Well they are new to me.
D20 Dark Ages
http://d20darkages.blogspot.com/
D20 Dark Ages is run by Stelios a writer and historian. The blog mostly focuses on his one gaming exploits from the time period of 1989 to now. There is a strong old-school vibe to his blog and details on what really were the Dark Ages in my mind as well, the period of the death of TSR but before 3.0.
Interesting site and I hope to see a lot more.
Comiccritique
http://comiccritiqueblog.wordpress.com/
Coniccritique was turned on to me by an old friend. It's not an RPG blog, but as the name suggests, a comic review blog. There is quite a bit of good critical insight. It is a work in progress, but the writing is good.
I enjoyed his reviews of Batwoman and Justice League Dark and honestly he reminded me why I was reading two of the best New52 comics.
So go out read them, follow them. I am expecting them both to get bigger and better.
Friday, November 30, 2012
Thursday, November 29, 2012
Kickstarter Pros and Cons
If you have not read it yet please go over to Tenkar's Tavern and read his posts on Kickstarter.
If you are considering supporting one you should read it. If you are considering starting one then you certainly need to read it.
http://www.tenkarstavern.com/search/label/kickstarter
Here is the point I am getting in all of this. Unless your game is close to being done I am not likely to suport the Kickstarter. I gladly supported Eden Studios on their ConX and AFMBE kickstarters because I knew where they were on things. I was a play tester, I had seen the doc files, I had even seen some concept art. I knew they were well on the way.
This is also why I am confident in backing Adventures Dark & Deep.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/623939691/adventures-dark-and-deep-players-manual
Joe has a lot of the work done. He has said on the page things are written and he is looking for some art. That is cool with me. Art is expensive. I am certain that a Hardbound copy of AD&D will be on my shelves in the future.
I am not going to support projects though that still need to be written or developed. To much of a risk.
By my count I am still owed about $150 worth of RPG products that I might never see. So my next $5 is going to come a lot slower.
If you are considering supporting one you should read it. If you are considering starting one then you certainly need to read it.
http://www.tenkarstavern.com/search/label/kickstarter
Here is the point I am getting in all of this. Unless your game is close to being done I am not likely to suport the Kickstarter. I gladly supported Eden Studios on their ConX and AFMBE kickstarters because I knew where they were on things. I was a play tester, I had seen the doc files, I had even seen some concept art. I knew they were well on the way.
This is also why I am confident in backing Adventures Dark & Deep.
http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/623939691/adventures-dark-and-deep-players-manual
Joe has a lot of the work done. He has said on the page things are written and he is looking for some art. That is cool with me. Art is expensive. I am certain that a Hardbound copy of AD&D will be on my shelves in the future.
I am not going to support projects though that still need to be written or developed. To much of a risk.
By my count I am still owed about $150 worth of RPG products that I might never see. So my next $5 is going to come a lot slower.
Playing with Earth
One of the things I love to do in gaming is also learn something. One of the things I like to learn is geography. While knowing the ins and outs the City of Greyhawk or Glantri is fun, it rarely has a use in real life. Walking the streets of London in my games though has some out-side-of-the-game utility.
But sometimes I like something for the pure fantasy sake. So I like to use maps of the Earth in different times.
Long time gamers already know of the Paleomap Map project of Earth History. It has many maps of the different stages of Earth history and potential future maps. I will admit when I first saw maps of the really old Earth it was disquieting to me. I love maps and throughout all of human history the Earth has been the same. Not so throughout ALL history and prehistory.
If you ever played in the Known World of Mystara you know this map:
Did you also know about this one?
(image from here, http://www.scotese.com/earth.htm)
That is the Late Jurasic of the Earth, 150+ Million Years Ago.
I was on the site and I also noticed this one:
(image from here, http://www.scotese.com/earth.htm)
That is the Earth in 150 Million Years. Take a look at Africa-Eurasia. Remind you of anything? It did me. How about if I rotate it about 40 degrees.
Now compare that with this:
Not perfect, but a good fit for Robert E. Howards Hyboria. Yes, I know. The Hyborian Age was in the mythical past. And my "North" is really more North East. Well...uh..pole shift! Worked for Mystara!
Going even further into the future we have this little gem.
(image from here, http://www.scotese.com/earth.htm)
Earth in 250 Million years. The new continent is called "Pangea Ultima". I call it "Zothique".
Also not quite-perfect, but they are the same thing. Pangea Ultima is the future when all the continents have merged back to one. Zothique is more or less the same thing. If the Hyborian age is some post-post apocalyptic world, then Zothique is the Dying Earth of Jack Vance, Clark Ashton Smith and others. Scientists are equally grim on the chance of life on Pangea Ultima.
There are other maps of the ancient Earth there. The Permian looks like it would be fun to use sometime too, or even the Eocene for something that is similar but yet alien.
Jason Vey has been tinkering on his home campaign of "The Wasted Lands" for a number of years. Here is a maps of the Paelocene and the Eocene,
Here is Jason's map
Not exactly the same, but very close. I like how it is a nice blend of REH's Hyboria and HPL's work. Plus it has Atlantic, Mu and Lemuria which I really like.
There is so much that can be done with the world we already have. So much adventure.
I know there were no humans around in the Eocene, but doesn't this look exciting? I mean even the name of the time is exciting; Eocene, the Dawn Epoch.
Maps speak to me. They always have. That one freaking sings. More than that, it is a Rock Opera. It's The Wall meets Tommy meets Operation Mindcrime and maybe just a little bit of Kilroy Was Here to keep the masses happy.
What maps get you excited?
But sometimes I like something for the pure fantasy sake. So I like to use maps of the Earth in different times.
Long time gamers already know of the Paleomap Map project of Earth History. It has many maps of the different stages of Earth history and potential future maps. I will admit when I first saw maps of the really old Earth it was disquieting to me. I love maps and throughout all of human history the Earth has been the same. Not so throughout ALL history and prehistory.
If you ever played in the Known World of Mystara you know this map:
Did you also know about this one?
That is the Late Jurasic of the Earth, 150+ Million Years Ago.
I was on the site and I also noticed this one:
That is the Earth in 150 Million Years. Take a look at Africa-Eurasia. Remind you of anything? It did me. How about if I rotate it about 40 degrees.
Now compare that with this:
Not perfect, but a good fit for Robert E. Howards Hyboria. Yes, I know. The Hyborian Age was in the mythical past. And my "North" is really more North East. Well...uh..pole shift! Worked for Mystara!
Going even further into the future we have this little gem.
Earth in 250 Million years. The new continent is called "Pangea Ultima". I call it "Zothique".
Also not quite-perfect, but they are the same thing. Pangea Ultima is the future when all the continents have merged back to one. Zothique is more or less the same thing. If the Hyborian age is some post-post apocalyptic world, then Zothique is the Dying Earth of Jack Vance, Clark Ashton Smith and others. Scientists are equally grim on the chance of life on Pangea Ultima.
There are other maps of the ancient Earth there. The Permian looks like it would be fun to use sometime too, or even the Eocene for something that is similar but yet alien.
Jason Vey has been tinkering on his home campaign of "The Wasted Lands" for a number of years. Here is a maps of the Paelocene and the Eocene,
Here is Jason's map
Not exactly the same, but very close. I like how it is a nice blend of REH's Hyboria and HPL's work. Plus it has Atlantic, Mu and Lemuria which I really like.
There is so much that can be done with the world we already have. So much adventure.
I know there were no humans around in the Eocene, but doesn't this look exciting? I mean even the name of the time is exciting; Eocene, the Dawn Epoch.
Maps speak to me. They always have. That one freaking sings. More than that, it is a Rock Opera. It's The Wall meets Tommy meets Operation Mindcrime and maybe just a little bit of Kilroy Was Here to keep the masses happy.
What maps get you excited?
Wednesday, November 28, 2012
White Dwarf Wednesday #41
May 1983 may very have been the beginning of the end of the so called "Golden Era" of RPGs, but it was also part of the era that would see a dramatic rise in the popularity in the public consciousness of RPGs. It could be retrospect, rose-colored glasses or even bad memory, but Issue #41 seems to reflect this.
The stylistic changes that began that the end of 82 have hit their peak now. Issue 41 is like picking up an old Judas Priest tape. Not album. Not CD. Not any freaking 8-Track. Those were the artifacts of different eras. Judas Priest on Cassette and White Dwarf #41.
What do we have in this one? Well lets admire that cover for a bit. Lone spaceship. Betcha that also means lone spaceship pilot. Flying over some distant planet.One man vs. the Universe. Man that image is a freaking metaphor of the 80s. I am sure he is listing to Judas Priest on a cassette in that thing. No CDs or MP3s or data-tapes for that guy. I am equally sure it is a "he" too. Moving on.
The editorial is an interesting one. Ian Livingstone can only be describing the beginning of the end! Or at least as it might have looked back then. He talks about some companies going out of business and the first great RPG boom is over. Now I have read some reports that this boom was bigger than the d20 one nearly 17 years later, but I don't remember this time as being anything else but a boom time, but not one that was all consuming. The warning though is clear. No more mediocre games.
First up is Battleplan for Dungeon Master General. This covers non-human armies such as dwarves, elves, kobolds and orcs. It is an interesting read. The Dwarves and Elves are pretty much what you would expect. The kobolds are more aggressive and war like here, using numbers to make up for their size. While in this post Tucker's Kobolds age we tend to see Kolbods more a little skirmishers that hit fast and run for cover. The picture of the orcs tends to be more bleaker, that the orcs are basically cowardly, lazy bullies. Since then we have had Orkworld and the Lord of the Rrngs movies where orcs look more like an organized, fearless military.
Critical Mass covers the British SF Association awards for 1982 and the Nebula Awards for the US for 82. Next month they will announce the winners. If you can wait you can go here to see the winners and nominees of the SF award and the Nebula.
Open Box has an interesting mix in Traveller Supplement 10: The Solomani Rim by GDW. Andy Slack, Traveller savant in residence, gives it a rather mixed review saying it is great for novices but terrible for experts (9/10 and 2/10 respectively). He does mention that this is how Spinward Marches should have been done. I have not read either supplement in over 20 years, but I tend to agree.
One game I was always curious about, but never got my hands on was Man, Myth & Magic by Yaquinto. Three products are reviewed here, Man, Myth & Magic RPG, Adventure 1, Episode 5 - Death to Setanta and Adventure 1, Episode 6 - The Kingdom of the Sidhe. Marcus Rowland did not care for how the game was set up feeling it was too hard to find the material you needed thanks to the design of the game. You read the rule book and adventure as you learn. This game was never popular around my area and I didn't even know about it really till I was researching the old Man, Myth and Magic encyclopedia. I am not sure if they are related or not. Anyway Rowland gives the RPG and adventures 5/10, 4/10 and 6/10 respectively.
Finally Star Explorer boardgame by FGU was reviewed by Alan E. Paull. He gives it 9/10.
"A Tasty Morsel" is a bit of RuneQuest fiction featuring Griselda. I am no judge of gaming fiction really. So I have no idea if this is a good RuneQuest tale or not.
Phil Hine has a bit on Sorcerous Symbols, or how to use sigils in AD&D. Interesting little article that I don't recall reading in the past.
Don Turnbull is back in the Letters section defending his point of view in the whole Necromancer affair. Oddly enough he is being coy about knowing about the Anti-Paladin. Maybe I am giving him too much credit or overstating the effect of Dragon Mag, but I thought for sure that everyone had seen the Anti-Paladin article by 83.
Andy Slack is back with a Traveller short Scenario, the Snowbird Mystery. I do remember this one. In fact I think it might even was the last Traveller Adventure that I was ever going to go through. I didn't, part of my odd relationship with Traveller, but I knew that this was the one that was going to be used. We played AD&D instead.
RuneRites has Unarmed combat for RuneQuest. Or rather part II to the article that appeared all the way back in WD 30.
Up next is something very interesting, a mini-Scenario for Car Wars! It looks fun, but I never played Car Wars to be a good judge of this.
Fiend Factory has more Inhuman Gods, Deities for Non-Human Races: Part III. Kraada (Frostmen), Zrunta Mountainheart (Mountain Giants), Carratriatuh (Greenmen from WD 27), Klagg (Grimlocks) and for the Lava Children, two gods Halnass (Fire-Father) and Quorggg (Stone-Mother). They are all in Deities and Demigods format. Of the lot, I think I would like to use Klagg, and given my association of Grimlocks with Charmed, I would make him a demon.
Starbase is back for it's bi-monthly publication of readers' ideas for Traveller. This time it is Andy Slack (his name might be familiar) covering the same Covert Survey Bureau that was featured in the Snowbird adventure.
Treasure Chest has all sorts of discs as weapons. Hmmm. When was Tron out again? They include the Vorpal Disc, Disc of Shock, Torus, Crystal Disc, Disc of Eyes, Disc of Dismissal, Anti-Magic Disc and the Sonic Disc. Between this and the Man, Myth and Magic RPG you could do Xena! I will admit I had a character that used the Vorpal Disc. I remember it well too, he had to get it from a greater Air Elemental. Played it one day in Jr. High.
We end with some ads.
All in all I think this was a great issue. Nothing jumps out at me and screams "use me" but everything was quality and I enjoyed reading it again.
The stylistic changes that began that the end of 82 have hit their peak now. Issue 41 is like picking up an old Judas Priest tape. Not album. Not CD. Not any freaking 8-Track. Those were the artifacts of different eras. Judas Priest on Cassette and White Dwarf #41.
The editorial is an interesting one. Ian Livingstone can only be describing the beginning of the end! Or at least as it might have looked back then. He talks about some companies going out of business and the first great RPG boom is over. Now I have read some reports that this boom was bigger than the d20 one nearly 17 years later, but I don't remember this time as being anything else but a boom time, but not one that was all consuming. The warning though is clear. No more mediocre games.
First up is Battleplan for Dungeon Master General. This covers non-human armies such as dwarves, elves, kobolds and orcs. It is an interesting read. The Dwarves and Elves are pretty much what you would expect. The kobolds are more aggressive and war like here, using numbers to make up for their size. While in this post Tucker's Kobolds age we tend to see Kolbods more a little skirmishers that hit fast and run for cover. The picture of the orcs tends to be more bleaker, that the orcs are basically cowardly, lazy bullies. Since then we have had Orkworld and the Lord of the Rrngs movies where orcs look more like an organized, fearless military.
Critical Mass covers the British SF Association awards for 1982 and the Nebula Awards for the US for 82. Next month they will announce the winners. If you can wait you can go here to see the winners and nominees of the SF award and the Nebula.
Open Box has an interesting mix in Traveller Supplement 10: The Solomani Rim by GDW. Andy Slack, Traveller savant in residence, gives it a rather mixed review saying it is great for novices but terrible for experts (9/10 and 2/10 respectively). He does mention that this is how Spinward Marches should have been done. I have not read either supplement in over 20 years, but I tend to agree.
One game I was always curious about, but never got my hands on was Man, Myth & Magic by Yaquinto. Three products are reviewed here, Man, Myth & Magic RPG, Adventure 1, Episode 5 - Death to Setanta and Adventure 1, Episode 6 - The Kingdom of the Sidhe. Marcus Rowland did not care for how the game was set up feeling it was too hard to find the material you needed thanks to the design of the game. You read the rule book and adventure as you learn. This game was never popular around my area and I didn't even know about it really till I was researching the old Man, Myth and Magic encyclopedia. I am not sure if they are related or not. Anyway Rowland gives the RPG and adventures 5/10, 4/10 and 6/10 respectively.
Finally Star Explorer boardgame by FGU was reviewed by Alan E. Paull. He gives it 9/10.
"A Tasty Morsel" is a bit of RuneQuest fiction featuring Griselda. I am no judge of gaming fiction really. So I have no idea if this is a good RuneQuest tale or not.
Phil Hine has a bit on Sorcerous Symbols, or how to use sigils in AD&D. Interesting little article that I don't recall reading in the past.
Don Turnbull is back in the Letters section defending his point of view in the whole Necromancer affair. Oddly enough he is being coy about knowing about the Anti-Paladin. Maybe I am giving him too much credit or overstating the effect of Dragon Mag, but I thought for sure that everyone had seen the Anti-Paladin article by 83.
Andy Slack is back with a Traveller short Scenario, the Snowbird Mystery. I do remember this one. In fact I think it might even was the last Traveller Adventure that I was ever going to go through. I didn't, part of my odd relationship with Traveller, but I knew that this was the one that was going to be used. We played AD&D instead.
RuneRites has Unarmed combat for RuneQuest. Or rather part II to the article that appeared all the way back in WD 30.
Up next is something very interesting, a mini-Scenario for Car Wars! It looks fun, but I never played Car Wars to be a good judge of this.
Fiend Factory has more Inhuman Gods, Deities for Non-Human Races: Part III. Kraada (Frostmen), Zrunta Mountainheart (Mountain Giants), Carratriatuh (Greenmen from WD 27), Klagg (Grimlocks) and for the Lava Children, two gods Halnass (Fire-Father) and Quorggg (Stone-Mother). They are all in Deities and Demigods format. Of the lot, I think I would like to use Klagg, and given my association of Grimlocks with Charmed, I would make him a demon.
Starbase is back for it's bi-monthly publication of readers' ideas for Traveller. This time it is Andy Slack (his name might be familiar) covering the same Covert Survey Bureau that was featured in the Snowbird adventure.
Treasure Chest has all sorts of discs as weapons. Hmmm. When was Tron out again? They include the Vorpal Disc, Disc of Shock, Torus, Crystal Disc, Disc of Eyes, Disc of Dismissal, Anti-Magic Disc and the Sonic Disc. Between this and the Man, Myth and Magic RPG you could do Xena! I will admit I had a character that used the Vorpal Disc. I remember it well too, he had to get it from a greater Air Elemental. Played it one day in Jr. High.
We end with some ads.
All in all I think this was a great issue. Nothing jumps out at me and screams "use me" but everything was quality and I enjoyed reading it again.
Grognardia Book Shelf Meme, Part 2
Part of James's meme is not just book porn (it is that as well) but what books do you go back to for reading, playing and writing.
Well the truth is I buy a lot of PDFs. I will go as far as to say I was an early adopter of the whole RPG books on PDF. I love being able to access all my books anywhere thanks to PDFs or carry them aroung on a flash drive or my laptop or tablet.
So here is my "other" set of shelves.
Being a long time playtester and reviewer has it's advantages. Yes those are batch files in the folder too, and yes the 'Palm' folder was for my old Palm Pilot. I pretty much wrote Ghosts of Albion on my Handspring Visor.
And yes. I have multiple backups.
Well the truth is I buy a lot of PDFs. I will go as far as to say I was an early adopter of the whole RPG books on PDF. I love being able to access all my books anywhere thanks to PDFs or carry them aroung on a flash drive or my laptop or tablet.
So here is my "other" set of shelves.
Being a long time playtester and reviewer has it's advantages. Yes those are batch files in the folder too, and yes the 'Palm' folder was for my old Palm Pilot. I pretty much wrote Ghosts of Albion on my Handspring Visor.
And yes. I have multiple backups.
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Grognardia Book Shelf Meme
James over at Grognardia wants to start a bookshelf meme. What the hell. Here are the books in my shelves that I go to most often.
Victorian Age games.
One of my D&D shelves; core rules from 0e to 4e, plus Pathfinder. Circa July, 2012.
Below are binders of characters, bottom right is my son's shelf.
More Character sheets. Though the tabbed binder in backwards contains various OSR PDFs that I printed.
Various horror anthologies with witch minis.
Another view of the horror short stories, you can also see various d20 horror games I am reading currently below. The White Box is the special Edition of Spellcraft and Swordplay.
Current research books for The Witch. 4e below that and various demon and devil minis above.
Another organization of my upper D&D shelves.
And of course...
My Eden/Horror shelves. I have other horror games, but these are the ones I am playing/reading now.
And my witches meeting up in the Charmed Ones' attic in San Fran. Zatanna is showing off by floating.
The large red book came from an AD&D Action figure, I thought it had belonged to Kelek, but I can't seem to find it online.
I don't have any pictures of my Sci-Fi/Doctor Who/Star Trek shelves. You might recall from this post that all my superhero games have been sent to the lower shelves along with BESM, White Wolf games and other modern and non-horror games.
Victorian Age games.
One of my D&D shelves; core rules from 0e to 4e, plus Pathfinder. Circa July, 2012.
Below are binders of characters, bottom right is my son's shelf.
More Character sheets. Though the tabbed binder in backwards contains various OSR PDFs that I printed.
Various horror anthologies with witch minis.
Another view of the horror short stories, you can also see various d20 horror games I am reading currently below. The White Box is the special Edition of Spellcraft and Swordplay.
Current research books for The Witch. 4e below that and various demon and devil minis above.
Another organization of my upper D&D shelves.
And of course...
My Eden/Horror shelves. I have other horror games, but these are the ones I am playing/reading now.
And my witches meeting up in the Charmed Ones' attic in San Fran. Zatanna is showing off by floating.
The large red book came from an AD&D Action figure, I thought it had belonged to Kelek, but I can't seem to find it online.
I don't have any pictures of my Sci-Fi/Doctor Who/Star Trek shelves. You might recall from this post that all my superhero games have been sent to the lower shelves along with BESM, White Wolf games and other modern and non-horror games.
Well I did it after all (and other updates)
I picked it up because I am a fan of Goodman Games and they have always had a quality product in the past. It is also on sale now at DriveThruRPG.
I seriously doubt I will play this game and if I do it won't be with d7s or anything like that.
But I am enjoying the read so far and maybe there is something in this for my AD&D1 game.
There is a lot to get through.
In other news...
I picked up my Kickstarter Supporter PDF copy of the Adventurer Conqueror King System Player's Companion.
There is a lot of great stuff in this book as well. I am going to hold off on a proper review till it is released on DriveThruRPG as well. But I will say this, I am pleased with the Witch and Warlock classes (so expect to hear some more about those) and the Class Construction rules look very interesting.
I finished reading through the Swords and Wizardry Complete Rulebook from Frog God Games. Again, some neat ideas, but I am not sure if I'll every play it or run it. But it is a great toolbox for a near Editionless D&D. More on it and my third in-depth dive into Lamentations of the Flame Princess in another post.
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