Minecraft and Me

Greywulf, over at his blog, created an inspiring dungeon based off of what I believe was a 4th edition module. It got me to purchase the software/game that he used to make it, (MineCraft), and... I am hooked! You hear me? I am hooked! I can't believe how much I love this game and the graphics are blocks! I mean, come on, with all the 3D accelerated 'realism' out there, who would want to play a block game? Me apparently! Just goes to show you that graphics only get you so far.

Any hoo, that is what I have been doing 12-14hrs a day during the holidays rather than P&P RPGing. Check out MineCraft, well worth the 13 dollar American!

Best and happy gaming!

The Bane

Been Mapping...

So, yea it has been a while since I have posted. I have been chasing another interest... cartography. I wanted to see if I could come up with something a little more professional and tried a tutorial I found on the Cartographer's Guild for Gimp.

This is what I came up with thus far:

It is far from complete based on the tutorial. Perhaps as I get time I will finish it off.

TB

Top Ten Purchased RPGs I Want to Play Right Now...

After yesterdays Top Ten Free RPGs I Want to Play Right Now post, I thought I would see what I could come up with as far as Purchased RPGs...

Again, in no particular order...

True20 (General Fantasy or Bloodthrone Setting preferred)
Mouse Guard
Fairy's Tale
Dogs in the Vineyard
Mutants and Masterminds
Shadowrun (2nd Edition)
Mechagenesis (True20 Transformer Setting)
Warriors & Warlocks (Yes, technically a genre book for Mutants and Masterminds)

Well... I guess I need to dig through my books.

Doah!

Rules Cyclopedia (or BECMI, well, maybe not I)
Mechwarrior (Think it was Second Edition)

Little harder to pull this list together. Interestingly enough, I don't mind paying for books but my penchant has been on rules lite as of late and those tend to be free for the most part. Some of the PDFs might have been sold, but I can't recall which were free and which I purchased... Sad I know, but I have ALOT of them!

Night fellow gamers,
TB

The Top Ten Free RPGs I Want to Play Right Now...

Thinking about what I would like to play next, I got to ruminating on my options, and several great systems came to mind. I thought about the myriad of free systems out there, and what I would liked to play the most right now. So, I thought I would lay the top ten down here that I am currently interested in:

In no particular order.... Title (Genre)

FATE (Universal)
Swords & Wizardry (Fantasy)
Elegia (Fantasy)
HiLo Heroes (Supers)
Warrior, Rogue, & Mage (Fantasy)
Wushu (Universal)
Micro Lite 20 (Fantasy)
Mini-Six (Universal)
Dungeon Squad (Fantasy)

Wow, the first nine went rather quick, but now I am back to my old ADD hangup I have about all the Retro-Clones. I can NOT pick favorites past Swords & Wizardry... Guess I would be leaning toward Dark Dungeons at the moment. just so I could find out if it would satisfy my nostalgic desire for some BECMI (RC).

TB

Finally, Sword Wielding Wizards!

Wielding a blade, while having access to spells, has always seemed to be a sore spot in conventional 'old school' games. There has been some discussion about what the difference a Mage with a sword in S&W when all damage is based on a d6. But trying to shoe-horn it into any old school rules seemed... well, not quite kosher. But, when you make your own game, with it's own 'old school' feel, you can do what you want.

Just reading Warrior, Rogue, and Mage, as I haven't had a chance to play it - yet, I am excited about the possibility. It has a unique approach, but seems to maintain an older version feel that I just can't explain. I hope that play has the experience that I am hoping for...

More to come once I have.

TB

Having Knobs to Turn

Over at Bat in the Attic's blog he mentioned something I find interesting in an older post called: Other Knobs to Play With.

But there are other way to give your setting that lived in feel. One technique is before a campaign I make up a list of events. These events are not like a Dragonlance style railroad plot. Rather these events represent what going to happen if the players were not involved. To add the lived in feel add more events that are not part of any plot or ideas you have.

I think what might be beneficial for me to take from this, is to not stop the 'History' where the players begin play. But, rather, to push out further with 'what might happen' should they not begin adventuring. Then just modify it as they effect the potential time-line.  Subsequently adding 'what might be' to the history with new groups and campaign changes.

Adding this to "The Master Plan" could provide a myriad of adventuring hooks and opertunities...

Best, and may the future be yours to change!
TB

Getting back in the saddle...

So, I started digging back through my older posts hoping to get back into the swing of setting creation. Well, to be honest, I couldn't even get my foot in the stirrup, let alone back on the horse. I realize I have lost my forward movement, my momentum. I am not quite sure where I was headed or the exact computations that I was using and trying to validate...

With my desire to get back to Ukarea (TM), I started hitting some blogs for inspiration and returned to a commonly visited blog: Bat in the Attic. I have been visiting the blog for sometime, finding bits of golden goodness within, but it wasn't until just a few days ago that I found a link on the side pointing to an older post: Wilderlands Demographics.

This is perfect! Well, not perfect as Robert uses a different scale than I prefer for mapping, though I am considering the scale he uses as I read some of his older posts. Overall, it gives me direction / guidance that I had lost recently...

Perhaps I will even invest in his The Majestic Wilderlands setting... after all he has done the very thing I want to do; develop and publish an expansive fantasy setting. Well done Mr. Conley! I just wish I would have discovered your older posts sooner!


TB

Determing the DC...

It has been some time since I have been able to post, but hopefully reality has slowed enough that I can now get back to it regularly...

Over at the new M20 Forums, it was suggested, when there were no rules for a given task, one could make a ruling by finding the character's minimum and maximum potential based on their total modifiers applied. For example; if a character had a total modifier of +5 (say from stats and skills) then the min possible would be 6 and the max would be 26. Splitting that in half (16?) would give an equivalent of a 50% chance of success, and halving that again would give you a 25% chance on the low end and a 75% on the high end of success/failure.

I understand that this may be a common practice, but I don't understand it. If you are going to do this, for a single character, what is the point of even factoring in modifiers? Why not just have them roll a d20 and read it as it lies? This may be more feasible/usable if you find the parties min/max, but YMMV and this is definitely IMHO.

I think I personally prefer a static 10, 15, 20, 25 DC. After all, a DC of 20 should be extremely difficult for your average character and a DC of 25 impossible without something helping them out.

Just rambling thoughts today...

TB

Separate Blog

All Mutants & Masterminds / Warriors & Warlocks material will hence forth be done on a new blog designated for such.

TB

Mechanics for Horror, Fear, Sanity, etc.

I haven't got a full post for today that has anything revolutionary to do with 0e. I just thought I'd throw out there what is ruminating in my melon at the moment.

I have been considering how to inspire emotions in players and characters alike. I know many guffaw at the thought of a game mechanic to do just that. I realize people have strong feelings about introducing such mechanics also. I am contemplating such mechanics because of my currently only medium to role-play is Play-by-Post (PbP) and conveying such sensations through PbP is different and more complicated than in a Face-to-Face (FtF) game.

So, my thought in a nutshell, is if you don't know if you are scaring them with your words, frighten the shiat out of them with your mechanics...

More on this as I develop it,
TB

Sally Forth

Dwarven Bezerker, Power Level 4 (60pp)
Sally is a Blacksmith whose skill of crafting steel is better than her ability to barter. To this end, she is taken by her customers on a regular basis. Locals know better, they have seen her anger get the better of her. She is not much of a fighter, but watch out when she gets riled up and goes for her maul.

Templates: Dwarf (Racial) (16pp)

Trade Offs: -1 Attack/+1 Damage

Abilities [11pp]: Strength 12 (+1) / 16* (+3), Dexterity 10 (+0), Constitution 14 (+2), Intelligence 14 (+2), Wisdom 12 (+1), Charisma 11 (+0)

Saves [12pp]: Toughness +3 (+6 Chainmail), Fortitude 4 (+6/+8*), Reflexes 4 (+4), Willpower 4 (+5/+7*)

Combat [8pp]: Attack Bonus +1 /-1* [Melee: +4/+2*, Maul: +5/+3*], Base Defense +6/+4* [dc16/14*], +1 Flatfooted [dc11/ 9*], Initiative +0, Grapple +3/+5* (+9 resist*), Knockback -4, Hero Points 1

Damage (dc): Unarmed +1/+3* (dc16/18*), Maul +5/+7* (dc20/21*)

Skills [2pp]: Bluff 2 (+2), Craft (Artistic) 4 (+4), Sense Motive 2 (+3)

Feats [16pp]: Attack Focus (melee) 3, Attack Specialization (maul) 2, Dodge Focus 3, Equipment 2 (10ep), Favored Opponent (Giants, Goblins) 2, Hardy, Rage, Steadfast, Tough

Powers [11pp]:
"Thick as a brick." [Density 1; Extras: Duration (Continuous), Flaws: Permanent, Power Feats: Innate, Note: +2 Strength] (2pp)
"Old as an Oak" [Feature 1 [Longevity] (1pp)
"Stout" [Shrinking 1 [Extras: Compression (+3), Duration (Continuous), Normal Strength, Normal Toughness, Flaws: Permanent, Power Feats: Innate] (7pp)
"Vision of an Owl" [Super Sense 1 [Infra-vision] (1pp)

Equipment [10ep]: Maul +4 [Crit. 20, 5ep], Chainmail [+3 Toughness, 3ep], Small Shield [+1 Dodge / Block, 2ep]

Build Notes:

• * Is stats for Rage Feat
• Density causes Strength to start at +2 (12)
• Racial Template is Constitution +2 (12), Charisma -2 (8)
• First character with M&M rules in a long time, so some things may have been miscalculated 

Change Log: Miscalculated the dc for unarmed attacks. I was thinking, for some reason, that unarmed started at 10+ damage bonus and lethal started at 15+ damage bonus. ~ Thanks Naturax!

Putting the Abstract into Fighting

A few days back, on the B/X BLACKRAZOR blog, JB talked about removing the To-Hit roll out of combat and making hits automatic. This got me to thinking that I could expound on an older post of mine.

- Break -

Ok, the break is because I started that at 2:30 this morning and thankfully I stopped when I did. I was amazingly tired, but could not sleep. I was having all kinds of 'grandious' ideas at the time though they probably amounted to nothing more than a game that was not D&D. Which, I will say, is not such a bad thing, but I hesitate to succumb to my ADD. Or, give it room to flourish, let alone fertilize it. I do however have to get it out of my head. So, intention: get it down and force myself to forget about it.

If the following is true:

• Hit Points are abstractions of Heroic Resources that have to be whittled down before you can actually damage them.
• To Hit rolls are just another mechanical save for the target and can be eliminated.
• Hit Dice are source of an abstract randomly generation of a character's potential prowess (HPs).
• Damage rolls are used to remove that potential prowess and to determine the severity of the eventual physical blow.

I came up with a whole bunch of stuff that boiled down to a single roll mechanic that didn't really resemble 0e D&D anymore.

Basically one would use Red, White, and Blue dice and based on my thoughts in my older post, linked to above, would be rolled for representations of the the abstractions, or would be physical representations of the same. Wow, I realize that makes little sense, but I know what I am thinking but just can't articulate it well. So I will attempt to use examples.



Combat is resolved by dropping the Initiative and To Hit rolls. Players grab a number of white dice equal to their Hit Dice (rounded down), a Red Die, and a Blue Die if they have a shield. The Red Die represents their damage potential, the White Die their combat prowess (for lack of a better phrase), and the Blue Die their shield (if they have one).

The person that goes first is the person that declares an attack first. Imagine a group sitting around the table with a hand full of dice (not that many actually) staring each other down (would like to try this in an E6 game). I kind of envision that calm before the storm, as opponents circle and size each other up. If no one initiates, the side with the most participants goes first. If that is a tie, IDK, roll.

Once someone declares a target for an attack, they cast their dice. The defender does likewise. The Attacker's Red Die is turned from potential into action with the roll, and if it beats any of the Defender's White Die, damage is inflicted; the White Die is permanently removed and taken from the table (Does NOT go back into the hand in subsequent rounds), Hit Points are subtracted equal to the damage of the Red Die to the opponent. However, the defender may use their Blue Die to Block (used Blue Dice are removed from the table but are added back into the hand on the next combat round), or their Red Die to Parry (Losing their attack and removing the Red Die from the table but not permanently, and not losing Hit Points either). Now the Defender (assuming they are still alive - have HPs remaining) can counter attack, or hold their action until their target presents themselves. Of course, they could be chopped down before they get the chance.

Once Dice are cast, they remain on the table until all participants have a chance to act or the target is unconscious or dead.

Tracking monsters is rather easy, but granted more difficult than normal. A notation might be: Orc 1 (4) or Troll 6+3 (24) for HD (HP). When the monster (or the dice representing it) is recovered from the table, the HD should be updated so that when they are cast for the next round an appropriate number of White Die will be thrown.

If all HPs are removed, but there are White Die still present (HD) then the opponent is unconscious. If all the White Die are removed, but their are still HP the opponent is Dead!

That's it in a nutshell, and I can see it bordering on a totally different mechanic than traditional 0e D&D, or even a mechanic for miniature war games but I think I like it enough to try it (or something similar) if given the chance (not likely)

If anyone tries this, or something similar, please let me know how it goes.

Best,
TB

Thought: an option could be that if the opponent loses a White Die, but is not dead and left on the table, the dice are picked up and re-cast (used Red Dice do NOT get added back into the re-cast hand). Some dice might be lower this throw (representing them staggered and off balance from the previous successful attack) or they all may be higher (representing them fortifying themselves from the same).

[Warriors & Warlocks] Character Template

Ok, so I am lazy. I wanted to do a few character builds for Warriors & Warlocks and put them here on the blog. I didn't feel like having to type the format each time so I figured I'd make a post out of it and copy/paste as needed. Hopefully I covered everything...


Character Name, Type, Power Level # (##pp)

Abilities [#pp]: Strength 10 (+0), Dexterity 10 (+0), Constitution 10 (+0), Intelligence 10 (+0), Wisdom 10 (+0), Charisma 10 (+0)

Saves [#pp]: Toughness +0, Fortitude 0 (+0), Reflexes 0 (+0), Willpower 0 (+0)

Combat [#pp]: Base Attack +0 [+0 type], Base Defense ## [## flatfooted], Initiative +0, Grapple (BA+Str+Size), Knockback (1/2 tough save, size, immovable), Hero Points #

Damage (dc): Unarmed (+0),

Skills [#pp]: Name rank (+0), Name rank (+0)

Feats [#pp]: Name rank, Name rank

Powers [#pp]:
Power Name rank [Extras: Name, Flaws: Name, Power Feats: Name, # Alternate Powers]
-Base: Game Name [Power Name rank; Extras: type; Flaws: type; Power Feats: type]
-AP: Game Name # [Power Name rank; Extras: type; Flaws: type; Power Feats: type]

Equipment [#ep]: Name [Facts], Name [Facts]

Drawbacks [#pp]: Type [Description],

Complications: Type [Description],

The Helm: A Redux

As Talysman was kind enough to point out in a response to my previous blog post on The Helm had some errors. To be honest, after re-reading it, it was full of wholes. In my hurry and zeal to get the ideas in my head down I rushed through it and somethings didn't jive.

So here is part duex, where I keep some things and re-write others. Keep in mind I am smitten by Swords & Wizardry and use it almost exclusively, and have taken the typical rule of Xin6 chance up to an equal Xin12 chance:

• Effect on Armor Class: Not wearing a helm for the appropriate suit of arms is a +1 [-1] penalty to that Armor Class (Referred to as AC from here on out). So wearing a helm (the default) gives you the listed AC. Note: There is NO penalty for not wearing a helm when 'unarmored'. unarmored is not an AC as far as I am concerned and it retains its 9 [10] AC, and wearing a helm when 'unarmored' does not improve your AC.
• Surprise: by default, characters are surprised 4in12 (2in6), were default assumes wearing a helm. Removing the helm, or being unarmored, should improve this. Un-helmed and unarmored characters are therefore only surprised 3in12 of the time. Great Helms, discussed further below, do provide better protection but increase the chance of being surprised to 5in12 when worn. Characters removing a Great Helm become surprise as an un-helmed or unarmored character (3in12), but it does take one round to put any helm back on.
• Initiative: as with surprise, by default assumes characters with armor are wearing a helm. Initiative is typically decided by the higher roll of a d12. Unarmored and un-helmed characters should have a slight advantage, perhaps a +1, to initiative as they would be able to perceive the actions of others better and react accordingly. Note: An un-helmed character will almost certainly take the advantage of the first round to don their headgear. If not treat them as un-helmed until they do (see Combat Effects below).
• Hear Noise: dwarves, elves, and halflings, by default have a 4in12 chance to hear noise and humans a 2in12 chance. Thieves, if used, also start at the same chance as demi-humans to hear noise, but increase as they advance (Hopefully oneday I will get thief rules wrote up). Again, the default assumes that armored characters are wearing a helm. A character, for whatever reason, devoid of a helm should increase the chance for hearing noise by one.
• Basic Guideline: by default assume that an Armored character has their helm on unless they say otherwise. If the proposed action can conceivably have better results when not wearing a helm, give Un-helmed character a +1 to their Xin12 chance.
• Combat Effects to Attack: when attacking; on a modified To Hit roll of 19+, the attacker may call the head of a helmed opponent as their target, and on a modified To Hit roll of 17+ the attacker may call the head of an un-helmed opponent as their target.
• Combat Effects to Damage: striking a helmed head does regular damage, but the target must make a Saving Throw with a +2. Passing the Saving Throw causes the defender to be dazed in addition to the damage received, and will be at -1 for their next round's actions. Failing the Saving Throw causes the defender to be knocked prone and be dazed (-1 for their next round's actions). Striking an un-helmed head does full damage, no roll required, and causes a Saving Throw. Passing the Saving Throw causes the defender to be dazed in addition to the full damaged received for 1d4+1 rounds.  Failing the Saving Throw causes the defender to be knocked unconsious for 1d6+2 rounds.
• Great Helms: will provide an additional -1 [+1] to AC, as do shields, but this type of helm will also add an additional +1 to the Xin12 formula, for helms mentioned earlier, for Surprise and an additional -1 to formulas for Initiative, Hear Noise, etc. (See Base Guideline rule above for guidance. Basically a Great Helm provides an additional +1 when its size and protection is beneficial (Saving Throw vs called head shot and AC) and an additional -1 when its size and protection is hindering.

A re-working / re-writing of the helm rules was required. I still do not feel 100% comfortable with the outcome, so additional observations or criticisms are appreciated.

TB

Warriors & Warlocks

While I have been focusing on Swords & Wizardry (Fantasy being my favorite genre) lately, I have been known to try other rules sets out in the past. I once purchased several PDFs of Mutants & Masterminds (M&M from here on out) to play in a M&M Fantasy game that didn't work out. I even tried a teen game of M&M where my concept was a fifteen year old goth kid that would Nullify others, that he perceived as bad when he wore his goth attire and would Nullify everyone if he didn't have his jacket on (a black leather straight jacket FWIW). Much debate ensued on how many points this should cost. Needless to say I lost interest.

Then, a few weeks ago, I stumbled upon Greywulf's blog and read about how much he liked Warriors & Warlocks! Well I was intrigued, to say the least. So, last night I purchased it as a PDF for just over $16. I think what I will really like about it is that it will be in a genre I love, which is fantasy, and has some built in genre constraints, or tropes if you prefer. Unlike convention M&M where if you can imagine it, you can build it, Warriors & Warlocks (W&W from here on out) establishes itself in a sub-genre of fantasy, Swords & Sorcery. Which is even better. My main concern was that Magic would be a catch all Power that would be a subsystem in character creation to sneak in all the non-genre appropriate abilities. With W&W starting in a sub-genre that governs Magic more harshly, I can slowly add-to rather than restrict. Another feature I like is templates. There are Racial Templates and Professional Templates. Want an Elven Rouge, pay the price for the templates, verify that resulting scores do not exceed game limits, and move out smartly! I had thought about building templates, and in fact Joshua Dunlow had created several fantasy templates and done a lot of other work on M&M Fantasy prior to W&W coming out, over at The Atomic Think Tank (a M&M Forum) already.

I suppose I will finish reading the PDF and might submit a full review. At the moment my ADD is screaming at me to use W&W for Ukarea (TM) rather than S&W. Right now, I am forcing myself to say, "Maybe do it for both rules sets eventually, but stay focused on what you started with!" Tough sell ~ I love to tinker.

The only thing that is kind of disheartening is the fact that M&M 3ed is do to be released soon and I have no idea if W&W will be re-released for the new edition. Not to mention how much interest can be garnered on PbP boards for a M&M 2ed game when it is.

Wondering why I am doubly blessed; OCD & ADD
TB

The Helm

A full re-write on this is pending. Talysman, thanks. There are tons of flaws do to my haste to get my thoughts down. I know what I want to do, I just have to make it, make sense.

Reading the Beyond the Black Gate blog I got to thinking about how the helm offended my OCD senses when I was younger. I had forgotten about it until now, but once again, I am obsessing on it.

For the record, I almost exclusively use Swords & Wizardry: Whitebox (though I am leaning towards possibly switching to Swords & Wizardry: Core rules, but that is for another post) and occasionally refer to Mentzer Basic (BECMI or RC). Any other rules systems mentioned here will more than likely be tagged as such. I also prefer the Ascending Armor Class but usually try to mention both when the subject is approached, for those that prefer Descending Armor Class.

Now, about helmets. Based on replies at the afore mentioned blog, I have decided to mash a couple of the ideas together. I should give credit to each author I suppose, but there are quite a few of them, so I will just say, "Go read the linked blog. It has tons of good info."

Damn, ADD kicking in again! So, here is what I intend to try for my next game:

• Not wearing a helm for the appropriate suit of arms is a +1 [-1] penalty to that Armor Class (Referred to as AC from here on out). So wearing a helm (the default) gives you the listed AC. Note: There is NO penalty for not wearing a helm when 'Unarmored'. Unarmored is not an AC as far as I am concerned and it retains its 9 [10] and wearing one when 'Unarmored' does not improve your AC.
• Since wearing a helm is the default, Surprise, Initiative, Hear Noise, etc. is 4in12 (the old school 2in6 taken up to a d12 for Background Skills and such, which I hope to post one day). This is reduced to 3in12, possibly 2in12, when not wearing a helm.
• Great Helms will provide an additional -1 [+1] to AC as do shields, but this type of helm will also add a +1 to the Xin12 formula for Surprise, Initiative, Hear Noise, etc.
• When attacking; on a modified To Hit roll of 19+, the attacker may call the head of a helmed opponent as their target, and on a modified To Hit roll of 17+ the attacker may call the head of an un-helmed opponent as their target.
• Hitting a helmed head does regular damage, but the target must make a Saving Throw with a +2. Failing the Saving Throw causes the defender to be dazed in addition to the damage and will be at -1 for their next round.
• Hitting an un-helmed head does full damage (no roll required), and the target must make a Saving Throw or be knocked unconscious for 1d6 rounds. (Considering having a -1 dazed effect even if Saving Throw is passed.)

These are just initial ideas and I would love to hear feed back before I playtest them. Please, thoughts?

TB

Still Undecided

Now that I have slept on it and read up on it... I still have not decided how to determine the largest settlement in the barony, but I have a few ideas.

• I think that whether the barony is standalone, or part of a larger dominion, should have a direct reflection on the size of the largest settlement in the barony. A barony that was part of a duchy for example, might have a city as a trade center, as it is receiving outside trade goods and would likewise want to have a communal place to bring it's goods and services to trade with the duchy.
• The age of the barony should also have a direct effect on the size of the largest settlement. I have already established a 1d4+1 for this setting to determine the number of centuries the dominion has been established. I could use that as a modifier.
• The size (square mileage) of a barony, to a lesser extent will determine the number, size, and location of settlements. Not to mention that a larger dominion could be a perceived a threat, in which case it might be concurred, or it might actually be a threat and be the ruling barony of a march.
• As many of the larger dominions, at least in the Rules Cyclopedia, are defined on whether some or all of the combined baronies were the result of conquest, I might want to factor that in as well, based on the above thought.

Guess it is time to work on some random tables.

TB

Time to Scratch My Head!

So, I finished up the arable regions and their populace. I had started with a figure of 19,530 total inhabitants for the barony. After all the arable regions inhabitants were subtracted, I had 17,208 people remaining.

The guidelines suggest taking the square root of the population (which is 131) and multiplying it by a randomly generated number (2d4+10), where I rolled 3 for a total of 13. The largest non-arable producing center in the barony would then be a Small Town of 1,705 inhabitants. My sensibilities thought this was fine, but when I started reducing 1,705 by a random percentage (2d4x5%), I got two more towns of 1,279 and 1086 persons, and a village of 760. This left me with a staggering 12,378 people in a multitude of tiny (<760 inhabitants) villages, which is not ideal for what I had envisioned!

Think I will call it a night and mull this over. My knee-jerk reaction is to start with a Large Town, or even a Small City, and then reduce it to eat up some of the population...

"OH NO! GODZILLA!" ~ resident of my starting barony

TB

Progress: Coming to Life

The barony that I chose to start with in Ukarea (TM) is starting to take shape and I thought I would share, for those who care, and to make a log of what I have done so I can do it again if it works out well. I have the memory of a nat so hopefully I can convey what I have done so I can recreate it if necessary later.

First question, how many inhabitants are there in the barony? I decided a general question could have a general answer; 16 six mile hexes (total livable area) each have 31sq miles of space, or (16x31=) 496sq miles total. This is comforting because it is on par with the 498sq miles of a default dominion (One 24mile hex) in BECMI or RC. OCD sated. So based on the random Population Demographics formula; 4d6xC where "C" is the number of centuries the barony had been around (2 full centuries in this case, see older posts). I multiplied the random population density by the number of square miles in my barony for a total of 19,530 people. That sounds about right, I guess.

Second question, how much arable (farmland) is needed to support 19,530 people in a medieval society? Using the figures provided, 1 square mile will sustain 180 people. 19530/180=108.5 sq miles of arable land. I should have probably just said 108 or 109 one mile hexes, but I didn't. A one mile hex is not equal to one square mile, based on the .9306049 squared figure provided. A one mile hex is, based on that figure, .866 square miles. Multiplying .866 by the 108.5 square miles needed I discovered I needed 125 one mile hexes of productive arable land (farmland) to support the populace.

Oh, Hexographer...

Third question, how was the land dispersed and how much of the total population lived in the arable regions? I placed the 125 one mile farm hexes to taste, creating twelve separate arable regions. I decided that each of these regions needed farmers and families to work the productive lands. But how many? I decided to do the same thing that I did for the barony as a whole. I counted the number of hexes for each region and multiplied that by .866 (the square miles to a single mile hex) for a total square mileage for each of the twelve regions. I am kind of thinking of them as mini-dominions, which I think is a fair assessment. So as an example, farmlands covering 6 one mile hexes has a total square mileage of 5.196. I dropped that area into the Kingdom Population Calculator under Land Size, entered 229 years (figured earlier) for Kingdom Age, and rolled 4d6x2 for Specific Desired Density then hit calculate. Which gave me some key information; Total Population, Rural Population, and Urban Population. The key for me was Total Population.

Note: I could have used the same random (4d6xC) that I had generated for the barony for each of the arable regions, but chose not to so that I would get better randomization. If two arable regions had the same number of one mile hexes, it would have the same number of inhabitants. Which I didn't want. With this, a second 6 mile hex arable region will more than likely have a higher or lower population (perhaps it was founded earlier or later than the first one I did).

Note: I disregarded Rural and Urban results, as they felt wrong to me for the small villages, hamlets, and thorpe that I was creating. In retrospect, I think I could have inverted the corresponding results for the two fields to get a fair assessment of how many of the population lived in the settlement, and how many lived out of it, perhaps on a distant farm.

Lastly, I took the number of people in the arable region and used it into the Population Center Demographics Calculator to find out what types of services were present, and noted it down for the dominion writeup that will come later. I have completed eight of the twelve farm regions thus far and hope to have the remaining four done tonight. Once I have all them done, I will total their populace and subtract it from the dominion total population. Once I have the figure, I can use the steps provided to determine the largest settlement and all subsequent settlements per the Medieval Demographics Made Easy site.

This all sounds rather difficult I am sure, but once I figured out how I wanted to do it, it went rather quickly.

Happy Gaming,
TB

So the Rolling Begins

Pulling out the dice, firing up Hexographer, and pulling up my old blank Ukarea (TM) map...

1d4+1= 2 (200 hundred) + 2d10 = 2,9 (29 years) - So the new Barony will be 229yrs old (Recorded Time). Not a founding Barony by no means, but falls into what I suspect will be about average.

5d6 = 21 hexes (6mi each) - where to plunk my first undertaking?

So I chose a chunk of land from the Ukarea (TM) map, and picked 21 hexes and blew it up!

Each small hex is now equal to one mile across, or from center to center. Keeping in mind that a hex at this scale has an area of only .866 square miles I can continue by placing Farm Land to determine the number and density of the populace and use 'Arable' land and figure out how many people could be supported the dominion by rolling 6d4x2 for each such hex.

Additional Note: If each Farm Land hex has 6d4x2 farmers, then subtracting that from 180 (the number of persons it could support with its resource) I can figure out how many people are living in settlements.

More to come as I splash in farmlands and tinker a bit...

Hope you enjoy it! My OCD is being sated!

TB

Attempt at Randomizing Dominion Creation

I decided rather than reinvent the wheel, I would take my blank map of Ukarea (TM) and repopulate it. I was never really happy with the breakdown of dominions anyway and hate to throw the work away that I have already done for it. Now to apply some randomizers...

Pulling out my old copy of Dawn of Worlds (direct link to pdf), as a reference for world building time lines, I have decided to try some random calculations for the dominions I will be creating. During the Second Age in Dawn of Worlds, time is measured in 100 year increments and a minimum of five turns has to be spent on the age (500 years). Which interestingly enough corresponds to the multiplication factor for randomly determining Population Density in Medieval Demographics Made Easy by S. John Ross. I have decided to go with 1d4+1 for the number of hundreds of years, and a percentile roll, 2d10, for years between centuries. The number of full centuries will be 'C' in the converted Population Density formula of; 6d4xC per square mile of arable land.

So, with that, I can determine how old the dominion is and how many people there are per square mile. Once I chose where the dominion will be placed, I can draw up a sub-hex map with arable land represented as farmland. Each 1 mile sub-hex is equal to .866 square miles. From there I can extrapolate how many people are in each sub-hex / each 6mile hex / and the overall dominion. I can also determine based on the number of hexes that could be made arable, how many persons the dominion could hold at full capacity. (This might lead to a fun little ratio that I could use to determine need for expansion, which in turn will influence the relations of neighboring dominions, when I get that far into this)

In my previous post about distractions, I discovered that there was similar square mileage in sixteen 6mile hexes as in a standard BECMI (RC) 24mile hex dominion. Sixteen 6mile hexes being average for a dominion (Barony most likely) I have decided to try going with 5d6 (range of 5 to 30, with a bell curve around 17 or 18) for a random generator of how many 6mile hexes my starting dominion will cover.

Now all this may sound silly, and I can rationalize that it is, but OCD is a remarkable fickle bitch. Good thing I enjoy doing such things, aka exercises in futility.

More tomorrow, hopefully.

TB

HOW IN THE NAME OF ALL THAT IS HOLY DO I GET THE TEXT BACKGROUND COLOR TO GO BACK TO TRANSPARENT?!

Great! More Destractions!

As I had mentioned in an earlier post I had ran across two topics that got my juices flowing. Now, I want to mash them together, with a couple of other ideas, and see what I can come up with:

Take the following:

• Micro-Megadungeons (at Evan's Swords of Minaria Blog, which takes the idea of  leveling a party to forth level all in a small setting)
• The One Page Dungeon / The One Page Wilderness and to a lesser extent the 5 Room Dungeon (Sorry no link)
• The Master Plan (by 3llense'g, over at Goblinoid Games) that suggests a Nemesis can advance as the party does, that I think of as a Mini-Game for the DM. 
• And something else I can't remember at the moment... 

Put it all into my brain, shake vigorously, and release! 

((Pulling this out of the Draft list so topic may wonder))
So, while looking for the mysterious fourth inspirational item referred to above, I stumbled across S. John Ross' Medieval Demographics Made Easy. I had seen it before and scanned over it, but was not interested in developing a setting at the time. Now, unlike then, I am. Well to begin with I couldn't decide whether to start big and zoom in, or start small and grow the setting. I decided to take a middle route. I wouldn't develop a whole world, nor would I begin with a village. Inspired by the early works of Grubman with his The Phoenix Barony setting (Sorry can't currently find a link), I decided to start with a barony. I had to decide how big the barony would be, so I consulted my copy of Test of the Warlords module and Rules Cyclopedia. Both sources suggested starting with a 24mile hex for the basic dominion. This held me up for a brief moment, as I had decided to go with a 6mile hex scale, based on Steamtunnel's The Hydra's Grotto blog. I converted the 24mile hex to square miles and did the same for the 6mile hex. I found that their were 16 6mile hexes worth of land in a 24mile hex. So my starting barony would be 16, 6mile hexes. That soothed my OCD, temporarily...


I set about using the guidelines presented on S. John Ross' site and tried some of the linked random generators, but none of the results fit my idea of the demographics of a fantasy role-play setting. Needless to say, I went to bed frustrated. While trying to go to sleep, I had an epiphany! I was trying to once again develop from a top-down viewpoint. The question was, what if I went bottom-up? Could I draw the map how I wanted it and then based on that determine how big the population was? How many Cities, Towns, Villages, etc. would be present? Sure I could. If I made a map with sub-hexes and put in farmland I could figure out the population and what size neighborhood to place based on the figure provided of 180 people could be supported with each 1mile squared. Off to fire-up Hexmapper!


More to come, hopefully tonight!
TB

Where did who go!?

I really must find a way to organize all the wonderful things I find on blogs and forums better. Now that I have a blog, and its associated 'blog list', I have found a plethora of knowledge and can stay up with other blogs that I like. Unfortunately this is a double edged sword. Now I CAN stay up with them and I spend hours reading them, and Forums, while not being too productive anywhere else. To add insult to injury though, I forget to bookmark truly inspirational discussions (my Favorites are unmanageable as it is), and when I want to go back to them I can't remember where I read them.

So, where in the words of the Internet are the discussions about advancing your Nemesis NPC (kind of like a mini-game for the GM rolling out your arch-nemesis' agenda) and a discussion on Creating Mini-Settings (or was it Mini-Mega Dungeons) in the vein of a One Page Dungeon that was inspired by Mega Dungeons, but had 3 locals that were meant to advance characters to fourth level before they got out of the AO? This one even had suggested XP, Gold, and Monster ratios.

I went this way, the Internet went that way. I said, "Where did it go?!" The Internet said, "Where did who go?!"

Happy gaming and may all your monsters be IC,
TB

Humanity's Reign (First Map of Ukarea)

As I mentioned in my earlier post today, I had developed a Hexographer map of Ukarea during Humanity's Reign which I am not too fond of. I managed to pull it onto the web, and share it now in hopes of getting some constructive feedback, before I rerender it. What should I change? Where did I go wrong? Could it be salvaged? As I mentioned earlier, the only hope that I currently have is that thought the lands are claimed they may not necessarily be maintained.

Thanks in advance.
TB

The Changing Times of Ukarea

As I have mentioned on other posts, Ukeara (TM) is going to be a multi-time-line setting, taking place in the early years known as Humanity's Reign (TM) and a later period after humanity's fall, known as Humanity's Ruin (TM). Combined the setting will be referred to The Time of Humanity's Reign or Ruin (TM) or possibly just Reign and Ruin (TM).

The setting started out rough, to be honest. I thought I would start with a basic map, develope humanity and then wipe it off the face of the planet. Changing the map as I went. After finding a great free (which I hope to one day purchase so I can do custom hexes) online java based map program; Hexographer, I set about trying my idea out with the program, and came out with this:

This seemed to work just fine, but I was not happy with the size or layout, so I went back and started anew. I have a base map, that I am now finally happy with. The latest version of unsettled Ukarea (TM):

I started assigning parts of the world for dominions (which I do not currently have a picture for), but am unsatified with it. I have taken some time off from the project recently, as I was getting burned out, and now when I look at the map for Habit for Humanity, I see issues. For one, I filled the entire map with claimed lands, nothing is not claimed. If there were Badlands, I probably would have settled them too. Granted that humans wouldn't be in every hex that they claim, but it does conflict with reality. Yes, I like alittle reality in my fantasy.

So, back to the drawing board! I am thinking of breaking the time of Humanity's Reign (TM) down into several time-lapsed maps. This should help me keep a realistic human expansion and history easier, rather than looking at a settled map and trying to answer, "Why are they settled this way?"

More to come as time permits,
TB

Thoughts on Hit Dice, Hit Points, and Doing Damage.

I was rummaging through some of John's older blog posts over at The Nine and Thirty Kingdoms and stumble upon 'an oldie but a goody', entitled Quick & Dirty Monster Hit Points

It got me to thinking about using a number of dice equal to the monster's HD, as HPs and rolling them out when the Players come into contact with a monster, leave them on the table, and remove them as the Characters do damage. For an example, the party encounters a 4HD monster and decide they must defeat it to continue on. I roll out four dice; 6, 5, 3, 1. Sure, I could use some scrap paper and right down 15 and cross it off as they do damage, or use tick-marks as John suggests. But, meh, I hate writing stuff down during a fight and now I could just pick them up as damage exceeds one of them.

But then another issue came to mind...

This is all well and good for a small encounter with one or two monsters, but what about an encounter with a mob of monsters? I didn't want to have to have a mason jar of d6s (all monster's HD in S&W:WB are d6s BTW) and I didn't want several piles of dice around the table representing different monsters. Not to mention, how to remember what pile was for which monster, especially after some have taken damage?

The thought of how HP are often referred to as being abstract, not actual physical damage, and changed periodically (don't have a link to that discussion / mind set at the moment) snuck into the equation somewhere along the line. Someone, somewhere (and I forget where) said they had their Characters re-roll every morning in game to simulate things such as a bad night's rest, having a bad day, etc. That coupled with how S&W:WB Characters re-roll their HPs at every level advancement, which I like, made me have an epiphany. The next logical step, for me at least, was to think, 'What if monster's HPs, but not HDs, change from round-to-round?' Interest...

So every round I could roll out a new set of HD, before or after the Player determines if they hit or not, and if they hit and roll a damage value over one of the monster's HD, that die is removed. But, the original problem rears its nasty head, how to keep track of individual monsters and how many HD they each have left accordingly? My answer, more dice. This is what I envision, in a nutshell...

The party encounters four 3HD monsters in their travels and engage. On the table in front of me I place four d6s turned to 3s to represent the monsters and their 3HD each. Now, as an aside, I have had a back and forth love hate relationship with the idea of whether Players should know how many HD and HPs monsters have, but what follows might just swing it for me. I am starting to think of the dice laid out on the table as physical representations of the monsters, if you will, FWIW. The Fighting-man describes closing on the monster to the left and attacking, scoring a hit, he rolls damage, a 4+1 for 5. All the monsters are at full strength so I grab three dice and roll; 6, 5, 4. The Player equaled or beat one of my die (the 5 or 4) so rakes his blade across the monster's shoulder. I pick up the three die I rolled and flip one of the d6 'miniatures' (the one on the left he mentioned) to a 2 so I can remember to only roll two Hitdice for that monster next round if it gets hit. And sure enough, it does. The Player rolls a 3+1 for 4 and I grab two d6s, rolling; 4 and 5. Another successful attack by the Fighting-man so I flip the 'Die Miniature' from a 2 to a 1. Now that we are down to a 1:1 roll with the next successful attack by the Player, things seem to become more... erm, dicey. With, typically, one die of damage being rolled by the Player and a single die rolled by me for HPs round-to-round, I might just beat him for a few rounds, whittling him down. This, I think, would make for a nice abstract representation of a desperate monster. It realizes that it is on it's last leg and goes all out. Could this make S&W:WB more precarious for the already lethal rules set? Maybe, but it might just be something I want to playtest.

I just thought I would share something that is probably poppy-cock, is not play tested, and might not fit into the 'Old School' mindset. But, there it is, none-the-less.

Thoughts?
TB

The Adventure Begins, in Earnest.

So the PbP game that I mentioned has advanced through the preface and has started off on the first leg of the adventure.

Preface: All characters, for whatever reason they chose, found themselves in the small farming village of Handover. Handover supports a population of approximately three hundred inhabitants, or roughly sixty family. The man governing the village is the Mayor, the people governing the Mayor are the Merchant's Guild, a small group of business men and women of town. There is also no less than two churches, each with their whispers in the Mayor's ear.



The characters, for the most part, arrived on the day of the Spring Fest. One of two days that the village assembled, sold their wares, and celebrated their harvest. Talyanna the Holy Woman and Balan the Guardian chose to be from Handover and have just recently returned to their home after Talyanna was sent away abroad to learn her clerical duties. Balan had followed her and hired on, while Talyanna studied, as a guard. Morzin the Hunter has wondered into town, ever vigilant for undead, as he hunts them with conviction and single mindedness (literally). Dagon the Mercenary found himself in town low on funds and took up work as a guard for the Mayor. Garen the Wanderer found his way into Handover when he was sent ahead of the Spring Caravan to announce their pending arrival, as he had hired on as a caravan guard.

Things of note thus far: excellent role play. Creative and well written dialogs and descriptions have given me tons to work with. For example I mentioned a young girl in one of the first of my posts and Talyanna thought it strange how much she looked like her when she was young. The girl has sense made a couple appearances and subsequent vanishing acts. Based on this 'discovery' alone I have worked out a whole plot hook, should the game last through the first adventure, around the girl. Dagon has had some interaction with the local Sheriff who is also a dwarf and working for the Mayor. There have been some other minor interactions but the one that has kicked it off, is while waiting for the caravan to arrive the Mayor has asked Talyanna to bless the occasion. As she moved to the podium, a man runs from the woods, covered in blood waving his arms and is summarily shot in the back by an arrow from the tree line.

What will the party do... there is a hook, but the player that it is for has not posted so I am curious to what will happen.

Happy Gaming!
TB

The Characters for My PbP Game

As I mentioned in my previous post, the characters are done for the most part. I am still waiting on one more (a Magic-user it looks like). Do to the length of time it take to roll up characters in PbP, I did add some house rules; max hit points at first level, roll 7 sets of 3d6 (arrange as desired and use the leftover for gold), and two weapon fighting (which, surprising to me, no one took).

I will add more as things develop and characters become, well characters.


Morzin the Hunter, 43yo, Male, Elf (Mu/F) - AC 7 [12] (Leather), HP 7, Att Spear (1d6), Save 14 (+2 vs Magic), Special Heredity Foe, Keen Detection, Mv 12 (45lbs), Gold 0, Lvl/XP 1/0 (+5)

Dagon the Mercenary, 22yo, Male, Dwarf (F) - AC 3 [16] (Plate), HP 7, Att 2H Battle Axe (1d6+1), Save 15 (+4 vs Magic, +1 vs Death / Poison), Special Combat Machine, Heredity Foe, Keen Detection, Hard to Hit, Mv 6 (100lbs), Gold 3gp, Lvl/XP 1/0 (+0)

Garen the Wanderer, 20yo, Male, Human (F) - AC 5 [14] (Chain), HP 7, Att 2H Sword (1d6+1), Save 15, Special Combat Machine, Mv 12 (75lbs), Gold 20gp, Lvl/XP 1/0 (+0)

Talyanna the Holy Woman, 22yo, Female, Human (C) - AC 5 [14] (Chain), HP 6, Att Mace (1d6), Save 14, Special Spell Casting, Banish Undead, Mv 12 (70lbs), Gold 2gp, Lvl/XP 1/0 (+0)

Balan the Guard(ian), 23yo, Male, Human (F) - AC 3 [16] (Plate), HP 7, Att Long Sword (1d6+1), Save 15, Special Combat Machine, Mv 9 (85lbs), Gold 0gp, Lvl/XP 1/0 (+5)


TB

When in doubt, whip Play-by-Post (PbP) out!

I advertised on a PbP site to see if there was any interest in playing a PbP game of Swords & Wizardry: Whitebox game. I wanted to get my fix and this seemed the best course of action do to limited RL time and limitations on finding a group locally (read rural). Surprised ~ I had quite alot of interest, even to the point of getting Private Messages (PMs) sent to me after I closed the recruitment thread. Why did the interest surprise me? It had nothing to do with the mechanics, but the fact that the site seems to cater more to v3.5 and v4 D&D crowd, than Retrocloners or the 'Old School' mentality.

I advertised as a small (3-5 player) short (4-5 scene) adventure using the Rules as Written (RaW) where I specified that I would making rulings on the rules as we went. I nearly, In My Opinion (IMO), ruined my experience by offering up my homebrew setting instead of just hand waving the ‘Conventional Fantasy Setting and Troupes’ that I planned on. I have rough notes on the setting, “Humanity’s Reign & Ruin”, but they are just hand written notes in a binder at the moment. It, the setting, also required the introduction of an additional Demi-Human race that I had not fully wrote up, fleshed out, or play-tested yet. Glad I decided to revert back to what I originally had planned.

So far we have managed to get through character creation, for the most part (one player I am currently waiting on a description and background for his character), and as we wait, finished characters are interacting with each other and NPCs within the small village of Handover. Character creation took a bit longer than I had anticipated. I suspected it would take a while, considering the medium that I chose to play over, but did not expect it to take as long as it has. I suspect that a day or two was added as players wrote up backgrounds longer (read more detailed) than I had expected and a couple chose to intertwine their backgrounds. In retrospect, it was worth the wait. Roleplay posts have been better than expected, I just hope the lethality of the S&W:WB rules does not make it all for naught.

TB

Building The Perfect... Well it's Not Perfect for S&W, but...

I stumbled upon a wonderful breakdown of how to Build the Perfect Class over at breeyark.org submitted by one Erin Smale. It is... inspiring IMHO, or at least to me, and just what I had been looking for to work on some Classes for my Swords & Wizardry WB Setting. It (the tables and such) appears to be a breakdown of the Rules Cyclopedia (BEMCI) however, and I need something for S&W... What to do?


Time to put on my thinking cap and see if I can tweak it to work.


Now I realize, balance is not a must for 'basic' D&D but I have to have some semblance of it at least for the PC's XP requirements to advance...


Best and Happy Gaming,
TB

The World of Ukarea

I have finished the base map for The World of Ukarea (TM) and have roughed out the Dominions of Humanity based on some guidance on the S&W Forum for sizes and such. I did not strictly go by the suggestions, as they seemed to be aimed more toward a traditional Middle Ages breakdown and I wanted a rougher chaotic fantasy feel.

I do want to take a moment and thank everyone at the Sword & Wizardry Forums who has given me some great advice and have shown so much tolerance for a S&W noob ~ Thanks you!

Now that the map is done, I have settled on using The Kingdom of Thuslean as my starting point and have decided to focus on the Grand Duchy of Duvallae', one of four dominions in the kingdom. I intend for the Kingdom, and it's subordinate fiefs, to be some of the youngest established lands of humanity in the world, with vast regions of inhospitable areas and limited technology.

I still have not settled on an overall technological level for The World of Ukarea however. I have thought of advancing some of the older dominions to as far along as a Steam-Punk-Fantasy-Society. I am unsure at this point, but I have to decide now, if I do do that, how do I limit the subsequent Humanity's Ruin dark fantasy setting from becoming too wrapped around the discovery of 'lost tech'?

Things to ponder as I drill down on my maps and my notes. I can't wait to destroy it all as well when I make the 'ruined' kingdom area....

That's it for now.
Best,
TB

The Plan Changed

Somewhere along the way, the plan changed. I initially was shooting for a Dark Post-Apocalyptic Fantasy setting that was devoid of humans (or nearly so). Hence the initial name; Humanity's Ruin. While trying to develop the setting, and the myriad of ruins of former human civilization, I discovered that I was doing as much work on the time of humanity as I was on the time of it's ruin. So I decided to combine the effort that I had already put into it and start from the get-go. Combining the two to become; Humanity's Reign & Ruin (TM).

What I envision for release initially will be a Setting book that will, in lose terms, cover the time of man prior to its downfall as one setting and the time after as another. Released together in a single PDF / Print-on-Demand Book. The time of Humanity's Reign will be a Human Only setting. What I mean by that, is it will be a history of Humanity; from its conception, through its trials and tribulations to overcome monsters, while surviving the hardship of the world to eventually reign supreme. A more 'traditional' fantasy, though I haven't quite decided on a level of technical advancement for humanity before its downfall...

The second half, if you will, will be a Demi-Human Centric setting after the fall of man. A much darker setting of survival, chaos, plotting, and discovery: political and religious. Humans will be lost as a whole, but some will have survived and will be looked onto with suspicion and awe...

More to come as time allows,

TB

In the Beginning (aka About Me)....

I have been a long time, on-and-off-again role player. I started with the Classic Red Cover Basic books when a friend brought them, and some other D&D stuff, into Art Class and I wanted to know, "What is that?"

I played a couple sessions with him before purchasing my own copy of the rules (BECMI) and set out designing my own dungeons and adventures. I played most of the way through high school when the big AD&D push came along. I wasn't in a position to get those rules at the time, and thankfully didn't. I discovered in college that it was just too complicated for my meager mind. Not really complicated I suppose, I just could not grok why I needed an additional book, Uneartherd Arcana, to play a Paladin. To me it was just a Fighter that lived by a Code. A Code that should, IMHO, just be role-played. I didn't need a book for that...

After many years of hiatus, I discovered PbP RPing and began to try my hand at playing some with the SRD of version 3.5. I lost interest in that due mostly to the 'Munchkin Mentality'. When I was playing with the SRD, or trying to, everyone else was checking the 'acceptance' of this or that book with the D/GM. I built non-maximized characters based on a concept. You would have thought that a novel idea, but I continually got emails and PMs telling me how to make my character 'better'. "You should take THIS Skill, or you won't be able to get THAT Feat until Level WHATEVER!" or "If you make your character THIS RACE you will get a benefit TO THAT and be able to max out on UBER COOL STUFF!" Shoot me now!

From there, I began searching for 'Old School' D&D and ran across Labyrinth Lord and subsequently Swords & Wizardry: White Box. Which I have become grossly enamored with at the moment ~ and will probably be the focus of this blog. Well, actually, I am sure it will be the main topic of this blog! Since I am old, have a family, and live so far from anywhere, I get to do very little actual gaming and have decided to spend my time working on a setting for Swords & Wizardry entitled: Humanity's Reign & Ruin (TM)

I suppose that is it for now,
TB