|
Post by bigjackbrass on Sept 9, 2016 1:19:49 GMT -6
On the odd occasions I've felt the need to add skills I've either gone for something like the background option mentioned above, perhaps taking character level into account if it's important how well they succeed, or else I've used the spell success table from Empire of the Petal Throne:
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Sept 3, 2016 1:39:53 GMT -6
Thought I might try some game related fiction, so I'm reading Rose of Stormgaard by Ken St Andre, the creator of Tunnels and Trolls.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Jun 6, 2016 13:33:50 GMT -6
Was it S&S that appeared in Murphy's Rules due to the infinite orc glitch? Orcs had a negative point cost to reflect their lack of battlefield discipline, which had the side effect of letting you have an unlimited number of them.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on May 13, 2016 1:41:18 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Jan 29, 2016 9:22:51 GMT -6
I was very pleased to see that they had been added as a revision to the previous PDFs, rather than being listed as a completely new product. The free update for people who, like myself, were able to buy them the first time around is appreciated, even if the new cover art seems slightly at odds with the style of the game. A very minor quibble, however.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Oct 23, 2015 4:15:24 GMT -6
Disappointing that it's simply a scan of the Gamescience edition, not even correcting the missing text on page 32 which the Different Worlds version did. I'd presumed that the reason it was taking so long was because a full job of retyping was involved.
Still, at least an official PDF is now available; and I've bought it in part to support further work. Hopefully future efforts will show improvements.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Jun 12, 2015 13:02:12 GMT -6
Yesterday a friend pointed me to this gem, with Christopher Lee as a supervillain opposing Alan Arkin's Captain Invincible:
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on May 25, 2015 11:57:48 GMT -6
What's the scale of Car Wars? Like, could I play it with, say, Matchbox and Hot Wheels without having to do a lot of conversion? Could I play it with those 30mm scale toy cars they sometimes have at Toys R' Us (I already got a bunch of those for HeroClix). The old CW I remember playing from the 80's used itty-bitty counters (Cars were about 1" long and 1/2" wide, IIRC). The old counters were indeed an inch long for a standard car. Rules for making 3D terrain and using larger models appeared in one of the Autoduel Quarterly magazines, I believe; I'll see if I can track down which issue (they're available in PDF from Steve Jackson Games). If you're thinking of making Fury Road style cars to play with, though, then this online article might be of interest.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on May 9, 2015 3:44:51 GMT -6
Currently enjoying Science Fiction by Gaslight, a 1968 anthology edited by Sam Moskowitz. It's an excellent selection of short scientific romances from 1891 to 1911. Some are speculative, others more fantastical, several deliberately humorous (and others unintentionally so, rendered charmingly absurd by advances in science and the passage of time). There are wonderful insights into the concerns of the time, but chiefly these are cracking little tales, some of them sadly forgotten today.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on May 9, 2015 3:35:47 GMT -6
No problems for me viewing the site on an Android tablet via the Dolphin browser. Avatars look fine; they also appear in the quotes, but they aren't overlapping or interfering with anything else on the screen.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Apr 5, 2015 7:37:50 GMT -6
By coincidence, earlier this afternoon I finished A Quest for Simbalis by Michael Shea, an approved sequel to The Eyes of the Overworld from 1974. Very enjoyable, nicely capturing much of the tone of Vance's style and Cugel's ambivalent (though largely selfish) nature.
The only problem I find with reading Dying Earth books is a tendency for one's speech to adopt some semblance of the protagonists' as they pursue their crepuscular peregrinations beneath the senile star.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Apr 4, 2015 5:08:53 GMT -6
The older I get, the less worried I am about canon. For me, it absolutely counts. Does it contradict elements of other stories and fit awkwardly in some respects? *shrug*
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Mar 31, 2015 3:03:24 GMT -6
Glad to hear it may actually live up to its reputation Shortly after I bought it my automatic search came back with a copy listed for $150!
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Mar 30, 2015 12:33:48 GMT -6
A copy of The Abduction of Good King Despot arrived for me a couple of weeks ago. I've had an ongoing search running on eBay and in the end I was the only bidder. £10 including postage, excellent condition. It can be a difficult adventure to find, probably helped by its reputation as one of Gary Gygax's convention favourites, and prices are often more than a little silly, but as so often with eBay patience pays off.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Mar 27, 2015 16:15:58 GMT -6
"What! Beorn is a furrier, thus dealing with rabbit fur (commonly called cony fur). Except, of course, when he is being sly by trying to pass-off rabbit furs as squirrel furs?" Pretty much, I think.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Mar 27, 2015 16:02:05 GMT -6
Am I right in assuming that in 1930s England furriers had a linguistic habit of referring to rabbits as "conies"? Not exactly a linguistic habit restricted to furriers, coney is a word for a rabbit or for rabbit fur. Now old-fashioned to the point of being obsolete in general usage. It also used to mean someone who was rather credulous. Bilbo is not assuming that Beorn has magical abilities: even at this stage in the story he is still very much the comfortable, civilised Hobbit who would be far more used to dealing with tradesmen, shopkeepers and the like than he would be with a shape-shifter (remember that even Gandalf is thought of in the Shire only as a slightly dubious traveller who does at least provide rather nice fireworks). The first thing he thinks of when he hears "skin-changer" is a furrier; and consider that at the time The Hobbit was written furriers were still a thriving business, with all sorts of clothes and accessories made from animal fur, so this is also a clever way to let the reader learn what a "skin-changer" is through Bilbo making a mistaken assumption that the reader would understand. Bilbo is still thinking in terms of the humdrum, safe day to day life of the Shire, where exotic and magical things are distant (and therefore legendary). As for squirrel, I suspect it's either humorous confusion on Bilbo's part or else the notion that someone might substitute rabbit-fur trim instead of squirrel is correct. The substitution idea is likely, since rabbit fur was sometimes dyed to resemble more exotic (and expensive) varieties of squirrel, particularly for use trimming coats and gloves. Tolkien would certainly have been aware of an older meaning, a synonym for prostitute, but we can discount that, I think, along with the American slang meaning which has been eclipsed these days by beaver. This is a book for children, after all Especially since Gandalf reacts in horror to what Bilbo says and warns him not to say something like that to Beorn. That part didn't make much sense to me as a kid (why would Beorn be offended about being ascribed the wrong kind of magical power?) I skipped over it. But if Bilbo was suggesting Beorn was just some kind of crook, then it makes sense. As I read it, the issue is that Beorn would not take kindly to anyone who would kill and skin animals: the animals we see are his friends; and you'll notice that the food referred to in that chapter is bread, butter, honey, cream and mead (later echoed in The Lord of the Rings when the Hobbits visit Tom Bombadil's home) rather than platters of meat. Gandalf is warning Bilbo not to make reference to the fur trade because we can presume that Beorn angrily opposes it, rather than telling him not to call Beorn a crook.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Mar 14, 2015 10:43:03 GMT -6
I do like that the accompanying photo has three swordsmen and one chap holding an axe.
"Are you sure that they sold you a genuine Ulfberht sword, Arne? It looks a bit... y'know... axey..."
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Mar 8, 2015 5:16:24 GMT -6
A Bored of the Rings campaign is, more or less, Tunnels and Trolls. The book was a big (and freely acknowledged) influence on Ken St. Andre.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Feb 16, 2015 12:36:32 GMT -6
I think the argument about wizards in armor is indicative of a restrictive magic item campaign. Wearing armor and wielding a sword is a non issue when the MU in question has found or made a robe of the archmagi and wields a staff of power, to say nothing of bracers of defense. That's very likely true. Certainly, I've always favoured low-magic campaigns where any magical sword is a huge deal and will probably be a named item with a store of legends surrounding it, so PC magic-users in my games can't rely on stumbling over those super-powerful items at every turn. The whole "iron interferes with magic" interpretation is enticing, because it has some resonance with legend and myth, but this raises other questions : how are magical armor and weaponry created? Do they all need some special alloy? Meteoric iron, perhaps? Maybe the metal that falls from the stars is imbued with power direct from the source of all magic.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Feb 15, 2015 14:43:31 GMT -6
Sometimes the original rules are just as much a treasure hunt as the dungeon itself! There's a story, related in a book I once read (possibly something by Bill Bryson, but I'm afraid I forget exactly where I found it), of an ongoing series of adverts for a store placed in a small town newspaper. They were clearly done by the owner, haphazardly assembled, cut-and-pasted together and a complete visual mess. They violated all of the rules of clear marketing, and one day an ad man approached the store owner and offered to clean up the advertisements for him and boost sales. Sales dropped sharply. The ad man, perplexed, questioned many of the people who shopped at the store and discovered that they liked the chaos of the old adverts better. The amateurish, more confused ad gave the sense of a jumble sale, the idea that the reader could spot a hidden gem in there and grab a bargain that others might have missed, and people spent a long time poring over them. I also find that, in some cases, having to put in more work to tease out the meaning or locate a rule I could swear I found earlier makes the information stick in the mind a little better. Of course, there are also times when I would kill for a full and detailed index and a perfectly clear, unambiguous presentation
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Feb 15, 2015 14:25:33 GMT -6
Training, perhaps. Maybe elves who choose to wear armour have a more martial background and so know how to wear it effectively, a cultural distinction. For an untrained person armour is hugely restrictive: generally hot, uncomfortable, clumsy; and simply wearing it like clothing isn't what should provide the full armour class, you need to know how to keep its weaknesses from the enemy and use it to deflect blows rather than simply absorb them. Wizards need full movement available to them. Or perhaps elven magic is actually entirely distinct from other magic, similar ends reached by different means, and the non-elven magic requires a free interaction with magical energies, a bit like picking up radio signals. Armour, or even very heavy clothing, could interfere with that. Professor Barker describes magic on Tékumel rather nicely in his novels, showing magic-users mentally reaching out to manipulate nodes of energy. Iron disrupts the energies, with potentially serious, even fatal, results, so magic-users on Tékumel avoid any amount of iron, even in the form of jewellery or iron keys. Mind you, it's a rare metal on that world, so that's easier to do than for your average D&D wizard. Obviously that doesn't help with regard to leather etc, but there's always the fact that many wizards may well be snobs, looking down on "manual labourers" like fighting-men, which ties into what coffee said (above). Wizards simply don't do that, it's what makes them a white collar class Their robes or whatever are effectively badges of office, signs of their status as professionals. If a barrister turned up in court wearing board shorts and a tie-dyed shirt he wouldn't last very long. Make the professional aspect of wizards something of importance in your world, perhaps with some of the flavour of 19th century scientists, so that magic-users correspond with others of their type and occasionally have to re-register with their societies, engage in seminars etc.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Jan 30, 2015 13:36:35 GMT -6
I have the Phoenix Games version and the boxed FGU revised edition, along with Valley of the Mists and Takishido's Debt (to the best of my knowledge the only official published adventures, outside of magazines). Wish I'd been able to find more people over the years interested in playing. For those people interested in differences between editions, Fantasy Gamer issue 6 featured a lengthy review covering the FGU editions of Bushido and Chivalry & Sorcery, which compares those two games as well as looking at how things have changed in their respective revisions. The general conclusion for Bushido was, "Bushido is much the same game it was but elaborated and improved... Bushido now features more information about the original game systems." That's certainly true: examples and depth of coverage for different subjects are significantly expanded, but of course that only matters if you want extra detail rather than painting with broader strokes. "Keynote of the new Bushido is the idea of 'task points' and 'effect number'... it's somewhat abstract, but provides a unifying aspect... The tsk point/effect number system used in Bushido is quite nice... The revised Bushido is still saddled with a rather awkward action-phase system wherein characters can only perform certain actions at predetermined times... [It] offers more weapons and combat skills than of old..."I shan't quote the article further, since you can get a PDF of the entire magazine, by clicking on the link in the magazine title above, for $2.99. It does go on to say that clerics are now more interesting characters in the revised system. One change I can add looking at the two sets side by side is the included sample adventure: the digest-sized Phoenix Games booklet has The Horror of Izinaki, a fairly traditional scenario of saving a village from monsters, complete with a dungeon map; the FGU edition includes An Evening at the Inn of Restful Sleep, more of an encounter than a full adventure, which concentrates on human opposition rather than monsters. Bob Charrette made a set of suitable characters for Steve Jackson's Cardboard Heroes line. Not as nice as proper minis, but handy.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Dec 15, 2014 12:26:29 GMT -6
No spoilers from me! You'll have to brave the perils of the underworld yourself...
If you do run the adventure please let us know how it goes.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Dec 14, 2014 10:42:11 GMT -6
Nereshánbo is certainly a better dungeon than Nightmare Maze. Sounds as though you've already located the redone map, which is a lot clearer than the one in the book: the original isn't exactly illegible, but some areas are a little fuzzy or cluttered. The adventure itself is described as an introductory one, which according to the introduction means five to ten characters of first to third level. There are a few paragraphs providing the backstory about the great mage Nereshánbo hiViridáme and how his tomb was mysteriously "blotted out" from the records and abandoned by the priests of Ksárul who formerly attended it. As the adventure starts the tomb has supposedly been abandoned for a thousand years and there is a short section on getting there and locating the entrance. The GM also gets notes on the style and construction of the tomb, details of lighting etc, not to mention the chance to roll on something called The Chart of a Thousand Diseases After that it's a fairly traditional dungeon adventure full of wandering monsters, ancient guardians, traps and other assorted dangers leading up to the actual burial chamber of Nereshánbo himself. A brief "to hit" chart for the monsters in EPT format appears at the back, followed by a page and a half of Swords & Glory stats and the full-page map of the complex. Depending on what you count as a room there are more than thirty locations in the dungeon, not including corridors. One of the more interesting features, much more clearly depicted on the redone colour version of the map, is the canal which flows clockwise around the tomb, forming both a barrier and a possible means of travel. Overall, this is nothing more or less than a dungeon adventure. If you're not fond of them then Nereshánbo won't change your mind, but it does have plenty of Tékumel flavour and there's lots to keep a party occupied. I'd say that it's a solid effort and there are plenty of opportunities for the GM to tweak it to suit his own group. Hope that helps to give you a better pitcure, let me know if you need anything specific.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Dec 5, 2014 15:27:59 GMT -6
The (continued) Boinger and Zereth stories in The Dragon are some of my favorites. I should go back and reread Holmes' stories, haven't looked at them in years. Glancing at my list I see that I have Trollshead, The Sorcerer's Jewel and In the Bag; there's also a mention of one called The Adventure of the Lost City which was printed in Alarums & Excursions circa 1976, but sadly I don't have that one. I believe that it might have been reused in The Maze of Peril. A collected version of the Boinger and Zereth stories would be lovely to see, even if only as an ebook. I wonder what the chances of that might be?
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Dec 1, 2014 15:53:52 GMT -6
GAH--I totally missed this thread! ...waiting with hope in my heart that more will indeed soon be in stock. You can add it to a Want list at Noble Knight and they'll email you as soon as it comes back in.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Aug 19, 2014 2:47:46 GMT -6
I'm currently playing in the adventure from the Starter Set, which seems decent enough, and a few odds and ends from the Basic PDF are creeping in. Releasing the PDF for free is a superb move, I think, but I can't really see myself spending money to get any deeper into this edition. The reason, apart from the fact that I'm not exactly flush with cash, is partly because I rather dislike extra classes, sub-races and the like (if you're constantly adding new classes to make a game work for you then I have to wonder whether it ought to be class-based to start with) but mainly because Wizards have given me the single best part of the game already: the advantage/disadvantage mechanic.
It's brilliant. Simple, easy to remember with no unfamiliar jargon, endlessly adaptable to other systems and situations. It also, for me at least, means that I don't need a lot of the extra rules and options, because this rule fits perfectly with the way I've generally run games. Want to play an adventurer who ran away to sea as a youngster? Cool, that's your background so you'll get Advantage when dealing with nautical matters. Taking your woodsman into the bustling metropolis? Expect to be at a Disadvantage sometimes because of the crowds and the unfamiliar rules.
I hope that this edition does well, because a strong D&D brand helps the hobby as a whole, but they've already given me more than I hoped to get from it.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Jul 13, 2014 14:27:41 GMT -6
Like kesher I've read all of those except for The Book of Kane, although I do have one of the stories from that collection in an old copy of Sorcerer's Apprentice magazine; that was probably the first Kane story I read, come to think of it.
My personal suggestion would be to pick one at random. I don't think that the stories particularly benefit from reading in any particular order and the huge, chaotic span of Kane's life is perhaps clearer when you pluck adventures haphazardly from it.
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Jul 10, 2014 12:14:14 GMT -6
|
|
|
Post by bigjackbrass on Jul 7, 2014 10:50:38 GMT -6
Following on from that there is now a video showing character creation with the new basic rules: Convenient linky
|
|