Shout Out: Purple Crayon Creations

For all those that might be interested there is a new blog I recently started following - Purple Crayon Creations by Liam Thompson.  He is posting about his game designs and ideas.  He is just getting started but after a few emails back and fortth I suspect there will be plenty of interesting material on his blog.  His designs are focused on playing instead of an encyclopedic knowledge of the rules so it should match the tastes of many of the gamers that follow my blog.  Instead of going through my followers and trying to narrow down recommendations I realized that it would be easier to post to get the word out. 

I'm Still Around...

Just a quick post to say that posting will resume shortly.  Putting it bluntly, the summer college semester is eating up my time since I also have work and family responsibilities.  Even thought it's been basically two weeks since I last posted, look for posts on the following subjects soon:

1. Adventures in Fantasy: I still have the read through of Book 3 to complete the rules.
2. D.O.T.T.: The Death of the Territories wrestling game by Eric Baker.  I have messed around a little bit with it but I need to investigate further.
3. Quest Card: A neat little card game by Liam Thompson that has a lot of promise and potential.
4. Perilous Journeys: I dig the crap out of this game because it makes the Lejendary Adventure rules a lot more accessible.
5. RIFTS or Palladium Fantasy: I get the itch to run these two games every so often and the itch is coming on strong again.

Basically, I have several plans for new posts BUT real life stuff has just kept me busy.  Posting will resume soon.

(Mobile Post) Comments are now moderated

I enjoy reading the comments and feedback from everybody that has responded to any of the posts here.  The vast majority of you have been civil and well spoken - even if you are disagreeing with me.  Please, keep the comments coming whether you agree or not.

Due to a few members of the peanut gallery making rude responses here by labelling myself or others as a "dumbass", "stupid", or "idiot" I am moderating all comments now. I believe I erased all of those posts before anybody read them. If not, I apologize because we're all here for fun.  Of course, if there is a way to block a user - TaskForceGreen I'm looking at you - then I will gladly turn off comment moderation.


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[Adventures in Fantasy] Book of Faerry and Magic Pt. 4

Note:  I owe an apology to anyone that has been specifically waiting on me to finish this read through of the Adventures in Fantasy rule books.  I actually began this blog with the intention of completing the read through as my first series of posts.  That did not happen because I got derailed and distracted by other things along the way.  I hope to rectify that soon with a minimal number of posts to do so.  

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Sorcerous Combat

This section of the rules covers combat between opposing magicians and notes that it "is conducted at a mental level" using the system detailed in the rules.  The only other restriction is that "a lawful magician will never attack another lawful magician in this manner".  Of course, there is another formula that determines the amount of damage that a sorcerer can take. 

The traditional method of sorcerous combat described in the rulebook resembles the old gun-slinger face off depicted in the typical Western movies.  There are also two modes - kill and control - described in this section and their relation to the alignment of the sorcerers combating each other. 

Other information in this chapter includes The Magician's Code, magical fatigue, and the effects of fatigue.  It seems interesting and tries to capture a quasi-medieval feel to the magical combat rules used in the game.  I am not sure how practical the magical combat rules would be in play but it would be interesting to test them out in play. 

Faerry Magic
Faerry Magic is not simply spell casting but the magic involved in the art of song and rune.  This magic can be used by Dwarves, Troll Lords, the Faerry, and Elves - with Elves being the most powerful mages of the Faerry races.  Humans may use Faerry Magic but will be severely disadvantaged unless they are Druids or raised by a member of the Faerry race.

This chapter also discusses the determination of magic points, details some restrictions about the songs and runes among the faerry races, and ends with tables listing the songs and runes followed by the description of each one.  There are 20 songs and also 20 runes; due to race restrictions only a portion of the song and runes are available for use.  The songs and runes are described adequately and are, for the most part, pretty easy to understand but there are exceptions.  For example, the Song of the Baleful Omen allows the magician to "lay on an enemy or thief...any curse intended to bring suffering or eventual death".  Descriptions such as that might bother some because there is not a lot of fine details and the outcome is likely to involve a ruling by the DM instead of hard and fast rules but this is an old school design from one of the most old school designers so it fits the period.


The Faerry Races
There are 5 Faerry races: Elves, Trolls/Troll Lords, Dwarves, Goblins, and Faerries. Unlike D&D, it is quite apparent that players are highly discouraged from using the nonhuman races in AiF: all of them are afflicted by sunlight, have a -10% penalty to hit in sunlight, and are incapable of using their Faerry Magic in sunlight.  This quick overview of the Faerry races is followed by a more detailed description of each race.  The information presented includes average hit points, movement, alignment, typical encounters with members of each race, and even details on rolling up player characters of each Faerry race.  I suspect that most players avoided the Faerry races due to the associated disadvantages.


Elementals
The final section of this rulebook covers the conjuring of Elementals.  Some of the information covered includes the alignment of the elemental, a standard elemental of each type, a more powerful elemental of each type, and controlling the Elementals. 


I am running out of steam and the college summer semester started today so I am going to wrap this up.  It seems that Arneson and Snider were aiming for a magic system that had a quasi-medieval feel to it and I think they succeeded.  I think they accomplished their goals with much less attention to detail than other games like Chivalry & Sorcery.  I am not sure that the magic system and the faerry races will appeal to wide range of players.  The spells can be downright boring - one of the spells increases crop output - and the faerry races are not viable play options due to the very tough restrictions placed on them.  Of course, this is all just from reading.  I have never played the game and I am not sure I understand enough of it play.  Maybe I can get to the point of comprehension sometime during my examination of these rules.

Up Next: the Book of Creatures and Treasures

 

      

(Mobile Post) Why Not Narnia?

I get this thought in my head from time to time so I thought I would do a post about it.  There have been 3 professionally produced RPGs based on Lord of the Rings and many fan made homebrew games using some form of D&D or some homebrew system; there are also many forum games based on Lord of the Rings.  I would think a Narnia rpg would have been professionally produced by now, but there has not been one.  I have searched several times for a fan made Narnia system but all I have found are some D20 conversion notes.  I have found several forum based Narnia games available.

I was just curious if anybody had any thoughts about the absence of an rpg based on The Chronicles of Narnia?  Given the popularity of the books and the recent movies, I would think that at least a fan made game would be available.



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8 Years

Since it is Memorial Day and this seems to always come up once people find out I was in the Army, I thought I would just share some thoughts on my experiences while I served...

Basic Training:  8 weeks of HELL that I would not want to do again.  There are many misconceptions about what takes place during the training - any stories about violence directed at trainees in the modern Army is not the standard or accepted practice.  Believe it or not, the modern Army is about professionalism and that is what is expected from the complete chain of command.  Back on point, basic training is essentially about testing the limits of the recruits and molding them into soldiers.  The Drill Sergeants DID stress us out and push us to the limits.  War and combat is - regardless of cartoon portrayals - a stressful situation.  When you get to the end of it, the first thought is "Oh, it wasn't that bad" - YES, it was...lol.  After basic training, there is AIT; the training for your military speciality.  I was at Ft. Leonardwood for a total of 3 months; 1 week in processing, 8 weeks of basic, and 3 weeks of bridge training. 

Ft. Campbell, KY:  Six of us left Ft. Leonardwood after AIT and were assigned to Ft. Campbell.  It was kinda cool knowing that there would be 5 other guys that I already knew there.  Out of all the places I was stationed, Ft. Campbell was my absolute favorite.  It is actually on the border of Kentucky and Tennessee with most of the base being on the Tennessee side.  The only reason Kentucky is associated with the base is that the post office is located on the Kentucky side.  I did several cool things at Ft. Campbell.  I was part of a team that went to West Point and trained cadets, I was also a part of the team that built a Bailey Bridge for the Atlanta Olympics, and there were 5 of us that volunteered to go to Somalia.  Fortunately, the biggest battle we usually fought over there was against the forces of boredom.  There were a few times it could have gotten nasty but it did not.  I was at Ft. Campbell for over 2 years.

Ft. Riley, KS: HELL on Earth.  There is absolutely nothing there at all except flat fields of nothingness between the towns and cities.  The only good thing about being there is that it was just like 4 hours from home.  I was only at Riley for a year.  I got lucky that I missed out on the entire unit going to Bosnia because I was on orders for Korea.  After having been married for a little over a year I was on my way to Korea on an unaccompanied tour. 

Camp LaGuardia, South Korea:  I was not a big fan of South Korea at all.  I was stationed at a small camp that had my unit and the band.  The whole thing was very small.  There was no big PX close by, the movie theatres on base were showing movies that I had seen 8 months ago, I was on the other side of the globe in a land that I just did not care for, and the food was terrible.  I am a pretty boring eater, I admit it, but I just have no desire to eat squid jerky, dog, or whatever the hell else they might try to cook. 

Ft. Hood, TX: It was nice to be back in the states and somewhat close to familiar ground.  Hood is absolutely huge and has two of just about everything - PX, commissary, class six, etc.  By the time I had gotten to Hood, I had a growing desire to get out of the Army.  I showed up everyday with a good attitude and I did my job to the best of my ability but I really just did not want to give up any more of my life.  The re-enlistment guys would bother me periodically but I rode out the last of my time at Ft. Hood and just went home.  I spent almost 3 years at Ft. Hood.

I was in the Army from 1992 to 2000.  I do not have anything bad to say about my experience.  It was just one of those things that turned out to not be my thing.  There is nothing wrong with that.  The only thing I would change is that I would have checked out the recruiters from all four branches to see what they had to offer. 

Dance Recital Later...

My four year old daughter, Emma, has a dance recital later this afternoon.  She has been in dance for several months and this recital is going to serve as a sort of graduation before the summer season. She always does good at practice but she got to experience a big crowd last night - she looked pretty scared about all the people and just stood there for a while.  She did do all of the last number and it was made clear that if she did good tonight then we would go get ice cream after the show.  Fingers crossed...

 

Word Verification is ON

No earth shattering news is contained in this post. This is just a heads up to let everyone know that word verification is on at this point.  I turned it off mainly for the A to Z thing and only got one spam comment so I left it off.   Since the A to Z thing has ended I have gotten several spam comments so I am turning it back on. 

D&D Next: First Impressions

As soon as I was notified by email that the playtest packet was ready to download I headed over to the Wizards site to do so.  It seems that so many people were doing the same thing so I had issues with access.  I tried a few times and then decided to download the stuff later in the day after the initial rush. 

After finally downloading and browsing through the playtest documents I can say one thing for sure - I am interested!  I believed that I would be disappointed after 4E but I can honestly say that I like the impression I got when I browsed through the documents.  I did not do a line by line read through of the material but I think it could serve as a steady base that will obviously get houseruled by groups looking for a certain style of play.  If it continues in this manner, then I will definitely pick up a PHB on release.

Now I am off for a thorough read through...

(Mobile Post) Netflix + Wii = sad face

I have been a Netflix subscriber for approximately 1 year; streaming service only.  It seems to be the perfect compliment to our local cable service by providing plenty of viewing material for all of the family members.  Plus, for $8 a month the price is definitely right.  Recently, Netflix has been a terrible viewing experience on the Wii.  The selection will start playing and then stops unexpectedly with an error message stating that "there is a problem playing this selection. Please try again later or make another selection.".  Anybody out there have any suggestions?

I'be looked at the FAQ section and it is pretty much barren. All I could do was report a problem.

Service seems fine on mobile phone & laptop.  I want it to work on TV so the kids will have plenty to watch.

I have a large amount of selections in my instant Que - does that matter?

I have no interest in the mail service.

I tried Hulu Plus and it is even worse an the selection is terrible or was when I tried it.

Any suggestions would be highly appreciated. I really like Netflix and would like to keep it but I will probably look into other options if it will only work properly on the laptop or mobile phone.

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