Updates

So, it's been a bit slow around here role playing-wise.  I think I mentioned that my son was really liking the rules for Hollow Earth Expedition and wanted to play.  I liked the idea but with our limited time and my even more limited prep time I didn't feel I could run it successfully.  There are only two games I feel comfortable running with little-to-no preparation.  The first is Basis D&D and its not suitable for what we wanted to play.  The second is Barbarians of Lemuria.  And that is much more appropriate when you use the Dicey Tales #1 for pulp goodness.  So I finally convinced him to make create a character.  I did this by promising a campaign based on not only HEX but also on the television program Primeval all of which will be infused with a certain amount of Cthulhu influence. 

He took to this right away.  When he created his character he made him a former soldier who had lied about his age in order to join the army when the U.S.A entered WWI.  My son has a tendency to choose the insanity flaw when creating BoL characters.  This time he came of with what I thought was a really cool explanation.  During a German trench raid the character saw his best friend enveloped in darkness and disappear.  Everyone else assumed the friend had been captured but the character knows differently.  His insanity is an intense paranoia based around the idea that monsters are real.

However, I am going to start the campaign in a very HEX way.  The character's last career is hobo.  This is due to the instability caused by the incident during the Great War.  Needing money, he accepts

a position with an eccentric professor as a guard/porter on an airship bound for a secret location near the North Pole.  Something goes horribly wrong and he awakens in a jungle with no memory of the accident.  Welcome to the Hollow Earth!

I think we're going to have fun!

Archilochus

I was rereading this post at Strange Stones blog (why rereading?  Because there is damn good stuff on the blog) and realized that the Venomous Pao had named the spaceship Archilochus.  I went into history mode and assumed he had named it after the 7th century B.C Greek poet/warrior.

I was wrong.  He had named it after the hummingbird.

However, that got me thinking it would be cool to stat him up.

Archilochus / Lifeblood 11 / Hero Points 5
Attributes: Strength 1 Agility 1 Mind 1 Appeal 1
Combat Abilities: Brawl 1 Melee 2 Ranged 0 Defense 1
Careers: Noble 0, Warrior 0, Poet* 2, Colonist 0
Boons: Artistic: Poetry, 
Languages: Ionic Greek
Equipment: Spear, dagger, shield, medium armor, writing equipment
*Poets weren't just writers and reciters of poetry.  They were also musicians.  Lyric poetry was performed accompanied by a lyre.

You can find more information about Archilochus here and here.

Bears!

I got a kick out of this:

Addiction

"Hello, my name is Mark and I'm an addict."

Seriously.  It's not pretty.

If you look over to the right you will see four items from my library.  I use LibraryThing for that display.  I enter mostly RPG items with some science fiction and fantasy books that have influenced my gaming or that I just plain love.  Yesterday I was adding new games that I have acquired over the last year or so or that I hadn't entered yet.  Then I looked at the total number I games that I have.  I have 92 games.

92

92!  And I actually haven't entered them all yet.  92!  How did that happen!  Yes, about half are in PDF form.  Yes some of them are supplements or modules and one or two are repeats but most are core rules.  But wow.

Sigh.  I'm told the first step to recovery is admitting you have a problem.  So:

"Hello, my name is Mark and I'm an RPG addict."

More Sword and Sorcery Images

More S&S images that I have gleaned the web for your entertainment and amusement.

Og: Unearthed Edition

"You bang hairy food thing!" said Ug.
Uk shook his head.  "Hairy thing bang me!  Me food!"
Ug frowned.  "Go food!  Me bang you!"*

It's tough being a caveman.  Particularly when there are only 18 words in your entire language and you probably don't know all of them.  Welcome to the world of Og, a simple comedic caveman roleplaying game.  My son was perusing my game shelf, saw it, read it and we played a very brief session with it.

It uses a simple system that only requires one d6.  You choose your type of caveman:  Banging, Fast, Tough, etc.  There are four stats:  Attack, Ungggghh Points (hit points), Damage (done to others) and Dodge/Evade.  In addition to stats you have your Words.  You choose between four and eight words from the list of 18.  You get more if you are an Eloquent caveman.  Choose a few skills and you are off.

I played with just my son and it was fun and funny.  I think it would work better with more people though because the players can only communicate with each other using only the words their caveman knows.

Check it out if you want a fun game that probably work best as a filler.

*Translation:
"I'm hungry.  Go kill that elk!" said Ug
Uk shook his head.  "No way dude, that sabertooth will kill me and eat me!"
Ug frowned.  "Go kill the elk or I'll kick your ass from here til tomorrow!"

Ok.  Roughly translated.

Gamer ADD

Like father like son.  My son has inherited my gamer ADD.  I didn't even know it was genetic.  He bounces from one system to another more quickly than I do.  Although I purchase a lot of game rules I still prefer a select few.  He looks at the mass on the bookshelf (I print out a lot of games and put them into binders) and wants to play them all.  He's actually stated that out loud.  Right now it's Hollow Earth Expedition (which I'm a little torqued at.  It's one of the few games I've have in hardback.  Had it for years.  It chooses now to cough up pages from both front and back).  We are watching the television show Primeval and I mentioned that HEX has dinosaurs in it and he was off to the bookshelf.

Yep, gamer ADD.