THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS (blogger version)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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