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Thursday, October 26, 2023

Low bandwidth

 At band practice last night I was talking with our new bassist.  Who coincidentally also plays dnd.  He knows what osr is as well.  He's been running pf2e at the local hobby shop.

I was telling him about how I'm taking care of my Dad with dementia and how I don't think I can run a game right now.  I can play but I don't have the bandwidth to do the background work for a 5e game.

That said I can probably run a osr game off the cuff no problem.

This was his first time out in awhile.  His wife passed away from brain cancer earlier this year.

Very nice guy, that I'm hoping to spend more time with.  I'm glad he came out.



Saturday, October 14, 2023

Appreciation post

 I just wanted to say that I have met and gamed with so many wonderful people over the years.  I've made life long friends because of gaming.  Friends I've never met in real life.  If I ever get a chance I'd love to hang out.

After many games we would sit and bullshit and drink beer and talk about life.  To this day I chat online all the time about everything.  We share our lives.  

They are all awesome and I appreciate them.

Wednesday, September 27, 2023

Gamma World 1st Edition Tech Roll Hack

While I quite like the game within a game of figuring out technology in Gamma World 1e.  It does leave something to be desired when playing online.  

Here is an interesting read about using the tables in game 

https://muleabides.wordpress.com/2010/10/19/roleplaying-artifact-use-in-gamma-world/

And here is what one of the charts looked like. 








Here's my hack.  It's a percentile roll to see if you can figure it out.  (roll under).

All characters start off with a base chance of 15% at Level 1 to figure things out.

At 1st level if you have the following intelligence you can gain extra bonus to your base chance.

3 - 5:  -5%

6 - 11:  +0%

12: +5%

13 - 16:  +10%

17 - 18:  +15% 

For every 3 levels gained you receive an extra 5% (Levels 3, 6, 9, 12 etc). 

Best case scenario a level 12 mutant will have 50% chance of figuring out tech.  Which is obviously half.  For the most part this should make it a bit swingy in terms of being able to figure things out. 

Sidenote (Because there always is one). 

Here's a Gamma World Character sheet 

https://polyhedralnonsense.com/2019/09/14/gamma-world-1st-edition-fillable-character-sheets-artifact-sheet/


  


Sunday, September 24, 2023

Fighting fantasy and gaming ramble.

It's time for a change of pace.  I'm going to start working on a small campaign using the original fighting fantasy rules as detailed in Fighting Fantasy the introductory roleplaying game. 

The rules are a bit broken, and aren't really meant for long term play.  At the very least not longterm play as per D&D anyway.  Somewhere I have a copy of the basic version of these rules in doc format.  It is a very easy to grasp game, and not really far from the original choose your own adventure style books.  I do own AFF 2.0 as well.  I haven't quite decided if I'll use that or the original at this point.  I managed to save a bunch of pdfs from Arion Games site that had pre made characters etc.  

Either which way, I'm going to see if I can get a game going on roll20 or with my buddies online.  I think the original rules would be good for a few one shot style games, longterm the second edition allows for more advancement.  

A few months ago it was decided in the google chat that we would try one one off game a month.  Unfortunately summer got in the way for me and I wasn't able to participate.  The idea however is pretty great in all honesty.  Try all those games we've collected and haven't had a chance to play.  

I was playing in a holmes game with Jeff that was a lot of fun, but has slightly fizzled.  I'm hoping we can get back to it as playing with Jeff and the other guys is a blast!  

The one thing I've found with online games and scheduling is it's almost better to suggest we do a weekly game, rather than a bi-weekly game.  Due to the fact that it inevitably ends up as a bi weekly game haha.

I have to say that I'm not D&D'd out, but It's time to run something different.  At least a different system, not D&D in post apocalyptic land (gamma world).  

Fighting fantasy was my start in role playing, and AD&D2e.  Both of which had a bit of a railroad feel in some of the writing.  FF was more a "director" of a movie kind of thing.  Almost akin to what 5e DMs do nowadays.  I remember reading a good blog about AFF in the gplus days.  The gent took the OSR aesthetic of open sandbox and used FF and it worked wonderfully.   

The last little while at home has been rather difficult.  My dad moved in with us, and I have no time for myself.  (read more here: https://mlife2023.blogspot.com/ )

I've found that the band I'm currently in isn't really doing it for me as far as feeling like I'm "getting a break".   Gaming wise, I haven't been doing anything the last little while.  No world building, or playing or anything.  Most of my time is frustratingly spent worrying about my Dad. 

Since my schedule is slowly opening up, I am really thinking I'll try and get something going on friday evenings.  Wednesday's used to be my day but it's now filled with all the caregiver things. 

I need that 2 hour gaming break where I just forget about the world I'm dealing with. 






Wednesday, August 30, 2023

Cool zine alert

 My buddy Matt Jackson just released sector nine zine episode 0.

Here's the blurb.

White Box...in spaaaace! This is an older document that I created for a project that never really took off (life changes and whatnot) but I just love the campy sci-fi pulpiness of this and I thought others might enjoy reading it. 

The project was a fun, energetic pulpy space zine that would present a setting similar to the '50s radio dramas like Space Patrol or Flash Gordon. Brave heroes, beautiful damsels in distress, clunky robots, vile villains, and strange (sometimes goofy) aliens.

Here's the link

https://mattjackson.itch.io/sector-nine-zine-issue-0

It's pretty awesome.  I'm happy to see a white star and whitebox resurgence.  They are both great games that seem to have been overshadowed with newer clones.

Check it out.


Monday, August 14, 2023

Revised Bard for Labyrinth Lord

A long time ago I wrote up a terrible over powered bard class for ll.  This is the revision.

Bard
:  
A person who composed & recited epic or heroic poems, often while playing the harp, lyre or the like. 

Requirements: INT 9, DEX 9, CHA 11
Prime Requisite: DEX
Hit Dice: 1D4
Use dwarf attack matrix.

Bard Level Progression
Experience
Level
Hit Dice (1d4)
0
1
1
1500
2
2
3000
3
3
4500
4
4
9000
5
5
18,000
6
6
36,000
7
7
72,000
8
8
144,000
9
9
288,000
10
+2 hp only
576,000
10+
+4 hp only



Bards will be able to cast spells & perform thieving abilities upon reaching 5th level.  After 10th level they do not receive any more bonus spells, or upgrades to their thieving skills.
When casting spells Bards must be unarmoured.  Bards tend to stick to charm & illusion type spells, normally not offensive destructive spells, they leave those up to the crazy wizards in the pointy hats! 

Spell Progression
Class Level
1
2
3
4
5
4
-
-
-
-
-
5
1
-
-
-
-
6
2
1
-
-
-
7
2
2
-
-
-
8
2
2
1
-
-
9
2
2
2
-
-
       10 
3
2
2
1
-

Thieving Skills Progression
Class Level
Climb Walls
Pick Pockets
Hear Noise
5
87
23
1-2
6
88
27
1-2
7
89
30
1-3
8
90
37
1-3
9
91
40
1-3
10
92
43
1-4
           




Once per day a bard can sing a song that acts as a charm person spell.  

Bards have a 15% chance of knowing the best tavern in a town to find solid rumours.

Bards can only wear leather armour.  They typically have a pair of daggers, and on occasion a small crossbow or sling.

They always add +1 to morale, and encounter checks because of their wonderful smile.


Saturday, July 15, 2023

Turnbuckle

Turnbuckle is a bustling village in the shade of luminescent mushrooms.  The citizenry is made up of dark humanoids who moved to the surface years ago.  These include (dark) elves, gnomes, dwarves, darklings, and a few nastier creatures from the underworld.

Don't get me wrong, for the most part the citizens are pleasant and sort of get along.

As previously discussed this is the underworld above ground after an apocalypse, ruled by the iron hand of a death knight.  

Please throw out whatever you believe about the above creatures, they've come along way from their cruel ness.  Some more than others.

Turnbuckle is ruled by a council of 5, most of them being dwarves.  They are generally concerned for the welfare of the community and others.  Great planners, and politico's.

Darklings have a knack for commerce and own quite a bit of property and business. 

Gnomes as they've always been are inventor's, architects, and engineers.

The few dark elves make up the bulk of the workforce.  

Rope bridges and ladders jump from mushroom to mushroom, some homes are built among them.

The three eyed newt is the place for gossip, a glass of wine and a bards song.

Resting your weary head, look no further than the nestled hen, a nice inn on the edge of town.  A small stable sits outside for riding lizards and the like.

The village has a very small crew of volunteer guards, made up mostly of dwarves.  Most are not seasoned.  Thankfully the raids from undead and others are infrequent.

There are a few market stalls were common goods can be found.  Most goods worth more than 25 gp in your equipment list are 15% more and there is a 45% chance there is only one.

The Mulvey brothers (darklings ) own a small trading company and store.  They tend to only be in town for a few weeks at a time.  There is a 25% chance they are available.

The village does not have a blacksmith proper, however a smart person could speak with a gnome for design, and find a dark elf to do the work perhaps.  

Work wise, there's plenty of farming, a small quarry, fishing and the big job of finishing the wall around the village.

Religion is quite varied among the races.  This however a cult of the moon, that worships when the sun goes down (reminder it's only sunlight four hours a day)

They believe that thru sacrifice they can bring on eternal darkness.  

*Please note: darklings are halfings with dark vision.  They have grey hair on their head and feet.  

Of course this is a starting point.  I obviously need to add some politics, NPC names, all the balancing act goodies.