Reading the 5e boards.
How can someone say "I am an Old Timer" and "I started with 2nd Ed" in the same breath?
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Ghosts of Albion: Print on Demand
Tim Knight over at "I'd Rather Be Killing Monsters" featured Ghosts of Albion on his Fleamarket Friday post.
BTW glad to see you back up Tim!
He pointed out something I have not seen yet.
Ghosts of Albion is also available as a Print on Demand book.
I will pick up a copy and see how it looks.
I'll keep you all posted.
BTW glad to see you back up Tim!
He pointed out something I have not seen yet.
Ghosts of Albion is also available as a Print on Demand book.
I will pick up a copy and see how it looks.
I'll keep you all posted.
Zatannurday: Special Guests White Witch and Scarlet Witch
Though this cosplayer might make me change my mind.
In the Marvel-DC Amalgam Comics Zee and Scarlet Witch are merged into one character Wanda Zatara, The White Witch. She sounds like an interesting character, but I have not read the issues she has been in. I guess her father was a combination of John Zatara (DC) and Doctor Druid (Marvel).
Since this is an RPG blog, here is a link to her stats for the Marvel SAGA system, http://www.chopshoptoys.com/Games/WhiteWitchsht.jpg
Trouble is, in truth, the things that irritate me about Scarlet Witch will also happen to Zatanna; ie making her too powerful, then not powerful enough, never know what to do with her powers. I feel that the latest round of authors, starting with Paul Dini, have made Zee better. Scarlet Witch is just dead in the Ultimate Universe as far as I know.
Any way here are some pics of Zee and Scarlet Witch teaming up.
Edited to add:
Scarlet Witch / Zatanna team up over at the Brave and the Bold/Super Team Family.
Thursday, January 12, 2012
April A to Z Challenge
Blogging A to Z
The official A to Z blogging challenge site has reposted my blog post about this year's challenge.
You can see that here, http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/
Again, let me restate that if we want to get our messages out there we need to move beyond the collection of blogs we all read now. I spend a lot of time on writer's blogs (who love the A to Z) and horror blogs. Most have never heard of us or what we do. That's fine, but it is a reminder that while we are loud in the echo chamber of our own blogs, outside of us we are barely a whisper. And by "we" I mean RPG hobbyists in general, not just old-school, new-school or no-school.
So what I am going to do?
I have considered going back to one of my first loves, Vampires, and doing vampires A to Z as a rough draft for a monster book on vamps. I figured the change would be nice and it is popular enough to keep the conversation going. Don't know yet really.
Let me extend the challenge again to my fellow RPG bloggers to try this out.
The official A to Z blogging challenge site has reposted my blog post about this year's challenge.
You can see that here, http://www.a-to-zchallenge.com/
Again, let me restate that if we want to get our messages out there we need to move beyond the collection of blogs we all read now. I spend a lot of time on writer's blogs (who love the A to Z) and horror blogs. Most have never heard of us or what we do. That's fine, but it is a reminder that while we are loud in the echo chamber of our own blogs, outside of us we are barely a whisper. And by "we" I mean RPG hobbyists in general, not just old-school, new-school or no-school.
So what I am going to do?
I have considered going back to one of my first loves, Vampires, and doing vampires A to Z as a rough draft for a monster book on vamps. I figured the change would be nice and it is popular enough to keep the conversation going. Don't know yet really.
Let me extend the challenge again to my fellow RPG bloggers to try this out.
Wednesday, January 11, 2012
Vampire the Masquerade 20th - Print
The game that redefined games in the 90s and beyond is back in a new print version.
Vampire the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=94815&affiliate_id=10748
This is for the Print-on-demand product, and it is not cheap.
Granted it is also not a small book. Nor is it just any book.
Very, very, very few games have had the impact on the public awareness as much as V:tM. D&D being one, and maybe (just maybe) Call of Cthulhu. But really it is just D&D and V:tM.
I think one of the reason the OSR has not latched on to VtM is that there seems to be a pretty clear divide between D&D players and WoD players. Too bad really. Both games are a lot of fun.
Vampire the Masquerade 20th Anniversary Edition
http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product_info.php?products_id=94815&affiliate_id=10748
This is for the Print-on-demand product, and it is not cheap.
Granted it is also not a small book. Nor is it just any book.
Very, very, very few games have had the impact on the public awareness as much as V:tM. D&D being one, and maybe (just maybe) Call of Cthulhu. But really it is just D&D and V:tM.
I think one of the reason the OSR has not latched on to VtM is that there seems to be a pretty clear divide between D&D players and WoD players. Too bad really. Both games are a lot of fun.
White Dwarf Wednesday Issue 2
Welcome back to White Dwarf Wednesday. Today I will talk about Issue #2 from Aug/Sep 1977.
This is an interesting issue if for one reason alone (though there are more), the editorial. Ian Livingstone talks about the superior attitude being taken by the old guard war gamers against this "New" hobby of RPGs, though called throughout the editorial as SF/F gamers.
It is interesting reading this piece where D&D is the new kid on the block and defending itself against, well, the Grognards.
It is also interesting since none of the arguments have changed in 35 years. Substitute the names of the games and you have the same post you will see on any blog or message board.
Following that we have more details on Competitive D&D. A review on Asgard Miniatures by Ian Livingstone. Lewis Pulsipher gives us a three page review/article on The Green Planet Trilogy game by Richard Jordison. He doesn't particularly like the games and invites the author to write White Dwarf to clarify some rules.
An interesting tid bit is an article by Hartley Patterson called "Before the Flood" where he describes a game called "Midgard" that according to him, had many resemblances to D&D. He contends that there was no way that Gygax and Co. could have seen these rule beforehand. The original manuscript had been written in 1972 by Will Haven and then rewritten by himself. I have never heard of it.
The regular Open Box feature gives us reviews of new games such as "OGRE", a new craze called a "micro-game", TSR's "Lankhmar", and a game called "War of the Star Slavers". OGRE got an 8 total, Lankhmar got a 6 and Star Slavers a 3 due to the poor rules and counters. There is also a review for a D&D enspired or rip-off game called Tunnels & Trolls (eek!), but no numerical rank is given.
We continue with the Monstermark system with a look at dragons, other fire breathing monsters and other "nasties". From what I can tell nearly every monster from OD&D is listed here.
The Treasure Box feature gives us new crunch. We get a new magic item, a needle that can be anything it needs to be, and a new class the Scientist. The Scientist is just plain weird. It is actually two classes, the Scientist (with level titles like Ph.D. and Polymath) and the Anti-Scientist (with level titles like Luddite, Jehovah's Witness and Football Supporter). I can't tell if they are trying to be funny with it or not.
Finally we get to some crunch we can actually use, five new monsters: the frog-like Spinescale, a constructed bottle creature, The Ning, a Giant Caterpillars, the Blood Hawk, and the Dune Stalker which survived nearly unchanged save updated to AD&D from the OD&D here in the Fiend Folio. None of the new monsters have a Monstermark score themselves just yet.
The issue ends with part two of "How to Improve D&D" and a letters section with people already writing in and telling them how do things different. Gamers have never changed.
It is interesting reading this piece where D&D is the new kid on the block and defending itself against, well, the Grognards.
It is also interesting since none of the arguments have changed in 35 years. Substitute the names of the games and you have the same post you will see on any blog or message board.
Following that we have more details on Competitive D&D. A review on Asgard Miniatures by Ian Livingstone. Lewis Pulsipher gives us a three page review/article on The Green Planet Trilogy game by Richard Jordison. He doesn't particularly like the games and invites the author to write White Dwarf to clarify some rules.
An interesting tid bit is an article by Hartley Patterson called "Before the Flood" where he describes a game called "Midgard" that according to him, had many resemblances to D&D. He contends that there was no way that Gygax and Co. could have seen these rule beforehand. The original manuscript had been written in 1972 by Will Haven and then rewritten by himself. I have never heard of it.
The regular Open Box feature gives us reviews of new games such as "OGRE", a new craze called a "micro-game", TSR's "Lankhmar", and a game called "War of the Star Slavers". OGRE got an 8 total, Lankhmar got a 6 and Star Slavers a 3 due to the poor rules and counters. There is also a review for a D&D enspired or rip-off game called Tunnels & Trolls (eek!), but no numerical rank is given.
We continue with the Monstermark system with a look at dragons, other fire breathing monsters and other "nasties". From what I can tell nearly every monster from OD&D is listed here.
The Treasure Box feature gives us new crunch. We get a new magic item, a needle that can be anything it needs to be, and a new class the Scientist. The Scientist is just plain weird. It is actually two classes, the Scientist (with level titles like Ph.D. and Polymath) and the Anti-Scientist (with level titles like Luddite, Jehovah's Witness and Football Supporter). I can't tell if they are trying to be funny with it or not.
Finally we get to some crunch we can actually use, five new monsters: the frog-like Spinescale, a constructed bottle creature, The Ning, a Giant Caterpillars, the Blood Hawk, and the Dune Stalker which survived nearly unchanged save updated to AD&D from the OD&D here in the Fiend Folio. None of the new monsters have a Monstermark score themselves just yet.
The issue ends with part two of "How to Improve D&D" and a letters section with people already writing in and telling them how do things different. Gamers have never changed.
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
Kids Games: Biting off more than I can chew
I just got an email a bit ago saying that the Kid's Games I am running at my kids' elementary school were the most popular choices and I am at capacity.
Now I have to craft an adventure for all these kids.
This also begs the obvious questions.
1. Do I keep doing this 4e thing with 5e on the horizon?
2. If I do, am I obligated to mention 5e? If it were a game at a con I think I might be.
3. Should I just do all Pathfinder?
Here is the plan as it is right now:
Session 1 (two weeks): Play 4e
Session 2 (two weeks): Play the same adventure in Pathfinder
Its a good plan. It means more work for me, but that is fine.
I guess once I see the sign up tonight I'll know more.
Now I have to craft an adventure for all these kids.
This also begs the obvious questions.
1. Do I keep doing this 4e thing with 5e on the horizon?
2. If I do, am I obligated to mention 5e? If it were a game at a con I think I might be.
3. Should I just do all Pathfinder?
Here is the plan as it is right now:
Session 1 (two weeks): Play 4e
Session 2 (two weeks): Play the same adventure in Pathfinder
Its a good plan. It means more work for me, but that is fine.
I guess once I see the sign up tonight I'll know more.
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