelf Games, this one using the Black Knight, my favorite Magic Realm character.

Magic Realm Black Knight 2 Week 1 from BookshelfGames on Vimeo.

If you have a copy of Magic Realm, or are interested in trying Realmspeak, these videos are a good place to start, to understanding how Magic Realm works, and what you are supposed to do, with each of the Magic Realm characters.

Dungeon Crawl Classics: Charisma

2011-06-26T15:45:00.002-06:00

The Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG renames three of the six traditional Dungeons and Dragons attributes, keeps two, and jettisons one, replacing it with a new attribute, Luck.

The jettisoned attribute? Charisma.

I understand that DCCRPG is its' own game, and I can't expect everything I like about Dungeons and Dragons to appear in that new game, but there's something about the absence of a Charisma that is unsettling me.

Wisdom is one of the renamed attributes, and has been called Personality. Perhaps Goodman's intention is to merge Wisdom and Charisma into that new Personality attribute. However, there are no rules in the DCCRPG beta for the effects of Personality on encounter checks or the retention of henchmen or hirelings.

The only effect that Personality has is that it modifies the spell-casting power of Clerics and improves Willpower checks.

Perhaps i'm one of the few old-schoolers who promotes the use of henchmen and hirelings. To me, the inclusion of henchmen, hirelings and followers is an integral part of emulating the tales of Conan, Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, and other classic sword and sorcery tales.

Dungeon Crawl Classics: Funky Dice

2011-06-26T00:29:00.003-06:00

I finally broke down and picked up a d7 on my way home from work on Friday.

I visited the Sentry Box, where my inquiry about d7's was greeted with empty stares. Fortunately, after searching the counter, me and the staff found one (that's right, just one) d7, along with a d14 and d16, all in a mixed bowl of dice. I didn't purchase either the d14 and d16, as they were expensive and were un-inked crystal dice. I'm not a big fan of crystal dice.

One of the odder complaints about Dungeon Crawl Classics is unhappiness with the introduction of the new funky dice. Funky d3, d5, d7, d14, d16, d24 and d30 dice are planned additions, to be used along side the usual random generator suspects. Not sure why the complaints, other than perceptions that the funky dice are a money-grab.

Of the new dice being added to DCC, only the purchase of the d7 is really necessary. The rest are easily emulated, either by using existing dice, or by adding a control die.

The d3? Roll a d6 and divide by 2, rounding up to the next higher whole number.

Same with the d5: roll a d10, divide by two, and round up.

The d14, d16 and d24 can be emulated by rolling a d7, d8 or d12 in conjunction with a d6 control die. Simply add 7, 8 or 12, respectively, if the d6 comes up odd.

As for the d30, roll a d10 and d6 control die, and add 10 if the control comes up 3 or 4, and 20 if the control comes up 5 or 6.

You can generate most any DCC funky dice range using the existing dice and the d7. But there is one die that we still need, that DCC does not even consider a use for. The d9.

The d2, d3, d4, d5, d6, d7 and d8 are already represented, or can be emulated by rolling a single existing die. But we have no d9. Now I know you can generate a d9 range by using two d6, one as a control die and one as a d3, but it's nice to be able to roll a single die to generate a range, where possible. I was mentioning my desire for a d9 on Jeff's Gameblog, and magic pointed me to shapeways, which has a d9 on its site.

The only prohibitive aspect of this d9 is the price. I nearly swallowed my tongue when I found out the d7 at Sentry Box was $5.00. The d9 is priced at over $8.30, and that does not include shipping. When you consider the price, two d6 to emulate a d9 doesn't seem like such a bad idea.

Still, it would be neat to have a d9 in my arsenal.

Canadiana: Aldo Nova

2011-06-24T21:49:00.007-06:00

Continuing on with our exciting survey of execrable Canadian supergroups and one hit wonders, we have everybody's favorite leopard-print wearing musician, Aldo Caporuscio.

Aldo Nova is what you might call a one-and-a-half hit wonder. Skip to the 1:20 mark of Fantasy to hear the actual song, the first minute or so is too painful to sit through.

Ball and Chain got a lot of airplay in Canada. They didn't do a very good job of synching the music to the video here. Again, skip the first minute to get to the song.

Foolin' Yourself made it on both the Canadian and US charts.

Finally, an Aldo Nova retrospective would be incomplete without an eyepatch and a black panther...

Shields Deserve Better, Dammit!

2011-06-23T13:49:00.001-06:00

This table is from Chainmail, the earliest combat system for Dungeons and Dragons.

I wish to draw your attention to the first three armor class columns: No Armor (9), Shield Only (8), and Leather Only (7).

As you can see, Shield Only is a better defensive option than Leather Only.

Against four weapons, Sheild Only is better than Leather Only. Against the other nine weapons, Shield Only is as good as Leather Only.

Somewhere in translation, Armor Class 7 (Leather Only) mistakenly became better than Armor Class 8 (Shield Only).

Jungle Ruins: Dungeons In Reverse

2011-06-22T17:49:00.000-06:00

What about using a city map as a dungeon, but instead of the DM creating the hallways between the rooms and or buildings, the players have to use machetes to clear a path through the jungle, between the locations they want to explore?

Essentially, as each 10x10 or hexagonal section of the wilderness map is cleared, the DM denotes the clearance in a color (yellow for instance). Once the players clear a path, they can then explore that particular building.

It's a little bit like a hexcrawl, since the players may have only a vague idea of which direction each of the taller ruins are in. In addition, the DM can place certain natural hazards and encounters in various locations, that take some effort to reach.

This would also have the benefit of being able to give players a map of the ruins, a map that may have certain inaccuracies that the DM can exploit.

Dungeon Crawl Classics: Cover

2011-06-22T00:03:00.001-06:00

Trampier is a hard act to follow.

His cover of the ADnD Players Handbook is so iconic (and not just to the millions of players who grew up with the DnD game in the period 1978 to 1983) that all the subsequent illustrations pale in comparison.

Even though TSR eventually replaced the original cover of the Players Handbook, Trampier's illustration transcended all the covers that came later, and the original cover has spawned endless homages, parodies and imitators.

Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG has it's work cut out for it, then, in trying to come up with the look for the Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. In order to be successful, they need to attract four groups of gamers. One, the old-school gamers who are still playing pre-third edition DnD. Two, d20 gamers who want to try an old-school system that is in-print. Three, Pathfinder and 4E gamers that are aching for something a little more unpredictable. And four, lapsed gamers who are nearing middle age and want to relive the magic of those halcyon days of ADnD.

The last group is the most important for Goodman Games. Why? Because the other three have built-in biases about what they want or need from a game. The lapsed gamers though, they will be walking into a game-store, looking for something that immediately reminds them of the games they played in their youth.

Which is why the decision on a cover for DCC RPG is so important. Those lapsed gamers will see Hackmaster and a plethora of other games, with homages to the original Trampier cover, and be drawn to them for nostalgic reasons.

I'm sure you can see where i'm heading here.

I really like Doug Kovacs' illustrations. He's a talented artist. I particularly like his illustrations on pages 51, 55, 61, 77 and 91. But the cover illustration for Dungeon Crawl Classics doesn't say Dungeon Crawl, or Classics, at least not to me.

And before you think that I want to see another imitation of Tramp's Players Handbook cover, let me assure you that I don't. The original Tramp cover has been re-done too many times. However, this Roslof illustration fits the Dungeon Crawl Classics moniker much better. It shows a party engaging in a dungeon crawl. And it showcases the four classic characters; fighter, magic-user, cleric and thief. The poster also used the old DnD font, which some think apes the trade-dress of original DnD too closely, but would certainly catch my attention if I was a nostalgic lapsed gamer, looking to re-engage in an beloved past-time, or introduce it to my children.

And finally, if that Roslof illustration doesn't match your vision of what the front cover of a Dungeon Crawl Classics game should look like, let me suggest another great Tramp illustration, that has not been overdone but would serve as fodder for an apt homage and alternate cover for DCC RPG.

Dungeon Crawl Classics: Cartoons

2011-06-21T22:00:00.009-06:00

One of my favorite things about the original ADnD rulebooks and Dragon magazines was the inclusion of humorous cartoons (mostly by Will McLean) poking fun at the tropes and conventions of the game.

Chuck Whelon is credited with the cartoons in the beta version of Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. His cartoons are every bit as much fun as those of Will McLean. You can find Chuck Whelon's blog, where he publishes the cartoons that are to be included in DCC RPG, here.

I'm glad the Goodman Games has decided to include some cartoon humor in their DCC rulebook.

Dungeon Crawl Classics: Magic Cards

2011-06-21T21:46:00.001-06:00

About four months ago, Sully of A Pack Of Gnolls posted this sample DnD spell card. I thought, and still think, that cards for magic spells is a great idea.

Fast forward to June 2011, and the beta release of Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG. The magic system in DCC RPG just begs for a spell card system, with the name, an illustration and effects of each spell printed on the front of a card. The spell card can be flipped face-down when the magic user fails her casting roll, signifying that the spell is no longer available.

My suggestion to Goodman Games is that they reduce and tighten up the range of spell effects so that each spell description and effects can be printed on the front of the card.

Perhaps the initial offering of magic cards can be for first to third level spells, and the range of results be limited to results between 12 and 25 (since a roll of one to eleven means failure, we don't need that range printed on each of the cards).