Laser Cannons & Dragons, or what does your Mutant Future look like?

Of course,  I never ran that Mutant Future game two years ago.

But, I have the bug again, here we go!

When is your Mutant Future? 

= 2124 + 1d100 + 2d20 + 3d6

Where does your Mutant Future take place? 

Roll 1d6

1. New York / New Jersey 

2. Florida 

3. Great Lakes region

4. Mid West Farmland 

5. Southwest / Southern Border 

6. California or PNW

Because I have to pigeon hole everything, and for balance, I propose these player classes for Mutant Future.

Fighter: a specialist in combat, armed and unarmed, receives +1 to combat attacks and feats of strength.

Mystic or Cultist: a character with psychic or a mental mutation. Also, maybe a character practicing mystical or magical arts, receives +1 when attempting to use these skills. 

Nerd: a character knowledgeable of science and technology, receives +1 when using science based skills. 

Rogue: +1 to negotiation and sneaky stuff. 

What's your Mutant Future social network like?

* Government or Corporations *

These two groups remain the most organized and resourceful, with most capability to help or harm the remaining society. They control the best raw materials, vehicles, roads, building and laboratories. Characters may gain access to these resources through recruitment into Gov. or a corporate program or project. (Or theft.)

While the Government may have the best intentions too reorganize society, one overly ambitious military commander could seriously disrupt any well intended plan. 

* Mechanics *

Racers, Greases or Bikers, call them what you like. This group will have access to the best, and worst transportation available, the fastest hot rod, the toughest war wagon, possibly a flying machine. They'll be able to provide a personal transport at a price you can afford.

* Scientist, Techies, Nerds * 

Individual groups dedicated to the discovery, rediscovery and preservation of science and technology can be found dotted about the Mutant Future. They can be advantageous to player characters by assisting with medical needs, providing general or specific science info and repairing radios and other tech devices.

*Blacksmiths* 

This term refers to craftsmen who repair all forms of weapons. They repair, maintain, craft and collect combat weapons and armor, including hand weapons, firearms and explosives.

--- Next post, more details, less generalization. ---

The impracticality of the Seven Gods

1st: "The Sleeper" sounds more like the title of a Wood Allen movie than the name of a potential world builder. Sleepy's name will be changed to Luna, 'cause that'll cover it.

2nd: The impracticality: As written, none of these guys have any god-like qualities. The Seven (Dwarf) Gods,  are more of an extended family than a team of  titans. There's one responsible adult, one grumpy old man and five children. Which, now that I think about it, resembles the Greek pantheon. 

3rd: Luckily, I have just uncovered some old notes for a group of five nature gods. They are:

A u t u m n,   T h e   M o t h e r   i s   t h e   s e a s o n a l   g o d d e s s   o f   h a r v e s t   a n d   w i n d .

W i n t o n,  T h e  F a t h e r  i s  t h e  s e a s o n a l  g o d  o f  w i n t e r.  H e  i s  a s s o c i a t ed  w i t h

c o l d  w e a t h e r ,  s n o w  a n d   i c e .  E x a m p l e s  o f  W i n t o n' s  a n i m a l  a n d  p l a n t

a s s o c i a t e s   a r e   w o l v e s, bears  a n d   e v e r g r e e n   t r e e s .

G a l e,   s e a s o n a l   g o d d e s s   o f   s p r i n g,  a s s o c i a t e d  w i t h  y o u t h  a n d  f e r t i l i t y. 

H e r   p l a n t   a n d   a n i m a l   a s s o c i a t e s   i n c l u d e   f l o w e r i n g  t r e e s,  robins and sparrows.    

W e i l d e n,   s e a s o n a l   g o d   o f   s u m m e r,  a s s o c i a t e d   w i t h   y o u n g   

m a n h o o d   a n d   t h e  f r e e d o m  a n d  r e c k l e s s n e s s  o f   y o u t h .  H i s  p l a n t  

a n d  a n i m a l  associates  include  b l a c k b e r r i e s   a n d   b e e s .  

O r g  the unwise   o r   T h e   D e c e i v e r   i s   t r a d i t i o n a l l y   t h o u g h t   o f   a s   m a l e. 

Org  i s  t h e  r e p r e s e n t a t i o n  o f   f e a r,  violence,  injustice  and  war.  

4th: "Org," that's a stupid name. Regardless, now we have The Seven, The Five and the Twelve Gods. Let's hope they don't become angry gods!

Now just in time for Fall: Female Character Name Generator!

I had so much fun with the RPG Character Name Generator that I made a second name generator for female player characters. We want gender equality in our RPGs as in everything else. At least, I do.

Most of the names on this generator are Celtic. I found these via the good ol' entree-net. I have posted the PDF at Scribd, of course, because it's easier for me than Google Drive.

A player character by any other name would slay as sweet.

Or, further proof that d12 is not useless.

After producing the Alternative RPG Survey, I got the idea to create this RPG Character Name Generator. I have finally finished it and stored it at Scribd for our convince. It is a series of charts to produce a first, middle and last name for characters in tabletop role playing games.

Most of the names are vaguely Nordic, Roman or Anglo Saxon with a few Spanish, modern and fantastic names too. The names are also all masculine. No offence intended, the group I designed the chart for is all male.

There is an additional chart for descriptive names, if you want your character to have a name like Able the Irritable. The last chart is just a quick d12 roll too provide catchy names like Alpa or Covfefe.

You should be able to access the chart here: RPG Character Name Generator

Lastly, I have been reading Nietzshe, off and on, for a few months. It is torture and not something I should be undertaking unless for a philosophy class. My school days have been completed for a while but I can be very heard headed about my choices of reading material.  I will just add, I am pretty sure that Lovecraft's body of work was inspired  by exposure to Thus Spoke Zarathustra. 

How do you say "Hello" to a grizzly bear?

Do you quietly say hello, and anticipate his response? Do you quietly say hello and run screaming?    Well, how do ya and "How do you do?"   Hello to you grizzly bears of tabletop rpg die hards!

The rpg urge has been sneaking forward in my consciousness due to a younger generation of Gamers. I had noted that they are a bit too tied to the rule books, not a problem we often had when playing old school rpgs. So, I devised the following survey to give them some ideas about flexibility within their role-playing game settings.

While this survey may seem vague or sophomoric at first glance, I should point out that these young Gamers which I designed it for are preteens. I hope to patch together an adventure using Risus or a diceless rpg as our base mechanic.

I'll attempt to attache a link for a Google Doc, the text format of the survey is as follows.

An RPG which I would like to play other than fantasy.

Choose one option from the following lists or combine choices within the categories.

1.      The game setting would be:

Pre-Historic --  Horror --  Mystery --  Sci Fi --   Comedy  -- 1920s  Gangsters  -- The Wild West

Pirates --  Lost World Adventure (like King Kong) --  Super Heroes – Time Travel

Wizarding world of Harry what's-his-name

Combine two of the above or add your own suggestion:

2.      My character race would be:

Human – Wookie – Frankenstein – Vampire – Zombie --  Werewolf  --  Grey Alien --- Giant

Half-dragon --  Puppy, kitty or bunny --  Centaur – Klingon -- Robot or Android -- Caveman

Primate or ape -- Dinosaur  -- Godzilla -- The Hulk -- Mutant (like Ninja Turtles) -- Alien

Pokémon --  Other Fantasy --  Other Horror  --- Other?

 My character class would be:

Warrior -- Wizard  -- Thief or rogue -- Monk (Asian or European) – Gunslinger --  Gangsters 

Space Pirate  -- Detective – Con Man --- Scientist --- Jedi  --- Bard or Musician –

Star  Fleet Commander ---    Pioneer or Adventurer  --- Caveman – Other?

My weapon would be:

Sticks and stones ---  a sling and a club ---  a magic wand --- a gun --- a laser  gun --- magic beans

a broken bottle --- a magic lamp --- a laptop --- Fire or other element --- spider senses (mutant ability)

a musical instrument --- a magic harp --- The force --- a light saber --- other?

My vehicle would be:

A water buffalo -- a little red wagon -- Model T Ford -- a space ship -- time machine -- flying carpet --- a dragon --- a robot or android --- a unicorn ---  Mystery Machine or A Team van --- a pirate  ship ---- Other?

My companion or spirit animal would be:

Sticks and stones --- a dragon --- a robot or android --- a Wookie --- A hologram or spirit --- a pixie fairy --- a Smurf --- a pet rock ---- a parrot ---- a talking dog ---- a laptop --- Other?

Polyhedral 2013 Premier

First, I confess, I whiled most of my Holiday vacation time away, creating a Tumblr account and other such useless activities. I did complete a new Encounter Critical adventure. But, I can't tell you about it, in case we find ourselves in an E.C. game using the G+Hangout in the future. It is not a totally new adventure, it is loosely based on a previously published piece for a prominent rpg franchise. I'm intrenched in the old grindstone now and my free time will be limited until July or August, there probably will not be any Hangin' Out in my near future.

I also did a little work on an OSR community project; The Young Green Dragon over the Next Hill. This was lots of fun and I am very happy with my contribution. Now I am itching to run a Labyrinth Lord game. When the weather's a bit warmer I may commandeer a table on the patio at my favorite pub for just this purpose.

Heck yeah, Classic Sci-Fi! Actually, I ended up with two pages on Tumblr. Heck Yeah, Classic Sci-Fi  is the newest and is, obviously, dedicated to images of and related to Classic Science Fiction and Pulp Sci-Fi. I was posting a lot of Sci-Fi book covers to the other page, Fanatical Recycling Inc, and HYCSF evolved out of this practice. Fanatical Recycling Inc. started as a dump for images that would inspire environmental elements in rpg adventures. Then I started putting images of nature on there and the content became a bit ambiguous. Darn nature and all it's beauty! Hopefully I will manage to keep these the two pages distinct.

Ah yeah, how could I forget to share this?  Thanks to Billiam of Adventures in Shopping 
I learned of Dyson's Delves.  I don't buy many new RPG products, as few as one or two a year, but this tome looks both useful and fun. I'll be watching the e-mail and snail-mail boxes for this anticipated arrival.
(Those minis in Bill's article look great too.)

I'm gonna go draw a map for you all now, if you can find a copy of Marvel Apes for $4, I suggest you purchase it. It was a fun read and even has zombies.

Let's talk about mechanics.

No, not game mechanics, robot mechanics in Encounter Critical or the weird science/fantasy game of your choice. I think every adventure that I have designed for E.C. has had a robot combatant in it. If all the robots in an rpg were exactly alike it would become predictable and boring so I came up with some quirks for my latest robot design.

Imagine, your players unwittingly stumble into a robot workshop. A super, fighter 'bot is being repaired here but it still has a programing issue or two. The helpless human technicians need the broken 'bot too defend them against the player characters. Will their attempt at mechanized self defense work?

Roll d100 once per round to determine movement  of any robot in ill repair:

01 – 25  The 'bot is malfunctioning and moving slowly; no attack.

26 – 50  'Bot is able to manage one clumsy attack this round.

51 – 75  'Bot musters two erratic but very fast attacks this round.

76 -- 00  Programming works fluidly for two consecutive rounds producing fluid attacks.

I have some other ideas but I believe this enough information for now.

Maliszewski Meme and Martin

And you guys thought you were late to the party...
Mr. Maliszewski started the meme of photos of our current RPG reference material. So, here's what I use the most; Labyrinth Lord and Encounter Critical. I keep telling myself that I'm going to use the AD&D DMG but it doesn't get referenced very often. My use of the Encounter Critical rulebook hasn't been up to par this year. Dang real life getting in the way of Role Playing Games!

I did leave one book out of the photo, the Holmes Basic rulebook which I look at more often then the DMG. Of course, Labyrinth Lord is the Basic D&D retroclone which prevents frequent references to the Holmes book.

Who's Martin you ask, George R. R. Martin of course. I've read 700 pages of A Storm of Swords and would like to think Mr. Martin is having some influence on my game and plot design but I can't be certain. Martin's approach to literary plot would seem a bit nontraditional, his use of the protagonist is disposable, literally. His writing is beautiful and flawless but don't become attached to any of the characters or factions in the Song of Fire and Ice series. I still have 300 pages to read in this novel and I am starting to wonder what characters will survive as material for the subsequent books in this series.

Now, back to the ol' drawing board. I promise to provide some gaming material in the next post since I have posted photos of books for the past two days.

Phasic 5!

Yeah, yeah, I finally finished editing issue 5 of phasic, the Encounter Critical fanzine. This issue actually had five contributors, many thanks to these guys. There are a few scraps remaining, which I forgot to include, that I could use to start issue 6. That may be a project for next year? I've got an unfinished adventure design, or two, I want to work on before I start another issue of phasic.  Of course, if someone else would like to take up the editorially banner and produce a subsequent issue that would dandy too.

I posted the file, a pdf, on Google Drive and left it open for public viewing. It's here: phasic # 5

Dungeons & Dirigibles

 I know this has been done, but leave it to my DIY nature to reinvent the wheel, I think that's much the nature of the OSR, is reinventing the RPG wheel. While reading Frankenstein I began imagining what D&D, I mean original D&D, would be if Appendix N where composed of Shelley's Frankenstein, Stoker's Dracula, the Jules Verne catalogue and 1001 Arabian Nights.

First, the list of classes would be slightly different. There would be the traditional Fighters but they might be renamed Soldiers and magic users would be heavily focused on alchemy . All clerics would be Christian, Masonic, Muslim or Egyptian. (Gotta throw in the Masonic and Egyptology hooks.) Since Frankenstein is based on a scientist that recreates life, there would have to be a class called Professor, Surgeon or Scientist. (I like Surgeon.) There would have to be a rouge, scoundrel or beggar class and a specialist class that all classes could adopt, we'll call it Adventurer. The Adventurer subclass would allow characters to focus on weapon specialization, fine tuning their profession and/or exploration.

The weapons list would be different too, focusing mainly on cutlasses, rapiers, flint lock firearms, torches and pitchforks.

 Since Frankenstein was the source of these ideas I'll focus a bit more on the Surgeon class. In Shelley's tale, Frankenstein's creation was the central problem or obstacle of the plot. Within the scope of an RPG, the nature or personality of the creation, or Flesh Golems, could be variable.  V. Frankenstein struggled with the moral nature and responsibility of his creation and this wouldn't be the case with all, if any, player characters. The player character surgeons could, possibly, create any number of socially functioning Flesh Golems.

Now I'm thinking that this idea, which I'll call Dangers & Dirigibles, is most likely to become a set of rules for Encounter Critical. Which brings me to the obvious point that I'm way past any reasonable deadline for producing Phasic issue 5.  To be continued...

Aquatic Turtle Rats

I have been neglecting some other duties and contributing to the community project over at Rended Press. This has been a relaxing and productive distraction for me and I intend to continue to participate until the project is complete.

The process was made a bit easier with this creature creation drop table, also a product of MWSheemer, Mr. Rended Press himself. I randomized the Aquatic Turtle Rat, here's an edit of the description I wrote for the community project;

"These aquatic turtle rodents have a head much like a rabbit with a long neck leading into their turtle like shells. Their powerful webbed forelimbs resemble a wolves, including claws. [1d6 damage] Their webbed hind limbs are more reminiscent of a rat with the shell and tail of a turtle. The shells of adult Turtle Rats average four feet from head to tail.

Turtle-rats are quick carnivorous scavengers, usually encountered in schools of 1d8 members. They will attack by springing forward with their powerful front legs and attempt to bite and, or claw their intended prey. [Two attacks per round possible.] The waters near their homes usually contain the remains of their past prey, including any valuables owned by these previous victims. These remains and treasure may be found at the bottom of the Turtle Rats watery abode."

So, the Aquatic Turtle Rat is classified as a medium sized creature but I haven't created a "stat block" for them. I'm certain your all capable of adapting the A.T.R. to your own needs if  you so desire. 

Now I have to solicit some illustrations for the Aquatic Turtle Rats.

I am A.D.D.

You will never hear me say the previous phrase. I have never been diagnosed with A.D.D. but I do have many interests. Our 21st Century life style creates situations which resemble A.D.D. We have to; go to work, get the kids, cook dinner, do the laundry and we call this multitasking. That's my evidence that I do not have A.D.D., I have limited time to dedicate to my personal interests.

I should be working on issue five of Phasic but can't quit thinking about running an E.C. campaign, there are so many unexplored areas in E.C. The whole array of rules and the game mechanics are uncharted territory for gaming.

 For example:

The Warlock: There is no traditional, sprawling list of spells in E.C. and spells are not level specific.

Weapons of Power: With the hit bonuses provided in E.C. there's going to have to be an array of power weapons and armor to fight the increasingly powerful player characters.

My intention is to attempt to play E.C. as written. We all acknowledge that no one played AD&D "by the book." We were all playing Basic D&D with the AD&D elements plugged in where we liked. I am afraid I will bring the same approach to playing multiple secessions of E.C. I already have some preconceived ideas about how the game mechanics will progress. Combat saves will slow down progress but will provide a chance that n.p.c.s will survive the combat bonus happy player characters. I also can't agree with, "Attacks go in the same order, melee first, then missile." (p. 22) That ain't gonna happen, it's just illogical.

So, here's an updated list of elements I intend to use in Assignment: Outpost 6986:
1. Encounter Critical, Second Corrected Edition rule book
2. Time Echo by Lionel Fanthrope (very pulp Sci-Fi)
3. Epic Illustrated magazine
4. Adventure Time, season 1
5. A Trio of New Encounter Critical Races

As for the content from Time Echo, the antagonist in Time Echo is named Rajak the Magnificent. He's an evil dictator, like Darth Viraxis, I'll be using this name for the Warlock boss in the campaign plot.

So, enough of this nonsense for now. It has been suggested that I'm O.C.D. and I think that might be a bit more on the mark.

Malevolent & Benign; Phasic Tumblr Archives

I was looking at my blog roll this weekend and discovered that, last October, Max of the Malevolent and Benign blog had posted a message about his new Tumblr account dedicated to Encounter Critical. He calls it the Phasic Archives and he's still updating it, almost daily. Malevolent & Benign is one of the oldest rpg blogs to mention E.C. and certainly out dates my sophomoric synopsizes.

I had to take a stroll through these pics and found this Walking Eye. I will definitely be using these in the E.C. campaign which I'm brewing up.

It also occurred to me today that it would make much more sense if the scale for the map of the Might Land, from the E.C. rule book, was 500 miles per inch, rather than, 50 miles per inch. I'm not advocating that the scale of the map be officially changed, this is just  food for thought during my design process.

I might as well throw in a few design notes; the theme of the campaign is, Assignment: Outpost 6986.
-- Outpost 6986 is an abandoned and forgotten Vulkin installation from before the Fall of the Sky Gods.
-- P.C.s are recruited to locate the outpost and recover any lost tech. it may hold.
-- Campaign will included at least one random element from; Adventure Time: Season 1, Epic Illustrated
     and  the Lionel Fanthorpe novel Time Echo.

So, stay out of the heat ya street urchins and I'll try to do the same.

No door on the west wall. (Polyhedral Newsbag)

Last night, my game group, the Adventure Capitalist, met to play Labyrinth Lord as we do nearly every Tuesday evening. We're in the middle of the game, I'm reading some old notes I had made when I was creating the name for the blog, and I hear our D.M. say, "there's no door on the west wall." I think, "that would be a good name for a blog too." One of the names on the list I was reading was "1d4+4" which is silly stuff but could be a fine name for a blog.


We are playing the Temple of Elemental Evil, yeah we use the Advance Labyrinth Companion. I've never visited the T.E.E. before and, if any of the other guys have they're not ruining it for the rest of us. My character, Leerc Sirc, a race as class elf, just reached level 4. My h.p. is 19 but my A.C. is 3 (plate, of course!) I mostly stay in the back of the party and use my Wand of Magic Missiles or a long bow and need to hire a body guard so I'm not the last guy in our line of adventures.

I've been trying identify what really defines my character as an Elf. I don't believe it's the ability to wear plate and cast spells. Perhaps it's the spell casting and archery and the smarts to use the bow thus improving his chances of survival? I am probably putting too much consideration into the psychology of an imaginary character. 

In other news: I'm still working on the layout for the E.C. fanzine #5 and progress is still slow, I'm not going to make my deadline of June 30. I think the middle of July is going to be a more realistic deadline.

But, the E.C. wheels are still churning up in the old noggin. I have had the idea of running an E.C. campaign for a few months and have written some notes to this effect. I'm not sure who I'll get to play this though? I don't think the A.C. will want to part with their Labyrinth Lord fun. But, they have been known to surprise me, our current D.M. might like a break too. More news as this develops, honest!

Call for Illustrations...

Yes, the Polyhedral Dicebag has risen from it's late spring slumber! And thus, the production of  the Phasic Special, Damnation, Issue is back on track with a production deadline of June 30. But, I need some cover art for the old girl. I know many top-notch illustrators are out their surfing the inter-webs and I'm appealing to one, or two, of you to dedicate your lunch hour to a super doodle of a vehicle of destruction and mayhem on a level that can only be described as scientific realism. Forward any contributions to my e-mail address, which I believe you can find around here somewhere, thanks.

Damnation Vans I have known

Yeah, I've been away. Well, I've actually been right here  but my internet time has been all focused on work, the job, making the doughnuts, etc.About a month ago, I did announce on the Encounter Critical yahoo group  that I'll be doing a Special, Damnation, Issue of  phasic, the E.C. fanzine. I even read the novel, Damnation Alley by Roger Zelanzy in preparation for this special edition. Um, yeah, more on that later.

I've gotten a hand full of submission and haven't written a thing for this issue. The submissions include  material by a pretty heavy hitter in rpg writing and blogging circles. This is good, to have an issue of phasic in which I'm not the contributor of the majority of the material. I think I will do an illustration for the issue as my sole contribution.

If any of you Polyhedral readers would like to get in on the act, just write some nonsense about a transportation device for an rpg and e-mail it my way. (Do I need to give ya my e-mail?) By "an rpg" I mean, it needs to be  Encounter Critical  compatible. I feel that E.C. is pretty compatible with the early editions of Basic D&D and BRPG. (Isn't that the Ruin Quest system or somethin'?)  If you have ever played an rpg you're probably in the ball park for E.C. material creation.

So, for your viewing pleasure, here's a photo of a Damnation Van I've known. I took the photo, if that counts as "knowing" it.

Phasic issue 4

I finally finished issue 4 of phasic, the Encounter Critical fanzine. This issue is short and sweet, just big enough to enjoy during a lunch hour. I think I've mentioned, this issue you may be small but I hope it packs a might punch of fun.

I posted it over at Scribed so we'll see when it works through the backlog over there.

Low budget rpg rule books

I had a bit of spare time and finally got around to a long over due project, printing a new copy of the Encounter Critical rules and a copy of the Opponent Opuscule which is the monster manual of E.C.



My old copy of the E.C. rules was a print of the scanned rule book from the E.C. hoax days which can be downloaded here.



The third booklet uses a cover created by John who writes the blog Embrace the Dungeon! His blog seems to be m.i.a. at the moment and I'm sorry to see this. (Heck, my blog is m.i.a. half the time.) John had put a lot of the periphery material from Encounter Critical in his version of the Phasic Arcanium, I just used it as a cover for a notebook I made with paper from an old spiral bound notebook.


I was going to print out a copy of the Refuge in Audacity rules too but the pdf presents all the pages in landscape format which does not a booklet create. You all will be the first to know if I reformat the rule set. As work slows down for the year at my job I hope to dust off more of my rpg projects and present them to the blog-o-sphere.

A New Piece for the Encounter Critical Archives

This piece sort of speaks for itself, but for the uninitiated, Thrazar is the model hero of E.C. and Darth Viraxis is the model evil overlord.



Looks like I need to load this image on to the internet somewhere so everyone can see a lager image, let me work on that a sec. Google Docs didn't want to co-operate and the pdf made it sideways but I posted this image to Scribd, for the fun of it if no other reason.

L.L wandering monster chart

I finally got around to making the wondering monster chart for The Forgotten Ruins adventure which I have posted on Scribd. I'll post this chart over there so anyone can use it who might like. I did adjust some the stats for these critters so the p.c.s will survive to find the second level of the ruins.

Here's the chart post as a Google Doc too.

And, at Scribd.