Witch Twists

It's Halloween.  Here's some Witch Twists.  Let's build one shall we?

Appearance 1d8

1.  Typical hag complete with warts and a pointed hat.
2.  Beautiful woman.
3.  Caught between a polymorph (Old hag and a frog).
4.  Female warrior wearing plate mail.
5.  Young child wearing a make shift frock.
6.  Old withered man.
7.  Homely 30 year old (male/female)
8.  Two faced, one side of the body is a male, the other side female.


Male Names 1d10

1.  Brody Morgan
2.  Laris Digby
3.  Regan Borges
4.  Maddock Deamonne
5.  Damek Tenebris
6.  Orion Crow
7.  Seth Stocker
8.  Bardo Redwood
9.  Lucian Cane
10. Bardo Highmore

Female Names 1d10 

1.  Tatiana Lovelace
2.  Sophie Pickerin
3.  Annika Shade
4.  Raine Christian
5.  Cloris Aimes
6.  Beatrix Killoran
7.  Sally Riddle
8.  Rosina Addington
9.  Gretchen Ripper
10.  Olva Thornheart

Familiar 1d10

1.  Large Tortoise
2.  Donkey
3.  Grey Owl
4.  Mangy Dog
5.  Frog
6.  Black Cat
7.  Bat
8.  Dire Wolf
9.  White Rabbit

Distinguishing Marks 1d6

1.  Large scar on forearm.
2.  Facial tattoos.
3.  Enlarged teeth.
4.  Leather wings.
5.  Tail
6.  Purple Skin

Intentions 1d6

1.  To unleash a great evil upon the world.
2.  To become their former self (be it beautiful, ugly, a toad)
3.  To take vengeance on someone from the past.
4.  To be the most beautiful person in the land.
5.  To find their lost love.
6.  To find a long lost relic of great power.

Character Traits 1d10 (borrowed from a previous post)

1.  Liar
2.  Grumpy
3.  Inquisitive
4.  Annoyed
5.  Mellon Collie
6.  Mute
7.  Partially deaf (the PC's are going to have to yell)
8.  Genuinely happy about nothing.
9.  Gambler
10.  Clinically insane

d100 Northen Wasteland Junk

Since my mind has been in post apocalyptic mode, here's some random wasteland junk.  As I'm planning on an adventure that will be in the North, there are a few more Canadian items in here. 

1.  Tube of empty toothpaste.
2.  An old polka dot tye.
3.  Broken walkie talkie (or is it?).
4.  Large solar panel.
5.  Random plastic plumbing parts.
6.  Half a bottle of whiskey.
7.  Set of car keys.
8.  Pocket knife.
9.  Bag of old takeout food.
10.  Human bones.
11.  Pipe Wrench
12.  Decent car tire.
13.  A pair of shears.
14.  Baseball bat with nail.
15.  Old goalie equipment.
16.  2 packages of vegetable seeds.
17.  Thermos
18.  Backpack containing a pair of wool socks, glasses, local map, and a candle.
19.  Tye dye t-shirt.
20.  Paper to go coffee cup (it appears to be a winner of some long forgotten contest).
21.  Nail file and compact.
22.  Digital camera, with fully charged battery.
23.  Decent Ukulele.
24.  Fishing rod w/hook.
25.  Love letter written in ink, sealed in an old bottle.
26.  Old lawnmower, blade is still good.
27.  Burnt cellphone, unusable.
28.  Toy action figure still in box!
29.  Tin of coffee.
30.  Jug of water 8 litres (unspoiled)
31.  Working GPS (16 hours of battery life).
32.  Working compass
33.  Leather gun holster
34.  A pair of snowshoes.
35.  Gas can half full.
36.  Milk crate with 25 Records (LPs)
37. Box of 10 prepackaged treats, cream filled.
38.  Small shovel.
39.  Old metal tool box, containing 12 various hand tools.
40.  Tattered Hockey Jersey
41.  Good box of shingles.
42.  A framed picture of a female monarch.
43.  Shopping cart, 5 canned goods in bottom, book with coupons.  Missing a wheel.
44.  Hockey stick
45.  Fur lined parka
46.  Medical book,
47.  Bag of rusted tin cans.
48.  Box of rat poison.
49.  Old rusted axle with one decent tire.
50.  Drum sticks
51.  Universal solar charger
52.  Deck of cards.
53.  Pair of wool mitts
54.  Construction worker helmet
55.  Flashlight, good shape.
56.  Pair of skates
57.  Tire jack.
58.  Old rusted work bench and stool.
59.  Garage door opener.
60.  Bag of concrete.
61.  Cooler with six pack of beer.
62.  Coiled up chain link fencing, 3 yards.
63.  Ice cube tray.
64.  Wooden Toboggan.
65.  Laser pointer.
66.  Plastic container of motor oil.
67.  Old wooden stove
68.  Tube TV
69.  Dirty magazine.
70.  BBQ Utensils.
71.  Diary of a slave.
72.  Coil for air conditioner
73.  Elderly Satellite Dish
74.  Jug of Anti Freeze.
75.  Car bumper.
76.  Large spring.
77.  Set of weathered speakers.
78.  Quiver with 6 arrows.
79.  Set of Moose antlers.
80.  First aid kit
81.  Bottle of sunscreen.
82.  Spindle of blank DVDs.
83.  Wooden duck call.
84.  bag of birdseed.
85.  Pair of work boots.
86.  Necklace with three teeth.
87.  Car battery.
88.  Tablet with broken screen.
89.  Tire pressure gauge.
90.  Umbrella
91.  Crowbar
92.  Scalpel
93.  Orange hunting cap.
94.  Can opener.
95.  Mouse Trap
96.  Mosquito Repellent.
97.  Picnic Table
98.  Set of polyhedral dice.
99.  Catalog for department store.
100.  Straight razor.

Operation Consolidation

Rambling 

Operation Consolidation begins this morning.  Yesterday I spent far too much time "at work", working on 3 Toadstools stuff.  In the end, I felt mildy bad about it.  However the systemic issue is that I'm quite bored, and beat down for the most part (as far as work life goes).  That said I came to the utter realization that I should not be doing writing stuff while working (other than blogging).  So in order for myself to stop that, I'm currently dumping everything on my work computer onto a stick.  Then I'm dumping all the files I have on google drive onto the stick, and everything on my home computer on to the stick.  You get the gist.

After that I'll be spending some time doing file management.  I got percentage of the stuff is going to go into a folder called "half cocked ideas".

Once that is done, I know I'll feel a bit better.

The good news is I got a decent sized stick to throw all this on.  I received a press kit in the mail on a 8 GIG stick, just renamed it hahah.

A.D.D writers table. Roll a d12

1. Do some layout work2. Scrap what your doing re-roll 3. Message someone and see if you can fart around with layouts on their stuff. 4. Consider learning how to draw. Draw something, proceed to #2.5. Work on writing some short fiction6. Design a new character class7. Come up with grand scheme to create super basic awesome rules. 8. Draw a map.9. Play around with GIMP/Photoshop for no actual reason.10. Consider taking an older adventure and repopulating the whole thing for giggles. 11. Create a random table 12. Come up with a name for something, create a title page, stop what your doing after that. 


_________________________________________________________________________

Mutant Future Campaign 

In the meantime I've finished re-reading Mutant Future, and have slowly been copying and pasting a PILE of awesome tables from http://swordsandstitchery.blogspot.ca/

What i'm going to do is write up a small hex map using http://www.welshpiper.com/hex-templates/

Specifically the sub hex. http://www.welshpiper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/hexTemplate_subhex.pdf

Once I fill that bad boy, put 2 towns I'll be ready to go.  This is the first time that I plan to run a completely open world for my players. I'm going to stock it with some cool adventures from http://wizardawn.and-mag.com/ and I'll be off and running.

I just finished watching the last episode of Walking Dead season 6, and it gave me a great idea for Mutant Future.  As far as factions are concerned, having one faction that doesn't want to fight and can offer medical help.  Another faction of people just trying to survive.  And the last faction being Neegan's faction, who think they can run everything.  Of course among all the rest of the problems associated with the post apocalyptic world.  I do want this to be extremely gonzo though.  While I wasn't a big fan of "Famine In Far-Go", the whole chicken processing plant was extremely hillarious.  I need to incorporate things like that as much as possible.

d20 starting weapons

I know that DCC has a starting weapons list, however I decided to create my own.  All of these improvised weapons do 1d4 damage.  Go with most of these being slighly rusted and in bad shape.  All of these weapons will be good for one adventure, after that the characters are going to have to find something decent to use.

1.  Large metal pot
2.  Butter knife
3.  Shears
4.  15 Cowpies & a sling
5.  Hand Axe with dents
6.  Home made Nunchaku with string
7.  Thick bent tree branch
8.  2 large baseball sized rocks
9.  Pouch of wooden marbles
10.  Sack filled with sand & rocks, you can swing.
11.  Home made bola
12.  Whip made from terrible rope
13.  Fishing rod with large hook
14.  6 wine bottles
15.  5 large bent nails
16.  Hand shovel
17.  Hammer
18.  Rake
19.  Animal leg bones
20.  Roll twice get 2 items, if you get this again you start off with your fists.

Whoops Charisma Check Fails Table (when talking with NPCs).

Anytime you have a player make a Charisma check (during a conversation with an NPC) and they fail miserably, you can consult this d10 table for some random silliness.

In our game we call Charisma checks, "swagger" checks.  Normally every conversation starts off like this... "I walk up like Matthew Mcconaughey".

1.  The NPC is now under the impression that the player finds them attractive.

2.  The NPC is going to tell this epic fail story to their grand children.

3.  The NPC immediately attacks, they have had enough of this!

4.  The NPC clearly speaks a different language, and has no way of comprehending the PC.

5.  The NPC suggest that you might look elsewhere for a deal/quest.

6.  The NPC thinks that the player was relaying a good recipe for chicken soup, get's excited!
7.  The NPC decides to just walk away.

8.  Turns out the NPC is mentally unstable.

9.  The NPC misunderstands, thinks the PC's would like to marry the NPC's daughter/son.

10.  The NPC is outright upset by any demands made by the PC.  He/She throws a hissy fit in the street, complete with kicking and pounding on the ground like a toddler.

I'm a bit played out

So I've come to the conclusion that I'm a bit "played out".  I've decided to pass the torch of DMing onto a few of the other guys in the group.  Especially after the last epic session.

As far as our 5th edition campaign, I'm a player so its all good.  And I plan to be the player in the old school game for a bit as well.

It's on of those things I guess "over exposure".  I spend a lot of time on webz, and a lot of time reading and immersing myself in all things RPG.  I'm just feeling a bit wacked out.

So moving forward, going to "attempt" to take a brief hiatus.  Atleast from reading G+ threads.   I will probably keep blogging, as to the frequency I guess we will see what happens.

The one and only thing that I'm going to concentrate on is finishing up the editing and layout on the compilation of all of my works to date.  Part of the problem with over exposure is that it kicks my A.D.D. into high gear.  Then I change my plans, then they change again, and yadda.  hahaha.

So I'm not going to be gone, or quiet, or I dunno... I'll be here, I'll just be pulled back a bit.  So I can push myself to get something done.

Cheers!
Shane

Just figured out a good twist

I just figured out a great twist for my old school campaign.  The players are currently in an alternate dimension demon lair.  Once they get out of there (if they get out of there, hehehe).  I plan to have time travel backwards a bit.

The players will retain all of their memories.  I am unsure as to wether I will keep them at the same level, or at a previous level.  However, the following is happening.

A horde of hobgoblins have overtaken the north and are on their way to destroy the southern lands, including Elerd's Keep.  They have already demolished an elven stronghold at this point.

Once the players come out thru the planar gate, time will go backwards to prior to the fall of the Elven stronghold.  

I will have to figure out a nifty way to explain this, but this should make for some interesting playing.  Since the players are aware of the impending doom upon the lands, and the way to stop it.  This will give them a bit of time.  As well some choices in the matter.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Couple of interesting news bits. 

*First off if you haven't heard of the Old School Blues Podcast - Here's the link (it's worth a listen) featuring +Erik Tenkar & +Vincent Florio

Apes Victorious - Was released yesterday.  You groggily come back to consciousness after a long cryosleep. Your ship’s warning system is telling you the ship has entered the atmosphere of a planet and is about to crash land under autopilot. Crawling to a seat, you buckle in, joining your fellow astronauts as you quickly check instrument readings.

As well, if you are backer for "The Pyramid Of The Lost King" the art lite pdf has been released.  I have a copy and am currently reading it.  As soon as I have some time I'll post up a brief review and my thoughts on it.  So far, it's pretty bad assed! Lots of great writing and cool maps.   I plan to run this soon.

Epic D&D Session last night

Last night, I packed up my new "bag of holding" with everything, got in the car and drove off to one of our players houses to play some Basic Fantasy!  When we last left off the players were in a alternate astral plane, that appeared to be demonic in nature.

Unfortunately I totally forgot the most important thing! The character sheets!

We realized that I had forgot them half way there.  Luckily I had a copy of a B/X reprint that was given to me (thanks Tony!) and I had a trusty copy of Keep on the borderlands.  So I thought, "worse case we play some murderhobos at the keep".  Which I've always wanted to run.

Once we got there we had a brief discussion about it, and it was decided that David would try his hand at GMing for the first time.  He had written a 5 page backstory about a large island with a long dead volcano.  Because he is a philosophy major he started writing this world to basically help him study.  So there's a pile of things in the 5 page document that related to his course.  A bit of it was sprinkled with some High Valyarian as well.

We all rolled up some characters, which seriously took all of 30 minutes for 5 people to create. (God I love old school character building!)

We showed up in this town called FOB (fresh off the boat) as that was basically us, we had been on this boat travelling to this island because we had heard that it was filled with treasure and adventure.  During the evening of our first stay most of the town burnt down because of some bridgands.  We decided to talk with some of the townsfolk, and got an idea of where the bridgands had went.  Instead of chasing them down however, we made it to the capital.  Or atleast that was the plan.  The capital was on the other side of the volcano.

During the night we heard a scream, and went and investigated.  We came across some stirges attacking a fairly androgynous person.   My character had rolled a 3 for dex.  I decided to sling a stone at the stirges.  So with my attack bonus and a -3 modifier to a ranged attack, I was running at -2 basically on my rolls.  Entertaining!

We helped out the person, who turned out to be some kind of crazy myrage!  Then went to bed.

Next day, we are travelling to the capital and run into a pack of goblins!  Now I forgot to mention that we had decided to help out a lady who owned an orphanage, she was transporting 17 kids to the capital.

The goblins wanted to eat the kids.  I decided to pay them off.  25 GPs.  There was a bit of a discussion about possibly firing arrows at them as they walked away.

Alright we make it to the capital.  Turns out there are 5 kings within the capital, all descendants of the original inhabitants of the kingdom.  (The knight, farmer, and 3 more... basically like houses).  The way the city is run is thru a process of voting between the 5 kings.  However one of the kings is deposed or dead, and an heir hasn't been found that meets the correct requirements!  Plot twist!

We then met with the religious order in the city of Moardron.  (which the island is also named after).  The person we met had a major stutter, which was interesting.  They were quite happy that we saved the children.

A few more plot lines & adventure hooks developed, and then we left it there for the night.  The DM took home the character sheets and the maps I drew while playing.  (I sat and drew up the city, the ruined village and a cave complex map for him while playing!)

I have to say David did a fucking amazing job for being put on the spot.  He did everything off the cuff like a great DM! Awesome! 

Side note:  I grabbed my copy of Mutant Future back and spent sometime reading it last night.  I have a copy of Famine At Far-go that I plan to run soon.  So my basic fantasy campaign is going to take a back burner.  Which we discussed a bit, I basically said that I had originally thought it was going to be a one shot and was a bit ill prepared to continue the campaign as it stands.  I think what is going to happen is that Kurt is going to finish up the campaign I started, we are going to run with Davids new campaign and I'm going to run some Mutant future.  So we have more than enough games to play at this point.  WOO! 

Statistical probabilities

I'm not good at math, not at all.  I used to however be not to bad at basic programming back in the day.  (I'm wondering if there's some kind of download nowadays?).  The random thought that appeared in my head the other day was:  Wouldn't it be cool to build a program to run mock battles?

Inherently D&D is a bit about math and Statistical probabilities, however numbers are a lot less fun than actually rolling dice and acting like a drunk dwarf right!

Here's what I was thinking however, If there was a way to build a program with the following:
*4 heroes with all stats, at whatever level you pick.
*the ability to input bad guy stats
*the ability to run a battle just from a statistical standpoint.

The reason for this is quite simple, when designing an adventure the designer will usually state "This is for EX amount of players of EX level".   Now in order to determine that you're going to have to run the numbers.  When I've written adventures I've play tested them, and I've actually sat and ran mock battles on paper, with a pile of dice rolling.  However having a computer program that could do it for you would be super handy.  (Although a little less fun).

Alright on to less boring things. 

Tonight old school D&D, I have yet to write up a play report for last time, but it wasn't the most exciting session.  The gist is the players wandered around a alternate plane of existence.  To which they mistakenly fell in.  I'm going to have to check over the players notes tonight before we start.  As well I'm going to try and print the basic fantasy GM screen.  Eventually when I get a bit of time, I'd like to consolidate that GM screen and make it portrait instead of landscape.  And then paperclip it to my old gamma world screen, or my dragon strike screen.

After this evening, the players should hopefully be out of the demonic dungeon they are currently trapped in.  Then depending on where they go next I have a few things written up, including a possible big battle.  I need to take 4 sheets of graph paper and create a bit of a basic battle map, atleast as far as where everything is located.  The players have been sent on a mission to destroy a supply line of the Hobgoblin hoard.  Below is a terrible picture of what the general area looks like.  I had made a bit of a mistake, by making the encounters in the dungeon a bit easier (hence the above Statistical probabilities thing), but I think tonight I'll throw some of the bad guys back in there.  Cuz I'm an ass like that.

 There is a pile of hobgoblins & goblin minions about.  In the supply area is a lot of rations, and various armour, weapons etc.  The cabin is a makeshift prison.  To the right is the edge of a forest.  In the tower are battle plans and mage locked in the tallest section.

While I've been enjoying this campaign, I'd really like to try something a bit different.  In the next month or so the PC's should probably wrap up most of it.  After that, they may follow the lead to the Isle of dread that I gave them, or we might start something new.  I've been really itching to play Mutant Future.

Pray I don't alter the deal again!

I was thinking about the scene in Star Wars where Vader is talking to Lando about Han Solo, and the deal they had.  Of course being a bad guy Vader alters the deal.  Which got me to thinking about RPG's and how to handle the "deal", with the Heroes.

Of course the best bet is to not always be completely straight forward with the PCs.  Not only does this make for an interesting NPC. But it also can lead to more quests, and maybe a showdown at some point.


d12 Deal Altering For NPCs

1.  The NPC offers double of what was originally agreed upon.
2.  The NPC offers half of what was originally agreed upon.
3.  The NPC decides that the work the PC's have done was insubstantial and refuses to pay anything.
4.  The NPC wants more, sends the PC's on a second quest.
5.  The NPC acts like he/she has never met the PCs.
6.  The NPC decides that the PC's are lying about their true intentions.
7.  The NPC believes that the PC's acquired some materials via illegal activities.
8.  The NPC tells the PCs that they brought the wrong thing.  (regardless of whether its right or not).
9.  The NPC tells the PC's that item/quest in question was a mistake, and that it is no longer needed.
10.  The NPC wants to keep one of the PC's hostage and sends the rest on a different quest, that maybe related.
11.  The NPC should not have sent the PC's on the quest, he/she has no authority to do so.
12.  The NPC thinks the PC's are lying.  He/She alters the deal, and refuses to pay more.

d10 NPC Traits 

1.  Liar
2.  Grumpy
3.  Inquisitive
4.  Annoyed
5.  Mellon Collie
6.  Mute
7.  Partially deaf (the PC's are going to have to yell)
8.  Genuinely happy about nothing.
9.  Gambler
10.  Clinically insane

d6 Extended quests

1.  Find a matching item (whether it was an original quest, or a new one)
2.  Delay a merchant caravan
3.  Discover a lost tribe/monster
4.  Re populate a dungeon with monsters
5.  Destroy a local tavern
6.  Find a lost warrior

d10 names of evil npcs

1.  Raygar The Unclean
2.  Cassandra The Witty
3.  Berogart The Whimsical
4.  Galandy Gavenstick
5.  Prince Perfa Pompel
6.  Master Anthra Dema
7.  Sir Constant The Defender
8.  Wise Ol' Angela
9.  The Bard Of The Forgotten Hills
10.  Briene Of The Riverside Moon



Note:  For some majorly stupid reason, I originally stated the Vader was talking to Boba, the internets have pointed out that I am in fact a moron.  I do not intend to share this post with my Star Wars loving Wife for fear of the spanking that I may in fact receive.  As well when I was first thinking about this, I had the robot chicken version of "Altering the deal" in my head.  Which includes Lando.  Had I actually watched the above video, I may have caught my mistake.  Next time MORE COFFEE! 

#freemapfriday October 7/2016

These maps by Shane Ward (3 Toadstools Publishing) are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 2.5 Canada License. Inquiries about permissions beyond the scope of this license should be made by contacting Shane Ward

It's your turn Chris! - Ladies & Gentlemen an Interview with Chris Gonnerman

1.  How did you get your start roleplaying? What system did you use?

I saw an ad in a science fiction magazine for Dungeons & Dragons, specifically the Moldvay Basic edition, and I thought it looked like fun so I asked for it for Christmas.  That was 1981, and the red book in the hot pink boxed set was still brand new.

I got a game started with some friends, and as soon as I could afford it I ordered the Cook/Marsh Expert Set.  Yes, I was a game master, for years in fact, before I ever got to play.

(not sure if this is correct ad, but still cool nonetheless) 

 2.  How and when did you discover the OSR?

When I created BasicFantasy RPG, there was no such thing as the OSR.  BFRPG was the first game to try to replicate the mechanics of a classic game (though I did deviate in a few specific ways, particularly in the choice to use ascending AC).  There was another game, still popular now, which predated BFRPG but it substituted a "core mechanic" in place of the varied resolution methods used in classic games.  Shortly after I began releasing BFRPG in PDF, OSRIC appeared on the scene, and not long after that was the advent of Labyrinth Lord and then Swords & Wizardry.

So in a way, I didn't discover the OSR, I helped to create it.

3.  Tell me about Basic Fantasy, how did it start?

I wanted to run a classic game, like the ones I ran back in high school in the early '80's.  I dug out my old game rules and found they were falling apart; I needed something I could really use, something I could get legal copies of for my players.

At that time, there was a lot of talk about the possibilities of cloning classic games using the OGL and d20 SRD as a basis, but other than that one game I mentioned (which due to OGL rules I can't call by name) nobody had really tried.  I wasn't the first to have the idea, but I was one of the first to actually try to do it.

4.  Tell me about Iron Falcon, what was the thought process behind that?

Hah.  That's a funny story, at least to me.  When BFRPG and OSRIC and LL and S&W were all still new, they were all called "retro-clones" as they were considered clones of classic games.  Time moved on and I did my own thing and really didn't participate in many "OSR" discussions (not that I have any problem with the "OSR movement" but rather that I just didn't have time).  So I was surprised when I learned that Basic Fantasy RPG was no longer considered a retro-clone since it did not attempt to "properly" replicate a specific classic game.

I could have argued the point; by that argument, LL and S&W might not qualify either, but no one was questioning them.  I'm not either, mind you; they are absolutely retro-clones in my eyes.  But it did irritate me... I had been a retro-clone author, but I had been kicked out of the club.

Parallel to that, I had been wanting to learn more about the early genesis of the world's most popular RPG (you know, that one).  I chose a target year of 1975 and set out to write a game that replicated how the game was played (as much "by the books" as possible) in that year.  I got a lot of help from Simon Bull and several other fans of the truly Old School games in understanding those old, hard-to-read rules.

And I did most of the work in about a month and a half.  I'm still proud of that.

GET IRON FALCON

5.  What are you currently playing?

Basic Fantasy RPG.  Still running the campaign I started back in 2003, using my earlier rule system called Project 74.  Don't bother looking, it's there but it's not nearly as nice as BFRPG.  I switched the rules over around 2007, after the game was in print.  The campaign world, Glain, is the world I originally created in 1982 for my very first games.

6.   If you could campaign in any world which would it be?

Glain.  Obviously.  Though I have run some games in FFC-era Blackmoor and some in the Western Lands, the campaign world I sketched out for our module BF1Morgansfort.

7.  What is one of your favorite adventures other than something that you’ve released?

X2 Castle Amber.  It's SO much fun to run!
 

(apparently there's no download for this on drivethru....hmmm)

8.  When you get a chance to play a character, what type of PC do you like to play?

In a new group, I always play a vanilla fighter.  If I know the GM pretty well, I sometimes play an illusionist... I'm pretty good at that, but only if the GM is cool.

9.  What are you most excited about in the RPG scene currently?

Hah.  I have no idea.  I live in the Basic Fantasy RPG world, and pay pretty much no attention to the larger RPG scene.  I don't even know what's going on in the OSR community most of the time.  We just do our thing, run our games, write our adventures and supplements and so on, happy as clams in our own little world.

10.  Tell me about the adventure module “Castle By The Sea”

I created the original adventure for a convention appearance.  I wanted something short enough to run entirely in a 3 to 4 hour session, and in doing so I also created a dungeon map that fits entirely on my two battlemats.  It was so good, finally having an adventure that would really show the game off in a short format.

But it was just one adventure.  I go to conventions about twice a year, and see some of the same people every time.  I couldn't run that nice little adventure again, not for a couple of years anyway.  What to do?

So I made it a contest.  A forum member had put up money for promotional purposes, and I used it as the prize.  $25.00 in the form of an Amazon gift certificate to be given to whomever could create the most interesting key for the 22 room, two-level map.  Forum members voted on the submissions, and then we collected them all into one multimodule.  Of course, I did not participate, but my adventure is in the book (at the back, titled the Call of Doom).

I've run one of the adventures already at a convention (the prize winner, Caer Mortling) and I plan to run another one at Necronomicon in Quincy, IL in November.

11.  What was the first adventure module that you published?

Good question.  I started out doing editing for Dragonsfoot back around 2001 or 2002, I don't remember exactly.  I edited a number of adventures before I started writing them.  The first DF adventure I remember getting on their site was the Haunted Tower, but that was a collaborative work.

If we're talking adventures in print, BF1 Morgansfort was the first.

12.  Any funny gaming stories that you can share?

Last year (2015) at Quincon I ran the Castle D'Angelo adventure from Strongholds of Sorcery.  It was just a taste; the adventure contains a truly huge amount of madness, much of it courtesy of Stuart Marshall (the OSRIC guy).  That adventure includes a magical effect that can cause madness, mostly in the form of delusions.

The dumbest guy in the party (who had penalty levels of both Intelligence and Wisdom) was afflicted with a delusion that he was the smartest guy in the party.  The player really played it up, and it was absolutely hilarious.

Is that a "funny story?"  I don't know... all I can say is, it was really fun to be there.

13.   Cheezies or chips?  

Both, of course.

Kind of partial to Jolly Ranchers too.

Note:  Once in awhile at our gaming table we have some twizzlers, I've never thought of bringing a lot of candy, and now I have a craving for a jolly rancher (thanks Chris).  They do however get stuck in the back of my throat for some reason.  As well I think there's a difference between the Canadian & American versions of them.  More research is needed.

14.  What are the plans for basic fantasy this year?  Anything in the works?

We always, and I mean always, have something in the works.  CS1 Castle by the Sea is in progress now, going through the seemingly endless cycles of editing that precede getting something into print.  My three large Glain modules, Strongholds of Sorcery, Ruby Mountain, and The Lost Pyramid are also under revision, though none are as close to publication as CS1 Castle by the Sea.  AA2 Adventure Anthology Two is in progress as well.

No idea what will make it to print first.  The Basic Fantasy Project isn't run like a business; we publish when we are ready, and we don't rush.

15.   Where can we find you on the web?

www.basicfantasy.org

Ladies & Gentleman - Ms Gennifer Bone

So yesterday afternoon I noticed that Gennifer was looking to get interviewed.  The first thing I thought was "I need to get on this! I better send a few questions along right away!"  I've been diggin her art for a long time, and in all honestly I learned a few things through the course of reading this.

These are always the questions that I ponder to myself when I talk to fellow creators within our little community.  It's been a fun little ride to put this together, so without further adieu, 

Ms Gennifer Bone, 

1. How did you get your start roleplaying? What system did you use?

I started at the age of 12, with Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition. I got a hold of the Monster Manual, and was playing within a month.  We played in the Dragonlance Setting. (I had already read the books) I played a Kender, and killed a snow golem with burning pitch.

Editors note: Same as me! I started around that age playing 2e. 

2.  Funniest Session? 

The funniest session was a 3.5 game. We were in a pirate campaign, and I was B'essa Dorra, one of my favorite characters of all time. I was stuck on the ship while others were fighting on a wreck about a hundred meters away. Thinking quickly, I had a wizard friend freeze a section of ocean to ice, and, clambering on top, I surfed my way into battle!

3. How and when did you discover OSR?

I found out about OSR when I joined up with G+, about 5 years ago.

4. Tell me about your art, when did you start? What your influences?

I've always made artwork. There hasn't been a time in my life when I wasn't making something. My influences are generally other artists, like H.R. Geiger, Wayne Reynolds, Masamune Shirow, and many more. I do a lot with real-world reference as well- I have many folders of terrifying reference pics.

 

EDITORS NOTE:  I need to see the terrifying reference pics. 

 

5. what role playing game are you currently playing?

On the computer- Fallout New Vegas. IRL- Pathfinder 

6. if you could campaign in any world which would it be?

Eberron. For me, it's a perfect blend of steampunk and high fantasy. Plus, CTHULU!

7. What is your favourite artist?

Last I checked, it was a human. The exact one changes quite a lot, though I really love Terryl Witlatch's work.

8. What rpg products have you provided art for?

Let's see... Lusus Naturae, Swords and Wizardry (3rd Printing), Chill, Westward, Lamentations of the Flame Princess, and a lot more. Almost more then I can believe, really.

Note:  If you don't know, +Gennifer Bone provided artwork for the monsters in the 3rd printing of Swords & Wizardry.  To which +Stacy Dellorfano has been designing it, along with a host of talented artists.  The good news is, as of this morning the kickstarter is funded! (well basically its exceeded its goal and there's still like 38 days to go!) 

I am hoping that those are the correct links for Chill, Westward. 

9. When you get a chance to play a character what type of PC do you play?

I love playing Bards and Paladins. Charisma and magic are awesome to have.

10. What are you most excited about in the RPG scene currently? and art scene?

Well, just about anything from Lamentations of the Flame Princess, Scrap Princess, and Zak Smith.

11.  What draws you to particular artist's work?

When it comes to what attracts me to an artist, a lot of it is when I see what I want in my own work- life, weight, a sense of place. The expressions of body and face are very important to me. I love to see other artists that use ink line effectively. So yeah, it's emotional power and technical skill all the way.

12. Doctor Who or Sherlock Holmes?

Batman. (Doctor Who)

Editors Note:   Fair enough! Twas a silly question.  Also my pick would be Batman as well. 

13. What are you plans for the next year? What should we look out for?

Well, there's going to be a website, and I'm hoping to publish a book of monsters...

14. Anything else we should know about?

I know where you are, and I saw what you did.

15. Where can we find your art online?

Currently- http://ladyredfingers.deviantart.com/ or: http://onwingsofink.blogspot.com/
OR: https://www.patreon.com/ladyredfingers

16. If someone is interested in hiring you, how do they get a hold of you? 

Send me a message on my email: genniferbone AT hotmail DOT com, or contact me on FaceBook or G+ (both Gennifer Bone)

17.  Favourite Session Bevy? The green dew?

I don't drink soda, so my gaming beverage is either juice or a good dark beer. 

Note:  If you liked this interview, I did a pile more!  You can read them here (its free) 

Just doing some pondering

While I was going thru an editing some of my pages within the blog, I stopped by Crimhuck.  If you remember I was posting about this world, as I was basically world building it.

Here are things that I'm pondering as I move forward with a bit more writing on the subject.

While I have been a fan in some cases of a "stock" setting that gamesmasters can use to create their own adventures.  I want to do something a bit more.  What I would like to do is have a book with not only the setting, but a pile of adventures, some new monsters, classes etc.  Because I find just handing a setting over to someone, while cool, the reader may want more.  Now in some cases what inevitably ends up happening is a pile of books come out on the subject.  I don't want to do this.  I need to figure out a way to have it self contained.

Now as far as a muse goes, I'm all over the damn place, and I'm trying to figure out if its cool, or if it's not.

Here is the quick run down.

Crimhuck has been around for a long time, longer than the inhabitants are aware of.  To a degree it is a bit of the "borderland" world, a lot of unexplored places.

There's no real fantasy types monsters, but there are dinosaurs. 

There's left over tech from an ancient race that built most everything with steam power.

Some of the races of humans are based off of Norse Mythology and the Ancient Mayans/Icans 

There's a good chance that Aliens are also visiting Crimhuck.

So the question that comes to my mind, is "is it too much?" 

To sit and write a fantastical type world, to me is rather boring.  And its been done, and its been done really well.

To write something that is post apocalyptic, same thing really.  It's been done, and done well.

To write a lost world setting, yeah you guessed it, it's been done and its been done well.

The other random thing that comes to my mind, is does this need its own set of rules? Obviously it would be easy to just go ahead and use the awesome clones that are out there.  But it does beg the question of "instead of having errata and addendum to a set of rules" why not create some new ones?

*side note you can totally go and steal this idea, I honestly shouldn't be posting about this, but its good to get it out of my system. 

**pps and yes I am fully aware that I have far to many coals on the fire. 

I've been told that

I've been told that in order to become a good writer, you need to do it everyday.  This goes for pretty much anything creative.  I have a good friend who is a songwriter and he basically writes one song a day regardless of whether it sucks or not.  Regardless, he flexes his songwriting muscles everyday.

Here's a table for adventure ideas.  Some of them are the usual tropes.  Roll on the 2nd table for a twist.

Adventure ideas (d10) 

1.  Find a lost relic
2.  Hunt down a great evil
3.  Rescue a reclusive hermit
4.  Prove an prisoner is innocent
5.  Protect a small village
6.  Make a trip into the wilderness in search of a lost individual or party
7.  Find ingredients to create a Resurrection potion.
8.  Protect the caravan
9.  Find out why bodies are going missing from the grave yard.
10.  Go on a pilgrimage for a forgotten god.

Twists (d6)
1.  Race against time
2.  A third party is involved
3.  It's an illusion/someone might be lying
4.  The bad guys are actually good guys.
5.  Time rewinds/fast forwards
6.  There is no reward

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Side note, I know that Inktober is going on, and its a super cool idea! However I'm not the best at drawing.  That said, I was going thru and managing some of my pages today (adding extra links to things), and I thought instead of having those silly memes on the pages.  Maybe I should try my hand at drawing something.  Make the blog a bit more personal.  The first thought was the random table page, I was thinking of drawing a side view of a wizard with a long outstretched hand above the links of the different random tables. 

Curse Of Strahd - Session 4

Possible Spoilers

So yesterday was quite fun, when we left off we were in Strahd's castle for some god forsaken reason.  Bunch of 4th level hero's on a path to destruction basically.

Thankfully at the end of the previous session we levelled up, so starting the new session we were all 5th level goofs.

I've started to really enjoy playing my cleric.  At first it was just some numbers on a paper, but I've started to get close to him.  Which is going to blow when he dies.  I am however still planning on going out like a Kamikaze at some point.  Mostly cuz its hilarious.

Because we play every 3 weeks or so, I've found it really helpful to keep decent notes.  While in the basement of the castle looking for Strahd's fathers tomb, we found a few other interesting tombs.  Including an Artisan's (there was a reference to this in the notes, and the Madame had eluded to it as well).  Tomb full of bottles and a coffin.  The whole tomb area was interesting.  I think we spent a good hour of real time looking thru it.

We found what we believe was Strahd's brothers tomb, which was interesting to say the least.  Afterwards we found a very elegant tomb, which turned out to be Strahd's parents room.  There was this large curtain, that would only allow specific alignments thru.  (as to how strahd got in there I don't know).  Anyways, after a bit of fuckery, we finally figured out how all of us could get in the room.  At this point I was basically itching for a fight hahah.  So we look down the stairs at the tomb, see 2 coffins, and a guy leaning on both of them.  He appears to be crying, or upset.

Turns out it's Mr. Strahd himself! A fight ensues, unfortunately we did not have our pet charmed werewolf to help out.  Thankfully we had got one interesting magical item that could "hold vampire", I attempted this, but Strahd managed a save.  After a few rounds of combat, he disappeared into thin air.

Apparently I need to attune myself to the item for it to be extremely effective, however my cleric doesn't really believe in a god, so much as nature itself.  So this may prove difficult at some point.

I have to say I really love the creepiness of Ravenloft.  The church organ continuously playing in the background, the creaks, the random ankle deep water (which at one point I thought was following us.)