Hinter dem zehnten Trchen verbirgt sich ein Abenteuer von Geoff Gillan. "The Past is Doomed" ist fr Call of Cthulhu in den 1990ern konzipiert, lsst sich also gut mit Cthulhu Now, aber durchaus auch mit Delta Green spielen. Die Erstverffentlichung des 48 Seiten umfassenden Abenteuers erfolgte 1995 im Chaosium Digest.

This may be a bit of an odd interpretation, but it works for me fairly well in FATE. I never look at task rolls as a conflict resolution. I see actions as a way to incorporate Aspects into the story and therefore as part of creating the narrative. Task resolution in FATE rubs a lot of people the wrong way because we are used to tasks and conflicts as being the engine that drives drama and tension. When you look at it, FATE does not really work that way. In most cases, there is little to keep players from succeeding [...]

Seekers of Lore

I’m taking a run at the Lexicon and Microscope idea I’ve been working on. Here is the first cut of the guidelines.

These guidelines are derived fromLexicon(created by Neel Krishnaswami) andMicroscope(created byBen Robbins).

While bothLexiconandMicroscopeare presented as games, we are treating this more as a 'shared activity' --- in part because it is difficult to come up with a good scoring mechanism, but mostly because nobody cares about winning.

Activity in Seekers of Lore takes part in three stages, with different roles and activities involved.

Framing Stage

In the framing stage the participants outline the structure of the setting. Participants have the opportunity [...]

Der Cthulhu Britannica London Box Kickstarter geht in die letzte Runde. Kickstarter zhlt die verbleibende Zeit bereits in Stunden. Seit der letzten Ausgabe von "Good Morning London" konnten 20 neue Backer gewonnen werden, womit erstens das 68.000 Stretch Goal (Postkarte von Matt Forbeck) geknackt wurde und zweitens das World War Cthulhu London Buch in greifbare Nhe gerckt ist. Hier fehlen

As some of you may have read in two previous articles here and here on The Mad Adventurers Society website, I have been following and analyzing the attempts by Spanish miniatures company GameZone to produce and fund a 25th anniversary edition of HeroQuest. Their original Kickstarter was taken down for violation of the HeroQuest Trademark which is held in the U.S. by Moon Design. Another attempt was made to fund the game via the Spanish crowdfunding site, Verkami. That campaign was removed within hours of going live.Verkami supposedly sent the following email to backers (quoted verbatim):

Dear backers,

We want to comunicate [...]

Kick The Box Dec. 9th 2013

This week’s edition of Kick The Box is going to be a little shorter than your use to and I apologize for that. My usual time spent trolling on Kickstarter, digging up the latest shinies was cut short this week with the death of my Grandfather. But, I didn’t want to totally disappoint my readers and I did want to show off the two games I did find last week. But, enough about me, and on with the show.

Heroes of Ismia Project by: Reed Raymond

The city of Ismia was nearly destroyed by the great Demon Siege. During [...]

Down load It For Free
HERE 

Need a completely different take for Astonishing Swordsmen and Scorcerers of Hyperborea rpg? Perhaps cross over adventure for pulptastic game and a modern spin on things. This just might be the story for you. Fantastic Adventures was a completely different type of pulp with a weird spin on the usual sword and planet stories. These were some really different martians with more in common with the Amazons of AS&SH or even gasp Arduin! Hell they might even make a nice encounter upon Carcosa for that matter.
 This issue featured the talents [...]

Christmas has found my last nerve and is not tap-dancing upon it with golf cleats.

I have broken out the hard liquor (Jameson's Irish Whiskey, raided from my father's booze cabinet) in an attempt to chill the fuck out, because if I don't I'm going to end up on the roof taking potshots at Christmas decorations with my Mosin.

If I disappear for a few days, please check Facebook. If I'm active there, then I'm just having a bad day and will get to my blog when I can.  If I'm not, then I'm probably in jail -- [...]

Sanda Leocadia was rarely surprised but the time disjunction that the Black Crown had undertaken had provided a mystery capable of challenging her best Spellguards.  A missing Crown member, another spell being released duringthe disjunction, and the revelation of the aberrant plot had left Sanda surprised and somewhat in awe. She had taken her time but would now set her two best investigators on the trail of Brita Francisca.  Privately she doubted even their unique skill set would prove to enough to solve that mystery.  Sanda believed she owed her missing dwarven friend the Spellguard's best effort.

Sanda cast her spell, sending magical messages to the elves Moenium and Aedilis.  Neither Moenium or Aedilis were members of the Black Crown and for now Sanda thought that best.   

Last night's heavily-improved Iron Coast session called for vermen (see previous Monster Monday posts) to be mounted. In the scenario I was running, goblins were supposed to ride giant wolves, but this is Ore and there ain't no damn goblins, and why the hell would a ratman ride a wolf? That just don't make sense. Nope, I reasoned, the vermen deserved a vermount just as creepy as themselves. Also, I'm terrified by opossums. 

Giant Opossum (Posskum)% In Lair: 20%
Dungeon Enc: Pack (1d4); Den (1d6+2)
Wilderness Enc: Den (1d6+2); Warren (2d6+2 dens)
Alignment: Neutral
Movement: 150' (climb 120)
Armor [...]

Sam Leary cases her next target for the evening in Absalom.
Image created by Rotten Ragamuffin, legalese at bottom of the pageI was born for the streets.  Most people think that it is some kind of horrible existence but you relate to it and learn the rules pretty quickly.  You learn them or you die trying anyway.  I was raised in a forest under traditional Elven parents.  That is before the raiders arrived and forced us from the forests well North of the island I find myself on now.  My father stayed and fought a pointless war that cost him [...]

So, I've been reading Knights of the Dinner Table - Bundle of Trouble Volume 1 (surprisingly readable on my Samsung Galaxy Note 3) and the first strip is "Lair of the Gazebo".

I doubt that this was the first time a "Gazebo" was mistaken for a viable monstrous adversary in the lore of "old school gaming".

Can anyone think of an earlier reference than KotDT Issue #1 circa summer of '94?

There are plenty of threats out there in the galaxy, and any one of them could be the last thing to cross your hero's path if you're not careful.

B1-Series Battle Droid (Minion)
Game: Star Wars: Edge of the Empire/Age of Rebellion Beta

Characteristics
Brawn 1
Agility 2
Intellect 3
Cunning 3
Willpower 2
Presence 1

Skills
Coercion 3, Cool 2, Perception 2, Knowledge (Xenology) 1, Medicine 2

Talents
Adversary, Intimidating

Soak/Defense: 2/0
Wound Threshold: 11
Abilities: Droid (does not need to breathe, eat, or drink, and can survive in vacuum or underwater, immune to poisons or toxins.)
Special: Hovering (see “Flying” sidebar on [...]

One of the design goals of the revised D20 rules set I’m working on is to end with a more gritty combat system. I want the system to reflect the fact that more experienced PCs are still mortal. So I have elected to highly curb the proliferation of hit points gained at higher levels. Martial classes each gain 1 hit point per level. Other classes progress even slower.

Another change I made was to alter the way that armor functions. Rather than adding a bonus to the character’s ability to avoid being hit (e.g. their Armor Class) it will instead absorb [...]

Activity on this blog's been very slow lately, thanks to a spate of research -- er, I mean, work. For the past several weeks my wife and I have been covering a series of cultural revival workshops wherein crafts masters from the more traditional indigenous communities like the Kagan, Tausug, and here, the Ata Manobo, come to teach their more assimilated brethren the traditional ways. Needless to say, it's been a great experience.

We spent most of the past week in the Paquibato District of Davao City, a remote hilly area that can only be [...]

JP loves banners... So when I got the Two-player battle box for Warmachine, two models for the cinerators that came with the box came with irrevocably bent swords, a great idea blew over me... POLES AND BANNERS. So I went about converting these two to have poles... and banners! This was the first time I painted any Menoth models seriously. And I liked them... It has been so long since I painted fully armored models in large quantity.

I'm rather quite pleased with the outcome of the models. They look big and impressive!

Plus they have banners!

Activity on this blog's been very slow lately, thanks to a spate of research -- er, I mean, work. For the past several weeks my wife and I have been covering a series of cultural revival workshops wherein crafts masters from the more traditional indigenous communities like the Kagan, Tausug, and here, the Ata Manobo, come to teach their more assimilated brethren the traditional ways. Needless to say, it's been a great experience.

We spent most of the past week in the Paquibato District of Davao City, a remote hilly area that can only be [...]

Reviews of past Pyramid issues was one of the things that came up in my "what to next" blog post.

Before I take up the challenge of issue reviews of Pyramid magazine, I thought I'd do a bit of analysis and see which issues I'd review.

Of course, we can all go to the What's Hot page and do the usual sort: show me all of the Pyramid issues sorted by either Average Customer Rating or Number of Sales.

OK, fine, take the best five and worst five, and have at.

Right? Maybe not. There have been 61 issues since the restart of the magazine in its third incarnation. In the overall sort, we have certain implicit information. How long ago it was released is a function of the issue number, and we know they come out once a month, like clockwork.

We also get the average customer rating, the number of issues sold individually. The 12-month subscriptions more or less add a certain number to this, and that number isn't constant, but varies depending on how many subscriptions are active. Still, I'm going to neglect that, despite it being the highest sales number of all. If I really wanted to dig into things, I'm sure I could extract number of 12-month subscriptions by month, by doing 61 individual searches.

I don't care that much. I'm just looking for overall trends in the data.

So, are there any?

Unsurprisingly, yes.

Stand [...]

Shark Week on RRR!

Who needs a Fiend Folio or Monster Manual II when you have these man-ennobling, straight-from-Syfy, straight-to-DVD chimerae courtesy of Roger Corman? These, of course, are the two best before you start delving into the slum section of portmanteau hell, with the likes of MANSQUITO and MERMANTULA (would have fit right in to MMII,  aquatic version of the Drider, don'tcha know).


SHARKTOPUS

HD: 11+11
AC: 6 [13]
MV: Swim 15, drag on land (tentacles) 6
Attack: Bite d8+5 with swallow whole, up to 4 tentacles d4 and hold

The ecology of this [...]

The latest posts from my favourite other rpg related blogs

Wargaming Recon #105: Wargame Holidays Centre with Jon & Diane SutherlandWargame Holidays Centre with Jon & Diane Sutherland Two of the nicest people in wargaming make guest appearances for the first time on this show. The amazing Jon, and his incredible wife Diane, Sutherland share their love of wargaming. Jon shares why his book Mega Wargames is a must buy, this holiday [...]Mon, Dec 09, 2013
Source Troll in the CornerNew Location for Warlock's JournalAfter the Storm and Shield Contest finished on Tales of a GM, the travelling Warlock’s Journal has reappeared. It [...]

Lulu is having an up to 30% sale if you get your order over $80.  I thought would pimp my Manors and say go get some PDFs on the cheap.  If you buy all five its like 1.5 free.  Okay my pimping time is over.  I wanted to list a few of the gaming books I've gotten over the past year.  These are in no particular order and not a complete list. 

Magical Theorems & Dark Pacts by +Dyson Logos 
Love this book.  Using it to help me build my own spell casters in my campaign.

Here is the recap for events for group 1, session 1 and group 2, session 1 and 2.

Players:

Fletch- Human cleric of Drallic the Flayer

Omar- Human alchemist

Reece- Human warrior

This session started with group 1 getting out of the sewers after escaping the fire that was ravaging the Skye district (see the above link for last session recap).The group climbed out of the sewer grate and found themselves in the Craftsmen District.

I used my City District Generatorand my Tavern and Inn generator to get a base idea of this district.

Here's what was generated for the district:

The magistrate of the district has been [...]

This week's Free GM Resource is a series, well a trio for now, of GM sourcebooks that seems like a huge yearly zine.

Called Tales of the Grotesque and Dungeonesque (say that 5 times fast), this annual compendium of "gothic fantasy" from Jack Shear comes from his blog of the same name.

These three sourcebooks are intended to be used in a custom game setting outlined in the first book, but they are filled with all kind of goodies you can use in any FRPG. Monsters, poisons, spells....you name it.

The first zine/sourcebook is 164 pages, the second is [...]

Doesn't matter if it's in the wilderness, city or some gods forgotten dungeon - it is easy to miss a small blood trail. So when you found one, you bet that it will lead to something interesting.

Where does the blood trail lead to? [2D6] 2 A ferocious monster finishing eating it's last victim. It's still hungry! 3 Straight into bandit ambush. They clearly outnumber you. 4 A blood covered obelisk, it's starts to siphon [...]

While I'm working on new content, I want to share a couple of recent discoveries. One is my growing excitement that a date has been set for the premier of Black Sails: 25 January 2014. It'll be nice having something pirate-themed on TV again.

The other is a picture that I found while digging around on Wikipedia the other day.



-Nate

Entry 44
The campfire adds warmth and the moon is full.  I have finished writing my last journal entry earlier, and meditated.  Meditation really helps to relax and focus on channeling the divine power of the Light and this other raw energy.  I can feel a wonder beyond anything else.

The others are sleeping, and the forest night sounds are beginning.  Trevor and I have the first watch.  At some point, Trevor leaves for a nature call, and returns.  He looks right at me but does not say anything, none of the usual business talk.  Also, there is [...]

Tip of the hat to ENWorld for this piece.

Evil Hat has released the first 25% of the first book of the upcoming four book series - Designers and Dragons. Yep, that little (huge) book that came out a few years ago is going to be re-released in a four volume series.

The TSR section is about 100 pages (and free) and the preview also includes the full index - Volume I is going to be over 360 pages.

I seem to have a lot of reading to do...

A useful chart from Dice of DoomI have always had a complicated relationship with character optimization and power-gaming.

On one hand, I understand why people optimize their characters. Roleplaying games are games, and players want their characters to be mechanically good. For example, a player building a warrior who specializes in two-handed weapons will most likely choose options that compliment that choice.

However, I think the problem with character optimization is when a player takes it to an extreme level and "games the system". I'll elaborate for those of you who might not understand what I'm talking about. [...]

I like to encourage my regular Thursday night group to eat less junk, and to that end I often cook up a meal for us to enjoy before the game. Last time I posted a recipe for a hearty stew, but this time I wanted to get a little fancy.

Since we’re playing Pathfinder, I enjoy tricking out the dishes I cook to fit areas of Golarion. Things like this can really help to add an extra dimension to your game world, because the smells and tastes of cooking can evoke a very strong sense of place. If you are at [...]

Wargame Holidays Centre with Jon & Diane Sutherland

Two of the nicest people in wargaming make guest appearances for the first time on this show. The amazing Jon, and his incredible wife Diane, Sutherland share their love of wargaming.

Jon shares why his book Mega Wargames is a must buy, this holiday season. There’s a reason it made our 2013 Holiday Gift Guide. Diane paints a picture of wargaming heaven otherwise known as the Wargame Holidays Centre on the Mediterranean island of Crete.

Don’t forget that this is the final episode of the 2013 recording year. Thank you for taking the time to [...]

You did it. You created the perfect character for your playing style, and she’s exactly the type of character you want to play. From attributes to attitude, she’s the perfect incarnation of a character you’ve been dreaming of playing. You bring your new pride and joy to the table, sit down, let the GM have a look at her, and even the GM is impressed. The game starts to unfold; everyone is leaving the shackles of the real world behind them while they get into character for the game session.

Then it’s your turn. It’s your character’s time to shine. The [...]

By Paco Garcia Jaen The Cthulhu Britannica London Box Set for Call of Cthulhu Kickstarter campaign has been very successful. And it's not surprising because the team behind it are as passionate as they're experienced. To find out more about what sort of thinking has gone behind the production of all the writing in this [...]

The post Podcast Episode – The RPG Interview Room: Cthulhu Britannica Boxet Kickstarter with Stuart Boon appeared first on .

Ancient Kings, Horrors Beyond Imagination and the Worms of The Earth
On The Dark Corner
Right
HERE!

I remember reading about this house rule ages ago, but it was lost to time — for me, anyway. I thought it was a super-cool but when I read it, I was running a 4e campaign where almost every PC was printed off the online character builder.

Trollsmyth
Link: Shields Shall Be Splintered

That is to say, the sheer amount of math involved in determining a character’s modified AC when they added or removed a shield was staggering.

The house rule is fairly simple: a character can negate the damage from an attack by sacrificing their shield. It may vary a bit depending [...]

A few years ago (2010 I believe) Wizards of the Coast released a download on their site for teachers, librarians and parents interested in using games (and in particular roleplaying games) as a teaching aid. They touted the math skills, the social interaction and problem solving skills and a whole slew of things that sounded wonderful towards inventative ways to teach kids. What we got was Monster Slayers, a quick skeleton of a game with an attached adventure all building off of the Monster Slayer kids book that Wizard's produced the year before (but rarely found in the wild).

Passing this along, a repost from the kickstarter updates. As you remember I backed this as the early bird, I was one of the first backers even...and now it's coming up on the 50k MARK! "I would encourage you to post on your favorite boards and social media like Facebook. You would be surprised how many people actually don't find out until it is too late. Or, how many people mean to pledge

OK it looks like I've been slacking on the blog, and in a sense I have, but I have good reason, I just went to see my dad before he passes. I'll be getting back on track here soon, the holidays are upon us. Work is in crunch mode currently and that means a lot of OT, which combined with Working out, means something's got to give, thus, the blog. But I do have some stuff to share I just need to

This article originally posted at The Gamer Effect on April 17th, 2013.

The history of financing independent films is certainly an interesting one. To finance his first feature, El Mariachi, Robert Rodrigez signed up for a series of medical experiments, some of which he still bears the scars from. Kevin Smith financed Clerks by signing up for a slew of credit cards, all maxed out during the production of the film. Presumably, they were later paid off in full.

So while the buzz surrounding the incredibly successful Kickstarter campaign for a Veronica Mars seems, at least to me, less interesting than some [...]

I played some more Skyrim over the weekend. Maybe a little too much Skyrim. Still, like any game designer worth his salt, I came away with some ideas.

Since cookiemonger is also playing Skyrim, I’m deliberately avoiding plot-related quests because she’s highly susceptible to spoilers. This being an Elder Scrolls game, it’s easier to avoid the plot than in most games.

Anyway this means that I’ve spent a great deal of time trekking cross-country, looking for places of interest to me — I’ve been alternately between Mage College quests, and what basically amounts to “nature hikes” as a means of entertaining myself. [...]

A comic book-themed caf is opening in Tunbridge Wells that will also be selling licensed comic book and sci-fi artwork and merchandise.

Rachel pointed out their Facebook page to me the other day, where they are currently showcasing examples (see above) of the prints that will be for sale.

The shop, at 126 Camden Road, is due to open the week before Christmas.

ANOTHER FAMOUS DUNGEON

Knock, knock.

ANOTHER FAMOUS DUNGEON

Day 6 - Favorite Diety  I'm cheating a little bit today. My favorite diety, isn't technically a diety, he's a demon lord (which is really damn close). Graz'zt has always had a special place in my dark heart.  The Dark Prince is a former Duke of Hell that was corrupted by the chaos of the Abyss. He's a sauve corrupter that surrounds himself with succubi, what's not to love?  I also love his connection to Iggwilv and witches.

  

Echoing Fury Aura moderate transmutation; CL 9th Slot none; Price 26,312 gp; Weight 15 lbs. DESCRIPTION This beautifully crafted heavy mace is fully four feet long, with a broad head split by four rows of studded metal spikes that have withstood dozens of encounters with the enemy. The haft of the weapon is forged from […]

Ah, and so 2013 draws to a close. We've added another twenty conventions to the list for our December/January update. Hard to believe we went from about 500 at the start of the year and are up around 650 at this point! Thank you all who've submitted conventions to our list as well as those of you how have shared our site with others. Looking forward to a wonderful 2014! Canada Game Cons:

  After the Storm and Shield Contest finished on Tales of a GM, the travelling Warlock’s Journal has reappeared. It has now found a home at Tiny Gork’s Tinker Room.   Once again, there is a new competition to make sense of the latest entry in the Journal. However, Michael at Tiny Gork has discovered …

Continue reading »

Further to the post that I wrote yesterday, here's an updated scribble of Cthulhu:

This rectifies some of the details in my previous scribble, but I think it needs more work. For example, Cthulhu needs to be more rotund, his thighs need to be longer, and I think his biceps need to be flabbier...