Been spending A LOT of time on the internet recently. I would like to think that this qualifies me as a power user, but there's a connotation of productivity there that is misleading in this case. Digging around Google's basement and work shed, pretty interesting, and tonight was also one the most entertaining nights at K&K Alehouse. Funny conversations.
Anyway, I have resigned myself to utter and complete google fanboyism. I am google's man now. One consequence of this capitulation is that I am going to stop writing at Tran Eskoor an Doon and start a blog under my real actual human being google account, to whatever extent blogging comes from these quarters - it certainly has tapered off of late for me anyway... 204 posts over the last few years, oldest post from 1/19/09.
I'll post the new address once I get it set up.
In the meantime - Great Googs to ya!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Friday, July 8, 2011
Did I watch that? Yes I did.
I've broken the long running media block. I mentioned Netflicks - lot of things on there. So NOW I know why everybody was ape-shit about Firefly! There were three Flying Circus episodes I'd not caught before. Since Conan the Barbarian was not up for streaming, I threw down with She. It was a suggestion and I always do what they tell me.
Wow. She. Some people actually made this movie! Someone with some money thought it sounded like a good idea - and then went ahead and produced it! Amazing stuff, B-movie bad style + big dose of really intense 80's dumb.
Wow. She. Some people actually made this movie! Someone with some money thought it sounded like a good idea - and then went ahead and produced it! Amazing stuff, B-movie bad style + big dose of really intense 80's dumb.
Stand tall Aldeboran!
Since the comments are off over there, gotta post here instead - Don't go Limpey! I remember when people were giving you shit because you posted about politics. Giving you shit, that is, on your blog about what you were writing on your blog. Your blog is one I have personally really appreciated both for your D&D-think and (maybe even moreso) the non-D&D.
If you go nuke, won't hold it against you. Can't blame you for not wanting to deal with more assholes than necessary, and blogging is a choice - not blogging is an easy way to cut yourself off from a planet's worth of jerks. It's hard to ignore them when you give them a platform to use (that is, comments on the blog) - but I do sincerely hope you stick around.
If you go nuke, won't hold it against you. Can't blame you for not wanting to deal with more assholes than necessary, and blogging is a choice - not blogging is an easy way to cut yourself off from a planet's worth of jerks. It's hard to ignore them when you give them a platform to use (that is, comments on the blog) - but I do sincerely hope you stick around.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Did I read? Yes I did!
Well - I did read some books last month (decided to re-read Song of Ice & Fire in light of the next book apparently coming out soon, and the TV show and whatnot). I'm still enjoying the books, but don't really have a lot to say about them. It's like a soap opera with swords essentially - and I don't necessarily mean that in a derogatory way. These are the days of our lives... (also read a Horseclans book after seeing many internet people say they liked them. jury's still out.)
Didn't read much the last few months, not post much here mainly because I was in the middle of studying for a certification exam. 4 month class leading to a certification. Basically when I was not studying I was not able to get past the feeling that I should be studying, so I did not have much brainspace for gaming and such. Good news is that I have have letters after my name now! (those are CPC-A). The idea now is that I go out and get a big-boy job. After most of a lifetime working in kitchens, this concept is appealing to me, professional development. One of those months involved a wisdom tooth blowup and a big month for freelance writing (sorely needed).
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Additionally, broke down and got netflicks. First film watched? They Live. The fight scene based around one guy wanting the other guy to put on a pair of sunglasses is one of the best things in movies. Ever. Carpenter is a primitive.
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Did get some of my first deep Runequest reading in there somewhere though. I was pretty blown away. Cults of Prax, Runemasters, and Dorastor. Looking forward to reading more, but that stuff is pretty pricey - also got my first look at a Hackmaster rule book. I've ended up with some of the monster books over the years, but never seen any of their actual rule implementation of 1e. It is funny that the DMG is largely organized in the same way as 1e's DMG - transferring semi-instinctive knowledge is a pretty neat trick(like where the gem tables would be found for example, or rules for spying missions by feel of page thickness).
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Since I'm not taking a dump on anyone else's internet life with this post, I'll bypass making a pittance to the brawler right now...
Didn't read much the last few months, not post much here mainly because I was in the middle of studying for a certification exam. 4 month class leading to a certification. Basically when I was not studying I was not able to get past the feeling that I should be studying, so I did not have much brainspace for gaming and such. Good news is that I have have letters after my name now! (those are CPC-A). The idea now is that I go out and get a big-boy job. After most of a lifetime working in kitchens, this concept is appealing to me, professional development. One of those months involved a wisdom tooth blowup and a big month for freelance writing (sorely needed).
--------------
Additionally, broke down and got netflicks. First film watched? They Live. The fight scene based around one guy wanting the other guy to put on a pair of sunglasses is one of the best things in movies. Ever. Carpenter is a primitive.
--------------
Did get some of my first deep Runequest reading in there somewhere though. I was pretty blown away. Cults of Prax, Runemasters, and Dorastor. Looking forward to reading more, but that stuff is pretty pricey - also got my first look at a Hackmaster rule book. I've ended up with some of the monster books over the years, but never seen any of their actual rule implementation of 1e. It is funny that the DMG is largely organized in the same way as 1e's DMG - transferring semi-instinctive knowledge is a pretty neat trick(like where the gem tables would be found for example, or rules for spying missions by feel of page thickness).
--------------
Since I'm not taking a dump on anyone else's internet life with this post, I'll bypass making a pittance to the brawler right now...
Saturday, June 11, 2011
Scattered thoughts on DCC RPG
I've not sat down and rolled up any mooks with it, let alone played it, but here's my read-through impressions.
CORE MECHANIC & EDITION DIFFERENCES
- Games are games and I don't have a knee-jerk hatred of the core mechanic. Much of my early gaming was with Tunnels and Trolls, and I was grateful to have a default method to resolve actions. When 3rd edition D&D came out I thought that the Fortitude/Reflex/Will saving roll categories were one of the better 'innovations' of the game as regards ease-of-play. So this is not a 'deal-breaker' for me.
- It does take out of 3e iterations some the things that I did not like (feats, skills, etc), and leaves in some that I did like.
- Funky dice? Why not?
CHARACTERS
- Luck. Like it. Of course, players will likely 'forget' that their score is low in tight circumstances. I'd also probably ignore the 'sacrifice luck for +6 to roll' thing. My past experience with Fate/Hero/etc points has left a bad taste in my mouth.
- I like that demi-humans learn their native language as an exception. Humanocentrism FTW!!!
- In principle, I like the whole "roll up a bunch of farmers & cross your fingers" thing. Early attrition is a virtue in my opinion - at least the importance of player knowledge of the fragility of their characters in the early game is a virtue. Would the same ends not be served however by rolling up a bunch of 1st level fellers and then throwing them up against some ogres, something tougher than centipedes & slimes?
- Always appreciated Stormbringer's early steps in character generation (i.e. you don't choose to be Melnibonian, you roll on a table and find out that you are a beggar of Nadsokor instead), and so that's one aspect of DCC character generation that I like. It also brings in the background "skill" concept cursorily touched upon in the DMG.
- Not a fan of clerics in general, but allowing their powers to be applied to creature types other than undead is potentially a step in the right direction.
- Cthulhu as neutral? In the three alignment scheme, agreed.
- Apparently I'd really be screwing the thief over if I did away with the luck burn.
I like the thief variations by alignment.
- Mighty deeds of arms. Again, coming from a T&T background, this stuff is second-nature. I'm glad to see it dealt with, and the simple categorization (blinding, disarm, etc) is functional.
- Wizards. There's a lot going on with the wizards. I like the random spell determination (big surprise there!) and the patron material. Would initially be inclined to allow wizard players to start with 3 random spells and chose the patron pair of spells in place of the fourth. The patron stuff is the kind of thing I've always wanted to cultivate with players of magic users. Some like the idea, some hate it. It is consistent with the rest of the game though to keep patronage a matter of luck/fate/chance (at least at the beginning of the game, if it is rolled up as a known spell).
- Not much to say about the dwarves.
- AHA! The elves have automatic patron. OK. I like the iron prohibition also.
- Not much to say about halflings either. Been avoiding them for years... they'd be super-screwed by fiddling luck-burn out, and I do like the lucky charm idea here. Multiple halflings in the party? Roll to see which one has the charm for that adventure.
SKILLS
- Still not a fan of explicitly tying skills to a single stat for purposes of modifying skill rolls. Leave it up to interpretation. Things that are obvious to one GM are not so obvious to others. Arguments can be made for various interpretations - Balance: agility or strength? Break down door: strength or constitution? As a GM, I would rather figure these things for myself, or be free to use different stats in different circumstances. A quibble. I do appreciate the fact that there is a section called WHEN NOT TO MAKE A SKILL CHECK and think it could be expanded, emphasized, and placed closer to the start of the whole section, before even the mechanical explanation of how to resolve them.
- Reminds me that I need to finish writing about Rolemaster's School of Hard Knocks... Each skill in that book has it's own resolution table a la the spells presented in DCC...
COMBAT
- Crits & fumbles. I like this kind of stuff. I like doing it by class/level vs per weapon (again Rolemaster) or general (BRP/Arduin/etc), but I think it might be better to modify the roll by level instead of breaking the tables out into different level-appropriate results. A design decision, obviously, and likely an option considered and decided against.
- Spell duels. Always wanted to see a good implementation of such things, and this is likable. The momentum tracking and phlogiston disturbance table is a bit too fiddly for me (ironic since I still spend so much time proselytizing the theory in pamplets and lectures at society meetings), but wizard players like fiddly things, don't they?
MAGIC
- This looks like a fun game to play a wizard in. The uncertainty of successful casting might be mitigated by wizard's increased selection of weapons.
- I disagree with the 'reversed spell is a separate spell' thing, always have. Personal preference. But particularly given the uncertainty of casting built into the system I would be even more inclined to allow a caster to throw a reversed form of a known spell.
- Perhaps it is hypocritical to dislike luck-burn and like spell-burn. Call me a hypocrite.(once per comment though, please.)
- Mercurial magic & corruption: like them both, but corruption coupled with spell-failure effects might be too much. This is the kind of thing I'd have to see in play to decide on I think.
-----------
Overall, it looks great. I love the art (personally I don' think there's too much of it) and there's a lot of neat ideas here. Having played a lot of Rolemaster, tables and charts for specific details do not phase me too much, and as you play a game with a lot of such things, you get used to it, or adapt (i.e. use a copy machine). The spell tables are the kind of thing that would be good as reference pages, cards, etc.
Looks like it would be a fun game to play and not difficult to run.
CORE MECHANIC & EDITION DIFFERENCES
- Games are games and I don't have a knee-jerk hatred of the core mechanic. Much of my early gaming was with Tunnels and Trolls, and I was grateful to have a default method to resolve actions. When 3rd edition D&D came out I thought that the Fortitude/Reflex/Will saving roll categories were one of the better 'innovations' of the game as regards ease-of-play. So this is not a 'deal-breaker' for me.
- It does take out of 3e iterations some the things that I did not like (feats, skills, etc), and leaves in some that I did like.
- Funky dice? Why not?
CHARACTERS
- Luck. Like it. Of course, players will likely 'forget' that their score is low in tight circumstances. I'd also probably ignore the 'sacrifice luck for +6 to roll' thing. My past experience with Fate/Hero/etc points has left a bad taste in my mouth.
- I like that demi-humans learn their native language as an exception. Humanocentrism FTW!!!
- In principle, I like the whole "roll up a bunch of farmers & cross your fingers" thing. Early attrition is a virtue in my opinion - at least the importance of player knowledge of the fragility of their characters in the early game is a virtue. Would the same ends not be served however by rolling up a bunch of 1st level fellers and then throwing them up against some ogres, something tougher than centipedes & slimes?
- Always appreciated Stormbringer's early steps in character generation (i.e. you don't choose to be Melnibonian, you roll on a table and find out that you are a beggar of Nadsokor instead), and so that's one aspect of DCC character generation that I like. It also brings in the background "skill" concept cursorily touched upon in the DMG.
- Not a fan of clerics in general, but allowing their powers to be applied to creature types other than undead is potentially a step in the right direction.
- Cthulhu as neutral? In the three alignment scheme, agreed.
- Apparently I'd really be screwing the thief over if I did away with the luck burn.
I like the thief variations by alignment.
- Mighty deeds of arms. Again, coming from a T&T background, this stuff is second-nature. I'm glad to see it dealt with, and the simple categorization (blinding, disarm, etc) is functional.
- Wizards. There's a lot going on with the wizards. I like the random spell determination (big surprise there!) and the patron material. Would initially be inclined to allow wizard players to start with 3 random spells and chose the patron pair of spells in place of the fourth. The patron stuff is the kind of thing I've always wanted to cultivate with players of magic users. Some like the idea, some hate it. It is consistent with the rest of the game though to keep patronage a matter of luck/fate/chance (at least at the beginning of the game, if it is rolled up as a known spell).
- Not much to say about the dwarves.
- AHA! The elves have automatic patron. OK. I like the iron prohibition also.
- Not much to say about halflings either. Been avoiding them for years... they'd be super-screwed by fiddling luck-burn out, and I do like the lucky charm idea here. Multiple halflings in the party? Roll to see which one has the charm for that adventure.
SKILLS
- Still not a fan of explicitly tying skills to a single stat for purposes of modifying skill rolls. Leave it up to interpretation. Things that are obvious to one GM are not so obvious to others. Arguments can be made for various interpretations - Balance: agility or strength? Break down door: strength or constitution? As a GM, I would rather figure these things for myself, or be free to use different stats in different circumstances. A quibble. I do appreciate the fact that there is a section called WHEN NOT TO MAKE A SKILL CHECK and think it could be expanded, emphasized, and placed closer to the start of the whole section, before even the mechanical explanation of how to resolve them.
- Reminds me that I need to finish writing about Rolemaster's School of Hard Knocks... Each skill in that book has it's own resolution table a la the spells presented in DCC...
COMBAT
- Crits & fumbles. I like this kind of stuff. I like doing it by class/level vs per weapon (again Rolemaster) or general (BRP/Arduin/etc), but I think it might be better to modify the roll by level instead of breaking the tables out into different level-appropriate results. A design decision, obviously, and likely an option considered and decided against.
- Spell duels. Always wanted to see a good implementation of such things, and this is likable. The momentum tracking and phlogiston disturbance table is a bit too fiddly for me (ironic since I still spend so much time proselytizing the theory in pamplets and lectures at society meetings), but wizard players like fiddly things, don't they?
MAGIC
- This looks like a fun game to play a wizard in. The uncertainty of successful casting might be mitigated by wizard's increased selection of weapons.
- I disagree with the 'reversed spell is a separate spell' thing, always have. Personal preference. But particularly given the uncertainty of casting built into the system I would be even more inclined to allow a caster to throw a reversed form of a known spell.
- Perhaps it is hypocritical to dislike luck-burn and like spell-burn. Call me a hypocrite.(once per comment though, please.)
- Mercurial magic & corruption: like them both, but corruption coupled with spell-failure effects might be too much. This is the kind of thing I'd have to see in play to decide on I think.
-----------
Overall, it looks great. I love the art (personally I don' think there's too much of it) and there's a lot of neat ideas here. Having played a lot of Rolemaster, tables and charts for specific details do not phase me too much, and as you play a game with a lot of such things, you get used to it, or adapt (i.e. use a copy machine). The spell tables are the kind of thing that would be good as reference pages, cards, etc.
Looks like it would be a fun game to play and not difficult to run.
May Readings
May was not a bad month for personal reading. I needed it as I am drowning in medical coding technical manuals and anatomy and such.
I re-read Fred Saberhagen's Broken Lands trilogy. This is a series that I never really hear anyone talk about, even though it's got "Appendix N" cred. I first read these books (in the omnibus Empire of the East form) when I was... 13? 14? Somewhere right around there. Anyway, it was my first rewarding departure from Tolkien - in fact I think I bought the book because it had a blurb about being better than LotR (a tall claim, sure, and pretty much apples & oranges too - very different writers). I read and re-read LotR as a kid more times than I want to admit, so apparently I was ready for something "better".
I'm not going to say that what I got was better than LotR, but it was different, and it was good. It's science-fantasy, weighed a little heavier on the fantasy side, Saberhagen's style far less lyrical. The story had a good impact on me at the time, and helped me to get some perspective, that there was more to the world that Tolkien.The re-read was good - the books stand up in my opinion.
So in addition to The Broken Lands, The Black Mountains, and Changeling Earth, I managed to sneak in 2 more Vance books.
1. Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph - Jack Vance. This is SO Jack Vance, Ridolph might be the archetypical Vance 'hero', a smug detective for hire, all brain, no brawn. Kinda a cosmopolitan Matlock or something...
2. Blue Planet - Jack Vance. Liked it. The culture of the planet seems to have been started by prisoners (from the Gaian Reach I assume), the current castes and professions all derive their names from the titles of criminals and crimes of the far past (they do not seem to be aware of this fact). For example, the Hoodwinkers. Hoodwinke are in charge of communications between settlements - this accomplished by blinking light semaphore at the top of towers.
The thing I am finding in trying to write about Vance is that I have a hard time pinning down the what's & why's - I am content with appreciation.
I re-read Fred Saberhagen's Broken Lands trilogy. This is a series that I never really hear anyone talk about, even though it's got "Appendix N" cred. I first read these books (in the omnibus Empire of the East form) when I was... 13? 14? Somewhere right around there. Anyway, it was my first rewarding departure from Tolkien - in fact I think I bought the book because it had a blurb about being better than LotR (a tall claim, sure, and pretty much apples & oranges too - very different writers). I read and re-read LotR as a kid more times than I want to admit, so apparently I was ready for something "better".
I'm not going to say that what I got was better than LotR, but it was different, and it was good. It's science-fantasy, weighed a little heavier on the fantasy side, Saberhagen's style far less lyrical. The story had a good impact on me at the time, and helped me to get some perspective, that there was more to the world that Tolkien.The re-read was good - the books stand up in my opinion.
So in addition to The Broken Lands, The Black Mountains, and Changeling Earth, I managed to sneak in 2 more Vance books.
1. Many Worlds of Magnus Ridolph - Jack Vance. This is SO Jack Vance, Ridolph might be the archetypical Vance 'hero', a smug detective for hire, all brain, no brawn. Kinda a cosmopolitan Matlock or something...
2. Blue Planet - Jack Vance. Liked it. The culture of the planet seems to have been started by prisoners (from the Gaian Reach I assume), the current castes and professions all derive their names from the titles of criminals and crimes of the far past (they do not seem to be aware of this fact). For example, the Hoodwinkers. Hoodwinke are in charge of communications between settlements - this accomplished by blinking light semaphore at the top of towers.
The thing I am finding in trying to write about Vance is that I have a hard time pinning down the what's & why's - I am content with appreciation.
Monday, May 2, 2011
April readings
Light month on pleasure reading. Getting my ass kicked with class work & real-life in general.
1. Game of Thrones. I read this book back in 2004 or 5, and I think it had a lot to do with reigniting my interest in D&D. So - since I cannot watch the series, I decided to go back and reread the books (also since the new book is due soon). Stands up pretty well so far. It reads like watching TV, and I mean that not in a derogatory sense.
2. Sepulchrave's Story Hour. This page has links to the story threads, and PDF versions of the stories without so much of the reader commentary. Sepulchrave's input over at K&K has always been interesting and stimulating, and while I've never been big on reading campaign journals & such, I was pretty amazed by this one. It is written very well.
Was that it? Really? I'm afraid so. I just don't think that writing about the details of the CPT, ICD-9-CM & HCPCS coding manuals would be of much value here. Trust me on this one. I have continued to acquire more Vance, and look forward to that. Maybe my reading time will increase after June. This month, no Dios for me, :(.
1. Game of Thrones. I read this book back in 2004 or 5, and I think it had a lot to do with reigniting my interest in D&D. So - since I cannot watch the series, I decided to go back and reread the books (also since the new book is due soon). Stands up pretty well so far. It reads like watching TV, and I mean that not in a derogatory sense.
2. Sepulchrave's Story Hour. This page has links to the story threads, and PDF versions of the stories without so much of the reader commentary. Sepulchrave's input over at K&K has always been interesting and stimulating, and while I've never been big on reading campaign journals & such, I was pretty amazed by this one. It is written very well.
Was that it? Really? I'm afraid so. I just don't think that writing about the details of the CPT, ICD-9-CM & HCPCS coding manuals would be of much value here. Trust me on this one. I have continued to acquire more Vance, and look forward to that. Maybe my reading time will increase after June. This month, no Dios for me, :(.
Tuesday, April 19, 2011
Revolutions vs Regimes
Regimes win again!!!
--------------------
I get to thinking about the Internet/table top RPG intersection somewhat often. It's interesting because in many ways it answers a lot of wishes I had when I was a kid and had time to game all the time - namely, in theory anyway, always being connected to other people and therefore able to 'game' all the time, or whenever you wanted.
When I finally got a stable internet connection a while back and was able to relax into the net and do idle searching and such things, gaming cropped up quick. I was amazed at the creative wealth and vitality, inquiry and general thoughtfulness, etc - the whole bundle. So, naturally, I had to investigate what it was like to play games on the Internet - here was this 'dream come true' technology come true.
Jumped into Alexis' blog game and also a Yahoo group Warhammer game run by Noisms. I started running a game at the Trollbridge, and a (rough and) brief experiment in high level generic D&D-ish play, brief games with Vedron of the potion shoppe, jumped into A long-running game of Snorri's for a minute - tried to use the blog to help write a solo module. So there was the act of gaming, but also it became clear that the web allowed for amazing feats of collaborative work. I feel like an unfrozen caveman in writing that down, it seems like such a no duh thing - but anyway, I was just pretty stunned by the scopes and the scales of possibilities. So I started trying to translate Epées & Sorcellerie from Google english. Got to help compose some the monster tables in the Swords & Wizardry Monster Book, that was fun! Speaking of fun, does anyone remember the rush, the total creative burst, when Snorri dropped Delver of the Unknown on the OD&D board? That was a totally beautiful thing to watch IMO. There's amazing, persistent projects all over the place - the Dragonsfoot project placing encounters on the rest of the D1 underworld map - OSRIC players handbook and Danger Dungeons! - magazines and ezines - the links of wisdom wiki - etc etc etc - again I feel like a caveman...
So, anyway, I think about this stuff and my experience has been mixed (likely the case with most ongoing, consistent elements of one's life). The balance weighs more on the positive side, though I wonder if I got a bad rep from my actions in Alexis' game, or from my initial enthusiasm for a project slowing to an off-putting pace - I wonder if I let my Trollbridge game devolve into tedium for the players, things like that. It is sometimes hard to read people, or be read by people, over the computer, to get a sense of who they are or whatever.
Now I am starting to get back into projects. The other thing about the Internet is the (assumed) persistence of it ('assumed' like assuming the sun will rise tomorrow, assuming that it did today... I suppose the Internet could disappear tomorrow...). The main frustration of gaming by blog/post/email/etc seems to be the pace. So it seems to make sense to play games that are intentionally slowly paced.
While I'm at the total navel-gazing thing, one thing that keeps occurring to me is that I don't buy or read very much by way of products being released. An example is Mythemere's Adventure Design Deskbook. (It was actually Fitz's post that got me thinking about this tonight). It looks like precisely the kind of book I would really get a lot out of, one of my favorite kinds of game aids - but I haven't gotten it. So why? Granted, I'm not in much of a position to buy everything I want to, but that's not expensive, and the fact is that I have picked up old material that I used to have or always wanted to (Jesis! I wanted Monsters Monsters! for 30 years! I had to get it!). I've found that I keep myself away from a lot of the products that have made an impact in the last few years with the internet ol' school gang, and I think the reason is this: my work is already really derivative. Like really - when I write adventure material or setting material or something and look back at it, I see B1. There's the ogre's cave from B2 outside of the "home base" (which reminds me of little more than Hommlet...). So, I'm making this sound like it was an intentional decision on my part, and I don't think that it was. It's a weird dialectic to be really moved by the material being produced and also a little leery of it... ugh.
Anyway - yah. Looks like I need to lighten up!
--------------------
I get to thinking about the Internet/table top RPG intersection somewhat often. It's interesting because in many ways it answers a lot of wishes I had when I was a kid and had time to game all the time - namely, in theory anyway, always being connected to other people and therefore able to 'game' all the time, or whenever you wanted.
When I finally got a stable internet connection a while back and was able to relax into the net and do idle searching and such things, gaming cropped up quick. I was amazed at the creative wealth and vitality, inquiry and general thoughtfulness, etc - the whole bundle. So, naturally, I had to investigate what it was like to play games on the Internet - here was this 'dream come true' technology come true.
Jumped into Alexis' blog game and also a Yahoo group Warhammer game run by Noisms. I started running a game at the Trollbridge, and a (rough and) brief experiment in high level generic D&D-ish play, brief games with Vedron of the potion shoppe, jumped into A long-running game of Snorri's for a minute - tried to use the blog to help write a solo module. So there was the act of gaming, but also it became clear that the web allowed for amazing feats of collaborative work. I feel like an unfrozen caveman in writing that down, it seems like such a no duh thing - but anyway, I was just pretty stunned by the scopes and the scales of possibilities. So I started trying to translate Epées & Sorcellerie from Google english. Got to help compose some the monster tables in the Swords & Wizardry Monster Book, that was fun! Speaking of fun, does anyone remember the rush, the total creative burst, when Snorri dropped Delver of the Unknown on the OD&D board? That was a totally beautiful thing to watch IMO. There's amazing, persistent projects all over the place - the Dragonsfoot project placing encounters on the rest of the D1 underworld map - OSRIC players handbook and Danger Dungeons! - magazines and ezines - the links of wisdom wiki - etc etc etc - again I feel like a caveman...
So, anyway, I think about this stuff and my experience has been mixed (likely the case with most ongoing, consistent elements of one's life). The balance weighs more on the positive side, though I wonder if I got a bad rep from my actions in Alexis' game, or from my initial enthusiasm for a project slowing to an off-putting pace - I wonder if I let my Trollbridge game devolve into tedium for the players, things like that. It is sometimes hard to read people, or be read by people, over the computer, to get a sense of who they are or whatever.
Now I am starting to get back into projects. The other thing about the Internet is the (assumed) persistence of it ('assumed' like assuming the sun will rise tomorrow, assuming that it did today... I suppose the Internet could disappear tomorrow...). The main frustration of gaming by blog/post/email/etc seems to be the pace. So it seems to make sense to play games that are intentionally slowly paced.
While I'm at the total navel-gazing thing, one thing that keeps occurring to me is that I don't buy or read very much by way of products being released. An example is Mythemere's Adventure Design Deskbook. (It was actually Fitz's post that got me thinking about this tonight). It looks like precisely the kind of book I would really get a lot out of, one of my favorite kinds of game aids - but I haven't gotten it. So why? Granted, I'm not in much of a position to buy everything I want to, but that's not expensive, and the fact is that I have picked up old material that I used to have or always wanted to (Jesis! I wanted Monsters Monsters! for 30 years! I had to get it!). I've found that I keep myself away from a lot of the products that have made an impact in the last few years with the internet ol' school gang, and I think the reason is this: my work is already really derivative. Like really - when I write adventure material or setting material or something and look back at it, I see B1. There's the ogre's cave from B2 outside of the "home base" (which reminds me of little more than Hommlet...). So, I'm making this sound like it was an intentional decision on my part, and I don't think that it was. It's a weird dialectic to be really moved by the material being produced and also a little leery of it... ugh.
Anyway - yah. Looks like I need to lighten up!
Thursday, April 7, 2011
Number Appearing
On the whole "close to the bones of AD&D" thing - one experiment that has always appealed to me is to treat the number appearing entry of things in the Monster Manual as absolute maximums. This is already the case with the most powerful creatures therein, they are unique. So do this with all of the monsters - since you can encounter 10-100 pilgrims according to their Men entry, that means there are but 100 pilgrims in the whole world. Ah, but wait! There's 5 alignment groups of pilgrims... so there's 500 pilgrims in the whole world! 400 elves & orcs, 4 dragons of each type (I only use green, black, red & white, so there'd be 32 dragons, 1 of each color and age...), 6 barbed devils, etc...
I know! Big deal! Still, this is a setting I would like to play with more. There's 1 lich, 100 sprites, 6 ogre magi... I'll append to this post later the total population list I culled from the MM (it's on a different computer) so I don't lose it.
The only way I'd diverge off the ridiculously strict read with a little Holmesian thing I've never been able to shake - the way that the alignment for many creatures is listed with options (dwarf LG or N, giants & dragons too... must revise my dragon # again... gah!) - more creatures in the Holmes book are listed as being possibly neutral, and I adopt that because I really like neutral! So this could boost the number of demi-humans, unless the differences are within the already established total population (are there 400 LG dwarves AND 400 neutral dwarves, or 200 of each?)...
Anyway - it makes for a small world, or creates the sense of it, because these numbers are smaller, but still not small. They do become more manageable and comprehensible to me though. And interesting points come up all over the place - in the issue of pets & guard animals. Dwarves, elves, goblins, gnolls - several demi-human and humanoid species have animals - stone giants w/cave bears, etc... Given the # Appearing for the cave bear, chances are that these are the only cave bears in the world. Another decision point comes up with the issue of the classed-types that show up with the Men groups - should these then be the only classed beings in the whole world? Should the PCs have to be drawn from this pool of pre-existing classed characters?
It definitely reinforces humanocentric AD&D, men far outnumber any other race. Again, I'll post the numbers in a minute.
EDIT:
I know! Big deal! Still, this is a setting I would like to play with more. There's 1 lich, 100 sprites, 6 ogre magi... I'll append to this post later the total population list I culled from the MM (it's on a different computer) so I don't lose it.
The only way I'd diverge off the ridiculously strict read with a little Holmesian thing I've never been able to shake - the way that the alignment for many creatures is listed with options (dwarf LG or N, giants & dragons too... must revise my dragon # again... gah!) - more creatures in the Holmes book are listed as being possibly neutral, and I adopt that because I really like neutral! So this could boost the number of demi-humans, unless the differences are within the already established total population (are there 400 LG dwarves AND 400 neutral dwarves, or 200 of each?)...
Anyway - it makes for a small world, or creates the sense of it, because these numbers are smaller, but still not small. They do become more manageable and comprehensible to me though. And interesting points come up all over the place - in the issue of pets & guard animals. Dwarves, elves, goblins, gnolls - several demi-human and humanoid species have animals - stone giants w/cave bears, etc... Given the # Appearing for the cave bear, chances are that these are the only cave bears in the world. Another decision point comes up with the issue of the classed-types that show up with the Men groups - should these then be the only classed beings in the whole world? Should the PCs have to be drawn from this pool of pre-existing classed characters?
It definitely reinforces humanocentric AD&D, men far outnumber any other race. Again, I'll post the numbers in a minute.
EDIT:
1 aerial servant, beholder, demon prince, succubus, arch devil,
ice devil (11 HD), pit fiend devil (13 HD), djinni (7+3 HD),
dragonne (9 HD), efreeti (10 HD), elemental (8, 12, or 16 HD),
gelatinous cube (4 HD), ghost (10 HD), golem, homonculous (2 HD),
hydra (5 to 12 HD) , imp (2+2 HD), invisible stalker (8 HD), lich (11+ HD),
mimic (7 to 10 HD),morkoth (7 HD), neo-otyugh (9 to 12 HD), night hag (8 HD),
nightmare (6+6 HD), pseudo-dragon (2 HD), quasit (3 HD),gynosphinx (8 HD),
sylph (3 HD)
1-2 cave bear (6+6), bulette (9 HD), barbed devil (8 HD), bone devil (9 HD),
megalosaurus dinosaur (12 HD), otyugh (6 to 8 HD), purple worm (15 HD),
rust monster (5 HD), shambling mound (8 to 11 HD), giant constrictor
snake (6+1 HD), titan (17 to 22 HD)
1-3 black bear (3+3 HD), catoblepas (6+3), “typed” demon (8 to 11 HD),
erinyes devil (6+6), horned devil (5+5), gray ooze (3+3), medusa (6 HD),
spirit naga (9 to 10 HD), ochre jelly (6 HD), roper (10 to 12 HD),
giant amphisbaena snake (6 HD), water weird (3+3 HD), will-o-wisp (9 HD),
wind walker (6+3)
1-4 basilisk (6+1 HD), black pudding (10 HD), chimera (9 HD),
ceratosaurus dinosaur (8 HD), dragon (5 to 11 HD), ettin (10 HD),
storm giant (15 HD + 2-7), gorgon (8 HD), jackalwere (4 HD),
giant fire lizard (10 HD), werebear (7+3 HD), manticore (6+3 HD),
mind flayer (8+4 HD), nymph (3 HD), rakshasa (7 HD), giant scorpion (5+5 HD),
sea hag (3 HD), criosphinx (10 HD), hieracosphinx (9 HD), phase spider (5+5),
umber hulk (8+8 HD), vampire (8+3 HD)
2-5 displacer beast (6 HD), giant owl (4 HD), owlbear (5+2 HD),
salamander (7+7 HD), giant poisonous snake (4+2 HD), giant spitting
snake (4+2 HD), unicorn (4+4)
1-6 anhkheg (3-8 HD), axe beak (3 HD), brown bear (5+5 HD), carrion
crawler (3+1), cockatrice (5 HD), dryad (2 HD) , ghast (4 HD),
cloud giant (12 HD + 2-7), green slime (2 HD), jackal (½ HD), giant
subterranean lizard (6 HD), ogre mage (5+2 HD), spectre (7+3 HD),
wyvern (7+7 HD), yeti (4+4 HD)
1-8 fire giant (11 HD + 2-5), frost giant (10 HD + 1-4),
stone giant (9 HD + 1-3), giant minotaur lizard (8 HD), minotaur (6+3 HD),
giant spider (4+4 HD), giant poisonous toad (2 HD)
2-8 carnivorous ape (5 HD), giant boar (7 HD), hell hound (4 to 7 HD),
wereboar (5+2), mummy (6+3 HD), satyr (5 HD), shrieker (3 HD),
winter wolf (6 HD)
1-10 hill giant (8 HD + 1-2)
1-12 wild boar (3+3 HD), huge spider (2+2 HD), giant toad (2+4 HD), troll (6+6)
2-12 griffon (7 HD), harpy (3 HD), giant lizard (3+1 HD), wraith (5+3 HD)
3-12 bombardier beetle (2+2 HD), fire beetle (1+2 HD), doppleganger (4 HD),
dire wolf (3+3 HD), worg wolf (4+4 HD)
2-16 gargoyle (4+4 HD) , hippogriff (3+3 HD), wight (4+3 HD)
4-16 blink dog (4 HD), brownie (½ HD), manes demon (1 HD), wild dog (1+1 HD)
3-18 boring beetle (5 HD), pteranodon (3+3 HD), giant killer frog (1+4 HD),
werewolf (4+3 HD)
1-20 giant eagle (4 HD), leprechaun (½ HD +1), treant (7 to 12 HD), giant wasp (4 HD)
2-20 flightless bird (1 to 3 HD), ogre (4+1 HD), shadow (3+3 HD),
large spider (1+1 HD), wolf (2+2 HD)
5-20 pixie (½ HD)
2-24 giant centipede (¼ HD), ghoul (2 HD)
3-24 zombie (2 HD)
4-24 centaur (4 HD), wererat (3+1 HD)
3-30 skeleton (1 HD), stirge (1+1 HD)
5-30 lemure devil (3 HD)
6-36 bugbear (3+1 HD)
5-40 giant frog (1 to 3 HD)
10-40 larva (1 HD), lizard man (2+1 HD)
5-50 giant rat (½ HD)
10-60 triton (3 HD)
20-80 nixie (½ HD), sahuagin (2+2 HD)
1-100 giant ant (2 HD)
10-100 berserker men ((1+1 HD (d6)), cave men ((2 HD (d6)),
pilgrim men (1 HD (d6)), sprite (1 HD), troglodyte (2 HD)
10-120 tribe men (1 HD (d6))
20-200 elf (1+1 HD), gnoll (2 HD), hobgoblin (1+1 HD), bandit men (1 HD (d6)),
brigand men (1 HD (d6)), merman (1+1 HD),
30-300 nomad men (1 HD (d6)), orc (1 HD)
50-300 merchant men (1 HD (d6))
40-400 dwarf (1 HD), gnome (1 HD), goblin (1-1 HD), kobald (½ HD)
Monday, April 4, 2011
March - Steerpike, Nie the Hever, and Golem XIV
In lieu of gold stars on the fridge, I am awarding myself 3 Dioses, 1 per book read in March.
1. Imaginary Magnitude, Stanislaw Lem - A re-read (it was loaned out for a long time after I first read it), this book is a brilliant and absurd collection of book introductions and sales pitches from the future, building up to a recording of MIT scientists “conversations” with GOLEM XIV, a luminal machine, a tough pill to swallow.
2. Titus Groan, Mervyn Peake - This is the first time I have read it. Wow. I remember that Scott often sung the praises of this and it is really an amazing sustained effort. Paragraphs are scattered though out the book that end finer than anything I’ve ever read. It is an absolutely unique read. Operatic, baroque poetry about the creepy mundane, the doom of responsibility.
3. Maske: Theary, Jack Vance – 1st read, I’ve read enough Vance now to see how almost all of his books are the same. This is not a criticism or a point against in my opinion because I like how all of main characters talk to each other. I also like how there’s hardly ever aliens or monsters in his stories – makes them stand out more when they are present (Dragonmasters, some of Magnus Ridolph… how very few monsters are to be found in the Dying Earth? I can think of a few only, even considering Sandestins seems a stretch - they just as much a-holes as every other character there...)
Sometimes after reading Lem I just can't imagine reading anything else. Golem's like that, the first time I read it I felt shocked. I still don't think I have the right words to express it. The first part of the book is frenetic whimsy, hilarious. I do not want to say anything spoiler-ish about this book, to not color anyone's particular reading of it - it is certainly on the short-list of must-read Lem - so do it!
I took a long time reading Titus Groan. I think I started it in February. Ordered a copy of the second book of the trilogy (! this stuff is dense!), but the book smells horrible. I can't open it and put my nose near it enough to read with out the grossness getting to me. Note to world of book sellers on the Internet at large: if your book stinks like rot, don't sell it to me (or at least tell me in advance. I suppose a stench attendant of Culte des Ghouls might be a selling point).
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Trollzine 4 needs artistry
I am not a good drawer, so I thought I would put a call out to the wild and wooly. TZ4 has suffered delays, and one of the biggest is a dearth of pictures. The relevant thread is here (The link is to the last page as the thread has become very long...)
The Trollzine is a totally fan-based, free product - gotta get this one done so we can start on #5!
Any help would be appreciated!
UGH! (Trollish for "Thanks" in this instance)
The Trollzine is a totally fan-based, free product - gotta get this one done so we can start on #5!
Any help would be appreciated!
UGH! (Trollish for "Thanks" in this instance)
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Collecting the wisdom vs the Hive Mind
Collecting the wisdom wins again!!!
Really they are not antagonistic and man this is a good idea.
Zak gives a step-by-step tutorial that may be explained as clearly and plainly as is humanly possible.
Consequently, Old Guard's Dragon Tables are now there whenever you need them.
Drop-dead easy and kinda astounding. I now hereby race all of you to "shields shall be splintered"! Certainly the most widely adopted old school Internet house rule I am aware of...
This is next level Hive Mind shit! Sometimes you actually have the time to go back and read deep into the Gameblog, the Grog'n Blog - there's so many ones that really reward
a reader willing to do some scouring. And when you don't have the time (or the inclination I suppose), maybe I do. Or maybe 30 people all over the world do!
Really neat!
Really they are not antagonistic and man this is a good idea.
Zak gives a step-by-step tutorial that may be explained as clearly and plainly as is humanly possible.
Consequently, Old Guard's Dragon Tables are now there whenever you need them.
Drop-dead easy and kinda astounding. I now hereby race all of you to "shields shall be splintered"! Certainly the most widely adopted old school Internet house rule I am aware of...
This is next level Hive Mind shit! Sometimes you actually have the time to go back and read deep into the Gameblog, the Grog'n Blog - there's so many ones that really reward
a reader willing to do some scouring. And when you don't have the time (or the inclination I suppose), maybe I do. Or maybe 30 people all over the world do!
Really neat!
Friday, March 18, 2011
yay! pictures of cool helmets!
the one on the right in particular
the one on the left - badass!
a gift to Henry VIII from the Byzantine Emperor
Whoa
(thanks to various posters at Historum.com)
the one on the left - badass!
a gift to Henry VIII from the Byzantine Emperor
Whoa(thanks to various posters at Historum.com)
[1e] Implicit setting WIP
(I'm considering this page a work in progress. More citations and such later, and I tend toward discursiveness anyway)
Plenty of people[1] at various times have left their ideas about this before now, and I have always found it a totally fascinating idea. To tease enough small detail out of just the MM, PHB, & DMG to build a campaign environment that is somehow as "close to the bone" of the AD&D rulebooks as one could possibly create. I can't even sure that it would be a setting I would have much interest in playing in or running - but it is an interesting thought experiment that many of us have spent some time with.
These details range widely - from the implications of specific game rules (like Gold spent = experience points, the Cleric class almost certainly necessitating the presence of gods or god-like things & alignment, etc) to the spinning of fantastic causal chain constructions of the social reality of life in "D&D land" (DMG pg 106 the Humanoid Racial Preference Table, the selection of possible NPC personality features).
It rests on some fundamental/pseudo-fanatical SOPs like:
1. Pedantic, literal reading of minute detail and cataloging thereof. Sometimes a joy in itself - a very difficult endeavor to sustain (for me anyway).
2. An ability to focus mostly/only on details of fine granularity. Example - the assumption that magical artifacts exist in the first place vs what the presence of The Throne of the Gods implies, range and varieties of Men subtables in the Wilderness Encounter section (though Gygax has said that those were intended as "primitive examples" that DM's would certainly rework to fit their own campaigns. (Oh God! Am I going to have to find that one in the Enworld monstrosity? No!)
As an example, these are the points of interest I draw out of the first entry in the first AD&D book - Aerial Servant:
conjured by clerics
can be found roaming the astral and ethereal planes ("natives"?)
move twice as fast as the invisible stalker (suggestive of conjuration 'arms race' between clerics and magic users in the past?)
[1]
Scott's from Dragonsfoot (2006) --- I find this really inspiring.
Amazing "speculative analysis" by Scottsz of WG4
P.S
I spent some time using the Internet, trying find an attribution for the phrase "There is no such thing as discovery, only recognition or re-discovery" - but that is a paraphrase. Hence the difficulty of citation...
Plenty of people[1] at various times have left their ideas about this before now, and I have always found it a totally fascinating idea. To tease enough small detail out of just the MM, PHB, & DMG to build a campaign environment that is somehow as "close to the bone" of the AD&D rulebooks as one could possibly create. I can't even sure that it would be a setting I would have much interest in playing in or running - but it is an interesting thought experiment that many of us have spent some time with.
These details range widely - from the implications of specific game rules (like Gold spent = experience points, the Cleric class almost certainly necessitating the presence of gods or god-like things & alignment, etc) to the spinning of fantastic causal chain constructions of the social reality of life in "D&D land" (DMG pg 106 the Humanoid Racial Preference Table, the selection of possible NPC personality features).
It rests on some fundamental/pseudo-fanatical SOPs like:
1. Pedantic, literal reading of minute detail and cataloging thereof. Sometimes a joy in itself - a very difficult endeavor to sustain (for me anyway).
2. An ability to focus mostly/only on details of fine granularity. Example - the assumption that magical artifacts exist in the first place vs what the presence of The Throne of the Gods implies, range and varieties of Men subtables in the Wilderness Encounter section (though Gygax has said that those were intended as "primitive examples" that DM's would certainly rework to fit their own campaigns. (Oh God! Am I going to have to find that one in the Enworld monstrosity? No!)
As an example, these are the points of interest I draw out of the first entry in the first AD&D book - Aerial Servant:
conjured by clerics
can be found roaming the astral and ethereal planes ("natives"?)
move twice as fast as the invisible stalker (suggestive of conjuration 'arms race' between clerics and magic users in the past?)
[1]
Scott's from Dragonsfoot (2006) --- I find this really inspiring.
Amazing "speculative analysis" by Scottsz of WG4
P.S
I spent some time using the Internet, trying find an attribution for the phrase "There is no such thing as discovery, only recognition or re-discovery" - but that is a paraphrase. Hence the difficulty of citation...
Wednesday, March 16, 2011
A few random things
1. Liz Danforth is selling the original art for City of Terrors, the actual piece that became the cover. Wish I was a collector!
2. More things on Ebay myself (link to the right) (Bushido, V&V, Aftermath, Rolemaster, D&D)
3. Schoolin' & studyin' is kicking my ass!
4. The Tricks, Empty Rooms, and Basic Trap Design book over at Hack & Slash is a fantastic read and resource.
5. Requisite Joesky content (Thul sa doom Thul sa doom Thul sa doom)
An evil cult for 1e
99 PILGRIMS (CE – Cult of the Three Dooms)
Clerical Leadership
CHANTRY PRIESTS
1 3rd level and 6 2nd level clerics
1 5th level and 3 4th level clerics
All clerics below 6th level serve in the chantries.
CHAPEL PRIESTS
2 6th level cleric
These clerics occupy the chapel
PROPHET OF THE DARK CHAMBER
1 8th level cleric
This cleric occupies an isolated underground chamber
Exceptional characters:
fighter: 3 (lvl 7, 7, 1) A pair of twins, the 7th level fighters, and a gnome 1st level
assassin: 1 (lvl 5)
thief: 3 (lvl 7, 5, 2)
magic user: 1 (lvl 7)
Deity:
Called the Three Dooms, it appears at times as a withered & one-eyed dwarf, a
healthy mature human male with a third monstrous arm extending from the chest,
or as a heavily hooded and robed crone who can reveal a third eye. Its
presence among the cultists is in the form of Raugak, a type IV demon (using
much illusion, project image, and polymorph self). It acts as an intercessor
between the cult and a greater power in the Abyss. It is loathe to Gate in brethren, as it does not want to share the bounty of its current worship. Raugak lairs in the darkness beneath the chapel, indoctrinating the cult's prophet into the deeper mysteries of its Master's Dooms (i.e. driving him insane).
Refer to OGL if required.
2. More things on Ebay myself (link to the right) (Bushido, V&V, Aftermath, Rolemaster, D&D)
3. Schoolin' & studyin' is kicking my ass!
4. The Tricks, Empty Rooms, and Basic Trap Design book over at Hack & Slash is a fantastic read and resource.
5. Requisite Joesky content (Thul sa doom Thul sa doom Thul sa doom)
An evil cult for 1e
99 PILGRIMS (CE – Cult of the Three Dooms)
Clerical Leadership
CHANTRY PRIESTS
1 3rd level and 6 2nd level clerics
1 5th level and 3 4th level clerics
All clerics below 6th level serve in the chantries.
CHAPEL PRIESTS
2 6th level cleric
These clerics occupy the chapel
PROPHET OF THE DARK CHAMBER
1 8th level cleric
This cleric occupies an isolated underground chamber
Exceptional characters:
fighter: 3 (lvl 7, 7, 1) A pair of twins, the 7th level fighters, and a gnome 1st level
assassin: 1 (lvl 5)
thief: 3 (lvl 7, 5, 2)
magic user: 1 (lvl 7)
Deity:
Called the Three Dooms, it appears at times as a withered & one-eyed dwarf, a
healthy mature human male with a third monstrous arm extending from the chest,
or as a heavily hooded and robed crone who can reveal a third eye. Its
presence among the cultists is in the form of Raugak, a type IV demon (using
much illusion, project image, and polymorph self). It acts as an intercessor
between the cult and a greater power in the Abyss. It is loathe to Gate in brethren, as it does not want to share the bounty of its current worship. Raugak lairs in the darkness beneath the chapel, indoctrinating the cult's prophet into the deeper mysteries of its Master's Dooms (i.e. driving him insane).
Raugak (Type IV demon)
AC -1 SA spells and powers
MV 9/12 SD +1 or better to hit
HD 11 (51 hp) MR 65%
A 1-4/1-4/2-5 INT 14
Refer to OGL if required.
Saturday, March 12, 2011
When Cloud Giants Go Bad
(in response to Grognaria's call to arms)
Tell us about your orcs... well orcs are made by giants. Powerful giant shamans know how to turn the livestock that pesky humans keep into beast-men. A good way to keep the frontiersmen away. They do the same with boars that men chase, dogs that bay at the edges of their villages... I pictured the orcs as mostly simian featured with jutting jaws and big bottom teeth (I think from my favorite orc lead figure of the day).
It's been a very long time since I played, but back then I had an elaborate magical evolutionary tree. In short, when the world began, there were Dragons, the Fae, and Giants. Assume the usual "ages pass in cycles of animosity and lassitude, mankind rising unnoticed by the Big 3", as they were in a kind of a magical arms-race of evolution. At this point, another player gets involved in this life creation racket: wizards.
So the only race that wasn't created by magic is the humans. I might try to dig through old notes to find the ridiculously complicated causal chain of life... I remember that dragons made dwarves & kobalds from rocks, fae made goblins & elves from fairy dust(?), giants made orcs & gnomes from animals.
The arms race side of it was this: A dragon makes a dwarf. Dwarf meets a Fairy and gets changed to a brownie. Or dragon made a kobald instead. The kobald meets the wrong cloud giant and is transformed into a griffon... Each of the 'client races' could be further transformed by the opposing 'creator races'.
I think I was riffing off of TITAN
- in which your pieces could muster recruits based on the terrain of the space they occupied. I liked the wizards too, but they kinda had the shit end of the stick. The old races had much latitude in what they could do to a wizard. Unseen servants, intelligent magic items, familiars, permanent spells - these things could be transformed into esoteric creatures (say, save or fire giant turns your ring of spell storing into a salamander). It meant that magic users would have to divest themselves of much of their adjuncts and accoutrements when facing the magic using varieties of these older races.
It was interesting - way too much trouble to go through to contextualize the presence of the minotaur(giant curse), otyugh (fairy curse), and ogre magi(dragon curse). I'll dig around and see if I can't come up with the tables I made for this a long time ago...
Tell us about your orcs... well orcs are made by giants. Powerful giant shamans know how to turn the livestock that pesky humans keep into beast-men. A good way to keep the frontiersmen away. They do the same with boars that men chase, dogs that bay at the edges of their villages... I pictured the orcs as mostly simian featured with jutting jaws and big bottom teeth (I think from my favorite orc lead figure of the day).
It's been a very long time since I played, but back then I had an elaborate magical evolutionary tree. In short, when the world began, there were Dragons, the Fae, and Giants. Assume the usual "ages pass in cycles of animosity and lassitude, mankind rising unnoticed by the Big 3", as they were in a kind of a magical arms-race of evolution. At this point, another player gets involved in this life creation racket: wizards.
So the only race that wasn't created by magic is the humans. I might try to dig through old notes to find the ridiculously complicated causal chain of life... I remember that dragons made dwarves & kobalds from rocks, fae made goblins & elves from fairy dust(?), giants made orcs & gnomes from animals.
The arms race side of it was this: A dragon makes a dwarf. Dwarf meets a Fairy and gets changed to a brownie. Or dragon made a kobald instead. The kobald meets the wrong cloud giant and is transformed into a griffon... Each of the 'client races' could be further transformed by the opposing 'creator races'.
I think I was riffing off of TITAN
- in which your pieces could muster recruits based on the terrain of the space they occupied. I liked the wizards too, but they kinda had the shit end of the stick. The old races had much latitude in what they could do to a wizard. Unseen servants, intelligent magic items, familiars, permanent spells - these things could be transformed into esoteric creatures (say, save or fire giant turns your ring of spell storing into a salamander). It meant that magic users would have to divest themselves of much of their adjuncts and accoutrements when facing the magic using varieties of these older races.It was interesting - way too much trouble to go through to contextualize the presence of the minotaur(giant curse), otyugh (fairy curse), and ogre magi(dragon curse). I'll dig around and see if I can't come up with the tables I made for this a long time ago...
Thursday, March 10, 2011
Wilderness Monsters by Season
To make up for the Hottie Elf Chick madness sweeping through the ranks of us old fogies, here's an encounter table based on the current season. Yes, it's d76. Oh well.
Refer to OGL if required.
|
| Spring (C) | Summer (L) | Fall (C) | Winter (L) |
| 1 | Green Dragon | Red Dragon | Black Dragon | White Dragon |
| 2 | Elf (CG) | Dwarf (LG) | Elf (CG) | Dwarf (LG) |
| 3 | Dwarf (N) | Elf (N) | Dwarf (N) | Elf (N) |
| 4 | Dryad | Dryad | Efreet (N) | Djinn (N) |
| 5 | Ettin | Efreeti (LE) | Ettin | Ghost |
| 6 | Gargoyle | Gnome (LG) | Gargoyle | Gnome (LG) |
| 7 | Ghoul | Goblin | Ghoul & Ghast | Goblin |
| 8 | Gnoll | Goblin & Hobgoblin | Gnoll | Goblin & Hobgoblin |
| 9 | Gnome (N) | Hobgoblin | Gnome (N) | Hobgoblin |
| 10 | Dwarf & Gnome (N) | Dwarf & Gnome (LG) | Dwarf & Gnome (N) | Dwarf & Gnome (LG) |
| 11 | Elf & Gnome (N) | Hell Hounds | Elf & Gnome (N) | Gorgon |
| 12 | Grey Ooze | Black Pudding | Harpy | Hell Hounds |
| 13 | Harpy | Hydra | Hydra | Kobald |
| 14 | Jackalwere | Kobald | Jackalwere | Goblin & Kobald |
| 15 | Gnoll & Jackalwere | Goblin & Kobald | Gnoll & Jackalwere | Hobgoblin & Kobald |
| 16 | Leprechaun | Hobgoblin & Kobald | Lizard Man | Goblin, Hobgoblin &Kobald |
| 17 | Lizard Man | Goblin, Hobgoblin &Kobald | Werebear | Lamasu |
| 18 | Werebear | Lammasu | Werboar | Wereboar |
| 19 | Werewolf | Lizard Man | Werewolf | Manticore |
| 20 | Berserker | Wereboar | Berserker | Berserker |
| 21 | Nomad | Manticore | Nomad | Dervish |
| 22 | Brigand | Bandit | Brigand | Bandit |
| 23 | Pilgrim (N) | Dervish | Pilgrim (N) | Pilgrim (N) |
| 24 | Pilgrim (CG) | Nomad | Pilgrim (CG) | Pilgrim (LG) |
| 25 | Pilgrim (CE) | Pilgrim (N) | Pilgrim (CE) | Pilgrim (LE) |
| 26 | Merchant | Pilgrim (LG) | Merchant | Merchant |
| 27 | Spirit Naga | Pilgrim (LE) | Spirit Naga | Nightmare |
| 28 | Minotaur | Merchant | Minotaur | Nymph |
| 29 | Nymph | Night Hag | Night Hag | Orc |
| 30 | Ogre | Orc | Ochre Jelly | Ogre Magi |
| 31 | Ogre & Gnoll | Ogre Magi | Ogre | Pilgrim of & Ogre Magi |
| 32 | Orc | Pilgrim of Geryon & OgreMagi | Ogre & Gnoll | Pilgrims of & Rakshasa |
| 33 | Orc & Ogre | Pixie | Orc | Ogre Magi & Goblins |
| 34 | Shadow | Pilgrims of & Rakshasa | Orc & Ogre | Ogre Magi & Hobgoblins |
| 35 | Gynopshinx | Rakshasa & Hobgoblins | Purple Worm | Ogre Magi, Goblins &Hobgoblins |
| 36 | Giant Spider (CE) | Gynosphinx | Giant Spider (CE) | Ogre Magi & Bugbears |
| 37 | Sprite | Rakshasa, Goblins &Hobgoblins | Roc | Ogre Magi, Goblins,Hobgoblins & Kobalds |
| 38 | Stirge | Rakshasa | Satyr | Remorhaz |
| 39 | Giant Toad | Stirge | Stirge | Slyph |
| 40 | Treant | Giant Toad | Giant Toad | Ice Toad |
| 41 | Troglodyte | Wight | Treant | Wight |
| 42 | Troll | Wolf | Troglodyte | Wolf |
| 43 | Will-o-wisp | Dire Wolf | Troll | Dire Wolf |
| 44 | Vampire | Wraith | Vampire | Winter Wolf |
| 45 | Wolf | Rakshasa | Shadow | Roc |
| 46 | Dire Wolf | Shedu | Will-o-wisp | Wraith |
| 47 | Yeti | Skeleton | Skeleton & Shadow | Shedu |
| 48 | Skeleton | Skeleton & Zombie | Skeleton | Skeleton |
| 49 | Skeleton & Zombie | Spectre | Skeleton & Zombie | Skeleton & Zombie |
| 50 | Skeleton & Shadow | Criosphinx | Skeleton & Shadow | Spectre |
| 51 | Shadow & Zombie | Hippogriff | Shadow & Zombie | Criosphinx |
| 52 | Androsyphinx | Stone Giant | Androsphinx | Yeti |
| 53 | Hieracosphinx | Fire Giant | Hieracosphinx | Griffon |
| 54 | Griffon | Barbed Devil | Hippogriff | Frost Giant |
| 55 | Blue Dragon | Horned Devil | Cloud Giant | Ice Devil |
| 56 | Hill Giant | Ankheg | Storm Giant | Brownie |
| 57 | Ankheg | Basilisk | Centaur | Blink Dogs |
| 58 | Basilisk | Brownie | Chimera | Bugbear |
| 59 | Bugbear | Blink Dogs | Bugbear | Cockatrice |
| 60 | Bulette | Pilgrims of Dispater | Cockatrice | Pilgrims of Dispater |
| 61 | Centaur | Pilgrims of Geryon | Pilgrims of Jubilex | Pilgrims of Geryon |
| 62 | Chimera | Displacer Beasts | Pilgrims of Orcus | Doppleganger |
| 63 | Pilgrims of Jubilex | Pilgrims of Dispater &Barbed Devil | Djinn | Displacer Beasts |
| 64 | Pilgrims of Orcus | Pilgrims of Geryon &Horned Devil | Doppleganger | Pilgrims of Dispater &Horned Devil |
| 65 | Djinn | Fire Giant & Hobgoblin | Displacer Beasts | Frost Giant & Hobgoblin |
| 66 | Hill Giant & Orc | Fire Giant, Hobgoblin &Goblin | Frost Giant & Orc | Frost Giant, Hobgoblin &Goblin |
| 67 | Hill Giant, Ogre & Orc | Stone Giant & Orc (N) | Frost Giant, Ogre & Orc | Pilgrim of Geryon & OgreMagi |
| 68 | Hill Giant & Gnoll | Stone Giant & Dire Wolf | Frost Giant & Gnoll | Pilgrim of Dispater &Ogre Magi |
| 69 | Hill Giant & Bugbear | Pilgrim of Dispater &Ogre Magi | Frost Giant & Bugbear | Pilgrim of Geryon & IceDevil |
| 70 | Hill Giant, Bugbear &Gnoll | Brownie & Pixie | Frost Giant, Bugbear &Gnoll | Pilgrim of Dispater & IceDevil |
| 71 | Hill Giant & Ettin | Wraith & Shadow | Hill Giant & Orc | Goblin & Bugbear |
| 72 | Basilisk & Gargoyle | Spectre & Shadow | Hill Giant, Ogre & Orc | Wraith & Shadow |
| 73 | Troll & Troglodyte | Dryad & Pixie | Hill Giant & Gnoll | Spectre & Shadow |
| 74 | Pilgrims of Orcus &Shadows | Gnome & Pixie | Hill Giant & Bugbear | Ghost & Shadow |
| 75 | Centaur & Sprite | Spectre & Shadow | Hill Giant, Bugbear &Gnoll | Brownie & Gnome |
| 76 | Treant & Sprite | Wraith & Shadow | Hill Giant & Ettin | Yeti & Wolf |
Refer to OGL if required.
Yo doodz! D&D 4.5 beta (HoT eLF Chick build) arrives!
I won't even bother with a picture, but man - the spikes!
Tuesday, March 8, 2011
My Early Gaming History
The recent batch posts on the development and history of “OSR” got me thinking about my personal experience starting as a gamer.
My brother taught me how to play chess pretty early on, though I've never been particularly good at it. Mastermind and Stratego. I loved Stratego. When I was 9 years old, my brother would have his high school buddies over to play D&D. He had the basement as his own room. I can remember the 3 LBB + supplements on his book shelf, Holmes basic, monochomatic modules, and certainly the AD&D hardbacks. Card table, bean bag chair, dehumidifier, dead beetles in the corners. They were stoners, late 70's stoners. I can remember my sister freaking out because one of them chased her around the house with a roach clip, me having no idea what such a clip was at the time.
I didn't play, but they let me watch a few times. Enthralling. One of the dudes, Wooten was his last name – very theatrical. He got put to sleep by a homonculus... poor Wooten. Anyway, Mike (my brother, 9 years my senior) starts to play the Ogre and Melee microgames with me. Once again, my poor sister – after my first kill in Melee (which must have been a good roll as my brother narrated that I'd cut his head off), I rush upstairs in excitement and brag to her about beheading my bro. No wonder uptight people were freaked out by their kids playing D&D! She thought that was gross. I thought her braces were gross. Good times.
So – eventually Mike agrees to run my first game of D&D. Roll up stats, 3d6 in order, got a high wisdom score. So be a cleric, says he! I remember being intimidated by the details of the open-ended decision making. For example, the character's name. Mike generated one for me out of the back of B1 with slight variation (“Greggo of the Mountain”) because I couldn't name the dude. My character awakened in a small room with a monster - I cannot remember what it was. I want to say it was a ghoul, but I can't remember precisely. Anyway – how's that for “You stand facing the dungeon's door...” - it's obvious that the set-up is going to go violent, fast – and I froze! I didn't know what to do, didn't want my character to die. I begged Mike to tell me what to do to get out of this situation. He told me to use my suggestion spell. OK... what do I tell it to do? I hemmed and hawed for a while in indecision, Mike wouldn't tell me what to say, instead giving examples of what I should not say... Man - I was kind of a wuss! It was scary! Finally: “Tell it to sleep.” Then mush it with your mace.
It's safe to say that this experience frustrated him, as we did not play again for a long time. Eh – he was 18, I was 9 - I don't blame him. So we'd play Risk, Battleship, and Midway (a Milton Bradley boardgame, I remember liking it, wonder if it stands up...). And I took my experience into my friend Scott's garage - along with some six-siders from Monopoly, pencil and paper. We made up a game of D&D based on my imprecise memory. I DM'ed, probably used The Fantasy Trip in my brain for combat (I'd played that more and knew how to use the dice for it). I think it ended with him trapped in a pit. Hee hee.
My local gaming shop (The Griffon – go give them all of your money! They deserve all of it!) held a convention, and my brother took me along. I can remember almost nothing about this – certainly I was not registered to play in anything, but they had a few computers there, and you could wait in line to play (what turned out to be) an early version of Telengard. And as a little brother, I was obliged to bug my brother incessantly to play D&D with me again. He wasn't into it. He had other things going on at that time that I was not aware of, but he did take me over to a computer lab on the campus of Notre Dame university. And here we played a Star Trek game, the turns displayed on printer paper. One of the things Mike had going on at that time was getting a job as a computer programmer for an insurance company, and he had not yet graduated high school. Self taught, he was one of those guys that got into the computer industry before it was self-regulated. Another thing that he had going on was falling in love with a depressed girl and experiencing a religious conversion. As a consequence of one or more of these things, he decided to destroy his D&D collection by fire. Bummer. Thankfully, I rescued a Holmes Basic set, Ogre and Melee/Wizard, but all the other D&D stuff went *poof* in my back yard. While he prayed.
Before the conflagration, my earnest whining and wheedling, my begging him to play D&D one last time PAID OFF! I don't remember my character this time, but this one “came to” in a room with a pedestal and a rug. Atop the pedestal, a crystal. Touching the crystal did 1 hit point of damage. Every turn, a “blue bolt” would shoot out of the crystal and hit my character for the same amount of damage. I could not dodge the bolt, nor find any cover. I could not find a way out of the room. I was killed by the blue bolts without really having done anything except frantically searching the walls for secret doors. Afterwards he told me there was a trapdoor under the rug. Obviously I was not really prepared to think outside the box back then...
He quit high school, kept his job, got kicked out of the house, moved in with his girl, married her and had a daughter, and they went to church all the time. I stayed home of course (remember, big age difference). I'd go to the library and check out D&D books. I tried to run my friend Alan through D1, but he balked at the idea that he'd need henchmen and mules. I remember him getting really up-in-arms over the mules... My best friend lived close to downtown, so we would go to the Griffon and look at books. I didn't really play much at this point – until I stumbled across Tunnels and Trolls in a Hallmark Card shop. Still utterly confused as to how this particular distribution scheme/sales point came to be, but business is mostly baffling to me anyway.
Tunnels and Trolls worked for me. I'd use spells and equipment lists and other things from D&D and AD&D, but I grokked running T&T in a way that I hadn't got D&D. Me and my neighborhood friends would stay up all night dungeon crawling our way to ridiculous super-heroic status (flying ships, death rays, constant invisibility, AWESOME). I'd run solo modules for my friend Seaghan (pronounced Shawn/Sean) over the phone, expand them when he'd take actions that weren't on the list of options. My friend Ernie developed an interest in Aftermath, Pendragon, Rolemaster, and he gifted me the 1st editions of Character, Arms, Claw, & Spell Laws. He did this as a going away present, as I was moving to Memphis Tennessee. Good thing too, as my gaming experience there got kinda ugly.
Turns out that I moved next door to a D&D player! What luck, right! He was excited that he had figured out he could kill Lloth by using Whelm. I had no idea what he was talking about... but – he DM'ed. None of my friends really DM'ed - I pretty much had all-time DM duty. So I was glad to play some D&D for once, though it took me a minute to get used to rule-breaky, fudge-for-badassery, DM driven power gaming.
As I was getting accustomed to this, there was the afternoon that his dad called us into the living room to have a conversation. He understood that I had come from Indiana, and so he wanted to share with me some details regarding the inferior nature of black people, to raise my awareness and expand my mind by telling me some of their techniques for bankrupting welfare so that they would not have to work, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, et fucking cetera. First time I'd really encountered a seemingly rational, apparently evidence-based argument for racism. From an adult. Ugh.
I did not go there again, and my time in Memphis ended up being pretty brief anyway – just a little over a year – and then back to South Bend. In my absence my friends had kept gaming, and and top of that, none of them took up bigotry! Ernie liked Aftermath and Pendragon. Seaghan got into Top Secret. Donn ran Champions. Jack got us into Call of Cthulhu. I freaked over Paranoia. We'd play all night Diplomacy, long sessions of Squad Leader. This would have been freshman & sophomore years of high school. Lovely time for gaming! Never really did a consistent campaign – none of us really had most-favored-characters... strange to think about that now. I'd write all kinds of dungeons, nations, elaborate magic items, classes, spell lists, etc... but we flitted around games pretty constantly, and board games were a big component. And hardly any D&D too.
I quit school and my friends graduated, so the halcyon high-school gamer life came to close. I kept my books for a while, and certainly do wish that I hadn't sold off & lost them at this point - there were some goodies there. Gradually life & music, girls, weed, books & eventually education – there's (potentially) a lot more to life than playing D&D, and those are the things I did for a long time. Every once in a while I'd open up a notebook and map a continent, write up some encounters or something, but no gaming really. Magic the Gathering came out and I hopped on board for a year or so. It turned some of my RPG potentiometers to somewhere between 4 and 6, and as a casual player, it was fun, but the economics of play were not of interest to me. It's a good game and occasionally I still go to the comic shop here to draft when a core set comes out. I like it at its simplest.
D&D 3.0 came out. My room mate gets the books and we try to play. Of course, DM'ing falls squarely on my shoulders. Eric played back in the day, but we didn't know each other then. He was really into Oriental Adventures and 2nd Edition AD&D. He made a female human monk. We all know that there are differences in play-styles, yes? I hadn't run a game of any stripe in roughly a decade. My goto fantasy RPG was T&T, and when I am winging a game, that is the mind set I slip into. As soon as his character (with back-story of vengeance in place, serious shit) saw the flashing neon sign above a cave that read “ADVENTURE HEREIN!!!” the game crumbled. Oh well. I was interested in some aspects of 3e, but did not form an experienced opinion of it until later, when I played (as a player) in a few games. It was OK and my problems with it seem consonant with the general grog consensus (character build optimization snoozer, feat memorization toward astute system breaking, fiddly not-abstract-enough combat, etc).
So D&D3 didn't do much for me, but then, when I'd go to the local hobby shop, I began to see Hackmaster and I thought it looked hilarious. Then the DCC modules, very clever. The look of these products got to me - I don't remember even perusing the contents of these books. Instead, I reacquired Rolemaster...
This post is long and I am tired. A good night to you.
My brother taught me how to play chess pretty early on, though I've never been particularly good at it. Mastermind and Stratego. I loved Stratego. When I was 9 years old, my brother would have his high school buddies over to play D&D. He had the basement as his own room. I can remember the 3 LBB + supplements on his book shelf, Holmes basic, monochomatic modules, and certainly the AD&D hardbacks. Card table, bean bag chair, dehumidifier, dead beetles in the corners. They were stoners, late 70's stoners. I can remember my sister freaking out because one of them chased her around the house with a roach clip, me having no idea what such a clip was at the time.
I didn't play, but they let me watch a few times. Enthralling. One of the dudes, Wooten was his last name – very theatrical. He got put to sleep by a homonculus... poor Wooten. Anyway, Mike (my brother, 9 years my senior) starts to play the Ogre and Melee microgames with me. Once again, my poor sister – after my first kill in Melee (which must have been a good roll as my brother narrated that I'd cut his head off), I rush upstairs in excitement and brag to her about beheading my bro. No wonder uptight people were freaked out by their kids playing D&D! She thought that was gross. I thought her braces were gross. Good times.
So – eventually Mike agrees to run my first game of D&D. Roll up stats, 3d6 in order, got a high wisdom score. So be a cleric, says he! I remember being intimidated by the details of the open-ended decision making. For example, the character's name. Mike generated one for me out of the back of B1 with slight variation (“Greggo of the Mountain”) because I couldn't name the dude. My character awakened in a small room with a monster - I cannot remember what it was. I want to say it was a ghoul, but I can't remember precisely. Anyway – how's that for “You stand facing the dungeon's door...” - it's obvious that the set-up is going to go violent, fast – and I froze! I didn't know what to do, didn't want my character to die. I begged Mike to tell me what to do to get out of this situation. He told me to use my suggestion spell. OK... what do I tell it to do? I hemmed and hawed for a while in indecision, Mike wouldn't tell me what to say, instead giving examples of what I should not say... Man - I was kind of a wuss! It was scary! Finally: “Tell it to sleep.” Then mush it with your mace.
It's safe to say that this experience frustrated him, as we did not play again for a long time. Eh – he was 18, I was 9 - I don't blame him. So we'd play Risk, Battleship, and Midway (a Milton Bradley boardgame, I remember liking it, wonder if it stands up...). And I took my experience into my friend Scott's garage - along with some six-siders from Monopoly, pencil and paper. We made up a game of D&D based on my imprecise memory. I DM'ed, probably used The Fantasy Trip in my brain for combat (I'd played that more and knew how to use the dice for it). I think it ended with him trapped in a pit. Hee hee.
My local gaming shop (The Griffon – go give them all of your money! They deserve all of it!) held a convention, and my brother took me along. I can remember almost nothing about this – certainly I was not registered to play in anything, but they had a few computers there, and you could wait in line to play (what turned out to be) an early version of Telengard. And as a little brother, I was obliged to bug my brother incessantly to play D&D with me again. He wasn't into it. He had other things going on at that time that I was not aware of, but he did take me over to a computer lab on the campus of Notre Dame university. And here we played a Star Trek game, the turns displayed on printer paper. One of the things Mike had going on at that time was getting a job as a computer programmer for an insurance company, and he had not yet graduated high school. Self taught, he was one of those guys that got into the computer industry before it was self-regulated. Another thing that he had going on was falling in love with a depressed girl and experiencing a religious conversion. As a consequence of one or more of these things, he decided to destroy his D&D collection by fire. Bummer. Thankfully, I rescued a Holmes Basic set, Ogre and Melee/Wizard, but all the other D&D stuff went *poof* in my back yard. While he prayed.
Before the conflagration, my earnest whining and wheedling, my begging him to play D&D one last time PAID OFF! I don't remember my character this time, but this one “came to” in a room with a pedestal and a rug. Atop the pedestal, a crystal. Touching the crystal did 1 hit point of damage. Every turn, a “blue bolt” would shoot out of the crystal and hit my character for the same amount of damage. I could not dodge the bolt, nor find any cover. I could not find a way out of the room. I was killed by the blue bolts without really having done anything except frantically searching the walls for secret doors. Afterwards he told me there was a trapdoor under the rug. Obviously I was not really prepared to think outside the box back then...
He quit high school, kept his job, got kicked out of the house, moved in with his girl, married her and had a daughter, and they went to church all the time. I stayed home of course (remember, big age difference). I'd go to the library and check out D&D books. I tried to run my friend Alan through D1, but he balked at the idea that he'd need henchmen and mules. I remember him getting really up-in-arms over the mules... My best friend lived close to downtown, so we would go to the Griffon and look at books. I didn't really play much at this point – until I stumbled across Tunnels and Trolls in a Hallmark Card shop. Still utterly confused as to how this particular distribution scheme/sales point came to be, but business is mostly baffling to me anyway.
Tunnels and Trolls worked for me. I'd use spells and equipment lists and other things from D&D and AD&D, but I grokked running T&T in a way that I hadn't got D&D. Me and my neighborhood friends would stay up all night dungeon crawling our way to ridiculous super-heroic status (flying ships, death rays, constant invisibility, AWESOME). I'd run solo modules for my friend Seaghan (pronounced Shawn/Sean) over the phone, expand them when he'd take actions that weren't on the list of options. My friend Ernie developed an interest in Aftermath, Pendragon, Rolemaster, and he gifted me the 1st editions of Character, Arms, Claw, & Spell Laws. He did this as a going away present, as I was moving to Memphis Tennessee. Good thing too, as my gaming experience there got kinda ugly.
Turns out that I moved next door to a D&D player! What luck, right! He was excited that he had figured out he could kill Lloth by using Whelm. I had no idea what he was talking about... but – he DM'ed. None of my friends really DM'ed - I pretty much had all-time DM duty. So I was glad to play some D&D for once, though it took me a minute to get used to rule-breaky, fudge-for-badassery, DM driven power gaming.
As I was getting accustomed to this, there was the afternoon that his dad called us into the living room to have a conversation. He understood that I had come from Indiana, and so he wanted to share with me some details regarding the inferior nature of black people, to raise my awareness and expand my mind by telling me some of their techniques for bankrupting welfare so that they would not have to work, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc, et fucking cetera. First time I'd really encountered a seemingly rational, apparently evidence-based argument for racism. From an adult. Ugh.
I did not go there again, and my time in Memphis ended up being pretty brief anyway – just a little over a year – and then back to South Bend. In my absence my friends had kept gaming, and and top of that, none of them took up bigotry! Ernie liked Aftermath and Pendragon. Seaghan got into Top Secret. Donn ran Champions. Jack got us into Call of Cthulhu. I freaked over Paranoia. We'd play all night Diplomacy, long sessions of Squad Leader. This would have been freshman & sophomore years of high school. Lovely time for gaming! Never really did a consistent campaign – none of us really had most-favored-characters... strange to think about that now. I'd write all kinds of dungeons, nations, elaborate magic items, classes, spell lists, etc... but we flitted around games pretty constantly, and board games were a big component. And hardly any D&D too.
I quit school and my friends graduated, so the halcyon high-school gamer life came to close. I kept my books for a while, and certainly do wish that I hadn't sold off & lost them at this point - there were some goodies there. Gradually life & music, girls, weed, books & eventually education – there's (potentially) a lot more to life than playing D&D, and those are the things I did for a long time. Every once in a while I'd open up a notebook and map a continent, write up some encounters or something, but no gaming really. Magic the Gathering came out and I hopped on board for a year or so. It turned some of my RPG potentiometers to somewhere between 4 and 6, and as a casual player, it was fun, but the economics of play were not of interest to me. It's a good game and occasionally I still go to the comic shop here to draft when a core set comes out. I like it at its simplest.
D&D 3.0 came out. My room mate gets the books and we try to play. Of course, DM'ing falls squarely on my shoulders. Eric played back in the day, but we didn't know each other then. He was really into Oriental Adventures and 2nd Edition AD&D. He made a female human monk. We all know that there are differences in play-styles, yes? I hadn't run a game of any stripe in roughly a decade. My goto fantasy RPG was T&T, and when I am winging a game, that is the mind set I slip into. As soon as his character (with back-story of vengeance in place, serious shit) saw the flashing neon sign above a cave that read “ADVENTURE HEREIN!!!” the game crumbled. Oh well. I was interested in some aspects of 3e, but did not form an experienced opinion of it until later, when I played (as a player) in a few games. It was OK and my problems with it seem consonant with the general grog consensus (character build optimization snoozer, feat memorization toward astute system breaking, fiddly not-abstract-enough combat, etc).
So D&D3 didn't do much for me, but then, when I'd go to the local hobby shop, I began to see Hackmaster and I thought it looked hilarious. Then the DCC modules, very clever. The look of these products got to me - I don't remember even perusing the contents of these books. Instead, I reacquired Rolemaster...
This post is long and I am tired. A good night to you.
Monday, February 28, 2011
February reading vs buy my stuff dammit!
In lieu of gold stars on a chart magnetated to the refrigerator, here's a list of the books I read in the month of February. Way less than my banner month of January - probably won't be able to match that pace again for a while (started a class for medical coding certification - so most of my upcoming reading will be dense and somewhat medical... ugh)...
1. Huon of the Horn, Andre Norton
2. Lyonesse, Jack Vance (2nd read)
3. The Green Pearl, Jack Vance (2nd read)
4. Madouc, Jack Vance (2nd read)
The first time I read the Lyonesse trilogy, I was putting my collection together, and so there were long gaps between the readings (a year between Green Pearl and Madouc for example). So this time I read them back to back to back. That helped. I loved them the first time through, and now I love them even more. Cannot help but have some idle brain cycles turning on the idea of writing up the setting for game purposes. Particularly interested in Murgen's Edict...
And I listed a couple more items on the On Ebay page, so right now I've got Verbosh, Rolemaster Creatures & Treasures III, World of Greyhawk boxed set, & Original Bottle City (SE).
1. Huon of the Horn, Andre Norton
2. Lyonesse, Jack Vance (2nd read)
3. The Green Pearl, Jack Vance (2nd read)
4. Madouc, Jack Vance (2nd read)
The first time I read the Lyonesse trilogy, I was putting my collection together, and so there were long gaps between the readings (a year between Green Pearl and Madouc for example). So this time I read them back to back to back. That helped. I loved them the first time through, and now I love them even more. Cannot help but have some idle brain cycles turning on the idea of writing up the setting for game purposes. Particularly interested in Murgen's Edict...
And I listed a couple more items on the On Ebay page, so right now I've got Verbosh, Rolemaster Creatures & Treasures III, World of Greyhawk boxed set, & Original Bottle City (SE).
Tunnels & Trolls positive vibes
It is unfortunate IMO that most of the T&T related writing that I have done on my blog has been occupied with the Shipman/Outlaw Press BS. It's been pointed out that perhaps broadcasting as far and wide as possible, while potentially warning people away, might have the side effect of being free advertising for him - and I can see how that might be the case.
So there are resources on the web for T&T fans, and for the subset of those who want to buy things that won't make them feel like they need to take a shower afterwards there's always the quaint Flying Buffalo website. I've got the link to the Trollbridge inspired Lulu storefront to the right, and here's another:
It's a good one. A fantastic collection of resources and articles managed by the esteemed Dekh (that's a trollish name BTW)
While I'm here, let me put this picture up:
(I like this lion face better. *smiley*)
So there are resources on the web for T&T fans, and for the subset of those who want to buy things that won't make them feel like they need to take a shower afterwards there's always the quaint Flying Buffalo website. I've got the link to the Trollbridge inspired Lulu storefront to the right, and here's another:
It's a good one. A fantastic collection of resources and articles managed by the esteemed Dekh (that's a trollish name BTW)
While I'm here, let me put this picture up:
(I like this lion face better. *smiley*)
Sunday, February 27, 2011
School of Hard Knocks: Upperclassmen
PT 1
In 1995 Rolemaster became the RMSS, Rolemaster Standard System. The biggest deal about this revision of the game, as far as the skill subsystem goes, was to make the skill categories meaningful in a mechanical sense. For the simplicity of explanation, in the earlier version of the game, you would get a +5 bonus per rank you had developed in a skill. (Again, I am keeping it simple. There were skills that gave you +1 per rank, variable bonuses per rank, etc... but most of them were of the +5/rank variety - up until diminishing returns kicked in at rank 10... jeesh!)
Anyway - RMSS brought the skill bonus per rank down to +3, AND!, allowed the development of SKILL CATREGORY ranks (a +2 bonus/rank to all skills in that category).
OK - so now development strategies are in place for both broad and specific areas - a warrior can develop skill with all one handed edged weapons in general and also focus on a short sword, rapier, whatever.
I liked this solution. Of course, I wasn't really playing at that time, just reading... So this is a big division point among RM players. Some people prefer the old way. Admittedly, each has it's merits and flaws, and everybody is gonna like what they like, etc.
So when I came back into gaming (2006? 2007, somewhere in there), I picked up the then current incarnation of Rolemaster, and was pleasantly surprised to find this change. I got a couple of my friends to agree to play (gamers both, but no exposure to Rolemaster. As Mr. Burns would say from behind his bony fingers cathedralled...)
I'm afraid that I'm going to have to go on a petty tangent here. After examining the beautiful and effective art shown above (Monty, that is), I have to admit that the cover art for the School of Hard Knocks is WAY up on my list of least favorite RPG art. The cover art for most of the recent RMFRP (Rolemaster Fantasy Role Playing) ain't my thing, but this book in particular... ugh. I hope I have not offended the legions of appreciators who are certainly out there. It's actually the one game book cover that a non-gamer friend of mine saw and just started laughing at, and I had to join in. Anyway, big deal Kate - lots of good books have dumb covers!
The School of Hard Knocks was published for the RMFRP system. Specific skill and categorical development are ensconced. Another level of organization is introduced - Skill Groups (sets of associated skill categories). Groups cannot have ranks developed, but other modifications can be applied to the skill categories in a skill group.
(Fighters get +10 to the Armor Group. This means that the 3 skill categories in the Armor Group (light, medium, and heavy) get that +10.)
At this point there are:
12 Skill Groups,
55 Skill categories (note: not all categories are members of groups, or are groups of one...), and
242 Skills at an absolute bare minimum
Excessive? Insane perhaps? This game has shown a pair simultaneously evolving trends applied to the same subject: simplify by adding complexity. It very well could melt brains.
So, OK, I still haven't got to the book itself. I'll post a pic of it now and write about the book itself later because I have to work in the morning. It's the expression on the front of the head of the lion-faced guy holding a stick. Also his choice of attire (Mos Eisley Public Elementary #4)... enjoy!
In 1995 Rolemaster became the RMSS, Rolemaster Standard System. The biggest deal about this revision of the game, as far as the skill subsystem goes, was to make the skill categories meaningful in a mechanical sense. For the simplicity of explanation, in the earlier version of the game, you would get a +5 bonus per rank you had developed in a skill. (Again, I am keeping it simple. There were skills that gave you +1 per rank, variable bonuses per rank, etc... but most of them were of the +5/rank variety - up until diminishing returns kicked in at rank 10... jeesh!)
Anyway - RMSS brought the skill bonus per rank down to +3, AND!, allowed the development of SKILL CATREGORY ranks (a +2 bonus/rank to all skills in that category).
OK - so now development strategies are in place for both broad and specific areas - a warrior can develop skill with all one handed edged weapons in general and also focus on a short sword, rapier, whatever.
I liked this solution. Of course, I wasn't really playing at that time, just reading... So this is a big division point among RM players. Some people prefer the old way. Admittedly, each has it's merits and flaws, and everybody is gonna like what they like, etc.
So when I came back into gaming (2006? 2007, somewhere in there), I picked up the then current incarnation of Rolemaster, and was pleasantly surprised to find this change. I got a couple of my friends to agree to play (gamers both, but no exposure to Rolemaster. As Mr. Burns would say from behind his bony fingers cathedralled...)
I'm afraid that I'm going to have to go on a petty tangent here. After examining the beautiful and effective art shown above (Monty, that is), I have to admit that the cover art for the School of Hard Knocks is WAY up on my list of least favorite RPG art. The cover art for most of the recent RMFRP (Rolemaster Fantasy Role Playing) ain't my thing, but this book in particular... ugh. I hope I have not offended the legions of appreciators who are certainly out there. It's actually the one game book cover that a non-gamer friend of mine saw and just started laughing at, and I had to join in. Anyway, big deal Kate - lots of good books have dumb covers!The School of Hard Knocks was published for the RMFRP system. Specific skill and categorical development are ensconced. Another level of organization is introduced - Skill Groups (sets of associated skill categories). Groups cannot have ranks developed, but other modifications can be applied to the skill categories in a skill group.
(Fighters get +10 to the Armor Group. This means that the 3 skill categories in the Armor Group (light, medium, and heavy) get that +10.)
At this point there are:
12 Skill Groups,
55 Skill categories (note: not all categories are members of groups, or are groups of one...), and
242 Skills at an absolute bare minimum
Excessive? Insane perhaps? This game has shown a pair simultaneously evolving trends applied to the same subject: simplify by adding complexity. It very well could melt brains.
So, OK, I still haven't got to the book itself. I'll post a pic of it now and write about the book itself later because I have to work in the morning. It's the expression on the front of the head of the lion-faced guy holding a stick. Also his choice of attire (Mos Eisley Public Elementary #4)... enjoy!
Saturday, February 26, 2011
internetettiqute question
Is it gauche to pimp one's gaming related Ebay offerings on their gaming blog?
I thank you in advance for your candid views.
I thank you in advance for your candid views.
Friday, February 25, 2011
Breaking news: Shipman is still an asshole
He's got a new store online! Still selling things produced by other people that do not want him to sell their things. Still selling things produced by people that have repeatedly told him not to sell their things. Still doing the same things that he always does.
Please - if you know how to send electric impulses through the internet to fry people's brains, send some his way.
Please - if you know how to send electric impulses through the internet to fry people's brains, send some his way.
Thursday, February 24, 2011
Freshman Year in the School of Hard Knocks
(been wanting to write about this book forever, we'll see how this goes)
If you are aware of Rolemaster, then you probably know that it is a very skill-heavy game. Characters are defined by class & race, sure, but from the start (and only ever moreso as Rolemaster evolved over the years) these details of the character had the most relevance in terms of what skills a character could acquire, how quickly, and at what cost.
In the early days skills were broken down into 5 categories. These categories were organizational only, taxonomic (i.e. they had no 'crunch' in the game). Here then are the first five and the number of skills each encompassed: Maneuvering in Armor (4), Weapon Skills (6), General Skills (7), Magical Skills (5), and Special Skills (6). For the reputation that RM has, it really started out with a pretty small set of rather mundane skills.
Of interest, right there in the first edition of Character Law, is section 14.11 WEAPON SKILLS FOR SIMILAR WEAPONS in the OPTIONAL RULES part of the book.
It makes sense, right? That developing some skill in the use and application of the broadsword might also mean that, should a sword of another variety be used, the broadsword experience might be applicable to it...
Again - Makes sense, right? Well, the seeds of future bloat are there from the start. (The next optional rule applies the same principle to the riding of similar mounts...)
So - Character Law goes through a revision. I do not have a copy of this one handy,
but here is where the skills start to really take off. At this point ICE begins to publish Rolemaster Companion books. These books have new classes, new spell lists, and optional rules to try out for virtually every aspect of game play. And from the first, more skills are explained.
By the time the second Companion arrives there are now more 160 skills listed, divided into 16 categories.
Rolemaster Companion II really broke the flood gates - presenting optional rules for similar skills (harkening back to the early optional rule dealing with similar weapons), rules for complementary skills (using two skills in conjunction to resolve an action), and very importantly section 7.0 COMPLETE SKILL DESCRIPTIONS. Now I could see how to apply the Administration skill, the Herding skill, and the Sense Reality Warp skill among (many, many, many, too many) others.
If I had a scanner, I would love to show you 11.3 SIMILAR SKILLS TABLE, which is divided into those skills in the same category, and those in different ones. A character might apply 1/8 of their skill bonus in "star-gazing" toward attempts at "time sense", 1/4 of their biochemistry skill to poison perception, 1/4 of their skating skill bonus to any dancing attempts... man it got thick.
Optional Rule 4.3 in the Rolemaster Companion 2 gives some methods to limit the quantity of skills available to the characters. So there is now an optional rule to reduce the potential headache. The section begins "While it may seem that the number of skills now available are perhaps too great to easily handle..." (!)
I will end this part here and resume later. This was the state of Rolemaster during its big heyday (i.e. when it still had the Tolkien license and produced many magnificent Middle-Earth supplements). That state lasted for some several years, and constantly more skills appeared, more applications of those skills, more ways to relate them to each-other, more, more, more, more!
The next big change in the game (RMSS - SS = Standard System) I'll get to later. It was another organizational change, which also served to remedy some of the intensely over-wrought similar skill trees and such.
And eventually, I promise I'll get to the magnum opus - the School of Hard Knocks itself. Lovely book.
If you are aware of Rolemaster, then you probably know that it is a very skill-heavy game. Characters are defined by class & race, sure, but from the start (and only ever moreso as Rolemaster evolved over the years) these details of the character had the most relevance in terms of what skills a character could acquire, how quickly, and at what cost.
In the early days skills were broken down into 5 categories. These categories were organizational only, taxonomic (i.e. they had no 'crunch' in the game). Here then are the first five and the number of skills each encompassed: Maneuvering in Armor (4), Weapon Skills (6), General Skills (7), Magical Skills (5), and Special Skills (6). For the reputation that RM has, it really started out with a pretty small set of rather mundane skills.
Of interest, right there in the first edition of Character Law, is section 14.11 WEAPON SKILLS FOR SIMILAR WEAPONS in the OPTIONAL RULES part of the book.It makes sense, right? That developing some skill in the use and application of the broadsword might also mean that, should a sword of another variety be used, the broadsword experience might be applicable to it...
Again - Makes sense, right? Well, the seeds of future bloat are there from the start. (The next optional rule applies the same principle to the riding of similar mounts...)
So - Character Law goes through a revision. I do not have a copy of this one handy,
but here is where the skills start to really take off. At this point ICE begins to publish Rolemaster Companion books. These books have new classes, new spell lists, and optional rules to try out for virtually every aspect of game play. And from the first, more skills are explained.By the time the second Companion arrives there are now more 160 skills listed, divided into 16 categories.
Rolemaster Companion II really broke the flood gates - presenting optional rules for similar skills (harkening back to the early optional rule dealing with similar weapons), rules for complementary skills (using two skills in conjunction to resolve an action), and very importantly section 7.0 COMPLETE SKILL DESCRIPTIONS. Now I could see how to apply the Administration skill, the Herding skill, and the Sense Reality Warp skill among (many, many, many, too many) others.If I had a scanner, I would love to show you 11.3 SIMILAR SKILLS TABLE, which is divided into those skills in the same category, and those in different ones. A character might apply 1/8 of their skill bonus in "star-gazing" toward attempts at "time sense", 1/4 of their biochemistry skill to poison perception, 1/4 of their skating skill bonus to any dancing attempts... man it got thick.
Optional Rule 4.3 in the Rolemaster Companion 2 gives some methods to limit the quantity of skills available to the characters. So there is now an optional rule to reduce the potential headache. The section begins "While it may seem that the number of skills now available are perhaps too great to easily handle..." (!)
I will end this part here and resume later. This was the state of Rolemaster during its big heyday (i.e. when it still had the Tolkien license and produced many magnificent Middle-Earth supplements). That state lasted for some several years, and constantly more skills appeared, more applications of those skills, more ways to relate them to each-other, more, more, more, more!
The next big change in the game (RMSS - SS = Standard System) I'll get to later. It was another organizational change, which also served to remedy some of the intensely over-wrought similar skill trees and such.
And eventually, I promise I'll get to the magnum opus - the School of Hard Knocks itself. Lovely book.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
best of blogs 2010
Here's a list I compiled while reading blogs last year. By no means comprehensive (frex: I just dug into the Metal Earth this year - holy shit! And I can't really link to every damn post over at Old Guard Accouterments or Mule Abides in good conscience... just go read those blogs from beginning to end!) - but all of these links struck me at the time of reading to be worth retaining for various reasons. Readers, please enjoy - Authors, please write more!
NAGOH FRUGAL GAMING
MORE NAGOH!
MULE ABIDES 1
MULE ABIDES 2
OLD GUARD
TAO ALEXIS 1
ONE OF ZAK'S BEST
DADDY GROG ALIGNMENT
A TROLLSMYTH GOODIE
TAO ALEXIS 2
EVEN MORE TAVIS!
YET EVEN MORE TAVIS!!!
more along...
NAGOH FRUGAL GAMING
MORE NAGOH!
MULE ABIDES 1
MULE ABIDES 2
OLD GUARD
TAO ALEXIS 1
ONE OF ZAK'S BEST
DADDY GROG ALIGNMENT
A TROLLSMYTH GOODIE
TAO ALEXIS 2
EVEN MORE TAVIS!
YET EVEN MORE TAVIS!!!
more along...
3 temples
Temple of the Fire God
Priests wear luminous robes of silver and silk threads - at least two will be in the chapel at all times of day and night, occupied by devotions to the Fire God. It lives in a glass case behind the altar. Some priests are devoted to keeping the god placated that fire does not scourge the earth - other priests continue logical lines of progress from the introduction of fire and seek to spread 'civilization' - druids acknowledge and respect the power of the Fire God.
It is a powerful elemental being with an intelligence totally alien to the Prime Material Plane - it should be considered neutral. It has been bound in its glass prison for 300 years (though it itself marks no measure of time) and bestows powers on clerics (and druids, sorcerers, etc as applicable) without imposing stringent lifestyle and alignment restrictions on those who make contact with it - it is the priesthood that has grown for 4 or 5 generations that imposes rules. These include:
1st & 2nd level: 1 week devotion per month
3rd & 4th level: 1 week devotion per season
5th & 6th level: 1 week devotion per year
Order of the Fire's Light: loremasters, technicians
Order of the Blazing Flame: clerics, paladins
Healing spells granted by fire god leave scars
Turning undead manifests as a wave of heat and flame that does not harm the living.
Temple of Asanu
Priests are clad in red and black. Asanu is a powerful demon lord, the cult around it is a mystery religion, wherein murder is a common act of devotion. The priests are slavers, and they are bankers. The temple is often a safe house for assassins and contains an avatar of the deity - behind the altar is a fountain of a viscous brown poisonous fluid. Asanu can sense and speak through it, cast spells and powers through it, and cause it to attack like a 12 HD water weird (with poisonous bite, -3 to save).
Clerics of Asanu cannot use edged/pointed weapons, with the exception of a sacramental knife (d3 damage). They are expected to use this knife one time per level each year to take the life an good-aligned being - consigning them to become manes demons in Asanu's realm, or undead servants of the priesthood.
Healing spells cost x2 normal
Controlled and created undead at option of priesthood
Temple of the Thing in the Lake
The priests are garbed in blue and black. They are charged with keeping their god pacified. It is to be considered a neutral creature of alien intelligence. The powers the clerics (druids, sorcerers, etc) derive are real, though they seem to be only a side-effect of interaction with the being.
Service to the temple takes the form of a rigorous regimen of fasting and meditative trance. In this way, a cleric establishes their connection to the deity and also keeps it distracted, that it not stir from the depths.
1st & 2nd level: 1 day a week
3rd & 4th level: 3 days a month
5th & 6th level: 1 week a season
7th & 8th level: 1 month a year
Clerics may gain their spells through an hour's meditation, using water from the lake as a focus. This can be accomplished at lakeside, or using a translucent or transparent bottle of lake water. The holy water fount in the temple draws from the lake.
Undead destroyed in turning become normal water
Priests wear luminous robes of silver and silk threads - at least two will be in the chapel at all times of day and night, occupied by devotions to the Fire God. It lives in a glass case behind the altar. Some priests are devoted to keeping the god placated that fire does not scourge the earth - other priests continue logical lines of progress from the introduction of fire and seek to spread 'civilization' - druids acknowledge and respect the power of the Fire God.
It is a powerful elemental being with an intelligence totally alien to the Prime Material Plane - it should be considered neutral. It has been bound in its glass prison for 300 years (though it itself marks no measure of time) and bestows powers on clerics (and druids, sorcerers, etc as applicable) without imposing stringent lifestyle and alignment restrictions on those who make contact with it - it is the priesthood that has grown for 4 or 5 generations that imposes rules. These include:
1st & 2nd level: 1 week devotion per month
3rd & 4th level: 1 week devotion per season
5th & 6th level: 1 week devotion per year
Order of the Fire's Light: loremasters, technicians
Order of the Blazing Flame: clerics, paladins
Healing spells granted by fire god leave scars
Turning undead manifests as a wave of heat and flame that does not harm the living.
Temple of Asanu
Priests are clad in red and black. Asanu is a powerful demon lord, the cult around it is a mystery religion, wherein murder is a common act of devotion. The priests are slavers, and they are bankers. The temple is often a safe house for assassins and contains an avatar of the deity - behind the altar is a fountain of a viscous brown poisonous fluid. Asanu can sense and speak through it, cast spells and powers through it, and cause it to attack like a 12 HD water weird (with poisonous bite, -3 to save).
Clerics of Asanu cannot use edged/pointed weapons, with the exception of a sacramental knife (d3 damage). They are expected to use this knife one time per level each year to take the life an good-aligned being - consigning them to become manes demons in Asanu's realm, or undead servants of the priesthood.
Healing spells cost x2 normal
Controlled and created undead at option of priesthood
Temple of the Thing in the Lake
The priests are garbed in blue and black. They are charged with keeping their god pacified. It is to be considered a neutral creature of alien intelligence. The powers the clerics (druids, sorcerers, etc) derive are real, though they seem to be only a side-effect of interaction with the being.
Service to the temple takes the form of a rigorous regimen of fasting and meditative trance. In this way, a cleric establishes their connection to the deity and also keeps it distracted, that it not stir from the depths.
1st & 2nd level: 1 day a week
3rd & 4th level: 3 days a month
5th & 6th level: 1 week a season
7th & 8th level: 1 month a year
Clerics may gain their spells through an hour's meditation, using water from the lake as a focus. This can be accomplished at lakeside, or using a translucent or transparent bottle of lake water. The holy water fount in the temple draws from the lake.
Undead destroyed in turning become normal water
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