I've been working overtime through most of this week, including today, and along with a hectic schedule for the gnollpack, I haven't been able to make much progress on much of anything gaming related, but I have had some thoughts brewing. And hey, look at that, I didn't post for a week and just jumped up to over 100 followers here! Thanks people!
To make up for lack of posting this week, here's a fairly rambling and long-winded one about Magic: the Gathering and D&D, with a little personal introspection to boot.
I have been playing a little Magic: the Gathering every night lately, a couple games before bedtime with one of the minions. I find myself going further down the Magic rabbit hole these days. Don't worry, A Pack of Gnolls isn't going to morph into a Magic blog; I won't bore you with decklists or strategies or synergies here.
However, Magic served as my gateway to fantasy gaming. Sure, I'd been playing Star Wars D6 and Palladium's Heroes Unlimited and Robotech with my buddies, but when Padre showed us Magic, my imagination really came alive. The old Dragonquest RPG was introduced to our little group soon after, and we were all hooked.
I find Magic to be a loving homage to D&D. It is clearly drawing a lot of inspiration from its D&D roots, even to this day. There are dwarves and orcs, goblins and paladins, rogues and knights, devils, demons, skeletons, zombies, necromancers, fireballs, druids... The list goes on. If it appeared in D&D, more than likely it shows up in Magic, too. I've written about this before, but the current expansion, Innistrad, is quite clearly an homage to Ravenloft; its full of vampires and werewolves and zombies and ghosts, and is all about humanity on the brink of destruction at the hands of merciless undead and demonic overlords. And it's a lot of fun to play. A lot of the cards are awesome plays on horror tropes; one of my favorites, purely for its creepiness factor, is Village Cannibals.
Magic was my gateway to fantasy gaming, so it will always have a place in my heart. I didn't play it for a long time; my original collection contains cards from 1994-1998. I only recently started picking up Magic cards again, when my in-laws gave the minions each a starter deck from the recent New Phyrexia and Innistrad sets. That's a good twelve years! The more I've played with the kids, the more I've gotten into it, and I started picking up boosters, deck-builder kits (220 or so cards for $20!), and Fat Packs. Now we've got a halfway decent collection going. Each of the kids has their own deck, and there are a few others I've put together that they all play with. What's really important is that we're all spending good quality time together. The kids are all pretty sharp and have challenged me on several occasions with their decks.
I'm not a great Magic player; I'm about as good at Magic as I am at video games. I can do pretty well, but not great. I'm never going to be a pro Magic player; I'm not going to shell out ten or twenty bucks for a single card to perfect a deck. I love opening booster packs, and I'm really liking booster draft-type games.
What's really ironic is that the things that I love about Magic are basically the same things that drove me away from 4E D&D. Character Generation for 4E is incredibly similar to building a Magic deck. You choose your role and power source, you find synergies within the various available options, and you put it all together in one package. I got sick of all that with 4E, but I'll happily spend hours doing the exact same thing for Magic, looking over the cards in our collection, finding synergies and combos and marveling at the art.
It's weird, I know. There's just something viscerally satisfying about handling the cards. The same activity in 4E is a major chore on the computer screen with the Character Builder, and even more so with a hand-written sheet with the books open!
Anyways, I know a lot of grognards out there can't stand Wizards of the Coast for what they've done with the modern incarnations of the D&D brand, and with the way they've treated their D&D customers through the years. I find myself in a funny position here. I thoroughly enjoy Magic, and I thoroughly enjoy old-school D&D. So I'm a bit of a contradiction in terms here, as far as my gaming is concerned.
Actually, now that I think about it, that's how I've been my whole life. I was a gifted athlete who played at the top local levels in my chosen sports, but eschewed jock culture for sci-fi and fantasy geekiness. I was a liberal working-class kid who went to high school with a bunch of upper-class conservatives. Now I'm a union construction worker, and the people I work with all have hobbies that primarily include either firearms or automobiles, while I'm playing D&D and Magic with my kids.
Yeah, I never made much sense to me either.
New-School Rules, Old-School Style
Showing posts with label randomness. Show all posts
Showing posts with label randomness. Show all posts
Saturday, March 3, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
Zeldaspiration: Old School Zelda
Very interesting article here about the Legend of Zelda series' evolution through the years.
What is really fascinating is how closely the Legend of Zelda's evolution as a video game mirrors the evolution of D&D, from the little brown books to 4E and Essentials.
I actually had a whole post written up analyzing this, but I realized it was probably going to wind up baiting edition warriors and Zelda fanatics, and the last thing I want to deal with here is any kind of flame war. I had a lot of thoughts on it all, but I don't want to come off as demeaning any of the many editions of D&D; I own books from every edition and I find them all useful in running my Microlite games.
Anyway, if you're interested, it's a fascinating read and I think offers some good advice for D&D game masters, especially those familiar with The Legend of Zelda.
Monday, February 20, 2012
Sunday Game Day
We were short a player, so instead of playing D&D yesterday, we played a bunch of different games with my father-in-law.
We played:
Magic: the Gathering. My nine-year-old son is getting better and better at this one. He's getting pretty good at finding synergies between cards and using them in-game, though I'd like to see him be more aggressive. He tends to build up a lot of creatures before launching any attacks. So far it's worked, but I'll have an answer for it soon.
Munchkin. My gnome bard won it what turned out to be a nailbiter. I only won by calling in my doppleganger reinforcement.
Poo, which is a very silly game about monkeys flinging their poo at each other. I got covered in poo very quickly and was out first.
Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer is a deck-building game. The primary goal of the game is to collect the most "Honor", which is earned by defeating monsters and collecting certain cards.
Quarriors is similar to deck-building games, but your "deck" is comprised of different dice that you then have to roll.
Thunderstone is yet another deck-building game, with a very D&D type of theme to it. You can either buy stuff in town, weapons, characters, items, spells, or you can go fight one of three monsters waiting in the local dungeon.
These deck-building games are pretty interesting. I wasn't too keen on them at first, but they've definitely grown on me the more I've played them. My oldest son has grokked them pretty well and tends to win. They don't require the massive time investment of Magic: the Gathering and deliver a fun competitive experience. I probably won't pick any up, as my father-in-law has an extensive library and we typically only play them when we go over there. We have been playing a lot of Magic at home, though, and I'm very much enjoying getting back into that whole thing.
We played:
Magic: the Gathering. My nine-year-old son is getting better and better at this one. He's getting pretty good at finding synergies between cards and using them in-game, though I'd like to see him be more aggressive. He tends to build up a lot of creatures before launching any attacks. So far it's worked, but I'll have an answer for it soon.
Munchkin. My gnome bard won it what turned out to be a nailbiter. I only won by calling in my doppleganger reinforcement.
Poo, which is a very silly game about monkeys flinging their poo at each other. I got covered in poo very quickly and was out first.
Ascension: Chronicle of the Godslayer is a deck-building game. The primary goal of the game is to collect the most "Honor", which is earned by defeating monsters and collecting certain cards.
Quarriors is similar to deck-building games, but your "deck" is comprised of different dice that you then have to roll.
Thunderstone is yet another deck-building game, with a very D&D type of theme to it. You can either buy stuff in town, weapons, characters, items, spells, or you can go fight one of three monsters waiting in the local dungeon.
These deck-building games are pretty interesting. I wasn't too keen on them at first, but they've definitely grown on me the more I've played them. My oldest son has grokked them pretty well and tends to win. They don't require the massive time investment of Magic: the Gathering and deliver a fun competitive experience. I probably won't pick any up, as my father-in-law has an extensive library and we typically only play them when we go over there. We have been playing a lot of Magic at home, though, and I'm very much enjoying getting back into that whole thing.
Tuesday, December 27, 2011
Old-School IOS App?
I want some Old-School D&D apps for my iPhone. Is that so wrong? I do a lot of blog postings and other assorted D&D-type work on my iPhone, because, well, it just works well for me.
Reading most PDFs, however, does not work very well. It's not awful, and I'm sure it's a lot nicer on an iPad or Kindle Fire, but I've got this little smart phone.
There are apps for searching the Type-IV D&D Compendium, and for the Pathfinder and D&D 3.5 System Reference Documents. While these do have certain, limited uses for me, what I really would like to see (and would happily pay, say, ten bucks or so for) is OSRIC, or Swords & Wizardry, or LotFP, or any other of the other retroclones, in an easily accessible, searchable app. Specifically, Monsters, Spells, Magic Items and such.
A constantly updating compilation of the countless numerous random charts that get published on all these old-school blogs would be easily worth another ten bucks.
Maybe this niche is too small, but it seems to me if its good enough for the modern publications of the game, surely there is enough DIY know-how floating around in the OSR to put together a few decent apps that we can use. Anyone up to the task? Or is there an app out there I'm missing?
Note: I wrote this article last night and then, like magic, found an app called Old-School DM. Its main function is combat tracker, dice roller, and monster manual. It's being regularly updated. I've yet to use it at the table, but once I do I'll have a proper review up here.
Reading most PDFs, however, does not work very well. It's not awful, and I'm sure it's a lot nicer on an iPad or Kindle Fire, but I've got this little smart phone.
There are apps for searching the Type-IV D&D Compendium, and for the Pathfinder and D&D 3.5 System Reference Documents. While these do have certain, limited uses for me, what I really would like to see (and would happily pay, say, ten bucks or so for) is OSRIC, or Swords & Wizardry, or LotFP, or any other of the other retroclones, in an easily accessible, searchable app. Specifically, Monsters, Spells, Magic Items and such.
A constantly updating compilation of the countless numerous random charts that get published on all these old-school blogs would be easily worth another ten bucks.
Maybe this niche is too small, but it seems to me if its good enough for the modern publications of the game, surely there is enough DIY know-how floating around in the OSR to put together a few decent apps that we can use. Anyone up to the task? Or is there an app out there I'm missing?
Note: I wrote this article last night and then, like magic, found an app called Old-School DM. Its main function is combat tracker, dice roller, and monster manual. It's being regularly updated. I've yet to use it at the table, but once I do I'll have a proper review up here.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
I want to be a dragon!
Or, at least, have one out there with my namesake! Over at Tenkar's Tavern, one of my favorite blogs, he has a poll up to determine the name of his "Nameless Dragon" he uses in his videocasts. One of the names in the lead is Sully! Hey, that's my name!
So, all you slavering marauders of this Pack of Gnolls, go vote for Sully over at Tenkar's Tavern!
So, all you slavering marauders of this Pack of Gnolls, go vote for Sully over at Tenkar's Tavern!
Monday, August 29, 2011
Bar Brawl the fun way!
In my last post I lamented the boring third session of this season of D&D Encounters, as it was a particularly un-fun bar fight. Well, Charisma over at StufferShack.com has posted an excellent skill-challenge type of mini system for Barroom Brawls, which is pretty system-neutral. Check it out!
http://stuffershack.com/portfolio-item/the-friendly-bar-room-brawl-steal-this-encounter/
http://stuffershack.com/portfolio-item/the-friendly-bar-room-brawl-steal-this-encounter/
Thursday, July 21, 2011
4E Random Encounters!
One of my current pet D&D 4E projects is coming up with random encounter charts for exploration in the Nentir Vale. As I was flipping through my Monster Vaults and MM3, I was a bit overwhelmed. My first thought was that I was going to have to wind up creating hundreds of different little groups of monsters that would probably never get used. Seemed like an awful lot of work for very little reward, so I didn't get very far in that endeavor. However, I really want to implement a wandering monster/random encounter mechanic for my kids' 4E game.
And then today, I had an epiphany. Over at the Blog of Holding, Paul wrote up the Monster Manual 3 on a Business Card, which very effectively and concisely boils down the math for D&D 4E monsters. Obviously, a lot of monsters have more to them than just hit points, armor class and defenses, and damage, but for quick and dirty encounters without paging through the books, it works like a charm. You really only need one monster in any given encounter that has abilities that inflict status effects or do other cool stuff (any more than that becomes tedious), and it's usually pretty easy to keep the book open to that one monster. So, this occurred to me: use the MM3 on a Business Card for the basis of my random encounters. Kind of like this:
If you roll for a random wilderness encounter, roll 2d10 and add the numbers together, and:
C = # of characters in party
L = avg party level
2 Unique NPC/Monster from this area
3 Unique NPC/Monster from this area
4 Elite Controller +2d6 2-hit minions @ L+1d6
5 3 Soldiers @ L+1d6
6 5 Soldiers @ L-1d6
7 Brute and 2 Artillery @ L+2d4
8 3 Brutes @ L-1d6
9 2 Lurkers @ L+1d6
10 C+2d6 minions @ L+1d6
11 C+1d8 minions @ L-1d4
12 C+1d6 2-hit minions @ L+1d4
13 C+1d4 artillery @ L+1d4
14 Brute and 2 Artillery @ L-1d4
15 Controller, Soldier, 3 Minions, Brute @ L+1d3
16 Solo Soldier @ L+1d6
17 Solo Brute @ L+1d6
18 Solo Skirmisher @ L+1d6
19 Unique NPC/Monster from this area
20 Unique NPC/Monster from another nearby area
You'll notice that I grouped the minion encounters in the middle, so they will be most common. I also used only the "role" name for opponents. This leaves all the description and detail in the DM court, while still having random possibilities. The band of orcs attacking the party could be a bunch of ne'er-do-well punk minions (11) or they could be a bad-ass group of seasoned veteran warriors (15).
This obviously requires a bit more work on the part of the DM to actually make it work. For example, it would probably help to know just what types of different monsters are in the area that the PCs are traveling through. Hell, you could even make a list keyed to another random chart to see which species of monster is attacking. It would also help to have a list of the major unique monsters in the area (any big nasty dragons around? because that's what I would use on a roll of 2 or 20).
This is really just the tip of the iceberg. With a few rolls, you can have an interesting random encounter with whatever local monsters are appropriate. I'm thinking a table for some possible interesting terrain, as well as a type of encounter. What are the monsters and heroes doing? Do they just stumble across each other? Have the monsters been tracking the heroes? Do the monsters have a trap set for whenever wandering heroes come along?
The table above was just an example, but there's no reason you couldn't put specific creatures from the Monster Vaults in there, as well. If you're in the Old Hills in the Nentir Vale, there's no reason that #14 couldn't be a Blackfang Feaster (Threats to the Nentir Vale p.25) and two gnoll spearthrowers (statted up using the MM3 on a Business Card). In fact, using the MM3 on a Business Card, it's pretty easy to level the Blackfang Feaster up or down to taste.
Anyway, I think this will be the start of my template for moving forward with random encounter charts throughout the entirety of the Nentir Vale. I'll probably have the tables figured up a little bit differently for each region, but I think they'll work out okay. And yes, I'll start publishing them here as soon as I get them figured out.
And then today, I had an epiphany. Over at the Blog of Holding, Paul wrote up the Monster Manual 3 on a Business Card, which very effectively and concisely boils down the math for D&D 4E monsters. Obviously, a lot of monsters have more to them than just hit points, armor class and defenses, and damage, but for quick and dirty encounters without paging through the books, it works like a charm. You really only need one monster in any given encounter that has abilities that inflict status effects or do other cool stuff (any more than that becomes tedious), and it's usually pretty easy to keep the book open to that one monster. So, this occurred to me: use the MM3 on a Business Card for the basis of my random encounters. Kind of like this:
If you roll for a random wilderness encounter, roll 2d10 and add the numbers together, and:
C = # of characters in party
L = avg party level
2 Unique NPC/Monster from this area
3 Unique NPC/Monster from this area
4 Elite Controller +2d6 2-hit minions @ L+1d6
5 3 Soldiers @ L+1d6
6 5 Soldiers @ L-1d6
7 Brute and 2 Artillery @ L+2d4
8 3 Brutes @ L-1d6
9 2 Lurkers @ L+1d6
10 C+2d6 minions @ L+1d6
11 C+1d8 minions @ L-1d4
12 C+1d6 2-hit minions @ L+1d4
13 C+1d4 artillery @ L+1d4
14 Brute and 2 Artillery @ L-1d4
15 Controller, Soldier, 3 Minions, Brute @ L+1d3
16 Solo Soldier @ L+1d6
17 Solo Brute @ L+1d6
18 Solo Skirmisher @ L+1d6
19 Unique NPC/Monster from this area
20 Unique NPC/Monster from another nearby area
You'll notice that I grouped the minion encounters in the middle, so they will be most common. I also used only the "role" name for opponents. This leaves all the description and detail in the DM court, while still having random possibilities. The band of orcs attacking the party could be a bunch of ne'er-do-well punk minions (11) or they could be a bad-ass group of seasoned veteran warriors (15).
This obviously requires a bit more work on the part of the DM to actually make it work. For example, it would probably help to know just what types of different monsters are in the area that the PCs are traveling through. Hell, you could even make a list keyed to another random chart to see which species of monster is attacking. It would also help to have a list of the major unique monsters in the area (any big nasty dragons around? because that's what I would use on a roll of 2 or 20).
This is really just the tip of the iceberg. With a few rolls, you can have an interesting random encounter with whatever local monsters are appropriate. I'm thinking a table for some possible interesting terrain, as well as a type of encounter. What are the monsters and heroes doing? Do they just stumble across each other? Have the monsters been tracking the heroes? Do the monsters have a trap set for whenever wandering heroes come along?
The table above was just an example, but there's no reason you couldn't put specific creatures from the Monster Vaults in there, as well. If you're in the Old Hills in the Nentir Vale, there's no reason that #14 couldn't be a Blackfang Feaster (Threats to the Nentir Vale p.25) and two gnoll spearthrowers (statted up using the MM3 on a Business Card). In fact, using the MM3 on a Business Card, it's pretty easy to level the Blackfang Feaster up or down to taste.
Anyway, I think this will be the start of my template for moving forward with random encounter charts throughout the entirety of the Nentir Vale. I'll probably have the tables figured up a little bit differently for each region, but I think they'll work out okay. And yes, I'll start publishing them here as soon as I get them figured out.
Monday, July 18, 2011
Random Background Generation Charts for 4E D&D
Random Background Generation Charts for 4E D&D. This is by no means an exhaustive listing of all possible professions and backgrounds that a character could have in a fantasy role-playing game. This is more to help players give their character a bit more depth, to have an idea of where they came from, and maybe even help the DM flesh out the game world a bit more.
Many of these backgrounds give characters benefits above and beyond the boons generally offered by WotC's published "backgrounds" in the character builder. The charts skew towards a minimal bonus, but big bonuses are possible. The bonuses are meant to be used with an old-school style character generation method; that is, rolling for your stats instead of using a standard array. My preferred method is 4d6, dropping the lowest die, and adding the remaining 3 together, down the line. This will generally not give you a character with attributes that match 4E's standard array. However, between the possibilities on this background generation chart and my upcoming random bogey chart for chargen should offer enough little bonuses to make the game a bit more interesting, in spite of having lower average ability scores.
I'm also open to adding more possibilities to these charts, and including more boons for different backgrounds. If you have any ideas, feel free to drop them in the comments below!
Roll 2d10 and add the numbers
2-3 roll on Wealthy Chart
4-5 roll on Works with Words, Potions n Such Chart
6-8 roll on Smithy Chart
9-11 roll on Farmers and Outdoorsmen Chart
12-14 roll on Labourers Chart
15-16 roll on Craftsmen Chart
17-18 roll on Merchants Chart
19 roll on Adventurers 1 Chart
20 roll on Adventurers 2 Chart
Wealthy Chart (roll 1d10) Starting Gold value is instead of standard 100 gp
1 Minor Lord. Starting Gold: 200
2 Bag of gold fell out of the sky. Starting Gold: 250
3 Married into wealth and suddenly widow(er)ed. Starting Gold: 300
4 Literally struck gold on a claim of land and sold it off to be mined. Starting Gold: 400
5 Politically powerful, entrenched family wants to send their "black sheep" on his merry way. Starting Gold: 500
6 Incredibly successful merchant. Starting Gold: 750
7 Long-lost wealthy relative left everything to you! Starting Gold: 1000
8 The town wizard died and left everything in his tower to you. Starting Gold: 1500 (access to potions, alchemical items, and minor magic items at DM discretion)
9 You are a bastard child of the king, and you've been paid off to keep quiet about it. Starting Gold: 2000
10 Royalty, but with a few older brothers first in line for the throne. Starting Gold: 5000
Works with Words, Potions, n Such Chart (roll 1d12), any items and skills in parentheses after background are in addition to starting gold and class skills. All characters with one of these backgrounds begin with 200 instead of 100 gp.
1 Scribe (+2 History)
2 Sage (gain training in one of the following: History, Religion, Arcana)
3 Minstrel (gain training in either Perception or Bluff)
4 Interpreter (You may take 1 additional language, +2 Perception)
5 Herald
6 Clerk
7 Bookbinder
8 Barrister (+2 History, +2 Bluff, +2 Perception)
9 Astrologer (3 1st-level ritual scrolls, +2 Arcana)
10 Architect (gain training Dungeoneering)
11 Herbalist (3 potions of healing)
12 Apothecary (alchemy kit and 3 alchemical items levels 1-5)
Smithy Chart (roll d10) items in parentheses after background are in addition to starting gold
1 Nailsmith
2 Goldsmith
3 Gemcutter (+1 Magic Orb)
4 Engraver
5 Coppersmith
6 Brazier
7 Bladesmith (Masterwork Longsword)
8 Blacksmith
9 Arrowsmith (20 +1 arrows)
10 Armorer (Masterwork Armor of choice)
Farmers and Outdoorsmen Chart (roll d10) (starts with normal gp)
1 Farmer
2 Fisherman
3 Shepherd
4 Swineherd
5 Butcher
6 Groom
7 Trapper (gain training in Nature)
8 Gardener (gain training in Nature)
9 Forester (gain training in Nature)
10 Hunter (gain training in Nature)
Labourers Chart (roll d6) (starts with normal gp) (all characters of this background gain +2 to Strength or Constitution)
1 Teamster
2 Waterleader
3 Quarrier
4 Porter
5 Ploughman
6 Miner
Craftsmen Chart (roll d12) all Craftsmen start with 150 gp and possible item in parentheses.
1 Tanner
2 Weaver
3 Tinker
4 Tailor
5 Mason
6 Hatter
7 Glassblower
8 Bowyer/Fletcher (Masterwork Bow)
9 Embroiderer
10 Clockmaker (Pocketwatch)
11 Carpenter
12 Brewer
Merchant Chart (roll d12) all Merchants start with 200 gp and possible item in parentheses.
1 Poulterer
2 Mercer
3 Ironmonger
4 Haberdasher
5 Grocer
6 Fishmonger
7 Draper
8 Hosteler
9 Knife-grinder (Masterwork Dagger)
10 Cobbler
11 Barber
12 Baker
Adventurers 1 Chart (roll d10) Starts with 100 gp and an appropriate magical item of level 1-5 (work with your DM!)
1 Pirate
2 Smuggler
3 Explorer
4 Mariner
5 Outlaw
6 Rider
7 Scout
8 Soldier
9 Thug
10 Acbrobat
Adventurers 2 Chart (roll d10) Starts with 200 gp and an appropriate magical item of level 1-10 (work with your DM!)
1 Assassin
2 Weapon Master
3 Sharpshooter
4 Peasant Hero
5 Spy
6 Swashbuckler
7 Mystic
8 Amazon
9 Shaman
10 Gladiator
Many of these backgrounds give characters benefits above and beyond the boons generally offered by WotC's published "backgrounds" in the character builder. The charts skew towards a minimal bonus, but big bonuses are possible. The bonuses are meant to be used with an old-school style character generation method; that is, rolling for your stats instead of using a standard array. My preferred method is 4d6, dropping the lowest die, and adding the remaining 3 together, down the line. This will generally not give you a character with attributes that match 4E's standard array. However, between the possibilities on this background generation chart and my upcoming random bogey chart for chargen should offer enough little bonuses to make the game a bit more interesting, in spite of having lower average ability scores.
I'm also open to adding more possibilities to these charts, and including more boons for different backgrounds. If you have any ideas, feel free to drop them in the comments below!
Roll 2d10 and add the numbers
2-3 roll on Wealthy Chart
4-5 roll on Works with Words, Potions n Such Chart
6-8 roll on Smithy Chart
9-11 roll on Farmers and Outdoorsmen Chart
12-14 roll on Labourers Chart
15-16 roll on Craftsmen Chart
17-18 roll on Merchants Chart
19 roll on Adventurers 1 Chart
20 roll on Adventurers 2 Chart
Wealthy Chart (roll 1d10) Starting Gold value is instead of standard 100 gp
1 Minor Lord. Starting Gold: 200
2 Bag of gold fell out of the sky. Starting Gold: 250
3 Married into wealth and suddenly widow(er)ed. Starting Gold: 300
4 Literally struck gold on a claim of land and sold it off to be mined. Starting Gold: 400
5 Politically powerful, entrenched family wants to send their "black sheep" on his merry way. Starting Gold: 500
6 Incredibly successful merchant. Starting Gold: 750
7 Long-lost wealthy relative left everything to you! Starting Gold: 1000
8 The town wizard died and left everything in his tower to you. Starting Gold: 1500 (access to potions, alchemical items, and minor magic items at DM discretion)
9 You are a bastard child of the king, and you've been paid off to keep quiet about it. Starting Gold: 2000
10 Royalty, but with a few older brothers first in line for the throne. Starting Gold: 5000
Works with Words, Potions, n Such Chart (roll 1d12), any items and skills in parentheses after background are in addition to starting gold and class skills. All characters with one of these backgrounds begin with 200 instead of 100 gp.
1 Scribe (+2 History)
2 Sage (gain training in one of the following: History, Religion, Arcana)
3 Minstrel (gain training in either Perception or Bluff)
4 Interpreter (You may take 1 additional language, +2 Perception)
5 Herald
6 Clerk
7 Bookbinder
8 Barrister (+2 History, +2 Bluff, +2 Perception)
9 Astrologer (3 1st-level ritual scrolls, +2 Arcana)
10 Architect (gain training Dungeoneering)
11 Herbalist (3 potions of healing)
12 Apothecary (alchemy kit and 3 alchemical items levels 1-5)
Smithy Chart (roll d10) items in parentheses after background are in addition to starting gold
1 Nailsmith
2 Goldsmith
3 Gemcutter (+1 Magic Orb)
4 Engraver
5 Coppersmith
6 Brazier
7 Bladesmith (Masterwork Longsword)
8 Blacksmith
9 Arrowsmith (20 +1 arrows)
10 Armorer (Masterwork Armor of choice)
Farmers and Outdoorsmen Chart (roll d10) (starts with normal gp)
1 Farmer
2 Fisherman
3 Shepherd
4 Swineherd
5 Butcher
6 Groom
7 Trapper (gain training in Nature)
8 Gardener (gain training in Nature)
9 Forester (gain training in Nature)
10 Hunter (gain training in Nature)
Labourers Chart (roll d6) (starts with normal gp) (all characters of this background gain +2 to Strength or Constitution)
1 Teamster
2 Waterleader
3 Quarrier
4 Porter
5 Ploughman
6 Miner
Craftsmen Chart (roll d12) all Craftsmen start with 150 gp and possible item in parentheses.
1 Tanner
2 Weaver
3 Tinker
4 Tailor
5 Mason
6 Hatter
7 Glassblower
8 Bowyer/Fletcher (Masterwork Bow)
9 Embroiderer
10 Clockmaker (Pocketwatch)
11 Carpenter
12 Brewer
Merchant Chart (roll d12) all Merchants start with 200 gp and possible item in parentheses.
1 Poulterer
2 Mercer
3 Ironmonger
4 Haberdasher
5 Grocer
6 Fishmonger
7 Draper
8 Hosteler
9 Knife-grinder (Masterwork Dagger)
10 Cobbler
11 Barber
12 Baker
Adventurers 1 Chart (roll d10) Starts with 100 gp and an appropriate magical item of level 1-5 (work with your DM!)
1 Pirate
2 Smuggler
3 Explorer
4 Mariner
5 Outlaw
6 Rider
7 Scout
8 Soldier
9 Thug
10 Acbrobat
Adventurers 2 Chart (roll d10) Starts with 200 gp and an appropriate magical item of level 1-10 (work with your DM!)
1 Assassin
2 Weapon Master
3 Sharpshooter
4 Peasant Hero
5 Spy
6 Swashbuckler
7 Mystic
8 Amazon
9 Shaman
10 Gladiator
Monday, July 11, 2011
Introducing: Your Dungeon is ROCK! (and some other randomness...)
Some random thoughts today...
I've been silent on the whole Your Dungeon Is Suck guy controversy concerning Christian that reverberated through the OSR blogosphere last week, and I'm finally throwing my two cents into the pile, mostly after seeing this post by Tim over at The Other Side Blog.
Let me state my thoughts on the subject unequivicably: Your Dungeon Is Suck serves no purpose other than to be unnecessarily hurtful and insulting to a group of people who by and large are doing little more than helping each other with a hobby. A hobby! Your Dungeon Is Suck, for the most part, offers the type of degrading humor that is insulting to anyone with more than a few brain cells. We don't need it in any way. D&D bloggers are perfectly capable of calling each other on their bullshit, and do so, quite often. If Your Dungeon is Suck offered honest, decent satire, that would be awesome. Instead it spews vitriol, hate, and juvenile insults.
As an antidote, I offer Your Dungeon is ROCK!, a new blog where I will highlight the smaller, up-and-coming D&D blogs that might be flying under your radar but deserve some recognition. It will also be a space where I can put up links to articles around the blogosphere I really like or that may be generating a good bit of discussion. I spend a good chunk of time surfing about the D&D blogosphere, and I encounter a lot of great material, but I want A Pack of Gnolls to remain focused on what it's doing well.
I got sent home from work today at the regular time instead of working a couple hours of overtime (one of the overhead cranes is busted, which was really hurting our productivity today), so I caught the end of the Dungeons and Dragons film on SyFy. Good God, but not even Jeremy Irons could save that gawdawful piece of trash.
Anyways, I was planning to use the bit of extra time to work on some D&D stuff (what else would I do, really?), and went searching for some background noise to put on the TV on the Netflix Instant service through the Wii. After talking myself out of some anime, I stumbled upon Eric Clapton's Crossroads Festival 2010 in the New Arrivals.
Well hot damn. I have spent the next big chunk of time geeking out on my other OCD focus: guitars. I've seen a couple other DVDs of the various Crossroads Festivals (Clapton throws one every year, I believe, to raise money for a school in Antigua). This one features a nice range of old school blues, Delta, Chicago, Country, Texas, and everything in between, and a lot of the newer artists that have been influenced by the greats and play just as well. Buddy Guy, Warren Haynes, John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, Robert Cray, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, just to name a few off the top of my head... And Clapton gets to jam with whoever he wants. Must be nice.
So I may have to spend a couple hours tonite banging on my axe instead of working on D&D stuff, but I think that'll be a pretty good use of my time.
I've been silent on the whole Your Dungeon Is Suck guy controversy concerning Christian that reverberated through the OSR blogosphere last week, and I'm finally throwing my two cents into the pile, mostly after seeing this post by Tim over at The Other Side Blog.
Let me state my thoughts on the subject unequivicably: Your Dungeon Is Suck serves no purpose other than to be unnecessarily hurtful and insulting to a group of people who by and large are doing little more than helping each other with a hobby. A hobby! Your Dungeon Is Suck, for the most part, offers the type of degrading humor that is insulting to anyone with more than a few brain cells. We don't need it in any way. D&D bloggers are perfectly capable of calling each other on their bullshit, and do so, quite often. If Your Dungeon is Suck offered honest, decent satire, that would be awesome. Instead it spews vitriol, hate, and juvenile insults.
As an antidote, I offer Your Dungeon is ROCK!, a new blog where I will highlight the smaller, up-and-coming D&D blogs that might be flying under your radar but deserve some recognition. It will also be a space where I can put up links to articles around the blogosphere I really like or that may be generating a good bit of discussion. I spend a good chunk of time surfing about the D&D blogosphere, and I encounter a lot of great material, but I want A Pack of Gnolls to remain focused on what it's doing well.
I got sent home from work today at the regular time instead of working a couple hours of overtime (one of the overhead cranes is busted, which was really hurting our productivity today), so I caught the end of the Dungeons and Dragons film on SyFy. Good God, but not even Jeremy Irons could save that gawdawful piece of trash.
Anyways, I was planning to use the bit of extra time to work on some D&D stuff (what else would I do, really?), and went searching for some background noise to put on the TV on the Netflix Instant service through the Wii. After talking myself out of some anime, I stumbled upon Eric Clapton's Crossroads Festival 2010 in the New Arrivals.
Well hot damn. I have spent the next big chunk of time geeking out on my other OCD focus: guitars. I've seen a couple other DVDs of the various Crossroads Festivals (Clapton throws one every year, I believe, to raise money for a school in Antigua). This one features a nice range of old school blues, Delta, Chicago, Country, Texas, and everything in between, and a lot of the newer artists that have been influenced by the greats and play just as well. Buddy Guy, Warren Haynes, John Mayer, Sheryl Crow, Robert Cray, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, just to name a few off the top of my head... And Clapton gets to jam with whoever he wants. Must be nice.
So I may have to spend a couple hours tonite banging on my axe instead of working on D&D stuff, but I think that'll be a pretty good use of my time.
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