I had wings once...

They were strong


But they were stolen from me.

Yeah I am a geek.  Get off my cloud man.

Fighting Fire the Ernie Gygax Benefit Adventure

Recently Ernie Gygax lost a number of personal items due to a fire in his home.

To make matters worse Ernie was laid up with CHF.

While insurance can replace some items, others were irreplaceable and frankly the shock of loss is a lot.

To help out the gaming community has offered something, this time a system neutral adventure "Fighting Fire".

The idea is simple, a third of the money goes to helping out Ernie.

The adventure itself is 32 pages (minus cover and title pages) with some NPCs.  It is edition agnostic (neutral in their words).  While they could have used something simple like Swords & Wizardry to give it some crunch, there isn't anything here an experienced gamer could run in about hour of prep time.   In fact while typing this I have gone from wanting to run this at as an "Old-school" adventure with something like Basic D&D to maybe running it under 3rd ed. instead.

The adventure is a simple, if tongue in cheek, one.  Defeat the evil fire wizard.

There is a lot of self-referential material here.  So knowing a little bit about the gaming industry and some of the people involved over the years will help you see some of the inside jokes.  But if not the adventure does not suffer for it.

It is described as a fairly simple adventure and it doesn't disappoint on the that regard.  Easily dropped into any game and any campaign.  

A lot of the art and maps come from various sources. I personally think it is kind of cool.  Everyone contributed something to this. 

While I can be accused (and rightly so) of waxing too nostalgic at times, I like the idea of the town of Gamington.  I also like the idea of adding it to my own world as a place where old adventurers go to retire.  They bring their treasure hoards and retire in style.  

In any case, this is a good cause and worth the money spent.

March Madness OSR Challenge! Part 3

I want to thank Tomb of Tedankhamen for hosting this.

Here is part 3 of my list.  Hope you enjoy!

16 Which RPG besides D&D has the best magic system? Give details.
Ghosts of Albion. Which is a total cheat on my part since I wrote it.  But seriously. I love the magic system in it.  I might never top that in my writing but I am sure as heck gonna try.  The system is flexible enough to cover D&D like spells, Mage like powers and even the innate magic of supernatural creatures.
Outside of Ghosts my favorite magic system is the one from Eden's WitchCraft RPG.

17 Which RPG has the best high tech rules? Why?
Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space.  Mostly because it hand waves the tech rules.  Games run the risk of looking very, very dated when it comes to tech.  Look at Traveller, ShadowRun or even Kult.  Doctor Who plays it simple and therefore it works so much better.

18 What is the crunchiest RPG you have played? Was it enjoyable?
Maybe GURPS or even D&D itself.  I like most games to be honest so to me enjoyment is more a factor of the playing rather than the rules.

19 What is the fluffiest RPG you have played? Was it enjoyable?
Monsterhearts. It is quite fun, but not for every audience.  Also Monster of the Week is in there; similar mechanics.

20 Which setting have you enjoyed most? Why?
Anything in the Victorian age. I love the time period and it is great for all sorts of conflict. You can play class vs. class, modern vs. old world or even magic/supernatural vs. science.  The world was new to explore and people had the means to do it. It was an exciting time for nearly anything you would want in an adventure game.

21 What is the narrowest genre RPG you have ever played? How was it?
70s Black exploration.  The games that suited it best were Solid! and Damnation Decade. I played a hippie witch from Berkeley. Interestingly enough this was an extension of my Chill game from the 80s.  I normally am not a fan of the 70s, but these games were great.

22 What is the most gonzo kitchen sink RPG you ever played? How was it?
Back in the early d20 days I was playing with my son.  We used D&D 3.0, Mutants and Masterminds, BESM d20, Star Wars, Silver Age Sentinels and anything that wasn't nailed down. We had a blast.

Friday Video: Satanism Unmasked Dungeons & Dragons

I am obsessed with the 80s Satanic Panic.  Here is another little turd from that time.

Christians talking about how morally deficient and evil D&D is.

)

Why is that these people get their facts so wrong?
Not just the really wrong shit of satanism in a game, but they can't even get the basic facts right.

...Satanism is not part of Witchcraft and visa versa.
...Those are not the words from "Shout at the Devil"
...NecroNOMicon, not Necro"NOME"icon.
...no suicides due to D&D.
...what the hell is a "training 'prim-er'"?
...interviewing prisoners. Always a good source of "credible" information.

I could go on. But what is the point.  Here is a great podcast from "The Thinking Atheist".

)

And this gem, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3jrMoVWl5KA

Ok. How about this.

Shield of Faith
(Basic Era/Labyrinth Lord/Basic Fantasy/S&W)
Level: Cleric 1 to 7
Range: 5' in front of the Cleric
Duration: 1 round per level
By means of this spell the cleric focuses their faith into a tangible shield that will protect them from harm from creatures the cleric can consider "Evil".  Typically this is a creature of Chaotic alignment (or Lawful for a Chaotic cleric) and an "outsider" or supernatural creature. This includes (but not limited to) undead, djinn, effrit, demons, devils and any type of spirit. Sometimes even faerie creatures.
The spell reduces the attacks of these creatures at a number of hp per the spell level.  So a 5th level cleric using a 2nd level Shield of Faith would be able reduce 2 points per attack for 5 rounds.
The cleric must present their holy symbol when casting and they cannot attack.
Material Components: The clerics holy symbol.

A to Z Blogging Chat

I am taking part in today's Blogging A to Z chat.

A to Z Chats are going to be scheduled on Thursdays from 1 PM to 2 PM Eastern U.S. Time and from 8 PM to 9 PM Eastern Time U.S.

Yeah, I know some people are tired of blog hops, challenges, circle jerks, whatever.
But that is not why (or who) I do these for.  Last year I had people outside of our own corner of the web post or email me and had no idea that RPGs, let alone D&D was still "a thing".  One woman even ended up with S&S, Basic Fantasy and some other books on my recommendation for her husband who had played in the 80s but no more.

So join me on Twitter, @timsbrannan with hashtag #AZchat.

Today I am contemplating a theme change for the challenge.
Something that I think will work better for everyone here.

White Dwarf Wednesday Index

Here it is. A link index to every White Dwarf Wednesday I have done.

Issues #1-#100
White Dwarf #1
White Dwarf #2
White Dwarf #3
White Dwarf #4
White Dwarf #5
White Dwarf #6
White Dwarf #7
White Dwarf #8
White Dwarf #9
White Dwarf #10

White Dwarf #11
White Dwarf #12
White Dwarf #13
White Dwarf #14
White Dwarf #15
White Dwarf #16
White Dwarf #17
White Dwarf #18
White Dwarf #19
White Dwarf #20
White Dwarf #21

White Dwarf #24
White Dwarf #22
White Dwarf #23
White Dwarf #25
White Dwarf #26
White Dwarf #27
White Dwarf #28
White Dwarf #29
White Dwarf #30
White Dwarf #31
White Dwarf #32

White Dwarf #33
White Dwarf #34
White Dwarf #35
White Dwarf #36
White Dwarf #37
White Dwarf #38
White Dwarf #39
White Dwarf #40
White Dwarf #41
White Dwarf #42
White Dwarf #43

White Dwarf #44
White Dwarf #45
White Dwarf #46
White Dwarf #47
White Dwarf #48
White Dwarf #49
White Dwarf #50
White Dwarf #51
White Dwarf #52
White Dwarf #53
White Dwarf #54

White Dwarf #55
White Dwarf #56
White Dwarf #57
White Dwarf #58
White Dwarf #59
White Dwarf #60
White Dwarf #61
White Dwarf #62
White Dwarf #63
White Dwarf #64
White Dwarf #65

White Dwarf #66
White Dwarf #67
White Dwarf #68
White Dwarf #69
White Dwarf #70
White Dwarf #71
White Dwarf #72
White Dwarf #73
White Dwarf #74
White Dwarf #75
White Dwarf #76

White Dwarf #77
White Dwarf #78
White Dwarf #79
White Dwarf #80
White Dwarf #81
White Dwarf #82
White Dwarf #83
White Dwarf #84
White Dwarf #85
White Dwarf #86
White Dwarf #87

White Dwarf #88
White Dwarf #89
White Dwarf #90
White Dwarf #91
White Dwarf #92
White Dwarf #93
White Dwarf #94
White Dwarf #95
White Dwarf #96
White Dwarf #97
White Dwarf #98
White Dwarf #99
White Dwarf #100

Two years, two months and 100 issues.  Quite a ride!

Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Limited Edition Hardcover Edition (PDF)

The PDF version of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space Limited Edition Hardcover Edition is now up at DriveThruRPG.

If you have either of the 11th or 10th Doctor version of this game then you have most of the rules and text, though some things look like the are a bit clearer (or I am rereading them for 10th time).  This is one full document as opposed to the multiple PDFs of the "boxed sets".  It also updates the text to reflect the last bits of the Matt Smith seasons and the Day of the Doctor 50th Anniversary special.  So stats for the War Doctor and updated Zygons.

It is an extremely attractive book (256 full color pages).  If you are new to this game then this is the place to start. If you are new to Doctor Who, well then I would say grab the Tenth or Eleventh Doctor version of the rules.  All the same rules, but less emphasis on the the show's own history.   Though there are the story/adventure seeds for all 12 doctors and that is very nice.

I plan on picking this one up in hardback as soon as I can to be honest.  That's how much I enjoy this game.