Couple of free D100 tables that have been useful

Couple months back I created 2 - d100 tables.  I posted them up as a pdf download via google drive.  If you missed out on them and would like to try them out, I just put them up on drivethrurpg the other day.  

The old school backgrounds has been particularly handy in my latest campaign.

D100 mildly plausible background stories for Old School Characters

Need a quick background for your characters? Don't need anything to long and invovled.  Here's a easy d100 table for backgrounds.  I've used this in my own games, and it works quite well.  The players fill in the blanks after the initial roll.  

d100 things found in pockets

My thief picks the pocket of the guard, while the other players distract him.  What do I find?  That is one of those moments as a games master where you say "hold on a second.... " Games master loading... 
Don't fret, here's a handy table to help you.

In the next few days hopefully we will finish off The Tomb Of Gardag The Strange
So far its been quite funny!  I'm hoping to include a bit more gruesome horror and suspense into the ending of the adventure.  One thing I may end up doing is add a few more revisions to the module with some player handouts that I've created in the last little while.  

 

 

#rpgaday2016 - Day 1

I maybe a bit late to the party, but I'm going to do it anyways.  For the simple reason that its a lot of fun, makes me think and gives me something to blog about!  Of course this will probably take me longer than a month to do, and I'm starting it into a month already.  Whatever.  Here's the link

http://www.brigadecon.org/rpgaday2016

Day 1 - Real dice, dice app, diceless, how do you prefer to roll? 

Real dice!  I just got a pound of Wiz Dice from my wife, and I've been desperately trying to figure out which ones are the good ones.  Ever session I try a new set in hopes they will start rolling 20's.  One thing I find quite funny is the act of "training dice".  Apparently the gist is you put all your dice with the highest number up and let them sit on the table till you need to roll them.  If it rolls low, you put the dice away in the bag of sham.  I can't quite see this working well with a dice app.

Funny story though, did you know that Siri will roll 20 if you ask her? You tried it, didn't you?

Speaking to "diceless" I'm finding that that more I DM the more I get players to roll dice and not myself.  Other than the occasional roll behind the screen to scare them.  When a moment comes up that I need a roll, I try to figure out how best to leave the fate in the hands of the characters and their dice.

I have used the WOTC roller while working on adventures because of the lack of dice in my office desk (note I should throw some dice in my desk).

A bunch of OSR Goodness Today

Well a brief update of cool things that have cropped up today.

1.  Vote for cool old school stuff at the Ennies

2.  Today is Crimson Dragon Slayer Day - A new revised version of the rules is available for free today

3.  Arion games has released Out Of The Pit in pdf.

4.  Dyson released 2014 Cartographic Review chock full of awesome dyson map goodness.

Campaign Lesson - Read the PC's notes

Yesterday I spent some time going thru all the PC's notes.  I've been a bit behind writing down adventure notes from sessions in my binder.  I've been posting them obviously (which is quite invaluable to go back to).  Part of me thinks, type all this stuff down because its far easier to look up than handwriting it.  But of course that means I need to bring a laptop with me to sessions.

Anyways, I've been making a list of all the NPC's the PC's have met thus far, as well as all the little side nugget's that I've told them.  Things are starting to take shape.  The PC's are currently in the tomb of Gardag, and I'm thinking they will have that completed before long.

I know need to sketch out a few things in case by chance the PC's decide to follow them.

And this is where the notes come into play.  Basically the gist is if the PC's wrote it down they think that it might be a useful lead to follow.  Funny thing is a lot of those leads I wasn't planning on.  So now I have to go and do that! hahaha.

I still may grab the laptop, I'll see how it goes.  My hand writing is beyond awful.

Another thing that I need to sit down and work on is a few tie-ins for the backgrounds the PC's rolled up.  That was from my "Plausible backgrounds for old school characters" post.

So the next two days I'll work on all of the above and start gelling the whole thing together.

For example:  The PC's met a bunch of barbarians fighting a giant and killed the barbarians.  The giant said that a group of them lived off to the North West.  I don't have anything written down for them as that was totally off the cuff!

That and one of the barbarians told the PC's to find his father.  I have a few notes on that, but not enough for a finished storyline or even an adventure.  If they decide to pursue any of these, I'll have to be a bit ready for it.

The fun thing is this is all being written as I go.  However creating a proper campaign takes some careful note taking, to which I haven't been doing the best job.

Reminder, read their character sheets.  and write down notes as you go.

Blacksand - First thoughts

I just picked up a used copy of "BLACKSAND!' a add on for the original version of Advanced Fighting Fantasy.  This copy is far from used, its spectacular!  Here's a few things that struck me.

First bit of the book is new monsters, skills and spells.  To which I may not use most of them, and I believe they are all included in the new core book anyhow.

The second bit is on building your on towns, cities etc.  this is friggin awesome! There are a bunch of random tables for determining all kinds of things.  This in combination with the 5e DMG your gold.  Honestly your pretty much gold with this book.  I can't wait to start working on something new.  The idea was to help you expand the world of titan.  As there is not a lot of things set in stone per se, as far as maps go.  I remember fondly as a kid with this book and the other few mass writing adventures, and locations.  Honestly I get it.... I get why Hollywood keeps re doing stuff we liked when we were kids.  This is the exact feeling I had when I cracked the book.  And now I'd addicted.

The third bit of the book details blacksand, and OH.MY.GOD is it awesome.  There's little bits about each section of the city, with just enough info to get you going and adventuring, but not enough to be super railroadey.

The rumors table is quite genius.  As fighting fantasy was always d6's only.  The rumor table goes from 11 - 66.  So the gist you roll one dice and that determines the first number, then you roll a second dice.  So for example I got a 3 on my first one and a 6 on my second one.  Excellent rumor #36.

The last part of the book is a murder mystery adventure.  It is quite railroadey, but I think it would still be a lot of fun.  The way the adventures for AFF were written it was more like a movie and the DM was the "director".  Its nice that they have a "props" section for each scene.

Random encounters at the Keep

So in our old school campaign, at some point the PC's are going to make their way to Elerd's Keep.  Here's the thing about the keep, yes it has all the usual troupes associated with a keep.  The tavern, the blacksmith, some guys dressed in armour guarding the joint.  Oh and there's the Lord who rules the whole thing.  And you know what he's kind of a good guy.  He treats his citizens well, including the farmers from the surrounding lands.  He has even been known to order in extra food for them by the wagon load.  Here's the thing though, and most of these citizens have heard stories from their grandfathers, Lord Elerd is a vampire.  No not the Strahd kind.  The "I'm a vampire, and I hunt evil things, and animals" louis kinda vampire.

I've been outlining the keep, and since I can't quite draw the keep well enough, I will probably use this map. - http://paratime.ca/images/fantasy/bluecastle001b.jpg

I know you might be saying "Hey Shane you got KOTB why not use that".  Because then I'll run KOTB and I don't really want to right now.  So instead I'm looking at numbers on a map going, Hmm what goes there?

What I have realized is that I'm going to need the PC's to have a few little nuggets of adventures within the keep, so here's some rumours.
Rumours 

1.  I heard the Capn' of the guard was given a dishonorable discharge, although I don't know why!

2.  We've been waiting quite awhile for a shipment from the west, something must have slowed the merchant caravan down.

3.  Is it just me or do you hear wolves howling at night? No... maybe its just me then.

4.  That latest batch of mead at the "insert silly tavern name here" is quite good!  I swear I can fly after a few flagons.

5.  Everyone knows there's no ruins or dungeons under the castle, that's just made up to keep us in order.  I don't remember the last time someone was imprisoned for anything.

6.  Interestingly enough there's been quite a few disappearances latetly, no not people I know, but you know you here these things and your start to wonder.

7.  Just latetly I noticed a group of 10 hob goblins come strolling into the keep.  The guards let them in without a fuss, and they went straight up to Elerds keep.  Strange isn't it?

8.  I swear those wandering gypsys are really witches!  They were here and I talked to them, and wow did they give me the skivvies!

9.  I really doubt that the guard is prepared for any kind of an attack, they all seem fat and lazy to me.  Their swords are rusted.

10.  The other day, no word of a lie, I saw a giant frog appear out of nowhere!  And then... wait for it, you don't believe me do you? Well that durn frog turned into a beautiful lady.  She seemed a bit confused but brought some fruit off me.

Picture courtesy of http://www.oldbookillustrations.com/illustrations/keep-sharp-look/

Side note, I want to release this.  Not for sale, just as a download.  I had talked about an open source project and this might be the thing I do.  The cool thing about open source and using creative commons is you can really flex your layout muscles!  and of course your writing.  Besides, I love old book illustrations!  Could be a lot of fun.  The question is can I put it up on drivethru for free? I would guess so.  Especially with any creative commons stuff it would have to be for free.  As I wouldn't want to make any money off of people.  Right K that was random! Much like the above table. 

Yup That's A Giant Frog! - Session 6

We reconvened the hearty adventurers a little while ago to try and finish up Gardag!  This adventure is proving to be a good few sessions at this point (I think 2.5 now, probably be about 3.5 by the time we are done!).

When last we left the adventurers that had just finished killing a bunch of Morlocks, and they have found a group of half starved (and in some cases half eaten) captives!  One of the captives became a member of the adventuring party!  His name is TINK, and he was basically an arena fighter before, quite strong, and quite a lot lacking in the brains department.

Two of the captives were local farmers, and were quite happy to get rescued and lead the PC's back to their farm.  The PC's got a bit to eat and a good sleep.

On the way back to the tomb, a strange thing happened.  Out of thin air a female wizard appeared riding on the back of a giant frog.  She was mumbling to herself about "Not having found the swamp!"  The PC's talked with her a bit, and she divulged that she was looking for the "fire stone".  The PC's had previously found the water stone.

Which of course they left back at their house in the hobbit village.

Possible Snicker....

The PC's made their way back into the dungeon.  At one point TINK thought he saw a duck and chased it into a room.  It wasn't an illusion, he's just quite dumb.  

After a brief struggle with some green slime, the PC's descended on a room with a bunch of ropes tied to the ceiling.  Dead bodies layed on the floor.

I was playing some creepy Halloween sound effects thru out the dungeon.  I highly recommend this for setting the mood! Big thanks to all the suggestions I received on the OSR google plus community. 

The dead bodies started to stand up, turns out Zombies! These were previously members of Gardags cult that offed themselves rather than suffer the world without him.

We left off with the PC's having just killed all the Zombies.