Here are the news and rumors my players have just picked up in my DF on the Borderlands game. I won't vouch for the accuracy of this stuff, it's just what the PCs heard.
Big news - a merchant and his guards got massacred just west of the Keep! They were bringing a load of assorted goods from the keep to Arras. The merchant, Jovan, and his son Tada and two mercenary guards were found torn to shreds, with some of their organs taken from their corpses, and their pack mule was missing. Their money, the goods the mule was carrying, and a few weapons were missing. As a result the Castellan is offering an unspecified "generous reward" to those who can bring in the still-living transgressors (or their heads, if necessary) and sufficient proof of their involvement. What that proof is, is unspecified.
You hear a bit about the swamp to the south. It's call the Cold Mire, because a) it gets cold up here [and the snow is starting soon - pretty much as soon as we get it in the real world, you'll get it in game] and b) it's a mire. It's considered a very, very bad place. It is known to have sharp-toothed flesh-eating frogs, big crocs, giant frogs, eight-legged lizards, and lizard men viciously hostile to men. From high points on the road travelers have spotted some kind of flying tentacled monstrosity hovering over the mire. But local legend also claims that there is a frog-like "swamp oracle" who can accurately any one question you have, once in your life, in return for a certain weight of gold . . . or some of your blood. And further legends say that the lizard men in the swamp have a long-standing feud with the elves of the southlands, who drove them out of the warmth into the cold, cold north.
Finally, Honus asked about furs - there are a few exotic creatures in the wilderness. These include the ravenous owlbear, for one, and the farrier at the Keep has a buyer who'd love to get his hands on an owlbear fur-and-feather cape . . .
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Tuesday, November 29, 2011
Cool traps link
Talysman over at The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms has a nice little series of blog posts on traps.
If you ever wondered what a pressure plate could look like, mechanically, or how a tripwire might work, this is a good place to look. The posts have gaming-oriented discussion, ideas about construction, and nice pictures if (like I am) you're more visual than text-oriented when it comes to visualizing.
The posts are aimed at AD&D/OSR style gaming, where pretty much nobody has skills and many referees seem to follow the "describe how your searching and I'll tell you what you see" approach. I use a skill-based system, so I don't need quite so much information about how to detect and disarm the traps. I get to just have people roll. But it's entertaining and useful information nonetheless, because:
a) I do hand out bonuses for describing what you're doing. Disarming a -0 trap takes a flat skill roll. Disarming it after you carefully describe how you're doing it nets you at least a +1, usually higher, because describing how you do things makes the game more awesome.*
b) I have to describe how the damn thing worked when you disarm it, or cast a spell to let you see through the walls and spot the mechanism, and other such fun.
I once got a whole book on outdoor survival just for its nice section on trapping animals, and used those descriptions of deadfalls, trip lines, and foot snares to describe my horde pygmy traps in my previous long-running GURPS game. I'm a big fan of traps, and how they work - the more description I have for them, the better, because my players are pretty meticulous about avoiding them (and so very few have any Traps skill, so they really tend to work hard to get those bonuses).
Speaking of traps resources, I own both Grimtooth's Traps books, too (and FWIW, the first GT book is back in "print" now). But I don't have much beyond that. If anyone has recommendations . . . put them in the comments please!
* See "the rule of awesome" for why that's important. Having good stuff happen in return for doing cool stuff and for getting your head into the scene is also awesome, IMO.
If you ever wondered what a pressure plate could look like, mechanically, or how a tripwire might work, this is a good place to look. The posts have gaming-oriented discussion, ideas about construction, and nice pictures if (like I am) you're more visual than text-oriented when it comes to visualizing.
The posts are aimed at AD&D/OSR style gaming, where pretty much nobody has skills and many referees seem to follow the "describe how your searching and I'll tell you what you see" approach. I use a skill-based system, so I don't need quite so much information about how to detect and disarm the traps. I get to just have people roll. But it's entertaining and useful information nonetheless, because:
a) I do hand out bonuses for describing what you're doing. Disarming a -0 trap takes a flat skill roll. Disarming it after you carefully describe how you're doing it nets you at least a +1, usually higher, because describing how you do things makes the game more awesome.*
b) I have to describe how the damn thing worked when you disarm it, or cast a spell to let you see through the walls and spot the mechanism, and other such fun.
I once got a whole book on outdoor survival just for its nice section on trapping animals, and used those descriptions of deadfalls, trip lines, and foot snares to describe my horde pygmy traps in my previous long-running GURPS game. I'm a big fan of traps, and how they work - the more description I have for them, the better, because my players are pretty meticulous about avoiding them (and so very few have any Traps skill, so they really tend to work hard to get those bonuses).
Speaking of traps resources, I own both Grimtooth's Traps books, too (and FWIW, the first GT book is back in "print" now). But I don't have much beyond that. If anyone has recommendations . . . put them in the comments please!
* See "the rule of awesome" for why that's important. Having good stuff happen in return for doing cool stuff and for getting your head into the scene is also awesome, IMO.
Sunday, November 27, 2011
DF Game, Session 4, part 2 - Caves of Chaos
Saturday, November 26th, 2011
Characters: (approximate net point total)
Vryce, human knight (265 points)
Koric, human guardsman (NPC hireling) (62 points)
Orrie, human guardsman (NPC hireling) (62 points)
Inquisitor Marco, human cleric (255 points)
Borriz, dwarf knight (260 points)
Nakar, human wizard (250 points)
Red Raggi, berserker barbarian (NPC co-adventurer) (unknown points)
After a week off to recharge and refresh, the group decided to head back to the caves. They still wanted to raid the orcs before taking a shot at the shrine. They rounded up Red Raggi (who was in jail, and the guards said they'd waive bail and charges if they'd take him to the caves). They also met Nakar, who was looking to raid the caves. So they headed up to the right-most cave, climbed up and headed in. They had all the stealth of a pack of stampeding elephants running over a brass band. Deliberately, really - they didn't care if they had surprise or not.
They entered the cave and found themselves facing a wall of skulls and decomposing heads. They gave them little more than a glance and then turned left and marched ahead, keeping an eye behind. They found a big room with a soft glow of a charcoal fire - and charged in. As they did, a wave of orcs charged back from the other side! The fight was on in a huge banquet hall full of tables and chairs.
At the same time, orcs they'd bypassed charged in from behind. Something like 12 orcs from the front, 8 from behind. Red Raggi and Vryce were in the lead, and Borriz turned and ran back to the rear guard, Korric and Orrie, who Vryce ordered to stand and All-Out Defend. Nakar started casting Great Haste and Inquisitor Marco lit up his mace with Flaming Weapon.
The fight turned messy but never went badly, really. Korric and Orrie tried to defend but they just don't have the defenses to stand against massed orcs, and got stabbed repeatedly. Red Raggi charged into the fray with his axe, and started hewing down orcs even as they stabbed and chopped him badly. Vryce maneuvered carefully and killed orcs in singles and pairs. Borriz, forgetting he had his stubby throwing hatchet instead of his mace, ran right into melee and attacked the orcs in the rear. More orcs came in - the chief and his two mates, one of whom was a fire shaman and started tossing fireballs. Borriz got Great Hasted and used his doubled turns to just tear orcs apart. He does a mere 2d+5 cut with that hatchet but a few skull shots helped, as did lots of very high damage rolls (like 10-12 on 2d repeatedly). In one especially brutal second he took his pair of turns and cut down 5 orcs, dropping 4 for the count and leaving one badly injured, stunned, and prone. Next turn he chopped that guy down, spun 180, and threw his hatchet back into the fight he'd left behind and hit a fleeing orc in the back, killing him. THAT is Dungeon Fantasy, right there.
Red Raggi, meanwhile, cut down like 4 orcs and then the chieftan ran up and smacked him one. Raggi made his death check and unconsciousness checks, and then critically hit the chief for a lot of damage and dropped him. Red Raggi now can claim the final blow on the Lord of the Maze and an orc chief. After he fell, along with 6 or 7 other orcs in that same turn, the remainder broke and ran. They didn't make it, although the shaman escaped. One orc female took a sunbolt in the back and caught on fire. She fled off and the PCs didn't find her again. Red Raggi finally fell after this, having taken like 50-60 damage.
Fun fight - a big knock-down brawl with all the orc minis I had (with appropriate WYSIWYG equipment). The second it ended, Nakar got off a Seeker spell on the shaman, found her despite a boatload of penalties (-8 or -9, I think) and then Traced her. They could find her relative location with ease, now. They set to looting, barricading the room, and looting. Oh, and killed orcs. Vryce refused to cut throats and decapitate them - these aren't animals. He stabbed them instead. Borriz did some throat cutting.
After an hour (!) in the room, the PCs headed out. They felt pretty safe resting, what with 20+ dead orcs in the room including the chief, and a trace telling them the shaman had fled somewhere and stayed there. They were right - they'd killed all but her out of the tribe's adult combatants. After looting they headed on and found the chief's room. They searched it, found his treasure niche, and pried out a boulder they thought concealed the shaman's escape nook. Nope. Just some treasure. They kept looking and eventually found a secret door. They figured out the tricky catch and in they went to a dank secret room. The shaman was waiting and tossed a fireball at Vryce, hitting him squarely and setting his clothing on fire. He ignored that and charged and chopped him, dropping her. He saw a bucket of dank liquid, and splashed a little on himself as he burned - water. He splashed more and put the flames out. Nice caution - yeah, it could have been lamp oil or something and he'd need a new PC not some extra healing magic.
They searched this room too, and found another secret door. And pressed on, hoping for more money. They went down a long corridor with a door on the right side. Borriz opened that with his hatchet in hand and met the oncoming axe of a lurking orc guard. The guard got initiative and got in 2-3 good swings before Borriz could respond and cut him down. Vryce advanced down the hallway and Borriz went for his crowbar to wedge the door shut. But too slow! Arrows came out the darkness and one hit Inq. Marco and injured him. A female orc, as big as a male and wearing mail, pushed the door open and swung her axe. It didn't help - Borriz brained her with his crowbar and broke her skull into pieces (Weapon Master - All one-handed axe/mace weapons - does include crowbars). Vryce ran past the door and told Borriz to hold it. The chief came behind her and attacked, throwing a hatchet into Vryce's back and injuring him. Vryce ignored it and stood his ground, waiting for the orcs. They came and died. Chop, chop, chop. One also took an arrow in the back from a miss-aimed friendly attack, and fell to his hands and knees. Vryce ignored him. Inq. Marco and Nakar teamed up with a sunbolt and a stone missile and burned and crushed another orc. Borriz turned on the chief, drew his mace, and killed him, breaking his skull through a pot helm and mail coif. The remaining orcs fled, and a few dropped weapons as they did. The chief, his mate, his guard, and four of their best warriors died horribly in seconds. A bad morale check and gone, run away!
Just at this moment Inq. Marco (run for the moment by Nakar's player, because the real player has a long trip home) decided to heal himself. That's heavily penalized in GURPS, and he rolled a 17 - critical failure. BAM. My (brutal) house rule is you take 2x the damage you tried to heal as damage. This dropped him negative and he had to make a death check. 12 or less . . . clatter, clatter . . . 11. He lived.
But now with everyone damaged and a late hour, they decided to hightail it out of there. They grabbed a few things off the chief and his mate, took his gem-pommeled broadsword, and quickly looted the orcs. Borriz killed the crawler and finished the dead off. They grabbed some stuff, headed back, looted the orc chief's room (which they may have done first), and then headed back to civilization.
I was nice because of the late hour and didn't ding them with wandering monsters. They got back to the keep and that's where we ended.
Notes
Some notes.
Borriz got the +1 bonus XP for this session, as voted by the players, because of his awesomeness. Voting for himself helped tip the balance though.
- I'm using the Partial Surprise rules/Initiative rules, which I hadn't before. I like the effect but I doubt my players like occasionally going after slower critters that jump them. Oh well.
- Genre rule: fodder fail all HT rolls automatically. Who isn't fodder and gets to make them normally is my decision. Editing later: I mean "fail all HT rolls for consciousness and death checks automatically." They still get HT rolls against poison, disease, spells, etc. I just don't care what happens to them after their HP go to 0 or lower.
- 62 point guys with halberds shouldn't All-Out Defend. And they can't stand up to multiple attacks from multiple orcs. It's not that they suck, it's that 4-1 odds isn't something they can handle against equally powerful foes.
I need tighter game notes, and spreadsheeted NPCs not a document of stats. That's fine for writing them up but too annoying in play. My "how to manage a fast game with lots of enemies in multiple fights" skills are improving. My old game was "slower game with one single big-ass incredibly nasty fight per session or three" which didn't require so much page flipping. That said Foxit Reader + all of my DF and GURPS PDFs open at once + word docs of the adventure = very easy to run game and look stuff up for rulings fast.
Here is my setup for game.
Red Raggi has SM+1 and 19 HP. This means spells are 2x cost on him. At 20 HP, healing spell effects are doubled. So he's just shy of the sweet spot and he's freaking hard to heal. Bad design on my part, he needs to get one more HP with his XP!
Worth noting that Vryce is SM+0 and 20 HP, Honus is SM+1 and 22 HP, and Borriz is SM+0 (dwarves are short but broad, and SM isn't just height) with (now) 18 HP, closing in on 20 HP. That doubled effect is very useful.
Borriz's player remarked that the fact that the group is totally profit-motivated makes it fun. They always push too far trying to get a little more treasure, and risk too much trying to get extra loot home to sell. The only answer to any question is, "Will it get us more loot? Then yes."
The group is really afraid of the wights they heard about, and want to find magical weaponry before they go for them. Magical weapons are pretty high-value treasure, though, so they aren't exactly common.
I need more orc minis, just because I have too many with swords and not enough with spears. And wide-stance minis with widely-held weapons are freaking annoying on the battlemap.
Part 1 is Here
Characters: (approximate net point total)
Vryce, human knight (265 points)
Koric, human guardsman (NPC hireling) (62 points)
Orrie, human guardsman (NPC hireling) (62 points)
Inquisitor Marco, human cleric (255 points)
Borriz, dwarf knight (260 points)
Nakar, human wizard (250 points)
Red Raggi, berserker barbarian (NPC co-adventurer) (unknown points)
After a week off to recharge and refresh, the group decided to head back to the caves. They still wanted to raid the orcs before taking a shot at the shrine. They rounded up Red Raggi (who was in jail, and the guards said they'd waive bail and charges if they'd take him to the caves). They also met Nakar, who was looking to raid the caves. So they headed up to the right-most cave, climbed up and headed in. They had all the stealth of a pack of stampeding elephants running over a brass band. Deliberately, really - they didn't care if they had surprise or not.
They entered the cave and found themselves facing a wall of skulls and decomposing heads. They gave them little more than a glance and then turned left and marched ahead, keeping an eye behind. They found a big room with a soft glow of a charcoal fire - and charged in. As they did, a wave of orcs charged back from the other side! The fight was on in a huge banquet hall full of tables and chairs.
At the same time, orcs they'd bypassed charged in from behind. Something like 12 orcs from the front, 8 from behind. Red Raggi and Vryce were in the lead, and Borriz turned and ran back to the rear guard, Korric and Orrie, who Vryce ordered to stand and All-Out Defend. Nakar started casting Great Haste and Inquisitor Marco lit up his mace with Flaming Weapon.
The fight turned messy but never went badly, really. Korric and Orrie tried to defend but they just don't have the defenses to stand against massed orcs, and got stabbed repeatedly. Red Raggi charged into the fray with his axe, and started hewing down orcs even as they stabbed and chopped him badly. Vryce maneuvered carefully and killed orcs in singles and pairs. Borriz, forgetting he had his stubby throwing hatchet instead of his mace, ran right into melee and attacked the orcs in the rear. More orcs came in - the chief and his two mates, one of whom was a fire shaman and started tossing fireballs. Borriz got Great Hasted and used his doubled turns to just tear orcs apart. He does a mere 2d+5 cut with that hatchet but a few skull shots helped, as did lots of very high damage rolls (like 10-12 on 2d repeatedly). In one especially brutal second he took his pair of turns and cut down 5 orcs, dropping 4 for the count and leaving one badly injured, stunned, and prone. Next turn he chopped that guy down, spun 180, and threw his hatchet back into the fight he'd left behind and hit a fleeing orc in the back, killing him. THAT is Dungeon Fantasy, right there.
Red Raggi, meanwhile, cut down like 4 orcs and then the chieftan ran up and smacked him one. Raggi made his death check and unconsciousness checks, and then critically hit the chief for a lot of damage and dropped him. Red Raggi now can claim the final blow on the Lord of the Maze and an orc chief. After he fell, along with 6 or 7 other orcs in that same turn, the remainder broke and ran. They didn't make it, although the shaman escaped. One orc female took a sunbolt in the back and caught on fire. She fled off and the PCs didn't find her again. Red Raggi finally fell after this, having taken like 50-60 damage.
Fun fight - a big knock-down brawl with all the orc minis I had (with appropriate WYSIWYG equipment). The second it ended, Nakar got off a Seeker spell on the shaman, found her despite a boatload of penalties (-8 or -9, I think) and then Traced her. They could find her relative location with ease, now. They set to looting, barricading the room, and looting. Oh, and killed orcs. Vryce refused to cut throats and decapitate them - these aren't animals. He stabbed them instead. Borriz did some throat cutting.
After an hour (!) in the room, the PCs headed out. They felt pretty safe resting, what with 20+ dead orcs in the room including the chief, and a trace telling them the shaman had fled somewhere and stayed there. They were right - they'd killed all but her out of the tribe's adult combatants. After looting they headed on and found the chief's room. They searched it, found his treasure niche, and pried out a boulder they thought concealed the shaman's escape nook. Nope. Just some treasure. They kept looking and eventually found a secret door. They figured out the tricky catch and in they went to a dank secret room. The shaman was waiting and tossed a fireball at Vryce, hitting him squarely and setting his clothing on fire. He ignored that and charged and chopped him, dropping her. He saw a bucket of dank liquid, and splashed a little on himself as he burned - water. He splashed more and put the flames out. Nice caution - yeah, it could have been lamp oil or something and he'd need a new PC not some extra healing magic.
They searched this room too, and found another secret door. And pressed on, hoping for more money. They went down a long corridor with a door on the right side. Borriz opened that with his hatchet in hand and met the oncoming axe of a lurking orc guard. The guard got initiative and got in 2-3 good swings before Borriz could respond and cut him down. Vryce advanced down the hallway and Borriz went for his crowbar to wedge the door shut. But too slow! Arrows came out the darkness and one hit Inq. Marco and injured him. A female orc, as big as a male and wearing mail, pushed the door open and swung her axe. It didn't help - Borriz brained her with his crowbar and broke her skull into pieces (Weapon Master - All one-handed axe/mace weapons - does include crowbars). Vryce ran past the door and told Borriz to hold it. The chief came behind her and attacked, throwing a hatchet into Vryce's back and injuring him. Vryce ignored it and stood his ground, waiting for the orcs. They came and died. Chop, chop, chop. One also took an arrow in the back from a miss-aimed friendly attack, and fell to his hands and knees. Vryce ignored him. Inq. Marco and Nakar teamed up with a sunbolt and a stone missile and burned and crushed another orc. Borriz turned on the chief, drew his mace, and killed him, breaking his skull through a pot helm and mail coif. The remaining orcs fled, and a few dropped weapons as they did. The chief, his mate, his guard, and four of their best warriors died horribly in seconds. A bad morale check and gone, run away!
Just at this moment Inq. Marco (run for the moment by Nakar's player, because the real player has a long trip home) decided to heal himself. That's heavily penalized in GURPS, and he rolled a 17 - critical failure. BAM. My (brutal) house rule is you take 2x the damage you tried to heal as damage. This dropped him negative and he had to make a death check. 12 or less . . . clatter, clatter . . . 11. He lived.
But now with everyone damaged and a late hour, they decided to hightail it out of there. They grabbed a few things off the chief and his mate, took his gem-pommeled broadsword, and quickly looted the orcs. Borriz killed the crawler and finished the dead off. They grabbed some stuff, headed back, looted the orc chief's room (which they may have done first), and then headed back to civilization.
I was nice because of the late hour and didn't ding them with wandering monsters. They got back to the keep and that's where we ended.
Notes
Some notes.
Borriz got the +1 bonus XP for this session, as voted by the players, because of his awesomeness. Voting for himself helped tip the balance though.
- I'm using the Partial Surprise rules/Initiative rules, which I hadn't before. I like the effect but I doubt my players like occasionally going after slower critters that jump them. Oh well.
- Genre rule: fodder fail all HT rolls automatically. Who isn't fodder and gets to make them normally is my decision. Editing later: I mean "fail all HT rolls for consciousness and death checks automatically." They still get HT rolls against poison, disease, spells, etc. I just don't care what happens to them after their HP go to 0 or lower.
- 62 point guys with halberds shouldn't All-Out Defend. And they can't stand up to multiple attacks from multiple orcs. It's not that they suck, it's that 4-1 odds isn't something they can handle against equally powerful foes.
I need tighter game notes, and spreadsheeted NPCs not a document of stats. That's fine for writing them up but too annoying in play. My "how to manage a fast game with lots of enemies in multiple fights" skills are improving. My old game was "slower game with one single big-ass incredibly nasty fight per session or three" which didn't require so much page flipping. That said Foxit Reader + all of my DF and GURPS PDFs open at once + word docs of the adventure = very easy to run game and look stuff up for rulings fast.
Here is my setup for game.
Red Raggi has SM+1 and 19 HP. This means spells are 2x cost on him. At 20 HP, healing spell effects are doubled. So he's just shy of the sweet spot and he's freaking hard to heal. Bad design on my part, he needs to get one more HP with his XP!
Worth noting that Vryce is SM+0 and 20 HP, Honus is SM+1 and 22 HP, and Borriz is SM+0 (dwarves are short but broad, and SM isn't just height) with (now) 18 HP, closing in on 20 HP. That doubled effect is very useful.
Borriz's player remarked that the fact that the group is totally profit-motivated makes it fun. They always push too far trying to get a little more treasure, and risk too much trying to get extra loot home to sell. The only answer to any question is, "Will it get us more loot? Then yes."
The group is really afraid of the wights they heard about, and want to find magical weaponry before they go for them. Magical weapons are pretty high-value treasure, though, so they aren't exactly common.
I need more orc minis, just because I have too many with swords and not enough with spears. And wide-stance minis with widely-held weapons are freaking annoying on the battlemap.
Part 1 is Here
DF Game, Session 4, part 1 - Caves of Chaos
Saturday November 26th, 4th DF session.
Split session. We had to finish up from last time, where the PCs were lost in windy tunnels and had just finished a fight with the rampaging minotaur known as the Lord of the Maze.
Characters: (approximate net point total)
Vryce, human knight (260 points)
Koric, human guardsman (NPC hireling) (62 points)
Orrie, human guardsman (NPC hireling) (62 points)
Volos, human wizard (260 points)
Honus Honusson, human barbarian (260 points) (run temporarily by Volos's player since Honus's player had work)
Inquisitor Marco, human cleric (255 points)
Borriz, dwarf knight (255 points)
plus Mikal (Status Unknown) andAelfred, rescued drovers
Red Raggi, rescued berserker barbarian (unknown points)
We last left with Red Raggi standing screaming on top of the fallen Lord of the Maze. The party commenced dealing with the aftermath - Inq. Marco started in on first aid and healing after check Mikal and Volos (dead and dead). Borriz kept watch after retrieving his hatchet, while Vryce did the same but also called out repeatedly for Aelfred (there was some confusion about who died). They also took a trophy - Red Raggi hacked off a bit of horn and the group claimed the LotM's spear - which turned out to be fine (+1 damage) and balanced (+1 skill).
The group decided that although they wanted to keep tracking the gnoll chief, they were really hurt. They also wanted to find the minotaur's treasure (they are certain he must have some) but again, too hurt. Vryce announced no one would be left behind, although they didn't mention Mikal's corpse on their "to take" list . . .
In any case they dumped the random weapons and junk they'd accumulated on the litter and used that for Volos's corpse instead. Honus and others smashed the minotaur's skull into little pieces.
The group re-traced its steps back to the secret door into the gnoll cave thanks to markings and drippings from dead glow beetles. However the secret door back was closed. It was easy enough to find, but there was no latch or trigger to release it. Borriz tried to pry it open with his crowbar and failed, and critically failed (18!) on his second try. Crank. He bent the crowbar and it sunk in to the stone deep enough to wedge the door shut. Oops. Back the other way!
They trudged back into the caves, keeping left. They heard a lot more of the hooting and flapping noises they heard last time, and as they came into a larger chamber, a swarm of stirges attacked them. Borriz nailed one with his thrown hatchet and then he and Raggi got swarmed. Borriz ended up with three on his face, sucking blood, and Raggi with four on his body. Borriz had to carefully smash them off his face with his mace, pulling his damage from 2d+8 to something a little more likely to drop an 18# bird-thing but not potentially break his own face. Raggi tore them up with his hands. Vryce killed a couple, Inq. Marco scorched one to death with a sunbolt, and Honus helped Raggi and Borriz with theirs. He'd grab a strix, yank it out (ouch!) and then smash it. It worked and in the end, they finished them off. They lost a lot of HP, though. Stirges are f-ing nasty in GURPS, and they can hit the eyes in a pinch so even a greathelm isn't certain safety against them.
The group decided to rest, but realized that a) there was big thunderstorm coming (thanks to Honus's nose and Weather Sense skill, he knew what that rumbling was, even distorted by the tunnels) and b) they were close to the exist. They debated resting in the caves until Borriz said, "Seriously, we're more afraid of rain than of monsters?"
They looked at each other and left the cave. The moved to the gnoll cave and set up shop there, eating rations and then adding some ale and wine from the gnoll's stores. Vryce kept checking on the storm, and once when he did he came around a corner and smack into two hunting gnolls! They attacked at once, which was a split second too late - Vryce killed both of them with a Rapid Strike. He looted them, and found they'd been carrying a trussed-up-for-cooking human hunter's corpse. He looted him, too, after determining they didn't know the guy.
Long story short after this - storm cleared up, the PCs headed home, and successfully avoided any wandering encounters (they've been extremely lucky on the rolls, and Honus's good Survival rolls have helped there too).
They went back to the keep, Vryce warned the guards that Raggi is trouble, and they sold their loot. The farrier said he's in the market for any furs and exotic monster furs, which got Honus interested.
They also found a plot of land outside and designated it as a cemetary. They dug a nice grave for Volos, and put him there sans equipment. Each in turn said something about Volos, giving him a brief eulogy. Vryce just shook his head, but the others all had a colorful bit to say about him - his magically created food, his Dehydrate spells, and so on. Even Raggi said a few words - "He died in battle." It was nice, actually. They also cast Final Rest on him to keep him from coming back to haunt them (literally)
Honus headed for the hills, and the group took a week off to recover from injury and so on. Raggi headed to the bars and said he'd come with them again if they wanted.
Part 2 will come a little later - same session but some different PCs.
Notes
Some things that got my players wondering:
Who the hell built all these secret doors? The caves are riddled with them. I guess Gary built them. But is there an in-game reason besides the wahoo effect of rolling to detect secret doors?
If there are only a few dozen orcs, hobgoblins, gnolls, etc. in each cave, where is this big army of goblinoids they heard about? My answer was simple - I never told them they heard about an army. Huh, I guess that's how rumors get started.
Other stuff:
Funerals are fun. Seriously, having everyone say a few words about the departed is amusing, especially when the departed's player is sitting there listening to the eulogy.
Everyone thinks litters are made of "stuff lying around" and stuff on them weighs nothing. Er, no, limestone caves don't have "stuff" lying around to make a litter out of. Stuff on it is full weight, but GURPS says it's half-weight on smooth surfaces for determining what you can pull around.
Better character sheets - I need to bash around the Phoenix GCA sheets a bit so they have less of the info no one actually looks at and more of the stuff we end up needing ("How much do I weigh with all my stuff, now that I'm unconscious?")
Part 2 is here
Split session. We had to finish up from last time, where the PCs were lost in windy tunnels and had just finished a fight with the rampaging minotaur known as the Lord of the Maze.
Characters: (approximate net point total)
Vryce, human knight (260 points)
Koric, human guardsman (NPC hireling) (62 points)
Orrie, human guardsman (NPC hireling) (62 points)
Honus Honusson, human barbarian (260 points) (run temporarily by Volos's player since Honus's player had work)
Inquisitor Marco, human cleric (255 points)
Borriz, dwarf knight (255 points)
plus Mikal (Status Unknown) and
Red Raggi, rescued berserker barbarian (unknown points)
We last left with Red Raggi standing screaming on top of the fallen Lord of the Maze. The party commenced dealing with the aftermath - Inq. Marco started in on first aid and healing after check Mikal and Volos (dead and dead). Borriz kept watch after retrieving his hatchet, while Vryce did the same but also called out repeatedly for Aelfred (there was some confusion about who died). They also took a trophy - Red Raggi hacked off a bit of horn and the group claimed the LotM's spear - which turned out to be fine (+1 damage) and balanced (+1 skill).
The group decided that although they wanted to keep tracking the gnoll chief, they were really hurt. They also wanted to find the minotaur's treasure (they are certain he must have some) but again, too hurt. Vryce announced no one would be left behind, although they didn't mention Mikal's corpse on their "to take" list . . .
In any case they dumped the random weapons and junk they'd accumulated on the litter and used that for Volos's corpse instead. Honus and others smashed the minotaur's skull into little pieces.
The group re-traced its steps back to the secret door into the gnoll cave thanks to markings and drippings from dead glow beetles. However the secret door back was closed. It was easy enough to find, but there was no latch or trigger to release it. Borriz tried to pry it open with his crowbar and failed, and critically failed (18!) on his second try. Crank. He bent the crowbar and it sunk in to the stone deep enough to wedge the door shut. Oops. Back the other way!
They trudged back into the caves, keeping left. They heard a lot more of the hooting and flapping noises they heard last time, and as they came into a larger chamber, a swarm of stirges attacked them. Borriz nailed one with his thrown hatchet and then he and Raggi got swarmed. Borriz ended up with three on his face, sucking blood, and Raggi with four on his body. Borriz had to carefully smash them off his face with his mace, pulling his damage from 2d+8 to something a little more likely to drop an 18# bird-thing but not potentially break his own face. Raggi tore them up with his hands. Vryce killed a couple, Inq. Marco scorched one to death with a sunbolt, and Honus helped Raggi and Borriz with theirs. He'd grab a strix, yank it out (ouch!) and then smash it. It worked and in the end, they finished them off. They lost a lot of HP, though. Stirges are f-ing nasty in GURPS, and they can hit the eyes in a pinch so even a greathelm isn't certain safety against them.
The group decided to rest, but realized that a) there was big thunderstorm coming (thanks to Honus's nose and Weather Sense skill, he knew what that rumbling was, even distorted by the tunnels) and b) they were close to the exist. They debated resting in the caves until Borriz said, "Seriously, we're more afraid of rain than of monsters?"
They looked at each other and left the cave. The moved to the gnoll cave and set up shop there, eating rations and then adding some ale and wine from the gnoll's stores. Vryce kept checking on the storm, and once when he did he came around a corner and smack into two hunting gnolls! They attacked at once, which was a split second too late - Vryce killed both of them with a Rapid Strike. He looted them, and found they'd been carrying a trussed-up-for-cooking human hunter's corpse. He looted him, too, after determining they didn't know the guy.
Long story short after this - storm cleared up, the PCs headed home, and successfully avoided any wandering encounters (they've been extremely lucky on the rolls, and Honus's good Survival rolls have helped there too).
They went back to the keep, Vryce warned the guards that Raggi is trouble, and they sold their loot. The farrier said he's in the market for any furs and exotic monster furs, which got Honus interested.
They also found a plot of land outside and designated it as a cemetary. They dug a nice grave for Volos, and put him there sans equipment. Each in turn said something about Volos, giving him a brief eulogy. Vryce just shook his head, but the others all had a colorful bit to say about him - his magically created food, his Dehydrate spells, and so on. Even Raggi said a few words - "He died in battle." It was nice, actually. They also cast Final Rest on him to keep him from coming back to haunt them (literally)
Honus headed for the hills, and the group took a week off to recover from injury and so on. Raggi headed to the bars and said he'd come with them again if they wanted.
Part 2 will come a little later - same session but some different PCs.
Notes
Some things that got my players wondering:
Who the hell built all these secret doors? The caves are riddled with them. I guess Gary built them. But is there an in-game reason besides the wahoo effect of rolling to detect secret doors?
If there are only a few dozen orcs, hobgoblins, gnolls, etc. in each cave, where is this big army of goblinoids they heard about? My answer was simple - I never told them they heard about an army. Huh, I guess that's how rumors get started.
Other stuff:
Funerals are fun. Seriously, having everyone say a few words about the departed is amusing, especially when the departed's player is sitting there listening to the eulogy.
Everyone thinks litters are made of "stuff lying around" and stuff on them weighs nothing. Er, no, limestone caves don't have "stuff" lying around to make a litter out of. Stuff on it is full weight, but GURPS says it's half-weight on smooth surfaces for determining what you can pull around.
Better character sheets - I need to bash around the Phoenix GCA sheets a bit so they have less of the info no one actually looks at and more of the stuff we end up needing ("How much do I weigh with all my stuff, now that I'm unconscious?")
Part 2 is here
Saturday, November 26, 2011
So You Want to Write RPGs
One version of the joke is, what's the best way to get $1,000,000 and a Porche by writing game books?
Start with $2,000,000 and a Ferrari.
It's not exactly a high-profit business. But it can pay, mostly as a hobby.
ZakS makes a great case for just doing it yourself.
My usual employer, SJG, pays pretty well even for new authors, especially if you write for Pyramid (currently $0.04/word) or e23 (currently 25% royalties).
But what is the trick? Like with most things, the general feeling is you only need a kick-ass idea and a creative writing style and some total gaming awesomeness.
The truth is you need an idea. But execution is what gets that idea published by you or by anyone else.
Here are the three keys to being a successful freelancer, in my experience.
Most important thing: Meet your deadlines. Seriously, if you want to know why I keep getting paid writing gigs, it's because I meet my deadlines. If there is even a possibility of missing one by a single minute, as soon as I know I will contact my editor(s) and explain the situation and see what we can do. To date I've always made my original deadline or a revised deadline based on shifting company production schedules. Don't be late to work. It's your hobby but it's your publisher's livelihood.
My advice is to ask for a deadline you know you can meet, and then add 1-2 weeks to that just in case. Hand it in early if you want (I just handed something in a few days early myself). But don't be late.
Second: Write what you agreed to write. It's a contract and it's work. Treat it like that - if you agreed to do A, B, and C it's going to mess folks up when you say B didn't turn out to be so fun to write so you wrote A, C, and X instead. Not to say you can't change the approach during writing, but you can't do it without getting agreement from your publisher.
This is where your clever idea comes in. You'll need an idea with some meat on its bones to reach a reasonable pagecount. You'd be surprised how often a great idea that seems like a 32-page book turns out to be a 4-page pamphlet. So aim high. Better to reach for a big-but-doable project and have to cut chunks off to save for later than to come up short. I wrote 15 monsters for DFM1, and I have a file with 5 more that didn't make the cut. That's a lot better than 10 monsters and, uhm, about those other 5, Mr. Editor . . .
Third: Know the Rules. The game rules and the publishing rules. Know the formats. Learn the writing style of your publisher. If you're doing it yourself, have a writing style of your own and know the formats of your publishing software. If you write for GURPS and they have a standard set of formats (they do), know GURPS and know the formats. If you write for a white-box D&D clone you better know the white-box D&D rules and how you want the product to look. Know the SRD if you're writing stuff using bits of it. Understand copyright and crediting people, and know that "I didn't charge for it" doesn't mean it's not a copyright violation.
My ability to do those is probably the most important reason I get to write what I write. People at SJG know that I'll fulfill the contract, the material will fit the rules, I'm fairly well conversant with the formats, and it'll be in on time. I'm not a risk. Don't be a risk, be a known asset!
Finally, accept that this isn't going to get you glamor, fame, and fortune. You can be a big fish in the small pond of RPGs, sure, but if it's not fun, don't do it. It's not a sure-fire path to riches. You get to know that your house rules are now an influence on other people's play styles. But you also get to know that gee, not that many people buy RPGs. And you get that "friend" who shows up with a pirated copy of your book to game with and says "I got this off a torrent site!" without a trace of shame. And people who tell you that your book sucks and they'd have done it a different way. But I won't lie to you, it's fun and if you like to write, converting your game stuff into published stuff is enjoyable. It's just real work, and not very well paying work. Know that and be realistic in your expectations.
I hope that helps somebody.
Start with $2,000,000 and a Ferrari.
It's not exactly a high-profit business. But it can pay, mostly as a hobby.
ZakS makes a great case for just doing it yourself.
My usual employer, SJG, pays pretty well even for new authors, especially if you write for Pyramid (currently $0.04/word) or e23 (currently 25% royalties).
But what is the trick? Like with most things, the general feeling is you only need a kick-ass idea and a creative writing style and some total gaming awesomeness.
The truth is you need an idea. But execution is what gets that idea published by you or by anyone else.
Here are the three keys to being a successful freelancer, in my experience.
Most important thing: Meet your deadlines. Seriously, if you want to know why I keep getting paid writing gigs, it's because I meet my deadlines. If there is even a possibility of missing one by a single minute, as soon as I know I will contact my editor(s) and explain the situation and see what we can do. To date I've always made my original deadline or a revised deadline based on shifting company production schedules. Don't be late to work. It's your hobby but it's your publisher's livelihood.
My advice is to ask for a deadline you know you can meet, and then add 1-2 weeks to that just in case. Hand it in early if you want (I just handed something in a few days early myself). But don't be late.
Second: Write what you agreed to write. It's a contract and it's work. Treat it like that - if you agreed to do A, B, and C it's going to mess folks up when you say B didn't turn out to be so fun to write so you wrote A, C, and X instead. Not to say you can't change the approach during writing, but you can't do it without getting agreement from your publisher.
This is where your clever idea comes in. You'll need an idea with some meat on its bones to reach a reasonable pagecount. You'd be surprised how often a great idea that seems like a 32-page book turns out to be a 4-page pamphlet. So aim high. Better to reach for a big-but-doable project and have to cut chunks off to save for later than to come up short. I wrote 15 monsters for DFM1, and I have a file with 5 more that didn't make the cut. That's a lot better than 10 monsters and, uhm, about those other 5, Mr. Editor . . .
Third: Know the Rules. The game rules and the publishing rules. Know the formats. Learn the writing style of your publisher. If you're doing it yourself, have a writing style of your own and know the formats of your publishing software. If you write for GURPS and they have a standard set of formats (they do), know GURPS and know the formats. If you write for a white-box D&D clone you better know the white-box D&D rules and how you want the product to look. Know the SRD if you're writing stuff using bits of it. Understand copyright and crediting people, and know that "I didn't charge for it" doesn't mean it's not a copyright violation.
My ability to do those is probably the most important reason I get to write what I write. People at SJG know that I'll fulfill the contract, the material will fit the rules, I'm fairly well conversant with the formats, and it'll be in on time. I'm not a risk. Don't be a risk, be a known asset!
Finally, accept that this isn't going to get you glamor, fame, and fortune. You can be a big fish in the small pond of RPGs, sure, but if it's not fun, don't do it. It's not a sure-fire path to riches. You get to know that your house rules are now an influence on other people's play styles. But you also get to know that gee, not that many people buy RPGs. And you get that "friend" who shows up with a pirated copy of your book to game with and says "I got this off a torrent site!" without a trace of shame. And people who tell you that your book sucks and they'd have done it a different way. But I won't lie to you, it's fun and if you like to write, converting your game stuff into published stuff is enjoyable. It's just real work, and not very well paying work. Know that and be realistic in your expectations.
I hope that helps somebody.
Thursday, November 24, 2011
Return to original owner
Today, just before Thanksgiving dinner, I gave my uncle his original copy of the AD&D Player's Handbook back.
I ended up with it in a roundabout way, from a cousin who'd gotten it from my uncle. But my uncle's name was in it. When I moved and consolidated down to one copy of everything, I found that in my PHB stack. So I brought it to him and gave it back to him. He was pretty surprised and happy.
I doubt he'll use it, but it's nice to get to put it back in the hands of the person whose copies of "The Lord of the Rings" and D&D got me interested in gaming in the first place.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Give back to the ones who got you into gaming.
I ended up with it in a roundabout way, from a cousin who'd gotten it from my uncle. But my uncle's name was in it. When I moved and consolidated down to one copy of everything, I found that in my PHB stack. So I brought it to him and gave it back to him. He was pretty surprised and happy.
I doubt he'll use it, but it's nice to get to put it back in the hands of the person whose copies of "The Lord of the Rings" and D&D got me interested in gaming in the first place.
Happy Thanksgiving everyone. Give back to the ones who got you into gaming.
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Dread Empire
When we last left Bragi Ragnarson, he was under a big pile of corpses on a battlefield. Finally we'll get to find out what happens next (no thanks to the person who swiped the original manuscript years back).
A Path to Coldness of Heart (Dread Empire 3)
is up for pre-order on Amazon.com.
I shamelessly stole from the Dread Empire series for my last fantasy game, and I'm really looking forward to these. I'll add the DE books to my re-read pile. It's been too long . . .
A Path to Coldness of Heart (Dread Empire 3)
is up for pre-order on Amazon.com.I shamelessly stole from the Dread Empire series for my last fantasy game, and I'm really looking forward to these. I'll add the DE books to my re-read pile. It's been too long . . .
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