"By the Seven!"

I have just finished reading Lin Carter's Thongor and the Wizard of Lumeria in which Thongor continually swears "By the Nineteen!" But,   other than Father Grom, none of the gods of Lumeria are ever mentioned. So, I was thinking I would research the nineteen gods of Lumeria. I know they are all documented out here on the entree-net and in the various Lumeria frpg books.

However, before I got very far with the research, I got another idea. I'll just barrow a well known group of seven fair tale characters and make them members of my pantheon. Everyone knows this group. I'll just change the names and circumstances too fit their new status as immortals and world builders. Below I have listed The Seven by their fair tale names and their new godly labels.

Bashful -- The Youth: God of adolescence, young brides and Spring.
Doc       -- The Healer: God of nature, birth, healing, health and harvest.
Dopey   --  The Dullard: God of children, addicts and the simple minded.
Grumpy -- The Elder: God of Time, change, disappointment, anger and old age.
Happy    -- Happiness: God of pleasure, celebration and Summer.
Sleepy    -- The Sleeper:  God of Winter, night, dreams, laziness and death.
Sneezy   -- The Plague: God of illness, Fall, etc.

Without their fantasy names, the origin of the Seven may remain a mystery for a while. Unless, of course, you read it on the Polyhedral Dice Bag.

Help needed to recreat the art of Deities & Demi Gods

I am sure that most of the rpg blog-o-sphere is, by now, familiar with Kickstarter programs. And, you have probably heard that Jeff Dee is recreating long lost illustrations from Advanced Dungeons & Dragons. (I'm assuming you all know this story.)

Now, if you have a buck or twenty, is the time to help with another Kickstarter program. This one is to recreate illustrations from Deities and Demi Gods that are the work of Diesel LaForce. There are only five days left to fund this project but over $1500. needs to be raised. You know you need another old school illustration to decorate your huge ruined pile. (I mean humble domain, of course.) When payday rolls around this weekend you can treat yourself, and some loved ones if ya like, and pledge your support to this program.

Now I'm gonna go up-date my resume and send it to my local NPR affiliate.

The best things in life are free...

or cost 99 cents plus shipping on e-bay where I recently purchased the 1st Edition Monster Manuel 2 and the Fiend Folio for 99 cents each plus shipping. So, I got both the these books for about $3.00 each.

Secondly, I offer the plethora of free pdf material available for rpgs of all types. Old school, new school, retro school, flight school, you name it and there's a free pdf, some where, on the entree'-net for your game.

One of the best free items I've gotten lately only cost a book of stamps and I don't think I sent a full book either. This is a little 'zine by Christian of Destinations Unknown titled One Square Equals Five Feet. The mag is one hand written page and always contains a new area for a 2nd Ed. AD&D solo adventure. I haven't started playing the adventure yet but I haven't read the separate parts, thus spoiling the fun for myself, either. I intend to make a fighter soon and begin his adventures in the 1 [] = 5' dungeon. I'll post the results here for everyone to follow.

The issue of 1[] = 5' that I received this week had two other contributions in the same envelope. The original 'zine was enjoyable but now I'm three times as inspired to hack out one page of nonsense and send it off to join these other publications, it will not be content for Encounter Critical either. Surprise!

A silly new spell for silly gamers like me.

I tend to throw thing together for rpg games based on things I over hear around the gaming table or at the pub. (So be warned, I may steal your words.) For example, I could have sworn that I heard my game buddies talking about how to make a Dire Wolf. Apparently the process involves feeding kittens to a wolf cub? The things that come our of the mouths of gamers!

A bit later, the same night, I came up with this spell.

Sharkwave: This spell allows the caster to create a wave of salt water in his hands. The wave then crashes into the intended victim and produced a shark which promptly bites said victim for 1d12 of damage. There is a 50% chance that sorcerer can increase the number of sharks produced by one per level. The components for the spell are a sharks tooth and a vial of salt water.

Generic Fantasy RPG Character Sheet Revisited

I have been using my version of the generic rpg character sheet and determined that it needed a few tweaks. The tweaks are few but I think it helps the layout of the information on the sheet, at least, a little bit. I have stored the file at Scribd for needy gamers everywhere. (The file is in pdf format, of course.)

Generic frpg Character Sheet 2.0

On other fronts, I should be able to finish the rough draft of phasic #3 this week and share it with the guys in the Encounter Critical mail group. Once I finish the proof read stage, probably around Feb. 8th or 9th, I will post phasic #3 on Scribd too.

Dungeon Dressing: What’s that drawing on the wall?

I’ve begun designing a D&D or Labyrinth Lord adventure for my game group. The setting for the first encounter is in some ruins of an older civilization. I want the ruins to be interesting and too provide clues about the former inhabitants for the players. So, I’ll include statues, fountains, decaying manuscripts, pottery and murals among the artifacts for the players to explore.

I’m sure this idea’s been covered before in some published gaming text but here’s my take on twelve ideas for murals and, or cave paintings for rpg adventures.

Apply 1d12 and results are as follows:
1. A hunting scene
2. A battle scene
3. A ritual or other scene of shamanism (sacrifice)
4. A portrait of a deity, demon or other religious or mythic scene
5. A domestic scene; farming, crafting, pottery, weaving, cooking, metal working
6. A calendar
7. An educational chart; alphabet , math or poetry
8. A magic user practicing his art or magic related content
9. A dragon or dinosaur
10. A UFO or angels
11. Erotic art
12. Roll twice more and combine the results into one mural.

There's also the chance that the mural may be an advertisement from a forgotten and, or alien culture. The message may be as common as "Eat at Joe's" but this remains a mystery if the script is an unknown language to the players.

A tale of two book purchases

This is actually the tale of three book purchases from two ends of the same subject.
Book purchase #1, Dungeons & Dragons Fourth Edition, Player’s Handbook = $14.99.
Shipping = 3.99.
Knowing I bought this book for 30% less than the cover price = priceless.

I’ve been shopping for the Fourth Edition Player’s Handbook for a while. I wanted to get a copy of the book so I can form my own informed opinion of this new edition of the game. I can’t believe this edition of the game is broken or think it’s the bee knees until I’ve read the rules and devised my own opinion and owning a copy of the book will facilitate this process.

Book purchase #2, Fantasy Role Playing Games and Mahars of Pellucidar by J.E. Holmes.



Fantasy Role Playing was $12.49 with shipping and Mahars of Pellucidar was less than $5.oo. I remember that my college library had a copy of Fantasy Role Playing Games. I also remember looking through the books in those days too. I'm pretty sure I never read this book back then because I was too concerned with trying to pass Biology, Anthropology and Speech. I also didn't have the money to buy Dr. Holmes' book at that time. I believe that the original cover price is actually $12.50. This was in the late Eighties and we were still playing 1st edition AD&D. Of course, that is what I still play today too, when my group isn't playing Mutant Future or Encounter Critical.

I should have a tale of two book purchases, part two, to write about pretty soon. It's an even better deal than the 4th ed. Player's Handbook. I think it will be around 75% off the cover price after shipping. I also hope to have a guest book review posted soon too.

Old School Files

I've been digging through my old gaming material with the intent to use this material to create a generic system adventure. Yesterday, I found this old character record sheet which I had created for 1st edition AD&D. I've edited it a bit to share with my blog-o-sphere faithfuls. I think this file should prove to be useful as a record sheet for retro clone and weird fantasy gaming.

Generic RPG Character Record

The OSP still play AD&D and blog name change.

First, since I have a second blog now for social commentary, Fanatical Recycling Inc, (link to the right) I thought a more rpg related title was in order for this corner of the blog-o-sphere. No matter what we play, sci-fi, fantasy, horror, old school or new, we can all relate to the polyhedral dicebag.

My current game group, the Old School Pastafari, formed in March of 2009 and we still have a core of three of the original group members and we’re still playing AD&D 1st edition. Recently our party of six player characters hired twenty-two men at arms to invade a bandit camp. The bandits had attempted to rob the player characters in an earlier adventure and the party hoped to turn the tables on the bandits a second time. The party thief, Nigel, scouted the hills where the camp was located. He found a well kept farm and farm house at the foot of the hills. The farm appeared to be an odd form of watch tower guarding the bandit camp. That night Nigel counted twenty-five to thirty camp fires within the camp.

The party attempted to find employment guarding the merchant caravans on the route which the bandits were harassing but were informed that their group was too small, inexperienced and ill prepared. Plan B was instigated; follow the merchants and enter the woods along the trade route before the bandit ambush. This plan worked well and all twenty-eight members of the adventure party entered the woods and blended into the landscape before approaching close to the bandit camp.

With the body of the brigade concealed in the forest, Nigel drank a potion of invisibility and snuck into the camp to snoop around. He noted that there were simple timber fortifications used to guard the camp. He slipped past the fortifications and under the floorboards of the one cabin in the camp. All the bandits appeared to be in the camp, it must have been their day off from ambushing merchant caravans. Nigel didn’t hear any conversations containing information that would be useful to the party. He started a fire under the floorboards of the cabin and hid among the tents to watch the bucket brigade. The bandits quickly rescued some valuables from the cabin and began burying them. Nigel returned to the party with the knowledge of the location of the bandits’ treasure.

Nigel, still invisible, set fire to the barn on the farm to create a distraction. The bandits promptly streamed out of the camp to distinguish this fire and then began a search for the pesky arson. The player characters set their hirelings into an attack formation and charged the bandit camp. The hirelings formed three ranks, a first row of seven pike men, a second row of six crossbow men and six long bow archers as the rear guard.

This brigade approached a timber fortification and attacked from the range of the bowmen. The fortification was protected by five or six men which were quickly defeated. The brigade remained in formation and marched into the bandit camp and soon discovered a group of bandits gathered around the freshly buried treasure. The brigade again attacked this group from crossbow range. As this battle proceeded a second group of bandits joined the fight, thus attacking our heroes from two directions. The pickmen were instructed to turn at a right angle to protect the bowmen from this second attack. The bowmen finished off the treasure guards and all hands began to dig for treasure with and stick, spear or make-shift shovel available. (The plan at this point was; “Grab it and go.”)

The events of the evening concluded with the party/brigade safely escaping the bandits and finding they had enough loot to progress to the next experience level.

Next up for the blog, I share my Encounter Critical adventure design with the world.