Don't you hate it when you get everything ready to game and the DM says you can't play today because of other issues (family, work...)
What makes this worse is I am the DM.
Crazy hectic week and I had hoped that the 12+ hour days I had been pulling this week would have given me some time to play today. No such luck.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Zatannurday: More Deviant Art
Zatanna 2 by ~Pencilbags on deviantART
Simsalabim colour by ~Penelope77 on deviantART
Zatanna says Hi by =powerbook125 on deviantART
Zatanna colour by *Penelope77 on deviantART
zatana rabbit by ~undergrace777 on deviantART
Zatanna + Vampi by *theartofshade on deviantART
DC Girls Commission by *rafaelalbuquerqueart on deviantART
Zatanna - Only $1 Bonus by ~tanoshiboy on deviantART
Zatanna-Portrait by ~Meejay7 on deviantART
Zantana by ~CWARDART on deviantART
zatanna by ~xryss on deviantART
Zatanna SOTD by *logicfun on deviantART
ZATANNA by ~CHUBETO on deviantART
The Magician 2 by ~StickyMon on deviantART
Zatanna by ~OcelotXIII on deviantART
Zee by ~bangali on deviantART
Zatanna by ~amatuerpornstar69 on deviantART
Waiting for magic by *KeyD on deviantART
Friday, March 2, 2012
Victorian Games for Sale
There are plenty of sales at the GM's Day sale at DriveThruRPG. At the time of this writing I found over 8,000 pdfs. Some I didn't even know about.
Here are a list of my favorite Victorian Era games that are not Ghosts of Albion.
Castle Falkenstein - the original weird Victoria. Great game.
Cthulhu by Gaslight - the horror classic. Gothic horror + Lovecraftian horror = win.
Gaslight Victorian Fantasy (OGL Edition) and
Gaslight Victorian Fantasy (Savage Worlds Edition) - Victorian game that you can shape how you wish. Compatible with 1000s of other products.
Rippers - Savage Worlds Victorian horror tech
Victoriana: 1867 Edition - the original version
Victoriana 2nd Edition Core Rulebook - the updated and far superior version
Abney Park's Airship Pirates - alt Victorian high concept based on the albums and Victoriana's rules
Space: 1889 - The original trip to space, based on H.G. Welles and Jules Verne stories/
Space 1889: Red Sands - the new updated Savage Worlds version
The Kerberos Club (Savage Worlds Edition) - your characters need a place to go
Etherscope - and a way to tie all these worlds together.
All of these games are great fun in their own right, but I like them all and combine bits and pieces of them with Ghosts of Albion.
Grab them all while they are on sale.
What does D&D Sound like?
What does D&D sound like?
This is what it sounds like to me.
D&D sounds like Rush.
This is what it sounds like to me.
D&D sounds like Rush.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Dragonslayers: An Epic Epic of Epicness
So after my Book of Vile Darkness enhanced version of S4:The Lost Caverns of the Tsojcanth, the characters all for the most part hit 20th level and frankly I don't want to stop.
So I am pouring over the Epic Level Handbook now. This is not something I used back when I was play 3.x, and it has taken this long for the boys to get to this level. I have some issues with it, for example the editing seems bad in places. But man this book is just full of great ideas. Some of which would be great for Epic Level Play in D&D4 or 20+ level in D&D Bacic/BECMI.
Really it is kind of a fascinating book. It takes the rules into places the original designers I don't think expected, but yet there is such an enthusiasm for it that it makes the reality of a 30-level D&D4 a no brainer.
They have not leveled up yet, they are still in the caves. I am merging the 3.x rewrite of the LSotT with the Forgotten Temple of Tharizdûn. I now have the temple far, far underground where the dengerate Norkers dwell and keep millennia old rituals alive to a God no one remembers. There will be demons, monsters of pure chaos and all sorts of evil. Maybe even a rogue Brain Collector. Love those guys.
To keep the sense of evil, dread and most importantly fear, I am still going to use the Book of Vile Darkness (both the 3.0 and 4.0 versions) but I'll also include some elder scariness from the Epic Level Handbook too.
The idea here is to build to something big, apocalyptic even. That is why I bought this thing.
The Mage Knight Apocalypse Dragon to stand in for the full Goddess form of Tiamat. That is the 3.x era Aspect of Tiamat and the 4e Orcus. I am not sure how powerful she is going to be, but I am expecting HP in the low 1000 area, at least 30-35 HD and enough magic the stomp a small city-state. I want it to be so epic that the boys will tell their own kids one day. Just like the time that my characters had to defeat Orcus in the original H4 Throne of Bloodstone back in that far off time of 1987 and that mystical land sages once spoke of, Southern Illinois.
But since I also want to make all the battles leading up to this one epic in feel I am also reading other's play experience with these two modules.
Beedo over at Dreams of the Lich House has a great post on his group's battle in the Temple of Tharizdun. This is a great run down and shows that all in not quiet in this so-called Forgotten temple. James of Grognardia gives us his retrospective as well. What both bloggers offer me is something I already knew, but was glad to see it all spelled out again. The Forgotten Temple is not a simple dungeon crawl. Sure it looks like one, but it isn't one. This is alien horror. This is Lovecraft meets the Satan Pit.
There is no over ridding goal to this adventure. This is uncovering a plot and then running the hell away. I'll give them chances to acquire some magic items, even face some ancient, eldritch evils.
If I ever do Tharizdûn it will have to be even bigger than the Tiamat battle.
Tharizdun. Now there is name. You don't need to know anything else about this guy other than his name to know he is up to no good.
In Gygax's Oerth he is the next best (worst) thing to Satan. He is the Source of All Evil, to borrow a page from Charmed. He is the biggest baddie there is. I'll take his "Satan" aspects and his "Thasaidon" aspects and maybe even pepper in a bit of Lovecraft for good measure.
Links I am currently reading for "inspiration".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forgotten_Temple_of_Tharizdun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tharizdun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Ashton_Smith_deities#Thasaidon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghaunadaur#Ghaunadaur
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elder_Evils
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Tharizdun
http://www.canonfire.com/wiki/index.php?title=Tharizdun
http://www.canonfire.com/wiki/index.php?title=Elder_Elemental_Eye
http://www.canonfire.com/cfhtml/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=968
http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/11/retrospective-forgotten-temple-of.html
http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2010/08/pulp-fantasy-library-dark-eidolon.html
http://ulmo.mux.net/greyhawk/tharizdun.html
Anyone else run an Epic level game? Or take on the Temple of Tharizdun.
So I am pouring over the Epic Level Handbook now. This is not something I used back when I was play 3.x, and it has taken this long for the boys to get to this level. I have some issues with it, for example the editing seems bad in places. But man this book is just full of great ideas. Some of which would be great for Epic Level Play in D&D4 or 20+ level in D&D Bacic/BECMI.
Really it is kind of a fascinating book. It takes the rules into places the original designers I don't think expected, but yet there is such an enthusiasm for it that it makes the reality of a 30-level D&D4 a no brainer.
They have not leveled up yet, they are still in the caves. I am merging the 3.x rewrite of the LSotT with the Forgotten Temple of Tharizdûn. I now have the temple far, far underground where the dengerate Norkers dwell and keep millennia old rituals alive to a God no one remembers. There will be demons, monsters of pure chaos and all sorts of evil. Maybe even a rogue Brain Collector. Love those guys.
To keep the sense of evil, dread and most importantly fear, I am still going to use the Book of Vile Darkness (both the 3.0 and 4.0 versions) but I'll also include some elder scariness from the Epic Level Handbook too.
The idea here is to build to something big, apocalyptic even. That is why I bought this thing.
The Mage Knight Apocalypse Dragon to stand in for the full Goddess form of Tiamat. That is the 3.x era Aspect of Tiamat and the 4e Orcus. I am not sure how powerful she is going to be, but I am expecting HP in the low 1000 area, at least 30-35 HD and enough magic the stomp a small city-state. I want it to be so epic that the boys will tell their own kids one day. Just like the time that my characters had to defeat Orcus in the original H4 Throne of Bloodstone back in that far off time of 1987 and that mystical land sages once spoke of, Southern Illinois.
But since I also want to make all the battles leading up to this one epic in feel I am also reading other's play experience with these two modules.
Beedo over at Dreams of the Lich House has a great post on his group's battle in the Temple of Tharizdun. This is a great run down and shows that all in not quiet in this so-called Forgotten temple. James of Grognardia gives us his retrospective as well. What both bloggers offer me is something I already knew, but was glad to see it all spelled out again. The Forgotten Temple is not a simple dungeon crawl. Sure it looks like one, but it isn't one. This is alien horror. This is Lovecraft meets the Satan Pit.
There is no over ridding goal to this adventure. This is uncovering a plot and then running the hell away. I'll give them chances to acquire some magic items, even face some ancient, eldritch evils.
If I ever do Tharizdûn it will have to be even bigger than the Tiamat battle.
Tharizdun. Now there is name. You don't need to know anything else about this guy other than his name to know he is up to no good.
In Gygax's Oerth he is the next best (worst) thing to Satan. He is the Source of All Evil, to borrow a page from Charmed. He is the biggest baddie there is. I'll take his "Satan" aspects and his "Thasaidon" aspects and maybe even pepper in a bit of Lovecraft for good measure.
Links I am currently reading for "inspiration".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Forgotten_Temple_of_Tharizdun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tharizdun
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clark_Ashton_Smith_deities#Thasaidon
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghaunadaur#Ghaunadaur
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elder_Evils
http://forgottenrealms.wikia.com/wiki/Tharizdun
http://www.canonfire.com/wiki/index.php?title=Tharizdun
http://www.canonfire.com/wiki/index.php?title=Elder_Elemental_Eye
http://www.canonfire.com/cfhtml/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=968
http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2008/11/retrospective-forgotten-temple-of.html
http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2010/08/pulp-fantasy-library-dark-eidolon.html
http://ulmo.mux.net/greyhawk/tharizdun.html
Anyone else run an Epic level game? Or take on the Temple of Tharizdun.
Beware the Sales of March
Today is the first day of March. The beginning of March is always a good time in the gaming world for me.
It means spring and spring mean that Cons are coming up. It also means the Games Plus spring game auction. If you have never been please make the effort to go.
It also means the GM's Day sale at DriveThruRPG.
There are a lot of deals this time around. I noticed more that a few that were at 40% or more off.
Great time to grab that game you always wanted.
It means spring and spring mean that Cons are coming up. It also means the Games Plus spring game auction. If you have never been please make the effort to go.
It also means the GM's Day sale at DriveThruRPG.
There are a lot of deals this time around. I noticed more that a few that were at 40% or more off.
Great time to grab that game you always wanted.
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Old Maps
I love old maps. Especially ones from the dawn of discovery when map makers had equal parts of skill, imagination and daring. Sure I would not want one in my GPS car system, but for my game table? Yes Please!
Here is one I was reading today while waiting for something else.
That's Taprobana. An island in the Indian Ocean.
Sure we have an island there now anyway, Sri Lanka, but Taprobana is cool. It is an island of wizards, fakirs and shamans. A place to go to learn the highest magics, the most ancient of all arcane secrets.
They also have tea. Which is a plus.
I just need to find a place for it in my own world.
Here is one I was reading today while waiting for something else.
That's Taprobana. An island in the Indian Ocean.
Sure we have an island there now anyway, Sri Lanka, but Taprobana is cool. It is an island of wizards, fakirs and shamans. A place to go to learn the highest magics, the most ancient of all arcane secrets.
They also have tea. Which is a plus.
I just need to find a place for it in my own world.
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