Borders & Corners (B9, B10, C4)

Not much time for a regular post tonight, but I did have spare moment to whip up a few border geomorphs and one corner tile. These subterranean forest tiles were meant to border Geomorph #80 and future border tiles will be inspired by imagining them in the context of a map generated using the Monkey Map or Dave's Mapper.

"Gears to Ground" (Follow-Up)

I usually wait for my players to post session write-ups for our Buffy the Vampire Slayer RPG episodes, but I'm making an exception right now. Since Trey (of From the Sorcerer's Skull fame) provided the inspiration for last night's session (see his post here), I thought I'd try to share what I did with his little adventure seed.

First off, our series/campaign is in its sixth season and I really can't hope to explain the convoluted continuity in single blog post. Suffice to say, it is set in the Buffyverse just prior to the calling of Buffy as Slayer (which is due to happen very soon).  If you are at all interested, you can come up to speed on things by reading the old episode summaries on the Slaying Solomon website. I'm just going to focus on how last night's session related to Trey's idea.

Trey posted a little blurb on a certain aging adventuress names Etta Bly (seen here in her prime). Besides carrying the evocatively named wonderbuss (which definitely saw use in the session), she also possesses a piece of the soul machinery of Primus, the God-Engine and First Cause of the Modrons (from AD&D). I loved the idea that the Modrons would wage war on our reality just to reclaim the hearts-gear and that Etta would rather see the world burn than give it back. I thought it would be cool if my modern adventurers couldn't just take it from her to avert the crisis. Rather, they could take it from her but they would have significant motivation not to.

That's where our resident immortal comes in. One the characters is Michael, an ageless djinn bound to the Temple of Solomon and now aiding "Slayer Club" in their fight against the forces of darkness. He would have been alive during the roaring twenties and it was a simple matter to arrange a forgotten history between Michael and Etta, then a gun moll of the Hell Syndicate (another cool nugget from The City). This backstory was introduced in a flashback as Michael came across the prophetic piece of art that showed Slayer club battling hordes of polyhedral--shaped outsiders while protecting a woman wearing an unusual cocktail hat. Michael had memories of being captured and bound by a demonic mobster with Etta striking up a mutually satisfactory deal that lead to his escape and the mobsters destruction. He wistfully wondered about her fate, not having seen her in close to 70 years.

That's when the party was hit with a wave of "orderliness". The modrons had arrived and the first hint was that people all over town were reporting missing time and de-cluttered households. Venturing outside in the severely worsening weather (we use real weather reports from 1995) they soon encountered a scouting party of low-level spherical drones. It wasn't long before they encountered the full modron army, camped outside of Martense college and *currently* unable to penetrate the university's mystical defenses. Breaking through the lines, the party ran up a white flag and learned that the modrons would exact systematic vengeance on this reality should the humans fail to return the gear that they were seeking. Moreover, they had very explicit intelligence that it was in the possession of one Etta Bly, tenured professor of art history only now returning from an extended sabbatical in Europe.

Thus began the search for Etta. Yes, she was faculty and yes, it seemed that she hadn't aged since the twenties. She was eventually located in the basement of the college art museum, bags packed and trying to reactivate a dimensional portal associated with piece of sumerian sculpture. There was standoff, the wonderbuss was fired in vain (turning a priceless work of art into a flock of butterflies) and Etta was subdued. The party then learned that Etta owed her longevity to the hearts gear and would die if she gave it up. While the needs of the many certainly outweighed the needs of the few (or the one), Michael wasn't eager to sacrifice his old flame. Surely, there had to be another solution.

And there was. Remembering that Tori was now avatar of the God of War, complete with her own hell dimension full of demonic foot-soldiers, it was decided that Earth couldn't be held responsible if Etta was turned over fair-and-square, only to escape under her own power from the custody of the modrons. Working quickly to beat the modron's deadline, the party assembled the components of a makeshift dimensionsal portal that Etta could activate on her own, When the party surrendered her to the Tertian in charge, she promptly activated the portal and skipped out of this reality. A company of modrons were able to pursue before the gate closed, but they were easily repulsed by Tori's minions. At the close of the episode, the modrons departed to begin planning the invasion of Tori's hell world, while Etta set herself up as a visiting dignatary, pampered by confusded but very obediant demons.

Weekend Update: "Gears To The Ground"

I'm scrambling to prepare for my next episode of Slaying Solomon, which debuts in about two hours. I gotta say that running a continuity-rich game is a little rough when you can only manage to play every couple of months or so. Thank goodness for the episode summaries posted by my dedicated players. I find myself going through the old write-ups trying to remember exactly what I had in my mind for my seasonal story arc. No matter, it's early in the season and Trey at From the Sorcerer's Skull has inspired my "plot" (and I say that loosely) for tonight's game with this little post here (hint: tonight's episode is titled "Gears to the Ground"). 

Speaking of From the Sorcerer's Skull, Trey released a little preview of his upcoming Weird Adventures. It's mostly a sampling of his best blog work over the past year but the added "liner notes" and spiffy formatting make it worth the download (and it's free). I am so looking forward to when he finally publishes the full setting. I am already feeling a powerful urge to run a game set in the weird world of The City.

Fiasco: A Very Different Play Experience

I did want to say a few words about the other game that I played at last Saturday's NC Game Day. It was a little game called Fiasco that has been very popular among the convention-going gamers with whom I most often interact. After spending an amazing afternoon playing it, I can see why. It doesn't remotely resemble any kind of game that I have ever played before. I found that radical newness to both awesome and (I hesitate to say) a bit intimidating.

For the uninitiated, Fiasco is a story game that eschews the traditional trappings of most role playing games. There is no GM and the players collaborate to establish a set of interesting and most likely deeply flawed characters whose lives are about to go pear shaped. It's like a role-playing game about Coen brothers movies (e.e. Fargo, Burn After Reading, The Big Lebowski). It's a game about "powerful ambition and poor impulse control". It's a complete riot.

It was also hard for me. I say that with some trepidation as I've long thought of myself as a top-notch role-player. But I felt a bit like I was up on a high-wire without a net. Let me explain...

After the initial characters are generated with semi-random elements (a process that totally rules and could easily be ported to other systems), the game progressed in a series of two acts (and an epilogue of sorts). Each act consisted of two trips around the table with each player either setting up a scene or resolving it. There are some mechanics in there but you hardly notice them. Each player's turn feels like improv theater. You have complete freedom to invent characters and employ flashbacks, flash-forwards, or any other narrative gimmick. There are no rules for determining the outcome of a fight, conversation, or any other conflict. It's this freedom that had me so unsettled. I felt like I was straining to find something to hold on to.

As the game progressed, an insanely complicated story emerged and that served as a framework for how to act in a scene. But it wasn't always obvious. For every cool bit of dialog or plot twist that I contributed to the game, I also had moments where I felt like I struggled. Not too much, mind you. I didn't freeze or anything. But I did feel more spotlight pressure than I have ever felt before.

Before you jump to conclusion that my play experience was a bad one and that this is a negative review, I want to forcefully state that it is not. Fiasco took me out of my comfort zone and that is not necessarily a bad thing. I had a great time and I definitely look forward to playing it again soon. I just need a little more work at extemporizing those scenes and dialog.

NOTE: I'd try posting a play report of the actual game but I'm not sure I could do it justice. I played the grown-up "popular kid" in a small town in Kansas who sold pot and smuggled illegal aliens. He had a twin brother that wanted to kill him, most likely because he stole his high-school sweetheart. Half-way through the story, he panicked and killed an "S.B.I." agent and had to call in a mafia cleaner - the cleaner being *only* character that definitely emerged from the story in better shape than he started.

Geomorph #104

It's been a while since my last full-sized geomorph. But after a flurry of long posts and some exhausting travel, I had an urge to do some mapping. I combed my old D&D library and found the following inspirational image from the Monster Manual II (the only map-worthy inspirational image from the Monster Manual II):

In the resulting tile, the aboleth would be beached just south of the central mass of rock. A dark subterranean river enters from the west, flows north around that mass of rock, and exits back around in the south-east (or vice-versa).  I added a second beach on the north side of the rock and numerous caverns open up to the waters.

Moon Soldiers Must Die! AP (Part Deux)

As it was the last time I ran this scenario, I prepared with a rough Adventure Funnel and Scene Map. I knew that I'd start with the party in the lounge of the Venusian Queen; probably warm up with a non-lethal combat or Target Number roll; and then hit them with an invasion of Moon Soldiers. From there, it was totally up to the party, though things were likely to progress down one of about a half-dozen likely paths. I had a final scene in mind, but I wouldn't push too hard to get there.

For my last group, things went almost entirely as I planned. The party fled the wreckage of the Venusian Queen, ran a gauntlet of Moon Soldier space cruisers, crashed into the jungles of Venus, and made a dangerous journey to the secret base of the Moon Soldiers for the final confrontation. That the party stuck so closely to my expectations was largely due to my familiarity with the players.

Image captured from Dr. Grordbort's Infallible Aether Oscillators Promotional Video

I was pleased and amused at how differently things played out this time around. We began with the obligatory lounge scene and I used a few "harmless" encounters (if you call picking a fight with a squad of colonial space marines harmless) to ease the group into Risus. We also established some of the character's personalities and motivations. Sir Pennington turned out to be all talk (and have a glass jaw) while his trusty "manservant" (real gender unknown) managed most of the real work. As an assassin-for-hire, Fanny Fairbottom invented a mission to murder the CEO of Venus Venus, one of the premier casinos in the highlands of Vespurgia. Though I didn't know it at the time, this would wind up the goal for the whole session and determine our final scene (see below).

Though I gave everybody a chance to spot the danger, nobody noticed the armada of Moon Soldier warships emerge from behind an asteroid until their landing boats deposited raiders. With the klaxuns blaring, everybody tried to prepare for the fight while hoards of screaming dilettantes scattered for cover. When the Moon Soldiers entered the room, they proceeded to vaporize the squad of colonial marines, leaving it up to the party to defend the civilians. Mikov the Robot led off with a decommissioned chain gun [BANG... click... click... click... BANG... BANG... click... BANG]. Rod Zoom waded in with his fists, even though he had a perfectly good "disevaporator" at hand. "Jeeves" used my house rule for declaring facts to invent a weakness for the Moon Soldiers: they could not breath the  atmosphere of the ship and were vulnerable if their breathing tubes were cut.

When the party defeated the Moon Soldiers, they made their way to the bridge only to find it empty of crew. With the artificial gravity failing and the ship listing towards Venus, they could see countless Moon Soldier shuttles ferrying prisoners back to the mother ships. Pennington, of course, tried to call for help. His exchange of pleasantries with the ground-side authorities was a hoot, especially since they were under orbital bombardment and could use reinforcements themselves. But the party managed to convince the colony to open up with its anti-orbital guns, if only they could lead the Moon Soldier ships to the other side of the planet where they could be targeted.

Image captured from Dr. Grordbort's Infallible Aether Oscillators Promotional Video

The party's plan was to fly through the outer edge of the atmosphere in attempt to stay one step ahead of the Moon Soldiers. It was exciting chase (executed with Risus combat rules), but the party was overmatched. Despite some really cool tactics, they were forced to abandoned ship. As a parting gesture, they did manage to take out a Moon Soldier cruiser when they rigged to Venusian Queen to self-destruct.

From there, it was a surprisingly easy trip to the Las Venus. Too bad the city was under direct assault by waves of Moon Soldier raiders. The party managed to land without notice, commandeered a spaceport trolley, and drove to the ruins of the famous Strip. The entire post-apocalyptic scene was lit by the burning pyramid of the Venus Sands casino. The Venus Venus was on the other end of the Strip.

Image captured from Dr. Grordbort's Infallible Aether Oscillators Promotional Video

Moving up the Strip, the party encountered a Moon Soldier land fortress and decided to upgrade their ride. Rod Zoom led an assault on the gun turret while Fanny took a direct hit with a Moon Soldier ray gun. Fortunately for her, she was behind phlogiston-resistant glass of the spaceport trolley and "only" lost her her outer garments. Pennington achieved surprise by finding a belly hatch. As it turned out, the vehicle was transporting raw Moon Soldier troops and Pennigton dazzled them with his authority just long enough for Mikov to gas them with some experimental chemical weapons. 

With the captured land fortress, the party met with no more resistance. The drove up the Strip and raced into the remains of the Venus Venus. Inside, Fanny spotted her target, tied up by a group of indigenous Venusians who were facing down another group of angry Moon Soldiers. Into this tense situation, the rest the party charged in guns-a-blazin'. Fanny quietly fulfilled her commission from the safety of cover while the rest of the party slaughtered Moon Soldiers, Venusian partisans, and the occasional screaming human with great enthusiasm. When the dust settled and the threat of disintegrations abated, "Jeeves" would later discover that the Venusians had actually been rescuing human civilians from the Moon Soldiers. She kept this to herself, thereby allowing her human masters the illusion of a job well done.

A Bloody Good Romp (Moon Soldiers AP Part I)

I am now safely back in the Old Dominion after an excellent weekend spent visiting friends and gaming with more friends in North Carolina. This is the second time that I've run a Risus game at an NC Game Day and I'd like to think that that it lived up to all my expectations. I had a brief recurrence of that creeping crud that almost derailed last week's Knights of the Astral Sea game, so I was very nervous that I'd have to bail out. Crossing my fingers, I bet the farm that I'd recover and sure enough, come Saturday morning I was at almost full gaming strength.

Moon Soldiers Must Die! was set for a 9:00 launch and Professor Pope and myself only just managed to arrive on time [note to self: build slack into schedule when bringing the family along to gaming conventions]. Suitably pumped with "oh shit" adrenaline, I welcome the remaining players and explained the premise of the game. The players would create characters who were passengers or crew aboard the luxury space liner Venusian Queen, en route to the fabulous (and very moist) pleasure port of Las Venus. I had pre-gens handy (characters generated the last time I ran this scenario), but I explained that since were were using Risus, the players should be able to create characters in mere minutes. This was especially true since I was employing "just-in-time" character generation and only required that a given character have one core cliche defined at the start of the game.

These were the characters as I remember them:

Sir James Pennington IV (played by Professor Pope)
Cliches: Self-Absorbed and Very Well-dressed Noble (4); Sportsman (4); "Haven't We Met Before" (2).
Tools: Clothes for any occasion, a variety of sporting equipment and hunting weapons.
Hook: Pampered/sheltered

"Jeeves" (real name unpronounceable by humans) 

Cliches: Sir Pennington's Hyper-competent Alien Manservant (4); "Always Prepared" (3); Gadgeteer (2).
Sidekick: Sentient Personal Information Manager and Guidebook (3).

Tools: See Sir Pennington above.

Fanny Fairweather 

Cliches: Card Sharp  and Sharp Card Thrower (4); Bimbo Assassin (3); Gambler (1).

Tools: Deck of razor sharp cards, hold-out ray gun, evening wear, phlogiston-resistant lingerie.

Hook: Clumsy at inopportune times

Rod Zoom Cliches: Two-fisted Blowhard (4), Planetary Explorer (3), Rocketship Pilot (2).
Sidekick: M'gawa the Martian Manservant (3).

Tools: His trusty "disevaporator" rifle, enormous chin.

Mikov the Robot (with an obvious nod to Bender)

Cliches: Decommissioned Warmachine (4), Drunkest Spacer in the Solar System (3), Petty Thief (2), Off-key Folksinger (1).

Tools: An assortment of obsolete and decommissioned weaponry; space for a lot of booze; grappling hook.

Sir Pennington enjoys a bit of sport hunting while packing for his return voyage to Earth

I'll post some highlights from the session tomorrow (along with thoughts about our afternoon Fiasco game).

It's Gigantic!

So I go away for the weekend and I come back to find this image making its way around the blogs that I frequent:

Glen Jupp went ahead and assembled a table full of geomorphs from Dyson, Stonewerks, myself, and others. High-res images are over on his Flickr page. A megadungeon like that could support a small village of greedy adventurers for years.

Postcard from Venus

I'm about to head down to North Carolina to run Moon Soldiers Must Die! for the January Game Day. The Risus Monkey will return to regular posting on Sunday night or (more likely) Monday. Have a great weekend!

Out Of The Frying Pan And Into The Fire

The Hobbit re-read seems to have stalled out a bit and I'm still hoping Professor Pope will take up this chapter. In the mean-time, I'm going to soldier on with some thoughts of my own. Akratic Wizardry just posted news of a new role-playing game set in Middle Earth, I'm still reading The Hobbit to my boys, and last night I re-watched The Two Towers. Yeah, I'm on bit of a Tolkien kick.

Out Of The Frying Pan And Into The Fire
This chapter is all about bad situations getting worse. Bilbo and dwarves escape from the perils of Goblin Town and wind up perched in burning trees hounded by vicious wargs. Some of the details are noteworthy (which I'll comment on below) but it's the core dramatic situation that most interests me as a game master. Dramatically ratcheting up the danger level in an RPG scenario is something that I must strive to do more often. A long slog through a fairly static encounter is a chore while layering on additional and unexpected difficulties maintains a heightened state of tension in the players. It also makes it easier to fine tune a threat to match a party. Starting with a fairly manageable threat, additional dangers can be added incrementally with less risk of actually overwhelming the party. But because the players don't know when you are going to stop, there is fear that you will overwhelm them. 
 
This is one of those things like remembering to name all my NPCs and to use all five senses to describe a scene. I just need to write it on Post-it note and stick it on my GM screen.

Other Thoughts

• Why did Gandalf really bring Bilbo? I assume of course that he has some kind of a gift for foresight, even if it is only a vague one. But his prescience is certain enough to trust that a sedentary hobbit gentleman can help a bunch of mostly unarmed and useless dwarves drive a dragon out of the Lonely Mountain.
• This chapter contains the first real hint of Bilbo's dishonesty. When presented with the first opportunity to tale the tale of his encounter with Gollum, he omits any mention of the ring. Is it an effect of the ring itself? Divorced from the Lord of the Rings context, it think it reveals a relatively minor character flaw in Bilbo. But in the context of the Lord of the Rings , I think it shows how the ring is starting to corrupt, if ever so slightly. And the fact that he is only engaging in these little white lies paradoxically points to an inner strength that is unique to Bilbo (or perhaps to hobbits in general). 
• I didn't remember the rock-slide from previous reading. Don't underestimate the usefulness of natural hazards in adventures.
• Having just watched The Two Towers, I'm not altogether hopeful on what the wargs will look like in the Hobbit movie. Jackson's wargs looked more like hyenas than wolves.
• There are mentions of human settlements, yet none are encountered. The lands east of the Misty Mountains seem very empty.
• Gandalf's lighting of pine cones with multicolored fire is a very cool spell! I especially like how it sticks to the wargs like napalm.
• The Eagles introduce a theme that comes up again and again in The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings. By that I mean "lords" of mundane animals. In the next chapter we'll see talking versions of many animals serving Beorn and later in the book there is a noble thrush that delivers news of Smaug's weakness to the men of Esgaroth.
• Interesting little racial quirk: "Dwarves have never taken to matches yet."

“Witness the triumph of science over magic!” (KotAS #11)

As I mentioned, we had pretty good session of Gurps Knights of the Astral Sea on Saturday night. As usual, James Di Benedetto has provided a session write-up.

9 January 1939

Capt. Alastair Hawkesworth

HMAS Richard Lemon Lander

My Dearest Alastair,

It has been nearly seven months, but, finally, the Queen has been restored to her throne. You will doubtless have heard the tales of the battle that ended the reign of the usurper Cunningham, but you have not, I am sure, had a first-hand account of these events, and so I shall provide one to you.

You will recall that, after the Queen’s radio broadcast, our group sped towards Whitehall aboard the Royal Fortune, surrounded by the fierce storm that I had produced through the use of the ship’s Tesla coils and some added equipment of my own invention.

Upon our arrival high over the usurper’s seat, the Queen inquired as to our plan. I am not as savvy in military tactics as you, Alastair, so it will not surprise you that my plan was somewhat unsophisticated. My thought was to utilize the storm we had created, hurling lightning and Tesla energy down upon our foes to disorient, and possibly destroy as many of the usurper’s defenders as possible, and then to land our forces, fight our way past any surviving defenders, and create the opportunity for the Queen to behead the usurper with Excalibur. As I said, unsophisticated.

The first part of the plan went quite well; we rained destruction upon the defenders below, and also suppressed any anti-aircraft fire from them. Our mages, Jude and Colonel Rasmussen, assisted in this operation, and Jude assisted as well in using his “scrying” talent to find the precise location of the usurper. But the storm we had created made control of the airship difficult, and it came down in a barely controlled manner. However, luck was with us, and we came down in exactly the spot we needed to be, a courtyard just outside the Great Hall where resided Cunningham, along with his advisor, the traitorous Mr. Kelly of the Arcane Society.

During our descent and bombardment of the enemy, we were joined by two familiar faces. Lord Tybalt returned to us from Faerie, where he had been looking after my domain, and he arrived in the arms of one Mr. Pickton, who is the highest-ranking Singe Avion of the Autumn Court’s Armee de l’Air; in other words, a flying monkey. Mr. Pickton had unfortunate news from the Autumn Court; apparently my rule had been overthrown in my absence. I shall have hard questions for Lord Tybalt in the days to come concerning this matter. For his part, Mr. Pickton was overjoyed to see his monarch, and displayed the appropriate deference and manners that I worked to instill in him and his simian fellows, and I was much pleased for it.

As quickly as Mr. Pickton and Lord Tybalt had arrived, they departed to find their own way into the Great Hall. The rest of our group emerged from the airship and immediately found ourselves in battle. We all used our individual talents to best advantage. Jude called up fire to dispel a swarm of vile albino cockroaches that appeared to attack us. Colonel Rasmussen used his magical wand to produce the mystical equivalent of grapeshot to fell our enemies. Marcus fought superior numbers of enemy swordsmen with his blade. Elspeth calmly gunned down many foes. And I used my weapon to annihilate several threatening enemy soldiers.

We quickly reached the door to the Great Hall. The door itself seemed to be covered with both dangerous slime and demonic energy, whereupon the Queen cut through it with Excalibur, and into the Hall we went.

There we were confronted with a squad of riflemen, another squad of pikemen, a pack of hellhounds, the usurper himself, and next to him his puppetmaster, Mr. Kelly, along with a shadowy something lurking in the darkest corner of the Hall.

I took careful aim directly at Mr. Kelly with my weapon, and set it to Toten und zerstoren (“Kill and destroy”), in the hope that slaying the puppetmaster might free the usurper from his evil grasp and end the battle at a stroke. I cried out as I fired, “Witness the triumph of science over magic!” and the beam hit Mr. Kelly full-on, and he exploded into nothingness, completely destroyed.

But that did not, as I had hoped, end the battle. The usurper fought on, as did his troops, and we took up arms against them to clear the way for the Queen to kill him directly. As outside, all of my companions fought bravely, and well beyond the call of duty. Marcus slew many enemies, while Colonel Rasmussen and Elspeth felled more at a distance. Lord Tybalt took mental control of individual enemies, forcing them to fight against their fellows, and Mr. Pickton fought as a simian possessed, wounding and slaying several enemies in the name of his sovereign, while Jude busied himself with confronting the shadowy thing – which revealed itself to be a 50 foot tall demon.

Jude attempted to banish the creature, but his effort failed; as he explained later, his banishment would have worked on a demonic spirit, but we were faced here with a physical demon. At that moment, I made a fateful decision. Although we had seen how science overcomes magic with the destruction of Mr. Kelly, I knew that magic, and the symbolism of magic, does have real power. It occurred to me that Jude must be the one to slay this demon, and that my weapon might have its power magnified in his hands, in this particular instance. So I set it to the highest setting, Toten und zerstoren allenmann vollends "(Kill and destroy everybody completely”) and handed it to Jude. He fired, and to my shock – as I had never tested the weapon on that setting, and feared for the results – it worked, blasting the demon, apparently, back to hell.

Unfortunately, the blast had a side effect of attracting the voracious albino insects, which swarmed over Jude and injured him nearly to the point of death. It was only Colonel Rasmussen’s quick action that preserved Jude’s life, and kept the blood of another companion off my hands. The Colonel transformed Jude into air, thus rendering him safe from the insects until help could be brought to him. I then took back the weapon, which was perhaps unwise as it was covered in insects, which then proceeded to bite and attack me. I was able to fire one more time, destroying a hellhound, before I fell to the ground overcome by my wounds.

Mr. Pickton came to my aid, providing his best effort at medical assistance, which was not as helpful as it might have been (battlefield medicine is an area that is sadly lacking in the training program for my Singes Avion), and I observed the rest of the battle in a barely conscious state. The queen, with the assistance of Marcus, Elspeth and Colonel Rasmussen, finally killed the usurper; it was Marcus who struck the killing blow. But even that was not the end; the usurper had been taken over in some way by a demon or other nether creature, and the Queen thrust Excalibur into the spirit of that creature as it escaped the usurper’s body. And then it was over.

We have spent the past few days recovering from our wounds, assisting in the cleanup of the Great Hall, and working with the Queen as she goes about the task of restoring sanity and decency to the throne. We also remembered our fallen comrade, Lord Crabbe; I, for one, shall never forget him.

And now we await our next quest; there are several matters that must be attended to. Colonel Rasmussen seeks his original body, so that he may return to it, and the little girl whose spirit now resides in it may be returned to her own proper body. This will be a difficult task, as neither we nor the Colonel know the location of his original homeworld. There is also the problem of the Spanish Empire; consumed as we were by this now-ended civil war, we cannot forget that we are still at war with a larger and far deadlier enemy who, doubtless, still seeks our annihilation. And there is, if I may speak selfishly, the matter of the Autumn Court and my throne; I had never imagined myself to be a Queen, but, having been one, I do not wish to relinquish the role if it can be helped.

But all these tasks, and any others that may present themselves, can wait at least a short while, so that we may take time to recover and to at least briefly enjoy our accomplishments and our victory. In that spirit, I look forward with much excitement to our reunion; I have much to tell you, and I imagine you have much to tell me, that cannot be communicated in writing, but only in person.

Until that happy time, I remain your most devoted and grateful friend,

Genevieve Chantal Therese de Lisieux Lamballe

Forgotten Songs: Crunch for Completeness

Posting may be light this week as I prepare for this weekend's NC Game Day. Today's post is another file from the archives that might interest of handful of readers. In this case, it's the D&D 3e stat block for Katja as of her last diary entry (or thereabouts). By the end of Professor Pope's campaign, she eventually attained 8th level.

***

Anna-Katarina von Randstein ("Katja")

Cleric of the Silver Huntress: Female human Rgr2, Clr4; CR 6; Medium-size humanoid; HD 6d8+6; hp 38; Init +3[+3dex]; Spd 30 ft.; AC 16 [+3dex +3studded leather]; Atk +5 melee [+5] or +8 ranged [+5+3dex +1light crossbow +1point blank]; SA turn undead [9/day]; SQ favored enemy: animals [+1], spontaneous casting (cure spells); AL NG; SV Fort +8 [+7+1con], Ref +4 [+1+3dex], Will +7 [+4+3wis]; Str 10 [+0], Dex 16 [+3], Con 12 [+1], Int 14 [+2], Wis 16 [+3], Cha 14 [+2].

Skills: Animal Empathy +7 [5+2cha], Bluff +2 [0+2cha], Climb +1 [1], Concentration +2 [1+1con], Diplomacy +7[3+2cc+2cha], Handle Animal +9 [5+2cha+2syn], Heal +6 [3+3wis], Intuit Direction +4 [1+3wis], Knowledge: Nature +3[1+2int], Knowledge: Religion +4 [1+1cc+2int], Listen +8 [5+3wis], Move Silently +7 [2+2cc+3dex], Ride +13[5+3cc+3dex+2syn], Spellcraft +3 [1+2int], Spot +7 [4+3wis], Swim +1 [1], Wilderness Lore +11 [8+3wis].

Feats: Extra Turning, Mounted Combat, Point Blank Shot, Precise Shot, Track, Weapon Focus: Light Crossbow.

Languages: Hessian, Pembroke, Tempian, Cimbrian.

Cleric Spells per Day: (5/4/3). Base DC = 13+spell level. Deity: Silver Huntress. Domains: The Moon (+2 effective level full moon, -1 new moon), The Hunt (Wilderness Lore class skill).

Possessions: Light warhorse, masterwork studded leather armor, masterwork shortspear [d8 (x2 if set against a charge), 20/x3, P], Light Crossbow of Distance +1[d8+1+1point blank; 19-20/x2; P; 160ft; reload move-equivalent action], dagger [d4+1point blank, 19-20/x2, P], silver holy symbol, personal effects. Wolf Mask, Potion: Swimming, Scroll: Spike Stones, Scroll: Remove Paralysis, Scroll: Protection from Elements (Cold), 2 blocks of Incense of Meditation, Quall's Feather Token: Tree.

Drachen, Katja's Light Warhorse: CR 1; Large animal (horse); HD 3d8+9; hp 22; Init +1 [+1dex]; Spd 60 ft.; AC 14 [+4armor-1size+1dex]; Atk +4 melee (2 hooves) [+2-1size+3str, d4+3], -1 melee (bite) [-3-1size+3str, d3+1]; SQ Scent; AL N; SV Fort +6 [+3+3con], Ref +4 [+3+1dex], Will +2 [+1+1wis]; Str 16 [+3], Dex 13 [+1], Con 17 [+3], Int 2 [-4], Wis 13 [+1], Cha 6 [-2].

Skills: Listen +7 [6+1wis], Spot +7 [6+1wis].

Weekend Update & More Border Tiles (B7,B8,C3)

It's been a rough weekend. The entire family came down with the creeping crud and it was a struggle to do anything but camp out in front of the TV with the kids. I did manage to rally for a game of Knights of the Astral Sea on Saturday night but I would have totally bailed if we were not just coming off a long Christmas break. The session was an important one as the characters were all set to confront the demonic usurper on the Elizebethan colony world. Things went fairly well, all things considered, and the player who lost a character in the previous session introduced a totally awesome flying monkey backup character this time around.

Anyway, I did manage to turn out a few more border tiles for Dave Millar's awesome mapper. All three tiles have incomplete connectivity.

Forgotten Songs: Inspiration for Katja

It's hard to believe that for all my posts detailing the adventures of Anna-Katarina von Randstein, ("Katja"), I have not yet posted a single image of what she looked like. I find this kind of amusing since there are now dozens of people who visualize her in ways that would no doubt surprise the hell out of me. But for completeness, I thought and I'd go ahead and reveal how I have always seen her (just replace the musket with a crossbow):

The above images are of Émilie Dequenne in the role of Marianne de Morangias from Brotherhood of the Wolf. I found the film's final act to be maddening but I fell in love with its amazing visual style. And having a sense that a vaguely 18th/17th century culture was possible in a distant Germanic region of Professor Pope's world, the rest of her character developed as I rationalized a flight from her homeland to the campaign starting point.

Borders #5, #6 & Corner #2

Here are three more mini-tiles for David Millar's awesome mapper. The first border is divided in two by a gaping pit. A rubble-blocked passage and secondary chamber add additional color. I imagine the second border tile as a kind of interface between caves and hewn passages. Finally, the new corner tile contains a descending passage that crosses over itself.

NC Game Day: Moon Soldiers Must Die!

Do YOU Have What It Takes to
BATTLE The MOON SOLDIER MENACE?

ACT NOW!

Stop by your North Carolina Game Day recruiting center (EN World) and sign up for a game of Risus: Moon Soldiers Must Die!  Registration for the January 22 event begins at 20:00 EST this very evening! 

***

To clarify, the event is being held at the NCSU Student Center in Raleigh. Gaming starts that morning at 9:00. There will be a 9-1 session and a 2-6 session, leaving an hour in between for lunch. Moon Soldiers Must Die! is scheduled for the AM slot and Risus Monkey will be playing in the Fiasco game in the afternoon. 

Moon Solders Must Die! was previously tested for my local group here.

Last Entry (Forgotten Song #27)

And now we reach the end of Katja's diary entries for Professor Pope's Forgotten Songs campaign. This was not the conclusion of the game, but for uncertain reasons I stopped writing logs for the 17+ remaining sessions. I have rough notes for many of them, but very little makes sense to me at this point. And shortly after this session, I moved two hours away from the group and almost certainly missed sessions with greater frequency. Perhaps Professor Pope will chime in once he gets to this point in his commentary track?

July 31st, 2000 (First Quarter)
I confess that I am not in the mood for writing in my journal. I am not in a bad mood at all. I'm actually in a fine mood. We have rescued Emily and can now resume our quest to find the Karshorn Scepter tomorrow morning. No, I am far too excited to write. It's a beautiful night and I just want to walk around outside and admire the light of the moon.

But if I get out of the habit of writing in my journal then I fear I won't easily pick it back up again.*

When last I wrote, we were all feeling rather battered from our fight with the flesh construct. Abagail suggested that we follow the monster's tracks... after some amount of healing of course. Thinking that it might lead us to the source of Abatite, we agreed. Downstairs, we discovered that the trail was ridiculously easy to follow as the monster had smashed nearly every door in its path.

While following this path of destruction, we happened across several rooms that contained interesting (and often magical) items. One such item was a magical wolf's mask** that radiated dark divine energy. I was immediately concerned and volunteered to guard the item until we best understood its nature. I would have to commune with my Goddess to better divine what I should do with it.

Another interesting feature of the rooms that we passed was that they were furnished with geographical themes, almost like rooms in a museum. One room featured artifacts from Ionia. Another featured items from my native Hess. But we chose not to linger and continued following the trail of the golem. And we were indeed fortunate that the golem sought us out last night, for it triggered a series of potential lethal traps which we no longer had to avoid.

Finally, we arrived at the creature's lair. It was a laboratory of sort and it was completely smashed and ruined. Bix found a small potion in the ruins and through a door we found a natural cavern. We ventured forth cautiously. Then Abagail thought she heard something move and Sunny shouted, "back to the room!"

The boulders in the cavern were moving to attack us!

Sunny wasted no time and rushed to attack one them, but her sword only rang in her arm as she struck it. At the same time I quickly turned and shot one that was approaching from behind. The bolt sank into the creature with a satisfying "crunch" and I saw blood splatter from its wound. After that, everything became a whirl of confusion.

A boulder started rolling toward me and I dove out of the way. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Abagail fall to the ground. Orion let loose a stream of magical missiles and seemed to seriously damage one of the creatures. And somewhere in the room, I heard Sunny shout, "Bix, shouldn't you be singing right about now?" But Bix was busy with a spell of his own... his "silent sound" spell proved to quite effective on the rocky horrors.

But there were so many of them! Both Orion and Bix were hit. Orion, the more practiced wizard, managed to get his spell off anyway while Bix screamed in agony, loosing his spell. And out of nowhere, a boulder ran into me, knocking me to the ground. I felt something biting me and I was in terrible pain. All I could do was curl into a little ball and hope my friends would rescue me. Then something cool and slick washed all over me. I thought it was my blood, but it was one of Bix's "grease" spells. It was enough to help my companions dislodge the rock monster and was finally able to stand.

But then I was knocked over yet again. Before it could resume biting me, it was pushed off with another spell. I think it must have been Orion's lightning bolt because their was a loud crash and a flash of light. I shook my head to clear my senses, loaded my crossbow, and shot the boulder that had just rolled on top of Bix.

I looked around. The battle was won but we were all terribly wounded again. I rushed to Bix's side and called on the Silver Huntress to stabilize his wounds. Then I had to tend to Orion after he collapsed from blood loss. All of us would need healing and I had few spells left. So we exited the dungeon and decided to rest and recuperate.

It rained that night so we didn't sleep as well as we would have liked. But when dawn came, Abagail made an excellent hot breakfast and we all felt a little better. Orion and Bix thought we were in no condition to proceed as most of us were still wounded and I had used all my healing spells last night. But every day that we waited meant another day that Emily wound be held in bondage. We had to make another excursion into the Explorer's Guild complex, despite our wounds.

So down we went. We searched more rooms and found some more treasure, including an as-yet unidentified magic sash, an icon of Pelor, and a magical axe head.

Our search finally led to a room decorated in Hajazian fashion. Sunny found a secret door to a smaller room with jars, baziers, and urns. Ever the curious one, Orion disturbed one of the urns and began to smoke furiously.

"Orion!" I said. "Don't touch that!"

But it was too late. A huge, red-skinned demon creature was forming in the room. I loaded my crossbow and retreated to the back of the room. But Orion stood his ground.

"Who has summoned Efram al-Rizar?" the creature boomed.

"Me," said Orion in a small voice.

We were terrified but it seemed that this creature was offering Orion either a wish or one year of service in reward for setting it free. As I would have done, Orion wished, "for the pseudodragon, Emily (or dragon-kin as they liked to be called), to be returned to us unharmed, now."

The creature disappeared and the rest of us held our breaths. Then the demon reappeared and announced, "the dragon-kin is on her way!". He pointed to the northern part of the room.

Sure enough, the wizard Darren (looking very confused) and Emily (still in a cage) appeared where the demon was pointing. Sunny quickly commanded him to stand down, as he was outnumbered and that we possessed powerful magic. He attempted a spell, but it failed. Orion followed up with a spell of his own, but it also failed. Bix and I moved to attack but Abagail repeated Sunny's command. This time time Darren agreed. We blindfolded him and lead him outside and away from our camp. As we led him out, Sunny asked him about why he attacked us. He noted that the price on my head was several hundred gold pieces. The thought that my brother was willing to pay such a some for my return made me sick inside. We would be facing bounty hunter's for some time, I feared.

At Sunny's and my request, we abandoned the search for the abatite. We had rescued Emily and if Brillingmar wanted abatatite, he would find the Explorer's Club complex divested of its dangers.

We returned to Brillingmar's this afternoon. What a welcome relief it was to enjoy his hospitality again. We were able to wash and rest in comfortable beds. We also agreed that Emily's parents needed to know that she was safe. Since we couldn't journey to Dave & Marsha's in person, I called on the Silver Huntress to guide an owl with a message. I have faith the bird will find its way.


* Truer words were never spoken. This may be the most mundane reason for the discontinuation of her diary.

** I have a strong suspicion that this item was going to play an important role in Katja's future, had the campaign continued.

Riddles In The Dark

Professor Pope is taking the next phase of The Hobbit re-read and his thoughts on "Riddles in the Dark" are already up. Without rehashing his own observations (or Zak's at Playing D&D With Porn Stars), I thought I'd post some thoughts of my own.

Goblin Town: The Original Megadungeon
I'm not as well-read in pre-Tolkien fantasy as some in this corner of the blogosphere so I can't speak for earlier works by other authors. But as far as I know, The Hobbit (and this chapter in particular) contain the first occurrences of that classic D&D trope: megadungeons! This passage is particularly striking:

There are strange things living in the pools and lakes in the hearts of mountains: fish whose fathers swam in, goodness only knows how many years ago, and never swam out again, while their eyes grew bigger and bigger and bigger from trying to see in the blackness; also there are other things more slimy than fish. Even in the tunnels and caves the goblins have made for themselves there are other things living unbeknown to them that have sneaked in from outside to lie up in the dark. Some of the caves, too, go back in their beginnings to ages before the goblins, who only widened them and joined them up with passages, and the original owners are still there in odd corners, slinking and nosing about.

If that is not a perfect summary of the rationale behind Gygaxian megadungeons then I don't know what is. This subterranean ecology and layering of previous generations of development is captured nicely in Tony Dowler's How to Host a Dungeon. And the original MERP supplement Goblin-Gate and Eagle's Eyrie contains a wealth of maps speculating on the sprawling nature of this great megadungeon.

Borders #3, #4 & Corner #1

To add to David Millar's pool of border and corner tiles for his awesome mapper, here are three more. All of them were designed with the "help" of my boys. The first corner also contains a dungeon entrance (the cave in the north).

Geomorph #103

For today's geomorph, we return one last time to the original Fiend Folio. It's a classic shot of a wizard and fighter meeting a dragon in its lair.

If you look closely, you can see some weirdness with the angle of the stairs at the back of the scene. I tried to replicate that in the tile with an angled staircase. Once I started drawing the map, I decided that the dragon's lair might have been in a former temple (the slightly raised opening in the back behind the column led me to put a shrine/altar in the corner).

BORDER UPDATE: The border tiles that I posted on Tuesday have been updated with darker walls. More borders and corners will be coming shortly.

Weird Science (Forgotten Songs #25, #26)

The next installment of Katja's diary documents the start of a very exciting dungeon crawl. Professor Pope did an excellent job introducing weird science into a campaign that had been exclusively medieval. The Frankenstein thing fit very much with Katja's background as I had always imagined her originating from lands with more of a 16th/17th century culture.

July 29th, 2000 (Waxing Crescent)
Everyone seems slow to get up this morning. We had quite a fight with that flesh golem/not-zombie thing last night and most of us are pretty battered and bruised. But we have to press on. Every minute that goes by is another minute where Emily suffers at the hands of an evil sorcerer. She must be so frightened... I can't imagine what she's going through.

As I write this, we are camped behind the ruins of the old Explorer's Society mansion. Orion is stubbornly studying his damaged spellbooks, despite his wounds. Bix and Sunny are sleeping. Only Abigail seems unwounded, and she looks upset at how things went down last night. I can't tell if she's frustrated that we didn't listen to her orders or feeling guilty for not being wounded like the rest of us.

Yes, I feel like I've been trampled by a horse. I think I have some broken ribs and I've got two huge purple and green bruises where the creature struck me. Today's going to be especially hard since I've used most of the spells that I was granted during last night's prayers. If we run into more trouble (which is depressingly likely) then we will have to rely on Bix's meager healing abilities and the whacking wand.

I keeping thinking about that creature and the strange machinery down below the house. What were those explorers up to?


We arrived here yesterday morning after a little more than a day's ride from Brillingmar's. The ride out was very pleasant, though I was (am) still disturbed by my vision. How was I to live up to my calling? I have no one to guide me on this path and my companions care little for the goddess I serve? Things used to be so clear. Or did they? It's hard to believe that I've only been adventuring with my current companions for a little over two months. My nights of make believe rituals in Hess seem so distant...

...but back to the ruins. We searched the upper level for several hours, hoping to gain clues before our inevitable decent below. Bix and Abigail discovered some interesting vines in the pool in front of the house. Sunny, Orion, and I chose to explore the stables (the only structure that was still mostly intact). We found an overturned carriage and Sunny noticed something move from within the darkness of the building. "Get back," she shouted. But we were attacked by a giant badger before we could really prepare.

I blew Bix's signal whistle and shot the nasty thing in its head, but it just seemed to make it angrier. Orion circled about and started chanting something. And Sunny took a nasty blow that sent her flying back. Scheisse! I missed with my next shot. But then there was a thunder crack, and explosion. Orion had called forth a bolt of lighting to attack the beast. Unfortunately, most of it went into the stables, setting the building on fire. It was Bix who finally killed the creature, with an excellent shot through the beast's neck.

With the stables on fire and Sunny wounded, this did not seem like a very good way to start our investigation of the ruins. I called on the Silver Huntress to heal Sunny, and we went back to the front of the house to investigate the mysterious vines in the pool. Finding nothing of immediate interest (other than the animated vines), we secured our horses and entered the house proper.

We discovered that there was quite a bit of electrical damage. I would say that it was a lightning strike like the one Orion summoned out back, but there was also evidence of wires and other machinery. I have read about gnomes channeling the power of lighting with metal cables, but I always dismissed such stories until now.

We also discovered a great trophy room with a stuffed manticore. If they could bring down such a beast, then perhaps they were not quite the fops that everyone thought they were. Also, the manticore brought back memories of our own battle with the beasts near Emily's home.

Emily! We had to hurry!

Sunny located a stair to what appeared to be a wine cellar. We repacked our gear for indoor exploration and headed down the steps. Abigail had an Everburning Torch, and I carried my scimitar rather than my spear. Not that I thought I'd use the melee weapon, but you never know. More likely, I'd be using my crossbow.

The wine cellar was mostly in ruins, though we we could find a few intact bottles of some extremely fine wine from the Free Cities region. There were bottles of fine Alorion and Tempian vintages. With their keen elvish senses, Sunny and Orion discovered a secret door that led into a larger underground complex. Unfortunately, we broke one of the wine bottles using it as a key to open the door.

In the very first room, Sunny triggered a trap that released a gelatinous monstrosity. It lashed out at us with acidic pseudopods and I got hit almost as soon as I entered the room. It started to burn through my new armor but I had other things to worry about. I called on the Huntress to bless our efforts and then dodged as the entire creature moved to engulf me.

My companions were hacking it with their melee weapons and it seemed to working. So I dropped my crossbow, pulled out my scimitar, and started to hack away as well. Orion blasted it with a couple magic missiles and it started to get smaller as we continued to inflict damage on it.

But the battle was not won yet... Sunny was engulfed! Bix tried to reach in and pull her out and Orion got hit with another psuedopod. Fortunately, it was a dying blow and Orion destroyed the thing with a slash from his sword.

Once again, I had to call on my goddess to heal my companions. Paralyzed by the creature, Sunny took several minutes to recover. I also employed a very useful charm to mend my damaged armor, making it as good as new. Then we continued into the complex.

Orion discovered another secret door. Beyond the door, Sunny fell into another trap, narrowly avoiding death by electrocution as lighting surged into the briny waters of a pit. Just what was the business of these explorers to so thoroughly trap their underground lair? And if they could so cunningly defend their mansion, how come the upper level burned to the ground?

With some effort and ingenuity, we devised a way to cross the pit trap into a kind of control room. It was full of wires and machinery, some of them leading to the surface level. There were three prominent levers near the door and we urged Sunny to pull them,  hoping that they'd disable the traps. Sure enough, the first levers did just that. But the third lever triggered some kind of  surge and smoke and the smell of burning flesh emerged from a pit in the center of the room. We threw the lever again, but it seemed too late. Something was stirring below and we heard terrifying grunts and wails. Needless to say, we retreated out of the room, closing the door behind us as we left.

But we had disturbed something and the screams and sounds of smashing wood continued. We quickly discussed possible ways to bar the door but nothing seemed feasible. We'd just have to keep our guard up as we continued our exploration.

We searched a another room with once-rich furnishing and found what looked like a golden Pellorite icon. Sunny removed the sculpture and set it aside for our return to the surface. There were other riches as well but most were too large to carry. And we were not here to search for booty. We were here to find the substance that would enable us to retrieve our dear Emily.

We came upon a stairway down and we heard familiar noises coming up from below. Yes, we suspected that whatever creature we heard needed to be dealt with... preferably sooner rather than later. It might be guarding what we sought or it might come upon us when we were ill-prepared to deal with it. It had to be now.

So we ventured down the stairs, through a couple of doors, and into another square chamber. And like before, we triggered a trap. This time it was Orion who plunged into a pit and we raced to save him. He had fallen right into the same type of gelatinous creature that we faced before and was thus engulfed, paralyzed, and burning from the acid. We had to act quickly!

But there was little we could do right away. We couldn't reach him directly and it would have been foolish to jump down with him. All we could do was poke at the thing with our weapons. After many shots, I finally stuck the killing blow with my crossbow. Orion eventually recovered from the paralysis but he was too wounded to continue. We had to return to the surface to rest and recover our spells.

Up top, Bix cooked dinner while I prayed for spells. I tried to tend the party's wounds with regular herbalism but I'm afraid I lack the skill of Kreed. My plan was to use magic if needed when the morning came but we would have a nasty surpise before that time would come.

It was during Abigail's watch that we all heard the roar. Whatever we had stirred up downstairs had followed us to the surface! I was almost instantly awake and immediately regretted not sleeping in my armor. I could see that it was a huge, zombie-like creature with wires and metal bits sticking out of it. And it was nearly eight feet tall!

I grabbed my crossbow, my quiver, and bolts and ran toward the creature but it was already charging Orion. I pulled forth my holy symbol and commanded it to turn away but there was no surge of power like at the Dunn's castle. Either I had done something to offend my goddess or this thing was not undead.

The monster barreled right into Sunny, who had bravely interposed herself between it and myself. She flew back as if hit by a battering ram. This creature was ferociously strong!

I backed away quickly and whistled for Drachen because I needed mobility. As I did so, I loaded a bolt and fired at the creature. It was direct hit but it only served to get the creature's attention.

Orion took to the air in an imitation of the wizard Daren's escape with Emily. The creature continued on to the nearest of us and delivered a vicious blow to Bix just as Orion dropped a spell on it from the air. Meanwhile, I mounted Drachen and quickly raced in to heal Sunny. Bix stepped back and shot it with his crossbow in the back. It was unfazed, however, and lashed out and me and Sunny with its powerful fists. It was all that I could do to stay on Drachen.

We had to retreat, but my companions were stuck in melee. I could hear Abigail shouting the order. All right, I'd get some distance! I galloped back to Abigail's position and loaded my crossbow. When I turned around things were not looking good for my friends. They could not break contact. So Abigail and I exchanged knowing looks and raced back into the fight. I yelled for Abigail to draw the creature away from Sunny, who appeared to be at death's door. I shot the creature one more time with my crossbow and was aware of Orion swooping down with the whacking wand to heal Sunny. But then Orion took another blow, sending him to ground.

I stopped Drachen, exhaled, and took aim at the creature's head. Then I pulled the trigger and the monster finally went down. Bix and Abigail were on it to finish it off while I dismounted to heal Sunny with the last of my magic. We had survived a fierce battle but almost all of us were terribly wounded.

After the fight, I asked Bix what it was that we fought. He said it was some kind a magical flesh construct and insinuated that these sorts of things were common in Hess. Yes, we had our share of necromancers, but I had never heard of the rituals that could fashion creatures such as these.


Ah, Abigail has fixed breakfast. Hopefully, today won't be quite so exciting...

Proud Daddy

I woke up this morning and found the following on our kitchen table:

This totally unsolicited and unexpected diorama was created by my precocious five-year-old. Obviously, daddy's influence is getting to him. Check out the marching order: the tomb raider with a torch and pistol leads the way while a wizard with a sword and some kind of magic gem has got his back.

Geomorph #102

Today's full-sized geomorph (as opposed the new border tiles) continues the trend of using old gaming books for inspiration. Since I'm still on the Fiend Folio, I came up with the following tile to serve as a lair for a tentamort.

The stair coming down from the northeast is a dungeon entrance and would-be delvers are immediately faced with the tentacled horror. A portcullis provides an additional obstacle to entering the large chamber in the northwest.

For reference, here's the original drawing:

Border Tiles #1, #2

David Millar has more improvements lined up for his already awesome dungeon generator. At his request, I'm going to begin posting border and corner tiles. The idea is that these half and quarter tiles can be added around the edge of a generated map and will not contain dangling passages (though they will probably contain dungeon entrances at some point). I won't be going to classic images for inspirations here. Instead, these border tiles are going to be fairly utilitarian (at least initially).

The first border tile is a natural cave:

The second contains two chambers joined by a short passage with an alcove that might be the home of some denizen. Rather than doors, the passage is set off by curtains or tapestries.

Risus Advancement

Matt Jackson over at Lapsus Columni is embarking on a new Steampunk Risus campaign. Beyond the usual (and excellent) setting material, his player handout contains rules for advancement in Risus that I had not previously seen. In standard Risus, characters roll to advance all their cliches at the conclusion of an adventure. If the player rolls all evens on a number of dice equal to their cliche level then the character advances that cliche. While it works, this method does seem to be a bit fast for long term play (depending on you define "at the end of the adventure"). 

Matt's idea is to award advancement points like most other games. Nothing new there and I've tried that method for my Dragonspire campaign. The real innovation is in keeping the dice rolling aspect. As characters accumulate these advancement points, they can attempt an advance at any time by rolling vs. a single cliche. If the total of the dice rolled is less than or equal to the current advancement point total, the cliche goes up by a die. Succeed, or fail, the advancement points are lost.

I like this quite a bit an may try it out the next time I run something longer than a few sessions. With Dragonspire, I needed to create formulae and tables for buying improvements to your character. With the "roll under" approach, it removes all the complexity that made my system seem so far removed from vanilla Risus. And it also adds an interesting meta-game element where you have to decide when to risk an advancement roll and on what cliches. Good stuff.