Dear Diary,
I write now to record a strange happening: In the heat of the day I sat in just my trousers by the edge of my cave. Over the cliff edge and past the treetops I saw down into the plain. The man-drakes waddled earnestly down a hill to where a red beam of light shone onto the orange dust. By the red spot on the ground lay a red, quivering form. Before I could determine the gender or note any sign of its origins the man-drakes arrived and fed, though the meal did not satisfy: the smallest man-drake was devoured after, and then they departed.
I've seen amateur teleporters before, and I believe the red form must have been from another plane. For a moment I held the foolish thought that I might encounter some man of high-science or some interplanar merchant with supplies. But, no. I checked the ridge for signs of predators, and then returned to work on my VolcanoShip.
It has been 18 days since my teleport engine malfunctioned on this plane, but my food supplies remain near-full, and I am determined to finish these repairs.
I do hope that my followers on Terra have made progress in eradicating the Thetans which so plague their species.
I shall write again, Diary.
--L. Ron Hubbard, PlanesTraveler
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Why are you here?
From things that came up at my place during and after last session, there seems to be some confusion, at least among the newer players, as to what the point of the game and ultimate goals are. So, let me give the short answer and my take. Firstly and lastly, the goal is wealth. The whole point of the game is to get filthy rich, and there are two game reasons why you want that. First, wealth enables you to live out your medieval fantasy dreams of building a castle or tower or hidden lair and commanding great power over those lower than you. Second, the value of the treasure that you find directly translates into how many experience points (XP) you receive, which determines how your character grows. So, if you want to be able to cast new spells, to swing your axe with greater ability, to sneak around and disable traps more successfully, then you need to gather wealth in order to progress your character.
Now, you may be wondering, "what about storytelling and glory and involved role playing and all those great things that I love?" Well, you can fit those things into a game whose explicit goals are not to them. You can always create great stories of your adventures, even if you're not out destroying every living creature within the known world.
If you happen to cleverly trick some dragon into leaving its lair while you empty it of its treasure, that's all the better than risking your nice un-charred flesh to kill some fire-breathing terror. Also, while folks in this fantasy world may praise you for slaying some awful beast and freeing them, your tales will fade with their memories if there is nothing tangible to remind them of your greatness. So build a freaking castle and show everybody how awesome you are when they have to trudge past everyday, shit-covered, and hoping they can sell their last goat in order to pay for the funeral of their children who died of the stanky leg plague. Show them how awesome you are when you build a tower and then cast it and the countryside around it into the sky, where you float around the world terrifying ignorant peasants and powerful kings alike.
During all of this, you can create whatever sort of personality you would like for your character, but one part of it must include a reason and need for adventuring. If your character wanted to earn an honest living, we could play "Mud Farmers and Apprentice Craftsmen." While I think that Rio Grande could create that game, I don't think I'd want to play it.
In short, if you are playing D&D, then you must like solving puzzles, medieval fantasy, role playing, socializing, or just eating Doritos. For any of those reasons that you like playing related to the game itself, you need character wealth to win. For those related to hanging out, well, you're already winning by just being there.
Now, you may be wondering, "what about storytelling and glory and involved role playing and all those great things that I love?" Well, you can fit those things into a game whose explicit goals are not to them. You can always create great stories of your adventures, even if you're not out destroying every living creature within the known world.
If you happen to cleverly trick some dragon into leaving its lair while you empty it of its treasure, that's all the better than risking your nice un-charred flesh to kill some fire-breathing terror. Also, while folks in this fantasy world may praise you for slaying some awful beast and freeing them, your tales will fade with their memories if there is nothing tangible to remind them of your greatness. So build a freaking castle and show everybody how awesome you are when they have to trudge past everyday, shit-covered, and hoping they can sell their last goat in order to pay for the funeral of their children who died of the stanky leg plague. Show them how awesome you are when you build a tower and then cast it and the countryside around it into the sky, where you float around the world terrifying ignorant peasants and powerful kings alike.
During all of this, you can create whatever sort of personality you would like for your character, but one part of it must include a reason and need for adventuring. If your character wanted to earn an honest living, we could play "Mud Farmers and Apprentice Craftsmen." While I think that Rio Grande could create that game, I don't think I'd want to play it.
In short, if you are playing D&D, then you must like solving puzzles, medieval fantasy, role playing, socializing, or just eating Doritos. For any of those reasons that you like playing related to the game itself, you need character wealth to win. For those related to hanging out, well, you're already winning by just being there.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
Session 1 recap
Our brave adventures journeyed to the edge of civilization, up to
forested hill lands near the pass leading to legendary Forbidden
Valley. In a small village along a lake they heard rumor of a wizard's
tower in the area where lightning was seen constantly striking. They
followed the trail towards the Valley until finding a second less worn
trail through the woods. After walking several miles along this trail
they could see and feel violent crashes of lighting. Upon drawing
closer they saw an ashy blasted clearing with a great tower at the
center, drawing in each bolt like some giant lightning rod.
The clever Man Helsing thrust a pole into the ash and watched it for several minutes before it was disintegrated adding fresh dust to the ground. He and several other members of our party sprinted across the wasted land surrounding the tower, up its stairs, to the main door of the tower. After delicately pulling on the handle with his bow The Farmer, drew back the knocker, which fell with a resounding BOING, and the great doors to the tower drew inward. The party then proceeding cautiously with their exploration of the tower.
Upon the first floor, they found a spotless waiting room, a large closet with nothing but mildewing clothes and moth-balls, and a well-furnished sitting room with a large statue in one corner. Bosinator and (the self-styled) Sir Loin of Beef spent some time exploring a few of the walls of these mundane rooms for any signs of secret compartments or passages, but, alas, to avail. Meanwhile, Tavaris Rhet found that his powers overqualified him for most of these mundane tasks, and decided to make himself useful drawing a map for the party. However, being unaccustomed to anyone else having to interpret his scrawls, his descriptions of the layout were crude at best. Stairs running along the inner circumference of the tower lead up from this room to next level.
Our team, anxious to continue upward, examined the second floor from landing between separated the stairs that wound further up. There they found a plain room with cooking utensils and an oven; the room seemed to occupy about half of that level of the tower, with a hallway leading off to the side. Man Helsing and Farmer led the exploration and were the first to see the trail of blood oozing down the stairs from the above. Following the trail up, they discovered a locked door at the top of the stairs with a bleeding keyhole.
The Farmer skillfully picked the lock, and the party entered the room to discover an old wizard trapped in a circle of salt near the center of his chambers. First appearing bumbling and asking for the characters to free him, he quickly turned hostile and threatening. Our team wisely ignored this demon-worshipper, and gathered from his room what valuables they could find, namely a skull-sized egg-shaped crystal. Through a door in the back, they discovered an elevator chamber, and ascended to the top floor.
At the top of the elevator, they discovered the wizard's workshop. By playing with a simple control panel, the team figured out how to operate a strange inter-planar telescope that blasted a giant red laser beam into the sky. A curious Bosinator looked through the eyepiece of the telescope to see what lie beyond the great the red beam in the sky, only to be sucked into and through the telescope, and causing the focusing crystal of the telescope to explode a great fury. Sir Loin of Beef was the unfortunate soul to discover the fate of Bosinator who was transmogrified into a pulpy version of herself and devoured by mandrake-like demons on some plane lying at the other end of that otherworldly beam.
I don't plan on doing recaps every week. For one, somebody else could do a much better job of it stylistically. And, while I could catalogue every session's activities, it will be much more challenging, involving, and fun if you guys try to remember what you've done, where you've explored, etc. so that you can truly interact with the enviroment without me goaling you towards things.
Any questions before the next game, email me.
forested hill lands near the pass leading to legendary Forbidden
Valley. In a small village along a lake they heard rumor of a wizard's
tower in the area where lightning was seen constantly striking. They
followed the trail towards the Valley until finding a second less worn
trail through the woods. After walking several miles along this trail
they could see and feel violent crashes of lighting. Upon drawing
closer they saw an ashy blasted clearing with a great tower at the
center, drawing in each bolt like some giant lightning rod.
The clever Man Helsing thrust a pole into the ash and watched it for several minutes before it was disintegrated adding fresh dust to the ground. He and several other members of our party sprinted across the wasted land surrounding the tower, up its stairs, to the main door of the tower. After delicately pulling on the handle with his bow The Farmer, drew back the knocker, which fell with a resounding BOING, and the great doors to the tower drew inward. The party then proceeding cautiously with their exploration of the tower.
Upon the first floor, they found a spotless waiting room, a large closet with nothing but mildewing clothes and moth-balls, and a well-furnished sitting room with a large statue in one corner. Bosinator and (the self-styled) Sir Loin of Beef spent some time exploring a few of the walls of these mundane rooms for any signs of secret compartments or passages, but, alas, to avail. Meanwhile, Tavaris Rhet found that his powers overqualified him for most of these mundane tasks, and decided to make himself useful drawing a map for the party. However, being unaccustomed to anyone else having to interpret his scrawls, his descriptions of the layout were crude at best. Stairs running along the inner circumference of the tower lead up from this room to next level.
Our team, anxious to continue upward, examined the second floor from landing between separated the stairs that wound further up. There they found a plain room with cooking utensils and an oven; the room seemed to occupy about half of that level of the tower, with a hallway leading off to the side. Man Helsing and Farmer led the exploration and were the first to see the trail of blood oozing down the stairs from the above. Following the trail up, they discovered a locked door at the top of the stairs with a bleeding keyhole.
The Farmer skillfully picked the lock, and the party entered the room to discover an old wizard trapped in a circle of salt near the center of his chambers. First appearing bumbling and asking for the characters to free him, he quickly turned hostile and threatening. Our team wisely ignored this demon-worshipper, and gathered from his room what valuables they could find, namely a skull-sized egg-shaped crystal. Through a door in the back, they discovered an elevator chamber, and ascended to the top floor.
At the top of the elevator, they discovered the wizard's workshop. By playing with a simple control panel, the team figured out how to operate a strange inter-planar telescope that blasted a giant red laser beam into the sky. A curious Bosinator looked through the eyepiece of the telescope to see what lie beyond the great the red beam in the sky, only to be sucked into and through the telescope, and causing the focusing crystal of the telescope to explode a great fury. Sir Loin of Beef was the unfortunate soul to discover the fate of Bosinator who was transmogrified into a pulpy version of herself and devoured by mandrake-like demons on some plane lying at the other end of that otherworldly beam.
I don't plan on doing recaps every week. For one, somebody else could do a much better job of it stylistically. And, while I could catalogue every session's activities, it will be much more challenging, involving, and fun if you guys try to remember what you've done, where you've explored, etc. so that you can truly interact with the enviroment without me goaling you towards things.
Any questions before the next game, email me.
Tuesday, September 25, 2012
The New Campaign
Click the following link to download a pdf of the rules
http://www.lotfp.com/RPG/uploads/downloads/GrindhouseRulesMagicFree.zip
we are using Lamentations of the Flame Princess brand Grindhouse Rules.
It's a clone of the 0th edition dnd.
http://www.lotfp.com/RPG/uploads/downloads/GrindhouseRulesMagicFree.zip
we are using Lamentations of the Flame Princess brand Grindhouse Rules.
It's a clone of the 0th edition dnd.
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