Wondrous Imaginings

On May 2, in NYC, +Zak Smith has a new art show at his gallery.  Last time we had a decent turnout of DnD types, maybe 15 or so.  It was a good time and a great way to connect with people in the area.  But we were far outnumbered by the Hipsters.  Let's change that.




We'll hit the bar, then hit the Compleat Strategist.

Then hit the bar again.

Then hit Zak's show.  

Afterwards, I imagine we'll hit the bar again.

Just don't hit the hipsters.  No matter how much you want to.

And believe me, you'll want to hit the hipsters.

Who's in!?!?

If Pat Robertson is wasting his last few breaths of life saying D&D is evil, someone at Pathfinder or WOTC ought to try to leverage that shit and bring back 1983 again.

So, last Saturday night playing in +Erik Tenkar 's game I was three sheets to the wind and asked him what this S&W day thing was all about.  He told me, and I promptly forgot all about volunteering to do something.  Until today when I saw 3000 posts.  Shit.

Thinking about a topic all day, I realized that while I like S&W in general, I would never run it.  Why?  Same reason I would never run any AD&D game for a campaign---thief skills.  The only thing I ever liked about 2nd edition was that they allowed thieves to adjust how their skills went up.  AD&D never did that.  S&W Complete doesn't do it.  So that makes the system a deal-breaker.

I've been using LOTFP's Grindhouse for my Blood Island old school games I dm on G+.  I like it's flexibility.  I've used it to create a lot of different things in the game.  However, as you've seen, the Blood Island games are few and far between these days.  Lack of time, laziness, and focus on writing other stuff seems to be getting in the way of me creating games to run.

And I do miss running games on G+.

So I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone.  

I changed the thief skills in S&W complete to be adjustable by the player as they level.  This applies to all classes that use thief skills, like monk, ranger, and assassin.  Also, I made some other basic houserules, as shown below.  And I've decided to run a S&W Complete game every other Saturday, from noon EST to 3 pm EST, if enough people are interested.

I'm going to run TOEE, set in the time of the Greyhawk Wars, in a non-flailsnails game.  I'm keeping BI as my flailsnails venue.  This will be an interesting exercise for me, because I'm running the same game for the old college gang using Pathfinder rules, face to face on Sunday nights.  This allows me to both compare and contrast games, playstyles, systems, and to be able to run the games without much prep work.

Houserules are below.  Anyone interested?  Looking for a pool of people who, although they may not make it every week, are enough of a pool to draw a group from every other Saturday. 

House Rules for the Swords and Wizardry Complete TOEE/Greyhawk Wars Game.
Ability Scores:
Roll 4d6, drop lowest, arrange as desired.
Fighters get the str bonus to attack and dmg for melee weapons and bare knuckles. Rangers get it for bows. Halflings for slings. All classes get the dex bonus to hit with missile weapons.
Intelligence and MU's: 17 int gives 11 spells max, 18 gives 12 max.
Clerics get the bonus first level spell for wis 15+, can can use it at first level.
At first level only you get to roll twice for hp and take the higher of the two.
Classes:
Monks, rangers and thieves now get to decide how their thief-like abilities progress. See below.
Monk not allowed to hide in shadows or pick locks.
Rangers: Spells known are actually druid spells and mu spells, not cleric and mu. Rangers gain the strength bonus to att and dmg if using bows that fighters get if using melee weapons.
Druids don't have to beat the shit out of other druids as they get to higher levels.
Races:
Demi-human level limits in effect, but add 3 levels to all stated level caps.
Dwarves can play Fighter/Clerics, but only of the Dwarven God of Battle Clangedin.
Elven mu's have the ability to cast druid spells, but only if it is memorized as any other mu spell from their spellbook. Even if non-elven mu's find spellbooks or scrolls of these elven/druid spells, they are unable to learn them. Druid spells are considered to be two levels higher for these purposes—in other words, a first level druid spell counts as a 3rd level elven mu spell.
Halflings add str. att. and dmg. bonuses normally reserved for fighters in melee to any attacks made with a sling. This is in addition to dex or any other bonuses.
Other:
Single saving throws.
Alignment won't matter much unless the class demands you to specify one.
Initiative and order of battle: d6 for the group, first one from the winning side to yell out what they are doing does it. Must act fast, minimal time to debate actions in the group. Players who are casting spells must declare the spell they are casting before initiative is rolled. If you are hit before your turn in combat and take any damage, you lose the spell.
Ascending AC will be used.
Firing missile weapons into melee is dangerous for your allies. Random rolls to see who it might hit.
Natural 20 = max damage, natural 1 = you cannot take an action in the next melee round.
Unconscious at 0 hp, dead at -1
Spellbooks, Scrolls, Costs and Maintenance:
Spellbook costs 100 GP.
Spells are hard to purchase from other mages, but when available, the prices are negotiable. Roughly:
Costs to scribe spells into your spellbook: 100 gp per spell level.
Costs to buy scrolls: 1st -100 2nd -500 3rd-1000 4th -negotiable
Time to scribe spells from one thing to your book: 1 day per spell level
Thief abilities for Thieves, Monks, Assassins, and Rangers
Racial modifiers allowed. No dex bonuses. No armor penalties other than armor allowed by class/race.
Starting Scores by Class


Climb Walls
Delicate Tasks
Hear Noise
Hide in Shadows
Move Silently
Open Locks
Other Classes
20
5
20
5
5
2
Thieves
85
15
50
20
20
10
Assassins
50
10
30
10
10
10
Monks
75
10
60
N/A
10
N/A
Rangers
50*
N/A
50
20**
20**
N/A

Thieves and assassins get to distribute 30 percentage points per level wherever they want.Monks and Rangers get to distribute 20 percentage points per level wherever they want.
*Rangers can only climb walls at that rate if it is outdoors, like a cliff face or something natural. Otherwise their rolls are -25% for the types of walls thieves normally climb, like man-made ones.
**Rangers get move silently and hide in shadows, but all rolls are -10% if not outside in a wilderness or natural type of area.

So, last Saturday night playing in +Erik Tenkar 's game I was three sheets to the wind and asked him what this S&W day thing was all about.  He told me, and I promptly forgot all about volunteering to do something.  Until today when I saw 3000 posts.  Shit.

Thinking about a topic all day, I realized that while I like S&W in general, I would never run it.  Why?  Same reason I would never run any AD&D game for a campaign---thief skills.  The only thing I ever liked about 2nd edition was that they allowed thieves to adjust how their skills went up.  AD&D never did that.  S&W Complete doesn't do it.  So that makes the system a deal-breaker.

I've been using LOTFP's Grindhouse for my Blood Island old school games I dm on G+.  I like it's flexibility.  I've used it to create a lot of different things in the game.  However, as you've seen, the Blood Island games are few and far between these days.  Lack of time, laziness, and focus on writing other stuff seems to be getting in the way of me creating games to run.

And I do miss running games on G+.

So I figured I'd kill two birds with one stone.  

I changed the thief skills in S&W complete to be adjustable by the player as they level.  This applies to all classes that use thief skills, like monk, ranger, and assassin.  Also, I made some other basic houserules, as shown below.  And I've decided to run a S&W Complete game every other Saturday, from noon EST to 3 pm EST, if enough people are interested.

I'm going to run TOEE, set in the time of the Greyhawk Wars, in a non-flailsnails game.  I'm keeping BI as my flailsnails venue.  This will be an interesting exercise for me, because I'm running the same game for the old college gang using Pathfinder rules, face to face on Sunday nights.  This allows me to both compare and contrast games, playstyles, systems, and to be able to run the games without much prep work.

Houserules are below.  Anyone interested?  Looking for a pool of people who, although they may not make it every week, are enough of a pool to draw a group from every other Saturday. 

House Rules for the Swords and Wizardry Complete TOEE/Greyhawk Wars Game.
Ability Scores:
Roll 4d6, drop lowest, arrange as desired.
Fighters get the str bonus to attack and dmg for melee weapons and bare knuckles. Rangers get it for bows. Halflings for slings. All classes get the dex bonus to hit with missile weapons.
Intelligence and MU's: 17 int gives 11 spells max, 18 gives 12 max.
Clerics get the bonus first level spell for wis 15+, can can use it at first level.
At first level only you get to roll twice for hp and take the higher of the two.
Classes:
Monks, rangers and thieves now get to decide how their thief-like abilities progress. See below.
Monk not allowed to hide in shadows or pick locks.
Rangers: Spells known are actually druid spells and mu spells, not cleric and mu. Rangers gain the strength bonus to att and dmg if using bows that fighters get if using melee weapons.
Druids don't have to beat the shit out of other druids as they get to higher levels.
Races:
Demi-human level limits in effect, but add 3 levels to all stated level caps.
Dwarves can play Fighter/Clerics, but only of the Dwarven God of Battle Clangedin.
Elven mu's have the ability to cast druid spells, but only if it is memorized as any other mu spell from their spellbook. Even if non-elven mu's find spellbooks or scrolls of these elven/druid spells, they are unable to learn them. Druid spells are considered to be two levels higher for these purposes—in other words, a first level druid spell counts as a 3rd level elven mu spell.
Halflings add str. att. and dmg. bonuses normally reserved for fighters in melee to any attacks made with a sling. This is in addition to dex or any other bonuses.
Other:
Single saving throws.
Alignment won't matter much unless the class demands you to specify one.
Initiative and order of battle: d6 for the group, first one from the winning side to yell out what they are doing does it. Must act fast, minimal time to debate actions in the group. Players who are casting spells must declare the spell they are casting before initiative is rolled. If you are hit before your turn in combat and take any damage, you lose the spell.
Ascending AC will be used.
Firing missile weapons into melee is dangerous for your allies. Random rolls to see who it might hit.
Natural 20 = max damage, natural 1 = you cannot take an action in the next melee round.
Unconscious at 0 hp, dead at -1
Spellbooks, Scrolls, Costs and Maintenance:
Spellbook costs 100 GP.
Spells are hard to purchase from other mages, but when available, the prices are negotiable. Roughly:
Costs to scribe spells into your spellbook: 100 gp per spell level.
Costs to buy scrolls: 1st -100 2nd -500 3rd-1000 4th -negotiable
Time to scribe spells from one thing to your book: 1 day per spell level
Thief abilities for Thieves, Monks, Assassins, and Rangers
Racial modifiers allowed. No dex bonuses. No armor penalties other than armor allowed by class/race.
Starting Scores by Class


Climb Walls
Delicate Tasks
Hear Noise
Hide in Shadows
Move Silently
Open Locks
Other Classes
20
5
20
5
5
2
Thieves
85
15
50
20
20
10
Assassins
50
10
30
10
10
10
Monks
75
10
60
N/A
10
N/A
Rangers
50*
N/A
50
20**
20**
N/A

Thieves and assassins get to distribute 30 percentage points per level wherever they want.Monks and Rangers get to distribute 20 percentage points per level wherever they want.
*Rangers can only climb walls at that rate if it is outdoors, like a cliff face or something natural. Otherwise their rolls are -25% for the types of walls thieves normally climb, like man-made ones.
**Rangers get move silently and hide in shadows, but all rolls are -10% if not outside in a wilderness or natural type of area.

I've given up questioning +James Raggi 's crazy business tactics, because no matter how nutty his ideas are when he tells them to me with manic energy and enthusiasm on G+ chat at 3 am, the shit actually works out.  His latest idea was to use Indie-GoGo  fund something to give away on Free RPG Day.  I'll be damned if he didn't get a shit-ton of money for it.

Now what he wants to do is gather a bunch of websites and blogs for those who find his product and are interested in the OSR.  People over on G+ (which seems to be the new playground of the OSR btw) are adding sites to his list.

This thing has been going on for what, five years?  This exploration of the old ways of gaming, the original source material, the history of the hobby?  Start dates vary, but in the early days there were not only amazing webpages and blogs, there were some posts from those bloggers that stood out as exceptional.  Shit that when you read it either changed your perspective, turned you on, helped you GET IT finally, or made you say FUCK YEAH! to the whole OSR thing.

My fear is that when you list all these webpages, some of which have thousands of posts, it will be overwhelming to the new guy trying to figure it all out.

Looking back into a old bookmark folder I set up in like '08 when I was first getting into the scene, I realized I not only bookmarked sites, I also bookmarked some individual posts.  One of them I think everyone knows about, Matt Finch's Quick Primer for Old School Gaming. 

Another one was written by +James Raggi,  and it's just as good now as it was then.  I wish he would do more stuff like this sometimes, but I know growing the business takes up most of his time (and his living room)  these days.

His post I Hate Fun is here.  Read it.

Please feel free to add in the comments here or over on G+ other such individual posts that either changed your perspective, turned you on, helped you GET IT finally, or made you say FUCK YEAH! to the whole OSR thing.

Just wondering, I know +Christian Walker  was doing the excellent 'zine Loviatar, and now +Tim Shorts is doing one called The Manor, which I intend to buy after the next paycheck, but I haven't heard of any others.

Are there any other folks in the OSR putting out 'zines?  Are there any folks who did in the last few years, whether or not there are still issues available?  Seems like there ought to be an archive of such things somewhere, at least noting their existence if nothing else.

I'm really considering doing one for Blood Island.  It sounds fun.  Plus I like the permanency of it.  The feeling that what I write isn't going to be lost as soon as Blogger or G+ breaks. 

Well, not technically its Monster Manual, because James doesn't want one.  But still, if there is a book that deserved to be, this is it.


This is the first rpg book ever where I bought the pdf, then liked it so much I ordered the hardcover, because I want to use the art in my games.  Normally I could give two shits about art in rpg's.  There is some art that I love, but never before has it caused me to buy a book just to use it in a game because of that art. 

I can't wait to hold up the book and say "You're fighting this!" and see the looks on their faces.

http://www.rafaelchandler.com/blogger/?p=506

Looking for mundane useful Batman Utility Belt type shit that you can buy somewhere.  If the reason isn't immediately apparent for why you listed it, please explain its uses.  Has to be able to be carried by 1 pc along with the rest.

Mundane Equipment:
Composite Longbow, 20 arrows, 40 silver arrows, 3 flame arrows
Backpack
1 week iron rations
Holy Symbol
Cloak
High Hard Leather Boots
Belt
Belt pouch
Wineskin-full,
Belladonna
Wolvesbane
Garlic
4 oils
Bulls-eye Lantern
Flint and Steel
3 Torches
Hammer and 12 spikes
Crowbar
50' rope
Grappling hook
Chalk—big chunk
Quill pen, ink, 10 sheets parchment, scroll case (waterproof)
Collapsible 10' pole
100 feet string
2 three lb. bags of flour
Silver mirror, small
Incense
Bag of copper coins x100
Caltrops, 2 doses to cover a 10' x 10' area.
Bag of marbles (10' x 10')
3 vials Acid
3 vials Holy Water
1 pound box of Pepper
Plate Mail
Long Sword
Lg Shield
Earwax for 10 people.
10 doses hinge grease and brush
2 empty ceramic vials
2 empty steel vials
Waterproof scroll case.
Weighted net for throwing
Compass

Announcement:
In recompense for having to cancel this evening's Blood Island game due to helping the parents out with Blizzard prep, I offer you this:


Apocalypse Now
Blood Island/LOTFP Style

Special Extended Director's Cut.
Six Hours of War, Madness, and Hell on Earth

Sunday, February 17, 11 am to 5 pm EST.

Flailsnails compatible. Join if you dare.

Details and invites this weekend on G+. Let me know if you're interested.