Thursday, March 26, 2015

Cool Predator Fan Film Trailer

Predator: Dark Ages is a pretty cool looking fan film that's in production. Check out the trailer!

Think it looks cool? You should check out my Dungeon Crawl Classics Predator stats. You can find that post here.

Wednesday, March 25, 2015

OSR Foundation Question

I want to run a game for a homebound friend. My initial thought was to run Freeport Pathfinder (because of my lovely new hardcover and that's the game he typically plays). However, I've accumulated many wonderful old school books (Yoon-Suin, A Red and Pleasant Land, Warriors of the Red Planet, +Venger Satanis's three releases) that have yet to be used. Again I may just do Freeport, but if I decide to go the old school route which system do you folks think I should use?


Or


Whatever I decide it probably won't be used straight as is. I can seem some Lamentations of the Flame Princess rules creeping into my B/X and Astonishing Swordsmen & Sorcerers of Hyborea invading my AD&D. Much of the material from the OSR books I have can be used with either system. I guess I just want to know what you gamers and grognards think I should use as the base rules. Either way I'm going to pull material from various old school sources for the game, I just need to know which foundation to build the game on.

Ash Wednesday - Crab People!

Today's Ash Wednesday is a really random one. My copy of Yoon-Suin has come in and now I have Crab People on the brain. For your Army of Darkness game crab people can be misunderstood aliens, prehistoric holdouts, or invaders from the Hollow Earth.  They could also infiltrate out society through media.


Name: Crab People
Motivation: Be Crab People!
Critter Type:  Cryptid (or Alien)
Attributes: Str 6, Dex 5, Con 3, Int 2, Per 2, Will 2
Ability Scores: Muscle 18, Combat 15, Brains 10

Life Points: 63 Drama Points: 5

Special Abilities: Armor 5, amphibious, bleeding (target wounded by claws continues to lose 2 LP per turn until wound is bandaged), increased life points

                                     Maneuvers

Name                        Score    Damage               Notes
Claw                         15         20         Slash/Stab, bleeding
Dodge                       12         -           Defense action


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Tuesday, March 24, 2015

We're All Mad Here

The goodies kept coming yesterday. Freeport is my favorite published setting. It's D&D, pirates, Lovecraft and those things I love. The Kickstarter was over a year over due. I'm excited to finally have the book. It's over 550 pages of full color glory. However, all of that excitement has been trumped by A Red and Pleasant Land.

My physical copy of AR&PL was waiting for me when I got home. While my crappy phone camera pic doesn't show it, this book is gorgeous. It is tome filled with gaming material: monster stats, magic, a new class, adventure locations, and charts galore.

It's so much more though. 

It really does feel like a piece of art. A utilitarian (I hope to use soon) piece of art, but art nonetheless. From the cover, to the paper quality, to the built in book mark, A Red & Pleasant Land just feels magical.

I really enjoy the Alice class. It's quite unique and fits the mercurial nature of Wonderland and the heroic fool archetype. The Beasts and People section is quite wonderful too. In particular I love the fusion of the Caterpillar with a carrion crawler. One of the really wonderful things about the crunch of this book is that it's written in a way that makes it easy to use in multiple games. Yes the book is for Lamentations of the Flame Princess, but it can easily be altered to pretty much any edition of Dungeons and Dragons. My initial reaction was to use it with the latest edition.

The world portrayed in this book feels familiar, but wholly original at the same time. Dracula and Alice and Wonderland are things that have been done to death. Still with flair +Zak Smith has created a beautiful, deadly monster that feels new.

The price for the physical book may seem a bit daunting to some, but I feel it's worth the price. I've read a lot of quality books recently, but I connect to this one on a weird personal level. 

The Created



As I mentioned previously, last week I picked up The Created

"Beware what you wish, for it might come true" is an old Vistani saying. In the small town of Odiare, a toymaker has wished a puppet to life - only this puppet is not a friendly, playful toy. It is a thing of evil, bent upon killing all the adults of Odiare. When the player characters are trapped within this town, Maligno the puppet and his animated toys begin to hunt them down. The PCs' only chance for escape is to defeat the mad marionette.


Designed for characters 2-4, The Created is a solid horror adventure and yet very simple. The party enter the cursed town and begin to investigate the strange goings on. The evil toys of the town then switch bodies with the pc's. This is a nice twist. The party (as animated toys) must break out of the toymakers shop and recover their bodies. Finally the pc's must confront the mad puppet, Maligno.


The adventure was originally written for 2E Ravenloft, but could easily be altered to other editions. I'm thinking about using it in the OSR game that I will run one day. It seems like a nice change from the typical hack and slash dungeon crawl.



Monday, March 23, 2015

A to Z Blog challenge 2015 Theme Reveal


It's the big day. Time to reveal my theme for the Blogging A to Z challenge. This April we're going to adventure like 1974 intended us to (the irony that I wouldn't be born for another 10 years isn't lost on me).


That's right, all of my challenge posts will be Dungeon Crawl Classics RPG themed. Expect new monsters and npc's. If I'm feeling particularly adventurous I may try to create a few spells and patrons.

Much Excite!

Two Kickstarters have fulfilled main obligations since last week and I'm an excited geek!


Sunday, March 22, 2015

Succubus Sunday

Blood Succubus by CGlas
sketchy spellcaster by Jiyu-Kaze

03/03 Free Commission by HentaiNeko


Some Updates and Such

    Here are just a few gaming updates:

    • My birthday D&D play through of the +Mark Taormino's Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen was a success. We only made it about a third of the way through the module and hope to do a monthly get together to finish it up. Expect a more thorough summary coming soon. 
    • My 5E game is back on track. First campaign arc is finished and they've been tasked by the cleric trapped in the Chained Coffin to head to the Shudder Mountains.
    • My Peril on the Purple Planet boxed set came in. It's a full, wonderful, and glorious boxed set of Appendix N sorcery meets scifi/dying Earth goodness. I have so many DCC adventures... I really need to find a group to play. Expanded post coming later.
    • Half Price Books had a big sale this week. I picked up Goodman Games' Saga of the Dragon Cult for 7 dollars and a classic 2E Ravenloft adventure I always wanted, The Created, for 6 dollars. Saga of the Dragon Cult is pretty cool. GG took four of their original DCC adventures, updated them to 3.5 and created a book that ties them together in a level 1-10 AP. Those five books are in a nice, retro-looking boxed set. You can't know the price either. The original retail price is a mere 20 dollars. The created is a different beast entirely. It involves a low level party taking on a twisted Pinochio-esque friend and his killer toys. Expect expanded posts about them to come soon.
    • According to the last update I received, Freeport should have shipped this past week.Going to run it for a homebound friend back home every other Friday.
    • I'm participating the the Blogging for A-Z April challenge. Like most others I'll reveal my theme Monday (if I can decide it by then).
    • Work is busy, so I've missed some of my regular posts. I've not given them up, just learning to balance desired life and responsible life.

    Sunday, March 15, 2015

    Succubus Sunday - NSFW Repost

    While you're reading this I am running some of my dearest friends through +Mark Taormino's great adventure The Hanging Coffins of the Vampire Queen. Even though I've posted this picture before I felt like it was a fitting repost. 
    Lady Neeblack and her succubi lieutenants, Sin and Diabolica.

    The mini I'm using for Lady Neeblack (painted by my friend Drea)
    Expect pictures and a play report soon.

    Thursday, March 12, 2015

    My 5E Game - Long Overdue Update

    I haven't talked about my 5E campaign on here since November. This Saturday we're coming back from a month and a half long hiatus, so I thought I'd do a quick recap of what's happened since I last posted.

    • The party captured basilisks for an eccentric gnome alchemist as payment for turning Rolen and Rogar back to flesh. The basilisks were pets of a small tribe of bullywugs (mainly because I love bullywugs).
    • The party studied the dead green dragon. Mojo learned halfling. Armor, weapons, and accessories were commissioned from the butched dragon.
    • The party was hired by a prince named Roberte to escort him to a lost shrine. The prince only had one arm and the shrine could make him whole. The party faced off with a witch, a monstrous arm-ripper, and made a new ally, a human turned ettin named Gilmi. Rolen aslo had his arm ripped off, though the shrine healed him. After returning to Neverwinter, Roberte's lycanthropy returned (due to the magic of the shrine) and there was a rooftop race to stop him from going on a murderous spree. The party managed to capture him and cure him once and for all. Roberte has now pledged himself to serving the Order of the Gauntlet. 
    • One their return trip to Phandalin the party encountered a secret elf named Will. The elf informed them that the town had been taken over by their enemies, the Broken Tusks. The group evaded patrols and made it into their manor, where they found Droop and a few survivors of the town guard. They set up a daring raid to free some of the prisoners, and then engaged to orcs and their giant servants. We ended with a cliffhanger. The giants had been defeated, but the orcish chief had just KO'd Gilmi and Droop.
    When the battle ends Saturday this will tie up the first campaign arc. The party with next find the chained coffin and head to the Shudder Mountains. After that clues will lead them to a  group of mysterious islands that exists outside of Faerun, but is connected via mystical ley lines. It is here that Mojo will learn the truth of his origins.

    Wednesday, March 11, 2015

    Ash Wednesday - Xena

    Exciting news, Lucy Lawless has officially joined the cast of Ash vs. The Evil Dead. You can read about it and her character here. In honor of that news I wanted to post Xena stats for Army of Darkness. It makes sense. Bruce played a character in Xena and Xena and Ash have teamed up in the comics. However, when I thought about it, I decided not to stat her up. The reason being is that +Timothy Brannan has already done a phenomenal job at The Other Side Blog. Check out his stats for her and Gabrielle here.


    --------------


    Happy Ash Wednesday!

    Tuesday, March 10, 2015

    Elemental Characters - 5E


    Today the player companion to the upcoming Elemental Evil storyline was released for D&D5. It includes  ules for playing aarakocra, deep gnomes (and a new feat they can take), genasi (classic four elements) and goliaths. In addition, it has 10 pages of new spells (though a few of the pages are mainly artwork). Sasquatch Game Studios did a great job putting together this free supplement.

    I am aware that this content was original supposed to be a book that Wizards was going to release, but I don't think that D&D will die because they decided to do just one book for Elemental Evil and release this for free.

    If you want new material for you D&D5 game, check it out by clicking on this link.


    Monday, March 9, 2015

    Bastien Douze-Doigts, Bastard of Graz'zt

    I occasionally get to set in on my old groups weekly Pathfinder game. Recently they've invited me to make a character that can hop in and out of the game. It's an evil party (which is not my normal thing) and the game takes place in the Forgotten Realms. This is a make up of the party (currently 14th level):

    Aasimar Monk/Ninja - Cast out from Celestial Court, wants to raze Heaven

    (Oversized) Goblin Barbarian/Anti-Paladin - from Golarion, needs to get a key to free Rovagug.
    Half-Elf Ranger - Bounty hunter who's recently joined a secret society that seeks to control the political realm of Faerun
    Human Wizard - acolyte of the skin (if you're familiar with that 3rd era prestige class), a man that wants to become a fiend
    Human Oracle of the Heavens - has a cult following, seeks to be a goddess

    While I've not sat down to make him yet, I've decided that I shall play Bastien Douze-Doigts, Dhampyr Cleric. Even though he's only half-vampire, I'm going to play up the vampiric aristocrat aspect. I have the Advanced Race Guide and Blood of the Night and I will be using these to flesh him out. I want him to have fangs and I will be taking the blood drinker feats. I realize I'm talking about "roll" aspects more than "role" but I just wanted to get across some of the basics.

    Bastien Douze-Doigts is an aristocrat and socialite. Most see him as a handsome and eccentric noble that throws the best fĆŖtes in the cityHowever, those in the know claim that he's a vampire who dabbles in demonology. This is only half truth. Bastien is a dhampyr (half-vampire), but he doesn't merely dabble in demonology. He is, in actuality, a cleric of Graz'zt. He even claims to be a son of the demon prince (and his polydactyl nature lends a bit of credence to the claims). As of now Bastien has no major over-arching plots. He is content to practice his hedonistic ways and do his father's bidding. 

    Dwarven Forge Kickstarter 3

    I was really excited for Dwarven Forge's third Kickstarter. I wish I'd got in on the first one. I loved the second one (and wished I'd pledge more). Yesterday the third was launched (and quickly funded).



    The pieces look really cool, but I think I'm going to pass on this one. Don't get me wrong, I think the buildings look really cool. I just don't think the cost to actual use ratio is worth it for me I just don't think I'd use them much. Also, with the Dungeon and Cavern pieces Dungeon Gray worked just fine. These tiles wouldn't look good unpainted.

    Looks like I'm going to have to order their previous tiles if I want some new pieces.

    Sunday, March 8, 2015

    Friday, March 6, 2015

    Friday in Freeport - On the Horizon

    It's so close.


    I received an email from Green Ronin today and this is what caught my eye:

    "Freeport: The City of Adventure for the Pathfinder RPG has made it through the troubled West Coast ports and is on its way to our fulfillment company. If you backed it on Kickstarter or have pre-ordered it, then soon it will be in your hands! You might want to put on a back brace first--this is our biggest book ever, at 544 pages."

    I've looked through the pdf and the book is gorgeous and just overflowing with piratey-goodness. I don't know how I'm going to get a second game going, but when this comes in it's something I have to do. I'm thinking it will be even more fun to make the the Islands of Purple-Haunted Putrescence a destination for the salty sea dogs.

    I can almost smell the sea salt, taste the rum, and hear the shanties now...


    Thursday, March 5, 2015

    Level 31 Reached

    It's my birthday, so you know what that means.


    Having dinner with a friend tonight to celebrate, but the real party is going down next Sunday when I trap my dearest friends in the dungeon of the Vampire Queen.

    Also, happy birthday Amanda!

    Oh yeah it's National Cheetos Day.

    Wednesday, March 4, 2015

    Ash Wednesday - Mars Attacks!


    Today's Ash Wednesday post is an odd one for me. As a kid Mars Attacks cards freaked me out. A kid in my class had some and I didn't like them. As I've gotten older I'm still not the biggest fan. I get what they are. I understand why people like them, but it's not my typical cup of tea. Still that doesn't mean I don't think it'd be fun to see Ash take on a squad of Martian baddies.















    Name: Martian Soldier
    Motivation: Ack! Ack!
    Critter Type:  Martian
    Attributes: Str 3, Dex 3, Con 3, Int 2, Per 2, Will 2
    Ability Scores: Muscle 10, Combat 12, Brains 10

    Life Points: 34  Drama Points: 5

    Special Abilities: Armor 20 (airtight), can't breath oxygen, sound based attacks deal double damage

                                         Maneuvers
    Name                   Score    Damage               Notes
    Disentigration Ray    12         50                Lethal damage disentegrates target 
    Dodge                         12            -                  Defense action

    This is your basic drone soldier. As the cards, comics, and movies have shown, the Martians have all sorts of horrifying implements of destruction.
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    Monday, March 2, 2015

    New To Me DCC

    This past weekend I was in my hometown for a day and I snagged a couple of Dungeon Crawl Classics adventures from Dungeon Dwellers. I picked up DCC 82: Bride of the Black Manse and DCC 82.5 Dragora's Dungeon.

    Bride of the Black Manse is an interesting 3rd level adventure. The plot involves a haunted mansion, the devil Mamon, and a broken pact. The interesting is quite interesting in the fact that events happen based on real world time. Every hour that passes during the game session causes another bell to toll. I also liked this adventure because it includes succubus stats. The book also contains a 2nd level jungle adventure called Blood for the Serpent King. This adventure deals with the return of the Emerald Cobra, a powerful serpent man king.

    Dragora's Dungeon is actually a DCC update of an adventure Goodman Games released for 4th edition. The advnture revolves around the return of an ancient society and a royal family put in a mystical coma.The adventure is a lot of fun and includes some great exploration and encounters. My only real issue with this adventure is I'm not a fan of the weird almost-porn fantasy cover. Yeah she's protected if someone was aiming for part of her breasts or her vagina, but otherwise, she's not really protected at all. Plus that armor looks like it'd cause a lot of chafing. The again if I was a hot blonde with a green dragon partner and a large group of ape-like servitors, maybe I too would go for style of substance.

    Both these adventures look like a lot of fun. At 9.99 they're worth picking up, even if you don't play DCC.