This should be fun!

 https://princeofnothingblogs.wordpress.com/2021/05/29/introducing-the-princeofnothingpresents-no-artpunk-contest

The kick in the butt I needed to blow away the lockdown blues!  I've got 4 rooms already.  Gawd I love collabs. 

On enjoying the campaign - let it go

Part of me thinks I should put a link to "let it go" here.  That's the silly music guy.

Anyways it's likely in your head.

I just finished up an incredible session of dungeon delving on the isle.   For once I'm not thinking about the next adventure I want to run, or the next rule set I want to try.  I'm just happy to be thinking about the current campaign setting, the players, what might happen next. 

There is a lot to explore on the isle, a lot I've  already thought of, a lot already written.  The place is huge! Every hex the players walk thru, there's new possibilities for adventure.  Not to mention the previous threads they are following up on.

Playing 2 hours a week really makes the whole thing spread out.  I'm honestly really good with it.  Just ride it out.  

While I do miss playing irl.   I like our when it works for everyone,  Monday night games.

It's just enough bandwidth for me, leaving room for other things.

***

I restarted my podcast, and did one episode.  I have realized in the last few months that I may have run out of ideas to talk about.  Partially because I'm not following the scene , and partially because im not seeking it out.  I may scrap it.

The blog will remain, but it will countine to be what it has become.  Rambly,  less focused, and infrequent. 

I guess I'm just happy playing games, and not talking about them as much nowadays.  Not sure if this is me, an over polarization of content,  the pandemic? Whatever the case, im having fun.

Another page from the notebook

This is a slow burn, but I'm enjoying it.  I've started a few spots, a hex page detailing tidbits from the main map.  Now I've got this village drawn.  Sorta.  On the page next to it will be a couple of shops and npcs likely.  I'm still working on the white wyrm dungeon.  Although I'm not quite happy with the map just yet.  

The nice thing about this as I stated before is I can jump from thing to thing.  Later today I'm getting my first vaccine shot, so there's a good chance I'll be working on this.  

In other news:  The isle of dread game that I've been running is going quite well!  We have had a few missed sessions due to things cropping up.  However we are moving to Monday nights, which should make it easier for everyone. 

The old school game I'm playing in with Matt is a lot of fun!  Last week I split the party and there is a very good chance I'll die next game (which I'm fine with as you know). 

I guess that's about it for me today.  I'm going to play some guitar, change the pedals on my bike and maybe do a bit of raking in the front yard, now that the snow is finally gone.  

Started a new notenook

Along time ago, I was complaining to Matt that I never complete anything. He made me a nice 6x9 booklet with graph and hex paper and lines.  It's basically 30 pages, which I'm going to attempt to complete.  Got pretty last tonight. What is fun, is I can jump from place to place.  Go from one idea to another.  It's a bit cramped with 6x9 but I'm having fun.

I may add the gygax challenge into this.  I grabbed a copy of Whitebox FMAG for some inspiration and the 1e DMG. 

This will be in my work backpack for those moments when I have some inpsiration.

Here's some silly photos.  It's nice to make mistakes and just move on. 

Return to the isle

 I'm running isle of dread again.  I'm not thinking of other campaign ideas! I've done too much of that over the years (and lately).  We decided to ditch the 5e game as honestly it was making me anxious.  I was trying to write too much backstory and weave the plot.

I'd like to return to the nightwell barony, but old school.  That is another day though.

Things I've learned from attempting a 5e homebrew game and world.

1.  Don't

Okay that was harsh.  I'm obviously more comfy with an older game.

1.  Know all the rules backwards and forwards.

2.  Run a wotc campaign first before attempting a homebrew.  There's lot of tidbits that come up, lore,  game mechanics etc that are easier to deal with.  See 1.

Creating a less magical, only basic rules 5e game is extremely difficult. 

Even if you run a longer one shot, you will understand the play style a bit better.

Okay isle stuff....

I'm running basic fantasy and enjoying it.  Next game I may use ose or shanes home brew osr rules (you can backstab a shark with a bow in it).  I should write them down.

I have the basic intro sorta scripted,  in such that there are no events but * "If thens "  for some situations. Once they are settled on the island ,it's about exploration.

Mostly things like npcs rumours, some faction oppositions, threads. Enough to get them excited.

Another thing I did that I learned from another awesome gm, was pre rolling encounters. This allows me to add some detail, map out possible treasure or lairs, and stats.  Now what I'll do is roll if an encounter is present, if so move to one of them.

Here's an example. I rolled a giant elk, wolves, humans, and a giant snake.

First thing I thought was to combine the wolves and the elk.  Maybe the wolves are hunting it? Or eating it?

The humans could be other settlers, another tribe of islanders, pirates, maybe pirates who have been marooned? Oooh.

See the wheels turning.

The above humans could be cooking a giant snake over the fire, hunting the elk, getting eaten by the snake.

Another thing I wrote was some basic weather, and hazards like quicksand, rock slides, annoying insects, old skeletons,etc.

I am going to play up the ancient civilization on the mountain, as well I am going to pop the forbidden city into the southern part of the island.  Also possibly b4 lost pyramid somewhere. Another thing I considered was kotb, however it's abandoned and filled with monsters.

Of course someone is going to be hunting a giant ape.

This island is filled with possibilities. 

*If then, for anyone whose programmed basic.

I need a ruling!

Dear Dragon Magazine: 

One of my players was in a boat and wanted to attempt to backstab a shark that was attacking the boat. 

I posed this question to the google hangout old school grognard chat that I'm a part of.  For the sake of argument I was playing basic fantasy.  Here my friends are the wonderful answer's that I received.  To keep with the anonymity of the chat group, I've just labelled everyone who took part in the conversation with numbers. 

1:  Does the shark have a backside? 

Technically the sneak attack is because the target is unaware of the attack about to hit.  I don't see why the thief would not be allowed to sneak attack target who was not aware.  

2:  Backstab is only with discernible "back" so shark is eliminated altogether. 

Grognard's quoting different editions....

2:  old school technically "unnoticed"  but considering a sharks eyes depending on species are positioned in such a way as to see above their back, the point is moot.  It's called  BACK stab, so it is clearly meant for humanoids only! 

1:  sharks have a spine, and therefore a back. 

3:  and you have to account for the fish's lateral line being able to detect living creatures in the vicinity.

2:  a spine not a back so WRONG! take a biology class again.

3:  the shark is always hunting, always hungry killing machine.  your pathetic sneaky monkey skills have no power over 400 million years of predation perfection! 

1:  I was going to say that a shark's eyeball positioning actually allow it to see nearly 360 degrees around its body and would therefore almost be impossible to attack it unawares. 

HERE'S THE MOST IMPORTANT PART 

1: So while the rules would probably allow the attack a common sense approach to biology would probably prevent the attack  However any good DM worth his salt would probably make a judgement call in this situation and allow the sneak attack to happen for the sake of the story and fun of the game. 

Here's the official rule from Basic Fantasy SRD.

Finally, Thieves can perform a Sneak Attack any time they are behind an opponent in melee and it is reasonably likely the opponent doesn't know the Thief is there. The GM may require a Move Silently or Hide roll to determine this. The Sneak Attack is made with a +4 attack bonus and does double damage if it is successful. A Thief usually can't make a Sneak Attack on the same opponent twice in any given combat.

The Sneak Attack can be performed with any melee (but not missile) weapon, or may be performed bare-handed (in which case subduing damage is done; see the Encounter section for details). Also, the Sneak Attack can be performed with the “flat of the blade;” the bonuses and penalties cancel out, so the attack has a +0 attack bonus and does normal damage; the damage done in this case is subduing damage.

The one thing that I didn't realize was that a sneak attack only applies to Melee weapons.  In the case of the shark the player was attempting to use his bow.  I've decided that I'm fine with missile weapons as well.  In my game I will allow a sneak attack as long as the player can remain unseen, or the monster is unaware.  the only weapons not useable for a sneak attack would be two handed weapons. 

What I ended up doing was allowing the attack because when I described it the sharks were only aware of the boat and were running into it trying to flip it over.  I allowed it for one round.  There were 2 sharks and after 1 died I made the other shark make a morale check (which it lost).  It decided to swim away.  I mentioned it to the Grognard chat, which brought up a whole lotta "sharks shouldn't make morale checks! they are sharks, they are hungry, they should have a morale of 12!". 

In BF the bull shark has a morale of 7. 

What would you have done? 

 

The PC Graveyard PT 2

Jax windlehen 

A Black Hack Character from one of Matt's games.  I believe he died.  This may have been the adventure with the weird unicorn and the factory.  It was ODD! But super fun. 

Strength : 8

Intelligence :9

Wisdom : 10

Charisma : 12

Dexterity : 16

Constitution : 6

Hit points :8

Current hit points : 7

Lucky charm: fish hook made of gold

Attack damage: 1d6, unarmed 1d4 

Equipment : cloth gambeon (av1) 

Bow and arrows (ud8) 

Background : was a prisoner on a black ship, and the ship sunk off the coast. I was the only survivor. 

Below is Jax's pic.  I likely grabbed it from the now defunct openclipart.org 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beauregard Brokennail

*A Holmes PC for one of Jeff's Games. 

1st Lvl Dwarf Fighter

Chaotic Good

Hit Points:  5

Current Hit Points: 4

AC:  4

STR:  12

INT:  9

WIS:  14 (+10% XP)

CON:  12

DEX:  11

CHA:  14

GP: 7

Equipment:  Backpack, Mail Armour, Helmet, Shield, Spear, Short Bow, 18 Arrows,Wooden  Holy Symbol, Rations, 1 flasks of oil, tinder box, Small sack, Steel Mirror. 

Saves

Breath:  15  Wand:  13  Gaze:  14  Ray:  12  Spell:  16

Background: 

Beauregard is the pinnacle of dwarven grumpiness!  He grumbles about everything: walking, fighting, eating, cooking, doing the laundry, smells, other people, outside, inside.  The last group of adventurer’s he was with would continually charm him just so that we get a break from his grumbling.  His long term goal is to find a nice valley near some mountains, where he will build a cottage away from everyone. 

Notes: 

We are from the town of Portum.  

Characters:  Signet (cleric) Glenfell AKA Sister Gleam (Elf)

AC9	AC8	AC7	AC6	AC5	AC4	AC3	AC2	AC1	AC0
10	11	12	13	14	15	16	17	18	19

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

ES-2

(1st Level paranoid android) 

Another PC from Matts Game.  This was a OSE/Whitebox kinda one shot.  I remember having an idea of what ES stood for, but now I have no clue! 

Problem solving tech geek robot (anytime trying to solve tech stuff i get a +2) - Int replaces this. 

+2 anytime trying to repair some broken (space shipwise) 

+2 on reaction/persuasion 

AC: 12

HIt Points 12

Awesome Point: 2 

Equipment: 

Warhammer made of plastic tubing from a spaceship wall. 

Attributes

STR +1 ( to hit/damage) 

DEX +2 (to hit/damage)

CON +2

INT +3

WIS +1

CHA +0

Backstory: 

I got left behind after a raid by the imperium because I’m a robot. 

I have the capability to be used as a flashlight! 

Notes: 

Was in a spaceship with what appears to be 3 other convicts.  The ship was attacked and we managed to escape our confines.