Monthly Archives: March 2015

RPGs

The Passing of DAT – One Year Later

Leave a comment

I saw mention of it on a post on the FB page, David A. Trampier Fan Club.

I jumped over to Wikipedia and confirmed it.

Wow. One year.

So many enjoyed his art. For me, his images are iconic and when I see them I am instantly transported to thinking of all his various RPG art and all the books and modules, and of course, Wormy, and The Dragon.

I wish I could make it to GaryCon. Such remembrances make me nostalgic. I thought it would work out this year. Now, my goal is for next year. I met several from back in the original TSR days at GenCon last year, but I always wanted to go to GenCon when it was in Lake Geneva. I hope GaryCon doesn’t get too big by then. There are a lot of the original creators and movers and shakers still around that I want to meet. Perhaps even get a chance to play.

 

RPGs

Laminating My Hommlet Map

1 Comment

In February, I ran Village of Hommlet at Marmalade Dog 20. I was very much over prepared. The map in my original module is very faint, and the blue of the ink is the kind that does not copy well. I purchased the PDF from DriveThruRPG, but the map did not print very clearly. So I got a couple sheets of tracing paper and traced it. I then ran by Kinko’s and made copies to regular paper and taped them together. The map did not feature very much in play, but since I put so much time into it, I wanted to preserve it, in case I ever need it. I am sure I will run Hommlet again someday.

Note on this process. Make sure the ink side of the tracing paper is facing down when you go to make copies. I didn’t realize the error of my ways until I got to the con and the map didn’t line up right. One page was correct and the other was not. I had to find a back lit window by the doors to trace the other side of the paper so that it was legible. I then ran by Kinko’s and made a correct copy of that part of the map for the last two days of the con. I later grabbed my colored pencils and colored my map.

01Hommlet
Colored and ready to be preserved.
02HommletBack
My map face down on the Contact Paper. Center it and apply pressure from the center out.

 

So I made a trip to the craft store and bought some clear contact paper. I cut some off a bit longer than the map.

Contact Paper
Contact Paper

After getting the backing off, I spread the contact paper on my table sticky side up.

I then laid the map ink side down. I cut out the corners of the contact paper and folded it over to wrap around the back of map. I used the scraps to cover the seam where I stitched the paper map together into one.

Map Face Down On Contact Paper
Map Face Down On Contact Paper with the edges folded over.

Rather than try to cut a piece of contact paper to fit, I used packing tape to cover the bare paper on the back of the map. (I know some might cringe at this. However, this is copy paper. It is NOT acid free paper, so using packing tape plus keeping it out of the light, will make it last longer. Unless I get a light table and acid free paper to trace a new map, I can’t make it last any longer. This is just a tool, even faded it will still work, and that might add a bit of character to it.)

Packing Tape Dispenser
Packing Tape Dispenser
06BackOfMapWhenDone
Clear Packing tape on the back so all the paper is covered.

04EdgesFoldedOver

Now, other than sitting in a spill, someone being deliberately destructive, or a disaster, I have a map that I can write on with dry erase markers and use for years to come.

08Finished
Finished
09RolledUp
Rolls up nicely.
10UnrollsWell
A couple of angled views.

07Finished

RPGs

RPGBloggers – Application Submitted

2 Comments

I just click send on the email to apply for the RPGBloggers site. The similar site with an automated sign up, the RPG Blog Alliance, of which my blog already belongs, is shutting down at the end of April.

Yahoo stopped supporting RSS feeds of Yahoo Groups a couple years ago, and Google dropped support for it’s feed reader. RSS seemed to serve a need, until things like social media sites like FB and G+ made management think that the established ways were not good enough. Instead of the format of RSS where you can pick and choose and easily filter, you have social sites that have their own rules for how you see what you want to see, and then they keep changing the rules, so you never know that you aren’t seeing something you want to see, and are flooded with things you wonder where they came from.

I’ve had spammers manage to inject crap into my RSS feed, and it was a pain to figure out how to fix it so that I could retain that feature on my blog.

I have heard that it takes a long time to get a response to an application. I know about the controversies surrounding the site a few years back when there was a big blow up among different RPG bloggers about a topic not directly related to RPGs, and the handlers of the site changed.

It may not make a difference to my blog’s traffic, but I had a goal of applying for a couple of years now, I figured that since the RPG Blog Alliance (RPGBA) is going to fade into the aether, I figured that would apply to RPGBloggers, with 49 days until RPGBA shuts down. Call it a little race to see if I get approved on the one site, before the other shuts down. I’ll post an update once either I get approved, or May arrives, whichever happens first.

If May arrives, and I’m not approved, I will post an update if I ever do get approved.

 

RPGs

2015 A to Z Challenge Theme Reveal – Cities/Cities As Ruins/Cities As Megadungeons

5 Comments

Initially, I was struggling with the idea of a theme for this year’s A to Z Blogging Challenge. Last year I just picked a topic that fit the letter for that day and went with it. Then I remembered my half started project to help me deal with cities, ruined cities, and my thoughts that a large city was in many ways equivalent to a megadungeon. Indeed, a ruined city is but the surface level of a megadungeon.

I will be fleshing out general ideas and ideas for tables, and on-the-fly information for navigating a large city or ruin without advance preparation, or with a set base of preparation, like a map and a general idea of where the different quarters are, etc. Planning a ruined city relies on planning one that is inhabited, the only difference is that a ruined city needs a reason for why it is now in ruins.

This project is as much a tool to help me as it is to share my insights with others.

I will reference past articles on some of these topics. Some information I may have previously only collected information and not yet made an article. I wrote at least a rough outline of each article and have them scheduled to post. I have been going back to each one and adding, revising, cross linking, and otherwise trying to improve them. So far, I don’t have as many tables as I initially envisioned, but I do have many lists I will work to develop tables or clean up for a list of ideas on various topics. Since this topic is so much on my mind of late, I am linking to posts that have come up and continue to be published by others. One relatively new blog, Lost Kingdom, has coincidentally, published articles that tie very well into mine, and I link to their articles for more details. Trying to find the time to read all of their past articles is a challenge, but well worth the effort.

Building a city for an RPG, whether a living city, or a fallen, ancient one, requires thinking it through and populating it in a pattern that fits. Not everyone needs this level of detail to guide them in creating their cities. I often just determine that there are so many of this or that business and don’t worry about a map. This project is for improving the level of preparation by creating a sort of checklist to touch on, to help DM’s that aren’t so good at spur of the moment to have some ideas to help with improvising their cities.

I look forward to feedback and ideas to fill in gaps.

There will be new tables for some things, and my detailed slant on how to build cities/ruined cities. Of course, in the A to Z Challenge format, it won’t be a complete system, but will contain points and questions to ponder for anyone developing a city. Some of these ideas will translate into building cities for any genre of RPG.

I will quote myself from my Post-Con Write Up of Marmalade Dog 20 and a relevant conversation I had with Adam Muszkiewicz:

When Adam and I were talking the topic of random tables and drop tables and all the dice tables came up. I mentioned that I am slowly crafting an all the dice type table to help me generate area of an ancient “abandoned” city for houses, building, and other features. Adam pointed me to a display at Roy’s booth for Metal Gods of Ur-Hadad, Winter 2014, Issue #1. Pages 10 and 11 have a neighborhood generator, and pages 12 and 13 have a gang generator. The neighborhood generator has a lot of ideas that I am looking for so I bought it.

I am going to enjoy this!

All my posts on megadungeons, and cities.

I also have a list of those RPG bloggers that used the (GA) tag on the A to Z Sign Up Page. I didn’t have time to look for those that didn’t use a tag, so if you want to be on my list, just let me know your number on the sign up list. My list, 2015 A TO Z CHALLENGE – RPG BLOGGERS, is on the right side of my blog under the A To Z Challenge logo.

[UPDATE] I went to each of the RPG blogs signed up for this year’s challenge, and only a couple of them appear to be participating in the theme reveal, so I wait, as do all of us until perhaps later today, or April 1st, when the posts begin.

[UPDATE 2] Here is a link to the List of Those Signed up for the April, 2014 A to Z blogging challenge.

RPGs

Grimtooth’s Ultimate Traps Kickstarter Update

Leave a comment

I came home from running some errands to find this announcement in my email. This Kickstarter was funded at just over ten times its initial goal, and all of its stretch goals were funded.

Hello, Grimtooth backers! Just wanted to give you a quick status update on one fun part of the project: the DCC/Grimtooth crossover adventure module. Jobe Bittman has finished the manuscript and Doug Kovacs has finished the cover art. Here is a preview of the current cover design! We are still playing with the typesetting so the final font details may change a bit, but I thought you might enjoy seeing Grimtina in action!

If art and typesetting is the only fiddly bits they have, it won’t be long now. Estimated delivery is July, 2015, and unless something totally out of the blue happens, there is no reason to think that this won’t ship on time.

RPGs

Metamorphosis Alpha

3 Comments

I used to be the one who ran Metamorphosis Alpha for our group. I don’t have any of my original MA material, it was all lot in the great water leak incident.

Thanks to DriveThruRPG and RPGNow, I can get PDFs of such things. Unfortunately, I could not justify $80 for the hardback re-print Kickstarter last year. I really wanted to, but talked myself out of it. I still want to order it off Goodman Games, but $80. Yes, I know, I paid a lot more than that to get a Dieties & Demigods with Cthulhu and Melnibonean mythos last year.

I have things I need to do to my own AD&D campaign, but I have had an itch for several weeks and finally, I printed out my MA PDF and put it in a binder, and read the rules for the first time in what must be 30 years. I must say that I did not recall the rules being the way they were. We played a lot more Gamma World and I recalled things being more like I recall it instead. However, I have not read the Gamma World rules in nearly 30 years or played, so I could be jumbling that with Star Frontiers, and our home brew science fiction game. [I later found a reference and how close the GW and MA rules were, so I’m not sure what rules I was remembering.]

What amazes me is how complete a 30 page rule book is. There are rules for generating characters, various physical and mental mutations. Animal and plant specific mutations, and a way to generate your own mutated creatures. There is a rough description of a 17 deck generation ship with mid decks and other spaces, and the GM has free reign to make it their own.

Here is a picture of my Metamorphosis Alpha rules, printed from my PDF, with a note card colored with a visual reminder of what each wristband does, and my notebook for ideas for adventures and other things to put my ideas into it. I also grabbed 17 sheets of graph paper and hole punched them to start making rough maps of each deck. I used one sheet to show how big each deck is in 10 mile squares.

MA Notebook
MA Notebook

The manual suggests 2 mile squares or hexes for maps of a complete deck. This has me thinking about how I might use the quadrille ruled desk pads I got in recently.

I will be posting articles with my ideas on MA as I build my version of the Starship Warden. The thing I like about MA is just how rules lite it is, and one can easily run a game on Roll20 & G+ Hangouts without worrying how all the players will fair if they don’t have a copy.

RPGs

FLGS Trip

1 Comment

Last weekend, I made a trip to WalMart, the craft store, and my FLGS. I got a roll of hex Gaming Paper, and they finally had some GameScience dice. (Yes, I know, this is only a couple days after another post where I had mentioned I didn’t last very long without buying more dice. I bought these the same day as the others, I just spread out my posting about it.)

13GamingPaper&GameScience 14GamesScienceInfo 15PurpleGS

Unfortunately, these are the “not perfect dice” that lead Lou Zocchi to return to running Game Science. I think they will roll fine, but some faces have lines and minor deformities in them, that were not evident until I got home and looked at them.

As expected, all of the have burrs. Only the d3’s burr was small enough to not show up in a picture. I will have another article on de-burring these dice and filling in the numbers for legibility.

For now, below are some fuzzy pictures showing the burrs. My de-burring article will have better pictures.

18d5burr 19d14burr 16d16burr 17d24burr

RPGs

Art Supplies

Leave a comment

I stopped by the art supply store and snagged some things I have had on my list for a while, but not had the time to get until now.

10ArtSupplies

Paints and brushes for my Hero Forge Miniature, and my other miniatures. I will show the process of that later.

11-64Crayons

Crayons for a project in the works. I remember when the 64 box came out. Now they have huge boxes. 64 is enough for me. Coincidentally, I graduated from high school with the current president of Crayola. (We are almost related. My great-grand uncle was his grandfather’s step father. Small world.)

12ContactPaper

Finally, Contact Paper to laminate maps and things. I’ll soon have a posting on that.

RPGs

DROOL! Cool Dice!

Leave a comment

How did I not know about these? I guess it doesn’t matter, I can’t afford them. But they are so cool!

I can more than triple the sheet number of dice I have for $171.00 for one full 10 die set. Artisan Dice are priced like the name suggests, and they look it. I wouldn’t mind seeing these up close.

I could buy the three manual for D&D 5e, or the hard bound Metamorphosis Alpha, or many other things.

Alas! These dice shall do on my perpetual wish list. So any rich person who has too much money, can get me a set, I won’t mind.

RPGs

Dungeon Desk Pad Kickstarter Update

Leave a comment

Just got this update from Peter Ragan. 20 days just to get the funds, but he’s reliable so his print shop is all ready to go, just waiting on the money. I suppose all those planning a Kickstarter need to factor in 20 days until they get the money. So, barring something unexpected, this will deliver on-time.

#10 Kickstarter Funds Transferred
Posted by Peter Regan
The project funds hit my account this morning (not sure why it takes 4 days to transfer them on top of the 14 days they take to collect the funds) and I’ve just sent a payment to the printers. They’ve already set the print job up, which helps speed things along.
As soon as I get a firm delivery date I’ll add it to the comments here. I’ve got all the packaging supplies in hand ready to go. This week I’ll be printing the sticker sheets and ordering the A3 insert sheets.
I’ve had survey responses from all but three backers, and I’ll chase them up at the weekend.