You probably heard this on Doug's blog, but the Dragon Heresy starter set Kickstarter funded:
It's nice to see Doug's high-quality, attractive and well-written materials take shape and move out onto the market. I've long been a fan of his thought process, even when he was writing really complex gun-damage design systems and physics-based articles about bows. Now that sort of underlying rules precision is used with great art and attractive design. Good stuff.
Even if you aren't in the market for a starter set, consider throwing Doug $1 and at least showing your support.
Saturday, April 7, 2018
Friday, April 6, 2018
Finally! Good priming weather
Cool, clear, breezy but not windy, dry . . . despite being the day before more snow.
So I got out and primed a bunch more orcs!
They should paint up quickly. I just need to make a banner for the standard bearer. I don't really need orcs, but the ones of the same make were well received by my players, so why not?
So I got out and primed a bunch more orcs!
They should paint up quickly. I just need to make a banner for the standard bearer. I don't really need orcs, but the ones of the same make were well received by my players, so why not?
Thursday, April 5, 2018
New GURPS DF book - Caverntown
Sean Punch's latest addition to the DF is out today - Dungeon Fantasy Setting: Caverntown.
It's a town in a cavern next to a sprawling dungeon (dungeon not included.)
According to the blurb:
Land Of The Underground Sun
Dungeon Fantasy heroes see town as a place to hear rumors, buy supplies, and sell loot – but their players often want details. A settlement that serves wanderers obsessed with weapons, armor, magic, and mountains of coins won't look much like anything from Earth's Middle Ages! It'll be more interesting.
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Setting: Caverntown presents a magical underground city a mere bowshot from the dungeon. Visit and find:
A lovingly described adventure backdrop, with a remarkable history and quirky residents (including powerful non-delvers with full character sheets).
Stats for guards and security measures – and notes on laws and customs – to make would-be troublemakers think twice.
Guidelines for "civilized" heroes who want to serve on the Town Watch or even own property.
Numerous rumors, intrigues, and potential quests.
Over a dozen brief dungeon descriptions to expand into adventures.
Expanded rules useful in any town, covering quest-finding, trade, bespoke gear (including magic items), healing at the temple, and more.
Welcome to Caverntown!"
I've seen it already, and it's a nice, non-generic but very DF town for a dungeon-centric game.
It's a town in a cavern next to a sprawling dungeon (dungeon not included.)
According to the blurb:
Land Of The Underground Sun
Dungeon Fantasy heroes see town as a place to hear rumors, buy supplies, and sell loot – but their players often want details. A settlement that serves wanderers obsessed with weapons, armor, magic, and mountains of coins won't look much like anything from Earth's Middle Ages! It'll be more interesting.
GURPS Dungeon Fantasy Setting: Caverntown presents a magical underground city a mere bowshot from the dungeon. Visit and find:
A lovingly described adventure backdrop, with a remarkable history and quirky residents (including powerful non-delvers with full character sheets).
Stats for guards and security measures – and notes on laws and customs – to make would-be troublemakers think twice.
Guidelines for "civilized" heroes who want to serve on the Town Watch or even own property.
Numerous rumors, intrigues, and potential quests.
Over a dozen brief dungeon descriptions to expand into adventures.
Expanded rules useful in any town, covering quest-finding, trade, bespoke gear (including magic items), healing at the temple, and more.
Welcome to Caverntown!"
I've seen it already, and it's a nice, non-generic but very DF town for a dungeon-centric game.
Wednesday, April 4, 2018
The Reddit Effect / GURPS doesn't do that
Periodically, I get a sudden influx of hits on my blog sourced to Reddit. It's not always Reddit - sometimes it's RPG.net or another forum, but mostly it's Reddit.
Pretty much, this is how it goes:
- I see an influx of hits, so I follow it back to check who is linking to me about what.
- I find some discussion about fantasy gaming / dungeon fantasy gaming / GURPS where someone says, basically, "Hey, this guy has run like a hundred sessions of GURPS playing a megadungeon!"
- I check the rest of the thread, which is full of "GURPS doesn't do that" or "GURPS isn't suited for that" posts. Because, you know, actual evidence that it does do that doesn't actually comprise evidence that it does do that.
- I sigh and move on.
Today I added this step of blogging about it. But it's so typical of Internet discussions. It's nice to get exposure, but it's hard not to be a little disappointed that me playing GURPS-based dungeon fantasy games doesn't actually even convince people to consider that it might be possible to do what I'm doing.
Pretty much, this is how it goes:
- I see an influx of hits, so I follow it back to check who is linking to me about what.
- I find some discussion about fantasy gaming / dungeon fantasy gaming / GURPS where someone says, basically, "Hey, this guy has run like a hundred sessions of GURPS playing a megadungeon!"
- I check the rest of the thread, which is full of "GURPS doesn't do that" or "GURPS isn't suited for that" posts. Because, you know, actual evidence that it does do that doesn't actually comprise evidence that it does do that.
- I sigh and move on.
Today I added this step of blogging about it. But it's so typical of Internet discussions. It's nice to get exposure, but it's hard not to be a little disappointed that me playing GURPS-based dungeon fantasy games doesn't actually even convince people to consider that it might be possible to do what I'm doing.
Tuesday, April 3, 2018
GMed games have options, CRPGs must anticipate them
Over on his blog, CRPG Addict pretty much sums up what I like about playing face-to-face, tabletop, "theater of the mind" games by highlighting a positive aspect of Ultima Underworld:
"Add to all of these things an overall approach that isn't offered here for the first time, but perhaps for the first fully-realized time: the ability to explore and solve puzzles from multiple perspectives. Take something as simple as opening a door. I'm hard-pressed to think of a game from even the last 10 years that takes as realistic (and yet still challenging) an approach as Ultima Underworld, where you can pick it, smash it (including with spells), cast an "Open" spell on it, or find the key. Just as in the real world, some doors are sturdier than others or harder to pick than others. Once opened, you can even close and lock them behind you. Meanwhile, in Fallout 4, 23 years later, just to preserve the integrity of their little lockpicking mini-game, I can't even nuke a door open."
That's a great thing for a computer game to do - give you a lot of options for dealing with a situation as mundane as a door. All are realistic within the confines of the game, and all have costs and consequences. You can't lock a door shut once you've shattered it, magic costs energy, and finding keys takes effort.
A poor GM will wall off options because he or she didn't think of them. A good game system will give you a basic structure to judge how well or poorly PCs can pull off actions* but doesn't attempt to cover everything. The challenge for game writers for computer games is you pretty much do need to think of everything, because you're not there to rule on it when it comes up.
That GM-can-rule bit is one of the things I really love about my hobby.
* Not to say systems that lack such are bad, just that they lack them. For people who don't have a good way to judge success or failure, having a basic underlying system is really critical. My opinions are colored by playing by-the-book as a kid. You don't hack down doors because there aren't rules for hacking down doors. You can pick them, force them, or just stop playing. Heh.
"Add to all of these things an overall approach that isn't offered here for the first time, but perhaps for the first fully-realized time: the ability to explore and solve puzzles from multiple perspectives. Take something as simple as opening a door. I'm hard-pressed to think of a game from even the last 10 years that takes as realistic (and yet still challenging) an approach as Ultima Underworld, where you can pick it, smash it (including with spells), cast an "Open" spell on it, or find the key. Just as in the real world, some doors are sturdier than others or harder to pick than others. Once opened, you can even close and lock them behind you. Meanwhile, in Fallout 4, 23 years later, just to preserve the integrity of their little lockpicking mini-game, I can't even nuke a door open."
That's a great thing for a computer game to do - give you a lot of options for dealing with a situation as mundane as a door. All are realistic within the confines of the game, and all have costs and consequences. You can't lock a door shut once you've shattered it, magic costs energy, and finding keys takes effort.
A poor GM will wall off options because he or she didn't think of them. A good game system will give you a basic structure to judge how well or poorly PCs can pull off actions* but doesn't attempt to cover everything. The challenge for game writers for computer games is you pretty much do need to think of everything, because you're not there to rule on it when it comes up.
That GM-can-rule bit is one of the things I really love about my hobby.
* Not to say systems that lack such are bad, just that they lack them. For people who don't have a good way to judge success or failure, having a basic underlying system is really critical. My opinions are colored by playing by-the-book as a kid. You don't hack down doors because there aren't rules for hacking down doors. You can pick them, force them, or just stop playing. Heh.
Monday, April 2, 2018
Sunday, April 1, 2018
Post-Combat Shakes for DF, expanded
Post-Combat Shakes [-5] isn't recommended for DF. But hey, with sufficient imagination, it could be.
Combat is tough, and can cost 1 + encumbrance in FP. Plus, wizards are always dropping you 5 more FP with Great Haste, undead enervate you with FP-draining touches, and GMs saying stuff like, "That felt long, everyone lose an extra FP!"
Plus, you want to get the most out of your combats. While you mostly want to rely on strength and agility potions pre-combat and healing potions peri-combat, post-combat, it's all about healing and those post-combat shakes.
Here are three of my favorite post-combat shakes. All three are meal-replacement style, with protein, fats, and starchy carbohydrates to provide a mix of satiety (protein), steady digestion (fats), and quickly accessible energy to replenish the stores of glycogen in your muscles (starchy carbohydrates). Pick something that won't bother your stomach before the next combat.
Blend and drink immediately! Remember a good, loud blender (like my Vitamix) will attract wandering monsters on a 9 or less. Consider a quieter blender if possible. All of these are available in the Felltower cafe on the fabled Tavern Level of Felltower for only 5 sp each. Guaranteed to restore 1 FP immediately (limit 1 shake per combat, SM+1 or larger require 1+SM shakes to gain back 1 FP).
Banana Milkshake
8-12 oz unsweetened almond milk or whole milk
4-6 ice cubes
1 large banana
1 serving vanilla protein powder*
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp cinnamon (I prefer ceylon cinnamon)
1 pinch of salt
Chocolate PBJ
8-12 oz almond milk or whole milk
4-6 ice cubes
1 tbsp grape jelly
1 tbsp peanut butter (almond butter, if you're allergic)
1 serving chocolate protein powder*
1 pinch of salt
Pumpkin Pie
12 oz almond milk or water
4-6 ice cubes
8 oz canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp cinnamon (I prefer ceylon cinnamon)
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1 pinch of salt
(Warning - comes out very thick!)
If you need a shake you can carry into the dungeon warm, I recommend this one:
Cherry Chocolate Bomb
12 oz dark cherry juice (unsweetened)
1 serving chocolate protein powder*
40-50g of pure starchy carbs (50/50 maltodextrin/dexstrose mix, waxy maize, UCann starch, blackstrap molasses, or honey)
This one you can just shake and drink, no blending necessary! (Warning: mix with warm water, cold water will cause heavy clumping)
Optional adds to any of the above:
5g of Creatine Monohydrate
5-10g of L-Glutamine (especially after a long workout)
5-10g of 4:1:1 ratio BCAAs (warning: extremely bitter, probably not necessary unless your combat was very long or you spent a lot of time under Great Haste)
1 scoop Amazing Grass greens powder
1 cup of rolled oatmeal or granola (for I-framed/Ectomorphic delvers who burn carbohydrates like crazy during combat.)
* My top favorites are ON 100% Whey, LifeTime's line of proteins, and TrueNutrition's line of proteins (PDO111 gets 5% off) (especially pea and New Zealand grass-fed whey). FWIW I get a piece of any of those sales, but those are also the proteins I prefer the most. I wouldn't recommend stuff that sucks even if I got a piece of it.
So this started as just me channeling Gilda Radner as Emily Litella on SNL, but I may need to repost this on my S&C blog and send it to my clients.
Combat is tough, and can cost 1 + encumbrance in FP. Plus, wizards are always dropping you 5 more FP with Great Haste, undead enervate you with FP-draining touches, and GMs saying stuff like, "That felt long, everyone lose an extra FP!"
Plus, you want to get the most out of your combats. While you mostly want to rely on strength and agility potions pre-combat and healing potions peri-combat, post-combat, it's all about healing and those post-combat shakes.
Here are three of my favorite post-combat shakes. All three are meal-replacement style, with protein, fats, and starchy carbohydrates to provide a mix of satiety (protein), steady digestion (fats), and quickly accessible energy to replenish the stores of glycogen in your muscles (starchy carbohydrates). Pick something that won't bother your stomach before the next combat.
Blend and drink immediately! Remember a good, loud blender (like my Vitamix) will attract wandering monsters on a 9 or less. Consider a quieter blender if possible. All of these are available in the Felltower cafe on the fabled Tavern Level of Felltower for only 5 sp each. Guaranteed to restore 1 FP immediately (limit 1 shake per combat, SM+1 or larger require 1+SM shakes to gain back 1 FP).
Banana Milkshake
8-12 oz unsweetened almond milk or whole milk
4-6 ice cubes
1 large banana
1 serving vanilla protein powder*
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp cinnamon (I prefer ceylon cinnamon)
1 pinch of salt
Chocolate PBJ
8-12 oz almond milk or whole milk
4-6 ice cubes
1 tbsp grape jelly
1 tbsp peanut butter (almond butter, if you're allergic)
1 serving chocolate protein powder*
1 pinch of salt
Pumpkin Pie
12 oz almond milk or water
4-6 ice cubes
8 oz canned pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)
1 scoop vanilla protein powder
1 tbsp honey
1 tsp cinnamon (I prefer ceylon cinnamon)
1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp allspice
1 pinch of salt
(Warning - comes out very thick!)
If you need a shake you can carry into the dungeon warm, I recommend this one:
Cherry Chocolate Bomb
12 oz dark cherry juice (unsweetened)
1 serving chocolate protein powder*
40-50g of pure starchy carbs (50/50 maltodextrin/dexstrose mix, waxy maize, UCann starch, blackstrap molasses, or honey)
This one you can just shake and drink, no blending necessary! (Warning: mix with warm water, cold water will cause heavy clumping)
Optional adds to any of the above:
5g of Creatine Monohydrate
5-10g of L-Glutamine (especially after a long workout)
5-10g of 4:1:1 ratio BCAAs (warning: extremely bitter, probably not necessary unless your combat was very long or you spent a lot of time under Great Haste)
1 scoop Amazing Grass greens powder
1 cup of rolled oatmeal or granola (for I-framed/Ectomorphic delvers who burn carbohydrates like crazy during combat.)
* My top favorites are ON 100% Whey, LifeTime's line of proteins, and TrueNutrition's line of proteins (PDO111 gets 5% off) (especially pea and New Zealand grass-fed whey). FWIW I get a piece of any of those sales, but those are also the proteins I prefer the most. I wouldn't recommend stuff that sucks even if I got a piece of it.
So this started as just me channeling Gilda Radner as Emily Litella on SNL, but I may need to repost this on my S&C blog and send it to my clients.
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