Goblins chew and goblins bite,
Goblins cut and goblins fight,
Stab the dog and cut the horse,
Goblins eat and take by force!
Goblins race and goblins jump,
Goblins slash and goblins bump,
Burn the skin and mash the head,
Goblins here and you be dead!
Chase the baby, catch the pup,
Bonk the head to shut it up!
Bones be cracked, flesh be stewed,
We the goblins—you the food!
When adventurers stop at Crackpot’s Shop, they are often in need of specific things. A wizard browses for a scroll of Detect Invisibility, a rogue looks for a pair of Slippers of Spiderclimbing, but never in Crackpot’s shop do they find quite what they are looking for.
Tis a sad day at the
Apparently, WotC will be featuring Dragon and Dungeon-like content on their web page, possibly behind a for-pay gate. It’s a bold move for them, and it’ll be interesting to see if the possible benefits outweigh the loss of a presence on magazine stands.
Paizo, for their part, are replacing the magazines with a monthly book. That’s right, a perfect-bound, softcover book weighing in at 96 pages. The book, called Pathfinder, focuses in on their biggest success from their five years of running the D&D magazines: the Adventure Path. Adventure Paths are like those series of modules that were released in the heady early days of 1st edition AD&D. Things like the
(And click on the pics on the main Paizo page. Each expands into a larger picture. I am especially intrigued by the fighter, the middle piece. Yeah, the sword is still too heavy, but both of his blades look functional, as does the armour. His hair is mussed, and his face looks dirt-smeared and maybe even scarred. In short, while there are clear “dungeonpunk” elements to the piece, there’s also a very strong “old school” vibe. Very interesting…)
The sadder news came via RPGnet. Apparently, Tom Moldvay, the man who wrote the Basic D&D book that started the Trollsmyth in RPGs, passed away last March 8th. I got the boxed set (I think most folks refer to it as the purple one) with the Erol Otis cover for Christmas many years ago now. He’d also written many adventure modules that are now considered classics.
Even if you don’t believe in the Singularity, the next decade promises to be pretty exciting.
Jürgen Hubert, author of the exceptional D&D campaign setting Urbis, has started a thread on EN World to be a cartography workshop. It’s really taken off, with many amateurs and professionals chiming in with neat techniques and step-by-step instructions on how to use various graphics software to make striking and useable maps. Not only that, but you may also learn the well-guarded secrets of the mysterious society of Photoshop users:
I just wanted to tell you THANKS for this thread. I've been begging someone to show me how to use Photoshop for years and all I've ever gotten was a suggestion to just start playing around with it and figure it out for myself. You've taught me more about photoshop in one night than dating four animators and two years of film school ever did.
THANK YOU!!!!!- Dykstrav
Be sure also to peek at the still rather tiny stub Mr. Hubert has created on RPGnet dealing with the same topic.
D&D 3.5’s recent Magic Item Compendium is a useful book, mostly for compiling and updating the six hojillion magic items and weapon/armor properties, as well as introducing a bunch of new ones, with the primary aim of making utility magic more accessible, particularly to lower-level characters. I have a few balance complaints, particularly weapons that land a no-save dimensional anchor on hit for a +1 equivalent bonus. But overall, good book.
Not Mars as it is – airless, most likely lifeless, with only the faintest hints of what might have once been a damp, if not necessarily lush and living, world billions of years in the past. No, this is Mars as it should be and as it was once imagined to be – an ancient, dying, but not yet dead world, a world where a vast canal network reaches from pole to pole, bringing water and life to vast and fantastic cities. A Mars where albino apes run a vast empire in the last surviving jungle, a world where warrior tribes of Green Martians raid the outlying cities of the canal dwellers, a world where, in places dark and quiet and forgotten beneath the surface, ancient and terrible intellects plan dark and dire deeds.
You are reading Treasure Tables every day, right? If you aren't, you probably should be. It's not always earth-shaking, but it is chock full of good advice for GMs of just about any game system.
Today, in the comments of a post about avoiding boring your players with "chores", WeaveWarden says:
Two words: Personal Subplots.
Pay attention to making certain that every session, or at least every story arc, ties into some aspect of each character personally. This may come at the expense of a little plausibility if you overdo it, but generally speaking, if there’s a little something extra going on for every player to consider their angle on in relation to the main plot, they have something to burn that excess mental energy on when things are slow. Naturally, these subplots shouldn’t be time-consuming, or the momentum of the central story may be lost.
With personal subplots, the players know that if sit back and stack dice, no-one else is particularly incentivized to pick up the slack for them, so they’d better stay involved to get the most benefit (and fun) for their character.
Subplots are a great way to make the game personal for your players. They focus the attention, and make the game feel more responsive to player actions. The importance of this cannot be understated; the one area where table-top gaming still whips computer gaming of all sorts hollow is in how the game can respond, react, and adapt to the actions of the PCs, and the desires of the players.
And while you're surfing the web, you might check out Myth-Weavers, linked from WeaveWarden's name. If you're interested in play-by-post, that might be the place to find a good game. If you try it out, and want to right a review of the place, I'd be happy to post it on Trollsmyth.
Old Geezer, one of my favorite posters over at RPG.net, recently said this about a c-note burning a hole in his pocket:
I would gladly pay $100 for a "campaign on the hoof" for Star Wars. Give me EVERYTHING I need. Much like Ptolus, maybe, but not so narrowly focused. I would gladly pay $100, no questions asked, for something that I could skim and then start to GM.
He later explains his thinking:
And to be fair, I'm stealing an idea from a different hobby (which I've ranted at length about).
Model railroading manufacturers hit this realization about 15 years ago.
There are still some people who build an engine out of brass sheet metal and patience. But they do it because they want to, not because it's the only way to get an engine.
You can buy a model that cannot be told from the real thing in a photo for under $100. You can buy just about everything you want.
So, people who wouldn't otherwise be in the hobby are spending money, and people who ARE in the hobby are able to go broader and deeper.
I hope this marketing strategy drifts into RPGs.
If I could buy out of the box RPGs I'd run at least once a week.
Frankly, I think this is a workable model. It would require either grafting on to a well-known system (like maybe d20, but I think Old Geezer would prefer something a tad more user friendly) or a very simple system that’s traditional in its design and easy to pick up. You might be able to get most of what OG wants in PDFs as well, though I imagine he’d rather buy a real, physical box.
I think this is the direction Ptolus is pointing us. As gamers age, time becomes a serious factor in our gaming. Spending time working on our campaigns starts to cost you real money when you really start to hit your professional stride. Everything you need to start, run, and end a long-term campaign in a single box would mean you could still indulge your yen for good gaming, without sacrificing time with your family or spent on your profession.
Others in the thread discuss selling a complete campaign under a magazine model. Frankly, as a designer, I’d much rather create and sell a single box, but I can understand as a publisher you’re assuming a lot more of the risk up-front that way.
For Each of the Four Core Races:
- 4 starting-level characters, made with Alpha Dawn core rules
- 3 mid-level characters, made by making a normal starting-level character then improved by spending 50 experience points and 5,000 Cr.
- 2 elite-level characters, made by making a normal starting-level character then improved by spending 100 experience points and 10,000 Cr.
- 1 legendary character, made by making a normal starting-level character, then improved by spending 200 experience points and 20,000 Cr.
That's 40 characters! Each character will be 2 pages in size. On the left-hand-page will be a picture and three topical sections: Background, Personality, and Appearance. Below is an example:
http://www.snapdrive.net/files/324758/RoguesGallery.pdf
The page on the right-hand-side will be a printable fully-functional character sheet, able to be printed and played as either a PC or an NPC. This particular example was rolled up then I made the background/personality/appearance. His DEX/RS was rolled as 70/70, then I shifted 10 points from RS to DEX, then added my Human's 5 points to DEX, resulting in an amazing starting DEX score!! Fun.
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