OneDice Space

I have some great friends. How great? Well my friend T surprised me today by buying me a PDF copy of OneDice Space as an early Christmas present! She and I have been playing the one-on-one Swords & Wizardry White Box game at work during our lunch break every couple of weeks. We've been talking about giving OneDice a try as a change of pace and decided to try the Space skin in Universal. Well, I told her Space had come out and I was going to get it for myself sooner or later. Well, surprise! Now I don't have to and we can use it for our game! Thank you T!

Lunch Games

Long time no post.

The big news in my gaming life is that I've been playing a sporadic one-on-one game of White Box with a coworker during my lunch time.  Our session lengths are necessarily limited to about 45 minutes so they are usually short and sharp.  We've been enjoying ourselves particularly since it is strictly our game and we can do whatever we choose with it.  So, for example, the character my player runs isn't strictly by the book but hey, it's just us so who cares.  I posted about the background back in July and you can read about it here.  So far my player T's character Shael, an elf ranger, has left her home forest, helped an old farming couple by killing a wild boar that was ravaging their farm, fought some bandits on a road and is in the process of clearing them from their lair.  She just defeated their 4th level leader and sent him packing.  She is about to reap the benefits of her efforts with a surprisingly large amount of loot.

We've been trying various venues for our game which has lead to at least one amusing situation.  We met at a local Starbucks to play and we had one lady throw us several odd looks in the midst of describing a battle that involved axes and some gratuitous bloodshed.  I mean when my player rolls a 20 and one-shots a bandit I need to give his death a proper description, right?

Each brief session has been fun and stress free and both of us have look forward to our next game.

How He Started His Sandbox

+Michael S aka Chgowiz who writes Chicagowiz's Blog wrote an interesting post about how he started his long running sandbox game.  I found this not only helpful but timely as I have been trying to create a sandbox setting to start a new group in.  I have a solid, if cliched, idea for the foundation and a way to tie the group together and to the setting.  And I have three or four adventure hooks to start out with, a starting base with key npc's, as well as an overarching plot if I want to use it.  My problem is that whenever I try to do a project like this is that I become overwhelmed, lose my self-confidence and end up almost paralyzed with doubt and indecision.  I had read Michael's excellent post "Dispelling a myth - Sandbox prep" previously but apparently hadn't taken it to heart.  However, "How I Started My Sandbox" seemed to pull it all together for me and helped ease my doubts to the point where I can now put the first seven or eight hexes down on paper and key them with the adventures I have in mind.  Thanks, Michael!

One-on-One Campaign Background

I have mentioned elsewhere that my co-worker T and I have been planning a one-on-one White Box campaign during lunch hours at work.  Here is the background and the character T created.  In order to add flexibility and avoid her character’s early and untimely death we we’ll be using Black Streams: Solo Heroes by Kevin Crawford.

First the setting background. Or, in other word, another derivitive setting for your consideration.

The Sidhe have ruled the land for nearly 1,000 years.  The seemingly immortal fey creatures appeared suddenly and quickly conquered the petty kingdoms of Humans and Dwarves using force, guile and eldritch sorcery.  Orcs and Goblins joined the Sidhe and provided armies for the conquerors.  The High Elves willingly joined the Sidhe becoming commanders in the armies.  With the conquest began a reign of tyranny that ruthlessly exploited the peoples of the world.

The world is inhabited by many humanoid races.

The humanoid family tree has two branches that separated long ago.  One branch consists of elves, humans, dwarves and halflings.  The second of orcs and goblins.  The two branches have drifted apart so much that they can no longer interbreed successfully.

There are three elf-like peoples.  The Sidhe are brilliantly beautiful fey who are arrogant and aloof and rarely seen by ordinary people.  Over the centuries the Sidhe have grown tired of their empire and have given themselves over to indolence, debauchery and the study of black magics.  In fact none have deigned to leave their capital Aris the City of Crystal Dreams in the last century. This has led to the borderlands breaking away from the Empire, daring to declare their independence.  Fractious petty kingdoms have arose to fill the power vacuum.  It is a time of chaos in the Empire and the Sidhe don’t even seem to notice.  No one seems to know why the Sidhe came to this world to conquer it in the first place, only abandon it for their pleasures.

The High Elves, feeling a kinship with the Sidhe (though it is not reciprocated), have become willing collaborators of the Sidhe.  They enjoy the wealth of the Empire and have a prestige second only to the Sidhe.  They hold high offices and governorships and lead the Empire’s armies and since the Sidhe have withdrawn from worldly affairs they are the actual masters of what is left of the crumbling empire.

The Wood Elves withdrew to the deep forests when the Sidhe arrived and avoid outsiders as much as possible.  They are still subjects of the Sidhe but are largely left alone.  There are a few adventurous Wood Elves but but for the most part they stick to the their forests.

(My mental image of the elves of this world can be illustrated by the movie version of The Lord of the Rings.  The Wood Elves are typified by Legolas, the High Elves by Galadriel and the Sidhe by Galadriel as the White Queen she would have become if she had taken the One Ring.)

Humans are the most populous and varied group of people in the land and are the most versatile and adaptable.  They can turn their hand to almost any profession and can live in most climates successfully.  The Sidhe have enslaved the humans, taking their land, their wealth and their dignity.  They are forced to work at whatever tasks given them and have been exploited ruthlessly over the centuries.  However, humans have a strong spirit and secretly yearn for freedom.  They immediately took advantage of the slackening grip of the Sidhe and have set up a series of small kingdoms in the borderlands.  They are grinding away at the Empire and are slowing gaining back the land that was once theirs.  Unfortunately though, humans have the propensity to fight amongst themselves as often as they fight the Empire.  There is a theory among the more open-minded of elf scholars that elves are the result of the union of humans and Sidhe at some time in the incalculable past.  High Elves display more Sidhe traits while Wood Elves favor their human ancestors.  So far this is just a theory though but it does explain why elves and humans can procreate successfully.

Dwarves are as oppressed as humans.  Their clans are mostly confined to their mines and underground kingdoms.  They are master smiths and crafters and are forced to produce luxury goods made of gems, gold and silver for the delight of the Sidhe.  They produce the finest weapons of bronze, iron and steel in the world.  Though elves and humans can craft fine weapons, even magical ones, nothing can touch the quality of the dwarves.  Their finest weapons are reserved for the Sidhe and are made from the rare element thimril.  The Sidhe, being true fey, cannot use iron or steel.  It is poison to them.  So, they long ago began using thimril .  Thimril is a silver colored metal that is extremely strong, yet light and enchants well.  Thus, most magic weapons are made from thimril though iron and steel weapons can also be enchanted.  Because of the scarcity of thimril and its ability to take enchantment, the Sidhe have outlawed the use of thimril by any other than themselves.  The problem for the Sidhe, however, is that only the dwarves know how to work thimril and despite all of their efforts they are unable to pry the secret from them.

Halflings are said to exist but are considered a myth by many.  Legend has it that with the coming of the Sidhe they withdrew to remote valleys and dales and live their lives in seclusion and peace.  The Sidhe could probably find them if they wanted to but have never bothered.

Orcs and goblins are brutish creatures that have little regard for others and live in a state of almost constant conflict when not under the direct control of the Empire.  They live in tribes and are constantly quarreling with the other races.  When they don't have other races to attack they fight each other.  The union of orcs and goblins produced the hobgoblins.

Last, and definitely least, is the gnome.  A gnome is the unfortunate offspring of a dwarf and a halfling.  They are hairy of feet and hairy of face and are neither fish nor fowl and thus accepted by neither group. They seem to inherit the worst traits of both parents.  They are grumpy, gluttonous and greedy.  They live underground like their forebears but to quote Tolkien the typical gnome lives in "a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell".  As a result they are grubby and extremely malodorous.  In fact the easiest way to find a gnome hole is to follow the reek.  To top it off, gnomes are infertile and often their genitals are nonfunctional.  They dislike the world and everyone in it but, luckily, they are solitary creatures.  Fortunately, there are very, very few of them.

The playable races are the standard four:  Human, Elf, Dwarf and Halfling.

The class choices are:  Fighter, Magic User, Cleric, Thief, Barbarian, Druid and Ranger.

T chose to play an elf ranger.  Since White Box doesn’t cover this combo explicitly we kind of mashed them together.  This is her character and the backstory she came up with. I particularly like the bit about the Tree of Legend. There is so much we could do with this down the line.

Shael Cloudburst- Elf Ranger Level 1Player: TAlignment:NAC: 14HP:7 HD:1+1Str: 13 Dex:11 Con:11 Int:10 Wis:11 Cha:7 (all mods at 0)Saving Throw:16 (+2 vs. poison)Spells/Abilities: Forestry 2, Giant Slayer, Hereditary Foes, Two Weapon Fighting (2 longswords), Keen DetectionLanguages: Common, Wood Elf (can also speak with gnolls, goblins, orcs, hobgoblins)Chain Mail +4

Shael was born deep in the forest, in a small village of wood elves. The moment of her birth was marked by a sudden opening of the skies in unexpected downpour. The elves took this to be a good omen, and they believe Shael is destined for greatness. Coming from a long line of heroes and rangers, Shael grew up hearing stories of travel and adventure, stories of a time before the Sidhe, before their inglorious reign. Her favorite story is a tale told among the wood elves of a legendary tree. A tree that witnessed the arrival of the Sidhe. The stories say it knows their secrets. Shael is tired of her boring life in the forest. She wants to bring glory to her family. She wants them to rise once again as heroes. She believes this is her destiny, and her first step is to leave her forest in search of the tree of legends.

I have a home-base village and a couple of beginning adventures selected.  I have an idea of what the area all this will happen in will be like. And the beauty of Solo Heroes is that I can use any level appropriate adventure.  We are about ready to begin.

OneDice Fantasy Ranger

I recently purchased OneDice Fantasy and thoroughly enjoyed reading it.  One of the beauteous things about OneDice is that it is easy to mold into what you want.  That is what the author did with Fantasy.  The character creation process is similar to all OneDice tomes that I have read with the exception of what the book calls "Professions".  Professions are essentially templates that represent one of the classic fantasy RPG archetypes and give you two preset skills.  So you have Cleric, Fighter, Sorcerer, etc.  You then can spend the rest of your skill points as you choose.

My friend and I briefly talked about using OneDice as the rules-set for the 1-on-1 campaign we are planning.  We ended up going with something else but it got me thinking.  She will be playing a ranger and Fantasy doesn't include ranger as one of the professions.  So, I decided to make one.  Here is my version of the OneDice Fantasy Ranger Profession.

Ranger:

A woodsman at one with the natural world.

Track 2,  Survival 1 or Archery 1

Animal Empathy You have spent so much time roaming the outdoors and interacting with nature that animals view you as one of them.  Regular animals will not attack you without provocation or being controlled by an outside force.

Gnomes

I don't think about gnomes much.  In fact I don't think about them at all unless I'm somehow forced to.  However, I am currently planning a 1-on-1 campaign with a co-worker to play during lunch breaks.  She always plays gnomes in her other games.  It apparently stems from an incident years ago when she inadvertently allowed a large number of gnomes to starve to death in a pit.  She chose to not open one last door before turning back towards civilization because she heard noises on the other side.  R.I.P. gnomes.

In my campaign (which I may detail later) there are no gnome PCs so she chose to play an elf.  I was going to leave gnomes out entirely but then I thought, hey, why not, I will include gnomes as NPCs but they will be...different.

So, here they are:


A gnome is the unfortunate offspring of a dwarf and a halfling.  They are hairy of feet and hairy of face and are neither fish nor fowl and thus accepted by neither group. They seem to inherit the worst traits of both parents.  They are grumpy, gluttonous and greedy.  They live underground like their forebears but to quote Tolkien the typical gnome lives in "a nasty, dirty, wet hole, filled with the ends of worms and an oozy smell".  As a result they are grubby and extremely malodorous.  In fact the easiest way to find a gnome hole is to follow the reek.  To top it off, gnomes are infertile and often their genitals are nonfunctional.  They dislike the world and everyone in it but, luckily, they are solitary creatures.  Fortunately, there are very, very few of them.

Here are the stats for White Box:

Armor Class: 7 [12]
Base Hit Bonus: +1
Hit Dice: 1
Attacks: Short Bow or Club (1d6−1)
Move: 9
HDE/XP: 1/15

Loot, Plunder and Pillage

"Loot, plunder and pillage.  That is the life.  There are few things better than swooping down on an unaware town and taking what you want.  Some prefer to take ransom from the dirt scratchers.  They are not true warriors.  I crave the tumult of battle.  It satisfies the Blood Gods and helps manure the fields for the next season's crops."

This is a character I want to play.

A Few Brief Thoughts on the OneDice System

I titled this post A Few Brief Thoughts on the OneDice System and then went blahhhhh all over the page.  So here are my few brief thoughts.  If you are interested in the blahhhhh you can read that afterwards.

1. I really like the OneDice system.  Simple and effective even if it's not innovative.
2. In addition OneDice Universal there are many setting/genre books.  Including a very complete quickstart.  (Everything but the magic.)
3. You don't need any of the setting books if you are creative and have time but if you are lazy like I am they are wonderful.
4. Each setting/genre book has the complete OneDice rules modified to fit the setting.  I think this is a very astute choice.  Others may be interested in only one setting and thus only need to buy one book.  I like the various setting and will buy more when they come out.  (I'm looking at you Space!)

Quit reading now if you don't want the blahhhhhh.

My love of rules-lite games continues.  I really like the OneDice system put out by Cakebread & Walton.  (I also like the name Cakebread, but that's a different story.)

The system is really simple.  Character creation is point buy, three stats, a couple of derived stats and skills.  Roll over a target number using one six-sided die (hence, OneDice) + stat + skill.  It isn't new or groundbreaking but it is simple and functional.  Advancement is a level system with fixed bonuses at each level or an optional free-form system where you trade your garnered experience points for higher stats or skills.

They system was first presented in OneDice Universal.  One of the nice things is that at the end of  each book (at least of those I have) the author presents several "skins".  Skins are a brief overview of how to use the rules for a certain genre.  OneDice Universal, for example, includes three skins, Fantasy, Supers and Space.  All in 15 pages.  These aren't full settings but contain enough to get you going.

C&W have also come out with several OneDice books devoted to specific settings/genres.  I have the PDFs for OneDice Universal, Pulp, Steampunk and WWI.  I plan to acquire Supers, WWII, Fantasy, Space (when it comes out) and Robin Hood (just published today.)  In addition to these C&W currently offers Cyberpunk, Raptors, Cold War, B Movies, Martinis and Masterminds, Cold War, Hauntaway, Twisted Tomorrow, Urban Fantasy and Pirates and Dragons as well as two licensed settings, Abney Park's Airship Pirates and Michael Scott Rohan's Winter of the World RPG.  So the really cool thing about all of these is that they are all self-contained.  Each volume contains the complete OneDice rules suitably modified for the genre.  No need to juggle various books to look up a particular rule.

It is this last point that actually got me started on this paean of a post.  C&W has many genre books for the system and more planned.  Thinking about it though, a person doesn't need any of these genre books.  All they need is Universal and some imagination and inventiveness.  You can take the simple basics and twist them into whatever shape you want.  You just need the time and energy.  But I think C&W have come up with a winning strategy for those who lack time and imagination or for those who are lazy (like me).  And by including the full rules in each volume you only need to buy the one you are interested in.

If you are interested they also have the OneDice Quickstart our for free.  Although they call it a quickstart it contains pretty much the full rules.  You can find it here.

The Kingdom of Richard

The Kingdom of Richard is a setting by +David Okum of Okumarts Games.  Here is my brief take on it.

Likes:

• Inexpensive.
• Statted for Swords & Wizardry White Box.
• Slim, only about 35 pages long.
• Comprehensive.  Covers the highlights of the titular kingdom including history, significant places and people as well as religion and politics.  Heck, it even has a brief section on local colloquialisms.
• Religion is significant.  There is even classes based on religious orders included.
• Relations between humans and demi-humans can be and are poor and prejudice exists.  It always bugs me a bit when everyone is living cheek to jowl, happy happy.  Humans can't get along with each other very well a lot of the times.  Why would distinct species?  I mean they not only look different but have different cultures, beliefs, outlooks, tastes and they probably even smell different.
• A distinct external threat exists.  Love to hate those gublins and orcs.
• Mystery and adventure seeds are strewn liberally about.
• Cool, slightly cartoony pen and ink artwork inside with an artificially aged looking cover piece.  The campaign world is apparently based on the authors D&D campaign from the early '80s.

Dislikes:

• Not much.

I really like The Kingdom of Richard.  It pushes many of the right buttons for me.

Okumarts already has an adventure out set in The Kingdom of Richard called The Ghosts Woods Adventure.  I hope Okumarts will produce further expansions of this line to further detail the world's lands and kingdoms.

Campaign Plan Changes

I've been slowly putting together a sandbox-ish campaign for The Hero's Journey.  Slow going chiefly because of my large capacity for self-doubt.  However, it all may be a moot.  I introduced one of my co-workers to Beyond the Wall.  We spent a lunch hour making two characters and a village.  She loved the playbooks.  I mean loved them.  And really liked creating the village too.  I lent her the rule book and she took it home and went through the character creation process with her husband.  He really enjoyed it.  He's big into world building so he particularly like building the village.  She likes the magic system too.  She really wants to play Beyond the Wall and experience character/village creation with a larger group.  Since she is kind of the key to the nascent group, I believe we will be using Beyond the Wall for the campaign.  I made sure that she was cool with ultimately having only three actual classes.  After all, she was the one excited to play an acrobat and looked forward to founding a carnival.  And, since I have Further Afield, after the first adventure we will be making a shared sandbox for the setting so at least some of the setting pressure will be lifted.

My only have two hangups with this.  The first is that I really like The Hero's Journey and Swords & Wizardry Whitebox as a rule-sets.  I like that you essentially just use d6s and d20s.  I like the unified savings-throw.  So I'm thinking I will somewhat hybridize Beyond the Wall.  Beyond the Wall and The Hero's Journey/ S&W WB are not too different so it shouldn't be too hard even for me.  Beyond the Wall only lists 10 levels so I will stick with that.  It also has ascending AC and a To Hit Bonus system, which is my preference.  It will be easy enough to unify the savings-throw.  But classes have different hit-dice and weapons do different dice damage.

So, it's advice asking time.  With BtW having different hit dice for each class, should I stick with BtW rules-as-written?  Or should I use THJ/WB stats?  Weapons do variable dice damage so changing that depends on the hit-dice used.  Or vice-versa.  I've really been wanting to try The Hero's Journey rules for armor damage reduction value.  That's one of my favorite parts along with the increase in the utility of the shield when it comes to armor class.  So should I fold that in?

My second hangup is whether or not I have the improvisation shills to handle a setting not completely in my control but unless someone has advice about that I'll have to deal with it on my own.

Oh, I guess I should ask.  Has anyone mashed up THJ/WB and BtW?

Single Picture Inspiration

There is a discussion titled, "What makes Sword & Sorcery for you?" in the forums at RPG.net right now.  Someone stated that Big Ass Snakes are a part of the genre, which I agree with.  Then someone else posted this picture.  In a way this picture sums up what I think of as S&S in a single image.

Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day 2017

Here is my small contribution to Swords & Wizardry Appreciation Day.  

My current favorite of the Swords & Wizardry family is The Hero Journey Fantasy Roleplaying by James Spahn.  It is an offspring of S&W White Box and is flavored with a bit of The Lord of the Rings.  In THJ, Magic weapons are not only forged but can be created in a special way.  They can become infused with the magic of the heroic actions of their owners.  And sometimes they take on an aspect of a heroic deed.  So, a weapon that becomes magic when it is used to slay the orc chief may become particularly effective against orcs and gain the moniker “Orc-Bane”.  But what about weapons that are used by villainous non-humans? Do they absorb the essence of the vile actions of their owners?  I say yes!

Here is a d4 table of magic weapons that became magic through the actions of their horrible owners:

1:  Crotchsplitter (Shortsword +1/+2 against opponents more than two feet taller than its owner.)  This sword was used by the famed goblin king Gobsmack who led his goblin horde against the humans and fought the Battle of Snakeskin Pass.

2:  Spear of Morphos (Spear +2.  Allows its wielder to cast the Sleep spell once a day.)  Used by the hobgoblin warrior Grindtooth during his battles against the Cult of the Morphos, god of sleep and dreams.  It gained the power of sleep when Grindtooth spitted the high priest of Morphos at the altar of the largest Temple of Morphos in the world.

3:  Brainspatter (Mace +1)  Used by Grunzen the orc warrior to repeatedly, well, spatter brains.

4:  Backbiter (Dagger +1 Humanbane)  The favorite weapon of Bocaraton, the wererat, Scourge of the Eastern Cities.  Bocaraton embeded his dagger in the back of countless victims during his infamous career.

Martos the Scholar Redux

Almost 7 years ago I created a character named Martos the Scholar for Barbarians of Lemuria.  You can read about him here.  I was going through some old documents and discovered that I had written a bit of fiction about him.  I do not remember writing this at all and I don't know why I didn't include it in the original post.  Probably because it sucks.  What I wrote is the first part of Martos' conversation with the chancellor.  This leads to the second, unwritten part in which the chancellor orders Martos to Qeb to find the scrolls.  Of course the Valgardian will serve as the guide.  Anyway, here it is:

    "Lord Chancellor, the Lecturer Martos," the servant announced as he opened the door.

    Martos entered the chamber, eyes downcast as custom dictated.  The room was smaller than Martos had imagined it would be.  It was lined with stuffed bookcases and almost cozy.  The Chancellor sat behind a surprisingly utilitarian desk.

    "You summoned me, Milord?"

    "Yes, Lecturer.  How goes your history of Qeb"

    "Well, Milord.  It is nearly finished.  But..."  Martos paused, thinking about the the history he hoped would gain him a coveted professorship.

    The Chancellor raised an eyebrow.  "Continue."

    "It is the sources." Martos said as he unconsciously began to pace in front of the desk.  "They are so few and fragmentary.  And the translations are a crime.  I've had to retranslate everything in order to glean the true meaning of the writings."

    The Chancellor raised his hand.  "Be still, Lecturer."

    Martos stopped in midstep and looked about with a start.  "I'm sorry.  I..."

    The Chancellor smiled slightly.  "Do not worry.  We all become enthralled by our studies.  Look here."

    Martos stepped closer and looked at the lone sheet of parchment on the desk.  He unconsciously adjusted the reading lamp burning there and examined the sheet.  It was obviously old, crumbling at the edges.  He slowly began reading the faded script.

    "Ygddari," he muttered.  He continued to read then his eyes widened and he looked directly at the Chancellor.  "Can it be?  This is...Is it?"

    "Yes, it is."

    "How?  Where?"

    "It was one of those Valgardian barbarians who are always poking around in places best left undisturbed."

    "In Qeb?"

    "Yes, the brute was looking for trinkets to sell to help slake his prodigious thirst for wine and ale.  He actually found a few minor pieces and used this to wrap them.  The illiterate didn't even know that the scroll was the most valuable item he had found.  It was the merchant he sold the trinkets to who recognized it for what it is.  He sent it to us.  For a price, of course."

    "Milord, this is wonderful!  When can I translate the piece properly?  I'll need to make revisions to my manuscript.  This could change many things.  I wonder what..."

    "Martos," the Chancellor said quietly but firmly, cutting him off.  The fire in Martos' eyes faded as he refocused.  "Martos, there is more."

    Martos smiled.  "More, Milord?"

    "We tracked down the Valgardian.  There are more scrolls."

    Martos could not stand still.  His excitement was such that he began to pace again.

   

Analysis Paralysis

So, I mentioned before that I have semi-committed myself to running a campaign for a group of co-workers.  This is the first time in nearly 20 years at my work location that there is a group of RPGers.  They are all in there twenties and have a Pathfinder background with there current campaign being 5e.  I'm always blathering about old-school this and OSR that and they called my bluff so here I am.

I Still love this cover!

They all like The Lord of the Rings so I plan to use The Hero's Journey as the rules-set as it gives off that vibe.  I want to use my own setting so I have some basic, cliche background ideas.  Basically, 500 years ago the Golden Empire was assailed by the forces of the Dark Lord™ because, you know, Dark Lords can't abide peace and happiness.  The Dark Lord™ was ultimately defeated but the Empire was shattered and the land fell into a dark age.  Now, with civilization crawling back towards the light, the successor kingdoms are reclaiming and re-inhabiting land once ruled by the Empire.  The PCs have been gathered by the most prominent wizard in the kingdom to help a young, newly-minted baron tame the underpopulated borderland territory he was enfeoffed with.  The king charged him with uniting and civilizing the area.  This will be a cool place for the players to adventure in.  Plenty of ruins to explore, competing factions, threats from beyond the border as well as from within.  And did the wizard mention something about a resurgent evil?  Something about him suspecting the Dark Lord™ is making a comeback?  I even have a rough idea what the map of the nascent barony will look like.

So, here's the problem.  As is my nature I am overthinking this.  When it comes to drawing the map and populating it I go into analysis paralysis in a couple of different forms.  I haven't created a "formal" campaign since I was a kid.  I want to do it right.  As is also my nature I research.  There are lots of good articles and posts about setting up campaigns.  So I get lost in the research.  Then, some of the articles have contradictory advice.  Which do I follow?  How should I do this?  Then, throw in my Gamer ADD and I have a real mess.  I just read a post about using central Asia and the Silk Road as the inspiration for a campaign.   Cool!  Maybe I should chuck my initial idea and do this!  Then I read something else and want to add or subtract or otherwise modify what I am doing

Arrgh!

You can see my problem, right?  I've taken what is a relatively simple task and overthought it and over complicated it.  Why the hell do I do this to myself?

Mazes & Minotaurs on DriveThru/RPGNow

I don't think I have mentioned this yet but you can now get the fantastic Mazes & Minotaurs on DriveThruRPG and RPGNow!  And it's still free!  They started with the Revised Edition and are adding more as time goes by.  If you aren't familiar with M&M it is a fully playable game that speculates what the original RPG would've been like if Gygax and company were inspired by classical Greek mythology instead of the Medieval.

A Little Seax-y Inspiration

I like knives and I particularly like the look of the Seax.

Black Pudding #2

So, the second issue of the 'zine Black Pudding has come out.  I described it elsewhere as "delightfully quirky".  And the second edition certainly is.  Here is an example of the inventive content that both delights me and cracks me up.   This is the description for a new 10 level class. 

Fey Savage

You are the child of a dainty fairy and a human barbarian.  The combination has resulted in extremes of behavior that make your friends uncomfortable.  You are about 3' to 4' tall and you smile a lot, especially while in bloody battle.  Life is good.

Dare the Stars!

Man!  I absolutely love this cover for some reason.  And Dare the Stars! is based on White Star so it's definitely on my to-buy list.  I've always had a weakness for pulpy adventures of the spacey kind.