Adventures in homebrew

I might be playing in  an old friend's "Stupid Supers" campaign using his homebrew system.

While I'm not a veteran to his game system, I have played it before, and it ain't too shabby. The last time we ran a stupid supers game, I played the Kung-Fu Cowboy who was basically a 1950's cowboy paradigm with super kung-fu powers.

I'm more than happy to continue the tale of Kung-Fu Cowboy, but if we're rolling up new characters, I have a couple of ideas:

Soul Samurai - In keeping with my previously established theme, this would basically be Dolemite with a katana. Admittedly, I haven't put a lot of thought into this one, but the idea made me laugh.

Jeb Stankewitz AKA Landshark - Jeb is basically an anthropomorphic shark who is also a terrible redneck stereotype. His story is that he comes from another planet/alternate dimension where sharks and not apes became the dominate species and apes are on par with opossums.
One night, whilst attempting to convince his girlfriend to have sex with him on the trampoline, Jeb was abducted by aliens who performed experiments on him and then dropped him off on our earth. Besides having a giant shark head, Jeb is much stronger than your average redneck and able to burrow at an amazing speed, as all Landsharks do. He works at the local aquarium where he waves down cars while wearing a shark suit. Jeb likes to start each day with a big lip full of Beechnut and a frosty Bud Light. He is saving up to buy a truck.

A man shouting alone in the woods is still shouting

By virtue of having a blog, I suppose I should blog.

I've been running another game with some friends, albeit sporadically. We're once and again tackling the Temple of Elemental Evil.

I'm going back to the temple because I have a sick desire to see it ransacked and it cuts down my required prep-work to the point where I only have to create original material when I feel like it.

This past week, one of the players couldn't make it to the game, so the remaining two decided to go side questin'.

I had two five room dungeons sitting on the back burner, so we set off for lands yet unseen. The players, (two fighters) ran through my two prepared dungeons in three or four hours and then decided to follow up on every rumor they heard. The rest of the game was pretty much off the top of my head, working from scant notes I scrawled during the game.

All in all, both fighters leveled up, found some interesting magical items, and killed their first dragon (A brown dragon hatchling).

This was all accomplished in about two months of game-time, during which we decided that the halfling thief was recovering from testicular torsion.

A side effect of all this side questing is that the players have made some good connections with some other factions out there in the world and have gained some very powerful magical items in a decidedly low-magic world.

Things should be back on track for the next game, and it looks like we'll be adding another player.

And so the wheel turns...

What has been can never be again

I've been following Wizard's DnDNext page like a hawk, voting and commenting on every issues the staff puts forth.

I am now 95% convinced that the fifth edition of Dungeons and Dragons will be crap. That missing 5%? That is all that remains of my hope that the new edition of dnd will live up to its goal of united all players.

I really see the new edition as being a blend of 3E and 4E. The veneer may be changed a bit to appeal to ODnD folken, but mechanically, it will be munchkin land. And I mean munchkin in the most derogatory way possible.

Min/maxers will have a new system to exploit, and we grognards will keep grognarding.

Geoma-hoots

I mentioned in the last post how I plan to make any and all future dungeons without grid paper, well, today over at Grognardia, the post gave a link to Dave's Mapper, a random dungeon generator that uses "geomorphs" to make random dungeons. I should note that these dungeons ain't got no grids on 'em! Just what I've been looking for. Because why sketch when I can sit back and hit a button. Gives me more time to not do the prep work I'm putting off.

Grid paper goes the way of the buffalo...

OK, to be clear, I will never throw out my grid paper. I love grid paper.

Allow me to shed some light on this...

Recently, I ran two games. The first was AD&D. I was once again hurling some unsuspecting players into the Temple of Elemental Evil.

A few weeks later, the same group wanted to game again, but one of the group couldn't make it and I suggested we play Traveller.

Now, I hadn't planned anything for the Traveller game other than a vague plot outline that I once thought of whilst in the bath. I was running the game basically off the top of my head.

During a smoke break, one of the players commented on how the Travellers game was fun because it was more story-driven and how D&D was just a bunch of numbers.

The comment really hit me hard because during the Edition Wars, I've always defended AD&D 2E as being more about story and roleplaying than anything that has come before or since, as far as D&D goes.

I've made it my goal to make the next AD&D session seem more impromptu and be less of a module reading drone.

Way back in the back-when, I can remember my old DMs reading out of a module maybe three or four times. And those were special events, to boot! Things like the Faction War and Apocalypse Stone. 98% of everything I played came directly out of the DM's head with varying amounts of prep. Some of my best sessions were run entirely impromptu.

I can remember getting ideas of things that I wanted in the game, the kindly wizard in a magic tower, the haunted castle, the lost tribe of giant halflings, etc.
There are several ideas that I've been itching to explore in my current campaign world, too, but have never gotten around to putting in front of the players as I seem to always be reading out of one module book or another. I'm really seriously considering scrapping the rest of the Temple and just presenting my interpretation of it.

In days past, when I ran a game of AD&D, I would ignore experience points. The characters would simply level when I needed them to. My excuse was that since my games were so roleplay heavy and combat light that if we went strictly by the rules, the party would almost never level.

I think I can and should use experience points. I also think I can use them to help plan my adventures. I have to remember to use the rules as tools, not straightjackets.

So, about grid paper. I hereby resolve to never again plan out a dungeon on grid paper. From now on, my dungeons will be freehand.  I must say that this is inspired by a picture of a geomorph dungeon that this guy named Steve posted on his blog. Apparently, he's at least partly responsible for most of AD&D 2E, which puts him in a class directly behind Gygax and Arneson in my book. Also, he is still alive, so I can comment on his blog and get nerdy goosebumps.

Thank you, Mister Whedon.

...and I mean Joss, not Will.

You see, if you ever watch anything that Joss Whedon ever produces, you'll learn one simple nasty little tick to drama: Let everything seem to be right in Rightsville, then murder, rape, and burn Rightsville in any and every manner you see fit.

The way this applies to D&D is, if your players have a person, place, or thing that they love, fucking destroy it. Shit on their hopes and dreams.

This should only be done sparingly, however. If it happens even once too often, you'll end up crushing the character's spirits. Your PC's will stop building castles after the fifth one burns down and sinks into the swamp.

During last night's game I did this.

The player's had just finished an adventure, gotten paid, won fame, and uncovered the location of ancient secret power. So, as they were sleeping off the effects of their revelry, a volley of catapults began destroying everything they ever loved in advance of a complete sacking of their city by foreign invaders.

They were forced to flee into the orc-controlled woodlands to the north.

The fires of doom warm my DM's heart.

The continuing adventures of Bognar and Geary

Actual game update: At some point in the past, I may or may not have told you about the player characters in my current quest. If I haven't, don't worry. None of them are standing out at the moment. I worry that somehow I might be squashing their will to do things. Just picture a group of lack-luster adventurers who blindly wander about until I stab them with the adventure hook.

Anyway, the adventure I've set up for them is a blatant rip-off of Expedition to the Barrier Peaks, I think. It's the module where there's a crashed spaceship? I don't recall. I've only read about it and I'm not taking the time to track down a copy (read: pirate) and convert it to AD&D 2e. Rather I'm just skimming the idea of a full on sci-fi style craft crash landing into my world and letting my players run around in it.

Sad solo game update: Bognar was indeed saved from a vicious pack of goblins by Geary Stoutheart, a wily halfling warrior with a penchant for fine clothes and hurling rocks. Geary fought off the remaining goblins and then drug Bognar back to town where the duo got bandaged up just in time for another wave of goblins. Geary, wielding his father's thin Elvish short sword, held his own against the foul beasts while Bognar proved his worth against the foes. When the dust settled, Bognar and Geary stood victorious.
Enter the Orog.
The orog was apparently the Boss of the the goblins and was upset that two sawed-off little runts had dispatched them all. There was some furious combat, and in the end, our battered and bruised heroes stood victorious. Rifling through the orog's pockets, Geary discovered several platinum coins that were minted in Asaria, the human kingdom in the west. This orog must have been in someone's employ!
Bognar and Geary set out for the nearby town of Burgton where it was known that Asarian agents sometimes frequent the inn there. As they left town, the were arrested by the shouts of a young human man-child. The boy claimed that he was a the druid of the woods in which the goblins had camped and that as such, the goblins were his problem and that Bognar and Geary had wronged him by taking care of them. As recompense, he demanded that they allow him to get to the bottom of the goblins presence in his woods. I think his name shall be Titus.