ironclad feminists

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Beyond Vinland, session 4

I've been putting off reporting on last week's session of Beyond Vinland for a couple of reasons. For one thing, we played through part of an in-print adventure module (Dungeon Crawl Classics #23 The Sunken Zigguart published by Goodman Games) and I am very hesitant to offer any spoilers. The module has a lot of neat flavor and some interesting new monsters, but I don't feel right letting the whole cat out of the bag. I hope you all can appreciate this position.

The other reason why I've delayed on posting a session report was that it was a rough go for the PCs, with a higher meatgrinder/carnival ratio than I normally like. Doug's dice were cold for a second session in a row. The party was also down a man, as Jason was visiting his ill grandmother. The Sunken Ziggurat calls for at least 28 levels of PC and I only had 15 levels show up. I considered a second appearance of The Mystery Elf, but I don't really like playing NPC party members. Instead, I tried to follow the guidelines given in the book for scaling down the opposition. And I gave the PCs an extra mechanical goodie.

Anybody else familiar with the Dork20 deck? It's pretty cute, featuring Dork Tower art by John Kovalic. Each card has some mechanical widget like "make a saving throw automatically" or "+10 to a Jump check" or somesuch. According to the instruction sheet that comes with the rules, you give each player 4 cards at the start of the session. Whether the DM gets cards of his own is entirely optional, and previous play suggests that if the DM's hand is empty then the PCs about a level's worth of additional power out of their four cards. At least for a short session like we normally play.

There's one big problem I've seen with supplementary widgets like my own d30 house rule and the Dork20 cards. Even highly competent dungeoneers sometimes forget they have these additional meta-resources. I think the key issue is that neither the cards nor the d30 rule appear anywhere on the character sheet. As a player I know I like to have all my mechanical tools laid out in front of me for easy reference, on the char sheet. (Incidentally, this is one of the reasons I shy away from playing spellcasters. Past the first level or two it becomes hard for me to manage my spells.) It's relatively easy to forget that the big purple die in the middle of my pile of polyhedrals is actually something they can use. We need to work on that. Maybe I should get more d30s and hand each player their own die, that I take back when they expend it? There's no point in having such an explosive house rule if it doesn't regularly blow stuff up.

Most of the bad guys the Warriors Three faced were monster types that are immune to critical hits, so we only got to see one use of the GameMastery Critical Hit Deck I talked about last week. But so far I like it and unless the players rebel I plan on using it next session as well.

I will share two small items from last Wednesday's game. First of all, check out Stuart's new Wall of Gravy spell over at his blog. I can't explain how, but that spell evolved out of the chitchat at the table. Lots of game groups come up with utterly ridiculous in-joke spells like that, but most of them never make it past the simple "har-har" stage. This is the first time I've witnessed someone actually carry out the threat of turning a joke spell into a fully functioning mechanical artifact.

And to finish it off, here's the one bit of spoilage I will share with you. Using the Eye of Susserak, the amulet they stole from the ghost they fought at the end of last session, Pat's dwarf was able to determine that a monster they were fighting had a special vulnerability to water. Unfortunately, none of the spellcasters had any water-based spells at the ready. And no one even had a wineskin on their charsheet, thanks to the rings of sustenance everyone relies upon for nourishment. So in the middle of melee Pat's dwarf whips out his willie and urinates on the monster. That's a dungeoneer devoted to getting the job done no matter what the cost.

It should be noted that the other players briefly debated whether penis-deployment should draw an Attack of Opportunity. I thought giving the DM ideas like that was a pretty cruel thing to do to a teammate. Funny, but cruel.

the very definition of mainstream

Every workday morning I cross the lobby of the bank I work at. I don't really need to do this to get upstairs to my third floor cubicle, but it allows me to walk by my boss's office to see if she is in. She travels to other branches quite frequently and I find knowing she is or is not at her desk to be useful information.

Anyway, as I was walking across the lobby this morning two of my fellow employees were engaged in some light chitchat before the bank opened. One of them is a highly competent power secretary. She's one of those behind-the-scenes types who some days seem to hold the bank together by sheer force of will. The other has been in lending for almost as long as I've been alive and now oversees maybe a couple hundred million dollars in loans.

The subject of their conversation this morning? The plot of Spider-Man 3.

A whole new world

Over the weekend I purchased the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon boxed set. I had been holding off, since it seemed like a pricey bit of nostalgia. But then my daughter saw it at the store and asked me to buy it. How could I refuse her?

I think the series holds up rather well. For a brand-extending toyetic 80's kids show, the writing has a lot of humanity and imagination. And I like the extra goodies in the box, like 3.5 stats for the kids and their equipment. And then there's this fabulous piece of box art (click for a bigger version):


I'd totally adventure on that map.

New stuff!

And in the nick of time, too! Over a week ago I placed my first ever order with Paizo. I was in a big hurry to get the GameMastery Critical Hit Deck before my next Beyond Vinland session. I can't wait to try these cards out tonight! I'm a sucker for trying new card-based antics in my D&D games. My only concern about this product is that, as written, these cards replace the 2x/3x/4x damage result of a normal critical, rather than supplementing the normal multiplier. I know some players will be nervous about using this unknown system in place of the tried and true double damage rules. Of course we all agree that those players are big whimps. Just kidding. I totally understand the concern.

I also ordered a copy of Dungeon Crawl Classics #4, Bloody Jack's Gold. I've been wanting this one for a while, simply because Pirate Treasure plus Otus Cover equals Distilled Awesome. It'll probably take a *little* tweaking to make a Caribbean pirates adventure work in my pre-Columbian Viking/Conan game set near the Great Lakes. We'll start by casting the Ancient Atlanteans as Spaniards, I think. And maybe swap out muskets for laser beams, if blackpowder weapons appear in the module. 'Cause nothing says 'viking' like sci-fi energy weapons. I really need to get the other Otus-covered DCC modules. And pretty much the whole dang line. I haven't found one yet that doesn't suit me.

The nice people at Paizo also included two nifty freebies in the box. One was a great color catalog of their products. How long has it been since I've seen a color catalog devoted to RPG stuff? Was it the last BattleTech boxed set I bought from FASA in the late eighties? The other item they threw in was a booster for their GameMastery Item Cards line. This product line flew under my radar somehow, and it looks like it just might be right up my alley. The booster contains 11 cards. The front of each card looks something like this:

Other items in the little pack I received include a staff, a scroll, a couple weapons, some bracers, etc. The flip side of the card is like this:

A sharp DM could put some alphanumeric designation in the small "Item Code" field, which references some hidden chart describing the true nature of the item. The players could then use the Notes section to keep track of what they know about the item.

The crazy thing is that in my current campaign I'm already handing out magic items in card form. One of the big challenges I set myself for Beyond Vinland was to make magic items less dull. So I bought a pad of index cards that I've been slowly filling with unique magic items. When the players find the item I hand them the card. I've even been putting little illustrations on each card. But the art on these Paizo-made cards might be worth spending a few bucks on boosters. And I find that handing the player something tangible and saying "Here's your treasure" really enhances the play experience, because now the player is getting a goody as well as the PC. And I get to feel like Santa Claus.

The Source of the Pestilence

Here's the location of tonight's scheduled dungeoncrawlery, Dungeon Crawl Classic #23, The Sunken Ziggurat. (Note to my players: Only follow that link if you want to be spoiler-ified.)

Remember last week when I was freaking out over a lack of player response to my last campaign e-mail? Turn's out Pat's been sick, Jason's grandmother is also ill, and Doug has been in Vegas whooping it up with his wife. Jason won't be able to join us tonight because he'll be visiting his grandma, but hopefully Pat will be feeling well enough to play. Here's wishing a speedy recovery to both of them. I find it very weird that the week I plan a quest to stop a eerie pestilence is the same week that illness threatens to halve the number of players at the table.

Wake up! Time to die!

Anybody remember my Brythunian Age journal project? I got about 30 pages written in the journal before I lost steam. That's about 25 more pages of prep than I have ever done for a campaign prior to running it. Much of the information in the journal is in the form of charts and random dice tables. I've already shared my naughty goblin dice chart with you, but here's another one that I worked up. The idea behind this chart was to introduce some dramatic near-death experiences into the lives of the PCs.

Death's Door
PCs and important NPCs roll a d6 on this chart when their supply of hit points has been completely exhausted. 1st level PCs add one to the roll.

1) Dead as a doornail. Only Raise Dead or Reincarnation can help now.

2) Mostly Dead, just like in The Princess Bride. Character can take no actions until revived by magic. Cure Light Wounds or a healing potion have a 50% chance of reviving the character. Cure Serious Wounds always works. Revived characters are -4 on to-hits, saves, and damage for d12 days.

3) Major Wound . Knocked unconscious for 3d6 turns. Loss of d6 stat points, each point coming from a different random stat. Total debilitation for d6 months, after which time stat loss heals at a rate 1 point per month of complete rest. However, one point of stat loss is permanent. Weekly application of Cure Serious Wounds turns the months of convalescence into weeks, but offers no further assistance.

4) Bleeding Out. Unconscious d6 rounds. Must save vs. Death Ray every round for d6 rounds, then every turn for d6 turns, then every hour for d6 hours. Any failed save results in death. Any cure or a healing potion halts the bleeding. Someone taking one round to make a Wisdom check can slow the bleeding, bumping the time scale for saves to the next category.

5) Knocked Out. Awaken d6 turns later at 1 hit point. All attacks, damage rolls, and saves are at -2 until the character gets d12 days rest.

6-7) Close call. Character still has 1 hit point left. No other effect.

Back in February I used this chart for my crazy ten player Basic D&D con game. I thought it worked very well, and it kept us from having to make a bunch of additional PCs on the spot.