Gropos in the 23rd century

Over at WotC's Star Wars rpg forum, there's a thread going on about which sci-fi army would win in a land battle. Given that these are all SW fans, naturally Imperial Stormtroopers fare pretty well in their minds. However, this site, being much more scientific, requires a higher level of evidence. Therefore, in true Deadliest Warrior style, I propose a comparison of some of the best-known armies from sci-fi TV and film (I will leave out literature, since different criteria would have to be applied). So, who are my combatants?

Starfleet Security (Star Trek)
EarthForce Marines (Babylon 5)
Imperial Stormtroopers (Star Wars)
US Colonial Marines (Aliens)
Mobile Infantry (Starship Troopers)

I will base my analysis on three criteria, kit, training and combat experience. Each criteria will be scored out of 10. Embarrassing and silly events (i.e. the Battle of Endor) will be stricken from the record, so that a more objective analysis can occur. Here we go:

Starfleet Security
kit - weapons: phasers, particle beam weapons with capabilities ranging from stunning to disintegration, by far the best weapon of the lot, armour: typically none, score 9/10
training - the best the future has to offer, advanced psychiatric techniques, holodeck training simulations, you name it; training is broad-based, not specifically related to infantry combat, score 9/10
combat experience - the Federation is a relatively safe place, so Starfleet personnel don't have much need or opportunity to fight large-scale ground-based military actions, score 4/10

EarthForce Marines
kit - weapons: phased plasma guns (PPGs), small bolts of plasma encased in residual magnetic bottle, comparable damage to firearms, armour: some, typically polymer weave type vest, score 6/10
training - first-rate, though probably not as sophisticated as Starfleet, but much more combat-oriented, score 8/10
combat experience - quite a lot, many veterans remain from the Earth-Minbari War and other recent conflicts, score 9/10

Imperial Stormtroopers
kit - weapon: blasters, particle beam weapons, comparable lethality to firearms, armour: full-body combat armour, score 9/10
training - good, but hobbled by the Tarkin Doctrine and the clone army heritage of the force, not conducive to innovative tactical thinking, score 6/10
combat experience - quite a lot, but Imperials typically enjoy overwhelming superiority of numbers and firepower, thus limiting the value of combat experience, score 5/10

United States Colonial Marines
kit - weapon: automatic firearms, grenades, armour: battle dress, score 7/10
training - much like 21st century USMC, top quality, score 8/10
combat experience - quite a lot, though the quality of the opposition is probably questionable, too many bughunts, score 6/10

Mobile Infantry
kit - weapon: automatic firearms, mininukes, armour: advanced battle dress, score 9/10
training - decent, although recruit quality may be variable, score 7/10
combat experience - significant, bugs found on many worlds, quite adaptable due to brain bugs, score 8/10

The final score is:
#1 Mobile Infantry (24/30) - I mean really, they've got f**king mininukes. Damn!
#2 EarthForce Marines (23/30) - These guys fought the Minbari, that earns them some respect.
#3 Starfleet Security (22/30) - Phasers rule!
#4 US Colonial Marines (21/30) - Tough hombres, but less advanced.
#5 Imperial Stormtroopers (20/30) - I wasn't going to bring it up, but Endor is starting to make some sense.

-Rognar-

Inglourious Basterds - weird, but watchable

Admittedly, I'm not much of a Tarantino fan. Nothing personal, he just doesn't make the kind of movies I like to watch. In fact, before last night, the only Tarantino flick I had ever watched was Pulp Fiction and some of his more vocal detractors might argue that's the only one you should. Still, the idea behind Inglourious Basterds was interesting, so I checked it out. Even with my limited experience of Tarantino, the style of the film was very familiar. It was a fusion of Pulp Fiction and Saving Private Ryan. It was strangely edited, it was violent and Brad Pitt's squad of vicious Nazi hunters was featured far less prominently than one would have guessed based on the trailers. Still, it was long, but it didn't feel long, which is always a good sign. The multiple storylines came together quite nicely to a very satisfying, if grossly ahistorical, conclusion. I also have to add an extra hat tip to Tarantino for making Brad Pitt's character a member of the First Special Service Force (also known as the Devil's Brigade), a joint Canada-US commando unit which became the precursor to modern special forces units around the world. His affiliation is not stated explicitly, but the red arrowhead FSSF shoulder patch is clearly displayed on his uniform.

-Rognar-

Winging it

Back in the old 1st and 2nd edition days I was almost always the DM. I'd been doing it long and often enough I had large numbers of monsters memorized and could basically make things up as I went along. I had enough supplementary materials (adventure modules and what not) that I could pull out if I needed a cool map or a better NPC name. They were definitely sandbox campaigns as I usually had only a couple plot ideas in mind and so the game often wandered down paths that I never expected.

Can this be done anymore? One bonus I've heard about 4E is that it is much easier for DMs to make stuff up on the fly. In 3.x this is really hard to do. Maybe its just because I rather DM anymore, or because I have other things to do with my time then memorize hundreds of monsters, but with things so much more complicated and detailed I'm not sure it could really happen anymore. I suppose you could keep a stack of premade NPCs that you could throw in when you need them and a bunch of maps but its much harder then it used to be do come up with new things in a smooth way.

I think this is why the adventure path has come to dominate our 3.x games. That pirate campaign with drow and pirates would be much much harder to run today then it was 10 years ago. With the APs you can still make minor tweaks like dropping or modifying encounters but most of the work is already done.

Could a sandbox game be run in 3.x without a ton of prework?

My Most Memorable Characters - Radikar

It's been a few months since my last post in this series and I hadn't planned on submitting any more, but I was throwing out some old papers and I ran across the character sheet for my hobgoblin warlock, Radikar. Unlike my previous characters, Radikar was a true villain. Even Nikolai Grenovic, though evil, was a man of honour. Radikar was a monster who would engage in wholesale slaughter at the slightest provocation. Yet, despite this, Radikar was a compelling character. His bestial manner and growling voice camouflaged an impressive intellect. He viewed his own people with as much contempt as he did the hated humans, because he felt they were capable of so much more than that to which they aspired. He dreamed of a day when he would lead an army of goblinkin to crush the human kingdoms. He got his chance. With the aid of comrades just as vile and merciless as he, Radikar found himself at the head of an army destroying towns and villages through Tethyr. Though eventually, the horde was stopped, Radikar escaped and his current whereabouts are unknown. Rulers from Waterdeep to Calimport tremble at the thought of his reemergence. Ok, maybe not tremble, but certainly note with some trepidation.

Oh, and he owned a personal set of masterwork torturer's tools.

-Rognar-

The demise of the fireball

As I worked on the finishing touches of my new sorcerer character last night, in particular, selecting my spells, something occurred to me. Back in the "good old days", when your magic-user achieved the level necessary to cast 3rd level spells, it was a given that first one would be fireball. Oh glorious fireball, that mighty arcane fist of doom, the slayer of man and orc, the spell that all other offensive spells aspired to be. Asking how many 3rd level spells you had was virtually equivalent to asking how many fireballs you had prepared. Sure, sometimes you would throw a lightning bolt into the mix and at high levels, when you had a lot of 3rd level spells, you might even take a dispel magic or haste for variety, but you always made sure you had plenty of fireballs on tap.

Boy, what a difference a few editions make. With damage topped out at 10d6 and with evasion and fire resistance as common as +1 longswords, it hardly seems worth it. Sure, a wizard might prepare one in the unlikely event he gets to whack a large concentration of cannon-fodder that he needs to wipe out quickly, but for a sorcerer with limited spell options, fireball is a toothless dinosaur. Heck, even lightning bolt, long the idiot stepbrother of fireball is now more attractive since electricity resistance is ever so slightly less common than fire resistance. How times have changed.

On another note, I notice they nerfed ray of enfeeblement in Pathfinder. Not surprising, that spell was way too powerful as written.

-Rognar-

CthulhuTech or Eclipse Phase

Catalyst Game Labs feels to me like a serious up-and-coming publisher. It already had two solid properties in Shadowrun, the first big cross-genre rpg, and Classic BattleTech, the granddaddy of the mecha combat games. Recently, they added CthulhuTech, poached from Mongoose, and Eclipse Phase. The former peaked my interest early on, even before Catalyst became the distributor, but after buying the pdf for Eclipse Phase, I find myself more attracted to that game. It lacks the supernatural horror component of CthulhuTech, which is something I usually look for in my quest for the perfect sci-fi horror setting, but the game mechanics are far superior to the gimmicky CthulhuTech game engine. Also, the kitchen-sink approach of CthulhuTech left much to be desired. Though there are many play options, they don't all mesh together well. Mecha combat doesn't work with cloak-and-dagger style role-playing. The game ends up being spread too thin and there just aren't enough options once you distill the components of the game that apply to your particular choice of campaign style. The final nail in the coffin was Damnation View, which I reviewed in an earlier post. It is a beautiful book with lots of pretty pictures and well-written short fiction, but there just wasn't enough meat on the bones given the price. For these reasons and my limited gaming budget, I am making the switch to Eclipse Phase. By the time I finish reading through the core book in about six months, the next book, Sunward: The Inner System, should be on store shelves.

-Rognar-

G.I.Joe: The Rise of Cobra...boy, did that suck!

[Spoiler Alert] Man, never go see an instant classic like District 9 and a stinker like G.I.Joe: The Rise of Cobra in the same week. Big mistake. To be fair to the latter, I will compare it to the Transformers movie instead. First off, there is no discernible Megan Foxiness in this movie at all. Sure, it had no Shia Leboeuf either, which is a plus, but it has a Wayans brother, instead! WTF! Yeah, the same one from the first Dungeons and Dragons movie (although, in fairness, he might have been the least offensive part of that abomination). All the explosions were cool and they did destroy one world famous landmark, which is essential in any action movie. But the plot was convoluted and ridiculous. Right from the beginning, it made no sense. Why the hell would NATO fund research for a doomsday weapon in a lab facility in f**king Kyrgyzstan? Also, why make the doomsday weapon, then go through all these convoluted plans to steal from yourself? Why not just make another batch of the warheads in your secret undersea base in the Arctic? Ah, nevermind.

Save your money. Go see District 9

-Rognar-

By the way, it is official, Egypt has the highest density of top secret military and alien bases on the planet.

Eclipse Phase - Game Mechanics

Eclipse Phase uses a d100 system in which a roll is made against a target number, typically generated from a character's skill with possible modifiers, with a value between 01 and 98. The result is a success if the roll is equal to or less than the number. 99 is an automatic failure while 00 is an automatic success.

In some cases, the roll is opposed, as is the case in combat. In fact, Eclipse Phase bucks the recent trend toward rules-lite combat resolution seen in many small publishers today, by creating a fairly complex combat routine. First of all, there is an opposed attack by which the defender attempts to avoid being hit. Then, if the attack is successful, damage vs. armour is determined with factors such as critical hits and armour penetration value of weapons coming into play. Finally, assuming some damage gets through the armour, a wound threshold for the morph must be overcome to inflict actual damage. This is not a game for those who like streamlined combat. Personally, I'm more of a simulationist-type gamer, so this combat resolution system doesn't discourage me at all.

-Rognar-

Eclipse Phase - First impressions

I really had no intention of purchasing Eclipse Phase by Catalyst Game Labs, despite reading some pretty intriguing things about the game. However, Catalyst, taking a page out of the Paizo playbook, offers the pdf for $16 Cdn. Good deal, so I caved. These are my first impressions. The game is incredibly hard sci-fi. Though set in the distant future where the very definition of human has been distorted beyond all recognition, none of the concepts seem to embrace any of the fanciful space opera tropes. Well, that's not entirely true, there are some examples of alien technology that verge on science fantasy, but these are peripheral and may be ignored entirely. The first thing I noticed about the game is the remarkable number of character options available, starting with "morphs". Morphs are different options the character may choose for his or her physical presence. There are biomorphs, entirely biological morphs that range from completely unmodified humans, called flats, to a dozen different types of genetically-advanced humanoids to uplifted avians, primates and cephalopods. For those unable to afford a highly sought after biomorph, there are a variety of synthetic and cybernetic alternatives, although depending on the option, some significant social stigmas may apply. Lastly, it is possible to exist entirely in digital form and this may be a playable option depending on the campaign.

Technology in Eclipse Phase incorporates many of the things we understand today and takes them to the next level. Nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and genetic modification are the primary driving technologies in the game setting and nothing in there seems fanciful.

I will go into further detail in future posts as I digest the enormous amount of material in this game. Next time, I will talk about the game engine.

-Rognar-

District 9 - There are no words to describe...

...the sheer, unrelenting awesomeness of this film. I predict in 10 years, we will describe District 9 the same way we currently talk about Star Wars, Aliens and The Terminator. It is simply that awesome. If you haven't seen it, see it. If you have seen it, good for you. See it again. It is not simply the best sci-fi film this year, it is, in my opinion, the best sci-fi film of the last decade.

-Rognar-

More Pathfinder Results

I'm been playing around with more of the classes and wanted to post some of my thoughts and findings. All of my test builds were to level 10 and none have ever been playing so there may be things good and bad that I've missed.

Prestige Classes

Arcane Archer
I thought the original 3.5 version totally sucked. The beta version was no better. So what if you can imbue your arrows with spells, you don't get any caster levels so you won't have any spells in the first place. Well, now the AA get 7 caster levels (out of 10) which works well for me. The best comparison is to an archer ranger or fighter which are also the best lead-ins to the class. The fighter once again does the best damage from the many bonus combat feats and weapon specialization. The ranger shines in certain environments and against certain foes as well as gets some great archery feats early (Pin Point Targeting stands out here). A little bit of spell casting and the animal companion add some interesting possibilities.

The Arcane Archer gets pretty good spell casting and tends to have the best saves of the three - at least where it counts most - Will and Fort. The spells add lots of utility out of combat as well as a way to keep the enemy from getting too close.

Duelist
Now maybe I was biased against the duelist by its resemblance to its 3.5 cousin the swashbuckler. I thought the Duelist sucked and didn't really look at what it could do objectively. In a moment of madness I decided to build a test Duelist and see what it could do. To be honest I was pleasantly surprised. I built the duelist from a barbarian base and a fighter base (with a 6 bab entry requirement no other way sounded appealing). The barbarian sounded odd but they actually blended quite well. The uncanny dodge would help a lot since most of the duelists defenses are dodge based. I could almost see the barbarian duelist repeating over and over "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die." The fighter ends up having better AC and ability to hit and do damage.

After looking the duelist over I figured the best build would be a crit build. Precise strike is now a set bonus so it multiplies on a crit. Throw in power attack and at level 10 you can get a combat round of +15/+10 1d6+17 15-20/X2. Almost 1 in three swings would be a crit for pretty decent damage. Assuming a single hit per round damage of 26.65. The fighter does 32.40. The fighter also has 4 extra points to hit making the real damage gap bigger.

The problem is that the Duelist is stuck using a single one handed weapon: the worst fighting style. The lack of shield option hampers the duelist on defense. The duelist is fast and gets some nice dodge and initiative bonuses. He also gets significant bonus to fighting defensively. I actually think a duelist can out tank the barbarian but pales next to the fighter or the paladin. Near 16 a duelist fighting defensively could fairly easily have a higher AC then a two handed weapon fighter.

My overall view of the duelist is that it would be great in a pirate type campaign where heavy armor isn't viable but otherwise not so hot.

Arcane Trickster
I've always had a soft spot for wizard rogues as my fellow contributors might recall (Think 2e drow pirate campaign). The old AT sucked. It was a crappy caster and a crappy rogue. Well all that has changed. Now a 16th level AT is only 3 levels behind a rogue for SA and 3 levels behind in casting level. Pretty good for that much versatility.

My first thought of all that sneak attacking with rays was "drool" but then I realized a few things. At level 10 SA damage is only 4d6 and unlike a rogue get only one attack per round if you are using ray attacks. Sneak attacks are also difficult to set up from range. Getting into melee to flank is an option but 2 potential AoO could hurt. The good news is that you should have a good selection of spells to help you out setting up SA like Invis, Grease, and a variety of illusions to hide behind.

While I haven't seen one in play yet, I think that an Arcane trickster can out rogue a rogue. In a fix they could fill in for a sorc or wiz but would lack the variety/number of spells of a full caster.

The first killer c-c-c-c-combo I've noticed is a bard doing the Dirge of Doom and a rogue with Shatter Defenses. After the first hit, all hits would automatically be sneak attacks assuming the rogue lands at least one blow a round. A rogue could out damage a Barbarian with this.

As there is no D&D this week, I will continue to monkey around in my spare time and post my findings.

West End Games Free Downloads

As WEG switches to the Opend6 OGL, they are beginning to offer all their old pdfs for free download. Yup, free and legal, pdfs that I paid real money for a couple of months ago. Yay, me! Anyway, it is a great time to go get them. They are big files, but if you have broadband (and really, who doesn't?), it shouldn't take more than an hour to grab the lot. Enjoy.

d6 Adventure
d6 Space
d6 Fantasy
d6 Fantasy Creatures
d6 Adventure Locations
d6 Space Ships
d6 Fantasy Locations
d6 Magic

-Rognar-

Rippin' on Warhammer 40k

Zack and Steve have turned their sights on Warhammer 40,000. I don't know much about WH40K, except that every time I've ever gone into a Games Workshop store, I've been simultaneously blown away by the unrelenting coolness and the fact that the cost of a box of 8 figures is more than the GDP of Cuba.

-Rognar-

A couple of Pathfinder rules to watch out for

Given how similar Pathfinder is to D&D 3.5, it is easy to overlook some of the less obvious rule changes, but a couple I've found could prove quite important.

First off, casting on the defensive. The old rule was d20 + concentration skill ranks + Con modifier vs. a DC equal to 15 + spell level. This meant that a typical 10th level wizard with maxed out ranks in concentration and a decent Con (+2 mod, say) could cast his highest level spell on the defensive with a roll of 5. If he had the combat casting feat, success was automatic. The new Pathfinder rule is d20 + caster level + appropriate spellcasting ability modifier vs. a DC equal to 15 + double the spell level. The first half of the equation will typically produce a similar result. For example, the aforementioned 10th level wizard will likely have an 18 Int, so his concentration check modifier would be 14 (caster level 10 + Int modifier 4), as opposed to 15 (concentration ranks 13 + Con modifier 2) the old way. However, the DC is now 25 for his highest level spell. So, instead of needing to roll a 5, he needs an 11. That combat casting feat suddenly looks a lot more appealing.

The second rule change I noticed is overcoming DR. The special material-based DRs such as DR 10/cold iron can now be overcome with extra enchantments. For example, a +3 weapon can now overcome DR requiring cold iron or silver, +4 weapons can overcome DR requiring adamantine and +5 can overcome alignment-based DR. This rule harkens back to D&D 3.0 and older editions, when weapon resistance/immunity was based on the how many plusses the weapon had.

-Rognar-

Legendary Evils DDM - pics 1

My three huge figures, the Remorhaz, the Balor and the Elder Green Dragon.

-Rognar-

Legendary Evils DDM - pics 2

Here is a comparison of the Elder Green Dragon with a previously released huge dragon. Despite my initial reaction, the size of the Elder Green Dragon is actually quite close.

-Rognar-

Legendary Evils DDM - pics 3

This image is the Balor and the War Troll, with the Githzerai Mindmage for scale. As you can see, the War Troll is really quite large, comparable in size to previously released minis of fire and hill giants

-Rognar-

Legendary Evils DDM - my first pulls

It has been some time since D&D minis excited me in any way. I still pick up a few singles from time to time to fill holes in my collection, but today is the first day in ages when I actually headed out to the FLGS with the expressed purpose of buying DDM boosters. Legendary Evils is that awesome. The huges in that set are just as cool as I'd hoped, so I bought three, the Balor, the Remorhaz and the Green Dragon. Here are my pulls:

Balor (huge, visible) - simply awesome, nothing more to add
War Troll (large, rare) - score!, almost as cool as the Balor
Foulspawn Seer (medium, rare) - not bad, could proxy for some weird, subterranean spellcaster
Minotaur Thug (medium, common) - looks like typical DDM common, still useful
Hoard Scarab Larva Swarm (medium, common) - good proxy for a pile of gold coins

Remorhaz (huge, visible) - awesome mini, great proxy for huge centipede
Psychic Sentinel (large, rare) - so-so, could proxy for some kind of gem golem
Githzerai Mindmage (medium, rare) - looks great, but doesn't look like previous githzerai figures
Goblin Cutter (small, common) - looks much better than the other commons I got
Human Rabble (medium, common) - meh

Elder Green Dragon (huge, visible) - looks great, although it's a bit small for a huge
Chuul (large, rare) - pretty good, could serve as advanced leader for my other chuuls
Foulspawn Mangler (medium, rare) - four-armed thing, looks good, but don't know what to do with it
Scarecrow Stalker (medium, common) - ok, generic undead thing
Minotaur Thug (as above)

I'll post some pics later

-Rognar-

What's next for Pathfinder?

Following Pathfinder's huge success at GenCon, the interwebs are buzzing with speculation about what is next. Some things are certain. First of all, the Pathfinder Bestiary comes out next month. Secondly, the first "Pathfinder compatible" third party publication, The Book of Secrets by Adamant Entertainment, is available in pdf and will be released in dead tree format sometime this fall. There were also some hints revealed at GenCon about what Paizo intended to publish for PFRPG next year. These include a second bestiary and a second core book with four new basic classes. These classes would be the cavalier, the oracle, some kind of summoner and an alchemist of some sort.

-Rognar-

Obiri rates the revised Pathfinder classes and races

I'm lazy so excuse the formatting.

Races

Dwarf
Still one of the best races. Strong vs spells and poisons. Darkvision. Not slowed down by medium or heavy armor. Too bad I like my characters to more mobile.

Elf
Great wizards, ok rogues and rangers.

Gnome
Small. I still don't see why anyone would play one over a halfling.

Halfling
Small but good at what it does. Great for sneaky or talky characters.

Half Elf
OMG, they fixed the half elf. Bonus to perception, free Skill Focus feat, two favoured classes, and a bonus to any one stat. I would actually play a half elf now.

Half Orc
Unfortunately still kinda sucks. A bonus to Intimidate and darkvision. That's pretty much it.

Human
I always thought the human was pretty good before and aside from the extra +2 to any stat which is shared with the other two half human races they got nothing new. Still a very solid choice.

Classes

Bard
Undecided on the bard. I thought they sucked before but with better casting and being able to maintain bardic music as a free action I think they have hope now. Maybe Derobane will try one out for us.

Barbarian
Given more options but not made much stronger. Probably made more fun to play but I don't see him being more effective in combat (I would argue the Barbarian was the best melee fighter before)

Cleric
All of the clerics melee spells have been nerfed severely and with no divine metamagic equivalent they are no longer uber front liners. They are even better healers then before but that job gets boring pretty quick.

Druid
Another nerf bat victim. Wildshape is now more for utility than combat unless you severely hamstring your casting abilities. I do like what they've done with the animal companions however.

Fighter
The fighter has lost some of his AC bonus he got in Beta but gained the ability to move at full speed in heavy armor which I think is still worth it. At least with my test builds the fighter was able to outperform the barbarian at the low to mid levels damage wise and can tank much better.

Monk
I am going to have to see the monk in action before I can decide. In the beta, they start off really weak but became quite decent by the upper mid levels. I think someone taking a flurry of blows is going to feel some serious pain and you could probably build a very effective grappler. I'm still worried that they are kinda squishy like the rogue.

Paladin
The paladin went from one of the worst classes to one of the best. The paladin can now out tank the fighter, out damage the barbarian (at least when it counts), and heal almost as well as the cleric. Their caster level is no longer gimped and they can give bonus abilities to their weapon as the need arises. They don't have great mobility, low number of class skills, and still have the alignment restrictions but its all worth it now.

Ranger
As a ranger fan I was unhappy with the 3.5 version. The fighter could out fight them in every way, their animal pet was useless, and their caster level was gimp. They now get favoured terrain as well as favoured enemy. They get a decent animal companion, and their caster level is now ok. As an archer I think it is now worth it although I'm still not sure the two weapon version is all that.

Rogue
The rogue is like the barbarian in that it was pretty good before and only got a small upgrade. Rogues are now even better at what they do outside combat and while they have a few more options in battle they are still going to suffer at the high levels trying to get off sneak attacks.

Sorcerer
Sorcerers now have a lot more flavour with bloodlines. I still think the wizard edges them out a bit but it's closer now than before and I may change as I see them in action.

Wizard
Wizards still rock but have been toned down a bit from Beta. The other specialties are now worth playing with conjuration and alteration still stronger than the rest.

I think an interesting party would be Paladin, Ranger, Sorcerer, and Bard.

The latest purchase from my FLGS, pt.4

CthulhuTech markets itself as a "storybook" game and GMs are referred to as "storytellers". To support this conceit, a series of storybooks are being published, the first of which is Damnation View. Storybooks are basically a set of adventures set in different parts of the game world with different themes. For example, one series of adventures is set in China, on the front lines against the Rapine Storm. These ones are obviously very combat-heavy and oriented towards mecha. Another set pits government agents against Dagonite cultists seeking ancient artifacts to aid them in their efforts to awaken their god, Cthulhu. This series is much more oriented toward cloak-and-dagger roleplay. Each storybook has a section advancing each of these story arcs through a much larger story arc encompassing the entire Aeon War, with each release representing one year of the war.

I picked up Damnation View and while I must say, the product is top quality, I think it is over-priced for what it offers. Anyone who knows me, knows I hate paying for a lot of fluff. I want crunch and unfortunately, Damnation View offers little. There are three new character classes, all related to a super secretive government agency simply known as Special Services. Good stuff there. There are also a couple of new mecha designs....and that's it. Nothing else with so much as a single number associated with it. The adventure hooks are useful and the associated short fiction do a good job of immersing you in the story lines, but for a hardcover book over $45 Cdn, I want more than that. Now, I am something of a collector and a bit OCD when it comes to completing games, so I suspect I will buy the remaining storybooks (I believe four more are planned and the next one, Mortal Remains is expected in stores next month). Having said that, I wish they were either a bit cheaper (maybe less artwork or not hardcover) or a bit crunchier.

-Rognar-

More on Midnight

I mentioned a couple of weeks ago, the Midnight campaign setting, a very dark fantasy setting compatible with D&D 3.5. Well now, in what can only be described as one of the most unconventional marketing efforts I can recall in the tabletop rpg industry, Fantasy Flight Games is releasing a full-length, live-action movie based in the Midnight setting. For a limited time, FFG is offering the movie as well as pdf versions of the script, the Midnight core book and an adventure tied in to the movie as a bundled download for a remarkably low price. I saw a trailer of this movie and it has exactly the sort of production values you'd expect, but just the core book and an adventure alone are worth the price. If I hadn't already purchased the core book, I'd be all over this.

-Rognar-

TV tropes - Conservation of Ninjutsu

Since discovering tvtropes.org, my internet activities have changed completely. This site is awesome. So, I am starting a new series of my favourite tropes. I start with Conservation of Ninjutsu.

In any martial arts fight, there is only a finite amount of ninjutsu available to each side in a given encounter. As a result, one Ninja is a deadly threat, but an army of them are cannon fodder.

-Rognar-

Fading Suns review

Here

Lots of other reviews too. He doesn't like 4e very much. Its his only negative review.

Random Thoughts on Space Flight

In the distant future, assuming mankind eventually takes to the stars, how big will starships be and how many crewmembers will man them? I have pondered these questions before as a GM for various space-based games. There seem to be two schools of thought on this in space movies, the "Star Trek" model and the "Alien" model.

In the "Star Trek" model, starships are like navy ships today. They come in a variety of sizes, but they all have large crews. It's not entirely clear why this should be. After all, a modern warship needs lots of crewmen to man guns, to repair battle damage and to replace casualties. In Star Trek, and most other space shows and movies that follow a similar model, many of these responsibilities seem to be handled by a small number of people. Weapon batteries aren't manned individually, rather, they are controlled from a single gunnery station on the bridge. Likewise, most engineering functions seem to be controlled from a single location manned by only a handful of people. Many of the people on board "Star Trek" type ships seem to serve no major purpose except to repel an occasional boarding party and to serve as casualties so the major characters don't have to.

The "Alien" model envisions enormous ships with tiny crew complements, typically fewer than 10. This is similar to modern freighters and tankers, which have small crews since they don't need much in the way of skillset redundancy or security. A small bridge crew, a cook and a couple of deckhands are sufficient. A giant freighter in space would probably need a few more crewmembers than a present-day ship because help is far away. A couple of people with technical skills would be required as would someone with medical knowledge. Still, that adds up to no more than a dozen at most.

My current thinking tends toward the "Alien" model for a couple of reasons. First of all, humans require a huge amount of resources for life. Food, water, air, living space, recreational activities all take up valuable space and cargo capacity on a ship. Many activities on a spaceship can be performed as well or better by robots and computers, so I'm guessing these will be used whenever possible to reduce the number of humans required. Secondly, I expect the drive systems needed to propel spaceships will be friggin' huge. Consider this, according to E=mc², it would take 900 petaJoules (quadrillion) to accelerate 1,000 kilograms of matter to 0.1 lightspeed. If we took a year to get to 0.1 c, it would require 28.5 GW of continuous power output. The most advanced nuclear fission reactors today produce about 0.6 to 1.2 GW and they are, themselves, heavier than 1,000 kg. When you add in fuel, radiation shielding and reaction mass, a fission drive will be orders of magnitude larger. Of course, fusion or other more speculative technologies might come into play, but we're still talking about pretty large propulsion systems. For this reason, I suspect space within starships will be at a premium, much as it is now on the space shuttle.

So, I envision massive starships, kilometers in length, with most of the bulk being drive systems. Of course, the question then becomes, why are we going into space at all? If it is just for exploration, why send people at all? Robots fulfil that role right now and they do it a heck of a lot cheaper. On the other hand, if we want to exploit the natural resources of the asteroids and comets, we will need huge cargo holds (probably in the form of detachable modules) and even more drive capacity to transport these massive amounts of material. This seems enormously inefficient, so perhaps factory ships will be the way to go. Process the raw materials where they are and then transport the refined material or finished products. Again, it seems like most of this could be done a lot cheaper by robotic systems. It seems the only reason to send people into space is colonization. That changes the calculus a lot. Now you need large numbers to create viable colonies. Depending on how livable the colonized worlds are and how much support they can expect from Earth, we could be talking a hundred or several thousand. Any less would seriously threaten the viability of the colony.

I'm not really going anywhere with this, hence the title of the post. I'm just looking to generate discussion and get ideas from the rest of you nerds.

-Rognar-

Rippin' on Rifts, pt.2

Zack and Steve are back at it with Rifts Japan.

Best line:
"I remember suggesting the Rifts Quebec book so we could make fun of French-Canadians, the worst Canadians."

Sweet!

-Rognar-

Other Realms

I often poke around looking at other campaign setting to see what else is out there. Quite frankly a lot of them are quite awesome - Monte Cook's Ptolus stands out. Anyway I found this website tonight - last time I'd checked it out it had crashed but it seems to be working ok now.

I have to admit the artwork on the main page drew me in.



A big boobed pirate vs a shark monk with giant tentacles in the background. Awesome.

Here

Pathfinder sold out....yeah, so?

The rpg blogosphere is all abuzz as Paizo has announced its first printing of the Pathfinder RPG has been completely sold out on pre-order. I don't know how many copies we are talking about, although Erik Mona describes the first printing as "hugely ambitious" which in the world of tabletop rpgs typically means something like 10,000. This is obviously good news for Paizo and the Pathfinder game. Paizo has made all the right moves on this with the year-long playtest and the release of a $10 pdf version, so kudos to them. Having said that, I think it's premature to start talking about Paizo becoming a major competitor to WotC. Pathfinder RPG is probably the most highly-anticipated rpg product release since D&D 4e came out. I would have been surprised if it didn't sell out. Also this first print run has been bought up by stores stocking up on what they see as a big seller. It doesn't mean those retailers will be sold out of all their copies. The real test for Paizo will be how the first Pathfinder RPG supplement will sell. Considering how much supposedly compatible D&D 3.5 material is already out there, my guess is that future supplements will have a hard time finding a market.

-Rognar-

Edit: It turns out I may have underestimated the size of the print run. While the Paizo folks aren't releasing the number, they have said it is in between the upper and lower ends of the speculation range mentioned by various postings on the Paizo forums. That range is between 15,000 and 100,000 (snicker). It looks like a 25,000 to 30,000 copy print run is not out the question. That is a substantial result for a tabletop rpg, but still not a D&D-level print run for a core book.

A quick, back-of-the-envelope calculation suggests they would have to sell about 100 copies in a city the size of Calgary (and surrounding areas) to sell out a 30,000 copy print run worldwide (based on the assumption that about 90% of their sales are in the four major English-speaking countries of Canada, the US, the UK and Australia). Certainly sounds plausible, since our own little group will probably buy 5 or more copies.

What kind of gamer are you?

Take the quiz.

My results (with normalized results in parentheses):
Butt-kicker 100% (24%)
Tactician 92% (22%)
Storyteller 75% (18%)
Specialist 58% (14%)
Power Gamer 50% (12%)
Method Actor 17% (4%)
Casual Gamer 17% (4%)

Yeah, I already knew that.

-Rognar-

Rippin' on Basic D&D

The latest from SomethingAwful.com. I must admit, I've never heard of this supplement, but I stopped playing Basic D&D long before this atrocity came out. In fact, I thought Basic was already done by 1987. I'll bet this is what killed it.

The Book of Wondrous Inventions

-Rognar-

Katana - just a bastard sword with good PR

If you want to create a cool character, equip him with a katana, because, as we all know, katanas are miracle weapons. There is nothing you can't do with a katana. Armed with a katana, Uma Thurman can clear a room full of bad guys in the blink of an eye. In the hierarchy of cool weapons, only the lightsaber and the minigun can compete with the katana. Well, I say bullsh*t! And apparently tvtropes.org agrees with me. Here's what they have to say about the famous "Katanas are just better" trope.

But the myth of the katana being a better weapon than equivalent European swords (namely the medieval longsword) is debatable.

Japanese swords use vastly inferior iron for katanas compared to that available for medieval European swords, necessitating costly and time-consuming efforts by Japanese master swordsmiths to remove impurities from the iron, such as the famous "folding of the blade". Folding iron is a common forging technique not unique to Japan, but Japanese blades were folded many more times than some European ones to compensate for the inherent lack of quality in material. Viking swords, on the other hand, were commonly more folded, by orders of magnitude, than most ancient Japanese swords. Contrary to popular belief, folding a sword does not aid its cutting or edge holding properties at all; it merely ensures an even distribution of carbon within the steel (while some other alloying elements will remain layered).

On the other hand however, European swords are just as good, if not better than the katana. Besides aforementioned better material quality, the longsword was double edged with a point, which was far more difficult to forge than a single edged weapon. The longsword is a much more versatile weapon, able to cut and thrust, and the cruciform hilt construction is a lot better for parrying off blows than the katana. And the second edge allows the weapon to cut in either direction; blows with the "short edge" (which faces the weilder) are a major component of many Western martial arts. Contrary to popular belief, many longswords of equivalent size were just about the same weight.

-Rognar-

By the way, tvtropes.org is awesome. Spend some time and check it out.

Krod Mandoon - Early Review

Rognar first brought Krod Mandoon to my attention. I checked it out when it first came on a couple weeks ago and I have to admit I was rather disappointed. I was expecting a lot and although it had its clever moments it never really delivered.

I PVR'd the next weeks episodes (they play 2 at a time) but took a few days to watch them. I don't know if my expectations dropped or if they got funnier but I enjoyed them more. I have two more episodes ready to go but as I don't watch much TV, I haven't taken the time to sit and watch them yet.

I think the show will probably develop a cult following but is too weird and out there for a mainstream audience. I doubt it will make it to a second season which is probably too bad because I can lots of potential here.

I will keep watching a do another review later as the first season comes to a close.

The latest purchase from my FLGS, pt.3

I picked up the Rebellion Era Campaign Guide for the Star Wars Saga Edition. As I feared, it's a bit thin on crunch. There are no new races and only a sprinkling of new talents, feats and prestige classes. The unfortunate fact is, this game is reaching the point of being complete. They are running out of material and with several more books in the pipeline (with themes of war, intrigue, droids and unexplored space), they are really going to be scraping the bottom of the barrel. Expect to see a new edition sometime in 2010.

So, what does it have? Well, it has racial feats which are kind of neat. Each race from the core book (except humans) has three feats associated with it. There are two new prestige classes, the Improviser and the Pathfinder. They seem decent enough. There's the usual list of new equipment, ships, vehicles and droids as well as stat blocks for different types of rebel operatives, soldiers, stormtroopers, etc. There are also stats for many of the minor characters from the original Star Wars trilogy such as Wedge Antilles, Biggs Darklighter and Wicket. Beyond that, it's mostly flavour text on Alliance and Imperial military structures and adventure hooks. A worthwhile purchase, but definitely not as meaty as most of the previous sourcebooks.

-Rognar-

Rippin' on AD&D, pt.5

Part 2 of the Fiend Folio critique:

Fiend Folio, pt.2

-Rognar-

Midnight campaign setting

Fantasy Flight Games is offering its Midnight campaign setting (2nd ed.) in pdf form for a mere $10. At that price, I'm prepared to buy an interesting-looking product that I otherwise wouldn't bother with and I'm glad I did. The 2nd edition of Midnight has been adapted for D&D 3.5, unlike the previous edition which was d20. I would describe the setting as Middle Earth if Sauron had won. The Gods were forced to cast down one of their own, the dark god Izrador. Unfortunately, they accidentally closed the heavens to the world of men, elves and dwarves in the process. In effect, they locked mortals in a cage with an evil god who was defeated, but by no means dead. It was only a matter of time until Izrador regained his strength and conquered the world. Now men serve Izrador, either willingly or as slaves, while his orcish armies hunt elves and dwarves to extinction.

In a world as dangerous as the one in Midnight, even heroes are rarely up to the task of resisting the power of the Shadow. Only those with some sort of special heritage can survive in such an environment, and so all characters have a heroic path, similar to a bloodline which gives them special abilities. These heroic paths come in several varieties, some are true bloodlines such as dragonblooded or feyblooded, while others are more of an inherent aptitude so potent, it gives the character supernatural abilities.

Other than heroic paths, the only other significant change from the standard D&D 3.5 rules is how magic is handled. There is only one spellcasting class, the channeler, although there are three subclasses, the charismatic channeler (who casts bardic spells), the spiritual channeler (who casts druidic spells) and the hermetic channeler (who casts wizard spells). There is no spell preparation, rather the channeler has a pool of spell energy points to spend to cast any spells he knows. In general, a channeler will know fewer spells than a standard D&D 3.5 wizard, but more than a bard.

Besides the channeler, the other core classes in Midnight are barbarian and rogue, both of which are largely unchanged, defender (which greatly resembles the monk class), wildlander (which is similar to ranger) and fighter (largely unchanged from D&D 3.5, but much rarer except among dwarves).

I do have a couple of minor complaints. There are a couple of places where the page design was messed up, resulting in the loss of some text under some of the interior art. Also, the quality of the maps is a bit substandard for a product of this quality. Still, for the most part, I am greatly impressed by what I have read of Midnight so far. It adeptly captures the feel of a conventional D&D campaign setting in which events go horribly wrong.

-Rognar-

So, what's on your iPod?, pt.3

Crom is a German heavy metal band, consisting largely of Walter "Crom" Grosse (lead guitar and vocals). Drawing inspiration from Bathory and other bands of the "Viking metal" movement, Crom combines speed metal guitar riffs with pagan and fantastical themes. Grosse is a vocalist of limited range, displaying neither the ear-splitting upper registers common to many metal acts today nor the gravelly low-pitched growls of bands such as Sabaton or Rammstein. However, what Grosse lacks as a vocalist, he more than makes up for as a top tier shredder.

The most recent release by Crom is the 2008 LP Vengeance, a pretty solid collection of aggressive songs sprinkled with an occasional folk-inspired ballad. The limitations of Grosse's vocals are most evident on these more melodic tunes, but really, you're probably not listening to Crom for these rather awkward ballads anyway. Vengeance is available from iTunes in Canada. Unfortunately, the earlier EP Fallen Beauty is not as of this moment. I'll certainly be keeping an eye out for this hard-to-find early release.

I should mention there is also a California-based band of the same name. I know almost nothing about them, except that they are grindcore, one of my least favourite styles of metal.

-Rognar-

Rippin' on AD&D, pt.4

After a long hiatus, Zack and Steve from SomethingAwful.com are back and this time, they are taking a look at the Fiend Folio. I had forgotten just how awful it was.

Fiend Folio, pt.1

-Rognar-

Sword & Spell - My new retro RPG

The interwebs are full of gamers talking about simpler times when D&D had fewer rules and gamers were more manly. There are several retro-clones available for free these days with names like OSRIC and Swords & Wizardry. These games seem fine, but I get the sense some old-timey types still think they are too complicated. For those folks, I offer my new game system free of charge. I call it Sword & Spell - The D2 Game System. All you need to play is a pencil, a blank post-it note and a quarter. On the post-it note, you write your character class of which there are two choices, wizard or fighter. Under your character class, write the following:

Status:
Dead:________
Not Dead:____

There, now your character sheet is complete.

Ok, now for the system. Combat is based on the time-honoured coin flip engine. Heads, you hit, tails, you miss. The attack roll is countered by the opponents defense roll: heads, you're not dead, tails, you're dead. Some monsters can survive more than one tails roll for defense as demonstrated in the complete bestiary below:

Orc - one tail
Troll - two tails
Dragon - three tails

There are two attack modes, spell and sword. They differ in name only.

All other actions in the game are similarly decided by a "heads, you succeed, tails, you fail" mechanic, subject to DM's approval.

There you have it, a complete retro-RPG. Enjoy.

-Rognar-

District 9 trailer

With all the eye-popping, but mindless summer sci-fi flicks this year, one upcoming release stands out as being something different. District 9, produced by Peter Jackson, tells of a ship full of alien refugees who arrive on earth three decades earlier and who have basically been held in a ghetto ever since. This trailer, although rather badly edited, makes the movie look pretty sweet. I hope they don't ruin it.

-Rognar-

DDM Report - Legendary Evils

I have to wonder is WotC has started to learn from past mistakes. Next month, the next set of D&D minis, entitled Legendary Evils will be released. It is the first set containing huge figures since they adopted the current format which includes one visible figure and a bunch of randoms. In this set, the 8 huge figures will all be visible and ddmspoilers.com has them. They are Balor, Beholder Ultimate Tyrant, Elder Green Dragon (nice!), Elder Iron Dragon, Goristro, Storm Titan, Frost Titan and Remorhaz (seen above).

Colour me interested.

-Rognar-

Transformers! More than meets the eye...

Well no, not really. After a couple of weeks of seeing the fanboys howling on the interwebs about the atrocity of the new Transformers movie and cursing the name of Michael Bay, I went to see what all the fuss was about. Quite honestly, I liked it. It delivered everything I wanted to see, the wanton destruction of several UNESCO World Heritage sites and lots of bouncing of the ample assets of Megan Fox. If you really think there should be more to it, you are expecting way too much from a cartoon franchise featuring an alien robot that morphs into a tapedeck.

By the way, your enjoyment of this movie will be somewhat diminished if you know anything about the geography of Egypt, because Michael Bay most certainly does not.

-Rognar-

Where I've been

Since I can't post this in the comments.


visited 24 states (10.6%)


Since I got married I have added 1 new country to my list, although I did revisit 4 others so I guess it hasn't been all bad.

Where have you visited? pt.2

Among US states, I am somewhat more impressive.


visited 17 states (34%)
Create your own visited map of The United States

-Rognar-

Where have you visited? pt.1

Where have you been in the world? Clearly I have to get out more.


visited 7 states (3.11%) - Canada, the United States, Mexico, Jamaica, Germany, the United Kingdom and the Netherlands
Create your own visited map of The World

-Rognar-

One RPG Wish...

If you could have just one RPG wish come true, one campaign setting published or franchise created into an game, what would it be?

For me, it would be a space horror campaign setting, incorporating elements of Alien and Event Horizon. There was a hint of such a setting in d20 Future called "The Dark Heart of Space", but unfortunately, it was little more than a couple of adventure hooks and one advanced class. A full expansion of that setting would be awesome.

-Rognar-

Greatest Album Covers, Pt.5

The Swedish power metal band, HammerFall, has a sound reminiscent of the New Wave of British Heavy Metal (NWOBHM) movement of the late 70s, early 80s, although their lyrics tend toward more militant themes than the rock-n-roll and motocycles that dominated the NWOBHM. Like Iron Maiden, HammerFall appears to have a cover art mascot. A hammer-wielding, heavily-armoured warrior appears on all of their studio album covers. I present two of my favourites, the 1997 debut album, Glory to the Brave and the 2005 release, Chapter V: Unbent, Unbowed, Unbroken. The odd title of the latter album refers to it being their fifth studio album, although none of their other albums were named in such a way.

-Rognar-

As an aside, there sure are a lot of European heavy metal bands that sing almost exclusively in English. Considering the sorry state of metal in the United States of Hip-Hop-ica, I wonder why they bother.

The new Star Trek movie, at last.

It took awhile, but I finally saw the new Star Trek movie last night. I'm sure most everyone that wants to see it has seen it, so I won't waste my time with a long-winded review. It was a decent reboot of the franchise and I look forward to future releases. However, I have to say, what's up with all the pipes and airshafts and....turbines?! Engineering looked more like the boiler room of a WWI dreadnought than a starship. I almost expected to see some guy shoveling coal in the background.

Also, red matter...holy crap! This stuff makes the Genesis device look like a water pistol. Let's hope Christopher Lloyd doesn't find out about it. Kirk is running out of family members.

-Rognar-

Wizards of the Coast? Never heard of 'em.

As I engaged in my usual lunchhour perusal of my favourite RPG-related websites today, it occurred to me that it has been weeks since I dropped in on the Wizards of the Coast webpage. This used to be a daily requirement, even as recently as last fall. The braintrust at WotC has been working overtime trying to come up with new ways to lose me as a customer. At one time, I religiously purchased everything they produced for D&D 3.5, D&D Minis, Star Wars Saga Ed., Star Wars Minis, d20 Modern and Axis&Allies Minis. Now 3.5 and d20 Modern are dead and buried, while the quality of their D&D and SW miniatures lines has declined precipitously. So, I wait for the next SW Saga book, expected next month and the next A&A minis release, expected sometime before the end of the Mayan calendar, while the rest of WotC's production moves along completely beneath my notice. I guess I'm no longer part of their demographic, which apparently consists of anyone who will swallow whatever crap they slap their logo on. C'est la vie!

-Rognar-

The Vanishing Nerd

I was reading an article on the Cracked.com website the other day and it got me to thinking about the deplorable state of 21st century nerddom. The article was entitled 7 Man-Made Substances that Laugh in the Face of Physics, just the sort of thing that would attract an old-school nerd like me. While several of the miracle materials were really not all that novel; carbon nanotubes, aerogels, perfluorocarbons, one that did catch my eye was transparent alumina. I'm a regular reader of Cracked.com, so I know sometimes these guys feign stupid for its comedic value, but it was clear to me that they genuinely didn't know the difference between alumina and aluminum. That's when I realized these guys are geeks, not nerds. Geeks like all the same stuff we nerds like; D&D, Star Wars action figures, Monty Python movies. The difference is, nerds know about other subjects as well. There are two topics in particular, that are near and dear to the nerd heart, science and military history. A geek teenager may have a poster of Optimus Prime on his wall, but a nerd is just as likely to have one of Albert Einstein.

Now, once upon a time, nerds were the dominant species. Growing up in the 70s and 80s, I and my friends were the school nerd club. We were the only people at home on Saturday night playing D&D. We didn't have to worry about wannabes stealing our subculture. Nobody wanted it. We would hang out in the school cafeteria debating the implications of the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle for Star Trek transporter technology and everyone else would look at us like we were aliens, and we liked it that way. Nowadays, it's cool to be a nerd. Everyone from Vin Diesel to Shaq is now down with the culture. But it's obvious to me, they are all geeks, not nerds.

At this point, I should be clear. I'm not trying to bash on geeks. They're pretty cool and most women at gaming conventions are likely to be geeks, rather than nerds. However, I do have to say that the lack of knowledge most geeks display of topics of such vital importance can be disconcerting and even a bit aggravating. So, to all you geeks out there who yearn to be nerds, you need to do some homework. Read some non-fiction once in awhile. As a public service, I provide below, a list of 10 people you should know something about. It's a good start.

Simo Häyhä
Yuri Gagarin
Edward Teller
Sun Tzu
Nikola Tesla
Hannibal
Niccoló Machiavelli
Hernando Cortés
Maxwell Planck
Heinrich Himmler

-Rognar-

By the way, you get bonus nerd points for being able to produce all those accented characters in that list using just the "Alt" button and the number pad on your keyboard.

Greatest Album Covers, Pt.4

Some guys try way too hard to click with the cool kids. I get a similar vibe from the band Rhapsody of Fire (formerly known as Rhapsody). I have only heard a few riffs from this group, which is described as a high fantasy-inspired, Italian symphonic metal band. They release albums like fantasy novels, maintaining a narrartive across several albums with names like The Emerald Sword Saga or The Dark Secret Saga. But, despite what their wikipedia entry might say about them, Ozzy Osbourne craps out more metal in his stool every morning than Rhapsody of Fire has in its entire playlist. Their sound is more appropriate for soundtracks of teen fantasy flicks like Eragon, but I will concede their album cover art is first-rate. They even went so far as to hire famed D&D artist, Jeff Easley, to provide the art for their latest album, Triumph or Agony (2006).

-Rognar-

Character Generator - Pathfinder

I've played with this before and thought it was great and the guy has been tweaking it and keeping it up to date. Definitely something to keep your eye on.

Here

Greatest Album Covers, Pt.3

Ronnie James Dio has had a history of awesome album covers, although I have noticed that the degree of awesomeness in inversely proportional to the success of the album in question. The coolest cover art has appeared on his two most recent studio albums, Killing the Dragon (2002), which depicts a mob of angry people bringing down a dragon, and Master of the Moon (2004) showing a demonic creature grasping a glowing orb, presumably a manifestation of moon magic.

-Rognar-

My top 5 tabletop RPGs

I have been playing tabletop rpgs for decades and I've seen many games come and go. I've played an awful lot of them and I definitely enjoyed some more than others. In listing my favourites, I must account for different editions of D&D which is the one game line I have played throughout my entire gaming life. In that vein, I see D&D as three games. There is so-called "old school" D&D which is often described as including Original D&D, AD&D and Basic D&D. I would argue that AD&D and 2nd ed. AD&D are sufficiently similar to be essentially the same game. Therefore, I would define old school D&D as any version that predates 3rd edition. The other two D&D games would, of course, be 3/3.5/Pathfinder and 4e. So, having explained all that, my list of my top 5 rpgs.

5. Rifts - I'm the first to admit, the Palladium system is broken in many ways. Half the character classes in any supplement are unplayable and the Mega-Damage system makes character equipment far more important than character abilities. However, the campaign setting for Rifts is just so damned cool.

4. Star Wars/Space d6 - The West End Games d6 system is a long time favourite. I was first exposed to it with the original Star Wars rpg and I have rediscovered it as an elegant, generic sci-fi game system.

3. Call of Cthulhu - Classic game mechanic, awesome campaign setting, though I must admit, I like it more as a DM than a player.

2. d20 Modern/d20 Future - Possibly the most perfect rpg game system ever published. If it had a decent campaign setting to accompany it, it would be in the no.1 spot.

1. D&D 3/3.5/Pathfinder - Despite its flaws, this is my game of choice. It's fun, it's elegant, it has a huge number of options for players and DMs. Best of all, idiots can't figure out the rules and quickly switch to something less mentally taxing.

-Rognar-

Greatest Album Covers, Pt.2

Iron Maiden has had some of the coolest album covers around, but they really outdid themselves with their 2006 release A Matter of Life and Death, featuring an undead army unit making its way across a battered landscape. Famed Iron Maiden mascot Eddy is featured less prominently than in most previous album covers, but that is him standing atop the tank. Simply awesome.

-Rognar-

Greatest Album Covers, Pt.1

In a new series documenting the greatest fantasy album covers of all time, I start with one of the most incongruous band/album cover combinations ever. Molly Hatchet was a forgettable Southern rock band from the 70s and 80s which, for reasons completely out of step with their musical influences, had a major attraction for the art of Frank Frazetta, the best known Conan the Barbarian artist not named Boris. Although several of their album covers featured Frazetta's work, the self-titled debut from 1978 is my personal favourite.

-Rognar-

David Eddings, R.I.P.

The period from 1977 to 1985 was the most influential of my life. Role-playing games, heavy metal music and sci-fi/fantasy literature and film all reached their zenith (at least in my humble opinion) during that time. I discovered several fantasy writers during those years, including Tolkein, Howard, Brooks, Donaldson and David Eddings. Eddings was not really on par with those other writers, but The Belgariad was still a good read. Later, I would also read The Mallorean, but by that time, my tastes had matured and I found the series a bit tedious (like every D&D novel not written by Salvatore and many that were). Nonetheless, his early writings were important to me in my adolescence. He will be missed.

-Rognar-

Deadliest Warrior Pt.7

IRA beats Taliban on the strength of their Armalite assault rifle and their superior skill at building explosive devices. Ultimately, I think terrain is key in this battle. The RPG-7 is far more effective in open terrain, while the IRA tactics and weapons are optimized for the urban environment. It was mildly entertaining watching two groups of thugs blowing each other up, but what's with the fake Taliban beards? They were straight out of Team America.

-Rognar-

Edit: It was mentioned in tonight's episode that Geoff Desmoulin, one of the hosts of the show (the big, muscular dude), is Canadian. That got me to Googling and it turns out, he's a local. He lives in Vancouver now, but he studied to be an emergency medical technician at SAIT and served with the Canmore fire dept. for several years before going on to Simon Fraser to study biomechanics. I deem that cool.

Signature Weapon

What is your signature weapon?

For me, it was Air Strike! 73% power over speed, 87% range over melee. Hell yeah, nuke 'em from orbit, it's the only way to be sure.

-Rognar-

Ha Ha!. City of Ass?

Link

Deadliest Warrior Pt.6

As expected, Shaka Zulu had no answer for the brutal efficiency of the Claymore, which proved decisive and gave William Wallace a much easier victory than I anticipated. Next week, IRA v. Taliban and I again voice my objections. These thugs aren't warriors, they're murderers. I'll still watch it though.

-Rognar-

Rognar's Fading Suns Campaign Blog

I have started a secondary blog to cover all aspects of my gamemastering activities. Currently, I am preparing a Fading Suns campaign using the Space d6 system of West End Games. I will be posting information on both the campaign setting and the game system over the next few weeks, so if you are interested in participating, please check it out. The link to the campaign blog is included in the links list.

-Rognar-

The resurrection of West End Games

The demise of West End Games has been postponed and the release of Bill Coffin's Septimus game, the product that nearly killed the company, has been announced for August. My first experience with WEG was the original Star Wars RPG. A great game to be sure, although some of WEG's writing schemes struck me as a bit underhanded. In particular, they would provide stat blocks for prominent characters that referenced numerous other publications. In order to get a full description of the Emperor, for example, you would need to purchase three or four other books. Clearly, this was a marketing ploy, but it was such an obvious and clumsy one that it gave the buyer the sense that he was being ripped off. WEG is owned by a different person now and I wish the company all the best. Having said that, none of their current IPs interest me all that much (except maybe Shatterzone for which they have no future plans other than as an add-on to TORG), so I doubt they will have much success extracting any of my hard-earned shekels.

By the way, Septimus is set inside a Dyson sphere with a radius of about 1 AU. That makes the inside surface area approximately 100 quadrillion square miles. We're talking about a pretty big map.

-Rognar-

The latest purchase from my FLGS, pt.2

Star Wars Roleplaying Game Jedi Academy Training Manual - Rodney Thompson, Eric Cagle, Patrick Stutzman and Robert Wieland (Wizards of the Coast)

The Jedi Academy Training Manual is the latest release for the Saga Edition of WotC's Star Wars rpg and it is one of the better ones to come along in quite awhile, particularly if you like crunch and the Force (and really, who doesn't?). The recent formula for Saga Ed. books has been a few new races, most of which are exceedingly obscure, a section with some new talents and feats, another section with some new force powers and one or two new prestige classes. Combined with some new equipment and ship designs and it would typically work out to about 60 - 80 pages of crunch in a book with about 220 pages. The JATM is a somewhat slimmer tome, coming in at 160 pages, but it has a much higher crunch coefficient. It has 28 pages worth of new force powers, talents, feats and related goodies, 19 pages worth of new equipment (especially lightsabers), 18 pages of alternate Force traditions and 16 pages of new beasts. I find that last section to be particularly interesting because it includes a lot of Sith alchemy creations which allow a GM to get some use out of the D&D miniatures collection, some of which bear a striking resemblance to certain Sith beasts.

All-in-all, I would say the JATM is a must for any Star Wars campaign involving Jedi, Sith or other Force-using traditions. My only complaint is that they still haven't fixed Force Surge to allow Mace Windu to survive the jump he made in the arena on Geonosis.

-Rognar-

Deadliest Warrior Pt.5

The Shaolin Monk defeats the Maori Warrior pretty convincingly. The sheer ferocity and brute strength of the Maori was no match for Shaolin skill and weapons. The amazingly versatile twin hooks weapon system of the Shaolin was the deciding factor and rightfully so. Against lightly-armoured or unarmoured opponents, the twin hooks can kill in any number of ways. The Maori rocks and sticks and shark teeth weapons seemed quite pathetic by comparison. Next week: William Wallace v. Shaka Zulu. Hard to call this one, although the Claymore should prove quite formidable.

-Rognar-

What are you reading right now?

Personally, I've recently started The Jewel in the Skull by Michael Moorcock, the first book in The History of the Runestaff series featuring the character of Dorian Hawkmoon. I have read the complete series of Elric of Melniboné novels, but this is my first foray into other Moorcock books. It seems so far, to be a much easier read than the Elric stories, which is good. I found the latter to be rather dense and difficult to push through.

Hawkmoon, like Elric, is an aspect of Moorcock's Eternal Champion concept. In most of Moorcock's stories, the main character is an incarnation of a hero who exists in all planes of the Multiverse. There are literally dozens of such heroes. In this particular series, Hawkmoon is a nobleman in a far future Europe where magic and arcane technology coexist. The dark and decadent empire of Granbretan controls all of Europe except for one small country called Kamarg, in what was once France. Though small, Kamarg is powerful and it is led by a cunning ruler named Count Brass. Unable to conquer Kamarg by force, Granbretan seeks to employ subterfuge, using sorcery to bring Hawkmoon under its control and sending him forth to infiltrate Kamarg. Obviously, the effort fails, but Granbretan is not so easily deterred and the future of Kamarg is far from certain.

-Rognar-

Deadliest Warrior Pt.4

Wow, Spetznaz beats Green Berets in a close match. I'm not sure I believe it. Personally, I found all the ballet moves of the Spetznaz to be a bit silly. The Green Berets seemed a lot more compact and precise. One more thing, where can I get one of those awesome Spetznaz ballistic knives? Next week: Shaolin monks vs. Maori warriors, was this matchup chosen based on a shared diphthong?

-Rognar-

Campaign Blog

Link is on the left.

Oh what to choose?!?

Obiri's character spoilers ahead. Turn back if you are banned from reading this.


Well we are just about to gear up for our next campaign and so its that always torturous process of choosing a character. My character for the next campaign is already prepped. She (yes, the next character will be a she. Get off my back!) will be an offensive machine. Lots barbarian with some fighter mixed in for more feats. Unfortunately she's all specced out using Pathfinder Beta rules so if the final product changes too much she'll never see the light of day. Pity.

Anyway back to the campaign at hand. Its set in the desert and there's going to be lots of gnolls and genies. I played an arcane caster last time, and a melee class next time so I wanted to go divine caster this time. Druid is tempting and the DM dared me to abuse venomfire, but I couldn't find a character concept I liked and then the DM banned animal companions so that was out. Cleric was next on my list. I came up with an awesome holy warrior which was apparently too good (the alternate class feature is probably too awesome), so I had to swtich gears. The revised cleric was still super sweet except for one thing: I'd made a great anti-undead cleric in a campaign about gnolls and genies. Hmmm

What to do? I've noticed that adventure path tend to follow a certain pattern for enemies. You start out fighting animals and humanoids, work you way up to aberations, undead, and giants, and by end game you are fighting dragons and outsiders. It's a safe bet that an Arabian themed adventure path is going to have lots of outsiders but what class is good against outsiders?

Flips through his books.

I couldn't find any good specialized classes that fight outsiders. But I did come back to a class that I was looking at earlier. It could be very effective against outsiders (and just about everything else for that matter). Now I just have to decide if I want to use Divine Metamagic Persist or not?

Another option popped up tonight that looks really really tempting. The ambush drake.
http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=dnd/fc/20060728a
A 7 HD dragon with no Level Adjustment. Poison, Flight, Slow. Not too shabby. Too bad I'm set on playing a divine caster this time.

Rippin' on AD&D, pt.3

After murdering the MMII in pt.1, the guys from SomethingAwful.com bury it in a shallow grave in pt.2

Monster Manual II, pt.2

-Rognar-

So, what's on your iPod?, pt.2

Sabaton is an awesome band from Sweden which combines thrash metal with a distinctly European industrial sound. The deep, growling vocals of lead singer, Joakim Broden are very reminiscent of Rammstein's Till Lindemann, although Sabaton's lyrics are predominantly in English. Speaking of lyrics, Sabaton has a distinct lyrical interest in historical wars, with a particularly strong attraction to WWII. Songs such as Primo Victoria, Attero Dominatus and Talvisota describe the Normandy Landings, the Fall of Berlin and the Winter War between Finland and the Soviet Union. Other solid tracks include Panzer Battalion (2003 Iraq War), Wolfpack (Battle of the Atlantic), The Art of War (Sun Tzu and his famous book), Into the Fire (Vietnam War) and Ghost Division (Rommel's own panzer division).

Lyrical sample: Primo Victoria

Through the Gates of Hell

As we make our way to Heaven

Through the Nazi lines

Primo Victoria

On the 6th of June

On the shores of Western Europe

Nineteen Forty-four

D-Day upon us

Sabaton has five albums; Fist For Fight (2000), Primo Victoria (2005), Attero Dominatus (2006), Metalizer (2007) and The Art of War (2008).

-Rognar-

Deadliest Warrior Pt.3

Mafia vs. Yakuza...on paper, you would think Yakuza. After all, they have the warrior heritage and the martial arts training. However, in the end, it all comes down to firepower. The Mob used the Thompson SMG, .45 cal, highly accurate, one of the greatest firearms ever made. The Yakuza used the British Sten, 9 mm, a serviceable SMG, but no match for the Thompson. All the karate moves in the world aren't going to protect you when some wise guy is hosing down the room with a Tommy Gun. Advantage: Mafia. Next week: Green Berets vs. Spetznaz

-Rognar-

G.I. Joe...Cool? Maybe.

I'm too old to really be much of a G.I.Joe fan. When I was a kid, Joe was the size of a Barbie doll and about as much fun to play with too. Having said that, the amount of sheer, unrestrained awesomeness packed into this trailer for the upcoming G.I.Joe movie has the potential to make a fan out of me.

-Rognar-

Rippin' on AD&D, pt.2

More funny stuff from SomethingAwful.com, but really, Modrons? Talk about shooting fish in a barrel.

Monster Manual II, pt.1


-Rognar-

My Most Memorable Characters - Nikolai

The first character I played when I moved out west and the first with my fellow bloggers on this site was Nikolai Grenovic. Nikolai grew up in a harsh environment and embraced the darkness of his homeland. He learned to lie, to steal and even to kill at an early age. However, he did not kill for pleasure or sport, he was not a savage. He took up with violent men, he consorted with drow and other evil races, he engaged in all manner of criminal activities, but he always maintained his self-discipline. Eventually, that self-discipline would serve him well when his exploits would lead him to become captain of his own ship. He and his crew would become the scourge of the seas. Merchant ships, warships, great monsters of the deeps, it mattered not. All fell before Grenovic and his allies. Even the mighty Kraken was slain.

Eventually, Grenovic would become an admiral leading a fleet of his homeland's black dragonships into battle. Only the God of the Sea remains to contest Nikolai Grenovic's command of the world's oceans.

-Rognar-