In spite of my lackluster performance at the casinos, I decided to buy $10 worth of Powerball tickets for yesterday's app. $150 million prize. Didn't win the grand prize but I was lucky enough to win $100. That covers gas for my vacation travels this week so it's good enough for me. And speaking of travelling, the one new shop I visited yesterday was indeed a good find. Can't recall the name (something like the Abington Game and Hobby Store) but it is near Willow Grove, PA. They were nice and had a very good selection of d20 materials. Picked up the Monster & Treasure book for Castles & Crusades as well as Book of Roguish Luck by Malhavoc. These weren't discounted, but when I mentioned requiring an hour and a half to get there, the guy said to mention that next time and I would get a discount. Cool! I'd much prefer to support a LGS where I can examine the exact book I'm buying and talk to live people.
A storm is passing my area today so it's another vacation day of reading. A-OK with me.
Thursday, September 29, 2005
Wednesday, September 28, 2005
New Shops
Well, I didn't win big yesterday. In fact, I barely won. As it turns out, my best win was with the Big Six I mentioned yesterday. Out of desperation, I put a $5 chip on the $10 spot and it won! I came home with just under half what I had taken. Eh, could have been worse. My friend Linda and I ate at a 50s themed burger joined called Johnny Rocket on the boardwalk and had a great time.
Today I'm flying solo and looking for new D&D-carrying stores in which to spend my money. I'm always on the lookout for stores that carry older edition products so I can fill my collection. Once I find such a store, it gets added to my roster of possible daytrips for my normal schedule (one weekday off during normal work hours). Since driving for me is a creative recharger (see that earlier blog entry for details), it's always fun...even in my gas guzzling 18.2 gallons per mile Grand Cherokee.
Today I'm flying solo and looking for new D&D-carrying stores in which to spend my money. I'm always on the lookout for stores that carry older edition products so I can fill my collection. Once I find such a store, it gets added to my roster of possible daytrips for my normal schedule (one weekday off during normal work hours). Since driving for me is a creative recharger (see that earlier blog entry for details), it's always fun...even in my gas guzzling 18.2 gallons per mile Grand Cherokee.
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Gone Gamblin'
In a few hours I'll be leaving for a day trip to Atlantic City. I'm taking a fair bit of cash because like they say, "You've got to play big to win big." OK, maybe I just say that but hopefully it proves true. I'm feeling very lucky today. Oddly enough, one of my favorite casino games has the very worst odds, yet I've had some pretty good luck with it--Big Six, aka the Wheel of Fortune. You have 6 demoninations on a table in front of a large wheel with the same denominations ($1, 2, 5, 10, 20, Joker, and house). The payoff is exactly what the numbers say: $1 gets you 1-to-1 payback, a dollar on the $2 spot gets you 2 bucks and so on, with the Joker and house logo spot granting, I believe, 45-to-1 payback. Naturally, the $1 and $2 come up the most, but there seems to be more of a fairness in someone spinning a wheel than in dealing with the one-armed bandits, where a microchip or two determines whether you win or lose before the scrolling items/numbers even start to spin. The bottom line is the fun you have trying to win and I embrace it wholeheartedly. Wish me luck!
As for my RPG thoughts for the day, I was reading through the intro to Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary last night and came to the section about time needed to apply the templates therein. They've got three levels of difficulty that a template falls into. The worst of which is stated to take up to 30 minutes to apply to a creature. I'm thinking, "That's ridiculous." Why should I spend half and hour doing math on a creature who will be slain by my PCs in less than a third of that time? It really irks me that this edition has become so math-heavy that I can't make my own creatures or NPCs for a game unless I devote hours to do so during my busy week.
Understand, I suffer for my game as much as the next DM, but in no previous edition of D&D did I need to devote so much time to pre-game mechanics or balance concerns. If I didn't own so many sources of NPCs, monsters, and maps, I don't think I'd DM half as often as I do. (OK, I would but I wouldn't like it.) Back to the templates, there's gotta be an easier way to apply the ideas than with cascading calculus. I'm going to find a way, mark my words.
As for my RPG thoughts for the day, I was reading through the intro to Green Ronin's Advanced Bestiary last night and came to the section about time needed to apply the templates therein. They've got three levels of difficulty that a template falls into. The worst of which is stated to take up to 30 minutes to apply to a creature. I'm thinking, "That's ridiculous." Why should I spend half and hour doing math on a creature who will be slain by my PCs in less than a third of that time? It really irks me that this edition has become so math-heavy that I can't make my own creatures or NPCs for a game unless I devote hours to do so during my busy week.
Understand, I suffer for my game as much as the next DM, but in no previous edition of D&D did I need to devote so much time to pre-game mechanics or balance concerns. If I didn't own so many sources of NPCs, monsters, and maps, I don't think I'd DM half as often as I do. (OK, I would but I wouldn't like it.) Back to the templates, there's gotta be an easier way to apply the ideas than with cascading calculus. I'm going to find a way, mark my words.
Monday, September 26, 2005
Secrets of the Jaguar
This is the first adventure's title of the new planar campaign. We played it yesterday and I had a blast (and think everyone else did too). Here's the rundown of whacky PCs--air mephling, tiefling, neraphim, hound archon, centaur, a spiky race from the Planar HB (spiker?), and my kenku NPC (a last minute change from the githzerai). I started them off as if they were already on a mission searching a "tomb" of unspeakable "horrors" on Oerth. This was played out in the Protectorate Embassy's "danger room" which is an illusionary-based extradimensional pocket where the environment is programmed and run from a set of control crystals on the outside. They floundered around inside to most comedic effect for about an hour before I had their commanding officer walk into the simulation and ask if they were through fooling around yet.
Then they were handed their first mission--someone stole a jade jaguar statuette from a curio shop merchant in Sigil. Tannen (a person and locale ripped from MEG's Urban Blight) gave them the basic info and suggested that it would turn up where almost all stolen merchandise does in the Gatehouse Night Market. The PCs were distrustful of Tannen when a Sense Motive check revealed he was holding something back. As it turns out, he was simple holding back miscellaneous information on the jaguarfolk since the PCs didn't really ask about them. [Jag-folk are my own race modified slightly from the cat folk in WotC's Races of the Wild. They were an expansive empire on the their home planet until finally overthrown by a goodly coalition half a century ago. The jade statuette was one of six such precious cat figures that, when brought together, would open any of the treasure vaults hidden away by the jag-folk emperor. In this module, a small band of jaguarfolk happened to locate all of the statuettes and they were opening the vault of a small imperial outpost udiscovered by the rebellion]
So the PCs headed to the Night Market. En route, an alleyway detour turned into an ambush by three wisplings (Fiend Folio demon-halflings) who had stolen the statuette from Tannen's. They would not be paid in full until their employer at the Market sold the cat to the jaguarfolk who tapped him to get it, hence the ambush. This trio was handedly defeated. At the Market, some information gathering led to the tent-stall of a githzerai named Raz'jik. He claimed to know nothing about the statuette but some tells from his body motions and the fact that two jag-folk were watching the stall from afar tipped off the PCs. One jaguar took off down an alley with the jade statuette while the other shot Raz'jik with an arrow and tried to hold off the PCs pursuit. This jag-folk was slain but the first escaped into a sewer grate-turned portal to jaguarfolk homeworld.
Taking a jade-piece necklace from the slain jag-folk, the PCs were also able to activate the sewer portal and follow the other to a ruined village next to a ziggurat. Inside, the force of jag-folk were placing all six statuettes in the necessary positions to open the vault. They were defeated as was a feline-headed obsidian quasi-elemental (Tome of Horrors II from Necromaner Games). In the best of tradition of adventurers, the PCs opened the vault themselves and took the jag-folk's treasure back to the Protectorate Embassy. After a 15% cut of the find, they were handed the rest. A module well played!
In other news, it's good to sit back and start enjoying my vacation. Maybe I'll play around with the outline to my sequel Medieval Player's Manual adventure. Maybe not. There's a lot of reading I can catch up on and with the overcast skies today, that seems like a good course.
Then they were handed their first mission--someone stole a jade jaguar statuette from a curio shop merchant in Sigil. Tannen (a person and locale ripped from MEG's Urban Blight) gave them the basic info and suggested that it would turn up where almost all stolen merchandise does in the Gatehouse Night Market. The PCs were distrustful of Tannen when a Sense Motive check revealed he was holding something back. As it turns out, he was simple holding back miscellaneous information on the jaguarfolk since the PCs didn't really ask about them. [Jag-folk are my own race modified slightly from the cat folk in WotC's Races of the Wild. They were an expansive empire on the their home planet until finally overthrown by a goodly coalition half a century ago. The jade statuette was one of six such precious cat figures that, when brought together, would open any of the treasure vaults hidden away by the jag-folk emperor. In this module, a small band of jaguarfolk happened to locate all of the statuettes and they were opening the vault of a small imperial outpost udiscovered by the rebellion]
So the PCs headed to the Night Market. En route, an alleyway detour turned into an ambush by three wisplings (Fiend Folio demon-halflings) who had stolen the statuette from Tannen's. They would not be paid in full until their employer at the Market sold the cat to the jaguarfolk who tapped him to get it, hence the ambush. This trio was handedly defeated. At the Market, some information gathering led to the tent-stall of a githzerai named Raz'jik. He claimed to know nothing about the statuette but some tells from his body motions and the fact that two jag-folk were watching the stall from afar tipped off the PCs. One jaguar took off down an alley with the jade statuette while the other shot Raz'jik with an arrow and tried to hold off the PCs pursuit. This jag-folk was slain but the first escaped into a sewer grate-turned portal to jaguarfolk homeworld.
Taking a jade-piece necklace from the slain jag-folk, the PCs were also able to activate the sewer portal and follow the other to a ruined village next to a ziggurat. Inside, the force of jag-folk were placing all six statuettes in the necessary positions to open the vault. They were defeated as was a feline-headed obsidian quasi-elemental (Tome of Horrors II from Necromaner Games). In the best of tradition of adventurers, the PCs opened the vault themselves and took the jag-folk's treasure back to the Protectorate Embassy. After a 15% cut of the find, they were handed the rest. A module well played!
In other news, it's good to sit back and start enjoying my vacation. Maybe I'll play around with the outline to my sequel Medieval Player's Manual adventure. Maybe not. There's a lot of reading I can catch up on and with the overcast skies today, that seems like a good course.
Thursday, September 22, 2005
Do I Want What?!
For the second week in a row, a scruffy looking guy has come into work and asked if I like steak. Seems there's a new distributing company in the area and their local recipient said the company should inquire as to whether anyone else in town would want any. I don't think so! But I'm being diplomatic and leading them to believe that I'm a vegetarian. Didn't work the first week but maybe the second time's the charm. To say the least, having a hippie come to your place of employment and offer you cheap mystery meat is a bit odd. I'm sure that can be worked in to my next writing project or adventure though. ;)
Wednesday, September 21, 2005
Resting is Good
Although I'm working on the campaign premiere for this Sunday, at the same time I'm taking a freelancing break. It's quite nice not having anything truly pressing to work on. I can ad-lib the module this weekend if I have to, but freelance work needs to be spot-on. It's truly nice to step back from that over this week and the next.
But even as I embrace the peace, storm clouds gather for the future. I spoke with Steve Creech the other day about a super secret project he'd like me to help write. Let me tell you, this thing is big, real big. It's risky but could really pay off. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever have thought to work on such a project. This is something to be worked on over the months to come and still leave time for other freelancing so I agreed. It's also a good feeling to be at the top of someone's short list of wanted writers. :)
But even as I embrace the peace, storm clouds gather for the future. I spoke with Steve Creech the other day about a super secret project he'd like me to help write. Let me tell you, this thing is big, real big. It's risky but could really pay off. Never in my wildest dreams would I ever have thought to work on such a project. This is something to be worked on over the months to come and still leave time for other freelancing so I agreed. It's also a good feeling to be at the top of someone's short list of wanted writers. :)
Thursday, September 15, 2005
Illusions on Hold but a New Campaign Begins!
After some consideration, I've decided to put the Guide to Illusionary Characters on hiatus until later this year. Things just weren't clicking for my self-imposed deadline of next week. The whole concept needs a little more stewing in the brain to bear real fruit. Oh, I still want to write it, just not yet.
What this means is that I have ample time to devote to my group's campaign "series premiere!" I've been running games in the Forgotten Realms since 1992 and now we're veering slightly off course of that. I say "slightly" because, while the characters are working for an adventuring group with a base in Sigil, the group itself is actually based in the Realms. That group, the Protectorate, has been around since 2nd edition and I'm happy to introduce some new players into it. The Protectorate has a heavy Lathanderite and Hoarite influence--one of the previous players actually becoming the Hoarite "Pope."
In its years of existence, the Protectorate has saved the Realms from a psionic threat from a Shou Lung organization (albeit in an alternate timeline so no one knows it), saved Waterdeep from certain doom, and gained use of several spelljamming ships. Now, the group has come into possession of a Stargate-like device which takes travelers to other planes and dimensions. It seemed only natural to house such a device, as well as those who will journey through and man it, in the City of Doors itself. The PCs begin as novice members of the Protectorate and have literally the entire multiverse to explore.
Beginning as members of an organization, especially a quasi-military one like the Protectorate, allows a DM some leeway in creating adventures. Instead of concocting plausible reasons to help others or explore ruined dungeons, the DM can simply assign the PCs to do so by their superiors. The orginzational startup also grants the PCs access to equipment and to allies. The flip side of this, of course, is that they inherit the Protectorate's enemies as well. In response to this odd starting location, my players have come up with some out of the box planar choices like a nephilim (sp?), a tiefling, a hound archon, and my githzerai NPC, among others. I can't wait!
What this means is that I have ample time to devote to my group's campaign "series premiere!" I've been running games in the Forgotten Realms since 1992 and now we're veering slightly off course of that. I say "slightly" because, while the characters are working for an adventuring group with a base in Sigil, the group itself is actually based in the Realms. That group, the Protectorate, has been around since 2nd edition and I'm happy to introduce some new players into it. The Protectorate has a heavy Lathanderite and Hoarite influence--one of the previous players actually becoming the Hoarite "Pope."
In its years of existence, the Protectorate has saved the Realms from a psionic threat from a Shou Lung organization (albeit in an alternate timeline so no one knows it), saved Waterdeep from certain doom, and gained use of several spelljamming ships. Now, the group has come into possession of a Stargate-like device which takes travelers to other planes and dimensions. It seemed only natural to house such a device, as well as those who will journey through and man it, in the City of Doors itself. The PCs begin as novice members of the Protectorate and have literally the entire multiverse to explore.
Beginning as members of an organization, especially a quasi-military one like the Protectorate, allows a DM some leeway in creating adventures. Instead of concocting plausible reasons to help others or explore ruined dungeons, the DM can simply assign the PCs to do so by their superiors. The orginzational startup also grants the PCs access to equipment and to allies. The flip side of this, of course, is that they inherit the Protectorate's enemies as well. In response to this odd starting location, my players have come up with some out of the box planar choices like a nephilim (sp?), a tiefling, a hound archon, and my githzerai NPC, among others. I can't wait!
Monday, September 12, 2005
Illusionary Woes
I wanted to be deep into writing this by now, but I'm only in the idea-scraping phase. The Guide to Illusionary Characters has much potential for PC expansion but I'm just not sure how to present the material. Originally I was going for a racial template but there's too many abilities that only higher level characters should have, to say nothing of the dangers of giving them all at once via a template. So that's out.
Then there's its own racial class. I was sold on this idea until today. It still doesn't *feel* right. I'd rather merge the typical classes with the idea of exploring this strange heritage of being an illusion. But is there a cohesive and balanced way to do this besides as a racial class? I don't know...yet.
Then there's its own racial class. I was sold on this idea until today. It still doesn't *feel* right. I'd rather merge the typical classes with the idea of exploring this strange heritage of being an illusion. But is there a cohesive and balanced way to do this besides as a racial class? I don't know...yet.
Thursday, September 08, 2005
Medieval Approval
When I arrived home from work today, there was a pleasant email waiting for me from Highmoon Media's head honcho Daniel Perez. Seems the adventure I wrote for Green Ronin's Medieval Player's Manual was approved--this for the temporary license GR put out almost a year ago for third party publishers to support that company's Mythic Vistas books. What I penned was a short adventure which really does more in introducing a reusable setting for PCs to call home. Not only was the adventure approved, but I'm now in talks for possible sequel adventures! Yeah, this gives me a tingly feeling (in a good way). There was another tie-in discussed with another company's use of my adventure, but I'm sure that's still on the hush-hush. I like where all this is heading.
I also figured I'd better post so the three people that read this blog know I'm still alive. You'd think I'd have posted once since Monday. Oi, these lazy freelancers. ;)
[And for you folks who feel it necessary to comment with spam posts, I can only say this, "Spam your own f***ing blog!" That is all.]
I also figured I'd better post so the three people that read this blog know I'm still alive. You'd think I'd have posted once since Monday. Oi, these lazy freelancers. ;)
[And for you folks who feel it necessary to comment with spam posts, I can only say this, "Spam your own f***ing blog!" That is all.]
Monday, September 05, 2005
Charity Work
There's some rpg charity stuff going on to benefit Katrina victims this month. I'm involved in two of them and thought I'd mention it here. The first is Adamant Entertainment donating all of its profits to the Red Cross for September. Gareth also asked freelancers if he could donate their royalties as well. I can't speak for anyone else but I agreed to give my profits from The Dread Codex and NPC: Volume I. Adamant's online RPGNow catalog is here: http://www.rpgnow.com/default.php?manufacturers_id=470
The other endeavor is from Dog Soul Publishing, a fairly new d20 company (as far as a I know). These people offered to layout and organize a pdf, the profits of which go to Katrina victims (although to what organizations I'm unsure). They have an open call for art and writing and I agreed to set the Illusionary PCs books aside to write something over the holiday weekend for it. I'm penning a swamp-based bandit team with a very curious style. This is turning out to be more fun than I'd planned and the piece, called "Captive Audience", includes a two new magic items, a new spell, and a new monster. For more on this pdf, see here: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=146260
Also new for the weekend, a pdf from Dark Quest Games was released which I worked on. Fell Beasts: Goblins was one of the first pdfs from the company I helped to "clean up" from their large backlog of products. When DQG agreed to publish Temporality, Neal Levin (the company's head honcho) asked if I'd like to work on some other books. My agreement then has since led to the finishing/fleshing out of 3 books with more on the way. You can pick up the goblins one here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=5384
The other endeavor is from Dog Soul Publishing, a fairly new d20 company (as far as a I know). These people offered to layout and organize a pdf, the profits of which go to Katrina victims (although to what organizations I'm unsure). They have an open call for art and writing and I agreed to set the Illusionary PCs books aside to write something over the holiday weekend for it. I'm penning a swamp-based bandit team with a very curious style. This is turning out to be more fun than I'd planned and the piece, called "Captive Audience", includes a two new magic items, a new spell, and a new monster. For more on this pdf, see here: http://www.enworld.org/showthread.php?goto=newpost&t=146260
Also new for the weekend, a pdf from Dark Quest Games was released which I worked on. Fell Beasts: Goblins was one of the first pdfs from the company I helped to "clean up" from their large backlog of products. When DQG agreed to publish Temporality, Neal Levin (the company's head honcho) asked if I'd like to work on some other books. My agreement then has since led to the finishing/fleshing out of 3 books with more on the way. You can pick up the goblins one here: http://www.rpgnow.com/product_info.php?products_id=5384
Thursday, September 01, 2005
Illusionary Thoughts
The first thing I normally go for is a title to a piece. Doesn't always happen but it's nice to have a guiding figurehead like a title. This latest endeavor will likely be called The Guide to Illusionary Characters. I'm willing to take a little feedback on this so leave a comment! I've considered other titles but for the consumer to know what the book's about you need something like the one above. If it was titled The Illusionary Guidebook or Manual of Fictions you wouldn't really know what you're getting.
And then there's OGC considerations. I'm a big proponent of using open content when I can. It just seems more reasonable to use/warp someone else's work then to fashion my own stuff and add yet more material to the d20 world (an already massive pile). Of course, you need to find the best stuff you can (or at least the stuff that's closest to your vision). I'm looking over Mongoose's EA: Illusionism as well as FFG's School of Illusion and even Unearthed Arcana. At the moment, I'm leaning toward doing the illusionary PC as a racial class. A player starts with a normal character with a race and class from the PHB (or other source) and then has the option of exploring some strange quirks he has at first level as an illusion.
The other debate within me is to how to present the material. Obviously, the book should be as much interest to players as it is to DMs. I'll likely throw in a short chapter discussing how these new types of being can be used in a campaign. It would be cool if a player was given the option of using an illusionary PC but not actually knowing the character was an illusion. The DM might slip the player a note at level-up time that he now has the option of exploring his unique and unusal heritage by taking a "special class level" or some such explanation. But, it's still just the beginning of this book's creative process--one of my favorite times. :)
And then there's OGC considerations. I'm a big proponent of using open content when I can. It just seems more reasonable to use/warp someone else's work then to fashion my own stuff and add yet more material to the d20 world (an already massive pile). Of course, you need to find the best stuff you can (or at least the stuff that's closest to your vision). I'm looking over Mongoose's EA: Illusionism as well as FFG's School of Illusion and even Unearthed Arcana. At the moment, I'm leaning toward doing the illusionary PC as a racial class. A player starts with a normal character with a race and class from the PHB (or other source) and then has the option of exploring some strange quirks he has at first level as an illusion.
The other debate within me is to how to present the material. Obviously, the book should be as much interest to players as it is to DMs. I'll likely throw in a short chapter discussing how these new types of being can be used in a campaign. It would be cool if a player was given the option of using an illusionary PC but not actually knowing the character was an illusion. The DM might slip the player a note at level-up time that he now has the option of exploring his unique and unusal heritage by taking a "special class level" or some such explanation. But, it's still just the beginning of this book's creative process--one of my favorite times. :)
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