Finally dipping into 5E

     Finally I have relented and will be purchasing the main three books for D&D 5E. I have several friends who are playing, so I might as well take the plunge. My only hesitation was that i already had access to rules sets that accomplished the same thing, Labyrinth Lord for BX play (actually I also have a copy of Rules Cyclopedia) and Dungeon Crawl Classics if I want to go a bit gonzo with my fantasy.

     The final straw was a friend of mine from back in Ohio thought I was already playing it and he hoped I could direct him to web sites and such. I had to break it to him that I could not help, and then I gave in to temptation. Yeah, it doesn't take much, some days. I started with the DMG and it will be another week before I get the next one (PHB) but I am hoping to start finding some good online resources. Anyone have any tips where to look, good blogs maybe?

     The extra cool thing about this is that I should be able to adapt my old school D&D as well as the more recent retro stuff I have acquired. Maybe Dwimmermount or some stuff from Lamentations of the Flame Princess, perhaps? I could reach back to Veiled Society (B6) or The Lost City (B4), just the notion is getting me ahead of myself.

     So yeah, if anyone out there has anything they would like to share, feel free. Later guys!

Alucar, city of the future

     Polishing my Cryptworld scenario that I began this past November, making necessary corrections/additions. Starting on a new Pacesetter project.....  

Just a little something I came up with while on break at work. What if at the start of the 20th century, a city was built to be a technological marvel. People flock to this city and are amazed by the wonders contained their in. There is a monorail and clockwork "guards" at city hall. The main creator of these things has his laboratory, known as the Steam Works, at the heart of this place.    
   
     Then tragedy strikes, as a massive sinkhole opens and swallows everything. Not everyone survives, but those who do learn to adapt to their new surroundings. It takes a year for city to pull itself together, and now it is up to the players how to proceed. Stay in town and deal with local issues, or strike out and explore the various caverns branching off from Alucar? Go crazy and do both, maybe figure out what caused the catastrophe in the first place?

      I may be running a game tomorrow, if the snow does not scare off my players. Depending on how many show up, I may run my Cryptworld game, Dwimmermount, or a little test run of Alucar. I will let you all know how that shakes out. Later guys, take care!
   

New Blood

     Since the end of last year I have been encouraging some of my co-workers to participate in some role playing games. My first victims were Daniel and Shereea, who I ran through the introductory Cryptworld scenario "Red Eye". It was a lot of fun, though they almost learned the hard way that they should have a plan before you confront the big bad.          
  
     My next test subjects, er players were Jeremiah, Vickie and the venerable Tim Snider. I ran them through part if the first level of Dwimmermount, using Labyrinth Lord rules. It was great helping two new players navigate the start of this amazing mega dungeon. I asked each player to come up with a reason their character wanted to explore; Jeremiah's fighter wanted gold, Tim's cleric wanted to help maintain the balance between law and chaos, and Vickie's elf wanted to find out more about her culture (since Dwimmermount is where elves originated) It was a great start and I hope to get them back to finish exploring, unfortunately I did not get a picture of that group nor the next.

     I ran a playtest of a Cryptworld scenario I have been working on and Shereea, Barbara(newbie), Drew Bergstrom and Tim Snider. Everything went fine despite the two newer players needing to leave early. I am hoping to run a game on the 22nd of February, if I get different players I may test my Cryptworld game on them, either way I will keep you all up to date.

     What this has done is give me additional confidence, especially in regards to running Cryptworld. Also the desire to work on more stuff for secret setting using the Pacesetter rules. More to come!

Oh look, Thanksgiving is coming up!

     Where did the time go? I have been working on my secret NaGa DeMon (National Game Design Month) and time just seems to be move too fast. Today I pause for the 51st anniversary of Doctor Who, happy that I now own a custom Pat Troughton sonic screwdriver. It is a welcome addition to my costume that I hope to improve for next year's Con on the Cob!

Troughton's sonic was basically a penlight.

Being black and white, the color of his sonic isn't clear, so I went with red. Pretty spiffy, eh?

     Pete Spahn at Barrel Rider Games is running a project through Indie Gogo, a class compendium for Labyrinth Lord. Pete Spahn puts out some great OSR content and this is shaping up to be amazing. Five dollars gets you a pdf of the compendium, and ten gets you that and extra pdf's. Check it out here. This upcoming year, I would love to run Dwimmermount at my flgs (Ravenstone), and in addition to the standard pregens, I may have some from the aforementioned compendium. More on that in the time leading up to the new year.

     Well, take care and see you all later!

Con on the Cob 2014!!

    

Tim, Ken, and Dave

     Things have been busy around here with conventions, artwork and real life taking my time. Last weekend was Con the Cob 2014, and man was it fun. I ran two scheduled games plus a pick up game, and played in two games. I arrived Thursday just in time to run my first game, Dwimmermount using Labyrinth Lord. Three people showed up including Tim shorts (Gothridge Manor), Ken H. (Rusty Battleaxe), and Dave (Forgotten Runes). The session went well, the group made two forays into the dungeon, their characters needed a break midway through the session. Just before the end, one of them got a bit greedy and died from a trap. Later that evening I got to play in Tim Snider's (Savage Afterworld) Death in the Dust Cryptworld game. The Pacesetter system is amazing, plus Tim runs a fantastic game. Our Pc's were investigating an old mining town being turned into a theme park(?) where terrible vandalism has taken place. A couple friends of mine joined me, as well as Tim Shorts and Ken H. Everyone had a great time, if you have a chance to play in a game run by Mr. Snider then I highly recommend it.

     Now, before I get into Friday, I should talk about two important aspects of the dealer's room. Tim Snider was manning the Goblinoid Games/Pacesetter booth and Roy Snider was in charge of the Goodman Games booth. From Tim I acquired Rotworld and Time Master, and from Roy I worked on completing my DCC fanzine collection, I'll write more about what I got later.

     First thing Friday, I played in Tim's Thundarr the Barbarian game. I got to play the mokk in training,Oosoo the mokk. My die rolls fit in with the neophyte angle, since I couldn't make any decent rolls. Oddly I was the only person to damage Thundarr. Thankfully my luck turned around and I dealt the final blow to the villain. Next I ran Mutant Future for four, this was one of the scheduled games but apparently I talked it enough that they were all my friends. We had a great time as they explored the last tower of Ol' Bus, scavenging for supplies and artifacts.

My friends Jason, Chuck

Mysti and Derrick

     I was really looking forward to Saturday, since that was when I would unveil my Patrick Troughton second Doctor costume.

Wow, look at those pants! The next thing I was looking forward to was three of my friends (Jason, Chuck and Derrick) wanted to play Dwimmermount. I had my notes from the previous game, since my plan was to run subsequent games as if they had occurred in real time (ie. doors that were battered down would be that way, dead monsters would be laying wherever they fell) Ironically the entered a different way and therefore it never came into play. It was lots of fun and ended on a tpk.

     Con on the Cob, once again, was awesome. This year even more so, and I will be back next year, definitely running games again. Hopefully showing some artwork as well.

Running Dwimmermount!

     I will run Dwimmermount at Con on the Cob this year. The pdf, which is the "We are done except for looking for typos." version and that is what I will be using until I get the final version.There will be at least two Dwimmermount slots and there will be overlap. Example being if the second expedition follows the path of the first, they will see evidence of the first group. Now if they are the same folks, then it wont be a surprise but I am looking forward to it and am hoping I get two groups going through.

     Anyone new to this mega dungeon, Dwimmermount is set on the world (planet) of Telluria, and the titular mountain is a prison. One ginormous prison filling a mountain. Rumors abound about this place, but it has been sealed off from the rest of the world for two centuries! Until now. There are folks ready to pay lots of money for what they think/know is in their, also folks who do not want the wrong people poking around in there. Which group will you side with?

     I will be using the regular Labyrinth Lord rulebook, meaning you can use the free pdf at Goblinoid Games website and not have to spend a penny. In Dwimmermount the only races available, besides human, are dwarf and elf. James Maliszewski has weaving a fascinating back story for the history of Telluria and beyond which explains the creation dwarves and elves. Seriously amazing stuff. There are also two new(ish) classes, the cultist and the paladin. You can start off as a cultist or convert from a cleric, and paladin converts from a fighter. There are locations and people in the dungeon that you go to for conversion.

     I hope to run this at my local flgs as well, so if there are any folks out there who want to play then let me know. I still have some more reading to do, but I could be ready to roll with it soon! Leave a comment if you're feeling froggy, folks! Take care everyone!

Dwimmermount:disappointment and hope

   

    Dwimmermount was originally expected to be out in August of 2012. When it's creator dropped off the 'net due to health concerns (which I will not go into here) it eventually was turned over to others to finish his work. I admit I do not know all of the intricate details, who messed up or whatever, but I do know that it continued to be worked on as opposed to folks just running off with the money. It looks like we may finally see a finished product.

     So why are people not at least happy or interested that it is coming out? The tone is that they are relieved they were not in the kickstarter, not "Wow, it's finally coming out? I wonder what it's like?" The mega dungeon and it's environs still captivate me as much as it did two years ago, and I am hoping to run it sometime. The sci fi/fantasy aspects as well as the larger world it is set against is very intriguing and I look forward to holding the book in my hands.

     I prefer to be positive about these things, which is good for my well being. I would save my vitriol for something that truly deserves it, as opposed to this which is only an inconvenience.

Labyrinth Lord!!

     So, a few weeks ago I played in a game of Labyrinth Lord that a friend of mine ran at a local game store. It was my first time playing it, but I knew what to expect with it being a retro clone. I knew most of the people there and everyone just turned up the fun factor, even when the dice were not going our way. Now I have this overwhelming desire to play/run this game. Then the next weekend, my friend showed me a kick starter for Dwimmermount, a mega dungeon written for Labyrinth Lord and the ACKs system. James Maliszewski is the man behind it and it looks amazing, bringing me back to when I first got into Dungeons and Dragons. Which should not be a surprise as he has a blog all about gaming from that era, check out  Grognardia here http://grognardia.blogspot.com .Also the Dwimmermount link is here http://www.kickstarter.com/projects/142014231/dwimmermount?ref=card . Check this stuff out and please let me know what you think.Take care everyone!