Here's another post that rambles

I am probably like a lot of games masters, in that I want to infinitely tweak things.  I find that I can never decide on a system, an adventure, or a world to use.  When I do make a decision, it only lasts for a little while and then I either get A.  Bored with it, or B. Annoyed with it.

Last night while I was trying to fall asleep I had a thought about creating a random table for myself and then just going with the results.  Here's the example

The system that shane will run (Roll a d8)

1.  B/X with descending AC
2.  Whitebox FMAG
3.  Basic 5e
4.  Advanced Fighting Fantasy 2.0
5.  2nd Edition AD&D
6.  BFRPG
7.  Blueholme
8.  LOTFP

There is literally nothing wrong with any of these games, they all run pretty decent.  The problem I have is that I blur the lines between them more often than not.   Which gives rise to "Hey I'll just write my own system".  Example I really like FMAG, but I'd like it to be more swingey and use +/- 3 for attributes.  I really like 2e but feel I'd get bogged down with all the extras that's in the book, and run it more like basic D&D with thaco and NWPs.  Basic 5e is alright, but I haven't run 5e in awhile and would likely run it a lot more like an OSR game (which is fine).  BFRPG is probably the one that is as close to what I'd like, BUT I really dig the single saving throw from FMAG. 

Not to mention the infinite amount of hacks out there.

Like this one: https://www.reddit.com/r/rpg/comments/b11syu/here_is_some_fucking_dd_a_micro_rpg_in_four_pages/

You see my problem.

Here's another good one....

WORLDS THAT SHANE SHOULD RUN

1.  Greyhawk
2.  Mystara
3.  Black Marsh
4.  FR

This list could be longer....

I like all of them, but canon gets in the way sometimes (in my head).  Creating a home brew is the best option, but of course I'd steal bits from all of the above. 

The problem with using a world/adventure/game is that there's always going to be something that you really like and things that you don't quite like.

What I have learned using roll20 is the easier the system the better for playing online.  You get less bogged down with the minutiae.  Which throws out a few of the systems above.  It's too bad there isn't a FMAG character sheet (Not that anyone has used a character sheet in my games yet). 

What is probably the absolutely best bet is to create a straight up dungeon crawl and use BFRPG, and just roll with it....

Those are my ramblings for the day.

Note: Thus far I have not been laid off, it appears to be biz as usual until we are told otherwise. 

Update on Greyhawk campaign ideas.

I spent a bunch of time reviewing the pantheon for Greyhawk last night.  Comparing the Fifth edition PHB Gods to the original Greyhawk (well the reddish box), there are a few subtle differences.  A few of the quasigods, or demigods have been raised to greater god status in the phb.  My guess is that they were raised to god status somewhere around the whole 3rd edition? "living greyhawk" setting. 

Anyways, what I did was take the basic "greater gods" from the greyhawk setting and then copied all of the domains and stuff from 5e.  There were a few that were missing, however I managed to create appropriate domains for them. 

I intend to have some kind of a confrontation between St. Cuthbert and Iuz (who are both demigods in my version of the campaign).  As the greater gods, are just well that.  They don't have any real world implications other than the specific domain for clerics. 

Going thru the boxed set, I've made some notes on regions around the Grand Duchy Of Geoff for the players.  Things that they are aware of. 

I'm on the fence about the ruler of Geoff, Owen I.  Rather than him be a typical Good Ruler, Godly king dude, I'm considering making him somewhat of a tyrant, that wants to keep the people of Geoff were they are.  A Tyrant, who is scared of loosing power.  Possibly the uprising of followers of St. Cuthbert may in fact freak him out.  He may possibly make a deal with Iuz (not sure).  Another thing I'm thinking about is the idea that Keoland may considering invading Geoff at some point.  Of course the only way to get there is thru the marshes. 

I'm slowly working on the City of Gorna, using this map maker, and fleshing out a neighborhood for the players.   Which would be the typical things (Armourer, Trader, excellent tavern, etc).

For player backgrounds, I intend to create a random table for each race.  Example

Elf

1.  Hornwood
2.  Dim Forest
3.  Village in Geoff
4.  Gorna

etc.

Another thing I've been slowly thinking about is factions, and religious orders.  I think the factions in my game may not be the world wide ones (like the harpers in FR), but smaller on a scale of basically factions within the Duchy.  My intention is to basically stick to Geoff for the time being (or at least to a specific level).  Still working on this.

First adventure, after the initial "You are here" session will be the following:

(I stole this from somewhere)

The basic gist is a local rich merchant is retiring and he has bought a old manor that need's to be fixed up.  The manor is located on the outskirts of the Dim forest, near the valley of the mage.  This will hopefully lead the players to the valley (as that's going to be the centre piece of the campaign).

The players will have to clear out the surrounding area of monsters and the like, make friends with some suspicious elves, and probably clear out the manor itself of some bandits that are holed up there.  A intend to drop a few clues about the valley. 

In the mean time I'm going to re-read the post I put up with links regarding point crawls, as that is my intention (and I've never really written one).

Ohkay that was a giant amount of typing diarrhea.

Teaching an old dog a few new tricks

If you haven't heard about the new old school primer that's making the rounds I'd be amazed.  It's called Principia Apocrypha.  Written by Ben Milton & Steven Lumpkin, illustrated by Evlyn Moreau.  You can get it here: https://lithyscaphe.blogspot.com/p/principia-apocrypha.html

BTW this isn't a review just yet, more of a pondering.  First things first, I'm really glad they made 2 versions of the document.  One for printing and one for mobile.  Smart!

While reading the primer, I found a chapter on NPCs and the following struck me:

Give NPCs a motivation or concern that doesn’t involve the PCs. This lends them some depth and grounding, as well as giving the PCs a lever to pull, if they can find it.  (from the NPC's aren't scripts section). 

Every time I write something for home use, or publishing, this never crosses my mind. I've been thinking a lot latetly about world building and game prep.  At some point in time I'll be running more games and I'd like to be prepared.  Since I've settled on Mystara (although that might change.... see below).  The town of Luln struck me as a interesting place for a home base.  For the sake that its on the border of the evil Black Eagle Barony.  Using the above suggestion, I'd like to spend some time working out NPCs for the town.  Nothing major, but just back fill their personalities a bit more.  And of course fill the town with a bunch of stores etc.  I may even setup a crazy tent preacher on the outskirts of town.

I look forward to reading the rest of Principia Apocrypha in my spare time.  Anyways, check it out when you get some time, it's super awesome!

Yesterday I started working on a new character for our upcoming 5e session.  I'd posted about it on G plus.  The idea of a thief who basically steals for the thrill and then gives away the loot.  The build (I can't believe i just said that....) is a straight up rogue with a noble background.  I went over to the wotc basic D&D rules online and copied and pasted everything into a word doc.  Of course after I finished I had a few concerns and questions about rules.  Specifically the whole mulit classing thing.  I'm supposed to create a 9th level character, so I decided 8 of rogue and 1 of wizard just for giggles. 
(BTW I think I cleared up my issues). 

However, as usual I had a bit of "do I really want to play this PC?" in the back of my head.  I decided for saftety sake I'd print off the pre gens from the wotc site for the halfling rogue & the human fighter.  The fighter is very appealing to me, although the DM suggested they party really needs a rogue.  The only problem I had was the pdfs were sized at 8.5" x 10.9" .  When I went to print it (I scaled to fit, and tried actual size) the printer started beeping at me "hey you! you need to put in the correct paper size!"

Alas I had to dump the file into GIMP and resize just to be able to print. 

So I think in the end I'm going to just play one of the two pre gens for ease of everything is on the sheet.  Probably the rogue.  (fuck I hate using that term, it's a damn thief).

In other news I scored a copy of Greyhawk from 1983, including 2 near perfect maps, 2 books, the box and a copy of "judges survival tools for Indiana jones!".  I got all of this for 10 BUCKS CANADIAN!!!! 

Frank T said "pics or it didn't happen".  So here's the pic: So just in case, if you are wondering what I'll be up to this weekend, reading!

Oh and I think we are going to do a new Star Trek movie marathon with homemade pizza.

If you get a chance head over to gothride manor and check out the latest episode of Tims podcast.  I'll be doing a response podcast very soon (possibly today).

These episodes are targeted at individuals like myself who are small-time publishers not back by the companies. I want to share my experience with the process and I am hoping others join in the conversation to share their experiences.

http://gothridgemanor.blogspot.com/2018/09/what-are-words-worth.html

You know what? I'm perfectly happy being a Grognard

Honestly I am.  I've been involved in a few discussions latetly that have led to the "Old school vs New school" thing.  As much as I understand both sides of an argument, and I am empathetic to were someone is coming from (and vice versa hopefully), I still have the view point of Old School being better.  I get it, it's not a contest obviously.

Here's a case in point:
At some point I'll probably have to run a game for the new 5e group.  I started writing out a adventure plot outline thingamabob. Thoughts running thru my head as follows:  Alright check the CRs, make sure they have time to rest safely, hopefully there is a bit of roleplay in here, but not too much because some people don't like it.  Obviously the CR thing is highly annoying coming from an old school guy stand point.  I have to make sure that the encounter is tough, and level wise it matches but they don't die? Why can't they die? Well first things first, it takes for fucking ever to create a character.

I had a discussion with a friend of mine about "balance", and he basically said "Your not going to chance my mind, I like balance".  Balance is a DM illusion.  In this new school game I can fudge the whole damn thing behind the screen.  However next time I DM I won't be doing that at all.  Roll in front of the screen and watch with glee when the terror strikes.

The simple gist is that I understand how to be a new school player/DM, but when I run a game it's going to feel like an old school game.  Because that's what I am.  Balance is getting thrown out the window.

"There is an old dragon who lives in a cave not far from here" says the Innkeeper.  "I've also heard that a bunch of kobolds have been robbing people a few miles from town".  

There's your two choices.  Now keep in mind that dragon is not a small youngling (like in lost mines of phandelver), nah he's a big ugly bugger who has the whole legendary stats, the ability to do things within your turn etc.

So if the players want to take the bait at first level, they can go right ahead.  There is a very good chance they will end up as a crispy treat.

I've recently been watching Venger's youtube channel and he's been talking a lot about the old school aesthetic and how to bring it to new games.  Here's the thing, it all comes down to how you want to play it, and every DM is different.  It seems that the games I've been involved in are very by the book.  Which I'm okay with, but if it's my game I intend to run it differently.

There was a good article about session 0, and I will probably do that at some point.  Once I get everything figured out first (house rules wise).

I also think that I'm going to stop getting into long drawn out conversations about this.  Because it's very hard and time consuming to sway someones opinion and honest there's no point.  Play the game the way you want to. 

The whole balance conversation started when I sent this video to my friend. The guy brings up some wonderful points, and he sells playing old school very well.

Anyways, long story short I'm a grognard and I'm totally fine with it.  And I think that how you learned to play the game will always affect how you actually run the game.  So you know what?  "It's a big world and some of the monsters are going to be above your pay grade".

I didn't make it - TOA Session 2 Notes

I wasn't able to make the latest 5e session, but thankfully the DM sent this along to keep me updated. 

Caution may contain spoilers. 

The party made their way down the River Shoshenstar, along with their companions, Azaka, Xandala and Eshek.

Making their way along the river, they encounter a few people who look like lobsters, who tell them to leave their area, to which the party high tails it out of there, and some hungry schools of fish, of which they are able to catch a few to eat.

Continuing their way along the river, they come upon a deserted camp, with evidence of a major battle having taken place there, and a large statue with a crocodile on top of a man. The only living thing in sight is a large bird with a head that looks like a hatchet frantically running around a pen. Ren casts Speak with Animals on herself, and finds out that the bird got itself trapped in the pen. She also finds out that there are wood people around to the north. She opens the pen and lets the bird out, and it quickly takes off into the woods.

Continuing to explore the camp, Ren investigates the latrines. Inside one of the latrines, they find a corpse that has been dead a few days. Tankard and Ren lower Dain down into the latrine by the ankles, and he ties a rope around the corpse's neck. They manage to pull the corpse out without decapitating him, and find a warhammer, ruined scale male armour, and a pouch containing a handful of gemstones.

Tankard explores a burned down shrine, and finds a holy symbol in the shape of a Silver Gauntlet, which Ren identifies as being a symbol of Torm.

The rest of the camp seemed to contain nothing of interest, so the party decides to explore the statue, which has a large tunnel between the man's feet. The tunnel is laden wit traps, which seem to be magically disarmed when one member of the party rides the other member of the party's shoulders. Travelling along the tunnel, bypassing all the traps by riding on each other's shoulders, they come to a ledge, which they go over leading to a tiled grid, another ledge, and a door at the end of it - the door having a similar pattern to the tiled grid on the floor - with certain tiles being lit up on the door.

The party figures out that they need to step on the tile corresponding to the lit up tile on the door. Climbing up the second ledge, they quickly discover a glyph of warding on the door with a natural 20 on an investigation check. They figure out that how they need to press the button - riding on each other's shoulders, bottom person presses the first two buttons, top person presses the other two buttons.

The door swings inward to reveal a room filled with dinosaur bones, and a spiral staircase with a jug at the pinnacle of the staircase. Continuing the trend of riding piggyback, Ren and Keldren ascend the staircase to retreive the jug. Ren identifies it as being an Alchemy Jug.

Making their way out of the temple the same way they came in, the party finds themselves face to face with the wood people, a tribe of goblin like creatures wearing wooden masks.

After a quick battle, the party dispatches the goblins, but not before one blows his horn. The party reaches their boats in time to see zombies and skeletons crashing out of the bushes.

Making their way down the river again, the party sees a man on the riverbank - Artus Cimber, and Xandala's boat starts traveling towards him. The party shouts out to him, saying they've helped his daughter find him. Artus doesn't recognise Xandala. As she gets closer she starts casting a spell. His face kind of blanks over as her boat reaches him, she has a short conversation with him out of the party's earshot, he hands her something, and then she flys away.

Once she is gone, Artus comes to, and discovers that he gave her the Ring of Winter - which he reveals is what's kept him looking ageless. He says the ring is very powerful, but won't go into detail what other power the ring has. Artus' travelling companion - Dragonbait - crashes out of the bushes shortly after.

Artus and Dragonbait join the party, in the hopes of tracking Xandala down and regaining the ring.

As the party further travels down the river, they come to another encampment, which has piles of dead human bodies around it, and beasts which have had the skin flayed from them, which is where we left off.

Making fifth edition a bit more crunchy

EDIT:CRUNCHY IS TOTALLY THE WRONG WORD.
CRUNCHY IS APPARENTLY RULES HEAVY
What I'm talking about here is throwing out challenge levels and making the game a bit tougher.

This blog is prompted by a discussion from the DIY facebook group, on making fifth edition a bit more crunchy/old school.  There are a lot of ways to make the game a bit closer to Old school, here are a few ways:

*  Roll attack & damage dice in front of the screen.  Don't use any averages from the monster manual

*  No feats or boons

*  No cantrips

*  Save or Die.  Increase the amount that needs to be roll from 10 to 15+. (Use B/X tables as per fighter level).

*  Magical items, one time use, or limited charges

*  Throw out CRs.  The world is a big place, the players may not always stumble upon something they can handle.

*  At first level roll your hit points, don't use level maximum.

*  Do away with skills, and just use ability checks.  (use roll under on 2d6 - easy, 3d6 medium, 4d6 hard!)

*  Short rest you regain 1 HD worth of Hit points.  Provided your rest was not interrupted.

*  Long rests can only happen once a week (or whatever the optional rule is in the back of the DMG, check that).

That being said, honestly fifth edition is balanced, it was built that way.  If you really want a crunchy game, play an actual old school game.  Here is a list
http://3toadstools.blogspot.ca/p/old-school-games.html

Isle Of Dread Musings & Beyond

We just finished up a really fun session of "Curse Of Strahd" on the weekend.  I plan to write about that in the next day or so (my notes are at home, including a funny title for the post).

Last night I sat and really digested Isle Of Dread, its a great module. It's open ended.  Of course everyone already knows this.  I'm thinking that we should be wrapping up Strahd soon.  Well possibly (I'll get into that in the session report).

I'd like to run Isle of Dread, with Dwellers of the forbidden city on one of the other islands close to Tanora (or however you spell it).  As well on the northern side of the island I am going to pop B4 in there somewhere (the lost city). Another module I've been kicking around is N1 Against the reptile god, as it works well with the theme.

Since our old school group is just starting to get into mutant future, and the 5e group might be wrapping up, I think I'm going to start working on ideas for a 5e version of all of the above.  A few things are coming to mind however.

Isle of dread is for levels 3 & up, so I might have to figure out a way to run B4 or N1 first.  That might prove interesting.  Alternatively I think that Isle of dread & Dwellers has more than enough things to do to keep us busy for a bit.

Our 5e players are interested in storylines, both of these modules while awesome are more hex crawl open ended type adventures.  (which I like).  So I'm going to have to add some story into the whole thing.  Reading thru some of the entries in Isle of Dread, I started thinking about the certain factions on the island.  Example, the Rakastas.  Isn't doesn't really say a helluva a lot in the book about them. They are camped in the hex, they raid people.  I plan to turn to the 5e DMG npc/bad guy tables and start whipping up personalities and backgrounds for the leader of the rakasta's and maybe his/her second in command.

Of course I'll also have to figure out stats for some of the monsters that never made it to 5e (plantons come to mind... I figure halfing stats would work out). The Aracnea I'm guessing could be a combo of giant spiders and drow, maybe driders that can cast spells perhaps?

I intend to use Mystara as the world, and the races of Mystara.  Which will strip down useable races from 5e.  (no dragonborn, tieflings, yadda).  I'm unsure on the classes thing.  And there is no real gods in Mystara, rather there are the Immortals.  So I might port gods from Greyhawk, or Dragonlance (I kinda like that idea actually).

Anyways, as usual, I'm just riffing on ideas here.