It was about a week ago when the urge struck. I wanted some old school fantasy. I wanted D&D with alignment penalties, with arguing the merits of a Bec de Corbin versus a Guisarme-Volgue, with THAC0 and big swords and helmets with wings on them, with Larry Elmore art and half elven stablehands molesting horses (that last one may be specific to my own AD&D history). This urge was pretty odd to be honest. For two reasons, the first is that fantasy is a genre that I have very much cooled on, I honestly cannot remember the last time I read a fantasy novel and I have no urge to change that. The second reason is that while I have very fond memories of AD&D there is absolutely no rose tint to those memories. Modern systems with unified mechanics are infinitely preferable and while I do miss Stoneskin being amazing I have no urge to return to older mechanics. But still the urge was there. Continue reading…
Tag: D&D
Out of the Abyss Part 1 – A campaign post-mortem
To paraphrase my favourite Irish musician, “I wasn’t going to write this post, but I’m going to write it.” I’m writing this because, while I refuse to accept it, my memory is like Swiss cheese in a perverts cupboard i.e. fucked. So hopefully the next time I run something I can look back at this and learn from it. Continue reading…
Mick’s Weekly World News Round Up – 04 – 04/05/15 – 10/05/15
What a week, had my first pint of 2015. Tragically that didn’t make the headlines, but anything of interest to me that did got pulled and carefully curated for your reading pleasure. Though looking at it it seems that not a lot interested me this week. Continue reading…
Mick’s Weekly World News – 02 – 20/04/15 – 26/04/15
Another weekly roundup. Still not happy about the title. Though posted manually (like a savage) it is out on the right day. My “time away from the internet” went much better this week. I’ve got out of the habit of using social media or checking various gaming forums so I don’t even really “miss” it anymore. I also distracted myself by doubling down on improving my diet (with partial success) and going back to basics and trying to formally plot out every conspiracy in my yet to be named (probably Overdue) next great Irish novel (with much less success). Continue reading…
Iron Gods Campaign preparation Or How I Cried Wolf at the Heart of the World
I’m not going to say that I’m going to run this campaign. If the last few years have thought me anything is that my campaigns are like Schrödinger’s Cat. Theyre both dead as soon as you open the box. So this is just a little mental game I’m playing with myself (ooh err matron). Let’s keep it hypothetical (which is how the last woman I asked out turned me down). So what is Iron Gods? A sweet rock band? No you’re thinking of Stone Gods. Iron God’s is one of the more recent Adventure Paths from Paizo Publishing for their Pathfinder RPG (it in fact the most recent if you only count completed ones). “Hey wait a second!” I hear you cry. “A few months ago weren’t you working on converting the Rise of the Runelords adventure path, you’re nothing but a big dirty campaign slut aren’t you?” In answer all I can do is giggle coquettishly and roll my d20 on this ominous looking pinball table. I did in fact convert the first two parts of Rise of the Runelords. But the bloom is off that rose for a number of reasons. The major one being that I’m a big dirty campaign slut. Continue reading…
Tabletop’s, literally
Whether it’s a boardgame, a wargame, an rpg, or a makeshift operating space for harvesting the internal organs of drifters a good tabletop is important. Back at the beginning of the year when 2015 seemed bright and new I returned to a perennial issue. Finding or making a good playing surface. There’s a lot of options and they all have their pro’s and cons. Continue reading…
Return to the Dungeon (Part 01)
Sorry to disappoint my more salacious readers, but while I can bust out a turtle binding with the best of them this is about Dungeons and Dragons, not BDSM. Specifically it’s about my thoughts on Dungeon & Dragons 5th edition as I read through the core books. Dungeons and Dragons was the first role-playing game I owned or ran. After reading the original Dragonlance trilogy in first year of secondary school a number of classmates and I pooled our money to purchase the basic D&D boxed set (from Toymasters in Newry). Not knowing of course that the Dragonlance campaign used AD&D (how embarrassing I know). Also now that I think about those fuckers never paid for their share. Bastards. Continue reading…
Oh Wizards of the Coast you were doing so well
After over a year of excellent and constant update Wotc have failed to update the DDI character builder for two months in a row. Which has entirely fucked my plans for a Dark Sun campaign. I dont think I’ll be renewing my subscription.
Listening to: Christy Moore - In Zurich
Ninja’s, Gladiators and [Third Thing]’s, Oh My!
I think it’s fair enough to say that everybody likes (or is at least ambivalent towards) ninjas. If at this point you’re thinking to yourself “I don’t like ninjas” then you are a) simply being contrary, b) insane or c) the victim of real life ninja violence (which you likely brought on yourself for being a or b). I’ve liked ninjas for a long time, since I was a wee fellow watching the wildly age inappropriate Sakura Killers (which I’ve just found on Isohunt), up through a slew of other terrible movies (most of them starring Michael Dudikoff), Ninja Assassin choose-your-own-adventure books (while googling for a link it turns out the series was called The Way of the Tiger), various comic book’s, films and then on to stuff like Ninja Scroll, Tenchu and various other anime, manga and video game franchises. Though upon reflection while I feel ninjas are omnipresent I find it rather hard to call specific examples to mind (no doubt because they’re so stealthy!) Continue reading…
Dungeons, Dragons and Masterplans
A quite indepth and informative review of Masterplan. A thrid party app for planning and running D&D 4th Edition. Looks excellent, Ive downloaded it already but havent got around to trying it yet.
http://panzerleader.wordpress.com/2010/04/13/review-masterplan-a-masterpiece/
Listening to: Soundgarden - Fell on Black Days