I'm pulling the plug on this

Theres maybe 2 of you left, no comments and all my hits are from sex shops and porn advertising, Thanx to the very few ofor following me,but the door is closed.

This blog is sort of in hibernation

Been in a really strange mood these days, only things I do are housework and listen to music. I've got TONS of paper and physical game projects and plenty of time to do them but no interest. Took my typical December break from gaming after all. Stop in every couple of weeks and check on me, I haven't abandoned this.

So most of my C&T house rules are gone

Gaming Tavern went down permanently taking about 75% of my C&T material with it, spells ,creatures,cleric and about a 1/3 of the houserules....all gone!! No back up/ Feel like crap right now for not backing them up!!!! CRAP!!!!!!! Link to whats left in comments

Sundered Worlds recap 4

Boring travel game couple of fights, one with a mixed group of warriors,goblins, warlord, cultist and fire bender and another fight with Thorn Elementals. They are on a mountainous plane, looking for exit. I was REALLY off my game for this one(tired). New player, playing nasty paladin archtype that gives his HUGE shield bonus to those around him. raises AC by SIX!(They can't all be great)

Sundered World Recap 3

Our hero's encounter a mixed group of BEMs, Giant Mosquitoes, insect armor shelled lions and a ghostly necromancer. The necromancer repeatly animates the rest until the group finally dispatches the necromancer.

They get to the heart of the complex where they find a planeswalker sucking the life from the unicorns.After a long conversation with him ,the party realizes the unicorn energy was turning him good, confronted with this he ran away.

With the freed unicorns the party moved to the Confederacy HQ where the group was dispatched to fibd  out what the Chinese Parade Dragon artifact is, so they arre headed for a long trip to the library at Celano(the library of the lovecraftian gods........)

Sundered World Recap 2

Our hero's penetrate deeper into the mysterious stadium sized building, rumored to hold Confederacy POWS.....

They continue down a long hall and see dark shapes w a bright light that seems to be coming from the far end of the building. The inhuman screams and smells they are hearing seem like horses being tortured. They encounter a being laying on the floor with a distended gut they realize it is a vampire filled w blood like a tick ready to pop, they prob it and sure enough the vampire pops.

Deeper they go, they see that the building is filled with negative mass shapes of unicorns and that is where the screams are coming from, as the unicorns are connected by black energy coming from copper pipes. The party attempts to disconnect one of the unicorns and it explodes screaming.

They battle a strange undead that had a skull floating around it as it waved multiple black tongues from where its face should be. Red written words issue from the skull that protect it from damage and give damaging feedback when struck, finally it is overcome

an encounter w/ 4 vampires follows and after a tough fight they continue toward the strange light.........

Great DMing link

Don't know whu it took me so long to get around to posting this.
Roleplaying Tips is the DMs best friend they are on over issue 700!!!!!!! DM Tips of every kind!!!
Link in comments below

Today is my 30th Wedding Anniversary!!!!!!!

Do it all over again!!!!!!!!!

Link to GREAT post over on Dragons Foot

http://www.dragonsfoot.org/forums/viewtopic.php?f=11&t=75374&p=1791863#p1791863

Very well thought out contiplation of RPING in modern day, check it out!

link in comments below works

I'm running a Political/military PbP on Presposia

Just started adventures in "banditry" in Zimbabwe over on Presposia, just getting started if you wanna take a look(I'm tmao on that site) link is in comments below
ACTIVELY RECRUITING MORE "BARONS" FOR PbP FUN!!!!!

Blog News: Please pardon the coming Mess/many posts coming next couple of days!!!!!!!!

Ok for many reasons I'm going to back up my Crypts and Things creative work here. Many,many posts coming for next D3 days I'm not going to " +2" them, so a lot of you might not see them, Sorry about this but my other options are all bad and my google fu is weak so I don't think I can get them on to my G+ account. Pardon the MESS!

Crypts and Things review part 2- The setting in the rule book

Review part 2 A brief look at the setting provided by rule book

When I had the Beta version only to go by I was unimpressed, felt skimpy and lacking depth, but on closer inspection, the setting is a perfect representation of EXACTLY fitting the rules.

It is extremely distopian as you would expect from a game with out clerics, paladins and alignment(where all PCs get "back stab") Very little in way of bits of DECENT civilization exists.The characters can easily be anywhere on what would be the alignment scale, defending the last bits of hope or summoning the foul denizens of darker dimensions. as you know I'm not much of a guy for spoilers but I came away very satisfied that the Continent of Terror will be able to hold my and my players atentionts for the remaining years I have of gaming life. I run epic battles against Darkness and my over arching 10 year gaming plan will need a little adjustment but that will be far easier than writing up a whole new world. Actually you only need to add the continent to your existing world and the PCs will HAVE to come from it.

THE BAD The setting information is split into 3 different sections, 2 for the players and one for the Keeper. Extreme spoilers are in the Keepers section, you would have to rely on the players to NOT look at Keeper info. The information being spread into 3 diff places will make it a little hard to reference. The Keeper section is FILLED to the BRIM with GREAT adventure hooks and encounters, it has been designed as a sand box and will fill that role very well, it gives me plenty of room to ADD my own overarching EPIC plot.

For Over all usefulness and creativity , I give it an A-( I would have like to see a TINY bit more on "good" places, easy enough to add), but for organization the setting info gets a "D", It's going to be a little cumbersome in actual play

(there may or may not be a part 3, review of the contained adventures, which take up a lot of page count. I am NOT a fan of moduels, just a personal preference)

Some more Crypts and Things musings......

Been thinking about Luck and Sanity in actual play, thinking maybe static 10 for Luck and min 10 wisdom . Luck is kinda really important and a lower wisdom could be CRIPPLING with Sanity rules, as I'm not planning on switching for at LEAST four months(campaign has to EVOLVE) four months , I've got lot's of time to think about it.

.....about all the ZILLION BLANK comments I post.......

I can't get the DAMN thing to let me "+2" the STUPID thing!!!!!!!!!! sends out blank comment after blank comment.....and I wonder why I haven't been picking up any followers yet LOL #luddite

Preview of Sundered Worlds Recap 2

Ok planning on some sort of divine intervention on Monday. Laying out destiny of PCs and an out line of things to come in the following years. Join me as my thought process evolves on this through out(sorry you know by now my spelling fu is weak) today will be updating this post continuously if you want to wait come visit This on Monday

Link to my Crypts and Things stuff on Gaming Tavern

I think I might have posted this already but just in case link in comments below

Sanity stat in any D&D

I've looked for YEARS for a way to do this, I think Crypts and Things Remastered is THE way to go with this. Simple and Elegant. I could spoil it here but you peeps need to support D101 games, they are doing AWESOME stuff(although I am basing this solely on Remastered). C&T Sanity system I think will work well in actual play, we shall see.......

Cheating DM: Puzzles

I often create puzzles that I don't know the answer to. I drag it out until just a HINT of frustration sets in amd then BANG,next good idea from players is the answer!

So Remastered has caused me to re think Sundered Worlds/Stolen world.....

Ok Remastered's rules are VERY closely aligned with the provided setting. I've decided that I'm going to use the"canned" world instead of creating my own. I've got to CRAM setting into my plans, At least it's easier than making new world.

I'm 56 years old and have been playing D&D since I was 17, 90% of the time I have been the DM. I have never EVER used somebody else's setting before. Brand new territory for me!

Crypts and Things Review

OK ,do you like OSR Rules?
Conan?
Lovecraft?
Are you prepared for a game without Clerics?
Still with me?
Then boy Oh boy do I have the game for You!
From D101 Games, written by Newt Newport
PDF is $13 from Drive through/Hard copies available directly from D101 Games
Powered by Swords and Wizardry (OD&D Clone)

You've got your standard 6 stats, with the addition of sanity and Luck

Sanity is very simple and elegant , covered by the wisdom stat

Luck is used for pretty much everything from spell saves to doing maximum damage in combat, again simple and elegant

The Game uses 4 core character classes, Barbarian, fighter,thief and sorcerers,
The balance between Barbarian, Fighter and Thief is a little iffy and I think most Keepers are going to want to fiddle w/ this, but only minor fix is necessary. Prob as simple as giving the fighter a few more "specializations" (Feats) but the thief is a little tougher fixer upper.You see EVERYBODY gets backstab (A part of the basic flavor of the game) and should not be changed. I think the fighters could have used a bit more spec's to pick from but this is an INCREDIBLY easy fix.
The sorcerer can cast white, grey or black magic. White and Black have different drawbacks , grey has none but is the weakest of the three, any sorcerer carrying his share of the adventuring load is going to want White(Cure spells, cleric y) and Black(fireballs n such) Very Very Very Nice!

A further bunch of character classes are closely tied to the setting provided
Beast Hybrid(Lycanthropy)
Disciple(monk like with white, black and grey subtypes)
Elementalist ( a more standard sort of caster than the sorcerer with it's own spell kist)
Lizard People
Serpent Noble( classic REH Serpent man)

Character creation is rounded out with many life events charts that help with RPING but are COMPLETELY tied to core setting

A brief version  of the setting is provided for players with an expanded section for Keepers

Large sections on Others(the demons of the setting and Serpent men and cool NPCs are followed by a very cool bestiary including many cool new creatures and some old favorites

The book has many many extras including a bunch of adventures(don't use canned adventures so didn't read them)
The art is nice and very flavorful, didn't notice ANY typo's or grammatical mistakes

I can sum it all up with the following sentence:
50%Conan/50% HPL , all OSR D&D, Tough to use without their world(which is pretty good)
Despite my problems here and there 5 out of 5 stars

Sundered Worlds play recap 1

The PCs go deeper into the swamp dimension looking for the rumored POWs.

They encounter an animal/vegetable/mineral giant , that the Stone bender hammers w/ stone shaping spells

They arrive at a huge stone building and encounter an ancient vampire killing 4 spellweavers outside it,the vampire turns on them and the fighter is very nearly killed. Circling the building they find the trapped door
The Stine mage disenchants the traps and 3 more vampires emerge, the stone mage then erects a barrier, giving the party a few moments to prep for fight. Que fight music.

Entering the chamber ,they hear muffled screams(non human) through the door. a very tuff right w a powerful goblin swarm ensues. The ranger nearly dies from a critical miss w an explosive crossbow bolt but the Mage does a quick save ,leaving the ranger at-9. The Monk who escaped unscathed from the fight finishes off the goblins, near TPK on goblin fight.

Th party prepares to go deeper into the building............

Crap!!

So THIS is actually post 200! Sigh. So I guess in addtion to being a luddite my math skills are very challenged. Just pretend the last one was 200. PLEASE! LOL, I can't believe I screwed this up ,LOL

POST 200 !!!!!! Bat Cave 2 (megadungeon)

You should read Batcave one and The Better recap of Sundered worlds first

Ok I don't plan on the main Dungeon part of 8-10+ year plan for Sundered Worlds/Stolen World campaign until the end. But through time travel the players will visit briefly once in a while. As of this writing there are 5 or poss 6 different main sections each of which will use a different rule set and different character sheets except for option area 6 all of the side areas are actually in pocket dimensions attached to the Bat Cave

The whole point of it  to stop the destruction of the universe in the Dungeon.

Phase 1 of the Campaign is set in the Sundered Worlds, as the universe collapses our hero's search for the dungeon and what does the Chinese Parade Dragon artifact have to do with it. This is using Pathfinder rules ,5th L Huge stone monoliths will be placed in the Stolen Wold , anchoring and  stabilizing the fragments of the remains of the universe.

Phase 2 a is their stranding in The Stolen World and the ongoing hunt for the dungeon. From this point on the main rule set I will be using is Crypts and Things( sometime around 4 - 6/17 is start)

Phase 3 is the exploration of the dungeon and the gradual revealing of the main villains and true motivations of various NPCs

THE BAT CAVE ITSELF

Main Center Section

The original construction is goblin and the the Kuthrii Empire's lifeboat against the end, this is by far the biggest section of the dungeon. PC's will be using Crypts and Things rules
as of this writing I am going to modify The published(not by me) Stone Hell dungeon series as a time saver. It will have to be HEAVILY modified. Surrounding the main area are 4 smaller sections that each will use a diff rule set

Area 1 Sphinx
This is a parody of a true 1974 old school dungeon,egyptian themed, the pc's have already spent 8 games exploring the future. The rules are heavily modified Swords and Wizardrys, they started at first and are now second

Area 2 The Baron
this section is the home to a classic Dracula. The rules will will be using will be custom D&D with character classes such as farmer, maiden or prince, the pc's will be given character overlays of their true(IE Pathfinder) selves,they will be inhabiting the bodies of other peeps and their personalities will blurr, they will always be first L, eventually they will learn how to trade bodies. . This is the next area to be previewed in a flash forward and it will happen soon. slight poss will use 25 point GURPS char's. This area will contain a  twon and teh Baron's Castle, poss this will be the very very end as they will have to face The Baron w 1st l chars

Area 3 The Tsan Chen
These are extremely powerful sorcerers who have fled here from their extinct time ling(they are breifly mentioned in HPLs writings) They have contol  of a gug(also HPL giant) city that is also here, rules will be pathfinder w original char sheets

Area 4 The Witch
done the least work on this, rules will be D&D 1e with my original skill sheet that I just found(It is more like feats) from 1981.

Optional area 6 the Dragon
This is detailed in the "Diff way to Dungeon Crawl" post, really trying to push myself to this but right now it's a maybe, either Pathfinder or more likely C&T would be used

With post 200 right around the corner.........

I really don't know why I'm so excited about reaching 200. 100 was a big deal w hits and I just sort of threw it away. 200 seems so much cooler! been working on it as a draft for a few days now.(I'm about 1/3 done on it) Hidden spoiler on blog(somewhere) says what it will be about. I know at least 3 of you have found it.
(Hell, 3 might be all there is for all I know!) Here's to 500!

Long Term Review Log

This is going to be my ongoing mini reviews of things not worthy of a full review, mostly because they are more popular and well known, but that will not always be the case . Also to cut down on my individual posts. Comics, Movies and books mostly.Some musings A dif version of my "Safety Valve."

Book Review Vironiconium

Going to do a second review of this when I find the DAMN book and can spell title correctly and remember the authors name! I did something with this book that I  only do on rare occasion, I stopped reading 90% throu it because I only can read it once. Now I can't find book!

It is a dying earth genre w/ some short stories and 2 novelas mostly concerning the last city on earth. One of the novellas is about the strangest alien invasion story ever. PAUSE WHILE I CONSIDER SPOILER?.? Ok no I'm gonna stick w/ strangest as whole description. Some action but over all more "Fantasy disguised as Sci Fi high adventure." Can be a diff read at times but very intriguing. One of the short stories won a major sci fi award. will eventually break down and wiki correct title(will add comment) . Oh and WORST wiki review I ever read, totally FAILS to capture what book is about.Would make great material for gaming.

Comic Review: Astro City

Ok this book is an offbeat look at the world of superheros. It's not trippy like Doom Patrol but it's def a truely dif take on our leotard wearing friends, The story's are set in a very costumed super world. The action takes a big back seat to stories about the human condition in that sort of world. The book is anthology-like with short story arcs often with a normal(or nearly normal) star. I really liked the arc about an alien invasion where the "human" were the "bad" guys. The ending was predictable but nice. Def for your offbeat kind of reader.

A couple of links to things Im proud of(horror,modern supers)

2 links to 30 pocket Dimensions and 30 Lost worlds in comments below

Pre post 200 State of the blog

I'm really going to look at views on various posts and try and figure out what you peeps like.Remember "The safety valve" is going to be used so I don't over post. Going to try and keep it to 3-4 posts a day MAX, but who are we kidding(myself certainly!)? I got a lot of hits while I was gone, which is heartening. The reviews seem to be doing well so more of those. The Sundered World seems to be popular so Im gonna TRY and do better write up of my games in action. Sadly the spells are not popular so don't expect many of those.One of my big creative thoughts is pulling the trigger on "A dif way to Dungeon Crawl" really really love concept, really really really hate the idea of all that work. And of course LOTS of Crypts and Things, only DAYS till its out!!!!!!!!

My take on fantasy Switzerland over on Presposia(link)

link in comments

200th post is very soon!!! How do WE make it special?

That is all

Link to my published fantasy fiction and poetry.

So I'm FINALLY getting around to posting a link to my fiction work, I an VERY VERY proud of the last story in this ebup. Link in comments.

Crypts and Things: The problem!

Ok, my finances took a nice up turn, I brokered a deal for $14,500 in Magic cards and came away with a NICE commission! So I have plenty of money for C&T now!!!!!!!! Now comes the decision. PDF or Print< or MAYBE BOTH! I could almost def get my wife to go along w both but I don't wanna play that card. I would rather have the print but I can buy PDF directly from D101 and they get all the money AND I get INSTANT satisfaction? I think the lure of PDF is too STRONG.

Cool monster link

link is to very comprehensive overview is Spellweavers, very alien sorcerers  working link in comments

My "cleric" for Crypts and Things

Secret Priest of Hope

The god Hope is the sole remaining truly good god of C&T He is an ascended artifact/holy sword and appears as a gold glowing great sword. He has survived because his ultimate power was true, unending and absolute invincibility and immortality.This is the result of his being a real manifestation of the concept of hope, a spark of good that can never be extinguished. He has lost the vast majority of his power and only a tiny few of his servants survived with him(a very few avatars of holy great swords)


The Others are at this time  are only suspicious that Hope exists, it's just a question of time. It is your ULTIMATE goal that knowledge of Hope be kept from general knowledge.


He uses his meager power to give life to a very few covert clerics, holding on to the possibility of good triumphing ultimately, prob a doomed philosophy. Although LG , he has become a stark realist in his methods.(He has acquired Neutral tenancies).With the weakness of hope in the world, he is far far more limited in his abilities but not his goals.
Priests of Hope have the following abilities and restictions

In all ways they are sorcerers except as follows.

Their patron is automatically Hope and they may have no other.

They do not have spellbooks but do have all the limitations of number of spells known
They may learn spells from spellbooks in any way a sorcerer could

They have use of both great sword and long sword but as the great sword is a dead give away of who they are Hope suggests that they have their companions carry these and only use them in the direst of emergency
Like wise they may wear chain but it does nothing to further their disguise and is strongly advised against.

All of their white spells are actually grey.
They MUST know exactly ONE black spell and only one.There are no restrictions as to what it may be and it MUST be changed(IE Known) once a month. They may not use this spell if they are carrying a great sword or wearing chain mail. Public use of this spell is strongly advised.

The priests are FORBIDDEN from associating with one another, there thus may only be one in a party. Any gathering of priests can only be undertaken at the direct order of Hope.
At NO time may they preach the faith except under direct orders of Hope.

They suffer a -1 on Luck tests vrs magic and successful saves result in the loss of 2 luck points

The following new spells are automatically known to priests

Superior Magic Weapon(all spell levels)
summons spell L +1 magic great sword, this spell is never memorized and can be substituted for an appropriate level spell 3/ a week.

Dreamsend
L2 white(registers as grey)
This spell can freely be cast in your sleep it allows the sending of a 25 word message to Hope or to any one who you have cast Receive Dreamsend on. Receive Dreamsend is a varient of this spell and the spell must be memorized separately

DM RANT (lucky) 13: OSR Cleric(if you rake away ONE thing from me,let it be this!)

Allow Spontaneous casting of cure spells by clerics! This means a cleric can substitute a cure spell for an appropriate spell. You can always set a limit on number of times per day they can do this. Makes clerics more than cure machines! I used to laugh at the spell lists of NPC clerics in old school products and magazines. 7th L clerics w/ only 2 CLW, laughable!

DM Rant 12ish Some thoughts on specific spells concerning OSR

I HATE Sleep and Color Spray, far, far too powerful BUT if your going to ignore Rant 11 ,they HAVE to stay, if your only going to get one spell it might as well be a doozy!

The more modern "Magic Weapon" is VERY suitable to OSR play(makes weop +1/+1 magic for a moderate amount of time) should be available to MUs and Clerics both

adding DOOM to clerics list will not kill you either(save for -2 to hit and saves, short duration)

DM Rant 11(?) a message for OSR DMs

For goodness sake help out low level casters! One or Zero spells is NO WAY to PLAY!!!!!! Lots of great ideas are available. I know all about "wizards dominate at high level and they must PAY!"

C'mon! Would 4 LOUSY cantrips kill you? Bonus spells for high Int? Some sort of "ZAP" mechanic that functions basically as a short bow!

You can EASILY rule that any sort of bonus goes away at say 5th!

HAVE A HEART!!!!!!!!!!!

Comon high power weopan Pathfinder plus any D7D

a work in progress

Great Sword 2d6+2 damage
Longsword crits on 18+
Dagger +3 to hit
Mace +4 damage on a miss
Shield D8 bash
available in these

Majestic Blue

Intelegant with + 5 tactics and all the spells of a first L wizard
+1 to hit.
+d6 Fire damage
+D6 acid damage
2D6 holy damage

Powers
cure 3d 6 in a 30 ft, friends only 2x day
4d4+4 Magic missles 5x day
Teleport 20 feet as a move action 3x day

Musings of a Christian gamer

Like I think most people I vary on how much my faith impacts my life. I am bi-polar and this impacts my faith hugely. Always a CORE belief in the divinity of Jesus colors my perspectives and actions This has had a huge impact in my gaming life.

I came to my love of HPL from that belief. It was a source of supernatural evil that had absolutely no basis in my real world beliefs. You see I'm very very squeamish at the thought of using demons and devils in my games . While I can't say I don't use them , it might happen only once or twice  every couple of years. My whole Mysantia game was centered compleatly on HPL and Mythos evil. It made me very happy.

Crypts and Things would NEVER have sold me if they hadn't called the "demons", Others and while the magic system relies heavily on black magic, it once again does not have real world implications. I did really pause before embracing it.

In my youth, I had run into gamer's that embraced the dark side of life. I quikly ended my association with these peeps. I still actively shun them and am careful about my interactions w/ such and never continue to associate w such.

It is a very narrow view I know but I must be true to my core principles.

In my old age I have gotten much softer in my views on non Christians. At this point I am way more American then Christian. I never had a prob w athiests(except for the fanatic ones)
Last Time I bring this up.

Crypts and Things is SOOOOOOOOOOOOO close now!

Really, Really EXCITED!!!!!1 If The idea of an OSR game 50% Conan/50% HPL and all British old school of a very dark fantasy variety appeals to you, this is the game for you. DETAILED review is forthcoming.
One thing you need to wrap your head around is NO clerics(but they easily can be added)

Monster: Wormoid

Wormoids are vaguely  humanoid with a round , tubular head head that is filled w fangs, their fingers are fused together with a distinct thumb. They are of Farrealms ish origins. 2-3 ish hit die, chain ish AC. Their right arms are capable of transforming into up to 3 dif types of weapons. Individual bands of Wormoids will all have the same assortment of weapons. Common foot soldiers of evil types.

Newt accepted my apology!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

NOW it's over!!!! I FEEL GREAT!!!!!! ABSOLUTE END OF THIS!!!!!!!!

So now I wait IMPATIENTLY

I'm a VERY impatient fellow. Given the choice between not getting banned at Gaming Tavern and D101 accepting my apology, I guess I'd pick the latter. Ok no more about this! I'll try and come up with something interesting for today!

still.....waiting for shoe to drop..........

So now apology thread is locked at Gaming Tavern

So when they locked my houserules thread, I posted an apology thread, somebody locked that too. I REALLY hope I don't get banned there, oh well if I do, when it comes right down to it , Im the one thats wrong.

So I'm part of BIG dust up over at Gaming Tavern(yet another apology to D101 Games)

the whole story:
i was running a Conan type RPG on Dragons Foot, Somebody(I forget who, I deleted PMs) sent me an illegal copy of the beta of Crypts and Things. I looked at it and instantly fell in love.
I went to the D101 Google site, admitted my wrong doings and offered compensation.
Not really surprisingly my attempts at coming clean, were rebuffed by the owner
I started posting a bunch of really cool stuf on C&T at the Gaming Tavern.
I realized that he was following my posts and knew it was just a question of time before he connected me to it.
I sent an extremely poorly worded PM to Newt and it only served to anger him more.
As he rightly pointed out, a second reading of my PM revealed that he saw it as "passive aggressive" I have to agree w him. He also correctly pointed out that I never actually said "I'm sorry", I have since done so and made several attempts at apologies on Gaming Tavern

Somebody locked the thread of my house rules for C&T, prob in an attempt to stop our "fight"

I an issuing yet another apology to Newt Neuport and D101 Games, I doubt very much it will be accepted

In hindsight although my heart was in the right spot, I chose very poor words in trying to make amends.

The one truly unfortunate part of this is without that illegal beta, I NEVER would have come in contact w C&T, I don't read game reviews and would be blissfully unaware of it's existence.

PLEASE NO COMMENTS IN SUPPORT OF ME!!!! I DON"T WANT TO MAKE THINGS WORSE!!!!!!

CRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAP

Book Review: Songs of the Dying Earth

This is a fantastic and HUGE collection of short stories celebrating(and imitating) the Dying Earth series by Jack Vance(poss known to gamer's as the source of the memorization spell system of D&D) The variess big name authors of the stories do a fantastic job of imitating Vance's very unusual style. Except of course for Neil Giaman's close to the book which very arrogantly makes no attempt at channeling Vance. If you love Vance ,this is a must have. NOTE: Vance's style is a VERY peculiar take on wizarding and I would recommend getting a sample before you buy.

Gaming Review: Petty Gods

I haven't had a chance to go through this yet but it's AMAZING Very minor Gods(50hp) to demi gods, great art, huge book FREE, THAT"S RIGHT FREE link in comments

(Look my cat died yesterday and the family is real broken up about it, so if I spend a lot of time , making many posts here , forgive me)

A BETTER recap of the Sundered Worlds Campaign

The players were escorting a planewalker to an ancient abbey to undertake some sort of epic spell. As the ritual took place the abby came under attack bu a spellweaver , rakshasas and cosmic barbarians. A massacre ensued and the players grabbed a mysterious artifact(looks like Chinese parade dragon for 4 dancers.

They escaped into the supernatural winter and just as they arrived at civilization collapsed in fatigue.

They found themselves transplanted to another dimension(going from 5th L Pathfinder chars to 1st L OD&D chars). Finding themselves in the Bat Cave some years in the future. The dungeon was decorated with mosaic of the pc's throughout, Eventually they encountered a Sphinx that was too smart to talk to. Quik thinking lead to getting him to write things down. He revealed that the universe is collapsing due to the destruction of the abbey. and that a point in the future they would have to return to the dungeon and save the universe by merely switching 5 leavers in the dungeon, they were also told that dif sections of the Bat Cave had dif planer realities(IE they would be playing multiple rules sets w. new char sheets as they moved through it,)
AS the universe is collapsing and the Confederacy(good and the Alliance are in turmoil fighting each other and in a hopeless battle to stabilize the dimensions.In a frontal assault on the Spellweavers both the Confedarcy and Alliance have taken tremendous losses in troops ,planeswalkers and Gods.The leadership of the Confederacy is dead scattered and just plane missing. Refugees are flooding the most stable of the Confederacy's dimensions but the planeswalking walls both side erected have collapsed and every plane is on the front line of the war. A mystererious and powerful planes walker has asumed control of the Alliance and knows the PCs their destiny, to save everything , although he is seemingly putting them off in compleating that destiny for unknown reasonsThe PCs helped stop an invasion of a fortress dimension ,that now is acting as HQ, they are in the middle of rescuing POWs from the Vampires , who seem to have taken over control of the Alliance from The Spellweavers.

Some really cool, cheap, Magic cards

So I discovered that not all the elves in Magic are green, there are some extraordinary cool black ones that mesh super well together, none are very expensive , most are under 50 cents. made a very cool deck of them

They mesh together by discarding them and using them in the graveyard

Nasty in casual play

Movie Review: Planet of the Vampires

This time were mixing a little Sci Fi w our B horror . American actor Barry Sullivan stars in this Italian import. One of a pair of exploration star ships goes missing and Sullivan explores the mysterious planet looking for answers. Very very good costuming, decent fx, and a cool story featuring NO vampires. Sets are cool straight out of the 60s. They really did an awful lot w no money on this. This is poss of huge influence on Alien, or a very strange coincidence.

Movie Review: Curse of The Demon(GASP! ,it's not a "B"!!!)

Dana Andrews plays an unbelieving parapsychologist investigating the mysterious death of a colleague in England , poss at the hands of a powerful cult leader. This B/W classic  was re-shot by the studio to actually show the demon. The director wanted it to be in doubt as to whether or not it was real. Really needs a directors cut. This one is the total package in horror.

Movie Review: Equinox

Very, Very Low budget B with surprisingly good stop motion effects(effects director works for Lucas now and has won Oscars). Student film purchased and redone a little by distributor. It's about 4 students trapped in the woods vrs demonic forces. Really excellent B. Look for one of the stars of WKRP in Cincinnati.

Movie Review: The Raven

My fav of The 60s AIP "Poe" movies.Vincent Price, Peter Laurie, Boris Karloff and I believe in his movie debut Jack Nickleson. As to the "Poe" aspect to it, well it DOES have a raven in it. This is truly a guilty pleasure for me, ok I know it's crap but it's fun crap.Price, Laurie and Karloff are all wizards and the story is about The conflict for wizardly domination. It ends with a laughably low budget dual between Price and Karloff,pure wonderful low budget cheese! This one is def for the B movie buffs, a must for any who call themselves thus. Just so bad in a B good way!

Book Review: The Throne of Bone

by Brian McNaughton
It is a collection of short stories delving into a dark fantasy world. The Bulk of the book is made up of a collection of connected stories delving deep into a very unique kind of ghoul. The setting is a low magic medieval world w a hint of Victorian era. Magic consists almost entirely of the Necromatic variety. The nature of the ghouls is fascinating. The balance of the stories are a mix of other stories set in the same world. If you like your fantasy mixed w/ horror , this is the book for you. I've seen this advertised as the best book you've never hear of. Do yourself a favor and skip the first story,it's not all great!

WARNING:book contains XXX disturbng and horrific sexual elements!

I'm having a really BAD day so......

This is not the place I talk about my life. So I'm going to keep myself busy writing blog entries. Forgive me if I flood your inbox w/ notices of my posts. I need to keep busy.

Comic Review: Astro City

Dumb name , right? It is a very unique take on super heroics. The battles and fights are very much secondary to the themes that run through the books. It's a little hard to explain. It's like a view of the human condition in a world where peeps can fly. Strongly advise on starting w issue "1/2", it tells the story of a very ordinary man caught up in extraordinary and unfortunate circumstances . If your looking for JLA ,your in the wrong place, super heroics take a back seat to warm and heartbreaking stories.

Monster: Arcane Scarecrow(all D&D)

These are created by<fill in you local evil cabal of wizards> for $. they are surprisingly easy to create by using the blackest of souls. they come in several varieties

Wizard-offensive magic caster
Warlord- front line Sgt.
Arcane adviser-mystical advice for your would be world conqueror
Hexer- magic debuffer

highly intelligent low ac and vulnerable to fire

They make great plot hook. They are widly spread and common amunst evil forces. Who is making them? Can you cut off the materials needed to make them

Movie Review: The Dunwitch Horror

One of the greatest B movies ever and prob the best HPL movie ever made. It's an old AIP classic(the peeps that brought you the "Poe" movies) While not faithful to the short story, it truely captures the feel of Lovecraft. Can't tell you how many times I've watched it. Perfect depiction of a lovecraftian sorcerer. Opening credits are also very cool. I'm biased but most peeps will prob find it a little slow. Holds up well in the new century. Required watching for HPL fans. R rated for nudity(of which there is a more than a bit)
(I'm very burnt out after epic finish on C&T house rules so might be posting more reviews as I rest my creative side)

Comic Review: Doctor Strange

OK I only read the first 6 issues(I have the rest but my interest in comics comes and goes). But the first 6 are some mighty fine comics! They take Strange into new terriroty adding to the mythos but not taking anything away from the chars' history. It has a lot of great ideas for running an epic level wizard for gaming. I'm not into spoilers but there is a particular addition to Wong(his manservant) that was chilling. Really can't recemend this enuf. For the first time in my 56 years, I actually sent fan mail to the book. To be honest I was a little let down by the end fight but the rest of it was pure gold. Oh and I forgot to mention, brand new, ultra cool bad guys. Run and get the Trade!

Crypts and Things House rules are DONE!!!!!!!!!

Follow link in comments below!

Comic Review: Doom Patrol 1

Ok I doubt very many of you are familier with the late 80s Doom Patrol run by Grant Morrison. It was the closest you can come to doing blotter acid and staying legal. I just read the the first issue of the new series and it seems that Morrison is sharing his stash. If you like trippy things , its new on the shelf at your FLCS.

OK got the link to work... sort of

If you clik on my G+ profile I posted the link to my C&T rules there, it should work

Crypts and Things Houserules

Remastered is very close to here!!! heres a link to my houserules
http://www.gamingtavern.eu/phpBB3testTHZ/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=5061

Rude Surprise

I had the pleasure of playing a google game on hangouts. I only played 1 game of 1e,played a 6th L MU.

Wow do low level MUs suck in early D&D!!!!!
I spent almost 20 years making peep run L 1-5th wiz's!!! No wonder no one wanted to play MUs!!!!

I CAN"T BELIEVE I WAS THAT IGNORANT, THAT LONG!

I can't follow my own advice

So in one of my rants I complained about the huge number of OSR rules and advised, Don't write rules, write great adventures. As I said earlier I was switching to Crypts and THings, I'm still doing that but as much as I want to use the RAW, I tinker. And I tinker. And I tinker. I've got allmost as many houserules as the core of the book. Now I'm working on 4 new character classes and adding fighter kits.

What is it with we DMs?

Why do we Houserule switch systems and spend way too much time on such. Our time could def be better spent on world building, new monster, new spells etc. Really even new spells is a waste.
Yet we tinker and tinker, almost kike it's compleatly imbeded in DMing.

I can't follow my own advice!!!!!!!!!

DM Blunders

I've spent too much time awau from Sundered Worlds/Stolen World. It's lost it's luster They are suposed to be the big replacement for Mysantia. Too much of what I had conceved I did'nt write down. New ideas are forming that make much of what I had in mind in question. I'm going to go back and try and get the spark back of what I was trying to achieve.

Playing Magic sensably

So MTG has sucked me in ...again. I can't tell you how many timed I've gotten in and out. This time I got sucked on by buying a few cards to use as illusstaion of D&D things,places buildings, monsters. I touched the catds so the crack on them stuck to my fingers and thus a 2 months sabbatical from other games.

My group plays just w/ my decks and over the last 3 years Ive acumulated hundreds of commons and uncommons to play with. My currant obsession is giants, it used to be angels. The power creep on the cards is very evidennt when you spend long periods of time away from the game. Literally thousands of older cards are unplayable due to this power creep.

Getting tired of it and back to RPing next week

New Monster: Facehugger(goblin)

Ok the basic I dea is a very smal (24") goblin that launches itself at your head and bites and grabbles. a very strong creature that inhibits you from using your weopons on them, often you hurt yourself in the process. starting at like 2 HD and 16 st and going up to about 5 HD
(another monster based on an MTG card)

The Undiscovered Country

This blog is changing and I am coming back to it full time. I'm going to be delving into whatever topic strikes my fancy but I hope it will be continue to be PRIMARILY gaming, but my journey is no doubt going to delve into my personal struggles and my views on national and world events. I hope you enjoy the ride.

Being a square peg and having a short attention span........

I am such a square peg. I am so ultra niche-y in evry aspect of my life. The Christian wargamer. The libertarian Republican. I prob belong here, in my own private world where I can write and embrace my square ism. I lose interest in various projects at various websites and try to get them to conform to my vision, my narrow square vision. As of now this is no longer exclusovly a gaming blog. I think Im back.

Abandoned.....for now

Something new and shiney always attracts me. Maybe I will return........

I'm not dead!(and neither is this)

Been busy! IT LIVES!!!!!!!!

The Tome of Rexxar

over on Dragonsfoot Forums, I am running a "Conan-y" solo chat game. Unfortunately I can't figure out how to post links here. The record is under "Campaign Journals" " The Tome of Rexxar" I am still KINDA looking for one more player 7 AM Wednesdays EST. The first game synopsis is up.

Crypts and Things :Luck Mechanic

C&T is an OD&D clone w/ really cool saves

You generate a Luck stat by rolling D6+6, you then roll 2d6 and if you get lower than your stat you make the test and subtract one from your current Luck. You can also use it for other cool stuff like doing max damage.

Sundered Worlds Sessions 4 &5

session 4 was typical Dungeon crawl but epic fights w Angler Fishoid and Gug(lovecrartian giant)

Session 5 had  The players fall down sliding stair trap and then falling into cesspool w/ barracuda,. After they killed barracuda, they were approached by seemingly friendly goblins( although one of the six attacked and was quikly put down) The goblins through sign language offered to clean party and had a shield "advertising" "Knocker's". They then encountered mystical bad Luck Black Cat and a near TPK ensued.  B+ game

I'm in LOVE!!!!!!!!

Crypts and Things is AMAZING OSR FUN!!!!! replacing Pathfinder in my game From D101 Games the 2nd ed is due out any day 5-% RE Howard/50% Lovecraft!!!! Best saving throw and sanity systems of ANY RPG!!!!!! Detailed review following the release of 2nd ed.!!!!!!!!!!!!

An Old Dog CAN learn new tricks?

I haven't bought a modual in 35 ish years. The last one I used was I believe the Isle of Dread back in like 1982?.

I've always used homebrew adventures and been VERY sucsessful.

I just downloaded Petty Gods for free from RPG Now and it was amazing(for FREE I can't recommend it enuf!!!) It started me thinking. The state of the art in gaming online is so high these days that why arn't some of the canned adventures worthwhile. So I bought two.(both print) Am I getting old or have I learned a new trick? Only time will tell.

OSR creature 5(?) Black Cat (boss fight)

Ok for session 5 Im planning a big boss fight with a mystical Black Cat. 18 ac 9 hp(as an effect it teleports away when missed. Great spell resistance.

It will purr and rub against them as traps appear wandering monsters attack them cave ins and spears fly out of nowhere

Really looking forward to this one!

Sundered Worlds Session 4: The Feeling of Liberation!

Cleric, fighter Mu again
still under my 4 player min. but we had a blast with the OSR rules and dungeon. We all loved the lack of structure. The corny OSR encounters were refreshing. They still will not leave dungeon and go back to their 5th L Pathfinder char's. I might have to rethink EVERYTHING about campaign!

My first "DMing" session

1975ish
I had created a wilderness game set in a post apoc world using Metagamings Melee(year might be wrong).
The players were barbarians roaming the wilderness seeking D  cell batteries, I'm not sure how much exposure I had from magazines on RPGs at this point. Only played 1 session.(I guess today is Nostalgia day!) Mostly they fought other barbarians and wolves, the most primitive of RPGs.

My First D&D Game

1977
I had bought a couple of Dragon magazines and read a fair bit about D&D. I was 17 and had found a club that played wargames in a neighboring town.

We had been playing WW2 Minis but tonight was D&D There were like 4 married couples and 4 bachlors.
I was told to rpll up 3 charactres so I made a mini party Beowolf My morman cleric and his two wives, Bertha Battle Axe and a Thief. (I was later told that it was VERY weird that I had rolled up female characters, even the woman at the table played men!). The high lite of the adventure was a troll chasing a paladin w/ a holy sword and Bertha chasing after the troll around a huge column. Bertha got like twice as much experiance as any other of 20+pcs and eventually became my first second L char. I thought D&D was OK but I would have rather played WW2

Sundered Worlds Session 3 Into the Future

Our players
(all 1st L OSR)
Fighter
cleric
MU

They awoke in on of the dungeons bedrooms and met Sinister, they were allowed to ask 5 questions but since they were completely thrown by where they were and what they were, they didn't ask very good questions.

They explored the dungeon, first finding a goblin in prayer at a shrine to the PCs, they battled some anubaji and went directly to two treasure rooms and a "safe house" . much to my surprise they decided to stay and continue the dungeon foray next week........

Blog News

The death of my brother in law hit me way harder than I would have thought. We were not close. But my wife is devastated and I did know him for 30 years. Be a few days till I come back to this.

Batcave 3

Whole sphinx part is white and black, and blood

Blog Carnival.

I'd really , really like some requests for the Blog Party, gonna keep em coming, brother in law dead wife devistated

DM Rant Eight

BUY THE BOOKS!!!!!!! DON"T MAKE ME GET ALL THE PLAYERS HANDBOOKS

Bat Cave: Level One Sphinx are

Ok justnow this level is completed, in dungeon time. A shpinx lives above dungeon, he is so smart That you cannot really talk to him.He is surrounded by greedy and evil and dangours Anubaji priests.

The area is rife w Anubaji attcks. it is very old scool and the players are now playing first L S&W more or less

Stereo rpopic rooms and hazards w an egytian theme, also painting of PCs are everywhere

Blog PartY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Brother in law died very suddenly, very tuff
might be posting a zilliian posts today only

The Bat Cave(megadungeon) Part 1: Overview and history

History

approx 30,000 years ago dungeon starts out as major cavern system that has been occupied by goblins.

27,000 years ago Caverns worked into Major goblin metropolis, the capital of huge empire.

25,000 years ago The 1000 year cycle of Apocalypse's of The Stolen World begins

23,000 years ago Kuthrii Empire takes over cavern and uses as lifeboat against the Apocalypses

20,000 years ago Kuthrii Empire is brought down by infighting, goblins make resurgence but never come anywhere near their height.

12,000 years ago Halani Empire expands lowest section of "lifeboat" but never lasts past the 1000 year cycle

6,000 years ago goblins only survive in dungeon and are shadow of former selves.

4,000 years ago Minor Evil god Sinister takes on his "Joker" persona to hide his true pathetic apearance, he is master of illusion, takes over Bat Cave(as he calls it) adding slowly to the OSR type dungeon (although he is only approx L11 in power, he is the most powerful diety by far of the very low level Stolen World

3000 years ago Bat Dragon calls Bat Cave, imediatly goes to sleep, The job of thadventurers is to wake him up

100 years ago Bat Cave is done and goes into stasis,

This week real time, Dreaming Bat Dragon, Brings adventures to him in dungeon part 1 Sphnix, The 5th Level Pathfinder players will be given new char sheets and awaken w 8 HP as max in party

DM Rant Ten: The PCs Are HEROES!

Even at first L , the PCs are special, even if you are running a gritty city game the PCs are something head and shoulders above the rabble. Fame should be just around the corner for them. They are the Apex Preditors, treat them as such!

New OSR monster 3

Hooded desert Cobra
AC 14 1+1 HD

Spit poison for d3 damage and temp st damage at +3 to hit

33% of the time they will spend the round aiming and the following round damage is +1 and to hit is total  +6

New OSR Monster two

Anubaji(name and idea is based on old Grenadier figure from the Creature Catalog(?))

Black furred cousins to the gnoll in Egyptian kilts with mace and shield
AC 13 2HD

In combat these cowardly creatures will hide behind their shields skillfully 50% of the time. If behind shield there is a 50/50 chance you will hit shield(which takes 10 points to destroy) or hit them. They are minus 1 to attack on rounds they do attack. 1 in 6 of them is a cleric that will have 3 HD and 2x cause light wounds and one CLW and dagger (they will use spells first)

they will attempt to run when 50% of them are dead

New Monster: Stone Throwing Devils

Ok can't give you detailed stats on these, more like guidelines.

They look like typical devils 1-2' tall ,dead black in color, they would be very stealthy except for their incessant chattering.

They are a swarm and due to their great speed will surround and swirl around the party getting three attacks against each party member per round for minor damage each attack (poss totaling significant damage total over round). there is a 80% chance per attack that they will work major mischief on 25% of the party instead of damage(switching weapons, pulling down pants , stealing shields etc.) AC should be about chain(even thou they are super fast, they are unarmored and densely packed) Use group HP and make it sugnifigant. at about 60% damage they will all make prank attacks and then run away.

(yes they are based on the MTG card)

The Logic of The Megadungeon in 2016

As a DM, you don;t have to justify:going up levels, +1 swords, Orcs, dragons, sleep or cure light wounds, why on earth do you need to justify the megadungeon?

With each new universe you create, the presence of a megadungeon, often with some sort of "Mad Wizard Logic", is a true part of the legacy of D&D. For each new universe the existence of a SINGLE megadungeon is part of the NATURAL evolution of a magical setting.

(A note on the term megadungeon: I dislike it since the first one or two dungeons of history were mega, I wish a term  for smaller dungeons such as "lair" was used more commonly)

The Min Max Player

I don't have a prob with these guys. The way I look at it, is if he can break the rules, the rules are bad not the player.

Admittedly my exposure to these is limited but I've also seen a trend that goes along with min maxing. In my experience they are also good to excellent RPers. They might actually be the total package

In the very limited amount I play, I'm sort of this. We Min Maxers tend toward spellcasters, and I havn't played a fighter in prob 10 years.

The one time it was a prob was when I was DMing 4th and the Min Maxer made all the char's, Now that was a NIGHTMARE. Level appropriate foes died in 1/2 a round. YIKES. That is when I stopped being such a "seat of the pants DM". But I learned a lot and went up a few L as DM. An unfortunate circumstance that really really stretched me as a DM. I'm truely glad for the lessons learned

Sundered Worlds Sessions 1 and 2

Decided on posting game as it unfolds. As this is mostly for me, not planning on going into a great deal of detail

Session One
The Players (5th L Pathfinder)
Stone Elemental Focused Wiz Spec
Monk
Cleric of Hope(mixed healing/combat)


Background
Multi dimensional epic war eons old war
Good guys The Confederacy, 50 or so main planes mostly good but more than a few Nuetral and a very few evil
Bad Guys 3 facrions Cthuluy barbarians, vampires and the leaders Spellweavers (6 armed chuluy spell casters)
The Game
Players are sent to horrible wintery plane that they are told is crucial to war, deep behind friendly lines, They are on bodyguard duty to 20th L planeswalker Mage. The are in an abbey that has very very powerful prayer abilities. A ritual is being conducted by planeswalker to contact an unnamed greater god, During their stay they find out about a mysterious artifact that the monks have owned for so long they know nothing about it. The ritual is attacked by huge contingant of One spellweaver , the cthuluy barbarians and Rakshasa archers, Planeswalker is instantly killed by 3 arrows of slaying, party has running fight out of ritual rooom and goes and gets artifact. It is a Chinese type dancing dragon suit.

Session TWO
The players
Stone elemental and cleric from first game plus
Ranger( repeating crossbow spec)
Dwarf barbarian

party travels 20 miles in horrible supernatural winter to get to civilization, Party battles snow sharks and a sort of winter anti- pheonix, session ends at friendly city with party's recorses exhausted.

NOTE: I am using a lot of material from Strolen.com ( a fantastic system free DM  site, sorry can't figure out how to do links)

A Risky Move (Notes on Sundered Worlds Session 3)

Ok I haven't talked at all about my latest campaign. I'm a little reluctant to discuss my plans in an open area. I'm no doubt being FAR to paranoid that any of my players will find this blog.

So brief overview only. Players are part of an eons long multi dimensional war. They are 5th L pathfider and are sort of low level Special Forces. I've got roughly a 4-8 real year plan for this.Opening stage will be the dimension hopping war. Middle and end stage will be mixed, they will be stranded on one critical plane of the war and the end will be epic run through mega dungeon. Most of my prep time will be spent on planning dungeon, which was going to cause a huge problem for me. I'm often sidetracked by "new and shiney" ideas. If I am running begining of game and planning end , I will be totally drawn to end phase and skip my careful first 6 ish year plan. So I came up with a solution.

Since the mega dungeon as end game is a last min. tack on to whole idea, I decided to use my weakness as a strength.

Part of the dungeon , the players will be playing OSR D&D with dif character sheets, same characters just translated to dif rules , first L. The dungeon is based on  a Dreaming Dragon so the players will from time to time be located to end of game in dreams with real risks and consequences.

Next session (session 3) will be a foray into the dream future. To those of you following this blog, this smacks of the epic failure of my supers campaign. I am taking a BIG risk here, especially so early in the game.As I have often used the Dreamlands of Lovecraft , I'm on slightly safer ground,. Also I'm allowing them to decide how long they want to stay in the dream, if they want it will only be for a single session.

Wish Me Luck!

Advanced Topic One: RPing in Combat

I assume most of my audience plays D&D (some version) and Pathfinder. We have picked an incredibly BAD system for RPing in Combat. The combat system we have picked is basically very abstract and does not suit itself for this. I think we are all missing the boat on this. I'm sure some of you handle this idea well, I do not. I almost approach combat as a war game. I never encourage this by RPing the monsters(it would be a great way to lead by example). It's something I am going to try and get started. As a player I recently attended Princecon 41. I was playing a mage and did a very col thing that ended me uo with 2nd place out of 80 or so gamers. Before the con I made a "spellbook" of the actual verbal components of my spells. I found a Marvel Comics Dr Strange site that listed hundreds of the spells he cast. I adapted a bunch for the most common spells I thought I would cast. Why can I do this as a player and not as a DM?

This is def something I need to think about and add to my games.

Prob the way to go about this is rewarding the RPing w in game bonuses, I've got a lot of thinking to do on this.

New OLD School Creature (mythos, OSR)

( I working on a mega dungeon, parts of which  will be very old school, parts of it will be modern.I've also been neglecting my OSR duties<I might not be a member but I have a very warm feeling for it>)

Angler Fishoid (abomination/Mythos)
3-5 HD
AC 12( about leather) Eye Stalks AC 20 (5HP each)
immune to charms sleep and mind effecting spells
The Fishoid has 3 eye stalks each of which appear from distance as men carrying torches.It also has metal "trophies" attached to it's body to make a metallic clanking sound. Each of these eye stalks does 1d3,d4 or d6 (based on HD) energy zaps at appropriate to hit. Entering melee with the creature requires a saving throw(should be low after adjustment player should need about a 10 to save) or you stand there fascinated by the light of the stalks. This save must be made every round and the effect only lasts for that round. To Spell or missile attack you need make a save that is about a needed 14 on the d20(From a distance the effect is stronger due to being effected by more of it's eye's.

(EDIT WOW this post is<relitivly speaking> Wildly unpopular with my core audience! abotr a 40% drop in immediate hits over previous post, which was on the very high side)

Evolution of a Killer DM 1B: A Players Perspective

Bob and I have reconnected on Facebook after years of not seeing each other. He was a Very prominent player from the beginnings of the Mysantia game from it's beginning in Oct of 81. We talk on the phone a couple of times a month and a couple of times a year we get together to play. He called me yesterday and brought up a couple of things from the old days. I put forth my lack of understanding of why peeps were so compelled to play in Mysantia.

"Kids these days are always talking about their magic items, I remember being HAPPY with a ball of rice"

"We struggled and struggled and when we accomplished somethings, a good magic item or going up a level, I really felt like I accomplished something!

Gives me some perspective .

DM Rant Ten: Railroading Vrs Sandbox

Ok , I just don't understand the love for sandboxing. I never really read that much about it cause' I think the whole idea is silly. I know I might be old and set in my ways but for the last 5 years or so I've really grown as a DM. I've searched many topics on my art and really saw how I had stagnated, but SB no thanx!

For one thing, I really don'r see how you can justify player death in one.  I run super detailed rich complex worlds and the idea of letting the PCs romp to their hearts content just doesn't appeal to me. Sounds like a great way to end up dead.

Railroading is a bad term, no doubt concocted by said sandboxers. With railroading you can set clear goals and run epic universe saving stories that I have come to love so much. Selected areas can be run sandboxy, for short periods of time. I can easily see a sandboxy start to a game set in a limited geographical area , alowing the players to learn about where they will be adventuring before their epic journey begins

I will wear my conductors hat proudly for the rest of my DMing career, leading the PCs on epic endevours.

The Safety Valve On my Too Indulgent, Overly Self Absorbed Blogger in Me!

Ok This post is going to be where I try and put all my stray thoughts and over indulgences. When I feel like a 4th post or making an inane comment , instead of putting them out where they can be seen and annoy peeps, I'm going to edit them into this one.

EDIT: I AM ENTERING THIS POST FROM A WAY THAT LEAVES HITS ON THIS< UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY INTERESTED IN MY RAMBLINGS.

Stray Thought Two> FOR GOSH SAKE>>>>PROTECT YOUR WIZARD!!!!!!

Blog: Traffic is way down, as I see it from the traffic I've got about 8 ish you in USA and my German contingent  is like 2-3 ,

Whoever sent peeps from Dragonfoot Forums: thanx! I think you are the chris guy from the UK

Def lost a few peeps yesterday, but overnight is up to 10 total(excluding the 230 overnight that I REALLY wish someone would tell me about!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)

LOVE THIS SAFETY VALVE!!! I think it's totally going to let me indulge and build audience!!!!!!!!!!

Really expected a +1 on this idea by now? Have I attracted peeps that LIKE my post after post??????
at this rate I'll never know(OOH just LOVING my place of overindulgence!!!)

Since this is my place of overindulgence: I am going to go off topic here sometimes

Predicting Trump in landslide! Def in popular vote MAYBE in electoral( less likely is Hilary in electoral not popular win), 65% helped along by FBI leak(s) on email scandle(I'm SUPER SUPER political, ex Republican , still conservative, but would register libertarian if they didn't all wear tin foil hats)

10 overnight hits and 35 after my morning blogging, not bad for 2 months old, thou I'm a little surprised hits went down after nearly 300 hit yesterday. Oh well, I guess I'm an acquired taste!

Cool getting hits in afternoon, up to about 140 for day 20ish hits per post nice! only sad part is other than the German contingent international is ZERO for day

Finished yesterday w/138 hits Zero overnight. German contingant is strong still, Zero from other countries :(
Stray hit from France today 34 total immediate hits, OSR post def not as popular so far.

13 immediate hits on todays Killer DM post very high for so quik! Nice!

I AM ENTERING THIS POST FROM A BOOKMARK< UNLESS YOU ARE REALLY INTERESTED IN MY WILD RAMBLINGS < MOST  (90%) of the hits are mine

Pet Peeve's Two

I'm only semi involved in character creation, usually the extent of my intervention is selecting "volunteers" to play the Cleric and the Wizard. The cleric is necessary because I love a combat heavy session (I've mentioned previously: It is my best trait as DM). I find Wiz characters near indispensable for the kind of game I run (for some reason I can't fathom, I'm not thief friendly, got nothing against them).But the area I can be most intrusive in is: Character Names!

The players pick in this is very important to me. Silly names are right out! Usually overly complex, long or hard to pronounce will drive me into a frenzy.

I've really softened on this over the years, My new player a couple of days ago broke just about all my rules except silly. I did what I did now and gave him a short nickname and enforced it. He is Brew now( it was part of his incomprehensible name). Only thing I go active on these days is silly.

Really not sure why this is so important to me. It's not like I've had a ton of problems with this over the years.

I guess everybody has their quirks and this is a big one of mine.

Anatomy of a Failed Campaign

So after running Mysantia for so long ,I needed a break from fantasy . I started an epic supers game using Villains and Vigilantes. Everything you could have done wrong I did.

The game was supposed to be about dimensional shifting aliens who had super super tech. For years the players were never given any solid clues about their foe. I dragged the game on and on, degenerating into a series of fight after fight. Attendance was bad and nobody cared about the plot. I never did anything with the hero's that didn;t involve combat.

Worst of all I made all the characters myself, without any player input. As th aliens shifted the dimentions around , the players often changed characters.

How could I not have seen how bad this all was?

To this day my game still suffers because of this atrocity.

I suppose the lesson I learned was being an imperial DM is only good oif  the players buy into the premise.

I look back in wonder at what I had done.

Stray Thought One

MONSTERS SHOULD TRY AND RUN AWAY,WAY MORE THAN YOU ARE DOING IT NOW! (me too)

New Spell: Pushed Fortune

(Ok the spells are prob the LEAST popular of my posts so I will only do them every couple of days)

L1 Time and Divination
instant interrupt
Add or subtract one to any d20 roll after die is rolled
60 foot range
No save but spell resistance works

Edit this spell may not alter a critical hit or miss

NOTE:I'm going to do some tweaking on spells ignore comments if you don't want to see tweak

A Very Cool Idea For Modern games

( I got some real good writing done on my project and I got so many BONUS hits yesterday, I'm rewarding myself with some blogging!)

I was a total FAILURE as a supers DM(I will go into more detail about that in the future) but I came up with a very cool game idea that I had NEVER heard of anyone doing.

The backdrop was this: The group was telegraphed by the bad guys(Hydra) that they were going to burn down the Wayne Charity Hospital in the worst part of town and kill everyone in it.(A huge gang war was going on) The Gotham police had been terrorized into not showing up. The media was invited. A few brave cops showed up and some of the security staff and dr's were also there to help. In the middle of the fight
the players IRL cell phones started to go off. I had arranged with several people to make in character phone calls from 7pm to 8 PM and played them for laughs. A drunk girl friend called and wanted to go dancing., a telemarketer or three called, One characters dad called and complained that he was not coming to dinner with his parents enuf and the char was spending too much money on his super gadgets. Cousin Shaniqua called and needed a date to a wedding. It was a RIOT! Can't recommend this idea enuf!!!!!

Did Somebody post a review somewhere?

The night before I got 5 hits , last night I got over 200? Where did everyone come from? Did I get a review or something I don't know about? I googled my blog but nothing came up. ??????????

Going to take Thursday off?

I've really gotten addicted to this blog, it's taking up too much of my time. I've got some neglected project I need to work on (that's for you axle, if your out there) I need to curb my OCD on this. I really need to stop obsessively checking on blogs progress. So prob going to be AFK on this for a day or two. Thanx to my budding audience and Stay Tuned! I'm enjoying this WAY TO MUCH to stop!

BTW if anybodies got any requests I'll deff get to it!

(Fourth post! BAD blogger!)

The Cheating DM: Player Death

Ok so we've established my cheating ways. How do I justify player death? The short answer is mostly I can't. I haven't killed a PC in the longest time. There actually have been complaints. Came very close this week thou, critical hit on Stone Mage put him 1 hp from death. It's something I've grown so soft on. I almost always reserve PC death to poor playing and very special boss encounters (That I have completely stated out) The 21 yr old me would be MYSTIFIED by the games I run today. I am planning on bringing back the "soirit a littel thou. We'll all see if I pull the trigger on this.

Evolution of a Killer DM 1 :The Brutal Begining

In October of 1981 I started the Mysantia game that would ultimately run for 31 yrs as a weekly game.
I was a Killer DM, death was frequent. Starting all chars at First and making them roll hp, several were forced to play w/ 1 HP. WE were playing at a community collage and we played 6-8 times a week.
The players were fanatical. The city of Mysantia was heavily influenced by the Thieves World books.Not many TPKs(none that I can think of) but many sessions would end in 2-4 deaths.Treasure was near non existant, they often adventured for food. Looking back I am amazed that the players put up with the cut throat street level adventures I ran. I caused several peeps to fail out of college because we played around my class schedule, not anybody else's.  It's one of the things that proves to me I am a compelling DM else they never would have put up with it.

Shortest lived PC in Mysantia

Ok so my younger nephew rolled up a character late, we were just about to start a big fight w/ multiple dragons. I told him to put himself anywhere on the map. He placed himself directly behind the barbarian who was attacking the biggest dragon.Dragon wins initiative to start fight, breathes and kills the new first level fighter. PC lived exactly 1/2 of one round. Looking back on the incident, I barely remember it, so I don't know if I was being an ass or not. Probably. That was back in my "killer DM " days. More on that later

My WEIRDEST TPK

Two man 1st L party going into my dungeon, Fighter and MU I believe. Almost immediately they are met by 4 hp, short sword armed skeleton. Very, Very, Very long fight ends in TPK. We quit for the night. Also the shortest session I ever ran about 30 min.

The Cheating DM: Dice rolls

Ok we've already established I play fast and loose with my monsters, so what about the dice?

I view the dice as a guideline, not set in stone. I don't even often give my monsters a set to hit number. It's almost like I do "high/low", but not completely. I take into account AC, a bit.I've had a very few canny players realize this and always go with Con instead of Dex. They tried to share the wisdom but luckily for me, they were unable to impart this wisdom. I extend this to the players to some degree. Last night I played and the cleric was rolling terrible on his channels. He rolled particularly low on his last one(6 on three D6). So with my eternal motto of "What does it cost me?" I let him reroll(he got an 8 the second time). I will often do this with a player who has been consistently rolling low damage, again "what does it cost me?" The players will even say "What does it cost you?" in supplication, usually I'll give in.

Monster saving throws are tricky with this, I am very inclined for monsters to "fail" rolls that involve damage.
Saves that lead to minor penalties to hit and damage are also likely to fail.

Don't let the dice get between you and a good game.

That's all for today got a lousy nights sleep and there is housework to do!

My All Time Fav Run

ok it was 1995? I was at a con and my 15 ish nephew and I went to visit an old froend of mine who was about to start a run. He was running"Cthulhu by Candlelight" and the game was for 4 players. When I got to the room , the con had overbooked him by SIXTY players! One thing lead to another and I told the frazzled con representative, that I would run, if he gave me prize support. He quickly agreed and asked how many players, in a sudden decision I said "TWENTY!"

On the way with my 20 players and my nephew agreeing to co DM we plotted a game about an aircraft over the mid atlantic with a horrible artifact in the cargo bay. We came up with 20 roes and off we went

The game was amazing , the players were grateful I was willing to tun and got so into it that as I slowly killed them off , every single player who dies laid on the ground playing dead( it turned into a larp). It was amazing RPing on the part of 21 strangers. 21 you say?. A guy had come off the street (a non gamer) and weaseled his way in. The winner was our stewardess who had an unshakable lack of fear as an ability. Also of note were the white south african and black american mercenaries who were unshakable buddies. ( The black American was played by our interloper)

At 21 players it is by far the largest group I had ever run. It was one of those times when it all just came together

My Most Controversial TPK

The year was 1987 and the Mysantia game was in it's 6th year. The players were 5th Level(very high L for me around this time). The players were full of themselves because they were at the "lofty" level and loaded with magic items. I decided to knock them down a peg with a super organized, low level major threat: The Bloodbath Orcs.

The orcs all had 8 hp and were lead by a death knight , who was the equivalent of one of the 8 or so pcs. The orcs had crossbow orcs each  with 2 females to reload. The warrior types slit the throats of unconscious PCs.

The PCs saw they were "only" fighting orcs, and underestimated them from the beginning, that is until the first throat got slit, then they panicked and proceeded to let the orcs decimate them .

The PC Mage was prob most responsible for the TPK, he was sloppy but most of all he had 2 scrolls., each of which was capable of ending the encounter in the parties favor but he refused to use them and his fireball was horribly used.

To this day the players remember this and say it was deliberate on my part, I admit it was a tough encounter. Ijust smile and remember the truth.
(Damn, Ive used my 3 posts for the day!)

The Cheating DM: Monster Hp and Awarding Kills

Ok in all but the most complex of battles , I almost never give HP to monsters. I just sort of wing it. I've got three basic categories, "Orcs, Ogres, Boss"

"Orcs" are your basic cannon fodder. 1-2 hits are a kill unless the players roll really bad, don't pay much attention to how much they do for the most part.

"Ogres" are your Gnoll Chieftain's, your bugbears your minor boss etc. These usually I let die after 35-50 Hp mostly 3-6 hits or so. I am fairly careful to regulate kills on these types.

"Bosses" have a huge range till they die, usually I'll wait till the party has used about 75-90% of their resources before it drops. Sometimes if the players have a great plan I'll let it die like a chump.

Now there is one rule I use with this, if I am winging the encounter (like usual) I don't kill pcs. Never. PC death I reserve for Major encounters that are carefully planned out and can with bad play lead to a TPK. This should be reserved for the rarest occasion, when the stakes are very high.

This being said my #1 ability I possess are my compelling combats, it's s much easier to do when the fight ends pretty much exactly when I want it to I am the KING of railroading DMs but remember I was able to sustain a 31 year long campaign this way. This way is prob for very advanced DMs but it is quite liberating.

Carefully award kills and spread the wealth!

Some Thoughts on Familiers

I have a huge collection of minis. One of my sub collections is familiers. I have around 60. the Warhammer game used to have about 20 , which was the start of the collection in 1986.

So I've got all these cool little guys: what to do with them? I put a demi-plane of familiers in my game.
Even non-Wiz going there can get a familier. Surprisingly it was never a popular destination, but this is where my campaigns beasties come from.

I give them to lichs, dragons, whatever and often make them very tuff for a warm up fight for a boss fight.

Using the Pathfinder rules these days the lore of the bonded item is too great and pcs never take them

In my homebrew rules , I made them pretty powerful, but also allowed bonded item instead, again the pcs never take them. My rules even allow them to "respawn" after death like 4 times a day. Nope bonded item rules supreme(for those of you that dont know: the bonded item allows the wiz to once a day cast any spell they know spontaneously)

Some ideas on familier types (as most things on this blog, geared for low level play.

Wiz type casts spells at 1/2 L of owner

fighter tyoe 1/2 casters HP and fights as fighter caster L

messenger/ scout type Flies and is highly intelligent capable of independannt thought speech and can be any distance from caster

thief type 1/2 wiz L

cleric type can use CLW once a day

Another use I have for the minis is as "true goblyns". Goblyns more akin to western myth, fey type.

Ok Sounds like great advice........

After this post I will limit myself to  about 3 posts a day! I never thought : what a pain it would be constantly getting alerts that I had posted again! Sorry about that! Promise!

100th Post! State of the Blog

Ok as my 100th post, I still am wondering who is out there? Am I getting single hits from hundreds of peeps. Are the same ten peeps my audience. I have no idea. I thought the EN world ad would lead to more traffic but I have gotten EXACTLY 10 hits on each of today's posts, more or less where I've been for the last week or so. Three things surprise me.
1) Really thought I would get some HATE comments from the over powered Low level spells
2) The DM Rants seem to be the most popular posts
3) The whole Germany is number 2 thing
I really am enjoying myself with this and hope somebody out there is too. Would a comment kill you?

A look at Memorization and a new spell type.

As a huge fan of the spell memorization type of magic I did a lot of thinking on it. One of my first concepts was the idea of "pits"

The idea is that spell slots are divided into compartments that are filled when you memorize spells,
a cantrip takes up 1 pit , a first L spell takes up 4 a second L spell takes up 6 a third L spell takes up 8 and so on by two. This also explains what can be substituted for what.This a first L spell can be turned into 4 cantrips and a third L spell can be turned into 2 first.

This also led me to create 1/2 L spells or as I like to call them petty spells, they fill in two pits, but they are not on the spells allowed list. In the lore of my world they are not popular and there are not that many of them. The only one that caught on with my players is Shout, it allows you to yell super loud for L rounds.

Another aspect of spell memorization that is mostly of use in RPing situations is I attached emotions to the spell schools that you must place your mind into in order to memorize spells of that school. All mage carry around a book that is filled with very short stories that enable you to create the emotional state to memorize.
For example , you would read a story about your birthday party when you were young, it would lead you to wonder what was in the brightly covered box in front of you. This would evoke the curiosity necessary to memorize a divination spell. I know, I know its both kinda cool and mostly useless.

A fresh look at an old item: Ioun Stones(and a mini review)

A quik history lesson first. Ioun Stone come from Jack Vance's Dying Earth series. The series is mostly about super high L mages and their adventures. The stones are never defined but mages had them in the hundreds, I always assumed they were a power source. (This is also where the D&D memorization of spells come from). Some of it is a little hard to read but I can't recommend the stories enuf. There is a tribute book by various authors called Songs of the Dying Earth that is also quite good. Anyway, back to gaming.

When I re read the Vance stuff about 10 yrs ago, I thought: Wouldn't it be cool to have the players fight liches with like 20-59 stones (the idea of Them circling the mage tickles me.) The only way to do this is to make a bunch of low powered stones so the treasure doesn't get out of hand when they kill the beasty.Thus was born the frequently given out , very minor , Ioun stone. some examples
+1 to any roll once a day(by far the most common one I gave out, some of them can be cumulative ,some can only be used alone)
+1 to one spells DC once a day(-1 to saves OSR)
One use individual cantrips
More specific +1s, to hit ,damage ,saves
recharge 1st L spell slot once a day
extra spell slots
+1 ac or saves for one encounter
Just love the idea of peeps walking around in cities with a few of these floating around their heads

Weird Blog Traffic Two

For some reason, I'm a hit in Germany, I've got more hits from Germany than all the rest of the other countries combined(excluding US) I like to think I'm entertaining ex-pat US soldiers (not that I don't want my NATO brothers reading). Not anything like I expected when I started this.

New Spell: Exhilaration

L2  Transmutation
This spell allows the subject to go over max hp w/ healing spells. for L rounds. If the subject is 5 or more Hp over max, they get +1 hit,damage AC and move for as long as these excess hp last(up to L rounds total)
REMEMBER these spells are designed for low level play, this should NOT be used in games that go over 7th L

DM Rant Nine: Time for School!!!!

Most DMs think they are great at what they do. They lovingly craft their worlds and try to be entertaining.But one thing every dm needs to do is never stop learning their craft. The internet is full of dm advice from very creative peeps. Never stop looking for new ways to do even the most mundane of dming tasks. Reach as a dm. Try new types of monsters and color ideas. Don't become so full of yourself that you think you know it all, you don't. Make your players stretch too. And it's never too late to keep adding to your bag of tricks.

New Monster Giant Swamp Sloth

As big as a hippo, as fast as a pegasus , as ferocious as a wolverine , these apex predators are a highly dangerous combatant. There weak spot is their very low AC. They have nearly been hunted to extinction as the prime ribs of these can be labeled +2 meat, very very tasty. The meat is highly prized and can fetch a tidy sum from upper class eateries.

New Creature: Boshtok

These semi flightless, chicken sized bats are all the rage in cock fighting rings. They will angrily attack each other (the males) and the fans of the fight. Their bite is mildly poisonous and results in a poison ivy like rash.A nice business can be made of trapping them in the wild for the fight circuit. They can't be raised in captivity.

Weird blog traffic!

I just got 18 hits from Poland! Making it the number 3 country for hits.More than UK and Canada(Germany is #2 with a LOT of hits) Very interesting. Are you guys a gaming group? I'm very surprised!

New Spell: Surge of Fortune

L3 Divination, Time
cast as immediate interrupt, this spell forces a re roll of any D20 within 60 feet, results of roll are substituted for first roll, you may not cast this spell in the same round as another time spell is operating for you. heavy use of this spell will lead to increasingly random bad luck on the part of the caster. No save but spell resistance must be checked

New Spell: Saved Fortune

L1 Divination
Casting time one Min.
subject rolls 1 die twice, taking best roll(normally a d20) That roll can be used in the next six hours substituting it for any roll of same dice type, if you are using it to make a save for example , you must choose to use saved number BEFORE you roll that save
This is both arcane and clerical

New Irem: Guardian Teddy Bear

This 3 foot tall pleasant looking Teddy is highly magical. It talks and has a overly cheerful disposition.it is capable of combat (around the combat stats of a goblin) At lunch time it will make tea and a large amount of small tasty pastries. At bed time it will tell bedtime stories and stand watch faithfully during the night.
4/ a day it can cure scratches and ouchies (d4+1). It's main drawback is that it is addictive. It's owner will eventually always tuck it under their arm and carry it every where as it tells stories and entertains it's owner.
Sort of a very pleasant straw golem.

Flora: Magic Sugar Apples

These small neon red apples are randomly found growing on nearly any type of tree in bunches of 2d3, they are a byproduct of fey activity. Eating one is a full round action. after, you may take an extra action for the next 2d4 rounds(this includes casting multiple spells in a round. If ANY other form of haste type spells or eating a second apple while the effects are still up: character gets 3 actions a round for d4 rounds then must save vrs death or die(DC 17 fort) if save is made ,you fall down helpless for d4 hours(perm -1 con). If planted will very quikly grow an ordinary apple tree in any clime. Apples stay good for two months.

Flora: Magic WildFlowers

Found in wild magic places and areas where chaos is , these red and blue flowers carry a taint of the chaos they were born in.

When fresh plucked and held in your off hand(no shield)If they are put down or dropped they lose all their magic, they live for about a week then their magic fades. At any time during that week they can be planted and will sprout a new plant or two in about a month. it has random effects(roll on following table before every encounter<Ok I'm pretty lazy and only roll once a day>)

D8
1) -1 to ac
2) -1 to hit
3) no effect
4) +1 to movement
5) +1 to hit
6) +1 to AC and to hit
7) +1 to hit and damage
8) +1 to hit,AC and Move, +2 to damage

DM Rant Eight a note about my all time FAV player

In my very heavy DMing since 1977, one player stands out in my mind: Bill
Bill played with me from 1984 till about 2001 and he never learned the rules. He never knew what dice to roll. He always forgot his adds and minus' in combat(did I mention, in RL he was an accountant!). Luckily, he mostly played fighters and I didn't have the nightmare of him running a spellcaster. Why was he my fav of all time? Roleplaying.

He never let the rules interfer w his RPing, He was consistantly in character and RPed his ass off. We played a year long solo game of Star Trek from security cadet to Klingon admiral (He was Star Fleet in classic trek era, GURPS before there were rules) He played an albino female fighter at the end and as the dice always hated him , he had very low HP. Real life drew him away from gaming (he became a real life hero, volunteer fireman) I always hope the winds of chaos will bring him back some day.

New Spell Magnetic Ray

L1
Stone Elemental and evocation
make a ranged touch(or attack at +4 if you are using OSR stuff) on subject, subject gets -2 to hit and saves as the iron in their blood is slightly magnetized for L+2 rounds. If subject is wearing metal armor , they also suffer -1 to AC.

New Spell: Magnetic Defelection

L1
Stone Elemental and conjuration
Cast as an immediate action creating a magnetic wave that gives your opponent -3 to their to hit roll, -5 if it is a steel or iron weapon.
Somatic only
You cannot cast this if you have a steel or iron object in your casting hand.

DM Rant Seven: My Pet PEEVES at The Table!!!!!!!

Both are dice related.

1) STOP ROLLING THE DICE IN YOUR HAND!!!!!!!!
I can't stand it when players shake and shake their dice in their hand!
JUST ROLL THE DAMN DICE!!!!!!!!
(If they are describing what they are doing in an RP way, that's FINE, but to shake and shake saying"C'mon Daddy needs a 20!" I just want to strangle them)

2) WORST OF ALL: ROLL THE DICE ON THE DAMN TABLE!!!!!!!!!!!
Really, how hard is this? You are doing something a 4 year old can do right!
It got so bad at one point, I made a house rule that dice off the table= lowest poss roll!
DON"T ROLL THE DICE TOWARD YOURSELF!!!!! This is ASKING to throw them off the table!

New Specific Summons: Call Minor Djinn Laborers

L1
conjuration
casting time 10 min.
duration 1 hour
Summons 1 Djinn laborer per your ECL, laborer has 14 St and are equipped w appropriate tools to the task at hand, will flee from combat automatically
Material component, 1 25 GP gem or 50 gp in coins per laborer summoned, consumed

New Specific Summons: Summon Cherub

L2
Conjuration, good descriptor
Summons angelic baby w/ a bow(damage D4), slow flyer St 7
has one random cleric spell and one random mage spell(L1)
You must be working directly in a good deities' will to memorize this spell
Material /Focus: Holy symbol of patron god and used baby diaper(diaper is consumed)
Full round action to cast
(IF you are REALLY on the good side of god/patron , spells will be less random and more useful)

New Cantrip: Time Hiccup

L0
Time and transmutation
This cantrip is consumed in casting
as a free action , you may take an extra 5" step

Flora: Mage Weed

Found at the site of large amounts of spell use ,long ago. This weed is about 2' tall with uneven limbs and ugly blue flowers. When chewed or smoked it provides +2 ECL on next mage spell cast. It is highly addictive, on the order of caffeine. Long term use leads to temporary and ultimately permanent wisdom loss.
It is illegal in most of civilized lands.

Flora: Sighing Grass

This average looking knee high grass makes a gentle sigh when blown by wind or stepped on. It is the remnants of a lost civilization. While somewhat disturbing it is harmless. In very large quantities, boiled down, it is a very useful component in sonic, thunder and speak w/ dead spells and potion.

Cool Encounter #4 AH AH E E TOOKY TOOKY

Ok dead of night in heavily foliage area. Your party is dead tired from a long day of travel in the wilderness. Suddenly the stillness is broken by a horrendous parrot cry: AH AH E E TOOKY TOOKY.
The party scrambles into the dark night as the elusive Tooky bird screams and screams. after an exhaustive night fight, the bird is blown up. Mated pair. Can anybody get any sleep!!

Tell me what to post?!?!

That is all

This blog is POISON!!!!

LOL, I am spending WAY too much time on this! Working on new and old spells and obsessively looking at my ever so slightly growing audience. I'm gonna try and cut back my daily posts or call it quitting time WAY earlier in the day. Still be nice if some of you sons of ....... commented once or twice. I think there is like D8 +7 of you out there so far, kinda hard to tell. In short, I'm having WAY too much fun!

New Spell: Cantrip Volley

L1
transmutation
standard action
 For L +2 rounds you may cast any cantrip that is a standard action as a free action, only one cantrip per round may be cast this way (cantrips like Detect Magic will be of only very minor use)

New Cantrip: Soften

L0
Metamagic
this cantrip is consumed when cast
This cantrip is cast with another spell making it a full round action, damage done is converted to subdual damage. save/DC is -1/+1

New Spell Time Gait

L2 Time and Transmutation
cast as a free action, allows the caster an extra move action that must be an actual move (not a concentration or other action) May not be combined w/ Fly, spider climb etc. casting two time spells in same round is always a BAD idea.....

DM Rant Six A comment on Rule #1 and DM NPCs

I find it hard to believe that anyone reading this doesn't know this but: The DM is always right or more correctly: The DM has power over the rules. There is a 1B to this. The DM MUST be consistent in this and tread lightly.

It is important when using this rule to have a consistent pattern to it. If you are going for a more realistic approach to gaming  (something I disagree with), you should enforce this across the board. If fact you are better off with coherent house rules than constant DM fiat. If you are going to take a loose approach to the rules, make sure the players get this benefit too.

A note on monsters and NPCs.: You never need to justify powers and abilities of these UNLESS you are operating a DM NPC (which must be used with care anyway). I advise only experienced DMs go the DM NPC route, and you are always better off letting the PCs have limited control over their NPC companions to a greater degree to avoid DM bias. If you want a DM NPC you should prob find a game and play in it instead. I have used DM NPCs in the past and will no doubt use them again but keep their power in line w/ the PCs(maybe a L or 2 lower)

Individual monster types can always break the rules, but again be consistent. It should be reserved for boss monsters and not Orcs. Making a Liche have triple the number of HP is fine, be challenging not killer.

New Spell: Time Step

L2 Time and divination
Once you memorize this spells it needs not be cast, it is just "on" for as long as you choose to keep it in memory. You can always take an extra 5' step, this can be done at any time during your action for the round and is only not possible if you are not standing on your feet. It may be used if you are stunned, slowed etc.
If you take this step in a round when you cast another time spell you run the risk of nasty time creepies bothering you..........(dm discretion)

Repeat Post: A note on New Spells you find here

Just a notice for new viewers, the mage spells here are for 7th L casters and below. The spells are NOT balanced for higher L casters(My new focus is balancing them for 4-5 L)

New Creature: Dragon Mouthed Duck

Other than the fact that it is TERRIFYING to see in flight(looks exactly like a dragon in flight), it is a normal duck

New Item:Everful Peanut

Another idea I am stealing from an unremembered source, just always thought this was cool.
looks like a peanut, refills instantly after breaking open,provides 1/2 day ration

New Spells: Fireball Reskinned

Who doesn't love fireball let's look some at some variants (all are exact specs as FB unless otherwise noted)

Rain of Spiders-poison, fort save
Violent Hallucination-psychic, will save
Stone Eruption-stones rise from ground, ignores spell resistance
Thunderball-thunder,sonic, fort save creatures with keen or bad hearing will have save modified by -2 or +2 respectively

(remember all my spells are for casters topping out at about 7th so these would all prob be 4th L spells in higher L game, VH would prob be 5th)

New spell

Summon indestructible goblin

L2 Conjuration

The rare goblin is born that is COMPLETELY indestructible, when encountered must be grappled and tied up.specific summons like this must only be used as stated. Otherwise it is a totally normal goblin.

Cool Encounter #3

On a plane where the PCs are transmuted to 60' tall(naked, Hut roofes make OK shields), They encounter a Xaos elemental (Looks like a black tornado with bodies, gravestones and debris sucked up into it, very low AC, moderate HP) It can only be hurt by hitting it three times in a row with the third attack from same source (right fist, tree trunk), third try does damage

Cool Encounter #2

in a mountain ravine, a precarious rope bridge is the only escape from a horde of skeletons. The long bridge begins to fall apart as more skeletons attack from the far side. the rope breaks and a vertical fight ensues.

Cool Encounter #1

Ok small house with lots of furniture, spinning in the air in a tornado as you fight ninja were rats. The furniture slams into every one and sends vision ruining splinters everywhere even as the ninjas spread pepper to hamper vision further. All are thrown around room constantly
Hint- use group HP for ninjas or very easily distinguished minis

Fantastic Terrain (Ok it's one more thing 4th got right BUT THAT"S IT!)

Fantastic Terrain is where you add an element to your fights out of the ordinary (Cool fight locations is another post) examples (more can be found in 4th ed DMGs<they really should have devoted more space to this>)

area is filled with lily pads or mushrooms that you can bounce on

individual squares on the map intensify and make easier crits or crit misses.

tiny volcanoes

Steam vents

I had some very lazy and powerful spellweavers(an under love monster) have a bunch of very short range teleports and "moving sidewalks" on top of their ritual pyramid

patches of demonic spirits that hinder non-evil and aid evil

casting circles that aid arcane casting

unholy ground that hinders cleric(or the reverse)

Luddite Post #2 Did I just enable comments?

Ok I just found a box that seemed to indicate I had comments disabled. Ah well.....I think I fixed it.Either that or DUNH DUNH DUNH...... I'm not getting much repeat biz. Page views seem up. Wish I wasn't such a STRANGER to tech.

The GREAT idea hidden in the HORROR that was DnD 4th

Ok, I gave 4th ed a good try. I ran the group up to 27th level. I hated almost every min of it. I have no idea why I stayed with it for so long. But it had one truly great idea that OSR can steal: At will attacks.

The idea is that you give everyone several dif basic attacks that they can switch between, fighter are the ones most in need of this. Some examples from my OSR/3.5/4th mash up:

Every time you miss w/ a melee attack you get +1 to hit (max +3)
every time you hit you get +1 to damage( max +3)
+2 to hit but you do ONLY basic weapon damage
Every time you hit you get 2 temp HP
1/2 damage but opponent is -2 to hit

you can only do one of them at a time and it should scale w/ L, Fighters should get about 4 and everyone ese should get 2(they should be appropriate to char cass) You do only basic attacks on charge and AoO

A different kind of action encounter

Ok I really wish I could give credit to the guy that came up with this idea. It was on EN World. I lost my account and "bookmarks" on the site when my email got hacked. I know the thread wasn't very popular and only the OP and I were really interested in the idea.

The idea is that you have action based encounters that are defeated by skill checks NOT hack and spell. I've used these with a great deal of success but they are very hard to come up with. some examples.

A library where the books come alive like a swarm and attack. The players use spellcraft to sever the connection to their mystical energies and athletics to wear the books out.

Magnetic boulders where they are defeated in a similar way

a huge number of sage/cultists that are defeated by religion and the above(I set this in a giant cave complex where the religion checks resulted in suicide)

How much you make your skill checks by = the "hp" damage to the encounter

OSR can do this by substituting ability checks

A pair of great DM resources on the Smithsonian channel

First is the mystical UK ep of "Skyview" it takes you on an aerial tour of a LOT of great ideas for a fantasy setting, since the sites they show you are described with their mythology, not historical fact. Can't recommend this enuf.

Second is their Merlin special. It explores the historical record of the Merlin myth. Great Stuff

What little TV I watch

I watch exactly TWO TV shows. I let my wife(who I adore) watch whatever she wants while I put on my sleep apnea mask and tickle her back. Even when I "watch" my shows, I am still only listening.

My fav is Big Bang Theory. I've seen every ep many,many times. It's hysterical and heart warming, true escape from the cares of my life.

A close second is Ancient Aliens, I see it as good sci fi, with a hint of some cool historical anomalies. Some eps make me laugh out loud. The hosts are kooky and cool. My DVR is over run by eps I save and savour. I strongly suggest you watch it with a chuckle.
(BTW My take on the Ancient Alien Hypothesis is that the weird historical crap they point out on the show are left over from a couple of very old, possibly very highly advanced ,civilizations we have no historical record of.)

New Spell type: Superior Spells

Superior spells are existing ones that you add a minor bonus to. Most often I have done this with clerical spells. For example I have given out Superior Bless in 2 versions, one that gives +1 to damage too and another that gives plus one to all saves. Superior Clerical spells that you have memorized can never be used as spontaneously cast cures. A Mage example is Superior Magic Weapon, it stacks w/ any other enhancement(first L version only). Give these out as "treasure" only, never let PCs learn them from other NPCs for money(unless that's HOW you want to give it out). Superior spells always have a casting time of one full round and cannot be further modified.

DM Rant Five:Rule Number 3

Nobody watches, everybody at the table plays, no exceptions! I broke this rule EXACTLY one time since 1977 and sure enuf it was a problem. I let a guy sit in to see what the game was like, he started a loud side conversation and I went off on him. I lost a player and reminded myself how important it was. I even made the 60 year old mother of a 17 year old girl play when she wanted to check us out. She did pretty good for a civilian. Be firm with this one!

A quik Overview of my Fantasy Worlds-Mysantia

Thought I'd do a quik overview of the three main "universes" this blog will involve

Mysantia-this is the game where I ran the 31 year long game till I got sick of it(Interestly the players didn't want it to end and my son is running his version of it) Several populated moons surrounded Mundania where a horrible necromantic cloud had destroyed 90% of the world , leaving an area about the size and shape of India uneffected. very low level play(3 and under 85% of the time) played in 2-4 year real life cycles. It was the end of time and the Lovecraftian gods were constantly near waking up. The game name comes from the city of Mysantia were most of the first 15 years or so real time were set. Located on the swamp moon of Dire and serviced by gates and portals to everywhere, this canalled city was in the middle of a lake and ruled by an evil hedonistic queen.

The game started in 1981 at a community college where I caused 4 or 5 people to fail out because we played all the time and I was the only one that went to class.