"I know I wrote it down somewhere!"

Brainstorming ideas for making wussy wizards in old-school dungeon crawls less miserable to play / a better part of the group dynamic...

Instead of having to memorise all spells, you can cast spells from your spellbook - at least, those with a reasonable casting time that don't require a zillion components or anything. However, this is awkward, occupies both your hands, and limits your ability to defend yourself or see trouble coming, so you probably need someone to cover you. As well as reading a spell aloud being slower than casting from memory, there's also the time required to flip through pages in your spellbook trying to find the right spell.

Which in a computer game situation could lend itself to a game in which you play the wizard, the rest of your party is your hired minions that you order around, and turning spellbook pages takes a round, so the strategy of how you've organised your spellbook before the fight is relevant.

"A wraith? Dammit, why didn't I put a bookmark in front of the On Matters Of Undead section?"

"... note to self, next time put the 'Banish Demon' spell next to the 'Summon Demon' spell, just in case..."

If you go further along the line of being brilliant and in charge of all these goons, then minions might have basic AI (which can be tweaked in dialog between fights) but if you want them to do something particularly clever in a battle you have to spend your round yelling commands.

"No, backstab the hobgoblin! The hobgoblin!"

Treasures of a Slaver's Kingdom

I have no idea what this is.

In the cruel kingdoms north of the Viraxian Empire, a barbarian seeks treasure - and vengeance! Having escaped the clutches of the Slaver King, he has vowed to pillage the wealth of the kingdom ... then bring it to its knees. YOU are this barbarian.

I have no idea what this Encounter Critical thing is about.

... this is Encounter Critical, which means it's designed to be a very good game while providing a thrill-ride simulation of a very, very bad one. If that sounds like a stupid idea, well, yes. Yes it is. And if that sounds great: welcome, friend, to the world of EC.

... But it sounds like it could be fun, doesn't it?

Hoodoo Blues

Was in a gaming shop in Berkeley yesterday and spotted this Dark Southern Folk Magic setting book, was curious but didn't really need another book to tote around right now... but it turns out the PDF version is a measly five bucks.

Haven't read it yet though, so I don't have anything much to say yet.

My own Southernness is tenuous. I'm from there, but my parents weren't - and we lived in a big city, too. I think there's more there that I can and should draw from for stories, but it's largely mysterious to me at the moment.

Standard Roles

So, I've just come back from a gaming convention. I didn't actually get to do much tabletop, but one game I did stuck out to me and my crazy liberal feminist goggles.

That being a game that was sort of a crossover between Firefly and Aliens 4, using the characters from the movie as the crew of a ship in the Firefly universe.

It was notable to me because not only were there two female PCs in the party - despite not having two female players, and I wasn't even playing one of the girls - but that there were female NPCs out there doing things. Doing things other than shopping, whoring, and being rescued.

Most people writing/running these con games aren't professionals. They're just making up a story (sometimes as they go along). And for these reasons, they tend to fall into defaults. Quite often, all the pregen PCs being handed out are male - I don't think I've EVER seen an all-female party, and I bet it would be the entire focus of the plot if there were. If the town has a leader, it's a guy. If someone needs rescuing, it's a girl. If there's a barmaid, she has killer cleavage and negotiable virtue.

It was refreshing to see a PC being picked up in a bar by a woman who was 'ugly' - a short burly scarred muscular gun-nut, hitting on a character of exactly the same type. They arm-wrestled, shared drinks, and went off together.

thank you 4chan

Apparently someone's put up a character generator for the Maid RPG.

drama queens?

Something I'd never heard of but stumbled across via an artist:

Witch Girls Adventures

Looks like a roleplaying game aimed at tween girls. Only they call it "drama diaries".... because roleplaying is weird and geeky? DUnno.

The website looks a little like it's trying too hard to convince parents that it won't bite, but this review suggests it's a decent book.

in the distant future of hello kitty there is only war

Something Awful did a take on Warhammer 40K. Being Something Awful, it is going to be a bit rude. But it's still funny, especially if you know just enough about the blasted game to get the references but not to actually care.

yay transhumanism

No time to discuss at the moment, remind me to look at Eclipse Phase later.

interactive cthulhu

adapted from a CoC module, and noted so that hopefully I will remember to go and poke at it when I'm more awake

step right up

Household is unloading some stuff on ebay. Current batch mostly of interest to anyone looking for Last Unicorn Press' Star Trek RPG, but there's other stuff in there.

What do you MEAN it's not awesome?

Oh, Wizards of the Coast, still trying to recapture the power of Magic...

Each huge booster pack contains:

* 1 visible, non-random Huge miniature—pre-painted, fully assembled, durable plastic
* 4 hidden random miniatures—pre-painted, fully assembled, durable plastic

As my other half said, "What were they smoking when they decided to sell random assortments of D&D monsters? If I'm running a game I want 10 of X, 5 of y and 1 of z, not two kobolds and an intellect devourer."

Although apparently they've been selling minis for a while, and we've completely failed to notice, so something's not working too well in their strategy.

My other half buys minis. I generally don't. I don't wargame, and when we want them for more roleplaying purposes, I just print out little foldy paper things and use those. It's much easier to come up with something that looks right for the character or situation that way.

But to the best of my knowledge, an awful lot of mini-buying is the fun of modding and painting the figures to make your own cool stuff... *shrug* I dunno.

character sheet

Only of interest to people playing Spirit of the Century at the moment.

---

Evangeline Langley (Eva)

Health [][][]
Composure [][][][]
12 fate

Aspect Summary:
Just a girl
Loves her books
A fool for love
From an unlikely quarter
Remove the keystone
The Library of Am-Tuat
Money makes the world go round
The seal of Sheba
Trusting soul
Politeness is its own reward

Skills:

Investigation (superb)
Rapport, Resources (great - gives her an arcane library of Fair quality)
Academics, Stealth, Mysteries
Empathy, Contacting, Resolve, Sleight of Hand
Art, Athletics, Burglary, Deceit, Science


Stunts:

Animal Friend (cats)
Linguist
Gift of Tongues
Five minute friends
Personal Artifact (Catcall - Taken from Am-Tuat, this ocarina summons the nearest cat, so long as you keep playing until it gets there. Cat is not necessarily friendly, but will not attack so long as you keep playing!)



Childhood:

Younger child of a posh family. Wealthy parents were loving but slightly distant - they petted her and praised her but never really understood her or tried to. Their energy was devoted to her charming older brother Brandon, heir to the family name. Eva buried herself in her studies, especially in learning as many different foreign languages as possible, imagining that someday she might travel the world. Curious, explorer nature.

Just a girl
Loves her books

The Great War:

The war disrupted social life as even the upper-class men were called away to serve. Eva was romanced by Francis Adler, a gentleman supposedly home on medical leave, who was very interested in her clever mind and linguistic skills. One day she discovered that he was using her as a codebreaker to decipher secrets stolen from her government. He locked the hysterical Eva in his apartment to keep her from telling anyone what she knew, but with the help of his cat she was able to escape and reveal his spying to the authorities (and/or century club), disrupting his scheme.

A fool for love
From an unlikely quarter



Eva Langley and the Netherworld Gate

A madman was murdering cats in London. Guided by her feline friends, Eva tracked him to his lair and broke in, poring over his occult library to work out what he was up to. She was captured by Am-Tuat, who chained her up to witness his final triumph...

Am-Tuat used the cat call for the last time, intending to call the last cat needed to finish his ritual. Instead of a moggy, he got Thema the cheetah, and hot on her trail, Amelia Blaze. The distraction that this caused bought Eva the time needed to adjust the symbols, and as the magic went out of control Am-Tuat's fate was sealed when Amelia kicked him into the gate.

Remove the keystone
The Library of Am-Tuat

Guest Star: Miss Blaze in the return to the Lost Plateau

After meeting Amelia Blaze during the incident with Am-Tuat, Eva put up the money to finance Amelia's trip back to the site of the crash. Her linguistic skills were useful in finding out the natives' motivations. Once they had routed Apperly, she discovered among his possessions the carved stone seal of the ancient Queen of Sheba.

Money makes the world go round
The seal of Sheba

Guest Star: Doctor Westfield and the Ressurected Man in "Horror on the Nile!"

At the beginning of their African trip, Eva stopped in Cairo to take in some of the sights of Egypt and do a bit of shopping. She found it difficult to refuse the salesmen who kept offering her treasures, but when one tried to get her to sign up for a pleasure cruise down the Nile, she was reluctantly forced to decline so as not to disrupt her plans with Amelia. She then encountered a pair of British travelers, Harry Westfield and his invalid father. After becoming acquainted, she suggested they take the pleasure cruise she'd had to turn down - Westfield Sr. was clearly a bit unwell, and they could use some relaxation.

Trusting soul
Politeness is its own reward

a bonus for the british

Apparently someone's making an action-RPG based on the Fighting Fantasy gamebooks.

old jokes come around again

A list of things that someone is no longer allowed to do in an RPG...

something awful on old D&D

If you've somehow never heard of Something Awful, be assured that you will encounter some rude language upon following this link, which is talking about Ye Old D&D - The Tomb Of Horrors.

PIRACY booga booga

So apparently Wizards is pulling all PDF sales, citing piracy.

I have no doubt that selling legal PDF versions makes it easier for some people to pirate. I also have no doubt that people were pirating anyway, and that this won't actually stop them, but only means that anyone who wants a digital copy of the references (in many cases, far more useful than the hardcopy) cannot get it legally. Which is dumb.

Conspiracy theorists suggest that this is all part of a master plan to make their products available online via subscription to their site and their site alone (also, to only offer 4e in this way). I'm dubious, because that plan actually sounds logical. The Compendium they currently offer on their site is not quite that useful yet, but with some upgrades, it could be.

This is also a good time to promote GURPS.

best campaign ever

What's better than having an epic D&D marathon to raise a character from level 1 to level 30 in just ten days?

Doing it on the beach. In Hawaii. As a custom vacation package.

virtual gaming table

RPG PDF sale

Because of the licensing nonsense, some producers need to stop selling their 3e/OGL stuff in order to sell 4e stuff. So, there's a final sale on til the end of the year.

http://goodmangames.rpgnow.com/index.php?filters=0_0_1120

I dunno how good any of this stuff is, but there's certainly a lot of dungeons to smash through.

more economic fallout

Parent company shuts down WizKidGames (HeroClix, among other things.)

I own a reasonable handful of HeroClix, partly through osmosis... Much like with Magic back in the day, if you go to a certain kind of gaming convention, you will meet hardcore collectors of these games who have TONS of the 'commons' that they don't really want and will gladly give them to you for cheap or even free. Especially if it tempts you into buying some rares.

I was never hugely into it, partly because I *suck* at wargaming and don't find it fun. So while I found the concept of the clicky figures really cool, it was hard to get past my hatred of losing.