One of the PCs in my Felltower game wants an Ally. Specifically, a wizard ally.
He gets to specify what he's looking for, and then I design the NPC.
I can sum this up in one phrase.
BwahahahahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
I followed the letter of the request as much as I could. I took his name inspiration from Jack Vance, after I saw how his disadvantages started to stack up. I had an okay name, but then I modified it a bit and made it very . . . very . . . Dell'Orto. It's that weird amalgam of Vance and Cook and my own linguistic amusement that leads to "Gort" or "Orcish Bob" or "Melchior the Malevolent."
Now if he passes muster - and I think he will, as my players have senses of humor - I just need to find an appropriate mini. Time to dig around.
Hopefully I can up a pic of the mini and the full stats of the NPC soon!
Tuesday, April 14, 2020
Monday, April 13, 2020
S&S Rumor Generator
Over on In Places Deep, there is an excellent Swords & Sorcery adventure generator.
This would make a great rumor generator, too.
"Gang of Pirates DETERS Being of the Outer Dark" becomes, "They say the Southern Pirates are all that stands between the release of a God of Elder Things and this world."
"Hidden Cliffs HIDDEN BY Many-Eyed Wizard" becomes, "The Hidden Cliffs contain great riches within their caves, but they're hidden by a many-eyed wizard."
"Great Shackles PRODUCE Screaming Statues" becomes "Beware the great shackles of Felltower; they turn their victims into helpless statues able only to scream their insanity at the world!"
Hmm . . . I think I'll include one of those as actual fact in my game. There are some blank spots a few more levels down in Felltower . . .
This would make a great rumor generator, too.
"Gang of Pirates DETERS Being of the Outer Dark" becomes, "They say the Southern Pirates are all that stands between the release of a God of Elder Things and this world."
"Hidden Cliffs HIDDEN BY Many-Eyed Wizard" becomes, "The Hidden Cliffs contain great riches within their caves, but they're hidden by a many-eyed wizard."
"Great Shackles PRODUCE Screaming Statues" becomes "Beware the great shackles of Felltower; they turn their victims into helpless statues able only to scream their insanity at the world!"
Hmm . . . I think I'll include one of those as actual fact in my game. There are some blank spots a few more levels down in Felltower . . .
Sunday, April 12, 2020
Felltower, the "Ape Gate," and the PCs
The PCs recently discovered the "jungle gate" actually is better described as the "Ape Gate."
Right now, the options facing the party for the "ape gate" are fairly limited:
- Trade with the apes.
- Fighting "savage" apes.
- Fighting the civilized apes.
Everything else they'd like to do - get a quest (by whatever name - a job, a request, a requirement for access, etc.), fighting in the arena (Mild Bruce's goal, and almost certainly Wyatt would do it to show off), explore the city, find out information about the kingdom (presumably without giving any back, a bedrock PC concern in many games, including mine for some reason) . . . they all require a first step by the apes. The PCs can show up and just hope someone with authority and interest gives them something to do.
So exploration-wise, it's at least momentarily a dead end . . . or is it?
What they know is the area with the gate is a "dead end" of wild jungle surrounded by a C-shape or U-shape of mountains the civilized apes deem impassible. Inside of that are the "savage" apes. What else is in that jungle? They don't know. Are the mountains impassible? They don't know. Why is the gate blocked off so far away from the gate itself?
So there is something to find out, if only if the civilized apes are telling the truth. That might not be a profitable delve, and would need some better outdoor skills to back up Galen.
Let's call that "fighting the 'savage' apes."
The other options?
Trading is possible. It's unlikely to be a source of XP. It's possibly a way to get money, depending on what's on offer this time. The PCs have a personal coin from a merchant of some importance. They don't know what that means, though.
Fighting is also possible. It'll definitely be a way to get loot - assuming they could haul away the gear from the big ape guards, they'd have some unique weapons to sell. They might only get scrap prices from them unless someone has ogres to arm, though. The apes clearly use money and the more important ones wore jewelry of some value (they saw some gold or at least gold-colored jewelry.) They have wizards, so it wouldn't be a walkover no matter how much they buff up their best fighters. But it would be a very PC move.
Developing this into a larger adventure location is going to take some effort by the PCs - either repeated contact or just getting in there and doing something. We'll see which one it is, or if they're distracted by their need to "complete" the Lost City, or by other events in the main dungeon. But the apes will be an element in the future for sure.
Right now, the options facing the party for the "ape gate" are fairly limited:
- Trade with the apes.
- Fighting "savage" apes.
- Fighting the civilized apes.
Everything else they'd like to do - get a quest (by whatever name - a job, a request, a requirement for access, etc.), fighting in the arena (Mild Bruce's goal, and almost certainly Wyatt would do it to show off), explore the city, find out information about the kingdom (presumably without giving any back, a bedrock PC concern in many games, including mine for some reason) . . . they all require a first step by the apes. The PCs can show up and just hope someone with authority and interest gives them something to do.
So exploration-wise, it's at least momentarily a dead end . . . or is it?
What they know is the area with the gate is a "dead end" of wild jungle surrounded by a C-shape or U-shape of mountains the civilized apes deem impassible. Inside of that are the "savage" apes. What else is in that jungle? They don't know. Are the mountains impassible? They don't know. Why is the gate blocked off so far away from the gate itself?
So there is something to find out, if only if the civilized apes are telling the truth. That might not be a profitable delve, and would need some better outdoor skills to back up Galen.
Let's call that "fighting the 'savage' apes."
The other options?
Trading is possible. It's unlikely to be a source of XP. It's possibly a way to get money, depending on what's on offer this time. The PCs have a personal coin from a merchant of some importance. They don't know what that means, though.
Fighting is also possible. It'll definitely be a way to get loot - assuming they could haul away the gear from the big ape guards, they'd have some unique weapons to sell. They might only get scrap prices from them unless someone has ogres to arm, though. The apes clearly use money and the more important ones wore jewelry of some value (they saw some gold or at least gold-colored jewelry.) They have wizards, so it wouldn't be a walkover no matter how much they buff up their best fighters. But it would be a very PC move.
Developing this into a larger adventure location is going to take some effort by the PCs - either repeated contact or just getting in there and doing something. We'll see which one it is, or if they're distracted by their need to "complete" the Lost City, or by other events in the main dungeon. But the apes will be an element in the future for sure.
Saturday, April 11, 2020
WIP Gladiator Ape
By now you've all seen these apes from Felltower:
They're from the 100 Kingdoms miniatures game. They're all sculpted by Jason Wiebe, who also sculpted the various ape minis I use in my Felltower game to represent flesh-eating apes and "ape shaman."
Pretty much, if Jason Wiebe sculpts an ape, I'm probably going to buy it or at least consider it.
Here is a Bones IV ape (or was it Bones III?) "gladiator" I'm quickly painting up in case I need him for the next time the PCs go through the "ape gate."
For now he's got a base coating on some major areas. He's not going to stay dark brown, exactly - now that he's base-coated in Apple Barrel Colors Burnt Umber, I'll heavily drybrush him in black and then browns. His armor and weapons are bronze for now, but I may change them to a mix of bronze and steel. We'll see as we go. The paint is forgiving enough for another layer . . . the bronze usually requires 2-3 at least so it doesn't look streaky.
They're from the 100 Kingdoms miniatures game. They're all sculpted by Jason Wiebe, who also sculpted the various ape minis I use in my Felltower game to represent flesh-eating apes and "ape shaman."
Pretty much, if Jason Wiebe sculpts an ape, I'm probably going to buy it or at least consider it.
Here is a Bones IV ape (or was it Bones III?) "gladiator" I'm quickly painting up in case I need him for the next time the PCs go through the "ape gate."
For now he's got a base coating on some major areas. He's not going to stay dark brown, exactly - now that he's base-coated in Apple Barrel Colors Burnt Umber, I'll heavily drybrush him in black and then browns. His armor and weapons are bronze for now, but I may change them to a mix of bronze and steel. We'll see as we go. The paint is forgiving enough for another layer . . . the bronze usually requires 2-3 at least so it doesn't look streaky.
Friday, April 10, 2020
White Plume Mountain 5th edition - Session Summaries
Over at Wayne's Books is the first session report on White Plume Mountain:
White Plume Mountain session 1
I'm a big fan of White Plume Mountain.
Here is my review of it:
Review: S2 White Plume Mountain
And here are session summaries of it when my normally-GURPS centered group played it with AD&D 1st edition.
Character Generation
Adventure Logs
Session 1
Prepping for Session 2
Session 2
White Plume Mountain session 1
I'm a big fan of White Plume Mountain.
Here is my review of it:
Review: S2 White Plume Mountain
And here are session summaries of it when my normally-GURPS centered group played it with AD&D 1st edition.
Character Generation
Adventure Logs
Session 1
Prepping for Session 2
Session 2
Thursday, April 9, 2020
Gamma World defined by our Gamma Terra GM
Over on Black Ray Gun, andi jones put up a post defining Gamma World:
So What is Gamma World?
It's a good look at Gamma World and has links to a lot of official images . . . and ones andi has found on the web that represent Gamma World elements well.
So What is Gamma World?
It's a good look at Gamma World and has links to a lot of official images . . . and ones andi has found on the web that represent Gamma World elements well.
Wednesday, April 8, 2020
New Brushes
I ordered some new brushes as soon as I ended up with extra time thanks to COVID-19 work schedule changes. It took a couple of weeks for them to finally ship (and then they came the next day.)
Here they are:
It's a new Windsor & Newton Series 7 size 00 to replace my worn-out 00, which finally died just before this whole thing hit, and a set of ProArte brushes that Amazon.com had for a lot less than individual brushes would cost me. The set includes a 0, 2/0, 3/0, 4/0, 5/0, 10/0, and 20/0.
They'll replace some 0, 5/0, and 20/0 and other assorted 1s and 0s and 00s that have worn out.
So far they seem pretty good. I can finally get back to painting without needing to use a W&N 0 to paint literally everything that requires some detail work.
Here they are:
It's a new Windsor & Newton Series 7 size 00 to replace my worn-out 00, which finally died just before this whole thing hit, and a set of ProArte brushes that Amazon.com had for a lot less than individual brushes would cost me. The set includes a 0, 2/0, 3/0, 4/0, 5/0, 10/0, and 20/0.
They'll replace some 0, 5/0, and 20/0 and other assorted 1s and 0s and 00s that have worn out.
So far they seem pretty good. I can finally get back to painting without needing to use a W&N 0 to paint literally everything that requires some detail work.
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