H.G. Wells' "Little Wars"

A video posted over at Mutants and Magic shows Peter Cushing playing with his toy soldiers "according to the rules laid down by H.G. Wells in his famous book Little Wars." How's that again? While probably very old news to serious wargamers, I didn't know about this... I've only just perused it but already see two great things going for it - it's rules light and in the public domain. You can download it from archive.org or Project Gutenberg. There's a short companion text too.

Have any readers actually played this? It seems like it might be a great introduction to the hobby for kids.

Of possibly related interest.

Eddnic's 3d and 2.5d Paper Minis

Eddnic's fantasy paper miniatures are amazing! They're free too.

PDFs of Iridia Going Up on Destination Unknown

Iridiazine.net seems gone, but Christian looks like he's in the process of putting every issue of Iridia up as a free PDF on his Destination Unknown blog. It's nice to see this resource back online and appreciated - if you're not familiar, Iridia is a zine of "role playing games and miniatures, old and new" and has been self-published since early 2006.

X-Plorers Skin for Firefox

With John at Brave Halfling's permission, I put together an X-Plorers Firefox skin. It looks like this on a Mac:

It doesn't look quite as nice in Windows. If you test it out, try having three or four toolbars at the top of the browser in order to see the artwork better.

You can get it here. Maybe someone browsing through the thousands of skins available will stumble on it and discover the OSR publishers. Sorry, retro-clones...

Soccer/Football Minis Game - Free Download

Here’s some news that might especially appeal to Gabriel at My RPG Characters. Writing from Uruguay, he's been tracking the World Cup games in the form of “encounter” posts on his D&D blog. If you’re on the MegaMinis mailing list, you may have already seen the new Golden Goal game they’ve posted as a free PDF download… It’s a soccer/football minis game complete with included paper minis.

"With the World Cup in session, we thought it would be a good time to release our first set of table top game rules. Golden Goal V1.0 is a FREE test version containing everything you need to start playing. Rules book also includes 2D paper minis and templates to help you build a quick playing field. We have also launched a Yahoo group (address found in the footer of the rules) for those of you with questions or suggestions."

I haven’t played it yet, but the paper minis seem decent enough if you actually take the time to cut them carefully (I haven’t, which should be obvious in the picture above). MegaMinis has also released a line of metal miniatures for the game - which would seem like a must have for any die-hard soccer/minis fan. Personally, I’d paint them up like the Rochester Flash… the only professional team I can remember going to see here in the U.S.

Entire Talislanta Library Now Free to Download

What is this Talislanta? Looks like it will take forever to download and read the vast amount of material available for free now... might be a thing or three in there I can use.

Fearsome Creatures, Free Bestiary Download

As Matthew pointed out a couple posts back, "Fearsome Creatures of the Lumberwoods" by William Thomas Cox (1910) is available at Google Books as a free PDF download. It's a great contribution to American folklore and a must have for any bestiary collector.

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. :-)

Free Chaosium Downloads for Call of Cthulu w/ Code

Sign up for an account with Chaosium if you don't have one already and use the code "CHAOS GOODIES " at checkout to get these two PDF downloads for free:

Christmas in Kingsport contains "...Five (mini adventure -z.b.) tales certain to scare the stockings off the mantle."

and Arkham, Now : This is a PDF map depicting the city of Arkham, Massachusetts in the modern-day.

Update: Let me know if you have a download problem, I've tried with 2 different emails and accounts and haven't had a problem yet but YMMV. You might also try them at chaosium@chaosium.com.

Ancient Wonders Game Store (near Portland, OR)

Lately I haven't had the time to visit the local game stores here in Eugene and find out if they knew about Free RPG Day or if they'd decided not to participate for some reason. Today though, I had to go to Portland on business, so on the way back home I hit up the only store listed on the Free RPG Day website that seemed doable to me. The list there appears to have been taken down since I last looked, but I believe Ancient Wonders in Tualitin was the only participant in the Portland area. There was also one in Salem, but unfortunately I've now forgotten its name.

Ancient Wonders is very easy to get to from I-5, it's about two minutes off the freeway. There was off street parking, and from the outside it looks very modest. I recommend the owners consider putting up a sign on the south side of the building as you have to be driving right past it to know it's the place you're looking for.

Stepping inside, I immediately liked it. It had a friendlier, older feel to it than the two game stores I've been to in Eugene. It was well stuffed with a great variety of games, all of the usual things you'd expect, as well as a lot of older used items. An employee asked if I needed any help finding something and directed me to some shelves that were stacked with 1st and 2nd edition AD&D books. They also had a large box of vertically stacked and bagged B/X and 1E AD&D modules, and some older supplements.

I asked if they'd participated in Free RPG Day and if they had any swag left and the employee said "Sure, tons!" and showed me to another large box of an assortment of goodies. It still had some items from the previous year in it too.

While I was poking around through that box and talking with a couple other patrons about early '80s D&D, the employee said, well if you're into that stuff, come check this out.

He showed me to a part of the store where hanging on the wall, within a glass frame, was a pristine copy of "The Palace of the Vampire Queen", published in 1976 by Wee Warriors. This is said to be the first ever stand alone adventure module. It had a price tag of $2500. There's a Near Mint one for sale on eBay at just over $2000 if you're looking for a bargain. Cool, a bit of gaming history I'd never seen before! Jeff has a fine article on this item over at his game blog, as does Acaeum.com.

I forgot to look and see if there was a bulletin for "game/gamers" wanted, but there was clearly an active gaming community at the store, and though the website looks a little dated, there is a calendar of events (I see Hackmaster was or still is being played on a regular basis there). The owner had never heard of Swords & Wizardry or Labyrinth Lord though.

So what free swag did I get? I wanted one of everything in that free box, but tried to limit myself to a few items that I've had the most interest in either re-acquiring or in checking out the rules systems. So, I picked: Traveller Book 0 (I had the original Traveller digest sized books and miss them), Paranoia: The Citizen's Guide to Surviving Alpha Complex, the short rules version of Tunnels & Trolls, the short rules version of Castles & Crusades, and finally a hard copy of my previously mentioned Paizo Bestiary Supplement.

Even better though, were the great deals I got on a number of old D&D items - certainly better than what I would've paid on eBay. I went a little overboard, but just couldn't walk away from that box knowing I'd regret not snagging some of its goodness while I still could. I'll be back.

Free Bestiary Supplement Tomorrow at Paizo

A free 16 page Bestiary Supplement PDF will be available at paizo.com tomorrow, part of the Free RPG Day festivities. I don't play Pathfinder (though I could probably be talked into joining a game of it), but I'm interested in this in hopes that it lives up to Paizo's usual standards of great art. And who doesn't want to add to their collection of bestiaries?

Too bad my local game stores, all three of them, aren't participating. Hmm, I've been meaning to visit and briefly review them here for some time (seeing as how populous Eugene, Oregon is, and how vast my readership! cough cough), maybe this is the chance I've been waiting for, so I can point out what an opportunity to give away product they're missing out on... :-)

Update: I either misread their original posting or they changed the terms, but their page now reads: A free PDF and a limited number of copies of the print edition of this product will be available for sale exclusively on paizo.com after Free RPG Day 2009 concludes, - Monday the 22nd

Update: Link to download page.

Creative Commons Licensed Monster Art?

Does anyone know of a SRD or OGL monster compendium with art licensed under the creative commons? If there isn't such a thing, I'd love to see one...and suggest to (esp. aspiring) artists that their work might reach a greater audience, be distributed widely, and be frequently referred back to if they were to contribute to such a project. I'd be willing to host the images if anyone wants to contribute, contact me here. The Monster Index at d20srd.org makes a decent starting point. Maybe if we dig around enough on the Creative Commons website we can begin to build a bestiary under the CC license immediately. An example is this post's wraith art (above), by Zufiel at Flickr.

Update: Having looked a bunch, I'm amazed at how few images have been open licensed (at least on Flickr). Maybe there's a better source... There IS the OGL'd Monsters of Myth book available at Lulu, but the images are obviously still copyrighted by the artists. What I'm looking for is an online warehouse of these things, just to show new players to give them an idea what they're up against, although maybe it's just best to let their imaginations come up with it.

An RPG for the Extraterrestrials

Where's the RPG where you role play aliens visiting earth? You could have various species/classes to choose from, each with their own technology, motivations for visiting, and relations with other species.

Adventure ideas might include: first contact or random contacts with humans, interactions and battles with other species, contact and intrigue with various earthly governments, and home planet internecine conflict.

I haven't bothered to look to see if there already is such a game, being the (aforementioned) slacker.

One of the first sci-fi RPGs I played was Star Frontiers. I remember getting it (for Christmas I believe) as a kid, and really being freaked by the notion of what amounted to intelligent extraterrestrial monkeys (Yazirians). Even at that age I recognized this as a totally ridiculous element. Star Frontiers is actually still available, now for free, via download. I don't remember if I'd bought the original (multi-booklet) Traveller by this time or not. Either way, shortly thereafter it was readily apparent that the two were about as similar as an episode of Lost in Space and the movie Blade Runner. Which isn't to say it couldn't be fun or that I don't appreciate the effort to keep it alive and on the net, but simulationist, it is not. In some ways, Traveller was the game that took me away from the joyful roots of old school D&D, towards ever increasing complexity and supplementation (even with its beautiful d6 system). Down that road were computer programming manuals, Chilton's guides to auto repair, and senior high school textbooks. Again, nothing wrong with those in and of themselves, but, well, what about the fantasy role playing dammit? :-)

Free RPG roundup : Volume 1

This is a new irregularly appearing, themed post in which I'll be listing some free rpg's for your entertainment and inspiration.

On the heels of my last post about the Open Game Licensed, D&D 1st generation clone OSRIC comes Swords & Wizardy and Labyrinth Lord, which are also both OGL and "rules lite" 1st generation fantasy role playing games. Very similar is Basic Fantasy RPG which describes itself as a mix of 1st gen. rules and 3.5 rules. Yet another old school fantasy game is Dungeon Slayers. Still another is Swords & Magick, a fantasy rpg with "a skill-based character creation that allows for extremely versatile (and sometimes very strange) characters".

Gore is a "Generic Old School Role Playing Game" that (obviously) lends itself to different genres, including for exampe The Night of the Living Dead setting.

Zozer presents "Warlords of Alexandar" (pdf) - a free rpg set in the 4th century BC (uses the BRP game mechanics from Chaosium or Runequest).

Midgard: Viking Legends (pdf) - from the author, "Midgard is a roleplaying game, where you take on the role of a legendary Viking hero and complete your own epic quests. I am specifying this as a mythic-historic setting—that is one in which you try to stick closely to the history or the period, but assume that all the gods, myths and monsters that the Viking people believed are actually true.

Update: Swords & Wizardry is now available in hard cover book format via Lulu.com. I really think that as of this date, it really seems to me to be the best introductory fantasy RPG, definitely being as good for this as the old D&D (red box) Basic boxed set. Very nice art, very straightforward rules, as it says: Take the basic framework and “Imagine the hell out of it!”

Old School Gaming - the OSRIC and 1st Ed. D&D...Free

More than one person has nostalgically yearned for the kinder, simpler days of the 1st generation of fantasy role playing games, and more than once I've found myself trying to remember the letter designation and name of a TSR "module" (now known in WoTC parlance as "Adventures"), or even perused eBay listings for these items, just to look at the artwork and be reminded again of the good times that were had...

The OSRIC (or Old School Reference and Index Compilation) is a very ambitious, and I believe, successful attempt to rebuild D&D 1st edition for its release under the Open Game License. As much as you may regret selling that old AD&D PHB, DMG, or MM, at least now for all intents and purposes you can easily and legally download the rules contained in it. Over 27,000 others already have.

Update: Old Schoolers might also be interested to know that they can download the classics Tomb of Horrors and White Plume Mountain (originally TSR modules) for free from the WoTC website.