RPGKids - Session Report

I've played Labyrinth Lord with my three young nephews a couple of times, and though we had fun, overall I was left with the feeling that trying again in a year or two might be best. Meanwhile, my friend John in PA, a 4e player, had been trying to find a D&D-like game that would be suitable for he and his six year old boy to play. I suggested RPGKids, and below is his response - I thought someone here might find it of interest as I know a lot of us old schoolers now have kids right in this age range...

We've been playing the good guys vs bad guys rpg with the boy. Very fun.

He likes playing the bad guys.

I found some free fantasy counters to print out, so we have 5 different party members and a bunch of kobolds, goblins and zombies. Adrian & Ruth designed a party, so we just agree on some monsters and Adrian picks a map out of my Keep of the Shadowfall module and we go for it.

This morning for instance, we found a graveyard map and he put 2 zombies, 2 dagger throwing zombies -- he wanted them to be poisonous daggers! -- and 2 skeleton archers in some coffins in the tomb. They started making noise, so we rolled initiative. Our big fighter stepped in first to investigate while the zombies patiently waited for him to make the first move. Then they leaped out and attacked everyone. About 5 turns later, everybody was dead, especially the poor magic-user who was ganged up on: the confident Josephina casts magic missle -- roll 19 -- toward the skeleton archer who is curiously unharmed by the spell's magic -- roll 20. I think we'll have to add a healer class to help the party survive such onslaughts!

Thanks for the rules (link)... We've already thought about different versions of the game (like healers mentioned above). Or bigger badder monsters with more hit points and area damage, i.e. dragons. I think I can get him up to playing with a couple of my friends in a full blown d&d4e session.

But the main thing is just being able to whip out a map and some miniatures -- or counters -- and just play for 1/2 an hour or an hour so those original rules are very cool.

Then he followed up in another email:

By the way, he mentioned Josephina's demise this morning again. "Remember when the skeleton rolled a 20 and Josephina rolled a 19?"
"Yes, I do. Poor Josephina couldn't do anything."
"And now they're all dead," he responded with a smile.

The New Free Dice Bag, A Review, Sorta...

I’m not very confident about writing reviews of new OS products, even though I end up buying a lot of them. After all, most of you have much more experience with the game than myself, certainly in the last year at least. I know experience doesn’t necessarily equal greater insight...still, I hesitate. Yesterday, however, I found a product that I was comfortable reviewing.

I should start this decadent review off by saying that at first I was a Scotch drinker. I never liked bourbon, and though the first few Scotches I tasted almost made me toss, it’s possible that the taste buds of those under the age of thirty are simply not mature enough to appreciate most Scotches. On the other hand, from the younger perspective, you simply cannot trust a Scotch drinker. In any event, I somehow persevered and eventually discovered Balvenie Doublewood. Their Singlewood or Portwood are also fantastic, esp. the latter. As years went by and more people found Balvenie, the price went up. And then, sadly, there were budget cuts. So I downgraded slightly to single malt Irish whisky. At last here I settled on Jameson 1780. Quite nice and cost effective. Unfortunately, there were further budget cuts. American bourbon it was to be! After flirting with Knob Creek (nice, but it will never be smooth) and some locally produced (Oregon) whisky, among other things, I finally settled on Sazerac Rye (originally from New Orleans), a wonderful compromise between flavor, smoothness, and price. A nose of “Vanilla, clove, anise and pepper”, taste of “Candied spices and citrus”, and a “Smooth, licorice and smoked pepper” finish. Yum! Even more recently though, I’ve journeyed into the spirits land of the Canadians. I’ve spent many summers on the shores of the St. Lawrence and a couple of years living only a short drive to Niagara Falls - time enough to occasionally let loose an “Eh?” after a great amount of libation. It seems natural or familiar somehow, perhaps similar to my return to D&D, that I should have evolved or revolved to the mapley sweetness of Canada's own interpretation of whisky.

So more recently I’ve been picking up the Pendleton Canadian Whisky. I try to be a localist as a consumer, so I was initially attracted to it as it seemed to be made here. But the fact is, it’s only bottled in Oregon, hence it’s still Canadian. Thank Thor for this particular orlæg. If you like Canadian Whisky, you have to try it.

Of course before I stumbled on this, the ichor of the gods, I dabbled again with Crown Royal. Yes, a little sad. I really did need a dice bag after all those years, and it was tried and true. Well, anyhow, two birds with one stone, or debit card as it was.

But then, just yesterday, I made the rare (ahem) journey to the liquor store to procure more Pendleton, and saw a strange and new offering on the shelf - Canadian Club. The name was very familiar, but here was a startling thing - a bag! A bag perhaps to challenge the supremacy of the Crown Royal purple dice bag of yore! Taking stock, it turned out that if I bought a smaller than usual bottle of Pendleton, I could also buy the bottle of Canadian Club and get the FREE BLACK dice bag. It’s possible that these Canadian Club bags have been around for awhile and I just noticed ‘em, but still, here’s the review:

I like it. The whisky that is.

I decided to write down my thoughts immediately after drinking it so as not to be swayed by the opinions of others. Here’s what I wrote...

Smooth. Not as sweet as Crown Royal (as far as memory serves). Nice, quick finish, but lacking the subtlety and spice of Pendleton.

So after writing these few words I googled “Canadian Club vs. Crown Royal” and found this review, with which I agree 100%.

Ah, but what about the dice bag you say? Well sir, it’s crap. Number one, it’s simply too large. Much larger than the Crown Royal bag. Number two, the material! Not soft! Rough and cheap! And where are the reinforcing extra gold stitches to be found on the CR bag? Nothing like those here. And the drawstring? Also cheap. Finally, the stitched words themselves are far too verbose, in comparison to the simple and proud “Crown Royal” to be found on the classic purple bags.

Really, it’s a shame. A black bag, of comparable quality to the CR bag, might have resulted in several hundred extra sales, because generally black is cooler than purple. Even the wordiness of the CC bag might have been overlooked if the cloth and pull string were better made. Twas not to be, gentle readers. So I urge you, implore you even, to not impulse buy this whisky, as I did, based purely on the appearance of this (new?) marketing scheme. You will be disappointed.

Only slightly though, two birds with one stone after all. :-)

Yet Another D&D Documentary Coming...

Continuing my string of lazy posts here, today's is about how I discovered (probably after all of you) that there's another documentary coming out about D&D. This one's called "The Dungeon Masters". Maybe this is the one Christian was thinking of in the comments for my earlier post, as yes, it does look like it might be a little exploitative based on the trailer. Or maybe it was just precognition. Still of a DM from the movie above, promo text below...

"An evil drow-elf is displaced by Hurricane Katrina. A sanitation worker lures friends into a Sphere of Annihilation. A failed supervillain starts a cable access show involving ninjas, puppets, and a cooking segment.

These are the characters, real and imagined, of The Dungeon Masters: Against the backdrop of crumbling middle-class America, two men and one woman devote their lives to Dungeons and Dragons, the storied role-playing game, and its various descendants. As their baroque fantasies clash with mundane real lives, the characters find it increasingly difficult to allay their fear, loneliness, and disappointment with the game's imaginary triumphs. Soon the true heroic act of each character's real life emerges, and the film follows each as he or she summons the courage to face it.

Along the way, The Dungeon Masters reimagines the tropes of classic heroic cinema, creating an intimate portrait of minor struggles and triumphs writ large."

A Clockwork Xvart

Xvarts always reminded me of Alex and his droogs. This GIMP inspired by a recent OS blog's entry whose name I've forgotten between sips of Moloko...apologies!

New D&D Reality TV Show Being Made?

I read on Reddit that one of Zak's players had twittered that she was being paid for playing D&D, so I asked him about it and was surprised at his reply that on that day she was paid - and that it was because "We taped the first episode of what will no doubt be the longest running reality-tv series about porn chicks, models and strippers playing D&D ever."

Whoa! Well, I'm sure the franchise will survive however it turns out. Given that he's in Hollywood, I wonder if this has actually been picked up somewhere or if it's just a lark. I wonder what the D&D community's response will be...

Limerick: The Bulette

We canceled last night's S&W session and are in the process of creating two more characters to replace the ones killed by last session's goblins. I decided to offer the option to play the additional classes laid out in Salvatore Macri's Supplemental Lore for S&W Core, and the Assassin was chosen. I can't remember the last time I DM'd with one of these and am looking forward to the plot twist potential it affords.

Meanwhile, I was inspired to write this limerick by a post on Christian's blog...not quite the traditional form but the best I could do...

There are some who pronounce it “boo-lay”
Mostly those who enjoy a word play
Others speak it “bull-et” -
Either way, don’t forget
It can really ruin your parté.

Dungeons & Dragons Documentary Being Made

It looks like their site is still under construction but there's some basic information up about a D&D documentary being made by a pair of students at SDSU. I get the sense that it's mostly about the culture, though it's hard to say from the trailer (Quicktime). Might be interesting... I'll have to put a reminder on my calendar to check back on their progress.

Alleged Mutant Washes Ashore

A friend pointed out this sad and odd story posted on WPIX (re-posted here in case the link goes bad)...sure to cause conspiracy theorists a headspin or two:

PLUM ISLAND, N.Y. (WPIX) - An alleged mutated human body washed ashore on Plum Island, a small island where the U.S. Government typically studies dangerous animal diseases.

A security guard on foot patrol reportedly discovered the clothed decomposing body Thursday afternoon on the southwest beach area of the island, where access is restricted, police said.

The body was described as that of a white male about 6-feet tall with a large build and "very long" fingers. According to authorities, there were no obvious signs of trauma.

An autopsy will be conducted by the Suffolk County medical examiner in order to determine an exact cause of death.

Plum Island, which is located about 100 miles northeast of New York City in the Long Island Sound, has been called a potential target for terrorists because of its stock of vaccines and diseases.
4:57 PM EST, January 15, 2010

Tavern Graffiti: The Orcs Have A God...

The orcs have a god they call Mork
Who some say said not to eat pork
After all they're pig faced
So it'd be debased -
Like seeing your mum on a fork.

*I do not play Warhammer.
*I'm actually offended by this. :-)

A Haiku from Haiku

I haven't taken a decent vacation trip anywhere in many years, and my wife surprised me with a trip to Maui for my 40th birthday this year. At one point there, we found ourselves driving through the small town of Haiku and as dorky as it was, we couldn't resist stopping off at the local post office, buying some generic postcards, and quickly composing haikus to mail to ourselves back in Oregon... mine went:

A far away place -

Reprieve from dungeon and dark...

The elf awakens.

I would have preferred to follow the form laid down by M. Battleaxe (with the theme of monsters being favored) but that was all I could come up with on the spur of the moment. Good to be back, I see the Dungeon Alphabet arrived in my absence - I'll add to the chorus and say it's a great looking book and surely a bargain even though I haven't yet had the chance to really read through it yet.

Break Time

Gonna take a break from posting for a couple of weeks, just a little sorely needed vacation. If you see re-run posts this month, that's why... Best, zB

Happy New Year, Peace & Good Will Toward Mankind!

I hope you have a great new year, gentle hearted readers... I have a very good feeling about 2010 indeed, although I cannot explain why! I will return now to my previously recorded "A Clockwork Orange" and see through the end of 2009 while sipping Pendleton Canadian whisky. May the Orcs, Goblins, and Kobolds steer clear of you in the New Year, and may you find your way to the treasure of the thousand dungeons you wish to explore. Peace.

OSRIC Game Play Journal: Circling the Tower

(I’m a player in this game, not the DM.) There was a lot of mistrust in the party today, as three NPCs voted one way and the others four (PCs) in the group voted against them (with one abstention). The vote was for another split party recon of the tower. The PCs voting thought that it might be good to hypnotise the magic user NPC to see if she was legit, but in the end the cleric Ouze offered to (presumably use “Detect Evil” or “Detect Alignment”) and ask his god/goddess for guidance about her and offer advice based on this. You may recall that previously Ouze had been hypnotized himself by Dennis the Gnome Illusionist and found to be trustworthy. So they found her (through Ouze) to at least not have malevolent purposes, and the party agreed to her suggestion that she “use her magical means to attain the 2nd level of the tower” and then signal the rest of the party if it was safe to use the stairs up, once they’d entered.

The negotiations were intense leading up to this point, and the 2nd recon plan was put to the side and an actual approach and assault of the tower was to more speedily take place instead. Even still, there were a number of ruinous buildings (just rubble, really) to one side of the tower, so these were investigated first, until one was found to shelter a pit which contained a pathetic human-like creature who had been skinned, and staked to the ground through its hands and feet in a dog-like fashion. It was thought that this thing might be undead, and it was spoken to and when it didn’t respond, approached by one of the clerics to see if its flesh was warm. It was, and then there ensued a discussion as to whether the thing should be put out of its misery. The NPCs all voted against this, the PCs were split. Then Dennis Slyfoot, the Illusionist, persuaded Anrid the Fighter to release one of its bonds and see whether the thing attempted to attack him. Anrid could not remove the stake, and it was concluded that the thing was magically bound somehow, and that it was best ignored at this point. The party spent a great deal of time discussing this matter, even shooting the poor thing at one point (to no apparent effect) with a crossbow.

As is the norm now, another short session, but again with fun role-playing even if short on action this time around. Wow, we haven't played an OSRIC session since October. It felt good to get this going again...

Dungeon Chicken Now Available as Miniature

Ok ok, so maybe it's just a regular chicken. Depends on how you paint it I guess. Anyhow, I had to laugh after reading Megaminis' recent newsletter announcing their chicken minis, only two days after my recent Dungeon Chicken write up. Serendipity! Only $1, or get 16 for $8! :)