RuneQuest/Basic Roleplaying Panel If there's anyone out there who'd be interested in being on a panel about the RuneQuest/Basic Roleplaying system (and the many strange things that have been going on recently and in the last thirty-odd years with that system), please let Programming know - at the moment, I'm the only one on that panel.
D100 is here at last! It arrived in the mail on Saturday: the playtester's copy of Basic RolePlaying, The Chaosium Roleplaying System. I'm very excited and pleased. A few quick first impressions:
1. It's huge. 399 pages! I hope the size doesn't scare newcomers off.
2. The cover is cool; I like it a lot. But again, I have to wonder how it will look to newcomers:
3. They spelled my name right. Whew!
4. I'd been worried about the magic system. No more worries - the magic system is very much in the tradition of RQ and classic BRP. There are some slightly different names for spells, but classics such as Bladesharp are effectively unchanged (it's now called "Sharpen").
It's going to take me a LONG time to read and properly analyze this behemoth! I have GOT to find a group to play it with!
Hackmaster: Other Uses of the Flavor Cantrip 1. Cast it on a friend who has fallen in battle with animals or monsters that attack by biting. Give your ally the most bitter, awful taste imaginable. With any luck the creatures will leave him/her alone after one taste.
2. Try casting a nasty flavor on yourself or allies before fighting such creatures (warning: the DM may rule that you yourself will also suffer the effects of the flavor in your own mouth. See if you can develop a tolerance for one particular bad taste. Also, if the bad flavor affects you, it should also affect your enemies if you cast it on them. Think of the possibilities!).
3. Give your whole body a pleasant flavor before that big date!
4. Make alcohol taste like water (this is particularly effective combined with a reversed Neutralize Alcohol spell). Instant magical Mickey Finn!
5. Make your boots taste like leaves, grass, stone, or water. That should make it very hard to track you by smell.
6. Make your rations taste bitter or poisonous, to keep pests and wild animals from eating them when you're not watching (keep another Flavor in reserve to give them a good flavor when you're ready to eat them, of course).
7. Flavor non-magical weapons to make them seem magical (assuming that the DM doesn't rule that there's no magical aura associated with the changed taste).
Anyone have any other ideas? There are clearly lots of possibilities.
At last night's Hackmaster session, as we were walking towards town, I suddenly had an idea. The Flavor cantrip works on "one object" - but the book doesn't say anything about it actually being edible.
And the spell also doesn't have a duration, which means that the flavor should last forever (or at least until it's eaten).
So suddenly it ocurred to me: why not flavor marbles? You could sell them to kids as - wait for it - Everlasting Gobstoppers! They'd never get used up, and the flavor would never go away.
You could charge a premium price. There would be few repeat sales (unless a kid lost their Gobstopper), but you could sell many Gobstoppers to the same kid by offering different flavors. And you could offer some truly unusual flavors, too! Chocolate. Mint, orange, lemon, lime, cherry...those are obvious. How about beer-flavored Gobstoppers for adults? Or coffee?
Heck, you could make special nasty-flavored ones (Dirt? Poop? Vomit?) for kids to trick their enemies with! Those would need to be sold under the table, of course - wouldn't want to damage public perception of the brand. But you could charge through the nose for them.
The marbles could be specially made, with some sort of mark to indicate the original Gobstoppers (accept no imitations). They'd be color-coded to indicate flavor, of course. You might even be able to sell gem Gobstoppers for the children of the nobility! "I've got a diamond Gobstopper in my mouth!"
Depending on the source (carved marble, or fired and glazed clay) one Flavor cantrip could be used to flavor hundreds of marbles. Ditto for a Color spell, to make the Gobstoppers really stand out.
I went on and on about the topic during the session, and really amused myself. I even changed my name from "Slobberin' Pete" to "Pete, the Candy Wizard". The elf we rescued last time turned out to be a minstrel, so I sent him on his way (he was leaving anyway) with the request that he make up songs about "Pete the Candy Wizard" and his wonderful new treats.
How about gum that never loses its flavor? Why not?
I just may end up as a tycoon, in the game. The Willy Wonka of Hackmaster! :D
"Made object" Can anyone suggest a good word (one word only if at all possible) which could be used to designate a made or crafted item? "Artifact" is the only good one I can think of, and it can be misinterpreted in a roleplaying context.
I need to distinguish natural objects from artificial ones...hmm. "Artificial"? Maybe. Though that includes a connotation that isn't quite right.
More Geekiness I forgot a few points in the TMNT post I did recently. Since this won't make any sense unless you've read that post first, here's a link.
Anyway, when we escaped from the experimental lab, we got a chance to grab some pieces of clothing. One of the things we grabbed was an Oakland Raiders cap. I spotted it as we were sorting through the clothes, grabbed it and said "Mine! Or I will help you not!". I wore it continually after that.
And later, when we were looting the 7/11, right after I said "Surprise!" and tusked the store clerk, I added "I'm a Tusking Raider."
I wonder how many of you will get that? I'll admit that I wouldn't have, if I hadn't read all three of the original Star Wars novels recently. Teri found an omnibus edition in a dump somewhere (and I'm not exaggerating, it really was a dump). Speaking of which, I have to say: George Lucas is a sucky writer. He got lucky with Star Wars, as Jar Jar Binks proved all too clearly.
I've been watching some of the later movies on cable at night lately, and I have to say: I could have scripted it better. The lines for Obi-Wan are a joke. I can only imagine that Alec Guiness improved his dialog during the first three movies. If the original novel (which is by Lucas) is taken from the pre-filming script, as I suspect, that's proof that I'm right.
Teenage Mutant Psychopaths I'm playing catch-up again. I was going to do a smörgåsbord post, but instead I'll break it up by topic.
My Tuesday D&D game has lost half its players. One of them moved away to live with his girlfriend; once he's settled in he may be able to come for an occasional game, but it will be a three or four hour drive. Unfortunately he was also the alternate DM, running the game with my angry chain-wielding dwarf.
His younger brother seems to have dropped out as well, as has another player who may return later. But that leaves us with just four people. We'll see about getting more. As it stands, it doesn't seem likely that I'll be able to run a RQ/BRP game any time soon.
In the meantime, we're playing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - but it's not what you might expect. This wasn't the plan, but the three PCs seem to have rabies (not literally, of course). In our first session last week we escaped from a corporate building where we were being experimented on quite viciously. In the process, we killed a number of people.
Last night saw us on the run in a stolen van. We needed food and money, so we backed the van through the front doors of a quiet 7-11 late at night, jumped out, and went on a spree.
I should explain that the other PCs are a psionic killer poodle named Poochie, and an escaped Army-experimental wolverine with guns named Mordecai. I'm a mutant elephant with tusks that are very effective in combat. I've been playing dumb, for laughs.
The wolverine tried to shoot out the store camera and failed, so he went into the back room and stole the VCR with the tape. The poodle tried to kill and eat the store clerk. I was busy grabbing all the peanuts in the store and tossing them in the van. Once all the peanuts were gone, I grabbed all the circus peanuts (the giant orange marshmallow kind), and after that, I grabbed some food that I thought my companions might like: cans with pictures of dogs on them. This amused me because in the TMNT world the mutant animals eat human food, not dog food.
Like I said, I'm playing it stupid for laughs.
The poodle does relatively low damage, so he was chasing the clerk around for quite a while and taking bites out of him. Finally the clerk made a break for the front door. As he passed me (still busily looting), I said "Surprise!" in my stupid elephant voice and tusked him quite savagely in the hip. After that, he was dog-meat - literally.
I'm less vicious than the other two, but I'm uneducated and my few experiences with humans have been pretty negative. :D
As we drove north to the wolverine's lair, I sang "Mahna Mahna" 23,822 times.
While I'm at it, it's worth noting that Chaosium has sold the rights to make RPGs based on the Michael Moorcock books to Mongoose. I can't say I'm happy about that, because as far as I'm concerned Mongoose and their "RuneQuest" are shit. But I hope Chaosium got enough money from the sale to make a success out of d100/BRP.
Current Mood: accomplished Current Music: Muppets - Mahna Mahna Tags:d&d, gaming, video
Irony Games Gone? I'm home today, and rather bored. So I'm taking the opportunity to clean up some of my old bookmarks. In the process, I discovered something odd: Irony Games seems to have partly disappeared. Their main page is now some sort of snarky political website instead.
But their online die roller (a wonderful tool) is still there. Does anyone know what's going on?
Incidentally, is it just me, or has LJ been totally dead for a while now? I'm almost tempted to do a "Peter is dead" post just to get a response!
Of course I'd never really do that. I'd expect (and deserve) to lose too many readers if I pulled shit like that.
Current Location:Home Current Mood: puzzled Current Music: Howard Jones - Things Can Only Get Better Tags:gaming, web
For Zelda Fans If you haven't seen this video, or heard this song, you're in for a treat. Sebastian and I went INSANE for it today - I mean, we were both jumping up and down, dressing Sebastian in a green jacket and putting my old IFGS boffer sword in his hands, and singing the song over and over. I suspect that Teri thinks we're both crazy.
That's our re-arranged back porch, which is an absolute delight to hang out in - and will be even more pleasant once we've moved some of the junk out of it that Teri plans to sell in a yard sale. That big tan object near the business end of the sword is a giant stuffed puppy; it's one of the things that Teri will be selling, since it's just too big for us to keep. I'm a little sad about it, as is Sebastian, but he's coping better than I am.
About the cover song: just for the heck of it, here are the lyrics. They were a little hard to understand, so I tracked them down online; since they were relatively hard to find, I thought I'd save anyone else the effort and post them here.
Link, he come to town Come to save the Princess Zelda Ganon took her away Now the children don't play But they will when Link saves the day Hallelujah!
Now Link, fill up your hearts So you can shoot your sword with power And when you're feeling all down The fairy will come around So you'll be brave, and not a sissy coward
Now Link has saved the day Put Ganon in his grave So now Zelda is free And now our hero shall be Link! I think your name shall go down into history
Incidentally, this cover version is often mis-attributed to System of a Down. Much as I'd like to claim it for my people (SoaD are all Armenian-Americans, I believe), it was actually done by a band called Joint Rabbit - who are, unfortunately, so obscure that they don't even rate an entry in AllMusic.com. Which is a pretty amazing level of obscurity. Pity, because the song is great.
Who knows? Maybe they're Armenian too.
Current Mood: happy Current Music: Joint Rabbit - Legend of Zelda Theme (cover) Tags:gaming, link, music
DBRP! Out of the blue, I've been added to the Deluxe Basic Roleplaying playtest group. I think I can get into this. And from what I've seen of the rules so far, it looks very good - very RuneQuest-compatible.
Current Mood: pleased Current Music: XTC - You're the Wish You Are I Had Tags:gaming
Gaming at Arisia 2006 There has been a lot of talk about the state of gaming at Arisia 2006 over on the Yahoo Boston Gamers board; unquietsoul5 first brought the issue up there, I think, and also mentioned it in his journal (the post is friendslocked).
The problem is that gaming is being moved out of Stanbro, which is a large public room at the center of the con, and is being moved into a series of conference rooms up on the relatively obscure fourth floor. You can read more about it on the board.
I've only made a few comments there - I'm more of a lurker, and rarely read the board at all - but I made one suggestion which was apparently useful: that a board be placed next to Stanbro listing the games on the fourth floor.
In retrospect, though, that really isn't an adequate solution. So I made the following post:
The worst part of moving gaming off the Mezz is that it will make gaming invisible to a large part of the con. The fourth floor is more difficult to reach, and if things are set up the way that they were the last time that gaming was moved there, the game rooms will be off at the extreme end of a corridor - effectively nowhere. People won't be passing by, won't be aware that there IS any gaming at the con. Effectively, it was a kind of internal exile. ( Read more... ) There have been no responses yet, but it has only been about twenty minutes.
Memorial Day 2005 (I started writing this a week ago Monday (Memorial day), got interrupted, and for some reason didn't get back to it until today.)
charibdis and klyfix came over yesterday, and my still-non-LJ friend flight-of-stairs took the bus up from New York on Saturday. The plan was for a get-together and barbecue: hamburgers, hot dogs, fries, salad, and watermelon (yum!). It went well.
But as we were all sitting around the dinner table (Sebastian was upstairs in his room, asleep), I couldn't help hinting that it would be fun to play a roleplaying game. Finally (after I got really obvious) charibdis called my bluff. ( Read more... ) Now, I hadn't GMed for seven or eight years at least. And I have to say that I was amazed at how good it felt to be back in the GM's chair again. In fact, ever since that day I've felt up - way up. It's honestly amazing how much happier I've been in the last week, particularly considering that about 15% of my skin is bright red and itchy. I have a lot more energy, too; I've been able to some great workouts in.
I really missed GMing, I think, and the strange thing is that I never realized it.
Current Mood: high Current Music: Heratix - Heart Attack Tags:friends, gaming
An online game? I'm thinking of running an online RQ game. It would be play-by-post in a forum; there might be some chat sessions involved.
The setting would be Glorantha, although extensive knowledge of Glorantha would NOT be required. And...how shall I put this? As GM, my interpretation of Glorantha would be final. That interpretation is essentially the RQ2/early RQ3 version, before Greg got too into Gregging.
The scenario is large, and pretty dark; a mixed mystery/adventure, with film noir overtones.
Outbreak of D&D geekiness Lately in my Thursday night game we've been getting killed by death spells. Go figure, huh?
We've got a long-standing problem with a corrupted temple run by a lich and packed with the undead. There are traps, glyphs, and symbols up the wazoo. We keep making attacks, doing some damage, and then we're forced to withdraw, in some cases after taking losses.
The traps vary between paralysis, blindness, and death. Anyway, last session our best fighter died after failing to save against a Symbol of Death.
So I said "Isn't there any sort of protection against death spells?", and did a little off-the-cuff research.
Funny thing: the party had essentially been using lower-level buff spells, and had failed to realize that there were much better options available at our current levels (mostly 11th-12th right now). So now we're using the following combination: Heroes' Feast, which provides immunity to poison & fear, and adds extra hit points to boot; Death Ward, which provide immunity to death spells, level drain AND inflict spells; and Freedom of Movement, which gives immunity to web, hold, etc. Backed up with the cleric & paladin carrying Heal and Cure Blindness spells, and we're suddenly a lot more effective than we used to be.
The funny thing is that I'm by far the least experienced with the system, and I've never played a spellcaster in it (and don't now), but I'm the one who found Death Ward.
I must say, the D&D system remains extremely clunky. Lots of time is spent working out definitions and finding broken places in the rules.
Arisia I've been left off of most of the program, but my understanding is that I should be on the following panels:
DAY
TIME
LOCATION
PANEL
Friday
9PM
Holmes
Fredric Brown
Saturday
5PM
Back Bay
Party Genesis Scenarios
Saturday
6PM
Holmes
Cordwainer Smith
Sunday
12 Noon
Constitution
Fan Web Design
I will admit to being concerned; it shouldn't bother me, but it does. "Party Genesis Scenarios", in particular, is my concept - I wrote the original article, and as far as I know no one has ever done as much as I did with the concept (or anything much at all, come to think of it). I know it's just an error...and it's silly to feel proprietary about an idea. But there are so few really original ideas that I've come up with that it's hard not to feel possessive of the ones that I have...
Current Mood: stressed Current Music: The Cure - Friday I'm In Love Tags:angst, arisia, books, gaming
Translated My friend klyfix just pointed out that one of my old articles has been translated into Portuguese. It's "The Gamemaster's Hall of Shame" (this link is to the original version), and it's not the first time I've seen it translated - if I recall, I've seen in it Russian, Finnish, and possibly Polish as well.
I wrote it about ten years ago, and it has always been a little odd. Within a year or two someone emailed me a copy that was being circulated in England, with my name removed. This was before the World Wide Web existed, so it did surprise me a bit.
Unfortunately the translation has my old tiac address, which means that They took it from a really old source.
Thanks, Klyfix! You know, I'm really wondering how the bleep you found this thing.
I'm so tired that between typing the last sentence and this one I ran out of steam and just sat there for five minutes, blinking stupidly at the screen.
Blink, (pause), blink.
The night before last I got caught up playing Diablo online with the clan. By the time I checked the clock, it was 12:48am.
I should mention that playing with the clan has been a lot of fun. I've learned quite a bit, and over the weekend I took my druid from 32nd level to 56th. The secret was open Baal runs, which I hadn't understood before; you start an open game with a name like "baalrun01", and wait for people to enter. Once you've got the maximum, eight people, at least one player makes their way to the Throne of Destruction as quickly as they can - it's basically a mad dash, bypassing almost every attacking monster. Once in the door on the level of the Throne, you open a town portal. Everyone else comes in (you've all joined the same party, of course, so as to share experience points), and deal with the waves of powerful monsters that Baal throws at you.
Once all the monsters are dead and Baal has departed, you announce "02" (or whatever the next number in sequence is), exit the game, start a new game with the next sequential number, and do it all over again. It only takes five to ten minutes per run, and typically you'll gain a level every run or two.
I was given a Gavel of Pain, and socketed it with a Shael rune to increase the attack speed. I'm doing something like 1,200-2,000 damage per blow, and my life-stealing percentage is so high that I'm basically healing myself to full on every attack.
Okay, enough Diablo. Last night...oh yeah. I left something out.
Blink, (pause), blink.
You wouldn't believe the number of typos I'm making here.
Remember back a while when I had to get a big filling? And the dentist told me that it might well turn into a root canal, because it was so deep? He said I'd "know" if I ended up needing one.
With my dental phobia my brain immediately interpreted that as a prediction of agonizing, mind-raping pain.
Oh, and I'll spare you a recap of my dental phobia, okay?
Anyway, I was scheduled for a cleaning for last night. Inevitably, a few weeks ago I woke up early in the morning and had a drink from the glass I keep by the bed. When the tepid water hit the tooth that had been filled, it hurt. Quite a painful twinge.
Instantly I entered a state of absolute terror. I spent the next hour or two trembling in fear, sweating and shaking in the dark, until the alarm went off and I went to work.
I spent the next morning the same way, although the pain didn't come back.
Blink, (pause), blink.
So I was morally certain that I'd be facing my first root canal. Or probably two of them, maybe three (I know that's not rational, but that's why it's called a dental phobia).
But I've learned some techniques to help me cope. And so, although I was tense, I was able to live with it. I practiced relaxation techniques as often as I could.
I think I'm starting to wake up a little, finally.
Anyway, last night I rushed home, put on a brave face for Sebastian and kissed him goodbye, and drove to the dentist. And to my amazement, it went quite well. There was a back tooth with had a very sensitive filling (I've never had any problem with it before), but there were no cavities and no real problems. I'll start using flouride rinse to remineralize a couple of decalcified points, but that's all.
Incidentally, Sebastian had his first dental cleaning a week or two ago. Teri took him, and apparently he was really good and had a great time.
After the cleaning I drove home for a few minutes, kissed Sebastian goodnight, and headed over to my weekly D&D game. As always, Sebastian begged me to stay home and play with him. He breaks my heart every Tuesday!
At the game my sleep deficit hit me, as it sometimes does. But once combat started (the first combat in three weeks) I woke up again.
We had teleported into a temple to free a priest from mind control, only to discover that he was a lich, an undead monster. Shadows (evil ghosts, basically) boiled out of the walls and ceiling. The cleric (who served the same god that this temple supposedly served) realized that not only were we not on holy ground, the ground was now actually unhallowed.
We were in trouble.
Lots of combat, an NPC taken down and turned into a shadow himself, and the lich finally touched my character, Mongo, with a Harm spell that did 134 points of damage. Anyone else in the party would have died, but Mongo just went deeply unconscious.
A round or two later I was healed, and the lich was destroyed moments later. At which point we looked at the clock, and saw that it was almost 11:30pm! I headed out and drove home. Fortunately I was still charged up from the battle, or else I would probably have been fighting to stay awake the whole way.
I got into bed just after midnight, and while the thought flashed across my mind that I could play Diablo or check my email, I ignored it. I was asleep within five minutes.
At 5:08am, a small boy shuffled into our room and climbed up between me and Teri. I closed my eyes and went back to sleep.
5:30am BEEP! BEEP! BEEP! That damned alarm. I turned it off.
Twenty minutes later I got up, dressed with frantic speed, and ran out of the house. Made it to the train station just in time to snag one of the last two parking spaces and catch my train.
Fell asleep on the train, of course, and woke with a start when the conductor shouted "Ruggles!" Ran out of the train, upstairs to the station, and was corralled for a quick handshake by a Presidential candidate. He was charged up, smiling and full of energy as he pumped my hand.
"We need to get out of Iraq, and get healthcare for everyone!" he said enthusiastically.
Dazed, I could only say "That's true!" and smile as I walked on.
It wasn't John Kerry, of course, nor that bastard Bush (I wouldn't have shaken his hand). It was David Cobb of the Green Party. I'll give him credit; as far as I know he's not campaigning anywhere where he might throw the state to Bush. Campaigning in Boston six days before the election? That sends a pretty clear message. He might well pick up some votes, because this is a pretty liberal state in some ways (particularly because at Ruggles he was in the center of a comparatively poor urban area with a high minority population AND a large urban university at the same time), but he's not going to threaten Kerry's chances here. Good for him.
So that makes two candidates for the US Presidency that I've met in Ruggles station.
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