The Canadian RPG

I had an absolutely hilarious discussion with my wife last evening about RPG's.  I'm not sure how we came around to it, but the Canadian RPG would be a funny thing to do.  Here are a few ideas....

Obviously donuts will work like healing potions

Instead of meeting in a tavern to get a quest, you get one from an old dude waiting in line for coffee at Tim Hortons.

Power word - EH! - use this when casting a spell to do double damage
Hockey Stick - 1d8

Ability Scores (3d6)

Beer Drinking
Cross Checking
Politeness
Zamboni Driving

I'm sure I will come up with a few other silly things as the day goes on.

D&D/OCD

I like the title of the blog its nifty.

So I figure I've been working on this blog and living and breathing RPG's for the last year or so, its time to do a bit of a manifesto.  (as of today - 13610 pageviews - 219 posts) 

I finally came to the conclusion why I put my AD&D 2e books away in the first place, first off I was busy with a bunch of other things, secondly I really didn't have a lot of people to play with.  and thirdly it really does take over your brain.  And not in a bad way.  RPG's in general make you think extremely creatively. When I was younger, pouring over modules and dreaming of the day that I might be able to write something that TSR would consider (that just seemed like a pipe dream).  More often than not in that time period I spent more time writing adventures and scenarios than I did actually playing them.  

Fast Forward

WOW! I know have the ability to actually write something that people can play!  With the advances in technology, (downaloadable pdfs), the OGL, SRD, etc all these things allow us creative minded people to have system's that we can use and write for, and then put up in a marketplace to possible sell (drivethrurpg) not that making money was ever my intention.  

What I've been finding lately, is that my brain is just completely swarmed with ideas, and possible projects.  (ADD... jumping from project to project).  Does anyone else have this problem? I'm sure you do.  I mean we spend an inordinate amount of time discussing RPG's, concepts, monsters, systems, maps, etc.  I've been having a super difficult time not thinking about it to tell you the truth.  I am not entirely sure if its affecting my daily life at this point (I'm sure it is).  I suppose as I stated before it is a good thing creatively, but the problem becomes shutting it off right?  Right!  Another thing I've realized is that I never really stopped playing RPG's, I just played different ones.  After I put my books away, what did I do? I played xbox games like Morrowind, Oblivion & Skyrim for hours.  I read fantasy novels, I basically immersed myself in other versions of RPGing.  

Now to fill up the time that I don't spend playing, I do the following 

Read & post blogs on google +
I started playing a pbp game, and I am considering one of my own. 
Draw maps
Listen to podcasts
Work on a possible rules hack
Work on my own campaign ideas
Work on a huge module that I may or may not finish.

As I stated I think its a good thing creatively, but there are some days I gotta figure out how to shut it off.  Or only work on one thing.

I suppose this wasn't entirely a manifesto, so much as a long winded statement about how I'm enjoying the hobby of creating.  Long live the OSR.  

The Endless Tunnels Of Enlandin (DF17)

When I first got into the whole OSR thing, One of the first websites I found was dragonsfoot.org, and one of the first modules I printed off was the Endless Tunnels of Enlandin.  This thing is a UGLY! megadungeon, and my ugly I mean, ieyeyeye it maybe a TPK.  Anyhow, this is going into my hex crawl campaign.  After re-reading it and checking it a few times, I plan to convert it to Basic Fantasy.  It was made for AD&D 1ed, but it can be ran with any of the retro clones no problem.  Here's the tagline for the module "Does your group have the nerve to the endless tunnels of the mage Enlandin?  Many have tried and all have failed".

Here's the download links - http://www.dragonsfoot.org/php4/archive.php?sectioninit=CD&fileid=163
http://www.dragonsfoot.org/php4/archive.php?sectioninit=CD&fileid=163

This is what happens when I get stuck in a boring accounting meeting

1st Level?

After listening to a episode of +ROFL Initiative  (I can't remember which one off hand, as I've been burning thru a bunch of them lately while doing some menial work).  They had a brief discussion at the end of the podcast about 5e and OSR etc.  It was actually quite a good discussion about the new system.  (I will do my best to figure out which friggin episode it was).  Anyhow, they also discussed starting at first level and how each DM goes about it.  Some of the guys weren't big fans of starting at 1st level and normally jump straight to 3rd level as the PC's become less cannon fodder at that point.  Basically the argument was that 3rd level is really 1st level in their games.  There was also a discussion on how DCC does first level, where they basically have a 0 level character to decide what there skills are etc.  This got me to thinking, how do you all go about this? Do you start at 1st level everytime? The last few games I ran we started at 1st level, and I quickly killed the PC's off.  So the last game I started we actually did start at 3rd level, so far so good, they are not officially dead yet LOL!

As far as character creation goes, my normal way of going about it is, to roll 4d6, not in order.  That way the PC gets 6 scores for attributes and then we got thru them to decide what they would like to be. For example if they want to be a thief we will take that highest score and use that for DEX.  In the case of them having a whole lot of low scores (which I don't mind) I will allow them to move up one score to the minimum required for the class.  Obviously some people will disagree with this, but its worked for me in the past allowing players to play the type of PC they want.

AHA I FOUND IT! Volume 3 Issue 139 - Here's the download listen to it after 1 hour and 29 minutes after the final credits, its a great discussion.  http://rfipodcast.com/show/2014/03/08/volume-3-issue-139-brick-by-brick-doors/

I've spent so much time I have forgotten

I've spent so much time working on my own retro clone hack and project enormity that I've really forgotten about my home game.  We should really play again.  The first adventure I introduced my players to Autumnwood, a small border town.  They went on an adventure to take out some bandits that had been raiding local caravans and traders, and returned all of the merchandise to the town.  I've drawn up a few maps, but nothing concrete for the actual world, so my mission is to draw up a decent hex map and populate it with a few options of what to do, so that next time we get together there will be a few options.  We have been playing using basic fantasy, that everyone seems to grasp quite easy, so we will be sticking with that.  I'm going to be on the look out for a few maps and possible side adventures using d20 to add to this world.  I have to re-look thru the adventure anthology that was released by BF to see what was there, I had printed it off awhile ago.

That's the update for now.

As far as the other stuff is concerned.  My head is swirling with ideas for project enormity, I think it maybe getting out of hand, ah well.  The one thing is I think I'd like to concentrate on re-drawing all the maps a little better.  Practice makes perfect, much like doing anything else, the more you do it the better you get at it.  and the maps are just not right, right now.  That being said part of the problem is that the maps go NSEW, rather than just down down down, like most dungeons.

Another teaser map #projectenormity

New Character Sheets

I figured I might as well create character sheets for the module I am working on.  After I get these uploaded, I"ll be creating a few pre generated characters for the module as well.  Should be a good day. They seem a little grayer than they should be.  Ah well.

I finally had a chance to try roll20 today

It was quite a lot of fun actually.  I just had some surgery, so I'm laid up on the couch right now (fair warning more mindless blog posts to come).  Anyways I was invited by +Richard Pilliard to play in the "World Of Pain" campaign https://app.roll20.net/lfg/listing/12661/world-of-pain

Richard created his own set of rules based on some old school ideas, and with some roll20 and ascending AC thrown in for good measure.  As I've played a little bit of D&D I had a good idea of what we were doing, although it was all text, there was a bit of confusion but that happens.

So we are off on some crazy quest to kill some brigands, I was doing my best to roleplay, getting fairly drunk in the pub, so much so that I think I would have had a penalty for any attack roll (hahah).  Richard had this equipment list, a roll 100 basically 3 times, I wound up with a canoe and spade and a dog named randy!  The canoe came in handy, I told the other player that it was in fact insured by "Geico Goblin.... 15 mins can save you 15% or more".  Anyhow we camped for the night , actually it was late afternoon, but I had a bit of a hangover from having drank 3 pints and then canoe'd my ass off for a few miles.  One guy went in search of some wild life to kill and possibly eat, ran into HIPPO! and not just any hippo, but one of the most bad assed hippos ever.  I joined the fight, as my PC's grand father had been trampled by a hippo and died.  So I ran into battle shouting "MY NAME IS RANNICK STORMENDER, YOU KILLED MY GRANDFATHER....PREPARE TO DIE"...  Unfornatly the damn hippo ran my ass over on the first round, did 14 points of damage.  I was at -2 "hovering" I guess.  and then my wife came home to make supper.  So I told the guys, drag my ass back to town and let me sleep it off.  Instead they looted my body apparently, ah shit.

Lots of fun, I'd do it again.

Teaser Map #projectenormity

Here is a little map I drew for #projectenormity , it is the middle of the underworld.  I haven't quite decided if I'm going to keep the crosshatching or do it digitally yet.  The plans I have so far for the module are as follows:

Release the first part for free, I believe I will have "teasing" in the title.

Obviously I will finish the final adventure prior to releasing the free teaser.

I am pretty sure that I will include some basic rules for role playing, possibly a quick start guide.

I haven't quite decided about artwork yet.  I do have the cover finished already.  Its sorta like writing a song sometimes you need to start with a title and everything flows from there.

Thanks Genius Loci! #projectenormity

I just had an amazing bout of writing, because of a brief email conversation with +Joshua De Santo .  THANKS MAN!

I was suffering from some writers block, sent him an email with a few of the ideas I've been having.  All of his ideas were of course Genius (hence the name of his games eh!).  Anyways, I cam to the realization that I was preceding with this module without the backstory! and that was the (pardon my language) fucking problem!   I had all these sorta of interesting ideas that were kinda sorta cohesive but not entirely, so the question was how to thread the plot properly.  Here's the mistake I made, I started writing out encounter keys looking at my dungeon map first.  You are probably thinking... Sure I've done that before... or NO! that's extremely moronic! Basically I drew a map, and was like "K this is where this is going to go, this is going to go and waaaay over here I'm going to put these guys".... the problem of course is why are they all there? what is the reason for them being there? What are there thoughts towards some of the other beings on the maps, are they friendly? why.  Are they not friendly with each other? why?  Shoulda known better..... Here's a sample map BTW.... hope it gets you interested.

#projectenormity

Adding rules to modules?

In the vein of silly questions here's another one!  I am currently working on a fairly big module, I should have it out in a little while, but I am wondering one thing.  Should I add in some quick start rules at the start of the module.  In the past I've added links to some of the fine OSR products that are out there, and will continue to do so in the future.  However my thought is "what if this is the first product someone picks up?".  Obviously if they are on one of the wonderful download sites like drivethrurpg already that should be familiar with the OSR movement, and a lot of the clones, etc right?  I know quite a lot of modules that include some fun / gonzo house rules, which I am planning on incorporating as well.  I just tend to wonder if a simple "here's how the game works, here's a few sample characters" etc, would be a added bonus or not?

any thoughts from you wise sages would be beneficial.

A fair but possibly absurd question?

Okie dokie, so the "Caverns Of Ugard" has been up for a month or so.  I officially have 315 downloads so far.  Which is pretty awesome atleast for me.  So here is the question... Keep it free? The reason I ask this is that everyone who wanted to download it for free already has right? As it was in the top free products for awhile.  Or do I change it to like $0.50 and make a few bucks so I can promote some new modules in the future?

I await your sage advice....