Sebastian crouched down to look the boy in the eye. "What did they do to you, Emric?"
"Emric?" the boy responded indignantly. "My name's Camring. Let me go!"
"Cassicus?" said Kham. He was starting to sound a bit desperate. "Did he say Cassicus?"
Sebastian rose to his feet. "I fear this is neither Emric nor Cassicus." [MORE]
The Brothers Grimm isn't as much a crowd pleaser as it is a film filled with Message. And there are quite a few: fairytales aren't always nice, good people die, and sometimes it pays to believe in your dreams. It's a modern parable about fairytales, how they mirror reality, and the grim reflections that lurk beneath them.
Fairytales once served as warnings and parables, to scare children into doing the right thing at the right time. The Brothers Grimm is no different. That doesn't necessarily make it a movie for everyone though. [MORE]
Unleashed is a serviceable sequel, but it feels like the middle entry in a longer story arc. With this entry, the Ginger Snaps series begins to have an episodic feel to it, more appropriate for a television show than a movie series, and that's not a good thing. [MORE]
"Emric's getting away!" said Vlad, blocking another thug's scimitar. "Cal?"
Calactyte roared. "MOMMA'S COMING!"
The big lizard slammed through the thugs that were still standing, batting them aside like reeds in a field.
Then a black-skinned, white-horned woman stepped into his path. "Amalia loves a challenge," she shouted as her huge flamberge sheared towards Cal.[MORE]
If you are looking to run a straight up Ghost hunting campaign (whether serious or tongue-in-cheek), or wish to integrate a series of ghostly adventures into a current campaign, this book fits the bill. You shouldn’t have a problem integrating these rules with anything form the Basic D20 Modern Campaign thru Star Wars, Star Gate, or what ever d20 game you play. [MORE]
A huge source of things for a zombie apocalypse campaign (and boy aren't those popular nowadays?!), or just a campaign that deals with zombies on a regular basis. Good stuff here for players and GMs alike. Lots of new occupations, and prestige classes for the players. Loads of new monsters and ideas for GMs. You have to appreciate the level of detail paid to this material, yet somehow it doesn't take itself too seriously (unlike another zombie product out there). [MORE]
I caved in over the weekend and opened an account with RPGNow so I could download Blood and Blades. Just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed B and B. By far one of the best supplements I've read for d20. It captures that 80s horror film feel really well.Thanks for the kind words, Marx!
"Well if it ain't just my lucky day," said Zainat with his peculiar accent. "I done thought Cam Val'Abebi went down with the Dauntless." He eased back his midnight blue watch coat to reveal the mother-of-pearl handle of his flintlock. "There's a bounty on yer head, boy." Two more hired thugs flanked Zainat but stood off to the side. "And I intend to collect on it."
Kham froze in mid-step. He pushed his back his jacket to reveal all four of his handgonnes. "It's pronounced ‘kai-EM'. Have we met?"
"Fortunately fer you, not ‘til today," said Zainat. "I hear ya run off from Altheria with the plans tah make a bunch of gonnes. From whatcher carrying there, I can see it's true. Ya been abusin' the privilege of an Altherian, boy. I'm here tah set things straight. I'm a callin' you—"
BLAM! BLAM! [MORE]
Well, overall I would say that this latest outing was a success. I bought more than I should have, but I bought stuff I knew I couldn't get cheaper online. I gamed more than I ever had at a convention and had a lot of fun. True Dungeon was hard but hysterical. And the gaming was a mixed bag, but I've definitely had much worse.
And oh yeah, the book I contributed to won Best Writer at the ENnies. It was a great time for all of us.
I'll compile all these entries later, edit them, and hyperlink to all my buds' sites. Boarding the plane now...
By this time we were all seasoned gamers, having been through at least one Living Greyhawk adventure. So we were happy when our latest players appeared to be mellow. The only small glitch was that one of the players was late, but he arrived just in time for the first combat.
This adventure was much more of a "find this quest item" plot, which suited us just fine. We spent some time in a town, role-playing with the DM, who was cool.
We ultimately killed some undead, fought off some bandits, and otherwise got a crazy book back to its rightful undead owner. In the woods. I called it the Pinecone Witch Project.
The only hiccup was a guy who was annoyed that Eric didn't specifically use the flanking bonus. To put it another way, apparently everyone is supposed to run around targets than straight at them. So yes, the barbarian, who was in a frothing rage, actually ran PAST an opponent, only to swing back behind him, all for the flanking bonus. It was a really stupid thing to harass anybody about, but this guy had difficulty letting it go. Not cool.Then again, I'm generally disdainful of people who argue with the DM, and there was some of that going on as well.
Anyway, Blast leveled (not a structure, he went up in level) as did Matt's character Perin.
All in all, our second best game of the con.
We took it easy after a Living Greyhawk game and True Dungeon. Unfortunately, the city was swarming with Colts fans (the stadium is a few hundred feet away, we could hear them cheering from the room). So it wasn't even worth trying to get a decent meal anywhere. We just went to TGI Fridays and that was good enough.
Now we have to deal with the stupidity of the hotel, who failed to mention that rollaway beds bare a fire hazard. Therefore, only rooms with one bed can have them. So I slept on the floor.
Then, to add insult to injury, Matt put his card down for incidentals, and they decided to use that for the room charge instead. Going to have breakfast and fix that now.
All the pent up nervousness when playing this LARP (and let there be no doubt, it's a LARP) had dissipated, so we could concentrate on enjoying ourselves. Unfortunately, this session wasn't as good as the first.
Basically, the problem with this year's True Dungeon is that the riddles were hard. REALLY hard. I was thrilled to be the bard again (I had all the bard runes memorized), and in this adventure that knowledge came in handy. A few of our fellow players dropped significant cash (as in, real life money) to buy more equipment tokens, including a masterwork lute, so my singing helped more. There's a rumor that someone bought $2,000 worth of tokens, but I'm not sure if I believe it.
There was a lot more combat this go round, and with our bulked-up items, we blew through them. Matt, as the wizard, blasted an efreeti. Eric, as the rogue, sneak attacked several monsters. My annoying singing caused several monsters to attack me (the DM's were quite vengeful), whereupon I would sing "U can't Touch This" by MC Hammer. And you know what?
Both times the monsters rolled a 1. Seriously.
Then we got to the end and were imprisoned in Limbo forever. The End.
It was obvious that a lot of people were getting frustrated as the DMs in each room kept giving us hints.
Overall, this version of True Dungeon was okay. It had more combat and the bard was much more useful, but it wasn't as thrilling as Assault Atop Castle Greyhawk.
Ever been to the Prancing Pony? The Red Dragon? Then why bother calling the local tavern anything more than what it is: The Adjective Noun.
A lot of Greyhawk adventures are mysteries, and depending on the party, can be quite ridiculous. So let the world know by adding, "Scooby Doo and the..." to the title. For example:
Alternately, CSI: Greyhawk can be added as well. This idea is all the guys at Skirmisher Publishing, so blame them if your players use it.
Eric gets the blame for this one: imagine Deliverance, only with orcs and elves. "Yew got sum purty ears..."
Finally, another one from the Skirmisher gang. Whenever a PC is hit by a touch spell, the other player asks, "show us on the miniature where the dirty orc touched you."
So much humor in the first half of that game. Too bad it didn't last.
Well, this turned out to be Blast's best adventure yet. Sort of.
Blast is a noble wannabe, who forever wants to join the elven court but can never get in because he's a low class shlub from Bissel. This adventure took place in Celene, the elven homeland, so he was in his glory.
We gamed with an old school DM who was a lot of fun. Two of the players were my buds at Skirmisher Publishing. Hi guys!
Things were going well. We beat a back a slaver attack and hatched a plot to pretend the press gang attack worked, through judicious use of charm person and hypnotism. We were about to be led straight to the bad guys...when THAT GUY screwed it up.
This player, who shall remain nameless, had the only character that could speak goblin. Since the slavers were hobgoblins, we needed him to pull off the ruse. Instead, he spat at the slavers, who proceed to beat him nearly to death. That forced us to reveal our plan early.
Then, this genius slit the throat of one of our bad guy captives without explaining his actions. When he went to do it a second time, our lawful good cleric (played by Eric) intervened...and The Idiot slashed another hobgoblin's throat again anyway. What the hell?!
His excuse was that as neutral good he "hates slavers" to the exclusion of everything else, including sanity. And oh yeah, he had 16,000 gold as a 2nd level ranger, and some weird ass "sand sculpture" item that can turn into any mundane item which was from the Sandstorm book, only he didn't have it with him. He argued with the DM over every rule. By the end of it, the DM had to lecture us on how to have fun.
Fortunately, the planning saved time, so we finished...barely. Great group spoiled by an idiot, but that's the risk you run in playing a living game...people are unpredictable.
It wasn't all bad. We had a bunch of notable quotes that may not seem funny now but were hysterical at the table:
Well, Gen Con's been a blast so far. I've spent way too much money on rare figs, but they're all difficult to find anywhere else. I bought the prepainted Roman Legion minis from Heroscape, which will be perfect for the Arcanis campaign. I also bought some Cthulu-esque figures, including a byakhee, the King in Yellow, and a hard to find D+D mini, the Chuul (or as I like to say, CHHHHUUUUUUUUUUULLLL!)
It did occur to me that sometimes Blast (my prissy elven wizard) probably shouldn't cast fire spells in a "guano filled cavern." Kobolds live in a lot of those.tunnels. I can see it now: "I cast burining-BOOOOOM!"
Okay, enough jibber jabber, time for breakfast and more Living Greyhawk.
Necro games is up for THIS award. The silver goes to: Paizo Publishing. And the gold goes to...Green Ronin Publishing.
And that's it folks. Thanks for sticking with me through this (all 2 of you, Eric's sitting next to me).
I'd like to add one more award. This is too my wife, Amber, who isn't feeling well and is back at home. All my love...I'm off to shmooze!
Here it is, the popular vote by the fans, for the fans. And the silver goes to: Green Ronin publishing.
The gold goes to:
PARADIGM CONCEPTS! It looks like all the living players finally rallied to show their support. Go Team Paradigm!!!
And the silver goes to: World of Darkness rulebook from White Wolf Publishing. The gold goes to: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplaying by Black Industries. Chris Pramas pointed out that he can't be as eloquent as Sue Cook or as foul-mouthed as Justin Achilli. Heh.
And the silver goes to: Blue Rose from Green Ronin. The silver goes to: Monte Cook's Arcana Evolved! Go Sue and Monte!
The silver goes to: Fiery Dragon Productions for their Counter Collection Digital. The gold goes to: PCGen 5.8. I don't have the latest version, but I love the work done by Code Monkey Publishing with e-Tools!
Necromancer Games got an Honorable Mention, yay! The silver goes to: Danse de la Mort from White Wolf Publishing. The gold goes to: Dungeon Magazine's maps and handouts from Paizo Publishing.
I just bought the Battlebox today, so I hope it wins! And the silver goes to: Battlebox! Go Fiery Dragon! The gold goes to: Dungeon Magazine from Paizo Publishing, as it should!
And the silver goes to: Beyond Countless Doorways from Malhavoc Press. Monte took this one...go Monte and Sue! The gold goes to: Vampire the Requiem from White Wolf Publishing.
Iron Kingdoms World Guide is up for this too! Go IKWG! The silver goes to: Black Company from Green Ronin Publishing. The gold goes to: Iron Kingdoms World Guide from Privateer Press!!!! BOOYAH! It won in both of the categories it was nominated!
The silver goes to: Advanced Bestiary from Green Ronin Publishing. The gold goes to: Old World Bestiary from Black Industries.
Goodman Games' The Dragon Fiend Pact is up, hope it wins! I just told Joseph Goodman that I hope his speech is good 'cause I expect him to win. Silver goes to: Villainy Amok by Hero Games. The gold goes to: Maure Castle from Paizo Publishing.
Silver goes to: Blue Rose freom Green Ronin Publishing. The gold goes to: Ars Magica 5th Edition from Atlas Games.
Iron Kingdoms World Guide, which I contributed to, is up for an ENnie! And the silver goes to: World of Darkness from White Wolf Publishing. As Justin Achilli put it "rock the fuck on!"
And the gold goes to the Iron Kingdoms World Guide!!!! YEEEEEESSSSSS!
I voted for X-Crawl on this one. The silver goes to: Ars Magica 5th Edition from Atlas Games. The gold goes to: Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay from Black Industries. Atlas Games' speech was cute...they didn't expect to win so they didn't have anything prepared.
The siver goes to: Vampire the Requiem from White Wolf Games the gold goes to: Arcana Evolved from Malhavoc Press. I can tell that Sue was delighted by this award...I'm one table away from them. Go Sue and Monte!
Iron Kingdoms Character Guide received an honorable mention, which I contributed to. The silver goes to Blue Rose from Green Ronin Publishing. The gold goes to: Beyond Countless Doorways from Malhavoc Press. Go Monte and Sue.
I voted for e-adventure tiles, hope they win! The silver winner is: City State of the Invincible Overlord. The gold goes to: the World Map of Greyhawk from Paizo Publishing! Go Necromancer for the silver!
I was up for this Ennie once, but didn't win...and the silver Ennie goes to: http://www.planewalker.com. The gold Ennie goes to: http://www.d20srd.org. I voted for this site!
Piratecat is presenting and doing well. He"s introducing the judges and volunteers right now. "One of the awards won by less than two votes" said PC.
The setting is incredibly posh. It looks like the walls are an Italian villa, very cool. Oops, need to shut off my ringer. More in the next update.
So here I am, after forgetting about the fact that the ENnies moved, we found it. It took several hours to get into the Ram but it was worth it...the beer and the food were delicious. The festivities are about to begin. Get ready...
Fortunately, we were able to muster an entire group of APL2 players and off we went, and the DM was no less than the author himself!
Unfortunately, he was a bit annoyed by the "nerfing" of his module. The less said, the better, but let me just state that Blast hates kobolds enough that I would consider multiclassing as a ranger with humanoid (reptilian) as favored enemy. Blast went down (but not out!) Along with much of the party in a corridor full of murder holes. First time we used pyrotechnics to get the hell out of there.
Unlike the first adventure, we made it out on time...we even got out early. Which was good, because Eric arrived. Then we went to the dealer room again.
Good news is it looks like I've got another major project coming up. Hope to have an outline soon. I also bought a lot of stuff, but that's for the next blog entry...
So, here we are in the gaming hall, 15 minutes early. That's 15 minutes of precious sleep we missed out on. However, we ate breakfast. Now I'm just waiting for my Claritin-D and multivitamin to kick in. And the ibuprofen, for the hang--I mean headache.
The hall is awfully empty. Sans Eric, it's possible we might not have enough players. I guess we'll find out soon enough.
The Party You Don't Know About was great even though we got their late. I met fellow authors of the Complete Guides, including rakshasas and vampires. And of course, consumed a wicked concoction known as pale ale. Bad, ale, BAD!
Bought Matt The Power Gamer's 3.5 Warrior's Strategy Guide. It's much cooler than I thought...need one for clerics!
Also, we met Andrew Barlow, the sculptor of the life counters Matt and I bought at Z-Man games. He's an amazing artist!
True Dungeon was a lot of fun. Matt was the wizard, a veritable death-dealing machine. I, on the other hand, was a bard. Which means I had to sing.
Nobody's surprised, I know.
What's funny is that you need to DO things, like memorize what certain runes mean, to emulate your class skill. When it came to my bardic lore, I completely screwed it up, triggering a gas trap that poisoned half the party. Amazingly, no one died.
Then we got to the end, couldn't figure out the riddle, and us along with all of Greyhawk blew up.
The End.
Matt's first intro to Living Greyhawk was a great one. We got to play in the "special edition" of the event, which means the DM has minis for all the monsters. Our DM was a female, which is only noteworthy because the women outnumbered the men at the table (4 women, 3 men). We were fortunately playing with all adults too. Everyone was extremely cool.
We also had a great mix: fighter, ranger, barbarian, wizard and 2 clerics. We were sorely tested fighting 3 kobolds, but the greatest threat came from each other. Perin/Matt tried to hop over a trap only to set it off, whereupon a troll nearly mangled us all. We killed another kobold shaman (and his little dog too!) Along with some nasty spiders. Then there was the water elementals...
One of the clerics was a gnome asherati, basically desert people who are terrified of water. And we had to get in a boat. She spent most of her time clinging to a barbarian. Time ran out, so we had to stop in mid-adventure.
This is one of the best groups I've played with in a long time. B last spent his money on a new wand of magic missile, so we'll be better prepared for the next challenge. One thing that sucked is cash values were not provided for magic items from other sourcebooks besides the DMG. So we couldn't buy some of the items we earned.
That minor quibble aside, it was a great first adventure! And now it's too late to do the other summaries, so it will have to wait until tomorrow. Night!
Wow, so much has happened it's now 1 am here. First, some updates: Matt is once again unconscious. Eric was delayed due to a work conflict, so he will hopefully show up tomorrow. Also, I discovered that I brought the wrong charger, so my Blackberrying days are numbered.
I'll write separate entries for the other events, but our next one is Living Greyhawk at 8 am tomorrow. What was I thinking?!
All I can say is...HOLY CRAP.
We're now getting ready to marshall for the Living Greyhawk "Secrets of Tsojcanth." Doesn't look too busy so hopefully we'll have enough players.
I already made it halfway through the Dealer's Room. I'll talk more about it later. I would be remiss if I didn't give a shout out to my new friend J.J. He plays Warmachine and was cool to talk to on the bus ride over. He had a wooden case for his figs...very cool!
Going to go muster, we'll see how it goes...
First, let me state up front that I am only typing this on the plane...the wireless function is not actually on. So this entry won't show up until we land.
Anyway, I ended up sitting next to Peter and his buddy (I instantly forgot his name after introducing myself...I'm so bad!). They are indeed going to Gen Con to play Shadowrun no less. This is their first trip to the convention too. They weren't too eager to talk to me (I can't blame them, most gamer types find me a bit overwhelming), so I'm not going to harass them further.
Matt was up really late last night, so he's now fast asleep. Lucky bastard. I, on the other hand, felt obligated to drink an entire can of diet Pepsi. It goes like this:
Can you tell I've had a lot of caffeine? Man, I should try to take a nap, but now I'm not tired. Curse you Matt and you cat-napping skills! If this keeps up I may bother poor Peter again. Next update will be from the ground as we face down the CR 10 Share-A-Ride!
I think I dozed off for a couple of minutes, just long enough to be snapped out of it by the pilot telling us we're beginning our descent. He thanked us for our business too. I think every business should legally be required to state that after you pay.
I just sneezed three times and nobody said bless you, not even my buddy Pete (and certainly not Uncon Matt (tm)). The pilot's more polite than the passengers! Go figure.
One more entry and then I'll stop yapping until we land. My next entry must be written covertly...
Matt just had a birthday, and I plan to buy him something gamerish. Anyone have any suggestions? Leave a comment (I can't read email but can reply to comments). Matt plays a fighter type in our Arcanis game--sword/shield/plate kind of guy.
Also, my brther's birthday is coming up (Joe gets my blog updates so CLOSE YOU EYES JOE!) So I'm taking suggestions on what to buy him too. He plays a lizardfolk barbarian. Leave a comment...I call upon the power of the three people who read my blog. Hi mom!
I pretend to try and nap and sure enough, a steward (male version of a stewardess, right?) comes by and just grabs the empty can off of the tray between Matt and I! All that stress over throwing away a can for nothing.
Wow, my glucose levels are high now. Will try again to take a nap but a phrase keeps popping into my head:
"Can't sleep, clown will eat me, can't sleep, clown will eat me..."
Wait, he is a gamer...and he is wearing a gamer shirt. I think he's looking at his character sheet right now. And a map. Cool, there are other gamers flying to Gen Con from the East Coast!
Well, we're now in LaGuardia airport and things have already gotten interesting. I was totally oblivious (I'm still half awake), but Matt spotted Patrick Ewing and apparently his entire family.
In retrospect, I'm not sure how I missed him. He's the tallest man in the airport.
I wonder if he's going to Gen Con? Probably not. However, the airline attendant kept asking if I was with some guy named Peter, who is also going to Indianapolis. I didn't see any gamer-type shirts so I assume he's not going to Gen Con either. But if you read this Peter, great traveling with you!
The thugs they hired stepped into the alley behind them as Broled dragged Emric along.
"Stop dem," said Broled over his shoulder.
Amalia walked forward and held the flamberge before her with both hands. "Oh, don't worry," she said with a wicked grin, her tail flicking in agitation behind her, "Amalia intends to." [MORE]
I often reference how movies sometimes fail to stay true to the characters. This is another way of saying that happy endings should never be forced. Ginger Snaps never shies away from the stark realities of broken homes, social pressures, or biological changes. The ending is harsh but appropriate.
"Out by sixteen or dead in this scene but together forever," swear the two girls over and over before the changes begin. They never had a chance. [MORE]
[MORE]
[MORE]
- Is Chuck a power gamer? You decide! (Shoot! This should have been the poll question for the week!)
- We announce the contest winners!
- On the Frugal Gamer, we look at some of the dungeon tiles a fold-up cardboard models available for your miniatures. Here are the links: HeroQuest Tiles, Dungeoneering.net, Lemonbutter.com, Stones Edges, and Chunky Dungeons.
- We answer some questions from our listeners.
- We review some products from Highmoon Media.
- And we discuss new ways of starting a campaign rather than the tired, old, "Alright, you're in a tavern..."
