gnotions

House Rules - Spell Slots

2011-12-26T10:52:00.000-05:00

Over at Third Edition House Rules there was a post recently about recalling spells, and I made a comment about my own house spell slots rule. Rather than respond in the comments section, I am posting a bit of info about my house rule here.

The idea is we turn spell casters into spontaneous casters. This was mainly to address two issues in our game. First - to eliminate the time spent in our game selecting spells to take. We don't get to play often enough and I didn't want to consume any more time for player preparation when ever there was spell recharging. Second - to have all those interesting spells that infrequently or never get chosen because unless you have very specific information, you just have to choose certain mainstay spells to be successful. For example, if a low level wizard has to choose between Sleep and Animate Rope, just how often is the latter going to be selected?

I won't post the entire house rule, but I'll summarize bits of it. There remain requirements for resting, a quiet environment, preparation time and high enough ability level to cast the spell. Wizards still require a book.

A spell slot is the capacity to cast any single spell of that level the spell caster bound during the preparation ritual. The number of spell slots is basically the same as the number of spells a caster can memorize according to the RAW. A spell caster always has the option to consume a higher-level spell slot with a lower-level spell. So, for example, a Wizard prepares a spell slot and binds spells from her book in ritual preparation for consuming that slot when a spell of the appropriate level is cast. Or simply put, one first level spell slot allows you to cast one first level spell.

We also allow more frequent replenishment than RAW, so there are some recent casting limits to prevent taking advantage of the ability to get spells more often. Unless a spell is permanent, instantaneous or has duration of a full day or greater, spells that a wizard has cast that are still in effect impact her available spell slots. A spell slot is connected to such spells, and if replenished immediately ends or dismisses the active spell upon the completion of the spell slot replenishment ritual. A wizard can choose not to replenish one or more individual spell slots, and therefore keep those spells in effect.

So, in practice, what effect does this have on our game? If does have the desired effect of reducing in game spell selection time, and it has had the desired effect of enabling more frequent use of what would be otherwise less popular spells. It does give spell casters a boost in power, and we have given other classes a few house rule changes to share the love. Using this house rule it is also wise not to make too many Wizard spells available too quickly. As an experience DM, I find that bumping the challenge rating to address this power increase is not any more difficult than managing challenge ratings given a party's overall capability, size, kind of magic wielded, etc.

As always with house rules, your mileage may vary. The dice never lie.

Merry Christmas

2011-12-24T10:00:00.000-05:00

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas. I hope you can enjoy it with friends and family. Thank you all for reading, commenting, and fellow bloggers for their interesting musings. Best to you all.

Here is a link to an old post of mine, a small attempt at humor. The Night Before Christmas, D&D blogger style.

And of course, a classic Christmas read - Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus.

May Santa be good to you and fill your stocking full of exquisite game goodies.

NY Times Review of Islay Single Malts

2011-12-23T08:39:00.002-05:00

There is a nice short review of Islay Single Match Scotch Whisky brands over at the NY Times.
The article makes some interesting observations and facts about the seaside Islay. This might be useful to you if you are looking for a last minute gift for a 'peat' lover, or are a wanna be peat lover.

I have had the Lagavulin 16 and Bowmore 12 on the top ten list and enjoyed both. Laphroaig tops the list for value, and appears twice, but I have not had those distills. I have had the Laphroaig Quarter Cask, and wouldn't recommend it for peat noobs, but it is a must try for peat lovers.

Cheers

Victorian Shadows update

2011-12-17T09:38:00.001-05:00

We concluded my 'one-nighter' Victorian Shadows adventure after two nights, the second of which was a long night. I must say the fact it took two nights is mostly my fault. It had been a while since the group had played the game/characters and for the first outing a throw a mystery at them. The mystery was full of clues as to who abducted good Dr. Talbot and why. Lots of reasons to suspect everybody in the story, with every character having some flaws and suspicious behaviors.

When I build a mystery adventure I use a matrix to layout who knows what. It helps me make sure every NPC has some significant role, it helps me make sure that critical clues are available in multiple places (to avoid a critical clue going unfound), and during play it is a handy reference guide when the players are interacting with NPCs. It was a significant aid during this adventure.

Perhaps my favorite moments involved a couple of players struggling to determine the significance of the sack of fresh potatoes hidden under the housekeepers bed. The poor old woman was harvesting what was left of potato crops planted years ago and abandoned, and selling them on the side for a few coin. They revealed her to Dr. Talbot's son, believing this had something to do with the disappearance of his father. Sobbing, she confessed to stealing the potatoes and begged for forgiveness and her job. The son sarcastically applauded the team for solving the great potato crime while his father was still missing. The look on my players faces was priceless. When you plant red herrings in an adventure you can only hope they turn out so well.

The entire first evening of play was role playing. The choices the players made did not take them into any violent conflict. Regardless of that, everyone seemed to enjoy themselves even though they left the first night quite baffled.

In the end, the party did not quite figure out the mystery but did manage to save Dr. Talbot and prevent the object of the bad guys desires, the notebook of the famous geologist Déodat Gratet de Dolomieu, from falling into their hands. The finale involved encounters with shadow creatures including six legged wolves, a big foot like monster, and some small bipedal dog creatures and their shark mouthed, four eyed dog companions. The party fought back with guns (the weapons include a percussion cap 44 caliber six shot revolver, a Spencer carbine, and some other small bore pistols), knives, a crossbow, and some daring and questionable use of dynamite tossed by our resident mad chemist. So all ended well, even though Dr. Talbot has a bit of restoration work to perform on Alcott Manor.

It was a fun time, and I'll likely be running some more Victorian Shadows soon. Only this time the adventures will be less complicated and more likely to finish in a night. (ha!)

Turns out this is my 100th blog post. Although I am not prolific, this has also been fun, and I thank readers for stopping by and continue to welcome your comments.

The dice never lie.

Marques de Caceres Crianza 2007

2011-12-14T19:29:00.001-05:00

With our pot roast dinner tonight I opened a bottle of Marques de Caceres Crianza 2007. This has long been a go to table wine for me for 'ordinary' meat and potatoes type of food. This Spanish wine is from the famed Rioja region, which produces many fine Tempranillo blends. The Crianza designation tells you it has been aged in oak. The 'black' Tempranillo grape is a staple in Spain, especially the Rioja region. For some people, a bottle like this defines Spanish wine - red Tempranillo from Rioja. Although there are many other fine wines in Spain, I find it hard to argue with the classic status of such a wine.

I don't find the nose particularly strong in this bottle. It is a medium bodied red, with some tannic structure and more acidity. I taste dark cherry, a bit of mocha, and maybe some hints of spiciness. This label has produce consistent results over the years so I am rarely concern about picking up a bottle. There is nothing flashy here, this is a solid, reliable, tasty table wine which can stand up to a nice piece of meat. A little more rustic and interesting than a typical Merlot. It seems to benefit from a little breathing so pouring the first glass early is not a bad idea. If you can't wait, drink away, but you might find the second glass more tasty. (which is often the case even if not entirely true - go figure)

So in summary, nice reliable table wine worth buying at a price point of about $15, even better if on sale. Sometimes the Rioja designation drives the price up a few more dollars, which is unfortunate. Wait for the sale, you'll enjoy it more.

Cheers

Time to run an alternate adventure: Victorian Shadows

2011-11-22T13:00:00.000-05:00

We switched DM duties for the regular D&D game a few months back. Between the summer vacation schedule conflict, lots of miscellaneous personal schedule conflict, and an apparent lack of enthusiasm for the campaign at its current place by players and DM alike, we have not been playing much.

I am not ready to take over the full time DM reigns again just now but in an effort to keep the creative juices going and the group connected I am going to run a one night, who ever shows up is good, d20 Past game. A few years ago I developed an environment I called Victorian Shadows. It is roughly based on the d20 Past Shadow Stalkers framework. The time and place is the 1870s greater London. The character level is low (currently 2nd level) using d20 modern character types with limitations of the time period. The d20 Past is not a bad source book to help you along in a campaign like this, though I don't use it completely RAW. There are some house rules for hit points which follow a wound/vitality point model, and a few other house rules as well but nothing earth shattering. The campaign is very low magic, and at this time the players have almost no access to magic while the bad guys have greater access to ritualistic magic. The good guys are part of a loose and secret alliance called the Legion of Light, and their only goal is to combat shadow which is being encouraged and used to gain power by a different secret alliance know as the New Vision Fellowship.

I have not run one of these games in a couple of years, but usually they are great fun. There have been lots of dark London foggy nights, strange happenings tied to real historic events, players acting out Victorian era characters speech styles, and heroic low level risk taking to make the whole thing just a joy.

Since I don't know who and how many will show up for an outing I have to be flexible with my adventures. I make a core adventure but adjust it around depending on the number of characters and their classes. Monsters are no problem - I have plenty of monster manuals, just pick something out of appropriate level and change the description to fit. Besides, the most dangerous monsters are the NPCs in the New Vision Fellowship.

The hardest part is fighting my urge to tie all these adventures together. I love it when plot strings tie out, and bits of information in one adventure become useful in another. To me that makes the world seem more alive. However, I must be careful that no information from a previous adventure is needed to solve a problem in the current adventure. The other challenge is completing each adventure in one evening. I have to make sure there is just enough adventure, not too much or too little, so it can be solved in one night. At the end, you just have to be tough with the party, if they have not solved the problem by the time to go home then allow the bad things to happen to the world. Hopefully they know the DM will do so, and keep the urgency in the play which makes it so exciting.

I miss running a character, but I also miss playing with my friends overall - so the DM job is not so much a chore, just my second favorite job in the game after running a character.

Cheers!

Murder, The Who, digital recordings of vinyl, and how one thing leads to another

2011-11-15T21:06:00.000-05:00

It all started on a dark and stormy night.... well, not really. We have hosted and attended Murder Mystery events for many years now and really enjoy doing so with our close friends. Who doesn't enjoy solving a murder amidst various characters who themselves have committed murder, mayhem, deceit, and all manner of other heinous and despicable crimes. We get to do so in the company of friends, eating and imbibing (in the reverse order), puns flying, dressed in character costumes, and house decorated. This time around we played "The Tragical Mystery Tour". Part of the ambiance for any good theater is appropriate music. So I was compiling on the iPod a varied selection of sixties music to fit the theme. What better music to include in an evening getting ready to climb onto a (imaginary) cross country party bus than The Who's The Magic Bus. (Yes there is other good music that comes to mind and it was included - but that is not part of this story).

I don't have the Live At Leeds album on my iTunes, which has my favorite version of The Magic Bus. My copy of the album is on vinyl. At this point most folks would have just gone to the iTunes store and bought it. Oh, no, I'll have none of that. Had I done so, you wouldn't be reading this overly long blog post.

If you are from my generation (ha - intentional song reference) you likely still have a stack of vinyl LPs still. In my case I still have about 150 of them, of which about one third have been replaced with CD copies. My turntable is no longer connected to my stereo receiver in the family room; it has fallen victim to it is 'unsightly and takes up too much space' syndrome.

So in the spare bedroom I setup a table, haul out the old turn table and plug it in to the laptop for a sound level test. Except, I cannot find my adapter cable which has two RCA style female plugs on one side and a male 3.5mm on the other. Insert trip to my friendly local Radio Shack and return successfully. Attach the turntable, run some Windows recording software, and there you have it: nothing. The recording software cannot handle input from the line in jack.

Next I go out to the Interwebs to get an update to my favorite recording and editing software: Audacity. It is open source goodness, and way more technical than I will ever be but has enough default settings and help on the web site to get me through. Audicity is more than a competent substitute (ha - another intentional song reference) for the pitiful default recording software Microsoft provides and is easily able to select the line in port and record the music from my turntable. Drop the needle on the LP and there you have it: a high bias recording with incredible clipping. The turntable does not provide computer friendly output. (sorry - if you don't know what those terms mean I'll have to explain in the comments below - this is already too long)

I figure I need a pre-amp to fix the problem. I haul out my old receiving and set it up on the table in the spare bedroom next to the turntable. Hook the turntable to the receiver, receiver tape out to the laptop, drop the need on the LP and there you have it: almost evenly biased input that is clipping on both sides. The sound level input control on the software does not seem to work on the line input. Now I am so mad I am nearly shakin' all over (ha - another gratuitous song reference).

If I cannot control the volume in on the laptop side, I must do it on the receiver side. The head phone jack looks like a viable candidate. I rummage through my box of old adapters and locate a male 1/4" to female 3.5mm adapter. Connect the head phone out on the receiver to the line in on the laptop, drop the needle, adjust the volume control on the receiver and there you have it: I am able to get the recording unclipped and only slightly high bias at a low volume. I am finally making progress.

Without going into a lot of detail on each step I will highlight the process. First you record a side of the album. You use the tools in Audicity one at a time to removed the bias (DC offset), remove the noise, remove the clicks, normalize (amplify), remove leading and trailing excess, and cut the side into tracks when you export them into WAV files. Rinse, repeat. Lastly import the WAV files into your iTunes, and burn a CD for play/archive.

Is it worth following this process as compared to buying the CD or downloading an MP3? The answer to the question is it depends. Some of my vinyl is not available as CDs - so if I want those selections digitally, this is the only path. Some of my vinyl is live or otherwise poor quality recordings - these are good candidates for MP3s because you are not going to lose any fidelity. If you have an album which was considered a studio masterpiece, (say Dark Side of the Moon) you will be disappointed in your version as compared to what you can get in buying the commercially produced CD. On the other hand, if you have a large collection, and have the time to invest (or are basically cheap) and are not so concerned about the slightly substandard recording as compared to the commercial CD release this could be the way to go. Once you get good at the process, it takes about a half hour to forty-five minutes of your time to follow this process above the actual play time of the vinyl. If you have the money to simply replace them, and available time is a challenge then I suggest Amazon is your friend.

Lastly, what about the Live at Leeds album? If you are fan of The Who it is a must have. The recording quality is poor, but the energy and versions of the songs are just amazing. Daltry's voice is a bit off in places, but Entwistle's bass and Townsend's guitar work is quite good even given the poor recording quality. Some of the verbal back and forth during the singing is quite entertaining with my favorites being during The Magic Bus. "You can buy the Magic Bus for 100 English pounds." "No, too much!"

Thanks for reading - cheers.

Blue Moon Winter Abbey Ale

2011-11-08T18:54:00.003-05:00

The winter offering from the Coors Blue Moon brand.

Pours out reddish/brown, or I guess coppery colored with a light tan head. Has some aromas of spice and maybe some vanilla. The mouth feel is very thin, which seems to be in common with the other Blue Moon products. Flavors include dark caramel, hint of vanilla, hardly any hops taste, sweetness and maybe prunes, which fades to a dry crispness and yet leaves your tongue feeling a little thick.

It is an odd mix of flavors which on one hand feel unbalanced, but on the other hand seem to work together in a little bit of disharmony. I am trying to place the after taste here... and it may be the alcohol.

Overall I'll give this one a slightly recommended. As a mass market beer it is not bad, and the additional spicy notes help it stand up to the colder weather. I skipped the Blue Moon standard Belgian White at the market, it was just not the taste I was looking for in this suddenly cold autumn weather. If you are expecting it to be a fine example of a Belgian beer, look elsewhere. This is a good one to buy on sale when the choices are limited, and your goal is to sit by the fire.

Cheers.

Alas poor Ethan

2011-10-30T18:55:00.000-04:00

Alas poor Ethan, I.... hardly knew you.

At the beginning of summer we shifted DM chair occupants. Switching back to the Cormyr game required one of our players to create a character, as he had not been in the Cormyr game when we left off. His character build was a rogue designed for high sneak attack damage output. He didn't really fit our party perfectly, but what the heck, when does a character truly fit a party perfectly.

During summer, we struggle to find game time - people on vacation and all that jazz. So here we are post summer getting things going again. At the end of the last outing and the beginning of this one we are questioning some dead elves. Among the cryptic bits of information, we learn the nasty elves are planning to utterly destroy the village of Tyrluk. Since we will have none of that, off we go to save the village.

In Tyrluk there is a very large chest full of treasure which has inexplicably found its way to the center of the village without any obvious way for it to have happened. We scratch our head for a while, cast a bunch of spells, and come up with crazy speculation ad nauseam until we finally decide, lacking any good idea - this must be bait to attract terrible monsters to come and destroy the village.

Time passes, we consider a number of ideas to fortify the village, and then one by one we discard them since we have no clue what might be coming, from what direction, or what mode of travel. So we wait. Finally one of our characters spies large creatures coming down the road - giants. When they get close enough to further identify them, our archers begin to punish them with arrows. They look to be five hill giants and something bigger, much bigger, in their midst. Our plan is set - bow fire to reduce their numbers, the wizard will drop repeat distance area damage spells on them to further weaken them, and our cleric (me) will stand just inside the center of town as our melee demarcation point. A dangerous encounter, but we should be up to it.

Except our plan does not survive contact with the enemy, in fact our plan doesn't even wait for the enemy to reach the cleric before we abandon it. I would have felt better if the enemy had undermined our plan. The new character, Ethan, goes out to meet the giants invisibly intending to pick off a trailing wounded giant. His point of contact is well beyond where the cleric can reach him with helpful spells, and since the cleric's attire features full plate mail, well beyond where the cleric can reach him in a couple of rounds for any help at all. Hill giant passes by and gives an attack of opportunity; Ethan responds with serious damage. By fortuitous circumstance Ethan gets to go next, finishing his hill giant opponent with another withering sneak attack. All seems to be going well for us, giants are seriously diminished during their long run down the road, with Ethan taking down number three. Wait, Ethan's turn is not over and he has more attack left so naturally he takes a five foot step and unleashed the rest of his attack on the huge giant. Why waste an attack (what could go wrong?) I get an uncomfortable feeling this will end badly - an unasked for divination from Torm?

The huge creature (which turns out to be a mountain troll) turns to smash the creature which hurt it, but sees nothing! Instead it uses cunning to sniff the air around the area where it felt pain and then takes a wide swing covering a large area and connects with the rogue; punishing damage and knocked prone. Our paladin, seeing the huge beast stop and swing behind it decides to sally forth and support our invisible companion. Astride her unicorn mount and brandishing a lance, she courageously charges at the huge monster. Unfortunately, the mountain troll has reach and bashes the paladin before she can even get close enough to impale the creature. Not only is the damage punishing but she is knocked from her horse and to the ground.

Now my uncomfortable feeling, turns to real worry. The melee is happening well forward of the planned demarcation. There are two nearly unharmed hill giants between my cleric and the prone paladin (who is in reach of the mountain troll) and on the other side of the mountain troll is the prone rogue. The wizard is near the cleric but is also now worried about casting spells with severely hurt characters lying prone around the troll, and the other two characters are still up on the building with their bows. I had previously cast a few buffs but I am now realizing I should have cast more, much, much more. With my characters slow speed, there is no way I am going to get to the mountain troll or the prone characters before something bad happens, and even if I do get there I'd have two hill giants at my back. No, I decide, my best plan of action is to get the attention of the two hill giants on me and hope the rest of the party can kill the mountain troll, or at least save the down companions. My cleric casts Righteous Might and below at the two hill giants pointing at them with his heavy, gauntlet covered hand, "You are mine!"

The unicorn manages to drag the paladin out of reach of the troll before the troll's next attack, but the rogue was not so fortunate. Again using its scent ability and a lucky roll, it manages to crush the rogue to negative hit points so badly he was within a small number of hit points before death. We did manage to regroup and finish off the giants before another character was killed. Thanks to Ethan's invisibility (no one in our party knew he was down and dying, or even where he was), my lack of foresight in spells (I could have cast Status and did not, plus a number of other buffs), and our inability to form a combat line, we lost a character.

After the session, the player decided this character was not a good fit for the game and he would rather not have his character brought back from the dead. So I role played asking my god through a divination, if my god would allow my character to bring Ethan back from the land of the dead via a Raise Dead. The answer was no - in essence you didn't really know Ethan very well, his path was not yours, and he had finally earned a reward for his unselfishness (saving the town) so leave him be and go find another more suitable to be in the company of a cleric and paladin of Torm. So my character, who is not accustomed to losing a party member under his protection, decides to build a shrine to Torm & the dead Ethan. Ethan, who he hardly knew.

It had been a while since I had played this character, had been a while since this team of characters had played together, the DM threw a goodly challenge at us, the new character took a big risk, and we just plain played poorly. The result of poor play in combat: a dead character. Ethan we hardly knew you, but you are a wake up call to the rest of the party; play better as a team or bury a character.

The dice never lie.

Creating NPCs Does Not Have To Be A Chore

2011-10-09T11:50:00.000-04:00

A common complaint in 3rd Edition D&D is that it takes so long for a DM to stat up NPCs. If a DM approaches them like a character (which can take quite a bit to build, if you are so inclined) it can certainly take a while. The first step is to stop thinking of them as a character. NPCs exist to interact, and in some cases provide challenges for the PCs. So just create what you need to fill that function. Sure, you could organically roll all the stats, assign skill points, carefully select gear within the assigned GP limits, and consult all the description tables but.... why? Many NPCs will only get fleeting interaction with the party, some will be slain by the party, and only a small number will go on to be long term friends, contacts or enemies of the party. As a DM you have way too much to do to get bogged down in this minutia.

I'll share with you one of my approaches to this handling NPC creation.

First step - don't roll stats. Use a standard array and assign as you like.

Is it just a peasant quality? 11, 11, 11, 10, 10, 10
Is it someone exceptional? 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8
Is it someone elite? 15, 14, 13, 12, 10, 8
Don't like one of the results? Arbitrarily change it.

Second step - don't roll skill points. Skill ranges for NPCs exist to provide challenge or help for the PCs. Just put them where you need them.

Need a skill role on the fly? Modify a d20 roll by 1/2 their hit die + appropriate attribute score
Want them to greatly proficient in a skill? Make a note in their stat block for that skill is equal to their level + 3 + appropriate attribute score
Want them to be an expert in a skill? Same as above but make it +6, assumes they burned a feat

Also the 1/2 hit die plus appropriate attribute score works great as an on the fly modifier when you don't know the modifier for any monster or challenge. Don't spend minutes looking or calculating something.

Next make a few notes about equipment you want them to have, beyond what is typical. Assign a few personality traits and other useful information. There are loads of random tables to be had online, or in your DM guides. I often refer to my treasured, old 1E DM guide for random tables to help me out when I feel stuck, or just want to mix things up.

Assign hit points based on the hit dice, Con bonus & how tough you want the NPC to be.

Give them a name. Sometimes if feels like the bane of a DMs existence is when a player, during an unimportant and routine interaction with the world wants to know, "What is the bartenders name?" Many years ago I came across a document created by some wonderful, sharing, caring individual out there (ironically, I don't know their name) which was just a list of hundreds of names. I printed it out, and keep it in the back of my DM notebook. When I use a name, I cross it out.

Done. Notice, I don't roll much (or at all) in NPC creation. Don't get me wrong, I have lots of dice and like to roll them. However, I am a busy guy and this is not the place where rolling really makes any difference. The process should only take a few minutes, and with practice you can do it on the fly when an unexpected need for an NPC arises.

If the NPC survives to become a longer term piece of your campaign, just add more notes as you go along. Make up stuff as you go along, but don't forget to add it to your stat block notes. Players love the consistency when NPCs 'remember' something about the last time they encountered them, and are put off when one day the NPC is bald and the next time they see them they have a full head of hair. Its the little things - if you describe something, write it down.

I acknowledge if you are playing a version of an RPG where character creation is a very simple process, then some of this is not pertinent for you. Other parts you might find useful. I'm always interested in hearing about your tips or tricks which improves NPC building.

The dice never lie. (but only use 'em when you need 'em)

Role Playing: Sometimes Its The Little Moments

2011-10-04T21:06:00.000-04:00

In our last adventure we come across some dead elves in a clearing, being munched on by some over-sized owl bears. We dispatched the owl bears, not out of revenge or outrage, but just to get them out of our way. These elves were nasty and are our enemies.

Disappointed that we were not the ones to find the elves first and learn information we badly need, my half orc cleric decides to burn some spells to see if we can learn something the divine way. He casts speak with dead on the first dead elf, and gets no response as apparently the dead creature makes its save.

There are several other elf bodies around, so the next step is to try the spell again with my last remaining spell slot of the necessary level. Wrong. The next step is a 30 second role play moment.

Angry, my character composes himself to let his better nature rule the moment. His better nature fails. Enraged, he screams and hurls the dead elf into a nearby tree. (My character has an absurdly high strength) Now he moves onto the next dead elf.

I was just reading the write up from the last adventure (Thanks Brian!), and couldn't help but laugh at that little bit of my over acting. It is both fun and important to role play the big scenes when the DM brings out the NPCs and the reveal moments. However, don't forget to role play the little moments along the way which keep your character from being a card board cut out.

The dice never lie.

Scotch-a-palooza - where Barad tastes six single malts from the cellar

2011-09-30T22:17:00.000-04:00

I usually have more than one single malt Scotch whisky bottle in the collection at a time. Due to an amazing sale plus a visit from an old and dear friend, I find myself with six different single malts at the same time. Combine that with an open evening at the lake house, and I make the somewhat questionable decision to have my own six scotch tasting.

Anyone looking to me as some Scotch tasting expert should immediately wipe that gnotion from their head. I am a hack who happens to enjoy single malt Scotch. My nose and palate have been known to vary greatly from day to day, and I'm heavily influenced by food, mood and even the music playing in the back ground. With that out of the way, the Ipod on shuffle, here we go.

I tasted them in an order determined by me, tasting what I expected was the mildest flavors first and working my way up to the stronger whisky later. I only related the tastes and smells I can clearly identify, all six of these fine drinks has a large number of subtle smells and tastes which are usually just beyond my ability to name.

Dalwhinnie 15 year. Color: this was the palest of the six, with a very light gold or straw color. Nose: Some kind of fragrant plant, I think it was heather. I also detected faint pears. Taste: Pepper, hint of smoke, some spice and herbs.

Glenfiddich 12 year. Color: very pale amber, this was darker than the Dalwhinnie & Scapa. Nose: All I could pick out was faint honey. Taste: There were a number of things going on here but all I could pick out was lightly buttered, slightly burnt toast. It was not bad as I make it sound.

Scapa 16 year. Color: very pale amber, only slightly darker than the Dalwhinnie. Nose: It was very subtle, I got some apricot, some kind of spice I couldn't name and maybe white pepper. Taste: Buttery with some hints of cocoa and caramel.

Balvenie Doublewood 12 year. Color: Rich amber, only the Lagavulin was darker. Nose: Fruity, sweet with a hint of vanilla. Taste: Notes of spiciness, sweet, smoky and butter.

Lagavulin 16 year. (I accidentally grabbed this as #5 - I had meant this to be #6) Color: Deep amber almost caramel, darkest of the six. Nose: Strong peat and smoke with vanilla. Taste: Strong peaty smoke, sea, dry wood, faint toffee with a spicy finish.

Laphroaig Quarter Cask. Color: Amber, darker than the Glenfiddich, lighter than the Balvenie. Nose: Smoky peat and sea smells. Taste: Very smoky, fleeting buttery fudge and spices.

This tasting was much more work than I anticipated (... it seemed like a good idea at the time...). The nosing was much harder than I expected with six glasses of Scotch on the table. The color comparison required me to get some white background because I placed the glasses on a honey maple table. I almost mixed up the glasses multiple times because I didn't mark them, simply put them in front of the bottles. The concentration of attempting to discern the tastes of that many different drinks back to back was not as fun as I had hoped. And lastly, even though I expected it to happen, palate fatigue made it harder to taste the Whisky. I don't think I'll be doing six at a time again. I much rather enjoy them one at a time.

So which one was my favorite? Well, that is not an easy one to answer. However, I won't completely pull a cowardly retreat and make some qualitative comments.

The Glenfiddich was my least favorite. I tend to like my whisky with more character, and this whisky was a bit on the bland side and might be hard to differentiate from a blend. A good whisky for someone new to single malt. In general the 'Glens' tend to be my least favorite whisky.

Dalwhinnie is a nice whisky, and I would definitely recommend it for someone just getting into Scotch to compare to a blend.

Scapa is a very nice whisky but I would only recommend it for someone with a discerning palate as the tastes are very subtle.

Balvenie Doublewood has long been one of my favorite Scotch whiskys. I feel it has some very rich and varied tastes for a 12 year whisky, and provides a lot of value for the money. Not as strong a taste as the next two, but definitely on the top of my recommendations

Laphroaig Quarter Cask is higher in alcohol content than the others, had more wood contact, and definitely has character. If you like your whisky heavy on the peat and smoke and have not tried this little gem, you are missing out. If you like blended Scotch whisky, you won't like this.

Lagavulin is much like the Laphroaig, but more refined. Still smoky and peaty, but I think there are more subtle tastes involved. Perhaps it is not surprising as this is aged longer than the Laphroaig. Also like the Laphroaig, if you prefer blends you might want to avoid this. If you are a blend fan and want to see what is all the interest in these hearty whiskys, I'd recommend this one over the Laphroiag.

That is it for now, all this typing has made me thirsty. Since I am already a little bit palate fatigued I think I'll go back to the Lagavulin.

Cheers!

Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers

2011-09-27T22:02:00.002-04:00

I have long been a Refreshments fan. Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy is one of my favorite albums and while Bottle & Fresh Horses is not as good, it is still solid and a fun listen. Many people only know of them as the band which played the King of the Hill theme song. The leader of the Refreshments, Roger Clyne, along with another member of the band (the drummer I think) went on to start a new band after the Refreshments called Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers.

We went to see RCPM on September 22 at the Showcase Live next to Gillette stadium. RCPM does not appear to get out east very often or for long, so we did the 1 1/2 drive down from our neck of the woods to see them for the first time.

The band plays solid rock and roll with a Tex/Mex flavor. The music is lively, the lyrics are often witty and self depreciating, and the execution is tight though none of the musicians are virtuosos. Roger does have a strong voice, but often he falls back on hoarse yelling rather than singing which is not a criticism so much as just a description. The yelling seems to fit, as sort of a punctuation to the tale being told; after all it is rock and roll.

The venue was fine. The show was not sold out, though I am not sure what that would have looked like anyway since it was a general admission show. It was an upscale club and we spent plenty of pesos on food and drink (and more drink).

I am not familiar with much of the band's new material since becoming RCPM. However, they sounded like the Refreshments to me, so the style has not changed much - which for me is a good thing. Some bands sound very different live vs. on their recordings, not so with these guys as the sound at the show was very similar to the sound on the albums - again good for me. They played about five songs off the Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy album, capturing most of my favorites, and played one or two off of Bottle & Fresh Horses. I certainly would have been happy if they had played the whole Fizzy album, but I was happy with what they did do. They have a new album released this past spring, so they featured a number of songs off that album - but not overwhelmingly so.

Overall, I was pleased with the show. The band holds up very well live, and Roger is an excellent front man. There were no surprises, good or bad, apparently with these guys once you know them you get what you expect. Lots of tequila flowed, both on and off stage, and we all rejoiced every time Roger tossed back a shot and flung the glass backwards over the amps.

I'll cut to the chase - good show, fun time, cool band. Go buy the Fizzy Fuzzy Big & Buzzy album. Enjoy it with several shots of good tequila. Remember what Roger says, "Well, I got the pistol, so I get the Pesos. Yeah and that seems fair."

Cheers.

Keeping the adventure alive

2011-09-20T18:39:00.001-04:00

A little over two weeks ago a dear old friend & gaming partner came for a week plus visit. They say you can never go home again, but I tell you when true old friends get together some things work like you were never apart. As with all good celebrations there was food and drink, retelling of old stories, and catching up of new stories. The adventures included, riding out Hurricane Irene, a camp out in the White Mountain National Forest and hike up the venerable Mt. Chocorua.

We did manage to get in a dungeon crawl during the visit. Our friend presided as DM, with some old characters from 1E days updated for our 3.5E game, plus some new characters for those who joined us who were not part of the group back in 'the day'. I think it was as interesting for my wife and son to see my famed old wizard in action as it was fun for me to play him. The play included an Orc & Worg outdoor encounter, a sneaky Orc shaman abush, a dangerous rope bridge (which did give way after a questionable decision to bolt across it), and an interesting trap involving alchemists fire. (public service note: candle stubs pushed into the exit holes for alchemists fire in fact due little to contain the conflagration). A great time was had by all.

Some miscellaneous observations. Although there are a great number of things which are different from our 1E house ruled game to our 3.5E house ruled game - the feel of our game with the old gang was not that different. As always we didn't make it as far in the adventure as the DM expected (in our group this is true regardless of who DMs - so no slight against those behind the screen). The NPC in the game which was ostensibly our guide was well played by the DM - she was there to handle the unanswered, unexpected questions and to keep the game moving if necessary but as soon as combat/danger arrived she disappeared to leave the party to fend for themselves as it should be.

So once again we find ourselves discussing how to continue the adventure using technology. I'm interested in folks experience with tools that allow a group to gather in one location and have one or more individuals in remote locations play and DM. It was far too long since the last outing of the old team and we have pledged to keep the adventure alive; much like we keep the friendship alive.

The dice never lie

The diamond planet

2011-08-29T09:31:00.001-04:00

Great adventure ideas don't always come from our imaginations, sometimes they show up in the news.

http://news.yahoo.com/astronomers-discover-planet-made-diamond-014913051.html

Hard to top this. Great material for a sci-fi, spelljammer, or planar travel campaign. I'll have to file this away for future reference. Diamond planet, just saying it almost makes me giggle with excitement. Heh.

Buffalo Trace Bourbon

2011-08-16T20:53:00.000-04:00

As previously noted in the treasure haul, I scored some Buffalo Trace Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey. I am pleased to say this blended bourbon has character which is typically only seen in single malts.

It has a pleasant bronze/gold color, and shows well in its old style bottle. I had mine neat - no ice or water. I have to say there was complexity in the aroma as well as the palate. The aromas included vanilla, molasses and some spice. The tastes included brown sugar, spice, leather, and sort of smokiness. It certainly had the alcohol burn of a 90 proof whiskey, but it was not overwhelming or unpleasant. It is easy to drink, and a quality bourbon especially considering its price point. Recommended.

Cheers!

Al Stewart show

2011-08-07T12:40:00.000-04:00

Last weekend we went to an Al Stewart show at one of our local venues, the Tupelo Music Hall in Londonderry NH. Let me say we really like this venue. It is in a barn like structure, holds around 200 people or so, and no one is more than about 60 feet from the stage. They host artists on their way up, or those mature acts past their prime of filling huge halls. The focus is on folk, blues, rock, and here and there some related music like Celtic bands.

Al was joined on stage by Dave Nachmanoff, who appears to be Al's sideman or protege. Dave opened the show solo, and opened the second set solo. The two played acoustic guitars, with Dave providing the lead and special effects. It was an enjoyable show, and besides the little trouble the two gentlemen had keeping their guitars in tune due to the heat and humidity, there were no problems. I was only disappointed that they didn't play more of my favorite Al Stewart tunes, but what they did play was done very well. We worried the lack of orchestration would leave us unsatisfied with the music (as many of Al's recorded ballads feature liberal amounts of piano, horns, stringed instruments, etc), but the two pulled it off quite well.

Among my favorites were Lord Grenville, a superb version of On The Border, and of course the signature Year Of The Cat. Dave's guitar work was just excellent on a number of songs and really brought the feel of the original recordings to the live venue. Dave obviously idolizes Al, and the two gave us quite a bit of good natured banter between songs. Al also told a number of interesting antidotes about where the songs came from or his earlier life and how he came to be where he is now; these were almost always prompted by Dave so there is another pitch for what he brings to the show.

At the heart of it, Al Stewart is a folk musician. Listening to his recorded catalog one may forget that, with all the orchestration and big hit ballads. Many of the songs played that evening were old folk tunes he had written and played in his youth, and he likes to haul them out during his shows. There is apparently no fixed set list, Al decides what he wants to play and Dave has to figure out what it is and jump in. It was quite humorous at times. Al was lively enough for a guy (by my rough calculations) pushing 66 years young.

I like that Al writes songs about quite a variety of topics, and is not stuck in the rut many song writers are stuck writing about lost love. More importantly I like how Al paints pictures in my head. His words may not resonate for everyone, but for me his ability to create a striking image in just a few carefully crafted sentences is magical. For example, take these lines from Year Of The Cat:

"She comes out of the sun in a silk dress running, Like a watercolor in the rain"

"She doesn't give you time for questions, As she locks up your arm in hers
And you follow 'till your sense of which direction, Completely disappears
By the blue tiled walls near the market stalls, There's a hidden door she leads you to"

And then there is On The Border:

"The wind whips up the waves so loud, The ghost moon sails among the clouds, Turns the rifles into silver on the border"

Oh, and in Road To Moscow we get lines like these:

"Two broken Tigers on fire in the night, flicker their souls to the wind"

"And the evening sighs and the steely Russian skies go on forever"

I find he is a good role model for cleverly turning a sentence. Painting your picture in just a few sentences is powerful and it keeps the attention of your audience. I try where I can to remember this lesson whether I am writing in my work, or creatively for stories, or as a GM in my games.

Wild Horse Vineyard Pinot Noir 2008

2011-07-30T07:53:00.000-04:00

The pinot noir grape is a very fussy fellow. Done well it has an amazing range of subtle tastes and is quite enjoyable with many food types or by itself. Done poorly, it comes across as expensive grape juice. Based on my experience, any pinot noir done well and had for less than $20 a bottle is a gem.

In that criteria, the 2008 Wild Horse Pinot Noir I had is a gem. It is a Central Coast wine and exhibits a mild amount of the trademark pinot noir earthiness. It is light bodied, as you would expect from a pinot noir, well balanced, and had hints of vanilla (probably from the oak aging). The primary flavor here is a light berry, for me it came across as fresh strawberry - though your taste buds may find that slightly different. My guess is this vintage would have benefited of a few more years laying down (which we never do - drink 'em if you got 'em). At our local state liquor store the list price was $20, but we scored it on sale for $14.

Casually recommended @ $20, highly recommend for the price on sale.

Cheers!

I took the Gygax quiz and all I got was this html code

2011-07-27T17:22:00.000-04:00

Barad T Gnome took the Hardest Gary Gygax Quiz in the World and got 50%!

You are a Gary Gygax Swashbuckler. You are cunning in the ways of Gary Gygax. You've probably been to Gen Con once or twice, and if I searched your house, I bet I'd find a Gary Gygax autograph, a humorous D&D-related T-shirt, and/or a stack of Dragon magazines.

Paladin Code: You completed this quiz without using Google.

Embarrassing really. I got an easy one wrong cause I typed without thinking. The really hard ones I had no idea cause I never read Gygax novels. Cross my heart I did it without Google.

Breaking The Barrier Of Death

2011-07-21T22:46:00.000-04:00

D&D has a number of troublesome higher level spells. Troublesome because they significantly alter how civilization would function if it were available, and therefore forces a game master to think hard about the implications to their world (or ignore it at their peril). In that definition, the various spells which can bring the dead back to life qualify as troublesome.

Some game masters completely remove the spells. I don't like that solution for a number of reasons, one of which is it removes a power from the clerics that is part of the D&D flavor. Some game masters let it run rampant and are not troubled by the impact on the flavor of the game. If it were that readily available, you would never have a ruler, rich noble, or otherwise wealthy and powerful individual die from anything other than old age. This could be the source of a number of problems in game, especially if you desire a rich and interesting setting of cultures and civilization.

How would the returned to life individual feel if they had been removed from their benevolent eternal reward? How might they be different if their reward was not so benevolent? What about the death experience, would they behave differently in attempt to avoid or not in the future? Would they be angry at those who returned them to life?

What about the legal issues? If a ruler is slain, when does the next in line take command? Would there be laws controlling succession or a waiting period? What if they do not give up willingly? Laws aside, would those in succession now work to make sure their predecessor does not return? Imagine the politics of churches and clerics regarding whether they follow the laws, or get caught up in political intrigue. This problem might go down the line to any member of nobility with a title passed on by inheritance. Would the laws be different for nobility than for normal folks? It could be a negative aspect of becoming a noble.

What about the common folks? If you are killed and returned what happens to your inheritable belongings? Are you legally still the same person if you come back? Perhaps you only still own that which was buried with you, doesn't that have interesting game implications? Would wealthy parents and their children all want the same laws on the books in this regard? This doesn't even touch upon the related subject of magic enhanced longevity, which could be more than frowned upon for a number of reasons.

What about execution? Would there be laws against returning someone who was executed?

What about social stigmas? Would those returned be seen as normal folks, or would they be regarded as abominations, or akin to the undead? Or is it possible those returned would be viewed as some sort of divine messenger or avatar, both awed and avoided all the same?

There is much to consider, and a plethora of fuel for creating interesting cultures and traditions around returning from the dead. For me, I want to keep 'Breaking The Barrier Of Death' something rare and special. Typically in my game, any wealthy or powerful individual who was slain and returned would usually attempt to keep that a secret. Additionally, there are some criteria to meet to even be eligible to return. Rather than just explain it as part of the setting rules, I had the characters learn it from interacting with the world. They found this letter, from a well known and respected cleric, sent to a cleric about to be ready to learn about raising the dead:

Dear Youtharn

As you do, many young acolytes question me about using our sacred granted powers to bring back those who have left this world through death. First let me remind you that the gods grant us only a limited time on this world, and when our bodies are spent we are meant to go on to whatever rewards we have earned in this life. You may have heard of stories regarding powerful magics that prevent aging and therefore extend life. Be wary of such attempts to circumvent the god's plans for us; it can only lead to corruption and ruin.

There are powerful spells that senior clerics are granted by the gods that can breach the barrier of death. All of these spells are subject to two core canons. First, the spirit of the deceased must be willing to return. No power we understand here or in the realms of the gods can force a spirit to come back to this world against their will. Second, the barrier of death is breached only by the combined power of the cleric on this world and the boon of a god or goddess to hold open a portal to the realm of the dead. It is no small feat for mortal and immortal to breach the curtain. The natural order of life and death is not easily put aside. It is rare and unusual for the gods to spend whatever power it requires to hold open the curtain between life and death that allows the mortal cleric to call back the dead. We have come to believe that a god or goddess will only spend their powers to part the curtain of death for those with an unfulfilled destiny here on the mortal world that furthers that immortals greater purpose.

An Augury can be cast asking a particular god if they will support the opening of the curtain of death. A answer of weal indicates an immortal's willingness to support your attempt. A Divination can be cast to determine if the mortal spirit is willing to return. Neither of these spells is required to be cast to have the Raise Dead, Resurrection, or True Resurrection spell be successful. However the prudent cleric will determine in advance whether or not it is possible for their attempt to breach the barrier of death before casting these spells as the material required for the spells is consumed regardless of success or failure.

Even though their spells are sometimes alien to us, we are certain that the druids of the woods have the same limitations to breaching the curtain of death.

I pray you fortune in your studies and in carrying forth Eukko's will. Yours in his grace,

Leomark

I find this works much better for me. It allows me to have some control over who comes back without completely removing the power from the players and the clerics.

The dice never lie.

Querceto Chianti Classico Riserva 2004

2011-07-14T21:48:00.000-04:00

Had a couple of treasure halls in the last month, this Chianti came from one of the earlier ones. We enjoyed it with some semi-spicy marinara sauce over pasta shells with some grated Romano cheese. (I find it useful to know how the wine was paired, it makes a big difference)

On the high side of medium bodied, this ruby/garnet colored Chianti was quite lovely. It was nicely balanced, had enough tannins for a little structure, was dry, and had dark fruit that lasted on the palate. It was certainly ready to drink, but had enough tannins to lay down for a bit (though we never really do that - drink 'em if you got 'em). This Chianti probably could have stood up to a bit of steak with no problems. Highly recommended.

Cheers!

What Do You Do When The Rules Interfer With Your Story Line?

2011-07-11T23:15:00.001-04:00

There is an interesting discussion going on at ENworld regarding the cliche dying scene. Here. It is a good discussion, with some well reasoned opinions on both sides.

I find myself on the side of follow the rules. The DM might just be trying to build an interesting fantasy scene, with drama and pathos, and not thinking too closely about the rules. The players, ever alert to challenges & to combat evil, immediately try to intervene.

DM: You find a man on the floor. He is a bloody mess, and appears to be almost dead. He motions you to come closer with a great effort while his life blood oozes readily to the floor. As you approach, he starts to speak in a faint, almost inaudible voice-
Player (interrupting): I cast a cure spell on him.
DM (surprised): Er... Um... no, he is too far gone for that. He does manage to whisper in his dying breath, "Beware the bearer of the Ruby Cup....."
Player: Wait... He was still alive and could speak but my spell didn't work?
DM: Um... Yes. Well, No. You just think you were too late.
Player: That is awfully suspicious. I cast detect magic. Do I sense any residual magics here preventing my cure from working? Then I cast detect evil. Lastly I check the corpse to make sure it is real. You know, not an illusion or something else. This is really strange. Next I -
DM (interrupting): No, really, you just were too late.
Player: That makes no sense. If he could speak, then why couldn't I save him.
DM: Listen, don't make such a big deal of it. It was just a death scene to give you information. Lets move on.
Player: Oh. Ok, I guess.

I'll quote ENworld poster Nagol, "To the DM, it’s just a bloody death scene. For the players it is a situation where their expectations for in-game effect do not match with observed effect. As far as the players are concerned this could be a CLUE."

Its not like I have never painted myself into a corner and had to come up with feeble, "just because", excuses in game. However, I find them unsatisfactory. The verisimilitude is broken if you have to move between the dramatic scenes where the rules don't function, and the scenes where players can use their skills, abilities and clever ideas to achieve an outcome. Sure, you can agree that when the DM is wearing the moose antlers you just enjoy the dramatic scene, and when he is not, you get to play. I am sure that works fine for lots of folks, and at times I may put on the moose antlers myself, but overall I try to let the players play. Even if that means they mess up my dramatic scene. That just means I should have planned it better.

There are rule ways to handle some of these kinds of issues. And in this case when I say rules, I mean more like how the world functions rules. Next time I'll write about coming back from the land of the dead.

The dice never lie

Big Treasure Haul At Local Liquor Store

2011-07-09T16:47:00.001-04:00

Apparently they are relocating the store; everything was 25% off. Scored some Scapa and Lagavulin single malt scotch, Buffalo Trace bourbon, Presidential port, and almost two cases of wine. Future blog reviews coming down the road when I crack them open. Huzzah!

Female Armor

2011-07-05T21:49:00.000-04:00

Humor.

Demons and Wizards

2011-07-03T12:19:00.000-04:00

A friend of mine and fellow gamer recently went to a Uriah Heep show. He sent me the set list, and it triggered loads of memories. The list included 'Easy Livin', 'Rainbow Demon, and 'The Wizard'.

What is not to love about the Demons and Wizards album? This was Uriah Heep's 4th album, released and went gold in 1972. Great artwork by Roger Dean on the cover followed by solid rockin' with loads of fantasy lyrics.

Easy Livin', arguably the Uriah Heep's most well known song in the U.S., is a catchy, hook laden pop-rock song. Even though it is a bit shallow, I still like it after all these years.

The Wizard is a soulful and altruistic ballad worthy of bard entertaining a noble audience. The tale of a chance meeting with a wizard to a thousand kings, wearing his cloak of gold, flashing his eyes of fire, and living far off in a mountain somewhere.

Rainbow Demon is an ominous tune, almost dirge like in places, with lots of imagery. Electric guitars, organ, & drums all pounding out a classic rock archetype ripe for planting seeds of adventures in the heads of scheming game masters.

And in this game master that seed found fertile soil. Probably some ten years after the albums release I took those fledgling ideas and turned them into a campaign. The bad guys were going to summon a demon to lead an army to crush the good people of the island and subjugate them forever under tyranny and general foulness. The named demon, know colloquially to the evil summoner's as the Rainbow Demon, was foretold in a prophesy by a long deceased mad hermit. The party had some evidence which gave a certain credence to the hermit's pronouncements and thus the campaign began. They had to search out a number magical items which if the somewhat ambiguous prophecy was to be believed, could be used in a proper sequence to defeat the demon. These items included the Mace of Khanhazbee, the Ring of Azraq, the Wand of Belatan, the Dagger of Glass, and the Gnomon of the Fates. The prophesy also indicated who needed to wield the items, again in somewhat cryptic language - The Dagger of Glass thrown by half a man, The Ring of Azraq worn by one from under land.

This was only a few years into our gaming experience, and was easily the most ambitious campaign I had yet devised and optimistically hoped to execute. Unbeknownst to the players, the language was both cryptic and ambiguous to allow some versatility in execution. The demon was designed to be a foe the players could not hope to defeat without special help. And yet, I had to leave some room for error. They failed in their quest to gain the last item - the Gnomon of Fates for example. The prophecy stated the timing of fighting the demon was known by no man; later they determine it was a translation problem and set out to find the Gnomon. Without this last item, they found another solution in the high priestess casting divination to determine the correct time. The ring absorbed a limited amount of fire damage and ideally was to be worn by a dwarven fighter who had the best saves against the demons flaming whip. The dagger of glass would temporarily turn whoever was struck by it into living glass, and susceptible to being shattered by a burgeoning instrument of great power which is where the mace came in. The wand was a mass teleport device which allowed the party to get past the army of ogres, orcs and goblins and right to the demon at their full strength.

In the end, even though the halfling with his high dexterity missed the demon with his first throw and had to recover and throw again, even though cleric didn't hit on his first attack, even though the dwarf was nearly out of hit points after using up the ring and with him gone the party would have quickly succumbed to the demon, the demon's worldly form was shattered sending her back to the pits and saving the island from unspeakable torment. After all, the dice never lie.

It all starts from a little seed. The more colorful and imaginative the seed the better. And today is only yesterday's tomorrow.

The drone of swarming stirges may be the last thing you hear

2011-06-25T19:52:00.000-04:00

I like the idea of those nasty blood sucking creatures called stirges, but always felt there should have been a different implementation of them. Cristian over at Destination Unknown posted his Gurps take on stirges, which triggered sharing one of my takes on the beasts.

Green Winged Swamp Stirge

Green Winged Swamp Stirges are smaller than their larger cousins, being only 8” long on average and weighing approximately ¼ of a pound.. These stirge’s coloration is grey green wings and back with a dirty yellow underside. The proboscis is pink at the tip, fading to gray at its base.

Hit Dice: 9d8
Initiative: +8
Speed: 10ft crawling/30ft flying
AC: 22 (+8 size, +4 dex), touch 22, flat footed 18
Attack: Swarm 2d6
Space/Reach: 10'/0'
Special Attacks: Distraction DC 13
Special Qualities: Low light vision, immune to weapon damage, swarm traits
Saves: Fort +7, Ref +7, Will +4
Abilities: Str 1; Dex 18, Con 10, Int 1, Wis 12, Cha 6
Skills: Hide +20, Spot +4, Listen +4
Feats: Improved initiative
CR: 5

One individual of these creatures poses little danger, however they are rarely found alone. These creatures travel in large swarms which are quite deadly to living creatures. Like their larger cousins, these diminutive stirges feed on blood.

Each swarm of the Green Winged Swamp Stirges numbers approximately 5000 of these creatures. During most of the day, the attach themselves to the underside of leaves, branches, grasses and the like waiting to surprise passing creatures. Shortly after sunset they go out in search of prey for an hour or two. When in flight, they make a low pitched droning noise, created by the beating of thousands of wings. This is a terrifying sound to those who know what is to shortly follow. It is not unusual for there to be more than a single swarm seeking prey together or hiding side by side in the swamp. A swarm of these creatures will happily feed on a creature until it is completely drained of blood.

Each swarm fills a 10' cube. Diminutive swarms are immune to weapon damage. Swarms take +50% damage from area attacks & spells. A swarm does automatic damage to any creature whose space they occupy at the end of their move.

A lit torch swung as an improvised weapon deals 1d3 points of fire damage per hit. A weapon with a special ability such as flaming or frost deals its full energy damage with each hit, even if the weapon’s normal damage can’t affect the swarm. A lit lantern can be used as a thrown weapon, dealing 1d4 points of fire damage to all creatures in squares adjacent to where it breaks.

Distraction (Ex): Any living creature that begins its turn with a stirge swarm in its space must succeed on a DC 13 Fortitude save or be nauseated for 1 round.

To Cast or Crush?

2011-06-11T21:30:00.000-04:00

Our next session is tomorrow. We have just defeated some extra tough bug bears apparently arranged by some very naughty elves. We are pretty much decided to heap vengeance upon these miscreants as long as we can locate them. Which is not exactly a sure thing when tracking elves in the deep forest.

As we contemplate our next actions, I try to think how my character will contribute to the vengeance. He is a rather dim witted but very wise cleric of Torm. He also happens to be a half-orc with a 20 strength sporting some serious armor, shield and a nasty hand-and-a-half sword. It is not the roll play elements which I am considering, I am quite comfortable with that. Neither is it whether I am willing to be a supportive player or not; as a cleric I always look to make sure my party members are in good stead before leaping in myself. What has me thinking is about the change from low level characters to higher level characters.

At the earliest levels, we are accustomed to worry about every combat because a few wayward rolls can easily put you in trouble. As the characters progress, the additional hit points and other improvements make the characters quite durable. We should easily be able to throw ourselves into most problems, and still be able to survive a mistake or two, or even arrange a hasty retreat if we are not managing to win the day. No I am talking about stinginess with spells. At the lower levels the spell cast must hoard her spells. If she expects to have three, four or even five encounters before she has an opportunity to restore spell capacity she must carefully weigh each encounter wondering, is it now, or do hold these until later? Wait too long and the encounter turns against the party. Use them all too early and leave yourself vulnerable later. Spell casters practice this carefully if they, and their companions, are to survive and thrive.

A funny thing happens as you move up in levels, you get lots of spells. The ratio of spells available to each encounter changes drastically. Instead of wondering if you should cast a spell this round, you are more likely wondering which spell to cast this round.

My cleric is 9th level. With spells per level, ability bonuses, and domain spells included, he can cast about 25 spells before a restore. Now in practice, if you have consumed all your most powerful spells and have only a few low level stragglers, you probably don't wait until you have no spells left to restore. However, if a typical combat encounter lasts 6-10 rounds, that still means he can easily use four or more spells in each of four encounters and still have a few for between combats for knowledge, curing or pre combat buffs. This is vastly different thinking than in the early stages of character development.

Now, additionally for the cleric of Torm, there is the challenge of cast or crush. He is a decent combatant with a weapon, and especially so if he applies some of the individual combat buffs upon himself. From a role playing perspective, he likes to crush. Tactically, he has reached the point where it is much more important that he cast spells, and then step in and fight. Lastly, because he is a outfitted with heavy armor, battlefield position is difficult to maintain due to his slow speed.

It is not really all that much of a conundrum, it is more of a rhetorical question. I know what I need to do. I need to become a spendthrift with my spells, make decisions quickly, make no mistakes in battle field position, and then near the end of the combat use my weapon to slay the enemies of Torm with ruthless efficiency. It is just remembering that I am no longer a low level character hoarding the precious few spells, and breaking the previously life saving habit for a new one.

The dice never lie.

The Legend of Shamus McGinty's Gold

2011-06-09T21:52:00.001-04:00

In response to my post about our Western Game a fellow blogger (you can find one of his blogs here) recommended, and then generously mailed me the hard cover version of I. J. Parnham's The Legend of Shamus McGinty's Gold. (Thanks again Chris)

I used the opportunity of a business trip to have time to read it. It is a short read as well as an easy page turner. I have not read much of the western fiction genre. Most of my experience would be from non-fiction and from Hollywood movies. Therefore I cannot compare this to other fiction writers works. I can say it was a pleasant read; you don't have to work hard to follow the story line. It is not a story in the style of the great western movie, but that is not necessarily a bad thing.

It is a quaint little story with interesting characters, clever twists and turns, and an underlying moral which doesn't spoil a good tale. It is family friendly, so just about any age could read it. It has a few action sequences involving guns, but does not glorify or gorify them. The story does move along and was finished in no time.
I wouldn't call this a classic, but I don't hesitate to recommend it as pleasant summer reading. This would be a great Western RPG adventure if someone could turn it into one... it is the kind of adventure I wished I had written... but I digress.

I think the book will pass around the house this summer, so I might add comments from the other readers.

Cheers!

Long Trail Blackbeary Wheat

2011-06-07T21:56:00.000-04:00

Although this is available year round, the Long Trail Blackbeary Wheat is really a summer beer. I find the entire Long Trail line to be on the dry side - which is fine for me because I favor crisp dry beers - and this brew is no exception being very dry even with the blackberry flavoring.

When you pour it out, there is not much head, and whatever is there does not last long. It is very pale in color, so there is not much to look upon. Given it is summer, most often I drink this right out of the bottle. There is some blackberry aroma which is pleasant. The is no doubt this is a wheat beer, that comes through quite clearly. The blackberry taste is not overpowering, but is does have a seltzer like after taste in the finish which some people might not like. Clean & fizzy, a thirst quencher and somewhat of a palate cleaner. I like it in the summer as the first beer on a very hot day, or an in between beer when changing from one style to another.

This is not an award winner, but if you like a fruit beer that has only a touch of the berry flavor and is very dry, you might enjoy these.

Cheers.

Players must worry about failure

2011-06-06T22:17:00.000-04:00

Christian over at Destination Unknown prompted this post. He writes an interesting blog over there, I recommend you check it out.

He asks, what is the point of combat. He talks about his transition of opinion regarding combat and how his monsters & NPCs will now do everything in their power to kill the PCs. In a broader view, I maintain that players must worry about failure in the adventure or the adventure is no longer fun. If the tension created by the possibility of failure is gone, where is the excitement?

Failure is not limited to combat, and the consequences of failure are not limited to death. I maintain that players fear other types of failures more than death. The loss of prestige, the loss of treasured magic items, capture, or the loss of face by a notable villain usually generate more emotion than simple death.

Al over at Beyond The Black Gate says that character deaths are fun, and one of the notable differences between new and old school FRPGs is whether characters are disposable or not. He makes a interesting point about this difference. I see that both can be fun, and have had fun both ways. However, the game I want to play regularly does not involve disposable characters. Even when 1st Edition was our primary game vehicle, we didn't favor disposable characters.

So the dichotomy is this - I want to the players to fear for the safety & success of their characters yet I don't want a revolving door of new characters. I want to the players to be attached to their characters, but not so much they will not take risks. The game is only really fun when the tension of failure is palpable, when death, loss or embarrassing failure is perceived to be a real possibility. The players only achieve satisfaction if they feel they overcame the challenges and were not saved by the DM every time they were about to fail.

When characters are low level, every encounter should be difficult. They are at the bottom of the food chain and consequently they need to behave accordingly. As they progress, logic dictates that more and more encounters should not be a challenge to them. If as first level characters they are attacked by a raiding party of Orcs, it should be a tremendous challenge to survive let alone defeat them. Once they attain higher levels that same raiding party should be a cake walk - the characters hardly breaking a sweat as they deal with the Orcs. At higher levels the characters should be seeking more difficult challenges as motivated by their character goals.

As Christian points out, the verisimilitude is broken if the players understand there is a pattern or formula that allows the characters to easily defeat the opponents in every encounter. It needs to be more random, and encounters need to be plausible. As he says, why would 5 goblins attack 5 equipped adventurers? Unless they were out of their mind rabid, they wouldn't. So that is part of the challenge, creating plausible encounters where the 'monsters' believe they will succeed in their attack on the characters and can do everything in their power to do so. Anything less is unsatisfying to the players. Victory is hollow if there was no real threat.

The real challenge for the DM is to create those balanced encounters - balanced in the way the characters feel like it is plausible for the world in which they are playing, and threatening enough to make them fear for the characters they have come to love.

The dice never lie.

Picking up where I left off four years ago

2011-06-02T19:41:00.000-04:00

We had our first session switching places, me as the player and our alternate DM behind the screen. Hard to believe it was four years ago I last played this character. I spent plenty of time updating and refreshing my memory on my character sheet. I read old adventure logs. I reacquainted myself with my character back story and motivation. I even wrote a little color update on what my character was doing since the last adventure and what upcoming decisions troubled him. Interesting when you are determining how best to handle introspection when your character has a 6 intelligence.

All that preparation and I still felt my roll playing was sluggish. I guess it takes a little bit to get back in the swing of things. Probably has to do with my being heavily invested in this character, and wanting to do it just right. The group has big expectations of him too. I am definitely over thinking it, and need to let is just flow more.

Session after session as a DM I handle NPCs with little or no problem, taking their shallow descriptions and making them seem plausible and differentiated from other NPCs. All this with little or no preparation. I also usually have no trouble role playing characters in a one shot scenario. Yes, I am definitely trying too hard to be in my character. Next session I will let it be more spontaneous.

The DM did a good job, and it was a good session overall my sluggish role playing not withstanding. We faced a number of seriously leveled up Owl Bears and were able to tactically pull together well and dispatch them even though we had not used these characters together in a long time. Funny, though, how we just take this D&D iconic monster weirdness in stride.

My character recently added the Keen ability to his hand-and-a-half sword (bastard sword by the book in D&D). Wouldn't you know that I didn't role a single critical threat all night, even though statistically I should have at least gotten one threat. Disappointing when you have a new toy and you don't get to see it in action. I did roll four consecutive 13s on a 20 sided though just to make things weird.

Although we really like playing 3.5 with our house rules, the characters are 9th level and we are seeing the beginning signs of unpleasant complication. Tracking spell durations, and all the attack/defense math with all the spells and special abilities. I'm still looking for ways to simplify the tracking/math without changing the feel too much. I have an attack matrix for my cleric that allows me to more quickly calculation his attack & damage bonuses depending on which spells have been cast. I still find that too slow. I have been thinking that some quick reference spell cards might be better - make a template with the stats in same place on each one, and then just add up the numbers of the cards in your hand when your turn comes. More thinking is in order.

There is also some conflict in the party - between the characters, not the players. One of the party members was duped into working for some bad guys, and my cleric of Torm is on the fence whether this party member is a traitor (in which case my cleric will give him a quick painful death), or a true friend that just needs to redeem himself. My player knows the truth, but my character does not. I'm trying to make the play interesting without making it unfun for the other player. It certainly makes the Elf fighter/rogue a little nervous with the half-orc cleric of Torm glaring at him on a regular basis. We'll see how it goes.

Anyway, it is fun to be back on the front side of the screen making the world to right again.

The dice never lie.

Time to switch sides of the DM screen

2011-05-17T20:36:00.000-04:00

In our gaming group we have a main regular game, and here and there we run alternates when we do not have a quorum for the main game. So for the past four years I have been in the main game DM seat. I enjoy both sides of the screen, but it has been quite a while since I was consistently on the other side and I am quite looking forward to being back among the adventuring masses.

I like to think being a DM improves my playing, and being a player improves my DMing. Though we are 'playing' the same game, and doing it all together, it is quite a different experience behind the screen. On the DM side I don't seek to win, but rather to put on a interesting, challenging and entertaining experience. There is a new thread on ENWorld where the OP as an aside raises again the (g)notion the DM loses when the players win. Balderdash! I did not post in response because everything I wanted to say sounded like thread crapping and the OP is welcome to his opinion.

Now back on the player side, I am released - I can strive to win. Of course, I will do it within the confines of the character I have created and have consideration for my fellow players. Instead of focusing of all the game elements, I will focus on what my character wants. Instead of creating multiple paths for the players to follow, my character will select a path. Instead of wondering what the players will do to my carefully crafted adventure, my character will be doing unspeakable things to the DM's carefully crafted adventure. Instead of calculating XP, I will be planning character responses to things I imagine the DM will throw at us. Yes, my character will kill things and take their stuff. Oh, and given he is a good cleric, he will save various and sundry good leaning beings and tithe heavily to the church.

All the while my characters fame and wealth grows, a small but growing itch will start again to get back on the other side of the screen. Hopefully for quite a while that itch can be soothed by running the alternate adventure nights, because I have much killing and taking to catch up on.

The dice never lie.

Western Game Shoot Out

2011-05-01T20:48:00.002-04:00

We couldn't get a quorum for our regular D&D game, so instead my son ran a one shot (pun intended) western using Sidewinder Recoiled with a few mods. The outing was based on the movie, "The Quick and the Dead". We rolled up characters (being a d20 game it always takes longer than we expect - so many fun choices) and off we went. We had no idea in advance what the adventure was, so our characters were not optimized for the adventure.

Like any good western there was a bar room brawl, gun fights in the street, and the big shoot out finale which included a bad guy getting shot dead and falling off the roof. Two of the characters entered the gun fight contest, because, what the heck, it was the adventure. Surprisingly, my character, the River City Kid, made it all the way to the final round to go up against the mayor (who looked strangely like Gene Hackman). The mayor changes the rules 15 minutes before the duel (which would indicate certain death for the Kid), and my character decides not to follow his rules any more and all hell breaks loose. Fortunately for the Kid, the other characters come to his aid, risking their lives for cinematic glory. A number of memorable moments by all characters, many of the perfect western classic type lines. In the final scene the dead mayor's Peacemaker is slammed on the bar by the Kid who says to the saloon keeper, "I believe you have my two thousand dollars." Great fun overall.

I don't hesitate to recommend Sidewinder Recoiled as a fine d20 western implementation. It is really easy to run if you already know d20, and has some nice elements to make it western specific.

The only thing we didn't do was head them off at the pass. Maybe next time. The dice never lie.

Laphroaig quarter cask

2011-04-10T08:36:00.000-04:00

Low on single malt Scotch Whisky stock in my cabinet, I dutifully headed out to the local state liquor establishment to select a bottle to replenish the inventory. All the usual suspects are there (Glen this and that) but I want something more unique and less typical. I spy a bottle labeled quarter cask which piques my interest. I read the fine print, which raises the eyebrows more than once, and then proceed to the checkout. A bottle of this golden elixir is now mine.

Laphroaig quarter cask is allegedly a throw back to a few centuries ago. This local whisky might have been transported via mule over cattle paths to avoid paying duties. (Check out the link above from the distiller, it is quite interesting) Oh, and according to Wikipedia it is pronounced lə-FROYG.

Before you open the bottle, you learn it is an Islay malt, 48% abv, with a golden amber color. Pop the cork and you are greeted with a most unusual nose. It certainly is peaty, but a muted soft peat, and perhaps a hint of the sea in the smell and then smoke. There is something else in the smell that I have been struggling to identify, almost an aromatic rubber like smell but not quite rubber. Looking for inspiration, I went to some reviews and one called it band aids. That is exactly it, there is a smell that is like a freshly opened metal box of band aids! You might think this is an unpleasant mix, but it is not.

Due to the high alcohol content, I decided to add some water. Normally, I take my Scotch neat. It was very smooth. There were tastes of sweet peat, smoke, a hint of citrus and some other tastes hovering just out of my reach. Alas, I think I added too much water. Even considering that it had a very long finish.

This is a very nice Scotch, one that will take more of my time to explore. I will take the next glass neat, and report on the findings. Even with my over watered faux pas, it was quite pleasant. I recommend you try it if for nothing more than the singular experience.

Home Brew Spell - Lesser Swap Places

2011-04-02T10:25:00.000-04:00

It is fun to add new spells to the game that add an interesting twist, rather than spells that just do damage with a different description. Here is a spell with endless possibilities which can be used on or off the battlefield. It is in 3.5E format, but it would not be hard to change it to fit your game template.

Lesser Swap Places
Conjuration (Teleportation)

Level: Wiz/Sor 2
Components: V, S

Casting Time: 1 standard action

Range: Close (25 ft. + 5 ft./2 levels)

Targets: You and one ally in range, or any two allies in range; see textDuration: Instantaneous

Saving Throw: Will negates (harmless)
Spell Resistance: Yes

You instantly swap positions between your current position and that of a designated willing ally in range. Alternatively, you can swap the positions of any two willing allies in range. This power affects creatures of Medium or smaller size. You can bring along objects that you can normally carry, but not other creatures.

The Thin Man

2011-03-28T21:43:00.000-04:00

When I travel for pleasure I usually carve out time to do some reading. In my latest travel adventure, one of the books I took with me was The Thin Man by Dashiell Hammett. If you have never heard of Dashiell Hammett, he wrote The Maltese Falcon, which was turned into what is now the more famous movie.

If you like detective noir, if you like a good story with interesting but not too deep characters, if you like a fast read and witty banter, you may like The Thin Man.

Nick Charles is a middle aged ex private detective with a rich and pretty young wife. In a gritty manner, the book walks through a short period of their lives as they are drawn into the seedy troubles of an old work associate of Nick's. The couple cheerfully drink their way from posh hotel rooms to speakeasies on the journey to solving the mystery of The Thin Man.

This book is not revelations about the depth of mankind's soul, is not an expose of hidden knowledge about New York City during prohibition, and it is not treatise on great moral problems of our day. It is a fine read, and an interesting view of what real life detective Hammett thought about life in the 1930s.

We adventure and grow characters

2011-03-26T08:55:00.001-04:00

I started following Christian over at The XP Experience and there was a post about What we do which got me thinking. Christian links to another blog (I'll let you follow the trail and leave credit for tweaking me with Christian) which discusses the following quote:

We don't explore characters--we explore dungeons.

I did a little Google-fu and the quote seems to originate with someone whose screen name was evreaux and posted on some of the old edition boards, like Dragonsfoot, a few years back. As with any good provocative quote, it could be interpreted a number of ways. I found discussion of this quote had gone on in a number of blogs and a couple of view points in particular also struck me, in an uncomfortable way.

Before I continue let me reveal my bias. I am an old school sympathizer. We played 1E for 15 years and enjoyed every minute of it. Sure we house ruled the heck out of it, who didn't. There are certain elements of older D&D that I cherish and we attempt to keep those elements in the core of how we play - regardless of edition. However I am not OSR proponent, nor am I an old school purist. I kind of like how Christian put it on his blog a couple of posts ago - I am a masher.

So back to the quote. Some folks said this sums up old school gaming perfectly. Since I don't claim to be a purist, my first reaction was not - No, you are wrong! It was more - if that is true, does that make me more or less old school? Judging by how uncomfortable the quote makes me feel in regards to describing our gaming, the answer would be it makes me less old school. But that also makes me feel uncomfortable by suggesting I have pulled far from my roots.

Do we explore characters? In some sense we do. To outwardly deny it would be untruthful. In the adventure exploring characters is not the primary goal, the primary goal is the adventure. However, as part of that we do explore our characters to some degree. However, exploring characters is not neurotic angst, nor navel gazing, nor whining, nor characters paralyzed with inaction until some internal conflict is resolved, and nor characters so dysfunctional that is derails adventuring, and nor neurotic angst. (You said neurotic angst twice. I hate neurotic angst). Perhaps it is more accurate to say we grow characters. So if we grow are characters is that somehow anathema to the spirit of old school?

Another thread suggested that old school must be roll your six stats in order with no mods and play it as rolled. OK, we all know that was the starting method and I'll grant if you are a purist there is no other true character generation method. Again, I am no purist. In some of those threads the devil is 3E with its pick your own stats method of play. But I say wait a minute.... Long before that edition was a twinkle in someones eye we were rolling 4d6 and arranging as desired for some of our games in 1E. Did that make us heathens, unclean players of AD&D, an abomination in the eyes of the old school gods? Then I must ask, why couldn't you run a 3E game and roll 3d6 in order? Well of course you can but is that old school? I will choose to not attempt an answer. Whether it is old school or not is less important than is it fun or not.

I prefer to describe how we play as - We adventure and grow characters. I do not desire static characters but character growth happens as part of adventuring not as an independent item. So we adventure first, and characters grow during adventures. You make beer out of water and grain products. Which is more important? You can spend loads of time arguing about it, but try to make beer without either one and see how far you get. You can tell me that beer is a poor analogy to my D&D game, but in my thirty plus years of gaming the two are inextricably woven together as dear friends.

So - no bad/wrong fun argument here. Just some introspection against some old school definition discussion. Why do I bother? Mostly because I want to continue to have our game evolve but stay true to the have fun part, and continue to make sure the ratio of time spent in the game to the amount of fun we have remains high.

The dice never lie. Cheers.

My Caves of Chaos Redux

2011-03-23T20:29:00.000-04:00

Last year I posted about my own little Caves of Chaos, just as the group was starting to explore it. I don't believe that most folk's games can be described fairly in just one the game tropes. I suppose mine is story/plot driven which routes through mini sandbox to mini sandbox. I have an over arching story, or more accurately, a series of parallel and over lapping plots, which have stop over points where the party can make some choices and go off in whatever direction they wish for a time. After a while, one of the over arching story elements entices them back on the plot driven train. My own little caves section is one of those sandboxes.

As noted last time, they came here with a mission, but had the latitude for a short time to be themselves. I purposefully made the area a complicated web of relationships. Every action, for good or ill, changes the balance and could have unpredictable results. The party correctly perceived the situation and has been somewhat cautious in taking actions. Of course, they could have ignored the potential complications and just plowed head first into whatever took their fancy. I am happy to have the world respond in kind, and the adventure continues.

They were successful in finding and retrieving the artifact, a two hand sword named Gray Razor. The plot train calls, and they are carefully calculating the time they have left to 'make some things right' before boarding the plot train. Since no plan survives contact with the enemy it is interesting to watch them balance contingencies against the 'oh, hell we are heroic let us just do this'. Without saying too much (and my players read the blog), I do find it fascinating they are leaning towards saving one fairly anonymous NPC of which they know almost nothing of his background, though granted it is one of the few with which they had any personal contact. It is quite typical though, it is a good party and this is an obvious and personal affront to their sensibilities and ethics. I am quite looking forward to the rescue encounter.

The characters will leave Spireholm, the plot train will move on, and the adventure will continue. The memory of the place will linger and grow, and at the proper time the plot train will pass this way again and they will have another chance to 'make things right'. Or, when I give them free time between plot driven adventures, they may choose to come back and 'save' Spireholm. Either way, I am please how it all worked out, and though outwardly Spireholm bears little resemblance to the Caves of Chaos, those caves were the seed that long ago sparked my imagination to create this sandbox.

The dice never lie. Cheers!

How the divination worked out

2011-03-13T13:51:00.001-04:00

In a number of rambling posts on divination (starting way back here) I stopped at the point where the party acted on the advice provided. It turned out between the divination, some old diary entries, the group's analysis of the situation, and some blind luck they were able to enter the tomb of the barbarian princess.

Some ancient text in the tomb warning of dire consequences further worried them about touching any of the vast amounts of wealth arrayed around the sarcophagus. The two large statues they suspected to be golems played a part in creating worry too. This group, being mostly good and somewhat lawful, decided not to rob this tomb and only took the artifact weapon as was allowed by all the history they had found. One character stated, "We are not grave robbers!" to the general amusement of the entire group. We are left to wonder if the warnings had been less dire, or the protections less impressive looking, had their alignment held - or would they have taken the treasure for the 'greater good'? The might be good fodder for an alignment post some time.

In the end, it seems the divinations proved useful and I do not feel it gave away the game or made the outings less fun. In fact, since they perceived themselves to be stuck, I think it made the game more fun by helping them move along without DM deus ex machina. It was the gods help for sure, but the players asked for it on their terms and that makes all the difference.

The dice never lie. Cheers.

Why can't we all get along?

2011-03-03T19:23:00.000-05:00

Mike Mearls the Group Manager for the D&D Research and Development team made a blog post at the WotC web page which was essentially why we should all get along.

A few clips from his post include: "These days, when we think about D&D’s past and present, we all too often think of it in adversarial tones.... Whether you play the original game published in 1974, AD&D in any of its forms, 3rd Edition and its descendants, or 4th Edition, at the end of the day you’re playing D&D.... Don’t let that details drive us apart when the big picture says we should be joined together."

Now a number of folks at ENWorld, and I am sure on other venues, responded with vitriol (I love that word, don't you?). In essence they declare that he is a mouth piece for WotC and they are primarily motivated to convince those of us who are not buying 4th Edition to all make nice and buy stuff from them.

I have spent some time deeply analyzing that and have come to a remarkable conclusion. Duh! Of course they want us to believe that. What idiot out there thinks otherwise? However, that does not make the statement untrue.

What binds us together in this hobby of D&D is greater than the differences of the game versions, house rules, or home brew campaigns all of us nut cases can possibly put together. Furthermore, I believe those who are divisive are in fact a vocal minority. I don't care what version of the game you play or why. I love hearing about your clever ideas, interesting campaign moments, idle musings and random rants. To me, it is all relevant because no matter what version of the game, or its spin offs, you are playing I find common ground with you all.

Here, I will say it. Why can't we all get along? Well, some folks don't want to get along. The rest of us are getting along just fine.

The dice never lie.

The Face of Evil

2011-02-17T20:12:00.000-05:00

I recently returned from a fabulous trip to Costa Rica. This gives me material for blogging, and explains the gap in posts. I love to travel. It gives me a wealth of personal experiences that expands my horizons. It also gives me game fodder. Places, environment, people, animals all give me interesting and insidious ideas to use as a DM.

When it comes to animals in game, I have always played them as recommended by the various editions. Animals are neutral, not good or evil, and are largely driven by simple basic instincts. The danger in animals is when a character interferes or becomes the target of one of those instincts. Otherwise, animals pose no threat and have no complex motives.

Or so I thought until I was only a few feet from The Face of Evil. The face was at one end of sixteen feet and 1,000 pounds of American Crocodile. Rationally, I knew this was just an animal with animal instincts, desires and thoughts. Rationally, I knew this creature was a simpleton, with only simple cunning, muscle and teeth to make it dangerous. Irrationally, I looked at this beast and shivered right down to the marrow in my bones (of which I am certain it was contemplating just how tasty they might be). Irrationally and viscerally, I was dead certain this evil creature was plotting my demise and inwardly getting great pleasure from it.

Since I am writing this blog and have posted these pictures you can surmise that the creature did not get to enjoy my bone marrow. It is not the first time I have seen a dangerous creature up close, there are others I can draw upon. The experience does add to my perspective to use in game, mostly from a description standpoint. When you think about fear, let us say for example, generated by the presence of dragon. The little inkling of terror that felt is just a taste of the overwhelming presence of a great wyrm!

I was relatively safe in a fiberglass boat (hah!), and there were another 40 or so delectable morsels to choose from if the crocodile decided we were lunch and could figure out how make that a reality. Therefore my odds were pretty good of coming out alive even if my evil fantasy were true. So why the terror?

I wonder if I would have felt differently had I been on the muddy shore next to this leviathan of the river.

Its long teeth lining that evil grin transfixing my gaze as it slithered closer and closer to my quivering form, all the while pretending it was large, ungainly, and slow.

Memorized and indecisive I might be, pondering my choices. Should I run? Should I fight? Should I....

Until in a moment of stunned surprise it rushes forward and - snap! Is it all over?

Time to make your saving throw. The dice never lie.

Divination, Reflecting On The Advice

2011-01-19T20:01:00.000-05:00

Interesting how sometimes post topics get away from you. I had only intended to write one divination post and here I am at number four. In my last post, I was waiting for the party to decide on their next action and wondering how they would interpret and use the results of the two divination spells.

At the end of the evening, just before breaking up, they received the second divination. They really wanted a result which did not involve heading back to civilization, and instead allowed them plunge ahead. The parting conversation was all about attempting to interpret the result as positive, or finding the trickery in the words which would allow resolution of the problem. If we had continued on that night I believe they would have rationalized going forward with the doom and death divination.

Ah, it was not to be. The gift of time between sessions had them all reflect on the results. They independently and uniformly decided the best course of action was to head back to civilization and seek the bard. At the end of the last session they had made it back to civilization, leveled up, learned more useful information, and convinced the bard (though reluctantly) to accompany them. We will see if this was wise in the end, or if they asked the correct divination questions. I may even write another post about it after it is done if it does not spoil future play.

The group decision mechanics were interesting. The frustration with the length of time it has taken to find the legendary artifact both in real and game terms has certainly played a huge part in the decisions. I find the whole thing fascinating - I hope the players are having as much fun. No spoilers for them here though - I know some of them actual read this darn blog. Besides, do not post anything on the intrawebs you do not want everyone to know.

The (less than perfect cheap dice I roll which most certainly have a bias) never lie. Cheers!

Sam Adams Chocolate Bock

2011-01-18T19:38:00.000-05:00

Samuel Adams Chocolate Bock can be located in the Sam Adams winter mix pack.

It is a brownish towards blackish color with a limited head that dissipates quickly. I was really looking forward to the smell, but I find it to be faint cocoa. I would like it more if the aroma was stronger.
It tastes slightly malty and dry (almost dusty) just before the earthy, slightly sweet cocoa taste hits you. That part is surprising and yummy. It is not particularly smooth, or deeply malty. Not much like a bock to me, very much lighter than a bock. Nice for a one off beer, the cocoa taste is quite intriguing and tasty.

I cannot see myself wanting more than one of these at a time, but I like it enough to buy another winter mix pack which is as far as I can tell the only way to get two of these at the moment.

Cheers

Samuel Adams Blackberry Witbier

2011-01-09T11:56:00.001-05:00

Sammy Adams brewery does well for me more often than they fall short, so when I saw the Blackberry Witbier on the shelf I snapped it right up.

It has a hazy yellow/gold color, more color that I typically see in a wheat beer. The first taste is the hardly hoppy at all wheat beer, followed quickly by the blackberries and spice, which fades to the only slightly bitter faintly sticky malt aftertaste. The carbonation was medium. I found it very well balanced and easy to drink. It is very dry; the blackberries only provide a fleeting sweet note.

I enjoy a berry wheat style beer, so I favor this style when it is dry like this. I like and recommend this brew, but not for just this style all night (if you happen to be one of those who will drink more than 1 or 2). I found that I enjoyed 1 or 2 of these either as the first beer, or as a palate cleanser between changing beer styles.

Cheers.

I Read Some Raymond Feist

2010-12-30T19:25:00.001-05:00

A number of people whose opinions I respect think he is a fine author and worthy of my reading time. Looking for a little recreational reading, I endeavored to read some Raymond Feist.

Years ago I played the computer game Betrayal at Krondor. I thought the game was mostly fun but was unsatisfied by the plot line. At the time I chalked it up to the challenge of applying literature thinking to game design. This summer I borrowed a copy of Krondor: The Betrayal. I read roughly about a third of the way through the book and put it down. Permanently. I have probably only done that a half dozen times in my life. At this point in my life I am less tolerant of books which do not reach an enjoyment threshold than I was in earlier times in my life. This can easily be attributed to the various pressures on my time and the scarcity of reading time.

Why did I not enjoy Krondor: The Betrayal? Quite simply, neither characters nor plot engaged me. I found the prose did not create pictures in my head.

First week of December we did an island visit; it was a vacation escape from the cold. Looking for reading material, I am advised Krondor: The Betrayal is not one of Feist's better books and am recommended to try the Conclave of the Shadows series. Further advised that the first two books go together and the third is optional, I pack borrowed copies of Talon of the Silverhawk and King of Foxes.

They were better but still I find them wanting. I never felt the characters progressed beyond two dimensional caricatures. They never felt like real people to me, I was unable to relate to them. The plot wandered like a pick your own adventure book. Powerful background characters acted like omnipotent plot fixers, much like deus ex machina. The plot fixers had knowledge the characters in the book and the readers never get to know. They are just smarter than all of us. I will try not to spoil the series but at one point the central character suffers a debilitating and supposedly permanent injury, which later is 'cured' by the omnipotent plot fixers.

I did read complete the two books while on vacation. The good news is I did not put them down. I do not think I will be reading any more Feist though. As the old saying goes, his books are apparently not my cup of tea.

Divination, not the answer to who, when & where

2010-12-26T12:50:00.001-05:00

So, to summarize what I said previously - we want a Divination to give useful advice commensurate to the level of the spell being consumed without spoiling a good time by solving the adventure outright.

In my current campaign the party is in search of a powerful artifact/weapon. They have found an ancient city in ruins occupied by a combination of humans, humanoids and nasty creatures in an uneasy and shifting balance. They have reason to believe the artifact is in the city, hidden in the tomb of the original owner. They have reason to believe they need a descendant of that owner, one of her bloodline, to overcome the protections surrounding the artifact. They have reason to believe those protections are potent and dangerous. They have a lead on a solution, but it is inconvenient. They decide they want to find an alternate solution. So far so good; I like it when they use their heads.

So they decide to ask the gods. Priestess, fire up the Divination spell! Now what to ask.... The first thought was "where and who is the closest bloodline and how do we overcome the protections on the artifact?"

Rather than just let them try the question and have it fail, I maturely interject as DM. "Bzzzzzzzttttt, sorry that will not work." Disappointed and confused look from the player. So then I take a little time to explain the limits of Divination. 'Similar to augury but more powerful, a divination spell can provide you with a useful piece of advice in reply to a question concerning a specific goal, event, or activity that is to occur within one week.' More confused looks. I followup with examples of what successful and unsuccessful divination castings might look like; your character would have had some training at the temple and this is what you would know. More player discussion ensues and they finally decide on the question.

“If we return to Penchawn to get the bard Faynie, is it our only chance to retrieve Gray Razor?”

The response is as follows: Tula's children were few, and what still lives are spread far and wide. No path is certain, and no path is sure. A journey to Penchawn to seek the bard may yield what you seek through wise actions and honeyed words.

They think long and hard about this and decide, for now, they do not want to take the time to go all the way back to Penchawn. They decide there must be a solution here in the ruined city. So they set about finding the small pockets of humans left in this ruined mess. At one stop, a middle aged man named Escovar claims to be in the bloodline of the artifact owner, a famous barbarian princess. The party, ever suspicious, decides another Divination is in order.

"If Escovar joins us in our quest will we be able to obtain Gray Razor?"

The response is as follows: A cloud of doom hangs over this action. The path remains dangerous and the vision of death is imminent.

They decide against sharing this little bit of good news with Escover, telling him they will get back to him. Away from Escovar they have a long discussion about the meaning of this divination. Perhaps there is just trickery in the words, and the vision of death is simply the occupant of the tomb. Ever confident, they discuss their chances of figuring out how to overcome the danger called out in the divination. After all, the divination did not say absolutely it would not work and they would all die. Next outing I find out what they decide as their next action.

Ah, the fun I have with Divination.

Merry Christmas and Thanks

2010-12-23T21:43:00.001-05:00

I have been otherwise occupied for the last few weeks, so I have not made time for a post. I plan to catch up next week. I had been busy with an island vacation, work, and holiday preparation.

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas and hope you can enjoy it with friends and family. Thank you all for reading, commenting, and fellow bloggers for their interesting musings. Best to you all.

Here is a link to an old post of mine, a meager attempt at humor. This was originally written for my PBP group and updated slightly for the blogosphere. The Night Before Christmas, D&D blogger style.

And last but not least - Yes, VIRGINIA, there is a Santa Claus.

Divination, lead me to the treasure

2010-11-25T13:48:00.002-05:00

OK, so I got side tracked in the last post. (the evils of Google) What I really wanted to write about was Divination in a game. Since we play a house ruled 3.5 I will be referring to the actual spell. However, the concept of having divine or arcane magic which can provide useful information towards solving the in game challenge vs. just how much the DM reveals without spoiling the fun is not limited by edition.

I have read via the interwebs some DMs suggest simply striking the spell from the available lists. I do not subscribe to such an action. Divination has a rich history in literature and my game draws much from literature. My homebrew is not a copy of some literary world but rather draws on elements that are common in literary worlds, and hence gives a familiar feeling to the players. Removing divination type magic would would degrade that familiarity. Additionally, I like to use NPCs with divination abilities in the homebrew. Knowledge is power, even if that knowledge is limited or flawed. I like the interplay of the diviners selling their wares as absolute knowledge while the buyers of such knowledge are skeptical and yet fearful to ignore the potential such knowledge could bring. If they NPCs can use divination magic, then so should the players.

I have stricken spells from the game. I have not done so without careful thought about how it impacts my homebrew, and I do it very sparingly. Players choose a class expecting to have the abilities as stated (my house rules are written and public to the players so there is no surprise), and are disappointed to lose those abilities. There may be a sense of making the character less valuable.

So, what is the problem with Divination? Inevitably a character would like to cast the spell and ask: "Did Varalak the High Priest murder King Coriant?", "Where does this magical portal lead?", "What terrible creature guards the treasure in the temple?", "Which hallway leads to the captive princess?". Thank you for calling 1 800 ASK A GOD. We are sorry, due to convoluted rules we are not at liberty to explain why your query cannot be answered and your spell is still consumed. We look forward to serving you in the future in the service of your god. Be sure to watch your alignment. Have a nice day.

The conversation between Omnipotentia, the all knowing goddess of knowledge and the DM go something like this.
Omnipotentia - "Look, I know the answer to the priest's question. She's been true to her alignment, she risked her life in my service five times last week, and giving her this bit of direct knowledge unequivocally advances my goals as goddess of knowledge. What gives with me having to give some vague answer, that can be taken ambiguously, to this loyal servant?"
DM - "I have spent a pant load of time putting this adventure together so the players pulling the puppet strings on your follower will have a good time. I am not about to have them solve the adventure with a simple spell casting in the first five minutes of the game. It is not satisfying for them, and would really piss me off."
Omnipotentia - "It just doesn't seem right. I mean, you go on about verisimilitude in your game and-"
DM - interrupting "Listen, I hear a loyal follower of Discordia the goddess of death, destruction, and generally uncouth behavior using a divination asking the goddess for the secret to slaying the goddess of knowledge. Maybe you are right, maybe this is the time to start answering those questions with full disclosure. You know a god war might be an interesting twist to this campaign....
Omnipotentia - "I am starting to see you point of view. Let me get my thesaurus."

At the heart of it, Divination should give some useful advice but should not solve the adventure. Seems simple right? First off the players struggle with what to ask knowing 1 800 ASK A GOD will only answer a properly limited and formatted question. Next, those darn players will spring a Divination question when you least expect it. Now you have to come up with a cleverly written response which gives just just enough advice without spoiling the adventure. No wonder some DMs squirm at this point. I rather like it though, it keeps me on my toes.

Next post, I'll talk about my most recent experience with Divination in game.

Astral Projection & Divination

2010-11-15T19:35:00.000-05:00

After playing D&D for over 30 years, today I discover there is real magic in these books. I kid you not. I was doing a Google search on divination and I came across a website with instructions on how to force Satan or demons (it didn't specify how you know which, perhaps that was on another page) out of a persons body. Afterward there is a prayer, and in that prayer you must renounce a good many things (and many of those things it seems like a pretty good idea to renounce). I did come to notice that in paragraph 7 of 10 in this rather detailed and specific prayer it says this:

I renounce heavy metal music, satanic rock and black rock, watching occult movies and all demonic role-play games, such as Dungeons and Dragons.

So, they wouldn't make you renounce that unless it could lead to, you know, the dark magic of astral projection and divination right? I suppose since you are renouncing heavy metal music that could lead to the same dark magic, but then it would involve big hair and being hard of hearing too.

All kinds of ideas sprang into my head. Is there really the secrets of astral projection hidden in one of my D&D books? I wonder which edition? (Oh, no, more fodder for the edition wars!) What exactly is 'black rock'? How do I know what is an occult movie as opposed to a just weird one (I wonder if they have a list? Do they update it regularly if I subscribe to the site?) Also I noticed they capitalized Dungeons and Dragons; they fear not combating Satan and his minions but tremble before copyright lawyers?

The more I think on this it may not be D&D which is the main tool in Satan's weaponry. It makes me wonder about this divination spell called Google.

Stone Cat ESB masquerading

2010-11-05T19:02:00.001-04:00

In the endless quest to find more fine beer to quaff, I picked up a sixer of Stone Cat ESB. This will be a short review. I popped open one, had a sip and had to look at the label. I thought I had mistakenly bought an IPA. There was not enough else going for this brew for me to pay close attention. If you are an IPA fan, you might really enjoy this. IPAs are the only brew that I truly do not enjoy, and hence, did not enjoy this at all. Better luck next time.

Cheers.

What if your really tough encounter monster gets killed in round two?

2010-10-30T17:10:00.002-04:00

What if you had planned a really cool encounter in an old destroyed temple, that included random nasty steam vents and an eight headed pyro-hydra and.... your players ran right over it?

The characters in our main game are 7th level. The have access to all kinds of buffs when time allows. As soon as they saw the inside of this nasty temple, but before they knew about the hydra, they went about buffing themselves up. Enlarge person, bull's strength, mage armor, shield, etc. After a few rounds of buffing they wandered in. A few more rounds later the beasty shows its faces. Smugly they finish the buffing with prayer and haste, come get us beasty! Well the hydra gets just outside melee range and unloads eight heads of fire breath. Large chucks of character hit points and the smug looks evaporate. A little panic starts to set in (DM refrains from gloating) and the two heavy melee fights decide it is do or die so they make their move. Lots of attacks due to level, full attack option and haste. But the dice, rather than turn treacherous on them, does just the opposite. Not only is every attack a hit, three are critical hits, and the damage dice are smiling on them just as broadly as the d20s. The results are impressive and statistically improbable. My nasty eight headed pyro-hydra lies on the floor of the temple in pieces, rather than hovering over the panic stricken party.

Where was the terror? Where was the anguished cries of help to their deities? Oh, the inhumanity!

They did plan. They did work together. They did make good choices. They did roll very, very well.

What if you had planned a really cool encounter and your players ran right over it? After I got over being stunned, I congratulated them. They earned it. It was time to allow them to bask in their glory. Not to worry, there are more encounters waiting and you just never know what the dice will say next time. You see, the dice never lie.

Weapons of legend

2010-10-22T22:49:00.000-04:00

Although it works in the game, there is no literary tradition for acquiring magical weapons and trading them in for better magical weapons as time goes by and character levels go up. There is no attachment to these D&D magical weapons, and much like any other tool they are discarded as better tools come along. I find this to be unsatisfying. When as a player I tried to have my character do more with a weapon: name my magical +1 weapon and become attached to it, and known as the wielder of said weapon of great renown.... it all goes out the window when the +2 weapon comes along.

I suppose not everyone can have Excalibur, Chrysaor, Nothung, Glamdring, Stormbringer or a the vorpal sword that slew the Jabberwock snicker-snack. But there must be something between Orcrist and the disposable +x weapon in the treasure pile that fits into our adventure. Sure there are tables in the back of the book (regardless what book/edition you have) which speak of powerful weapons and artifacts that only a fool would relinquish. In practice it may be true but for most of our campaigns characters would only acquire such a device near the end of their career. This does not allow them to build a story and reputation expect maybe as the guy powerful enough to slay the terrible beast that had the legendary weapon in its hoard and thus became the next hero to retire (because the campaign was over) with that legendary weapon. Not satisfying at all in my book.

It always seemed to me the solution was to have the character acquire a weapon which, much like the character herself, needed to grow to their full potential. Sure the weapon may start out as just a pretty looking master work tool, but over time it would gain pluses to hit, unique capabilities, elemental properties (spouting flame, dripping caustic acid, etc), gaining fame as the character did. It may even have a temperament and its own agenda that is in some conflict with the bearer. Sounds like fun!

I know there are a number of systems out their that support such a progression. I did not find one I liked, so I made my own. The challenges have been many. I do not want the weapons to outshine the characters. Characters owning such a weapon often unbalance the game. Creating weapons and a history so that all the characters can participate in this high fantasy romp without it seeming too contrived. (who would want to be left out of the fun!). I decided that the characters had to actively pursue goals and rituals that would unlock the weapons potentials as they grew in power. This also had the beneficial side effect of creating adventure motivation and consuming resources.

It has been an interesting experiment, and I trust my players are enjoying it. One of the interesting things I did was give the characters an opportunity to rename their weapon - they could keep its legendary name, or they could rename it formally. Weapons with such prestigious names as Silver Flame, Ice Wand, Ivory Stary & Argentum Valor have come into the hands of the characters. It has not all been perfect, but I think the challenges have been worth the outcome: an interesting campaign where characters have weapons of legend, and are creating more legend of the weapon and more importantly, the wielder.

Thirty years later - a random dungeon creation romp

2010-10-19T21:33:00.000-04:00

It has been a very long time since I did any random dungeon creation. Back in the day it was supposedly an easy way out to run an adventure. Not much planning, a few rolls and presto you have an evening of entertainment.

I should have know better. I was doomed from the start.

To start with, I couldn't really use completely random tables. This was to be insert in an already designed area so the start and ends had to come together, and the inhabitants had to fit in a subset of what was likely to be found in these underground caverns. So I had to build my own random tables. I supposed whether you use somebody else's tables or your own, somebody has to build them.

To make a long story short, I could have drawn and populated a set of natural caverns far more quickly that generating random caverns, making them connect and populating them with tables. Perhaps there was a change up from the players view; if I had populated them not so randomly my stamp may have been on that and the characters might have been less surprised. However, I don't think so. Personally I think I stay ahead of the characters and am still able to surprise them no matter what patterns of my behavior they believe they have deciphered.

I found that I was not crisp with the information on this random map creation. I made mistakes, had a little trouble orienting the group in my descriptions and lost my place here and there. Making it in advance, whole cloth from my own imagination, somehow makes it stick better in my mind. Plus I have a little time to review before the adventure so I am much sharper with details.

Now, it really didn't turn out all that bad. I was disappointed in my running of the last outing; it felt a little bit awkward and slow but we got through. I just have to face facts, after thirty years of game mastering I am just more comfortable assembling my own adventures manually, with some die rolls of support, than to just trust it all to chance. I am not afraid to try new ways of running games, or game content and will continue to do so. This does just reinforce that you should play to your strengths.

I have said it before and I'll say it again: the dice never lie. I suppose the real wisdom is knowing when to ask them to speak.

Local Austin musician Brian Pounds

2010-10-17T18:16:00.000-04:00

I was out after work looking for some place to eat while onn my recent trip to Austin. I saw the sign for the Iron Cactus restaurant, and I knew I did not need to drive any more. This post is not about the Iron Cactus, though it was a cool place.

In the bar area was a young man singing and playing on an acoustic guitar, accompanied by an older gentleman on a pedal steel guitar. The younger man, Brian Pounds by name, was singing his heart out and the older gentleman on the steel was quite good as well. The Tex-Mex food was good enough, the cerveza was cold, and although the music was not exactly my favorite style it was both entertaining and of fine quality. Not even a cover charge.

Unfortunately I must have missed the first half of their set, because after about 6 songs they were packing up. I was sufficiently impressed to call Brian over and offer to buy one of his CDs. I figured I got $10 worth of entertainment anyway. My younger days as a musician are not completely forgotten; I try to support up and coming artists where I can.

Brian plays a sort of blend of folk/rock/country and has a quality to his voice that reminds me of James Taylor. You can check him out here: http://www.purevolume.com/brianpounds

There, I have done my good deed. From here it is up to him and the quality of his music. Just in case he does make it big, I had him autograph the CD. You never can tell.

Shiner Bock, an Austin favorite

2010-10-16T11:45:00.000-04:00

I had a business trip to Austin a little over a week ago. While there I tried a local favorite, Shiner Bock from the Shiner brewery down there.

Apparently this is a very popular local brew. I had it on tap and in a bottle. Either way I found it drinkable but not notable. It had a somewhat transparent dark amber color, a creamy nougat colored head that dissipated too quickly, and a mild nose. It is quite plain for a bock. Perhaps it is designed to be a bock that goes with southwest & cajun spicy food?

Sorry to my friends in Austin but this is just ordinary. I would not throw it away if I was given some, but next time in Austin I will seek out some other local brew.

Old Speckled Hen vs. Dead Guy

2010-08-28T13:06:00.001-04:00

We finally visit the Tomb of Horrors

2010-08-22T12:37:00.000-04:00

I have been playing D&D in one form or another for over 30 years. In the early years we played a few of the famous TSR modules but mostly went on to home brew adventuring split between the two regular DMs. I was one of those DMs. Copies of TSR modules not played lay in storage, waiting for the right moment that might never come to drag it out and give it a run. The Tomb or Horrors module rested quietly, biding its time, waiting for fools to cross its threshold and die.

The golden years of our game group came to an end many years ago when one of the four core gamers in the group moved to the west coast. Although the regular game changed forever, we are fortunate these individuals remain in our lives as friends regardless of distance. Ever few years a visit is orchestrated, there is much rejoicing and often times a game is run just like old times.

One of those joyous visits recently happened. Life being what it is, neither of the long time DMs had something appropriate to run so we were looking for something suitable to do when my youngest son, who is in his early 20s, offered to run a version of Tomb of Horrors for D&D 3.5. At first folks were a bit hesitant about it. Over time our game migrated away from the more old school save or die type of game, where dungeon ecology logic was unnecessary, and where replacement characters were expected. Do we really want to be offered up to the granddaddy of killer dungeons? Of course we do!

Unfortunately, we were not able to get the original four players together in one sitting. We did manage to have two outings with three players each time. Though we did not get too far through the dungeon, a good time was had. Amazingly, we did manage to kill the gargoyle without any character losses though it was close. However on the second night the tomb did manage to take three characters in total, not too shabby for the evil old icon.

We had a great time. This is not going to lead to playing the old modules regularly because of the experience, it is not where we want to be now. As a one off outing, it was loads of fun. There was also much more than nostalgia here. There were a number of firsts. It was the first time my son ran a game for the old timers. He got to show off his skill with a classic and did a fine job. I hope that he comes to treasure the evening where he ran this icon and ground up this dad and friends. The first evening was the first time in many years that those three particular players were characters together; that had not happened since one of the other regulars ran his first and only module as DM. The second evening was the first time those three particular players were characters together ever. These three were the only to ever DM our original group, and so we had never been together on the same side of the screen.

Our time together passes too quickly because ultimately it is about friends and family. It was great to have these little outings, and The Tomb was just the icing not the cake. It is interesting how these things come about, you just never know. Its the gaming and not the game. BruHaHa the Sincere, we miss you already .

A passable summer ale: Honey Moon by Blue Moon

2010-07-17T09:28:00.000-04:00

The last couple of hot weeks we had very hot weather, which changes my appetite away from the heavier full bodied beers. Sadly I am finding that the supermarkets are carrying fewer and fewer choices and the speciality stores are getting rarer and reducing their hours. So I gave a try to a Coors product brought to you via the Blue Moon label called Honey Moon.

It is a summer wheat ale brewed with orange and finished with honey added. It has a clear golden color and pours with only a thin head. You have to strain yourself to pick up any smells beyond the faint aroma typical to wheat ales. It tastes like a mild wheat ale, thin but not watery. It was slightly sweet with the honey, nice but not over powering. The citrus or orange flavor hovers just out of tasting, I could tell something was there but it was not coming through as orange. This ale is a smooth drinker with moderate to low carbonation and just over 5% ABV.

Nothing excitable here, but it is easy to drink and I have not got tired of it. I must say I have had quite of few of these over the last couple of weeks, they leave you feeling clean enough to have another as you enjoy the summer sun. It gets a Gnotions rating of passable and pleasing in the right weather.

Cheers.

The obligatory Gnotions Alignment post

2010-07-13T20:35:00.001-04:00

I think every FRPG blogger eventually writes an alignment post. I have decided I will get mine out of the way right now. If you have read my FRPG posts, you will notice that I am a fan of addressing game actions in game. Sure I give XP, but even then most of the rewards or penalties stay in game. Plainly put, I don't penalize or reward players for actions in alignment, the world might, but the DM does not. No rating scales (I tried that decades ago and gave it up), no DM counseling sessions, no mapping alignment shifts on a graph, no knowing looks or wagging fingers.

The world does not care what alignment is written on your character sheet (more about that later). It is all cause and effect. Act selfishly and those around you will expect you to act selfishly in the future. Demonstrate your trustworthiness and you will be trusted. Be a champion of the weak or the needy and you will earn rewards for your risk taking... but only commensurate with the risks taken. Of course in the world there are those that prefer to abide with those who are selfish, or trustworthy, or champions of good, and those that do not.

One of my important jobs as DM is to have the world react appropriately. Act selfishly, getting your rewards now at others expense does just that; you get the rewards now and the world has a certain bias towards you. Conversely, be a champion of the weak and needy usually means taking your risk now and reaping the rewards later. In game terms, one is not right or wrong but just a different series of cause and effect.

You might ask, if the world does not care what is written on the character sheet in the alignment category then why write anything there at all? Or why even have alignment at all? Yes, those are good questions.

I find alignment is a useful guideline for describing a view point; whether that view is over a single action or over a life time. Followers of a particular god, who gain favor or power for advancing an alignment (notice that I did not say following an alignment - Moorcock's books are a good example of this thinking) must behave appropriately or risk losing, temporarily or permanently, those favors/powers. Conversely, characters who follow a strict code should be rewarded for that behavior. The great powers of a priest or holy warrior come with great responsibility, and the reverse is true. In those circumstances the DM must know the character's alignment so the world can choose to keep providing those powers, or not.

My world is polytheistic. There are individuals that are totally devoted to their god and alignment, but a large number of creatures, humanoids included, are more pragmatic and would give offerings or promises to gods in return for specific considerations. You might pray for a safe journey, a good harvest, safe child birth, or even fell luck to an enemy without dedicating the rest of your life to a god.

So why have an alignment at all? You might choose to have a character who is committed to a god, cause or point of view. The key word here is choose. Players choose for their characters. I think that many players should choose unaligned, which is not the same thing as neutral. If your character is not of the strong view point of one of the alignments, and is not actively furthering the cause, then you are likely unaligned. Your character makes decisions based on the circumstance, and those decisions are likely to vary in alignment to some extent based on your personality. Your character might be more interested in riches, fame, romance or whatever as more important than a 'cause'. Fine. Good. Role play and the world will play back.

Of course some monsters, races, cultures or even cities really do culturally lean towards one alignment. That does not mean everyone subscribes to that view, but it is substantially the norm and most of those creatures will act that way.

Does that make it difficult to know who are the bad guys and who are the good guys? Yes it can. And of course good and bad and relative anyway. I like it that way. Additionally in my game I have nerfed the detect alignment spell. I do not want anyone to have it that easy to purge a population. I think it makes a more interesting game with more opportunities for subterfuge.

But isn't there any absolutes of alignment? After all the monster manual has entries that say always.... Well, I do not subscribe to that thinking entirely. There are the planes outside of the prime material plan where those that are the embodiment of alignment might live. Ontologically speaking, if there are creatures of good and evil then they are gods or creatures like angels, devils, or demons. In my game even the color of a dragon is no guarantee of its alignment, only a likelihood of that alignment.

As alignment goes in my game, it is what you do that is important and you will reap the rewards and consequences of your action in the world, not on a report card.

I want my monsters to feel at home

2010-07-07T19:29:00.001-04:00

I dislike running or playing in an RPG session that is arbitrary. Oh, sure, I have nostalgia for the old Gygax tables but I used them for ideas to keep things from being stale. I would immediately find a way to make the idea logical, or internally consistent (verisimilitude - there I said it again). I will not say I am looking for realism because I am not. There is nothing real about magic missiles or displacer beasts. However, used in the proper context magic missiles and displacer beasts can seem perfectly natural in the given context. In other words, players do not suddenly go, "WTF! Where did that come from?" Rather I want them to go, "Ah, I see how that fits. Man why didn't I see that coming!"

This is not a revelation to me, this has long been my personal quest to make the games I am running be internally consistent, so that the laws of nature, magic, & gods in that environment work and the players can expect actions to have relatively expected reactions. (you can see this theme in some of my other posts). What made me feel like spouting again was my recent rereading of Poul Anderson's Three Hearts and Three Lions. (see below). One of the many things I like about the book, even though it is fantasy, there is a logic at work and you can expect the heroes, villains and monsters to all live within that logic.

First there are the humans, who can be good or bad. The best of the humans are paragons of virtue and the proponents of law. Second there are the Fay, who are typically capricious and self serving. The Fay are the primary proponents of chaos, that is when they feel like it. Lastly there are the monsters, while you are not always sure where they come from you are clear they are on the side of chaos, when they feel like. The power of the holy Christian God, and the associated artifacts, is proof against the Fay and the monsters. However, men being weak willed beings, often behave in a way that puts them in a graceless state and therefore susceptible to the Fay and monsters. A human in the state of grace, who cannot be readily harmed directly by Fay or monsters can of course be harmed by another human who has chosen to support chaos for their own selfish purposes.

In one paragraph that largely sums up the internal logic of the creatures in the world. I find it elegant for this story. I would not port this exactly for a game environment, there are some drawbacks in using that for an RPG. Perhaps that is another blog post some day.

In my homebrew, I try to have a reason that monsters exist rather than having them show up arbitrarily during an adventure. So there are humans, humanoids, giants and the like that live on the various islands and have their own lands and a creation myth that puts them there. I am a firm believer that humans are some of the most dangerous monsters. Dragons play a role in my creation myth, and though rare, have a place in the ecosystem and are involved in the early history of magic. Aberrations, though by their nature are somewhat random, are not arbitrarily placed in adventures but were created at some point in time by fell magic. That point in time may have been long ago or very recent. Those few that survived from long ago and bred may inhabit an area in numbers, those created recently are likely to be the only ones. Original undead are always created, either by necromantic arcane or divine powers, or by even darker rituals that turn the living user of that ritual into something beyond life. Some undead are able to continue their line via their dark appetites. Lastly there are the higher and lower planes populated with those beings of light or darkness with their own higher or lower purposes.

Where I struggle is with the magical creatures. I give in to a little bit of capriciousness with them, I suppose, because that is in their nature. To some extent I have the creation myth that covers the internal logic of their existence, but I try not to overdue it. I try to make the appearance of these be special and unusual and by that, in their own way, fantastic in the old world definition. So I assuage my struggle with this logic by admitting, in the end, this is a fantasy RPG.

I do not dare to compare my little world to Poul Anderson's, but I hope in some way that my monsters feel like they belong and are willing to hang around. That is until the characters kill them and take there stuff.

Three Hearts and Three Lions, again

2010-07-05T11:23:00.000-04:00

Over the last two days I spent some horizontal hammock time in the shade of two very large hemlock trees while reading Three Hearts and Three Lions. As noted below, I have read it before and it is still a favorite. A fast easy read with no lack of depth, even while some of the characters described with brevity they still stand out.

It has been a while since I last read the book. I had forgotten how many things are borrowed by original versions of D&D straight from this book. If you want to add some color to your description of a troll battle, an encounter with a nixie, the struggles of a paladin, or a view of law versus chaos, this might be the book for you. This was a fun walk down memory lane for me, like meeting an old friend and reliving good times.

If you play D&D and you have never read this book then you are missing out. What are you waiting for?

Three Hearts and Three Lions

2010-06-12T23:21:00.002-04:00

I am suddenly having a hankering to have another read of Poul Anderson's classic, Three Hearts and Three Lions. Though Anderson was most well known for his science fiction, he demonstrated he was also an able fantasy writer as well. Though the book was written five decades ago, it strikes me as fresh and poignant today as it was then. Some topics on the human condition do not change. Besides the interesting influence it had on the RPG hobby and other fantasy writers, it is just a darn fine read. Around 250 pages, accessible and easy to read but with a hidden depth of character it is long a favorite of mine.

What say ye in the RPG hobby? Does this story of the Dane and the Swan May resonate for you? How many of you old timers have read this before, and how has it influence you or your game?

A dead guy, a black sheep on its back, and who put the apple in the beer?

2010-06-09T19:18:00.001-04:00

I got a variety of beers for my birthday a while back, I took some notes but did not get to posting them all. Doing some catch up.

First up, my favorite beer from this very fine brewery. If you like real beer, I have no doubt you will enjoy a Dead Guy from Rogue. Coppery in color, slightly cloudy, medium head, well balanced, right amount of carbonation for the recipe, lightly spicy, a little honey sweet, and very drinkable. Not the kind you would crave on a sweltering day but a fine brew with food or by itself. Highly recommend by me. Its availability in the eastern US is increasing, and not all that unusual to see it in bottles in specialty pubs or even on tap.

Why would you name an ale after a black sheep that cannot right itself? Sounds suspicious in a 'I am afraid of the real answer' kind of way. Regardless, Riggwelter was a nice surprise. A very complex ale with loads of subtle flavors. Among them I found chocolate and coffee, which in my experience are usually in stouts and not ales. You are likely not to have more than two at a sitting, or maybe even only the one. I recommend this not with food, but on its own when you are in the mood to enjoy the myriad of flavors with a drinking partner doing the same. Move on to another brew after you are done to clean the palate.

The last of the trio is another Rogue brew, Kells, an Irish Style Lager. The beer is golden in color, crisp and mild in flavor. The kicker, and I do mean finish kicker, is the crisp apple after taste that only lasts a moment on the tongue. Given the price of Rogue ales on this side of the country, I will not be having this often but I recommend you give it a try on the novelty alone. If the brew was half the price, well... I would be drinking much more of this over the summer.

That is all for now, no disappointments here. Cheers!

Raise a pint for Frank Frazetta

2010-05-10T21:44:00.001-04:00

If you have fantasy books in your library, then you likely own Frazetta artwork. A talented artist that inspired many imagination has passed from among us. Raise a pint in his honor, even if you are not a muscle bound barbarian on the outside.

Check out the tributes that will be appearing all over the fantasy blogosphere and you will see how truly influential he was.

What Polyhedral Die Am I?

2010-04-25T08:30:00.000-04:00

Take the quiz at dicepool.com

Hmmmm.... a scienterrific quiz from the folks at dicepool. Not the result I would have predicted, but I have heard it said, "The dice never lie."

My very own Caves of Chaos

2010-04-22T21:19:00.000-04:00

Some thirty years ago my group of war gamer friends wanted to try something new. I found a D&D basic set on sale at my local toy & game store and, not knowing what it was, purchased it. I remember reading the introduction repeatedly, at first I found the premise a little hard to swallow. Finally figuring it was too weird not to try, I convinced the group to give it go. Location and evening selected, characters with blatantly stolen names from our favorite literature ready to adventure, beverages well stocked, we began the session. It took a while for me to lead them to the Caves of Chaos. It took very little time for my first (and only) total party kill, only about thirty feet into the first cave they entered (Orc cave B - for those CoC fans). Ah, the fond memories.

So here I am many years later with my own version of the caves in my little world. The description is different, instead of caves in the wilderness it is nicely made caves in the remains of a seaside city long forgotten. The adventure retains the basic premise, a location with many mini dungeons to explore. It seems that the caves have haunted me for many years and now I have released these new caves on my unsuspecting adventuring group.

The group is on a mission from their King; locate the city and reestablish a relationship with the inhabitants that has long faded away. The King needs allies and wants the party to have a powerful weapon that should be in the possession of the people of the city. With expectations set high for their role as royal diplomats and after some dangerous travel through the wilderness, the group arrives and is dismayed to find the city only a shadow of its former glory. The city is now inhabited not only by the shabby remains of its once proud human owners but also with various ogre, goblinoid, kobold, dwarf and possibly some other even less desirable and more troubling squatters. I watched with surprise and some satisfaction as the group elected to avoid two combats that might have rescued humans in the servitude of ogres and then great goblins because they were not sure of the ramifications in this dangerously balanced ecosystem. Mostly this group is loath to pass up a combat to save an apparent innocent. I love it when I complicate their decisions.

My version of the caves is larger and has more complex relationships and economies than the original. I do not boast that mine is better, but I find that I am not satisfied with an environment that does not have a sense of logic and balance. The cost in time to develop such an environment is probably not in balance with the outcome. Such is the curse of have high standards and being anal.

There are no spoilers here for my group. (sucks for you) I have no intention of posting full adventure logs. I have two players who do that for our group only and they have expressed no interest in making them public. I might post some high level summaries and DM comments if there is interest.

It is interesting to ponder why I came back around to the beginning after 30 years. Was it just a good idea, or a convenient way to have mini adventures, or am I looking to assuage guilt over my TPK? We'll have to see how it works out. When we broke last time they were just about to enter one of the caves. If they make it more than 30 feet am I absolved from my sins? Or have I just grown soft over the years and countless tears shed for characters who died ignoble deaths?

Just kidding - I have just gotten better at bringing them to the brink of failure time and time again. Dead characters hold no magic for me; rather I covet the moment of fear in the players faces as their beloved creations teeter on the brink and the joy/relief as they or their comrades pull the back in the nick of time.

The dice never lie.

How many Monster Manuals do you need?

2010-03-31T21:41:00.000-04:00

I was preparing an adventure and wanted approximately a CR7 giant crab. You would think that with three Monster Manuals, I would have just what I needed. Think again.

Fortunately for me, I have taken to heart advice given by others over the years and I can look past the flavor text in the MMs. Do not get me wrong, I like the flavor text, and it is valuable. However with three Monster Manuals I probably have all the monster stats I will every need. (sorry publishers. though I am open to your marketing wiles - go ahead and sell me a bestiary for which I cannot live without possessing).

Quick scan through the books.... looking for a CR7 creature with two attacks (claws) and decent AC (hard shell)... ah there it is: Umber Hulk.

A few changes to be made: remove the confusing gaze, increase the natural AC, reduce the burrow speed, add some damage resistance against cutting/stabbing weapons (DR bludgeoning) and presto we have a giant green crab. The DM adds his own flavor text and we are off and running with about 5 minutes work.

I especially like creating new monsters with new descriptions that are exactly the same as monster stats in one of the Monster Manuals just to mess with the players who think that memorizing the Monster Manual is a fair and helpful thing that players should do. It irritates me that characters who have never seen a monster before are able to share helpful advice on how to slay this mystical beast before them. I guess that is my version of the Gary's Nilbog to confound players. Heh.

What do you say? DM's do you struggle with finding new monsters? Do you recycle stats? Are you satisfied with a small number of Monster Manuals? Players how do you feel about the DM's constant quest to come up with new monters? Do you like it or are your frustrated that your long hours reading bestiaries go unrewarded? Do your recognized when you have been Nilbogged?

A perfect ale for adventuring, Gulden Draak

2010-03-29T20:22:00.000-04:00

Once again I have a birthday and my friends and family gift me with alcohol. I cannot bear to let them down, so dutifully I consume them one by one....

Tonight's brew is Gulden Draak (golden dragon in Dutch). This is another complex brew reviewed by a guy whose palate and nose are just good enough to recognize a fine brew, but not schooled enough to do a professional review. So enjoy the yeoman's ride and be jealous I am the one drinking the ale.

This is a dark Belgian ale with a high alcohol content, 10.5%. The first challenge is a brew that is designed to hold up and balance with the higher alcohol level; passed. It poured a coppery brown color with a nice, long lasting head. There was a complex mixture of flavors including dark fruits, brown sugars, and some spices that I could not quite put my finger on but come to be expected by in the Belgian ales. The flavor of toffee hung in there after the sip and there was little bitter aftertaste. The mouth feel was pleasant, not too much carbonation. With more sips there was the taste of some candy, and despite the sweetness had a dry finish. Other flavors that were just beyond my identifying danced on the tongue while drinking.

Since this was a gift, I cannot comment on the cost. I would certainly drink it again if presented, but not too many at one sitting. The high alcohol content will put you back on your ass in no time. This is a very nice ale, one you will be pleased to enjoy given the chance. It would be the perfect ending to a successful adventure. Thanks to my lovely wife for feeding my beer and blog habit.

Cheers!

Does it really taste different in Ireland?

2010-03-17T20:41:00.001-04:00

Yes, I am referring to iconic Guinness stout. A common assertion is that it tastes better in Ireland. Is it true?

In my own experience with Guinness in the U.S, I can say that Guinness on tap is superior to Guinness in the bottles or cans with the magic widget. That should really surprise no one. Comparing Guinness on tap here vs. on tap in Ireland is a much more difficult proposition to those with limited means. So I can only rely on my quite subjective memory.

I do believe there is a difference, though I think it is a subtle one. I am skeptical of those that say they like Guinness in Ireland but do not like it on tap in the U.S. For me there is not a huge difference, but a just noticeable one. I like to drink the renowned beverage both here in the colonies and back in the mother country. So what is it exactly that could be different?

It's in the water. You know, I have experienced a difference in taste with American beers made in different locations. The water does make a difference in the final taste.

A good pour makes a good pint. It is definitely a point of pride in a real Irish pub to pour the dark elixir properly. Enough said.

The ambiance makes it so. Does it taste better in a crowded Irish pub with the sounds of The Rose of Tralee sung unaccompanied by instruments by a local tenor? Does it taste better matched with the hearty comfort food that fills your belly after a long wet day in the Irish chill? With the smell of drying wool sweaters around a turf fire? Yes. Yes. Yes.

I cannot put my finger on it for certain, but I do know there is a difference. What I have observed is the lack of residue rings up the glass here in the States. In Ireland the head leaves a noticeable ring around every at rest point after a tasty swallow. What causes that and what does it mean? I am without a clue, but it is some evidence that there is, in fact, some difference. Post away if you can explain it.

Either way, I will enjoy it. I had a glass tonight, and unfortunately it was only from a widget bearing bottle. It was still good. And echoes of The Rose of Tralee rise pleasantly from my memories of the pubs of Ireland.

Sláinte!

Creation myth discussion on ENWorld

2010-03-16T19:03:00.000-04:00

The earlier blog post sparked a thread at ENWorld.

Here is the link if you are curious or want to join in.

Jack Kerouac, again.

2010-03-14T14:21:00.000-04:00

I was in Toronto last week on business. I went out to dinner with an associate from one of our vendors. We went to Joey's (which I am told started in Calgary as Joey Tomatoes or something like that). There my associate asked for a particular waiter that had served his table a few weeks earlier. Turns out the waiter and my associate are both from Calgary.

We chatted with the waiter, who was about college age, for a few minutes. I mentioned I was from New England. The waiter mentioned his upcoming trip to Boston to visit a friend in school, and to enjoy the area steeped in history of famous people and especially Jack Kerouac. So we chatted about Jack's home town of Lowell, and how after many years I just recently read 'On the Road', and told my story about Astro's (see previous blog post).

Curious how connections happen, is it not?

On The Road - Jack Kerouac

2010-02-28T10:30:00.000-05:00

I am back from my vacation in Punta Cana and just finished Jack Kerouac's classic On The Road. Sometimes when I am on vacation I choose to read a classic rather than some entertaining fiction; this was one of those times. I have always wondered about Kerouac. He is portrayed as an icon of the Beat generation and its primary spokesman. I spent three semesters during my college years at what is know called University of Massachusetts at Lowell, Kerouac's birth place. At the time I was attending classes there was a small sandwich shop, named Astro's, just across the street. They proudly displayed pictures of Kerouac on the grungy walls cheerily smiling and drinking with folks who I assumed were associated with Astro's. I could not guess how many degrees of separation that would be.

Most people know little or nothing about the Beat generation. I would say I knew little prior to reading the book other than the stereotypes that litter literature, television and movies. Anyone remember Bob Denver's silly portrayal of Maynard G. Krebbs from Dobbie Gillis? So devoid of knowledge of Beat's, intrigued by the myth of the man in the sandwich shop, and having available time on commercial airlines and beach chairs I went forward to experience the Beat's via their most famous spokesman.

On The Road has a unique writing style that might be described as stream of consciousness. At times it can be distracting but it seems to fit the story and message Kerouac is attempting to lay before you. The tone and tempo of the book is as chaotic and unpredictable as the Beat's themselves, and that is the point. I get the feeling that Kerouac wanted this to be groundbreaking, and judging by the amount of Kerouac and Beat scholars that analyze this and other similar books some agree. I will merely say it is the appropriate style for this book. There is an attempt to paint many of the experiences as more amazing, a pinnacle over other experiences. Kerouac fails at that. Kerouac also fails to make you feel the incredible attraction to Dean Moriarty that many of the characters in the book find irresistible.

Much like the Lost Generation before him, this book paints a portrait in time of a lost generation. While Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Steinbeck painted with words the post World War I lost souls, Kerouac does so for the post World War II lost souls. Though I think the comparison is apt, I believe he would have bristled over it. There is a sense of him attempting to distance and differentiate his generation's search for the meaning of IT from those that came before them. Amid their feeling of confusion in the search for kicks and spirituality there is also a sense of hubris; the Beats approach is superior than those that came before because no one that was come before them has understood IT.

The Beats reject consumerism and prefer experience; they reject authority and embrace personal freedom. If the book is an accurate portrayal then I suggest that the beats are superior to the Lost Generation in being self centered and petty. The Beats search ever faster and more frantic for kicks via alcohol, drugs, sex and moving from place to place. There is a search for spirituality, but that search is easily and quickly put aside for the pleasures of the flesh. Get your kicks.

The beats are another lost generation, a pale imitation of The Lost Generation. I much prefer the struggles and character of those in the novels by Hemingway, Fitzgerald and Steinbeck over those portrayed by Kerouac. The story and the writing style are a place in time, not to be repeated. Echoes of the fringe of a generation that came to believe their struggles and insight was unique, but instead I come to see them as just another lost generation. It was an interesting read, I would recommend it for the experience if not for the literary style.

A side note: I read the Penguin Classic version of the book. There is an interesting forward by Proffessor Ann Charters, a Beat scholar. I recommend you skip the forward and read the book without it. Instead read it as a post script. This book was not written to be analyzed before it was read, it was written to be experienced.

Gates Of Fire

2010-02-15T11:13:00.001-05:00

I finally finished Steven Pressfield's Gates Of Fire. I say finally because I would read some and put it down for a while before taking it up again. In the last few years I have not managed to read very many books which is in stark contrast to most of the years prior; I was always a voracious reader. There are a number of reasons for this behavior on my part, none of which are part of this post. So why did I put this critically acclaimed book down repeatedly? I struggled with that question as well.

You may wish to read a nicely written, spot on review of the book here at TheSilverKey.

I agree that the book is well written, the material appears well researched, and the picture painted is one of grim reality of extraordinary men. I should have been a target audience for this book. I am interested in history, battles and adventure stories. I do not easily find fault with this book, however it never grabbed me. I suppose it is that simple. I was not on the edge of my seat wondering how it would end; we all know how one of the most famous historical battles of all times ends. Perhaps more importantly I could not identify with any of the characters. Yes, they are human enough but somehow they were foreign to me. Without a connection to one or more of the characters it was easy to put the book down, and once down it was not calling to me.

You may have a different experience, and judging by others reviews of this book I am likely in the minority.

The Creation of Urth

2010-02-11T20:45:00.000-05:00

The creator spoke to Eukko and bade him seek his brother Pasalad and the two should go to a place called Urth. There they found Hyeshea and Eukko knew immediately that here was the mate he had long sought. The place called Urth was barren and cold so each of them began giving it something of themselves. First Eukko took the azure color of his skin and spread it overhead. Then the pure white of his hair and beard floated against the perfect blue background. Lastly the bright burning orange of his eye became the light for all to see. His brother followed and created the sea, deep green like his ruddy skin with its surface like his hair, pale green turning to white at its ends and he finished by making it like his eyes, clear one moment and grey and stormy the next. Finally Eukko's new mate added her portion, the land. Its contours both smooth and striking like her shapely form, its colors the many brown hues of her flawless complexion, the many yellows of her hair, and the greens of her eyes. Then each populated their creation with creatures suitable to live in that dominion.

When they had finished the creator came to them and bade them make beings of their own image to tend this new paradise for them, for it was not fitting that they do this for themselves. The creator bade Pasalad create the life and give them skills, bade Hyeshea to give them strength and purpose, and bade Eukko finish them as he saw fit. Then the creator bade them tend their flock and left them.

Joyfully Pasalad began his task, "I will model them after my beloved brother and his new wife as my gift to their mating". And when he had finished a score of scores of men and women stood before them, bright with life and full of skill. All in the image of Eukko and Hyeshea save for color. All three were pleased with the people and praises were given to Pasalad.

Seeing the joy of accomplishment on Pasalads face Hyeshea knew what gifts she would bestow upon the new guardians of Urth. Strength and purpose you will get for yourselves and be proud, so I give you death and birth and freewill, the tools you need for this growth.

Pasalad became outraged, "You would mock my gifts with flaws". He threatened to destroy them but Eukko would not allow it because the creator had bade them. So instead Pasalad took the sea from their realm, always will they yearn for the sea, the place of their creation but never can they truly return. And then he made his brother do the same for the sky. "Let them be prisoners of the realm of she who ruined them". He them returned to the sea vowing never to return to land, and began the ceaseless pounding of the surf on the shore.

Hyeshea wanted to exact some revenge on Pasalad for his indignation upon her but Eukko forbade it. "He will regret his actions yet not undo them for what is done is done. Even though he bade me banish them from the sky they are still all of our children for did not the creator command us to this task? I still have my gifts to bestow." Eukko then gathered the children and gave them faith, hope, charity and wisdom. Eukko did not command they use them for Hyeshea had given them freewill and what is done is done.

The above is the beginning of the creation legend of my campaign world. Next is a short clip of each god mentioned above

Eukko is a major god, head of pantheon and mate to Hyeshea. Often called the "All Father", "Lord of the Air" or "Sun God". He is LG and his domains are air, good, law, protection, strength, sun.

Hyeshea is a major goddess, mother of pantheon and mate to Eukko. Often called the "Dark Mother" or "Queen of the Underworld". She is LE and her domains are death, earth, evil, law, and strength.

Pasalad is a major god and brother to Eukko. He is often called "The Sea God" and "Storm King". He is CG and his domains are chaos, good, strength, travel, water.

I feel that a creation legend is critical for the flavor of a campaign (at least one, there can certainly be more than one - in fact this is the human creation legend other humanoids have their own). More than just color, I use mine to telegraph my spin on good vs. evil as you many note the seeds in the legend above.

What do you think? Is a creation legend useful to players or just the DM exersizing creative juices that no one reads more than once and never considers again?

Near death experience or how did you like the purple worm?

2010-02-10T17:30:00.001-05:00

Thirty years of DMing and I finally used a purple worm on a party. There is nothing else like using one of the iconic monsters. It swallowed a character and got within one round of sending him to the great beyond. The party did very well on the attack and damage and it was a good thing for their elven archer who nearly expired. Seems to be a trend, this character was eaten by a huge frog some adventures ago. I guess elves just have a reputation for being tasty.

Not that I am gloating or anything about keeping them on the edge of their seats.

Giving rewards for the adventure

2010-02-03T19:00:00.002-05:00

I have seen a number of blog posts lately talking about XP award systems. There is certainly no harm in tailoring the awards to fit your groups gaming style. I have read a number of interesting and clever ideas on those blogs, and in days gone by I would have cheerfully borrowed a number of them. However in the last few years I have come to a different conclusion that better fits my game; throw all those systems out. I do not get enough value for the time spent from them. I still hand out experience points, I just do not spend so much time doing it. I try to focus on two concepts in rewards:

You reward the behavior you want to see. Rusty Battle Axe and the others are right on regarding this point. No matter what system or lack of system, keep to this truth. In all my experience as a senior manager, parent and DM there is no better way of saying this.
Reward the characters in game. Let that sink in a minute. Please note I did not say players. Let the world react and reward the characters for what they do, or what they do not do. I find that the in game gratification is far more powerful and important than the out of game XP award.

OK, so I hear from some of you, "Duh, of course I reward the characters in the game. Tell me something I don't know." But do you really? I submit that you can get the behavior you want from players by rewarding it in game. Do your players not take enough risks? Do your players not role play enough? Are they not following alignment? Whatever you want more of, reward it in game. Now be certain to not use only coin and magic items as rewards, that grows old quickly. Honor, reputation, titles, friends, information, land, or even the attentions of a NPC of the opposite sex might all be just the ticket to get the behaviors you are seeking. Naturally the opposite is true, that penalties for behavior can be any of those opposites. So, how do I simplify XP awards? I eyeball it. I figure I want about 25 average encounters before a character levels up. So for every average encounter I give 1/25 of the XP need to move up a level and adjust it based on how tough it really was and if the characters were particularly clever in resolving. I never give rewards or penalties any more on role playing or alignment; I let the game world handle that. I use the extra time I used to spend on figuring the XP awards to make the next adventure better. What do you think, am I a raving heretic for abandoning complex XP reward systems (believe me I have been there and had copious formulas that allowed me to assign XP), or just maybe am I on to something?

A good game can always be better or a post game introspection

2010-01-31T11:50:00.002-05:00

Last session I thought we had a good game. Although they are on a mission, the players decided to follow the trail of the giant mountain troll they vanquished last session. They rationalized there might be useful information at its lair, but mostly wanted to find whatever treasure it may have hiding after going through all the trouble of killing it. This short side encounter involved a tribe of hill giants who had some dire wolf 'pets' and a final encounter on a stone bridge over lava with giants attempting to knock players off the bridge. Players survived some interesting and exciting encounters, slew the hapless tribe of hill giants and gained the treasure. All is good right? Well, during the evening two other things happened. They were having so much fun that a few too many side conversations were happening and not enough paying attention to the DM was happening; I needed to 'chastise' them and call them back to order. Second, the final encounter over lava was perilous and everyone had an opinion of what was the proper course of action by action on the bridge during combat. There was excitable giving of directions during others turn, and the inevitable rolling of eyes, and associated pointed comments when those directions were roundly ignored. Again as DM I needed to call order; a players turn is their own and not for others meddling comments. After the session there were some posts on our gaming web site (we use a private Yahoo group) discussing these events. Before I go any farther let me give some back ground. I have been playing & DMing 30+ years. Two of the six players in our game have been playing with me for all those years. At no time did any of the excitable discussion become truly uncivilized or hurtful; this is a group of friends. My point is, no matter how experienced the group there are certain undesirable behaviors that one must remain vigilant against to keep the game fun. So the players, with no prompting from me, had a short discussion of events and made suggestions and promises to prevent future occurrences of this behavior. Additionally there was discussion about how to make the game go smoother and faster during combat. I believe they truly mean it. I also know they will lapse again. Heh. Not wanting to feel left out of a good theoretical discussion, I weighed in as the DM after the discussion had run its course. I am also human and cannot leave a deceased equine creature unflogged. The prime directive here for me is - the game should be fun. That is fun for all of us, players and DM alike. So I try not to be too prescriptive if everyone is having fun. If some things take a little longer but everyone is having fun on the way, then there is no problem. I try very hard to make the obstacles challenging but not impossible. make it too hard and you don't feel you can win; make it too easy and the risk factor goes away. when you really believe you cannot die/fail in an adventure then the fun will be gone as well. I want combat to move a little more quickly than it does for two reasons. 1 - if you are allowed unlimited time to decide your action, you will almost certainly rise above the challenge; and I will be forced to make the challenges more difficult. At some point this becomes unworkable, and the balance unmaintainable. 2 - while your are deciding your action the other players are doing nothing. Doing nothing is not fun. The game/rule set/style we are playing makes using grids and minis a requirement. Yes it is very tactical in many respects. I am not open to changing that. A game played in our imaginations only is a very different game. I am not against playing such a game - I am not prepared to DM such a game. Please, when the time comes that I ask you to manage your minis on the board - MOVE YOUR MINIS IF YOU MOVE, otherwise you didn't move. Our game is a team adventure, so collaboration is important and fun. However, during combat it is up to each player to decide their actions without interference from other players. We all have strengths and weaknesses; so there are times when party members will take actions which others disagree. Oh well, IT IS A ROLE PLAYING GAME! Sometimes in the name of role playing we do stupid things. Somethings we just do stupid things. Keep the repercussions of stupid actions in game between the characters, that is more fun and the point of a ROLE PLAYING GAME. Characters arguing among themselves could be fun; players arguing among themselves is never fun. It IS frustrating for a DM to give out information and have players not paying attention. It must be hard for players to be tuned in and interested in every word a DM has to say. I will continue to strive to be interesting enough so you want to listen. Please strive to pay attention when I am speaking as DM. I don't mean to whine, but in order to bring you the best possible game that I can manage it takes much of my attention and effort during the session. Any and every way you can eliminate me managing/tracking/explaining something is more time I can make the world more interesting for you. So in summary, I am always trying to improve the game and am open to suggestions. It is a journey not a one time event. As long as you are having fun and feel like the time was well spent I am happy. However, it you feel we could have gotten in maybe one more combat, or role play or event in our game time... then lets keep figuring out how to eliminate the activities that are not 'fun' to allow more time for those that are 'fun'. A good game can always be better.

Our new family game addition

2010-01-26T21:00:00.000-05:00

I received a new card game for Christmas. It is En garde! from Slugfest Games. So far the family enjoys playing it. That covers a diverse group that includes social gamers who abhor complex rules, experienced RPGers, magic the gathering type card game fanatic, and former hex style war gamer. The premise is civilized rapier style combat with two to six players. It does a reasonable job of deploying some basics of fencing though it is certainly not a simulation, nor does it pretend to be. It is fairly fast to learn, plays close to the 30 minutes it advertises, has a limited rule set with lots of variability in the use of the cards. There is a good mix of luck of the cards vs. skill of play. It takes a couple of games to get the hang of it, and I am not sure how long it takes to become a master at it. I do not think the game intends folks to spend so much time at it to achieve mastery. I think the target is to have a thinking game that plays fast but does not require too much thinking. I grant that it is successful at its goal. I give it a thumbs up.

Happy New Year: 2009 goes out with tequila

2009-12-31T17:26:00.006-05:00

Happy New Year to all out there. Although we have plenty of choices to drink tonight, it appears like we are going out featuring tequila. Got some Anejos for sipping: Cabo, Espolon & Milagro. Got some Jose Cuervo Traditional (reposado) and 1800 (white) limited edition for the margaritas. Notice the interesting bottle artwork on the 1800. If I remember anything tomorrow I may post about it. Don't hold your breath. Have a happy, safe & prosperous new year. Update Jan 1: For those of you against my advice are holding your breath, here is the scoop. Milagro slightly preferred as the sipping tequila by some of the group. After a pitcher of each tequilas mentioned above for magaritas, the group preferred the Traditional which then became the staple for the rest of the evening. Good tequila = minimal hangover.

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (blogger version)

2009-12-18T21:00:00.001-05:00

the bloggers version with apologies to Clement Clarke Moore

'Twas the night before Christmas, on the 'net and in the house, Not a blogger was posting, motionless their mouse
The FRPG musings were posted on blogspot with care, In hopes that St. Nicholas would be reading there
The characters were nestled all snug in their beds, While visions of treasure hoards danced in their heads
And mamma with her handbook, and I with my map, Had just nodded off for a short gamer's nap
When from the game room there arose such a clatter, I fell from the bed to see what was the matter.
Away down the stairs I tumbled with fright, Tore open the door and threw on the lights.
The rays from tree lights on the hexgrid below Gave an erie lustre of magic to objects that glow,
When, what to my bloodshot eyes should appear, But miniatures, a sleigh, and eight pewter reindeer
With a little old driver, so red and waist thick, I knew it was painted to look like St. Nick.
More rapid than eagles on hastes spells they came, And he whistled, and shouted, and called them by name; "Now, Mialee! now, Redgar! now, Tordek and Jozan! On, Lidda! on Krusk! on, Gimble and Nebin!
To the top of the castle! to the top of the wall! Now dash away! dash away! dash away all!"
As wizards, who at fifth level take the spell fly, those figures they flew just missing my eye.
So up to the Mantel-top the miniature reindeer they flew, the tiny sleigh full of games, and St. Nicholas too. And then, in a twinkling, I heard as they stood, prancing and pawing of metal on wood.
As I drew up my hand, and was uttering a sound, off the mantel St. Nicholas enlarged with a bound. He was dressed in fake fur, from his head to his foot, And his clothes looked tarnished with faux ashes and soot
A bundle of boxes fell on the floor with his growth, like at Gencon, a marketer just opening his booth.
His red eyes -- how they twinkled! it was really quite scary!
His lips were bright red, more like blood than a cherry!
His droll little mouth was drawn up like a shortbow, his beard braided dwarf like was as white as the snow
In his teeth was a pipe the color of bones, the smoke it encircled his head like ioun stones
He had a broad face and a little round belly, that shook, when he laughed like gelatinous cube jelly.
He was chubby and plump, who though him an elf? He is more like a 1E gnome, I thought to myself
A wink of his eye, and my reactions had trailed, I was immobile, my save it had failed
He spoke not a word, but went straight to my snacks, and stuffed his mouth full and mumbled, 'relax'.
And laying his finger aside of his nose, getting quite small, up the mantel he rose
He sprang to his sleigh, said 'teleport' to his team, and vanished all like they were a dream.
But I heard him exclaim, from the ether out of sight, "Happy Christmas to all, back to posting 'morrow night."

Imagination vs. Antiseptic Standard Descriptions

2009-12-16T19:40:00.003-05:00

In my previous post about Vancian magic someone commented that "Part of my like for it stems from the weird names of the old spells ("Otto's Irresistable Dance," etc.)" I also enjoyed Gary's creative and odd naming of things. Rather than bemoan the passing of that creativity, we should rather be spurred on to continue in that tradition. You have undoubtedly read before that instead of just saying, "I attack", you could say, "I draw back and give a tremendous overhead chop with my bloody falchion attempting to cut the foul creature in two!" No news here, that is fairly standard advice. So why are we limited to the antiseptic spell names and descriptions? I say that you are only limited by your imagination and the effort you spend. You could cast color spray. Instead you could weave arcane symbols in the air and speak the difficult words of power and release Marigus Coruscating Assault. At the completion of casting a myriad of sparkles of red, green and blue light spray forth from the casters eyes and growing quickly in size to become recognizable as twirling knives, axes and scythes which fill the area of the cone as a brief assault against all in the area. You could cast Cause Fear. Instead the wizard casts Fear the Mage. The target of the spell suddenly has a flash of understanding of the dark power of the mage who cast the spell. You could cast Burning Hands. Instead the wizard casts Icy Breath (like burning hands but cold). At the completion of casting the mage blows forth an icy breath in a cone. Lastly, there is no reason the DM has the sole responsibility for creative descriptions in the game. I challenge the players to stand up and be counted. If you miss 'old school' D&D for the descriptions, then I say there is nothing to miss. Let the spirit of Gary flow regardless of what version of the game you play.

Vancian Magic vs. greater spell flexibility

2009-12-15T20:07:00.002-05:00

I have always despised the Vancian magic system of D&D. During our play of Basic, AD&D, and 3rd edition we tried RAW in every case but over time they left us feeling unsatisfied. We gave up basic for AD&D. House ruled AD&D for spell points. House ruled 3rd edition for spell slots. Vancian magic never felt 'right' in our campaigns and we did not like the side effects on the game. Those who do not like the Vancian magic have written tomes on what is wrong with it. For us it was: 1. Takes too long to select spells 2. Spells other than standard never selected 3. The short adventure day: Forced to respell after a small number of encounters – come back next day (to be fair this is not entirely a Vancian magic problem) 4. Cleric has to save spells to cure characters and/or party needs to purchase curing power (wands, potions, scrolls) to use between encounters. So we devised house rules to change the game. (what a shock, huh) For us it works. It does require some machinations on the part of the DM; the game is just not designed for the power boost granted the players by that flexibility. I say so what. The magic system seemed alien to us and there was always a sense of something not quite right in the game. We are much happier with the change, and with careful DMing and some other house rules the spell casters do NOT overshadow the other characters. So my questions to you all: (regardless of edition you play pre 4th): If you could easily house rule the game balance, would you change to a more flexible spell learning/using system or do you prefer the flavor of the Vancian spell system? If you are a fan of the flavor of the Vancian spell system, is it because you are a fan of the Vance novels or a fan of the original flavor as you learned in the game?

Stuck for a fantasy name? Comment on a blog

2009-12-07T19:03:00.002-05:00

You are working on your adventure, and you are stuck for a fantasy name for an NPC. No worries, just make a comment on one of your favorite gaming blogs. Word verification comes up and presto! Here is your NPC name. Try some yourself. I just got these four myself. Oddlente - he can be a merchant Califo - she sounds like a minstrel Caliblyt - definitely a priestess of some obscure goddess Prescals - a mercenary by trade Thank you Blogspot for this RPG tool! Silly Sarcasm alert is now over, you are free to return to your normal programming.

Thoughts on formal skill challenge

2009-11-29T11:45:00.004-05:00

I have been ruminating on adding formal skill challenges to our 3.5 game. I am an equal opportunity borrower; I gleefully borrow rules from 4E, earlier editions, other systems, or other folks generously shared house rules. A rule is just a tool for the DM to help run the game. Use the ones that work; delegate those that do not to the garderobe and let the otyugh have them. There is something about the idea that I like. The question for me is: is creating formal skill challenges worth the effort that goes into them? It took me a while to understand what they meant by skill challenges, and how to use them. I suspect I was not the only one based on the amount of chatter on the boards on the topic and the errata and how to files that have been furiously posted after release. Finally after internalizing what was meant the next question was: how is that different from what I do already as DM in the game? I am leaning towards answering my own question with the response of - not much. Example of a simple skill challenge: A character is chasing or being chased. Both the chaser and the chasee have the same movement base. There are rules for resolving this by rolling dice, and if the player does not want to step up and use skills and abilities to resolve this problem then we can use the rule. However, I would much prefer that player take an active role in overcoming this challenge. Tell me how you change this reality? A player might: cast a spell to alter the reality (make themselves faster, opponent slower, stop the opponent outright, etc), tell me how they use their superior strength or endurance to outpace the other, or tell me how they use the environment to their advantage creatively using a skill (strength to push aside brush, escape artist to get through difficult spaces, intimidate or diplomacy to alter a crowd of people, bluff to fool the opponent, the possibilities are nearly endless). I have always viewed the subsections of my adventures as sort of a skill challenge. Yes you fight your way through some of it, but you can use your other tools as well. Usually there are benefits in using a characters various other skills and abilities rather that straight forward hack and cast. So what have they done for me in codifying skill challenges? So far I am thinking not much. I am an experienced DM, so I am usually ready (expecting) for the players to NOT follow the path I set for them and have to improvise. Therefore I am quite accustomed to adjudicating a players creative use of their skills to solve a problem in ways I had not foreseen. Since my track record for predicting what my players will actually do is abysmal at best - what value is there in spending valuable and limited time to 'precisely' define what skills and difficulty levels are required to solve the problem? (I think I am foreshadowing the answer, no?) On the other hand if generous gamers post clever skill challenges that I can borrow and convert with little effort - praise be to Arimal goddess of those who 'borrow' may she bestow her luck on those who enrich my game. My 'skill challenges' are more like a series of balloons and arrows with some logic points (yes go here - no go there; if then else; etc). Sure there are points where I document precisely what is needed to succeed on a certain element, but I do not formalize the entire process. I am not completely done ruminating on this, but so far I am not inclined to spend valuable preparation time in this level of detail.

Winter ales early: Harpoon Winter Warmer

2009-11-14T18:30:00.002-05:00

The beer companies are just as bad as the big box retailers. Winter has not officially started yet and the winter beers are flooding the shelves. Well, I bought it anyway. Heh. I was not in the mood for any of the myriad pumpkin ales that stared hauntingly at me. Boo! I am up at our lake house and spent the afternoon working on screen coverings for our new porch. It is cold and rainy here today. Add that to my general ineptness in such endeavors and the result is not many screen coverings were built and hung today. Cold, wet, tired, and frustrated - hmmmm, good time for a winter brew. Back inside I grabbed a Harpoon Winter Warmer while I put some soup on the stove and Amy Winehouse on the boom box. (Too bad she is such a train wreck - Back in Black is a fine album). Post soup I have a sandwich queued up: black forest rye, deli sliced roast beef, horseradish (we are out of mustard here - what is up with that!), cheddar cheese and some russet kettle cooked potato chips. Oh, right, the beer. I am firm believer that your state of mind, and the food you are eating if you are having a food friendly drink affects how you enjoy the drink. As described above this is a friendly environment for a winter ale. This is a mildly full bodied ale. More creamy than hoppy, it has almost zero bitter aftertaste. The finish is long, and mostly carried by the spices. It is fairly well balanced, though the spices are forward as you might expect from the style. Surprisingly, it went well with the Mediterranean style sausage and pasta soup. It is a little weak for the serious sandwich I have going on here, but not completely overwhelmed. Perhaps the black forest rye cries out for heavy Bavarian dark, my bad in the beer and food selection. You can find a number of other brands with their spiced winter brews out there, I think they are all featuring the cinnamon and nutmeg like this Harpoon brew. If you compare them, let us know how that worked out. In summary, I can recommend it. It is moderate enough to have on its own, but can stand up to some food (skip the black forest rye though). Not a brew to rave about, but solid enough to have and not be disappointed. Cheers.

Haiku wisdom for adventuring parties on a bad day

2009-11-10T20:22:00.003-05:00

My gaming group had an off night some months ago. Some time had passed since our last outing and, well, the group was just not playing as if they were the experienced team that they are. During the session I could only chuckle as one after another unfortunate event occurred. They did not need me to point it out to them, they knew. However I could not resist sharing with them some poetry between sessions in the wrap up. Note: this is not typical, and I had never done this before. They did not think it was as funny as I did. Go figure. Enjoy.

move silent roll fails
so much metal armor worn
next time send the rogue

patiently waiting
many hide ranks has the foe
you are now surprised

desperate player
only one chance to survive
the dice never lie

trolls are dangerous
fortunate they have weakness
I thought you had torch

items on your list
they would have been quite useful
you forgot to buy

The Recurring Villain

2009-10-27T20:45:00.001-04:00

In my experience, on either side of the screen, nothing creates instant and passionate motivation in the players like a recurring villain. Sure, there is desire to save the world, gain stature, kill things and take there stuff, and all that. Add revenge to the mix and you have a winning combination. Recurring villains eat at the adventure party like nothing else. Even while they are off on other exciting adventures they always make comments like, "When we are done this, we have to go back and get that guy." Too many recurring villains waters down their impact. Not enough and the connection players have to the world is weak. I have some personal unofficial rules about recurring villains that I use to some success. They must have something memorable and unique about them. This helps the players have a strong emotional impression of the villain. The player characters must pose some level of threat to the villain. Villains must be played consistently for verisimilitude. Smart villains make smart plans. Dumb villains make dumb mistakes. Smart villains will use others to do their dirty work whenever possible. Villains should be focused on their own agenda until such time as the player characters become a problem and their agenda. If players alter the villains environment, have the villain react to that change. For example if the players reduce the villains resource pool, then the villain is limited to the new lower resource pool. No matter what the story line or how much time I put into building a villain, villains can be defeated if the players are clever. Conversely, villains can get away if players are less than clever. I do not care for predetermination. I think that is transparent to the players and demoralizing. In my campaign I have some villains that are planned for recurring purposes, some villains that are candidates if the players do not defeat them in their first encounter with them, and some villains that have been created spontaneously because of an unexpected unsuccessful encounter on the part of the player characters that was just too good to pass up. Depending on the villain and the circumstances, I may have the villain increase in levels as the party does. If the villain is active and successful they can grow just like the player characters can. Other villains are more stagnant and the players can grow to become powerful enough to challenge them. Then there is the mysterious villain.... players at first are not sure who, what or why. Oh, the endless possibilities! How do you use villains?

Bowmore Scotch

2009-10-23T19:45:00.000-04:00

The family is all out engaged in their own activities tonight. The wife thoughtfully left dinner prepared for me before she ran out. (She is a sweet heart, the love of my life and much more than I deserve) After dinner, I spent a few minutes looking for a map I had made for the next adventure with the intent of refreshing my memory and adding a couple of notes. Due to the sorry state of my DM 'bag', I instead spent a half hour cleaning up and organizing same. As a reward for my good behavior I decided to put on some music and have a beer or perhaps a glass of wine. Unable to come to a decision between the two, the chill in the air from the brisk autumn night instead propelled me to reach for the liquor cabinet. So here I sit, sipping a glass of Bowmore 12 year Islay single malt Scotch whisky, neat. In the background plays JJ Cale & Eric Clapton Escondido. The first point I will make is - life does not suck. I will not bore you with the extraneous details of the clarity of the sound from my stereo or the comfort of the leather couch. As you can guess from the title of the blog, this is about the Scotch. First I will say that I am hard pressed to find a 12 year old single malt Scotch whisky that does not have some redeeming quality. This Islay has a nice peat smokiness, and it would be perfect for sitting in front of the fireplace - even better if you have a peat/turf fire glowing warmly therein. Although I do not have any handy to try, this would go nicely with some smoke meat or cheese. There is nothing overwhelming about this whisky, it is nicely balanced with a long smooth and subtle finish. According to the tasting notes, I should be finding subtle notes of lemon and honey with the trademark smokiness in the nose. I do not - I get the smokiness but instead of the pleasant lemon and honey there is a trace of mustiness which is far less pleasant. After a few sips I can finally taste the suggested faint dark chocolate amongst the peat smoke. All palates are different, and instead I come away with a nice almost butterscotch hint with the smokiness. I give it a thumbs up. Not my favorite single malt by any stretch, but if you find it on sale, do not be afraid to purchase it. I think the Cale & Clapton helped too. Cheers!

Falling with impunity

2009-10-13T21:10:00.001-04:00

"Falling down became second nature and it really didn't bother me." Nancy Kerrigan The rogue character climbs the tower with rope and grappling hook and achieves the top room before the horde of orcs and the large ogre can breach the door. Quickly he helps the princess climb into the rafters of the tower roof and hands her the invisibility potion. "Remain motionless and quiet," he commands her and then moves to the balcony just before the door is sundered in a shower of wooden splinters. "How far to the ground?" asks the player. "Fifty feet. The wall is smooth finished stone," answers the DM. "Hmmmmm, five times six is thirty, so I can survive maximum damage with my thirty-two hit points. Balazar steps off the balcony and waves good-bye to the charging orcs and their ogre pet. At the bottom I will drink my potion of cure serious wounds. Next round I will join the others fighting their way up the tower stairs." Balazar's player crosses his arms and look smug. The DM grinds his teeth. Sound familiar? Should a DM grind his teeth over this encounter? I have no qualms over players defeating my evil designs and feeling smug over it. I rather like that they feel smug when they are successful. I despise metagaming. I also despise the lack of verisimilitude. Should not falling be dangerous? Should players ever know EXACTLY what is the risk of failure? Where is the excitement is danger if you know exactly that you can defy common sense fear of falling and step off the tower ledge? The player did not even attempt to lessen the damage using tumble skill, or some other tool they may have been carrying. Your mileage may vary, but in my game this is just plain wrong. What do you do? I have cast about for possible alternate and house rules to achieve the feel or verisimilitude. Various gaming sites forums have discussions on the same topic, some old some new. A common solution is for falling to do ability point damage. That does give back some lethalness to the situation but induces two undesirable side effects. First, ability damage is a PITA to manage and causes more calculations. Calculations are not inherently fun for most people. Second, ability damage levels the playing field across character levels therefore a higher level character would not be more likely to survive a fall than a lower level character. This goes against the premise that characters get 'better' as they move up in level. I even spent some serious time with a spreadsheet comparing actual velocity to the falling damage. (notice I said that calculations are not inherently fun for MOST people). Surprisingly, the velocity to damage ratio is remarkably close to a straight line d6 damage per ten feet after you get by the initial twenty feet and before you achieve terminal velocity. However, this does not address my concern. During a long discuss on this topic with one of my players (who just also happens to be my grown son) he became thoughtful and asked, "what is the difference between falling damage and weapon damage?" Indeed, what? If you can subscribe to the notion of hit point abstraction, which is hard to avoid if you play D&D, you can easily rationalize an answer of, "nothing." So where does that leave us? It brought us back to looking at other rules, rather than 'solving' the falling problem. Maybe the problem was not falling. Maybe the problem was large amounts of damage. So instead I am instituting a house rule massive damage threshold, one that is variable with a character's hit point total and not an instant death rule. What does your game do to address this problem? Is this a problem for you? Are you interested in our 3.5E massive damage house rule? How is the weather where you are?

Live recordings that bring the magic

2009-10-07T18:08:00.004-04:00

Amazon has a listing that proposes to be "The 100 Greatest Live Albums of All Time". My intention is not be rate or validate this listing but rather note some of my favorite live recordings. If I understand it correctly, in the music business live recordings are a relatively inexpensive way to get another album out. You do not need new material, and no fancy studio, just some recording equipment at a venue that is already in the works. From my experience most live recordings are not worth purchasing. The sound quality is often shoddy, the balance between the instruments can be off, and some performers or bands just do not have that special magic when doing the live show. Most of my personal collection of something over 350 titles are NOT live recordings. However, every once in a while a band will surprise you. They will bring the magic to the show. That is not to say the recording is a replacement for being there, I know far better than that. Some of that magic shines through onto the recording. Sometimes it is just the energy. Other times the band just comes together in a way that was far superior to the studio recording. Some of these recordings have very different versions of the songs in comparison to the studio recordings, and those versions are far better than what was put forth in the studio. Here are the recordings that I already own (on vinyl or CD) from Amazon's 100 list 11 Neil Young - Live Rust. This is one heck of an album, and if you can find it watch the movie that was made of the same concert. I love the road-eyes. I do not own any studio Neil, I far prefer this. 13 Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense. Again, this is one heck of an album, and again if you can find it watch the movie. I do not own any studio Talking Heads, only this. I find the Heads too cold in their studio recordings. 18 The Who - Live At Leeds. The quality of the recording leaves something to be desired. You need to be a who fan to appreciate this one. Listen to it for the energy - sparks nearly fly. 21 Cheap Trick - At Budokan. These guys were never meant to be taken seriously, and this is just a fun album at its core. 29 Eric Clapton - Unplugged. I own loads of studio Clapton from all periods of his career. Listen to this for the interesting versions of some songs (like Layla) and for the emotion that bleeds off the tracks (like Tears in Heaven). 48 Deep Purple - Made in Japan. Sound quality is iffy, but this is a recording for the times. Egocentric long versions of every song. Just about perfect. 66 Peter Frampton - Frampton Comes Alive! I own no studio Framton and was not a fan until this album came out. Sound quality is not bad. The real attraction here is better versions of every song vs. his studio recordings. 90 Stevie Ray Vaughan - Live at Carnegie Hall. Recording is not bad and the energy is terrific. 95 Neil Diamond - Hot August Night. Hate to admit that I like Neil Diamond. More accurately, I like THIS Neil Diamond album. Its fun and the emotion comes through very well. Some of these albums made me a fan of the artist, which I had not been prior to hearing the recording. Another good example of that is Sarah McLachlan - Mirror Ball. Prior to that album I found Sarah rather dry. Again, it is a decent recording but she really puts out the emotion with good versions of the songs. I think the band cuts loose a bit more than on the studio recordings. Where is the magic for you? What live album changed your mind about an artist and made you a fan (or a reluctant fan)?

Full disclosure

2009-10-06T16:18:00.003-04:00

Those looking for the full monty should look elsewhere. In the spirit of full disclosure, and in the spirit of full over the top ridiculousness, I proudly declare that I have nothing to declare. I have noted so in the "about me" to the right. So all you FTC types can look elsewhere for bloggers making big bucks on recommendations. And my readers can feel certain that my rantings are just that, and not tainted with commercial money. New FTC guidelines. On the other hand, I would happily consider those big bucks and disclose same. :-)

Who says D&D is fantasy

2009-09-19T09:19:00.007-04:00

Reported on the 'net COLUMBIA, S.C. — A 16-year-old girl has bagged a 10-foot alligator in a South Carolina swamp. In the middle of the night. With a crossbow. The State newspaper in Columbia reported that Cammie Colin won one of 1,000 lottery slots for the state's annual public alligator harvest. Hunters are required to use a crossbow or a harpoon. Cammie was the only person in her group authorized to shoot the 353-pound gator. The Lexington resident was with a guide, her father, an uncle and her brother in an 18-foot boat early Sunday in the headwaters of Lake Marion. They have 40 pounds of alligator steak in the freezer now. Cammie says most of her teachers are using her new nickname, "Killer." What do you think, is she a rogue? Sneak attack plus critical hit with maximum damage? I wish they would provide more crucial details. Was it a light or heavy crossbow? Did she kill it in one shot? Does she dress like Lidda? (I mean, what is up with those braids and that red nose of hers). After you think you have killed it, who goes and pokes the alligator with a stick to see if it is really dead? Adventures need to know this type of information.

Endless quest for the perfect summer beer - part 3

2009-09-16T21:00:00.000-04:00

Summer is waning, the air is getting crisp, the leaves are getting ready to turn vibrant colors, and I did not write about Mexican beer! Once upon a time I drank Corona. I started long before it was the most heavily marketed of the Mexican Cervezas. Not fancy, just a good clean, crisp brew on a hot summer day. Then it happened: I started to get headaches from drinking just a few Coronas. Was it the dastardly buyout by some mega-brewing company that lead to this unfortunate turn of events? I will likely never know for certain but as I have blogged previously, AB products give me headaches. So long Corona, I knew you well. Now what. I have always liked Dos Equis, and still do, but that brew just does not have the hot summer day quenching ability that Corona had upon my tongue. Modela and Negro Modela are really too creamy to meet the requirements, and they too have become on my forbidden list for headache reasons (another AB buyout!). My old standby when I could not get Corona was Sol. It is a little less body than Corona but it is not too bad. The challenge is to find it, or any other Mexican beer for that matter, in the stores in this area. Corona has the market for Mexico beer space nearly locked up tight. Dos Equis sneaks in there but not much else. If you go to Mexico you will find Tecate and Presidente are on most menus. They are drinkable but far from my favorite. My current favorite is Pacifico. I took to drinking this on a trip to Mazatlan. Pacifico is the local brew there, started by a German immigrant of course. Apparently there was quite a large number of Germans who went to Mazatlan, and the remaining evidence can be found in the beer and music. I kid you not, you will hear oompah mariachi bands. Maybe I am remembering the trip fondly when I pop open a Pacifico, but I find them simple and refreshing, which is really what I want from my hot summer day brew. They are difficult to locate here outside of Mexican restaurants. Note to local retailers - stock them and I will buy them. I would recommend both Mazatlan and its native brew. What about you? What is your favorite summer Mexican cerveza?

My RPGless summer

2009-09-16T20:16:00.004-04:00

Where did the time go? Most modern calendars mar the sweet simplicity of our lives by reminding us that each day that passes is the anniversary of some perfectly uninteresting event. Oscar Wilde It is bad enough my group only gets together 1-2 times per month normally due to our combined busy schedules, but we had no regular game outing all summer. We had a busy summer, and the schedule was out of control. I suppose I am mostly to blame, but since I am DM at this time who is going to call me out (and have there character live, mwah, ha, ha, ha). We should break our gaming fast this coming weekend. Finishing a ship board adventure on Talk like a pirate day. Fitting. With such a long hiatus I will be recapping much from the last outing. I do not normally like to do that. Game logs and group memory is for that purpose. This time I will make an exception. What do you other DMs out there do?

Sometimes the players change the plot

2009-08-18T21:30:00.001-04:00

A player is bringing in a new character to the game. The group is pledged to the local King through their artifact weapons. In order to unleash the power of the weapon, one must become 'soul bound' to it. In becoming 'soul bound' a character also gains a bond to the other weapon wielders. Certain powers of the weapons are additive if more than one weapon is being used along side another. The powers of evil, for I like having powers of evil in my game, recognize the artifact weapons as a threat and therefore desire to prevent another weapon gaining a 'soul bound' wielder. The player's new character manages to avoid the trap laid by the powers of evil, meets her new comrades, and prepares for the binding ceremony the next morning. Lots of pomp and circumstance, some noble feel good moments and then off to the grand adventure I had planned for them. But not so fast, for the players had other ideas. As I mentioned before, I prefer a Story Telling Adventure Game type of play. So I have a strong story arc, and the players work within that to tell the story. You see it was the night before the ceremony and the players assumed that I would be a Rat Bastard DM and attempt another assassination attempt on the new character. There was a precedent, as the powers of evil have used assassination in the past and will most certainly do so again in the future. So as the players began to fret a bit and plan against the attempt, I let the paranoia build. As any good DM will tell you, some paranoia is good, and any paranoia is fun (at least for the DM). However, I let it get out of hand and the players spent a goodly part of the evening preparing for the assassination attempt that was not in the story arc. Letting the night pass without the anticipated event would be disappointing to the players, and the time left for our game evening would only allowed me to do the ceremony and not much else. So I was left with a choice - stick to my story arc or improvise. I hate to let an evening pass without the players having some good dice rolling and excitement, so improvise it was. Why not give them what they want? I bought a little time by saying, "OK, draw out the inn and show me where everyone is going to be." I ran through the options in my head, altered a villain slightly and had that said villain send a leveled invisible stalker after the new character. The battle turned out quite memorable, with characters going down, characters risking their lives to protect others, some clever actions and a humorous moment when the wizard blasted a hole through the wall on the second floor of the inn and destroyed the roof of the neighboring building. All in all a good nights work. In the morning they had the ceremony but not before the innkeeper told them they were no longer welcome at his inn. Heroism has its price. I do not always let the players write the story arc, but sometimes the story is enriched by letting them do so. Turns out the changes to the villain opened up a number of interesting possibilities that I have already used in the game to the general benefit of the future story. Now to be clear, the players/characters ALWAYS have a hand in the story. The plot outline is written but the outcome of events is not determined by me but by their actions. And of course their actions have consequences, good and bad, which I allow to play out. So though I am the primary creator of the plot outline, the players give it life and alter its direction. Sure this has some challenges, but overall it keeps the game fresh, unpredictable, and exciting. The dice never lie.

Endless quest for the perfect summer beer - part 2 some flavored beers

2009-08-17T21:30:00.000-04:00

The Brewers over at Magic Hat like to unleash a steady stream of not so ordinary seasonal brews. This year's summer brew is called Wacko, not unlike the folks at Magic Hat themselves. If you missed the fine print when looking at it on the shelf, the beer is pink in color from the touch of beet juice. Are you still with me? Though not quite commonplace, I am not afraid and I purchase a 12 pack (because there are no six packs). I can get over the pink color, I can get over the concept of beet beer, I am eager to have a delicious summer beer, crisp with just a bite of hops. Unfortunately I am disappointed. Too much hops, too much bite, waaaayyyyy too much bitterness in the tasted during and afterwards. The beets only add a faint sweetness that stands before the bitterness like a zero level man-at-arms with a pointed stick against an ancient red dragon. Magic Hat wacko brewers I love you guys, but this is a fail. I will keep feeding them to Brian during game days until they are gone. On my way to the lake this weekend, with temperatures threatening into the low 90s, a crisp refreshing beer was desperately needed. Then I saw it, the nice folks at Harpoon UFO division gave me just what I needed, raspberry Hefeweizen. I think it is very similar to their regular UFO Hefeweizen but with just enough raspberry taste and just a hint of sweetness. I had a 6 pack of that like many good things, it passed leaving me wanting for more. This beer is crisp, well balanced, thoroughly refreshing and highly recommended for those hot hours of the day with the brilliant summer sun sizzling on your skin. My son brought with him some blueberry wheat beer from the Wachusett Brewing Company. I am not sure if this can be had in very many places outside of Northern Massachusetts but it is worth a taste if you see it. Far too light for cool weather drinking, it is crisp, dry, not too bitter, and with only a hint of sweetness and a balanced amount of blueberry taste. This beer does not stand up to heavy foods very well, but like the raspberry UFO above, is very good in the heat of the midday sun. We alternated between the raspberry and blueberry beers until they ran out. Fortunately for us the clouds rolled in and it was time to grill some Wisconson made Bratwursts, which went very nicely with the Dos Equis that we left in the refridgerator. But that is for another post. Cheers

Drink free or die

2009-08-12T20:20:00.000-04:00

Fine, that is a tacky title. Fits the tacky wine I just finished. New Hampshire is not exactly known for its fine wines, but we do have a few wineries and distilleries. One such is Flag Hill in Lee, NH. There is a quaint farm that produces some grape and fruit wines, distills some kind of local vodka, and has some events where they are the provider of food as well. My wife and I did a tour in the Miata last year of a few local wineries. Flag Hill had some nice people in a nice location. I felt guilty and bought a bottle of blueberry port and a bottle of Marechal Foch. I had the port last fall. It was interesting in that it did taste somewhat like port. It was pleasant enough and came in a unique bottle, however much better 'real' port could be had for the same price Today I am finishing the bottle of Marechel Foch vintage 2006. The name of the grape is named after the famous French General from the first world war. Apparently it is a versatile grape which can be used to make port like wine, a light red apertif, and an inky dark wine like this one from Flag Hill. The Marechal Foch grape is grown here because they can; not much else grows very successfully in this wine unfriendly climate and rocky terrior. I honor their effort but the result is quite sub-par compared to the European, Australian, Californian and South American wines I am typically drinking. The wine tasted mildly fruity reminiscent of black fruits though very young tasting like it should have been laid down, though I doubt it was of the quality that would last long if done so. There was both some acidity and tannins but the overall balance was off. I should have just made sangria with it, or just had it slightly chilled. If you are local, try it if you are curious but don't expect it to compete with the wine royalty that you may be accustomed.

Endless quest for the perfect summer beer - part 1

2009-08-10T18:25:00.000-04:00

Crisp, dry, with just enough body and a hint of flavor. Low cal light beers just do not do it for me anymore. Tried a six pack of Landshark Lager over the last week. It is produced (likely more accurately manufactured - it makes me shudder) by the Margaritaville Brewery of Jimmy Buffet fame. It claims to be an original island lager. I find it a bit too creamy to meet my somewhat vague perfect summer beer yardstick, and too creamy to be calling itself an island lager. Otherwise it was acceptable, better suited for a moderately warm island evening than a hot and humid island afternoon. I am suseptable to headaches from some beers even in small quantities (most Anheuser Busch products will give me a headache, 1/2 a bud is the equivalent of driving a rusty iron spike through the top of my skull). A couple of Landsharks at a sitting did not produce a beer reaction headache in me. I'll put this lager on my "I'll buy it again if I can't find anything better" listing. Which, in fact, is not a bad rating since I am quite particular. Cheers.

Baby's first battle axe

2009-07-20T18:57:00.002-04:00

My wife convinced my to buy a foam battle axe for my grandson's first birthday. Not his only gift, but one that was funny and out of the box. We were not sure how it would be taken by the parents, but they laughed. At least outwardly. Apparently the indoctrination has begun. Toys R US was out of baby's first chainmail. She was right though, he would look cool in the horned viking helmet. There is always his second birthday for that.

FRPG is like a rope

2009-07-14T21:44:00.002-04:00

Fantasy Role Playing Games can be many different things to different people. Much like the fabled blind men who each examine a different part of an elephant, each player comes to identify some aspect of the game that they favor and believe that is what defines the game. Much like the blind men, FRPGers often argue their view vociferously and with righteous indignation. If you don't believe me, take a peek at Enworld. The history of the FRPGs are well documented elsewhere. For my purposes here I will just remind that the roots are in war gaming. Most FRPGs retain an element of war gaming in the combat and relative complexity of the rules. FRPGs usually are focused on a particular milieu: swords and sorcery, middle ages, pirates, Victorian horror, modern spy, and martial arts just to name a few. And of course the element of role playing; where you create and play a character in the game. There are dozens of relatively popular games and hundreds of relatively obscure games. Each has its strengths and weaknesses and each caters to a sub group of those vociferously righteous gamers depending on what they favor. There is a broad continuum of games that should be able to meet the desires of the gamers style and milieu. With that out of the way, I can now talk about me. My name is Barad the Gnome and I play fantasy role playing games. If you play, you will likely relate to this -it feels like coming out of the closet. Grown adults do this? Where is the game board? Do you dress up? How do you win? Then the strange looks. Part of the problem is the marketing. Who in their right mind would pick up a game when the back of the box describes it as a table top fantasy role playing game. Oh, right, those greasy haired kids with no social skills who are hanging around in the basement. What style do I like? I certainly like the blend of the war game with role playing and favor certain milieus, but I have a different take on the big picture of the game. You see, I like the story telling, and story building aspect of the game. The dungeon/game master paints the background and gets the story going, and the players act out the parts. The only scripts they have are the personality traits of the character they have created. Immerse yourself in the environment. Solve the problems with muscle or wit. Exalt over your victories, and plot revenge over your defeats. I prefer to think of it as a Story Telling Adventure Game. Is that a better marketing tactic than FRPG? Maybe not, but for me it is the heart of the fun. It is the stage from which the player will roll the die while their character yells, "I smite the demon with my sword". So for the evening, and in our imaginations, we are heroes who have come forth from the great novels to write a new epic. So sit down with your friends around the table and let the tale unfold. There will be tragedy and triumph, danger and delights, humor and horror, all while you and your comrades create legends the great bards of old would lust after for their turn in the telling. Let the blind men waste their time with the elephant, for you see, FRPG is like a great adventure novel.