Blackmoor campaign, recap pt.3

When we last left our intrepid adventurers, we had just wiped out an Afridhi hit squad. We continued on toward the settlement our warlock had spotted the night before. The stealthy gnome took out a sentry, allowing us complete surprise. A group of about 30 armed Afidhi and a sizable number of slaves were gathering up supplies and heading for the river. Apparently, some sort of base was being built, but our arrival compelled the Afridhi to pack up and leave. We split up into two groups. The gnome and the warlock moved quickly and stealthily to the river to cut off retreat, while GWAR set themselves up on the ridge overlooking the camp to rain death down upon them.

What followed was carnage. It turned out the hit squad we wiped out earlier included most of the high-level members of their group. Even though their sheer numbers proved somewhat dangerous, and at one point, the gnome found himself in a bit of a tight spot, in the end, no Afridhi lived to see another sunrise. We had captured two barges loaded with supplies and a group of slaves willing to help us transport the barges to the nearest town in exchange for their freedom. Although we learned little, except that the Afridhi were searching for some sort of artifact, we did come away from the expedition with a sizable haul.

Of course, we still had a reason for going to Tiger Island, to learn what we could about the silver ore we had taken from an earlier group of slavers, and we hadn't accomplished anything as far as that was concerned. So we decided to return. We hired a smuggler to take us back (and didn't kill him). We completely searched the island. We still didn't find any silver mines, but we did uncover a partially buried statue that the Afridhi had been excavating. The statue itself was missing, but the base was intact and bore some writings in a strange language none of us could decipher. With no magical means of translating the writings, we transcribed them for later analysis. We then recovered the boat we originally came to the island on and went back to the little fishing village we first headed out from. Since we had killed the fisherman whose boat we were using, we decided it was best to slaughter the village as well, lest we be accused of going soft. With the deed done, we decided to head back to Lake Gloomy in hopes there would be someone there who could translate the writings we had found.

Lake Gloomy was as bizarre as ever. We couldn't find anyone in town with the necessary skills to translate the writings, although in truth, we didn't spend much time looking because we got sidetracked. Clearly something was amiss. There were significantly fewer children in town than when we had last been here. When asked about it, the locals simply claimed the children had left to join the circus. No one seemed the slightest bit bothered by this, suggesting some sort of magical compulsion was at work. We decided to seek an audience with the Baroness, whose keep was just outside of town. Upon arrival, we learned that the Baroness and her personal retinue (that sizable force of cavalry we had encountered a few days earlier) had also disappeared. Holy hell, this dung pit was getting deeper by the day.

We were told that the Baroness was last headed south to another craptastic little resort town called South Pym. The main claim to fame of this lovely vacation spot was the acid rain. Yes, apparently the rain in South Pym dissolves metal armour and weapons in short order...and it rains a lot. We also got word that a member of the Wizard's Cabal lived in South Pym and she might be able to translate our writings. So, despite the grave misgivings of our metal-clad contingent, we headed for South Pym.

Upon arrival in South Pym, we learned from the local authorities that the Baroness and her road crew had disappeared utterly and completely while investigating something in the swamp. Not a single scrap of evidence as to their whereabouts was uncovered. The guard offered to have one of his men lead us to their last known location, an offer we graciously accepted. But first things first. We needed some way to deal with the rain. No way was GWAR going to walk around in leather gherkins wielding pointy sticks. We headed off to see the town's alchemist, a gnome (apparently gnomes control the alchemy racket in these parts). He had a supply of an alchemical agent that could protect metal for awhile. We bought the entire stock. Then we headed off to see the wizardess we had heard about. She turned out to be less than we had hoped and was of little use, although she did direct us to a mapmaker in town who had a map with similar writings on it. The cartographer did indeed, have such a map, a treasure map, in fact, which he was willing to sell to us. Since no one in our party can Sense Motive worth a damn, we had little reason to doubt it was all legit, so we bought the map.

After noting that South Pym also seemed to have a relative scarcity of young'uns, we asked around and indeed, the "circus" had come to town here too. If we had any discernable conscience at all, we would probably have been outraged by now. As it was, we mostly noted it as curious and went about our business. So, at this point, we had intended to go have a look after the Baroness, but suddenly the gnome and the barbarian had a powerful hankering to follow our newly acquired map instead. It seemed a tad unusual, but every one went along since, you know, that gnome is a smart little fella.

The "X" on the map was a ziggurat mostly buried in the swamp. We entered through the top and explored around a bit. We found some tracks that led to a lower level where we eventually ran into a small group of sightseers, a child, an armsman and a spellcaster. Needless to say, the child was actually a halfling rogue and hostilities quickly ensued. The wizard in the back hit us with a slow spell that was effective against most of us. That cramped our style a bit, but all it meant was that it took us a little longer to beat them down. We actually managed to take the fighter alive and question him. He revealed that he was a Frog's man and he was able to point out on a map where he was intending to take us if he had successfully subdued us. As he spoke, he was finding it hard to breathe. Some sort of magic effect was finishing what we started. Before we could learn any more, he was dead.

We decided to call it a night.

-Rognar-

Rippin' on AD&D 2e Monstrous Compendium, pt.2

Zack and Steve are at it again.

Monstrous Compendium

-Rognar-

A 1st level eidolon build

Let's see what we can come up with that can survive as the main meat shield.

Base: Biped; Evolutions: Improved Damage, Con +2; Feat: Toughness

Eidolon 1
Str:16 Dex:12 Con:15 Int:7 Wis:10 Cha:11
AC:13 HP:10 Fort:+4 Ref:+1 Will:+2

Attacks: 2 claws melee +4 (1d6+3/x2)

Skills: Perception +4, Climb +7, Stealth +5, Acrobatics +5

The summoner could share a mage armour spell with the eidolon, giving it an AC:17, that would help.

-Rognar-

The latest purchase from my FLGS, pt.9

The Unknown Regions - Star Wars Saga Ed. by Gary Astleford, Owen K.C. Stephens and Rodney Thompson

And so it ends, the association between WotC and the Star Wars franchise, as The Unknown Regions, the last publication of the Star Wars rpg hits store shelves. It holds a few surprises, not least of which is the number of prominent alien races detailed. I will have to go back through my SWSE library, because I find it hard to believe races such as the Nikto, Shistavanen, Anzati, Chadra-Fan and Ishi Tib have not previously been described.

There are, of course, a few new talents and feats, although at this stage, there's precious little that is interesting or new in that well. Some of the new equipment is good though as it has a distinct exploration theme, something that hasn't really been delved into in the game so far. I was especially pleased to see an homage to the Landmaster in the form of the "Jaffryes Universal Automotive ARK-II Series Landmaster" vehicle. True aficionadoes of sci-fi TV and movies might also recognize the ARK-II reference, and, of course, "Jaffryes" alludes to Dean Jeffries, the builder of the original Landmaster and other famous vehicles such as the car used in the Green Hornet series and the cars in Death Race 2000.

There are, not surprisingly, quite a few planet descriptions and mini-adventures with an exploration theme in the book. Although I would categorize this material as fluff, it looks quite useful. Perhaps it is my interest in the subject matter that affects my view on this, but the mini-adventures all seem pretty good. Overall, I'd say this book is one of the better supplements to the game, not on par with Knights of the Old Republic or Jedi Academy Training Manual, to be sure, but pretty solid.

-Rognar-

New eidolon build

After reviewing the comments, I have made some changes. Although it goes against my instinct to avoid wandering around with a giant monster in tow, I have gone with Obiri's suggestion of making the eidolon large. I dropped one pair of arms, so it has fewer attacks, but better attack and damage and more hps (due to higher Con). The AC ends up being the same, despite the larger size. It also has 10 ft. reach.

Base:
Biped: AC:+2 natural, Str:16 Dex:12, Free evolutions: Limbs (arms), Limbs (legs), Claws

Evolutions:
Limbs (arms)
Str +2
Simple Weapon Proficiency
Martial Weapon Proficiency
Resistance (fire) 5
Large size

Feats:
Lightning Reflexes, Multiweapon Fighting, Imp. Natural Armour (x2)

Level benefits:
Str/Dex:+4, AC bonus:+8, BAB:+8
Ability score increase: Str:+2

The total Str is 32, +11 bonus
AC:25 (+14 natural armour, -1 size, +2 Dex)

Attacks:
lg longsword +1 [+17 melee (2d6+12)] and 3x lg shortsword +1 [+17 melee (1d8+6)]

-Rognar-

Critique this eidolon build

I've been looking at the new Summoner class in Pathfinder lately and the prominent feature of the class is the eidolon, a summoned monster companion that can be customized by the summoner with a variety of design features. The main strength of the eidolon appears to be multiple attacks. It can be designed to have claw, bite, slam and/or tail slap attacks which can be given further abilities such as bonus energy damage or the ability to overcome various forms of DR.

Having said all that, I have designed a 10th level eidolon with an emphasis on using weapons. Let me know what you think.

Base:
Biped: AC:+2 natural, Str:16 Dex:12, Free evolutions: Limbs (arms), Limbs (legs), Claws

Evolutions:
Limbs (arms) (x2)
Simple Weapon Proficiency
Martial Weapon Proficiency
Resistance (fire) 5
Str +2 (x2)

Feats:
Lightning Reflexes, Multiweapon Fighting, Imp. Natural Armour (x2)

Level benefits:
Str/Dex:+4, AC bonus:+8, BAB:+8/+3
Ability score increase: Str:+2

The total Str is 26, +8 bonus

Now, this build has six arms total, so I arm the eidolon with a +1 longsword (primary hand) and five +1 shortswords (off-hands). It has a total of seven attacks per round as follows:

longsword melee +15/+10 (d8+9)
5x shortsword melee +15 (d6+5)

It also ends up with AC:25

Now, as far as I can tell, it's all legal, although I'm not sure about the total no. of attacks. At 10th level, the Max. Attacks for the eidolon is 5, but it says that applies to natural attacks. So, by the letter of the rule, using weapons should exempt it from that limit, but perhaps the spirit of the rule is being broken. If the DM decided to apply the maximum to all sorts of attacks, I would change one of the Improved Natural Armour feats to a Shield Proficiency feat and change one of the +1 shortswords to a +1 heavy shield. This would reduce one of the attacks, but increase the AC to 27. I believe the second longsword attack should still apply since it is derived from high BAB, rather than multiple limbs. Thoughts?

-Rognar-

WEG is done

While not official, this interview makes it clear that West End Games is done. At this point, my only interest is what Bill Coffin will do (if anything) with the gaming rights to Septimus. He might stay with d6 Open since he's already written it and the system will be OGL. However, I think the d6 system is dead as a supported line and it doesn't have the fan support needed to follow the OSR model. I'm going to go on a limb here, but if Septimus continues to be supported, it will be using the Traveller ruleset. I see a great resurgence in this system lately, thanks largely to Mongoose (although oddly, Marc Miller continues to publish a parallel version as well). I think Traveller is a better fit for the setting than say, FATE v3 or Savage Worlds.

-Rognar-

Edit: I have just learned that Bill Coffin did intend to release Septimus using FATE back when the original problem with WEG occurred in 2008. Therefore, I amend my prediction. Although I would prefer it to be ported to Traveller, I think it far more likely we will see a FATE-based Septimus in the near future.

Rippin' on AD&D 2e Monstrous Compendium

Was there ever a more questionable design decision in the history of D&D than the Monstrous Compendium? I still have that massive binder with hundreds upon hundreds of sheets of monsters, of which maybe a tenth were even remotely useful. Every new supplement that came out had a few more sheets to add, eventually leading to the most unwieldly product in the history of tabletop rpgs. Mercifully, the folks at TSR eventually released the hardcover Monstrous Manual with all the useful monsters in it, allowing me to pack away that behemoth for good. Zack and Steve have something to say:

Monstrous Compendium

-Rognar-

New classes

One fun thing about being the DM is that I get to try out various monsters and classes and throw them at my players and see how they do. Usually as a player I have to wait for my PC to die or for the next campaign to start to try out something new. I think one of the reasons we tend to go through adventure paths so fast is our short attention spans. There is always something new to try.

I've been evaluating the new Advanced players handbook classes and some of them really appeal to me. I was really looking forward to the Alchemist. What I got was something I have mixed emotions about. I think this is one of those character classes that does quite well at low levels but isn't really specialized enough at high levels to shine. I can also foresee problems when you are going through a dungeon and use up all of your bombs in the first fight or three leaving you with little else to do but buff a bit.

I have no interest in the cavalier. I'm not big on mounted combat since horses don't generally mix well with dungeons and although the class has some neat flavor it just doesn't appeal to me. At least so far.

The original version of the summoner was WOW. Insanely over powered but wow. Both the summoner and his pet were as tough as any other PC. It was like playing two wicked characters that have good synergy with each other. Of course the class got beat with the nerf, err I mean balance stick in the final preview. Now the class is something of a mixed bag. It is good a low levels, really shines between 6-12 (in fact I think my test summoner is going to give the party some serious hurt), but gets really weak by the high levels. The pet just doesn't have enough evolution points to do anything well and the summoner himself can really only summon and buff - but not nearly as well as a regular wizard who can do lots of other tricks as well. I can understand that they don't want the Eidolon to be better then a fighter and the summoner better then a wizard but both become rather meh 16+. Again, these are only test PCs I've built so maybe someone else can do better.

I had high hopes for the inquisitor but was left feeling a little empty. I have since created a couple test characters and I think that it might be a decent class after all. In fact for Kingmaker an Inquisitor will probably be my back-up character depending on the make-up of the rest of the party. The Inquisitor is a nice bland of ranger and cleric.

I don't like the oracle at all. I have to admit I was so turned off by the first release I have not spent much time looking at the second. Its basically the spontaneous casting version of the cleric. I'm not a huge fan of the sorcerer and I find that in general divine spells are even worse for this sort of things. How often do you have to cast the same buff in combat? I'm sure there is some awesomeness somewhere in this class but I just don't see it yet.

And then we have the witch. When I first read through this class I thought it was awful. A limited spell list of mostly buffs and debuffs and a bit of healing magic. Most hex powers had a range of Touch and were SLA so they provoked AoO. Yuck.
Now version two is much improved. Most hex powers have a range of 30' and they are now considered supernatural abilities so they don't provoke AoO. The abilities themselves can be quite nasty. Those of you that played Legacy of Fire probably remember the accursed Pugwuppis. The little critters had an aura of unluck forcing you to roll everything twice and take the worse result. Well the witch has a similar power and although it only effects one opponent at a time, I'm sure your allies will be grateful its not an aura. I've always liked debuffing the bad guys and doing crowd control on enemy hordes so I actually like the witches abilities and spell list.

Role-playing in Canada

We Canadian gamers understand that the gaming world considers the Great White North to be a fairly dull place. Few tabletop rpgs bother to include much information on Canada in their real-world game settings, so those few exceptions that do are all that much more appreciated by us. With that in mind, I would like to acknowledge the publishers who have published game settings with a Canadian touch.

Of course, top of the list has to be Palladium. More than any other game designer, Kevin Siembieda has been very good to his Canadian fans. Rifts Canada and Free Quebec are two of the most obvious examples, but he has also included Canada in many prominent roles in his Rifts game, including the Calgary Rift, Iron Heart and Lazlo.


Less well-known, I suppose, is the White Wolf publication Montreal by Night for Vampire: The Masquerade. I never played the game, as I am totally disinterested in Gothic horror. However, I appreciate the effort on the part of White Wolf, especially since I lived in Montreal for quite a few years and truly love the city (and the hockey team).

Recently, I have noticed a game called API Worldwide by Third Eye Games. The API stands for "Apocalypse Prevention, Inc.", so that should give you some idea about the nature of the game. The first sourcebook released was API Worldwide: Canada, so thanks to Third Eye Games. I might even check out the game some time for no other reason than that.


So, does anyone else know of any rpgs in which a little love was sent north?

-Rognar-

Blackmoor campaign, recap pt.2

The time had arrived to leave Boggybottom. We had accumulated a fair bit of treasure, much of it in the form of magic weapons and armour, which had to be sold off. So, we headed back to Vestfold. We hoped to learn more about the Frog, but our contact Walter was not familiar with the name. After spending some of our blood money on wine, women and song, we were on the road again. We headed to Lake Gloomy to seek out Yanos Hunter. Since Lake Gloomy could be accessed by land from Vestfold, we decided to buy horses, or in the case of the gnome, a mangy, ill-tempered riding dog. Lake Gloomy was weird, to say the least. The town was immaculately clean, from its polished bronze gates to its litter-free streets. There was a definite Potemkin village vibe in this place. We had no luck finding Yanos Hunter in Lake Gloomy, but we did hear that servants were being hired in large numbers to work on the new fortifications in Ram's Hold, a fort on the far western edge of Blackmoor territory. This sounded suspicious, so we headed west to see what was going on on the Afridhi frontier.

We encountered a group of "merchants" heading east along the road, who we promptly killed. Not surprisingly, they too were slavers, either that, or they were planning to sell shackles and rope in Lake Gloomy. We also found some unusual silver ore in a hidden compartment in their wagon. Another enlightened discussion with the recently departed indicated that this latest group of slavers was recruited in Southport. Yikes! That be Afridhi territory. This was turning out to be big.

We continued on the road toward Ram's Hold when we encountered a large company of mounted knights. We briefly considered our options and decided to keep a civil tongue. Good thing too, for it turned out to be the personal entourage of the Baroness of the Lakes. She had been inspecting the repairs of the fortifications in Ram's Hold. We learned that no new fortifications were being built. As we suspected, the Lake Gloomy recruitment drive was a sham. Stupidity can be a harsh mistress.

We continued to Ram's Hold and our worst fears were realized. The place was crawling with halflings. Ugh! By this point, we knew there would be no point looking for information on the slavers since they bypassed this town, but we were able to gain some information about the silver ore we had recovered. A local jeweler suggested it probably came from a place called Tiger Island. We had a decision to make. Follow the clue about Southport or Tiger Island. In the end, it was decided to go to Tiger Island. It was closer and it wasn't in Afridhi lands.

We hired a local fisherman to ferry us to the island, then promptly killed him and seized his boat. Hey, that's just how we roll. Our warlock did some airborne reconnaissance and found evidence of a large settlement in the high ground at the west end of the island. The next day, we headed west, then noticed some sentries, who also noticed us. We knew they would come for us, so we prepared an ambush. Once the enemy appeared, we demonstrated our usual tactical brilliance by breaking cover and charging blindly. It was a tough fight. They had spellcasters among their ranks and many hit points were expended. Khaeliss, our fighter, even hovered briefly at death's door, but ultimately we prevailed. As we gathered the dead and looted their remains, one unmistakeable conclusion was drawn. These were Afridhi warriors.

-Rognar-

Blackmoor campaign, recap pt.1

Dark, Brogesterfel, Shiz, Khaeliss and Crushack are hired by some guy named Walter to find out more about an uptick in slaver activity in the Great Dismal Swamp. In the finest rpg tradition, Walter's patron is unknown to us, but we happily take the job anyway. It pays well (1000gp per man) and we collectively lack any real moral compass anyway. Heading out of Vestfold, the gateway between the more respectable parts of Blackmoor and the swampy, dismal bits, we charter a boat to Kenville, the first port-of-call on the way into the swamp.

Managing to successfully avoid killing anyone in Kenville, a feat we would not achieve again, we soon learned that some slaver activity has been rumoured in Boggybottom, a scummy little hole to the south. We travelled there overland, acquiring a cow along the way. Upon arrival, we proceeded to the seedier of the two local taverns, the Soggy Bottom Bar and Grill (off Route 9). We didn't learn much there, but we did manage to needlessly kill a bunch of people, steal the cash box and take the corpses away for later animation. So, all-in-all, it was a fairly successful outing.

The next day, we headed to the only other watering hole in town, the Wet Whistle, and got down to the business of actually gathering information. We soon learned about a couple of working girls who have been picking up strangers, who have not been seen again. We went on stakeout and soon found out that the local lovelies were setting the guys up to be shanghaied. We crashed the parties, there were some deaths, but we managed to accidentally take a couple of guys alive. That led us to our fateful encounter with the elven slavemaster, Zedd, and his gang.

The ensuing dustup left Shiz, Zedd and three of the slavers dead. Moments later, Korianton, a friend of Shiz, arrived bearing an important message for our dearly departed evoker. Naturally, upon learning of the demise of Shiz, he promptly offered to join our group and we accepted, no questions asked. I said NO QUESTIONS ASKED!

The next day, Dark had a brief, but informative discussion with the dead elf and we learned about the Frog. At first, we assumed the Frog was a person, although later information would indicate that it was actually an organization. Anyway, Zedd was a Frogger,....or Froggie or something. Finally, we had a clue.

Of course, by now, we had attracted some attention. We had killed some slavers and caused some local disruption to their operation. An attempted assassination was inevitable. Stealthy Brogesterfel took out the assassins with a couple of well-placed acid bombs. We found a note on one of the dead rogues with our descriptions. Another round of speaking with dead people gained us a name, Yanos Hunter, and a place, Lake Gloomy.

...break, time to go home, more later...

-Rognar-

Adventure Path vs Sandbox

We played another session of my campaign Saturday night. I think everyone had a good time and this time there were no character deaths, although Tayloritos character dropped to zero hp, staggering him but not killing him.

The PCs are an interesting bunch although they are designed to do an adventure path and are not as effective in a sandbox. Part of it is play style. The adventure paths move you along the story with very little effort on PCs parts. Information gathering is limited to a dice roll or two and its usually pretty obvious where to go next if you have any choice at. Roll-playing (combat skills) is more important then Role-Playing (non-combat). I think part of the reason this has been so entertaining is that everyone has been willing to take part in the non combat parts of the game - brawling with drunks, flirting with floosies, robbing sleeping guards and containing their hatred of halflings!

With this campaign I am trying to make the world as real as I can so there is lots of stuff going on, much of it not related to the main plot at all. Throw in a few red herrings and it can be pretty difficult to figure out how to advance the quest. The PCs are starting to be more tactical in combat laying ambushes and shutting down enemy casters but they still have a tendency to shoot first and ask questions later. A classic moment was when Dero-bane said, "Maybe we should interrogate these guys" only to realize the last one had just been killed. Ooops. Speak with Dead is nice but when the dead are compelled to speak they will be cryptic and vague.

But all is not lost. There are still several clues left to follow up and the plot is still advancing even if they don't see it yet. The PCs now have a name to attach to the enemy but its nature is still unclear.

And they got their first taste of Afhridi and caught a glimpse of the Baroness of the Lakes. Cool!

Catalyst drops Eclipse Phase, CthulhuTech

From the Eclipse Phase website:

Catalyst Game Labs is currently engaged in negotiations to end its agreements with WildFire and Posthuman Studios. Once the terms are finalized, Catalyst will no longer publish CthulhuTech or Poo: The Card Game for WildFire, nor will they co develop and publish Eclipse Phase for Posthuman Studios.

This is probably for the best. Catalyst is a damaged entity now and any further collaboration between it and the companies who own those IPs will only result in damage to those brands. I don't know what will happen with Eclipse Phase, but I predict CthulhuTech will be returning to the loving embrace of Mongoose. Since Wildfire has entered into an agreement with Mongoose to publish Cthonian Stars, it's clear the previous break was amicable. If Wildfire has no problem working with Mongoose on this project, my guess is they will be willing to entrust CthulhuTech with it as well.

-Rognar-

One side note, does this mean CthulhuTech.com will now include a page for Poo: The Card Game? That would be awesome. Just think of the cross-marketing opportunities. The first supplement should be called CthooPoo.

Miniatures

I posted some time ago that I always liked to find a picture of my character to help me get a feel for it. The problem is that its not always easy to find exactly what you are looking for and I lack the skills to draw what I want well. I am also too lazy to take the time to learn to draw well.

I'm not sure why, perhaps looking at all of the great minis most of my fellow bloggers here have, but I thought about starting to paint my own minis. If you've ever looked at the various mini sites out there they have minis of every shape and form. Enough to meet most of your cool adventurer ideas. There does seem to be a heavier weighting towards the stereo type - the barbarians, knights, rogues, and rangers. There are too many female characters, most of which are half naked.

Anyway, Derro-bane was kind enough to loan me his painting supplies and a couple practice minis. We went down to the FLGS on Sunday and asked a bunch of questions to Chris - the guy doing the mini painting demo. I sat there for about 4 hours and ended up with a mini that didn't look that awful. It is certainly not going to win any awards, but it looks as good as any pre-painted mini. It is a good start.

I am enjoying painting so far. I need to get a bit braver and start trying some harder techniques like shading. I have a few sweet minis ordered that may represent my next character and I'd like them to look nice. Its really hard to find a decent gnome miniature.

Rippin' on The World of Synnibarr

Always a favourite on the list of the worst tabletop rpgs of all time, The World of Synnibarr, written by Raven c.s. McCracken (one of real characters in the industry), has recently enjoyed a bit of a rehabilitation. This is largely because McCracken has buried the hatchet with some of his old foes and because some truly horrible and offensive games like F.A.T.A.L. and RaHoWa (I won't pollute my blog with links) have arisen to knock TWoS off its dubious perch. Despite this, Zack and Steve are, once again, merciless.

The World of Synnibarr

-Rognar-

By the way, that pic of McCracken, I totally looked like that, ca. 1985, even the cheesy 'stache. My budget for medieval arms and armour was much smaller, however.

4e revisited

It may be time to give 4e another chance. Finally, the book the old-school new-schoolers like me have been waiting for.

-Rognar-