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!

Zines and other things, update 11/15/2015

     So things are moving along here. I am getting together people for a panel regarding rpg zines at next year's Con on the Cob. I have two people committed and a few maybes, though if anyone would like to volunteer I would love that. In addition, any artists out there who would like to show their art would be welcome. There will be at least one new artist showing her work next year. Exciting things are happening and I can't wait! 

     All of my looking at various zines and their creators had me wanting to pick up some new zines to check out. Vacant Ritual Assembly by Red Moon Medicine Show is what I picked up this weekend, issues 1 and 2. Clint Krause runs a Lamentations of the Flame Princess game and these are what he has developed for it. They contain new creatures, adventures, places to inhabit, random tables and more. Issue one has an interview with Chris McDowall (Into the Odd) and issue two has one with Greg Gorgonmilk regarding his Dolmenwood project. Exciting stuff that, although written with Lamentations in mind, can be used with any game. Definitely worth checking out. Go on, have a taste! Issue one is pay what you want, so go for it.

Lamentations of the Flame Princess

     So with Free RPG Day came the LotFP adventure Doom-Cave of the Crystal-Headed Children, with it's wildly imaginative plot and craziness. I retrieved my grindhouse copy of the rules from my game shelf and looked through the books. Taken as they are, besides the art there is not much that is "weird" about it, that comes from what the referee puts into it. There is a section, that I suddenly cannot find, where he suggests using the ordinary as a veil for the weird (not in those words, mind you) like travelling trough a small village and having a woman ask for help to find her son named Andrew, and then another, and another. What began as just passing through town turns into a mystery of these women and their lost, identical sons. It escalates from there. The website is here, the game is by James Raagi who currently resides in Finland. The free no art/rules pdf can be found at the site as well.

     The rules have the standard race as class with the four human classes and then dwarf, elf, and halfling. What I really like here is that the thief is called a specialist, and you can actually focus on different aspects, like maybe he is very sneaky, or an expert at tinkering with locks. Basically each class gets better at what it does, the fighter is the only class to get attack bonuses beyond first level, specialists get more points to specialize, magic users more adept at magic, and clerics cleric like no one's business. Oh, and the same goes for the dwarf, elf, and halfling. As lamentations has advanced, I could not really say matured, James has moved towards using historical settings and putting a weird spin to it.

     So now I feel compelled to run at least one game using Lamentations, I want to set it in Italy around 1500. Now if I could get some folks to sit around a table to play. Anyone want to try it out with me?