The goal of Free RPG Day is to inspire gamers to play a new RPG, which will in turn, create sales through local game stores.

These are the sponsors who have already committed to being a part of Free RPG Day 2010. This list is not final.

So I figured it was time I watch one of the episodes of I Hit It With My Axe to see what all the fuss was about. I watched episode four because I thought by then they would work out the kinks and I could get a better idea of what the director was trying to accomplish. I was wrong. I came away from it with three distinct impressions.

1) People are fucking idiots. Reading the comments to the video, I noticed a lot of people posting that these girls weren’t “hot enough.” Holy shit guys, get some fucking perspective! These women are actors/strippers. When you see them in a video or on stage, they have on a lot of makeup, good lighting, they’re naked, etc. This is a video of them on their day off playing D&D. That’s like saying that Salma Hayek isn’t one of the most beautiful women in the world because that one time you saw her at 7:30 in the morning at Starbucks, she didn’t look like she’d spent hours working on her hair and the only reason you were there was because your mom made you get up for work, again, and Salma didn’t even acknowledge the cool new wolf moon tee shirt your mom bought you.

2) The editor is an idiot. Whoever edited this thing looks like they did three hits of meth before working on the reel-to-reel. I had at least three seizures because of the one-second cutaways. I may have had more, but I lost count after the aneurysm.

3) It’s fucking boring. It’s a bunch of people sitting around playing D&D. Whee! “I rolled a 14!” “I turn into a werewolf!” “My daddy didn’t love me!” “I’ve lost the will to live and am seriously regretting the choices I’ve made in my life!*” I love gaming at the table when I’m actually participating but watching other people I don’t know play is just… well, it’s just awful.

*Ok, the last two didn’t happen but I was hoping for it. At least that would’ve been interesting.

All in all, I must say that I was disappointed. With the amount of twittering I saw about it, I expected more… well… anything. But all I got was a poorly edited, poorly soundtracked video of a bunch of girls playing D&D. Not even a wardrobe malfunction dammit! Seriously, if this wasn’t touted as “D&D with Porn Stars!” no one would give a shit.

Movie Quote Powers

Many of us already do this around the table—make up variant names for our powers (the ranger’s claws of the griffon becomes claws of Kathy Griffin; the warlord’s steel monsoon becomes Gorilla Monsoon). In many cases, these new power names and their application are tied to movie quotes (as everything around the table gets tied, inevitably, to movie quotes… and so we’d be remiss not to mention Chatty DM’s warlord powers).

In today’s special feature, we decided to reverse-engineer the process, creating 4th Edition D&D powers based on movie quotes.

It goes without saying (but we’ll say it anyway), these are hardly game-legal. But it’s April 1st… and if anyone can convince their DMs to let you playtest the following—we say, more powers to you!

Predator

Monty Python, Holy Grail

It’s Only a Flesh Wound

Fighter Utility 2

You are able to fight on, even through agonizing wounds. You can also continue peppering your opponents with witty remarks while you bleed at them.

Encounter Martial
Immediate Interrupt Personal
Trigger: An enemy damages you and you drop to 0 hit points or fewer

Effect: You are dying, but do not fall unconscious. You are able to stand (probably on one leg) but can take no actions other than insulting the triggering enemy while you are dying (and hopping). In addition, whenever an enemy moves adjacent to you for the rest of the encounter, you can threaten to either bleed at them or bite their knees.

Princess Bride

I’m Not Left Handed Either!

Dread Pirate Attack 5

Just when your enemy thinks they have you in a bad place (like a cliff edge), you switch your weapon to your other hand, show some fancy footwork, press the attack while showing your superior skill, and then knock your foe out.

Daily Martial, Sleep, Weapon
Immediate Reaction Melee weapon
Requirement: You must be wielding a one-handed weapon (preferably a rapier) and have your other hand free.
Trigger: An enemy bloodies you

Effect: You switch your weapon to your other hand with a flourish and make the following attack.

Target: The triggering enemy

Attack: Dexterity vs. AC

Effect: Before the attack, you push the target 5 squares, then shift adjacent to the target (using Acrobatics or Athletics, if possible… especially if you can do a spinning somersault off of a bar, which gains a +10 bonus to the check).

Hit: The target falls unconscious (save ends).

Special: If the target is a Spaniard, it takes a –5 penalty to saving throws against this effect.

The Matrix

Dodge This!

Ranger Attack 9

You slide up behind your enemy while it’s distracted and gloating about its superiority, and attack from “up-close-and-personal” range. The attack is even more harmful to agents… uh, constructs.

Daily Martial, Weapon
Immediate Interrupt Ranged weapon
Requirement: You must be wielding a ranged weapon.
Trigger: An enemy within 4 squares of you targets an ally (who you like to call “the one”) with a ranged attack

Effect: Before the attack, you shift adjacent to the triggering enemy as a free action and make a Stealth check with a +10 bonus to the check against its Perception. If you succeed, you make the following attack (without provoking an attack of opportunity).

Target: The triggering enemy

Attack: Dexterity vs. AC

Hit: 2[W] + Dexterity modifier damage.

Effect: If the target is a construct, the attack instead deals 6[W] damage and you score an automatic critical hit against the target.

Pirates of the Caribbean

And Really Bad Eggs

Rogue Utility 16

Drink up me ‘earties. Yo ho.

Daily Charm, Martial
Minor Action Close burst 5
Requirement: You must have a broken compass.
Target: You and each creature in burst

Effect: You gain a +10 bonus on the next d20 roll you make until the start of your next turn. Each creature in the burst other than you must drink from a flask or bottle of rum as a free action. Those who do gain 15 temporary hit points and grant combat advantage until the start of your next turn. Any target that does not partake must succeed on a saving throw; on a failed save, the target cannot take standard actions until the end of your next turn.

Roll-Playing for Roleplaying

Dice-n-Wipes

There are no words to describe how awesome this is.

But March the fourth made me whimper
When the news it was delivered
Sad news from the Troll Lord
And then on every message board

I can’t remember which of my dice
I chose to roll that very night
For the man who got it right
The day the DM died

So, bye, bye Mr. d20 Guy
Failed the final saving throw and then didn’t survive
And all around the world, the gamers did cry
Sayin’ thank you Mr. d20 Guy
Thank you Mr. d20 Guy

Have you read the PHB
And have you looked through the DMG
And what the heck is a drow (drough)
This is going to be so f’n cool
My dwarf barbarian will make you drool
And I really think you pronounce it drow (cow)

Well I know that things are looking grim
The dragon’s looking right at him
Made a percentile roll
I’m now hiding in shadows

I was a lucky halfling, that’s a fact
Stole lots of things and put ‘em in my pack
But I knew I could never go back
The day the DM died

I started rollin’
Bye, bye Mr. d20 Guy
Failed the final saving throw and then didn’t survive
And all around the world, the gamers did cry
Sayin’ thank you Mr. d20 Guy
Thank you Mr. d20 Guy

Now, for over ten years we’ve been rollin’ well
I even took my paladin to hell
But, boy, the rules have really changed
I was really sad to see half-orcs go
And what the hell is THACO
But, man, I really dig the weapon speed

Oh, and while the king was in L.A.
The jesters took his game away
The boardroom was adjourned
When the DM did return
And with pirates that would block the way
The king was told he couldn’t stay
But all that madness went away
The day the DM died

We were rollin’
Bye, bye Mr. d20 Guy
Failed the final saving throw and then didn’t survive
And all around the world, the gamers did cry
Sayin’ thank you Mr. d20 Guy
Thank you Mr. d20 Guy

Holy moley I’m checkin’ out the ranger
Two-weapon fighting makes him a danger
DM’s think he’s a pain in the ass
Player’s monk ran out of gas
Every flurry just seemed to pass
Leaving the bad guy without a scratch

Now I really like these brand new feats
My half-orc fighter’s really neat
I tried to run a game
Oh, but it just wasn’t the same

‘Cause the players have kids of their own
And no one remembers what to roll
And we were shocked down to our soul
The day the DM died

We started rollin’
Bye, bye Mr. d20 Guy
Failed the final saving throw and then didn’t survive
And all around the world, the gamers did cry
Sayin’ thank you Mr. d20 Guy
Thank you Mr. d20 Guy

Oh, and there we were just running the race
A generation losing pace
With no time left to game again
But come on let’s look through this brand new book
Man these powers really cook
You mean I get to play a dragon

And as I watched the gamers laugh
The memories came flooding back
Time it can go so fast
No living in the past

And as the dice rolled on into the night
I realized it just felt right
And I held back tears with all my might
The day the DM died

He was rollin’
Bye, bye Mr. d20 Guy
Failed the final saving throw and then didn’t survive
And all around the world, the gamers did cry
Sayin’ thank you Mr. d20 Guy
Thank you Mr. d20 Guy

I knew that when I read the news
I had just bid my childhood adieu
And I just sighed and turned away
I went down to the local store
Where I had gamed some years before
But the man there said that gamers couldn’t stay

And on the web the players mourned
About the game that he had born
Not a bad word was posted
The game master was toasted

And many folks admired the guy
Who’s rollin’ dice up in the sky
We told ourselves that we could cry
The day the DM died

And they were rollin’
Bye, bye Mr. d20 Guy
Failed the final saving throw and then didn’t survive
And all around the world, the gamers did cry
Sayin’ thank you Mr. d20 Guy
Thank you Mr. d20 Guy

They were rollin’
Bye, bye Mr. d20 Guy
Failed the final saving throw and then didn’t survive
And all around the world, the gamers did cry
Sayin’ thank you Mr. d20 Guy

Levels 1 to 3: Crypt of the Everflame

We started off with Crypt of the Everflame, the very first Pathfinder adventure written using the final rules sold at GenCon. It was a lot of fun and a great method of bringing disparate PCs together in order to move towards a common goal.

Level 3 to 4: Final Resting Place

I wanted to introduce my characters to the Pathfinder Society and make them want to join. I pulled out Dungeon Magazine #122 and used the adventure called “Final Resting Place”. It allowed me to use a character from Crypt of the Everflame, who is a member of the Society, to ask the PCs to rescue the body of a particularly famous Society member. I also thought it was a slick adventure with some interesting problems to solve. The players liked it and came up with interesting solutions to said problems.

Level 4 to 5: Heroes’ End

This is a fun adventure from Goodman Games’ “Dungeon Crawl Classics #48: The Adventure Continues“. Essentially, the PCs are transported to a fairy tale plane where they must defeat Rapunzel and The Old Woman in the Shoe in order to get back to their own world. The players were completely surprised by a) a talking book and b) the fact that the talking book tricked them into moving through a portal into another plane. In the end, they were able to defeat who they needed to defeat and made their way back to their own plane. Because of their actions in the fairy tale plane, I was able to move them towards the next adventure.

Level 5 to 6: Forest of Blood

This adventure, from Dungeon Magazine #103, was written by a friend of mine and it was a lot of fun. It had the PCs traveling to a small town that was having their annual Winter Faire. They completed what they needed to do because of the previous adventure and then decided to partake in the Faire events. Unfortunately, the town was attacked by a group of wolves and the PCs, after defending the villagers in danger, had to find out what was going on. It’s a great adventure and I highly recommend it.

Level 6: The Menagerie

At the moment, the players are standing outside of the store mentioned in this adventure from Dungeon Magazine #126 and are ready to go inside and save the day!

I have more adventures ready to go but may change them depending on what they do during the campaign. I love having the freedom to change the campaign as necessary without worrying that I am going to screw up the entire over-arcing storyline.

The application period for being a peer reviewers closes December 31st, 2009. These individuals will be responsible for reading the entries (not all of them mind you, I will spread the word count around) and interacting with me during the final decision making process. If chosen, your names will be witheld until publication of the book. If you are interested, please click here for more information and to submit your information: http://rpganthology.wufoo.com/forms/open-game-table-volume-2-peer-review-application/

The submission deadline for nominations of blog posts closes January 15th, 2010. I’ve streamlined the submission process so that all you need to is submit a valid URL. Up to 5 per submission form can be accomodated; but there’s no limit to how many you can send in. The nomination form, and more information, can be found here: http://rpganthology.wufoo.com/forms/open-game-table-vol-2-blog-post-nomination-form/

The play was finally performed and reviews for it are glowing! Pictures of the production are available here. This one’s my favorite:

GOBLINS!!!

Let me give you a little history about campaigns I have run. A few years back, I ran a 3.5 Eberron campaign that lasted 1.5 years and took the PCs from first to 21st level. That campaign consisted of me cobbling together separate adventures and tweaking them to fit the personalities of the PCs and the storylines that I had interwoven into the overall plot. I’m actually using the same adventures in the Eberron PbP I’m currently running, tweaking them as necessary and swapping complete adventures out as I see fit.

After that, a friend of mine ran a short campaign before having to turn over DMing duty to me since he was back in school. I decided to run the Savage Tide adventure path. The first session should have been a clue to me since it was a TPK. But, no, I just reset the campaign and went on from there. It was the deadliest campaign I have ever run with the PC death rate numbering in the twenties by the time we quit. We bounced around between other folks DMing until 4E came out. Once again, I decided to run an adventure path. This one was Scales of War. Unfortunately, it was miserable and, partially because of the AP and partially because we decided we didn’t like 4E, we stopped after the third adventure in the path.

Fast forward to a few months ago and I was DMing again. I decided to try out Pathfinder and run the Rise of the Runelords AP. We found that we really liked Pathfinder and even updated the PCs after the final rules came out. But, just as with previous AP’s, we ended up not liking it and stopped playing it.

To be fair, part of that is, of course, my fault as the DM. While AP’s are a good idea, there are problems inherent to them that I was unable to overcome.

1. It’s a huge railroad.

This actually became an issue in the very first session. With the way that one of the character’s background was written, it didn’t make sense for her to go along with the plot. It wasn’t that she was trying to be difficult, it was just that the AP clashed with her background. In the end, she changed her background to better fit but I hated the fact that she had to do that. In fact, during the second adventure, another player announced “But why would we do X? So far, we have no motive beyond find the macguffin.” That’s paraphrasing, of course, but he had a good point. There really was no reason for them to do it beyond “the town is in trouble and the sheriff is gone and we need you to do this.” But the problem was that if the PCs didn’t go from point A to point B to point C, it could throw off the rest of the Adventure Path.

2. It’s very hard to tailor the campaign to fit individual PCs.

This is especially true if you play the AP as it is published. So if you start with module one before module two is published, you may end up changing something in module one inadvertently that has an effect in module two or in a later module. And even if you wait until all modules have been published, it will take a lot of effort to change things because so may pieces rely upon one another.

3. If the adventure sucks, you’re stuck.

The first half of the second part of Rise of the Runelords, The Skinsaw Murders, was awesome. The scene with the cornfield and the farmhouse was intense. And the Manor itself was incredibly well written. I had a great time running it and my players had a great time playing it. Unfortunately, a half does not make a whole. The rest of the adventure was meh at best. But, in order to advance through the AP, we were stuck having to slog through it, hoping it would get better.

So, yeah, we trashed it. We decided to start over and I vowed, yes vowed!, to never run an AP again. I’m going back to my tried and true method of picking individual adventures, making the characters more a part of the world, and tailor the campaign to fit the PCs rather than having to tailor the PCs to fit the campaign.

So far, the PCs are about halfway through Crypt of the Everflame, the first Pathfinder module based upon the final rules. It’s a fun little module and really gives the PCs a chance to become part of the community, rather than just write it into their background that “so and so really get along.” By the time they finish, they’ll be third level (we use the “Fast” leveling chart) so I needed to come up with a third level adventure. I also knew that I wanted to introduce the Pathfinder Society into the campaign. So I checked my resources and, lo and behold, I have an adventure that is not only really cool but it also has the perfect tie-in to get the PCs into the Pathfinder Society.

I’m still looking at other, higher level, adventures for the rest of the campaign, but the PCs haven’t established themselves enough for me to tell which ones would fit. But that will come in time and I’ll have fun trying to find the next “perfect” adventure for the group. As it stands, I’m more jazzed about this campaign than I have been in a long time.

I am honored at the interest in the play.

We are in rehearsal with a cast of 24 humans, 8 goblins, 6 elves, a gnome, a halfling, a demon and a fire leopard.

Again, I wish to repeat the sentiment expressed here. Paizo is the most amazing community the gaming world has to offer. It makes me a little verklempt thinking about all the hard work they do for all of us, for love of the game.

Having gamed the Rise of the Runelords, Crimson throne and preparing for the Council of thieves, it is CRYSTAL clear that the writers at Paizo have a mastery of story-telling, a dedication to gaming and the true spirit of community. Community not just for the sake of making a few bucks (though isn’t that the dream of all of us) but because they recognize something important in this game.

My school is Portland’s Arts magnet school. We were started by a group of parents only 14 years ago. These were parents who wanted the artistically-oriented kids of Portland to have the option of expressing themselves in a focused, arts-disciplined environment. Frankly, we have had some great successes and a few frustrations, but we continue to grow and take leadership in the arts and in education.

For the last couple of years we have had a group of young boys and girls who have seemed to operate in isolation, not quite connecting. This is the same group of skaters/video-gamers/”ne’er do wells that I was a part of 30 years ago (Crap! 30 years????). So I decided to use my art form (I’ve been a theater artist for almost those same 30 years) to give them a taste of DnD, the game the made such a difference to me. I wish you all could see these these kids. Involved, swinging swords, trying to figure out how to pronounce Elven, Goblin and Danish (Gnomish). They are reading every bit of background I can give them, working on costume designs, fight and dance choreography, Ameiko is fervently practicing her guitar. And best of all, many of them are starting to pick up Pathfinder books and connect Paizo to the world of the game.

The main party is drawn from town:

Finn, A young errand boy for the Rusty Dragon
Ameiko Kaijitsu, Owner of the Rusty Dragon
Milosh Hemlock, Son of Sheriff Belor Hemlock
Shalelu Andosana, Elven bounty hunter.
Abstalar Zantus, Priest of Desna
Veznutt Parooh, Gnomish wizard, owner of the Way North

Milosh and Finn are the only original additions. They are the focus of the Hero’s Journey arc of the play. Milosh to fighter, Finn to Wizard.

Come see us. Support us if you can. And please keep supporting the folks at Paizo.

If you’re in the Portland, Oregon area, or will be in the middle of November, I strongly encourage you to go to this play and support both future gamers and the school. And, if you do plan to go, let folks know on this EN World poll.

This is absolutely, 100% real. In fact, you can check out the schedule for the school here and look for yourself. The best part is that James Jacobs himself has stated that “[s]everal of us here at Paizo are trying to figure out if we can spare a day off work to head down to see the play…”

I love it when kids show so much enthusiasm for RPGs and that schools support them! If you’re in the Portland, OR, area, go and let me know how it went!

(I found this via a thread on EN World.)

In Pathfinder, there is a group known as the Pathfinder Society. In short, they are “a loose-knit group of explorers, archaeologists, and adventurers who span the globe in search of lost knowledge and ancient treasures.” Reading a little bit more on them, I found a passage in the Campaign Setting that stated:

Agents are expected to provide detailed written reports of their exploits to their venture-captains, who then forward the most compelling records to the Grand Lodge in Absalom for consideration by the Decemvirate.

And this got me thinking that I could use this to reward my players while, at the same time, encourage further development of their characters. I sent the following note to my players:

If you want, you can write up a recap of a session, a specific portion of an adventure (for example, a dungeon crawl that only takes place as the middle third of the adventure), or of an entire adventure and post it; pretend you’re writing it for an audience.

For every recap you write for a session, you earn 1 Hero Point. If you write about a specific portion of an adventure, i.e. the dungeon crawl example above, you will earn 3 Hero Points. If you recap an entire adventure, you earn 5 Hero Points.

Also, in game, you might end up seeing them published for folks to read.

Personally, and I’m probably a little bit biased here, I think it’s a great idea. It keeps the players engaged out of the game, rewards them for character development, and provides material for the in-game world.

Video Embedded Below

You’ve only got five days so go and put your bids in now to spend time with your favorite publisher during the 2009 ENnie Awards as well as support the ENnie Awards itself!

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Order 66 Podcast: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=180393588180

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http://www.garycon.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=119&start=0

http://okayyourturn.yuku.com/topic/17685

http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?p=10706037

http://www.indie-rpgs.com/forum/index.php?topic=28433.0

http://www.therpgsite.com/showthread.php?p=317616

http://forums.gleemax.com/showthread.php?p=19169356

http://paizo.com/paizo/messageboards/paizoPublishing/pathfinder/general/eNniesMeetYour2010ENniesJudgeNominees

http://www.greenronin.com/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?p=76264

http://forums.white-wolf.com/cs/forums/t/10493.aspx

http://www.exilegames.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=26341

http://www.circvsmaximvs.com/showthread.php?p=976716

http://www.animalball.com/forums/viewtopic.php?p=104452

http://www.story-games.com/forums/comments.php?DiscussionID=10007

http://www.therpghaven.com/viewtopic.php?f=8&t=561&start=0

http://www.enworld.org/forum/general-rpg-discussion/259962-meet-your-2010-ennies-judge-nominees.html

http://www.ennie-awards.com/nominations/2010judges.asp

Once you’ve looked them over, you can vote here:

http://www.ennie-awards.com/voting/jvoting.asp

I don’t like the idea of telling the player “X hits you for Y damage” only to allow the player to say “I would have used the ring!” and have to retcon everything. I think that puts too much power in the hands of the player. Also, I don’t want to slow things down just to ask the player “do you use the ring?” before every single attack against them in combat. OTOH, I don’t want to tell the player “no you can’t have it” because it’s a pretty cool “not in the face!” item.

So what ways could I do this to not slow things down and not put too much power in the players hands but still keep things fun and fair?