The Core Mechanic

[4E] Magic Halloween Candy

2009-10-31T13:07:00.000-04:00

This post originally appeared Oct 31, 2008.

Halloween is finally here, and so I give you 19 new types of consumables for 4th Edition Dungeons & Dragons - Halloweeny Candy! You can mix these candies with any of your usual, non-magical candies and make bags of candy for each of your players as gifts. Each bag of candy might contain 2d4 pieces of candy per tier (2d4 for Heroic, 4d4 for Paragon, etc). Your players can trade them back and forth, and surprise their opponents with all sorts of new tricks and treats! Better yet, a mob of trick-or-treating kobolds or goblins might show up with bags and bags of candy, passing themselves off as kids in costumes! Oh what silly fun...

2d10	Magic Candy
2	Creepy Peepers - These small, fleshy eyes are cream-filled (don't ask) and smell a bit like salted fish. Consuming a Creepy Peeper gives a +5 bonus to Perception Checks until the end of the encounter.
3	Boogymen Lollis - These lollipops are made from poached goblin dwarves which have been dipped in a sugar glaze. They come in many colors, but blue is a favorite. Licking these lollipops as a minor action gives +5 bonus to Stealth skill checks until the beginning of your next turn.
4	Bloodwyrms - These stringy, gum-like "wyrms" come in a variety of colors including red (fire bloodwyrm), blue (ice bloodwyrm), and black (deathwyrms). Each color grants whomever consumes the worm Resist 5 to one type of attack, depending on the wyrm's color. Only one type of bloodwyrm can be in effect at any time.
5	Precious Eel Zappers - These tiny, sqaure eel eggs are a type of hard candy that are usually found in cartridge like dispensers filled with 3d6 of them. Each P.E.Z. gives a +2 electrical bonus to their next attack. Using the P.E.Z. dispenser is a minor action.
6	Finger Pops - These are prized by rogues everywhere. Finger Pops are made from crushed spiders and monkey livers rolled in granola and dipped in a dark Theutotian chocolate. Consuming a Finger Pop two minor actions, but once done they grant a +5 bonus to Thievery skill checks until the end of the encounter.
7	Zombrains - These small silvery packages are covered with strange runes that shimmer in the light. Inside is a spongy like yellow ball that is slightly damp to the touch, and smells of fetid ochre. Consuming this repugnant mess reveals a surprising delicious bouquet of flavors that rush into the eater's mind: lemon, lime, cinnamon, raspberry, vanilla. Quite refreshing - Zombrains also grant a +5 bonus to Arcana skill checks until the end of the encounter.
8	Rat-on-a-Stick - A Halloweeny Classic! These savory, hairless beasts come in three flavors (BBQ, Honey Dijon, and Salt'N Vinegar). Consuming one is a standard action, but once finished the PC immediately gains a number of temporary hit points equal to their healing surge value.
9	Chocolate Espresso Bean Rat-on-a-Stick - A visionary, new type of candy for this year's Halloweeny celebration! The chocolate version of the Rat-on-a-Stick classic grants a +2 bonus to the PCs next move and they gains 6 temporary hit points in the process.
10	Teefcrunchers - Made from the shells of Artribidge Crabs, this hard candy is meant to be savored and not crunched (or you'll shatter your teeth). For every round a PC savors a Teefcruncher in their mouth (as a minor action), they gain Regeneration 2. One Teefcruncher lasts until the end of the encounter or for 5 minutes.
11	Beetlesnaps - Tiny brown and black beetles are meant to be thrown down on the ground (DO NOT EAT!). Thrown correctly (Dex vs. Reflex), these beetlesnaps burst with load pop and target creature is forced to attack the thrower of the beetlesnaps until the end of their next turn. They are just soooooo annoying!
12	Nailbiters - Tiny sticks of hard-bread baked into the shape of nails are dipped in chocolate or a heavy sugar glaze (sometimes both). Eating one of these as a minor action gives a +2 bonus to your next melee attack roll. Eating more than your constitution modifier's worth of these in a single day has some terrible, foul-smelling side effects...
13	Death Mints - Well.. Halloweeny is "Trick or Treat!" right? Well, Death Mints are more the trick part of things. These tiny mints often look like Precious Eel Zappers or Teefcrunchers, but of course are not. Once eaten, they cuase ongoing Necrotic 2 damage (save ends) and the victim starts uncontrollably moaning like a ghost.
14	Pumpkin Bombs - A classic from days long past, Pumpkin Bombs are back! These fist-sized pumpkins have been stuffed with the best in Gnomish (or Kobold) engineering: explosives! They can be accurately thrown at any square within 6 squares, have a Burst 3 effect that includes a fiery explosion for 3d6 points of damage.
15	Chocolate Treant Bark - The brittle slivers of chocolate are made with chips from real Treant bark. Once eaten as a minor action, they grant a +2 bonus to armor class until the end of your next turn.
16	Glow Pops - These tiny lollipops glow once unwrapped for 5 minutes or until the end of encounter. The light they shed reaches out to 3 squares, but if eaten the light can be focused from the PCs mouth like a bulls-eye lantern with a range of 6 squares.
17	Wax Lips - The faux lips come in two colors: red and black. The red lips, if eaten, grant a +5 bonus to Diplomacy until the end of the encounter or for 5 minutes. The black variety grants a +5 bonus to Insight until the end of the encounter or for 5 minutes.
18	Grey Ooze Pouch - Yuck! Handle with care! This leathery pouch contains a small grey ooze! Once released, it will dissolve locks and other metal objects it is applied to within 5 minutes, leaving nothing behind. What you do with the ooze once it is done is up to you!
19	Weasel Pops - Similar to Rat-on-a-Stick, these feral pops grant a +5 bonus to Acrobatics skill checks until the end of the encounter or for 5 minutes. Eating one is a standard action.
20	Black Pudding Pouch - Trick! This looks just like a grey ooze, but once opened the Ochre Jelly within slithers out and immediately attacks anyone adjacent to it.

Well, that's it! Let me know if you use any of these items in your game! I had probably too much fun putting this list together.

I am a gamer... The Final Post

2009-10-26T21:18:00.000-04:00

Well, I guess this is it. One year of blogging for The Core Mechanic and this, my friends, is the last post.

What can I say?

It's been an incredible year of gaming and blogging goodness for me. I am a gamer, and I always will be. I've made some incredible friends in the blogosphere; and had some interesting "real-life adventures" as a result. I guess I have all of you to thank for all the fun I've had. A year ago I would have never thought I would have written 311 blog posts about RPGs, published an anthology of RPG blogs, and started a company with partners I've never even met. To say it's been a crazy year would be a huge understatement.

I've made so many new connections I can't even count them. I've learned a mountain's worth about an industry I would have never guessed I would have had so much interest in. There's so much more I could say -- but for once, I'll be short on words. To the RPG blogging community, and to the readers of this blog, YOU HAVE MY THANKS!!!

I'll leave you with the results of the I am a Gamer RPG Audio Montage Project I announced last week. The following responses were collected by email, twitter and comments to this blog. The I AM A GAMER mp3 audio file can be downloaded here, or you can listen to it directly in your browser using the Google gadget widget below. The voices are myself, my wife, Berin Kinsman, and three other anonymous people. At exactly 4 minutes, I hope you enjoy it.

Farewell! And don't forget to stop by Nevermet Press on July 6th! It's first day NMP will be posting new content compatible with ANY roleplaying game. Our RSS feed is available today, so please head over there and add us to your feed reader!

Oh, and don't forget to leave a comment and let us know what you thought of the I am a Gamer RPG Audio Montage. If you missed out -- leave your own "I am a gamer..." comment below!

I am a gamer ...

2009-06-21T19:00:00.000-04:00

As many of you know, I'll stop posting on The Core Mechanic on July 1st, since I'm going to be focusing all my efforts entirely on Nevermet Press. So, I've been giving a lot of thought to what my last post will be - and what I've come up with is a sort of an audio montage modeled somewhat like the NPR "This I believe" project. I think, if we can pull it off, it would make for a great last post.

So, I have less than two weeks to collect as many responses as I can. I'm looking for any one of the following, all of which should begin with the phrase "I am a gamer...":

An .mp4 or similar audio file, edited however you want but under 15 - 20 seconds in length.
Send me a link, or leave a link below in the comments, to your own blog or to the location of your audio file on the net somewhere.
Write it out in the comments below and I'll have it read aloud by one of my Fey Minions. Please keep it less than 5 or 6 sentences.
Tweet me @thecoremechanic with something short and readable using the hash tag #IAMAG

If you are a blogger, please spread the word about this. Links from your own blog, pointing your readers here would be great! The more voices and viewpoints we get, the better. It would be awesome to get dozens or hundreds of readers viewpoints and voices together and share the reasons behind our passion for gaming. I'm also working on getting a few "figures in the industry" to participate as well.

Once the project is done, I'll make the file available for download as part of my last blog post.

Old School New / School Survey Results!

2009-06-18T09:00:00.001-04:00

We got 78 responses to our Old School analysis survey which is just awesome! I can't thank you guys enough for your input which is really really interesting. We definitely have some trends that can be examined though I think in hind sight I should have made the first question: What sort of games do you prefer?

Which would have been infinitely valuable to me as a game designer because if all I have to do is include some randomly generated background tables to make 62% of gamers get that nice old school twinge of nostalgia, then I'd do so in a flash because really, that sort of thing doesn't compromise setting or system integrity and GM's never really have to use them.

So without further adieu, the Results!

CHARACTER LEVELS

Old School 24 31%

New School 7 9%

Not Old School or New School 36 46%

Antiquated and Obsolete 6 8%

Fundamental in All Games Old and New 5 6%

Other 0 0%

This first result was really interesting, the fact that 6 people said character levels are antiquated and 5 people said they're fundamental is fascinating to me. I personally think they're antiquated but I understand they have their up-sides. I'm not sure what to make of people saying character levels are new school, though the fact that almost 10% of the voters do is telling... maybe they are people who are used to point-based systems and see level advancement as a carry over from computer games. The Old School and "Neither" results are about what I expected, but they really do showcase the differences in opinion on what Old School is very well.

Randomly Generated Character Backgrounds

Old School 48 62%

New School 2 3%

Not Old School or New School 20 26%

Antiquated and Obsolete 6 8%

Fundamental in All Games Old and New 1 1%

Other 1 1%

These are pretty much clear cut. The vast majority of you guys believe that randomly generated character backgrounds are Old School, which I agree with. Not a lot of people consider them obsolete but I'd be guessing that those people that do are fairly strong narrativist gamers. I think this is an important result for any game designer looking to create an old school product because there isn't a lot of agreement at all on what defines old school but this is one of the few items there's a majority agreement on.

Open-Ended Variety of Skills/Abilities

Old School 13 17%

New School 23 29%

Not Old School or New School 32 41%

Antiquated and Obsolete 6 8%

Fundamental in All Games Old and New 3 4%

Other 1 1%

These results surprised me because this is a trait all the games I consider Old School have. To me the idea of finite and set abilities is a new thing but I'm in the minority. This is a tough question and one I don't know if I asked correctly, it certainly could warrant another post to explain further and get more feedback.

Hit Location Mechanics

Old School 23 29%

New School 8 10%

Not Old School or New School 42 54%

Antiquated and Obsolete 5 6%

Fundamental in All Games Old and New 0 0%

Other 0 0%

Another interesting result. As a medic I'm a big fan of hit location because I honestly believe it models damage better, but it is an extra level of clunk so not very good in a game that's meant to be played fast and loose. I think this question could benefit especially from a question of people's preferences as well.

Random Encounter Tables

Old School 62 79%

New School 1 1%

Not Old School or New School 8 10%

Antiquated and Obsolete 5 6%

Fundamental in All Games Old and New 2 3%

Other 0 0%

These show another obviously Old School consensus which I agree with. Personally I feel that Random Encounter Tables have some value in exhibiting the common wildlife in a region but they rarely represent the actual behavior of such animals. Thus I find the balance between a realistic system of encounters and one that's actually playable lies in the "just leave it out and make it GM's discretion" territory. For those of you who disagree please leave your flames in the handy comment box at the bottom.

Crit Tables

Old School 33 42%

New School 4 5%

Not Old School or New School 36 46%

Antiquated and Obsolete 4 5%

Fundamental in All Games Old and New 1 1%

Other 0 0%

These results are fairly odd, if I could hazard a guess I'd say the even divide between the Old School and "Neither" results are from people that have only played versions of D&D and no other games and thus marked Crit Tables as "Neither" being some oddity other games had, and the other crowd that remembers all those old games with the crit tables and figures they're old school and voted accordingly. I could be wrong, but that's my only explanation for such weird results.

Detailed Example Adventure Module

Old School 8 10%

New School 12 15%

Not Old School or New School 33 42%

Antiquated and Obsolete 1 1%

Fundamental in All Games Old and New 24 31%

Other 0 0%

I've noticed in more than one pet peeve questionnaire that "lack of an adventure module" is usually mentioned several times so game designers need to take heed there. As a side note I think that game supplements that are just one adventure storylines have a distinctly old school feel to me.

Boxed Sets

Old School 47 60%

New School 0 0%

Not Old School or New School 20 26%

Antiquated and Obsolete 9 12%

Fundamental in All Games Old and New 1 1%

Other 1 1%

If I could find a cheap manufacturer of for a line of boxed sets you can bet your mother's apple pie that I'd go that direction.

Multiple Core Books

Old School 10 13%

New School 20 26%

Not Old School or New School 36 46%

Antiquated and Obsolete 4 5%

Fundamental in All Games Old and New 7 9%

Other 1 1%

The validity of multiple core books ultimately depends on the setting and game design principles in my opinion.

Highly Detailed Maps

Old School 19 24%

New School 9 12%

Not Old School or New School 37 47%

Antiquated and Obsolete 1 1%

Fundamental in All Games Old and New 11 14%

Other 1 1%

I think that some maps have a more old school look than others. I love maps. Game books don't have enough of them.

Social Interaction Mechanics

Old School 5 6%

New School 49 63%

Not Old School or New School 19 24%

Antiquated and Obsolete 4 5%

Fundamental in All Games Old and New 1 1%

Other 0 0%

This is perhaps the most obvious but also the biggest surprise for me. The idea that social mechanics are decidedly new school is pretty much the universal consensus it seems... but the fact that only 1 person called them fundamental surprises me greatly. I consider social systems extremly important for a balance role-playing experience. But I'm a simulationist. Makes me wonder if I could do a gamer political satire article about how Old schoolers are the gamer equivelant of Libertarians, Narrativists are Liberals, and Simulationists are Republicans... I must dwell on this further... I think there is much humor to be made there.

Emo Elves

Old School 4 5%

New School 39 50%

Not Old School or New School 22 28%

Antiquated and Obsolete 8 10%

Fundamental in All Games Old and New 4 5%

Other 1 1%

The species Ellifus Saddius - or "Emo Elf" as it is colloquially known - is an offshoot of the Ellifus Gaius which originated in the Tolkeen novel The Hobbit, both of which are far removed from their distant cousin species the Ellifus Chrismatica.

The first sighted Ellifus Saddius was in a dark hole depicted in a R.A. Salvatore. Dark places are the Emo Elf's natural habitat, though they do venture into the light occasionally to gain further Emo'ness because sunlight makes them sad. They gain an especially sublime sadness from sunrises and sunsets.

The primary food of the Emo Elf is goblin guts seasoned with the Emo Elf's own tears, though the Ellifus Saddius is also known to derive sustenance from Orc's frost giants, and demons, never humans or other Ellifus genii.

Emo Elves can interbreed with normal humans, the offspring of such unions is always an Anime or Manga protagonist. It is believed that these offspring are sterile, but this cannot be proven because none have ever been witnessed actually breeding.

Nevermet Press Founding Member Departs

2009-06-17T15:45:00.001-04:00

Today, Nevermet Press is sad to report the departure of one of our founders: Quinn Murphy (aka gamefiend). Quinn has decided to strike out on his own as a game designer, and to continue the development of his excellent RPG blog At-Will. If the quality of his blog, and the rapid expansion of his ambitious 4Etopia community forums is any indication of his future success, his future looks as bright as ever. The reasons for his departure are not the result of any internal conflict or "issues", but more that he simply wants to focus on his own personal development as a game designer and author. His input, opinions, and suggestions were pivotal in helping shape the core values underlying Nevermet Press, and we would be lying if we didn't say this came as a surprise. Needless to say, we are disappointed to see him go. We wish him all the luck and success we can and hope to continue working with him in the future.

"Good Luck, Quinn! We will miss you! And we hope you find your hearts desire!"

Now, for everyone who is looking forward to Nevermet Pres, this news does not in any way affect NMPs future! We will continue to push forward and launch Nevermet Press on schedule in July. We've already gathered over 20 highly enthusiastic writers and artists and are always looking for more. One of the cornerstones of Nevermet Press is community development and engagement. So, if you are an RPG blogger who wants to get involved, please contact us!

Jonathan Jacobs & Michael Brewer
Nevermet Press

@ Nevermet Press - We Want You!!!

2009-06-16T15:00:00.000-04:00

(Original Art by Matt Lichtenwalner • dragonbones.net)

I've received a number of emails from several readers and other bloggers in the RPG blogging community wondering what the heck is Nevermet Press and what our plans are for it. I guess this is the part where I spill the beans.

Together, we want to change the way roleplaying games are made. There is a vast storehouse of creativity locked up in the community of gamers who play RPGs. We want to build a meetinghouse where we can all work together to unlock that creativity and drive the development of new, innovative material for roleplaying games of all styles and genres that everyone can enjoy.

It's an ambitious plan, but someone has to try, right? Enter Nevermet Press...

Several months ago we started working together on various projects, it naturally evolved into thinking "Hey, we should start a small press publishing company!" I love challenges, and tend to get way over extended before saying no to anything, so of course that is exactly what we did: Nevermet Press was born.

Being that all three of us are avid RPG bloggers -- we wanted NMP to offer something different to the gaming community. So, we put on our CrazyHats and started brainstorming. In no time, three "cornerstones" of Nevermet Press took shape (in true to form blogger style bolded list... oh and we are still looking for that missing forth corner...):

Community Developed & Supported- The strength of Open Game Table is that it draws from a host of writers that don't represent the "industry" (for the most part), but instead represents gamers, the fans, the "end-users" of what the RPG industry produces. Nevermet Press will seek to emulate that same core value by working with RPG bloggers and blog readers in the gaming community (that means YOU). We want to produce great games, but we want to draw on the community as a whole to develop them. An important difference from NMP and Open Game Table is that we will also be implementing a profit sharing mechanism for the most active content developers contributing to any one project. Our creator revenue sharing program will cover both content contributed by authors and artists alike. Everyone's contribution will count. Thus, Nevermet Press eventually be able to field potentially multiple projects supported by dozens paid content developers.
System Independent & System Optional- What games do you play? How many systems do you enjoy? Chances are you play many games and enjoy multiple RPG platforms. What doesn't change is the social gaming experience. Nevermet Press wants to develop game products that are independent of any one system. We will aim to publish stat'less books that can be used with any game system. All system specific statblocks, rules and mechanics, etc will be made available from our website. All them will be paired with a host of multiple systems as well, so we will not be focused any one system. We believe thisinnovative approach will help us stay focused on the creative aspects of RPGs. Our first major printed book: tentatively called "The Villain Manual", will be completely statblock free. You'll find tons of backstory, maps, encounters, adventures, campaign arcs, and other materials about dozens upon dozens of villains for a variety of campaign settings. This book will be supported by our website - where you will be able to download all the statblocks and "crunchy" system-specific details for all your favorite games. Found a cool villain, and want to run him in Savage Worlds? No problem. 4E D&D? Done. d20 Modern? OD&D? It will all be available through NevermetPress.com.
Stuff You Can Use Today - In the blogosphere, content is king. And much is the same with games. On NevermetPress.com, we are going to provide USABLE content every day. It's a very tall order, but think about it: new villains, new monsters, new equipment, new adventures or campaign hooks every single day of the week for multiple game systems. We will avoid advice on how to play (don't you know what's best?). You wont find definitions of what is or is not old school (do you care?). No reviews. No 'fluff'. None of that. Just stuff you can use for your game tonight. All Content, Everyday. Period.

That's basically the gist of it. The biggest challenge to Nevermet Press is going to be gaining the trust and involvement of the community. But... we are not looking for free hand outs. We want community whom we've come to know in the last few years to come together and for everyone to mutually benefit. We also recognize that this is an ambitious plan. Basing an entire company on "crowd sourcing" might even be considered risky by some. Nonetheless, we want to try. Michael, Quinn and I will be acting as owners, content developers, and (most importantly) project creative directors. The final shape of those projects, however, will greatly depend on the level of involvement from the RPG blogging community.

Thanks for taking the time to read this. I'm looking forward to working with all of you.

If you are interested in climbing on board, and want to start working with us, then please by all means shoot me an email. I'll get back to you as soon as I can with additional details.

I can always be reached at jonathan.jacobs@gmail.com

Best Regards,

Jonathan Jacobs,
with Michael Brewer and Quinn Murphy.
from Nevermet Press

I'm NOT old school blog!? Curse you Evil Bunnies!!! And random $10 prizes...

2009-06-15T07:00:00.001-04:00

(image from http://cheezburger.com/view.aspx?ciid=3298722)

Some very EVIL bunnies seemed to have infiltrated my blog. And now they are forcing me to post this non-sequitur survey in the wee-wee-wee hours of the morning. AND they stole all my waffles!!!

Ok, it's thinly veiled... but that's the point, right? I'll give away a $10 gift certificate to RPGNow.com to one lucky entry... but I'm picking the winner using an algorithm that strictly depends on Hidden Markov Models and Eigenvectors... so.. Good Luck!

Also -- anyone interested in the Old School gaming "movement" should jump over to Chgowiz's blog and take his survey. (http://oldguyrpg.blogspot.com/2009/06/id-rather-ask-for-answers-than-argue.html)

So THIS is what happens when you blog at 2:45 AM...

Villain Survey Summary...

2009-06-10T08:00:00.003-04:00

A while ago I ran a survey about villains. The survey is currently closed, but I thought I would provide a summary of the results; for anyone interested. But before I do that... I need to announce the winner of the random drawing for a $20 RPGNow.com gift certificate.

CONGRATULATIONS

Brandon Leon!!!

Wonder what he's going to do with all his winnings? According to Brandon, "I'm definitely going to be getting Hard Boiled Cultures and Hard Boiled Armies (I'm a big fan of One Bad Egg stuff). Other than that, I will likely be spending it on primarily 4th edition classes." Sounds like a good time to me!

Now, on to the results...

1. What kind of content would you prefer for a Book of Villains?

Large collection (over 100) of lightly developed villains that reads much like a D&D monster manual, only it includes villains and their minions.		10%
Smaller collection of more deeply developed villains where each entry might include multiple art pieces, maps of lairs, encounters, fully developed minions, etc.		25%
A mixture of #1 and #2 where a few some villains are more developed than other.		54%
Other		11%

2. In addition to villain write ups, what other features would you like included? (may total more than 100% becuase people could pick more than one)

Chapter on the nuts and bolts of villain creation		62%
System for randomly generating villains on the fly		47%
Maps and encounters for villains		62%
Other		7%

3. Which of the above choices would be most important?

None of them		8%
Chapter on the nuts and bolts of villain creation		38%
System for randomly generating villains on the fly		18%
Maps and encounters for villains		32%
Other		4%

4. What format do you think a new "Book of Villains" printed book should take?

More expensive, full color interior printed book		20%
Less expensive, B&W interior printed book		65%
Cheap as hell printed B&W book with only a few illustrations		6%
None; I have no interest in a printed Book of Villains		9%

5. What genre's of RPGs do you enjoy playing?

Fantasy		94%
Horror		38%
Modern		41%
SciFi / Cyberpunk		59%
Other		14%

6. Which RPGs have you played in the last year?

Dungeons & Dragons (any edition)		93%
Savage Worlds		27%
Mutants & Masterminds		14%
Exalted		6%
Star Wars Saga Edition		18%
d20 Modern		11%
GURPS		13%
HERO		7%
True20		9%
Shadowrun		11%
World of Darkness		22%
Pendragon		3%
Other		37%

7. What would make the best addition to your existing RPG collection?

A new game		15%
A new campaign setting		12%
A supplement for a game I already own		36%
An adventure or adventure series		17%
A folio of generic maps for a variety of settings		13%
Other		7%

8. How likely are you to purchase RPG products from small-press (aka independent) game companies?

1 -	Not a chance. I prefer to save my money	1%
2		8%
3		35%
4		40%
5 -	I can't get enough of it	16%

10. How likely would you purchase a Book of Villains for your favorite RPG (in print, PDF or Kindle)?

1 -	I wouldn't even pick it up to browse	2%
2		11%
3		52%
4		32%
5 -	I would preorder it the day it was announced	4%

Around the blogs... Villains in RPGs

2009-06-08T08:00:00.004-04:00

Over the last few weeks we've seen a number of excellent posts about villains and other general badasses. From articles about how to run villains, to developing back stories, to actually playable NPCs to drop into your game, there's been a ton of writing about it. Not to mention we've also seen a bunch of new, and very fine I might add, artwork from several up and coming illustrators. Here's a round up of what I've read and helped craft myself.

(btw - the villain survey/random drawing for RPGNow gift certificate has closed; but we'll release the results later this week. I'm waiting to hear back from the winner).

Playable Villain NPCs

At-Will : The Song of Flame: Savis Rayn
At-Will : Heart of Chaos: Grebs Follyfoot
The Core Mechanic : Cerdic Elesing
The Core Mechanic : Morgan Le Fay
The Core Mechanic : Sir Mordred
The Core Mechanic : The Incubus, An Old Demon Made New Again
The Core Mechanic : The Dead Queens of Morvena (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Summary PDF)
Mad Brew Labs : Mad Archwizard
Mad Brew Labs : Tyrant King
Mad Brew Labs : Acario Macellarius IX [Heroic Tier]
Exchange of Realities : Gethin of the Ash
Exchange of Realities : Zora Aldebar
PAIZO Superstar 2009: Round 2 : Top 32 Contestant Villains
Bard of Valiant : 4 Villains You Didn’t Think Of
Thieves Cant : Dirty Rotten Scoundrels: Anry the Bladed
Life and Times of a Phillipine Gamer : Villains Spotlight Series

Villain Toolbox

At-WIll : The Vicious Virtues of Villainy
The Core Mechanic : Anatomy of a Villain
Life and Times of a Phillipine Gamer : My Villains are Social Dynamics Puzzles
Mad Brew Labs : Villainous Vivisection
The RPG Athenaeum : Quandary-Based Villain Creation
The RPG Athenaeum : Every villain needs a paycheck

The Generic Villain
Ravyn, the blogger behind the RPG blog Exchange of Realities, has been long running an excellent series titled "The Generic Villain" wherein each post details some aspect of "villainry". Here's a short list of some recent posts, but head over there to see the whole series.

Did I miss anything? If you have an article or blog post that you think should be added to this list.. please leave a comment and let us know!

REVIEW - Nobis, The City States

2009-06-05T07:05:00.003-04:00

"High-fantasy... with guns."

I was given a review copy of "Nobis, The City States", a new campaign setting that will be released on July 1 by Pantheon Press for the d20/OGL D&D community. This is a high-fantasy campaign setting staged in a world where technology is rapidly advancing and the effects are being seen among the people in terms of culture, religion, governance, and warfare.

First off, was is new and different about Nobis? Well, that depends on your point of view. You might be thinking, "Firearms with swords and magic? Yawn." But don't be so quick to judge. What I found very cool about Nobis was not the firearms, but the impact their presence has on the campaign setting. The authors of the setting did an excellent job downplaying heavy armor and "classic" D&D weaponry in favor of lighter more deadly fighting systems for melee combat. I'm talking about FENCING. Yeah, Nobis has it's own completely internal d20 system for fencing, and it is very slick.

Nobis Has Fencing
Fencing is broken down into four schools: Modern, Marist Martial, Form of the Leopard, and Traditional. Each of these schools, or styles, of fencing is accessible to characters who take a feat to gain access to them. Once trained in a particular fencing school, a whole host of new combat manuvers become available, such as Balestra, Felche, Lunge, and Riposte (to name a few). Although these specific manuevers remind me of "powers" in 4E D&D, it didn't bother me as much becuase they are available to all characters so long as they qualify for the feats required to learn fencing. What's the benefit of fenciing? Well, it depends on the school your character would choose. Each school has one "signature move" (a specialized combat manuver) which influences the flavor of fencing you prefer. For example, Balestra is the signature move of Form of the Leopard (think near-eastern scimitar fighting, rather than men-in-tights). The Balestra maneuvar is a running, jumping charge that adds the results of a Jump skill check as a damage bonus to your attack. Each of the other schools also have their own specialized manuevers. All in all, this is a nice surprise to the campaign setting and (frankly) could be developed further and even sold as its own stand alone PDF. I really thought the fencing section was cool.

Nobis has Cantrips for the People
Simplecraft is a cantrip system that is "purchasible", small innocuous spell like effects that are sold in stores throughout Nobis City States. What's cool, and potentially funny, about Simplecraft is that its 1) unstable; and 2) unstable. Basically, any time you use a Simplecraft spell you roll a d20. Roll a 1 and a debacle happens (something bad). What's worse, si that Simplecraft has a shelf life. It goes bad after a few months; so there's a strong possibility of buying or finding "bad" simplecraft as well. Unstable (expired, rotten, unusable) Simplecraft is even worse. It's like nitroglycerin. Shake it - BOOM. Drop it - BOOM. There's a table of disasters that can happen if your PC's handle unstable Simplecraft (random teleportation is my favorite). The list of things Simplecraft can do is limited only by what the GM allows, but Nobis includes a few pages of suggested spells - from the basic "Torchlight" spell to the "Lighting Strike" (yes a real attack cantrip), it's all there.

Nobis has Reputation
Finally a good, simple to implement Reputation system for 3E/OGL games. The basic idea is that each PC would decide on a Path (Artisan, Criminal, Merchant, Statesman, etc etc). Each reputation path has its own leveling system that is independent of class/character level. You gain reputation points at a rate of 2 to 4 per character level. Your total reputation points determines how advanced you are on your path, and your rank on your path conveys benefits to specific skills associated with that path. For example, the Clergy path has the associated skills Diplomacy, Knowledge (Local) and Knowledge (Religion). As the characters reputation goes up, these skills become class skills and the PC gains bonuses to using them.

The Bad Stuff
It's easy to talk trash about other people's work. I know how hard it is to produce shining examples of perfect products (OK, I don't... but you get my meaning), and Nobis is not perfect. You have to dial back your WotC level expectations for a minute and expect something a bit more Indy. The artwork is good, but only a few examples are great. My main issue was with the art direction - from full color illustrations to (literally) stick figures, I was a bit surprised to see the stick figures. The cartography was also not as good as I would have hoped (it looks very software driven, not artist driven), but the world map and map of The Gates was still good enough for any GM to run their own campaign in. These are minor points really. Most of the artwork was good, full color portraits or landscapes -- there was just some examples that seemed very out of place (stickfigures? OK... it was funny... but... ). Maybe this was just becuase I recieved a pre-press copy that may have had some of the artwork missing. Let's hope that the image below will be replaced with a "real" image in the final book.

EDITORS NOTE: The producers of Nobis have assured me that the stick figures were mock ups. NOT original artwork. Although I'll leave the art below (it's kinda cool in its own sorta way), I want YOU the reader to know that the final product will not have any stick figure art. See comment section below.

Plus What's Expected
Finally, this is not a 300+ page behemoth of a book. It's ~79 pages long but still manages to include all of what you would expect in a 3E campaign setting: a "thousands year history", a world map, the city states and how they came to be, a detail of The Gates (the major city state; includes a city map and many points of interest), a section on other lands and kingdoms of Nobis, a chapter on organizations and guilds, and the usual chapter on the gods, new feats, a new race (Mongrels), new equipment, and a page chock full of adventure hooks to get your campaign started. All of this I was expecting. And, if it weren't for the inclusion of some the other elements to the game, I might have given Nobis a much worse review.

Conclusion
I would say "go preorder a copy now", but I'm not sure how much it will be sold for or even where you can buy it from. It's coming out July 1st from Pantheon Press (linked above), and I would expect it to be listed on RPGNow.com as a PDF at the very least. At nearly 80 pages, it might also be seen in print, which would be nice. If you are looking for a new campaign setting that has a bit of rennaisance flavor, fencing, gun play but still keeps to a high-fantasy tradition... then Nobis would be a good place start it in.

Want to learn more about Nobis? Read on...

Atomic Array: Nobis (Atomic Array 024)
Game Cryer: Nobis Review
campaign Mastery: Gaming Renaissance and Loving it
Dice Monkey: Orgs & Sects
Vulcan Stev: Looking at the Religion
Unnatural 20: The Magic of Nobis
allgeektout: The Play

Drop by Pantheon Press and pre-order Nobis today!

One of the best posts in a long ass time...

2009-06-04T17:34:00.000-04:00

http://thefineartofthetpk.blogspot.com/2009/06/sandboxes-are-for-kids-and-cat-turds.html

Yeah... go there. read that. I couldn't agree more.

Assessing the Relevance of Reviews on Tabletop RPG's

2009-06-04T13:00:00.000-04:00

In any medium where developers are offering creative intellectual property for money there are reviewers, reviewers are necessary and helpful, they tread ground before the average consumer and they let people know if there money is well spent there. Reviewers are usually entertaining in their own right, and they have to be these days because the internet is full of them all clamoring for attention.

In Tabletop RPG's Reviewers are especially important, but nearly every one is balanced towards one side of the RPG industry by their very nature. See, unlike most other forms of entertainment; Movies, Music, Video Games. Tabletop Role Playing requires a significant investment of time before the game can even attempt to be played, and once people are at the play stage there is inevitably a period of interpretation ("Does this work the way I think it does?") before everyone is in the swing of things. This is a reality of the hobby, if gamers wanted quick fix roleplaying, they be playing MMORPG's like World of Warcraft or City of Heroes, and many do. But still the TTRPG world pumps out more books so obviously someone is buying them. To achieve more than a computer game fix, or a board game RP experience like Clue there needs to be a degree of sophistication in the rules, and if the game is going to have the legs to pull off a long term story it's going to need even more sophistication which means more content which means more to read, interpret and play out in order to get an accurate impression of. To a reviewer this is simply not desirable.

Reviewers need credibility to earn the trust of their audience, and to develop that credibility they need to establish a rapport by reviewing a lot of stuff and doing so in a consistent manner. That means regular reviews and thus the simpler the game the more likely the reviewer will like it because it makes his job easier.

Therein lies the crux of the issue. Games that lend themselves to extended gameplay which is the ultimate goal of any GM and player, are generally more complex than those that aren't. More complex games require more time and effort to get an accurate impression of, and by devoting more time to one particular game the reviewer becomes invested and loses impartiality.

This means that the games where the most time and effort towards an intricately balanced setting and system have been invested will not get the appropriate review from an impartial source, while games that are more simple will get all the attention.

This makes me wonder... how can designers of intricate and detailed Role Playing Games successfully market their games independent of the reviewer? Honestly I don't think it's possible, but what game designers can do is support forums and sites that attempt to do fair and detailed reviews with plenty of balance. Good RPG reviewers need to be supported not because publishers want good reviews but because to get proper reviews a reviewer needs to devote real professional time along with 5 other people to give a detailed game a fair shake. That requires commitment and funding because quite frankly it's a lot of work.

So here's a question to the RPG bloggers out there:

Publisher: How much would you donate to a professional reviewing platform?

Everyone else: Who do you think does reviews good enough to go pro?

The Face of Old School

2009-06-04T11:16:00.000-04:00

Egged on by comments from yesterday's The Face of New School (which was in turn inspired by Zach's post), I had to do a follow up...

The Face of New School...

2009-06-03T13:39:00.000-04:00

Inspired by this excellent post over at Zach's RPG Blog II, I just had to poke fun at myself and everyone else with this ...

TCM Will Go Silent on July 1st

2009-06-01T09:56:00.000-04:00

Today, I have some news.

First, I wanted to formally acknowledge my thanks to each every reader who has subscribe to this blog (THANK YOU!!!). Many of you I have worked with in the last year directly on collaborations, many of you are silent "lurkers" whose participation is only marked by webstats and feedburner subscriber counts. All of you, however, have made a major contribution to my motivation level as I have worked hard to keep plugging away at this blog since July of last year. The fervor and general camaraderie of the community has been really incredible and generally a very big positive point in my own life. I don't think without all the support I've received from everyone, I would have been able to finish Open Game Table nor push my blog to wherever it has ended up. Where are we now?

But, all good things come to an end, right?

Between my day job as a research scientist, my family, gaming when I have time, maintaining Open Game Table and The Core Mechanic, and (now, recently) Nevermet Press... you might say I'm a bit over extended. Thus, I've decided that I can no longer support all my extracurricular activities. So, after exactly 1 year of blogging about RPGs at The Core Mechanic; I've decided that TCM will go silent on July 1st.

It's been a fun ride.

This is not to say my days of writing about RPGs are over. Hardly. In fact, I'm closing down TCM so that I can focus my energy on writing more game content. One of the biggest obstacles for TCM was coming up with more or less original viewpoints on topics that have not been covered to any great extent by the rest of the RPG blogosphere. The RPG blogging community has the tendancy to be somewhat of an "echo chamber", as do many social blogging communities. This major problem of topic saturation that has also largely gone unaddressed by the rest of the blogging community, although I suspect that many of the other RPG bloggers out there may have recognized the same issue. The "pillar topics" of our hobby have all been covered ad nauseum by multiple blogs with many, often overlapping, viewpoints. This is not a bad thing; only I don't feel a compelling need to add my one small voice to the cacophony of dozens of others about the same topics. My contribution to the community might be better made by producing usable game content, rather than continuing to blog about GM advice, game reviews, or other oddities of the RPG hobby / industry. I looked at my list of future topics and said "most of these have already been covered by some other awesome RPG blog in the past". What remained were topics of game content and news/journalistic topics about the industry. Both of these are surprising minority topics in our community (if you survey the vast number of RPG blogs out there). So, instead of continuing the trend of topic saturation; I'm going to focus on developing and publishing usable game content (since I'm certainly not a journalist; I'll leave that to The Game).

I'll be doing this by working on getting Nevermet Press off the ground. NMP is a new company, a collaboration, between Michael Brewer (Mad Brew Labs), Quinn Murphy (At-Will) and I. You'll be hearing more about NMP in the next couple weeks as we get everything off the ground and running. Much of what I did with TCM will continue on the future NMP website/blog. In fact, I'm hoping that you will also perhaps be interested in working with us in the future as well. In any case, starting in July, all my writing efforts (in so far as RPGs are concerned) will be focused through the NMP lense. We will also be looking for additional writers and artists to help support all our projects both online and off.

So, in the meantime, for the next 4 weeks, my posting schedule on TCM will be somewhat random. I have half-a-dozen draft posts saved in my Google Doc's; so I'll be sure to roll those out before the months end. I'm also sure there will be some more suprises along the way!

Oh, and there's that survey contest! We still need like 20 or so people to hit our goal of 200. Then all the results will be made public and I'll announce the winner of the $20 RPGNow Gift Certificate! So if you haven't yet answered our survey about Villains; please do so today!

Questions? please leave a comment!

Open Game Table Heads to the UK

2009-05-29T08:00:00.000-04:00

I just received an email indicating that Open Game Table is now available from Borders in the UK!!! So, for all you Brits out there dying for a copy - you can now get one on the cheap because you won't have to pay the horrendous transatlantic shipping fees. It's even available for FREE UK shipping apparently.

If you decide to pick up a copy from the UK source, please let me know what you think!

More about Open Game Table can be found here.

OPEN GAME TABLE is being given away!

2009-05-28T07:00:00.000-04:00

As part of a new collaborative promotion with DungeonMastering.com; every single new Premium Membership to Dungeon Mastering Tools that is opened by June 1st will recieve a free print copy of Open Game Table. Time is short, so if you haven't seen these cool online tools for your 4E game yet, then jump over there an check it out! There are both Free and Premium Membership levels, so you can try before you buy so to speak.

Click here for more information.

Surveying the "Old School" RPG Concept Independent of D&D

2009-05-27T08:00:00.015-04:00

There's been enough rumbling about the "Old School" movement that if it were to be put into seismic terms California would now be west of the continental shelf. I've mostly been avoiding the arguments up until now because it seems the universal consensus was that 1st and 2nd Edition D&D constitutes as Old School and any game that plagiarizes them is worthy of the tag. This debate might have some validity, but as an intellectual pursuit didn't interest me in any way. However as a writer and designer of games I have to look at the idea that "Old School" as a marketing device may help me sell my game so now I'm forced to look at the concept and see if there's anything to it I can use, because like it or not a buzzword is a buzzword.

So here's a few concepts that I encounter in games both old and new. You the reader can tell me if they're:

Old School
New School
Not Old School or New School
Antiquated and Obsolete
Fundamental in All Games Old and New

&lt;p&gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;Loading...&amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/p&amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Take Survey, Win $20.

2009-05-26T08:00:00.001-04:00

I've been very actively building a collaboration with bloggers behind Mad Brew Labs and At-Will over the last few months. It all started with our series on Skill Challenges of War (the complete PDF you can now pick up for free, btw). We then managed to land an articles series for Kobold Quarterly (first of three will appear this summer). Things have so far been going amazingly well. We have more ideas of projects than time to pursue them, so we are looking to you (our readers) for some feedback and possibly to help us prioritize things a bit.

If the survey has missed something, or you wish to add your own opinions / insights / suggestions... then please leave a comment on the blog!

All you have to do is fill out a survey. One lucky person who submits their email address along with their survey (its optional to do so) will win a $20 Gift Certificate to RPGNow.com! It's that easy! (And don't worry, we won't be using your email address for marketing or other silly things; just for the drawing).

CLICK HERE TO FILL OUT THE SURVEY

We're trying to get a big turn out for the survey (hence the prize) - so if you have a blog of your own; link backs here would be super awesome!

REVIEW - Monster Manual 2

2009-05-25T08:00:00.107-04:00

So, I've had about a week or so to look over the new Monster Manual 2. Let me first get it out of the way that 1) I absolutely love this book; and 2) see point #1. I have only minor complaints (see below), but anyone running a homebrew 4th Edition D&D campaign should pick this book up right away. There's even value over just having the stats via D&D Insider, which I'll also get into below.

This is not just fanboy craze either; the MM2 beats out the MM1 hands down. The content is better, there's tons of "old school classics" that have been updated to 4E, and there's even a fair number of monsters that have very detailed entries Something that I didn't like about the MM1 was that nearly everything was given only one or two paragraphs of background and development. The MM2 is a much better book, here's why...

4E is the New Old School
I've said it before, and I know it wrangles a few nerves out there -- but it really is true. And now, with the Monster Manual 2, so many classic old-school OD&D and 1E D&D monsters make their return to the latest edition of the game. The Behir has been one of my favorite dragon-like monsters since I first ran The Lost Caverns of Tsojcanth in 1982, and the gran'old age of 10. That's what... a 27 year old "favorite monster"? The new 4E version sports both a paragon and epic tier version of the beast, as well as "Behir Bolter Whelps" that look much like the little baby in Alien. I love it!

More favorites from past editions make thier reapperance in the MM2 as well, including Ankhegs, Bullywugs, Giant Ants (low level favorites), Myconids (!), Spriggans, Cockatrice, Centipedes, Black Pudding, Xorn and many many more from old times.

And how could I not mention that.. I SAVED THE RUST MONSTER!!! Ok, maybe I didn't, but I'm stoked to see it back in print. Although it abilities are not as terrifying as I would have them, I suppose it goes back to the save or die argument that 4E is trying to avoid. Altogether, I'm very happy with all these old faces being updated to the new rules.

MM2 In Print Beats DDI
One question that I've been asking myself lately is: why should I buy any of the printed books if ALL the stats and crunch for everything is including in my DDI subscription already? I mean, I already make up my own "Tactics" for each encounter -- I don't need the MM telling me how to play these creeps. Also, I could easily make up my own backstory and "Lore" sections for all the creatures as well, which happens fairly often anyway when you customize your campaigns. In addition, I could easily just come up with my own encounter groups and... see where I'm going? Having the printed book in hand is a time saver. You trade time for a possible loss of your own creativity. The MM has all this information already worked out; something you can't get from DDI.

That being said, one of my complaints about the MM1 was that there was not enough detail. It was almost too sparse, and I rarely open it up. Maybe it's becuase I just "know" the creatures therein, but I think it is more due to the fact there there is just too little information over what DDI already offers. The Monster Manual 2 changes that. That authors have done an excellent job of providing lots of detail for each creature to help players integrate them into their campaigns in a "sensible" way. Althought the section on Dragons does have a few pages of literally just statblocks with token artwork (zero other text), the rest of the MM2 is pretty juicy.

Take for example, the Eldritch Giant entry. There's a preamble paragraph (2 sentences) but then you'll find this:

"Eldritch Giants come from a different time - an earlier age when the primordials made the world. Although fashioned from fire, stone, and storm, the primordials' wondrous creation was heavily invested with magic, and the eldritch giants aided their primordial lords in the world's formation. Although their powers have ebbed since those days, eldritch giants remember their ancient mastery of magic and forever seek to regain it." -- Monster Manual 2.

The entry then goes on to detail two eldritch giants and their tactics. After that there's another background/lore section that includes another two or three paragraphs of detail. All in all, entries as detailed as this abound, and in general my feeling is that more thought went into developing these monsters than did the MM1.

Complaints
I suppose if I were to complain about something it would be that many of these "classic" monsters should have been included in the Monster Manual 1. I know I know... they have a BIZNES to run, and obviously there's a certain marketing strategy here to get people to buy two books instead of one. Meh... I would have bought the MM2 anyway.

My other complaints are similar to those I had for MM1 - no Ecology/Terrain information. No tables for random monster generation. No tables for random treasure types (sigh...). Everything in 4E is so friggen balanced, that even treasure is relegated to the DMG -- even for monsters like the Gold Dragon (which is pictured sitting on top of a classic horde of gold... but in reality, if you looked it up in the DMG... it would be much less than that). Oh well, random tables and charts seem to be a thing of the past for the 4E D&D designers (a mistake IMHO), so there's nothing of the sort in the MM1 or the MM2.

Conclusion
I don't have much negative to say about the Monster Manual 2. The detail is great, the artwork is (of course) superior. The number of monsters is outstanding (over 125). There's a big expansion of demons, devils, archons, and angels. There's a fair number of new goblins, gnolls, lizerdmen, giants (frost!), and trolls (among other humanoid like types). For $20 its a great value - definately pick it up.

Best Resources About Playing Roleplaying Games With Your Kids

2009-05-22T08:00:00.000-04:00

My oldest son is five. He's right about at that age where we might see if he is interested in playing a game that uses his imagination in a structured format: you know... role playing games. So, I've been collecting links related to this topic and been reading up on various do's and don't associated with the hobby - especially for kids. Here's my list of my favorite ten articles. Hopefully this will help some other parents out there get starting on training their own padewans in the dark arts... mwhahaha

NOTE: I also recently picked up Rory's Story Dice. The basic idea is you roll the dice and make up a story on the fly that fits the icons on the dice face. I'm thinking they would no doubt have some use for RPGs as well, although I have yet to give that a try. These were really fun for my son and I to play around with for the first few days we had them; now a couple weeks later the dice have been trumped by super hero action figures. Ah well, what do you expect.. he's FIVE.

Role-Playing Games and Kids
http://www.roleplayingtips.com/articles/roleplaying_games_and_kids.php
Good article that covers the basic issues for getting an RPG group together for kids in the 12 - 16 age range, how to deal with parent "concerns", what types of games to run, etc.

RPGs for Kids
http://www.tlucretius.net/RPGs/kids.html
Extremely detailed list of dozens of RPGs both in print and out of print that are appropriate for kids ages 5 up through adults. The author covers old classics like Marvel Super Heroes (which is not in print anymore, but available as a PDF) as well as many second and third string RPGs developed by independent / small press companies. I still have not gone through the whole list, but it's on my priority list to read up on all these games to get a better idea of what would be a good purchase and investiment of my time. Final note: the end of this article has a very good list that points to yet other articles on RPGs for kids.

Glorantha for the Yoots: My Young Son's First Roleplaying Adventure
http://www.glorantha.com/support/na_yoots.html
A bit old, but Ian Young recounts a play by play summary of his 5-year old sons first RPG "campaign". Bookmark it, becuase it's a long one; but from what you will read you'll see that 5-year olds are natural roleplayers and they seemed to have had tons of fun with it (they used modified HeroQuest rules).

Roleplaying Games for Kids
http://www.darkshire.net/jhkim/rpg/whatis/kids.html
A big linked list for articles about RPGs and kids. Some of the links are dead though. Maybe I should gather up all the links I can find and post a huge list of everything? Hrmmm... anyway, head over there to check out where they point to.

Wired Magazine's GEEK Dad articles on RPGs & Kids
Daniel Donohoo has written several excellent pieces on playing RPGs with kids under the age of 10. Seeing as Donohoo already writes a blog exploring ideas of childhood and youth; and has even published a book on the subject (Idolising Children), I give his opinions on the subject a bit more wieght.

Teaching Kids to Roleplay is Only Natural - He breaks it down into age groups (i.e. 5 - 7, 8 - 10, etc) and makes recommendations on which games are appropriate for each group. He's a huge fan of the game Fuzzy Heroes for the younger kids.
Setting up RPG Groups for Kids - Separate from which games to play and at which age to start is the issue of how and where to set up a group. Organizing a kids RPG gaming group has some significant differences from a traditional "grown-up" group (you can't stay up till 2 AM gaming for example). Once you have picked your game, this article will help you get organized.
A Starter Guide to Roleplaying with Kids - This is more a playtest report of gaming with 5 and 6 year olds using the game Fuzzy Heroes as the system; but some good advice is there as well. Jump to the end to read his summary points if your not interested in the FH details.
More Online Resources: RPGs & Kids - Short piece that directs you to The Escapist website, Sam Chumps site, and some links for playing RPGs with girls (since most of the industry is extremely oriented towards men/boys).

GNOME STEW: 10 Reasons Why Roleplaying Games Are a Positive Force for Kids and Adults

Alike
http://www.gnomestew.com/gming-advice/10-reasons-why-roleplaying-games-are-a-positive-force-for-kids-and-adults-alike
Fellow bloggers Gnome Stew dish up some ammunition for people looking for reasons to say "RPGs are good for you becuase...". Definately a resource to look over if you are organizing a kids RPG group and meet some resistance from naysayers.

Why Should You Want to Roleplay with Your Kids?
http://www.squidoo.com/kidsrpg
Catch all article that covers just about all the major issues concerning RPGs and Kids. Covers everything from pros/cons; recommended games; how to start up games; positive impact of RPGs for kids; etc. If you read anything on this list.. this is the one you should check out.

Young Persons Adventure League
http://www.theescapist.com/ypal/
If you read anything on this list.. this is the one you should check out. Much like the Squidoo article above, but it's organized way way better and had TONS OF LINKS elsewhere as well as reviews, recommendations, play tips, etc.

NOTE: I also recently picked up Rory's Story Cubes. The basic idea is you roll the dice and make up a story on the fly that fits the icons on the dice face. I'm thinking they would no doubt have some use for RPGs as well, although I have yet to give that a try. These were really fun for my son and I to play around with for the first few days we had them; now a couple weeks later the dice have been trumped by super hero action figures. Ah well, what do you expect.. he's FIVE.

Towards More Cinematic Gaming: Part 3 - The Sword vs. the Sledgehammer

2009-05-20T06:00:00.007-04:00

Towards More Cinematic Gaming: Part 3 - The Sword vs. the Sledgehammer

#1:   Two level 3 fighters square off: One is carrying a longsword the other a warhammer. Both are completely unarmored and equally specialized in their weapon. Who wins? the longsword, it does 1d8!

#2:   OK now the same but a shortsword vs a two handed warhammer, both remain unarmored. Who wins?
Definitely the great hammer! it does 2d4 and gets strength and a half!

#3:   Now the swordsman is wearing full plate armor, the great hammer remains unarmored. Oooh tough one. but full plate is awesome so that makes up for the less damage! The swordsman should win!

#4:   This time they both have tower shields and chainmail. One has a bastard sword and the other traded his greathammer for a shortsword. Well bastard sword is better so it woudl win.

*******

FYI this is one of the issues that bother me most about D&D. Please ignore any rhetoric I leak out. Lets go through the examples.

#1: Maybe.  Probably come downs to luck.

#2: Wrong. The shortsword is a much faster weapon, and the large hammer heavyer and easyer to dodge. Since they are unarmored, they are less vulnerable to the slow sledgehammer and more vulnerable to the laceration/penetration of the short sword.

#3: Wrong. In fact the heavy plate armor makes them more vulnerable to the sledgehammer since it makes you much slower. Hammers do all their damage as concussive crush injuries which plate armor is woefully too thin to stop. All the heavy armor has done has made him easyer to hit, and have a harder time attacking, while doing little to protect him from the hammer.

#4: Wrong. The shortsword of the gladius makes a thrust the only effective maneuver; but doign so penetrates chainmail. Swinging a large sword is slower; chainmail and shield are ideally suited to stopping a slashing attack.

So why is it that the longsword is so popular in D&D? Same reason it was with the Gauls and with nobles. Swinging a big sword looks cool and makes you feel powerful. In fact it was a fairly uncommon weapon in medievil history not only becasue of the cost, but becasue it penetrates armor poorly.

What does D&D do to balance armor penetration, speed, and damage of a weapon? Incomprehensibly very little. Why is it important?  Doing so brings more diversity, choices, and cinematic outcomes into combat that are built into the rules and not the whim of the GM. From a player perspective that ususal equals more fun.

Fortunately there are some very easy solutions that dont slow combat down significantly.  For the life of me I cant figure out why one of them was not implemented into D&D4E. These are just a few I have used in my games; please share with me what you have used in yours. Warning: this gets very house-rule-heavy:

Method #1 (easy, fast): You get wider critical hit range when your opponents armor is vulnerable to your weapon type. Similary, you cannot get a critical when your opponents armor specifically protects against your weapon type. No need to think it out ahead of time; but if a player rolls high, say 16 - 19, then the GM can consult a similar chart:

- Unarmored: WEAK vs: slashing and piercing. STRONG vs: very heavy or slow weapons.
- Chainmail: WEAK vs: blunt and piercing (historically true, despite hopes to the contrary). STRONG vs: slashing.
- Plate: WEAK vs: blunt, grappling, and pole-arms (they cant dodge well, and a polearm generates such mechanical energy no armor can adequately stop it). STRONG vs: slashing and piercing.
- Shields: WEAK vs: grappling. STRONG vs: slashing against a single opponent.
- Tower Shield: WEAK vs: grappling, STRONG vs: everything on a given facing.

Method #2 (a lot more 'real' but a bit slower): Armor is damage reduction. ie instead of chainmail being AC 4, it is DR4.  Specific weapons have individual Damage Penetration values, ---> Those that dont can make called shots, critical hit, or grapple to bypass armor.

Some theoretical examples:
- A warhammer would be d4, but have 8 points of damage penetration (DP), (thus it exactly negates plate armor.)
- A shortsword would be d6 with DP 3 if the player is trained/specialized in its use.
- A longsword would be d10 but without damage penetration.
- A player using a Shield can opt to force a single opponent to re-roll an attack, or give a bonus to parry.
* dont forget your strength bonus and specialization bonuses

(modern examples)
- a typical firearm has some degree of damage penetration
- a shotgun would be high damage without any damage pentration
- a sniper rifle would afford the user free called shots after a full round of aiming.

Although rules such as these seem onerous, they arnt much more data than is already lisrted in the extensive item charts in D&D4E. Since it all can be charted, it is just a matter for the DM to keep track of them.
Method 2 can be carefully balanced to any probability of outcome, but would require quite a bit of DM time to go through all the weapons, armor, and monsters. Method 1 is a lot more usable right away, however, so I would recommend that method first.

Of course there is also Method #3: Your Method. Please share with us!

- Tom W

Qualification: you'll have to trust me that my occupation gives me a lot of experience with injuries.

Golly Gee, The Future of RPGs

2009-05-19T08:00:00.002-04:00

Wyatt Salazar from Turbulent Thoughts, The Galaxy Melancholic and the Spirits of Eden has taken over The Core Mechanic! And until Jonathan Jacobs pays me enough money to buy some Strike Witches figurines, I will remain firmly in his digital throne.

Why is it so comfy? Why isn't mine this comfy? Why don't I get nice things...

Ahem. Well, this is a blog, so as long as I'm taking it over, I might as well do something productive.

This month's blog carnival is about the Future of RPGs and ever since I heard about it, I have been on a quest, my fellows.

A quest for a magical Kindle reader, which when set to an incorrect date, will display the New York Times of that day, thus allowing me a glimpse into the future. It is a scrying glass powered solely by geek magic of the Amazon school of diviners. I was told of this most mystical object by a cloaked nerd at a nearby bar who drank only cokes and seltzers.

But two things impeded my progress on this quest.

1) Kindle 2 is much sexier. I just can't go back.
2) The New York Times doesn't care about the future of RPGs.
2b) The New York Times may go bankrupt or stop publishing a paper at some point in the future, therefore even a Magical Kindle would not have worked altogether very well.

Oh, and the world ends in 2012 anyway.

So I discarded that idea, fun as it was to search Ebay and Craigslist for supposedly magical objects. So with only the power of my mind to assist me, let's talk about the Future of RPGs.

There are 3 topics which are the hot items to talk about when it comes to the future of RPGs.

The Table

A lot of people say the gaming table is going to die, but I say, nay! I think the gaming table, as any other living creature, will evolve in order to survive. And it shall evolve when we stick computers and projectors on it. Imagine a gaming table with touchpads, keyboards, and all manner of embedded doohickeys? Hell, the random number generators that such a beast might contain could end up killing DICE instead of technology killing the table.

Imagine programming your side of the table with all of your character's conceivable rolls and modifiers, perhaps even doing so ahead of time and bringing it on a small flash card. Imagine programming all of your game rules into your table. Imagine programming your dungeon master into the table! Hey yo dawg, I heard you like dungeon mastering, so we put a dungeon master in your table so you can dungeon master while you dungeon master.

Imagine the price tag on such a thing. I shudder.

But I don't think the game table has to die just because we're bringing computers over to it. The table and the digital world exist as two separate mediums of gaming, one of which I discuss in a three part series of posts on Musings of the Chatty DM. The table offers the ability to spend time at a friend's home. To drive there in bad traffic for an hour, to breathe in their cheeto musk, to beat the loving crap out of them because they're jerks.

The equivalent to all this in online gaming involves the /kick command in IRC. Unsatisfying, I say. Digital is convenient and is its own experience, but just like PDFs aren't going to disintegrate all your bound, mutilated tree souls who scream foul oaths at you in their own silent language, things like Gametable and Maptool will not suddenly invalidate the traditional invasion of somebody's home that is the hallmark of the RPG hobby.

Digital Tools

I want to talk to you about FATAL.

Look son. When a man and his calculator have very special feelings for each other, they do silly things. Silly things that they may later regret. Like creating an RPG system that uses mean, trigonometry and advanced algebraic equations for its play.

But the interesting thing about FATAL is that its creator, Byron Hall, in the midst of his gibbering insanity, had the clarity of mind to realize that nobody but he and his two physics buddies would ever play this game unless they created a means to simplify it all.

Byron Hall thought loftily. He would design programs and tools that would do all the FATAL math for you. He had a character generator, a FATAL calculator, and he probably had even more ideas on the way. I've not been acquainted with these tools though. Because sadly, FATAL was a piece of juvenile crap and its short life was full of torment and pain. But I hear from reliable sources that did use them that the game was...horrible with them. But at least your player's turns didn't last as long as a standardized math test.

Digital Tools have only gotten better. But I don't believe the initiative will be with the game designers (other than Wizard's of the Coast, who has the initiative but not the corporate direction to become the steward to the digital world), at least not at first, unless the game is from the ground-up designed to mesh with a digital tool component that is either absolutely necessary or generally enriches the game experience. I'm not talking about a character generator or stuff like that. I think that sort of thing will continue to be done better by plucky fans of the games who come from the open source community. Mostly because they do everything for free.

Look at Fantasy Ground. I don't know a single person who's ever paid for that (though I do know a lot of people who own it, nyack nyack). Now look at Maptool and Gametable. I don't know a single person who plays online who doesn't at least have them kicking around.

However, perhaps in the future we will see games with a big digital component that could enrich the experience in a way other than generate the characters or roll your dice. Maybe such a thing would more necessarily be a video game than an "honest" roleplaying game, or perhaps something even far beyond my imagination can occur.

Maybe "tabletop" rpgs marketed more towards online play through digital tools or special chat rooms and forums? Who knows. There's a big wide world of data out there just waiting to be explored, but I'm not sure how many people will consider it an option, especially when they see Wizard's ups and downs with it.

Audience

I've read surveys which say that most of the people who play RPGs are like, dinosaurs. I'm only 20, so when these same surveys tell me that the audience who plays RPGs is going to die and then nobody will play them ever again, I can only laugh at the insane leap of logic that must be made in order to support such a point of view.

To be entirely fair, I don't think the RPG market is ever going to "grow". By grow, I mean significantly, in relation to other forms of competing entertainment. When I see two guys in a bar talking about "that sweet attack roll" by that "awesome tiefling warlock" they saw on Monday Night Dungeons, I will kill myself. Then, my ghost will digitize and haunt all of your online games inserting unbalanced encounters, traps that would make Gygax smile in his grave, and causing you to critical hit each other in "friendly" duels and deal lethal damage, for no reason. I will become the Twilight haunting your games.

But I also don't think that RPG gaming is just going to disappear from the face of the Earth. I don't buy into the statistics that claim that no new gamers are coming to prop up the hobby so that it won't disappear when the rexes go to the big Jurassic Park in the sky. But then again, I don't buy into statistics for the most part, I await the day when Math is disproven and all of the World is in chaos as to just what the hell's been going on for the past thousand years.

Someday I will triumph over you and your devilish creations, Euclid, Newton and Leibniz. Put ya gunz on.

As more and more RPG efforts have taken to the internet these days (just look at that how big that Old School Rebellion thing or whatever has gotten since it started like six thursdays ago) the audience that they can reach is potentially infinite, if they would just try.

But if the big companies want to get more fresh blood, the advertising needs to be more widespread and more effective on the internet.

Wizard's of the Coast has that free D&D 4th Edition Test Drive thing, but what do they do on their website to let people know? They stick a little note halfway down their front page. Meanwhile all their banner ads are telling people idiotic things like "DON'T SPLIT THE PARTY," and "BUY D&D MINIATURES" and "THIS IS AN AVENGER, THIS IS AN INVOKER."

Conceivably, if I'm going to the Wizard's D&D website and I am a new gamer, and you tell me these things, I have no reason to give one quarter of a damn about them because I don't know what the hell you're talking about. If I play the game? I already know about them. So why are the giant banner ads about things the core audience is already going to be aware of?

Now, if you told me, the new gamer, in a huge banner ad that I could a) try out the game for free, b) get a free book that used to cost like 20 dollars and c) make any character I want using the free trial of your online tools, I'd be far, far more interested. I think a lot of new people would.

So in conclusion, Newton was a douchenozzle.

In Conclusion Conclusion

I have faith in the future of RPGs. I don't think it will ever reach the legendary fad status that I hear it had when it first came out again, and I think longing for such a thing is a ticket to disappointment. On the other hand, I don't think it will die out.

In fact, I think even though D&D Insider is a messy first step in showing people the future of RPGs, the alternatives it has generated from both fans and detractors (and the old competitors that have been thrust into a spotlight now that a big company is fumbling at what they have been doing for a while) it has done us a lot of good.

So yeah. I think the future of RPGs is pretty okay. Or at least, it has a potential to be pretty okay.

But that might just be a product of my youthful and vigorous outlook.

Ah, that feels good. Back to taking over The Core Mechanic.

*thud*

What was that? No, Jonathan! Don't come any closer! I am armed with things to throw at you! Things that belong to you and can conceivably break if I hit you with them! EEEEEEP!

Portrait of a Villain - Cerdic Elesing, High Chieftain of the Saxons

2009-05-18T08:00:00.326-04:00

"Our time has come! My countrymen, you have traveled far to join me, and now I will follow through on the oaths made by our forefathers before me. The earth will drink the blood of the Britons today and we will make these Isles our own. We will make these lands Saxon!!!" -- Cerdic Elesing, just before marching on Mount Badon.

Original artwork, "Cerdic Elesing", by Hugo Solis, exclusively for The Core Mechanic. Looking for quality illustrations for your latest project? Visit Hugo's Gallery and get in touch.

Background
Cerdic Elesing was a Saxon ealdorman who's royal family descended from a line of magistrates appointed by the Rome to care for and manage the western end of the Saxon Shore (Latin: litus Saxonicum). Although Rome had long abandoned it, the Saxons had not abandoned the dream of reclaiming Britain, a land of plenty, as their own. So, in the late 6th-century, Cerdic gathered all the ealdormen of the tribe Gewissæ together and mounted a massive invasion of Britain's southern shoreline. Within a few short years, Cerdic and his forces had destroyed the tiny kingdom of Natanleaga, taken the Isle of Wight, and conquered the southern shorelines of Britain.

Cerdic crushed all the Saxon tribes already in Britain that did not submit to his might. He never negotiated, nor ever knelt to any man. The only force in Britain that could match his army's strength was that of Arthur's cavalry. At the Battle of Mount Badon, Arthur was finally able to turn Cerdic's army back, but at a great loss to his own forces as this was Arthur's last great victory. Cerdic was not so ruined, and then sent word back to his cousins in The Continent that Britain was defenseless. Soon afterwords hordes of Saxons, Angles, Francs, and Jutes began arriving monthly along the coastlines of Britain. Cerdic was the first, but not by any stretch the last Saxon king to ravage the Isles. By 514 C.E., he had established the Kingdom of Wessex in southern Britain, and soon began to consolidate other Saxon tribes under his banner. Thereafter, Cerdic and his descendants became the largest threat to Brythonnic Kings.

Motivation
Cerdic is a raging war monger. While his long term goals are the total conquering of Britain and the subjugation of all its people, his true love in life is for the rush of battle at the head of his own army. He vows to never rest. He seeks to be a pinnacle of Saxon honor, always keeps his word once he oaths a promise, and never cowers in the face of overwhelming odds. While his son Cynric governs his fledgling kingdom from its seat in Wintanceastre, Cerdic always on the move and rules from his saddle. The main focus of his military campaigns are currently the domination of the regions west of Wessex, and the eventual control of the entire southern coastline of Britain.

Adventure Hooks

Cerdic could easily be adapted to any D&D campaign set against the backdrop of an ongoing war. He represents a tyrannical king with an insatiable thirst for battle and blood. Once he sets his sites on an objective, he will go to great lengths to prove he is able to take it. Unbeknownst to many of his subjects, Cerdic is also a collector of relics. In his quest for domination, he does recognize the usefulness of powerful relics, regardless of their source of power, and often commissions adventurers to retrieve these relics to add to his collection.

The Stolen Chalice (Heroic Tier): A new monk from The Church arrives in the region with intentions reclaiming a minor artifact important to his particular sect, The Monks of Valdis. The relic in question is a golden chalice stolen from the priest's chapel by a marauding band of Saxon barbarians. The raiders have taken refuge in the hills a days ride from the PCs home village and the priest urges the PCs to assist him in "reclaiming the property of The Church". In reality, the chalice belongs to the Saxons and possesses the ability to mend the broken and heal the sick. It is known to the Saxons as "The Chalice of Tyr"; from it pours forth wine that believed to be the blood that was split when Tyr offered his arm to the wolf Fenris. These raiders are delivering it Cerdric, whose youngest son is sick with the plague. If the PCs manage to take the chalice from the raiders, they will have made a mortal enemy of Cerdric. If they refuse, the monk will declare the PCs as heretics.
Unleash The Isle of Wights (Paragon Tier): Rumors have surfaced that the Wihtwara, cousins of the Saxons, have recently discovered an abandoned tomb on the Isle of Wight and, instead of plundering it, have built a high mound around it in hopes of sealing it off until the High Chieftain, Cerdric, can personally inspect it. These rumors have become more tangible as the PCs have recently come into possession of an ancient text, seemingly written by the 3rd century scholar Serenus, that details an early Celtic burial site on "a tiny isle, north of Gaul, that is home to the chalk-faced walking dead who seem to step into and out of this world at will". The character's liege has commissioned them to set out and infiltrate this tomb and retrieve any lost Celtic artifacts that might otherwise fall into the hands of the Saxons. The PCs reach the site with little trouble, but find that the Saxons who were previously protecting the burial ground have followed Cerdric and his personal entourage into the crypts. Once inside, the PCs find a portal to Annwyn and discover that Cedric and his men have already passed through the gate. To what end, the PCs can only guess, but they must stop Cerdic and drive him out of Annwyn before he manages to defile it.

TCM Now on Amazon's Kindle

2009-05-17T23:42:00.000-04:00

The Core Mechanic is now available to Kindle users via Amazon's WhisperNet technology. They have priced it at $1.99/month, delivered straight to your Kindle. Had I been given a choice, I would have preferred it to be free - but that's the lowest they will go for Kindle hosted blogs. I guess it's mostly to cover the cost of WhisperNet or something.

In any case, if you want to help support The Core Mechanic and happen to be a Kindle owner, click the link on the right and subscribe!

That would be super kewl!