Tag Archives: Fluff/Inspiration

RPGs

Stymphalian Birds

1 Comment

The sixth labor of Herakles (AKA Hercules) is dealing with the Stymphalian birds. They were birds were man eaters with beaks of bronze and metallic feathers they can launch like arrows. Herckles destroys or drives them off and they are encountered later by the Argonauts.

SOURCE: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stymphalian_birds

THE ORNITHES STYMPHALIDES (or Stymphalian Birds)  were a flock of man-eating birds which haunted Lake Stymphalis in Arkadia. Herakles’ destroyed them as his sixth labour, employing first a rattle to rouse them from the thick vegetation of the lake, then shooting them down one by one with bow and arrow or a sling.

…

The Stymphalides were sometimes identified with the arrow-shooting Ornithes Areioi (Birds of Ares) encountered by the Argonauts in the Black Sea.

SOURCE: http://www.theoi.com/Ther/OrnithesStymphalides.html

If you search for Symphalian birds, you will find pictures of ancient Greek pottery, Roman mosaics, and lots of modern interpretations. Deviant Art has quite a few examples.

One artist describes the birds as having poisonous dung. Knowing the way that much ancient mythology was cleaned up for presentation in the Victorian Era, I can believe this. However, I have not yet found a source to back this idea.

Here is my efforts to stat them as per AD&D.

NAME: Stymphalian Birds
FREQUENCY: Rare to Very Rare
NO. APPEARING: 3-30
ARMOR CLASS: 6
MOVE: 3″/18″
HIT DICE: 1
% IN LAIR: 60%
TREASURE TYPE: D
NO. OF ATTACKS: 2
DAMAGE/ATTACK: 1-4/1-6
SPECIAL ATTACKS: Launch feathers as arrows
SPECIAL DEFENSES: Metallic Feathers
MAGIC RESISTANCE: Standard
INTELLIGENCE: Low
ALIGNMENT: N
SIZE: S
PSIONIC ABILITY: N/A
Attack/Defense Modes: N/A
LEVEL/X.P. VALUE: (Added in MM2, also in FF):
CLIMATE/TERRAIN: They nest in trees surrounded by swamps and marshes.

 Swords & Wizardry (So I can use them in my hex for the OSR Tenkar’s Landing Crowdsourced Sandbox Setting.)

Hit Dice: 1
Armor Class: 6/[13]
Attacks: 2
Saving Throw: 16
Special: Launch bronze feathers as arrows.
Move: 3/18 (when flying)
Alignment: Neutrality
Challenge Level/XP: 2/30

RPGs

Ancient Greek Tomb – Alexander The Great’s Mother?

Leave a comment

An interesting find was in the news at the end of September, 2014. An ancient and well preserved Greek tomb was found that dates to the time of Alexander the Great and some suspect it might be that of his mother.

This applies to this blog because of the pictures and sketches and how they illustrate such things for extrapolation into game play. One gets a sense for how a 2,400 year old tomb would really look, and the condition of its contents. Of course, magic and technology in the game world can change that.

One article here with a picture of sphinxes guarding the entrance, the caryatid columns and a sketch of the layout of the tomb in 3-D.

 

Tomb Entrance
Tomb Entrance

Tomb Sketch - 2 Chambers
Tomb Sketch – 2 Chambers

Another article on Yahoo, here, with a video and a the same sketch as above but showing the third chamber.

I grabbed a screenshot of it below.

 

Tomb Sketch - 3 Chambers
Tomb Sketch – 3 Chambers

RPGs

Tenkar’s Landing – OSR Crowdsourced Island

1 Comment

I took the plunge and signed up for a hex in the Tenkar’s Landing Crowdsourced Island. There is a G+ community for the endeavor.

It will be interesting to see how this all comes together.

So far, it is decided to use 6 mile hexes, any flavor of the Swords & Wizardry Rules, but keeping it light on the “crunch” for easier use by any rules set.

Erik has given the general background of the island and will provide some other information.

One person has already done a map of their hex with fishing villages.

There are still several hexes left.

I claimed a swamp hex, so it will be interesting how the whole thing meshes with the rest of the island and map.

RPGs

Cursory Impressions of 5e Basic PDF

Leave a comment

It’s great that 5e has the basic rules for character creation available for free. As I understand it, the free PDF will be expanded to include more rules.

I paged through the PDF on my laptop at work and two things struck me:

  1. The print over a shaded background was a little hard to read. I think that they should have had input from player’s with “older” eyes, or less than “perfect” eyes give some input.
    I confirmed on my monitor at home that it is better, but still hard on the eyes. I am hoping my tablet is better.
    While it may look “cool” if it is harder to read, it will make it harder to comprehend. Am I the only almost 50 year old (in September) player with this issue?
  2. I need more time to read and digest rather than flip through, but the character generation process seems  complex. It give a point buy option for speediest generation. But there are still lots of other options. I think it will be less confusing when I have time to read it.

The experience progression for all classes appears to be the same for all classes. I read on another site that gold doesn’t count for x.p. It still seemed way too easy to level up. It also topped out at level 20, I did not see if beyond level 20 is possible. Ability scores top out at 30.

There are not as many spells as in 1e, and they call a lot of 1st level spells in 1e are now cantrips. Both clerics and wizards have 9 spell levels. There are a few new and some re-named spells. There are a few different things about spell casting and magic, but I did not completely follow with a skim.

There is the taking a level in different classes for multi-classing. I believe I read that that was a 3e thing.

I did see glimpses of a few things that I can at least adapt to my campaign, but I want to read it before I elaborate.

There may be some aspects of this that I can see using as it’s own game, but character generation was not clear to me from the play test materials what I now have in this PDF. I did not keep up with the play test, but have the final bundle and created a character for a D&D Next Roll 20 game. It took forever to figure out how to generate a character, and I missed out on understanding some things.

I was without power from about 2 AM Monday until sometime Wednesday afternoon due to a big storm. I am behind on household chores, so I’m not sure when I will get to read it.

RPGs

The Good Guys Are Not Stupid Wimps

Leave a comment

Rick Stump over at Don’t Split the Party has an excellent article:

Good Isn’t Stupid, or weak, or nice.

Paladins don’t have to be simple, weak minded, naive fools. They can have depth and edges to them that makes them both interesting and far from an easy kill.

They should be a threat to evil and a threat to anyone who stands in their way.

Just as the evil villain is a threat to the forces of good.

Any DM who allows paladins, and any player who has, is, or wants to play a paladin should read this.

RPGs

How Many Hours of Daylight?

Leave a comment

Recently in play, the question came up of when does it get dark?

I had to make up something.

It happened to be early summer in the game, so I could use the approximate times from this time of year.

However, time progresses quickly in the game, so it is now mid-Autumn, so there is less daylight. When the players are running around outside, the amount of light tends to be important. Rather than make something up on the fly and it be radically inconsistent with past rulings, I built a chart for use at the game table.

I have put together a sunrise/sunset and hours of daylight for each day on my game calendar – Calendar And Random Generation.

I use twelve months with twenty-eight days for simplicity of generating random date. This is a game, so it does no have to have total verisimilitude with reality, just enough to make sense.

Google is your friend for esoteric information, but I wanted a chart I could print out for the game table and have ready without having to have my tablet or laptop available.

I picked a location that was in a temperate zone analogous to the current area in use in my campaign. I looked for sunrise and sunset times for Spring and Autumnal Equinoxes and Winter and Summer Solstices. I then determined how many days were between each and the difference in times between each and determined the number of seconds sunrise and sunset was earlier or later depending on the season. In reality, there is not exactly 59 seconds earlier sunrise each day, but again, this isn’t reality.

Of course, closer to the poles have more light certain times of year. I don’t know the formula but each degree of latitude N/S is approximately 69 miles for an Earth-sized planet. You can add or subtract minutes to the rise and set times based on the formula. I am sure Google has it. Based on Sturgis, MI and Kansas City, MO being about 2.7 degrees apart, the Spring Equinox sunrise time in Kansas City, MO is about 24 minutes earlier than Sturgis, MI. Sunset the same day is thus also earlier in KC. It is close enough to a 24 minute difference on the Autumnal Equinox and the Solstices, that one can extrapolate about an 8 minute difference for every 69 miles north or south. If you want to get fancier with your own calculations that’s cool. If you want a table for a world that is messier and more like reality, that’s your choice. I made the choice to spend as little time on this as possible at the table.

I have shared a PDF of my efforts – Sunrise & Sunset Times.

RPGs

Free RPG Day Haul – 2014

Leave a comment

As I posted yesterday, Free RPG Day 2014 – Tomorrow!, I stopped by my FLGS*, Fanfare Sports & Entertainment, and picked up another 1st Edition Player’s Handbook with the Trampier cover. It is in excellent condition – Not sure I want to use it at the table. I also picked up a Fiend Folio and have “completed” the re-build of my original collection, which was damaged with much loss in the great water damage incident. See, Day 7: First D&D Product you ever bought. Do you still have it?, and About, for details.

I snagged both of them for about the price as back in the late 70’s/early 80’s. With tax, I got both for $30.72. I don’t think I could do that via eBay or other online retailers. I definitely avoided the wait, and worry about the package getting left in the weather.

A few weeks ago I got a new complete DM Screen with the Trampier art. So now my physical collection is “complete”. I have the Legends & Lore, which replaced Dieties & Demigods. I had one of the original Dieties & Demigods with Cthulhu and Melnibone, but it too, was lost in the water damage incident.

I have a nearly complete PDF collection, but the Unearthed Arcana is not available in PDF. I don’t know if it ever was back before WotC pulled them. I think it was, and because I had the book, I did not get it. Some have bad things to say about Unearthed Arcana. I only use some of the stuff from it. I don’t like all the new classes, for example. I like some of the spells, but not cantrips. The great thing about RPGs is that one never has to use whole cloth for anything. One can pick and choose for what works for them.

*NOTE: See my Acronym and Terminology List, for the definition of FLGS.