Tag Archives: commentary

The Year of D&D

Posted on by

dnd-logoI have been welcomed back to the Iron Tavern! I am as surprised as you so I thought I would start of with a little diatribe of my prediction for this year. Of course that prediction is all about the up and coming edition of everybody’s best known game, Dungeons and Dragons.

If you are a regular reader of my posts (may Besmara bless you) you will realize the love-hate relationship I developed with the D&D Next material from last year. I liked it a lot because it is no longer a board (bored) game and is swinging back to its roots with some interesting mechanical choices and a somewhat retro feel. You will also recall I could not organize a game of it. Sure, after I declared it dead to me people came out of the woodwork to give me a game but I stayed true. It should not have been that hard to have played a game.

I am now looking at some of the release schedule for the coming year and I have to say it is hard to go past the release of this new edition for excitement and anticipation. I personally have made the decision to not invest in the game as I believe this year will be the year of Shadowrun for me. But the players of my regular Pathfinder game are keen to give this new D&D system a go.

I have to say the release schedule for Pathfinder is looking pretty bleak in the way of major game releases. There are of course the regularly scheduled releases of Adventure Paths and modules, Golarian updates, players companion material but nothing really to enhance the core system in a major way. There is the Advanced Class Guide currently being playtested but will be up for an August release, so some time before I need to spend money. I have to say that the idea of a Class Guide (I have not downloaded the playtest so I may be very ignorant here) leaves me a little cold. There are a LOT of customization options available for most classes already so it makes me nervous to consider what may be in this book.

Release of Dungeons and Dragons will more than likely occur sometime in June, July, or August. I am not sure how the release will be structured. Will they follow the tradition of having a players handbook, a dungeon master guide and a monster manual? Or will they finally change up this tired and expensive process. The site that announces the “Summer” (won’t be summer here) release has no further details and points to dungeonsanddragons.com which is a parked site with no detail on it yet. What would be nice is a boxed set. Just saying 🙂

Of course there are some other fantastic game developments coming up. Pathfinder Online is set to move into testing stages after the next quarter (I have early access – woot!) and there are a bunch of other exciting projects coming to fruition in 2014. FATE turns officially one this year and it seems to still be going strong with a stream of really useful material now out for it. Earthdawn Kickstarter is in its last days and is promising to be a great new start to a troubled title that has floundered for a little too long (Earthdawn is my favorite fantasy game ever). You can still back it though there are only two days to go. The details are here.

2014 is shaping up as the year of the Dungeons and Dragons but what are you looking forward to most? Hit us up in the comments section and let me know what I should be getting excited about! Keep rolling everyone.

Mark Knights is  40 year old guy living in a small rural town called Elliott in Tasmania, Australia.  I have been role playing since I was 11 years old playing the original versions of Dungeons and Dragons, MERP, Elric, Dragon Warriors and the like amongst other genre games.  I played D&D 2nd Edition through the 90′s but I ran Earthdawn for my fantasy setting and loved it as a GM.  When 3rd Edition came out for D&D I tried it but found it too heavy on rules.  I ignored the 3.5 edition of DnD in favour of Earthdawn (big mistake) as I thought it was just a money spinner.  When 4th Edition DnD came on my players and I gave it a red hot go but hated what it had dumbed the game down to be.  On a trip to Melbourne to buy some 4E stuff from a hobby store an old mate of mine pointed me at Pathfinder and in a Fantasy setting I have never looked back.

The Players Speak: Tsanth

Posted on by

DCC RPG Rulebook Cover w-HeadphonesToday’s post is part of an in-between DCC RPG Actual Play session postings to provide a little more insight into the cast of characters and players that make up the campaign.

Dustin plays the character Tsanth. Dustin has been with the group from the start of the campaign, though Tsanth made his appearance a few sessions in. This week Dustin provides fans of the podcast with some insight behind Tsanth.

Tsanth
Human Male Cleric of Mani

Tsanth came to the initially-named Grand Charter Company of Mustertown during its transition into Satan’s Glee Club, and joined the group shortly after their adventures in Slither’s End. Incidentally, Tsanth began working miracles in Dark Cthulhu’s name, manifested as turning demons away, healing the party, and throwing darkness at weird birds that attacked us. It was a grand time.

As the group became more chaotic, Tsanth found Cthulhu answering less and less of his calls for aid. Before long, even healing the group and ordinary spells became difficult. This became a greater problem when the group faced off against death. Needing the artifact-sword the Argent Falx, the group raided the Temple of Mani and stole the sword. Later, after the group retrieved Gonlex and Meffridus from Death, they adventured in the Sunken City to an abandoned Temple of The Harrower in order to “save” the Argent Falx and turn it into the righteous instrument of badassery it should be.

It was there that the group first met Jargon, a larcenous halfling. Tsanth suffered the disapproval of Cthulhu within the temple when he donned a temple robe as a disguise. By the time the group reached the idol of the temple and made their request to solidify the Argent Falx blade, Tsanth was nearly irate. Cthulhu was answering less and less. As an attempt to appease his uncaring, dead and dreaming god, Tsanth ripped a large emerald from the idol of The Harrower.

The theft of the emerald triggered the collapse of the temple. Most of the group escaped and returned to the Great City, where the group was attacked by mercenaries hired by the Temple of Mani. Satan’s Glee Club quickly dispatched the mercs, then turned the their attentions towards revenge. After hiring some additional muscle, the group holed up for the night in the chapel of Cthulhu that Tsanth had lovingly restored within the city. There, Tsanth made fresh sacrifices to his tentacled god before the big showdown with the followers of Mani.

The showdown was intense. Satan’s Glee Club approached the temple directly, where they battled more mercenaries on the steps of the giant ziggurat. There at the front of the temple, mighty Jargon fell. Tsanth attempted to heal him, but Cthulhu would not answer. Failing in two attempts to reach his god, Tsanth reached down deep and sacrificed his own blood to save Jargon. As part of this “sacrificial life burn,” Tsanth’s holy tentacle glowed red hot, and pressing it deep into Jargon’s chest, the burning fire of Cthulhu rushed into the halfling, scarring him for life but saving him from death.

The bloodied but victorious group pushed their way into the temple, and facing more eunuchs and handmaidens, the group took an early beating. One of the group’s mercenaries turned back time and saved the party, and armed with what MIGHT happen in the future, the group turned the tide of the battle and began to slay those servants of Mani, and seemed poised to wipeout the temple.

But Mani had other plans in mind. Sending a colossal Moon Dragon avatar, Mani began smiting the Glee Club members. Warrior after warrior fell. Soon, only a small retreating group remained while KpNooney-Klaus and Tsanth remained. While KpNooney rained fiery missiles on the Moon Dragon, Tsanth drained all of his remaining power to call upon Cthulhu. With a desperate prayer, he attempted to wrest control of the spirit avatar away from Mani. But Cthulhu did not answer.

With the group smashed and broken, Tsanth turned away from Cthulhu and offered the last thing he had to Mani, this angered Goddess of the Moon – his service. Bargaining for the lives of his friends and companions, Tsanth threw off the yoke of an uncaring and silent god and accepted Mani into his soul. With this, Tsanth promised the restoration of the temple under his influence and supervision, which Mani surprisingly accepted.

Tsanth now serves Mani devoutly. While he initially was cautious, knowing the severity of his and the groups transgressions and fearing dark reprisals from the Moon Goddess, Mani has been close to Tsanth since the transformation – even answering his prayers during his recent adventures with Satan’s Glee Club on another planet. Now, his devotion is approaching zealotry. He now leads preparations for the next Ceremony of the Moon at the temple, ready to bless a new Handmaiden and signal the coming of a new age of Mani within the Great City.

 

Naked and On Fire

Posted on by
photo by Fir0002/Flagstaffotos

photo by Fir0002/Flagstaffotos

Naked and Dead

Back in early 2005 I got a group of people together to play some D&D. It had been awhile since I had played an RPG so I built the group from scratch. There was a guy I was good friends with locally, a guy from work, and two guys found on message boards – one from EN World and one from Wizards. This group is still intact for the most part since its formation with some member changes due to folks moving, etc.

Since I was starting the group I took on the task of DMing. It helped me set the tone for the type of game I wanted to play. Well, my turn in the DM’s chair ended right around six months ending in a TPK (well, near TPK that weirdo wizard with a rat in his pocket fled back into the labyrinth of caves while the arachnid mouther made a meal of the others.)

That probably wasn’t my most glorious moment of running games – though probably my most infamous! In retrospect throwing an arachnid mouther that had 15’ reach and 8 attacks a round against a 3rd level party likely wasn’t the wisest choice. To top it off, that was the first session for one of the players and he lost his character that very first night. (Don’t worry all you folks who are exclaiming how dare I scare someone off from gaming, he is still with the group today).

But that is not Naked and On Fire. That is Naked and Dead.

Learning About Naked and On Fire

Despite not losing anyone from the group, it was decided to not let Jeff run anymore games for awhile. So Chris (a.k.a. Crothian), guest blogger on occasion here at The Iron Tavern, stepped up to run for us. His wealth of RPG experience and memory for things of past dwarfed pretty much what the rest of us had played, run, or knew about RPGs in total.

He brought a homebrew world to the table. A homebrew world with an extensive history shaped by campaigns that had been run in it in years past. He gave us a feat every level. We were rich beyond our wildest dreams by the time we hit 2nd level (like 100,000 plus gold pieces for the party). Behind his back we talked about how this was going to be fun, but man – what a monty haul campaign. We thought we had this campaign locked up!

Then he taught us about naked and on fire. Oh – we didn’t know that is what it was initially. We were too distracted by all these feats! All this gold! Magic weapons getting crafted. Nothing could touch us. Wrong.

No amount of gold or feats could protect us from campaign world decisions by our characters setting off chains of events that shaped the entire campaign. Deals with dragons (we were always making deals with dragons) to keep from dying or to gain in power (though I am not sure it ever really worked like that). Thefts of seemingly innocent artifacts triggering entire wars that spread across the land. And trifling in the affairs of gods. No amount of gold, magic weapons, or feats could solve some of these problems. We were constantly going from one frying pan to another and occasional excursions into the fire itself.

That campaign ended in a TPK around 18th level or so as we fell to a deity, Ftaghn, in battle. Some want to blame Taegan the dwarven cleric, but we know that wasn’t the case (the group doesn’t like it when I play clerics either). The whole campaign was naked and on fire. We still talk about this campaign. We still secretly hope that Chris will show up one game night and tell us our characters that fell to Ftaghn were warped to some other dimension or disruption in time and are still alive – ready to finish what they started.

Running Naked and On Fire

Fast forward to present day and I like to think I run a naked and on fire campaign. The realization sort of hit during one of my online DCC RPG sessions when I commented the group was a bit resource starved and that those times would pass. One of the players immediately commented ‘but Jeffrey, we are *always* starving for resources!” I think that is when I realized I had hit the naked and on fire stride.

Actions in the game mean something. Their effects spread. That sword that was stolen from the crafting wizard’s shop? Yeah – that was being made for a high ranking thieves guild member. Those gems you pried from the statue? Caused the statue to animate and search out the thief – eventually leading to the gems to be returned to the statue. Dead bodies showing up on the doorstep at your favorite local hangout? That can’t be good.

The other element, at least in my game, is a bit of resource starvation. At 5th and 6th level in a DCC game and I am pretty sure my players would love to obtain a magic weapon that did exactly what they wanted. Not one that may or may not be their preferred weapon, with goals of its own.

There is also the always possible element of character death. The characters are high enough level that it takes a lot more to outright kill a character. But the road is tough for the lower level henchman. And we’ve had a wizard or halfling knocked down to 0 off a really good hit or two on just a regular enough basis that the possibility is still present.

Why Naked and On Fire

This style isn’t for everyone.

If you want to always go into a fight knowing your character you built up an intricate backstory for or have adventured with for months and months is going to come out okay on the other side, you aren’t going to like naked and on fire. If you want every problem you face to be solvable or work out your way in the end – every single time – you aren’t going to like naked and on fire. If you want to know that in the end of the campaign you are going to emerge victorious, because that’s how happy stories end, you aren’t going to like naked and on fire.

But if you are someone that ends up on the other side of a fight still alive and feel like they earned it – naked and on fire is for you. If you enjoy complex problems, possibly caused by innocent actions many sessions ago that you have to solve – naked and on fire is for you. And if you emerge victorious at the end of a long campaign and you want to feel like you earned it and it wasn’t a give – naked and on fire is for you.

Naked and on fire can be frustrating at times. But in the end, the campaigns that I have played in or run that have been of the naked and on fire vein have been the most memorable.

The Players Speak: Jargon

Posted on by

DCC RPG Rulebook Cover w-HeadphonesToday’s post is part of an in-between DCC RPG Actual Play session postings to provide a little more insight into the cast of characters and players that make up the campaign.

Adam plays Jargon the Halfling. Adam joined later in the campaign, but several of us knew him from another online game and meeting up at Origins 2013 and knew he would fit in with the group. Adam writes today about Jargon.

Background

I was fairly late to joining the DCC campaign. I was introduced to Jeffrey and Matt from the early beginnings of a Dungeonslayers campaign. My first actual game of DCC was during Origins 2013, when I got the chance to meet up with Kelly, Matt, Jeffrey, and another gaming friend. A few more one shot sessions were held, and I was hooked. So much so that I bought my first set of Zocchi dice from the man himself on the convention floor.

My playstyle has always been “damage from a distance”, though initially I was not sure what I wanted to play in the campaign. Having a chance to see the player make-up, a Halfling was the only thing missing.

Jargon

Jargon was born from the need for a Luck battery for the party, and as it would seem, was the best choice. His given name is Loford Underfoot, though due to his mushed words as a child, and blatant disregard for repeating himself, the nickname Jargon was given. Through the years, he eventually enjoyed the name and took it as his own. He is an odd little thing, neutral in temperament, though tends to sway easily in the direction of his peers.

Years of ridicule have made him want to be generally accepted by those he holds in high regards (for one reason or another, he looks up to Baptist, no pun intended). As such, he walks a fine line between the neutral and chaotic temperament. He has a secret Napoleon complex, in that he wants to be in charge but only by being a logical voice of reason. He relies on sarcasm and snide comments to make the best of a situation in which he feels he is better than…which happens to be most of the situations in which he finds himself. He is primarily fixated on amassing treasures and riches, and will do whatever he can to ensure he continues growing his own personal coffers.

Combat wise, I play him a bit cautiously and know full well he is a bit squishy. I gained this knowledge during one of the Origins games where I had a Halfling get one-shot and leaving me bewildered at how easily it was accomplished. I prefer the sneak and stab method…or the “shoot the hell out of that short bow” method if the situation can allow it.

Most Memorable Moment

It is hard to boil down just one of the most memorable, even in the short(er) time I have been playing with this group. I would have to say it was the moment Tsanth turned a spell result from himself, and placed it on Jargon. Jargon was dead, as it happens in this session. Fortunately, Tsanth was willing to give the little Halfling a hug of love from the Great Cthulhu. The spell result required Tsanth to brand himself, as opposed to doing so, he placed the brand on Jargon’s chest. It is the first time something like this has ever happened to my characters, and I feel like the snide little remarks that reference the event whenever possible, really play into Jargon’s personality.

Behind the Curtain: Default System Choice

Posted on by

PSE1_Kajaks_Kave_Cover_ThumbIn the week following the debut of Iron Tavern Press and our first product, Kajak’s Kave, I suspect some folks are wondering why I chose Swords & Wizardry for the “default” system. There is a plethora of well-written OSR systems available today and to choose one seems a very difficult task.

I wanted to take a little time and explain why that choice was made, specifically for the Pocket-Sized Encounters series I launched Iron Tavern Press with.

Background

I got my start in the role-playing world with D&D Basic, the Moldvay version. Even today the cover of that boxed set is etched into my mind. That set is what launched me on what has proven to be a lifetime hobby. From playing games, to running games, to blogging, to starting Iron Tavern Press. The roots can be traced back to that system.

Of course over the years I drifted away from that initial edition. 1st Edition AD&D, then on to 2nd Edition, and even to D&D 3.x. From there I drifted to Pathfinder and in recent years even more dabbling in various systems. Some just picked up and read through and others taken for more extensive test drives.

Regardless of system I will hold a fondness for the OSR. Especially as my available time diminishes and I need to work the hobby into a fuller and fuller schedule. The light nature of many of the OSR systems allow me to spend more time on the creative and less time on the “crunch”.

System Choice

When I first wrote Kajak’s Kave and the idea of Pocket-Sized Encounters percolated the adventure was written to be systemless. The creatures were simply referenced by name and how many were present with directions to look up the actual creature stats in your rule system of choice. While this led to great versatility it did push work off on the GM.

Around this same time I was doing on the fly conversions of some Dungeon Crawl Classics and Labyrinth Lord adventures to Swords & Wizardry. Converting on the fly was pretty easy, but I was glad I had at least some stats to work off of. Even the inclusion of basic stats for a different system gave me the ballpark of what I would use in Swords & Wizardry.

This experience had me second guessing my choice to go completely systemless for this series. But what system should I use as the default assumption?

It came down to three top contenders for choice of system that I felt were good fits for the series and still adaptable for people to convert to their system of choice. OSRIC, Labyrinth Lord, and Swords & Wizardry.

Each of these systems have their strengths, but in the end I chose Swords & Wizardry for the default system for the Pocket-Sized Encounters line. Let’s take a closer look as to why.

Swords & Wizardry

I’ve posted before about why I like Swords & Wizardry as a foundation system. But there are some factors that also influenced my decision from a publisher’s point of view.

Swords & WizardryThe biggest factor? Swords & Wizardry stat blocks include both ascending and descending AC. To me this is huge. Yes – one can convert even AC on the fly, but to some that seems a mystery or at the very least, not something they feel like doing at the table. Swords & Wizardry includes both a number for ascending and descending AC in the same stat block which removes what I consider one of the larger hurdles for at the table conversion. It also lends itself well to conversion to more complex rule systems such as Pathfinder as well.

Another major reason I like Swords & Wizardry is that the ruleset is available online at d20swsrd.com. It is easily searchable and very handy for a rule lookup when you are away from your books. I find online resources such as these invaluable. Having the ruleset online in such a clean format simply lowers the bar to entry that much more. It even makes things easier for me as I write to be able to look things up quickly.

Though the decision was made after I had chosen Swords & Wizardry as the default assumption for Pocket-Sized Encounters, the fact the Swords & Wizardry Complete PDF is now free to the public doesn’t hurt! Yet another step to keep the barrier to S&W low.

In general I find S&W a very solid foundation for people that like OSR gaming. It is easy to build upon by “borrowing” rules from other places or layering your own house rules on.

All of these factors contributed to why I chose Swords & Wizardry as my default system for this line of products.

The Players Speak: KpNooney-Claus

Posted on by

DCC RPG Rulebook Cover w-Headphones

Today’s post is part of an in-between DCC RPG Actual Play session postings to provide a little more insight into the cast of characters and players that make up the campaign.

Aaron plays KpNooney and Baptist in the actual play podcast. He joined the group a couple of weeks after the campaign started with a trio of funnel characters. Baptist was the survivor, though today Aaron writes about Kpnooney – the boom canon wizard!

KpNooney-Claus’s (the K and P are silent) Backstory

KpNooney was a share-cropping wheat farmer struggling to make ends meet, but he had a happy life. He enjoyed his work, had many friends and was married to a young woman that he adored. One fateful night, in the midst of a nasty violent rain storm his wife ,Haxinflaxin, went into labor. KpNooney was thrilled for the birth of their first child, twins actually. But the gods had other plans. A small chunk of meteor crashed through the thatched roof of the humble shack, killing Haxinflaxin and the twins instantly and setting off a fire that burned everything KpNooney-Klaus owned to ash.

This event lead the humble wheat farmer into a vicious spiral of depression, alcohol abuse and rage, alienating him from all his friends and family. KpNooney soon left the farm to wander aimlessly, angry at the universe. A chance encounter with a group of adventurers gave focus and direction to the would-be wizard.

“Those guys saved my life” – KpNooney-Clause

He quickly became enamored with the powerful dark wizard Meffridus, whose methods and madness struck a chord with the disenchanted, morose KpNooney-Claus. The cannibal thief Baptist Inklings, seeing the vulnerability of this young recruit, led KpNooney down the dark path of Malotoch, the carrion crow-Goddess.

“At first the kid was just along for the ride, he was like a lost puppy so we let him tag along. But he learned Magic Missile and now we rely on him when we get in a tight spot.” – Baptist

KpNooney found in the adventuring party a reason to live, a purpose and friendship. He is usually quiet and reserved, being a wizard of few words but real handy in a scrap. KpNooney-Clause believes that his two greatest achievements were venturing into the realm of the dead to bring back his mentor, idol and dear friend Meffridus (and that weird fella who thinks he’s a pirate, what’s his name….Gonlex the Hero Bard of Slither’s End) and spell-duelling to death the High Priestess of Mani when the group, successfully, took control of the Mani Temple in the Great CIty

One day KpNooney hopes to be as great a wizard as Meffridus and to have enough power to sacrifice his life saving “Satan’s Glee Club” from certain death..

Chromecast and Roll20

Posted on by

chromecast-imageChromecast

Google entered the streaming media player market with their Chromecast product last year. Priced at $35, the Chromecast is slightly larger than a USB key and goes into the HDMI slot of your TV. It needs auxiliary power through either a USB connection or power adapter. Once installed (which is very easy) you can “cast” certain applications to it – Netflix, YouTube, HuluPlus and such. You can also “cast” Chrome browser tabs to the device from a computer. This opens up a few more possibilities for the device.

We have several streaming media devices at home as we cut cable/satellite years ago. We have an older model Roku that serves our needs very, very well. One of the TVs has Netflix built-in which also covers a lot of our streaming needs. And of course a PS3 that has the ability to stream various forms of media.

So why would I even consider the Chromecast (and the tie-in for this post to an RPG blog)?

Roll20 and the Chromecast

When I read a little more about the casting of a Chrome tab my thought went to gaming and could I cast a tab running Roll20. I did some quick Google searches and it seemed some folks had tried this. With an Amazon gift card I decided to try this out and ordered a Chromecast.

It arrived a couple of days later and I set it up on the main TV in the house. One of the first things I tried was casting a Chrome tab (after installing the Chrome extension). A normal web page cast with minimal issue, though there was a bit of lag between what was displayed on the computer (MacBook Pro) and the screen. Nothing particularly problematic.

The next experiment was to cast a tab running Roll20. This initially worked pretty well, but soon the flaws became more evident. As I worked in Roll20 (removing fog of war, using the drawing tool, etc) the lag became more apparent and the tab would become disconnected from the Chromecast frequently. Typically I could just reconnect – but during a gaming session I’d rather be gaming – not troubleshooting tech.

I have continued to play with “casting” a Roll20 tab and still had intermittent results. The initial page display is fine, but the longer the “casted” tab is used the more problematic the “casting” becomes with disconnects and such.

Conclusion

At the current time I don’t think the Chromecast is quite ready for the use I had in mind for it. I suspect things will improve in the future as Chromecast updates and Chrome extensions are further refined to make them less resource heavy (both network bandwidth and computer). But for the moment my idea of reliably casting a Roll20 tab is not ready for prime time just yet.

I will continue to use the Chomecast and watch as updates to it and the apps that can use it take place. But for the moment – if you were considering a Chromecast for the purpose of casting Roll20 tabs I would hold out just a bit longer.

The Players Speak: Patrice and Dandelion

Posted on by

DCC RPG Rulebook Cover w-HeadphonesToday’s post is part of an in-between DCC RPG Actual Play session postings to provide a little more insight into the cast of characters and players that make up the campaign.

Kelly started out from the funnel days of the campaign with his characters described below. His characters make cameo appearances since he has returned to school during his breaks. Patrice and Dandelion make for an interesting lense to view this rather chaotic party from.

Kelly’s Characters

Jeffrey’s DCC Campaign was the second time I had played DCC RPG. I was introduced to Matt (Meffridus) through DCC and thus several of his friends including Aaron (Baptist), who I now game with regularly over Google Hangouts.

My three zero-levels were Patrice (Confidence Artist), Dandelion (Elven Chandler) and Delbert (Potato Farmer).  Delbert was by far my favorite, based on his ability scores alone. The others were to be my ‘throwaways” protecting my buff soon-to-be fighter.  Still, the DCC concept of the funnel made me build personalities for these lame ducks.  Delbert was just a dimwit. Gullible and sort of a ‘gentle giant’ type. Patrice I played like a reluctant adventurer. He was NOT used to doing things himself, rather tricking people to doing things for him. Dandelion I played like a teenage mall employee. I gave fantasy inspired scents to her special items (20 candles). She was pretty much disgusted by everything we encountered and tried giving Baptist mud facials and telling people they were ‘autumns’ and such.

Well, Delbert died. A victim of friendly missile fire (did I mention never fire into a melee?). I played the other two very conservatively, and grew a good HEALTHY fear of magic of most types. Both survived the funnel and Jeffrey allowed me to continue playing both characters.  I play Patrice as the classic adventuring thief now: Checking traps, backstabbing, etc. and he’s good at it. Baptist and he make a good working pair, we always have somebody finding the secrets Jeffrey has put in our path.

I play Dandelion as a support mage. None of her spells are damaging really (some could damage, if I roll right, but she is much better at boosting or assisting others and that’s fine). She’s saving up to buy a spa or salon and never cast another spell again, as far as she is concerned. Finding how to fit in a group that goes through casters and fighters pretty regularly, that is lead by a power hungry wizard and has a cannibalistic thief watching your back (and immediately devouring any fallen comrade) can be difficult. I like to think my characters bring an ounce of stability to the group. Patrice is all business, he avoids patrons like the plague (as he’s watched his partners grow roots, boils, and worse).

Memorable Moment

One of the most memorable moments for me was when we were investigating an odd swamp community within the Ooze Pits of Jonas Gralk and Patrice had gone into an enemy stronghold to snoop around. I had made all my sneak checks and such and was going to support from the opposite side when Meffridus decided to Spellburn all his stats in order to increase a spell’s result to a massive, building devouring earthquake that pretty much swallowed the keep and everything inside it. Jeffrey had me make several reflex saves. I made each one (with a little luck) and survived by the skin of my teeth.

Cameos

I’ve returned to school to complete a degree and have had to drop out of the game, but I come back for cameo sessions. In the time I’ve been gone another friend Adam (Jargon) who plays in my Dungeonslayers game on Hangouts (along with Matt and others), has joined.  In my most recent return, Dandelion is pregnant. A festive and drunken night in the Great City with Patrice led to a bun in the oven. Patrice, not wanting to be tied down, has tricked Dande into believing the pregnancy was virgin birth, divine gift from her patron the King of Elfland.  They were both recently sucked back into the group and are experiencing a Planetary Romance type sci-fi adventure not unlike John Carter’s. I hope the arc finishes before I go back to school in February, and look forward to returning full time to “Satan’s Glee Club” in the spring!

Ticket to Ride

Posted on by

ticket_to_ride_coverTicket to Ride is an insanely popular board game. It has expansions and different versions but it always impresses me how well the base game plays and how much fun it is. There have been a lot of board games that have come out and a few are more popular than this, but Ticket to Ride is the one game that everyone I’ve played with has enjoyed. My parents, my siblings, my aunts and uncles, and well everybody. More so it is the one game that they ask me to play. Most of the time I’m suggesting games to people but Ticket to Ride is the one they remember and the one they want to play. It is the only game to achieve this level of status with my family.

Ticket to Ride is a game set in the early 20th century in America. Players collect route cards and then use train cards to claim routes between cities. It is pretty simple though it can be fun to learn which of your family and friends are geographically challenged. Some of my East Coast friends are always trying to figure where Helena is and some of my friends who know where all the American cities are have trouble with the few Canadian cities on the map. To be fair once we switch to the map of Europe, Asia, or Africa I have trouble finding some of the cities on those maps.

I mention a few of the expansions but there is only one I feel is a must have. The regular Ticket to Ride comes with cards but they are small cards. The other full games come with normal sized cards so in the 1910 expansion they have normal sized cards and routes for the regular game. It also comes with additional routes to use with some different options on what routes to use that can bring a little variation to the game.

I have been enjoying the map packs they have put out. These require a base game like America or Europe for the train cards and train pieces, but they do include new maps of different areas with route cards for them and new rules to make the games more complex. I have used many of the new maps without any new rules and I think they work fine like that, especially with players that just do not want a complex game. The Asia map has rules where train pieces get lost in the mountains and are taken out of play. We call this giving a sacrifice to the Yeti. If you see the map you’ll understand that more. The Asia map also has a version for team play that can be fun and brings in a neat dynamic for the game. I have yet to try the team rules with different maps and I am curious as to how well that would work.

Ticket to Ride is my game of choice to play with family and with people that are not hardcore board gamers. There are some of my hardcore board gaming friends that really love the game and many times it is their game of choice when we get together. Even with people who play a bunch of different games and who have played Ticket to Ride countless times it amazes me how enjoyable the game still is for us. There is a closet full of games that we played once or twice or were popular for a bit, but we grew out of. Ticket to Ride so far has stayed a fun and popular game among my family and friends.

Chris Gath.  I’ve been gaming since 1980 playing all kinds of games since then.  In the past year I’ve run Pathfinder, Dungeon Crawl Classic, Paranoia, and Mini d6.  My current campaign is mini d6 and we are using that for a modern supernatural conspiracy investigative game.  On some forums I’m known as Crothian and I’ve written a few hundred reviews though I took a sabbatical from reviewing for a few years as it burnt me out.  I was also an judge for the Gen Con awards (ENnies) six times.  Jeff, the owner of this blog, is one of my players and a good friend.

Blinded By The Light

Posted on by
brimorak_fight

Illustration by Wayne Reynolds – used under Paizo Community Use Policy

Conditions in a game can play as big or as small a role as you would like as a GM. It is pretty rare in a fantasy game that some kind of exotic creature does not have some way to cause an issue to the character they target. Conditions can be great equalizers to power players and awesome factors for players that want to puzzle their way around things.

A quick proviso: We all know I am a Pathfinder player for my fantasy largely, so I am going to describe the conditions here that are pertinent to a Pathfinder game. It is likely that your own game system has rules covering these same things but if I do slip and talk about statistical effects I am coming from a Pathfinder perspective.

Have a two-handed weapon specialist who sneers at the rogue every time they drag out a short sword or a dagger? Well do I have the condition for you! Swallowed whole. Hit them with a big creature that has a penchant for not chewing its food. Have the character slip down the gullet of the creature. Inside the gullet of a creature it is much easier to harm BUT the character can only attack with a light one handed weapon. Seleca, the Cavalier in one of my games, is the two handed specialist and she has recently just scored level 18. She is capable of cutting a twentieth level fighter down with over 300 hp in one round. She has just taken to carrying a dagger as she has now been swallowed around seven times and been able to do absolutely nothing until her companions cut her out.

A condition that hampers nearly every type of character is the blinded condition. In Pathfinder Blindness/Deafness is a second level spell and is a permanent effect! While running the Reign of Winter adventure path for Pathfinder I have blinded a Paladin twice in the campaign. The first time this occurred he remained blind for about four sessions and the condition really hampered his ability to be effective. The second time lasted only a single combat (in which he hilariously got eaten by an oven) but it caused a big drama as he struggled to be effective against the witch that had caused the blindness. This condition also seriously hampers a magician. A magician that cannot see is severely hampered in creating lines of effect for spells or using a lot of the spells in their repertoire.

Continuing on with the spell caster perspective you also could use deafness. Deafness causes any spell with a verbal component a chance of failure as although the magician can think of the correct words the brain cannot tell if the mouth is verbalizing them correctly. Tonal information is important to the casting of spells and this feedback to the brain is important to ensure the tone and pitch is correct in the delivery.

Creatures that can cause confusion or stunning effects are also good to have. If they can cause these conditions for multiple rounds it can turn a powerful enemy into their own worst nightmare! Confusion gives the player a random chance of what they are going to do for the round. There are four different options in Pathfinder. They can continue as normal, babble incoherently, attack themselves or attack the nearest living creature, regardless of who it is! As you can see, two of these outcome (50% of the time) the player will likely be doing awful things to themselves or possibly their companions! Stun on the other hand is effective against characters that get a lot of attacks per round with a weapon. It causes the player to drop anything that is held. That means to become effective again the player needs to pick up the weapon (which draws an attack of opportunity) or draw a new less preferred weapon (no AoO) before they can be effective again. The player is also unable to act for a round which means the creature can attack for that round. It is likely confusion will last multiple rounds while stunning is very rarely any more than one round.

Just a quick post today. Use your creatures wisely to inflict interesting conditions. There are far more conditions that exist in the game than what I have listed here, but the ones above are always a good place to start. The players will remember these combats for the way they overcame them regardless of the ‘x’ condition they were carrying. it makes for more interesting combats and more heroic actions from the players. Keep rolling!

Mark Knights is  39 year old guy living in a small rural town called Elliott in Tasmania, Australia.  I have been role playing since I was 11 years old playing the original versions of Dungeons and Dragons, MERP, Elric, Dragon Warriors and the like amongst other genre games.  I played D&D 2nd Edition through the 90′s but I ran Earthdawn for my fantasy setting and loved it as a GM.  When 3rd Edition came out for D&D I tried it but found it too heavy on rules.  I ignored the 3.5 edition of DnD in favour of Earthdawn (big mistake) as I thought it was just a money spinner.  When 4th Edition DnD came on my players and I gave it a red hot go but hated what it had dumbed the game down to be.  On a trip to Melbourne to buy some 4E stuff from a hobby store an old mate of mine pointed me at Pathfinder and in a Fantasy setting I have never looked back.