Thinking about trying out a G+ game some time

I am really intrigued about G+ gaming. When I was in Japan I did some voice Skype gaming - it was good but not awesome, and then the Ebisu Game Club managed to form so I didn't need it. But I was thinking it can be hard to find old school gamers, I was thinking about trying out Constacon.

Anybody got any tips for a non-technophile like myself? Interested in how maps would work, I heard of Twidda but not sure how easy or user friendly it is. Before I dive in I wonder if any of the blogosphere knows some tips and tricks.

I'm Back!

Well just returned to blazing Houston after having to deal with snow in Wyoming. Nothing game related (I don't have my personal computer while travelling) - but I did get to read a lot of blogs, and some older articles on Zak S.'s website that made me look at some things in a new light - especially XP's. I also learned about Corcosa (how I didn't know about this just shows how insular I was before I started reading some blogs). Not sure I will pick it up, but all the discussion is interested. Wondering if it was a new product, something that was different; is my D&D Mine just another sci-fantasy game world? And if so, does it matter, really, since 0E was a lot about mashing all that stuff together anyway?

Peace and glad to be home,

No Posts for a while plus an open letter to IKEA

I am engaged in a project of a different nature than Flaming Canyons of the Transfigured Dawn. A project involving many small pieces, not one but three flat packs and an engaged 6 year old that wants to help as well as get said project completed before I have to travel for work for a week.

But in the meantime I have a real question for IKEA: why the fuck would you decide to put brackets and screws that measure fractions of milimeters on the end of a bedframe where you have less than a half an inch clearance to fit a screw driver. Who decided that was a good application in this situations. Either than or the Swedes have tiny f'ing elf hands and pixie size screw drivers. A gold ole American dewalt power screwdriver (6AMPS!) was able to simultaneously strip these diminutive fey screws from the Nordic lands and get those suckers in at the same time. I only managed a little damage to said bed. No one will notice with a bit of touch up paint.

In the meantime I am on step 6 of a 3 digit step process of assembling this bunk bed which took three trips to the big blue and yeller CF of a store. Brian was really helpful though they should give him a raise.  Between that and work next week there will little posts.

Though I am working on some psionics. I always wanted a decent psionics system in my game. It helps capture that Sci-Fan feeling like you get in PERN and other such works that I think of when I think of the late 70's and 80's of my youth. Peace to all, except for little bastard elves from the lands of the midnight sun that have the tiniest hands ever.

Brevity of Writing - Why Moldvay is Awesome

I'm an engineer (engineering supervisor to be more precise so mostly I do powerpoints) - so I am not the best of writers. I tend to talk a lot as well. I noticed that the best written rules are succinct, clear, and tightly edited. I personally think that is what separates Moldvay from the rest*. And probably why he is probably the single most important person to making the hobby what it is. I know we all like to talk about Gary and Dave a lot - and yes they 'invented' the game. But Moldvay made it organized, coherent, tight, and accessible. As many have articulated, even when AD&D came out most of us just bolted on elements from it that we liked to how we have been playing B/X. That probably makes LL AEC the way that most of us played. Personally I like less AEC and AD&D and OSRIC in my games - I can't stand the race/class split personally. I like the simplicity of decision choices for a player in B/X - class, alignment, gear --> go to the dungeon. The fact that Mentzer took two books to do what Tom did with one separates them for me (that plus Otus vs. Elmore).

Moldvay in a few short pages gives an awesome "how to DM" and how to "wing it" when you need to. At the same time some of the basics of the game are covered: light, encounter distance, encounter reactions, retainer reactions, finding and opening doors, attacking, and finding traps. It was a game that explained how to run a game like a game. I think you do have tweak it a bit (but not in a big way probably how you award XP plus add some Deities to the game for the clerics) but can be run almost with the RAW. My D&D mine is more of a vanity project for some specific wackiness I want to add.

My only beef with Moldvay is the Thief class and I blame Gary and Dave for that. My fighter has a better chance to find a trap than the 1st level thief. That plus all the snake spells for Clerics. Rest of it is gold. I think when I get my D&D mine complete there will probably need to be a complete rewrite and tightening process. I am not looking forward to that.

How do others handle their editing? Do you find it tough like I do, or does it come easy. Any quick rules of thumb you use?


*(I can't speak for Holmes - my perception is that it wasn't around that much compared to B/X back in the early 80's which I perceive as the heyday of the hobby none of my friends had Holmes but we all had B/X )

For some reason my computer won't let me put comments in my own blog

I know I am idiot - but somehow I can't post comments to my own post. So I will just say thanks for the link to Jeff's post on XP. I have read a lot of his stuff before, but haven't this particular one.

Thanks,

Expierence Points Drive the Game - XP For Exploring the Dungeon?

I won't rehash what we all already know - how you give out XP defines a lot of what happens at the table. It works in the corporate world the same way - you work what you measure - and rewards drive behavior.

If I was being fidely and forgey - well I would overall the whole system potentially. There are a lot of really good games that do a good job with this, Burning Wheel comes to mind as well as the keys from the Shadow over yesterday. But then that would Azemol a bit more complicated than what I am looking for, and also it would hamper being to move from campaign to campaign - or least it would impact the fungibility of players from different backgrounds being able to play (probably another post all together on one of the things that makes old school DnD is while every table is different they are relatively fungible from a rule set - but probably not always from a style).

Instead I go back to the good old standby's plus a bit more. I want Flaming Canyons to be like when I played the B/X originally - a lot of exploration - what's around the next corner - what's on Level 2. But I also really like in my game of the impacts as characters grow and you get into the "end-game".

Like many I use the Dave Arneson rule: you only get the xp if you spend the gold you get out of the dungeon. Meaning that just getting isn't enough. What you spend on doesn't matter, except you don't get any XP from buying equipment or making magic weapons. All else you spend on does give you XP. If wine, women, and song is your thing, then by all means. But you could also get paying a ton of bribes to gain an audience with the Baron Throckmorton or in building up your Overlord Lair or whatever. What you spend it on shows some of how you see your character.

Jeff has a similar system for his carousing. I don't limit to carousing, but I do like some of his ideas about how big of a city you can spend it on. In the past I haven't done this, I just assumed somehow - usually 'off camera' the character spent the money. Make something up, scratch the gold off your sheet, and we talk about it (briefly) and maybe I add a twist or two to what you said, usually some sort of complication, a 'I always knew he was that type of guy' or just jot something down to add for future adventure fodder.

I will have think on it a bit more if I want anything more fiddely than that. One thing I do want to do is encourage characters to take some additional risk though. Exploration is a big thing, espically those old so tasty weird Enochian Ruins like the Burnished Tower of the Spellthrone. So in addition to the rule on gold, and monsters, I will add one on exploration.

So my XP system looks like:

• 1XP for every 1GP a character spends on non-equipment/magic item creation 
• Standard Monster XP per B/X
• +25 XP times the Level of the Dungeon for each room you explore in a dungeon. 
• +50 XP for trying something weird in the dungeon (what happens if I pull this lever; sure I'll drink from that rainbow hue liquid squirting out of the fountain that we found in this 1000 year weird fortress buried in the side of the mountain about 200' underground!) 
• +100 XP if someone dies in that room of the Dungeon from the Dungeon (i.e. killed by a monster or trap or something weird). Those that survive learn from these events. 
• +100 XP for going down the stairs to the next level
• +200 XP for going down a level by means other than stairs caused by the dungeon (that teleporter you weren't expecting will also learn you some - at least if you make it out. 
• Need to work it out but something similar for Hex Crawling and clearing Hexes. 

Or something similar. I would probably get some tokens or markers or something and just hand them out for each event. When you get back to town you can cash them in for XP for exploring new stuff and coming back out alive to talk about it.

Interested in feedback on this - especially the level of the awards and how others would see to implement XP for exploring the dungeon.

Peace,

Raise Dead Spell For Maidens of the Black Gate

So in an earlier post, I talked about the dieties and mentioned that only of them has the ability to cast the raise dead spell. The ability to have characters come back to life is an important decision in any campaign. I never felt very comfortable with the AD&D versions, or the continuance into mainstream game culture including computer games like Bard's Tale where healing and resurrection turned into a way to such out resources only. The idea of raising dead and resurrection also comes squarely from the Christian religion which isn't in AD&D (at least in the way I have read it). So for my D&D mine, I want something a bit more mythic. Hence the Maidens of the Black Gate. They owe a lot to the Earthsea Trilogy.

This is the version of the spell I use in my game:

Raise Dead - Level 4
Range: Special
Duration: permanent (side note - I have always toyed with the idea of it not being permanent - that the spell would have to continue to be cast before the hero turns into dust - but that is a separate post). 
By means of this spell the cleric casts a ceremony to open the Black Gate. Only a Maiden of the Black Gate can cast this spell, and must have access to a Black Gate (typically an altar found in their temples). To cast this spell the maiden must perform an elaborate sword dance naked in front of the Black Gate. The last part of the dance she cuts open the gate creating a rend to the lands of the Dead. A companion to the slain character must enter the Black Gate carrying their slain companion. Once inside they spend 1D3+number of days the character was dead wandering to find the dead. They can then bring back the dead one to life. For every 7 days inside the lands of the dead both the risen character and the companion who went inside to find them must make a save vs. spell. A failed saving thrown results in a character losing a level (per standard energy drain rules). 1st Level characters become Normal Men (with 1d6-1 HP as HD) and have to reroll their attributes. Upon gaining any experience they become 1st level characters again.  Normal Men who are slain and fail the save are not able to return from the land of the dead and sealed there forever. 

Note since this ceremony breaks the restrictions of the "Obscuring Dance of Utter Darkness" clerics the cleric will be unable to cast spells again, and won't be able to be part of the order. They lose the power to turn undead, and the power of their spells. But they still retain HP and Saving Throws, but they will be unable to advance a level. In general the Clerics that cast this spell stay on in the temple, but in a different role. Generally to get a cleric to cast the spell the person requesting the temple to cast the spell must pay enough gold to take care of the cleric who cast for the rest of their life. Generally this is 14,000 to 20,000 gold pieces. Alternatively in some rare cases the temple has been known to instead marry off the priestess who cast the spell to someone that is part of the group that requested the spell to be cast.

The Maidens are a fairly common order and temples can be found throughout the Baronies and communities east of the Riven Sea. They frequently are healers, midwifes, and perform the marriage and funeral rites for the communities. It is rare that they will open the gate, and will generally only do so for those that have the funds and have proven themselves worthy by deeds that they are strong in the world (e.g. they will not generally throw away their priesthood for a 1st level character since there is a strong chance the character will not return from the land of the dead).