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Post by foxroe on Nov 24, 2016 0:43:18 GMT -6
I love these kinds of things - great for when you're in a creative rut. Here's what I got:
4 meet in prison, slavery, death camp 2 patron is wizard 3 siege 7 caused by rebellious general 19 travel to gargantuan land vehicle 1 kill somebody 7 space alien tech 11 terrible storm traps heros at location And here's the quick write-up:
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Post by foxroe on Nov 23, 2016 19:50:23 GMT -6
I like this because I really don't like thief-classes that have abilities that other classes are barred from using. [...] Whereas I would say, any character can attempt to pick a lock but thieves' are better at it than others. This is a misconception of how the thief works. By the book, any character can try to open a lock, but the player has to say how he's doing it, e.g., "I stick a pin in the keyhole and try to move the tumblers." Then the referee has to decide, based on the characters abilities and the current circumstances, how likely it is that the character will succeed. If Og the Stupid and Clumsy tries to pick a lock with a pin and by moving tumblers while the party is being attacked by orcs in a corridor, he may have a 1% chance of succeeding, while Phineas the Clever and Quick, who is taking his time in a quiet room, might have a 25% chance. Or whatever. The thief's Open Locks ability, on the other hand, allows the player to bypass the explanation and his common abilities and go straight to a roll based on his level of thievery. It's the "yeahyeahyeah, I'm a thief, I know what to do" ability, as are all the others. While other players have to think of how to attack a problem of thievery, a thief's player just has to make a roll. The thief's special ability also lets him open magical locks that others can't open at all, but that's a matter of magic. All of the thief's special abilities have magical elements to them. The thief isn't just someone who steals; he's supernaturally—or at least cinematically—talented at it. I agree. Thieving abilities represent a level of proficiency above and beyond what other classes are capable of - they do not supplant the abilities of players (and sometimes characters) to overcome "thieving" obstacles. If a party decided to sneak up on the gate guards, the DM shouldn't say, "only the Thief can do that." Instead, the DM could just probably just check for surprise. However, if the the Thief sneaks up on the guards alone, the DM would check against the Thief's Move Silently ability, and if the roll fails, the DM can still call for a surprise roll.
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Post by foxroe on Nov 23, 2016 2:35:18 GMT -6
Rugose, perfidious, massive perversion... just another day in Carcosa.
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Post by foxroe on Nov 23, 2016 2:33:00 GMT -6
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Post by foxroe on Nov 23, 2016 2:28:25 GMT -6
Sounds good; will have to add it to the queue of stuff I want to get. FYI - The preview button isn't working on drivethru...
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Post by foxroe on Nov 23, 2016 2:20:29 GMT -6
Welcome to the forum, @bertman ! I am by no means a CM expert, but I'll give it a shot. There are several members here with much more experience with the rules than I.
Giants seem to fair better than most on the FCT - only Balrogs and Dragons are better (though an argument for Superheros and Wizards could be made).
My interpretation is that they fight as 12 heavy Foot, +1 die only for large weapons, so 12 dice +1 die = 13 dice, a 6 hits on any die. There is some prescedent for this if one looks at the note for men with pikes/halberds on the CT.
Whether they defend as Armored or Heavy is unclear - it would be up to the ref/players which way to go I suppose. If you think they are more likely to shrug off attacks from normal men, then go with the Armored.
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Post by foxroe on Nov 23, 2016 1:45:38 GMT -6
Fauna native to Carcosa? LinkThe Terror Bird maybe. I picture mammals on Carcosa more like this. The scale may be off, but you could probably use the cavemen figures for giants or some such thing.
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Post by foxroe on Nov 22, 2016 19:46:40 GMT -6
Cats? We've gone too far! This thread is officially hijacked!! Was it The Scarlet Cloak?
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Post by foxroe on Nov 21, 2016 16:31:50 GMT -6
King Richard and the Crusaders?
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Post by foxroe on Nov 21, 2016 14:46:11 GMT -6
That is, of course, correct! However, it's a special version of the poem, from, and here's a hint, a very old movie. What movie am I talking about? Ivanhoe?
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Post by foxroe on Nov 21, 2016 5:06:51 GMT -6
FWIW, the apparent misquotation in my sig is NONE. If you can tell me what I am alluding to (hint: it requires really profound oldschool knowledge, and it cannot be found via google), then I'll offer you some sort of reward. Tom o' Bedlam
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Post by foxroe on Nov 21, 2016 4:41:06 GMT -6
Dolm feathered balls of screaming tentacles, lightning-breathing radioactive Dromaeosauridae, space aliens probing Shub-Niggurath's many recta, and a couple of drug-crazed hippie sorcerers that want to turn you into a fruit tree... just another day in Carcosa!
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Post by foxroe on Nov 21, 2016 1:28:57 GMT -6
Few more dreams for the list: - Run a campaign (OD&D or AD&D/OSRIC) using all of the Carcosa material - just have to find a group of players with the right... temperament. - Can't wait for Jeff's new AS&SH. I would love to run my own Hyperborean campaign... complete with REH/HPL/CAS pulpy mega-dungeon. - DM a light-hearted, home-brewed classic Castle Greyhawk / El Raja Key for my immediate family using OD&D/S&W (actually slowly working on this right now). - Ref a Rappan Athuk campaign with S&W (RA is so full of old-school porn it's ridiculous). - Find a solid local group of Grognards who enjoy OS gaming (including board/war games - even though I'm terrible at them!). - White Star looks awesome - I dig the whole OD&D/Star Frontiers/SW(d6)/Soft-SciFi vibe. I'd love to play in or ref a few games. Wow. It occurred to me as I was typing this that I could add several more things to this list... so what I really should have on my list is finding several more hours of availability each week for gaming.
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Post by foxroe on Nov 21, 2016 0:46:43 GMT -6
Nice writeup, foxroe! Can I use it some day? Absolutely! I just winged it as I was typing. Just trying to point out how great the hex descriptions are. Geoffrey's are way better than my hack attempt.
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Post by foxroe on Nov 20, 2016 21:30:44 GMT -6
Probably not the best idea spending money right before the holidays... but I'm in for the hardback. In the final hour!
Congrats, Jeff! Can't wait to see this!
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Post by foxroe on Nov 20, 2016 21:13:53 GMT -6
I did use the babboon encounter from Jungles of the K'naanothoa to harass the PCs. This is one of the great things about these modules. Lot's of great encounter ideas in a big sandbox - like it should be. For those folks wary of buying these because they're easily put off by the original Carcosa's terse hex descriptions, fret not. These modules are great examples of how one can take a short, seemingly random hex description: and put some ulfire flesh on those bones:
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Post by foxroe on Nov 19, 2016 22:48:39 GMT -6
Palace of the Silver Princess (unexpurgated version). Seriously. Think about it.
Just reskin anything that isn't "Carcosa"; no need to change stats:
Silver Princess: She's silver. For real. Ubues: Mutant game designers Kobolds: Midget troglodytes Orcs: Cannibals Goblins/Hobgoblins: Primitive Green Men Bubbles: Bubbles (from Beyond Space!) etc.
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Post by foxroe on Nov 19, 2016 22:32:55 GMT -6
Very nice (downloaded for future reference). I must protest, however - there is no "Chance to Not Tell the Truth" column...
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Post by foxroe on Nov 19, 2016 22:29:02 GMT -6
Since they are low-magic/tech, maybe bump up the required saves for staves/spells and wands. Just a suggestion. I dig the level titles - especially the "Dark Dervish"; very Carcosa.
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Post by foxroe on Nov 16, 2016 0:26:35 GMT -6
I have this one in hard back (just the first two stories) from White Wolf. I really like the covers for the series. Sorry, not really a long answer.
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Post by foxroe on Nov 14, 2016 1:24:48 GMT -6
i´ve started a campaign and i was wandering about good threats, especially from the Egg of Coot. An invasion, or intrigue from within the city walls? Oooh! So sorry I missed this when you first posted. Here are some ideas: 1) Orcs following King Funk attack from a stronghold in the Stormkiller Mountains 2) Skandaharian Longships sighted along the coast of Blackmoor 3) Frogfolk and other swampmonsters 4) Great Sea Monsters from the Black Sea 5) Undead from nearby graveyards 6) Agents of the Great Kingdom / Thonian Empire (Iron Duke) 7) The Wizards Cabal is up to their tricks 8) Mikos Haruska's Thief's Guild tries to take over the criminal underworld. 9) Giants 10) Invasion from the Afridhi -Havard I know this an old post, but I have to say that's a great list of ideas. That would keep players busy for years ( real time, not game game time). Is that based on actual play experiences in Dave's campaign, or something you came up with?
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Post by foxroe on Nov 14, 2016 1:17:24 GMT -6
I've got a Wotc OD&D reprint box that I'd part with. I'm not getting any use out of it, and have been debating selling it off to Wayne's Books for the past 6 months. Just curious about why. Is it just something you're not interested in having, or do have an original box already?
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Post by foxroe on Nov 10, 2016 20:00:21 GMT -6
I understand where you're coming from. Perhaps the easiest way around all of that is to simply treat how the skills work differently. It could be something as easy as "cut all DM's in half, round down". However, I have to say, I've never seen high level skills as a problem at the table.
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Post by foxroe on Nov 10, 2016 12:11:25 GMT -6
I always looked at the cooky skill DM rules in the descriptions as "guidance". Sure, Medical-3 is good enough, but if a character has Medical-4, that should mean they're better than that Medical-3 "hack", right? I see it as a role playing opportunity at the very least.
A house rule I've always used for character creation is to allow the player to roll a die, and then choose which table to select the skill from. I've never seen a player roll and shout, "Sweet! I can take another level of Admin! I'm climbing the corporate ladder for sure!" They'd always go for the military careers or the "cool" skills (combat, driving/piloting, etc.). Besides, so what if you have a character with Admin-5? It could be fun for the player if they know what they're doing, and you can always come up with some unique challenges where said player can shine. I will admit, though. Navigating bureaucratic miasma isn't my idea of RPG fun. A rousing game of Papers and Paychecks anyone? Blech.
Another house rule I used to use for Scientists (the lack of Science as a skill always bothered me) was to allow one field of knowledge per Education point. A player could claim "expertise" in a field by sacrificing one field.
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Post by foxroe on Nov 10, 2016 11:36:29 GMT -6
I notice that it's three-hole punched. Did it come that way? Is there evidence that it was torn from a pad (e.g. has the glue/gum along one edge)? Might be something The Armory (now Chessex) put out around that time. Or Role Aids (Mayfair)? Or JG?
Some other clues: an appearance stat, spell points (?), undefined save categories, and an odd AC progression.
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Post by foxroe on Nov 8, 2016 19:42:37 GMT -6
Yeah, it's a pretty ridiculous movie. However, when I saw it as a wee lad, I was completely blown away by the ending. You know, impressionable youth and all that.
You'll never catch me in a red Speedo, though...
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Post by foxroe on Nov 8, 2016 4:04:47 GMT -6
What? No love for Zardoz?
Great lists, BTW.
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Post by foxroe on Nov 8, 2016 3:47:00 GMT -6
The next round of low lvl PCs will be heading off on the silk route. They may just find Xanadu. And then what? Held within the pleasure dome Decreed by Kubla Khan To taste my bitter triumph As a mad immortal man Never more shall I return Escape these caves of ice For I have dined on honey dew And drunk the milk of paradise...Man. I'm totally putting Xanadu in my campaign now. Complete with a Dryad on roller skates named Olivia.
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Post by foxroe on Nov 8, 2016 3:08:51 GMT -6
Hey, glad you found it useful! This is a good thread; it's given me some great ideas - and that's what I love about this place!
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Post by foxroe on Nov 7, 2016 0:22:26 GMT -6
J. Eric Holmes lived in the Portland area for the last 20 years or so of his life, until he passed away in 2010. He was retired at that point but I believe he taught classes at one of the schools in the area for a while. Billy Galaxy Toys in downtown Portland has been selling off much of his collected books, magazines, toys, miniatures, etc for the last few years on Ebay. Cool, thanks Z. That's good to know. Edit: Not much there now from the good Doctor: Crypt of Cthulhu #97 and two Dragon magazines (#31 and #58).
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