80s Dungeons & Dragons cartoon as “actual play”

 

It’s in my digital hands! Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game (DCC RPG)

I already have my poster…and now, like many of you out there, I have my PDF copy of Goodman Games’ Dungeon Crawl Classics Role Playing Game (DCC RPG). I was fortunate enough to playtest it, with Harley Stroh as DM, at the North Texas RPG Con in 2010. It was a blast! Truly.

I look forward to spending this Easter holiday weekend reading through it. I’ll have further thoughts about it to share in the days and weeks to come.

And as soon as I can get my old group together, I’d love to run them through the included introductory adventures using my friend John’s EpicTable virtual tabletop!

 

Add a Little Spice to Your Game: Cooking in D&D

Pig-Faced Orc:
The Other White Meat

An army travels on its stomach. As I am a former soldier, I can attest to this truth. But what about an adventuring party? With just a few heroes and maybe a handful of hirelings, the logistics of chow are much simpler. So simple, in fact, that they are generally just hand-waved away. And that’s fine. Unless the party is in an extreme environment, or some other hardship has been presented (e.g. escaping from the slave pens), there’s no reason for players to closely manage their party’s food-based resources.

Unless you give them one.

This is why I eat so many cookies in real life.

After reading George R.R. Martin and playing Skyrim (and to a lesser extent World of Warcraft), I’ve come to embrace cooking in Dungeons & Dragons. Much like it is in Skyrim, cooking needn’t be a trained skill. It’s not too far-fetched to assume that most folks in their teens during the medieval era were competent cooks. Not royal chefs, mind you, but good enough to keep their families hale and hearty. So let’s assume our PCs fit this mold. And let’s also assume that the adventuring party has basic traveling cookware and utensils with them (similar to modern-day campers).

Now, the PCs just need recipes and ingredients to start reaping some delicious benefits–oh, wait, yeah, what about benefits? Well, that’s where an inventive DM can help out the party in a slightly indirect manner. Treat recipes like you would spell scrolls and treat ingredients like you would potions. When you’re ready for the party magic-user to have a particular spell, you might drop that spell onto a scroll and add it to some loot. Same with dropping some healing potions in a chest when the party is pretty badly battered and bruised.

You may need to borrow a cup of flour from the Beholder next door.

Next time the party is exploring a library or a long-abandoned mead-hall, why not drop a special recipe into a cookbook? Maybe a Hearty Lamb and Leek Stew that doubles the healing rate for one night’s rest. Or a Fermented Mare’s Milk that gets you drunk but gives a +1 bonus to saves versus mind-affecting spells and abilities until you sober up. As for ingredients, consider adding some preserved meats to the larder in a bandit hideout or orc lair. Stock a necromancer’s laboratory with rare spices and dried herbs.

Click me for inspirational recipes

Think about using recipes and ingredients as a convenient way to introduce side quests. Give the party hints to the location of an ancient recipe for Charred Winter Wolf Steaks (that provide protection from dragon’s fire). Now, watch the PCs set out for the frozen North to hunt down both the recipe and a pack of winter wolves. Then, in a few more levels, when they face off against a Red Dragon, they’ll have a nice protective buff that they worked hard to earn.

Bon appetit!

 

Game Night on the USS Enterprise

 

One Page Dungeon Contest 2012

It’s that time of year again — time to build a one page dungeon!

This contest is great for the hobby, as it gets a lot of really good free content into gamers’ hands. It’s also great for you as a creator, as it gives you the motivation to create something specifically intended to be shared with other gamers.

I’m hoping to crank out a pair of one pagers (so I can submit my favorite of the two), but we’ll see how much time I actually have over the next several weeks. Of course, my main concern is getting at least one finished. I’ll be sure to post progress updates here.

The Submission deadline is April 30. Winners will be announced June 1.

Good luck, gamers!

 

What Troll? Takes On: Untimately’s 20 Quick Questions (Rules)

Great idea Brendan’s got here on Untimately. This serves nicely as a pre-launch campaign FAQ to keep everyone on the same page.

1. Ability scores generation method?
   4d6 drop lowest / assign at will / no re-rolls
2. How are death and dying handled?
   unconscious at 0 / lose 1 hp per round / dead at -10 / anyone can spend their round stabilizing a dying character simply by “binding wounds”
3. What about raising the dead?
   as per spell rules / if not high enough level, must find high-level cleric and pay for the service (payment open to negotiation…might begin a new quest)
4. How are replacement PCs handled?
   rolled up on the spot (or possibly beforehand and just “waiting in the wings”) / integrated ASAP (within reason) / start out 1 level lower / probably need to be rescued and healed or something similar that fits into the current scenario
5. Initiative: individual, group, or something else?
   individual / rolled only once, at the beginning / may hold actions to move around in the initiative order
6. Are there critical hits and fumbles? How do they work?
   yes to both / Natural 20 means a draw from the Critical Hit Deck / Natural 1 is a fumble that forces a DEX check to avoid the Critical Fumble Deck (some adjustments might need to be made for results from both decks if you are playing an old-school edition or retro-clone)
7. Do I get any benefits for wearing a helmet?
   yes, as befits the situation:  possibly gain extra saving throw versus effects that target the head, neck or face (decapitation, blindness, gaze attacks)
8. Can I hurt my friends if I fire into melee or do something similarly silly?
   indeed you can / if you miss your target, roll a Death’s Head die (or get a 1 on a d6) to determine if you hit an ally and then roll randomly for which ally
9. Will we need to run from some encounters, or will we be able to kill everything?
   running away should always be an option to consider (keeping in mind that you might be pursued!)
10. Level-draining monsters: yes or no?
    yes / there are some things worse than death, like rising up as a wight under the command of the wight that drained you (provides some fun role-playing to allow the PC to continue running this character)
11. Are there going to be cases where a failed save results in PC death?
    yes / depending on the circumstances, we might enter into some negotiations on the bonus(es) to the saving throw roll, but then the result will stand
12. How strictly are encumbrance & resources tracked?
    encumbrance is up to the players to keep within reason, so that we don’t have to strictly track it / various resources are strictly tracked only if they are of utmost importance at the time: track rations only when far from civilization or plentiful game, track only those spell components that are unusual or expensive, and so forth (campaigns set in the frigid northern wastes, underwater, or in trackless deserts would become exercises in resource management)
13. What’s required when my PC gains a level? Training? Do I get new spells automatically? Can it happen in the middle of an adventure, or do I have to wait for down time?
    level gains occur as they happen / in most cases, PCs are training on-the-job, so there is no need to find a trainer (fighters using their weapons and armor, clerics praying for spells and blessings, magic-users scouring ruins for old books and scrolls) / the exception is if you want to multi-class to a class unrepresented in your party (for example: if there’s no thief in the party, then there’s no one who has been able to spend the last level teaching your fighter how to pick locks)
14. What do I get experience for?
    killing monsters / taking their loot / dreaming up interesting ideas / roleplaying your character well (basically avoiding player knowledge vs character knowledge dilemmas)
15. How are traps located? Description, dice rolling, or some combination?
    some combination / I’m willing to give a slight bonus if the player gives a good description of what the character is doing (for example: tapping the floor ahead with a 10-foot pole, keeping one hand on the wall slightly ahead to feel for arrow slits or spear holes, etc) / same thing goes for finding secret doors
16. Are retainers encouraged and how does morale work?
    retainers are totally up to the players / likewise, retainer morale is totally up to the players to roleplay (as I allow the players to run their own retainers), but with the understanding that no hired hand is going to lay down his life for you unless you’ve done similarly for him
17. How do I identify magic items?
    in the wilds: generally via trial and error (magic-users get a series of Intelligence checks to determine  features) / in civilization: use a large library for research or pay a high-level magic-user (much like when paying a cleric for resurrection, payment may take the form of a quest)
18. Can I buy magic items? Oh, come on: how about just potions?
    no / exceptions might be made in the case of generous donations in return for level-appropriate healing potions
19. Can I create magic items? When and how?
    yes / if you want to be a magic item crafter, we’ll discuss it beforehand and work out a system;  but basically, you will need to provide the materials and spells needed in addition to securing components worth the value of the final item, and then gain access to a forge, laboratory, library, etc / magic-users and clerics may craft potions and scrolls on-the-go, so long as they have the materials (flasks, parchment, inks, etc) and any special spell components
20. What about splitting the party?
    sure, just be prepared to face challenges at less than full-party-strength

None of these “tenets” are completely unbreakable, but they do form a basic house-rule framework that I’ve developed with various groups playing various editions over the past 30+ years. I’ve always been more than willing to work with my players (or DMs when I’m on the other side of the screen) to ensure maximum fun for all while minimizing rules-lawyering downtime.

 

Getting back in the swing of things.

I’ve been away from this blog for awhile, busily raising an up-and-coming gamer. I haven’t played on either side of a DM screen for about 2 years. But that has recently come to an end, thanks to a very cool virtual tabletop.

I’m in the midst of not just one but TWO games, both of them being played online via EpicTable. I grew up with the developer of EpicTable (John), and we’ve gamed together on and off for about 25 years, so it’s nice to be gaming together again…even though I’m in Oregon and he’s in New Hampshire!

John’s running a Thursday night Pathfinder game, the Legacy of Fire adventure path. Plus, John is also running a Spirit of the Century game on Saturday nights, enticingly titled Temple of the Yeti.

In addition to both games being a total blast, we’re all able to help John fine-tune EpicTable’s usability, test new functionality and so forth. As a tech writer with some usability experience, this is both work and play for me!

Now that my son requires less constant attention, I’m finding a bit more time to devote to gaming, so I plan on adding more content here soon. I have ideas brewing for some one-shot scenarios optimized for virtual tabletops (mainly EpicTable, naturally).

 

Nevermet Press – Open Call for “Stories in the Ether”

 

Conan the Barbarian…the musical

Just……….wow………

 

Hitler’s D&D character dies