[Fan Film Friday] Roll Initiative - Dungeons & Dragons Short Film

New OLD Stuff Has Arrived

The package I have been waiting on arrived Saturday. I am really happy with the packaging as none of the books came damaged or bent up or anything like that.  I will definitely buy from the seller again in the future; in fact, I have already put a bug in his ear about some other products I am looking for from his collection. A few random thoughts about the books have slipped through my mind so far.

The Palladium Role-Playing Game Revised Edition is not the edition my gaming group played as teens.  We played the black and red covered original edition.  The edition I bought is much closer to that one AND I have always intended to buy all three versions of the core book anyway so I only lack one at this point.

I only owned Mythus out of the Dangerous Journeys items I just bought.  I never owned Mythus Magick, the Bestiary, or the GM Screen so this is pretty cool to get a good number of products.  I am going to keep an eye out for Epic of Aerth and some other products.  Excuse me while I do some reading...

 

Update on The TSR Reprints I Want...

Back in November of 2012 I posted about The TSR Reprints I Want and I never followed up to that post.  I was scrolling through my reading list and noticed that post was still getting read from time to time as I passed by the stats portion of the page.  Just for fun I decided to revisit that post and see what is and what is not available now.

B/X D&D

Then: No pdf or print option available.

Now: The only option at the moment remains to be pdf for the Basic and/or Expert rules.

D&D Rules Cyclopedia

Then: No pdf or print option available.

Now: A range of options available for the Rules Cyclopedia from pdf, softcover book, hardcover book, and bundles with pdf and print together.

AD&D Unearthed Arcana

Then: No pdf or print option available.

Now: Several options for Unearthed Arcana including pdf, standard color hardcover, premium color hardcover, and bundles with pdf and print together.

Gamma World (1st Edition)

Then: No pdf or print option available.

Now: .Softcover, pdf, or a combo purchase for original Gamma World are available.

Gamma World (2nd Edition)

Then: No pdf or print option available.

Now: The only option available for Gamma World 2E is pdf.  

All of them are available in pdf and half of them are available in a print on demand format.    I have found my B/X books but I will most likely purchase the pdfs in the future to avoid further table use of my originals.  I will probably get them printed in a spiral binding.  The Rules Cyclopedia is a must buy for me.  I have had two copies over the years and parted ways with both of them regrettably.  Another must buy is Unearthed Arcana so I can replicate my old collection that needs replaced.  I had a copy of the original Gamma World  years ago so I will most likely get a printed copy soon.  Second edition is one I have never owed but I just might sprint for the pdf at some time in the near future.

Latest Gaming Purchase

I decided to visit  my two favorite local gaming stores  in Tulsa yesterday.  I have never had a bad experience at either Wizard's Asylum or Top Deck Games so I continue to buy from both stores.  I had previously purchased the ALIEN The Roleplaying Game core rules book months ago.  It is a great product and a welcome addition to my collection.

I have looked at several of the secondary products and I have plans on future purchases in the line.  I was holding off because what I really  wanted was the special dice for the game.  I know they are not required for play as two different colors of d6s would serve the same purpose.  I kept checking periodically but neither store had the dice in stock.  I could have ordered them but I never got around to doing so.

While I was browsing the games on the shelves yesterday I saw several products that caught my interest but I passed on the rest and decided to read the back of the ALIEN Starter Set.  In addition to the other goodies included in the box such as the trimmed down rules, an adventure, a map, cards, and counters it also came with two small plastic bags with the black and yellow dice in them so I bought it.  

[Fan Film Friday] The Roleplayers: A Dungeons and Dragons Fan Film

New OLD Stuff on the Way

Years ago I was browsing a bookstore in the local mall and ran across a new game called DANGEROUS JOURNEYS: Mythus by Gary Gygax.  I had no idea he was making a new game so I bought it since I enjoyed AD&D so much.  I was intrigued by the game and world information in the core book and always intended to buy more.  I was never able to buy much additional product beyond the magazine because the game was stopped shortly after that.  Eventually, I got rid of my copy.

Recently I check one of the For Sale postings on The Ruins of Murkhill forum to discover someone listed  four DANGEROUS JOURNEYS products - Mythus, Mythus Magick, Mythus GM Screen, and Mythus Bestiary - so I quickly contacted them.  The books are on the way so I can mark some items off my quest list.  

More posts in the future on these books are sure to come...

[Fan Film Friday] Fantopia - Dungeons and Dragons Inspired Fantasy Short Film

Gaming Magazines of the Past

I purchased digital copies of issues 27 and 28 of The Space Gamer from Warehouse 23 this weekend.  Those are the first two issues of the Steve Jackson Games run on the magazine.  Looking through the contents of these two issues has really made me nostalgic about the gaming magazines of the past.  I would frequently purchase an issue or two of something off the magazine shelf whenever I visited Starbase 21 back in the 80s and 90s.  I would continue that trend after that time with other stores and other magazines even when I had a long gaming slump after 2000.

I discovered my first role-playing magazine with Dragon.  I do not remember the exact issue but it was a relatively early one.  I would buy up every new issue at the store and eventually got a subscription.  I had a pretty impressive stack of issues going and I made the unfortunate decision at some point to remove the articles I found worthwhile and get rid of the other contents.  I have an old binder or two somewhere that has all of these articles; I hope I still do at this point.

I would pick up many more magazines over the years.  I enjoyed The Fantasy Gamer and would have preferred it stayed separate from The Space Gamer but I will take it either way honestly.  Nintendo Power also had a similar appeal to me with the maps and walkthroughs of games.  Shadis was a long time favorite of mine as well as Vortext.  Pyramid was a good magazine but it never grabbed my attention like old copies of The Space Gamer.  Finally, The Rifter was a great Palladium Books house publication. I wish that they would have focused that energy on updating old product and releasing new content but a new grab bag of useful articles was always welcome.  

Unfortunately, none of these magazines still exist today.  I know most everybody has moved to forums and a web presence.  I get the reasons why and I do not hate the forums.  I frequently several of them and post quite frequently at times at The Ruins of Murkhill.  I just wish there was still one good general gaming magazine around.  It is similar to the difference between a book and an e-reader for me.  Nothing beats the crisp, new smell of a new magazine (or book) in hand.  I could really go for laying on the couch with an issue in hand reading it until I got drowsy and decided to take a nap.  

[DragonRaid] Character Creation

I had planned on doing a step by step walkthrough of Character Creation for DragonRaid game.  I posted on The Ruins of Murkhill forums as a first draft to doing a post here.  I discovered that the process of LightRaider creation does not allow many choices.  I am not making any claims that you cannot create and interesting or worthwhile character.  I am just pointing out that there are very few choices to be made during the process.  

LightRaider creation is basically a marathon session of rolling a d10 and writing down the results on a LightRaider Worksheet.   This is done for all of the Character Strengths and most of the Physical Attributes.  The remaining statistics are figured by taking different Character Strengths or Physical Attributes and adding them together then dividing by a set number.  The only areas that offer you a choice of options are Weapon Abilities and Optional Character Abilities; there are 14 Weapon Abilities and you can pick 3 while there are 11 Optional Character Abilities and you can also pick 3 of those.  

Rather than make a new post about character creation here I will just reproduce my other posts below.

This is going to be a step by step walk through of character creation for the DragonRaid game.  Characters in DragonRaid are known as LightRaiders.  It may be surprising to know that the chapter on character creation in the rulebook is barely more than a page long.  This is probably where the LightRaider Worksheet comes in handy with all the formulas on it.  In addition to those two items I opened the bag of StarLots (d10s) included in the box.  So it begins...

STEP 1 - Character Strengths
Each character has 9 attributes that are determined by rolling d10 for the rating in each; higher is better.  I got:

(LO) Love = 10
(JO) Joy = 5
(PE) Peace = 10
(PA) Patience = 1
(KI) Kindness = 8
(GO) Goodness = 2
(FA) Faithfulness = 2
(GE) Gentleness = 4
(SC) Self-Control = 10

STEP 2 - Physical Attributes
Physical Vitality (PV) is determined by adding Character Strengths and dividing by 2.
*It takes a minimum of 19 to be a LightRaider.*

(PV) Physical Vitality = 26

Strength and Agility are determined by rolling a StarLot

(ST) Strength = 3
(AG) Agility = 10

STEP 3 - Character Abilities
These 8 abilities are determined by taking a various number of the previously determined ratings and figuring the average score.  For instance, Listening is determined by PE x2 + PA + SC = total / 4

(CO) Courage = 5
(LIS) Listening = 7
(EN) Endurance = 5
(QM) Quiet Move =6
(HO) Hope = 4
(VIS) Vision = 2
(KN) Knowledge = 2
(WIS) Wisdom = 7

STEP 4 - Armor
Like the Bible verse says to put on the "full armor of God"...

(BT) Belt of Truth = KN = 2
(BR) Breastplate of Righteousness = GO = 2
(SF) Shield of Fate = all character strengths/9 = 5
(HS) Helmet of Salvation = HO = 4
(SS) Sword of the Spirit = 1 (automatic)
(BGP) Boots of the Gospel of Peace = (LO+JO+PE+GO+FA)/5 = 5

STEP 5 - Weapon Abilities
All LightRaiders have Solo Battle = PE + EN + COx2 = total/4

(SB) Solo Battle = 6

Pick 3 more from a list of 14

Dagger = (CO+SC+SB+AG)/4 = 7
Sling = (HO+CO+SC)/3 = 6
Sword = (CO+EN+SB+AG)/4 = 6

At this point, the LightRaider Worksheet must be turned over to complete calculations.

STEP 6 - Defensive Abilities
All LightRaiders have the following three Defensive Abilities.

(EE) Evade Enemy = (PE+PA+SC)/3 = 7
(RFI) Recover From Injury = (HOx3+CO+EN)/5 = 4
(RT) Resist Torture = (JO+FAx2+SC+HO+CO+EN)/7 = 4

STEP 7 - Optional Character Abilities
Pick 3 from a list of 11 possibilities.

(CLS) Climb Skillfully = (JO+PE+PA+SCx2+EN+CO)/7 = 6
(SE) Sense Evil = (GOx2+KN+CO)/4 = 2
(TE) Track Enemy = (JO+PA+SC)/3 = 5

At this point, the LightRaider Worksheet is completely filled out.  The next step should be transferring the numbers to the LightRaider Character Sheet.

[Fan Film Friday] Dungeons & Dragons Concept Trailer

Fan Film Friday is a new feature of my blog.  I watch a ton of fan films on youtube and I recommend them to others that might be interested so I thought why not just add it to my blog. For the month of June, I am linking to D&D fan films; whether they are based on or just inspired by the game.