tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-80388238404729166242024-03-17T23:03:56.720-04:00The Lands of AraAn old-school RPG'ing Blog presenting the Lands of Ara fantasy RPG campaign setting and lots of other stuff.Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.comBlogger483125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-57201235441487726962017-12-10T17:27:00.002-05:002017-12-10T17:38:20.467-05:00Harbinger<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Since I last checked in I have played some <i>Labyrinth Lord</i> off and on, but not for quite awhile, and <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2016/06/my-online-ll-group-is-treasure.html">my online group</a> has basically fizzled out -- the campaign not quite finished but the momentum quelled by various life things. Maybe this was mostly my fault. I don't know. Creative work often transpires in ebbs and flows, organic cycles that no individual really fully controls. Maybe that great group will yet reunite -- a sequel? a reboot? -- to face and vanquish Lord Needbo IV.<br />
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I haven't gamed in quite some time and am getting the itching to do so. Part of my excitement about this stems from a fun (mega?) dungeon idea that I've been moodling over for a year-plus now. It is called <i>Alaxxx's Pofflesnoo </i>and it is the first idea I've had in awhile that feels properly organic. It is one concrete thing, a simple premise, not some grandiose IDEA transmogrified into a <i>Labyrinth Lord</i> dungeon setting. I don't want to give away much of anything about it yet -- I want to get players adventuring in it and then report on it via their in-game exploits.<br />
<br />
But I am back and my next task is to start contacting a few folks I have gamed with around here before, and see if I can talk them into a session this January.<br />
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Onward!<br />
<br />
P.S. I am greatly looking forward to Daniel Proctor's forthcoming omnibus edition of <i>Labyrinth Lord Basic and Advanced</i>. I'll post when the Kickstarter for this must-have tome goes live.<br />
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<br />Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com141tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-53862861763084743172016-06-03T11:28:00.003-04:002016-06-03T12:30:12.500-04:00My Online LL Group is a Treasure<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<i>Members of my "home" Labyrinth Lord group in fall 2010. </i></div>
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I recently <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2016/02/dm-burnout.html">wrote</a> about experiencing DM burnout and consequently placing both my Labryinth Lord groups on hiatus. In that post I noted that<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
gaming over the internet, for me, is a pale shadow of gaming live, in person, at a table. No matter how good the technology gets there is, for me, a disconnect or a missing piece that rears its head in various ways online: less spontaneous fun chatter and humor takes place, some details get missed or talked over or need to be repeated, to somewhat lessened effect. The whole thing feels like a giant, three-dimensional, full-sensory experience being strained through a small, thin, partial, two-dimensional medium.</blockquote>
In that same post I claimed that gaming over Skype has been a "disappointment" to me. That is indeed how I felt at the time. Yet my DM burnout was particularly intense then. I was feeling grumpy about the slow winding down of my <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2014/09/lift-bridge-game-updates.html">local public game</a>, which dwindled to two regular players late last year, then an unsustainable one this spring.<br />
<br />
No, that earlier statement should be read more as venting than as analysis or plan. It reflected my emotional state and was not meant to condemn the concept of RPG'ing via Skype in general. Most importantly, it was never intended to impugn the members of my "home" gaming group or to devalue the wonderful gaming experiences I have shared with them in the years since <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2010/01/arandish-campaign-2010-session-1.html">this campaign began in 2010</a>. <br />
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I am quite lucky to have such a wonderful group of gamers and if Skype is the means by which we must reach each other, so be it. We are lucky to be able to keep this thing going in such a relatively simple and straightforward way.<br />
<br />
Our particular group is especially fortunate to include players with a wide array of real-world RPG'ing experience. We have one neophyte player, a couple three with some limited prior D&D experience, and <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2009/09/auto-ethnography-of-rpger.html">three</a> <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/01/lost-expedition-to-barrier-caverns-of.html">of</a> <a href="http://backscreenpass.blogspot.com/">us</a> who have been playing RPGs (with varying degrees of consistency) since the 1980s.*<br />
<br />
Furthermore, the members of this group are gaming associates and also friends. I went to graduate school with most of them, played in a band with another, have edited essay collections with one guy, co-authored scholarly articles with another, and am generally invested in all or their lives outside of RPG'ing. <br />
<br />
Given that, it is remarkable and exciting that everybody in this unique assortment of folks is willing to make time to play Labyrinth Lord once every four to six weeks or so, despite being of adult age with families, busy careers, etc.<br />
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Most importantly, we all generally get along, in-game and out. There is a supportive, light-hearted, laughter-inducing atmosphere during our sessions. This harmonious vibe shines through, for example, in Yor's player's supportive, appreciative <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2016/06/arandish-campaign-sessions-75-79-log.html?showComment=1464890040229#c5056728075910725417">comment</a> on my last <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2016/06/arandish-campaign-sessions-75-79-log.html">session report post</a>: "Thanks for putting these together Carter." It is, of course, my pleasure.<br />
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I still have a few minor qualms with the gaming-via-Skype format, but those aren't likely to disappear, barring major, Star Trekkian advances in technology. Probably not even then. Live at the table will always be best. But I have a good thing going here. Maybe I can re-tap into some of the feelings I had earlier on, when I wrote <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2010/11/skype-will-keep-us-together.html">this celebratory post</a> about keeping our campaign group together over Skype: "Skype is our friend!"<br />
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In any case, my "home" Labyrinth Lord group is something very special that I will be sure to nurture, appreciate, and treasure. Thanks friends!<br />
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<i>Some of the same folks one year later, fall 2011. </i><br />
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* One of our experienced participants is Carl Nash, who introduced me to the OSR <a href="http://mutagenicsubstance.blogspot.com/">via <i>Mutant Future</i></a> and who is still quite active in the OSR blogosphere. Check out Carl's <a href="http://backscreenpass.blogspot.com/">blog</a> and be sure to purchase his amazing adventure locale, <a href="http://backscreenpass.blogspot.com/2016/03/fungus-forest-pay-what-you-want.html"><i>The Fungus Forest</i></a>, available for "pay what you want" <a href="http://drivethrurpg.com/product/178717/The-Fungus-Forest">here</a> on RPGNow.</div>
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Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com20tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-31558074965771339462016-06-02T13:20:00.001-04:002016-06-04T14:56:24.796-04:00Arandish Campaign Sessions 75-79 Log<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This post <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2016/02/arandish-campaign-sessions-70-74-log.html">continues my tradition</a> of documenting the shenanigans of my "home" group of PCs, a party that includes: <br />
<br />
<b>Innominus</b>, human cleric of Endra<br />
<b>Dak</b>, dwarven warrior and Field Marshal in Charge of Demon Eradication<br />
<b>Yor</b>, dwarven warrior and Baron of Rogaland<br />
<b>Uncle Junkal</b>, rodian bard<br />
<b>Vivuli</b>, human assassin / magic-user and initiate of the Kaladarian Murder-Heads<br />
<b>Hazel</b>, human fighter / magic-user
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<b>Session 75 "The Sewers of Kaladar"</b><br />
Date: 8/25/2013<br />
PCs: Innominus (Clr 7), Yor (Dwf 7), Dak (Dwf 7), Uncle Junkal (rodian bard 6) [shows up late]<br />
NPCs: Bo Jangles (Ftr 5) and Flipwayter (Dwf 4) (both follow Dak)<br />
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Dawn of Day 200 six levels below East Lookout Hill in the sewers of the <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2009/12/free-city-of-kaladar.html">Free City of Kaladar</a>. Light to moderate snowfall above ground.<br />
The PCs close the stone cap / plug behind them and ascend five additional levels to the surface.<br />
Dak then checks in at each of three sites -- the Hotel Kaladarian, the Green Dragon Shanty, and Arkus House -- to see if anyone came looking for them in the nighttime. Neither inn reported anything unusual but guards at Arkus House noticed a cloaked watcher across the street in the wee hours but could not apprehend said watcher.<br />
After some healing and tomfuckery, mid-morning the PCs head back down into the sewers. There they meet and fight several sewage shamblers. [Uncle Junkal shows up somewhere in here.] They make it down to level six only to breathe in some deadly poisonous gas. Most of the PCs and their followers resist the vile effects of the gas, but hireling Gary the dwarf's liquefied organs ooze out his nose and mouth. He collapses, dead, sporting a HUGE death-boner.<br />
Uncle Junkal and the dwarves notice ancient Telengardian architecture on this level, and everyone notices the pervasive fish-smell. There are obscene etchings on the walls in orcish. Beastarr tracks a deathlike scent. PCs reach a 4-way intersection, following Beastarr's lead. Find secret trapdoor, descend into vast cavern filled with bones, corpses, skeletons, offal -- stench is overpowering. At far end of cavern are two iron doors -- the left one depicting a skull, the right a spider with a human face.<br />
A ghost attacks! The PCs flee back to above the huge stone cap.<br />
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<b>Session 76 "Mucking Around in the Nethers" </b><br />
Date: 9/15/2013<br />
PCs: Innominus (Clr 7), Yor (Dwf 7), Dak (Dwf 7), Vivuli (assassin 5 / Mu 5), Uncle Junkal (rodian bard 6)<br />
NPCs: Bo Jangles (Ftr 5) and Flipwayter (Dwf 4) (both follow Dak)<br />
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Mid-afternoon of Day 200. Very light snowfall on surface. Temperature rising slightly.<br />
PCs start in the nethers of the Free City of Kaladar, above the huge stone cap in the vertical shaft beneath East Lookout Hill. They head immediately to the surface, seeking maps of the Kaladarian sewers. Apparently, none exist.<br />
Dak sends a message to Zardoz requesting a <i>ghost-dispeller</i> scroll. He asks him to remain quiet about their lead on Morag the Arch-Summoner.<br />
Uncle Junkal and Innominus leave Claude the Ranger at the Temple of Endra to be <i>raised</i> from death. He will remain there two weeks.<br />
Later that afternoon they go see Zardoz at the White Council Guildhall. They tell him they were confronted by a ghost in wizard's robes in the sewers.<br />
Uncle Junkal <i>charm</i>s Zardoz. Zardoz becomes more helpful, dispatching Leonard, his scribe, to obtain a <i>ghost-dispeller </i>scroll within the hour.<br />
The party rests from late afternoon 'till around midnight, <i>the witching hour, when the demons rule.</i> Dak stays at the garrison with his troops rather than at Arkus House.<br />
The party sends a message to the Lady Mayor, telling her that an evil sorcerer, a vampire, or both -- who may even be Morag -- is in the catacombs beneath the city. They also advise her to be circumspect ion her dealings with the White Council, since there may be an informant there.<br />
Then they go back down beneath the stone cap in the catacombs, taking three of Dak's anti-demon squad dwarven warriors, Barfo, Jerry, and Muckley, with them for added security. Dak and Yor take the vanguard. They return to the corpse-chamber and the dwarves begin digging at a place where they're convinced there's a hollow space under the floor. They reveal an 80' diameter domed chamber whose floor is 30' beneath them. Etched into the center of the lower chamber floor is a 20' diameter, nine-segment circle. The two dwarves rappel down and start searching the chamber.<br />
Innominus and Muckley come down next -- then the rest of the party. Dak finds a secret door concealing a second, smaller chamber to the north.<br />
Searching the northwest part of the larger chamber, Dak and Barfo find a stone archway framing a glass-like pane of clear material, through which they see a scene of a windswept hill surrounded by what appears to be a lava swamp.<br />
Meanwhile Vivuli finds a poison needle trap in the secret door, but no one in the party can disarm it. Yor volunteers to open the door anyway, rolls a "1" on his poison save, and dies. Innominus immediately casts <i>neutralize poison</i> (from a scroll) on Yor. Endra must especially favor Innominus -- for the spell miraculously revives the fallen dwarf!<br />
The party goes through the secret door and begins searching the smaller chamber. It's an abandoned study, dust everywhere, moldy remains of a comfy chair, a bookshelf of moldy books, an old cot . . .<br />
Innominus checks out the books while the remaining PCs search other parts of the study. <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/07/beastarr-bobcat-coolest-familiar-in-ara.html">Beastarr the bobcat</a> sniffs out the whole place. <br />
Overturning the cot, Dak disturbs a <i>mold-lich</i>, who instantly attacks the party. Flipwayter flees the room in abject terror, but the rest of the gang eventually defeats the lich.<br />
Dak finds a secret trapdoor in the floor under the lich's resting place -- in a niche in the floor he finds an ornate case containing a longsword bearing Old Noffellian runes. Uncle Junkal recognizes the runes as part of a family crest. The sword, whose name, Mellion, is also inscribed on the hilt, must have belonged to an ancient Noffellian family. <br />
Among the moldy and rotten books, Innominus finds one intact title, a dictionary of <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/03/alignment-languages-part-2-what-to-do.html">the Demonic language</a>. In his searching of the room, Yor finds (under some semen found in a mold-pile) another Morag's Gate Key: a small bone chit depicting a Grey Flame symbol.<br />
Searching the east wall of the moldy study, Dak sees a gold-tinted holographic scene of a rocky, windswept precipice jutting out over a tumultuous sea at night. Leaning in closer, the dwarf decides that the "water" in the image may actually be red-hot lava. Beastarr smells a sulfurous odor. Dak's face feels sunburned gazing at the image for just a short while.<br />
Meanwhile, searching the west wall, Flipwayter sees a similar holographic image of some barren dunes and, in the distance, a wicked-looking temple featuring a spider-like symbol visible above its sharply peaked roof. Beastarr smells a sulfurous odor near this image too. Uncle Junkal examines the second image and identifies the temple in the background as a Fane of Lolth.<br />
Dak continues looking at the image of the magma-sea precipice. A shape or creature moves slowly from the background into the foreground of the image. As it heads Dak's way. grwoing more visually distinct, the dwarf sees that it basically resembles a <i>magma otyugh</i>. It gnashes its maw menacingly in Dak's direction but does not come too close. <br />
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<b>Session 77 "Finding Needbo's Crypt" </b><br />
Date: 9/29/2013<br />
PCs: Innominus (Clr 7), Yor (Dwf 7), Dak (Dwf 7), Uncle Junkal (rodian bard 6)<br />
NPCs: Bo Jangles (Ftr 5) and Flipwayter (Dwf 4) (both follow Dak) plus dwarven conscripts Barfo (Dwf 5), Jerry (Dwf 5), and Muckley (Dwf 5)<br />
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It's a couple hours after midnight on Day 200, thus technically the morning of Day 201. Down in the nethers of Kaladar, a magma otyugh has just stink-eyed the party through a transparent, gold-tinted holographic portal in a mold-coated study.<br />
Innominus continues rummaging the musty bookshelf, finding a partially intact book of evil spells. He can't read the spellbook's runic language but just looking at the book bothers the reverent priest.<br />
Yor boosts Dak up so he can push his head "into" the hologram of the dunes and the Lolth Temple. Dak gets his head through, then turns to look behind him -- he finds he cannot see the underground chamber from whence he came and appears to be hanging in midair just above a dune. He surmises that the portal may be one-way from the Arandish side. Yor pulls him back. <br />
Suddenly five saurian balrogs <i>gate</i> into the study chamber and viciously attack the party with black metal flaming swords! A fight ensues, during which Yor throws Innominus at a balrog, Innominus grabs the balrog and casts <i>Cure Light Wounds</i>, rolls his nightly d30 for damage, gets a "25." Yor also gets a happy feeling from the sword Mellion as it kills demons. The PCs vanquish four of the balrogs and one escapes via a <i>gate</i>.<br />
Then the party goes back to the first chamber to investigate Barfo's mysterious arch-portal. Uncle Junkal senses the presence of the <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2012/04/session-51-ghost-and-doppelganger.html">magma-dragon thing</a> he met back in northern Minoch on Day 173. Yor sticks a handaxe through the arch -- it comes back blackened, charred.<br />
Yor notes: "Someone on our world opened the portal!" And wonders: "What the hell killed all the dessicated bodies in the large vaulted chamber above?"<br />
Dak and Yor convince the party to return back to said dessication chamber to the open the left-side "skull" door [found in session 75] and explore what lies beyond. Uncle Junkal investigates the area around the door and finds Old Noffellian runes stating "Here dwells Needbo -- hates all life." The bard takes a rubbing of these runes.<br />
With his immense strength, Yor pulls the door open, revealing an 8' tall, 20' wide cobblestoned passageway. The place smells like a grave into which lots of dead people have been shitting.<br />
Dak stays on a 5' wide, blood-colored cobblestone "path" that winds down the length of the passageway. 30' along his journey he pauses to inspect the walls. They are painted with grotesque mosiacs -- close inspection reveals that the pigment used to render these images is made from vomit, blood, rat urine, and various liquids squeezed from vital organs.<br />
After making this unsavory discovery, Dak continues down the grotesque hallway. A trapdoor drops open and he falls into a 10' deep pit. Yor pulls him out, then hucks him across the pit with a rope. The remaining PCs use the rope to vault across.<br />
They all continue down the foul passage. Near the end At the terminus of the passage (about 170' along) is a large statue of a cloaked man and, to the left, a mysterious mist-filled archway. The PCs search the areas surrounding the statue and archway. Beastarr smells poison gas in the archway. Uncle Junkal inspects the statue itself, deducing that it is a likeness of a six- to seven-generations old member of the aristocratic Achelonian family Needbo.<br />
During the searching period, Dak steps off the blood-colored cobblestone path, fails a save vs. death, and is drained of one life level (to Dwf level 6).<br />
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<i>Innominus:</i></div>
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<i>We set something off when <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2010/11/belated-session-reports-20-21.html">we sold </a></i><br />
<i><a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2010/11/belated-session-reports-20-21.html">the <u>Death Frost Doom</u> mirror</a>. </i></div>
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<b>Session 78 "Deeper into the Crypt"</b><br />
Date: 11/10/2013<br />
PCs: Innominus (Clr 7), Yor (Dwf 7), Dak (Dwf 6)<br />
NPCs: Flipwayter (Dwf 4) (follows Dak) plus dwarven conscripts Barfo (Dwf 5), Jerry (Dwf 5), and Muckley (Dwf 5)<br />
<br />
It's Day 201 at 3am and the party is 170' down the entry passage of Needbo's Crypt, in front of a large (7' tall) statue of a cloaked man. To the left is a mysterious misty archway. The PCs begin to retrace their steps back the way they came, searching the walls, floor, and ceiling as they go.<br />
About 20' back, 150' from the entrance, someone finds some loose stones on the left wall, removes them, and finds a concealed handle that apparently turns either right or left. Yor or Dak turns the handle left, which springs open a concealed door opening on a 5' x 5' crawlspace. Leaving Flipwayter in the main hallway, the PCs enter the crawlspace: Dak, Yor, Innominus, then Beastarr. They crawl in a ways, go around a couple bends, then the crawlway dead-ends. The PCs reverse course, searching as they go.<br />
Their search reveals two different compartments concealed behind loose stones in the walls of the crawlspace. Dak finds one containing a human-looking skull. Yor finds a scroll case, which he passes to Innominus -- the priest opens the case to find a parchment written upon in blood, warning the reader to avoid green in the second great hall.<br />
Suddenly Flipwayter hollers the alarm as slate-gray, hard-to-see gargoyle-things armed with whips attack him in the entry hall, screeching sadistically. The PCs fight them, killing all but one, which flees in terror at the sight of Yor's recently found sword Mellion (see session 76). The last gargoyle-demon leaps "into" a wall, vanishing as if into a <i>gate</i>, once Yor brandishes the ancient Noffellian weapon.<br />
Post-combat, Innominus casts <i>detect magic</i> in the main corridor -- the statue of the cloaked figure glows quite intensely, and the two base stones and one capstone of the archway glow. Yor's sword Mellion glows incredibly intensely. Neither the skull nor the scroll case glow. <br />
Then Innominus casts <i><a href="https://ancientvaults.wordpress.com/2010/04/22/new-spell-tale-of-death/">tale of death</a></i> on the skull. The priest sees a vision of the skull owner's death: a handsome-looking cloaked vampire (bearing a striking resemblance to the figure depicted in the nearby statue in the real world) grabs him or her by the head, bites, and exsanguinates him or her.<br />
Yor pickaxes through the wall at the point where the last gargoyle-thing vanished. He breaks through to a chamber full of grotesque statues, including some of the gargoyle-things. The statues start coming to life, a big battle ensues. <br />
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<b>Session 79 "Emerging from the Crypt"</b><br />
Date: 12/10/2013<br />
PCs: Innominus (Clr 7), Dak (Dwf 6) [restored to Dwf 7], Vivuli (assassin 5 / Mu 5), Uncle Junkal (rodian bard 6)<br />
NPCs: Flipwayter (Dwf 4) (follows Dak) plus dwarven conscripts Barfo, Jerry, and Muckley (all three Dwf 5)<br />
<br />
Dawn of Day 201, in the "statue room" of the crypt several levels beneath the streets of the Free City of Kaladar.<br />
After killing a bunch of hostile statue-things, the PCs search around in the statue room for awhile and find two sturdy wooden chests, and a silver box. As soon as a PC touches the latter, three lobster-clawed shamblers attack!<br />
After the PCs kill said shamblers, Uncle Junkal studies the silver box and recognizes that the rune etched in its lid represents an aristocratic Achelonian family whose name begins with the letter "N."<br />
[Yor joins the session around here.]<br />
Viv disarms two poison needle traps then the PCs open the chests. One is full of a filth-shambler, which attacks. They kill it.<br />
The other contains human bones.<br />
The PCs return to the surface. By the time they emerge from the catacombs, it is mid-afternoon on Day 201. Moderate to heavy snowfall in Kaladar. The PCs retreat to their suite at the <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2009/12/free-city-of-kaladar.html">Hotel Kaladarian</a> (and Innominus retires to the Temple of Endra) to rest until late evening.<br />
An hour after dusk, Innominus has a dream-vision of the young, handsome vampire (seen in last session's <i>Tale of Death </i>vision) saying: "I curse thee, dishonorable mortal."<br />
Later, Dak, Viv, and Uncle Junkal join Innominus at the Temple of Endra. High Priestess Majesticonica <i>restores</i> Dak's lost life level. The PCs spend the late evening discussing demon problems and how to open the seemingly impenetrable silver box, which radiates strong <i>evil</i>. Majesticonica advises that they <u>not</u> attempt to open the box inside Kaladar's city walls.<br />
They call upon Kaladar's Lady Mayor Annabelle to obtain them a late-night audience with <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2009/12/free-city-of-kaladar.html">Sawith the Scribe</a> . . .<br />
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More to come!Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com23tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-59392036612521959672016-02-28T00:32:00.002-05:002016-02-28T00:42:37.366-05:00Arandish Campaign Sessions 70-74 Log <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This post continues the work begun in <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2014/09/arandish-campaign-sessions-60-69-log.html">this previous log</a>, chronicling the ongoing exploits of my "home" campaign group. That group's PCs include:<br />
<br />
<b>Yor</b>, dwarven warrior and Baron of Rogaland<br />
<b>Dak the Younger</b>, dwarven warrior<br />
<b>Innominus</b>, Cleric of Endra<br />
<b>Uncle Junkal</b>, <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/03/rodians-reckoning.html">rodian</a> bard and member of the Kaladarian Central Bard's College<br />
<b>Vivuli</b>, a vile and mysterious <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/12/assassination-decree.html">assassin</a><br />
<b>Hazel</b>, a fighter / magic user with a valiant pet kestrel<br />
<br />
As before, these updates will take a more brief "capsule" form -- feel free to ask for elaborations in the comments.<br />
<br />
<b>Session 70 "Wizards' Council"</b><br />
Date: 5/12/2013<br />
PCs: Innominus (Clr 7), Dak (Dwf 7), Uncle Junkal (Rodian Bard 6), Vivuli (Assassin 5 / Mu 5)<br />
NPCs: Flipwayter (Dwf 3, follows Dak), Rodrick (Thf 5, follows Viv), Claude (Rgr 4, follows Uncle Junkal)<br />
<br />
Starts late afternoon of Day 194 at the Arkus Residence in the Lookout Hill District of the Free City of Kaladar. Heavy snowfall. Most of the party rests and relaxes at the Minochian Prince's modest but well appointed town manor.<br />
Morning of Day 195 -- extremely heavy snowfall.<br />
Tonight at midnight a Grand Council of Wizards is scheduled at the White Council Guildhall, to discuss recent demonic incursions into Ara and Kaladar.<br />
Uncle Junkal, accompanied by Innominus, visits his old campus, the Central Bard's College of Kaladar, and consults with on old grey haired rodian bard there. Asks about the cryptic note he got at the Orc's Balls Inn <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2014/09/arandish-campaign-sessions-60-69-log.html">in Session 61</a>, learns next to nothing. UJ also asks about Morag's Gates and possible folkloric locales for Morag's Workshop. His source says the workshop is either in the eastern mountains of the southern trollish territories, north of Gannar in Novellan, or possibly on the Komar Peninsula (though this last surmise could be the result of a mis-translation).<br />
As for the chits and the gates, Ben the Librarian asks UJ and Innominus if they've seen a Gate or used a chit in one, and Innominus tells him they buried a Gate under Kaminster's Manor in Rogaland, South Minoch. Upon further questioning, during which the Endran priest mentions encountering a "lobster woman," Ben tells of ancient battles between her slimy legions and Fort Hragdor -- maybe Kaladar Island is a holy place for Blibdoolpoolp? <br />
Viv seeks an assassins' guild to join, hopes to be tapped to join The Red Hand. He instead meets some representatives of the Kaladarian Murder-Heads.<br />
Day 195 at midnight: Grand Wizards' Council, Zardoz presides.* Opens by mentioning the 800-year ban on wizards getting involved in Arandish political or military affairs. Dak and Innominus insist that the whole continent is being undermined by demons and balrogs. They state that they have both seen pits to hell appear in Fortinbras and Farn Junction. They outline a plan in which the Kaladarian White Council wizards will assist in finding and sealing the hellpits.<br />
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<br />
<b>Session 71 "War Council"</b><br />
Date: 5/26/2013<br />
PCs: Innominus (Clr 7), Yor (Dwf 7), Dak (Dwf 7), Vivuli (Assassin 5 / Mu 5)<br />
NPCs: Flipwayter (Dwf 3, follows Dak), Rodrick (Thf 5, follows Viv)<br />
<br />
In the wee morning hours of Day 196, Viv gets a mission from the Kaladarian Murder-Heads at the Three Fingers Inn. By the end of the night, he succeeds at his mission and is awarded a Murder-Heads medallion from Franco, his contact in the guild.<br />
Dawn of Day 196 -- more heavy snowfall. Once Yor takes residence, the House of Arkus stands as a kind of informal Minochian Consulate in Kaladar.<br />
Around midday on Day 196, Claude the Ranger comes back to Kaladar from a scouting trip and tells Yor that he saw balrog forces amassing near Farn Junction.<br />
That afternoon, a Kaladarian Special Council is held at the headquarters of the Lady Mayor.** Yor speaks on behalf of the Prince of Minoch, telling the council that "the nature of this [balrog] attack requires magic to respond." <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2009/12/free-city-of-kaladar.html">The Free City of Kaladar</a>, <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2010/01/delzar-land-divided.html">Delzar</a>, Rogaland, and the <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2009/11/arandish-arcana-part-ii-of-iii-white.html">White Council</a> of Kaladar mutually endorse a Resolution to End the Hellpits.<br />
Dak asks for and gets a special appointment to the Kaladarian Guard, "Field Marshal in Charge of Hellpit Closure," reporting directly to General Izod. Dak takes military command of a special demon-fighting unit, to be trained in Kaladar starting immediately. He requests and is granted <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2009/12/magic-items-and-dwarven-steel.html">New Steel</a> weapons and <i>fire resistance</i> potions for all his personnel.<br />
The evening of Day 196, Yor visits local pubs including the Green Dragon Inn to recruit dwarves for Dak's anti-demon task force.<br />
After consulting over dinner with General Izod, Dak orders Noffellian troops to Fortinbras. Innominus sends out a call for any priests with demon-fighting abilities or experience to converge on Kaladar.<br />
Day 197-198 -- Dak makes preparations, UJ asks Alara at the Bard College about cat creatures that live in the east, and she confirms their existence. Innominus asks around about demon-hunters, finds out the Church of Achelon is a good bet and that there's also a guy names Father Wickley of the Church of Telengard known for such skills.<br />
Day 199 -- tryouts begin for Dak's anti-demon squadron . . . and four green dragons attack!<br />
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<b>Session 72 "Balrog Attack!"</b><br />
Date: 6/9/2013<br />
PCs: Innominus (Clr 7), Yor (Dwf 7), Dak (Dwf 7), Uncle Junkal (rodian bard 6), Vivuli (Assassin 5 / Mu 5)<br />
<b>Plus</b> Hazel (Ftr 4 / Mu 4)<br />
NPCs: Flipwayter (Dwf 3, follows Dak), Claude (Rgr 4, follows Uncle Junkal), Rodrick (Thf 5, follows Viv) <b>plus</b> Hazel's follower Fuzz (Ftr 3)<br />
<br />
Midday of Day 199, very light to no snowfall.<br />
The party just survived an extremely rare green dragon attack within Kaladar's city walls. (Green dragons are known to inhabit the woods to the north and east of the Free City and many Kaladarian landmarks are <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2009/12/free-city-of-kaladar.html">named for the creatures</a>.) Then, all of a sudden, Innominus, Hazel, and Yor hear distant screams and explosions from the west and Hazel sends her kestrel aloft to seek out the disturbance. The kestrel sees balrogs flying round the West Gate of Kaladar, attacking the Royal Guards posted there by dropping fire gems and whipping them.***<br />
Four saurian balrogs swoop over the city and attack Dak, Dak's task force inductees, Uncle Junkal, Viv, and Hazel. The PC team kicks their asses and heads for the West Gate. They converge there with Yor and Innominus. The party helps the Kaladarian Royal Guard fend off a vile balrog assault on the Free City of Kaladar. Collectively, counting the ones vanquished at the recruitment training field, they kill eleven balrogs. One balrog flees.<br />
<br />
<b>Session 73 "Investigating the West Gate Attack"</b><br />
Date: 6/23/2013<br />
PCs: Innominus (Clr 7), Yor (Dwf 7), Dak (Dwf 7), Hazel (Ftr 4 / Mu 4)<br />
NPCs: Bo Jangles (Ftr 5, follows Dak), Flipwayter (Dwf 4, follows Dak), Fuzz (Ftr 3, follows Hazel)<br />
<br />
Day 199, just before midday. Heavy snowfall. The West Gate of the Free City of Kaladar. Kaladarian Royal Guard troops line the rooftops and Outer Wall. The PCs loot 7 balrog corpses, recover a total of 6 fire gems. They also find one of Morag's Keys, a bone-like chit etched with an image of a lobster-headed and -clawed woman.<br />
<a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/07/beastarr-bobcat-coolest-familiar-in-ara.html">Beastarr the Bobcat</a> sniffs out whence the sole retreating balrog fled, leading the PCs to a place just inside the Free City's fortified Outer Wall. Innominus <i>detect</i>s residual magic traces in the air and along the interior of the wall. Beastarr smells a pungent fishy smell.<br />
Dak goes to Lady Mayor Annabelle and warns her he thinks there's a double agent in Kaladar. He tells her that the party will be staying at rooms in the Hotel Kaladarian. He then tells General Izod they'll be at the Green Dragon Inn.<br />
The party catches late night pub dinner at The Seedy Snake, a somewhat vile southside bar. Some party members espy a ghoulish figure who exits the pub via a private exit behind the bar. With his great strength, Yor <u>throw</u>s Innominus at the departing ghoul, and the cleric first tackles then <i>turns </i>it.†<br />
The PCs surround the ghoul in the Seedy Snake's kitchen and Hazel uses <i>ESP</i> to discover that it is spying on them on behalf of its master, a sinister, dark-cloaked figure. The PCs take the subdued ghoul to an inn on the next block, The Smelly Skunk, where they get a room and prepare to torture the ghoul spy . . . <br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Yor:</i><br />
<i>Prince Arkus was targeted -- am I also being targeted?</i></div>
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<b>Session 74 "What the Rat Saw"</b><br />
Date: 7/14/2013<br />
PCs: Innominus (Clr 7), Yor (Dwf 7), Dak (Dwf 7), Vivuli (Assassin 5 / Mu 5)<br />
NPCs: Bo Jangles (Ftr 5, follows Dak), Flipwayter (Dwf 4, follows Dak), Rodrick (Thf 5, follows Viv)<br />
<br />
Just before dawn of Day 200. Very light snowfall. A rented room in The Smelly Skunk, a filthy inn in the South Gate District of the Free City of Kaladar. The PCs -- mainly Vivuli and Dak -- are torturing a ghoul to find out who it works for and why it was watching them.<br />
Dak sticks a bunch of fishhooks into the ghoul, then threatens to bring back a high priest to destroy it. The PCs then exit the room, leaving the ghoul tied somewhat half-assedly to a chair.<br />
Once the PCs are outside and across the street, Vivuli sends an <i>invisible </i>rat back into the room at the Smelly Skunk. Vivuli sees what it sees: a Peter Lorre-ish looking guy comes in, liberates the ghoul, covers it with a cloak, and walks it south 4 blocks then east 18 blocks into the Green Dragon District. The scrawny guy and the ghoul sneak into a cellar via a cramped alleyway. The rat follows. It sees the two meet a third figure, a black-cloaked wizard-y looking individual. All three vanish.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Dak: </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Where are the fishhooks I stuck in that thing? </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Innominus: </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>[casts <u>locate object</u>]</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Teleported to a spot under the city, beneath Lookout Hill. </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The PCs go six levels beneath the Free City, into the sewers, and Dak and Yor lift a huge rock cap to access an even deeper level. It is dank and rotten-smelling. Beastarr smells a doggish scent. They are attacked by 7 slime-hounds, who they eventually vanquish.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Rodrick the Thief:</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>He slimed me!</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>[dies] </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
--<br />
* Notable arcanists in attendance include Zardoz the White of Kaladar, Zklek of Kaladar, Arel, Dicktoad the Inscrutable, Thorv, Arthurius, Threk, and Savlene.<br />
** Main attendees include Lady Mayor Annabelle of Kaladar, Sir Draco of the Kaladarian Royal Guard, Delzarian General Aron, Achelonian Colonel Zorn, Noffellian Captain Conkle, Claude the Ranger, and Zimroth the Mysterious (a Delzarian Ranger).<br />
*** A favorite weapon of the saurian balrogs, fire gems have been used recently by the party in <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2014/09/arandish-campaign-sessions-60-69-log.html">Session 63</a> and by balrogs in <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2013/06/sessions-57-59-adventures-around.html">Session 59</a>.<br />
<div class="MsoNormal">
† Yor is naturally quite strong and he also purchased a <i>girdle of giant strength</i> early in the campaign. What he doesn't know is that that the girdle is powerfully <i>cursed</i>, has already sterilized him, and will inflict even more terrifying calamities upon him if he does not get rid of it soon. </div>
Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-91151610134860028172016-02-27T11:29:00.000-05:002016-06-02T12:04:58.090-04:00DM Burnout<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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I have supposedly been running two simultaneous Labyrinth Lord campaigns for several years now. I say "supposedly" because my "home" game (played over Skype) has really been on hiatus for a year or more at this point -- the last two sessions (numbers 87 and 88) took place in June 2015 (on 6/8 and 6/15) and those came after a break lasting since September 2014. I love that group but I cite two factors that led to me losing steam and enforcing, mainly through inaction, a hiatus:<br />
<br />
(1) I must admit that gaming over the internet, for me, is a pale shadow of gaming live, in person, at a table. No matter how good the technology gets there is, for me, a disconnect or a missing piece that rears its head in various ways online: less spontaneous fun chatter and humor takes place, some details get missed or talked over or need to be repeated, to somewhat lessened effect. The whole thing feels like a giant, three-dimensional, full-sensory experience being strained through a small, thin, partial, two-dimensional medium. It will do in a pinch but sadly I must report that online RPG'ing has ultimately been a disappointment to me. There are, of course, high points and much fun to be had, but also a lot of tiring pragmatics that drag the experience down for me.<br />
<br />
(2) I am experiencing general DM burnout. As evidence of this, just this past weekend I also made official a hiatus for my public Labyrinth Lord game at Lift Bridge Book Shop. The group hadn't met for about a month anyway and "the group" in this case is really down to one guy. Or maybe almost two guys: one player who could show up on time, and another who came for the last hour of each session, unable to come earlier due to his work schedule. Then recently, even guy #1 started missing sessions due to the demands of a new job, so between my feelings of DM burnout and critically low attendance, it was time to give that campaign a rest, at least until summer but maybe indefinitely.<br />
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Meanwhile, somebody else I met through the bookstore -- who also happens to be a bookstore employee -- has started running an after-hours <a href="http://dnd.wizards.com/articles/features/basicrules">5e</a> game, which I have joined as a player. I am playing Ur, a dwarven barbarian, and having a grand old time fighting undead and the like. I think it is really crucial (at least for me) to take time to see both sides of the referee's screen. Playing in someone else's campaign is really freeing, fun, and rejuvenating. So thanks Christine for running such a great game!<br />
<br />
That 5e game has been running a couple of months so far and last weekend we had our first session in which only two players showed up. Prior to that, we were averaging at least three players (in addition to the DM) each time. But never fear, the DM was ready -- she had prepared a short one-off scenario using the old TSR <i>Marvel Super Heroes </i>RPG -- the one that uses the brilliant FASERIP system. (If you love that game as much as I do, check out <a href="http://www.classicmarvelforever.com/cms/">this site</a>.) I had a great time playing -- who else? -- Ben Grimm, while my comrade chose Spidey. So fun! <b>It's clobberin' time!</b><br />
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Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-3100485409249235072015-06-09T11:01:00.001-04:002015-06-09T11:43:53.639-04:00Scrying in LL?<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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My blogging activities and my "home" Labyrinth Lord Campaign (which plays online over Skype) have both been on hiatus for some time. The last time that particular group played was last September. There are several reasons for the break, chief among them the arrival of two babies -- two of our players have recently become fathers -- and my own mad scramble to get my academic ducks in a row for a major review I'll be subjected to this coming fall (it's not my actual tenure review but it will heavily inform that tenure decision, which lies one additional year in my future). So it has been a busy time full of changes in our non-gaming lives.<br />
<br />
Additionally, as I told my group of players via email a few weeks back, I was beginning to experience some DM's fatigue last year. Some of that fatigue may be attributable to a personality quirk of my own: I have this funny thing (in all things I do) where when I reach the "nearly finished" point -- about the 80% complete mark -- and I start to lose interest in a project or undertaking. I have been feeling a bit of that type fatigue with the "home" campaign before the hiatus. As I wrote to the players:<br />
<blockquote>
It is not that I "know" our campaign is about 80% done. I do not. There is no way to predict that and I do not have one, set endgame in mind -- I just know who's out there doing what to whom, so I will judge how those personas respond to your party's inevitable meddling . . .
<br />
<br />
That said, I tend to think that old-school D&D characters should retire from adventuring around 9th or 10th level -- so around then I would expect your characters to be running things (probably not all of Ara -- the Noffellians would secede if you guys took over -- but surely Rogaland, a temple of Endra, a bard's college. etc.) and then we might think about next steps. I could run another campaign in Ara, or . . . . Satan knows. </blockquote>
However, what I didn't tell the players (because I didn't realize it yet) is that part of the issue also lies with the medium through which we play: Skype. I do not mean to single Skype out here, what I mean to refer to is the general difference between playing long-distance vs. playing live, in person, at a table in the same room. For me, there is simply no substitute for that latter experience. I know this because as I have <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2014/09/lift-bridge-game-updates.html">reported</a> before, I am having a grand old time running my public game at the local bookshop. There is a certain magic that can occur when folks are in the room together, and I think certain aspects of character interactions and subtle plot nuances are more easily conducted and conveyed live.<br />
<br />
All that said, my online group played again last night and had a thrilling, awesome session (the 87th session of our campaign). It was so fun that we are meeting again in a week. The group teleported their way into a crypt buried beneath the Free City of Kaladar in order to do battle with a vampire and to seek an interdimensional <i>gate</i> they strongly suspect lies somewhere in or near that crypt.<br />
<br />
In preparing to go after that vampire, the PCs enlisted the services of a wizard who briefly visited the vampire's lair, allowing himself to be transported there via a magical archway that appears to transmit living beings only, depositing them naked at the destination with none of their gear. This wizard, Tim, was instantly attacked and life-drained by the waiting vampire, and then he teleported himself back out of the vampire's lair to rejoin the party. They all retreated back to the above-ground city to <i>scry</i> the location Tim had seen via a crystal ball, so everybody could be teleported back in to do battle with the vampire.<br />
<br />
This raised a question for me and my players: how, besides a crystal ball, does one <i>scry</i> in Labyrinth Lord? <br />
<br />
None of us could find any direct reference to <i>scrying</i> except in the spell description for <i>teleport</i> (<i>LL</i> p. 40, <i>AEC</i> p. 80). Any thoughts?<br />
<br />
P.S. I checked out my <i>DMG</i> this morning and found that EGG says this about scrying and anti-scrying:<br />
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<br />Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com33tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-46705807431442903192014-09-22T19:07:00.000-04:002016-02-27T21:26:26.767-05:00Arandish Campaign Sessions 60-69 Log<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It has been quite awhile since I reported in detail about the adventures of the ongoing "home" Lands of Ara Campaign I conduct over Skype. This group has been playing together since January 2010 and includes players in Oregon, Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, New York, and (occasionally) Wisconsin. Just over a year ago, I inexplicably stopped recounting their exploits via regular session reports. Now I'm getting started again.<br />
<br />
Borrowing from <a href="http://cyclopeatron.blogspot.com/2013/09/brief-log-of-catheign-sessions.html">Cyclopeatron</a>, I am adopting a briefer "Session Log" format to document sessions 60-69, bridging the gap between <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2013/06/sessions-57-59-adventures-around.html">the last session report I posted</a> and a forthcoming series of posts about the most recent developments in the campaign.<br />
<br />
<b>Primary PCs:</b><br />
Innominus – human cleric<br />
Dak – dwarf<br />
Yor – dwarf<br />
Uncle Junkal – rodian bard<br />
Vivuli – human Assassin/MU<br />
<br />
<b>Occasional PC:</b><br />
Hazel - human fighter/MU<br />
<br />
<b>Session 60</b><br />
Date: 9/23/2012<br />
PCs: Innominus (Clr. 7), Dak (Dwf. 6), Yor (Dwf. 6), Uncle Junkal (Rodian Bard 5)<br />
NPCs: Nic Cage (Ftr. 4, follows Yor), Claude (Ranger 4, follows Uncle Junkal), and Flipwayter (Dwf 2, follows Dak)<br />
<br />
Starts evening of Day 192 at the West Gate of the Free City of Kaladar.<br />
Innominus takes the charred remains of Brother Lawrence to the Temple of Carcoon, learns from the Carcoonian Priests that the Western Lands were invaded by demons roughly seven days ago.<br />
Day 193: Meet with Kaladar's Lady Mayor Annabelle and Sir Draco, the Captain of the Kaladarian Royal Guard.<br />
Uncle Junkal <i>charms</i> the Lady Mayor and encourages her to think fondly of Yor, Baron of Rogaland.<br />
The party decides to ask around Kaladar about Morag the Arch-Summoner.<br />
<br />
<b>Session 61</b><br />
Date: 10/14/2012<br />
PCs: Dak, Yor, Uncle Junkal<br />
NPCs: Claude, Nic Cage, Flipwayter<br />
<br />
Start mid-afternoon of Day 193 in Kaladar -- light snowfall.<br />
Party stays at Orc's Balls Inn, East District -- Uncle Junkal receives anonymous note sealed with wax, consisting of four pictographic symbols: a mer-lion, a saurian balrog, a wedge-shaped symbol, and a date one or two days hence.<br />
Party visits Kaladarian White Council Magic-User's Guildhall -- meets Zardoz the White, gives him Dak's summoning circle rubbing. Zardoz says he will hand this stuff over to Z'klek, a summoning and demonology specialist.<br />
Party decides to visit Stonehell that night since an unusual energy signature there matches wedge image on Uncle Junkal's cryptic note; the magic-users guild will teleport the party there with Threk and Savlene, a couple wizards, to assist.<br />
That afternoon Uncle Junkal visits the Kaladarian Central Bard's College and asks about <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/06/session-37-northward-to-achelon.html">northern grave-desecration incidents</a>; hears the name "Needbo."<br />
Yor buys a <i>cloak of protection</i> +2 for 18,000gp.<br />
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<b>Session 62</b><br />
Date: 10/28/2012<br />
PCs: Innominus, Dak, Yor, Vivuli<br />
NPCs: Nic Cage [dies], Flipwayter, Rodrick (Thf. 4, follows Viv), Threk, Saulene, Bo & Brian Jangles (both Ftr. 5, mercs in Lady Mayor Annabelle's employ), 4 [soon 3] Rogalandish archers<br />
<br />
Start early evening of Day 193 in Kaladar -- moderate-to-light snowfall<br />
White Council wizards teleport party to Stonehell -- Nic Cage and one of the original four Rogalandish archers never arrive, buried in stone. Two Kaladarian wizards, Threk (MU 6, male human, Zardoz's apprentice) and Savlene (MU 5, female half-elf, studied with Sodomozius the Great) are sent along.<br />
Stonehell is very hot, entry chamber at base of spiral stairs features huge burn pile of corpses with four saurian balrogs tending the pile.<br />
Party uses <i>fire resistance</i> scrolls to withstand heat and defeat balrogs in battle.<br />
Items recovered: a golden necklace of dwarven make worth 80gp.<br />
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<b>Session 63</b><br />
Date: 11/11/2012<br />
PCs: Innominus, Dak, Yor, Vivuli, Uncle Junkal<br />
NPCs: Claude, Flipwayter, Rodrick, Threk, Saulene, Bo & Brian Jangles, 3 Rogalandish archers<br />
<br />
Starts late evening of Day 193. in Level 1 entry chamber of Stonehell.<br />
Press on into Stonehell -- fight Dark Balrogs. Viv and Bo each take a black balrog sword.<br />
Go down well shaft. Encounter metallic bobcats, <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/07/beastarr-bobcat-coolest-familiar-in-ara.html">Beastarr</a> tracks them to double doors. Viv <i>x-ray</i>s thru doors and sees ten metallic bobcats with leader in pillared room. Dak opens doors and Beastarr and Innominus enter, Beastarr attempts diplomacy, bobcats attack, Inn. and Beastarr retreat, Viv and Dak huck fire gems inside. Huge explosion which disintegrates double-doors.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Innominus: </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>What if the metal bobcats were our allies? We've now made them our enemies.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Vivuli: </i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Hey, it was a misunderstanding -- and we killed all the witnesses!</i></div>
<br />
<b>Session 64</b><br />
Date: 12/16/2012<br />
PCs: Innominus, Dak, Yor, Vivuli, Uncle Junkal<br />
NPCs: Claude, Flipwayter, Rodrick, Threk, Saulene, Bo & Brian Jangles, 3 Rogalandish archers<br />
<br />
Starts around midnight on Day 193, in pillared chamber on Level 2 of Stonehell.<br />
Pillars have mushroom-like runes at the top which UJ identifies as the sign of the Aldorian (Elven) House of Pyske.<br />
Party descends to Level 3 and finds shape of a bobcat head burned into a wall. Beastarr picks up unique scent (implanted directly into his mind, along with a name: Keak the Fierce) and leads party into prison cell block.<br />
Party breaks into cell, meets sulfurous demon bobcat (with scars on both sides of neck) chained to the wall. UJ <i>charms</i> it then Viv speaks to it in the Dark Tongue* and learns that the huge sulfurous thing claims to be imprisoned by "the Ukuku." When questioned about the metal cats, it calls them the Ukuku and claims they are "trying to take the vessel from us." When asked about Keak the Fierce, it calls him a "traitor," saying that "he'll sell us out to the otherworlders."<br />
<br />
<b>Session 65</b><br />
Date: 01/27/2013<br />
PCs: Innominus, Dak, Yor, Vivuli, Uncle Junkal<br />
NPCs: Claude, Flipwayter, Rodrick, Threk, Saulene, Bo & Brian Jangles, 3 Rogalandish archers<br />
<br />
Starts after midnight on Day 193 (so technically the wee hours of morning on Day 194), in hallway outside holding cells on Level 3 of Stonehell.<br />
Party dungeoneers through several rooms, descends one level, encounters and vanquishes four magma bobcats. One magma bobcat explodes after being killed. Viv finds a silver cock ring (worth 200gp) in remaining ash pile.<br />
Party dungeoneers further, encounters three Bobcat Balrogs, UJ crits and kills a <i>gated</i>-in glebrazu in one blow.<br />
Items recovered: a silver cock ring (worth 200gp) and a hobbit- or rodian-sized <i>buckler +1.</i><br />
<br />
<b>Session 66</b><br />
Date: 02/10/2013<br />
PCs: Innominus, Dak, Yor, Vivuli<br />
NPCs: Flipwayter, Rodrick, Threk, Saulene, Bo & Brian Jangles, 3 Rogalandish archers<br />
<br />
Starts in the wee hours just before dawn on Day 194 in a chamber on Level 4 of Stonehell.<br />
Stalactite cave. Dak curls up and Yor "bowls" him toward advancing phalanx of Piercers.<br />
Cave Bear den, Vivuli <i>x-rays</i> and finds titanium broach.<br />
Four-way intersection where Beastarr smells all three types of bobcat demon (magma, balrog, and metallic).<br />
Chamber with the <i>blue gate. </i>Viv <i>x-rays </i>the gate, sees jack shit void. Viv then everyone goes through.<br />
In metal-walled area. Walk under titanium arch -- Viv's titanium medallion tingles. Innominus casts <i>detect magic</i> and discovers that both the arch and the medallion radiate arcane energy.<br />
<br />
<b>Session 67</b><br />
Date: 03/10/2013<br />
PCs: Innominus, Dak, Yor, Vivuli, Uncle Junkal<br />
NPCs: Flipwayter, Rodrick, Claude, Threk, Saulene, Bo & Brian Jangles, 3 Rogalandish archers<br />
<br />
Starts just before dawn on Day 194 in a metal-enclosed chamber on Level 4 of Stonehell.<br />
Beastarr smells FAINT metallic bobcat, STRONG balrog bobcat, and a wholly new smell.<br />
Viv discovers his <i>x-ray</i> does not penetrate the metallic material of which this structure is made.<br />
Dungeoneer a ways, find some clues hinting at bobcat type culture in far Eastern Mountains of Ara.<br />
Find large metal chamber with four thrones facing blue-glowing mural. Four tall, robed, catlike humanoids -- lion, tiger, panther, bobcat -- standing around big, bright column of light in center of room. Beastarr correlates these figures to new smell. None is Keak.<br />
Viv bungles assassination of the panther-thing, Dak chucks fire gem, kills all four, melts their amulets, damages a couple of the big thrones. Column of light winks out.<br />
Yor levels to Dwf. 7 at end of this session.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Innominus:</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>We're here for Keak -- we're gonna get him one way or the other.</i></div>
<br />
<b>Session 68</b><br />
Date: 04/07/2013<br />
PCs: Innominus, Yor, Vivuli, Uncle Junkal<br />
NPCs: Claude, Rodrick, Threk, Saulene, Bo & Brian Jangles, 3 Rogalandish archers<br />
<br />
Starts at dawn on Day 194 in a metal-enclosed chamber with bright blue mural and thrones, etc. on Level 4 of Stonehell.<br />
Search big chamber, find ideographs on throne armrests, Uncle Junkal and Viv note them down. Turns out ideographs are on buttons, UJ pushes some of them, various things happen.<br />
Pure white disc 6' diameter set into center of floor.<br />
Wheeled thing attacks, shooting electricity.<br />
6 Bobcat ninjas attack! UJ charms one, party negotiates.<br />
Ninjas lead the party to private chamber nearby to meet the liaison to the hukuku, a big cat-humanoid like the robed ones in the previous chamber.<br />
The liaison confirms that the balrog bobcats are his enemies. "Keak is imprisoned for negotiating with them." Also reveals that the metal section they're all standing in is a vessel for traveling between worlds, stuck here after a crash.<br />
Party speaks with Keak, who confirms that the balrogs caused the interference that crashed their ship. Party successfully negotiates his release.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Innominus:</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>There's no shortage of things that need saving!</i></div>
<br />
<b>Session 69</b><br />
Date: 04/28/2013<br />
PCs: Innominus, Dak, Yor, Vivuli, Uncle Junkal<br />
NPCs: Flipwayter, Rodrick, Claude, Threk, Saulene, Bo & Brian Jangles, 3 Rogalandish archers<br />
<br />
Starts midday on Day 194 outside Keak's cell in a metal-enclosed section of Level 4 of Stonehell.<br />
Party and Keak leave ship area to venture back up through Stonehell to surface.<br />
Keak wants to reach another rumored, much older ship crash site in Eastern Mountains. Innominus suggests to the party that it makes the most sense to take Keak back to the Free City of Kaladar.<br />
Threk and Saulene <i>teleport </i>the party plus Keak back to White Council Guildhall in Kaladar.<br />
<br />
The session continues with an interesting briefing with Zardoz, High Councilman of the Kaladarian White Council -- in an upcoming post!<br />
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<i>Sorry I've been so slow with these reports, but I'm working on one of these.</i></div>
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--<br />
* The Arandish chaotic alignment language, discussed <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/03/alignment-languages-part-2-what-to-do.html">here</a>.<br />
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<i>While most of the players have turned over since this picture was taken in Nov. 2012, this accurately depicts the space in which we play Labyrinth Lord at Lift Bridge Books in Brockport, NY. </i></div>
<br />
Much as I <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2014/03/an-osr-victory.html">reported</a> last March, I have been away from blogging (and may remain so) for awhile but am very busy gaming! Today I want to post a couple updates about my <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2012/09/lift-bridge-game-updates.html">open-to-the-public <i>Labyrinth Lord</i> game</a> that meets twice a month at <a href="http://www.liftbridgebooks.com/">Lift Bridge Book Shop</a>.<br />
<br />
<i>Repurposing Classic Modules</i><br />
The Lift Bridge-based group has been adventuring in central and eastern Ara, having found a dwarven artifact weapon called <b>Whelm</b> in the treasure horde of a green dragon they slew a few days east of Kaladar. A few sessions ago, that magical dwarven warhammer communicated to one of the party members -- an elven thief named Rux Joopy -- and offered him a chance to become dwarven champion and hero. Rux accepted, and instantly transmogrified into a dwarf. The party then marched north to <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2010/02/gannar-dwarven-stronghold-of-north.html">Gannar</a> and received the blessing of King Robert V, who charged them to seek out another missing dwarven artifact, the sword Skeenkarbulo, rumored to be held by the vile fire giant king Snurre in the heart of the mountains.<br />
<br />
As those in the know will have deciphered by now, I have been having a grand old time using some classic TSR adventure modules as the basis for this group's recent exploits. I am not slavishly following all the directives in these modules -- turning the resting place of Whelm into a dragon's horde rather than (primarily) the haunt of a crazy wizard, for example -- but rather modifying them to fit our own ongoing pursuits. Fun!<br />
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<i>They've been fighting a lot of these . . . </i></div>
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<i>. . . and today they fought one of these . . . </i></div>
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<i>. . . and saw a couple of these things mating!</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<i>Starting New PCs</i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
When PCs die, or when new players join the group, I have been starting off the new characters that replace them at a higher level than 1st, since the bulk of the party is now up at 5th and 6th level on average (Voltage the Druid, the longest-lived and most powerful character in the party, hit 7th level at the end of last session). The rough guideline I used is:</div>
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<br /></div>
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<u><b>Average Party Level Starting XP</b></u></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
4th - 5th 4,400</div>
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5th - 6th 10,001</div>
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<br /></div>
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Not much else to report, just that we're having lots of fun.</div>
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<br />
<b>UPDATE 9/22/14:</b> Glancing over <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/02/arandish-campaign-house-rules-2011.html">an old set of House Rules</a> from my "home" campaign, I was reminded today that the Lift Bridge Campaign adopted a new ongoing ruling yesterday: During chargen, attribute scores are generated by rolling 4d6, discarding the lowest die roll, and assigning the result to each attribute in order: STR, DEX, CON, INT, WIS, and CHA. </div>
Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-17009291868196667232014-03-16T17:20:00.000-04:002016-02-27T21:23:00.423-05:00An OSR Victory<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Jm1NpSUSWkU/UyYPsvfPbFI/AAAAAAAABXI/bfmRvSkLEz8/s1600/IMG_0417_crop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="222" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-Jm1NpSUSWkU/UyYPsvfPbFI/AAAAAAAABXI/bfmRvSkLEz8/s1600/IMG_0417_crop.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
I have been busy running my two <i>Labyrinth Lord </i>campaigns: my so-called "home" campaign that meets about once a month <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2013/03/skype-session-photos.html">over Skype</a>, and my public game at <a href="http://www.liftbridgebooks.com/">Lift Bridge Book Shop</a> that meets on the first and third Sunday of every month.<br />
<br />
I will return to the "home" game in a moment but first a few words about the Lift Bridge game. As I have <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2012/09/reflections-on-lift-bridge-game-and.html">mentioned before</a>, it is mainly attended by a group of younger gamers -- a couple twentysomethings, and one gentleman closer to my own age,* but mostly lads 14 and under (about 4-5 regulars in that age category). I have been getting increasingly drawn in by that group and am really enjoying how the looseness of OSR gaming synergizes with their wild imaginations. They are also, on the whole, getting smarter as players -- more dungeoneering, planning, and coordination of effort is taking place relative to when we <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2012/06/first-lift-bridge-game-success.html">began this group</a> back in June 2012. It also probably can't hurt that we are generally in <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2010/12/sweet-spot-of-adventure-campaign.html">the "sweet spot" for <i>LL</i> game play</a>, when most of the PCs are between levels three and six.<br />
<br />
However, on top of all this, one of the biggest triumphs of my entire gaming career took place at the end of today's session, when one of the younger-generation gamers, Jake, told me that he is running his own game on the side -- <i>using Labyrinth Lord!! </i> I asked him why he chose that system, and he said that as a DM, it was far easier to run <i>LL</i> than <i>D&D IV</i>. I concurred with his opinion, and told him I was pleased that he and his friends were enjoying <i>LL</i> even when they weren't playing it with me. I went home beaming inwardly that I seem to have succeeded in my stated goal in starting this public game, to wit:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
my main mission in reaching out to [members of younger generations] is to introduce them to the Old Ways, i.e., <i>Labyrinth Lord.</i></blockquote>
Mission accomplished!<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eu5G_IZtw1M/UyYVXF0-f5I/AAAAAAAABXY/1gvdcRWwI7w/s1600/final.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="302" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eu5G_IZtw1M/UyYVXF0-f5I/AAAAAAAABXY/1gvdcRWwI7w/s1600/final.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
As for my home game, that campaign is reaching near-domain level play, as all the PCs have reached level seven or thereabouts at this point. They are commanding some units of specialized mercenary demon-hunters and defending the Free City of Kaladar from a possible alliance between balrogs and a vampire clan called Needbo. I am having fun with that group as they approach the campaign endgame, and yet I am not sure how much longer that particular arc will continue. We will likely still be playing through the summer, and maybe even until the end of the year, but once the PCs reach level nine or so, I think it likely that I will want to retire this party and have those players roll up a new adventuring group and start over. We will see what develops.<br />
<br />
<b>UPDATE 3/17/2014: </b>I realized after writing the above paragraph about retiring the "home" campaign PCs after Level 9 that I may be somewhat contradicting myself from <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2010/12/sweet-spot-of-adventure-campaign.html">here</a>, where I said that I "expect my PCs to claim land and erect strongholds starting at Level 9" and that I am "open to seeing this campaign continue through to PC levels in and beyond the 'teens.'" Why have I changed my mind since December 2010? Two reasons: (1) I am so damn busy now that learning or devising new "domain game" rules at this stage would be an impossibility, and (2) the Lift Bridge campaign is emphatically reminding me how much I enjoy that "sweet spot" when the PCs are level 3-6 or so. Therefore the idea of retiring Dak, Yor, Innominus & co. and starting that group over from scratch actually has immense appeal for me; name-level PCs are really powerful and demand really intense foes and situations. I can sustain this for awhile longer but maybe not into the double-digit PC levels. <br />
<br />
--<br />
* The <a href="http://sandmangaming.com/whats-the-buzz/">recently un-hiatused</a> Jack Phoenix!Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-85615629326881681172013-06-09T18:54:00.002-04:002015-05-28T13:24:27.737-04:00Sessions 57 - 59: Adventures Around Marshton and Slag Mountain<b>Session 57</b><br />
Date: 5/6/2012<br />
PCs: Innominus (Clr. 7), Dak (Dwf. 6), Yor (Dwf. 6), Uncle Junkal (Rodian Bard 5), Vivuli (Assassin 5 / MU 5)<br />
NPC <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/02/new-house-rule-entourage-approach.html">followers</a>: Nic Cage* (Ftr. 3, follows Yor), Claude (Ranger 3, follows Uncle Junkal), Flipwaiter (Dwf. 2, follows Dak) and Rodrick (Thf. 4, follows Viv).<br />
NPC hirelings: Dunsdonger (Ftr. 2) and Abbideck (Dwf. 2) were also along as hired mercs, four archers of Rogaland protected their Baron, and Brother Lawrence of the Brothers of Carcoon (Clr. 3) accompanied the group as an observer, though the latter was beginning, over time, to warm to Innominus' teachings about the Temple of Endra.<br />
<br />
Early on Day 182 of the party's Arandish adventures, having just survived a <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2012/10/session-56-visiting-grumbledook-and.html">snowstorm</a>, the group awakened to light snowfall on the north bank of the Blintsflow River, fifteen miles southeast of the town of Marshton in Blint [hex 1517].<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TbJmMsTOIm8/UI6Xn8hW51I/AAAAAAAABFU/-jVKE4NNnaY/s1600/Session+56+map.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="175" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-TbJmMsTOIm8/UI6Xn8hW51I/AAAAAAAABFU/-jVKE4NNnaY/s400/Session+56+map.JPG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Marshton is in hex 1517; the city erroneously labeled "Marshton" in hex 1316 of the above map is in fact Blintsport.</i></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><br /></i></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The party took two hours to hide their boat, which was rendered useless by the overnight freezing of the Blintsflow, and then they hiked overland toward Marshton. On the way there, they were first assaulted by a swarm of dreaded <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/04/e-for-eyepecker.html">eyepeckers</a>,** which they fended off with flaming oil flasks and Viv's <i>wand of lightning bolts, </i>then were attacked less than an hour later by a bulette! While the open plains of central Blint are known as feeding grounds for these dreadful beings, this particular bulette was unusual: as Yor delivered the killing blow to the creature at the conclusion of a pitched battle, an old hag's voice sounded inside his head, saying "A curse upon you and your land!" Then the bulette flatulated mightily (right in Yor's face) and died. </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
As Yor recovered from the stinky emission and pondered the unusual curse, Vivuli immediately set about <i>x-raying</i> and vivisecting the bulette's corpse. Inside its stomach the enterprising assassin found the partially digested corpses of six rodians, sailors by the look of them. Looting the half-digested rodian corpses, Vivuli recovered:</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
- a goodly amount of coinage and loose gems</div>
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- a couple of potions, of <i>human control </i>and <i>giant strength</i> </div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
- a <i>decanter of endless water</i></div>
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- an embroidered kerchief identifying the group as members of Captain Blackskull's crew</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
Vivuli determined that all this stuff had been in the bulette's digestive tract since roughly the day before.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
The group then pressed on to Marshton, reaching the small town in the late afternoon of Day 182 of their adventures. They checked into the One-Eyed Snake Inn and queried the innkeeper about where a group of dragon hunters could go to find extra hands in the town. After Dak and Viv both spent generously in the establishment, the innkeep suggested that they could find able-bodied warriors at the militia house on the north side of town, and also told the group that Ookla, the local wise woman, could help them with information about the precise location of Boris' lair on Slag Mountain.<br />
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<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-neCw-CTwb3c/VB9HJCUMDvI/AAAAAAAABqo/PnXlP7Pf-Qc/s1600/BarbaraMiller_adj.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="305" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-neCw-CTwb3c/VB9HJCUMDvI/AAAAAAAABqo/PnXlP7Pf-Qc/s1600/BarbaraMiller_adj.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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</div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Ookla, Marshton's wise woman, advises a client.</i></div>
</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
<br />
The party paid a visit to Ookla the Wise, who lived above a small apothecary shop on Marshton's east side. They showed her the head of the dragon Zelda, and she was most impressed. She gave them directions to the lair of Zelda's mate, Boris, on nearby Slag Mountain. She also recommended a local mountaineer and guide named Jerry, who had been up on Slag Mountain before. Ookla was unable to shed light upon the significance of the bulette's curse, though.<br />
<br />
After lurking around Marshton for several more days, the party set off to the east, toward Slag Mountain, on the morning of Day 188 of their adventures. Their guide, Jerry, took them first to the country dwelling of Oswald the goat rancher, who lived on a farm between Marshton and the mountain. The party stabled their horses at Oswald's place then ascended Slag Mountain in the late afternoon.<br />
<br />
Up on the steam-vent-riddled mountain face, he group did battle with two giant snakes, vanquished them, then proceeded further upward. It got hotter. Claude the Ranger detected some snake tracks plus the tracks of some bipedal, ogre-sized magma creatures.<br />
<br />
--<br />
<b>Session 58</b><br />
Date: 6/3/2012<br />
PCs: Innominus (Clr. 7), Dak (Dwf. 6), Yor (Dwf. 6), Uncle Junkal (Rodian Bard 5), Vivuli (Assassin 5 / MU 5)<br />
NPCs: Nic Cage (Ftr. 2, follows Yor), Claude (Ranger 4, follows Uncle Junkal), and Rodrick (Thf. 4, follows Viv), Brother Lawrence of the Brothers of Carcoon (Clr. 3, follows Innominus), Flipwayter (Dwf 2, follows Dak), and Abbideck (Dwf 1) and Dunsdonger (Ftr 2), hirelings.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"I'm always for retreating if you guys are." -- Uncle Junkal</i></div>
<br />
It is near dusk on Day 188 of the party's Arandish adventures. Light winter snowfall finds our intrepid adventurers high on the southeast face of Slag Mountain, which lies on the Blint / Minoch border.<br />
<br />
No sooner did Claude find some suspicious magma footprints on the steep switchbacks than the group was viciously attacked by two huge magma elementals. The party eventually dispatched these formidable beings, and Vivuli wrote his name in piss on one of their melted-magma corpses. <br />
<br />
In the wake of the battle, Uncle Junkal received a telepathic message in his mind: "GET OFF MY MOUNTAIN OR I'LL FRY YOU ALL AND EAT YOUR INNARDS."<br />
<br />
Taking this threat seriously, presuming it to be from the legendary Boris the Red Dragon, the party opted to immediately descend the mountain in the falling twilight, under moderate snowfall. They reached Oswald's homestead after midnight, and bedded down there.<br />
<br />
A foot of new show fell overnight, and the party set off toward the west on Day 189 of their adventures. They decided to head northeastward to the Free City of Kaladar, approximately a week's travel overland.<br />
<br />
All day of Day 189, the group was pursued and repeatedly attacked by a pack of werewolves of DOOM.<br />
<br />
Which they killed.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>"I'm here to kill for my god!" -- Innominus</i></div>
<br />
--<br />
<b>Session 59</b><br />
Date: 7/1/2012<br />
PCs: Innominus (Clr. 7), Dak (Dwf. 6), Yor (Dwf. 6), Uncle Junkal (Rodian Bard 5), Vivuli (Assassin 5 / MU 5)<br />
NPCs: Nic Cage (Ftr. 2, follows Yor), Claude (Ranger 4, follows Uncle Junkal), and Rodrick (Thf. 4, follows Viv), Brother Lawrence of the Brothers of Carcoon (Clr. 3, follows Innominus), Flipwayter (Dwf 2, follows Dak), and Abbideck (Dwf 1) and Dunsdonger (Ftr 2), hirelings.<br />
<br />
The party spends the next three days trekking overland through snow to Kaladar. The first day, they are attacked by <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2009/11/killer-looking-harryhausen-cyclops.html">horned cyclops</a>, but eventually kill these enemies, tracking them to their lair, killing their extended families, and looting the lair.<br />
<br />
The party's second and third days' travel were marked by the presence of saurian balrogs in the air overhead. The demons seemed to be flying regular patrol patterns. Early in the morning of Day 192 of their Arandish adventures, the party was attacked by a group of flying balrogs dropping fire gems! During this deadly bombardment, Brother Lawrence plus two good horses were completely incinerated.<br />
<br />
Eventually defeating these foes, the party set off for the Free City once again, reaching the West Gate of Kaladar on the evening of Day 192 of their adventures. <br />
<br /></div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
--</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
* Nic Cage leveled up at the end of last session.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
** Eyepeckers are an indigenous Arandish creature which you can find on p. 23 of <i><a href="http://www.mediafire.com/?21xdgk6cfamfckg">The Lands of Ara Compendium 2011</a>.</i></div>
Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-25103549524638940312013-03-25T23:49:00.000-04:002013-03-25T23:49:24.651-04:00Delightful Deluxe T&T PhotoI was just updating some links and checking back in on <a href="http://www.trollhalla.com/index.html">the <i>Trollhalla</i> forum</a> when I came a cross <a href="http://deluxetunnelsandtrolls.wordpress.com/">this blog</a> offering updates on the new forthcoming Deluxe edition of <i>Tunnels and Trolls</i>. Of especial interest was <a href="http://deluxetunnelsandtrolls.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/the-continuing-adventures-of-the-fellowship-of-the-troll/">this post</a> featuring this photo:<br />
<br />
<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://deluxetunnelsandtrolls.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/fellowshippic0127.jpg?w=930" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://deluxetunnelsandtrolls.files.wordpress.com/2013/03/fellowshippic0127.jpg?w=930" width="345" /></a></div>
<br />
I don't know about you, but I DEFINITELY want to get my hands on whatever game THAT gang is producing! <br />
<br />
(Of course, I have already assured that I will get my hands on said game by contributing to the <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/994700393/deluxe-tunnels-and-trolls"><i>Deluxe T&T</i> Kickstarter campaign</a>.)Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-58392940393485574072013-03-22T09:27:00.001-04:002013-03-22T09:27:24.286-04:00OSRCon 2013 UpdateIf you've been tracking the latest updates over at the OSRCon blog, you already know that due to various administrative and facilities problems, it <a href="http://osrcon.wordpress.com/2013/03/18/osrcon-is-cancelled/">seemed for awhile</a> like OSRCon 2013 would not happen. Wrote OSRCon Director Chris Cunnington:<br />
<br />
<i>I’ll have a $1000 bill to use the [Lillian H. Smith Library] </i><i>basement. I’ll have no way to collect money. And I’ll have four times the publicity/marketing burden than I did last year.</i><br />
<br />
<i>I’m stopping this before I take anybody’s money, before I’m committed. This started two years ago as a fun experiment. It’s time to get outta Dodge. </i>
<br />
<br />
On the one hand, of course I was sad about this. I had a great time at both <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/09/tales-from-osrcon-why-i-love-this-photo.html">OSRCon 2011</a> and <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2012/10/osrcon-2012-why-i-love-this-photo.html">OSRCon 2012</a> and will miss playing RPGs in the basement of that beautiful library. However, a very good friend of mine is getting married in early August so there may be scheduling conflicts for me this year in any case. And in a way, I am happy for Chris because I know that putting on the full-blown Con each year is a LOT of work and stress and strain for him. It is my hope that scaling the Con back this year will give Chris and others an opportunity to regroup and think of a new way to go about this that is lower-key and less stressful.<br />
<br />
In a more <a href="http://osrcon.wordpress.com/2013/03/20/a-new-location/">recent post</a>, Chris announces that the Con is still on, but in a different location:<br />
<br />
<i>This year OSRCon will be over the August 3/4th weekend on the Saturday and Sunday. It’ll be at the Manulife Centre in the Party Room, thirty-one floors above Bay Bloor Radio. I live here so its easy to set up.</i>
<br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The Party Room is capacity sixty, well appointed, used for corporate meetings, has couches, a kitchen, and floor to ceiling glass windows. The view is fantastic. When people think of the Toronto skyline, they think of this.</i>
<br />
<br />
So I urge you to attend OSRCon 2013; it sounds like the venue will be top-notch, and hopefully we can keep the momentum going from the first two years. Even if I cannot make it this year due to that wedding, I have my wonderful memories of the first two years, and want to publicly thank Chris for all he has done to make these engaging events happen in the first place. Hopefully this year's scaled-down event will help make OSRCon 2014 a possibility!Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-78311909765890479572013-03-18T00:30:00.000-04:002013-03-18T00:30:45.916-04:00YesTrolls!<i>Says Spawn:</i><br />
<br />
It occurs to me that there must be blogs and forums (fora, whatever) for fans and critics of the band <i>Yes</i>, of prog-rock fame.<br />
<br />
Judging from my limited exposure to D&D blogs and forums, they must also have trolls, and probably someone long ago picked the handle<br />
<br />
<b><i>Owner of a Lonely Fart</i></b><br />
<br />
and posts the most dastardly recriminations of post-Bruford or post-Wakeman <i>Yes</i>. Or something. Post-Dean cover art, probably.<br />
<br />
Some compatriot of his has picked up another low-hanging-fruit-type handle: <b><i>Fart of the Sunrise</i></b>.<br />
<br />
Another dead-ender has probably taken <b><i>Long Distance Reacharound</i></b>.<br />
<br />
I have chosen not to Google these phrases lest I find my basest comedic instincts ratified by a blind machine.Spawn of Endrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10431848914619887998noreply@blogger.com10tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-18964457809072929762013-03-12T22:45:00.001-04:002013-03-12T22:45:53.884-04:00Skype Session PhotosThings are intensely busy in my work life and so I haven't been blogging much. But I am gaming a fair amount, both at my twice-monthly game at the local book shop and with my "home" campaign that games over Skype. And just to prove to you that I STILL EXIST, here are some photos from my latest Skype-based Labyrinth Lord session (played 3/10):<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L2CUbwyaUOA/UT_naf-CEiI/AAAAAAAABHc/INwUma3-Nhs/s1600/Brendan.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="238" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-L2CUbwyaUOA/UT_naf-CEiI/AAAAAAAABHc/INwUma3-Nhs/s320/Brendan.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i>Spawn of Endra, who plays Innominus the Cleric.</i></div>
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<i><br /></i></div>
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JM7OaqP7uN0/UT_nlgOyxcI/AAAAAAAABHk/-u3HA2FffCY/s1600/Carl+and+Danny.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="239" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-JM7OaqP7uN0/UT_nlgOyxcI/AAAAAAAABHk/-u3HA2FffCY/s320/Carl+and+Danny.PNG" width="320" /></a></div>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<i><a href="http://backscreenpass.blogspot.com/">Carl</a> and Danny, who play Dak the Dwarf and Vivuli the Magic-User/Assassin.</i></div>
Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-63040223879934479702013-02-11T21:28:00.000-05:002013-02-11T21:28:52.346-05:00J.R.R. TokensI've been watching a fair amount of <i>King of the Hill </i>lately and caught this amusing reference in a season four episode:<br />
<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5Y5vnQuCXVQ/URmoWXIaBxI/AAAAAAAABHA/TJohaQzQm8A/s1600/JRR+Tokens.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5Y5vnQuCXVQ/URmoWXIaBxI/AAAAAAAABHA/TJohaQzQm8A/s400/JRR+Tokens.PNG" width="400" /></a></div>
<br />Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-78524684275937493342013-02-07T17:42:00.001-05:002013-02-07T17:42:38.223-05:00Historical Note on Graph Paper<i>Dit Le Spawn:</i><br />
<br />
Stumbling through an old issue of <i>The American Statistician</i> today I saw a nice (if dry) little article, "Quantitative Graphics in Statistics: A Brief History", by James R. Beniger and Dorothy L. Robyn (1978; Vol 32, pp. 1-11). In it they mention the first known commercial production of graph paper (p. 3):<br />
<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
The rise of coordinate plotting is also documented in the commercial development of graph paper. Rectangular grid paper was first offered for sale by a Dr. Buxton in London in 1794. Buxton's product first appeared in published research six years later, in an article on barometric variations which included a footnote advertising the product [Howard*, p. 357]. Herschel made ingenious use of plotted data to calculate the elements of the elliptical orbits of double stars, and his 1832 paper on the subject included a ringing endorsement of graph paper: "Such charts may be obtained, neatly engraved; and are so very useful for a great variety of purposes, that every person engaged in astronomical computations, or indeed, in physico-mathematical inquiries of any description, will find his account in keeping a stock of them always at hand" [Herschel**, pp. 171-2]. </blockquote>
D&D would seem to fall under the rubric of a "physico-mathematical inquiry of any description".<br />
<br />
<br />
*Howard, L. (1800), "On a Periodical Variation of the Barometer,
Apparently due to the Influence of the Sun and Moon on the Atmosphere,"
Philosophical Magazine, 7, 355-363.<br />
<br />
**Herschel, J. F. W. (1833), "On the Investigation of the Orbits of Revolving Double Stars," Memoirs of' the Royal Astronomical Society, 5, 171-172; read January 13, 1832.<br />
<br />Spawn of Endrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10431848914619887998noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-18831658642600707042013-02-05T20:04:00.001-05:002013-02-05T20:04:22.138-05:00The Tower of Frikkin' DeathNow that 2013 has arrived, Spawn of Endra and I have been talking about our next publishing project, the adventure module <i>The Tower of Death. </i><br />
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As I mentioned <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2012/07/whats-going-on-in-ny.html">late last summer</a>, the module is completely drafted, clocking in at just under 20 pages at present. It is my hope to keep it about that page count, or maybe even to trim some fat out of the prose on the next (hopefully final) revision pass. <i>The Tower of Death</i> has also been playtested, both by some of my "home" (Skype) group players as well as two different groups at OSRCon 2011 (see report <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/08/tales-from-osrcon-tower-of-death.html">here</a>). Now the project merely awaits a final revision pass (my job), artwork (ideally, a cover by Johnathan and Daisey Bingham and interior art by Kelvin Green), cartography (by Spawn of Endra), and layout (also by Spawn).<br />
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In other words, not much has changed since my last <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2012/02/tower-of-death-lives.html">lengthy update</a> about the project, we're just now finally entering the final phases. The aim is to release the module at a reasonable price point in both pdf and POD formats by the end of 2013.<br />
<br />Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-7888344586729500822013-01-19T11:44:00.000-05:002013-01-19T11:44:11.364-05:00NOT a review: Dyson's Delves Limited Edition Hardcover IS...<i>Pronounceth Spawn:</i><br />
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I got my copy of <a href="http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/dysonlogos" target="_blank">Dyson's Delves</a>, the limited edition hardcover version, the other day from Lulu. This isn't a review since I haven't used it in play yet. I've just been reading it and looking at it and walking around my house with it and enjoying the thing as a physical, non-computer-enslaved object.<br />
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Saying the work of <a href="http://rpgcharacters.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Dyson Logos</a> is awesome (or even AEWSUM!!!!1!!) is like saying water is wet, charcoal is black, bacon is delicious, and so on. The reader learns nothing new about the subject with such descriptions of the obvious. Hence this is not a review.<br />
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Why buy this book when you can just download many of his maps for free? you might ask. Aside from the new material he's added and the clean layout ... and the thing is handy-sized and lays flat, and there are so many sweet maps right there in your hand and you don't have to be looking at a fucking computer to use them ... well, perhaps in terms of a stunted marginal-utility theory there is no point in buying this book.<br />
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But seeing so much quality work in one small package rather than having it stretched out over years of blog posts is impressive to me. Much easier to flip through a book than flip through a blog. I'm so happy this book exists, because -- yes there's all the 'inspiration' you can get from it, and even multiple layers of nostalgia if you remember the original post or have played one of these dungeons -- you get to see one person's style and sense of the B/X paradigm concentrated in one object. And it's all The Goods and none of the BS: no polemic; no "The Way The Game Used to Be" essay; no "What's an RPG?" introduction; no "Rah! Rah! OSR!". Just balls-out quality stuff on its own terms. It makes me want to play B/X D&D because it's self-exemplary of all the best, most challenging and fun aspects of the system, while not being system-exclusive.<br />
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For me this book stands alongside other recent idiosyncratic works I'm stoked by, like <i>The Dungeon Alphabet </i>and <i>Vornheim: The Complete City Kit</i>. In the after-times when the e-media evaporate I may still have these books as I negotiate the post-apocalypse.<br />
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Rock.Spawn of Endrahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10431848914619887998noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-3272440876593694242013-01-18T09:05:00.000-05:002013-01-18T09:05:00.561-05:00I'm Pro-FunHumor in games has been on my mind lately, since Cyclopeatron mentioned it in a <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2013/01/carters-appendix-n.html?showComment=1358196056621#c2768571634892407955">comment</a> to <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2013/01/carters-appendix-n.html">this post</a>, and James M. <a href="http://grognardia.blogspot.com/2012/11/humorlessness.html">discussed it quasi-recently</a> on Grognardia. Humor is also a <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/01/in-praise-of-tunnels-and-trolls.html">core feature of <i>Tunnels and Trolls</i></a>, which I have been <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2013/01/i-supported-deluxe-t.html">promoting</a> of late. I suppose I have always been a firm proponent of humor in RPG's, largely for pragmatic reasons: I am clownish by nature, favoring comedy over other modes, so I find it constitutionally impossible to resist placing "funny stuff" into the campaign in certain areas.<br />
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For example, I love <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2009/10/unwavering-fixtures-of-all-my-frpg.html">funny names</a> for places (Bull-Licker Terrace, Snotream Harbor) and people (Ox-Head, Fish-Breath). Or, another: I want combat itself to be deadly and for real stakes to exist, yet my descriptions of foe deaths are usually excessive and pretty grotesque and/or scatological, e.g.:<br />
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"You slice open his stomach, and his last three half-digested meals spray out onto the floor. As he scrambles around on all fours, screaming in agony as he tries to gather up his spilled intestines, your final blow kills him and he falls to the floor. He flatulates horribly as he expires."<br />
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I think the core REASON I enjoy deploying humor into my campaigns is because I actually believe in fun. I want my game sessions to be fun. While I acknowledge the truth and beauty in the ideals set forth by James Raggi in his seminal essay "<a href="http://lotfp.blogspot.com/2008/06/i-hate-fun.html">I Hate Fun</a>," I guess at the end of the day, I am a somewhat lazy, low-genre type of guy and I want my cheap thrills and I want my <i>fun. </i><br />
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<i>Dunce-face.</i></div>
<i><br /></i>Mind you, I am aware that Raggi's post title is meant to be provocative, and that his real argument is not against fun <i>per se </i>but more against players who feel entitled to certain types of comfortable, predictable, non-deadly fun. I am largely in sympathy with Raggi's "anti-fun" position, and by claiming to like fun in my RPG's I am NOT disagreeing with a <a href="http://lotfp.blogspot.com/2008/06/i-hate-fun.html">passage</a> like this one:
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<i>"People out there have gotten the idea that if their precious imaginary equipment owned by their precious imaginary man is taken away from them, their fun has been sabotaged!</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>"The clue phone is ringing, and it’s a collect call for these fun-seekers: YOU’RE NOT SUPPOSED TO LIKE IT. Goddamn, risk and challenge and failure are as much part of role-playing as prancing around like Errol Flynn… er, sorry, Legolas (sorry, wouldn’t want to make a reference that the average modern person wouldn’t know off the top of their head) or something. Shit out there is trying to KILL YOU and there are critters out there that will fuck you up but good if you’re unlucky or not careful.
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<i><br /></i>
<i>"What part of, 'The giant spider bites you… oh, you blew your save… roll up a new character!' is supposed to be fun or heroic? Obviously the game was built on a different type of satisfaction."
</i><br />
<br />
This is well stated. I too believe in creating a dangerous campaign universe and letting the dice fall as they may and saying FUCK BALANCED ENCOUNTERS. But I also want there to be some levity and laughter and pure, unadulterated <i>fun</i> mixed into my experience at the gaming table. And I don't mean non-diegetic, out-of-game fun like non-gaming-related jokes and the like, which are okay but best kept to a minimum IMO. Rather, I mean IN-GAME-WORLD levity and funny names and comedic weirdness and silly fun. This is a FANTASY world I'm running here, people, and so it can be whatever my players and I wish it to be! In my case, that means a place that is to some extent Monty Pythonesque and silly.<br />
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I think most of my players enjoy this humorous style of mine but it may be that some just tolerate it long enough to get back to other more serious and/or exciting parts for them. Overall, my players and I co-create a wide array of gaming experiences at our sessions, including boring ones, and occasionally downright un-fun ones, but also epic ones, and harrowing ones, and brain-teasingly mysterious ones, etc. So it runs the gamut.<br />
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But at the end of the day, I am pro-fun.Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com7tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-9285164710968250102013-01-16T13:48:00.002-05:002013-01-16T14:10:45.424-05:00I Supported Deluxe T&TToday was payday; after paying a few essential bills and buying some much-needed toilet paper, my next priority was to make a $28 pledge to the <i>Deluxe Tunnels and Trolls</i> <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/994700393/deluxe-tunnels-and-trolls">Kickstarter campaign</a>. The new edition of T&T has already met its funding goal, but I nevertheless encourage you to get in on the action. As I have <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/01/in-praise-of-tunnels-and-trolls.html">discussed before</a>, T&T is a delightfully fun, easy to play, and historically significant FRPG that really belongs in almost any gamers' collection. And at these prices, who can refuse? The <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/994700393/deluxe-tunnels-and-trolls"><i>Deluxe Tunnels and Trolls</i> Kickstarter page</a> reveals that one can get a pdf of the new edition at the low pledge level of $14; or you can pledge $28 like I did to get the softcover edition of the book (plus pdf); or ratchet up to the $60 pledge level to get the hardback version (plus pdf).<br />
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The <i>Deluxe Tunnels and Trolls </i>Kickstarter campaign ends on Tuesday, February 5th.<br />
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I am very excited about the new edition, and encourage you to read <a href="http://deluxetunnelsandtrolls.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/tunnels-trolls-one-of-the-earliest-rpgs-will-get-a-deluxe-reboot-with-love/">this blog post</a> or <a href="http://www.lizdanforth.com/2012/12/deluxe-tunnels-trolls/">this one</a> for insight into what it will include. In brief (from the <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/994700393/deluxe-tunnels-and-trolls">Kickstarter</a> description):<br />
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"The minimum we intend to deliver is a book of at least 200 pages (and possibly a lot more) wherein designer Ken St Andre lays out new rules, including new options for character creation, better methods of character development, new playable kindreds, and new personas like Paragon, Specialist and Citizen.
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"The book gets a complete graphic make-over, including new art and old favorites, and a new cover painted by Liz Danforth.
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"The game will play much the same as it did in the 70s and 80s, and be backwards compatible to existing modules and adventures. It will still be fun, lightweight and customizable."
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Wow! To me, the new Danforth art alone is worth the price of admission. Not yet convinced? Then watch this somewhat hyperbolic yet amusing video:
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<iframe frameborder="0" height="270" src="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/994700393/deluxe-tunnels-and-trolls/widget/video.html" width="360"> </iframe>
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The take-home message: make your pledge to the <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/994700393/deluxe-tunnels-and-trolls"><i>Deluxe T&T</i> Kickstarter</a>, and see also <a href="http://www.trollhalla.com/">Trollhalla</a>, Ken St. Andre’s online home base for the T&T community.
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<a href="http://www.lizdanforth.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Sorciere-detail-web.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="http://www.lizdanforth.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Sorciere-detail-web.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Image copyright Liz Danforth</i><br />
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<i>--</i></div>
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<i style="font-weight: bold;">UPDATE: </i>I'M IN THE VIDEO! Upon watching the Deluxe T&T promotional video a second time, I caught something: if you watch closely right around the 4:50 mark, you can see an <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2012/10/osrcon-2012-why-i-love-this-photo.html">image of me from OSRCon</a> holding up my T&T 5th Edition Rulebook!</div>
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Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-76907019040850234882013-01-14T14:11:00.002-05:002014-09-21T16:56:57.883-04:00Carter's Appendix N<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ70ytv7NgcGiXCqH-E2GdrqamKCiXNVQmBECCyc8U3lsHsBOvz" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQ70ytv7NgcGiXCqH-E2GdrqamKCiXNVQmBECCyc8U3lsHsBOvz" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0090756/">FRANK</a> LOVES TO MEET NEW NEIGHBORS!</i></div>
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<a href="http://cyclopeatron.blogspot.com/2013/01/draft-of-my-appendix-n-with-notes.html">Inspired</a> by Cyclopeatron, my new Upstate New York NEIGHBOR, I now offer my own Appendix N, which is kind of a deeper rethinking and synthesizing of some ideas I originally posted <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/01/my-own-appendix-n-sort-of.html">here</a> and <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2009/10/pilfering-from-modules-and-elsewhere.html">here</a>:<br />
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<b>J.R.R. Tolkien, <i>The Hobbit</i> and <i>The Lord of the Rings</i></b><br />
As I have <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2012/04/hobbits-balrogs-and-tolkien-purism.html">confessed before</a>, <i>The Hobbit</i> and the <i>LotR</i> trilogy collectively constitute one of the strongest influences on how I view heroic fantasy and how I referee D&D. The Lands of Ara setting gets its single largest dose of "creative DNA" from Tolkien's Middle Earth. Like many Fantasy RPG'ers, when I picture a hobgoblin, it is <i>The Hobbit</i>’s hobgoblins I see. All of the action around Smaug's Lair -- the thrush knocking, Bilbo's sneaking in, etc. -- is totally iconic for me. And <i>The Fellowship of the Ring</i>'s Mines of Moria are pretty much the scariest and most inspiring fantasy adventure locale I've ever read about -- note that <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/06/session-35-farn-junction-happenings.html">Balrogs haunt my campaigns</a> to this day. Thus, while I have always had a bit of gonzo in me -- especially where robots, dinosaurs, and inter-dimensional travel are concerned -- and also run things in a <i>tonally</i> lighter and more comedic vein than Tolkien does, I am forced to admit that The Professor's sense of his <i>world</i>, and the sense of history embodied by the races and setting of Middle-Earth, have been extraordinarily potent influences upon me as a sandbox-constructor.
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<b>Roger Zelazny, <i>The Chronicles of Amber</i></b><br />
Although I read these books awhile after my first early forays into sci-fi and fantasy, <i>The Chronicles of Amber</i> have exerted the second-strongest long-term influence upon me after <i>The Lord of the Rings</i>. Corwin of Amber is probably my all-time favorite fictional protagonist, and the first-person point of view and the gonzo setting of the <i>Amber</i> books simply can't be beat. These books deeply influence how I see magic and multiple dimensions working and interacting -- in fact, certain legendary Lands of Ara NPCs like Morag the Arch-Summoner* exist largely because of how captivating I find the concept of the princes of Amber and Chaos sneaking between dimensions via manipulation of Shadow. It rocks! And Zelazny's imaginative integration of mythical and folkloric beasts into the whole setting is damn memorable too. Hmm, perhaps it's time for a re-read?<br />
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<b>Edgar Rice Burroughs, <i>A Princess of Mars </i>etc.</b><br />
I read ERB's Barsoom books early, like in seventh grade or so, and I really loved them a lot. The world of Barsoom was so evocative for me; I can still see John Carter leaping around on those weird landscapes. Via ERB, I got into the whole science-fantasy mashup genre pretty early, though my D&D / LL campaigns favor an at least superficially Tolkienesque feel and look to them. Yet I nearly always throw a crashed spaceship or some aliens or some inter-dimensional travelers somewhere into my FRPG campaigns, and it's because I have always loved that blending of fantasy and sci-fi found in the Barsoom books (and in Roger Zelazny’s <i>Chronicles of Amber</i>).
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<b>T.H. White, <i>The Once and Future King</i></b><br />
Merlin is my third favorite wizard after Tolkien's Gandalf and <i>Monty Python and the Holy Grail</i>'s Tim the Enchanter (see next entry). I enjoy Merlin a lot because he is often portrayed as quite Druid-y and pagan, as in <i>The Once and Future King </i>when he turns Arthur into lots of different animals (including an ant!). White's interpretation of the rise and fall of King Arthur is sufficiently epic but primarily human in scale; it is also very funny, as in the sequences involving King Pellinore. But what I like best about this novel, or consider most influential upon my gaming, is its conception of magic: Merlin, Morgan le Fay, and other arcane types in this book (and in the film <i>Excalibur</i>) show us that arcana is nature-based and way more powerful than any single individual's ability to control it. I like that. Magic should never be totally rational nor masterable, and I think I drew that idea largely from Tolkien and White.<br />
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<b><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0071853/">Monty Python and the Holy Grail</a></i> (1975, dir. Terry Gilliam and Terry Jones)</b><br />
Like it or not, I love humor in my RPG's. I love grotesque comedy in general, and have been particularly inspired by <i>The Holy Grail</i>'s Black Knight fight scene. I love the extreme volume and distance of the blood spurts once the Black Knight starts getting dismembered by King Arthur, and have long attempted to emulate that feel when announcing the combat results in my campaigns: blood and internal organs spurt intensely and far, and a surprisingly large number of blows land in the genitals. As one former player put it, my campaigns seem to take place in a “high-pressure world” where everybody’s blood and internal organs are under a lot of pressure, so as to shoot out really far once pierced in combat. I attribute this trend to <i>Monty Python and the Holy Grail</i>.<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bTQrcqDgQcY/VB87jOUbRtI/AAAAAAAABqE/ke121wyI77M/s1600/KrullCover.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-bTQrcqDgQcY/VB87jOUbRtI/AAAAAAAABqE/ke121wyI77M/s1600/KrullCover.jpg" height="400" width="270" /></a></div>
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<b><i><a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0085811/">Krull</a> </i>(1983, dir. Peter Yates)
</b><br />
Again, <i>Krull</i>'s mix of sci-fi and fantasy always worked well for me; this movie was a particular favorite of mine when I was a young lad. It's very D&D ish actually, with its rag-tag party embarking upon a perilous mission across many strange lands. Great stuff! And that magical glaive thingy was bad-ass.<br />
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And to conclude, here are a few things I've read lately that I hope will influence my game:<br />
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<b>H.P. Lovecraft, <i>The Call of Cthulhu and Other Weird Stories</i></b><br />
Please see <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/01/review-call-of-cthulhu-and-other-weird.html">my review</a> of this volume for more detailed comments, but in short, "HPL's command of written English is nothing short of dazzling. His prose manages to be just rich enough to paint a convincing picture of (creepy) set and (uncanny) setting without stepping over the line into overwrought "purple prose" a la many of Tolkien's descriptive passages or even our own beloved EGG. In short, I find HPL's language to be as evocative as Tolkien's but, at the same time, much more concise." <br />
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<b>Lord Dunsany, <i>The King of Elfland's Daughter</i></b><br />
I will defer to Cyclopeatron's description: "Style and language. Where fairy tales and dreams intersect. I want stars, moss, and woodsmoke at my table. Dunsany is peerless when it comes to fantasy imagery." Agreed!<br />
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<b>P.S. Vance, here I come!</b><br />
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* As is briefly mentioned <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2010/02/random-blog-post-topic-four-demons.html">here</a>, Morag the Arch-Summoner is a legendary Arandish wizard who has lived in total secrecy for the past hundred years. He may even be dead or residing permanently in another dimension for all anyone truly knows. Even before his disappearance from human society, Morag was thought to be quite insane. In more recent news, the party in my current Arandish Campaign have <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2011/06/session-36-wizards-cave-and-wandering.html">found and identified artifacts</a> seemingly related to Morag's cryptic activities. Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-16213870021605836832013-01-13T15:30:00.000-05:002013-01-13T15:32:46.918-05:00Deluxe Tunnels and Trolls on Kickstarter<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="http://deluxetunnelsandtrolls.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/blog-header1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="156" src="http://deluxetunnelsandtrolls.files.wordpress.com/2012/12/blog-header1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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As I recently learned from <a href="http://deluxetunnelsandtrolls.wordpress.com/2013/01/13/tunnels-trolls-one-of-the-earliest-rpgs-will-get-a-deluxe-reboot-with-love/">this informative blog post</a>, <i>Deluxe Tunnels and Trolls</i> has begun its <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/994700393/deluxe-tunnels-and-trolls">Kickstarter campaign</a>, which ends on Tuesday, February 5th. I had the chance to hear some advance scuttlebutt about the new edition from its creator, Ken St. Andre, at <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2012/10/osrcon-2012-why-i-love-this-photo.html">OSRCon 2012</a> last August. I am very excited about the new edition and plan to make a pledge to the <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/994700393/deluxe-tunnels-and-trolls">Kickstarter campaign</a> after my next paycheck clears in a few days.<br />
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As classic (5th-Edition) T&T rulebook artist and editor Liz Danforth recently <a href="http://www.lizdanforth.com/2012/12/deluxe-tunnels-trolls/">wrote</a>:<br />
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"I talked quite a bit about the pleasure I took in reillustrating the venerable <i>Buffalo Castle</i> solitaire dungeon, now the all-new <i>Château Bison</i>. Steve [Compton’s] graphic skill made it shine, inside and out, bringing my black-and-white linework to living color.
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"In fact, <a href="http://tunnels-et-trolls.eu/">the new [French] edition of T&T</a> was so glorious to see, the old team at Flying Buffalo was blown away. Me too. I don’t live in the Phoenix Metro area any more, but the experience was the same for all of us. No sooner had it arrived than we started talking (or in my case, emailing) about how we’d like to see a new edition in English that looked this good."
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And that is what we're going to get with the <i>Deluxe Edition</i> of <i>Tunnels and Trolls</i>: newly revised rules (still basically compatible with all previous editions), NEW Danforth art, NEW background on Trollworld, and perhaps even some new Bear Peters maps. <br />
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Make sure to get in on the <a href="http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/994700393/deluxe-tunnels-and-trolls"><i>Deluxe T&T</i> Kickstarter</a>, and see also <a href="http://www.trollhalla.com/">Trollhalla</a>, Ken St Andre’s online home base for the T&T community.Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-13933993339415558762013-01-13T13:14:00.000-05:002013-01-13T13:14:03.590-05:00Sci-Fi UpdatesDuring my recent blogging hiatus, a couple interesting things happened on the science-fiction front:<br />
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1. Goblinoid Games' <i>Starships and Spacemen 2nd Edition </i><a href="http://goblinoidgames.blogspot.com/2012/11/s-2e-pdfs-sent-and-orders-shipping.html">came out</a>! I was one of the project's initial backers on Kickstarter, so my hardback copy arrived in the mail a few weeks ago.<br />
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jPxdGNSE6CE/UHmAOjW5VmI/AAAAAAAAAR8/uyVjwH7zFHw/s1600/SS_proofs.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="253" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-jPxdGNSE6CE/UHmAOjW5VmI/AAAAAAAAAR8/uyVjwH7zFHw/s400/SS_proofs.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
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<i>Photo <a href="http://goblinoidgames.blogspot.com/2012/10/starships-spacemen-proofs-ready.html">courtesy</a> of Dan Proctor</i></div>
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While I would one day love to run a pure <i>S&S</i> game, right now I am so busy running <i>Labyrinth Lord</i> games that this fine product is most likely going to see immediate use as a supplement to the games I've already got running. That is, I will cherry pick robots and equipment and monsters and the like from the <i>S&S</i> rulebook for use in my ongoing Arandish LL campaigns. Remember that <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2009/10/unwavering-fixtures-of-all-my-frpg.html">I warned you long ago</a> about my <i>penchant </i> for including sci-fi elements in my fantasy. Gonzo lives!<br />
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2. The <i>2013 Traveller Calendar</i> also became available. I now quote from an email sent by Marc Miller to the Traveller5 mailing list:
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"The annual Traveller Calendar was the brainchild of Andrew Boulton, who for the past several years has assembled a truly talented band of artists to produce the calendar, proceeds of which went to various good causes.
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"Sadly Andrew passed away this year and it looked like the next calendar would not happen. But the artists would not let that happen: Ian Stead stepped forward to manage the project; the artists all stepped forward with truly great Traveller art, and all wanted to make this a tribute to Andrew.
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"Everyone donated their time; the Traveller permissions and licensing (as always) was donated.
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"Now you are the last link in the chain: we hope you enjoy this calendar as much as we enjoyed putting it together."
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The print version of the 2013 Traveller Calendar is available at <a href="http://www.lulu.com/shop/ian-stead/official-2013-traveller-calendar/paperback/product-20577624.html;jsessionid=EABC6136B3EE24B8699ABC7E133883E3">Lulu</a> and the PDF version at <a href="http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/109066/Official-2013-Traveller-Calendar&affiliate_id=4209">DriveThruRPG</a>
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<br />Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-21185437938078518312013-01-08T19:15:00.002-05:002013-01-13T13:14:56.361-05:00Grognard Games YouTube ChannelThanks to David Macauley, who <a href="http://theresdungeonsdownunder.blogspot.com/2013/01/quality-osr-video-on-youtube-grognard.html">posted</a> about this a couple days ago, I have recently become aware of an exciting new OSR-related YouTube channel, <a href="http://youtu.be/75g4AuhhWQI">"Grognard Games"</a>:<br />
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The channel only has an introductory episode up right now but the show as a whole looks quite promising to me. I recommend that you check it out!Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8038823840472916624.post-85127303223527582512013-01-07T17:24:00.001-05:002013-01-13T13:15:41.020-05:00Helmets Shall be Split in Twain!Despite a rather busy holiday season so far, I have been keeping both of my main gaming groups going: the Skype-based "home" <i>Labyrinth Lord</i> campaign, and the campaign I run out of <a href="http://www.liftbridgebooks.com/">Lift Bridge Books</a>, the local book shop.<br />
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The latter group just met yesterday and <a href="http://carterscartopia.blogspot.com/2012/09/lift-bridge-game-updates.html">continued</a> its adventures marauding around in a parallel dimension dominated, on the one hand, by the vast, human-dominated city of Vornheim and, on the other, by a sinister Citadel commanded by a society of Dark Elves.* That gaming group is really picking up steam despite some wavering attendance over the holidays: yesterday our two regular core attendees were there plus two others, making a total of four players plus me.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7yuYEY542Hw/UOtKKH7hypI/AAAAAAAABGY/rkMIrRyHSPA/s1600/noname.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="256" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-7yuYEY542Hw/UOtKKH7hypI/AAAAAAAABGY/rkMIrRyHSPA/s320/noname.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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<i>A photo from a late November meeting of the Lift Bridge Old-School D&D Group.</i></div>
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During the session, one player made a pitch for an extension of the "Shields Shall Be Splintered!" rule, i.e., the "Helmets Shall be Split in Twain!" rule. It would work the same way as the Shields variant, but with only a 2 in 6 chance of working when invoked:<br />
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<i>Upon a successful 2 in 6 roll, a helmet may be used to "soak" damage from a single attack, thereby reducing damage to zero. Soaking damage destroys the helmet; it is split in two.</i>
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* Once the group entered this dimension -- by opening a magical trunk in the underground lair of Zappo the Mysterious -- I had my first chance to use <i>Vornheim</i>, Zak S.'s fucking excellent city gaming supplement. (plans for a review in the near future). For the alternate dimension's Drow-inhabited lands I am mostly cherry-picking stuff from D3 <i>Vault of the Drow</i>.Carter Soleshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01286436801953647693noreply@blogger.com8