I have a screen like this. what is it worth really?

I saw this gamma world screen on amazon, they want a stupid amount of money, $299 new and like $180 used.  Apparently it came with a 8 page adventure or something, I only have the screen.  Is it worth anything to anybody?  Here's the link to amazon http://www.amazon.ca/gp/product/0935696784/sr=8-2/qid=1398117743/ref=olp_product_details?ie=UTF8&me&qid=1398117743&seller&sr=8-2

So just to reiterate, I have one of these, its a bit beat up, however I'd like to know if anyone is interested and what it might be worth.  180 - 299 seems a bit excessive.

Clones Clones Clones

I was just reading this post by +Erik Tenkar http://www.tenkarstavern.com/2014/04/all-this-talk-of-podcasts-got-me.html Regarding the need for more podcasts about Retro Clones.  This post got me to thinking that I may start reviewing some Clones on this blog, just for my own sake.  To do a podcast, you would need a few people on the show with a tremendous amount of experience about Retro Clones & RPG's in general.  However I can still do some reviews of the ones that I've read and played on here.  I have just downloaded a free Star Wars game called Star Wars Galatic something, (name escapes me) and I am quite interested in running thru the Mazes & Minotaurs stuff, atleast from a read thru standpoint.  That being said I think I will start with Blueholme, as it was first the clone I picked up and quite liked it.  Although I've been dabling in a whole bunch of clones, that one stands out.  I've been writing adventures for Labyrinth Lord, Playing Basic Fantasy and reading thru S&W & Mutant Future.

D&D Style Mass Battle Rules - Simplified Hack

After reading thru Swords & Wizardry's Rules, I quite like them, but its a lot to deal with if your running a huge battle, so I decided to attempt to create a hack for myself that may work.  The one thing I would like to point out that I will do during a course of a battle is have the hero's obviously pick a side/army to play, but also cut to "snapshot" of the actual PC's rounds during combat.  So a few army moves, then a round of what the PC's are up to, and then back to the army.

Alright here's the example.  Let's say you got 130 Dwarfs (and PC's) taking on 110 Goblins.

First off I think group initiative is warranted here, as its just quite a lot easier.  roll 1D4 whoever is highest their army goes first.  Maybe add a few modifiers into the dice roll, for example half the armies troops are gone - 2 initiative.  Have higher ground? + 1, thank kinda thing.  (I would think maybe a 1D10 might be better... I'm just riffing here).



Dwarf Army 

Foot Soldiers/Front Lines 95 AC 5
Archers 20 AC 6
Magic Users 15 AC 8

Goblin Army 

Foot Soldiers/Front Lines 60 AC 5

Archers 40 AC 6

Magic Users 10 AC 8

Each army unit is treated as a 3rd Level Warrior for ease of use determining the to hit number.  Units are in groups of 5.  Rather than use Hit Dice for each unit.  Any damage that occurs is taken off the number of units rolling a 1D6. 

AC 

0  1  2  3  4  5  6  7  8  9

To Hit 

18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11

1.  Initiative determined

2.  Attack Roll
3.  Damage 1D6 from units

Its an idea, it may not be a great idea, I have to play this out on paper and see how it goes.

Joy In A Flask - Mini Review

Just grabbed a copy of "Joy In A Flask" by Genius Loci Games - http://geniuslocigames.blogspot.ca/

I haven't had a chance to run it quite yet, (full disclosure) but reading thru this 2 pager, I'm excited! The layout is awesome (3 Column w/Nice Graphics!).  I won't get too much into the premise or story behind the adventure, except to say that I really like that there are choices built into it, depending on alignment of the PC's.  Chaotic PC's may take a drastically different path, than your run of the mill good guys.  This makes for some interesting role playing.  I also quite like how +Joshua De Santo  added a lot of chance happenings (3 In 6 Chances of something happening, its very Gygax).  The module is based on Swords & Wizardry, but easily convertible to your favorite Retro Clone.  (both ascending & descending AC's are included).   It is a paid download over at Drivethrurpg, well worth the (at last look, less than a buck) price tag.  download it here - http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/128226/Two-Page-Adventure--Joy-in-a-Flask?term=joy+in+the+flask


A+ Buddy!

Need a bit of help with a title

I've been working on this mega module, I'm not going to spill too much at this point, as its still in the works.  But I'm having trouble with a title.  I know something may come to me as I continue to right.  At this point the working title is "Underworld Ingredients".  But that just doesn't have a awesome ring to it really.  Another one that came to mind is "Underworld Atrocities", which is a bit better.  I would like the world Underworld used in the title, because its going to be very old school, all underground, not dungeons per se, but a map crawl underground basically.

Any thoughts would be appreciated.

When is enough enough? I honestly have no idea

I started re-working on my mega dungeon today.  I have about 10 pages of notes, and rooms listen (I think 30+ rooms so far) and about 8 maps I believe.  The thing is, there's going to be about 3 or maybe 4 adventure seeds within the whole thing.  Its going to be BIG , epic even?  I just hope it doesn't go over board.  I'm thinking by the time its done there's a good chance there will be 12 maps or more.  I'm pretty sure I will put this one up as a paid download when I"m done, but not a helluva a lot.  I'm not in this or creating this to make money, but a few bucks wouldn't kill me for the amount of work I"m putting in.  What I need to do now is to add a few more puzzles to the hack n slash.  As I was going thru my notes, I was using LL for the  monster stats, and I started looking at S&W for the possibility of adding both ascending and descending AC.  Interesting note though, the descending AC's are slightly different in some cases between LL & S&W.  I am at the point where I think I am going to just leave out ascending AC, and only use descending.  I hope this doesn't kill off some of the people who maybe interested in picking up the module.  Any thoughts on this would be appreciated?  I know I've had a few discussions with guys, and they seem to like to put both in there.

(EDIT) - This was my 200th! blog post.  WHOLY CRAP! Yah me LOL!

Yup its free!

Hey all, this is the last post about this.  You can go and grab "The Caverns Of Ugard" my first foray into publishing an adventure on http://rpg.drivethrustuff.com/product/128306/The-Caverns-Of-Ugard

It is LL & B/X Compatible.  Here is the brief outline.

The name Ugard is notorious with pain and fear!  Thru-out the surrounding lands Ugard and his minions threaten, bully and extort money and lives.  The vile Minotaur is holed up in some caves on the outskirts of town.  This OSR compatible one page dungeon can easily be placed into any campaign for a night of fun!  

I plan to make a few changes to this site in the next little while.  First my friends +Venger Satanis & +Joshua De Santo  I am going to take their wonderful modules & adventures that are on the right side of this page, and make a page dedicated to all the stuff they put out.  I"ll put up a link as soon as I get that cooked. 

Second, I have to revamp the OSR compatible section as well in the next few months.  I am also going to create a little section for some of the silly maps I make in my spare time, that you can download for free if you like. 

While your reading this, I have also been doing some work with an author named +Victor Epp , as you can see on the right side of the page there is a free eBook called "Truthseeker" if you are heading over to grab my module, its worth a look as its quite good!  Victor has also released 2 other books, The Arkadak Papers & The Lost Letters both only a $1.99 each. 

Now I am off to start writing and writing some more.  I am working on a megadungeon that should be quite a lot of fun when its finished, and here is the little snare to reel you in......there will be some steampunk and mutants in it! 

that's all for now. 

Cheers! 

I collect molds, spores and fungus

I read a while ago a list of 1 HP monsters that you could use in your adventures, I decided to come up with something a little similar.  Know don't think that these are easy to defeat creatures, because they are not, they do however have a weakness.

Sputtering Spores Of Greenswath 

The sputtering spores of greenswath (so named because this was the first village they were discovered in) are a swarm of greyish spores (1HP).  They inflict choking damage, any PC caught in there midst will soon start to choke and cough, suffering from lack of Oxygen.  PC's can save vs Breath Attacks for half damage.  Normal weapons do no damage to them whatsoever.  Magical weapons and fire will inflict normal damage upon them.

No Appearing - 1 (cloud 5'x 5')
Alignment: Chaotic
Movement:  30'
Armor Class: 6
Hit Dice - 1 HP
Attacks - 3
Damage - 1D4
Save:  F1
Morale: 10
Hoard Class:  II

Flinging Fungus 

Flinging fungus are large organic fungis shaped in a semi oval pattern, they are about 3 inches deep, and on their under belly they have a gripped like substance that allows them to attach to walls, floors and ceilings.  One of their favorite tricks is to fling themselves from the ceiling landing on unsuspecting PC's.  Because of the organic nature of their makeup, they can be harmed by normal weapons, but they are extremely quick.  They tend to leave a slimey residue on the ground which makes it difficult for PC's to catchup with them.  (DEX Check required to give chase).

No Appearing - 1D4 

Alignment: Chaotic 

Movement:  120'

Armor Class: 5

Hit Dice - 1 HP 

Attacks - 1 

Damage - 1D6 

Save:  F3 

Morale: 10

Hoard Class:  VI

Thanks!

Just looking at my account for drivethrurpg and amazingly enough I have a few credits on there for people clicking thru and buying products! Thank you so very much.  I setup my publisher account this morning and uploaded "Caverns Of Ugard" for pay what you want or free.  I should hopefully be up in the next few days, I'm pretty excited about this whole idea of being able to post up adventures on that site.

<-----Here's the cover.

As soon as its officially available for download I'll do a big blast so you can grab it.

In the meantime I'm still writing and writing a new adventure idea.  Hopefully this one will be in the 3 buck range.  I guess we will see.  Its hard to figure out what to price it at.  I honestly don't mind giving stuff away for free, but if you figure the hours you put into something, well you really should for peace of mind put a little price tag on it anyways.

Played a little Basic Fantasy yesterday

A few months back I wrote a big adventure (right around christmas).  We managed to run thru a bit of it yesterday and it was quite a lot of fun.  First off it was very old school, I didn't even have any Character sheets, we did everything with pencil and paper LOL!   My new set of dice that I got for Xmas, managed to not roll 20's the whole time which was good!  I actually did most of my rolls on the other side of the screen, so that players new I wasn't fudging anything.  I started them both off at 2nd level, which I found better as they managed to not get there butts kicked in the first encounter.  Another thing I realized as the game went on is I quite like the idea of difficulty class, and I plan to use that more often.  Basically I make a determination of the player wants to try something with the following numbers in mind... 13 (easy)  15 (a bit more difficult) 17 (next to impossible).  Of course adding any extra modifier's to the roll.  For example, the PC's cut down a tree and used it to cross a river.  So i said it was a DC of 15 with any DEX modifiers.  This worked out quite well.

The players also roleplayed quite well, I had a few encounters that were not strictly combat only.  Which helped!

All in all it was a pretty good start to a campaign hopefully.   I think I will spend a bit of time actually typing up the manuscript after we are done playing thru it.  One thing I didn't figure would happen was that the PC's took the right path to the first big encounter right away.  Not a bad thing, but I had a few other little encounter planned to the east, rather than the west.  All good, I'll save them for later.

I'd like to thank my wifey

I have been having a lot of conundrums about writing lately, its not so much that I'm stuck in the mire, but I continue to get ideas but don't follow thru with them.  Last night on my way home from work, my head was spinning with a bunch of great ideas, so much so I was even more confused as to what to do. Once I got home I sat my wife down and said "I need some serious advice here, what should I do?".  And thankfully she came thru with some of the best advice I have ever received.  So without further ado, "mission finish a friggin module" has finally begun.  Its all about testing the waters, which I have already done, but this time it will be in a big way.  "go big or go home as they say".  So its now nose to the grind stone.  And I know I've already had a bit of radio silence on this blog, I'm hoping that will change as time goes on.  My plan of course is to post a few teasers.  Starting with the following....