System Specialist or System Generalist?

So it should come as no surprise that I know a lot of gamers. A lot of a lot.

And while tags like "simulationist" or "immersion" or even "rollplayer vs. roleplayer" get thrown about like they are important, there is one classification that actually interests me.
System Specialist vs. System Generalists.

The System Specialist plays one system only and that is it.  So they only play AD&D 1st ed or d20 or GURPS. This is not to say they have tried other systems.  I am going to bet many have, but they have found one system that they have decided that is all they need.
I like the System Specialist because they usually become experts of their chosen system.  They in a sense achieve in their system that elusive "fade into the background" element that so many designers strive for, whether it was a design principle of that system or not.  Great system specialists seem like elder sages of their system, knowing rules or situations at such a higher level to even surprise the designers.

The System Generalist (wish I had a better name) plays a large number of systems and may have tried even more.  They are comfortable using True20, FUDGE or Rifts in any given situation and they can often give you informed opinions of why X system is perfect for Y situation.  A lot of game designers I know fall under this category.
I like the System Generalist because they are usually able to adapt to newer systems easier and transfer over concepts from one system to the other to improve their own game play.  Game play details are often rendered in short-hand, "oh it is like BLANK from Call of Cthulhu" or "BLANK from Kult".

There are negatives too, but I am not so much interested in those to be honest.

It should not surprise anyone, but I tend to view myself as a System Generalist.  I like having multiple systems laying around, I like reading new ones, playing old ones and even mixing them is strange and odd ways.
I come very, very close to being a System Specialist when it comes to Cinematic Unisystem.   But I still forget some esoteric bit during play, and sometimes even important ones.  For example, for the life of me I can never remember the formula for life points.  I know it is a function of Strength and Constituion.  I know there is addition in there, and some multiplication and 3 and 10 work into it.  I know you 3 extra points per level of Hard to Kill, but that is it.  Pathetic huh?  I have made what, a few hundred characters for CineUnisystem?
The nice thing though outside of that I can run a Cine Unisystem game without books.  If it Ghosts of Albion chances are I don't even need to look up the spells.  I used to be like that for AD&D first ed, but those memories have faded over the years, or more to the point supplanted by similar rules in other versions of the game.

Where do you see yourself?  Generalist or Specialist?  What do you think are the pros of being...well you?

Pathfinder: Going forward in reverse

So it is now official.  WE are moving our 4th Ed. D&D over to Pathfinder.

I am of two minds about this.

On one hand Pathfinder is a lot of fun.  It is easy to do and given the years long 3.x game I have been playing with my kids it is easy to teach them.  4e's combats just take so damn long, it is hard to do more than two encounters per day.

On the other, I really enjoy Fourth Edition and have a lot of nice toys for that too.  I love the DDi and I am lamenting that there is nothing similar for Pathfinder. Yes I know about Hero Lab, but I am not sure how well it works and whether it would work for me.

I am not going to debate the merits of one over the other.  I am sick to death of edition wars and I don't want to contribute to either side on this.   Both games are fun, both games "can do D&D" and both are good games.  Everything else is just details.

So I am in the process of converting back some of my 4e characters to Pathfinder.  Not difficult really, the systems have more in common than I think some people would like you to believe.  I focus more on concept than actual class.  So some warlocks become witches, other sorcerers.

Chances are some 4e-isms will enter our Pathfinder games.  Passive Insight and Passive Perception come to mind right away. Though we are not likely to use healing surges at all.  Though my son made a good joke about that on Saturday.  One of the boys (all of them 6/7 to 10 years old), made a joke about "being bloodied" and "needing a healing surge". Liam said, "sorry you have to wait for the universe to upgrade to 4th edition first!".  

So we will use terms like "bloddied" and that might mean something in the future, but not quite yet.  I also like some of the ideas behind skill challenges and I would like to import Dragonborn over for my son.  After all what is D&D if you can't house rule it?

I am certain we will come back to 4e, and it is also likely that my current 3.x game with my two kids will become a 4e game some day.  But now just to be honest I am happy to be gaming regularly and I hope we stick with this for a long time to come.  It's a new world, but no more new than 4e, and the adventures still feel like adventures.

Course now I have to figure out if a character I play in both games (which is likely to happen) is the same character or maybe a Mirror/Mirror, alternate universe deal.   These are important things to consider afterall...

Hard Core Gamers

Notice: I am not taking down this post because I feel it is more important to leave it up, but also update everyone on what is happening now as of February 11, 2019. Please see this newer post first. http://theotherside.timsbrannan.com/2019/02/i-am-going-to-talk-about-zak-today-and.html

In case you have been living under a rock all week, the new video version of the hit blog Playing D&D with Porn Stars is out now.

Called "I Hit it With My Axe" it features, well, porn stars, playing D&D.   It's actually quite a good blog and features not only some interesting insights to the game and how people play but also commentary from the likes of Mandy Morbid, Satine Phoenix (below), Zak Sabbath (blogger & DM) and special guests like Sasha Grey and Justine Joli.

It certainly busts a few stereotypes. Like that all gamers are geeky guys hiding out in their basements and all porn stars are sex craved but empty headed.

Looking forward to more!

Black Rose, Part 2

Continuing on one of the things I need to figure out is how Ravenloft and Aldea come together.  This is a two-parter really.  I need to figure out game-wise how the fit; is Aldea pulled into Ravenloft, is Ravenloft slowly seeping into Aldea?  And I need to figure it out story-wise; what event caused this to happen.

To start with I want to go back into Aldea's shadowed past.

Dread Exiles
We have all been told the tale of how the Exarchs of Shadow had been defeated at the hands of the Gods of Light. We were told that they were locked away with their only means of accessing the world was via the Shadowgates or through subtle influences in the world. This is mostly true, but there is much that is unknown. Even in Kern, the greatest scholars of the Lich King had not discovered all of the Exarch's secrets, nor were they willing to give them up so easily.
But it is not the end of their story, but only the beginning.

So I have decided is that the Dark Powers of Ravenloft are the Exarchs of Shadow.
Sure it removes some of the mystery. I have them trapped here, physical forms destroyed, they can only pull in other creatures that have a significant amount of evil/shadow to them.
They are not able to be selective though, nor wish too, so they end up scoping all sorts of innocents in with them.

Their Goal? Escape of course. There are Shadowgates that lead to Ravenloft (often Mist shrouded), but very few that lead out. And even then the Exarchs have an even more difficult time leaving than do the Dark Lords. What is their plan? Use the likes of Strahd and Azalin to replace them in their prison? Or are they experiments on how to escape? Maybe even the Exarchs are no more than spoiled children and are pulling others to share their prison because they can? Who knows. Just because I have ID'ed the Dark Powers doesn't mean I need to detail their motives.

So now that I have established that the Dark Powers are part of Aldea, this opens me up to lot of tinkering. Since this is their "native" land they should be a bit more powerful and that power is translated down to the Dark Lords. Regardless of how Aldea and Ravenloft come together one of the side effects will be that Dark Lords can now leave their realms. They are not as powerful in other Realms and often at the mercy of the other Dark Lords, so even though they can "move about" few of them rarely do.

Now the in-game event that caused this.

The Lady and the Captain
Queen Jaellin in her first five years as Sovereign has become known as Queen Jaellin, The Beloved (3 years before the present day of the Core Book). Her temperament has been easy, her laws just and fair and her rulership everything that Aldisians would want. Though talk began, most likely rumors spread by the agents of Lord Sayvin that the Queen may be unfit to rule since she had not produced an heir to her legacies or even named her Consort. While an heir had no extra claim to the throne, as Sayvin himself could attest, it was considered to be proper behavior. In a dark jest she became known in some circles as “Queen Jaellin, the Unloved”.
The Queen was no fool. Her calm and rational demeanor disarmed most people and lead others to assume she was still a simple girl. Her mind was sharp and she knew of these rumors, the trouble was she was beginning to believe them herself.
During one of her outings to visit the outlying communities, she was joined by her royal guard. The Captain of the Guard, a young dashing rogue of a man that felt his duties to protect the Queen included disobeying her orders. They spend a long trek where they infuriate each other for days until their party is attacked by agents of Lord Sayvin. Her guard defend her heroically, but to no avail. She is though taken by her Captain and they are pursued through out the forest. They fight, fear and eventually come to fall in love. She is brought back safely, to surprise of Lord Sayvin and then to shock of all she names her Captain as her Beloved and Consort. They were happy for many years.
In this romance think Victoria and Albert. The young queen and the dashing prince consort. As their love grew, the land prospered and Sayvin grew darker. In a few years he discovered the means to get what he wanted.

Blood and Roses
Lord Sayvin had made a deal with the Dark Powers based on a scroll he found in Kern. The scroll gave him the means to enchant a crossbow arrow that would kill instantly whomever it struck (and deliver that soul to the Dark Powers) and give Sayvin what he most desired. This is Ravenloft, his displeasure at not being chosen Sovereign has turned into a blinding hate and jealousy.

Sayvin chooses the night of the Queen and her Consort's Anniversary, he crept into their bedchambers and prepared to kill the Queen. As fate would have it he missed the Queen in her lover’s embrace (yeah total symbolism here, but the ultimate horror in Aldea would be the horror of your beloved dying in your arms) and the arrow hit her Captain (yeah…I need to name the guy) instead. Jaellin screamed, Sayvin roared, and the Dark Powers laughed. Jaellin in a fit of insane rage summoned every ounce of power she had as an emerging Adept and as the Sovereign of the Land and struck down Lord Sayvin, blowing his body with blast of pure eldritch power. His body was never found with most claiming he escaped. Most claim that because the alternate choice was their Queen, Jaellin the Beloved, murdered him in a sorcerous rage.

That night the pact formed by Sayvin and the Dark Powers failed to complete. Jaellin was supposed to die but did not. The Dark Powers savored her pain and were allowed to come into the world just very slightly. As his reward, Sayvin was given what he desired. He was made the Dark Lord of Aldea and was cursed to the form of a Shadow.

During the day, when the sun is bright, Jaellin’s ministers rule the land in her name. But at night the land is ruled by Dark Lord Sayvin, only most people do not know this. They only know that the lands are more dangerous and evil seems to have the world in its grip. And the Queen? In the years since the attack she has said little and is rarely seen in court, and never outside the castle. She mourns and it seems the land mourns with her.

Today the Queen is still loved by her people and older residents remember the bright young girl she was and what promise she held for the land. But many feel like she has abandoned her duties and even life itself. Some, though not many but loud enough to be heard, say the Queen is a witch and this current situation is her fault.
There is unease in the land, monsters that were once only found in fairy tales are now found on the roads between towns. Strangers walk the lands now, with odd customs and accents. Once, such people would have been welcomed in Aldea, given a place to sleep in exchange for their stories of other lands. Now people turn their heads and no one is welcomed.

This in and of itself would be enough to get any character invested in the idea that Aldea is a beacon of light and hope motivated to find out what was going on, but this is Ravenloft and I have one more nasty dagger hidden in my sleeve.

The Company of the Hart
To do this I want characters deeply invested in what is going on. This is an "oncoming darkness" tale and things are not going to get better, they are going to get worse. Unless the PCs can do something about it. What can they do? That is the mystery to be solved. In the meantime they are also tasked with ridding the night of all the foul creatures of Shadow now invading the lands. I am imaging a small company of adventurers chosen by destiny to to Aldea's Champions. How? Here comes that dagger.

The characters are thrown together because some are in the Queen's court and others have found the Golden Hart in the woods with a black arrow in it's heart. They bring this to the Queen who immediately recognizes the arrow as of the same kind that killed her Beloved. The first task of the new group is to find the magical Rose that will heal it. After this quest they become an elite group answering only to the Queen and their job is to stop the oncoming darkness.

This allows me the court intrigue that I think/feel will be needed for this game, allow the Heroes to have access to various parts of the country they might need and give them first hand observation to the Queen's depression and the key to unlocking the truth; that this really began with the murder of the Queen's Consort by Lord Sayvin AND the fact that the Queen has withdrawn not just because of her lover's death, but because she herself feels tremendous guilt over using her own power to "kill" Sayvin.

That's where I am at so far.

Wait? Is it 1982 again? More anti-D&D crap.

So the old "Dungeons and Dragons causes violence" meme has reared it's ugly head again.  This time from the particularly lazy journalism of Ms. Laurel J. Sweet and the Boston Herald.  Ms. Sweet put forth that golden chestnut that somehow playing the game Dungeons and Dragons is somehow linked to violent murder. In particular the ones Amy Bishop is accused of.

Now let me be clear here.  What ever Amy Bishop did or didn't do in her personal life is unimportant when dealing with the fact that she murdered three people, supposedly because she didn't get tenure.  We could just as easily blame the University tenure track or the pressures of a publish or perish environment.  I am sure people will blame the gun companies too.
Here is a novel idea.  Let's blame Amy Bishop.  She is the one that pulled the trigger after all.  Apparently she kept pulling till the gun jammed.

But my ire is not directed at Amy Bishop.  We have a court system, juries and a judge for her.  No mine is on the lazy, so called journalism of  Laurel J. Sweet.  Yeah I linked her name again.  Wonder why.

To make the claims or even allusions she is making are either laziness, a misguided attempt to push copy or a hidden conservative agenda.   She published not just one, but two articles on this.  At the risk of giving her exactly what she wants here are the links.  Use a browser that blocks ads if you wish to make a statement:

http://www.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view/20100215oddball_protrait_emerges_suspects_family_pals_offer_clues/srvc=home&position=0
and
http://news.bostonherald.com/news/regional/view.bg?articleid=1233150

So. why do I get so worked up about these things?  Well frankly stupid people piss me off, but smart people enabling stupid people to do more stupid things is worse.

See here is how it works.  Lazy journalist looking for a good byline writes fluff piece about D&D leading to murder.  Next thing you know some shit-for-brains religious fuck-wit then quotes the article as "expert testimony", then that person gets quoted as "reading up on all the latest literature", then it is used as "evidence" in a Wikipedia article and you get a snowball of stupid rolling down hill.

Next thing you know someone is digging up old Pat Pulling again and TLN is showing "Mazes & Monsters" in heavy rotation.

Ok to be fair I have no idea if TLN has ever shown "Mazes & Monsters".

It irritates me because it is lazy, and stupid.  Obviously the Boston Herald is trying to push copy and Ms. Sweet is only too happy to help.  But it is bad journalism.

I had my run ins with the D&D Satanic Panic of the 80's.  I was lucky to have had parents that were smart enough to know better than to listen to fundies and to trust their children.  Later on I dealt with Jack Chick personally and, if I may be so bold, came out the winner in that one.

The time I now spend playing D&D with my own children has been fantastic.  I have met some of the coolest people through this game and others like it.  It is a great past time full of great people who deserve better than being painted by the sloppy brush of Laurel J. Sweet.

Agree with me?  Why not let Laurel J. Sweet know yourself.  Reasonable, intelligent emails only.  Or even just something to convey your disappointment in a polite manner.

Don't give her anything else to write about.

Tolkienesque Fantasy

So. I had this dream last night. It was basically a 60s British sit-com called “Tolkienessque Fantasy”.

The idea is that all the things that Tolkien wrote about were actually real. There is a real “Middle Earth” and Hobbits and all that. He would “go down there” and report his findings in books. Silly? Yes. It gets sillier.

So you have Professor Tolkien circa 1960-1965, and he has two college students. William, his studious grad student, Polly, a ditzy undergrad and his secretary/housemaid Donna, who for reasons I am not clear on, was called “Dondo”. Polly and William were both very Mod.

So this lot would adventure every week down to Middle Earth. William would approach Professor Tolkien about some minor detail about Middle Earth history (I suppose there are courses in Middle Earth history at Oxford in 1961) and Tolkien (who seemed very Hobbit like) would declare “I don’t know. Shall we go down to ask Bilbo?” and off they would go on one madcap adventure after the next.

Did I mention that all my dreams are usually this detailed?

Anyway, I thought it might make a fun game model. It’s one part “The Hobbit”, one part “The Chronicles of Narnia”, a tiny part “Doctor Who”, and a little bit of “Are You Being Served?” and “Faulty Towers”. Approach Middle Earth from a modern frame of reference. Played totally as a farce mind you. This wouldn’t be Tolkien’s Middle Earth, or even Jackson’s or Bashi’s. Maybe it would be Rankin-Bass, but there is an obvious cartoon element here.

So if I ever get the desire to run a 60s game and don’t want to get into all the drug culture or psychedelica of the time, I might try this.

WotC does Retro? Clones go Advanced? Up is Down!

Well a few things going on have the OSR on notice and many are ready with the "I told you so!"s.

The big one of course is the new Dungeons & Dragons Essentials,  which is everything you need to play the D&D 4th Ed game in a basic, condensed form, with counters and dice all in a red box.  So. A Basic Set in a Red Box.  Sound familiar?

 

or even,

More about that can also be read here, http://daegames.blogspot.com/2010/02/essentials.html

That and a new Gamma World game is coming out, Castle Ravenloft gets the board game treatment that sounds almost like it is solo-D&D, and even D&D 4 evangelist (and I mean that in a good way) Mike Mearls is going on about how the best way to write a D&D 4 adventure is do it in OD&D or BD&D first.

What is cool about all of this is that Wizard's sees that the OSR is a vital community and has their finger, well maybe not the pulse, but a pulse of the gamer community as well.  Call it what you like, I call it cool.

And moving at least into the 80's, the one of the OSR darlings, Goblinoid Games, has released their expansions to Labyrinth Lord, the Advanced Edition companion. A game that bridges the gap between the "Basic" and "Advanced" games of the Golden Age.

I grabbed the "artless" version since I am not sure what I doing in or with the OSR "Basic" scene these days, but this book is really cool.  I am reminded of the old days of sitting in my bed room roughly age 11 and trying to figure out why my Expert Set Cleric was not the same as the one I was reading in the Player's Handbook and not figuring out why.  This is not a D&D Rosetta Stone by any means, but it is a good translator.  I would have loved this game back then and today, well I still think it is pretty damn awesome.
I like it much more than OSRIC and it might even replace Basic Fantasy RPG as my Basic go-to-game-clone. Which, oddly enough had replaced LL in the same context.

Now of course I am itching to write up a witch for Basic and Advanced versions of the "Greatest Fantasy Roleplaying Game of all Time"

Gamers for Haiti

OneBookShelf (RPGNow and DriveThruRPG) are donating money to support relief efforts in Haiti, in particular Doctors without Borders. Now I have always admired Doctors without Borders and their mission.  I have also always admired how the gamer community when asked will step right up and give all they can.

The link to donate is here:
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=78023&SRC=haiti
or
http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=78023&SRC=haiti

As of this morning gamers had helped raise a little over $47,000 dollars.  That is up from the $35,000 when I bought mine last night.

So for my $20 donation I got the following (and I could have gotten more):


17 Archer Feats
17 Bard Spells
17 Magic Shields
17 Monk Feats
17 Rogue Feats
Adventurer Essentials: Holy Water
API Demon Codex: Lochs
API Demon Pack 01
Apocalypse Prevention, Inc.
API Worldwide: Canada
Ápocrypha - Myths of the World
BASH! Basic Action Super Heroes (New and Improved)
Beast Hunters RPG
Behind the Monsters: Skeleton
Best of The Rifter
Bits of Darkness: Dungeons
Bits of Magicka: Pocket Items
Blood Games II
Blood of the Innocent: A Savage Worlds mission set in the jungles of Evil
Book of Races
C&C Arms and Armor
C&C Shadows of the Halfling Hall
Castlemourn Campaign Setting
Chronica Feudalis
Class options volume II: Paladins Prevail!
Classic Spycraft: Shadowforce Archer Worldbook
Classic Spycraft: Spycraft Espionage Handbook
Colonial Gothic: Secrets
COPPER DRAGON: Basic Dungeons 1
Counter Collection 4th Edition Paragon 1
Creatures of the Wastelands: A Menagerie of Mutants and Mutations (Revised Edition)
Damnation Decade
Demimonde
Diana: Warrior Princess
Divine Homelands
Divine Quests
Dork Covenant
DRAGONSHIRE: City Interiors
DRAGONSHIRE: City Ruins
Ephemeris
Fantastic Maps: The Dragon's Lair
Fantasy Firearms
Fantasy Women Clipart JPEG 7
For the Love of Dungeons
Full Light, Full Steam
Hollow Earth Expedition Earth Drill
Interface Zero: Modern20 edition
Karma Roleplaying System Core Rules Book
Kiddy counters
Kids, Castles & Caves
Kobold Quarterly 11
Labyrinths & Lycanthropes
Lady's Rock
Liber Sodalitas: The Dream Healers (Pathfinder edition)
London Fires module A101 for Fellowship of the White Star
MADS Role Playing Game
MARS: Savage Worlds Edition
No Dignity in Death: The Three Brides
Open Game Table - The Anthology of Roleplaying Game Blogs, Vol. 1
Pimp My Paladin
Privateers and Pirates
QAGS Second Edition
Qalidar
Roma Imperious
Rugged Adventures
S.C.A.R.E. Vol. 2-Viesca Melin Aella
Seven Leagues roleplaying game of Faerie
Slivers of Dawn
Spirit of the Season
Summerland Revised and Expanded Edition
Tales of Wyn D'mere Role Playing Game!
The Book of The Dead
The Fate of Inglemia - Superlink Edition
The Kerberos Club
The Lunar Scrolls
The Otherworld
Three Sixteen
Thrilling Tales 2nd Edition (Savage Worlds)
Trail of Cthulhu Player's Guide
Turris Lemurum : Tower of Ghosts
Unorthodox Sorcerers
Valherjar: The Chosen Slain Core Rulebook
Vampire Castle
Wyrd of Questhaven (PFRPG)
WorldWorksGames / Wormhole
WorldWorksGames / UrbanMayhem: Streets of Mayhem
[PFRPG] The Book of Arcane Magic
[Savage Worlds] Strike Force 7 - Savaged!
WorldWorksGames / DungeonLinX: Dragon God

Retail worth, a little more than $660.00.

Not bad for a great cause like "Doctors without Borders".

I Have a Plan…

It's not a great plan, or even a well thought out one, but it is a plan. I am going to be taking my two sons (and now it seems, my wife) on a massive 4^th Edition D&D campaign. Yes I know this will take years, but that is fine, I have those years. I am going to place it in my "Mystoerth" world.

Given my penchant for all things horror, I am going to set up the campaign to focus on the ascent of Orcus to godhood. Orcus is a great enemy to have. He is unrepentant evil, his minions are undead and he is full of rage, horror and violence and everything a good upstanding hero would want to stop.

I'd use some of the "new" mythology of Orcus and Raven Queen, plus a bit of my own. But not all would be railroaded plot-driven arcs. My oldest son loves to fight dragons so that would also be there. Plus I want to make this very, very relaxed. The unfolding meta-plot is my extra enjoyment, but I want to do it in such a way that we all have fun.

I am going to place it in my world's version of Glantri. Glantri is from Mystara and in that world was a Principality, now I have at as Theocratic Monarchy where the King is also the head of the Church of State. So basically, Fairy Tale England, or more to the point Fairy Tale Western Europe, since I also have influences of France and Italy here. The Princes are gone, defeated in a coup, but their lands remain ruled by nine dukes under the King. The Dukes are mostly the old family of the Princes, looking for a chance to reclaim power. So I have political intrigue if I want it, but I am going to be keeping my good and evil mostly easy to spot, at least in the beginning. The Dukes allow me to use older Glantri material, I just swap out the terms. Under the Dukes are various landed nobles, typically retired adventures, known as Barons and Counts. My thinking here is to give my boys all the full D&D experiences; so there are knights and dames, courts of intrigue and chivalry, and the way for brave adventurers to return home as heroes. Sure it is not "grim-dark" or even "points of light", but it can be part of the "oncoming darkness".

My world has a Blackmoor, a Desert, a Hyborea, not mention Greyhawk, Glantri and Kara-Tur all in one world. So, more than enough to keep me and my family busy for years to come really. Though there are only four of us, I might have to bring in some others, maybe some of their friends as well. This is one of the main reasons I am going with 4^th Edition as opposed to say an older version (the D&D Rules Cyclopedia would be so awesome for this) or another game (like Ghosts of Albion). I am more likely to find others that play 4E than some other game AND it just makes the most sense really given all the tools for 4E out now.

Here is the "Hero Tier" to borrow a phrase. These will be local and be the Mystara flavor of the epic.

• T1 The Village of Hommlet, levels 1-2. I do have the 4^th Edition update for this.
• B1 In Search of the Unknown, levels 1-3 (can run this one in my sleep)
• B2 The Keep on the Borderlands, levels 1-3
• B3 Palace of the Silver Princess, levels 1-3 (using bits from both the "Green" and "Orange" versions).
• L1 The Secret of Bone Hill, levels 2-4
• X1 The Ilse of Dread, levels 3-7
• X2 Castle Amber, levels 3-6 (place it in the Shadowfell, which is the new Ravenloft anyway)
• C2 The Ghost Tower of Inverness, levels 5-7. Though I won't run it as a tournament module and that is if I don't use it as a converted Doctor Who adventure.
• I6 Ravenloft, levels 5-7. That is if I don't use it as a convert Ghosts of Albion adventure. Use some of the Ravenloft campaign/world setting stuff here too.
• S2 White Plume Mountain, levels 5-10
• I10 Ravenloft II, House on Gryphon Hill, levels 8-10 (maybe. They might be burned out on undead by this time.)

Now begins the "Paragon Tier" and I will start with the Gygaxian canon.

• S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (with some of the info from the 3.5 update), levels 6-10
• WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, levels 5-10
• S1 Tomb of Horrors, levels 10-14 (though some of the instant kill traps changed, more skill challenges)
• S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, levels 8-12
• G123, Against the Giants, levels 8-12
• D12 Descent into the Depths of the Earth, levels 9-14
• D3 Vault of the Drow, levels 10-14
• Q1 Queen of the Demonweb Pits, levels 10-14
• CM2 Death's Ride, levels 15-20. This sets up the next tier, or I could even make this the start of the next tier and keep the Epic levels nothing but Gygaxian Greyhawk. I like that idea.

I can also fit Gary's "Dungeon Land" and "The Land Beyond the Magic Mirror" adventures here as well to complete the Gygaxian saga. But I need to re-read those to be sure.

Now here would also be a good spot for the DA series Blackmoor adventures for made for the Expert D&D set, but there is a lot of high tech stuff mixed in with those. I might pick and choose things, but I think I am more likely to go with the newer d20 Blackmoor stuff.

The "Epic Tier" is harder, but here some ideas.
Some of the Master level modules (M2, M3 and M5 in particular) look like they would work well. Plus they have the Mystara high fantasy feel that some of the Greyhawk modules don't have.
Of course I would do the Bloodstone series here, just make them harder, maybe even pair them up with the Orcus related adventures for 4e (the new "E" series), though old H4 and new E3 cover a lot of the same ground. I would want to add some other planes adventures here too. So to follow my rule of thumb I should try to find at least 6 more adventures for this tier.

• H1 Bloodstone Pass, levels 15+
• H2 The Mines of Bloodstone, levels 16-18
• H3 The Bloodstone Wars, levels 17-20
• H4 The Throne of Bloodstone, levels 18-100

I could also do a sub-campaign in my desert area using:

• B4 The Lost City, levels 1-3 (though I am using this one now in 3.5)
• I3 Pharaoh, levels 5-7
• I4 Oasis of the White Palm, levels 6-8
• I5 Lost Tomb of Martek, levels 7-9
• X4 Master of the Desert Nomads, levels 6-9
• X5 Temple of Death, levels 6-10
• I9 Day of Al'Akbar, level 8-10. Useful for the Cup and Talisman of Al'Akbar.

Now granted these levels are all for AD&D and Basic D&D and might not translate well into 4E. But I have a lot of tools at my disposal to help with that. I have a load of maps, a DDI subscription, monsters and even some third party stuff to make it all work. If I plan everything out correctly I can have them go up a level at the end of every adventure. I like that too. Also I can set up a titanic army of the undead using all the previous "bosses" from these adventures. So Strahd, Drenzula, Korbundar, Acerak, and more I know I am forgetting. Plus some GM PCs I'd love to try out that I know I'll never get to play in a 4^th Ed game.

To borrow a Klingon quote, "It will be glorious!"

My first new Game of 2010: BASH

Well had my regular GM and his family over the other night for New Year's Eve and I was introduced to BASH, Basic Action Super Heroes. It is a simple supers RPG that I am sure I am going to be playing more of in the near future. But what has impressed me the most are the number of conversions that the BASH fan community has already put together. I converted one of my M&M characters over to BASH fairly quickly. I have another character I am working on now that started out in BESM 3.0, re-done in M&M (as PL 5), then converted over to Marvel Super Heroes. It will be interesting to see if the BASH conversion goes over well.

The system is really simple, a good thing these days, and looks easy to learn. I also looks pretty flexible too. There are BASH Fantasy and BASH Sci-Fi games too, which I will need to check out.

Like most Supers games, well pretty much every game, I look at the magic first. So far the powers look very Champions or Mutants & Masterminds like, i.e. I choose the "Blast" power and call it "Arcane Blast". I plan to look at Fantasy BASH for more classical, ritualized spellcasting. Given my GM's preferences, I also expect we will be diving into Sci-Fi BASH at some point this year as well.
Since that seems to be the thing to do I'll post some conversions for BASH myself, after I have read it a bit more.

Other games I want to play in 2010:

• D&D 3.x (running) – I want to finish up my oldest son's campaign to defeat Tiamat. The characters in this game will the mytho-historical figures of our next, 4e game.
  
• D&D 4e (playing) – I have at least four 1^st to 2^nd level characters that I have started on various games and I want them to progress.
  
• Doctor Who (running or playing) – I am going to convert my Ghosts of Albion adventure "Obsession" over to Doctor Who. Fitting really since one of its inspirations was the 4^th Doctor's "The Talons of Weng-Chiang". I thought about doing it for Victoriana, but part of plot is somewhat contradictory in a world where everyone knows magic is real.
  
• Witch Girls Adventures (running or playing) – I have a few things I am working on for myself that look like they would be a lot of fun.
  

Otherwise here is to some good gaming in 2010!

Unisystem 2d6

Eden's Unisystem, both Classic and Cinematic use a single 1d10 roll to determine all their random probabilities. It has the advantage of being simple and easy to do. But some games, a lot of games actually, roll dice instead of a die. Good examples that are close to Unisystem in terms of scope are BESM 3.0 and the Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space which both use a 2d6 resolution.
So the question has come up what is the effect of using a 2d6 instead of a 1d10 roll. These are being discussed over on the Eden boards, http://edenstudiosdiscussionboards.yuku.com/topic/2772 and RPG.net http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?t=489038

Well for starters anytime you involve more dice, the probability curve is going to change. With a 1d10 the chances of getting a roll of 1 is the same as getting a roll of 9 or 7 or 3 or any other number. It's always 1 out of 10 (10%, or p=0.1).

When you add more dice than the number of potential rolls increases as due to the potential outcomes.

A 1d10 has 10 potential rolls and 10 potential outcomes.

A 2d6 has 36 potential rolls, but only 11 potential outcomes (2 to 12). Why the difference? Well a roll of 1 on one die and a roll of 6 on the other is 7 as is a roll of 2 and 4, and 2 and 5. So. This means some numbers will occur more often. This is obvious to anyone who has ever played any RPG really (unless the only thing you have played is Amber).

This also mean some outcomes are more likely to occur (high p) and others are less likely (low p), unlike a 1d10s flat outcomes.

This relationship is much closer to the way reality is modeled. We call this the Normal Curve. Now a 2d6 is not quite Normal, but it is much closer than the 1d10. Even better is the 3d4.

A quick look at Table 1 shows the 3 die types, their outcomes, the number of outcomes, their probability (p) and cumulative probability (cum p). I have also included the basic measures of central tendencies; mean, median and mode.

At first glance on the average, the 2d6 grants 1.5 points per roll (averaged out of course), and the 3d4 up to a 7.5 mean. There is also the nagging problem of both rolls cap out at 12 (not 10) and have no 1 rolls.

There is also a higher probability of rolling greater than a 9 in each case. I included 7 as well since you almost always add an attribute + a skill in many rolls. This results in far more success than the flat system. So how do we get the curve we want with the outcomes we need?

But This One Goes to 11
Simple, we subtract from the result. For the 2d6 we minus 1 (1 to 11 outcomes) and for the 3d4 we minus 2 (1 to 10 outcomes). So the 3d4-2 gives us the same range of outcomes, the same mean and median (flat distribution have no mode), but edges the probability down for success. The 2d6-1 gives us an extra point (an 11) and the averages are only .5 higher with comparable probable successes.

NOTE: I just noticed that these graphs are off by -1. The numbers are good, but I must have chosen the wrong range when making the graphs.

Now the question remains, why do it?

This brings a slightly grittier feel to your games. Successes now are less about blind luck and more about your skill. The outcomes are shot to the middle now (like reality) with fewer dramatic failures and successes. Want it even grittier? Take off another 1 from the rolls in every case to actually have a 0 outcome.
On the Eden Boards, we started calling these alternate dice methods "The Chicago Way" due to the number of Unisystem players we have here in the Chicago area.

Though I should point out while I really like the alternate dice methods, I still only use a d10 in my con games.

But I have also been playing the new Doctor Who game with a d12.

Old School Horde!

So I spent Thanksgiving with my family and look at what my younger brother dug up for my kids.  A set of a bunch of the old Dungeons & Dragons toy figure monsters!  A couple of these were mine (the Ogre, neo-otyguh and Kalak, who is missing, and maybe one of the others), some were my other brother's (the Bullywugs and orcs I am sure) and some are my youngest brother's (Tiamat).  Of course my son LOVED them.

You can see all I have left of Kalek is his spellbook.  Maybe I'll put that in my witch figure display in my game room.  I really like the ogre and the hook horror.  That hook horror looks like he walked out of my Fiend Folio and I still prefer this look to the "revised" one we get in D&D 3.x.

Of course what my son is most psyched about is the Tiamat figure.  She does not have her wings anymore, but he quickly said "she is the god of dragons, she can fly without wings if she wanted to".  Plus he has been coveting my aspect of Tiamat D&D mini for a very long time.  So this is a nice little prize for him.

While I doubt I'll use these in any of our games, my "Dragon Riders" campaign with my son using D&D 3.x is so off the wall gonzo now that they certainly would not seem out of place. Certainly the Skeleton Warriors could pass for say skeleton Cloud Giants. The Chimera, while goofy looking, is probably more to scale than the D&D mini one.

Of course while my oldest son got these, my youngest had to make do with a bag full of Generation 1 Transformers.  My inner geek self is still smiling. 
And no.  Nothing is for sale. Sorry. ;)

Google Wave

I am now on Google Wave!  Not yet sure what I will do with it but there are plenty of things I can do with my day job for it and I have heard of plenty of RPG applications.

I'll keep you all posted.  Maybe I'll run some Ghosts of Albion games on it.

Play Ivy For Me

I have been reading the Rachel Morgan series of books, AKA the Hollows series, by bestselling author Kim Harrison. The books are set in an alt-history Earth where magic is real and there are witches, vampires (living and undead), faeries, ghosts, gargoyles and werewolves. This is not what separates it all from the pack of some many other "Urban Fantasy" books out there. In this series all the supernaturals were "outted" when a genetically re-engineered virus from a tomato whipped out a quarter (or at least a lot) of the humans. To keep society going and to also explain why they had not died off, the supernaturals (or Inderlanders) stopped hiding. That was 40 years ago and the world has kept on moving forward. The books are fun because of this alt history (but that is not the only reason I like them), and it is interesting to hear how Ms. Harrison has woven this event (called "the Turn") into the mythology of the books. There are new oaths people swear too ("Damn it to back the Turn!") or even the silly; for example humans are now terrified of tomatoes. On Halloween then Inderlander homes will put out pumpkins and tomatoes and give out candy to human kids and candy and tomatoes to inderlander kids.

Plus I enjoy that all the books are plays on Clint Eastwood film titles.

No. what has to be my favorite part of the books are the characters. Rachel Morgan is a witch and a "runner" (think Shadow Run, but she is more of a bounty hunter really). She used to work for the IS, Inderland Security, who deals with the crimes committed by or to Inderlanders. Now she works every so often for the FIB (Federal Inderland Bureau), the human run police. Rachel is great, she is very much the leap before you look type. Has all sorts of magic, and still can't figure out why she terrible luck with guys, has demons following her and manages to piss off nearly everyone in town, including a master vampire, an elf crime lord and what may be the oldest demon left alive. IT's never dull for Rachel. Helping her out is her friend Jenks, who is a pixie, and might very well be the coolest pixie on the planet. He has over 50 kids, knows how to break into nearly everything, swears all the time, gets drunk on honey and manages to do all of this while being just about 4 inches tall. Then there is Ivy.

Ivy has issues.

She is a living vampire, her mother gave her the vampire virus when she was in the womb. She has the bloodlust (and man does she have it), some of the strength, the fangs, but not all the powers nor the sensitivity to sunlight. She is from a long line of very well to do living vamps, the Tamwoods, so her place in vampire society is assured. Once she dies and becomes an undead vamp she will rule Cincinnati. Trouble is she doesn't want any of that. Ivy really only wants one thing. Rachel. Ivy is in love with Rachel and has been for a while. She left the IS when Rachel did, and they live in a church (as roommates) and run their independent runner service from there. Living with Ivy though is like living with a panther. She is sleek, beautiful, and can kill you in an instant. Rachel loves Ivy too, but is not ready to go the next step with her. Plus Ivy is a mess since her undead vampire master had spent years mixing sex, love and bloodletting with savagery that Ivy has a difficult time separating them all.

So these character have really grabbed me. I like them. I want to know about what happens to them and their future. And I can't but help think about how great they'd be in a game. I am going to try to knock together some stats for these characters here is a bit. Until then, here are some links.

http://www.kimharrison.net/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hollows_(series)

http://www.facebook.com/kim.harrison#/pages/Kim-Harrison/65772714939?ref=ts

http://valliantcreations.com/images/galleries/images/color/RachelMorgan.jpg Rachel and Jenks, site link here: http://valliantcreations.com/

So keep an eye here. Certainly I'll get these three stated up for Ghosts of Albion, but I'd also like to try working them out for Witch Girls Adventures and Cortex.

Little Fears

A while back I posted about my excitement that a new version of Little Fears would be coming out.

Well it is out today in PDF form.
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=64419

I am downloading it now and will let you all know what I think of it.

Every October I purchase a Horror-themed RPG product. I thought I was going to talk about D&D 4's "Open Grave", but it looks like it might be this.

Shadow Girls

I have been a long time fan of the webcomic Shadow Girls.


http://www.shadowgirlscomic.com/






Well they have a few things going on that I'd like to let everyone know about.

First, it is a cool comic. Described as "H.P. Lovecraft meets the Gilmore Girls", which as far as mashups go has to be one of the coolest ideas ever, but the comic goes far beyond that.

Second they have a figure they are getting made that looks really awesome.

And they are being nominated for WebComicPlanet's awards. They are very much deserving of all of these awards.


Shadow Girls would make a great RPG (but the creators aldeady know that and are working on it), so until the official one is out I might try stating up the characters for Cinematic Unisystem or Witch Girls Adventures.

So go to the website, read the comic, vote, nominate and if you like, buy.

OH, and of note: the current running comic is a guest comic, please go to the first page to get the full experience.

Little Fears: Nightmare Edition

OOOOOO......

Halloween is coming and so is a new edition of Litle Fears.

Little Fears is game where you play children confronting the evils and monsters that adults can't see. This is the newest edition and so far it looks really cool.

Little Fears has the disticntion of being the only game I could not get at my FLGS. This is the same game store that I still could buy a copy of Eldritch Wizardry.

This new edition looks like it might cover some of the same ground as the first, so I am going to have to check this out.

http://www.littlefears.com/

Games Plus Fall 2009 Auction

I would like to draw your attention to my Favorite Local Game Store, Games Plus in Mount Prospect, Il. I have been going to this place for years and years and I will continue to do so.

But this is not an advertisement for Games Plus.
This is an ad for their Game Auction! ;)

Every Fall and Spring Games Plus hosts a game auction. This is the BEST way to find some really rare games, unload some games you no longer need or just hang out and see some fellow gamers and maybe catch a deal or two.

Typically the FAll auction is my time to unload those impulse buys from Gen Con. This year though I bought so little at Gen Con and have not had the time to even go through what I did buy that I might not have much in this auction at all.

I am sure though I will be there. I'll talk to my kids and see what they have they want to get rid of and then also check out some of the other nights. I could use some cheap minis and Pokemon cards are always welcomed in my home.

Here are some links with information:
http://games-plus.com/auction.htm
http://www.facebook.com/richard.kurtin#/event.php?eid=135594128125&index=1
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=101+W+Prospect+Ave%2C+Mount+Prospect%2C+IL

Stop in. Get a number and who knows that game you have been wanting for years just might be there.

Good Night Gen Con!!

And there is another Gen Con come and gone.
Ran some "Ghosts of Albion" games and they went great! If I can I'll be posting them here for you all to download and play at home!

Got to play in some games too. D&D4e, Victoriana. Wanted to get into a Bounty Head Bebop game, but timing didn't allow it.

I have some ideas for some new adventures for next year.
"GoA: Wilderness", based on a comic by Amber Benson and Christopher Golden.
"GoA: Synchronicity", a Buffy / Ghost of Albion crossover.
"GoA: Victoriana", a Ghosts of Albion / Victoriana dual stated adventure.
and one that sounds great to do on paper, but maybe not for a Gen Con game, "Ghosts of Albion: Ravenloft".

I did not buy a bunch of stuff this time around. I picked up an Elmore print for my game room, and Dave Arneson's Blackmoor 4e. Some dice to give out during Ghosts, and Pokemon cards for the boys.

The long drive is tomorrow.

Work is on Monday. Not looking forward to all the email that has backed up while I was gone.

Ghosts of Ablion at Gen Con

I am running three Gen Con events this year for Ghosts of Albion.

These are the official times and places from Gen Con. Registration is closed now, so you can register for these at the con or use the generic tickets.

I will repost this when I have more information

Here are the details.

Ghosts of Albion: Blight

RPG0906270 - 08/13/2009 07:00:00 PM (Thursday) Crowne Plaza, Grand Central Ballroom B, Table 3

RPG0906268 - 08/14/2009 07:00:00 PM (Friday) Crowne Plaza, Grand Central Ballroom B, Table 3

Ireland is dying. Her Protector has been murdered and you are the primary suspects. Can you clear your name, regain your magic and stop whatever necromancies befoul the land? Time is short, yours and one million lives hang in the balance. Set in 1847 this is an adventure for the Ghosts of Albion RPG.

Ghosts of Albion: Obsession

RPG0906269 - 08/15/2009 07:00:00 PM (Saturday) Crowne Plaza, Grand Central Ballroom B, Table 3

There is trouble at the Plough Street Theatre. The Times reports that authorities have found the strangled body of prominent actress and performer, Miriam White. However Miss White has herself commented to The Times that she is in fact alive and well and has been seen not only on stage, but having lunch with her manager just outside the theatre. You are requested by James V. Harold, esq., owner of the Plough Street Theatre to discreetly investigate this matter.