Just playing around with some new backgrounds for DnD Next. Obviously this isn't in any way official or anything; just me dabbling. Backgrounds can apply to any class, while themes are class-specific. Maybe I'll whip up some themes later.Background: MerchantYou are an experienced buyer and seller of goods. You have a keen eye for a bargain and can get the most out of a negotiation when cold, hard cash is on the line. You have training in the skills listed below, and you gain the indicated bonus on any check involving that skill.Commerce +3Appraisal...
Saturday, 30 June 2012
Today we wrapped up the third and (for the moment, at least) final session of playing the DnD Next playtest edition. My thoughts from our first session are here.Some cool things:Cantrips. Having the cantrips be at-will seems to be a pretty good idea. Most people focused on the cantrips magic missile or ray of frost, claiming they were too over powered to be at-will spells. I disagree. The damage inflicted by magic missile won't kill most things because...
Friday, 29 June 2012
I confess I hadn't heard about this until now, but as of this writing you have 37 hours to get in on the kickstarter campaign for Traveller 5th Edition. FTFA:T5 has technology beyond TL 15, clones, robots, computers, artificial intelligence, QREBS (!), alien senses, Flux. It has a whole series of easy-to-use Makers: GunMaker, VehicleMaker, ArmorMaker, RobotMaker, SophontMaker, ThingMaker. It includes mapping of star systems and worlds; there's ever the MOARN caveat: Map Only As Really Necessary, or referees would spend all their time just...
Wednesday, 27 June 2012
There's been a resolution to the dispute over who has the rights to reprint the classic game Merchant of Venus (first reported back in October). From the press release issued by Stronghold Games:Fantasy Flight Games (FFG) and Stronghold Games (SG) are pleased to have reached a favorable resolution regarding the publishing of a new edition of the classic "Merchant of Venus" board game.In the Fall of 2011, both SG and FFG announced separate plans to...
Tuesday, 26 June 2012
Considering what a space geek I am, I certainly should have known about this before today, but I never heard of this!Back in 1964, Phil Bono of Douglas Aircraft (which later merged to become McDonnell Douglas) came up with a bold proposal for a reusable single-stage booster. The Reusable Orbital Module, Booster, and Utility Shuttle (ROMBUS) consisted of a large central core rocket surrounded by eight disposable hydrogen fuel cells (that would drop...
Monday, 25 June 2012
To follow up on the 1st edition core rulebooks that WotC is reprinting next month, it is now official that the 3.5 rulebooks will also be reprinted in September.As with the 1st edition rulebooks, these will be premium, limited edition books.It should be noted that these were previously up on the Barnes & Noble website, and then withdrawn, almost certainly because they were inadvertently prematurely made live on the B&N site. Given the sensibilities and strategy around the DnD Next release, this is a very interesting development. Are they...
Saturday, 23 June 2012
As my regular readers may have figured out, I've always got a LOT of different pots a'boilin'. RPGs, modules, wargames, boardgames, convention games... there's always a lot of things that need to be finished around casa de grognard.I find that this actually works out well for me. I'll develop something in my mind, maybe set out an outline or even write a couple of pages... and then drop it. It'll stay there, in the back of my mind, percolating, writhing around in my synapses, and then finally, like the spawn of some creative parasite, out it comes...
Wednesday, 20 June 2012
DexCon is consistently one of the best gaming conventions around. The full schedule of events for this year's DexCon gaming convention in Morristown, NJ has now been posted. The convention will be held July 4-8 and is an absolute blast. If you're anywhere near the northern New Jersey area, you should consider stopping by; they have every kind of gaming you can think of, from miniatures to board games to LARPS and of course RPGs.I'm lined up to run...
Monday, 18 June 2012
So last Friday and Saturday, Mike Mearls did an AMA on Reddit answering questions about DnD Next (mostly...). You can find the entire thing at the link above, but here were some takeaway quotes (good, bad, and ominous from my point of view) I plucked out from the whole:So, the key lies in establishing the limits in each area and then, most importantly, throttling way back on the flood of mechanics. We have to consider each spell, theme, or whatever with the same attention that the Magic team regards a new card.I'd like to incorporate a core...
Sunday, 17 June 2012
Persis Khambatta ("Ilia") in a screen test for Star Trek: Phase IIHave you ever noticed how similar Star Trek The Motion Picture is to Star Trek The Next Generation? Consider...Decker / Riker: A hotshot first officer, young, impatient, sometimes at odds with the captain. Used to have a relationship with Ilia / Troi.Ilia / Troi: An alien who used to have a relationship with the first officer. Possessed of special powers dealing with emotions (sexual...
Saturday, 16 June 2012
Friday, 15 June 2012
If you're into maps, you have to watch this short (10 min.) video, which I'm sure many of you will find near and dear to your heart (and probably inspirational):<p>&amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;nbsp;&amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;gt;</p>Jerry Gretzinger also has a blog where he details some of the progress on the map, which is created according to self-consistent (but steadily changing and growing) rules, and randomized by drawing cards from a deck...
Alas, there aren't any stores in my immediate vicinity, and naturally none of the three closest game stores are participating, but I fully support any endeavor that gets people into their FLGS. Complete information (including the available swag) can be found here.A participating store locator can be found he...
Thursday, 14 June 2012
In honor of the newly-discovered additions to China's army of terracotta warriors, I give you this denizen of the Celestial Imperium of Suhfang in western Oerik (but suitable for any campaign setting, of course).Terracotta Golem Number 1 (or 20d10) Morale n/a Hit Dice 3d12 Armor Class 7 Move 90’/min. Magic Resistance D No. of Attacks 1 Damage Per weapon type +2 Defenses See below Attacks Fear 30’ radius Weaknesses...
Just wanted to share one of the many illustrations that the ever-awesome Brian "Glad" Thomas is doing for the upcoming Adventures Dark and Deep™: A Curious Volume of Forgotten Lore:I love the classic look of the kobolds; small scaly dog-men, just like the Gods and Gygax intended. ;-)The book is still on course for a July release. I just might happen to mention it again once it becomes available....
Tuesday, 12 June 2012
One of the things that strikes me from the accounts of the earliest days of Gary Gygax's campaign in Lake Geneva was the lack of a single group of players that would consistently come together to play. There was no "the party"*. Rather, there was a cloud of players, of which a subset would get together on any given day to play.That's very different from the way the game was played from about 1980 onwards (perhaps a little earlier or later, depending...
Monday, 11 June 2012
Sunday, 10 June 2012
Yesterday I had the opportunity to see Ridley Scott's Prometheus; a sorta-kinda prequel to his groundbreaking 1979 film Alien. I saw it without the 3D or Imax, and didn't feel the loss at all. The theater was packed.Let me just say at the outset that this film was an outstanding success from my point of view. Speaking as an enormous fan of all the Alien films (even including Alien: Resurrection), Prometheus managed to do something I didn't think...
Saturday, 9 June 2012
Due to scheduling issues, my group's usual Friday Adventures Dark and Deep game was cancelled, so a few of us got together to give the new DnD Next playtest rules a spin. One of the players in my game, whom readers might recognize from the comments here as "Hamlet", took the reins as DM.As most folks are probably already aware, the playtest package comes with a version of the 1E classic adventure "Keep on the Borderlands", specifically detailing...
Friday, 8 June 2012
Got this announcement in my email today: Frog God Games announced today that they are acquiring Necromancer Games, the award-winning publishing house known for Necropolis, Rappan Athuk, City of Brass, Tomb of Abysthor, Crucible of Freya, Tome of Horrors, and many other famous titles. The purchase of Necromancer Games considerably increases Frog God Games’ influence in the tabletop gaming industry. Frog God Games will re-animate several of Necromancer Games’ products in the future to provide its customers with revised and expanded products...
I needed to take a writing break, so in my idle moments I put together some more heraldic devices from the World of Greyhawk. As before, these are done using the superb Coat of Arms Design Studio Pro by Inkwell Ideas (there's a free demo version available on their website, but it's not at all "crippleware"), with a touch-up here and there in GIMP. They come out as .png files, so they should scale great (within reason); you should click to embiggen...
Wednesday, 6 June 2012
Some corners of the Internet are all abuzz with the following picture, featuring some new costumes from the new Star Trek movie:I don't see these as any sort of ubiquitous new uniform style (the way that the somewhat militaristic "monster maroons" replaced the spandex jumpsuits of The Motion Picture), but they could be a dress uniform or something.But is it me, or do these just scream "Starship Troopers"? Especially the high-peaked hats and epaulettes....
Tuesday, 5 June 2012
I came across a fascinating paper by Courtney Booker (first published in 2004) which describes how modern minds have a somewhat distorted view of the Middle Ages. Rather than internalizing the pervasive religiosity which defined the Medieval era, we seem to have a view of the time as being driven by a sort of secular chivalry. What makes it particularly apropos for my purposes is that it traces the responsibility for this popular attitude regarding...
Westworld, based on Michael Creighton's novel of the same name, and Futureworld, the not-so-great sequel, were some of my favorite films growing up. An amusement park with various themed sub-parks, populated by robots to make the experience jaw-droppingly realistic. Sort of LARPing before there was such a thing, but without rules, because it was all "really happening"; the ultimate RPGers dream. Between them, the two movies postulated several 'worlds...
Monday, 4 June 2012
From their (newly revised) FAQ:Can I run an online game via email, Skype, Google Hangout or a play-by-post forum? Yes, you may run online games via Skype, Google Hangout or play-by-post forum provided you to do not post or upload any transcripts from your playtest, upload any playtest materials and make sure that all members of your group have signed up to playtest through the official playtest sign up process. Well, woot! Who's looking for another player in their DnD Next playtest? I'm up for experiencing it from the other side of the screen,...
Today marks the 30th anniversary of the U.S. release of the best of all the films in the Star Trek franchise; Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan.It's such a superior film to it's predecessor that a direct comparison isn't really possible. It really relaunched the Trek franchise, and its echoes still reverberated through the other movies and television series. Everything from the plot-- direct, but with enough twists to make it unpredictable-- to the acting-- Ricardo Montalbán's over-the-top performance was only matched by Shatner's-- to the music--...
Friday, 1 June 2012
3D printing-- the ability to actually create three-dimensional models of things using a printer that lays down one layer of material at a time-- is about to hit our hobby big. Digital printers are finally coming into the realm of reality for consumers, price-wise, and will probably be relatively common within a decade. They're already available online, and people share their own designs on other sites as well. You'd think that would be a boon for...
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