Origins 2016!

     So here we are, 2016 and nothing happening(for me) during Origins weekend. So I will be able to attend Origins in my capacity as blogger. Is there something going on that you would like to hear more about, anyone you would me to interview? Let me know and I will see what I can do. I may be talked into running a game or two there, as well.

     Which brings me to next weekend and Reid San Filippo's Mall Maul DCC funnel that I will be running at noon, Saturday the 23rd of January. The amazing Gateway Games & more is the place to be for this great experience, pregens will be available (courtesy of the Purple Sorcerer) so come on over to 960 Kennedys Lndg, Cincinnati, Ohio 45245. I'll be waiting for ya. Take care, and I can't wait to see you there!

PS. There will be some freebies available, just letting you guys know.

Crawling Under a Broken Moon #11 review

     This issue focuses on the clerics of the different faiths first introduced in issue #4. What started as a random table (Whose temple is that?, page 7) in there, has been well expanded.

     Each individual listing gives you the lowdown on the deity, their followers and their relationship to others. Any special rules for that particular group and which creatures they consider unholy (which can be an entertaining read) and special ways they can interact with their deity (Followers of Santa's Gift that keeps on giving, Kizz's enlightened awesomeness) Each entry specifies which creatures they find unholy, and are therefore able to turn (Santa can turn the naughty) Fourteen faiths in all and every one of them amazing.

     Then we come to a substitute for halflings, the Feral Urchins. Reminiscent of the wild kid from Road Warrior and the mutating kids from the OS Star Trek episode "Miri" there are three ways to play it. Depending on your alignment (though not set in stone) there Wildchildren(Chaotic) Slingers(Neutral) and Nerds(Lawful) There is enough that is different from halflings that if a group contained both they would not step on each other's toes.

     Weapons of the Wastelands returns to give us different armor types (biker jacket equals leather armor, scrap metal is like scale mail) some special armor (silver suits, power armor!) and some common homemade weapons. The section finishes with "Cheap, AKA damaged goods". In case your players can't afford a new weapon, here are some quick rules for buying/using cheap-crappy equipment.

     Hologram is a brand new class, they carry their data disc with them, like Tron, but interact with the real world. There is an occupation table to roll on, for starting holograms, as well as a corruption table to make it more interesting. As always, cool new options await!

     Twisted Menagerie returns as well with the scorpionoid, with enough back story to make them more than mindless, cackling drones to throw at the pc's. They look to be pretty deadly, but wave a soda in front of one and he might let you rub his belly. You'll see when you read it.

     Lastly, we have a piece about when deities call in favors and what happens if the pc's don't comply. Just remember, good stuff happens when your patron/god is pleased with you. There you have it, fantastic content and great art, Reid and company have delivered again.  Get it while you can!

[DCC Road Tour 2015] Game One: Mall Maul

     Oh man, what a blast. Had a rocky start, print my pre gens at a certain store, and ended up with seven copies of the same four zero level characters. Then, an hour into the game I started to get a really bad headache. Thankfully we allowed neither of these to ruin our fun. In an effort to endear myself to whomever showed up, I brought a dozen doughnuts. They did not hurt, just saying. I had four players this time including Tim Snider, Rob Lambert, Drew Bergstrom, and my wife Kelly.

So we laughed through having multiple bikers, scientists and livestock ranchers. I used the rules for rolling up post apocalyptic zero levels in Crawling Under a Broken Moon, issue three. We had a plethora of mules that were put to good use.
 
Here are the highlights, since I don't want to give away too much. For our first big battle, Drew used his phone to play Motorhead's "Ace of Spades"while announcing his biker's attack. I felt that merited a plus one to attack. A scientist named Albert decided to stick his head into a room and discovered a crossbow trap early on. The fact that, in order to fit the adventure into a for hour slot, I cut to goal off 200 tribute truck points in half meant that a lot of the mall was unexplored. Now I just need to set up the next game, which only requires a date and time.

This game was extra exciting for me because Rob saw my flyer at the store,which normally does not happen. That is all for now,take care! 

DCC Road Crew 2015 part 1

     I have my first road crew game of the year set up for May 9 th, I'll be running the fun and frenetic adventure"Mall Maul" Reid San Filippo.

Having experienced it as a player, I am excited to be running it. As is tradition, I made a flyer and posted it at the flgs where I will be running it. I needed to keep the momentum going, meaning scheduling the next game or two. I ran Crawljammer last year, and the game on May 9th is from Crawling Under a Broken Moon. I felt I should continue with even more zine love.So my second game will be Street Kids of Ur-Hadad, by Edgar Johnson. I am looking forward to running it and letting you folks hear all about it afterwards.

May 9th, the Mall Maul!

     Saturday, May 9th from 10am until 2pm at Ravenstone Games, I will be running Mall Maul. It is a zero level funnel, so I will have plenty of pre gens on hand. Here is the synopsis, "Due to an unfortunate series of events, you and twenty or so of your fellow villagers have volunteered to search a nearby shopping mall. The goal is to bring back enough loot to appease the raiders who are coming to collect the tribute. You have always been warned to stay away from there, but there are no other options. The raiders are coming and take what they want if they are not satisfied by what is offered."

This is a Crawling Under a Broken Moon adventure by the inimitable Reid San Filippo, so there will be plenty of post apocalyptic weirdness going on. Ravenstone is located at 1675 Karl Ct, Columbus Ohio 43229. So come on in and roll some bones, it'll be fun!

Gary Con, day three

     So today we started with sausage gravy and biscuits, it is a certainty I will return home fat. Norhing scheduled, so I took my time getting into the con. Managed to catch the end of the What's New From Goodman Games. So the have the license to put out Fritz Lieber Lankhmar stuff, as well as Jim Ward's Epsilon City for Metamorphosis Alpha. Definitely some cool stuff coming.
      Coming out of the seminar, I saw JV West and Reid San Filippo, and after talking about how we each had nothing scheduled, Reid volunteered to run a little Crawling Under a Broken Moon.

We ended  up with six people playing and Reid ran a Christmas themed adventure, totally fun. Once again I played the luchador. That is how awesome the class is! Afterwards I swung through the dealer's room again, picked up some more awesome stuff which you all will hear about later. My friends were done for the day, so we left and had a late lunch at Culvers once again.

     A couple of hours later, I returned to the con. Basically hung out with my friends in the bar, while my friend joined the group he played with to accept the AD&D first edition open championship. It was fun drawing with Brian Thomas, but all good things come to an end. Before I left, Luke Gygax did stop by to talk to one of the guys sitting at our table.

Tomorrow we will be trying to get on the road quickly, with only a few things to get done before leaving. The post will come at the end of the night. Later, and take care folks!

Gary Con VII, day one

     Got into the con today, and wow what a start. While not a big convention, Gary Con has a lot of personality. Picked up our badges and began checking out the place.

 Made a pass through the dealer's room, and it was small but the quality was huge! Ran into J.V. West, who had some amazing little free zines he is giving away this weekend.

We hung out for awhile, went through dealer's room, where we talked to Zach Glazar about his awesome Lesser Gnome products. Then I broke down and spent some money, which I will go into at the end of the weekend. Saw Adam from Drink Spin Run, and he had a surprise for me! (A bottle of Dragon's Milk. Shh, don't tell anyone) Unfortunately we were not able to talk for long.

I also ran into Reid San Filippo and his steel top hat! He invited me to play in his zero level funnel "Mall Maul" from his zine, Crawling Under a Broken Moon. I happily accepted, and as we talked just prior to the game, he shared some amazing things he is getting ready to spring on the DCC zine scene! When the game began there were eight of us playing, each of us had three characters each to start and there were three extras in case someone lost all of their guys. We managed to have eleven out of those twenty-seven survive. Everyone had a blast and it was a treat to experience Reid's wonderful GM'ing style. After that I met up with Jason Braun and Brian Thomas for awhile, then it was time to go. Barbecue pork chops, baked beans and steamed vegetables awaited me. Have I mentioned how fantastic this trip has been!