https://tenfootpole.org/ironspike/?p=7539
The review for the adventure is awesome, through and through "It’s a real dungeon. And those are few and far between," but as a mapper, I want to focus on one paragraph. ;-)
Kudos to HexaGnome for putting together an amazing adventure and Dyson for supplying the other half of the inspiration for this. I am honored to have one of my silly little maps included in this fantastic adventure. Go, download this and run it! Go! Now!
Once this has been signed off by the proofmonkeys, I will likely post this to itchi.io.
In other news, I got a new job, I start tomorrow, likely going to be a massive amount of work and stress, but it pays well and is less than 10 minutes from my house, far better than driving an hour to Nashvegas for the same pay. Maybe I will do this for a couple of years, pay off the house, then really retire and just make gaming products. Huzzah!
...to whatever pinko commie complained about my drawing of the golem for my game, The Fallen Golem. I received this complaint today:
As I am somewhat in a bit of a funk, and because none of my friends who can play will join me for White Box, I thought perhaps I might do a little solo RPGing using these once I get a handful of cards that could be drawn randomly. So far I have four pages (36?) cards. Unfortunately my printer here at home sucks and will not print on anything more solid than standard printer paper, so I will have to do some crafting (maybe modge podge the little bastards?) or perhaps visit a Kinkos.
Still have some work to do on the dungeon cards, mostly drawing two more pages. I really like how Axebane's cards have random tables built into the cards. For solo gaming, I think this would be fantastic. It also gives me the idea that you could create 'modules' from a set of unique cards that changes up the random tables based on the environment the module takes place on. Anyway, time to get back to looking for jobs.....why does the HR department suck everywhere!?!?
Well, news flash, I am laid off. Yippie ki yay! I have a shit ton of other things going on in my life at the moment and I am in a very, very dark pace. Not that this matters to you, but the good news is I am leaning on my old therapy of map drawing. Today I tried to kill myself in the early morning heat and worked out like David Goggins, taking a break in between sets to draw a fucking map.
Here you go. Enjoy.
I have updated the maps stored in the Map Depository here I occasionally post maps that I drop here on the blog. You can find a massive list of maps, from my earliest days to some of my most recent maps.
Click the image to visit the page, or use the link on the right column to visit the page o' maps.
My buddy Vance (from over at Leicesters Ramble) is using a map of mine in his is latest adventure, it is an older map (but still checks out) and I figured "Hey, it is a slow Sunday, let's draw a map!" So, I took the map and redrew it in my latest style (I have sooo many). Enjoy!
Drew this last year, but do not believe I have shared it as it had some information for the players. As that campaign has ended, I can now share. This is probably one of my favorite "regional" type maps I've drawn.
Hexagnome took a map of mine, plus one of Dyson's, and created a fantastic adventure. It is also FREE. Seriously, check it out, really well put together and laid out beautifully.
https://sixsidedgnome.itch.io/the-sepulchre-of-seven
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/366868/The-Sepulchre-of-Seven
The other day over on FB (yes, I occasionally haunt there, and no I will not friend you) a fellow mentioned this podcast called Tale of the Manticore as a good actual play podcast. I gave it a listen
I can honestly say this is probably the BEST AP podcast I have listened to. The author weaves a story around the solo RPG he is running/playing in such a fashion that the overall effect is quite engaging. He splits this up with sidebar discussions on the character backgrounds (including the badguys), rules he is using or choosing not to use, and house rules and his reasons for using them. He also, so far, sticks to Matt's Best Podcast Guidelines #2: Stick to around 30 mins or so, otherwise you are simply bloviating.
As I said, this is a solo game but he manages to use voices and actors for some of the other parts and this along with his skills at storytelling come together to make a podcast not only interesting but a great listen.
Give it a listen, you might enjoy it (click the link or image above to head over to the TotM website).
Random thought before bed:
It makes me quite sad that people seem to no longer be creating for WB like they once were a few years ago. :-(
Well, I decided to release this upon the world. I have decided to toss it up on itch.io because all the cool kids hang out over there. Swing by for screenshots of the PDF and let me know what you think!
Itchi.io link:
https://mattjackson.itch.io/the-fallen-golem
And for those still over at DriveThru:
https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/364503/The-Fallen-Golem
I have an idea for this one, may write it up as a short, zine-style adventure. I hear they are all the rage these days.
Another map. Enjoy.
The Fuck Your Printer* version.
The Sans Numbers version.
* Thanks for the cool name Vance!
Further work on the Anglo-Saxon kingdom, still need to do some clean up and draw in the kingdom borders, but getting pretty close! This is about 1/3 the actual size (reduced for the blog), click on it and it will grow even larger for you). btw, those are not 'coins', those are seals, the one being the seal of the only king of England to have the honorific 'The Great". ;-)
Working on a map for a friend, not done but I thought it might be fun to show some progression as I work on it.
I am bored with fantasy RPGs.
I know, I know. I get this way about once a year or so, but seriously, I am tired of the same old tropes and want something new. Something unique, something strange, something different.....
I have been running the FKR Skurmish! game now for two weeks and I must admit at first I was somewhat overwhelmed. I had five independent players who were essentially playing in five simultaneous hexcrawls that resulted in up to fifteen emails in a single day....it was maddening.
However, as time went on I figured out a way to manage this in a mostly easy way. I will try to explain my method here in a manner that will not give anything away to my players (I know a few of them read this lump of space I call my blog). My initial idea was to run a quick, player vs player wargame just to see how it would run over email. Since however, it has turned into five full blown games with players interacting with local NPCs, battling dinosaurs, attempting to take over a keep to use a base of operations....honestly it is like running five solo RPG hexcrawls.
First, I created the map and fleshed out the terrain using a random die roll. I have this map in a file on my Google Drive that allows me to check the map from any location so long as I have cell or wifi (which would be a requirement for me to reply to an email anyway). This has been a boon.
Secondly, I created a random d66 table with possible neatO unique locations. I went through and determined in each hex if there was something unique there, and if so, I used the d66 table to determine what exactly would be there. Now, initially I thought this would be an 'every once in a while' special but as we have gone through in play, I find myself adding more of these because I made one slight error when I started: I made the map too darn big. While the players began mostly close to each other (again, randomly determined), play would be rather boring to wander around a map with no interactions. So far the players have encountered dinosaurs, a travelling merchant, a demon-infested ruins, a tornado, a mysterious storm shrouded tower...and that is really only after exploring a handful of hexes.
Third, I created a Google Sheets page where I roughly detailed each warband: name (if given), type, number, and 'combat value'. This combat value was determined by saying each warband would start around 100 points, the dividing that up by the types of units each player told me they wanted. If one said I want goblins and dragons, he might get 40 goblins and one dragon. This took a bit of mathematical wizardry but I eventually was able to level the playing field despite the variance in warband type. Is it perfect? No, but it works for my purposes. Plus, players will never see this. Additionally, as play happens, the warbands will increase and decrease in size, so the players' actions will end up being important to their overall combat effectiveness and the strength and power of their warband.
Fourth, and most importantly, the 'rules'. I started with dice, I am a gamer after all. I tried nutty things like roll a d6 for each troop. Roll a d6 for each point or combat value. Only 6s count....everything I tried seemed too complicated and not easy to manage. Especially if I was on the move. I knew I would be travelling a bit when I first started and I wanted to be able to manage this on the road. I couldn't be hauling around one-hundred d6s to handle a battle (I mean, I could, but I like to over pack too many clothes, so that narrowed my chances of toting around a hundred dice).
I settled on cards. I tend to not like cards for some reason, not sure why. I tried a few things but ended up settling on what I will describe below. Now you have to take into consideration that while this may not be mechanically completely fair but seems to meet the FKR model I was aiming for in play.
I assess the situation, looking at warband strength to the obstacle (monster strength, number of enemy forces, terrain, weather, task at hand, etc) and determine an initial question with an outcome ("Do they cross the gorge?"). This question is usually a yes or no answer, so cards will be draw to two sides, a yes or no side. Then I look at the situation and determine how likely each 'side' is to occur. I will draw cards for each side based on this, usually using one card as a base, with up to three cards for very likely.
For my example, a warband of orcs led by Bloodtongue the Merciless has come to a wide and steep gorge with a swiftly moving river at the bottom, attempting to wade or swim across is impossible. The player comes up with a creative way to cross and I settle on the question "Is the warband able to cross?" Given the players creativity I deem that this is a likely outcome. I will draw cards for two for "Yes" and one card for "No". Here I have drawn a 6 and King for yes and an Ace for no.
I put together some player maps so they can track the hexes they've explored and to track troop movement across the battlefield (I will be providing these in PDF for easy printing). The above is the 11x17 version with ample room for note taking. Below is the 8.5x11 for those suckers without larger printing capability.
Each hex is numbered (probably hard to read on these images) but essentially each column is a letter (A thru N) while the rows in herringbone style are numbered (1 thru 0). Players with old eyes (me included) will probably want to write those above and to the left of the hexes for visibility's sake.
Inspired by this post, I decided to try my hand at this FKR skirmish game and enlisted a few fellas to help me. Essentially you create rival warbands based on an image and text alone. Then using that knowledge, and common sense, the Host (me) arbitrates the results of all the actions of the players. I have been wanting to run some sort of skirmish game and have struggled in the past with how to exactly do this without a complicated rule system. I have probably read or skimmed through at least 30 skirmish type rule books and I often came to the end thinking "This is way to complicated" without it dawning on me that using the FRK-ideals, one could really run a skirmish on hardly any rules...or rules at all!
For those gamers among you that are struggling to understand how you do this, trust me, it is difficult. A friend and I struggled for a full week thinking about this. Anywho, if this manages to get off the ground, I will keep you updated as we play.
Below is the email that was sent out to the players, setting up the ideas of the game and how we will proceed:
This is being sent out to all the players BCC so you will not know your enemies. You cannot directly act with one without going through the Host (little ol' me), in other words, you can attempt to contact your rivals by sending a message through the Host.
How to Play:
1) Following this email, you will put together your warband, a small skirmish unit of beings. We will have a few email exchanges as we tweak your warband. You will not have ‘stats’. See "Setup" below for more information. Deadline is Noon (central) Saturday, 10 April. If everyone gets theirs in early, we will move forward.
2) I will provide a blank hex map of the valley to each player and indicate your starting hex.
3) I will request starting orders for your warband and provide a deadline for you to and these in.
4) You will receive a reply from me approximately 3-4 days later informing you of the results of your turn.
5) We will continue in this fashion until one warband is determined to be the victor.
Setup:
Imagine an open world. Your warband has been called here to battle, to explore, to become victorious. Your warband has assembled and are ready to take to the field to seek glory and treasure! A massive valley, the Valley of Bones holds riches, dangers, but also rivals. Your warband has come here to explore the valley despite these dangers.
Step 1)
Find a picture (or more) of your warband to help define what type of warband you command. These can be photos, drawings, minis, paintings, etc. You tell me what type of warband (goblins, orcs, space marines, wizards, Stormtroopers, lizardmen, Army Rangers, etc….go wild here) and once I have these from everyone I will reply with numerical details of your unit. I will do my best to normalize the power levels (ie 100 goblins versus 1 wizard sort of thing). It is fine to have more than one type of being in your warband. Once we have the "type" locked down, we move to step two.
Step 2)
I will ask for a brief description of your warband. This can include names, backstories, quirks, etc. You can be as brief or as detailed as you wish. Include your thoughts on the morale of the warband. Your warband should have a leader, name this leader, how they became leader, describe him/her, and how effective you feel their leadership.
That’s it!
A couple of notes:
o Please put (Skurmish!) in the title for each email regarding the game, that way I can easily keep things straight.
o Deadlines for you to send in orders are hard deadlines. If you fail to send an orders, your warband will act accordingly. If your last order was for them to march north and attack any beings they encounter, they will continue to do so until they are given other orders, are defeated, or are victorious (in which case, what are you but a useless meat sack).
o There will be instances where you will come across caves, ruins, temples, even villages as you explore the Valley of Bones. These can be explored. These may detract your warband from exploring the battlefield, they can be dangerous, but they can also be rewarding as well.
o Alliances, treaties, deception, subterfuge, tactics, are all in play. You can instruct your war band to any task you can imagine, but remember their capability and the reality of the world. While we might have Jedi knights fighting Shaolin monks, battling warmongering giant hamsters, and facing off against dino-riding turtles, remember that the world is a place with real physics and your band is a group of people that want to live and breath.
This inn is so named after an event in the past that occurred during the visit by the Queen. After slipping into the sulfur mud pool to the north of town, the Queen managed to pull in her aides until they were able to drag her wet, muddy, and smelly butt out. A local artist's rendition of the event reside above the mantle in quite elaborate mosaic.
The tavern was hand built by the current owner and operator, Thornton Eckelstone. As Thornton is not an exceptionally skilled carpenter, he made a few notable mistakes when laying out and constructing his tavern. Most notable among these is the height of the ceiling. Due to his own short stature, he did not notice the fact that his ceiling was shorter than the norm. Many visitors will bang their heads on the aged, dark wood of the ceiling.
Regardless of how many people are here it feels crowded and has a claustrophobic feel. Favorite place of the sailors who visit the village. 1 in 6 chance every turn a fight will break out. At any one time there are d6+2 sailors here, 4 in 6 they are already drunk (and rowdy like sailors get).
THE CAST O' CHARACTERS:
CURRENT ROSTER
THE CAST O' CHARACTERS:
CURRENT ROSTER
Ep 18. Rescue Marigold, thievery, bandits! - 25 Feb
The party regroups and wait for Marigold who suddenly realized the predicament she was in. She manages to get back to the party and they quickly determine that they must return to town and collect their XP.
DM's Thoughts:
I think another player (her hubby) explained to her the OSR mantra of 'never split the party' and that is what caused Marigold to suddenly change course and return to the party.
DM Comment 1: they were quit upset that I did not let the bandits and hirelings be a simple, 'we show up, kick their ass, and take back our gold.' Boohoo crybabies, suck it. Did I do it on purpose? Heck ya, railroad my adventure for some chase through the woods? Yeah, have a bandit party with a troll and a spell caster, bitches. How you like me now?
DM Comment 2: They cried more when the troll was not effected by the magical sleep spell and then when I pulled out a spell cast to cast sleep on them! Whiney little fuckers! You'd think I had a bunch of millennial 5e players instead of some cool old school guys.
DM Comment 3: Here is the real thing. Dosta cast sleep on the Fungal Men in the cave. Then two hours later (we discussed this and the players suggested that 2 hours was how long they were down there), he cast ANOTHER Sleep spell! As a first level elf.
I am starting wonder about this group....
