DF Writing Update

Yesterday I turned in my revised first draft for my next GURPS Dungeon Fantasy book.

It took a lot of work - there were many little issues and a couple of bigger ones to work out.

As I said to my wife, "This is the second worst book I've ever written, and the worst one didn't get published!" - meaning the amount of wacky errors I left in, not the content. The content is good, and some of it has been featured in my game already. Not sure if my players know it - my game features lots of official published stuff (but not all of it), lots of home-made stuff (some of which will never be officially published), and some things that are in the process of being published.

I can safely give a few hints:

- it's for a sub-line of DF books. Existing, New - I can't say.

- it draws on work I've done in at least two other books for DF already, and draws inspiration from things written by at least two other GURPS Dungeon Fantasy authors!

- you've seen some of it in play without realizing it. Which isn't so much a hint as a statement of the norm.

It should come up for peer review, then editing, then go into the whole art-and-layout procedure. I can't wait!

(And yes, I'm already outlining my next project. I have more ideas . . . )

Free Car Wars Classic rules

Check this out over at the SJG Daily Illuminator:

Free Car Wars Classic



You can download the rules in PDF.

They look good, and the improved images for maneuvers (compared to the old sets I used to play with) are really nice.

Painting "Ice"?

Does anyone know a good tutorial on painting "ice"?

I have a mini I'd like to do up as made out of solid ice, rather than whatever the heck it is (crystal, maybe, who knows?). It's opaque metal, if that matters.

Obviously, white and blue tones are what I'm going to need here, but I just don't have a basic technique that comes out with anything good. I keep ending up with "blue with white slopped on" or "creamy blue" or "blue with white highlights" and not something that says, "ice." I've done an "electric" sword with dark blue, and flame is easy, but ice . . . yeah.

Any pointers to a good tutorial would be greatly appreciated. Except by my players, who probably assume this means doom (you know, from the ice golems that dwell in the Lost City). Really it's just because this mini would look cooler with an ice effect than as jagged rock (easy) or obsidian (easier) or something equally typical.

Bones Froghemoth

This is for one of my players:

Reaper Bones 3 Froghemoth

New releases: GURPS Aliens: Sparrials and GURPS Social Engineering: Back to School

Quick note:

This was just released today:

GURPS Aliens: Sparrials



It's written by Elizabeth McCoy, and it's 44 pages all on the kleptomaniacal sparrials (originally from GURPS Aliens.) It pretty jam-packed, and if you remember the entertaining sparrials from David Morgan-Mar's campaign way back when you'll find these quite in line with that. Plus, DF notes!

A week back a few months back (apparently) we had GURPS Social Engineering: Back to School.



It's by William Stoddard, and it greatly expands on the rules for learning in GURPS. If you've ever felt that GURPS makes learning too linear or doesn't really take in account all the variables, or want to run a school-based game where the learning matters, check this out. It's more depth that I need, but it's a useful tool if what I hand-wave you want to make central to a game. Call it the GURPS 301 of learning rules: compatible with the Basic Set but expanded well beyond it.

My dungeon coffee mug

Here is how I drink my dungeon coffee.

There used to be two of these, but the red one broke a couple days before I returned from Japan.

This one has a small chip it in, but it's still going strong otherwise after 8 or 9 years:




I think SJG sent these out to employees and freelancers. I was just surprised to receive it - it just showed up one day.

It needs game stats, though. Let's say it gives me a +1 to run away in Munchkin. And +1 to Writing rolls.

Dungeon Coffee

Adventurers are made of pretty stern stuff. Such stern stuff, actually, that besides sleeping in armor and getting in a full eight hours of Z's while being ready to wake up and take their shift at any moment . . . they get up and go adventuring without coffee.

Breakfast? Cold rations.

Lunch? Cold rations.

Dinner? Cold rations.

And not a spot of tea or a cup of joe to get going in the morning.

Let's fix that.

Delver's Breakfast Tea - If drunk hot, the character is at +1 to HT rolls to resist weather-related effects and +1 to Per rolls for 1d-3 (min. 1) hours. Gives a +1 to reaction rolls from anyone given some tea. Preparing tea properly takes 15 minutes and requires a hot fire. $1/packet or cup's worth, 10 packets/1 oz. (A nice tin holds 100 packets and weighs 1 pound full, and costs $110)

Cartman (as Peter Panda): "Wow, Eric, you are the coolest guy in the world. This is tremendous tea!
Cartman: "Why thank you, Peter Panda, It's a distinctive Earl Grey."
- South Park ep 113

Knight's Roast Morning Coffee - Like Delver's Breakfast Tea, If drunk hot, the character is at +1 to HT rolls to resist weather-related effects and +1 to Will and Per rolls for 1d-3 (min. 1) hours. Aroma while brewing gives +1 to chances of a wandering monster encounter, and preparing coffee properly takes 15 minutes and requires a hot fire. $2/cup's worth, 5 cups/1 oz. (A nice tin holds 50 cup's worth and weighs 1 pound full, and costs $110.)


So, Tea is friendly and makes you sharper. Coffee draws in wandering monsters who want some coffee, but it also makes you a little sharper than tea.

A harsher reality would be to start everyone down 1d6-3 FP (min. -1) if they don't get some coffee. Or better yet, to stop players from just saying, "We rest an extra 30 minutes and we're good" give them a -1 to all rolls for 1d-3 hours (min. 1) if they don't start the day with coffee or tea.

I prefer the bonus approach.

What about Swords & Wizardry?

Change the cost to gold pieces (this is good tea or coffee). Change the bonuses from Tea to +1 to Saving Throws or Int or Wis stat checks for one hour. For coffee, the same, but add +1 to any stat check or +2 to Saving Throws for one hour. Shift the wandering monster die one smaller (So 1 in 12 becomes 1 in 10, 1 in 6 becomes 1 in 4, and 1 in 4 becomes a coin flip!)

Now start adventuring with some nice coffee.