found fragment

From the 'drafts' folder of my work email, addressed to my gmail address but unsent:

The co-evolution of dragons and humans is analogous to the arms race between weapon and armor makers of various nations. Just as plate armor is invented to deflect weapons that were deadly to the users of chain hauberks, so did the genetic code of dinosaurs invent new ways to defeat their proto-hominid enemies. And vice versa. Both genus draco and genus homo evolved cognition and metacognition (i.e. magic), though the potentialities for the two lines are different. Some dragon species seems to have a greater capacity for rational thought than their human [fragment ends]

I have absolutely no memory of writing this passage. Does it look familiar to any body? Maybe I cut and pasted it from somewhere else. That "And vice versa." as a separate sentence looks like something I would write, but I'm not entirely sure.

blogging as therapy

I just got back from taking the Graduate Record Examine, the standardized test that a lot of grad schools use in applications. I nailed the verbal section and I feel pretty good about the essay part, but my game just crumbled on the math. I bought and worked through this 300+ page GRE prep book for the math, but today I got stymied on question #2 of the math section and it unnerved me. I ended up only answering 18 out of 28 of the questions because I ran out of time. Good thing I'm looking at the humanities end of the academic spectrum! At least this puts all the writing I've been doing into proper perspective.

slamtastic Shatnerday

"Lawler, you may have put Andy Kaufman in the hospital, but I'm William frickin' Shatner!"

(Or at least that's what he's saying in my head.)

paper sci-fi

Does everyone here read Something Awful's ongoing series WTF, D&D!? I think it's a hoot. The recent two-parter covering the original Warhammer 40,000 Rogue Trader was a stroll down memory lane. The parallels between 1987's Rogue Trader and OD&D are pretty strong, at least in that they were incomplete crazy-ass funfests. As a kid I could only afford figures for one miniatures game and BattleTech got to me first, so for years 40K remained my favorite minis game that I didn't play. I don't like the regimented, competitive orientation of modern 40K, but I still like the crazy energy and over-the-top violence of the original book. And some days I really want to run some of the crazy ass plots found in the random scenario generator section. From the Something Awful piece:


That's just three of dozens of equally dubious scenarios. Note that this section of the book would work just dandy for an Encounter Critical campaign.

The thing is, as much as I like W40K:RT I'm probably never going to ever amass a bunch of lead or plastic minis for it. I just don't have the money or the patience to get any good at painting the wee buggers. So if I ever wanted to put together some crazy sci-fi battles paper figures look like the way to go. Here are some of the best options I've found so far.

Sparks - S. John Ross's idea of formatting miniatures as a font was a frickin' stroke of genius. Putting together a slew of them is as easy as typing on your keyboard and scaling them is easy as pie. And the artwork is topnotch. The Watch the Skies! set is a good starting place for sci-fi shenanigans, but lots of other stuff from other sets could be used as well. Do yourself a favor and click through just to read the amusing ad copy describing each figure. Ross basically hides a mini-campaign in the flavor text of each set.

Fonts by Greywolf - Swipes Ross's idea for paper minis and makes 'em for free. Two sets of sci-fi characters.

Crow's Stuff - Free color minis for Traveller, Star Trek, Stargate and Dr. Who. Am I the only one contemplating Hivers versus Cybermen, using 40K rules?

One Monk - Lots of gorgeous full color minis, mostly sold thru RPGNow at 3 dollars a set.The "Future Battle" and "Mutants and Death Ray Guns" lines look perfect for Rogue Trader throwdowns. These figures are more complicated to put together and look like they require a lot of trimming with an exacto knife to get them done up properly. But when finished they'd look better than many half-painted half-ass metal & plastic 40K armies I've seen.

MicroTactix - I tend to think of these folks as the makers of great paper scenery, but their Cheap Folks line of figures look pretty neat and some of their alien armies look like a lot of fun. The Squarn are just awesome.

Precis Intermedia's Disposable Heroes - I like the clean look of these figures and Precis Intermedia offers a "customizable download" option for a premium. Need 20 space marine figure individually numbered? They can hook you up!

Patrick's Cardboard Warriors - Thank goodness the Internet Wayback machine saved this page! You should all go grab copies of Patrick's fun little guys right now.

Slick's Miniatures - Slick only offers a few items, but his N.C.C. Troopers would make pretty decent Imperial Army dudes. Which is my favorite faction from the original game. They're basically poor pathetic sons of bitches who have been drafted into sci-fi fucking Viet Nam.

Stuff to Beat Up 1: Tech Terrors - Horrible things to kill those Imperial Army conscripts.

Arion Games - This outfit is using poser-type graphics for its figures. I don't normally dig on that, but I must admit that their little bug aliens are pretty cool. I'd love to see some Space Marines blow the crap out of them. They also got several sets of other aliens, including sci-fi civilians and a set of outer space villains.

there's friends, and then there's friends

Tonight on the way my daughter and I were engaged in some light conversation of the "how was your day?" variety. We wandered off track and ended up chitchatting about Dracula and vampires. (Incidentally, my daughter's first impression of Dracula came from The Grim Adventures of Billy & Mandy, so she probably imagines the big D as a grumpy old blacula.) So Elizabeth asks me what would happen if I got turned into a vampire. Without hesitating I tell her that she would need to call my buddy Pat to come over and put a stake in my heart. Lizzy gets confused on the whole stake/steak thing, but I think she got that Pat would handle the situation.

This exchange got me thinking about Contact mechanics in RPGs. I'm pretty sure I first encountered Contacts in Champions/HERO System. It was pretty simple: you pay some character points for the privilege of writing "Contact: The Space Pope" on your charsheet. The at some point during the game when you needed the Space Pope's assistance you would throw some dice to see if the dude could help you out. The advanced version of the original Marvel game also had some contacts rule. As I recall contacts were rated High or Low. I think that meant that High contact with SHIELD indicated Nick Fury was your poker buddy, while a Low contact meant your schmuck cousin worked in the records department.

I like Contacts rules. It's a good way of establishing ligatures between the PCs and the larger milieu. Some players will use the opportunity to make up some people to add to the campaign world, others will be happy to be pals with the local Gandalf. The HERO System method of making people choose between more friends and bigger Energy Blasts seems self-defeating, but the basic concept is sound. Giving a couple freebies to players strikes me as a better option. For Labyrinth Lord and similar systems maybe 3 + Charisma bonus would be good number. An enterprising GM could have a bigass chart of NPCs for players who didn't want to invent all their contacts. Something like this:

1...Felmar, blacksmith of the Village of Omlet
2...Bumble Bristletoes, Mayor of West Shireton
3...Madame Xandaria, proprietor of the Golden Courtesan
4...Sir Graccus, the Selenium Duke's personal champion
5...Randolph the Red, a wandering wizard
6...Cross-eyed Sarah, a scribe and correspondent of the royal vizier
(etc., etc.)

A second chart would give the level of dedication felt by the contact or the type of dodgy activity they will perform on your behalf. That's where thinking about my buddy Pat comes in. Here's a first stab at such a chart:

1. Will let you and your filthy friends stay over for a few days.
2. Will lend you d100 gp with no real expectation of repayment
3. Will hide you in the root cellar and lie to the Witchfinder General
4. Will share useful or sensitive information
5. Will post bail for you
6. Will organize a jailbreak on your behalf
7. Will help you rob graves and not ask questions
8. Will sneak you in past the guards
9. Will hold a chest of dubious contents for you
10. Will find you an honest job if you'd just give up this stupid adventuring stuff
11. Will execute some side mission assigned by you
12. Will hunt you down and put you out of your misery should you be turned into an abomination against nature

Of course, any DM worth their salt will realize that Contact stuff works both ways. "We can't let some troll kidnap Felmar the Blacksmith, not after the time he tipped us off that bounty hunters were on our tail!"

This post is endorsed by the Space Pope.

Supplement VI

So Rob Conley, author of the truly excellent Points of Light and Points of Light II, has a new book out. Supplement VI: The Majestic Wilderlands is based upon his personal campaign world, which riffs off Bob Bledsaw's original Wilderlands of High Fantasy. But you don't need to be a Wilderlands geek to get something out of this book.

For example, the new classes in the front of the book would make a cool addition to any OD&D/D&D/retroclone game. I particularly dig on Rob's Myrmidon of Set class. On first pass these guys look a little like an Egyptian themed anti-paladin type, but they are actually badasses for Law. It's a harsh, unforgiving Law, but these snake-worshipping sons of bitches are on our side! Very juicy. The magic-user subsection is chock full of alternatives to standard Vancian fire-and-forget spellcasting. And the cleric section is a good example of how to tailor that class to the religions of your specific campaign world. The thief section introduces the least offensive skill system I've seen in D&D. I still don't like skill systems in D&D, but I'd use Supp VI's if a player was keen on it. There's lots of other neat stuff in Supplement VI: an easy-as-pie ritual magic system, a theory of magic, new PCs races, new magic items. This is one of those books that is just full of stuff you can cherrypick for your own use.

While you can see some threads running through much of Supplement VI, I wouldn't say there's an overarching theme to the whole book except for the delightfully simple "Here's how my game works". Rob isn't trying to revolutionize the gaming world, he's inviting us into his much-beloved corner of it. I love DMs who do that. In that way, Supp VI is a callback to the hippy days of Arduin.

Right now you can get a PDF download from RPGnow for seven bucks, but a lulu print edition is forthcoming. In the interests of full disclosure I should note that Rob generously gave me an editing credit for looking over a draft of the first two sections of the book and a second credit because he used (and niftily expanded) my Hedge Mage rules. But the Majestic Wilderlands is Rob's baby and he should get all the kudos. I give Supplement VI: The Majestic Wilderlands a hearty recommendation.

Shameful Shatnerday

Shatnerday is more than 66% over and I'm finally getting a pic up. But I can explain both that and my absence from this here blog. I've been scrambling all week to finish my paper about the Idylls of the King. I even cancelled Wednesday's Mutant Future game to get the job done.

Thanks to Gameblog reader Ed Bilodeau for pointing out this gallery of TOS-themed paintings. I especially like this study. I used the still that's based on as an an illo in my OD&D module.