Goblin Invasion

Here's a look at the first two counters I made. A goblin hoard of two. 

I only purchased a pack of ten counter stands but I can anticipate needing more. My idea here is that because I didn't want to draw the fronts and backs of these I just took images from the AD&D Monster Manual (mostly because I have a strong connection to these classic illustrations) and the Pathfinder Bestiary (because that's what I am playing with a group right now). I'm guessing that for the Pathfinder group the PF side will be the front and the classic side will be the back. Its a little more exciting than the wooden checkers I've been using for monsters.

Wyrm Issue 3

The Wyrm Issue 3 is finally up.


If anyone has a lead on any OSR short fiction please let me know.

Stand Up for Your Tokens

Last Tuesday I picked up some plastic stands for cardboard tokens from my FLGS. Just over a month ago I was going over some old BattleTech stuff after taking a look at Neuroshima Hex on my iPhone due to a recommendation by a friend. I had no idea of what had gone on in that game since 1990. This game has really spawned a fan base. The Unseen - who knew? Those are the only BattleMechs I know. 

Well I uncovered all the new "Classic BattleTech" stuff from Catalyst Game Labs and wanted to be able to produce my own tokens with stands from the files they provided. Thus the order for the stands.

Well I am more than pleased with these things. $4.00 for ten stands seems pretty reasonable. That's $40 for 100 individual game pieces. The ones I got are from Fantasy Flight Games and they look great made out of clear plastic, much better than the ones that came with the BattleTech game.

I eventually hope to use these with a combination of miniatures for use in Fields of Battle by Troll Lord Games. This product is probably the best miniatures wargame product I've ever seen, at least for me, because it allows you to bring your FRPG characters right in with the units. Finally a smooth way to have the PCs enter the epic battle. I found the paper tokens that came with the set and the maps pretty much useless (and perfect examples of Peter Bradley's crappy smeary smudgy Photoshop style - its not the only style he has - its just the only one here). One might be better off to just purchase the PDF for this product because the content, if not the packaging, is brilliant. 

I would also like to make common monster miniature tokens to use with my Legends of Early Greyhawk campaign for Pathfinder. They'd be great for TSR's Marvel Super Heroes and Adventures of Indiana Jones too.

Back to Basic

Lately I've been thinking about having an event at a park in the city where I live centered around D&D. A Dungeons & Dragons in the Park kind of thing. To facilitate it the game would have to be simple, possibly a classic module and likely require pre-gen characters. Ideally there would be some players that had never played before. As part of my prep I've been going over some classic modules and looking at the LBBs. As far as the OD&D books go I'm not likely to run my game with them, preferring the Moldvay version of the game. However what I did get around to doing was to print up a number of replica OD&D character sheets in yellow, green and blue. There is just something exotic about these sheets (front and back) to me and I wish that I'd have had a chance to play this version of the game back in 1982 when I started with Moldvay Basic (The group I played with were using AD&D rule books along with the Basic Set to run there games). In fact I didn't even know this version(OD&D) of the game existed until 2005. It must have been 1984 before I ever saw a version of the Holmes Basic Set and I remember at the time thinking that what the kid on the playground held in his hand must be from some sort of alternate universe.

Going over modules I'd like to consider running I got involved with B1 In Search of the Unknown. Looking at its fill in the monsters and treasure yourself design I began to consider using it as the basis for a side trek in my Pathfinder game. Originally that area was to be made using geomorphs but looking at B1 and its detailed area descriptions and interesting background story I think it might make a better fit. If i go this way I'll post the details on how I stocked it.

Looking at City Geomorph Production

So I haven't forgotten about making geomorphs for urban structures but I have taken a bit of time to collect materials and put a production plan together.


The idea here is to be able to make some interesting maps on the fly for players who have their characters enter cities and towns. The way I do this normally is to simply do without maps for the most part and be almost completely descriptive. I have an idea for what these places might look like but for the most part I'm suggesting "shop", "town hall" and "tavern" and letting the players fill in the details with their imaginations. This works well for the most part but its highly abstract and its easy for me to lose track of what's gong on in the location, who might be there and what opportunities might be there for the players. Most of these locations are not pre-planned and I like that aspect but it would sure be nice to put a map down for the players and have their thief notice that the shop keeper doesn't have a line of site to him and try to nab some free gear.


So for my first step I've created some floor tiles in Illustrator and Photoshop to represent stone and wood as these are going to be the most likely surface I'm going to need. 

Next I gathered a number of maps from various RPG books and am going to replicate these. So far there are taverns, shops, public buildings and temples among others. Once these are complete I would like to modify them to a standard for geomorph use and divide them into components. Once done I hope to be able to simply throw a couple or more tiles together and get an original structure of the type desired.

Space the final frontier

Lately I've been watching a lot of Original Series Star Trek and Enterprise episodes. I prefer the style of these series to the Next Gen stuff simply because they are a little more gonzo and a lot more fun. I guess what I find exciting about the franchise is that it is not only science fiction but fiction based on concepts of science (interesting). Although not as science fantasy as Flash Gordon (or Star Wars) the original series sure does have its swashbuckling moments (fun).


The 2009 Star Trek movie really got my trek imagination going and immediately I started thinking about the FASA Star Trek RPG. I conceived of a ret-coned Trek Universe of my own and started making some basic notes and reading up on what was considered canon. Quite honesty my concept of the Trek universe was based in no small part on the 1975 "Star Trek Star Fleet Technical Manual" by Franz Joseph as well as the "Star Trek Compendium". I guess its no wonder that I am a big fan of the FASA Trek universe seeing as its based in a large part on the Star Fleet Technical manual. This work (as well as the very cool FASA Trek Universe) is by no means considered canon but I prefer it I suppose because of my exposure to it in the early eighties before the Next Generation existed.

This past week I started writing notes on adventure ideas trying to use science as the main story element and building on the consequences of its use. I'm considering black hole time distortion, the cloning of consciousness and alien perception manipulation.


So far i've got two concepts of how the fleet relates to the players.
1. There is a fleet of Constitution class starships (similar the the Enterprise) that acts like a kind of coastguard and special forces unit that reacts to events occurring in Federation space.


2. There is a secret shadow to the Enterprise that is also on a Five Year Mission. It is not made public and is in place to guarantee success in case the Enterprise were to fail. Its mission is very similar but takes place in another section of the Federation and surrounding areas than explored by the Enterprise.

Make up as you go along

Last night I was going through a binder with my WEG Star Wars materials in it. This was the last game I played with my group before we all began adventuring in our often exciting adult lives. That would have been 1991 the year I began my university fine art education.

What I noticed was that I had paper clipped together a number of loose leaf sheets that contained a mash up of a title, simple maps, NPC drawings, sparse notes on encounters and even scrawl made during combat resolution. Looking at these I was reminded that these single page notes had been the fountainhead of the best sessions we ever played in that game. A cover sheet for these pages reads "M.U.A.Y.G.A." Make Up As You Go Along.

Recently I've been putting together a collection of notes about my original D&D campaign, the hope being to recreate some of the best adventures I ever ran for my group back in 1982-83. Those adventures also had a made up on the fly element to them, the original maps had notes written right on them and most encounter details were written in the rooms themselves.


Why were these adventures so popular with my players? Partly I think it was because they were tailor made for the characters in the moment. If the players looked bored it was time to imagine something really exciting, and that related directly to their character. This was especially true in the Star Wars games. But what I really think they liked was the fast pace and not knowing what to expect. Anything could happen and because it was a stream of consciousness thing happening on my part the most absurd things did. In D&D (1983) I remember them really liking being chased around dungeon corridors by a steel wall with spikes trap. It would pop up randomly and characters would have to save vs. death. In Star Wars (1990) the characters were pursuing an NPC over a series of heavily grassed asteroids with an atmosphere,  jumping from one to another (kind of sounds like Super Mario Galaxy).


What made it fun for them was the fast paced fear. Not horror. That's something different. What my players liked was Dungeon Panic.