Showing posts with label family. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family. Show all posts

Sunday, February 27, 2011

The Message

That is the name of this story my oldest son has been writing.  His teacher is very proud of him and so are his mom and dad!  But beyond how cool that is, today during our Dragonslayer session he ran "The Message" for the very, very first time as a game.  This was his very first time running a D&D game and frankly I thought he did really well.

We took the Dragonslayers, including his own character as a quasi DM-PC (I'll help run him) and I got a chance to play my witch again.  The one I rolled up back when D&D 3.0 was new and my witch book was in playtest.

The adventure was simple enough.  We (the characters) had to cross Druid Woods and deliver a message (thus the name) to a Baron on the other side of the forest.   Simple right? What could go wrong?  Well we were attacked many times in the woods by kobolds, hobgoblins and (much to my joy) a rogue druther and an evil treant. Of course the Baron had been kidnapped and we needed to save him from being the main event in a sacrifice to Tiamat.  We saved the Baron (who turned out to be a Neutral Blue Dragon in human form) and we were attacked by a huge adult red Dragon (in my boy's world Reds and Blues hate each other so much that they will work with anyone to defeat the other).

Baron saved, returned home and the message delivered.  It really was great fun.  Liam (my oldest) said he toned down the Red.  We got the initiative on him and dealt what I felt was a respectable 64 hp damage to it.  Then he turned around and did a 48 to all of us on his first attack (and that was with the elemental protection my witch set up).  He toned the dragon down a touch and we all came out of it more or less intact.

It was really, really fun.  Liam did a great job and it was nice to not only see him running a game and doing a good job, but also running an adventure he wrote all on his own.

Connor (my youngest) also got in some good playing too.  We found a gold necklace and I said his character could have it for his girl-friend, to which he replied "What girlfriend?  I am too busy adventuring to have time for one of those!"  And when we fought a fire elemental he told us that "I hate these guys, when I was younger they attacked my village and killed my mother."  No idea where that came from.

Maybe next time we will hit the mountains.

Wednesday, February 23, 2011

Last night we stormed Castle Ravenloft

Or at least we did in the board game.

I got the Castle Ravenloft board game for Christmas and I had not played it all yet.  The boys wanted to play some D&D last night (so much so they they were each writing their own adventures when I told them I had nothing ready) but I have something like 65,000 courses to work on before the term starts back up on Monday (out that might be a stretch...48,000).   So we compromised a bit.  I pulled out the Ravenloft Board Game.

I knew we could set up it up and run it in under an hour and my boys love the old "Dungeon" game so I figured what the heck.

We had a great time.

The mere fact that one of the characters is blue colored Dragonborn is enough for my oldest.  I let my youngest use the new elf-archer mini I got for him over the weekend to be the ranger.  I played the Dwarf cleric and we went after the Dracolich.  Since I also have the dracolich mini we used that instead of the non-painted version that came in the box.  The game is D&D4-ish and moves really fast.  Game play is about like Dungeon.  The boys loved that the monsters were random and that combat was fast.  We all liked the "build you own dungeon" feel of it too.

The thing that gets me though...why Ravenloft?  Other than vampires, hags some undead and things like that I see no reason why this had to be set in Castle Ravenloft.  I get the dungeon-crawlyness of it, and I understand the desire to tie it in with a Classic product; but the game could have just as easily been the Tomb of Horrors Board Game or Expedition to the Barrier Peaks Board Game.  Frankly, I could swap out Strahd for Acererak and kept everything else the same (hear that WotC, your next boxed Board Game can be Tomb of Horrors and I want a cut!).   Of course their is obvious reason.  I got this pretty much sight unseen and wanted it largely because it was Ravenloft.  Now that I do have I am much more interested in Wrath of Ashardalon and the Legend of Drizzt one coming out in the Fall.

Yeah, yeah I hear the peanut gallery out there already smirking and saying they thought D&D$ was already a board game...whatever, that argument is old and no longer has any interest to me.  This was more akin to other adventure board games, like Dungeon really.  Plus it was fun.

Looking forward to taking on Strahd sometime soon.  Though I am torn.  If I ever run the original Castle Ravenloft for my boys I don't want the experience to be lack-luster for them.  I mean if they kill Strahd once in the board game, defeating him in his proper element might not have the same weight.

Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Playing D&D with Kids Follow-up and Question

This is directed specifically to the parents of D&D playing kids.

What do you all think of a classic-style Dungeon Crawl that features a lot of undead, wolves and a big bad vampire to kill at the very end?

What would this be age-appropriate for?

My boys (ages 11 and 7) know all about zombies, vampires and werewolves and they know that if they defeat them then they will get their characters instead.

They are cool with it.  Have you ever run these horror tropes with young kids?

Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Played some AD&D 2nd Ed today.

Got home from half-day at work today and sat down and played some old-school AD&D 2nd Ed today.  My oldest wanted to try it out (I bought him a 2nd ed Monstrous Manual years ago so he wouldn't mess up mine).

Odd how it happened really, we were going to play D&D 4e Red Box, then it was going to be D&D Basic Red Box.  Finally landed on 2nd Ed.  Spent some time, though not as much as I thought, looking up some rules.  Spent more time just figuring out where I put the XP table for my witch.

It was a fun quick little dungeon crawl, no plot, no backstory, just kicking in doors and killing monsters.  Used some 4e minis and the map from the Dungeons & Dragons' Black Box.

All in all a good bit of fun. Doubt we will continue with 2nd Ed, but it was nice to give is a another try.

Sunday, November 21, 2010

Return to the Palace of the Silver Princess, Session 3, Finale

Well we finished the adventure.

I changed it a bit and actually had the character fight Arik of the Hundred Eyes who was in reality not so much of a god, but a really, really powerful fiendish beholder.  Set him at 20 HD and let the group of characters, 6 of them, 10th to 14th level, deal with him.

In the end it was pretty awesome really.  Lots of fun.  Everyone got a chance to level up and I forgot how much book-keeping 3.x is.

Now need to figure out what to do for the next adventure before they take on Tiamat.

Monday, October 25, 2010

D&D: Back to Basics

So I have spent a lot of time (and money it seems) on "Basic" D&D recently.  I now have every version of "Basic D&D" that has ever been made.  That's a lot of rules for characters 1st-3rd level.


and


I REALLY should be doing something with these rules.

I started out with Holmes Basic, moved to Moldvay/Cook and then AD&D.  I never played Mentzer Basic (or any of the BECMI rules) though I now have that boxed set as well and the Rule Cyclopedia.

And this doesn't even scratch the surface of the Retro-Clones.




Of course my kids and I want to play 4e.  I am in a Pathfinder game, I am running a 3.x game, I played the hell out of 1st and 2nd Ed.  It is getting (or has gotten) insane.

So to help me figure this out I am bouncing some ideas here.

My friend Jason Vey has pointed out (and rightly so) that in 4E the characters already start out as heroes.  There is no growth from a normal, mundane person to powerful hero;  ie like Luke Skywalker, Harry Potter or Bilbo Baggins.  This is an important observation.  There is a powerful archetype at work here. So powerful in fact it has it's own name, The Hero with a Thousand Faces.
Look over the builds I have done for some classic D&D icons ([1][2][3][4]) despite my attempts to "normalize" these characters there is one glaring truth.  For low level characters they are awfully powerful.

Compare that all to this post. http://bxblackrazor.blogspot.com/2010/10/explaining-d6-damage_21.html
JB makes a good point in here that Normal people are supposed to be weaker.  In Basic D&D a normal person has 1-4 hp (as do Magic-Users) so any weapon that does 1d6 has a pretty good chance of killing them outright, and there is still as chance it will kill any demi-human, cleric or thief too.

Now it depends on what I want my game to "be".  Is this a tale of normal people that become heroes?  Or potential heroes that rise up to a greater challenge?  There is a lot to be said about that farm kid learning to be a hero.  But also the biggest gripe I have about playing those early days of D&D is that characters are often too damn weak.

Take the Wizard/Magic-User for example.  Here we have someone that supposedly has been to magic school.  They have learned spell theory, occult knowledge, and all they know is one spell?
Really?  We don't make archers take just one arrow, so why do this?  Plus outside of XP bonuses the Prime Requisites has little meaning in day to day play in Basic.  AD&D improves this a bit.

So I had this idea.

I am going to figure out the make up of the party.  I am letting my players play two characters each, with the caveat that these two have some past history.

Then I was going to run these characters through one of the D&D Basic sets to build up their powers to what you see in D&D4.  So run them levels 1 through 3 and then move on.

So far my oldest son wants to play a Dragonborn Paladin and a Dragonborn Sorcerer and they are brothers.  My youngest wants to play a ranger and a bard, both are 1/2 elf.  Ok.  Problems already.  These classes or races are not even covered in the D&D basic rules.
I suppose I could go very simple and basically use "Dwarf" as a dragonborn and elf as a half-elf; tweaking as needed.

The idea has some appeal to me, but I am not just the only one playing here.

My kids, whose game this is for, could care less about Basic D&D or anything else Old School.  They like and want to play D&D4.

So despite a lot of good games now in my possession, and a lot of good ideas  I am sticking with the new game.  I'll go with the philosophy that while some heroes are made, others are born to greatness and their challenges need to match up to them.  Plus, just because someone has a lot of "kewl powerz" doesn't mean they know what to do with them.
Maybe I'll pull some "Basic" ideas out every so often.

Or maybe I'll just get a separate Basic D&D game going.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

LEGO Minotarus

I don't talk much about board games here.  Nothing against them, they are just not something I talk a lot about, but I would hazard a guess and say that a full half of my game room shelf space is devoted to board games.  My kids and wife love them and it is something we can all do together.

So if you were at Gen Con this year you saw the LEGO booth.  And if you saw it then like me I am sure you looked at their new board games, Minotaurus, Rames Pyramid, and Lava Dragon.  I am sure that LEGO is still kicking themselves for not bringing product to sell, because they would have raked in the bucks.

We went to our local LEGO store and picked up Lava Dragon and Minotaurus.  The salesman mentioned that they had been selling out of them over the last three weeks and couldn't keep them in stock.


Well I can see why.

We got the games home and my LEGO loving son wanted to build them right away.   That is part of the appeal of these games over say most board games.  You have to build everything first.
It was easy for him (he regularly builds the big Star Wars LEGO sets, so something under a 100 pieces is nothing) and we all sat down.

The rules are simple.  Roll a die, move your pawns.  Try to get to the center of the maze and don't get hit by the Minotaur.  Oh, and you have to build the die too.  On some rolls you can move the Minotaur to send a pawn back to "home" or move a wall to block an opponent.  The game move quick and I can see how it will be a little different each time.  The rule book also comes with some suggested "house rules" like more or less powerful Minotaurs, the ability to jump over some walls and how many pawns you need to get in to win.

In truth this game reminded me of the old Mattel "Electronic Dungeons & Dragons" game from the dawn of the D&D age.

If LEGO is moving into the board game world then I think they are going to do very, very well.  For the RPG crowd this game is nice little diversion and I am sure it will not be long before there are house rules about how the pawns can attack the Minotaur and even rules separating the three pawns each into "classes".  Maybe that is too much, but I can see ways to do it now and certainly someone else will too.

Anyway, see more here.  http://shop.lego.com/ByTheme/Product.aspx?p=3841&cn=595&d=70

Monday, August 9, 2010

Gen Con 2010 in retrospect

All things considered Gen Con 2010 was a great time. It was the first time I took the wife and kids and everyone had a blast. Here are some of the highlights (and lowlights) of my time.

Best:
- Playing the Red Box D&D4 with my kids. It was awesome and it felt like "old D&D" to me. I know there is a lot of FUDing about this (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) about the new Essentials line, but I can tell you this it was fast and fun.
- My Ghosts of Albion games went great! Ran Obsession and I loved seeing how the different groups dealt with the same problems.  Kurt Wiegel of Game Geeks fame played in one of my games and it was great time.  Earlier in the same day Andrew Peregrine of Victoriana fame also played in my games. I always try to get in a game of Victoriana at Gen Con, but couldn't this year.  So it was nice to get Andrew in a Ghosts game instead.  By the way, Andrew got a silver for Best Writing  for Victoriana at the Ennies this year!
Wanted to run some more games, but didn't have the time.  Having the boys with me made the social and gaming dynamic very different.
- Playing our regular D&D 3 game in the hotel lobby with my boys.  I wanted them to have the full Con experience.  We only played for about an hour, but they managed to get pretty far.

If you have that Facebook thing on teh internets at home then you can see my photos.

Looking Forward to:
- Ravenloft board game.  Saw it run at the Con and it looks fun as hell.
- D&D4 Red Box.  I know this send hordes of people that like to read my blog scratching their heads in disbelief, but I played and it was fun.
- Ravenloft campaign setting.  That was totally unexpected!

Sorta Bad: I bought nothing the entire con. I decided to pick up the books I want at my local game store instead.  I am buying Advanced Player's Guide, Smallville, and DC Adventures.  I might also pick up Icons, even though I have all of these on PDF already.  So I'll head to Games Plus and buy my stuff.

What was up with the White Wolf booth anyway?  Were they selling anything at all?

Kinda Bad/But also Good: Son and I tried to get into a D&D4 game but the line was longer than his stamina. We wanted to play but went down and had chili dogs and soda instead.  Again, the full Con experience.  I have to admit I was getting tired too and having a chili dog and a soda with my little guy was a fantastic way to spend the time.

Worse: Some guy fell asleep on I-65 back to Chicago and hit us doing 75 miles an hour. We went across 2 lanes of traffic and landed in a ditch on the side of the road.
Kids and wife are fine, no one was hurt. Had a lot of help from some really nice locals. Really killed the post-con high we had going.   We will be back next year of course. But I might be taking back roads home.

Other News

The Ipad seemed to be to tool of choice this year.  I can easily understand why.  Once they have one big enough to hold all my PDFs then I am there.

Ghosts of Albion did not make it to print for Gen Con this year.  But I understand that we are going to be seeing it in game stores in a couple of months.  Frankly a Halloween release would be awesome.  I'll write a new Halloween themed adventure for it to run when it is out.

Not Gen Con related

Amber Benson has some updated information about Drones on her blog.  I support Amber. Mostly because I know her and I have known about Drones for a while. Long enough to support her claims.
http://amberbensonwrotethis.blogspot.com/2010/08/why-are-these-two-things-different.html

I made the OSR News!  And not for any of my OSR support or my insane liking for the new Tomb of Horrors. ;)  They liked my Dark Druid adventure!  Thanks for the nod guys.  It really made my day today when I saw that.

Monday, July 26, 2010

Crazy Omar's

You walk into the shop that is size of a small keep.  All around you are other "adventurers", some holding tickets with numbers on them, others hold what are obviously enchanted items.  All around are gnomes running this way and that.  In the back of store, past the "do not enter" signs and ropes are two of the largest ogres you have ever seen. More gnomes running all over, some with tickets in their hands, others carrying weapons of all sorts.  Further back you see a hut run away on chicken lays chased by several more gnomes.  Abruptly a stouter than usual dwarf approaches you.  He is wearing silk pajamas, fuzzy slippers and on top of a mane of unruly black hair sits a purple fez with a gold tassel.  He looks at you with through a monocle and after a few seconds laughs out loud.   You are not sure, but you think he is laughing at you.
He holds out both hands to grasp yours and shakes so vigorously you feel your teeth will fall out.
"Welcome to Omar's!" he booms "Will ya be buying or selling today?"


Omar's is something of a long standing tradition in my games.  It was something my DM used in his games and he got it from his DM, a cousin that taught him how to play from the LBBs.  So there has been an Omar's in operation since the first days of the game.
Omar (and no one calls him "Crazy" to his face) is the ultimate adventurer shopping center.  Starting characters go to get "Omar's Adventuring Kit" which includes everything a starting character needs (torches, rope, spikes, backpack...) for 50 GP.   The contents vary from time to time (and depending on what system I am using at the time).  The price is somewhat less than buying the items separate, and the characters and Omar know this.  But Omar feels that the best customers are the ones that keep coming back.

Omar offers another service, the buying and selling of magic items.  I don't have too many places like this in my world.  Sure there are places where a magic item can be sold, but Omar's always offers the best deals, depending on the mood of management.

Omar's is also the largest warehouse of magical item in my world.  Yet no one has ever tried to steal from him.  It is rumored that the local thieves guild has a long standing agreement with Omar and they will not steal from him and there are the rumors of other things that Omar keeps in his warehouse.

So last night my boys wanted to play our Dragonslayers adventure, but I realized I had not finished calculating all their magic and treasure from the last adventure.  So a quick trip to Omar's while they role play haggling their magic items for money or other items made for a fun little adventure AND a way for me to figure out what items they had.

Despite the name, Omar is not really crazy, nor is he the original Omar.  The original Omar was more gruff and a hard nose merchant. This Omar, his son, takes more after his mother who happens to be the Xothia of the Rock; a sort of Dwarven witch that everyone fears but listens to anyway.  So his style of dress is uncommon as are his manners.  He does this to put customers off guard.  Plus the reputation of being crazy is often worth more than extra guards and advertising. He hires only gnomes ("Dwarves are too greedy and want to be paid more.  I can pay these guys in the magic items I don't want.") and he always gives deals to pretty women ("I am too kind to the ladies, it will be the ruin of me I know it.") of any race. In back he has an appraiser, a stern and serious elf named Kerin (a former Bard now semi-retired),  If Omar can't identify the item in question (which rarely happens thanks to his Monocle of True Seeing) he will call out Kerin.  The old, stern elf will peer at the itme through his similarly enchanted spectacles.  He will then pronounce the value on the spot.  Omar and Kerin often argue over Kerin's estimates.  Kerin, who never lies, gives the true value for the item, Omar wants him to round it down, like to 20% of market value.  Kerin never budges and Omar fumes.  Kerin is also the store's accountant.  He knows every copper that goes in or out and knows about every magic item in the place.
When not dealing with customers Omar walks around his warehouse singing dwarven opera at the top of his lungs.

Day and night Omar's shop is busy.  Given that many of the item he deals with are likely stolen he pays heavy fines to both the city and the thieves' guild; but they are not as heavy as Omar lets one believe.  He has made all sorts of deals knowing that his is a symbiotic relationship with both factions.  They need his goods, he needs their protection.  The mutual benefit has worked so well that the original Omar has retired and purchased his own island country where he sits on the beach all day.

Omar's also serves another great purpose; a source for rumors.  I plan to have the characters over hear the details regarding their next adventure (which will be B3 Palace of the Silver Princess).  While it is "off quest" I have GMPC in the group to provide some magical support and will claim that this in in her home town (which, in fact it is) and the characters will go to investigate.

So if you use Omar in your games drop me a message to let me know how it went!

Saturday, July 24, 2010

Favorite Modules

So thanks to the magic that is Half-Price Books, eBay and my local game store, I have managed to score over the years nearly every classic AD&D Module and many of the 2nd ED ones and a fair number of 3rd and 4th ed ones too.

I am a-wash in adventures.

I want to run my kids through some of the greatest adventures of all time.  They have already been through X1 Ilse of Dread, B4 the Lost City and a few others.  They are going through B2 now with another DM using Pathfinder and will be going through B3 as soon as tomorrow under D&D 3.x.

I am itching to take them through S1 (I have versions now for every edition of D&D), S3 and S4/WG4.  I am dying to get them through Ravenloft and Castle Amber (X2) and Death's Ride (CM2).

They will also hit the GDQ mega-adventure someday, either with me or our other GM.

So what are your favorite adventures and why?
Help me narrow this down to the "must dos".

Thanks!

Tuesday, July 13, 2010

D&D4 Essentials

So I don't know much yet about this whole D&D Essentials line from Wizards.

At some level it is a marketing ploy.  Getting people to buy more materials.  I can live with that really.  Wizards is a company and they need to make money.  If they can come up ways to make more money I will not fault them. I don't have to buy the product either.  That is the benefit of a free market.

But I like the idea of the new "Basic Set". I am going to be running my two boys through D&D4 soon and they have been playing D&D 3.x for a while now.  They are playing in a Pathfinder game too, so they are not what you would call newbies anymore; but there is a bit of newness about them and this box appeals to me.

I am am concerned about power creep and too many changes from the books I already have.  Will a D&D Essentials Cleric be really different than the one I have in my PHB?  I don't know and neither it seems do others, but the initial posts I am reading seems to confirm that the cleric in either book will be roughly the same, give or take some flavor.

According the the blog Points of Light, I might not need to worry and in fact it looks like some of the changes being made to characters will provide more ways to differentiate the characters more than the same basic power template all characters have.

So, it almost sounds like that we are getting kits (from 2e) for D&D 4.  Something I have always thought would work for the Heroic tier for a while.

Will I be buying all of the D&D4 Essentials line?  Probably not.  I will pick up the starter set (still don't know what the art on that one looks yet) because boxed sets are cool.

Wednesday, July 7, 2010

Would you like an "A" or 100 XP?, Part 2

So my son indeed got home tonight and we sat in the game room. He had his notebook, all my D&D books, including 2nd, 3rd and 4th editions of the Dragonomicon, and he wrote a history for me on why is character wanted a life of adventure.

Here are some excerpts:

Teragon is a Blue Dragonborn Sorcerer.   His dad was famous for killing Tiamat, the Queen of Dragons. Now Teragon wants to be an adventurer just like his dad and so does his brother, Sligon, the Black Dragonborn Paladin. 
When Teragon was 11 his dad died of a disease called "dragonitis". 
Teragon found a magic dagger and a scroll with a spell that made his dragon breath into blue fire. 
Ok, so it won't win any Ennies, but it is still awesome.  I like the part about how his character wants to be like his dad (win!) but not so much about the part where his dad dies of Dragonitis! There was a lot more, thngs about a dragon's cave and how he adventures with his brother.

So for his efforts, Teragon has blue fire dragon breath that does extra damage (thanks to a feat he had to choose at 1st level anyway) and he has a +1 dagger.  Oh and Liam for his efforts was given 500 XP.

Tomorrow night I hope to hear about Sligon and why he decided to be a Paladin.

Return to the Palace of Silver Princess

Like a lot of gamers my age I am familiar with the module B3: Palace of the Silver Princess, and like most of those gamers my experience is with the "Green" cover version.  Well I had heard about the infamous "Orange" cover version of course, but never hoped I would see it.  Well Wizards of the Coast had changed that when they released the banned Orange version a few years back along with the story of why it was banned/deemed inappropriate.   An interesting bit of game history, but really I think nearly everyone feels that the edited Green version is the better module.


Reading the Orange version with knowledge of the Green is an interesting experience and one that almost always leaves the Orange one coming up a bit short.  Not that the Green version, with edits by Basic Game guru Tom Moldvay, is a stellar module, it does have it's moments.

B3 holds a special place for me since it is the first module I ever bought specifically to run and not play in.  There was a lot for a neophyte DM like myself in 1981 to like.  The programmed adventure in the beginning was a nice touch to kid just learning how to also program the computers in Jr. High.  Arik of the Hundred Eyes was an awesome sounding bad guy and one I had hoped would make another appearance one day. And it was easy for me to place this all in Glantri from the Expert Set, it seemed to fit well with other things I had going on at the time.

Reading over the Wizard's site this past weekend got me thinking.  I have wanted to use B3 in my kids' game for a while now.  Thanks to the maps (linked below) from the Vaults of Pandius and the update to D&D 3.0 version of the monsters and encounters I could run this is as-is for them now.  Of course I'll want to bump the encounters up a bit to make them more challenging.   Course the maps are for the Green version and 3.0 update is for the Orange version. 

I think I'll take a suggestion from Wizards and run this as "Return to the Palace of the Silver Princess".  The events of the "green" cover happened many years ago, but something went wrong that lead to the events of "orange" cover.  The Eye of Arik wasn't destroyed properly and soon the entire area became cursed.  Ellis the Strong (The Silver Warrior) became the the cause in the minds of the locals.  While the evil energies pouring out of the fragmented eye caused mutations in all living things in the castle.  Plants became vampire roses and archer bushes, the staff became Ubues (gotta explain them somehow), Aliegha, Catharandamus and the dwarves Boron and Xyzom were adventurers that came here previously and are now coming under the affects of the Eye.  Catharandamus is going insane, thinking he can summon Arik, Aliegh is turning into a wolf (or bear or a bear-wolf crossbred-thingy) and the dwarves are slowly becoming orcs.  I do plan on using Candella and Duchess, as randomish NPCs, but they had just gotten there and have not started to mutate yet. I just liked that picture of the two of them being caught by surprise. 

I doubt I will drop any hints here to the upcoming 4e adventures or even the on going Dragonslayer's plot.  So Arik is not really another name for Tharizdun, and I doubt I'll make the Eye of Arik a part of the summoning ritual they need for Tiamat.  Just a little side adventure to amuse me and them while I build them up to the big finale.  Though the Knights of the White Drakes from the Green version allays interested me.  Maybe once the adventure is over I'll have the Knights send them their thanks and offer them a great gift, a Drake (a riding dragon) for them to use in their battle against Tiamat.  My son would LOVE that.  Of course that only works if the the guy on the dragon that everyone thinks is evil is actually good and the characters help clear his name.  I do like that idea.

Links
- Wizard's page for the Orange version, http://www.wizards.com/dnd/article.asp?x=dnd/dx20020121x7 
- Cool maps from the Mystara uber-site, Vaults of Pandius, http://pandius.com/maps.html

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Would you like an "A" or 100 XP?

So rarely do my roles as father, educator and gamer collide as well as they have this night.

I have been working with my sons all summer long on doing extra reading, math and writing.  Yes this is what it is like when you are a teacher's kid.

I know motivation is low for school work, especially in the summer and especially when it comes to writing.  But tonight I offered my boys a deal.

For every paragraph they write about their characters they will get 100 XP.  If they do a whole page then they get 500 XP.  If they can write a good story and tell me something about their character then we consider it "true" , even if that means he gets a new magic item.

We will see how it will go.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Revised Plan; Generational Mega Plots

I plan to come back to Cartoon Action Hour here in a bit, but I have something I want to get organized first.

So a while back I posted a plan for the adventures I wanted to run with my family using 4E.

Well since that time, some gaming has happened, some looking over various adventures and some tests on my part has brought me to the conclusion that I can't run some of those old school modules under 4E after all.  Certainly I am still working on my current 3.x adventures with my kids.

Now mind you, this is not a bad thing nor is it reflective of the modules, 4e or "Old School".
But it has forced me to change my plans.

So for the "Dragon Slayers" game I am running I'll add some of those classic modules.  The characters are all right around 13th level now, with one just on the verge of 10th.  The ultimate goal of this game is to defeat Tiamat in the "Graveyard of Dragons". What can I say, my kids like the old D&D cartoon.    The rules are under 3.x edition, which has an odd mix of D&D 3.0, with some 3.5, minor bits from Pathfinder, BESM d20 and Star Wars d20 (the revised one that came out after Attack of the Clones).

Also some of these modules are going to be played by me under Pathfinder in either my "Big Kids Group" or the "Little Kids Group".  Currently the LKG is going through "B2 The Keep on the Borderlands".  I have already used bits of "X1 Ilse of the Dread" and "B4 The Lost City".  I know that in the one of the Pathfinder groups we will go through the GDQ series at some point, most likely the Little Kids Group.  I will be running "C2 Ghost Tower" under the Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space game.

After that those characters will retire and their descendants will complete a new Quest.  The defeat of Orcus.
I'll run this one under D&D 4E and I do plan on it taking many years.

I am not 100% certain how the adventures will pan out, but I do want to use the D&D4 ones for ease.


Part of this is my desire to have them battle Orcus at the end. Plus I like to overall plot of involving the Raven Queen vs Orcus and Orcus getting a hold of some ancient artifact of Tharizdûn.

Those modules will get them from 1st to 30th level.  But I might want to add a couple here and there.  Not sure yet since I have not read them all in detail.   I also know some people have had issues with these modules, both in terms of how they fit together, plot and playability.  So I want to get things that are out now, and then tweak them as I need.  Afterall, if this is about fighting Orcus who gets an artifact from ancient Tharizdûn then I can lay some ground work in my 3.x game now for that.

So after all that I have some modules left over.

  • B3 Palace of the Silver Princess, levels 1-3 (using bits from both the "Green" and "Orange" versions).
  • L1 The Secret of Bone Hill, levels 2-4
  • X2 Castle Amber, levels 3-6 (place it in the Shadowfell, which is the new Ravenloft anyway)
  • I6 Ravenloft, levels 5-7. That is if I don't use it as a convert Ghosts of Albion adventure. Use some of the Ravenloft campaign/world setting stuff here too.
  • S2 White Plume Mountain, levels 5-10
  • I10 Ravenloft II, House on Gryphon Hill, levels 8-10.
  • S4 The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth (with some of the info from the 3.5 update), levels 6-10
  • WG4 The Forgotten Temple of Tharizdun, levels 5-10
  • S1 Tomb of Horrors, levels 10-14 (though I might just wait for the new D&D4 version)
  • S3 Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, levels 8-12
  • CM2 Death's Ride, levels 15-20. 
Then there are these modules:
  • H1 Bloodstone Pass, levels 15+
  • H2 The Mines of Bloodstone, levels 16-18
  • H3 The Bloodstone Wars, levels 17-20
  • H4 The Throne of Bloodstone, levels 18-100

Like the E series for D&D4, these send you to Orcus's layer to defeat him.   Of the lot, H4 would be the best one to use, maybe as a buffer between E2 and E3.   The others seem more suited for the Dragon Slayer's Pathfinder game.    Of course, I could convert the H1-H4 Bloodstone series to feature Tiamat instead of Orcus.   S4 and WG4 are linked and deal with Iggwilv, her Demonomicon and Tharizdûn.  They are good to set up the history of Orcus and Tharizdûn.  They can happen in either game. In the 4th Ed game I'd stick it in between H and P.  CM2 Death's Ride has some cool stuff in it. Good to set up the whole Orcus wants to be a God thing in the 3.x game.  Plus it would give me a good arch-nemesis for the characters to fight throughout.

The Ravenloft ones would be great for the Sunsword (a good weapon against the undead) but there is the Board Game coming out and I want it.  Plus I'd rather run Ravenloft these days under True20.  So I might have to find something similar.  If I use the new Tomb of Horrors then I could place a good aligned sword there.  There is a D&D4

There is a lot to do and figure out here.  But I see this as a good thing. Look at all the time I have.  I can plan out a mult-year arc of adventuring that would take my kids all the way to college.  Wouldn't have died to have done something like that?

Though I do need to figure out a way to get more dragons into the 4th Ed game for my oldest.

Now this is my attempt to bring Old Schoolers and New Schoolers together.

NEW SCHOOLERS:  What things should I be aware of when running the HPE series?

OLD SCHOOLERS: What classic, epic modules are a "must run" for a group of kids that were not even alive when Clinton was in office, let alone Carter.  What memory of "D&D" is a must have?  Barrier Peeks?  Tomb of Horrors?

Clarifications on Games being Played
- "Dragon Slayers" is a 3.x game that I play with my two sons and sometimes my wife joins us. The goal of this game is to defeat Tiamat.
- "Big Kids Game/Group" is a Pathfinder game where I play a Paladin.  In this group are my kids and the DM's kids (6 players, 1 DM)
- "Little Kids Game/Group" is a Pathfinder game where I play a Witch (same witch as I do in Dragon Slayers).  This is the group with the Problem Player.
Both Pathfinder games have the same DM.
- "Untitled 4th Ed Game" is a 4e game where the players are the same as Dragon Slayers, but the characters are their children or descendants. The goal of this game is to defeat Orcus.

Tuesday, June 1, 2010

Family Game Day: All Wet (rain and ocean adventures)

Taking a break from Anime RPGs for a sec to talk about yesterday's family game day.

Due to the rain yesterday and a general lack of motivation we decided to play a game of D&D.  This is the on going saga of the "Dragon Slayers" which consisted of my oldest son's three characters (I have alway let him play multiple characters since it was just us), my youngest son and his Archer Ranger/Thief and even my wife got into the game for a bit.  A couple of D&D tile sets (which my wife told me to go out and buy more!) a few  of my son's toys that work great with the minis, and a half baked idea all came together for "Dragon Slayers and the Quest for the Dragon Pearl!"



I used my Hero Lab for Pathfinder to put together a character for my wife really fast; a duel wielding Ranger/Fighter multiclass. Now this is not the same game as the Kid's Pathfinder game I have been playing in.  Though Connor is playing an older version of that character in the Dragon Slayers game.  Liam's characters are also somehow related in both games.  I am playing the same witch character.  In Dragon Slayers she is a 9th level witch using my Liber Mysterium rules for D&D 3.0 and in Pathfinder she is a 1st level witch using the new witch class from that game. In Dragon Slayers she is a GMPC/NPC of course, but her job in that group is to record all the knowledge the characters gather on dragons.

The Dragon Slayers game has turned into a rather cool one.  It is at it's base D&D 3.0 with various 3.5 add ins, a little Star Wars d20 (for the Bounty Hunter) and some BESM d20 and Mutants and Masterminds where needed.  It is set in my Mystoerth world which is another unholy union of various D&D worlds, so it all fits really.  The over arching plot here is that evil dragons are planning to take over the world by killing all the good dragons, the characters are finding all the big bad evil dragons and hunting them down, while collecting pieces of an artifact so the can defeat Tiamat. So it has it's own built in end game.   While they are seraching for these artifacts they are also looking for other items of power.  They are supposed to head to the South Pole next time, which I am going to draw heavy from At the Mountains of Madness for, but before they get there they will come to Ansalon, a country they did not know was there (it's not on their maps) and this gives me the excuse to have them gain some Dragonlances.  So yeah, this game is more cartoon than it is fantasy adventure epic, so in a way it does connect back to the topic at hand; how to add Anime Style to your games.  My son's character sheets are an odd collection of D&D 3.0, M&M and BESM d20.  For this game the BESM d20 sheets work the best since his wizards tend to have "powers" instead of "spells".
I know there are purists out there cringing, but all I can say is it works and it is fun.

Yesterday the Dragon Slayers were convinced by an Ogre to retrieve a "Dragon Pearl".  Why were they dealing with an ogre?  Well he had the only boat that would take them from The Four Kingdoms north of the Zakhara desert to the South Pole where they believe another piece of the artifact was.  The pearl was in a submerged cave system and protected by a Deep Sea Dragon Eel and an Aquatic Dragon.  Which were stat wise just two adult black dragons with about 200 hp each.  The Dragon Eel was a toy viper fish that my son got years ago and the aquatic dragon was this sea dragon toy he bought recently on Amazon.  The "ogre" was also an "igor" figure from a Castlevania Succubus, so while he is a small figure to her, to a 7ft tall Dragonborn mini he is about 10-13ft tall (hard to tell, he is hunched over).

The adventure went great and nearly everyone gained enough XP to level up.  My sons started talking about the "end game" of this; when they defeat Tiamat and retire to pick up on 4th Edition.  While I Am looking forward to playing some 4th edition with them, I am finding I am not really ready to see the end of the Dragon Slayers yet.  It has been a ridiculously fun ride.

What adventures will the Dragon Slayers have next rainy day?  Unknown, but it will certainly be a blast.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

D&D 4 Kids. Monster Slayers: The Heroes of Hesiod

Monster Slayers: The Heroes of Hesiod is a new type of D&D (4th edition nominally, but it is so stripped down it could be from any edition of D&D) adventure designed for younger kids.  They say ages 6 and up.

The adventure is free, http://www.wizards.com/dnd/Article.aspx?x=dnd/4dnd/monsterslayers and all you need to play is some people (kids), dice and some pencils.  There are character cards, monster cards, tokens and a map that can be printed out.  Any printer is fine, color or b/w.  You can use a d20 and d6. If you are so new to D&D that you don't have a d20 then you can still do this with 3d6 (that would be 3 six-sided dice).

The plot is simple.  Fight some monsters.
There is no real threat since characters can be healed by an NPC (have YOU ever killed the character of a 6 year old?  Well until you do you can't complain about this being too easy.)

The game time is 30 minutes and it is for one DM and 5 players.
Players need to work together to get through this, but there are no guidelines telling you how they need to do this.

What do I think?  Well I can attack this from three fronts, as a parent, as a curriculum design specialist and as a D&D player.  Here we go.

Tim the Parent
I love what they are trying to do here.  D&D looks fun to little guys (and girls!), but the rules (and lets be fair here, especially 4e) can be daunting.  Character sheets, even when everything is explained require a lot of reading and higher level comprehension.  Something the 12+ crowd can do, but maybe not the ones still playing Pokemon.   This adventure solves that problem easy.
IF I had one suggestion on this it would be to make it so you can subdue the monsters.  Think of the new movie "How to Train your Dragon" basically this is the same thing.  But the little red dragon here is so cute that I know my boys will want it as a pet.  Yeah a pet Bullette or Beholder is a bit of a stretch.  This is not coming out of any attempt of being PC; I like to kill monsters as much as the next guy and anyone that thinks kids don't have never been around kids.  It would be more of a challenge in some ways.  Plus years of Pokemon have taught me 2 things.  1. Kids like to collect the monsters they "kill".  2. You can say "knocked out" or "benched" all you like, my kids still tell me how they "killed" my Haunter or Ghastly (I like psychic Pokemon).

Tim the Curriculum Specialist
In my day job (and night time Ph.D. stuff) I am a Curriculum specialist.  Yeah I don't talk about it much here because they get for 13+ hours every day.  But I love what I am seeing here.  The potential for learning is fantastic.  For starters there is the working together aspect.  The players will need to work out how they are going to kill these little beasties.  And how they are going to protect their party.
There are the simple things like math, rolling the dice, comparing numbers and addition and subtraction.  Let's not over do it by talking probabilities here yet, but we can do fractions.
What is missing here though is a page on how the teacher-as-DM can do all of these things and meet some stated outcomes or goals.  It don't fault the authors in not including this.  That was not part of their design goal.  Maybe I can come up with something.

Let's see. Quickly this can be used to teach role-playing (something that is used in all levels up to MBAs), basic probability (what is the chance you will hit the monster?), computation skills (basic, you rolled a 3 and 2 and a 4, how much is that? does it hit?) team work (who has the most hitpoints?  Who can last in a fight better, who can hit the monster from far away?  How can you work together to bring down a bigger foe?), narrative storetelling (why is your wizard fighting the monsters?  You tell me what you think he/she is thinking),  and even simple cause and effect.  Wrap it all up in a nice Deweyian setting and get the kids to learn by doing.   I do it now with my kids and it has worked out really nice.
If something like this can get the kids to read the new Monster Slayer books from Wizards, then its a win-win.  Wizards gets another sale and kids read.  My son already loves his A Practical Guide to Monsters and A Practical Guide to Dragons so much we bought the Dragon Codex books.  If the adventures are aimed at the 6+ crowd then I hope the books are not too much above that.

Tim the 30+ Year D&D Player
Oh yeah. Killing monsters is great.  Putting them in a room and telling me to have at them, that is even better.
Sure these rules are not going to challenge me, or even hold my attention for too long.  They were never supposed too.  They do however do one thing really, really well.  They play just like D&D.  The only thing missing are some orcs and some treasure.
If you have a little guy or girl and they want to learn how to play, then this is a great starting place.
Call the characters "-1 level", after this they have worked their way up to 0 or maybe even 1st level of the D&D of your choice.

I like what Wizards is doing here and they should be applauded.  The fact they let it out for free is even cooler.  I would like to see more of these.

There are some discussions about this on Facebook, ENWorld and RPG.net.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Pathfinder

Taking a break from smashing some goblins in Pathfinder on today's Family D&D day.

The combat is going REALLY fast, much faster than 4e or even 3.x.

Really digging my new witch too.  Though to be fair she does play similar to my 4e warlock.

More soon.

Sunday, February 28, 2010

Pathfinder, Keep on the Borderlands and witches

So Saturday we started what we call "the kids game", this is our D&D game that includes me, my two sons (6 and 11), my regular DM and his sons (10, 10 and 5).
We started out as a 4e game and it went rather well.  This weekend though we switched over to Pathfinder.

And it was awesome.

It is not really saying much, but Pathfinder is closer to old school D&D than D&D 4 is.  We entered the goblin cave and had four encounters with goblins and "the big guy", an ogre helping them out.  It was a blast.  Our group consisted of a human witch (me), a human dragon-blooded sorcerer, a dwarf cleric, a half-elf ranger, a human ranger, and a human thief.   We figure that we need to make some tweaks, the sorcerer needs some different spells and I think my witch needs a cure light wounds spell to help out the cleric some.

So Greg (my DM) and I figured that under 4th Ed the characters would have been killed with these encounters.

We are going to keep going with 4th Ed in our "Big Kids" group.  So I am going to get a chance to do both games.

I like 4e, I do.  It is fun and the material for it is top notch.  But Pathfinder is a lot of fun too and those books are really nice.  Picked up the monster book for it.  If Pathfinder had something like DDI I would be all over that too.

So where do I stand with my "D&D" games?

I am running a 3.x (mostly 3.0) game with my two boys.  I am playing in a Pathfinder game and a D&D 4 game.  And it looks like I might be running another 4e game here soon.

For doing all my old school stuff, well it looks like we are going to be doing that as part of Pathfinder and doing something different for 4e.

All in all it sounds like a win all around for me and everyone else.

Now on to my witch.
She has a cantrip, Daze, that she kept using in combat.  Worked out nice really.  Was able to keep a goblin distracted (and the Ogre once) pretty much every round.  Not getting hit goes a long way to help keep the party alive.  Found a scroll of "cure light wounds", since I have that spell on my list I could read it and use it.  So game-wise a nice mix of witchy offensive power with some good defensive buffs of a divine nature.  I totally under-used my familiar however, but that is the same as my last 4e game, so those are even.
Comparing her to her 4e counterpart, Daze was my "bread and butter" spell where "Arcane Blast" is in 4e.  Arcane Blast has the advantage of causing some damage.  And my 4e warlock has those teleports which are very nice.  Both characters had the about the same feel in terms of hitpoints for the foes they were up against and I compensated the same way; I hid behind tougher characters and fired off spells from a distance.

The Pathfinder witch uses Intelligence though as her main stat.  I am not buying that.
Warlocks use Charisma and I can see that and see it for the witch.  In the end though I still think that it would be best for the witch to use Wisdom as her main stat for spell casting.  In this respect the Pathfinder does come up short.

So in my judging for combat playability, Pathfinder Witch vs. 4e Warlock, it's a draw.
In terms of spell casting mechanics, the Pathfinder has more "witchy" spells, but the warlock spells do fit that concept well and work well in the game.  So in the end I am giving the nod to 4e.

Looking forward to the new Pathfinder book that has the witch in it.  Is there still time to have switch the spellcasting stat to Wisdom?  Anyone know if we are going to see some witch prestige classes?

Saturday, February 27, 2010

Pathfinder

Played Pathfinder today.

Loved it.

WE now have a new family game for are larger group.  Love my witch.

More later.