A question that I think only the assorted RPG blogosphere could answer:
I'm having my current apartment heat treated for bedbugs at the end of the week. This entails heating everything in the room to a temperature of over 150 degrees F. I happen to have a fair amount of board games, RPG boxed sets and polybagged comics and modules about this apartment.
Does anyone have any experience with the effects of high temperatures on these sorts of items? I can seal them up in plastic bins and drop pesticide strips in them, but they'll have to be in there for a minimum of 3 weeks.
A chronicle of my first forays into Old School Dungeons and Dragons
Monday, June 11, 2012
Saturday, June 2, 2012
Retro-Stupid: The Ground Rules
Once I got this Retro-Stupid Dungeons & Dragons ball rolling, it picked up a lot of momentum. A quick poll of my friends via Facebook netted enough interest that I had to cap the number of players at SEVEN.
Seven assorted dudes with experience in a wide variety of gaming and role playing environments. Eight dudes (counting me) who have absolutely NO experience with Basic style D&D and all born after the release of the Mentzer Basic and Expert sets in 1983.
With that in mind, here are some of the ground rules that I'm following in the development of this game:
1) A Cut Above the Ordinary
I'm not super interested in running a meat grinder campaign. Though PCs may die or be horribly disfigured over the course of the campaign, they're still assumed to be a cut above the average spear carrier or pig farmer. That's not to say that humble beginnings aren't allowed, but there should be the spark of greatness in them.
2) A Whole Different Appendix N
None of us really grew up reading the sword & sorcery pulp stories that inspired so much of old-school Dungeons & Dragons. To the best of my knowledge, everyone has read Tolkein, but a lot of our gaming inspiration comes from sources from the last two decades. Common denominators include Magic: the Gathering, console and computer RPGs and adventure gamebooks, which I'll probably be talking about at greater length in the future.
3) History Is Written By The Players
There's not going to be a thousand-year history or intricate political alliances; the stuff that the PCs accomplish will help shape the world that they live in. If someone dies defending a village from some vicious wereboars, the villagers will remember their valiant struggle and returning adventurers who were present will laud their accomplishments.
4) Stick With The Core, Bolt On Some More
I want to try and run the game as close to Rules As Written Basic D&D as I can, with a couple of tweaks from Swords & Wizardry to speed things up at the table. I am going to try and make any house rules that I put into effect additions on to the base as opposed to wholesale modifications to the core mechanics.
5) Relax and Have Fun
This is not going to be a serious game. If I feel or the group feels like something is fun, we're going to do it, especially if it's stupid or anachronistic. Ultimately, we're all looking to kill some monsters, find some treasure and maybe save the world this summer.
Seven assorted dudes with experience in a wide variety of gaming and role playing environments. Eight dudes (counting me) who have absolutely NO experience with Basic style D&D and all born after the release of the Mentzer Basic and Expert sets in 1983.
With that in mind, here are some of the ground rules that I'm following in the development of this game:
1) A Cut Above the Ordinary
I'm not super interested in running a meat grinder campaign. Though PCs may die or be horribly disfigured over the course of the campaign, they're still assumed to be a cut above the average spear carrier or pig farmer. That's not to say that humble beginnings aren't allowed, but there should be the spark of greatness in them.
2) A Whole Different Appendix N
None of us really grew up reading the sword & sorcery pulp stories that inspired so much of old-school Dungeons & Dragons. To the best of my knowledge, everyone has read Tolkein, but a lot of our gaming inspiration comes from sources from the last two decades. Common denominators include Magic: the Gathering, console and computer RPGs and adventure gamebooks, which I'll probably be talking about at greater length in the future.
3) History Is Written By The Players
There's not going to be a thousand-year history or intricate political alliances; the stuff that the PCs accomplish will help shape the world that they live in. If someone dies defending a village from some vicious wereboars, the villagers will remember their valiant struggle and returning adventurers who were present will laud their accomplishments.
4) Stick With The Core, Bolt On Some More
I want to try and run the game as close to Rules As Written Basic D&D as I can, with a couple of tweaks from Swords & Wizardry to speed things up at the table. I am going to try and make any house rules that I put into effect additions on to the base as opposed to wholesale modifications to the core mechanics.
5) Relax and Have Fun
This is not going to be a serious game. If I feel or the group feels like something is fun, we're going to do it, especially if it's stupid or anachronistic. Ultimately, we're all looking to kill some monsters, find some treasure and maybe save the world this summer.
Tuesday, May 29, 2012
Retro-Stupid: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Just Wing It
Now that I have a little bit of disposable income, I've decided to take a look at buying a few quality board games. On top of classics like Carcassonne and Dominion, I discovered a new card game called Epic Spell Wars of the Battle Wizards: Duel at Mt. Skullzfyre.
The art for this game is the best kind of bonkers - weird Superjail meets Adventure Time fantasy with exploding heads and sentient testicles murdering people. On top of that, it is hella inspiring. It reminds me of the best parts of the Retro-Stupid style of Dungeons & Dragons practiced by a fair amount of people in the RPG blogosphere: anachronistic, tongue-in-cheek, and low-prep craziness. And it got me thinking.
I've been trying to muster potential players for the Vomorhin campaign that I have been preparing, but putting together a house-rule set for Swords & Wizardry, designing a city (which is by far the hardest fantasy setting to create) and work out political alliances and a thematically accurate world has frankly been a pain in the ass. So what would it be like if I just didn't care about how the world was put together?
I texted my friend Ethan about the idea:
8:11 PMme: Wanna play in a retro-stupid as hell D&D campaign? Basic Box style with weird video game-style boss monsters and magic that makes people explode?
Ethan: Yeah, you've been trying to do that a couple times now!
The art for this game is the best kind of bonkers - weird Superjail meets Adventure Time fantasy with exploding heads and sentient testicles murdering people. On top of that, it is hella inspiring. It reminds me of the best parts of the Retro-Stupid style of Dungeons & Dragons practiced by a fair amount of people in the RPG blogosphere: anachronistic, tongue-in-cheek, and low-prep craziness. And it got me thinking.
I've been trying to muster potential players for the Vomorhin campaign that I have been preparing, but putting together a house-rule set for Swords & Wizardry, designing a city (which is by far the hardest fantasy setting to create) and work out political alliances and a thematically accurate world has frankly been a pain in the ass. So what would it be like if I just didn't care about how the world was put together?
I texted my friend Ethan about the idea:
8:11 PMme: Wanna play in a retro-stupid as hell D&D campaign? Basic Box style with weird video game-style boss monsters and magic that makes people explode?
Ethan: Yeah, you've been trying to do that a couple times now!
I wanna be an orc
Or an ogre
Smash.
8:12 PM me: Gotcha. I will write an Orc class.
Monday, May 21, 2012
Dispatches from Vomorhin: The 4 Scions of Creeshus
As one of the most powerful and least sane wizards of his time, Creeshus made a number of pacts with nefarious entities in his time as the ruler of Vomorhin. Some were simple transactions of life for power, some wanted artifacts or the delivery of prophesied do-gooders, but others were more... personal in nature. As a result of these consortings, Creeshus was blessed with four children of various monstrous heritages. But life in Creeshus's towers was often as unstable as the rest of the city. If he wasn't meddling in their affairs and trying to shape them in his own image, he was outright ignoring them or imprisoning them in a pocket dungeon dimension.
It was years ago that the four siblings came to their decision. Though their circumstances were vastly different, each knew that the city could not survive with their father as its ruler. However, none of his scions wished to take his place on Vomorhin's throne; the potential for betrayal and infighting was too great. So the decision was made to open the city to a new form of government, but one that could not touch the children of Creeshus. Each would have their own domain over the city, from diplomacy to city defense, where they exercise their influence over Vomorhin without ever officially ruling.
The new government of Vomorhin may be overjoyed at their new functioning economy and rising place in the world, but no one harbors the illusion that they are in control of the city. The whole experiment continues under the watchful eyes of the children of Creeshus and every civic leader knows that it could all be burned to the ground if they ever decide to change their mind.
It was years ago that the four siblings came to their decision. Though their circumstances were vastly different, each knew that the city could not survive with their father as its ruler. However, none of his scions wished to take his place on Vomorhin's throne; the potential for betrayal and infighting was too great. So the decision was made to open the city to a new form of government, but one that could not touch the children of Creeshus. Each would have their own domain over the city, from diplomacy to city defense, where they exercise their influence over Vomorhin without ever officially ruling.
The new government of Vomorhin may be overjoyed at their new functioning economy and rising place in the world, but no one harbors the illusion that they are in control of the city. The whole experiment continues under the watchful eyes of the children of Creeshus and every civic leader knows that it could all be burned to the ground if they ever decide to change their mind.
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
The Vomorhin Experiment
A full-time job and an impending move to a new apartment haven't really left much time for idle pursuits, including Dungeons and Dragons. But all work and no play has often left Jack a dull boy, so I've been thinking about getting back in the saddle for a few weeks now. In my current situation, tabletop gaming has been a great way to both stay in touch with distant friends and make new ones in the greater Philadelphia area. In preparation for this eventual calming, I've been working on a little experiment.
The City of Vomorhin is a project that I've been planning since I put my ideas together for the Cheap Minis Project: a city setting that utilized many of the strange, common or otherwise minor parts of the Dungeons & Dragons experience in order to craft a campaign setting. There's a place in the Vomorhin universe for kenku, grimlocks, troglodytes, krenshar, chaos creatures and constructs of all shapes and sizes. Taking all of these disparate elements and making a coherent world out of them has been a blast.
As of now, I have two potential gaming groups lined up and only a limited amount of time each week to plan for a campaign. So my plan is to run two different campaigns, two different rules systems, one central setting.
My online group consists of close friends from college spread out across both coasts of the country. For rules, we're going to be using a modified Swords & Wizardry, incorporating ideas from Akrasia and the most recent D&D Gamma World into the basic S&W framework. My in-person group potentially consists of new players and a pair of local friends. That game will be run with 4th Edition rules.
I have never GMed either of these systems, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the implicit rules of each work in a big fantasy city setting. The S&W campaign is more likely to be in the 'Heist D&D' millieu, with caper planning and specialist hirelings needed to pull off huge scores, while the 4th Edition campaign will be more like hard-boiled fantasy fiction where the players unravel conspiracies, butt heads with prominent factions and change the face of the city.
The vast majority of my campaign preparation will be system-agnostic and, through Fistful of Coppers, available to readers for free. When I do stat up monsters, NPCs, magic items and the like, I will try to do so in both S&W and 4E terms. In terms of fleshing out the city, I'm starting with the overarching story of the city detailed in my most recent post and trying to fill in details as I go.
The next dispatch from Vomorhin will take a look at each of the scions of Creeshus and their place in the city. Stay tuned!
The City of Vomorhin is a project that I've been planning since I put my ideas together for the Cheap Minis Project: a city setting that utilized many of the strange, common or otherwise minor parts of the Dungeons & Dragons experience in order to craft a campaign setting. There's a place in the Vomorhin universe for kenku, grimlocks, troglodytes, krenshar, chaos creatures and constructs of all shapes and sizes. Taking all of these disparate elements and making a coherent world out of them has been a blast.
As of now, I have two potential gaming groups lined up and only a limited amount of time each week to plan for a campaign. So my plan is to run two different campaigns, two different rules systems, one central setting.
My online group consists of close friends from college spread out across both coasts of the country. For rules, we're going to be using a modified Swords & Wizardry, incorporating ideas from Akrasia and the most recent D&D Gamma World into the basic S&W framework. My in-person group potentially consists of new players and a pair of local friends. That game will be run with 4th Edition rules.
I have never GMed either of these systems, so I'm looking forward to seeing how the implicit rules of each work in a big fantasy city setting. The S&W campaign is more likely to be in the 'Heist D&D' millieu, with caper planning and specialist hirelings needed to pull off huge scores, while the 4th Edition campaign will be more like hard-boiled fantasy fiction where the players unravel conspiracies, butt heads with prominent factions and change the face of the city.
The vast majority of my campaign preparation will be system-agnostic and, through Fistful of Coppers, available to readers for free. When I do stat up monsters, NPCs, magic items and the like, I will try to do so in both S&W and 4E terms. In terms of fleshing out the city, I'm starting with the overarching story of the city detailed in my most recent post and trying to fill in details as I go.
The next dispatch from Vomorhin will take a look at each of the scions of Creeshus and their place in the city. Stay tuned!
Thursday, April 12, 2012
A Brief History of Vomorhin
Vomorhin, the cosmopolitan center of trade and intrigue, is a city delighting in its first tastes of freedom after a century under a crazed despot.
Creeshus, the mad wizard king, ruled Vomorhin with unspeakable power and utterly bizarre whims. Everything from the city's laws to its physical structure could change on a daily basis. Cowed citizens shared their streets with vicious ogres, cunning tieflings and all manner of nefarious creatures who shared in Creeshus's schemes. That is, until Creeshus disintegrated them for condescending to his owlbear.
Sure, the city barely functioned and both man and monster despised Creeshus and his rule, but who could actually stand up to him? Uprisings were attempted, but the revolutionaries were generally turned into frogs or divorced from their skeletons before the gates could be breached. City leaders and merchants met in shadowed sewers to discuss methods of keeping the populace fed without incurring the tyrant's wrath.
In the end, the city's salvation came from within the walls of Creeshus's massive palace tower. The wizard's four children, powerful magicians by birth and training, surprised the city's secret parliament by offering them a deal: in exchange for places of significant power in the city, they would slay their father and bring stability to Vomorhin. It was a risky proposition, but just about anything would be better than the status quo.
It wasn't a public execution or a theatrical melodrama. Three days after the decision was reached, the city was rocked with a vicious earthquake and a massive explosion of magical power erupting into the sky. And like that, a new age dawned over the city. Creeshus's tower was demolished as a symbol of the peace that would hopefully last between man, beast, demon and monstrously powerful halfblood wizards.
That was 10 years ago. In the intervening time, Vomorhin has arisen reborn as a new hub for culture, politics and magic. That and organized crime.
Creeshus, the mad wizard king, ruled Vomorhin with unspeakable power and utterly bizarre whims. Everything from the city's laws to its physical structure could change on a daily basis. Cowed citizens shared their streets with vicious ogres, cunning tieflings and all manner of nefarious creatures who shared in Creeshus's schemes. That is, until Creeshus disintegrated them for condescending to his owlbear.
Sure, the city barely functioned and both man and monster despised Creeshus and his rule, but who could actually stand up to him? Uprisings were attempted, but the revolutionaries were generally turned into frogs or divorced from their skeletons before the gates could be breached. City leaders and merchants met in shadowed sewers to discuss methods of keeping the populace fed without incurring the tyrant's wrath.
In the end, the city's salvation came from within the walls of Creeshus's massive palace tower. The wizard's four children, powerful magicians by birth and training, surprised the city's secret parliament by offering them a deal: in exchange for places of significant power in the city, they would slay their father and bring stability to Vomorhin. It was a risky proposition, but just about anything would be better than the status quo.
It wasn't a public execution or a theatrical melodrama. Three days after the decision was reached, the city was rocked with a vicious earthquake and a massive explosion of magical power erupting into the sky. And like that, a new age dawned over the city. Creeshus's tower was demolished as a symbol of the peace that would hopefully last between man, beast, demon and monstrously powerful halfblood wizards.
That was 10 years ago. In the intervening time, Vomorhin has arisen reborn as a new hub for culture, politics and magic. That and organized crime.
Saturday, April 7, 2012
Challenge Accepted (And A Quick Recap)
So, in passing...
1) Got a super solid full-time Reference Librarian position in South Jersey, which has understandably been devouring the majority of my time. Because of my new hours, I unfortunately had to leave fellow Jersey resident Drance's Castles & Crusades game, which will be much missed. Maybe Milo will swing his grappling hook in the name of truth, justice and reasonable reward once more.
2) Currently set up to run a Google+ or Skype D&D game with a bunch of my distant and disparate friends from college and pre-professional life. The whole 'Heist D&D' idea that I've had ever since I started reading up on Classic D&D and its variations just popped into my brain one night after work and a couple of friends expressed interest. Expect to see a lot of prep here in the future.
3) Jason Kielbasa's Wrestleworld is awesome and I'm going to play it.
4) I am really, really bad at coming up with fantasy names.
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