Kickstart Your Weekend: The Lost City of Gaxmoor 5E

This one is easy to back.

The Lost City of Gaxmoor 5E

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/676918054/the-lost-city-of-gaxmoor-5e?ref=theotherside

From the Kickstarter Page:

The Lost City of Gaxmoor 5E is a sandbox adventure we are converting to the 5th Edition of the world's most popular role playing game. Designed for characters that range from 1st to 10th level. It is the brain child of and written by Ernie and Luke Gygax, the sons of the legendary co-creator of Dungeons & Dragons Gary Gygax. If this campaign is successful, The Lost City of Gaxmoor 5E will be released in a Full Color, 128+ page book that includes a fold out map of the city that retails for $39.99.

I will admit I don't know the history behind Gaxmoor save that Ernie and Luke created it and it was one of the few times Gary was a player.  This, added to the long friendship between Gary and the Chenault brothers, gives this much more than a whiff of credibility.  This is the closest to something from the Old Master himself.

There is a lot going on in this Kickstarter.  Not sure what level I will pledge yet, but I know I will!

#RPGaDAY2019: Dream

Today's topic is Dream.

Dreams have been an important part of my RPG journey as a world creator.

I have detailed in the past my recurring nightmare of the "Very Haunted House".

The house was an old Victorian manor complete with spooky attic and sub-basements.
It was haunted by the ghost of an evil old woman that used to torture kids.

This house was based on a few things in real life.  The biggest was "Maplecrest Apartments" in my old home town.  It used to be an old tuberculosis hospital turned into low-income housing. I delivered newspapers back then and that was on my route.  Scary place.  The house took more form when I went with my dad to see the Dana Thomas House in Springfield, IL.   These nightmares plagued me forever, to be honest, and they were not the "whew that was a weird dream" nightmares these were the "oh my god I am going to die in this dream" sort where you wake up afraid and still full of terror.  I added details to dream with every movie I saw or book I read including a bathtub full of black water with a rotting corpse that I am sure I got from "Silence of the Lambs".

Oddly enough they stopped about 15 years ago. I had the dream and in it, my wife was standing in the dark attic only now it was bright. She held a mop and had her hair tied up, she looked at me and said "What? I cleaned it."  Cheesy as it sounds I think she helped get over whatever fears it represented.

I have since used this house in other adventures I have written.  I first used "Cotton Crest" in my Buffy RPG adventure "Under a Cajun Moon".  Years later "Oakcrest" made it's debut in "The Haunting of Oakcrest Manor" in the Guidebook to the Duchy of Valnwall Special Edition.
I am considering also doing it again, only this time Willow Crest.  Cotton Crest was haunted by demons, Oak Crest by ghosts and other undead.  Willow Crest?  Extra-dimensional aliens.  Sounds like a good Dark Places & Demogorgons adventure.

Other dreams have given me some great monsters and some other game ideas.

Looking forward to see what I dream up next.

#RPGaDAY2019: Door

Today's topic is Door.

There are a lot of doors in D&D.  Which reminds of that old saying and my response to it.

D&D taught me that closed doors are supposed to be kicked open.

I feel the same way about "Gatekeepers".  This is a topic that has been coming up a lot lately.

Some groups are claiming that other groups are gatekeeping and those groups are claiming they are not.  I can't speak to any groups really, save my own.

Take the lessons we all learned in D&D. If you see a door, or a gate, kick it the fuck open.

Or better yet, say fuck you to those groups and do your own thing.  Someone says you can't play their way, kick in the door and take their shit.

I don't normally call out groups but I do want to mention what is going on in my back yard.

So a while back there was this new movement started to counter what they thought were some of the more regressive elements of the OSR scene.  They called their movement #SwordDream and I personally think they have some interesting ideas.  I am not 100% sure what they are doing will last, but I don't know.  I can't say though I could name a product that has been made yet under the SwordDream banner, BUT that has more to do with mether

Should the OSR be worried? No. In fact, they should be thrilled this is happening.  Competition should bring out the best in everyone and if one group wants to do things one way and another wants to do another thing then we should all be happy right?

Well...there is that whole gatekeeping thing.  SwordDream has mostly been met with derision among some old school stomping grounds and outright hostility in others.  Yeah I know, I have read the posts.  These are also the same people that will claim NOT to gatekeep. 

See the problem is that gatekeeping is not just telling people they can't play it's also telling them their way of play is wrong.  Or thinking their way of wanting to do things is wrong, or lesser, or stupid, or whatever.

Is the OSR full of regressive types? Full? maybe not. Are there a bunch of old fucks that don't want people to sit at their table? Yeah there is.  Are there good people in the OSR too?  Of course! Lots really.  I kinda wish that the critics of the OSR would see those people too.

What are you the new young gamer supposed to do?  Kick in their door.  Or better yet tell them you don't want to sit with them anyway.

Kick in that door. Do your thing. Do you.

OMG: Cthulhu Mythos

I am fresh off of Gen Con 2019 where I got the chance to play a lot of Cthulhu; Call of Cthulhu and Cthulhu Tech. We even checked out Cthulhu Wars.  I figure it is a good time to talk about the Cthulhu Mythos as they appear in the Deities & Demigods.

Of course, there are a few points that need to be cleared up.  Or rather, should be clear already.

There is a lot of talk about how TSR didn't have the rights to the Cthulhu myths and that Chaosium threatened lawsuits.

Well, here are the words right from the author, Jim Ward.

Ok that out of the way. Let's talk about the mythos in D&D.

It is not an exaggeration to say that for many gamers their first exposure to the Cthulhu mythos were the entries in the Deities & Demigods, published in 1980.  The Call of Cthulhu RPG came out in 1981.  Zenopus Archives has a nice rundown of what was going in D&D and TSR at the time.

One of the main purposes of One Man's God is to fit the gods and monsters into the likes of AD&D style demons.  It would be easy to do this with the various Cthulhu monsters.

I absolutely do not plan to do this.

The biggest thing about the Cthulhu mythos and Lovecraft's purpose is diametrically opposed to this. "This" meaning to lump the Cthulhu Mythos into the likes of demons, devils, werewolves, and vampires. 

In fact, D&D would later change to accommodate the Mythos with the addition of the Far Realm.

The Far Realm was introduced in the pages of the 2nd Edtion adventure The Gates of Firestorm Peak and later expanded in 3rd Edition's Manual of the Planes.  It is a bit of a Lovecraftian pastiche, but it still works nicely. It was expanded even more under 4th Edition where it became part of the core cosmology and in-game history.

Outside of the Deities & Demigods and the books mentioned above, Cthulhu and Friends would go on to make more appearances in D&D.

If 3rd Edition is still your jam, then you have the Call of Cthulhu d20 rules, the Pathfinder Bestiary 4 for monster stats, and Sandy Petersen's Cthulhu Mythos - Pathfinder, plus the aforementioned Manual of the Planes.

For the OSR crowd, we have Realms of Crawling Chaos and Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyperborea. 

This only a fraction of the 2300+ entries on DriveThruRPG and even more elsewhere.

Of Gods and Monsters
Back to the present discourse, what does the D&DG have for us in terms of Cthulhu mythos?

In D&D terms we have our Gods: Cthulhu, Azathoth, Cthuga, Hastur, Ithaqua, Nyarlathotep, Shub-Niggurath, and Yog-Sothoth. All of these gods are "Greater Gods" with the maximum 400 hp, save for Nyarlathotep who is a "Lesser God" at 200 hp and Ithaqua a "Demigod" at 250 hp.

The monsters include Byakhee, Cthuga's Flame Creature, Deep Ones, the Great Race, Mi-Go, Primordial Ones, and Shoggoths.

Most of these are not even what we could, or should, consider demonic.  Sure they are monstrous and even some are evil, but mostly they are another kind of life that is not really interested in humans.

With that, we will leave the Cthulhu myths and head on to other gods.

#RPGaDAY2019: Guide

Today's topic is Guide.

This is a topic that is likely to come up many times today.

Games work best with guides, not just books, but people and things to help show you the way.

I think my first real guide to D&D actually predates my D&D exposure.
I have mentioned in the past that my true introduction to what would become my D&D was d'Aulaires Book of Greek Myths this was nearly immediately followed by Tolkien's The Hobbit.

In between my reading of these two books was when I discovered D&D.  The line is pretty direct for me from Greek Myths to D&D and the Hobbit. These two sources were my guide to what D&D could be if not what it should be.  In fact it is not too much of a stretch to say my D&D then was very much Greek Myths + The Hobbit.

The next guide I picked up were D&D proper.

While Holmes Basic might have been my first set of D&D rules, it was the AD&D Monster Manual that was my first exposure to D&D.   But I have detailed these two books and their impact on me many times here.

From here my guides were less about books and more about people.  When I was learning to how to play and moving through my first few years of D&D I got to play in a lot of different groups and knew of several more.  Here other's experiences and their readings came to influence me.

While I had read many of the books on the infamous Appendix N, they were only a tertiary impact on me and my games.  Usually, either through someone else have read them and applying them to their games and what was in the RPG books. 

Over the years I have had the chance to play with others who have helped guide me (and vice versa) through many RPGs.  Each time I take away something to aid me or push me on.

There were my high school games where I got the chance to play with a lot of different groups. The summer from college that I played in an OD&D campaign.  Games at college and striking out all on my own in 2nd Ed to recreate my own worlds.  Campaigns with other games like ShadowRun, Vampire, and eventually WitchCraft. Meeting people online and talking games with them discovering that even though we all did things in a different way there are common stories and share experiences.  To the message boards, blogs, and social media of today.

Even reading these posts today will help guide me in other directions. 

#RPGaDAY2019: Mystery

Today's topic is Mystery.

I think everyone loves a good mystery, especially in their RPGs.

Building a true sense of mystery though requires work and the subtle use of clues, hints, rumors, and innuendos.   I have found, more times than not, the best way to it is to involve the players right away.

Not in the way of getting them all to pitch in in some shared Game Mastering role.  That certainly works for some games, but not all.  No by this I mean take their speculations and let them run away with them. 

Here are some examples.

In my Come Endless Darkness 5e campaign, I am spreading te greater mystery over three different campaigns.  No one set of characters or players has the full picture.  At least not until I get them (or what's left of them) in a room once they reach 18th level or so.  The mystery right now is so vague as to not even be there. Yet.  Some of the players in the Order of the Platinum Dragon game are beginning to suspect.  Maybe some of the characters in the Second Campaign are as well.  But I know no one in the Into the Nentir Vale suspect the larger mystery.

Of course, each campaign has its own mysteries.
For the Order of the Platinum Dragon, it has been "what has happened to the Sun?" and then "who killed all the Sun Gods?"  And now it is, or soon will be, "there is no way Lolth could do this on her own!"
For the Second Campaign, the mystery has been "why are all these 'gods' of the lizard and scally folk rising up?"  A little less tangible, but it is getting them there.
And finally in Into the Nentir Vale it has been simply, "We know Orcus is rising as a power, but why?"

Clues in each one will add to the other.  Overly complicated?  Maybe.  Fun?  Definitely.

In fact, this is where my players came into it.  Originally I saw the Second Campaign's big mover and shaker to be the Mind Flayers.  THEY were going to be the ones behind the scenes.  BUT as the game went on and it became more distinct from the Order of the Platinum Dragon game and more and more lizardfolk, nagas and Yuan-ti showed up the players began to weave this huge conspiracy theory around them.   IT was so compelling and, really, so out there, that I had to reward them by altering my own plans to fit more of their elements.

I am NOT giving them everything, but I am giving them enough that their own enthusiasm is sending down a trail.  The ending will remain the same, the mystery still comes to the same conclusion, but now we go about it on a different path.

Other little tidbits that keep coming up.  On our "crazy board" above we still have listed "Where is Cynder".  Cynder was an elven elemental fire wizard that just stopped going with the group. We totally forgot about her, well at least I did.  Even though she was only one session of the Order of the Platinum Dragon, she will show up later in Into the Nentir Vale and maybe the Second Campaign.
There is something to her, I just don't know what yet!

Another hook I was going to use was the Ranger Elmo from T1.  He was going to show up in the Abyss when the Order got there (at Gen Con), but the players never really engaged with the guy.  HOWEVER they did engage a lot with this random elf woman that had been following them since the A Series.    They again decided she had to be important even if originally each of those encounters were with different elves.  My players decided she was the same person each time and figured she knew something.  A few quick jots in my notebook and Evelyn, the Princess Escalla was born!  She was an Elven Ranger/Enchanter and was key to the Elven resistance movement in the Underdark.

It has been a glorious set of mysteries and neither the characters nor the players have figured out the ultimate mystery.  That Tharizdûn, through Asmodeus, is manipulating the demons to get what he wants; his resurrection and freedom from his cage.

It's going to be great.

Monstrous Monday: Brass Golems

I am gearing up for a new release.  I am about two weeks behind schedule but hope to make it up here soon.  In the meantime here is one of the monsters that will appear in my new book,  Children of the Gods: The Classical Witch Tradition.

Here is a creature I think many of us know for the Blueholme Journeymanne Rules.

GOLEM, BRASS

	Small	Medium	Large
AC:	7	5	3
HD:	2d8	6d8	10d8
Move:	40	30	20
Attacks:	1 bite	1 fist	1 bash
Damage:	2d4	2d6	2d8
XP:	80	460	1,800
Alignment:	Neutral
Treasure:	0 (0)

Golems are magically created automatons of great power. Constructing one involves the employment of mighty magic. As such, they are created by exceptionally powerful witches and magic-users. All golems are unaffected by ordinary weapons. In addition, golems have no true intelligence and are thus unaffected by hold, charm, or sleep spells. Since they are not truly alive, they are unaffected by poison or gases.


Brass Golem: Taught to her witches by Athena herself these intricately detailed golems are made of brass. They can come in a variety of sizes and shapes since brass is an easier metal to work with. 


Small Brass Golems tend to be animals or fantastic creatures.  They act like the animal they are fashioned after.  They are often given as gifts by Athena or other gods.


Medium Brass Golems are fashioned to appear as examples of human physical perfection.  Often modeled after Apollo, Aphrodite, or even Zeus their perfection gives them a sort of spontaneous life. 


Large Brass Golems can appear as large humans, animals or even monsters.


The secrets of making these golems have been lost but it is believed that artisans and artificers such as Pygmalion and Daedalus have recovered and recorded these secrets.  Others were created by the gods themselves.

#RPGaDAY2019: Friendship

Today's topic is Friendship.

This is a rather easy topic, to be honest, and a story I feel will be repeated many times today.

Some of my earliest and longest friendships have been around gaming.  Some of my current good friends I have met through gaming.

I met my first AD&D DM, outside of my brother and I, in my 7th grade band class.  We both played saxophones.  We are still friends and I just bought his son a whole collection of 1st AD&D books.

I met my high school DM via our Theatre classes and working on the student newspaper.  We are still friends.

I met the guy who runs games for me and my oldest son sometimes through the same daycare our kids were in.  He recognized my name from my work at Eden Studios.  We are still good friends and our oldest boys are really great friends.

I have a bunch of friends I have met online that I like to see at Gen Con too.

It's funny that a game labeled as "anti-social" back it's golden age requires so much interaction with other people.

This is also a good time to remember the tale of Carlos the Dwarf.

#RPGaDAY2019: Examine

Today's topic is Examine.

ὁ δὲ ἀνεξέταστος βίος οὐ βιωτὸς ἀνθρώπῳ"
"The unexamined life is not worth living"  - attributed to Socrates

Gen Con is a great time.  I get to run different kinds of games and I get to play different kinds of games.  But I also get a chance to reflect on my own style of Game Mastering.

I played in a Call of Cthulhu game that my son ran and I was really impressed on how he had come since the last time he had run a game for me.  Really, really impressed.  Now he is young and has more to master than a 50-year-old like me.  But I could not help but think how much he had improved his own game over how much I had, or had not, improved my own.

I also got the chance to play in Jess Ross' Blue Rose game.
Jess is an amazing GM and she also has an actual play podcast for Blue Rose at: http://bitchesandliches.com/

Jess also runs her games a little different than I do and it was also quite a lot of fun.

Both of these events got me thinking more and more about my own style and what I need to do to push it up a notch.

I have not quite figured it all yet, but I am certainly examining what I liked about these other play styles.  I think I want to go back to my notes of when I was running Ghosts of Albion all the time.  Those were some great games and I'd like to recapture some of that for my D&D games.

Zatannurday: Superhero Girls Ad Blockers

Lauren Faust's DC Super Hero Girls continues to entertain.

So when a new one comes out with Zatanna, well you know I am paying attention.

Zee and Oliver Queen have shows at different theaters the same night.  Yeah, that can't be good.


So I know I am not the target audience here, but I don't care. Lauren Faust is fantastic. This show is fun and I get a huge kick out of it.

#RPGaDAY2019: Focus

Today's topic is Focus.

Interestingly enough this is the topic that struggled with the most even though I knew roughly what I wanted to say.

Interesting because it is not "focus", but rather a lack of focus I want to talk about.

The actual view from my chair in my game room

Presently I have about dozen to dozen and a half on going Works In Progress (WIPs).
That's insane.

I really need to focus to get them done. I also have two exams I need to review and edit for a Social Justice in Social Work course I am working on that need to be done for my day job.

We joke and laugh and call it "Gamer ADHD", but there is a serious side effect to this.

One completed project gets more use than 20 incomplete ones.

My hobgoblin, my nemesis, is the constant flow of ideas, some good others not as good (ok bad), that I have to jot down.  I have "Children of the Gods" that is now about three weeks behind schedule to get to you all.  I am still picking at various game ideas. Oh and there are editors online reading this thinking "yeah that is great and all, but when are YOU getting ME the work you owe me??"

Meanwhile that Midterm and Final are staring at me and I have less than an hour to read them, edit them and have something intelligent to say in a meeting.

I have tried various project management techniques, but I then spend time on the process and not on the project.  So that's not ideal either.

--

On the flip side.  I also see how prepping for three weekly D&D games has improved my oldest son's focus.

He struggled in school but had topics he excelled in.  Now since he has been running D&D games and dealing with a wide variety of issues in those games I have noticed a sharp increase in his organizational skills and focus.  This has been reflected in his grades where he was asked to join an honor society his Freshman year in college.

--

Of course, Focus also makes me think of this.

#RPGaDAY2019: Critical

Today's topic is Critical.

Yes. Today I am going to talk about Critical Role.

For the one or two people out there that don't know, Critical Role is a Web-based show that covers a group of professional voice actors and TV actors as they play D&D.  The first season they played Pathfinder and now they play D&D 5th edition.

You can find them on the web here: https://critrole.com/

They have a HUGE fan base as evidenced by their ridiculously successful Kickstarter ($11.3 Million), 135k+ unique views on YouTube and Twitch and the winner of two Webby Awards.

Both of my sons watch it and nearly everyone in their various game groups do as well.

I know that many gamers around my age don't like it and have a lot of negative things to say about it.  To that I say.

Boo Fucking Hoo.

Obviously, they are not hurting for your lack of interest and understanding.  And for all the talk of how "that's not how D&D is supposed to be played" well no one died and made you the fucking Gestapo of D&D.  Even back in the day no two groups in my tiny ass, mid-west, deeply Christian town played it the same way and I know players today won't and don't give two shits about what a bunch old fuck Grognards have to say either.

Some people complain about the so-called "Mercer Effect" after Matt Mercer the DM for the group.  You know what Mercer Effect I see?  People coming to me and saying "Hey my kids listen/watch Critical Role and now they want to play D&D. What do I need to get them?"

That's the Mercer Effect.  Sorry, he has done more for the game than any 100 of us old fucks have done. Actually no. I am not sorry.  I am glad Matt is out there doing his thing and having a blast.

And obviously laughing all the way to the bank too.

#RPGaDAY2019: Obscure

Today's topic is Obscure.

Again I am going with a different version of the word because this made me think of Pink Floyd's "Obscured by Clouds".  A very, very underrated album and one semi-central to my D&D playing years.

Obscured by Clouds was released in 1972, a year before their landmark album Dark Side of the Moon.  Now I could write a dissertation on Dark Side, and many have.  But that is not today's post.

ObC was a softer album, but in it are the seeds of what the "new" Pink Floyd became planted in the very fertile ground of the older psychedelic Pink Floyd.

My first DM, the guy that ran me through so many adventures of D&D Expert combined with AD&D, turned me on to this album.  We were both huge Pink Floyd fans and Dark Side was my favorite album. I would go over to his house to play D&D but before we would play, like so many kids in the 80s, we went out on our bikes first.

He lived near the Capitol Records plant so we would rummage around the loading doc and always find a cassette or two that never made it on to the trucks.  Mostly things like Kenny Rogers, but every so often a gem like Iron Maiden or Kraftwerk (Capitol was EMI's American counterpart).  If we were REALLY lucky we would score a Pink Floyd cassette.  Especially since Floyd had left Capitol/EMI for Columbia/CBS Records in the mid 70s.

Obscured by Clouds was a soundtrack of sorts to the film La Vallée (The Valley).  But to my young and unsophisticated ears, it was the soundtrack of an older adventurer.  Someone that had adventured,  loved, lost and now lay dying only with his regrets.

Nothing characterized that better for me than the song Free Four.  Sure it is about the recording industry and Roger Waters singing (again) about his dead dad.  But in the early 80s it was more than that to me.


Floyd would continue to be an inspiration to me when playing although I can't draw a direct line from them to anything I have created like I can with Stevie Nicks or the Police or Led Zeppelin.

Still. To this day, listening to Floyd makes me think of D&D games gone by.

#RPGaDAY2019: Familiar

Today's topic is Familiar.

Again, I think I'll make a hard turn here and talk about Familiars; as in animal familiars, not something that is familiar.

I have talked a lot about familiars here. Books on familiars, spells for familiars, and what familiars could do for witches and wizards.

Sometimes I have pondered doing a book on just familiars. An OSR books for both witches and magic-users/wizards.  I'd include animal companions for druids as well.

But there are already good books out there for that and most of what I have wanted to add have been already added to my various witch books.  So maybe there is no need.

Still. It could be fun.

What do you all think?  Would this be something anyone is interested in?  I wouldn't do it if I didn't add a bunch of new material.