Geomorphs #14 and #15

Today's geomorph is a bit an experiment. My intent was to create an self-contained arena with subterraean cells, an elevator that raises fighters up to the main level, a viewing area for privileged dungeon denizens. Looking at the image, I'm not sure it is clearly depicted. It remains to be seen if it I keep it in the Monkey Mapper, or if I put it on the back-bench for ideas that I revise later.

As a bonus, I'm including a more traditional geomorph that includes a stair to the surface (or an upper level), as well as a secret tunnel that connects the northern and southern areas.

Geomorph #13

Today's we feature a geomorph that does not have any direct transits from north to south or east to west. In the maps generated by the Risus Monkey Mapper, there seemed to be a need for tiles with dead ends, or at least that made getting from point A to point B a little more challenging.

Daily Monster: Bad Fairies

Today's Daily Monster post features various denizens of Faerie. The Fair Folk are far too varied to zero in on one particular type. Instead, I'm presenting a handful of faerie creatures that can serve as appropriate opponents in a wide variety of game situations. Many of these fey kin appeared in this past weekend's Knights of the Astral Sea game.

Goblin Market Anti-Thief: Sneaky Puck Pocket-Placer (3), Goblin Market Rules Lawyer (2), Cowardly Bootlicker (2).

Sneaky Puck Pocket-Placer: Using sleight of hand to place objects into victim's pockets, thereby inducing a debt or obligation; being sneaky; knowing minor glamours.
Goblin Market Rules Lawyer: Using the peculiarities of Faerie Law to weasel items or service from unsuspecting bystanders.
Cowardly Bootlicker: Looking pathetic, running away, cowering in fear, sniveling, whining.

Jealous Hag: Trollish Night Creature Who Likes To Eat Children (4), Diva In her own Mind (2), Cougar (and not the Jungle-dwelling Feline Kind) (1).

Trollish Night Creature: Ripping people's arms off; seeing in the dark; hiding in fetid swamps; making girl scout cookies using real girl scouts.
Diva: Making unreasonable demands, getting what she wants.
Cougar: Vamping it up for younger men (that would be all men). Did you notice that this is a 1 die cliche?

Goblin Market Bruiser: Hired Muscle (4), Big Ass Humanoid (4).

Hired Muscle: Picking fights with people on command, being big, being strong. Could alternately use (3d8) Funky Dice.
Big Ass Humanoid: Should be obvious - being strong, ill-tempered, and violent. A minotaur would be a good example. Could also use Funky Dice.

Redcap Marauder: Murderous Goblin With Oversized Kitchen Cutlery (3).

Murderous Goblin: Cutting, stabbing, chopping, hacking, slashing, slicing... sense a theme? Also mopping up bloody floors with their red caps.

Band of Redcap Brigands: Half-Dozen Murderous Goblin With Meat Cleavers (4).

Redcap Archer: Elfshot Sniper (3), Murderous Goblin With Nasty-Looking Knife (3).

Elfshot Sniper: Sneaking, hiding, shooting victims from a distance using special paralyzing arrows.

Bugbear Enforcer: D&D-style Bugbear Gang Leader (4), Hairy Brute (4), Social Climber (2).

Bugbear Leader: Fighting, bashing, sneaking, giving orders to lesser humanoids. Optionally use (3d8) Funky Dice instead.
Hairy Brute: Pretty much just the fighting and bashing bits, though being hairy could count for something (this is Risus). Funky dice also appropriate.
Social Climber: Having great social luck (being in the right place at the right time), knowing when to stay quiet, having enough sense to sign up for the stronger/better-paying team.

Cat Lord: Decadent Anthropomorphic Aristocat (3), Feline Spymaster (3), Sadist (2), Wuss-in-Boots (2).

Aristocat: Looking bored, complaining about the freshness of sardines, witty banter, fencing, having cat-like qualities.
Feline Spymaster: Again with the catlike qualities, managing a network of feline spies, hiding, sneaking, being indispensable to the great leader.
Sadist: Torturing small rodents and not getting all worked up about it.
Wuss-in-Boots: Running away.

Autumn Witch: Ruthless Dictator (5), Cold-Hearted Enchantress (5), Closet Cannibal (4), Flying Monkey Breeder (3).

Ruthless Dictator: Eliminating political enemies; making the trains run on time; inspiring fear and loyalty; commanding armies of minions.
Cold-Hearted Enchantress: Flying on magic brooms, commanding chicken-legged huts, asking questions of magic mirrors, poisoning fruit, cursing princesses, maintaining her youthful appearance.
Closet Cannibal: Making Soylent Green, disposing of the remains, fighting with kitchen knives.
Flying Monkey Breeder: Commanding hordes of flying monkeys, cross-breeding with other creatures to produce specialized breeds, winning prizes at the annual Westminster Flying Monkey Show.

Horde of Flying Monkeys: Aerial Grunt Squad of Countless Simian Minions (6).

Aerial Grunt Squad: Swarm attacks from above, synchronized aerobatics, flinging poo.

Jealous Pixie: Spiteful Sprite (4), Obsessive Fangirl (3), High-Maintenance Fairy Princess (3).

Spiteful Sprite: Faerie glamour, attacking with pin-sized swords, lethal practical jokes, boiling bunnies.
Obsessive Fangirl: Stalking, unauthorized entry, making people feel very uncomfortable, knowing way too much about the subject of their obsession.
High-Maintenance Fairy Princess: Being temperamental, brow-beating people into doing what she wants.

Leprechaun Hooligan: Belligerent Drunk with Shortman's Syndrome (3), Cereal Box Icon (3).

Belligerent Drunk: Carousing, good old fashioned brawling, taking a beating.
Cereal Box Icon: Finding pots of gold, hiding, minor faerie magic, avoiding capture, protecting his lucky charms.

Obnoxious Faerie Dragon: Insanely Cheerful Master of Faerie Glamour (5), Pitbull with Butterfly Wings (3).

Insanely Cheerful Master of Faerie Glamour: Creating elaborate illusions, playing (unintentionally) dangerous pranks, trying the patience of saints.
Pitbull with Butterfly Wings: Viciously effective close combat, precision flight.

Delicious Brownie: Malicious Dessert Armed With A Spoon of Thwacking (3).

Malicious Dessert: Being edible, louring hungry travelers into peril with chocolaty goodness, paddling people into submission.

Image of Murderous Redcap from Wizards of the Coast's Magic the Gathering site.

Geomorph #12

Today's geomorph is fairly simple, mostly featuring caves and passages that traverse the tile. I added this one (and will add more like it) do give some space and flow to the maps assembled by the Risus Monkey Random Map. Still, there is one secret room that should contain something interesting.

Sister Systems: Gurps Ultra-Lite

Before I discovered Risus I was almost exclusively a Gurps GM. Before marriage (and certainly before kids) I actually had time and energy to exhaustively prepare for sessions. I remember creating massive spreadsheets of NPC stats - recording advantages, disadvantages, and skills to a crazy level of detail. It didn't bother me at the time. It was fun and I had enough free time that it didn't seem to interfere with my other interests.

Those days are long gone. I still like Gurps, but running it the way I that I used to run it just isn't going to fly anymore. Even if I had the time and energy, I've long since burned out on over-preparing like that. Years ago, I investigated various rules-lite systems to help simplify my prep work and I developed an NPC short-hand based first on Castle Falkenstein, then Fudge, and eventually Risus. You can guess from the focus of this blog that Risus has become my primary NPC-definition tool for running Gurps. But it's not my only tool.

At some point last year, Steve Jackson Games released a free micro-lite version of Gurps called Gurps Ultra-Lite. Even lighter that Gurps Lite, it distilled the essence of Gurps down a single Pocket Mod (a sheet of paper folded into an 8-page booklet). It was in fact responsible for my current infatuation with Pocket Mods, but that'll have to be the subject of a future post.

Gurps Ultra-Lite details a combat mechanic that resembles standard Gurps but is different enough that I'd hesitate to use it in play. Its method of defining characters, however, is pure awesome. In a nutshell, you define Strength (ST), Dexterity (DX), Intelligence (IQ), and Health (HT) as well as a few skills with only a handful "levels". These "levels" cover a whole lot of ability. One level of Strength, for example, gives you "Average" (Gurps ST=10) while two levels makes you "Strong" (Gurps ST=14). For skills, each level gives you a bonus of +4 off a governing attribute (starting from a default of -6). Wealth and Charisma are the only two "Advantages" that are defined, though it would be easy enough to add more.

It's the method of handling skills that I really like, however. No surprise, really, since each "skill" more closely resembles a Risus cliche than an actual Gurps skill. They are like "Bang!" skills on steroids. Not only does a skill like "Knight" encompass things like fighting, riding, and heraldry. It also includes the knight's weapons, horse, and armor. This is just like Tools of the Trade in Risus. A higher skill level also assumes that you have better equipment and Wealth can increase this equipment bonus.

Gurps Ultra-Lite characters can easily be plugged into an existing Gurps games with minimal difficulty. I often use the Ultra-Lite equipment rules to estimate stats for weapons and armor rather than looking up the real values in play. Ultra-Lite "levels" more closely map to Risus cliche levels, which makes it a snap to translate a Ninja (4) from Risus into a workable Gurps character in no time.

The Risus Monkey Mapper

Rather than post a new geomorph this evening, I decided to use my limited blogging time to whip up a random dungeon mapper based on Dyson's Random Morph Map. Rob Lang of The Free RPG Blog was generous enough to allow me to crib his html/java code, enabling me to squeeze this in after watching Lost. All eleven of my geomorphs are available to the tool and I'll do my best to keep it up-to-date as I create more.

Here's the link: http://www.velvet-edge.com/RisusMonkeyMap.html

A Letter From Queen Genevieve

Jim DiBenedetto, who plays Genevieve Lamballe in my Knights of the Astral Sea game, has been writing excellent in-character session logs in the form of letters to a close friend and colleague. Since last Saturday's session went so well, I thought I'd post one of the logs to give folks a taste of what happened. If you'd like to see additional logs in the series (especially those that explain the campaign backstory), just drop a note in the comments section.

Session notes after the break...

Geomorph #11

Today's geomorph features a pit, chasm, or abyss that intersects with a dungeon in a variety of ways. There is an octagonal room with a view in the northwest; a partially collapsed room to the north; a balcony or terrace in the southwest; and a long stair (dropping several levels at least) precariously perched over the eastern side. What's in the pit? Perhaps it's lava. Perhaps it's a view into the Hollow Earth. Maybe it's a swirling vortex of magical energy. Whatever it is, it's interesting or valuable enough that the denizens of the dungeon would want to experience it up close.
 

Weekend Update: The Ministry of Flying Monkeys

This was a fantastic weekend for gaming. As I mentioned in my Geomorph post yesterday, we had a great game of Gurps Knights of the Astral Sea on the previous night. I don't want to get into the game details too much before I attempt a Risus write-up, but I will say that unlike last sesion, the amount of planning and brainstorming that I put into it definitely paid off. This adventure was all about the party entering Faerie to track down the missing heir to their shattered cross-dimensional Empire. I really tried to make Faerie magical, wondrous, and (above all) dangerous. I drew heavily from the Books of Magic, Stardust, Castle Falkenstein (especially The Memoirs of Auberon of Faerie), Pan's Labyrinth, Hellboy II, and (as was alluded to in yesterday's post) The Wizard of Oz. I really emphasized the whole treacherous nature of social interaction in Faerie where everything is transactional and there is always a risk of getting more (or less) than you bargained for. My players got this perfectly as they negotiated with successive contacts, performing various tasks in exchange for information that would help them complete their quest. We had great fun watching one of the players really make the most of his chance to play his psionic cat as a swashbuckling puss-n-boots. We especially enjoyed the fortuitous sequence of events that allowed the party to drop a Baba Yaga-style walking house on an unexpectantly de-broomed wicked witch. For the time being, at least until other claimants step forward, the party finds itself in command of the Autumn Court - handing out titles like "Minister of Flying Monkeys" as they see fit.

Last night we played our third session of Pirates vs. Vampires. Once again, we had only three players (including myself). Unlike previous sessions, this one was unmarred by technical difficulties and was non-stop action from the get-go. Having destroyed or disabled the two black-sailed galleys, Alaric Anchorman and Antonious Garibaldi led a shore party to help combat the skeletal reavers who had landed prior to the arrival of the player characters. Landing in a treacherous but well-concealed cove, the party used their newly won Horn of Fog to confuse the enemy and disguise their own numbers. Unfortunately, they overblew the horn and the noise summoned all the skeletons in the area to their position. They sustained close to 50% casualties (entirely in red-shirted marines) but managed to inflict serious damage in return as their detonated charges to cover their retreat. The party now hides on the captured galley hoping to finish off any "surviving" raiders as they return to the ship.

I also came to the conclusion of my "Lair of the Frog King" Mythic GME story. While the adventure was technically a failure for my character, the story itself was quite satisfying to me as a player. It became clear relatively early on that Hinkley was in over his head and I'm glad that he and his companion were able to escape in a very pulpish "this isn't over villain!" kind of way. I look forward to picking up the story of Hinkley again in the near future... after I complete the half-dozen or so other Mythic adventures that I have waiting in the wings.

Lair of the Frog King: Scene 7

Introduction to this thread: The Lair of the Frog King
Explanation of Mythic elements: What's All This Mythic Stuff?
Previous Scene: Scene 6

SCENE 7
Wherein Hinkley secretly emerges in the Throne room.

Geomorph #10

I didn't get around to posting anything yesterday because I was tied up with actual gaming. Last night's session of Knights of the Astral Sea was the best session we had in a long while. You know things are going well when your players can drop a house on an evil witch, take over her kingdom in Faerie, and start handing out titles like "Minister of Flying Monkeys".

Anyway, I've got a bunch of posts that haven't quite crystalized yet. In the meantime, here's another geomorph. This one could be a fortified side entrance to a dungeon, either through caves or a narrow ravine.

Geomorph #9

Today's geomorph features either stables or stalls around a large courtyard.

Booty Time: The Whacking Wand

When Ofro found the mysterious rune-engraven stick in the hollow beneath the alter he thought very little of it. He was just a burglar and such an obvious arcane implement was certainly destined to be designated "party treasure" - a fancy way to say it was meant for spellcasters like Krogan the Evoker or Sister Morisha. But then he remembered the way those two stick-in-the-muds had upbraided him over that tavern incident the previous night and keeping the wand hidden away for his favorite fence was starting to sound pretty good. Some two-bit prestidigitator in Queenstown was sure to pay handsomely for it.

It was only later, when Ofro's companions were being overwhelmed by Redcaps on the Greenstone Bridge, that he decided keep the wand for himself. With both Sister Morisha and Krogan the Evoker down for the count and the rest of his companions facing imminent death, Ofro reached for the wand and out of shear desperation gave Krogan solid whack to the side of the head. Feeling a surge of blue energy travel down his arms, Krogan immediately stood up and obliterated the remaining foes with a barage of magical missiles. The party was saved and Ofro was the hero. That Krogan's ear spewed yellow puss for weeks was icing on the cake.

THE WHACKING WAND
Appearance: A slender, tapered ash wand covered in minute runic proverbs of the Trickster God, it mildly radiates an aura of divine magic. It is rather long as far as wands go and it has a comfortable and easy-to-hold grip. Anyone holding the wand will feel a slight urge to smack somebody with it.

Function: The Whacking Wand requires no fancy words of invocation nor any particular occult skill or talent. A solid "thwack" delivered to the intended target is sufficient to activate its magic. Upon such a strike, life energy travels from the user to the victim/target. This energy restores physical, mental, emotional, or even spiritual damage [cliche dice lost in combat] in proportion to the amount of life energy transfered [cliche dice sacrificed by the user].

Unfortunately for both parties, the Trickster exacts a price for such healing. In addition to a period of general weakness, the user who sacrificed their life energy will be cursed with minor misfortunes for an indeterminate period of time [i.e. the cliche loss lasts for the entire session]. The recipient of the healing magic, while restored to full fighting capability, will suffer a minor and potentially embarrassing side-effect. The effect is usually cosmetic in nature but almost anything is possible. [This will not reduce dice in combat but it can affect Target Number rolls and cause a wide range of amusing inconveniences.]

Geomorph #8

Today's geomorph features a large hall with three columns and two statues. Stairs exit down to the east and west while there are two exits through archways on the north and south walls.

Lair of the Frog King: Scene 6

Introduction to this thread: The Lair of the Frog King
Explanation of Mythic elements: What's All This Mythic Stuff?
Previous Scene: Scene 5

SCENE 6
Wherein Hinkley attempts to rally a kitchen full of Frog Servants (only to find human mercenaries instead).

Geomorph #7

Today's geomorphs is an obligatory maze of small rooms that might be a market or possibly a collection of residences.

Dragonspire: Play Transcript

There was a request on RisusTalk for an actual transcript of play. Not counting Mythic GME stories (here and here), I did find one chat log of an actual session of Dragonspire. It's play-by-post and (mostly) unedited. I'll include it after the break because it is quite long.

Geomorph #6

Today's geomorph features a well in the middle of a courtyard. Thee is chamber at the bottom of the well that leads off to a cave system in the south-east. Note the passage behind the curtain in the room in south-west.

Swords Against the Shadowland

I'm currently reading Swords Against the Shadowland by Robin Wayne Bailey. I'm taking my sweet time --- consuming it like fine chocolate, savoring my first return return to Nehwon in years. I can't quite tell if Bailey's work is merely pastiche or if it is truly a worthy sequel to a Sword & Sorcery classic. I'm only on chapter six and my memory of Leiber's work is as foggy as the streets of Lankhmar itself. But something feels right and I'm enjoying it immensely. Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser seem perfectly characterized and the sites, sounds, and smells of Lankhmar are vividly described.

I missed Lankhmar. It holds a special place in my RPG geek heart. Back in late high-school and early college, I ran two summers worth of campaigns in the City of Black Togas using first Rolemaster and then Gurps with the AD&D 1e Lankhmar: City of Adventure supplement as my primary reference. We had a fantastic time and many of my most vivid early gaming memories came from those adventures. Rats of the under-city, a hilarious tavern encounter in Gnamph Nar, a set-piece cinematic battle in the temple of Tyaa, an epic quest through the Caves of Ningauble....

Sigh.

I think I know what I want to run next after my current games have run their course. I've been taking notes as I read Swords Against the Shadowlands and will almost certainly go back and read Leiber's original works with an eye towards gaming. I'd love to come up with a Risus or system-neutral reference to Nehwon.  The Scrolls of Lankhmar blog is certainly a great start (and I'd hate to duplicate the excellent work over there), but I'd love to go a little bit deeper. This is all but spark in my  ADD-prone brain, but I've really been bit by the Lankhmar bug. Something is going to come of it.

Geomorph #5

Just a quick geomorph posting before I head out for the day. This one is another entry, with a spiral staircase coming down into the center of a large room with four columns (I love columns). The room to the north is a gallery of statues and there is a fountain in the southern room.

Lair of the Frog King: Scene 5

Introduction to this thread: The Lair of the Frog King
Explanation of Mythic elements: What's All This Mythic Stuff?
Previous Scene: Scene 4

SCENE 5
Wherein Hinkley tries to escape his pursuers and rally the Frog Men to help rescue Sylvia.

Geomorph #4

Today's geomorph is a self-contained cell-block or dungeon with a variety of ways to incarcerate captives (cells with doors, cells with bars, and grating-covered pits). One cell has a secret tunnel.

DriveThruRpg Haiti Relief Bundle

Just a quick note on the DriveThruRPG Haiti Relief Bundle...

This wonderful collaboration of retailer and content producers was nothing short of amazing. It's more than a week since I received permission to download and I am still only 80% through. That's just for downloading the files! I can't even begin to imagine when I'll actually get to read it all. I've peeked at enough to know that there are some real gems in there and that I'll be reaping the benefit of my purchase for a long, long time. I can't believe this was all made available for twenty dollars. I almost feel guilty taking advantage of the generosity of those that participated. A very big thank you to all involved for raising almost $180,000 for a good cause and for giving so much to us RPG consumers.

Geomorph #3

Once again, I return to a Dragonspire dungeon for today's geomorph. Nothing too complicated, but I do like the statue-alcove as a way to dead-end a corridor.

I should add that I'm becoming more comfortable with using my Wacom tablet, though my maps still look a little rough for my tastes.

Ad Hoc Teams

Those of you paying attention to my current Risus Mythic GME story may have noticed that I deviate from the standard rules when it comes to Teaming Up. In a nutshell, I allow teams to form and reform from round to round with no penalty for disbanding. I feel a little weird about this because, in general, I like to stick to the standard rules and those presented in the Risus Companion. This is pretty much the case when I veer into house rule territory. Not that there's anything wrong with house rules for any game (i.e. there's no wrong way to play), it's just that since I blog about Risus I feel like I have a responsibility to the rules as written.

But I do like how Ad Hoc Teams work in play. It feels natural for combatants to team up for a specific maneuver and then go off and do their own thing on the following round. Game balance doesn't seem to be an issue since I've eliminated the vengeance bonus and enemy NPCs are free to form their own teams as well (when not lumped into a single Grunt Squad).

I also use the Teaming Up rules to handle situations where characters (and sometimes their magic items) collaborate on Target Number rolls (such as lifting a heavy portcullis). The standard rules don't really mention that this is possible, but it seems logical to allow it.

Lair of the Frog King: Scene 4

Introduction to this thread: The Lair of the Frog King
Explanation of Mythic elements: What's All This Mythic Stuff?
Previous Scene: Scene 3

SCENE 4
Wherein Hinkley and Sylvia retreat to a safe hiding spot to regroup.

Geomorph #2

Continuing my experiment in Geomorphs, I include a little section of a dungeon that I ran a few years back for my Dragonspire campaign. In the south there is a multilevel room with a balcony. The western and secret doors exit from the lower level while the eastern door exits from the upper level. To the north, there is a large room featuring a pool. 

Daily Monster: Frog Men

Today's installment of the Daily Monster is drawn from my Mythic GME adventure, Lair of the Frog King. I have certain fondness for primitive amphibious humanoids dating back to the AD&D Saltmarsh series. Indeed, the Frog King scenario was entirely inspired by the second module in the Saltmarsh series, Danger at Dunwater. Instead of Lizard Men, I opted for the (slightly) weirder-seeming Frog Men. Frogs are indeed weird. They they have icky tongues that that shoot out to catch bugs, an incredible jumping ability, and can exhibit bizarre mutations or even secrete hallucinogenic toxins. All these traits can inspire interesting humanoid opponents for any fantasy RPG. In Risus, it's a snap to roll off dozens of variations on the theme.

Frogman Spear Carrier: Primitive Anthropomorphic Frog Warrior (2).

Frog Warrior: swimming; jumping; fighting with spear & shield; and grappling with a their sticky tongue. Their light spears can be thrown and thus extra spears are carried or kept close by.

Veteran Frogman Soldier: Primitive Anthropomorphic Frog Warrior (3).
Squad of Frogman Light Infantry: A Dozen Primitive Anthropomorphic Frog Warriors (4).
Frogman Sniper: Frog-like Swamp Ranger (3), Blowgun Sniper (4).

Swamp Ranger: swimming; jumping; fighting with knife, spear & shield; tracking, being stealthy, being perceptive, setting traps, and grappling with a their sticky tongue.  

Blowgun Sniper: being stealthy; choosing optimal ambush locations; attacking with a silent and highly toxic ranged weapon (not appropriate in melee combat). 

Frogman Commando: Black-skinned Anthropomorphic Frog Ninja (4), Frog-like Swamp Ranger (4), Blowgun Sniper (3).

Frog Ninja: being stealthy, scaling sheer surfaces, throwing salvos of sharp concealable objects, kicking-ass in melee combat (almost any weapon).

Frog Shaman: Brilliantly-colored Anthropomorphic Frog Witch Doctor (4), Blowgun Sniper (3).

Witchdoctor: being wise and sage-like; secreting hallucinogenic poison; creating folk remedies; creating deadly poisons; claiming to speak for the Great Mother Frog; seeing and commanding spirits; swimming; .

Frog King: Bloated Anthropomorphic Frog Chief (4), Former Frogman Soldier (3).

Frog Chief: Being disgustingly huge; commanding minions in battle (treat as Tools of the Trade); cashing in on all the perks of his office.

Giant Mutated Frogman: Four-Armed Froggy Brute (6), Gentle Giant (5).

Frog Chief: Being fantastically huge; grappling with all four arms; wielding large bludgeoning weapons; jumping; stunning with a sonic ribbit, attacking with a gigantic sticky tongue (can swallow defeated human-sized opponents).

Gentle Giant: Again with the being strong, this cliche can only be used in combat when defending someone who has been nice to him.

Swarm of Hungry Tads: Dozens of Ravenous Meat-Eating Frogmen Tadpoles (4)

Ravenous Tadpoles: Gods help the unfortunate character who falls into the breeding pools of the Frog Men.

Image of Bullywug from the Dungeons & Dragons animated series.

The Great Geomorph Experiment

Inspired by a similar project by Dyson at A Character For Every Game, I am going to try my hand at creating a collection of dungeon geomorphs that will (hopefully) be used to feed a random dungeon generator. I've got a bit of an old-school itch that isn't being scratched by the games I'm currently running. Dabbling in dungeon cartography is one way to get my old-school fix that also allows me to get some use out a drawing tablet that I purchased last year. Of course, I still haven't mastered the feel of the tablet and my maps may look a little rough around the edges until I get the hang of it.

Today's geomorph features a large pit (access by a ladder) with a natural cave system located to the north and a hidden trap-door leading to a dungeon complex to the south.

GMs, Tiddly Wikis, and the Cloud

The RPG Dumping Ground has a great little introduction to Tiddly Wikis. I link to it because I used a GTD Tiddly Wiki to organize my own campaign material for several years. For me, it was the perfect way to drill down into the nitty gritty of world creation. I'd just start writing about some aspect of a world or campaign or character and then flag new terms for future development simply by making them into WikiWords. Then I could pick an undefined WikiWord and repeat the process indefinitely. Of course, having lots of time on my hands in those pre-parenthood days led to some rather large and unwieldy Tiddly Wiki files. But it was an amazing tool that is still paying dividends as I look back to mine my old campaigns for new material.

These days, however, I've moved most of my world-building to the Cloud via Google Sites. I get similar (though not quite as seamless) wiki capability with less sensitivity to size and more freedom to format things as I please. Additionally, I can open up world-building to others by granting access to collaborators.

Lair of the Frog King: Scene 3

Introduction to this thread: The Lair of the Frog King
Explanation of Mythic elements: What's All This Mythic Stuff?
Previous Scene: Scene 2

SCENE 3
Wherein Hinkley leads Eva and her men into a pocket of Frog Men preparing to fight back for their king.

Pirates vs. Vampires: Ship Combat

Before Christmas, I noted that I'd be heading over to RisusTalk to seek advice on how to handle ship combat for my Pirates vs. Vampires game. Having actually run a session that employed ship combat, it seems that I have made a choice. And my choice is this: I'm going with standard Risus (no fancy house rules) with the majority of ships and crews being treated as Tools of the Trade.

I quickly discarded the idea of using house rules (such as a flavorful ship combat system similar to Swashbucklers of the Seven Skies). This was partly out of a desire to stick more closely to vanilla Risus this time around and partly because I was too lazy to writeup and test a new system. And after writing my article On Artifacts and Gadgets, I realized that Risus was more than up to the task of handling everything I needed.

As I mention in that Gadgets post, there are essentially four ways to handle gear (including vehicles) in standard Risus (two of which appear as options in the Risus Companion). What I don't think I mentioned is that none of these approaches exclude any of the other approaches within the same game. I think the default approach (which we are using right now) is to treat ships as Tools of the Trade. There is no reason why the party couldn't come into possession of a new ship that grants a bonus die in ship combat, or that includes nautical Questing Dice, or that is described by its own cliches, or that simply does extra cool magical stuff like sailing over land.

In the three ship combats that we enacted last session, the captain rolled against a cliche in which command of a fully armed frigate was assumed (Tool of the Trade). Given that the captain was an NPC, the player characters were encouraged to team up with their ship combat cliches. On the other side, each Unholy Black-Sailed Galley (4) fought as a single unit, even though they did include Lucky Shots/Questing Dice in the form of a collection of magical artifacts.

Lair of the Frog King: Scene 2

Introduction to this thread: The Lair of the Frog King
Explanation of Mythic elements: What's All This Mythic Stuff?
Previous Scene: Scene 1

SCENE 2
In which Hinkley leads Eva Schneider and a small squad of human mercenaries on a hunt for his friend and companion, Sylvia Franco. 

UPDATE: Risus OD&D... Auf Deutch!

Norbert G. Matausch has followed up on his promise to create an Old School OD&D-style Risus supplement. The spiffy new PDF is available at his website. Don't let his claims of laziness* fool you, Norbert has put a lot of work into this baby. He does a great service to the Risus community by publishing such a nice-looking and voluminous supplement. I look forward to reading a bastardized version once I am done feeding it to the Babel Fish (or similar translation tools).

* Gleaned from using Google Translate to read the introduction to his supplement.

Pirates vs. Vampires: Session #2

Last night, I convened the second session of Pirates vs. Vampires. We only had three players (myself included) and one of whom was returning to role playing after a very long absence. Alaric Anchorman was back as first officer and the new player was assuming the role of accountant-turned-navigator, Bertimous "Berry" Crunch (a very appropriate name for a Risus game).

We spent the first hour or so fighting our play-by-chat platform. Last week, we played over iChat using video. This week, because the new guy had a PC, we attempted something a little different. I had heard good things about DimDim as potential play-by-chat tool. It's got chat, voice, video, desktop-sharing, and a great white board capability. Unfortunately, we had tremendous problems with audio. At any given time, one of the three of us could not be heard by the others. Eventually, we figured out how to bring in the PC guy through iChat and all was well.

Brief recap:

The crew of Spear of Saint George, under the command of Captain Christian Kent, is sailing the waters of the Mediterranean to investigate reports of undead raiders. Last session, they found the wreckage of a merchantman with a mysterious skeletal hand clinging to the flotsam. A black-sailed galley was spotted in the distance, but wind was unfavorable for pursuit. Instead, Captain Kent ordered Mr. Anchorman to set sail for the notorious Pirate haven of Al Amarja to gather some human intelligence.

En route to Al Amarja, the black-sailed galley is spotted again. Thanks to some canny navigation by Mr. Crunch, the St. George pulls close enough to the galley to make out its skeletal crew. But then a fully-fleshed sorcerer on board summons a storm with a magical bag of wind and the vessel is lost again. But Mr. Crunch pulls more navigational tricks out of his hat, plotting a course to intercept the unholy galley at their expected destination on the south-western coast of Sicily.

When the St. George arrives at the intercept point, it finds that another black-sailed galley is already dispatching boats of skeletal raiders to attack the local fishing village of San Sebastiano. Captain Kent orders his crew to attack the original galley, no arriving on the scene, to hopefully eliminate a greater threat. Thanks to Mr.  Anchorman, that ship is disabled by a combination of cunning maneuvers and well-placed cannon-fire.

Changing focus to the galley at anchor, a human sorcerer aboard once again employs weather magic to hinder our heroes. This time, he uses of Horn of Fog to envelope the scene. With Mr. Crunch's help, the St. George is able to get close anyway and Mr. Anchorman lets loose with a salvo of grapeshot and chainshot to clear the deck before initiating a boarding action. Unfortunately, the surviving skeletons prove to be tenacious fighters and the boarding action almost ends in disaster. With Mr. Crunch going down early, it is up to Anchorman and his swashbuckling heroics to finally destroy the last skeletal champion.

We ended the session with Captain Kent coming aboard to assist in the looting and to issue orders regarding the skeletal raiders that are now rampaging through San Sabestiano. The mysterious Horn of Fog is discovered, as well as another Bag of Wind and an ornate box with a few magical stones inside. Mr. Crunch studies the galley's charts and thinks he may be able to deduce their port of origin...

Lair of the Frog King: Scene 1

For an introduction to this Mythic Game Master Emulator adventure, see this post.

DISCLAIMER: This is an actual log of my Mythic session. I have only edited it for format and obvious errors. If this were a story, I'd no doubt write it differently.

SCENE 1
In which we find J. Robert Hinkley returning to consciousness in the presence of the Frog King and his erstwhile Germanic advisors.

The Monkey Has Landed

In case you haven't noticed, the Risus Monkey has moved to its own domain. There were a variety of reasons for the move, but the most pressing of these was the imminent discontinuation of FTP publishing on Blogger. The cut-off date wasn't for another month or so but given that the Risus Monkey's home is currently buried under three feet of snow, there didn't seem to be more opportune time to perform the move.

You might notice some changes to the layout. Over the course of the next few weeks, there may be more changes as I continue to noodle with the template. I will also be reviewing the site for broken links and such, but these may take a while to sort out.

Lair of the Frog King

One of the first Mythic Game Master Emulator adventures that I attempted was a follow-up to an example combat that I wrote for Silverlode 1908. Specifically, it involved the continuation of the story of J. Robert Hinkley and Sylvia Franco as they infiltrate "The Lair of the Frog King" (presumably to acquire some kind of artifact). Unfortunately, I misplaced the files and wasn't able to complete the adventure... until now.

I've been looking for a good story that I could use to play-test Tom Pigeon's proposed rule variants (detailed in this post at the Mythic Yahoo Group), as well as a good scenario to post here on the Risus Monkey. Instead of trying to reconstruct the missing files, I'm going to pick up the story in medias res, with Hinkley's rattled brain*  accounting for my imperfect memory of the story thus far.

* The result of a severe beating at the hands of the Frog Men as well as his Hook.

***

Character: J. Robert Hinkley

J. Robert Hinkley
Clichés: Compulsive Consumer of "Mail Order Miracles" (3), Nice Young Man Who Is Going Places (3), Unflappable Self-Improvement Success Story (3), Teen-Age Casanova (2).
Lucky Shots: [ ] [ ] [ ]
Hook: Short-attention span
Tools: Kayak (discarded). Cheap revolver. Big knife. A mail-order map of the Lair of the Frog King, as well as at small collection of unspecified gadgets.

Risus Conventions: Hinkley was created as a 10 die Risus character. Hooks, Tales, and Lucky Shots were employed. During play, I'll use the rules described on the Silverlode 1908 site, along with Critical Hits (doubling the opponent's roll means 1d6 dice of damage).

Mythic Conventions: Since we are picking up the story in medias res, I'll be seeding the Character List and Thread List ahead of time (some will reflect events known to have happened off-screen). The theme will be Action, so the Action events table from Mythic Variations will be used. The minimum Chaos/Action Factor is 5.

Additionally, I'll be play-testing Tom Pigeon's 2d10 Fate Chart as well as the "pressure-valve" method for determining how the Chaos/Action Factor changes. I don't think this blog is the proper forum for play-testing these rules specifically, so I'll move any discussion of these to the Mythic Yahoo Group instead. Again, please see this post for details on the new rules variants.

The Story Thus Far: The events of the sample combat on the Silverlode 1908 site are assumed to have happened exactly as described. After that, Hinkley and Sylvia were immediately attacked by a large party of Frog Men guards. Hinkley was knocked out and captured while Sylvia was going berserk as a werewolf. Hinkley was brought to the Hall of the Frog King himself, who was found to be a week leader dominated by the immortal occultist Heinrich Von Loaph and his cohort of mercenary archaeologists.

Off camera, Sylvia interrogated a captured From Man and discovered that his beloved (the Frog King's daughter) was being used as a hostage to dominate the King. The Frog Man promised to assist in rescuing Hinkley if Sylvia would help rescue the Frog Princess first.

Expected Adventures: The point of the adventure for Hinkley is to a) escape, b) find Sylvia, c) recover whatever artifact Sylvia is looking for, and d) return to the material world.

Character List
1. Sylvia Franco
2. Frog Men
3. Frog Romeo
4. From Princess
5. Frog King
6. Heinrich Von Loaph (Immortal Occultist)
7. Eva Schneider (Von Loaph's Matronly Henchwoman)
8. Mercenaries

Thread List
1. Escape
2. Find Sylvia
3. (Save the Frog King/Princess)
4. Acquire the "Artifact"
5. Return to the material world

Daily Monster: Skeletons

In what I hope will become a semi-regular feature, today I will take a classic D&D monster and give it the Risus treatment. Given that my attention is focused on my monster-themed Pirates vs. Vampire game, I'm going to start things off with the lowly but time-honored skeleton.

[SPOILER WARNING: Players of Pirates vs. Vampires may want to skip this post until our current adventure has been concluded]

Skeletal Remnant: Disembodied Skeletal Appendage (1). 

Notes: Not really a threat in combat, unless it attacks an already weakened character. Useful mainly for establishing a mood by making the players roll dice. Such minor threats can often be represented by a simple TN roll. Failure at the TN roll would still mean the monster was destroyed but that the character was slightly wounded or lost some valuable resource in the process (or simply looked clumsy while doing it).

Skeleton Minion: Mindless Skeletal Fighter (2).

Notes: Like all skeletons, they require bashing or at least swung weapons to be engaged properly. Characters attacking skeletons with stabbing or piercing weapons would operate at half-dice for lacking proper tools. Lacking minds, skeletons are immune to mental attacks, unless those "attacks" are dirty tricks or attempts to outsmart them in some way (in which case the skeletons are going to be a real pushovers).

Skeleton Warrior: Tenacious But Mindless Skeletal Fighter (3).

Notes: A good foe to throw individually at competent fighters in the party.

Skeletal Champion: Agile Skeletal Fighter (4), Elite Undead Swordsman (5)

Notes: A worthy foe that should be able to avoid the Risus death spiral for a while and serve as a very challenging opponent for either a single highly-skilled combatant or a team of slightly less skilled fighters.

Minotaur Skeleton: Hulking Skeletal Bruiser (7), Undead Minotaur (5).

Notes: A great example of a tough boss fight where the party members will almost certainly have to team up or employ special resources or tactics. An alternate approach would be to use Funky Dice: Hulking Skeletal Bruiser (4d10), Undead Minotaur (3d10).

Bone Golem: Well-preserved and Reinforced Skeleton Animated With Kabbalistic Magic (3), Semi-Intelligent Automaton (3).

Notes: A potential Sidekick for player character Kabbalists (inspired by a discussion we had during play last Sunday).

Gang of 3 Skeletons: Grunt Squad of Skeletal Minions (3).
Squad of 10 Skeletons: Grunt Squad of Skeletal Minions (4).
Horde of 30 Skeletons: Grunt Squad of Skeletal Minions (5).

Notes: Illustrates my *rough* rule-of-thumb on handling Grunt Squads: I generally add a die for every threefold increase in numbers. Usually, I don't even bother specifying the exact number and resort to generalities (handful, dozen, dozens) instead.

Pirates vs. Vampires: Alaric Anchorman

I've had a couple of insanely busy days and I have several lengthy posts that require a little more thought before uploading them. In the mean time, I present one of the players characters from my Sunday Pirates vs. Vampire game...

Alaric Anchorman
Description: Think Jean Luc Picard meets Jesse Ventura: bald and bold with a strong passion for military might and discipline. Unlike Piccard, Anchorman is ready to mix-it-up with his crew. He uses persuasion to achieve discipline, not the whip (i.e. not like Capt. Bligh of "Mutiny on the Bounty" fame)

Cliches: Swashbuckling Lieutenant of the Royal Navy (4); Extreme Conditions Survivalist (3); Entertainer Specializing in Song and Accordion (3).

Hook: Strict disciplinarian (may snap or operate at a penalty when discipline fails). He also has a sense of duty to his crew.

Languages: English and Spanish.

Lore: Versed heavily in Royal Navy doctrine. After the Royal Navy comes a strong dedication to God. Having seen superstition nearly turn to mutiny, he is very opposed to the occult.

Tools & Gear: Multiple rapiers, several dozen pistols, a dozen finely crafted rifles, several throwing knives, two waterproof cases for his prized weapons. He also has access to various ship-board equipment.

History: Alaric Anchorman was born in Antigua to a very large family that produced tobacco, ginger, and indigo. He sailed on several trips to England and became obsessed with the sea. His family found it tough to control him, so the Royal Navy was deemed a good place to introduce order & discipline into an unruly child. His uncle, Capt. Allan Anchorman, is a captain of a Royal Navy sloop and oversaw Alaric's upbringing. At 12 he was a midshipman. At 17, he passed his lieutenant's exam. He has been eagerly awaiting the chance to command his own vessel. He is adapt sailor and fighter. He runs a tight
ship, but is respected by his crews.

Weekend Update

Word of advice to GMs who are also parents: do not schedule back-to-back games following hours of wrangling attention-starved two and four-year-olds. This is especially true if you are sleep-deprived and don't have your adventures totally mapped out ahead of time. Young children can easily suck the creative juices right out of you and therefor make it very difficult to come up with interesting encounters on the fly.

I learned this yesterday while attempting to run my latest Gurps 4e Knights of the Astral Sea session followed by out inaugural of Pirates vs. Vampire online Risus game. It's not that Knights was a bad session. I think we had a good time and there were definitely some memorable moments (including a running joke about owlbears). But I had been running this game for about six months with the express purpose of getting to the events of this session. I just don't think I lived up to my own hype.

A brief digressions...

Knights of the Astral Sea is a steampunk/pulp/dimension-hopping game inspired by such varied sources as the recently re-imagined Battlestar Galactica and Joss Whedon's Firefly. On a alternate 1930s-era earth in which the Great Powers have discovered inter-dimensional travel via specially modified airships, an off-world enemy initiates a cataclysmic ritual that brings about the end of the world. The player characters, lead by a swashbuckling cheese tycoon, manage to escape the devastation and find themselves racing through the Multiverse in attempt to regroup with survivors of their Homeworld empire.

Yesterday, my players finally reached the rallying point for Homeworld's survivors. It was a key moment in the campaign and I can't help but think that I fumbled the ball a little bit. There just wasn't enough tension or conflict. Hopefully, it's not too late to make up for it. Next time we play, the players will be venturing into Faerie to find the Once And Future Queen (who should then unite the people, take the fight to their enemies, and build a glorious new society in exile).

Back to Risus...

Last night's Pirates vs. Vampires game was really about testing the waters. Two other players showed  up and we played with full video for the first time. Not much to say about the session as we were mainly trying to relearn how to do play-by-chat. We did have fun, though, and I am definitely looking forward to beginning the game in earnest next week.