Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Jury Duty, Again

I have jury duty again today.

Though to be fair the last time was way back in 2009.  Hopefully it will be a one day deal.

Monday, December 14, 2015

Featured Post Feature

Blogger just added a "Featured Post" feature.
You can see it to the right just under the Social Media icons.

So each week I try to feature something new.  Maybe from the week in question or something else.

It will be interesting to see how it works.

Slavers Defeated!

Last night the Order of the Platinum Dragon crushed the gnolls working in Slave Pits of the Undercity and defeated the slavers!  The slaves were freed, including some orcs which vowed to help the PCs when and if they could.  Detailed maps were discovered and the group is off to stop an even larger threat.

We finished module A1 Slave Pits of the Undercity last night.  I ran it under 5th Edition and made a lot of tweaks along the way.  While I felt the players had an easy of a time when going through Castle Amber, I made som changes in how monsters were dealt with and felt that last's night session was much more balanced.  Plus a lot of great things went on.
I used gnolls instead of orcs.  In truth I am tired of orcs and wanted something new.  So I used a lot of material from +James Mishler's Hercynian Grimoire #1.  I included his Gnoles, werehyenas, and even a gnoll assassin and a gnoll witch. It made for a lot of fun.
Since I am also tying in more to the Out of Abyss adventures I included some gnoll demonic adepts which was great fun.  I took the old adage that the campaign is written by the paranoia of the players my oldest son decided that these demonic-gnolls must mean that ultimately demons are in control of the slavers.  Sure. Let's go with that!

To really have some fun since there were ghouls in this adventure I added a Thoul enforcer.  Now back in the day I always thought thouls were part ghoul, part troll and part gnoll, forgeting all about hobgoblin.  So I decided I would honor my 35+ year-old mistake and have a thoul in my game that was decidedly gnoll in heritage.  If you never played Basic/Expert D&D then you might not know the thoul.  Well here is the man himself, Perdustin over at Thoul's Paradise to educate us on what is a thoul.  Mine was a little different than the one in the BECM(I) Rules Cyclopedia.
Thankfully I found this great tool that helps create a D&D5 style monster stat block.
http://thegeniusinc.com/dd-monster-maker-download/

I can build monsters all day!

The characters are on their way to the Slaver's Stockade (A2) but along the way they are going hit our "Christmas Special" and have to deal with Krampus!  Hey since I have the software open...
Here is Krampus.



Can't wait to tell you all about it!

Friday, December 11, 2015

Friday Night Videos: Celebrating 3000 posts

Well I did not have much time today to get videos together or a theme.  So I figure why not take a moment and celebrate the fact I have made 3000 posts.

That's a lot of text really.

So let's celebrate this milestone with some videos about hit the mark, getting there or 3000 in general.

Let's start with the best known, if only, 3000 in the music business.  That would be Andre 3000 of Outkast.  Here is "Hey Yeah" with a multitude of 3000s from their epic two album release The Love Below.




Can you imagine me training for this?  Running up steps, punching keyboards hanging from the ceiling?  Tangling with other games and blogs? No. Ok maybe not.  But let's be honest "Eye of The Tiger" from Survivor is an awesome fight song.




All month, I have counting down to this.  You know what that means, right?




In truth not only can I not complain, but I get to do something I enjoy AND others seem to enjoy it too. So as long people want to keep reading what I have to say I'll try to keep saying it.  Like Joe Walsh says, "Life's Been Good to Me (So Far)".


Kickstart Your Weekend: Calidar "Beyond the Skies"

+Bruce Heard is back with another Kickstarter for his wildly successful Calidar campaign system.

Calidar "Beyond the Skies"


https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/ambreville/calidar-beyond-the-skies

This looks every bit as fun as the first Calidar book (reviewed here).
This book "feels" more like a campaign guide too, along the lines of the Forgotten Realms books with gods and things for mortals to do. by contrast the first Calidar book was more Gazetteer like.

The art looks fantastic, but don't take my word for it, pop on over and see.

I also appreciate the handy graphic too to know what it is I am getting for the money I spend.

Now to figure what level to pledge at!

Thursday, December 10, 2015

Post 3000!

A long time ago I hit 1000 posts.
Then I hit 2000.

Today, a little more than two years later I am hitting 3000 posts!



Not sure how to celebrate such an achievement.

3000, more so than 2000, make me think of the future.  Futurama, Mystery Science Theatre 3000 and even my own Greyhawk 3000/Mystara 3001 game using White Star and Calidar.

I also have to admit I am very excited for Retrostar.
It's not old school, per se, but does capture the feel of 70s and early 80s sci-fi.

Coming up on my year-end reviews and looking ahead features.

What would YOU like to see for my next 1000 posts?