The Lady of Pain - 4E

Planescape is my all-time favorite published fantasy setting (Green Ronin's Freeport is a close second).While messing around on tumblr earlier I found this. I haven't laughed this hard in a long time. I didn't make these but I wouldn't to share. If you have any familiarity with 4E and Planescape, you'll probably appreciate it to.

The Foundations of Geek: A Blog Challenge

I love a blog challenge and Jason Vey at The Wasted Lands posted a geeky one: http://wastedlandsfantasy.blogspot.com/2013/02/the-foundations-of-geek-blog-challenge.html

I've always thought of myself as a geek.

My uncle Scot (who's more like a big brother than an uncle, only being 7 years older than me), was a geek. In my early years he was my biggest influence. He read comic books, watched GI Joe, and had all sorts of action figures. Though he doesn't consider himself that much of a geek anymore (he's more interested in Fantasy Football), he planted the seed. I still remember how excited I was collecting all of the Reign of the Supermen comics with him. I think this is why superheroes are still my favorite geek thing.

In third grade I was put in a Talented and Gifted class once a week and that's where I met my first best friend, Chad. He was a year older than me and totally nerdy. We hit it off really fast. It was through Chad that I learned about D&D. His older brother played and we used to sit and look at the books. We even "played" D&D. And by that I mean we made up D&D stories and used our action figures to act out adventures. Well, less than year later Chris had taught Chad to play and then Chad taught me.

Also about that time I watched the original Hobbit cartoon. I can remember the following Monday heading to the library to get the book (and a copy of The Three Musketeers). This was when my love for fantasy was really cemented. After that I devoured every fantasy paperback I could found (especially the Dragonlance books).

The special edition Star Wars flicks were released when I was in 7th grade. Yeah I know that everyone hated the changes, but I was excited. I liked Star Wars, but had never had a chance to see them in theaters. That was also, the year I moved from Ohio to Oklahoma and honestly I needed those movies. I wasn't happy with reality at the time so Star Wars was my escape.

In 8th grade I moved back to Ohio and met Wirty. He was Chad's new friend. I was amazed to find out that not only did Wirty play D&D, but so did his mom, dad, and one of his little brothers (the other would later play, he was just really young at the time). We played lots of D&D and shared in many geeky misadventures.

In high school we added Josh, our fourth man, to the mix. We played lots of D&D, White Wolf, and homebrew rpg's. We're still all good friends and try to get together to game once or twice a month. It was also during this time that I developed my love for monster and horror flicks (which I still have to this day).

One of the geekiest things I've done is skip my one and only prom to go to a Star Wars convention. My friend James and I were single (go figure) and we'd talked his mom into taking us to Indianapolis for the weekend to attend Star Wars Celebration II. I had a great time.

The last important event in my life that is flavored by geekiness is the birth of my one (and only) child. My ex-wife was a bit of a geek herself and agreed to let me name our son after my favorite comic book character. On March 24, 2009 we welcomed Grayson into the world. He is my little boy wonder.He's not even four yet, but he loves superheroes and nerdcore rap (plus he can recognize the word Mjolnir and knows what it is). He plays with my action figures and looks through my books. He always wants to "play dice" when daddy's friends are over gaming. 

So that's why I'm geeky. How about you?

Graboids - 02 - Shriekers

I've already statted out graboids for Cubical 7's Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space and Primeval RPGs. Today I present to you the second step in the Graboid life cycle, the shrieker. For more information about that, check out the movie (which is an Instant View on Netflix).

Shriekers

Attributes

Awareness 5* Coordination 3

Ingenuity 1

Presence 3  Resolve 5

Strength 4

Speed: Average                Small: Small

Maximum Threat: 8

Threshold: 4

Traits:

Aggressive: When threatened, the shrieker’s Threat Threshold is reduced by 2.

Bite: Shriekers have strong mandibles. They can make a bite attack that does Strength + 2 damage.

* Infrared Vision: Shrieker vision is based on heat. Areas of effectively blind them (giving them an affective Awareness of 1).

Threat Powers

Chew Through Armor (1 Threat): The shrieker can spend 1 threat to ignore up to three points of armor from a single bite attack.

Snap (2 Threat): The Shrieker can make another bite attack. This doesn’t cost an action, the shrieker can keep snapping as long as it has Threat to spend.

Warning (2 Threat): The Shrieker can release waves of heat to alert others. Increase the Threat of all shriekers and assblasters in the area.

Vampire Bite Follow Up - Blood of the Night

As you can see from the title, today's post is a follow up to my contribution to the Vampire Bite Blog Hop a few days ago. I mentioned one book that might be interesting  that I hadn't actually read {Pathfinder Companion: Blood of the Night), . Well Friday night I was at my former FLGS (The Guardtower in Columbus, OH) and picked it up.

What then Book says it has:
The book contains everything you need to play a vampire, a dhampir, or a vampire hunter.


What the book actually has:
Overview of vampire motivations, desires, etc.
Four Golarion specific vampire types (2 page spreads, sample vampire, and race traits for use with Advanced Player's Guide)
Player stats and overview ofr Dhampir (4 pages, including four variants based on Golarion vampires and race traits)
Playing Vampire characters (2 page spread on tips for players and GM's)
Vampiric Transformation Feats (3 on two pages, biggest space waster in book)
The Hunger (Special rules dealing with vampiric hunger, to me this makes it a must have for vampire players)
Vampires in Golarion (2 page overview, name says it all)
Vampire Hunters (2 pages, rather disappointing, just role recommendations for vampire hunters)
Feats (5 vampire slayer feats, 4 vampire feats)
Spells (6 spells, Steal Years and Transmute Wine to Blood are my favorites)
Magic Items (6 magic items, for use by and against vampires)

Should you buy it?
If you plan on playing a vampire or running a  Pathfinder campaign that prominently features vampires, then I think you should pick this one up.If not, then this is a pass.

Vampire Bite Blog Hop - Vampires and Dragons

Welcome visitors, I’m sure most of you stopping by because you’re participants in the Vampire Bite Blog Hop. In honor of this, I had my good friend, Devan, create a piece of vampire art just for this post.

I have always loved vampires (especially vampire movies). While I like modern vampire stuff, gothic/fantasy vampire stories are my favorite. The Hammer Horror flicks, in particular, have a special place in my heart. This love tends to bleed over (pun intended) to my other major hobby, gaming. Typically, when I do vampire related posts I stat out some sort of of monster or npc (non-player character) for game masters to use in their games. I didn't think that would be as appropriate today since many visitors will be unfamiliar rpg's. Instead I thought I would point readers (and potential gamers) to resources that would allow them to play vampiric characters with the "World's Most Popular Role-Playing Game"  (aka Dungeons and Dragons and its clones/off-shoots). All of the books (and pdf's) I'm mentioning are ones that I personally own and/or have used. I'm separating them by editions of the game (as there are a few). 

Basic D&D, Labyrinth Lord, and other retro clones

Vampire Class: Fellow blogger (and blog hop participant), Tim Brannan, has created an excellent  vampire class for use with Basic D&D and it's retro-clones. The class, like others from this edition of the game, doesn't differentiate between race and class. You can find it (for free might I add) on Tim's blog, The Other Side. I'm also going to take a moment to mention that if you'd like to try Dungeons and Dragons (but don't want to spend anything) you can download a free (no art) version of the D&D retro-clone Labyrinth Lord.

Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition

Requiem: The Grim Harvest: This 2nd edition boxed set for the Ravenloft campaign setting is the culmination of a series of adventures. However, that aside it also has rules for creating undead player characters, including (but not limited to) vampires. I will admit that I own this one, but have never actually used it.

Dungeons and Dragons 3.0/3.5 Edition

Libris Mortis: The Book of the Undead: This is one of my favorite rpg books. It has some really interesting (and at times just plan nasty) material. If you want to play a vampire the book features a "monstrous" vampire class, as well as feats and prestige classes that are vampire-centric. 

Dungeons and Dragons 4th Edition

Player's Options: Heroes of Shadow: This book contains multiple vampire options. The first (and most obvious) is the vampire class. This "striker" class is built around stealth and various abilities attributed to vampires. If that's not your style there's the Vyrloka race, which are a family of vampire-blooded nobles. Finally there is the Dhampir bloodline.

Pathfinder

Bestiary 2: While this massive manual of monsters doesn't contain much vampiric info for players, it does introduce player stats for dhampirs. If playing Pathfinder you might also want to pick up Player Companion:Blood of the Night, though I can't vouch for it, because I don't have it.

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With the products I just mentioned you can create your own anti-heroic (or villainous) vampire character, no matter what edition of Dungeons and Dragons you're playing.

Read other contributions to the blog hop by using the links below:

Vampire Bite!

This is just a reminder that tomorrow I will be participating in the Vampire Bite Blog Hop hosted by Precious Monsters. I'm sure my post will be bloody good fun.

If you want to check out some of my previous vampire related posts you can here.

Who's Who - H.P. Lovecraft

Today I finally received my physical copies of Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space and Primeval. In honor of that I've decided to stat up a guest star that I plan on using occasionally, H.P. Lovecraft. Because of his appearance and the fact that he's starred in so many "Lovecraftian" movies (and as Lovecraft himself in the dreadful horror anthology "Necronomicon") I cast my favorite horror actor, Jeffrey Combs as Lovecraft. I know Lovecraft had many characters flaws and wasn't the adventurous sort, but I think he'd make an entertaining guest star. Plus, I like the idea of a few adventures with the Doctor inspiring some of his creations.

Name: Howard Philips Lovecraft

Species: Human

Home Tech Level: 4

Personal Goal: 

Story Points: 12

Attributes:

Awareness 4   Coordination 3

Ingenuity 5     Presence 2

Resolve 4        Strength 2

Traits:

Brave [“Unphased” would be a better name], Face in the Crowd, Hypnosis, Photographic Memory, Psychic Training

Unadventurous, Unlucky

Skills:

Convince 3, Craft 3 (Writing), Fighting 2, Knowledge 3 (Literature), Marksman 1, Medicine 1, Science 2,  Subterfuge 2

Stuff:

Sword Cane (Str+2)

Background: 

Most people know HP Lovecraft as one of the most influential horror writers of the 20^th century. What many don’t know is that during his younger years he was also an occasional traveling companion and ally of the Doctor. Despite being a homebody, H.P. had several adventures with the Doctor (gaining inspiration for the creatures of his Mythos) though misfortune seemed to plague him.  

Tremors - 01 - Graboids

In the past I have expressed my love for the Tremors movies. They are cheesy as hell, but a lot of fun. Also, as I mentioned in my post yesterday I'm looking for new aliens and creatures to through into an upcoming Doctor Who: Adventures in Time and Space campaign that I'd like to run. Why not Graboids?

Since I have both Doctor Who:AITAS and Primeval (which use the same system) I statted out Graboids using Primeval (which has more creature rules). If you don't have Primeval there is still enough here to use in a Who game. 

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Graboid

Attributes

Awareness 5 Coordination 2 Ingenuity 1

Presence 4 Resolve 4 Strength 15

Speed: Average  Size: Huge

Maximum Threat: 12

Threshold: 6

Traits

Aggressive; Graboids are quick to attack. When attacked their threshold is reduced by two.

Armour: 4

Burrow: Graboids can burrow through the earth with relative ease. Normally thick stone and harder substances will stop them (though see below).

Bite: Graboids have massive jaws and that can literally bite a man in two. Their bite attack can do Strength + 2 damage.

Tremorsense: Graboids detect things by sensing vibrations in the earth. They are considered to have an Awareness 5 for that purpose. If vibrations aren't felt, they are considered to have an Awareness of 1. 

Threat Powers

Break Through (2 Threat): The graboid can attempt to break through a harder substance. They gain a +4 bonus to their Str+Athletics task.

Extend Mouth Tentacles (2 Threat): The Graboid shoots out three serpent-like tentacles, attacking for 6 damage (4/8/12) with a +2 bonus to the attack.

Skills: Athletics 4, Fighting 2, Marksman 1, Survival 2

For Doctor Who: This one is simple enough. Have a malfunctioning TARDIS land in an isolated area with an active Graboid population (such as Perfection, NV). The Doctor and Companions have to stay alive, while trying to repair the TARDIS.

For Primeval: The first use of Graboids in a Primeval game is obvious. Have an anomaly send the characters back to the time of the Graboids. The movies intentionally kept this vague. Another interesting idea would be to send the party to an isolated area in which Graboids have resurfaced (much like Perfection, NV). What do the characters do when they realize that the problem can't be solved by sending the creatures back through an anomaly? 

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Over the next few days I will post the stats for Shriekers, Assblasters (which I will rename Bumblasters), and  probably El Blanco. 

Attack the Block (Updated with Primeval and Doctor Who: AITAS stats)

This weekend I had the pleasure of watching one of my favorite monster flicks of the past few years, Attack the Block. The film centers around a young London street gang that must defend themselves from alien invaders. The movie is fun, and while none of the characters are that appealing at the start, they really do grow on you (which is one of the points of the film). I didn't really recognize any of the actors other than Nick Frost (who doesn't have a major role in the movie). If you haven't seen the movie I highly recommend it. Its fun, has great dialogue, and memorable characters.
Of course, I had to find some sort of gaming application for the movie. I've been looking for "new" aliens to throw into a Doctor Who game so I decided to stat our the unamed alien invaders.

(Revised on 2-11-13:  Forgot to give aliens skill ranks. Also, traits for the compatible Primeval RPG have been added. Revis again on 10-10-13, I don't know why I didn't think of the name Blue Tooth. Snagged name from this post over at A Field Guide to Doomsday.)

BlueTooth

Attributes
Awareness 3
Coordination 4
Ingenuity 1
Presence 5
Resolve 3
Strength 6

Skills
Athletics 3, Fighting 4, Subterfuge 3 (Stealth), Survival 3

For Doctor Who:AITAS
Traits
Alien
Alien Appearance (major)
Alien Sense (Pheromone)
Armour (minor)
Climbing (major)
Environmental Adaptation (Vacuum, major)
Fear Factor
Natural Weapons (minor)

For Primeval
Speed: Fast  Size: Average
Maximum Threat: 10
Threshold: 5 (Unless target is covered in pheromone, in which the Blue Tooth will always attack).

Traits
Armour: 4
Claws: Blue Teeth have climbing claws that can also be used to slash at opponents. They do Strength damage (3/6/9).
Bite: Blue Teeth have strong jaws and sharp, tearing teeth. It has a bite attack that does Strength+2 damage)

Fear Factor 1: +2 to rolls when trying to intimidate prey, and humans need to make a Fear test when they first meet the monster.

Threat Power:
Frenzy (Costs 4 Threat): The Blue Tooth goes into a frenzy, attacking savagely until it misses with an attack or makes five attacks, whichever comes first. While frenzying, the monster cannot make Reactions.

Blue Teeth are blind, gorilla-sized aliens with spiky black fur. Their fur is so dark that it reflects no light. However, the creatures can be detected in the darkness because of their multiple rows of glowing blue teeth. Blue Teeth are simple bestial creatures. They travel through space likes spores, drifting on solar winds until the find a suitable planet.  When they find a such a place, the female releases a strong pheromone that attracts the males.Any none Blue Teeth covered in the pheromone will be hunted mercilessly as prey. The dangerous creatures can be quite formidable and more than one community has been destroyed by an infestation.

New Look and Cool Whovian News

First I'd like to point out my amazing new banner. My good friend Devan,  made it for me. Originally I asked him to sketch my favorite D&D character Ulic(my second generation avariel bladesinger). The pic I've posted here is the WIP. After seeing it I asked Devan if he could make me a banner for this and my Tumblr pages. Being the amazing guy he is, he made one. I think it looks awesome. Now to mess with the rest of the code to get this blog looking spiffy.

In other random news Cubical 7 made a really cool announcement today. In honor of the 50th Anniversary of Doctor Who they are going to release source books for each Doctor. They even have a couple of "subscription" packages. I will admit that I'm still going back and watching the original series, but simply from a gaming standpoint I think this idea is fantastic. While the price tag my seem a bit high, they're actually giving a nice little chunk off the total price. Plus they'd look great on a shelf. Here's a pic of the spines of all Eleven books.

U'lik the Razor

I thought I was going to get to give Barbarians of Lemuria a go yesterday, but due to inclement weather my friend couldn't come into town.One of the things I was going to do was create Lemurian versions of characters from our past games. One ally I was going to introduce is my BoL take on my favorite D&D character, Ulic Razorwing. In D&D, Ulic is a one-eyed avariel (winged elf) bladesinger (fighter/wizard). He's youthful, verbose, and heroic (yeah he's my Mary-Sue character, deal with it). A second generation D&D character, Ulic spent much of his youth in Zakhara (which is where he lost his eye).When I played him last, he was the captain of a flying ship. Wanted to tie some of this info into the BoL version. If I ever play BoL, this will be my character.

U'lik the Razor

Attributes		Combat
Strength	0	Brawl	0
Agility	1	Melee	2
Mind	1	Ranged	1
Appeal	2	Defense	1
Careers
Minstrel	2	Lifeblood	11
Mercenary	1	Hero Points	5
Sorcerer	1	Arcane Points	11
Sky Pilot	0

Protection: d6-2 (light armour)
Weapons: Razor (d3)

Languages
Spoken: Beshaari,Lemurian, Sorceric:
Written::Beshaari,  Lemurian, Sorceric

Boons: Carouser
Flaws:

Background
U'lik doesn't know much about his origins. He spent much of his early life among the nomadic tribes of the Beshaar Desert. F'alhlhalan the Poet raised him. He only spoke of U'lik's parents once, saying that they were heroes from beyond the Empty Lands. From his adopted father, he learned the ways of poetry and song.

At the age of 14, U'lik left his tribe and sought to travel the lands of Lemuria. He worked as the sword boy for a mercenary company for a time. It was on an assignment with his company that he was lost in the Kasht Swamp. He was discovered by the crone, Dagda. Admiring the boys quick tongue and sharp mind, the witch saved him and taught him the basics of sorcery. He spent a few years with the witch before his wanderlust overtook him he left.

U'lik tends to project a devil may care attitude. He is just as quick to cut someone down with a sharp retort as with his trusted razor. However, despite his adventurous and outgoing demeanor has a strong sense of right and wrong (which tends to get him in trouble). 

Turtles in Time - April O'Neil and Casey Jones

Continuing with my Doctor Who/TMNT mash-up I give you Doctor Who Adventures in Time and Space stats for the Turtles closest human allies, April O'Neil and Casey Jones.

Name: April O'Neil

Species: Human
Home Tech Level: 5 - 21st Century
Personal Goal: Not be a damsel
Story Points: 12

Attributes:
Awareness 3   Coordination 3
Ingenuity 4     Presence 4
Resolve 4        Strength 3

Traits:
Attractive, Boffin, Friends, Photographic Memory,  Technically Adept

Adversary (Minor), Distinctive, Impulsive, Insatiable Curiosity  

Skills:
Athletics 1,  Convince 2, Craft 3,  Fighting  3,  Subterfuge 2, Technology 4, Transport 2

Background: April the Turtles' closest friend and confidant. The first human they had friendly contact with, she quickly became an important part of the family. Brilliant and independent, April doesn't like to play the part of the damsel. The Turtles and Splinter have taught her some ninjutsu, so she can hold her own in a fight. Also, while not on the same level as Donatello, April is a skilled computer programmer and former intern to Baxter Stockman.

Other Notes:
The above version of April represents the most common (though not necessarily well known) version of her. If you'd prefer the more popular I would drop Boffin and Technically Adept, but add Screamer. Her convince is increased to 4 (Reporting), but her Technology goes down to 2 and her Fighting becomes 1.

Many version of April are romantically linked to Casey Jones. In the Fox cartoon series it is revealed that the eventually marry and have children.

Name: Arnold Bernid "Casey" Jones
Species: Human
Home Tech Level: 5 - 21st Century
Personal Goal: Bust some skulls!
Story Points: 12

Attributes:
Awareness 2   Coordination 3
Ingenuity 3     Presence 3
Resolve 5        Strength 5

Traits:
Brave, Fast Healing (Major), Tough

Adversary (Minor),  Argumentative, Impulsive, Obsession (Minor)  

Skills:
Athletics 4,  Convince 3 (Intimidate), Fighting  5,  Marksman 2, Medicine 1, Subterfuge 2, Survival 2, Technology 2, Transport 3

Stuff:
Baseball Bat (Str +2 Damage)

Background: Growing up in NYC, Casey Jones had a rough life. It wasn't that he had a bad home life,  but his neighborhood was overrun by criminals. Casey decided to fight back. He bought some martial arts books and started a heavy work out regiment. He then donned a hockey mask, armed himself with sporting goods, and began a one man war on the scum of the city. Initially coming into conflict with Raphael, the pair quickly became friends. 

Casey isn't the most brightest or most sophisticated guy, but he's loyal and great to have in a fight.


Other Notes:
The original comic and cartoon versions of Casey Jones were more unhinged. Code (Major) in reference to his vigilante code would be suitable.